VARIOUS ARTISTS
SMM: Context
GI133
Ghostly International 2011
11 Tracks. 64mins52secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Anchored in Ann Arbor, a stone throw away from the Mecca of techno, Detroit, Ghostly International has, in the twelve years it has been operating, continuously ventured in and out of the dance culture and reached out into pop, ambient, hip-hop or experimental works by expanding its roster to include the likes of Schools Of Seven Bells, Syntaks, Tycho, Lusine, Dabrye, The Sight Below, Twine or Christopher Willits. While still very much an enigmatic acronym, the term SMM was apparently coined in 2004 by Ghostly to define the then emerging breed of music mixing classical forms with contemporary ambient electronica, a genre which has since been the forte of Miasmah in Norway, and less exclusively, Type in the UK.

The first in a new yearly compilation series from Ghostly, SMM: Context gathers a number of familiar names and attempts to chart a genre which boundaries are, almost by definition, somewhat hazy. Continue Reading »

SVARTE GREINER
Kappe
TYPE033
Type Recordings 2009
04 Tracks. 44mins25secs

Buy: CD | iTunes

Things have got a lot colder in Svarte Greiner’s epic aural world since his debut, Knive, was released, in 2006, and colder still since he last appeared as one half of Deaf Center the year before. Gone are the cinematic orchestral drapes, replaced with dense mournful sound formations drenched with chilling noises and spectral effects.

With his first output as Svarte Greiner, Norway’s Erik Skodvin already showed an unhealthy taste for dark matter, but he takes this to an entirely different level with his sophomore effort. Kappe flirts with desolate isolationist landscapes on more than one occasion on here, especially on its two centre pieces, Where Am I and Candle Light Dinner Actress, burrowing through vast spaces, filled with distant echoes, noises and distortions to create the soundtrack for a doomed journey through Hell. Continue Reading »