NEW music of 2015 thread (No videos plz)

@mellotronrules: New Nils Frahm? And it's free? Don't mind if I do! Wintermusik is one of my favourite EPs/albums/whatevers.

nice one! reminds me of this classic (combines one of my favourite voices with one of my favourite songwriters). i hope one day she puts out another solo record- i still really like the tunes where it's just her and a keyboard.

nice one! i hadn't heard that one- reminds me of this classic (combines one of my favourite voices with one of my favourite songwriters). i hope one day she puts out another solo record- i still really like the tunes where it's just her and a keyboard.

yeah- i hope he tours north america sometime soon. i haven't had the chance to see him live, but i've seen videos and he looks absolutely brilliant.

Lots of good stuff here (I'll have to look into a bunch that I've missed)...

I do make sure that I hit up http://dialasong.com/ every Tuesday morning...

Yeah, my sister was way into that album. I liked how it sounded, and the singles were pretty good. It never really grabbed me enough to keep coming back to it, though.

Bones's new mixtape Powder is pretty tough. One of his best I think.

heads up- Nicolas Jaar dropped a new 12"! it's pretty fucking rad!

next to burial, this kid is probably my favourite still-active electronic producer. fans of glitch and stuff that leans slightly left of centre- check him out! his bbc essential mix is legendary.

Well... I must eat my words on Hot Chip's new album. It has really impressed me. Calling their album Why Make Sense? led me on that their "art attack" style of The Warning / Made in The Dark was coming back. I felt burned by that not being true. Turns out most of the new album feels more like a sequel to Coming on Strong, and even the kind of songs they were writing before that. Just a bunch of simple, stupid, trashy fun. Only now, they are synth layering veterans; so even a seemingly juvenile approach sounds amazing.

Despite already being released, the whole album is still streaming at whymakesen.se, so check it out while you still can. I'm probably buying the LP. The record is good enough, and stupid LE pressings like unique colors push me over the edge.

Makeup And Vanity Set - Wilderness

That's all the new stuff I can think of right now since another duder already mentioned Purity Ring. Anyone who is into Purity Ring might want to check out Odesza, Flume, Hippie Sabotage and What So Not. Wave Racer (Stoopid is a fun song) too but it's a bit more upbeat and bubbly.

The Squarepusher album is alright. Like most Squarepusher albums and albums from Aphex Twin, I like some of the songs a lot and the rest I don't like much at all. Edit: Squarepusher was mentioned too. My bad. Removed link.

The Make And Vanity Set album is pretty damn amazing, though. Worth checking out their older stuff, too. Their first albums were chiptune, though, so maybe avoid those if you're not into that. Usually when I recommend them to friends, I describe it as what I wanted the last Daft Punk album to be after hearing the Tron Legacy soundtrack. Other good (but more gritty) 80's synth style groups are Megadrive, Perturbator and Bourgeoisie. Actually, here is one that is 2015 relevant... Megadrive – I Am The Program (Perturbator remix)

I didn't know The Go! Team had a new album! Definitely checking that out. Thanks @roomrunner

so @cirdain mentioned the single earlier- but as it turns out-

jamie xx - in colour

is pretty fucking rad!

been hearing about this dude ever since he did that gil-scott heron collab, and now i know why! really awesome electronica- reminds me a little of that track four tet and burial did together.

@mellotronrules:I kept hearing the name Jamie xx, but always assumed it was hip-hop or indie pop. I could go for some more synths.

New stuff came out that I really wanted to talk about! I didn't want to selfishly bump my own thread though.

• The new Metric single is WAY BETTER than "The Shade". This one is a purely thumping electro-disco track called "Cascades". While it isn't anything special, it's replayable, which is more than I could say for anything else they've done lately.
• The Birthday has a new single out (with another coming next week), called "I KNOW". The Japanese music industry is ridiculous when it comes to making their content affordable (or even accessible in some cases) overseas, so all you get is a preview. It's a good taste of The Birthday I know and love. They're Japanese, but have a very relatable American classic rock sound (with influences as large as Pink Floyd, down to underground legends like Television). Their last album was a dud, but they seem to be back on track with this single.
• Sherbets, has a new release on the horizon, and the single "LADY NEDY", roooooooocks! Kenichi Asai has a kitschy look about him, but his career is legendary. The man is a time capsule.
• Sorry for getting a too J-rock'y on this post. When it rains, it pours I guess. "That band from that anime you used to like", Asian Kung-Fu Generation, released their first album in 3 years (a lifetime for the typical Japanese release cycle). It's .... not great. They've always been a band I'm hot and cold on. I cast them off for a while as "a band for weeaboos" until they released an absolutely Weezer-iffic indie rock album in 2008, and they finally made sense to me. Their discography has a lot of spots in it that just plain sound uninspired or "going through the motions", and their new album, Wonder Future is one of those. They recorded in the same space as Foo Fighters (who have been notorious for sounding generic for quite some time now), and the mixing does not suit them. Everything is just mushed together so that no one gets a chance to shine. There is little to no energy in the performance, and way too many half-hearted ballads/anthems. The best song on it is a previously non-album track holdover from last year.

