"I hang from a great big oak": albums of the year, 2017
"The People's Forest: The Fairlop Oak" is a new piece by Gayle Chong Kwan, mixing oak and softwoods with plywood and card. The pollarded tree, atop a scaffold, is designed to pay tribute to the legend of the mighty Fairlop Oak that once stood in Hainault Forest, but also to place it in the context of popular protest movements, especially those defending the environment. Displaying it indoors (currently at the Barbican) nicely balances its lament for our once-spontaneous, outdoor lives with the richness of modern, cosily-commissioned, urban art.
Incidentally, we think the neat thematic link between the artwork and every single record below is so plain, and yet so fiendishly brilliant, that there’s probably no need to explain it further.
* * * * *
1. Fret “Over Depth” (Karlrecords)
Any mention of Fret round these parts has to be supplemented with the important rider “aka Mick Harris”, at which point people are much more likely to sit up, take notice and say “OK, *now* we’re interested”. (Not real people, obviously, apart from our friend Simon in Sea Mills, but soundheads on message boards and social media).
A litmus test, we realise, of how far we have really come since 1987 is how many of our top 10 records of the year feature either (i) people who were in Sarah bands, and/or (ii) people who were in Napalm Death (a marginally higher cohort, we'd hazard). This year, the answer is 3 for albums, and - spoiler alert - 2 for singles. Make of that what you will.
We always got a bit laughed at whenever we did a joint Napalm Death / Field Mice review, or spoke of those bands in the same breath (much as we still do now) , but this whole “never the twain shall meet” thing was always nonsense, and such is the trend for genre-hopping nowadays that it really is not hard to see Mick Harris getting together with Loop, say, in 2018 in which case, as night follows day, it would be Lightning In A Twilight Hour the year after that. It’s all interconnected, see, and we’re confident that our new dream combo,
hampson /: wratten /: harris
(we've even done their initial branding) will appear in this list in 2019.
In the meantime, here’s why this is the best record of 2017.
2. Relham “Kalte Menschen” (d!st!nct)
Relham is a young man from Bielefeld in Germany. That’s all we know about him really. Oh - that, and the fact he’s released one of the best début LPs we’ve ever heard. We weren’t sure whether there was a sub-genre called “emotional techno”, but if there wasn’t, he’s just invented it. If there was, he’s just perfected it.
“Kalte Menschen” (now that title describes 2017 in itself, surely?) kicks off with its title track and taster single, a sleek, refreshing ice-cool chimera of a song that seems to bring something new on every listen, before the slower tempo “Ein Emotionaler Mann” shifts the mood by playing with melody and dubstep rhythms. We’ve never been truly convinced by the idea of ‘intelligent dance music’, but just occasionally there are artists who can pull it off (shout-outs to Kryptic Minds). And so “7787” and “Dienstag 7 Uhr” continue the seduction, before the the drizzled kisses and sibilance of “Im Regen” and “Gustav” (spell Relham backwards and you can probably work out which Gustav we’re thinking of here).
If anything, the quality of the album then somehow ascends: as the appropriately named “Steigern” segues into the shimmering “Verstandhnis” you really appreciate how there is always a pulse here: there is nothing ambient or unfocussed about these songs, which remain positive techno at heart. The last artist original is “Handeln”, which veers slightly off-kilter with a synth line made to sound almost like a twangy guitar: the album then finishes with two remixes as Italian duo Wirrwarr give “Steigern” a polish, before d!st!nct label head honcho Cortechs re-works his own favourite track, “Ein Emotionaler Mann”. You'll be happy to get lost in this record again and again.
3. Last Leaves “Other Towns Than Ours” (Matinée Recordings / Lost & Lonesome)
Completing a trilogy of year-defining albums, with the introduction of vocals and guitars into our countdown (sorry, count-up). This was a remarkable first record, and if you dug the Lucksmiths’ last album or the Wedding Present’s “Going, Going...” we think you will really be in for a treat if you hurry up and get your order in.
Book-ended by the gorgeous slow burn of “Love And The World Well Lost” at the start and “Where I Live And What I Lived For” at the end, “Other Towns Than Ours” shimmers with jewels like “Something Falls” (tender and sad but uptempo, and quite possibly song of the year) or the touching “The Last Of The Light”. For more detail/raving, see here.
