1. Andy Stott “Violence”:
Plenty of great music to choose from this past year, but our vote for the Best Track of 2014 goes to Andy Stott for his dark, electro-pop cut, “Violence“. Featuring the singer Alison Skidmore, the track provided our first listen in on the Manchester-based musician’s 2014 LP Faith In Strangers, out now on Modern Love. Something about “Violence” makes it sound like Stott pulled all the guts out of it, before stitching it back together like some mad scientist. The core of this track remains Skidmore’s skewed and dramatic vocal offering, coupled with Stott’s facility for rusted, resonating ambiance, but things really take off when he adds black hole bass, and a menacing array of battering beats.
2. Swans “Oxygen”:
Swans‘ excellent LP To Be Kind came out this past May via Michael Gira‘s Young God label, as well as on Mute Records in the UK and Europe. Recorded by John Congleton at his Sonic Ranch outside El Paso, TX, the album’s rather extensive line-up included longtime Swan’s guitarist Norman Westberg, lap steel player Christoph Hahn, drummers Thor Harris and Phil Puleo, bassist Christopher Pravdica, and the musicians Julia Kent and Bill Rieflin.
On the brilliant track “Oxygen,” Swans get right down to business entering into a terse, ripping dialogue between the instruments. As things gain force of action, a real martial and masculine energy takes over. Somehow loose and tight all at once, this cut’s athletic, focused attack becomes the perfect container for Gira’s wild vocal outbursts; and after “Oxygen”‘s thrilling midpoint, the players launch into an insane revelry of buzz sawing sonics, continually punctuated by the singer’s growling rant.
3. The Soft Moon “Black”:
The Soft Moon is readying a new LP, Deeper, set for release next year on March 31st via Captured Tracks. While Luis Vasquez had claimed that future Soft Moon endeavors, after the Zeros LP, would be more band oriented, a move to Venice, Italy in 2013 found the artist on his own in foreign surroundings again. If “Black” is any indication, such conditions were ripe for a new batch of bleak, industrial output!
Exchanging his Suicide-leaning krautrock throb and cold wave rhythms for techno’s four-to-the-floor, on “Black”, he melts the form down into a seductive, obsidian colored syrup. Steam pistons and a heartbeat pulse give this track its cyberpunk core, while Vasquez’s menacingly whispered slogans, pointed and existential, conjure up Trent Reznor from The Downward Spiral daze…minus the over-sized ego. It seems that working alone suits Vasquez, and as he enters his fifth year of production as The Soft Moon, the musician continues to hone his abject vision into something provocative, and ultimately accessible for those willing to brave their dark side.
4. Lower “Daft Persuasion”:
The Danish post-punk quartet Lower delivered a stellar debut LP this year entitled Seek Warmer Climes out now on Matador. There’s a number of great tracks on this record, but it’s the album’s eviscerating second cut “Daft Persuasion” that really caught our ears. On it, singer Adrian Toubro narrates his icy melodrama with the kind of griping vocal delivery that keeps you on the edge of your seat with each turn of phrase. Meanwhile, the band sculpts a tightly wound whirlwind of violence that simmers and broods before lashing out in stabs of angular guitar and rapid drum fire.
5. Vessel “Anima”:
The Bristol-based producer Vessel decided to take on the challenge of building his own instruments for his new 2xLP Punish, Honey out now on Tri Angle Records. The musician fashioned flutes made from sawed apart bikes, sheet metal percussion, as well as a homemade harmonic guitar. This lends the tracks on the album, like “Anima,” a more organic feel built around the throb and drone of this acoustic instrumentation.
As the track opens, a resonant pattern is repeated mantra-like while the cut’s methodic rhythm slowly bubbles to the surface. Clangs of electronic scree can be heard in this roiling protoplasm, as “Anima” rears its head in what sounds like some sort of ritualistic procession. By the track’s end, the cut has gone thru several stages of growth gaining complexity each time as it gathers into an aural storm of rhythm and drone; and while definitely of mysterious sonic origins, techno seems to still lie at the heart of its alien DNA.
