AOTY #13 Polyphia - New Levels New Devils

Never thought something could sound so CLEAN and NASTY at the same time. On the one hand it feels like the logical final boss of the ultra wank post-djent scene, but on the other it feels like somehow they've broken through the wall of terribleness and actually made something insanely fresh. No video, no anything. Just check this !

AOTY #14 Between the Buried and Me - Automata I, II

This a record that confounds expectations on many levels. A journey of challenging, unpredictable but ultimately life-affirming music, this is exciting, innovative, playful and addictive. It is certainly true that they have dispensed with some wilful eccentricity but, in its place, Automata continually offers a rich palette of aural beauty.

AOTY #15 Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch

These EPs have all been great. He hasn't lost any of his one of a kind knack for really immersing you in the music and saying a lot with sometimes the simplest words. It really makes you feel the darkness in society today. However you feel about this release, there's no question that Trent (with Atticus now), continues to push and challenge. I appreciate it so much for showing me that an artist in (in spite of) the music business, can continue to grow and maintain relevance well into his 50s.

AOTY #16. Armand Hammer - Paraffin

Armand Hammer is actually super underrated considering how developed their sound is. I guess there just placed in an unpopular genre. Holy hell though people, give this shit a listen!

AOTY #17. Loma - Loma

I love how they use oppositional elements, and weave them together in a way that is so complimentary. The sultry vocals, the haunting ambiance, the hypnotic minimalism. It doesn't get much better.

AOTY #18. Suuns - Felt

These guys are trully underrated. This Art Rock band is offering a very individual compelling songwriting. It takes a few listens to get what they are doing as the songs are often so loose that they are difficult to latch onto. One of the most talented bands of the decade, surely.

AOTY #19. Mythic Sunship - Another Shape of Phychedelic Music

Some late Coltrane and Sun Ra. Extended krautrock grooves. A touch of doom. And all mixed together into frenzied extended jams. Just about perfect. Another Shape Of Psychedelic Music is just that, being a swirling, metamorphosing beast that grooves and throbs and riffs and blasts. Not just another psych group you understand.

AOTY #20. The Skull Defekts - The Skull Defekts

The Skull Defekts have long acted as the backbone of the Swedish experimental underground, but since their 2011 breakthrough "Peer Amid," the group has emerged at the vanguard of a new wave of radical Scandinavian rock music.
For this record they said, ''This is our last album. The Skull Defekts has been an important part of our lives. It is no longer.'' and trust me, this Sweden’s spikiest, boundry-oblivious rock group give one last hurrah you will remember.

 

Cluster

Krautrock icons Cluster - the duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and the late Dieter Moebius  - were part of the same extraordinary art and music scene centred around late-60's Berlin that produced Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Conrad Schnitzler and many others. In these heady early days of the scene the anything-goes ethos was strong. Moebius and Roedelius were making music with found objects and electronics and experimenting wildly, performing long improvisations on stage and releasing a series of improvisational albums with Schnitzler under the name Kluster.

Daughters

Daughters, the Rhode Island-based noise impresarios, have confirmed that their highly-anticipated and much speculated about full-length album, You Won’t Get What You Want, arrives on Oct. 26 via Ipecac Recordings. “We find ourselves at another reveal,” offers singer Alexis Marshall. “With ‘The Reason They Hate Me’ we break from the narrative for a meditation on opinions and their assertion. For those insisting their critique is art: they’ve got a name for people like you.”

 

Misha mishajashvili

Estonia’s Misha Mishajashvili has been releasing music since the turn of the decade, offering a score to the decline of the Soviet Empire. As global conditions grow starker, the artist’s vision grows bleaker. Even so, the fact that his releases tend to fall on the first of the year implies that he still has hope. With sources varying widely from classical to swing, political speech to military march, one feels the weight of the past bearing down.

 

Birds in Row

Birds in Row are a melodic and abrasive band from Laval, France. Blurring the lines between hardcore, punk, and related sub-genres, Birds In Row offer something of substantial weight to their listeners.

 

Tropical Fuck Storm

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Tropical Fuck Storm channel the broody and menacing sound of Nick Cave as well as leader Gareth Liddiard's previous band, the Drones.
TROPICAL FUCK STORM ARE MORE THAN JUST YOUR AVERAGE SUPERGROUP.


ps. Probably one of the best albums for this year.

Mono

Japenese post-rock outfit Mono are one of those bands that seem to be effortlessly good at what they do. Admittedly they don't make grand gestures or mix things up on every release, but what they do they do exceptionally well and they keep on polishing, making their chosen sound as good as it can be. They something special tho... the ability to wrench deeply heartfelt emotions out of their instruments, despite the complete absence of vocals.

 

Boris

Japanese cult favorite sludge/doom rock trio Boris took their name from a song on grunge godfathers the Melvins' Bullhead album. They also have a lot in common with the Melvins musically, including a fondness for heavily downtuned guitar/bass tones and exceedingly slow tempos.
Don't get tricked by the endless beginning, will pay off like a bomb later on (almost half an hour into the record). This is Boris' most melancholy release, definitely recommended for the self pitying. a variety of pharmaceuticals may enhance the experience, but is definitely not needed.

Hash Jar Tempo

Hash Jar Tempo is a collaborative musical project between the members of Philadelphia-based psychedelic band Bardo Pond and experimental guitarist and composer Roy Montgomery. The band was founded in March 1995 and have released two albums, Well Oiled and Under Glass, and have never toured. Hash Jar Tempo doesn't punish and haunt so much as it does engagingly trip out, with the right head-nodding pace and echoing chimes that will attract both older stoners and younger shoegaze freaks. There are certainly some pretty intense moments.

Les Rallizes Dénudés

Les Rallizes Dénudés are one of the earliest and most revolutionary Japanese psychedelic rock bands, and existed off and on through four decades. The band formed in November of 1967 at Kyoto University, inspired by Exploding Plastic Inevitable-era Velvet Underground as well as the over-amplified rock of Blue Cheer and Mario Schifano's avant-garde ensemble Le Stelle.
Listening to Les Rallizes Dénudés cancels out time. It defies it, in the sense that every listen to it is of arbitrary length. If you put it on repeat you can just soak in it all day long, bass lines that drag on forever and ever. You turn it off, then, your clock resynchronizes to the right time but as long as it's on it creates a world of itself.