Best Of 2015 - Albums & Mixtapes & ....

Reflekzionz/Enttropik EP - Ekoplekz
Another great LP from Nick Edwards and the EP has two of his best tunes ever. He's on a hell of a roll and is quite possibly the best living electronic artist on the planet.

Lost Themes - John Carpenter
Carpenter knocks his clones out of the park with this classic epic slab of prog-horror. He just does what he does and that's the beauty of this album.

Playclothes From Faraway Places/Why Does My House Make Creaking Moises? - Moon Wiring Club
MWC are still intriguing, captivating and delightful after 10 years. This is his best since Today Bread, Tomorrow Secrets and that's saying something as that's probably his 2nd best work. So this could end up at 1 or 3. This conjures images of ye olde English spectres breakdancing in dank haunted houses. Like Stereolab before him he makes writing about his music pointless as the song titles say it all 'Hide & Ghost Seek' 'Cobwebby Whodunit' 'Chic Exorcist' 'The Hushening' 'Haywire Assistants' 'Timeless Tea Gowns' etc. What is all that whispering about?

Barter 6/Slime Season - Young Thug
How the fuck does he keep it up? Two great releases from rap's weirdest tripper with the most original flow in hip-hop's history? Me like a very lot.

Nightvision - Mark Van Hoen
Mark continues on his merry way outside of trends and makes a little gem of an electronic LP in the process. Did anyone even notice?

Thrilla - Boosie Badazz
Ignore his stupid name change, he's still Lil Boosie to me but as he says he's a 'bad ass mother fucker.' He sounds like a real slime ball with the most menacing swagga in the game. When he gets in a maniacal zone it's as intensely infectious as prime Iggy Pop. Why isn't he as big as Kanye?

Rudeboyz EP - Rudeboyz
Mesmerising tumbling rhythms that bounce around amongst gloomy minimalism.

DS2 - Future
What a year Future's had, especially when you consider his inconsistent previous year. This album is just the tip of the iceberg of his 2015. This is his unapologetic paean to nihilistic hedonism and something tells me this all ain't gonna end well...

EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE - Rustie
Rustie makes a fine return to form and sets us adrift on memory bliss. It's so hard to resist this cheesy, cheap and cheerful noise.

Rich Off Mackin - RJ & Choice
Everyone wanted to write off DJ Mustard in 2015 (including my barber) but Rich Off Mackin can't be denied. This is gold and really feels like a true collaboration between RJ, Choice and Dijon. It's party time, people!

Houston 3AM - Beatking
Beatking continues to kill everything he does and Houston 3AM is up there with his best LPs/Mixtapes. The King is the most un-PC rapper in the game. Bret Easton Ellis needs to do a podcast with this guy!

Safe - Visionist
Everything about this on surface value make me wanna be sick ie. the cover, the artist's name, the song titles etc....omg I want to punch this C*** in the face. So it's with great disappointment then that I have to announce this music is good stuff: Minimal, thin & empty with occasional flourishes into neon lit sound. Hauntological Grime, anyone?

OTHERS I ALSO LIKED
Slime Season 2 - Young Thug
The Hateful Eight OST - Ennio Morricone
Cub OST - Steve Moore

London Overgrown - John Foxx
Tales From The Black Tangle - Howlround
Don't Let The Sauce Fool U - Sauce Twinz
I'm Movin' To Houston - Starlito
Beast Mode/56 Nights - Future
3 Weeks/Club God 4 - Beatking
Candy, Diamonds & Pills - Gangsta Boo
Life II Death - Amber London
What A Time To Be Alive - Drake & Future
12 Reasons To Die II - Ghostface Killah

WHAT'S WITH THESE???
John T Gast - Excerpts
Puts in perspective how good Scorn were circa Evanescence and Ekoplekz are now. Switch it off.
Father - Who's Gonna Get Fucked First?
Awful Records is a rather apt title for his label, innit?
Arca - Mutant
It's alright I'spose but am I gonna play it a 4th time? No.
Helm - Olympic Mess
Olympic snooze-fest.
*I could go on and on and on some more but that'll do.....

TELEVISION
Girls: These characters are so fucking awful, I hate them. Genius.

Better Call Saul was alright particularly the comedy gold of the Bingo scene in the final episode.

