TranscendNoise

30. Caroline Polachek – PANG Polachek's first album under her full name and without the guise of another project or approach shares parallels with Charli XCX self-titled Charli released this year. This doesn´t only apply for both artists choosing the futuristic PC Music production team to exponentially grow the instrumental side of their music but in their attempt of going for the heart of pop experienced in their own voices. Polachek released two more experimental or left-leaning albums, notable her first 2014 album Arcadia as Ramona Lisa, trying to put her voice in all its effortless baroque abilities to the front and ultimately bordering from airy to incredibly vapid art-pop. On PANG the best elements of her vocal abilities grow together with her sensibility for sweet pop about love and heartbreak, elements that made the best Chairlift tracks lustrous or would come to the forefront when lending her voice to artists like Blood Orange. Opposite to Charli , PANG is an as...

20. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It This is the definite album grappling with the dynamics of hard/soft this year. Rolo Tomassi have been growing and subtly shifting a sound that was close to prog-rock to another beast altogether. It is in the ambient moments, the uncertainty of the drifting glaciers bursting into flame that Time Will Die shines, as a vocal pair and a sonic outfit, Rolo Tomassi are able to live in both worlds an be completely centered when doing so. Songs like “Risen” or “Aftermath” live by Eva Spence and her ability to toe the line of electropop and performances by Björk or Imogen Heap. Here the band converts their huge amount of energy into delicate bursts of hope and reconciliation, well knowing they could plunge into chaos by moments notice. For when they go metal, harshly shouting by way of James Spence, they sound like nu-metal kids that never learned anything but shredding. While this dynamic might sound as dated as the idea of nu-metal, ...

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...

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...