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

Eriksen / Toft / Utarm: Penumbra
Roggbif

Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft: H5N1
Roggbif

In addition to Roggbif's noise releases, the Norwegian label also issues some pretty impressive drone music, some of which is nicely represented on the recent collections H5N1 (Avian or Bird Flu) and Penumbra Booming, with the two discs splitting seven pieces between five Norwegian sound artists.

In “Static,” H5N1's opener, Stian Skagen (Ryfylke member) generates scalpel-sharp waves that gradually turn ever-more threatening as they increase in volume and density. Despite the aggressive ambiance, Skagen never lets the piece veer out of control yet still allows its noise level to escalate. MNH's (Morten Norbye Halvorsen) “Ext-Hd” pursues a steadier line by pitching the volume and intensity levels at a consistent mid-range throughout his Mego-meets-Microsound travelogue. The mutating array of miniscule clicks and rustles maintains interest (especially the carnivalesque episode that surfaces in the last half) but the piece lacks the drama and tension of Skagen's opener—until, that is, cacophonous noise erupts sixteen minutes in to collapse buildings for the piece's concluding three minutes. Sten Ove Toft's (the other half of Ryfylke) “Petit Mal” isn't an aural representation of an epileptic seizure as it's title suggests but is rather a twenty-minute Deathprod-like drone of billowing unfurl. Like Skagen's, Toft's piece heats up slowly but, after the halfway mark, spews forth lethal lava and shrapnel before just as suddenly cooling down to a placid whisper.

Jon Eriksen bookends Penumbra Booming with two combustible pieces of standard-issue noise (“Bolts Unfolding,” “Grand Collider”) but it's the central pieces that impress more. Toft returns, this time with an eighteen-minute machine drone entitled “Sycamore Croquet Risky.” The piece builds to a broiling churn quickly and then slowly works its way up to a raging torrent at its close. Utarm incorporates orchestral strings and bells into the apocalyptic epic “Doomed From Lust For All That Was” which appeals on many levels, including being less predictable in its compositional path than some of the discs' other pieces. It ends quietly, as if the only hint of activity amidst the blasted remains of a destroyed city is the peaceful simmer that reigns in the aftermath of destruction.

January 2007