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Picked this up during one of my many visits to the university library. Didn't really expect much based on the gaudy cover, but it's pretty fantastic. Obviously, I don't know much about the musicians or anything else, so I'll type up the liner notes, which give light to it. Bear with me.
The Santur
An Indian adaptation of a stringed instrument found in Iran, turkey and elsewhere in the Middle East, the santur resembles a western hammered dulcimer, and is known technically as a box zither. The instrument contains up to one hundred strings and was developed and popularized on the Indian concert stage single-handedly by the Kashmiri musician Shivkumar Sharma, who remains the senior practitioner today. The challenge of the fixed pitch santur is to capture, as far as possible, a musical style based on traditional vocal music. Continuing the tradition of adaptation, Tarun has made some modifications to his instrument in both structure and technique.
Musical Influences
Tarun's own music education illustrates a multidirectional flow of diverse influences. Surrounded as he was by music (both is parents played the sitar) he began by playing tabla, the predominant percussion instrument of North India. As his interest in santur developed, he studied with his father's teacher, Calcutta's Pandit Dulal Roy, knowna s a performer on santur and the rare
jaltarang (a series of water-tuned china bowls). Finally, Tarun chose as his ultimate mentor the world renowned Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitarist who in turn had studied with legendary Ustad Allaudin Khan (1862-1972). Allaudin Khan performed on the sarod, but he was an exceptionally versatile musician who taught more than a generation of India's senior masters on a variety of instruments.
This Recording
The performances on this CD include two South Indian (Carnatic) ragas played in North Indian style: Kirvani and Hamsa Dhwani. The Northern and Southern traditions share common historical and theoretical roots; both are based on ragas (melodic structures) and talas (rhythmic structures), but each is distinctly different in performance style, musical instruments, and ornamentation.
Track 1: Rag Kirvani
Rag Kirvani is the first selection, and its scale is the same as the western harmonic minor scale - seven notes, with flatted third and sixth. The first sounds we hear are a series of two-note chords innovatively plucked with the fingernails. These are followed by a downward cascading strumming on the full scale which introduces a brief alap, or non-rhythmic introduction. Following the crispness of his plucked notes, Tarun's continuous light hammering on the strings draws out the melody of the alap almost in a whisper. In developing the lower octave, Tarun demonstrates his innovative use of variable pitch: he has added a lower string to the instrument which he presses down and releases with one hand to create glides and sliding sounds otherwise impossible on the santur. In the continua-alap, Tarun explores the harmonic characteristic of Kirvani, often skipping notes in a type of arpeggio structure which recurs throughout the performance.
After an alap of approximately nine minutes which ascends all the way up to the top of the third octave, Tarun introduces a composition (gat) in a medium japtal rhythmic cycle (10 beats counted as 3-2-3-2). Bikram Ghosh (son of the renowned tabla master Shankar Ghosh) introduces the tala with a subtle and delightful improvisation which emphasizes the fluidity of the variably-pitched left hand drum, or bayan. The two performers, Tarun in the lead, then proceed to blend aspects of the raga with the assymetry of the tala in a sensitive and dramatic interaction. Tarun sometimes tempers bright tones by damping (lightly touching the strings) with the free hand. Both musicians, in their respective and joint improvisations, reveal their exceptional virtuosity and youthful energy.
Beginning at around nineteen and a half minutes, the performers begin the conclusion of the raga with a fast gat in tintal (sixteen beats), and a vigorous dialogue in the techniques known as sath sangat (playing the same complex rhythmic patterns together) and saval-javab (question and answer), in which one performer echoes the improvisations of the other. Once again, Tarun fully explores the tonal colors of the santur with a combination of open, muted, delicate and vigorous sounds, striking with the santur's delicate twin hammers. One of the final stages of the performance is the climactic section known as jhala, in which a sort of floating melody line is alternated with a rapid repeated striking of the tonic/drone strings.
A final saval-javab brings Rag Kirvani to its final jhala, and concludes with a thundering chakardar tihai, a cadential rhythmic pattern of three subdivisions which is repeated three times in closure.
