This Empty Flow and Integrity…

This Empty Flow formed in 1994 in Finland, and curiously enough I became familiar with former member Niko Sirkiä's post-This Empty Flow experimental noise projects a few years ago, prior to having been introduced to this band's music via Darkdose. Thankfully, Eibon Records has recently issued a long overdue re-release of the band's lone extremely rare and out of print full-length, "Magenta Skycode", originally released in 1996 by Avantgarde Music. This new edition, dubbed "The Album", is a 2xCD set with a second disc titled "Magenta Lost", which contains 11 previously unreleased tracks recorded on a Fostex 4-track during the band's earliest years. So, somewhat sadly, this is not a complete discography, though such an undertaking would've required at least three discs, so I'm just thankful to finally have something of the band's to call my own!

For the most part this is rather slow and quiet material, supplied in lengthy tracks that usually fall over six minutes apiece. It's dark and drone-y sort of chilled out material that could possibly appeal to fans of The Cure or Slowdive or things of that nature, I guess... but I don't like The Cure so don't let a statement like that scare you away! Expect lots of pulsing basslines while rather distant vocals rest behind fleeting electronic textures or synths and wailing waves of distorted guitars or stripped down clean riffing with light reverb effects. The second disc is actually better than I was expecting given the fact that the recording conditions were a bit rougher than the full-length, but it sounds fairly consistent against the album itself, and the songwriting is equally effective (with the tracks tending more towards the five- to six-minute range). It's a little more... "new wave" sounding in its "dark side", though.

Apparently everything was remastered, though I would've thought they'd try to up the volume just a touch? It's moody stuff, and not the most active listen in the world, but I really dig its atmosphere, so perhaps that level of quietness is intentional? Whatever the case, I find myself appreciating this kind of thing more and more in recent years, though my exposure to such styles is relatively minimal. See what you think:

This Empty Flow "Snow Blind"
This Empty Flow "Stream"
This Empty Flow "Untitled"

The release sells for around $15, which is pretty average for double-CD sets, but you're paying for nearly two hours of music, so it's certainly nothing to complain about:

@ The End Records