Advent Calendar 2014 English
Okay, what kind of reckless style amalgam ist he opening title track? The mercilessly slaying 'Schnaiserkitt'? How epic in scope is the wave breaking 'Valhalla'? Fjort actually need no more than these three songs to leave the listener speechless, but they do it another seven times. Close to nine months after the release of 'D’accord' we still marvel at This Charming Man for their 6th signing sense; at the enormous explosion in performance, that wasn’t to be expected in this magnitude after the very promising introductory-round of 'Demontage', or that this record has indeed been mangled out of their instruments by a three-piece wrecking ball.
'This World' works as interface between the acoustic landscapes of Grails and Slint, the two closely related bands that qualify Watter as – excuse the marketing-speak – supergroup. First and foremost though, Zak Riles, Tyler Trotter and Britt Walford made their debut a beautiful and mystically surreal voyage through the bluring borderlands of post- and krautrock. To ease the waiting time for their Euro tour at the start of 2015 (with dates in Linz on Feb 12th and Vienna on Feb 14th), Mr. Riles tell us about his favourite records of the year for the Heavy Pop advent calendar.
At the end of this thriumphal past year in doom, a two-piece from California stands out from the heap of excellent releases in the genre – with their debut of all things. And the 46 minues served don’t only work as a first demonstration of talent for Keeper, even in this early state the band succeeds in articulating their hate and disgust for the world between perfectly formed crust and noise-innuendos. Jacob Lee and Penny Keats play this nihilistic mixture from close to scratch, and instantly positioned themselves as one of the most unapologetic current genre bands.
First you may think: writing about Black Map of course means to write about Dredg, Far and The Trophy Fire, if only because „…And We Explode“ bears trademarks of the three other bands Mark Engles, Chris Robyn und Ben Flanagan are involved with. But it comes as a bit of a surprise, how effortless the three-headed powerhouse succeeds in combining the straight walk in direction of atmospheric alternative rock, the constant flirt with grounded stadium-sound and the steadfast traction of meaty hits. And yeah, in the end actually it works perfectly without even mentioning their other prominent playgrounds.
„Compared to his previous work, the album has very structurized pieces, but they lose nothing of their elusive magic“ Messer vocalist Hendrik Otremba told us, and hits the nail on the head. Not only has Damon McMahon – together with his bandmates Jordi Wheeler and Parker Kindred, as well as many guests like Efrim Menuck, Colin Stetson and Elias Bender Rønnenfelt – succeeded in making 'Love' their best Album so far, but a beautifully surreal, psychedelic masterpiece with timeless qualities.
Waiting for the debut album of the Goodtime Boys felt like an eternity. And as it turns out it was worth waiting: 'Rain' not only keeps the promises a number of EPs made since 2011, but elevates tehir qualities onto the next level. With outstanding songs like ‘Wallflower‘, ‘Life Moves‘, ‘Cloudbursts‘ or ‘Downpour‘ and songwriting that succeeds in expressing aggressiveness without losing a keen sense for grand melodies, with a spacious sound that sets itself apart from the genres sameyness, and lyrics that crawl beneath the skin. Hardcore can be so beautiful.
With their single 'Promised Land', Polkov clinged to the upper regions of the domestic indie charts. But one thing needs to be said at this point: every other song from the captivating summer dream of a debut album by the band from Graz could have taken that spot, with their style-savvy country-homages and grandiose folk-pop-tweaks. Now, before the next singles from Polkov cuddle themselves through airplay, Laurenz Jandl tells us which records apart from 'Polkov' should not be missed in 2014.
2014 couldn’t have started better for KMPFSPRT: „Jugend Mutiert“ easily lived up to the high expectations euphoric concert reviews and the „Das ist doch kein Name für ‚ne Band“ EP were suggesting. Close to eleven months later, the albums punkr rock hits lost nothing of their pressure and vigor. It doesn’t surprise, thatt 2015 seems to be off to an equally good start: the split single with Boysetsfire is ready to go, looks amazing, and serves a good cause. For the time being, guitar player David gives off some recommendations for 2014.
The reason why the year 2014 in Wolfgang Möstls personal music history only secondarily marks the year Killed by 9V Batteries were brought to an end invokes comparisons to the Beatles, hides itself very Sgt. Pepper-like behind a concept of nerdy homages, and celebrates a varied party of twelve Lo-Fi gems starting with its artwork: Mile Me Deaf probably have never been better than on their wonderfully easygoing collection of catchy tunes 'Holography'. One year after he helped bringing Sex Jams noiserock to the next level, Wolfgang Möstl continues to make no mistakes on his several playgrounds. And we’re still allowed to miss Killed by 9V Batteries.
After the two consecutive successes '‘Im Schwindel‘‘ and 'Die Unsichtbaren‘, 2014 had to be endured without a new album by Messer, but fortunately not without other releases: while Record Store Day ’14 showed the groups changeableness with 'TCM Tones‘, last months 'Ein Film ist zuende, nur ein Film‘ succeeded with its balancing act between art piece and driving rock improvisation. Either way: no Heavy Pop Advent calender without being kicked off by Messer!
