RTP

you know, actually I'm happy to have discovered this music only in 2002 and not earlier ... otherwise I'd probably ramble on about the oldschool times on and on ever and ever again and join many of the others being an "old fart", as abasio put it ... I'm kinda used to the fact that there's a ton of crap released that I don't care about ... it always was like this for me in this scene and it'll never change. I'm picking my gems out of the sand practically since the beginning... As for the reasons why the quality was better in the earlier times, I second the reasons Trolsk stated. Nowadays just about everybody can become a producer ... and while this is actually a cool thing, it's also part of the problem. The market is flooded with thousands of average tracks. And it has become easier to release the stuff aswell.

That's Feathers style indeed. He has way too much time on his hands...

I have very sensitive ears (seriously sensitive ... I believe I can even hear bats (I actually do not hear them, but I do percieve the ultrasonic vibrations with the ears in some way, because always when I feel this special vibration stuff and look close around I can see bats flying around ... we've got some on the canals near my house)) and things easily get too loud for me. For example I don't even wanna walk by jackhammers on a construction site... On parties and also open air concerts I practically always have something in the ears. Not real earplugs (they dampen too much), but rather just handkerchieves ... the cheap version for volume-adjustable earplugs (just stuff in more if it's still too loud and stuff in less if the volume's lower ) ... I wonder how people can take the volume with their bare ears; in the past, years ago, I used to have a kind of dull hearing each time after a party because it was too loud for my ears ... and since I began stuffing the ears, I practically never had problems again... At home on the headphones I put up the volume until it suits me, which is mostly actually quite moderate; every time I lent my headphones to people when I let them listen to tunes they used to turn up the volume because it's too low for them ... and every time they lend me theirs I have to beg them to turn the volume down. Even though it happens that I turn it up some levels when I get carried away by the music, I'm still convinced the levels are not too high. It's a different thing when I'm outdoors. Not while running, it's rather calm in the park and I have recorded my minidiscs only in a moderate volume so that I can't even crank it up. But it's something different when I go out with my mp3 player. Near busy streets, railways and other noisy places I turn it up beyond levels I normally listen in, frankly because otherwise the sound gets overpowered by outside noise. But then I say to myself: that outside noise was never too loud for me so the volume level on the headphones can't be so bad for my hearing either... Visines methods are quite good. It's a great method to let the ears get used to a lower volume level first and then even minor increases will make it sound definitively louder.

You dug up some old memories there I remember that site ... and I loved one of the pieces there, but it kinda never got released! And some years ago I was thinking of it again, but the site was all gone ... would be interesting to know what happened to the tunes...

Yep, I agree with that. Although there's some good oldschool out there, I actually much prefer living in the now than living in the past...

Tatsu is back? Hi yes, heard of this one... but it's no substitute for an album ... I miss his old style good fullon with occasional samples from computer games and films at least it shows that the guy's still alive in the scene

I remember I checked that one out and found the music quite dull, nothing outstanding at all. Sort of makes me dislike the cover aswell

so it's September 2009 now? is that definite?

Abasio, try Chilling Matenda ... Mediteran is a very summerish album ... but also his first one, Chilling Matenda. Check 'em

for the german version it was even May 2005... but still, nothing after that. dead?

Matenda - No Return They passed it ... the point of no return. daa-daa-daa...

I say no. Gandalf would be what I call New Age. And apart from this argument the whole thread here is pointless. Some people say Ishq is great, some say it's crap ... nobody shows any signs of wanting to understand the other side or anything. You can as well stop the subject, everything else would be wasted energy. I like Ishq btw ... or what I heard of it. I prefer to discuss what's New Age.

Mittelstandskinder Ohne Strom

Klangstrahler Projekt ... I rather precieved them as hippie style psy music (not "bad" hippie style though), not really dark at all ... but still good, only in a different way... If you like Klangstrahler Projekt, then check out old Feuerhake ... it's very much in that style... Totally different league to Prex though ... I actually recommended Prex because Noma was one of the two members The other member was S-Range ... and his old stuff (pre-2001-album) was pretty dark progressive too ... Serial Overtypes for example... Old Matenda (mostly pre-"Tunnel Vision" stuff ... although the track Pusher on this one is awesomeness!) ... Bonaca/Mission Impossible, Moment/Sophisticated Mind ... definitely awesome. Also check out compilation tracks. Old 12 Moons stuff is dark prog aswell ... track Elak Jävel for example and many more ... and furthermore it's free because 12 Moons decided to put all his own releases online ( http://www.12moons.se/ ... look there!). Also check old Magnetrixx! Tritschall and Phase Shift albums were great ... Tohuwabohu FTW! Mittelstandskinder Ohne Strom were awesome too! And Zerotonine! And Spirallianz! You should check the stuff of the Vibration compilation series from Com.Pact/Medium/Midijum (that series went through three labels!) ... they've got a pretty good style aswell! And actually, Shiva Chandra stuff is pretty much in that vein aswell ... stuff from Auricular album in particular. Also check out the group Auricular. And Prime Time Plastix. Many similarities in the sound ... which is obvious, because Daniel Vernunft is a member of all three... (wow, I never realized I'm such a sucker for dark prog ... but I am ) edit: also check Anakoluth-Dwelling In The Void EP ... available for free from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/anakol...in-the-void-ep/ also Etnoscope ... all EPs before their first (and one and only) album ... with tribal elements ... excellent!

