ARTICLES
2006 Top 10s and 20s
2006 Artist Picks

ALBUMS
17 Pictures
Angina P
Ateleia
Benni Hemm Hemm
The Boats
Cappablack
Celer
Dead Letters Dead Words
Deceptikon
Deerhunter
Denzel + Huhn
Displayaz
Dollboy
Drone
Eluvium
Emanuele Errante
The Eternals
Fear Falls Burning
Marcus Fjellström
Fonoda
Funkstörung
Goldfrapp
Gyroscope
Robert Henke
James Holden
The Idealist
Anders Ilar
Landing
LCD Soundsystem
Library Tapes
L Pierre
Lullatone
Tor Lundvall
Mad EP
Mahogany
Melodium
Mem1
Daisuke Miyatani
Mole Harness
Momus
Monoceros
Mormo
Mothboy
Original Hamster
Pierson & Horton
Prince Valium
Radical Face
Retail Sectors / Yaporigami
Rylander & Elggren
Scott Solter Plays PIM
Sideshow
Silicone Soul
Skream
Splinters
Mark Templeton
Thread Pulls
T. Raumschmiere
Tycho
Ultre
Virculum
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
AudioArt 03
Cumulous
Dubstep Allstars Vol. 4
Eriksen / Toft / Utarm
Katapult VA Vol. 3
Let's Lazertag Sometime
Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft
Tectonic Plates

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Gabriel Ananda
Robert Bardini
DAT Politics
Dead Letters / R. Sundin
Dogmixer
Benjamin Fehr
Fenin
HL
I Make This Sound
Zoë Irvine
Kyriakides and Moor
Lamont & 2tall
Ljud. & Piloten / Kama Aina
Jacob London
Sam Mcqueen
Miskate
Ryo Miyashita & Hiiragi_
[nara]
New Faces
Of / Greg Davis
Charlemagne Palestine
Phon.o vs Litwinenko
Portable
PostPrior
Samarah
Nicholas Sauser & Ditch
Someone Else
Hannes Teichmann
Tractile
Andy Vaz

IMAGES
F.S. Blumm

Prince Valium: Andlaus
Resonant

Icelander Þorsteinn Ólafsson (aka Prince Valium) produced Andlaus (‘without breath') in his bedroom using nothing more than a guitar and computer but the results are anything but hermetic. The willowy electronics add wide-screen atmosphere but it's primarily Ólafsson's chiming guitar reverberations that give the material its expansive scope. With the guitar style so purposefully grandiose, it's hard to not think of Sigur Rós when a piercing guitar swells in the regrettably-titled “Goofy Takes A Bath” and in “Crying Hearts,” a splendid ballad that's unfortunately marred by a female singer's occasionally off-key vocalizing; Andlaus' densely-layered material (e.g., “Romantic Shopping”) sometimes calls Manual to mind as well. Though the album's pitched as an ‘electronic ambient album,' it's hardly wallpaper music, especially when a dramatic lurch like “Tomleikar” escalates to such a cathedralesque pitch and when brooding shudders of six-strings resonate throughout the material elsewhere. Ólafsson upholds interest through constant shifts in mood: “Redecoration In Four Dimensions” is stately, “Afsal” melancholy, and “Burning My B.A.” both brooding and fulminating. Despite the aforementioned imperfections, Andlaus is often alluring, and never more so than during the radiant waltz “Guo Blessi Pig” that closes the album so sweetly.

January 2007