6LA8

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan hardly comes to mind when you think about regions of the world that export some bizarre and strange experimental music that falls into the unclassifiable zone but despite existing in a nation that has a severe shortage of record labels, concert venues and any sort of promotion at all, the fiery passion of underground artists has taken flight in the new era of DIY ethos and good internet connections. The Karachi based duo of Taimur Mazhar Sheikh and Omer Asim have proven that where there's a will, there's a way and if you crank it out, someone will pay, well hopefully. The true case is that together these guys have pumped out several releases under the guise of 6LA8 and while the moniker of this act may resemble some random license plate numbers of a severely underpopulated US state, the musical avant-garde weirdness that these guys create is more like something you'd encounter in an entirely different world.

I've seen this artist's name floating around for years and admittedly daunted by the large discography which begins with the whopping 4-CD debut 'In Wake Of A Dying Nation' which takes lengthy first releases to a ridiculously bloated time consuming level. For my first dip into this Karachi based musical phenomenon, i've decided to skip over to what i believe is the second release but this artist is somewhat obscure, has released a gazillion freebie albums on its Bandcamp site and databases all differ in which album came in which order. So let's just say that this is one of the earlier albums and i have no friggin idea in how it relates to anything. Karachi may be the nation's largest city with a population of over 14 million making it also one of the larger cities of the entire planet but can you name even one musical artist who has emerged from this thriving coastal metropolis? I couldn't so it's nice to finally hear an artist other than the famous Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan from this sixth most populous nation in the world.

6LA8 is a hard act to describe but seems to revolve around a stealthy mix of ambient atmospheres, drones, zest filled electronica and the cyclical loops of post-rock. Like many artists from less than supportive regions fo the world, 6LA8 seems to channel the frustrations of the harsh realities of life into sublime expressions through sound and on my first taste of its work on THE MODERATE PICTURE, i can almost taste the bleakness of artistic opportunities in a region of the world that frowns on anything outside the established paradigm of theological traditions. Often such repression leads to a creative explosiveness unparalleled and it seems with over 21 releases 6LA8 is finding the proper venue to expel its rage and instead engage the world in the dreamy and often nightmarish electronica fueled sounds that pour out from each and every track. THE MODERATE PICTURE provides a diverse and complex glimpse of the Pakistani world of avant-garde with an interesting array of 14 tracks.

Tracks range from the static fueled noise of 'Guitar Radio' which seems like something out of the Faust playbook but also evokes a clear fascination with Godspeed! You Black Emperor as guitar riffs ooze by in cyclical loops as field sampled sounds and random dialogue emerge from the din. There is a fondness for arhythmic counterpoints and sound collages that juxtapose semi-musical meanderings with dissonant sprinklings of electronic generated timbres and inter-dimensional freakery. Some tracks like 'Peel' offer rock guitar and drums but stick to the spoken word plus noise playbook. Other tracks like 'Drunkards & Soul' focus on a bass groove and a bleak industrial feel as if Einst'rzende Neubauten had overdosed on codeine and is struggling to stay awake. Other throwaway tracks like 'Meat Freestyle' seem to dwell on a short repetitive drum machine loop with only a few freaky oscillations of timbres to give it any life.

While there are progressive meanderings that are more rooted in post-rock such as the 3-part menagerie-trois of 'Vice Versa / The Impolite Corpse / Surge' as well as the 9.5 minute closing title track, personally i find the more catchy electro-pop tracks like 'Celeplode' and 'Pretty' to be the most compelling as they have some energetic drive and offer the most satisfying melodies that are memorable. Overall this release by 6LA8 is an interesting introduction to this Pakistani artist's bizarre world and has definitely allowed me to catch the bug that will surely lead me to further investigations. THE MODERATE PICTURE is chock full of nice disparate sounding tracks that work well together however the album does come off as a little random and sounds like these guys basically release everything they record with little consideration for quality control.

