As 2015 comes to its close and we look ahead to 2016, it's time to do the cliched task of recollecting the albums released in 2015 that we enjoyed. These are not presented in any particular order, but these were some of my favorites. What were some of your favorite albums!?
Duran Duran - Paper Gods
Duran Duran - Paper Gods album cover
Duran Duran returned this year with Paper Gods, an album that proves they still have "it." The album is a rich combination of what Duran Duran was most known for in the new wave/new romantic period of the 80s mixed with a refreshing flourish of pop bravado common to today. Like many 80s bands, Duran Duran still falls victim to the trend of trying to rediscover themselves, failing on the first couple attempts, but then reclaiming that flame with the newest album. For Duran Duran, Paper Gods is the reclaiming album they and fans alike have been looking for. We'll have to see what comes next for the group, but hopefully this is just the beginning of a strong upward trend.
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss album cover
We reviewed Chelsea Wolfe's newest album a while back and it has only continued to grow on our ears. Easily her heaviest album yet, Abyss is a concept album of sorts that revolves around the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. Dark, brooding, moody music set to guiding vocals characterizes much of the album. Not only is it the heaviest album by Wolfe to date, but it may well be the most solid. Given how great this album is and previous effort Pain is Beauty, the only place for Wolfe to go is up, regardless of whether the music continues to get heavier or is reigned back. Added bonus - the live show is really strong and Wolfe is such a delightful performer. You're missing out if you've yet to see her on the live stage.
She Past Away - Narin Yalnizlik
She Past Away - Narin Yalnizlik album cover
She Past Away returns with their second album, Narin Yalnizlik. The Turkish darkwave group (yes, Turkish, and darkwave, and lyrics in Turkish!) makes a strong showing on this album, experimenting more with sounds and textures than they did on their debut album. While on the whole I prefer the debut album, this one is not an album to snub your nose at. She Past Away keeps a firm hold on their 80s darkwave roots (similar in ways to Xymox/Clan Of Xymox), meshing broken Turkish lyrics to a lush musical backdrop. The group finally reaches the US for a couple quick stops in California early 2016, but this is hopefully just the beginning of the group's foray into the US.
Killing Joke - Pylon
Killing Joke - Pylon album cover
Another album reviewed earlier this year here, Killing Joke returned full force with Pylon. Easily their strongest album in years, Pylon meshes the post punk aesthetic Killing Joke helped pioneer in the late 70s/early 80s with heavy distortion and an industrial feel characteristic of the group's more recent efforts. Almost their highest charting album ever, Pylon may well be the best album of 2015, for me at least. The group tours the US in 2016, hitting Texas towards the end of January.
Peter Murphy - Remixes From Lion
Peter Murphy - Remixes From Lion album cover
It wouldn't be a year it I couldn't write something about Peter Murphy, now would it? The Godfather of Goth (I can see his eye twitching at me saying this, but I didn't pick the title!) released a follow-up album of unused material from the Lion sessions. Most of the remixes offer an interesting reinterpretation of tracks from the main album. Better yet, the album includes the previously vinyl-only track "Gabriel" in all its multi-layered glory and a very solid series of newly released "The Sound of Water" and the Youth remix of "Loctaine," the one remix I think I may actually like more than the original (though the original take of "Loctaine" is also very strong and a favorite of mine). 2015 was a strong year for Murphy, even if quiet, in a sense. In addition to the Remixes album, two live albums were also released (the full audio from the Mr. Moonlight Tour as one and finally an official recording of the House of Blues show from April 2000 via Cleopatra). However, Murphy only played a handful of dates in June in California. By all accounts, 2016 may be a very loud year for Murphy, starting with a major role in the upcoming psychological thriller BlackGloveKiller.
Hailing from Omaha, Nebraska, Strap On Halo are one of the newer goth rock bands that holds on to many of the sentiments of the genre's 80s and 90s founders (being a healthy blend of some of the musicality behind Christian Death, Xmal Deutschland, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and even a sprinkling of groups like Skeletal Family and March Violets). But, often, the alternative music scene, especially the darker gothy side, isn't one that evokes feelings of Christmas. Surely, when December comes rolling around, we must don our all-black drab and hang black tinsel on a black colored tree with a raven for the tree's demented star? Strap On Halo's upcoming release, Ode to Krampus, reveals just how goth rock can tackle the spirit of the giving season.
Strap On Halo's Ode to Krampus is finally coming to vinyl in 2015
"Ode to Krampus" was originally recorded in 2013 but is now receiving a physical vinyl release for the first time. The song opens with a melancholy piano part coupled to a driving drum beat and a sprinkling of guitar work from Sean Rial. Layla Reyna's haunting voice enters the mix, beginning the ode to Krampus. The chorus is introduced with a gorgeously held note, "Run...as fast as you can." Musically, the sound of mystery and allure is retained, complimented nicely by the work of Marc Jones on bass - subtle, yet every bit as important as the vocals and driving piano.
