You May Have Missed...

Here are some releases you and / the general populous may or may not have missed over the course of the year. They are worthy and deserving of your attention.

Boxcutter - Glyphic (Planet-Mu)

With everyone going apeshit over the new Burial album (which is a fine album, don't get me wrong), and Pinch's Underwater Dancehall getting a lot of recognition as well, it's a shame that this Boxcutter album has been (it seems) largely ignored. Like the Burial record, Glyphic pushes dubstep past its typical boundaries, refreshing a genre that has quickly become extremely stagnant. Whereas Untrue is unique in its retoolings of r&b and trip-hop vocal tropes, these songs add splashes of jazz elements and leans a bit more heavily on traditional dub / reggae effects. The skittering, near-relentless drums on "Rusty Break" rub up against guitar and flute that sounds like it's being amputated from an old lounge / soul record. "Foxy" does the same with some organ and male croons, and punctuates the later part of the tune with some tasteful horns. "Windfall" and "J Dub" evoke ghosts of actual dub, with its snare cracks that echo like they're being played in a mineshaft. Even with a couple tracks towards the end of the record veering weirdly into the realm of Aphex acid (and this could even be seen as sort of a palate cleanser), Glyphic emerges as a studiously composed collection of smart tracks that are mindful of both the past and the future. As stodgy as I make it sound, this is really a fun, captivating thing.

Kickball - Everything is a Miracle Nothing is a Miracle Everything is (High Fives and Handshakes)

We saw this three-piece during the first night of What the Heck? Fest this year. They rocked the place and I can say with some certainty that they stole everyone's heart (all the hearts that didn't already belong to them). Very endearing ragged rock-pop that sort of reminds of Joan of Arc in its spare angularness and creaking, nervous, sometimes screaming male vocals. It's messy, not mathy. Many of the songs will have you singing along (or wanting to sing along) after one listen. "Fight" has a wonderfully insistent vocal refrain and great guitar hooks as well as clicky snappy drums. Album opener "Underground Husbands" pulls you in with a scruffily sad guitar part and harmonized whistling, and it just sighs and groans and rumbles with some sort of longing. "Pocketknife" opens up with quiet vocals that ascend into a threadbare howl. Then the drums come in and you're dancing. I wouldn't call this album "cute" but something about it is totally endearing and smile-inducing. Like a love letter written on a paper bag. Yes.
Black Mustang - Blackout (LOAF)

If all acid-disco sounded like this, the acid-disco world would be a much better acid-disco place. The mysterious Black Mustang did a remix for the mysterious Black Devil Disco Club. Now there's this mysterious 12". "Mad as Hell" is a collaboration with Luke Vibert's Kerrier District project, and bounces along steadily with an infectious, buzzy melody and hip-moving cowbells. Things get a little strange with echoey smears of sound, but it just adds more character to a song that already has a lot of 'tude. The Sleeparchive remix of "Mad as Hell" turns a track once ready for the club into a misty, throbbing drone piece that is definitely not ready to get anyone dancing. The two part "Blackout" suite follows, fully sending the dancefloor into outerspace with retro guitars and a hypnotically arpeggiating melody. Some really unique cuts that leave you wanting to know and hear more about this Black Mustang.

Bogdan Raczynski - Alright! (Rephlex)

Last we heard of Bogdan Raczynski, he was remixing Bjork (!), collecting his drum n' bass tracks under various pseudonyms, and singing songs about love and heartbreak with accordian and trumpet. That last bit, about the love songs, was 2001's Myloveilove. It's been a long time. All of a sudden, *pyow!* Bogdan bursts back onto the scene with an explosion of energy-drink fueled rave-tastic anthems. Nintendo melodies, acid blasts, hyperactive drum breaks, and general life-affirmation is what you'll find on these 8 selections. These songs don't quite have the same distinct personality and bite as found on earlier releases, but all of the melodies sound like they're coming from a Commodore64 that knows how to breakdance, which means you know it's a Bogdan Raczynski album. Join the raveolution, won't you?

