Top Tracks 2016 Part VII 40 – 31

40. Frank Ocean – Nikes (Blonde)

“These bitches want Nikes” might be one of my favorite lines of this year. I Can´t give any rational explanation akin to the depth of such a statement, it just sounds incredibly good especially in the auto-tuned madness of Frank Ocean. While Blonde is full of great songs and an emotional and introspective ride that only someone like Ocean could pull off, “Nikes” is the perfect intro and re-introduction through the unfamiliar. If someone doesn´t need to pitch shift his voice, it is Ocean, but when he does, it becomes something as surreal, as the world “Nikes” introduces us to. This fashion of rnb melancholy still is something fresh and evocative and Ocean is truly a master of this craft.





Frank Ocean - 'Nikes' from DoBeDo Productions on Vimeo.

39. Drake – U With Me? // Controlla (Views)

Drake´s latest album was the first to receive deeper criticism of some flaws, his music has had throughout his career, but which became visible through the thinning of a conceptual line and higher pop-sensibility. It is true, there are songs that come off as repetitive and flat out redundant in the progression of the album and with the success of only a few cuts, this feels like the first time that the whole album was carried by singles then by a singular idea and sound. But that shouldn´t take away from the experience and Drake´s complete ushering in as one of the most successful musicians in hip hop right now. He is able to bring you “Controlla”, feed on a trend he was feeding of ever since he made “Find Your Love” in 2009 and express his cultural and sonic fluidity, as well as still good and able in making a rap based cut like “U With Me?” as the heartbreak-Drake we´ve come to know and revere. With the latter track, Drake shows more growth than when he steps into the skin of the dancehall persona. As the lyrical depth was always behind his ability to narrate and give insight, the shift from singing to rapping come with ease and when he reaches the higher register at the end of the song, showing emotions and containing his temper towards whichever gold-digging, emotionally draining women he is addressing, there is some maturity in his performance – something that is greater than making fun songs like “Hotline Bling” or channeling the influences of the OVO brain pool alone.

38. James Blake – Noise Above Our Heads (The Color In Anything)

James Blake didn´t disappoint with his third album, creating his most complex and varied set of songs yet. “Noise Above Our Heads” can serve as the core song of the LP, touching on the main themes of lost relationships, redemption from past mistakes and longing, while having the deft production that expands on the previous minimalism of Blake´s previous work. The track changes its mood from movement to movement, taking off from the simplistic beginning that reminds of the debut LP, to the rising chorus that utilizes a literal line of white noise in the mix, sounding like a jet taking off,  and leading out in a dubbed out way. That´s the sound of fleshing out songs and filling in the skeletal gaps with keen production choices.

37. Young Thug – Swizz Beatz // RiRi (No, My Name Is Jeffrey)

Reinvention is key in times of crisis and Thugger made a powerful statement through his (temporary) name change and maybe one off project as Jeffrey. The politics of promoting a positive message or moving away from a name and bad associations may be a given, who knows what he´ll do in the future, however, what stands above this is the prowess of Thuggers vocal capabilities. On these tracks, he stretches and grinds his voices, goes from sounding melodic to harmonizing with the voices in his head. Whatever is happening, whatever the words mean, Thugger leaves it all behind for ultimate expression. He might be singing about love in a full frenzy on "Swizz Beatz" or giving his expression of “Work”, the energy is undeniable and serves as the justification that he remains at the top of the few artists doing something interesting with the sound of rap music.

36. Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement – Watery Grave (Green Graves)

Dominick Fernow is a genius of many musical fields. Whether he is screaming, as well as using a spoken word form on his noise / electronic project Prurient, or he is spreading weird political references and bleakness through his Vatican Shadow outfit, there is always something to be excited about and most of all, finesse in his work. One thing that is immediately recognizable and enthralling, is his sheer ability as a word-smith. Without even creating sounds, he can give you a feel of what is to be expected and can set off thousands of associations in your mind. The name of his most ambient project Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement alone, is evocative of a unique world. While ambient might not be a good signifier for any kind of his work, Green Graves carries the quality of being equally background and foreground at the same time. The track “Watery Grave” has a faster pace and mindset, blending the jungle themes with a metallic drum pattern and starry synths. If this project really aims to evoke the weird representations of the jungle and the wild, we normally associate from the western perspective, the death Fernow paints with this track is frightening serenity.

35. Bloc Party – My True Name (Hymns)

Reverence or to revere something can take many forms and variations. It would be too simplistic to associate Hymns and “My True Name” as just a conversation with God or the facing of religion and religious doubt in general. Kele´s lyrics and the overall breathy instrumentation by the band are pointing towards so much more by relying on their usual themes of love and relationship. It is in the dialog with the other, the person next to you, that new things can be revealed and the common middle ground be elevated to some form of higher connection and understanding. “My True Name” addresses just that; opening oneself up and the other recognizing this vulnerability.

34. The Field – Monte Veritá (The Follower)

The Field is one of the masters of drawn out techno tracks that lean on a darker and more atmospheric sound. His sound on “Monte Veritá” never becomes bleak or overly experimental, he never plays with the driving flow of his tracks, keeping in mind the purpose of movement; either on the dancefloor or in focused listening. Over these ten minutes, the track builds itself to great heights, almost a kind of euphoria drawn in a muted color palette of black, white and gray.

33. Mothers – It Hurts Until It Doesn't (When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired)

The moment the first line “I felt alive for a little while” hits, the incredible personality of singer Kristine Leschper, her gripping presence becomes apparent. Her moaning wail is able to create an almost bodily pull of questioning yourself when she sings lines like “as if I could ever keep a promise” or intonates something bitter like “I hate myself when I´m awake”. This might be the paradoxical nature of what makes a great songwriter: The dense personality that draws you in and seems to emanate a strong presence of creative stability while being riddled with self-doubt and paralyzing self-consciousness. “It Hurts Until It Doesn´t” drags you through all those emotions, not giving any answers, just getting the curling up into a ball and pitying yourself out of the way and leaving you with an urge to hit repeat as achieving confidence takes way longer than that one song.

32. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Flight From The City (Orphée)

Apart from making film soundtracks that enlarge the overall experience of any movie, Jóhannsson´s solo work is pretty much him making soundtracks for movies, that would never live up to the aural component visually. It feels like he saves his best pieces for a narrative he wants to tell and is equally capable of molding sounds to an idea or a story. Orphée became infused with the title and myth at a later stage than writing the music and carries the themes of love, loss, memory, and death, even without the greater associations the artists blended them with. On “Flight From The City”, Jóhannsson opens the record with its longest track and instantly weaves a ray of hope into a saddening combination of weeping violin and yearning piano line.

31. Mono – Ely's Heartbeat (Requiem For Hell)

Mono have come a long way, with nine albums under their belt, it becomes apparent that their musical aim is to achieve mastery of their own sound, without looking outwards too much or expanding or shifting away to something different completely. Nothing greater! We´ll never get a pairing of Mono with a singer (except for that one time Envy´s Tetsuya Fukagawa delivered some fitting shouts to Rays of Darkness) and might never see the day, where Mono play around with synths or anything like that. Their most innovative moment, while staying on the experimental side of things and doing something off-beat that perfectly fits their emotive and conceptual vision came with “Ely´s Heartbeat”. You actually hear the ultrasound heartbeat of Jeremy Devine´s daughter on this track delivering the greatest metaphor of life and new beginnings whilst, in typical Mono fashion, serving as a premonition of death, the certainty that all life has to come to a close. Life and death might be a played out theme, a binary that everybody in rock music knows some way or another, but I still feel that Mono are one of those bands, that are able to evoke the strange relation and dependency of these pillars of existence with every new song they create.