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The Last Roundup

November 23, 2015 by A.S. Van Dorston

last-roundup-2015

This is not about the 1929 movie where Denver Dixon of Bar-D Ranch tracked down former cowhand “Mile-Away” Hardy who set fire to the ranch, rustled the cattle and kidnapped the schoolmarm. But in a way these albums are kind of errant cattle or sheep that wandered off and need to be rounded up and accounted for.

It won’t be my final word on 2015 releases, of course. Year-end lists have just started trickling out, and will soon be piling out in an avalanche. I’ll typically struggle with the temptation to listen to another 400 albums. For my sanity, sleep schedule and health, I’ll try to keep it to a more manageable 50 or so this year. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve rated about 380 albums so far, and last year’s list has more than 750. Yikes! I realize no one cares what albums I think are the 700th best of the year. But I have to sort through the so-so ones to find the gems.

Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love (Sub Pop)

Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love (Sub Pop, 2015)This came out way back on January 20, and it took me a long time to get on board with it. At least it didn’t take as long as I did with The Hot Rock (1999), which took me about 13 years! My issue was early on I think they peaked as far as their ability to absolutely slay with songs that were devastating and perfect (“Good Things,” “Words And Guitar”). By The Hot Rock, they experimented with more complex arrangements, with fewer hooks and melodies, more along the lines of Fugazi at the time. They had some more immediately gratifying tracks on One Beat (2002) and The Woods (2005), and then with the reunion album I wasn’t feeling the songs for a long time. It helped immensely to see them perform them live later in the spring, where they sounded better than I’d ever heard them in the distant past.  This wasn’t just a band struggling to measure up to a version of themselves from over a decade ago, it was a group of full grown women who are in many ways better than ever. For example, they seem to have been practicing their guitars during the hiatus. There is no charming ineptness that goes fine with an enthusiastic young band, but not so much one reunited in middle age.  They sound tighter than ever, but still keep the edges rough and the inner rage within easy reach. In the ten months I’ve had to absorb this, “Surface Envy,” “No Anthems” and “Bury Our Friends” have risen to the top of stand-outs. It’s a close call, as it’s a consistent album. Listening to a mix of my top albums of the year contenders, it has gradually risen to my top 20 on the strength of their sharp songs and slashing guitars. Wolf Alice and Bully were also initially in that mix, but simply couldn’t compete with the power and experience of Sleater-Kinney.

Avatarium – The Girl With The Raven Mask (Nuclear Blast)

Avatarium - The Girl With The Raven Mask (Nuclear Blast, 2015)When The Oath’s Joanna Sardonis teamed up with Gaz Jennings from Cathedral to create a hybrid of doom, 70s proto-metal, occult-infused hard rock and psych noir, they weren’t the first to do so. In 2013,  Leif Edling of another legendary doom band, Sweden’s Candlemass and Krux, formed an alliance with singer Jennie-Ann Smith and released an excellent self-titled debut as Avatarium. While the first album featured some stomping doom riffs, the second is a smoother ride, mixing the Rainbow-era Ritchie Blackmore guitars (courtesy of Marcus Jidell from Soen) with dark psychedelia. Not that the band can’t be heavy. The 7:55 “January Sea” features some extremely weighty, epic doom riffs, as does “Iron Mule.” But even on the hardest rocking songs, there are too many keyboards, ethereal guitar lines and Smith’s icy but nuanced, melodic vocals for it to be considered doom metal. They’re simply a hybrid of all the aforementioned influences, plus goth, folk, blues and prog fused into polished, gleaming obsidian rock.  I’ll skip the worn-out comparisons to other women singers. All that matters is that Jennie-Ann Smith has all the tools (power, emotional depth, melodies) to push the band into the ring as contenders for the status of best-in-genre greatness alongside formidable competitors Jess And The Ancient Ones (stay tuned for their Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes on December 5), Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth and Purson. I definitely rate it over this year’s Lucifer album.

