This Russia band founded by two sisters (Kaneveskaya) is back with an ambitious 2 CD album on the story of the universe. This album begins with some space effect before going in the symphonic mode with some delicate guitars and a radical techno break that will become a trademark throughout this 90 minutes journey. The female of Elena Kaneyveskaya made their first appearance on "Methane Rain". We are treated with a big bass sound and a couple of guitar solos. "Gamma Waves has an addictive techno intro before going in many styles of music from the symphonic of Steve Hackett to the Jazz. "Silent World" has an impressive resurgence of the guitars in the middle after some quiet moments. "Valley Oblivion" is a more straightforward song in the style of Mostly Autumn. The second CD is more space and atmospheric. "Following a Neutrino's Flight" is electronic music Tangerine Dream style. As for the epic of 23 minutes "The End of the Satellite Age", it starts with some samples of classic music before getting back to some space and electronic music. There's a clear influence of Mick Oldfield guitar sound on this song. The first CD is more satisfying for me because it covers more ground in music styles, and there is enough good music to give to this more spins. 3.7 stars

— First review of this album —

2016 has been an interesting year for progressive-electronic/ambient icon Steve Roach. A few months back, the artist released two wildly different collaborative works with younger electronic musician Robert Logan, `Biosonic', which fused distinctively modern twitching liquid beats to subdued ambience, and `Second Nature', a sparse and pinpoint-fragile piano-based work. After a free download release `This Place to Be', `Shadow of Time' sees the artist back on his own and returning to the lengthy droning minimalist pieces of contemplative atmospheres and meditative moods he is often associated with these days, but still evolving and refining his work with the precision and subtlety that only a master of the genre can so carefully deliver.

Despite press release statements comparing this new work to two of Roach's defining early releases, `Quiet Music' and the landmark 1984 dreamy and comforting electronic classic `Structures from Silence', `Shadow of Time' also flirts with darker reflective moods and the most careful of softly melancholic ambience. The title even has a somewhat ominous hint of confronting some inevitable things in life that no-one is eventually immune from being faced with, but the music finds a common ground of the dark and light so that the album is neither too airy or too stark.

The opening 38-minute title track, devoid completely of any sort of percussive elements as is the entire disc, unfolds with an aching and reaching sweeping melancholy, but careful repeated listens reveal some skilfully subtle reprised themes that effortlessly weave in and out of the piece, with hopeful slivers of light teeming with life and reassurance beginning to break through and bring a delicate balance in the second half. Caressing synth washes glide through each-other in dreamy, drowsy embraces in the almost 24-minute `Night Ascends' (which is also available in an extended and reworked 78-minute digital download version that will hopefully see a stand-alone CD release in the near future), bringing a sensation of winding down as the day ends and finding solace in sleep with the promise of a new day ahead. `Cloud of Knowing' probably comes closest to the above mentioned important Roach titles (as well as lightly reminding of the opening title-track off his 2014 classic `The Delicate Forever', just without the psychedelic trickles of that one) with approaching and retreating ebbing fuzzy waves that quickly glisten with warmth, and it provides the close of the disc with a sense of hope and contentment, a quality slowly but constantly revealing itself throughout this entire set.

It's sometimes hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the back catalogue of music Mr Roach has, or the amount of effort it takes for one of his works to gradually sink in. But given enough patient listens where the music is allowed to seep into your consciousness, `Shadow of Time' proves to be utterly captivating and deeply moving, a subtle and timeless work of great depth and genuine emotion that grows in power with each new closer listen. Only time itself will reveal if this is one of his true modern electronic classics, but there's every indication it will go on to be counted among his very best.

Four and a half stars (and add an extra star for Michael Karcz's mesmerizing cover art).

Good grief, how bad a single from one of my favourite artists can be. First, I like quite a lot all the early albums by Steve Hackett, definitely including Defector (1980) which contains some atmospheric stuff full of unique, timeless, English charm that I consider to be one of Hackett's trademarks -- witnessed already in the Genesis output, e.g. 'Blood on the Rooftops' from Wind & Wuthering. But Defector is notably more uneven than Steve's preceding solo albums, mainly due to some throwaway songs like 'The Show'. It is musically very mediocre pop song with a kitchy synth riff going on and on. And the lyrics that try to be satirical about rock business, they are hardly even slightly amusing.

