Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s no good music anymore. There is always good music. You just have to find it. I hope this list and this blog helped you discover some good stuff in 2016.
I reviewed close to 50 albums released in 2016 last year, so I’ve decided to highlight the top 25. Here are numbers 25-21.
25.Slavesbring great British punk that skewers not only the elite rich, but also Millennial slackers and even the stupidity of drunk driving.
24.Dunsmuiris a metal supergroup featuring members of Clutch, Fu Manchu, The Company Band, and Black Sabbath. Their debut is a concept record about a shipwrecked crew fighting monsters on a remote island.
23.
Canadian psych-rockers Elephant Stonehave yet to put out a bad record, and this one added electro touches to their mix of 1960’s psychedelia and bhangra.
22.
Birth is a fine piece of stoner rock from this three-piece Australian outfit. I was on a big stoner rock kick in 2016 and ORB certainly fit the bill.
21.
Klaus Johann Grobe were a delightful discovery this year, and their latest album, Spagat Der Liebe, is a fun electro / lounge record suitable for both late night parties and making out.
Who cracks the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Keep your mind open.
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Night Club’s (Mark Brooks and Emily Kavanaugh) Requiem for Romance starts, appropriately, with “Requiem,” a song of dark synths that would be right at home in a John Carpenter film, and then launches forward with “Bad Girl” – a fetish club dance anthem for dominatrixes, riot grrls, and women who don’t care if you don’t like what they wear. “It’s so good to be a bad girl,” Kavanaugh sings over booming synths and electric beats, oozing sex with a hint of danger.
“Show It 2 Me” pretty much lets you know its subject with the title. You’ll probably hear this in a club scene featured in the next big budget vampire film you see. “If you like the fast lane, don’t be slow,” Kavanaugh sings. “‘Cause I’m giving you the green light to go. If you got something you want to show, show it to me.” Ahem.
The warped synths of “Dear Enemy” build to a wicked beat as Kavanaugh sings about a former friend who has finally crossed the line. “You know you’re a super creep, ‘cause the things you do won’t let you sleep,” she sings as Brooks puts down a groove Gary Numan would love.
The synths get bouncy and bright on “Psychosuperlover,” although Kavanaugh’s lyrics are still heavy: “You are the blackest hole, heart as dead as your soul. Did it burn inside when you left me here to die?” Brooks and Kavanaugh pull off the deceptive nature of the song’s subject – attractive on the outside, a monster within.
In case you missed the kinky vibe of this record, “Freak Like Me” will drive it home for you. The wicked groove and the chorus of “You know you want to be a freak like me.” make the song pretty much a required addition to any “freaky sex”-themed playlists you’re planning to make soon. “Magnetic” has Kavanaugh missing her lover and hoping for a fast return. Brooks’ synths are at times heavy and others bright on it and also on “Dangerous Heart,” which reminds me of tracks by The Knife and has Kavanaugh warning a potential lover of her wicked nature.
She shares the vocals with Brooks on “Pray,” a solid electro cut that would make Metric envious. The album ends with, of all things, a torch song. “Little Token” is a song of heartbreak and loss with minimal synths, subtle bass, and haunting piano behind Kavanaugh’s slightly echoed vocals. It’s a nice send-off and shows us that Night Club can do more than kinky electro.
The album is full of songs that reflect the title. Some of them are empowerment anthems and others are dire warnings. All are solid.
Do you need a score for next horror film? Looking for something to play in the cassette deck of your armored spike-covered car in a post-apocalyptic world? Need something to play through your earbuds while you search an alien hive or track down a masked killer? If so, Survive’s RR7349 is the album for you.
The band includes two of the men responsible for the Stranger Things score, so you can be sure this album of instrumental electro is full of 1980’s film score touches, John Carpenter influences, and love for Gary Numan.
“A.H.B.” opens the record, and is full of warped, weird synths that swirl like fog around your speakers. “Other” is ideal if you find yourself momentarily trapped in a summoning chamber built by an evil cult about to unleash some hellish thing on the world. It clanks, oozes, and slithers with deep, almost silent bass, and heavily synthesized vocals. “Dirt” has John Carpenter’s fingerprints all over it, as it sounds like a lost cut from the Prince of Darkness score.
