We have finally cleared out the backlog of great music and present some new episodes.
Episode 711 features music from The Jesus and Mary Chain, Zola Jesus, Duster, Sangre Nueva, Dialect, The Bug, Cleared, Mount Eerie, Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra, Hayden Pedigo, Bistro Boy, and Ibukun Sunday.
Episode 712 has tunes by Mazza Vision, Waveskania, Black Pus, Sam Gendel, Benny Bock, and Hans Kjorstad, Katharina Grosse, Carina Khorkhordina, Tintin Patrone, Billy Roisz, and Stefan Schneider, His Name Is Alive, artificial memory trace, mclusky, Justin Walter, mastroKristo, Başak Günak, and William Basinski.
Episode 713 brings you sounds from Mouse On Mars, Leavs, Lawrence English, Mo Dotti, Wendy Eisenberg, Envy, Ben Lukas Boysen, Cindytalk, Mercury Rev, White Poppy, Anadol & Marie Klock, and Galaxie 500.
Skolavordustigur Street in Reykjavík photo by Jon (your Podcast DJ).
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Ever since their cult favorite Half Dead Ganja Music album was reissued back in 2013, I have been fascinated by this deeply unusual "ethno-industrial" duo from France and have done a decent amount of digging to track down the rest of their back catalog. That has proven to be a somewhat convoluted task, leading to lots of dead blog links as well as a few wonderful unofficial compilations. In fact, several of the best songs on this new digital-only collection have appeared on those unofficial releases, while some others appear to have come from an untitled 1988 tape. Curiously, a lot of these experiments spanning 1984 to 1989 are just as good as anything that appeared on Vox Populi's formal albums (in some cases, even better), making this kind of a crucial bit of underground industrial archeology on Emotional Rescue's part. I suppose motivated or frugal listeners can probably find a lot of these songs elsewhere if they put their minds to it, but this is an extremely well-curated collection that provides an excellent introduction to one of the most creative, cool, and underappreciated bands of the '80s cassette underground.
Both Joao Da Silva (Luciernaga) and John Lindaman utilize primarily a guitar to create expansive, occasionally difficult passages of abstract sound and noise, so pairing them together on this tape makes perfect sense. What becomes more striking by doing this, however, are their differences. With Luciernaga delivering a single live piece that is about an expansive sense of ambience, and a more free improv suite from Lindaman, both sides excel because of their differences, presenting two very different sides of a tried and true style.
Da Silva’s half, "Hesitation Blues Revisited," is a performance recorded live in late 2016.The bit of opening pre-performance chatter makes the context in which it was recorded clear, as he begins to weave together simple guitar strums and ebow-like sustained drones together, making for a nice pattern of swells and open spaces.With a more gentle, ambient loop in the background, Da Silva adds in the occasionally harsher outburst or more distorted sound to the mix.As he continues though, he keeps that balance between peaceful space and harsher outbursts exceptionally well executed.
Some more specific sounds do appear, such as the taut string plucks near the bridge of his guitar, and the occasionally chirping bird like effect.Eventually he coaxes out everything from trilling horror film score notes to bent whale song like slides, all the while layering loops atop one another.The performance eventually builds to a droning wall of sound, and after a bit of taped voice, becomes a wonderful dull roar that suddenly ends and concludes the captivating performance.
Lindman’s half the tape is a studio session, split into four distinct songs instead of the lengthy half-hour performance by Luciernaga.The opening moments of "Civil Twilight" are rather conventional at first:clean, distinct guitar sounds and tone.The tone is affected soon by unconventional uses of delay and echo that pull the piece in an entirely different direction.Eventually he builds into layers of feedback and distortion, making for a piece that just straddles the line between music and noise, before drifting away peacefully."Crimson Sphere" follows a similar structure, with Lindaman beginning with traditional sounding guitar before slowly pulling it down into darker, more disturbing worlds.
"Eternal Black Hatred" is a more uncomfortable work.The clipped notes make for an unsettling sound right from the start, but with frequent use of reverb and distortion, it quickly becomes bleaker.Lindaman’s side ends on an especially strong note with "Noise of Palace."Starting from a simple clean note progression, some more low frequency elements are brought in, then the guitar is expanded into more of a shimmering wall of sound.Once all the pieces are in place it becomes a rather pleasant bit of droning effects.
The paring of these two artists is an excellent one, because the differences between the two are stark.Luciernaga's lengthy, public workout of slowly built sounds is nicely balanced by John Lindaman's shorter, more immediate pieces with a bedroom recording-like intimacy.As a combined release it provides excellent examples of just how different two artists doing "experimental ambient guitar" can be from one another, yet both doing exceptionally strong works.
For their fourth album in a relatively short timespan, the Norwegian group (now a five piece) have produced their first fully improvised work, and it is a strange one. Besides the fact that the concept here is mostly just thematic, compared to the more composition-based ideas they have used on previous albums, the performances are bizarre and impossible to classify, sounding like nothing else they have done, and the record is all the stronger for it.
The theme is generations, of course, and the album is broken into five pieces reflecting the classifications of generations that historians have agreed upon.Playing with the idea of generations and how each is defined by its rudeness and perceived lack of respect to the one that preceded it, each subsequent piece here is longer, more commanding, and at times more abrasive.De facto leader Christian Meaas Svendsen’s bass is rarely a rhythmic instrument, Andreas Wildhagen's drums are more of a textural element, Adrian Løseth Waade's violin is usually a source of dissonant string scrapes, and new member Agnes Hvizdalek vocalizes more than sings.Other than the piano of Ayumi Tanaka, much of this album can be summarized as people playing their instruments incorrectly, which is an asset more than it is a liability.
Opening "The Lucky Few" lingers near silence for much of its duration.Indecipherable ambient noise is present, but hushed, and it is not until its closing minutes that the overt percussive knock from Wildhagen or sharp note from Waade, Tanaka, or Svendsen cuts through to make it clear that there are actual instruments being played.Once "Baby Boomers" begins, the noises are somewhat more up front, but still extremely bizarre.Skittering sounds, the occasional thud, chirp, or scraped string comes to the front, but never fully gels.During the few moments where the instrumentation is a bit more obvious, the final product sounds more like a jazz combo doing their take on the short lived glitch/lowercase music scene.
