music 2024 : TOP 7 live albums

2024 added a good amount of great live releases to my collection. I could have easily saved myself several hard decisions, if I just made this a list of my favorite dozen of them. Kikagaku Moyo, Temple Fang, Li Jianhong, Martina Verhoeven could have all been included. But then there would still be more, so let's just except that this is what it is - the holy, unshakable, final selection of my...

TOP 7 LIVE ALBUMS 2024:

1. SWANS - Live Rope
   
   
   

   No, Swans aren't getting significantly quieter or more compact yet! In a transformed guise of sound, which unites a newly found clarity with a still almost unfathomable heaviness, characterized by basses, lap steel guitars and Michael Gira playing on acoustic strings "Live Rope" presents the Noise titans as utterly glorious as I remember them from their last show in Hamburg. The first double track "Rope/The Beggar" alone clocks in at over seventy-eight minutes. And that's only one half of this unbelievable album. Admittedly it's not the first time that I smell the possible peak of all their qualities coming together, but come on: Can the rush of incomprehensible bliss get any greater?
   
   
   
2. SOLAR TEMPLE & DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Embers Beget the Divine
   
   
   

   Not enough musical hypersomnia yet? Here's another fifty minutes mighty piece (in three movements) by the two adventurous Dutch duos Solar Temple and Dead Neanderthals, recorded live at Roadburn 2022. Hypnotically repetitive, yet rich and colourful in detail this "light-flooded cathartic flight beyond the constraints of time" unveils a "skyscraping wall made of Psychedelic Sludge, clerical chants, Post Metal and Blackgaze".
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. TORI AMOS - Diving Deep Live
   
   
   

   However ginormous the two above may feel; if you want me to guess which album here I will probably listen to the most in the long run, my bet is definitely on Tori in the thirty-fifth year of her career. "Pandora's Aquarium", "Spring Haze", "Lady In Blue", "Mother Revolution"... Not only does she serve an irresistable selection of sixteen hits and hidden gems on this two and a half hour strong double album, but she also does it in fantastic, extravagantly long piano/bass/drums trio versions.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. ALICE COLTRANE - The Carnegie Hall Concert
   
   
   

   If we're talking historic relevance the winner of this list has to be the first complete official release of Alice Coltrane's legendary Carnegie Hall performance in 1971. In its first half she looks into the future, playing harp on pieces inspired by Indian spirituality. The second half with her on piano honours the legacy of her late husband John Coltrane. It's absolutely magical, and if there had been enough microphones to actually record all instruments on stage properly, I might have ranked this even higher.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. ZAÄAR - Musique Cryptique (Live in Liège)
   
   
   

   From the immortal Spiritual Jazz pioneer of the past to the exciting present of Avantgarde Free Jazz: Zaäar expressively improve a timeless stream of mystical tribalistic trance, including santur, zurna, zither, flutes, electronic sounds, throat singing and animal noises. All this is captured inside the unique atmosphere of a natural cave. "What a hammering meditation! What a monstrosity of freedom! What a wildfire of inspiration!" And everywhere Alice Turiyasangitananda's presence can still be felt like a tangible resonance. A magical trip into Neptunian Jazzimalism!
   
   
   
   
   
6. GUSH - Afro Blue
   
   
   
   No, we're not done yet! There's even more Coltrane worship ahead! Obviously, since "Afro Blue" is a Jazz standard made hugely popular by John's quartet. Here we can experience it in a stunning twenty minutes version by the trio of Mats Gustafsson (sax), Sten Sandell (piano) and Raymond Strid (drums), recorded live in Stockholm in 1998. And beyond that Gush give us fifty more minutes of sensational improvisations between abstract minimalism and hymnic Spiritual Jazz grandeur. The great production makes you feel like you're witnessing this mastery an arm's length away from the first row.  
   
   
   
   
   
7. CAN - Live in Keele 1977
   
   
   

   Six albums in (three of them released this year!) the live series of Krautrock legends Can just keeps giving. From a not too revered period of the band, this almost unadvertised show in the quintet line-up with Traffic bassist Rosko Dee and Holger Czukay operating wave sounds and samples instead, proves to be a true revelation. Incredibly funky, complex and rich these improvisations showcase a band of musicians knowing each other inside out - and then also adds that certain unexplainable magical it of the right constellation of space and time on top.
   
