Best Albums of 2013

Bill Orcutt - A History of Everyone
I wasn't sure where exactly to put this album on my list, so I decided to just shove it on the end where it wouldn't interfere with the top fifteen proper. It's a really great record - I posted a review of it yesterday, so I won;t go into too much detail here, but seriously - give it a spin. It's awesome

And now for the top fifteen:

15: Locust of the Dead Earth - Mithridate
This was the first album I ever reviewed on this blog, and I definitely got things off to a good start. It's a dense, delicate, swirling melange of ambient textures and drones, nihilism and beatitude, Neitszche and Brian Eno. I still don;t know how to pronounce that name, but I love this record.

14: The National - Trouble Will Find Me
I'd never listened to The National until tonight, and I'd always written them off as a hipster band, but holy fuck is this thing beautiful. It's kind of like a more organic-sounding Radiohead - the semi-ambient soundscapes, the subtle yet perfectly judged melodies, the oblique lyrics, every aspect of this album adds up to make a truly amazing piece of work.

13: Kanye West - Yeezus
A lot of people hate Kanye West, largely because he's a wanker. But what they forget is that he's a damn good musician. He may be a self-absorbed, arrogant dickhole, but he's also really good at taking the piss out of self-absorbed, arrogant dickholes. That comedic ability, along with West's talent as a producer, is what marks this album out as something special. He's also a damn fine rapper, far better than his overhyped, mediocre contemporary Jay Z.

12: Sting - The Last Ship
Sting is a much-underrated songwriter. People always slag him off because of the Police, and to be fair, they were a bit dull. But his solo work is fantastic, and this album is no exception. A concept album, based around the shipyards of Newcastle, The Last Ship runs the gamut of emotions, from raucous drinking songs to tear-sodden laments, often in the same song. Have no doubt, this is well worth buying.

11: Facebreaker - Dedicated to the Flesh
This is another album I hadn't listened to until today, and it was a hell of a find. Facebreaker are a Swedish death metal band, which probably tells you all you need to know about them. I don;t really listen to a lot of death metal, but Dedicated to the Flesh kicks all kinds of arse. It has everything you'd want in a death metal album and more. Buy this record. See this band.

10: Dead in the Dirt - The Blind Hole
Dead in the Dirt are a vegan straight edge band from the US, and their new album is a harsh, discordant affair. Feedback bleeds through pummeling hardcore like blood from a fist full of broken glass. There's something in the bleakness of this album that seems to come from black metal, rather than grindcore, and the album really benefits from that. The sheer coldness of The Blind Hole marks it out.

9: Islam85 - S/T
Islam85 sadly broke up this year, but this self-titled release was a truly outstanding final bow. It's the quintessential powerviolence record - low-down, bass-heavy chug, brutal fast sections, cheap and nasty production and pure, unadulterated rage. They blew my mind, and hopefully they'll blow yours, too.

8: Blister Unit - The Dengar Demo
I was hesitant to put this on the list, because (SPOILER ALERT) I didn't want to have two albums by the same band. But Blister Unit definitely merit the double placing. This is drum and bass powerviolence at its finest, enough to - dare I say it? - give Man Is The Bastard a run for their money. Blister Unit are an incredible band, and they deserve to be far better known than they are.

7: Sick/Tired - King of Dirt
King of Dirt kind of passed me by when it came out, but when I finally heard it, it knocked me for six. The sheer feral energy of this band is beyond compare - there are few bands who can ever hope to replicate the abrasive, ferocious assault on the ears that is King of Dirt.

6: Cloud Rat - Moksha
I've been a fan of Cloud Rat for quite some time, and they just get better and better. There's no one thing that makes Moksha a great album. Everything - the unorthodox melodicism, the focus on texture and atmosphere rather than mindless aggression, the imaginative guitar playing, the way the singer sounds like she's on the verge of jumping through the speakers and ripping your throat out - it all combines to make this arecord that is far greater than the sum of its parts. I would recommend this to any grindcore fan.

5: Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle
Ok, now we're into the big guns, the top five, and there's a slight change of pace with this one. Laura Marling has given the world some amazing music, and Once I Was An Eagle is no exception. It's jazzier than her previous efforts, tougher too, and generally more worldly. Marling sounds like she's been around the block once or twice, and has the scars to show for it. This is a wonderful record.