4. Violent Opposition “Courage And Conviction” (Horror Pain Gore Death)
Offputting label name, yes: next time, we're hoping they do a record on Cloudberry. This, from ace new California outfit Violent Opposition (not to be confused with the UK#s Violent Arrest or Violent Reaction, both also top-tier bands of course) is the bomb. Think MDC meets early Sidetracked and you won’t be far off: this intriguing blend of short, structured songs, adorned with a fairly dizzying array of socio-political themes, coalesces so effectively that it’s pretty hard to hear the joins between the thirty-three tracks.
5. The Popguns “Sugar Kisses” (Matinée Recordings)
We maintain what we thought back in June that this may be their best record, and we’d skirt across hot coals (well, for a bit) if it would get the power-jangle of “Finished With The Past” or “Fire Away” to be released as singles. That said, the rather assured, less frenetic new breed of crowdpleasers on the first half of the album are probably what make this such a *complete* pop album.
6. Memoriam “For The Fallen” (Nuclear Blast)
Ex-Bolt Thrower personnel Memoriam warmed up for this, their début LP, with some promising demo EPs (like the unallayed crust of “Drone Strike”, a song whose chorus sounded like Doom, and that sadly didn’t make it on to the final album), but it was only when this record actually hit that you realised that Memoriam were seriously in business. (By way of example, check out the quantum leap from the demo take of "Surrounded (By Death)" to the seriously accomplished LP version).
More than just death metal, this album co-opts spritely crust and punk influences too - as well as "Surrender", we're particularly and immensely fond of the riff-tastic "War Rages On", "Corrupted System", "Flatline" and "Resistance". It's quite an achievement for Memoriam to step out of Bolt Thrower's long shadow, given that the final BT album, "Those Once Loyal" may be at once the best death metal, and war metal, album of all time. But we think they may have managed it.
7. Ryuji Takeuchi “I Think, Therefore I Am” (Local Sound Network)
“I Think, Therefore I Am” is an entirely different receptacle of fish from the usual. In the loosest possible terms you could say that this, the Japanese producer’s second full-length outing, has a genre – i.e. that it’s a “techno” record - but that would be like saying that Slayer and Brighter share a genre, on the basis that they’re both bands with guitars in their armoury.
There’s a hint of the mischief we’re in for early doors, because the opening “Philosopher’s Agony” is eight minutes of carefully cultivated white noise, shuffling between minimal, hard-to-make out sub-bass rumble to full-on screes of feedback-like electronic yell (Tomihiko Sagae vs Metal Machine Music). After that, things “settle down”, although again only in the loosest possible way. This is Ryuji at his most sonically harsh, unleashing a brutal industrial mesh of beats rather than the smoother heights of some past classics (by the way, if you preferred his sublime “Vital” single, we’d still heartily recommend Aleja Sanchez’s “Ether”).
The craziest antics are probably reserved for on “Heads And Tails” and “Right Face, Left”, both of which would be perfect for annoying the sort of person who always laughs at 'our' music for not being real music: both the rhythms and the pitch of these tracks fly around all over the place, but the pace never relents.
The title 'tune' concludes proceedings, and provides the only obvious chink of humanity in the whole enterprise, with what is recognisably a male voice intoning Descartes’ finest aphorism (albeit through a fog-encrusted haze of distortion and effects). A bit like “Philosopher’s Agony”, it’s completely impossible to imagine anyone dancing to this, but it would be such fun to put this on in a club and watch people try.
8. The Harvest Ministers "Back To Harbour" (Crayon Records)
Sarah Records is not always celebrated as a launch pad for singer-songwriters, but the longevity of Bobby Wratten, FM Cornog, Amelia Fletcher and so many others in this indie-pop game is ample testament to the fact that Sarah always had the songs, they really had the bloody songs, and sometimes the obvious needs stating or we all go home thinking that Sarah's legend now was built not on songwriting talent at all, but *solely* on fanzine politics and the fuel of music press hate. And Will Merriman's Harvest Ministers are still producing records that suggest they deserve to be held in equal esteem with some of their illustrious ex-labelmates.
"Back To Harbour" shows how deft Merriman is not only at dark, sad ballads but also at more uptempo, tongue-in-cheek songs: the standout for us has to be the beautiful, string-bled "Fault Lines" but - from the slow and elegant "Violaine" and "Black Elsie" to the winning "All The Woman (I Ever Want To Know)" or "The Debutante With The Nose Ring" - the Harvest Ministers still do our world the world of good.
