MONO - Oath

Mono have released a new album and yes, it's a Mono album. So if you already know what that means, you also know what to do, I guess.

MONO -Oath (Moonlight Drawings vinyl 2LP) (2024)

Mono have so much become not only masters of their genre, but actually a definition of their brand of epic instrumental Post Rock, that it's pretty much unthinkable that after decades they would suddenly turn towards something completely different. And especially given how much space for variation their established framework already allows them, why would they even want to do that?

So yes, of course all the dynamics, the long build-ups, the longing and heartache, the hope and heaviness, the overwhelming wall of harmony... it's all there on this new double album once again.
Production-wise Mono is also strong as ever. Laid down in February 2023 "Oath" is among the last recording and mixing jobs of their long time friend Steve Albini, who sadly passed away last month.

The only question is which flavour they have chosen this time. After a couple of rawer and darker albums and a bit of new orientation with the inclusion of fresh elements into their sound on "Pilgrimage Of The Soul" the heavenly cover artwork of "Oath" looks like a continuation of a story which began on said previous album.

And indeed it picks up on some of its stylistic choices, especially with drummer Dahm exploring some more angular rhythmic ideas, which could have been influenced by the work with his duo JeGong and also him drumming live for Årabrot now. (Emphasis on could, because chronologically this doesn't wholly work out.)

Mono live 2022

Even more so however this album breathes a spirit that connects back to works like "The Last Dawn" or "Hymn To The Immortal Wind": It features a string octet and brass quartet and they are both featured a lot throughout the whole double album.

All eleven tracks of "Oath" are just enormously lush and gorgeous, awash with esperance, light and cosmic love. Mono are their most cinematic and solacing self here without repeating their greatest hits.

So far this album grows and grows on me and I want to open my arms in cringy Creed  style wider and wider each time I board this flight. This is music to let your heart float through the sky, unboundedly beautiful and powerful. "Time Goes By" says the carthatically crescending eleventh (and final) track. The feeling of melancholic happiness however lingers long after the seventy minutes of this album have passed.

As usual Pelagic Records offers "Oath" in various - mostly of course now sold out - coloured vinyl variants. I found my favorite outside of the label shop in a retailer version in white, gold and transparent blue this time. Looks and sounds great. Another jewel from the Japanese masters!

MONO und A.A.Williams live im Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg (24. August 2022)

Der Trend geht ja zum Zweitgeburtstag. Zumindest habe ich ihn dieses Jahr begangen.

Das ursprünglich für 2021 angedachte Konzert von Mono und A.A. Williams war ja zunächst genau auf meinen Geburtstag im Februar verschoben worden. Und so stand es natürlich auch noch auf meinem Ticket für das Uebel & Gefährlich im Hochbunker am Heiligengeistfeld, als der dritte Anlauf die Tour nun endlich nach Hamburg führte.

Genau wie letzten Monat bei Emma Ruth Rundle und Jo Quail war ich angesichts der Außentemperatur dankbar für die vernünftige Klimatisierung in der Location. Und wo der Hamburger Dom damals gerade aufgebaut worden war, befand sich der Riesenjahrmarkt nun schon wieder im Abbau, beides ideal für den autofahrenden Besucher, der einen freien, nicht kostenpflichtigen Parkplatz sucht. Habe ich etwa gerade einen Lauf?

A.A. Williams

Mit dreiköpfiger Band im strikten edelschwarzen Dresscode standen die Zeichen bei der britischen Multiinstrumentalistin A.A. Williams ganz klar auf zeitgenössischem Gothic im Stile hartgitarrenlastiger Chelsea Wolfe. Packende lautleise Gefühlsumspülung also, schon durch das Songwriting auf der sicheren Seite, doch natürlich gekrönt durch die samtig warme Stimme der Sängerin. Toll, u.a. Highlights aus dem Debütalbum "Forever Blue" endlich live erleben zu können. Und nebenbei habe ich auch schon seit Ewigkeiten nicht mehr so viele Einstellungsmerkzettelklebestreifen auf Gitarren- und Bass-Effektpedalboarden gesehen.

Für sich schon eine starke Performance war diese Show auch eine sehr passende Einstimmung auf die natürlich in allem noch einmal größeren und dynamischeren Postrockgroßmeister aus Japan...  

