Blending two subgenres with prowess is remarkable enough, but
when Stephen Hummel created Apparatus, he blended two
subgenres that have become staples here on NLP: warm bedroom
electronica and glistening shoegaze. The resulting tracks alternate
between the two as well as combine them effortlessly, even
heading into beaming ambient territory at points. Largely electric
and electronic, but oh so human.

Like its album cover, the Italian ambient composer's music sprouts
delicately but confidently from the soil, entrancing the listeners in
earthly swells, airy piano loops, and wispy melodies. Errante
doesn't shimmer like the rest of them, though. His incorporation of
the rich and organic alongside the laggard and synthetic make it
ripe for consumption on a humid summer day.

There's something about a crisp clean guitar melody being
swept away by a deft string arrangment that just does the trick
every time. These Austinites have figured out how to master
this instrumental motif (while retaining a truly distinct and dusty
center) amongst many others on their third full-length, which
come out courtesy of Strange Attractors Audio House, where a
couple other NLP masters reside (Paik, Landing).

Conceptual and cerebral soundscapers Drew Daniel and M.C.
Schmidt use only synthetsizers to create their most NLP-friendly
album yet. It's still glitchy and deconstructed like all the best
Matmos records, but finally there are no vocals to add a linguistic
layer of puzzling riddles on top of their already meticulously crafted
electronic music. At times ambient and calming, the album also
plays with the smoothness of the synthesizer to create tense
suspense.

The frenchman behind the insane electrified classical guitar
compositions of Cheval de Frise is back, this time more subdued
and even a little weirder. Experimental neo-classical music
drenched in silence, tension, and the sound of rustic metal
scraping across the concrete all meld together to form a singular
experience in this single piece spread across seven tracks.

As many Twin Cities clubgoers can attest, local man Martin Dosh's
setup and performance technique is meticulously unique and
superhumanly impressive. Surrounded by a circular perimeter of
drums, samplers, a xylophone, a Rhodes piano, and many more
gadgets, the half-man/half-octopus precisely and elegantly
constructs and loops riffs upon melodies upon rhythms upon...
and so on and so forth.

Sinewy and airy, the Nashville duo have constructed a masterful
ambient album chock full of tunes that are so well connected they
feel like strong yet slacked strings between tin cans. Full of space
to move around in but also varied between shaking guitar sheets
and gentle keyboard shifts, their audio contribution to the latest
Riceboy Sleeps (aka Jonsi from Sigur Ros) art project is a piece
of art unto itself.

The first time you hear this record I hope it's really dark out. I also hope
you're alone. As bizzare as that sounds there's something very intimate
about this electronicarecord from one-man band Anders Ilar that makes
me not want to share it with many others. The 6th record from the Swedish
master mind, he's jumped around a few labels and is now on Level
Records. Luckily we're sharing it with you so enjoy an intimate moment
between you and the NLP podcast.

Perfecting the mathy post-metal sound they pummeled out on their
last Record of the Week, Enter, this Chicago trio have cemented
their place in the epic instrumental canon with their latest offering.
Whether it's the icey cold darkness of their heavier-than-thou guitar
workouts or the heavenly delay pedal exercises that break up the
earsplitting moments, Russian Circles know how to please fans
of both sides of the post-rock equation without giving into the
quiet-loud-quiet cliche.

By turns spacious and optimistically cluttered, The Drift ebbs and
flows along with glossy reverberated guitar work interwoven with
jazz-minded brass melody. In front of pulsing bass and drum
rhythmic patterns, introspective guitars gradually give way to
a trumpet’s blare, descending into tremolo and eventually back to
earth. Displaying their deft melding of dynamic post-rock and jazz
tendencies, Memory Drawings is The Drift’s sophomore effort, out
on renowned label Temporary Residence.

Ambient music typically fits best late at night while laying in bed and
listening to the rain or while reflecting on the day's events (or any epic
moment when you're left with your thoughts for that matter). But
something is different with Strategy. It's forward looking . With field
samples of running water and cyclic droning it makes you think of
things coming fresh and new. Transforming ambient instrumental
music from introverted to extroverted for the spring time.

This neo-classical Polish composer was only born in 1986 and he
already has his sophomore effort out on the label who has brought
the experimental genius of Tim Hecker and Lawrence English. Rightly
so, his static swashes and understated but sprightly piano atmospheres
sound youthful and fervent while still mature and utterly relaxing. He
already has another release slated for later this year, so watch out epic
instrumental music lovers, Tomasz is on his way to becoming a highly
revered prolific artist, even if he still is working toward that University
degree.

It won't be available to the public until July, but we're just too excited
about this album to wait until then to tell you about it. The brotherly
Berkeley duo of Amman and Yousuf meld seemingly every aspect of
the spectrum of gorgeous epic instrumental music. Covering every
base, including ambient swells, bedroom electronica skitters,
post-rock crescendos, and starry melodic gutiars that bend and
shimmer like the moonlight on your pillow.

