I can’t even remember which one exactly was last Pimmon release I’ve heard and it’s sad since I remember the good impression I got from the very early listenings of his materials, I guess that’s another side-effect of the hyper-saturation of the market/music-scene and it has to do with the fact we’re all living too fast. Paul Gough has quite often been filed under clicks/glitch and probably this definition fits really well with the majority of his works, above all those early releases (while writing I’m thinking specifically to a couple of remixes) but if you think the definition is a bit reductive, here comes a record that proves you and I were right. This cd could be easily filed under ambient-experimental music much more than glitch-click and if on the front cover the label defines it lava-flow ambient there’s a good reason and it’s hard not to agree with them. I know referring to Lava may lead you to think this could be a dark ambient-heavy-soup a la Lustmord, Andrea Marutti, Alio Die, Tribes of Neurot or in the likes, but nothing could be more wrong, Paul Gogh managed to work on these misty-crepuscular atmospheres maintaining that soft edge he had while dealing with different styles, just take the sweet melancholic organ sound of "Hidden". I think if you’re friendly with ambient music and with dark moods in general, you’ll easily perceive the different touch of this Australian artist. Furthermore I think this delicate touch when dealing with melancholic and obscure scenarios makes the difference and puts forth the fact Pimmon has been around for a while now, I mean he has his own style. I’m also aware of the fact all of this talking about ambient music may have put too much focus on this aspect of the release while as I’ve said its experimental factor is really significant, take "Dervieux" for example in which Gough introduced some kind of simple rhythms and a soft melody that’s pulsing underneath, this’ probably one of the things you can strictly connect to some of his previous works. Considering a record has its visual side, I can’t but mention the fact the layout is beautiful, the idea is simple but holy shit, I love it! It made me think to a sort of origami thing, it looks like a small "map", I’m sure the record collectors out there will love it. "Smudge another" has a lot to do with self-control, above all during the early tracks, I think it’s really interesting the fact that I’ve found it was growing while reaching the middle of the tracklist. Interesting release and if you’re into Pimmon you won’t be disappointed.

This one is a strange cd if considered in the global economy of releases on Amor Fati, infact this’ a solo guitar recording with some soft singing, but that’s not exactly jazz or something so closely related as you can guess. That’s not to be taken for bad, nay it feeds my great respect for the label which despite a clear physiognomy is not necessarily cornered into a genre. As I’ve said this’a solo guitar cd as the title itself says, it betrays some jazz, folk, traditional music, experimental music influences, in general it’s a really melodic work and the vocals make it even more listenable, here and there it reminded me of Ex when they were absorbed in their rock-balcanic era or I’d better say Kelekta Red if they were reduced to one instrument, we can also add this cd is not that far from the most traditional tracks recorded by Marc Ribot during his "book of heads" era. Some melodies somehow keep returning in a couple of episodes but don’t worry you experimentalists readers of chaindlk, you have a long impro-drone track titled "Os" where mr. Fornet works on different solutions while playing with some self-generated looped-drones. I’ve also had the itch to mention Frisell and you have his spores scattered in the style of this French guitarist, but Fornet is way more rough (not necessarily in a bad way) and Frisell is really crystalline with his guitar touch, but the post-folk-post-blue-grass-post-jazz influence is there, you can bet it. There’s no doubt this probably the most accessible relase I’ve heard on this label, not necessarily the best and sure not my favorite, but it’s one of those relases I’m sure many guitarists, plus melodic, post-rockers may dig.

Ok, it took me a while to review this cd and I’ve an explanation for it, I’ve been so delighted by the very first listening I tried to calm down a bit to understand if it was a great album or just a passing infatuation (and it still had to pass the test of the following listenings). After several listenings I’ve no doubt, this’ not just one of the best releases I’ve heard on Amiran,i but this’ probably one of the best improvisational releases I’ve heard in a long time. This gem features Marcello Magliocchi on percussions, legend Carlos Zingaro on violin and Gianni Lenoci on piano, the recording is great and the trio is driven by pure inspiration and its constantly flirting with dramatic atmospheres. I imagine you may have heard sentences like these many times but if you think that having a improvisational-identity, a sound and being varied at the same time is not that great deal: tell me what should we look for in a recording like this!?. As you happen with many works like that the equipe-work makes it really special, but beside the team-playing and the incredibile numeber of complementary solutions they manage to create in every episode, the three distinc identity of the players turned it into a real jewel. Free-contemporary (vaguely-post-jazz) impro-music where our three stooges play collectively but also singularly waiting in order to leave their soloist role to somebody else, every member adopts several techniques and changes role for the sake of the global result and what a great result!. Carlos Zingaro is great, but Lenoci’s touch and solutions on and inside the body of the piano are more than inspired, to that you’ve to add Magliocchi is one of the most patient and non-intrusive percussionists ever heard on a recording like this. While playing with abstraction and sounding contemporary classical they fight each other, here they follow this high registers there, they go for loudness then they leave the scene to some suspended scales. While painting some really interiorized portraits and keeping their good eye open on a sort of melody, they also work with instrumental dialogues but leaving those scholastic-solutions back home and above all they never forget their performance/recording/tracklist has a global meaning and it’s not a collection of scattered dialogues. This’ not exactly easy, wishy-washy impro-music, but if you’re down with improvisational trios and music in general, this cd shows with a piano, a violin and a set of percussions three talented musicians can still make you taste the magic of instant-compositions.