“Wardenclyffe” might as well be the name of some Lovecraftian asylum, because it’s wonderfully creepy. Heavy bass synths and strange choral effects abound before manic keyboards take center stage. “Sorcerer” is the opening credits music of that cool time travel / medieval adventure VHS movie you watched in high school but have never been able to find since then. “Low Fog” is almost like a monastic chant. The thudding bass of “Copter” gives the song a sense of menace, and the taut synths almost wail at some points. I’m sure some film producer has bought the rights to “Cutthroat” by now, because it’s perfect for a 1980’s retro-style horror movie. You can’t miss the Halloween score influence.
This is a weird, creepy, and atmospheric record. Play it at your next cocktail party and feel how the room changes.
Keep your mind open.
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I don’t remember where I first heard The KVB (Kat Day and Nicholas Wood). It was probably BBC 6 Music, but I remember immediately thinking, “Who is that?” within a few moments. Their blend of electro, shoegaze, and John Carpenter film score riffs grabs your attention right away, and their newest album, Of Desire, is a great introduction to them if you’ve never heard them before now.
“White Walls” starts with 1980’s no wave synths and somewhat distant vocals about Nicholas Wood letting a lover leave while he stays inside to do some self-imposed penance for saying some things he regrets. The synths soar and click in beautiful waves. I don’t know what will get you to like this band if this opening track doesn’t.
Peter Hook-like bass creeps throughout “Night Games.” It sounds like something Snake Plissken would be playing in his glider flight in Escape from New York. “Lower Depths” is a goth gem, both lyrically (“Don’t want the light. I see the inside. I’m lost in a hole. My head’s on fire.”) and musically with its industrial guitars, programmed simple snare beats, and synth drones. “Silent Wave” reminds me of the Knight Rider theme at first, but it’s Knight Rider with KITT being a hearse instead of a Trans Am and the hero being a 1980’s goth computer hacker instead of a guy who’s a pop star in Germany.
“Primer” is an instrumental appetizer for the lush “Never Enough.” It’s almost the opposite of “White Walls” (but the deep synths and shoegaze guitars remain the same), as Wood has now flipped the table on his lover who has ruined everything. “And it’s all too much, because it’s never enough. And it’s all your fault as it slips away,” he sings.
I’m pretty sure “In Deep” is about a ghost waiting for its lover to die so they can be together again (“Being here, not living, I see it brings you down. And I’m trying hard to help you, but I feel I’ve come too late.”). The synths are bright like the afterlife, but the electro-bass is rooted to the Earth. “Awake” brings back the John Carpenter soundtrack feel, and it’s a great song for dark nights, dark car rides, or dark rooms. “V11393” is a cool instrumental that has probably been remixed across industrial clubs across the world by now.
“Unknown,” a song that has Wood wondering about the future as he lies in bed with his lover, has some of the loudest guitar on the record, but it knows when to move out of the way and let the synth bass take the forefront. Another good instrumental, “Mirrors,” leads into “Second Encounter,” with floating synths and clear guitar that makes you wonder if the song is about a relationship coming to an end, death, heroin, depression, or all of the above.
Of Desire is aptly named because every song on the record is about lust, love, loss, or regret. It’s a gorgeous record and actually inspired me to buy DJ gear and begin making electronic music again. Let it inspire you.
ODESZA’s Foreign Family Collective has unveiled its latest release with a double A-Side from Australian producer Golden Features aka Tom Stell. Wolfie/Funeralmarks two years since Golden Features self-titled debut EP and a year since his last EP, XXIV.
“Wolfie” started as a lullaby for Stell’s nephew (for whom the song gets its title from) and ended up evolving into an ambient, atmospheric production featuring vocals from Julia Stone. The track is layered with velvet beats and gloomy synths creating delicate, headphone-worthy dance music. In contrast, “Funeral” delivers heavy, infectious and dark tones with a pulsating rhythm boasting incredible production and originality.
Foreign Family Collective founders, Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight of ODESZA, comment on discovering Golden Features, “Two and half years ago we played our first show in Australia where we were introduced to one of the most unique and forward thinking producers we’ve ever met. That person was Golden Features. Golden’s tracks are dark, brooding, and impressively detailed. He’s already made a name for himself in the Australian music scene and now we’re proud to say we’re bringing him into the family. “Wolfie” and “Funeral” exhibit his diverse range in production and songwriting. One’s blissfully nostalgic and the other is a dance party in hell.”
