It’s the end of a brilliant year for music and for our website so we have decided this year to post up our top tens of the year, starting with Martin Ward the photographer’s lists. He has given us his top ten albums and comments about each one. Top ten live shows and a bunch of stuff that was very close but not quite good enough for his lists.
You’ll find all the albums here on Spotify or Bandcamp so you can read what he thought and then go and have a listen, Check out the embedded tracks too, your new favourite band could be right here waiting for you. So in reverse order here we go.
Albums of the Year 2017
10 – Bardspec – Hydrogen
It’s trippy, floaty and hypnotic.
9 – With The Dead – Love From With The Dead
A second helping of massive metal from one of Coventry’s finest.
8 – Wire – Silver / Lead
British art school rock at it’s best.
7 – JK Flesh – Suicide Estate Antibiotic Armageddon (digital release)
Crunched out hypnotic electronic beats. Plenty of noise here.
6 – Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Feed The Rats
Driving Sabbath like guitars with psychedelic vocals.
5 – Resurrection Men – No
Howling lyrics and powerful rock mixes everything inc speed metal tracks in with mad riffs and doom, brilliantly bonkers.
4 – Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble – Finding Me Finding You
Stereolab lady, French laid back cool obviously.
3 – Black Mekon- One In The Hate
badass fuzzed out rock n roll.
2 – Dalek- Endangered Philosophy
Dark and deep hip hop beats with layered effects and samples.
1 – Oxbow – Thin Black Duke
Brilliant standout of the year, immense vocals with rich and varied songs, just buy it.
Live Shows of the Year
1 – Oxbow Choir- Birmingham
2 – Loop – Bristol
3 – Swans – Manchester
4 – Laetitia Sadier – Liverpool
5 – Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds- Birmingham
6 – Rainbow Grave – Coventry
7 – Black Mekon – Birmingham
8 – Zonal- Birmingham
9 – MMMD -Birmingham
10 – DJ Steve Davis – Birmingham
Other Great Stuff From 2017
Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam
Noamm
Yr Poetry
Planetary Assault Systems
Charles Dexter Ward and the Imagineers
MMMD
Bass Agenda Recordings
All words and live pictures by Martin Ward
