Genre/Influences: Experimental, Industrial.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Behind Nyctalllz is hiding Iranian artist Morego Dimmer who’s involved with multiple projects, Xerxes The Dark being for sure the most familiar and renowned one. Nyctalllz is a project you might know from compilations or previous works. “Persian Trip” is a new work featuring seven tracks and inspired by fantasy about ‘A guy in modern Persia has been intoxicated by an odd & unknown essence. Soon his mind creates noises and closed-eye visuals. The journey has begun, but the guy has no idea what’s really going on. It seems his empty-industrialized soul can fly through time…’

Content: The content of this work also has something of a fly… an imaginary walk through abstract sonic compositions, which are mixing total Experimentalism and Electro-Industrial passages. It has something of a free-Industrial interpretation, creating a sonic mayhem. But you’ll also notice more inhibited passages with repetitive Electro sequences.

+ + + : Nyctalllz sounds a bit as loose cannon. It’s an unpredictable sonic experience built up with a mishmash of sounds and noises. I like some old-school elements reminding me of the Electro-Industrial work of SPK. I also like rhythmic patterns making the work more accessible.

– – – : The Experimental format of the work makes it not very accessible for a wider audience.

Conclusion: “Persian Trip” sounds like assisting to sonic surgery; decomposing and recomposing sounds and noises!

Best songs: “Maguy”, “To Ke Az”, “Ku Zeh Gar”.  

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/Nyctalllz

Label: www.facebook.com/zaalrecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient, Cinematographic, Experimental.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Iranian producer ‘Morego Dimmer’ strikes back with a new opus of his beloved Dark-Ambient project Xerxes The Dark. He’s involved with other projects such as  Morego, Nyctalllz, Blind Owl ao, but is mainly active under the Xerxes The Dark moniker. This album is inspired by the idea of a parallel existence.

Content: The album takes off with an impressive, heavy Ambient cut adding the listener into a dark universe. The sound universe of this artist is characterized by an impressive cocktail of noises and field recordings. He supported his work with a dense and obscure atmosphere, which can become disturbing at some moments. I also noticed a few tracks, which are more chaotic.

+ + + : This artist already impressed me for his production skills at the latest Morego releases. He now transposed these skills into the Dark-Ambient approach of Xerxes The Dark, creating a mind-blowing sound with a strong visual appeal. But the main strength of this work is for sure the impressive sonic canvas he created. The writing is extremely detailed, like a sonic puzzle filled with endless sound treatments and multiple field recordings.

– – – : The album is maybe missing a total climax and that’s maybe because most of the track reveal an impressive high qualitative standard. I’m less convinced by a more chaotic piece like “Crisis – Pt.1 Microspcopic Black Holes”.

Conclusion: Xerxes The Dark is one of the uncontested leading formations of the Iranian Dark-Ambient scene.

Best songs: “The Hiding – Alternate Edit”, “Interaction”, “Parallel Disturbance”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.facebook.com/xerxes.the.dark

Label: www.facebook.com/zaalrecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Psychedelic, electro-ambient, downtempo.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Iranian artist Mohamad Reza Govahi aka ‘Morego Dimmer’ is back on track with a new EP from his Morego project. While he’s also involved with Xerxes The Dark and Nyctalllz he now strikes back with a new psychedelic production, which has been made in collaboration with Iranian guitarist Amir HP. After the recently released full length “Astrophile” we here get again something new.

Content: The title song taking off is a pure mix of psychedelic- and ambient music. The guitar with effects on top creates a deeply psychedelic sound, which is only accentuated on the next cut. The Eastern atmosphere also emerges at the surface. “Catharsis” featuring Amir HP has something dub-like and also tribal driven while holding on to the ambient- and psychedelic elements. The last track is a remix Morego did for Ostanes. This is just another project Morego Dimmer is involved with and which has released a single on Bass Star Records as well. 

+ + + : The Eastern sphere plus the psychedelic approach definitely are the main strengths of this work. The song together with Amir HP is a brilliant fusion between the Persian culture and some elements from the West world.

– – – : I think there’s more hiding in the title song than what came out of it. “Catharsis” is the real title track from this EP!

Conclusion: The psychedelic voyage of Morego goes on. I’m really wondering where it will stop.

