The 50 albums of 2021 – numbers 10-1
The final rundown of our Top 50 albums from 2021
10
“Munich based producer Bryan Mueller aka Skee Mask presents his latest album titled Pool, via local imprint Ilian Tape which follows up his LP Compro which came out three years ago. There’s an extensive collection of sonic experiments on offer on this one, such as opening cut ‘Nvivo’ which goes down an IDM route, to the glassy eyed rave euphoria of ‘LFO’, the intelligent drum and bass reductions of ‘Rio Dub’ and UK influenced steppers like ‘Crossection’.”
9
Arp Frique – The Seed – Dedicated To Jeremy (Colourful World)
“Niels describes the 12 track album as his most spiritual work to date. “It is very much about my relationship with the Creator, the One, the Source, and about my daughter,” he shares. “That, mixed with these turbulent times, are the inspiration for the record. Music-wise, it is where I left off with ‘Nos Magia’ – with a lot more room for synths and electronic drums. I added more of my own musical journey to the whole thing, so you will hear a lot more East African influences in there, more Kassav, more Stevie, more Jimi, more of the deeper side of dance music.”
8
Róisín Murphy – Crooked Machine (Skint)
“It’s generally the most wildly different reworks that hit home hardest, in particular ‘Assimilation’ – a poignant, heart-aching, piano-sporting deep house revision of mid-tempo disco chugger ‘Simulation’ – the sparkling, neon-lit early morning house sleaze of ‘Murphy’s Law’ rework ‘We Are The Law’ and closing cut ‘Hardcore Jealousy’. The most gloriously rave-centric cut on the album, it sees Barratt and Ward bin the track’s high-octane disco thrills in favour of tipsy rave riffs, hardcore breakbeats and more speaker-bothering sub bass. Above this sonic hedonism all sits Murphy, whose vocals take on a darker and wearier quality not evident on the Roisin Machine version. It’s a fittingly inspired end to a seriously impressive and entertaining remix album.”
7
Black Midi – Cavalcade (Rough Trade)
“Since they first broke through in 2018, Black Midi has delighted in confounding expectations, with each successive release showcasing a band in continual, high-speed evolution. Cavalcade, the London band’s second full-length excursion, continues these trends, expanding on their avant-garde, experimental rock sound via a swathe of wildly imaginative tracks that variously mix, mangle and mutate elements of noise rock, jazz, sun-kissed samba-soul, lo-fi punk-funk, post-rock, neo-classical, Bert Jansch style instrumental folk and blissed-out downtempo waltzes. The results are frequently staggering, always entertaining and restlessly inventive. There’s no doubt that it will end up winning more critical acclaim – and most likely a bagful of awards – at the end of 2021.”
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6
Black Country, New Road – For The First Time (Ninja Tune)
“Anyone who’s paid little more than vague attention to BCNR in recent years will know how wacky their music is. Much like their peers Black Midi, it has twangy guitar builups, nervous broken-down monologues, and cacophonous freakouts. People say they “sound like Slint”, but that’s hardly the first of it. To me, BCNR sound like a fickle Seussean big band made of Who’s and Loraxes, applying each member’s instrumental mastery to… well, much more than “sounding like Slint”… It feels like they’re crafting a picture of Generation Z’s despondency, amidst the wreckage of plastic kitchenware, failed start-up businesses, unwittingly privileged art school goers, and endless stock footage. “
5
Calibre – Feeling Normal (Signature)
“This, Calibre’s 17th long player was recorded in tandem, or thereabouts, with 2019’s ambient presentation ‘Planet Hearth’ and according to the man himself is his “first bona fide 140 BPM record.” But mores the point is clear demonstration of the limitless artistry on offer from the Belfast born / Berlin based producer. Recent chat around Calibre’s slowdown to 140 BPM is extensive and across the techno scene is for sure a brilliant deviation from the usual drum and bass form. But as a piece of music or indeed art, be rest assured this does nothing to stop it from transcending the playful aloofness of a darkened unlicensed event whilst maintaining the jitters of dubstep and the edginess of a militant garage takeover.
