Everything influences my life and my music. What is the point in existing if you don't take something from every situation, every sound, every moment.
In the ambient and electro world, the main artists that have caused major celebration in my brain are:- The Orb, Radio Massacre International, Orbital, Aphex Twin and Autechre.
Sounds Like
Comparisons have been made to the following in reviews or in my own mind:- Ulver; Aphex Twin; Ah-Cama Sotz; Future Sound of London; The Orb; Radio Massacre International; Pink Floyd; Orbital; Lull; Coil; Autechre; Sabres of Paradise; but the overall sound I think (and hope) is very unique.
Within the sounds there is a mixture of dark ambient, minimal, drone, doom, industrial, tech-step, electronica, progressive, weird, experimental and hypnosis to combine together to make for a very warped soundtrack of distorted atmospheres, tripped out vibes and a major leaning towards the eerieness of the filmscore and that of TV programs like Jam.
Incandescence Chapter One review clips Ultimate Metal (Russell Garwood):- 'strongly recommended to fans of the increasingly transgressive side of electronica'. Simon Bishop:- 'sounds like an insects ear-view of the universe noises swarm, buzz, drone & chatter throughout the album; Throwing Everything & The Stars Take Shape' sound like stethoscopes taken to vast industrious hives' LINK2WALES (Mark Watson-Jones):- 'a lot of depth and thought has been put into the drifting layers of looped noise and beats, rhythmical industrial sounds, and more haunting tones.' Load of Noise Zine (Pete Worth):- 'The sound immediately reminds me of the soundtrack to the intensely dark television series Jam, inducing feelings of paranoia and confusion.' Modern-dance.co.uk (Philly):- 'Fascinating distinctive mixture of dark industrial instrumentals and electronica.' Gigs-unlimited.co.uk (Jim Biscuits):- 'telling the story of a dark, frightful and sometimes intense journey. The thing with ambient music is the more you listen to what at first sounds like organic sounding background noise, the more it becomes very rhythmic and somewhat hypnotic, which is something Incandescence have mastered.' Exhilarate Records site (Tom Garner):- Compares to the soundtracks of 28 Days Later, The Terminator, Artificial Inteligence, The Matrix, Cube & Cube 2, Blade Runner and Ringu. The whole album seemed to create an emotional backstory, bringing up many fragments of feelings, like the feeling of being outside or in a vast structure far from humanity. It created themes in my mind of abduction, entrapment, and destructional wars waging in the skies under a never ending blanket of darkness, with an earth underneath full of smoke and things smouldering on the ground in all directions. It is a soundtrack for a first hand witness to an Armageddon.
Incandescence Chapter Two review clips LINK2WALES (Mark Watson-Jones) - 'Music of the night, I think, and for the night. Drawing on the surreality of insomnia or battered body clocks, this dark electronica seems best suited for painting sonic pictures on the black canvas of dark imagination. I think, from experience, that on psychedelics this would probably twist my melon too much but its testament to the quality of the invention and depth of the production that theyre not necessary to enjoy this album.'
'I'd compare it favourably with Aphex Twin, Ulver's "Perdition City", or the slower stuff from Sabres of Paradise. Check it out and let your imagination do the walking' Ultimate Metal (Russell Garwood) - 'The subtle atmospheres created are effective, and the compositions more fluid than on Chapter One. Incandescence has clearly improved, with an original sound, and more accessible, yet still unusual music. The production is of a high standard, in an overall strong release,' Load of Noise zine (Pete Worth) - 'Like a digital sonic virus infecting living tissue, the sound waves slowly start to take over, blocking out all other noise and leading you on an aural trip into mental science fiction.' modern-dance.co.uk (Philly) - 'Anyone thinking that it's all weird and not so wonderful ought to listen to the quirky 'Moldovia and Denmark Notice every Single Sound', where riffs and melodic interludes combine with electronica in a robotic struggle that has more twists than you could ever imagine. This instrumental brought a smile to my face. Incandescence have a lot to offer those who are forever looking for new musical horizons. It took a while for this old boy to understand the direction, but now a successful conversion has been made.' Gigs-unlimited.co.uk (Jim Biscuits) - 'I made the mistake of listening to this with headphones on and was up all night! Its just fantastic. I was imagining Chris Morris Style happenings throughout most of this.'