I didn't know the B-side song 'Hercules Unchained' in advance, so I listened to it on YouTube. At first I wondered can this really be the right track, or is YouTube accidentally playing me some Slade or something in that vein instead. Noisy electric guitar sound walls of metallic rock'n'roll, and fast-tempo vocals like on the worst songs of Billy Joel (such as 'Still Rock'n'Roll to Me'). The best thing about this horrible song is its length of under three minutes. It has been included as a bonus on Defector's CD release. Frankly to me it would be a very negative, unwanted addition to a fairly nice album.

(One star reviews are very rare in my reviews list, because I prefer to write about music I can recommend to at least someone, but this was just a case of a quick ex tempore review, and if I yesterday gave two stars to a decent album just because I wasn't really turned on by it, this single is a plain one-star release for me.)

It's starting to become difficult for me to distinguish one stoned German prog folk duo from another, but, as one of the better known and respected, WITTHUSER AND WESTRUPP deserve at least equal time. It seems that every recording in their early 1970s run offered a distinct perspective, from barely rehearsed noodling to schlager music. "Trips und Traume" includes aspects of both, with an accent on ostensibly dream like workouts for which neither the journey nor the destination are exhilarating or even satiating. It doesn't impress as meditative music because it's not hypnotic enough, while it doesn't deliver as an active listen because, well, it's a bit too hypnotic. When I do hear the message, or at least the portion that I am able to grasp, the occasional blissful moments on zither, flute and guitar are marred by excessive repetition of themes that were barely supportive the first time.

The only superlative piece is "Illusion 1", which hugs a sparkling guitar/zither melody, for a wondrous 4:47. While "Trippo Nova" and "Orienta" both offer appealing passages, particular the latter, they are overall overlong. It's telling that the opening and closing tracks, closer in spirit to OUGENWEIDE, are probably the other real highlights. In contrast to this energetic excursion, "Karlchen" is annihilated by irritating spoken segments courtesy of Renee Zucker, while the backing acoustic riff, pleasant for 20 seconds, barely shifts in 9 minutes.

Trips und Traume plays like last night's dream, you know, the one you tried so hard to remember, because you were so sure it held something sacred for you to learn from and grow. Unfortunately, when your recollection is triggered by a mundane event at the office, you discover that the dream was not even that interesting. Maybe that's where the drugs come in.

I have loved the soundscapes created by Giancarlo Erra since I first heard them with 2008's wonderful LightDark, but, I have to admit that with each successive release (or discovery--as in the back logue of Sol29) the NoSound sound began to feel old, stale, monotonous. Scintilla offers a bit of a change in direction for Giancarlo Erra and company--more emotional range expressed through sometimes more acoustic, more bare, less electronically filled soundscapes. I like this. A lot. In fact, next to LightDark this is now my favorite

1. "Short Story" (2:24) simple and so sparse in its opening 50 seconds, yet simply gorgeous. When drums and other instruments join in it does spoil the established mood--especially the marching band-like Sigur Rós-like drums. (9/10)

2. "Last Lunch" (7:00) great empty atmospherics and awesome final minute with drums, bass, and distant vocal. My favorite song on the album. (10/10)

3. "Little Man" (4:38) opens with promise as a nice glockenspiel-like keyboard tinkles around, but then drums, guitar and voice enter and it becomes a very typical NoSound song. The chorus is nice and the following return to the simple innocence of the opening keyboard sound is reassuring. Really cool guitar/slide guitar solo in the fourth minute followed by a breakdown into wonderfully sparse simplicity to the end. (8/10)

4. "In Celebration Of Life" (5:34) opens very spaciously with slow, deliberate notes and chords from both electric piano and acoustic guitar. Piano, bass and drums add a nice foundation without taking away from the mood. Giancarlo and Vince Cavanaugh sing of the abundance of life before one of Giancarlo's searing guitar solos takes over. Kind of set up as an instrumental, this is the perfect NoSound song. (9/10)

5. "Sogno E Incendio" (4:44) is a wonderfully romantic song sung in Italian (grâce à Andrea Chimenti). To me, this exemplifies all that is unique and wonderful about Italian pop singers. I would like to hear Giancarlo sing in Italian. I like the guitar tone chosen for the solo in the third minute and then the other screaming one for the finale. More! (9/10)

6. "Emily" (3:19) Though I like the drum, cello and trumpet synth work here, the song sounds weird, tired, and redundant. (8/10)

