Uruk-Hai - Elbentraum

Most projects with names taken from Tolkien’s books, maybe except for some black metal bands, are pretty cheesy. At least from the ones I’ve heard. The website promoting this album made it sound pretty interesting, and because I like both ambient and Tolkien’s writings I thought I would give it a try.

The first few seconds of this album gave me hope for something decent, but unfortunately my hopes left me after the first track progressed. It is cheesy indeed, and not really in the fun way. The music sounds a bit amateurish, like the soundtracks of early fantasy games. Pretty random sounds, bells tinkling and the “epic” and dramatic sound was not a good sign for the rest of the album.

The next two tracks are on a pretty similar level with some surprising moments, like the fast beat on Baggins for example. It all doesn’t sound so bad, but kind of like the producer forced himself to make a “fantasy”” sounding album forgetting about how the tracks sound as a whole.

As the album goes on the situation gets a little better. Song of the Ainur is decent and finally sounds like a complete track. The last track saves the album a little. It’s twenty four minutes and by far the calmest, closest to ambient on the album. It has a pretty nice atmosphere that gets a little spoiled by the tinkling again, but it’s still the best here. Overall the second part of the album is better, but not by much.

I have to say I am disappointed by this release. I was hoping for something much darker, with tracks sounding complete and well thought out. Instead we get pretty lame music, trying too hard to sound adventurous and epic. Instead of creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Tolkien’s world which it was obviously aiming at, it makes you imagine Middle Earth as a world with candy trees and pink rivers. The only time I can see myself listening to it again is as a background for an old Warcraft game or something similar. The producer behind this would be good for making soundtracks for games, only if the music is a bit calmer, more ambient and gloomy.

From what I have read Uruk-Hai’s albums vary a lot. Some can be great and some very poor. Maybe this wasn’t his best effort, but there is definitely some decent qualities here and there. When his next album comes out I will give it a try just to see how it sounds and maybe my opinion might change, but after this I will not be expecting much.

Final grade: 3/10

Pros: 90s game soundtrack music

Cons: Over the top dramatic, cheesy

Tracklist:
1. Elbentraum
2. Laurelin
3. Baggins
4. Song Of The Ainur
5. The Mirror
6. Uruk-Hai Part 6
7. Hobbiton
8. The Glory Of A Dragon (*)

Label: none
Country: Austria
Released: 2010
Genre: Ambient

Links:
MySpace

Evan Bartholomew - Secret Entries Into Darkness

Evan Bartholomew is better known as Bluetech. If you expect to hear something similar on this album you might be disappointed. I did, and I wasn’t as I am not am big fan of his work as Bluetech. I mean sure it sounds great, but I guess I like more organic or ethnic sounding psychill than what his albums offer us. It’s one of the few famous psychill projects that doesn’t really do it for me. Either way I expected something similar as I haven’t really read about this release before checking it out.

First of all it is not similar to Bluetech at all. This release is ambient. Very interesting ambient at that. While some ambient projects, like CBL or Solar Fields for instance are borderline psychill and others are just ambient in its purest form this is something in between. It’s very slow motion, you have time to reflect every sound. It is deep, heavy and if you forget about everything, but the music it makes you feel very unsafe. Like you’re going down some deep and forgotten cavern and you know there is nothing good waiting for you at the end of it. That is the beauty of this album for me. The atmosphere is just amazing.

The thing is you shouldn’t listen to this album as background music, or while focusing on something else because then you will not get the feeling of it. You have to take the music slowly, let yourself float together with the music and then you will be able to judge the whole thing. Otherwise it will probably sound boring, or at least just like any average ambient album.

The track titles are interesting as well. They are great descriptions of what the album is all about. I like the album art too, just like with all Somnia releases.

This is a new side of Bluetech for me and I sure liked it a lot. It certainly needs to be more popular than it is now, but I guess this kind of music is not really accessible. But for all the ambient lovers out there this should be something to look forward to.

Final Grade: 92%

Pros: Atmosphere, titles, artwork

Cons: Doesn’t always work for me, you need to be in a right setting to really enjoy it to the fullest.

Tracklist:
1. Secret Entries Into Darkness
2. Cracks In The Fabric Of The known
3. Soft Spots In The Tyranny Of matter
4. Where Forgotten Days Slumber
5. And Ancient Hurts Dwell
6. Light Reflecting Black In Shadow



Label: Somnia
Country: United States
Released: 2008
Genre: Ambient
Artwork: Ray Massini
Mastered by: Twerk

Links:
Discogs
Somnia

Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer

When I first heard about this album I automatically got intrigued. Something described as “experimental hip-hop combined with jazz, blues, eastern music, early electronic” had to be at least weird. Weird doesn’t have to be good, but I just had to hear it. For those who cannot stand hip-hop don’t worry, this is NOT a hip-hop album. It’s pretty much impossible to classify. Probably like nothing like you have ever heard before.
This album is an amazing journey. It’s really unbelievable how his vocals sound here. I know some might complain and say “there is so many better vocalists”, but for me that is not the point at all. Here it’s all about the emotions he puts into each track, how his voice fits the music perfectly. This is seriously one of the most passionate examples I ever heard. While the vocal is probably the best thing about this album it wouldn’t be the same without the background. The beat, guitar playing even the cracking sound on some of the tracks sound just great, each track sounds like it has been worked on for very long amounts of time, just to make them as perfect as they are now. Another plus for me are the mentioned eastern influences heard on some tracks. They add a nice flavor.

