Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà - Dialogue of Water (Ambient, New Age)

A wonderful collaboration, fusing a new age sensibility with a more sonorous and expansive ambient approach. Each song is richly woven, with ethnic instrumentation seamlessly integrated alongside drones and synths which wax and wane around the shape of the music, centring texture and timbre in a truly meditative and mystical manner.

New SWANS is here. It's called The Beggar. It's already growing on me...it goes for a spiritual quality with very moving dirgy moments scattered throughout.

More thoughts later...

https://swans.bandcamp.com/album/the-beggar

I was already super into this album (as I mentioned earlier), but I saw them live on Wednesday and it was phenomenal, and now I'm into The Record even more. Absolutely a band that is on the verge of a total, massive breakthrough. I think they'll be selling out hockey arenas and stadiums within 5-6 years if they stay together.

I've seen some middling or critical comments about it recently, and that's just a clue to stay off Twitter really.

Bend the Future's Sounds So Wrong was my only non-metal notably supported release for June. Just some concise, poppy prog-jazz thing. Not a massive amount of meat on the bones but the brevity was welcome compared to most of the sprawling monsters I keep coming across in this sphere.

AOTY contenders for Q2 2023:

Yes-Mirror To The Sky. This is the best Yes album in a long while, maybe since Keys To Ascension (I’m not interested in the debate over the legitimacy of the lineup).

Noel Gallagher-Council Skies. In some ways, the most Oasis sounding record he’s done since Oasis.

Sigur Ros-Atta. A logical follow up to Valtari, a meditative experience.

Heavenward-Pyrophonics. A 90s throwback space rock record, in the vein of Hum. A very, very strong debut.

Other albums that ended up being decent, but not AOTY contenders from Q2 2023:

Foo Fighters-But Here We Are
Rancid-Tomorrow Never Comes
Extreme-Six
Skating Polly-Chaos County Line


I finally got to hear both the White Reaper and Winery Dogs records released in Q1 and both are incredible. Easy AOTY contenders for sure.

I'm putting on the Noel Gallagher album now. I really liked the album Chasing Yesterday, but haven't bothered with him since for whatever reason.

I feel like I remember hearing one of the brothers had reached out to the other on an Oasis reunion recently.

I figured Oasis would've been back to touring by now.

Chasing Yesterday has my favorite Noel solo song, “You Know We Can’t Go Back”. I’d put this song up against any Oasis classic.

His 2017 album Who Built The Moon? and his three 2019-2020 EPs (which make up something of an album when combined) dabble in a strange take on psychedelic rock, very much uncharacteristic compared to his previous solo and band work. Which I appreciate the effort to deeply explore new ideas when he could’ve easily coasted by with making familiar music. Council Skies is more tied into his past work.

I am of the opinion that Oasis will never get back together. Which I am fine with, Liam has totally lost it vocally and his solo music is painfully average at the very best. At least Noel’s solo music-while not at Oasis’ lofty heights-remains creatively vital.

Some of my non-metal favorites so far in 2023:

Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World

Unwed Sailor - Mute the Charm

Blonde Maze - Another Color

French Police - BLEU

The Veils - ...and out of the Void Came Love

The Jordan - Nowhere Near the Sky

The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein

Noel Gallagher - Council Skies

The Church - The Hypnogogue

Matchbox Twenty - Where the Light Goes

Beach Fossils - Bunny

Wow, I would not have guessed that Matchbox 20 would still be around 20 years ago. Have they managed to get any songs played in supermarkets other than off their debut?

I don't know if the new Box is good enough for the supermarket but like all Box records, it's pretty outstanding.

Listened to the new Oxbow today and its another good album

July was a good listening month for me, so I've got a few non-metal finds.

Sarmat - Determined to Strike: Not on MA and I do get why given there's only like four riffs on it, but it's wanky tech jazz made out of tech death instrumentation, and I like wanky tech jazz. I wish they used more sax for full freak out points.

Physique - Again: I simp for d-beat. Dirty, old school aggression with no curve balls at all. Just goes hard.

Squid - O Monolithe: Notably less rad than Bright Green Field but it is still quite good. They've toned back the bouncy, dancey parts which is a bummer since them doing post-brexit Talking Heads x Modest Mouse was the best, but this laid back post-rocky version still has its merits.

