News
January 16, 2012
• tube'|245 - mon0 - Colliding Textures
«'Colliding Textures' is the third release from mon0 here at test tube. After 'Beyond' (2008) and 'Multifidus' (2009), this german musician and deejay delivers another thriving collection of dense and ultra atmospheric drones, which has come to be his creative signature.
All four tracks are well over 10 minutes long and they all start gently with a long fade in
and then begin to develop textures throughout their end. Beware of the heavy use of bass frequencies, because these tracks might break your living room windows if you put your amp volume too loud.
As with previous mon0 releases, this new work is amazing in
density and in the use of textural sounds and landscape ambient backgrounds. It is a glorious experience for any listener, even if one isn't much into dark ambient. And this album will really overcome itself with the use of closed casket headphones.»
- test tube
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December 31, 2011
SLOW MODE
• tube'|244 - [interrupt: Jumper] - Language of Steel
«'Language of Steel' gives the idea of modern and simplistic instrumental industrial music but it is also a return to an early emotional side on top of which the genre was built over since Trent Reznor turned itself into an ubiquous rockstar. But it also goes deeper, and tries to capture a sense of the abstract, arbitrary dark ambient that the nineties witnessed emerge in northern europe. 'Language of Steel' is all this, plus it has plenty of filtered out both electric and bass guitars. And if you pay really good attention, sometimes it even touches post rock territory. This is a kind of visceral slowed-down guitar based ambient that will leave you uneasy for sure.
'Language of Steel' comes from two of the same guys that brought you 'The Dark Ages of Technology' back in 2007 (tube090), Doc.AtmosfearCrush and Tomahawk plus another member of the [Esc.] Laboratory family, Harlequin. For the likes of you that need labels to go around, maybe we could call this something like 'evolved ambient industrial music'.»
- test tube
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December 08, 2011
FADE OUT AMBIENT
• tube'|243 - M A S & Travis McAlister - The Fade Out Room
It is with great pleasure and respect that we present this work from newcomers M A S & Travis McAlister here at test tube. We think that fans of The Caretaker and Gutta Percha will love this.
Following are some words from the artists explaining their work:
«M A S (aka Makram Abu-Shakra) and Travis McAlister are two musicians who used to play in various improv bands together during the early 90's in Southern California. Roughly a decade after they went their separate ways, a visit to Travis' home in Portland, Oregon led to a recording of mostly improvised music, which was to serve as the raw material for a project of careful craftsmanship that took three years to complete.
The result is an exploration of the warm, organic, and faulty sounds of vintage instruments, as well as an attempt to seek out (or invent?) an ambient side of early music genres such as old school jazz and the dream-like reverie of early black and white cinema. This is done from a minimalist musician's perspective which repeatedly strives to return to a core, abstract expression. As such, there is a dynamic interplay between structured melody and pure sound textures.
One has a sense of layers being peeled back to reveal deeper meaning, underscored by a recurring tendency towards sonic diminution and the fading out to silence. Hence, the name "The Fade Out Room".
The exploration of varying musical styles gives a sense of transparency to the album or an unfolding of dimensions, the shifts in the music at times resembling the soft peeling or shedding of layers to reveal more essential expressions.
The instruments played in The Fade Out Room include an optigan, an assortment of bells, various synths, a music box, and a plastic trumpet.
Makram Abu-Shakra was born in Lebanon and is now based in San Francisco. He is also an artist and a writer. Most of his work can be found here. Look for his first book to be published sometime in the next six months.
Travis McAlister was born in California and frequently performs live in Portland, Oregon. He is a member of Nequaquam Vacuum and The Krebsic Orkestar. He has earned a reputation of being a multi-instrumentalist and he also builds his own musical instruments.»
- test tube
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November 09, 2011
SYNTHETIC BUG NOISE
• tube'|242 - Dave Zeal - Animal Craft
«Canadian musician and producer Dave Zeal does it again and delivers another amazing ambient release for test tube. Six months after releasing his newest collaboration with friend and neighbour Daniel Maze back in May - the amazing 'Blueprints for insect architecture' - this time he shows off what he's been cooking at his studio: 7 tracks of pure ambient and soft drone bliss.
I don't know about you, but I just love the sounds that Dave makes. This is going straight to our top 2011 releases list.»
- test tube
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tube'|245
mon0
Colliding Textures
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59'44'' |
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tube'|244
[interrupt: Jumper]
Language of Steel
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52'30'' |
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tube'|246
Aitänna77
Night Loops
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13'06'' |
Current Mixed-Media release: |
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tube'|mm002
Bogdan Dullsky
Freedom Reflex | Second
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68'23'' |
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tube'|dvd003
v/a
test tube collected works
125 ~ 179
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35h02'01'' |
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