As is customary in North Indian music after an extended performance of a serious raga, the musicians conclude with light classical pieces:
Track 2: Misra Anandi
The second piece is Misra Anandi, equivalent to the western major scale with a romantic ornamentation of a full range of accidental notes. A brief alap introduces a lyrical composition in the eight-beat tala known as kaharva. A final alap-like structure recounts the basic melodic structure of the raga.
Track 3: Folk Tune From Assam
The third piece is a beautiful Assamese folk tune, played in a scale parallel to a western major scale and with a light-hearted six-beat rhythm (tala) known as dadra.
Track 4: Rag Hamsa Dhwani
The recording concludes with a brief rendition of Rag Hamsa Dhwani, a pentatonic Carnatic raga. The scale does not use the fourth and sixth notes, and the remaining notes are played in the western major scale. After a brief alap, the musicians share a composition in medium fast ektal, a twelve-beat cycle. The variations here are simple and more traditional than those in the opening raga, and after a simple tihai, Tarun concludes this recording with a refined, sweet and gentle ending.
Awesome. Enjoy.Download Here
Etta Baker was one of the most important and revered musicians of all time that created music in the Piedmont Blues style. For those unknown, the Piedmont blues is a finger-picking blues style that typically alternates bass strings plucked by the thumb that supports the melody on the rest of the strings. The effect is much more in line with the white string bands of the Appalachian region than with Delta Blues. The very fact that Etta Baker is so important an influential (she taught the style to Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan just to name two), is perhaps most remarkable because of the 35-year gap between her first recording in 1956, and this recording of 20 songs that came out in 1991.
The album is primarily focused on traditional and public domain blues songs and rags, and it heavily leans on instrumental numbers. However, Etta does sing on a few tracks and the aging in her voice lends something special to these songs.
You can listen to much of this album and think it is someone like a Jack Rose or John Fahey or many of the other famous ragtime guitarists that we think of, but something about the way that Etta plays just makes it connect on a whole level. It's really really beautiful and well...American.
I meant to post this on February 7th, when I uploaded it but I waited. It's great and everyone should download it.
Download Here
Etta Baker Wiki
So I'm taking this class this semester about the history of Rock N Roll. You know, the same one that all the stoner kids and liberal arts students like me have to take so we can just talk about Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. Playing, but I needed some extra credits, so I figured why not. It's proved to be pretty damn worthless so far (pre rock n' roll though, so bonus points), but it has definitely inspired me to pull out some old blues records the last few days and here are two of the best.
To me, there is no way that Muddy Waters' early Chess recordings are not the most direct link to that classic rock n roll sound. These two records compile some of those early recordings (I think like 1947-1962?) And it's just great. You know Muddy obviously, the guitar, the band, the AAB verses. It's that classics Chicago blues sound, a true American sound if there ever was one. It's pretty essential to listen to this stuff every now and then and just remember how great the original electric sound is.
Classic, obviously.
Download Real Folk Blues Here
Download More Real Folk Blues Here
Mississippi Records is a store on said street in Portland. Very cool shop, but the coolest part about the owners is the label they run. Reissuing compilations of rare music and unheralded albums, the label was really taken off in the last years putting out super limited runs that get sold out almost immediately. Over at hipinion, I've (with the help of a few) uploaded most of their catalogue, and while I feel bad for bootlegging a cool label, oh well. Here's a few of their records.
Last Kind Words (1926-1953)
Great compilation of old blues from some familiar names, but mostly those unfamiliar.
Download Here
Lipa Kodi Ya City Council
Possibly my favorite compilation on the label (though actually probably not), this is a great collection of African highlife music mostly. Great for a sunny day.
Download Here
George Coleman - Bongo Joe
Some records you can't attach a label to. This is one of those records. Originally released in '69 (best year in music if you didn't know), this album is some sort of demented blues records played almost solely on steel drums. Screams, shouts, croaks, whistles, whatever. Blow your mind.
