abasio

Krill.Minima - Nautica

Expecting these soon Ian Ion - Gringo Locomotion Jairamji - Kindred Spirits Pan Electric - Conscious Pilot Various Artists - Bioluminescence Various Artists - Left Coast Liquid Vol. 1 Really looking forward to this batch

I'm looking forward to going to the edge of the old world on the first warm day this year (that I have off work) to watch the sunset listening to Rena Jones - Driftwood

I've not really heard their rock stuff, but I'm sure it'll be something I prefer to regular rock.

nah! too many people can't make their minds up. I have to deal with them all day at work & it pisses me off. My polls don't have the cop out option. Choose long or short! If your feeling is 51% Short, 49% Long then choose Short

Hell, I'm looking forward to this. I loved labyrinth. JR has talent, whatever JR makes will be class I'm sure. If you don't think you'll like it, I bet you wont

Yes! Yes! Yes! I love it when spring comes & I get in the mood for lighter tunes. But I'm still in winter mode, listening to a lot of bleak ambient & it really fits my mood. It's a bit cold yet to be looking for spring. I'll be thinking about it in a month when the temperature in Japan just jumps like 15 degrees over night & we have spring underway. I suppose I'll be listening to my more fluffy music then too

Maybe someone did :wank:

Not pre ordered yet

Secede - Tryshasla

Just thought I'd give him the benefit of the doubt!

You didn't like Violent Relaxation?

Damn! Not listened to that in ages! Do you have the original on blue room or the re-release on Inpsyde Media?

Evan Bartholomew Caverns of Time Somnia 2007 Tracklist 1 We Set Out Into The Caverns Of Time (17:42) 2 Leaving Behind Ourselves (9:52) 3 Leaving Behind Our Memories (11:49) 4 Elusive And Effervescent Is Our Destination (13:00) 5 Descending Deeper In Search Of The Timeless (8:56) 6 Reborn, We Fluctuate And Fade (10:40) Evan Bartholomew, of Bluetech fame is out with a beatless ambient album. Now beatless ambient can often be boring, long winded shite without anything going on & with some pretty lengthy tracks has Evan managed to avoid the pitfalls of yawnbient? Has he managed to create the textures & soundscapes I'm sure he's capable of? 1. We Set Out Into The Caverns Of Time We start this ambient journey with a long droning synth that initially fluctuates a lot but straightens out with just a few bobbles. These bobbles become more pronounced as the intro goes on. Other synths join in after a while managing to sound like voices crying out. More voices join in what sounds like an angelic choir of Seraphim singing the music of spheres. It's a really beautiful sound if unreal & distant. The angelical feeling passes into a much darker sound though & the cries that sounded angelic before sound more like cries of despair. A much more real sound, the same as it was yet different that it can ever be. As different as it was at first, it changes again. It sounds very much the same yet somehow it has sunk further into the earth, giving it a much more surreal quality. The slightly higher pitch of the cries seem to come through walls & the ever present drone in the background acts as a sounding board for them to echo off of. A great 18 minute odyssey of beatless wonder through the heavens down passed our imperfect world & into the depths of the underworld. Serene choirs crying out in joy, despair & rapture! 