Since exploding onto the scene in 2014, Golden Features has become known for his genre-bending sound, collaborating with some of the biggest names in electronic music including Porter Robinson, Bixel Boys and What So Not. 2015 saw Golden Features sell out his Australian headline tour, hit the U.S. festival circuit with stops at HARD Summer, CRSSD and Holy Ship and join Alison Wonderland on her U.S. tour. Now with “Wolfie” and “Funeral,” we’re reminded why Spotify named Golden Features an Artist To Watch in 2016.
Recorded live and without edits in Austin, Texas, D:Fuse’s People 2: Both Sides of the Picture is an outstanding double-album of house and ambient, chill and trance music. Disc 1 is entitled People Chilling and is nothing but chill music from D:Fuse and some of his favorite artists. Subtech’s “Piano Heaven” is a particularly good downtempo track that is still danceable. Joy’s “Timewave Zero” is over ten minutes of slow groove house that turns into an acid lounge track. Kaskade’s “Be There” has a sweet xylophone and hand percussion groove. D:Fuse plays three of his own tracks on the “Chilling” half of the album. The first is “Indecision,” on which he teams with Blueletter to bring a funky house dance mix that doesn’t get too heavy. The second is the club mix of “Everything with You,” and the third is a great chill-out version of “Blue Skies.”
Disc 2 is People Clubbing and starts with a grade fade-in on Scanners’ (featuring D:Fuse, no less) “Music Is About You.” “Is it trance? Is it house? Does it matter?” they ask. The answer: It doesn’t. Just get out there and shake your groove thing. Abraham Bam Boogie’s “Deep Satisfaction” is a sharp house mix. D:Fuse returns, along with Joy, on “House Sound of the Future.” It has a great classic rave vibe to it that takes me back to the early 1990’s and dancing in an abandoned high school gym. Liam Kennedy’s “dirtbag remix” of “Evaporate” has some sweet synth bass that kicks in about a third of the way through the tune. D:Fuse and Shane Howard’s “Wash” has even more of it. The hand percussion on Nathan Profitt’s “There Is Hope” is wicked and brings a tribal urgency to the song.
It’s a good double album. One side is good for making out, the other for dancing. One can always lead to the other, right?
“They’re poised to attract a ton of attention stateside.”
– NYLON (“The 7 Breakout Stars Of Summer 2016”)“a pleasant and fluid pop tune that blurs lines between R&B and two-step”
– Pitchfork“a velvety, warm, and comforting soundscape”
– The FADER
Melbourne duo Kllo’s much anticipated new EP, Well Worn, came out back in August on Ghostly International (North America), Different Recordings/PIAS (UK/Europe/Japan) and Good Manners Records (AU/NZ/ROW). In just 3 months since release it has amassed over 10 million Spotify plays and established the group as one of the most exciting new electronic prospects. Today the band shares Mall Grab’s rework of “Walls To Build,” one of the lead singles from the EP.Handpicked by Kllo, up-and-coming Australian producer Mall Grab adds a driving bass beat while altering the pace of the original, injecting some space into the song to emphasize its depth. He’s effectively managed to turn Kllo’s smart pop into low light R&B, showcasing the duo’s wide, cross-genre appeal.
Guided by the ghosts of UK garage and like-minded strains of underground dance music, the original “Walls To Build” melds Simon Lam‘s synth lines with Chloe Kaul‘s vapor-trailed verses; “Bolide” sets a skittish beat against a clipped chorus: and the one-two punch of “Sense” and “On My Name” build a couple piano-laced ballads from a pillowy sound bed of laid-back loops and lovelorn melodies. “Don’t Be The One” is deceivingly simple as well, bringing the record to a close alongside a rubbery, elusive rhythm and a growing sense of tension and release. Catchy, yes, but also compelling enough to leave us all longing for the pair’s inevitable LP.
Things happen so fast these days that Kllo barely had a Facebook page or a proper song before a wave of interest began to build around their breakthrough EP, Cusp. What a telling record title; in the year since its release, cousins Lam and Kaul have played sold-out shows and festival slots throughout Australia (Dark Mofo, Splendour in the Grass and Melbourne Music Week among many others) and overseas (The Great Escape, Primavera Sound), racked up millions of plays on Spotify, and landed on several Artists to Watch lists.
The duo is currently on their first ever world tour taking them across Europe with RÜFÜS DU SOL and NAO and North America with RÜFÜS DU SOL again later this month. To cap off the year, they’ll make their New York City live debut at Baby’s All Right on December 8th. A full list of dates is below.