The American TV Golden Age didn't last long did it? Beginning with the first episode of Sopranos and ending somewhere around the last episode of the fourth season of Breaking Bad, I reckon. Britain however has pretty much been in a TV golden age since the 70s.

MOVIES
Remember when they used to make good movies?

Abundance Of Stuff

Well it's been quite a couple of weeks for new releases, a bit like the old days when you didn't know which releases to get because there were so many that you wanted to hear. Now though the ones you don't buy you can just download, I suppose, plus many are free downloads anyway. Beatking and Young Thug releasing new albums/mixtapes in the same week is a good week which ever way you look at it. God I'm still getting my head around Thugga's Barter 6 and the first volume of Slime Season and now we've got Slime Season 2. His new mixtape Slime Season 2 (after only a couple of listens) is quite possibly up there with his two classics Black Portland & 1017 Thug. Young Thug also has a collaboration mixtape with Migos about to drop at any moment plus another official solo LP. He's the new James Brown ie. the hardest working man in show business. Beatking's 3 Weeks is his third album of the year as well and his quality control is usually the highest in the rap game only rivalled by Kev Gates. Beatking has signed with Sony and he made an LP for them in 3 weeks. It's not as dementedly bangin as something like Gangster Stripper Music 2 from last year but he's still funny, profane, non PC and hey it wouldn't be a Beatking release without a version of Kiesha, surely this is the 17th time this tune has turned up, I expect a version on all his albums till he retires now. Is earnestness starting to sneak in to his array of aesthetics though? He may be stupid but Beatking's not dumb so naming this album 3 Weeks feels to me like a disclaimer as it's probably the lesser of his three releases this year. He's letting you know this was chucked together very quickly. Hopefully I'll have some further thoughts on this stuff once my mind has processed it all. Boosie Badazz (some of this sounds outstanding, after one initial listen), Zuse and Amber London have released worthy new material in the rap zones too in the last week or so. Recently Gangsta Boo, Skipper, Ty Dolla Sign and Lil Herb have put out mixtapes worth listening to as well and I reckon I've probably missed a few too.

In electronic zones Rustie creator of possibly the best record of the 2010s (well at least one of the top 9), Glass Swords, has a new album called EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE and it sounds really bloody good compared to last year's disappointing Green Language so that's exciting news as I was ready to write him off. Arca and Mark McGuire have new LPs plus I just discovered Steve Moore's synth soundtrack The Guest that was released earlier this year. That Visionist album Safe still has me transfixed and slightly perplexed as I can't quite pinpoint why I like it so much. Then there's the archival box from Harmonia which I guess is really only of interest as it includes the previously unreleased Documents 1975. I believe this is getting its own separate release which I can't wait for, in fact I'm gonna have to download that right this second I think.

Then I discovered That Bret Easton Ellis does podcasts. I've checked out the episodes with Kim Gordon, Ariel Pink and Doors drummer John Densmore, which are all worth listening to. This guy can talk and then talk some more. Sometimes I wonder if he needs guests at all. His epic intros are gloriously verbose. It's all about Bret and it's fascinating as is his obsession with LA.

Finders Keepers Radio did an excellent Halloween special although their shameless self promotion is starting to wear thin. These guys are obviously massive music fans but business and marketing are starting to cloud their vision slightly.

Last but not least I've discovered the dudes from the legendary but now dead sharity blog Mutant Sounds have started doing podcasts as well. They've done two episodes so far of Mutant Sounds Radio. If you loved the Mutant Sounds blog you'll know what you're getting here ie. Seminal music from subterranean fringe dwellers brought to public consciousness by counter obscurism.

Oh and one last thing......I was going to post this tune last week as I've been getting into the 2003 Ricardo Villalobos LP Alcachofa and then I noticed this has been issued on a 12" recently which is weird. Anyway me love this tune a lot.

This is on the other side of the 12" and is the opening track from Alcachofa and it might even be more awesome than Dexter. Legendary.

Oh then there is more stuff..... this time in Hauntological zones......maybe next time......

