TranscendNoise

20. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It This is the definite album grappling with the dynamics of hard/soft this year. Rolo Tomassi have been growing and subtly shifting a sound that was close to prog-rock to another beast altogether. It is in the ambient moments, the uncertainty of the drifting glaciers bursting into flame that Time Will Die shines, as a vocal pair and a sonic outfit, Rolo Tomassi are able to live in both worlds an be completely centered when doing so. Songs like “Risen” or “Aftermath” live by Eva Spence and her ability to toe the line of electropop and performances by Björk or Imogen Heap. Here the band converts their huge amount of energy into delicate bursts of hope and reconciliation, well knowing they could plunge into chaos by moments notice. For when they go metal, harshly shouting by way of James Spence, they sound like nu-metal kids that never learned anything but shredding. While this dynamic might sound as dated as the idea of nu-metal, ...

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...