The Declining Winter

Stunning solo album from Paul Elam of Declining Winter. Glitchy electronica, tape hiss and gaseous ambient are combined with organic instrumentation within a set of short tracks which condense avant garde styles into near pop formats. Each melody and timbre takes a careful and considered approach; every sound appears at exactly the right time to have the maximum affect, showcasing Elam's compositional craft. Whether it is through found sounds, processed loops, or instrumentation, the creation of rich melodies is what drives the album, an approach that recalls the likes of Boards of Canada and Fennesz.

Christmas Album is the sixth studio album by Boney M.. It was recorded in the summer of 1981 and released on 23 November 1981.

Rapoon is the ethno-ambient solo project of Zoviet France co-founder Robin Storey, operating out of the United Kingdom since 1992. Robin was born in 1955 in Cumbria, England. While studying fine arts at Sunderland University, he began pursuing a long-held interest in sound manipulation by taking classes in electronic and experimental composition, additionally joining with friends to perform the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (a key influence, as were the krautrock bands of the early 1970s). In 1979 Storey formed the pioneering industrial group Zoviet France, remaining a member until 1993; the year previous, Storey issued the first Rapoon album, Dream Circle, its entrancing fusion of Indian ragas, African rhythms…

World Gone Wild is a collection of all the Doro albums that were released by Universal (with bonus tracks where available). The former vocalist with Warlock has had a 20 year plus career and these albums represent some of her finest works – presented for the first time in one set this collection is a great starting point for the casual and fervent fan of this brand of Teutonic Heavy Metal. All the albums have been re-mastered and the box contains a booklet with notes by Classic Rock’s Malcolm Dome.

Plying their trade in the fertile San Francisco scene of the late '60s, Crystal Syphon's name was only known to aficionados through viewing copies of old SF gig posters and through the index of bands at the back of Ralph Gleason's book on the rise of Jefferson Airplane. Then both their studio and live 1967-1969 archival recordings were discovered that replaced the imagination with true grooves in 2012 and 2015 with the release of 2 LPs on Roaratorio Records. Trying to find comparison with other Bay area bands from that era has proven a bit fruitless as they don't specifically evoke any of the heavy hitters of the era. They have a bit of a dreamy, stoned vibe with some great harmonies and some have compared their style to Quicksilver Messenger Service (John Cipollina was their idol!!) as well as H.P. Lovecraft. As with so many bands of the era, the draft, time and declining fortunes signaled the end of the band. There is some great guitar work alongside the Farfisa organ in the extended jams, and fans of the west-coast sound should delight in these recordings.

WMRI is Russian synthesist Mike Winchester. He has quite a few releases spread throughout the Internet, on sites like Jamendo, AmieStreet, Bandcamp, etc. And while much of it is quite good, I feel that his work really shines on a series of recent releases that he alludes to as the “Ambient Gem Series”.

~ Free Floating Music