Mono

Dies war nicht mein erstes Mono-Rodeo, sondern immerhin schon das fünfte Mal, dass ich das Instrumentalquartett erleben  durfte - und das zweite Mal in diesem Laden. Ich habe also generell wohl schon so ziemlich alles zur Großartigkeit dieser Monumentalpostrockband geschrieben, was meine Finger und mein Bregen irgendwie hergeben. Deswegen versuche ich mich hier einfach mal kurz zu halten.

Es gab neue Stücke von "Pilgrimage Of The Soul", namentlich das Eröffnungsdoppel aus den Albumopenern "Riptide" und "ImperfecteThings", dessen neue Grooves im musikalischen Wortschatz der Gruppe auch jenseits des Studios großartig funktionierten, sowie das hier für mich noch interessantere "Innocence".

Die meisten ganz großen Momente blieben aber natürlich den mächtigen Klassikern vorbehalten. Gehört "Nowhere, Now Here" schon dazu? Auf jeden Fall ist das schmerzhaft schöne "Ashes In The Snow" natürlich der legendäre Track der Band schlechthin. Düstermelancholischer wurde es in "Halcyon", absolut lärmend, chaotisch, noisig im finalen gigantischen "Com(?)".

Der natürlich naheliegende, besondere Touch dieser Tour kam vorher - wie auch schon auf dem letzten Livealbum mit Orchester -  in Form der ersten Zugabe "Exit In Darkness" von der gleichnamigen gemeinsamen EP mit A.A. Williams - mit eben dieser an Mikro und Klavier. Was für eine traumhafte Kooperation!

Alles in allem also keine Überraschung in dem Sinne, dass dieser Abend natürlich gewohnt überwältigend war. Wir sprechen hier schließlich von einer der für mich wichtigsten Livegruppen der Gegenwart.

Wertung: hach!

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live albums

I think this second part of my view back on 2021 really needs no clarification, except that especially in these times I don't necessarily expect every live album to feature an actual audience, as long as the performance is true.
And yes, I'm publishing this purposefully before the next triple LP of that Can series drops. 😉

So without further ado, here are my personal...

 

TOP 7 LIVE ALBUMS 2021:

1. CAN - Live In Stuttgart 1975
   
   
   
   A guy with suspiciously long and warm clothing, who popped up at many Can shows and stood still at one place near the mixing desk for the whole duration of the performance. For the genre-bending krautrock band it must have been as obvious that he was hiding a recording device and microphones in his sleeves as it was to Bojack Horseman that Princess Carolyn's love interest Vincent Adultman was in fact three kids in a trenchcoat. But luckily Michael Karoli, Holger Kzukay, Jaki Liebezeit and Irmin Schmidt tolerated him. So now, almost half a century later Andrew Hall's bootleg tapes get treated with modern studio magic and are transformed into official live albums. The first triple-LP of this series sounds fantastic (especially for what it is) and showcases a band in complete unstoppable frenzy of creativity and stellar musicianship. Legendary!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. MONO - Beyond The Past • Live in London with the Platinum Anniversary Orchestra
   
   

   

   In December 2019 post rock monumentalists Mono celebrated their twenty-fifth birthday with a show that can only be described as an absolute culmination of their work up to that point. Supported by a ten-piece string orchestra, with a grand piano on stage and welcoming cellist extraordinaire Jo Quail and singer / pianist / also cellist A.A. Williams as guests towards the end of the set and during the encore, the Japanese quartet keeps you in a state of permanent overwhelmed bliss. It may be a cliché: Post rock as a pure more is more of layered yearning melodies and dynamic crescendos, which rise to enormous volumes... But who cares? Mono are just so phenomenal at it!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISIM - Solar Drone Ceremony
   
   

   

   Nine members, including two drummers, synths, "digital soundscape", saxophone and lots of guitar, performing one single fifty minute piece. Recorded at a show before the sessions for last year's giantic debut "Éons" this live record of Neptunian Maximalism isn't dipping its tentacles too deep in free-jazzy waters yet, but rathers focusses on the "drone" in the title, with a very long build-up, Bong doom metal middle part and psychedelic rock finale, all delivered with a grand swans-inspired heaviness and purpose. This "Solar Drone Ceremony" surely is worthy of its amazing cover artwork, which as a standalone statement should already be enough to give you a glimpse of its majestic magnitude.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. LAIBACH - We Forge The Future - Live at Reina Sofía
   
   

   

