#1 WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS/GOG - Malpais (Utech)

William Fowler Collins and Gog, a/k/a Michael Bjella, have a couple of things in common; both live in the Southwest, America's desolate outskirt (Collins in New Mexico and Bjella in Arizona), and both create incredibly powerful blacked soundscapes that reflect the harshness of the land that surrounds them. So it is little surprise that their first collaboration would consist of mesmerizing blasted drones to soundtrack the 360 degree horizon of the desert, where life and death are separated by the thinnest of lines. The album's title, "Malpais," refers to an eroded landmass in an arid environment that is simply uninhabitable, it is what is commonly referred to as "badlands." This is music born of that geography, and operates in much the same way as Thomas Köner's seminal early dark ambient works did. The difference being that Köner's work was inspired by the ice of the Arctic, and Collins and Bjella are inspired by the more violent holocaust of the desert, making for a much harsher take on dark ambient, but one as equally epic.