Quick Looks 11-29-11

Vortex - Rockdrill
[Cyclic Law]
Latest release from Cyclic Law. This guy has a prior release on Tesco, though I've not heard it. This is one of the darkest albums I have heard in a while. Right up there with New Risen Throne, Konau, and Innfallen. Lots of reverbed clanging and banging in the vein of good CMI stuff. The songs are dynamic and have a good amount of stuff happening within them for this style. Unfortunately the production on this is pretty muddy and it sounds very old, though that likely lends to the abysmal atmosphere. Definitely one to check out for fans of extremely dark ambient.

New Risen Throne - Loneliness of Hidden Structures
[Cyclic Law]

Amazing new release from NRT. Cleaner production than his other releases, but as crushingly dark and depressing as ever. Continues on with his trademark style of huge drones with low, pitch shifted samples and distant clanging that brings to mind frozen, dead forests and desolate cathedrals in hell. An absolute MUST HAVE for fans of minimal and evil dark ambient. Features remixes from Northaunt and Nordvargr.

aAirial - Together EP

[Imaginary Nonexistent Records]

A short EP from IDM/ambient producer aAirial. Most of the tracks are just piano and subtle pads. Very subdued and quiet atmospheres. Imagine "Le Fil Du Temps" stripped of all the percussion and the melodies played with a piano and that's what you basically have here. Music for sadness and longing. 'You + Me - Us' is the only track to feature his typical glitchy beats, though even these are a bit held back in comparison to other material. If you are a fan of aAirial or sad piano ballads in general, check it out. Nothing mind-blowing, but worth a listen.

Mytrip - "Low"
[Depressive Illusion Records]

Originally released as an ultra limited edition cassette, this 2 song album of gritty dark ambient is now available in digital format. Both tracks are 26 minutes long and apparently were recorded live, or were constructed from live recordings. These tracks have a raw, lo-fi feel to them, and while there are some interesting sections that conjure visions of ghostly passages or dark, chthonic depths, a lot of it feels like it would have been better to have experienced live - it just doesn't translate that well to disc. There is only so much one can do with long passages of muddy, rumbling drones. It's kind of like more amateur Wolfskin. Would be curious to hear what this guy can do on a studio album rather than just live takes. I think this would definitely appeal more to fans of black metal (probably why it was released on a label which also features black metal).