This Year's List 3/15

Jim O'Rourke made the most perfect album this year. Not perfect in the best songs, the best sound or whatever. For me he made the best produced album this year. It was a long time ago when the former bassman of Sonic Youth made an album like this. There are a lot of reminiscences to many decades of music in it that I couldn't name all. Recorded over almost a half year with Japan-based musicians he recorded Simple Songs. But these songs are everything but simple. Eight songs with guitar, bass, drums, piano and O'Rourke's reserved voice. The songs are generally driven by by guitar and piano but strings, pedal steel, mandolin and horns are all featured prominently. Every instruments has it's place and the songs seems like a complete mosaic.

Jim O'Rourke - Friends With Benefits
Jim O'Rourke - These Hands
Jim O'Rourke - Last Year

This Years List 2/15

Until I saw her live at my birthday I've never heard any words about SOAK. I went to her small concert at the open-air festival expecting nothing more than another good folk-singer. But then she impressed me. Standing alone on the stage with an acoustic guitar that was almost too big for this 18 year old kid from Derry. She stood there like a shy fawn singing her very intimate songs with such a fragile voice I seldom heard. Most of the songs she played she wrote in her youngest days being 13 or 14 years old. Listening to the songs on her album Before We Forget How To Dream it is more electric and filled with little details that wasn't possible to do it on a solo performance. The art of writing her songs reminds me to Joni Mitchell which is also an artist that made a lot of intimate songs. All together a very good debut album between electric guitar folk to be played at the family room with fireplace.

SOAK - B a noBody
SOAK - 24 Widowed House
SOAK - Oh Brother

This Years List 1/15

Working year is almost over and in a few days I will go for a four week vacation to Sri Lanka again. Visiting the places I used to stay during the last years over Christmas and new years time and exploring places I haven't been yet. So you won't have any actual posts until mid of January 2016. During the last weeks I summed up the albums that was released this year and chosen 15 from 2015. It is a very personal selection by records that impressed me much, that accompanied me this year or I listened to often the recent months. This list will not be a valuation of the best records this year, it's just a personal review of albums that stood the test of time for this year. I am not the one that requires that the list is universally valid - it is more a retrospective of albums that was released in 2015 and I still listen to them since I first got my attention and I still listen to them. So in the nearby days I will introduce to you my albums of the year. Be curious what will happen the next days.


A record Julian Cope would love comes from San Francisco based Moon Duo. Guitarist Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada released Shadow of the Sun early this year. Nine songs with real psychedelia in it. Songs with distorted guitars, weird organ sound and a voices deeply halled. What them make more than an Haight-Ashbury cover is that they have a lot of elements of proto-punk and Krautrock in their sound that makes their sound unique. This records shimmers through many outputs this year and will surely played at my house more times.