100)Feist - Metals (Polydor)
99)Cornershop - And The Double-O Groove Of (Ample Play)
98)Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou (World Circuit)
97)The Field - Looping State of Mind (Kompakt)
96)Tyshawn Sorey - Oblique 1 (Pi)
95)Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Wichita)
94)Kuedo - Severant (Planet Mu)
93)SBTRKT - SBTRKT (Young Turks)
92)Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth (Wichita)
91)CANT - Dreams Come True (Warp)
90)Africa Hitech - 93 Million MIles (Warp)
89)Cass McCombs - Wit’s End/Humor Risk (Domino)
88) Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica/Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure (Software)
87)A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Erased Tapes)
86)John Escreet - Exception To The Rule (Criss Cross)
85)Battles - Gloss Drop (Warp)
84)Roly Porter - Aftertime (Subtext)
83)Ambrose Akinmusire - When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
82)Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Vol.1 (Southern Lord)
81)Phil Robson - The Immeasurable Code (Whirlwind Recordings)
80)Andy Stott - Passed Me By/We Stay Together (Modern Love)
79)Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
78)Sidi Toure - Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
77)Six Organs Of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain (Drag City)
76)Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel)
75)Deerhoof - Deerhoof Vs. Evil (ATP)
74)Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
73)Kairos 4tet - Statement Of Intent (Edition)
72)Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
71)Outhouse & Hilmar Jenssen - Straw, Sticks & Bricks (Babel)
70)Rustie - Glass Swords (Warp)
69)Clams Casino - Instrumentals (Type)
68)Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (Domino)
67)Moritz Von Oswald - Horizontal Structures (Honest Jon’s)
66)Hiss Golden Messenger - Poor Moon/From Country Hai East Cotton (Black Maps/Paradise of Bachelors)
65)Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
64)Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
63)The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (Rough Trade)
62)St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
61)Mara Carlyle - Floreat (Ancient and Modern)
60)Julia Holter - Tragedy (Leaving Records)
59)Avishai Cohen - Seven Seas (Blue Note)
58)Machinedrum - Room(s) (Planet Mu)
57)Vijay Iyer with Prasanna & Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (ACT)
56)Destroyer - Kaputt (Dead Oceans)
55)Keith Jarrett - Rio (ECM)
54)Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (Drag City)
53)Micachu & The Shapes with London Sinfonietta - Chopped & Screwed (Rough Trade)
52)Dean McPhee - Son of the Black Peace (Blast First Petite)
51)Nils Frahm - Felt (Erased Tapes)/Nils Frahm and Anne Muller - 7fingers (Erased Tapes)
50)Sully - Carrier (Keysound)
49)Bill Frisell and 858 Quartet - Sign of Life (SLG)
48)Bon Iver - Bon Iver (4AD)
47)Khyam Allami - Resonance/Dissonance (Nawa Recordings)
46)Kit Downes Trio - Quiet Tiger (Basho)
45)The Weather Station - All Of It Was Mine (You’ve Changed)
44)Aquarium - Aquarium (Babel)
43)Joe Lovano - Bird Songs (Blue Note)
42)Dalglish - Benacah Drann Deachd (Highpoint Lowlife)
41)John Taylor - Requiem For A Dreamer (CamJazz)
40)Phaedra - The Sea (Rune Grammofon)
39)PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Universal)
38)The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies (Ghost Box)
37)Tom Waits - Bad As Me (Anti-)
36)Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die (Blood and Biscuits)
35)Kate Bush - Director’s Cut / 50 Words For Snow (Fish People/EMI)
34)Becca Stevens Band - Weightless (Sunnyside)
33)King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine (Domino)
32)Low - C’Mon (Rough Trade)
31)Thundercat - The Golden Age Of Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
30)Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD)
29){Ma} - The Last (Loop)
28)Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
27)Bjork - Biophilia (One Little Indian)
26)Mark Hanslip & Javier Carmona - DosadoS (Babel)
25)Kathryn Calder - Bright & Vivid (File Under Music)
24)Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
23) Hallock Hill - The Union/There He Unforeseen (Hallock Hill)
22)James Blake - James Blake (A&M)
21)Colin Stetson - New History Of Warfare Vol. 2 (Constellation)
20)Bill Orcutt - How The Thing Sings (Editions Mego)
19)Brad Mehldau - Live In Marciac (Nonesuch)
18)Tinariwen - Tassili (V2)
17)Pinch & Shackleton - Pinch & Shackleton (Honest Jon’s)
16)Matthew Herbert - One Pig (Accidental)
15)Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One (Constellation)
14)Grouper - AIA: Alien Observer / AIA: Dream Loss (Yellowelectric)
13)Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau (ACT)/The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen (Basho)
12)Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - We’re New Here (XL)
11)Charles Lloyd Quartet/Maria Fantouri - Athens Concert (ECM)
10)Zomby - Dedication (4AD)
9)tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
8)Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch (Thrill Jockey)
7)Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
6)Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion (Edition)
5)Julian Siegel Quartet - Urban Theme Park (Basho)
4)Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (ECM)
3)Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 / Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
2)Radiohead - The King of Limbs (XL)
1)Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)
Showing posts with label Listmaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Listmaking. Show all posts
Sunday, December 25, 2011
The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 5: 20-1
20) Bill Orcutt - How The Thing Sings (Editions Mego)
Bill Orcutt is that rare breed of artists who can actually break established boundaries on his chosen instrument and seem as if he is approaching it from a new angle entirely. All conventional techniques are abandoned. In their place comes a visceral, almost violent approach, yet at the same time an ability to draw out resonance and emotion as well as tension. The centrepiece of How the Thing Sings is the triumphant, visionary A Line From Ol Man River, one of the most shocking and remarkable recordings of the year.
19) Brad Mehldau - Live In Marciac (Nonesuch)
Recorded in 2006 but only now seeing the light of day, this extraordinary live package was one of the year’s most essential investments, consisting of 2CDs and a DVD. It captures Mehldau in a solo setting, at his most expressive and musical, improvising with extraordinary harmonic and melodic skill and a world away from the neutered Highway Rider. Every quality that has lead to Mehldau being hailed among the greats is here in abundance - his refined touch, his extraordinary separation and integration of parts, the long, fluent lines and his openness to a range of source material.
18) Tinariwen - Tassili (V2)
Opinion seems to have been divided as to whether Tinariwen’s move into a more acoustic sound world compromised their distinctive musical quality. Certainly, one of the most appealing aspect of the Malian group’s approach has been their dogged consistency of tone and attack - a bubble that Tassili defiantly pierces. It’s a bold move - but this album retains the group’s sense of hard won experience whilst expanding their lexicon. For me, it’s something of a triumph.
17) Pinch & Shackleton - Pinch & Shackleton (Honest Jon’s)
Shackleton seems to be building a career on releasing fantastic albums that little bit too late to be considered for most end of year lists. Is this a noble abrogation of the media PR circus? Or is it simply his obvious desire to release as much of his work as possible? Either way, this collaboration with Pinch is dependably brilliant - sometimes dark and oppressive, sometimes sinister, always masterfully controlled. It is a coherent whole rather than a collection of mini-masterworks.
16) Matthew Herbert - One Pig (Accidental)
By some distance the year’s most controversial album, One Pig had already enraged PETA and other animal rights supporters many months before its release. Whilst the idea of recording the life cycle of a pig farmed for meat and making musical instruments from its remains may seem like anathema to some, I found One Pig to be a thought provoking and intelligent statement from a consistently radical and committed political artist. Herbert’s intentions were less to shock and more to once again draw attention to industrial food processes (see his previous masterpiece Plat Du Jour, a particular favourite for this blog) and, most importantly, the sheer level of waste involved in animal rearing. The music itself was tough, abrasive and - at least until the daring irony at the end - entirely unsentimental. One Pig was another imaginative triumph of modern electronica and sampling techniques.
15) Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One (Constellation)
Chicago/New York saxophonist Matana Roberts appears to be the sort of constantly restless musician ideally suited to the field of improvisation. So far, she has yet to establish a regular stable ensemble, instead recording with various groups depending on her musical intentions and location. Coin Coin Chapter One, apparently the first part of a hugely ambitious project in twelve parts that aims to document her ancestral heritage back to the 1700s, was recorded live in the studio in front of an invited audience. It utilises a huge fifteen piece ensemble from Montreal. It has the urgency, passion, excitement and danger of a live recording. Much of it sounds highly liberated. But it also has plenty of compositional flair, clarity and organisation too, much of it dealing with the difficult subject of slavery. The use of the human voice is frequently masterful.
14) Grouper - AIA: Alien Observer / AIA: Dream Loss (Yellowelectric)
Whilst this eerie, beautiful double album doesn’t exactly tear up Liz Harris’ by now established sound, it does suggest that her work is becoming increasingly refined. Some reviewers have suggested that ghostly memories of composers past can be heard buried within these soundscapes (Satie, Messaien). I’m not sure I could pick out any possible samples, but I can be sure that A I A is a tremendous achievement - a consistently enthralling suite of sound.
13) Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau (ACT)
The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen (Basho)
Simcock, among the UK’s most virtuosic pianists, has long been a big name in jazz - but 2011 was the year in which he boldly stated his claim to artistic greatness. Whilst the young jazz scene in London is buzzing, it’s hard to see whether there is anyone among the legions of gifted, creative players who might join the ranks of legends or bring jazz to a wider audience. Simcock may now be that musician. On his last album, he was caught a little between his uninhibited improvising and his love for the formalism and rigour of classical composition. Good Days At Schloss Elmau, his first solo piano album, seems to integrate all his musical concerns brilliantly. At last, there’s an energy to his playing here - and a percussive quality that sometimes makes him sound, alone, like a complete ensemble. There’s also an abundant lyricism and an emotional richness to the material here.
Simcock also appeared on the debut album from The Impossible Gentlemen, a transatlantic jazz supergroup that could hardly fail to dazzle. Really, though, this album is all about Mike Walker - a superb guitar player with an incisive sound and a sophisticated composer sadly all too little known at home in the UK. He finds melody in every sequence here, playing with an authority that is genuine and devoid of ego.
12) Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - We’re New Here (XL)
For some, remix albums are ineligible for these kind of lists, and it’s easy to see the argument for this. But Jamie XX’s take on Gil Scott-Heron’s final recorded work felt like a valedictory statement, and a fitting epitaph for a musical legend. Even though the two artists did not meet and communicated by post, We’re New Here still feels like a considered and complementary meeting of minds. Isolated from its original context, and contrasted with earlier recordings (including snippets from the classic Home Is Where The Hatred Is), Scott-Heron’s worn-down latterday voice acquired an even greater authority and lived-in power. Jamie XX’s music - minimal but inspired - pushed him to new artistic levels and showed that his solo career may well prove more fruitful than that of his parent band.
11) Charles Lloyd Quartet/Maria Fantouri - Athens Concert (ECM)
Along with Wayne Shorter’s Quartet, Charles Lloyd’s current ensemble are among the most stable and ceaselessly exciting in contemporary American jazz. Their concerts are completely unmatched for sustained spiritual intensity. This pairing with Greek singer Maria Fantouri is an unexpected setting for Lloyd’s rich and lyrical sound, but it works superbly, with both sides of the collaboration bringing passion, conviction and emotional depth. Lloyd’s latterday catalogue is substantial and inspiring.
10) Zomby - Dedication (4AD)
One of those strangely divisive 2011 albums, Dedication proved challenging not least because it saw Zomby branching far away from the musical approach and character that made his, erm, name - but also because of the necessarily disparate and fragmented nature of the album’s structure. Dealing as it was with issues of grief, loss and memory, this seemed an intelligent and reasonable approach to take, even if it made the experience for the listener unpredictable and strange (quite why this should be a bad thing is something of a mystery). Dedication was haunting, immersive and, perhaps most importantly of all, artistically courageous.
9) tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
Merrill Garbus is so relentless inventive that her manic, exciting music can leave you breathless. w h o k i l l represents a substantial step forward, with studio production techniques making for a big improvement in sound quality. There’s also a feeling that these performances have been well orchestrated and arranged. Yet there’s still a certain roughness around the edges - a looseness and perhaps even improvisatory approach to songwriting that makes it all so unpredictable and wild. Certainly, few artists in the alternative pop field have made so much gold from rhythm and phrasing. She sounds entirely like herself - with little in the way of obvious reference points.
8) Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch (Thrill Jockey)
By far Tucker’s most successful fusion of electronic noise and arcane musicology yet - Dorwytch is a triumphant and innovative record - weird and wonderful at every turn. It’s also a world away from his sometimes stoically combative live shows. This sounds like a real narrative, incorporating drones, songs and some delicate passages of improvisation. What emerges is a fearlessly modern form of chamber folk.
7) Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
This exquisite merging of musical history and modern technology really deserved more attention. Barwick loops her own vocals to create an ecstatic one woman choir - and the results are somewhere between early music and contemporary performance. Certainly, a return to the music of the distant past makes for far more stimulating retrogression than so much of the regurgitation of recent cultural history discussed in Simon Reynolds’ excellent Retromania book. There is a purity and beauty in Barwick’s voice that makes her wordless reveries all the more haunting.
6) Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion (Edition)
Golden Xplosion was undoubtedly the year’s most virtuosic jazz album but it also stood out as uniquely thrilling and involving. The title is apt, given that much of this album sounds like a fireball of bright colours. There is a genuine restlessness at work here, not just in Neset’s tricksy, rhythmically challenging compositions but also in the individual contributions from all the musicians, not least the extraordinary drummer Anton Eger. Barely a bar goes by in which he is not putting in all his musical energy and resources in service of the impact of the ensemble. Neset’s brilliant mentor Django Bates is a characteristically mirthful presence, but is very much in a supportive role here. Whilst Neset is an outrageously gifted and articulate musician, he also finds space for some disarming lyricism and quiet reflection.
5) Julian Siegel Quartet - Urban Theme Park (Basho)
Julian Siegel is one of the great artists in British jazz and ought to be recognised as such. His work with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron is significant enough but, for Urban Theme Park, he formed what can only be described as a fantasy jazz ensemble. With Liam Noble on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Gene Calderazzo on drums, Siegel armed himself with a rhythm section that is at once supportive, propulsive and creative. His compositions are deft and subtle, always seeming slightly elusive and mysterious. Yet there is also a vibrance and spirited interaction at work here that makes this a theme park of thrills and delights, which is exactly as it should be.
4) Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (ECM)
With Gwilym Simcock’s brilliant Mercury nominated Good Days At Schloss Elmau, Brad Mehldau’s stunning Live In Marciac, Keith Jarrett’s Rio and this, the solo piano marketplace has been crowded with excellence in 2011. Taborn is a world away from Simcock’s hybrid of classical lyricism, gospel energy and jazz harmony however. He is inventing a language for the piano that seems bold and innovative. Whilst his technique is near-flawless and his flow of ideas often intuitive, Taborn is more interested here in a controlled minimalism. Every note is carefully considered and the result is a sparing, unconventional creation.
3) Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 / Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
There are few artists in the field of noise soundscaping more consistently compelling and haunting than Tim Hecker. Where sometimes this musical space can seem cold and forebidding - Hecker imbues it with a sense of longing and curiosity. Whilst the titles of the pieces hint at paranoia and anxiety - the music, particularly in its use of organ, also hints at something more mournful and a sense of faded grandeur. The additional material collected on Dropped Pianos is harsher and more unforgiving.
2) Radiohead - The King of Limbs (XL)
It seems utterly bizarre to have to refer to a Radiohead album as one of the most underrated releases of the year, but this has been the strange fate meted out to The King of Limbs. It is apparently one of the group’s more divisive recordings and can mostly be found languishing near the lower end of top 50 lists. Some found the transparent variation in style and mood between the album’s two halves difficult. In light of the special edition’s two 10” vinyl discs it would appear the track sequencing was entirely deliberate. To my ears, KoL marked a continuation and further development from In Rainbows, an even more seamless and successful fusion of a now super-relaxed, confident and impressive working band and their preoccupations with electronica and modern composition. Seeing the band live in 2012 with Clive Deamer joining as an additional drummer will surely be essential. Perhaps most impressive is how unshowy an album this is - unlike, say, OK Computer - it is completely unconcerned with being seen as important or epochal, and much more concerned with relaxed, consummate musicality. Together with the two additional singles that followed the album release, this represents Radiohead’s best music.
1) Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)
Good things come to those who wait. After eight years in the wilderness, Gillian Welch and her partner David Rawlings returned with a near flawless album. Returning to the stripped down bare essentials that characterised their previous masterpiece Time (The Revelator), The Harrow & The Harvest proved a wonderful companion piece to that album, similarly intoxicating and so fluent in the language of traditional American songwriting that any questions of authenticity are simply meaningless. The balance of their harmonies, kept in serene proportion throughout (although in fact more sparingly used here - everything extraneous is jettisoned), the splendour of Welch’s telling lyrics, the sweet elegance of the melodies - everything just sounds so effortless, but behind it is the work of two musicians who have studied their craft with honesty, conviction and determination.
Bill Orcutt is that rare breed of artists who can actually break established boundaries on his chosen instrument and seem as if he is approaching it from a new angle entirely. All conventional techniques are abandoned. In their place comes a visceral, almost violent approach, yet at the same time an ability to draw out resonance and emotion as well as tension. The centrepiece of How the Thing Sings is the triumphant, visionary A Line From Ol Man River, one of the most shocking and remarkable recordings of the year.
19) Brad Mehldau - Live In Marciac (Nonesuch)
Recorded in 2006 but only now seeing the light of day, this extraordinary live package was one of the year’s most essential investments, consisting of 2CDs and a DVD. It captures Mehldau in a solo setting, at his most expressive and musical, improvising with extraordinary harmonic and melodic skill and a world away from the neutered Highway Rider. Every quality that has lead to Mehldau being hailed among the greats is here in abundance - his refined touch, his extraordinary separation and integration of parts, the long, fluent lines and his openness to a range of source material.
18) Tinariwen - Tassili (V2)
Opinion seems to have been divided as to whether Tinariwen’s move into a more acoustic sound world compromised their distinctive musical quality. Certainly, one of the most appealing aspect of the Malian group’s approach has been their dogged consistency of tone and attack - a bubble that Tassili defiantly pierces. It’s a bold move - but this album retains the group’s sense of hard won experience whilst expanding their lexicon. For me, it’s something of a triumph.
17) Pinch & Shackleton - Pinch & Shackleton (Honest Jon’s)
Shackleton seems to be building a career on releasing fantastic albums that little bit too late to be considered for most end of year lists. Is this a noble abrogation of the media PR circus? Or is it simply his obvious desire to release as much of his work as possible? Either way, this collaboration with Pinch is dependably brilliant - sometimes dark and oppressive, sometimes sinister, always masterfully controlled. It is a coherent whole rather than a collection of mini-masterworks.
16) Matthew Herbert - One Pig (Accidental)
By some distance the year’s most controversial album, One Pig had already enraged PETA and other animal rights supporters many months before its release. Whilst the idea of recording the life cycle of a pig farmed for meat and making musical instruments from its remains may seem like anathema to some, I found One Pig to be a thought provoking and intelligent statement from a consistently radical and committed political artist. Herbert’s intentions were less to shock and more to once again draw attention to industrial food processes (see his previous masterpiece Plat Du Jour, a particular favourite for this blog) and, most importantly, the sheer level of waste involved in animal rearing. The music itself was tough, abrasive and - at least until the daring irony at the end - entirely unsentimental. One Pig was another imaginative triumph of modern electronica and sampling techniques.
15) Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One (Constellation)
Chicago/New York saxophonist Matana Roberts appears to be the sort of constantly restless musician ideally suited to the field of improvisation. So far, she has yet to establish a regular stable ensemble, instead recording with various groups depending on her musical intentions and location. Coin Coin Chapter One, apparently the first part of a hugely ambitious project in twelve parts that aims to document her ancestral heritage back to the 1700s, was recorded live in the studio in front of an invited audience. It utilises a huge fifteen piece ensemble from Montreal. It has the urgency, passion, excitement and danger of a live recording. Much of it sounds highly liberated. But it also has plenty of compositional flair, clarity and organisation too, much of it dealing with the difficult subject of slavery. The use of the human voice is frequently masterful.
14) Grouper - AIA: Alien Observer / AIA: Dream Loss (Yellowelectric)
Whilst this eerie, beautiful double album doesn’t exactly tear up Liz Harris’ by now established sound, it does suggest that her work is becoming increasingly refined. Some reviewers have suggested that ghostly memories of composers past can be heard buried within these soundscapes (Satie, Messaien). I’m not sure I could pick out any possible samples, but I can be sure that A I A is a tremendous achievement - a consistently enthralling suite of sound.
13) Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau (ACT)
The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen (Basho)
Simcock, among the UK’s most virtuosic pianists, has long been a big name in jazz - but 2011 was the year in which he boldly stated his claim to artistic greatness. Whilst the young jazz scene in London is buzzing, it’s hard to see whether there is anyone among the legions of gifted, creative players who might join the ranks of legends or bring jazz to a wider audience. Simcock may now be that musician. On his last album, he was caught a little between his uninhibited improvising and his love for the formalism and rigour of classical composition. Good Days At Schloss Elmau, his first solo piano album, seems to integrate all his musical concerns brilliantly. At last, there’s an energy to his playing here - and a percussive quality that sometimes makes him sound, alone, like a complete ensemble. There’s also an abundant lyricism and an emotional richness to the material here.
Simcock also appeared on the debut album from The Impossible Gentlemen, a transatlantic jazz supergroup that could hardly fail to dazzle. Really, though, this album is all about Mike Walker - a superb guitar player with an incisive sound and a sophisticated composer sadly all too little known at home in the UK. He finds melody in every sequence here, playing with an authority that is genuine and devoid of ego.
12) Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - We’re New Here (XL)
For some, remix albums are ineligible for these kind of lists, and it’s easy to see the argument for this. But Jamie XX’s take on Gil Scott-Heron’s final recorded work felt like a valedictory statement, and a fitting epitaph for a musical legend. Even though the two artists did not meet and communicated by post, We’re New Here still feels like a considered and complementary meeting of minds. Isolated from its original context, and contrasted with earlier recordings (including snippets from the classic Home Is Where The Hatred Is), Scott-Heron’s worn-down latterday voice acquired an even greater authority and lived-in power. Jamie XX’s music - minimal but inspired - pushed him to new artistic levels and showed that his solo career may well prove more fruitful than that of his parent band.
11) Charles Lloyd Quartet/Maria Fantouri - Athens Concert (ECM)
Along with Wayne Shorter’s Quartet, Charles Lloyd’s current ensemble are among the most stable and ceaselessly exciting in contemporary American jazz. Their concerts are completely unmatched for sustained spiritual intensity. This pairing with Greek singer Maria Fantouri is an unexpected setting for Lloyd’s rich and lyrical sound, but it works superbly, with both sides of the collaboration bringing passion, conviction and emotional depth. Lloyd’s latterday catalogue is substantial and inspiring.
10) Zomby - Dedication (4AD)
One of those strangely divisive 2011 albums, Dedication proved challenging not least because it saw Zomby branching far away from the musical approach and character that made his, erm, name - but also because of the necessarily disparate and fragmented nature of the album’s structure. Dealing as it was with issues of grief, loss and memory, this seemed an intelligent and reasonable approach to take, even if it made the experience for the listener unpredictable and strange (quite why this should be a bad thing is something of a mystery). Dedication was haunting, immersive and, perhaps most importantly of all, artistically courageous.
9) tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
Merrill Garbus is so relentless inventive that her manic, exciting music can leave you breathless. w h o k i l l represents a substantial step forward, with studio production techniques making for a big improvement in sound quality. There’s also a feeling that these performances have been well orchestrated and arranged. Yet there’s still a certain roughness around the edges - a looseness and perhaps even improvisatory approach to songwriting that makes it all so unpredictable and wild. Certainly, few artists in the alternative pop field have made so much gold from rhythm and phrasing. She sounds entirely like herself - with little in the way of obvious reference points.
8) Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch (Thrill Jockey)
By far Tucker’s most successful fusion of electronic noise and arcane musicology yet - Dorwytch is a triumphant and innovative record - weird and wonderful at every turn. It’s also a world away from his sometimes stoically combative live shows. This sounds like a real narrative, incorporating drones, songs and some delicate passages of improvisation. What emerges is a fearlessly modern form of chamber folk.
7) Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
This exquisite merging of musical history and modern technology really deserved more attention. Barwick loops her own vocals to create an ecstatic one woman choir - and the results are somewhere between early music and contemporary performance. Certainly, a return to the music of the distant past makes for far more stimulating retrogression than so much of the regurgitation of recent cultural history discussed in Simon Reynolds’ excellent Retromania book. There is a purity and beauty in Barwick’s voice that makes her wordless reveries all the more haunting.
6) Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion (Edition)
Golden Xplosion was undoubtedly the year’s most virtuosic jazz album but it also stood out as uniquely thrilling and involving. The title is apt, given that much of this album sounds like a fireball of bright colours. There is a genuine restlessness at work here, not just in Neset’s tricksy, rhythmically challenging compositions but also in the individual contributions from all the musicians, not least the extraordinary drummer Anton Eger. Barely a bar goes by in which he is not putting in all his musical energy and resources in service of the impact of the ensemble. Neset’s brilliant mentor Django Bates is a characteristically mirthful presence, but is very much in a supportive role here. Whilst Neset is an outrageously gifted and articulate musician, he also finds space for some disarming lyricism and quiet reflection.
5) Julian Siegel Quartet - Urban Theme Park (Basho)
Julian Siegel is one of the great artists in British jazz and ought to be recognised as such. His work with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron is significant enough but, for Urban Theme Park, he formed what can only be described as a fantasy jazz ensemble. With Liam Noble on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Gene Calderazzo on drums, Siegel armed himself with a rhythm section that is at once supportive, propulsive and creative. His compositions are deft and subtle, always seeming slightly elusive and mysterious. Yet there is also a vibrance and spirited interaction at work here that makes this a theme park of thrills and delights, which is exactly as it should be.
4) Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (ECM)
With Gwilym Simcock’s brilliant Mercury nominated Good Days At Schloss Elmau, Brad Mehldau’s stunning Live In Marciac, Keith Jarrett’s Rio and this, the solo piano marketplace has been crowded with excellence in 2011. Taborn is a world away from Simcock’s hybrid of classical lyricism, gospel energy and jazz harmony however. He is inventing a language for the piano that seems bold and innovative. Whilst his technique is near-flawless and his flow of ideas often intuitive, Taborn is more interested here in a controlled minimalism. Every note is carefully considered and the result is a sparing, unconventional creation.
3) Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 / Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
There are few artists in the field of noise soundscaping more consistently compelling and haunting than Tim Hecker. Where sometimes this musical space can seem cold and forebidding - Hecker imbues it with a sense of longing and curiosity. Whilst the titles of the pieces hint at paranoia and anxiety - the music, particularly in its use of organ, also hints at something more mournful and a sense of faded grandeur. The additional material collected on Dropped Pianos is harsher and more unforgiving.
2) Radiohead - The King of Limbs (XL)
It seems utterly bizarre to have to refer to a Radiohead album as one of the most underrated releases of the year, but this has been the strange fate meted out to The King of Limbs. It is apparently one of the group’s more divisive recordings and can mostly be found languishing near the lower end of top 50 lists. Some found the transparent variation in style and mood between the album’s two halves difficult. In light of the special edition’s two 10” vinyl discs it would appear the track sequencing was entirely deliberate. To my ears, KoL marked a continuation and further development from In Rainbows, an even more seamless and successful fusion of a now super-relaxed, confident and impressive working band and their preoccupations with electronica and modern composition. Seeing the band live in 2012 with Clive Deamer joining as an additional drummer will surely be essential. Perhaps most impressive is how unshowy an album this is - unlike, say, OK Computer - it is completely unconcerned with being seen as important or epochal, and much more concerned with relaxed, consummate musicality. Together with the two additional singles that followed the album release, this represents Radiohead’s best music.
1) Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)
Good things come to those who wait. After eight years in the wilderness, Gillian Welch and her partner David Rawlings returned with a near flawless album. Returning to the stripped down bare essentials that characterised their previous masterpiece Time (The Revelator), The Harrow & The Harvest proved a wonderful companion piece to that album, similarly intoxicating and so fluent in the language of traditional American songwriting that any questions of authenticity are simply meaningless. The balance of their harmonies, kept in serene proportion throughout (although in fact more sparingly used here - everything extraneous is jettisoned), the splendour of Welch’s telling lyrics, the sweet elegance of the melodies - everything just sounds so effortless, but behind it is the work of two musicians who have studied their craft with honesty, conviction and determination.
The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 4: 40-21
40) Phaedra - The Sea (Rune Grammofon)
What an utterly beguiling album this is - at once icy and warm - and perhaps one of the most charming albums in recent years to be so thoroughly preoccupied with death and decay. It’s a beautiful, intensely focused work with a calm but magical presence. Ingvild Langgard already feels like a contemporary folk auteur. Sadly, it appears to have passed by unnoticed in much of the mainstream UK music press.
39) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Universal)
It would be easy to be distracted by the ubiquity of Polly Harvey’s dependably beguiling musings on war and empire. There was a crushing inevitability about her becoming the first artist to win the Mercury prize - as if going against the collective wisdom on this occasion would have been tantamount to sacrilege. Still, Let England Shake is a confident, and coherent album - a work of mature, direct and poetic artistry that somehow manages to be accessible and uncompromising in equal measure. What is perhaps more impressive is that it seemed to be a point of consensus in what is now a very disparate, fragmented and over-saturated music marketplace.
38) The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies (Ghost Box)
It’s tempting to be a little sceptical about the retrofuturist vision of the Ghost Box label - this new album from Jon Brooks’ Advisory Circle uses seventies and eighties government advice advertisements (from the now defunct Central Office of Information) for its main source material. ‘We make the decisions so you don’t have to’, as the introduction proudly (and somewhat threateningly) proclaims. There are hints of underlying sinister currents (Village of the Damned meets The Midwich Cuckoos, with a touch of Boards of Canada) and the swathes of old school synthesisers brilliantly capture a blend of menace and awe.
37) Tom Waits - Bad As Me (Anti-)
There has long been a sense that Tom Waits has journeyed so far across contemporary music’s wide terrain that there is little truly new ground left for him to cover. Bad As Me somewhat confirms this impression, feeling a little like a career summary in new songs. Still, it’s a typically thrilling, scattershot and engaging trip, made all the more appealing by virtue of being one of Waits’ more concise albums. Most wonderful of all about all this is Waits’ voice, which has never been more versatile or theatrical.
36) Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die (Blood and Biscuits)
Bands of this level of invention and quality in the UK are all too rare in the UK, and often it seems like critics are unprepared to take the risk in investing time and energy in their progress. After a series of mind-blowing EPs, Three Trapped Tigers finally brought their slanted take on heavy post-rock to the full album format. If anything, the intensity seemed to have been amplified even further, to the extent that it’s often hard to believe just how attacking and visceral this music is. At times perhaps a little clinical, but always virtuosic and near-perfect in execution, TTT remain one of the country’s most exciting bands.
35) Kate Bush - Director’s Cut / 50 Words For Snow (Fish People/EMI)
Kate Bush albums, it would appear, are like buses. You wait several years, and then two come along at once. Director’s Cut was almost dismissed by a pop media for whom reworking older material appears to be anathema. It’s hard to understand this attitude, which appears in sharp contradiction to that same media’s obsession with constantly reaffirming the rock and pop canon. In almost any other art form, developing existing works is seen as an essential part of the artistic process. Director’s Cut is not consistently successful - and there are points at which one might prefer the original takes - but it is a challenging, ambitious set. At its best, it offers radical and satisfying reversions (Deeper Understanding, This Woman’s Work). Both Director’s Cut and the patient, graceful 50 Words For Snow are enhanced by the colourful, textural drumming of session legend Steve Gadd. He adds a lightly jazzy tinge that heightens the expressive qualities of the music. On 50 Words For Snow, Bush’s compositions are minimal but elongated - they take as long as required to deliver her typically eccentric, poetic narratives.
34) Becca Stevens Band - Weightless
Stevens is a singer-songwriter from New York deserving of much wider attention. She operates in that hinterland between jazz, folk and Americana beloved of Norah Jones, but doing so in a much more provocative and idiosyncratic manner. Far from coffee table music, Stevens’ own songs can be rousing and touching but are often also mysterious and charming. Even more impressive here are her radical interpretations of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Animal Collective’s My Girls and Seal’s Kiss From A Rose.
33) King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine (Domino)
For plaintive and disarming beauty, few albums could compete with this all too brief but thoroughly delightful collaboration between the eccentric Fife songwriter Kenny Anderson and film composer and arranger Jon Hopkins. Satisfyingly, this seems to have put to rest the brief but disconcerting drive to turn King Creosote into a bankable indie-crossover act. How much more affecting and honest his music is when it takes place in this kind of intimate, personal space. Diamond Mine provides the perfect setting for his peculiar musings (Diamond Mine may be the only album ever to contain a verse about the difficulty in gaining planning permission).
32) Low - C’Mon (Rough Trade)
Even by Low’s doggedly consistent high standards, C’Mon feels like something of a watermark recording. After a succession of detours through territory both more aggressive (The Great Destroyer) and more experimental (Drums and Guns), C’Mon returned them to their most accessible and familiar territory, reaffirming the fundamental strengths of their slow, repetitive songs and the beautiful blend of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s voices and the defiant simplicity of their performances. Yet, C’Mon felt fresh because of its brilliant, irresistible intensity.
31) Thundercat - The Golden Age Of Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
In which the unfairly reviled fusion genre is reconstructed and modernised with mastery and effervescence. Few albums this year have been quite as overwhelming, quite as brazenly unfashionable or quite as fun as this effort from Flying Lotus’ bass player. It’s not just a set of rapid fire bass solos (Thundercat is astoundingly dexterous and is more than capable of turning the bass into a melodic, frontline instrument) - there is soul and fire in here too.
30) Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD)
Along with Radiohead’s King of Limbs, this probably ranks as among the most listened to albums of the year for me. Its polished diversions and unusual sounds may have proved too much for the Iron & Wine fan drawn in by Sam Beam’s acoustic ruminations, but I can’t help but admire Beam’s adaptability and willingness to absorb influences from outside the American folk tradition. His voice is stronger and more upfront now, although still charmingly understated and he remains a lyricist of peerless invention.
29) {Ma} - The Last (Loop)
Among top level US jazz musicians, a debate has been raging recently over the quality (or lack thereof) in contemporary jazz. Some have conservatively criticised the prevalence of hybrid forms, something increasingly common in the thriving London jazz scene. The Last seems to be a prime example of just how well hybrids can work - improvised music with reference to the jazz tradition but placed in vivid and compelling new contexts. The blend between Matt Calvert’s bristling electronics and Tom Challenger’s fluent, sometimes caustic improvising is brilliantly executed. The textures are multi-faceted and exciting and this feels like a complete work with a detailed, filmic quality.
28) Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
One of 2011’s most criminally ignored achievements, The Dissolve shared with the stunning Thundercat album unfashionable preoccupations with fusion, jazz-rock and heavy seventies funk. It addressed these concerns through the prism of UK bass music, in which area Boxcutter has been an underrated pioneer. The vocal tracks should perhaps have reached a wider audience, whilst the music here is consistently intricate, nuanced and forged with a great sense of enthusiasm and fun.
27) Bjork - Biophilia (One Little Indian)
These days, Bjork releases, whilst still infrequent and conceptually extravagant, have delivered something dependable, with a diminishing sense of the shock of the new. Perhaps, long into a career that has consistently hit the highest levels of artistry, we no longer have the right to expect the breaking of new ground. Biophilia attempts to change the way music is consumed and utilised - with its technological and educational dimensions. The music itself is more of what we’ve come to expect from Bjork - detached and intellectual whilst also wonderfully intimate and tender. The arrangements are superb, with Bjork reunited with the Icelandic choir that helped make Vespertine such a masterpiece. If anything, Biophilia is more of a grower, its tracks highly nuanced and taking a while to reveal their magic.
26) Mark Hanslip & Javier Carmona - DosadoS (Babel)
A refreshing improvised duo session, with Carmona’s free flowing textural percussion providing the perfect counterpoint for Hanslip’s eloquent, occasionally visceral saxophones. There’s a real empathy and understanding between these two musicians and the results - captured permanently on disc but never to be replicated - are thrilling.
25) Kathryn Calder - Bright & Vivid (File Under Music)
Still woefully under-promoted in the UK, Calder (a member of New Pornographers and of the sadly now defunct Immaculate Machine) is undergoing a remarkably rapid development as a solo artist. Are You My Mother? was an affecting and mature debut - but Bright & Vivid succeeds in making a bolder, more ambitious, more cinematic musical statement. Again, the songwriting is infectious, melodic and touching, and the arrangements and production detailed and clear. This is indie-pop without any of the regression and introversion that sometimes stifles the genre. It is bold and brilliantly executed songwriting.
24) Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
James Blake may have been the name to drop for downtempo electronica in 2011, but the more stealthy choice may have been this superb album from Nicolas Jaar, another impossibly young and prodigious musician in this field. With a childhood spent in Santiago and influences ranging from Satie to Mulatu Astatke, Space is Only Noise presented a poised balance between reflection and rhythm.
23) Hallock Hill - The Union/There He Unforeseen (Hallock Hill)
Tom Lecky’s two albums as Hallock Hill were prime examples of composition through improvisation. The Union was a meditative, haunting reflection made up of layered guitars whilst There He Unforeseen somehow both broadened the canvas and managed to create a more claustrophobic atmosphere. Lecky also has an assured and confident hand when it comes to complex and intricate structure. His music is beautiful, spacious and compelling.
22) James Blake - James Blake (A&M)
Few albums seemed to divide opinion quite as sharply as this debut long player from the much feted Blake. Perhaps the criticisms sprung from subconscious resentment - Blake is young, having only recently graduated from a Goldsmith’s music degree, tall and handsome, and had been given a big PR boost through the BBC sound of 2011 poll. There was also his frequent creative use of vocoder - something that fascinated some but irritated many (although it bears repeating that he wasn’t using the device as an autotune). Even without the technology, his voice is decidedly odd, yet appealing in its inherent vulnerability. The most cursory listen to this debut should establish Blake’s musicality - he has embraced the song form with as much thought and intuition as he did production at the edges of UK bass music. He’s a master of space and tranquility, two qualities so rarely found in contemporary mainstream music, and he clearly understands harmony very well. Repackaged later in the year with the broody, strange Enough Thunder EP (which included a collaboration with Bon Iver), the album became a substantial, impressive document.
21) Colin Stetson - New History Of Warfare Vol. 2 (Constellation)
Saxophonist of choice to the American indie scene (he has spent much of the year playing as part of the massive extended Bon Iver ensemble), Stetson is a hugely creative musician in his own right. Occupying a hinterland somewhere between jazz, improv and contemporary composition, this second part of the New History of Warfare series was compelling and imaginative. Stetson approaches his instrument more percussively than melodically, challenging convention and building a broad palette of sound.
What an utterly beguiling album this is - at once icy and warm - and perhaps one of the most charming albums in recent years to be so thoroughly preoccupied with death and decay. It’s a beautiful, intensely focused work with a calm but magical presence. Ingvild Langgard already feels like a contemporary folk auteur. Sadly, it appears to have passed by unnoticed in much of the mainstream UK music press.
39) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Universal)
It would be easy to be distracted by the ubiquity of Polly Harvey’s dependably beguiling musings on war and empire. There was a crushing inevitability about her becoming the first artist to win the Mercury prize - as if going against the collective wisdom on this occasion would have been tantamount to sacrilege. Still, Let England Shake is a confident, and coherent album - a work of mature, direct and poetic artistry that somehow manages to be accessible and uncompromising in equal measure. What is perhaps more impressive is that it seemed to be a point of consensus in what is now a very disparate, fragmented and over-saturated music marketplace.