Elephant9 with Reine Fiske – Silver Mountain (Rune Gramofon)

Elephant9 with Reine Fiske - Silver Mountain (Rune Gramofon, 2015)An instrumental Norwegian jazz fusion psych prog band hardly seems like the kind of thing any rock fan would rave about. But stay with me, this band has a number of secret weapons. Firstly, they’re known as one of the most powerful live units in Norway, which is no small feat. The original trio of musicians are all incredibly accomplished, including drummer Torstein Lofthus who served with avant metal unit Shining for 15 years, and wizard keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, the genius behind the concept of the double album masterpiece The Death Defying Unicorn (2012), which he created in collaboration with the mighty Motorpsycho. Then there’s Reine Fiske, one of the greatest guitarists of his generation. Along with also collaborating with Motorpsycho the past few years, he’s a member of The Amazing and Dungen. Fiske joined Elephant9 for their third album, Atlantis (2012), helping the band explore more progressive and psychedelic territories. Their fourth album is their best yet, an ambitious 76 minute double that includes a barely recognizable cover of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.” Imagine if Wonder hooked up with Canterbury legends Soft Machine back in 1972 and got down to business. Well, who the fuck knows how that would have turned out, but this band is amazing all the same. Come expand your mind with their kaleidoscopic jazz prog odysseys, then have it blown by their lethal chops.

Mirror – Mirror (Metal Blade)

Mirror - Mirror (Metal Blade, 2015)This is quite a surprise, given the fact that Tas Danazoglou’s other main gig is Satan’s Wrath, based in Greece, where he handles vocals, bass and drums on a fun but second tier mix of thrash and early black metal. In Mirror he has a fuller lineup, including drummer Jaime Gomez Arellano (who’s produced Cathedral, Angel Witch, Paradise Lost) and exciting riff and fretwork from Matt Olivo (Repulsion) and Stamos K (also of Satan’s Wrath), paying tribute to Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, UFO, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, along with early proto-metal of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and of course Sabbath (“Year of the Red Moon,” “Heavy King”). What ties it all together is singer Jimmy Mavromatis, who can really belt it out with a range that rivals Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie James Dio in their primes. Those disappointed that Ghost has left behind much of their classic metal roots should be stoked to hear this, which in many ways is more fun and involving.

Komara – Komara (Hevhetia)

Like clockwork, as year-end critics’ lists come out, I do my best to keep an open mind and re-listen to high profile releases by the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, Father John Misty, even the Björk album that just doesn’t do much for me. None of them are particularly horrible, but too much tastefulness all at once makes me itchy, and then my mind feels like it’s starting to leak from my ears. If I’m gonna melt my brain, I’d much rather do it with an invigorating palate cleanser like Komara. In the past, albums by Zu and Shining have served that function. This year, the self-titled debut from Komara is an even more exciting proposition. The name comes from the first two letters of the trio’s last names — Slovakian guitarist David KOllar, Pat MAstelotto (drums) and Italian trumpeter Paolo RAineri. That might seem geeky, but everything else about this band is badass. Mastelotto has also been a member of King Crimson since 1994. Tool guitarist Adam Jones did the band’s cool H.R. Giger inspired alien artwork. Kollar has been involved with everything from Scandinavian jazz to composing scores for 18 films. You wouldn’t be wrong to expect dark and heavy, like a film noir turned alien abduction. However, it’s not jarring. Raineri’s trumpet playing is often smooth and lovely, even while floating over more prickly guitar and rhythms from his bandmates. For avant garde jazz, experimental and industrial music, it’s surprisingly inviting, and has embedded itself in my playlist for repeated listens, with most likely a couple cameos in my nightmares.