Luca Brasi 2 - Kevin Gates

If Kevin Gates's Luca Brasi 2 had been released before the 15th of December last year it would most definitely have been in my best of 2014 list. On first listen I thought this was nowhere near as good as his other 2014 release, the excellent, By Any Means. Now I'm pretty sure it's even better and possibly his best recording to date. I also thought there was nothing as bangingly hit worthy as Don't Know What To Call It from 2013's Stranger Than Fiction which should have been a number 1 smash.  I Don't Get Tired featuring August Alsina is almost as awesome but only reached 107 on the US chart and only 33 on the US R&B chart. Then again how many songs about working hard are hits? It's all about the partying in the charts innit?. Kevin Gates has had a hell of a winning streak though with his previous 7 or 8 mixtapes/albums (My files have disappeared so???). Luca Brasi 2 sees him team up with DJ Drama's Gangsta Grillz mixtape team for the first time. Gangsta Grillz have been behind such classics as Young Jeezy's Trap Or Die, Lil Wayne's Dedication 2 and Lil Boosie's Streetz Is Mine among many other groundbreaking semi-legit mixtapes.

It starts off with an Intro that gets straight to the heavy issues Gates is now known for depression and aggression. He mentions being like God, cocaine, cars (big theme with Kev) and something about a Barber Shop. Next is I Don't Get Tired, which was the first and only single so far from the LP, that irritated the hell out me when I first heard it but now I see this is an incredible tune. This features some of his most incredible rapping. Kevin's flow is so idiosyncratic that nobody sounds like this guy. The timbre of his voice is so exquisite. It has quite an affect on the ladies (I've seen women leave their phone numbers on the interweb for Gates) and the men as well. I mean I wish I had a voice that great. I Don't Get Tired features mental fast rapping followed by smooth melodic choruses featuring divine backing vocals and August Alsina's luxurious feature. The tune's about getting dead presidents (that's $$$ folks). He goes from living on an airbed and eating stale Rice Crispies to owning a farm? I hope that's what he says. I can see him and Lil Boosie sippin' lean on the front veranda discussing their prison days with a host of ladies in bikinis. In one section it sounds like he's melodiously singing "I was just tying to get an eye lift." I mean this guy first entered the penal system at age 13 and is currently on parole, he's so hood there's no way he's saying that but I want to believe it because that would be so funny. Anyway this track is some kind of strange salute to the American dream. John Gotti fits with the mafia theme of Luca Brasi who was a character in The Godfather who was Don Corleone's enforcer but I guess he's most famous for being included in the quote "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." John Gotti is a catchy highlight of the album. This could be Kev's most megalomaniac song ever. He compares himself to John Gotti, God, he is Luca Brasi, his mother fucked an angel and he's immortal. Audis, Porsches and Maseratis all get mentioned. Its such a cool pop song you don't even notice at one point he sings he's so depressed he wishes someone would kill him.

The megalomania continues on Perfect Imperfection. It all begins with an incredibly infectious disco violin (synth violin?) sample that is soo good. Then Kev's off comparing himself to Forrest Gump, then says he's Michael Jackson reincarnate and channelling the spirit of Ali The Greatest. He still needs affection though and asks if it's 'ok to cry if you're dying inside?' But he has his craft perfected, he's never wrong, Drake says Gates don't bullshit and all other rappers are fake because they ain't from the ghetto in Louisiana who just take loads of drugs. Having said that Kev admits codeine helps him get by. But those other rappers never had to grind so hard to pay their lawyers yet still go to prison and have your bitch not pick up the phone whilst incarcerated.

Plug Daughter is one of the most sonically cool tracks here with it's classic minimal horror motifs. This is another mafia tale. What the fuck is a Plug daughter? Out The Mud has a backing track reminiscent of a really gentle 90s IDM track with fucking great poetic Speedy Gonzales rapping. Sometimes I think how the hell does he do that? Then he just slips back into melodic hooks like it's nothing. Sit Down has the best bass pressure this side of a No U Turn track along with really subtle haunting piano and synth stabs. Sometimes he fits more words into a tune than early Bob Dylan. The mafia theme continues. Fact and fiction collide. His Breadwinners Association Company is a bona-fide organisation but he places it in a mafia context. I'm astounded again by his rapping on this tune. He has the the best delivery in the game and has had for some time. Complaining's all mad bitches, sex, foreign cars and spending paper. It sounds like he's singing at one point 'them bitches bad but Paco ain't complaining.' I really hope Paco is another Gates alias but I think its just me mishearing again. This is why I don't read lyric sheets it takes away the mystique. Talk On Phones is a classic Wire situation. He rhymes open cases with poker faces you gotta love that. There's like a brilliant one note horror synth stab throughout as well as gloomy swirling synths that are awesome too.

