Top Albums 2019 Part I 50 – 41

50. Pray For Sound – Waves / Mono – Nowhere Here Now

Post-Rock carried me through my teenage years and will always stand as a genre of contemplative sounds, dramatic crescendos and mirroring experiences of nature of emotion in (mostly) instrumental sounds made by a band flowing together into a holistic entity. In recent years, many bands changed it up, have taken their sounds into more electronics realms, started to experiment with vocals more. Even Mono made the choice of letting their bass player Tamaki come to the forefront and deliver breathy vocals to their usual blend of tender destruction. Gladly for Mono, this move served as a welcome addition to their incredible body of work. Pray for Sound seemingly discontinue the progression of the genre, the need to reinvent to stay relevant or avoid a creative misfire of repetition by sticking to their guns, taking instrumental music and fleshing out the sound and interplay as a band. Waves as a listening experience is full of nostalgia, which could weigh down the project as a concept of revivalism if it weren´t for the elegance and delicacy of every single track. You can hear a band that remains on the top of their game and isn´t finished exploring yet. While Mono and Nowhere Now Here is the ongoing opera of dealing with life and death in a mode of a band that is well known for noise-filled fatalities after carrying you through heaven, Waves acts as the eternal reminder of what makes this genre great and instantly fulfilling. It is undeniable that Nowhere Now Here isn´t Mono´s greatest and most concise album or even the best expression of their prowess, you need to live their past achievements to navigate this entry. Yet, after the band taking a dive in their own universe for over 20 years, the sheer density of their world-building appears smoother and plays like a newfound joy in making music after the perplexing Requiem for Hell which allowed for few moments of respite and orchestral grace to truly reach the surface. In this regard, the comparison of Pray for Sound and Mono shows the wide range of bands and the signifiers of the genre itself. Waves is a breeze, a rock band shying away from filling their songs with vocals and affirming life and the communal experience of rock.

49. Full of Hell – Weeping Choir

The constant progression of Full of Hell plays by two different momenta that at once complement and disregard each other from project to project. Trumpeting Ecstasy and the second collaboration with contemporaries the body, Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light play towards the strength of experimentation and opening the abrasive nature of extreme metal to the power of atmosphere and genre-hopping with impeccable results. Weeping Choir takes some of these elements but pushes towards the more mean-spirited and ugly nature of Full of Hell´s music. Soundscapes of horror and despair, or even the danceable riff of Ascending give way to slasher-esque suites of noise and dread, building a song and pay-offs following minutes of restraint are thrown out the window for violent onslaughts that sometimes only last about 90 seconds. In this Weeping Choir is a hard listen, even at an overall length of hardly 25 minutes. Weeping Choir proves Full of Hell to be one of the most abrasive and unpredictable bands, the excess-driven spiritual brothers of the body and if you are willing to shake hands with their darkness, ideas of anger, hate or other negative emotions will start to disintegrate under the immediacy and burden of their expressions, leading to the strange cathartic moments of thinking "if they make this sound so bad, my own life must be pretty alright".

48. Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe

With the recent rise and transformation of alternative rock to include more vibes and perspectives other than white males in their anxious heights of being alive and well, Nilüfer Yanya feels like the most promising artists to pick up a guitar and incorporate everything from jazz and blues to RnB and the sad electronics elevated by The xx. The songwriting by Yanya is tight, colorful and never feels like using additional instrumentation and production to hide a core song that might be played out or overtly simplistic. You´ll notice this in her more stripped-down performances, her voice being perfectly able to carry the songs and her bluesy inflections giving every word nuance and character. Other than her first outings Miss Universe moved away from painting Yanya as the female counterpart of King Krule and in songs like "Heat Rises" the pop-sensibilities serve as some of the best moments of transitioning to a more radio-friendly and accessible sound. Social anxiety and the weird mental health clean up program give a thematic arc to the songs, but overall Miss Universe lives by the emotional vigor of Yanya´s vocal performance.

47. VA – Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environental and New Age Music 1980-1990

Strangely enough, my first association with Kankyo Ongaku stems from years of consuming anime and Japanese films, not architecture per se. Compiling the new age / ambient music from some of Japan´s prominent artists, Kankyo Ongaku is a powerful statement on how ambient music through the lens of a group of likeminded individuals can color the musical hue of a nation's output in soundtrack music for years to come. Listening to the whole compilation of over 30 tracks makes it hard to think of an anime or game soundtrack of the last two decades that wasn´t in some shape or form indebted and influenced by artists like Sakamoto, Oijima or Joe Hisashi. Taking the title of environmental music gives another highly functional aspect to music that sounds like the most intellectual form of lounging in your barely furnished Muji apartment. Many tracks were produced in concordance with public spaces, commercials or appliances, a musical way of impacting the environment and making sound and music enhance each other. This ranges from the actual uses of samples like the train tracks on "Nemureru Yoru" or the wood/drums on "Variation III" to the certainty with which this compilation could be played at a doctors waiting room or art installation and perfectly fitting any mood the listeners might find themselves in. One feat of Kankyo lies in Spencer Doran´s (Visible Cloaks) ability to compile an exciting two-hour ride through the soundscapes of what appears to be a very Japanese understanding of environment and ambiance, the other in the fact that these tracks are 30 years old and in this seem to age better than any music from this era.

46. Truth Club – Not An Exit

Truth Club were the freshest band Tiny Engines released in 2019 and somehow also the project that was released with the least amount of buzz. Nonetheless, Not An Exit is an energetic showcase of a band that flips from psychedelic bursts of energy to laid back calmness tethering on becoming apathetic and grungy in the best ways possible. The vocal performance by Travis Harrington is exciting in every song and avoids being pinned down even within the songs. You get this on "Studen Loans" and the microscopic changes in the volume of his sing-song chasing the driving instrumental or when on the next track, "Path Render" all the energy is flushed out until the unrest in Harrington's powerless shouts rises with the chaos of the instruments. Not An Exit breathes like a band having marched through five standard indie rock outings and throwing out a working formula for a heaping helping of experimentation in song structure and toning down loudness and grit without giving up on energy. Their next album will certainly flip the script regardless.

45. Black Taffy - Elder Mantis

It is hard to imagine Donovan Jones was a member of This Will Destroy You when listening to Black Taffy, but exactly this shapeshifting ability stands to make Elder Mantis an album beyond instrumental trip-hop. As Black Taffy, Donovan builds soundscapes that have beats reminiscent of old school boom bap tracks filled with passages evocative of grimy gangster rappers being fascinated by Eastern and Asian instruments or the simple clarity of strummed and picked strings. The result is a blast of instrumental genius that recalls Clams Casino as an underground darling working on the fringes of beat making and being picked for some killer tracks by up- and coming artists. Maybe this will happen to Taffy as it did for Clams Casino and we´ll have a psychedelic voice flowing over the breathy – Samurai Champloo like beats with cunning words and a suave attitude. Even then, the instrumental will make the track, leading half of the listening base to wish for the instrumentals themselves. Gladly, Elder Mantis skipped this process for the pure joy of production delivered by someone who was involved in This Will Destroy You´s best and most forward-thinking takes on instrumental music without ever caring about genre definitions.

44. RAP – Export

If you listen to every contemporary electronic music genre there is and make music according to a megalomanic taste that still likes vocal work reminiscent of No Wave or Post-Punk music, you´ll end at RAP and Export. Starting somewhere between Andy Stott and the Halloween soundtrack with "Baptism", Export quickly morphs to sweet left-field house music on "Ruin", takes a vocal detour that could have ended up on Caracal on "Young Persuasion" while always moving between easy listening and deep impressionism of genre confusion. You get the James Blake piano suit, the wobbly static of "Mad Friday" being appeased by the playful dnb of "No Mixer" and almost Europop callback of "NSEW Ravers". Whatever is going on, wherever RAP chose to move, the pieces in their unfitting beauty convene and create an entertaining opus of relentless transformation. Maybe this is vaporwave turning away from the non-descript and filling itself with form and content from different genres or just the internet dripping from the minds of two gifted producers that chose to not give a damn.

43. Maxo Kream – Brandon Banks

"Meet Again" is one of the greatest intro tracks to a rap album since good kid, m.A.A.d. city. Brandon Banks might have some tracks that lean to heavily on trying to make a hit, as we have the stupid strip club song or the nocturnal Travis Scott feature that thankfully isn't weighted down by Scott's presence. But the real meat lies in Maxo Kream´s introspective moments. Dealing with a life of crime and the consequences, coming to terms with an absent father in imprisonment and between all this finding time to describe and discuss the morals of being a gangster. There is gold in every verse, honesty that is paralleled by Kevin Gates but without the incredible bravado – someone close to breaking, questioning decisions and musing on betrayal within the family. Maxo Kream comes off as the silent introvert until he starts spitting and with this demeanor the incredible bravado of tracks like "She Live" pales to tracks like "Bissonet", "Change" or 2Pac homage "Brenda". Here we have a rapper that excels in putting his observations into verse and spitting bars like second nature. When he turns up on "Drizzy Draco" or the second half of "8 Figures" Kream feels like he should be a member of Black Hippy. He will certainly grow his lyricism between the strange pop detours and become a voice in the universe of Gangster rap that seems populated by a growing number of aging men that hone reflection over bravado and endless tales of running the streets.

42. Not Waving – Futuro

A compilation of the composition Not Waving readied for the on-going multisensory art experience of the Waldorf Project, Futuro is a sprawling work of ambient soundscapes from a mastermind of Bizzaro-electronic music. While Not Waving´s usual output comes close to cartoon dance tracks that are colorful and exciting, Futuro has Natalizia working with a more laid back palette of pastels and greys. There are some tracks and parts that aim for a more suspenseful listening experience, still most of the instrumental on Futuro shine in their quality of making space listenable and serving as an important layer of atmosphere to works dealing with a full-bodied sensual experience that often plays with breaking visual codes or going for the blackout that was accompanied by the closing track "Emotion 7.7 Communion". Apart from thinking about the ways in which this soundtrack must have influenced the performances and made a powerful statement to tactile experience and massive installations using human bodies in their presence themselves, Futuro is a masterpiece that showcases the incredible depth Not Waving can produce without over the top beats. The same depth he searches for as the label head of Ecstatic, bringing us works of Abul Mogard growing catalog or Novo Line trying his hand at echoing Philipp Glass on To Qatsi and Die in LA.

41. Infinity Crush – Virtual Heaven

Infinity Crush might be one of the most underrated singer-songwriters there is. With only two major releases under her belt, the petite songs of Caroline White feel like vignettes of love and hurt. Virtual Heaven becomes visceral in its short runtime, evoking the feeling of being young and being affected by every human encounter possible. This naivete shines bright from a songwriting perspective, giving an emphasis on small words and thoughts like longing in an unequal relationship concluding in "I only have my little words, powerless against the hurt" on the track "Car" or the deceivingly understated "nothing" dealing with abuse utilizing lines like "you´re so sweet when you say nothing" to make romance and sexual violence collide in nuance alone. White has created a humble statement piece with lines to unpack like a favorite collection of poems. I know I will listen to this year from now and any line that previously seemed forgettable will break free and stand singular according to my own experiences.