Felix music present the best of the year so far: 2013

2013 has been a year of labels for me. Whilst this may be somewhat rudimentary, I’ve really found labels to be an incredible source of new sounds in the year so far. I had to make a big effort to limit some of my favourite labels from this period (e.g. Opal Tapes, Blackest Ever Black) to just one record. Consequently, I would highly recommend looking at a label’s entire output if you like the release given in the list. I am unsure whether this has been a particularly good year for dark music or an awful year for me personally, but my picks from this year have been dominated by lo-fi, dark, industrial sounds, and so wherever possible I have avoided using this description for the works. Instead I have tried to focus on what it is that makes them stand out within this (surprisingly) tightly themed block.

1. Paul Jebanasam – Rites

There’s something quite religious about Rites, with the kind of cavernous echoes – so effectively utilised (to the extent of really being the theme of the work) by label mates Emptyset – being combined with slow, choral vocals to produce an entirely indescribable wash of complete catharsis in the opening track. The peaceful, if emotionally affecting, opening passages soon fade out into growling, industrial sounds that one might expect to see from The Haxan Cloak. Throughout, heart-tugging strings contrast against mechanical crunching and pulsing; I don’t know if there’s really any statement to that but it certainly can put you down in a hole. Not one for the summer listeners, but certainly a blinder for Subtext’s roster.

2. The Haxan Cloak – Excavation

Similar to Rites in its approach and crushing bleakness, it was a pretty tough toss-up for which should take the top spot. Whilst Rites is dominated by beautiful structures occasionally decimated (to great effect) by industrial crunch, Excavation is an all-out, bass-heavy assault on the ear drum. Utilising the bleak, symphonic ambient found in his body of work thus far, Haxan adds to the previous terror found throughout his releases with the aforementioned massive basslines – surely not produced by orchestral means – that draw a great deal from dubstep. The thin structure makes each element aurally arresting, and the introduction of weird spoken word samples in foreign languages builds upon the terrified confusion instilled from the opening of the first track.

3. Shapednoise – The Day Of Revenge

It took me about 5 listens to get into The Day of Revenge. It’s not really easy going material, refusing to be pinned down in one hole; too poppy for those into noise, too abrasive for those not. I recommend you stick with it, as this is quite likely the most inventive album I’ve heard so far in 2013. A punishing soundscape is held consistently despite the wide variety of styles implemented throughout, from the empty, macabre and industrial ambient so common on this list to chopped, beatless (yet intensely rhythmic) powernoise. Shapednoise also collaborates with fellow label co-founder Violet Poison as Violetshaped, which is a marginally more restrained affair.

4. Alexander Lewis – A Luminous Veil

Raging out of Blackest Ever Black’s incredible 2013 stable as a mutant child of Fuck Buttons and Kevin Drumm, this phenomenal debut takes pulsing synthesiser lines driven through entire tracks and rips them apart with huge stabs of noise and distorted, disturbed vocal samples (check ‘She Demands Attention’), to build into a droning hellish miasma with just a hint of accessibility.

5. Deerhunter – Monomania

An element of the dreamy sheen that permeated Deerhunter’s discography has been exchanged for pop sensibilities, with the vocals more prominent and melodies more distinct on Monomania. They’ve become more Pavement from their previous My Bloody Valentine. Whilst I was a big fan of that hazy ambience, particularly on Cryptograms, the sheer catchiness of this record has lead to me coming back time after time.

6. Lumigraph – Nautically Inclined

This represents the quintessential Opal Tapes release so far this year for me, which is quite a noteworthy accolade considering the strength of their output. Suffocatingly lo-fi, danceable in the same way as Black Dice; party, but not a happy party. For fans of drums that sound like overdriven £2 speakers, melted cosmic acid trips and some of the crunchiest sounds on this list.

7. Zeitgeber – Zeitgeber

Following the release of a string of unbelievable dub techno albums last year, this Speedy J and Lucy collaboration pushes the genre even further into space. Throughout, quiet euphoria is mixed with rib cage shattering bass and fleeting tastes of glitch to fantastic effect.

8. Blacknecks – Untitled 001

Blacknecks: a series of explorations of the applications of technoise. An anonymous release on a new (very promising) label, these tracks take on slightly different approaches to adding those little touches of noise and distortion to dance floor electronica.

9. Black Hat – Covalence

Cassette release straight from Seattle. Club music for the stay-at-homes; those who cut their teeth on the dark atmospherics of Regis and the ambient bliss of Boards of Canada. The most euphoric and beautiful of the Prostitutes / Powell etc. sound.

10. Container – Treatment EP

Intense work from 2012 technoise breakthrough Container, this EP needs to be played painfully loud to be fully understood. Towards the more extreme end of the techno / noise crossover, and yet I have still had pure techno lovers tell me how great it is.