As a statemented electronic piece, Feeling Normal is a grand exploration into the genre’s ideas and methods – the full gamut from hypnotic pounders to resonating dub. Moreover, it is a meditation into sound; an exploration into the various soundscapes that for decades have forged the deep and gasping breaths of those who have furrowed long into the lifeblood of electronic music. ”
4
Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs (Rough Trade)
“Although Williamson’s lyrics have always mixed the personal and political, the Spare Ribs album shows a certain lyrical maturity, venturing into new, more personal territory than the trademark Sleafords hi-octane vitriol. Songs like the album’s closing track ‘Fish Cakes’ and probably its most high profile single ‘Mork n Mindy’ see him looking bad to re-examine seemingly long buried childhood memories. Along with a lyrical evolution, Spare Ribs also sees the duo moving on musically, while or at least constantly honing their art of keeping the highest possible earworm quotient while reducing songs to their bare structural bones, something which Williamson says comes from the ’intricate space’ of late 90s drum & bass like Photek and Roni Size.”
3
Shackleton – Departing Like Rivers (Woe To The Septic Heart!)
“Like walking into a cathedral with your eyes fixed upwards, the towering grandeur of Shackleton’s work induces a sense of vertigo no matter how fixed to the ground you are. Much of Departing Like Rivers comes on like cinematic soundtrack composition –moments of protracted tension sprayed with sheets of tone and humming subs, but they’re punctuated with outright explosions of energy. The toms that come thundering down on ‘Something Tells Me / Pour Out Like Water’ feel like ritualistic stadium rock. But here, such elements are smaller pieces in a more meditative puzzle. They’re given as much emphasis as snatches of vocal and clangourous bells, where once drums would have been the bedrock of a whole track.”
2
Turnstile – Glow On (Roadrunner)
“The meteoric rise of Turnstile has felt a little bit like witnessing history in the making. The Baltimore hardcore punk outfit started making waves roughly a decade ago with a slew of EPs that simultaneously managed to pay homage to genre foundations such as Bad Brains and Gorilla Biscuits, while slowly yet surely unravelling layer after layer of sonic nuance.
“Enlisting the prolific Mike Elizondo as producer, whose credentials stretch from 50 Cent to Rilo Kiley, the mission to turn hardcore punk into a global entity has never seemed more fully realised than across these 15 tracks, clocking in at a whopping 35 minutes. What may seem like a short endeavour to most, is actually the lengthiest Turnstile project to date; an exploratory opus that constantly shifts between dream-pop (the blissful Blood Orange featuring ‘Alien Love Call’), neo-soul (the bubbly ‘No Surprise’) and surf rock (complete with lap-steel style licks on the retro-assault of ‘Fly Again’), while never misplacing its identity as a hardcore record.”
1
“The fear of technology scrapes at this album’s edges. The lead synth line on ‘Demon’, featuring Irah, sounds chiptune-like, but Martin adds so much character and distortion to it that it sounds ominous and looming, like Robinson’s imagined robots that ‘terminate’ the unvaccinated. As much is true for ‘Ganja Baby’, featuring main raggamuffin man Daddy Freddy, a bubbling digi-dancehall cut covered in laser sounds and 8-bit sucker punches.
The Bug as ever demonstrates his willingness to work with fresh, exciting faces. Much like his much-loved Death Grips collab, our favourite track has to be ‘Vexed’ with Moor Mother, who lays down a megaphoned-in, righteously angry series of bars – “y’all better run from me, mo’fucker I’m vexed”. Equally, the grime undercurrent is both titanic and underground, like a flesh-tearing sonar pulse. besides Flowdan, there’s the ever underrated Manga Saint Hilaire on ‘High Rise’, the album’s clearest and cutest voice. He raps about the stress of living in a high-rise block – “we can’t take the high road / we just screw face and explode / we live in the flats in the high rise” – alluding cleverly to both the tragic Grenfell tower fire, and J.G. Ballard’s dystopian epic.
On the final track ‘The Missing’, Roger Robinson proves this point with a bittersweet eulogy for Grenfell. “A hundred people start floating from the window of a tower block / from far enough away, they could be black smoke from spreading flames.” With this thought in mind, ‘Fire’ has a great, angry deal to say about ostracism. From the allusions to prejudices that cause detriment to the black community, to the many voices of the marginalised soundsystem culture adorning each track, it’s not just about inspiration, lockdown, and Martin’s personal life; ‘Fire’ is protest music, righteous rage.”