Yay! It’s time for the The Quietus to give us its list of their 100 favourite albums of the year so far. As usual, there’s a smattering of widely praised records you’ll find on most current critics’ lists (Yves Tumor, Arca, J Hus, Run The Jewels) as well as some pretty mainstream catchy pop (Dua Lipa, Georgia, Charli XCX) among the 80 to 90 acts you’ve never heard of. Curious about these, you might investigate some of the descriptions, where you will find the words “drone”, “noise”, “cacophony” and “ concrète” a bit more frequently than in the old Smash Hits polls. Number 13, Mestarin Kynsi by Oranssi Pazazu, we are told “sounds like a skipping Neurosis cd played at an uncomfortably high frequency”, Number 44, Endless Wound by Black Curse, contains “dive bomb beats that sound like a horse being torn in half”. Even better, Number 40, Jason Crumer’s eponymous album opens with “discomposing drones … that rumble away; it’s like waiting for results from an oncologist”. Very tempting! But, just as we know what to expect in different varieties of restaurants, we already know the The Quietus is the go-to place for shining light into certain less-visited corners » Continue Reading.