OPM: Something New, Something Old

The Human Veil – Breath of Morning

Ambitious, sprawling and ever-evolving soundscape that blends elements of drone, dungeon synth, noise, musique concrete, lo-fi and more into a dark but inviting listening experience. Clocking in at nearly two hours, split into four continuously mixed, ever-changing tracks, this album is truly an audio journey. 

Things take their time to unfold, but nothing sticks around so long enough to get bored of. Everything from tinkling, mysterious piano lines to bursts of harsh noise is fair game, and it’s all fit together with a masterful touch. An impressive exploration of sound and mood that rewards patient, attentive listening but also works just fine as background music.  

(Listened to the entire album)

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Kristoffer Lislegard – Subsupra 

A mysterious and intriguing post ambient release that deconstructs electronic music tropes to impressive results. According to the album notes, the work is an exploration of foregrounding elements typically relegated to supporting roles, and the listening experience bears that out. 

Odd burbling sounds, percussive ticks, shards of conversation and other oddball elements often take the lead. Weird shifts of timbre and tone dominate, while quiet melodies and nearly subliminal rhythms percolate along in the background. It all makes for a somewhat unsettling listening experience, but there’s a lot to like here if you have the attention span to appreciate it.

(Listened to tracks 1 thru 4)

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XymMusic – Locked Down

A four-track EP of absolutely raw and primal electro punk. Urgent, anxious and angry by turns, with an ultra minimal instrumental approach and stark emotional vulnerability. The bare bones production might turn some off, but it’s hard to imagine these songs having the same immediacy in a more polished setting.

(Listened to the entire EP)

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Fugue State Audio – “Coming Through”

Immense sounding electronica with tendrils of ambient, breakbeat, techno and IDM entwined together into a muscular groove. A deep soundstage and some immersive sound design cement the parts into a single, all-encompassing sonic whole. It’s the title track of an album, so if you like this, there’s 10 more tracks in a similar vein to check out. 

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Psychic Tides – “Go By Train”

A slow, sensuous and ever-shifting track that you can file this somewhere between the ambient side of soundscape and a particularly chill take on post rock. A heavily treated guitar (I think?) takes the “lead” as the most prominent musical element, sliding up and thru and around washes of reverby sound, disembodied voice and quiet sound fx. 

If you dig it, there’s two more longform (one’s 16 minutes; the other is 24) tracks in a similar vein on the Reflections on a Train album this comes from. 

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