Bramble, “Emergence”

Third release by Bramble. Deep ambient / drone work.

Life Toward Twilight, “An Eclipse”

Re-release of Life Toward Twilight’s extremely limited edition 2003 3″ album. Ambient, otherworldly soundscapes.

Other Bottle Imp Productions albums available on iTunes:

Blaerg, “Dysphoric Sonorities”
Life Toward Twilight, “Blood”

“Remember the days when Dark ambience use to scare the shit out of you when label like Dark Vinyl, Soleilmoon, CMI, Eibon and Cold Spring were so mysterious you wondered if they had unlocked the gate to the 8th level of hell to let these sounds out. Well Bramble does that to me again. Deep Drifting Drones and Tones that are so Demonic in nature you get the chill down your spine. You feel like you need to keep looking over your shoulder in the dark for something, but it’s never there. The crazy thing of it all is all this is done by two human voices manipulated and effected through electronic and mixing technologies. Bramble would make Mike Patton proud as he was the 1st I hear to do this with his ” Adult Themes” CD on Tzadik. If you enjoy artist like Daniel Menche, Drakh, Lull and Lustmord then you have opened the door to a new favorite release. It is ultra minimal at time then other moments it builds up a bit but never to climax. Terrified Drifting through the bleak , black of nothingness alone this is the sounds you mind would create as the madness seeps in. Bramble is a fantastic creation and this is there third so now I have two other I have to hunt out and listen too. “

Purchase:
CD from Bottle Imp Productions
Amazon MP3
eMusic
Napster

When one hears the word breakcore, it is not uncommon to think of the resulting band/artist to be primarily hip hop focused. But Toledo, Ohio based Blaerg (pronounced blarg), the musical project of Scott Wehman, is quite different from your typical breakcore act. Mixing the drum ‘n bass influences with ambient and industrial styles, Blaerg’s third album Dysphoric Sonorities is a unique experience that should be approached with an open mind, but is also one that will be a memorable and enjoyable journey to those who give it a chance.

Right off the bat, Blaerg’s music hits you with electronic drums that get up to extremely high beats per minute. But though there are plenty of moments that sound like traditional house and drum ‘n bass, there are also prevalent jazz, ambient, and industrial influences as well. Scott Wehman lists Frank Zappa as an influence and this definitely shows throughout the course of Dysphoric Sonorities thanks to the sheer level of variety and on the fly transitions. It may be a little hard to take in at once, but the sense of exploration and atmosphere felt throughout this album is sure to bring the adventurous back time and time again. As for vocals, there isn’t any singing but instead occasional spoken word as well as the use of sound bites. But it should be mentioned that when these appear, they are used to enhance the instrumentals rather than to steal the focus from them. Overall, Blaerg’s style feels wholly unique and will definitely warrant repeat listens.

Blaerg has produced ambient experimental breakcore; something I’m not quite sure has been done before. And while it is likely to remain a fairly small niche, there’s definitely something enjoyable and impressive about what Scott Wehman has managed to accomplish with this album. As long as you don’t have anything against electronic music and are open to the experimental, Dysphoric Sonorities certainly deserves to have a spot in your collection.

Now available in a variety of formats.

Bramble, “Emergence”

Now available from Bottle Imp Productions.

You wake from a fever dream suspended in darkness. Your arms, hands, fingers are heavy. You feel the weight of your fingernails pulling you down, down, down into the soft darkness echoing below you. You feel the darkness fold around you; a shroud, a chrysalis, a womb, whispering to you. It molds to your form, encapsulating you, covering you, entering you. Its gentle caress hums to you comfortingly.

You open your eyes. You see strings of darkness vibrating in tune to emptiness. A searchlight rotating from an unlocatable source catches something in its beam. Floating before you, thin, light, softly formed. With each passing of light you see more of its shape. You identify the arc of its outline, the contours of its fold. You reach for it. You stretch your arms before you and push against the darkness, pulling yourself forward. And your fingertips graze it; soft and smooth, satiny, firm and delicate. The soft fragrance of summer courtyards slips past you. You grasp it and look around you. You stand in an empty room. Car engines, slips of television and radio leak in around you. You hold the wrinkled remains of a single rose petal in your hands.

