1. Oneohtrix Point Never Garden of Delete (Warp)
2015 saw a handful of important electronic artists pushing up against the rigors of the form’s more beat-centric realms to attain something increasingly amorphous in structure. Oneohtrix Point Never‘s Garden of Delete was the most fully realized in this new batch of cutting edge sonic exploration, and it came complete with a narrative about Ezra, a musically inclined street kid with an alien skin disorder. In addition, a host of extracurriculars accompanied the release such as the Kaossed Blog, and it’s wormhole of Twitter accounts, or odd video offerings such as the eerie, mostly blank screen of “Mutant Standard“, or Nate Boyce‘s confoundingly surreal, “Repossesion Sequence“. Meanwhile, Daniel Lopatin launched his compositions into dizzying and hyper-active realms, foregrounding hierarchies of musical taste into a kind of sculptural sound that can be felt, as well as heard.
2. Holly Herndon Platform (4AD)
Holly Herndon‘s music has always seemed to exist on the cutting edge of sonic form, and this year’s 4AD release, Platform, is no exception. Herndon continues her work with partner Mat Dryhurst, developing a style they call net concrète by blending the disparate realms of Herndon’s internet browsing into an idiosyncratic audio experience. Using a “patch” Dryhurst built in Max/MSP, Herndon smashes together various samples from her on-line life, using this “self-surveillance” as a technique to generate some of her track’s compositional elements. To this, she adds her accomplished vocal abilities, often emotively layered into an intricate chorus of voices, as well as an interest in “club” based music–fostered during her formative days in Berlin–creating a socially aware, open hearted music without peer.
3. Julia Holter Have You In My Wilderness (Domino)
While the previous two artists might represent the sharper edges of 2015’s musical vanguard, Julia Holter continues to make timeless pop with effortless ease. This year the amazing singer/songwriter released her Have You In My Wilderness LP via Domino, and it’s the kind of record that becomes more like a dear friend with each progressive listen. Returning to work with Cole Marsden Greif-Neill, the producer/engineer has a special knack for translating Holter’s often home sketched ideas into lush, transcendent compositions, without losing an once of the original’s seemingly dream-like inspiration. Talking about their working relationship, this year Holter told FACT: “What Cole did with this record, and the last record (Loud City Song), is clearly different from when I do things myself. He is able to make it sound so great and rich, and really beautiful and clear compared to my self-produced music.”
4. Wrekmeister Harmonies Night Of Your Ascension (Thrill Jockey)
J.R. Robinson returns with his Wrekmeister Harmonies project, releasing Night of Your Ascension via Thrill Jockey this year. Over a year in the making, Robinson has assembled a stellar cast from the ranks of experimental music, and his line-up includes Lee Buford and Chip King (The Body), Alexander Hacke (Einsturzende Neubauten), Cooper Crain (Cave), Marissa Nadler, Mary Lattimore, and Olivia Block–to name just a few. Inspired by Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, an Italian prince known for his uniquely expressive and experimental madrigals, but also for the brutal murder of his wife and her lover; as well as Father John J. Geoghan, a Boston-area priest convicted for multiple acts of sexual abuse and later murdered in prison, this is an intensely dark work that alternates between terror and beauty with operatic fluidity.
5. The Soft Moon Deeper (Captured Tracks)
Once again The Soft Moon‘s Louis Vasquez has turned gnostic terror and existential dread into seductive pop, releasing his Deeper LP on Captured Tracks this year. After the release of 2012’s Zeros LP, Vasquez had hinted future musical endeavors might be more collaborative in nature, but, as this record’s name would suggest, the psychological compulsion to delve into his own psyche was still too great. Moving to Italy to work on the record alone, the musician explained to Interview this year, “…this album is so personal and I’m trying to learn about who I am, what I am, my existence, and all these things, I feel like for me to create everything with my own hands tells me more about myself. It’s my own body making every noise, every sound. Because of that, it’s more pure in terms of finding that inner peace and discovering who I am”.
6. Algiers Algiers (Matador)
Algiers‘ spectacular, self-titled debut brims with the kind of righteous energy rarely seen in indie music these days. The Atlanta-based trio is lead by the charismatic frontman, singer/guitarist Franklin James Fisher, and he possesses the kind of strident vocal delivery that can stop you dead in your tracks. Joined by guitarist Lee Tesche, and bassist Ryan Mahan, Algiers volatile mix of post-punk and soul makes for a music that is both vital and socially necessary. Exhilarating at every turn, standout tracks like “And When You Fall“, “Irony.Utility.Pretext“, and “Black Eunuch” blend punk and gospel in ways that seem to be both deeply informed by the past and forward looking at the same time. In the process, the band reveals the two forms possess similar energies through their use of “driving beats, shouting, call and response vocals, and group participation”.
7. Vincent Parker Purge
Vincent Parker’s 2015 LP Purge is a sonic tour de force that combines his interest in acid house with cutting edge bass and drum rhythms, making for a sound that can be breathtakingly singular in scope. The musician’s compositions are recorded live, “…so that each performance is unique, adaptive, personal, epic and inclusive”, and that can immediately be heard on Purge, with Parker seemingly playing these tracks on a razor’s edge. The thing is, though, there’s such a force behind a multi-layered cut like “Take It” or “Reoccurring Phase“, that if the whole thing were to jump the rails, there’s a sense the results would be cataclysmic. Of course they don’t, as Parker’s deft playing ensures tight reins are held throughout–entirely necessary considering the amount of sonic force this cat is often dealing in.
8. Föllakzoid III (Sacred Bones)
For Föllakzoid‘s 2015 LP III, out now on Sacred Bones, the Chilean psych outfit tightened the reins on their trance aesthetic by focusing on “monochords and reiteration”, and the result is an amazingly clear sighted opus of cosmic stoner rock. After recording and mixing the album’s four long-form tracks themselves, at their studio at BYM Records, Föllakzoid partnered with German synth master Atom TM, who would go on to add textured, atonal nuances via a Korg synthesizer once used by Kraftwerk while on tour in the 1980s. While definitely a heady brew, the group’s ability to dig into a groove with enlightened and sustained attention makes III a diamond sharp distillation of Kraut influenced psych.
9. JLin Dark Energy (Planet Mu/Knives)
JLin first came to international attention back in 2011 when her footwork track “Erotic Heat” appeared on Planet Mu‘s Bangs & Works compilation. This year the Gary, Indiana-based producer (and steel worker) released her debut LP Dark Energy, and it bristles and brims with new directions for the genre! After a conversation with her mother regarding her music several years back, JLin decided to eschew footwork’s traditional reliance on a sample-based approach, focusing instead on making all the sounds and beats herself. In talking about this decision with FACT earlier this year, JLin explained, “I’ve chopped samples before, it’s not that I can’t do it. To me it’s not interesting. I like sampling, but by moving away from it I can challenge myself”. Indeed, this shift in approach is significant, and JLin’s meticulous dedication to her own craft is helping to push the form in increasingly creative and thrilling directions.
10. Prurient Frozen Niagara Falls (Profound Lore Records)
For Prurient‘s Dominick Fernow, Frozen Niagara Falls, his massive 3xLP out this year on Profound Lore, is an album about “coming back to New York city” and facing what “home” means. It’s a harrowing journey back, and any answers attained in the process only seem to beg more questions. Fernow told Noisey‘s Zachary Lipez earlier this year that he felt lost throughout the recording, and that he was continually dogged by the question, “What the fuck am I doing?”. He goes on to explain, “I had no plan. I needed to keep throwing fuel on the fire until the smoke cleared out of the room and you got to the flames”. Burned warts and all, then, is what you get here, and while Fernow might have felt rudderless throughout the making of Frozen Niagara Falls, patterns do emerge, and this soul-bearing work is ultimately life affirming–even in it’s harshest and most bracing moments.
