- Thread starter
- #101
So Floating Points is 1 in RA and 47 in The Wire. I genuinely love these lists for this reason alone.
*** Official Album of the Year 2015 Thread ***
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So Floating Points is 1 in RA and 47 in The Wire. I genuinely love these lists for this reason alone.
spring hall convert
Well-known member
I found the RA list interesting from the perspective that there wasn't all that much dance music in it! Perhaps that's more for the 12" list. I'm surprised it didn't place a bit higher in the Wire list, I would have thought that sort of electro-jazz feel would have buttered their parsnips more.
The find of the season for me is the JLin album, #1 Wire, #1 Quietus, # 3 RA. Not sure how I missed it first time round.
spring hall convert
Well-known member
[MENTION=28490]Machiavelli[/MENTION] The Joshua Abrams album in the Wire list is right up your street, I think. You may even already have it.
Three tracks here - http://eremite.com/album/mte-63-64
And another here is all I can find
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KETy2ArUsUg
Three tracks here - http://eremite.com/album/mte-63-64
And another here is all I can find
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KETy2ArUsUg
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Theatre of Trees
Well-known member
On a slightly different tack; My Top 20 tracks of the year can be heard here:
Top 20 Tracks of 2015
Listing in reverse order (As Mixcloud no longer allows track listing)
20. Seconds - He will come
19. Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Scale of volatility
18. Lolina - Lolina
17. Still Corners - Horses at night
16. Froth - The Eterniturtle
15. David Bowie - Blackstar
14. JLin - Expand
13. Girl One & the Grease Guns - The shatterproof man
12. Shopping - Wind up
11. Jupiter-C - The process
10. Holly Herndon - Morning sun
9. Hinds - Garden
8. US Girls - Window shades
7. Hannah Diamond - Hi
6. Lonelady - Hinterland
5. Dead Fader - Sun copter
4. Auramics - Founders of time
3. Tame Impala - Let it happen
2. Jane Weaver - I need a connection
1. Death & Vanilla - Follow the light
Top 20 Tracks of 2015
Listing in reverse order (As Mixcloud no longer allows track listing)
20. Seconds - He will come
19. Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Scale of volatility
18. Lolina - Lolina
17. Still Corners - Horses at night
16. Froth - The Eterniturtle
15. David Bowie - Blackstar
14. JLin - Expand
13. Girl One & the Grease Guns - The shatterproof man
12. Shopping - Wind up
11. Jupiter-C - The process
10. Holly Herndon - Morning sun
9. Hinds - Garden
8. US Girls - Window shades
7. Hannah Diamond - Hi
6. Lonelady - Hinterland
5. Dead Fader - Sun copter
4. Auramics - Founders of time
3. Tame Impala - Let it happen
2. Jane Weaver - I need a connection
1. Death & Vanilla - Follow the light
No contest. It's Ryan Adams 1989. He's somehow turned a good Taylor Swift album into a great one.
Bold Seagull
strong and stable with me, or...
spring hall convert
Well-known member
Right then, let's do my local list first.
After being unbelievably spoilt for choice last year, I thought locally it wasn't such a good year this year. Still plenty of decent stuff around but quite a lot of generic guff as well. I've deliberately ignored some of the bigger acts, that I'm sure you are aware of (Go Team, British Sea Power etc...)
1. Sealings - I'm a ******* (noise rock)
https://fauxdiscx.bandcamp.com/album/im-a-*******
2. Prince Vaseline - A Naturally Coloured Pleasure (Velvetsy stuff)
https://princevaseline.bandcamp.com/
3. Traams - Modern Dancing (alt-rock)
https://traams.bandcamp.com/
4. Inwards - Forever (IDM, it's not hard to spot the Aphex Twin influence!)
https://inwards.bandcamp.com/album/forever
5. Ingrid Plum - Plangent (minimal folk)
https://ingridplum.bandcamp.com/
6. Krak Krak - All The Punks In The World Can't Save you Now (noise rock, punk, metal)
https://krakkrak.bandcamp.com/album/all-the-punks-in-the-world-cant-save-you-now
7. Clowwns - The Artful Execution of Macho Bimbo (post-punk)
https://bleedingheartrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-artful-execution-of-macho-bimbo
8. Last Chance Dance Band - Yes, Yes There is a Light (art-pop/ indie-rock)
https://cupboardmusic.bandcamp.com/album/yes-yes-yes-there-is-a-light
9. Rooster Cole - More Than You (alt-pop)
https://roostercole.bandcamp.com/album/more-than-you-ep
10. Cloud - Cloud (kraut)
http://cloudcamp.bandcamp.com/
In terms of local acts live, two gigs really stand out, Ingrid Plum's amazing album launch show at St. Andrews Church was my favourite gig this year by an artist not called Richard Dawson and Cold Pumas at DIY Space For London last week showed me why I fully anticipate their second record will top this list next year.
Merlin Tonto were the act I saw live the most this year, it's hard to pick an individual show, they are just an incredible band and when they get it right live there's not much out there that can touch them.
Honourable mentions
AK/DK @ Green Door Store
Soccer 96 @ Sticky Mike's
Esben and The Witch @ BLEACH
The Soft Walls @ BLEACH
Sealings @ Green Door Store
Our Girl @ Green Door Store
Hypnotized @ Joker
Will Rene @ Marwoods
Red Deer People @ Joker
Broker @ Joker
Inwards @ Green Door Store
Slum of Legs @ Joker
Prince Vaseline @ Latest Music Bar
Lutine @ Westhill Hall
Loads more I've forgotten as well. We have so many interesting acts in this city.
After being unbelievably spoilt for choice last year, I thought locally it wasn't such a good year this year. Still plenty of decent stuff around but quite a lot of generic guff as well. I've deliberately ignored some of the bigger acts, that I'm sure you are aware of (Go Team, British Sea Power etc...)
1. Sealings - I'm a ******* (noise rock)
https://fauxdiscx.bandcamp.com/album/im-a-*******
2. Prince Vaseline - A Naturally Coloured Pleasure (Velvetsy stuff)
https://princevaseline.bandcamp.com/
3. Traams - Modern Dancing (alt-rock)
https://traams.bandcamp.com/
4. Inwards - Forever (IDM, it's not hard to spot the Aphex Twin influence!)
https://inwards.bandcamp.com/album/forever
5. Ingrid Plum - Plangent (minimal folk)
https://ingridplum.bandcamp.com/
6. Krak Krak - All The Punks In The World Can't Save you Now (noise rock, punk, metal)
https://krakkrak.bandcamp.com/album/all-the-punks-in-the-world-cant-save-you-now
7. Clowwns - The Artful Execution of Macho Bimbo (post-punk)
https://bleedingheartrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-artful-execution-of-macho-bimbo
8. Last Chance Dance Band - Yes, Yes There is a Light (art-pop/ indie-rock)
https://cupboardmusic.bandcamp.com/album/yes-yes-yes-there-is-a-light
9. Rooster Cole - More Than You (alt-pop)
https://roostercole.bandcamp.com/album/more-than-you-ep
10. Cloud - Cloud (kraut)
http://cloudcamp.bandcamp.com/
In terms of local acts live, two gigs really stand out, Ingrid Plum's amazing album launch show at St. Andrews Church was my favourite gig this year by an artist not called Richard Dawson and Cold Pumas at DIY Space For London last week showed me why I fully anticipate their second record will top this list next year.
