Tommy Four Seven: Corebeat Drilling

Beats Etched In Stone: New Cuneform

Fully caustic and unrelenting, the lonely beats of Primate mine pulses complete with dust, debris, and cavernous echoings. Along the minimal techno vibe, Tommy Four Seven creates a kind of sonic black hole, especially with the opener 'Sevals'. That track signals all the elements at his command: exquisite details surround each deep beat, allowing the listener to shed all expectations.

'Talus' brings his Gothic vibe to the fore; indeed, the cathedral-like production and vocals suggest a purgatorial opera. A big beat jam accompanied by modulated, wistful voices on 'G' continues the cold comfort, yet the listener warms up to Tommy's sense of dramatic proportion and rising cadences.

It's only by the 4th track, 'Ratu,' that pounds out a club-friendly house vibe; no doubt perfect for those late night chemical ravers with focused attention spans. Sure, it's primitive like the title suggests, but Tommy works it like a sonic paleontologist divining new medals of creation. For more, the Create Learn Realize label offers tons of podcasts, videos, concert dates and more. Props for digital primitives!

5 Dark Vibe CDs: Perfect Reading Companions

One of my many pleasures involves finding and listening to dark harmony music. Mostly in the electronic/electronica vein, these five recordings add atmosphere and depth to any readers looking to ratch up the fear factor:

1.  Tim Hecker: Radio Amour. A delirious mixture of environmental recordings, micro-transmissions, instrumental snippets and tintinabular etchings, Radio Amour offers a wistful, contemplative experience. This is ambient music with a gentle pulse, demanding more than just background attention. Recommended for: fantasy stories.
2. Dark Matter: Multiverse 2004-2009. Comprised of Bristol's dark beat alchemists in dubstep, breakbeats, intelligent techno and other mutations, Dark Matter shreads your incus, burrowing into your head with nervy electrics and off-kilter rhymes. Recommended for: any zombie apocalypse story.
3. Bucolic: Dzyan Blood. A personal favourite of mine, this is one of the most accomplished recordings form the sadly defunct BSI Records. In every sense of the term, Dzyan Blood is spot-on Gothic Dub. A echo chamber of a 1,000 mirrors, Bucolic drops dusty, almost industrial vibes with a ear for impending doomy drama. Recommended for: classic/vintage horror with vampires, revenants, ghosts, ectoplasm, necromancers and witch doctors.
4. Prince Charming: Fantastic Voyage. Part of the so-called 'illbient/downtempo' school, Prince Charming offers a cosmic narrative, complete with doom dub instrumentals, mutant cha-cha, hyper spoken word jams, creepy fake jazz and other transgressions. Recommended for: weird  superhero stories, end-of-world and biogenetic sci-fi.
5. Push Button Objects: Dirty Dozen. A totally absorbing mixture of hip-hop rythmns and frosty synths, Dirty Dozen fills your ear with tantalizing hooks, spooky keyboards and gentle dirges. Perhaps not strong from start-to-finish, this one defintely fits into any Halloween bash or as a soundtrack for lonely Goths. Recommended for: existential hobos looking for a reprieve; sci-fi involving identity switching, time travel and parallel dimensions.

And remember, Keep on Creeping on!