2. Leaving Behind Ourselves Like wind rushing through a chasm as the first light of dawn tries to make it's way through it also. The light sounds seem to rise up like leaves on the breeze while the heavy sounds seem to sink like shadows on a wall. The ever onward march of the dawn light prevails against the shadows as it always does but it only compliments the cold rush of the wind, never managing to bring it's warmth. This is a bright track, yes, but very cold at the same time. 3. Leaving Behind Our Memories The start again sounds like vocals coming from hidden places. Vocals that are not vocals yet have a very human yet distorted quality. Both singular & multiple at the same time, the voices sound like a mass of people all shouting through the one voice. Difficult to describe such an incredible sound, one you just have to hear to understand but as best I can that is it. Imagine a hundred people crying through as single hole in the wall & you might come close. The tome of the voice rises & falls like a wave on the sea and I, as the listener must ride the wave to fully understand it. I must let go & be carried away by the current. Floating on a sea of souls, listening to the mourning cries. What memories we leave behind. 4. Elusive And Effervescent Is Our Destination Water pours down outside, a distant beat pulsates very slowly. From the beatless half hour that has passed before, the very slow rhythm seems to move a lot more than it would if you listened to it separately. Still the rain pours down. One of my favourite sounds in the world is the steady stream of rain. To hear it in music like this is just lush as I can enjoy the sound at any time, not having to wait for mother nature to bless me with a downpour. The distant pulse has changed into more of a bubbly chime but keeping the same rhythm as before. Always with the rain outside. I'm happy, very happy with this track, even when it tries to get a bit glitchy (probably as glitchy as you can at this level of relaxed soundscapes). I'm not usually a fan of glitch but at this relaxed pace it sounds really cool, innovative & a nice change of pace. 5. Descending Deeper In Search Of The Timeless A long hard synth cascades down again & again as a melody tries to play in the background. Suddenly the melody is the strongest thing to come yet from the caverns of time but as strong as they come they fail to stay as melodies & become one with the cascade. The melodies try to reform in a more structured, centered & calm way but it seems they always want to blast too hard & end up cascading down with the rest of the sounds. After a while it becomes clear that the cascade has become the melody & the other sounds are becoming part of it, the longer it goes on the more sounds enter & the more leave giving us a progression that oozes class & keeps me coming back for more time & time again. 6. Reborn, We Fluctuate And Fade WOW! I mean, WOW! The vocals (real vocals, not the synths that sounded to me like vocals) in this track are by Sasha Rose & put me in mind of some Celtic movie I've seen at one time or another as the scene rolls over beautiful fields & deserted hills. The real voice seems to be mixed in with the unreal synth voices & at times it's hard to tell which is which. Like the movies I'm put in mind of, this music is very reflective, nostalgic & melancholic in an immortal kind of way. At first it seems almost like a clichéd ambient ending but it turns into so much more. It turns into the best track on the album, it turns into an ending to end time. The sort of track that if played on my death bed would surely take me over to that eternal summer of forgotten memories. So Evan easily managed to avoid the yawnbient trap. Here he has made a beatless album that not only isn't boring but actually makes me want to listen to it again & again & try to truly understand what he's getting at. I've tried to put down in words where I am with this album after about 15 listens, I feel like I've got a good grasp of where this music is trying to take me. I'm under no delusions that the journey it has taken me on is the same as the journey it will take others on & I'm sure that the journey will change, evolving as I listen to it more. A great piece of ambient. Just about as beatless as it gets with lots of synths, drones & ambients soundscapes. Limited to 777 copies, it's time to get yours.

