Album Review: Various - Ambient Maladies (2021)

Released this week on the Strange Behaviour platform, Ambient Maladies is a compilation of downbeat ambient work by a bunch of Aotearoa-based artists and producers. Clocking in at just a few minutes shy of an hour, over the course of ten tracks, it’s the sort of album that is probably best appreciated on headphones. An album to be fully absorbed without distraction, at a time when you’ve got little else to do other than to gaze off into the distance. Perhaps. Or maybe even the sort of album you’d listen to when you’re heavily under the influence of something that aids involuntary gazing off into the distance. I really wouldn’t know much about such frivolous indulgence. 

Compiled by Paul Berrington - who may (or may not) be better known as Wellington DJ B.Lo - it features local luminaries such as Ludus, who also mixed and mastered the release under the guise of her real name (Emma Bernard), Jet Jaguar, Stephen Gallagher, and a couple of artists who have previously featured on everythingsgonegreen, Arcology (see here), and Box of Hammers (see here). Plus there's a handful of others.

 For those who aren't big fans of the ambient “genre”, it may prove a bit of a mixed bag, but the highlights for me include the Arcology track ‘Now Exhale’, which was described by a friend as being “menacing”, which I thought was a very accurate description, Box of Hammers’ soundtrack-ready ‘Maelstrom’, and Stephen Gallagher’s excellent ‘Even A Bird Loves Its Nest’. 

Bonus point: the release is available on cassette. Grab it at the Bandcamp link below. 

Here’s the Bandcamp blurb: Welcome to Ambient Maladies, a selection of atmospheres, vignettes and expressions from Aotearoa New Zealand. Embracing the geographical isolation of the land of the long white cloud, Strange Behaviour's second release is at times dark and brooding while at others delicate, detailed and melancholy.

Another Box of Hammers

Box of Hammers is a bit like that ubiquitous number 42 bus. You wait years for your talented mate to release the sort of work he’s most passionate about, and then next minute, two EP’s come along at once.

Tides of Sand is an immediate follow-up to Garage Zen - which itself was released just a few weeks ago - for John Kingston’s solo project, Box of Hammers.

The EP offers five FX-drenched excursions into the netherworlds of drone and ambient guitar ... and according to Kingston himself, “a series of short film music for guitar ... only the films don't exist yet.”

Introducing ... Box of Hammers

My good buddy John Kingston of the Hairy Lollies (and others), a 30-plus-year veteran of the Wellington music scene, has released a solo project EP under his Box of Hammers moniker. If ambient guitar vibes infused with tension and cinematic imagery is your thing, you’ll probably love Garage Zen ...