"Gen X" features a bit more conventionally played instrumentation as well, but used to generate low, menacing drones in contrast to anything more traditional sounding.There is more of a jazz feel to the piece, but it is riddled with tension and discomfort.Hvizdalek’s vocal improvisations vacillate from subtle to overt, keeping things quite off-kilter, with the only perceptibly conventional touchstone being Tanaka’s piano."Millienials" is more rhythmic, with Wildhagen leading the way from sputtering, clattering rhythms and eventually some sharp, sustained cymbal passages.Again, only the piano is immediately perceptible, and the quality of the recording is exceptional, capturing sounds that are almost alien despite their normal sources.
The concluding "Plurals" closes the album on an especially high note.Sputtering noises and scrapes are abundant, peppered with the occasional cricket-like chirp or rattling rhythm.Every once in awhile an obvious bit of voice, twanging bass string, or sharp drum hit will forcefully appear in the mix, then otherwise retreat into the weird mess of sound.At times the piece builds to some heavy, wonderfully pounding rhythmic outbursts, but overall it seems to build to a crescendo that never actually occurs.
With talk about how subsequent generations are rude and disrespectful to the ones that preceded them, I can hear Nakama engaging in a bit of playfulness to that end on Worst Generation.Namely, their approach to jazz (and music in general, really) completely abandons notions of tradition or structure, but in doing so they are carving out their own niche, and a strong one at that.Even without beard-stroking conceptual composition tactics, this album shows they can make excellent, if occasionally quite baffling, purely improvised music.
"The artist sometimes known as Huerco S. ushers a phase shift of sound to the shoegazing harmonic gauze of Make Me Know You Sweet, his immersive debut proper as Pendant. In this horizontal mode, Brian Leeds relays abstract stories from a headspace beyond the dance, placing his interests in the Romantic landscapes of JMW Turner, Robert Ashley’s avant-garde enigmas, and Indigenous North American philosophy at the service of a more expressive, oneiric sound that sub/consciously avoids the trapfalls of 'chillout' ambient cliché.
Across seven amorphous, texturally detailed tracks he establishes far reaching coordinates for both Pendant and the West Mineral label, which aims to release everything except the commonly accepted, traditional forms of late 20th/early 21st century dance music, while also representing the work of his inner circle of friends, producers, artists. In that that sense there’s a definite feeling of "no place like home" to his new work, but that home appears altered, much in the same way The Caretaker/Leyland Kirby deals with themes of memory and nostalgia.
It’s best described as mid-ground music, as opposed to the putative background purpose of ambient styles, or the upfront physicality of dance music. Rather, the sound billows and unfurls with a paradoxically static chaos, occupying and lurking a space between the eyes and ears in a way that’s not necessarily comforting, and feels to question the nature and relevance of ubiquitous pastoral, new age tropes in the modern era of uncertainty and disingenuity.
The results ponder an impressionistic, romantically ambiguous simulacra of reel life worries and anxiety, feeling at once dense and impending yet without centre. From the keening, 11 minute swell of "VVQ-SSJ" at the album’s prow, to the similar scope of its closer, Pendant presents an absorbing vessel for introspection, modulating the listener’s depth perception and moderating our intimacy with an elemental push and pull between the curdling, bittersweet froth of "BBN-UWZ," the dusky obfuscation of "IBX-BZC" and, in the supremely evocative play of phosphorescing light and seductive darkness in the mottled depths of "KVL-LWQ," which also benefits from additional production by Pontiac Streator.
Make Me Know You Sweet taps into a latent, esoteric vein of American spirituality that’s always been there, yet is only divined by those who remain open-minded to its effect."
After a severe mental breakdown, Kyle Bates of Portland OR's Drowse was prescribed a plethora of antipsychotic drugs to subdue his paranoia and suicidal ideation. Several unmedicated years later, Bates’ anxiety began to resurface, and he turned to Klonopin and alcohol to blanket the intrusive thoughts. It was during this time that Bates wrote and recorded Drowse's second full-length album, Cold Air. Marked by fanatical self-exploration and expansive detuned instrumentation, Cold Air is the project's first release for The Flenser.
Drowse is a peek inside the mind of Kyle Bates, the band's only full time member. Cold Air was painstakingly recorded over nine months in Bates’ home. The house itself appears several times on the album in the form of field recordings and background occurrences. Although Bates himself is a secular person, his lyrics were influenced by the religious writings of Anne Carson and Karl Ove Knausgaard, whose ruminations on death correlated with his own. Cold Air is an album that frames big picture ideas within intimate, often shame-ridden experiences: a nose broken while blackout drunk, a seizure followed by feverish hallucinations, a father’s stroke, the death of a close friend. Cold Air is the sound of the uncertainty beneath our lives surfacing.
The shimmering dissonance with hints of slowcore, post-punk, ambient and shoegaze that characterizes Cold Air will appeal to fans of Mount Eerie, Planning for Burial, and Have a Nice Life. Many of these songs feature vocals from the band's creative partner Maya Stoner. Drowse is a complex and layered project set apart by its raw ambition.
NPVR is moniker taken on board by Pita (Peter Rehberg) and Factory Floor's Nik Void.
Peter and Nik both share formidable reputations in the post-industrial shape-shifting world of sound and form with a vast range of releases and collaborative endeavors over a number of years. Together, they tie together their collective experience into a vast array of sonic devices unleashing an album of pragmatic imbalance and psychedelic orientation. Blurring the lines of techno, ambient, avant garde, noise, etc.
33 33 positions itself in the nebulous realm of contemporary (dis)comfort presenting itself on the border of music and sound, the social and the private.
