AOTY #10. Timber timbre - Sincerely, Future Pollution

Written as the nadir of 2016 was coming into focus, it paints a somewhat dystopian vision of a society out of control and typifies the record’s tone of, in his own words, “utter chaos and confusion.” This is a good thing for ‘Sincerely, Future Pollution’, whose nine tracks have a deliciously inky, retro feel, like Nick Cave fronting a bitter ’80s Vegas house band. So what if it’s a little strange? Given the world we live in, we could do with more art that reflects such abnormal territory.

AOTY #15. Peine Perdue - Moreceaux Choisis

Peine Perdue (that could be translated by Wasted Effort) is a French duo, sharing their time between Berlin and Paris, which was created by Stéphane Argillet, composer, keyboardist and programming the magical machines, and Coco Gallo, who writes most of the texts and recite them more than she sings. Together, they offer a music often cold and yet very endearing, sometimes pop, sometimes more minimalist and experimental, which mingles inextricably with the smooth voice of Coco, whose poetic and enigmatic texts fascinate as far as they intrigue.
Often with groups that propose minimal compositions, charm lies in the subtle blend of the melodies and the voice. With Peine Perdue, the synthetic and mechanical music perfectly fits with this sensual and although distant voice, that loves to lead us into the vortex of her poetic riddles. One without the other would be missing a part, the two together are wonderful, and have managed to create their own universe, in this quite crowded world of minimal-synth duets.

Mariah - 心臓の扉 (Shinzo No Tobira)

This is a mostly unknown early '80s record from Japan and has been absent for the past 30 years. When Mariah first got together in the late 1970s, their sound was largely indebted to the popular jazz fusion and synth pop of the time, but Utakata no Hibi seems to open the door to a wonderful dreamland where genres no longer exist. Sung half in Japanese and half in Armenian, the record melds East Asian and Middle Eastern tonalities, folklorish melodies with synthetic futurism, upbeat dance rhythms with meditative ambient textures, wonky New Wave, jazz structures and blissful pop ditties.

Lena Platonos

Lena Platonos is a Greek musician, pianist and music composer. One of the pioneers in the Greek electronic music scene of the 1980s, she remains active today.  She released 3 collaborative albums between 1981-1983 and her debut solo album in 1984. Her work is surreal, abstract, in places futuristic but always full of unpretentious honesty and tenderness. Through complex imagery, telegraphic lyrics, and analog synths accompanied by the Roland TR-808 drum machine, she paints an intergalactic and elusive soundscape capable of transforming punchy and haunting basslines into cryptic messages. Like the untranslated poetry of Platonos it makes sense beyond the usual; beyond it's own time, beyond words.