Here are my favorite records NOT from Boston or New England from 2016 that I was lucky enough to come across among the seemingly trillions of albums and songs that are raining down upon us each and every year. Also, I’m the Music Editor of this website.
read my Fav Boston & New England Releases List From 2016 HERE
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>>>>>Powell – Sport (XL Recordings)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“Well, one of experimental electronic dance music (EEDM)’s shining lights is back with a new record called SPORT, which is out on XL RECORDINGS. Lest you thought that Oscar Powell had given up making some of the dankest beat music being made today for a career in billboard creation, here’s SPORT to quell your fears. “Junk” is the track I’m fondest of thus far. With it’s wobbly synths, Mark E. Smith samples(!), and gee I dunno, maybe the 1:27 mark, I dare you to disagree. Maybe you’re one of those Albini/ Trump types, clinging to old models, unwilling to change. Good luck with that if so. The rest of us can enjoy the ecstatic funky rhythmic sounds of POWELL.”
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>>>>>Cate Le Bon – Crab Day (Turnstile / Drag City)<<<<<
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>>>>>Peter Brotzmann/Heather Leigh – Ears Are Filled With Wonder (Catalytic Sound)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“Torrid woodwind (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, Tárogató, b-flat clarinet) & pedal steel guitar conversations, monologues sprinkled in, for 28+ minutes. It’s the interactions (and the back to back stance, axes in the air, hair flying – double solos) that burn brightest. And man, does that bass clarinet sound good.The terrain covered here by PETER fucking BROTZMANN and pedal steel priestess HEATHER LEIGH is varied and breathtaking. LEIGH’s six strings sound alternately beautiful, and noisy as fuck. At 9 minutes wobbly exploding, steel meets sax, at serious altitudes. And then hurtles far beyond it. BROTZMANN, human hero, brings the bluster immediately out of the gate, wailing and finally drifting into a melting pile of pedal steel at around 2:40. Far beyond at the 13 minute mark I believe the audio to be the sound of a turkey that is being throttled. And things devolve (and then evolve again) from there. BROTZMANN gets downright mournfully beautiful around 17 minutes, and creepily atmospheric at 21 minutes, LEIGH’s guitar spiraling toward the ether, reaching it, and returning.”
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>>>>>CE Schneider Topical/ Lentils – 4 different Hells (Sante Loisirs)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site from 2016
“The CE SCHNEIDER TOPICAL tunes really make me roll around on the floor in a tizzy. “Party At The Tower”, Schneider’s song contribution, reeks in the best way possible of YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS, ethereal female vocals dancing atop bubbling bass, all of it giving way to a brief ENO bridge of some kind. Watch the guitar shimmer. Perfect skewed indie pop/ post-punk like they did in England in the early 80s. “Four Different Hells”, the track born of Phillips’ pen, brings over and rides the bass that we met on “Party At The Tower” pushing it slightly further into the background. An organ joins the fray. The composition here is fairly recognizable as a Zach Phillips joint, and he does not disappoint, while Christina Schneider delivers another stellar vocal performance. Stuck in my damn head.Lest we forget, THE LENTILS are also at this party. “Dreamskills” is the standout of their two tracks, delivering that janky LENTILS folk-pop that we know well here at the Hassle. Guitars collide to make a pop dream! Well timed for the passing of our universal rock friend MR. BOWIE, the real grabber for me on this track is the shambolic glam riff that kicks the track off and reappears throughout. More great guitar playing”
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>>>>>CE Schneider Topical – Antifree (OSR)<<<<<
>>>>>Eric Copeland – Jesus Freak (L.I.E.S.)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
ERIC COPELAND.
6 song EP.
On L.I.E.S.
Came out very end of last year.
Nothing more to say.
But I can’t help myself.
“Jamaican Neighbor” really gets me. Is it the earthen noise dub? Is it the codeine stained n’ screwed electronic soul (talkin’ EXTREME ANIMALS zones)? Is it the sinewy distorto techno that underpins it all?
Track has a lot going for it. No other music would I prefer to hear more if I were to randomly walk into some subterranean dance party paradise. Out on the essential LIES. COPELAND CONTINUES TO LIVE LARGE.