Helen Money & Will Thomas - Trace: Helen Money is the best fancy art drone lady and I will hear no dissent. This time around she's paired up with some nobody from 20 years ago to give a bit more of a driving, electronically touched up take to her apocalyptic cello drones. It's good.

Old Saw - Sewn the Name: Not as sunny and openly compelling as Country Tropics, but this moodier take on Old Saw still lands. Big rustic dusty drones with plenty of americana plucking for flavour and interest grabbing over the top.

Really digging this record. Also really enjoying "Don't Let You Love Life Get You Down" from Jaye Jayle, the solo project from Evan Patterson (Young Widows, ex-Breather Resist, Black Cross and a ton of others)

Not sure if this is the right place for this (or if there even IS a right place for this on MA), but I just had a new collaborative ambient album published and wanted to share it with the community here, maybe get some feedback from anyone who likes this sort of work.
I feel it's strong material, so hopefully some of y'all might enjoy.

https://reversealignment.bandcamp.com/a ... -s-embrace

Thanks for listening, and admins, feel free to delete this if it's in any way inappropriate

Here's an excerpt:

Ja! Samiam is awesome and the new stuff isn't too shabby! Glad to see this type of music is still considered.

unfuckingfortunately I missed The Beths this past week that were performing one town over......shit sold out and all the hipsters got the tickets but I still like them a lot. They're from New Zealand. Not sure if this crowd is into them but they're really cool.
https://youtu.be/HEO3vmxjoa0?t=1
This is an awesome thread to read though. It's very interesting to me to see what other MH's are into besides metal \m/

Here's just 10 of the best hip hop albums I've been listening to lately that I wanna share;

Joell Ortiz & L'Orange - Signature

With these two, there's no need to waste time. Hard bars face off with equally gritty hard hitting production. It's not subtle, but it is some kind of wonderful.



Yungmorpheus - From Whence It Came

Loove the hazy, jazzy and slick production on this coupled with the evocative nature of his lyrics. Got this on repeat.



Icecoldbishop - Generational Curse

His wry and sardonic tone may not be for everyone but it reveals a relatable weariness nonetheless. Conscious, tapped in hip hop with a current grit to it.



Noname - Sundial

Dense, layered raps for daaaaays!!!! She is so good that so many other rappers should just quit because only few can write like this. One of the best albums released this year in any genre and her discography was already quite flawless. The music is as soulful and wistful as ever with some left turns that are simply amazing.



If you are interested in some of what she's saying, I recommend this breakdown too;



Mick Jenkins - The Patience

Noname collaborator and fellow Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins returns with a stronger album than his last few. Sharper overall and more biting where the others were a tad lackadaisical. I also appreciate the features on here (Benny the Butcher, Vic Mensa, JID and Freddie Gibbs). It gets better with more listens.



El Michels Affair & Black Thought - Glorious Game

Black Thought is on the Mount Rushmore of fierce rap lyricists and he shows off more of that consistency on here with some rich layered backing from the grand funk/soul group El Michels Affair.



Skyzoo & The Other Guys - The Mind Of A Saint

Skyzoo is from New York so this is that East Coast boom bap shit. It sounds warm and cerebral, the way it should be. I appreciate this well-worn kind of hip hop when it is firmly rooted in the present so I'm here for this. Skyzoo never uses the N-word in his songs btw.



Mach-Hommy - Notorious Dump Legends: Volume 2

This is sort of an honorable mention because Mach-Hommy is very prolific and his collaborations with Tha God Fahim are all similarly drumless, thoughtful and worth checking out. I love so many things about his process and his delivery though that I am of course going to give all his works some degree of spins. His samples are soooo good;

"you fuckin' Haitians, you think you can voodoo your way out of this?" lol



I appreciate that he continues to rap about his homeland Haiti, which is one of the least acknowledged places in the world and how he advocates maintaining a sober, productive lifestyle.



McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?

The title is three Toni Morrison novels. This is melodic, soulful, emotive and altogether timely and brilliant. His last project was one of my faves from 2021 and this is the follow-up we needed.



Kool Keith & Real Bad Man - SERPENT

Kool Keith is a legend in this comic-book style of rap that MF Doom perfected and Czarface furthered. Vivid and stylish as always, this is perfect to get lost into.

