Be Honest – Tea, Sugar (Fallow Field)

 
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, buy cheap cialis in canada 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.

Josh Mason – Dying In A Canoe (Sunshine Ltd)

 
Josh Mason isn’t quite new to the game, but still fresh enough to perk your ears. As far as I can tell, this is Mason’s first full length vinyl, and it’s a fucking winner. Some of the humblest drone I’ve ever heard, electroacoustic meditations on life, anxiety, and death, bringing an incredible depth to what could have been a very flat sound, tape hiss clear as day with the distant warbles & clicks sounding as if they’re inside your head, immaculate dreams filled with soft n glitchy guitars and airplane cabin static, intimate & calming on so many levels, the silence is anything but, embedding the slightest shred of serenity into every moment, and going full on lush euphoria in the most delicate & restrained way, a heaven I never knew existed and never want to leave, this is masterful in its beauty, a perfect goddamn record. Crazy limited, only 100 copies pressed, clear vinyl, and guaranteed to not last much longer. Don’t be a fool.

Haunter – Yarn Trails (self released)

 
Solo project of K. Arthur Miller, making some somber tunes out of drone, folk, and doom. Exceptional stuff, using all weapons at his disposal, quietly screaming Godspeed guitars, layered, processed, & rewound, delicate picking inside on a rainy day, lush washes of bliss, hushed echoes in haunted halls, a few moments of doomed & distorted crunch, all wrapped up in a dark, melancholic shroud, bright enough not to push you over the edge but gloomy in all the right order cialis usa ways, a melodramatic dance through fog with Death waiting for you on the other side, beautiful & depressing, the best kind of drone. Free if you want it to be so there’s no reason to pass over this, and seeing as this is his first proper full length, you might want to keep an eye on him.

Night Worship – Mantaka (Vestige)

 
Night Worship is an awesomely monstrous doom drone project with a revolving cast anchored by Ryan P. Jobes. Three tracks on Asterism (the last clocking in at 30 minutes and taking up the whole B side), Jobes is joined by Andrew Weathers (more guitar droning), Scott Siler (subtle percussion), and Carolyn Waiter (ethereal woodwinds), together they make the unholiest fucking drone that dives deep into reverb worship and sonic meditations, blackened distortion crumbling out of amps, chaotic incantations on the brink of conjuring the purest of evils, buy cialis online legit honoring both sides of the volume spectrum, breaking souls with blistering intertwined feedback and whispering the secrets of shamans through silent prayers, obvious Sunn O))) comparisons but never quite as monolithic, instead going for a more crusted pagan sound, but just as black, just as demonic, and fucking brilliant. Amazing work, breathing fresh doom into the world via an hour long tape on the new label Vestige Recordings, who you should clearly keep an eye on.

Radere – Marin (Full Spectrum)

 
A fantastic hunk of guitar bliss for your V-Day courtesy of Radere, aka Mr. Carl Ritger. Dreamless is his first album recorded to tape and the analog warmth shines through. Glorious layers of processed shimmer, drifting in the hiss, chilling on your mountaintop porch watching the sun rise over the peaks, touching the skies while stardust floats down, gorgeous grit smoothed over into washes of static euphoria. Ritger even forgoes his guitar for one track, using only feedback loops and voltage controlled oscillators to create a panning & searing whirlwind, definitely the rowdiest I’ve ever heard him get. And Full Spectrum co-head Andrew Weathers adds a heavenly vocal harmony to the final track, which he & Ritger recorded in San Francisco military bunkers last summer. Truly wonderful work here. The physical limited letterpressed edition comes with photos from Ritger’s Instagram stream, which if you haven’t scoped yet, I’d recommend fixing that asap. His beautiful aesthetic sense isn’t limited to his tunes.

Saåad – Hieronimus (Hands In The Dark)

 
Top of the fucking line right here you guys. This French duo, who took part in Sustained Layers, that three way intercontinental collaboration with EUS and Postdrome last year that made my Top Drone list, are back with tape of pure melancholic bliss. Huge drones on this, majestic and perfect in every way, like a dense fog rolling on from the shore in the middle of the night, foreboding as fuck, like everything’s about the go down the drain, the breath of Lucifer almighty on the back of your neck, dank walls echoing dejected howls, waves of depressing drones inducing hypnosis, horrifically satisfying with harmonies peaking through the darkness, sounds with no origin that just hover in the air, bittersweet & overwhelmingly gorgeous, a massive heartache of a record that’ll make you weep, Orbs & Channels sweeps me up with my favorite sounds, I can’t love this any more. Limited tapes on HITD are almost gone, so grab one while you still can, or if you miss out, Saåad have put it up for name-your-price style download on Bandcamp.

The North Sea – Vagrants (Rubber City Noise)

 
There’ve been plenty of Brad Rose eulogies what with FoxyD shuttin down and this being his last record as The North Sea, but Grandeur & Weakness is just too fucking awesome to let slip by. And since this is ostensibly a synth record, and since I’m usually bored by synth records, that should be enough to pique your interest. This isn’t a nostalgiac kickback or a plunky noodlefest, this is some dark n stormy shit with African percussion that’s stemming from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched Of The Earth which “explored the psychological effect of colonization.” Rose has gathered a potent how to buy generic cialis blend of instruments to work on that colonization theme, he throws down some evil fucking drones that work towards a bittersweet bliss but end up just drenching your soul in disgust, blippy synth loops taking turns with blown out drums for conjuring frantic nightmares, nothing at ease, everything heaving & terrorizing, abrasive grit scouring the depths of your guilted mind, droning machinery impossibly pouding along well after it’s rusted solid, a record that trumps the rest in Rose’s catalog, The North Sea’s swan song that’ll go down in the books as a triumphant fucking masterpiece of noise/drone refuse. R.I.P.

Aeronaut – Coronal Mass One (Fabrica)

 
If there’s any justice, this is gonna get mad praise, because this tape is the fucking best. Aeronaut is Steve Fors, half of the criminally underrated The Golden Sores, and Coronal Mass is, hopefully, his breakout record. Two side-long tracks of limitless bliss, synths floating through dark matter on its way to the brightest supernova, soft glowing static making way for restrained guitar feedback, majestic but not ostentatious, the dude goes all out shimmer & shine but (with the exception of the climax) is still refined, not show-offy or gloating, just pure drone joy, the kind that puts you at ease with it’s gloriousness, but to be honest the final half of the second side does get pretty rowdy, incorporating what sounds like some of Fors’ vocals, some deep space angel holding your hand through the golden stardust, and the feedback ramps up, blurs your vision, and effortlessly sends you soaring through hyperspace, stars & planets streaking by, wholly submerged in euphoric drones. The (second) best part about Coronoal Mass is that it comes in a beautiful hand-assembled/hand-painted wooden box, edition of 50, for only $10. Buy two and give one to your friend. Trust me.