   
   
   
   
   

favorite MUSIC 2024 - all my lists:

TOP 24 albums   |   TOP 7 live albums   |   TOP 5 reissues

TOP 4 non-album releases   |   TOP 24 live shows

KIKAGAKU MOYO - Hasenheide

Is this actually a review or rather a look what I have post? Or both? Well, let's see...

幾何学模様 KIKAGAKU MOYO - Hasenheide (Cream/Pink splatter vinyl LP) (2024)

In their ten years of existence the Japanese fulfilled themselves every wish you could possibly have as a Krautrock band which had come to life as just a jamming collective on the streets of Tokyo. I'm not sure if playing weddings was on their bucket list, but in June 2016 they were invited to play an open air show in honour of the marriage of Verena and Holger in Austria. Those two had seen the band one year prior at Duna Jam and were so struck by them that she said if they toured Europe, they would get married... and then he booked them.

Matching the exclusivity of the event itself the record, which first only went to the guests and helpers of the celebration, "Hasenheide" isn't available to order at any shop or website, but you have to know whom to write an email. Which isn't that hard, if you're a member of one of he most popular Psychedelic Music groups on Facebook. The price and shipping admittedly wasn't what I want to spend on music daily either, but I guess that applies more and more for everything concerning music anyway. You could also say, that if you buy a record today, you really should want to have it. And in this case the urge obviously was overwhelming, especially since I couldn't get my hands on their "Live at Leviation" album, when it was still at least relatively affordable.

Even though I'd say that Kikagaku Moyo, who I only got introduced to in 2018 at Roadburn (also saw them live in Hamburg twice and in Berlin), weren't even on the full height of their abilities here, their Deutsch/Japanese/Indian take on Psychedelic Rock of course is an exraordinary experience. And what this recording may lack in production values (very good and listenable bootleg quality, but certainly not perfect), it compensates with an almost physically touchable atmosphere. You can tell that people must a very special time right there. Really an awesome testament of this sadly disbanded group's greatness.

The record comes with the original invitation and four postcards with credits by the couple, the band and the guy who helped releasing this beautiful item, Justin Barwick, whose friendship and occasionally work with the band began at this very wedding. Some of the copies also include a photo print of the band and their audience, and I was lucky enough to get one of those.

All in all definitely a special release, which almost appears a bit too private to peek into from the outside as someone who doesn't these people of excellent music taste - yet luckily not enough to make you feel uncomfortable. No, this is just lovely and magical. What a band! 

MUSIC 2022: TOP 22 albums

Here we go again! As you could already see in my TOP 5 reissues, TOP 7 live albums, TOP 13 live shows and TOP 6 non album releases I'm trying to keep my end of the year lists short.

And what a year I've chosen for that decision! It was hard, a lot of ins and outs, but I ultimately stuck to just twenty-two favorite albums! No sneaking in of extra recommendations under each entry like last year, just a plain TOP 22. As always these are only studio albums which I own in physical format. So I know that there are tons of stuff out there which I just didn't indulge in yet, Kendrick Lamar and The Mars Volta just being two of the most popular examples. (Oh, there's sooo much more like Brutus, Chat Pile... ok, don't even get me started, haha.)

I tried to consider earlier releases which I might have neclected a little, but also took the risk of including some very recent material. And for the time being I am happy with it. Looking back on this a year from now I will have some changed opinions about the ranking anyway, because that always happens. Hell, if you compare this list with my TOP 5 albums on VEILOFSOUND.COM (which I had finished a couple of weeks ago), even those have changed a bit already!

From A as in Autopsy to Z as in Zola Jesus and back from Zeal & Ardor over The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble and Jo Quail to 300,000 V.K. so many artists I would have expected here didn't make it. But well, I guess that's just unavoidable if you don't do at least a TOP 36. But even then I would still feel bad about those albums who fell off the edge. So fuck them, right? No, don't fuck them! Music is awesome. Check out all my reviews from 2022 stuff and go listen to some music! 