The new Coraline Polachek album, Desire I Want to Turn into You, is my favorite non-metal release of the year so far. It's pretty rare that pop albums are that engaging to me. Usually it's going to be a few tracks, singles and whatnot. But I'm very happy when I find a new pop album that I thoroughly enjoy. Great album from start to finish, with a wide variety of styles, melodies and moods. Nice featurings by Dido and Grimes as well

some of the stuff i've liked so far:

xysma - no place like alone; great comeback album from this legendary band - partly metallic, partly quite soft rock with plenty of weird stuff all over
rodrigo y gabriela - in between thoughts... instrumental flamenco/rock type stuff - i prefer their self titled and 11:11, with their more down to earth approach, but this is good too
terveet kädet - kaikki kaikkia vastaan; if you're into hc punk (which i'm generally not) you probably know about these guys already
kassi valazza - knows nothing; nice easy listenin' slightly folky country
夢遊病者 - Skopofoboexoskelett; experimental noise rock sort of thing - feels a little cacophony at first, but you'll quickly find the groove within
willie nelson - i don't know a thing about love: the songs of harlan howard... really needs to introduction...
nuclear power trio - wet ass plutonium; modern prog - not as good as their first, but still good

Another good month for me in August.

EABS & Jaubi - In Search of a Better Tomorrow
Another month another jazz album. This one is a mash up of quite a modern slick Polish collective and a more spiritually focused Pakistani woman. The fusion bros definitely have the spotlight which is fine by me since I find the mellower parts a bit dull, but it's definitely one of the best of the year.

Noname - Sundial
A lot of backlash against this one due to an anti-semetic guest verse and her apparently being a total fuckwit on the twitters, so ya know, feel free to skip, but Noname is very skilled. I can't really think of any rappers with as much flow and style diversity in their delivery off the top of my head, she's just constantly changing it up and it's a nice mix up for the genre which tends to rely on everyone staying in their lane and doing their specific style constantly. Not as keen on the chilled out cafe jazz instrumentals however.

The HIRS Collective - We're Still here
Angry lesbian screeching powerviolence/grind.

Witch - Zango
Guy from an Zamibian rock band which ended 40 years ago after everyone else died of AIDS reforms with a new group of people to express his love to Zamibian rock. Possibly elevating a little due to the good vibes of the story and general positivity on offer, but it's some neat funky psychy stuff.

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving - Oscillating Forest
This is probably their busiest album yet, which I don't mind given the ambient and droning leanings of everything since their astounding debut, so I'm here for all the playing. With that said I don't think it connects as well as other releases by the band, the piano stuff feels kinda separate from the post/art-rock aspects.

Monika Roscher Bigband - Witchy Activities and the Maple Death
Absolutely falls into theatre geek territory a LOT of the time, but is stuff which is taking experimental big band oddness into tighter, more compact songs compared to the more high art behemoths the style tends to trade in.

listening to this and liking it made me check out their back catalogue - great stuff!

It's definitely one of the most feel good releases of the year for sure.

The new Oxbow is indeed very good. Cheers to whoever else acknowledged it. As charmingly unusual and unsettlingly bluesy as only they can be. The Lingua Ignota feature was also a pleasant surprise.

Steven Wilson – The Harmony Codex

Electronic rock, at times minimalistic and ambient, at times loud and complicated with influences from jazz rock ("Impossible Tightrope"). It's not his worst and far from his best.

That Wilson… at times he reminds me of late night reruns on some two-digit channel where they present strangely familiar images and tunes and where the cover of Porcupine Tree's "Closure/Continuation" rephrases the cover of David Bowie's "The Next Day" while the cover of "The Harmony Codex" seems to cite "Walk between Worlds" by Simple Minds whereas the verse melody of the brand new "What Life Brings" is a… is a blatant rip-off of "Jealous Guy" written by John Lennon and made popular by Roxy Music. The programme on that channel is called "I Want to be Someone Else". Ages ago, Wilson wanted to be Pink Floyd ("Voyage 34" etc. etc.). Now he wants to be many pop luminaries at the same time. I bet next time he'll push his pitchshifter to Kate Bush-levels of stormlashed ghost voice before coming full circle on "On the Sunday of Life Part II" when he reverts to his old kid-on-helium persona Linton Samuel Dawson… but let's not digress but listen, re-listen and re-listen to "The Harmony Codex", be entertained by the juxtaposition of electronica and traditional band and songwriter sounds and be fascinated by the idea that every re-listen is like a remix revealing a layer that just wasn't there before. 8/10

Seconding EABS/Jaubi and Witch, great stuff.