9. Sect "No Cure For Death" (Southern Lord)
Over the last five years, it's a pretty safe bet that we've bought more records produced by Kurt Ballou than anyone else, him being to the hardcore/powerviolence/grindcore nexus what Scott Burns was to lo-fi death metal, or John A. Rivers to Creation-era indie.
Straightedge HC supergroup Sect, though, rank pretty high amongst his charges: "No Cure For Death" is a coruscating, high-velocity thing that sounds a little like Trap Them at their most flat-out, or the last Nails LP, or maybe even Weekend Nachos when they really had the bit between their teeth, but sets itself apart with high-quality lyrics, even if they can tend to the direct ("Come down off the cross, you dead-hearted frauds" is a great way to start a song with real intent). At a shade under 17 minutes the album is even shorter than "Dirge" or "They Scoffed The Lot", but it feels *just right*.
10. Secret Shine “There Is Only Now” (Saint Marie Records)
Ah, the kings (and queen) of “are they still going?” We had a Secret Shine listening day recently, complete discography (well – apart from “Wasted Away” and “Each To The Other”, sigh) and they truly are a blinding band. As we tried to make clear not all that long ago.
Like the Popguns, the Shine seem to be freshly back into a blistering run of form, and “There Is Only Now” is one of their best and most consistent long-players, we reckon, particularly the effortless pop-shoegaze cool of “All In Your Head” or "Burning Stars", and the catchy and ever-so-slightly jangly “Falling Again”.
* * * * *
Aaaand... other albums that we span on the regular this year include Sully's “Escape” (especially the two non-instrumentals, featuring Jendor and Jamakabi respectively, which are quite, quite stunning), Vallenfyre's “Fear Those Who Fear Him” (which, in "Messiah", probably features the best grindcore number of 2017), Looking For An Answer's resolute vegan-grind outing “Dios Carne", the playful Teutonic minimalism of Sleeparchive's "Letter of Resignation", the Fall's fiery and unbowed (if wildly inconsistent) "New Facts Emerge", Obituary's eponymous (eleventh!) album which rates as one of their leanest and most vigorous works, Wiley's "Godfather" (now Godfather MBE, of course) which would actually benefit from fewer guest slots and more Wiley, the splendid Ghetto collab "Bang!" aside, the Hulaboy / Safe Distance split and even Lock-Up's "Demonization", much as we fear it falls short of their previous records. Though - it must be said that on this one, Simon from Sea Mills would strongly disagree.
Incidentally, we think the neat thematic link between the artwork and every single record below is so plain, and yet so fiendishly brilliant, that there’s probably no need to explain it further.
* * * * *
1. Fret “Over Depth” (Karlrecords)
Any mention of Fret round these parts has to be supplemented with the important rider “aka Mick Harris”, at which point people are much more likely to sit up, take notice and say “OK, *now* we’re interested”. (Not real people, obviously, apart from our friend Simon in Sea Mills, but soundheads on message boards and social media).
A litmus test, we realise, of how far we have really come since 1987 is how many of our top 10 records of the year feature either (i) people who were in Sarah bands, and/or (ii) people who were in Napalm Death (a marginally higher cohort, we'd hazard). This year, the answer is 3 for albums, and - spoiler alert - 2 for singles. Make of that what you will.
We always got a bit laughed at whenever we did a joint Napalm Death / Field Mice review, or spoke of those bands in the same breath (much as we still do now) , but this whole “never the twain shall meet” thing was always nonsense, and such is the trend for genre-hopping nowadays that it really is not hard to see Mick Harris getting together with Loop, say, in 2018 in which case, as night follows day, it would be Lightning In A Twilight Hour the year after that. It’s all interconnected, see, and we’re confident that our new dream combo,
hampson /: wratten /: harris
(we've even done their initial branding) will appear in this list in 2019.
In the meantime, here’s why this is the best record of 2017.
2. Relham “Kalte Menschen” (d!st!nct)
Relham is a young man from Bielefeld in Germany. That’s all we know about him really. Oh - that, and the fact he’s released one of the best début LPs we’ve ever heard. We weren’t sure whether there was a sub-genre called “emotional techno”, but if there wasn’t, he’s just invented it. If there was, he’s just perfected it.
