It gets better – year by year!
Every year that passes, indicates that music only gets better and better for us, but in the massive ocean of the globalized network with constant releases you have to do something for it to pay you back: You have to painstalkingly invest on it, by searching and giving chances and you ‘ll be treated with the best outcome for your earhole! Of course not only in the underground scene but also in the more commercial side.
I would like to thank everyone, from sound techs, to radio hosts, to a person near me that taught me about some band, to the bands for creating the perfect escapism, for internet platforms that give us the chance to support and the whole More Fuzz Familia of writing staff and readers! Time is an abstract concept created by humans to fool ourselves but i hope the best for 2018 and a crazy music ride for our scene!
I present you with my most favourite 10 albums for 2017 and then my favourite from other genres or the ones that didn’t make the final cut! Keep on rocking in the free world!
Don't forget to check out the Top Albums of the other More Fuzz team members !
Top 10 Albums of 2017
10 : Siena Root – A Dream Of Lasting Peace
Site – Facebook – Instagram – Youtube – Bandcamp – Twitter –Spotify –Itunes – Google Play
Natural flow of an organic sound with the aura of Deep Purple and Rainbow. You will fall instantly in love with the retro sounds, the voice of a storyteller that takes you to the yester years, the boogie rhythms and tasty synthesizers. Its warm sound is appropriate for hippy festivals along the summer breeze! Check my full review here.
9 : Colour Haze – In Her Garden
Site – Facebook – Spotify – Itunes
Multilayered, acid, progressive, jazz, 60s, organic. Some words to throw around but to capture the main feeling of the stellar job of the German band. The use of clarinet, trombone, tuba, piano and sitar along with the standard psych jam guitar arrangements create a warm and rich melody. I can only imagine a co-headlining tour with Samsara Blues Experiment and their last effort!
8 : Queens Of The Stone Age – Villains
We can be h̶e̶r̶o̶e̶s̶ Villains, just for one day, as a friend of mine said about the inherent relationship between David Bowie’s album and the latest effort by QOTSA. As I wrote back in August in my review “he goes in a direction similar with his idols (Iggy Pop, David Bowie) and their Berlin Era experimentations. So the sound is more beat driven and multi layered with 80’s new wave synths, string instruments and a straight and “dry” guitar sound.” Josh experimented with pop and funk sounds and dance worthy tunes. It may seem a bit weaker than its rich predecessor, but I love it when a band goes unapologetically wherever the hell they desire to evolve their sound, even if the experiment sometimes doesn’t succeed.
(Check this interesting mixed playlist of David Bowie’s Heroes with Villains and this one of …Like Clockwork and Villains!)
7 : King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Flying Microtonal Banana
The band has done the unimaginable. It brought new horizons in the genre of psych rock with the use of microtonal tuning. Fresh, innovative, heterogeneous, repetitive, 70s prog rock and the most out of left field you’ve ever heard in the fuzz genre in years! Of course it draws from past genres like kraut rock but it puts it in a state of osmosis with anatolia psychedelia. The question is, after this crazy year of 5(!) LPs in a frenetic FrankZappa-esque fashion, what is next for the hottest name in psych rock?
6 : Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?
Site – Facebook – Instagram – Youtube – Twitter –Spotify –Itunes – Google Play
In many years from now, when some youngsters will ask, what was contemporary in the heavy territory (and not heavy per se), we will play for them Royal Blood’s sophomore effort. Take this statement however you want to translate it: either rock is dead or Royal Blood gave a breath of fresh air to the genre. As I said in my review between the praises for the heavy riffs and pounding drums, I stand with the latter of the above sentences.
5 : Samsara Blues Experiment – One With The Universe
Site – Facebook – Instagram – Youtube – Bandcamp – Spotify – Google Play – Itunes
The magnum opus of the German 3 – piece is their most mature effort yet and one that embodies their vision. Rock that will enlighten your soul, lift your spirit and open new horizons. Their sound, droning but not in a chocking way, has this Eastern/ summer feeling. Raw and celestial at the same time with retro touches of analog synthesizers that lean toward Pink Floyd’s “Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” psychedelia. You become one with the music and every one of us becomes one with the universe.
