STROOM is a great label that deserves its own thread tbh

all things stroom

here are some highlights imo

https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/stop-it-what-is-love-today
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/11000-dreams
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/tropisch-verlangen
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/spring-break
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/businessmen
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/verboden-dromen
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/whale

bookmarked, thanks karl

np! would love to know your hits and misses sawdust

following, ty

The Voice Actor album is incredible, I don’t know how to describe it, kinda eerie

https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/sent-from-my-telephone

i filed that under "interesting, i should give this a better listen when i actually have the time" when it came out, which was, holy shit, two years ago

I'm listening to the Voice Actor now. Honestly, albums of that length tend to elicit an 'oh, ffs' reaction, but I have a) got a ton of marking to do and 2) immediately felt enveloped by it, so I might just leave it on and see.

Definite BoC vibes from a few things. I'm trying to avoid saying 'hypnagogic' but there it is.

amazing label, would be easier just to list the releases i don’t like:

.

apart from the ones karl mentioned, my favourites have been the W.A.T. and Adult Fantasies albums, and also Vazz's 'Submerged Vessels'.

Yeah I like that Vazz one a lot as well.

those slipped through the cracks for me, putting them on top of my to-listen pile

i think i've also read positive comments about the Milan W album on ILM, but i haven't gotten to it yet

https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/leave-another-day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TrA9k9Lixo
Adult Fantasies - Parsi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG2Z14JZ6qg
W.A.T. - Thin Blue Notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9v3kr1H7S8
Vazz - Solitary Sun

oh i forgot that 19 gadi pirms album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JivsCspvdBI
19 gadi pirms sākuma - Ruhig

those are all so good. idk how that W.A.T. record passed me by, seems right in my q zone

yeah that whole album is so good! one of the great things about this label is yes, he reissues stuff thats right in the ballpark of what i love, but not just that - everything has a compelling voice of its very own, its really very impressive

Love the Milan W album. Days in My Arms and Ballad in particular.

Would recommend Loopsel's Öga för Õga for similar downer excellence.

Stroom has their whole catalog in a big playlist on spotify, so I threw it on shuffle, all kinds of good stuff on there.

taras bulba - wintertanz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MykcXZFXK4s

a big stroom deep cut

A jaunty little number

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEtRncO9CGc

I also love this Kyoto - “Venetian Blinds” tune they reissued

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PgcqcC4Eig

LOVE that one

some of the early ones are maybe my favourites -

Alain Neffe – An Introduction Into The Insane World Of Alain Neffe

and

Cybe – Tropisch Verlangen

and

Jan Van den Broeke – 11000 Dreams

but my very favourite is the Shakti album Verboden Dromen. i had been a Shakti / Jade 4U fan since the 80s and it was great to see them finally get some love.

The new one from Merope is fantastic at first listen. Great guests too, Laraaji, Shahzad Ismaily, Bill Frisell: https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/v-jula

And million votes for Voice Actor, both compact (Fake Sleep) and expansive beyond belief (Sent from My Telephone)

It's pretty wild to me that I'm not coming across anything in their catalog that I dislike or want to skip. That doesn't happen often. They seem to have a knack for finding highly listenable experimental music that never goes too far into noisy and annoying territory. I'm hearing a lot of what I like in the non-jazz Tazadik releases minus the drive towards chaos and edgelord-ism.

The Pablo’s Eye stuff is wild, sounds like it’s from an alternate timeline or something.

like this Vazz track a lot too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgw-swBlBW0

Pablo's eye are all time. i highly recommend their '94 album You Love Chinese Food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIa9RhSYZcU

The three Pablo's Eye anthologies released by Stroom were revelatory for me. When Chinese Food first came out, it was specifically recommended to me by the shop clerk but I was unimpressed at the time and passed on it. I can now only guess that I must've been in a shitty mood that day. Simple as that. Because the Stroom anthologies sounded fantastic to me. They're what made me finally wake up and notice the label. I'd picked up and loved the Cybe record but I hadn't paid much attention to its imprint until these comps were released.

Karl, I was wrong to use the hit/miss dichotomy upthread. More like hits of varying impacts. Moodles nailed this sentiment far better than I could. Clearly, Ziggy Devriendt is a remarkable curator. It'd be interesting to learn how much input he has in the recordings that he releases, or if he's just incredibly fortunate to receive such amazing work.

Lots of great recommendations already in this thread. What else? Oh, I really like the Benjamin Lew compilation. As with Pablo's Eye, I'd also missed out on his earlier work. This music is just gorgeous.

The Freundliche Kreisel album is terrific. It might be more accessible than Brannten Schnüre. Or I might just be projecting since I've attached it to the Stroom label. Whatever. I'm a big fan of Schoppik's work and this is another excellent record that he's been involved with.

I expect the Milan W. and Merope albums will both be on my top 10 list this year. Leave Another Day is a hard pivot for Milan as he revisits UK 80s indie but, as with Oliver Cherer's I Feel Nothing Most Days, these songs are easily on par with those in the original canon. Merope's Vėjula somehow impresses even more with each listen. "Haunted folk with electronics" is a really lousy understatement but I'm getting tired so if you haven't heard it yet, do check it out. This is as enamouring as the two trilogies by Fovea Hex. Which for me means a LOT.

Resident Advisor has a lengthy article about Ziggy Devriendt and the label

https://ra.co/features/3449

Ah, nice. Thanks Moodles!

xxp wait there's crossover with Baldruin/the Gespensterland scene? wow

I know, right? There's that happening too.

Aha! I've often enjoyed the Nosedrip shows on NTS. It's Ziggy Devriendt. Making useful connections here.

I dig the quirky little minimalist tunes on this one

https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/dodges-aim

for those with D!mead0zen access, there is an FM recording of an hour-long Merope track up now, from an 11/28 show

Milan W is 2024 AOTY over at Boomkat