2015 VERSUS

This year has been all about head to heads. Taylor Swift versus Apple, Adele versus Damon Albarn, Azealia Banks versus security guards and Jeremy Corbyn versus the right wing media. So instead of doing a boring list of my favourite albums of the year (because honestly I have no right to this opinion apart from an internet connection) I have decided to pit the 'best' albums for each 'genre' against one another and see who comes out top.

Best Indie
‘HAPPY PEOPLE’ VERSUS ‘MOTHERS’

Peace have had their biggest year in 2015. Although releasing a majority of their pop-ified singles in 2014, ‘Happy People’ was released in February of this year to a gleefully growing loyal fan base. The album was a series of pastiches to indie’s past, with musical references varying from The Pet Shop Boys, Oasis and Nirvana. Its end result was a glitter tipped suicide note, Harrison Koisser’s introspective and anxious lyrics contrasted the soaring guitar fills and lavish overtures. Almost as good as the first album.

Swim Deep’s ‘Mothers’ felt like a long time coming, but in that space the band have gained a member in James Balmont and a whole new sound. Recording in Brussels, Swim Deep swapped their indie dream-pop for heavy psychedelia and acid house. Listening to the album is sometimes a heavy load, songs such as Fueiho Boogie clock in at 8 minutes, but never is there a dull moment. The huge change in style was welcoming, capturing the futuristic zeitgeist of 2015 perfectly without sounding pretentious. Tunes such as ‘To My Brother’ and ‘Namaste’ sound fresh, weird and perfectly cool.

WINNER- PEACE

Best Rock
‘UNDERTOW’ VERSUS ‘ARE YOU SATISFIED?’ 

Drenge have yet to make a bad song, period. Their stunning self-titled debut was shockingly good with sludge filled riffs and angsty lyrics about love and murder. The Loveless brothers (and extra member Rob Graham) released ‘Undertow’ in April 2015 to huge critical acclaim. The album feels loosely like a car chase, lead single ‘We Can Do What We Want’ waxes lyrical about Bonnie and Clyde and its front cover is a deserted getaway car. ‘Undertow’ is a beautifully constructed LP, gentler and more progressive but still with a grunge edge. Fast and menacing, ‘Undertow’ doesn’t disappoint.

Slaves have been around for a while, but their debut album ‘Are You Satisfied?’ has launched them into the stratosphere. Isaac and Laurie’s individual character, live performance and giddy punk revivalism have set themselves as a standout band of 2015. The album itself isn’t always in fifth gear, the comical title track is an acoustic ballad introducing the main theme of the album- complacency. There have been little records in 2015 that make you want to get up and do something more than ‘Are You Satisfied?’, the snarling power of ‘The Hunter’ and dizzyingly deathly ‘Sockets’ are just some of the screamers that have made Slaves’ a firm favourite of the UK youth.

WINNER-DRENGE

Best Rap
‘INTEGRITY>’ VERUS ‘TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY’

Skepta may be the unarguable trailblazer of Grime across the UK and the world but is definitely a singles man. The real Grime hero of 2015 is his younger brother Jamie Adenuga, better known as JME. Although JME has been around for years, 2015 was when he took UK youth by storm with his album ‘Integrity>’. A fiery piece of work composed of bombastic beats and thought out furious lyrics. The intensity is kept at 100 from the dominating ’96 F**Kries’ to troll themed ‘Don’t @ Me’, JME’s mind boggling speed and cultural references never tire. ‘Integrity>’ placed JME as one of the most important MCs in the UK, not to forget his tweets are hilarious and he popularised the ‘swegway’.

Kendrick Lamar won this year, big time. Rubbing shoulders with his NWA heroes and Taylor Swift, bagging two Grammys and then eleven nominations and slaying Reading Festival. However, Lamar’s biggest achievement is probably his new album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’. The sprawling, funk influenced epic has been celebrated as a modern masterpiece by fans and journalists. The album is amazing and intense, a cathartic experience finishing off with a metaphysical interview with the late Tupac Shakur. The significance of ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ transcended its streams and purchases, adventitiously Lamar became the political poster boy for a new generation of socially conscience rappers. To the point that members of The Million Man march chanted ‘Alright’, a Black Power movement organised by the NOI.  

