#I understand that he’s a trumpet player but I can overlook that | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

classic-rock-roller · 6 years ago

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1. When you’re done recording the soundtrack for the DQ game with Bonham and Kevin, you receive an early copy of the game to try playing it. Before you even open the case, you and Kevin and Bonham see the back. It’s got a photo of the three of you and says in big letters ‘SPECIAL GUEST STEEL PANTHER ON THE SOUNDTRACK’ “What the hell?” Kevin says. What do you and Bonham say and how do you go about fixing it?

Bons and I laugh and Kevin gets on the phone to straighten this out because “I can’t believe they’d mistake us for those talentless hacks.”

2. Your band has just finished performing a show and you’re all coming backstage to meet Kevin and Randy for dinner. You’ve barely walked up to them when Kevin looks to Bonham and says, “Are you alright?” She’s barely opened her mouth to answer before swaying slightly and collapsing on the floor. What happened and what do you, Kevin, Randy, Erik, Sean, and Linus say?

Me: Oh my god. I’d make sure she was still breathing and ok.

Erik: I’ll call 911.

Sean and Linus are freaking out, Kevin and Randy are helping me. She passed out from exhaustion and she was a bit sick. So we made sure she got good rest before our next show.

3. You’re hanging out with Bonham one day when Kevin comes home and says, “I need to borrow Bonham for a minute.” You ask why, and he says, “I got asked if I would duet this song Torpedo with her and I’d rather do it with you.” Before you can answer, Bonham, says, “She can be a part of it but it’ll ruin the joke.” “What do you mean, joke?” he says. “It’s a comedy song, a guy is singing with the girl he cheats with but his wife comes out halfway through. I’ll do the duet with you and she can be your wife. Cause she’s your wife for real.” What does he say and how do you react? How does the performance go?

He widens his eyes and turns to me, “I SWEAR. I never cheated on you with Bons. Please don’t think I did.”

Me: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I know that, Kev. Relax.

Bons: Wow, guilty conscience much?

It goes well, much better than we expected.

4. You get home one day and hear Bonham yelling at Sean. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! I just was trying to help!” Sean says. “You ripped the keys off my saxophone! This is from the 60s! I can’t repair or replace it! Do you have anything to say for yourself?” she yells. “…oops?” Sean says. “Oops is insufficient!” How do you respond and how do they react when you come in?

Me: Whoa, whoa, whoa calm down Bons. We can fix it.

She whirls on me, “We CANNOT fix it. It’s old no one knows how to fix it.

I give her a look and go, “Calm down. Where I grew up there are a lot of older tradesman who’d know how to fix it.”

It takes us a bit but I find a place to fix it and it’s good as new. Sean mouths thank you to me after I calm Bons down.

5. You and Bonham and Kevin are filming Table Flip with the Grumps, and while you’re waiting to start filming you see Danny and Kevin and Bonham dancing to this song and Arin filming. They seem to be having fun. What do you and Arin say as you both film and what do the three of them say when they’re done?

I just shake my head and Kevin screams, “Come on stop being a sourpuss.” He pulls me in and I wind up dancing with them. He pulls me in for a kiss right after we stop and Arin yells, “No PDA on my show!”

Kevin: We aren’t on your show yet so...

He dips me and kisses me harder

Bons: Blegh, I don’t have to see this.

Danny: Arin he does have a point.

6. A new song your band is doing has a full jazz horn section. You’re in the studio when the trumpet player Linus recommended, Mordecai, shows up. He and Bonham are going in to play their matching tracks while you and the rest of your band are going to listen and tell them how to fix it. Bonham comes out of the booth for a minute and shakes his hand. “Mordecai, nice to meet you. Come on back with me.” She turns around to lead him to the booth, and once her back is turned, Mordecai looks at Sean and the boys and mimes having large boobs and mouthing, “Her rack!” He’s barely turned around to follow her when Sean says into your ear, “I don’t care how good he is, I don’t want him here. He’s going to do something to her or you, I just know it.” How do you respond, and what happens when the mics start recording?

Me: I agree, Sean. I get the creep vibe off him. But let's just wait it out, for now, we can’t really find another jazz horn player on such short notice.

I can tell Bons is uncomfortable and she keeps jumping after ten minutes she comes out and goes, “We need a new guy. That one keeps pinching and slapping my ass.”

We show him the door and start looking for another one.

7. Bonham’s playing a video game one day while you’re reading; Kevin and Randy are watching (somewhat). She’s clicking through a scene of story when one of the characters says in a very flamboyant voice, “Human sacrifice? Oh honey, that’s not okay.” Kevin looks up from the page you were on and says, “What kind of game is this?” Bonham says, “A fun one.” How do you and Randy respond?

Randy: Seems like a cool game.

Me: It’s fun, I’ve played it with her before.

8. You’re on the set of GGG with Crue, and they have since told you that you don’t have to be a dancer, but can sit with them. Bonham’s happy to keep dancing though, and after the take is over, she comes down to get a drink. You’re overlooking the shot with the boys when Bonham comes over and says, “How’s it looking?” Vince puts his arm around her and steps slightly behind her and says, “Sweetie if you keep it up it’s gonna look just fine.” Before anyone else can comment on the shot, Bonham says, “Vince, I can feel your boner rubbing on my back and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t have it there, thanks.” How does he respond, and what do you, Mick, Nikki, and Tommy say?

Vince: Well, maybe I’d like it there. I thought you would.

Bons decks him.

Tommy: Whoa! High five, Bons! That was a good one.

Nikki: Don’t mess with Bons, noted.

Me (looking over Vince on the floor): I told you not to do it, Dude.

Mick: ...Idiots

9. You and Bonham are at a party with some cute guys named Kevin and Randy that you met at a show earlier in the week, and you’re all having a really good time. Bonham’s been drinking and mingling while you’ve been talking to that Kevin guy. At one point she comes up to the both of you and slaps Kevin on the butt. “Hey cutie, where’s your blond friend? I got some business to take care of.” she says. How does he react and how do you respond?

Kevin: Whoa there, don’t do that.

Me: Oh she does that a lot. You’ll get used to it. (He did)

10. You come home one day to get ready for a photo shoot with your band. Kevin and Sean and Bonham all stayed home to get ready but you went on a makeup run. When you walk in Sean is in the bathroom dicking with his hair, and Bonham’s room is locked, and Kevin is nowhere to be found. You’re looking for him in your bedroom when you hear weird sounds coming from Bonham’s room. “Hey, stop it–hah! O-ohkay, yeah, that’s better no! Stop, Kevin, no, stop! You’re hurting me! Ha-hah! Help! I’m gonna-aah!” Concerned, you unlock her door and come in expecting the worst, but you see Kevin trying to tighten the stays on Bonham’s show corset for her. She sees you and says, “Finally, I’m gonna-hah!-suffocate if he doesn’t-nn!-let up!” “Shut up, I’m not hurting you, hold still!” Kevin says. How do you react, and what do they say?

Me: Kevin move. I’ll help you. He can’t do it for shit.

I loosen the straps and Bons breaths a sign of relief.

Bons: Thank you he was suffocating me.

Kevin: I was not hurting you, Jesus.

11. Bonham went back to Colorado alone to visit some family, and you and Kevin are meeting her at the airport. When she comes up to you guys Kevin hugs her first. “Hey, back off, she’s my friend too.” you say. “Oh really?” he says, still hugging her. “Well if you want her you’ll have to get her!” He slings her over his shoulder and runs away. What do you do and what do they say when you reach them?