But now without further ado....  here finally are my...

TOP 22 ALBUMS 2022:

1. VOIVOD - Synchro Anarchy
   
   
   
   No, it's no suprise that this is my album of the year. But while I suspected "Synchro Anarchy" to wind up here as soon as its first songs had been released almost a year ago, that has never been a pure matter of course. With so much great music coming out all the time I found myself more than once wondering whether Voivod really should take this spot. But than I listened to this masterpiece again and all doubts went to bed, because damn, this is so fucking good! After over fourty years the French Canadian sci-fi ProgPunkThrashers are still on top of their game, pushing the envelope with complex and catchy material that not only lives up to their own legacy, but actually couldn't be more relevant today. Yet another incredible show of force of the seemingly unstoppable SnakeChewyRockyAway lineup.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT - Spirit Of Ecstasy



The future of Extreme Metal and the apocalpyse of Jazz inseparably intertwined and mangled through the Manhattanite maelstrom of glorious dissonance. With guest musicians from Alex Skolnick to Kenny G, from Andromeda Anarachia to Voivod's Snake! It's one thing to sport a mind-blowing musical vision, yet a totally different thing to exceed oneself in it like the New York Avantgarde Black Metal trio did on "Spirit of Ecstasy". The ferocious mega city moloch rampages purposeful but more disturbingly chaotic than ever and it's indeed... ecstatic.









3. WIEGEDOOD - There's Always Blood At The End Of The Road
   
   
   
   Psychotic. Relentless. Devastating. Destructive. Misanthropic. Those were probably the keywords of my review for this monstrous Black Metal assault. If I had to pick out just one thing which makes this unique panic attack of an album special I would just say: those killer riffs! (And those hypnotic licks of course... and the tireless brutal highspeed drumming... and the abrasive vocals... and the occasional throat singing...) Fuck it, this just slaps!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. FORLESEN - Black Terrain
   
   
   
   What an epochal journey of Doom Metal is this? Consisting of past and present members of Botanist, Kayo Dot and Lotus Thief the band with the name that sounds completely different to German ears than its actual Middle English meaning "to lose completely" takes us through manifold musical worlds on this vast atmospheric future classic.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. ARCHIVE - Call To Arms & Angels / Super8
   
   
   
   Is this Archive's magnum opus? I'd rather not claim something like that, but the double album "Call To Arms & Angels" for sure is a huge earnest masterpiece in an undefinable place between soulful ballads, dark experimental electronics and epic Post Trip Hop Progressive Art Rock. With multiple singers and guest musicians the collective created a seventeen tracks strong soundtrack to the quarantine and isolation of the pandemic years. And if that wouldn't already be enough to take in, some versions of the album come with the equally great bonus of the whole score to the making of documentary "Super8".
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. MARC URSELLI'S STEPPENDOOM - SteppenDoom
   
   
   
   John Zorn producer Marc Urselli bringing together an international all-star ensemble of Doom, Stoner and Post Metal instrumentalists and indigenous  (Tuvanese, Mongolian and Inuit) overtone singers for a primal and  powerful fusion of styles that through its diversity also works as an almost anthropological overview of the art of throat singing. Ten years in the making this ambitious project transcends the promise of its premise and dooms and drones in an ancient place far beyond the origins of Doom itself.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. GGGOLDDD - This Shame Should Not Be Mine
   
   
   
   Outside flowers claim it's spring - and inside Milena Eva works through her trauma in clear and stark words to come out of it with her head held high. Adding many new electronic elements while maintaining their roots in Post everything from Punk to Rock to Black Metal, the band formerly known just as Gold provides a perfect backdrop for one of the most important stories told this year. Profoundly touching.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. KEIJI HAINO + SUMAC - Into This Juvenile Apocalypse Our Golden Blood To Pour Let Us Never
   
   
   
   