Wassup With It & In My Feelings are as close as Kev gets to a slow jam. Wassup With It could be a smash hit. It's got the melodic pop goods, the only thing holding it back would be all the profanity like 2013's Midnight Run from Dj Mustard featuring Royce The Choice, Skeam & Casey Veggies ie. these two tunes are pop perfection but could never be commercial hits which is such a shame. Gates just wants a fuck with no strings. He's been tainted by past relationships he's just 'tryin to hit that pussy one time, that'd be cool' right? In My Feelings starts out like it could be a slow jam with it's 2014 version of a silky 70s vibe but it's sugar & poison. He's having a massive crack at Southern Christianity in the verse then in the chorus it's all like romantic and soft but then he's into another angry verse then back to the sugar to finish. You don't really have to guess what Pourin The Syrup's about. He's drinking the lean because he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Kudos to Kev again this time for rhyming famous with anus. Top that motherfuckers. Wild Ride is a plea for a threesome. Clits, eatin dick, fondling balls, pussy drippin, ass up and face down all sung with a heavenly backing track. Confusing lyric: 'Bonnie & Clyde her', what the fuck does that mean? Must look up the Urban Dictionary on that one. Makin Love is about loving the hustle not some tune about a sex romp. The narcissism continues with lyrics like 'They don't even call me Kevin no more, they call me awesome.' 'I am the way the truth and the light' and 'I am Flawless'. A final shout out to his Maserati engine and guess what he don't get tired. He must be mixing his lean with something of the amphetamine variety though because codeine makes you v tired. I should know I just took some.

Kev. He don't get tired.

Best Of 2014 - Albums & Mixtapes

Pom Pom - Ariel Pink
Heavenly West Coast pop hits, delirious goth, over wrought glam, funk, glitter scuzz rock and demented bubblegum psych (sometimes all within the same song). I can't possibly write another word on the subject.

Black Portland - Young Thug & Bloody Jay
Atlanta's stellar nutcase duo make mental rap classic. Demented euphoria.

You Might Also Like - eMMplekz
More funny shit and mental absurdity ranted by Baron Mordant over some of Nick's most accomplished trax to date.

Unfidelity/Four Track Mind - Ekoplekz

Two classic double LPs in one year! Maybe Four Track Mind just pips Unfidelity at the post but these albums are inseparable as they came from the same recording sessions, I think. Nick Edwards reigns in his wayward machines like never before to achieve stunning results.

Oxymoron - Schoolboy Q
The title says it all. Killah state of the art sex, drugs and rap 2014 stylee. Oxymoron not only refers to Oxycontin addiction but to the dichotomy of Schoolboy Q's being ie. trying to be a good dad but being a bad ass gangsta.

Reconsider Lounge/Session Man - Rangers
I thought they'd vanished but praise the lord here they are again twice! This time in snippet and snapshot mode on Reconsider Lounge, a bit like they were on 2010's classic Suburban Tours. Session Man is almost like stoner jamz but in a Rangers universe. OMG these are guitar albums! Remember them? It's all about past pasts, past presents, past futures and the present present and future past, present and future. Memoredelia! The talented Joe Knight is a star. Why aren't Rangers as big as Coldplay?

By Any Means - Kevin Gates
King Kev's got the best voice in the game and his flow's incredible. An intimate insight into Kev's life. From being dirt poor with no electrical, being incarcerated, having children and being signed to major record label Atlantic. His life's a movie. Louisiana trap at it's finest.

Gangsta Stripper Music 2 - Beatking
He is the Beat King and he's had a sterling year. This was the Club God doing his Houston ratchet thang which is the best mix of 10s rap and 90s rave these ears have ever heard. Crank this sucker up to 11!

