Top Albums 2015 Part II 40–31

40. Anna Von Hausswolff – The Miraculous

The Miraculous is one dark, brooding organ trip. Shedding almost all the lighter, more uplifting moments of Ceremony, Anna Von Hausswolff creates such a mood, the images of Gothic churches and evil processions don´t even start to capture the feel. While the few longer tracks like “Come Wander With Me / Deliverance” and “The Miraculous” bring out the atmospheric qualities of Hauswolff and her instrument of choice, the short, almost song like tracks, have a much sharper, invocational vibe, putting the lyrics upfront and attacking you with long, drawn out howls. The power and reward of The Miraculous will only show after continuous listens, when you begin to grasp the whole nuance of the gloom.

39. Caspian – Dust & Disquiet

I´ve followed Caspian since they broke with their first EP You Are The Conductor in 2005. Their music has been a constant in my life, delivering a unique headspace of its own, helping me create and flesh out my thought. With Dust & Disquiet, they returned with an album for the first time after bassist Cris Friedrich passed away. As they had spent their last effort implementing singing in their music to a degree, this album takes the previous elements of Caspian and refines them even further, still allowing for some experimentation and new instruments to be introduced, but honing their achieved skills. Even the vocals make a much better worked out return: “Run Dry” is a mourning ballad, carried almost singularly by acoustic guitar and featuring a unprocessed, somber voice and the way of muffling the vocals in “Echo and Abyss” until it burst out with a grungy yell works fine between the mechanic drums, zither and distortion. In Caspian I find a band perfecting the sound and feel of post-rock in a time, where many bands become generic or re-invent themselves and their music. Just listen to the intro of “Darkfield” to get their feel for the sublime that seems inherent to this genre.

38. OKADA – Impermanence 

OKADA might as well have released this on Andy Stott´s Modern Love imprint and be yet another moniker of Stott altogether. But Greg Pappas exists and has been growing musically since his days as zxyzxy. Impermanence utilizes spacious electronics and a beautiful female singing voice to its bleakest and still somewhat alluring potential. The opener Vulnerability is a slow-burning dreamscape, adding piano and a wide clap to the drawn out yearn of the voice, only to deconstruct as the vocals become audible and a song could have taken form. The sweeping violin, the clear drums, all parts try to create a song, but still crumble and dissipate. Following track “Unrequited” crashes you with hard industrial drums, akin to something a noise outfit would do, only to yet again give way to a heavenly mourn, “your by my side, all I want is your love” becoming audible between some rustles and pieces of beat. While “Ruiner” tries to deliver a little uplifting portion, it is sucked into sorrow and wide open nothingness. And this may well be made out of the theme “Impermanence”, the becoming and dissolution of things, the sadness at seeing this unstoppable process layered with beauty and acceptance. 

37. Mbongwana Star – From Kinshasa

Space Music from Kongo. This is what the project Mbongwana Star tried and more than succeeded in achieving. Their use of synth melodies alone is so different, so very “outerspace”, you´ll start questing, why the western aural representation of space was always so ordered, so vacuous, when it could have been sounding twinkling, rich and, well, happy. You´ll not only learn look differently at representations of space music, but most likely learn a thing or two about a musical locale, that is a blank space in the hearing experience of most people. There is a such a impeccable feeling for creating dense and sweeping melodies in this record, it´ll break the notion of the west having perfected pop-music altogether. And don´t let yourself be fooled by thinking, that this means, that this expression is “ethnic” and “African” essentially, the musicians sure know their way around the setup of normal bands, guitar music and basslines, not because music is the language of the world and all that crap, but because they, like some other artists on this list are capable of combining these elements without any reminiscence remaining.

36. Levon Vincent – Levon Vincent

Want a very internet reason to like Levon Vincent, before even hearing a sound he created? Check a man, who dedicated a song to his deceased cat – “For Mona, My Beloved Cat / Rest In Peace”. Apart from that, this album is over an hour and ten minutes full of great electronic music, going from crushing dark wave into more uplifting and ambient territories altogether. The skeletal stagger of “Phantom Power”, the minimal “Launch Ramp To Sky” that transforms into a funny house tune as it progresses, ending in a glitchy bit music enterprise, there is great skill in every direction Levon Vincent takes his music. The biggest trait in all of this is his sequencing and structure of the album. Although surpassing sheer functionalbility in terms of catering to the dancefloor, this could easily work as a set, even if just meant for your headphone consumption. 