Deep Frosty bandleader Steve Ruecker is a legend to some, a much loved participant in the California rock scene who often hosts barnburning jams at his house in Encinitas. Enlisting Ben Flashman from Los Angeles and Utrillo Kushner from Oakland (Noel Von Harmonson and Ben Chasny guest) of Comets on Fire, Blues Band could be 2017's great rock record. Guitar progressions undergo a classic Quicksilver treatment, as Ruecker's sincere, Roky-esque vocals make testament to the plight of the indigenous, the horror of modern times, and the hopeless beauty of heartbreak. The band's pure enthusiasm coupled with a distaste for complacency seeps through like blood on fabric, making Blues Band a raw and rocking joy to hear.
High Rise exploded onto Tokyo’s underground music scene with the roar and reckless abandon of a motorcycle accelerating headlong into a dead man’s curve. Born from the explosive chemistry of bassist/vocalist Asahito Nanjo and frenetic guitarist Munehiro Narita, the band blazed a wild new stream of psychedelic guitar music. Their second album, High Rise II, is a defining document of the band and unquestionably one of the greatest albums to emerge from 20th century underground Japan and beyond. With Nanjo’s distorted thunder bass and Narita’s wildly narrative lead guitar playing, High Rise II is a non-stop tour de force of improvised rock music. Combining elements of garage rock, punk and no wave, the band pushed all levels fully in-the-red and transcended the limits of rock and psychedelia to create a raw, unique expansion of the music.
Black Editions is proud to present High Rise II, newly mixed and mastered by Asahito Nanjo in what the band states is the definitive version of their most quintessential recording. Housed in heavy Stoughton tip-on jackets this new edition restores the original vinyl version’s textured black and silver artwork. Insert with unreleased band photographs included. Pressed onto high quality vinyl by RTI.
In the field of music or any contemporary cultural terrain, concepts like development dynamics and progression are used as aesthetic judgement. To any musician or composer, the idea of musical build up comes with a crisis, any attempt towards formal pleasure calls for suspicion that this desire is never one’s own.
In the case of Orchestra of Constant Distress this deadlock manifests itself in an impulse of refusal directed against any evolution and the result is the extreme generic and the absolute distress of normative noise and improvisation. Members with such experiences from The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions, Brainbombs and No Balls are joined in assemblage of catatonic sounds, obstinate riffs and rigid rhythms.
"Just when you think something is about to happen, it doesn't." Review of debut album.
ORCHESTRA OF CONSTANT DISTRESS are :
Joachim Nordwall (The Skull Defekts, iDEAL Recordings)
Anders Bryngelsson (Brainbombs, No Balls)
Henrik Rylander (The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions)
Chris Carter's Chemistry Lessons Volume One is populated with insistent melodic patterns and a distinct sense of wonderment at the limitless possibilities of science. "If there’s an influence on the album, it's definitely '60s radiophonic,” Carter says. "Over the last few years I’ve also been listening to old English folk music, almost like a guilty pleasure, and so some of tracks on the album hark back to an almost ingrained DNA we have for those kinds of melodies. They’re not dissimilar to nursery rhymes in some ways."
That combination of traditional music and the backing track for exciting, potential futures gives tracks like "Moon Two" and "Tangerines" a sheen of inquisitiveness and quiet euphoria, while "Modularity" and "Roane" have an anxious, sci-fi noir charm. Elsewhere skewed voices add a calming, human note to the album. Carter explains, "Sleazy and I had worked together on ways of developing a sort of artificial singing using software and hardware. This was me trying to take it a step further. I've taken lyrics, my own voice or people’s voices from a collection that I’d put together with Sleazy, and I've chopped them up and done all sorts of weird things with them." These moments sit alongside tracks where melodies have a dissonant, noisy, awkwardness that ties the music on CCCL Volume 1 back to the Throbbing Gristle legacy.
As a founding member of Throbbing Gristle alongside Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Chris Carter has had a significant role in the development of electronic music – a journey which has continued through his releases as one half of Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti and a third of Carter Tutti Void – as well as with his own solo and collaborative releases.
He is also credited with the invention and production of groundbreaking electronics – from the legendary Gristleizer home-soldered effects unit through to the Dirty Carter Experimental Sound Generating Instrument and the sold-out TG One Eurorack module designed with Tiptop Audio (issued to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Throbbing Gristle’s Second Annual Report) – Carter has created the means to make sounds as well as making the sounds themselves.
The 25-track album was recorded in Carter’s own Norfolk studio and the artwork and accompanying videos were self-created, taking cues in part from battered old experimental BBC broadcast LPs.
Despite having been worked on over an extended period between various artistic projects in a variety of different moods, situations and circumstances, CCCL Volume 1’s experiments never feel like Carter noodling around aimlessly in his studio-laboratory. Instead there is an inner coherence and a distinctively Chris Carter approach to sound and execution that showcases the sonic scientist’s restless, questing creative spirit forever scouting for new ideas.
Out March 30th, 2018. More information can be found here.
Once again it's time to thank everyone for their participation in the Brainwashed Annual Readers Poll. As always, the Readers Poll doesn't particularly represent what the staff and writers feel are the best and worst of the year, but we happily once again provide commentary. All the best for 2018!
