Best of 2016. Albums 41-50

After all the preliminary moves and preparations it's time to present to you the 1st load of Top50 albums. So, here we go!

Previous entries:
Top10 - EPs and mini albums
Honorable mention #1
Honorable mention #2

50. Noise Box "Every Picture Of You Is When You Were Younger" (p)Son Buenos

BANDCAMP

Dreamy, foggy, blurred photographs of what was your past. The moments you're not sure if they were for real, or they are just some strange faults of your imagination. This is what these songs definitely are.

49. San Jeronimo "Salinas, 20:15" (p)WeAreWolves

BANDCAMP

The quiet semi-acoustic slowcore album that's made of beautiful sounds and distinct melodies. A good album to dive into the atmosphere of the thin air and fragile visions ahead.

48. Belako "Hamen" (p)Mushroom Pillow

OFFICIAL SITE

One of the best Pais Vasco bands creates majesty through post-punk marching rhythms, synth-generated noises, guitar bursts and occasional no-wave shrieks. The tools they use are pretty the same as earlier, but "Hamen" delivers their best melodies ever.

47. Señores "La Luz" (p)Cuatro Barbas

BANDCAMP

Less post-hardcore syncopes, more indie rock kicks? No, I'm not going to say Señores go pop. Their new album is hardly accessible for those who doesn't come to terms with Jawbox or Braid back catalogues but for me it's a nice pool to sink in.

46. Briotica "La Maldicion De Los Galacticos" (p)Warner

DEEZER

The grunge'ed, noise'ed and extremely sped-up form of shoegaze. I'd consider it a successor of JAMC's painfully underrated "Munki" LP. Full throttle from the fisrt beat to the last one.

45. It's Not Not "Fool The Wise" (p)BCore Disc

BANDCAMP

This is how to make melodic punk record without making pop punk record. The residents of emblematic BCore Disc label know how to make it perfectly.

44. Jorganes "Brokn" (p)El Hombre Bala

BANDCAMP

Less abstract hip-hop more pure electronica. Less beats more elegy. The Dilated Peoples' gloomy MC'ing allusions are [almost completely] gone and what we've got instead is the pure beauty.

43. Yes I M "#Borabora" (p)Foehn

BANDCAMP

Oceania in my head. The new record by Mario Gutierrez Brun by all means outdoes his previous work "Vietnam". It's captivating majesty can transfer you to the places where the words 'atoll' and 'haven' describe the reality much better then 'the pressures of urban lifestyle'.

42. Guerrera "Guerrera" (p)Matapadre

BANDCAMP

The hard-boiled psychedelia meets the suffocating sludge. ¡TchKung! meets the nuclear meltdown. The Santiago-based all-star team have done it again on their double-LP album.

41. Galaxina "Evasion Y Victoria" (p)Clifford

BANDCAMP

Before I ever listened to this album I assumed it's a dreampop album taking into account the bandname and the album cover. At that moment I 've already got the most part of the Top50 prepared, and I didn't want another dreampop album in my list cos it was already too many dreampop albums in there. But Galaxina's "Evasion Y Victoria" really made me to love it from the first listen cos the songs are great, and some songs are really great. Just listen to "Lejos De Ninguna Parte", for example.

The Best Of 2014. Albums 4 - 10

10. Acuario "Cassette Para Los Niños"

(p)Marxophone

The solo analogue electronica project of Nudozurdo's Leo Mateos. These great tunes (imagine something between Depeche Mode's "Some Great Reward" and Dorian's "La Ciudad Subterranea") accompanied by the familiar plaintive vocals of Leo should be the good intermediate POI for the one who's waiting for the next Nudozurdo release - but it's not good, in fact. It appears to be fucking good.

09. Guerrera "Mauna Loa"

(p)Matapadre

A supergroup of sorts (Guerrera represents the members of the local Galician indie bands - such diverse as melodic indie/grunge-oriented Holywater or blackened crust/hardcore Ictus, for example), this band is the energy, the fury and the rampage all incapsulated and wrapped up in psychedelic/ sludge/ progressive thunderstorm.

08. I Am Dive "Wolves"

(p)Foehn

A total opposite to Guerrera, I Am Dive's new album is the quiet slowcore mixed with ambient IDM and dreampop, a perfect soundtrack to the lonely hours spent on the thin border between the reality and the dream.

07. Sr. Chinarro "Perspectiva Caballera"

(p)VEEMMM

In the 2010's Antonio Luque has come to the 'album per year' schedule. But despite the short interims between albums the last one contains some visible changes to the renowned musician's usual template. On his most recent work Antonio sounds like he was bitten by Bill Callahan. So, "Perspectiva Caballera" is the most cohesive album in Sr. Chinarro's history - and probably the saddest one.

06. Niños Mutantes "El Futuro"

(p)Ernie Producciones

Though "Las Noches de Insomnio" and "Naufragos" contained some truly great songs, but they did not work for me as albums. So "El Futuro" is their first album in years which contains some great songs and works very well as a whole.

05. Sidonie "Sierra Y Canada"

(p)Sony/Octubre

The best bittersweet pop album of the year. "These songs surely will make sing and dance along and get stuck in your head for [at least] months", I wrote 8 months ago. And now I must admit that it works just like I predicted.

04. Poomse "Vs.The Kingdom Of Death"

(p)Foehn

With two albums in Top10 and absolutely fantastic Karen Koltrane short album, Barcelona-based Foehn Records is the 'Champion of All Indie Labels' in 2014. The Poomse's album was the first released by Foehn this year - in the very beginning of February, so this album follows me all the year through. With the songs like "Empty Sea", "August, 2011" and especially "Daily Bread" it's the best companion for the old school indie rock fan like me. 

Las Resenas Casuales. Guerrera "Mauna Loa"

Guerrera "Mauna Loa" (p)2014 Matapadre Discografica

Krautrock and "Farfisa" from the Galician supergroup.

This album delivers the audio collages where the vintage ritual psichedelia meets black voodoo happening soundtracks. Hitting Birth, TchKung! - these names came into my mind first of all, and while Guerrera definitely did not aim to distinguish the drug-infused primal angst of the first mentioned as well as the shattered semi-unconcious state of mind of the second (I suppose los componentes de la banda have never heard about TchKung! at all) the music is convoluted and adventurous enough to be pretty uneasy listening even for the ones prepared. 

The album is divided into two parts of 18 and a half minutes long compositions consisting of the deep instrumental layers of endless guitar passages, sound effects, spasmatic octopus drumming and rare reverbed vocals all shaken but not stirred.

It is absolutely impossible to mark out the best tracks in here due to the fact that there are only two tracks and both are amazing.

You may grab the album on the 'name your price' basis FROM HERE (Matapadres's bandcamp page) if you'd want to.