7. "The Perfect Wife" (7:27) opens with electric guitar arpeggi that sound like they're right out of some classic rock ballad. Then the typical slow-paced rhythm section joins in. Giancarlo sings in a quite, almost folk tone, but then the chorus amps things up--including multiple tracks of Giancarlo's vocal. Nice change up but, in the end, the song does nothing extraordinary. Piano and cello part is okay. (8/10)

8. "Love Is Forever" (2:51) piano based with haunting synth working in the background as Giancarlo sings plaintively, maybe bitterly, between and within. Reminds me of Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas." (8/10)

9. "Evil Smile" (4:33) opens with two drum hits before acoustic guitar, bass, drums, voice and piano complete the ensemble. There's something special about this one that I can't put my finger on--something in the chord or key structure. Or perhaps it's just that more acoustic sound. (9/10)

10. "Scintilla" (6:27) opens with acoustic guitar and 'distant' synth and spacey electric guitar notes. Piano joins and the buzz-saw-like synth sound moves forward causing the soundscape to start to thicken. Singing does not commence until the two minute mark. Giancarlo's stark, untreated voice is front and center but kind of buried by the instruments--a very cool effect! Around 3:35 the voice starts to get a bit overpowered by the instruments but then, as if purposefully, the song switches to a foundation of arpeggiated piano chords--and Giancarlo is finished singing. Sadly, some marching band snares and fake sounding trumpets diminish the song's mood and beauty. Could've been great had they left it alone. (8/10)

A very good album offering a new, more stripped down sound for the NoSound fans.

To begin I will say that this review, although unorthodox, is my review. My point of view in an endless sea of opinions. CTP (Colin Tench Project) - Hair in a G String (Unfinished But Sweet) The folks on this release are very familiar with Colin as some have appeared on Corvus Stone releases in the past. This one has some true genius behind it. I wouldn't go on to say Colin is genius, perhaps a bit mad is more like it, I think anyone who knows Colin can attest to this!! The addition of Mr Pete Jones was nothing short of genius. His addition alone is worth the wait and cost for the cd. Not to dismiss the talents of anyone else such as Phil Naro, Oliver Rusing, Marco Chiappini, Gordo Bennet, Stef, Petri, Robert, Angelo or even the cover art mistress Sonya or the rest of the cast of this project. The point is this is a huge release IMO and the world needs to see that Colin is a very real asset to all the fine partners in this endeavor but to himself as well. My review will, quite frankly be very limited and more of a questionnaire, short questions of course and they are as follow: 1. How can a guy, who was virtually unknown to the world, develop instant classics from Corvus Stone to this release? 2. How does one collect the talent to go along with his madness? 3. How do those fellas and gals put up with the nonsense we know of Colin Tench? 4. Does he ever sleep? 5. What drives him and his consortium of players to go along for the drive itself? 6. And most importantly how can a guy go from one genre or style and simply flip a switch to another? Now that being said I have listened to this 7 times now,7, and it just keeps getting better and better to my ears. I urge all who read this to reach out and hit listen and give this a good thorough open minded listen. If it is your cup of whatever by all means visit the store. This is a 5 star listen. Perhaps his personal Dark Side Of The Moon. Can Colin Tench improve on this?? I have no clue as to how but I certainly will be waiting to find out.

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 66 - LEAVE THE LIGHT ON 25th album out of 60 in 2014 and 96th overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one has 4 tracks that clock in at 30:44

"Leave The Light On" (13:07) commences with heavy guitar riffage and subordinate higher register guitar licks. The bass and drums are completely subordinate to the guitar. This one really picks up where the last track of the last album left off. It is basically a looped in melodic chord progression that has a guitar lick providing the changing it up around it sometimes erupting into virtuosic soloing and sometimes just being chill. These are my least favorite types of tracks from BH. I find these BBBOOORRR-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-NNNGGG!!!! This track is a negative 5 stars and should be enough to cause leprosy in unsuspecting communities far and wide. Maybe an overstatement but i feel the life energy being SUCKED from me when i listen to tracks like this. This track alone is a full warning NOT to buy this freekin' album. Is a dreaded 1 star rating looming? Hmmmm

"Hospitality" (7:15) sorta continues the sound, feel and tones of the alternative metal sounds from the first track. OMG! This is boring. And not the kind of boring that leads to gas extraction. This is fuh-fuh-fuh-king boring SHEE- *IT* that makes me wanna vomit on fly traps and eat edible undies on a sacred holiday. YaAaWwWnNnNnNnnnnnn??..