4: Blister Unit - Christ Ape
I've written about this album quite a bit, and it deserves every word of praise I've given it. It's a simple, fast blitzkreig of the senses, a collection of songs that seem to be physically shaking you and screaming in your face. You can practically feel the singer's breath. The guitar solos are a real high point - never wanky, never boring, just sheer aggression. One of the best grindcore bands around, full stop.

3: Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
I knew Slow Focus would be on this list as soon as I heard it. It's a soaring, uplifting noise album, full of sound and fury, signifying - well quite a bit actually. Some hardcore noise fans have slagged it off for being too upbeat, too "accessible," but such complaints smack of hipsterism. And the less said about the fucktards who hate it because it's discordant, the better. If you like noise, electronica, or music in general, then I'd recommend this.

2: Merzbow and Nordvagr - Partikel III
Well, this is something. I never would have thought that anything could come along to knock Merzbow off the top spot, but it's happened. Still, nothing can take away the fact that this is one of the greatest Noise albums ever made. It's not as harsh as some Merzbow fans might expect, nor is it as soft as the Guardian readers would want, but it is what it is and what it is is something very, very special. It's difficult to describe Partikel III without slipping into hyperbole, but what I will say is that Merzbow and Nordvagr deserve a spot alongside Lou Reed and Throbbing Gristle in the Noise pantheon. Listen to this while high and you might just acheive nirvana.

1: Bill Callahan - Dream River
Well, this is it, folks - number 1. The king of the hill. The best album (imo) of the year. And I can think of few years when Dream River would not have deserved that title. Bill Callahan is a master songwriter - one of maybe two or three who deserve to be compared to Bob Dylan. There is not one single thing wrong with this album - the vocals are perfect, the lyrics are perfect, the music is perfect. If you've lost faith in modern music; if you think that all the great songs have already been written; if you don;t own any records made after 1975; then this is the album to change your mind. There is nothing hyperbolic about anything I've said here. Bill Callahan is a genius, and that is not a word I use lightly.

Review - Bill Orcutt

Bill Orcutt
A Hisory of Every One

Ok, it's been a while since I posted, due to various factors, but now I'm back with what is definitely the strangest (and hardest to classify) album that I've heard all year. Bear in mind, I am quite considerably drunk at the moment, so that may affect my judgement.

Alright, then, Bill Orcutt. I wasn't sure what to expect from this record - on the one hand, Orcutt was in Harry Pussy, and I fucking hate Harry Pussy. On the other, he plays a guitar with only two strings on at least one of these songs, and as someone who regularly plays with less than the recommended number of strings, I thought I should give it a look/listen. So I gave it a look/listen, and I'm glad that I did. Orcutt's new record is made up entirely of covers of old American standards, but there's nothing standard about the way he plays them. In his hands, songs like "When You Wish Upon A Star" and "White Christmas" become strange, distorted (de)compositions. He takes some of the most familiar songs in the western world and deconstructs them until they bear almost no relation to their original forms. His guitar spits out strange, jumbled fragments, semi-bluesy note clusters, dissonant skeletons somewhere in between John Fahey's acoustic work and John Fahey's electric work. Sometimes a few notes will come together to form something beautiful and melodious, as in "Spanish is the Loving Tongue," but more often he sounds like Blind Willie Johnson having a stroke - in a really, really good way. Occasionally, Orcutt's voice intrudes, adding eerie whoops and hollers to the jangling guitar.

The comparisons are obvious - Marc Ribot, Jandek, John Zorn - but Orcutt is his own musician, and he plays like noone else could. I won;t give this album a rating, partly because I'm currently too pissed to trust my own judgement, but also because I really don;t think I can reduce this music to a simple score out of ten. One thing's for sure, though - this will be one of my albums of the year.

