20 Guilders - Wrong Songs for Patricia cassette (Sloow) 5

Excellent collaboration between Tabata Mitsuru (Zeni Geva) and Suzuki Junzo (Miminokoto, Astral Travelling Unit). Perhaps surprisingly this is rather gentler than you might suppose - dreamy psych-folk songs with (rather less surprisingly) some great fuzz guitar solos.

prankster pop from Sweden with a touch of Bonzo Dog ... and a bit of Eurotrash ... where's Wally?!

Afterlife - Bodies in Motion cassette (Digitalis) 5.25

Duo featuring Franklin Teagle (Meditations) and Ryan McGill (Cliffsides). Side 1 consists of monolithic synth light refracting off colossal chordal skyscrapers. Side 2 opts for beams of synth light over a minimal motorik beat that eventually disintegrates into a video game laser shoot out.

A double helping of Boa HQ's favourite Irishman Dave Colohan. There's a beautiful picture of a rook on the cover which sets the tone echoing the elemental mystery of the landscape and the autumnal chill Colohan's melancholic music creates. It makes a good companion set to the other double in this week by Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, particularly on the more mood-setting pieces. Colohan's guitar wraps itself around drifting layers of drone like smoke. The songs are gloriously melancholic with shades of David Ackles in Colohan's world-weary tones but in a more folky context.

On this vinyl release Brad Rose and Nathan Young use synthesizers instead of the their usual guitars to delve into the Ajilvsga black hole. Bass notes shift like tectonic plates and nauseous synth clouds whirl and woosh round them like poisonous gases. Eden Hemming Rose (Wax Ghost) contributes ghostly almost-not-there vocals to the side-long bleakfest that is side B. Sleeve designed by Evan Caminiti.

Alberorovesciato - Tigers on Acid in the Hell of the Brushwoods cd (Singing Knives) 5.50

Italian duo, now based in Berlin, who play the kind of percussion-based clutter and clatter we've come to know and love from Singing Knives. With some deranged free blowing on clarinet added to the mayhem, this sounds somewhere between Chora dn the crazed japes of Lauhkeat Lampaat. 

A lovely cdr by Joelle Premo of home-recorded traditional folk learnt from Bertrand Bronson's "Traditional Texts and Tunes of the Child Ballads" and John Jacob Niles. Joelle accompanies herself on banjo, fiddle, autoharp, bodhran and Appalachian dulcimer.  The cover depicts a gold-sprayed bird silhouette (jackdaw I think) and is very nice indeed.

A mammoth collection of messed-up analogue video-game electro from Colin Ward. The 1st tape is a new duo project called Phonebooks, the other 3 collections of recent Alphabets stuff.

Anubis - Scattered Ashes cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Side project of Sand Snowman with Demian Castellanos. Field recordings and ambient drone create a mystical atmosphere interspersed with more melodic moments, which have a heavy prog-folk leaning. An Egyptian theme runs throughout and the clarinet / zither meanderings of "Lady of the Crows" certainly has a Middle-Eastern influence. Excellent.

Three lengthy pieces of drone-based music by Dan Layton recorded in Nottingham. The first two parts give the title to the album and offer a beautiful ocean of subtle layers, synths and sustained vocal tones. Whether they're produced by voices I cannot say, but they have great warmth anyway. The third track ventures into darker territory, appropriately, it seems, as the title is How Do You like Your Blue Eyed Boy, Mr Death? Recommended music inside a neat card package. (JC)

A very carefully considered and structured set of pieces, using quite an array of synths past and present. Arfeux takes the listener on a tour of the melodic, the abstract, the dense and the sparse and seems to know the route exactly. There's are some female voice along the way - and some points of peak overload - and the journey is most enlightening. (JC)

Reissue of the debut album by this Japanese artist, originally issued on his own Hakanairo back in 2005, then on cd by Beta-Lactum records. Fragile, out-there songwriting that habits the crepuscular hours. Acoustic and some electric guitar drifts in the air, embellished by a little flute and subtle percussion, and Aritomo's delicate vocals. Gentle melancholy.

• Sgt Pepper's Mystery Four Twenty Hex Aurora Toilet cdr (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 5.50

Intended to be " the inverse, the reverse and converse" of the recent "Johnny Fuckoff Minotaur" cdr, this features a wonderful sounding '70s Technics synth, emitting huge sun flare pulses, massively distorted harmonica and strobing shudders of sound. It also has an incredibly silly title which is always a good thing. Excellent as always.

• Sea II cdr (Revival) 4

Reissue of a cdr on Ignivomous, which was originally limited to a mere 7 copies. There are some embryonic versions of those Ashtray Navigations guitar feedback downpours you just want to immerse yourself in, weird assemblies of stop / start malfunctioning guitar and tape recorded room noise and primitive radiophonics.

• Dirt Mummies and Bloody Amps cd (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 8

Reissue of an LP from 2006 (issued on Freenoise). 4 joyous blasts of psych noise from Phil Todd, joined by Melanie Delaney and Phil Legard on some of these tracks. These sides are as vibrant and dizzying as having a couple of kaleidoscopes clapped to both eyes for 24 hours. 

• #11 cdr (self-released) 3.50
• #12 cdr (self-released) 3.50

The latest two blasts of electro-bliss rush / primitive kosmische techno from Neil Campbell. Both recommended.

• Monster Mittens / Flaming Ramoon 7" (Dirty Knobby) 2.50

This new 7" from Neil Campbell finds him in collaboration with Karl Bauer of Axolotl in a joyous sensory onslaught where techno meets blissout.

Recorded in October 2007 as a three-piece featuring Stewart Keith (keyboards and toys), John Clyde Evans (laptop) and of course Neil Campbell (guitar). the threesome create the densest textures I've heard on an ASC release. Layer upon layer of ecstatic electro-gloop with some excellent kraut-punk drumming on one track and jungle rhythms on another that give the track a Monopoly child goes techno feel. Hand-printed silk-screened sleeves.

• Octuplex cd (VHF) 5

New Neil Campbell release with a collaborative cast list that includes Richard Youngs, Spencer Grady (Rameses III), John Clyde-Evans, Stewart Keith and Spider Stacy of the Pogues! From hi-octane electronic / techno strobe-outs to almost pastoral drone-floats like the reverbed out acoustic guitar / reeds of "Radial Hermaphrodite", this is ASC at its blissed-out finest.

• Psychic Smog LP (Qbico) 10

This time around ASC is a duo featuring Neil Campbell and Mel Delaney (of Ashtray Navigations / Ocelocelot). Outer-space electronics and astral techno galore. Coloured vinyl.