Also perhaps overlooked:

• BARR - Summary (5RC)
• Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities - LUCAS (Ghostly)
• Japanther - Skuffed Up My Huffy (Tapes Records)
• Panther - Secret Lawns (Fryk Beat)
• Rhys Chatham - A Crimson Grail (Table of the Elements)
• Bark Bark Bark - Haunts (Retard Disco)

I'm too tired to do write ups for all this stuff. Just Google it all, will ya.

Top 5 EPs of the Year

#5
Christopher Willits - Plants and Hearts (Room40)

We have here a 21 and a half minute long guitar drone compisition on a cute lil' 3" CD. It follows the shoegazey atmospherics meets clicks/cuts/edits of last year's Surf Boundaries on Ghostly, and nestles itself among a consistent flow of collaborative works between Willits and other artists / composers (i.e. Taylor Deupree, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brad Laner). According to the label site, this piece involved Willits experimenting with:

"4hz isochronic pulses and panning at the same frequency, this work encourages the formation of 4hz brainwave patterns associated with states of meditation, deep relaxation, enhanced creativity, light sleep and lucid dreaming."

If this all sounds very sciencey to you, well, maybe it is, but it doesn't sound like it, and that's the important thing. This is a warm, inviting piece that pulses like an aurora Borealis and reminds a great deal of Keith Fullerton Whitman's phenomenal Playthroughs. Chords shift gently from one to the next, resonating in a very clean and whole way. It's as though each chord change corresponds to a slight physical ascension or descension. A really pleasant, calming, and unassuming work.

#4
Mount Eerie - Mount Eerie Pts. 6 & 7 (P.W. Elverum & Sun)

Now I'm talking just about the music here. The gorgeous book in which the gorgeous picture disc containing these songs is housed is great and shouldn't be ignored, but I'm talking 'bout the songs. This release follows the sometimes stark and bare-bones sonics of No Flashlight and returns to chest-thumping grandiosity of the Mount Eerie full-length (back when you could call Phil The Microphones). There are the distorted cymbal and drum crashes that you've come to know and love, the choral vocals, the guitar solos, the harmonium, the themes of self-doubt in the face of nature and the world at large. Everything that makes us like what Phil does. He's not breaking any new ground really, but he doesn't need to. No one else really has quite the same kind of musical vocabulary or maintains such a uncommon narrative universe. So why shouldn't he just continue expanding on his favorite ideas (even though the end of Mount Eerie supposedly involved death and universal revelation)? As long as he keeps improving and shifting his sound by degrees, the continued mining of the Mount Eerie vein should remain worthwhile.

#3
Batfinks - Towards the Pipet (LOAF)

I can't give you much of a backstory (read: any backstory) on the individual behind this release. I can tell you that he released a few EPs on the web label Hippocamp prior to this one, and that's really it. And that he's probably from the UK. Jazzy hollow-body guitar gets flung atop electro squiggles, amen breaks and distorted howls. Dusty, well aged synth arpeggios are paired with a bunny-hopping beat and equally bright hook. A ukulele or something comes up against what sounds like circuit-bent hardware and a children's rhyme picked out of the gutters in Candyland. And it all works! Seriously! There's a definite heavy flavor of post-Aphex Twin programming style here (not to mention a certain shared daffiness with Aphex's more oddball selections), but its contextualized in such a way that it sounds extremely fresh. The only problem is the near-criminal exclusion of the mini-epic "Stages," which is like the 2nd cousin of Max Tundra's classic "Children at Play." This song is on the same previously issued digital EP as 3 of the 4 songs on Towards the Pipet. But this is a pretty minor gripe, and quite the digression. Bottom line: a totally fun update of mid-90s era "IDM" (shudder...can you believe some people still refer to it as that?), well worth tracking down and a standout release among the LOAF label's ever-diversifying catalog.