38) The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies (Ghost Box)
It’s tempting to be a little sceptical about the retrofuturist vision of the Ghost Box label - this new album from Jon Brooks’ Advisory Circle uses seventies and eighties government advice advertisements (from the now defunct Central Office of Information) for its main source material. ‘We make the decisions so you don’t have to’, as the introduction proudly (and somewhat threateningly) proclaims. There are hints of underlying sinister currents (Village of the Damned meets The Midwich Cuckoos, with a touch of Boards of Canada) and the swathes of old school synthesisers brilliantly capture a blend of menace and awe.
37) Tom Waits - Bad As Me (Anti-)
There has long been a sense that Tom Waits has journeyed so far across contemporary music’s wide terrain that there is little truly new ground left for him to cover. Bad As Me somewhat confirms this impression, feeling a little like a career summary in new songs. Still, it’s a typically thrilling, scattershot and engaging trip, made all the more appealing by virtue of being one of Waits’ more concise albums. Most wonderful of all about all this is Waits’ voice, which has never been more versatile or theatrical.
36) Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die (Blood and Biscuits)
Bands of this level of invention and quality in the UK are all too rare in the UK, and often it seems like critics are unprepared to take the risk in investing time and energy in their progress. After a series of mind-blowing EPs, Three Trapped Tigers finally brought their slanted take on heavy post-rock to the full album format. If anything, the intensity seemed to have been amplified even further, to the extent that it’s often hard to believe just how attacking and visceral this music is. At times perhaps a little clinical, but always virtuosic and near-perfect in execution, TTT remain one of the country’s most exciting bands.
35) Kate Bush - Director’s Cut / 50 Words For Snow (Fish People/EMI)
Kate Bush albums, it would appear, are like buses. You wait several years, and then two come along at once. Director’s Cut was almost dismissed by a pop media for whom reworking older material appears to be anathema. It’s hard to understand this attitude, which appears in sharp contradiction to that same media’s obsession with constantly reaffirming the rock and pop canon. In almost any other art form, developing existing works is seen as an essential part of the artistic process. Director’s Cut is not consistently successful - and there are points at which one might prefer the original takes - but it is a challenging, ambitious set. At its best, it offers radical and satisfying reversions (Deeper Understanding, This Woman’s Work). Both Director’s Cut and the patient, graceful 50 Words For Snow are enhanced by the colourful, textural drumming of session legend Steve Gadd. He adds a lightly jazzy tinge that heightens the expressive qualities of the music. On 50 Words For Snow, Bush’s compositions are minimal but elongated - they take as long as required to deliver her typically eccentric, poetic narratives.
34) Becca Stevens Band - Weightless
Stevens is a singer-songwriter from New York deserving of much wider attention. She operates in that hinterland between jazz, folk and Americana beloved of Norah Jones, but doing so in a much more provocative and idiosyncratic manner. Far from coffee table music, Stevens’ own songs can be rousing and touching but are often also mysterious and charming. Even more impressive here are her radical interpretations of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Animal Collective’s My Girls and Seal’s Kiss From A Rose.
33) King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine (Domino)
For plaintive and disarming beauty, few albums could compete with this all too brief but thoroughly delightful collaboration between the eccentric Fife songwriter Kenny Anderson and film composer and arranger Jon Hopkins. Satisfyingly, this seems to have put to rest the brief but disconcerting drive to turn King Creosote into a bankable indie-crossover act. How much more affecting and honest his music is when it takes place in this kind of intimate, personal space. Diamond Mine provides the perfect setting for his peculiar musings (Diamond Mine may be the only album ever to contain a verse about the difficulty in gaining planning permission).
32) Low - C’Mon (Rough Trade)
Even by Low’s doggedly consistent high standards, C’Mon feels like something of a watermark recording. After a succession of detours through territory both more aggressive (The Great Destroyer) and more experimental (Drums and Guns), C’Mon returned them to their most accessible and familiar territory, reaffirming the fundamental strengths of their slow, repetitive songs and the beautiful blend of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s voices and the defiant simplicity of their performances. Yet, C’Mon felt fresh because of its brilliant, irresistible intensity.
31) Thundercat - The Golden Age Of Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
In which the unfairly reviled fusion genre is reconstructed and modernised with mastery and effervescence. Few albums this year have been quite as overwhelming, quite as brazenly unfashionable or quite as fun as this effort from Flying Lotus’ bass player. It’s not just a set of rapid fire bass solos (Thundercat is astoundingly dexterous and is more than capable of turning the bass into a melodic, frontline instrument) - there is soul and fire in here too.
30) Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD)
Along with Radiohead’s King of Limbs, this probably ranks as among the most listened to albums of the year for me. Its polished diversions and unusual sounds may have proved too much for the Iron & Wine fan drawn in by Sam Beam’s acoustic ruminations, but I can’t help but admire Beam’s adaptability and willingness to absorb influences from outside the American folk tradition. His voice is stronger and more upfront now, although still charmingly understated and he remains a lyricist of peerless invention.
29) {Ma} - The Last (Loop)
Among top level US jazz musicians, a debate has been raging recently over the quality (or lack thereof) in contemporary jazz. Some have conservatively criticised the prevalence of hybrid forms, something increasingly common in the thriving London jazz scene. The Last seems to be a prime example of just how well hybrids can work - improvised music with reference to the jazz tradition but placed in vivid and compelling new contexts. The blend between Matt Calvert’s bristling electronics and Tom Challenger’s fluent, sometimes caustic improvising is brilliantly executed. The textures are multi-faceted and exciting and this feels like a complete work with a detailed, filmic quality.
28) Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
One of 2011’s most criminally ignored achievements, The Dissolve shared with the stunning Thundercat album unfashionable preoccupations with fusion, jazz-rock and heavy seventies funk. It addressed these concerns through the prism of UK bass music, in which area Boxcutter has been an underrated pioneer. The vocal tracks should perhaps have reached a wider audience, whilst the music here is consistently intricate, nuanced and forged with a great sense of enthusiasm and fun.
27) Bjork - Biophilia (One Little Indian)
These days, Bjork releases, whilst still infrequent and conceptually extravagant, have delivered something dependable, with a diminishing sense of the shock of the new. Perhaps, long into a career that has consistently hit the highest levels of artistry, we no longer have the right to expect the breaking of new ground. Biophilia attempts to change the way music is consumed and utilised - with its technological and educational dimensions. The music itself is more of what we’ve come to expect from Bjork - detached and intellectual whilst also wonderfully intimate and tender. The arrangements are superb, with Bjork reunited with the Icelandic choir that helped make Vespertine such a masterpiece. If anything, Biophilia is more of a grower, its tracks highly nuanced and taking a while to reveal their magic.
26) Mark Hanslip & Javier Carmona - DosadoS (Babel)
A refreshing improvised duo session, with Carmona’s free flowing textural percussion providing the perfect counterpoint for Hanslip’s eloquent, occasionally visceral saxophones. There’s a real empathy and understanding between these two musicians and the results - captured permanently on disc but never to be replicated - are thrilling.
25) Kathryn Calder - Bright & Vivid (File Under Music)
Still woefully under-promoted in the UK, Calder (a member of New Pornographers and of the sadly now defunct Immaculate Machine) is undergoing a remarkably rapid development as a solo artist. Are You My Mother? was an affecting and mature debut - but Bright & Vivid succeeds in making a bolder, more ambitious, more cinematic musical statement. Again, the songwriting is infectious, melodic and touching, and the arrangements and production detailed and clear. This is indie-pop without any of the regression and introversion that sometimes stifles the genre. It is bold and brilliantly executed songwriting.
24) Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
James Blake may have been the name to drop for downtempo electronica in 2011, but the more stealthy choice may have been this superb album from Nicolas Jaar, another impossibly young and prodigious musician in this field. With a childhood spent in Santiago and influences ranging from Satie to Mulatu Astatke, Space is Only Noise presented a poised balance between reflection and rhythm.
23) Hallock Hill - The Union/There He Unforeseen (Hallock Hill)
Tom Lecky’s two albums as Hallock Hill were prime examples of composition through improvisation. The Union was a meditative, haunting reflection made up of layered guitars whilst There He Unforeseen somehow both broadened the canvas and managed to create a more claustrophobic atmosphere. Lecky also has an assured and confident hand when it comes to complex and intricate structure. His music is beautiful, spacious and compelling.
22) James Blake - James Blake (A&M)
Few albums seemed to divide opinion quite as sharply as this debut long player from the much feted Blake. Perhaps the criticisms sprung from subconscious resentment - Blake is young, having only recently graduated from a Goldsmith’s music degree, tall and handsome, and had been given a big PR boost through the BBC sound of 2011 poll. There was also his frequent creative use of vocoder - something that fascinated some but irritated many (although it bears repeating that he wasn’t using the device as an autotune). Even without the technology, his voice is decidedly odd, yet appealing in its inherent vulnerability. The most cursory listen to this debut should establish Blake’s musicality - he has embraced the song form with as much thought and intuition as he did production at the edges of UK bass music. He’s a master of space and tranquility, two qualities so rarely found in contemporary mainstream music, and he clearly understands harmony very well. Repackaged later in the year with the broody, strange Enough Thunder EP (which included a collaboration with Bon Iver), the album became a substantial, impressive document.
21) Colin Stetson - New History Of Warfare Vol. 2 (Constellation)
Saxophonist of choice to the American indie scene (he has spent much of the year playing as part of the massive extended Bon Iver ensemble), Stetson is a hugely creative musician in his own right. Occupying a hinterland somewhere between jazz, improv and contemporary composition, this second part of the New History of Warfare series was compelling and imaginative. Stetson approaches his instrument more percussively than melodically, challenging convention and building a broad palette of sound.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 2: 80-61
80) Andy Stott - Passed Me By/We Stay Together (Modern Love)
These two EPs/mini albums were repackaged together as one long album towards the end of the year. Bass heavy and influenced by dub, but in an altogether distinctive space of its own, Passed Me By is singularly detached and agitated, filtering soul, reggae and r&b through all manner of abstract textural intrusions.
79) Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
The hazy dub of Peaking Lights proved to be one of 2011’s more straightforward pleasures, and one that did a great deal to enhance the reputation of the Not Not Fun label. The cascading, incandescent sound of much of 936 is immersive. Whilst the duo tend to eschew verse-chorus song structure, there were plenty of imaginative vocal hooks here too.
78) Sidi Toure - Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
Sahel Folk was the first internationally distributed album in sixteen years from the artist hailed by Bassekou Kouyate as a ‘worthy successor to Ali Farka Toure’. Sahel Folk is a series of duos with a variety of collaborators, and this setting seems to suit Sidi remarkably well. The music is relaxed, sensitive, unshowy and unobtrusive but also quietly authoritative.
77) Six Organs Of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain (Drag City)
This may have been overlooked simply by being one of Ben Chasny’s most inviting and least foreboding albums under the Six Organs moniker. It’s mostly an album of soft drones and calm reveries that have a cumulatively hypnotic effect. Chasny may be at his least provocative here, but he is also at his most musically eloquent and articulate.
76) Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel)
A great example of where freedom and flexibility meet discipline and control, Twelves’ second album is both supple and fascinating. With new guitarist Rob Updegraff adding a gritty, incisive undertow to the ensemble sound, The Adding Machine further develops the group’s inspired balance of knotty compositions, melodic development and turbulent free improvisation. A strong sense of narrative is apparent throughout.
75) Deerhoof - Deerhoof Vs. Evil (ATP)
Having already achieved so much, there seems to be little that Deerhoof can do now save for repeating themselves, although each release now seems to veer further towards what might be described as accessible pop territory. There’s still plenty of infectious quirkiness here though, and the band are as innovative as always with rhythm. With every release, their sound gets crisper and more dynamic.
74) Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
Spaceape is less of a rapper and more of a surrealist storyteller. When paired with the claustrophobic soundscapes of Kode9, his words assume an even greater potency. Black Sun is another album to veer beyond the conventions of UK bass music and microgenre classifications, often emphasising texture more than the lower end frequencies. Over on musicOMH, I described the effect of Black Sun as being a kind of ‘disaster idealism’ - a dystopian urban vision tinged with the hope that something better and more sustainable will emerge.
73) Kairos 4tet - Statement Of Intent (Edition)
Remarkably now winners of the MOBO award for best jazz act, Kairos 4tet have had a busy, impressive year. That all this has been achieved as a result of an album considerably subtler and more refined than its urgent, memorable predecessor is all the more satisfying. Now with Ivo Neame’s graceful, considered touch on the piano, and still benefiting hugely from the experienced, empathetic rhythm section of Jasper Hoiby and Jon Scott, Adam Waldmann’s compositions have taken elegiac and unpredictable turns here.
72) Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
Steven Adams has managed to weather the quiet storm of the Broken Family Band split with consummate ease, forming a new band and simply getting on with business as usual. Singing Adams (initially a solo side project but now a band of the same name) inevitably share some qualities with BFB - Adams’ barbed humour and his deft hand with a tune being one. Some of the shuffly or chuggy rhythmic urgency remains too. But there’s also a sense that Everybody Friends Now is a less forthright, more reflective affair - perhaps the start of Adams’ maturity as a singer-songwriter. He certainly deserves more attention.
