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I made a list with some of the best music I discovered this year in no particular order.  2:54 by 2:54 This album brings back the best things from the nineties’ darkwave without sounding like a copycat. It’s guitar-driven shoegaze with a rough edge, wrapped in deep female voice. You will like it if you enjoy Curve, Cranes, The Cocteau Twins. Sample track: Creeping. The Brutal Wave by Frank (Just Frank) Here is a brilliant debut album with exactly zero filler. In true post-punk tradition, the production is extremely naked, but these guys are far from lazy. They have expertly juiced every drop of atmosphere out of a bass, a guitar, a cheap sounding keyboard and a drum machine. You will like it if you enjoy Siouxsie, Seventeen Seconds-era The Cure or Ultravox. Sample track: Jalousie. Fin by John Talabot I can’t think of a better electronica album this year. It really doesn’t sound like anything but blends deep house, minimal techno, Eno-esque ambient and drone into a unique, hypnotic cocktail. You will like it if you enjoy The Field, Dj Shadow  or Amon Tobin. Sample track: Destiny. Light Asylum by Light Asylum I have heard plenty of EBM and industrial in my time, but what these guys have done with the tools of the trade still drives me nuts. It is as if you went back in time to 1989 and made Anne Clark re-create Pretty Hate Machine with Grace Jones as the singer. Yes, it is an unlikely mix but damn if it isn’t an amazing one. Sample track: Hour Fortress. Ghostory by School of Seven Bells Apparently almost all of my favorite music from this year is in some form indebted to Robin Guthrie, but even if I risk you judging my taste as monomaniacal I can’t not list this album because it’s just extraordinary. You will like it if you enjoy Zola Jesus, Austra and -of course- The Cocteau Twins. Sample track: The Night. The Silicone Veil by Susanne+Sundfør  Call me conventional, but this is the kind of album that Björk could’ve put out if she hadn’t gone batshit crazy. A delicate, mysterious, superbly arranged ambient-pop album with just the right amount of electronica strategically placed to carry Susanne’s voice to the level of emotional rapture. Man tears were shed listening to White Foxes. TRST by Trust Nothing short of an instant synth-pop classic. Take the danciest Depeche Mode, submerge it in a Die Form nightmare and do not let it settle: instead, give it a steady supply of drugs and weird sex and let it set the night on fire. Despite this bizarre psychological landscape, Trust manages to sound pure, timeless and beautiful. My favorite album of the year. Sample track: Shoom. Tamer Animals by Other Lives The only non-electronic album in this list, a mix of piano, american folk and orchestral arrangements that listens like a soundtrack: complex, dark and cinematic. I can’t help but picture scenes from the Jesse James film and Blood Meridian while listening to it. The vocal work is fantastic, ranging from the pastoral to the cavernous with ease. You will like it if you enjoy Fleet Foxes and the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis duo. Sample track: the gorgeous Dust Bowl III. You can listen to most of the stuff that caught my ear this year in my 2012 favorites playlist.

I made a list with some of the best music I discovered this year in no particular order. 

2:54 by 2:54

This album brings back the best things from the nineties’ darkwave without sounding like a copycat. It’s guitar-driven shoegaze with a rough edge, wrapped in deep female voice. You will like it if you enjoy Curve, Cranes, The Cocteau Twins. Sample track: Creeping.

The Brutal Wave by Frank (Just Frank)

Here is a brilliant debut album with exactly zero filler. In true post-punk tradition, the production is extremely naked, but these guys are far from lazy. They have expertly juiced every drop of atmosphere out of a bass, a guitar, a cheap sounding keyboard and a drum machine. You will like it if you enjoy Siouxsie, Seventeen Seconds-era The Cure or Ultravox. Sample track: Jalousie.

Fin by John Talabot

I can’t think of a better electronica album this year. It really doesn’t sound like anything but blends deep house, minimal techno, Eno-esque ambient and drone into a unique, hypnotic cocktail. You will like it if you enjoy The Field, Dj Shadow  or Amon Tobin. Sample track: Destiny.