Album of the Year
Slowdive, "Slowdive" (Dead Oceans)
"This was more of a solid comeback than an Album of the Year candidate for me, but I cannot think of any other band that I wanted to see return more than Slowdive." -Anthony D'Amico
"I like the album a _lot_, however there are some fantastic albums over the last year or two by Monster Movie, Simon Scott, Minor Victories, and Black Hearted Brother that have largely gone unnoticed. At least Monster Movie's album should have placed in the top 100 this year because it was as least as strong as this record." - Jon Whitney
Gas, "Narkopop" (Kompakt)
Drew McDowall, "Unnatural Channel" (Dais)
"McDowall’s first album sounded like the raw material for a great lost Coil album. This one sounds like a good noise tape from the ‘80s. I certainly liked it, but I am surprised that it placed this high." –Anthony D'Amico
The Caretaker, "Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 3" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Swans, "Deliquescence" (Young God)
"Swans are dead, again. And again, Michael Gira marks the occasion with a live album that underscores the power of the band and highlights how, even though the studio albums are great, Swans are at heart an entity to be experienced live." - John Kealy
The Caretaker, "Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 2" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Emptyset, "Borders" (Thrill Jockey)
"This is the album where Emptyset stopped sounding like cerebral, architecture-inspired sound art and started sounding like they were instead trying to reduce all of the architecture around them to rubble." –Anthony D'Amico
Lawrence English, "Cruel Optimism" (Room40)
"English is consistently excellent and his live performance is mesmerizing and cathartic, too." - Duncan Edwards
Gnod, "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine" (Rocket)
"I like several albums by this shape-shifting collective, but the thuggish, bludgeoning vitriol of this bombshell suits them especially well. Just Say No sounds like Crass and early Swans mashed together into a gloriously pummeling outpouring of righteous rage." -Anthony D'Amico
Godflesh, "Post Self" (Avalanche)
"G.C. Green plus a drum machine is still one of the most crushingly heavy rhythm sections in music." -Anthony D'Amico
"Since the last two were more old school metal-sounding Godflesh, I was expecting more of the same (not that that would be a bad thing). However, this went in an entirely different direction, and it works extremely well." - Creaig Dunton
William Basinski, "A Shadow In Time" (Temporary Residence)
"I was not wild about the title piece, but Basinski’s elegy for David Bowie is an achingly beautiful and dreamlike feast of simmering emotion, mesmerizing repetition, and slow-burning intensity." –Anthony D'Amico
Alessandro Cortini, "Avanti" (The Point of Departure Recording Company)
Wire, "Silver / Lead" (Pink Flag)
"I am glad that Wire is remaining active and putting out new material, but I find it increasingly harder to tell one album apart from another." - Creaig Dunton
"This one gets better for me with each listen and has such a strong finish with some of my favorite songs of the year." - Jon Whitney
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Luciferian Towers" (Constellation)
"On one hand, you could argue that this is Godspeed by numbers but on the other, it is a satisfying album that ticks a lot of boxes for me - it has majesty, it has power, and it moves me on multiple levels." - John Kealy
The Bug vs Earth, "Concrete Desert" (Ninja Tune)
"I really wanted to love this but I couldn't quite connect with it, despite being a big fan of both artists. I don't know what I expected but it was a touch underwhelming. Maybe I just need to play it louder?" - John Kealy
Diamanda Galás, "All The Way" (Intravenal Sound Operations)
"Nothing commands attention more on this list than this record." - Jon Whitney
The Necks, "Unfold" (Ideologic Organ)
Colin Stetson, "All This I Do For Glory" (52 Hz)
Leyland Kirby, "We, So Tired Of All The Darkness In Our Lives" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Colleen, "A flame my love, a frequency" (Thrill Jockey)
"The best music coming out of synths are from people who can make the best music without the use of synths. It doesn't matter what instrumentation Cecile Schott chooses, it's always an excellent listen." - Jon Whitney
Richard Skelton, "Towards a Frontier" (Corbel Stone Press)
UUUU, "UUUU" (Editions Mego)
Sarah Davachi, "All My Circles Run" (Students of Decay)
"An absolutely mesmerizing album. I am completely hooked start to finish." - Jon Whitney
""For Voice" finds that elusive place where angelic beauty and darkness blur seamlessly together. It's like a Siren is luring me into the fog to kill me with drone music that is too heavenly for human ears." -Anthony D'Amico
Aaron Dilloway, "The Gag File" (Dais)
"Dilloway takes noise into a wonderfully charismatic, broken, and blackly funny place. The Gag File makes me feel like a lonely phantom damned to endlessly wander through a disjointed fantasia of deserted carnivals, bad parties, and sad hotel rooms." -Anthony D'Amico
Anjou, "Epithymía" (Kranky)
A Winged Victory for the Sullen, "Iris" (Erased Tapes)
"This soundtrack has some lovely passages on it that are easily equal to the "proper" Winged Victory albums but for some reason it hasn't made it to my turntable quite as often as it should have. My new year's resolution is to love my records more." - John Kealy
Bill Orcutt, "Bill Orcutt" (Palilalia)
"Bill Orcutt has long been a guitar visionary, but this album presented his art in a more accessible, melodic way without sacrificing much bite. He unrecognizably snaps and scrabbles his way through standards like "When You Wish Upon A Star" like it is his last night on earth and he is battling for his soul: sometimes tender, sometimes visceral, always soulful, occasionally verging on the ecstatic." -Anthony D'Amico
Richard H. Kirk, "Daesin" (Intone)
"A great surprise in that Kirk channeled some of the early CV noisy guitar vibes into his solo work, an excellent added layer of depth." - Creaig Dunton
Windy & Carl, "Blues for a UFO" (Blue Flea)
The Tear Garden, "The Brown Acid Caveat" (Metropolis)
"This probably was not the album that anyone was expecting Key and Ka-Spel to make, but it is quite a wonderfully eclectic, absorbing, and adventurous whole. The disco-tinged "Strange Land" was an especially delightful left-field treat." -Anthony D'Amico
Amanda Palmer & Edward Ka-Spel, "I Can Spin A Rainbow" (8ft Records)
Elodie, "Vieux Silence" (Ideologic Organ)
"The gently rippling and shivering drone nirvana of the title piece is one of the most achingly beautiful things that I heard all year." -Anthony D'Amico
Félicia Atkinson, "Hand In Hand" (Shelter Press)
"The best moments of this album resemble a strange dream in which a mysterious woman whispers an elusively cryptic confession in my ear. Atkinson's recent focus on more intimate, voice-based work has taken her art in quite a striking, unnerving, and unique direction." -Anthony D'Amico
Ben Frost, "The Centre Cannot Hold" (Mute)
Rafael Anton Irisarri, "The Shameless Years" (Umor Rex)
Ben Frost, "Threshold of Faith" (Mute)
Six Organs of Admittance, "Burning The Threshold" (Drag City)
Mount Eerie, "A Crow Looked At Me" (P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.)