• #18 cdr (self-released) 3.50

Twelve tracks, fifty minutes - and the longest of these is still under seven minutes long, so there are no slow building epics here. Instead, things start with a quick whirl in a techno-turbine and although there are abstract electronics here, there's a real pop feel to some of these pieces... you could dance to this! File under ASC's Greatest Hits and put them on your daytime A-list! (JC)

• #19 cdr (self-released) 3.50

6 tracks from live recordings in London in 2008 and Leeds, 2009. The former feature a line-up comprising Neil Campbell, Spider Stacy & Stewart Keith and the first couple of tracks lean towards his unique silver spiralling techno assault. In Leeds Neil is joined by Spider Stacy and John Clyde-Evans. The first track treads a fractious line between atonal wails of distortion and bliss-out drone and 2nd is a lean, mean burst of pared-down techno. The final track features a 10 strong chorus of wordless wail.

Another great selection from Neil Campbell: manic electronica infested with computer-generated chirping, like Monopoly Child goes techno, strobbing bliss-out drones and mangled beats.

A fine split 7". ASC take us on a flight through s swirling vortex of sound after which Glockenspiel's side stars in a deceptively subdued way. Their track builds to quite a tumult and both are rather splendid! (JC)

New LP from Aidan Baker, who also plays in Nadja. This is a reissue of a cdr release which is long sold-out and was on the Tosom label. Amorphous drone / post-rock with Baker's loose drum clatter peppering both sides. One side sounds like a submerged brass band (much in the vein of Gavin Bryars' Titanic) and the other veers into breathed vocal meditations towards the end. Excellent.

Bambikill - Arachne 3" (Striate Cortex) 3.50

Solo cdr from Christelle Rox. Her voice swirls in the depths of never-ending pools of reverb, yawning e-bow moans and echoing guitar. This lies midway between early Fursaxa and early Amp and that is a very fine place to be. Gorgeous packaging.

Steffen Basho-Junghans - Is LP (Architects of Harmonic Rooms & Records) 10

First release in 3 years from the German guitarist and his first ever UK release. To mark the occasion, Architects of Harmonic Rooms have issued this on deluxe heavy vinyl. Beautiful acoustic ragas and zoned intensity on 12- and 6-string guitar.

More creepy stoner mantras from Mike Vest (Bong / Master Slave). The sound of a guitar wah-wahing endlessly at the bottom of the ocean.

Bastion - s/t cd (Interregnum) 2

Bastion are a duo featuring Valerio Cosi and Jukka Reverberi (Giardino di Miro). Together they create charged pulsing synth drones that sound like the buzzing and humming of a massed choir of pylons. Heavy and bleak.

Tom Baxendale - Her Ghost 7" (Great pop Supplement) 2.50

Two good country-infused songs in lovely packaging. Her Ghost is quite a fast romp, with mandolin and guitar speeding along a tow lane blacktop, whilst I Think About Tomorrow is more reflective. I preferred this side, possibly because the influence of Gene Clark and Mickey Newbury seemed to be casting a shadow and I liked the chiming xylophone or glockenspiel at the end. While you're enjoying the songs, you can take in the inserts, including a very nice drawing of a swan. (JC)

Beach Fuzz 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.75

A look at the Beach Fuzz yields the description "psychedelic jam band", which actually pins their sound down rather well. These pieces are sliced from longer performances as guitars wail in wah-wah overload - sometimes voices do too - and drums pound. Packaged in a very neat folded textured card sleeve. (JC)

Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan - Edges cd (Blackest Rainbow) 6

First full-length "proper" cd release for Lex & Vanessa Panayi's Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan project). This collects a few tracks from previous (now sold-out) releases and adds 5 new songs. This is more song-based than Lex's other project Guanaco, with his  world-weary tones lending an air of melancholy over hypnotic finger-picking. The instrumental tracks tend towards meandering (in a good way). A very fine release.

Best Coast - Where the Boys Are cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 4.50

Big Blood - Night Terrors on the Isle of Louis Hardin cassette (Cabin Floor Esoterica) 6.50

Excellent tape release from Colleen Kinsella & Caleb Mulkerin of Cerberus Shoal / Fire on Fire. Percussion-fuelled exotica that reminds me very much of Moondog. Excellent stuff. Sold out at source. LP / cd coming very soon on Time Lag.

2 track live disc on a new UK label. This features tracks recorded in Oct 2009 from Sheffield and Hull, and the input of Terje Paulsen's "gas cloud sounds". Gas cloud sounds is a pretty accurate description of what ensues, insidious creeping ambient drone. 

• Amplified Spectral Delay cdr (Reverb Worship) 3.50

Sindre Bjerga & Jan Iversen recorded live at Sound of mu, Oslo in June 2008. Shape shifting ambient fuzz and drone. Lovely hand-decorated sleeves as usual.

• (Go With The Flow) Like a Twig on the Shoulders of a Mighty Stream cd (Tibrod / Gold Soundz / Phantom Limb / Carbon / Ambolthue) 4

A kind of multi-label released "best of" album of Sindre Bjerga and Jan Iversen. 12 tracks in total, taken from releases on First Person, Phantom Limb, Rural Faune, Heilskabaal, Root Don lonie for Cash, Ystebrod Plater, Time Lag, Kabukikore, Nervous Nurse, Utech and one unreleased track. A great introduction to thei shape-shifting ambient fug.

• Amplified Crystal Rust cdr (Striate Cortex) 4.25

Another limited disc on new UK label Striate Cortex, this time from Norwegian duo Bjerga / Iversen, with one long live track recorded in Norway in Jan 2009. Ambient drone that reeks of decaying machinery, cruel undertows and creeping sea fog.

• Intersecting Parallel Lines 2cdr (Striate Cortex) 6

This double disc set has drones which suggest somewhere out in deep space. They're more linear on disc one, with swirling eddies of loops and drones on disc two. Sindre Bjerga mentions Euclidian geometry regarding this title, going on to suggest a way of listening to the set which could result in multiple possibilities of different versions. First, you start disc one, then run disc two a second later. Next time, start disc two after two seconds of disc one have played. You see? Endless adventures in drone from only two cds in an edition of 100 copies. (JC)

Another live disc from Bjerga / Iversen, this time with Terje Paulsen on contact-mics, bowed metal and strings. This was recorded in Kristiansand, Norway in March 2009. Ambient drone with an unsettling undertow. Tones see-sawing like being in the hull of a listing ship.

A lovingly hand-made package houses a split cdr featuring Italian sound-artist ThrouRoof who buries a beautiful repeated melodic phrase amongst reverberant drones, gentle distortion and field recordings of birdsong. Also on the disc is a piece made up of field recordings from an airport by Bjerga / Iversen.

