This is our captain’s logbook for 2015. A weekly-updated timeline of 2015 albums (so far #40 entries) in line with Micronaut’s taste. If you have recommendations, we would be more than happy to receive your comments below. Don’t waste time, start scrolling the timeline and have fun.
Note: By any means, always show your support to independent artists and labels.
Anna Ternheim - For The Young
13 November, 2015
just released
Julia Kent - Asperities
30 October, 2015
"The album sets its alluring darkness in motion immediately with 'Hellebore'... Kent has unlocked the formula through which her already expressive musicianship can be understood on its own terms. She no longer needs Antony's (ed. and the Johnsons) words or the audienc's associations tied to airport sounds; she has created a language all her own. Asperities uses that language to produce a haunting, powerful world that won't fade from memory for a long while." source: Consequence of Sound
The Black Heart Rebellion - People, when you see the smoke, do not think it is fields they're burning
23 October, 2015
"This album actually sounds quite distinctive: the product of marrying the group's roots in hardcore with a highly introspective post-punk sound, shades of neofolk and a vaguely black metal-esque atmosphere. More importantly, it remains compelling throughout, proving both more evocative and more consistently engaging than its predecessors." source: drownedinsound.com / "Near To Fire For Bricks" is a masterpiece!
Editors - In Dream
02 October, 2015
"Although In Dream is neither a dance record, nor a cerebral art-rock album, by borrowing elements from both, the Editors have crafted something grandiose and utterly transfixing." source: allmusic.com / "No Harm" is pure magic (Aleh)
In Gowan Ring - The Serpent and the Dove
23 September, 2015
"Songs of timeless beauty. The perfect soundtrack for autumn nights." source: Oliver s. Tyr (Faun)
The Steady As She Goes - MONOLITHS
23 September, 2015
As dark as it gets...
Low - Ones and sixes
11 September, 2015
"After two decades, a band that could easily feel like part of the wallpaper remain hungry to show that you never know what lies beneath." source: Uncut
Oskar Schuster - Tristesse Télescopique
04 September, 2015
"Oskar Schuster has staked out a specific niche which has often been compared to the aural world of Amelie. Music boxes, clocks, cameras and typewriters are fed into the mix, but where other artists incorporate such sounds, Schuster goes all-out. Children tend to enjoy this music, but also adults with childlike hearts: those who are still fascinated by the percussive effects of household objects or the joys of a made-up tale." source: a closer listen
Natural Snow Buildings - Terror's Horns
01 September, 2015
"NSB's newest rarely evokes feelings of fear, confusion, despair, or anything as potentially interesting as the context itself. Much of the content early on creates a sense of anticipation, and little else." source: sputnik music
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
07 August, 2015
dynamic, dark , mysterious and magical , woeful and wonderful. Another masterpiece.
Sangre de Muerdago - O Camiño das Mans Valeiras
21 July, 2015
""O Camino das Mans Valeiras" is a calming and very touching Acoustic folk album. Perfect for evenings with candles and red wine. Galician folk inspired by the otherworld. Truly magical. --Oliver s.Tyr / FAUN" source: bandcamp
King Dude - Songs of Flesh & Blood - In The Key of Light
30 June, 2015
"This is the King's most personal writing to date, although still divined from the spiritual Light of the Lord, Songs of Flesh & Blood - In The Key of Light is not only a spiritual revelation it is also a revelation of the life of the man behind the music. TJ Cowgill's own recent real life experiences with love, loss, death, and violence are illuminated and explored on this album, sure to be canonized alongside the rest of his work." source: bandcamp
Nils Frahm - Music For The Motion Picture Victoria
12 Jun, 2015
"Music for the Motion Picture Victoria finds Frahm at his most restrained. It’s as sparse as his other album of 2015, Solo, but with an even greater emphasis on ambience, rather than prettiness." source: Drowned In Sound
Of Monsters and Men - Beneath The Skin
08 June, 2015
"With shards of electric guitar and tremors of distortion providing some teeth, the songs are still preoccupied with gauzy imagery, as allusions to nature and animals intimate mystery and profundity." source: Boston Globe
Sun Kil Moon - Universal Themes
02 June, 2015
"He is correct to emphasise that it's a very different beast from the much admired Benji, whilst that album began to investigate tumbling, cascading prose-poetry and radical autobiographical approach to songwriting, it also retained some aspects of conventional melodic craft, some of Kozelek's beautiful acoustic guitar playing and some of the more cathartic, emotional aspects of his musical personality. Universal Themes is dense, unconventional and provocative." source: musicomh
Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
01 June, 2015
"It's apparent she's among her generation's most deserving superstars, maintaining a stunning balance of technical mastery and sensitive lyricism." source: Consequence of Sound
Moa Bones - Spun
25 May, 2015
" From the banjo on "Skopelitis" to the amplified strumming and distorted vocals on "Once Upon a Time," Aronis simultaneously tips his hat to classic folk sounds while putting plenty of his own spin on it, and delivers an album with enough diversity to easily hold attention spans for its duration." source: allmusic.com
Hior Chronik - Taking the Veil
24 May, 2015
"Taking the Veil is an example of what can happen when all of the people involved in a production, from the composer to the collaborator to the art team, share a singular vision. Listeners will enjoy delving into the mysteries of this shrouded sculpture." source: A Closer Listen
Corrina Repp - The Pattern of Electricity
19 May, 2015
"Her voice gives us goose bumps, the chords in the guitar and violin a tingling sensation in our heart but don't worry you're not having a stroke, you were just bewitched." source: eclectic
Circuit des Yeux - In Plain Speech
19 May, 2015
"Looking outward at the world around her and the relationships that give her meaning, 'In Plain Speech' is Haley Fohr at her most composed and confident. It wanders while brimming with hope." source: npr music