Download Here
In the wake of the new administration and the general feeling of relief that is being experienced by most reasonable people, it has been hard to listen to music I would categorize as "dark." However, the brand new album by Svarte Greiner sort of throws all those rules out the window and has provided me with one of the most intense and awesome listening experiences I've heard in this new, infant year. While the Animal Collective album is clearly album of the year thus far (if not decade), Greiner's album fills the gap for essential paranoid nighttime listening (which is an actual essential). While Svarte's last solo album "Knive" came out on the wings of the amazing "Dead Sea" by labelmate/head Xela, "Kappe" is something that won't keep Svarte in the shadows much longer. While "Knive" was truly unsettling and sounded like the soundtrack to the scariest movie you've never seen (it all it's minimal glory), "Kappe" provides the listener with something that is dark and frightening, but more along the lines of the sound Greiner explores in his other group Deaf Center.
The album opens with "Tunnels of Love" which is 7 minutes of howling winds carrying screeching voices across miles of hills. In the foreground we hear the constant rattling of chains and windmills, dominating the silence that surrounds them. Soon thereafter a eerie synth loop repeats over and over until the track dissolves into the sound of actually being caught in a tunnel. A statement from the beginning.
"Where Am I" sounds like something that could be used to back some of the more unsettling scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sound of paranoia is clear. With subtle noise fading in and out, this track will have you looking over your shoulder if listened to in the dark. One of those tracks that definitely captures the mood of the title.
"Candle Light Dinner Actress" is more of the same with some strong tweaks. It's not hard to imagine yourself seated in an old haunted building watching ghosts roam about you while you anxiously try to eat dinner. Ridiculous I know, but once you listen, it's hard to shake.
The album closes with "Last Light" which is an interesting track in that it is undoubtedly the loudest of the bunch, with a constant echo and synth line apparent throughout, with other sounds weaving in and out of the mix. However on it's own, parts of the song could sound like it is soundtracking something fresh, providing us with a glimpse of hope and light and life, yet such is obviously not the case. The song wraps up the album as a bright spot, telling the listener "this is it, you're going to fall prey to silence after, so take all of this in."
A great album and likely my second favorite I've heard so far this year.
Myspace
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Type Records
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No one really gives and a damn and I'm not going to take the time to write and format like the bottom 30, so here goes. Sorry for the anticlimax.
1. Sam Amidon - All Is Well
beautiful (not for everyone) renditions of classic american folk songs. leaked fall 2007 but still sticks with me as one of the most striking things i've heard this decade.
2. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
Maybe too feel good or obvious, but through and through the most enjoyable hip hop album i've heard all year.
3. Fennesz - The Black Sea
Something about this record just strikes me. The sound wraps around my body, enters it and just sits there. I am taken with every listen.
4. Ulaan Khol - I and II
Steven R. Smith's newest project finds him strapping on more distortion and heaviness than ever before. Two albums of awesome feedback drenched guitar wankery
5. Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies
The world forgot about this record. I guess Rollie raps too much like a nerd or something, but it's some of the freshest, most inventive dance music and hip hop and should really be bigger.
6. Shed - Shedding The Past
Minimal techno that doesn't lull you to sleep. There was a slew of good minimal releases but the drums especially in this one really just kick your ass. Amazing record.
7. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
Yea yeah, was claimed to be my favorite album, then I overplayed it and realized it's not nearly as strong as I thought. Some cheesy tracks, but overall some great throwback soul.
8. Small Sur - We Live In Houses Made Of Wood
Low-key, quiet folk that was my go-to record for sleeping this year. Pretty harmonizing vocals but sort of a unique sound anyway.
9. Possessed By Paul James - Cold & Blind
Crazy lo-fi banjo/bluegrass/guitar/folk/country mashup of greatness. Longer songs than usual for this kind of stuff, but really pretty dark and awesome.
10. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Vol. 1: 4th World War
Perhaps the most psychedelic record on the list. All sorts of black power vocal samples, crazy beats and Erykah's alien voice floating all around the tracks.
11. Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte
Awesome progressive jazz from the European master. RIP. Album was uploaded on here back in September, so get it.
12. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Was not expecting this record to kick so much ass. Total art/hip/tribal/dance/experimental weird shit. A real fun listen for the paranoid.
13. Ellen Allien - Sool
Actually deleted this album like 5 times earlier in the year because it's REAL minimal but then in the fall i came back around and it connected. Sounds bad, but is perfect background music. Minimal techno that emphasizes the minimal.