"Phil Elverum's tribute to his late wife is a raw, beautiful, and deeply intimate gut-punch of an album." -Anthony D'Amico
Benoît Pioulard, "Lignin Poise" (Beacon Sound)
"Both this and Slow Spark were absolutely gorgeous. Thomas Meluch's wobbly, hiss-drenched drone reveries are pure bliss." -Anthony D'Amico
Chelsea Wolfe, "Hiss Spun" (Sargent House)
Porter Ricks, "Anguilla Electrica" (Tresor)
*AR, "Earth By Means of the Currents" (Corbel Stone Press)
"Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson's inspirations seem to get more arcane and hermetic with each release, but the warm, langourous drone heaven of "The Primary Menstruum" shows that they are still at the peak of their powers." -Anthony D'Amico
Abul Mogard, "Nervous Hydra / All This Has Passed Forever" (Ecstatic)
"Abul Mogard quietly released some of his most rapturous and essential work this year, as "All This Has Passed Forever" is sublimely gorgeous. His largely unheard remix tucked away on the bonus disc of Fovea Hex's Salt Garden II was great too." -Anthony D'Amico
Cон, "Cон Plays Everall" (Hallow Ground)
Circuit Des Yeux, "Reaching for Indigo" (Drag City)
Ryuichi Sakamoto, "async" (Milan)
The Inward Circles, "And Right Lines Limit And Close All Bodies" (Corbel Stone Press)
"I think I prefer the simpler and more melodic Scaleby EP, but Right Lines occasionally recaptures the crushing elemental power that made Nimrod is Lost such a stunner." -Anthony D'Amico
Wolf Eyes, "Undertow" (Lower Floor)
"Undertow is pointlessly padded by filler, but the more substantial moments take rock music to a compellingly broken and sickly place that only Wolf Eyes can find." -Anthony D'Amico
Bardo Pond, "Under The Pines" (Fire)
Ex Eye, "Ex Eye" (Relapse)
Benoit Pioulard, "Slow Spark, Soft Spoke" (Dauw)
Andrea Belfi, "Ore" (Float)
Aidan Baker / Simon Goff / Thor Harris, "Noplace" (Gizeh)
Alan Vega, "IT" (Fader)
Second Woman, "S/W" (Spectrum Spools)
Caterina Barbieri, "Patterns of Consciousness" (Important)
"Inspired by baroque lute music and a desire to fracture consciousness through subtle shifts in trancelike pattern repetition, Patterns of Consciousness is an overwhelming, disorienting, and subtly psychotropic tour de force." -Anthony D'Amico
Elodie, "Balayes de la Main du Hasard" (Faraway Press)
Grails, "Chalice Hymnals" (Temporary Residence)
Noveller, "A Pink Sunset For No One" (Fire)
""Deep Shelter" was the most swooningly gorgeous song of the year." -Anthony D'Amico
Pan Daijing, "Lack " (Pan)
Earthen Sea, "An Act of Love" (kranky)
The Caretaker, "Take Care, It's A Desert Out There..." (History Always Favours the Winners)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, "The Kid" (Western Vinyl)
"This album is seemingly on every Best of 2017 list that I have seen this year and I could not get into it at all. I am now completely paranoid that something might be wrong with me." -Anthony D'Amico
Do Make Say Think, "Stubborn Persistent Illusions" (Constellation)
The Inward Circles, "Scaleby" (Corbel Stone Press)
Oxbow, "Thin Black Duke" (Hydra Head)
TALsounds, "Love Sick" (Ba Da Bing!)
"Natalie Chami achieved the seemingly impossible with her her debut full-length: she made synth improvisations seem sultry, sensuous, and emotionally resonant." -Anthony D'Amico
Zola Jesus, "Okovi" (Sacred Bones)
"Very painful and personal, it's a fantastic record which has demonstrated how much she continues to evolve and mature as a singer and songwriter." - Jon Whitney
Zu, "Jhator" (House Of Mythology)
Ulaan Passerine, "The Landscape of Memory" (Worstward)
F ingers, "Awkwardly Blissing Out" (Blackest Ever Black)
Ian William Craig, "Live in Durbē" (self-released)
"I hope I get a chance to see him live some day." - Jon Whitney
Big Brave, "Ardor" (Southern Lord)
Simon Fisher Turner, "Giraffe" (Editions Mego)
Norman Westberg, "Jasper Sits Out" (Room40)
"Every single one of Westberg's unearthed solo releases has been a quiet gem of hypnotic, understated minimalism. Jasper Sits Out is no different and "Homeset Trunc" might be his most gorgeously perfect piece yet." -Anthony D'Amico
Actress, "AZD" (Ninja Tune)
Marissa Nadler, "Leave the Light On: Bedroom Recordings" (Sacred Bones)
Xiu Xiu, "Forget" (Polyvinyl)
"It is nice to see Jamie Stewart back on another hot streak, as his album of Twin Peaks covers was stellar and Forget's "Wondering" is easily one of the most perfect "pop" songs of his career." –Anthony D’Amico
Mary Lattimore, "Collected Pieces" (Ghostly International)
"Such a beautiful collection." - Jon Whitney
"This modest collection of odds and ends sneakily contained some of Lattimore's finest work. The bittersweetly lovely "Wawa By The Ocean" still kills me absolutely every time I hear it." –Anthony D'Amico
Edward Ka-Spel, "High on Station Yellow Moon" (Soleilmoon)
Astrïd & Rachel Grimes, "Through the Sparkle" (Gizeh)
Ian William Craig, "Slow Vessels" (130701)
"I absolutely melt with vocal songs like "A Single Hope." Even though this album features reinterpretations of songs on last year's Centres, it's possibly even a stronger record." - Jon Whitney
Drøne, "A Perfect Blind" (Pomperipossa)
ADULT., "Detroit House Guests" (Mute)
thisquietarmy, "Democracy of Dust" (Midira)
Claire M. Singer, "Fairge" (Touch)
Vatican Shadow, "Luxor Necropolitics" (Hospital)
"As one of the VS apologists, I found this the weaker of this year's two solo releases. But it has a nice throwback sound to the early tapes I guess." - Creaig Dunton
Xordox, "Neospection" (Editions Mego)
Single of the Year
Carla dal Forno, "The Garden" (Blackest Ever Black)
"Four great songs in a row. An absolutely perfect EP." -Anthony D'Amico
"This was a real surprise for me, a beautiful release in every respect. "We Shouldn't Have to Wait" is one of my songs of the year, and the reimagining of Einstürzende Neubauten's "The Garden" is wonderful." - John Kealy
"I love this EP more and more with each listen. I can't wait for the next full-length and to hopefully finally see her live." - Jon Whitney