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>>>>>Santigold – 99 Cents (Atlantic)<<<<<
Hit that 16 minute mark hard.
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>>>>>Tropa Macaca – Vida (Trilogy Tapes)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“The Portuguese duo of André Abel and Joana da Conceição have given us something new to listen to courtesy of the TRILOGY TAPES label. VIDA is the name of the new-ish 4 song-er and it finds TROPA MACACA at their meandering, fantastical best. You don’t get to put out records on SILTBREEZE if you don’t mean it, and this pair has, so…Guitar teeters on the verge of a nervous breakdown, vibraphone (I think) laps lushly at the halo of your ears, electronics fizz, assisting but never resisting the flow of the lazy river that runs through tracks like “Pelos Olhos De Osíris,” which is my favorite of these 4. Listening is like staring into the great blue above, aimlessly, clouds drifting, birds chirping, chemtrails barely billowing in the minds of conspiracy theorists everywhere. I follow this band wherever they go.”
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>>>>>Anxiety – s/t (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“Easily my favorite hardcore record of the year comes in the form of ANXIETY’s s/t LP that just came out on London’s extremely, regularly awesome punk label LA VIDA ES UN MUS DISCOS. While I love punk/ hc and the like, outside of the live context I started getting bored with the brick and mortar of the stuff by the time I was 20 or so. Creative infusion by fresh blood is vital to any art or genre, and in this vacuum arrives Glasgow’s ANXIETY. The guitar and vocal sounds on this thing are wide ranging and varied, especially impressive for a band that’s apparently only been together less than a year.Thuggy rhythms, schizo vocals, walls of noise, weird sounds of unknown origin, raging bass n’ drums combo, deep knowledge of punk of yore and yesterday, and chant worthy nihilistic lyrics. Excited? Check your underwear. Beyond punk these guys definitely draw from the noise rock and experimental rock records on their shelves. “The Worst” is the ripping-est of the bunch. Sounds like early NIRVANA over a punk beat, with a hand on the electronic noise twiddle knobber, and a Rollins-style bark out front spitting all knowing shit like: “Every man that I ever meet can never admit his mistakes. Every woman that I ever meet is left to pick up the pieces.” & “I’m the worst. I’m the worst. I’m the absolute worst.”Weird hardcore maxed out. Hit us up when you come to the stupid USA. Great record. Goddammit!”
>>>>>Vegetators – King of Shithesizer (Haord)<<<<<
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>>>>>Foodman – Ez Minzoku (Orange Milk Records)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“FOODMAN is making some of the funkiest, out there electronic music, some of the most broken electronic dance music, that I’ve ever heard in my goddamn life. I can only describe Takahide Higuchi’s music in terms of the fundamental sounds that I hear in the FOODMAN stew: skweee, chiptune, footwork, kraut electronic (Asmus Tietchens in particular). And those are just some of the various jumping off points for this strange music. EZ MINZOKU is the latest chapter in the sonic saga of this deep Japanese weirdo. ORANGE MILK RECORDS released the record earlier this year. Releasing flagrantly wild electronic music is what they do.
“Yami Nabe” at the 2:40 mark. Remember last century when Kikunae Ikeda discovered umami? I think his countryman Higuchi might be doing something similar for music right here on this album.
Who’s a contemporary of this guy? FORM A LOG? GOBBY? No one? This is the best shit.”
