Psychedelic rock and low-fi garage. (Probably like the cover better than the music.)
Lastkaj 14 - Becksvart
Great punk rock from Sweden.
Saint Agnes – The Witching Hour
It’s like the female version of King Dude.
Girls Names – Stains on Silence
Refreshingly nothing special, simple alternative rock shoegazer album. It’s like your friend’s band from high school.
ASG – Survive Sunrise
I am filtering my stoner rock intake much more lately. This one still hits home. Beautiful cover also.
Immersion – Sleepless
I read that this is neo-Krautrock and chill-rock. Low to mid tempo, head nodding, knee swinging, but still background music. Good for work.
JASSS - Weightless
Experimental, electronic, slow techno, some industrial flavor, and probably the best new stuff I came across along these lines this year (although it is from last year).
Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit
Zeal & Ardor hit extremely hard when it arrived with its blues rock meets death metal flavor. I couldn’t even imagine how they can follow this up with a second album. Maybe it is something that works like a concept record and should not be followed up. But then they announced a sophomore and I was cautious. They could have done something totally different and I might not like it. Or they might have become too famous with this too fast and have gone into some more compromising ways.
And now the album arrived and I am relived. This definitely isn’t the smasher the first one was simply because we have already seen the trick, but still it is completely okay and works just fine. Even at some points I feel like the guys were pushing the shrieking edge a bit too much to compensate for other parts or the feared expectations they felt people might have.
Anyhow, this is good. Works after several plays, too.
I came accross a bunch of artists opening up the whole Afro-Caribbean electronic music scene for me. Africa meets Latin-America on the club dancefloor. Funny thing, what made me discover all these artists were their spectactular album covers that I just kept clicking.
Ghetto Kumbé – Soy Selva
Nación Ekeko – La Danza
King Coya – Tierra de King Coya
Dengue Dengue Dengue – Son de los Diablos
Evil Blizzard - The Worst Show On Earth
Wow, just got to know this band and wow. I feel resemblance to the Killing Joke with touches of industrial to its alternative rock. Such awesome tunes and moods and takes me to places. Definitely top list material at year’s end. And that cover.