Rvnes – Relief (Jehu & Chinaman)

 

Rvnes is new, but Malte Cornelius Jantzen has been around for a bit as S N DY P RL RS, whose LP on Umor Rex is fantastic. But S N DY P RL RS is no more and Rvnes has risen in its place. Glory be to Rvnes, this debut is easily one of my favorite drone records this year, two side-long pieces of deeeeep minimalism that sounds like it’s nearly motionless but feels like it has an entire universe of detail (which is proven by the waveform that’s way more dynamic than you’d expect), it’s the subtle pulsing, the delicate shifts in tone, the silence hovering between moments of resignation & peace that take what could be nothing more than a simple sleep to a beautifully perfect transcendence, this is full of a dense & delicate precision, a softness that almost diverts attention from the intense melancholic sobriety, but fully embracing this allows for all intricacies to be teased out, the borderline bliss alongside the bittersweet void, this is absolutely fucking awesome and deserves way more praise than it’s likely to get. Only 30 tapes were made, so seriously do not waste any time picking this up. Also it was mastered by the master himself Nicholas Szczepanik. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Equal Stones – Set Free (Hidden Vibes)

 

This is a truly magnificent record from Equal Stones, aka Amandus Schaap from the Netherlands. Hidden Vibes makes note that Transgression has more of a “drone theme” than previous Equal Stones stuff, which I haven’t heard, so I can’t say if this is his usual sound or not, but I’m gonna guess this drone is somewhat new to him. But who fuckin cares because this record is the fucking best. This is a softly textured drone that’s gritty and looped, making heavy use of analog creek & crackle alongside echoing guitar, subtle synth, and ethereal nondescript vocals, wonderful waves of static that rise nice & high without being overwhelming and sit just below the threshold of euphoria, mysterious & hypnotic, like staring at the horizon through a thin fog over the ocean, seeing the occasional whitecap and floating debris, all shrouded in a soothing bittersweet bliss, dissolving your problems to their true objective state and letting that obsessive anxiety fall away. 100% awesome and you get the best of both worlds with options for limited gatefold vinyl and/or free* digital. You know what to do.

Wreck & Reference – Apollo Beneath The Whip (Flenser)

 

No one else is doing this right now. Fuck, no one else has ever done this. Wreck & Reference are forging new ground here and have been since their insane Black Cassette debut. They’re a duo of limitless despair treading among noise, black metal, punk, dark ambient, industrial, targeted cacophony, everything bizarre & grim, that sounds brilliantly original and crushes souls every minute along the way, this is heavy as fuck and horrifically sparse, blowing through a drum kit and electronics with heavy handed dexterity, both dudes taking turns at the mic with bloody screeching & beastly roaring vocals, singing of staring deep into the void of misery and knowing nothing is on the other side, this heaves and creeps like an endless nausea rising from your core and black blood coursing through your veins, all hell has broken loose and we’re left to rot in the bleak absurdity, if Want was any more devoid of hope it would likely be banned in several countries. You’d be doing yourself a great disservice by ignoring this band.

P.S. These guys are currently on tour with Deafheaven and Pallbearer and they fuckin rip it up on stage. Even if you don’t care about DH or PB, just go for these dudes and you won’t be disappointed.

Nathan McLaughlin – 3:59 (Desire Path)

 

Oh fuck, this one’s a doozy. Some background: Houpert, McLaughlin, Yantis, & Mason have this huge project that has its own site called A Line In The Sand. In addition to this Line Drawings LP on Desire Path, there’s a ton of other related stuff. There’s an hour long tape called Alice Sketches on Digitalis consisting of “conversations” where they responded to challenges & questions they posed to each other while creating Line Drawings. There’s a 12 page newsprint tabloid with gorgeous artwork from Chris Koelle that includes portraits of all 10 artists. And there’s a series of 5 split 7″s called Studies (co-released by Desire Path and FET Press) where each of these guys (including Chris Koelle) picked another artist not involved in A Line In The Sand to contribute to the other side of their 7″, which brings in Anne Guthrie, Mary Lattimore, Brad Rose, Olli Aarni, and Norm Chambers. Holy jesus that’s a lot of stuff and I assure you every bit of it is 100% worthwhile. No filler. But this post is about the Desire Path LP…