Well, no there is some truly beatless ambient out there. No beat, not even the hint of percussion. Just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean that there is always a beat. Although, a lot of what people describe as beatless actually has subtle beats. I've heard Ultimae described as beatless ambient but most tracks on ultimae are quite beaty. Even ishq & his other monikers have slight percussion. Take Evan Bartholomew's recent work though & you'll see there is nothing in the way of percussion at all for long long periods. maybe there is a hidden BPM but there is no beat

Evan Bartholomew Caverns of Time

LOL Maybe some wanker will buy it

0~160 (it's a multiple vote poll guys, you don't have to pick only one)

Nice! Tell me how you like them when they arrive

Best of 2006 Results 2006 Best of 2005/and/isra couldn't find the official one official Results if you want the rest, search the year in the General Section

The Circular Ruins The Alchemy Concert Databloem 2005 Tracklist 1 Affinity Construct (14:02) 2 Their Subtle Purpose (12:21) 3 Calibration (4:08) 4 The Circle of Life (10:59) 5 Changing the World (5:54) 6 Exclusion (6:23) 7 The Flame's Shadow (12:22) 8 Alpha and Omega (3:12) The Alchemy Concert is a live concert from June 2004, broadcast by Atmoworks label on their Atmostreams web radio station. It was broadcast direct from the studio of The Circular Ruins in London, Ontario Canada & was performed on 2 keyboards feeding a variety of synthesisers. Released on Databloem in 2005, I get a feeling of time, natural darkness & science from this great live show. 1. Affinity Construct The first track to me represents time. I get the feeling of old father time through the entire piece. Grand sounds, huge chimes & while there is no drum beat, the whole thing manages to sound like the passing of time, the ticking of a clock. The sounds are all very wide open like I'm flying in a dream, out of my body, out of my reality so I can view it from the outside, I can see the time passing by me 6 from my view point, father time will be kind. 2. Their Subtle Purpose A much more subtle & relaxed track here. The sounds are very light & float around inside my head like fireflies on a warm summer's night. The synths push gently against the night air & the simple melody adds an extra element to this lush late night music. When I listen to this in summer it seems to fit the mood well, when I listen to it in winter it ignites a longing for those muggy summer nights my body seems to have forgotten but that my mind can never let go off. Later comes distant sounds of conversation and towards the end, comes in the same feeling of time as in the opening track. The synths stab and a counting kind of way. Tick Tock, Tick Tock. 3. Calibration That's how it's done, the vocal sample used at the start sets the mood. The continued use of samples is done very well, half muttered, short, dark sounding and deep. The same feeling of time is here but it's slowed down & the sharp synths play a melody that feels like it's setting up for something, a little short, I'd like to see where it might have gone if expanded. 4. The Circle of Life Slowed down again, the feeling of time is now pushed to the back, still there but as it's slowed down immeasurably it seems to have lost it's importance. Instead the music seems focused on the infinity, the never ending circle that we are a part of but will never come to fully understand. The calmness & the serenity can only come from an immortal concept with no beginning or end. Very nice & relaxed. 5. Changing The World Very soft percussion in this track over which is an amazing oscillating synth sound & some ultra trippy vocal. Do you want me to tell you what it is? It's the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's a great track, so chilled but descriptive & dark in an old world, London back room sort of way. 6. Exclusion This track gives me the feeling of science. Beakers, test tubes, things bubbling in jars. Bunsen burners, pippets, acids & alkalies all stacked up on a shelf. The music itself is very minimal, with a few synths used here & there, droning along with a few whooshes & hints of melody but it continues the old London shop feel on very well. 7. The Flames Shadow A synth oscillates like the shadow of a flame flickers. Sounds shoot upwards like the gas above the flame of a burner alters the air it passes through visually. Ethereal voices come out of the darkness surrounding the sounds at times and violin like strings play under the ever present oscillation. Melodious at times, nothing but droning at others, beatless yet percussive! It is a great ambient track that while lacks the journey quality still doesn't get boring even though it's 12 minutes long. It's like the exploration of a room. It never goes anywhere but you just start to notice more & more details. 8. Alpha & Omega A nice short dark track to finish on. The mood is quite melancholic, the vocal sample at the start seems disappointed & all the sounds seem to focus downwards culminating it what sounds like a sonic shower, with the sounds cascading. Very nice sounds used overall. As always The Circular Ruins has delivered a top notch piece of ambient, it all feels so deep and meaningful when I listen to it. The tracks are so varied yet so in keeping with themselves that the album flows like a journey & keeps you interested until the very end.