Black Flowers is another Alex Neilson project, this time featuring regular collaborator in Trembling Bells / Directing Hand Lavinia Blackwell, Alisdair Roberts and Vibracathedral Orchestra's Mick Flower. Like Trembling Bells, the focus is on folk, featuring two takes on traditionals and a cover of Richard & Linda Thompson's "Calvery Cross". The sound however is heavier and more improvised than Trembling Bells. The album opens with the Thompson composition given a rabid grungey working with Lavinia's vocals spitting fire. Traditional "Polly on the Shore" features a duet between Alisdair and Lavinia and a blisteringly ragged guitar break from Mick, which makes me wonder if this is what the song would have sounded like had Jefferson Airplane got their hands on it instead of the Trees. "...And the Words Fell Like Malting Blossom" is an incredible psyched-out chorale. Things mellow out on the last track, a folk ballad sung by Lavinia who also plays harp on this one. A perfect comedown. Highly recommended.

"From the ashes of The Iditarod rises this remarkable new musical vehicle; free improvisation, field recordings, chamber music, ghostly atmospherics, early Brian Eno, ancient Euro folk roots, and much more" (BS)

Duo from New Mexico who make me think of rusting submarine hulks in the Arctic and obsolete communication devices, with their huge ebbing and flowing electro-drones, submerged electronic chatter and distant creak of distorted guitar. A bit like Bjerga / Iversen on cacophonous overload. 

The new project from Spencer Clark (Skaters / Monopoly Child / Vodka Soap). Not dissimilar to Monopoly Child, this combines tribal beats and endlessly repeating casio melodies into trance bubbles.

"4th full length from the Black Twigs finds a slightly reshuffled lineup and a renewed emphasis on kicking out raw, percussive takes on both Appalachian traditional and original material. With Ralph Berrier Jr.’s retirement from the group, Mike Gangloff has added fiddle to his already considerable arsenal, and along with stalwart guitarist Isak Howell, brought in Nathan Bowles (Spiral Joy Band) on percussion and several guests who make substantial contributions to the party. The Twigs work the fine line between the Friday night old-time dance party and the wellspring of grim and evocative tragedy that runs through the tradition, delivering these laments, travelogues, and wild whoops with sawing, rocking joy. This is a sprawling collection, with visceral group takes on “Crossing the James,” “Cherry River Line,” and “Old Joe Clark.” Charlie Parr and Lane Prekker join the crew on “Last Kind Word Blues,” “Train 45” and “Twin Sisters” (first essayed by Pelt way back in 98) with Parr’s amazing, ragged voice leading the charge over Bowles and Prekker’s driving percussion. Along with the full group material, the Twigs throw in other welcome oddities such as Howell’s Fahey-like “At the head of Every Creek,” “P.E.A. Vine Blues,” an arrangement of a tune from Portuguese Africa, and a book ending solo version of “Crossing the James,” with Gangloff on baritone banjo." (VHF)

"it's 4 am, it's time to sober up and there's no black coffee to be found.  cold shower?  not an option either.  so what's left?  blue sabbath, black fiji and their mind-warp shotgun electronics and percussive blasts.  your girlfriend might be passed out on some other dude's house, but don't worry about it, this mix of raging electronics, sludge guitars and soft, sweet crooning will make it all okay. ajilvsga?  we'll keep drinking blackened mud until the cows come home.  limited to 85 copies, handstamped zoo-in-suits theme. " (Digitalis)

Book of Shadows - Cosmic Sovereignty cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Texan band with previous releases on Reverb Worship. Dark psychedelic guitar textures and Sharon Crutcher's ethereal vocal float.

• Eternal cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3

Another excellent release from Mark Bradley. Chilling spaced-out electronics that sounds like a really minimal take on Tangerine Dream. Electronic starbursts that cut out unexpectedly (but could happily pulsate on for hours), deep bass explorations and long lunar notes. Very '70s and very unsettling, this would be a perfect soundtrack for a bleak outer-space horror film.

• Sanctity cdr (Striate Cortex) 6

More minimal synthscapes from Mark Bradley. Eerie ambience like distant subway clanking at midnight, sub-aquatic tone-drift and subdued industrial wastelands.

• Godspeed cdr (Rural Faune) 5.25

The opening of this album put me in mind of Tangerine Dream's Tangram and, whilst pretty electronic melodies run through the pieces here, there's also a more outre experimental edge to proceedings: perhaps even a touch of Ron Geesin's Electrosound, I thought. Mark Bradley proves to be a consistently interesting player and often a lot more than that. (JC)

Mark Bradley & Jacob Price - Absolute Infinite cd (Striate Cortex) 4

Split release featuring Mark Bradley alongside Jacob Price of  White Armed Divinity. 6 tracks of blissful minimal synthscapes from Bradley and 3 darker, more experimental bursts of electronics from Price. Handmade sleeve.

Mark Bradley / The Big Drum in the Sky Religion / Noz Diloar - Chronological cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Three way split on which each artist aurally represents an era in time. The Big Drum ... open up in the Stone Age with a long piece consisting mainly of field recordings - low rumblings, rain / water, bird song. Noz Diloar, French electronic musician, traces the Bronze Age with 7 tracks of starry-eyed synth instrumentals. Mark Bradley's 5 tracks form The Iron Age and are minimal synthscapes full of lunar woosh and pulsar plants.

2nd album from James Blackshaw on 12 string guitar and Josef van Wissem on 13 course Baroque lute. It's a breathtaking tapestry of string magic: Blackshaw's stately melody line weaves an elegant track round Van Wissem's harmonic plucks.

A truly beautiful album by Richard Skelton who also runs the Sustain-Release label which originally issued this as a boxed edition which featured, among other items, birch twigs collected from the West Pennine Moors. This time it comes packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a 12 page booklet of artwork. Bowed strings, guitar, piano, mandolin and accordian merge into sonorous melancholy that exists somewhere between drone and modern composition. The elegiac strings remind me of Arvo Part. Highly recommended.

This co-release on Finnish label Ikuisuus and Michael Donnelly's own label Pacific Soma finds the Brothers back in fine freeform sprawl mode with oodles of percussion and strangeness oozing from every pore. 

Brotzmann / Wilkinson Quartet - One Night in Burmantofts cd (Boweavil) 5

A live recording from Leeds featuring Peter Brotzmann (clarinet, tarogato, tenor sax), Alan Wilkinson (alto & baritone sax), Willi Kellers (drums) and Simon H Fell (double bass). This is freely improvised jazz at its most vibrant which always manages to engage whether whipping up a freefalling storm or in quiet moments  creating a mood of tension  and unease.

Brume 

• Zona Ventille cd (Elsie and Jack) 9.50

Fascinating musique concrete soundscapes like a soundtrack for a Luis Bunuel film - final release from this French chap.