#2
Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey (Kranky)

This EP followed hot on the heels of the album Cryptograms, and shares aspects of that album while refining them into a quartet of tracks that pack an efficient wallop. The title track ticks and seethes like a living time bomb before erupting into a cathartic swell of chugging guitars, expansive vocal moans and formidable, steady drums. "Dr. Glass," with some sort of asthmatic-sounding electric organ melody and "Like New," its layered vocals and guitars gentle yet propulsive, form the dreamy center of the release. "Wash Off" brings things to a clattering, bass-driven close, with chanting lyrics about eternal adolescence. The total result of these songs is a brief but powerful reflection on death, youth, aging, and the ways they connect. They stand strongly on their own terms as a fully realized collection, not just the afterthoughts / outtakes of a recording session.

#1
High Places - High Places EP (Ancient Almanac)

A gust of fresh spring air on a sunny day. An Alka-Seltzer for your earholes. A dancing cactus (with sunglasses). The music of High Places is / is like all of these things. Four songs are here and gone in a dazzling nine minutes. A guy (Robert) and a gal (Mary) based in Brooklyn conjure these songs from neo-tribal percussion elements, processed picked electric guitar, gulping electronics, and sweet but not too sweet female vocals about dinosaurs, a duck in a desert, silent clouds, and so on. Precious but intricate, deep enough to listen closely to but light enough to tap / shuffle your feets to, long enough to get a good feel for things but short enough to leave you wishing it was just a little longer. It will be a surefire lift to your day, nay, your very life. A full length is (apparently) in the offing, which is exciting, because this EP is super-promising. You can download a track from it as well as a few other songs at the band's page: myspace.com/hellohighplaces .

Special Mention: Non-Music Album

Patton Oswalt - Werewolves and Lollipops (Sub Pop)

Now I'm no comedy aficionado, and I know there were probably some other worthy comedy albums released this year (is that Michael Showalter album any good?), but as far as I can tell, this is some of the funniest stand up I've ever heard. Oswalt has a very relatable, down-to-earth style that makes his comedy approachable. It doesn't scream at you and wave its hands in your face. It relies on solid writing, keen observation, and great timing. The utter lack of gimmickry is what makes Oswalt's material so refreshing. The KFC Famous Bowl, a film called Deathbed: the bed that eats people, and a science class called "Physics for Poets" are among just a few of the subjects tackled. Patton is totally aware of his nerdiness, and he revels in it, which makes it easy for him to poke fun at himself, and should make it easier for geeks everywhere to laugh at their own goofy behavior. I could go on but really its something you need to listen to. I can almost guarantee it will turn any bad day around, and will make a good day that much better.

Bottom 10 Albums of the Year

So this is the beginning of my year end music blowout thing. Mostly lists, and a few observations and stuff. This will almost certainly be the longest post of this whole thingee, so bear with me.

These are in *no particular order*, unlike my top 10, which will be in order.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (self-released)

Now, I know XL Records is putting out a slightly different version of this album early next year, but I'm including their self-released cd-r version now because I want to. Fun, light, jangly pop that at times reminds of fellow New Yorkers The Walkmen. Sounds range from the slightly Afro-beat ("Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"), to a somewhat ska tone ("A-Punk"), and string accompaniments add a bit of drama to a number of the songs. It seems like a few people have called these guys out for sort of ripping off Talking Heads or for being young white kids who are trying to ape African bands who do the same sort of thing. These criticisms may be true, but good is good and fun is fun. And that's what this album is. Oh, and I would wager you will be hearing about them non-stop next year. P-fork and all. Just so you know.

