| END 2019
Looking like SF real estate is plateauing a bit.
Pro-democracy / anti-Chinese emonstrations in Hong Kong. Looking like this is the start of the end of the One Country, Two Systems policy, unfortunately. We spent a great weekend in the city right before the protests. Shame to see the end of an era in Hong Kong.
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Shasta Cults
What do you do if you're a guru technician of a rare synthesizer? Apparently make an album. That's what Richard Smith, has done here. Said synth in this case was the Buchla Touché, of which there were only four made. The disc is probably exactly as you'd guess from one synth being the primary source. (Dec '19)
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Marconi Union
Manchester trio's tenth studio album is very spaceous ambient soundscapes. (Nov '18)
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Heavy Drunk
Some good old solid blues tunes. We have If I Loved You Hard Enough and High On Love in heavy rotation. (Nov '19)
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Mitch Polzak & The Royal Dueces
We love catching Mitch Polzak at The Riptide on the edge of the western world. Nothing better than getting Bulleit with a High Life back and enjoying the delight of Mitch and his band struming of ole timey tunes on a Saturday night. Sometimes people ask if we go to church. Sure do. That's it. If there's a God, there is there in the crowd along with the locals, old timers, college kids, hipsters, a bridge & tunneller or two and yours truely. (Nov '19)
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Fantoman
We stubbled over Monograph from Fontoman, a musician/composer from Saratov, Russia and threw it into the check it out playlist. It's relatively hard finding electonic music that's a nice active listen. Too often, it often falls into ambient soundscapes or EDM, clubby music. Fantoman walks this line very nicely, making a very enjoyable listen, especially tracks Walk Across the Moon and Monograph. Kind of reminds us of the kings (in our book) of this, Arkestra One. (Nov '19)
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Molly Linen
Glasgow-based songwriter and guitarist Molly Linen's debut EP is a pretty nice listen. Away is our favorite track here. (Nov '19)
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Fabienne Delsol
Nice indie rock with a french torch song thrown in next to some jangly 60s Laurel Canyon type pop tunes. (Oct '18)
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Oliver Tank
A wave of aural delight, Sydney’s visionary producer Oliver Tank makes a bold return with his engrossing fourth official release, The Ocean Fades Into The Sky. We have Outta $ight, LoC//Interlude and Made of Gold on heavy rotation. It reminds us of what we loved about the downtempo stuff coming out of the early 2000s. (Nov '19)
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Gabriella Papillon
Very radio friendly pop tunes from the seventh album from Gabriella Papillon, a Halifax, Nova Scotia based artist. Last Deep Breath gets a little edge to it, our favorite from this disc. (Oct '18)
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Susumu Yokota
Made of found recordings posthumously finished and released by Lo Recordings’ founder Jon Tye, this album aimed to “honour the spirit and legacy of Yokota’s work". Fenetic soundscapes mixed with chill beats coming in and out of focus makes this an interesting listen. (Oct '18)
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Amon Tobin
Tobin is on a tear, releasing 7 discs in 12 months. Full Panther is our pick off this disc. (Oct '19)
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BT
Really moving, atmospheric ambient from the start to the finish. This piece is a living creature. (Oct '18)
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Metronomy
The sixth studio album from Devonshire musician Joe Mount's Metronomy is a poppy as our favorite track title would imply - Salted Caramel Ice Cream. (Sep '19)
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Psapp
We love the "toytronica" description some reviewers have stuck to Psapp. We're fine with beeps and blips in our tunes, especially when, like in Work, the tune sounds so fresh and sweet it could fit right in on Komeda's "What Makes It Go?." (Sep '19)
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Soviet Soviet
Great post-rock meets industrial vibe on this disc. We're spinning the very high energy Changes with the Sun with the perhaps lowest energy tune on the disc Ghost in heavy rotation. (Aug '19)
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Jenny Hval
The seventh album for Norwegian artist Jenny Hval continues some of the things we love about her previous releases: the always interesting, often bizarre lyrics, song topics often bordering on the TMI/over sharing of personal feelings, her experimental spoken word tracks, songs that take month/years to appreciate. The difference on this one: there are now some synth pop songs. More specifically, Ashes to Ashes could actually become a bonafide pop hit. If that were to happen, boy would we like to see the WTF expression on the face of the teenybopper who bought the album based on that song when they get to The Practice of Love and the rest of the disc. (Sept '18)
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MID 2019
Trump impeached by the House, but Senate keeps him in power.
