When I was looking for some additional information about Iconoclast’s past, I found out that this Russian band (yes, this review deals with the ‘iconoclast’ from Yaroslavl, Russia, and not with one of the hundred other bands with that very same name) was formed in 2003. It is remarkable but this album actually is the first one they did in ten years of existence. But it does not matter, it’s just an objective fact that did ‘absorb’ my attention.
Nidra are quite a young duo from the Russian city of Perm, more than 1,000 km East from Moscow, and 500 km North of the Kazakhstani border, for your geographical information.
I was extremely pleased by All Tongues Of Babel, the second full length album by Belgian experimentalists Carneia. For the interested ones, you can check out the review I did on Concreteweb’s update of November 24th 2013. Now, almost two years and a half year after that release, the four piece, including members of e.g. King Hiss, Vermillion and No More Faith, return with a four-track EP, called Symmetry Of Mind.
For more than a decade, Spanish duo Eldar gives us aural pleasure by their several recordings, especially released via SkullLine and, in a next phase, via Old Europa Café (of course I cannot but mention Cold Meat Industry either, can I?). There has been a permanent evolution, and the very same goes for this new full length, Noûs.
A couple of years ago, Consouling Sounds started the Consouling Agency spin-off, created especially to assist (new) bands, projects or artists. They offer their help in the studio, as well as for the release, promotion and / or distribution of newly recorded material. Bands can still act independently, but under the protecting wings of one of Flanders’ most prominent labels.
First Human Ferro is a solo-outfit by Old Captain’s chieftain Olegh Kolyada. In early 2016 he did create the album Heterodox at the Oda Relicta headquarters. There are some more ‘lost’ tracks from those recording sessions, which have been made available too in mean time via this label’s Bandcamp-page - FYI.
Daghraven is the name of a new outfit by Kevin Imbrechts, whom we know from the dreamy Ambient project Illuminine or Alternative Noise Rock band Mosquito. He had quite some ideas that did not fit to both other outfits, and eventually he wanted to canalise these ideas under a new moniker, which became Daghraven. Kevin did record everything at his home studio, and the result was mastered in Iceland; cf. his connections out there since his Illuminine connections (cf.
I had not heard of Estonian act Vanad Varjud before, but deep investigation learned me that this trio released a first recording in 2014 (which was called Apooriad, done on tape). Back then they were a duo, existing through highly productive / active musicians Thon and Sorts; but in mean time they recruited a lead vocalist, Ott – this guy, by the way, did work with the other ones before as guest / session vocalist on some of the many other projects these guys are involved with.
Endlos were formed in 2012 in the Lower Saxonian area (Germany) by Jörn ‘J’ Hermann and Carsten ‘C’ aka ‘Waldseel’. Both of them are quite active musicians, being involved with several other bands and projects, and with Endlos their productivity isn’t inferior either. There were several demos and EP’s, and a split with Winterblood, and now they come up with their first official full length album, Im Fallen Verlaufen.
After several years of silence, Emanuele Buresta returns with a new work under the moniker L’Effet C’Est Moi. This Italian guy (Italian, despite the French moniker and the lyrics in French) started a decade ago with L’Effet C’Est Moi (first album: Tomber En Héros in 2006), and now he returns with the fifth album, called En Guerre Avec Amour (‘at war with love’).