Progressive Electronic Jazz

Taimur Mazhar Sheikh and Omer Asim aka 6LA8: Proxy Nights- Misty Lights (2013) plays around & between a contemporary and timeless Jazz/Blues/R&B tainted feel which blends naturally into their well structured electronic music idiom.

The mere act of coming up with this kind of blend without compromising originality neither language or modernity adds up points per se, but the recreational enjoyment transmitted, without filters, to the listener pays the price of the full ride.

5 tracks, 5 electronic/Jazz creations with close encounters ranging from pre-Prog Jazz to mainstream Jazz and R&B, keeping, ironically, a safe distance mostly from Fusion Jazz and this is why this album becomes so unique, as it plays with these well known canons but transfiguring the whole feel into their own realms with their own creative electronic music ideas in composition and of course with their personal controlled psychedelic driven, slightly weird & slightly dreamy sound.

As to rate it fair and square of 5 tracks, 4 worked wonders to my ears, the bit longer one could have been the same cut short. But this is just in able to rate it for you attentive reader.

****

'6LA8' is a progressive electronic band made up of two friends from Pakistan that formed the project in 2009 and use both electronic and acoustic instruments to create a sound with a lot of variance. Instead of copying off of the traditional electronic music of Vangelis or Tangerine Dream where the music is based off of themeatic elements more or less, 6LA8 utilize effects and etc. to create feelings, or soundscapes, without hardly any use of melody and when melody is used, it is not necessarily front and center, but buried in the layers of sound. From 2010 until the current year of 2019, they have released 22 albums including this album 'Welcome to the Age of Flaws'. The album consists of 16 tracks, only one of which is under the 5 minute mark, the entire album spanning over 2 hours. The album was available for download on January 1, 2019.

'Let's Take a Breather: Recoup, Reconfigure' is a slow burning variant drone that plays in the background while an acoustic guitar plays a repeated pattern. Later electronic effects of processed broken tones buzz in and out on top of everything while subdued percussion plays softly. Next is the title track 'Welcome to the Age of Flaws' which is the shortest track on the album at 4:40. Beginning with a repeated electronic pattern, bass and other layers get added, including a spoken word vocal recording that sound like a woman talking to an imaginary child, but her tone is a bit unsettling and somewhat psychotic. 'Dissecting the Magnanimous Among Us (featuring Spiare)'. This starts off quite pleasant with an electronic percussive beat and other nice sounds, but giving a slightly upbeat feel until other percussive sounds come in that are strangely off beat and unsettling. The track seems to want to be nice, but ends up feeling oddly out of synch. By the end, it all seems to get ironed out again.

'Laughing Quietly in a Valley of Kind Nepotism' forms slowly off of a strange drone. A keyboard playing in a higher register forms an odd melody out of it which changes to pulsating sounds and a swirling pattern on top of it, slightly off key to give it all that abnormal feel. This all increases in intensity as chopped and skewed vocal effects ebb and flow throughout it all. As it regresses later, there are some really cool electronic effects. 'A Recursion in Denial, and a Deliverance' starts with a subdued, almost harp-like pattern while a spoken word narrative from Behenchari Diaries goes on above it all. The music does build somewhat, but remains underneath the narrative. 'The 100 Day Dogma Decryption' uses soft keyboard and guitar notes and a soft drone while a cymbal ticks along. Everything is a bit off-kilter as layers get added in slowly, including barely discernable vocals and later, a sax sample playing in the distance. Everything is glued together, but so separate from each other making for an odd, yet interesting texture.

'How to Deconstruct on a Tremendous Day, The Best Day' feels like a brighter track, but utilizes a lot of the same things as in the previous track, this time with a more positive edge, yet all of these sounds, including a far off choir and bird effects, seem to mesh together into a false sense of security. 'Dancing Regressively into the Next Civil Regime (ft. Sririam)' uses loops and samples from traditional instruments such as sitar, native American flute and a thumb piano. The beat is handled by clapping and the feel has that mid-eastern feel, but it is all smothered by effects making everything unclear and almost drone like, including the Turkish vocal sample. Later, it all breaks down as the entire sound of the track is chopped and diced into little electronic pieces. 'A Moonlit Dharma into the Tetris of Roadblocks' has a brighter sound with chimes, piano and other higher pitched instruments, but later, as synths using lower registers darken the landscape of the track. As the track continues, it gets dismantled and put together alternatively.

