Taira Album Awards: Individual Genre Winners

Rock: Iceage - Plowing Into The Field Of Love
To put it simply, this album is a grower. It lives up to its name as these Danish punk rockers truly do plow into the field of love, and with full force. This is an incredibly different record for the group and for the genre in general, but it all feels like such a logical progression. The additional instrumentation in the form of strings, horns, and piano only serve to compliment the lengthy and emotionally driven compositions. The influences here are broad, yet they are never worn on the sleeve. Listening to singer Elias Bender Rønnenfelt croon such passionate lyrics over captivating instrumentals that dance between the uplifting and the melancholic is an experience in itself, and the whole group pulls it off with flying colours.

Electronic: Arca - Xen
For an up-and-comer, Arca couldn’t have put out a more thoughtful and realized debut this year. There is a lot to digest here, and amidst the claustrophobic array of sharp, metallic synths and murky basslines juxtaposed with thumping syncopated beats it can seem like absolute chaos. But that’s what makes this record so fascinating. Arca has developed a daring style that holds the textural in the highest regard, focusing not just on how his music sounds but how it feels. These compositions creep, crawl, slide, unnerve, and never lend themselves to predictability. This is a bleak record, but one that is always thinking forward and never afraid to work outside the proverbial box.

Hip-Hop: Clipping - CLPPNG
The realm of the avant-garde is malicious and uninviting, but what is art if all there is to it is rigid conformity and repetitious patterns that stagnate expressive movements?  This is far from traditional hip-hop, but in the best way possible. This is a record that defiantly challenges boundaries with a vivid artistic vision, and Clipping brings their A-game to the hooks as well. This is visceral art, but captivating art nonetheless. The noisy metal clangs and prevalent dissonance of this record show reminiscence of contemporary objet trouvé as if it were expressed in the world of music; and as a result this is also a piece of work explicitly unique to itself.

Jazz: Flying Lotus - You’re Dead!
Venturing into the bustling world of free jazz, this is a loose conceptual record with death at its thematic centre. The instrumentation here is nonconcrete and free moving, consistently taking odd turns and toying with newfangled ideas. Even with this in mind, this is also an incredibly cohesive record. Listing to it holistically yields a much more fulfilling experience as opposed to a sum of its parts, with pieces fitting into each other from the front and back to guide the listener through a shadowy descent into the deathly. This release only furthers the idiosyncrasy of Flying Lotus as a musician, and you’d be hard pressed to find a release from 2014 as unique and realized as this one.

Metal: Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
Toronto’s very own Thantifaxath have crafted a record that intelligently performs the balancing act of power and grace. In recent memory the genre of black metal has found a sonic shift focusing on atmosphere of texture, and this group is no exception as they craft chaotic but simultaneously cathartic soundscapes that live up to the name of this record. Wherein the album may seem run-of-the-mill from a surface level glance, extended listening reveals more intricate layers and subtle details in the production. The playing is fantastic as well, with elegant guitar melodies being set against apocalyptic backdrops of musical pandemonium. This is not for the faint of heart, but those who can stomach the extremity are in for a pleasant surprise.

Folk: Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Easily the most intimate record of the year, Benji’s strength comes from its weakness. There is something so incredibly enchanting about the minimalism of this record, the simplicity of the guitar passages working in tandem with the impassioned vocals and brutally honest lyrics of Mark Kozelek. It’s like peering into a diary; the lyrics themselves being highly confessional and personal. This is an album that resonates on a personal level, strong in both its introspection and mood. Life, death, happiness, sadness, beauty, ugliness, and more are all here. It’s a gloomy record, but also one entirely laden with hope.

Pop: FKA Twigs - LP1
It’s incredible how a person who started her career as a backup dancer for other pop musicians can later come around and beat the industry at its own game. This is incredibly progressive pop music and a beautiful example of the genre’s capabilities in 2014. Fuzzy synth lines work magic against incredibly detailed percussion throughout the production here, and Twigs’ voice is just incredibly powerful and delivers some incredibly intimate and sensual lyrics and melodies. This is a record that comes close and never releases, engaging the listener with potent tenderness and flourishes of incredibly colourful compositions and performances.