Review - Bill Callahan

Bill Callahan
Dream River

I got into Bill Callahan quite recently - only a few months ago - and I've got to say, I can't believe I'd never heard of him before. He's a stunning songwriter, kind of like a male Joanna Newsom. His songs have the same sort of ever-shifting structure and complex lyrics as hers, and like her, he's one of the greatest lyricists around right now. It normally pisses me off to a disproportionate level when people say that a songwriter is "really a poet," because it carries with it the assumption that poetry is inherently better than song lyrics - someone can't just be a great lyricist, they have to be a "poet," even though they clearly aren't. A poet is someone who writes poetry. A songwriter is someone who writes songs. Bill Callahan is not a poet - he's a songwriter. But he could be a poet if he wanted to, and I'm pretty sure he knows that. His lyrics actually work like poetry, and the music he writes could easily work without vocals. Other than Newsom, I can't think of another songwriter of whom this can be said. Dream River, his new album, is another addition to an astonishing body of work. The music is intricately crafted, complex but never wanky, the lyrics are some of the best ever written (and I do not say that likely) and, to top it all off, there's the voice. That deep, rich voice, that Callahan weilds like a precision tool - his every syllable is perfectly weighted, given exactly the correct emphasis. His singing style is amost like speech, or like a poet performing his work. He kind of reminds me of a cross between Scott Walker and Lou Reed. Together, the lyrics, music and vocals make up what will almost certainly be the best album released this year. Listen to the album via the link above.

Rating: 10/10

Review - Death Grips

Death Grips
Government Plates

Well, it's finally here - the new Death Grips album.  If you haven't heard of Death Grips, then you've really been missing out. The are peraps the greatest hip-hop group around now, and one of the best that have ever been around. The deal in oblique lyrics set against a harsh, noisy background of brilliantly selected samples and brutal electronics. If you are new to them, though, this album is a pretty good place to start. It starts off with "You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You For It's Your Brand New Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" - that's right, this is Death Grips referencing Dylan (though it's hardly surprising - they've sampled Link Wray and Arthur Brown before, so they clearly have a pretty wide-ranging taste in music). Like the rest of the album, it's heavy, it's dark, and while you'd need an interpreter to tell you what the lyrics actually mean, it's pretty clear it's nothing pleasant. The album is pretty much the same as their last three records, but that's not a bad thing - Death Grips know what they're good at and they do it well. And Government Plates isn't exactly the same as their previous output, in any case. There are more atmospheric passages here, and a greater emphasis on building a subtly threatening vibe than bludgeoning the audience into submission - closing track "Whatever I Want (Fuck Who's Watching)" is a case in point. It's not nearly as abrasive as the rest of the album, but that doesn't mean that it's soft, or poppy - it's just that it's more like the long, nerve-wracking part of a horror film where the monster is about to appear, rather than the bloody few seconds when it actually does. All in all, this is a quality album, and a worthy addition to Death Grips' discography.

Rating: 8/10

Will Be Betrayed 3rd Birthday Bash review

Hello there. I've just got back from Sheffield and one of the best gigs I've been to. Here's a review.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get to the venue until four, so I missed Cycle Riot, and the beginning of Tosserlad's set, but what I did see of the latter was good, solid punk. Nothing special, but a fine way to start things off. Chewed Up's frontman seemed a little reserved to begin with, but he got into the swing of things pretty quickly and the band gave a quality set. Their ska-influenced sound was an interesting approach and marked them out from the rest of the bands. Ephemeral Foetus, in addition to having perhaps the best band name I've ever heard, played a fantastic set of metallic hardcore, with the singer giving it everything he had, and the crowd loved them. Total Bloody Chaos, who followed, were slightly less exciting but still enjoyable, proving that there's nothing wrong with good old fashioned, by-the-book punk. Gets Worse, of course, were fantastic - they really are one of the best bands of their generation, and if you haven't heard them, you definitely should. They gave probably the heaviest performance of the night, and even among so many other great bands, they stood out. Noone sounds quite like them. Holiday were an interesting change of pace. I'm not usually a fan of pop-punk, or any punk with clean vocals, but they made it work (maybe it had something to do with the vocals being low enough in the mix that I couldn't actually hear the lyrics). Their songs did kind of blend into one another though - the lack of variety put a bit of a damper on the whole thing. Hey, I recognise those three chords - it's all of Dogsflesh's songs! They may be a hugely influential band, but tonight they sounded boring. Their sound may have been original and exciting back in the '80s, but last night they gave very lifeless performance. The same can't be said, though, of Barb Wire Dolls. I'd never heard of them before, but after seeing them life, I'll definitely be checking them out. Their frontwoman was a natural performer - she knew exactly how to get the crowd going. I never thought I'd see crowd-surfing in a moshpit of ten people, but I have now. Which brings us to the big guns, the band I came to see, the unfuckwithable Discharge. They really blew the roof off the place with a blistering set, which included my personal favourite A Hell On Earth. The crowd loved them, I loved them, they were awesome. I would have enjoyed them even more if I hadn't been so drunk/exhausted.

