The Seven Fields of Aphelion: Periphery (4.5/5)

Joshua's Top Ten "Not Metal" Picks for 2010
#7 of 10



Year: 2010
Genre: Ambient Piano Dreams
Label: Graveface
TRT: 38:08

Another member of Black Moth Super Rainbow (in addition to Tobacco and Power Pill Fist) that has decided to dabble into the solo arena, thank goodness. Whilst Tobacco captures the dirty chip hop side of BMSR, and PPF exemplifies the noiser chaos side of BSMR, The Seven Fields of Aphelion channels the ambient and atmospheric side. Ethereal, surreal, soothing and thoughtful, we're treated to a softer, more contemplative and drifting sound...like floating away on a dandelion puff in a secluded mountain meadow, on the cusp of summer and autumn.

01 Slow Subtraction
02 Grown
03 Pale Prophecy
04 Wildflower Wood
05 Cloud Forest (The Little Owl)
06 Mountain Mary
07 Saturation : Arrhythmia
08 Fever Sleep
09 Lake Feet
10 Sunburst Chemicals
11 Michigan Icarus
12 Starlight Aquatic

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Javier Navarrete: Le labyrinthe de Pan (4.5/5)

Year: 2006
Genre: Soundtrack
Label: Milan
TRT: 73:44


Yes, this is the OST for Pan’s Labyrinth. But unlike most soundtracks, this one doesn’t need the accompaniment of a movie to be awesome, it does that just fine on it’s own. I tracked this down after liking the music better than the movie (and since the movie is good that should tell you something), but honestly if I had heard this with no notion of it’s connection to the film, I would have loved it all the same. It has the atmosphere of a concept album, very fluid and dreamy, but threaded together with the strength of the recurring motif. It also doesn’t hurt that that main melody strongly recalls Mia Farrow’s haunting humming from Rosemary’s Baby.

Try listening to this late at night, with the lights off, under the covers, whilst reading Stephen King…

01 Long, Long, Time Ago (Hace mucho, mucho tiempo)
02 The Labyrinth (El laberinto)
03 Rose, Dragon (La rosa y el dragón)
04 The Fairy and the Labyrinth (El hada y el laberinto)
05 Three Trials (Las tres pruebas)
06 The Moribund Tree and the Toad (El árbol que muere y el sapo)
07 Guerilleros (Guerrilleros)
08 A Book of Blood (El libro de sangre)
09 Mercedes Lullaby (Nana de Mercedes)
10 The Refuge (El refugio)
11 Not Human (El que no es humano)
12 The River (El río)
13 A Tale (Un cuento)
14 Deep Forest (Bosque profundo)
15 Vals of the Mandrake (Vals de la mandrágora)
16 The Funeral (El funeral)
17 Mercedes (Mercedes)
18 Pan and the Full Moon (La luna llena y el fauno)
19 Ofelia (Ofelia)
20 A Princess (Una princesa)
21 Pan's Labyrinth Lullaby (Nana del laberinto del fauno)

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Mago: Definition of Raw Moments From a Different Perspective (4.5/5)

Year: 2002
Label: Ad Noiseam
Genre: Atmospheric Steller Dreamscapes
TRT: 71:29

Another album I took a chance on based off the meticulously beautiful packaging and artwork. Again I was rewarded. Definition... really takes you on a trip, a soujourn really, through the spaces between time and space. Delicate a caressing, sometimes pushing sometimes floating but always well thought-out and perfectly executed. After falling in love, I found out that one of the individuals involved is also Sanctum and half of Azure Skies. Go figure.

Pick a copy if you are able to do so, this is the sort of album to pass on to your kids one day.

01 Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole
02 Like Sand Slips Through My Fingers
03 Your Mind Blew Across the Grass in Ripples
04 Enlaced by Ropes
05 Spaceships and Piles of Mud
06 Thought There Was More to Come
07 Sing Me to Sleep
08 Inbetweenworld
09 Infinite

Purchase this album from Ad Noiseam Records