Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: Sunfear is a project from Turkish multidisciplinary artist Eylul Deniz who now returns to Dark Entries with her sophomore album. Deniz has been making waves in sound since 2017 when she debuted her blend of ambient and experimental music using piano, guitar, voice and synths as tools for storytelling and self-expression. Inspired by Dante's Love That Moves the Sun and Other Stars, Pessoa's poems and Turkish poet Lale Muldur, this darker follow-up to Octopus channels some of her own personal loss and grief. Tracks like 'Above' pair sparse guitar riffs with swirling electronics, 'Bright and Wild' contrasts lush drones with jagged feedback and there are also hints of hope in the likes of 'Form Changed.' A great return.

Review: Some four years have passed since Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley last donned the Sunn O))) alias. Given that the Seattle duo is also approaching 20 years as a working partnership, "Life Metal" - which also includes significant contributions from bassist Tim Midyett and Icelandic composer (and former Pan Sonic member) Hildur Gudnadottir - seems like a timely release. An epic track given to each side of vinyl, this album acts as a precursor to a sister album called Pyroclasts that will be released later in 2019. The ensemble cast brilliant layers up fuzzy, elongated guitar riffs, droning, effects-laden feedback, clandestine ambient textures, electric cello and occasional spoken word vocals. The album peaks via a 25-minute closing track of breathtaking intensity and mind-altering execution, but the journey to get there is equally as impressive. It's a wall of sound that only the safe ears of Steve Albini, produced entirely using analog tape, could deliver. An eighth studio album that's a beast of nebulous lustre.

Review: On their seventh album, The Breaks, SUUNS embrace limbo and craft their most emotionally resonant and sonically rich work to date. The Montreal trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush, and Liam O'Neill dive deeper into pop instincts than ever before here while also pushing their experimental rock boundaries. With O'Neill at the production helm, they explore loops, synths and MIDI instruments that might well draw to mind Tangerine Dream and certain downtempo trip-hop acts. The album was forged over two years of touring and remote collaboration and blends whispered intimacy with vast soundscapes best exemplified in tracks like 'Doreen' and the superbly adventurous title song.

Review: Damo Suzuki was with seminal krautrock outfit Can from 1970 to 1973, lending his vocal talents to albums such as Tago Mago, Future Days and Ege Bamyasi. Exactly fifty years after the latter LP, you can hear him on this new recording described as being 'derived from fantasy'. In collaboration with Spiritczualic Enhancement Center, an eight-piece group of self-proclaimed disciples from the CAN University that gathered at Berlin-based club Arkaoda, it feaures three tracks; 'U', 'Ra', 'Beya' - excerpts from this gathering at the beginning of 2020.

Review: American industrial kings Swans' latest offering unfurls across a sprawling 19-minute journey, building a tension that is as much about space as it is about sound. The first half, marked by 'The Healers' and 'I Am A Tower,' feels like an unyielding force, as if the music itself is evolving into something beyond human comprehension. Gira's voice, thick with grit, clashes with the deep rumble of guitars, creating a rhythm that seems to pulse from a primal core. The journey picks up momentum through 'Red Yellow' and 'Guardian Spirit,' where the sound bends and twists, its drone-like qualities alternately lulling and unsettling. By the time 'Away' takes hold, the track feels less like a song and more like an emotional release, with each successive wave stripping something away, leaving raw, exposed moments in their wake. A visceral experience that demands patience and reflection, with each track revealing layers of complexity.

Review: The Beggar is a mightily impressive 16th studio album from Swans. It is founding member Michael Gira who has written and produced it with some fine contributions from both current and past Swans members, plus members of Angels Of Light a guest spot from Ben Frost. This record emerged from the lockdowns of 2020 onwards and the sense of isolation that brought. The songs came easily, says Michael, once he came to terms with that and were informed by the fact that he worried these might be his last new writings. I they are, they are some of his best.

Review: It's hard not to feel moved by Swans. To quote Wayne's World, it's not just a clever name, but rather a band every bit as graceful yet ferocious, beautiful but strong as the bird borrowed from. Take "Annaline", for example. As the first track-proper of this spellbinding collection it's a stop-you-in-your-tracks masterpiece that could force silence on a stadium despite being softly spoken, subtle and serene. It's a motif the outfit seem focused on for this, their 15th studio album. Even at its loudest, title track "Leaving Meaning" mostly plays out like a deranged sermon in some temple of experimental rock. "Sunfucker", for example, has enough reversed-out refrains to make anyone feel they might be in over their head with forces they can't see, let alone comprehend. "It's Coming It's Real" is a display of dark hypnosis. "The Hanging Garden" paints nervous abstract pictures with psychedelic-leaning guitar hooks and manic vocal cries. Put simply, it's perhaps their tensest, most introverted and spellbinding work to date.

Review: Manafon by David Sylvain of Japan fame is an underrated gem. The electroacoustic improvisation, complete lack of drums, coupled with Sylvain's voice right at the front of the mix, makes for an ambient, freeform and highly experimental sound. The art-pop sonics that saw him gain success in the 70s and 80s is left firmly in the past and he's doing exactly the music he wants hear - not what's expected of him commercially. Now, on vinyl for the first time, comes remixes by classical contemporary genius Dai Fujikura - he wrote the string parts - of six songs from said album. There's also new songs, heavily influenced by Fujikura and an 18-minute piece ('When We Return You Won't Recognise Us') culled from a much longer sound installation that Fukikura and Sylvain created together for the 2008-09 Biennial of Canaries in Gran Canaria. How music this sublime hasn't been on vinyl from the start is beyond us. Thankfully, that's now rectified.

Review: You can go one of two ways as an artist when you've had pop success early in life: you keep the wheel because the wheel isn't broken. Or you change the wheel and reinvent yourself and make music that's true to yourself and not guided by commercial expectation. David Sylvain has done the latter with aplomb. At the time of making this album, which is the companion album to Blemish (2003) and now on vinyl for the first time, he was free from the shackles of a major label and diving headfirst into improvisation. You can't even faintly hear echoes of the band that made his name - new wave icons Japan. For these remixes Sylvian worked with the likes of Ryoji Ikeda, Burnt Friedman, and Readymade FC, although some songs were re-recorded rather than remixed. 'Late Night Shopping', remixed by Friedman, is a great entry point to this work, with dark beats and eerie noises, making for an atmospheric triumph. This is an album that pushes music as an artform forward. Long may Sylvain continue.