“Emergence,” the third release by Bramble, is an audio escape. Soft reverberations, gentle tones and atmospheric hums skillfully lull a listener into a subtle, mental wandering which then slowly releases them back into reality. They emerge into the light, blinking and squinting from its relative magnitude.

Purchase:

Buy CD (Comes with free, high quality MP3 download)

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Amazon MP3
eMusic
Napster
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Free 128kbps from Bottle Imp Produtions

Tags: ambient, drone, Bottle Imp Productions, bramble

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Bramble’s third ambient drone album, “Emergence“.

A long awaited reissue of Life Toward Twilight’s “An Eclipse” EP. Originally, this was limited to 25 copies, but will again be available on CD with newly designed cover art.

More updates on both titles coming soon.

Tags: ambient, drone, Life Toward Twilight, bramble

Dysphoric Sonorities is an album that was released by the breakcore group BLÆRG. Lets start the review shall we? Profane Esoterica is a panic break song that is solely driven by its insanity. The background yells make you feel as if your walking down the long hall,in an insane asylum. Thrice Vexed brings on heavy fast paced drums and crushing cymbals. In the beginning of the song it brings a speedy thrasher feel, then gently slows down to a snails pace by the middle. After that it switches directions like a Tornado, but still brings some devastating creativity.Favorite part of this one is the end because it breaks down like an old hip hop song with spice of electronica. Ebullient Letimotif is…only thing that can explain this one is imagine your working on a high tech mech. But your working incredibly fast, this is that song! Crepuscular Harlotry is a bit on the mellow side of this album. This song has a bit of Brazilian flavor with the drums for a while. Then it changes up to a nice sped up rhythm, with an erie dark hallway like vocal. This one is one of my favorites from the album. Unmitigated Verbosity this song returns back the manic/panic chaotic feeling the first few songs displayed. Excepted this one will make you feel as though your very close friends with the drug Speed…zone out on this one because I did. Hermaphrodite Android’s Cumshot Infinity…I’m just gonna leave this song review empty. Check it out for yourself and along with Earth Hurdles. Both of these songs just put me in a fucking zone. I lost 5 minutes listening to these songs. Almost missed the song after. Luminescent Dermabrasion follows suit with the previously songs packing speed, eerie songs but this time its abit more melodic and soothing. This song literally feels like drugs into your system. And with each chaotic note your slipping more into the highness abyss created by BLÆRG. Titanium Cicada feels like another hallway song but not an asylum. This time it feels like your alone in an old spoooky electric amusement park. And then you touch a button and everything just goes bat shit crazy. I’ve tried my best to explain this incredibly creavtive album but you must check it for yourself. After this album I had a high and a headache. Check out BLÆRG - Dysphoric Sonorities!!

Get a copy of the album at Bottle Imp Productions

$10 with shipping ($1 US, $4 international). CDs are shipping now. Can be downloaded from Bottle Imp Productions for free. Also available as a higher quality download via iTunes and Amazon MP3.

I received “We waited for a subtle dawn” from Life Toward Twilight a few years back, and I liked it a lot. It was diverse dark ambient, and overall pretty solid. So I wasn’t really surprised when I popped in “Blood” and found that it was another slab of quality reverb soaked nefariousness.

Overall this album sounds like a 16th century english village being slaughtered by a storm of very fucked up demons, which in my book is really, really cool. If you dig dark ambient you have no reason not to get yourself some “Blood”.

Emphasis added by me, because you know, that’s a pretty great description in my opinion.

Remember, “Blood” can be downloaded for free at Bottle Imp Productions. Higher quality can be had via iTunes or Amazon MP3

Get the new album by BLÆRG, “Dysphoric Sonorities” here first. Will be released worldwide two days later, on March 31st.

Live Sets by:

BLÆRG
http://www.myspace.com/blaerg

Banjax0red!
(First Live Appearance!)
http://www.myspace.com/banjax0red

Geist:Ex:Bibliotecha
http://www.myspace.com/geistexbibliotecha

Life Toward Twilight
http://www.myspace.com/lifetowardtwilight