I chase after them through the airport and Bons is yelling at Kevin to put her down.

Bons: You’re a child Kevin.

Kevin: Yeah, but it was hilarious.

____________________

1) Randy had just passed away a few weeks prior and your singer has given birth to her and Kevin’s fourth kid. When you come to visit her in the hospital, you find her and Kevin sitting on the bed looking at their son. Your singer sees you and waves you over to take a look at your newest godson, “Isn’t he the cutest?” She hands him to you and when you hold him you find that his onesie reads, “It’s a Randy thing. You wouldn’t get it.” Before you can ask about it, Kevin goes, “We were planning on naming him after Randy before he passed away and that didn’t change after.” What do you say and how do your singer and Kevin respond?

2) Sean has just joined your band and he’s still a little new to all this. Since he’s 20 he can’t legally drink yet so you and your singer watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn’t drink. One day, Kevin and Erik come on the bus supporting Sean. Apparently, he got into a bar with some fans and they bought him a shit ton of drinks. Your singer glares at Erik and goes, “I told you to watch him.” “Hey, it’s not my fault. Kevin almost gave him cocaine.” Your singer whiles on Kevin and goes, “KEVIN!” You see Kevin visibly shrink back as she comes whirling at him, “Don’t you ever fucking give any of my band members drugs. Understand?” He’s about to open his mouth and she goes, “I don’t want to fucking hear it.” She takes Sean from Erik and helps him into the back of the bus. What does Kevin say after she leaves and how do you and Erik respond? What is Sean like when he wakes up the day after?

3) You are with QR while they’re recording QR III. All of a sudden you hear the door bang open to the recording booth and the manager saying, “Mrs. DuBrow you can’t be back here right now. They’re recording.” You watch as she whirls on him with bright red eyes and goes, “I don’t give a fuck I have to talk to my husband. Right. Now.” You know something is very, very wrong. You follow her into the recording booth and Kevin goes, “Honey, what are you doing here?” Before he can say anything else, she slaps him hard across the face. You're about to ask what she did that for when she goes, “Ooh, I could just kill you. That’s for Roxanne. Thanks to you and your fucking coke addiction, habit. Whatever the fuck you want to call it. She found it and thought it was candy so now our little four-year-old is getting her stomach pumped because of how much she ate.” She takes a breath, “I hope you’re happy with yourself. I explicitly did not want this to happen and it did. I just wanted to tell you so if none of us are home when you get back it’s because we’re at the hospital.” She turns around to leave and Kevin tries to grab her wrist but she pulls out of his grasp, “I can’t even LOOK at you right now.” She storms out of the building. What does Kevin say and how do you, Rudy, Carlos, and Frankie respond?

4) Your singer has been dating Tom Keifer for a couple of years and it’s the day that they are going to be married. You’re her maid of honor and you, Randy, and Rudy find Tom and Kevin having words. Kevin looks to you and goes, “Thank god you’re here Bons. I need to talk to BabyCarrot, please. I have to tell her I was stupid and I love her and...” Before he can say anything else, Tom decks him in the face, “You had your chance, buddy. Don’t try to tell her all this on our wedding day. You should have listened to her when you had the chance.” Kevin gets up and wipes his bloody lip. What does he say next and how do you, Tom, Randy, and Rudy respond?

5) One day you and Rudy come back to you and your singer’s apartment to find her and Kevin having an argument. “I don’t understand why you have to be friends with him.” Your singer glares at Kevin, “Because I’ve been friends with him since I was in college. You don’t seem to have a problem with Ryan.” “Yeah, because Ryan’s gay! He has no interest in you.” Your singer closes her eyes, “Kevin, you don’t have to worry ok?” What do you and Rudy say and how do your singer and Kevin respond?

6) After your singer had that huge argument with Kevin over his coke habit, you go up to their room to check on her. You find her laying on the bed with her face in the pillow crying pretty heavily. You place your hand on her back and offer her comfort. After about five minutes you hear, “Auntie Bons, what’s wrong with Mommy?” And you look to the door to find Mal holding baby Randy with Roxanne and Eddie. What do you say to them and what does your singer say?

7) Your singer takes you, Kevin, Rudy, and Crüe to a hypnotist. Kevin is sitting in the auditorium saying, “I don’t believe in hypnotism. But Tommy pulls him up onstage with him.” One they are hypnotized the hypnotist picks Kevin out and shakes his hand. He says, “sleep” and the next thing you know, Kevin is passed out on the hypnotist's shoulder and is slowly lowered to the stage. How do you, Rudy, your singer, Mick, Nikki, and Vince respond?

8) Tommy and Kevin are still being hypnotized. At one point, the hypnotist makes Tommy and Kevin’s belly buttons rubber and tie them together. They are joined together at the belly buttons when the hypnotist wakes them both up and goes, “Dudes, what are you doing?” Tommy and Kevin look at each other. How do they respond and how do you, Rudy, your singer, Nikki, Mick, and Vince respond?

9) You, Rudy, your singer, your band, and some of her college friends have been drinking. Your singer hasn’t been drinking because she’s pregnant with Mal so she’s been babysitting the drunks. She’s about to go to bed when Sean, Erik, and her college friend Kevin go, “BabyCarrot can you please, please, please make us PB and J and Mac and Cheese?” You see your singer huff and she looks to Erik and Sean, “You’re lucky I love you.” and her friend Kevin, “You’re lucky I tolerate you.” How do the three of them respond and what do you and Rudy say?

10) You and your singer are on another episode of the Power hour with Danny and Arin. Your singer is showing her knife throwing skills because for some reason the viewers like when she does knife tricks. She brought Tommy with and goes to Danny and Arin, “T-Bone is here because you won’t want to be a part of this trick.” She then proceeds to set it up. Tommy stands against the board set up and she tosses switchblades around his head. How do you, Danny, and Arin respond while she does this and what do you guys say after? What does Tommy say once it’s over?

11) Your singer has been dating Tom Keifer for a while and you both have a feeling he’s going to propose to her. One night, the two of you are having a girls night and she’s a little drunk. She says to you, “I love Tom so much and I want to marry him. But a part of me wonders what would have happened if I decided to stay with Kevin. What would have become of our lives?” Right at this moment Rudy walks in supporting a drunk Kevin (they went out drinking). How do you respond to your singer, what does she say once she sees Kevin and Rudy, what does Kevin say to her and how do you and Rudy respond?

@osbournebemydaddy your turn Bons :)

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alivingroomatthebottomofalake · 6 years ago

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TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2018

This year I took a different approach to last year. Instead of seeking out as much music as I could and trying to absorb it all so I could make a comprehensive list of highlights, this year I just let myself gravitate towards the things I knew interested me, and let the things that really grabbed me stay on rotation for as long as I needed them to. Some albums became easy favourites, and while there's some albums on here that I admittedly spent a lot less time with than others, I honestly think that all of these releases have been influential for me in someway, and represent some of the most exciting and interesting listening experiences released this year. The order is super loose. I don't have a score/rating system and I don't care. They go more or less in order of things that I listened to most often, or things I got recently that blew my head off. I am limiting my descriptions to a short 50 words or so. I'll avoid talking about genre as much as possible, and hopefully you'll be compelled to seek out some of these releases yourself.

1. Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspace

If you want huge fucking noisy guitar sounds and ear scraping riffs, witty and memorable lyrics, arrangements that will continue to surprise, and a raw uncompromising attitude, this is it. This album feels unabashedly Melbourne, and maybe that’s what I connect with, but it's so brutally cynical and honestly so, without any conceited hipster bullshit. It sounds so fresh. Nothing is held back, it’s full throttle creativity, and that's how punk rock should be.

Favourite tracks: Antimatter Animals, Soft Power, You Let my Tires Down.

2. John Zorn - The Urmuz Epigrams

Playing most of the instruments himself, Zorn has constructed some challenging, weird and thoroughly beautiful collages of sound, transmuting it into a music that will entice and entrance. The pieces are assembled from instrumental improvisations and field recordings, scattered with little miniatures of melody, and some sweet percussion from Ches Smith. It feels like he's really exploring sound in a new way here, it's the most fresh thing he's released in a long time, and for a guy with such a history, that may be saying something. He has brought his compositional mastery to the studio and taken a divergent step towards something exciting. It's a really dense and rewarding listen, and yet I can't wait for more of this.

Favourite tracks: This Piano Lid Serves as a Wall. Then Again, Who Amongst Us Can Complain.

3. Death Grips - Year of the Snitch

Death Grips deliver yet another shocker of filthy bombast. It's a very noisy, intense, and a very weird album by their usual standards. I feel like the group have completely transcended any/all attempts to categorise them. The "experimental hiphop" and "punk rap" type assessments are completely inadequate for a band of this calibre. They have put so much more into their music, and come through as a unique and unstoppable beast. This album effortlessly mixes up the noisy rockier side of their personality with the beatsy electronic stuff, and the vocals/lyrics are intense and obscure as ever, making it an exhilarating album of surprises. It's a totally wild ride from start to finish. This band just can't do anything wrong for me.

Favourite tracks: Flies, Black Paint, Streaky.

4. Senyawa - Sujud

Wow. Just wow. When this came out a couple months ago, I was floored. It's all the kinds of perfect you can imagine music being. It's mysterious as fuck, it's deeply moving, and it oscillates masterfully between warm and kind, to dense and ugly and intense. I have been lucky enough to experience the Indonesian duo Senyawa live in the past, and it was a fucking mind blower to say the least. This album follows on from that experience with amazing new ideas. The vocals are incredible. Rully Shabara can go so deep, it's an imposing sound, authoritative yet calming. His highs are otherworldly and beautiful. How well the voice moves around in the space of each composition is truly the charm of Shabara's skill. The versatility of instrumentalist Wukir Suryadi is also on display in this album, performing on a number of instruments, and crafting some unique moods in which to submerge your psyche. I'm a big fan of their smooth, warm, kind and meditative tracks, but I love it for the grit, the extremes they reach make this album phenomenal.

Favourite tracks: Penjuru Menyatu (Unified Counters), Tanggalkan Di Dunia (Undo The World), Sujud (Prostration).

5. Johanna Sulkunen Sonority - Koan

Finnish vocalist and sound artist Johanna Sulkunen created this gorgeous album, recorded in various Zen Buddhist temples around Japan. The music is all electronically processed arrangements of these temple recordings, with a big emphasis on the artist's voice, and the manipulation of the voice in space. Each track seems to focus on a single simple idea, and explore it beyond any sense of musical logic or tradition/formal process. So each piece in turn becomes a kind of sound koan, a question asked not to find an answer, but to understand that in the act of doing the question fades away and the truth emerges, often not the kind you were looking for. So it is with listening to this album, listening translates to an embodied understanding of the music, where the music emerges in ways you aren't prepared for. When it does, that moment is clear and joyous. It's a kind of avant-garde meditation really.

Favourite tracks: Shosen, Perfection, The Wind Moves.

6. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Abstractions

Abstractions is a single long (22 minutes) piece of modular synthesizer music, that ebbs and flows and blips and pops it's way from surprising sound and riff to more bizarre surprising sounds and blips, fading between a series of beautiful and strange ideas that constantly feel like all manner of sanity is unraveling, yet still masterfully held together. Each gesture evokes shape and colour, the interplay of contrasting of sounds raises questions that otherwise might be overlooked. The balance of repetitive arpeggios and melodic material with the squelchy, almost cartoon like sound fx punctuating and dancing around the sound field, see-saws to and fro, never at rest, always at play. It's a really fun and playful music with lots of intrigue.

7. Thembi Soddel - Love Songs

Don't freak out, yep this is the album you put on, don't let the title fool you. Is there nothing more obnoxious and self indulgent than another fucking love song? How often I put on the radio only to here the most childish, and often misogynistic, cliches recycled in the name of "love". This album says fuck that. Soddel has created an epic record that explores the tensions and drama of love and relationships, using suspense and bursts of noise to articulate trauma and manipulation, all the bullshit that hides behind the closed doors of the seemingly pure intentions espoused in love songs. Sonically, it's a tour de force. Opening from silence, the sound takes ages to emerge, but the wild ride and aural and physical brutality that ensues is incredible. It's also (from a formal/compositional point of view) fucking beautiful music.

Favourite track: Who's To Blame?

8. Efrim Manuel Menuck - Pissing Stars

It's really beautiful to hear an artist trying new things like this. Coming from a guitar/post rock back ground, but on this album trying his hand at modular synth (and conveniently listing all the modules in the credits for the nerds playing at home), Menuck has sculpted some incredible songs from the ether of voltages. His vocal style, which I've loved him for in previous projects (SMZ stuff in particular) is on point as usual, and the balance of personal and political lyrical content is also on point. I'm a big fan of the way the songs evolve and grow with the the drones and soundscapes, and don't get trapped or watered down by trying to be songs. Everything feels loose enough and free enough, but in control. It's dynamic and strange and dense, and yet melodic and soulful, and full of nuance and subtleties.

Favourite tracks: Black Flags Ov Thee Holy Sonne, The State And Its Love And Genoicide, Kills v. Lies, The Beauty Of Children And The War Against The Poor.

9. Hekla - Á

I was so fortunate to see Hekla perform live recently in Iceland. It was a beautiful concert, and her voice and theremin playing were both captivating. Hekla performs more or less all the sounds on the album with only a theremin and some fx processing - namely loops, pitch shift/ harmoniser, and delays. The compositions are built around quite simple phrases, that allow space for her voice to be really emotive, and allowing room for more complex layers of theremin melody to take the limelight in the interludes between verses. The album is beautifully produced, and totally does the memory of the concert justice. Most of the songs are quite slow, and mellow, with a kind of melancholy to them. It feels very Icelandic in that sense.

Favourite tracks: Muddle, Hatur, Í Felum.

10. Jon Hassell - Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One)

The idea of painting with sound, while not so new, is also not quite as often explored so literally. Hassell paints, and paints over ideas, layering up moods and genres, showing us one thing, and blurring it into something else. As a trumpet player, and at 81 years old, Hassell is still sounding hip as all fuck, but as a composer of electronic music, this album is quite new and special. Somehow, all the combinations - the jazz, the ambient, the electronic and Afrocentric percussion/beat driven ideas, the more abstract and textural synth stuff - it still all blends into something completely original, which continues on from Hassell's own unique "4th world" style of music. I'm really impressed, and as it's "volume 1", i'm really looking forward to more from him.

