Monolith Cocktail Blog

A SOMEWHERECOLD RECORDS DOUBLE BILL/DOMINIC VALVONA

Violet Nox ‘Vortex And Voices’
(Somewherecold Records) 15^th September 2023

A sci-fi chemistry of vapours the Boston, Massachusetts electronic outfit Violet Nox once more entrance with a futuristic new age album of psy-trance, cerebral techno and acid ethereal-voiced self-realization/self-discovery. Wired into the “now” however, messages of self-love and inclusiveness waft and drift to a rhythmic, wavy vision of EDM, crossover rave music and soulful electronica.

For this newest venture – their first for the highly prolific and quality North American label Somewherecold Records – features, more than ever, the experimental, often effected, vocals of group member Noell Dorsey: a mix of hippie cooed yearn, Tracey Thorn, Claudia Brücken and Esbe if you will.

A siren-in-the-machine, Dorsey expresses dreaminess, sadness and on the near mystical, wispy and lightly dub-y ‘Loki’, a past life as some Egyptian wraith – yes, I get that the title would favour something more Nordic in atmosphere and theme, but this regression into an old incarnation sounds more like a oboe trippy hallucination of Egyptology.

Often expanding the set-up, apparatus and lineup, this time around the Gaia attuned ensemble consists of core members Dez DeCarlo (on synth/effects pedals), foil Andrew Abrahamson (“synthesis”, sampler and clocked machines) and the already mentioned Dorsey. Musically, sonically they keep up the trance and minimal techno, melodic and kinetic rhythmic signatures, whilst erring towards club-like sung vocals and electronic pop. But it’s a real mix of synthesized influences, cybernetics and cosmic voyages into the internal and external mind.

The opening magnesium cooking vapoured and ached ‘Ascent’ evokes elements of Musicology, The Higher Intelligence Agency and Jarré; a lost trance-y peregrination from the early Warp label files. The more ominous, leviathan shadowed drama in granular cyberspace, ‘Chaos’, reminded me more of Harthouse, even Kraftwerk (those mesh-sizzled compressed drum pads especially), and the light note arpeggiator cascading and floated gauzy ‘Senzor’ sounds like a mix of Sven Vath and Vangelis’ Blade runner score.

Whether it’s journeying into the subconscious or leaving for celestial rendezvous’, Violet Nox turn the vaporous into an electronic art form that’s simultaneously yearning and mysterious. Fizzing with techy sophistication and escapism, the American electronic group continue to map out a fresh sonic universe. 

Droneroom ‘The Best Of My Love’
(Somewherecold Records) 22^nd September 2023

The barest hovering of a held note and most minimal of traced finger work, brushes and brassy resonance is enough to conjure up arid vistas, rumination and “sullen” emotions on Blake Edward Conley’s fifth album for the North American label Somewherecold.

The Louisville-based guitarist-composer can convey or draw out deep-held feels, sentiments and remembrance from scarcely rhythmic loops and drones – hence the Droneroom moniker. And whilst recording stations include the arrival/departure lounges of the Soulsville, Memphis TN and Denver International airports – Las Vegas too –, this latest vaporous and resonated transformation pictures mirages on mysterious desert horizons and both McCarthy and Lynch’s supernatural, occult ghosts of the old American West; think Ry Coder as an alternative choice for The Blood Meridian, or, the Gunn-Truscinski duo collaboration scoring Paris, Texas. ‘You Can’t Piss In The Same River Twice’ (sound advice) goes even further in evoking something both alien but recognisable. A filtered, muffled spherical vortex spins around like some off-world portal as Conley picks at and sort of strums a very removed vision of bluegrass on a brassy-resonating banjo.  

‘Other Desert Cities’ sounds more like an enervated Sunn O))) with Brian Rietzel in a haze of blurred and more trilled echoes of nothingness. And yet a landscape image of something other and paranormal emerges from razor buzzes, scaly nickel strings and soft harmonies. It’s as if there’s a prevailing presence of someone, a thing, even time itself. ‘Cole Morse Was A Friend Of Mine’ whilst not so much elegiac, does paint a personalized desolate empty world of dust and reflection. It’s followed by another tribute/homage/thank you allusion to remembrance. ‘Nothing Of Value Is Ever Truly Lost (For Jess)’ is filled with warm feelings, a fondness, that’s weaved into an intimate gentle cascade of melodic country-folk-Americana guitar stirrings (reminding me a little of Raul Refree) that sound almost sitar like. 

Abandonment, oaths, mourning and love hang like tangible descriptions in rippled, palpitating and softly juddered panoramas. Loops, vibrato, fanning effects are both wispy and sonorous; the guitar and banjo both recognisable and oblique on an album that applies an ambient and drone mystery to what you could call an abstract expansion of Americana.