02 MASSIMO VOLUME - Luce Mia
03 GABRIELLES WISH - Hypnagogic
04 Emidio Clementi - Notturno Americano
05 Swervedriver - I Wasn't Born To Lose You
06 Gabrielles Wish - Propaganda
07 ElDera - In Memory Of You
08 Johnny Marr - Adrenalin Baby (Johnny Marr Live)
09 Paul Hardcastle - The Chill Lounge, Vol. 3
10 Jake Evans - Day One
11 Robert Paul Corless - Robert Paul Corless + Volume Two and singles
12 Stefano Pilia - Blind Sun New Century Christology
13 Halftribe - Memory Module
14 Alex H - There's No Turning Back
15 Karima - Close To You (Karima Sings Bacharach)
16 Verdena - Endkadenz Vol. 1 + 2
17 Four80East - Positraction
18 Bjork - Vulnicura
19 Il Teatro Degli Orrori - Il Teatro Degli Orrori
20 Hot Vestry - A Scene In Between
| 21 Fabi Silvestri Gazzè - Il Padrone della Festa Live 22 Various Artists - Hackney's Finest (original soundtrack) 23 Anthony Mea - True 24 Lemongrass - Meditation 25 Jacob Gurevitsch - Lovers in Paris 26 Brian Wilson - No Pier Pressure 27 Cesare Malafatti - Una Città Esposta 28 Dan Solo - Classe A 29 City Lies - Camera 30 Henrik Lindstrand - Steppeulven 31 Killing Joke - Pylon 32 Simply Red - Big Love 33 Pitbull - Dale 34 Post CSI - Breviario Partigiano 35 Toto - XIV 36 Disclosure - Caracal 37 The Hamsters - Branches EP 38 The Names - Stranger Than You 39 Fabryka - Sparkles 40 Wire - Wire 41 Scisma - Mr. Newman 42 Ernest's Liver - Ernest's Liver 43 Nonostante Clizia - La Stagione Animale 44 Nek - Prima Di Parlare 45 Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show 46 Novalima - Planetario 47 LTN - People I'll Never Forget 48 Giovanni Caccamo - Qui Per Te 49 Aly & Fila - The Chill Out 50 Andrew Odd - Life |
This has been a pretty eclectic year! New Order released their first album in 10 years and the first with Tom Chapman replacing Peter Hook, with Gillian Gilbert welcome back, and it is an amazing masterpiece beyond any expectation met with unanymous critical acclaim.
Massimo Volume have made freely available a wonderful soundtrack only as download and on SoundCloud and that's why the most beautiful track is embedded separately above. Massimo Volume leader Emidio Clementi released his first excellent solo record, a collaboration with two members from Giardini di Mirò tributing poet Emanuel Carnevali. Stefano Pilia from Massimo Volume released a solo album with his wonderful guitar skills.
The new Gabrielles Wish album Hypnagogic has been another long awaited comeback and found them on top form with inspired songs and their trademark post punk sound. The band also released Propaganda, a compilation of their electronica sessions from the start of the century. Some of their classic songs were included in the Hackney's Finest soundtrack. Gabrielles Wish leader Robert Paul Corless had a really prolific year releasing two albums and a string of singles of charmingly dark ambient.
Swervedriver have been missing for a long time, and how: this superb album reminds us why. Johnny Marr released an excellent live album and former Bad Lieutenant singer Jake Evans made a truly amazing debut, basically indie music as it really should be made today.
The comeback of great indie and post punk, then, but also more excellent chill out releases, and label of the year has certainly been Silk Music, bringing us emotional masterpieces from the likes of ElDera (debut of the year and just the best of the many promising Russian artists in this field), Halftribe, City Lies and Andrew Odd. More great music came from the master of chill out, Paul Hardcastle.
Alex H definitely released the best progressive house EP (more good music in this genre from LTN) while the best smooth jazz/fusion album came from Four80East though Karima finally did her Bacharach covers album. Jazmine Sullivan did the best forward looking RnB.
Anthony Mea made possibly the best deep house release while chill out veterans Lemongrass did a surprise ambient album. The concept of Egyptian artists releasing great chill out on Armada made sense with Aly & Fila.
Verdena and Il Teatro Degli Orrori released excellent albums of Italian alternative rock, and we also had the surprise comeback of Scisma. (Post) CSI reunited with Angela Baraldi replacing Giovanni Lindo Ferretti as singer. Another good album from the massively underrated Fabryka. Former Marlene Kuntz bassist Dan Solo released his long awaited solo debut. Two interesing debuts in the Italian underground came from Ernest's Liver and Nonostante Clizia (produced by Riccardo Tesio from Marlene Kuntz). More great music from former La Crus Cesare Malfatti.
The Sanremo festival brought two surprises: a monster single and a pretty decent album by the usually more predictable Nek, and the emerging talent of Giovanni Caccamo.
Bjork's comeback has been a real surprise, because after years and years of pretentious avant garde she finally managed to balance it with some rediscovered emotional impact, most possibly because this is a breakup album.
An interesting debut came from Hot Vestry, a band featuring Steve and Gillian Morris' daughter Mathilda at the keyboard, the EP might have been definitely produced by Martin Hannett.
The Quiet Please label gave us some excellent chill out releases in the past, this year two main artists from that label came back with different stuff: an acoustic effort from Jacob Gurevitsch and a soundtrack from Henrik Lindstrand.
Latin anthem of the year is certainly El Taxi by Pitbull and his album is also decent enough. Novalima are a band from Peru doing great afrobeat.
The legendary Brian Wilson came back with his trademark pop genius, while I was expecting a little more from other classic pop giants like Toto and Simply Red. Disclosure's debut was very promising but this second effort is a bit underachieving.
Killing Joke did an amazingly good comeback, I still prefer their classic post punk sound to the more recent harder version, but this album is inspired. More punk and post punk returns from the likes of The Hamsters, Wire and The Names.
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2016, a year which will certainly bring us more great music!
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