Anti-Gravity Bunny

Benjamin Finger – Consonance Of Fear (Time Released Sound)

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Incredible new somber piano out of Norway from Benjamin Finger, this is a truly special record, carving a nook in the solo piano realm with field recordings of half forgotten memories, a familiar stranger who walked by, birds chirping outside your window last spring while you fluttered around the house, the voices of childhood friends, smothered fireworks acting as vinyl crackle, all hidden in the background of Finger’s eulogistic meditative piano, twinkling a bright & eerie melody, looped into your consciousness, finding a perfect balance between serene & melancholic, not straying too far into euphoric or depressive but still evoking both, this is a beautifully intimate record that will score your noir past and your peaceful tea time, this dude couldn’t have made a better record, and you have the option of copping the ultra deluxe version of this which comes with a skeletal bird mobile made from antique piano parts that lives in a huge collaged chocolate box adorned with more piano parts and contains even more piano pieces inside. So fucking over the top, so fucking cool. Only 70 of those are available, so if that’s your thing, ya best get on it.

Betacicadae – Pahoa (Elegua)

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One Kevin Scott Davis making an astounding debut with Betacicadae. A wholly unique record, taking every instrument he’s got, a bunch of guitars, a wood flute, vibraphone, harp, violin, drums, synths, and runs some of it through some effects pedals, does some post-processing, and mixes it all up with field recordings from farms, rainforests, and cities, making the most incredible electro-acoustic ambient record that is its own separate planet of sound, there’s nothing else quite like this, it’s a microcosm of personality but the breadth is endless, breathing warmth into electronics and twisting organics beyond their limits, life is everywhere & at every moment, this covers the entire range of emotion with calm oddities, frightened fauna, chaos & control, washed out & dazzlingly brilliant, the dark night of the unknown & the slow morning peace, and the opening track “Pahoa” is the most beautiful fucking thing I’ve ever heard, it’s a masterpiece of wonder, a place of perfection, and I just want to live inside it forever. This is as good as debuts get, my friends. The best on every level. The whole thing is streaming and there’s only 100 copies each of vinyl and CD, so don’t do anything dumb like not pick one of these up immediately.

Be Honest – Tea, Sugar (Fallow Field)

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Goddamn this is a special fucking record. Ian Maleney’s first under the Be Honest name and it’s inspired by/has field recordings from the rural Irish bogland making some truly exceptional drone. The only recognizable samples I hear are bird chirps (done quite tastefully) and maybe some rain (not too sure about that though), the rest is impeccable guitar drones and subliminal synths, the two side long tracks acting as polar opposites, the first starting out with a soft & bright drone that quickly turns into an overwhelming dense dark static, snarling & growling but never actually biting, subtly beautiful with melodies buried in the noise, briefly breaking off into a calmer haunted dream, then bursting through again with the gorgeous abrasion. The B side takes a lighter approach, very playful & soothing, a couple layers of processed picking laid on top of vague nature, an organic warmth that feels sun drenched & slightly melancholic, undeniably beautiful, and just fucking perfect. Not too many of the bad boys were made, only 50 on Maleney’s newly minted Fallow Field label, so get white the gettin’s good.

Every Hidden Color – I (excerpt) (Streamline)

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I’m so fucking psyched this is finally seeing the light of day. Luz has been completed for about two years, innocuously waiting for the right label to give it the love it deserves (thanks, Streamline). Every Hidden Color is a duo of the inimitable Nicholas Szczepanik and Argentinian field recorder/droner Frederico Durand. These two guys work unbelievably well together, gliding effortlessly between digital drones and organic field recordings. There’s two side-long pieces, both weaving and harmonizing in the most glorious way, the sounds mimicking and playing off each other, the rushing water, short bird calls, nondescript shuffling, and insect buzz perfectly joining flowing drones, ambient rhythmic clicks, and deep rumbling. This is one of the most lush records, bleeding warmth and comfort, a stirring of bliss that gently shifts to subtle majesty, the softness of the world captured in a gorgeous tapestry of sounds. Too much to love on this, a fantastic balance of complexity & simplicity, Luz outshines so many other albums this year. Here’s hoping Szczepanik and Durand have some more records up their sleeve.