Adam Bugaj - Wave of Tears cdr (Dark Water) 5

This album is a bit like a spinning carousel of sounds in an echo chamber: it flys round and some fragments are thrown off while others leap on to ride the next circuit. Rhythms jump-cut around amidst the echo and tracks end/begin very abruptly, as though we're dipping into something and then the channel switches. Some neat ideas here with percussion (I think there's a marimba or a large xylophone, which sounds very good through all the delay) and guitars. Nothing outstays its welcome either. (JC)

The Bummer Road -   Deep Space Circuit 2cdr (Child of Microtones / Time Lag) 6

Fabulous double cdr set put together for the recent Bummer Road European tour of live recordings (two from Terrastock, the rest from around the US). Line-up is Matt Valentine, Erika Elder, Nemo Bidstrup, Samara Lubelski, Mo' Jiggs, Sparrow Wildchild and Willie Moonflower Lane. Stoned free-folk, cosmic slide blues and a wonderfully charged, out-there atmosphere. Add to that some devastating versions of "Cold Rain" from "Mother of Thousands" and Mississippi John Hurt's "Payday", and the usual lovely packaging from Time Lag and it really is an essential addition to your collection.

Reissue of Joshua's first release from back in 1995 and only issued in an edition of 200 on his Feather One's Nest label. Primitive and lo-fi in comparison to the later "Life Less Lost" and "Gold Cosmos", this is a fragmentary glimpse into the weird and wonderful world of Joshua where bedroom folk rubs up against pulses of homemade electronics and blasted goner blues. Certainly not as immediate as his other releases but this is a fascinating document that repays multiple listens. Coloured vinyl, with a booklet with pasted-on art from Joshua and sleevenotes from the likes of John Olson, Chris Corsano, Thurston Moore etc.

Burt / Macdonald - Constant Weave cdr (Iorram) 5

5 pieces of sax & guitar improv which find Messrs Burt & MacDonald firing on all cylinders. George alternates between nylon string acoustic and electric guitar, playing some lovely sustains on the latter, whilst Raymond plays alto and soprano, running from breathy minimalism to a full tone which sounds as though he's playing through some sort of harmonic doubler. He's not: this is all natural sound. (JC)

George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Quartet 

• with Lol Coxhill - Coxhill Street cd (FMR) 7.50

Lol Coxhill's long history of visits to Scotland has grown into something of an annual social event/series of collaborations since he met up with the George Burt/Raymond MacDonald quartet in Glasgow a few years ago. Coxhill Street (yes, there is such a place: just north of Glasgow city centre!) is a series of free pieces, ranging from 1 minute long to over 14 minutes, which show why this partnership keeps making more music. Ranging from solo improvisations to full band pieces, it also confirms that however freely Coxhill plays, he always does it with soul. (JC)

• featuring Lol Coxhill & Future Pilot AKA - Hotel Dilettante cd (Textile) 9

Lol Coxhill's regular visits to Glasgow have yielded a series of albums with George Burt and Raymond MacDonald and, in 2005, their quintet was augmented by Future Pilot AKA Sushil Dade. The resultant album proves once more that each time Lol comes to Scotland, something completely fresh occurs. This is a set of warm playful pieces and might well be a good starting point for those who would like to investigate this essential figure, but feel that full-on improv could be a bit heavy for their tastes. There's some lovely vocal & melodica from Nicola MacDonald, at time a slightly dubby feel, without any direct references to Jamaican music and, overall, a warmth to this record which makes it highly enjoyable. (JC)

The George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Sextet - Boohoo Fever cd (Leo) 8

The second album from this winning combination and one which finds the balance tilted towards the abstract in comparison to 2005's Day For A Reason. Where song and straightforward melody occur, they do so in very lovely ways. Nicola MacDonald's vocal on the slow and sultry The Gallery finds Keith Tippett throwing in a reference to a Bach fugue, but the remarkable thing is that he makes it fit, rather than just being some piece of technical flash. Most of the album, however, is about the freer side of these players, exploring texture and space, catching fire in so many ways. If you've enjoyed anything by these musicians before, this is a surefire winner. If not, this might be a good place to begin. (JC)

Maybe it had something to do with the weather? George Burt's sleevenotes recall a show where a Scottish downpour cascaded through a marquee over the drumkit, not to mention the electrics. Whatever caused it, Tsumani has a mood of its own and distinct from other Lol collaborations with Burt, MacDonald and friends. Yes, there are some salvos of straight ahead free improv, but the overall mood is more reflective, at times almost bluesy. Coxhill excels in this area, his sound unique, but the style a little reminiscent of Steve Lacy on this album. If Scottish rain set the tone for these pieces, maybe we shouldn't complain about it so much! A very satisfying listen. (JC)

The George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Quartet - One Bloke cd (Textile) 8

Originally recorded in tribute to Steve Lacey, recalling a cd Lacey recorded with Lol Coxhill and Evan Parker entitled "3 Blokes", the title took on an extra poignancy after the tragic death of Textile founder Benoit Sonnette earlier this year. The quartet of MacDonald on soprano & alto sax, Burt on guitar, Lol Coxhill on soprano sax and George Lyle on double bass are joined on this release by Bill Wells on piano, Daniel Padden (One Ensemble / Volcano the Bear) on clarinet, vocals and percussion and Nicola MacDonald on vocals and melodica. The album has a reflective melancholic feel with Coxhill's playing throwing some gorgeous melodic shapes and Bill Wells' compositional contribution "Copper in the Can" coming across very Ennio Morricone at his most laid-back which is a very good thing indeed. Excellent stuff.

George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Sextet featuring Keith Tippett - A Day for a Reason cd (Tob Records) 7.50

Isobella and Henrietta Bird were remarkable women who lived on Scotland's west coast Isle of Mull. This album was commissioned to mark the centenary of a clock tower in Tobermory which traveller Isobella paid for as a memorial to her home loving sister. The Burt MacDonald Sextet were joined by Keith Tippett, that legenday British jazz pianist and one time King Crimson player. Rather than dominating proceedings, Tippett sounds really integrated with the band, playing exquisite runs behind Nicola MacDonald's vocals or sparsely beautiful shards of sound on the more abstract end of the set. A delightful album, at times wistful; at others free and even including field recordings of the clock and the man who maintains it. (JC)

George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Septet Featuring Lol Coxhill 

• Popcorn cd (FMR) 7.50

Aileen Campbell turned up to photograph the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. They discovered her work as a conceptual artist and her interest in harmonising with drones from household appliances. Ideas developed quickly and, next thing you know, she was in the studio with a hairdryer, a popcorn machine… oh, and the Burt/MacDonald Octet plus Lol Coxhill! Once again, these forces deliver an album that isn't just "more of the same" - the addition of Aileen Campbell - a sort of Yma Sumac let loose in the Argos showroom - makes sure of this! (JC)

• Shark Hunt cd (FMR) 7.50

The series of collaborations between Lol Coxhill and Messrs. Burt and MacDonald continued with this 2005 release. This time the septet included Bill Wells and Daniel Padden in four extended pieces which are as much about exploring space as sound: the seven players create a mood where what's between the notes matters as much as the notes themselves and nobody overplays their hand. The album's title - and that of three of the tracks - is a homage to Hunter S. Thompson. The other track, G.O.K, is an improvisation sparked by "hazy fragments" of the Beach Boys God Only Knows and is a lovely thing indeed! (JC)

Camillia - 23'39 cdr (Reverb Worship) 2

Japanese 3 piece Camillia start this cdr in fine style sounding very Temporary Residence friendly with a guitar / bass / drums post-rock workout. Next up is a slow-burning ballad, reminiscent of the more song-based end of '90s shoegaze but with more interesting rhythms. Lastly they don capes and go all out prog (which will keep some Boa colleagues very happy!)

