My Top 10 albums of 2014

Despite my best intentions, I've been neglecting this blog for over a year now. There were so many great records I could have blogged about in 2014. So by way of recompense here's my round-up of my favourites:

Automat - "Automat" (Bureau B)

Modern-day krautrock meets electronic meets dub. Gotta love that heavy BASS! Features guest vocalists Lydia Lunch, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Blixa Bargeld. Perfect!  Buy it here.

Krautzone - "Superkraut" / Lamp Of The Universe - "Doors Of Perception" [Split LP] (HeadSpin)

This is a fantastic LP for a spot of astral travelling! Two side-long pieces from Germany's Krautzone and New Zealand's Lamp Of The Universe a.k.a. Craig Williamson. Well, I say side-long pieces but  actually Krautzone's side is split into two parts - Superkraut I and II - but it may as well be considered one long piece. It's all beautifully packaged too with sleeve spot-printed with UV gloss and silver/black marbled vinyl. Buy It Here.

Dead Sea Apes - "High Evolutionary" (Cardinal Fuzz)

Could have sworn these kraut/psychedelic vibes must have come from some of Germany's finest, but the Dead Sea Apes hail from no further away than Manchester. Another one for a spot of "inner travel". Buy It Here.

Earthling Society - "England Have My Bones" (Riot Season)

Brilliant. Just four tracks forming part of a seamless whole. Intense, spacey and jazzy too! I prefer the version here of Alice Coltrane's "Journey in Satchidananda" as opposed to the remixed version with new overdubs released on the "Coltrane" EP by Fruits De Mer Records and which was just too busy for its own good. Here it is absolutely perfect. Buy It Here.

Kreidler - "ABC" (Bureau B)

First class contemporary electronic music from Germany. It's like a harder-hitting Kraftwerk but with swathes of EBow guitar supplying an organic counterpoint to the synths. Buy It Here.

Teeth Of The Sea - "A Field In England: Re-Imagined" (Rocket Recordings)

Teeth Of The Sea were my personal big discovery of 2014. I think I found them via the Rocket Recordings bandcamp page and was intrigued enough to listen and then buy their albums. (I bought everything I could, alas I haven't tracked down the debut EP yet). The music takes elements of psychedelia, electronica, IDM, kraut, and the guitar, bass, drums, synths line-up is often supplemented by very effective use of trumpet. Perfect soundtrack music, as indeed was the whole point of this particular Record Store Day release which is in equal parts mesmerising and menacing. SOLD OUT but see Teeth Of The Sea and Rocket Recordings Bandcamp pages for other releases.

Sendelica - "Live At Crabstock" (Friends Of The Fish)

Recorded live at Crabstock, the Fruits De Mer Records Festival of Psychedelia held in Cardigan, Wales, back in April 2014. I had to include this album as a momento of a fantastic day, and with Sendelica's set (following hot on the heels of a fabulously intense set from Earthling Society) closing the festival in a blissed-out wave of instrumental psychedelia. The set includes a frenetic "Motorik Jam", a taster for what's in store on 2015's Anima Mundi album now renamed "Master Benjamin Warned Young Albert Not To Step On The Uninsulated Air". It also includes a live rendition of Sendelica's first Fruits De Mer Records 7" b-side, a cover of Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" (I joined the band on stage to play rhythm guitar on this track, but hey, you're not going to hold it against me for nominating an album I actually appear on, are you?). Buy It Here.

Acid Mothers Temple et Rosina de Feira - "Live in Tolosa" (Bam Balam)

I bought this LP at a totally intensely crucial Acid Mothers Temple gig in Cardiff in the summer - it was absolutely jaw-dropping stuff as far as I was concerned. This album features some of the same material and in a way is memento of that unforgettable gig. Buy It Here.

Astralasia - Wind On Water (Fruits De Mer)

Just a really great slice of psyche from Astralasia - I have a particular fondness for "The Desert" which is one of the tracks on a 7" EP included alongside the LP as part of the package. And what a package it is too. Fruits de Mer Records went all out on this one with clear vinyl records, a screen-printed PVC outer sleeve and printed cover making for some weird optical effects. SOLD OUT but see Fruits De Mer Records for other releases.

Tor Peders - Brev Fran Ederstorp (Fruits De Mer)

Swedish band Tor Peders recorded this organ and fuzz guitar propelled album of instrumental psyche back in 2011, but following the death of guitarist Jonas in a car accident soon after completion, the album was put on ice. Thankfully, it was released by Fruits De Mer earlier this year, as it is simply too good to languish unheard and unreleased on a dusty shelf somewhere. SOLD OUT but see Fruits De Mer Records for other releases.