“Kalte Menschen” (now that title describes 2017 in itself, surely?) kicks off with its title track and taster single, a sleek, refreshing ice-cool chimera of a song that seems to bring something new on every listen, before the slower tempo “Ein Emotionaler Mann” shifts the mood by playing with melody and dubstep rhythms. We’ve never been truly convinced by the idea of ‘intelligent dance music’, but just occasionally there are artists who can pull it off (shout-outs to Kryptic Minds). And so “7787” and “Dienstag 7 Uhr” continue the seduction, before the the drizzled kisses and sibilance of “Im Regen” and “Gustav” (spell Relham backwards and you can probably work out which Gustav we’re thinking of here).
If anything, the quality of the album then somehow ascends: as the appropriately named “Steigern” segues into the shimmering “Verstandhnis” you really appreciate how there is always a pulse here: there is nothing ambient or unfocussed about these songs, which remain positive techno at heart. The last artist original is “Handeln”, which veers slightly off-kilter with a synth line made to sound almost like a twangy guitar: the album then finishes with two remixes as Italian duo Wirrwarr give “Steigern” a polish, before d!st!nct label head honcho Cortechs re-works his own favourite track, “Ein Emotionaler Mann”. You'll be happy to get lost in this record again and again.
3. Last Leaves “Other Towns Than Ours” (Matinée Recordings / Lost & Lonesome)
Completing a trilogy of year-defining albums, with the introduction of vocals and guitars into our countdown (sorry, count-up). This was a remarkable first record, and if you dug the Lucksmiths’ last album or the Wedding Present’s “Going, Going...” we think you will really be in for a treat if you hurry up and get your order in.
Book-ended by the gorgeous slow burn of “Love And The World Well Lost” at the start and “Where I Live And What I Lived For” at the end, “Other Towns Than Ours” shimmers with jewels like “Something Falls” (tender and sad but uptempo, and quite possibly song of the year) or the touching “The Last Of The Light”. For more detail/raving, see here.
4. Violent Opposition “Courage And Conviction” (Horror Pain Gore Death)
Offputting label name, yes: next time, we're hoping they do a record on Cloudberry. This, from ace new California outfit Violent Opposition (not to be confused with the UK#s Violent Arrest or Violent Reaction, both also top-tier bands of course) is the bomb. Think MDC meets early Sidetracked and you won’t be far off: this intriguing blend of short, structured songs, adorned with a fairly dizzying array of socio-political themes, coalesces so effectively that it’s pretty hard to hear the joins between the thirty-three tracks.
5. The Popguns “Sugar Kisses” (Matinée Recordings)
We maintain what we thought back in June that this may be their best record, and we’d skirt across hot coals (well, for a bit) if it would get the power-jangle of “Finished With The Past” or “Fire Away” to be released as singles. That said, the rather assured, less frenetic new breed of crowdpleasers on the first half of the album are probably what make this such a *complete* pop album.
6. Memoriam “For The Fallen” (Nuclear Blast)
Ex-Bolt Thrower personnel Memoriam warmed up for this, their début LP, with some promising demo EPs (like the unallayed crust of “Drone Strike”, a song whose chorus sounded like Doom, and that sadly didn’t make it on to the final album), but it was only when this record actually hit that you realised that Memoriam were seriously in business. (By way of example, check out the quantum leap from the demo take of "Surrounded (By Death)" to the seriously accomplished LP version).
More than just death metal, this album co-opts spritely crust and punk influences too - as well as "Surrender", we're particularly and immensely fond of the riff-tastic "War Rages On", "Corrupted System", "Flatline" and "Resistance". It's quite an achievement for Memoriam to step out of Bolt Thrower's long shadow, given that the final BT album, "Those Once Loyal" may be at once the best death metal, and war metal, album of all time. But we think they may have managed it.
7. Ryuji Takeuchi “I Think, Therefore I Am” (Local Sound Network)
“I Think, Therefore I Am” is an entirely different receptacle of fish from the usual. In the loosest possible terms you could say that this, the Japanese producer’s second full-length outing, has a genre – i.e. that it’s a “techno” record - but that would be like saying that Slayer and Brighter share a genre, on the basis that they’re both bands with guitars in their armoury.
There’s a hint of the mischief we’re in for early doors, because the opening “Philosopher’s Agony” is eight minutes of carefully cultivated white noise, shuffling between minimal, hard-to-make out sub-bass rumble to full-on screes of feedback-like electronic yell (Tomihiko Sagae vs Metal Machine Music). After that, things “settle down”, although again only in the loosest possible way. This is Ryuji at his most sonically harsh, unleashing a brutal industrial mesh of beats rather than the smoother heights of some past classics (by the way, if you preferred his sublime “Vital” single, we’d still heartily recommend Aleja Sanchez’s “Ether”).
