Black Mare: "Death Magick Mother" (2017)

Black Mare is a music project written and performed by Los Angeles resident Sera Timms, who also plays in such bands of Zun and Ides of Gemini. Her latest release is Death Magick Mother, released this past September. I'm not quite sure whether one would describe it as an EP or a full album. It runs for seven songs in total.

The album begins with "Ingress to Form". A simple combination of guitars and percussion runs along with a very rough and simple sound. For a while it seems this garage-style grungy strumming is going to be all there is, but Timms' ethereal vocals kick in almost halfway through and lift the song up to a whole new level.

It is repetitive, but that repetition develops into an almost hypnotic hook. It's music you can feel as much as hear. There's something tremendously effective about it.

P.K.14: City Weather Sailing (2008)

P.K.14 is a Nanjing-formed and Beijing-based post-punk rock band. Formed back in 1997, they have become a well-respected fixture in China's independent rock scene. Internationally their sound gets compared to the like of the Pixies and Sonic Youth, although based on this album I find the comparisons under-value P.K.14's own distinctive sound.

City Weather Sailing is the band's fourth studio album, released in 2008. I found the CD in a charity shop here in Melbourne, and purchased it purely on the basis of its intriguing and artful cover. It has wound up being one of the most unexpectedly great albums I have heard this year.

There is a general kind of indie Britpop feel to the album, which is dominated by rolling guitars that give it a sort of Manchester sound - to me, at any rate. I am hardly a musical authority, and just describe these things as I see them. I am very keen to track down the band's other work - not to mention their members' side projects - to see how they all compare.

David Bowie: Blackstar (2016)

Blackstar is David Bowie's 25th studio album, released back on 8 January to widespread acclaim. Two days later, and without warning, David Bowie was dead, succumbing to a liver cancer that he had deliberately kept quiet from the public and the press.

The death of such a hugely talented and influential artist overshadowed his final work. It was impossible for me, at any rate, to listen to Blackstar without dwelling on its creator's passing. David Bowie was and remains one of my all-time favourite performance artists. His music was astonishingly good. His various styles and performing identities were groundbreaking and near-unique. The album and the artist are irrevocably united now in his death.

That is clearly a deliberate choice on Bowie's part. It is typical of an artist of his kind to not only plan his own funeral, but to transform it into an artistic event at the same time. The album was fantastic for two days, and then upon hearing it following Bowie's death the entire work took on a new significance. Lyrics suddenly meant different things. Even the term 'blackstar' refers to a form of cancerous tumour.

Sting: "57th & 9th"

It has been 13 years since Sacred Love, the last fully original pop-rock album from Sting. In the mean-time he's openly struggled with writer's block, produced an album of medieval lute music and a winter-themed collection of old English folk songs. He wrote, staged and briefly co-starred in a Broadway musical, The Last Ship, and even recorded the musical's various songs on his own solo release of the same name.

Despite all of this other activity, it really has been a long time between drinks. That puts a huge amount of pressure on Sting's long-awaited new album 57th & 9th. Fans of Sting previously had to wait about three years between releases, so this kind of delay feels enormous.

I think the amount of change that can take place in 13 years is important, because while Sting has set out to return to his pop-rock roots it feels as if he has not acknowledged just how far his own career has moved on. This album feels largely mechanical: there is visible talent here, but it lacks enthusiasm. There is a strong sense that he reached a point where the album simply felt 'good enough' and stopped at that. Familiarity may improve its standing over time, but based on the first few listens this feels like the weakest album Sting has ever released.

We Lost the Sea: Departure Songs (2015)

We Lost the Sea are an instrumental prog-rock band based in Sydney. Departure Songs is their most recent album, released in 2015, and I have to say from the outset that this is the single-best album I have heard for the first time this year. I purchased the CD at a concert when they were supported Finnish metal band Apocalyptica, and I've had the disc on pretty constant rotation ever since. This is an epic recording, dealing with grand themes in a huge, near-overwhelming fashion.

Upon first inspection it seems like Departure Songs is more of an EP than a full album, since it only lists five tracks. What the sleeve doesn't tell you is just how long these tracks are. The album as a whole is more than an hour long. The central track, "Challenger - Flight", is 23 minutes or more on its own. That might sound pretentious, but the truth is every track on this album earns its length. There's a level of intensity and emotion that you can only reach with a slow, measured build and a grand, extended climax.

