YELWORC -The Ghosts I Called (Digital) (Metropolis Records) The last period has been a bit turbulent, for example last year vinyl releases appeared in very limited editions and now there is this “The Ghosts I Called” that mainly wants to serve an American market, it seems, and for the time being (?) only digitally is available. The songs presented here date back to 2013 and are mainly instrumentals laced with menacing, esoteric and occult samples. So it never becomes really danceable, rather 'atmospheric' and pitch black, sometimes even a bit tending towards ambient bits of sadness or menace. Less energy and no more haphazard “Blood In Face” but sometimes even a bit subdued and almost sacral, then dark and menacing like the gaping mouth of a demon. This release deserves a mention, because with the right attitude, songs like “Mute Voices”, “The Way The World Ends”, the most danceable “The Inner Dialogue”, “Hypnotic Mile ” or “Babylon's Code” get the fear out of you. YelworC no longer screams but is still just as intense and dark, even with age. MERCIFUL NUNS - Oneironauts (CD/Digital) [KI] (Solar Lodge/Alive!) “Oneironauts” as the opening song is divided into 4 parts, and in “The Gate” it blows us icily and enthusiastically towards 'hypnos' (sleep) where “The Watcher” (part 2) welcomes us in our dream with pounding guitars,'let us dream' while those guitars fly around like hypnotic 'saphlets'with occasional atmospheric rest points to fall deeper into the dream, 'keep dreaming'... and so on to the third part, to the pineal gland, the third eye of clear insight to travel into “The Innerverse”...'a place where spirits and the mind collide' on the backbone of a thumping and rumbling bassline. Finally, “Rise And Fall Of Kvltan” is the final destination rock from the depths of our sleep, hard and passionate… This “Oneironauts” is (again) a feat, a story, an escape and a search for what Artaud Seth calls the origin of all religion,this time by searching within ourselves for our third eye,our own light and our own God. [KI] ANTLER RECORDS - Early Years Vol 1 (Vinyl) (Antler Records) “Antler Records - Early Years Vol 1” features 12 songs of premature Belgian new wave, post-punk, cold wave, from the absolute early years of the label. The compilation opens with cult figures Luc Van Acker and Didi De Paris with their version of the “Lord's Prayer”, followed by the biting “Obsession” from the newly emerging Siglo XX. Punk for dark days, just like “Misery” by Suspects, a post-punk new wave anthem from the fertile Flemish farmland. Neue Sachlickeit is the only formation that gets two songs, the single “Ice / Painless Rage” from 1981, which gives a sound with a somewhat funky approach to the fresh newwave wind of the 80s. ... This first volume, "Early Years," from the Antler label, once again shows how creative, idiosyncratic, and passionate music was handled at the beginning of the 80s, inspired by the 'do it yourself'mentality of punk.Music was fun, but also a connection—a view of the world and'the human condition'.This vinyl compilation is a piece of Belgianmusic history, a reflection of the times, a hint of nostalgia, but also a wake-up call because as the old sang, so do the young ones. Charming, retro, and vintage, containing the seeds of a new modernity.Diverse and layered, yet always captured in the same atmosphere. [KI] KIRLIAN CAMERA - Radio Signals For The Dying (CD/Vinyl/Digital) (Dependent) A voice beautifully wrapped in idiosyncratic pop tunes such as the sensual “Stella Ominis”, “Goetter Geht Weg”, the beautiful “CRUD (Corpse Recovery Unit D)” or the dreamy future pop anthem “The Great Unknown”. Electronically controlled avant-garde pop that borrows from techno and light experiment.However, the beginning of“Radio Signals For The Dying” is rather dark with the deep “Il Tempo Profondo” (can be found later in a more accessible 'radio signals' version), while “Madre Nera” breathes neoclassical, something that also applies for the semiacoustic footnote “Deleted Msg” or “Esilio”.On songs like “Genocide Litanies”,“Luminous Shade”, “Homicide Aristocracy” or “We Have To Amputate” the more experimental and avant-garde side of Kirlian Camera emerges, to a greater or lesser extent.“Winter” is a cover ode to The Sound frontman Adrian Borland as only Kirlian Camera can deliver. There is no shortage of diversity, just to say the least. Great work but did I expect anything different? [KI] Read the full reviews on http://www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be/en/reviews/ - 27 - www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be
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