71) Outhouse & Hilmar Jenssen - Straw, Sticks & Bricks (Babel)
The Loop Collective’s flagship band continue their brilliant explorations of groove, texture and communication here, this time working in collaboration with Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jenssen. Jenssen adds an air of menace and threat, whilst the band sound increasingly confident and controlled. The album is often brooding and mysterious but also fleet-footed and intuitive.
70) Rustie - Glass Swords (Warp)
Of all the wild electronic music released in 2011, Rustie’s long awaited debut album came brimming with the most fun. This is a sly, insanely over the top stew of retro synthesisers and modern awkwardness that is unashamedly entertaining. As the year draws to a close, it seems, perhaps surprisingly, to have moved outside genre circles to be picked up by major publications such as The Guardian.
69) Clams Casino - Instrumentals (Type)
2011 seems to have been the year of the ‘mixtape’ (even as I write this, singer-songwriter Marques Toliver has just unleashed his own rather splendid series of mash-ups), compilations of material released online, usually for free. Perhaps this format is where we’re headed in this new technological age - ‘albums’ becoming less important, but ‘selections’ of material both old and new becoming increasingly prevalent. This was a selection of beats that Mike Volpe sent to various rappers - but it’s pretty much like nothing in hip hop right now - and completely far from being generic. Although it’s termed a set of instrumentals - one of those instruments is certainly the sampled human voice, of which Volpe makes highly creative use. Much of this music is bold, intense and brilliantly arranged.
68) Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (Domino)
Will Oldham’s music seems to assume greater subtlety as he enters his mature period. After the red herring of the direct and bold opener No Match, much of Wolfroy Goes To Town is so subdued as to almost be vaporous. Whilst it’s one of his least immediate recordings to date, it does yield significant rewards. The highlight for me is the wonderful, quietly evocative New Whaling, a song largely unlike anything else he has recorded so far. Overall, this may be the best result of his experiments with female vocalists so far, the balance of the voices being remarkably complementary.
67) Moritz Von Oswald - Horizontal Structures (Honest Jon’s)
Horizontal Structures made for a marked contrast with Oswald’s previous trio release, the more propulsive Vertical Ascent. If the music here was more challenging and less immediate, it proved equally successful on its own terms. Horizontal Structures mostly eschews rhythm in favour of stark textures and rumbling undertones. These sound collages mix found sound, live instrumentation, improvisation and programming to brilliant effect.
66) Hiss Golden Messenger - Poor Moon/From Country Hai East Cotton (Black Maps/Paradise of Bachelors)
Although clearly informed by the American folk tradition, there’s something extra - something more intuitive and mysterious - about MC Taylor’s work as Hiss Golden Messenger, much of which finally saw the light of day here in the UK in 2011. From Country Hai East Cotton was a delicate and vulnerable affair, patiently unfolding and admirably understated in its execution, but with some lush string arrangements and a soulful vibe. Much has been written about Taylor’s understanding of bluegrass and folk - but less seems to have been written about the soulful side of his music, which echoes writers such as Dan Penn and Tony Joe White. His language is rich and evocative and his delivery soft and almost conversational. These two albums are an absolute delight.
65) Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
Given the impact wearemonster had a few years ago, it’s bewildering just how ignored this latest, supposedly long-awaited Isolee album has been. Perhaps it’s too straightforward and lacks cultural currency in an electronic world that has been dominated by bass music trends in the period between Isolee albums. On the other hand, it really ought to be invigorating to hear an electronic album with rather different concerns. Well Spent Youth strikes me as being thoroughly enjoyable, and rich in melody and a careful ear for sound. It’s depressing when albums this strong are dismissed by those demanding an instant classic.
64) Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
This austere but thrilling album from Toronto’s David Psutka felt like an artist challenging himself and rising even above his already lofty reputation (at least within bass music circles). In fact, Bible Eyes is largely free from dubstep cliche - instead reaching into other areas of minimal electronic music. It’s a confident, refreshingly consistent album.
63) The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (Rough Trade)
This is the sort of unassuming, straightforwardly decent album that is all too easy to neglect when making these round-up lists, especially as it was released very early in the year. Still, it’s worth noting that this is a rare case of a ‘reaction’ album actually working very well - it’s a definite retrenchment after the theatrical excesses of The Hazards of Love. It’s a real reminder of Colin Meloy’s narrative and melodic gifts as a songwriter, and the playing is frequently marvellous, including a guest appearance from Peter Buck.
62) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
It’s immensely satisfying that Annie Clark’s odd, angular take on pop music seems to have reached a surprisingly wide audience this year. For all of Strange Mercy’s tricksiness, it also comes armed with some superb hooks and melodies, even if Clark often tries to hide this by dressing them in very elaborate, unpredictable arrangements. Clark is adept at using the studio to its full potential.
61) Mara Carlyle - Floreat (Ancient and Modern)
The long-awaited Floreat (first shelved by EMI as far back as 2008) makes me wish I had taken more notice of Mara Carlyle much earlier. She is an idiosyncratic and bold singer-songwriter, keen to explore a wide variety of musical spaces. There are hints of early jazz and show tune stylings - but also a decidedly modern touch and approach. Carlyle has a bite and a sense of humour that brilliantly undercuts her more florid, theatrical moments.
These two EPs/mini albums were repackaged together as one long album towards the end of the year. Bass heavy and influenced by dub, but in an altogether distinctive space of its own, Passed Me By is singularly detached and agitated, filtering soul, reggae and r&b through all manner of abstract textural intrusions.
79) Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
The hazy dub of Peaking Lights proved to be one of 2011’s more straightforward pleasures, and one that did a great deal to enhance the reputation of the Not Not Fun label. The cascading, incandescent sound of much of 936 is immersive. Whilst the duo tend to eschew verse-chorus song structure, there were plenty of imaginative vocal hooks here too.
78) Sidi Toure - Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
Sahel Folk was the first internationally distributed album in sixteen years from the artist hailed by Bassekou Kouyate as a ‘worthy successor to Ali Farka Toure’. Sahel Folk is a series of duos with a variety of collaborators, and this setting seems to suit Sidi remarkably well. The music is relaxed, sensitive, unshowy and unobtrusive but also quietly authoritative.
77) Six Organs Of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain (Drag City)
This may have been overlooked simply by being one of Ben Chasny’s most inviting and least foreboding albums under the Six Organs moniker. It’s mostly an album of soft drones and calm reveries that have a cumulatively hypnotic effect. Chasny may be at his least provocative here, but he is also at his most musically eloquent and articulate.
76) Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel)
A great example of where freedom and flexibility meet discipline and control, Twelves’ second album is both supple and fascinating. With new guitarist Rob Updegraff adding a gritty, incisive undertow to the ensemble sound, The Adding Machine further develops the group’s inspired balance of knotty compositions, melodic development and turbulent free improvisation. A strong sense of narrative is apparent throughout.
75) Deerhoof - Deerhoof Vs. Evil (ATP)
Having already achieved so much, there seems to be little that Deerhoof can do now save for repeating themselves, although each release now seems to veer further towards what might be described as accessible pop territory. There’s still plenty of infectious quirkiness here though, and the band are as innovative as always with rhythm. With every release, their sound gets crisper and more dynamic.
74) Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
Spaceape is less of a rapper and more of a surrealist storyteller. When paired with the claustrophobic soundscapes of Kode9, his words assume an even greater potency. Black Sun is another album to veer beyond the conventions of UK bass music and microgenre classifications, often emphasising texture more than the lower end frequencies. Over on musicOMH, I described the effect of Black Sun as being a kind of ‘disaster idealism’ - a dystopian urban vision tinged with the hope that something better and more sustainable will emerge.
73) Kairos 4tet - Statement Of Intent (Edition)
Remarkably now winners of the MOBO award for best jazz act, Kairos 4tet have had a busy, impressive year. That all this has been achieved as a result of an album considerably subtler and more refined than its urgent, memorable predecessor is all the more satisfying. Now with Ivo Neame’s graceful, considered touch on the piano, and still benefiting hugely from the experienced, empathetic rhythm section of Jasper Hoiby and Jon Scott, Adam Waldmann’s compositions have taken elegiac and unpredictable turns here.
72) Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
Steven Adams has managed to weather the quiet storm of the Broken Family Band split with consummate ease, forming a new band and simply getting on with business as usual. Singing Adams (initially a solo side project but now a band of the same name) inevitably share some qualities with BFB - Adams’ barbed humour and his deft hand with a tune being one. Some of the shuffly or chuggy rhythmic urgency remains too. But there’s also a sense that Everybody Friends Now is a less forthright, more reflective affair - perhaps the start of Adams’ maturity as a singer-songwriter. He certainly deserves more attention.
71) Outhouse & Hilmar Jenssen - Straw, Sticks & Bricks (Babel)
The Loop Collective’s flagship band continue their brilliant explorations of groove, texture and communication here, this time working in collaboration with Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jenssen. Jenssen adds an air of menace and threat, whilst the band sound increasingly confident and controlled. The album is often brooding and mysterious but also fleet-footed and intuitive.
70) Rustie - Glass Swords (Warp)
Of all the wild electronic music released in 2011, Rustie’s long awaited debut album came brimming with the most fun. This is a sly, insanely over the top stew of retro synthesisers and modern awkwardness that is unashamedly entertaining. As the year draws to a close, it seems, perhaps surprisingly, to have moved outside genre circles to be picked up by major publications such as The Guardian.
69) Clams Casino - Instrumentals (Type)
2011 seems to have been the year of the ‘mixtape’ (even as I write this, singer-songwriter Marques Toliver has just unleashed his own rather splendid series of mash-ups), compilations of material released online, usually for free. Perhaps this format is where we’re headed in this new technological age - ‘albums’ becoming less important, but ‘selections’ of material both old and new becoming increasingly prevalent. This was a selection of beats that Mike Volpe sent to various rappers - but it’s pretty much like nothing in hip hop right now - and completely far from being generic. Although it’s termed a set of instrumentals - one of those instruments is certainly the sampled human voice, of which Volpe makes highly creative use. Much of this music is bold, intense and brilliantly arranged.
68) Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (Domino)
Will Oldham’s music seems to assume greater subtlety as he enters his mature period. After the red herring of the direct and bold opener No Match, much of Wolfroy Goes To Town is so subdued as to almost be vaporous. Whilst it’s one of his least immediate recordings to date, it does yield significant rewards. The highlight for me is the wonderful, quietly evocative New Whaling, a song largely unlike anything else he has recorded so far. Overall, this may be the best result of his experiments with female vocalists so far, the balance of the voices being remarkably complementary.
67) Moritz Von Oswald - Horizontal Structures (Honest Jon’s)
Horizontal Structures made for a marked contrast with Oswald’s previous trio release, the more propulsive Vertical Ascent. If the music here was more challenging and less immediate, it proved equally successful on its own terms. Horizontal Structures mostly eschews rhythm in favour of stark textures and rumbling undertones. These sound collages mix found sound, live instrumentation, improvisation and programming to brilliant effect.
66) Hiss Golden Messenger - Poor Moon/From Country Hai East Cotton (Black Maps/Paradise of Bachelors)
Although clearly informed by the American folk tradition, there’s something extra - something more intuitive and mysterious - about MC Taylor’s work as Hiss Golden Messenger, much of which finally saw the light of day here in the UK in 2011. From Country Hai East Cotton was a delicate and vulnerable affair, patiently unfolding and admirably understated in its execution, but with some lush string arrangements and a soulful vibe. Much has been written about Taylor’s understanding of bluegrass and folk - but less seems to have been written about the soulful side of his music, which echoes writers such as Dan Penn and Tony Joe White. His language is rich and evocative and his delivery soft and almost conversational. These two albums are an absolute delight.
65) Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
Given the impact wearemonster had a few years ago, it’s bewildering just how ignored this latest, supposedly long-awaited Isolee album has been. Perhaps it’s too straightforward and lacks cultural currency in an electronic world that has been dominated by bass music trends in the period between Isolee albums. On the other hand, it really ought to be invigorating to hear an electronic album with rather different concerns. Well Spent Youth strikes me as being thoroughly enjoyable, and rich in melody and a careful ear for sound. It’s depressing when albums this strong are dismissed by those demanding an instant classic.
64) Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
This austere but thrilling album from Toronto’s David Psutka felt like an artist challenging himself and rising even above his already lofty reputation (at least within bass music circles). In fact, Bible Eyes is largely free from dubstep cliche - instead reaching into other areas of minimal electronic music. It’s a confident, refreshingly consistent album.
63) The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (Rough Trade)
This is the sort of unassuming, straightforwardly decent album that is all too easy to neglect when making these round-up lists, especially as it was released very early in the year. Still, it’s worth noting that this is a rare case of a ‘reaction’ album actually working very well - it’s a definite retrenchment after the theatrical excesses of The Hazards of Love. It’s a real reminder of Colin Meloy’s narrative and melodic gifts as a songwriter, and the playing is frequently marvellous, including a guest appearance from Peter Buck.
62) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
It’s immensely satisfying that Annie Clark’s odd, angular take on pop music seems to have reached a surprisingly wide audience this year. For all of Strange Mercy’s tricksiness, it also comes armed with some superb hooks and melodies, even if Clark often tries to hide this by dressing them in very elaborate, unpredictable arrangements. Clark is adept at using the studio to its full potential.
61) Mara Carlyle - Floreat (Ancient and Modern)
The long-awaited Floreat (first shelved by EMI as far back as 2008) makes me wish I had taken more notice of Mara Carlyle much earlier. She is an idiosyncratic and bold singer-songwriter, keen to explore a wide variety of musical spaces. There are hints of early jazz and show tune stylings - but also a decidedly modern touch and approach. Carlyle has a bite and a sense of humour that brilliantly undercuts her more florid, theatrical moments.