$hmopcity - Kool John
The most underrated mixtape of the year. Bay Area ratchet from the HBK Gang that was all killah no filler. Kool John makes the best HBK Gang recording to date. It's party time, are you putting on 10 Summers or $hmopcity? It's a no brainer.

Underground Tape Cassette Music - Gangsta Boo & Beatking
Fucking great collaboration from 666 Mafia's legendary Gangsta Boo and Club Godzilla Beatking. 80s electro & fucked up 90s rave flavas clash with 2014 Texan Ratchet and 90s creepin Memphis shyt. Rewind!

Life After Death Row - Boosie Bad Azz
Lil Boosie gets out of prison and makes a hell of a poignant mixtape about the experience. True Detective had nothing on this Louisiana rapper's gritty reality.

Tony - King Louie
Gangsta tales from Chicago set to mini cinematic synth symphonies. Louie's a King, a God, a Don and they call him Tony after Tony Soprano. Futuristic sex, drugs, violence and megalomania!

Under The Skin OST - Mica Levi
Best soundtrack since _________. Intensely sinister, harrowing and still. A bit like Bernard Hermann if he'd had a stroke and was wasted on painkillaz. Who'd have ever thought I'd enjoy something by Mica Levi? The world is a strange place.

Beautiful Pimp II - Rome Fortune
Atlanta's one of a kind suave space age rapper makes a sequel better than the original. Cito is on the beat throughout the entire mixtape which was a great move.

Heat Vol. 1 & 2 - YP Spoelstra
Two volumes of choice 2014 ratchet from California's HBK Gang. YP's giving Mustard a run for his money and he's just put out a 3rd Volume, bloody hell!

Leporine Pleasure Gardens - Moon Wiring Club LP 
Hallucinatory, phantasmal and lysergical. This is Moon Wiring Club severed from their beats and it's probably the closest sonic equivalent to dropping acid I've ever heard. Flashbacks man!

Torridon Gate - Howlround
Who'd have thunk a 24 minute recording of a garden gate would be this enjoyable?

R.O.C. - IX Tab
A trip into creepy electronic zones where funny things happen.

A Que Fresco - Que & Mike Fresh
Like Speedy Gonzales, the subject in one of their songs, these guys don't mess about. This is 2014 rap at it's most buoyant and audacious. A pop triumph.

Butterfly Effect - Shinishi Ataobe 
Some of the most enjoyably serene ambient dub tech I've ever heard. There's also some slightly noisier dub tech trax in a Basic Channel stylee (Ataobe once released an EP on the Chain Reaction label). Hypnotic and beautiful.

From Out Here - The Advisory Circle
Perhaps their most fully realised LP to date. A musical interzone somewhere between idyllic and peculiar. An album that plays tricks with your memory.

ALSO REALLY LIKED
My Krazy Life - YG
Monster - Future
Fearful Wiggings - Dave Graney
The Power And The Glory - Perc
Bullet - Zuse
The Mobb Tape - Zmoney
Wet 2 - Skipper
Tha Tour Part 1 - Rich Gang
Leporine Pleasure Gardens cd - Moon Wiring Club
Audio Rehab Vol.1 - Various
Definition Audio Presents Vol.1 - Various
Oculus OST - The Newton Brothers
Pavilion - Panabrite
Influkz - Ekoplekz
We Invented The Bop 2 - Various
8 of The Moon Ballades Series - Motion Sickness Of Time Travel

CATEGORY OF IT'S OWN
Benji - Sun Kil Moon
20 years since I've listened to anything by Mark Kozelek but I couldn't ignore this album's cult groundswell on the interweb. Holy shit things have changed since Red House Painters Ocean Beach (well mostly, he is still singing about his mum) ie. Mark's way more hokey now, getting back to his Ohio roots. There are no Johnny Marr-esque guitar licks or 4AD flourishes of sound here. This is bare bones recording wise. Less is more, keep it simple and let the words paint the pictures. Who would have thought he could get more morose? Well he has! This is a stunning work of a master songwriter. The words just pour out of him unfiltered and somehow it works. Benji is an insight into a tragedy strewn life and a morbid mind like no other. Although he finally makes a joke on the last track. One does also wonder how much of this is possibly black humour like when he's asking you to think of mass murderers when you're feeling happy. I've always thought he was pretty funny I must admit.

