End of year list time, we thought we’d actually wait until the end of the year. Now we’re not going to claim to have heard every single album this year or anything like that, these are simply the best the best of the hundreds that did come our way in 2019, with links to the original Thing of The Day features just in case you missed them……

Album of the year? Well it probably was just about that glorious Peter Hammill collaboration with Sweden’s  Isildurs Bane…

ISILDURS BANE & PETER HAMMILL – ORGAN THING: A first listen to the album Peter Hammill and Sweden’s Isildurs Bane have just made together, is it any good?  – An album arrives, without any real warning, no idea what to expect, well no, that’s not true, Peter Hammill is involved, well no, still don’t know what to expect, you’re kind of hoping to hear that voice, that wordplay, that learning not to shoot from… more

And if we were to have a top five albums from 2019 then the other four, in no particular order would almost certainly be from

CHILD ABUSE –  ORGAN THING: That awkwardly named beautifully intense New York avant noise band Child Abuse have a new album, we just had a first listen to the whole thing, here’s an immediate reaction and a first track released…  – That awkwardly named beautifully intense New York avant noise band Child Abuse have a new album, we just had a first listen to the whole thing, here’s an immediate reaction and a first track released… Child Abuse, it isn’t the easiest of band names to live with (or search for), really don’t like it, but…more

HELIUM HORSE FLY – ORGAN THING: Helium Horse Fly get even more epic, the first truly great album of 2019 has landed, this is dark brooding, think Kayo Dot, Huge Baby, Extra Life, think none of that… ) – Right now midway through Monochromo, midway through this this massive eleven minute epic that’s somewhere between the best bits of Kayo Dot and Extra Life, actually there’s huge bits of the hugeness of Huge Baby, actually there’s lot here that compares with those gloriously huge… more

LE GRAND SBAM – ORGAN THING: Le Grand Sbam, hang on, stop absolutely everything, whatever you were doing, stop it, listen to this… – Hang on, stop absolutely everything, whatever you were doing, stop it, listen to this, watch this, not only do they sound both brilliant (and like very little you’ve ever heard before).,they also look wonderful, all of them, look at the way those musicians flow, the graceful touch of the keyboard, the ballet on the drums,… more 

 

PoiL – ORGAN THING: PoiL’s new album Sus, holymerde this sounds good, prog as flip…  –  Falling down the stairs in such an awkwardly neat way, everything landing where it should and nothing out of place, this is deliciously hard-boiled progressive rock, progressive in all senses, forward-looking musically challenging proper prog rock for those who don’t want it to be predictable and polite, nothing… more

And those five exceptional albums were very closely followed, in alphabetical order once more by these rather fine releases from a rather rewarding 2019…

BRIGHTEYE BRISON – ORGAN THING: The overblown self indulgence of Sweden’s Brighteye Brison… – Things discovered on a Sunday morning comedown, things like word of a gloriously self indulgent new album from a band from Sweden via the social media feed of a band from New Zealand, that and the…. more

IFRIQIYYA ELECTRIQUE –  ORGAN THING: Ifriqiyya Electrique, “In Tunisian, Banga means huge volume and one cannot think of a more apt description of Laylet el Booree than that. Maximalist & relentless. Blood, sweat & trance…. –  Organ The of The Day: A quick one today for there is fruit to pick and places to be, we need some huge volume, we need different voices, different flavours, we’ve covered them here before, we need a band who are “fusing the rhythms and invocations of the ancient Saharan Banga ritual with an electrical… more

JOHN GHOST – ORGAN THING: John Ghost’s new album Airships Are Organisms, a delight, progressive in all the best senses of the term… –  John Ghost’s new album is a rather sublimely beautiful set of rides, actually it is one whole ride, very much a proper album, a collection of works that really need to be played as one whole thing rather than bite of tracks on social media… more

And not strictly a new album, but we did finally get it all in 2019…

MARVIN GAYE – ORGAN THING: Marvin Gaye’s “lost” 1972 album released at last, as vital now as it surely would have been back then… – You’re The Man, the great “lost” Marvin Gaye album, the album that really should have been released back in ’72 as the follow up to the legendary What’s Going On’ Gaye was without a doubt on top of his musical game in ’72 just as that year’s U.S elections were kicking in, the… more

And it only came out yesterday, but we expect when we have had time them Michael should be on the list….

MICHAEL – ORGAN THING: Tell Your Friends? Who are Michael? People from Bad Guys? Opening for those Flying Luttenbachers? Tell your friends indeed…  – Organ Thing of The Day: Tell Your Friends? Who are Michael?  Whoever they are, Michael are opening for those Flying Luttenbachers this week, that have an album out at the end of the year,  their Bandcamp page tells us “From the wispy smoke fart of dawn campfire carcass Bad Guys and a splinter of whatcould’vebeen… more

There’s been something going on (yet again) this year in France, they do appear to have the best bands at the moment… Poil, Le Grand Sbam, Ultra Zook, Ni…

NI – ORGAN THING: New albums from Ni and Ultra Zook, the French like to do it a little differently, a little more hard-boiled  – Organ Thing of the Day, a couple of new albums from France, they’re doing things a little differently in France right now, here’s the new albums from Ni and Ultra Zook, meanwhile the new Poil album has just landed, stay tuned for that one, it might just be their best yet… more