Theresa May resigns after not getting a Brexit deal done. |
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Rachael Sermanni
The third full-length release from this Scottish singer-songwriter, So it Turns is a very solid effort. Our favorite track, What Can I Do, will certainly be picked up by a Cohen Brother's movie or similar. It's one of the most simple brilliant tunes we've heard in a while. (Aug '19)
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Alexander Tucker
Classic unmistakeable Tucker, multi-tracking vocals over his Eno'esque synths. We can't write the review any better than The Quietus (one of our favs), but we would say this release is not as quite as brilliant as his last. (Aug '19)
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Quixosis
We like music like this, that's a little foreign, a little hard to figure out. Is it world beat folk or clubby EDM? It's not surprising us then when Quixosis describes their 2nd LP as a conscious exploration of the rhythmic matrix of northern Ecuador. Works for us. (Aug '19)
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Stick Figure
This is some damn high quality reggae and some damn good tunes. Written, produced and recorded by self-taught muscian Scott Woodruff in Oakland, CA, we've got to tip the hat. Well self-taught! Listen to Angels Above Me, Life is a Party or Burn the Night with some good headphones on. The muscianship and production are stellar. (Aug '19)
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Graveyard Club
The third album from St. Paul, MN band, this one is solid all around. Put it on and spin it front to back. It moves nicely, with a good amound of guy-girl harmonies, some nostalgia for past songs--Finally Found has a 50s feel to it, Miles and Miles harkens to the 80s, as does Birdie with it's Pixies Doolittle-like entry. One of the better releases of the year. (Jun '19)
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Generationals
New Orleans based pop duo sending out some 80s style synth leads and powerful drum loops. Queue up Save This For Now and watch with The Breakfast Club. (Jul '19)
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Vanishing Twin
Psychedelic pop from London-based musician Cathy Lucas reminds us of Broadcast. (Jun '19)
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Fruit Bats
Nice, solid rock tunes. (Jun '19)
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Yeasayer
The fifth release for this band and despite being influenced by the dark times of the current presidency, Crack A Smile is probably the most catchy pop song we've heard from the band. I'll Kiss You Tonight can probably be slotted in a Dandy Warhol's album without missing a beat while the same can be said for Ohm Death and a Broken Bells disc. (Jun '19)
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Palehound
Just some pretty straight forward beautiful songs here. Sort of reminds us of a female version of Unbunny. (Jun '19)
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The Felice Brothers
The Holy Weight Champ is a fantastic song. The vibe, lyrics. We love it. (May '19)
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Field Medic
We love the lo-fi, record this Americana stuff in the paneled living room with 70s shag carpet and green lazy boy feel Kevin Patrick is extruding here. Even more, we love the story he tells in used 2 be a romantic, and thank ourselves that wen want into tech instead of the music industry. (May '19)
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Vampire Weekend
Wow, just a phenomenal release. Probably the best VWs album yet. Our favorite of 2019. We're loving Harmony Hall, Rich Man, Flower Moon ... the whole disc really. And Married in a Gold Rush? Gives us the same feeling we had listening to PD Heaton and Briana Corrigan's sublime duets on The Beautiful South discs in the early '90s. Nothing better. (May '19)
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Cate Le Bon
We loved the opening of the first track, Miami. Minimalist, angular, efficient. Just hearing it gives us a smile it's so akward. The quirkyness continues on the fifth disc from this Welsh artist with Sad Nudes and You Don't Love Me being standouts for us. (May '19)
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Big Thief
Don't you hate it when those know-it-all music snobs discover an unknown band at their first album then at later releases complain that they're not as good now that they're popular? Well, that may be us with this one. Century is a great song, but not quite a Masterpiece. (May '19)
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Lab Dub
What's not to like about some Ennio Morricone classics in dub? (May '19)
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Holly Herndon
This release is fascinating to read about. How Tennessee-born, Berlin-based composer and sound artist Holly Herndon built AI dubbed Spawn to help create the music. Herndon's PhD and background at Stanford’s Center For Computer Research In Music And Acoustics. Her art meets experiment meets computer software approach. Perhaps more interesting to read about than listen to. (May '19)
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Death and Vanilla
The third release from this Swedish group combines dreamy psychedelic pop with the luch hazy atmosphere that Small Corners does so well. (May '19)
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Siobhan Wilson
Very nicely crafted album. Nicely sung over some jangly and distorted guitars. Solid sophmore release from this Glascow, UK artist. (May '19)
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Fire! Orchestra
Trippy orchestra stuff. (May '19)
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Start 2019
Recreational marajuana becomes legal in CA
Notre Dame in Paris suffers a devistating fire, nearly totalling the iconic church. |
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Damien Jurado
