There are more new albums to listen to every week than one person can listen. Here Andrew Darley selects 10 that we listened to but didn’t write about in 2013.
In the time of music we now live in, each and every week presents the release of new albums from long-established artists and newcomers alike. That sometimes may feel like bombardment, and there are times when music can pass us by, purely because of the quantity that is out there. Like our readers, this happens at Polari Magazine too; we simply do not have enough hours in the day to hear all the music being made, let alone write about it. In 2013, there were so many records that we adored and cherished but were unable to write about these records at the time. This list focuses on the albums that we spent time with, made us think and feel and inevitably loved.
Spaces • Nils Frahm
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After writing and recording his previous album with a broken hand, Nils Frahm’s Spaces is a burst of energy from the creative restraint his injury caused him. His arrangements feel like living, breathing entities that take the listener away. Recorded live, Frahm captures the sheer liveliness and momentum of his technical abilities as well as his awareness of communicating emotion through sound. Spaces is a record that plays with the parameters of gorgeous melancholy and pure joy.
All My Love In Half Light • Lady Lazarus
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Melissa Ann Sweat’s sophomore record renews the singer-songwriter’s almost-meditative aesthetic of her debut, Mantic, whilst introducing a more contemplative level. Her skeletal and nuanced piano compositions, draped in reverb, embody and echo emotion throughout the course of the album. On ‘Goudunov’, when she sings “I’m good enough for the world”, it feels like an emotional awakening; both for the artist and the listener.
Innocence Is Kinky • Jenny Hval
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Jenny Hval’s music does not necessarily exist to be enjoyable. Instead, Hval sets on creating music that is subversive enough to challenge her listener’s on their perception of music and the issues she sings about. From the opening line of the record, “That night, I watched people fucking on my computer”, she draws us into a world that experiments with melody, spoken word and electronica. Innocence Is Kinky strives in its own art, music and poetry.
Butterfly Case • Cuushe
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For anyone unfamiliar with Japanese electronic artist, Cuushe, this is the perfect introduction. Butterfly Case triumphs in sounding exactly as its title suggests; fluttering with colour, movement and vitality. It’s a record that will make you realize how overused and undervalued the term ‘dream pop’ has become in music journalism today. This is an album that innocently twinkles with awe, lulling one into a weightless dream.
Life After Defo • Deptford Goth
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Daniel Woolhouse’s debut album is one of honesty and precision. Life After Defo examines the feelings we are left with when life’s apparent certainties and comforts are taken away from us. From the spectral beauty of the opening title song to the emotional rush of ‘Years’, this record is the sound of understanding and dealing with our own ghosts.
Everlast • Perera Elsewhere
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It’s rare and startlingly refreshing when a musician arrives and offers something genuinely original. Sasha Perera, vocalist of electronic outfit Jahcoozi, took the chance of a solo album to create a sound all to her own. Her sweet melodies and unorthodox guitar playing give the record its sonically unique mood; beauty with a air of foreboding. Perara’s charismatic attitude, substance and style shine through and translate to her music. Elsewhere is now here.
The Man Who Died in His Boat • Grouper
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Grouper incorporates acoustic and electronic instruments, igniting haunting and ambient soundscapes. Wonderfully crafted, Liz Harris sets herself apart from the plethora of electro-acoustic ambient music, which can be known to bleed into each other. Comprised of songs from previous recording sessions, this album looms with beauty. One standout is the startling ‘Vanishing Point’; it embodies the deafening silence one could imagine standing alone, isolated, in The Artic.
Cupid’s Head • The Field
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Cupid’s Head continues Axel Willner’s excellence in musical production. On his fourth record, the electronic composer delivers once again with his mastery in looping some of the most basic musical elements, such as a beat or a bass line, to bring them together in a way that garners a seismic force. His determined aesthetic highlights the theory of how the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. The Field is the essence of Intelligent Dance Music; communicating with the mind, body and soul.
Untogether • Blue Hawaii
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Montreal duo Blue Hawaii released their debut album early on in this year: an admittedly calming album with a steely bite. Untogether’s strength lies in its comfortableness in its own sound. It doesn’t seek to thrill, jump or strike the listener. Instead, it coos and hypnotizes with soft and intricate electronics with lyrics about self-definition and the inner struggle with love.
Slow Focus • Fuck Buttons
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Fuck Buttons have done it again. Together, Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power generated another album as exhilarating as their past work and pushed their music forward. Even though they incorporate and experiment with electronic, rock and noise elements, there is something much grander, more sublime to their music that cannot be pinned down with words or a label. The prowess of Fuck Buttons is not their obvious passion for sound and rhythm, but their close attention to textures and how they can make us feel.