Merlin Tonto were the act I saw live the most this year, it's hard to pick an individual show, they are just an incredible band and when they get it right live there's not much out there that can touch them.
Honourable mentions
AK/DK @ Green Door Store
Soccer 96 @ Sticky Mike's
Esben and The Witch @ BLEACH
The Soft Walls @ BLEACH
Sealings @ Green Door Store
Our Girl @ Green Door Store
Hypnotized @ Joker
Will Rene @ Marwoods
Red Deer People @ Joker
Broker @ Joker
Inwards @ Green Door Store
Slum of Legs @ Joker
Prince Vaseline @ Latest Music Bar
Lutine @ Westhill Hall
Loads more I've forgotten as well. We have so many interesting acts in this city.
spring hall convert
Well-known member
I see the Sealings link won't work. The starred out word is a colloquial term for a person born out of wedlock.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
Haven't listened to these tracks, but have just whacked it on a Xmas list. Many thanks. Hopefully I'll have the courtesy to report back. Looks like things are coming on your AotY front.
Edit: just noticed that it's only available on vinyl, which I don't do (and probably won't in the foreseeable future either), so will listen to these tracks later, perhaps even tonight.
Whitechapel
Famous Last Words
5th-2nd are all pretty close, and realistically can be in any order depending on what mood I'm in.
5th: CHVCHES - Every Open Eye
4th: Jamie XX - In Colour
3: Bring Me The Horizon - That's The Spirit
2nd: Ghostpoet - Shedding Skin
4 brilliant, brilliant albums. However none of them even close to the album in 1st, an almost flawless album IMO. Arguably the album of the 2000's so far.
1st: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly.
Lucky enough to see 3 of them live this year too. 2015 has been fantastic.
5th: CHVCHES - Every Open Eye
4th: Jamie XX - In Colour
3: Bring Me The Horizon - That's The Spirit
2nd: Ghostpoet - Shedding Skin
4 brilliant, brilliant albums. However none of them even close to the album in 1st, an almost flawless album IMO. Arguably the album of the 2000's so far.
1st: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly.
Lucky enough to see 3 of them live this year too. 2015 has been fantastic.
- Thread starter
- #111
With you on Jamie XX. I've seen him DJ and he played open air next to a lake near Liepzig, wonderful evening.
The Modfather
New member
Gwenno Saunders - Y Dydd Olaf.
Haven't got a clue what she's going on about, but if sounds great.
Haven't got a clue what she's going on about, but if sounds great.
footychick
Nicola
Tame Impala - Currents
Hot Chip - Huarache Nights, saw them live in Cambridge
Hot Chip - Huarache Nights, saw them live in Cambridge
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Garry Nelson's Left Foot
Well-known member
The albums I have most enjoyed listening to this year are:
Dilly Dally - Sore
Drenge - Undertow
Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor
Dilly Dally - Sore
Drenge - Undertow
Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor
mune ni kamome
Well-known member
Just seen the wire list. I've heard of 2 of these this year, Bjork and Joanna Newsom. Must be getting down wiv the yoof.
spring hall convert
Well-known member
Right then - I had a few records in my shortlist that I hadn't seen much of elsewhere. These aren't by any means my 20-25, just some albums I enjoyed that haven't received much end of year love.
Taman Shud - Viper Smoke (from 'Viper Smoke.')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtdiwpntNLg
There are doomy riffs like Electric Wizard or Goatsnake, enveloping keys à la first album Suicide, and at times the blown out aesthetic of a Darkthrone. They can be unbelievably intense, yet ‘Viper Smoke’ – the title track of their recently released album – is a toe tapper.
Fort Romeau - Insides (from 'Insides.')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWlBWSO6fkk
A young producer who has been on my watch-list since releasing some beautifully produced house on 100% Silk around the turn of the decade, when most of his compatriots were feasting on the remains of dubstep. After 5 years of excellent 12" releases, his new album comes with komische and disco flourishes but still maintains his flair for highly produced, hypnotic house music. He's also La Roux's keyboardist.
Spectres – Family (from ‘Dying.’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXvRskD6gg
A young four piece from North Devon by way of Bristol, who sound like all the best bits of late eighties/ early nineties shoegaze. None of this piffling grunge revivalism shite, the real stuff.
Shape Worship – Decanted (Mohir) (from ‘A City Remembrancer.’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44EKliwxP0g
If it wasn’t for JLin, this would have been my favourite electronic debut of the year. Such a clever album encompassing so many styles and whets the appetite for what could be to come.
Liturgy – Father Vorizen (from ‘The Ark Work.’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnlFT6zgVsw
Not quite the masterpiece that I lauded it on release but also never the turkey that some elements of the music press damned it as. Liturgy are the Beefheart and Magic Band of modern day black metal, totally on their own path.
And at last my AOTY's either tonight or tomorrow!
Taman Shud - Viper Smoke (from 'Viper Smoke.')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtdiwpntNLg
There are doomy riffs like Electric Wizard or Goatsnake, enveloping keys à la first album Suicide, and at times the blown out aesthetic of a Darkthrone. They can be unbelievably intense, yet ‘Viper Smoke’ – the title track of their recently released album – is a toe tapper.
Fort Romeau - Insides (from 'Insides.')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWlBWSO6fkk
A young producer who has been on my watch-list since releasing some beautifully produced house on 100% Silk around the turn of the decade, when most of his compatriots were feasting on the remains of dubstep. After 5 years of excellent 12" releases, his new album comes with komische and disco flourishes but still maintains his flair for highly produced, hypnotic house music. He's also La Roux's keyboardist.
Spectres – Family (from ‘Dying.’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXvRskD6gg
A young four piece from North Devon by way of Bristol, who sound like all the best bits of late eighties/ early nineties shoegaze. None of this piffling grunge revivalism shite, the real stuff.
Shape Worship – Decanted (Mohir) (from ‘A City Remembrancer.’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44EKliwxP0g
If it wasn’t for JLin, this would have been my favourite electronic debut of the year. Such a clever album encompassing so many styles and whets the appetite for what could be to come.
Liturgy – Father Vorizen (from ‘The Ark Work.’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnlFT6zgVsw
Not quite the masterpiece that I lauded it on release but also never the turkey that some elements of the music press damned it as. Liturgy are the Beefheart and Magic Band of modern day black metal, totally on their own path.