Follow-up to the wonderful "Psychic Mud Shrine" on Digitalis from half of Barn Owl. Hypnotic solo guitar devotionals - quiet storms, heavy black clouds of distortion, horizontal drones and unsettling space. Excellent stuff, heavy sounds on heavy vinyl.

"For me this is the ultimate Can't LP. Its a sound cornucopia of everything Jessica Rylan does so beautifully... amazing scraped and destroyed analog synth-laden vocals, lovely singer/songwriter stylings with acoustic guitar, and Shaggs-style garage gusto! This record features Jessica's own homemade synthesizers including the Little Boy Blue! One of my favorite Weird Forest releases to date! Beautiful color covers by Abide Visuals and a fabulous inner sleeve with artwork by Jessica." ( Weird Forest )

I saw Eric Carbonara playing when I had the good fortune to spend some time in Philadelphia's wonderful Fishtown area in 2004. Based on what I already knew of his music, Exodus Bulldornadius came as quite a surprise as it's an album of solo guitar where the influence of the flamenco tradition is a strong component, melded with many other things. These seven pieces make a highly absorbing sequence offering light and shade and one which reveals more with each listen. (JC)

• Trances cdr (Rhizome) 5.50

Cathedrals - Demo cdr (Fictitious Sighs) 6.50

Cathedrals is Tim Coster (who runs the Fictitious Sighs label) and Nigel Wright; an appropriate name for the cavernous sounds contained within. This starts out sounding like listening to a foghorn from the depths of the ocean and finishes with synth drones distantly heard in a disused warehouse.

Celer 

• Mane Blooms 7" (Low Point) 4

"‘Mane Blooms’ is the very first vinyl release by Celer, the husband and wife duo Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. Seen by Celer as an 'outdoor' companion piece to ‘Brittle’, the duo’s album recently released on Low Point, the music on ‘Mane Blooms’ was created by multiple layers of cello and piano, which were then processed and played back at differing speeds. Also contained within the tracks are field recordings taken whilst Dani rode horses along the Californian coastline, a weekly pursuit that acted as a form of self-therapy and enjoyment. With the music composed specifically with the vinyl medium in mind, the two sides of the record act as a mirror image. For the B side, Celer approached the music of the first track in reverse, inverting the structure and musical motifs established within the first piece. Altering the playback speed of the vinyl brings previously hidden textures to the fore, providing each of the tracks with a new identity and a different reflection of memory." (Low Point)

• Brittle cd (Low Point) 5.75

Another beautiful release from husband and wife duo Celer. Constructed from piano, violin, cello, tingsha bells, harpsichord, whistle and field recordings of room noise, these recordings were arranged into 19 different tracks and then restructured into one long mesmerizing track of tones and drones that merge and fade. The tones sound like echoes and memories of their former sound sources and the result is soporific, melancholic and utterly gorgeous.

• Dwell in Possibility LP (Blackest Rainbow) 10.75

First full length vinyl release from husband and wife duo Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. Beautifully degraded source sounds (voice, violin, cello, piano, organ, field recordings, cassettes etc) ebb and float in a ambient drift that oscillates between hope and melancholy. Like echoes of long-lost sounds in a long-locked room. Highly recommended.

• Dying Star cd (Dragon's Eye) 7

Full-length album of distant memories and ambient drift to ease you through the night from Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. More gorgeous sounds.

Century Plants / The Coast split cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

Hans Chew - New Cypress Grove Boogie 7" (Three Lobed) 5.50

Hans Chew plays boogie woogie piano in a hard-hitting, straight down the line, Meade Lux Lewis/Albert Ammons style. He sings too and New Cypress Grove Boogie sounds like a solo number until the band star whooping it up with him about half way through. Pass the bourbon, this is a good session and is that the throaty grunt of a fuzzed up synth I hear on the opposite side of the mix from the bass? Nothing too trad about this band, then! Chew has also played with D. Charles Speer & The Helix and the late Jack Rose and the flipside of this picture disc reflects the range of his songs. Forever Again is a country tinged ballad of the sort which might fall under the heading of "Americana", although I'm shaky ground when it comes to applying such definitions. (JC)

Chora 

• Slates LP (Sergent Massacre) 12

The debut vinyl from Chora compiles a bunch of out-of-print cdrs from the last couple of years. Clouds of meditative circuitry drone and some great freaked psych clutter / clatter.

• Baptist Grip cdr (Singing Knives) 5.50

• Ruined Parabola LP (Chironex) 12.25

• Then the Trembling Set In cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 1.50

Grant Capes (of (VxPxC)) and Adam Richards (House of Alchemy). This opens with rumbling gloom punctuated by electronic squeals and squiggles and the melancholic thrum of guitar. Second track is a sampled piano, a baby's cries and some other instrumental ephemera creating an unsettling lullaby. Last track sounds like a set of musical bed springs afloat on a sea of dark drone.

Circle Bros - You'll Be Missed 3" cdr (Blue Sanct / Morc) 3.25

5 track prelude to the full-length due later this on Morc. Dream-like acoustic manipulations - shimmering flicker drones constructed from delayed guitar, accordian, bells and vocals.

• Princetown Air cdr (Rural Faune) 6

Another fascinating recording from Pennsylvania's Clear Spots, recorded as a radio session. A free-floating improvised jam of weaving guitars, percussion flourishes and some occasional synth. Not as riff-heavy or garagey as previous recordings, this finds Clear Spots getting spaced out and mellow. 

Daniel Clough - Stories cdr (Reverb Worship) 2

Daniel was formerly known as BricksKILL and is an electroacoustic musician. This deals in echoes of sounds, like hearing distant melancholic tones at the end of a subterranean chamber. Disturbed and mysterious ambience. Stencilled paper sleeves.

Coal Hook

• Subsistance Compulstion cdr (Blueberry Honey) 2

"This is the the second official release by this self-driven mind mash featuring Danish experimentalist / composer / inventor Jorgen Teller and Ron Schneidermann. Originally devised as a long lost collaboration after an impromptu concert at Byens Lys in Copenhagen's Christiana section in 2006. These all new recordings from Tyte Studio  recorded in May of 2009 show that the fuel is still burning. No rules, no plans, simple pure expression & explosion is what is offered. A dance between light & dark, noise & calm, beyond language" (Spirit of Orr)

• Who's Distracted? cdr (Blueberry Honey) 2

"The second set of recordings from this past May, and like the Subsistance Compulsion album this one is also edited by Teller, with artwork by Schneidermann. This disc is perhaps a little more abrasive, though that is of course a matter of personal taste." (Spirit of Orr)

Coldstream - South Island cdr (Under the Spire) 5.50

Ambient drone sculpted from guitar and electronics by Daniel Mumford. Partly dark and mysterious and partly fuzzed and warm with hints of buried melodic treasures deep within. Lovely and endlessly revealing.