Honourable mentions:

Goat - "Commune" (Rocket Recordings)

Whilst not in my Top 10, this is one of my also rans. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine album, but it lacks the initial "Whoah" factor (as opposed to Wow-factor) that makes people sit up and listen that the first album "World Music" had. And that's mainly because it's re-treading the same ground. Not that that's a bad thing but it's not going to have the same impact as the debut.

Nice package from Rocket Recordings on this one including die cut sleeve, red vinyl with blue splatter, and additional 7" disc. Buy It Here.

Camera - "Remember I Was Carbon Dioxide" (Bureau B)

Another of my also-rans, which didn't quite make it into the Top 10.

As with the Goat album, this Camera release is their second album, so perhaps is overshadowed by that debut release that initially made such an important statement about the band and their sound. Nevertheless it's a fine album of contemporary instrumental krautrock. I might have scored it more highly perhaps, if my copy of the record was not scratched from new (thank goodness they also included a CD copy of the album in the package. Still - it's NOT a perfect scenario, and with the cost of returning the LP to Germany to consider I decided not to bother - but please take note Bureau B, your quality control let you down on this one). Buy It Here.

Craig Padilla - "Sonar" (Fruits De Mer)

Another lovely package from Fruits De Mer records with glass-like coloured vinyls, beautifully krauty and colourful gatefold sleeve, etc. And of course, great spacey Tangerine Dream-esque electronic music from Craig Padilla. Another one to listen to and let your mind soar up into the sky. Buy It Here.

Camera - Systeme Solare 12" EP

2013 Bureau B, MS 977196 BB139

A1: Skylla
A2: Meteor
B1: Skylla (Remix by Solyst)
B2: Meteor (Remix by Alvin B. Clay)

This white vinyl 12" EP by Camera is the other Record Store Day 2013 release from Bureau B that I referred to in my recent review of that label's other three releases for RSD 2013.

Camera are a German band producing modern-day "krautrock" or "space rock" styled instrumental music. The trio behind the Camera - Franz Baargmann on guitar, Tim Brockmann on keyboards, and Michael Drummer on drums (with a name like that he must have felt compelled to take up that particular instrument) - have been making such a big impression on the "kosmische" music scene that a certain Mr Michael Rother (Kraftwerk, Neu!, Harmonia) has joined them on stage on several occasions. Their debut album Radiate! was released in 2012 by Bureau B and offers a fantastic slice of the genre; I'd recommend it to anyone keen on progressive instrumental rock.

This EP, however, was recorded at session in February 2013 and sees the trio joined by bassist Shaun Mulrooney who is credited on the Radiate! album only as "Invisible Man", so I'm guessing he's just an occasional band member.

"Skylla" offers much promise opening with a Tangerine Dream-like analogue synth pattern and then delivers magnificently as an insistent drum beat kicks in and is joined by bubbling synthesiser melodies intertwining around one another whilst a plaintive lead motif (not sure if it's another synth or else an EBow guitar or similar) provides a sense of melancholy amidst the maelstrom. The track rushes to a climax with grinding guitar added to the mix before the whole thing rapidly dissolves away to nothing.

"Meteor" effectively gives us more of the same, but ratcheted up a notch. With an arpeggiated synth groove, crashing drums and guitars it feels like the band are going for it at full throttle. Guitar feedback squeals give the track a very "live" feel; I can't help but think if ever The Jesus & Mary Chain decided to produce a kosmische song it would sound something like this.

On side two we get the same two tracks again, but this time in remixed versions. "Skylla (Remix by Solyst)" brings in a new bass motif and moves with a much more relaxed pace than the original track. It's also more atmospheric with emphasised percussion sounds and a new plucked string melody line. This time the whole track dissolves in a minor cacophony of radio interference and static.

"Meteor (Remix by Alvin B. Clay)" offers a more predictable "thud thud thud thud" four-to-the-floor dancefloor filler style, and probably features much less of the original source material than the first remix on this EP. It's a bit of a stomper but somehow manages to retain the atmosphere and urgency of the original.

Although this was a Record Store Day 2013 release limited to 700 copies, Bureau B still have a few copies available via their website. If synth-based instrumental kosmische music is your thing, snap one up soonest!