Stereo Alchemy is the product of twice Grammy winning composer Christopher Tin and Grammy nominated percussionist Kametron. God of Love is their début album together and showcases a broad spectrum of electro excellence.

“A Rapture” is a classic case in point. Starting out with ambient murmurings before breaking out into a stadium stomping wash of electronics and plush keyboard exploding seascapes. Equal parts isolating and warming, it blasts into epic chorus moments and shows real scope. “Unbound” is more gritty and crunchy guitar lead track and the pounding percussive nature of the guitar chugs really gets your pulse racing.

“God of Love” is the title track and where the concept of the album really fleshes out before your ears. Each song relates to a poem about Love or Death and they very much become characters during the album itself. The title track is simply mesmerizing. It’s a track that seems to spread far beyond the depths of the speakers the music blasts from and the drums and the vocals play together beautifully.

“She Walks in Beauty” is one of the more straight-laced tracks with some insanely catchy electronic work and sublime vocal work from a soulful male lead. It feels retrotastic in many ways yet it’s got a new pair of sneakers and is enjoying the ride. “Is It Possible” reminds me of Savage Garden – some of the best pop of the late 90′s – with extra funk! The percussion and beats in this track are unreal Kametron is definitely pressing hundreds of buttons a minute here and the ending minute is euphoria in a riff.

“Monster of the Sky” veers right across the edgy darkness that inhabited underground electronica in the 90s and reminds me of a crystal clean version of the band Curve. The chorus is rip-roaring and the guitar / bass lines added to reverbing vocals and nutty drum loops make everything tingle and explode like lit touch-paper.

“To Eternity” is a great hybrid of absolutely everything the album does wrapped up in one track. Starting out as a beautifully angelic number it slowly evolves into a riff rock disco track. In one way it’s got all the excellence that was the over produced 80′s way of musical life but the difference is Tin has managed to work everything into having its own space. Outstanding.  ”My Hearts Fit to Break” is a more melodic track with lots of shimmering grit and glitz over fragile vocal delivery. The vocal performances of Melissa R Kaplan, Mozez and Lia Rose are spot on throughout and should be commended.

“Young Lovers” is so 1990 it is impossible to not smile and dance away to. Infectiously happy, delirious with its power chords and pumping beats – perfect for a sunny drive with the top down. “Love is Love” closes the album with a minimalistic chord swirl ballad that is both enlightening and understated in its beauty. The lyrics shine here, as they do throughout.

Stereo Alchemy have blown me away. The sheer complexity of some of the tracks is mind-boggling from the percussion to the little nuances and frequency changes in all the instruments as they go. It’s these things that elevate a good album to a truly great one. Quite frankly, God of Love is one long eargasm from start to finish and is firmly the first contender for album of the year on this site.

“Kid Iracus (Partena No Kagami) & Metroid” is a very old and rare cassette from back in the 80′s taking just 6 tracks and about 14 minutes of music from the two games. Yet the last time I saw it auctioned on e-bay it was sold at a shockingly high price! Was the music worth it?

The opening song “Theme (Partena’s Mirror)” is a beautiful and regal synth piece that layers some lovely ethereal chords over the classic old school blips and drum loops of the original and it works to great effect – very uplifting. Track 2 is a medley of the music from Partena’s Mirror using the same style as before. Each segment of the piece has a very specific scene setting. It stars of regal before taking on a middle eastern feel and becoming more and more complex like a battle theme. The different tunes are sown together perfectly in a way that many other medleys really fail to achieve. The final track from Partena’s Mirror is fittingly “Ending” which is dramatic, fast paced and enjoyable.
The Metroid songs now take to the stage with “Title” which is very futuristic at the start, with a military drum beat and the beautiful original synth melodies ringing throughout. The Metroid BGM medley follows and this too flows just as well as the previous medley but is a little darker in tone and plays a lot like a synth stadium rock band. The final track is of course “Ending” which playfully skips along without offence.

For many this wont appeal unless you enjoy going back to VGM’s roots. The songs while catchy in places and have nice hooks, are not exactly earth shattering but they do show the gap between classic and arranged VGM being merged which is very interesting to listen to from both an educational and from a listener’s point of view. This is a purists purchase only.

“Yogen” opens the soundtrack with a synth arrangement of a pretty Japanese styled tune which actually sounds like it belongs to something from Shenmue! It’s followed by “Ihen” which sounds more like a random Mega Drive/SNES era dungeon battle song. It has quite a bit of character which is slightly confused by all the random warning sirens and sound effects which come across to me like spaceship noises thrown in almost at random. “Muma” is up next – another slightly confusing track with a time-stepped background snyth with detuned harp samples playing. It’s eerie and detuned but still trying to be elegant at the same time. This causes friction between the two sides of the song but it definitely doesn’t make it unlistenable – it’s just very interesting!

