This split LP features two Swedish groups doing the homemade psych-drone thing, but it seems like the two couldn't be further apart in terms of mood. The four tracks by Street Drinkers are dark, noisy, and even a bit uncomfortable. The doomy chords and beyond-the-grave vocals recall Robedoor at their scariest, culminating in the doom-noise finale Clouded Sky... review :: by Paul Simpson

Before hearing this nifty 10 EP, I was not familiar with the music of Pumice. New Zealander Stefan Neville has been releasing material under this guise for over ten years; I knew vaguely of his work through exposure to Sunken, his duo with Antony Milton, but any preconceived ideas I'd had of what he did on his own didn't prepare me for the mesmeric noise-pop of his new mini-album on Doubtful Sounds... review :: by Mike Griffin

I’ve done it. I’ve given a full ten marks to an album. To boot, this is a simple self-released CDr, so no magical limited handmade packaging to push the marks sky-high. It’s all about the vibrations; it’s all about Mick Flower and Chris Corsano. This year has been a mammoth year for releases in both quantity and quality. The underground has produced a seemingly endless supply of hypnagogic (insert something that sounds cool)-wave bands. Some have been grand, others fractious and many irritatingly bland. I admit I have been swept away by some of the glorious pop offerings from Minks to Ducktails. .. review :: by Peter Taylor

Prepare to be initiated. The fledgling label of mystical obscurities, Brave Mysteries, unleashed its first batch with a release put out by the label’s founders. Yes, Kinit Her, the effort of Nathaniel Ritter, Troy Schafer, and Vincent Wachowiak, is also affiliated with this up-and-coming tape label. This is only appropriate since Brave Mysteries is as arcane as the band is esoteric. Being my first exposure to experimental music on the tape format, Brave Mysteries, and especially Kinit Her’s particular gateway into the shadows have left me quite satisfied that I tried something new. .. review :: by Dave Miller

Hyperlight is a very good, well-played series of three pieces composed of repeating synth chords, tape loops, and murmured vocals, and is the first release by the musician Jimmy Billingham's musical project Tidal. Although the music on the cassette isn't conventionally breaking the boundaries that it is composed within—on a wider level, there are not many formal or aesthetic ideas per se from the recordings to set them apart from similar-sounding artists—the strength and the originality of the music comes instead through Billingham's working intelligently within his chosen framework, as well as in his ability to write dark, compelling chord progressions and to set a mood... review :: by Jordan Anderson

As sure as the sun will set and the tide will turn, Fabio Orsi will do big things. I got a hint of this when I did one of my first-ever reviews for Foxy Digitalis of his “The Wild Light of the Moon” a couple years ago. That same year he really wowed me with a double-disc set of compositions, “Audio for Lovers.” This was a most elegant canon of works that displayed the epic talent of his ambience par excellence. I usually don’t think of ambient drone as being epic, but there’s no question that this was the case for that release. Stepping it up a further notch, Orsi’s latest triple-disc anthology is irresistibly epic. .. review :: by Dave Miller