#435

Witch ‘n’ Monk - Witch ‘n’ Monk (Tzadik)



Hard to imagine that voice, guitar and flute could groove so hard and deliver so much. — Brian Morton

#434

Jan St. Werner - Molocular Meditation (Editions Mego)



The words and unmistakable voice belong to the late Mark E Smith, whose observations on mundane objects and events combine with moments of typical lucidity. — Neil Kulkarni

#433

Chaos Motion - Psychological Spasms Cacophony (Transcending Obscurity)



The death metal avant garde continues to embrace atonality and compositional complexity, and Mexican quartet Chaos Motion, whose name is incredibly apt, are pushing the music into the same realms of science fiction hyper-technicality and inhumanity occupied by Spain’s Wormed, among others. — Phil Freeman

#432

Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell - The Adornment of Time (Pi Recordings)



The final 20 minutes are sublime, as a delicate chordal figure develops into a passage of astonishing sensitivity and power. — Stewart Smith

#431

Catatonic Effigy - Putrid Tendency (Iluso)



Catatonic Effigy’s debut album is a powerful and effective attempt at inhabiting the zones between extreme metal, free jazz and modern composition. — Phil Freeman

2019

Wire 15 (7)
Éliane Radigue - Oeuvres Électroniques (Ina-GRM)
Black Thought - Streams of Thought Vols. 1&2 (Human Re Sources)
Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Smells Funny (Rune Grammofon) +#420
Alvin Lucier / Trevor Saint - Ricochet Lady (Black Truffle)
Wendy Eisenberg - The Machinic Unconscious (Tzadik)
Mopcut - Accelerated Frames of Reference (Trost)
The London Sound Survey - Thames (Persistence of Sound)
9T Antiope & Siavash Amini - Harmistice (Hallow Ground)
K-X-P - IV (Svart)
Olivier Messiaen / Linda Catlin Smith / Apartment House - Quatuor pour la fin du temps / Among the Tarnished Stars (Another Timbre)
Pharmakon - Devour (Sacred Bones) +#427
Keiji Haino / Merzbow / Balázs Pándi - Become the Discovered, Not the Discoverer (RareNoise)
Zonal - Wrecked (Relapse)
Morton Feldman / Philip Thomas - Piano (Another Timbre) +#429
Eve Risser - Aprés un Rêve (Clean Feed)

record of the year
9T Antiope & Siavash Amini - Harmistice (Hallow Ground)

#430

Eve Risser - Aprés un Rêve (Clean Feed)



The pulse gradually builds to a syncopated rhythm. The effect is mesmeric, creating a rolling Can-like groove against which Risser lays minimal chords. — Stewart Smith

#429

Zonal - Wrecked (Relapse)



This collision of industrial noise and hiphop related poetics helped open the artistic door for Techno Animal’s 2001 album The Brotherhood Of The Bomb and now Wrecked – the latest from Martin and Broadrick’s long dormant Zonal project, which features a heavy vocal contribution from Moor Mother. — John Morrison

#428

Keiji Haino / Merzbow / Balázs Pándi - Become the Discovered, Not the Discoverer (RareNoise)



Haino wrestles feedback storms, the odd jazz-like riffs and cutting squeals against Akita’s fluctuating whiteouts and mutilated radio sounds. — Antonio Poscic

#427

Olivier Messiaen / Linda Catlin Smith - Quatuor pour la fin du temps / Among the Tarnished Stars (Another Timbre)



Four members of Apartment House bring their cumulative insight and expertise as interpreters of experimental music to a performance that respects the intrinsic poise as well as the bold contrasts and occasional flamboyance of Messiaen’s score. By avoiding superfluous expressive artifice they allow this music to breathe. — Julian Cowley

#426

K-X-P - IV (Svart)



“Nimetön Tie” is truly magnificent, and any DJ with the guts to play it in its entirety at the right moment in a strobe-lit club deserves to be showered with glory. — Joe Muggs

#425

9T Antiope & Siavash Amini - Harmistice (Hallow Ground)



Even when Shamloo’s folky melismatic singing emerges, its tonal contrast with the ruthless electronics provides no respite, but rather makes the whole thing all the more unnerving. — Daniel Neofetou

#424

The London Sound Survey - Thames (Persistence of Sound)



“Tower Bridge North Bascule Chamber” sounds like a vast music box, and the tune that it plays could well have been a new work by Varèse or Ligeti. The raw, harmonious swelling of engines is quite captivating, reminding us that machines are sequenced in their actions just like a musical composition – even the whining of its parts is in tune. — Ken Hollings