I think there's no need to introduce mr. Drumm, but recently I've found he appears on Wikipedia alas if you never heard his name that's a good opportunity to learn something more about this geat experimental artist. In the past I bought a couple of good records featuring this Chicago based musician, but this repress will help me and you to understand why he has become such a popular name for what concern experimental (and electronic) music. Being a Mego release realized in 2002 you know it's both top notch, smart, but at the same time muscular infact get ready because when Kevin is in for the explosion he’s gonna do it hard. This five legs journey begins with a buzzing drone that grows progressively screwing your ears even if you can’t but notice there a gloomy melody that drives the trip. "Turning point" moves the ground you walk upon by presenting a distorted noisy and altered electronical sound which gets deformed as if it was from Merzbow. This "deformed" digital sensation remains unaltered also in the next episode, this time it’s mostly based on high frequencies thus take for granted the listening is even more "painful" (for those who remember Massimo’s work on Mego, you know what I mean). What can you expect from a track titled "the inferno"? I can’t say if that’s the sound you’re gonna hear while crossing the doors down at "south of heaven", but to quote Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers: "Well, what about anarchy? Please don't ask it no more cos’ we're already living in it". It’s funny for I can imagine Kevin Drumm when choosing the closing track of the album probably felt fter all this "controlled digital violence" melted in "distortion" it was time for a break. Well, "Cloudy" closes this cd with a soft and odd dronical misty... hem... cloudy journey heading nowhere. Ladies and gentleman that’s Kevin Drumm: love him or leave him.

Heading from France, Isothesis has released his third album in a limited edition of 200 copies for the Polish label Beast Of Prey. Divided into five industrial dark ambient suites COCOON OF RED LIGHT has been "built" using live recorded drones and sounds. The different movements create slightly different ambience which differ because of the kind of drones and by the use of industrial distortions. The first track begins with gentle bells sound and slowly it turns into a nightmarish soundtrack with humming reverbered vocals and pads joined by grinding digital noises. The second track is focused on distant marching rhythms overwhelmed by layers made out of synth pads. I appreciated the vocal distorted part on the end which gave to the track a personal touch. The third movement is a classic dark ambient track with medieval style chants on its ending. The fourth track expand the atmosphere of the third one focusing on the vocal parts creating a good effect. The final track is the most musical one and starts with a relaxing ambient synth sound which soon meets the sound of hellish hordes with noises which seem of the devil's cavalry. The chaos and the creepy effect grows as the track reach its final minutes. A good album which needs to be listened with attention and at a high volume to be fully appreciated.

Okay, here’s the deal. When I received this CD to review, I popped it in the player without any pre-conceived notions of what kind of music I was getting into , began to listen to it, and absolutely hated it. Just what the hell is this- a squealing sax over some vaguely experimental electronic ambience? I took it out, put it away and decided I’d save my cutting remarks for another day. I’m glad I did.

After getting back to it in a couple of weeks, I began to understand what was going on. What we have here is a rather unusual experimental premise- an avant-garde saxophonist improvising (on first takes no less) over some rather strange experimental/ abstract backing tracks. When it comes to the avant-garde, I tend to grimace a bit, because I really have to be in the mood for it, especially avant-garde free jazz. Although I used to think this stuff was the domain of intellectuals who were much further out in the planes than I'd ever care to be, I came to the realization over the years that this kind of music is much more about feeling than thinking. Pop music is soulless compared to it, when it’s done properly. This is music from the gut, and a good player lays out his very essence before you in the often-twisted fashion that unrehearsed expression takes. So... how does that jive with electronically created ambiences, ala Ornette Coleman meets John Cage and Brian Eno in a dark alley kind of thing? You’d be surprised.

"Slicnaton" opens with what sounds like film ticking through an old projector and some subtle, soft and low horn burblings. Warped melting strings with light ghostly arpeggios from some kind of keyboard morphing into something else... ? provide the next backing tracks, while sparse, restrained overblown notes play sporadically. Something akin to a thumb piano on speed offers light melodic percussion and the sax meanors into jazzier territory. I can even recognize a few riffs now.
The weirdness kicks in on the 4th track, "Operator" where a sample and hold bit of electronics mixes with light random percussion and the sax begins to get wiggy. The following track, offers multi-tracked sax over a drone-tone... interesting how it all sounds so far away...

