Sound Influx Albums of 2012: Numbers 50-21

It's that time of year again, where we at Sound Influx ask our writers the daunting question: "What are your favourite albums of the year?". Well, the writers answered in force, and their suggestions have been meticulously tallied up into a rather fine list of this year best and boldest. Here are the albums we loved this year, that didn't quite make our top 20 (which is coming soon,) and links to the ones we did original reviews of. Enjoy!

50. Delicate Steve - Positive Force
49. The 2 Bears - Be Strong
48. Actress - RIP

47. ScHoolboy Q - Habits And Contradictions
46. David Byrne and St. Vincent - Love This Giant
45. METZ - METZ  
"The only danger they’re in is that with one record built primarily of tracks under the 3:30 mark, there’s simply not enough to satisfy the ravenous demand." Read Braden Fletcher's review. 
44. Jessie Ware - Devotion 
43. Best Coast - The Only Place 
"The return of Best Coast on the music scene is a welcome one indeed." Read Bella Roach's review.
42. Plan B - Ill Manors
41. Yeasayer - Fragrant World
40. William Boney - Good Vibes

39. How To Dress Well - Total Loss 

"‘Total Loss’ is a haunting and intelligent album that will play well with a particular type of intellectual pop fan" Read Max Sefton's review.

38. Deerhoof - Breakup Song

"Breakup Song is a great party record from a band unafraid to reclaim pop for their own ends."

Read Max Sefton's review. 

37. Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man

36. Lone - Galaxy Garden

35. Peggy Sue - Play the Songs of Scorpio Rising

34. Dan Deacon - America

33. Lucy Rose - Like I Used To

32. Of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks

31. Sharon Van Etten - Tramp

30. The Men - Open Your Heart

29. Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse

"A songwriter playing with the same freedom and love of noise, melody and self-expression that his heroes did all those years before." Read Max Sefton's review

28. The Cribs - In The Belly of the Brazen Bull

"In The Belly of the Brazen Bull is by far the darkest and heaviest Cribs record to date, but also the most important. The Cribs have come to reclaim indie rock." Read Aaron Lewins' review.

27. Sigur Rós - Valtari

26. Tall Ships - Everything Touching

"Time spent with this record is indeed precious, but definitely not forgettable." Read Braden Fletcher's review.

25. Porcelain Raft -  Strange Weekend

"Strange Weekend does however manage to come away feeling like a good pop record, and whilst it may not last a life time, it is at least an enjoyable and interesting listen." Read Will Hall's review.

24. Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind

"World, You Need A Change Of Mind is exactly what you would expect from this Peterborough-based pioneer who seems to be capable of reviving any genre that’s thrown his way and make it relevant." Read Aurora Mitchell's review.

23. Swans - The Seer

  

"The listen is definitely a very long and full experience, but ultimately rewarding and rich, with vast swathes of colour and atmosphere." Read Eliot Humphreys' review.

22. Killer Mike - RAP Music

21. Hot Chip - In Our Heads 

"Accomplished, dreamy and jubilant throughout." Read Holly Read-Challen's review.

That's your lot for now, stay reading for 20-1 of the list coming soon!

Compiled by Toby McCarron

March 2012 Round Up

Hello lovely readers, the last month was March and some items of interest occurred during its 4-week reign, namely:

SXSW happened:
Skrillex’s performance led to the creation of a thousand think pieces on a thousand blogs that debated and evaluated every aspect of those thudding bass drops until, bloodied and weeping, Sonny Moore hung himself in a backstage urinal, wrenching off his signature luscious locks and garrotting himself as he whispered “I just wanted to be taken seriously, I love Aphex Twin, I once offered Ryan Schreiber oral pleasure in exchange for a 7.4”. The union representing emo kids who converted to dubstep “way before it got big man” and middle aged men with mohicans is yet to release a press statement.

The ASAP crew beat the shit out of some bloggers in an effort to show off their rock hard attitude and snatch the position of the toughest rap crew in the US whilst Odd Future are busy disappearing up their own arseholes in a flurry of sold out shows, fuck-awful sketches and overpriced merch.

