dream pop – 10 Records

10 Best records of 2022

This smalll list of records is intended to gather some of the albums enjoyed the most by the owner during the year and not to portray the totality of what happened in music during 2022.

I know there are thousand of good albums released last year we could’ve talk about that have been covering most of music magazines and blogs around, but as said it just a small list exclusively based by personal enjoability.

So don’t be too surprise if you won’t find here anything about the impressive dance pop homage on Beyoncé‘s Reinassance or the introspective R&B of SZA on her new SOS.

Moor Mother “Jazz Codes”

Camae Ayewa, alias Moor Mother, is nowadays one of the most talented and interesting artists around, able to expand her creativity over new fields with no boundaries of any kind. With her full discography she always tried different approaches and pushed herself over new visions, soundscapes and “codes” , as the album title suggests.

Jazz Codes is indeed not just a jazz album, but a whole celebration of afroamerican music in a very personal way; The mixture between hip-hop and jazz has always been a trademark of Moor Mother’s music, but it’s always surprising how she’s able to destroy the structures used on a previous album to completely create new ones.

There’s still a strong free jazz connection, but compared with previous works like Circuit City or Black Encyclopedia of the Air it seems to be more intended to accompany the rest of the electronic textures and the nocturnal ambient vibes than leading the whole musical aspect; the perfect accompaniment for an amazing lyric work full of poetry and meaning exploring topics ranging from politics to spirituality. Almost every track sees the participation of at least a guest musician offering a sort of “art collective experience”.

Brutus “Unison Life”

Hailing from Belgium, this trio is with no doubt one of the fresher things happened to hardcore in recent times. After two very well made albums and an ascent success over the heavy music communities, this new record definitely marks an important achievement in terms of artistic maturity, pushing the band’s proposal on an even more balanced and cohesive form.

The emotional and atmospheric component is very close to perfection and offers in a lot of moments the best that genre has to give, from the amazing dramatic vocals to the enthralling drum patterns and the mind blowing atmospheric guitar work that totally embraces the whole sound field even if most of the times there’s only just a guitar line.

Emotionally speaking Unison Life is moving, intense and mind blowing, alternating pure breathtaking songwriting moments with beautiful lyrics about life struggles to more explosive post-rock sections. With no doubt the very best you can find in post-hardcore nowadays.

Charli XCX “Crash”

After being confirmed as the undisputed queen of digital pop with her previous How i’m Feeling Now, Charli came back with a new record, aware of the high amount of interest from the music community on her.

Indeed Crash is definitely not How i’m Feeling Now 2.0, but a strong evolution of her music from an abstract dimension to a more consistent and complete idea pop and the totality of its heritage.

Anticipated by the perfection of the single Good Ones, this record offers dance-like moments, synth driven 80’s tributes, modern hits in a 2000s style and of course internet era music, making the hyperpop diva status absolutely perfect to fit on Charli’s new artistic shape.

Rina Sawayama “Hold the Girl”

As well as Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama has a very similar situation when a following album to her debut was announced to be released.

In a specular way she had a lot of attention on and she also opted for a different and more traditionally pop way to express herself. Many great music arrangements and interesting solutions can be found here, created again over a very complete variety of influences, even if not as crazily various as happened on the previous one.

Hold the Girl is still an excellent example of how to make a good pop album in 2022, picking different approaches here and there and molding them together with strong personality and distinctive songwriting and storytelling abilities.

King Stingray “King Stingray”

With an extremely fresh and genuine record, the Australian rock group King Stingray have released its debut album last summer and it’s definitely a worth to listen one.

This is not just a regular contemporary rock release, but it’s a unique palette full of different influences from indie to folk and funk with a very personal and original approach strictly related to the traditions from the northern territories where the band comes from.

Beside rock indeed there’s a song approaching rooted in aboriginal music and the ancient tradition of manikay (aboriginal songs), which makes this album a totally unique experiment with lyrics in both english and youlnu matha and an overall cheerful mood that make the whole work absolutely enjoyable. A really interesting journey.

