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...

10. Tim Hecker – Love Streams Tim Hecker is the master of affective forces in music. Since his 2011 album Ravedeath 1972 , my listening to music and my experience of sound haven´t been the same. I have yet to experience this power in a life setting, but Hecker talking about the importance of fog, about the sheer intensity of loudness, actually feeling the sounds in your body stand as the reassurance, that this experience will be something to remember. His work with sounds is something entirely different from making music for enjoyment and is hard to grasp if you´re searching for easy listening. The understanding of drones, of elongated sounds, chopped organs and the semblances of air or fog have driven me to pursue studies of ephemerality and the sense and pushed me in a direction a book or teaching would have never accomplished. That being said, Love Streams is a departure or a side-step from his previous work and is already visible through his choice of colors for the a...

20. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Orphée Jóhannsson himself writes about the gaze of Orpheus towards his Eurydice in the vain of an interpretation given by Maurice Blanchot: The gaze, which turns Eurydice to dust, for that was Orpheus only condition in getting her back from the Underworld, is also the gaze of inspiration. This theme of creativity stemming from something that causes pain, something that is forbidden or transgresses a boundary is something we find in Orphée and Jóhansson´s work time and time again. These, mostly short, tracks follow a similar structure of sweeping, cascading upwards, while also crumbling, employing small sparkling sounds or musical ideas that seem to pick on the basis set for by strings and keys. This gives the undeniable feeling of unattainability, of never being able to grasp the beauty that lies in these small compositions. Much like a gaze, a peak of something breathtaking that will destroy it in retrospect. While the theme of the Orphic hymn reoccurs ...

30. ANOHNI – Hopelessness A drone attack leaving behind a girl wishing for death. The world burning as a cause of climate change, leaving the animals suffering and dead. The state of surveillance, being a happy reality of watching the watchers. Claiming to be a progressive western state, while still killing in the name of justice. Losing your love for it was something that only brought you pain. The leader everybody placed his hopes in, who couldn´t, for the life of him, change the unchangeable. The undercurrent of a world dominated by men being in turn dominated by bloodshed and Darwinist ideals. Losing your connection to the world you live in, mourning the death of your life-world. The effects of fighting alleged terrorism by acts of terrorism yourself, violence leading to acts against the violators. You yourself are the problem, the virus. Hello Americanism, disease without cure. If you´re dealing with music most of the time, you might run low on reading the news and ge...