After meeting at the MUTEK Festival in 2002, sharing the bills on various festivals all over the world and a previous collaborative effort in 2003 along with Radbound Mens and Timeblind ("Quality Hotel" out on the Mutek label), Stephan Mathieu and Janeck Schaefer decided to spend some days together in the home of a classical composer in the English countryside and there they recorded a huge amount of material that they later reprocessed and assembled in York Music Research Center. Basically Mathieu plays all the instruments and Schaefer does all the field recordings and in most of the tracks you can recognize both artist's distinctive trademarks but sometimes the symbiosis works so well and results in a new, unorthodox glitch-psychedelia. The highlight here is the sixth track called "Quartet for Flute, Piano and Cello", where you can hear pops and crackles of a worn-out vinyl over a complex sound patchwork somehow resembling Ehlers' "Plays" series. Due to its amazing sound quality it surely sounds better through loudspeakers rather than headphones. Recommended.

Freaky, psychedelic, seventies release for this international combo. Somebody defined it pastoral folk and indeed that's not wrong at all, but I'd put the emphasis on the psychedelic ambiental side o the whole project since that's perhaps the "file rouge" running between the different songs. The whole folk spirit of the project arises in the third episode of this cdr: "descend", I'd also say that it represents one of the most inspired moment of the whole recording. Old fashioned music but you know sometimes "old fashioned" stands for quality trademark and that’s far from the occasion in which it just means anachronistic. I think the result of Yonder Garden is quite good. Probably it may remember Third Ear Band, Pink Floyd and to some newcomers it can also make think to Cerberus Shoal after the fourth album. Perhaps that’s not outstanding but certainly enjoyable.

Crippled self bored lo-fi folk music, that's what Little Brown and Pentolino is all about. This time lo-fi is again intentional since the recording is ok and the skeletal/minimal impression you get from the listening of this cd probably sticks to musicians' purposes. This silly funny ballads indirectly pay homage to the ironic genius of Jad Fair and they have a common spleen/bored/ironic factor with the ex member of Half Japanese. Acoustic guitar driven ballads, deliberately rock/out of tune vocals and some acoustic intrusions like toy instruments, drum machines, harmonicas, etc. but they've kept it all really "poor". On this cd you have a couple of strange things in-between the track list, like the psychedelic repetitions of "Wake up" or the psych-folk "adagio" of "Loop", but it's one of those record that's probably meant to be played in front of the fire... barely drunk in the middle of a picnic. While some episodes makes it straight to listeners hear, some others probably gets lost during the listening of the whole release. The last part of this cd is really nice, so much that I'd have voted for another track list but who knows probably the project's physiognomy would have been too different.

The hype on this German one-man act leaded by this active mastermind Kai Arnold is still unbroken. The earlier club hit "Sterbehilfe", taken as a hidden bonus track from the officially debut "Waste Of Time" was running nation-wide in almost all clubs and could earn a lot of attention. But the talent of Kai isn’t only reduced to his music project WYNARDTAGE. Thanks to his help and efforts his very own leaded badn collective X-Cem could grow and could release several albums of young and unknown bands like MAY-FLY, LA MAGRA or Kai’s partner in crime, ACYLUM (check back the mutual interview with WYNARDTAGE/ACYLUM on our site here: ). Not to forget an uncountable amount of remix works for some friends and partner bands on the X-Cem collective had to be done as well. His endless work for this collective also ended in internationally attention and success, some well-placed compilation appearances on Interbreeding VIII (BLC Productions) were only a logically evolution. Earlier this year Kai could win the DAVANTAGE label Rupal Records to unite the weapons and so to get a stronger recognition. And finally thanks to some good contacts to the German label E-Noxe, Kai could win another strong partner to spread the WYNARDTAGE virus with the welcomed help of a better distribution through Alive!. Hard to believe that Kai could find enough time and leisure to concentrate on his own main project. I can already take the result of this review in advance, this new "Evil Mind" output is a milestone above the quality regarding compositions, arrangements, used sounds and production compared to that "Waste Of Time" debut. And it features one of the loudest bass kick drums on almost all tracks I’ve heard for a long time – luckily it doesn’t sound at all like a hatred Techno-inspired 909-kit. The German glossy and printed press already started to compare WYNARDTAGE with SUICIDE COMMANDO with the restriction that WYNARDTAGE wont offer anything new. Again a typical anti-journalistic syndrome which comes up when the German print press lacks of originality and ideas, no matter if you take Zillo, Orkus or the Sonic Seducer. Which up and coming band playing Dark Electro with spooky melodic synth layers, hefty drum and percussion work and a rough out-of-the-grave-like voice doesn’t get compared with SUICIDE COMMANDO??? I can only recommend my German colleges to listen more often and more analytic the given promotional items. Especially the depressive and almost Goth-like mood with the use of some frightful female voice samples well presented on the slower tracks of this album like "Calling From Silence (featuring LA MAGRA)", "I’m Not Your God" or "Lost Your Life" I moreover would call an authentic style of WYNARDTAGE. Kai does good and has made a strong development from his debut, no matter if you stand above such silly comparisons or not. The club hit "Sterbehilfe" you’ll get again in a new 2006-version, some contributions with DAVANTAGE ("Burn"), the already named LA MAGRA or CYBER WHORE("Cold") are also featured. Next to "Sterbehilfe" some other tracks here will mark their way to the floors of the dark clubs like "The Sin" or "No Human Survive". Music with a playing time of more than 78 minutes of pounding Dark Electro tunes should be another reason to purchase this item.

HOSPITALITY is the latest Venetian Snares release and it contains six new tracks where Aaron Funk redefine his latest breakcore i.d.m. orchestral sound that he presented with "Rossz Csillag Alatt Született". If you were used to his breathtaking digital cavalcades, this time Aaron decided to surprise his audience using also moments where sonic disintegration is kinda under control. Take for example the first couple of minutes of the opening "Frictional Nevada" where he build an ambient melodic orchestration (which is soon after joined by the usual crazy rhythmical section) and see how he deals the rhythm and the new melodic lines on the following minutes. If on "Rossz Csillag Alatt Született" he preferred orchestral sounds on HOSPITALITY you’ll find a lot of organ sounds along with strings (like on "Shoot myself" where he creates a good melancholic moment). I don’t know what do you think about the new Venetian Snares style but I like it because melodies and rhythmic complex structures get along really well and this new MCD is a good work that will make people, that were afraid or unused to this kind of sounds, appreciate Aaron’s work as they will find great amounts of involving atmospheres.