#Clarence Clarity - No Now

This has been one of my favourite albums of the year. It's a potent combination of abrasive electronic music with sweet and soulful pop sensibilities, varying from the demented to the radio friendly several times in every song, the album can be quite a taxing listen on the first outing, but a string of familiar hooks which really pop out at you helps keep the album grounded. Further listens allow you to make sense of the off-kilter song structures and appreciate sudden turns in which pretty much all of the songs take and ends up being a highly rewarding listen, especially as you start to hear through and appreciate the subtle touches in the dense production, a very fresh yet familiar sound that is unlike anything else I've heard this year.

I'm a little late on the Jamie xx talk but his collab with Young Thug and Popcaan is absolutely destroying my mind right now. Not sure how this doesn't end up as song of the year. It's perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkUKFdacHvo

Any love for The Epic by Kamasi Washington? I really like what I have heard so far, but I still have not listened to the whole thing (its almost 3 hours long!) but I do want to find the time for it. Jazz is not dead!

Third Side of the Tape by Lil Ugly Mane is pretty special. Just an insane, vast album I cannot help but recommend.

@mellotronrules: Glad you linked to it because I would have. Fan-fucking-tastic album. Probably my favorite this year so far.

Here's some of my standouts from 2015 right now:

• Kodak to Graph's debut album, ISA, is really good. Free to download on his site! [Chill / glitch-hop]
• daoko's newest release, daoko, is her first major debut and even though it's a bit more 'pop' than her previous work, it's also her strongest. [J-pop / Hip-hop]
• If someone already linked it, I'm sorry, but The Prodigy's new album, The Day is My Enemy, is finally out and is basically exactly what you'd expect. (i.e.: great) [Breakbeat / Big Room]
• I was waiting a real long time for Olafur Arnalds' new album and it did not disappoint. The Chopin Project is a must-listen, IMO. [Classical]
  
• Yanakiku's debut is an inane blend of multiple genres and influences. It doesn't have much structure but damn if it isn't a ton of fun to listen to. [J-Pop]
• The Flashbulb stealth-released an old-school EP not too long ago and it's pretty rad. [Breakcore / IDM]
• One of my favorite artists right now, KIRARA, released a new EP that's full of great stuff. [Electronic / Crazyness?]
• Touhou label Alstroemeria Records released their third-in-the-series compilation POP | CULTURE 3 and like the previous two, it's full of really great stuff. A strange-ass blend of current electronic genres with more typical Touhou tropes. [Touhou / Electro]
  
• Oliver Schories' new album is far from my favorite of his work but still well worth the listen. [Tech House]

I love it when a couple of your favorite acts release new music close to each other. This week I have really been loving the new stuff from both Melody Gardot, and Florence + The Machine. Here they both are on Later... with Jools Holland, a BBC show I highly recommend if you have never watched.

Melody Gardot - Same to You

Florence + The Machine - What Kind Of Man

I mostly only listen to metal, so here are a few that I have really dug so far this year.

Sumac - The Deal (features Aaron Turner of Isis/Old Man Gloom. Awesome sludge/post-metal)

Tribulation - Children of the Night (progressive glam metal? kind of a weird, but excellent, Swedish band)

Leviathan - Scar Sighted (one-man black metal that has evolved significantly over many years. This album is not what you might expect from the genre)

@nickhead: I thought The Deal was pretty solid (the drummer from Baptists is great, adds a lot to the overall sound) but it didn't quite scratch the Isis/OMG itch for me. Best metal release so far for me has been A Northern Meadow by Pyramids. It's an acquired taste for sure, but I was sucked into it right away and it has been in heavy rotation since it came out. The new Minsk album is pretty cool too.

@thrillhouse87: The Epic was a fantastic album! If you liked what you've already heard then you should totally check the rest out. It only gets better.