Cloud Nothings were supposed to have been pretty good.

In other Odd Future news, the gang dropped “The OF Tape Volume 2” to largely positive reviews. It’s a pretty decent showcase of the groups stylistic disparity and gave us hope for their future in the form of the ten minute posse cut “Oldie” and Mike G’s dense and thuggish “Forest Green”, which marked his transition from background player to force to be reckoned with. Although its defining feature must surely be OF’s abandonment of their misogynistic lyrical bent in favour of several tracks that are like listening to cats hugging. Oh, hang on, three of the tracks have Bitch in the title, forget that last bit.

Andrew WK announced that he is to reissue the 2001 classic LP I Get Wet on July 17th. Not much to say on this other than, with luck, it’ll lead to Party Hard seeing a pseudo-ironic revival amongst trendy young things and WK’s unbeatable outfits inspiring a new generation to embrace the sport trainer/ white trouser combination.

And with great sadness, we bid farewell to a band that burned briefly yet so brightly. I am of course talking of the late great Viva Brother. Emerging from 2010 as the kings of the UK’s music scene, a succession of hit singles preceded their astonishing debut “Famous First Words” captured the hearts and minds of millions and inspired Pitchfork to declare them “possibly better than Sufjan”, which is high praise indeed. So let’s all grab a drink, stick “The Darling Buds of May” on and raise a toast to those kings of men. 
 

Lastly, here are some releases we’ve been rinsing senseless in Sound Influx’s theoretical offices:

Slow Animal – Slow Animal

“With their self titled debut album, it is evident they have progressed since their initial demos. The energy is higher, the drumming is fiercer, the songs are more detailed. A lot of the initial demos seemed to centre on small helpings of chords that often repeated. Not to say that is a bad thing, they’re still great songs, but with their debut release, the songs are a lot more fleshed out and mature. The band have evidently progressed.”

Eliot Humphreys’ full 8.3 review is here.


Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind

"World, You Need A Change Of Mind is exactly what you would expect from this Peterborough-based pioneer who seems to be capable of reviving any genre that’s thrown his way and make it relevant. A brilliant record that’s not going to be kept secret so tell your brother, tell your sister, tell your mother."

See Aurora Mitchell’s glowing 8.5 review here.


Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

“It is surprising how well the blend of different styles of music work on this record. The combination of Irish folk, gospel and almost hip-hop style synthed drums makes the record feel all-encompassing in its approach to the topics at hand. Despite this however, it is the most stereotypical anthem tracks that stand out. The title track challenges the system to bring down our homes, and the stunning ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’ is about the promise of a better life, one that is out there if we a willing to search for it.”

Sean Collinson’s glowing 9.0 for the Boss’ newie is here.


Ned Powley

Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind

Most areas have a music scene but I’ve never heard anyone rave about the ‘up and coming Peterborough music scene’. I’ve been to Peterborough many times due to my cousin residing there, and I’ve found that it’s a generally mundane, grey and overall uninspiring place. When first hearing about Kindness, I was surprised to learn that he was from Peterborough and was creating something really exciting that made me want to find out more about this mysterious character. Back in 2009, Adam Bainbridge surfaced with the track Gabriel, a mix of Bon Iver-esque vocals, an 80s drum beat and hints of disco along with the tracks Swinging Party and Gee Up, a frustratingly short catchy tune with a funky slap bassline that you physically couldn’t at least tap your feet along to.

Annoyingly, Adam Bainbridge A.K.A Kindness, disappeared for 2 years, as myself and others frequently asked the question ‘WHERE IS KINDNESS AND WHAT IS HE DOING?’ Convinced that he was unlikely to reappear with a full album on the way, it felt disheartening that someone who showed so much promise would just disappear like that. However, I was pleasantly surprised when ‘Cyan’ appeared and we also got our first proper (but brief) look at what the man behind the music looked like in the accompanying video. Naturally, an album announcement followed and ‘World, You Need A Change Of Mind’ birthed the question of whether Bainbridge would’ve taken on a new sound or stuck to his modern representation of funk and 80s disco. And the answer is both.