Emptyset, "Skin" (Thrill Jockey)
"Trying to make an entirely acoustic EP was certainly a challenging and adventurous move, but I hope the experiment is now over. Emptyset is infinitely better without such constraints." –Anthony D’Amico
Coil, "Another Brown World/Baby Food" (Sub Rosa)
"It's very nice to see this available on vinyl, two great dips into the weird world of Coil. I'm not entirely sold on the artwork though but it sounds terrific." - John Kealy
Fovea Hex, "The Salt Garden II" (Headphone Dust)
"While I think Carla dal Forno deserves the top spot, this stunning EP should be at least at second place. I've harped on about how astounding Fovea Hex are since the very beginning and I continue to be amazed by what Clodagh Simonds and her group of elves unveil to the world." - John Kealy
Coil, "Cold Cell in Bangkok" (Optimo)
"Well, this exists." - John Kealy
"Exciting to see someone finally overtake Muslimgauze in posthumous productivity. 2017 was truly a year of surprises." -Anthony D'Amico
Kara-Lis Coverdale, "Grafts" (Boomkat Editions)
"This EP completely floored me. Grafts sounds sounds like a languorous and heavenly bit of chamber pop filtered through a dream where time fluidly blurs, stretches, and undulates." –Anthony D'Amico
Slowdive, "Sugar for the Pill" (Dead Oceans)
Second Woman, "E/P" (Spectrum Spools)
Cон, "Cонgs" (Editions Mego)
Pye Corner Audio, "Island of Ghosts" (Analogical Force)
Biosphere, "Black Mesa" (Biophon)
Windy & Carl, "Godzilla of Snow/Witch & A Cauldron" (Blue Flea)
Biosphere, "The Petrified Forest" (Biophon)
Wolf Eyes, "Strange Days II" (Lower Floor)
Deepchord, "Northern Shores" (Soma)
Soft Kill, "Five Point" (Weyrd Son)
Soft Kill, "Insider" (Self-released)
The Residents, "Santa Dog '17" (Cryptic Corp)
Grouper, "Children" (Self-released)
Nurse With Wound, "Franz Kafka - Rapport À Une Académie" (Lenka Lente)
"These little EPs and books are wonderfully odd and offer a nice, low key way for Steve Stapleton to tease us with new pieces of music - a surrogate for appearing on loads of compilations like in the olden days. The 3" CD format is a bit annoying though in this age of slot CD drives." - John Kealy
Ian William Craig / Olivier Alary, "Remixes" (130701)
Amanda Palmer, "Drowning In The Sound" (Self-released)
Amanda Palmer & Edward Ka-Spel, "The Hands" (8ft Records)
Deepchord, "Campfire" (Soma)
Delia Gonzalez, "Hidden Song" (DFA)
Saint Etienne, "Magpie Eyes" (Heavenly)
JK Flesh, "Exit Stance" (Downwards)
John T. Gast, "wygdn " (Blackest Ever Black)
Sophie, "It's Okay To Cry" (Transgressive)
Acteurs, "Corridor" (MILD VILNC)
Pessimist, "Through The Fog / Peter Hitchens " (Blackest Ever Black)
Suzanne Ciani, "Fish Music" (Finders Keepers)
CCFX, "CCFX" (DFA)
Loren Connors, "Angels That Fall" (Family Vineyard)
The The, "We Can't Stop What's Coming" (Lazarus)
"While the physical release of this seems to have evaporated almost immediately, I have been streaming the hell out of this. I'm lukewarm on The The after Dusk but this is up there with classic The The for me." - John Kealy
Goat, "Goatfuzz" (Rocket Recordings)
Vault/Reissue of the Year
Cosey Fanni Tutti, "Time To Tell" (Industrial)
"This looks stunning, sounds great, and comes at a perfect time when Cosey Fanni Tutti is getting the attention and praise she has always deserved. Listening to this after reading her book, it is impressive to note how consistent and measured her work in every medium has been since the first Throbbing Gristle releases to now." - John Kealy
"I had never heard this album before this year and it totally blindsided me. I think I actually like this more than Throbbing Gristle." -Anthony D'Amico
"It's a fantastic record to begin with and a beautifully done package and remaster." - Jon Whitney
Current 93, "Thunder Perfect Mind" (The Spheres)
"Not sure how I feel about the updated back cover, but it's still nice to have this on a record without paying ridiculous prices." - Jon Whitney
"This is not quite my favorite Current 93 album, but it is one of the first ones that I ever heard, so it totally blew my mind and will always hold a special place in my heart. And now it will finally hold a special place in my vinyl shelf as well. Current 93's golden age started here and "All The Stars are Dead Now" remains one of David Tibet's most transcendent and timeless flashes of brilliance." –Anthony D'Amico
Nurse With Wound, "Spiral insana" (Rotorelief)
Can, "Singles" (Mute)
"Nice to have for archival purposes but this didn't do a whole lot for me." - John Kealy
"Such a weird release considering Can were never a singles band. Nice for the few single-only releases ("Turtles Have Short Legs" is perfect), but the albums are by far the better choice." - Creaig Dunton
Akira Rabelais, "Spellewauerynsherde" (Boomkat)
"Rabelais' haunting and vaporous processing of some forgotten Icelandic folk choir tapes sounds like a field recording from the spirit world. If there is a heaven, it probably sounds exactly like this." –Anthony D'Amico
Psychic TV, "Allegory and Self" (Dais/Sacred Bones)
"Psychic TV's would-be pop breakthrough turned out to be kind of a half-baked, band-destroying mess, but "Just Like Arcadia" is certainly a wonderful glimpse into what may have been if things had not gone so dreadfully wrong." -Anthony D'Amico
Bark Psychosis, "Hex" (Fire)
Coil, "Time Machines" (Dais)
"PERSISTENCE IS ALL." - John Kealy
"Why yes, this is indeed my favorite Coil album. Thanks for asking." -Anthony D'Amico
Keiji Haino, "Watashi Dake?" (Black Editions)
"Given how hard even the CD reissue from the '90s is to find now, this is a gift to fans of experimental and improvisational music. Even in Haino's vast and varied back catalogue, this is a seriously unusual piece of work and well deserving of the fancy reissue treatment." - John Kealy
"An especially bizarre and cathartic album by an artist who has made an entire career out of being bizarre and cathartic." -Anthony D'Amico
