{"id":31053,"date":"2026-06-25T05:30:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T09:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31053"},"modified":"2026-06-25T07:48:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:48:46","slug":"album-reviews-two-from-the-hyperspace-communications-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/album-reviews-two-from-the-hyperspace-communications-label\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Reviews: Two from the Hyperspace Communications Label"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Next World Sound Vol. 5<\/i><\/strong>
\nDark ambient: that\u2019s the most succinct distillation Ican come up with to describe this LP. Featuring one side each of works from a pair of artists \u2013 Knox Chandler and Anna Homler, Next World Sound Series Volume Five<\/em> is compelling and textured. It\u2019s ambient, but certainly not \u201cnew age.\u201d It\u2019s not readily evident what exactly is making the sounds one hears on tracks like \u201cLapis,\u201d \u2013 maybe it\u2019s guitars, likely some fiddly analog synthesizers \u2013 but it\u2019s wonderfully evocative stuff. The closest reference I can think of might be early Tangerine Dream, but Chandler goes some places that German experimental outfit did not. There\u2019s an undeniably haunting and unsettling vibe that pervades Knox\u2019s pieces; to me, they suggest mystery, glacial pace and something very organic, but I suspect each listener will have his or her own reaction. That\u2019s the point, I suspect.<\/p>\n

Working with label head (and notable figure in the genre) David Javelosa and Jeff Schwartz, Homler serves up a single, 26-minute tune, \u201cVoices of Eternity.\u201d Squiggly synths suggest plenty of that knob twiddling; there\u2019s a vaguely \u201850s sci-fi quality to parts of the tune. There are also all manner of non-synthetic sounds: found voices, clocks being wound, machinery, chirpy singing in an unknown language, poetic spoken word, and much, much more. There are also haunting and delightfully musical bits (\u201cEdelweiss\u201d? A soprano singer, etc.) that sound like they\u2019re coming from a room down the hall, a room you just\u2026 can\u2019t\u2026 get to. Spooky but enthralling.<\/p>\n

\"\"Metro Subterranean 2<\/b><\/em>
\nWhile this collection is brought to us by David Javelosa\u2019s Hyperspace Communications, it couldn\u2019t be any more different from the above title. Electronic new wave of the late \u201870s to early \u201880s style is what\u2019s on offer here. (The label calls it future wave; who am I to argue?) Four artists, four tracks each.<\/p>\n

Muscular bass work and hypnotic beat underpin a coolly dispassionate female vocal on tracks from Donzii. Danceable and rocking at once, the first four tunes showcase the stylistic breadth of this duo.<\/p>\n

More jagged and angular, Klypi deals in a kind of electroclash style, with a deep-groove dance feel. There\u2019s a strong melodic quotient to tunes like \u201c2 B Ignored,\u201d so strong that we won\u2019t deduct points for the long-past-its-sell-date Princely song title. Retro in the best way possible.<\/p>\n

Clattering and experimental, ICBM seems to seek to thumb a nose at listeners; the vocals call to mind Wild Man Fischer, and the titles (\u201cBooger Easters,\u201d \u201cFood Phobia\u201d) suggest that ICBM is a punky kindred spirit of the late Zappa prot\u00e9g\u00e9. Proceed with caution.<\/p>\n

Listen through the noisy, grimy punk of Period Bomb and be rewarded with melody. Try to grab onto said melody and discover that it\u2019s like smoke: ephemeral and fleeting. Dangerous and a bit threatening, and recommended for those with a high tolerance for dissonance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next World Sound Vol. 5 Dark ambient: that\u2019s the most succinct distillation Ican come up with to describe this LP. Featuring one side each of works from a pair of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,26,48,49,50,53,59,65],"tags":[5595],"class_list":["post-31053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ambient","category-electronica","category-new-age","category-new-release","category-new-wave","category-post-punk","category-punk","category-review","tag-hyperspace-communications","cat-5-id","cat-26-id","cat-48-id","cat-49-id","cat-50-id","cat-53-id","cat-59-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31053"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31765,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31053\/revisions\/31765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}