2016 Review - Best of...

bez23

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Okay, let's have it. What have I missed, what floated your boat?
What music could you just not leave alone and found yourself reaching for over and over?

I struggled a bit to think of music that totally blew my gourd in 2016, but here's my faves from the past year...

FSOL
Environments 6 & 6.5

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I'm a bit of a lost cause when it comes to FSOL. Truth be told, it's sort of more of the same, but I just love their sound, and can sink into any number of consecutive albums from their From the Archives or Environments series. Can you have more of the same when more of the same is endlessly inventive?

Lunacell
Cylon Lounge

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The best of it for deep, solid, tripped out after-hours psytrance this year.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not really listening to psytrance much at the minute, so please - tell me what was outstanding by all means. Lunecell continued to hit the sweet spot here with driving hard sounds that retain a sense of space. I need a bit of space around my beats these days.

Squid Inc.
Indelible

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While we're on with the psytrance, loved this. Old-school UK style in that Ambivalent Records, chunky Trick Music mould. Arrived just as I was worried that psytrance was terminally, fatally boring.

Continuum
Become Happier

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Our Ian! He did it! He finally released an album, and it's a beauty! Perfect chilled, dreamy, deep, thoughtful and musically satisfying. Our Ian! Nice work brother, I'm proud of you.

Max Cooper
Emergence

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Top tip from Torsion Jim. I can find a lot of what you recommend a bit abrasive for me Jim, but I am ALL over this. Heavy rotation at the minute. Order From Chaos had me in tears again yesterday, and Impermanence (feat Kathrin DeBoer) is the natural theme to Bill Viola's The Return (2007). Amazing techno adventure.
 
Luigi Tozzi
Deep Blue Vol. 2

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Now this is where my heart is at. There's a bunch of Italians that I can't get enough of, Tozzi, Donato Dozzy, VFtL and Dino Sabatini. Could listen to their music all day, all night, love it-love it-love it.
Techno that envelops, lifts, modulates gently, constructs itself in sympathy with your mind offering everything you need to both dive headlong inward and stomp your feet. Seb Mullaert turned me on to this lot with his DJ sets.

John Ellis
Evolution: Seeds & Streams

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Alrighty then. This is where the rest of my heart has resided this past year - jazz. Matthew Halsall has been responsible for some of the sweetest sounds for my jazz palate since Alice Coltrane's Journey in Satchidananda, as much of his output on his own Manchester based label Gondwana Records will prove. Matt played at the RNCM this year with John Ellis supporting, and it was a mind expanding night of music. John Ellis was a former pianist for Cinematic Orchestra, and that musical vibe shines through Evolution. Even if the thought of jazz doesn't appeal, I defy you not to be enthralled with this release. The inclusion of kora in the mix certainly gives the vibe a nod towards Alice Coltrane's beautiful harp style.

Melanie De Biasio
Blackened Cities

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While we're on a jazz tip, this 24 minute release from Belgian delight De Biasio is an improvised ambient tech-jazz masterpiece that swells from zero to apocalyptic dark ambient jazz masterpiece providing an extraordinary journey. I'd been hoping to catch her live some time last year, but no gigs in the UK had been listed on her website. We went to see Cinematic Orchestra in Manchester in November, and who should be one of their 3 guest vocalists? Nice.

Peter Power
Awake Into Life

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Not entirely sure what to call this sort of music, but it's blossomed over the past year or two, with artists like Peter Power, Jota Karloza, Nicola Cruz, and labels like Akumandra, Voodoohop, Shika Shika and Lump forging a new sound. It's somewhere between lo-fi house music and ayahuasca tinged folk, and it's ace.

Paul Simon
Stranger to Stranger

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Honourable mention to Paul Simon, whose latest release proves again that he's one of our species master song-smiths. Lovely album - be sure to get the deluxe version with the Horace and Pete theme tune.

Waveshaper
Electro Glyph

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Saving the best until last, album of the year for me comes from the ever under-rated Greg Hunter, without whom much of my record collection would be significantly less tripped out and astonishing sounding. The Electro Glyph album was in the making for a while, but found its final mastered form early in 2016.

I don't quite know how to describe what Greg does with sound, so I'll let ol' Bill Burroughs explain with a portion of Naked Lunch, which I believe paints as fine a picture of Greg Hunter's musical mind as is possible...

"The room seems to shake and vibrate with motion. The blood and substance of many races, Negro, Polynesian, Mountain Mongol, Desert Nomad, Polyglot Near East, Indian -- races as yet unconceived and unborn, combinations not yet realized pass through your body. Migrations, incredible journeys through deserts and jungles and mountains (stasis and death in closed mountain valleys where plants grow out of genitals, vast crustaceans hatch inside and break the shell of body) across the Pacific in an outrigger canoe to Easter Island. The Composite City where all human potentials are spread out in a vast silent market."

Over to you - what did I miss?
 
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Mine arent particularly released this year, though some are:

Neutek - Fractality

good weirdness





D'archanelo - Periscope EP

quality acid-tinge



Max Cooper, obvs.


ill do more later

in regards to 'abrasive' Bez. I wasnt aware i posted too much abrasive stuff. A little fucked up at times, but nothing more than bendy acid at varying tempos. Dont you like psycovsky? Surely some playful pacy wonk is right up your street if you can stomach him
 
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this first and foremost.

Then liked the Autechre live album(s), Jenny Hval, Oren Ambarchi, Avvenir, Matmos, Shammash, Meshuggah, Belgrado, Shackleton, Horse Lords.

Oh! And there was a pretty good album called BES by the Dwarfs of East Agouza!
 
in regards to 'abrasive' Bez. I wasnt aware i posted too much abrasive stuff...

I'm not sure exactly what the quality is I can sometimes find hard to tune into. Abrasive is maybe too subjective a word.
Might be that your tolerance of distortion is higher than mine? I dunno. Keep 'em coming though.

this first and foremost.

Holy moly. Serpentwithfeet is incredible - nice find sir. I'm awaiting a copy of the Shackleton Devotional Songs (with Ernesto Tomasini) too now. I followed him and Appleblim for a while, but drifted off after Music for the quiet hour.

Good recommends all round.
I understand this is a bit like shouting into the abyss, but surely not everyone has fecked off to FB.

More please!
 
Datach'i - System



Some serious modular work.


Dinosuar Jr - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not.



Overall my fav rock band. Still going strong.

Dominik Eulberg - Spulsaum ep (from 2015)



His best release for a while, including his 2016 stuff.
 
Have been enjoying this alot since it came out:
 
Continuum
Become Happier

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Our Ian! He did it! He finally released an album, and it's a beauty! Perfect chilled, dreamy, deep, thoughtful and musically satisfying. Our Ian! Nice work brother, I'm proud of you.

Thanks Bez! :Smile3:
I've been enjoying the response to the album and it's led to some very interesting opportunities which I look forward to letting you all know about as things progress..

Happy 2017 everyone!
 
that expert album is full on.

Good heads ups here - added most of these for future listens.

I've been slacking this year.

quite liked the new pixies one



and have to give bowie a nod

 
I'm not quite sure how I managed to miss this album:



But it seems rather good. I shall be listening more.
 
i completely forgot one that i rediscovered on my HD last night.




The mellower incarnation of wisp. Oozes quality.
 
Datach'i - System



His best release for a while, including his 2016 stuff.


I'm happy I stumbled on this thread. Was googling about trying to find a conversation about RWD Vol. 1 ... which is my undeniably most favourite and best ear candy of the last few months.

The track synthetic metals by Datach'i blew my mind a bit. Bet there's some more gems here.
 
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