Almo's Music Blog

I get notifications from a label that specializes in Dub Techno and Ambient music, Cold Tear Records . They are based in Lithuania, and have a treasure trove of hidden gems in their catalogue. Since I have bought something from them, I get emails whenever they release something. This has been a great boon to my music collection, and this review covers one of those releases. Negative Ions is a 4-track EP from Liuos (the recording name of Jari Österberg), an artist from Finland; it's available at Bandcamp . When I first queued this up, I immediately liked it. It's got both a heavy and bouncy vibe to it, if that makes any sense. The bass is thick, the kick drum has a crisp tone reminding us of the bottom note of the key signature, and the rhythms above give it a lot of liveliness. Just a few specific notes: Synoptic Scale includes some traditional Reggae rhythms in it, signaling Dub Techno's roots in Jamaican Dub. While I don't have a comment about Nacreous Clouds, it...

It has been a while since I ran into an album that I had to listen to over 10 times to really like. This usually means there's something subtle going on, so it's worth writing about it. Part of the reason this is so interesting is the history of the artist who composed it. So this review will be broken into two parts: one with a brief history leading up to it, and one with the review. Where did Minute of Arc come from? It is one of the monikers of Arjen Schat, an artist residing in the Netherlands. His previous output was released under two names: "Ohrwert", and "Arjen Schat". Ohrwert releases were either Dub Techno, heavy Ambient, or somewhere between the two, while Arjen Schat releases were Ambient or Sequential Ambient. Being Dub Techno, the Ohrwert releases usually had consistent beats with minimalist dubbiness layered on top. But there was a breadth the styles used that meant Ohrwert's catalog was anything but narrow; a notable exception was t...