And at last my AOTY's either tonight or tomorrow!
aolstudios
Well-known member
This is rather good, only came out a week or two ago...
https://open.spotify.com/album/5gRf6LMt6M8lakX9tAgqaJ
https://open.spotify.com/album/5gRf6LMt6M8lakX9tAgqaJ
spring hall convert
Well-known member
I finally got there [MENTION=28490]Machiavelli[/MENTION]
Due to a little more going on personally, a necessary focus on what is going on locally (though in vain, no Brighton band makes my top 20 – Sauna Youth being an ex-Brighton band) and perhaps a smidgen of ‘next big thing fatigue,’ this year more than any in recent memory feels like one, where the power of immediacy has been extremely important in the creation of this list. I had to cut it off at some time and I feel even now, a week into January there’s so much from last year that lays undiscovered and will reveal themselves in the coming weeks.
The other key to the creation of this list has been live performance, I was unconvinced by the East India Youth album until I saw him have The Haunt eating from the palm of his hand. It’s a wonderful record, which I suspect I have damned with faint praise here, perhaps it was too soon after the equally brilliant ‘Total Strife Forever.’ Sauna Youth’s display at Drill in late 2014 marked their new album out as one I was desperate to hear and so it passed that ‘Distractions,’ became my favourite British punk record of the year. Follakzoid’s modern kraut masterpiece ‘III’ made so much more sense after seeing them in a sweaty club on a beautiful spiritual June evening. Wolf Eyes, Teeth of The Sea, Braids, The Icarus Line, Blank Realm, Blanck Mass, Viet Cong, Julia Holter, Housewives and GNOD have all blown me away in small venues over the last couple of years. Those experiences stay with you, especially when you hear music road tested on you months or years before. There’s a sense of ownership.
The one exception to the live performance rule was Lonelady, who I saw twice and came away underwhelmed both times, however, ‘Hinterland’ was a record I read about and I already loved it, hearing it sealed the deal. It’s like catnip for a certain type of post-punk/ disco/ female vocal fan and has by some distance been my most played record of the year.
For the second year in a row it’s an electronic record that heads this list (Andy Stott – Faith In Strangers last year) and for the second year in a row it’s a record that sounds quite unlike anything else out there. JLin’s – Dark Energy took the relatively nascent Chicago house music offshoot called footwork and shook it from its hedonistic club based vibe to a place of fear and suffocation. As a production job, it’s one of the best records I’ve ever heard. The fact that it’s a debut (Stott being a relative veteran of the dub scene) is genuinely breathtaking. Elsewhere, Holly Herndon and Oneohtrix Point Never continued to perfect their crafts to bigger audiences, both those records feel like albums that will completely stand the test of time.
So, onto 4 outliers, Panda Bear bucks my immediacy trend. If you look back to the start of the 2015 thread, I was disappointed. However, one day I found myself humming one of the amazing melodies from the record, came back to it and was completely hooked. If there’s a record this year deserving of a bit of time and effort, this is the one. Fractured, beautiful, pop songs, wrapped in a dub-noise blanket. I really hope Animal Collective can produce something half as good. Braids are a band that should be better known by now after three excellent records. ‘Miniskirt’ was one of the strongest songs of the year and their metamorphosis from dream to art pop is one to keep an eye on.
The one record I regret about not including in my list last year was Steve Gunn’s ‘Way Out West,’ which has gone on to be one of my most listened to things this year. His collaboration with The Black Twig Pickers mixes the Pickers punk and psych influenced Appalachian folk music with Gunn’s peerless fingerpicking.
And boy, that Mbongwana Star record (discovered via the Easter NSC CD trade for me) is something else. Utterly essential.
Here’s to 2016!
20. East India Youth – Culture of Volume (XL)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5rNshnlsho
‘Despite Total Strife Forever’s success, you might reasonably expect Doyle to try to rein it in a bit on Culture of Volume, which, if it isn’t quite a major-label debut, still sees Doyle exchanging Jeff the Brotherhood and Bo Ningen for Adele and Radiohead as labelmates. Indeed, in at least one interview, he’s claimed that he tried to do so, but things didn’t work out that way. “The end result is not what was in mind,” as the first lyric you hear puts it. It’s the opening line of a sparkling, extremely commercial pop song, which arrives hot on the heels of The Juddering: a five-minute instrumental that begins as a homage to the intro of David Bowie’s Station to Station, progresses through a section of electronic noise that wouldn’t sound out of place on a track by hard-edged techno producer Perc, then finally resolves into beautiful, cavernous-sounding ambience, its beatific mood unsettled by the chattering, agitated synth line that runs through it. Elsewhere, stuff that feels like a deeply idiosyncratic update of 80s synthpop and songs that it really isn’t a stretch to imagine in the current top 40 – Turn Away, Beaming White – crash against gusts of experimentation. The melody of Manner of Words gives out midway through the track, replaced by a fuzzy, woozy drone, and Entirety, an instrumental audibly influenced by the Underworld of Rez or Spikee, is superseded by the gorgeous, Scott Walkerish high-drama balladry of Carousel, which itself arrives complete with a finale in which the lushly romantic arrangement becomes distorted and harsh.’
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/02/east-india-youth-culture-of-violence-review
19. Wolf Eyes – I am a person: Mind In Pieces (Third Man)
https://soundcloud.com/thirdmanreco...dmanrecords/sets/i-am-a-problemmind-in-pieces
‘Most importantly, the music on I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces contains all the ominous suspense of a classic horror movie. Each track oozes with eerie tones and seat-edge momentum, such that something terrifying seems to always lurk around the corner. The album even mimics the narrative arc of a thriller: the first few tracks gradually heighten the plot, until action explodes in the damaged-punk climax of "Enemy Ladder" and its tale of "twisted lands of severed hands." The denouement of "Cynthia Vortex" follows, ending with singer Nate Young’s chopped-up groans that evoke a victim’s final gasps of air.’
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21056-i-am-a-problem-mind-in-pieces/
18. Housewives – Work (Hands In The Dark/ Negative Days/ Blank Editions)
https://soundcloud.com/hitd-3/housewives-autarky
‘Constructed in a French farm house, Work advances on the juddering discomfort of the group's self-titled debut EP from last year, by having the courage to uncouple themselves from the feint post-punk that kept those early tracks from straying too far away from familiarity. On Work, different variations of guitar atonalism are flung together with the industrial clatter and rumble of agricultural machinery and equipment, the monotonous grind of labour a constant cold breath down the neck of these disquieting exercises in art rock minimalism.’
http://thequietus.com/articles/19270-housewives-work-review
17. Braids – Deep In The Iris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLZak5E2jbg
‘The centrepiece to the whole thing is undoubtedly the incredible 'Miniskirt'. A plaintive vocal eventually unravels with the gradually unfurling synth line into a vitriolic, snarling missive aimed squarely at the kind of neanderthal misogynists she's undoubtedly had to deal with in the past. "I'm not a man hater, I enjoy them like cake" she humorously coos at the start, before unleashing "but in my position, I'm the slut, I'm the bitch, I'm the whore, the one you hate… It's like I'm wearing red and if I am, you feel you've the right to touch me, because I asked for it", sung with such passion and control, it's hard to find fault with such bravery in committing this to tape. Those unmistakably Braids-like choppy, almost drum'n'bass rhythms and zipping, bass heavy synths take over the second half of the track in what is a definite career highlight, let alone simply an LP highlight.’