Favourite tracks: Picnic, Pastorale Vassant, Ndeya

11. Badskin - Where Was I?

Badskin is Melbourne based guitarist/sound artist Carla Oliver. Her new album is a gorgeous balance of subdued, floating melodies, drifting through impeccably crafted atmospheres. Utilising a broad range of sound sources, including the tinkling of bells and washing and swelling of cymbals, other more striking percussion, running water and whispering voices, gurgling synthesizers, and lots of gorgeously processed unrecognisable sounds that shift and move harmoniously to give the album its more musical qualities. The whole record kind of melts over you, like an evening mist, everything is obscured and dreamlike, and the effect is beautiful.

Favourite tracks: 3, 4.

12. YoshimiO, Susie Ibarra, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe – Flower of Sulphur

This year a lot of artists who I adore got together for collaborative albums, and none of which did I anticipate more greatly than this trio. And not because I expected anything more amazing than usual, but because it seemed like such an odd combo, and knowing each performer's work so well, hearing them in this kind of context, I had no idea how it would work. The album is 4 tracks, live, and all improvised. Thus it comes with all the ecstasy and trepidation of a first meeting improv, with things being explored, players really listening and feeling out the space. There never seems to be full blown apprehension, but the players are deeply sensitive improvisors, and as such, the music is continually made fresh and becomes joyous to indulge in. Also, it being an album of drums, voice, and modular synth all coming together makes this the ideal record for someone like me. I'm glad to know that they've continued to perform since this first record and I hope they release something down the line to document how far they may have come.

Favourite tracks: Bbb, Ccc.

13. John Zorn - The Book Beri'ah

Zorn has brought the Masada project to a close with this final release of 11 albums (which I am reviewing as the box set because reasons). In a similar vein to the Book of Angels series, Zorn has selected 11 different ensembles to arrange the compositions. This means obviously some albums are going to be very different to others, and personally I've enjoyed most of it, but some less so. Disc 1 by Sofia Rei and JC Maillard is definitely a favourite. With beautiful words set to Zorn's melodies, the whole thing feels like a global music fiesta, bridging the Jewish influence with a South American folk style that feels so right it's almost unbelievable. Disc 2 by Cleric is a complete departure, with some of the most brutal jazz infused metal, it's perfectly wrong, and probably my favourite in the set. The Secret Chiefs 3 disc is very much what you would expect from Trey Spruance and co, and it's also a highlight, although I feel it's different to (and maybe not as awesome as) their Book of Angels release, it's still as varied and exciting. These three discs alone would all make this set worth the purchase even if the rest were terrible (they're not). But I won't go into all of them. The Spike Orchestra album is pretty cool, and I'm a big fan of the Banquet of Spirits album. There's enough music going on here to last a year, so if you plan to go down this rabbit hole, take your time because you'll need it.

Favourite tracks: To be honest, I'm still working my way through most of these albums, and I can't pick a favourite track yet.

14. Keiji Haino & Sumac - American Dollar Bill - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On

Heavy, noisy, ecstatic, and phenomenal. Sumac are a tight and brutal band, and the additional chaos injected by Haino makes this album as joyous and intense and just downright awesome as the title(s). The album flits between slow hard doom like riffs, through to long droney and experimental passages of feedback and Haino's signature vocal explorations. With song titles that go into great detail, it's an album that evokes a lot of strange thoughts and feelings. Mostly it's just a lot of surprises and exciting musical shifts, as the band keep changing it up, swelling and diving and destroying music at every possible turn. I feel like this is one of those "not for everyone" types of heavy albums, maybe due to the improvised feel of much of the music, but fuck that, this is the shit that everyone should be across.

Favourite tracks: What have I Done? (I Was Reeling In Something White and I Became Able to do Anything I Made a Hole Imprisoned Time Within it Created Friction Stopped Listening to Warnings Ceased Fixing my Errors Made the Impossible Possible? Turned Sadness Into Joy) Pt. 1, I'm Over 137% A Love Junkie And Still It's Not Enough Pt. 2

15. William Basinski + Lawrence English - Selva Oscura

A collaboration between two of the masters of the ambient minimal soundscape, Basinski and English have created a lush, evolving world of sound that teases us with stasis but perpetually drifts and sheds layers, constantly swelling and changing just enough. It's peaceful, but it's not empty. The first track is liquid, and mostly calm, the few moments of turbulence are there to remind you to keep your ears attuned. Track 2 has more recognisable pulses and movement in the air, almost as if the music itself were made by the wind. This piece has a lot of shifting frequency and movement. It's a constantly intriguing listening experience that asks very little of the listener, and once you give it your attention it's immersive and delightful.

Favourite track: There are only 2 so listen to them both!

16. I Hold The Lion's Paw - Abstract Playgrounds.

A treasure-trove of slinky grooves and expansive, exploratory free jazz stylings, executed with a level of mastery that is to be expected with these players. Side A is a big live improvised jam, and side B is more composition focused, but also built from restructured moments from side A, not merely remixes or a refined and practiced formula, the group have gone deep into the ideas and made something much more surprising. Some of the tracks resemble something much more electronic and abstract than would be expected in a free jazz context, and yet, it always seems to fit. In fact I think the second side is more interesting and as a frame for the more straight up 70s free jazz stuff, it makes for a richer, deeper experience.

Favourite tracks: Snake Charmers' Convention, (intakes from the) Snake Charmers, Deluzian Lawn Bowls, Afro 1.

17. Alessandro Cortini + Lawrence English - Immediate Horizon

A Live recording of two of my favourite artists collaborating at Berlin Atonal. Immediate Horizon is a slow build, but it becomes engulfing and mesmerising before you're ready for it. The compositions are simple enough, often built on layering slowly evolving parts and increasing the density and pushing the extremities of tone. The elements are also quite simple and sparse, with pulsing bass synth tones underlying simple looping melodies that layer up, fill the space and blur reality with epic reverb. There are moments of complete bliss and there are moments of complete overwhelming intensity, with a massive guitar sound that feels like it's being played inside your ears as it tears through the drones. overall it's an epic sound journey, and one that deserves some volume when listened to, as I'm sure it would have been a loud concert. The sounds are amazing and it has a great impact.

Favourite tracks: Immediate Horizon 2 +3.

18. Iki - Oracle

Iki are a 5 piece vocal group from various parts of Scandinavia, using experimental/extended vocal techniques and electronic sound manipulations to create some really interesting and beautiful music. Each track takes a seemingly simple idea or theme, and teases its way through, building the curiosity, smearing the organic sound across the air and ears, playing with space. The vocals are immaculate, they are all great singers, and they are doing some very fun and cool things with electronics that make this an exciting listen. The additional bass synths that support the voices is a nice touch, really filling up the frequency spectrum, and providing a good foundation for the shifting harmonies and textures.

Favourite tracks: Reflex, Archaea.

19. Tim Hecker - Konoyo

This is some of the best music I've ever heard. Hecker created this album in Japan with the Tokyo Gagaku ensemble, and it's co-engineered by Ben Frost. The music has such a sublime, organic, and dare I say lazy quality to it. The melodic contours and slowly evolving forms verge towards ambient music, but the intensity is too high, the dynamics are too engaging. The synths in the mix are gorgeous and full. The relationship of the electronics and traditional Japanese instrumentation is intricately woven, bridging the past and future, articulating a wholeness, and simultaneously letting the idea of meaning kind of drop away. It's fucking gorgeous and I want to know more about it, but at the time of writing this I've avoided finding out too much about the process because I'm trying to simply enjoy the sounds. Which is easy enough.

