A folk-electronica-experimental label based in Amsterdam that releases music by artists they enjoy listening to and that doesn't accept demos? Such proclamations might prompt the odd sneer from some onlookers or joy and elation from territorial hipsters. Whatever, Moving Furniture Records are rightfully protective of their art as these five recent digital long-players ably demonstrate. Rather than just unleash boring jewel-case CDs in vast quantities, MF issue very limited artefacts in imaginative elaborate packaging with hand-crafted sleeves and artwork.
Orphax - Under The Dutch Sky - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Seamless drone-music that gradually intensifies throughout its 32 minutes of existence, Orphax's unsettling cadenza is comprised of tones extracted from one keyboard and one program (Audiomulch, since you ask). Reminiscent of single-track epics issued by the likes of Recommended, Fax or Touch Music, Under The Dutch Sky doesn't so much 'kick in' as unravel for the first eight minutes or so, before beginning to sound something like next-door's spin-cycle or an approaching Chinook. Rather compelling.
D'Incise - O Esplendor Natural Das Coisas E Inferno - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Inspired by the works of Portugese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes, D'Incise's incisive musique-concrete has its feet in psych-folk, avant-garde and found-sounds and reminds me of some of Nocturnal Emission's otherworldly take on all things obscure. Split into indeterminable chapters, broken by fifteen seconds of silence and mostly recorded at different volumes (I jumped on a few occasions), The Natural Splendour Of Things And Hell (to give the album its English translation) is a pulsing, trickling, buzzing, throbbing symphony created for (ahem) International CDr Day. No, honestly.
Find Hope In Darkness - Locked So Tightly In Our Dreams - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Glenn Dick hails from techno-town Ghent in Belgium and is just 15 years old. Under the moniker Find Hope In Darkness he creates eerie soundscapes that aren't far removed from what Moby or Fennesz cook up when they're not on duty. Locked is an exemplary chunk of deep drone music with minimal reverbs and dub effects, while the accompanying Last Breath is perhaps superior in that it reminds me of David Sylvian's haunting Steel Cathedrals era. I suspect young Mr Dick will be gracing a few blog-sites before 2015 is done and dusted. Really high-end stuff.
DNMF - DNMF - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
A second-pressing for the vinyl edition of this seismic collaboration between Dead Neanderthals and Machinefabriek, DNMF's heartbeat is its relentless kick-drum and atonal whine that permeates most of the aptly-named The Thing On The Doorstep. By the time The Colour Out Of Space inches its way into earshot, your mind may have already shut down. But stick with it because the second track supersedes the first, if only for what sounds like the distorted recording of a subway-train introducing an ear-bleeding drumming solo some three minutes in. This is genuinely disturbing music that pummels and bashes seven bells out of your cochlea before spiralling out of control towards an abrupt conclusion. Whew.
Accrual - Cheophiori - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Rather more ambient and crepuscular than this label's other offerings, Accrual's oeuvre still occupies the same drone territory as D'Incise or Orphax but with more of an Eno bent and less of the long-drawn out exercises of both. Travail and A Mind Divided weave glitch and drone into the stillness, while the expansive Aleph gets two outings, one remixed by the aforementioned Orphax. Transcendental in places, Accrual's Cheophiori will be a limited cassette-buyer's dream (before they finally issue it on CD or vinyl, that is).
Head to movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com for more details and releases.
Orphax - Under The Dutch Sky - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Seamless drone-music that gradually intensifies throughout its 32 minutes of existence, Orphax's unsettling cadenza is comprised of tones extracted from one keyboard and one program (Audiomulch, since you ask). Reminiscent of single-track epics issued by the likes of Recommended, Fax or Touch Music, Under The Dutch Sky doesn't so much 'kick in' as unravel for the first eight minutes or so, before beginning to sound something like next-door's spin-cycle or an approaching Chinook. Rather compelling.
D'Incise - O Esplendor Natural Das Coisas E Inferno - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Inspired by the works of Portugese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes, D'Incise's incisive musique-concrete has its feet in psych-folk, avant-garde and found-sounds and reminds me of some of Nocturnal Emission's otherworldly take on all things obscure. Split into indeterminable chapters, broken by fifteen seconds of silence and mostly recorded at different volumes (I jumped on a few occasions), The Natural Splendour Of Things And Hell (to give the album its English translation) is a pulsing, trickling, buzzing, throbbing symphony created for (ahem) International CDr Day. No, honestly.
Find Hope In Darkness - Locked So Tightly In Our Dreams - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Glenn Dick hails from techno-town Ghent in Belgium and is just 15 years old. Under the moniker Find Hope In Darkness he creates eerie soundscapes that aren't far removed from what Moby or Fennesz cook up when they're not on duty. Locked is an exemplary chunk of deep drone music with minimal reverbs and dub effects, while the accompanying Last Breath is perhaps superior in that it reminds me of David Sylvian's haunting Steel Cathedrals era. I suspect young Mr Dick will be gracing a few blog-sites before 2015 is done and dusted. Really high-end stuff.
DNMF - DNMF - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
A second-pressing for the vinyl edition of this seismic collaboration between Dead Neanderthals and Machinefabriek, DNMF's heartbeat is its relentless kick-drum and atonal whine that permeates most of the aptly-named The Thing On The Doorstep. By the time The Colour Out Of Space inches its way into earshot, your mind may have already shut down. But stick with it because the second track supersedes the first, if only for what sounds like the distorted recording of a subway-train introducing an ear-bleeding drumming solo some three minutes in. This is genuinely disturbing music that pummels and bashes seven bells out of your cochlea before spiralling out of control towards an abrupt conclusion. Whew.
Accrual - Cheophiori - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Rather more ambient and crepuscular than this label's other offerings, Accrual's oeuvre still occupies the same drone territory as D'Incise or Orphax but with more of an Eno bent and less of the long-drawn out exercises of both. Travail and A Mind Divided weave glitch and drone into the stillness, while the expansive Aleph gets two outings, one remixed by the aforementioned Orphax. Transcendental in places, Accrual's Cheophiori will be a limited cassette-buyer's dream (before they finally issue it on CD or vinyl, that is).
Head to movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com for more details and releases.