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18768/reviews/4148932
16. Steve Gunn and The Black Twig Pickers – Seasonal Hire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=972QCEahPNg
‘Over the course of its five songs – one traditional and four original (one of which, 'Dive for the Pearl', appeared in an earlier iteration on a 2013 collaborative LP by Gunn and the Pickers' Mike Gangloff) – Seasonal Hire offers no grand statements and reveals no great mysteries. Ultimately, this is not a particularly ambitious record; no musician is stretched wildly beyond his or her limits. And yet, largely because of its off-hand quality and ease of execution, Seasonal Hire offers moments of intoxicating strangeness and beauty: the mournful fiddle solo that begins 'Don't Let Your Deal Go Down', an old folk tune popularised by banjo wizards like Charlie Poole and Earl Scruggs; Picker Sally Anne Morgan's desolate vocal on 'Cardinal 51', and the song's slow-motion dissolve into a puddle of droning acoustic guitar, harmonica and what sounds like bowed cymbals.’
http://thequietus.com/articles/17263-steve-gunn-the-black-twig-pickers-seasonal-hire-review
15. The Icarus Line - All Things Under Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCITk_qzS4s
‘But by Lucifer, The Icarus Line make me feel evil. This glowering bunch of post-hardcore garage swaggerers make me feel more evil than any other band has ever made me feel evil. They make me feel far more evil than Slipknot or Sunn O))), Ministry or Mayhem, Slayer or Sabbath, GG Allin and the Murder Junkies or that oft-forgotten Seventies glam-rock wobbleboard supergroup, The Glitter-Harris Duo. The Icarus Line have always made me feel evil, whenever I’ve listened to them, ever since they slimed their way out of LA wearing that commanding black-shirt-red-tie-combo uniform that would be ripped off by the decidedly less wicked-sounding Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance, two feeble groups who would struggle to make any normal person feel any more evil than the sight of David Attenborough nursing a particularly adorable koala bear.
And now The Icarus Line have only gone and made their most evil-sounding record to date.’
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/19046/reviews/4149448
14. Teeth of The Sea – Highly Deadly Black Tarantula
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9co8RWZt7Qs
‘Though Teeth of the Sea’s fourth record is devoid of any horror kitsch or cartoon gore, it is propelled throughout by a chilling and captivating psychic darkness, a kind of inverse transcendence that traverses the gradient between rumination, dread, and terror.
The London-based quartet released their debut, Orphaned By The Ocean, in 2010 to both acclaim and discordance — the thorny question of their genre affiliation couldn’t easily be resolved by critics. “Psychedelia” was the descriptor most often assigned to them, though it can’t possibly account for their audible Prog and Krautrock influences, or their erratic noise invocations. Their second album, Your Mercury, was strewn with contorted Post-Rock motifs, but the dual prominence of auditory clutter and brass player Sam Barton’s lithe trumpet lines only made attempts at situating the group within established musical taxonomy seem arbitrary. With each release, Teeth Of The Sea grow more restless, continually infusing their approach with greater tension and disorder; the incorporation of looped electronic rhythms (read reluctantly: “beats”) on 2013’s Master marked their decisive deviation away from ‘rock’ music. Highly Deadly Black Tarantula is a continuation in this vein—all industrial rhythms and uneasy ambiance. It often staggers toward cathartic release and retreats, leaving listeners bracing for an impact that never wholly materialises. Its effect is a cumulative malaise.’
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/rev...tula-is-a-highly-potent-cross-genre-maelstrom
13. Blank Realm – Illegals In Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb6RTwfe_N4
‘There’s a moment in every great band’s career where they shrug off their formative influences and assume their ultimate form. Blank Realm – that brilliantly erratic Brisbane quartet made up of three siblings and a “spiritual brother” – have long been the sum of their parts: a sound drawn from krautrock, New York’s no wave, New Zealand’s entire Flying Nun roster, and those closer to home, like the Go-Betweens.
Illegals in Heaven, though, is their definitive statement, the album no one other than Blank Realm could have made. It’s taken them a decade to reach this point, where their rough beginnings have been sculpted into a perfect marriage of pop, art and noise. If there’s a comparison to be made here, it’s with Sonic Youth, circa that band’s masterpiece Daydream Nation.’
http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...iew-the-perfect-marriage-of-pop-art-and-noise
12. Holly Herndon – Platform (4AD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0niHTBdV6W8
‘Herndon crafts organic bodily noise into tough and wiry electronic music. The snipped vocals coalesce into startlingly affecting simulations of words and lyrics, and the resulting pockets of euphoria, best exhibited on "Chorus," add surprising emotional heft. These are voices singing from the heart, even if what they're saying isn't easily discernable. It's a serious interrogation of the limits of what can be seen as lyrical, and it's simultaneously sonically challenging, emotionally engaging and conceptually rigorous.’
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/holly_herndon-platform
11. Sauna Youth – Distractions (Upset The Rythm)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgdAoAdwwBI
‘Distractions’ is a tense and utterly incensed record, a controlled racket that doesn’t hang around for a second longer than it needs to. ‘Transmitters’ is a bruising combination of rolling percussion and Corstorphine’s stabbing discords, Phoenix and Calleja providing riled statements of vehemence and discontent. ‘Monotony’ rallies a repetitive notion into an antagonistic shot at mundanity, while the electric bass progression that builds into ‘Modern Living’ is stripped bare in its production and is left feeling especially vibrant for it. Each track is an unrelenting blur of angular punk, using creative ability as a tool for delivering suitably vital expression.’
http://diymag.com/2015/06/07/sauna-youth-distractions-album-review
Due to a little more going on personally, a necessary focus on what is going on locally (though in vain, no Brighton band makes my top 20 – Sauna Youth being an ex-Brighton band) and perhaps a smidgen of ‘next big thing fatigue,’ this year more than any in recent memory feels like one, where the power of immediacy has been extremely important in the creation of this list. I had to cut it off at some time and I feel even now, a week into January there’s so much from last year that lays undiscovered and will reveal themselves in the coming weeks.
The other key to the creation of this list has been live performance, I was unconvinced by the East India Youth album until I saw him have The Haunt eating from the palm of his hand. It’s a wonderful record, which I suspect I have damned with faint praise here, perhaps it was too soon after the equally brilliant ‘Total Strife Forever.’ Sauna Youth’s display at Drill in late 2014 marked their new album out as one I was desperate to hear and so it passed that ‘Distractions,’ became my favourite British punk record of the year. Follakzoid’s modern kraut masterpiece ‘III’ made so much more sense after seeing them in a sweaty club on a beautiful spiritual June evening. Wolf Eyes, Teeth of The Sea, Braids, The Icarus Line, Blank Realm, Blanck Mass, Viet Cong, Julia Holter, Housewives and GNOD have all blown me away in small venues over the last couple of years. Those experiences stay with you, especially when you hear music road tested on you months or years before. There’s a sense of ownership.