“Kyoko” ups the ante with a dramatic Mega-Drive style battle track which redeems the quality of the soundtrack somewhat indeed. “Haikyo” is only a minute long breezy and slightly dysfunctional interlude once again giving a very oriental disorientated feel before “Fukkatsu” gives us an uplifting tune of military standards. It’s very well done but once again you have to remember although these are arrangements – they are old arrangements so sound like a 16-bit sound chip and at times early PS1 music. Depending on your view of music at that time will clarify whether you’ll enjoy these tracks or not. “Shintaku” is a fun and fast paced ditty showing a more lighthearted side to the soundtrack ending the arrangements.

“Eggerland” gives us a wonderful ten minute piece of original music sounding like classic gameboy music to me. The bleeps and blips are spot on, clear and crisp. “Interlude” is just a small chirpy piece before “Fire Bam” gives us an eight minute rendition of original music. These two big tracks loops themes quickly before the next theme comes in – Eggerland seamlessly moving between tracks while Fire Bam fades out and restarts. Both tracks are superb however.

HAL Game Music is old so you wont find too many of them about. The arrangements aren’t bad but the strength comes from the original soundtrack included – a surprise for me to say these days. I had no previous connection to the music but quite happily bounced along to the original soundtracks without a care – that’s good music. Not classic. Good.

GotzenDiener OGM is a quirky little album that is half arranged and acoustic guitar for a more laid back piece of music in places.

“Main theme” however has a very oriental flavour for it in terms of percussion, instrumentation and tune. It has some excellent little stand out touches and has beautiful streaming drum loops throughout and is a different but very pleasant experience. ”Princess Sorceress” starts off the guitar section. The tune and playing are very laid back, like a Sunday morning stroll. It’s very chilled although the tune isn’t shockingly strong during the first half of the song, it does grow on you quickly and the middle section is funky.

“Sword of Fate” didnt grab me as a song at all. It uses a string synth from a keyboard in short stabs throughout the song (like a horror movie) and its awful! The song could have been twice as good without that, but the tune lacks stability and hook. ”Graveyard Labrynth” is a downbeat and darkened song that is thoughtfully played and slightly eerie because of its haunting use of a guitar in the background supporting the main tune. The other end of eerie is more manic and that’s where “Rim~Goddess of Persistence” takes us for a screechy violin piece on top of eastern pop music madness with an organ going metal at every opportunity. Each contrast the other but both are superb songs.

“Crystal Reef” returns to the guitar but with a sitar setting out the main tune in another dark and damp tune of moody excellence which reminds me of a separated twin of Final Fantasy 8′s “Find Your Way”! “Rebirth” starts off with a heartbeat before the song starts. A contrast of angelic harps and flutes set of against harsh synth noises to make a mean with a twist song before it builds up to a lovely climax like an orchestra. That build up leads us to “Devil Temple” which is demonic enough with some mental freak out use of sound effects to twist and compact the instruments at points in the song to send the listener into a frenzy. It’s very unique and it works very well in between all different climaxes that make this a real stand out piece! The closing track “Misa” is returns to the oriental flavour set on the first song with a catchy number that wouldn’t be out-of-place in something like Shenmue or Suikoden!
GotzenDiener is an album that branches out in all different areas of music during its 9 songs. Almost all of them successfully capture what’s great about video game music and so I must recommend this to everyone. Give it three listens and I’m sure you’ll share my sentiments!

Utada Hikaru, queen of the vocal tracks due to the general success of Hikari / Simple & Clean returned to the Kingdom Hearts and VGM fray with a brand new song to tantalize us for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts II soundtrack. The offering is a 2 track single entitled “Passion” which is available with just the tracks or with an additional DVD containing the music video.

“Passion” is frankly one of the most captivating vocal songs I have heard in an extremely long time. Starting with soft backing vocals and electronic pulses the song rip roars into a mass drum fest – almost verging on pop tribal and it beats out a stomping stadium anthem chorus to Utada’s sublime vocals which are in both Japanese, and if you reverse it, you’ll catch many lines of English too. The verses are equally rocky and edgy and the whole sound is a much more mature and darker mood which seems to suit the overall look and feel of the Kingdom Hearts game too. The song then finally reaches up a notch for a climax of guitars, drums, electronics and bleeding vocals to return to its very soft beginnings. Amazing. While I must admit I am a huge follower of Utada Hikaru’s previous works since hearing Hikari and going onto hearing Colors – I must state that I have rarely had my breath taken away by a song so easily.

