Ceiling, an Ontario, Canada-based experimental label, is the creative font whence cometh this nifty little 3" limited edition CD EP, shared by the two indicated artists. A seemingly arrythmic but irresistible patter of tribal electro-noise pops draws you into a compelling track one (The Infant Cycle's "Unrelated Work Tapes"), while ominous, minimal rumblings from the bowels of an infernal factory chug and churn throughout track number two (Davison's "Phonography").

All you get are only the two tracks, which is a letdown, partly because these are way more pleasing to the ear than anything I have thus far heard by the Hafler Trio, to name one. Another disappointment is that the tracks average only six minutes apiece, and by the time each one finishes, the appetite is barely whetted. These two admittedly similar crypto-noise artistes are on to something, and more, if not longer, pieces by each would have made this EP essential and not merely collectible.

Listening to About debut album, BONGO, it seems impossible that the brain of only one guy created all this. Coming from Amsterdam, Rutger Hoedemaekers did a great album. It is pop as hell and incredibly it sounds like an electronic freak. Try to imagine Devo, Simon & Garfunkel and Sid Barret all blended and played by a broken CD player. The opening "Think Niles drink" seems a grunge track made out of broken CDs. Have you ever listened how a broken CD sounds? Well, it is amazing how well the stops and go of a guitar that seems repeating itself 'til death fit a pop song. Each track sound different from the previous one, so you'll find different kind of pop songs but all sounding played by a dee jay that was used to play breakbeat techno. The melodies created by Rutger recalled me the English indipendent pop bands of the 80s: Talulah Gosh, Altered Images, etc. My wife asked me if I was listening to a defective CD. Well, it could sound like that but it has a lot of good melodies and ideas. You'll find one minutes tunes like "She knows everything about all who ever drank coffee without her" and you'll ask yourself how a simple song can stick in your head. Watch out, pop is infective!

There's an interesting modus operandi behind this remix project by Swiss artist Steinbrüchel: his track "Opaque", composed in 2003 for the two-day music festival Taktlos in Bern, was submitted to five artists around the globe, each one chosen for his peculiar approach to sound. What is interesting is that all of them received different sound files, and none had listened to the original track in its full form. This can explain why the remixes vary even in radical ways, yet with recurring particles and atmospheres in a sort of deja vu feel. Steinbrüchel's original is a beautifully fragile piece made of microscopic clicks and melodic drones; a little masterpiece in its genre for sure. Both Ben Frost and Toshiya Tsunoda underline its darker characteristics, coming up with two hostile isolationist pieces. By adding jarring piano loops, Chris Abrahams (of The Necks fame) transforms the piece in a strange disjointed composition; I've had to listen to it a few times to stomach it, but I admit it's an interesting approach - putting some chaos in the maths laboratory. I admit I expected a bit more from Taylor Deupree, who emphasizes the melodic and rhythmic aspects of the track, and Oren Ambarchi, offering a very short track reminiscent of his "Insulation" times - that said, my partial disappointment only comes from my exorbitant expectations. The whole project is fresh and worth listening time and time again nonetheless: it's worth buying for the original track alone, and as a plus all the interpretations are inventive and well done.

3EEM are an atypical instrumental trio formed by Fabrizio Bazzoni (tenor sax, with a past curriculum in various prog/noise projects), Danilo Corgnati (electric guitar and effects, currently also involved in the post-punk band Isobel) and Valerio Zucca Paul (electronics), who has released three solo records as Abstract Q (two of them being on Staalplaat/Bake). Together, they play a dark, cinematic blend of techno, dub, hard boiled jazz, psychedelia and -ahem- some "rock" as well. Rhythmic electronica is generally just not my cup of tea, but "Essence of 3EEM" has a remarkable set of tracks, manages to be extremely coherent yet not monotonous, and shows an uncommon good taste in mixing different genres and inputs. Take the skeletal dub of "Dilate me", the exotica-gone-crazy in the second half of "In the beginning it was an accordion", or the romantic drift of "Kinfu": it all works very well even after repeated listening sessions, i.e. when boredom usually starts to crawl on me. If I had to choose one standout track, I'd surely opt for the 24-minute tour de force of "24 apes", where dub beats slowly melt into mesmerizing looped guitar ambiences. The ingredients that 3EEM work on are surely well-known and widely used (and abused), but they are surely graced with the ability of skilfully arranging them. I'd recommend this record to fans of artists as different as post-"LSD" Coil, Bill Laswell, Muslimgauze, Almamegretta, Massive Attack or Morphine, and to anyone into noir-tinged atmospheric music.

Netherworld's "Eternal Frost" was released in 2004 by Gianluigi Gasparetti's Umbra, so it's older than "Otherworldly Abyss" and "Six Impending Clouds", the two cds I raved about a couple of months ago. This could explain why this cd is a bit less mature than the aforementioned ones, while still maintaining an excellent quality level. As I wrote in the previous reviews, Netherworld's isolationist ambient has been a perfect soundtrack for this snow-heavy winter. The ultra-slow and rarefied drones that Tedeschi generates using synths, field recordings and voice, have the same mind bending effect of staring at a never ending snowfall. And while "Before me, the Eternity" adds some faint melodies to these deserted soundscapes, titles like "Hallucinations in fog", "The glaciers beast" or "Gliding down a frosty hell" are indeed accurate to describe the respective atmospheres. Take my rate only as a comparison with the following more refined releases, as this cd easily buries many standard dark ambient releases around.