Comments from forums and other message boards:-Ian - Raw Nerve forum:- 'I can definatly see it as a film soundtrack. it has a sort off dark menacing underbelly to it which really hits the spot.' Radio Dystopia:- 'WOW! Eerie stuff and very original! Great production also! You have a very organic yet sophisticated style.' Visible Breath - 'Your sounds could be straight out of the David Lynch film "Eraserhead". Very imaginative with plenty of space between the effects. You would have been totally at home in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in it's heyday. Atonal music is not easy to do but you have certainly managed it.'
ALL THE NEWEST REVIEWS, FROM MARK WATSON-JONES AT LINK2WALES
Chapter 3
An appropriately titled continuation of the Incandescence ambient experimentation and explorations. There is an element of distinction noticeable on this release with a seemingly more stripped out and harsh sound, greater clarity despite the ever present multi-layering of sounds. The acknowledged Aphex Twin influences are apparent on the electro beats of “spider legs...” and the relentlessly elevating “a haven...” but the majority is more expansive warped out sounds and waves, with random-ish disturbing intervals of noise. The couple of industrial band remixes I consider very good too, perhaps because of the element of familiarity at the core of their structure, but the imagination in expanding their scope through tech-wizardry is very positive.
Sleep Deprivation
Introducing spoken word samples (an increasing signature within more recent works) give way to staccato breaks to kick off this collection. It generally has a fuller sound than the previous one, the warm waves of “subdued link” being a good example of this but there remain exercises in insistent electro beat workouts in “Alcatraz...” and “Dream tortured...”, shifting through a range of tones as the jazzy percussion drives on. My own personal liking for the dark side is met with the scarily intense descent through sound in “the evil eye...” and the closer “level 4:...” conjures up wonderful imagery of digital warfare on a massive scale. Despite these highpoints this collection seemed somewhat less coherent than previous releases, maybe deliberate, maybe actual effects of sleep deprivation but there seemed an unnecessary over-random nature to some of the assembled pieces.
Loneliest moments
An interesting and challenging shift in the nature of Incandescence in audibly visualising (!?!) a quite mammoth project, although this is the first of a similar few and perhaps marks a confident new direction. A false opening of a few echoing bass notes fades to the key deep, slow beat beneath breathing waves that underpins this epic single track. It is evocative to me of being inside a coma, various layers of oppressive smothering noise coming and going. Some tremulous delicate vibes, some roaring winds, all manner of indistinct and distant external noises pushing at the edges of consciousness. Philosophical spoken samples give some context, puncturing the dreamlike state after times of rising intensity, even harrowing noise. The echoing notes are a recurring theme and provide a few false endings too, as the sounds open out into something akin to God speed! You Black Emperor’s barren territory only to be overcome once more with punishing noise onslaught. An intriguing and ultimately successful effort, something to enjoy in those lonely dark moments.
Remains of buildings
Shock horror – 2 tracks! (;-)) . Still 70+ minutes but the reins have been pulled in on the runaway horse, the firewalls erected to limit the hyperactive creative virus. And with such good results. “Burning chambers...” commences with percussion as percolation, drips or drops in cavernous emptiness, before vibes edging to distortion and feedback drift in and accumulate. Importantly, they also drop out too, providing a much more distinctive light/shade on/off feel. A fantastically ominous, truncated pulse provides the hypnotic dark core of this piece, that doesn’t outstay its welcome despite the length of the track. An odd change to beats and electronica after over half of the song is weird, but shifts up through tones to a higher level and allows the deep undercurrent to return. The to and fro continues between beats, industrial vibes and samples before an eventual reprise for the central disturbing theme. Really my favourite piece of the many varied outputs so far. The slightly shorter “door of failure...” is also an echoing epic, slightly melancholy in feel and cinematic in scope, completely suited to some grand scale sci-fi even if it is only conjured on the mind’s eye. I’d highly recommend this as Incandescence’s best yet.