'Hold Your Sanity, Dear Aphrig (ft. Natasha Noorani)' begins with an ambient guitar strum and soft bass. The Natasha mentioned in the title provides fragile and subdued vocals against subdued, yet chiming and twinkling keys. The 8+ minute track remains soft and ambient throughout. 'Tired and Left Waiting for Twilight's Heatsinks' has a very jazzy feel to it, but is still given the unclear ambient feel that permeates the album. Things get more and more unclear as things continue and layers get added. There are contrasting tranquil textures and disquieting layers. At 7 minutes, the percussion stops and you find yourself free floating in sonic ambience. 'My Ethics Prefer to Be Fluid, Thank You (ft. Kavin Allinson)' ventures away from ambience with a keyboard and guitar playing more front and center than anything else previously. Spacey sounds and spooky vocal effects soon come in and start to bury everything in the usual unclear sound but this time with a psychedelic feel with the stoner style guitar and a high pitched synth that sounds almost like a saw.

'Playing Detectives, in Dreams, for Some Ease' begins with distorted acoustic chords and subdued male vocals. Drum samples are used for rhythm on this track. The vocals start out quite clear, but get lost in the hazy feel of the music. 'Breaking Apart into a Million Little Oh Wells (ft. Zhara)' goes back into ambient mode with a ponderous atmosphere, featuring both male wordless vocals and Zhara's melody-less airy vocals. The track is pretty much just acoustic meandering and some effects along with the dreamy, yet almost subliminal vocals. 'In Deviant Swirls Do We Derive Mortality' continues with the ambient feel with more acoustic sounds and vocal samples all mixed together in a subdued stew of softness. This just meanders on for 10 minutes. 'Wandering Around in a Whole Lot of Nothins (ft. Nomad)' features more meandering acoustic guitar with odd vocals. By this time, the name of the track pretty much explains it all.

While this dreamy, mostly ambient and ponderous electronic/organic sound is nice at first, and there is even some variation in the sound in the first half of the album, by the time you get to the end, you almost want to scream. It gets to sound too much like the same, in fact, it gets less interesting and more meandering as it continues, and the surprises at the beginning of the album become expected by the end. The overall sound of the tracks tend to flatten out to level hazy and monotonous music by the end. I can at least recommend the album as a 3 star album, but it is near impossible to get through it all in one sitting, and even coming back later to hear the 2nd half doesn't really help. I think the most interesting tracks are at the beginning, but by the time you get to the end, it's hard to think of anything that stands out. Think of this album as almost Shoegaze because of its use of hazy sound where nothing really stands out, with a mix of ambience because the level of the sound never really gets past mid-volume throughout. Yes these are more like soundscapes, like I mentioned before, but they are hazy and unclear. The band gets an A for being original and different, but they don't do so well at keeping someone's interest, especially for a 2 hour album.

Post Berlin/Bay Area school´s electronic music

6LA8 a.k.a. Taimur Mazhar Sheikh and Omer Asim´s Welcome To The Age Of Flaws (2019) is the kind of fresh air Progressive Electronic music needs to continue its journey through change and evolution.

A 16 track release spanning 1 hour 55 minutes is, well at least, ambitious but maintaining diverse quality music composition the same as the listeners attention with trance-inducing surprises all throughout is masterful (its minor flaws are overshadowed by its constant merits).

Describing what to expect from 6LA8 music wise is quiet a challenge. I will take the easy way out first by describing what it doesn´t sound ike .

