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PFM AOTY

...I’ll be sticking Sufjan Stevens The Ascension in my list for sure. This is very good indeed, musically kind of a continuation of Planetarium, but with some real emotional punch to the lyrics. Quite a dark and powerful album.
 
Another I forgot about in the jazz buying frenzy but clearly needs to be here is The Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus Songs Of Yearning/Nocturne. One of Liverpool’s more interesting outliers for the past 35 years or so they produce something quite unique, timeless and all of their own. I have their first album and saw them live around that time so was actually surprised they were still going when an ad popped up on Facebook earlier in the year. I took a punt on the limited double vinyl and it is a wonderful album. Worth a listen for anyone who likes whatever it is.
 
...I’ll be sticking Sufjan Stevens The Ascension in my list for sure. This is very good indeed, musically kind of a continuation of Planetarium, but with some real emotional punch to the lyrics. Quite a dark and powerful album.

I’d missed this. Going on next as soon Stereolab stop doing their thing!
 
I’d missed this. Going on next as soon Stereolab stop doing their thing!

The more I play it the better it gets. Always challenging approaching anything this long, especially as it works more as an 80 minute suite, but it pays the effort back. I’m on play four now and it really is amazing stuff. One of his best.

PS I’ll never understand how some people can just create hour after hour of amazing music. Many bands never get even close to producing 80 minutes of good material in a lifetime, for Sufjan Stevens that’s just one of two albums he knocks out this year, never mind all the rest of a 20 year career!
 
The more I play it the better it gets. Always challenging approaching anything this long, especially as it works more as an 80 minute suite, but it pays the effort back. I’m on play four now and it really is amazing stuff. One of his best.

PS I’ll never understand how some people can just create hour after hour of amazing music. Many bands never get even close to producing 80 minutes of good material in a lifetime, for Sufjan Stevens that’s just one of two albums he knocks out this year, never mind all the rest of a 20 year career!

It’s very good indeed! In a two album year for him I may have picked the wrong one! The other is very good as well though. How do you do that? Two great albums in a year?
 
My limited clear vinyl copy of Binker & Moses Escape The Flames arrived today. Very good indeed, it’s a live version of the first LP (i.e. the sax/drum duets) of their 2xLP Journey To The Mountain Of Forever but stretched out over four sides and seems to benefit from the extra space. It sounds great, as does everything on Gearbox Records I’ve tried so far. They are a proper audiophile-grade label.

PS Surprisingly there are still some clear copies left, so go grab ‘em!
 
Three LPs in my top five are from artists who haven't released an LP (under the chosen name) in decades. So my current* top ten reads like this

1. Sonic Boom: All Things Being Equal
2. Cabaret Voltaire: Shadow of Fear
3. The Orb: Abolition of the Royal Familia (particularly the 'In Dub' version)
4. The Wolfgang Press: Unremembered Remembered
5. The Asteroid No 4: Northern Songs
6. Rose City Band: Summerlong
7. Sunda Arc: Tides
8. Carlton Melton: Where This Leads
9. Sault: Untitled(Black Is)
10. Mammal Hands: Captured Spirits

I also hugely enjoyed Miles Davis: Double Image but that is a collection of outtakes from Bitches Brew, all of which were previously available. Live LPs from Mogwai '2018' and The Twilight Sad 'It won't be like this all the time:Live' are excluded but have seen very heavy play play. I've excluded reissues and compilations too or the Deutsche Electronische Musik Vol 4 LP would feature in the list, along with the massive Story of the Grateful Dead box set on Vinyl Me Please

*I'll have forgotten loads of things. There is nothing in the list from Zone Six or Electric Moon which worries me. I may need to make this a top 20
 
IDLES - Ultra Mono
Thurston Moore - By The Fire
A Certain Ratio - ACR LOCO
The Big Moon - Walking Like We Do
Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs Of Sorrow
Wire - Mind Hive
 
Wilma Archer - A Western Circular *
Hey Colossus - Dances / Curses
Jenny O - New Truth
Alexandra Saviour - The Archer
Wilson - The Ruiner
SAULT - Black Is
SAULT - Rise
Paul Weller - On Sunset
Fleet Foxes - Shore
Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
Sh#t and Shine - Malibu Liquor Store
Cafe Racer - Shadow Talk
The Homesick - The Big Exercise
Rolling Blackouts C.F - Sideways to Italy
Pigs,Pigs,Pigs,Pigs,Pigs,Pigs,Pigs - Viscerals
Phoebe Bridges - Punisher

*My album of the year. It’s baffling why this hasn’t got more attention. It hasn’t appeared in any of the end of the year lists, and I’ve read a lot of them. It’s only been mentioned once on this list too.
If you haven’t listened to it yet I highly recommend you give it a try.
 
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In no particular order

Slift ................................. Ummon; French space rock that's pretty spacey and rocks, which is what it's all about ?

Elder ................................ Omens; Melodic melange of guitars that harks back to the 70s and yet is firmly rooted in the 21st century. Intricate and dense music without being too smart for its own good.

Crippled Black phoenix .......... Ellengaest ; Hairy arsed gothic drenched melodic metal. The Sisters of Mercy meets Sabbath without cocking it up.

The Dream Syndicate ............ The Universe Inside; Loose rambling aural landscapes from the now veteran psych band

Moses Sumney ..................... Grae ; Moses is an artist with a capital "A". amazing voice , lyrically at times oblique and obscure, Scott Walker meets Prince?

Wight ............................... Spank The World ; German funk rock that wanders into the psych field at times. Probably what Jeff Beck should sound like today.

All Them Witches ................ Nothing As The Ideal; The band Josh from JHS pedals should probably end up playing for. The point where Sonic Youth meets Neil Young with Crazy Horse. If Thurston Moore and Jimmy Page showed up jamming live with them, you wouldn't be surprised one iota, currently probably the "musos musicians band"

Automatism ....................... Immersion; If this had been released in the mid 70s original copies would be fetching mad money nowadays. Laconic Krautrock vibes that is sonically reminiscent of Floyd circa live at Pompeii
 
Thanks for the list @FireMoon I've been streaming some of these albums. I like Slift, definitely the rock end of the space-rock spectrum, and All Them Witches who I had thought were Southern rock for some reason. Automatism I thought was a bit slick and shiny but I'll have another listen. Good list though, thanks :)
Have you tried Japanese motorik / psych? Like Kikagaku Moyo (melodic) and Minami Deutsch (heavy fuzzed-out)?
 
Thanks for the list @FireMoon I've been streaming some of these albums. I like Slift, definitely the rock end of the space-rock spectrum, and All Them Witches who I had thought were Southern rock for some reason. Automatism I thought was a bit slick and shiny but I'll have another listen. Good list though, thanks :)
Have you tried Japanese motorik / psych? Like Kikagaku Moyo (melodic) and Minami Deutsch (heavy fuzzed-out)?


Thanks for that Vince... Kikagaku Moyo, I have the last 3 albums, just going to check out Minami Deutsch. :)
 


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