If music isn’t enough for you, check out the microsite with the story and some additional visuals for more immersive experience. The four chapter short story explains a little bit of the background of this music. A story of alternative timeline where space travel is just a part of the everyday reality in year 2012.

The EP is available for purchase through Remixta Bandcamp store and soon will be available on other digital outlets. The download also includes the PDF of the story.

Go check out the interactive microsite for the whole experience:

MARS.CLYSUVA.COM

Check out this entire album on bandcamp for listen or digital purchase, or pester Anders from Forgotten Sunrise for a physical copy!

Apparently my review didn't go unnoticed to the guys from King Deluxe (a great label publishing the aforementioned genre), and they notified me of their brand new release, digital mini album by Alphabets Heaven titled Boosh.

Although, Alphabets Heaven is mostly known for his rapid beat work, video game influences and some sampler mastery, this release is dominantly chilled downtempo music with juicy basslines, deeply layered textures and solid beats. Only track that actually goes more to the crazy side with the beats is the one called "genggeng" and it even feels out of the place compared to others. Not a bad song as such, but just bit out of the context with rest of the release.

Other thing definitely worth mentioning on the release are the three excellent remixes by Headshotboyz, Robot Koch and wAgAwAgA. Really chilled and atmospheric stuff in there. My favorite being the rework of Woman by none other than Robot Koch. The remix of Darma by Headshotboyz also ends up in my list of favorite tracks from this year so far.

If you get such solid releases from digital only label (they have had one vinyl release too, but still mostly digital), you'll know that the digital music era is in full gear. Boosh by Alphabets Heaven gets my recommendation and I also suggest you check out other stuff released by King Deluxe, as they have several other pearls in their catalogue.

Favorite tracks: Soul Dancing, Woman (rmx), Darma (rmx).

Links

Alphabets heaven

http://kingdeluxe.ca/alphabets-heaven
http://soundcloud.com/alphabetsheaven

Headshotboyz

http://headshotboyzmusic.com
http://soundcloud.com/headshotboyz

Robot Koch

http://www.robotsdontsleep.com
http://soundcloud.com/robot-koch

wAgAwAgA

http://boomkat.com/search?fields[]=artist&q=WAGAWAGA
http://soundcloud.com/wagawaga

Web browser demo is basically a JavaScript program which uses web browser features to create the visuals accompanied by music. My entry is of the simple kind, it displays a selection of photographs organized into sequences, with some real-time visual effects applied and everything synchronized to music. Also it has few clips of programmatical video in it.

I tried to capture some of the post-soviet atmospheres of spring in Tallinn and share them with Revision visitors. Regardless of the lack of technicality it got the second place in Web Browser Demo round and won me the Newcomer Award.

You can observe the demo on following links:

The Online Version (Firefox & Chrome only)
Youtube screen capture
Youtube live screen recording
Pouët Entry (download, and comments)

The music is also available in soundcloud

The music can probably described as Soundtrack for a movie that never existed. Musically and conceptually it often sounds a bit similar to Swimé by Makunouchi Bento which is another album of the same genre which I have previously reviewed. Hypnobooster is more musical in terms of chords and melodies and often more aggressive in the usage of elements from Metal music, while Makunouchi Bento is mostly more about atmospheres and sounds. There are still many similarities, so if you enjoy one of them, you are very likely to enjoy the other as well.

Of course Hypnobooster has its own sound and story to tell. The listener can hear sounds familiar from Estonian and Western cinematography as well as original sounds fused together from whatever crazy thoughts were going on in the creators head. The overall tonality is melancholic, a bit strange and a bit familiar at the same time. Often dark and scary atmospheres flowing into short bursts of aggressive drumming and some odd riffs from Doom Metal... Often it's just dreamy and sometimes even warm and comforting, the atmospheres are amplified by the digital paintings in the booklet by the same author, which are truly beautiful. Some of them can also be observed on his home page.

As a whole the package comes together very nicely. A collection of 13 random thoughts represented both musically and visually. Definitely a journey worth taking and thoughts worth exploring. I never really want to take apart any album track by track, it always feels like explaining the entire plot in a movie review. This analogy holds true in this case more than others, so no more spoilers. I will leave all the minor details for you to discover and believe me there are plenty of them!

As for negative side, my biggest grievance is the lack of digital release. (See update below) 13€ for the Digipak CD, might seem a bit premium price for a debut release. I'd prefer a more reasonably priced digital release which would also save me the trouble of ripping it. When I asked Hypnobooster about it, he said the album comes in a single package where both the music and the imagery work together. Well, either way I would much rather enjoy his excellent paintings from a 24" screen rather than from a tiny CD booklet which by the way is already lost somewhere in the bottom of my record crates...

Update: the album is now available as a digital download through the Bandcamp. The booklet described is also included in the package as a PDF file. You can also still order it directly from artist. Or buy it from Lasering Music shop and various other places.

Favorite tracks: Transparent City, Groove Moments

Planned release is on coming months. Exact formats are yet to be decided but might be Vinyl & Digital

This release as well as all previous releases under Plangent are by Recondite, a producer from Germany who is also owner of the label. So far he has put out 3 of those records all filled with excellent mixture of Minimal Techno and Deep House. The releases have been quite popular and sell out quite quickly. You may even have trouble finding the latest one #003 which was released just a month ago.