Leyland Kirby, "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (Part Three: Memories Live Longer Than Dreams)" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Diamanda Galás, "At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem" (Intravenal Sound Operations)
Psychic TV, "Pagan Day" (Dais/Sacred Bones)
"Despite being a modest and uneven collection of 4-track sketches that was initially only available for a single day, Pagan Day features some of the most enduring and charismatic moments of Alex Fergusson-era PTV. "Farewell" and "New Sexuality" are both legitimate classics." -Anthony D'Amico
Leyland Kirby, "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (Part Two: Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was)" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Midori Takada, "Through The Looking Glass" (We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want)
"Do I really need to say how vital this is? It's really fucking vital." - John Kealy
Spacemen 3, "Playing With Fire" (Space Age)
Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, "The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda" (Luaka Bop)
"This collection of Coltrane's largely unheard private-press cassettes of ashram music was one of the year's most revelatory surprises, resembling an almost psychedelic blurring together of gospel and Eastern devotional music." -Anthony D'Amico
Terry Riley, "Persian Surgery Dervishes" (Aguirre)
Nazoranai, "Beginning To Fall In Line Before Me, So Decorously, The Nature Of All That Must Be Transformed" (W. 25th)
"Haino's trios with Oren Ambarchi are as good as Fushitsusha, if not better in places. Nazoranai (with Stephen O'Malley) so far lack the range and scope of the Haino/Ambarchi/O'Rourke trio but they certainly bring the crushing void of nihilism straight into your living room." - John Kealy
Spacemen 3, "For All the Fucked Up Children" (Space Age)
Biosphere, "Cirque" (Biophon)
Tony Conrad, "Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain" (Superior Viaduct)
"It's always nice to hear more Tony Conrad, especially now that he has left us for another infinite plain. This is a brilliant document of the New York avant garde scene, hopefully it is just a taste of more to come." - John Kealy
Bohren & Der Club of Gore, "Geisterfaust" (PIAS)
Flying Saucer Attack, "In Search of Spaces" (VHF)
Spacemen 3, "Recurring" (Space Age)
"As I recall this was their final release. A memorable mix of "Just To See You Smile" to which I am still addicted." - Duncan Edwards
Elodie, "La Porte Ouverte" (Faraway Press)
Nurse With Wound, "The Swinging Reflective II" (Dirter)
Annie Anxiety, "Soul Possession" (Dais)
Dub Syndicate, "The Pounding System" (On-U Sound)
"The best thing about this album is that it made me go back and listen to some of the classic Creation Rebel records that Adrian Sherwood produced. This has some cool moments, but nothing compared Starship Africa or Psychedelic Jonkanoo." -Anthony D'Amico
The Tear Garden, "Eye Spy vol. 2" (Subconscious)
Curve, "Cuckoo" (3 Loop)
Laraaji, "Ambient 3: Day of Radiance" (Glitterbeat)
Harry Partch, "And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma" (New World)
Glenn Jones, "Against Which The Sea Continually Beats" (Thrill Jockey)
The Melvins, "Eggnog/Lice All" (Boner)
Glenn Jones, "This Is the Wind That Blows It Out" (Thrill Jockey)
Luc Ferrari, "Hétérozygote / Petite Symphonie" (Recollection GRM)
Various Artist Compilation of the Year
"Mono No Aware" (Pan)
"Tokyo Flashback" (Black Editions)
"This was the big bang for modern psychedelicism. Black Editions have turned it into a bigger bang. Scorching music given a loving and beautiful vinyl reissue. It cost me a small fortune to get it in Europe but it was worth it. That said, Black Editions, if you're reading, please sort out something to make getting these releases available outside the US at a price that doesn't require a mortgage!" - John Kealy
"I was actually somewhat underwhelmed by Tokyo Flashback when I first heard it, as I was expecting the Holy Grail of Japanese psychedelia. I am sure that it seemed like exactly that when it first appeared, but some of that albums that followed in its wake (Mainliner, Musica Transonic, etc.) make this collection feel comparatively tame now." -Anthony D'Amico
"The Folklore of Plants Vol.I" (Folklore Tapes)
"A mesmerizing tapestry of strange, eclectic, and mysterious vignettes inspired by the plant world." -Anthony D'Amico
"Even A Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973" (Light In The Attic)
"Sammlung: Elektronische Kassettenmusik, Dusseldorf 1982-1989" (Bureau B)
"Girls In The Garage Volume 10 - Groovy Gallic Gals!" (Past & Present)
"Girls In The Garage Volume 9 - Oriental Special" (Past & Present)
"Bingo! French Punk Exploitation 1978-1981" (Born Bad)
"Studio One Rocksteady Volume 2 (Rocksteady, Soul And Early Reggae At Studio One: The Soul Of Young Jamaica)" (Soul Jazz)
"Studio One Supreme (Maximum 70s & 80s Early Dancehall Sounds)" (Soul Jazz)
"Pop Makossa: The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984" (Analog Africa)
"Another characteristically great collection from Analog Africa. The dance beat of Cameroon is welcome to invade my apartment whenever it wants." -Anthony D'Amico
"Magnetband - Experimenteller Elektronik-Underground DDR 1984-1989" (Bureau B)
"Total 17" (Kompakt)
"The Gamelan Of The Walking Warriors: Gamelan Beleganjur And The Music Of The Ngaben Funerary Ritual In Bali" (Akuphone)
"Inner Peace: Rare Spiritual Funk And Jazz Gems - The Supreme Sound Of Producer Bob Shad" (We Want Sounds)
"Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa" (Ostinato)
"This was quite a delightful surprise indeed. It is heartening to see another label turn up with such an unerring ear for unearthing international treasures, especially since Soundway and Sublime Frequencies have been so comparatively quiet lately." -Anthony D'Amico
The Caretaker, "Everywhere At the End of Time Stages 1-3" (History Always Favours the Winners)
