2002’s Black Earth is Bohren & Der Club of Gore’s 4th and arguably their best album. Glacially slow funeral jazz with an attention to ambience more than the playing (doesn’t mean that the playing is bad of course). Allmusic says it’s a black metal fan’s lounge jazz act which is surely true, but one thing that’s not familiar with BM is, Bohren’s music is somber and actually relaxing. The dark setting and the agonizingly slow tempo is lit by shimmering chords of rhodes and deep mallet instruments and from what I’ve experienced Black Earth gives me a very close feeling of playing drones especially while stoned : total peace and non-movement. The production on the album is also picture perfect soundwise kudos to Morten Gass who also plays the piano, guitars & mellotron. If you’re into Lynch flicks this can be the soundtrack for your own Lynch movie! Essential.

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Maximum Black Earth

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Maximum Black
Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Destroying Angels

Ardent debut from Minnesota experimenters To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie created quite a hype after its release on Kranky late 2007. “The Patron” is sinister yet unlike a lot of noisy artists not completely devoid of any musicality in the common sense (is it watered down noise or noisy electropop you decide). I quite like Mark McGee’s nightmarish soundscapes which permeate over guitar arpeggios and raw vocals by Guitar/Vocal Jehna Wilhelm, but my general distaste for industrial music bars me from enjoying all the songs here.

Shorter and more abstract pieces like “Dedicated Secretary, Liaison, Passionate Mother” worked much better for me. Nevertheless quite an established sound for a debut, and plus you can never go wrong with a name like “To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie” which almost only loses to “To Kill a Petty Bureaucrat”, which hopefully will be the name of my band when I form it.

To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie - I Box Twenty
To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie - DSLPM

Their third album entitled “Drunken Forest” on Tzadik’s New Japan Series which also features the veteran percussionist Jim Pugliese, famed for his work with John Cage, Philip Glass & John Zorn has some serious orchestration from Kato’s string instruments like Violin, Mandolin, Ukulele, Bass, Steel Guitar and Banjo meeting with Frith’s guitar and Ikue Mori’s drum machines and samplers to create one of the most picturesque electroacoustic ambient albums of this year. I wasn’t specifically a fan of Mori’s laptop improvisations which were mostly on the brink of being barely listenable (at least those that I’ve checked out), but this time her noise is what really binds everything together in this absolute masterpiece.

Nothing is out of place on this album, very mournful and sentimental at some points, I’m genuinly happy to have listened to this and recommend it to all who are into cinematique soundscapes. Recommend it to everyone who’s bored of all the mediocrity the dark ambient scene has produced up to this day.

Acoustic instruments scrape and dance around more obviously synthesized sounds so subtly that at times you’re totally unaware of exactly what you’re hearing, this is mysterious music, at all times totally impenetrable yet absolutely beautiful. Boomkat

Fred Frith by Benedicte Desrus

Here’s a quick compilation gathered from around 10 netlabel releases I’ve checked this month, Some of the high notes are the Takeshi Nakamura experimental electronics on Zymogen , oldschool IDM happy breakcore by Mithra on Weird and Wired, dark textural noise & ambience by Mike Hansen & Tomasz Krakowiak on Frozen Elephants and the Tripostal compilation from a few months ago featuring one of our favourite netlabel artists Bacanal Intruder and most of the Carte Postale gang. Make sure you get the complete releases if you like the chosen tracks.

Mithra - Strangers
Takeshi Nakamura - Degeneration
Tazio & Boy - Just another word
Thot - I Need(ed) more
Takeshi Nakamura - Dining Table
Sanomat - Jack Johnson (Kraftbert Remix)
Social System - Tried and True
Violent Public Disorderaz - Sadness in Square (review)
Bacanal Intruder - Carte Postale
Mike Hansen & Tomasz Krakowiak - 12-29-4 2