That’s the single version which also appears on the album Ultra Blue. Also on the single we have “Passion ~after the Battle~” which takes away every element of the single version except the vocals and then adds a soft and simplistic piano backing. Beautiful, although the warped vocals can distract at times, it really takes the same song and adds a completely different spin. Once the song has gone through its paces it then strikes up the guitar and carefully goes through a karaoke version of half the song again to finish off which I believe is quite unique – almost like the tune you’d get after you hear the victory fanfare in a game and you’re adding up your exp. points! Clever stuff if you look at the title me thinks!

Now if you have bought the CD+DVD version (as I did) you’ll also get a separate DVD with the music video on which involves anime Utada, lots of drum banging, even more horses and even more dancing kachinas! A visual spectacular but those of you after Kingdom Hearts footage will be left disappointed.

I’d recommend this single to absolutely anyone without hesitation, a masterpiece!

“Ahead On Our Way” starts off with a nice chant, before using keyboards and drum loops to re-produce the song in a way that sounds like an 80′s synthesizer song. It is very faithful to the original and is a lovely start to the album. ”Lenna’s Theme” is given a beautiful rendition on the softest of guitars, flutes and pads ever, to give a soothing lullaby that is so very easy on the ears.

“Pirates Ahoy” is a magnificently dark and devious song, using a guitar and keyboards to re-do the song to great success. Then suddenly, the song changes into chanting and wild animals. It blends well and gives a sense of a hard journey. “Critter Tripper Fritter” is a great comical song, using every bizarre instrument it can possibly use to make it sound like a circus gone mad! The result is three minutes of pure lunacy and one that is very welcome in this diverse album.

“Intention Of The Earth” is the most dramatic piece so far, with soaring keyboards, bass filled drums and gongs. This song comes to life with the improved instruments, as do they all, as you can get the real mysterious feel with all the true zest of the instruments. ”My Home, Sweet Home” is a vocal song, which is sweetening and charming. Using both English and Finnish, the song emphasises the importance of your real home and your mother tongue. It’s a great piece of insight and one I have a special spot for. ”The Land Unknown” is done in the same way as the opening track, staying very faithful to the original and reacting it with real instruments.

“Tenderness In The Air” is done almost completely on harpsichord that makes for an unusual diversion from the usual piano and it is played very well indeed while “Waltz Suomi” is done in a typical French manner and keeps nicely in time, doing the main theme in various different off-key and off beat styles before having a graceful finish.

“Fate In Haze” makes itself nicely mysterious with its slow tune but that fades away to become a beautiful tune for the choruses and a good build up for a nice finish again. “As I Feel, You Feel” is the first piano based song on the album, and they’ve given it to the right song. Also, there is a narration read over the top of the piece. The music with starts to sound a little lost, suddenly finds its place in accompaniment. The narration is heartfelt, and the singing in the background along with it makes it sound very isolated and cold. Strange, an acquired taste, but well done.

“Musica Machina” gives us a dramatic piece, that will have you stomping your feet to the big beat and heavy synth strings. “Music Box” does exactly what is says on the tin, but how so! It’s an adorable tune, no one can listen to this song and not think “Aww!” The closing track is fittingly “Dear Friends” which is played to precision on a guitar, and before long other instruments fit into the song making it a lovely warming away to end an extremely varied album.

“Final Fantasy V Dear Friends” is a rare treat. It does a bit of everything and does it all extremely well, with no reason to fault it at all. If you loved the game’s music, you’ll adore this. There’s always that extra pinch of excitement seeing how synth music turns out on the real instruments and this is a lesson on how it should be done.

St Vincent’s third full length album came smashing in at the end of 2011 and made a huge impact for me. Perfectly mistimed, mistuned, ugly and boisterous yet full of quirks and beauty within. It’s one of the best audio messes I’ve heard in age.

Opening with “Chloe in the Afternoon” we’re given heavy production, awkward drum beats, wavy guitars and shuffling melodies that are both catchy and eerie at the same time. St Vincent’s vocals are sublime too. Like much of the album, there’s an overlying arc and melody that hits on the opening listen and then you find several other melodies hidden away on further investigation and it’s what makes Strange Mercy as a whole, such a compelling album. Single “Cruel” (with a great music video) is about a straight as they come with a simple hook for a chorus line but the verses and codas are just free-falling angelic flourishes. It’s big, brash, overdriven and great.

