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Posted December 30th 2019

Melting Vinyl’s 2019 Gig & Record Picks of the Year

ANNA
Record of the year: Erland Cooper | Sule Skerry
This is an inspiring exploration into the sounds of the landscape and people of the Orkney Islands, it’s both soulful and mystical.

Erland Cooper – Sule Skerry

Gig of the year: Pip Blom | Seachange Festival May 2019 
Pip Blom, like Pompoko, light up a stage with intelligent pop that’s completely danceable, they were full of energy and great stage presence at the lovely well-run Seachange festival.

Pip Blom

ELIZA
Record of the Year: Cousin Kula | Oodles/Stroodles
I’ve been following Cousin Kula since their conception in Brighton. Now firmly rooted in the Bristol scene, the six piece have offered a steady output of singles and EP’s produced in collaboration with Portishead’s Jim Barr which perfectly capture the blistering energy of their live shows. This year Cousin Kula have combined two EPs ‘Oodles’ and ‘Stroodles’ into a delicious blue vinyl LP ‘Oodles/Stroodles’ which is a dreamy psych-pop delight that combines lush vocal harmonies with prog-psych freak outs and electro-experimentation, topped off with a dash of disco.

Cousin Kula – Oodles/Stroodles

Gig of the year: Mega Bog | The Rosehill, Brighton Nov 2019
Mega Bog is the moniker of American songwriter Erin Birgy, who writes complex and compelling pop songs which are hard to put in a genre box. Touring their latest album, ‘Dolphine’, the show at the Rosehill was bursting with fresh energy and fantastic playing which was truly inspiring.

Mega Bog (Erin Birgy)

JESS
Record of the Year: Black Midi | Schlagenheim
This is my record of the year – I was completely blown away when I saw their performance at the Mercury Prize Awards and just so astounded by how carefully they curate their chaotic wall of noise sound. I quickly became obsessed with this record and have had it on repeat for the past few months. I can hear influences from some of my other favourite bands like Swans and Slint – I think this is a really exciting contemporary route for experimental music.

Schlagenheim by Black Midi

Gig of the Year: Bikini Kill | O2 Academy Brixton June 2019
Bikini Kill are perhaps the most influential band for me personally – they are the reason that I started playing music aged 14, and I’ve been in my own bands ever since. I discovered Riot Grrl and became completely obsessed. I never thought I would get to see them live, so when the London shows were announced, I completely lost my mind and bought tickets the minute they went on sale. This is my show of the year because it really was a complete dream come true!

Bikini Kill