TranscendNoise

40. Remo Drive – Remo Drive  For your dose of indie energy and teenage angst, Remo Drive provide the good stuff. Their debuts album Greatest Hits does feel like a band that has been around for a long time, honing their skills and unleashing an album of their best work to date. Not many bands of this genre sound as fresh as Remo Drive. What captured my attention were their stunning instrumentals and disdain for standard song structures. Some songs will break down in the middle part with a purely instrumental stint only to pick up where they left. "Strawberita" for instance has this huge instrumental bridge that feels like an impromptu jam in disregard of how the track started. And this linear writing style pays off track after track, not letting their songs become simple pop or pop-punk and emanating an overflow of energy and creativity. After this first outing and up until now staying completely indie, Remo Drive might become one of the leading bands of the genre and ...

40. Anna Von Hausswolff – The Miraculous The Miraculous is one dark, brooding organ trip. Shedding almost all the lighter, more uplifting moments of Ceremony , Anna Von Hausswolff creates such a mood, the images of Gothic churches and evil processions don´t even start to capture the feel. While the few longer tracks like “Come Wander With Me / Deliverance” and “The Miraculous” bring out the atmospheric qualities of Hauswolff and her instrument of choice, the short, almost song like tracks, have a much sharper, invocational vibe, putting the lyrics upfront and attacking you with long, drawn out howls. The power and reward of The Miraculous will only show after continuous listens, when you begin to grasp the whole nuance of the gloom. 39. Caspian – Dust & Disquiet I´ve followed Caspian since they broke with their first EP You Are The Conductor in 2005. Their music has been a constant in my life, delivering a unique headspace of its own, helping me cre...

50. Helena Hauff – Funeral Morality ( Discreet Desires ) This tune, while alluding to something dark wave and goth sounding, has a very playful vibe hidden at its industrial core. It´s something you might expect from the clocktower levels in a Castlevania game turned into a dancefloor track. The keys jingle between mechanical noise and spring with energy, never turning into something dark or morbid as the title might suggest. Dive in to one the best forward thinking dance tracks this year. 49. Christine & The Queens – Jonathan feat. Perfume Genius ( Christine & The Queens ) You want heartbreak? Get into Perfume Genius! You want to double the feeling? Listen to this collaboration with Christine & The Queen. I missed the French release of her great Chaleur Humaine  and in retrospect it would have made the list of 2014 without question. There is a strange tenderness and power in both singers vocals performance. The song revolves around unre...