Sleaze: A Glass of What Reminds Me of Lovesick Potions (2012)

Sleaze is a five-piece independent rock band from Taipei. Their debut album was released in September 2012, with a title that translates from Chinese into English as A Glass of What Reminds Me of Lovesick Potions. I assume that the band is now defunct: their Facebook page has not been updated in more than two years, and there doesn't seem to be any sign of a follow-up album or recent tours online.

If true, it's a real shame. This is a hugely enjoyable and inventive rock album that weaves together a broad range of styles and influences. It's certainly on the heavier side of rock music and regularly edges towards classic metal forerunners from the early 1970s, but then it also regularly throws in surprising elements including reggae and psychedelic rock. It throws all of these elements in together, sort of roughly blends them, and winds up with a distinctive tone of its own.

Sting: The Soul Cages (1991)

It always seems 'de rigueur' to mock Sting. Born Gordon Sumner, he rose to fame as the lead singer of the hugely popular British rock band the Police. After the band went on hiatus in 1984 he went on to record his first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. It was a massive hit both in the UK and internationally, and when the fractious relationship between his two Police band-mates finally collapsed he shifted into a full-time solo career.

I do not think it is a controversial claim to say that Sting is one of the UK's finest composers and lyricists. At the same time, and despite liking the vast majority of his work over the decades, I think it is fair to say he is an artist with a richly developed ego that often manifests as a tremendous self-importance. People generally do not appreciate hubris, and as a result Sting has left himself open for his entire solo career to scorn, ridicule and widespread dismissal.

Let us for the moment put aside the man's ego, however, and actually take a look at his work. His musical style is to my mind rather wonderful, combining at different points jazz, blues, rock, reggae and even classical music. His lyrics are more often than not stunningly good. I am a huge fan of his work, and of his 11 studio albums I think 1991's The Soul Cages is his absolute best.

Tokyo Jihen: Great Discovery (2011)

Tokyo Jihen (also known as Tokyo Incidents) were a four-piece jazz-rock band formed in 2004 by singer/songwriter Ringo Sheena. They disbanded back in 2012, but leave behind a great set of albums. The band fused together multiple musical genres - while they ultimately worked as a pop group, they blended in elements of jazz, funk and rock to give themselves a particularly distinctive and artful sound.

Great Discovery (Dai Hakken) was Tokyo Jihen's fifth and final studio album, released in June 2011. It captures the band at what is arguably their most commercial, pulling back a little on their more avant garde sounds in favour of a set of broadly populist tunes. The strategy clearly worked in Japan, with Great Discovery peaking at #1 on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart and finishing 2011 as the 48th highest-selling album of the year. It is a great pop album, presenting immensely enjoyable tunes with an idiosyncratic edge. The standard is high enough that, when played beginning to end, even the occasional weaker track is supported by stronger works at either end.

The Astrocytes: Because I'm Really Not Sorry (2012)

The Astrocytes were an independent rock band based in Hong Kong. I bought their debut CD Because I'm Really Not Sorry while in the city in 2012, but to be honest have not heard anything from them since. I suspect like most independent groups they have long since separated and gone their separate ways. Their website does not even mention this album, and its only link is to an empty Myspace page. Lead singer Helena Angwin appears to be working as a professional model these days. Guitarist Joe Ashley Cheng is apparently a professional songwriter.

Because I'm Really Not Sorry is a weirdly retro album, stylistically speaking. More than once I am reminded of the sorts of mid-1990s grunge and independent British pop-rock that I listened to as an undergraduate student. It also boasts that near-trademark stark, simple sound that typifies an independent low-budget CD release. There is not really anything original or attention-grabbing about this album, but it does have a lot of straight-up energy and heart to it. I hope the four members of the band have moved on to better and more successful things.

Wagakki Band: Yasou Emaki (2015)

Yasou Emaki is the second studio album from Japanese rock group Wagakki Band. This eight-piece group comprises a lead singer, Yuko Suzuhana, and seven musicians playing a variety of contemporary and traditional Japanese instruments. While the band includes the likes of Machiya on guitar and Asa on bass, it also features the likes of Beni Ninagawa on the shamisen (a kind of three-stringed guitar), Kiyoshi Ibukuro on the koto (a sort of horizontal harp) and Kurona on the wadaiko (specifically Japanese drums).

It is a striking blend that gives Wagakki Band a unique musical sound. In broad strokes it sounds like fairly typical Japanese pop/rock. In the fine details it sounds remarkably old-fashioned and highly evocative. The band's aggressive sense of fusion extends to their elaborate costuming, mixing outfits from feudal Japan with a vibrant and colourful punk identity.