This is Music: The Anglo Mix 2014

Last year this blog published an 8tracks mix of the best Anglophone tracks of 2013 (in my opinion - which since it's my blog, is the only opinion that matters) and while the blog's Anglophone albums of last year were featured here, it's safe to say that 2014 was yet another outstanding year in terms of record releases. So here's this year's 8tracks mix,  "This is Music: The Anglo Mix 2014". Tracks from the albums of the year are featured, but there was a host of other great songs - from albums, EPs and Singles that deserve another airing.

The best of 2014's new music on one 8tracks mix. This one is best played loud!

The Anglo Mix 2014 from SteveinSoCal on 8tracks Radio.

 

Warpaint "Biggy"

From the rib-cage crushing bass to the ethereal harmonious vocals, Warpaint once again demonstrated that they have very few peers in the creative stakes.

Cœur de pirate "Music when the lights go out"

Béatrice Martin is French-Canadian; She’s released two tremendous French-language albums. For her (English) soundtrack album to the French-Canadian drama series "Trauma", this track, originally by The Libertines got owned.

Angel Olsen "Forgiven/forgotten"

How to fall in love with an album in just a couple of minutes. Full bore effects-pedal, a crescendo of fuzzed, distorted guitar, Angel’s banshee wail… This was a nailed-on gem…

Highasakite "Lover where do you live?"

From the most stunning of albums that featured a whole host of gorgeous orchestral soundtracks, "Lover where do you live?" featured a simple accompaniment to a haunting lament. But then there's a soaring refrain and a symphony of keyboards, all married to Ingrid Helene Håvik’s crystalline voice.

La Sera "Losing to the dark"

La Sera’s third album "Hour of the Dawn" was arguably their best and "Losing to the Dark" certainly made a statement - a howling noise of 100 mph reverbed, fed-back guitar, and the most snarling and vitriolic of put-downs.

Verdigris "Long gone"

Sisters Catherine and Anna Wolk’s EP "Heartbreak Hours" was an evocative mix of melancholic yet at the same time soaring and uplifting keyboards, tape-loops and orchestral strings all married to haunting vocals and beguiling, bitter-sweet lyrics. The sisters describe their sound as "Sad Grl Electro Chamber Pop." I'd just call it hypnotic...

Oh, Rose "Lottery"

With plenty of ‘Singinizin, guitarinatin, Bassitization and Drummmmmmin', Oh, Rose burst into my consciousness with a song which kicked-off as wondrous throwback to late 70's punk but rapidly morphed into a wall of contemporary melodious indie-guitar fuzziness… And then there’s Olivia Rose's achingly distinctive tremolo-inflected vocals… The band are planning an album for release later this year - can’t wait!

Fear of Men "Waterfall"

I could have picked just about any track from possibly the best UK indie-pop album of the year. "Waterfall" featured an exquisitely multi-layered tune (check out the cascading strings) and jangly guitars that played disjointedly with bitter-sweet vocals of Jessica Weiss.

Beverly "Madora"

Beverly’s eponymous debut was a joyous tour-de-force of reverbed, fuzzy guitar and lo-fi indie-pop; all fused to the most spot-on, note-perfect harmonies. With Frankie Rose concentrating on her solo career, Drew Citron picked-up the reins. "Madora" pretty much summed up the album's manifesto; pounding rhythm and sumptuous distorted guitars...

Globelamp "Washington Moon"

I could have picked any song that Elizabeth Le Fey has released this year, but “Washington moon” seems as good an introduction as any. There's something absolutely endearing about Elizabeth's voice as she yearns for both a Californian sun and a Washington moon at the same time. The song is yet another incredibly soothing, psychedelic-tinged, indie-folk song that has become her trademark.

Cold Beat "Rain"

A side project of SF artist Hannah Lew, Cold Beat's "Over Me" was a totally infectious mélange of West Coast Lo-Fi, post-punk and C86 tunes - which oh so nearly made the end of year-list. Complete with throbbing bass that threatened at times to out do Peter Hook, "Rain" featured the closest thing to a Joy Division-esque intro - all staccato percussion and pulsating bass - found this side of "Closer"...