14. The Dodos - Visiter
One of the more exciting new acts in indie rock. At least of those who received a decent amount of hype. Love the combination of styles they incorporate in their sound.
15. Charlie Haden - Family & Friends: Rambling Boy
Legendary jazz bassist recruits his family and friends to sing traditional bluegrass and mountain music. Just a classic sound and beautiful vocalists and musicians.
16. Marilyn Mazur & Jan Garbarek - Elixir
Two jazz semi-legends get together and create one of the coolest jazz albums i heard this year. The emphasis is on the amazing percussion, but the minimal saxophone and other music creates a nice package.
17. Nico Muhly - Mothertongue
I'm pretty sure Nico Muhly is the same age as me, which is really depressing. Out of all the new school of modern pop classical composers (Ricther, Johannson, etc.) Muhly might be the most exciting, or at least this album is. A wholly original sound broken into 3 different mini-suites.
18. Gentleman Jesse & His Men - S/T
Perhaps the best power pop record since the death of the Exploding Hearts.
19. Blueprint - Blueprint Vs. Funkadelic
Awesome underground hip hop producer/rapper released this bootleg on his website early in the year. All the music is Funkadelic samples and there are lots of sound bytes of people talking about Clinton and Co. Real psychedelic. For fans of Edan's Beauty & The Beat
20. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista
Bizarre finnish neo-folk stuff that has cranked up the doom (and volume) and even started to use percussion to create near dance-like songs. Beautiful and serene but haunting and frightful as well.
Instead of ranking every single album, I've decided that the bottom 30 of the 50 are all equally good for the most part and there are a lot of albums not even mentioned here that will probably end up dominating my playlists in the coming months. The top 20 will be ranked, and will be posted later on, but here are some honorable mentions. Lots of my favorite artists are here, lots of the albums in this 30 I would consider outstanding, but didn't listen to enough, some I listened to a whole ton at the beginning of the year and they slowly faded. It's a nice mixture and was another good year in music.
Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet - Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet
(May 20) (RCA) (Myspace)
RIYL: Uncle Earl, Bela Fleck, Nu-Grass
You may remember my gushing about Uncle Earl and their banjo player Abigail Washburn last year. Well, while that album was my #4 (and still remains one of my favorite records of the decade), her other band the Sparrow Quartet released their first real album this year. It's more great banjo playing and singing by Abigail but she is joined by legendary banjo player Bela Fleck, cellist Ben Sollee and fiddle player Casey Driessen. Based on the resumes of these players, the album doesn't quite live up to its potential, but it's still an engaging listen. Mixing bluegrass and string bands with chinese traditionals and gospel and all executed with a glossy sheen. Accomplished musicians making music.
Arborea - Arborea(Apil 28) (Fire Museum) (Myspace)
RIYL: Espers, Feathers, Marissa Nadler
Arborea's 2006 debut Wayfaring Summer was my #20 of 2006. On this, their self-titled new release (and the first with some actual promotion), the husband-wife duo of Buck and Shanti Curran continue their otherworldly folk music. With Buck providing almost all the instrumentation himself and Shanti singing over the top of all sorts of stringed instruments, the record is gentle, but also pretty dark. The album doesn't effect me as much as the debut, though I am glad Buck is allowed more singing time on this release. Great nighttime record.
Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer: Book of Angels Vol. 10(March 18) (Tzadik) (Myspace)
RIYL: John Zorn and most of his Tzadik disciples
Just barely missed the top 20 cut, I've already written and posted a link to this album about a month ago which has around 100 or so downloads, so people are paying attention. A truly masterful album that I didn't give enough time and perhaps the best in the entire Masada/Book of Angels series and one of the best Zorn related releases I've heard. It's jazz but it's klezmer influenced. It's easy on the ears, it's the perfect introduction and the musicianship is unrivaled.
Barry Adamson - Back To The Cat(April 22) (Central Control) (Myspace)RIYL: Nick Cave, Richard Hawley, Film Noir muisc
I'm not really sure how Barry Adamson had slipped under my radar for so many years, but around February this year I downloaded Moss Side Story on a whim and when this album came out, I gobbled it all up. Execution wise, this might be the most accomplished and thoroughly engrossing record on the entire list. A master of the craft. A blend of cheesy lounge-style vocals, amazingly creepy jazz music and great songwriting, this is definitely an album that will stick around for awhile.
