Top 5 Albums of The Year : Our Sleepless Forest

I first came across London-based 3-piece, Our Sleepless Forest, back in the Summer just when I started this blog. They were the first band to show a real interest and even donated an mp3. Fast forward 6 months and this incredibly young band have been signed to the always impressive, Type Records (home of Helios, Xela, Sickoakes and Khonnor). They are currently their debut album, which has a tentative Spring release date. I have heard some of the early recordings and can tell you that it mixes their influences of Psychedelia, ambient music and their love of leftfield electronica, into something that is their own. "Aircastles" is expected to be on the album and can be streamed here. Band member, Sam, takes time out to tell us what has been on his stereo this year.
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5. Helios - "Eingya" (Type)

"Just a plain beautiful and serene album.... Soundtracked quite a lot of my summer. Also really beautifully recorded, his music always seems really carefully arranged and he doesn't seem to throw in parts for the sake of it."






4. Burial - "Burial" (Hyperdub)

"I love pretty much everything about this album. The production is spot on, I really like the combo of dubstep and ambient. This album is separate from pretty much all other dubstep except for maybe kode 9, he makes his own samples and I think that gives it a greater authenticity than all other dubstep I've heard. Also he's meant to be from Putney, which is we're from and that adds to it for me. Forgive is my favourite song of the year..."


3. TV On The Radio - "Return to Cookie Mountain" (4AD)

"For an album third on my list I've not actually listened to it a great deal. But some of the moments on this are great... Especially tonight and I was a lover. Really sound like they're doing something different. Saw them live at Koko and was kinda underwhelmed, but I think I was sat far too back to gain full impact"




2.Skream -"Skream!" (Tempa)

"This probably isn't my second favourite album of the year, but he's there because of all the great songs he's put out this year. And is my favourite discovery of the year by a mile, he's really young and his tunes are just really great. I've been totally swept away by dubstep and everything Skream's put out. I've probably listened to stuff by skream on a daily basis without fail since discovering him."



1. Benoit Pioulard - "Precis" (Kranky)

"I love this one, a lot! He writes songs I've always wanted to make, and makes them sound so simple. Also the production is really great on this one, with all the field recordings in the background, it's all really well arranged. And has a lovely warm feel to the whole album all the way through. Corpus chant is a lovely lovely song"