Top Albums 2018 Part III 30 – 21

30. Siavash Amini & Matt Finney – Gospel

I've written quite a lot on the sonic world of Clawing and had the incredible chance to pick Matt Finney´s brain about his life and creation. Gospel, however, I didn´t highlight enough and this despite it becoming my favorite Finney moment of 2018 and at that one of the most jarring edifices of abuse and trauma, I ever listened to. With Siavash Amini at the helm, bringing to life three haunting soundscapes that feel like living inside Silent Hill´s hospitals and small neighborhoods, Finney went deeper into his past and explicitly stated what close listening unearthed in his previous work. The horrors of becoming a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of your own father, the aftermath that deals with unheard prayers to God and a religion unable to help in the real violence humans inflict upon each other. Maybe the thing that always pulls me towards Finney´s music is the fact that he is equally at loss as the next victim, his trademark realism doesn´t dissect, intellectualize or try to weaken what happened with the positivity of overcoming, it rather just sticks to observing and giving small comments on these statements. Coming in contact with Gospel and the work of Siavash and Finney for the first time, Gospel might feel like a gut punch that leaves you hoping for a conclusion or some sense of relief, but just as “Cicadas” empties out to visceral noises of a radio which consciously fails at a last moment of spirituality, this album will definitely have you craving to listen deeper, for more and delve into the strengthening discography of Finney & Friends. (Yeah, I´m calling the name of his future retrospective).

29. Jay Rock – Redemption 

Returning from 90059, Redemption has Jay Rock still reeling from the idea of almost losing his life at its prime. A motorcycle accident Rock was involved in 2016 serves as the catalyst for the loose theme of redemption, a restart and counting blessings that runs through most tracks here. Jay Rock is invigorated, the dispute of Black Hippy and who will be on top might have become redundant now, but his own style of gangster rap that is inclined to speak to his hood and about the vices of his world is still growing. While there is no grand narrative setup on Redemption, Rock is able to immerse you in his thoughts and motives, most of whom become relatable as momentary musings of a man that is always fully aware of the struggle that surrounds him. The fight of survival might be over for TDE and Jay Rock, but through Redemption Rock showcases the richness of this world and the feeling of grinding and rapping anthems for the peers that made the group of creatives who they are today. There is always the need to push culture forward, evolve and become weird, jazzy or a superstar, but as Rock and the other artists of his crew show that you can stay grounded in your home and style while continuing to make great music.

28. FAUXE – I K H L A S

This one could be an obscure Bandcamp gem if it wasn´t for Chinabot and their stellar work of surfacing the greatest electronic artists in Asia. Flipping samples of Malaysian and Tamil music, Fauxe brought to life or even established a different kind of hip-hop history here. There have been occasional uses of southeast Asian music making its way into hip-hop music, by way of the work of Heems and Riz MC for instance, but Fauxe proves to be a happier version of Kanye West in taking wildly different tracks to highlight their musicality, warp them into obscurity and push out some bangers as well. There are contemplative tracks like “Trust” or “Ondeh Ondeh” that fly straight through musical histories to land on a place of sophistication and beauty, or tracks like “Gungho” and “Hati” that are playful cuts highlighting kitsch and colorfulness of these specific musics that still sound foreign to western ears. Fauxe and Chinabot succeed in showing the vast world of Asian electronic music and the movements happening within these cultures. While the rest of the world goes from feeding on J-Pop to K-Pop and is slow in digesting the worlds of music beyond its own cultural borders, I K H L A S is a prime example of cultural production working quite fine by itself and is growing by the minute on its own terms. Maybe some recognition will come without forgetting the artists pushing the sounds of their native fields, and Fauxe and his contemporaries will come head to head with people like Lopatin and Yeezy.

27. Teenage Wrist – Chrome Neon Jesus

Thanks to Teenage Wrist there will never be a need to say “there is no music like this in your day”. While their debut could as well been released in 1996, their guitar dreaminess is contemporary in that is still captures the feelings of youth and anxiety in the same way. When the daily life becomes sickening, the angst is turned up to eleven and life seems unbearably complex you'll turn to Chrome Neon Jesus. There will still be kids encountering this music, skating and hanging out to it as there is a band making it, translating their view of the world into catchy hooks, juicy riffs and somber moments of clarity that would make bands like Failure proud.