The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 1: 100-81
100) Feist - Metals (Polydor)
Metals didn’t quite have the same personal impact on me that The Reminder had (save for The Bad In Each Other, a truly remarkable song placed first that rather overshadows the rest of the album). That said, it was still a remarkably refined and controlled offering full of exceptional songwriting. Occasionally, it veered out into rawer, less polished territory, with intriguing results.
99) Cornershop - And The Double-O Groove Of (Ample Play)
These days, Cornershop seem entirely comfortable with their status as more-or-less one hit wonders. Brimful of Asha hardly seems to be an albatross around their necks. Rather, it has freed them to veer off in more artistically fruitful directions. In fact, this collaboration with Bubbley Kaur may be the highlight of their career. The fusion of traditional Indian sounds with funky grooves is surprisingly successful.
98) Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou (World Circuit)
Although born in the Ivory Coast and of Malian heritage, Fatoumata Diawara now resides in Paris and this may explain the refreshingly diverse, cosmopolitan and summery sound she achieves on this delightful album. It’s one of the most accessible albums to have emerged from the World Circuit staple in recent years - immediate, light and catchy - but this is by no means a criticism. Diawara seems brilliantly assured and her vibrant songs deserve a wide audience.
97) The Field - Looping State of Mind (Kompakt)
Axel Willner here continued his persistent explorations of repetition and cumulative intensity. Yet with every release as The Field, he continues to give the sound a slight new twist. Looping State of Mind has ratcheted up the intensity and energy levels to offer something yet more muscular and insistent.
96) Tyshawn Sorey - Oblique 1 (Pi)
Sorey is one of New York’s most astonishing, visionary drummers, having concocted the sort of rhythmic support that seems so proficient as to be near-physically impossible for the likes of Steve Lehman, Fieldwork, and Steve Coleman. This is his first album as bandleader (his solo work Koan is an entirely different beast altogether), and the work shows him to be an intelligent composer as well as a gifted musician. Sorey studied with Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan University, and Oblique 1 demonstrates a contemporary approach to composition, perhaps inspired by musicians such as Henry Threadgill, in which cells and intervals are the founding blocks for development rather than melodic lines. By Sorey’s own description, many of these pieces are ‘strategies for improvisation’, and the resulting performances are turbulent and inspired.
95) Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Wichita)
This collaboration between Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater Kinney and Mary Timony ended up being much greater than simply a Sleater Kinney album minus Corin Tucker. Anything powered by Janet Weiss’ irresistible snare drum thwack is always going to be an enjoyable listen - but Wild Flag distinguished themselves by adopting a poppier approach. Many of these songs are blisteringly exciting but also memorable and enduring.
94) Kuedo - Severant (Planet Mu)
Former Vex’d member Jamie Teasdale’s first album as Kuedo shares with Zomby’s Dedication a rather fuzzy sensibility - a series of auditory hallucinations perhaps, or vivid dreams, although it is not as boldly fragmentory as the Zomby album. Throughout, there’s a nostalgia for sci-fi visions of the future that never quite arrived, and Vangelis’ work, particularly for Blade Runner, appears to have been a major source of inspiration.
93) SBTRKT - SBTRKT (Young Turks)
Of all the albums to emerge from the post-dubstep landscape, this is actually one of the most conventional. This, however, turns out to be its refreshing virtue. Working with a range of guest vocalists, SBTRKT works as something close to a pop producer here, and the resulting work shows a great deal of respect for the song, as well as a drive for sonic experimentation. There is a clear sense of intention throughout and the results are immediate and soulful but not overly dazzling.
92) Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth (Wichita)
I had rather casually and unfairly dismissed Meg Baird and Espers because of their association with Devendra Banhart, a musician I’m afraid I’ve never been able to take entirely seriously. This has been a big mistake, for Seasons on Earth is one of the most honest and affecting folk albums in recent memory, one that continues to grow with every listen. Baird’s voice is understated but perfect for this style, and her songs are delicate but beautiful. She is also versatile here, moving from lightness to emphatic authority with apparent ease.
91) CANT - Dreams Come True (Warp)
This side project from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor may lack the meticulous compositional design and rich harmonies of his parent band, but it more than compensates for that with other examples of musical invention. By simplifying the writing, Taylor is freer to experiment with sound design, instrumentation and texture, the results of which take him some way from Grizzly Bear’s modern folk-tinged psychedelia.
90) Africa Hitech - 93 Million MIles (Warp)
Why has this one slipped through unnoticed? This collaboration between Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek takes slices of post-dubstep and footwork and reworks them through the prism of sleek soul. There’s a really great spirit of exploration here - finding the connections between various examples of human rhythmic experience and electronic production techniques.
89) Cass McCombs - Wit’s End/Humor Risk (Domino)
Cass McCombs has been remarkably prolific and I’d rather lost touch with his output after A, a debut I felt showed some unrealised potential. His music has become considerably less ragged since then. Indeed, County Line from Wit’s End is essentially a soft rock ballad (but an utterly brilliant one) and the production on Humor Risk is crisp and clear. McCombs is still a minimalist at heart - his songs often have little in the way of structure, preferring to repeat phrases and lines until they become very well ingrained in the memory. These two albums together do feel like his strongest burst of creativity yet but, like Ryan Adams, he may need an editor.
88) Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure (Software)
Increasingly one of the most discussed and influential musicians at work today, Daniel Lopatin’s journey towards the critical and perhaps even commercial mainstream has been somewhat remarkable. Replica and Channel Pressure saw him journey yet further from the Tangerine Dream-esque dronescapes that made his name, incorporating sound effects, TV advertisement samples and rhythmic trickery, all in the service of his ingenious play on reconstruction, memory and recall. The retro stylings of Channel Pressure ought by rights to be horrifying - yet they are somehow completely irresistible. Any album with a song title like Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me) must revel in its own irony and gleeful subversion and Channel Pressure does exactly that.
87) A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Erased Tapes)
This collaboration between the Californian pianist Dustin O’Halloran and Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie has a rather European flavour to it, as well as an overriding sense of melancholy reflection. It’s a sensitive, patient beast - and one of the most haunting and beautiful releases to have emerged from the wonderful ‘post-classical’ staple on Erased Tapes.
86) John Escreet - Exception To The Rule (Criss Cross)
John Escreet is a musician I’ve only approached very recently (having seen his bizarre and compelling opening piano set at the Henry Threadgill show at this year’s London Jazz Festival). I need to spend a great deal more time with Exception to the Rule before I’m in any real position to assess it properly - but on first few experiences, it seems that Escreet is as unconventional a composer as he is a player, juxtaposing extremes for strange and disorientating effect. His touchstones must surely be the great avant-garde piano players (Cecil Taylor and perhaps Paul Bley) but he also seems to an intellectual, considered approach with his contemporary Craig Taborn. The ensemble here includes the great David Binney and the incredibly musical drummer Nasheet Waits - these two musicians alone are prime ingredients for an inspired session, There’s a subtle element of electronic sound here too which is fresh and exciting.
85) Battles - Gloss Drop (Warp)
‘Battles without Tyondai Braxton is like cereal without milk’, so I proudly declared on Twitter when learning of the departure of the group’s nominal frontman. Too often, Braxton has been desribed as the group’s former vocalist, when in fact his musical contributions were equally significant, not least his compositional flair. Without him, the remaining power trio is surprisingly effective. Much of this music is Battles stripped down to its fundamentals, powerful, attacking and imposing. It still grooves righteously, and some of the guest vocalists prove inspired choices (even Gary Numan).
84) Roly Porter - Aftertime (Subtext)
Listen to this next to Kuedo’s Severant and it is hard to believe that the two artists were once both part of Vex’d. Whereas Jamie has gone down the Vangelis-inspired cinematic synth route with Kuedo, Roly Porter has here produced something altogether more uncompromising and decidedly uncommercial. To call this album downbeat would be misleading, as that at least implies some sort of rhythmic impetus. Instead, it is mournful, perhaps even dark - characterised by drones and sustained sounds and often confidently confrontational.
83) Ambrose Akinmusire - When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
Still only 28 years old, Ambrose Akinmusire (who played with Steve Coleman from the age of 19) emerges as a fully formed mature talent on this debut album as a bandleader. There is an immense outpouring of energy, passion and soul on this collection, as well as a fearsome technical proficiency. The set neatly juxtaposes fiery exposition with moments of resonant beauty. With the talents of Walter Smith III, Gerald Clayton, Justin Brown and Harish Raghavan also involved (and with the great pianist Jason Moran producing), this is something of a dream team from this new generation of American jazz pioneers.
82) Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Vol.1 (Southern Lord)
More of the beautiful same from Dylan Carlson - slow, patient, epic doom rock and windswept desert blues. As with other recent Earth releases, there is a delicious tension underpinning these five long pieces. Some subtle differences occur due to the sweeping presence of cellist Lori Goldston. Carlson remains a brilliantly selective musician, making the space as important as the limited number of notes. Volume 2 is coming early in 2012.
81) Phil Robson - The Immeasurable Code (Whirlwind Recordings)
This impressive Anglo-American ensemble features the superb, mellifluous saxophonist Mark Turner, virtuosic flautist Gareth Lockrane, bassist Michael Janisch and drummer Ernesto Simpson. The result, recorded live, is a combination of imperious groove from a crackling rhythm section and fluent, lengthy improvised lines from Robson, Turner and Lockrane. A tremendous, highly underrated ensemble gem.
Metals didn’t quite have the same personal impact on me that The Reminder had (save for The Bad In Each Other, a truly remarkable song placed first that rather overshadows the rest of the album). That said, it was still a remarkably refined and controlled offering full of exceptional songwriting. Occasionally, it veered out into rawer, less polished territory, with intriguing results.
99) Cornershop - And The Double-O Groove Of (Ample Play)
These days, Cornershop seem entirely comfortable with their status as more-or-less one hit wonders. Brimful of Asha hardly seems to be an albatross around their necks. Rather, it has freed them to veer off in more artistically fruitful directions. In fact, this collaboration with Bubbley Kaur may be the highlight of their career. The fusion of traditional Indian sounds with funky grooves is surprisingly successful.
98) Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou (World Circuit)
Although born in the Ivory Coast and of Malian heritage, Fatoumata Diawara now resides in Paris and this may explain the refreshingly diverse, cosmopolitan and summery sound she achieves on this delightful album. It’s one of the most accessible albums to have emerged from the World Circuit staple in recent years - immediate, light and catchy - but this is by no means a criticism. Diawara seems brilliantly assured and her vibrant songs deserve a wide audience.
97) The Field - Looping State of Mind (Kompakt)
Axel Willner here continued his persistent explorations of repetition and cumulative intensity. Yet with every release as The Field, he continues to give the sound a slight new twist. Looping State of Mind has ratcheted up the intensity and energy levels to offer something yet more muscular and insistent.
96) Tyshawn Sorey - Oblique 1 (Pi)
Sorey is one of New York’s most astonishing, visionary drummers, having concocted the sort of rhythmic support that seems so proficient as to be near-physically impossible for the likes of Steve Lehman, Fieldwork, and Steve Coleman. This is his first album as bandleader (his solo work Koan is an entirely different beast altogether), and the work shows him to be an intelligent composer as well as a gifted musician. Sorey studied with Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan University, and Oblique 1 demonstrates a contemporary approach to composition, perhaps inspired by musicians such as Henry Threadgill, in which cells and intervals are the founding blocks for development rather than melodic lines. By Sorey’s own description, many of these pieces are ‘strategies for improvisation’, and the resulting performances are turbulent and inspired.
95) Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Wichita)
This collaboration between Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater Kinney and Mary Timony ended up being much greater than simply a Sleater Kinney album minus Corin Tucker. Anything powered by Janet Weiss’ irresistible snare drum thwack is always going to be an enjoyable listen - but Wild Flag distinguished themselves by adopting a poppier approach. Many of these songs are blisteringly exciting but also memorable and enduring.
94) Kuedo - Severant (Planet Mu)
Former Vex’d member Jamie Teasdale’s first album as Kuedo shares with Zomby’s Dedication a rather fuzzy sensibility - a series of auditory hallucinations perhaps, or vivid dreams, although it is not as boldly fragmentory as the Zomby album. Throughout, there’s a nostalgia for sci-fi visions of the future that never quite arrived, and Vangelis’ work, particularly for Blade Runner, appears to have been a major source of inspiration.
93) SBTRKT - SBTRKT (Young Turks)
Of all the albums to emerge from the post-dubstep landscape, this is actually one of the most conventional. This, however, turns out to be its refreshing virtue. Working with a range of guest vocalists, SBTRKT works as something close to a pop producer here, and the resulting work shows a great deal of respect for the song, as well as a drive for sonic experimentation. There is a clear sense of intention throughout and the results are immediate and soulful but not overly dazzling.
92) Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth (Wichita)
I had rather casually and unfairly dismissed Meg Baird and Espers because of their association with Devendra Banhart, a musician I’m afraid I’ve never been able to take entirely seriously. This has been a big mistake, for Seasons on Earth is one of the most honest and affecting folk albums in recent memory, one that continues to grow with every listen. Baird’s voice is understated but perfect for this style, and her songs are delicate but beautiful. She is also versatile here, moving from lightness to emphatic authority with apparent ease.
