The 2-track EP titled Descending Upon Ruins Again by the musically deviant post-rockers/ambient experimentalists Picture Ann is out now via Floodgate Moods Productions and is guaranteed to leave you in either a foul or reflective mood. The overall theme revolves around the notion of failing in every sense of the cursed word, and whereas the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://www.gymnocal.com/blogs/news/patriarchy-suffer-with-me-live-in-london How to even describe the US-based Patriarchy without doing them an injustice? Weaving various musical genres and influences such as post-punk, electro rock, industrial music, harsh ambient, and a demented brand of synth pop together to great effect only gets us halfway there, which is merely another way of saying that…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://floodgatemoodsproductions.bandcamp.com/ To Leave One Living Thing, the latest 2-track EP by Danish/Norwegian post-rockers Picture Ann, is out now via all the usual digital shops and retailers including Bandcamp and Spotify. The two tracks that constitute this hypnotic gem explore the notion of legacy and what each one of us leaves behind, be…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://open.spotify.com/track/4yfVuKGz6GMOvt2mU4sEap?si=5cc3fbcbf3104db1 The droning 28-minute composition titled This Wretched Shore by experimentalists Picture Ann is out now. The bleak and windswept suite is essentially an exploration of what can only be termed permanent loneliness in various guises, and it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://open.spotify.com/album/77WTLOCAmi8iysa1VuxNuX?si=FU3Huoz3TfaFebp8TSdHwA Udenfor, the latest 2-track EP by Danish/Norwegain post-rockers Picture Ann, is out December 18. The title track came about one late afternoon when walking through a wintry cityscape, pondering the impact of Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist on yours truly and how that overlooked literary gem eloquently and elegantly thematizes…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://floodgatemoodsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/disquiet-2024-remaster-2 Although laid to rest many years to go, the murky lo-fi ambient entity known as Vornoff has occasionally made its presence felt in the charcoal-stained underground by means of unearthing various previously songs and recordings from the vault – one of which is the bleak twelve-minute musical odyssey through a…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://open.spotify.com/album/0yLSPVbADe1jMVUWjebilM?si=1jfRgj-NROe6ddzsqJwGaw Unfortunately, there is just no stopping the annoyingly productive purveyors of all things dark and melancholy known as Picture Ann, i.e. the exponents of lo-fi post-rock and dark ambient drones of the rather dense variety. The latest output titled Promising Oddities is essentially an odds-and-sods collection of tracks and ideas…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://lnk.to/martyrium The delightfully brooding and utterly compelling act known as Gurthang rarely fails to disappoint this scribe, and it just so happens that Martyrium is their most accomplished and impressive musical feat to date. Thoroughly drenched in a thick and impenetrably dark atmosphere that swallows you whole, these five addictive compositions merge somber…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://oleteigen.bandcamp.com/album/skjebnev-ven Leave it to Gymnocal Industries (Norway) to release hauntingly evocative records such as this one, which sees the skilled composer Ole Teigen (Superlynx, ex-Den Saakaldte, ex-Dødheimsgard) weaving gentle and reflective piano motifs together to great effect. As with his introspective and somber Aske and Jord LP from 2021, Skjebnevæven is…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://floodgatemoodsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/solemn-traits Late August sees the digital release of the full-length opus titled Solemn Traits, which is a brand-new sonic curse that is firmly rooted in dark ambient drone experiments and disquieting textures – the kind that require and reward patience on the part of the listener. Spawned by thoughts and notions…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://open.spotify.com/album/5MZaV1Opk9UlcmhFV83z3H?si=U7jKhEl9SVmQsxt_vwiGEg Somewhere between the strangely uplifting and the deeply morose is where you will find the latest musical endeavor by ambient drone rockers Picture Ann, namely the one-track digital single sporting the exquisitely brooding moniker that is A Dark Stretch Between There and Home. Inspired by the notion of searching for…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://shadowknell.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-knell They rarely make records like these anymore, i.e. dark medieval ambient-esque works that pay homage to dungeon synth linchpins such as Mortiis and Penitent while also weaving influences from Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze into their richly textured and evocative soundscapes in such a confident and pleasantly assured manner. Sure,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://floodgatemoodsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/museum The sparkling new EP by dark drone rockers Picture Ann sporting the evocative title Museum is a musical exploration of the lives of peasants and fishermen between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries in Northern Jutland. In the words of J.N., “The two lengthy sequences that make up this release essentially…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://omnibuspress.com/collections/frontpage/products/dream-machines-electronic-music-in-britain-from-doctor-who-to-acid-house Dream Machines by author Matthew Collin is quite literally a dream come true for anyone interested in the subject of British electronic music – regardless of whether one is merely curious about the phenomenon or harbor much more than just a passing interest in its gloriously labyrinthine history. Exhaustively researched,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://lethemetal.bandcamp.com/album/alienation This is my first encounter with the splendid experimental outfit known as Lethe and judging by the quality and infinite depth of this, their third full-length album, I feel utterly compelled to check their previous two offerings out. Alienation is anything but predictable or mundane, and the very act of…
The brand-new output by the musically devious post-rockers Picture Ann has just arrived digitally and sees the Danish/Norwegian act conjuring up thick waves of dark ambient and drone music that explore the disruptive power of loss. Thematically speaking, the three compositions that constitute Blind Optimism – Bleak Prophecy all revolve around the postmodernist claim that…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://xtxax.bandcamp.com/album/the-passion The musically compelling force of darkness known as Glacial Mass, which consists of members Themis and Manos, is a frighteningly heavy and claustrophobic proposition that promises a deep, introspective journey through the worst alleyways and oddest corners of the mind – a proper examination of one’s true self and an…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/dominion-of-suffering-phobonoid Fucking hell, this is some delightfully intense, unsettling, and interesting stuff courtesy of Dominion of Suffering (Slovakia) and Phobonoid (Italy). While the former serves up claustrophobic, fast-paced, and somewhat deranged black metal that recalls certain French Orthodox BM outfits, Phobonoid is a far trippier and more surreal listen and one…
The tail end of December saw the lo-fi ambient post-rockers known as Picture Ann grace a doomed planet with a full-length album comprised of six sprawling compositions that all revolve around the idea of losing one’s way in life, of being misled and losing oneself somewhere terrible only to find the way back home an…
The latest full-length offering by the demented peddlers of haunting dark ambient drones and lo-fi post-rock soundscapes is out now and contains three tracks with a rather loose concept and theme to them. From the industrial revolution in Britain to the strangely unsettling works of painter Walter Sickert and further on to the cinematic quality…
