hot dang, the first half of Vladislav Delay's Kemikoski EP as Conoco is some of the best ambient techno I've yet to witness; it's aquatic and crackly and incredibly memorable. Then there's the twenty-minute closer, which makes the release twice as long as an EP needs to be and is both more dense and far less interesting than what came before it, to my chagrin. :'(

the Grå Fraktion comp just doesn't hit the lo-fi black metal sweet spot, simply by being too punk and more than a little too, well, I hate to say it, but hipster. I mean, this shit has ties to Iceage! Real black metal does not have ties to trendy post-punk revivalists; that's like the first rule of black metal, duh. But then again, I'm okay with Sexdrome so I guess I'm a hypocrite.

also the World Saxophone Quartet's W.S.Q. is making me wonder if I just don't like saxes as much as I thought I did? Because Lake/Hemphill/Bluiett/Murray is quite a line-up and the music, like Birthright is doing nothing for me. Maybe it's just saxes by themselves? I never was a fan of For Alto, for the record, and I guess I like my unaccompanied reeds to be all about extended techniques and circular breathing and to sound as much like Conic Sections as possible, I guess.