Floating Spirits
Again, when the CD is in and you see 1 track 70+ minutes on the display you know you’re making a commitment to some sort of aural journey. Initially echoing interference and a high tempo and pitch overlay gives way to more delicate vibrations. Whether the title plants the image or whether it merely accurately captures the feel there is definitely something spiritual within the heart layers of this production. A wavering, almost lamenting tribal/folk note runs through much of the early stages, percussion is occasional and minimal. There are shifts to more industrial feel sections at times which strike a little at odds with the former, though the image of suspended threat achieved is appealing to me. Later progressions into fast tempo distorted waves rising to occupy higher tone planes start to feel a bit disconnected, as though this more a collection of traditional Incandescence shorter pieces strung together as opposed to the complete piece as encountered in the previous release. Throwing the kitchen sink into the mix does raise interesting questions about whether the freedom of expression the experimental nature of the genre allows means that it becomes a very personal exercise, and while there may be something for everyone the number of those appealing connections made will inevitably be limited.
incandescence
(nkn-dsns)
n. 1. The emission of visible light by a hot object. 2. The light emitted by an incandescent object. 3. A high degree of emotion, intensity, or brilliance.
One man music/remixing project based at the centre of the Universe.
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Incandescence 1 - Chapter One: The Second Phase
Incandescence 2 - Chapter Two: The Replacement Phase
Incandescence 3 - Chapter Three: All Sound is Synthetic
Incandescence 4 - Sleep deprivation, disassociation and other forms of altered mental health
Incandescence 5 - The loneliest moments of my life
Incandescence 6 - All around us were the remains of buildings we shared our emotions in
Incandescence 7 - The floating spirits of the desert
Coming soon, albums number 8 and 9 and the free remix album.
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DISCOGRAPHY (Time in minutes and seconds)
2003 - Chapter One: The Second Phase (55' 11")
001 - Day one, the wanderer returns
002 - Throwing everything you have at the monster and still not being sure who won
003 - The broken hut of silence within the morning solstice
004 - The stars take shape and the patterns mean something after all
005 - Moth Eaten Sunn TANGAROA REMIXED
006 - Walking the corridors in the building that houses the final obstacle in life
007 - Pure hypnosis amongst the chaos
008 - These good people THE GATHERING REMIXED
009 - Thrown through natural hyperspace continuum
2004 - Chapter Two: The Replacement Phase (52' 07")
0001 - Prelude to First Orbit
0002 - Icicles and the new Dawn
0003 - A cold announcement
0004 - Charging Robots on a dying warfield
0005 - Moldovia and Denmark notice every single sound
0006 - Making up for time lost because of others
0007 - Ten ways to alter time
0008 - Meandering through memories of war
0009 - Hopscotch, shuffle and strife
0010 - Electronic Maths
0011 - Off kilter tranquillity at 6am
0012 - Madness Reprise
2005 - Chapter Three: All Sound is Synthetic (61' 47")
0001 - The swirling birds fighting to the birth
0002 - The spiders legs entangle with the sea horse
0003 - Nervous breakdown, Japanese horror film style
0004 - Winding down to a harrowing sleep
0005 - A haven, a heaven, a heathen
0006 - Moments of delerium, moments of calm
0007 - Temporary side track
0008 - Four years until the first rainbow
0009 - Burning whispers of creation INTERLOCK REMIX
0010 - Demolishing the swarm SKINFLICK REMIX
0011 - Tender caresses in the morning
2006 - Sleep deprivation, disassociation and other forms of altered mental health (58' 31")
0001. Distribution of insanity
0002. Subdued linkway to the stars
0003. Alcatraz, that friendly stress relief centre
0004. The calm after the calm after the sublime
0005. A dream tortured spine and it's journey through evolution
0006. The evil eye takes another unplanned look
0007. The king and queen in a custody battle
0008. Better the child killer you know
0009. Layer 4; Another excursion into the magic of the collectives
2006 - The loneliest moments of my life (58' 36")
0001 - The loneliest moments of my life
2006 - All around us were the remains of buildings we shared our emotions in (71')
0001 - Outside the burning chambers, listening to those inside being taught what it feels like to repent
0002 - Persistantly knocking at the door of failure
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2006 - The floating spirits of the desert (78')
0001 - It became so calm as the sky turned black
CONTACT/BANNERS/REMIXES
e-mail incandescence@ntlworld.com for more information about the project, interviews, promos or anything else. Also, please get in touch if you would like an Incandescence re-working of your song, I am more than up for having a go at any song.
Also check out the website / forum / reviews / music promotions / flyer distribution / printing service site that I run.
Eye of Phetkanha, which is an old project that I was 50% of.
Cerebral Constriction, which is my newest project, more of a white noise/harsh ambient nature.
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Reth, which is the main band that I am in (grindcore/death/extreme/tech).
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2006 - The floating spirits of the desert (78')
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