Patrick Watson - Love Songs for Robots
12 May, 2015
"Love Songs For Robots is ambitious without being overblown, intimate without falling to sentimentality and subtly, delicately lovely." source: Drowned In Sound
Other Lives - Rituals
05 May, 2015
"It's a pleasant enough experience on the whole, but could've been so much more--and that is what's so frustrating with Rituals." source: Drowned In Sound
Mumford & Sons - Wilder Mind
04 May, 2015
"It aims to give fans something different, but it does the bare minimum." source: Sputnikmusic
Great Lake Swimmers - A Forest of Arms
21 April, 2015
"The tracks all blend together into a generic folk album." source: Consequence of Sound
Calexico - Edge of the Sun
13 April, 2015
"Edge Of The Sun offers no real surprises, but it is perhaps their poppiest set yet." source: Mojo
Nils Frahm - Solo
10 April, 2015
"Sometimes solo piano albums can get too sentimental, and can begin to sound like bad TV cues; sometimes they can be a little dry and academic, and can come over like an instrumental exercise. This one mostly fits into "just right" territory, balancing general loveliness with space and suggestion. Frahm's piano is creaky and there's a percussive tone coursing through some of these tracks, an extra "pling" that marks time with every keystroke." source: pitchfork
House of Wolves - Daughter of the Sea
07 April, 2015
"'Rey Villalobos shows that it only takes one guitar and one person to produce some of the most beautiful music to appear in 2015 thus far.' --The 405 " source: Mojo
Lord Huron - Strange Trails
07 April, 2015
"Strange Trails is brilliantly paced, and each song itself is brilliantly paced. The sounds, the melodies, the stories... this is what an album should be. I'm not big on rating an album based on a number, but if you were to take points off, I'm not sure what you'd do that for." source: absolutepunk.net
Nadine Shah - Fast Food
06 April 2015, 2015
"'Even if the first cut is the deepest, second album Fast Food is still wicked sharp." source: allmusic
The Kindling - By Morning
31 March, 2015
"Sparse percussion meets an intense lyric, softly delivered, while reverberating guitars hovering ominously in the background. A single bar-room piano note calls out over and again, and in case you start to adapt to the mood, and your feelings of uncertainty begin to abate, here comes a brief storm of strings to knock that complacency out of you." source: recordrewindplay
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
30 March, 2015
"Sufjan peppers the album with very evocative, specific references that often sound like childhood memories ('The man who taught me to swim could't quite say my first name'), creating an intimacy that many of his previous records have lacked." source: recordcollectormag
Scott Matthew - This Here Defeat
20 March, 2015
"Gentle guitar work and some serious sparkling ukulele strings are dominating the first half of This Here Defeat. Underlayed by partly pathetic string arrangements, the album soon takes a step into a broader, more eclectic sound scape. The title track This Here Defeat is a love, or more or less a break up song, singing about not writing love songs with a wink. It’s just one little diamond between the balder ballads, which comes along with such warm rhodes, a soulful well-nigh sexy bass and tight guitars, that easily could have been borrowed from an 80s pop song. " source: Nothing but Hope and Passion
Sons of Perdition and Jaran Hereid - Fossils
20 March, 2015
"The press release stated that the new Sons of Perdition marks a departure from their previous work both aesthetically and thematically... The differences are greater when it comes to the lyrical content... Sons of Perdition is perfectly calibrated and positioned on their evolution line which goes to show that the right direction is always forward. " source: Swedish Embassy of Gothic Country
T E Morris - Lost
03 March, 2015
"It's AURAL PERFECTION, that's what this is! Another one straight into my top ten for the year. I want to totally immerse myself in it." source: bandcamp
Awna Teixeira - Wild One
01 March, 2015
"'Her latest album Wild One begins where the previous release left off and takes an almighty left turn into the darkest corners of Lo-Fi territory, reminding me at times of the Twin Peaks soundtrack, Fleet Foxes and even very early Cowboy Junkies; all of whom I love." source: No Depression
The White Birch - The Weight Of Spring
27 February, 2015
"...it's definitely not a record for those afraid of a little introspection... The Weight of Spring is a stunning album that is so well honed and emotionally resonant that it's hard to shake when you come to the end of it. It's about remembering instead of forgetting, so we can be stronger the next time the emotions hit us, because you know they will" source: blurtonline.com
Kristin McClement - The Wild Grips
23 February, 2015
"Sometimes lyrically opaque but instrumentally always ear-catching, with The Wild Grips Kristin McClement has created (with restrained but crucial input from producer/musician Christian Hardy) a debut album of gravitas and maturity which should secure her reputation as a songwriter and musician of depth and character." source: folkradio UK
José González - Vestiges & Claws
17 February, 2015
"Although Vestiges & Claws may wander close to guitar-based, folk-rock homogeny, González’s musings offer a cerebral reminder to enjoy figuring out what it all means." source: Paste Magazine
Last Harbour - Caul
09 February, 2015
"From the depths of sorrow, Last Harbour conjure hope, belief, solace. Are you ready to be heartbroken? Here's a meticulously traced map of the human condition to guide you. K Craig's throaty burr could so easily be a vehicle for morose routine – here it's an instrument of force and range." source: The Skinny
Kathryn Joseph - Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I've Spilled
24 January, 2015
"Prodigiously talented and criminally underrated; Kathryn is one of Scotland’s best-kept secrets. Her voice possesses the other-worldly quality comparable to Ms Newsom and Björk; but she is by no means of an ilk. Better compared with Anthony Heggarty; she is an artist in every way; unique and soulful, and at the core a beautiful unnerving truth. (Scottish Album of the Year Award Winner)" source: The Say Award
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