Album: Rafael Anton Irisarri - The North Bend

Band: Rafael Anton Irisarri
Album: The North Bend
Label: Room40
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Passage
02. Blue Tomorrows
03. A Great Northern Sigh
04. Traces
05. Deception Falls
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Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist and media artist based in Seattle, Washington, predominantly associated with post-minimalist, drone and ambient music.

He is also known as the main member of electronic music/shoegaze act The Sight Below (on Ghostly International).

His placid compositions utilize ostinato motifs containing short melodic phrases. Reverb-drenched guitar textures, drones, field recordings, submerged piano notes, strings and minimal electronic counterpoints all contribute and converge equally in the music to create an oceanic experience that can be both epic and subdued. His music has been described by The Wire contributing writer Jefferson Petrey as "a dual perspective close-up focus on the micro textures of rustling static-filled sonic surfaces with the wide-open distant tree lined horizons of sunset at dusk."

Irisarri cited in an interview with German electronic music magazine De:Bug as been inspired by Mahler, Satie, Debussy, and Wagner, as well as Kevin Shields, Robin Guthrie, and Harold Budd.

Official Site
Myspace
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Album: Bridges To Dreams - The Fall

Band: Bridges To Dreams
Album: The Fall
Label: Ruins Of The Zodiak
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Canyon
02. Satellite
03. The Fall Pt.I
04. The Fall Pt.II
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A trio of musicians consisting of two guitars and a drummer poised to push the boundaries of post-rock/metal, hardcore in a instrumental fashion. Mixing in elements of drone, ambient noise and psychedelia, they strive to create different atmospheres that are progressive and unique.

Official Site
Myspace
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Band: Access To Arasaka

Band: Access To Arasaka
Album: Oppidan
Label: Tympanik Audio
Year: 2009







Tracklist
01. Nypox
02. Medway
03. Monoscan
04. Ruin
05. Caeropore
06. First Kill (feat. Beau Jestice)
07. Montcalm
08. Parisville
09. Jody
10. Recon (feat. ESA)
11. Delicate Annihilation
12. Chem
13. Sylvan-hesh
14. Transcednence
15. She
16. Waiting War
17. Aftermath
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Band: Access To Arasaka
Album: void();
Label: Tympanik Audio
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. *strtok()
02. kill_recorder=$c1
03. array[0..8191]
04. setvector
05. config.syn_seq
06. &sin
07. term/echo
08. optlist:
09. syslog_ident
10. [overwrite_ctr]
11. inc(tumbler)
12. n->m_pkthdr.len
13. switch(pcap_datalink)
14. bpf_u_int32
15.
16. sys.argv[1:]
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Taking his name from the "Cyberpunk 2020" off-shoot card game "Netrunner", the once elusive Access To Arasaka has seemly come out of nowhere to take the electronic music community by storm with his debut full-length CD album "Oppidan" in 2009.

"Oppidan" is a futuristic journey of a cerebral nature, demonstrating a virtual equinox of surgical beatwork and densely-layered atmospheres. ‘Oppidan‘ transcended complexity and innovation in electronic music to arrived at the very edge of its own inner space.

The Rochester, NY producer’s cyberpunk influences are evident as he skillfully paints each sonic sound-scape with expert precision and meticulous attention to detail. The artist describes his music as "a mixture of every influence I’ve ever had, past and present. As the general idea of this project is a way to describe the future I anticipate, the sounds and styles themselves are an homage to every song that has already taken me there."

"Void();" is Access To Arasaka’s new full-length on Tympanik Audio. Sixteen fantastic new tracks of dark sonic futurism inspired by the history and future of system hacking. An open invitation for the listener to imagine what a computer might attempt to comprehend when it’s system is under such an attack.

Official Site
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Album: The Grasshopper Lies Heavy - Every Man For Himself And God Against All

Band: The Grasshopper Lies Heavy
Album: Every Man For Himself And God Against All
Label: Mt. Hope Revival
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Part I
02. Part II
03. Part III
04. Part IV
05. Part V
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The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is louder than fuck.

Call it “Post-Hardcore”, “Artcore”, “Post-Metal”, “Amp Worship”, call it whatever you like. The amorphous musical giant known as The Grasshopper Lies Heavy defy typical categorization. The band has released seven albums in five years, all exploring varying musical territories while maintaining a common thread: crushingly heavy wall-of-sound music; sometimes melodic, sometimes atonal, speaker shredding, enigmatic, and emotive. Pushing air and decibel levels into the physical realm and performing almost always on the floor, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy demands all of the audience’s senses, participation, experience, and presence.

Founded in 2005 by James Woodard, the band was signed to Forgotten Empire Records after releasing their debut self-titled EP and garnering some critical praise. Forgotten Empire released two of their albums; the experimental and droney Soft Noise and the critically lauded GUN, before dissolving in 2009. The band, left without a label and with an album in the can, decided to release their long-awaited follow-up to GUN, Every Man For Himself and God Against All, themselves in January 2010 (A live version of the album has also been released, recorded live on KSYM 90.1 radio). Their most recent releases are a series of two cassette splits; one with San Antonio bretheren Sohns (entitled Werewolf), and a second with Atlanta, GA’s Hawks (entitled Fluffer). Werewolf will also be released on CD by Mt. Hope Revival Records early this summer.