“Cheerleader” is a lethargic grind in the best possible way. Lazy faded guitars and held back vocal delivery serves well for the big bursts of bleeding pyrotechnics for a chorus. The beat is almost like a stomping a foot to protest exactly that St Vincent doesn’t want to cheer lead anymore! “Surgeon” is more relaxed with a lot of 70/80′s synth work with some extra funky electric piano swirls. There’s a noise of a vocal/keyboard combination that sounds slightly like a choir that runs throughout the album but here it is used a lot to great effect.

“Northern Lights” is a great rock out track with some fantastic lyrics that I can really relate to. This is the freak out song of the album with crazy solo’s and frantic vocals. The title track “Strange Mercy” is the first quiet track on the album with a clunky drum beat and some lonely spacey keyboard works floating over airy guitars. St Vincent uses her light voice to great effect with precision too. “Neutered Fruit” has some excellent guitar flexing throughout and a real funky track. Not the most catchiest but it holds a different space to the rest with its more minimal approach for the vast majority of the song before it’s a huge finale.

“Champagne Year” is a spacey track that is held by ethereal ambience, humming bass and a kick beat for the first half before other instruments join. It’s very floaty and dreamy. “Dilettante” has a production where all the fuzz and echo is taken away, almost like the life has been sucked out the music and sounds completely different to everything else on the record. The rest of the album has a certain sustain on it but not here. “Hysterical Strength” reminds me of the TV show Knight Rider! There’s a certain 80′s cheese to the main theme of it – in a good way! It’s the chugging bass line and processed drums that do it. It is a fun and frantic track which tidies everything up nicely for the closer “Year of the Tiger” which is a classic St Vincent track and perfectly sums up the album with strange production, chords that don’t usually get placed together and time structures that aren’t the norm.

“Strange Mercy” takes three or four listens before you fully appreciate it. A lot of people say why doesn’t she strip down her albums like some of her acoustic performances. I say keep her pushing the boundaries of sonic sounds on record and let her tour acoustically and that way we get both sides of this fantastic artist.

Sneaking in as #10 in my top albums for 2010 – Zola Jesus was an entirely new singer/songwriter to me late on last year. Conatus was her release that pushed her into spotlight.

The atmospheric “Swords” slides you into her industrial clinic electronic before “Avalanche” introduces you to Zola’s sumptuous voice that cuts like a knife but also it holds a certain depth. Matched with the darkness of the ambient electronic swirling around you it feels like a much darker Cocteau Twin vibe, or should you say Lisa Gerrard is an Angel, Zola would be the devil. The Cocteau vibe hits hardest with “Vessel” where the song flickers and merges on vocal loops over itself into a blurred frenzy in a fantastic stand out single.

“Hikikomori” is a builder track where the keyboards and vocals slowly build over the same few chords and patterns to its triumphant finale before “Ixode”‘s pumping kick beat turns the dark dampness of the depths of Zola’s soul into a mild dance track. You don’t necessarily understand what is being sung but it’s like emotion is being transposed into a vocal sound. It feels strangely enlightening. ”Seekir” takes this one step further with a more straightforward dance-esque track full of lifeless instrumentation and Zola’s flowing voice soaring over the top.

“In Your Nature” for some unknown reason reminds me of a 90′s M-People track Zola style! It’s has a hook that’s actually quite joyous and harmonious and is the first really uplifting song with its strident beat and chords. “Like The Palm of the Burning Handshake” is a very broken and disjointed track which does work well but takes a couple of listens to appreciate it’s very stilted approach to piano playing and keyboard synths. The ending section is very anthemic though and makes up for it if you’re not a fan of that style of song. “Shivers” is a wonderfully constructed track of mini percussive elements of clicks and scrapes before an insanely catchy chorus takes over. A personal highlight.

“Skin” is a very minimal piano / vocal / cymbal shimmering track that is delicate, eerie and beautiful before the album closes with “Collapse” which is like a buzzing healing energy that washes over the rest of the album to try and cleanse all the hurt that you’ve travelled through to get there.

“Conatus” is in many ways a simple album. The songs have a similar sound, structure and poise. It’s the overall feeling and setting of everything though that makes the album far more than the sum of its parts. It’s uplifting, its dank, its a bloodied scream of pain that calls you in like a siren. That is Zola Jesus.

Opener “Water Wears the Rock” is a big statement track. Huge rip-roaring choruses, loud drums, piano solos with guitar overtures and a distinct energy that flows from start to finish. “You Became A Ghost” feels like a cinematic pop rock anthem. There’s enough pauses, drum rolls and elating guitar solos to rival a Queen track. It’s fun and approachable and a good starting point to delve into Levinson. “Love You Goodbye” features Gregory Douglass although they are sparsely used. The song itself feels a little clunky as if its been autotracked a bit too tightly for its own good but the melody itself is pleasant enough.

