Rob Levit is and has been one of the pioneering musicians in free-jazz, but he's also one of those rare cats that are open and welcoming towards experimentation. He is an internationally acclaimed and multiple awards recipient guitar player, composer, painter, educator and poet whose works, lessons, gigs and residencies have brought him to Boston, Baltimore, Annapolis (Maryland) and of course the capital of it all: New York City. Levit is not new to experimentation. He is currently signed to Silver Apples' Simeon's label Whirlybird records. He has been making music forever and has been taking guitar playing to a whole new level. He might not be as ground-breaking as the awesome Stanley Jordan, he might not be as extreme as the terrific David Torn, he might not be as fragmented as the great Allan Holdsworth, but I'll tell you what... he's completely different, he too is on another planet, just a different planet. Old preconceptions are canned when somebody starts playing like this and starts gently wrestling with uncommon sonics. His new instrument of love seems to be the computer now. So that is where you draw the line. If you are reading this review because you've been studing off the Real Book for decades and your idea of jazz doesn't go beyond the majestic Miles Davis (which is totally cool with me, don't get me wrong) and you can't possibly comprehend why John Zorn has got to make all that rabbish on stage, then you might wanna move on to Teraesa Vinson's new album (another beautiful jazz album, if I may say so). But if you are indeed looking for the next step in improvisational mayhem and you don't mind if this comes wrapped in a thick layer of electronic music then go on. Go on if you like extreme things such as Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Peter Frohmader, Hector Zazou, Apell, Rich West, Hans Teuber, Paul Rucker, Frank Gingeleit, Jeff Kaiser, Robert Fripp, Marc Ribot, Guillaume Cazenave and the whole Musea recordings catalogue, Form of Things Unknown and so on... but hell, even Displacer, Boards of canada, Photophb, Terminal Sound System etc. This eclectic and multifaceted artist has found inspiration through the broadening of his musical horizons. Those who knew him for his jazz music might very well be shocked if they were to listen to these "electronic soundscapes". You get it all here: ambient soundscapes, idm beats, d'n'b breakbeats, glitch-electronica, classical music, free-jazz, progressive, avantgard, experimental, trance and dark. As you might comprehend it is really hard to describe 22 songs and 2 CDs for a total of almost 2 and a half hours, especially when these songs are so drastically various and dramatically evolving. If I had to pick out what I don't like about this record, it would be the length. I understand that an artist needs space (by the way, the art work is his paintings too), but I think the same could have been said in one CD, with a conciseness which would have made it even more affordable (not financially speaking, that is). Eclecticism is key word to understanding here. You can't possibly stop at the third tune, you've got to go through all the cuts to begin understanding where he's coming from. It's a great proof of devotion towards barrier-breaking, genre-bending and cross-over (I haven't used that word since Faith No More's albums in the nineties I think ;-)) music. I wouldn't mind at all working with this guy. It's fresh and out there. It's the all new Rob Levit. Enjoy.

The Saboten is Hoppy Kamiyana, Saguaro and DJ Force, three prominent and ground-breaking japanese artists, whose collaboration turns into frenzy and eclectic electronic music that goes way beyond what electronic music usually is and is contaminated with jazz, rock, punk and experimental music... Stuff like this is usually referred to as no-wave, except these three pioneer's rhtyhmical roots are to be found in the most electro/d'n'b areas of their production and their influences. The album is obviously very varied and multifaceted, but it lacks a little in continuity and results somewhat dismembered and unalligned. But if you are into lo-fi sounds which marry hi-fi beats and into experimenting with all sort of musical genres, criss-crossing between them with nonchalance, then you might wanna give this a try. I don't mind extreme and unusual/out of the ordinary, nor do I mind cutting edge or completely out there, I just think Kanapi can and has done better in the first run of releases.

The never resting David Thrussell's latest effort as Black Lung is represented by "The Grand Chessboard", an instrumental album of glitchy and saturated electronic textures that comes with or as a definite political statement (Thrussell-style!). Consistently less distorted and dark-ambient oriented, Thrussell's work as Black Lung is much more intellegible and structured. It appears to be increasingly based and inspired by rhythm noise while redefining its musical collocation maintaining an overall endeavoring and challenging free spirit, as one would expect in the least. "The Grand Chessboard" contains no vocal parts whatsoever and comes with quotes of Zbigniew Brzezinski (from his 1997 "Basic Books"). There is a regularly issued 6-page unfolding digipack CD release, but there is also a full colour cover LP and a CD+CD EP slimline case version of it (the latter is limited to 501 copies and contains the CD EP "The Sound of Meat").

While everybody who ones a master of one of Bryn Jones' recordings is riding the Muslimgauze wave and releasing or re-releasing his uncharted percussive-based music, it's getting really hard to focus on the evolution and style of the artist, as all these "new" releases often overlap each other in terms of creation date. If he was still alive I'd say that he's now flirting with the dub/reggae/dancehall formula and adding that element to his peculiar sonority. Of hourse that doesn't mean he is mimicking Sherwood, but he's definitely trying to make a more dancefloor (or hall-) oriented record, people can actually move and shake to and DJs can actually play. On the other hand this double CD is a re-issue. The original was first released in 1998, limited to 850 copies of a 12" vinyl in cardboard sleeve, and only included the first nine tracks (allegedly Jones' plan was to release the other 11 tracks at a later date on a double CD). In July 2004 a collector's 518 copies double CD edition in embroidered silk bag saw the light and then in October this regular jewelbox version, I guess for those who missed the first two. Beautiful artwork.

Brian Williams, a.k.a. Lustmord, is a Hollywood-based sound designer whose sonic artworks and abilities were featured and employed in over 40 movies and TV shows, games and commercials as well as in collaborations and remixes with/for the melvins, Tool, Chris & Cosey, Coil, Tangerine Dream, SPK, Robert Rich, Current 93, Nurse with Wound, Swans, Venetian Snares, Lori Carson and Moriis. And if what reads as a who's who of industrial/ambient/dark/experimental music isn't enough, he also run the SPK-founded Side Effects records from 1985 to 1999, releasing more than 30 records. On top of all of that, Lustmord has been making his own scary waveforms since 1981, releasing 11 albums, among which the 1990 "Heresy", a collection of seven frigthening and obscure drone-based pieces recorded in subterranean locations and manipulated in studio by Williamms and the great Andrew Lagowski. "Heresy" almost single-handedly launched the definition of "dark ambient" and all of its offspring, and has been constantly appearing in charts and mentioned by critics, which is why Soleilmoon decided to release the official re-issue, re-packaged and remastered. 15 years later it sounds as contemporary and as effective as it possibly gets and is still able to make a statement and teach a few things to all the kids out there who mimic the genre and the its masters just 'cause they got a computer and a broken microphone to make noise with.