Best songs: “Catharsis feat. Amir HP”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.facebook.com/morego.music

Label: www.facebook.com/BassStarRecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, industrial, dark-ambient.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: This compilation was originally released in a digital format in 2016. There were some ‘political’ issues with Iran because of the original title “Iranian, Experimental Music Survey”, the compilation being black-listed. The compilation has been now re-released as CD format featuring twelve artists and songs while the digital edit featured eighteen artists.

Artists: Alphaxone, Xerxes The Dark, Idlefon, Bicolor, Spectro Duo, Nyctalllz

Content: We all know Iran from our history books, but we often forget this country also has a very active and interesting underground scene. Bands like Idlefon, Xerxes The Dark and Alphaxone became praised and successful names of the dark-ambient scene. This album sounds like a magic trip throughout the underground scene of Iran and more especially of its capital Tehran, where most of the bands are located. This is a real diversified release revealing multiple intelligent sound treatments by bands like Alphaxone, Bicolor and Umchunga, but also more experimental treatments from bands like Idft plus industrial-inspired formations like Xerxes The Dark, Nyctalllz and Spectro Duo. I also have to mention the minimalism from Tehransmission.

+ + + : I can imagine this re-release was not an easy thing because of the current political situation. I really have to express my gratitude to Raffaele Pezzella (label owner) for his devotion, passion and commitment. This compilation is not just dark-ambient music. It especially reveals an impressive sonic welfare of a country, which clearly seems to produce intelligent and passionate sound architects transposing ambient music into a real creative exposure. Next to a few familiar and established names I discovered several talented formations, which I hope will progressively find their way towards the West. I like this kind of conceptual release giving us an idea about the underground ambient-scene from one specific country!

– – – : I was less convinced by the more experimental artists from the sampler. Just a little regret some great tracks by Elemaun, Xsix and Hami Keivan aren’t featured on the CD format.

Conclusion: This compilation series remains to me the most educative one from the underground scene! What a Brilliant concept to connect people via music!

Best bands: Alphaxone, Tehransmission, Nyctalllz, Umchunga.

Rate: (8½).

Label: www.facebook.com/unexplainedsoundsgroup  

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, electro-ambient, industrial-ambient.

Background/Info: Unexplained Sounds Group is a digital label and platform for mainly dark-ambient music. Next to other releases they created an interesting conceptual series revealing ambient music from different countries. They released albums with underground music from Germany, France, Italy, Canada ao while this series is dealing with music from the Iranian scene. It features 19 Iranian formations active at the wider fields of dark-ambient and experimental music.

Bands: Idlefon, Bicolor, Xerxes The Dark, Alphaxone, Hami Keivan, Idft, Tehransmission ao.

Content: We all know Iran from our history books, but we often forget this country also has a very active and interesting underground scene. Bands like Idlefon and Alphaxone became praised and successful names of the dark-ambient scene. This album sounds like a magic trip throughout the underground scene of Iran and more especially of its capital Tehran, where most of the bands are located.

This is a real diversified release revealing multiple intelligent sound treatments by bands like Alphaxone, Bicolor, Umchunga and Xsix, but also more experimental treatments from bands like Hossein RangChi and Idft plus industrial-inspired formations like Xerxes The Dark, Nyctalllz and Spectro Duo.

There also is more minimal-minded work by Elemaun revealing subtle treatments and the more into IDM-like Hami Keivan and Tehransmission.

+ + + : This compilation is not just dark-ambient music. It especially reveals an impressive sonic welfare of a country, which clearly seems to produce intelligent and passionate sound architects transposing ambient music into a real creative exposure. Next to a few familiar and established names I discovered several talented formations, which I hope will progressively found their way towards the West. I like this kind of conceptual release giving us an idea about the underground ambient-scene from one specific country!

– – – : A few bands can’t convince me, but it’s just a minority.

Conclusion: This is one of the most intelligent sampler concepts from the past few years, which made us also, discover unknown, but great bands.

Best bands: Alphaxone, Elemaun, Xsix, Hami Keivan, Tehransmission, Nyctalllz, Umchunga.

Rate: (8½).

Label: www.facebook.com/unexplainedsoundsgroup

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com