"The Bellman" (4:59) is a much more energetic type of track that has a more alternative metal approach with a melodic soloing foundation. However it is quite predictable and doesn't amount to much, but does have some cool guitar slides

"This Room Sleeps One And A Half" (5:23) is a totally different beast. It starts off much more energetic in the metal department and then evolves into something more interesting. It has a nice unique mixture of metal, progressive rock bass extenuations and solo guitar. This is immediately the best track of the PIKE in about every way and the sole reason i give this PIKE a 2 star rating instead of 1. The previous three tracks are CRAP! and this is the saving grace making me feel that i didn't waste my life listening and reviewing. This is the reason i sift thru these PIKEs. This track is totally cool with all the BH elements in full regalia. I love this! BH is a genius and tracks like this remind me of the fact. The rest of the album does not

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 65 - HOLD ME FOREVER (IN MEMORY OF MY MOM NANCY YORK CARROLL) 24th album out of 60 in 2014 and 95th overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one has 6 tracks that clock in at 28:37 This is obvious by title that it's a tribute to BUCKETHEAD's mom, Nancy Carroll and while i was expecting a tear jerking parade of instrumental covers of Celine Dion songs, i'm surprised that this is more energetic and upbeat

"N" (3:48) starts out with a sort of chicken clucking rhythm guitar riff with an accompanying bass and drums. This is basically one of those alternative metal type tracks that would be recycled to death on future PIKEs

"Y" (2:36) simply picks up the melody line from "N" and changes things up a bit but adding a stronger drum beat and more mellow break downs. It creates more harmonic counterparts to the melody as well but the basic clucking rhythmic guitar riff is the same

"C" (1:42) is the same track essentially only the tempo is sped up and the guitar begins to shred not only the rhythm part but with a melodic solo as well

"4" (4:49) sorta keeps the same melody going only morphs it a bit. They tempo remains fast but slows down a bit from "C." There is a lot more crunchy thrashy guitar riffage here but still not quite thrash metal. It builds up to a sizzling solo and then backs off into metal riffage with a treble lick enshrouding it. The way things trade off is quite nice

"ev" (2:02) still continues the basic melody and simply changes things up a bit. None of the elements are really that different. Simply slight nuances in timings, rhythmic strutting and dynamics

"er" (13:38) continues the theme and melody with more emphasis on the sizzling virtuosic soloing around the crunchy rhythmic crunchy guitar riffage. The solos get more bluesy and frenetic. This one is also a preview of the many PIKEs that follow as it basically creates an infinity of soloing around a very basic looped melodic process and way before the halfway mark, things get very dull. I think this album is where BUCKETHEAD realized there is a market in music that can be totally cool for background music. Because this is totally cool music if you are focusing on something else. If one listens actively it gets fairly monotonous despite the virtuosic one-dimensional acrobatics at play. If one hears this secondarily it's quite nice. Well, i don't rate music according to if it is a secondary attention factor so i'm quite bored with this one.

Overall not a bad album but the last track which is half the album wears out its welcome pretty fast. I was actually expecting something more dynamic and unique for a tribute to his mother and all. So this was a bit of a surprise that this was sort of a run-of- the-mill type of BH affair. It was pretty cool up until after the first five minutes of the last track though.

3.5 rounded down

— First review of this album —

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 64 - AQUARIUM 23rd album out of 60 in 2014 and 94th overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one has 5 tracks that clock in at 29:08

"Aquarium" (3:50) starts out as heavy distorted metal guitar riffage. Unlike the last PIKE this one is very accessible with traditional heavy metal and an alternative feel rockin' the house. This is a relentless track with tons of distortion, crunchy riffs, heavy bass and pummeling drums. Nothing too special but heavy. The intro and outro chords sorta remind me of Rage Against The Machine

"Without Form" (4:33) begins a similar track to the first meaning heavy, distorted with unrelenting brutality. The tempo is super fast and the guitar, bass and drums are fully caffeinated with some extra ooompf. Once again this one is firing on full flames but sounds a little too similar to track one and the melody is only OK. It does have a slightly off alternative charm and has a few more ingredients to the mix but i'm still not blown away

