N.O.H.A.: N.O.H.A. (2012)

Usually, I don't get a lot of inspiration from the radio: this is one of the few exemptions: N.O.H.A. from the Czech Republic. They utilize a pretty wide range of styles with drum n bass being the most prominent one. N.O.H.A. received a lot of airplay for the 2007 song "Tu Café" with its extremely sense making lyrics ;)

The project was founded by Philip Noha with different singers and MCs and they started with a self titled album back in 1997. The band itself is extremely diverse with members from Prague, New York and Sao Paulo.

N.O.H.A.'s releases cover a pretty wide range of styles from trip hop to drum n bass and this is a self compiled selections of their best songs distilled out of their regular releases. On this compilation my favourites are the extremely funky "No Slack" and the pop track "Nasty".

N.O.H.A. appears to be also an excellent live band and you can convince yourself with the live tracks at the end of the youtube list. Unfortunately it appears that they are only performing in the Czech Republic this year.

The cover of this compilation is "stolen" from a Reed Danziger painting which I found through the amazing inspiring blog Basic Sounds.

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Richard Devine: Lipswitch (2000)

This album was a revelation for me: something new opening my world to a complete new sort of music. While there was an Ambient explosion in the early 1990's (which I did not experience myself) the end of the millennium saw the IDM or experimental electronic music explosion. A major driver to this "revolution" was the increased capabilities of computers as musical instruments and the abundance of software samplers. These allowed the dissection and reassembly of any sound resulting into totally new pieces of music. One of the pioneers of this genre is surely Richard Devine. His soundscapes are extensively crafted forming complex structures and amazing results. A majority of the tracks of Lipswitch are beat-less and require active listening. My favourite tracks on this record are Kepter and Route, Increment.

Today, ten years later things have shifted again and a new generation of laptop artists appeared but this release still sounds very fresh to me. Nowadays, with no official release in five years Richard Devine focuses on his own sound design company and film music and some new tracks can be found at soundcloud.

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Autechre: Laxir - Autechre Remixes 1994-2005

I've always been a big fan of Autechre's work. With their genuine style of electronic music which varies from catchy IDM tunes to (quite) abstract soundscapes they always manged to add something very exciting to their records. Besides the large number of albums and eps they were also busy as bees putting out a large number of remixes. Unfortunately, an official compilation was never released (maybe due to rights issues?) and so a couple of years ago I compiled a 6 disc home brew collections of Autechre's remixes all created between 1994-2005.

The tracks which are in rough chronological order display also the evolution of Autechre and more general the the change of electronic music over a decade. From dreamy ambient tracks like Saint Etienne's "Like A Motorway (Skin Up, You're Already Dead)" over to pushing tracks like Merzbow's "Ecobondage [Ending] Ae Remix" and abstract pieces like Hecker's "Itiso161/ae". My favorites are probably "Autechre Play Weissensee Against Im Glück" (composed by Neu!) with its drifting beats and the beautiful collaboration with post rockers Tortoise on "Ten-Day Interval (Adverse Camber)". The youtube playlist below features some of the compilation's tracks.

This version of Laxir is the second version which was finished in 2008 seeing some minor updates and including some cover artwork. You will also find included in the archives a text file with more specific information about the individual tracks. Cheers!

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Black Era: The Tunnel EP (2006) / Third Eye Guerrilla EP (2009)

Time for favorites again this time with netaudio act from Naples, Italy: Black Era. I don't know much about the band's history but they are around since 2004 with a couple of EPs and full releases. Essentially, Black Era is trip-hop with fine female vocals (Dy Darshan) and smooth electronic sounds (Blob) and guitars (Allfuzz).

The band's sound is a strong reminiscence to the British Trip-Hop sound from the 1990's though the band clearly sets its own distinctive style. The first EP I picked for this review is The Tunnel EP published in 2006. The four songs feature brilliant songwriting with my personal highlight being "Trilateral - Realize U Are".

Thought this is an electronic act the band is very outspoken about politics with references e.g. to Noam Chomsky. The second EP Third Eye Guerrilla brings along 5 fine songs with my favorite being The Gift (Tongueless).

Black Era is also a very active live act so if you're happen to be in Naples you should check them out.

All Black Era releases are under CC which means they are free to distribute. If you like to support the artists you can also buy selected releases directly at the label aquietbump.

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The Tunnel EP (2006)
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Third Eye Guerrilla EP (2009)
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Harold Budd / Ruben Garcia / Daniel Lentz: Music For 3 Pianos (1992)

This is definitely one of my favorite, timeless, ambient classics. 18 years after its release it still sounds like it was recorded just yesterday. Basically, this peace of music contains of 6 sketches of piano music distilled into 22 minutes of beautiful music. Though I would say that this is ambient music all sounds are produced merely by Pianos and so it is essentially comparable to its genre founder Ambient 1: Music For Airports by Brian Eno. The trio Budd / Garcia / Lentz explores the space between music and silence and to such an extend how of the highest order, in which the echoes and silences mean as much as the notes themselves.

‘Pulse, Pause, Repeat’ opens the record with a mood of melancholic reflection, and by the time ‘Music for 3 Pianos’ comes to a close with the quiet but triumphant ‘La Casa Bruja’ you realise that for its short duration you have been drawn into another world. This is Budd’s (and his companions) true strength, to remove you from everyday life and make music which belongs someplace else. Amazing music.

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