Benoît Pioulard - Temper(October 14) (Kranky) (Myspace)RIYL: Nothing really. Male-fronted Grouper hanging with Grizzly Bear recording during the winter.
Cokemachineglow just gave this album the award "2008’s Soundtrack to the Winter Inhaling the Air From Your Lungs while the Canadian Government Crumbles Award" and while that is certainly silly and mostly irrelevent, it may nevertheless be a perfect description of the music. A definitely autumn and winter album, Temper picks up where the masterpiece Precis (2006) left off. Pioulard's unique blend of closet pop/folk with all the percussion and fuzz. The whole album just happens before your ears. It's a soundtrack album to the winter and just like his previous release: it's great.
Bill Frisell - History, Mystery(May 13) (Nonesuch) (Myspace)RIYL: Jazz Guitarists I guess (Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, Scofield, Pat Metheny)
Bill Frisell has been making great and relevant music for quite a while and the two-disc History, Mystery is no exception. Though the music on these two discs actually dates anywhere from between 2000-2007 (you probably heard the second disc on NPR), this is the first official release. It's varied as all hell. His cover of "A Change Is Gonna Come" (my favorite song ever) is basically light jazz, with his guitar acting as the vocals, before that is a swinging jazz number. There's noisier bits, there is smoother bits, but it's all very distinct, it's all very Frisell and it's all very good. Also of note: Bill played on 3 tracks on the new Earth album this year that I hardly listened to. Shame on me.
Black Milk - Tronic
(October 28) (Fat Beats) (Myspace)
RIYL: Slum Village, Dilla with more SynthsThis is the part of the story where I tell you that Black Milk should be named 2008's artist of the year. I will also say that this man is probably the most important person in hip hop right now and if he isn't right now, he will be in the coming years. This album is great, his production is up a whole bunch, his rapping has improved but still isn't great, but one of the best hip hop albums of the year regardless. But his 2008 was insane. He released two mixtapes by himself (Music from the Color Purple, Elec), put out Caltroit with Bishop Lamont late last year. Produced a bunch of Elzhi's fantastic recored, produced a bunch of Invincible's fantastic record, put out a collab album with Fat Ray, produced some of Guilty Simpson's album, produced some of Royce's mixtape, produced a track off of Buff1's record, produced some of Kidz In The Hall's record, and is at the forefront of the whole Detroit underground movement which in the wake of Dilla and Proof's deaths has become the center of good hip hop this year. Somebody stop this man.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down In The Light
(May 12) (Drag City) (Myspace)RIYL: Smog, Neil Young, Lambchop2008: The year in which my favorite musician releases a really great album that I somehow don't connect with immediately and don't include in my top 10 albums of the year. Listen: it's great, but I'm just now realizing it. Will Oldham is my favorite, this album is good, definitely really good. I just hardly listened to it in comparison to all his other albums under all his monikers.
Brethren Of The Free Spirit - All Things are From Him, Through Him And In Him / The Wolf Also Shall Dwell With The Lamb(April? / November 11) (audoMER / Important) (Myspace)RIYL: James Blackshaw, John Fahey, Religious MusicTake two of the most talented and praised young instrumental virtuosos in this whole weird freak-folk scene, get them inspired by 13th and 14th century Christianity and religious music, have them perform and record in old churches and what comes out is some of the most beautiful music to be created this year. James Blackshaw released a wonderful solo album this year, but these collaborations with lute player Jozef von Wissem are my personal favorites. Both albums are pretty different from each other but both are executed amazingly.
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
(April 8) (Universal) (Myspace)RIYL: LCD Soundsystem, Human League-ish, Poppy Dance Music
The album I didn't want to like. Virtually every song on this album is destined to be a single or a advertisement on television and yet where so many singles-oriented album, these songs are all part of a greater whole. A pop album that works best when taken as a whole. The interludes, the fades, the way the tracks build of each other. Try as I might, I cannot dislike this record. It's probably the best pure pop album of the year, believe the hype.