Cosines "Lookout mountain drive"

From yet another album that would have featured in any 'top ten plus a few' list, "Lookout mountain drive" was a song about the weary acceptance of adulthood and the crushing weight of conformity that loomed ever large. Wrapped in a stonking tub-thumping tune with a stupendous middle-eight, I've often remarked how the interaction between Alice Hubley and Simon Nelson remind me of the criminally underrated Brighton band The Chefs and on this track Simon's voice was a dead-ringer for Carl Evans...

Fanpage "Happy meal"

I'm still none the wiser about Stockholm-based Fanpage, but her eponymous EP was a Tsunami of a jarring, disconnected - that somehow still felt all connected - aural experience. A pot-pourri of part slowpunk, shoegaze and post-punk industrial-pop, "Happy meal" featured a heavily distorted bass riff that took it's cue from the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", over which the most bewitching of disembodied and washed-out vocals swelled to a banshee wail.

Secret Sun "Feather"

"Feather" was an effortless homage to 80's electro-pop. Bold and brassy synths gently subsided to leave a rich and un-rushed, melodic synth-pop composition as Anne-Marie Campbell's voice just seemed to float above a  looping melody.

Cassie Ramone "Song of love"

Cassie Ramone's mini-album, "The Time Has Come", was nothing short of brilliant. "Song of love" featured Cassie's distinctive nasal vocals floating over a deceptively bouncy melody;  on the surface all bright and bubbly, but there was noticeably dark undercurrent to the lyrics ("Everyday I thank the Lord, that I'm not where I was before") that hinted at a troublesome past. A really cleverly constructed song that recalled the semi-autobiographical musings of Hatfield Poly's finest, The Marine Girls and Tracey Thorn's seminal "A Distant Shore."

Lisa LeBlanc "Gold diggin’ hoedown"

The undisputed reine de folk-trash released her first English-language EP; full of banjos plucked at 100 mph, shredded guitars and tub-thumping percussion, "Gold diggin’ hoedown" transformed from an ostensibly straight-up country-bluegrass number (albeit one on Speed), into a full-bore, thumping cow-punking number as Lisa let out a "whoo", the guitars kicked-in and the pedals were pushed hard to the metal.

Ex Cops "Black soap"

"Black soap" encapsulated nearly everything that I want to hear in a song.  A chugging post-punk, alt-rock riff that immediately burrowed into the deepest crevice of the skull and with every verse sounded like it was going to launch into yet another gorgeous refrain, striving to out do the one before it. And then there was Amalie Bruun's voice - such frightening crystal clarity and dynamic range - this is a girl who can sing.

Alvvays "Archie, marry me"

Predictable, but "Archie, marry me" was the indie-pop anthem of the year. The perfect single, reverbed guitars - simple but so effective, Molly Rankin's romantic plea to a boy who is more concerned about student loans and the worry of future alimony payments than matrimony; a totally hummable tune with a singalong chorus that cannot be shaken, over a cacophony of bouncing percussion, runaway guitars and a riff I can't quite put my finger on - lets just put this on auto-repeat...

Nadine Shah "Stealing cars"

A deliciously dark composition from a singer who possesses a voice of such frightening and hypnotic intensity (and multi-lingual -  she also appears in this the blog's Francophone mix) that it leaves you rooted to the spot. "Stealing cars" - a taster for her new album due this year - added looping percussion, fuzzed guitars and melodic notes to a song that still bristled with an undercurrent of menace.

Dum Dum Girls "Are you ok?"

2014 was a pretty successful one for Dee Dee Penny (in this blog's opinion). Album of the year (“Too True”), gig of the year and with "Are you ok?" - song of the year... I've already mentioned that the album projects the spotlight on Dee Dee's vocals and on this song her shimmering voice wass front and centre. A smouldering,  heartfelt and bittersweet song that perfectly captured the fragility of love. A song you want to hug, hold onto and reassure that everything was going to be OK in the world.

Cover Star: Dee Dee Penny at the launch of Dum Dum Girls' album "Too True" at The Echo, Echo Park, LA.