TranscendNoise

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...

20. World´s End Girlfriend –  Whims of A Spring Day「春日狂想」feat. BOOL ( Voices Of  Days Past ) Poemcore is the name of the genre BOOL is trying to establish. I can´t say for sure what it is that distinguishes Poemcore for other spoken word enterprises, but if I had to pick, I´d say it must be the deep weaving of sound to create a texture beyond the words. On the tracks Whims of A Spring Day the words and sounds are heartbreakingly beautiful. World´s End Girlfriend contributes a quite conservative instrumental, keeping the electronic glitches on a low and letting the piano and strings take the lead. BOOL`s poem touches on keeping on living after a loved one has died. First, stating that there is no other way than killing oneself, he transgresses into the notion of having the urge to serve after this tragedy has befallen you. Feeling the springday, its little details and having a chance encounter with a random aquataince, BOOL resorts into telling that the way to go on must ...

30. Container – Remover ( LP ) Container´s short LP bore some of the best electronic tunes of this year. While the mind-shattering “Eject” is an unforgettable introduction to gutbumping noise, Remover blends these elements even better. The deep bass is carried by a wide array of percussion, remaining constant throughout with Container adding and subtracting looping elements and effects into little islands of noise. The great thing here is that Container never breaks away from something that is more danceable than experimental, more likely to get the crowd dancing and jumping around rather than distracted or confused about the evolution of the song. Slam dance and riot! 29. Years&Years – Take Shelter ( Communion ) Years&Years were a huge find for me this year and only after pestering all my friend I found out that they were having quite some sucess in the radio. Rightfully so, because with singles like Take Shelter, the bands delivers music that is so fi...

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...

60. Okada – Vulnerability ( Impermanence ) I´ve been a fan of Greg Pappas ever since his zxyzxy projects and I´m glad he resurfaced as Okada. After re-releasing what was originally 2010´s C.A.B as the album Anathema this year, he dropped his 4-part eletronic epic through N5MD in August. His way of mixing various electronic aspects was supereb from his earliest work and on Impermanence he added female vocals for perfection. Vulnerability is definitely a find for every fan of Andy Stott´s latest releases. The dark yearning of the few vocal slivers, while still being understandable as lyrics paired with the sparse and haunting electronics and keys consumes the listener fully. As Stott is on the heavier side and exhausts the perception with a deep gloominess, Vulnerability has a more ambient, more contemplative vibe to it. Be sure to check out the whole project for the whole experience. Impermanence by OKADA 59. Hudson Mohawke – Indian Steps feat. Antony ( Lantern ) If...