James Ferraro - Live at Primavera Sound 2012

Ye Holy Gods! Among all the fine outer limits music outfits that perform at Primavera Sound every year, James Ferraro’s set must’ve been one of the most hypnotic and dazzling. A strange combination of heavenly drones, New New New Age synthesizer noodling and a contantly looping somewhat IDM-ish mutant beat that has no end. Even though Ferraro was well into the “Far Side Virtual” era at this stage (2012), he managed to perfectly blend his earlier crystal healer ambient with the newer vaporwave phase of his oeuvre. 25 minutes of trippertronic bliss. Highly recommended!!

Peace Arrow - ↑↓↑↓

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Remember Hear Hums from a while ago? Fuck you, you don’t. Shame on you! There’s a fresh new project by Gainesville resident Mitch Myers, who made the sound as delicate as the fresh spring growth. This time the vocals are added to the carefully arranged and meticulously composed pieces, creating a floating, ornamental tapestry of sound that engulfs and transports you. Do I sound fucking stoned? Highly recommended.

Sun Araw Band - Two From the Desert: Yucca Valley 2012

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Cameron Stallones’ Sun Araw has been pumping ultra-lazy/hazy psychedelic dubby blues since 2007 and with every album he tries to reform his sound without losing the gently flowing tropical aura. “Two From the Desert” is a documentary of two concerts that took place in the sunburned flats of the Yucca Valley in October 2012 as the Sun Araw Band, with two additional members enhancing the vision in the scorching sun. Impressive, trippy and lengthy live performance recorded with great quality. Available for just 3 dollars. Recommended!

Joonatan Elokuu - The Tower & The Hanged Man

Amsterdam, Netherlands based bard Joonatan Elokuu conjures magic with his bucolic string ballads with a certain penchant for Christian choral music and bits of Gregorian choirs. It’s delicate as a flower on the cover, touching psychedelia gently, coloring up the song collection hidden within. Too hear his more abstract, ambient-oriented work, check out “Earth, Sky, Moon & Sun” ready to swallow you whole, Brian Eno style.

Apollo Vermouth / Skamp - A Simple Sadness

Sometimes the simplest things are the deepest and the most effective of all. A Simple Sadness, a split between Milwaukee units Apollo Vermouth and Skamp. The first one does a heavenly, minimalistic wall guitar drone while the latter play deconstructed punk with a neurotic math rock edge. It’s fiuckin messy and lo-fi as shit, as it’s supposed to be. As Apollo V. reminds us on their 15 minute monoliuth epic: DON’T BE SAD!

TVNOISE - IIOII B

Chilled as fuck, lazily flowing psychedelic Germanik autobahn musik, picking up a frenetic pace on the course of the near 14 minute krautrock journey “I N T O / We Are the Jungle”. Gently flowing between guitar-susatined ambient atmospherics and plodding sludge rock into a rainforest like foggy heat haze. The album cover is a warning. But don’t be afraid to swim in deep water. Highly recommended!

Done - Territories

Chris Cubbison, describes the music of his solo Done project under extremely laconic terms: “drone usa”. But despite this lack of specific information, “Territories” isn’t as flat and monotonous as you might expect from a bedroom artist putting his music on the net for free. Actually, there’ s a lot of work involved: there are ofen vocals, sometimes distant and moaned, otherwise sung or at least intoned to some ghostly melody. There are some percussive sounds, some rhythm and of course some drone - sometimes it’s soft and silky, existing in the background, sometimes it grows to become harsh and unpleasant like that of Ajilvsga.  Doomy slowcore meets guitar noise. Worth checking out.

Упал В Муку - Monday Night Fever

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If you listen to this album more than three times in a row, chances are you will turn into the man from the cover: a wise, soul-travelling shaman with a large beard, slightly deranged, but enlightened. Like the bastard child of sound collage makers and Flying Lotus. Insane plunderphonic IDM excursions from the Russian wilderness.

Bridgetown Records on Bandcamp

Here’s a real treat for fans of widely-understood ambient music and cassette labels in general: one of the strongest players in the scene, Kevin Greenspon’s Bridgetown Records, have uploaded pretty much all of their catalog to Bandcamp, so now you can stream and listen to every cassette ever released by that imprint, but also buy the tape (if still availbale) or digital version for a really cheap price. 5 years. Over 60 releases. Go for it!

Bridgetown Records on Bandcamp

Notthere - Suspense and Denial

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Monumental, all-enveloping work from the looming, heavy Los Angeles post-smog cloud Notthere, exhausting both in lenght of pieces and the number of them, elegantly topped with a fittingly minimal and apocalyptic cover. Sleepy ambient (sometimes straight up dark ambient!) blends perfectly with occasional harsher, cinematic drones. Will drift you off to sleep on a rainy day in no time. Highly recommended. For the cloudier days.