Track Listing: Ministers of Friday, Vespertiliones, Andegavenses, Rabianara, Inquisitio, Ros Vespertinus, Conciliator, Iupitter, Repetitio, Lamentatio, Athlantis, Aquilas.

The music of Eyvind Kang, like that of sometime collaborator, John Zorn, defies easy description or genre classification. Also like Zorn, Kang’s influences seem to encompass every sort of noise that has ever vibrated air on the planet. Again, like Zorn, he will at times come forth with compelling, inventive modern classical compositions. Athlantis is one of these.

Based loosely on texts of Giordano Bruno, a burned-at-the-stake 16th Century Italian heretic, Athlantis is primarily a choral work, though it includes fanfare-like brass pieces as well. What we don’t find is Kang’s renowned violin madness; this is about Kang the composer. The choral aspect varies from malevolent hissing to something like Gregorian chant pressed through dodecaphonic serialism. Arabic/Indian strains, even some eerie sitar, are woven through the pieces – perhaps suggestive of the pagan, non-Catholic ideas the Inquisition accused Bruno of wantonly embracing. If masterfully strange is your cup of poison, check this guy out.

For more info, visit the composer’s Wikipedia entry or his MySpace page

Track Listing: Dragonfly, Marionette, Maybe We Will, Veil, Sasha, Sorrow, The Sick, Lament, Residue

This is a two guy/two girl indie band with a spooky gothic edge. Nice hooks, potent female singer, atmospheric FX. Undoubtedly a good live band. The album sounds like it was recorded in a club even, perhaps in Asheville where they have a following.

Very listenable, medium tempo songs, with a strong rhythm section and seasoned instrumentalists. Favorite tracks so far are “Maybe We Will” and “Veil”.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.

Track Listing: Persona, Culture Shock, GDP, Hands To Bind, Mocking Bird, The Love Story, Nina’s War, One Vision, Spin, Televangelista, The Agnostic, Modern Military Engagement.

You may have already heard this California trio, since they seem to be getting some good underground airplay, both on the internet and in regular radioland. They feature some interesting synth work, solid guitar with occasional screaming licks, and a singer who excels at what I call “gothic drone” vocals, with a few variations.

The droning, hypnotic style is effective at reinforcing what I feel is the band’s main intent, allowing their lyrical content to sink in. They are very politically and socially provocative in their stripping away of the layered bullshit within which regular folks tend to be comfortably ensconced. However, contrary to the usual rampant anarchy associated with iconoclastic behavior, AIO seems to long for a higher state of ethics in ordinary mankind. Definitely not the “kill them all” approach.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.

Track Listing: Within a lilac clutch, The witch’s garden (prelude), Vermillion reflections, Where red shadows slumber, Flickering embrace, The great dreaming swan, Spiraling into the sun, Flowering ashes, The witch’s garden.

Well, once you work your way past the florid hyperbole and bald-faced self promotion of this darkside John Williams (sic) and his unintentionally amusing prose stylings, what you find is a videogame soundtrack composer who has done some work in films. No doubt not the composer of anything like Final Fantasy, but serviceable; one that will do. The sheer amount of buzzwords in his press indicates he is no stranger to the psychological manipulations of commercial merchandising, though I doubt this will gain him much penetration in the goth marketplace.

The music itself is not too shabby. It’s sort of fluffy, Richard Claydermanish pianistics or synth orchestras that’s typical of film composer’s romantic era classical music pastiche or, OMG, the underwater outer space epic. The guy must know music, and can find his way around an orchestra – proper tools of the film composer trade – still, I thought I was falling asleep on the couch to a TMC rerun.

For more info visit the artist’s website or his MySpace page.

Track Listing: Vociferous, Off the Wall, Breed, Noir Nudity, Vaccination, Rezist, Requiem, Incunabula, Visionary, Anything, Void, This.

A dark tinged art rock band with some novel ideas and an even more novel approach to the music business... as in, go download the album gratis from their website! Leave a donation if you like. Or you can buy an official CD with artwork etc for $8. Ostensibly, Radiohead is using this formula for their next release as well. You gotta love it! I’ll take art over business any day.

What makes this all the more amazing is the first rate quality of the music. Excellent guitar playing and vocals. Very head expanding, emotionally effective lyrics and delivery. They sound a little bit like a lot of things but not really like anyone else.

For more info visit the band website or their Musicforte page.

Track Listing: Dead Voices, Autumn Flowers, Blue Light, Cruel Beauty, Middletown, Summer Endless Summer, Forget Yourself, Cab Ride, Peculiar Thing, Sugarwater, Wasteland.

Take Paul Barker of Ministry/Revolting Cocks and Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard/Tomahawk, add an unknown singer and a hot drummer... what do you get? U.S.S.A. of course. Not as industrial as Ministry, but possibly even crazier. This stuff builds like it’s riding a tremendous wave. I like hard and dark, and U.S.S.A. delivers the goods.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page (bunch of videos here...and check out their friends list...whoa!)