Immanu El, They'll Come, They Come

Sweden, 2007

Immanu El is a young Swedish band with a unique sound - dynamic guitar and keyboard soundscapes, captive singing and with somewhat of a moving Nordic mood. The music is focused at a wide spectrum of harmonic expressions and sounds that can move between presence and ambience in varying dynamics. Originally the band was inspired by early post rock and experimental bands, which combined with pop influences made Immanu El to find and create a sound of their own based on atmospheric soundscapes that became their fundament for their debut album "They'll Come, They Come".

Playlist:

1. Under Your Wings I'll Hide
2. Home
3. White Seraphs Wild
4. Astral Days
5. Panda
6. Kosmonaut
7. I Know You So Well...
8. ...In Valleys

Link.

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Can, Tago Mago

Germany, 1971

And we got a voyager. This release explored most of the trippiness that made up for the elements of psychedelic rock of the era.
Overcranked, sung in japanese mid-record, even tape backmasking features in it; no wonder Bowie had his Berlin years – and you still will find yourself tapping your foot to it.
Get to know what kind of weird water ran on their taps.


Playlist:

1. Paper House
2. Mushroom
3. Oh Yeah
4. Halleluhwah
5. Aumgn
6. Peking O
7. Bring Me Coffee or Tea


Link.

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Upcdowncleftcrightcabc+start, Embers

England, 2008.

Upcdowncleftcrightcabc+start are an instrumental post-rock band from Kent formed in early 2000.

Playlist:

1. Embers and Ashes
2. Get to the Chopper
3. Our Flowers
4. Murmurs pt. 2
5. New Chapters
6. McDoomish
7. Murmurs pt. 1
8. Cascades
9. Fireflies
10. The Creeping Fear

Link.

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Strangers Family Band, Self-titled EP

US, 2009.

"With an intelligent blend of psychedelic rock music that can be appreciated by psychonauts and the sober alike, Strangers Family Band create timeless music to be enjoyed by all with an open mind."

Playlist:

1. Enochian
2. Girl I've Been Taken
3. Wooden Hands
4. No One Sees Her
5. Strange Transmission
6. Tangerine
7. Beware the Autumn People

Link.

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Shogun Kunitoki, Vinonaamakasio

Finland, 2009.

"A timeless kaleidoscope of sounds culled from five decades of electronic music, psychedelia and minimalism."

Playlist:

1. Vinonaamakasio
2. Mulberg
3. Riddarholmen
4. Fuzzabeth Crackleby
5. Holvikirkko
6. Corda
7. Svileto
8. Ratalintu
9. Nebulus

Link.

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Let Me Introduce You To The End, A Love of The Sea

US, 2006

Let Me Introduce You To The End is a fine art project dedicated to the dramatic combination of ambient rock music and modern photography. The group has been described as "a band which embodies the idea of beautiful darkness."
A Love of The Sea, melancholic music, featuring piano and velvet vocals and some quite arresting arrangements. Often drifting but never losing focus, this embodies the ideal of beautiful darkness.

Playlist:

1. Love of the Sea
2. Dust in My Eyes
3. Trail in the Dust
4. Upon Ending
5. Between the Sky and the Sea
6. Times of Growing Grimmer
7. Who Will Save Me
8. As You Sink
9. Sitting Alone
10. Love of the Sky

Link.

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The Cinematic Orchestra, Man With A Movie Camera

U.K., 2003

Definitely one of the most amazing albums I have listened to these days. Conceived as an invitation to a soundtrack for the homonymous Dziga Vertov's movie, this alone is sure to take you to a semi-transe of texture flying, or at the very least some amazing daydreaming.


Playlist:

1. The Projectionist
2. Melody
3. Dawn
4. The Awakening Of A Woman (Burnout)
5. Reel Life (Evolution II)
6. Postlude
7. Evolution (Versão Portuense)
8. Work It! (Man With A Movie Camera)
9. Voyage
10. Odessa
11. Theme de Yoyo
12. The Magician (Interlude II)
13. Theme Reprise
14. Yoyo Waltz
15. Drunken Tune
16. The Animated Tripod
17. All Things


Link.

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Katatonia, Night is the New Day

Sweden, 2009

"Night Is The New Day" is, in just about every way, a very good album. Highly melodic yet deceptively dissonant at times, each tune in this album will find its own place as you listen more and more. Absolutely one of the biggest metal releases of the year 2009.

Playlist:

1. Forsaker
2. The Longest Year
3. Idle Blood
4. Onward Into Battle
5. Liberation
6. The Promise Of Deceit
7. Nephilim
8. New Night
9. Inheritance
10. Day & Then The Shade
11. Departer

Link.

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Steven Wilson, NSRGNTS RMXS

UK, 2009

Insurgentes, the debut album from Steven Wilson, was released earlier this year. The album immediately received a rapturous reception from not just fans and critics but also from fellow artists. Several of these artists have remixed tracks from the album and NSRGNTS RMXS is a collection of some of these remixes.