Light Asylum by Light Asylum

I have heard plenty of EBM and industrial in my time, but what these guys have done with the tools of the trade still drives me nuts. It is as if you went back in time to 1989 and made Anne Clark re-create Pretty Hate Machine with Grace Jones as the singer. Yes, it is an unlikely mix but damn if it isn’t an amazing one. Sample track: Hour Fortress.

Ghostory by School of Seven Bells

Apparently almost all of my favorite music from this year is in some form indebted to Robin Guthrie, but even if I risk you judging my taste as monomaniacal I can’t not list this album because it’s just extraordinary. You will like it if you enjoy Zola Jesus, Austra and -of course- The Cocteau Twins. Sample track: The Night.

The Silicone Veil by Susanne+Sundfør 

Call me conventional, but this is the kind of album that Björk could’ve put out if she hadn’t gone batshit crazy. A delicate, mysterious, superbly arranged ambient-pop album with just the right amount of electronica strategically placed to carry Susanne’s voice to the level of emotional rapture. Man tears were shed listening to White Foxes.

TRST by Trust

Nothing short of an instant synth-pop classic. Take the danciest Depeche Mode, submerge it in a Die Form nightmare and do not let it settle: instead, give it a steady supply of drugs and weird sex and let it set the night on fire. Despite this bizarre psychological landscape, Trust manages to sound pure, timeless and beautiful. My favorite album of the year. Sample track: Shoom.

Tamer Animals by Other Lives

The only non-electronic album in this list, a mix of piano, american folk and orchestral arrangements that listens like a soundtrack: complex, dark and cinematic. I can’t help but picture scenes from the Jesse James film and Blood Meridian while listening to it. The vocal work is fantastic, ranging from the pastoral to the cavernous with ease. You will like it if you enjoy Fleet Foxes and the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis duo. Sample track: the gorgeous Dust Bowl III.

You can listen to most of the stuff that caught my ear this year in my 2012 favorites playlist.

A sorry state of affairs »

“The contents of Unapologetic are effectively trolling the public. The incident between Rihanna and Brown, and the wider issue it represents, is being reduced to a series of shock-tactic soundbites (with a few lines neatly sampled from Michael Jackson’s ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’). It’s nobody’s business, they sing, but we’ll tell you all about it anyway, wind you up in the process, and get good publicity material from an issue as trifling as – oh – physical violence against a woman.

This also reveals how the internet often works in the most terrible way. In terms of online popularity, page hits are king. As a result, provocative subjects and statements that prompt instant reactions – and finger-clicks – take precedence. They form the bedrock of comment-board-driven editorial planning, in a world where comments themselves barely get moderated. Debates on weighty subjects on TV and radio are also now all about polarised positions. (As a sidenote, I was asked to be part of a debate about Madonna on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour last year, but was excused after talking to a researcher, because I didn’t simply love or hate Madonna.) This twisted, provocative logic, where extreme positions and statements are everything, is festering within our culture, and infecting it.”

A Sorry State: Pop Marketing & Rihanna’s Unapologetic.

