30. 3776 - ??? (Saijiki)
Genre: Japanese Avant-Pop
Put On A Playlist With: Boris, After Dinner, Mid-Air Thief
What if Geinoh Yamashirogumi had been a cute contemporary idol group instead of a bunch of disillusioned commune dwellers cultivating esoteric hymns to life and death out in the rice fields? That’s 3776 in a nutshell. Their leader Ide Chiyono is eccentric all the right ways, and it shows in these wildly varied zodiac-themed tunes that jump between genres and ideas like some people jump between medications.
It’s pretty sporadic stuff, but also immensely interesting (especially if you bother to translate and follow the lyrics). It’s also musically off-the-wall, touching on hip-hop, City Pop, EDM, post-punk, even prog and drum n’ bass. Not for everyone, but definitely one of the big highlights of the year for me.
29. Ole Børud - Outside The Limit
Genre: Jazz Pop, Westcoast, R&B, Gospel
Put On A Playlist With: Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Justin Timberlake, Steely Dan
Ole is one of my favorite discoveries of the last decade or so. Not only is he the lead guitarist for progressive death metal group Extol, but he’s also basically Stevie Wonder with a jazzier, funkier edge on his solo material, as wonderfully displayed on his latest outing here. Plus he writes, arranges and sings everything to perfection. Very much a modern day prodigy. You'd think all the millions of people who like Meyer Hawthorne or Bruno Mars would be all over someone performing at this level, but I guess being from Norway probably doesn't help.
Lots of horns, great bass, killer guitar solos and in general a very good jazz-tinged pop release. If your going to eat cheese, you might as well go for the best.
28. Hypnotic Nausea - The Death Of All Religions
Genre: Doom-laden Desert Rock
Put On A Playlist With: Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Sleep, Dreadnaught
Gloriously groovy in all the right places but somehow not repetitive, Hypnotic Nausea are a band that understand the power of great pacing as they paint a picture in your mind. In particular, opener ‘Holy City’ is an immediate example of their methodology: drive those grooves deep into the soul and bring out the vocals at just the “right” time rather than what the listener is expecting.
These guys are case in point for something obvious but easy to miss as we stream or buy or search around as the years go by: sometimes the most important thing in music is not to be first or the absolute “best”, but just be a little bit different or better than those around you in your little sonic corner of the world.
Last edited by Anteater; 11-24-2019 at 07:13 PM.
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