The one exception to the live performance rule was Lonelady, who I saw twice and came away underwhelmed both times, however, ‘Hinterland’ was a record I read about and I already loved it, hearing it sealed the deal. It’s like catnip for a certain type of post-punk/ disco/ female vocal fan and has by some distance been my most played record of the year.
For the second year in a row it’s an electronic record that heads this list (Andy Stott – Faith In Strangers last year) and for the second year in a row it’s a record that sounds quite unlike anything else out there. JLin’s – Dark Energy took the relatively nascent Chicago house music offshoot called footwork and shook it from its hedonistic club based vibe to a place of fear and suffocation. As a production job, it’s one of the best records I’ve ever heard. The fact that it’s a debut (Stott being a relative veteran of the dub scene) is genuinely breathtaking. Elsewhere, Holly Herndon and Oneohtrix Point Never continued to perfect their crafts to bigger audiences, both those records feel like albums that will completely stand the test of time.
So, onto 4 outliers, Panda Bear bucks my immediacy trend. If you look back to the start of the 2015 thread, I was disappointed. However, one day I found myself humming one of the amazing melodies from the record, came back to it and was completely hooked. If there’s a record this year deserving of a bit of time and effort, this is the one. Fractured, beautiful, pop songs, wrapped in a dub-noise blanket. I really hope Animal Collective can produce something half as good. Braids are a band that should be better known by now after three excellent records. ‘Miniskirt’ was one of the strongest songs of the year and their metamorphosis from dream to art pop is one to keep an eye on.
The one record I regret about not including in my list last year was Steve Gunn’s ‘Way Out West,’ which has gone on to be one of my most listened to things this year. His collaboration with The Black Twig Pickers mixes the Pickers punk and psych influenced Appalachian folk music with Gunn’s peerless fingerpicking.
And boy, that Mbongwana Star record (discovered via the Easter NSC CD trade for me) is something else. Utterly essential.
Here’s to 2016!
20. East India Youth – Culture of Volume (XL)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5rNshnlsho
‘Despite Total Strife Forever’s success, you might reasonably expect Doyle to try to rein it in a bit on Culture of Volume, which, if it isn’t quite a major-label debut, still sees Doyle exchanging Jeff the Brotherhood and Bo Ningen for Adele and Radiohead as labelmates. Indeed, in at least one interview, he’s claimed that he tried to do so, but things didn’t work out that way. “The end result is not what was in mind,” as the first lyric you hear puts it. It’s the opening line of a sparkling, extremely commercial pop song, which arrives hot on the heels of The Juddering: a five-minute instrumental that begins as a homage to the intro of David Bowie’s Station to Station, progresses through a section of electronic noise that wouldn’t sound out of place on a track by hard-edged techno producer Perc, then finally resolves into beautiful, cavernous-sounding ambience, its beatific mood unsettled by the chattering, agitated synth line that runs through it. Elsewhere, stuff that feels like a deeply idiosyncratic update of 80s synthpop and songs that it really isn’t a stretch to imagine in the current top 40 – Turn Away, Beaming White – crash against gusts of experimentation. The melody of Manner of Words gives out midway through the track, replaced by a fuzzy, woozy drone, and Entirety, an instrumental audibly influenced by the Underworld of Rez or Spikee, is superseded by the gorgeous, Scott Walkerish high-drama balladry of Carousel, which itself arrives complete with a finale in which the lushly romantic arrangement becomes distorted and harsh.’
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/02/east-india-youth-culture-of-violence-review
19. Wolf Eyes – I am a person: Mind In Pieces (Third Man)
https://soundcloud.com/thirdmanreco...dmanrecords/sets/i-am-a-problemmind-in-pieces
‘Most importantly, the music on I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces contains all the ominous suspense of a classic horror movie. Each track oozes with eerie tones and seat-edge momentum, such that something terrifying seems to always lurk around the corner. The album even mimics the narrative arc of a thriller: the first few tracks gradually heighten the plot, until action explodes in the damaged-punk climax of "Enemy Ladder" and its tale of "twisted lands of severed hands." The denouement of "Cynthia Vortex" follows, ending with singer Nate Young’s chopped-up groans that evoke a victim’s final gasps of air.’
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21056-i-am-a-problem-mind-in-pieces/
18. Housewives – Work (Hands In The Dark/ Negative Days/ Blank Editions)
https://soundcloud.com/hitd-3/housewives-autarky
‘Constructed in a French farm house, Work advances on the juddering discomfort of the group's self-titled debut EP from last year, by having the courage to uncouple themselves from the feint post-punk that kept those early tracks from straying too far away from familiarity. On Work, different variations of guitar atonalism are flung together with the industrial clatter and rumble of agricultural machinery and equipment, the monotonous grind of labour a constant cold breath down the neck of these disquieting exercises in art rock minimalism.’
http://thequietus.com/articles/19270-housewives-work-review
17. Braids – Deep In The Iris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLZak5E2jbg
‘The centrepiece to the whole thing is undoubtedly the incredible 'Miniskirt'. A plaintive vocal eventually unravels with the gradually unfurling synth line into a vitriolic, snarling missive aimed squarely at the kind of neanderthal misogynists she's undoubtedly had to deal with in the past. "I'm not a man hater, I enjoy them like cake" she humorously coos at the start, before unleashing "but in my position, I'm the slut, I'm the bitch, I'm the whore, the one you hate… It's like I'm wearing red and if I am, you feel you've the right to touch me, because I asked for it", sung with such passion and control, it's hard to find fault with such bravery in committing this to tape. Those unmistakably Braids-like choppy, almost drum'n'bass rhythms and zipping, bass heavy synths take over the second half of the track in what is a definite career highlight, let alone simply an LP highlight.’