Which is un-fucking-believably awesome. 2 tracks per artist, 1 for each side, and these 4 are perfectly suited for a split like this. I only knew of Josh Mason and Cody Yantis beforehand and I could easily name their records if I heard them randomly or out of context, but here everybody’s music blurs together so seamlessly it could just as well have been a collaboration. This is the most subtle, intimate, & delicate music, soft drones humming throughout, with processed & glitched guitars, intentional banjo plucking, satiny strings, mystical field recordings, the warble & crackle of ancient analog media, this is deep music that’s full of life & emotion, it gets dark, harrowing, dipping into the dreadful void, far enough down that the light above almost but not quite disappears, but mostly this is a tender ambient that effortlessly divulges truth & peace, an insane pleasure listening to this record, there is nothing better than a 4-way split that comes together so beautifully. And this just continues to confirm Desire Path’s streak of masterpieces, they’re currently 9 for 9 and I see no sign of them tripping up anytime soon.

Brinstaar – Lakshmi (Kotä)

 

Some killer weirdness coming out of Russia with this new Brinstaar record, abstracted wandering that births intimate ritualistic chimes & clatter, static glitch finding new ways to hypnotize, mega drones, pulsing bliss, plinky rhythms, and solar transcendence, adding some hidden & mysterious field recordings alongside the processed guitar and synth, this is fantastic work that Brinstaar says comes from looking for that “elusive moment of infinite bliss that keeps him alive and conscious.” Not sure what his moment is but it’s probably pretty similar to mine because this record fuckin rules. And it comes in the most future-tastic holographic jacket that has to be held in your hands to be fully appreciated. New to me label Kotä has instantly won me over with this one.

Kyle Bobby Dunn – Spem In Alium & Her Unable (Students Of Decay)

 

The indisputable champion of modern droners has truly outdone himself with a new 3xLP (!!!) and here we are to celebrate. Magical upon magical, this dude weaves every emotion under the sun into a veil of pure unrelenting beauty, sadness & despair, yes, but also fear & torment, love & exuberance, anguish & anxiety, hope & solace, the endless sky bleeding with life and offering nothing save the truth, this is majestic and soft and honorable and deeply personal, unimaginable depth swirling beneath the surface, the past that couldn’t help but lead to this masterpiece, a heaven I never thought I’d know is now filling up my consciousness with the blissful heartache that only Kyle Dunn could conjure. Ever since I saw him play on New Years Eve ’09/’10 and went home with my copy the stunning art edition of Intimate Rituals, I knew I’d stumbled upon an artist that I would follow with the highest expectations. Every release I’ve heard of his since then has been nothing short of flawless, and somehow he reaches new heights of perfection with each one. …And The Infinite Sadness expounds on everything prior to it and allows KBD to officially carve his name in the immortal Drone Stone. This is everything.

Dhow – Nhi (Inam)

 

The supremely talented and ridiculously prolific Ryan Huber, who works under guises like Sujo, Olekranon, and others, as well as running the Inam label, has put out yet another insane record, this time as Dhow (the second release under this name), and holy fuck he knocks it out of the park with this one, a little more shoegazey than his other monikers but Amara still goes to 11, getting loud & fuzzy, catchy riffs and big swells of feedback that sound like the world is ending, total apocalyptic vibes on here, crushing Angelic Process-esque sounds alongside heavenly blissed out drone clouds à la your favorite euphoric masters, soft, gauzy, and serene as fuck, like suffocating in a thick fog on top of a mountain, a mask of massive static to take you to the other side, the most explosive & bombastic fucking drone record I’ve heard that seriously just makes me wanna die. This dude knows no bounds. And if you don’t slack on this, you can get the super limited (to 40) CD-R on the cheap ($8!!) and it includes and even MORE limited (to 23!) sexy 7″ lathe with mono variations of the first two tracks on the CD. The artwork up there is for the digital version, which is slightly different than the CD-R & lathe.

