Tangkap Accent's 20 favourite albums of 2013

i don't usually do album lists. but that's cos i've been lazy. here are my 20 favourite albums of 2013.

20.  John Zorn - On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits

 
Always judge an album by its cover. Particularly if the cover is Salvador Dali's "The Temptation of St. Anthony".

19. Forest Swords - Engravings

Contrary to what some claim, this does not sound like what the hippies play outside the Freo town hall.


18. Burial - Rival Dealer EP

Keeps getting better and better and better.


17. Esmerine - Dalmak

Esmerine is Bruce Cawdron (GY!BE) and Beckie Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion). Wikipedia says they play "modern chamber music", but fortunately this album doesn't sound anything like that. Heaps of Mediterranean influences in this. Worth more than a tasty nibble.


16. Nick Bohun - Repetitive Nature /ofinely Tuned Machine

Nick Bohun is an experimental musician whom I discovered on twitter. He records sound for films and has released several albums on his bandcamp this year - all of which are excellent. This particular one is my favourite.

15. Wooden Wand and The World War IV - Wooden Wand and The World War IV

Macdonalds on the moon, Starbucks at the wailing wall.

14. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

The second best Nick Cave album, ever. The best, of course, was 1997's The Boatman's Call. Like that album, Push The Sky Away has one track which is so bad it should have never been there.

13. Moderat - II

I'm still surprised that I like this.

12. Bill Callahan - Dream River

Nothing surprising about this one. Makes you wanna make love in the fertile dirt, with a careless mind.

11. Acid Mothers Temple and Space Paranoia - Black Magic Satori

The most listenable Acid Mothers Temple album ever. Here, they do Black Sabbath.

10. X'Ho + ARCN TEMPL - Lucifugous

Chris Ho singing more dark songs of Singaporean authoritarianism. Brilliantly backed by ARCN TEMPL (Leslie Low and Vivian Wang of The Observatory).

9. Future of the Left - How to Stop your Brain in an Accident

Their best album so far. "Singing of the Bonesaws" wins the award for Best Lyrics 2013.

8. Awk Wah - Ava

Someone called this "outsider step".

7. Sigmun - Extended Play MMXII

Like Led Zep, only more psychedelic and better. Will I get to see them in Bandung?

6. Nurse With Wound - Chromanatron

Steve Stapleton together with Andrew Liles meditating on the music of legendary German Krautrock band SAND.

5. Tim Hecker - Virgins

A lot of good things have been said about this album, and they are all true.

4. Grails - Black Tar Prophesies Volumes 4, 5 and 6

Together with Mogwai and Russian Circles, one of the best post-rock bands around. Was fortunate enough to catch them live. Intense.

3. Dieuf-Dieul De Thies - Aw Sa Yone Vol. 1

 

Recorded 32 years ago. Released in 2013. Psychedelically groovy with the legendary Pape Seck on guitar.

2. Mazzy Star - Seasons of Your Day

It was like they never went away.

1. British Sea Power - From The Sea To The Land Beyond

Right. There's something about BSP scoring films. The best concert I have ever been to was watching them perform their score of Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran - a film I had studied as an undergrad. The score of From The Sea To The Land Beyond is like Man of Aran meets True Adventures.