Andrew Coltrane 

• Synth tapes 5 cassette (Digitalis) 2

Imagine a bank of oscillators sweeping, swooping and droning, playing inside the cone of a volcano about to erupt. That was the image I conjoured up whilst listening to side one of this tape. Side 2 is a less wild, but still evocative: recordings of sun spot activity, perhaps. A nice release, with cassette and case in different shades of blue. (JC)

• DMT Shadow cassette (Digitalis) 2

More erupting oscillator magic from Andrew Coltrane, using the Arp Axxe. This starts out with as an interplanetary morse code using different tone frequencies but soon gets into more destructive terrain as he ups the ante on the ring modulators and delay to produce some seriously blasted bass. The other side is seriously hypnotic with undulating fuzz tone mantras.

• Conflict cassette (Digitalis) 5

Synth-generated overload. Coltrane's past releases have certainly gone into the red on occasion but this an all-out blast Seriously distorted, demonic synth mayhem.

Cone - II cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Cone is Hermann Blaupunkt of the Netherlands. The album starts with a psych-dirge which recalls Loop but this is a diversionary tactic it would seem as the rest of the release is constructed from hypnotic acoustic guitar picking, expansive drone and field recordings. "Vaderdag" is particularly fine - a bottomless well of ambient drone echoing with exotic birdsong. Edition of 50 copies with a PVC coated cotton fabric
insert with a grass design.

Lula Cortes

• Rose de Sangue LP (Time Lag) 16
• Rose de Sangue cd (Time Lag)  10

Time-Lag have unearthed a couple of rare albums from Brazil which have been highlights of the past few years. I speak of the Marconi Notario album and Satwa, the latter from 1975 and featuring Lula Cortes. Now the label has come up with another gem by Cortes from five years later. The listener would be hard pressed to guess this year, as Rosa Da Sangue bears no hallmarks of its era. Instead, there's a mix of pop-psych, a rocking riff with the unlikely name Calming Ballad, a female vocal track which sounds like something wafting in from Radio India on shortwave and a couple of numbers which would make for merry stompers in a late night bar session. Well worth your attention and if you haven't heard the Satwa and Notario records, the same goes for them. (JC)

Psych pop gems galore pour forth from the Cosmic Nanou. This set starts with a guitar instrumental, played whilst Patrick Moore & Chris Lintott are heard on a tv in the background. These songs were, says the cover, "recorded on barbara's tape recorder june - september 2000, mullingar, ireland". The sound quality is a bit like something taped from the radio around - oh - 1971 or that album of Roky Erickson demos (All That May Do My Rhyme). These songs have lain unreleased for a long time and I'm very pleased they're with us now. (JC)

Another cdr of slowly-uncoiling laptop drone from Tim Coster, this time made with bass guitar, ocarina, accordian, bells, harmonica, mbira, cloves, bottles, bowls, alarm clock, wood, string and field recordings. The sounds have a real winds-whistling-through-pines sense of unease to them.

• Untitled cdr (Transient) 6.75

The final recordings from this duo before Sadgrove headed for Tokyo. Both are also members of Plains. Tim on computer and mixer feedback, Mark on computer and guitar. Slowly unfolding feedback harmonies inducing a state of sun-sizzled stupor.

• untitled cdr (CLaudia 022) 6.50

There's a heartbeat pulse through quite a lot of the music here and, allied to the oscillations which have a soft, slightly distant sound, this suggests what one might hear in a pre-birth state. Recorded in a place called the Wine Cellar in Auckland, New Zealand, you'll hear Mark on guitar and dictaphone, with Tim playing oscillator, keyboard samples, walkman and looping things too. (JC)

Leighton Craig - 11 Easy Pieces cd (Room 40) 6

I've been a fan of Leighton Craig's since a 3" cd of organ pieces became a record I would often play in the early hours of the morning. This one is a set of short pieces which, in a few cases, could easily pass as lost gems from vintage library music lps. A charming record and packaged so well in a fold-out sleeve. (JC)

Culver - Can You Read My Mind cassette (Bells Hill) 2

Black tape-wow rituals from Lee Stokoe.

Cursillistas 

• Joint Chiefs LP & cassette (Digitalis) 12.75

Cursillistas is now a duo: Matt Lajoie has been joined by Dawn Russell. The sound is still pretty psyched but a move away from loosely-structured songs to something looser still. At times it reminds me of the freer side of MV / EE's cosmic folk, at other times slow, reverbed guitars form a heavy fog and the duo's voices waver like distant lights. All my copies come with cassette and badge. Beautiful poster-style silk-screened sleeve too. Highly recommended.

• Les Biches LP & cd (Time Lag / L'Animaux Tryst) 16

A reissue of Matt Lejoie's first release on his own L'Animaux Tryst label with 4 extra tracks recorded at the same session that produced the tracks on the original 3". All tracks have been newly mixed and remastered. Loosely structured songs, the feel of a campfire jam deep in the woods, heavy use of reverb and some hypnotic pieces centred on percussion that remind me of Moondog come together to create a very special dream-time psych-folk album. Gorgeous and highly recommended. Comes in equally gorgeous packaging of course - "a totally deluxe letter press printed tri-fold art paper cover with metallic screen printed interior, photo-mounted vellum insert, and all sealed up with a hand-sewn button enclosure." This comes with a free cd version of the LP.

Cursillistas / Love Cult split cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 3

A split release of strong contrasts, which flow in a most complimentary way. Cursillistas hail from Portland, Maine, in the U.S. and deliver a very lovely, spiritual landscape of melodic drones and singing bowls. On the flipside, it's Love Cult from Petrozavodsk, Russia, who build a mighty barrage of sound across two pieces which climbs to quite a frenzy in the end. All wrapped in parchment and limited to 100 copies. (JC)

A couple of winters ago AMM's Keith Rowe held a series of workshops and a concert with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Rowe's provocative statements caused some divisions of opinion, to say the least (for example, to a saxophonist: "The saxophone is an instrument in crisis"!). For some GIO members, a meeting with Rowe was ideal and Neil Davidson was certainly one of those. Neil's ideas of sound generation from the guitar challenge perceptions of what that instrument is and what it can do. For a good deal of the time, you'd be hard pressed to identify a guitar as the instrument being played on Grain, yet Davidson pulls off what could descend into an academic exercise in a highly involving, perhaps enveloping, way. Oh - and although his approach shares something with Rowe's, Neil does not sound like a copyist, so that's another plus for this album. (JC)

"In May of 2008, Amsterdam-based clarinetist Gareth Davis and American guitarist Steven R. Smith convened at Worstward Studios, in Los Angeles to collaborate and create music together, the results of which have been titled Westering. Gareth Davis is a dedicated performer of contemporary music while at the same time works with improvising musicians such as Jon Balke and Terje Rypdal as well as electronic artists including Machinefabriek and Ryan Teague (Type Records) and has recently completed the Rabbit at the Airport series of LPs with Martin Stig Andersen and Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner). Steven R. Smith has been releasing a steady stream of solo records for over the last decade as well as playing in various improvisational groups including Thuja, Hala Strana, and most recently Ulaan Khol." (Important) A beautiful textured record of melancholic layered clarinet dirges and more abstract pieces of broken guitar feedback and guttural bass clarinet which evokes the winter wind in a forest. Screen-printed sleeve.