The song continues on in this fashion, ending mysteriously enough after three minutes and change of play. Strap On Halo maintain their traditional gothic sentiments on this one, painting an auditory picture of the darker side of Christmas. While not everyone's cup of tea, this is one to surely make the goth in your family a little happier this season.
Strap On Halo. Left to right: Layla Reyna, vocals/drums/keyboards/arrangements, Sean Rial, guitar, and Marc Jones, bass
Ode to Krampus will be released later this month and is strictly limited to 25 copies which include a 3.5" round sticker and a handwritten lyric sleeve with the clear 7" vinyl itself. Pre-orders are now live through the Strap On Halo bandcamp site. The group will also be releasing their newest album, Prayers for the Living, in January of next year with a mini tour of the United States in the works. They're a fun live group and delightful people to talk to, so catch them if they come to a city near you!
Last month, I finally got to see Skinny Puppy live (in the event I don't write my thoughts on that show, it was purely amazing, theatrically and musically sublime from start to finish). Opening for them was a band I'd heard of, but hadn't listened to or seen before - Youth Code. Suffice to say, that night, the duo from Los Angeles won me over as a fan. They've also recently released a two song 7", Anagnorisis, that we'll look at today. The long and short of it all - this is a group that is going places and you'd be wise to keep an eye on them.
2015's Anagnorisis from Youth Code
Before getting to the music, allow me to say that the first thing that struck me was the make-up of the group - Ryan George taking on duties as programmer, synths, and mostly backing vocals and Sara Taylor taking lead vocals live (providing additional sampling and synths in the studio). Let this sink in. Can you name any industrial/EBM bands fronted by a woman? That night at the show, I strained to. Roughly a month later, I'm still drawing blanks. This is part of what makes this group so unique and begs the question - why aren't more women leading industrial bands? Because if Taylor is any indication, we women sure can KILL it!
Okay, personal anecdotes and musings aside, we look at Anagnorisis. The self-titled track opens with synths mixed with an audio sampling, starting light enough. As the song progresses, additional electronic elements begin to enter, even featuring a moving part slightly reminiscent of early Gary Numan before Taylor's gritty, caustic distorted vocals kick in. It becomes an instantly catchy tune and it's hard to not bop your head in time. As the song progresses, Taylor backs the screaming off, clearly resonating the lines "This is a trigger/This is despair." Afterwards, the song begins to fade out, dropping elements one by one until a white noise of sorts takes over, leaving the end fuzzy, broadcast out, so to speak.
Youth Code - Ryan George, left, and Sara Taylor, right
The other side holds "Shift of Dismay," a song that starts off musically as a mashup of Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Skinny Puppy, and Front 242 (as in very familiar in sound to some of the songs each group has made over the year, yet still distinct and unique to Youth Code). The song builds into Taylor's vocal entry, taking on a very militaristic marching feel meshed to biting industrial electronic undertones. After the first minute and a half, the song transitions, backing off the electronics slightly, and bringing in a brooding, echoing vocal cascade, creating a lavishly sinister tone that consumes the listener.
Last night the group played in Miami and it appears they may be taking a small break to round off the year, but keep an eye out for them next year. Looking to score Anagnorisis? Sadly, all three presses of the 7" have sold out, but you can stream them on Spotify and check out Youth Code's other work on their Bandcamp site.
David Bowie. What is there to say about Bowie that hasn't been said before? His music over the span of his multi-decades long career has been as ever evolving and changing as his personal style and fashion statements. Truly, there is little Bowie can do wrong, having long ago mastered the art of mystery and the grace of drawing in fans with an allure that we still can't fully put a finger on. Through memorable characters like Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke, Bowie has easily championed the art of personal branding. More so, very few (if any, to be brutally honest) artists can suddenly disappear without a single word, no hints, only whispers of "Is he? Will he? Can he?" murmured in dark shadows magically reappear in full splendor, picking up somehow where they left off, fans still there and eager for what comes next. That was Bowie in 2013 when, on his birthday of January 8th, his first new song in years came to life, bringing the shocking revelation that his first new album following a long and silent ten year hiatus, The Next Day, would be released very soon. And now, three years later to the date, Bowie will release his follow-up album to that immensely successful album - Blackstar. Among the tracks is lead self-titled single, "Blackstar."
David Bowie, 2015, still ageless as ever
"Blackstar" was originally born from a project involving Bowie and the British television series The Last Panthers, with the song itself serving as the title track for the show and being an embodiment of the characters and themes of the show. From that initial work, Bowie has ventured to create the entirety of this next album around that concept, mixing in earlier influences and crafting what may well be one of Bowie's less obvious and more peculiar works.
