He says “think Burial meets Bonobo”, and that’s about right. Nice, moody, atmospheric, downtempo bass music.
Nightkites – Drones
Mark Pritchard – Under the Sun
This. Is. Beautiful. Intimate, soothing, calm, enchanting. And all that without the slightest trace of being cheesy, wearing any fluff or trying to be over the top mainstream chillout. Cannot help to replay right away. This is a gem.
Kuedo – Slow Knife
Say this first: worst album cover of the year. Now, as for the music it is definitely different from the first album but still something great. It may not even be possible to see this as a follow-up to the first Kuedo record, but rather a piece in the larger context of the life of Jamie Teasdale. Many flavors mixed in but this is misterious in many ways. Electronic, synths, and probably the most beautiful tracks are the ones resembling Vangelis in the era of the Blade Runner soundtrack. And then there are those few tracks which are the most shit-your-pants soundtracks of a horror movie and you may not want to listen to those at home alone.
Acid Arab – Musique de France
Super weird, like bass music and triphop and such with arabic flavors mixed in. If something it is sure to be a unique take.
Massive Attack vs Burial – Four Walls / Paradise Circus
Just until now I didn’t know this thing even exists. Two tracks, 12 minutes each. It is an epic.
Moby & the Void Pacific Choir – These Systems Are Failing
What. The. Fuck. Is. This. From Moby? It’s like a remixed EBM album with some synth melodies and aggressive drum machines beating the shit out of a Japanese kawaii fangirl. This is totally not expected, and what is bad about that is I totally cannot tell whether it’s sincere or just faking being young and all.
Btw, Moby’s appearing and playing that role in Blunt Talk does not help at all.
Nicolas Jaar – Sirens
Two tracks (The Governor and Three Sides of Nazareth) on this album are completely off here that you don’t see coming, and still, crown jewel. Ambience, electronic music, rythm of dub (in No), and then these two post-punkish upbeat things I cannot really classify into a genre.
VNDL – Gahrena: Structures
Part intimate, part exploration. Ambient and glitches and noises.
Volkova Sisters - Blood Shapes This Faith
It is so strange that this is Volkova Sister’s first long player and it only dropped this year. Feels like they have been around for a long time and have put out much more, like several records. Probably I am biased since I’ve been listening to Dalma’s different bands for the most part of the past decade. And all of them have been a blast, this one’s no different.
Phantogram – Three
This is good pop music.