A mesh of tunes and beats sketching up a tag cloud of 2-step, jungle, garage, hardcore, rave, dubstep. Well deserves a listen or two.
Basic Rhythm – Raw Trax
Skee Mask – Shred
Triphop tempo, ambient textures, breakbeats. Night time music, atmospheric, feels home.
Beacon – Escapements
Moody electronics with various genre crossings but mostly stays on a mid-tempo track with house beats and soulful vocals. Easy to describe it as: released by Ghostly.
Brood Ma – DAZE
Long time no see, kūlt.
Hitting off this year with this experimental flow of deep sounds glued together on an album by Brood Ma. Follows tracks of noize, glitch, bass music, breaks, from slow no-beats to mid-tempo bangers. Not for the dancefloor but for dark clubs. Does not shade your sunshines but lights up your nights.
Best of 2015
Maybe I miss out some stuff especially on the music part but these are what my notebooks hold of what was good in 2015, based on some memories, this blog, Last.fm, and IMDb.
If I wanted to some up shortly, I would say this year quite sucked for movies but brought some unexpected and nice twists and turns for music.
Movies & TV
The movie and TV list speaks for itself: the year was full of mediocre shit and overrated mainstream blockbusters (or wannabes). The Martian was okayish, Sicario had some beautiful compositions, but as a whole I wouldn’t say flicks like this made any great difference in my inner movie universe. And please don’t tell me about Star Wars, just shut it.
Movies
- Whiplash
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Ex Machina
TV
Music & live performances
As for music, I didn’t stumble upon a new best band, but there were some notable releases from some old favourites. IAMX created a stunning new record, and I was similarly satisfied with what DJ Krush or The Black Dog had to offer in 2015, plus a complete out of nowhere experience came from Amon Tobin in the form of a sci-fi ambient composition.
My best pleasantries included the absolutely incredible album of the Killing Joke, the totally unexpected but stunning record of Karyn Crisis, and something completely new for me in the form of the Thy Catafalque release. And things that I didn’t see coming to this list: a surprisingly mature and powerful single track by Apocalyptica, and my re-found fandom of Cradle of Filth.
Last year was definitely ruled by techno for me, where I found quite some new territories and depths. This year was not on that level of novelty but it was quite eclectic instead as the musical range shows in this list of names.
I haven’t been to many festivals and parties in 2015 so my live performances list is quite narrow. Although I could make it to Sónar Barcelona for the second time, which was nice, and surprises dominated there as well: Squarepusher’s live act was by far the most satisfying live music experience that I heard this year.
Music
- Killing Joke – Pylon
- Karyn Crisis’ Gospel of the Witches – Salem’s Wounds
- IAMX – Metanoia
- Thy Catafalque – Sgùrr
- DJ Krush – Butterfly Effect
- The Black Dog – Neither/Neither
- Cradle Of Filth – Hammer of the Witches
- Amon Tobin – Dark Jovian
- Rival Consoles – Howl
- Apocalyptica – Shadowmaker (single)
Live
Blanck Mass – Dumb Flesh
That is one disturbing album cover. The music is by one half of Fuck Buttons, Benjamin John Power. Although this is a solo project the tone and style is pretty much similar with power noise layers and heavy structures.
Esbe – Bloomsday
Came accross this one completely randomly while image searching for ESB and the cover caught my eye. And it turns out to be a triphop-downtempo album, which is just great! Easy going, no moody depth here, just some nice tunes and beats.
ESB – ESB
Catchphrase here is that this is a side-project with Yann Tiersen, and if you want a better keyword for search, try Elektronische Staubband. Great album btw with analogue experimentations ranging from melodic nid-nodders to power noise screamers.
Blond:ish – Welcome To The Present
Now this one is suprising and interesting. Debut longplayer with a blend of moods but mostly focusing on slow tempo, although even while keeping the pace below the mid-range still offers quite a palette from field recording style ambient through laid-back downtempo to choking steamy techno. Then halfway through the album we arrive to the mid tempo range and mostly keep the speed steady going forward. I better enjoyed the second half with its techno vibe, but the album as a whole has a well orchestrated journey for sure.
Rival Consoles – Howl
Something large and operating with elemental forces, but then switching back and forth between kind and overwhelming. Something in the crossroads of techno, ambient, power noise and idm, in the world of dreamscapes and wonders. Beatiful record.