Kim Hiorthøy - My Last Day (Smalltown Supersound)

After quite a while away from producing any music of his own, all the while keeping busy with design work (perhaps most notably for the Rune Grammofon label), Norseman Kim Hiorthøy released his first proper album since 2001's Hei. While this album doesn't quite have the sense of surprise that Hei did, or the unbridled over-the-topness of 2004's Live Shet, the collection here manages to find / create its own niche, and is as thoughtfully constructed and melodically pleasant as anything Hiorthøy has done in the past. The songs here are in turns aggressive and dance-ready ("Album," "I Thought We Could Eat Friends," "Alt Går Så Langsomt") to more subdued and pensive ("Beats Mistake," "Wind of Failure," "Goodbye to Song"). Unidentifiable field recordings and samples creep into many parts of the album, giving things a very warm and human touch. Like the favorite sweater you wore to a rave a few times. Or something.

Pantha du Prince - This Bliss (Dial)

For me I would say this is the best strictly-electronic / techno album of the year. Is this technically techno? I'm not sure. In any case, this is a genuinely beautiful album with a great sense of space. Gentle ringing tones / pads resonate against smart rhythm sections. Not quite minimal, but spare enough to give all the elements of each song room to breathe. Everything has a great sense of drama and little touches that just set things off (check out the mini-meltdown at the 3 and a half minute mark of "Moonstruck." Nice.) No one track is less than 6 minutes, but things always feel to be moving along (with the single of exception of "Urlichten," which drags itself to a slow death in its last 3 minutes). Aside from this misstep, This Bliss manages to stand out handsomely among the unending torrent of techno and minimal music released into the world week upon week. Like an updated collection of tracks from the Artificial Intelligence era of Warp Records, just humming with that same uniquely icy warmth / warm iciness.

Studio - Yearbook 1 (Information)

Probably the best example of "Balaeric pop" or "yacht pop" that appears to have come to prominence this year. Trebbly plucked electric guitar hooks, steadily repeating drum machine beats, retro sounding synths and plenty of dub / echo effects add up to a John Hughes movie soundtrack on psychedelics. Not in a fried, freaked-out guitar solo way. In a nearly 16 minute long song kind of way, a pleasantly zoning out swaying side-to-side kind of way. There are some shorter, more digestible and radio-friendly cuts as well ("No Comply," "Self Service," "Origin"). The tracks are danceable and ready for your more tasteful dancefloors, but also highly listenable, and ready for your chill out rooms and sunset beaches. The Swedes do it right yet again.

Tenniscoats - Totemo Aimasho (Room40)

I was only sort of vaguely aware of the existence of Japanese duo Tenniscoats (Saya and Takashi Ueno) prior to this year thanks to a few mentions on Jens Lekman's blog. It seemed like they were just a cute, slightly off-key pop folk act. This album steps far outside such boundaries into a great variety of musical territories. Influenced by their travels and many collaborators and nudged by Room40 label head Lawrence English, the Uneos craft songs that combine folk, pop, and electronic elements into something that is very much their own and, to my ears, doesn't have any other real sonic touchstone to be compared with. Saxes and horns are featured regularly, like on the dissonant and mournful "Cacoy." "Donna Donna" is one of the more traditionally folk styled songs, with a swaying beat and steady acoustic guitar. "Herei" comes across almost as a sound sculpture / field recording, and the gloriously mellow "Jitsurei" is the perfect lazily pitch-shifting accompaniment to an afternoon in the beaches and forests of the northwest (as I found through my own experience). It's tough to describe in words, but its well worth seeking out. Also, a shorter release this year from Tenniscoats, Tan-Tan Therapy (available on the Häpna label) retains a similar vibe to Totemo Aimasho, but I'm mainly mentioning it so I can post the lovely artwork. See:

!!! - Myth Takes (Warp)

Party-starters / rable-rousers of the year !!! bring the durrrty dance grooves on their 3rd LP, their first for Warp records and a big step up from the disappointing 2004 release of Louden Up Now. Following the split of Out Hud (to which a few members of !!! belonged), it seems that the ensemble has absorbed a number of electronic / house-y-ish elements, all for the better it seems. The sprawling "Bend Over Beethoven" climbs to a guitar-reverb and drum-pulse soaked climax not entirely dissimilar from the fondly remembered 'Hud. The title track also shows the band in slightly different but very fitting form, sounding like a meatier version of Tussle. There's plenty of !!!'s signature funk-stomp here; "All My Heroes Are Weirdos" and "Heart of Hearts" stand out as anthemic crowd-movers. The right kind of album to lose your brain to. And get your shoes all dirty while dancing among alcohol-fueled masses.