Also as I've not seen it mentioned yet the new YOUNG FATHERS LP was really good. The Lo-fi treatment worked well for this album and I think young fathers sound texturally works better that way. Some interesting ideas on this too (as the album art would suggest,) Defiantly worth a listen for those interested. It's alternative hip hop/ r&b for the record.

Mbongwana Star - From Kinshasa

A great congotronic album, very nice mix of sounds and styles, all blended in with traditional African rhythm sections and is the sort of music just asking to be cranked up loud on a hot summers day. It's got tonnes of atmosphere and lots of experimental sounds not usually associated with this kind of music all thrown in and around incredibly danceable bass lines. I really cannot put into words exactly why I enjoy this album so much but for those on the fence as to whether or not they should give this album a shot can I just say 'Fingerpianos Bitch' as the lead single features legendary congotronic band 'Kononono no1'. It may be quite decisive on some people and can see not everybody gelling with the vocal style, but I found this album captivating and incredibly fun.

New Black Dahlia Murder album coming out in two months. Their new single of a sorts Vlad, Son of Dragon totally has my psyched for Abysmal.

Nothing like some new melodeath to get me in the mood.

Shape of Despair - Monotony Fields (Funeral Doom Metal).

My favourite album of the year so far.

Linked Tracks:

Reaching the Innermost / In Longing

While we're talking about screaming, the new Refused album... oof.

Sometimes I feel like The Shape of Punk To Come gets too much credit, but it did very much influence hardcore bands across the world (GlassJAw, Number Girl...) to incorporate high production values and effects into their albums, so there's that.

Freedom on the other hand has little to no experimentation. It's a lot of bland big heavy arena rock. Dennis Lyxzen's tenure in The (International) Noise Conspiracy (who themselves fizzled out after their second album) carries over into Refused here with a lot of ham-fisted politics and embarrassing attempts at pop.

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I also went and got the Drenge sophomore jinx album, Undertow. While it doesn't have the punch of their debut, it's not as bad as people make it out to be. I like the melodic post-punk direction they went with some of their songs. It allows an excuse for them in the future to be more than just a simple garage rock band, if they want to be.

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The new Radio Dept. single, "Occupied" is A-MA-ZING. Listen to this, please, and thank you.

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Recently, I also went into more detail about albums I've posted about (Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Hop Along, Blur...)

The only 2015 releases I've listened to are John Carpenter's Lost Themes and Mike Tenay's Unforgiven, which basically sounds like foggy Perturbator.

This year I've listened to more new (to me) albums from 1982 than 2015.

Oh, I just realized it's July. We're halfway through the year! How about some top fives?

My top five (so far)

1. Built To Spill - Untethered Moon
2. blur - The Magic Whip
3. The Go! Team - The Scene Between
4. Swami John Reis & The Blind Shake - Modern Surf Classics
5. John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Had a good week between the new Failure "The Heart is a Monster" and the new Mutoid Man "Bleeder"

The new mewithoutYou album ,Pale Horses, is fantastic and arguably the best album they have ever done.

I'm eagerly anticipating the new The Wonder Years album in September since the first single off it is damn good and that band always delivers.

New Vince Staples and Miguel are both awesome. For sure two of my favorite albums of the year.

Top 5 so far:

1. Viet Cong - Viet Cong

2. Young Fathers - White Men are Black Men Too

3. Pyramids - A Northern Meadow

4. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

5. The Amazing - Picture You

Here's my top 5 for what it's worth. All of it is metal apart from number two.

1. Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror
2. The Atomic Bitchwax - Gravitron
3. High on Fire - Lumineferous
4. Barren Earth - On Lonely Towers
5. Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Prometheus, Symphonia Ignus Divinus

Digging the new Beach House song. Sparks

Granted I'm pretty much as big of a fan as it gets, but I really like Muse's new album Drones. "Reapers" and "The Handler" are absolute masterpieces to me, and "The Globalist" is now probably my favorite song of all-time - edging out "Stockholm Syndrome".

WAVVESXCLOUDNOTHINGS

So psyched for the new album! Teen Dream is pretty easily one of my all-time favorites, but I like this sound as well.

My top five (so far)

1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
2. Mbongwana Star - From Kinshasa
3. Clarence Clarity - No Now
4. The Go! Team - The Scene Between
5. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

Honorable mentions: Young Fathersa, Courtney Barnett, Panda Bear, Ghost Culture, Dawn Richard, Marilyn Manson (Yes, really), Sleater-Kinney, Viet Cong, BC Camplight, Erase Errata, Charli XCX, Lonelady, Sufjan Stevens, Waxahatchee, Braids, FFS & Sauna Youth

Grabbed the new Towa Tei album (Cute) yesterday. He's an art-pop, Shibuya-kei artist, so you never know exactly what you're gonna get with him. Sometimes too much art, sometimes too much pop. This is one of those albums where he gets it just right. I guess the best way to describe this album here is a more radio friendly / less abrasive version of that Clarence Clarity album.

