Actually, it was yesterday but I was a bit busy with the holidays. I hope you had a nice one if you celebrated.

savagesband.com/

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Tags:   Savages band live concert music Chicago Camille Berthomier Jehnny Beth Adore LIfe Silence Yourself concert live woman female music Cabaret Metro Savages band British

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The Top Ten Albums of 2016

I always miss a few great releases and you'll all have to forgive me. Though I listen to music constantly, I like to revisit old favorites as much as I like to discover new music. This is one woman's adventures into new music this year for the time being and I will always discover great albums after the fact inevitably. This year has been amazing because it's brought about so many female fronted bands in particular. I've often for some reason been more drawn to male vocals overall even though there are many female artists I love...perhaps I am changing or perhaps the female artists are changing. I did want to say something about the newest Nick Cave album, Skeleton Tree. It's definitely worth listening to and the documentary One More Time With Feeling is Devastating and powerful...but, I prefer the documentary to the album. I love some songs on the album though and I think if you have suffered a huge loss of life in your recent experiences, it might give you some solace. Other songs, I just couldn't connect with unfortunately at this point in my life. The great thing about music is that, as we grow and grieve, the music will be there to comfort us. And, even if all of the electricity goes out and we have nothing left, while we're eating that last can of beans at the end of the world, we'll still have the memory of those familiar comforting voices and the words we learned by heart.

1. Savages: Adore Life

Sometimes, you listen to an album, and it doesn't quite transfer in a live setting. Having seen Savages twice this year on tour, I can only adore life and this band's music more. Lead singer Jehnny Beth or Camille Berthomier is absolutely on fire on album and live. Every breath released isn't an exhalation but an exclamation of every cell in her strong agile frame. She's an absolutely emphatic vision and these tracks hit heavy but deliver the kind of sweet release that live up to a sort of promise to keep up a certain challenge in this day and age, making something creative, vital, and thrilling. If you are a fan of the band's previous release, Silence Yourself, you'll find this one picks up in many ways where that one left off but, in turn, also goes farther and delivers a more satisfying group of songs overall.

Watch official videos on youtube here: www.youtube.com/user/SAVAGESBANDLONDON

Band's website here: savagesband.com/

2. Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch

If you're familiar with Jenny Hval's work, I don't have to tell you she's a little strange. In fact, over time, you kind of expect the unexpected and each new release has you wondering what she'll do next. Even more bizarre is beholding her and her band in concert, which really strangles the tightrope of musical production and performance art. Hval comes to us from Norway, though, and they can be a little more creative there with even government support many times, which must be refreshing (we can live like this in America too and encourage our artists but it will take a great deal of work to get there). Hval is more than a curiosity...she's talented and she can somehow be meek and fierce at the same time. She creates something intangible yet at times also catchy and even farther with notes of vulnerability. There is guaranteed no other album this year that came out like this one and well worth repeated listens. She might be female vampire of sorts but she's much more like Line Landersson or Eli in the Swedish film Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) in that she's easy to fall in love with and want to keep in your life while you still have it.

Official site: jennyhval.com/

Female Vampire video: vimeo.com/170495827


3. Loscil: Monument Builders


Canada's Scott Morgan is the inspiration behind a number of amazing albums. The latest, Monument Builders is a careful and complex release that deserves to be taken note of. It reminds me at times of my feelings of despair at the end of the world and yet there is much solace to be find here. At other times, it possesses an emotional complexity that I find myself getting lost in and actually allows me more than any other album right now to give up on my internal monologue and actually come close to meditation. It's difficult not to have visions after hearing these captivating songs and seeing Loscil perform at Constellation in Chicago was one of this year's highlights in terms of live performances for me. The re-occurrent themes I am probably reading into it is the feeling of loss and recovery, of coping with a world half empty, despondent, and quite lost too...good to have a wordless wonder to express this when I don't quite have the words myself to express my own grief sometimes.


www.loscil.ca/

Loscil on Bandcamp: loscil.bandcamp.com/album/monument-builders


4. Katie Gately: Color


LA's Katie Gately is legit cool weird. A great deal of this sounds like a soundtrack to a quirky modern film that you'd want to watch over and over again. There's an incredible complexity and layering of sounds that really are an auditory treat in every way. Color is a good name for this as you will have visions of flashes of brightness each time you hear these tracks and the album itself is one ravishing adventure. Gately's brain must be amazing to be able to create such tracks!

Website: www.katiegately.com/

Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/katiegately


5. PJ Harvey: Hope Six Demolition Project

It's really reassuring that PJ Harvey can still manage to be a vital creative force in the universe who also is political and active in the overall art world. The Hope Six Demolition Project didn't reach me as much as White Chalk but it's a great deal more listenable to me than Let England Shake and it's still as important as an album. Hopefully, she will come back to Chicago soon enough!


pjharvey.net/

www.universal-music.de/pj-harvey/videos/detail/video:3927...


6. La Femme: Mystére

Oh France, you've done it again! La Femme is so wonderfully weird and somehow they make the strange catchy in a way that hasn't quite been done before. La Femme is a psychedelic wonder with zainy elements. It's also great fun to listen to in many ways. It definitely makes me feel quite exhilarated and the tempo and pacing overall is quite wonderful. Another spectacular element is the male/female vocals and the way it drives the melody aspects of the overall compositions. Get lost in the weirdness and you may never quite be the same.