Concern – God, Weak And Quiet (Isounderscore)

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A bittersweet moment, this is Gordon Ashworth’s final release as Concern, but it’s such a stellar album that it stings a little less. Made almost entirely with a 15 string box harp, with the exception of some field recordings thrown in to spice it up, Ashworth looped & processed that shit until he turned his 15 strings into a solo Crimson Grail of box harps. This is like the Swedish massage or acupuncture of drone, thousands of little pins & slaps layered and sequenced to give you an overall good time. The first side long track starts with an incredibly lush strum, tender & sharp, that bleeds into samples of indistinct human chatter, a shy social anxiety building as everything tucks itself away into a corner, nervous nondescript fumbling & fidgeting to keep busy while the drones flutter, then a huge blissful shimmering cloud of hand-wringing uncertainty, slightly transparent and hovering right in front of the sun. The first of the two pieces on the B side stretch out the stress and worries, all encompassing but still a heavenly textured euphoria, until the closing track that reaches a relaxing peace, a reserved chillness, obtaining freedom of all concern (yep). An arc in an album I strive for in life, the last track my primary goal. This album is absolutely fucking beautiful and definitely some of the most amazing & unique drone this year. I always expect the best from Isounderscore and, big surprise, Misfortune is another winner.

Dog Hallucination – Untitled 2 (Intangible Cat)

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A tightly compacted 3″ where Dog Hallucination (Doggy P. Lips & D. Petri) is joined by Bob from Headless Ballerinas Underwater. Weirdness abound on this one, the guitars getting fucked up & beatified by Bob with some added field recordings thrown into the mix. Gentle looping guitars, droning into the ether alongside ruptured electronics gurgling everywhere, phasers set to “caress,” celestial warmth feeding the fire, all infused with a solid rhythm, a noisy techno-drone that does more to invoke lucid dreams than it does the urge to party. But this is still totally partyable (at least a couple of the tracks are). And totally awesome. Here’s hoping Bob joins in the Hallucinations more often.

Ous Mal – Metsien Hämy (Full Of Nothing)

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Finland’s now defunct Ous Mal makes one of his last outings on a split with Russia’s Bedroom Bear. Ous Mal’s side is absolutely killer, a cracked bliss that will surely be missed. Some songs have a way about them similar to the recent surge of instrumental hip hop jams except the beats here hit as soft as your grandma’s punches. The rest are a warped & blurry bedroom pop, droned in the best way with zero sense of urgency, moth eaten and full of holes like it’s been tucked away in the attic for half a century.

Bedroom Bear takes a slightly more dramatic approach to the bedroom pop, permeated with a low-key psych sound, waves of the bizarre melting into dream-like drifts of noise, all while still being chill as fuck and totally blissful. One track is like a nap on the beach with waves lapping at the shore and the creatures of the coast singing about how awesome life is. Doesn’t get much better than that.

A truly great split, limited as expected, and on the increasingly awesome Russian label Full Of Nothing. Wholly worth your while.

Patrick Emm – Sleep Eater (YDLMIER)

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More Boston on Boston love with this one. Emm is somewhat of a newcomer, although he’s still shown his awesomeness on his debut Mythics. This tape is a whole other beast, though. It’s dark as hell and full of sci-fi horror electronics, brittle contact mic static, clattery field recordings, and warped tape fuckery. These are the dark sounds that emanate from the recesses of your dirty basement. Sounds of paranoia & terror, swampy bubbling & eery chirps, didgeridoo electronic waves, muffled percussive field recordings, woozy synths, shrieking high end whines, haunted echoes from the shadows, heaving drones rumbling below everything. This tape is 100% cool and totally recommended. Perfect for all y’all scuzzy folks.

