Top Albums 2015 Part V 10–01
00. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
Before entering the last part of the top albums of 2015, I have to name my one and only honorable mention. My zero of this list, To Pimp A Butterfly could have taken any spot of the following, but I want to make different point with this mention. You can read about the complexity, the huge message and meanings of To Pimp A Butterfly on a bunch of articles and reviews. To cut it short: You´ll have to listen to this record, read and study the lyrics. It´s no coincidence that “Alright” has become a common chant of black protestors and got panned by white media for inciting violence. What Kendrick has crafted, demands attention and breaches the boundaries of music.
Surely, music has political charge, if implicit or explicit, it can incite thoughts and action, just as art is meant to do. But, and this is my point, To Pimp A Butterfly is more art, than music meant for consumption. This record should be included into history lessons, as inlay CD at the end of the book, and brought up in discussions about culture – not only in context of black culture alone. All the other albums on these list mean very much to me, but I can surely say, that this is more often than not a personal feeling and if there is an urge to get to the statement of “you have just have to listen to it”, it is pretty much my ideology of what good music is, and what should be valued. But TPAB is not only to be valued as good music, but as art and cultural expression in the greatest sense. Furthering this thought, I want to remind you of Wu-Tang Clans idea of creating their “Million Dollard Album” The Wu: Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, as a one-copy-only special album. Their intent was to remind people of the value of music and shift perception of music into the categories applied to pieces of art in museums and galleries. Noble, very noble, but it seems the band only saw pieces of art as singular objects, sold for a large sum. Their intent of the album being on display, being available to listen in museums, seems impossible now, as another dim-wit has bought their precious object. And, fuck this Billy Murray heist shit, if you want to add something serious for the value of music and art, don´t make a fool of your intention.
The Wu is not art, it is the dumb mistaken confusion of art as commodified artistic expression. If there should be any album available in museums, it should be To Pimp Butterfly, and the great thing is, that there is no need for this shut off exposure. You can buy the whole thing for 8 dollars, you can stream it almost everywhere and you´ll find your high quality rip "for free" for sure. Real art is available to everyone, everywhere. It is the expression of time and space, a singular mind or collective being able to concentrate everything around and make something forward-thinking out of it. Just listen to the damn thing, and don´t start with “I don´t like rap”.
10. Humeysha – Humeysha
The quest for identity was on the rise since modernity was a thing, but the newer struggles, those of the "multi"-cultural are of the newer kind, still today. I´ve been listening to the music of my parents, of the Tamil and Indian persuasion, since I was a child and began to despise it somewhat. Western music, at that time everything rock and pop had to offer was so much more attracting, especially of a language I wanted to speak and of a culture I wanted to live by. Growing older, I can´t say that I´ve learned to embrace everything about my two cultural sides, but I learned to be critical of becoming too entangled in thinking exclusively “western”. Humeysha´s self-titled album is an album marring the various style of music without making any distinctions. The “Indian” (whatever that exactly is) vibe is apparent immediately, the drum sections, the somewhat funny tingly guitar lines and some crazy flute transporting you to every representation of Indian you can imagine. But the thing is, and this is the notion that has to be understood, when thinking about identity today, ideas of multiculturalism, of accumulating cultures, on top or besides one another have become outdated. Humeysha do understand to play indie psychedelia that is capable of bearing all colors at once. This is transculturalism surfacing in modern music, a thing that is still rarely seen and not easily embraced by the public. Get away from thinking about the “ethnic”, about “world music”, and engage with the expression of a truly transcultural world. Definitely not without struggle and a lot of work to be done, but if the music is right, I think better times are ahead.
09. Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp
If Katie Crutchfield was to write today's chart-topping pop songs, love, better said the transported image of love by todays pop music would certainly be different and realistic. The center of Ivy Tripp is the “directionless-ness” of people in their adolescence and most of the songs are also conversational pieces, talking to yourself or the significant other. Everything is pretty much a “trip”, undefinable, but with energy, a drive forward and the need to do something. With every release, the instrumentation on Waxehatchee records grows bigger and better, a thing that would hurt most of the intimate singer-songwriter outfits I know. But the pomp on this album is refreshing and helps the songs and their message move forward, not being the same and not sounding the same. There is so much variety on this record, the 40 minutes playtime will feel like 20. And you´ll return again and again, for small bits and pieces of wisdom Crutchfield sings and the catchy and yet simplistic guitar lines of each track.
08. Empress Of – Me
If you´re searching for non-repetitive and lyrically deep electro-pop, Me will be the find of the year. Titling the album Me, this isn´t a completely egoistic endeavor, more like a deeper reflection of your own thoughts and situation. Writing the album in the isolation of a small town in Mexico, Empress of is trying to cope with past relationships and the her own lifestyle. The songs about relationships are not so much purely post-break-up songs of saddening longing or spiteful recalling, but centering on the “Me”, Lorely Rodriguez´ way of clearing her head, getting to know a new self and starting to grasp on the previous. All this incorporated in great electronic tunes. Some simple and pretty ambient like the opener “Everything Is You”, eerie like “To Get By” or even bass heavy r´n´b on LSD like “Need Myself”.
07. Deafheaven – New Bermuda
The naysayers of Deafheaven found Sunbather to be too atmospheric and pretty, almost becoming their own black-metal cliché of “you can´t have bright guitars, even a bright cover art for something that is supposed to be sad and depressing”. Deafheaven needed to prove their ground and did so by making New Bermuda harsher and faster. But, and this is where they stood by their style and their way of delivering desperation and bleakness, they created songs and sections that elevated the notion of black-metal even further. Songs like “Brought To The Water” and “Luna” are much more straightforward than what you´d come to expect from Sunbather, the atmospheric, the high-reaching being turned down and only a few elements remaining. But with “Baby Blue” and “Gifts For The Earth” the band shows us a way of going almost folk, slowing down their pace incredibly while still resorting to Clark´s distinct bone-shattering screeching and sorrowful builds and desolate mid-sections. New Bermuda is a new kind of feeling lost. After becoming successful, reaching their goal of not being broke all the time, the struggles only transform and the sadness peaks through in new disguise. With this record, you´ll feel like battling demons, not always on full blast, but with the bruises and the flesh-wounds of the atmospheric.
06. Ash Koosha – GUUD
GUUD is a aural experience that will blow your mind. This is almost the best one sentence description you can give of this record. Think electronic music in the vain of avant-leaning artists like Oneohtrix Point Never or Fatima Al-Qadiri and you´ll be able to stomach the first listen a little. The songs, as sketches often appear short and unforgiving for the inattentive, passing you by as beat ridden conglomerations of sounds. But after some time – for me it took almost ten listens – you´ll begin to distinguish and live inside these minute ideas Ash Koosha creates. The detail will show itself, revealing small changes of a synth line, of a screech or whistle, pushing your hearing to new heights. Just step into GUUD, get to know every second of it and you´ll find other electronic music to be pale in comparison.
05. Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and The Rajasthan Express – Junun
Almost in the same line as Humeysha, but with a little more pomp, this record is transgressing boarders, languages and representations of cultures and music. You´ll get voices singing in Hindi, Urdu, Hebrew, switching without hesitations between the songs and the voices. Seeing some footage of the documentary Junun, you´ll see the huge cast of The Rajasthan Express, the different musicians rehearsing, recording and playing as the huge collective they are; Shye Ben Tzur and Jonny Greenwood somewhere between them. And this sense of community in creating music is what makes this expression shine brighter than only being “world music”. Junun not only utilizes the various styles of music, ranging from Sufi inspired qawwali or Manganiar court music (never heard of it? join the club), it creates a synergy within the combination and pushes the overall sound of the genres further. This is especially true when Jonny Greenwood´s synthesizer joins the mix and creates texture and atmosphere that go so well with the brass and huge drum sections, you could tag these sounds traditional without somebody noticing. I often feel that there still is a huge rift between the Asian, Arabic and Western styles of music, artists maybe dabbling in the sound for a song or for effect, but never really allowing it to become part of their expression. Living in a time where ideas of culture are widened and critically discussed, boarders becoming a thing of the past and ideas of nations being exposed as imaginary, for the sake of identity building, these projects are very much welcomed and point forward. Forward to a time where the genres not only expand within each other, but also transgress the made up boarders and distinctions of East and West, foreign and local. Just you wait, in few years you´ll hear qawwali doom.
04. Sumac – The Deal
Read my full review here. I´ve once read the description of ISIS´s music being not only heavy, but dense. Sinking you into their atmospheres, excavating the light. Going from this to Sumac, I can only reiterate the metaphor of poising and step it up by saying, not only is this music heavy and dense, it is abrasive, unbecoming of any sentiment of creating big moments of contemplation and letting you catch your breath. Just as the opening is not such much a ambient intro as it is a lead in to erosion: The sounds don´t want you to live in the mood, they´re more like a menacing look, a dude staring at you with the intent to take the next best object and slamming it in your (maybe still happily grinning) face. What Sumac have created goes to show the incredible skill of both musicians involved, Aaron Turners shape-shifting abilities and Nick Yacyshyn genius at the drums, keeping you in check between all the mayhem (and creating some on his own). I can´t wait for them to return with the next chapter of abrasiveness.
03. Abul Mogard – The Sky Had Vanished
Read my full review here. Mogard´s sky-music, as I titled it, has stuck with me since its release and I´ve grown surer of my assumptions on the realistic notions of these tracks. I return to this album not for pure enjoyment, but because I constantly feel the urge that something more, something deeper remains to be heard, felt and thought from these sounds. This is contemplation, a clearing outlook on your environment and finally, the catalyst for higher thoughts and actions.
02. Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle
Being hurt and sad still is the greater feeling. Happiness sure is an important aspect of life, but I still feel that it is pain that will bring you genuine knowledge; of self and the world, and it will eventually form your being. Sprained Ankle, as Julien Baker professes, “songs about death” is the ultimate example of the wisdom of feeling hurt, the incredible energy and creativity, that will come from these experiences. The whole album has Julien Baker reflecting in her powerful and goose-bump inducing voice. I can only say that I´m enchanted by the whole experience, coming back to it for multiple listens after the initial experience, up until now. Baker´s way of writing honest songs, of transporting her questioning and her insecurity will touch upon you, making her words your thought and following in her line of feeling. Sadness is the key to knowledge.
01. Prurient – Frozen Niagara Falls
Read about the aural experience, the affective grandeur of this project here (if you speak German). For this listing, I will cut this part short by saying that Frozen Niagara Falls is the ultimate aural experience of 2015, different from To Pimp A Butterfly and Abul Mogard´s two projects. With this album you´ll learn to listen in a new way, learn what noise music is all about, if you´ve never given it any thought before. For this listing, I will stress the emotional meaning of this album. On this double album clocking in at almost one and a half hours, I feel Prurient has succeeded in expressing the fragile and ultimately dismantling power of human relationships. Dropping in May this year, I needed Frozen Niagara Falls. To put me through the crashes of noise, of ambiance, of tortured screams and mindful spoken words, in order to reconfigure the troubles I, myself was experiencing, to gain a new understanding of the haunts surrounding me. This is more than catharsis or meditation, this is sound as pure Will, the greatest, unreasonable and unknowledgeable power there is. You´ll definitely feel the strain of this album, the excess of sounds, hacking away at your focus and understanding, but in the end, when you reach “Christ Among The Broken Glass”, you´ll thank Prurient, you´ll thank straining yourself and being on the edge of experience for a while. It was a great year for music, undeniably, but Frozen Niagara Falls will definitely stick with me for my life, reminding me of myself, the precipice other people can and will push you in, and of course, the a way of pulling yourself out. “Go ahead, Go Before Me / Whose Turn Is It With The Flashlight? Down In The Hole Tonight?”.
Comments
Post a Comment