‘Moments Before’ casts Matt Bartram on a sea full of low slung shoe gazed waves and anti static walls of noise. I reviewed his fourth record ‘The Dreaming Invisible’ for this site in 2013. Back then I was wondering how he made such a big sound out of small means. Now I imagine I can […]
Read More from Fluid Radio reviews Moments Before by Matt Bartram
So much of a recording’s effectiveness hinges on its mix—the spatial distribution of instruments, the layering of sounds, decisions regarding emphasis and de-emphasis, overall dimensionality—but such considerations assume even greater importance when shoegaze is involved. With the volume amped high, finding a way to achieve clarity in the mix and differentiation between elements poses an […]
Read More from Texura reviews Matt Bartram’s “Moments Before”
Review from Avant Music News of “Lifenotes” by Clem Leek: Clem Leek from Kent in the southeast of England is an ostensibly ambient composer who frankly invests too much emotion and melody in his music to be characterized as such. In less than two years since debuting as a recording artist, he has released an […]
Musician, artist and greengrocer Damian Valles enjoyed a bumper year in 2011 (highlighted by the birth of a healthy baby boy). He released two mini-CDs, a full-length, and rounded off his stint as curator of the admirable “Rural Route” mini-CD series. Most of the entries in said series can be characterized as ambient, as can […]
Read More from Igloomag.com reviews “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
Once of Air Formation and The Static Silence, Bartram has offered more than a decade of good service to the shoegaze genre. For his latest album though, he has applied certain constraints. Firstly, there would be no vocals or drums and only one guitar would be used plus – in his words – “whatever effects I […]
Read More from Leonard’s Lair reviews Matt Bartram’s “The Dreaming Invisible…….”
“Lifenotes is a nice mixture of complex atmospheres and stripped back pieces. It has a long track list (sixteen), but they are all short tracks, easily digested.” Clem Leek is a composer who has quietly been working away for some time now. He is very often described as neo-classical, which is a pretty loose term […]
Read More from Igloomag.com chats with Clem Leek and reviews “Lifenotes”
Valles has been jumping from one genre to another––math rock, post-rock, ambient, punk––for more than a decade now. The Canadian musician has landed on something that feels like ambient, but which he says is more concerned with structured tunes and melodies—song stuff—than his past solo stuff. How is it? At times reminiscent of the dark, […]
Read More from Pop Matters offers up 2 cents on Damian Valles’ ‘Skeleton Taxa’
Compared to Max Richter, Dustin O’Halloran and others in the current school of neo-classical composition, Clem Leek is as much a miniaturist as a minimalist. The pieces on the UK artist’s second full-length have the fragmentary character of in-process sketches or thoughts. Piano chords are played tentatively, with pregnant intervals allowing for full breaths, or […]
Read More from Exclaim.ca weighs in on Clem Leek’s “Lifenotes”
Although his seventh release, Skeleton Taxa is Canadian experimental artist Damian Valles’ first full length CD ‘proper’. Having more recently been exploring ambient and drone aesthetics in a string of limited CDrs, digital releases and compilations (not to mention the first Rural Route edition which he curates) this album sees Valles retain these components, but […]
Read More from Future Sequence reviews “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
Ik onderstreep het nog maar een keer: voor hedendaagse droommuziek moet je bij het Drifting Falling label zijn! Ze brengen de ene na de andere droomplaat uit, waarbij de genres variëren van singer-songwritermuziek en minimal tot shoegazermuziek. Tot die laatste categorie hoort de muziek van de Britse muzikant Matt Bartram. Hij is één van de […]
Read More from Caleidoscoop reviews “The Dreaming Invisible…….” by Matt Bartram