Battle of Mice - A Day of Nights. A Day of Nights (side project of Josh Graham of Neurosis and Julie Christmas of Made Out of Babies) is an incredibly small masterpiece past unnoticed. In 43 minutes there are echoes of Swans, Neurosis, Bjork, Babes in Toyland, but especially so personal and expressive ability out of the ordinary.
The emotional power that flows between those strokes of drums, waving those melodies, those desperate rhymes, I dig a hole inside. In the first part shine the emotional outbursts, melancholy paintings of real and lived, then the decay takes over, dragging the anger, and loss of control. Moments that are loaded with dark calm as a spring, and then spit at once, with no possibility to resume what has been thrown away. There is a perversion voice of Julie Christmas, one of the few female voices that can make me shiver, is the perversion of mental Neurosis A Sun That Never Sets, all fused into one body. Electric shock and hysterical seizures, in a universe slowed down, blurred, out of phase. Disturbing for its ability to be tangible, and incredibly close, until it merges with the inner paranoia.
And the sweetness that comes in a few moments, is a clever way of perceiving its collapse with a roar even higher. Look in the mirror and see nothing.
Tenhi - Airut: Aamujen. fascinating disc of folk night. Acoustic guitars, piano, and a deep voice who sings in Finnish. More atmospheric and instrumental Maaaet, another fine disc of the band released in 2006, this Airut: Aamujen has its strength in the beautiful piano melodies.
Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar. Boris and Sunn O))) mean noise and experimentation. And the result is just that, with clanging guitar drones and hypnotic, with some psychedelic passages (note the presence of Kim Thayil Soundgarden). Twist and noisy, is a volcano of sound.
Om - Conference of the Birds. Riff repeated endlessly hypnotic, tribal drums, voice whispered. There are only two (bass and drums) but they create atmospheres open wide, visionary and dreamlike. Former members of Sleep (historical psychedelic doom band) and feel when they attack the distortion that really transports you into another dimension. Very mystical psychedelia, heavy and haunting, reminiscent of Pink Floyd in Pompeii and Ummagumma.
Kayo Dot - Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue. slow times, as long suspension above the noise, and voices twisted, alienating and visceral overturn the lesson of the Khanate, turning black into white, claustrophobia in peace, the sense of rust in his teeth in icy snow to shake his hands. But the masterpiece of the band Boston is also much more. There are sweet moments in the balance between the melancholic and dark Jeff Buckley Martin Grech, there are progressions post-rock and classical music, there is a sense for the noise definitely out of the ordinary, often with a minimalist touch (despite the incredible care for each instrument), making heartfelt every note, every sound, every word. We are especially rich melodies of heat, hidden amongst avant-garde experiments so exceptional as to be light. Time loses its meaning, to become a ray of light, and being enveloped is necessary, to get lost in the billowing waves, often exhausting, a work that in the 70's would be called progressive rock, because of its ability to break down each convention, with the sole aim to pierce the soul.
Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sky. more personal than the debut album, Red Sparowes make a beautiful record post-rock, and psychedelic liquid, constantly changing. Emotionally moving, it is one of the most convincing creatures in the genre, thanks to the psychedelic touch progressive.
The Gathering - Home. Last album The Gathering with Anneke on vocals. The swan song is another painting twilight, enriched with some electronic transition, but especially with a calibrated rock melancholy. Not to the levels of some previous albums, but definitely failed.
Isis - In the Absence of Truth. Melodic, emotionally intense, both in its approach to post-rock as the Tool. Not to the levels of its predecessors huge, but it is a really exciting record.
Vanessa Van Basten - La Stanza of Swedenborg. With its mix of drone and post-rock, the room of Swedenborg proves an interesting result of the psychedelic shoegaze. But also dreamy melancholy, is a dazzling fresco of Italian experimental music. Among other things in advance (and with better results) than Alcest and Jesu, and the following development, although with different sensitivity, a similar path.
Converge - No Heroes. A nice blow in the teeth. Less metal masterpiece Jane Doe, but more engaging of the previous You Fail Me, this is a record that makes us understand what it means to do hardcore without sounding hardcore (well, not just play hardcore). It has the immediacy of punk and the violence of death, making it fast and pissed off like few others.
Callisto - Noir. The atmosphere manages to create this record are intense, melancholy. The Callisto probe post-rock territory with a profound mental metal (gothic?) And this makes them different from many others, as well as capable of deep emotions.
Red Sparowes - Oh Lord, God of Vengeance, Show Yourself! more raw and noisy in the studio discs, this live captures the apex Red Sparowes creativity, and shows a beautiful and missed work.
Xasthur - Subliminal Genocide. dissonant black metal and acid, which at times recalls the more funeral doom funeral. Chilling and frightening.
Thom Yorke - The Eraser. even more intimate records of Radiohead, Yorke solo in this project will have fun with and just finished basic electronic arrangements, but definitely suitable for melancholic mood of the disc. With some time to decline, but also with very high peaks, The Eraser is proving an excellent job, and pleasant appetizer masterpiece In Rainbows.
Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance. The guitars are more compressed, the more insistent rhythm. The path is that of metal Twilight Viva Emptiness, but sounds are more square, more and more songs based on riffs, el'influeza of Tool is increasingly evident. A thrilling drive with its glacial atmosphere, which, despite some decline in some vocal melodies, it shows yet another confirmation for the Swedish band.