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS – ORGAN THING: The ever vital Flying Luttenbachers return with yet another aggressive, dissonant, relentless headscratcher, they also return to London this week…– “The Flying Luttenbachers return with yet another aggressive, dissonant, relentless headscratcher. Seven long tracks of rhythm and insanity” – .See, that’s the thing about all the different incarnations of those mighty Flying Luttenbachers, you know what to expect, you know to expect something challenging, something hard-boiled, something difficult, something that sounds like very little else,… more

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS actually had a very busy year, this was the first of two albums –  ORGAN THING: Flying high again, the return of the Luttenbachers, get a taste of the new album here…  – Flying high again ,(as the Double O once sang), I have the feeling there just might be an outbreak of things Skin Graft related earfood and eyecandy on these fractured pages in the next days and weeks. Skin Graft are, if we really we’re to be pinned down, the finest of all record labels, one… more

THROWAWAY – ORGAN THING: She works, they work, we work, this is awkwardly good, Detroit’s Throwaway have a hardboiled debut album you really do need in your life… – Art, how low can you go,hear the cutter cry, death row, or was it the angst or the exotic bird or the raise-your-glass-and-toast-the-war that she said was on her mind? There’s so much that you don’t know or so she says, this is hardcore. Last time we told you about something… more

THYLACINE –  ORGAN THING: A new video from Thylacine, a rather beautiful piece taken from the new concept album Roads Vol 1…– Thylacine release a video for Santa Barbara, a rather beautiful track featuring Julie Minkin. The track is taken from the French producer’s second concept album Roads Vol 1 . “William Rezé AKA Thylacine recorded his second album ‘Roads Vol.1’ in Argentina. His previous record was recorded aboard the train that links Moscow to Vladivostok, a… more

ULTRA ZOOK –  ORGAN THING: New albums from Ni and Ultra Zook, the French like to do it a little differently, a little more hard-boiled  – Organ Thing of the Day, a couple of new albums from France, they’re doing things a little differently in France right now, here’s the new albums from Ni and Ultra Zook, meanwhile the new Poil album has just landed, stay tuned for that one, it might just be their best yet… more

COMPILATION ALBUM OF THE YEAR – ORGAN THING: Post Now, Part One, Chicago vs New York, did that version of Dirty Boy just get even better? Is this the (second) best compilation album ever? Are Skin Graft the best record label ever? Are Cheer Accident the antidote?  – “POST NOW: PART ONE CHICAGO vs NEW YORK”  (Skin Graft Records) – An album review? A compilation, In all honestly, what with all the pecking voices in my left ear and the other ones in my right ear and the goings off and yes play it, no don’t play it this week, and the yes… more

AND WHILE WE’RE HERE LET’S NOT FORGET THESE ALBUMS and other things……

Just how good BLACK SABBITCH have been all year – ORGAN THING: How good is that Black Sabbitch version of Hole In The Sky from that Louisiana train yard… – Cover bands, tribute bands and the rest, they were cool for a couple of minutes back there way back before they started cluttering up every venue and well, no, we don’t need most of ’em, but we do need Black Sabbitch and those excellent videos they keep posting from old Louisiana train yards or new… more

Then there was LOST CROWNS – The “debut album from psych-pop supergroup Lost Crowns, featuring Richard Larcombe’s music and words performed by a stellar cast from the UK ‘weird music’ scene”…. more

And Miss Red kept on treating us – MISS RED – ORGAN THING: Miss Red shares a video for ‘Prayers’, a different dimension this time, not so much of her fiery dancehall toasting, we do like Miss Red, we like her style, we like the way she does things… – Now you know already if you’ve been paying attention that is, that we like Miss Red and her fiery dancehall toasting, she does her thing with a style that’s all of her own, Prayers is a little different though, a slight different dimension, I rather like it, it adds to clarity and the power of… more

and there was the wholesome punk rock of  GARBITCH, a band who began the year as GRAVEYARD JUNKIES –  ORGAN THING: “We only make music so you can indulge your anger” so say California’s rather beautifully uncompromising Graveyard Junkies  –  “We only make music so u can indulge your anger” so say the rather beautifully uncompromising Graveyard Junkies. Who are they? Who knows? They’re from California, they do seem a little angry, positively so, hardcore punks, queercore Riot Grrrls or something like that, who are we to stick labels on them or get in their… more

There was the glorious abstract noise of AMERICAN F*CK, there was the rather excellent soun of K.O.G & THE ZONGO BRIGADE – The Afro-fusion 8-piece band K.O.G & the Zongo Brigade released their debut album ‘Wahala Wahala’, back March via Heavenly Sweetness, head here a taste

There was fresh beauty from SWANS And something new from TERMINAL CHEESECAKE – Organ Thing of the day, enough of ice cream vans and random cats, cheesecake time…more

And then there was Nik Turner‘s new album, the best Hawkwind album in years, there was Fontaines D.C, Crows, there was The Murder Capital, there was lot in 2019… see you in 2020, maybe….