Articles
2010 Ten Favourite Labels
Liam Singer

Albums
Akabu
Amorph
Keith Canisius
Carinthia
Cursor Miner
Dark Party
dOP
Evon
Ex-Wise Heads
Forever Delayed
The Fun Years
Dirk Geiger
The Green Kingdom
Chihei Hatakeyama
Hessien
Robin Holcomb
The Inventors of Aircraft
Peter Jørgensen
Loveliescrushing
My Dry Wet Mess
Silje Nes
Ontayso
Piiptsjilling
Pleq
Radioseed
relapxych.0
Sharp & Whetham
Liam Singer
Erik K Skodvin
Sarah Kirkland Snider
Squares On Both Sides
Strië
Sutekh
David Sylvian
Taiga II
Francesco Tristano
RJ Valeo
Victoire
Wreaths
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Buzz.RO! 2010
Crónica L
Timo Maas
Movement Torino Festival
Sebastian Mullaert

EPs
Dday One / Glen Porter
Depth Affect
Enabl.ed
The Gentleman Losers
Gulls
Mimosa
Piece of Shh…
Shufflepunk
Teebs & Jackhigh
Telekaster
thisquietarmy + yellow6
Tom White

The Gentleman Losers: Rural Route No. 5
Standard Form

Standard Form continues its three-inch series with an installment by The Gentleman Losers titled Rural Route No. 5. Having the Finnish duo of Samu and Ville Kuukka contribute to the series would seem to be a bit of a coup for the Toronto-based label, as The Gentleman Losers have made an international name for themselves with two full-length albums on City Centre Offices and its sister label Büro. Ushered in by the murmur of outdoors field recordings, “All That Is Solid Melts Into Air” unfolds with measured deliberation with tremolo shudders overlaid by the cry of slide guitar playing and atmospheric electronic detail. Funereal in tone and low-level in pitch, the music is calm-inducing, and its mood wistful, even resigned, suggestive of one surrendering to circumstance rather than vainly fighting it. “Valley Green” drapes the delicate pluck of acoustic guitars across a bed of glitchy whirrs and ambient hiss. More elegiac than resigned is the final piece, “At Dawn I Am the Morning Clouds, At Evening the Falling Rain,” which marries ambient electronic accents and electric guitar peals to a lovely chord progression captured in slow-motion. Apparently the music's creation was informed by the longing experienced by the Kuukkas as they relocated from home, and as such are deeply melancholy sonic portraits of times spent in snow-laden Helsinki, in the Swiss countryside, and in hot, late-summer Berlin. Like the others in the series, the release comes in a limited edition of 150 copies so act fast if you're interested.

November 2010