   Not an exact copy, yet rather an impressive spiritual reenactment of the similarily titled infamous 1983 performance, which led to a four year ban of the band in Yugoslavia, this special show was recorded in Spain in 2017. Stylistically closest to (but not the same  as) the 2012 "Underground" from "Laibach Revisited" "We Forge The Future" is yet another in a series of recent throwbacks to the most noisy, industrial side of Laibach. It's a dark and chaotic collage of horrors, powerfully produced, bombastic and feral. As far as I know there's no source to stream or download this album in its original quality, so if you want to get your hands on this God Records, you should better look out for CD or LP copies as long as they are still available for reasonable prices!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. OF BLOOD AND MERCURY - The Other Side Of Death - Live In Tilburg
   
   

   

   The only album in my collection so far from an actual live stream of this year's Roadburn Redux is another release which you cannot buy as a download version. Well, theoretically you could, but just look up the price... It's only available as a limited CD, but if you're too late for that you can still watch the video on YouTube, so you're not missing out completely on this performance.
   More than just a little reminiscent of modern ambient synth pop Ulver (who also released an awesome live album this year) with other-worldy angel vocals the Belgian duo Of Blood And Mercury created something beautiful and worthy of a much wider reach with this commissioned piece, made especially for this occasion of playing to a virtual room.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. 李劍鴻 LI JIANHONG - 山霧 Mountain Fog
   
   
   
   If you like it just a little more guitar-centric, then the Chinese experimental musician Li Jianhong has you covered with these two longtracks of evocative drone and noise purity, recorded on different stops of his European tour 2018. It's already impressive how vast and fanciful he fills the seventeen minutes of "Did you see the fireball? It just lept beyond the Wanghai", yet even more amazing, to how many places of visceral storytelling his improvised duet with saxophonist Wang Ziheng climbs during the more than a half hour long duration of the title track. Maximalist minimalism!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT - An Evening with Imperial Triumphant
   
   
   

   Recorded on the stage of the empty Slipper Room in their home city New York, "An Evening with Imperial Triumphant" is the second album emerging from a streaming event in this list. Its "Money Jungle" style cover and the whole sleeve design including liner notes and all is an homage to legendary jazz classics. And who if not this dissonant black metal trio (plus guest trumpeter) is allowed to do that in the world of extreme metal? Destructive dystopian chaos and spiritual jazz both dialed up to eleven in a stunning display of unfathomable brutal precision. A session of the masters.
   
   

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live shows

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 live albums

MUSIC 2021: TOP 7 non-album releases

MUSIC 2021: TOP 21 albums

MONO - Pilgrimage Of The Soul / WANG WEN 惘闻 - 100,000 Whys

My favorite post rock band is dropping a new album in September!

Since I cannot for the life of me decide which group I am actually referring to with that statement, I am glad that Pelagic Records made it true for both bands at choice:

On September 17th Mono, one of the most epic and important live bands of the present - as recently proven on "Beyond The Past" - will be releasing a new double record.

On September 24th finally follows the physical release of  Wang Wen's "100,000 Whys".
The follow-up of the sensational "Invisible City" has already been around on Bandcamp since October 2020, yet I bravely withstood the temptation to immerse myself in it until a vinyl version was on the horizon.

With both groups (and this label) it's almost a no-brainer that you got to have it as a 12", since you can always expect an exceptionally beautiful packaging, which perfectly compliments the music.
So you can for sure expect me to show off my copies of both albums in a future post.

Now however let's turn one ear to Japan and the other to China and focus on what we can hear!

MONO - Pilgrimage Of The Soul (2021)

First of all a bit of advice I wish I could take to heart more consequently myself for anyone reviewing music: Just don't fucking read the promotional texts! In case of this album it could make you search for influences which - if they are even there at all - are present to a much smaller degree than suggested.
It is true that Mono are incorporating more electronic elements, but to talk of "faster tempos that are clearly influenced by disco and techno" seems like a sensationalistic exaggeration to me.

I'm not saying you shouldn't dance to the beat of "Imperfect Things", but at its core this is all still very much at home in post rock. So instead of Zement abducting you into the 90's Berlin club scene it's actually rather a closer approximation to Wang Wen's style of recent years which you can witness on "Pilgrimage Of The Soul".

Where I will definitely agree with the promo is that this album may indeed be the most dynamic and diverse the Japanese intrumentalists have ever done. Which in itself already is quite an accomplishment, when you already have over twenty years and ten albums worth of some of the most monumental escapism soundtracks under your belly.

