Gangleri – musicreviews

I always thought that Land:Fire was a dark ambient project. I have some music on compilations and maybe I (unconsciously) heard that Herbst9 is another project of this duo, but when I recently heard a great noise track of Land:Fire it became time to really listen to this project. “Shortwave Transmission” opens brilliantly with very dark ambient noise with industrial rhythms. There indeed are a few dark ambient tracks, but the larger part is really my kind of noise. Great material!
Links: Land:Fire, Power & Steel

At this year’s WGT I bought the shirt of this album (since it wasn’t black) and I figured I might buy the album with the shirt! As you all know, Inade makes dark but meditative dark ambient soundscapes and their latest album is no exception. “Incarnation…” is not a masterpiece, but has some very good tracks and some nice experimentation with sounds and voice. For some reason also this album has arguments with my cd-player, just like that other Inade cd that I have and contrary to all my other cds. Anyway, much better dark ambient than the recent CMI releases and also for lovers of the more ‘ritualistic’ side of the genre.
Links: Inade, Loki Found

I don’t listen to dark ambient all that much. I do like the music, but I find it often too monotous or (nowadays) not dark enough. Loki has always been a label that tracked down the better industrial and ambient projects, also projects that have a nice twist in their sound. Incendium II is almost completely a dark ambient compilation. It has the maximum length and old and new bands on it. The tracks are certainly varried enough, most of them are pretty good as well and there is some pretty dark stuff here. Therefor I suppose that for the few euros that this compilation goes, you can get some of the better stuff here. Of course, this being a label compilation, all tracks can be found on other Loki releases as well.
-3-

Slow, dark and minimal soundscapes. If you like the style, Loki could be your label. Inade, Herbst9, Combative Alignment and now Circular. However the description sounds a bit like the ‘avarage’ CMI-release, Loki releases usually sound a bit different, but I think that if you like the dark ambient CMI-sound, you will also enjoy the releases of the projects that I mentioned. Personally I find the Loki dark ambient sound often a bit too monotous and the same goes for Circular. They sure set a very dark atmosphere, but sometimes I get the feeling that not enough happens in this music. Nice, but not brilliant.

In an extremely luxery box comes this compilation of the German Loki label. A label that with the growing acceptance of more extreme ideas in the gothic scene gets more distribution and knowledge.
As expected from this label, the compilation has a theme. It is dedicated to the Grandloge “Fraternitas Saturni” in Berlin, which is an irregular, magical masonic lodge. At first sight there also seems to be a link to Satanism here (a Saturn/Satan connection?) because of the cover which is a painting of a face of that looks a lot like that of A.S. LaVey. The face just represents a demon though.
But, let us move to the music. The bands featured here are Inade, Herbt9, Blood Axis, First Law, SRP, Predominance, Endura and Turbund Sturmwerk. Definitely not the least bands and all in close relation to the Loki-circle. All tracks are pretty minimal dark ambient tracks, so you should not expect any bombasm, not even from Blood Axis or Turbund Sturmwerk. None of the tracks belong to the best that I have heard of the various projects, which is a bit of a pitty. Blood Axis brings a piece of spoken word. A poem accompanied by violin-playing and some synthetic sounds. Turbund’s track is pretty typical, but fits the musical concept of this compilation very well. The Endura track sounds similar to what they do on “The Watcher”. When you know Inade you will have a good idea of what to expect here. Predominance are not as industrial as usual and then we have to bands that I never heard music of. Herbst9 just released a cd on Loki, but their track is not too good. SRP contributed with a great track, but I don’t know anything about them further.
This box is pretty expensive and I recommand it only to people who really admire the bands on this compilation.
However I don’t really like the cover painting, the rest of the artwork is really beautiful.
Please check out the rest of these pages for reviews of releases of some of the featured projects. <13/6/00><3>

I almost missed it, this cheap compilation of the fine Loki label. I was thinking, I know Loki for 8 or 9 years now but I don’t have many of their releases, mostly some of the older tapes. Still I know most of the tracks on this compilation. It proved to be a label promotion compilation with tracks from older releases. If you are not too familiar with Loki, this cd is a good introduction. Loki freaks will already have everything. Darkambient lovers may want to get this cd anyway. Personally I think most dark ambient on Loki is too monotous.

I was excited to hear that there was new material of Turbund. A box, second in the “Germania Occulta” series of Loki, that was started with the “Saturn Gnosis” compilation. This time dedicated to the esoteric writer Christian Georg Schultz (living around the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century) who took the name Peryt Shou. According to the booklet “Peryt” refers to “ray” of light (snake) and “Shou” to the god of air. “Peryt” is the sowing time in the Egyptian mythology and “Shou” the first generation of gods, but also the feather of thruth. Anyway, the gatefold sleeve has an article of Peryt Shou and in the box there is a book in 10” format with more info about the project.
To the music then. The Turbund side isn’t very impressive, too monotous ambient. The Inade side is already a bit better, some darker industrial/ambient. A bit like the Saturn Gnosis box, visually and informationally impressive, but musically not too much.

In 1996 this strange German industrial act debuted with an lp on L.O.K.I.-Foundation. I believe it was the first full-length on that label back then. Soon Turbund reached some kind of a cult-status in the alternative industrial scene. They were compared to the (then still upcoming) American Blood Axis, even though the music isn’t really similar.
Anyhow, in 1997 there was a no-so-interesting 7″ and last year the debut was re-released on cd. Now there’s Weltenbrand. It’s still an odd form of industrial. It’s very melodic, sometimes orchestral, but also rather harsch at times. Sometimes there’s singing, but at other times Turbund can be pretty militant as well. Always there’s this mystical atmosphere around the music which is unlike anything else that I know.
Also again there’s a lot of (German) text in the booklet, which is the carrying of the philosophical part of this project.
I like this quite a lot and anyone into tranquil industrials might too.

In a beautiful digipack comes the new offering of Predominance from Germany. Fortunately it doesn’t sound like their contribution to the “Collapse” festival sampler (noise), but it is in their dark industrial/ambient style. As we know from another compilation (“Book ov Shadowz”) the band isn’t afraid of using vocals (singing and talking), which they do in a few tracks.
I don’t like the first two tracks too much, but after those Predominance presents their wonderfull extremely dark ambient with a lot of industrial influences. Extremely low frequencies, minimalistic approach, just not too monotous and not too many samples. One track may sound a bit like Deutsch Nepal with slow, hypnotic rhythms, while the next is a dark soundscape with no rhythm whatsoever.
Unfortunately the cd is pretty short (not even 41 minutes) and not all tracks are equally good, but overall I find this cd quite enjoyable. <5/1/01><4>

Predominance is an industrial project that wanders the outsides of the German industrial scene. This lp was probably released somewhere around the change 98/99 on a label that is finally harvesting some recognition. As you may expect from Loki, it’s a strange piece of industrial. It’s quite atmospheric, but can at times be pretty dark. Both heavy pieces and sung vocals are to be found on the transparant vinyl. Minor point is that sometimes the tracks stay too much the same. Further there’s little negative to say about this lp. Another proper Loki release!