DeLa - Changes In Atmosphere
(September 9) (???) (Myspace)
RIYL: Pete Rock, Jazz Liberatorz, Jazz-RapSome French Canadian dude releasing and album over in Japan with guest spots from some of the best in the underground (Blu, J-Live, J. Sands, Teminology, Dynas, etc.) As well as songs with hip hop legends like Talib Kweli and Large Professor. This is that classic jazz rap stuff. A real feel good record. Jazz Liberatorz put out a similar album this year (as well as all that jazz-rap stuff that the Japanese love) but this is my favorite. The songs are short, it moves along and it's just refreshing. It's been done before, but DeLa is definitely one of the best doing it.
Elzhi - The Preface(July 29) (Fat Beats) (Myspace)
RIYL: Black Milk, Slum Village, Detroit Hip Hop
Remember all that gushing I did up at the Black Milk post? Well you can take that, take away most of the electro influence, go back a couple years, take the best member of Slum Village and you get The Preface. Elzhi's first proper release (Europass which is equally good if not better was tour-only) is one of the best hip hop releases of the year without a doubt. Unhindered by the rest of the deadweight that is Slum Village in the last few years, Elzhi just further establishes the prominence that Detroit was this year in hip hop. Not a bad song on here, just everything solid.
Evening Fires - Figures Of Earth
(???) (Digitalis) (Myspace)RIYL: La Otracina, Jackie-O-Motherfucker, Six Organs of Admittance
One of my favorite experimental releases of the year. Released on the great Digitalis label with a run of only 75 copies, I obviously didn't get one. This album is 6 tracks. 2 are under two minutes, one is about 6 minutes and the other three are 11, 15 and 10 minutes long. It's an experimental/drone record that has ambient noise, horns, random percussion and some awesome banjo. Just something about this record stuck with me more than all the other drone records I heard this year. Check it out if you can.
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
(June 10) (Warp) (Myspace)
RIYL: J Dilla, Prefuse 73, Four Tet
If you've paid attention to the press at all this year, you probably saw something about this record somewhere. The go-to hip electronica album. I actually thought it was way overhyped and not very good for most of the year but lately I've been loving it. Intense, abstract soundbursts and in your face electronic drums sounding like a million different 8-bit games blended together while you're high.
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
(August 25) (Side One Dummy) (Myspace)RIYL: The Killers, Lucero, Against Me!Balls to the wall, hearts on the sleeves, over the top, pump your fist, drive your car, sing at the top of your lungs, Springsteen-inspired, Sam's Town done right. The Gaslight Anthem put out the most fun rock n roll record I heard this year. The songs are written well, if not cheesy. It's just bombastic, but I can't help but love it. The sound is so intense, it's hard to resist.
Jackaszek - Treny
(May 27) (Miasmah) (Myspace)RIYL: Murcof, Arvo Part, Max Richter
One of the most haunting records of the year, truly. Last year I ran a haunted house for the city and created a playlist on the ol' ipod to play inside for ambience and if I were to do that again, many of these songs would make the cut. Not such much frightening as just ominous, that may be where the beauty lies. Album was released on Murcof's Miasmah label which continuously puts out some of the best modern classical and ambient recordings there are. Michael Jackaszek provides the sparse electronics and percussion but is joined by Stefan Wesolowski and Ania Smizek-Wesolowska on cello and violin and it's all given an even more somber tone by the wordless vocals of Maja Siemenska. It's graveyard or soundtrack music. It sets a mood, it's not ambient music to sleep to, but it is definitely a night time record and solely that.
Jamie Lidell - Jim
(April 28) (Warp) (Myspace)RIYL: Darryl Hall, Jamiroquai, Blue-Eyed Soul
People on the internet have slagged this album a lot because it isn't nearly as inventive as Multiply or even his remix projects. Well, that's true. But it's one of the most fun pop-soul records I've heard in quite some time. I gotta give it to Jamie Lidell for doing what he wants to do (and he's been interviewed as saying he just wants to make pop songs). He's inspired by 60s soul here, so he's created something huge. The songs are based on huge hooks, the music is funky as all get out. The ballads are cheesy. What more could we want? It's not the best sure, but it's still fun.
