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, ...

30. Ólafur Arnalds – Particles ( Island Songs ) Ólafur Arnalds isn´t one for vocal collaboration, at least these instances don´t make any entry on his album and remain mostly in the range of working with choirs. For his Islands Songs compilation, he got together with Of Monsters And Men singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and this track is one of the most goose-bump inducing moments of this year. Arnalds arrangements of tiny melodies and little hints over a solid framework of piano, the rising strings for emotional impact over the chorus of the song, create the perfect synergy with Nanna´s voice. Her lyrics provide a mythical openness for interpretation and her few words create evocative imaginary, especially when she sets for the peak of the song, her exhaustion expressed in the words can be felt. 29. Jace – Midas Feat. Robb Banks ( Jace Tape ) Why this track was the bonus track of the Jace Tape is beyond me. This one caught me off-guard after a good listen, solid l...

To finish of the lists of 2015, my top picks for the best EP´s of 2015. No comment, just music. Thank you. 13. Ryan Hemsworth & Lucas – TAKING FLIGHT 12. FKAtwigs – M3LL155X 11. Nao – February 15 10. Rothko – Severed Tense 09. Driftoff – Modern Fear MODERN FEAR by DRIFTOFF 08. Japanese Wallpaper – Japanese Wallpaper Japanese Wallpaper by Japanese Wallpaper 07. Towkio – .Wav Theory 06. I´m Glad It´s You – Daydreams Daydreams by I'm Glad It's You 05. AQSTIK – XORBITANT XORBITANT by AQSTiK 04. JK Flesh – Nothing Is Free Nothing Is Free by JK FLESH 03. Mick Jenkins – Waves[s] 02. Wavves X Cloud Nothings – No Life For Me Wavves x Cloud Nothings by Wavves X Cloud Nothings 01. Roy Wood$ – Exis

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...

Roy Wood$ – Exis As hype of The Weeknd´s newest effort is on its high point, I figured it would be nice to shed some light on the newest protégé of Drake, Roy Woods (stylized as Wood$). With good reason, because in Woods first effort Exis , you´ll find everything you might be missing on Beauty Behind The Madness , I definitely feel this way. There is this certain kind of murky blend of r´n´b that made The Weeknd translate into the experience or second-hand fiction of life as a lost twenty-something – between lust, frustration, loads of substances and a creative drive being fueled and destroyed by all those things. However, it would not bring Woods any justice to just put him into the line of Weeknd imitators. The similarities in sound are pretty much obvious. While there might not be a grand darkness and haze as on House of Balloons , Exis relies heavily on deep atmospheric beats and the ambiance the whole OVO imprint, fathered by Drake, are known for. But Woods doesn´...