KLLO TOUR DATES:
Wed. Nov. 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust (w/ NAO) Thu. Nov. 17 – Berlin, DE @ Berghain/Panorama Bar (w/ NAO) Thu. Nov. 24 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Fri. Nov. 25 – Seattle, WA @ The Neptune (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Sat. Nov. 26 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Wed. Nov. 30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Thu. Dec. 1 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Fri. Dec. 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Sat. Dec. 3 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box (w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL) Sun. Dec. 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Multiply Thu. Dec. 8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Widely heralded as one of the most innovative albums of 2015, Public Service Broadcasting’s (J. Willgoose, Esquire – banjo, guitar, sampling, Wrigglesworth – drums, piano, electronics) The Race for Space is an amazing concept album about / tribute to the space race of the 1960’s.
Beginning with the title track of an angelic chorus behind JFK’s speech calling for the exploration of space, the album moves into “Sputnik.” The electro beats and bleeps are perfect for a song about the first satellite to round the Earth. The first sample you hear is a man saying, “This is the beginning of a new era for mankind.” It was. We weren’t the same after it. The song builds in synth grandeur, not unlike something from a John Carpenter film score.
“Gagarin” is a funky electro-lounge jam and salute to Yuri Gagarin. The funky guitar and drums make him seem more like a super spy than a cosmonaut. “The whole planet knew him and loved him,” says one man in a sample before a brass section puts down a great groove. “Fire in the Cockpit” is lonely and cold, despite the title. The soft bleeps seem miles away, and the synths sound like a car engine trying to start on a cold winter morning as a man reads aloud a news release about the cockpit fire on a test flight of the Apollo 1.
“E.V.A.” brings us back to a sense of wonder with building guitar work, snappy drums, groovy keyboards, and samples about weightlessness and walking in space. “The Other Side” samples real transmissions from the Apollo 8 mission control about the inevitable loss of signal when the satellite rounds the moon. The synths build as you imagine Apollo 8 getting closer and closer to somewhere no one has ever gone. What’s great is that all music stops during the loss of signal. It’s silence until the synths return at the moment a signal is received from the Apollo 8, and burst loud when the Apollo 8 crew calls back all the way to Houston.
“Valentina” is a beautiful song you could put on a St. Valentine’s Day mixtape and a wonderful tribute to Valentina Tereshkova – the first woman to fly in space. “Go!” is a fun ride that builds from soft synths to rock drums to transmissions from the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The calls of “Go!” from all the mission control members become a stadium chant, and you can’t help but tap your toes and cheer on the mission that you know was a success.
The album ends with “Tomorrow,” an uplifting song about the Apollo 17 mission and the future of our exploration of space and of mankind. The xylophone gives it a cool “space-lounge” feel, and the fade-in is heavenly. I hope someone has sent it to the international space station for the astronauts’ wake-up music.
I hope this whole album has been sent there. It’s wonderful. The Race for Space would easily have been in my top ten albums of 2015 if I’d started this blog last year.
I’d been looking for this album for a long time since hearing parts of it on a National Public Radio show that was highlighting techno and house music from Mexico made by Nortec Collective – a group of Mexican DJs and producers who often worked together. I found The Tijuana Sessions vol. 1 in a used CD bin for about three bucks last year. It was worth the wait.
Bostich’s “Polaris” gets the compilation off to a good start, mixing rapid snare beats with synth bass. Bostich has two other tracks on the album – “El Vergel” (which includes street band accordion and tuba to good effect. Yes, really.) and “Synthakon” – a fun dub track.
Fussible, Bostich’s frequent collaborator, has three tracks as well – “Casino Soul” (with fun electro bleeps and a swanky synth horn section), “Trip to Ensenada” (a great acid house track with cool reverbed synths), and “Ventilador” (his trippiest contribution to the record).
Another triple threat DJ on the record is Terrestre. He starts with “Norteno De Janeiro,” which is a great tune for late night lounging and make-out sessions in a nightclub on the Yucatan Peninsula. Second is “El Lado Oscuro De Mi Compadre,” which belongs in a Bond film or at least a cool 1960’s Euro-spy movie. Third is “Tepache Jam” – an accordion and tuba-heavy jam saluting Mexican buskers and house parties.