No real close connection to neither the 70´s or 80´s nor 90´s Progressive Electronic´s famous icons. If needed I could trace some footprints to Syrinx- Long Lost Relatives (1971), White Noise- An Electric Storm (1969) (without the Juan GarcIa Esquivel blatant rip-offs) or the more contemporary and untaggable Sparkle in Grey.

Ok now the hard task. Welcome To The Age Of Flaws diverse music directions may well include Krautrock, RiO, Post Rock/Math Rock, electro/acoustic world/urban sounds & Avant Garde aesthetics (this last without its usual cerebral pretentions). The acoustic guitar plays a major role , there are vocals even lyrics, its dreamy nature has nothing to to do with its usual association with soporific music composition opposite to that this characteristic is really an attribute being attained with extraordinary rich and enticing melodic lines and creative but kept in size arrangements. It also displays some Jazz/Blues subtle & heavy brushstrokes here and mostly not there and of course lots of electronic music inventiveness. A real thrill to close it up!

And to top it all off this 4.5 stars release is available through Bandcamp in the FREE DOWNLOAD mode, really, what more can one ask for?

Redefining Krautrock or Krautrock refined.

Therefore, as you may have guessed, this is not exactly a Progressive electronic release as such, but in the use of synths or electronic keyboards, some of them quiet cheap, sonic wise, by the way (track 2 has an unimaginative "Casio toy keyboard" 3 minute solo, which defaces an otherwise very good song).

Anyway, 6LA8's, a.k.a. electronic duo Taimur Mazhar Sheikh and Omer Asim,2013, "THE LAST STRANDS OF FORTITUDE", music wise, resembles Krautrock's early experimentation in its use of some percussions, dreamy guitars, string like synths, lyrics and spoken words or statements. The synths and some cleverly and measured use of drum boxes, here and there, provide the slow paced cosmic atmospheres (rare in Krautrock) required for each single composition, there are 12.

Each composition proposes a very different mood, which enhances this project's rich creativity in it's songwriting, whose uniqueness is felt all way through and its roots when they do appear (i.e. Ash Ra Tempel or GAM) are upgraded by sheer good music composition.

Sadly track 2 downgrades this extremely good album.

****4.5 PA stars.

6LA8 is truly one of my personal favorite groups of all-time.

Now, I realize that may be a strange statement about a little-known Pakistani duo, and that statement may look like one of my older reviews when I wasn't quite sure just what music was, but 6LA8 have this aura about them, this great mixture of my favorite genres, that makes them literally one of my most listened to artists.

The Last Strands of Fortitude is the group's first album in a year which can seem like a long time given their prolific mannerisms of 2011-2012 but the album really gives off the vibe that it has been carefully constructed over a long period of time. The music greatly benefits from this

One consistent facet of their music is that they noticeably get a little more mature with each release and by the time the band reached the In the Land of Dreams album, it was clear to me that they were something special. The dreamy nostalgia of that record (which had ambient, drone, post-rock, techno and even emo influences) was stunning to me. The next release Stereotypes of Tomorrow was even more varied and even more amazing to me. The listening experiences I have with these albums are always fantastic. With this record, let me tell you, that maturity reaches newer heights.

The overall sound recalls that of Stereotypes of Tomorrow but the pieces are indeed a little more concise and some tracks even have a vibe that was prominent on the band's earlier record The Moderate Picture. What you get with this record is an interesting mixture of ambient drone soundscapes, Boards of Canada-esque tracks with a hint of grittiness, post- rock influenced pieces with alluring samples from films and other electronic organized madness, sometimes even with horns.

There are few words to describe the heights the band has reached with this record but one would be original. Another would be fantastic.

The album is free for streaming and downloading on bandcamp, as are all of their earlier releases, and it comes highly recommended from me. For fans of post-rock / ambient / drone / electronic / anything.

— First review of this album —

A somewhat sad album to see come but at the same time a really great one. Chaos/Solipsism/Self-Projection is the last 6LA8 album before their now hiatus-state and although how long that will last or if it ever ends is not known, this collaboration with 6LA8's earlier root group Aus Rine is incredible, perhaps one of the strongest records in their large discography/short tenure.

