TranscendNoise

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, ...

60. Explosions In The Sky – Disintegration Anxiety ( The Wilderness )  I had the ultimate honor of finally seeing Explosion In The Sky live and it was one of the best shows and hands down the best performance I ever witnessed. It especially helped me understand the progression of the band from their greatest albums to their newer work on Take Care, Take Care or The Wilderness . As post-rock had to come to reach a dead end in its formula of the early 2000, it was hard to imagine most bands moving on, expanding their sound and making good on staying relevant without falling into a cycle of repetition. "Disintegration Anxiety" shows EITS going deeper into a narrative and more imaginative kind of songwriting, playing on the themes of nature’s grandeur and ever-changing flow, furthering the bands own sonic palette. There is no need for great crescendos anymore, for minutes of washed out distortion. This is aging gracefully and finding the voice to tell a story with more deta...

Mono - The Last Dawn / Rays Of Darkness I admire Mono. They´ve been around for fifteen years now and have continued to convey their idea of crushing beauty in the form of noise, melancholic melody and wordless narrative. After For My Parents in 2011, my favorite album of that year, the question of “what´s next?” began to creep up in my mind. Even though Mono have their own musical idea and have been following it throughout their career, the criticism of repetition does hold trues as for many other instrumental band. I guess not a single fan would contest on the idea of another Mono record centered on the band playing with an orchestra, but as some, the band itself might have felt that they were constraining their energy too much. Thus came the idea for a double album and an approach akin to “back to the roots”. Funny fact and unpopular opinion: My favorite album by Mono, to this day, remains their first effort Under The Pipal Tree . Better known as the Mono album the band t...