   Is this rollercoaster a free jazz version of noise rock or the essence of metal dragged through the unfiltered existential chaos of the human condition?
   I've asked exactly this question before, but since I still haven't come close to a satisfying answer, it seemed appropriate just to repeat it. On their third album encounter Japanese experimentalist Haino and the North American Sludge trio Sumac unleash brutal improvised magic which defies explanation or classification - and ultimately this brilliant noisiest of all releases on this list doesn't need to answer any of my small mortal questions at all.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. AFTAB DARVISHI - A Thousand Butterflies
   
   
   
   Performed by various chamber orchestra constellations including a cello solo piece, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet or the duet of piano and clarinet in the title track, the music of Iranian composer Aftab Darvishi melts Contemporary Classical arrangements with traditional influences from her home country and experimental Ambient ideas.  "A Thousand Butterflies" rewards the attentive listener with an immersive emotional experience. A precious musical gift that keeps giving. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. JOHN ZORN - Perchance To Dream
    
    
    
    No Bandcamp, no YouTube, no Soundcloud. On this one I'm afraid you just have to completely trust me, because you'll only get these wonderful compositions of John Zorn, performed by a quartet including John Medeski and Bill Frisell on this CD. Cymbals, chimes, organ, piano, Fender Rhodes... Soothing vibrations and light guitar breezes are the primary language of a dreamily Smooth Jazz experience. designed for nocturnal hours of either contemplation or just letting your mind drift to other places. On par with Aftab Darvishi this is one of the purest and most sincerely beautiful albums of 2022.
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. LAIBACH - Wir Sind Das Volk - Ein Musical Aus Deutschland
    
    
    
    In Laibach's half-theatrical work, which sees them collaborating with several stage actors and drum duo The Stroj,   Slovenian Retrogarde meets the texts of German playwright Heiner Müller and forms a kaleidoscopic stream of consciousness of German identity during and after the Second World War. Closer to the accustomed band sound and a little less deeply overwhelming than the live performance it is based on, "Wir Sind Das Volk" still is a very strong and serious experience burning with recent relevance.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. KIKAGAKU MOYO - Kumoyo Island
    
    
    
    The farewell year of the Japanese street musician collective turned world-acclaimed Krautrock phenomenon Kikagaku Moyo has been a joyful victory parade with celebrated live shows everywhere (including Berlin) and a final studio release which sparkles with variety, dynamic and visceral musical storytelling. Not only a wonderful album, but one which is always even a little better than I remembered from its last spin. And that lead guitar in "Yayoi, Iyayoi" lives rent-free in my head anyway.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
13. WORMROT - Hiss
    
    
    
    If you understand Grindcore more as a mindset than as one rather narrow specific style you can take it to the most unexpected places. Napalm Death have proven that many times, and so do the Singaporeans Wormrot. Being fluent masters in the language of Grind they allow themselves to take the twenty-one tracks on "Hiss" to the worlds of Punk, Post Rock, Thrash and Death Metal, Voivod worship, tribalistic and even symphonic parts without ever risking to lose their ferocious grindibility, summed up in the song title "When Talking Fails, It's Time For Violence". This is undoubtly among the very best Grindcore that has ever smashed my mug!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
14. GOAT - Oh Death
    
    
    
    Dang! Both visually and sonically these Swedish masters of Psych ceremonies don't waste any time funking right into your face.
    Vivid and groovy, at the same time jazzy, tribalistic. folkloristic, krautrocky and post-punkish the jams on "Oh Death" fly by faster than you could ever die of a sudden bliss overload.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
15. SPINIFEX - Spinifex Sings
    
    
    
    "Spinifex Beats the Plague" had been among my favorite Jazz releases of 2021 and the Fusion sextet doesn't even for the blink of an eye think of cooling things down on its successor. Strengthened with the two amazing singers Priya Purushothaman and Björk Níelsdóttir interpreting Indian and Icelandic poetry, Spinifex are spinning a carousel of adventurous Free and Vocal Jazz, Jazzcore and what our forefathers called World Music, on which Mats Gustafsson's The End and Christian Vander's Magma are chasing each other's wiggling tails. Absolutely bonkers and brilliant experimental fun!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. THE LOVECRAFT SEXTET - Miserere
    
    
    
