ARTICLES
Listening Post: E. Honig
Label Profile: Ad Noiseam

ALBUMS
Leo Abrahams
Ammoncontact
Anka
Lloyd Barrett
Beach House
Bibio
Christina Carter
Davis & Jerman
Ecstatic Sunshine
Ensemble
Fluorescent Grey
Freiband
[guÿôm]
Chris Herbert
Home Video
Larvae
Lullabye Arkestra
Mathieu / Schaefer
MONO & w. end girlfriend
My Robot Friend
Nicolay
Pieter Nooten
Nuccini
Obfusc
Objekt4
Over the Atlantic
Para One
Proem
Red Sparowes
The Remote
Root 70
Florencia Ruiz
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Alan Sparhawk
Andy Stott
Thumbtack Smoothie
Tortoise
Triosk
Vlor

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Ad Noiseam 2001-2006
Another Generic Sampler
Bip-Hop Generation 8
Diary of a Sweet Day
Idea Hoard Uncut
Innature
Morrow Choral Orchestra
Noise Factory Vol. 3
Squadron 2
Warp Works

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Alias & Tarsier
Audion
Caroline
Home Video
Iz & Diz
Sami Koivikko
Mai
Mathhead
Monomachine
Narcotic Syntax
Quinoline Yellow
Sigur Rós
Samartzis & English
Samartzis & Inada
Andy Vaz
Andy Vaz Remixes
Waterprotection

VA: Innature
Barge Recordings

Brooklyn-based Barge Recordings makes an auspicious debut with a finely-wrought collection of experimental music-making entitled Innature. No dance tracks, no hellish psychosis, just ten provocative forays into ambient, folk-psychedelia, and drone soundscaping from reigning stars and lesser-knowns. In fact, the release could pass for a joint kranky-Constellation compilation and not just because it includes tracks by kranky artists Bird Show (Ben Vida) and Tim Hecker and Constellation's Polmo Polpo but because stylistically Innature aligns itself so closely to its label brethren.

Opening pieces like “Electricity is a Scarce Commodity,” a lulling meditation by turntable-baritone guitar outfit The Fun Years, establish a low-key start but the intensity escalates as the album progresses, culminating in scalding guitar escapades by Animal Hospital (“Late Summertime”) and Geoff Mullen (“Gold Eyes”) before MGR (Isis guitarist Mike Gallagher) eases the tension with “Neither Here Nor There.” Also noteworthy: Circle, a Finnish four-piece, opts for the road less traveled on a 12-minute sojourn that disorients and bewilders in equally measure (“No Battle, No Fire”), Polmo Polpo (Sandro Perri) contributes an hypnotic space-drone (“Farewell To The Flyer”), and Tim Hecker provides a predictably fantastic sampling of mesmerizing blur (“Dungeoneering”). Interestingly, though, the album's most beautiful piece, Loren Connors' stirring guitar meditation “Outside My Window,” is also its most stark and simple.

October 2006