With this record, you get the regular 6LA8 flavor with that ever-present and ever-beautiful mixture of electronic music and post-rock with touches of drone plus there is something else lingering in it a bit undefinable. Perhaps the songwriting is more concise, but honestly I could not put my finger on it. It's one of those albums that's beautiful for reasons you can't entirely define and that makes the listener love it all the more, I know I do.

Some tracks are simply brilliant "Drugs, Don't Do Kids" and the beautifully electronic suite on tracks 7-12. The avid music fan will find plenty to like and even the average progressive rock fan will find something to love. It's just a record that's fluent in so many languages, it's beautiful.

4 stars, absolutely lovely record.

The final set in a series of ambient wandering from this collaborative duo 6LA8 and MMI is in a similar vein as the previous releases, but a bit darker.

This duo of artists had created some of the most enjoyable (and longest) ambient albums I can remember hearing recently, being evocative of certain atmospheres (generally aquatic or spacey) and giving the improvisations enough time in each recording to really flesh out the sounds so everything doesn't sound rushed or forced.

Final Wanderings, while it is made up of the same long-form ambient improvisations that together run just over two hours, is slightly different; whereas Minimal Wanderings and Extended Wanderings both mostly had an uplifting or ethereal feel throughout, this album is somewhat darker and more ominous while still maintaining that ambient shoegaze electronic sound.

"Feels the Same" is a deceptive opener; it's very beautiful, consisting of familiar ethereal synths with cloudy guitar tones emanating from the background, creating a loose melody that kind of bleeds through the speakers, and is overall optimistic sounding in tone not unlike Steve Roach's Structures from Silence, though with a bit more muddy and organic production quality. Occasionally the spacey synths shoot up in tinny bursts, which has an awakening affect, almost like notifying the listener that something is awry.

From the first couple of measures, "We are Important." sounds as if it is going to be equally optimistic and uplifting, but then an off-sounding note comes in, and suddenly the entire composition leads its way through an ominous and dissonant shoegaze-inspired descent into some foreboding aural creepiness. The production is similarly misty and heavenly in quality, but with a profound creepiness to it, and it really gives a nice contrast to the previous track. The atmosphere remains somewhat sparse until a bit after the half-way point, where some nice but underplayed guitar noodling takes place, giving off somewhat of an ambient jazz sound, though nowhere near as active or obviously jazz as something by The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.

"Subtle Puddle" is in the same creepy mood as the previous track, but with slightly more bombast at points. The misty production and empty sounding ambient soundscape backdrop is peppered with bits of sonically assaulting bursts of feedback that sound like songs from distant sirens attempting to lure travelers from this dark path.

With some slow, pounding tribal percussion, "PPRB" begins as less creepy but much more desolate. This also is the most progressive epic on this album (at over 45 minutes), as it progresses from it's slightly lonely tribal and spacey intro to shoegazey melodic section with dizzying metallic resonances to the glistening uplifting melodic section at the end.

Final Wanderings is a nice way to end 6LA8 and MMI's trio of ambient wanderings, because not only is it consistent with the long-form ambient improvisation style of the series, but it also incorporates darker and sometimes avant elements that prove that these guys are interested in experimentation. The experimentation pays off well, too, because nothing sounds forced. The avant elements never become overbearing, and these long tracks still have ambiguous and mystical melodies. If you had enjoyed the previous two albums in this series of ambient wanderings, then you'll most likely enjoy Final Wanderings because it doesn't sound like a rehashing of old ideas, but new ideas in the same style.

— First review of this album —

Compared to their previous two collaboration albums, 6LA8 and MMI change up the formula a little bit on Reveries. Instead of only a few long-form compositions that result in an album about two hours long, these are all relatively short- form compositions (not exceeding much over 9 minutes) to create a much more manageable album length of just under one hour. This is a blessing to those who can't cope with half-hour track lengths because of problems with paying attention.