Just Damien and his acoustic guitar on this one ... a slowly strummed, deeply sung reverb filled stunner. Newspaper Gown and The Shape of a Storm are our favorites. (Apr '18)
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Say Sue Me
A nice debut EP from Busan, South Korea that has a very garage rock, DYI feel. Mixes surf rock tunes with jangly early 90s alt-rock. Easy to like. (Apr '19)
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Amon Tobin
Tobin is back to his some skillful dexterity creating weird soundscapes and compositions. We like to think of it as progressive experiemental EDM. Anything Tobin does is worth a listen, this is worth many listens. (Apr '19)
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Rose Elinor Dougall
The album kicks it off strong with Echos, giving us a very Deradoorian Your Creator-like vibe which immediately makes us a fan. While Mrs. Dougall is not afraid to explore--as evident here and in Christina In Red--she is not afried to rock out either, as you can hear (or better yet see in our tunefilter edited video) for Take What You Can Get. Consider us fans. (Apr '19)
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Christina Quesada
Spanish bubble-gum pop. Easy on the ears. (Apr '19)
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Diane Coffee
We were a little apprehensive (and still are quite frankly) with this shtick: Shaun Fleming heavily leveraging electrics for his music while writing about the loneliness wrought by the digital age ... all while writing under the gender-bending moniker of Diane Coffee. We reluctantly put it on our "New, cozy up to it" playlist. Despite getting the full frontal assult of synch cheese in Good Luck we found ourselves unable to not be amazed at the big arena rock ballad audacity of it. Shaun even transitions over to a Crazy Little Thing Called Love inspired bridge complete with Freddy Mercuryesque "I'm ready" growl mid song before coming back to the sugar coated that literaly started with La La, La La La la La. It's ballsy ... and pretty damn good. (Apr '19)
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Grasscourt
Stroud, UK based Grasscourt released three EPs in 2019--Connect Part One, Connect Part Two, Conect Part Three--that we immediately identified with. Lo-Fi, DYI sounding, but catchy tunes. We're digging Begin to Change off Part one, Begun off Part Two, and Sense to Me from Part Three. (Apr '19)
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Callum Easter
Lo-fi sounds from this Edinburgh-based musician. It's got sparsity, minimalizm, soul ... sometimes all in the same song. (Apr '19)
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Man of Moon
Solid EP from Glasgow, UK based Man of Moon. Good heavy feel. Apparently they met their manager at a Phantom Band show. That would make perfect sense. (Mar '19)
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NU
Portugal-based band delivering some solid post-rock tunes. We see a lot of similiarities to Antlers. (Mar '19)
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Halo Coast
Solid EP from Halo Coast, a Minneapolis-based project by Lindsay Miller. (Feb '19)
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Savage Mansion
Coming in at #5 on the best releases of 2019 is this, the debut release from Glascow based Savage Mansion. This is just straight up, 90s style jangly guitar based rock and roll. Don't overthink it, just break out the keg, red plastic cups, invite 100 of your closest friends, put on Elwood or Older and Wiser and just rock out. (Feb '19)
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Le Superhomard
Solid debut long play from this French Pop band. (Feb '19)
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International Teachers of Pop
Sheffield, UK trio Adrian Flanagan, Dean Honer (of Moonlandingz, who we also like) and singer Leonore Wheatley craft some fantastic synch pop on this disc. We liked Oh Yosemity so much, we made a music video for it. (Feb '19)
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Montevideo
Coming in at #3 best of 2019 is Montevideo's third studio long play Temperplane. The disc starts off the journey taking us back in the early 90s, as if we were listening to this between the Soupdragons and EMF. It then slips into some current pop rock a la Django Django before Sutton Street brings us back a couple of decades with a high energy 80s sound. But the gem on the disc is Calypso, when Montevideo rolls up those influences into their own version of dance-pop, which turns out to be slightly dark and edgy ... and the best song on the reelase. (Jan '19)
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Julia Jacklin
#2 on the tunefilter list of best releases of 2019 goes to Julia Jacklin, Crushing. More like crushing it we'd say. We love the simplicity and straight forwardness of this release. In this case: girl, her guitar and simple drums and bass--tunes that showcase outstanding songwriting. She knows when (and how) to rock out and can bring it down the next minute into a heart-melting intimate singalong with her and a piano or her favorite guitar. Well rounded release. Good Guy is the gem of the release and also one of the best songs of 2019. (Feb '19)
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The Silver Field
Couldn't tell by listening that Coral Rose produced this, her debut album under The Silver Field moniker, in her bedroom. Full of great sounds and energy, you would think she would have assembled all her collaborators together in a big room and let them done on. Rain is our favorite here. (Jan '19)
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William Tyler
We're fans of Tyler's instrumental Americana finger picking. It's always a delight when one of Tylers songs comes on as we're spinning the Mellow Morning playlist here at tf HQ. This album is no different. Our favorites are Rebecca and Our Lady of the Desert. (Jan '19)
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