    Jason Köhnen had a productive year releasing several albums with various projects, two alone with The Lovecraft Sextet. Other than den 80's synth of "Nights Of Lust" this one however can be described as a direct crossbreed of Bohren & der Club of Gore and Black Metal, just like White Ward's "False Light" - but it sounds completely different in every way! A sinister, often depressing, sometimes eery elegant mass of the most evil Darkjazz ever, drenched in cavernous screeches, organ, cello, Colin Webster's longing saxophone and crowned with opera singer Lilian Tong's soprano voice "Miserere" is a timeless horror score one of the most daring and possibly the most haunting entry in Köhnen's discography.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
17. ASSUMPTION - Hadean Tides
    
    
    
    Inspired by Death and Doom Metal greats like My Dying Bride, Sorrow, Paradise Lost, Mournful Congregation, but also classic Celtic Frost and Morbid Angel, this bleak new album from Assumption screams oldschool without ever sounding antiquated. Consequently the Italians don't let traditionalism hinder them from also incorporating Ambient and Neubauten influences  into their hugest and most exciting work so far.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
18. MOTORPSYCHO - Ancient Astronauts
    
    
    
    Side A: A powerfully rolling FuzzProg'n'Roll opener as we know and love it from the Norwegians. A short Yodok III style interlude. A half ballad / half freakout Mellotron epic. Side B: Just one cinematic 20+ minutes (almost) instrumental Krautrock score for an imaginary movie. Nothing more, nothing less. And done by Motorpsycho this is of course jawdropping stuff.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
19. LILI REFRAIN - Mana
    
    
    
    A mystic shaman and guardian to invisible realms beyond our perception? Or just a vessel of the unfiltered pure joy of music? No matter as which you understand Lili Refrain, there's no doubt that the Italian singer and multi-instrumentalist ultimately wields life-affirming magic on "Mana". On a loop-based backdrop of synths, drums and guitars her voice mesmerizes between incantatory whispers, Eastern European and Scandinavian Folk spheres and other-worldly Opera. Wondrous and spellbinding.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
20. LONDON ODENSE ENSEMBLE - Jaiyede Sessions Vol.1
    
    
    
    Whenever El Paraiso Records go Jazz, it's worth noticing anyway, but an album which is the culmination of what was growing on two albums of the Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt Duo and a third extended to the Rude Skøtt Osborn Trio seems especially interesting. Bass, drums and saxophone now find themselves in the company of keyboards and guitar and together they burn a smooth firework of timeless Miles/Coltrane/Hancock worship between hippie Prog, Psych Rock and Latin Jazz Fusion with electronic sprinkles on top. Embedded in a warm dynamic production the chemistry and momentum of these sessions leave nothing to be desired. Volume 2 incoming soon...
    
    
    elparaisorecords · London Odense Ensemble: Sojourner
    
    
    
    
    
    
21. E-L-R - Vexier
    
    
    
    On their second full-length album the Swiss trio transforms mountains into riffs and lends the landscapes and ancient myths of the Alps an ethereal voice, incarnated through the levitating harmonies of their two female singers. "Vexier" is an escapist, dreamily headbanging monolith, which unifies Shoegaze, Doom, Post Rock, sludgy Post Metal and a pinch of Black Metal in elemental majesty.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
22. EMMA RUTH RUNDLE - EG2: Dowsing Voice
    
    
    
    So intimate yet so very strange. So experimental yet so pure and direct. Mostly inspired by traveling through Wales on her own for one month and recorded with minimal equipment Emma Ruth Rundle created an album she doesn't even try to sell as something equally as big and important as her regular work. But even though this wordless journey seems closer to Lingua Ignota, Jarboe or Diamanda Galas  being lost in the wilderness than to her usual sound, there is no reason to shrug this sinister subconscious twin of "Engine Of Hell" off! Dark and intriguing.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

MUSIC 2022: TOP 13 live shows

I've already chosen my TOP 7 favorite live albums of 2022, so now it's time for the even more live thing, being performances I witnessed in the flesh! And the winner is... *drumroll*... Jo Quail, who made it onto both of the following lists!

