TranscendNoise

20. The Body & Full of Hell – Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light The Body are one of the most interesting acts in heavy music by far and them teaming up (again) with Full of Hell, another band that stretches the perception of what heavy or abrasive music can be, provides one of the finest moments of 2017. Full of Hell´s Trumpeting Ecstasy saw the band experiment with different textures and feeling themselves, ranging from noise-ridden escapes to featuring Nicole Dollangangers in a toned down ballad of sorts. With The Body, the band gained a counterpart that is equally into noise and atmosphere over aggression, handing a sense of naiveté and wonder to their refinement. In return, The Body found a group of people that revel in immediacy and help develop their own affection for grinding sounds into beat-driven joints and forward-thinking musical ideas. Apart from these comparisons and additions, the project does sound like one entity playing music. Ascending A Mountain esp...

00. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly Before entering the last part of the top albums of 2015, I have to name my one and only honorable mention. My zero of this list, To Pimp A Butterfly could have taken any spot of the following, but I want to make different point with this mention. You can read about the complexity, the huge message and meanings of To Pimp A Butterfly on a bunch of articles and reviews. To cut it short: You´ll have to listen to this record, read and study the lyrics. It´s no coincidence that “Alright” has become a common chant of black protestors and got panned by white media for inciting violence. What Kendrick has crafted, demands attention and breaches the boundaries of music.  Surely, music has political charge, if implicit or explicit, it can incite thoughts and action, just as art is meant to do. But, and this is my point, To Pimp A Butterfly is more art, than music meant for consumption. This record should be included into history less...

10. Alessandro Cortini – La Guardia ( Risveglio ) La Guardia is mind-set music for intellectual work as well as getting ready for a fistfight. There is creativity in the way Cortini utilizes the Roland MC 202 and TB-303 synthesizers. With this minimalistic setup he creates dense patterns, with a good amount of noise and grime but still able to appear clearly constructed and satisfyingly predictable. While I myself evoke images and Risveglio could easily be the soundtrack to a documentary of any sort or a new film by Nicolas Winding Refn, the purity of these tracks should not be overfilled with representations. Mind-set is the term, and you can feel how Cortini is transferring his onto the switchboards and showing us how mastering technology is close to overriding mind and matter. 09. Empress Of – Standard ( Me ) Empress Of delivered the best electro-pop album of this year. Not only because of her superb and varied set of instrumentals, but for her songwriting. N...