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlandia(November 3) (4AD) (Myspace)RIYL: Max Richter, Sigur Ros, Steve ReichBy now it's no secret that Johann makes beautiful music. The Icelandic native takes that whole modern classical/electronic idea, adds the most heartwrenching string arrangements you can bear and makes great album after great album. I'm not going to get into the themes found on this album, there's 3. You can go to AMG and read about it, because it's definitely interesting. The point is, if the title track (all 13:23) is not one of the most emotional songs you've heard, I don't know if you have ears. It's not Mozart, it's not Bach, it's not Barber, it's not Part and it never will be. But the fact of the matter is that Johannsson is carving his own niche that's just at home with Sigur Ros as it is with those musicians. It's not for purists, but it's fucking beautiful.
Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson - Rattlin' Bones
(April 21) (Liberation) (Myspace)
RIYL: Gram/Emmylou, Good 70s CountryIf you are Australian and reading this, you are probably scoffing, well shutup. Last year was all about country and americana for me and this year I have only a few notable releases and this is likely the best pure country record I heard all year. It was huge overseas, I don't know what it did here in the States, probably not much. It's great though. Kasey got rid of that travesty of sound that was Carnival and her husband Shane comes outta nowhere and the two of them put out a genuinely great country record. Say what you will, it is great. Good songwriting, classic instrumentation and some of the best male/female harmonies I've heard for a long time in country. This is like Dolly and Porter, Gram and Emmylou, Conway and Loretta just with a little less twang in the voice. Get it.
Lawrence English - Kiri No Oto
(July 22) (Touch) (Website)
RIYL: Philip Jeck, Belong, Sound-artists
First time I listened to this record, I was in bed, I hit play with my little imac remote and was was subsequently blasted by the fuzz that emanated. I expected something soft like the album cover showed, but "Organs Lost at Sea" slayed me, gave me a heart attack and it wasn't until the next song came on that I had recovered. It's not that it's that heavy, it's not. It's actually beautiful. The record is distorted organ, guitar and found sounds and its just layer upon layer of experimental, droning beauty. A real achievement in the genre. Apparently there is more to the technique than I understand, but whatever, I'm not that heavy into these "sound sculptors" and this one got more play than most other releases in the same vein because it's great.
Lykke Li - Youth Novels
(January 30) (LL/Atlantic) (Myspace)
RIYL: Robyn, Peter, Bjorn & John, El Perro Del Mar
One of my most listened to records for the first 6 months of the year, this album definitely started to fall of towards the end. But good for her and the public (even American public!) to pick up on this album. Lykke Li is one of the next big pop stars and it's really bizarre, because this is pop music that doesn't really sound like anything else out there. Bjorn (PBJ fame) gives Lykke really sparse and minimal arrangements and her voice is somewhere in between Robyn and Joanna Newsom, but sweet. It's a light record, it can just be put on. Sure a lot of it is just crazily cheesy or silly, but it all works somehow.
Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling (September 22) (Matador) (Myspace)
RIYL: Explosions in The Sky? It's Mogwai guys.
It's a Mogwai album, it's not really anything new. It sounds like Mogwai. It has guitars, it's epic, the songs are the right length. There are quiet moments and loud moments. It's sort of all the same, yet I would go ahead and say this is the best Mogwai album since Come On Die Young. It always just boils down to the fact that the band is named after the cutest little creature ever imagined.
Natural Yogurt Band - Away With Melancholy
(June 30) (Jazzman) (Myspace)
RIYL: Galt McDermot, 70s funky movie soundtrack jazz Definitely one of the coolest records I heard all year. Natural Yogurt Band are a duo who specialize in that funky 70s jazz sound. Their debut record was even put out on Jazzman, which usually only does awesome reissues. You got drums, funky funky bass, organ, guitar, some vocal samples, whatever. There's not a lot of info on the band but the music speaks for itself. If you love those old Blaxploitation films, you need this album. If you are just looking for something that has a nice groove, you also need this album.
