Scythe

UK label Blackest Ever Black, purveyors of dark sounds, noise, drone, and ambient electronics, will occasionally release a compilation album for our listening pleasure.  And they're always top notch.  The latest, "A Short Illness from Which He Never Recovered," is out in July and features artists like Carla dal Forno, Brainman, and more.  Check out the slow creeping opener "Flower, Drop" from Scythe below.  It sounds like floating in space.  Then pre-order the record here.

Black Rain

Black Rain makes a kind of gray, bleak, and moody form of bedroom techno, subdued beats laid along droney ambience and darkened cinematic flourishes.  It's kind of plays like a soundtrack for an imaginary cyberpunk movie filmed in black and white.  New album "Computer Soul" is out now.  Get it here from Blackest Ever Black and listen to the gloomy album opener "City of Atomic Ghost" below.

Bremen

January sees us getting new music from Swedish experimental outfit Bremen.  "Enter Silence" continues the group's ascent into the cosmos, blending elements of mind expanding psych rock, spacey jazz, and cold and precise krautrock.  Check out the interstellar overdrive of "Too Cold for Your Eyes" below and pre-order the record here from Blackest Ever Black.

Carla dal Forno

Berlin by way of Australia artist Carla dal Forno makes wonderfully complex and moody music with bands like Tarcar and F ingers, but makes equally dark, damaged, and fractured pop as a solo act.  She released her latest, "The Garden" EP, last month on Blackest Ever Black, a short collection of warped and somber post-punk-ish jams.  It's awesome.  Listen to "We Shouldn't Have to Wait" below and get the record here.

PESSIMIST

Here's some dark tones and electronic drones from London producer PESSIMIST.  Listen to "Glued" featuring Loop Faction below and get the artist's self-titled album via Blackest Ever Black.

Amateur Childbirth

It's Thursday.  Here's some stripped down, minimalist, apocalyptic folk rock for your listening pleasure.  "Your Afterlife Is Cancelled," the latest upcoming album from Australian doom troubadour Amateur Childbirth looks at and channels all of the sadism and biblical nightmares of the gods into creeping, haunting dark folk.  Listen to "All Doomed" below and pre-order the record here from Blackest Ever Black.

Jac Berrocal, David Fenech, and Vincent Epplay

When three experimental artists get together to make some music, the result is bound to be interesting.  And so we have the "Why" 7" from Jac Berrocal, David Fenech, and Vincent Epplay, out later this month on Blackest Ever Black.  Think of it as slam poetry as performed by a free form jazz trio playing under the guise of no wave band in some seedy club in New York in the late 70's.  Listen to the title track below.

Naaahhh

From some back alley in London comes the trippy, droney, paranoid nightmare music from the mysterious project known only as Naaahhh.  The kind folks over at Blackest Ever Black are set to the "Themes" EP later this month.  In the meanwhile, listen to the creeping, crawling "Neck Devour" below.

People Skills

People Skills is the project of Philadelphia's Jesse Dewlow, a somber, kind of haunting, lo-fi, droney folk act that feels like hiding in your bedroom as the world burns outside around you.  This is where we're at.  Listen to "Town of Diana" below and get the record later this month from Blackest Ever Black.

Ashtray Navigations

Playing like some kind of alternate soundtrack to an 80's Michael Mann movie, Ashtray Navigations' "To Make a Fool Ask, and You Are the First" LP is synthy symphonic bliss, a Tangerine Dream indebted nightmare score bathed in trashy neon lights.  It's dark, sweeping, pulsing, and majestic, the kind of music just begging to provide proper atmosphere for the right night.  Get the record from Blackest Ever Black in November and listen to the epic album closer "Spray Two" below.

Carla dal Forno

I first came across the Berlin by way of Melbourne musician Carla dal Forno with her smoky, experimental, and sometimes bleak work on projects like Tarcar and F ingers.  Heavy, heady, atmospheric stuff to be sure, and now the artist is prepping her debut album under her own name, the upcoming "You Know What It's Like" coming soon on Blackest Ever Black.  Watch the video for "What You Gonna Do Now?" below.

Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards

The beautiful and mysterious new release from Blackest Ever Black is the curiously monikered Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards, with an album entitled "Wreck His Days" due next month from the label.  While no one is being forthcoming with any information regarding artist involvement or anything like that, the gorgeous and glacial "...And I Tried So Hard" is enough to pique my interest.  The song slinks and molds, like watching a flower open and close and ultimately decay, or a snake slowly shedding his skin.  Listen below.

Raime

It's been a few years since we last heard from the dark and dissonant Raime, but the artist's sophomore album "Tooth" is just on the horizon now, set for release in June on Blackest Ever Black.  The noise and atmosphere is just as bleak as ever, but there seems to be an underlying urgency to these brooding, somber sound experiments as evidenced by first sample "Dead Heat."  Listen to the track below, feel the uneasiness rising, and pre-order the album here.

Secret Boyfriend

Here's some haunting ambient machine music from the latest album from Secret Boyfriend.  "Memorize Them Well" is the sound of meditating deep within a factory somewhere, eyes closed, room darkened, your mind taking you into spiritual nether-caverns that really don't exist.  Listen below and get the "Memory Care Unit" LP from Blackest Ever Black.

Tarquin Manek

Tarquin Manek is one half of the experimental electronic, kind of darkwave Australian duo Tarcar (whom you should totally check out), but has just released his first full length solo effort on Blackest Ever Black.  Here's how they describe the album:

"A unique synthesis of time-dilating folk-jazz romanticism, brittle chamber dub and plasmic post-techno electronics."

That's better than i could ever hope to do.  At any rate, the songs are weird and hypnotic and fascinating.  Listen to "Sassafras Gesundheit" below and get the "Tarquin Magnet" LP here.

Tropic of Cancer

Here's a new somber, creeping, crawling, droney synth exploration from Tropic of Cancer called "Stop Suffering."  It sounds kind of like crossing over into the abyss.  Listen below and grab the EP of the same name at Blackest Ever Black.

F ingers

F ingers is the druggy, experimental electronic project of members of the groups Tarcar and LST.  Take a listen to the warped "Tantrum Time" from the upcoming album "Hide Before Dinner" below.  It sounds like slowly sinking into oblivion.  Pre-order the record from Blackest Ever Black.

Barnett and Coloccia

It's storming like a mofo outside, so here's a new dark and droney jam from Barnett and Coloccia called "Dreamsnake" from the duo's upcoming "Weld" LP on Blackest Ever Black.  Enjoy.

Tarcar

Australian electro-synth duo Tarcar have an excellent cold and melancholy new jam, "Eija," that they contributed to a new compilation from the excellent Berlin-based label Blackest Ever Black.  Listen to the track below and grab "I Can't Give You the Life You Want" from the label.

Dalhous

Droney, experimental outfit Dalhous have a new album in the works, set to be released later this month on Blackest Ever Black.  "Will to Be Well" oozes and seethes, an anxiety-inducing series of clicks, hums, and electronics.  It sounds like a body at work, each piece of a grander machine functioning together...but threatening to collapse or fall apart at any moment.  Listen to "Abyssal Plane" below.