Top Forty Albums of 2014: 25-21

Continuing my annual countdown:

25. Vatta - DerTANZ (Self-released)

DerTANZ stand out even in the vibrant Hungarian music scene.  This brooding monster offers perhaps the finest example yet of a sound that sees them stand apart from the noisy clarion calls of so many of their excellent compatriots.  DerTANZ are different - embrace them.

24. Flying Ant Day - Tyrannosaurus Dead (Odd Box)

Indie pop with a frenetically caustic edge.  If Odd Box are one of the foremost labels in a fresh and vibrant scene, TD are their standard bearers.

23. The Infinity Dub Sessions - Deadbeat & Paul St Hilaire (BLKRTZ)

Deadbeat and St Hilaire's styles clash magnificently in this pulsing, throbbing musical extravaganza.  

22.  Investigates Strange Weather Patterns & the UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada - The Fucked Up Beat (Self-released)

Erstwhile Daddy Tank sound-twisters strut their stuff independently and produce music that manages somehow to destroy brain cells and expand minds at the same time.

21. Rave Tapes - Mogwai (Rock Action)

They just get better.  Released in January of this year: next instalment in one of music's most engrossing series due in Jan. 2015.

More soon.

Top Forty Albums of 2014: 30-26

 

Fuck Off - Good Throb

Before I continue, just a reminder that today is your last chance to cast your vote in the official Festive Fifty at www.dandelionradio.com/festive50.htm.  While you're considering that, here's the third instalment in my annual countdown of the year's best albums:

30.  Crisis-BSP - J CNNR (Tres Catorce)

From Spain, an old favourite who's been away and come back with a massive electronic bang.  

29.  Lands - Piano Chat (Kythibong)

And from France, an album of understated magnificence courtesy of one of the most consistently brilliant labels of recent years.

28.  Fuck Off - Good Throb (Self-released)

Anything but understated, it's so refreshing to hear albums like this that are, on the one hand, expletive-ridden slabs of guitar-hewn noise and, on the other, entirely original.  Recorded on New Year's Day 2014 and still going strong.

27.  No Fun (Not That One) - Mark Wynn (Self-released)

Hard to imagine this guy ever releasing a bad record.  The run continues.

26.  Utility Music - Gyratory System (Soft Bodies)

A track from this was the first thing I broadcast in 2014 and I still love it.

25-21 coming very soon.

Top Forty Albums of 2014: 35-31

Continuing the countdown of my favourite albums of the year.  A reminder that the only chart that really counts is the official Festive Fifty, and you've only got two days left to vote in that at http://www.dandelionradio.com/festive50.htm.

For now:

 35. Drown - Defrag (Hymen)

Crushingly abrasive electronica from an album that received some of the most favourable feedback of the year when I played a track from it.  One hell of a return from this German breakcore powerhouse.

34. Get Rid A Di Wicked - Lutan Fyah (Break Back Productions)

Sublime reggae stylings from a man whose work I really ought to write about more.

33. Mescendugos - Mescendugos (Hudini)

Hungary maintained its position as one of Europe's and the world's finest musical centres this year and the Hudini label certainly played its part.  This rumbling ogre of an album was their best release.

32. Slurpt - Ace Bushy Striptease (Odd Box)

One of those farewell albums that make you realise how much a band is gonna be missed. Superior indie pop.

31.  Everyday Robots - Damon Albarn (Parlophone)

Sometimes you've just got to recognise great music and this is Albarn's best work since Blur.  

30-26 coming soon.

 

Top Forty Albums of 2014: Numbers 40-36

I know some people think I start this too early but I like to get my top forty albums of the year out of the way before the festive fifty (which is, after all, the only really important chart of the year) starts its broadcasting cycle, so here goes.  Forty favourite albums of 2014, beginning with the numbers 40-36:

40. Scorched - Dead Fader (Robot Elephant)

Superior scratchy electronica whose position at number forty says something of the quality of what is to come.  2014 started slowly but more than made up for it in its later months.

39. An Actual Thing - Anguish Sandwich (Self-released)

Classy, giving indie a good name and probably only this low due to its appearance so late in the year.

38.  HUM - Futuroscope (Monofunus Press)

Ex-Jagwar Pirates make an impressive racket: repetition in the music, and they use it.