35. Slow Meadow – Slow Meadow

The genre of ambient is a varied field. Some artists, coming from a dance music context try their hand at reconstructing beat oriented tunes into soundscapes, others, like Slow Meadow are of the composer type, creating beatless scapes assisted by a classical setup. The way Slow Meadow realization of his quiet illuminations via the use of cello, violin and piano is striking when set against fuller approaches of classical music. Just like his labelmates Hammock, these instruments become rooted in the mindset of an outfit using drones to create atmosphere. The washes of noise are not so much the backdrops, as they qualify as canvases for the organic instruments to lay on top. The whole experience of Slow Meadow is reflexive, non-intrusive, drawing you in, not to think about, but with the musical in its progression. As Eno had his first experience of “the ambient”, you can decide on the volume, even the lowest still letting the emotional power shine through, and be inside Slow Meadow.

34. Actors&Actresses – Pyre

For those who are encountering Actors&Actresses for the first time, the disappointment of this being their final album might be big. Here is band set in the pained variant of shoegaze, having an incredible ear for deep basslines, akin to Kyuss and yet contrasting this with crystalized guitars. While this description is formulaic and doesn´t capture the whole instrumental scope of the band, these two elements will keep you coming back, if you´re into any shoegaze outfits, so pungent, so striking. Coming up with Junius and Caspian as a part of the Mylene Sheath roster, I wondered for six years where they had gone, and why the success of the latter bands wasn´t also gracing them. It´s sad, that´s all there is to say, I would have liked to see this band grow over the course of time and see, in which direction they push their sound. But, they left us not with a simple message on social media, but with their last recording, Pyre. An album knit tighter, than their last effort Arrows and with tremendous strength. Fitting the title, it almost feel like the band is reprising their best elements, knowing that it will be their last time, moratory chants by Scott Bennett included. Unlike burning as destruction, the funeral rite is a symbolic transformation. Into ashes, into smoke, becoming ephemeral and rising towards the unknown. A fitting sendoff.

33. Dmitry Evgrafov – Collage

Thinking about a divide between the organic and the digitally processed is pretty much outdated in my eyes. Sure, everyone would rather see actual musicians playing their instruments, doing something directly “performative”, than just a single person over his computer and knobs, but as artists like Olafur Arnalds have shown us before, you can perfectly synthesize the organic feel of instruments, especially of the classical kind with digital means. But if there is one difference to be made, it may come from the form of composition, the pace and dynamics of either of these ways of creating music. Evgrafov, who has been a recording artists for some time made Collage his first effort, completely composed digitally, no actual instruments involved. Calling the thing Collage goes with the feel of the album: You´ll enter the world of a musical moloch, being able to create every shift of mood, on instrumentation and combinations of sounds he could dream of; the only restriction being his own creativity. The whole set up remains reminiscent of an actual live group, but the pace and scope are wider and more dynamic than what you could achieve with chamber musicians or anything like that. Collage there might come off as a barrage of singular ideas meshed together into 2-3 minute length size pieces, but if you´re ready to engage with the fragments, revel in the short glimpses of musical ideas going from one great moment to the next, you´ll never wish for long pieces, songs winding down and “exiting”.

32. Walleater – I/II

The big fat attack on the guitar of opener “Give In To Me” is the perfect start to Walleater´s sweet and noisy debut album. I can´t escape the feeling of youth on these tracks, especially in the context of the music I heard when skating. Skateboarding for me, was not about the sport per se, it was about living life in a different mindset, unchained from the normative gavel of society, slamming down on everything that was out of the ordinary or non-traditional. Hanging out in parking lots, dressing the way you liked and letting the days pass by, was ultimately a freeing experience that sticks with many of trains of thought to this day. Hearing Walleater now is reminding me of this feeling, their guitars on full blast, enveloping you with reverb and distortion, laying down some angsty vocals. Reminding and letting me pick up, parts of this mind-set yet again.

31. Viet Cong – Viet Cong

Just listen to the noise making its way into the cold hard drumming and downtrodden vocals in “Newspaper Spoons”, only to be ceased by a celestial twinkle and touches of bass and you´ll know you´re in for a treat. What then follows is the most beautiful negative energy set in motion, post-punk if you want a tag. The band knows how to handle rhythm, let the catchy take you away into danceable rock music, just as well as to let their guitars churn and burst into doomed drones. The whole of Viet Cong is spiked with moments when the mood turns over, letting the volume speak, but the tunes and melodies the bands uses to relieve these moments are equally absorbing as on “Continental Shelf” and “Silhouettes”. The latter even has a synth line reminiscent of a pop song in the mix, like “fuck it, why not?”. It has never felt better to be beat.