lost in a sea of sound

Sounds changing with each bend in the river, like a soundtrack to the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Charles Marlow with a melodic description of subtle energy emanating from the early morning light breaking across the water. Lost in the tangled underbrush of sonic vines, cicada and train whistles are amorphous beacons in the distance. These sounds are somehow ancient, like an undisturbed tribe living on the Congo, exploration fueled by curiosity and discovery. All encompassing both the serene calmness of daily life and the frenzy of fire side ritual.

Ed Wilcox and Turner Williams are the artists under the project Pure Enchantment. Their composition Humid Misterioso takes on many forms. Five tracks close to forty minutes, from sparse and measured harmonic patience, to fully radiated delirious jams, these selections are fused behemoths. Echoes of a Klezmer band tour in the middle east, scalding cups of mint tea both sipped and enjoyed, some thrown in fury and angst. The…

Listen to the sounds swelling from the depths. There is a presence resonating in unimaginable fashion. Blackness corrupted by droning turmoil, all that is free above pulled downward. The sustained notes wobble and drop away, then escalate into screeching streaks. Sounds in opposite directions, all slowly swirling around and immense singularity. This sonic pathway is dark, but all who listen have inner sight. Figured directs these alien musings with intense creativity. A wall of powerful sound held delicately in two musician's thoughts.

Clehft is an incredibly fresh aural landscape. Ian McColm and Zach Rowden as Figured, hold the attention of all who listen. Both musicians fluent in many instruments, choosing modular synth (Ian) upright bass (Zach). A combination of both talent and wise choices, crafting beautifully rich sounds that hardly seem to try.  Meaning these passages are simple channeling of inner creativity. The effort similar to taking a stroll or basking in the sun. Not…

Once in a while you hear a music composition that pours through the daily constructs. Sounds reaching inward, providing moments for the mind to meander and thoughts to pleasantly drift. This composition made a impressive imprint, melodies beyond, branding feelings deep within. A cassette edition titled Practice on Lily Tapes & Discs, one release back for Jason Calhoun. His newest has just been unveiled a week ago, titled Jedidiah on Dear Life Records.

The first time Practice spilled through the speakers, a sense of warmth filled the air. Droning blankets of texture and sublime vibrancy. Energy of the world breathing in glacial tempo, countless rotations of the earth blurring into primordial elements. Jason Calhoun creating aural humidity, an environment where everything is moving slow and growth is abundant in all aspects. There are seven tracks on Practice, close to an hour of serene tranquility, the seams in between each selection like clouds across the sun. Practice takes heart…

Let the show begin. A full on harvest of beach party music absorbed then excreted with twisted creativity. Ballermann a word derivation of Balneario No. 6, a club located in the Balearic Islands city of Palma. Partykeller focusing on the social festivities of the beach placed bar or any pub for that matter. „DJ VLK” is the visionary for these sounds. A world where intense energy is slowly pickling, fermented sonic flavors for the patient and determined or patients and demented. „DJ VLK” providing seamless sides of therapeutic life saving aural compression.

Ballermann Partykeller has no boundaries, from the slowly moving tuning dial of an analog radio, corrupted rhythms seep forth. Big event music, broken pop melodies, mystifying voices, crumbling drone, this mix grabs your thoughts and fills the mind. Shadows of sound sliced by street lights, luminous beats littering walkways, the melodic push into the night will fill memories. The changes in this composition are profound, but „DJ VL…

Microhumans is mesmerizing. Gentle rhythms flickering in the canvas of space. Each note like a distant star, a possible center for life like we know it. These immense distances, barriers for understanding, all cradled and held forth in sonic delight. The connectivity shared is exemplified in how sublime the flow of these sounds are. Tranquil and uplifting, Microhumans soundly delivers cosmic warmth. Energy too far to reach but still pulled to our hearts with radiant beauty.

