Stephen O'Malley & Atilla Csihar: 6°FSkyquake (EditionsMego) - CD

Its original scope exceeds the limitations of the CD format: eight hour running time, narrative structure through Csihar's lyrics / text and elaborate playback model (3 seperate systems, 18" subwoofers, PA tops inside large rooms). But somehow, the brief 30 minute extract on this release manages to preserve all of this. Ok, I don't think I could stomach the entire thing and at times Csihar does sound like a drunk rugby fan lost inside an empty pub. But the shifts from high-end drone to speaker-troubling low end are welcome and the occasional howling screams of O'Malley's guitar are genuinely unsettling.

Willits + Sakamoto: Ocean Fire (12k) - CD

With two artists working in such neighbourly fields, it's difficult to tell who contributes what. Tokyo's Sakamoto is reknowned for pairing up with numerous artists from the electronic field. Whilst San Francisco's Willits has made some impression with his regular link-ups with 12k boss Taylor Deupree. Sure, it's dark, brooding and filmic like you'd expect, but it's nothing more. There are no suprising twists or turns to elevate this from what I was expecting. The better tracks appear near the end of the album, when elements of drone creep in and shift the mood away from glitchy activity. As an album of ambient music though, it works fine; background / wallpaper / music to compliment furniture....just don't expect anything challenging.

Ersen: Ersen (Finders Keepers) - CD

Part of Finders Keepers' Anatolian Invasion series of releases, which has so far given us welcome re-issues from Selda and Mustafa Ozkent. From tales of LA Hip-hop producers discovering his material buried in antique record stores to corporate British shoe manufacturers using his work to soundtrack global advertising campaigns merely lengthen his already productive 40 year career. Despite being a compilation, it's stylistically tight, hand picked from his mid-seventies 'Anadolu rock' period. Where thick gloopy funk basslines, catchy clearly defined riffs and ridiculously tight percussion provide impressive backing to his impassioned delivery.