Albums of the Year (so far) and a review

Albums of the Year (so far)

Well, we're halfway through 2013 and the Guardian's recently published a list of their readers' albums of the year so far, so I thought I'd do the same. There'll be ten records in my final end-of-year list, but since it's only July, I'll put five in here. I love lists like these, partly because I love making lists, and partly because they serve as an antidote to all those miserable tossers who moan about how music there isn't any good music nowadays. The truth is, there's as much great music around now as there ever has been, you just have to look a little harder.

No. 5: Blister Unit
Christ Ape

This album was a treat for anyone who enjoys unpretentious, straightforward grindcore. There isn't an ounce of innovation, experimentation or progressiveness on this record, and that's just the way it should be - Blister Unit delivered an adrenaline-sodden thrillride of an album, and I'm looking forward to listening to the new material that is available on their bandcamp page.

No. 4: Napalm Death
Utilitarian

Let's face it, there was no way I wasn't going to include Napalm Death in this list. With Utilitarian, these aging titans of grind proved that they can hold their own alongside any of us young whippersnappers. Sixteen tracks and more than forty minutes of brutal, unrelenting grind proved that you still cannot fuck with Napalm.

No. 3: Cloud Rat
Moksha

With an album title taken from Eastern philosophy and a cover of a Neil Young song, Cloud Rat's Moksha was not your typical grind album. Not that anyone expected otherwise from one of the more intelligent - and one of the best - grind bands around. Cloud Rat delivered a complex, multifaceted album that managed to be  genuinely disturbing as well as beautiful - few bands manage either of those things, so it's a real acheivement to do both on the same record. Long live Cloud Rat.

No. 2: Laura Marling
Once I Was An Eagle

A slight change of pace here. Marling's debut was a real gem - enchanting, sexy, tough and just generally fantastic, this album more than deserves its place at No. 2 on this list.

No. 1: Merzbow/Nordvagr
Partikel III

Merzbow, of course, needs no introduction, but I'll introduce him anyway. The stage name of Japanese composer/improviser Masami Akita, Merzbow is the undisputed king of Noise. More than three hundred and fifty albums in a career spanning four decades amount to both the largest and most significant body of work of any artist in the genre.

According to Wikipedia, Nordvagr is a Swedish musician whose enormous discography covers a variety of styles, focusing on the noisy, the dark and the extreme. So a pretty unlikely pair then, these two.

This album is fantastic - even non-noise fans will love it. While Merzbow's previous release, Kibako, was a straight-up harsh noise record, Partikel III is something altogether different, a set of four pulsing, atmospheric tracks reminiscent of Fuck Buttons. This is a trippy, hallucinogenic album, combining Aphex Twin-style beats with almost dubsteppy basslines and electronic noise to create vast, echoing caverns of sound. Hypnotic soundscapes punctuated intermittently with flutters of crackling noise like the wings of insects, the sound of what could be a car engine revving. This is deeply introspective music - it takes one deep into one's own head. Parts of it sound like Burial, parts like Metal Machine Music, Lou Reed's masterpiece and the album that invented Noise. Even in a career as illustrious as Merzbow's, this album is a high point that he will struggle to reach again.

Rating: 10/10