Favourite tracks: Keyed out, In mother earth phase.

20. Caterina Barbieri - Born Again in the Voltage

Barbieri is an artist who is new to me, but I am quickly a fan of any composer who can make musical sense of a Buchla 200 system. The 4 pieces here show a mastery of the system, opening with a minimal repetitive phrase piece that plays around with clocks and sequencing, really playing with time, using the tempo divisions and shifting LFO rates as tools for sculpting form. The second piece, which is performed by cellist Antonello Manzo, is a beautiful layered drone piece, that shifts around tones and harmonics, peaceful yet complex and dynamic. The cello and synth come together on track 3, the acoustic and electronic sound are integrated so well, one could almost forget it's a duet. The melodic phrase sequencing that closes the track and the subsequent atmospherics are beautiful examples of the possibilities of modular synth music. The album closer is more up tempo, and more of a a straight up synth sequence track, sounding a bit computer/scifi music, with some vocals in the background. It's a strong finish to a complex and delightful record that explores and expresses the human/machine relationship.

Favourite track: Human Developers.

21. Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Thought Gang

Although recorded in the early '90s, Thought Gang doesn't sound dated, or like an after thought, it sounds so good. I am a little surprised that a lot of this material didn't make it out into the world sooner, but I'm glad it has now. As a fan of Lynch, and Badalamenti in general, I think this album fits the overall canon of the artists' work. It follows the sound of the late Twin Peaks world, mixing jazz with moody dark ambient flavours, and with the surreal spoken work passages it sounds like it could be a continuation of themes and ideas and lore that we've experienced on screen. It sounds very "today" for a project that took over 2 decades to get out. I'd love more of this in my life.

Favourite tracks: Logic and Common Sense, Woodcutters from Fiery Ships, Multi-Tempo Wind Boogie.

22. Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow - Annihilation (Music From the Motion Picture)

As a massive fan of the book series this film is based on, I had very high expectations for this film adaptation. I enjoyed it, and although it leaves out many of the things I felt were the best elements of the book, it stands up as a really great version of the story. Part of what works so good for the film (the visual style is the other part) is the music. Salisbury and Barrow (who were also responsible for director Alex Garland's Ex Machina score) really got into the DNA of the Area X when constructing the themes and sounds for this film. The way the sonic themes mutate and cross pollinate with each other, altering and adopting sounds and patterns as the film progresses is much clearer in the listening experience. Particularly how the guitar and vocal/choral stuff evolves, and how the wider instrumentation adopts and evolves with those themes. It's a different experience listening to a film score to listening to an "album", but either way, I think it works well enough. This is amazing music, and should be enjoyed as such.

Favourite tracks: The Alien, Lighthouse Chamber, Sheppard, Plant People.

23. The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer.

The Body work that I know is brutal, and abrasive. I think of them as a noise band, but this album is so much more. In fact, the first 2 tracks, whilst a bit dark, are also really melodic and gentle and beautiful. It takes a while before the heaviness kicks into gear, but it does and it does so brilliantly. This album is very diverse, and just when you think you've got it pegged it will throw a new idea at you. Whether it's a guest vocal or sample, a certain beat flavour or drum machine, or just switching it up from atmospheric to brutal density, The Body are constantly branching out into new territory. The Drums on this albums are a highlight. As is the use of feedback, and the vocals, all of them, are wicked. Also, the story at the end of the album is fucking creepy weird. Very cool.

Favourite tracks: Nothing Stirs, Off Script, An Urn, Sickly Heart of Sand.

24. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Async: Remodels

Firstly, I will admit I didn't love the album that these remixes were drawn from. I remember listening and moving on quickly (maybe I should revisit). I loved Sakamoto's Plankton release, and generally I'd say I'm a fan. However... This remix album features a who's who list of some of the best, some of my most favourite artists reworking and owning Sakamoto's music, doing some beautiful things with the themes, and sounds. Opening with a beautiful and luscious and triumphant Oneohtrix Point Never reworking of the track Andata, moving into the only really beat focused mix of the same track by Electric Youth. Alva Noto is on here, Arca is on here, Fennesz is on here, and they all contribute amazing remixes. The great late Johan Johannsson reworked a track, and my old hero Cornelius drops a remix on here too. So many good tracks. There are some other artists that are new to me on here too, all of who made great contributions. The whole thing is a great listen. It keeps the original spirit of Sakamoto's music intact, but stretches the sounds out through such varied worlds and hearts and perspectives, and it's joyous, relaxing, and super interesting.

Favourite tracks: disintegration (Alva Noto Remodel), solari (Fennesz Remodel), solari (Jóhann Jóhannsson Rework), andata (Oneohtrix Point Never Rework).

25. Merzbow + Hexa - Achromatic

A collaboration between 3 of my favourite artists, Achromatic is an incredible statement of sound practice and composition beyond the norms of music, it makes the idea of musical notes feel forever inadequate. Hexa (Jamie Stewart and Lawrence English) make music exploring the physicality of sound, and pushing it to the extreme, so pairing up with the legendary Merzbow, one could understand they're about to be taken on a wild ride into the sonosphere. It's not without its subtleties. There's some incredible mixing going on, the frequency bands and the sonic power are all so well composed and controlled. The arrangements for each side of the album seem to be variants of each other, with different mixes and forms of the same or related material. It's hard to get better than this kind of exhilarating sound. Turn it up.

Favourite tracks: Merzhex part 2, part 4, Hexamer.

26. Nadja & Vampilla - Artificial Acts of God

Berlin based, drone experimentalists Nadja, join forces with the eclectic and dramatic Japanese metal band Vampilla for what is one of the best things I've heard from either act in a while. It might be only 3 tracks, but it's packed to the rafters. The first 7 and a half minutes is an epic building noise piece, beautifully dense, immersive and engulfing, and eventually, as it subsides, the doom begins. The heaviest bass sound I've heard all year. Things get terrifying as the track continues, and the tempo accelerates. It doesn't let up, and shit just gets louder and thicker. It's so fucking brutal. Things continue with some chorale vocals, and some more delicate/atmospheric passages, and the overall form continues to oscillate between strange/suspenseful and intense/brutal. It's awesome.

Favourite track: That Day

27. Eartheater – IRISIRI

I have difficulty putting into words exactly what it is that makes Eartheater so interesting to me. New York based Alexandra Drewchin's work is quite a mix of ideas, and the balance of those ideas isn't exactly comfortable. I guess boiled down this is an album of songs, I want to say pop songs, but abstracted beyond anything the mainstream would handle. The songs have vocals, and many have beats, it's got all the elements of accessible music, but the forms are mutated and the ride is different - the destination is still unknown. There's some interesting blends of electronic and acoustic instruments, such as the analogue synth pulses up against luscious harp glissandos in Curtains and Peripheral, or the cinematic string loops against the stumbling beat and mumbled vocals on Inclined. Some of it feels dark and twisted, and some of it feels incredibly joyful, but the work all has an uncompromisingly personal honesty to it. For me this is the album's strength. It's not forced, but fresh. The processes are matured and self aware/assured. If this was the future of pop music, I'd be happy to turn on the radio more often.

Favourite tracks: Curtains, Tresspasses, C.L.I.T.