The craziest antics are probably reserved for on “Heads And Tails” and “Right Face, Left”, both of which would be perfect for annoying the sort of person who always laughs at 'our' music for not being real music: both the rhythms and the pitch of these tracks fly around all over the place, but the pace never relents.
The title 'tune' concludes proceedings, and provides the only obvious chink of humanity in the whole enterprise, with what is recognisably a male voice intoning Descartes’ finest aphorism (albeit through a fog-encrusted haze of distortion and effects). A bit like “Philosopher’s Agony”, it’s completely impossible to imagine anyone dancing to this, but it would be such fun to put this on in a club and watch people try.
8. The Harvest Ministers "Back To Harbour" (Crayon Records)
Sarah Records is not always celebrated as a launch pad for singer-songwriters, but the longevity of Bobby Wratten, FM Cornog, Amelia Fletcher and so many others in this indie-pop game is ample testament to the fact that Sarah always had the songs, they really had the bloody songs, and sometimes the obvious needs stating or we all go home thinking that Sarah's legend now was built not on songwriting talent at all, but *solely* on fanzine politics and the fuel of music press hate. And Will Merriman's Harvest Ministers are still producing records that suggest they deserve to be held in equal esteem with some of their illustrious ex-labelmates.
"Back To Harbour" shows how deft Merriman is not only at dark, sad ballads but also at more uptempo, tongue-in-cheek songs: the standout for us has to be the beautiful, string-bled "Fault Lines" but - from the slow and elegant "Violaine" and "Black Elsie" to the winning "All The Woman (I Ever Want To Know)" or "The Debutante With The Nose Ring" - the Harvest Ministers still do our world the world of good.
9. Sect "No Cure For Death" (Southern Lord)
Over the last five years, it's a pretty safe bet that we've bought more records produced by Kurt Ballou than anyone else, him being to the hardcore/powerviolence/grindcore nexus what Scott Burns was to lo-fi death metal, or John A. Rivers to Creation-era indie.
Straightedge HC supergroup Sect, though, rank pretty high amongst his charges: "No Cure For Death" is a coruscating, high-velocity thing that sounds a little like Trap Them at their most flat-out, or the last Nails LP, or maybe even Weekend Nachos when they really had the bit between their teeth, but sets itself apart with high-quality lyrics, even if they can tend to the direct ("Come down off the cross, you dead-hearted frauds" is a great way to start a song with real intent). At a shade under 17 minutes the album is even shorter than "Dirge" or "They Scoffed The Lot", but it feels *just right*.
10. Secret Shine “There Is Only Now” (Saint Marie Records)
Ah, the kings (and queen) of “are they still going?” We had a Secret Shine listening day recently, complete discography (well – apart from “Wasted Away” and “Each To The Other”, sigh) and they truly are a blinding band. As we tried to make clear not all that long ago.
Like the Popguns, the Shine seem to be freshly back into a blistering run of form, and “There Is Only Now” is one of their best and most consistent long-players, we reckon, particularly the effortless pop-shoegaze cool of “All In Your Head” or "Burning Stars", and the catchy and ever-so-slightly jangly “Falling Again”.
* * * * *
Aaaand... other albums that we span on the regular this year include Sully's “Escape” (especially the two non-instrumentals, featuring Jendor and Jamakabi respectively, which are quite, quite stunning), Vallenfyre's “Fear Those Who Fear Him” (which, in "Messiah", probably features the best grindcore number of 2017), Looking For An Answer's resolute vegan-grind outing “Dios Carne", the playful Teutonic minimalism of Sleeparchive's "Letter of Resignation", the Fall's fiery and unbowed (if wildly inconsistent) "New Facts Emerge", Obituary's eponymous (eleventh!) album which rates as one of their leanest and most vigorous works, Wiley's "Godfather" (now Godfather MBE, of course) which would actually benefit from fewer guest slots and more Wiley, the splendid Ghetto collab "Bang!" aside, the Hulaboy / Safe Distance split and even Lock-Up's "Demonization", much as we fear it falls short of their previous records. Though - it must be said that on this one, Simon from Sea Mills would strongly disagree.
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