Dead Wood - Slow Threat cdr (Striate Cortex) 5.50

Yet another lovely handmade package from Striate Cortex, this one being an eco-pak digipak with a little wood insert. Dead Wood is Adem Baker and there are 6 tracks on here of manipulated field recordings: fast flicker electro, horizontal drones, meditative pulsations that sound like gongs.

Deadnotes - Orange Trumpet LP (Soft Abuse) 10

Great LP featuring early recordings from the Deadnotes: Leighton Craig, Stuart Busby and Eugene Carchesio. Fabulously jerky bursts of jagged guitar, drums and trumpet - imagine if Maher Shalal Hash Baz tried to make mariachi music with only half their band members. Other tracks recall Morricone in miniature. Rough and utterly great - actually, post-punk mariachi ain't a bad idea! 

Dean & Britta - I'll Keep It With Mine / It Don't Rain in Beverly Hills 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 5

Dean Wareham (ex-Galaxie 500 / Luna) and Britta Phillips (Luna) were asked to soundtrack 13 films of Warhol's legendary screentest at the behest of the Warhol Museum last year and these are 2 of the tracks they chose: Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine" (as covered by Nico) to soundtrack Nico of course. This side is a beautifully orchestrated version that owes more to Andrew Loog Oldham's Nico productions than John Cale. On the other side is "It Don't Rain in Beverly Hills" which soundtracked Edie Sedgewick. 

Cam Deas 

• My Guitar Is Alive and It's Singing cdr (self-released) 6

Cdr reissue of sold-out debut vinyl release from acoustic guitarist Cam Deas. The A side is one long track and is reminiscent of James Blackshaw, albeit in a more aggressive mode. There are 2 tracks on side B: the opening one starts with a quiet but unsettling undercurrent of drone and the tension continues with flurried assaults on the strings. Back to more 12 string mastery on the last track. An excellent release.

• Untitled Blues Part I & II 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.50

I seem to have lost my adapter for 7"s so I've been unable to review this. GPS says "Stunning 45 from Sheffield based Cam Deas- a debut 45 on wax. 2 heavy  strummed blues across 2 sides of vinyl- best approached as 1 long  piece. Sure, the names of Fahey, Basho, Blackshaw, Rose etc spring to mind, but this has a raw, slow building presence and an expressive approach all of it’s own. A potent brew- perhaps a departure from recent work on labels like Blackest Rainbow and Dead Pilot, released  as a pressing of 300 numbered, date stamped copies in linen card, fine art sleeves with sticker."

• Blind Chance LP (Blackest Rainbow) 13

Blind Chance is 2 sides of powerhouse 12 string improv. The sparse and abstract dimensions of Deas's playing inhabit a place where the notes resonate and space is of paramount importance. These are offset by the other extreme, when the fast'n'furious runs are as though Dick Dale had taken up the 12 string acoustic instead of the surf-twang of the Stratocaster. The recording and vinyl pressing are of a quality which is upsides with the standard of playing - and that is very high. (JC)

Deas & Denton - s/t cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 5

Last time I heard Cam Deas he was pulling a remarkable range of sounds out of a 12 string acoustic guitar. This time he's joined Adam Denton for an amped up 32 minute sonic storm of electric guitar improv. Check that any loose items in your room are in secure positions, turn it up to eleven and stand the hell back! (JC)

Cam Deas / Spoono split LP (Blackest Rainbow) 10.25

Split LP featuring some excellent acoustic guitar picking from Cam Deas on one side and Spoono (Jack from Towering Breaker) on the other. Now sold out at source.

Del - Grim Ace cassette (Gold Soundz) 3

Death rock crunch from Lasse Marhaug and crew. Overload, distortion, monolithic riffs and a woman with a big syringe on the cover.

Delia Derbyshire / Electrosonic cd (Glo-Spot) 10

Stunningly presented reissue of an extremely rare Delia Derbyshire release on Melody Bar reviewer John Cavanagh 's new label. This initially came out in 1972 as a KPM Library disc and features Delia, fellow Radiophonic Workshop employee (and creator of the Tardis noise in Doctor Who) Brian Hodgson and Australian mood music composer Don Harper. Electronic music that still sounds as futuristic and strange as it must have on release. The LP has now sold out hence the reissue on cd. Wonderful stuff. Beautiful gatefold digipak sleeve design by Iker Spozio  ... one listen to this and you'll be tickled pink! 

"let the insanity begin!  these beasts from toronto follow-up their mind-melting LP from last year, "post-mortem depression," with absolute avalanche of hell.  jagged guitar swirls get the beat down from a pommel horse of drum bombs.  screams escape from the abyss only to be sucked back under by crawling basslines.  and then the guitars come at you again and again and again.  there's no avoiding this minefield - you're gonna lose a leg.  this is clusterfuck city folks and disguises are your tour guides. these jagged excursions will cut your face open and make you want to apologize for bleeding all over the brand new carpet.  edition of 80, pro-dubbed with broken golden fairy art and smeared labels." (Digitalis)

An ominous choir of layered and treated vocals, woozy and indistinct as if you're listening underwater. 

Dream Safari / Ophibre split cdr (Rural Faune) 6

Black hole layered vocals from Dream Safari. Monolithic synth pulse / buzz from Ophibre.

Drekka 

• Take Care to Fall cd (Blue Sanct) 5

An excellent (long-awaited) debut that exceeds my expectations - fractured in-the-depths-of-your-head folk / lo-fi experimental pop - earlier singles and tapes were always full of intrigue and atmosphere but this is a dark, hazy beauty of an album.

• Extractioning cd (Blue Sanct) 5

This is a breathtaking album of inner-ear experimental folk-pop from the chap behind Blue Sanct - fuzzed-up recording, spookily toyed-with religious singing, copious amounts of delay and reverb and at the heart of each track a gorgeously delicate melody that threatens to fragment at any moment. 

