Saharan rock, now I know. Although it is somewhat different then rock and more like what indie is to rock—not in a quality sense, but more in a sidestepping different thing sense. On a different note: this cover.
Mdou Moctar - Ilana (The Creator)
UNKLE – The Road: Part II / Lost Highway
There are some beautiful songs on this one. And one triphop awesomeness, and one hymn for before a party.
The Underground Youth - Montage Images Of Lust & Fear
Psychedelic rock and post-punk and cold wave.
Daniel Thorne – Lines of Sight
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.
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.