Asonojokei “Island”

In always less inspired times for blackgaze music, it’s definitely not easy to make the difference and avoid to repeat what have already been made by thousand other bands in the last decade; Asunojokei’s second released (follower of Awakening from 2018), is indeed not making a revolution, but it’s undoubtedly shining for its unique take on the genre and provides strong songs with beautiful melodies and highly intense moments.

Envy and Deafheaven are still the main influences of the japanese quartet, but compared to their previous work, which is of course a great album, this record sounds more wonderfully cohesive in terms of sound and emotionally speaking it’s even more powerful, offering breathtaking moments deeply inspired by j-pop solutions and post-hardcore/emo melancholic vibes that gives to the whole record a strong cinematic and stunning approach.

M.I.A. “Mata”

After six years of absence from music scenes, the UK based srilankan rapper and poetess is back with a new work. For the ones not very familiar with M.I.A. needs to be said that she’s always been a very original artist and not a regular rapper, molding her whole style over different types of hip-hop, eastern music, field recording sampling and UK electronic music, proposing a unique formula that in this new Mata sees a delightful contamination with all the modern drifts happened in hip-hop during her years of absence.

Anticipated by the very powerful single The One and its strong trap inspired vibes, Mata is a melting pot of influences and inspirations. seeing M.I.A. still at ease with her traditional marks such as well crafted songwriting, conscious rap and elements of asian music, but also confident with more modern approaches.

Yeule “Glitch Princess”

Follower of one of the most beautiful albums of the last decade (Serotinin II), Yeule’s second work is maintaining their music on a high quality level in terms of atmospheres, sound design, poetry and of course songwriting.

The album is opened by a voice message where Yeule introduces and describes theirself and indeed the whole record in general seems to be very much into this personal exposure compared to their previous music/lyrical approaches; of course still in a cyborg/nihilist personality than a strictly human one, but since their music remain extremely emotional and touching there’s definitely a strong level of empathy with the listener in a pretty much cinematic way i’d say.

In general Yeule’s music is like an open portal to another world, that seems to be an inner dimension that we all have inside, but we all unconsciously tend to hide. On a strictly musical side the direction seems to be less pop driven, but more into the avant-garde/ambient fields with tons of glitches and electronic samples, but still opened to extremely emotional and intense moments. Absolutely beautiful and enchanting, perfect to be listened in the heart of the night.

Domi & JD Beck “Not Tight”

One of the most awaited of the year; Domi & JD Beck have been active since 2018 as a touring act and a project open to collaborate with many well known artists from jazz, pop and hip-hop scenes. They’ve been capturing since the beginning a lot of attentions from music medias, especially for their incredible talent and their young age.

Not Tight is the first full-length album ever released by the duo and contains all the band’s background influences and some really crazy collaborations with some music giants such as Herbie Hancock, Anderson .Paak and Mac DeMarc just to name a few ones. The duo’s music is very fresh even if it set its roots mostly in mid 70’s jazz fusion with several R&B, neoprogressive and old school hip-hop references offering a smooth and delightful atmosphere that doesn’t sound old or already listened even if there is certainly a strong tribute component.

Technically speaking the record is unbelievable, with crazy irregular drum patterns, synth sounds from another world and instrumental virtuoso moments; but it’s not the type of album you can appreciate only if you’re into music theory, it’s definitely an excellent record to put on for chilling and being transported somewhere else by the magic power of the music.

The Comet is Coming “Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam”

London based space jazz ensemble The Comet is Coming doesn’t really need any particular kind of introduction, since they’ve easily become through the years one of the most acclaimed and interesting names around the jazz genre with their unique blend of spacey, sc-fi and futuristic atmospheres molded over free improvisation and nearly psychedelic vibes always opened to other genres contaminations such as electronic rock and funk.

Their last effort still moves over the previous albums path, drifting between synth driven atmospheric moments and more aggressive explosions with King Shabaka wonderful saxophone exploitations.

Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam is a spiritual experience expanded through abstract musical architectures and sound fields to create a listening journey with no boundaries or limits of any kind.

10 Records with Giuseppe Emanuele Frisone (ITA / ENG)

First article from this new format which consist in 10 influential/important records lists made by guests.