WINNER-KENDRICK LAMAR

Best Song
‘LOVE ME’ VERSUS ‘HOTLINE BLING’

The 1975 are kinda cool but also kinda crap because their fans are kinda crap. Drake is kinda cool but also kinda crap because everyone loves Drake for the wrong reasons. The 1975 have reinvented themselves as trippy 80s pop stars that take too many drugs. Drake has reinvented himself as a cutesy 80s RnB crooner that dances poorly. ‘Love Me’ is an absolute indie banger reminding us of the good times. ‘Hotline Bling’ is an absolute pop banger reminding us of that one ex who is better without us. ‘Love Me’ has a music video that includes Matt Healy snogging a cardboard Haz Styles. ‘Hotline Bling’ has the ultimate meme-able dad dancing music video. Drake has to win, because that’s all Drake can do in 2015, just keep on winning.

WINNER-DRAKE

Best Dance
‘IN COLOUR’ VERSUS NO ONE

It has been three years since The xx released their last record and since then the world has changed. Miley Cyrus was a pop star has been with really nice hair, in 2015 she is a pop culture surrealist with far less hair and more strap ons. To bridge the gap between Coexist and the imminent third album, quietest member Jamie Smith (also known as Jamie kiss kiss) released the ultimate Summer album with ‘In Colour’. Although difficult to stand out in a world obsessed with dance music, Jamie xx has managed to create something fresh and full of transcendent floorfillers using the dirtiest bass and the most leftfield samples. Songs such as the Death Star sized ‘Gosh’ and the arty love song of ‘Girl’ are gems in the crown of ‘In Colour’. It’s good to remember that ‘In Colour’ is the only song of 2015 that has Young Thug using a simile to compare intercourse with a pram.

There are no dance records that compared in 2015, maybe ‘Mutant’ by Arca but that had no Young Thug so was disqualified.

WINNER-JAMIE XX

Biggest Twat
MARTIN SHRKELI VERUS DAVID CAMERON

This has nothing to do with music but sometimes one has to be a bit political because that’s quite zeitgeist-y. Martin Shrkeli and David Cameron have a lot in common. Both of them are disliked by swathes of the country for their dodgy rhetoric and are consistently smug. Shrkeli was the pharmaceutical giant who thought it would be alright and not satanic to increase the price of an AIDS drug by 5000%, and then buy the only copy of a Wu-Tang album. Cameron is an ex Bullingdon Club member who now runs the United Kingdom. In 2015 he began a war with an ideology that could threaten the lives of thousands of innocent Syrians, called those who thought that beginning the war ‘terrorist sympathisers’, allowed his second in command to effectively make poorer people poorer and was alleged to have had sex with a pig. Recently Martin Shrkeli received karmic retribution for his money hungry methods, David Cameron therefore wins by default. Nice one Dave x.

WINNER-DAVID CAMERON

Superfood Live, Review

“It feels good to be out of the studio and seeing you guys go mental” laments Dom Ganderton in a quiet moment during Superfood’s electric set at the Boston Music Room on Saturday night. It feels good to see them as well, it’s been just over a year since the release of ‘Don’t Say That’, Superfood’s Brit Pop infused debut. The album cemented them as one of Britain’s most exciting bands, but since then it has been complete silence from the Birmingham band.

Superfood return back in London with new tracks to road-test and a new drummer, not to mention a legion of young fans with energy by the bucket load. From the moment they hesitantly wander on stage the venue is alight with flailing crowd surfers and zoned out teens fighting for space to dance to Superfood’s well-crafted and pedal hungry indie. Although the enthusiasm was well received, grabbing young girls’ hair and begging for unnecessary mosh pits ruin intimate gigs.