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18768/reviews/4148932
16. Steve Gunn and The Black Twig Pickers – Seasonal Hire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=972QCEahPNg
‘Over the course of its five songs – one traditional and four original (one of which, 'Dive for the Pearl', appeared in an earlier iteration on a 2013 collaborative LP by Gunn and the Pickers' Mike Gangloff) – Seasonal Hire offers no grand statements and reveals no great mysteries. Ultimately, this is not a particularly ambitious record; no musician is stretched wildly beyond his or her limits. And yet, largely because of its off-hand quality and ease of execution, Seasonal Hire offers moments of intoxicating strangeness and beauty: the mournful fiddle solo that begins 'Don't Let Your Deal Go Down', an old folk tune popularised by banjo wizards like Charlie Poole and Earl Scruggs; Picker Sally Anne Morgan's desolate vocal on 'Cardinal 51', and the song's slow-motion dissolve into a puddle of droning acoustic guitar, harmonica and what sounds like bowed cymbals.’
http://thequietus.com/articles/17263-steve-gunn-the-black-twig-pickers-seasonal-hire-review
15. The Icarus Line - All Things Under Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCITk_qzS4s
‘But by Lucifer, The Icarus Line make me feel evil. This glowering bunch of post-hardcore garage swaggerers make me feel more evil than any other band has ever made me feel evil. They make me feel far more evil than Slipknot or Sunn O))), Ministry or Mayhem, Slayer or Sabbath, GG Allin and the Murder Junkies or that oft-forgotten Seventies glam-rock wobbleboard supergroup, The Glitter-Harris Duo. The Icarus Line have always made me feel evil, whenever I’ve listened to them, ever since they slimed their way out of LA wearing that commanding black-shirt-red-tie-combo uniform that would be ripped off by the decidedly less wicked-sounding Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance, two feeble groups who would struggle to make any normal person feel any more evil than the sight of David Attenborough nursing a particularly adorable koala bear.
And now The Icarus Line have only gone and made their most evil-sounding record to date.’
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/19046/reviews/4149448
14. Teeth of The Sea – Highly Deadly Black Tarantula
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9co8RWZt7Qs
‘Though Teeth of the Sea’s fourth record is devoid of any horror kitsch or cartoon gore, it is propelled throughout by a chilling and captivating psychic darkness, a kind of inverse transcendence that traverses the gradient between rumination, dread, and terror.
The London-based quartet released their debut, Orphaned By The Ocean, in 2010 to both acclaim and discordance — the thorny question of their genre affiliation couldn’t easily be resolved by critics. “Psychedelia” was the descriptor most often assigned to them, though it can’t possibly account for their audible Prog and Krautrock influences, or their erratic noise invocations. Their second album, Your Mercury, was strewn with contorted Post-Rock motifs, but the dual prominence of auditory clutter and brass player Sam Barton’s lithe trumpet lines only made attempts at situating the group within established musical taxonomy seem arbitrary. With each release, Teeth Of The Sea grow more restless, continually infusing their approach with greater tension and disorder; the incorporation of looped electronic rhythms (read reluctantly: “beats”) on 2013’s Master marked their decisive deviation away from ‘rock’ music. Highly Deadly Black Tarantula is a continuation in this vein—all industrial rhythms and uneasy ambiance. It often staggers toward cathartic release and retreats, leaving listeners bracing for an impact that never wholly materialises. Its effect is a cumulative malaise.’
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/rev...tula-is-a-highly-potent-cross-genre-maelstrom
13. Blank Realm – Illegals In Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb6RTwfe_N4
‘There’s a moment in every great band’s career where they shrug off their formative influences and assume their ultimate form. Blank Realm – that brilliantly erratic Brisbane quartet made up of three siblings and a “spiritual brother” – have long been the sum of their parts: a sound drawn from krautrock, New York’s no wave, New Zealand’s entire Flying Nun roster, and those closer to home, like the Go-Betweens.
Illegals in Heaven, though, is their definitive statement, the album no one other than Blank Realm could have made. It’s taken them a decade to reach this point, where their rough beginnings have been sculpted into a perfect marriage of pop, art and noise. If there’s a comparison to be made here, it’s with Sonic Youth, circa that band’s masterpiece Daydream Nation.’
http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...iew-the-perfect-marriage-of-pop-art-and-noise
12. Holly Herndon – Platform (4AD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0niHTBdV6W8
‘Herndon crafts organic bodily noise into tough and wiry electronic music. The snipped vocals coalesce into startlingly affecting simulations of words and lyrics, and the resulting pockets of euphoria, best exhibited on "Chorus," add surprising emotional heft. These are voices singing from the heart, even if what they're saying isn't easily discernable. It's a serious interrogation of the limits of what can be seen as lyrical, and it's simultaneously sonically challenging, emotionally engaging and conceptually rigorous.’
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/holly_herndon-platform
11. Sauna Youth – Distractions (Upset The Rythm)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgdAoAdwwBI
‘Distractions’ is a tense and utterly incensed record, a controlled racket that doesn’t hang around for a second longer than it needs to. ‘Transmitters’ is a bruising combination of rolling percussion and Corstorphine’s stabbing discords, Phoenix and Calleja providing riled statements of vehemence and discontent. ‘Monotony’ rallies a repetitive notion into an antagonistic shot at mundanity, while the electric bass progression that builds into ‘Modern Living’ is stripped bare in its production and is left feeling especially vibrant for it. Each track is an unrelenting blur of angular punk, using creative ability as a tool for delivering suitably vital expression.’
http://diymag.com/2015/06/07/sauna-youth-distractions-album-review
Last edited:
spring hall convert
Well-known member
10. Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden of Delete (Warp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5tRaV3iY0
'Daniel Lopatin has established a remarkable chronology of challenging and experimental electronic releases under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never throughout the last 10 years. He has continually baffled and wondered audiences with his unique vision of space music, crafting wonderlands that expand beyond the usual expectations of electronica.
Garden of Delete is probably his most audacious project yet and the one that will most likely solidify his place among the upper echelon of computer producers. He's almost reached Richard D. James status now and the fandom for his music among the next generation of young producers is justifiably ravenous.'
http://www.thefourohfive.com/music/review/oneohtrix-point-never-garden-of-delete-144
9. Follakzoid – III (Sacred Bones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coBQQMxJlSo
“It wasn’t always exactly thus. Föllkzoid have always operated at the more psychedelic, prog rock end of the musical spectrum, but their self-titled debut album was heavier, and took slightly more from the blues-rock tradition from which the original wave of krautrock deviated. Their second LP, II, with galactic cover art and expansive, repetitious jams, took more of a space rock direction. III takes things further still, yet it reins the mood in more tightly.
The guitar is now less prominent; the shape of the sound is dictated by prominent basslines and those motorik drum patterns. The music is minimal – minimal in the same way that minimal techno is minimal, with subtle adjustments to pitch and tone. At times there is more detail going on within the mix than might be apparent on the surface: there are scratched frets and whispering static sounds that could be digital, analogue or organic. Occasionally, the guitar is freed from the constraints seemingly imposed upon it by the ruthless rhythms, and it unwinds; this is the case in Piure, which tends towards post-rock almost as much as it does toward krautrock.
http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/follakzoid-iii#uA5WH5SfC7DAevkI.99
8. Blanck Mass – Dumb Flesh (Sacred Bones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0sxc4bTVo
“It doesn't feel appropriate to describe Benjamin John Power's music as "noise". As either one half of **** Buttons, or in his solo guise as Blanck Mass, there is simply far too much melody, askew beauty and demented euphoric energy going on in his output for reductive genre labels to capture it all. Not that it isn't noise too. It's loud, and prone to puzzlingly appearing in Olympic ceremonies, and so forth. There's also an expansive, at times pop orientated, at times brutal, assessable idiosyncrasy to his work that feels wholly of its own.”
http://thequietus.com/articles/17908-blanck-mass-dumb-flesh-review
7. Viet Cong – Viet Cong (Jagjaguwar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOLIHJKCu8M
“The four-piece includes two members of sadly defunct Women, whose own noisy, abrasive tendencies won them lots of love. It's a mystery how singer/bassist Matt Flegel (sometimes sounding like Spencer Krug) and company can combine frenzied shards of guitar lines, chilly ambience, bulldozer drumming and lyrical bleakness - "If we're lucky we'll get old and die" - into something so appealing.