Seven that Spells is a band from Croatia that bills itself as "an international commune of psychedelic likeminds exploring the multifaceted cosmos of freak out music and naked women in high hopes of achieving Buddha’s blessing!" All I know is that after listening to the mellow Aritomo CD that Beta-lactam Ring included in the same package, this one was like shifting gears without a clutch – but in a good way. Imagine if Frank Zappa and Sun Ra had a love child that hung out with Nel Cline and Thurston Moore. That love child would play music that sounds a lot like Seven that Spells. The opening track, "Cosmoerotic Giveaway" opens the disc by unloading with both barrels. Although it may just sound like random noise from guitars, it is actually well crafted and has an internal structure that holds it together. "Stara Planina (slight return)" demonstrates that they are not just a bunch of guys who all want to play different guitar solos at once. The track opens with a metal riff that repeats until it dissolves into a peaceful soundscape, only to be destroyed by the noisy guitars once more. "Return Of The Captain Beefstake's Love Apparatus" sounds like a slowed down version of their previous tracks with some ethereal vocals that are almost drowned out by the feedback drenched guitars. "Space Of Eights" is the shortest track on the disc, weighing in at 2.16, and almost has a surf feel. The closest thing I can compare it to is the psychobilly sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat. This track is a lot of fun. "Cookies & Milk / Breakfast With Azrael" takes on a similar feel to "Stara Planina" mixing droning guitars with angelic voice that drones along with the guitar. There seem to be no words in particularthe voice is just another brick in the wall of noise. "Torture Vessel From The Triangle World" is another long track at 13.55, which begins with a completely different feel. It slowly builds, focusing on atmosphere rather than an all out assault, and progressively disintegrates into a boiling stew of feedback and noise but never really unloads. This track must have taken a lot of restraint after the previous tracks! This is for me the best track on the album. I think that this band would put on an absolutely kick ass live show and I would be surprised if all of the instruments made it out in one piece. You can find samples on both the label’s website and on the band’s website, and you certainly should check it out. If Motörhead is too slow and mellow for you, this is for you. And as far as the cover art is concerned, they weren’t kidding about the naked women. First edition of 600 comes in a full color custom made book bound CD case. This disc weighs in at 50 minutes.

This is a collaboration between Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple and Michishita Shinsuke of LSD March. Here’s how the label describes this disc: "The reigning lords of the new psychedelic church cross guitars for a super-electric cosmic jam that causes even hurricanes to don ear plugs. More like the paintings of crazed banshees than songs, this shape-shifting set’s loud-quiet-loud transforms the spaciousness of the axe duel into a growling canvas of thunder. Walls of feedback and distortion moan like sinking U-boats." Fair enough - file this under guitar noise / improvisation. The album consists of four long tracks, the shortest of which is "Point to Point," which weighs in at 10.30, and the longest of which is "Rome 9," at 17.42. The disc opens a bit slowly with "Me and Bitter, Psychedelic Tokyo," and I have to admit that I was not terribly into it at the beginning, but it eventually builds to a satisfying maelstrom of guitar noise. "Queen No. 5" behaves like two different tracks, ending a little over halfway through and then starting up again in much the same vein. "Point to Point" is a mixture of jangly chords which are struck on and off the beat seemingly at random while the other guitarist plays over it until it just kind of ends up in noodling. I must admit that this track didn’t really do much for me. "Rome 9" is a long track of wailing guitar and toward the end a lot of high pitched feedback. To me, this track was the best on the disc, because it had a nice texture and I like my noise to be of the solid wall variety. Maybe it’s just me, but this wasn’t really my bag. It isn’t just because I am not a huge fan of guitar noise – after all, I thought that Seven that Spells’ "Cosmoerotic Dialogue With Lucifer" was a great time. I think that what is missing here is some sense of purpose. This album doesn’t really seem to go anywhere and for the most part it begins to all sound the same. Luckily for you the reader, there are samples up at the label’s website so you can see if it really is just a matter of accounting for taste. This disc weighs in at 56 minutes and comes enclosed in a book bound CD case.