More Slept-On Gems
Dropping in for my once-every-few-years list of albums that are flying under the radar that I've enjoyed in the past few years. Highly recommend, everything here has a 4+ from me. |
| 1 |  | Masakatsu Takagi
Kagayaki
New Age? Field Recordings?
Warm, cosy, nostalgic music. Hard to describe or categorise but it’s a wonderful, dreamlike album that just floats along. |
| 2 |  | Morrow (UK)
The Quiet Earth
Crust / Post-Metal
Despite being one of the bigger Fall of Efrafa fanboys on this site, the opener Totemic off this one is in contention for Alex CF’s best and one of my favourite crust / post-metal songs ever. Ripper of an album, and absolute top tier opening track. |
| 3 |  | Harold Budd
Avalon Sutra / As Long as I Can Hold My Breath
Ambient
I’ve been on ambient overload this winter, and properly exploring Harold Budd’s discography was one of the highlights. Mostly known for his collaborations with Brian Eno, this one’s my pick for the best thing he’s done. |
| 4 |  | Tatsuro Yamashita
Ride on Time
City Pop
The greatest city pop artist of all time for my money, and this is his best album. Super smooth and funky. |
| 5 |  | RAILS (AUS)
DOG WATER
Noisy Blackened Death
Punchy little 15min EP, unique sound and outstanding performances by each of the members. One of my best local discoveries for sure, the drummer is a monster. |
| 6 |  | Andrew Prahlow
Outer Wilds (Original Soundtrack)
Folk / Electronic / Ambient
Stands on its own as a wonderful mix of acoustic and ambient music, feels very nostalgic and most tracks have a unique character that keep everything engaging and memorable. There’s a lot of variety in the tracks, but also some motif repetition tying everything together. |
| 7 |  | Rosetta
Terra Sola
Post-Metal
The T/T on this is comfortably their best moment since that first trilogy of albums, but has been sadly overlooked due to their general decline. Fantastic work on this one though. |
| 8 |  | Hiroshi Yoshimura
Music For Nine Post Cards
Ambient / piano jazz
Quiet, contemplative piano ambient new agey stuff. Some pieces are formless and meandering, some have more defined melodies, all of it is smooth and delightful. |
| 9 |  | Spectral Lore
IV (Part 1)
Progressive Black Metal
Slipped under the radar, I guess partly because it was only half of the new album in his numbered series, and partly because the initial release was sold as demo recordings (which are now mostly mixed, mastered and cleaned up). In either case, a fantastic continuation of III, a melting pot of ideas and songs that twist and develop over long periods of time with stretches of folk, ambient and even a weird little gazey rock number in Solitary Mirrors breaking up all the blistering black metal. |
| 10 |  | Tenhi
Folk Aesthetic 1996-2006
Nordic Folk
A compilation of early EPs, demos, outtakes and a whole unreleased album of ambient folk that all fit together with a coherent theme. Absolutely spellbinding atmosphere. |
| 11 |  | Pillars of Cacophony
Paralipomena
Dissonant Death Metal
One of my favourite metal releases of the year. Lots of variety in tempo, vocals, atmosphere and always keep you on your toes. |
| 12 |  | Casiopea and The Square
Casiopea vs The Square
Jazz-Fusion
The two kings of cheesy 80s music team up for a celebration of this whole era of Japanese jazz fusion. The first two thirds are an excellent taster of each of the bands catalogues, but the best part is the final third where both bands perform the best of their hits at the same time on stage, with fantastic interplay between all the members and lots of back and forth. Absolute joy to watch and listen to. |
| 13 |  | Burger/Ink
Las Vegas
Minimal Techno / IDM
Hypnotic ambient techno stuff from the man behind Gas. |
| 14 |  | Abandon (SWE)
The Dead End
Funeral Doom
Crushing, barren album. Opening with a perfect tone-setting bleak ambient piece, it dives headlong into a lightless trudge and rarely lets up for nearly 2 hours. It’s All Gone in particular is one of the best doom songs I’ve heard. |
| 15 |  | Machine Girl
Neon White OST 1 - The Wicked Heart
DnB / Breaks
Comfortably the best thing Machine Girl has done, absolute bops here front to back. Ethereal synths, aggressive breaks that harken back to the golden age of PS1 jungle but constantly switching up the pace and atmosphere to keep things interesting. |
| 16 |  | The Monolith Deathcult
Trivmvirate
Progressive Death Metal
Death metal with stacks of influences and a thick, chunky sound. Absolutely all over the place but it works really well. |
| 17 |  | Amun
Spectra and Obsession
Progressive Metal
Speaking of all over the place, this is a 2 hour long hot mess of an album. Can’t decide at all what it wants to be and jumps from genre to genre constantly, every song is 9+ min (with a 34min one for good measure) and everything is brickwalled to shit and blasting loud at all times. Despite all that, I just love how silly and ambitious it is, they’re just constantly going hard at whatever they’re trying to do and I’ve got a lot of respect for that. |
| 18 |  | Natural Snow Buildings
The Winter Ray
Post-Rock / Drone
I find this one has their most consistent atmosphere which helps me get lost in it compared to some of the variety on their other releases. At times bleak and at times achingly beautiful, it really rewards patience. |
| 19 |  | Furia
Martwa Polska Jesień
Black Metal
Their most straightforward bm release, and all the better for it. Unlike their later releases there’s no frills here. Any progression is contained within the raw aggressive bm template and rarely lets up the aggression in its runtime. |
| 20 |  | Anri
Timely!!
City Pop
Another city pop one, this one less funky and more shimmering summery goodness. |
| 21 |  | Tyrant (JPN)
Under The Dark Mystic Sky
Symphonic Black Metal
Classic cheesy symphonic BM out of Japan. Super melodic and energetic, which is what I’m looking for in this genre. |
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