Ok seriously: Isn't it fantastic that live music is back to normal? - No, it's not, because it actually still isn't back. On the surface much has returned to how it was before 2020, I've only been to two shows, which still required special covid measures - and one of those still took the first place in the following ranking. But there are still many canceled or shortened tours, an overabundance of shows leading to smaller audiences, because you just cannot go everywhere - especially during a time of crisis and inflation. But what can I do about it? I just try to enjoy as much of it as I can, I guess. If enough of us do, live music beyond the Ticketmaster monopoly giants might survive after all.

Of course many more concerts would have deserved to be mentioned here, but I'm trying not to go too far overboard with these things this year, which is quite a hard exercise. I think a top 7 for club and solo shows and a top 6 for festival appearances seem like a reasonable ratio to the total of live music I've been enjoying in 2022. 

TOP 7 CLUB/SOLO SHOWS 2022:

1. LAIBACH "Wir sind das Volk" - Kampnagel, Hamburg
   
   
   
   Halfway between a regular Laibach show (whatever that means by now) and a theater play "We Are The People" was a dark kaleidoscopic revue of memory fragments circling around German identity in the wake of Third Reich and WWII, featuring songs and text passages interpreted in stellar performances by professional actors and backed up by an especially sinister version of the band, including iconic frontman and "Angel of Desperation" Milan Fras and extended with the drummer boy duo The Stroj. It's a shame that I only took pictures of Peter Mlakar's following speech about love on this special night to remember, yet in my head this deeply thought-provoking is still present in vivid imagery.
   
   
2. BJÖRK + RUNDFUNK-SINFONIEORCHESTER BERLIN - Waldbühne Berlin
   
   
   
   Admittedly I prefer my events to take place in tinier locations where you can for example actually see what kind of extravagant dress the singer is wearing. But of course I've just waited a couple of decades too long for my first live encounter with Björk, so a first row club show was unlikely and this distanced experience among many thousand other seated fans had to suffice. And "suffice" still translates to the memory of an absolutely magical night. What Björk's ageless voice and the strings-only orchestra conjured under the perfect Berlin summer sky cannot be put into adequate words. 
   
   
3. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT - Hafenklang, Hamburg
   
   
   
   It remains unfathomable how a black metal band can not only unleash such a tornado of cataclysmic destruction, but also be so deeply rooted and knowledgable in everything jazz while doing it. With its unique avantgarde extremism sound, the stoic masks putting a face to the Metropolitan moloch from which they draw their inspiration, and of course insane, jaw-dropping performances the New York trio left no doubt that they are rampaging on the forefront of defining the future of metal. Or at least of the corner of metal which is relevant.
    
4. ORANSSI PAZUZU - headCRASH, Hamburg
   
   
   
   There is a reason why one of my favorite fashion combinations of this year is to wear my Imperial Triumphant hoodie together with the Oranssi Pazuzu longsleeve. Labyrinthian, clearly geometric yet hardly decipherable, structures within structures over a lovecraftiapocalyptic backdrop - there has seldom been a piece of merch depicting the actual music so accurately.  Oranssi's blackened psychedelic polyrhythm prog trip is one of the most singular and hypnotic experiences metal has to offer right now. And the insane package with Deafkids and Sturle Dagsland made this night even more memorable.
   
   
5. VOIVOD - Indra Musikclub, Hamburg
   
   
   
   It shouldn't surprise anyone that every Voivod show I attend will always reappear in these end of the year rankings. Nothing against Opeth, but Hamburg got really lucky that they took a day off, which their support band used for this steamy, sweaty, smelly demolition of a headlining show. As always the new material didn't have to hide from the classics one bit and the energy level didn't betray that they (well, at least half of them) are doing this since the early 1980's. SciFiProgThrashParty excellence!
   
   
6. EMMA RUTH RUNDLE "Engine of Hell" + JO QUAIL - Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg
   
   
   
   I'm not crying, you're crying! No, seriously, I wasn't crying. But like the rest of the audience I was silently spellbound by the exhaustless emotional power Emma Ruth Rundle set free just with her voice and piano or acoustic guitar. Having missed the live premiere of "Engine of Hell" at Roadburn it was a blessing to experience this performance in a more intimate setting now. Touring together with Jo Quail, who played a mostly rather delicate set this night and also kept Emma company for one song, was a congenial choice.
   
