TranscendNoise

 4 0. Prurient – Creationist (The Ultimate Evil) Creationist is a stark addition to the style of noise compositions Prurient excelled at in 2017’s Rainbow Mirror . The idea of doom electronics as music drenched in noise without sacrificing listenability for alienation nor musicality is something that sets apart Prurient from many other noise artists. Conceptual strength and treating his fans with hand-crafted packages full of ephemera and goodies is what makes these sounds of horror and disgust even more enticing. Somewhere between the connection of the creation myth of the bible and references to the New York serial killer dubbed Son of Sam, the different ephemera, for instance in form of an anti-record, become a form of research into a subject expressed in sound by Fernow. In recent years Fernow has begun to split up his three main projects into more distinct wholes. In the case of Prurient this entails largely eschewing any beats or techno-esque structure for long hisses of no...

Clawing – Spectral Estate As listeners, we turn to music for a vast range of reasons. For one, we try to integrate and emulate our experiences and surroundings in sound, try to find an emotional connection with sounds in search of a different or enhanced reality. Clawing offer something unique here: Insight into very real horrors of this world.  Clawing is a band consisting of Austin Gaines (Calques), multi-instrumentalist Jeff McLeod and poet Matt Finney, a trio able to evoke the darkest and most disturbing feelings and sceneries imaginable. Finney´s words gently lull you into the scene, a faux awakening and encounter with a surreal father figure that gives way to murky soundscapes. A scorched mess gauging your sense of direction. Cyclical. in an almost prayer like atmosphere, Gaines, and McLeod lead you deeper into a percussive attack of noise and guitar drones copulating. Everything crashes, Finney re-emerges buried and the dream-state becomes a hollow vessel of black. ...

10. Charly Bliss – Guppy This is the best pop-punk record this year, no doubt about it. I lend this appeal mostly to Eva Hendricks voice, a non-singing voice at times, disappearing when shrieking but ultimately beautifully emotive and relatable. Surely she follows in the lane of previously known female rock singers and the grunge of the 90´s, yet there is a huge amount of comedy, irony, and quirkiness in her delivery and lyrics that are supported by forward-thinking instrumentals that sound as polished as they appear raw and spur of the moment. Her outings range from “I pied the trampoline” to questioning her relation with “Am I the best / Or just the first person to say yes” and these forms of youthful energy and anxiety resonate even when the teenage years are pretty much over and done. Indie rock has to deliver on these fronts, the idiosyncrasies of being young while touching on the first questions and introspections of adulthood and generally being in touch with a world out...

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...