TranscendNoise

30. Siavash Amini & Matt Finney – Gospel I've written quite a lot on the sonic world of Clawing and had the incredible chance to pick Matt Finney´s brain about his life and creation. Gospel , however, I didn´t highlight enough and this despite it becoming my favorite Finney moment of 2018 and at that one of the most jarring edifices of abuse and trauma, I ever listened to. With Siavash Amini at the helm, bringing to life three haunting soundscapes that feel like living inside Silent Hill´s hospitals and small neighborhoods, Finney went deeper into his past and explicitly stated what close listening unearthed in his previous work. The horrors of becoming a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of your own father, the aftermath that deals with unheard prayers to God and a religion unable to help in the real violence humans inflict upon each other. Maybe the thing that always pulls me towards Finney´s music is the fact that he is equally at loss as the next victim, his trademar...

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...

40. Yohuna – Patientness Having a washed-out aesthetic is something that works quite well with female vocals, and Yohuna hits the sweet spot right away. Patientness is shoe-gaze with a very singer-songwriter mindset. The washed out sound, the effect-laden guitar, and the reverb-soaked vocals never overpower you, never fall into purely ecstatic moments, but leave nuance and especially enough of the vocals intact. Not that you necessarily get everything that is being said, but on tracks like “Steel Skins”, when the vocals are layered and harmonize with each other, the words are comprehensible enough to give meaning to them, which is equally true for high pitched “Golden Foil” and the sunrise attitude the song carries. The whole album has enough ideas and variations, to digress from any pinpointing and the band´s performance is set on stressing the mood of the vocals rather than creating it on their own. The best moments even recall something like Cocteau Twins or Imogen Heap, ...

90. Kel Valhaal – Ontological Love ( New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala ) Hunter Hunt-Hendrix last effort under Liturgy was the promise of what could be expected: An undefinable mixture of styles and mindsets, him rapping over trap like beats as much as going into rave- mode and combining the spiritual with musical expression. Moving on from Transcendental Black Metal he graces us with Transcendental Qabala (?). On “Ontological Love” there is the distinct immediacy of Liturgy in the completely electronic mindset. The burst beats pushing forward, relentless repetition between breaks and variation. And at one point the prayer begins, Hendrix intonates something closer to an Imam or Sufi songs then spoken-word with the phrase “Ontological Love” weaving together to a truly out of  body/ out of mind experience.  New Introductory Lectures on the System of Transcendental Qabala by Kel Valhaal 89. Peter Broderick – It´s A Storm When I Sl...