New Animal Collective released yesterday was pretty good. They've mellowed a lot and the songwriting is a lot more cohesive and traditional now, but there's still some of that weirdness and whimsy from their 2000s period.
The National is one of my favorite bands. First Two Pages of Frankenstein was quite boring and underwhelming, but Laugh Track made up for it, especially because they finally stopped sabotaging their drummer on this one.
Oneohtrix Point Never's new album is a return to form after some forgettable records.

Didn't get a massive amount of listening done so only a few for September.

McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
A short somewhat frontloaded bop. Very lush instrumentation but doesn't sacrifice big grooving beats to get in all the musical layers. Not like it's the hardest set of bars ever or anything but it's got a nice blend of driving energy, pop sensibility and rewarding detailing.

Kvelertak - Endling
Energy is consistently up and it's fairly fun, still sucks that they cut out the moments of genuine extremity but it's the most they've grabbed me since the debut.

Asia Menor - Enola Gay
Who said Britain gets to have all the post-brexitcore. This is a chillean sorta post punk meets indie rock thing. I might have got more out of it if I spoke the language, but I think it sounds pretty nice. I just like having one of these bands where the vocals aren't talking and the songs are fairly concise and lively.

Ken Mode released the second part of their 2022 album. Both albums are fantastic. Noise rock/post hardcore/sludge.

AOTY contenders for Q3 2023:

None that I heard so far. I expect the Steven Wilson will make the cut based on two of the advance songs I had heard, but I am waiting on my vinyl and blu ray copies to arrive for a first full listen.

Other albums that ended up being decent, but not AOTY contenders from Q3 2023:

Carbon Based Lifeforms-Seeker
Explosions In The Sky-End

I could see the Explosions In The Sky making the cut, more is revealed with each subsequent listen.

I also think the Soen album is quite good, but I don’t rate them as non-metal; they are prog metal to me despite MA seeing contrary to that. It is quite good, but not AOTY material.

Q3 was kind of weak to my ears.

The new Tyga and YG album is absolutely filthy and the kind of shit that I'm slightly embarrassed to say I like, but damn it, I really like it.

So this new blink-182 album. It's seriously good. Dance with Me is easily my favourite song of the year.

blink 182 were good at their job of making find de siecle punk music. barker's drumming is a level above what you'd expect. his rudiments are flawless

I’ve only heard portions of the new Blink album, and what I have heard is fairly excellent, and I am very much looking forward to hearing it in full when I can carve out some time with my vinyl copy for an in depth listen. That said:

-I still see no reason why they could not have kept Skiba and been a four piece, two guitar, three vocalist band. Even if only for live shows.

-I still think it’s lame when rock bands use outside songwriters. Not a deal breaker, just kind of lame. I kind of understood why they went this route for the Skiba albums, they probably felt they needed a boost with DeLonge’s absence, but for Tom to be back and they still need outside writers for nearly every song on this album is just kind of lame.

-I saw them this summer, and was surprised to hear “Cynical” and “Bored To Death” in the set (and Tom sounded good playing these songs), I do hope they keep sprinkling in Skiba-era tunes, especially from Nine, which was a fucking excellent record.

October had a lot more metal finds for me, but my couple of non-metal finds were probably at a higher standard overall:

Nihiloxica - Source of Denial
Sadly some of the shittest cover art from a band noted for having some of the best ever, but musically they're still in form. African drum circle pushed into rhythmically dense dance anthem stuff, they're one of the best at it.

Radiation Blackbody - Dead Seed Planted in Dead Earth
If the Lightning Bolt guys wanted to make proggier, slightly less visceral tunes. Could do with some diversity but endless bass grooves and drum freakouts.

