Mal-Ism
Ismes
Oberwave
The first taste we had of the new EP from Moscow’s Mal-Ism was “Une Saison (En Enfer)”, a hot mid-tempo electro-body number that made good use of atonal synthwork and an ever-changing arrangement that kept it moving forward without getting stymied in a particular groove for too long. Come to find out that Ismes has a lot more to offer than DJ fare however; the EP’s six tracks add a nice selection of sounds to the mix in their pursuit of “different interpretations of neo-decadent aesthetics”. Where “Hommage” and “Tristero” bring in some cinematic atmospheres (more modern and sleek in the former, gritty and retro in the latter), “Epigraphe” trades in crushed, lo-fi percussion and a funkier take on the busted sound design of the EP’s opener “Deimos”. It’s none of it a major departure in terms of vibe, although closer “Horreur Sympathique” dips intriguingly into some broken beat stylings, almost technoid in execution. It’s a strong selection of cuts that hold to a central approach, while developing its potential in intriguing fashion.

In The Nursery -Soundtrack to an Imaginary Film [demos 1987-88]
In The Nursery
Soundtrack to an Imaginary Film [demos 1987-88]
self-released
Veteran UK act In The Nursery have been mining their archives to no small results over the last few years, between the ten volume Miscellanea series and a handful of soundtrack releases and the like. But their period-specific snapshots have been the most illuminating, and this collection of demos and alternate takes from the Stormhorse and Koda sessions showcases a far different era of the project than the trip back to their earliest post-punk days taken a few years back, and instead zeroes in on a compelling mix of rough synthwork and the Humberstone brothers’ emerging symphonic ambitions. The rough and raring synth string version of “Portamento” which appears here seems to anticipate a brand of epic video game scoring which wouldn’t be feasible for another five or six years, if not the entire sub-genre of dungeon synth itself. While those sort of technical and stylistic landmarks might be of interest to synth and scoring historians at large, die-hard ITN fanatics will find a trove of alternate pathways through the band’s discography, not the least of which is a saxophone-aided version of “Ascent”, here pulled away from imagistic neoclassical and brought into the smokey haze of a unfilmed neo-noir scene befitting this release’s name.