28. serpentwithfeet – Soil

Following up an awesome EP from a couple of years ago, serpentwithfeet comes at us with new sounds, exploring new ideas in a rich variety of new songs of tragedy and love. His voice is intoxicating. Seriously. I really enjoy that the music isn't overblown or overproduced. There's a subtly at play in the arrangements that let the voice extend out, be as flamboyant and expressive as it wants, and play around. They're trying a lot of stuff in the production, and the songs are weird, but the voice is always there to nurture and comfort and take the lead. It's the mix of avant garde production and arranging, with the melodramatic intensity of the vocal that makes it so interesting for me.

Favourite tracks: Messy, Fragrant, Invoice.

29. Sarah Davachi – Let Night Come On Bells End The Day

Words like drone, minimal, and ambient don't do justice to the work that Sarah Davachi makes. Her work is perhaps simultaneously all those things on the surface, yet, the depths of the frameworks she works with are infinitely more complex. Her sonic processes dissect time while articulating its form. If that sounds like a weird or wanky thing to say, one only needs to sit with any of her albums for a few minutes to understand it. Let Night Come On Bells End The Day feels like a kind of temporal displacement, a sonic kind of time machine. Each instrument and subsequent manipulation of the sound slows life down, reveals hidden depths to the timbres, and the arrangements meanwhile seep into the mind, mingle with memory, until you're lost in the mix.

Favourite tracks: Buhrstone, Mordents, Hours in the Evening.

30. CECILIA – Adoration

An incredible debut album of abstract electronica from Montreal artist Cecilia. I first heard of her from her contributions to last years Rabit album, a collaboration that couldn't have been more perfect when one hears her solo music. A wonderland of abstract forms, with hints of rhythm and a sprinkling of beats, teasing, hinting at a club background, but never succumbing to mere quantisation and repetition. The voice is the central focus - spoken, sung, whispered, processed - and everything else is there to support it, but not with a pop song instrumental hierarchy, the soundscapes and voice co-mingle and become one, and often are one and the same. There's also so much space on the album, it's immersive and completely amazing.

Favourite tracks: Gros Animal, Récital (Where Your Money Ends), Teen Poise.

31. SUMAC - Love In Shadow

An album of four epic tracks, crunchy, pounding, and exploratory. Each track could almost be broken up into three or four tunes, but I really like how the group have chosen to frame these sections under the one title, which makes listening a different experience. It's all out brutal at the opening moment, and Aaron Turner sounds as perfect as ever vocally (one of my favourite low growls of all time, but also pushing his range out there a bit in the later tracks). The record moves from fast, to thundering breakdowns, to impending doom, but also allows some space, with some warmth and introspective nuances. It's just great to hear a band like this come out with so much solid material in a year. Sick riffs and epic volume!

Favourite tracks: Arcing Silver, The Task.

32. Idels - Joy As An Act Of Resistance

Idles debut album blew my mind. Such a powerful band, with great lyrics, a real return to meaningful anti-establishment, working class punk rock. I was shocked that they followed it up so quickly, and yet, so glad. On the whole, where Brutalism felt really live and full of enthusiasm, Joy feels more stripped back and reflective. The opener, Colossus is so different to anything I would have expected from them, yet it's such a perfect track and it's a great revelation great how deep the groups music can go. June is a real tearjerker, a tragic song about being an expecting parent, it breaks up the angry tunes and grounds it in a personal reality that is so starkly honest it hurts. There's so much rocking good music on here. Idles are one of the smartest bands around right now, and they are going to change shit.

Favourite tracks: Colossus, June, Samaritans.

33. Paul de Jong - You Fucken Sucker

I was a big fan of The Books back in day, and in the years since, although enjoying Nick Zammuto's new direction, I often wondered about Paul de Jong and what he might be up to/working on but just never realised he had started releasing new music. Alas, this year he released this amazing collection, very much still aligned with his found sound/collage experiments from the Books days, still mashing up genre and playing with elements in a seemingly intuitive and playful way, but this album seems to be a bit spiteful, and kind of rebellious and raging in a kind of Dada way. It's angry but with a sense of humour. Lots of sounds to explore here. I recommend you do.

Favourite tracks: Doings, Dimples, You Fucken Sucker.

34. Uboa - The Sky May Be.

A contender for the title of most downright intense performer in Australian music right now, Xandra Metcalfe, aka Uboa has produced a thrilling, confronting, disturbing, and otherwise exhilarating new record. Uboa's mix of harsh noise and melodic ambient warmth makes for an album that constantly surprises and brutalises, drawing the listener in with gorgeous passages of abstracted yet recognisably sublime musicality, and moving into complete onslaught mode, delivering the ol' 1, 2 combo with an avalanche of sonic detritus and more than a lung full of blood curdling screams. The arrangements are immaculate as is the production, and the overall album structure is quite the epic journey.

Favourite tracks: I Can't Love Anymore, The Sky May Be (Dementia), Salivate on Cue.

35. Thom Yorke - Suspiria

This remake of a cult classic film worked for me on so many levels. The team really delved into the world that Argento created to make a phenomenal reworking, and they ran with so many creative liberties that it was a powerfully artistic work that stands on its own. And then there's Thom Yorke's score, which I really enjoy as a soundtrack album, but I feel was the main thing that weakened the film. The music here, Yorke's first full feature score, is mostly awesome, and the inclusion of songs among the horror tropes is cool. I'm also really glad that Yorke avoided trying to do a Goblin ripoff, although he probably could have made that work (National Anthem/Pulled Apart by Horses both come to mind as bass riffs that show he knows how to get shit rocking). Overall, I enjoy the material on here, and it show's Thom has an interesting future in cinema ahead of him, but in the film, there were some parts that didn't quite land, and that's a shame. Still, there's enough here to enjoy without the film attached.

Favourite tracks: Olga's Destruction (Volk tape), Volk, Has Ended.

36. Klein - CC

Klein essentially takes the worlds and tropes of "urban" and "beats" and destroys them. It's the ultimate abstraction of mainstream music processes. You can hear all the elements - the beats and the raps, the samples etc - but they don't fit together how you are used to. Their earlier release Tommy was a wild ride and a mesmerising introduction to the artists work (check that out too), and to follow that up, CC develops the process of abstraction and genre deconstruction even further. I'm not sure if it's more listenable or more interesting or if I'm just acclimatising, but I like it.

Favourite tracks: Collect, Born, Apologise.

37. Erik Griswold - Yokohama Flowers

I've loved Griswold's previous albums of prepared piano music, and this is no different. The music is gorgeous, simple, moving. But something about the preparations also makes it feel exciting and foreign, and maybe a little eccentric and broken down which is a quality I really like. Each composition is a little slice of perfection, and the album is a really enjoyable treat to sit with, or to have playing in the background.

Favourite tracks: Fallingwater, Ball-peen Hammer, Color Wheel.

38. Cucina Povera – Hilja

The debut album from Finnish born, Glasgow based artist Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera is a box of curiosities, like the sort of songs you would remember from a dream, but be unable to articulate as you started focusing your memory. Features sublime minimal synths and atmospheric field recordings, and a verstile vocal style, that overlaps and loops and interplays with itself. Like something from a Lynch film, Hilja is mystereous and beautiful, and quality music.

Favourite tracks: Demetra, Avainsana, Totean

39. Colin Stetson – Hereditary

Thoughts on the movie aside (I liked it) Stetson comes at the film score with all his strengths and his experimental spirit to make an incredible piece of suspense and horror. The circular breathing saxophone riffs create a suffocating, traumatic feeling, that works brilliantly in the film, and as a general listening experience, the way the soundtrack album is structured, it works as a suspenseful journey too.