6. The Fresh & Onlys “Animal of One”:
The Fresh & Onlys released another strong LP this year, House Of Spirits, out now on Mexican Summer, and “Animal of One” was the album’s first single. Many of the tracks on the record were written while the band’s Tim Cohen stayed at a remote horse farm in Arizona. Using a guitar, Korg keyboard, and drum machine to build his ideas, the songs were later fleshed out in the company of the band’s guitarist Wymond Miles, bassist Shayde Sartin, and drummer Kyle Gibson.
As Miles explains, “We wanted to honor the mystery that the desert gave to Tim’s songs.” Indeed, “Animal of One” shines like the Southwest sky at night as Morricone-like guitar lines play off the yearning ache of Cohen’s lyricsas he articulates the rigors of forgiving and forgetting with a beautifully dry and wry wit!
7. OOFJ “You’re Always Good”:
In anticipation of OOFJ‘s upcoming 2015 LP release Acute Feast (Fake Diamond Records), the duo’s Jenno Bjørnkjær and Katherine Mills Rymer, dropped the highly infectious electro-pop of “You’re Always Good.” The track opens with swells of orchestral strings, provided by the Concert Master of the Royal Danish Opera House, while a punishing, deep bass throb adds a menacing grit to the cut’s melodramatic elegance.
As usual, Rymer’s voice amazes, medicated and seductive as she coos: “I know/I Know/You’re always good,” but if she doesn’t sound convinced, it’s not for lack of trying! With hard driving percussion throughout, and shifting between a single pounding kick and intricate, D&B-leaning beat patterns, this track progresses from its more intimate beginnings into densely populated urban rhythms.
8. Twins “Love Runs Deep”:
CGI Records owner Matt Weiner also releases music under the moniker TWINS, and his 2014 12″ Love Is A Luxury was a real highlight of the last year! There are two 10-plus tracks here, “Love Runs Deep” and “The Empty Deep,” and while both cuts utilize a dub approach, brandishing tricked out low-end and kinetic rhythms, “Love Runs Deep” is the more extroverted of the two.
The track emanates outward from it’s initially sub aquatic origins, following a single, house-inflected chord before it reaches air. Progressive layers of drum elements and bass are added, but they are ultimately subsumed by a zoned-out focus on textured head space and spry, footwork-oriented beats. For those interested in the outer fringes of US-based club music, CGI Records is fast becoming a real treasure…and gateway to the underground!
9. Orchidée Noire “Promenades”:
This year we made the acquaintance of the amazing French musician Xavier Soquet, who makes brilliant synth-based music under the name Orchidée Noire. The artist caught our ear earlier this spring when he released his single “Promenades,” and he’s been on a prolific tear ever since.
The track draws its sound from the European synth-pop of the early ’80s. As the opening melodic line hypnotically flutters, it magically induces the listener to give chase, before a throbbing kick and bass-line force the body into a fast-forward motion. Placed tenuously in the mix, almost underneath “Promenades” over-arching acoustics, Soquet’s romantic vocals hang by an icy thread; but if they sound distant next to the music’s enveloping warmth, it only serves to heighten their poetic spell!
10. Bremen “Hollow Wave”:
The Swedish duo Bremen released their 2xLP Second Launch this year via the label Blackest Ever Black. The group brings together two luminaries of the Swedish punk underground Lanchy Orre and Jonas Tiljander–both members of the seminal noise rock band Brainbombs. With Orre on guitar and Tiljander on organ, the pair craft a minimal take on post-rock using an improvisational approach informed by their extensive musical history together.
“Hollow Wave,” with its nuanced interplay between the two musicians, is a poignant example of what this pair is capable of. Bathed in cosmic tones, but with its feet planted on the earth, the track finds Orre and Tiljander conversing across the night–at times in concert, at others excitedly at odds, but always weathering the difficult storm of relating!