The Circular Ruins - The Alchemy Concert

The Circular Ruins Realm of Possibility Databloem 2002 Tracklist 1 The Beginning Of All Things (6:20) 2 Realm Of Possibility (9:01) 3 Echoes From Stones Part 1 (5:53) 4 Excursion (7:13) 5 Ancient Island (12:58) 6 Truth And Waiting (5:45) 7 A Language For Shadows (14:42) 8 Echoes From Stones Part 2 (3:34) 9 Reverse Alchemy (5:47) The fifth album from The Circular Ruins, Anthony Paul Kerby from England but living in Canada & his first release on the Dutch label Databloem. The Circular Ruins is a story teller. Through his music he always manages to paint the most wonderful images in my head & then evolve the image into a story. This album is no different 1. The Beginning Of All Things The beginning of all things is a very electronic synthy work. Long synth drones in the background & synth chords playing melodically. Very subtle percussion eventually gets drowned out by chaotic whooshing sounds & to me it all sounds very spacey! Not lush floating through space but very powerful chaos spacey, like the birth of a star, a galaxy or a universe. Not having experienced any of these I'm not really sure but these are the images conjured in my head by this track. 2. Realm Of Possibility A more percussive & melodic track with the realm of possibility but keeping with a similar feel to the opening track. The chaos & the spaciness are still present but there is much more energy & movement now. Like the galaxy that has just been born is expanding rapidly through the dimensions of space, so much potential to be reached, changing everything as it goes. Again the synths are great & move melodically making this a very musical piece of ambient. Also the evolution of the track as it goes, building & changing is great. It follows on very well from the beginning of all things 3. Echoes From Stone - Part 1 We start off here with some natural sounds. Birds quietly singing & the sounds of distant water. Over this comes a deep oppressive drone which sounds like a cold harsh wind. Percussion that sounds like the intro to a D&B track before it kicks in with a heavy beat sounds really good when continued for longer than a few seconds. It all feels like the changing of a world. Terraforming a lush natural world into a cold barren one. 4. Excursion Sounds of waves lapping against the shore always place my brain right onto a cold beach in the early morning. Wrapped up tight against the elements I sit & watch the wonder of the ocean. Little electronic noises flit about in the air around me. Each noise manages to sound like a mechanical insect. I imagine that this track is the same as the previous track but in a different part of the world. The world is slowly being changed into a metallic wonderland of cold steel & busy machines. 5. Ancient Island A longer piece now. Very descriptive & can be summed up by the title, Ancient Island is right. I get a very old feel from this track. Isolated & deserted both spring to mind when thinking of adjectives for this music. Natural sounds, grand sounds, old sounds, mysterious sounds, obvious sounds, deep sounds from the depths, high pitch sounds shooting up to the sky all mix together very nicely. The slow tribal beat adds to the ancient island feel, as do the guttural cries barely perceivable except in headphones. There is one sound though in this track that sounds like it represents a volcano, it's hard to describe how it represents a volcano but it really gives me that feel. So a track that sounds like an ancient volcanic island with a pre industrial tribe living on it. Then the electronic wind comes to change everything. 6. Truth & Waiting Lighter sounds & more percussion now. Like an extra step in evolution. The music puts in mind of a futuristic society, with clean cities stretching into the sky with vehicles flying among the tops of the buildings in harmony with the birds high in the sky. The percussion towards the end shifts to a more shuffling beat & just as the music is stripped away you can here the sounds of children playing in the street far below. 7. A Language For Shadows Another long track here, it seems to be another step forward. A Utopian society can't last forever & will eventually fall into decadence & hedonism & finally into chaos & darkness. This track in my mind paints that story. A failed society, the shell of once great cities, the darkness brought on by too much light. The ambience on display is oppressive, the sounds colder & darker but as the track progresses you can hear hints of the light returning. First it's just some brief bird call but then other signs of life come back, high pitched electronic life & voices on the wind eventually on 12 minutes leading into a melody giving the feeling that the recovery from darkness is underway 8. Echoes From Stone - Part 2 Some really quick beats here. Almost jungle but lighter. These beats disappear and there is a vocal sample taken from Pär Lagerkvist's Aftonland (1953). The vocal is one that even after many repeat listens doesn't get old. The voice is perfect for the mood of the album message fits perfectly with the albums story. Someday only one of those we have long to go, the Earth will remember you just as it remembers the grass & the forests. Just as the soil remembers, just as the mountains remember the winds of peace will be as one ending, the sky the sea..... As we near the end of our story, the words seem fittingly nostalgic. 9. Reverse Alchemy Reverse Alchemy seems to me to be the opposite of creation. The opposite of the chaos of The Beginning Of All Things, it's a nice calm tearing apart of the walls of reality. As this universe is stripped away nothing can stop up or even put up a fight. The calmness of the destruction of this dimension, this realm is peaceful until the penultimate moment of fire then ultimate peace returns & the possibilities of that were endless are now non-existent. End. This album is an amazingly descriptive journey, like the story of an entire universe from it's chaotic creation evolving through the creation of a world, the pre industrial civilisation, the Utopia created & it's fall, it's nostalgic twilight & ultimate destruction. Like everything I've heard from The Circular Ruins, it's class through & through. Okay I've only heard 3 albums but I definitely want to get more. Great stuff, one of the best in the Databloem collection.