“Let You Go” features Will Dailey and is a sweet rock ballad with some lovely celtic flairs to it which make it quite whimsy while the cabaret brass added to “Bar Scene” is playful while Justin lazily pub sings his way through the song. There’s an annoying bar chat sample that overbears some of the great brass work however. This is why “I’ll Be Ok” works better as it brings all the rough edges together into a playful, wonderful, joyous explosion of music. It’s just one of those infectious songs it’s hard to offended by or dislike.

A wonderful waltzing duet “I Was So Wrong” features Liz Longley gets its country on. Liz’s vocals remind me of Tanya Donelly and the guitar twangs and harmonicas add to create a distinctly different song from the rest of the album. “Million Tears” is a very traditional rock ballad in the Beatles style and showcases Justin’s vocals at its best with various octaves, styles and ranges. “Say What Your Gonna Say” is very 70′s in many ways with its clean guitars, sultry brass and light choruses that slightly shimmer. The album closes with “If You’re Happier” which is another classic Beatles style ballad.

This Side of Me, This Side of You has excellent production values. Everything feels full and explosive. Justin’s vocals sometimes sound a bit like the weakest part of the package as they get swamped by the big songs and I’ve never been a fan of talky singing which some tracks slip into. However looking passed my own preferences I can see this being a very popular album and one that should elevate Levinson up the ranks as a well rounded and catchy album that doesn’t sell its core values.

10) Zola Jesus – Vessel

A fantastic culmination and one of my most recent new discoveries, it just edges into the top 10 by providing me with one of the few dark and damp albums of 2011. Her voice harks back to generations of old and the electronics and dramatic song structures make it a treat to visit the darkness every time.

09) Faun – Eden

Band members have left and been replaced and while you can tell that Faun’s sound has changed forever. It still sits firmly in the Pagan Folk genre they’ve helped create but the vocals are more hymn like, English is introduced and the overall sound is one more of a forest pixie raging war on humanity. Either way, it’s still utterly superb.

08) St Vincent – Strange Mercy

St Vincent makes the most clumsy, sloppy and seemingly out of control music seem to still have order, beauty and integrity. Her third studio album is full of all the quirks, embellishments and random freak outs we’ve come to expect but in a more assured manner and with more layers than ever before!

07) Gregory Douglass – Lucid

Having watched Gregory over various live net shows introduce, change, develop and grow Lucid from a concept into a fully evolved being, it’s a fantastic dream concept album that works from start to finish. Showcasing some great technical wizardry, it features some of the most catchy numbers and some of the most heartbreaking from his career to date.

06) Amiina – Puzzle

From what I thought was a lovely, quaint but slightly one-sided debut, Puzzle lifts Amiina into a new level. The quartet have perfected their craft of weaving the most unlikely of instruments together into lullabies but now also into powerful epic seven minute masterpieces.

05) Bjork – Biophilia

Never one to sit still, Biophilia is a career spanning genre bending full flow freak out. Never compromising, always challenging – it contains highlights of Bjork’s most beautiful, most powerful and most scary moments of her musical career.

04) Tori Amos – Night of Hunters

Tori Amos remains my favourite musical artist of all time. The reason this hasn’t reached the top spot is purely because it’s an album that requires a lot of time and effort to digest and I’m not really there yet. The string arrangements are beautiful and the songs are fantastic. Many have called it a return to form but I never saw her falter. A bold new direction and one that pays off.

03) Lamb – 5

The return of Lamb was unexpected but much appreciated with the perfect blend of Lou’s own solo styles and Andy’s more electronic edges. The album is much more direct and approachable with instant hooks throughout, making it by far my favourite Lamb album to date and hopefully will give them confidence to continue  on.

02) tUne-YaRdS – W H O K I L L

Only discovering the sheer genius of this lady last year, being able to enjoy the growth from début to album number 2 was phenomenal. All the funky vocal collages are still here, as is the home ramshackle production but this time fused with brass and some more tip-top production too. It just seems like such a natural bloom. Magical.

01) Charlotte Martin – Dancing on Needles

The album that keeps giving with all the b-sides being released online, it’s a perfect merger of all Charlotte’s previous works of piano, guitar, keyboard and pounding drums. Her voice is an absolute marvel and every song is as achingly beautiful and painful as the last. Without doubt my album of the year.

Narrowly missing out were PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Sarah Slean, The Go Team and Omodaka.