This is the CD edition which features a mix of the albums opening track Harmony Korine by David A. Sitek, currently enjoying massive critical acclaim for the new TV On The Radio album. Underground hip-hop pioneers Dälek have created a dark, brooding mix of Get All You Deserve (think Massive Attack meets UNKLE). Engineers, who return on July 6th with their new album Three Fact Fader, have brought their widescreen sound to Abandoner while Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, XTC) has created a sprawling mix of Salvaging and drone act Fear Falls Burning have also reworked Get All You Deserve.

Playlist:

1. Harmony Korine - David A. Sitek Magentzied Nebula Mix
2. Get All You Deserve - Dälek Mix
3. Abandoner - Engineers Mix
4. Salvaging - Pat Mastelotto Mix
5. Abandoner - Danse Macabre Mix
6. Get All You Deserve - Fear Falls Burning Mix

Link.

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Minsk, With Echoes in the Movement of Stone

US, 2009.

"Located along the in-betweens of Chicago and Peoria, Illinois, and drawing its nominal inspiration from the Belarusian capital, nestled deep amidst the in-betweens of the East and the West, a city that has been burned to the ground on several occasions only to be rebuilt like a phoenix rising from its ashes, Minsk is an eclectic experience of passion, aggression, rhythm, noise, and trance. The music is as organic as it is other-worldly, infusing the rhythms of the earth and the resonance of the human voice with the synthetic sounds of machines, amplifiers, and effects."

Playlist:

1. Three Moons
2 The Shore of Transcendence
3. Almitra's Premonition
4. Means to an End
5. Crescent Mirror
6. Pisgah
7. Consumed by Horizons of Fire
8. Requiem: from Substance to Silence

Link.

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pg.lost, In Never Out

Sweden, 2009

"In Never Out" presents another great experience this time towards the darker and side of pg.lost; this is their latest album.

Playlist:
1. Prahanien
2. Jura
3. Heart of Hearts
4. Still Alright
5. Crystalline
6. Gomez

Link.

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Maybeshewill, Not For Want Of Trying

England, 2008.

Maybeshewill are an instrumental rock band from Leicester, whose music is characterised by the use of programmed electronic elements alongside more traditional rock instrumentation. The band have also been recognised for their use of monologues and film samples as well as references to popular culture in their songs.

Playlist:

1. Ixnay On The Autoplay
2. Seraphim & Cherubim
3. The Paris Hilton Sex Tape
4. I'm In Awe, Amadeus!
5. We Called For An Ambulance But A Fire Engine Came
6. Heartflusters
7. C.N.T.R.C.K.T.
8. He Films The Clouds, Pt. 2
9. Not For Want Of Trying
10. Takotsubo

Link.

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Oceansize, Home and Minor EP

England, 2009

Another EP from Oceansize, elaborating the "Music for Nurses" influence, the kind of music to lie down and close your eyes to, let it take you on a journey.
Probably their most atmospheric pieces of all. Check it out!


Playlist:
1. Legal Teens
2. Getting Where Water Cannot
3. Monodrones
4. Home & Minor
5. Didnealand
6. The Strand

Link.

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Happy Birthday, Spiral Circus.

Today is Spiral's second anniversary.

In November 2007, when we decided to create this blog, we thought we'd only be reaching our close friends. However, two years later, we receive 10,000 monthly visits and a lot of positive feedback.

We would therefore like to thank all of you for stopping by, contributing with your comments and enjoying the music we share.

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Rafael Anton Irisarri, Daydreaming

US, 2007.

"Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist artist based in Seattle, Washington, mostly associated with the post-classical and ambient genres of electronic music. His placid compositions consist for the most part of repetitive motifs containing submerged melodic lines performed on the piano, glockenspiel and melodica."

Playlist:

1. Waking Expectations
2. A Thousand-Yard Stare
3. Wither
4. Lumberton
5. Voigt-Kampf
6. Fractal
7. A Glimpse

Link.

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Archive, Controlling Crowds Part IV

England, 2009

This album is the key piece of Controlling Crowds.
Highly Recommended if you're an Archive fan.


Playlist:

1. Pills
2. Lines
3. The Empty Bottle
4. Remove
5. Come On Get High
6. Thought Conditioning
7. The Feeling Of Losing Everything
8. Blood In Numbers
9. To The End
10. Pictures
11. Lunar Bender

*Updated Link.*

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Collapse Under The Empire, Systembreakdown

Germany, 2009.

Collapse Under The Empire is an instrumental/post-rock band from Hamburg, Germany. Most of the songs are alternating between electro-bleeps and powerful guitar explosions. The debut, Systembreakdown, displays acute instrumental sensibility, using pianos and synths with guitar-battering crescendos.

Playlist:

1. Monumental Sequence
2. Sky Falling
3. Innocence
4. The Taste of Last Summer
5. Quiet Dimension
6. Environmental Obsession
7. Turn
8. Depending On You
9. Further Than the End of the World
10. Buried In Pieces

Link.

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The Pirate Ship Quintet, The Pirate Ship Quintet EP

England, 2007.

Amazing post-rock septet, originally from Bournemouth and Bristol. Their cellist is a full time member of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, as well as a stand in for the famous London Symphony Orchestra. This hugely praised debut, self-titled EP was mastered by Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg, and released in April 2007.


1. Lost Science
2. I Kina Spiser De Hund
3. Pirate Ship

Link.

more...