Plankton Man gets a double shot, first with “Elemento N.” Like Bostich’s “El Vergel,” it blends house music with traditional Mexican street music (bold horns, parade drums, and touches of Spanish style guitar) and mixes them well. His next tune is “No Liazi Jaz,” which brings in a bit of psychedelic fuzz to his house stylings.
Other DJs on the record include Panoptica, whose “And L” is a slick acid house track with trippy reverbed percussion, Clorofila (bringing us the super-loungy “Cantamar ‘72”), and Hiperboreal – whose “Tijuana for Dummies” is a good house track with no muss and no fuss. It’s just dance beats layered upon dance beats.
The Tijuana Sessions vol. 1 is a good house / lounge / dub record and well worth investigating if you’re on the hunt for such music. Just don’t take eleven years to find it like I did.
I’m not sure if there’s a current band that does songs about sex and the dangerous side of love better than The Kills (Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart). Ash & Ice is certainly about both, and it’s also a hip journey into electro-rock that I didn’t expect.
The album begins with electro beeps on “Doing It to Death,” but Hince’s squawking guitar is close behind. The mix of Hince’s as-always fine guitar work with the electro touches is interesting, as is the reverb on Mosshart’s vocals during the bridge. Synth-percussion then mixes with a traditional drum kit on “Heart of a Dog,” which is a sexy showcase for Mosshart’s bad ass-ness as she sings about coming back yet again to a lover she knows is bad for her. It also has a sultry bass groove throughout it that gets into your bones.
“Hard Habit to Break” isn’t a cover of the sappy Chicago song, but instead a near drum and bass track with Mosshart dressing down her lover as he tries to control her. Ash & Ice is firmly into electro-rock territory by the time we get to “Bitter Fruit” and its programmed beats and synth bass. It’s a wicked groove, and Hince and Mosshart’s co-vocals are outstanding. “Days of Why and How” is minimalist guitar, a drum machine, some bass, and Mosshart singing into what sounds like an old microphone. Don’t worry, it all sounds good.
The opening of “Let It Drop” is so quirky that it almost sounds like the track wandered in from another record until Hince’s guitar walks into the room. “You give me the shakes. You give me the cold sweats,” Mosshart sings, making us swoon. The song could be a pop-dance track with a bit of remixing. “Hum for Your Buzz” has an interesting title and an even more interesting sound. Mosshart’s vocals are clear as Hince’s guitar sounds like he’s playing in the back of a forgotten highway bar. It reminds you that the Kills could (and I wish they would) make a great blues record.
“Siberian Nights” has Mosshart singing, “I could make you come in threes. I’m halfway to my knees. Am I too close for comfort?” No, Ms. Mosshart. The answer to that is a definite “No.” Beware the Psycho shower scene soundtrack-like synths on this, however, for I feel they reveal wickedness behind Ms. Mosshart’s seductive lyrics. She’s just as good on “That Love,” which is a pure torch song.
“Impossible Tracks” sounds like “classic Kills.” The programmed beats are minimized in favor of Hince’s panther-prowl guitar work. “You get what you give. I don’t regret what I did,” Mosshart sings. I don’t know if she’s singing about leaving someone or shagging him (and not feeling guilty about either). “Black Tar” keeps up the guitar-driven sultry rock the Kills do so well. Hince’s guitar on “Echo Home” sounds like it’s from a warped record of a spaghetti western soundtrack, and his vocals mesh well with Mosshart’s. The electro-rock comes back to finish the record with “Whirling Eye,” and it’s a sharp track that sounds like they teamed up with Metric or listened to a lot of krautrock before they recorded it (and how about that psychedelic guitar solo from Hince?).
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I didn’t expect so many electro touches from the Kills, but it all works. I suppose the “ash” in the album’s title could refer to the gritty guitar work and tough lyrics, while the “ice” could refer to the cool synth touches and loops featured throughout the record. It could also refer to Mosshart’s love of cigarettes and how both she and Hince like to kick back a few cocktails now and then. Kick this album back with them. It’s smoky and cool.
Keep your mind open.
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Slaves bring great British punk that skewers not only the elite rich, but also Millennial slackers and even the stupidity of drunk driving.
Dunsmuir is a metal supergroup featuring members of Clutch, Fu Manchu, The Company Band, and Black Sabbath. Their debut is a concept record about a shipwrecked crew fighting monsters on a remote island.