Also got This is The Sonics because the story alone grabbed me. They were a garage rock band from the 60s. They're all in their 70s now, and haven't put out an album since 1968. And the most amazing thing, it rocks. No one is allowed to ever again make an excuse about reunions not living up to their prime, or chalk up losing touch to getting old. It's simple garage rock, but is better than it has any right to be.

Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, Kamasi Washington's The Epic, Bob Dylan's Shadows in the Night, Scallops Hotel (a milo project under a different name) Plain Speaking and Open Mike Eagle's A Special Episode Of... are the best albums of the year so far in my opinion.

Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People

This is the first album I've heard by him and I likes it a lot. I hear a lot of 70s influence and sort of sounds like the sort of album David Bowie or Tood Rudregen would spit out if they fully embraced the kaleidoscopic doo-wop garage pop nature of their sound. He has a powerful voice, strong melodies and diversity on his side and it makes a very enjoyable and instantly gratifying listen that sounds like it could've been released in any era. It's a lot of fun. The are a few somber moments here as well with songs such as 'Hour Of My Deepest Needs' sounding instantly timeless and incredibly personal whilst remaining catchy and melodic.

Been a good year for High Focus so far. New album from the four owls, then the long awaited Mr Key solo album, both fantastic.

The Four Owls - Old Earth
Best supergroup in hiphop right now.

Mr Key and Greenwood Sharps - Kids Story
Mr Key & Greenwood Sharps - Icarus Instinct
Been waiting for this album since the release of Champion Fraff 5 years ago, and it didn't disappoint. Not exactly a club banger, but this and last years ...so we ate them whole by jam baxter are both albums I will be listening to when I'm an old man.

Ramson Badbonez also released the followup to the classic "A year in the life of Oscar the Slouch", Silva Surfa. Haven't really given it a lot of time yet, but so far I like it. Ramson always brings it since the old Music From the Corner features.

Mix of spotify links to albums/artists and a couple official videos on youtube.

Christ, Go! Team had an album out? Might give that a listen seeing as Everything Everything have shat themselves.

I just discovered this morning that Polysics has just released a concept EP about Ultraman kaiju. This is only a few months off from releasing a concept EP about food. I'd be more excited about how creative and fun this all is, but it probably won't come to America.

The previous EP hasn't yet (not even digitally), and they haven't toured in America in over five years. They are just locked away in Japan. I suppose it isn't all bad, you get to write songs about stuff that just won't sell anywhere else. But man... I miss the access I used to have to favorite band.

My scattershot way of picking new music hasn't been super fruitful this year so far.

• Winter Break's Self-titled was a nice surprise that seems to have not picked up any traction.
• Soroity Noise's Joy, Departed seems to have shook away much of the sneering sarcasm that made Forgettable avoid being twenty minutes of sappy wussiness, but embraces a more mature sound that manages to do much the same. Still super emo dho.

Still tepidly waiting for Titus Andronicus' The Most Lamentable Tragedy. A twenty-nine song rock opera is pretty ambitious, and concerning for a band who's last album felt like they had run out of ideas despite its purposefully dialed down nature.

@vonocourt:The Monitor never grabbed me, and Local Business sounded like it was recorded in a shed... but Titus has such a cult following around my parts that I'm still compelled to check out their next.

@shindig: Because you mentioned them in the same breath as The Go! Team, I gave Everything Everything a shot. On paper they have just what I'm looking for ever since Architecture in Helsinki jumped the shark. It's just not clicking with me though. Maybe too much falsetto? I dunno. I usually eat this gonzo-pop style up...

In other news

Their first album,. Man Alive is arguably the only good thing they'll ever pull out. Loads of falsetto but they balanced it out on that effort with actual tunes. They turned up at Glastonbury wearing Dali Lama gear and played all their new shit. This is the point where we're done, Sirs.

Just in time to learn McLusky reformed. For every door, there's a window.

Just found out Birds of Tokyo released a new EP back in April (this is what I get for not living in Australia). The main song, Anchors, is pretty amazing.

