http://www.phuturelabs.com/word/chatter/fur-black-castles-ep/

My first post on Phuturelabs and it’s a cracker i think!

Released yesterday (31/10/09) for free legal downloadon Secret Station Records' website, FUR’s "Black Castles EP" and his upcoming album "Colorful People" is some of the most exciting & interesting electronic music i’ve heard in a while.

Fur aka Bryce Isbell originally hails from Denver, Coloradoin the United States. With an incredible 51 releases to his name, and aged only 22, his "Black Castles EP" features ethereal and psychedelic electronic music in the IDM downtempo ambient style. He lists some of his influences as being Michael & Marcus Sandison (aka Scotland's finest "Boards of Canada"), Richard D. James (Aphex Twin), Ryuichi Sakamoto & Trevor Wishart.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2009/11/dentons_fur_offers_up_two_free.php

Denton's FUR Offers Up Two Free Electro-Trance Downloads For Your Futuristic, 1980s Vision Of The Modern Ultralounge Scene.

Since 2006, Denton-based artist Bryce Isbell's been steadily self-releasing experimental recordings--51 full-length albums and EPs worth of self-released material to date (According to his facebook page). His first release, Downstairs Room, consisted of a single 45-minute-long freak-folk track that Isbell describes as "experimental electro-acoustic."

Sounds like fun, right? Well, even Isbell admitted by phone yesterday that he "had a hard time getting people to listen to that one."

So Isbell's been reinventing himself with every consecutive handmade CD-R, cassette or digital release he's offered since Downstairs Room, and, after adopting the FUR moniker in 2008, Isbell left behind his freak-folk gobbledygook for a more stream-lined, conceptualized, electronic sound.

And, guess what? Isbell's not self-releasing his recordings anymore: FUR's Black Castles EP and Colorful People full-length were both released on October 31 on Secret Station Records. We're thinking Isbell probably won't have as hard of a time finding an audience with this release. And it probably doesn't hurt too much that the album features some choice collaborations including one with Neon Indian's Alan Palomo ("Black Castles") and another with ex-Ghosthustler member in Gray St. Germain Gideon ("Andante Grazioso").

Isbell was kind enough to send us along two tracks to offer our readers this afternoon, including the original version of the down-tempo ambient cut "Black Castles." (A few other remixes are available on the Black Castles EP, which Secret Station is offering as a free download.)

The synth work on the "Black Castles" sounds pretty much unmistakably Palomo's, right? Well, that's fitting: As Isbell explains, "the idea behind Colorful People was to have different representations of musical personalities, to have a each track represent a person that I know."

Good luck guessing which other Dentonites were captured on the album...

http://www.thesirenssound.com/2009/08/28/paneye-along-the-way-to-the-bigtop-my-life-just-dissolved/

Paneye is the moniker of Will Treffry. Will resides in Sydney, Australia and his sound is heavily influenced by the deserted swamps, marshes and forests that are scattered around the outer suburbs of the city. In a grand manner "Along The Way To The Bigtop, My Life Just Dissolved" is broadly a one man project with the exception of some bits the project also enlist Jess Mutascio as a back up vocals.

Paneye is the kind of music that makes one realize that sometimes its not only about the riffs, distortions and noise but its also about the mood the blissful and ecstatic state, a particular sound can magnetize you in. Paneye sound can get you completely lost.

A strong doze of ambient ~ soundscaping ~ post-rock and even "slightly or widely" tripcore. You decide.

The 1st half of the album is quite something. Right up till "Tents Hide Creatures". However the second half takes a slightly different turn. Make no mistake though… still very good. No doubt… but just a different atmosphere. VERY GOOD LISTEN all together.

http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/yay-new-druggy-ambient-sounds

What else is there to live for, really? That's just the title track on Sydney-based Paneye's along the way to the bigtop, my life just dissolved. Track two's "balloon skin suits of rainbow gimps" takes us into Black Moth meets Funky Chicken territory or the aptly titled "Tidal Breeze" that washes everything out with barely-there vocals and a Boards of Canada melody line swirling around like the sea slowly receding towards where it came from.

http://homemade-lofi-psychedelic.blogspot.com/2009/08/paneye-along-way-to-bigtop-my-life-just.html

I know that some of you people out there have been waiting for more music by PANEYE since listening to his first release posted here some time ago, so this new record will surely make some of you guys quite happy, I guess!

Though sounding a little different from "Wilt and Loom" this again is a fantastic album – more dreamlike soundscapes and very atmospheric time freezing moments. Perfect flowing album.

GET IT!

http://onlyamazing.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=251:specta-ciera-snowflake-collections&catid=49:rock&Itemid=100

Uber-underground Specta Ciera's Snowflake Collections is very smooth, sometimes to a fault--for stretches, it's pretty uneventful. What sets it apart, however, is not complexity or originality, but that it simply does ambient electronica consistently well. "It's barely there" is the standout, and a perfect example of the album's gracefully minimalistic high points.

For a couple weeks, this was the background sound for my more intensely focused review writing sessions. You know, the ones where I light up my freshest candles (Yankee or bust in my house) and throw on the old prayer beads while spontaneously trancing out and having visions of the Twilight 3 soundtrack outlined in light. Try it out. You, too, might find yourself inspired.