The Grasshopper Lies Heavy has shared the stage with Torche, Russian Circles, Coliseum, Clouds, Nebula,Lightning Bolt, Tera Melos, Genghis Tron, This Will Destroy You, Jucifer, Dark Castle, Totimoshi, Black Cobra, The Entrance Band, Sightings, Rwake, City of Ships, By The End Of Tonight, Constants, The Dead See, Suplecs, Solace, U2, Nickelback, and many others.

Official Site
Myspace
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Album: Our Ceasing Voice - The Resurrection EP

Band: Our Ceasing Voice
Album: The Resurrection EP
Label: Self Released
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. The Smoke-Screen Of Hope
02. Forgive And You Will Be Forgiven
03. When Memories Decay
04. A Stone's Throw Away
05. Least We Forget
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These are the songs we wrote for the PC-game entitled "Painkiller: Resurrection". After long discussions about the copyrights we are finally able to release it for you as a free digital download. Have fun with it!

Please note that theses songs were written and recorded for a PC-game. The tracks have nothing to do with other releases of the artist and might sound very different compared to them. This digital release should be seen as a bonus track-gift only. - Our Ceasing Voice

Official Site
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Album: Arroyo - Arroyo

Band: Arroyo
Album: Arroyo
Label: Escapartist Records
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Segel Setzen
02. Hunde Werden Wie Wölfe
03. Zwischen Den Trümmern
04. Krater Ausbruch
05. Und Abermals Ergreifen Wir Die Flucht
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There is a lot going on between throat and hair. Life ripples through oppressed fingers, the heart is pounding, thoughts run riot. Life is an acid test, the head the link between common sense and rage. There, where the epiphysus carves out its existence, is where Arroyo settled down. The band that feeds the melancholic beast with epic post-rock and paces against the night with experimental, lunatic screamo, just doesn’t negotiate.
Life is the abyss, where the beauty of the moment means the greatest luck. It’s the essence of Dostojewski: Between death and insanity, alcohol-sodden reality and the sweetest dream, brute violence and intuitive value come up the musical, emotional highlights, that the Hessian quartet raises out of nowhere.

Official Site
Myspace
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Album: Envy - Recitation

Band: Envy
Album: Recitation
Label: Temporary Residence Limited
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Guidance
02. Last Hours Of Eternity
03. Rain Clouds Running In A Holy Night
04. Pieces Of The Moon I Weaved
05. Light And Solitude
06. Dreams Coming To An End
07. Incomplete
08. Worn Heels And The Hands We Hold
09. A Hint And The Incapacity
10. A Breath Clad In Happiness
11. 0 And 1
12. Your Hand
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It's no surprise that Envy have increasingly found inspiration in cinematic rock and experimental ambient music - genres that historically circumvent cultural trappings. With each album since their inception in the early '90s the group have chipped away at the linguistic and cultural barriers inherent in international rock music. Their breakthrough came with 2003's A Dead Sinking Story, the groundbreaking third album that replaced familiar hardcore breakdowns with the sound of actual emotional breakdowns, and - along with similarly celestial groups like ISIS and Explosions In The Sky - helped blur the lines between more than a few genres. That began a transition that leads straight to Recitation, by far the most musically and lyrically dynamic, technically diverse and emotionally complex album of Envy's two-decade career. All the touchstones of classic Envy are there: Enormous dynamic range, soaring melodies that feel equally inspired by late 80s power ballads and dramatic film scores, and tortured, impassioned vocals that, even in a foreign language, vaguely recall 19th Century romantic poetry. The difference with Recitation is in its execution. Where recent co-releases with fellow underground rock icons Thursday and Jesu hinted at a band in transition, Recitation is a fully realized vision from a band at their most inspired. Packed with more songs than any previous Envy album - songs lengths range from 90 seconds to nearly 9 minutes - Recitation is more than most any Envy fan could have hoped for, a triumph for the band and an inspiring leap forward for heavy music the world over. - TRL

Official Site
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Album: El Ten Eleven - It's Still Like A Secret

Band: El Ten Eleven
Album: It's Still Like A Secret
Label: Self Released
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Ya No
02. The Sycophants Are Coming! The Sycophants Are Coming!
03. Indian Winter
04. Falling
05. Triangle Face
06. Ian Mackaye Was Right
07. Marriage Is The New Going Steady
08. Cease And Persist
09. Anxiety Is Cheap
10. Settling With Power
11. 83
12. Tomorrow Is An Excuse For Today
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El Ten Eleven is a Los Angeles, CA post-rock duo known for combining guitar/bass doubleneck or fretless bass, with heavy looping, or vamping, and the utility of an effects pedal, over acoustic or electric drumming. They have released three full length albums, earning generally positive reviews.

The band has earned some attention due to many of their songs being featured in the soundtracks of Gary Hustwit's design documentaries Helvetica and Objectified.