For one, the songcraft is high, balancing repetitive groove with dynamic surprises. There's so much variety here, from icy Joy Divisionesque excursions (Silhouettes) to Guided by Voices-through-an-echo-chamber mood (Continental Shelf) to melodic hooks (Bunker Buster) to howling post-punk fury (Death). It lends huge excitement to the project.
Eleven-minute closer Death is the perfect example: every few minutes it arrives at another astonishing place.”
https://nowtoronto.com/music/album-reviews/viet-cong/
6. Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness (Domino)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VosSz4pUa4U
“The result is a genuinely exceptional and entrancing album, opaque but effective, filled with beautiful, skewed songs, unconventional without ever feeling precious or affected. From the title downwards, you’re struck by the sense of an artist who once seemed austere and forbidding beckoning you into their world. It’s an invitation that’s hard to resist.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/24/julia-holter-have-you-in-my-wilderness-review
5. Mbongwana Star – From Kinshsha (Atlantic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJCwfjl_sXc
“The video for Mbongwana Star’s debut single, Malukayi, was a mysterious and rather compelling thing. Figures loom out of a low-lit, smoke-wreathed gloom: a dancer, a frantic percussionist, a couple of middle-aged men in wheelchairs, and, most intriguingly, a spaceman wandering the streets of Kinshasa. The latter seemed like the perfect metaphor for a track that seemed to have fallen out of the sky, that somehow managed to be both identifiably Congolese – you can’t mistake the amplified likembes of guest stars Konono No 1 – and utterly unlike anything else the fertile Kinshasa music scene had yet produced: hypnotic rhythm patterns that clattered and echoed as if they were being played at the end of a vast tunnel; vocals coated with so much distortion they sounded like something picked up on a shortwave radio; a beautiful, keening male voice marooned over spacey electronics and mournful gusts of feedback to eerie effect.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/14/mbongwana-star-from-kinshasa-review
4. Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper (Domino)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3-bVmwidGc
“ To say Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is a textural album is probably stating the obvious, but it very much is, in a way where the individual tracks feel simultaneously adventurous and tamed, like a dog that knows deep down it’s descended from wolves, wild at heart. “Boys Latin” works from a template of vocal stretching, with Lennox’s rubbery words acting like ping pong balls moving so fast, all the listener can pick up is the light trail of where they once were. “Come to Your Senses” chugs along like a goopy train. “Tropic of Cancer” literally sounds like a heaven in the clouds with angels playing harps. It’s all so evocative, it becomes hard for the listener to get the “dark and abrasive” subject matter that Lennox alludes to in interviews, specifically with Boiler Room, where he notes the album is “about presenting something that we don’t have an easy time dealing with in a costume that’s just a little bit more clown-y.“
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articl...-panda-bear-meets-the-grim-reaper-review.html
3. GNOD – Infinity Machines (Rocket Records)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im2oZGIwxX0
“Infinity Machines, throughout, is as human an album as has been made this year. When Tim Gray made his drone composition Polyhedrons, he linked his master’s thesis on using music as an intentionally therapeutic asset. Though they utilize the same tools, GNOD’s created a brutally raw release that laughs in the face of anything providing solace. While Thomas Hobbes reminded us that life is brutish, nasty, and short, the world in which these lives are played out is large and imposing, inescapable and challenging. An album commanded by machines, few releases could tap into our terrifying mortality like this.”
http://www.popmatters.com/review/193321-gnod-infinity-machines/
2. Lonelady – Hinterland (Warp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J0gmOkaak0
“In Hinterland, the follow-up to 2010's Nerve Up, LoneLady's Julie Campbell has created a thoroughly modern record that doesn't simply nod to its forebears in its zeal for an analogue approach to recording, or the self-evident groove of A Certain Ratio's basslines. No. Here Campbell is riffing on the myth of Manchester itself, revelling in revealing – rather than breaking down – the fourth wall. Influences are worn playfully – a lick here, a beat there – and processes are revealed. "Put a record on/make a connection," she sings in 'Bunkerpop', a self-reflexive treatise on the genesis of the album, the very act of creativity as Campbell's subject. Walking through the city, treading the familiar ground of post-punk desolation, she seeks out the scars her idols have scorched on the city, exploring how these post-industrial histories – indeed, very fewherstories – form a perceived Northern psyche. "I feel you here right in the hollows", she sings. "You can't stop this Bunkerpop".”
http://thequietus.com/articles/17500-lonelady-hinterland-review
1. Jlin – Dark Energy (Planet Mu)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQcJEHKHRc0
“This feel is very much Jlin's own. Based not in Chicago but neighbouring Gary, Indiana, she's developed a musical dialect that sets her apart from her footwork peers. For one thing, she mostly foregoes sampling in favour of abrasive digital synthesis. For another, her use of rhythm is unique. Much of footwork's twitchy funk comes from the way different grooves compete for dominance. Jlin favours just one rolling triplet feel, which can stomp along mercilessly or break apart into a mess of whirring tom-toms and hi-hats. The effect is often apocalyptic.”
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=16763
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5tRaV3iY0
'Daniel Lopatin has established a remarkable chronology of challenging and experimental electronic releases under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never throughout the last 10 years. He has continually baffled and wondered audiences with his unique vision of space music, crafting wonderlands that expand beyond the usual expectations of electronica.
Garden of Delete is probably his most audacious project yet and the one that will most likely solidify his place among the upper echelon of computer producers. He's almost reached Richard D. James status now and the fandom for his music among the next generation of young producers is justifiably ravenous.'
http://www.thefourohfive.com/music/review/oneohtrix-point-never-garden-of-delete-144
9. Follakzoid – III (Sacred Bones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coBQQMxJlSo
“It wasn’t always exactly thus. Föllkzoid have always operated at the more psychedelic, prog rock end of the musical spectrum, but their self-titled debut album was heavier, and took slightly more from the blues-rock tradition from which the original wave of krautrock deviated. Their second LP, II, with galactic cover art and expansive, repetitious jams, took more of a space rock direction. III takes things further still, yet it reins the mood in more tightly.