"Dron" has the most overtly electronic ambience, like a barrel-full of tiny bells, while the sax plays stray notes. I think I had given up by this time on the first listen, not knowing that the best was yet to come.

Next something completely different was happening, and it seemed like the sax and the ambiences were working together. Still an odd combo, but better integration. On "Whorgan", a track evocative of Phillip Glass in his abstract phase, the sax seemed more comfortable flitting around weaving emotion, rather than just random notes. It’s the ten+ minute long track, "Ishe", where the experiment really begins to pay off. It evokes a lonely, cry of desperation in an environment of dark isolation, a fruitless struggle against hostile elements, like birds caught in a black tide of oil. It’s tragic, painful, and full of woe. This is where the emotion really grabs you.

"Hey Sarah" is almost upbeat in comparison, but in spite of percussive elements, there is no beat. Maybe now is a good time to mention the backing tracks were created by Nic Slaton. I’m sure though, that some of the percussive sounds I’m hearing on this track were produced by rapid fingers over the sax keypads. The playing grows more frenetic matching the rapid percussive sounds, then adds a few poignant suspense notes. This is actually turning into quite a showcase of what Mahlon Hoard is capable of with minimal accompaniment. The playing is restrained, and a lesser skilled player could never have pulled this one off. It’s interesting, even if every track doesn’t ultimately work. If avant-garde sax, or experimental music with tendencies toward the minimal toot your horn, give it a listen. This isn’t one for the masses, but I doubt Mahlon Hoard was even remotely shooting for that.

This sampler came out on Record Label offers a morsel of music from many artist coming from their catalogue and as I've wrote reviewing their last releases, their output normally are really good. Here you have rhythmical electronic music not so far from recordings out on Warp records (Sote also put out something on this glorious british label), Hefty, Bip Hop or in the likes, and as you can easily guess the most of the artists combine rhythm and melody to a maniacal sound definition. The majority of the tracks is well done and although the sampler is varied it maintains its "modern" electronic identity, sure there are some highlights. Dalgish cold glitching a la Coil meets Alva Noto is catchy and Fluorescent Grey crippled-cut up-melodies kept faith to the good impression I've had while listening to his album. Some of the tracks can be easily filed under "electronic music for the electronic people" (that's the case of the LFO-inspired Mike Dunkley but also that of Kush Arora), some other tunes are weird like the "exotic mixture" of Sote and some other are chaotic and the mighty Farmers Manual (you probably know for their Mego releases), and Brian English give sense to this sentence. This sampler could be a good way to give a try to some Record Label related musicians and to some strange hosts like Ruzerlstirn and Gungelstock or Farmers Manual. If you are deeply into electronic music you probably know many of the names featured on this cd and this is a good product.

Originally started as a simple side-project of the Hungarian Electro/Industrial duo IMPACT PULSE to sort out some smoother tracks which wouldn’t fit at all to the high-tech EBM sound of this extremely underrated act, NOTHING NADA has meanwhile become more than this. It started as an experiment to explore straight and danceable Futurepop-tunes with an outstanding female vocal performance. "Red Armageddon", available on the 2005 released first Advoxya label compilation "Post-Alcoholic Body Syndrome [Death] 1", was the first result in this collaboration between Gunhead and Cipree of IMPACT PULSE with the female vocalist Orsi Beres. So after a growing request for more and new material, NOTHING NADA has been formatted officially and likes to present via Advoxya this 11-track long debut release. Musically somewhere between TECHNOIR, AYRIA and CULTURE KULTUR you’ll get the always complex arranged Synth textures of IMPACT PULSE and Orsi’s marvelous voice. Be it straight on "Red Armageddon", nasty intoned on "Irresistible" or full of emotion on the maybe best tune here, "Silent Heroes" – catchy as hell and addictive that I needed to use the "Skip back" button for a few more rotations. Please note that this release is a kind of multimedia-CD featuring a video clip and a "making of..." of the track "Red Armageddon". Normally the Belgian Alfa Matrix has the right nose for talented, female-leaded acts – maybe for some good reasons they’ve decided to ignore this Hungarian talent, because NOTHING NADA beats almost all act signed to them out of the field! It still has to be proven which of both projects, IMPACT PULSE or NOTHING NADA, will be the so-called side-project – if the ongoing request of the listeners will continue. This is how Futurepop music featuring a REAL charismatic female voice has to sound – for the signed artist of the Alfa Matrix label group I would like to recommend to go back into the basements to practice, practice, practice...