Taking his name from a spacious and irresistible Hammock song, Ben
Leopard uses his project to construct similarly hypnotic bedroom
lullabies, but with his own warm twist. Employing everything from bells
to pedal steel and much more, this DIY composer succeeds at making
one man's dreamscapes sound like they're originating from a cast
of thousands. Miniature epics are sprinkled throughout this 16-track
collection, resulting in the best bang for your buck in this digital-only
release.

Sunny but sad guitars with hooks that are so memorable, you'd
swear you were listening to pop music. This is what NLP favorite
Unwed Sailor were known for in their beginnings. Then they added a
drowsy ambient component along with some neo-classical tinkerings
in the last couple of discs. Finally, the band has successfully
incorporated all of their beloved styles into one bursting-at-the-
seams full-length - and we're already excited to make our Top 24
Records of the Year list.

The saxophone isn't an instrument you're likely to hear on a
nowlikephotographs featured record of the week. Neither crushing
guitars nor thrashing percussion will you hear on the Chicago
outfit's debut record - and yet, it is not ambient music either.
Touches like the prominent sax and unsuspecting yet exquisitely
crafted electronics make Colorlist's album mood music that you
can't ignore. It's the perfect genre-defying rainy day album that is as
cohesive as it is undefinable.

There's a reason for the oceanic color on the cover for Lewis
Broad-Ashman's newest release. His pulsing and gyrating
synthesizers swirl in heavenly doses throughout his bedroom
electronica album, almost as if drowning in the depths of a
futuristic Atlantic was the inspiration for these pieces. At times
outwardly friendly and at other desolate and sorrowful, Luga is a
welcome addition to this budding genre of epic electronic music.

Crescendoing, bombastic, explosive...epic. These are a few of
our favorite adjectives to describe the core nowlikephotographs
music that initially drew the instrumental genre together for us. So
we always have a special place in our heart for groups that are in
that same vein and This Will Destroy You is swimming with these
adjectives. It is the music that could be the perfect soundtrack to
you saving the world - yes, that epic.

Inviting, warm, and friendly aren't usually adjectives ascribed to the
world of epic instrumental music. London native Domenico Mino'
has managed to prove us otherwise with his very unique organically
alive electronic debut. Smiling xylophones shuffle playfully alongside
skittering electronic drums, never pulsating as loud as most
computerized music, but also never drifting into ambience either.

If you live in Minneapolis you know the winter drones all too well.
This record couldn't have better timing when temperatures haven't
broke freezing in months and its dark the majority of the days. Put a
record on like this and you'll find peace with the ambient sounds that
harmonize with your surroundings. Watch the snow, stay up late and
listen to this by candle light. It's that kind of record.

Weepy naturalism bleeds across the fully realized second full-length
by the Austin duo without ever getting too sentimental. It's a
miraculous feat, given the nature of their quivering piano-led tracks
or the breezy yet nervous string-laden compositions that seem to
alternate throughout the disc. Somehow though, they have done it in
a very understated and incredibly sophisticated manner, without ever
sounding above their notes. They hold their music close to their
hearts, but always put the craft before excess or melancholy.

A couple of guitars have never sounded so relaxing and
simultaneously sprawling at the same time. The new duo on
Tortoise's home label is exciting and comfortably familiar at the
same time, never focusing on being obtrusively distorted or overtly
epic (that's not a bad thing!), but rather going for understated and
modest melodies that weave in and out of consciousness. It's the
kind of soft workmanship that has gone missing in our flash-bang
society.

The new short release from the ever talented yet mysteriously
elusive Japanese artist is definitely a departure from the last record
of his that we featured, Eternal Clash. Rather than focusing on
busting our heads apart with spazzed-out sequencers and death-
defying breakcore, he's brought it down a notch and worried about
tickling us with off-kilter lullabies of the glitchy persuasion. Who ever
said electronic music can't be experimental and epic?

Not officially released until March 1st, we got our hands on an
advance copy of this Canadian outfit's newest disc to get you
excited for a very epic instrumental 2008. Listening to their
string-laden atmospherics, juggling both neo-classical and
post-rock aesthetics, finding out that they're most notorious for
their collaborations with art installations comes to no surprise.
Often including everything from film projection to contemporary
dancers, this is the definition of sprawling instrumental art rock.

There Will Be Blood: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

No film score has perked our eardrums this much since our
beloved Clint Mansell-penned soundtrack for The Fountain back in
2006. When Radiohead's guitarist gets behind an orchestra to fill
the silence for a Paul Thomas Anderson film about a power-hungry
oil mogul in the early 1900s, though, you know something powerful
is going to come out of it. More creepy, piercing, and richer than any
other film music in the past year, this is the first instrumental record
of the week for 2008.