Category: Music reviews

Digging back into the Amduscias Records catalog, I discovered the third Nyctallz release, Nyctalus Noctula. The album kicks off with a shrieking, piercing noise tone that could have set the mood for an intense sonic adventure, but unfortunately the album never really lived up to that expectation. Nyctalus Noctula is more of a loping exercise in minimal synth noodling, accenting noisier elements of synthesizes and eschewing any semblance of musical propriety. There’s very little in terms of track evolution, depth or atmosphere, and in general it lacks either the sophistication to make it quality ambient or the brutality to make it quality noise.

It didn’t make me cry…
[Rating:2/5]

The first album on the block for this week’s reviews is Daxscapes II by DANADAX. If you’ve been lurking this site long enough, the name DANADAX should sound familar. The old Intelligent Machinery catalog boasted two phenomenal early releases, Trips Into Places Unknown and Consciousness in Shifts of Decay. I missed the first incarnation of Daxscapes, but this album picks up right where earlier releases left off with more explorations into creepy noise. This album is less organic and more digital, but still manages to invoke an atmosphere of tension and eeriness that seems to be the forte of Curtis D. Cousins and whomever else he recruits for this project.

There’s definitely a maturity here that was missing in earlier releases; a greater sense of restraint and ability to conceptualize evolution over longer pieces.

[Rating:4/5]

One thing you don’t see much in the noise world is a remix album, so I’m always a little curious when one crops up. Such is the case with Braakland Nul, by Norss. Included on this release are the original composition “Braakland” and two subsquent remixes performed by the artist himself. Overall the album is very dark and very minimal, and the innocuous nature of the tracks lend it well to background listening for most any activity. Nothing spectacular going on here, but occasionally a long and subtle ambience fits the mood.

[Rating:3.5/5]

Last on this week’s list of albums to review from Just Not Normal is Fields, by British artist Voder. There are a number of words I could use to describe this album: lush, majestic, sublime. Typically I’m not much for mixing melody and dark ambient, but somehow this worked; and worked really well. Each track lumbers through a densely swelling haze of atmosphere, perfectly balancing the slow march of dark melody with touches of restrained distorted brutality. My only complaint about this album is that it was too short, but I am willing to accept that limitation as a trade-off for the available material being so remarkably satisfying.

[Rating:5/5]

Up next on my Things To Review From Just Not Normal is a brilliant live set from Planetaldol. Ballad For Knacker opens up with an incredibly disturbing movie sample that segues into the main track by means of a slowly building layer of dark ambience. This establishes an appropriately morbid tone for the remainder of the set. The 38-minute performance deftly undulates through a series of deep and dank ambient backdrops over which are applied a host of sounds that evoke an eerie darkness. One of the best dark ambient pieces I’ve heard in a long time, and that it was a live performance only serves to elevate my appreciation even more.

[Rating:5/5]