The amazing changes between breathingly light and devastatingly heavy are all still there, just as the larger than life guitar layers and occasional glockenspiel, strings and grand pianos. The new grooves and synthetic textures which are around for maybe a quarter of the total playing time, only add to the scope and colour palette of the album's grandiosity in a fresh way.

With Mono's previous studio album "Nowhere Now Here" as well as their last two EPs having reached a level of production quality, which seems impossible to improve, just as there is no further cumulation of pure classical orchestral elements in the cards than on the latest live album, this broadening of the palette undoubtly is a logical creative decision.

And boy how it pays off! Because as much as it doesn't even seem believable at this point, the quartet may very well have outdone themselves yet again. The enormous climax and epilogue of "Innocence" or the incredibly deep, moving, hopeful and melancholic double finale of the all-trademarks-on-board epic "Hold Infinity In The Palm Of Your Hand" and the piano and strings ballad "And Eternity In An Hour" alone catapults "Pilgrimage Of The Soul" into spheres most artist will never even come close to.

Of course this won't become everyone's favorite Mono work - and it's too early for me to put it into perspective with everything else I know from them either -, but it will surely and rightfully win them new fans and cement the observation that you should always expect the pinnacle of outstanding post rock mastery from this band.

Ultimately there's not much more to say, but all the more to just feel, while Mono lead you through a larger world inside of yourself. And if you think you've already grown accustomed to their special powerful grip of your primal emotions, "Pilgrimage Of The Sould" might still - even without actual oomphoomphoomph techno - very much surprise you!

Maybe you've caught it somewhere between the lines:

If you seriously want to make my jaw drop to the floor and then nail it there for good, just record an album, which not only keeps up with Mono's "Pilgrimage Of The Soul", but which also immediately captures all my senses in an even more profound way. Enter Wang Wen!  

WANG WEN 惘闻 - 100,000 Whys (2020/2021)

Of course it isn't and shouldn't be a competition, yet while their live performances don't reach that same level of swansy, sheer sonic intensity their labelmates from Japan are often pushing into, the sound spectrum and compositonal variety of Wang Wen's music has often been a couple of steps ahead the successful Mono formula.

While the base of their sound could easily be described as post rock closely related to Mono, but with not only Chinese instead of Japanese, yet also much more prominent traditional influences in it, there is still more to them. And as tempting as it still is for me to compare the two bands, it has probably never been as appearant as on "100,000 Whys" that Wang Wen have developed a completely independent identy.

Not only is the interplay of often morriconesque guitars and keyboards, with carefully dosed, albeit still irrestistibly addictive horn, trumpet or flute melodies elevating the traditional post rock game to a league of its own, but it's also part of a larger toolset, with which Wang Wen can surprise you with exotic sounds and effects or entirely stir away into any musical direction of their choosing whenever they want.
Subtle mood changes through alterations from acoustic to artificial percussions or a much more sudden full-on electronic extravaganza? A jazzy bassline here, a venture into prog rock there? Latin sketches or ominous vocal incantations?
It's all game, yet it's never too much or distracting from the very coherent, eminently hopeful and uplifting spirit of this album.

"100,000 Whys" is definitely easier accessible than "Eight Horses" and probably also than "Sweet Home, Go!" or "Invisible City", but that doesn't mean it's any less sophisticated.
Even though the music sometimes disguises itself as pure entertainment without a double bottom of deeper aspiration, going so far as calling one track just "Shut Up And Play", it's of course always a display of fantastic compositional thought and craftsmanship, realized with everyone playing the exact right thing at the right time to make it work.

It's an album that allows you to just lean back and let yourself be flooded by its magic, but also caters to you when you're in a more proactive listening mode, ready to detect all kinds of impressive, but never show-offy (in terms of technical wankery) way.

Everything about this is just so delicately balanced. The production is once again powerful, super clean and perfectionist, but never sterile. It just all works together so incredibly well.
How good is this going to become once I hold the actual vinyl artwork in my hands?

I don't even need to love this more than I already do.

Right now for me the only imaginable possibility of Wang Wen not having delivered the post rock masterpiece of the year would be if you counted "100,000 Whys" by its digital premiere as a 2020 release. But yeah... no... I love this band way too much to do so.

MONO - Beyond The Past • Live in London with the Platinum Anniversary Orchestra

Livealben haben dieser Tage ja eh schon einen bittersüßen Beigeschmack.