Anthony Rother is a genius... Father, Hacker, Nacht der Götter, Little Computer People, Don't Worry, My Name Is Telekraft ... just to name a few songs... Anthony Rother has an air of technology-critisism in his music that I really have begun to like with a passion. And if it's not technology-critical then it's some stuff that makes you think. Or it's just plain good. And it's double good if you understand german. BTW, check out his remix of Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express!

yeah, RIP he made good music... but the news about him in the last years were

heyyy, you know Quantum State! cool right, they should release another one too...

Solar Fields - Sol: It's for obvious reasons though, since I played Mirror's Edge

That's more or less what I would say too. I scored like 3 out of 17 ... I'm not a believer. I listen to the music mainly because I enjoy the sound and because I like to run to it. But I can't deny that I also like the air of mystery in some of the tracks. And I like to think about it and let my mind wander. But really believing I do only a little...

Yes, I was a huge fan of Mortiis back then aswell. Got into it as he released The Smell of Rain and there was an article in a local music magazine and I saw his appearance and got interested. From the image I thought that it was the most brutal music ever, but then I realized it actually was really damn good! The Smell of Rain is his best album IMO. The ambient he did I loved too. I got all his ambient albums he did under the name Mortiis. All of them are good, but Født til å Herske and The Stargate are my favourites... What he did later with The Grudge I didn't like a lot anymore. There's only one song on it that I really like: Way Too Wicked. And I also don't like the image he adopted. He now even ditched the mask! A pity. However, not long ago I discovered the Some Kind of Heroin remix album and I have to admit that there are some really damn good and driving remixes on it, some even done by Mortiis themselves. I'm seriosuly thinking about buying it, it's great... lol, Nocte Obducta is a german band, I understand their lyrics But german lyrics in black metal are actually terrible, to me they always come across in a kind of "I want, but I can't" pseudo-epic way ... nah... And you're right, black metal vocals are always terrible ... grunting, howling, terrible. The only band where I really like it is Finntroll, they're Trolls, they're supposed to grunt ... oh and since I'm a fan of Viking Metal, I can bear the vocals there too, because it adds to the atmosphere of battle and excitement... Although I actually like bands that have the black metal vibe, but have not so terrible vocals. Falkenbach have some good songs in this way, this one for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyy1NlbR7bY ... and Bathory aswell, I'm a big fan of Bathory's later albums. And I'm a huge fan of big choirs, preferrably man-choirs. Therion are my heroes when it comes to that, they've got the best symphonic arrangement. Opera metal, absolutely wonderful! That's some vocals that fit to the music.

this is great! thanks for sharing the guy's a genious. check out the other vids of him aswell ... especially the galleon and toxic ones!

urg ... that one really is the puke-on-the-floor kind of bad... even Becoming Insane was better ... and I didn't like that one at all either. a shame

yeah, cheers and thanks for the music

Progressive. I'm actually more of a proghead than a psyhead. Although it depends.

For me that's definitely S-RANGE - ANOTHER THEORY I'm waiting hands down five years for that one since the first news of it went out. The last album Space was even six years ago. There was an illegal release ... and an official single, but these two don't count for me. But despite all, Anthony's still on it and making music, I try my best to catch news here and there and ask him every now and then ... he's still producing and playing live and there are plans for some releases this year. Although there have been plans for the last years aswell, so who knows ... but I'm not abandoning hope. On the contrary. This guy's still making good music and one day or another there's definitely going to be a release Ah? Interesting news. Silion Sound was already on my list of dead artists ... good to hear he's still on it, however long it may take for another album, I'll definitely be waiting for it But there's another sorrow child of mine and that's ETNOSCOPE ... they haven't released anything in ages aswell, aside for a few compilation tracks. The last news that I caught were that the computer crashed and they gotta rebuild like half of all the tracks again ... but that news is already two years old now. A pity, for they have some great tracks in petto ... check out the sample of Twilight on their page! Rasmus now has a sideproject though, PUSHERSTREET ... with that one there's more going on. No release yet though ... hope it will come, the music is great!