Recorded live at Charlatan, Ghent, earlier this year, Elefant fill the room with a largely instrumental sound that contains warped guitars, kraut rock, sludge and interestingly, in their words, “nachtwinkel” that translates as night shop for their current EP ‘Nordic Tanzen Am Sonntag’. Opening track ‘Proteus’ is the stuff of late nights, where a nightmarish vision exists via sinister guitars with bouts of distortion, and a backbeat that gives the impression of wading through sludge and making for a very claustrophobic experience. Follow on track, ‘Smithers’, continues along similar lines, only its rhythm is struggling at greater depths with its bass scraping along the bottom yet, despite such adverse conditions, Elefant mange such difficulties by creating an impressive and absolute monster of a rhythm. From these two heavy slabs of instrumentation, the load lessens somewhat during ‘Elefanten’ with the guitars providing direction, yet still fuelling the band’s sound with a creepy element as heard by the skeletal tones of the guitars and additional keyboards. It’s not all about providing a soundtrack, however, as Elefant show that they can do conventional which, by their standards, is still some considerable distance from such a description with the concluding, and frenzied state of ‘Depression’, where instruments intertwine and go into overload with only brief respites via the lead vocal. A real surprise, and one that will take some adjusting to considering its off-kilter approach compared to what’s currently out there, Elefant’s ‘Nordic Tanzen Am Sonntag’ is a welcome addition as well as a welcome relief.

Limited to a mere 150 copies is the new ambient long player from Ruhe with ‘Patriarchs’. Mastered by Ian Hawgood in September this year, the work that is presented is largely a succession of instrumentals designed for the wee small hours that suggests nothing but a lonely, isolated state where the only company that exists are one’s own thoughts. Bleak as that may sound, the song writing crafted is of the highest calibre as it carefully depicts the loneliness by means of instrumentation that is raw and stripped back where you can almost sense the cold creeping in under the doorways or up through the cracks in the floorboards, adding further fuel to the melancholy of this album. Examples of this can be gleaned from the title track, ‘Patriarchs’, which plays out like a forgotten record player with a sustained hiss in the background and its piano accompaniment filling the space of cold empty rooms, only to be momentarily broken by the crackle of a faint voice that sounds equally forgotten and consequently left in time. Fragments of this track seep into the next song, ‘Felled’, with the piano, along with filtered harmonised vocals unearthing the beauty at the bottom of this instrumental in a combined effort towards its conclusion. Speaking of beautiful, ‘Guide’ adds shards of light via its piano melody but is frustratingly cut short midway through, due to changing direction and leaving one to ponder that, in life, you can’t have everything. With this album being a warts and all affair, ‘Shelter’ is probably the closest you will get to experiencing an artist at work where it’s the sound of ideas being tried out for the first time (piano lid closing, stools creaking, shuffling of feet, etc.) and then patched together. With ‘Patriarchs’ expressing an overall sense of solitude, never has such seclusion from the rest of the world sounded so appealing with the fragile compositions making up this album.

From the remnants of Belgian underground trio Hitch, who decided to call it quits back in 2011, Grand Blue Heron emerge with a ten-track album by the name of, don’t get confused here, ‘Hatch’. With the album having been written, recorded, produced and mixed by Grand Blue Heron at Chateau Rocque, which just happens to be owned by the band as well, there is a real sense of Grand Blue Heron merging as one here, both in their creative endeavours and ideas suggested by the detailed pen and ink illustration adorning the album’s exterior. The merging as one reference applies to Grand Blue Heron’s sound for the manner in which their sometimes, near droning and space rock influences threaten to engulf the entire band, such is their dedication to their art with all band members pulling in the same direction and therefore running the risk of becoming drowned in their own sounds. Evidence of this is convincingly served up by the poetic delivery, and intriguingly titled, ‘Gay Is The Lord’, which threatens to overspill during the enthralling ‘Last Song’. Where this album picks up extra attention, however, is for its toying with various influences by creating more direct numbers via ‘Lip Sweat’ that is more about the indie guitars than anything else, yet is most welcome in this set. This diversity extends to the, again, intriguingly named ‘Bodies Of Fire, Suns Of Wax’ where the vocals sound buried deep below a mound of earth, and the band working intensely in order to bring their ideas to fruition, despite the sense of pressure weighing down upon them given by this particular song. Comparisons have been made linking Grand Blue Heron with Motorpsycho, Jesus Lizard, Earth and Neil Young for example, which has a ring of truth once the dusty roots and blues inspired ‘Tin Soldier’, or the tail end of 70’s guitar rock of ‘AddickTed’ opens up. There may have been many who mourned the demise of previous band Hitch, but mourn no longer because Grand Blue Heron and their album ‘Hatch’ are two very good reasons to start believing once more. The much needed indie revival, in its truest sense of the word, definitely begins here.