Und wenn sie dann auch noch von einer der mächtigsten Livebands der Gegenwart auf der Spitze ihres Schaffens kommen... puh. Schweig, meine Seele, und lass dich treiben!

MONO - Beyond The Past • Live in London with the Platinum Anniversary Orchestra (2CD) (2021)

Die (99%ig) instrumentalen Postrock-Giganten Mono sind auf der Bühne grundsätzlich eine Bank, wie ich selbst bisher viermal erleben durfte, zuletzt als eines meiner letzten Prä-Corona-Konzerte im Dezember 2019 (knapp eine Woche vor dem hier aufgenommenen Konzert) und am epischsten ein halbes Jahr vorher, als sie in Tilburg das komplette Album "Hymn To The Immortal Wind" mit dem Jo Quail-Streicherquartett und Flügel darboten.

Die Idee, mit Orchester aufzutreten, ist für die Gruppe also nicht neu und wurde in der zwanzigjährigen Bandgeschichte auch schon ein paar mal in unterschiedlichen Größenordnungen  realisiert. Vor allem ist sie natürlich auch extrem naheliegend, da Mono auf ihren Studioalben schon seit jeher mit orchestralen Arrangements arbeiten.

Diesen live einzubeziehen ist also "nur" eine weitere Schicht Volumen, Bombast, Gefühl auf den ohnehin schon unglaublich lauten, überwältigenden Grundsound der vierköpfigen Band an sich. Wobei "nur" selbstverständlich das letzte Wort ist, welches man im Zusammenhang mit diesem hier perfekt für die Ewigkeit konservierten Konzert benutzen darf. Die Wand an Klang und Emotionen, welche Mono und die zahlreichen Mitstreiter hier entfesseln, erreicht eine naturgewaltige Größe, die selbst in der Diskographie der Japaner herausragt.

Natürlich gab es vor kurzem erst die noiserockmusikalisch rauhere Steve-Albini-Studiosession auf "Before The Past • Live From Electrical Audio", doch selbst diese kann sich "Beyond The Past" gegen Ende seiner zweistündigen Spielzeit noch einverleiben, als einem auch hier der über viertelstündige Brocken "Com(?)" mit vollem Besteck durch den Körper gejagt wird.

Und an diesem Punkt ist schon so wahnsinnig viel geschehen. Das Konzert folgt zunächst zwanzig Minuten lang dem letzten Albums "Nowhere Now Here", welches insgesamt die Hälfte der Tracklist ausmacht und einige der zahlreichen Highlights markiert. So hatte mich eruptive Auftakt mit "After You Comes The Flood" blitzschnell in der Tasche und "Breathe", der erste Song der Bandgeschichte mit hauseigenem Gesang durch Basserin Tamaki, unentrinnbar verzaubert. Und was soll man erst zum Titelsong oder dem später im Set auftauchenden Spannungsbogen von "Meet Us Where The Night Ends" sagen?

Das reguläre Programm endet mit einer enorm dynamischen Version von "Halycon" und dem beinahe unverzichtbaren Überflieger "Ashes In The Snow", ehe es in der Zugabe vor dem bereits erwähnten Finale noch eine besondere Überraschung gibt, nämlich die Livepremiere des Stücks "Exit In Darkness" mit Sängerin A.A.Williams von der gleichnamigen EP. So eigenwillig sanft, warm und charismatisch... Gänsehaut!

Das Orchester, die auch hier wieder präsente Freundin der Band, Cellistin Jo Quail, alles ist hier ideal eingebettet. Die Dramaturgie der insgesamt zwölf Stücke lässt die zwei Stunden wie im Fluge vergehen. Dieses Livealbum kann alles. Vermutlich sogar die Kinder ins Bett bringen und zum Frühstück Eier kochen. Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, wie man das Gefühl, diese Genregroßmeister persönlich zu erleben, besser einfangen (und für alle, die nicht speziell bei diesem überlebensgroßen Event dabei gewesen sind, noch ein extra Kirsche obendrauf servieren) kann.

Ich würde "Live in London with the Platinum Anniversary Orchestra" auch ganz klar Mono-Neulingen als Einstieg empfehlen.