The near ten minute opus begins peaceful enough, a dancing guitar tune matched to a mysterious, almost ethereal arrangement. Bowie's voice enters, his ageless croon set in octaves, adding an element of mystique, for lack of a better word. The stage is set for something that makes you a little uncomfortable - it's the familiarity of Bowie, mixed with something a little sinister and unsettling, but you can't quite place it. You listen on, determined to figure out what it is.
There's an otherworldly effect to the beginning of "Blackstar" (which matches perfectly to the opening scenes of the accompanying music video). The song maintains its otherworldly ethereal pace as the video itself comes upon Bowie with his eyes wrapped in cloth and two black "pupils" attached, as if he were a blind seer.
Imagery in the video becomes progressively darker and more disturbing, from skeleton astronauts to figures moving as if they were seizing as they stood. All the while, the music retains its ethereal feel, mixing in a solemn saxophone. An odd mixture, yet still fitting.
As the first four minutes conclude, things slow down, the music drops to mainly a slowed drum beat, the transition mirrored by an unmasked Bowie in the accompanying video. Shed away is the mysterious music, filled instead with a more optimistic arrangement - hope. Gone, too, is the almost ominous feeling octave vocal harmonies, leaving Bowie's perfect, crisp voice instead. By this point, the music returns to a similarity of the Bowie of old - funk-inspired bass above a moving drum beat set to smooth vocals, mixed with sprinklings of piano and guitar almost reminiscent of The Next Day single "Where Are We Now?"
The remainder of the song continues in this fashion ending on a digital beeping sound much like the noise a robot in 80s television would make, demonstrating Bowie's refusal to make the same kind of song over and over, constantly changing and evolving. This is why Bowie can get away with a ten year silent hiatus and come back to being in the spotlight instantly. The one complaint? The post-transitional portion of the music video does Bowie no visual favors.
Blackstar the album will be released January 8, 2016. Pre-orders are live through David Bowie's online webstore and include limited edition lithographs and clear vinyl. What will be interesting to see is how the rest of the album shapes up. As was seen with The Next Day, the lead single was not a clear indication for the rest of the album's style and flow. Time will soon surely tell, but I think it's safe to say that whatever David Bowie has cooked up, it'll be great.
Killing Joke embody so much of what made late 70s/early 80s post punk amazing - brooding lyrics half sung, half screamed by a wide-eyed Jaz Coleman over a backdrop of edgy guitars and driving bass. The last couple of Killing Joke releases, however, seemed to have lost much of that strength that the band has been known for. This year, the group returned with Pylon. Long story made short - this may actually be one of their best albums ever.
2015's Pylon album cover
The groups previous efforts with the reunited original lineup (consisting of Jaz Coleman, Martin "Youth" Glover, Paul Ferguson, and Kevin "Geordie" Walker), 2010's Absolute Dissent and 2012's MMXII, were strong ventures in their own rights, but don't stand up as well compared to the prior efforts of the group. For as strong a band as they were, it seemed more and more that Killing Joke would be on a path of constantly trying to recreate the flame they once had in the 80s, coming close each time, but not quite fully igniting. With Pylon, the fire is finally burning strong and bright.
The album opens with perhaps my personal favorite, "Autonomous Zone." A catchy drum and bass driven number (love that small flourish of a bass solo lick Youth cranks out when everything else drops out), Coleman paints a picture of what humanity should strive for - end to war, but an end to mindless control, as well.
Pylon then winds through songs like distortion-laden "Dawn of the Hive," which carries the auditory equivalent of a beehive and playing follow the leader blindly, to the absolutely relevant, brooding "New Cold War," which outlines some of the recent tensions between the West and the East.
"Euphoria" loses much of the industrial distortion of the prior tracks, instead donning more of a new wave feel and lacking the yelling Coleman was known for. Instead of sticking out awkwardly, however, the song provides a nice transitional point in the album, signaling a change of pace from the driving beats of the first few songs to the slower riff-heavy songs like "New Jerusalem" and "War on Freedom."
The album wraps up with lead single "I Am the Virus," a driving more punk-styled number set to Coleman's chant-worthy yells, helping wrap the album in much the same way as it began. "Into the Unknown" officially rounds off the album, guitar-driven, yet smooth, clean, and certainly catchy, leaving the listener anticipating more, but being left on that cliff hanger ending with nothing further to fall on.
Killing Joke's original lineup. Left to right: Martin "Youth" Glover, Jaz Coleman, Paul Ferguson, Kevin "Geordie" Walker
Of this year's offerings, Pylon may well be at the top of my list. It's every bit as much a classic nod to the old Killing Joke mixed with a healthy dose of new ideas, emerging as one of their strongest albums to date. Killing Joke begin their tour of North America in January. The group will play here in Dallas at the Granada Theatre on January 21, marking the first time in 22 years that the band has visited North Texas. This is not a show to miss. Tickets are on sale now through the Granada Theatre's ticketing site.