Mammatus – Sparkling Waters (Spiritual Pajamas)

When the Corralitos, CA band debuted in 2006 with their self-titled album, they specialized in heavy psych rock. Even from the beginning, it was apparent they were expansive and explorative. So it was no surprise that their third album, Heady Mental (2013) was more progressive, with touches of space rock.  Their fourth album sees the band continuing their evolution of extending their psych prog into kosmische. While the recording is fairly stripped down and unadorned as if recorded straight from a garage, at least through the first half of the 22:03 long “Sparkling Waters Part One,” it soon mushrooms into a gaseous, celestial cloud with spacey flutes along the lines of Popol Vuh, then returning to ground zero with a furious jam. Part Two gets even more cosmic with Cluster-ish synths, before bringing guitars back into the fold in the end. Those two tracks alone are enough for a full album, so the hard rocking “The Elkhorn,” the albums’ shortest track at 15:00, is pure bonus. Feel shanga, become shanga.

Witchskull – The Vast Electric Dark (Self-Released)

If your most recent exposure to doom was the latest by Windhand and With The Dead, you’d think all doom bands suck the life out of you like it’s their job. Not all of it has to drag like glaciers, test your patience and crush your spirit. Witchskull are here to give back your energy with their Australian brand of rock ‘n’ doom. Lead by Marcus De Pasquale, who had been in Canberra band Looking Glass in the 90s, they hit hard with relatively quick tempos, and some really great, urgent up-front vocals that remind me a bit of Chritus (Count Raven, Terra Firma, Saint Vitus, Lord Vicar, Goatess). While there’s plenty of foreboding and horror in songs like “Swim The Abyss,” “Raise The Dead” and “Cassandra’s Curse,” this band is also a hell of a lot of fun. The kind of band you want to get up right in front to salute the shredding solos and revel in the rock.

Singapore Sling – Psych Fuck (Fuzz Club)

Anyone remember Bang Gang? It’s an Icelandic indie synth pop band, who’s album Something Wrong (2003) I obsessively listened to at the time. Henrik Björnsson was an original member in the 90s, and went on to form both Singapore Sling and Dead Skeletons. Singapore Sling has been his primary band, and Psych Fuck is his eighth album under that name. Somehow I didn’t hear about them until last year’s excellent The Tower Of Foronocity. I don’t know why, cuz their fuzzed out garage noir mix of White Light/White Heat era Velvet Underground, The Cramps, Suicide, Gun Club, Jesus & Mary Chain and The Fall is right up my alley. As the saucy title might suggest, Psych Fuck is a darker, looser, sneering flip side of Foronocity. It may not be as evocative and mysterious as the recent psych noir EPs from Dead Skeletons, but it’s crass, dirty and addictive. Not something that’s easy to find in 2015.

All Them Witches – Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (New West)

All Them Witches had me with their first album, Our Mother Electricity (2012). On the surface it was a fairly simple blues rock with some heavy stoner psych. But they were special from the beginning, incorporating space in their unique arrangements and percussion. Lightning at the Door (2013) had them stretch out with some cosmic jamming, that they extended even further in live shows. With their musicianship, I wondered if they might not develop a huge devoted following along the lines of a heavy psych My Morning Jacket. On their third album, they’ve experimented with their sound, resulting in a another new direction, finding them both more polished and more adventurous. While the band’s improvisational skills are still finely tuned, these songs sound more composed, while still reveling in the details of sounds and textures. The haunting “Dirt Preachers” remind me of some of Steve Shelley’s songs in Sonic Youth circa 86-88 (see the amazing video below). The diversity of sounds and approaches lose some of their previous cohesiveness, but is also full of pleasant surprises . Well worth investigating with repeated listens.

I’m out of time, so I’ll just list the others that I would have written about if I didn’t have to sleep and work:

Shopping – Why Choose (Fat Cat)
Publicist UK – Forgive Yourself (Relapse)
Mansion – Altar Sermon EP
Weedpecker – II (Weedpecker)
Demon Head – Ride The Wilderness (This Charming Man)
Monster Magnet – Cobras And Fire (The Mastermind Remix) (Napalm)

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