Cleared – Remote Ocean Prayer (Immune)

 

Cleared is drummer Steven Hess (Locrian, Pan-American, etc) and multi-media artist Michael Vallera (aka COIN) and with only a few killer releases under their belt, Drown is looking to be their breakout record. So while this is essentially a guitar/drum duo, these dudes take that trope to a whole new level, making an almost-but-not-quite-metal noise/drone record that’s bookended with two amazing tracks that go way out into dream pop & shoegaze territory, something that buy viagra cialis uk walks the line between dark & heavy and light & drifty, with tons of feedback drone, static skitter, dark ambient shadows, cosmic expansion, shimmery guitars, and hypnotic percussion, it’s really just the fucking best, an absolutely stellar weird droney poppy record that’s hitting all the right spots for me right now, I honestly can’t get enough of this. Brought to you by the strangely underrated Immune, a seven year old slow burning label that’s doing everything right.

Wold – Throwing Star (Profound Lore)

 

OMFG I can’t even handle how fucking awesome this new Wold record is you guys, so incredibly psyched the Canadian duo has some new aural wreckage this year, these two honestly spit out the most disgusting horrific black noise ever and it’s painfully unique, caked in grit & filth, Postsocial scales back the metal (barely) heard on their previous records and drowns you in an acid bath of static distortion, they beefed up the noise and scrubbed out the metal but this is still the blackest & grimmest fucking thing you’ll hear all year, the massive walls of burnt feedback and tinny clanging percussion are absolutely fucking obliterating, this is so dense you can taste it & smell it, it becomes an all enveloping shroud of nihilistic, misanthropic chaos, and there’s an endless amount of detail lurking beneath the devastation, devious shredding & pulsing electronics that make this so much more than a harsh wall of noise, and while this has supreme, definite motives & messages behind it, I’m not really even looking at that part, for me this is a purely aesthetic experience of wicked perversions, the sonic bombardment that can come from only the most twisted of artists, taking you to unimaginable depths, and Wold always fucking delivers.

Mike Weis – Out Of The Flowers (Type)

 

Mike Weis, aka the drummer from Zelienople, drops his second solo LP and it’s a fuckin stunner. This was made after being diagnosed with cancer and is a sort of meditation on death, which becomes pretty apparent after giving this a spin because it’s dark as fuck and full of tantric percussion, a hypnotic droning beast that plumbs the depths of what we as humans know as life, it’s full of hallowed rituals opening new pathways in your head and begging for answers, propulsive and mystikal, taking you to uncharted interstellar domains with all manner of religious instruments, dwelling on subtle shifts in tones, screaming sirens, bombastic rhythms, searing static, delicate cymbals, organic field recordings, and a thousand hidden threads intertwined in a vast tapestry of morose beauty, this is a magnificent goddamn record, one that evokes a plethora of emotions and is easily one of the better things I’ve heard this year.

Jeremy Bible – co_7 (False)

 

All hail Jeremy Bible, this dude knows what’s fuckin up. Most of yall probably know he runs the flawless Experimedia label/distro, but he’s also got some insane music makin chops as well, and Collisions is easily my favorite work of his. This is a total head fucker, melding sharp musique concrète, abstract field recordings, glitchy rhythms, and bizarro noise into something wholly cohesive & unique, this takes all of your attention while twisting synapses and making new neural pathways in your brain, making you question every fucking moment. Is there anything actually happening right now or is it actually silent? Are those frogs or synths? Is this doing permanent damage to my ears? Did I just shit myself? There are truly incredible moments on this record that feel like you’re staring a starving pack of dire wolves right in the eyes, unsettling organic gurgling & chirping, panning & pointed blasts of almost danceable static shred, high end drone like the hum of a distant generator. You’re never at ease, even when the music is peaceful, because early on you discover there’s an ever present sense of danger. This is just the fucking best. It was originally a live recording from June 2013 at the RCN Cave in Akron, Ohio that was released digitally shortly thereafter, but it’s been expanded & remastered for CD and tape release on False so now you can hold & cherish this sexy beast. The artwork above is for the digital version, the tapes & CDs come in silver stamped black boxes with cotton & card inserts and they look super fuckin slick.