"Attention Electric Cyclone" (6:08) is completely different. This reminds me of a glam metal band from the 80s. It has a rather repetitive rhythm section and a lead guitar solo that flitters around the riffs. After that intro it becomes more alternative metal sounding. It jettisons the high register lick and and becomes more bassy. It's actually an interesting sort of evolutionary and historical type of metal development. It becomes faster and heavier, deeper bass and even has some echoes. It stays relentless in its pace and the melodic development is pleasant. My favorite track so far. There is also thrash stop and go chords, Van Halen type riffage and some intense riffing that is beyond belief

"Beyond The Windmill" (7:41) is a ska meets polka remake of a Celine Dion song. Just kidding! It's another heavy distorted metal riff track although this one isn't as relentless. It is slightly slower and has a more alternative metal feel. The song structure is more classic 80s metal at times with a noticeable Eddie Van Halen type of riff thang goin' on. Sheeeet

"Hopper Feeding Mash" (6:56) is another energetic number, however while this one has a highly energetic alternative metal guitar riff, it has one of the cheesiest drum beats EVER. The drum is SOOOO annoying that i feel like this is the soundtrack for a box of macaroni and cheese at the discount store. This one is not only not good but highly annoying. There is always a spectrum of great to awful ways of mixing elements and i have to say that this is AWFUL. It should be unlawful. It sounds as if offal was served on a waffle. I just can't get into it

BUCKETHEAD - PIKE 63 - GRAND GALLERY 22nd album out of 60 in 2014 and 93rd overall All sounds brought to you by Buckethead and all instrumental This one has only 2 tracks that clock in at 29:43

"Omplat" (10:02) begins with deep electrified dungeon synth sounds. Kinda like an electrical current that repeats a note for a while and then bends a bit and percolates in strange rhythms. This one very much is a precursor to the countdown to Halloween series that would follow in 2015. There seems to be a melody struggling to emerge from the abyss but just when it starts to take flight some strange jagged irregular sonic interference clips its wings and weirdness ensues. A weird succession of noises sounds like a couple of electronic keyboards "talking" to each other develops with guitar slides added for freak out's sake. Sometimes it sounds like a cat being stretched in a torture device. For the most part this is totally non-musical. This is about as impressionistic and random as it can get and therefore will please very few listeners with some expectation of anything remotely connected to rock, funk or even what most would deem electronica. This is nothing more than a parade of noises that are quite startling and freaky. Think Coil only in cahoots with Nurse With Wound and you'll be approaching the alienating effect. While i mostly love BH's most experimental works, this one is a hard pill to swallow but amazingly effective for evoking the most surreal and alienating response. I do appreciate that! He's simply done it better especially on the Halloween countdown series that follow

"Monster Zero" (19:40) after the jarring ending of "Omplat" this track begins with smooth and calm notes that sorta slide in and out of key. Then an echoey distorted industrial noise bursts into the scene. A guitar goes through some surreal gymnastics as it slides up and down the scale in unintelligible ways. A cello then takes over as it plucks over silence but then the jarring dissonance of the guitar scale comes back. Wow. This is weird stuff that is something between Karlheinz Stockhausen and Merzbow. This can only be classified as noise. There is no musical structure. Sounds are random and little melodic snippets punctuate the chaos of outer sonic space but it is all extremely Musique concrète. Edgard Varèse, John Cage and even Lou Reed would approve if they were around to give this a listen. There is obviously some kind of hidden structure to this. It's pointillistic as hell. There is most likely some sort of obvious melody that has been totally obfuscated and painted over with a scaffolding of sound in the name of art!

This one has the power to scare of burglars, intruders and terrorists alike. Just put this on and clear any room in less than 30 seconds. I'm sure it would also repel rodents and tenacious insects alike, yet somehow i'm a glutton for punishment and find beauty in this seeming chaos. There's simply something about the flow of it all that i find somewhat attractive. While i'm digging this i'm not loving it as much as some of the other similar albums BH created in 2015. This one is cool in its weirdness and all but isn't as perfected as some of the ones to come. I'm sure very few will dig this. Think of Dedalus' "Materiale Per Tre Esecutori E Nastro Megnetico." If you like that kind of stuff only amped up a few notches in the weirdness department then this one is for you. For everyone else who wants "musical structure" that being recognizable patterns, scales, melodies and the most common things humans associate with music then run to the hills. This one is like a fire breathing dragon discharging pyromancy on your Pink Floyd or Porcupine Tree collection.