HCTF's best of 2015 (5-1)

2015 was a rather good year for music. HCTF lists the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come.

Today: final countdown from number 5 to 1. Go here for 10-6 | 15-11 | 20-16.

5 The Leonids: Satellite Broadcast Kill

Exquisite orchestral pop meets jazz. The sky is the limit on a genre-crossing concept album of sorts.

{...} an album in the true sense of the word. Each song has its own flow and texture, but all of them contribute to the overall sound and feel: jazzy pop with uncanny ear for harmonic detail. Whether they are taking a bow to the Eighties synths (The Common World) or use a bass clarinet as the lead instrument (Under The Leonids), it all fits like a jigsaw that is complicated and straightforward at the same time. The title track is a superb throwback to the heyday of UK orchestral pop. Adele will be fucking jealous.

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4 Johnny Dowd: That's Your Wife on the Back of My Horse

The world most prolific trashcan Americana singer goes fiercely DIY, with an old drum machine, guitar and scary sounding pre-programmed keyboards.

Dowd is a troubadour in his own right, a Tom Waits-alike raconteur who won't back down, telling the world that "it sucks to get old" in Poor, but Proud. No problem if you cry for lost youth (Teardrops), but keep your guard up. He still might still steal your wife in the end.

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3 The Sideshow Tragedy: Capital

Recipe for loud bluesy garage rock: take two guys and let them play resonator guitar and drums. Add vocals. Press play.

(...) a melting pot of gnarly, spicy tunes telling stories about gun fights, trying to keep a composure, funerals, highway men and love affairs from Hell.

Singleton and Harrell have an instant rapport, sounding like they are one guy with four arms and four legs. with the "don't-fuck-with-me" vocals as an added bonus. The Sideshow Tragedy have thrown down a slab of abrasive songs that will induce foot tapping, air guitar and drums.

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2 The Aristocrats: Tres Caballeros

Prog jazz fusion metal rock virtuosos having fun with their chops. Tons of notes, tons of licks and tons of ideas. Relentless touring has turned them into formidable live act and studio masters.

During their live concerts they spice things up with squealing noises made by a plastic pig and chicken, but after given it some serious thought the pig didn't' make an appearance on the aptly titled Govan showcase Pig’s Day Off - the DVD extra includes Pig’s Day On and it isn't as good; they choose wisely. Beller goes Morricone in his composition Smuggler’s Corridor, with Govan laying down flawless Latin runs and Beller leading a small choir going "Ähaa-Ahaa-Ahaa", a dead ringer for audience participation.

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1 Alberteen: Miss World

The London rhythm & noir band take a look at life and English history, with a an album honoring "listen, learn, read on".

Alberteen is well aware that there are two sides of the coin in life, a concept that comes to the fore in We Are The Mods (youthful hope for a brighter future) and We Are The Last (sadder but wiser).

Miss World is an album for adults and smart kids. With Mike Bennett (The Fall, Ian Brown) once again the producer's seat, they have come up with a timeless post-punk album filled with a wealth of cultural references that never get in the way of enjoying the music as such.

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HCTF's best of 2015 (10-6)

2015 was a rather good year for music. HCTF lists the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come.

Today: countdown from number 10 to 6. Go here for 5-1 | 15-11 | 20-16.

10 Jorma Kaukonen: Ain't In No Hurry

There are fine acoustic pickers, there are damned fine acoustic pickers and there is this guy.

(...) like a great wine: he gets better with age. He celebrated his 74th birthday in December, but retirement isn't part of his vocabulary. His new album (...) sees him once more exploring well known songs from the folk and country canons plus a healthy dose of originals. He is one of the greatest acoustic guitar players this side of Betelgeuse, with a finger picking style that is totally at ease and nearly impossible to replicate.

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9 Zombie Garden Club: Zombie Garden Club

Johnny Douglas for all your garage band needs and analog equipment fix.

Singing about girls, cars, having the blues and craving for karma may be not very original, but it makes killer jukebox material. He is a gear head using vintage amps and keyboards that are a bitch to maintain, but emanating a warm sound that all the programming geeks in Silicon Valley haven't been able to replicate in a convincing manner.

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8 Jumble Hole Clough: A List Of Things That Never Happened

One-man project courtesy of Colin Robinson, friendly mad scientist and BBC Radiophonic Workshop fan, churning out a wealth of highly original musical wanderings.

Via a freaky visit to Budapest he goes pastoral for A sundial in the rain, thinking about death ("it's not a teardrop, it's a coffin"). Recurring Bathysiderodromophobia earns the top spot. Driven by a soft Kraftwerk meets Gary Numan rhythm track, Robinson builds a multi-faceted sculpture of repeating, twisted musical themes. If Gaudi had been a composer he would have been writing stuff like this.

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7 Mr. Fantastical: Born To Boogie Born To Die

Jason Corman is a muso in disguise for all your party and music geeks needs.

His new album (..) has its fair share off stomping good time music, but spin one of the smart instrumentals and be prepared to pick up your jaw from the floor. The acoustic Haunted Potato Shed wouldn't have been out of place on Ry Cooder's Paris, Texas soundtrack and the fast bits during the heavy Jaapan Funk will be dissected by guitar geeks. AARPeggio is another showcase of his chops and then some.

