Although we sometimes take it for granted in the streaming age, music is a luxury good. When Submotion Orchestra play, that fact becomes perfectly clear. Their albums always sound expensive, high-class cultural excursions made for the benefit not of the super-rich, but all of us mere mortals.
A couple of years back, Submotion Orchestra dropped Colour Theory, an album littered with Read more…
Right now, you’re looking at a screen, and I’m writing these words on a computer – but we’re both being connected by technology. Jamiroquai’s new album Automaton is all about human connection in a digital world.
Jamiroquai have always been my go-to happy band. If I’m feeling crap, I just put them on – and within ten seconds or so, things are better. Shake It On is the kind of song where, if you’re listening to it while walking down the street, you’ll end up walking like a badass. There are so many layers to it, from pounding piano to immense clavs, sublime strings, Rob Harris’s super-tight guitar, and the Rhythm Section Of Doom Read more…
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Leave all thoughts of Beardyman and the Dream Team aside for a second, and visualise instead a steaming, stinking shit sandwich. Picture it plopping onto your breakfast plate, unwanted, unloved and unlovable. Had the person who birthed that turd known what was coming, he’d have held it in out of pure terror and shame before scuttling away to quietly top himself.
That’s how all sane humans feel about 2016 Read more…
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As the music industry slows down, its alternative end hibernating while the pop-enamoured mainstream hungrily ogles Christmas shoppers, the time has come to look back on a seriously strong year for organised soundwaves. For me, it’s been heavy, intense, and a hell of a lot of fun thanks to the releases listed below.
With so many exceptional contenders in the running for the top spot, the thought of ranking them in order of quality is plainly ridiculous. So instead, I’ve picked out three releases that had memorable impacts on me when I first heard them, and assembled the others in alphabetical order.
The Pretty Reckless’s Who You Selling For – along with previous effort Going To Hell – is conclusive proof (if it were honestly needed in 2016) that women belong in rock music, and are fully capable of kicking ass. The sexists of the music world are like Wile E. Coyote; they’ve run off the edge of the cliff, nothing surrounds them but empty air, they’ve looked down, and they’re panicking. Sonic Boom Six’s The F-Bomb picks up where that image leaves off – it’s cheeky, chirpy, happy and hard-hitting (sometimes simultaneously), addressing a wealth of gender-related issues and providing a great ska-fuelled party soundtrack as only Sonic Boom Six can.
Musically, Dissociation is The F-Bomb’s polar opposite. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s swan song is crammed with brutal and ultra-experimental mathcore – but it’s also Dillinger’s most delicate and diverse album. The Dillinger Escape Plan are living proof that you can achieve great things without compromise, by sticking to your guns and just going for it.
Beyond that point, you’re free to dive into an epic range of albums including solidly grooving rock sets, monolithic slabs of military-grade metal, and progressive masterpieces. Since I’ve not reviewed many EPs this year, I’ve also included a pair of extended-playing mind-blowers in the form of Dorje’s Centred And One and Toska’s Ode To The Author. Dorje specialise in utterly idiosyncratic rock tunes with added progressive spice, while to me, Toska (made up of Dorje’s backline, namely guitarist Rabea Massaad, drummer Ben Minal, and bassist Dave Hollingworth) represent the future of instrumental metal.
Both Dorje and Toska are bands on the rise – and they fully deserve to hit the same peaks enjoyed by the biggest names on this list.
There’s little more to say; for me, this list represents the top albums of 2016. Enjoy the full reviews linked below, follow TMMP on Twitter, subscribe to my brand new YouTube channel, and stay tuned for more world-class music next year!
1) The Pretty Reckless – Who You Selling For
1) Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
1) The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
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2) Read more…
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When you have five albums, a Grammy nomination, and sellout arena shows behind you, where do you go from there? How do you propel yourself over those final few hurdles and hit that next level? Needtobreathe now face that problem – a quality problem, sure, but a problem nonetheless Read more…
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According to modern cultural commentators, our society is slowly losing its capacity for empathy. The potential causes range from capitalistic money-chasing to isolating smartphone bubbles – but regardless of the reasons why, the solution is the same. There isn’t one. We’re sick of it all, but we don’t know what else to do but grin and bear it.
As their name makes clear, Nahko and Medicine For The People are well aware that countless individuals worldwide desperately want to get up, get better, and get on with life. Cue HOKA, an album that chronicles a lifelong struggle with trauma and its consequences – and a series of personal victories that fuel one of the most emotive releases you’re going to hear this year Read more…
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Thoughtful, thought-provoking, and above all else intelligent, The Atrocity Exhibition is a serious and seriously timely album.
The hip-hop world has been sending certain beat-backed messages loud and clear for a long time now. Life can be tough. The way the world works sets the tide and cultural current against individual expression and creativity – even as we’re bombarded by messages broadcasting how important both are for our collective mental health. People of all ages, races, genders, and so forth have found themselves trapped living lives that they don’t enjoy, and feel helpless when it comes to finding a way out.
The Atrocity Exhibition, at its core, is about Read more…
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The UK-based hip-hop heads amongst you will no doubt be familiar with the funky, soulful, and fearlessly direct Lazy Habits. Even if hip-hop isn’t normally your thing, these guys pack enough stylistic variety into their tunes to keep any fan of remotely urban-related music satisfied. Keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming review of their brand new full-length, The Atrocity Exhibition, and read on for a very cool chat with the band… Read more…
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UK: get ready for an Australian invasion. With their new album Hoops, The Rubens are patiently strutting their way toward world domination – and any blues- and soul-oriented rock fans whose ears get bent by those eleven tracks are likely to find themselves swept away.
Produced by a behind-the-board team boasting Grammy wins and collaborations with Lana Del Rey, Coldplay, and The Strokes, it’s little surprise that Hoops sounds as big, flavourful, and vital as it does. Check out my full review here, and read on for an in-depth chat with The Rubens… Read more…
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With Hoops, Australian chart-toppers The Rubens have penned an instant classic breakup album. Infusing a fuzzy rock foundation with plenty of soul and drenching the whole thing in organs galore, each song on Hoops sees The Rubens illuminate a different point on the journey from the beginning to the end of the end and beyond:
Hallelujah: A worldly and cynical “son of a gun” hopes to be saved by a heavily intellectual girl.
The Night Is On My Side: Hoops’ main protagonist struggles to keep his emotional distance while spending the night with Read more…