Articles
Backtracking Andy Vaz
Spotlight 2

Albums
Aardvarck
Anonymeye
Balam Acab
Balmorhea
Blue Sausage Infant
Steve Brand
Harold Budd
Causa Sui
Cosmin TRG
cv313
Dalot
Ricardo Donoso
Paul Eg
Fjordne
Roman Flügel
Emmanuelle Gibello
Greie Gut Fraktion
Gurun Gurun
Chihei Hatakeyama
Saito Koji
Tobias Lilja
Martin & Wright
Jasmina Maschina
Mobthrow
Nickolas Mohanna
Muskox
Namo
offthesky
The OO-Ray
A Produce & Loren Nerell
Jody Redhage
The Mark Segger Sextet
Static
Sub Loam
The Teknoist
To Destroy A City
Damian Valles
Andy Vaz
Yard

Compilations / Mixes
Audible Approaches
Dave Clarke
Dixon
Marcel Fengler
Jamie Jones
Kompakt Total 12
Damian Lazarus
Soma Records—20 Years
Stilnovo Sessions Vol. 1

EPs
A Wake A Week
James Blackshaw
c.db.sn + Scaffolding
Dagshenma
Isan
Namo
Fabio Orsi
Pleq & Anna Rose Carter
Pleq & Lauki
Pascal Savy
Dirk Serries
Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens
David Tagg
Mano Le Tough
Simon Whetham

Sub Loam: The Ley Hunter's Companion
Dissolving Records

Issued on his own Dissolving label, The Ley Hunter's Companion revisits the approach Thomas Shrubsole (aka Sub Loam) brought to his previous outing, 2010's 2, which arrived in a paper bag containing the CD and four tinted photographs in a hand-numbered, 110-copy run. A half-hour mini-album, the new release likewise appears in a hand-numbered, limited edition of 230 copies, with this time the CD accompanied by a full-colour, fourteen-inch poster that shows on one side a customized map detail and an enigmatic landscape rendering on the other. The two releases' musical contents differ dramatically, however, with 2 's two primeval soundscapes worlds removed from the long-form synthesizer excursions presented on The Ley Hunter's Companion.

Animated by a two-toned series of syncopated synthesizer chords, “Lines in the Landscape” guides the listener on a scenic, fourteen-minute cruise through the open countryside. The mood is jubilant, gleeful even, with the bright squiggle of the synthesizers filling the air with sparkle and an electric guitar-like instrument eventually fleshing out the sound with its soloing presence. Even more so than in the opener, we're very much within a kosmische universe of sequencers and oscillators during “Odyssey,” which tinkles and swirls radiantly for a bubbly seventeen minutes. Both pieces convey a strong sense of perpetual motion, and their more pronounced focus on melody and rhythm help make the new release, on musical grounds, a more satisfying and accessible outing than its predecessor.

October 2011