91) CANT - Dreams Come True (Warp)
This side project from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor may lack the meticulous compositional design and rich harmonies of his parent band, but it more than compensates for that with other examples of musical invention. By simplifying the writing, Taylor is freer to experiment with sound design, instrumentation and texture, the results of which take him some way from Grizzly Bear’s modern folk-tinged psychedelia.
90) Africa Hitech - 93 Million MIles (Warp)
Why has this one slipped through unnoticed? This collaboration between Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek takes slices of post-dubstep and footwork and reworks them through the prism of sleek soul. There’s a really great spirit of exploration here - finding the connections between various examples of human rhythmic experience and electronic production techniques.
89) Cass McCombs - Wit’s End/Humor Risk (Domino)
Cass McCombs has been remarkably prolific and I’d rather lost touch with his output after A, a debut I felt showed some unrealised potential. His music has become considerably less ragged since then. Indeed, County Line from Wit’s End is essentially a soft rock ballad (but an utterly brilliant one) and the production on Humor Risk is crisp and clear. McCombs is still a minimalist at heart - his songs often have little in the way of structure, preferring to repeat phrases and lines until they become very well ingrained in the memory. These two albums together do feel like his strongest burst of creativity yet but, like Ryan Adams, he may need an editor.
88) Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure (Software)
Increasingly one of the most discussed and influential musicians at work today, Daniel Lopatin’s journey towards the critical and perhaps even commercial mainstream has been somewhat remarkable. Replica and Channel Pressure saw him journey yet further from the Tangerine Dream-esque dronescapes that made his name, incorporating sound effects, TV advertisement samples and rhythmic trickery, all in the service of his ingenious play on reconstruction, memory and recall. The retro stylings of Channel Pressure ought by rights to be horrifying - yet they are somehow completely irresistible. Any album with a song title like Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me) must revel in its own irony and gleeful subversion and Channel Pressure does exactly that.
87) A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Erased Tapes)
This collaboration between the Californian pianist Dustin O’Halloran and Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie has a rather European flavour to it, as well as an overriding sense of melancholy reflection. It’s a sensitive, patient beast - and one of the most haunting and beautiful releases to have emerged from the wonderful ‘post-classical’ staple on Erased Tapes.
86) John Escreet - Exception To The Rule (Criss Cross)
John Escreet is a musician I’ve only approached very recently (having seen his bizarre and compelling opening piano set at the Henry Threadgill show at this year’s London Jazz Festival). I need to spend a great deal more time with Exception to the Rule before I’m in any real position to assess it properly - but on first few experiences, it seems that Escreet is as unconventional a composer as he is a player, juxtaposing extremes for strange and disorientating effect. His touchstones must surely be the great avant-garde piano players (Cecil Taylor and perhaps Paul Bley) but he also seems to an intellectual, considered approach with his contemporary Craig Taborn. The ensemble here includes the great David Binney and the incredibly musical drummer Nasheet Waits - these two musicians alone are prime ingredients for an inspired session, There’s a subtle element of electronic sound here too which is fresh and exciting.
85) Battles - Gloss Drop (Warp)
‘Battles without Tyondai Braxton is like cereal without milk’, so I proudly declared on Twitter when learning of the departure of the group’s nominal frontman. Too often, Braxton has been desribed as the group’s former vocalist, when in fact his musical contributions were equally significant, not least his compositional flair. Without him, the remaining power trio is surprisingly effective. Much of this music is Battles stripped down to its fundamentals, powerful, attacking and imposing. It still grooves righteously, and some of the guest vocalists prove inspired choices (even Gary Numan).
84) Roly Porter - Aftertime (Subtext)
Listen to this next to Kuedo’s Severant and it is hard to believe that the two artists were once both part of Vex’d. Whereas Jamie has gone down the Vangelis-inspired cinematic synth route with Kuedo, Roly Porter has here produced something altogether more uncompromising and decidedly uncommercial. To call this album downbeat would be misleading, as that at least implies some sort of rhythmic impetus. Instead, it is mournful, perhaps even dark - characterised by drones and sustained sounds and often confidently confrontational.
83) Ambrose Akinmusire - When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
Still only 28 years old, Ambrose Akinmusire (who played with Steve Coleman from the age of 19) emerges as a fully formed mature talent on this debut album as a bandleader. There is an immense outpouring of energy, passion and soul on this collection, as well as a fearsome technical proficiency. The set neatly juxtaposes fiery exposition with moments of resonant beauty. With the talents of Walter Smith III, Gerald Clayton, Justin Brown and Harish Raghavan also involved (and with the great pianist Jason Moran producing), this is something of a dream team from this new generation of American jazz pioneers.
82) Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Vol.1 (Southern Lord)
More of the beautiful same from Dylan Carlson - slow, patient, epic doom rock and windswept desert blues. As with other recent Earth releases, there is a delicious tension underpinning these five long pieces. Some subtle differences occur due to the sweeping presence of cellist Lori Goldston. Carlson remains a brilliantly selective musician, making the space as important as the limited number of notes. Volume 2 is coming early in 2012.
81) Phil Robson - The Immeasurable Code (Whirlwind Recordings)
This impressive Anglo-American ensemble features the superb, mellifluous saxophonist Mark Turner, virtuosic flautist Gareth Lockrane, bassist Michael Janisch and drummer Ernesto Simpson. The result, recorded live, is a combination of imperious groove from a crackling rhythm section and fluent, lengthy improvised lines from Robson, Turner and Lockrane. A tremendous, highly underrated ensemble gem.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
musicOMH Reviews
I should also take the time to post links to some of my musicOMH pieces. It may seem like it has been a bit quite around these parts recently, but this is mainly why! I must get a system in place where I can link to musicOMH reviews as they are published.
Nat Baldwin - People Changes
Junior Boys - It's All True
{Ma} - The Last
Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Pat Metheny - What It's All About
Sebastian Rochford & Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Destroyer - Kaputt
JuJu - In Trance
The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - The 1st Album
Roy Harper - Songs Of Love & Loss Vols. 1 & 2
Thomas Dybdahl - Songs
Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister
Murcof - Le Sangre Illuminada OST
13 & God - Own Your Ghost
Chrissy Murderbot - Women's Studies
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
Tamikrest - Toumastin
Boxcutter - The Dissolve
Jenny Hval - Viscera
Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion
Kode9 & Spaceape - Black Sun
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Phaedra - The Sea
Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now
Outhouse - Straw, Sticks & Bricks
Sebadoh - Bakesale (Reissue)
Nat Baldwin - People Changes
Junior Boys - It's All True
{Ma} - The Last
Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Pat Metheny - What It's All About
Sebastian Rochford & Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Destroyer - Kaputt
JuJu - In Trance
The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - The 1st Album
Roy Harper - Songs Of Love & Loss Vols. 1 & 2
Thomas Dybdahl - Songs
Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister
Murcof - Le Sangre Illuminada OST
13 & God - Own Your Ghost
Chrissy Murderbot - Women's Studies
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
Tamikrest - Toumastin
Boxcutter - The Dissolve
Jenny Hval - Viscera
Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion
Kode9 & Spaceape - Black Sun
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Phaedra - The Sea
Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now
Outhouse - Straw, Sticks & Bricks
Sebadoh - Bakesale (Reissue)
Friday, July 22, 2011
Playlist
I've been out in Vermont recording with Adrian Roye and the Exiles and the amazing Michael Chorney, so listening recently has partially been inspired by him:
Michael Chorney - Oom-Pah of the Ghost Parade
Michael Chorney - Songs In Secret Ink
Anais Mitchell - Hymns For The Exiled
Anais Mitchell - The Brightness
Becca Stevens - Weightless (2011)
Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake - You Stepped Out of a Cloud
Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Nice Guys
Lhasa - The Living Road
Jenny Scheinman - Crossing The Field
Also some listening inspired by Portishead's ATP event this weekend:
Portishead - Third
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Beak> - Beak>
Contemporary:
Mark Hanslip and Javier Carmona - DosadoS
Zomby - Dedication
Ambrose Akinmusire - When the Heart Emerges Glistening
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Ma - The Last
Nat Baldwin - People Change
Seb Rochford and Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Pat Metheny - What's It All About
Memory Tapes - Player Piano
Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
Battles - Gloss Drop
Michael Chorney - Oom-Pah of the Ghost Parade
Michael Chorney - Songs In Secret Ink
Anais Mitchell - Hymns For The Exiled
Anais Mitchell - The Brightness
Becca Stevens - Weightless (2011)
Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake - You Stepped Out of a Cloud
Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Nice Guys
Lhasa - The Living Road
Jenny Scheinman - Crossing The Field
Also some listening inspired by Portishead's ATP event this weekend:
Portishead - Third
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Beak> - Beak>
Contemporary:
Mark Hanslip and Javier Carmona - DosadoS
Zomby - Dedication
Ambrose Akinmusire - When the Heart Emerges Glistening
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Ma - The Last
Nat Baldwin - People Change
Seb Rochford and Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Pat Metheny - What's It All About
Memory Tapes - Player Piano
Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
Battles - Gloss Drop
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Playlist
Enjoying lots of great music at the moment and struggling to find time to write about it.
Grouper - A I A (Yellowelectric)
tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
Bibio - Mind Bokeh (Warp)
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet (Honest Jon's)
Murcof - Le Sangre Illuminada (Infine)
Tindersticks - Claire Denis Soundtracks (free sampler with Sight & Sound)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister (Nonesuch 3 disc box set - their first two albums plus a disc of extras and rarities)
Look, Stranger! - If You're Listening EP (http://lookstranger.bandcamp.com)
Low - C'Mon (Sub Pop)
Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
Chrissy Murderbot - Women's Studies (Planet Mu)
Paul Simon So Beautiful Or So What (Decca)
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain (Nonesuch)
The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh (Bella Union) - finally checking this out properly in light of their brilliant QEH gig last week, a review of which should be going up on musicOMH shortly.
TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light (Polydor)
Cass McCombs - Wit's End (Domino)
Avishai Cohen - Seven Seas (Blue Note)
Metronomy - The English Riviera (Because)
How To Dress Well - Love Remains (PIAS) - something else I should have checked out ages ago!
Grouper - A I A (Yellowelectric)
tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
Bibio - Mind Bokeh (Warp)
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet (Honest Jon's)
Murcof - Le Sangre Illuminada (Infine)
Tindersticks - Claire Denis Soundtracks (free sampler with Sight & Sound)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister (Nonesuch 3 disc box set - their first two albums plus a disc of extras and rarities)
Look, Stranger! - If You're Listening EP (http://lookstranger.bandcamp.com)
Low - C'Mon (Sub Pop)
Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
Chrissy Murderbot - Women's Studies (Planet Mu)
Paul Simon So Beautiful Or So What (Decca)
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain (Nonesuch)
The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh (Bella Union) - finally checking this out properly in light of their brilliant QEH gig last week, a review of which should be going up on musicOMH shortly.
TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light (Polydor)
Cass McCombs - Wit's End (Domino)
Avishai Cohen - Seven Seas (Blue Note)
Metronomy - The English Riviera (Because)
How To Dress Well - Love Remains (PIAS) - something else I should have checked out ages ago!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Playlist
Some things I must get round to writing about, either here or elsewhere:
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
Vijay Iyer with Prasanna and Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (Act)
Gwilym Simcock - Good Days at Schloss Elmau (Act)
Joe Lovano Us Five - Bird Songs (Blue Note)
Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx - We're New Here (XL)
Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
Destroyer - Kaputt (Merge)
Trichotomy - The Gentle War (Naim Jazz)
REM - Collapse Into Now (Warner Bros) - I suspect my review of this is not going to be too positive unfortunately.
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
Vijay Iyer with Prasanna and Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (Act)
Gwilym Simcock - Good Days at Schloss Elmau (Act)
Joe Lovano Us Five - Bird Songs (Blue Note)
Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx - We're New Here (XL)
Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
Destroyer - Kaputt (Merge)
Trichotomy - The Gentle War (Naim Jazz)
REM - Collapse Into Now (Warner Bros) - I suspect my review of this is not going to be too positive unfortunately.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Review of 2010 Part 3: My 100 (and a bit) Best Albums
100. Phantom - Smoke and Mirrors (La Nausee)
Hardly anyone in the mainstream media noticed this wonderful download-only album from Canadian-British duo Phantom. Luckily, I gave it a warm review over at musicOMH. Consisting of two long tracks, themselves comprised of shorter pieces segued together, Smoke and Mirrors was both demanding and rewarding. Clearly intended to be digested as a whole, it went against commercial imperatives calling for bitesize chunks of music, and aimed at reinvigorating the album format for the download market. If it didn’t quite succeed, it wasn’t for lack of imagination and ambition in the music - Phantom constructed their own seamless, intoxicating sound collage with real skill.
99. Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (Virgin)
I surprised myself with just how much I liked this second album from a singer I’d previously dismissed as a coffee table prop. Having been through a great deal of personal tragedy and strife, that Bailey Rae returned to music at all was remarkable. That she returned with an album this deep, coherent and powerful is all the more impressive.
98. Teebs - Ardour (Brainfeeder)
This release, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, was one of the many great electronic releases of the year - a pretty, lush, expansive work in the pastoral manner familiar from Four Tet circa Pause or Rounds.