The back catalogue pleased to no end, with TV and Mood Bomb becoming huge sing-alongs (especially when lyrics were sloppily forgotten). Perhaps the grace period since ‘Don’t Say That’ has blessed Superfood with a loyal fan bass, allowing the new material to strike even further left field. The three new tracks played still exhumed the 90s but brief suggestions of Hip-Hop drum fills and spacey psychedelia is an exciting enough combination to confirm 2016 will rock for the Brum quartet.

 

The gig finished with a more than appropriate stage invasion (a mainstay in all Superfood shows).  This time, Dom was thrown to the floor and Ryan’s kit had to be saved by loyal fans*. It was painfully clear, the people are hungry for more Superfood.

*me, it was me, appreciate me

Product, SOPHIE Review

It’s easy to over analyse the artist’s decisions. I spent Year 11 exerting most of my brain power over why Steinbeck never game Curley’s Wife a name and in college I’m doing exactly the same with London synth pop producer SOPHIE. Why would such a creative powerhouse whose contemporaries include AG Cook and J Pop starlet Kyary Pamyu Pamyu would name his album (SOPHIE is a he, confusing right?) such a simplistic and dull name as ‘Product’. Does it have a hidden meaning beyond it’s etymology from Latin productum ‘something produced’, neuter past participle (used as a noun) of producere ‘bring forth’? Or does the mind numbing poppyness of the album further relate to the over-simplification of everything for the masses to make it easier to forcefeed us dumb John Lewis adverts when November comes along? Or is it because ‘Product’ is a selection of singles released one by one, each individually being a ‘product’?

It is none of these. If you head over to http://shop.msmsmsm.com you’ll see that the debut comes in the form of many different product such as a puffa jacket, sunglasses, pair of heels and er… a dildo?

The beauty of SOPHIE is his simplicity, like watching a play by Brecht there is no doubt what it is all about. From the first 90s electro heartbeat of ‘Bipp’ you are transformed into his neon universe that includes chopped and screwed vocals and a simple thumping bass. ‘Elle’ and ‘Vyzee’ follow the same format, surreal Chipmunk vocals exploring issues even shallower than Rebecca Black but somehow SOPHIE manages to pull it off with the latter reminiscent of Wiley’s ‘Wearing My Rolex’ drenched in acid.

The beauty may be in the straight forward, but SOPHIE’s staying power definitely lies in the bass and wickedness. ‘Lemonade’ begins with a can of fizz being opened at full volume, then bumping into part mosquito part hard house you can’t help but feel compelled to dance to. SOPHIE’s irrational take on dance music is surprising and evocative, leading to tracks such as ‘MSMSMSM’ with some of the strongest bass of 2015 and a progressive track coming straight from outerspace. ‘Hard’, perhaps one of the most formulaic tracks of ‘Product’ takes the viciousness of MIA’s material and skews with 90s pop keys, creating one of the hardest and wickedest tracks by SOPHIE.

Grimes, Art Angels Review

Grimes has been relatively silent musically since her infinitely perfect 2012 album ‘Visions’ apart from a generally well received but fan hated single ‘Go’ last year. It has seemed a long wait for any new material from the elfin Canadian, then just as winter envelops a rushed release of Grimes’ fourth album ‘Art Angels’ is released. And I almost wish it never had been.

There are a group of girls at my college who dress with a pale tumblr theme in mind, they wear oversized cardigans and probably will tell you that Spirited Away is their favourite film. I am sure that Grimes is their favourite musician as well because she is ‘weird, original (and vegan)’, the issue with ‘Art Angels’ however is that there is a thin line between quirky and mind numbing. 

The album sounds like a mix of a 1980s SEGA video game and ethereal alt pop that mostly falls short of having anything relatable or listenable. Second track ‘California’ sits in a similar box to the Candy Crush neon of PC Music’s roster, with vocals and lyrics about as pleasant to listen to as a dial-up connection for noughties broadband. ‘Scream’ promises bloodthirst with a snarling guitar intro, but instead whimpers with childish roars and surreal foreign language vocals. Much of the album lacks Grimes’ subdued power and instead punts for full on rage, adding vocal effect after vocal effect then leaves her about as intimidating as a goldfish.

