Modern composition melting acoustic and electronic. The saxophonist background comes through at certain points. Has the vibe of some power noise but it is still atmospheric ambient.
Daniel Thorne – Lines of Sight
Vaal – Nosferatu
I have the same feeling like when I listened to the latest record by FJAAK: these guys are rummaging in the bottom of their pockets and pull out stuff from the past, dust them off, and create something that I find fascinating. Vaal has these breakbeats that are like echoing the Matrix all over it, so much ’90s, blast from the past, but she still builds something atop that feels current. I love it.
The Cinematic Orchestra – To Believe
Intimate, slow, cinematic, orchestral. The favorite track is the one with Roots Manuva, there’s a powerful arch in this one.
Blaqk Audio – Only Things We Love
Part retro pop, part future pop, part silly pop music. I dig the first two on this album and because of that I can like the third one, too. Infinite Skin is probably my overall favorite track this year.
Recondite – Silk
After I recently rediscovered techno as club music last fall, I have a much more sensitive radar for music to move the body by. And Recondite is my latest love in this segment, walking along the lines of techno and house. It appeared a few times in some playlist for me but I always just noted that this is great. Then a few weeks ago I methodically started listening through his whole catalog. There are not many filler releases there, lot of beautiful dance music. This latest EP is awesome, too. Slowly building large arches of thumping deep house, surrounded with ambient dreamscapes.
Modeselektor – Who Else
Just recently I got to going through all last year’s Modeselektor output and the single from the new record sounded the most promising. So no surprises there that the album is great. Many different flavors from the dancefloor to the chill room, but all the tracks have the unmistakeable touch of Modeselektor. I instantly started looking at the upcoming live dates to catch them some time.
Czarface and Ghostface Killah – Czarface Meets Ghostface
It’s a bomb, the flow and beats both hit large. Also I can’t get tired of this comic style artwork.
Silk Road Assassins – State Of Ruin
The first EP I called ambient electronic, this one expands that with dubstep and moody melodies. Interestingly the track Taste of Metal was probably aimed to be a heavy hitting grime spitter, but listening to the vocal version I guess it’s lucky that the album features the instrumental one. No words are needed on this record, really. It’s much better as a music-only backdrop soundtrack for a dark room with dim light.
Quick make-notes of the letdowns.
The new Front Line Assembly album is boring. Actually there’s nothing else to say about it. Well, maybe that Jimmy Urine’s Rock Me Amadeus is just, whaaat the fuck. It’s a joke that I don’t dig.
And the new Ladytron record, I don’t even get that, it’s like a bad production. The tracks are half totally boring, half okayish. Strange choice of tracklisting so that it becomes more interesting in the second half. But the sound quality of the whole thing is just a mess, it sounds like some vintage vinyl listened through an earplug. I also have a feeling that probably I got tired of them in the absence since we last met and would not listen to it anymore if I came across it as new today. That’s a strange thought.
Millencolin – SOS
Current dose of punk rock. The album cover and the title track music video are just unfathomable bad, no excuse for that. But the music still rocks.
Note: I liked their 2015 album, too, a lot actually, I wonder why that didn’t end up here. Funny thing is it was among my ten most listened-to records that year, but didn’t make the final cut of the Top 10 at the time.