Opener ‘SEOD’ takes Kindness in a different direction, with glitch and house elements but still attaining the disco atmosphere that seems to come attached to all of his music. Half of the time during World, You Need A Change Of Mind, it feels as if you should be at a 80s house party, similar to that of the strange and supernatural party scene in Weird Science. Previously heard cover of The Replacements’ ‘Swinging Party’ sees Bainbridge’s self-harmonies in full swing, which work to his advantage and become his trademark throughout the album, creating a haunting faux church choir effect. Although Kindness has developed a signature style, he manages to cover all of the bases as he goes on to cover the original Eastenders theme tune ‘Anyone Can Fall In Love’ and anyone who’s heard the original will know that the bassline is almost identical to that which Kindness has adopted.

Elsewhere, ‘That’s Alright’ is a clear standout on the record, with an intro of atmospheric synth drones and a skilled sax solo before bursting into a drum machine beat you’d expect on an 80s action movie and Bainbridge jazz scatting in between an amalgamation of female vocals. World, You Need A Change Of Mind is exactly what you would expect from this Peterborough-based pioneer who seems to be capable of reviving any genre that’s thrown his way and make it relevant. A brilliant record that’s not going to be kept secret so tell your brother, tell your sister, tell your mother.

8.5

Aurora Mitchell

Kindness - SEOD

So, what does Kindness sound like today? Has he gone prog? Has he called up Skrillex and had the world’s premier bastardiser cover him in his filthy bass? Well, no. He’s made a song that layers up a load of styles and lets them duke it out for supremacy. So the resultant mess starts off sounding like a (very classy) offcut from the Blood Orange album before transforming into a psych-tinged house number that devolves into saxophone squawks and an icy 80’s piano riff. Whilst Kindness’ musical offerings so far have been episodic in their individuality, SEOD seems like a gaggle of great ideas that have been thrust together instead of being given space to evolve on their own accord. Couple this with then news that their forthcoming debut will contain tracks written over two years ago, maybe Kindness’ well of ideas is running a little dry.

By Ned Powley

Sound Influx: Tracks of 2011 - 30-11

30. Friends - I'm His Girl

 

29. Metronomy - Everything Goes My Way

28. Cold Cave - The Great Pan Is Dead

27. Kindness - Cyan

26. Bon Iver - Holocene

25. The Death Set - Can You See Straight?

24. The Throne - Murder To Excellence

23. Das Racist - Girl

22. Gross Magic - Sweetest Touch

21. Slow Club - Two Cousins

20. Yuck - Operation

19. Austra - The Beat and the Pulse

18. Patrick Wolf - The City

17. Summer Camp - I Want You

16. Gil Scott Heron & Jamie XX - NY Is Killing Me

15. St. Vincent - Cruel

14. Death Grips - Guillotine 

13. Girls - Vomit

12. Battles - Futura

11. Wild Beasts - Bed Of Nails

Kindness - Cyan

"Thank christ for that" seemed to be the general reaction to this, the new track from the ever-elusive Kindness,  surfacing online. It seemed many had forgotten about or at least moved on from the initial excitement surrounding Adam Bainbridge's early art-pop / disco-funk spats of genius that got blogs and the music press in a minor frenzy back in late 2009. There was the repetitious 'Gee Up' which boasted an absurdly funky Sugarhill Gang style bassline and suitably avant-garde DIY video, in which Bainbridge donned a stars and stripes cape and wore his hair entirely obscuring his face. And of course the arguably improved version of The Replacement's 'Swinging Party'. Both of which presented Kindness' potential for great things.


'Cyan' isn't a massive departure for Kindness. It is however, one of the tracks of the year. The production values are noticeably higher, but the DIY bedroom effect still hums around your head throughout. The bassline underpinning the track is funkier than James Brown at a carnival and blends expertly with the baggy drumbeat and  Bainbridge's tentative cooing vocals echoing "Cyaaaaaan". The song doesn't make perfect sense, but Kindness' 80s disco ode to the colour blue (presumably) is an intriguing and exciting listening, and a long-awaited restart to what is sure to be a prosperous career.


By Toby McCarron