Ernst Karel – Scuol-Motta Naluns (Gruenrekorder)

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Absolutely one of a kind. Karel has made field recordings of gondolas, chairlifts, funiculars, and various aerial cable cars in Switzerland, without any self righteous tweaking or altering. These sounds are coming straight from the cars. Mostly a calm, serene, and hushed album, with lots of motorik rhythms and mechanical percussion breaking through. The man-made sounds are the focal point, gears grinding, bang clanking, crunching, howling, etc. This is one that demands your full attention though, as it’s easy to think there’s nothing going on if you’re not 100% intent on hearing it. Despite the spiked mechanics, it’s a record of profound & solitary quiet. But it’s not empty by any stretch of the imagination. Just the opposite. It’s full of life. Every little detail is captured, the wind carrying through the mountains, distant animals, hushed hums, Swiss voices, it’s celebrates the minutiae and tells me to live in the moment and enjoy what I hear around me. Pay attention, hear it, live it. Truly fantastic. Swiss Mountain Transport Systems could be my new life mantra.

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A magnificent follow up to his debut, Out Of Forgetting. Cold, sparse, and hidden textures opening up a world of revered memories and rainy days. Pianos whimper in the corner while unrecognizable field recordings scratch up against old wallpaper. Stuck in gray fields with a sliver of gold lighting up the horizon. Lonely, exhausted sounds sprawled out on beautifully minimal canvases. Tiny processed clicks shack up next to complementary keys, not bogged down with excessive bullshit. A crystal clear hi-fi production matching a vision just as clear. Wonderful on every level. Part of Hibernate’s limited Postcard Series but, sadly, sold out. Luckily, you can name your price for it over at Bandcamp.

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Wow. I don’t even know where to start with this one. The fact that it’s fucking AWESOME? Or maybe that it’s ridiculously non-musical? Or that Dan Crall is just a regular dude, without a “band website” or anything like that. He runs a pedicab business. That’s his website. No Myspace, no Bandcamp. He’s got a little Last.FM bio and an outdated photo album on the Install site. That’s it. He’s just a totally normal fucking dude. He just happens to make crazy ass field recording records like Non Formula Equinox.

This is primarily made up of field recordings, with little droney aspects & straight up music peppered throughout. I love this because it’s how I imagine I would make field recordings. 90% of what Crall records are sounds you hear every day (or would if you lived in Oregon). Squeaky tools, leaky hoses, kids screaming at carnivals, hammering & hollering, roaring fires, galloping horses, radio splatter, carousels, factory machines, barn house husbandry, and lots of people. Dusty voices talking about everything from the spiritual & physical cleansing of sweat lodges to depressing monologues about the economy & loneliness. Some of the sounds are warped, twisted, & beaten into an unrecognizable pulp, but a lot of them remain unaltered. No digital processing, just straight up sounds the way they’d be heard in the wild, taken totally out of context and jumbled up in Crall’s brilliant sequencing. They may be entirely non-musical elsewhere, but compiled & put on a platter for you on Equinox, you’re able to hear the world the way Dan Crall does.

There is music on this record though, just not a hell of a lot of it, and most of it is hidden among the field recordings. Some didgeridoo weirdness, rewound mandolin, deep resonant cellos, murky underwater drones. These are the starting off points for those having a difficult time getting into this record. You can focus on the more familiar musical facets, while experiencing the surrounding bizarreness and easing yourself into the stripped down sounds like on “The Ballad Of Eugene Boyd.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a record that took advantage of all available 80 minutes. Non Formula Equinox is 1 hour and 18 minutes, which is one long fucking record when it doesn’t have much music on it. It’s definitely not the easiest thing to listen to, but it’s SO goddamn rewarding when you actually get through it and have the epiphany. The realization that all of the source material is primarily background noise in the real world. If you put this record on and don’t give it 100% of your attention, your brain will automatically block it out just like it does with the rest of the shit you hear all day long. Just because it’s made of the everyday ambient audio, doesn’t mean you should treat it as such. You need to try extra hard with this one.

The real enjoyment of this record comes from following Crall on his journey & exploration of the isolated Western United States. You’ll hear strange stories and even stranger sounds, mostly bleak & dreary, but totally fucking fascinating. And if you get bored (and shame on you if you do), you can play the guessing game, what the sources of the sounds are, which of them are pure, which have been altered, are there any instruments playing right now? How much layering did he do or is this all actually happening simultaneously? However you listen to it, though, just make sure you actually listen. Fucking CHECK THIS OUT. You’ll be a better person for it.