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6 Janet Feder: T H I S C L O S E

Be prepared for prepared guitar. Accessible avant-garde guitar excursions that dig deep.

Her latest album (...) is a sonic expedition, playing instruments in an unorthodox fashion, focusing on textures and melody as equals. Feder picks her single notes carefully, sprinkling them on top of drone like tapestries (No Apology() or striking up a conversation with a jazzy piano (You As Part Of A Whole). The sparse, mostly acoustic She Sleeps With The Sky is a 101 for a complex composition dressing up as deceptively simple showcase.

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HCTF's best of 2015 (15-11)

2015 was a rather good year for music. HCTF lists the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come.

Today: countdown from number 15 to 11. Go here for 5-1 | 10-6 | 20-16.

15 Hey Mandible: The Arse

Noise rock trio proofs that not everything is sunny in Florida.

They have a beef with pretty much everybody and everything - women, kids, religion - and are trying to smother their dislikes with howling feedback and distortion. It could have resulted into an album filled with flat sounding, brickwalled songs, but they have a good ear for dynamics, hooks and slow moving melody lines.

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14 Thirty Pounds of Bone: The Taxidermist

Something quite sinister is lurking in the shadows. Your guide Johny Lamb is here to explain.

He went in at the deep end using analog synths to soften the blow of his vengeful lyrics, going all out in angry shoegaze mood for songs like The Expelled and using vaudevillian rock for Pasganger, Or The Wagon. Lamb thrives when his voice is a couple of notches above a whisper in the neo-psychedelic despair of Before I’m Done and All Your Sons. Quiet desperation is indeed the English way.

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13 Lost Bear: Monkey Pop

Gnarly out-of-the-box stuff from the Netherlands. Eclectic weirdness with a beat.

Monkey Pop is a soft-spoken, disturbing and claustrophobic album. Think The Cure having a sleepover with Pavement, with marching drums and keyboards and guitar rolling down the road like tumbleweed filmed in slow motion.

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12 Big Lazy: Don't Cross Myrtle

Big city jazz that you can dance too. Yes, that's still a thing.

From the spaghetti western Minor Problem via the slow swagger of The Low Way to the speakeasy vibe of Avenue X, the drecnched in echo Swampesque, the album makes it to Adrian Belew meets an angry brass player title track Don't Cross Myrtle before closing the door with the melancholic Whereabouts. A high quality all-you-can-eat album for gourmets.

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11 Umphrey's McGee: The London Session - A Day at Abbey Road Studios

Progressive jam band had some time to kill before a string of shows in the UK. So they made a record.

Umphrey's McGee overcame jet lag and nerves to end up with an album that is a 101 for musicians that lock themselves in a pressure cooker of sorts. The London Session - A Day at Abbey Road Studios sounds like a superb live record. It will be hard to capture this kind of intensity and fun when they go back to traditional studio recording methods for the next one.

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HCTF's best of 2015 (20-16)

2015 was a rather good year for music. In the next four days HCTF lists the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come.

Today: countdown from number 20 to 16. Go here for 5-1 | 10-6 | 15-11.

20 The Brighton Beat: Off We Go

The funky afrobeat big band thrives on stage. They managed to transfer the excitement of a live show to the studio on their sophomore release.

Joe DiGiorgi at Headline Studios, NY did an excellent job. He got a rock sound for Hit The Bricks, a widescreen cinematic feel for Summer Lullaby and put the percussion and brass up front for the two parts of Stand With The Herd. The bass gets a boost when the band goes funky, most notably in the title track.

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19 Holly Bowling: Distillation of a Dream: The Music of Phish Reimagined For Solo Piano

A classically trained piano player transcribed the spontaneous jamming of the Vermont quartet. A sprawling double album that sparkles.

Bowling had to bottle the on stage spontaneity. (...) The instrumentals The Horse and The Inlaw Josie Wales were fairly easy by comparison, but she didn't shun the challenge of A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing and The Squirming Coil.

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18 Kapok: Glass to Sand

The Dutch jazz trio Kapok invited some guests for their third album and a good time was had by all.

With the sound Morris Kliphuis' horn the trio stands out as colorful bird amidst a flock of squabbling pigeons. With drummer Remco Menting's command of complex rhythms and guitarist Timon Koomen's progressive tone they are a truly "unusual" jazz trio. Throw in their ability to find inspiration to write about subject like muscle spasms - the ambient/post-rock mashup Myoclonus or sing the praise of Cacti and extensive plains in Pediplen and you have a band with an open mind and sense of Zappa-esque humour.

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17 Richard Lomax & The Tontine: Down There For Dancing

English multi-instrumentalist is a man of many moods. And also the sole guy on Earth who can rock out while wielding an Omnichord.

Even when Lomax gets mad at someone, like he does in Every Fucker Fucks You (so why not fuck them first?), he picks up a scalpel instead of an axe, wrapping his wrath in an aloof manner plus a some memorable guitar outbursts - efficiency superseding blind fury.

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16 Mountaineer: 1974

Marcel Hulst made a wonderfully delicate solo album, even foregoing capitalizing the song titles.

(...) a great blend of indie, folk and Americana, a prime example of soft music that doesn't need to be played loud to make its mark. Highlights: the use of double tracked vocals adding urgency to the message of in Canada, the early Floyd-alike pastoral artificial light and the melancholic dirge all your armies.

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