rose-engine : : : Signalis

Deserves the hype. Its influences and references are pretty clear (Silent Hill 2 is obvious, perhaps Blame! too, perhaps others — and I love the way it uses Die Toteninsel) but it makes something original out of them; it's a solid survival horror game and a cryptic and poetic story about human feelings in a cold, ruthless world. Great music and visuals, resource management is challenging enough to feel like survival and not just horror, but above all I love the rich, non-linear narration that invites interpretation.

> Steam
> Glitchwave

Yasmine des Astres : : : Y's FW 77

Long, raw, minimal acid tracks — but also very psychedelic and with a queer vibe (like on "Taking Estradiol to Make Music to Take Estradiol To" with its whisper-moans).

Thanks to lesbienne for the discovery!

> Bandcamp
> RYM

Barker : : : Utility

Twinkling and shimmering, peaceful, beautiful ambient techno.

+ There's a companion mix in the same style, based on the artist's own live performances preceding the release of the album, FACT Mix 720, which I recommend as well!

> Bandcamp
> FACT Mix 720 on Soundcloud (free download)
> RYM

So Percussion & Matmos : : : Treasure State

Ranked second best Matmos record on HELLWORLDPRINCESS's Matmos Discography Tierlist and I agree; Sō Percussion are known for playing classic minimalist composers and their style goes very well with Matmos's super quirky rhythmic experiments! "Cross" goes hard beatwise, I also really like "Swamp" (super interesting sound juxtapositions), the album is concise and focussed and, as always with Matmos, playful and fun.

> Bandcamp
> RYM

The Future Sound of London : : : Environment 7.003

To be honest, I had been a little disappointed by FSOL's first three Environments. They sounded a bit like FSOL Lite to me: nice backgrounds, but without all the intricate organic details and events I loved in Lifeforms, ISDN and Dead Cities. The second one was a nice take on arctic ambient, but still, I slept on the later ones.

This one though is a nice surprise! Their sound has definitely evolved this time, it's more minimal but there is a lot of energy again (more ambient + more techno, less IDM); it also goes back to some of the dark jazz notes I liked in ISDN but in a different style.

Thanks to purlieu on the Keyosc forums for the recommendation!

> Bandcamp
> RYM

Raphael Rogiński : : : Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes. African Mystic Music

The liner notes for the new version state the Populista label this was originally released on was "dedicated to mis- or over-interpretation of existing music", which is a surprising but interesting concept. I would never have recognized Coltrane here, nor any other origin for that matter; it sounds like sui generis guitar improvisations with a folk sensibility that's hard to pinpoint, mostly in the life and melancholy that's there. And so it sounds beautiful in a way that doesn't really sound like anything else.

> Bandcamp
> RYM

Djrum : : : Under Tangled Silence

Of all the ways Djrum could have made this sound evolve, this is definitely a good one! Lots of piano. And just towards the end, a lot of weird fast beats (closer "Sycamore" feels stroboscopic). I wonder if drukQs was an inspiration here? Though the vibe and sound are very different, I can hear a little similarity. In any case, this builds on what I loved on Broken Glass Arch and I loved that record.

> Bandcamp
> RYM

Cari Lekebusch : : : Det jag vet

Mechanical fast beats that hit hard but are mostly there to drive things ever forward and for weird timbre experiments — with a lot of melodies, more coloured and human than I expected from this style! Plenty of short tracks, a fun night out where things never settle in one place. And all the vocals are in Swedish, which is kinda cool, not a language I get to hear so often. Addictive — I've been playing this one a lot.

> Bandcamp
> RYM

NYX : : : NYX

I discovered this all-female choir with their collaboration with Gazelle Twin a couple of years ago (a great record with a dark, surreal pagan atmosphere, at times frighteningly strange); this one is still very witchy but explores brighter paths. To be honest, it is hit-and-miss as some of the more serene tracks towards the end sound shallow and less inspired, but most of the record is enchanting and colourful ritual ambient, which I like a lot! Just get Deep England first if you haven't yet and like darkness.

> Bandcamp
> RYM

Suda51 : : : The Silver Case

Well that was a mind screw. Good because that's exactly what I wanted it to be.

I have to say though, and I'm saying this as someone who likes visual novels — even the ones with zero interactivity — I often wished this story had been told another way, or via another medium entirely. The pace is an absolute slog, and what little gameplay there is is nothing but a chore — I wish I could have fast-forwarded it or set it to auto. That said, if you have the patience to stick with it until things get going, the story and atmosphere become really something else. Not always well written, but super weird, unique and unpredictable; in some ways it even feels Lynchian without trying to be Lynchian, which is something. The music is also very good!

Mostly though, this finally gives me the elements I needed to make any sense of the later part of Flower, Sun and Rain — which I had played before not knowing it was a sequel:

> Steam
> GOG
> Glitchwave

Suda51 : : : Flower Sun & Rain

Also a hard game to recommend to anyone, but definitely a memorable experience! Worth playing if you're patient and into weird postmodernism and absurd humour.

You play as a "searcher" on a mysterious tropical island and your task, using a device that can only input numbers, is to prevent a plane from exploding in a terrorist attack. You fail because you're completely inept and the plane explodes. In fact you don't even succeed in waking up on time for breakfast. The next day, you start again. It's an absurd, surreal time loop story in which you solve mostly useless pseudo-riddles and ridiculously boring requests (that often require you to walk on very long straight roads obviously made to be used by cars — the NPCs refuse to let you use one or even a bike and just make you walk and walk and sweat like an idiot in a suit, then make fun of you), and then it becomes a complex mind screw that ties up with the events of The Silver Case even though it seemed to be a completely different story and has a very different mood. (And yeah, if you want to make sense of the story at all, you need to play The Silver Case first.)

Flower, Sun and Rain is not a fun game, but it is unique. And funny. A remastered edition is in development, might be worth waiting until it gets released!

Killer7 remains Suda51's masterpiece, and I'm sure some consider it his only really good game (heavy content warnings for that one, it's very disturbing), but Flower, Sun and Rain has its own special place in my heart.

I wonder if the pink crocodile is a reference to Pink by Kyoko Okazaki?

> Glitchwave

Jóhann Jóhannsson, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier & American Contemporary Music Ensemble : : : Drone Mass

Drone might be a stretch but this is truly beautiful. Solemn, melancholic. Hummer_Tales's review is better than anything I could write about it, especially the part about the music resembling the landscapes of Iceland — even though it takes inspiration from Egyptian funerary chants and so differs completely mood- and colourwise.

> Bandcamp
> RYM