WHAT HAPPENED???
Rustie - Green Language
Peaking Lights - Cosmic Logic
Young Thug - 1017 Thug 2
Skrillex - Recess
DJ Mustard - 10 Summers 

ON THE FENCE
Mr Mitch - Parallel Memories
Apparently this is connected to grime. I have no emotional investment in grime so it doesn't bother me. Like last year's album from Logos I didn't even know it was somehow comin from grime. I just liked the tunes. When I first heard Parallel Memories I thought it was like an electronica LP from 1994. Hey 94 was a great year for electronica and it's pretty good....
Vessel - Punish, Honey
Daft Industrial throwback of the worst kind or kinda cool weird noise? I dunno.

TOO LATE
Kevin Gates - Luca Brasi 2 (Only got it yesterday)
Starlito - Black Sheep Don't Grin (As above)
YP Spoelstra - Heat Vol. 3 (As above above)

TOTALLY MISSED IT
Ian Crause - The Vertical Axis. I noticed this in Simon's list. I assume it is he of the great Disco Inferno. I totally did not realise he'd released an album this year as I don't read music magazines anymore and only skim the online one (you can probably guess what that may be). I think I bought one issue of The Wire this year. I've gone from being a chap in the 90s who wouldn't miss an issue of The Wire to someone now who can barely give a toss. Sure things change in 20 + years but who'd have thought so many bad writers would be employed there. Sure the music scene's not the same either but there is still great music being made. The evidence is right here in my list but I wonder how many of the above recordings even got coverage in The Wire? The thing is I probably wouldn't want to read it anyway unless it was written by Mark Fisher. Anyway back to The Vertical Axis, fuck I'm looking forward to hearing that. Mark Fisher probably reviewed it. This is actually from 2013.

TELEVISION
True Detective
Girls
Happy Valley
Orange Is The New Black

BOOKS
Ghosts Of My Life - Mark Fisher
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story Of Modern Pop - Bob Stanley (sure I got this for xmas 2013 but fuck it took me 4 months of 2014 to read it ie. many pages)

STUPID
Ripping off Young Thug is dumb. It's like ripping off Mark E Smith ie. he's so idiosyncratic if you're copying him it's so obviously not you. It makes you an instant joke.

LIFE'S TOO SHORT
To bang on about artists that are dull, overrated or just plain shite like blanco husalah kokane, salva, fka twigs, beyonce, ben frost, 1001 Young Thug wannabes, popcaan and whoever else innit?

There's only one Young Thug (he's on the left).

*OTHER YEARS
2011
2012
2013

True Detective Trax

Very surprised to hear this tune at the end of a True Detective episode. They don't make em like this anymore and actually they hardly made them like this at all. Sludgy psychedelia. My old band used to do a cover of this but we couldn't match this vibe one bit. Untouchable and bloody weird and bloody great.

Then there was this at the end of episode 4 and it fitted perfectly with the intense mayhem that had just occurred on screen. It made me remember how excellent Grinderman really are/were? I think what gave Grinderman their fresh new edge and the the feeling of it being a separate entity from The Bad Seeds was that it was Nick Cave's first time playing guitar (I think) on a record. They were like a brand new band despite containing four Bad Seeds members.

Loved hearing this one at the end of episode 7. I'm not really sure of its thematic connection but who cares? This is the great classic version of Lungs from his Townes Van Zandt LP from 1969. It doesn't get much better than this!

The music person on the show must have had fun putting these tunes on the show, well in the end credits actually. Funnily enough I can't stand the theme tune. It's like some z grade attempt at a Nancy & Lee song. What was this band thinking 'Our contribution to music is going to be a way lesser version of a classic duo, that's the best we can do.' Well you know what don't bloody bother, we don't need to hear it! They could have got, I dunno, Mick Harvey and Anita Lane to do the theme or just use an original Nancy & Lee track. Willie Nelson & Dolly Parton, how good what that have been? 13th Floor Elevators' Kingdom of Heaven would have done just fine. Aren't there a bunch of great musicians from Louisiana they could have used? Kevin Gates and Lil Boosie in the rap world and I'm sure there's some great folk/country musicians! Anyway it was great hear these three classics in the finest show of 2014 and one of the greatest shows on the telly ever.