Favourite tracks: Funeral, Party, Crash

40. Oneida - Romance

Generally a diverse yet focused group, Oneida tend to oscillate between the extremes of minimalism and all out noise/experimental expansive maximalism. For example, my first experience of them was the brilliant repetition based album Absolute II, 4 very minimal tracks that are still favourites to this day. After that, their release A List of the Burning Mountains was an all out sound exploration, with very little repetition, and much more improvisation. Romance somehow brings the best of both these personalities of the group's musical character into a kind of balance. Excellent repetitive riffs and sounds underpin some more adventurous playing, and exploratory songwriting, and it makes for an exciting yet hypnotic album.

Favourite tracks: Bad Habit, Reputation.

41. Beak> - >>>

Although previous Beak> releases have been much darker, moodier, and more minimal, I feel like they have been cultivating and moving towards this unique, analogue progressive style all along with very precise steps. Although the band line up has changed since the last record, the same influences are still strongly at play, and the band have never been shy about where they've come from. However, this album feels a bit more celebratory, reveling in the process, and being more adventurous with the context, and it makes it feel fresh. I think Barrow's drumming is the best I've heard him, and the vocals are really strong on this album.

Favourite tracks: Birthday Suit, Harvester.

42. CUTS - A Gradual Decline

I first heard CUTS on the Ex Machina OST, and was anticipating more instantly. What we got here was not exactly what I anticipated, but is excellent none the less. One of the few beat/metric based electronic albums i've enjoyed this year, A Gradual Decline uses the degradation of sound as analogy for the decline of civilisation and environmental stability. It's beautiful but also represents something very bleak in a fragile way.

Favourite tracks: Pollen, Maboroshi, From Here to Nowhere.

43. Rabit - Life After Death

I was a massive fan of Rabit's last album and this album is very different. There's some similar types of abstraction and mutilated forms going on, but the sonic palette is different. I think it's cool when artists branch out and avoid repeating themselves, and Rabit has done that here. The sounds are often dark and mysterious, and I love the nightmarish, dreamscape type approach to form, and the disjointed relationship with genre, which is surrealistic verging on cinematic. Rabit is developing an important part of the new school electronic experimental scene for sure.

Favourite tracks: III, Blue Death.

44. Liars - Titles With the Word Fountain

As a follow up to last year's Theme From Cry Fountain, Angus Andrew's now solo version of the band Liars dropped a much more experimental companion album this year. The version I got is actually both albums together, and it makes for an interesting new take on what wasn't really that much of a favourite last year. The new material is abstract. Yet I feel like Liars is always going to be a an entity I will get confused by, whilst simultaneously excited about, especially now it seems that Andrew has gone through the existential anguish of being left at the proverbial alter. Musically, this album has a lot of sound experiments, and noisy sample based electronic beat stuff, with synths and the usual Liars attitude. It's not the most consistent album concept from Liars, but there's still good stuff going on.

Favourite tracks: Murdrum, Face in Ski Mask Bodies to the Wind, Extracts from Seated Sequence.

45. Sons of Kemet – Your Queen Is a Reptile

This album delivers an intense distillation of African music styles, all defiantly aimed like a weapon at colonialism, and celebrating women of colour in the process. The whole thing is led by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, who always brings a big concept together with finesse and soul, and this is no exception. The double drummer flavour really drives home the point with intensity, while the use of tuba as the bass instrument adds a hint of New Orleans to the arrangements at times. The stripped back instrumentation is also really interesting, with no harmony instrument, the melody and rhythmic energy carry it alone. I especially like the first and last track with the fierce spoken word sections.

Favourite track: My Queen Is Doreen Lawrence.

46. Oneohtrix Point Never – Age Of

OPN delivers a pretty mixed bag on this one, and not always successfully, but the high points are pretty outrageous. Despite the utter dud that is Babylon, for the most part the vocal fx on the album work well. Although I generally cringe at this much autotune, it's used to great effect on Black Snow, which is a stand out track. Warning and RayCats are also awesome tracks, with really great textural experiments and subtle melodic sensibilities, while Same is some kind of weird 80s pop nostalgia monster, coming completely out of nowhere. OPN is never restrained, and drops some brutal noise and metal in over the top of pretty passages in sudden sporadic bursts, keeping you questioning what album you're really listening to. The whole thing plays out like an acid tripped memory of a music festival.

Favourtie tracks: Black Snow, Warning, RayCats

47. Dustin Wong + Takako Minekawa + Good Willsmith – Exit Future Heart

A collaborative improvised excursion into the joyous unknown. Blending the playful and whimsical nature of Wong and Minekawa (who's album last year "Are Euphoria" was a top favourite) with some moodier abstractions from the Chicago trio Good Willsmith's end, striking an curious balance and keeping things interesting along the way. It's certainly a delightful and intimate listen, very giving and honest musical expression, and very cool sounds.

Favourite tracks: The Garden of Earthly Flanger, Plastic Skin, Gikanjoumonogatari.

48. Örvar Smárason – Light Is Liquid

Founding member of múm and instrumental maestro, Örvar Smárason has crafted a really great down-tempo pop record, that has all of the charm of his band's previous work, adding in some really psychedelic type electronic flavours to extend the curiosity and keep it interesting. There is some cool use of vocoders, and the guest vocals are real highlights - JFDR sounds great on Tiny Moon. Admittedly, on the surface this seemed a little generic at first, but I found myself needing it in my life more and more. It's going to be a great backyard chill out summer record.

Favourite tracks: The Duality Paradox, Tiny Moon.

49. Vanessa Tomlinson - The Space Inside

One of my favourite live performances of recent times was seeing Vanessa Tomlinson at Make it Up Club totally own the room with only a set of hi hats. On this album, Vanessa presents two pieces that each explore a single instrument, one is the concert bass drum, the other the tam tam. The music is powerful, and like that afoementioned night, the power of Vanessa's performance owns the space. The music transcends the expected ideas of rhythm and meter that might be anticipated of a percussion album, and becomes pure phenomenon.

Favourite track: There are only 2, and they need your full attention.

50. Gyda - Evolution

I saw Gyda Valtysdottir perform a few years back, and was absolutely captivated by her cello playing. On Evolution, the cello is only half of the hypnosis. Her voice, ranging from the fragile and delicate sensitivity that the vocals from her old band múm were known for, to much more confident and playful expressions of musical experimentation, is the real feature. It’s such a beautiful release, elegant music, that stops just short of potential tweeness to open towards new possibilities.

Favourite Tracks: Nothing More, Kind Human, Unborn.

Honorable Mentions:

These albums came into my life right at the end of the year, and I think I would have written this list differently if I had heard them earlier. I chose to add them this way because I had already selected the list and begun writing/posting it. That all said, I've been loving these records in the last few weeks. I won't go into it in depth, because I'm still soaking them up, but rest assured they are great.

Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want. It's heavy and abstract, i love the lazy vocal style and the urgency of the drumming. Fucking great.

Low - Double Negative Absolutely sweet vocal styles on this one, with excellent and surprising use of fx. I also love the crunchy production. Really gets under your skin.

The Caretaker - Stages 4 and 5. One of the deepest and most ambitious ambient (for lack of a better term...) projects continues, and it's an epic listening journey. Definitely not for relaxation.