26. Thou – Magus

The follow up to 2014 Heathen was unimaginable. If there is one album I missed in 2014, it was Heathen, a game changer of an album that even informed my academic work through its focus on the body and the senses. Thou went the long way to release 3 Ep´s before their album Magus and continued to release splits until the last days of 2018. Magus feels right in its setup, Thou growing even more incessant in their doom-ridden heaviness. The shrieks not only chill your marrow, but they also squeeze it out of your bones. Within their EP´s Thou pretty much deconstructed their sound to show us their different sides, the noise ghouls, the grunge lords and the pretty acoustics thieves dabbling in forms of relief and serenity that rarely shows its face on the main releases. Going with the cryptical words that accompany Magus and the lyrics of the songs, there is a ton to unpack. The theme of turning from the body to the mind and harnessing free thought as getting in touch with the sacred ego is the perfect counterpiece to Heathen. While philosophy is still very much the playing field of rationality and those people dissecting the world by terms of logic alone, Thou offer a different way to understand and stand in relation with the world. Their understanding of ego and the rational capabilities do not stand in opposition with the body and sensuality but are a further expression of the dynamics of existence that are more often than not pitted against each other. And yet, there is the question if Thou don´t go slightly antithetical with Magus and end in complete solitude on “Supremacy”, turn away from the body and their sensuality as the last consequence of harnessing ego through thought alone. As if the quest of transcendence leads not just away from the world, but from each other and leaves only place for a broken singularity. Knowing the modus operandi of the band and their conceptual prowess, this is somehow written into Magus. And by way of Heathen still reigning supreme in its rawness that is superseded in the meticulous compositions of Magus, Thou now embody both sides of the external struggle while internally dissolving the binary and elevating into a third state for further mind/body melters to come.

25. Ragana & Thou – Let Our Names Be Forgotten 

Magus is present in this list. However, the perfect combination of Thou and Ragana deserves its own place on this list, one even higher then Thou´s solo effort. Conceived as a split to mourn the deaths of the Ghost Ship fire, these two bands that are deeply embedded in a DIY culture share space and deliver a haunting expression of grief. As a duo of just guitar, drums and shared vocal duties, Ragana offer a much needed female perspective in the male-dominated realm of metal and doom. Being inspired by the few females that enliven this world, like Julie Christmas for instance, all tracks live from a soft-harsh dynamic vocal wise, going from post-punk guitars to black metal shrieks that tingle in the bones and carry more shock and awe then the most offensive male shriek could. Dedicated to the dead, Ragana unpack their own rite of passage and contemplate life and energy through their words. In the end, with “The Sun”, both voices come together to go from “I am from the sun”, “I am from my mother” to “and we will die together” – sorrow culminating in the release of a blast beat, understanding death, and life in a new light. The following promise of the other side never winning speaks for the unyielding strength of the human spirit, and the power of creation and destruction lying in the same hands. Thou´s two cuts are leftovers of the Heathen sessions and shine in the glory of a band trying to do philosophy and music at once. “The Fool Who Thought He Was King” is a raw track that includes group vocals set in an unusually fast pace before drawing to a noise-ridden conclusion that could have been penned by a younger and angrier Mono. “Death To The King & All His Loyal Subjects” almost feels like the missing link between Heathen and Magus apart from the trilogy of EP´s. There is still the more direct fashion of Heathen glistening through, but after sitting with Magus for a while, you'll catch the sonic similarities that ring through this track and the album. On the note of grief and the Ghost Ship Fire, Thou end the tracks on the high note of “We are so very worthless, and everything we do is meaningless. Go now to the scourge pits to atone“ – nihilism telling of the indifference towards violent deaths as well as the minute knowledge of life itself. Still, Thou and Ragana defy this notion of being bereft of meaning in setting up this tome, pushing forward as they are still here to do so.

24. Long Distance Calling – Boundless

Long Distance Calling made the move in the right direction even though some might still process the information of the band leaving behind their vocalist as a step backward. I still cherish their first three LP´s that incorporated vocals for one track at the most and simply excelled at creating a tight instrumental machine that moved to create whole worlds without words. On Boundless the band returns to this core dynamic of four people breathing through their instruments together. Long Distance Calling have always been infatuated with nature and their blend of post-metal can pretty much be viewed as modes of sounding nature through the guitar, bass, drums set up. While their first albums leaned more towards a dystopian and imaginative view on nature, Boundless portrays a band that has traveled a lot and come a long way. The sometimes superb sections of doom and gloom are swept away, there is no menace in the band evoking light and dark through natural occurrences, they have settled, are realistically inclined to sound nature in its grandeur and free-flowing forms without too many human impression on it. Vast skies, high mountains and the things you'd come to expect from pure cinema like Koyaanisqatsi. The band needed this restart to feel at peace, not hunt after bland pop moments or a chart position, but find themselves to give us the best instrumental rock album of this year.

23. Camp Cope – How To Socialise and Make Friends

If you want heartfelt rock music that is completely aware of the times we are in, Camp Cope are the band to go. After an already mature debut album, How To Socialise and Make Friends is packed full of strong commentary on the state of their genre and community, a meToo moment for the ages and relatable pieces about growing up, leaving home, seeing the world – pretty much what a sophomore album should do. “The Opener” alone is light a political rallying cry, talking about being a female group in a male-dominated culture, venues utilizing and disregarding the trio because of their gender and airing the anger and frustration towards this state. Some of the best moments arise when the band tones down their piercing style of songwriting and go to a mid-tempo or acoustic setting. “The Omen” and especially “I´ve Got You” show singer Georgia Maq singing her heart out, showing a vulnerability that would fit a singer-songwriter like Julien Baker, but carries more political agency and need to put experiences in the context of a bigger world. Especially “I´ve Got You” turns the albums set-up on its head in going fully biographical, an ode to Maq´s father and a positive male figure in her life that informed her sense of justice. Dealing with the sickness of her father, connecting it to police shootings and a cold world in which both things exist, Camp Cope show that the personal is always political and most of all, the connection of our lives through the most minute moments serving as wake up calls to be present and try to be better people.

22. MØL – Jord

Some albums boil down to the essence of the human scream, its scope, variety, and utility in song. For my understanding, black metal was borne to showcase the scream at its most nihilistic and frustrated, to shed a light on the human condition, may it be in small city ennui or on a wider scope as a politicized state of violence in sound. With blackgaze, these tropes transform and become other. Beauty may be a simple term that goes around to express liking something, but diving deeper, beauty is what drives blackgaze away from nihilism towards a creation that is more in tune with the world, able to express life and death in a rounded fashion and above all, able to marry these affects in the human voice. In Jord, the beauty of the scream becomes a central theme, not to tell you that everything is beautiful, but to show the world-shattering and gut-wrenching capability of voice. The human will and power to transport an array of feeling in shrieking and growling words, a scream rising as high as the guitars and fighting against a blast beat – to be heard, embraced and taken as a way to express meaning and emotion without being cages as dark, harsh and simply “metal”. Mol have sounded the heart of blackgaze as a genre and have taken what their forebears were doing to another level.

21. 21 Savage – I Am > I Was 

As 21 was the cause for many meme and ridicule since he made his debut, his artistry went unnoticed apart from chart-topping singles and his affiliation with Metro Boomin. This alone should serve as an indicator that there is more behind the man than just a knife tattooed on his face. Metro certainly is no fool and he stuck with 21 for many tracks on No All Heroes Wear Capes to a grandiose effect. Savage´s delivery can at times be as melodic as Future without turning to autotune (“Out For The Night”) and he can spit his verses with a complete presence that is undeterred by lean, drugs or other shit (“1.5” for instance). From all other rappers in the game, 21 is the perfect fit for Metro Boomin branching out and trying different sounds and moods, him letting loose and pushing 21 in the same way. With I Am>I Was Savage cultivates himself, wanting to be a star and not just a rapper that somehow has murder written over his face. Every track, even the Post Malone featuring “All My Friends” work, expands the universe of 21 Savage not only to a pop star in the making but to an artist able to speak about the horror of his life and show hurt at that. This album manifests 21 as a personality that is more than willing to transcend a simple gangster image, go beyond swagged out rap and a materialistic perspective and try to be a musician first and foremost. On that note, it will be better to understand Savage not as the man with the knife on his face, but the man that started rapping after losing his friend. Another street disciple trying to get away and go beyond a culture that was holding him captive, doing this in the few ways that are optional to him and in this finding his calling.