4 : Deaf Radio – Alarm
Greece’s answer to Royal Blood or their ideal opening act in a tour, Deaf Radio one year after its release this is definitely one of the most talked debuts of 2017! Radio friendly and also full of eroticism. It takes Josh Homme’s pure hard rock doctrines and Ian Curtis’s sensual and at the same time sorrowful voice to create this enjoyable amalgamation. In a year where QOTSA tried to be less identified with their original sound (and rightfully so), Deaf Radio are the new kids on the block! I cannot still decide about its position, so I declare it is a tie with the next one…
3 : Puta Volcano – Harmony Of Spheres
Site – Facebook – Instagram – Youtube – Bandcamp – Twitter – Spotify – Google Play – Itunes
A frontwoman that can easily remind us the simplicity of Gwen Stefani (yeah, early No Doubt era!), to Chelsea Wolfe’s distant crooning all the way up to Chris Cornell’s mega screams, in an archetypal rock priestess looming over a macho world. The rest of the band is made of Alice In Chains riffage, QOTSA desert machine rattle beats and Soundgarden’s massive wall of sound! From the Tsangarides (RIP) produced first raw attempt, to 2015 breakthrough LP, this effort is all about evolution. So the guess about their future is up to you: Will Anna embrace the diversity of Bowie and Iggy Pop? Will they take it to more alternative forms (there is a subtle Tool related hint in this record) from the previous stoner rock and grunge style? Time will only tell…
2 : Ty Segall – Self Titled
Site – Facebook – Bandcamp – Itunes
What can one say about this prolific guitar god? Spitting riffs based on the Holy Fuzz sound and drenched in Beatles-esque psychedelia. From the ultra – representative “Break A Guitar” to the sweet and soft “Comb Your Hair” and to the fuzz soaked and frenetic paced “Thank You Mr.K”, the modern day Olympian god did it once again. He gave us the electric gift of pure rawk! Full review here.
1 :Youngblood Supercult – The Great American Death Rattle
Site – Facebook – Instagram – YouTube – Bandcamp – Twitter – Spotify – Google Play – iTunes
I knew it from the very first time I saw this striking image on the cover, evoking so many strong emotions with its subtle socio-political connotations (an almost rotten/ undead horse, meaning the collapse of the American dream / western civilization as we know it maybe?). Heavy blues with a touch of proto doom it is sorrowful and baptized in melancholy of soundtracks from the first season of True Detective. The moody and hazy feeling, the vintage Sabbath worship, the Bonham-ic drumming. The americana that runs through the rivers just like veins. Raise everybody’s flags high. The American Dream is dead, long live the Great American Death Rattle! I wrote many more things if you want to check out, back in the mid – summer of ’17
Don't forget to check out the Top Albums of the other More Fuzz team members !
Honourable Mentions
Ulver – The Assassination Of Julius Caesar
Marilyn Manson – Heaven Upside Down
The Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
Trivium – The Sin And The Sentence
Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 3
Perturbator – New Model
Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand
All Them Witches – Sleeping Through The War
Electric Wizard – Wizard Bloody Wizard
Dopesmoker – Legalize It
The Devil & The Almighty Blues – II
Faith Bender – Soupersoul
Purple Dino – And Now What?
The Road Miles – Ballads For The Wasteland
Various Artists – The Sun, The Moon, The Mountain: A Passage Through Greek Psychedelia
Last Rizla – KLS9532
Tuber – Out Of The Blue
Half Gramme Of Soma – Groove Is Black
Black Hat Bones – Born In A Thunder
Green Yeti – Desert Show
Holy Monitor – Holy Monitor
Breath After Coma – Leaders
Whereswilder – Hotshot
Bazooka – Zougla
Goya – Harvester Of Bongloads
John Garcia – The Coyote Who Spoke In Tongues
Melvins – A Walk With Love And Death
Prophets Of Rage – Prophets Of Rage
Bootsy Collins – World Wide Funk
Body Count – Bloodlust
Chelsea Wolfe -Hiss Spun
Chris Stapleton – From A Room Vol. I, II
Foo Fighters – Concrete And Gold
Euphoria – Sofia Sarri
Infinite – Deep Purple
Mahakala – The Second Fall
Stone Sour – Hydrograd
Myrkur – Mareridt
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