With their celebrated (and bizarrely packaged) Split Tape Series, Arachnidiscs Recordings has given attention to some of Canada's brightest musical weirdoes. With Volume 11, the Toronto-via-Vancouver label focuses on two artists who excel in druggy, electronic trance music — but not that type of trance. Having already worked together under the name A Sacred Cloud, Montreal's Hazy Montagne Mystique and YlangYlang manage to fill out Arachnidisc's four-song Studies in Trance cassette with a rather epic sounding drone.
Starting off with the 15-minute raga, "chant/il sera lointain," Hazy Montagne Mystique channel late '70s French Zeuhl music, as dramatic rumbles and tribal drums absorb mystic chants. YlangYlang contribute three brief compositions, keeping things less stagey but equally textured, as "Temple of Tears" melds field recordings with electronic hiss. "Smoking with Spirits" resembles a melted shoegaze single, while "In Da Zone" is the most rhythmic track of the lot. With Studies in Trance, Arachnidiscs have delivered an engrossing split release that feels like a fully realized piece of art.
(Arachnidiscs Recordings)Starting off with the 15-minute raga, "chant/il sera lointain," Hazy Montagne Mystique channel late '70s French Zeuhl music, as dramatic rumbles and tribal drums absorb mystic chants. YlangYlang contribute three brief compositions, keeping things less stagey but equally textured, as "Temple of Tears" melds field recordings with electronic hiss. "Smoking with Spirits" resembles a melted shoegaze single, while "In Da Zone" is the most rhythmic track of the lot. With Studies in Trance, Arachnidiscs have delivered an engrossing split release that feels like a fully realized piece of art.