Monolink ‎- Amniotic

I find this record enchanting. That nice kind of electronic music in the footsteps of all the wonderful creations by Moderat or Kiasmos. It has a lot of emotions but I don’t feel any cheesyness about it, it’s well crafted music, nicely put words, feels authentic to me. And especially the track Sirens, that’s a massive head and heart trip with goosebumps.

Drab Majesty – Modern Mirror

This album is so not interesting. Just wanted to make a note here: I don’t feel this to be a goth album at all, it’s way more of a new wave (sometimes future pop) dressed as goth. Probably that’s the very reason I don’t like it. Under this darkwave look I don’t feel any real content and value. There’s also this trend of new goth music incorporating a heavy influence from synthwave. Sometimes I like it, in this case I don’t. I compare this record to everything by Cigarettes After Sex. *smirk

Marie Davidson – Working Class Woman

This album is part hilarious and part fascinating. Work It is something I cannot not re-listen any number of times, it is like a caricature of a motivational speech but it actually does feel motivating. And The Tunnel is creepy like hell, it’s like an audio version of a horror movie and not in a sense that there are horroresque soundtrack elements in it but the atmosphere and words hit nails under my nails. Overall the whole record is that great kind of avantgarde with minimal wave synth sounds where the words deliver meaning even if they sound dadaist at times. It’s artsy but works.

Plaid – Polymer

This is a wonderful record. My love for Plaid was strong in the late ’90s and early ’00s, in the era of their classics and when everything was abount IDM. The journey they took after had interesting moments but it was different. And different is good, at least they didn’t try to repeat themselves and either fail or succeed but in a boring way. But now, this album is like the thing I’ve been waiting for: it has everything I love about them and still sounds new and fresh. This is my favorite kind of nostalgia experience: something that feels like what I remember but actually being a totally refurbished and improved version of that memory. Right now this is my favorite Plaid album, and it feels so great to think that. Random note: wrapping up this list of tracks with Praze gives me goosebumps.

Jambinai – A Hermitage

After listening to ONDA today I went straight on and listened to all releases by Jambinai, and it’s quite a trip. Their latest album is a sophisticated soul toching record and in contrast this first one is an experimental metal road roller beast. I see the journey they took from being this raw revolutionary composition through exploring their own realm that they created and arriving to the final destination where they can control their space with such a fine touch. But I love all stages of this journey. I kept starting to write a sentence about which version of their music I prefer but kept deleting, decided not to say. This may be my top new find this year so far: it is so new, so refreshing, so not like something else, so surprising. I still have some processing and re-listening to do.

Actually this specific record brings up feelings that I had for Karyn Crisis’ Salem’s Wounds in 2015.