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>>>>>Powerdrug – ESP VOL. 1 (birdFriend)<<<<<
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>>>>>A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service (Epic)<<<<<
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>>>>>75 Dollar Bill – Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock (Thin Wrist)<<<<<
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>>>>>clipping. – Splendor & Misery (Sub Pop/ Deathbomb Arc)<<<<<
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>>>>>clipping. – Wriggle (Sub Pop)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“Great EP that came out earlier this summer from one of experimental hip-hop’s leading lights. A full length (SPLENDOR & MISERY) also comes out on SUB POP in September, that lovely bridge of a month between summer and fall (you know the one). WRIGGLE is slight at only 20 minutes but still features the sound and attitude endemic of this Los Angeles trio. Noise and industrial sounds pervade the production, and the bass is fierce. The title track stands out coming off like some kind of slightly sped up CONTAINER track with a chorus imploring the listener to, “wriggle like fish girl/boy, wriggle like snake girl/boy, wriggle like worm girl/boy, wriggle like an eel.” Works for me. ANDRE 3000 vibes in the flow.Also feeling “Hot Fuck No Love” which arrives from the complete opposite end of the spectrum beat-wise. Slow pulse, and sexually charged lyrics over some KONONO NO. 1 sounding electronic plinkery, Cakes da Killa & Maxi Wild join Daveed Diggs on this one. WRIGGLE is a sweet little fix for CLIPPING fans while we await the next full batch from these underground heroes. Party music, end of summer like, from these longtime favs and ex-CAPTAIN AHAB-ers.”
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>>>>>CoH – Return To Mechanics (Ge-stell)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“Ivan Pavlov (aka CoH) has a new EP out! It’s called RETURN TO MECHANICS and was released earlier this year by the GE-STELL label. I’ve gone on about it previously, but the music of CoH was highly influential in drawing me into the bottomless rabbit hole of experimental electronic & experimental dance musics. CoH’s sound world is all encompassing, exotic, and seemingly boundary-less. The isolation of its Russian roots is sometimes apparent, but the sun often finds a way through in Pavlov’s music.
This EP is of a kind of piece with CoH’s recent longer form EDITIONS MEGO release, MUSIC VOL. Of the same batch as the songs found on MUSIC VOL, but of a “louder” nature in Pavlov’s own words. “Escape and Return” does get a bit loud, evolving from a scratch in your ear to the belching squelch of a series of electronic ticks. The synth melody @ 4 minutes is unexpected… as Pavlov do. I need more CoH, and luckily I have that entire other record to explore! Do your homework and check out all of CoH’s recordings. No hyperbole, it doesn’t really get any better.”
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>>>>>James Holden & Camilo Tirado/ Luke Abbott – Outdoor Museum Of Fractals/ 555HZ (Border Community)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“This is live electronics at its impossible best. The recordings are taken from practice sessions that took place prior to the trio’s performances at a pair of events called Hello Terry Riley held at London’s Barbican Centre and Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw last April. So both pieces are completely improvised. HOLDEN (perhaps the most exciting electronic musician anywhere right now) hews closer to a classic RILEY sound on “Outdoor Museum of Fractals”. He’s helped along by the tabla playing of TIRADO in creating a 46 minute head wash. LUKE ABBOT’s side goes further off the rails, proving itself to be the true stunner of this pair of absolute stunners. A very impressive drone-centric offering. Bass synth crackle @13:30 (and otherwise through out). Mmmm.”
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>>>>>Exhaustion/ Wanders – II (Feeding Tube Records)<<<<<
from my review on the Hassle site in 2016
“Centrally fried, out on the perimeter.
A desolate landscape unfurls. Dust and acid mist commingling. The blood of the environment’s wounds coagulating. Finally. A four headed Australian thing. An improvisational thug. Four of them. I just turned away from a MOONDOG record because I wanted to listen to this instead.
KRIS WANDERS, Brotzmann conspirator, on tenor sax squeezes the bejeezus out his reeded horn. Smattering 50 years of free jazz onto the smiling (diabolicaly) pretty faces of EXHAUSTION, a primal trio several records deep; II, the one in question, being the foursome’s second recorded go around together.
Free jazz disastrously crashing into desert rock psychosis. Really all you can do is pick up the doomed, scarred, and of course, twisted pieces and try to move on. Over the course of two tracks, two sides, and nearly 45 minutes EXHAUSTION/ WANDERS will argue that that is not possible. Out on FEEDING TUBE RECORDS (what, we have the best record label in the world here in Massachusetts?! the fuck!?).”
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>>>>>Russian Tsarlag – Unexplained American Goat (Wharf Cat Records)<<<<<
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Cube – My Cube (Left Hand Path)
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ALSO, I really like this song:
