Three Guest cd Reviews by Joe Candy

Somnambulance - from the chalk to the stream - 2025 self-released

Tracing a path from Berlin School to Dub Ambient via drone and shoegaze…

This studio recording from this somewhat relaxed group of west country electronicists sees them responding to an unexpected summer rainstorm as nearby stream transforms into a powerful river as the rains flow off the chalk hills. "from the chalk to the stream" is one 39 minute-long improvisation. It builds on previous Somnambulance releases - the recent "Tripartite Drifting Lab" on Liverpool's Moolakii Club Audio Interface, "Wally's Ashes" from 2023, and their two cds on Colander Records - with Andy Roid's shift from synthesisers and Digitakt to his recently acquired modular set-up, coupled with Saul Yarg's decision to employ a second, rhythmic, guitar to complement Just George's filigree looping guitar work and King Razor's inclusion of radio broadcasts and other sampled material, this current version of the group seems ready to embark on their next project: a documentary-style film of live performances in unusual locations. I look forward to seeing the results."

https://somnambulanceuk.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-chalk-to-the-stream

Rubber Bus - Urban Dust ep - 2025 Rubber Bus Records

A related item to the Somnambulance dudes, joined by Tim Hawthorn, (latterly of The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet), who is usually found leading The Anarchetypes or composing soundtracks for films.  Here he takes on the guise of a kind of visionary poet railing against many and various contaminants in the home, the environment and the planet generally.  These sentiments can either be taken literally at face value, or as I prefer, can be seen as a stylistic vehicle for concerns of a more existential or personal nature.  The musicians create a unique kind of spacerock dub-reggae combination with some lovely, twisted guitar work, pounding electronics and delicate wafts of production tricks in order to perplex the listener.  The album version is presented first - from the new Welcome To Karmic City long player - followed by three remixes by members of the band, and if that wasn't enough for you, there's two live tracks added as well.  The live version of Noh Yogah is from a Real Music Club show in Brighton and features occasional member Daniel Spicer - the author of books on the Turkish Psychedelic Underground and Peter Brotzmann - while the live version of Assassin was recorded at New Avalon Ballroom in Glastonbury and features the redoubtable Tim Hawthorn on vocals.  Apparently Rubber Bus are rarely seen in public - they don't tour as far as I'm aware, preferring to hit unwary festivals without warning.  I'd advise you to keep an eye out though - from the evidence presented here they are as unhinged live as they are on record, so well worth checking out.

https://rubberbus.bandcamp.com/album/urban-dust-ep

mazenta z - Doubt thou the stars are fire - 2025 self-released

Titled after a line from Shakespeare, this cd is one of the most compelling ambient releases I have heard this year.  The mysterious mazenta z are a trio of two synthesiserists and a guitar player based in Brighton, UK.  Hellbent on control of their material, they recorded, mixed and mastered the tracks themselves and roped in one of their partners, painter Hiroko Lewis, to contribute the fine artwork for the sleeve.  The music itself is ambient in style - and consequently extremely relaxing - but runs a gamut of influences from 1970s jazz fusion through David Sylvian and Holger Czukay's mid-80s experiments and more recent YouTube Lockdown Ambient, (I just made that genre up).  I like the way the guitars merge with the electronics so that a gravity-defying mass is created; not exactly diaphanous or lightweight, but existing in its own plane almost, without compelling the listener's attention; just as good ambient music should.  When you focus in on the material though, there is a world of detail; not just a featureless drone landscape. There is an interview with them by the Battery Operated Orchestra guys on their YT channel if you want to know more.

mazenta z interview with Battery Operated Orchestra BOOCAST

https://mazentaz.bandcamp.com/

- Joe Candy, July 2025

2024 - The Year Politicians Looked The Other Way - an end of year list

END OF YEAR MUSIC ROUND-UP 2024

Best live performance (tied):

Limpe Fuchs at The Rose Hill Arts Hub, Brighton 13^th July

L’Anarchie Flotant at KozFest 2024

Basil Brooks (Zorch / Space Falcons) / Brian Abbott (Invisible Opera Company of Tibet) / Shankara Andy Bole / Ashenashae Farnham (Daevid Allen) / Mark Huxley (Dark Zen Kollektiev)

Top 9 live performances

Dhangsha at Hundred Years Gallery, Hoxton, London 29^th June

BANTU at Spirit of Gravity, Rossi Bar, Brighton 5^th September

Mark Wastell / Steve Beresford / Sylvia Hallett / Maggie Nichols / Dirk Serries / Benedict Taylor / Colin Webster at Hundred Years Gallery, Hoxton London 31^st March

Armatures at The Bee’s Mouth, Hove 23^rd June

Emily Burridge & BJ Cole at Semley Music Festival, Semley, Wiltshire 6^th July

The Glissando Guitar Orchestra at Lewes Con Club, 9^th November

Paradise 9 at Lewes Con Club, 9^th November

Mark Wastell / Bill Thompson / Dominic Lash at MOM, Canvas & Cream, Forest Hill 24^th October

Julian Lage at CHALK, Brighton 24^th November

Best “studio performance”

Entropy Zero (Brian Abbott, Andy Roid, Bob Hedger) at Visual Radio Arts

Kavus Torabi at Visual Radio Arts

Best YouTube performance

Helene Vogelsinger - any

Look Mum No Computer - Buel & Kjaer Room at This Museum Is Not Obsolete

Most Returned To album of the year (tie-break)

Normil Hawaiians – Empires Into Sand – Upset! The Rhythm

This Celestial Engine – This Celestial Engine – Discus Recordings

Top 7 “ambient” albums

Modulator ESP – Hydra Equinox  -  www.modulator-exp.co.uk

Laurel Halo – Atlas - Awe

Ah! Kosmos & Hainbach -

Ian Boddy & Dave Bessell – Polarity  -  DiN

Martin Taxt – Second Room – SOFA Recordings

Bruno Duplant – quelques instants d’eternité – Moving Furniture Records

Brighton Ambients – With Dhangsha On Our Minds  –  The Slightly Off Kilter Label

Top 3 improv/modern composition albums

Bee Reiki Trio (Beresford/Afifi/PKM) – bee Reiki – Discus Recordings

Fredrik Rasten – Lineaments – SOFA Recordings

Bill Thompson – and the sky breaks open  -  Ash International

Top 5 electronic albums

Sonic Arcana – Ecliptical Drift  -  Sonic Arcana

The Utopia Strong – The BBC Sessions – Rocket Recordings

Jah Buddha – Live at Control Voltage

Dhangsha – Broadcast Signal Intrusion – Brachliegen Tapes

Polypores – The Album I Would Have Released In An Alternate Universe  -  Moonbuilding / Castles In Space

Top 6 “rock” albums

GONG – Unending Ascending  - k-scope

Ulrika Spacek – Compact Trauma – Tough Love Records

Ozric Tentacles – Lotus Unfolding – k-scope

Thurston Moore – Flow Critical Lucidity – The Daydream Library Series

Deviant Amps – The Castle In The Sky – D Amp Recordings

Paradise 9 – Science Fiction Reality – Flicknife Records

Best event of 2024

KozFest 2024

Top 3 events of 2024

Mirror System et al at Lewes Con Club

Julian Lage at CHALK, Brighton

New Avalon Ballroom at The King Arthur, Glastonbury

My This Year’s Favourite Song of All Time Song

Karen Dalton – There’s Something On Your Mind

 

 

DISCLAIMER - Some of these records may not actually be from the current year.  I may have only heard them for the first time this year.  Anyway, I don’t care – I like them.

Laurel Halo - Atlas

 

On these hazy evocations of another time and a mischievous subversion of the ambient genre, LA-based Laurel Halo takes only the merest suggestion of jazz standards and ingeniously manages to create something simultaneously relaxing, perplexing and disorienting.  Played at low to medium volume, Atlas creates a mysterious ambient soundscape.  At higher amplitudes the detail of Halo’s compositional ideas and creative approach to  production and sampling come to the fore of this dense but rich confection.  Plus, there are contributions from Lucy Railton on cello, James Underwood on violin, saxophone by Bendik Giske and the vocals of Cobey Sey spread over the ten pieces presented here.  These “natural” elements help solidify the music into a seamless fine aggregate coating every surface of our existence.  I used it daily as an effective relaxation tool for a couple of months back in the summer.  Having moved on in lightyears from 2015’s dubstep-filtered In Situ or her cinematic compositions on Raw Silk Uncut Wood from 2018, I feel Halo is developing an important catalogue – her recent release Octavia (INA / grm) is a composition for piano and electronics – a way of truly seeing/hearing the past in new and bewildering detail.  Pretty special, and unmissable.

www.laurelhalo.bandcamp.com

Ian Boddy & Dave Bessell - Polarity

 

Ian Boddy & Dave Bessell

Polarity

CD / DL  DiN87  DiN  2024

One of my favourite electronic albums from 2024, this.  Beautiful drift.  And it’s a live performance!  If you dig synthesiser music and you’re not familiar with the UK’s DiN label I urge you to address that at your earliest convenience.  DiN is a long-running label featuring the top-quality output of many interesting modular and synthesizer boffins, not least that of label head Ian Boddy himself.  Polarity was recorded at Awakenings; a music event organised by Phil Booth, Dave Buxton and Jez Creek at Lea Hall Pavilion, Rugely on 25^th November 2023.  Ian Boddy plays a modular set-up augmented by Moog Matriarch and Buchla Easel Command, while Dave Bessell uses his own Eurorack equipment with Minimoog and Moog Sub 37 alongside a Vermona Perfourma and electric guitar.  The music engages me from the get-go; propulsive, although definitely on the “ambient” side of electronica, the ideas flow fast and don’t let up.  The sheer presence of the material is impressive, as you would expect from modern synthesiser music, and extra props should go to Phil Booth, the evening’s soundman.  One of the best live electronica recordings I’ve heard this year, and I’ve been lucky enough to be exposed to some great live electronic performances this year from Mirror System, Entropy Zero, Armatures, Mazenta Z, and l’Anarchie Flotant.

www.DiN.org.uk 

Paula Garcia Stone & Sue Lynch - Burning Cacti

 

Paul Garcia Stone & Sue Lynch

Burning Cacti

Cassette / DL  LOR164  Linear Obsessional  2021

 

A very cool item from this abruptly defunct South London imprint from a little while ago.  I scored a cassette version direct from the artists at a recent live gig, but although this label Linear Obsessional have ceased operations, you can still listen to all of their sizeable catalogue mostly documenting the South London improv/experimental scene free of charge on their Bandcamp.

Recorded during isolation, there are two pieces here produced by the players using the method of exchanging pre-recorded material back and forth electronically.

“Lockdown Duet” is eleven fascinating minutes of Garcia Stone’s manipulated field recordings and electronic modifications in duet with Lynch’s multitracked saxophone improvisations.  The result is an intriguing collision between the micro and the macro, indoors and outdoors, jazz and non-jazz, natural and unnatural sounds; which I thought gives an overall sound like processed and edited bodysounds.

The second piece, “Burning Cacti”, presents more plaintive saxophone and restrained field recordings.  Sue Lynch’s playing here is as powerful and delicate as anything I’ve heard this side of John Butcher.  She is capable of highly technical melodic playing as well as powerful blart and this versatility pairs well with Garcia Stone’s more abstract material.  The pair meander a cosmic route through alien desert valleys, pointing out the beautifully desiccated flora as they go.

https://linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/burning-cacti

Dark Zen Kollectiv - Live at The 19th Dream Of Dr Sardonicus Festival 2023

 

Dark Zen Kollectiv

Live at The 19^th Dream Of Dr Sardonicus Festival 2023

CD  FRG Records  FRGCD068  2023

A cracking document on FRG Records (The Orb, Sendelica) of just one of Dark Zen Kollectiv’s live festival performances from last year, that they have titled “Ice Locks Up The Stones”, the significance of which is unfortunately not known to me.  However, I am a big fan of this shapeshifting spacerock outfit, which on this outing consists of Marek Bublik on drums, Shankara Andy Bole on guitar, bazouki and synth, Martin Litmus (from Litmus) on bass and synth and Bob Hedger (aka Jah Budhha - Phaselock, The Glissando Guitar Orchestra) on synths and guitar.  Regular bassist Mark Huxley carried out the mixing of this recording.  Over the course of an hour, the group improvise around a loosely composed structure, often alternating instruments, creating a dynamic and involving soundworld which references Rembetika, psych, progressive, desert blues, Kosmische and ambient with a tiny splash of Groundhogs which is all good by me.  The musicians are all drawn from established bands and know their way around a Neu! pastiche.  Central to this project is the miscellaneous strings of founder Shankara Andy Bole (Shankara, The Glissando Guitar Orchestra) who pushes the material along remorselessly.  Surrounded by a slew of technology, Bob Hedger captures the intricacies of both Berlin School and Kosmische maneouvres while Martin Litmus enthusiastically investigates the low-end capabilities of the Dr Sardonicus Festival sound system.  He’s locked in with drummer Bublik, due to their work together in Litmus, no doubt.  Exciting and beautifully realised - highly recommended.  See also the new self-released KOZFEST disc on the Dark Zen Kollectiv Bandcamp.

https://sendelica.bandcamp.com/album/dark-zen-kollective-live-at-19th-dream-of-dr-sardonicus-festival-2023

https://darkzenkollectiv.bandcamp.com/music

Bill Thompson - and the sky breaks open

 

Bill Thompson

and the sky breaks open

CD  ASH149  Ash International 2024

Two excellent pieces of electronic music blossoming slowly in the space where ambient music meets the art gallery.  American artist-in-London, Bill Thompson is the curator of the long running Mercury Over Maps concert series and has a history of collaboration with the likes of Phil Durrant, Mark Wastell’s THE SEEN, Yoni Silver, Keith Rowe, EXAUDI and Faust.  Here, Thompson puts his Moog guitar improvisatory strategies to work in order to explore new ground – at least new to me - specifically digital and analogue technology-based longform drone possibilities.  If you’re interested in hearing Bill’s less drone-based Moog guitar improvisation, you can also check out another recent release; his album Feine on Scatter Archive.  Those wary of the perceived purposelessness of nu-new age ambient or are suspicious of the austere rigour of some drone works, be assured that and the sky breaks open is a scrupulously rendered work of sublime peace.  Structural artefacts cavil while roiling voltage seeks to erupt from the very surface of Thompson’s guitar pickups.  These results were recorded “…late at night during long solo improvisations…” and were given an extra sheen by the mastering hand of Stephan Mathieu.  Thompson’s intentions are straightforward – “…explorations of the material at hand, the objects on the table…thus met on its own terms in the fulcrum of improvising-composing-performing allowing what emerges to emerge…”

https://ashinternational.bandcamp.com/