There are glimpses of beauty within this album, ‘Easily’ begins like a Sampha track and glides effortlessly as a well-timed ballad. The song sounds effortlessly noughties using the best of Britney and vibing classic Grimes squeaky dance breaks. There is nothing wrong with pop music and trying to make a record commercially viable, The 1975 did it this year with ‘Love Me’ and Charlie XCX’s riotous brand of girl pop is making waves. The issue with Grimes is that this record feels almost satirical in its production of a pop record. ‘Artangels’ sounds nice but also feels like a SNL spoof of a Danish pop group, Grimes is a hugely talented artist yet the album lacks an honesty one would expect from Boucher. Whether it is artistry or just a change in direction, ‘Art Angels’ feels unloving.

Now That's What I Call Halloween

It's the most wonderful time of the year, not the vacuous and forced joy of December 25th but the purely nasty and freaky holiday of Halloween. Halloween is the only time of the year to celebrate the gruesome side of life, the things that go bump in the night and make parents shake their heads and say something about Americanisation.

With playlists you want to hit the right note, and if you're doing Halloween properly it's all about the darkest and scariest tunes known to man. Whether that be horrorcore rap, frantic dance or some of the creepiest bands possible- Bleeding Headphones is going to take your playlist to the next levels of scary

Gesaffelstein

There’s something horrific about a human only wearing one type of clothing, Steve Jobs had that maladjusted vibe and he only wore turtlenecks and New Balances. French trance pioneer Gesaffelstein is only seen chain smoking wearing a Parisian perfect black suit, in itself that’s horrifying. To make matters worse, Gesaffelstein is known for his industrial dance music that is half-dance half-homicide. You know the drums in Yeezus that make your pants go a shade darker? That’s the production Gesaffelstein.

Key Songs: Obsession, Hellifornia, and Pursuit

Tyler, The Creator

You’ve probably heard of Tyler, The Creator but a lot of the time the Californian rapper’s reputation precedes him. During his formative years (prior to his day-glo Golf Wang line and jazz covers) Tyler wrote deathly serious raps with self produced beats more fitting to a horror movie score than a rap album. The lyrics are bloody and schizophrenic with themes ranging from loitering around skate parks to committing various graphic rapes and murders; it is not for the faint hearted. Perfect for Halloween? Of course it is.

Key Songs: Leather Head, Tron Cat and VCR

Death Grips

Mixing punk attitudes, the gangland ferocity of Hudson Mohawke and the unmistakable rage of MC Ride you have Death Grips. Halloween is all about not caring about what’s wrong and right, there is no such thing as too far. Death Grips definitely subscribe to the policy that there is no too far, they have a song called ‘Have A Sad Cum’ an album called  ‘Niggas On The Moon’ and an LP cover with a pink dildo taking pride and centre. Can you not find the perfect song that goes with your grainy footage of the murders you’ve committed? That’s because you haven’t listened to Death Grips before.

Key Songs: I’ve Seen Footage and Get Got

Simon & Garfunkel

How many words do I need to describe how scary ‘The Sound Of Silence’ is? Just think about what sound silence makes, there you go.

Joy Division

Every party will have someone turn up without a costume and then smirk and say “I’m a serial killer, I’m scary because they look like everyone else”. Most people will smile politely and silently cross them off their mental list of people that they will consider having sex with. There is horror in the ordinary, and that’s the lure of Joy Division. Ian Curtis was a regular man who ate and slept, voted Tory and kept his lyrics in a Tesco’s carrier bag. Yet when you hear the creeping urgency of ‘New Dawn Fades’ and the spurring bassline of ‘Shadowplay’ all intertwined with the deathly lyrics of Curtis, nothing feels human any longer.  There’s horror in the human, Joy Division lets it slip.

Key Songs: She’s Lost Control, New Dawn Fades and Atrocity Exhibition