Ich selbst habe mir jedenfalls das Doppel-CD-Digipack bestellt. Natürlich gibt es von Pelagic Records auch wie immer schöne limitierte Vinylausgaben, die ich mir diesmal verkniffen habe, da ich mir schon von einer anderen Labelveröffentlichung, die ich hier demnächst bespreche, das (nicht ganz) schwarze Gold gönnen musste. "Musste". Ihr wisst schon...

Das Livealbum erscheint offiziell am Freitag, den neunzehnten März. Wie lange die physischen Tonträger tatsächlich auf sich warten lassen, weiß man speziell heutzutage ja nie wirklich, doch dass sich das Warten auf jeden Fall lohnt, kann ich hiermit hoch und heilig versprechen!

MONO - Scarlet Holliday

Short and sweet and beauteous.

MONO - Scarlet Holliday (download) (2020)

Maybe that's all that needs to be said about this appr. twelve minute / two tracks Christmas gift from the Japanese instrumental post rock institution Mono.

"Scarlet Holliday" and "First Winter" are both meant to elevate you into a state of hope and melancholic joy. They both could have turned too kitschy in lesser hands, but since Mono are masters at their craft, this just brings pure unfiltered peace and happiness.

Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita!

MUSIC 2020: my favorite live albums and EPs

Oh no, yet another end-of-the-year list category which makes me cry inside! Well, let's be grateful that at least we have the conserved memories of times when music was performed live in front of an audience, ok?

I've already covered quite a bunch of live releases in my recommended streams and favorite downloads, but now it's time to get physical with some actually touchable records.

But first let's warm up with a ranking of the best short albums / long singles (or whatever your preferred definition of an EP is) of 2020!

TOP 7 EPs:

1. VOIVOD - The End Of Dormancy
   
   
   

   With two recordings of a modified version of an already known song (studio and live) plus the live performance of a "Nothingface" classic that's been played at most shows of the last thirty years, this EP clearly doesn't win this ranking by quantity of new original material. But the vintage movie style brass treatment of "The End of Dormancy" from "The Wake", which is already one of the greatest musical journeys in Voivod's history is just just too perfectly executed. More of that jazz please!
   
   
   
2. -S- - Zabijanie Czasu I
   
   
   

   This I, Voidhanger Records release could already have been included in my favorite downloads, but since a CD version of this EP exists, I'm letting it co-lead the field here. Sporting bass, drums, vocals and clarinet this Polish group calls its style "Dark Occvult Funk", which is an astonishingly apt description of the weird mix of jazz, contemporary classic, punk, post rock and extreme metal on display on this twenty-six-minutes-track. Sick shit!
     
   
   
3. ZEAL AND ARDOR - Wake Of A Nation
   
   
   
   Powerful. That's the description you get if you want to sum up the whole message, concept and musical realization of this EP in just one word. While the songwriting and performances of Manuel Gagneux' black metal meets blues meets gospel meets electronic etc. project keeps getting more refined and mature with each release, "Wake Of A Nation" also dials up the honesty and urgency by stepping away from the alternative history of its predecessors and reacting directly to racist police violence and the direct thematization of events concerning the Black Experience like the syphilis experiments of Tuskegee.
   
   
   
4. MONO & A.A.WILLIAMS - Exit In Darkness
   
   
   

   Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
   The combination of singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist A.A. Williams and Japanese post rock monumentalists Mono proved to be a meeting of minds and souls that could hardly have resulted in something more beautiful than this 10" EP. The calm patience and deep substantial emotion of these two tracks is a peaceful dream we didn't know we would need so badly, back in January, when "Exit In Darkness" came out.
   
   
   
5. THE END - Nedresa
   
   
   

   Even being a little bit more accessible and straightforward than on their debut album, The End keep establishing themselves as an extra-weird, unique brand of avant-garde jazz/prog/noise fusion on this two-track 10" EP. While almost guaranteed by the involvement of saxophon animal Mats Gustafsson, it's mostly due to Sofia Jernberg's as eclectic as technically impressive vocal performance that the Swedish quintet's music explodes with delightful insanity.  
   
   
   
6. FRA DET ONDE - feat. the Legendary Emil Nikolaisen
   
   
   

   Is this a blizzard or a firestorm? One thing's for sure: Whatever this Norwegian electric free jazz fusion trio unleashes with drums, bass and trumpet here, is guaranteed  to kick you out of your shoes if you don't brace yourself. Yet another proof that the psych and kraut label El Paraiso Records always kills the most, when its releases are going full jazz.
   
