Review: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Submissions Round-Up pt 12

Another round-up of some of the groovy submissions I've received of late:



The Gateless Gate's Allister Thompson has already graced the pages of this blog with his alter ego Khan Tengri (read the review here). The new one from The Gateless Gate, 'Oceans are Moving from the Arctic to the south reflecting the light' is a sublime collection of tracks that harken back to the early kosmische of seventies Germany. The back catalogue of The Gateless Gate is a joy to discover and this is no exception - it is more ambient than preceding albums but there is a definite krautrock feel to many of the tracks. As a collection it is a beautiful thing, the aural equivalent to your favourite anthology of poems. It has the power to wash away the stresses of everyday life....a veritable balm for modern living...the title track alone is an 18 minute voyage into calm and tranquility. I cannot stress how good this is. A great deal of ambient music becomes.....well, let's be honest....boring after a while, but 'Oceans are moving...' has enough about it to keep the listeners attention while transporting them to their own special places.....sublime! It can be found on the Bandcamp page here, on a 'Name Your Price' basis...but you all know the score - support the artist!





Another band who have already put in an appearance in the blog are Sly And The Family Drone (check out the review for their 'Unnecessary Woe' here). Their new one, the fantastically titled 'Appetite For Tax Deduction', builds on the more experimental aspects of 'Unnecessary Woe' and heads in a most definite musique concrete direction. Over the four tracks we are treated to some deep, rumbling, distortion laden dark ambient ('Favour for a Favour') which segues into the claustrophobic 'Wine Into Water', all harsh electronics and cavernous drones. 'Simply Red Stripe' continues the theme but has a trace of rhythm and something approaching a beat. ‘Your Mum’s a Provincial Rock Club’, apart from being hands down the track title of the year thus far, is a glorious cacophony of electronics, static and machine noises that climaxes in a white hot blast of white noise. 'Appetite for Tax Deduction' is not an easy listen but for anyone with fond memories of the proto-industrial experimentation of Throbbing Gristle, the early electronica of Severed Heads and the pioneering electroacoustic artists this is a pretty essential tape....this, and the anarchy of the band's legendary live shows, sees them becoming very important artists in the more experimental/noise scene....great stuff! Head over to the band's Bandcamp page here for the ltd cassette (C33 Cassette on translucent green tapes - ltd to 50) and the download, both a snip at £5.





I don't know a lot about the next submission, barring an email from BLISSS, "an artist, producer, collector, generally good fellow". I do know that he has curated a wonderful mixtape, 'Siamese Dreams' - in his own words: "Transversing across Southeast Asia lately, collecting rare morsels of sonic bliss, I've compiled a mixtape of some of the tastiest psychedelic jams from Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, and Vietnam dated 1969-1973. This music was the voice of the yearning and dying spirit of Southeast Asia during WWII, a voice that never reached mainstream media and was drown out by massive music entities such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, etc. These are songs of love, and what war does to love." Not a great deal more to add apart from urging everybody to give it a listen....it is full of some ace ethnic psychedelia and exotic jams that are both evocative and enthralling - essential listen