Battles - Mirrored (Warp)

Now I'm not totally crazy for this band like some folks seem to be, but there's no denying how accomplished and technically impressive Mirrored is. After ramping things up at a snails pace by releasing a couple EPs in 2004 and staying rather mum until now, this record is, if somewhat engorged, pretty mesmerizing. You have to give it up to a band that can stay as tight as the snare John Stanier is wailing on during songs like "Ddiamondd." And even though things might get overly precise and mathy (the splash of coins on the song previously mentioned sounds carefully planned and executed), the rhythms punch hard and the tunes will burrow into your head. This is great stuff, even if it lacks a bit of an emotional core. For all the backtalk I'm giving this album, I really do like it. Honestly. "Atlas" is one of the best songs of the year. I mean it.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal (Notenuf)

This is a great shoegaze-revival style record that is faithful to / owes its existence to its sources (your Slowdives, your Rides, your MBVs, etc) while creating a personality all its own. Full, woozy, watery textures and eternally cooing female vocals dominate the compositions, while drum machines and banging snare try to hold the smear together. Whats so engaging about this album and at the same time somewhat frustrating is that there are all these songs just overflowing with ideas and tunes and it's all really good but often things don't get a chance to develop and breathe into something fully realized. The closing trio of tracks, "Watery (Drowning is just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water)," "Things Only I Can See," and "The Best Summer Ever" give a maddeningly fleeting glimpse into what happens when this group gives their ideas enough room to stretch their legs. A gorgeous swirl of sound, an astonishingly strong debut that only bodes well for the band.

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (Fat Cat)

This four-piece band appears to be picking up right where fellow Glasgow natives Mogwai left off before they lost their balls and their direction. There's perhaps a bit more pop than rock in what The Twilight Sad are doing, but when they come down they come down hard, with a refreshing and unpretentious intensity. So the vocals might come across as a bit emo, I will concede this point, but big deal, who cares? Lead singer James Graham's thick Scottish accent, thick enough to call it a drawl, is perfect paired with wailing guitars and thunderous drums. An additional concession: the album gets a bit samey when listened to straight through. Fair enough. But each track, on its own, is very well done and very listenable. Hostile and bitter in the best, most satisfyingly grey and rain-drenched and Scottish way possible.

Von Südenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino)

Another one that's a bit tough to pin down. The guys from Mouse on Mars had Mark E. Smith of the fall do vocals on one of their songs a few years back. This is a whole album's worth of that. It's as impossible and improbable as it sounds (or something). Smith's unmistakable vocal delivery functions in an eerily effective way with Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner's production work. While I can't say how Smith's contributions stack up to recent releases with The Fall, as I'm not a big fan, I think it's safe to say this is some of the best music Toma and Werner have worked on in some time. The skittering bounce of songs like "Family Feud" and "That Sound Wiped" (a reprise of the track that generated this whole ordeal) blend with Smith's sung-spoke vocals seamlessly. It's like Mouse on Mars should have always sounded this way. "Flooded" approaches / reaches dancefloor accessibility with a bunch of grimey low-end thumps and honks as Smith intones about literally flooding a club. Literally. It's a baffling, giddy, and decidedly singular release. One can only imagine what further collaborations will result in.

I apologize for the endless stream of contradictory and non-sensical descriptions. I'm reaching for more concrete and less impressionistic writing but I still can't break free.

I actually have to work tomorrow.

Anyway, more to come in the days ahead.

also: coming this weekend: the beginning of my year-end music list / music related stuff. be thrilled.