"To use a darts analogy, The Caretaker's arrows hit the target. His Stairway To The Stars blue vinyl set was the equivalent of a nine dart finish. Stage 1 of this box set is another bullseye. I take my time with his releases and am always rewarded." - Duncan Edwards
Nurse With Wound, "Dark Fat" (Dirtier)
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, "Das Ist DAF" (Grönland)
The Residents, "80 Aching Orphans" (Cherry Red)
Pere Ubu, "Drive, He Said" (Fire)
Dub Syndicate, "Ambience In Dub" (On-U Sound)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Lovely Creatures" (Mute)
The Sun Ra Arkestra, "Singles Volume 2: The Definitive 45s Collection 1962-1991" (Strut)
"With several brilliant exceptions even as far back as 1959, Sun Ra albums are a risk, since they can be patchy or poorly recorded. One of the joys of my life was seeing him perform, even in his declining health, but the most exciting thing about the first collection was the hilarious shock of the title. Sun Ra? Singles? I shall not be shelling out to discover if Vol 2 is any better." - Duncan Edwards
Coil/Black Sun Productions, "Plastic Spider Thing" (Rustblade)
"Yes because out of all the out-of-print Coil releases, this was the one that needed a box set. This is an awful album and really isn't a Coil release at all." - John Kealy
Shelleyan Orphan, "Shelleyan Orphan" (One Little Indian)
Big Star, "Complete Third: Vol. 3: Final Masters" (Omnivore)
"The deconstructed and agonizing pop-soul of Alex Chilton - who naturally ended up in New Orleans listening to gospel music and local neo-garage groups." - Duncan Edwards
Blancmange, "The Blanc Tapes" (Edsel)
Merzbow, "Pornoise 1 KG" (ZSF)
"Mid 1980s Merzbow is the best Merzbow, so this is a solid six hours of that." - Creaig Dunton
Death, "Human" (Relapse)
The Durutti Column, "Domo Arigato" (Factory Benelux)
"Intricate crystalline guitar compositions. At times absolute genius, crushingly sad, joyous, slightly pointless, but always better than the few accompanying and jarringly bland saxophone outbursts which are not nearly infrequent enough for my liking." - Duncan Edwards
Zos Kia, "23" (Infinite Fog)
Roland Kayn, "A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound" (Frozen Reeds)
The The, "Radio Cineola Trilogy" (Lazarus)
"Aside from the new single, this was a big load of mediocrity. Very disappointing." - John Kealy
The New Blockaders, "Epater Les Bourgeois" (Obskyr)
Rudolf Eb.er, "How to Die" (Dead Mind)
Jandek, "London Residency" (Corwood)
[V/A], "Nigeria Soul Power 70" (Soul Jazz)
Artist of the Year
Leyland James Kirby/The Caretaker
Label of the Year
History Always Favours the Winners
Thrill Jockey
Mute
Editions Mego
Dais
Fire
Blackest Ever Black
Room40
Corbel Stone Press
Kranky
New Artist of the Year
UUUU
Lifetime Achievement Recognition
Diamanda Galás
"It is hard to put into words how important Diamanda Galás is to me. From the moment I first heard her version of "I Put a Spell on You" and my conceptions about vocals came crashing down, I knew she was a force of nature that deserved to be placed in the upper echelons of musical performers. Somewhere between a hurricane and Nina Simone, an earthquake and Leonard Cohen, a tidal wave and the Coltranes, she is a supreme example of artistic power and personal integrity." - John Kealy
"As an impressionable, socially awkward, synth-pop loving teenager in the 1980s, I discovered her when exploring more Mute releases. To me, her recordings then were both terrifying and exhilarating, genre-defying, aurally challenging, and rich with, for lack of better words, substance and meaning. Her music introduced me to new worlds of music, art, and culture that was nowhere in rural America and it likely had a part in influencing my desire to move to bigger cities to discover more for myself. I was fortunate enough to watch her boundary-breaking Plague Mass live in NYC before a new era was born with The Singer, which elevated her from cult hero to iconic status. While that album reintroduced the world to Diamanda as a pianist, she continued to record and perform in other styles over the years since. Her piano and vocal music continues to strengthen immeasurably, the levels of emotion and precision are unmatched by anyone alive. She remains peerless and powerful, and 2017 was another banner year with two brilliant albums and multiple performances. If you're reading this, Diamanda, thank you for the years of giving your heart, soul, and everything else to us." - Jon Whitney
"Diamanda Galás is simply one of those artists without any point of comparison. Her natural vocal talent is of course what she is most known for, but I cannot think of another artist who can so easily transition from beautifully performed standards to music more frightening and sinister than any black metal/power electronics/death industrial/whatever could dream of creating. Add that to a nearly 40 year career that shows no signs of slowing down and her dedication to bringing light to important social issues, and the final result is an artist who has rightfully attained legendary status, but one who continues to create amazing works of art. I cannot think of anyone else more appropriate for this recognition." - Creaig Dunton
"Always iconic, uncompromising, deeply sincere, and almost supernaturally intense. There is no one else on earth quite like Diamanda Galás, nor is there anything quite like a Diamanda Galás concert. I am delighted to be alive at the same time that she is." -Anthony D'Amico
Worst Album of the Year
Circle, "Terminal" (Ektro)
"Wait, what? This was great!" - John Kealy
Royal Trux, "Platinum Tips and Ice Cream" (Drag City)
"I definitely wish they wrote better songs, but Royal Trux are way too cool and brilliantly ridiculous to dislike." -Anthony D'Amico
Diet Cig, "Swear I'm Good" (Frenchkiss)
Cuchillo de Fuego, "Megavedra" (Humo)
Errorsmith, "Superlative Fatigue " (Pan)
Destroyer, "Ken" (Merge)
"No. Dan Bejar is one of the most consistently delightful and charismatic songwriters around." -Anthony D'Amico