If you take all the styles you can hear on this album and list them on paper they have no right to work together. Gonjasufi managed for that to happen, enhanced everything with his vocal and released what is the best album of the year so far.

Pros: Vocals, eastern influences, I can play it on repeat and it just doesn’t get boring.

Cons: The long silence during the last track and the hidden outro, I’ve never liked that kind of thing.

Rating: 97%

Tracklist: 

01.
02. Kobwebz
03. Ancestors (*)

04. Sheep (*)
05. She Gone. (*)
06. SuzieQ
07. Stardustin'
08. Kowboyz&Indians (*)
09. Change
10. Duet
11. Candylane
12. Holidays
13. Love Of Reign
14. Advice
15. Klowds
16. Ageing
17. DedNd
18. I've Given
19. Made (*)

Label: Warp Records
Country: United Kindom
Released: 8 Mar 2010

Links:
Discogs
Official Website
Warp Records

News about the future of this blog

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I last posted. I am getting back to it now, with just reviews for now and later on I'll start adding news items like I used to. I am also working on a music website where you'll be able to find everything from this blog and more. It's still in the works and I'm not sure when will it be available, but hopefully in about two weeks. It will be basically a place for reviews, recommendations, news etc. focusing on similar genres as this blog. When it's ready I'll post both here and there. For now I'll post two new reviews I have ready in a minute.

Kuba - Bringing It All Back Home

Chillout artist Kuba is back with another album. I admit I haven't heard the middle two yet, just Inside Out which was a cool experience. Before I even got to listen to Inside Out enough for it to grow on me and pick out the best tracks on it I found out he's out with his fourth album. As I haven't heard the other two I won't compare this to his other work.
The album opens with a very chilling Monk Dust. It's a really nice piece, with "tribal" vocals repeating throughout the track. Not very psychedelic or dubby, just good old chillout. The next track is a bit more dubby. Sounds very similar to what I would expect from Kaya Project. Just great. After the first two we get something different. Heavy dub sounds, a psychedelic vibe and reggae vocals. I am not a big fan of this kind of vocals in chillout music, but here they definitely sound good. And as if there wasn't enough happening the listener gets some magnificent flute playing as well. Really cool track, not the best vocals, but they fit well. Track number four is titled They All Went To A Party and it's totally different from the previous three. It's pretty upbeat, almost trancy and a bit monotone, but still one of the best on the album. Perfect soundtrack for a rainy day train ride. The next track is a pretty simple one. Uplifiting guitar playing, flute and a lively beat make it one of the most chilled tracks on the album, but it's a bit on the cheesy side. Still nice to hear. The next track features guitar as well, but I like this one much more. Not as uplifiting and a bit more ambient, very beautiful. Soft female vocals are a very nice addition. The following piece is titled Mushroom Daddy In Dub and it has a lot of reggae influence. Really nice sounds, Kuba really shows how varied his styles can be. Make Me Water is the second trancy track on the album, not really impressive, kind of simple, but still worth a listen. Next on the list is Keep Walking, which has hardly any beat at all and keeps on building up and right when you expect it to climax it dies down and ends. It's very good though, great sounds Kuba offers us. Track number ten is a dubby chillout tune with an ethnic sound. Good one. Next is Maria From Huddersville which has a very heavy feel to it. Not sure what is it about it, but it's one of the best on this release. The outro track is an ambient piece with some vocals, a good ending to the album
This album is an amazing experience. Psychill, trance, dub, reggae, ambient. You hear everything on this one, but none of those styles stands out at any point. Maybe it's a bit inconsistent, but all tracks are at least good. Very positive and uplifiting vibes, perfect for anyone feeling down. While I usually prefer the darker side of electronic music, Kuba knows how to deliver without being cheesy. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5

Standout Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 11
Genre: Chilout, Dub, Psychill, Reggae, Ambient

Release info:

Label: Chillcode Music
Country: Germany
Released: November 2009

Tracklist:

1. Monk Dust
2. Where's Fragga
3. A Shoe String (Spaff Mix feat. Shaky)
4. They All Went To A Party
5. The Sky You Are (Feat. Tiago Coimbra)
6. It Keeps Us Down To Size (Feat. Michele Adamson)
7. Mushroom Daddy In Dub (Feat. Charlie Shuttler)
8. Make Me Water
9. Keep Walking (Feat. Michele Adamson)
10. Bringing It All Back Home
11. Maria From Huddersfield
12. A Tangerine World

I'm back!

Hey everyone and sorry for the long silence! I just moved recently and getting an internet connection took way more than I expected which stopped my progress with the blog and my YouTube channel, but now I'm back and don't expect to have interruptions like this again. A long overdue update is coming up (probably tomorrow) with all the album news. Reviews will follow so I can get back to normal.
For those of you who follow my YouTube channel I invite you back there as well. New upload in progress as I'm writing this ;)