lost in a sea of sound

Rides Eternal breathes cosmic particles, transforming tiny scattered matter into majestic patterns. These sounds have a hallowed quality, a symphony created over long increments of time in cross galactic travel. Biological life in stasis, an A.I. brain working within the emptiness, using infinite calculations to compose beauty. This music rest just beyond human understanding. Lengthy fanfare for processions emanating from a galaxies core. A preface to our own primordial existence and an adieu to our eventual extinction.

Strange Mountain is Marcel Thee from Jakarta, Indonesia. A force in prismatic ambient sounds, and all music in general. This is the second release on Geology Records, the first titled Inhibitions made available back in 2014. Marcel Thee has music on many well respected labels as Strange Mountain and multiple projects with other artists. This cassette, Rides Eternal is a lengthy ten track composition. Completely filled with fuel for cognitive churning. A palate with swa…

Kicking Bones is a most subtle recording. Three musicians that know exactly where the edge is and traverse it's dangers. Their sounds slip and begin to plummet, yet these talented super powers reshape sonic fibers in form of a billowy parachute. What once was an armament of aural free form assault, now glides the skies in search of a grassy touchdown. Giant Dwarf and oxymoron both in band name and in these musical sketches on Kicking Bones. Controlled mayhem, deafening silence, or polyrhythmic ambiance, there are both sounds to shelter from and more for full exposure.

Trombone, guitar and drums, the set up for the base of ska. After repeated listens, the ska lites are turned off for certain. Kicking Bones is an amorphous memory of live music played during some feverish evening. It could have been jazz, classical, industrial or even precious ska, now just sonic stains oozing saturated decibel remains. Giant Dwarf brought to mind an album on Nonesuch Records titled American Brass Mu…

With so much diversity in sounds, many being extremely difficult to describe, the solace within the Constellation Tatsu Spring Batch is a needed retreat. For this quarter of the Spring Batch, Alex Crispin returns to Lost in a Sea of Sound, days before the completion of one Earth orbit around the sun. The first release was on the label Sounds Of The Dawn and was titled Idle Worship. Amazingly there are a few copies of this cassette still available. But a difficult choice indeed, the newest cassette titled Open Submission is another stunning ambient landscape.

Open Submission breathes out just after the sun slips beneath the horizon. Shades and shadows emerging from the dazzling Idle Worship composition. These tones reveal themselves like fireflies on a summer evening. A few notes held in patience, swelling to countless connections covering the forest floor. Brief moments that should be revered, since twilight activities dispense into both darkness and sleep. Open Submission is divided …

Turn the radio dial and hear the static of straining waves trying to obtain clarity. Fuzzy sounds from unknown distances are the most interesting, but they wax and wane, capturing then fading away at peak moments. Matthew As More has worked through the mathematics and fabricated the mechanism to negate attenuation. These distant languished melodies now clear, a sagacious world of sound finding focus.

Apocalypse Never is another incredibly well done composition doing it's best to escape classification. Matthew As More manipulates time and genres, delivering a most subtle creation. Sixties rock and roll, modern pop, distorted funk transforming into deteriorating punk, Apocalypse Never is filled with a profusion of sounds. The longest track, "Matthew As Less", which kicks off the second side, is the most telling in respect to bringing distortion into substance. A radio dial being turned to eventual sonic delight. If the goal is trying to understand Matthew As More, this is …

The energy of summer is at a peak. Heated days causing fauna to take solace in dark hues of stalwart fauna. This cycle producing a vibrant chorus of sounds at both dawn and dusk. A time when the natural world harmonizes for all to hear. This is a specific beauty, changing tunes throughout the world. Rod Hamilton & Tiffany Seal have channeled into this aural field. Their composition Enchanted Forest, has an awakening vigor. Diversity throughout, but maintaining cohesive spiritual fabric.

Enchanted Forest is extremely difficult music to classify. Many sonic approaches are used, including layered sonic rhythms, classic Indian flute wanderings, warbled drone, traditional beats behind voice and field recordings. These observations are based on many listens of Enchanted Forest. Fortunately the diversity and controlled margins make Rod and Tiffany's composition one to repeat. There are many comparisons that come to mind, but these brighten and dim with each track. One that holds cons…

Very Special Recordings delivers another genre smack down to the listening world. This time a cassette debut by Molly Tigre. Some descriptive words from the bandcamp page, "Polyrhythmic stew", "Ethiopian Funk" and "Progressive Jazz Cocktail". Without a proper listen, these categorizing labels are still very broad. Sample a track or two and the overall feeling will only mirror they way you feel when pressing play, the pitfall of sampling music online. How can the mood of an entire album be conveyed when the average time for skipping a song to the next is so high? Not going to go into this data set, but here is an interesting article if you are interested. So let us dive into Molly Tigre and try to get the emotions these musicians are trying to bestow.

First and foremost, each person playing music on this release, either in the band or as a guest, is extremely talented. Their love for music is derived from the music they love. With the base of the band bein…

Notes stretched out to cross the horizon, their pure sounds enduring radiation and elements. Warbled tones arrive from unknown sources, sonic contours under duress. Marta SmiLga is situated by the edge of a cold sea, listening intently to a distant world. A consciousness absorbing an aural landscape, contemplating the world beyond the horizon. Imagination is cast a couple hundred thousand miles away to an orbiting sphere, dark seas splotched across it's exterior. The surface of the Earth and Moon are totally different, but there is a connection. Droning vessels are used to cross each void, the buzz and bleeps of life making the journey.

Lunar Maria, Vol. 1 is built around the theme of the moon and its vast craters. Early astronomers thought these impact zones were seas on the lunar surface. Marta SmiLga uses song titles reflecting actual craters on the moon, such as "Mare Nubium", "Mare Orientale" and "Mare Ingenii". Six tracks in all, with an introdu…

To begin this description of La Production Interdite, volume and quality of the playback sound system need to be addressed. Listening to this composition at lower decibels and through newer all in one powered speakers, produces a totally different experience. This is compared to a serviced cassette deck, delivering higher decibel sounds through real stereo components and quality speakers. There could be an argument for the beauty of duality, La Production Interdite having two deliverable aspects. With this potentially being true, the mood and feel of inferior playback is only a byproduct. Louder volume and components of caliber are the best starting point. There will be a very immediate realization that Thomas Bey William Bailey did not intend for La Production Interdite to be background ambiance.

With the proper listening environment established, the most pressing issue will be the conscious state. Thomas Bey William Bailey uses sonic structure to permeate psychic barriers listeners …