Haven't listened to a ton of stuff this year, but

Top 5 albums so far:

1. Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror
2. Kamelot - Haven
3. Muse - Drones
4. Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves
5. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Really hoping Silversun Pickups release a new album this year. There's also a chance of new Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, and Dead Letter Circus.

Really enjoying the new Saul Williams track.

Top 5 Albums of 2015 Thus Far

1. Faith No More - Sol Invictus

2. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

3. Death Grips - Jenny Death

4. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love

5. Oddisee - The Good Fight

That said, it's been a freaking FANTASTIC year for music. So many albums this year have managed to keep spinning in my players and on my playlists. Probably the best year of music beyond just the top 5 so far that I've seen in a long time.

My top 3 because not a ton has stood out to me this year in terms of hip hop and alt rock, which is basically all I listen to

1 Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

I love every second of this album. From George Clinton to the poem to his convo with Tupac. It's gold.

2. Death Grips - The Powers That B

I'm going to include both albums even though I'm not sure if it really counts as a full 2015 release. The reason being NOTM was my first Death Grips album and I really enjoy the whole Bjork thing.

3. Every Hero Needs a Villain - CZARFACE

This album came out with like no fanfare as far as I could tell, but I think it's really quite something. I liked the first CZARFACE album, but there's something about this one that makes me keep listening to it.

There's not really a ton else that I love. Drake's mixtape is solid but nothing amazing, a 7/10 at best. I really just want Meow the Jewels to come out already.

@roomrunner: The Monitor was one of those albums that I took me a awhile to grasp, like a couple months as I realized its messiness and excess is what made it so grand. Used to crappy production, so Business' didn't bother me that much. More just how it was a attempt to do some more digestible content and it was kind of a failure at that.

Steady Hands announced a new EP, Tropical Depression. Considering how Sean Huber is the only one of my man crushes I've ever met, I'm looking forward to it.

Chelsea Wolfe's new album "Abyss" comes out on August 7th, and it's really good. Favourite track so far is the penultimate song, titled "Color of Blood".

The Helio Sequence's eponymous album came out just a little ago, but it didn't do much for me. Their last album "Negotiations" was pretty solid overall, but had some really memorable tracks for me like Downward Spiral. I was hoping the new album would explore that slightly shoegaze-y sound, but instead it's headed in a bit of a different direction, and none of the tracks have really stuck with me so far. Hoping it grows on me.

There was also the new God is an Astronaut album, "Helios Erebus", which is okay. Kind of felt the same way about it as I did the new Helio Squence. It's a solid album, but none of it's really hooked me hard like the opening track of Origins did. I think I like it more on the whole though, and Vetus Memoria is a great song.

The new mewithoutYou album "Pale Horses" is one of my favourites so far this year. The title track, D-Minor, Red Cow, and Magic Lantern Days are all standouts for me. It took a little for me to get into it, but it clicked after a few listens.

Muse's "Drones" has actually hit a bit of a soft spot for me. I think lyrically most of the album is pretty weak, occasionally quite cheesy, but the instrumentation tries to be a little more like Muse pre-Resistance. It's not a super impactful album, but I've enjoyed having it on in the car when driving to work; it sounds good played loud.

Sun Kil Moon's new album "Universal Themes" is alright. I really like the intro track The Possum, partially just because it's about Mark going to a GodFlesh show, but it's also just one of the better songs on the album. I feel like a lot of the people who liked the direction he went with Benji will probably be disappointed by it, but I think it's a good album overall.

Shamir's "Ratchet" holds up pretty well compared to the single he put out last year, On the Regular. Not really my usual style, but he's able to do some interesting things within the Pop genre and has a lot of fun with it.

Mew put out "+-", which took a little to grow on me, but I'm quite happy with it now. It was all running together to me on my first couple of listens, but everything feels quite distinct after hearing it a few times. The album's quite long though, so I could probably cut Witness and Clinging to a Bad Dream and be quite content. Water Slides has stuck with me the most.

After five years, Envy got "Atheist's Cornea" out the door and it hits pretty hard. They were able to do some pretty interesting new stuff while sticking with their general style from albums passed. Footsteps in the Distance is easily my favourite from this album.

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld's - "Never Were the Way She Was" is really wonderful, even if it may not be for everyone; I don't think I could say enough good things about it. Certainly try, "The Sun Roars Into View".

The new Daughn Gibson and Elvis Depressedly albums I talked about in my last post both turned out to be great as well. Really good albums on the whole, lots of memorable songs from each; they're easily both in my top 10 of albums from 2015 so far.

And then there's everything else I've listened to from Q2, but wasn't really impactful enough for individual comment: