TranscendNoise

20. Andy Stott – It Should Be Us Eight years after blessing us with his second LP We Stay Together which established his signature sluggish broken dub music and served as the inspiration for other artists to rethink and slow it down, Andy Stott gives a tasty reminder that he is still helming the boards with muse and efficiency. We Stay Together saw a much-awaited release this year and by the start of November "It Should Be Us" seemed to relive and update the best negative bangers ever produced. With Boomkat mentioning the similarity to some of the sounds and tweaks of Stotts early work and Low´s Double Negative that broke the idea of what establishes a band and shoegaze last year, It Should Be Us returns the formula with a bigger focus on driving beats and, as described by Stott himself, tracks for the dancefloor. From the get-go, the sludge of Stott mingles with his shine and polish, the ghostly twinkle of "Promise" incentivizing to rethink dance music wh...

40. Bushido – Für Euch Alle (feat. Capital Bra & Samra) (Mythos) German hip-hop is a contested field in my view. In recent years the trap style of Future has seeped into the way the singers break out and fill banging beats with empty words. But the empty words of fame and fashion do not frame the same come up, the hardship and poverty and pain that someone like Hendrix carries in many of his songs. These are not gangsters, but young kids making music and this not with the same vigor you´d come to expect from their American SoundCloud counterparts. With this and on a more lyrical side, there is rap that is mostly made by students for students. A kind of white coolness that people can´t get enough from and word-smiths that do great things, but fail to actually catch hearts in terms of relatability. Backpackers without the right silliness or charming outlook on life and getting in touch with yourself. Bushido belongs to a still existent – now – old school of gangster rap that tran...

89. The Underachievers – Caprice (Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium) The debut album by the Underachievers deserves to be respected. Coming up under the recent wave of New York rappers, Cellar Door is their mission statement and way of creating their lane. You could have guessed that after their mixtape they would come to rely on hooks and banging production akin to Herb Shuttles, but on the contrary the UA focused on content and lyricism. For this, Caprice is the best combination of both the catchy hook of "knock em, knock em" and a message. The UA speak against stereotypes and try themselves at being metaphysicists of rap – rightfully so. 88. AnD – New World Order (Esoteric Systems) This is the soundtrack for the overwhelming insanity of seeing your loved ones murdered. The deprivation of humanity through sheer force and the creeping loss of self-restraint as you find the murderer red-handed and bloody yourself with the remains of his free will. Esoteric Sy...