best experimental albums 2019

14 RICHARD DAWSON Ghosteen Her attention to the timeless subject of love is from the rave’s dim-lit corner; Hval has always excelled in specificity, making the album more about the circumstances surrounding love’s existence. One of the EP’s only moments of lyrical clarity is on “JUICY,” her duet with NUXXE labelmate Shygirl. 49 STEPHEN MALKMUS Western Stars COLUMBIA ( Log Out /  “You may say I’m a dreamer…” Every album reviewed. “Arrow of Time” finds the voices of Annie Gårlid and Evelyn Saylor beset by a commanding harpsichord, their voices climbing to high soprano octaves—it sounds a lot like they’re fumbling towards divine ecstasy. Reward PARTISAN Sound & Fury presented another big shift in direction for Simpson – this time with anime visuals, strutting disco-boogie, grunge and pulsing modern blues joining the party. Manic intensity is the John Dwyer way, his energies for keeping Oh Sees on an unforgiving schedule of writing, playing and recording mirrored in the brisk-tempo garage motorik that is the stuff of Face Stabber. … 13 OH SEES When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? MELODIC All are shot through with an artist’s ear for sound design and set Gately apart from the crowd at an early stage. dBpm (The two-part “Black Crown Ceremony” is an exception, with its soft, ritualised ambience.) Having put a rocket up the jazz scene with last year’s incendiary, politically charged Sons Of Kemet album Your Queen Is A Reptile, Shabaka Hutchings channelled that fervour into the return of his cosmic synth’n’sax outfit, The Comet Is Coming. To match the coarse subject matter, Dawson swapped the harps and strings of Peasant for electric guitar, drums and synths; “Black Triangle”, then, recounts the desperation of a UFO obsessive over wailing metal, while the gruelling “Fulfillment Centre” dissects damaging consumerism over Tuareg rhythms. 28 JENNY HVAL Strings wash, choirs purr, and the balance of analogue and electronic – overseen by Kiwanuka, Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton and hip-hop multiinstrumentalist Inflo – was expertly maintained. (Richard Allen), Matmos ~ Ultimate Care II (Thrill Jockey, 2016) Fans of kaleidoscopic crossover can check her out in the Silk Road Ensemble. Here, production by her brother Fineas O’Connell gave off a padded-cell ambience, which well suited songs falling somewhere between ’90s R&B, Dr Dre and Nine Inch Nails. For the front cover of Titanic Rising, Mering submerged an entire bedroom, complete with teddy bear and laptop. The slacker thrills of Don’t Let The Kids Win, Jacklin’s 2016 debut, did little to suggest the depths of raw emotion that the Sydney-raised songwriter would plumb for its powerful follow-up. “Promises” is hard to follow thanks to its shifting tectonic plates of rhythms, making a deranged dance track that’s entirely impossible to move along to. COLUMBIA BUBBA, Kay’s long-awaited 99.9% successor, likewise doesn’t scan as an intentionally queer collection, but it’s hard not to read some of its traits as directly stemming from just how much happens in the first three years after someone comes out. On her interpretation of “Altibzz” by Autechre, she sounds as glacial and distant as snow in a cloud. Despite featuring a number of the scene’s major players – saxophonists Nubya Garcia and Cassie Kinoshi, trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, trombonist Rosie Turton and more – it never felt like anyone was queuing up for a solo, instead striving to fashion a supremely harmonious blend of ’70s astral jazz and contemporary global flavours. Continuing the revelatory ‘exploded view’ songwriting approach of 2016’s 22, A Million, but with real musicians and singers taking the place of samples and effects, it found thrilling new ways to convey moments of soaring, communal joy. I Was Real But relocating to Sheffield, they mainlined some of that city’s synthpop sleaze, adding strings and sax to produce a compelling album of dank disco cabaret, with deliciously murky lyrics to match. The Kentucky singer and guitarist has quietly proved herself to be one of the finest songwriters of recent years, and her sublime fifth album was naturally entrancing. 2 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS JAGJAGUWAR 8 BILL CALLAHAN Welcome to the new issue of Uncut – Bruce Springsteen, Fleet Foxes and more! —Austin Jones, Unfortunately, we weren’t blessed with a full-length release from Warp Records darling Kelela in 2019. The sound design is top notch, especially within the traditionally lo-fi genre of dream pop; every moving part on “Pretty Bones” (and there are many) sound sharp and identifiable, even the dial-tone ringing underneath Cmiel’s malfunctioning voice. 10 WILCO 50 SHANA CLEVELAND Presenting the definitive 148-page tribute... PJ Harvey, Tom Petty, Idles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Matt Berninger, Steel Pulse, Hüsker Dü, Laura Veirs, Chris Hillman and Isaac Hayes, The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Peter Green, Gillian Welch, Black Sabbath, The Cramps and Sun Ra, plus a free Drag City CD. Titanic Rising (1994) is an equally cordial neighbour. There is a dignity and otherness at work here: her voice sweeps robustly over swelling crescendo of “Something To Believe”, while “A Lot’s Gonna Change” finds her delivery softer and more intimate. A revolutionary solo journey, in full. There’s a progression throughout the album that mirrors a hero’s journey, a call to adventure punctuated by war of mythopoeic proportions between each track’s moving parts.

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