A special shout-out is due also to Vegan Approach, who provided excellent vegan food.

Grindcore for Beginners Part 8 - WTF is that!?

The Locust
Plague Soundscapes

I couldn't think of a title for this section of Grindcore for Beginners, so I just went with my first reaction to the frenetic grindfuckery of The Locust. Like Captain Beefheart jamming with Agoraphobic Nosebleed, or The Dillinger Escape Plan before they got boring, this California-based four-peice has included two former members of Cattle Decapitation. They're well-known for wearing strange costumes, only playing all-ages shows and being completely batshit insane. Their brand of noisy, conspicuously technical Dadaist grind, replete with neck-snapping tempo changes and oblique lyrics, has made them more enemies than fans - odd, seeing as their detractors are often the same people who will be tripping over themselves to lap up every pretentious note that Melt Banana shit out. Their music is unbelievably complex, but never wanky, and probably about as weird as it gets.

The Locust exemplify the fun-loving insanity of punk and grindcore - an aspect people often forget. Remember, Napalm Death used to fall about laughing in their early rehearsals, and for every Dropdead there's a Cogs and Sprockets.

What's also interesting is how they exemplify the tendency towards high levels of technicality in grindcore. This tendency may be down to the influence of metal on the genre, or it may simply be due to the fact that it takes considerable chops to play grind - punk and hardcore prided themselves on their simplicity, but the sheer speed of grindcore means that even the simplest riff will take a lot of practice. Whatever the cause, there have always been grind bands whose technical wizradry is a vital part of their music, and most of them tend to be pretty dull. The Locust, however, are the exception. They may fit more riffs into one song than most bands have on an entire album, but they never forget that the technique must serve the song, not the other way around.

Anyway - have a listen.

A slightly late halloween post

Ok, I know Halloween was yesterday, but I'm doing this post today because shut up, that's why. This is the time of year when we like to be frightened, where we watch scary films and read ghost stories. But there's something missing there - where's the scary music? It often seems to me that, while people will happily watch a scary film or read a scary book, they tend to run a mile if you play them a scary peice of music. Why is that? I don;t know. There seems to be a tendency to think of music as something that should be tuneful, cheery, something to dance to and little else. When people hear anything discordant or dark, they tend to start bitching about how it's "depressing" or "not proper music". In the interests of redressing that balance, then, here are five of my favourite frightening songs.

Of course, I had to put this one in. "Frankie Teardrops" tops every list of scary songs, and for good reason. The subject matter's dark enough - murder, suicide, damnation - but it's the music that really makes this terrifying. The spare, pulsing electronics and the gibbering vocals are bound to send shivers up your spine. For maximum terror, listen to it alone, in the dark, on headphones.

"Birds / Birds / This is not a cornhusk doll / Dipped in blood in the moonlight / Like what happened in America" Possibly the scariest opening line of all time? You can always count on Scott Walker to provide some creepy shit, and this is one of his best tracks. A song about Mussolini's mistress, Clara Petacci, who was hanged alongside him, this song makes the perfect soundtrack to a night spent cowering in a corner in a pool of your own terror sweat.

Bob Dylan is the greatest folk singer of all time. When you listen to him, it's like listening to the voice of folk music itself, all the blod and gore and darkness and beauty of the old songs made manifest. And this is one of scariest folk songs of all - a story of a woman who is tricked into taking a ride with someone who might be the Devil, or the ghost of her dead husband. As you might predict, it doesn't end well for her. Dylan wrings every ounce of fear from this song, and it's genuinely chilling. You can hear my take on the song here.

I couldn't pick one song off this album, so I've just gone ahead and posted the whole thing. Still, at just over ten minutes, it's hsorter than two of the songs on here. Grindcore is a genre where words like "brutal," "harsh," etc have become cliches, but this is a band who genuinely deserve to be described in such terms. Even among this most extreme of music genres, they stand out as one of the most challenging and, yes, scary groups out there.

This is folk music at its finest - it's nasty, it's scary, it's bloodthirsty. Billy Bragg gives a standout performance on this spine-chilling meditation on the Falklands conflict.

Bonus track:

In honour of the late, great Lou Reed, who died on Sunday, here's an appropriate track from his album The Blue Mask: