TranscendNoise

10. Trouble & Mike Will Made It – Edgewood The best rap album came in the form of Edgewood and newcomer Trouble. If there is something like a ghetto symphony or a Bildungsroman in rap, Edgewood would be both. The immersion Mike Will Made It creates through his nocturnal beats is impeccable. After the introduction “Real Is Rare / Edgewood” we are thrown into the action with “The Woods” interlude, helicopter swirling, a man running and cursing. Following, the collage “It's In Your Hands” might be the best Raime track without the UK duo laying down a bass that bursts your skull. The prayer, calling upon God to reaffirm your standing as a gangster and wishing for the safe journey of a young one open up a world without even giving slight narrative pointers. It is just in the sound and feeling that the scene is set and the following tracks are to unfold. Mike Will and Trouble did not weigh down their tracks with skits or interludes, the changes happen by Mike Will´s beats an...

30. Ragana – Inviolate (Let Our Names Be Forgotten) While Ragana appear on the same split with dark overlords Thou, "Inviolate" purposefully seems to delay and misdirect their crushing outbreaks in a post-punk cloak. What the band has been perfecting for a few albums now comes in full effect on the slow start, growing from a form of tedium and invocation into a bolt of focussed friction. As Thou drag these moments through sludge and dirt, Ragana´s guitar remains clear even in the black metal turnups. After a small silence the song transitions into a more direct assault, the harsh vocals sweeping in and exploding into a clean section of both voices congealing. The dynamic here is airtight, Ragana not only hold their own against two superb Thou tracks but with "Inviolate" alone carve a different wound of dread and draw blood by never standing still to let light or relief subside into a sense of beauty and comfort.  LET OUR NAMES BE FORGOTTEN (Split with THO...

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...