Raja Kirik released a new album that is basically an absolutely crushing post industrial take on Indonesian traditional opera, very cool.

https://yesnowave.bandcamp.com/album/ph ... f-jathilan

Teeth from the Sea released another good record mixing 90s post rock with kraut rock.

https://teethofthesea.bandcamp.com/album/hive

The Goat from Japan released Joy in Fear which is an electronica influenced sort of jazzy minimalist but also very busy rhythmically rock album. I haven't seen it on streaming yet but it is findable in other ways.

the new dolly parton album is great - only criticism is letting fucking lizzo anywhere near stairway to heaven

Given December is relisten and rerank month this is likely my last batch of contenders for the year.

ZA! & la TransMegaCobla - ZA! & la TransMegaCobla
Silly as hell donky brutal prog stuff mixed with dancey and african artfolk shit. Really dumb but really fun.

Azmari - Maelström
Belgian nerds making african jazz fusion, they're often quite campy, but this new one is a little less goofy. Not sure if that's a positive or negative.

JOHN (TIMESTWO) - A Life Diagrammatic
They still only have one song, this short noisy garage rock ranting driving crescendo. It's a good song but they need to add more to take the next step up.

PoiL/Ueda - Yoshitsune
They did another one and... it's also about half really good half really bad. My issue here is that I hate them both in isolation. PoiL solo make obnoxious artdouche noises with no interest in sounding good. Ueda makes melodramatic puppet theatre more interested in emoting and story telling than sounding good. Together, they make sacrifices to make their sounds compatible with each other and it results in these wildly complex and interesting songs which actually sound good. Sadly they keep letting each other do solo parts half the time and they always suck. Mix the good halves of both albums and that would be possibly my AOTY.

Album of the year if you ask me. For fans of Swans, Fugazi, etc.



https://bidehuts.bandcamp.com/album/lor ... akatu-arte

These are my favourite non-metal records of the year 2023 thus far:

1. Crown Lands - Fearless (progressive rock)
2. Arjen Lucassen's Supersonic Revolution - Golden Age of Music (progressive rock)
3. Yes - Mirror to the Sky (progressive rock)
4. Godsmack - Lighting Up the Sky (hard rock)
5. Puddle of Mudd - Ubiquitous (grunge)
6. Russkaja - Turbo Polka Party (polka)
7. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Bauhaus Staircase (synth pop)
8. Deathstars - Everything Destroys You (industrial gothic rock)
9. Universum25 - Universum25 (synth punk rock)
10. Greta van Fleet - Starcatcher (progressive rock)
11. Lordi - Scream Writers Guild (hard rock)
12. Sonic Metaphors - Something Dark (gothic rock)
13. Dogma - Dogma (gothic rock)
14. ASP - Horrors - A Collection of Gothic Novellas (gothic rock)
15. The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds (blues rock)
16. The 69 Eyes - Death of Darkness (gothic rock)
17. Depeche Mode - Memento Mori (synth pop)
18. Oomph! - Richter und Henker (Neue Deutsche Härte)
19. Blink-182 - One More Time... (pop punk)
20. Babymetal - The Other One (kawaii metal)
21. Hanabie. - Reborn Superstar (Metalcore)
22. Rauhbein - Herz eines Kriegers (folk rock)
23. Svalbard - The Weight of the Mask (post-hardcore)
24. Soen - Memorial (progressive rock)
25. Reol - Black Box (electronic pop)
26. Subway to Sally - Himmelfahrt (folk rock)
27. Alice Cooper - Road (hard rock)
28. Lucina Soteira - Tempel (psychedelic pop)
29. Joachim Witt - Der Fels in der Brandung (gothic rock)
30. Thirty Seconds to Mars - It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day (electronic pop)

This year has had its share of excellent non-metal releases. They have been on par with metal records this year. My favourite record of the year thus far is even a non-metal album. I'm looking forward to discovering many new non-metal releases next year from bands such as Green Day, In Extremo, Magnum, MGMT, New Model Army, Sia, Sum 41, Takida, The Libertines, The Veronicas and many others.

My favorite rock albums of 2023.

Winery Dogs - III

Perfect View - Bushido

Robin McAuley - Alive

Sweet & Lynch - Heart & Sacrifice

Invasion - Invasion

King Kobra - We are Warriors

Eclipse - Megalomanium

Revolution Saints - Eagle Flight

Jelusick - Follow the Blind Man

Ronnie Atkins - Trinity

Lynch Mob - Babylon