NOMO - Ghost Rock
(June 17) (Ubiquity) (Myspace)RIYL: Antibalas, Daptone Records, Afro-jazz
Just nothing but the funkiest record around. Nomo's 3rd full-length stripped away some of the bizarre sonic experimentation of their last album and comes full force with the funk. Equally inspired by Bootsy, Fela and Dolphy, Nomo is just creating a sound that is uniquely their own, without actually sounding too unique. It's just a group of 8 musicians with the help of some friends going into the studio, wherever that may be and just getting down. One of the ultimate feel-good records of the year.
Richard Skelton - Marking Time
(September 6) (Preservation) (No Myspace)
RIYL: ECM Records, Stars of the Lid, Kranky Ambient artists
You may remember A Broken Consort's A Box of Birch as my #14 album last year. Well, the man behind that, Richard Skelton has stepped away from his psuedonyms and released an album outside of his own label and the results are striking. This might be his very best album. Almost entirely composed of Richard's expert skills of manipulating various stringed instruments, the album floats by but keeps the listener paying attention as well. Truly a beautiful album
Sigur Rós - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
(June 24) (XL/EMI) (Myspace)
RIYL: Well...It's Sigur Ros
Sure we expected the band to continue moving towards the poppier sound they were adapting on Takk but no one expected the full on Animal Collective-esque "Gobbledigook" Try as I might, I can't help but continue to love Sigur Ros. They have changed their sound slightly, but they're still basically the same thing. It just so happens that I'm not ready to grow out of this sound. If that makes me fey, whatever. They've put out another beautiful record, I just hardly listened to it.
The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
(September 1) (Spunk) (Myspace)
RIYL: Devendra Banhart doing 60s Dylan
This is basically how I wanted Devendra Banhart to sound. Maybe that's unfair, maybe not. I don't love this album, but there is definitely something here. The songs are pretty excellent, easy to sing along to as well. The voice is that weird warble that works for some of these folksingers. It's just well done folk music and I like it. It's a grower, the songs get stuck in your head, and it's worth a listen. Sometimes I love this record more than any others this year, sometimes I just want it to end. Bad review, good album.
Thomas Function - Celebration
(March 11) (Alive) (Myspace)
RIYL: Buzzcocks, Violent Femmes, Destroyer
Thomas Function is a power-pop/punk band that hails from Alabama. This is their debut album and it really sounds like a combination of the above 3 mentioned bands all wrapped up in 3 minute pop songs. Mixing equal parts punk, country, and blues, the songs all have this sort of snotty brat feel to them and are just a blast. 13 songs, relatively short album that definitely deserves the little hype it's gotten. A lot of fun, great driving music. Will be interesting to see what these dudes come up with in the future because they seem accomplished enough that they can go in a few different directions.
Ty Segall - Ty Segall
(???) (Castle Face) (Myspace)
RIYL: The Sonics, Trashmen, Mark Sultan/BBQ/King Khan, Coachwhips
This whole lo-fi garage punk scene that was really gotten huge in the last couple years (Siltbreeze, all the shit out of SF, everywhere else) is really one of the most exciting things to happen in music in a long time. While bands like Times New Viking and No Age got MTV2 airplay and features and bands like San Diego's Wavves are being talked about on virtually every indie music blog there is, my favorite record I heard in this movement this year is Ty Segall's self-titled full length. Though there were tons and tons of great lo-fi records, this one is definitely one of the most fun. Ty does it all himself, guitar and drums at the same time and does it well. It's just classic, in your face garage rock. Muffled vocals, thrashing guitar, steady foot-propelled drumbeats. It's a back to basics rock record and it's a fucking riot.
Women - Women
(???) (Flemish Eye / Jagjaguwar) (Myspace)
RIYL: Chad Vangaalen, Blitzen Trapper, No Age
Definitely one of the coolest indie rock records of the year. Women are a four piece band from Canada who have taken the lo-fi aesthetic and basically mixed all the different sub-genres within the grand scheme of things that gives us a record of acoustic tunes, drone and noise music, garage rock, and everything in between. It's sort of a record that is made to please everyone in its variation and is just done well. Vangaalen helped with some of the instrumentation and I believe production of the record and it shows. It's just quite the accomplishment for the young band to produce an album so varied that somehow still works as a whole.