Ali Wade surfs the galaxy, carving sonic paths on the edge of singularities. These true passages escape gravitational force to paint prismatic melodies through the heart of solar systems. Density juxtaposed with ethereal, vast emptiness founded with melodic stepping stones, Ali Wade holding both in our thoughts. Microhumans is eleven tracks seamlessly fused in a forty minute offering. Rich electronic drone parting for entrancing tones that shimmer with vibrancy. Celestial grooves in flickering resonance, the sonic …

What can you really hear? A mechanical witch doctor blowing a puff of distortion dust into thoughts. Screeches and cries of a surrounding world subsiding in deteriorated rhythms crumbling inward. The new exposed darkness filled with voices and tranquilizing sonic waves. Have these torn melodies always existed? Lurking behind the veil of bright shinny days and pop radio airwaves? Or is this new? The arrival of the dimensional nexus. Beats within the fragmented blackness, melodies seeping from a lattice of infinite cracks. The gravitational force of Nibiru making itself known.

Final Cop presses a thumb on the bridge between the eyes. The massage like pleasure slowly parting for pressurized pain. "A Structureof Violence" has always been present. Final Cop simply channeling this world of static, disturbed narration & singing, all backed by redlining rhythms. Eight tracks in total, a pummeling of space fragments on the atmosphere's thresholds. The entire composition someh…

The last release from Crush Grove Records was the Michigan based group Towner. Lost in a Sea of Sound had the pleasure of listening and putting some words together here. The newest edition in the Crush Grove Records catalog spotlights one member of Towner, the drummer Alex Molica. His project Seattle Stomp, takes the energetic batten and runs away with it. Eight tracks of incredibly well written, sung and played genre crushing tunes. Maudlin Madness is a sonic sleeper, ready to capture all those giving it a listen.

Alex Molica blazes through these selections, throwing melodies like ninja stars. These are punk songs, rock songs, pop songs, and blues, there is no real group his creativity resides in. The first track "Anxious Thoughts" has the power and energy of Hamell On Trial, this giving way to "January", almost a early Echo and the Bunnymen rhythm. One more comparison is for "Denver Song" and "Power Jam Situation" sending thoughts to an early …

The years have generously poured through time, sounds have been lost and found again. With each excavation of these sonic waves, we find a most desired fermentation surrounding them. Share My Chaise is the newest release from the GALTTA label, and like everything before, filled with smooth delivered wisdom. David Lackner and Billy G. Robinson finding accord and adding finely honed patience and experience to a base of sounds most of us easily identify with.

Share My Chaise flows with ease throughout the composition, melodies ironing out wrinkles and elevating sound threads. Some tracks like "Lost Without Your Love" and "Trust" transport listeners back to the 70's, to a place where vibrant funk has been baked away, leaving the smooth glaze of expert craftsmen. "VHS II" and "Low" pulling from the experimental future, samples across an ethereal backdrop of FM radio on late night drives. Rhythms finding various speeds on cruise control settings, …

Channelers finding pace again with the timelessness of nature. Countless sunrises, rain storms and interactions within evolving ecosystems, these sounds are burned into their surroundings. This music exist without the constructs of man, these sounds are etched in the stone and earth they heed from. Currents of water forming grooves in the earth, Channelers mirroring this infinite erosion in the consciousness. Ancient rhythms of cyclic paths, part of the DNA we all carry with us.

The Depth of Rest comes a little more than a year after Channelers previous cassette Entrance to the Next. The direction has changed from last time. Instead of a gateway stepping through to conscious limits, these four tracks focus on the world around us. Field recordings inside the forest canopy, churned with keyboards, Irish low whistle, and hammer dulcimer. A confluence of spiritual cairns on the path to musical tranquility. Channelers in cadence with acoustic flow and radiant variance, a sonic picture of a…

Two artists splitting sides on an Anti-Everything release. Somnoroase Păsărele turning the sonic kaleidoscope, an electronic multi dimensional bask in sublime energy. Aural radiation emulsifying the listening space, a slow burning imprint of a landscape still unknown. Romanian artist Gili Mocanu teeters on the impossible, both emitting an array of complex creativity and absorbing all thoughts from those who listen through. This composition titled CLAR flows with heavy undercurrents, while the sonic surface swirls in eddies and rippling turbulence. Like the delta at the river mouth, the six pieces within CLAR carry the same melodic attributes welling from the source.

WOMBA discharges ordered cacophonous resonance on the second side. Another twenty minute drive through whispering voices and warbled field recordings. Russian based Tikhon S. Kubov unveils his distinct ability to transfer inner conscious thought patterns to an audible parade. Ornate floats passing by with marching bands sp…