u beenlookingforthemagic: How to Tour in a Band or Whateverby Thor Harris 1-Don’t Complain. Bitching, moaning, whining is tour cancer. If something is wrong fix it or shut the fuck up you fucking dick. goddamn. 2-If you fart, claim it. 3-Don’t Lose shit. Everybody loses shit. Don’t fucking do it. Asshole. 4-Don’t fuck anyone in the band. There are tons of people to fuck who are not in this band. Dumbass. 5-If you feel like shit all the time, drink less beer at the gig. You will play better & feel better. What are you… a child? Some have the endurance for self abuse. Most don’t. 6-Remember the soundman’s name. He will do a better job. 7- Eat oranges. Cures constipation & prevents colds. 8-Masturbate. Duh… Where & when? Be creative. You’re an artist right? 9-If YOU can’t carry your suitcase 3 blocks, it’s too goddamn big. 10-Respect public space in the van. Don’t clutter, you Fuck. 11-If you borrow something, return it. Not Fucked Up. 12-Do not let the promoter dick you or talk you out of the guarantee. If there were not enuf people there, it’s their fault. 13- Driver picks the music. 14-One navigator only (usually sitting shotgun). Everyone else shut the fuck up. 15-Soundcheck is for checking sounds. Shut the fuck up while everyone else is checking. 16-Don’t wander off. Let someone know where you are. 17-Clean up after yourself. What are you… a goddamn toddler? 18-Touring makes everyone bi-polar. Ride the waves as best you can and remember, moods pass. So don’t make any snap decisions or declarations when you are drunk or insane. 19-Fast food is Poison. 20-The guestlist is for friends, family & people you might want to fuck. Everyone else can pay. They have day jobs. 21- Don’t evaluate your whole life while you’re sitting in a janitor closet waiting to go on. You think you’re above having shitty days at work? Shut up & do your goddamn job. This list was written under the influence of lots of esspresso & anti-depressants while on tour w/ such greats as Shearwater, Swans, Smog, Lisa Germano, Angels of Light, Bill Callahan & many more. I hope this list will help you get along w/ your co-workers whatever your job is. Contributions to the list by Jordan Geiger, Kimberly Burke, Brian Orloff, Brian Phillips Celebrity Gang Bang, Kevin Schneider, Jonathan Meiburg, Michael Gira and some other folks. Thanks for not being an asshole, Thor Harris

u

beenlookingforthemagic:

How to Tour in a Band or Whatever
by Thor Harris

1-Don’t Complain. Bitching, moaning, whining is tour cancer. If something is wrong fix it or shut the fuck up you fucking dick. goddamn.

2-If you fart, claim it.

3-Don’t Lose shit. Everybody loses shit. Don’t fucking do it. Asshole.

4-Don’t fuck anyone in the band. There are tons of people to fuck who are not in this band. Dumbass.

5-If you feel like shit all the time, drink less beer at the gig. You will play better & feel better. What are you… a child? Some have the endurance for self abuse. Most don’t.

6-Remember the soundman’s name. He will do a better job.

7- Eat oranges. Cures constipation & prevents colds.

8-Masturbate. Duh… Where & when? Be creative. You’re an artist right?

9-If YOU can’t carry your suitcase 3 blocks, it’s too goddamn big.

10-Respect public space in the van. Don’t clutter, you Fuck.

11-If you borrow something, return it. Not Fucked Up.

12-Do not let the promoter dick you or talk you out of the guarantee. If there were not enuf people there, it’s their fault.

13- Driver picks the music.

14-One navigator only (usually sitting shotgun). Everyone else shut the fuck up.

15-Soundcheck is for checking sounds. Shut the fuck up while everyone else is checking.

16-Don’t wander off. Let someone know where you are.

17-Clean up after yourself. What are you… a goddamn toddler?

18-Touring makes everyone bi-polar. Ride the waves as best you can and remember, moods pass. So don’t make any snap decisions or declarations when you are drunk or insane.

19-Fast food is Poison.

20-The guestlist is for friends, family & people you might want to fuck. Everyone else can pay. They have day jobs.

21- Don’t evaluate your whole life while you’re sitting in a janitor closet waiting to go on. You think you’re above having shitty days at work? Shut up & do your goddamn job.

This list was written under the influence of lots of esspresso & anti-depressants while on tour w/ such greats as Shearwater, Swans, Smog, Lisa Germano, Angels of Light, Bill Callahan & many more. I hope this list will help you get along w/ your co-workers whatever your job is. Contributions to the list by Jordan Geiger, Kimberly Burke, Brian Orloff, Brian Phillips Celebrity Gang Bang, Kevin Schneider, Jonathan Meiburg, Michael Gira and some other folks.

Thanks for not being an asshole, Thor Harris