SIEBEN
​NORSE EP
RED ROOM RECORDS

Originally printed in Now Then Magazine Issue 93

The master of myth and melancholia returns, bearing the second instalment to his EP trilogy, Norse, a collection of four tracks as choppy as the North Sea. 
Matt Howden is no stranger to travel. A well-known figure in experimental music scenes across Europe and beyond, this one-man band, equipped with violin and his bag of tricks, has a domination of sound worthy of an epic tale by itself.
Where to begin? 'Old Magic' takes us back into the dark history of humankind, yet reminds us that we are just the same as they were. Kindling messages of inner forces which were once yoked and harnessed by them now wait for us to relearn their mysteries. A heavy stroke of the strings echoed over variations of itself, wooden taps like distant drums, and melodies reminiscent of the hills carry us into this realm of the far north.
'Loki 2015' and 'Loki Rides Again' sandwich 'Ready For Rebellion' like a black curtain pulled either side. The meat, the bit we have to chew, warns us of the threat of change at any time. Once we accept the certainty of rebellion, and with it change, we begin to understand the forces that Loki himself represents. The two pieces dedicated to this dark lord of legend stand powerful and enchanting in a realm of smoke and mirrors. They draw us into an auditory illusion that is well known within the pages of old books. The portal to the realm of the Norse is open.
Rowan Blair Colver

CYGNUS
​RADICAL USER INTERFACES 
CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

Originally printed in Now Then Magazine Issue 91

The momentum of the digital age drives the heartbeat of this futuristic electronic album. Texas is a hot part of the world, known for its cacti and big blue skies, but it’s also known for Dallas, and this is where Cygnus works his wizardry of waveform and arithmetic of arpeggiators. Taking unique sounds, a simple electronic dot on the horizon of silence, he builds it up and slowly makes it part of a new, audible landscape of flowing contour and orientation.
Sweet digital crispness seeps from the beginning bars of the title track, a funky patting of the electro bass and some head-swirling pitch changes snapping us to attention. 'Nexus Telecoms' has a bit more depth and flare. A jumble of tones and beats wash through the intro and produce a stable riff pattern after around 30 seconds. A crescendo of blips and synthetic wobbles splash like waves on the matrix, dowsing us in green lights. A hypnotic feeling gradually escapes from the near-mayhem and sings out the end of the piece like the slowly receding tide, flowing into the aptly titled 'Arcade Killers'.
Final track 'Electronic Slave' has been made into a video by Sheffield creative collective Human. Featuring various uses of the polygon in computer design, it reminds me of when I used to dabble with my Acorn Electron in the early 90s. Already a dated machine, I loved the appeal of getting back to the basic functions of what the hardware was made for.
At only four tracks long, this album is over quickly, but it's deep and rich enough to make it worthwhile. Like a fine whiskey, it's distilled. The padding has been removed but the purpose remains - the kick and the flavour is all that you get.

SHARRON KRAUS
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES, LOVERS AND STRANGERS
CLAY PIPE MUSIC

Originally printed in Now Then Magazine Issue 89

On an emotional and pretty sing-along folk album, Sharron Kraus delivers a delicious vocal with an acoustic guitar backdrop. The gentle picking of fretted notes drop like rainfall on us and, with subtle additions of keys and wind, interesting and sometimes heartbreaking melodies, the weather of the record is set to 'sunny tempest'. Somewhere is a rainbow. We know it must be there, but it often sneaks away from view. Our periphery occasionally catches a snippet of red or violet, but for the most part we are confronted with the light pitter-patter of grooves in the dragon snap grove.
What captures me most is the near perfect echo of the acid folk scene of 40 years ago. Though the organic instruments and time-honoured scales make the ingredients to this delicate record, the result is just as fresh and relevant now as it was then. The cake rises and the colours of the mixture greet us as sonic aromas and spine tingling anticipation. Words of bardic verse are drizzled like honey over the skeleton of music which forms a sweet and glistening body of sound. A progression from pretty to melancholy, from the mysterious world of cognitive resonance to beauty, clears the way for emotional words from a personal place that reminds me of meadows and mountains.
This album is one for the road, or for late afternoon feet-up time. A totally relaxed path from a tinge of tension back into musical tranquillity is perfect to add mood. More than background, more than music for airports, Sharron Kraus grants us a listener's eye view on a given story and, if we choose to, we can discover the soul of each piece.
Chapter-like songs spill stories against the flow of bars. 'My Friend’s Enemy' and 'Branwen' cast spells over the notations like fairy tales. 'Stranger in Your Land' finishes up a solid selection of tunes and, with a final twist of the magical guitar, a layered vocal pattern begins to play with our perception of the entire thing. Let’s listen again.

HAUNTOLOGISTS
Self Titled.
​
Originally printed in Now Then Magazine Issue 88

This album is like a pattern on the wall. Once played and allowed to merge into our headspace, we find it disappears. The drums, rhythms, hollow tapping sounds - they all become a part of us. Only when something happens - a new layer, a little fill or perhaps even the ending of the track - do we consciously recall the fact we have this album on. It moves like a serpentine ray of energy, and as it enters our hearing, it forms into the particle and settles into our natural biorhythm.
The meditative element of this intimate record means that if we want to be thrilled, if we want the music to move us in any way, we have to allow our mind to be released from the act of listening. Be with the music in your own space and it does its job. By lining thought processes with its delicate but sensual pulses, putting a tingle in every moment with its electronic blipping and all-encompassing reverberations, Hauntologists demonstrates its spectre-like quality.
Worldwide rhythms come at us from every angle as we are dressed with funky bass and tribal patterns, ethnic-sounding pads played in quirky keys, and that driving repetitive sonic staple that holds the mood together. It builds and lifts in funny little ways, then collapses, only to begin the process again, albeit slightly differently. I can’t help but think of my numerous tasks in daily life. This is the flow of things.
I can’t place tracks. I don’t think I want to. In order to find a title name or a bar of preference, I’d need to drop what it is I like about this record. I’d have to pay deep attention. I think in doing so I’d find myself drowning in it. The appeal is in the stepping back.
Having said that, I have been able to pick out major swings from this way to that in the album. It’s a lengthy piece at well over an hour. It begins with the basics, takes a turn to the left with some more intricate and methodical electronica, then it throws us into the tribal outback of wanting to forget the technical, mind-bending outer and lands us once again in the ultimately deeper and exponentially more sensual inner landscape of musical appreciation.
Rowan Blair Colver