The guitar is now less prominent; the shape of the sound is dictated by prominent basslines and those motorik drum patterns. The music is minimal – minimal in the same way that minimal techno is minimal, with subtle adjustments to pitch and tone. At times there is more detail going on within the mix than might be apparent on the surface: there are scratched frets and whispering static sounds that could be digital, analogue or organic. Occasionally, the guitar is freed from the constraints seemingly imposed upon it by the ruthless rhythms, and it unwinds; this is the case in Piure, which tends towards post-rock almost as much as it does toward krautrock.
http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/follakzoid-iii#uA5WH5SfC7DAevkI.99
8. Blanck Mass – Dumb Flesh (Sacred Bones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0sxc4bTVo
“It doesn't feel appropriate to describe Benjamin John Power's music as "noise". As either one half of **** Buttons, or in his solo guise as Blanck Mass, there is simply far too much melody, askew beauty and demented euphoric energy going on in his output for reductive genre labels to capture it all. Not that it isn't noise too. It's loud, and prone to puzzlingly appearing in Olympic ceremonies, and so forth. There's also an expansive, at times pop orientated, at times brutal, assessable idiosyncrasy to his work that feels wholly of its own.”
http://thequietus.com/articles/17908-blanck-mass-dumb-flesh-review
7. Viet Cong – Viet Cong (Jagjaguwar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOLIHJKCu8M
“The four-piece includes two members of sadly defunct Women, whose own noisy, abrasive tendencies won them lots of love. It's a mystery how singer/bassist Matt Flegel (sometimes sounding like Spencer Krug) and company can combine frenzied shards of guitar lines, chilly ambience, bulldozer drumming and lyrical bleakness - "If we're lucky we'll get old and die" - into something so appealing.
For one, the songcraft is high, balancing repetitive groove with dynamic surprises. There's so much variety here, from icy Joy Divisionesque excursions (Silhouettes) to Guided by Voices-through-an-echo-chamber mood (Continental Shelf) to melodic hooks (Bunker Buster) to howling post-punk fury (Death). It lends huge excitement to the project.
Eleven-minute closer Death is the perfect example: every few minutes it arrives at another astonishing place.”
https://nowtoronto.com/music/album-reviews/viet-cong/
6. Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness (Domino)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VosSz4pUa4U
“The result is a genuinely exceptional and entrancing album, opaque but effective, filled with beautiful, skewed songs, unconventional without ever feeling precious or affected. From the title downwards, you’re struck by the sense of an artist who once seemed austere and forbidding beckoning you into their world. It’s an invitation that’s hard to resist.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/24/julia-holter-have-you-in-my-wilderness-review
5. Mbongwana Star – From Kinshsha (Atlantic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJCwfjl_sXc
“The video for Mbongwana Star’s debut single, Malukayi, was a mysterious and rather compelling thing. Figures loom out of a low-lit, smoke-wreathed gloom: a dancer, a frantic percussionist, a couple of middle-aged men in wheelchairs, and, most intriguingly, a spaceman wandering the streets of Kinshasa. The latter seemed like the perfect metaphor for a track that seemed to have fallen out of the sky, that somehow managed to be both identifiably Congolese – you can’t mistake the amplified likembes of guest stars Konono No 1 – and utterly unlike anything else the fertile Kinshasa music scene had yet produced: hypnotic rhythm patterns that clattered and echoed as if they were being played at the end of a vast tunnel; vocals coated with so much distortion they sounded like something picked up on a shortwave radio; a beautiful, keening male voice marooned over spacey electronics and mournful gusts of feedback to eerie effect.”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/14/mbongwana-star-from-kinshasa-review
4. Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper (Domino)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3-bVmwidGc
“ To say Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is a textural album is probably stating the obvious, but it very much is, in a way where the individual tracks feel simultaneously adventurous and tamed, like a dog that knows deep down it’s descended from wolves, wild at heart. “Boys Latin” works from a template of vocal stretching, with Lennox’s rubbery words acting like ping pong balls moving so fast, all the listener can pick up is the light trail of where they once were. “Come to Your Senses” chugs along like a goopy train. “Tropic of Cancer” literally sounds like a heaven in the clouds with angels playing harps. It’s all so evocative, it becomes hard for the listener to get the “dark and abrasive” subject matter that Lennox alludes to in interviews, specifically with Boiler Room, where he notes the album is “about presenting something that we don’t have an easy time dealing with in a costume that’s just a little bit more clown-y.“
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articl...-panda-bear-meets-the-grim-reaper-review.html
3. GNOD – Infinity Machines (Rocket Records)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im2oZGIwxX0
“Infinity Machines, throughout, is as human an album as has been made this year. When Tim Gray made his drone composition Polyhedrons, he linked his master’s thesis on using music as an intentionally therapeutic asset. Though they utilize the same tools, GNOD’s created a brutally raw release that laughs in the face of anything providing solace. While Thomas Hobbes reminded us that life is brutish, nasty, and short, the world in which these lives are played out is large and imposing, inescapable and challenging. An album commanded by machines, few releases could tap into our terrifying mortality like this.”
http://www.popmatters.com/review/193321-gnod-infinity-machines/
2. Lonelady – Hinterland (Warp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J0gmOkaak0
“In Hinterland, the follow-up to 2010's Nerve Up, LoneLady's Julie Campbell has created a thoroughly modern record that doesn't simply nod to its forebears in its zeal for an analogue approach to recording, or the self-evident groove of A Certain Ratio's basslines. No. Here Campbell is riffing on the myth of Manchester itself, revelling in revealing – rather than breaking down – the fourth wall. Influences are worn playfully – a lick here, a beat there – and processes are revealed. "Put a record on/make a connection," she sings in 'Bunkerpop', a self-reflexive treatise on the genesis of the album, the very act of creativity as Campbell's subject. Walking through the city, treading the familiar ground of post-punk desolation, she seeks out the scars her idols have scorched on the city, exploring how these post-industrial histories – indeed, very fewherstories – form a perceived Northern psyche. "I feel you here right in the hollows", she sings. "You can't stop this Bunkerpop".”
http://thequietus.com/articles/17500-lonelady-hinterland-review
1. Jlin – Dark Energy (Planet Mu)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQcJEHKHRc0
“This feel is very much Jlin's own. Based not in Chicago but neighbouring Gary, Indiana, she's developed a musical dialect that sets her apart from her footwork peers. For one thing, she mostly foregoes sampling in favour of abrasive digital synthesis. For another, her use of rhythm is unique. Much of footwork's twitchy funk comes from the way different grooves compete for dominance. Jlin favours just one rolling triplet feel, which can stomp along mercilessly or break apart into a mess of whirring tom-toms and hi-hats. The effect is often apocalyptic.”
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=16763
Machiavelli
Well-known member
Thanks for that JLin tip. Got it last week and am really enjoying it.
But the big question is how did numbers 7 (two great tracks, but a rather indifferent album) and 8 (which is just a bit meh) manage to beat number 9?
I've just started listening to Arvo Part. Which is a bit of a departure for me.