In addition to the length, the compositions themselves have changed in tone, become significantly more upbeat, and offer up a variety to the previous long-winded purely ambient albums, but mostly do not stray far from post-rock style with electronic touches and post- Berlin school electronic walls of synths.

Reveries opens up wonderfully with the summery laid-back lounge music of "One of Those Mornings", being led by steady drums, a sunny marimba melody, and warm jazzy clean-toned guitar strumming -- this is one of the most unique and best tracks. "Long Way Ahead, Longer Way Back" is less like standard post-rock and more like very dreary psychedelic drifting that gradually gets heavier only until the distortion on the guitar only nears the point of being unfitting and abrasive, and it's also one of the longest tracks and offers up a decent audio journey. My personal favorite track is also the longest -- "Tonnes of Tundra" -- which is a mystical and snowy synth dominated soundscape with a radio-static type of effect that makes the entire composition border on abrasive while it somehow maintains a soothing atmosphere, kind of reminding me of something from Biosphere's Substrata or Tangerine Dream's timeless classic Phaedra. The remaining tracks on this album, more or less, follow a more post-rock oriented composition style augmented by various electronic effects to varying degrees, and it doesn't really result in an overall memorable experience.

Regardless, the overall tone of Reveries is still very laid-back and would be great as a soundtrack for those contemplative moods, and would most likely be a great listen for all fans of post-rock considering that some of the compositions are a slightly less cliche depiction of the genre. Even though this album has left me somewhat cold, I'd say it's still better than some of 6LA8's solo albums, but not better than their two previous collaboration efforts with MMI. Given that it's a free download, however, it's definitely worth a listen.

Another 2 hours of beautiful ambience but a bit rawer and a bit more aquatic.

Extended Wanderings is the second release by 6LA8 in collaboration with MMI, and continues the monolithic ambient soundscapes of their wonderful previous collaborative release. However, some subtle changes have been made: the production sounds a bit less ethereal and floating and instead has a much more aquatic atmosphere, and the production seems a bit rawer and organic. Each of the 4 tracks on this album sound chilly and submersed in water, similar to Edgar Froese's Aqua except entirely ambient.

"The Dreamer" is a half hour of blue, oceanic drifting synth patterns with meandering delayed guitar playing that sounds somewhat like Boris' masterful Flood. The track doesn't change much besides becoming deeper in sound as it progresses towards its end, but the meandering guitar creates a constant point of interest so the track doesn't become stagnant.

"Stumbling Underwater" takes the aquatic atmosphere to an amazing level. This track is relatively upbeat and active for ambient music, and is actually kind of catchy. Honestly, you can almost dance to the subdued beat that this half hour exploration rides on. Again, there is a intermittent noodling guitar with a liberal amount of delay added, creating a point of interest if the catchy percussive bass melody overstays its welcome.

Seamlessly, the previous track leads into "/noclip /breakarm" which goes a bit deeper into the inevitable darkness of the ocean while maintaining the established breathtaking beauty. Things are bit more echoed, and a bit more saturated. A constant nearly dissonant drone flows freely through the background as jovial Pinhas-esque guitar fills the foreground.

"Unison" slows things down considerably, and flows a bit more freely than the relatively structured compositional style of the previous two tracks. This track is loosely flowing ambient darkness with dreamy guitar melodies that sound even more distant than before, as if the bottom of the ocean has finally been reached, and everything else is leagues above you.

On Extended Wanderings 6LA8 and MMI prove to be masters at the ambient style, improving on the sound employed on Minimal Wanderings. If you're a fan of oceanic dreamscapes, then you'll most likely love this album. The frequent moments where this music becomes catchy is a huge plus and, out of all the ambient music I've heard, this album leaves a huge chunk of ambient albums in the dust. Thoroughly expressing my feelings about this album is a bit difficult, but I can't justify giving this album less than 4 stars.