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The Soundtrack of 2018- The best albums of 2018 for Blaue Rosen

The music world might have become even 'poorer' as a result of the passing away of Mark E.Smith in 2018, but I don't think that anyone who loves the independent music scene, can deny the fact that 2018 has been a very generous year in terms of album releases and gigs. We got to listen to great albums and we had the chance to enjoy bands that celebrated important anniversaries in their career, perform live. Within 2018 we enjoyed the release of impressive debut albums by new bands, proving that there is always space for more creativity within genres that might seem 'saturated' from many aspects! 2018 was the year when the cassette format became even more popular so that we might soon have to start talking about a serious comeback and when the independent music scene and its audience, continued to grow even further.

We cannot forget the live score that Godspeed You!Black Emperor provided to the contemporary dance performance of 'Animals of Distinction' at The Barbican. The extracts from Jenny Holzer's texts that were included in this performance lead us to the Tanks at TATE Modern where we enjoyed more installations by this multifarious artist. During this visit, we also got to know of the work of Aldo Tambellini and his fascination with black colour. We misread the word 'expressive' for 'oppressive' in the brief text that accompanied one of the installations and for days we were puzzled by the idea of the 'oppressive qualities of black colour'.It was several months after this visit, when the latest album of Current 93 entitled 'The Light Is Leaving Us All' was released, that these circular 'mandalas' that Tambellini has done, gained richer meaning. At the beginning of the year, we had the surreal experience of listening to dark ambient music compositions while they were animating the faҫades of some classic buildings at Regent Street during Lumiere 2018. Finally, during 2018 some gigs once again demonstrated the infinite limitations of all 'recorded' media (i.e. visual, audio, writing) to capture the energy and impact of a performance . How else can we explain the fact that no medium was able to transfer the intensity of the performance of Blixa Bargeld with Teho Teardo at the closing of the 27th WGT in Leipzig, the performance of Current 93 at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire especially during 'Sleep Has His House', the magic that ATARAXIA have spread all around the Schauspielhaus, the energy of Diorama and Siglo XX at Felsenkeller at WGT, and the awe that Peter Murphy has once again filled us with, during an unforgettable gig at O2 Academy Brixton, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus! 2018 was the year when we got to see The Dresden Dolls perform live in London after 12 years and 2019 will be the year when we will celebrate the career of Dead Can Dance!

During 2018 we have listened to 824 releases and we picked the favourite of our favourite ones, 74 in total, that make up the soundtrack of the year! All of these albums were present in the 12 monthly playlists of the year which you can access from the following links

Let’s all have a great 2019!

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Blaue Rosen

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