Screw all of you who said that 2012 was an average year for local music. You obviously weren’t paying close enough attention.
Last year when I slapped this list up it consisted of both local and international albums however, this time around I decided to make it an entirely local affair.
And so, in no particular order, here are some of my favourite albums and EPs of 2012.
Ashtray Electric – WTF. AE went full DIY tilt on this 5 track EP and it worked in their favour. Tracks like the piano-driven ballad ‘DJ’ sees the band relish in the quieter moments, packed with those quintessential AE lyrics people have lost their virginity to – true story. Andre Gideon Montgomery Pienaar (vox) was also incredibly brave to “go on record” with his stutter on ‘Looper’. It’s an EP free of pretence and, unlike their last album, I get the feeling they enjoyed every “making of” moment.
CrashCarBurn – Gravity. These guys do air-punching anthemic tunes the best and this album continues in the same vein, but by expanding their repertoire (see: borderline hard rock track ‘Monsters And Angels’) they’re sure to open themselves up to a whole host of newbie fans. Dedicated to my/epic/vice’s drummer Kerran Yeats who passed away at the beginning of this year, “Gravity” is filled with inspirational and at times, decidedly spiritual lyrics.
Markus Wormstorm – not I, but a friend. “Something follows me wherever I go”. And so begins this 13 track masterpiece. Every eerie musical crevasse is filled with gradual crescendos, coupled with twitchy, glitch-y foot-tapping melodies, further emphasising Wormstorm’s status as a masterful musical architect. By paying close attention to the minutest of detail, Wormstorm went all-out to ensure that this album is grandiose is every way.
Zebra & Giraffe – The Wisest Ones. On a drunken scale from 1 to Bob Rocks I remember being a Tasha Baxter, sitting in Darryl Torr’s car in Greenside listening to a few newly mastered tracks off this album and thinking – I’m probably completely off my face because there’s no way this album can be this good. I was wrong. Packed full of punchy, angst-y lyrics and touching on a range of different genres, this album is a must have/buy.
Lark – Gong Is Struck. With a continent and two oceans between them, Inge Beckmann and Paul Ressel still managed to produce a seamless third album. How? Skype dates and Garageband, naturally. Heavily inspired by mythology, gods and, what I rate is a large portion of Beckmann’s subconscious, I can’t help but feel that, although this album was wholeheartedly embraced by Lark fans, it wasn’t adequately received by the average listener. Mad props to them for deciding to take on the beloved Shaka Zulu theme song, ‘We Are Growing’ – it couldn’t have been easy covering Magaret Singana’s beloved original.
Wild Eastern Arches – Mountain. If you’re from Cape Town then you’ll know that a neo-psychedlia wave has washed over the Mother City as of late and WEA are manning that ebb and flow. Their use of reverb is highly effective without being obtuse, as is so often the case with pysch bands and gives tracks like the standout ‘Fever Dream’ an almost literal interpretation. If you haven’t downloaded their debut offering, I suggest you do so now.
Bittereinder – Die Dinkdansmasjien. You all saw this one coming, didn’t you? I’ve Facebooked, Tweeted, written and spoken the hell out of this album. Why? Well, simply put, I think it’s the best album to be released this year. Reverberating, bouncing beats layered over jarring raps, coupled with stellar collabs (the guest list is honestly too long) are commonplace here. From Jaco van der Merwe’s (vox) lyrical obsession with Afrikaans poets like Jan F.E. Celliers and Eugene Marais to Louis Minnaar and Peach van Pletzen’s flawless melodic alchemy, is it too soon to call the SAMAs?
Make-Overs – IV. Since the demise of their old band Sticky Antlers, Martinique Pelser (drums & vox) and Andreas Schönfeldt (guitar & vox) have released 5 albums under the Make-Overs banner, 3 of them in 2012 alone. It’s quite a massive feat for a duo to be churning out work of this quality at such a fast-paced rate. And this album is the jewel in their crown. Familiarise yourself with Make-Overs now and chuckle to yourself when the rest of the country catches on.
Desmond and the Tutus – Mnusic. It took me a long while warm up to these four crazies. Five years to be exact. I initially thought I was buying into a misguided hype. I was wrong, again. Whether you love them for their manic onstage antics or for their lyrical “teenage punk rock angst”, Desmond are hard work personified and “Mnusic” is the fruit of their seven-year-long labour.
Haezer – The Wrong Kid Died. Clearly, more than a little thought went into the track selection on this EP. There’s a definite narrative in the way in which the tracks flow into each other and they work as a harmonious whole. It’s ‘Troublemaker’ (featuring Tumi Molekane who apparently wrote his lyrics in 20 minutes and was recorded in ONE TAKE) that comes off the clear favourite though. Regardless, Haezer’s pretty much blown genre constraints, within which he used to work, completely apart here. The result? Every track on this EP is A grade and it’s easy to see why… nobody works as hard as Haezer, except maybe his manager.
Don’t agree with my list? Tough titties.
Naturally, there were quite a few others that I enjoyed listening to over the course of this year, the above, however, are simply my cream of the crop.
What were some of your favourites?