   
   
   
7. LOUISE LEMÓN - Devil
   
   
   

   Within 2020's turmoil the gothic-ish soul of Louise Lemón somehow feels like a blissful caring hug, probably even in moments when it's not even supposed to do that. But the Swedish singer's warm voice and the seemingly simple beauty of her songs is just a too irresistable island for the heart to rest a while. Most times I listen to this I immediately repeat the whole EP at least once.
   
   
   
   
   

TOP 6 LIVE ALBUMS:

1. TRIPTYKON with the METROPOLE ORKEST - Requiem (Live At Roadburn 2019)
   
   
   
   "What Triptykon have achieved here is highly remarkable and should be the universally accepted benchmark for artistic integrity and adventurous courage in any future metal / orchestra production from whoever, regardless of budget or subgenre." 
   This conclusion of my review still stands. It was a long journey from Celtic Frost's "Into The Pandemonium" to the completion of this piece for Roadburn Festival 2019, but there's no doubt that it was entirely worth the wait. In my book this is one of the most essential live recordings ever made from any metal band. Definitely worth the deluxe artbook version with vinyl, CD, DVD, bonus 7" and more extras. 
   
   
   
2. LAIBACH - Bremenmarsch: Live at Schlachthof 12.10.1987
   
   
   
   There are already plenty of Laibach live bootlegs and a couple of official releases from the 1980s around, so one could have assumed that the market for that is pretty much saturated. But who would have thought that a performance from the golden "Opus Dei" / "Macbeth" times of this phenomenal sound quality could be unearthed from the Radio Bremen archives?
   But not only the production is great here. The  show itself - with extra musicians from a theater performance the day before - is punishingly ferocious and at the same time creative and playful as fuck. Essential!
   
   

   

   Also very much worth to be honorably mentioned here is another Laibach live album, which digs even deeper into the Slovenians' past. As far as I know "Underground", a special Vier Personen performance of early years classics like "Boji", Siemens" or "Smrt Za Smrt" inside a mining tunnel in 2012, isn't available on its own though, but remains one of several good reasons to purchase the gargantuan "Laibach Revisited" box. 
   
   
   
3. ZOLA JESUS - Live At Roadburn 2018
   
   
   
   Capturing one of the most significant shows of the in my book probably strongest Roadburn edition so far and pressed on some of the most beautiful vinyl editions of 2020, this double album is a treasure inside and outside.
   Even if me experiencing it in the flesh from the center of the first row might make me a bit biased, I dare to say that the special energy of this performance for both audience and Zola Jesus herself can be felt in every moment of "Live At Roadburn 2018".
   
   
   
   
4. SENYAWA & STEPHEN O'MALLEY - Bima Makti
   
   
   
   Does this fully count as a live album? Because I suppose it's based on a live show and improved with overdubs afterwards? But who truly cares about these technicalities, when there is such a stunning gathering of ethnic and metallic drone mastership? With flutes, elements of Gamelan music and the weird vocal wanderings of Rully Shabara the Indonesian duo and the Sunn O))) guitarist  find a unique, rich, storytelling and spiritually deep tone that makes "Bima Sakti" a timeless genre masterpiece.
   
   
   
   
5. MYTHIC SUNSHIP - Changing Shapes - Live At Roadburn
   
   
   

   Recorded not only at the same festival, but also at the exact same time as Triptykon's "Requiem" the only thing the two performances clearly have in common is that they could both be descrived as monolithic in their own distinct ways. Danish fuzz wizards Mythic Sunship teamed up with "Another Shape Of Psychedelic Music" guest saxophonist Søren Skov again to recreate the feeling of said double album without sticking to the script of its songs - and boy, recreate they did! A seemless fusion of heavy psych rock with free jazz elements. 
   
   
   
   
6. KONSTRUKT & OTOMO YOSHIHIDE - Eastern Saga: Live At Tusk
   
   
   
   I think by now it's safe to say that any cooperative record the Turkish experimental free jazzers Konstrukt unleash into the wild via Karlrecords can be expected to kill it.
   This time it's a festival show they played together with Japanese guitarist Otomo Yoshihide in the UK in 2018, which shows no willingness to let either your body nor your mind rest. With two six-string players and two drummers the oriental and blatantly jazzier aspects are sometimes forced to take a backseat in favor of raw noise rock power, but as a whole these two improvisations make a very cohesive - and with all its inherent craziness still relatively accessible - avant-garde music record.