This time is the turn of vocalist and songwriter Giuseppe Emanuele Frisone, also known as Heliogabalus or G.E.F., known among the italian underground to be mastermind of several projects with a very strong and particular conceptual imaginery, which is a trademark of his musical creations and artistic awareness.

If you don’t know his bands i can’t forget to mention Thecodontion and their pretty good album Supercontinent released last summer, which is a very original and unique project with a concept based on prehistoric geology, palenthology and jurassic creatures; and i don’t even already mentioned the musical side, which is extreme metal with only bass and drums and no guitars at all, with a few strong and inspiring atmospheric passages (i don’t remember to have ever heard bass guitars to sound so spacey and melodic).

In this list you’ll find 10 Records that had a particular significance on him both as artist and as person, that, mentioning his words, don’t necessarily correspond with his absolute favourite records of all time.

A last thing to add about this article is the fact that i was initially planning to write it in Italian (my first language), but since this artist is making music for an international audience, i will keep both italian and english versions; next times for personalities known in Italy only i will probably keep the whole article in italian.

Franco Battiato “Patriots” (1980)

Ho sempre amato Franco Battiato e i suoi brani li ricollego alla mia infanzia e ai viaggi per andare dai parenti. Di lui mi piace sia il periodo sperimentale sia quello più pop, ma ho scelto in particolare l’album Patriots perché è pieno di citazioni e riferimenti a posti reali, fatti storici, elementi culturali, e penso che questa cosa mi abbia influenzato particolarmente. Oltretutto pur essendo un disco già del periodo pop l’ho sempre trovato molto sperimentale e innovativo.

I’ve always loved Franco Battiato and i usually link his songs to my childhood and the travels i used to do to reach my relatives in that period. I like both experimental and pop period from Battiato, but i’ve chose the album Patriots in particular beacuse it’s full of quotes and reference of real places, historical events and cultural elements; i think this component influences me in a solid way. Moreover, even if this record is already part of his pop period, i’ve always considered it a very experimental and innovative album.

Fabrizio De André “Non al Denaro Non All’Amore Nè al Cielo” (1971)

Per De André vale un po’ lo stesso discorso fatto per Battiato, dal momento che anche lui lo collego alla mia infanzia. Scelgo Non Al Denaro Non All’Amore Nè Al Cielo perché contiene le canzoni di De André che mi sono rimaste più impresse e in cui secondo me la sua espressività narrativa è al culmine.

For De André is basically the same of Battiato, since i link him as well to my childhood. I’ve chosen the album Non Al Denaro Non All’Amore Nè Al Cielo because it contains his songs that have been stucked with me the most; i also consider them the highest point of his narrative expression.

Bathory “Hammerheart” (1990)

Hammerheart è il disco che mi ha fatto capire che amo il metal, mi ha sempre fatto emozionare come un bambino e ricordo ancora oggi la prima volta che l’ho ascoltato. Da quel momento ho anche avuto una fascinazione per i vichinghi che negli anni è andata un po’ scemando, ma nonostante questo riesce sempre ad esercitare la stessa magia su di me.

Hammerheart is the album that made me realize i love metal, it has always been able to move me like a child and i still remember the first time i’ve listened to it. Since that moment i also started to have a fascination for vikings, which has been fading through the years, but beside that i still always feel the same magic.

Sonic Youth “Dirty” (1992)

Ho conosciuto i Sonic Youth dopo i 20 anni, quindi non ero proprio piccolissimo. Con Dirty mi si è aperto un mondo, perché è stato il primo disco dei Sonic Youth che ho ascoltato e da lì sono diventati rapidamente una delle mie band preferite. Tra l’altro su Dirty c’è Theresa’s Sound World che è praticamente un brano antesignano del post-black metal (e sì, è del 1992) e questa cosa mi ha sempre affascinato.

I’ve discovered Sonic Youth after i turned 20, so i wasn’t that young. Dirty was the first album from them i’ve ever listened, it really blew my mind and they started to become fastly one of my favourite bands. Among other things on this record there’s the song Theresa’s Sound World which is basically a precursor track of the post-black metal genre (yes, it’s from 1992) and i’ve always been fascinated by this fact.

