The Best Albums of 2015
Anxious Sound
09
Blessed
Walter TV
10-Song LP
Released March 5 on Sinderlyn
Favorite tracks: Candles, Neighbor, Surf Metal, Tall Mountains
08
Lightless Walk
Cult Leader
11-Song LP
Released October 16 on Deathwish
Favorite tracks: Great I Am, The Sorrower, Sympathetic, How Deep It Runs, Lightless Walk
07
The Deal
Sumac
6-Song LP
Released February 17 on Profound Lore
Favorite tracks: Thorn in the Lion's Paw, Hollow King, Blight's End Angel, The Deal, The Radiance of Being
06
Self Portrait
Loma Prieta
10-Song LP
Released October 2 on Deathwish
Favorite tracks: Black Square, Net Gain, More Perfect, Nostalgia, Never Remember, Satellite
05
Empire
Unwound
32-Song Collection
Released September 4 on Numero Group
Favorite tracks: Meet the Plastics, Side Effects of Being Tired, Lifetime Achievement Award, What Went Wrong, We Invent You, Look A Ghost, December, Demons Sing Love Songs, One Lick Less, Scarlette, Summer Freeze, Torch Song
04
Viet Cong
Preoccupations
7-Song LP
Released January 20 on Jagjaguwar
Favorite tracks: Newspaper Spoons, March of Progress, Bunker Buster, Continental Shelf, Silhouettes, Death
03
New Bermuda
Deafheaven
5-Song LP
Released October 2 on Anti-
Favorite tracks: Brought to the Water, Luna, Come Back, Gifts for the Earth
02
The Agent Intellect
Protomartyr
12-Song LP
Released October 9 on Hardly Art
Favorite tracks: The Devil in His Youth, Cowards Starve, Boyce or Boice, Pontiac 87, Dope Cloud, The Hermit
01
Noyaux
Benoît Pioulard
4-Song LP
Released November 6 on Morr Music
Favorite tracks: Noyaux, Ante
Benoît Pioulard is nothing if not prolific, so it can be challenging to keep up with the music he releases. I had heard no mention of Noyaux until it appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Its sudden arrival was one of those rare and thrilling surprises that are nearly extinct in our first-to-report, news-breaking culture.
Noyaux's visceral impact on me was profound. Its ethereal, electronic soundscapes are unbelievably moving and revelatory yet nearly impossible to describe. They could be the sound of the universe expanding, the sound of loss, or the sound of the unconscious slowly, deliberately unfolding itself.
However one interprets Noyaux, it's a work of pure sonic and cinematic transport, a powerful and hauntingly beautiful experience that evokes rarely felt or experienced emotions. That is the essence of all art, of course, and with Noyaux, Pioulard achieves it with just four tracks, twenty-five minutes, and no words.