Whole album on youtube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTMSguDFlMI

Facebook site: www.facebook.com/lafemmeressort


7. Angel Olsen: My Woman

Angel Olsen may have moved away to the sunny West Coast but she'll always be a Chicagoan to me. There's something about her voice that incites an almost nostalgic homesickness in the pit of my stomach when I hear her songs. It's also a Sunday early afternoon drinking coffee and standing in the sunlight with your cat rolling around on your feet type of music. Maybe that's too specific...I digress... Though Angel Olsen has collaborated significantly with Bonnie Prince Billy/Will Oldham, she is really growing into her own career wise and My Woman marks her fourth release. She's fast becoming Jagjaguwar's top darling and will undoubtedly have a long career with her distinctive vocals especially. There's a lovely loneliness here in the way she sings that will both captivate you and make you want to listen to her forever. If someone ever tells you they don't understand how melancholia can sound beautiful, you can put on Angel Olsen as a starter.

angelolsen.com/

Angel Olsen videos: tinyurl.com/z6ge872


8. Le Berger: About Time

At first listen, if you aren't actively listening, this might seem just like a warm cascade of softness you can have on in the background but, the more you actively listen, the more you appreciate every aspect of the full sound as the cerebrally complex album this is. The only other way I can describe aspects of the feeling is that someone is playing the rim of a wine glass only the wine glass is really just this crazy planet we're all living in and all we can really do to respond is look up.


leberger.bandcamp.com/

9. Ty Segall: Emotional Mugger

Ty keeps getting weirder and weirder...more than ever, his sound is like an eclectic mix of psychedelic, classic rock, garage rock, and glam rock all combined into this fuzzy drenched package. Or, as my dad called it "Retro hard rock." It's a really intriguing sort of album and worth a listen for many fans of various genres..it has an appeal that I guess could even be considered the verge of something that is the sum of the whole and perhaps has evolved to be different and better than it's previous influences.

It's worth noting that both of Thee Oh Sees albums this year are also decent releases but they don't push the envelope as much in my opinion (still great to listen to, though) and the Cory Hansen album (from the lead singer of the band Wand) has been great from what I've heard. It should be waiting at my door when I arrive back home but I haven't heard it fully yet.


ty-segall.com/


10. Sophia Loizou: Singular

Singular is a really interesting release with layers of haunting noise that is also, at times, very calming and warm. It's a really creative work with engaging sounds but also a reassurance overall. Hailing from Bristol, England, Loizou creates soundscapes that have a touch of the postmodern and will seep into your subconscious to create some highly interesting dreams.

Website: www.sophialoizou.com/

Listen on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/sophialoizou

11. Chook Race: Around the House

I'm crap at limits and these top ten lists are just too hard. Aussie's Chook Race has fantastic male/female melodies and an awesome garage rock sound that is catchy yet overall low key and filled with great engaging rhythms that recall the best of The Go-Betweens. Really recommended stuff!

chookrace.bandcamp.com/album/around-the-house


Other Highly Recommended releases:

Over the years, I have really gotten into drone (or I guess most people might think of it as varied levels of structure within layers of ambient music). It started with Brian Eno's Music For Airplanes and my interest grew after I married Cinchel, who is an amazing musician himself. Here's a couple more recommendations specifically to that genre for music I find really creative and progressing the genre in interesting ways.

Vapor Lanes: Hieratic Teen

vaporlanes.bandcamp.com/

Vuzh Music/C. Reider/Tarkatak: Azure Bell, Midnight Well: www.vuzhmusic.com/releases/azure.html

Chihei Hatakeyama: White Paddy Mountain: www.chihei.org/

Cinchel's bandcamp: cinchel.bandcamp.com/

**All photos are copyrighted. Please don't use without permission.**

Tags:   Chook Race Around the House Ty Segall Emotional Mugger Sophia Loizou Singular Le Berger About Time Angel Olsen My Woman La Femme Mystére PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey The Hope Six Demolition Project Nick Cave Skeleton Tree Loscil Monument Builders Jenny Hval Blood Bitch Savages Adore Life Jehnny Beth Camille Berthomier Katie Gately Color albums bands concerts music live Top Ten Albums 2016 Best of 2016 records vinyl drone psychedelic rock garage rock ambient Australian Canadian American British French PItchfork Music Festival Pitchfork Canon Thee Oh Sees Chehei Hatakeyama

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This is a bit of an experiment...less of an experiment with these photos on The Line of Best Fit from the sold out Metro show in Chicago on Thurs:

www.thelineofbestfit.com/photos/live-photo-gallery/savage...

Official website: savagesband.com/

**All photos are copyrighted. Please don't use without permission**

Tags:   Monochrome Monday new music Monday Savages band British French Cabaret Metro sold out multiple exposure black and white noir et blanc Adore Life Silence Yourself Jehnny Beth Matador John and Jehn concert music live

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I wanted to capture her...the essence of her...not performing. Just being her. Human.

More photos and a review here: www.bigtakeover.com/concerts/pitchfork-music-festival-201...

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Tags:   Savages band Pitchfork Pitchfork Music Festival British French live concert John and Jehn John & Jehn Jehnny Beth Camille Berthomier Music Festival shadow lastfm:event=346874

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Jehnny Beth is the lead singer of Savages and is also an actress most recently the social worker Marge in the film Anatomy of a Fall (recommended) but was also in a different French film I liked a lot called Paris, 13th district. She's an incredible human and talented in so many ways! Here she is crowd surfing in Chicago at the Cabaret Metro.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehnny_Beth

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Tags:   Chicago Savages band live concert music actress musician Jehnny Beth Happy Birthday Crowd surfing singer Anatomy of a Fall Paris, 13th District Cabaret Metro French Camille Berthomier

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