• Ancestral Cave Sequence cassette (Digitalis) 5

Great to be reacquainted with Michael Anderson's Drekka. Mysterious drone-scapes that seem to emanate from deep within a pine forest at night. Clanging metal, spectral voices, a distant violin dirge, throbbing electronics and fragments of melancholic folk all add to the haunted ambience.

• Collected Works Vol 1 (1996) 2cd (Morc) 9

Double disc collection of all Drekka's earliest recordings from 1996. Features Grieve, Windowframe and Hermitage One EPs plus bonus tracks. Fuzzy folk fragments, creepy hissed-out tape collages and lo-fi ambient. Comes with a little booklet.

Drifts - Future Light Cone 3" cdr (Rural Faune) 4

Spiralling synth communications to outer-space.

3 raw solo outings from the guy who also records as Muura. Sparse and repetitive abstract blues with acres of tense space and the tense rattle of loose guitar strings. Gorgeously packaged in thick card tied up with rough thread.

Post-midnight lonesome country blues from Joe McConnell, aka Elephant Micah. This finds his songs more stripped down than before to just his vocals and guitar (with just occasional piano, brushed drums and 'cello) and even more captivating than usual.  Highly recommended.

The End Springs - There Lies the Electric Reasons cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Guitar-based psychedelic reveries - apparently End Springs are usually all acoustic but on this release there's wah-wah and plenty of overdrive so the needle hits the red pretty much all the way throughout. Hand-made covers.

Enfer Boreal 

• Sea of Tranquility / Sea of Darkness cassette (Digitalis) 2

Maxime Primault's finest release to date. Alchemical bubbles echoing from the back of a long dark cavern on "Tranquility"; on "Darkness" the sound is indeed darker with deep bass underpinning the cosmic sparkle.

• / Tuscarora Borealis / the.bricoleur split cdr (Deep Water) 4

3 tracks from Enfer Boreal, 2 from TB and one from the.bricoleur. Enfer Boreal's contributions favour the dronier side of his work: huge gas clouds of distantly raging distortion and an undertow of calm synth hymnals. Tuscarora Borealis is a member of Evening Fires who builds repetitions into a magical stream of hypnosis. the.bricoleur has worked with Current 93 and contributes a shadowy soundscape.

Eternal Tapestry - Palace of the Night Skies LP & cd (Three Lobed) 10

Full length LP / cd of trio featuring Dewey Mahood on guitar, Nick Bindeman (JOMF) on guitar and occasional vocals and Jed Bindeman (Heavy Winged) on drums. A fuzzed-up ton of psyched-out sprawl, like a slightly mellower Heavy Winged or similar to the endless psych riffing and wah wah wanderings of Bardo Pond. The cd comes with the LP and features the same tracks.

John Clyde Evans 

• Apetal Thunderfall cd (Digitalis) 3.50

Recorded during a year spent in India and the first proper cd since the Tirath Singh Nirmala release, also on Digitalis last year. This releases splices found software and audio sources into something rather different for JCE although it is still a sound that is recognisably his. The result is a semi-electronic / semi-organic array of cut-ups and fleeting sounds (pastoral flutes, glockenspiel, Indian horns, scratched strings) merged into a wonderfully intoxicating merging of ethnic drone and abrasive cut-ups.

• Delight in the Streams LP (Amen Absen) 5

Following on to his cd on Digitalis (and one under the name Tirath Singh Nirmala) and a string of self-released cdrs, comes this album, an enthralling and bewildering collage of manipulated sounds recorded in India in 2006. Warm tones of glockenspiel mixed with screeching drones to set your teeth on edge, whacked out vocal manipulations and gentle flute pipings. 

Evening Fires 

• s/t cdr (Deep Water) 5

Family Elan   

• The Stare of Dawn cd (Locust) 8

Possibly the finest album I've heard this year comes via this extraordinary offering from Chris Hladowski of Nalle / Scatter / The One Ensemble. It features lots of those wonderful long-necked stringed instruments Chris has such an incredible talent at playing (bouzouki, gimbri, oud), as well as fiddle, flute (played by Hanna Tuulikki) and an array of percussion (bongos, scrapers, cymbals) and is rooted in the folk music of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa. The sound is dense and exquisitely textured (recorded by Melody Bar reviewer John Cavanagh no less!). "Monumental" is a spinning folk dervish that it's impossible to listen to without wanting to twist and whirl and clap. Slower songs like "Wide Eyed Fox" and "The Bells of Earthly Wonder" have the air of mystical madrigals. The sleeve art is by fellow Nalle member Hanna Tuulikki and the back depicts a dreaming figure being transported away by winged maidens which I think is a fine depiction of how beautifully hypnotic this album is. Highly recommended.

Flying Sutra 

• Levitate & Dissolve cdr (Deep Water) 5

Pennsylvanian guitar / drums duo of George Draguns and Bob Cozzolino who merge avant-rock / free jazz stylings - the longer tracks are particularly fine.

• Glowering and Glowing Red cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

Pennsylvania's guitar / drums duo return with 66 minutes of crunching avant-rock that merges angular art-punk with freeform heavy rock.

Foldhead - Drugs Paint Alcohol cdr (Music Mundane) 1.50

"After many many years in the wilderness (last heard of in the mid-90s), Music Mundane are proud to prise some of the most recent private recordings from the over-protective  hands of Paul "Nonnen" Walsh, original other half of Smell & Quim. Spread over 40 minutes,  these three tracks grow exponentially and repetitively as the disk progresses, smashing raw analogue electronics and digital processing into a huge hallucinatory wall of confusion.   Welcome back!" (Music Mundane)

Fordell Research Experience Presents - An Afternoon of Pianoforte Recitals cdr (Pjorn) 1.50

4 collaborations between Edinburgh's FRU and Culver, Handek, Shareholder and Adverb / John McLean. Drones ranging from soporific Stars Of The Lid-type drift to abrasive burn-outs to fizz-heavy hum.

Pete Fosco 

• Petals to the Sun cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

I previously stocked a cassette by Pete on Digitalis Ltd which sold out within a few days. Solo guitar meditations with the distortion turned all the way up on the first 2 tracks. The final one utilizes e-bow to create some gorgeous singing, ringing tones. Hand-sprayed covers.

Excellent new project from Brian Lavelle and Matthew Shaw, named after the mysterious subterranean chambers found in Cornwall. Fittingly field recordings were made at Cerne Abbas, Cairnpapple Hill, Zeist and Stonehenge for this release, and intermingle with analogue synths, guitar, electronics and vocals. Mysterious drones with tons of otherworldly atmosphere.

Another fascinating release on the excellent Kindling records: this is Leighton Craig on keyboard, Stuart Busby on effect-laden trumpet. Deep gurgling sound explorations reminiscent of This Heat at times amid sunbursts of gentle repetitive instrumentals.