The name El Ten Eleven is derived from the name of an airplane, the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar.

Official Site
Myspace
Buy (sometime soon)

Band: Aucan

Band: Aucan
Album: Aucan
Label: African Tape
Year: 2008







Tracklist
01. Reset
02. -
03. Iena
04. Urano
05. Fauna
06. Ac Ha B
07. -
08. -
09. Satellite
10. Imho
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Band: Aucan
Album: DNA EP
Label: African Tape
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Rooko
02. Crisis (Club Version)
03. DNA
04. Urano 2
05. The Darkest Light
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A crossroad between styles and sounds, Aucan’s music is based on a unique energy: synthesis of the opposites. Digital and analog, cleanliness and distortion, melody and dissonance, quietness and strongness arm free-fall structures, open to direct light, leave the listener inside obscurity.

Gifted of an hammering rhythmical compactness, and of a deadly technical awareness, the band’s obsessive combinations contain nonetheless an emotive tissue spent on crooked roads long time ago, incarnate the need to yell out, to get lost in order to discover yourself. In 2008 they release their debut album on both labels Africantape (Hey!Tonal, Passe Montagne, Threesecondkiss) and Ruminance (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Rachel Grimes, Cheval de Frise, Chevreuil).

After a year across Eeurope, supporting mean international underground bands (Antipop Consortium, Zu, Sleeping people, Il Teatro Degli Orrori, DJ Rupture, Hey!Tonal) the band toured Europe in February 2010, that was followed by a long East/North European tour, in May 2010.

Aucan released a special, secret EP in March, on Africantape and Ruminance again, to introduce their brand new mix of dark ambient landscapes and dubstep broken riffs. Tune in…

Official Site
Myspace
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Album: Brighton - Battle The Unknown

Band: Brighton
Album: Battle The Unknown
Label: Self Released
Year: 2009







Tracklist
01. Wrong Place, Wrong Time
02. Hyena
03. Addict
04. Ebola
05. Abyss
06. Bright Off
07. Back To Life
08. Insomnia
09. In Out
10. Dress For Success
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Guitar, bass, drums and 3 voices... and an urge to make power-pop rhyme with noise.
Brighton tries to digest the 90's Rock sound while polishing it with a poppier approach, following the example set by Biffy Clyro, Foo Fighters, Feeder or Failure.

Active for many years in the bands Time To Burn & Radius System, Brighton's 3 members are now returning to their first musical crush, delivering straight-forward songs filled with live energy.

The 3-piece released their first album "Battle The Unknown", featuring a vocal appearance by Romain Barbot aka Iamsailor (I Pilot Daemon, Montreal On Fire).

Official Site
Myspace

News: Sensual Noise - Chasing Swans

Do you remember the band Sensual Noise, who were searching a label to release their new album "Chasing Swans"? Well they finally did it!

Sensual Noise is an experimental/atmospheric down-tempo hardcore band coming from the Belgian coast. They started out in 2004 as a 4-piece band to become this 5-piece atmospheric doom assault that they are today.

Chasing Swans is a 6-page digipack with self-made artwork, contains 5 varied songs and 30 minutes of atmospheric doom/down-tempo music!

You can have a listen to the previews of all the songs and read everything about "Chasing Swans" on their new website.
Check it out and if you're interested to support them, you can easily buy their album.
Head over to sensualnoise.be for more info!

Album: A Swarm Of The Sun - Zenith

Band: A Swarm Of The Sun
Album: Zenith
Label: Version Studio
Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Lifeline
02. This One Has No Heart
03. Refuge
04. The Stand
05. Zenith
06. Repeater
07. The Worms Are Out
08. Lifeproof Houses
09. I Fear The End
10. Reaper
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A Swarm Of The Sun is Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund. Formed 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden, they released the critically acclaimed EP The King of Everything on Erik’s independent record-label Version Studio. The Swedish duo have since been working on the full-length follow-up, Zenith, released on August 30, 2010.

A Swarm Of The Sun is working with a number of musicians and producers: Most notably long-time collaborators Anders Carlström (Come Sleep, Lingua, Kausal) and Karl Daniel Lidén (Vaka, ex-Dozer), but also Anna Sofi Dahlberg (Anekdoten), Andreas Lindström (Aoria) and Pelle Henricsson (Tonteknik Recordings).

Extracurricular activities:
Erik runs the record label Version Studio, and is also a member of Kausal.
Jakob works with visual arts, and is doing artwork, photography and visuals for the band and others.

Official Site
Myspace
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Album: Radare - Infinite Regress

Band: Radare
Album: Infinite Regress

Label: Shark Men Records

Year: 2010







Tracklist
01. Morast
02. Licht Aus / The Lesser Graves
03. By The Flood
04. Asthenic Doubts Revolve
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Radare is a band from Mainz/Wiesbaden, Germany, who mixes sludge & doom with trumpets.
The play time, although it's a 4 track album, is about 40 minutes and worth to listen!

Radare:
Matthias - bass & trombone
Henrik - drums & electronics
Fabian - guitars & visuals
Hans - guitars & law

Myspace
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