   
7. KIKAGAKU MOYO - Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin
   
   
   
   What a happy sad farewell! Japanese kraut magicians Kikagaku Moyo have achieved far more than they would have ever dreamed of with their band that they once started as a jam collective on the streets of Tokyo, and they decided to go at the pinnacle of their popularity. As bummed out as I was not to have a final chance to see them in Northern Germany, as excited I got when I discovered that their Berlin show was just one night before I was in town to see Björk anyway. In front of a packed house and supported by Mong Tong this show was an ecstatic psych rock superlative if I ever saw one. Dōmo arigatō! It might take a long while until we'll see a band like this again.
   

TOP 6 FESTIVAL SHOWS 2022:

1. GGGOLDDD "This Shame Should Not be Mine" - Roadburn Festival
   
   
   
   Profoundly emotional, meaningful and real. Milena Eva working through her much too common personal trauma on the big 013 stage was as brave as it was a beautiful and connecting experience.
   Seldom have I seen an artist being welcomed by such an air of respect. Surrounded by a band plus string ensemble who more than lived up to the gravity of the moment, she thanked the audience with an unforgetable performance, which came very close to moving me to tears.
   
   
   
   
2. SENYAWA - Roadburn Festival
   
   
   
   There is no other band which sounds even close to the unexpectedly heavy experimental mix of tribalistic traditions, drone, noise and industrial of the Javanese duo Senyawa. While Wukir Suryadi's performance on his self-made instruments was already worth its own show, it were the completely out of this world wailing, shouting, snarling, screeching, grunting, throat-singing, whistling and animal-noising vocals of Rully Shabara which made the crowd speechless in enthusiastic disbelief.   
   
   
   
3. LILI REFRAIN - Roadburn Festival
   
   
   
   How can one single person on a stage evoke so much mystical energy? Lili Refrain seemingly stepped outside another dimension which is made purely of the magic and communion of music and put the whole Hall of Fame under her spell. Over gigantic looped walls of percussion, electronics and guitar her voice ascended to transcendent heights which easily rival the planes Anna von Hauswolff, Heilung's Maria Franz or Amalie Bruun aka Myrkur call their heavenly home.
   
   
   
4. JO QUAIL "The Cartographer" - Roadburn Festival
   
   
   
   On a festival edition stacked with commissioned projects "The Cartographer" certainly was the most ambitious and musically atypical one. With the blessing of absolute artistic autonomy Jo Quail composed a captivating classical suite with metal influences for her electric cello plus electric violin, piano, two orchestral percussionists, eight trombones and two vocalists. The perfectly nailed performance of this outstanding piece, which any fan of Bear McCreary's soundtrack work should embrace and which has also been released as a studio recording, was an overwhelming triumph. 
   
   
   
5. MARTINA VERHOEVEN QUINTET - Roadburn Festival
   
   
   
   A state of almost hallucinatory exhaustion, which elevated the intensity of this free jazz tohubohu to an experience beyond regular perception might have helped to bump this show up a couple of ranks on this list. Yet as proven on the already released live album this fifty minute eruption of improvisation by pianist Martina Verhoeven and her brilliantly cast ensemble of guitar, saxophone, upright bass and drums really was a world-class gathering of incredible musical momentum.
   
   
   
6. SOLAR TEMPLE x DEAD NEANDERTHALS "Embers Beget The Divine" - Right On Mountain Festival
   
   
   
   Wow, finally an entry on this list not from Roadburn! Sorry, I've only been to three festivals this year and two of those were just one-nighters... And this joint performance too was actually premiered at Roadburn, but clashes forced me to omit most of the show. Luckily its repeat in Nijmegen gave me a second chance to fully indulge in its cathartic blast of unstoppable brutal majesty.
   After almost equally fantastic performances of both Neptunian Maximalism and Temple Fang I was actually surprised that this one still ended up flooring me the most at the Right On Mountain Festival.