37.  Carnival of Souls - Pere Ubu (Fire)

Massive thanks to my Dandelion Radio colleague Lee Adcock for pointing me in the direction of this stunning return to form.

36.  Clark - Clark (Warp)

His best yet.  Another late in the year release: hear a track from it in my forthcoming December show and marvel at the results of some sublime manipulation of electronic sounds.

Numbers 35-31 coming soon.  As mentioned above, the only chart that really matters is the festive fifty and you have only seven days left to vote in it at http://www.dandelionradio.com/festive50.htm

Futuroscope - HUM

Among other things, it's that time of the year for stumbling upon things you really ought to have heard before now.  Such is the case, with this offering from Futuroscope, which came out during that awkward period in early summer when necessity so often prevents me from checking my inbox and the internet every day for fear of missing something.

Which just goes to show, you take your eye of the ball for a few moments and for almost half the year you remain shockingly unaware of something as good as this, a cassette/download release from a French bands containing members that were formerly in the extraordinary good Jagwar Pirates.  And if that doesn't spell out how good it is, allow me to do it for you: this band delivers as crushing a sub-krautrock simultaneous blow to the head and guts as you're likely to find anywhere.

The eight tracks all make you want to drown in the drool you produce on listening to them but, if you'll permit me to pick out some highlights, check out the epic brain-crunch of 'Voyager 1 (Delay Delay Dinosaurs)' and the even longer album-closer 'La Jetee'.   

I'm going somewhere else for my first stab at airplay though.  You can hear opening track 'Moon' in my Dandelion Radio show this month.  It begins with a teasingly long slow burner of an intro, and you wouldn't complain if the entire LP simply took its signature from there, but then it explodes into your head like the kind of fireworks the more uncouth kids down our way somehow get their hands onto, and things get cranked up to an almost impossibly appealing level.  

Get it from https://futuroscope.bandcamp.com/album/hum or grab the cassette at http://monofonuspress.com/store/futuroscope. 

Katie Gately/Tlaotlon - Fat Cat Split Series #23

For the penultimate instalment in their Split 12" Series, Fat Cat dig out one of the most astonishing releases of 2014, bringing together LA-based sound artiste Katie Gately and antipodean electronic manipulator Tlaotlon in an intoxicating marriage of musical ideas.  ‘Marriage’ in its most idealistic sense is probably not the right word, but when applied to the kind of relationship where you smash plates over each other’s heads before generating an impassioned and very loud beast with two backs, it seems entirely fitting.

Last year, Katie wowed us all with her extraordinary ‘Pipes’ release on Blue Tapes', which Dandeilon Radio listeners voted into the top twenty of last year’s festive fifty.  Gately's broad appeal is both reassuring and telling: however challenging her music, it’s easy to find yourself captivated, drawn in and submerged into her blissful soundscapes.  It’s what makes her a unique artist – she can absorb you effortlessly while leaving you gasping at the audacity of it at pretty much the same time.

She’s on similarly fine form here.  ‘Pivot’, like its illustrious predecessor, doesn’t so much give you a tune to listen to as take you on a whole musical journey.  Gately’s tunes can be hummed in the bath (I’ve done it) but they offer so much more: this is music to be immersed in, to surrender to and, if the opportunity presents itself, to build your entire day around.

Tlaotlon offer music of a similar substance but something different all together.  This is electronic music of stunningly detailed intensity, offering rhythms that punish and pulsate in roughly equal measure, fragmented stabs of caustic sounds as opposed to Gately’s bewitchingly weird sonic manipulation.

What they both have is that remarkable awareness of how the world can be simultaneously a very dark and a very beautiful place, together with the rich ability to express this in sound.   It demands to be heard.  I'll be playing the Gately track in my November Dandelion Radio show, which will be streaming from Saturday, and you can cop the rest of it by getting a copy of the release in all its 12” glory or as a download here. 

21 Songs for John: 21 - Ollo

Ollo – Lord Lucan is Still Missing

The Dodgems' original was a firm Peel favourite back in 1979.  In 2005, the Twelve Apostles label put out an EP of remixes of the song in 2005, including this version by Australian duo Ollo, which reached the dizzy heights of number eight in the One Music festive fifty of that year.  Their most recent album Ape Delay was released this year via the Metal Postcard label. 

https://soundcloud.com/ollo_the-band

21 Songs for John