0 notes

neptunecreek · 7 years ago

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Help I Just Lost My Google Ad Grant

Note from Beth: George Weiner from Whole Whale wrote this insightful piece about the Google Ad Grant program. He kindly offered to let me republish here.

Help I Just Lost My Google Ad Grant – Guest Post by George Weiner

The title of this article is becoming more frequently used by the roughly 35,000 nonprofit recipients of the popular Google Ad Grant. The Google Ad Grants program gives nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in free in-kind AdWords across the search network through the Google for Nonprofits platform.

On December 13, 2017, the Ad Grants team announced significant changes to the program that went into effect on January 1, 2018. A statement to the international news agency Reuters read:

“We revised our Ad Grants policies to help nonprofits be more effective with AdWords and improve the quality of their ads, which will lead to targeted awareness of their projects and mission.” We’ve posted the exact email at the bottom of this post.

What actually changed

The upbeat tone of the Google Ad Grant email, that highlighted the lifting of the $2 bid max for maximize conversions buried the real lead. The email was in fact a huge alert that many accounts needed to make serious adjustments on the quality of their ads to remain eligible.

The big 5 changes that call for a restructuring of most accounts:

Minimum 5% CTR account-wide. Accounts will be suspended after 2 consecutive months with a CTR below 5%.

Minimum keyword quality score of 2

Minimum of 2 ad groups per campaign

Minimum of 2 ads per group

Minimum of 2 sitelink ad extensions

The timing of the mid-December notice, when many nonprofits are knee-deep in end-of-year giving campaigns and then holiday breaks, made it especially easy to overlook the changes required.

Whole Whale has managed tens of millions of dollars in Google’s amazing grant. As of this writing, we also have the only online course through Udemythat trains nonprofits in managing this grant.

Our team of account strategists, who know this stuff cold, had to spend around 11 focused hours on each of our accounts across 4 weeks. For each account, this process involved cleaned up (~2hrs) and then optimizing for spend and CTR including re-writing ads, restructuring campaigns, and creating new maximize conversion campaigns/ad groups. We were able to save 95% of our accounts managed, losing one due to English ads in non-native English geographies (since regained). Even as an agency specializing in managing the Google AdWords Grant, we found the shift in strategy required for this policy update to be far from a few tweaks in order to be more effective.

Why did you do this, Google Ad Grant team?!

Whole Whale believes that the Google Ad Grant is an unbelievably generous in-kind gift to nonprofits in both dollars and the impact it has. We love this grant so we contacted the Ad Grants Team for comment and they were nice enough to explain what is going on.

Michelle Hurtado, Head of Google Ad Grants, explained that the program is focusing on quality and performance to make the offer more valuable to both nonprofits and people searching for nonprofit causes.

As explained in Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg’s How Google Works, all Google employees are held to Objectives and Key results (OKRs), a goal system that aligns ambition with measurable performance indicators. For 2018, Michelle’s team is driving toward higher CTR and conversion rate in order to connect more people with social causes..

One of the big problems that has arisen with the grant is that, in order to use the full amount, many spend excess money on broader terms that may not apply to the organization rather than losing the chance to spend the money. “Ads for terms like ‘movies’ or ‘children’ are common in accounts looking for broad awareness,” Michelle pointed out. “But these rarely result in good connections made between people and nonprofits.” Google wants us to also see the big picture: “The Ad Grants program is here to stay, and we hope that our policies serve as a guide on how to use Ad Grants better.

This will hopefully lead to more intelligent uses of the Grant across all grantees though it is clear that there are going to be a number of growing pains in the coming months. Michelle was careful to add the word ‘temporary’ to the suspensions that have impacted a small proportion of Ad Grantees as of this writing. “It is our goal to get these accounts back in action once the necessary changes are made to increase the quality and relevance of ads.”

This is still an awesome grant

In dollars, let’s do the math: Based on Google’s data, 35,000 nonprofits spent at least $10,000 per month in 2017 (not accounting for those who were receiving the now-discontinued GrantsPro, which gave $40,000 a month in ads) equals $4.2 billion in potential ad spend.

That’s for one year, and this thing has been around for 15!

Now, compare that with Google’s competitors and you’ll be hard-pressed to find something that stands out as analogous. Facebook, for example, has never had a formal ad grant system for nonprofits — though they did have a one-time nonprofit ad credit program that discontinued in 2016.

Turning to impact, Google cares about using its platform to make a difference. Awesome organizations use these ads to drive more people to their websites and engage them in their causes. At Whole Whale, we’ve driven over 6 million site visits to our nonprofit clients’ websites this way. And believe me, those nonprofits feel that impact in the form of more people learning about, engaging with, and becoming committed to their cause.

Most nonprofits simply can’t compete in the crowded marketplaces of social media and digital advertising. AFS-USA Intercultural Programs, which has been the leading study-abroad organization for high schoolers for over a century, is now facing greater competition with for-profit companies that run similar, but far more expensive, programs. In order to regain exposure in the crowded study abroad marketplace, AFS and organizations in a similar position will increasingly rely on the support of platforms that believe in a greater mission and not just a one-size-fits-all pricing model for advertising. Google Grants are helping AFS — and thousands of organizations like it — reclaim their spot in the front of users’ minds.

Google Ad Grants as an Answer to #FakeNews

The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer data are in, and while we are living through a multi-year decline in public trust, the NGO sector remains the leader in what trust we have left in four major sectors.

This erosion is a symptom of globalization, polarization, attacks on the media, and a general lack on consensus on facts. The net effects of the current U.S. leadership pushing out terms like “alternative facts” and trumpeting #FakeNews haven also accelerated distrust in the Government and Media sectors.

Source: Edelman

If NGOs are the kings and queens of trust, it’s time to double-down on the investment in content. The idea of #FakeNews and overall public distrust means that important information around health, education, unemployment, and the environment are being lost in a sea of finger-pointing and gerrymandering. There is an incredible opportunity for NGOs to fill this gap through reporting on and disseminating trusted information around the issues they cover.

To make this point a bit more tangible, consider some of the following Google autocomplete searches. Autocomplete shows the collective result of trillions of searches that are done on the search engine, narrowed down by searches across the world. When people want to learn something, they Google it and then let the algorithm sort out what they should see based on myriad factors.

The question is, who is fighting to answer these questions and win the battle on consensus? Take a minute and explore how people are searching for terms around your cause with this simple and powerful tool:

For 15 years the Google Ad Grant has helped nonprofits get an equal playing field in the online dialogue and discovery around key issues. Issues that companies and special interests spend billions to manipulate. The value of allowing small nonprofit players to show up when it matters most cannot be underestimated, especially in our current media and political climate.

How do I get my Google Ad Grant back?

If you haven’t already, make sure that your CTR for active keywords is above 5% and keywords are all relevant. The Google AdWords customer service team is awesome and has been fielding our calls and emails regularly. In order to regain your Ad Grants, you need to follow the details of their notice, completely removing irrelevant keywords/ads. Then consider contacting the Google AdWords support line and explain that your grant was “temporarily suspended” due to Ad Grants’ policies. They should be able to help you understand exactly which ads, groups, or keywords caused the issue.

Beyond this, Whole Whale will continue to create Google Ad Grant trainings, webinars and courses.

PS The full text of the email from Google can found here.

George Weiner is the founder of WholeWhale.

from Beth’s Blog https://ift.tt/2rv3Vss

#Beth’s Blog

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