There is good reason why these sell though, the release does provide 4 excellent tracks. Laid back atmosphere, big bass supported by solid beats, warm chords and quiet textures which mix together into a wonderful sonic imagery. Not as much a musical journey, more like a mostly static autumn landscape. A small walk in the forest and a cottage with a fireplace. The atmospheres both reassuring and warm yet sometimes with some cold bursts of wind and sad undertones.

This release definitely gets my Seal of Approval™. Highly recommended music for those who are looking for atmospheric downtempo music with deep bass. If you can get this record in your hands, don't let go!

Dagobert opens up with more breakish style of electro. Powerful rhythms are mixed with atmospheric pads, complex melodies, plenty of vocoded voices and an extremely solid basswork. This together builds immense sci-fi themed sonic images which just take my mind on a trip which is hard to return from.

Kalson on the other hand provides an interesting combination of modern electrofunk with a more straight 4/4 beats. It's still filled to the brim with uplifiting melodies, bold synth riffage, catchy vocoders and mysterious atmospheres, but at the same it is more driving than most electro stuff I get. I got to say I love this style to death.

This release comes as a really solid package, as expected from Dominance Electricity. All the music is great, the cover art by Juan Giménez can only be described as amazing and to top this off, my version of the LP came with a huge poster of the same dreamy eyed space girl, which is as amazing as the cover but five times more so because of the size. Only thing to nitpick are the "bonus tracks" included in digital releases as one already pays premium for the LP version. I kinda understand why the left out the tracks from vinyl - to improve the overall sound quality of the record, but still feel a bit cheated... But then I look at my megaposter and forget all about it...

Favorite tracks: Kalson - Astronauten Weltenraum, Dagobert - The Question (S.E.T.I.)

When I first put the record on I had no idea what to expect and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed by the pretty singing that started. What's this? Everybody knows that robots sing through vocoder! But apparently it wasn't the Robot doing the singing but one of the last surviving human beings from his era who the Robot Koch has succeeded to enslave: John Lamonica. That probably explains why his voice is so sad. It's not easy to live in this cold world filled with snow and silhouettes of spiky haired androids.

After getting over the distinct lack of vocoded vocals and arriving to the first instrumental piece, I was hooked. The meaty Post Dubstep Downtempo music definitely paints pictures as beautiful and as mysterious as pictured on the cover which I have come to adore. Massive bass, solid beatwork and elaborate textures really do create an interesting journey for both the body and the mind. As long as your sound system and neighbors can put up with it. Even the vocals I was first not too happy about add greatly to this atmosphere.

Overall I have to say there are plenty of good tracks on this album, but I have to say I appreciate the instrumental works more than vocal ones: They have more of those little sounds that I enjoy. Although some of the vocal tracks are really cool too. Also for some strange reason I seem to enjoy the B sides more than A sides on those two records. Maybe this is intentionally arranged this way. Maybe it's just a strange coincidence.

Either way I am quite happy I got to know this artist and I am looking forward for new stuff from him.

Favourite tracks: Lights, Midnight On The Moon

First track by Weltwirtschaft is as amazing as I expected. Really love this tune. Massive old school sound with some nice mangling and unexpected turns. Would like to see much more from this artist, but unfortunately there are only few bits and pieces hanging around the net. Last one I got was Amundsen Journey from Global Surveyor: Phase III [Dominance Electricity]. Which is still one of my favourite tracks.

Finnish collective known as Luke Eargoggle & Johan Inkinen experiments with a bass deprived electro in appropriately named track Highest of High. They might have had a bad relationship with bass before so they decided to make music completely without it. How this turned is up to anyone to decide. I personally find it a nice contrast compared to other, bass flooded, tracks on the record and it defnitely does tell a strange tale.

Next track of my liking is by "Vade Retro" by Oestral. Again, a great clear electro track with nice bass work and atmosphere. I have some other releases by the French producer and I have loved his dark and apocalyptic soundscapes a lot. This time he has made a more beat oriented track, and I definitely hope to see more this kind of stuff from him.

Kan3da on the other hand likes to experiment with dissonance. Otherwise quite standard electro sounds are played on very unstable sounding synths creating an image of slightly chaotic nature. His tales of future are definitely quite strange and a bit frightening to be honest.

And the same artists repeat on the other side. Luke Eargoggle with Johan Inkinen starts off with a more melodic piece of electro music, still heavily influenced by IDM for which Luke Eargoggle is best known for and respected. Nice rhythm work and sharp sounds goes together with some nice transistions and few unexpected changes while still retaining solid beat and flow.

Both Oestral and Weltwirtschaft continue with dark, monotonic tracks with limping basslines and minimal beats and the Kan3da closes this book with the second space exploration on unstable synthesizers.

Favorite tracks: Oestral - Vade Retro, Weltwirtschaft - Invention

Tracklisting

A1: Weltwirtschaft - "Invention"
A2: Luke Eargoggle & Johan Inkinen - "The Highest Height"
A3: Oestral - "Vade Retro"
A4: Kan3da - "MM"
B1: Luke Eargoggle & Johan Inkinen - "Empathy Window"
B2: Oestral - "Sarah Or Rahema"
B3: Weltwirtschaft - "Evighet"
B4: Kan3da - "Stupid"