Portal “Outre” (2007)

Quando ho iniziato ad ascoltare metal estremo, amavo il black metal ma non il death metal. Se oggi ho cambiato idea una buona parte del merito è di Outre dei Portal, perché mi ha offerto un’idea differente su come concepire il genere. Da lì in poi ho riapprofondito il genere e sono riuscito a capirne meglio le fondamenta, tanto che oggi preferisco il death al black metal.

When i initially started to get into extreme metal, i was in love with black metal, but not with death metal. If today i’ve changed my perspectives it’s because of Outre by Portal, that gaves me a different approach to the genre. Since then i started to get more into it and i started to understand its form of expression, so much that now i prefer death metal than black metal.

Cocteau Twins “Treasure” (1984)

Quando ho ascoltato per la prima volta i Cocteau Twins mi sono innamorato della voce della cantante Elisabeth Fraser e delle loro atmosfere eteree. Sono stati loro a dare il la per farmi conoscere meglio il dreampop e lo shoegaze, proprio con Treasure.

When i’ve listened for the first time to Cocteau Twins i immediately fell in love with Elisabeth Fraser’s voice and their ethereal atmospheres. It’s because of them and their album Treasure that i started to know more about the dream pop and shoegaze genres.

Primus “Pork Soda” (1993)

Come strumento mi ha sempre affascinato il basso. Quando ho ascoltato i Primus per la prima volta non avevo mai sentito il basso venire utilizzato in questo modo, con un ruolo così da protagonista. Ma non è tutto qui perché Pork soda mi ha saputo trascinare con le sue canzoni che ho sempre avvertito come strane, diverse in tutto e per tutto.

I’ve always been fascinated by bass guitar. When i’ve listened to Primus for the first time i had never heard before a bass guitar used in such a lead way. But there’s more, since Pork Soda has been able to fascinate me with its songs that i’ve always considered weird and different than everything else.

Ved Buens Ende “Written in Waters” (1995)

Sin dai miei primi approcci con il black metal mi piaceva l’idea di andare oltre, di capire se un genere così estremo ed oltranzista potesse essere fuso con altri elementi. Written in waters è stata la prima risposta che ho ricevuto, che mi ha fatto avvicinare al cosiddetto avantgarde black metal, con le sue forti venature progressive amalgamate con la violenza del black metal.

Since my first approaches with the black metal genre i was fascinated by the idea of going over and mixing such an extreme and uncompromising genre with diverse musical elements. Written in Waters has been my first answer regarding that and it started to drag me into the so called avantgarde black metal, with its strong progressive vibes perfectly merged into the brutality of black metal.

Big Black “Songs About Fucking” (1987)

Discorso simile a quanto fatto per i Sonic Youth. Ho conosciuto le varie band di Steve Albini solo negli ultimi dieci anni, e tra queste i Big Black mi sono rimasti impressi soprattutto per Songs About Fucking. Mi ha stupito il connubio di noise e punk e le tracce intrise di nichilismo fino al midollo, insieme a un’interpretazione singolare di The Model dei Kraftwerk.

With Big Black my approach has been similiar to Sonic Youth. I’ve discovered Steve Albini’s bands only during the last ten years, and among them, Big Black impressed me in particular with their album Songs About Fucking. I was astonished to hear this mix of noise and punk and this tracks totally steeped in nihilism, there’s also a very singular interpretation of The Model originally by Kraftwerk.

Behemoth “Demigod” (2004)

Non ascolto più i Behemoth da diversi anni, ma con Demigod c’è stato il mio primo incontro con il metal estremo. All’epoca non ritenevo possibile che potesse esistere della musica così “malvagia”. Questo mi sconvolse e mi mise quasi paura ma al tempo stesso anche fascino: fu proprio da quel momento che decisi di approfondire quel tipo di musica, per cui a distanza di anni rimane un album indimenticabile.

It’s several years i haven’t listened to Behemoth now, but with Demigod i got in touch for the first with extreme metal. At the time for me was impossible that such “evil” music could exist. This shocked me and i was almost scared, but fascinated at the same time: It was in that moment that i’ve decided to get more into this type of music, for this reason after many years this is still an unforgettable record.