Rather than idly passing the time away, due to the daily duties of regular band line ups remaining on sabbatical for now, the four band members making up new project, Dead Ahead, decided to get together and lay down some new material. As far as first recorded works go, the decision to pursue this fresh project was indeed a wise one, as all four tracks making up this debut EP are of the highest quality. Such has been the positive reactions to this four-track EP that Dead Ahead is likely to be pondering the next step in this new line up, which could evolve into a full-time project if the band continue along similar lines. So, to the music because it’s generally a gritty, punk rock sound, but one that contains enough melodic segments, set to raw and honest lyrics that often greets the listener. The urgency of opening number ‘Cold Truth’ is one such example of this sound, where a few (personal) realisations are coming to light and publically aired. The noise is more airtight during the caustic tone of ‘Rose Lenses’, where impassioned vocals provide a real edge. There is a fine line between the music Dead Ahead is peddling and the grunge (pop) rock influence of say, Buffalo Tom for example, albeit with a tad more dirt under the fingernails when listening to the former, where the sweet and sour ingredients of pop and punk meet and produce these coarse yet melodic songs. Such an example rears itself on closeout track ‘Exit Letters’ with its crushing confession, “From a time you had a heart” brought to life via the song’s driving rhythm and sometimes dual vocals, seemingly united in their contempt, that really touches a nerve and serves up a clear winner for song of the set. Long may this project continue, as there is only one direction that Dead Ahead should be looking in.

Far from being the standard format for an EP with the customary four or five tracks, Aleksander With stretches such a format with the inclusion of seven tracks, that gives his latest release, ‘The Butterfly Effect’ the feel of a mini-album. Format issues aside, ‘The Butterfly Effect EP’ shows Aleksander With back to his best after a period of absence from the music scene. That’s not to say that the man has been lying dormant these last few years, quite the opposite in fact as Aleksander With tried his hand at writing for other artists, which led to an award in Sweden during the ‘Melodifestivalen’ for the song ‘Why Start A Fire’ together with Lisa Miskovsky, Bernt Rune Stray and Berent Philip Moe. By turning his attention back to his own song writing, Aleksander With made the decision to collaborate with producer Anders Kjær and the talents of Martin Sjølie and David Sneddon, as well as undergoing a period of soul searching in order to give a more honest reflection of his own life through his works. The results of these combined efforts bears a collection of profound pop songs, brought to life by Aleksander With’s strong vocal, which has never been in doubt. Evidence of this natural talent can be heard during the light, electronic pop of ‘Sell Me Out’, where the vocal sounds so effortless yet commands much attention. Current single, ‘All We Ever Do’ alludes to the former reference of soul searching as it transforms the atmosphere to a darkened state, with Aleksander With brooding over a relationship that turned sour set to a moody electronic beat. There’s a personal message attached to ‘Better’, expertly communicated by the various layers of its pop sound that suggests, overall, a sense of optimism at the end of this tunnel. Optimism is the right choice of word here as ‘The Butterfly Effect EP’ provides enough reasons to suggest that the tide is finally turning for Aleksander With and his music.

Released earlier this month is the new EP from Frøkedal. Having fronted Norwegian indie band Harry’s Gym and performed a major role with the delightful, I Was A King, Frøkedal continues to pursue the solo route with ‘I See You’ EP. With this latest effort consisting of four tracks, Frøkedal continues her exploration of more traditional elements of music, combined with pop and electronic influences. Such an example gradually bubbles to the surface during the excellent introduction to this EP, ‘Surfers’, that leans on folk music for its main inspiration, but also filters in broader instrumentation, such as use of keyboards, giving it a fuller and more modern sound. Follow up, and title track, ‘I See You’, reaches out to the past and offers a clearer example of traditional folk music, without quite being that as well. Clearly not content to dispose of her past creative works, and rightfully so, Frøkedal produces a clip, cut and then pasted together electronic rhythm that passes through darker waters than anything else present here. With the melancholic and downright beautiful ‘Silhouettes’ adding the final piece in the set, Frøkedal has produced a consistently strong EP that bodes well if, and when, a decision is made to convert this rich form to a full-length album.