97. Vijay Iyer - Solo (ACT)
Vijay Iyer’s solo piano music doesn’t quite have the incredible impact of his recent trio work, but it does demonstrate his knowledge of the jazz tradition as much as his intriguing attempts to subvert or develop it. He doesn’t seem as comfortable in this idiom as Keith Jarrett or Bill Evans, and he is a very different kind of pianist from those two great revolutionaries of jazz piano. ‘Solo’ shows him to be thoughtful as well as intelligent. As a result of this and some careful selections of material, ‘Solo’ is a satisfying album.
96. Andreya Triana - Lost Where I Belong (Ninja Tune)
Vocalist with Flying Lotus’ extraordinary Infinity project, Andreya Triana also made a decent album in her own name this year. Lost Where I Belong is spacious, delicate, sometimes exotic music - reminiscent of Minnie Riperton.
95. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti)
Mavis Staples’ gritty voice still sounds striking and authoritative even now. Here, in Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, she finds another musician-producer completely attuned to her needs and abilities. This is a fine, carefully crafted album of excellent songs, delivered with passion, commitment and soul by Staples.
94. Field Music - (Measure) (Memphis Industries)
Field Music’s ‘hiatus’ turned out to be refreshingly brief, a detour of a couple of years to allow Peter and David Brewis to collaborate on separate projects. Now reunited under the Field Music moniker with one of the year’s many long albums (what was in the water in 2010?), it’s hard to resist dubbing them the OutKast of British indie. The Brewis brothers certainly revel in writing far more superior and sophisticated music to your average British indie band - this was cerebral, individualistic guitar pop.
93. The Bad Plus - Never Stop (Emarcy)
I greatly preferred this to For All I Care, The Bad Plus’ previous album with vocalist Wendy Lewis. Never Stop is their first album to consist entirely of original compositions, and it served as a timely reminder that their own writing has for some time now been stronger than their infamous interpretations. They remain one of the best contemporary jazz trios - with a strong sense of time and groove, and a thrilling ability to interact.
92. Mountain Man - Made The Harbor (Bella Union)
This lovely piece of appalachian folk reminded me greatly of the very popular O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, but with much less of a gently parodic sensibility. In fact, Made the Harbor sounds like a deeply serious record, in thrall to the sound of combined human voices.
91. Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo (Sub Pop)
Inevitably, much has been made of Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg’s youth (he’s still not even 20), but this would have been an impressive debut at any age. Zahner-Isenberg is a superb guitarist, and much of the excitement in the music comes from the relationship between his wiry but pretty melodies and the sudden bursts of heavy guitar improvising. If some of the song titles (Five Little Sluts, Summer Cum) lean towards the misogynistic or pointlessly provocative, this is the only downside of a summery album full of quality.
90. Mary Gauthier - The Foundling (Proper)
This is one of Gauthier’s finest album - an unflinching, brutally honest album about her own life as an adopted, initially abandoned child, and chronicling the pain and suffering of the rejection she felt on finding her birth mother. This is raw, heartbreaking music and Gauthier is one of the most undervalued singer-songwriters at work right now.
89. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (DFA/EMI)
Basically more of the same from James Murphy - a small sense of diminishing returns after the fantastic Sound of Silver, but it would be churlish to complain when the results are this enjoyable. Murphy is, however, entirely right that it is time to move on to something different.
88. Matthew Dear - Black City (Ghostly International)
This sleek, robotic, dark and occasionally erotic album from Matthew Dear is fascinating. Dear has little shame in electronically manipulating his voice to produce some distinctly unfashionable sounds, and Black City is an individual and authoritative statement as a result of this.
87. Secret Quartet - Bloor Street (Edition)
This is essentially an album of classic-sounding acoustic jazz, benefiting from the melodic invention and clarity of tone from Martin Speake and the strong foundations provided by pianist Nikki Iles. The compositions are consistently strong and the improvising full of insight and inspiration.
86. Autechre - Oversteps/Move of Ten (Warp)
Another act to produce more music than strictly required in 2010 were electronic pioneers Autechre. I should have investigated the Autechre catalogue more throughly than I have. Occasionally, I find myself gently reminded of their existence and their deserved status. Oversteps may be the better of these two excellent albums - it’s not beat-driven and therefore avoids glitchy cliches entirely. It possibly harks back to the 80s or even earlier, with hints of Riyuchi Sakomoto or Tangerine Dream. This is all presented with a decisively contemporary spin though - and it’s impressive to find an act still keen to reinvent themselves so long into such an illustrious career.
85. Olafur Arnalds - and they have escaped the weight of darkness (Erased Tapes)
More of the same from Arnalds here on this portentously titled album (apparently inspired by the great Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr). Arnalds’ slow moving, direct and haunting melancholy is again very much in evidence, and the music is gently moving.
84. Paragon - Quarterlife Crisis (Shakewell Records)
This Anglo-German ensemble of young musicians (with composing duties shared between pianist Arthur Lea and saxophonist Peter Ehwald) now convenes infrequently but makes quirky, confident and appealing music. Quarterlife Crisis, recorded in Koln in 2009 after plenty of touring, is a delightful album characterised by a fine balance between charm and searching improvising.
83. High Places - High Places vs. Mankind (Thrill Jockey)
Another of the year’s more perversely underrated record, this infectious and likeable second album from High Places seemed to see the band relegated further to the margins. This seems strange when the album contained bright, accessible gems such as On Giving Up. The group’s approach is minimal but effective, making impressive use of space and making each note and sound matter.
82. Kurt Wagner and Cortney Tidwell present KORT - Invariable Heartache (City Slang)
This long-awaited collaboration between Lambchop mainman Wagner and the talented singer-songwriter Cortney Tidwell ended up quite a traditional affair, the duo tackling a set of Nashville country songs associated with Tidwell’s parents. Wagner’s voice sounds older and more experienced, Tidwell pulls off the difficult trick of providing a softer, but no less fascinating harmonic foil.
81. The Chieftains with Ry Cooder - San Patricio (Decca)
Everything Cooder touches seems to turn to gold. This collaboration with Irish group The Chieftains take on the weighty subject of the Irish conscripts who deserted from the American army to fight with the Mexicans in the border war of the 1840s, fusing Irish folk music with sounds from the southern US border. It’s a lengthy, challenging album, but both process and results are inspired and it stands as a fascinating document.
80. Marnie Stern - Marnie Stern (Souterrain Transmissions)
Yet more vigorous shredding from Marnie Stern and Zach Hill - their technical brilliance remains a coruscating source of inspiration rather than frustration.
79. Fool’s Gold - Fool’s Gold (Iamsound)
A group possibly named after a Stone Roses song may not necessarily float my boat these days, but Fool’s Gold are actually a treasure trove of riches. A little like Dirty Projectors, the Los Angeles-based collective fuse Western rock and pop with a variety of rhythms and playing styles from around the world. Vocalist Luke Top sings in Hebrew, adding an additional element to their extraordinary melting pot.
78. Avey Tare - Down There (Paw Tracks)
Avey Tare has sometimes seemed like the dangerous member of Animal Collective, swamping their earliest material with abrasive feedback screeches and moments of childlike whimsy. As the band have found a more successful balance within themselves, Panda Bear and Tare have both established themselves as independent artists as well. Down There is, mercifully, much less obtuse than Tare’s previous work outside the band - it features moments of twisting, eerie psychedelia and spidery melodic invention. It’s less sweet and joyful without the presence of Panda Bear, but no less peculiar and synaesthetic.
77. Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now (Names)
This faithful exploration of American country stylings is one of the best examples of this in some time. Rose is fully conversant in the vernacular of this musical tradition, and her songs are affecting and full of emotion. With her sensitive, empathetic band in tow, Rose has all the elements that make a superb singer-songwriter.
76. Jamie Lidell - Compass (Warp)
It’s a shame that this imaginative album seems to have failed to bring Lidell to a wider audience. Wisely, Lidell abandoned the slavish blue-eyed soul that rendered Jim something of a disappointment - Compass was sexier, weirder and considerably more honest. We can now again see the Lidell that made the best bits of Multiply, the Lidell who was one half of the amazing Super Collider, and even the Lidell that made the glitchy, confounding Muddlin’ Gear. Compass contained predictable hints at Prince, but less predictably, some of the meandering, fluid songwriting style of Terry Callier or even Terry Reid was also in operation here. Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor is just one of Lidell’s many collaborators here, and his sonic palette is in evidence throughout the album. For all the trickery and experimentation, it’s also personal and intimate too.
75. Robert Plant - Band Of Joy (Decca)
Plant seems to have entered a new, mature and staggeringly confident phase of his career now. With many clamouring for a direct follow-up to Raising Sand, Plant refused to acquiesce, instead forming a new version of his Band of Joy ensemble. This is every bit as assured and impressive an album as Raising Sand, and is stronger still for exploring some unexpected ground (the album features faithful covers of Low’s Monkey and Silver Rider). Plant’s interests seem to move further away from straightforward rock and more into a wide range of American music as he gets older. This seems like another honest, thoroughly committed statement.
74. Cheikh Lo - Jamm (World Circuit)
Jamm’s title suggests a righteous musical party, but the word actually translates to mean ‘peace’. Cheikh Lo’s music here, although groovy and celebratory, is also light and subtle too. The warmth of Pee Wee Ellis’ saxophone is a memorable feature of this carefully balanced, hugely enjoyable album.
73. Philip Jeck - An Ark For The Listener (Type)
I remain a little suspicious of ‘sound art’ as a concept distinct from music, but Jeck strikes me as one of the strongest examples of a completely modern composer. He builds his swirling, encircling pieces from the use of old vinyl, although this is by no means a ‘sampling’ endeavour like DJ Shadow. Jeck’s mysterious, spectral sound worlds depend on careful manipulation of texture and pitch. An Ark For The Listener is Jeck’s brilliant response to a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, and it has all the wonder and complexity of Hopkins’ language.
72. Actress - Splazsh (Honest Jon’s)
Darren Cunningham’s self-contained, insular and mechanical electronica reached a new pinnacle on this tremendous set. It somehow sounded cold and loveless, yet deliciously seductive at the same time.
71. Hot Chip - One Life Stand (EMI)
This is Hot Chip’s most streamlined and focused work to date, perhaps a conscious response to the criticism the group received (unfairly in my view) for Made In The Dark’s scattershot tendency. There’s still room for diversity - as One Life Stand takes in English pop melodic stylings, Chicago House, Techno and modern soul. Alexis Taylor’s delicate, plaintive voice remains an intrinsic part of the group’s artistry. Their peerless merging of Taylor’s melodic sensibility with Joe Goddard’s independent, individual production values has expanded to feel more like an ensemble work. The Hot Chip live show is now impressively slick too.
70. Jason Moran - Ten (Blue Note)
The status of Jason Moran in the jazz world seems to increase year on year, Ten being another exceedingly impressive addition to his own catalogue and his work with Charles Lloyd perhaps providing an even stronger example of his rhythmic and melodic invention. This flexible, bold piano trio has, as the album’s title suggests, now been a working, trailblazing band for ten years and more. This album finds room for some healthy nostalgia - including a piece co-written with Moran’s teacher Andrew Hill, as well as interpretations of composers as diverse as Thelonious Monk and Conlon Nancarrow. Perhaps more than any of Moran’s previous releases, it offers a clear view of the heritage that has influenced his distinctive improvising. His group can still swing hard as well.
69. Nico Muhly - I Drink The Air Before Me (Decca)
It would be easy to find Nico Muhly’s ubiquity in his early-20s somewhat nauseating. Not only has he achieved considerable success as a composer, he’s produced some wonderfully evocative film soundtrack work and has become the string and brass arranger du jour for America’s indie bands. Yet listening to this recording of his major score for a dance piece, it’s hard to dispute his talent. This is a big, muscular, exciting work that even manages to make sensitive and effective use of a child’s choir. The work moves in a fragmentary fashion from the very unusual to diatonic plainchant whilst sustaining a coherent sense of identity and flow.
68. Dave Holland Octet - Pathways (Dare2)/ Pepe Habichuela and Dave Holland - Hands (Emarcy)
I am cheating more than a little here by putting these two Dave Holland recordings together, but they serve as a timely reminder of Holland’s versatility. He has now established such a coherent and winning formula with his own ensembles (as evidenced by the thrilling ensemble playing on the live recording Pathways) that it is great to here him again in an entirely different context, playing outstanding Flamenco music with Pepe Habichuela. The album is at once both substantial and delicate, with some superb cajon playing from Juan Cormona.
67. Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things - Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)
Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things project has illuminated a new side to the exciting Chicago jazz scene. Rather than venturing into modernist abstraction or contemporary jazz-rock fusion, drummer and arranger Reed has used this ensemble to explore the venerable history and achievement of modern jazz in Chicago. This excellent live recording contains a mix of new arrangements of lesser known works (Sun Ra’s El is the Sound of Joy for example) and original pieces dedicated to Reed’s chief influences. Considering Reed is a drummer-bandleader, it’s interesting how restrained and supportive his playing is here - much of this is far more about the fresh take on horn arrangements.
66. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts and Crafts)
This fourth album from Broken Social Scene was in places exhilarating and menacing, even if by now the shock factor in their ideas had worn off a little. Perhaps Forgiveness Rock Record is chiefly interesting for its cleaner, crisper production - something that, perhaps surprisingly, does not really diminish the band’s ragged glory in any way.
65 = Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here? (Editions Mego)
65 = Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (Editions Mego)
I find it very difficult to separate these two Editions Mego releases in my own mind, although there seems to have been a healthy competition between the two of them for many journalists. I’m usually suspicious of music that tries so very hard to abandon rhythm (an essential element of music), but these two releases achieved their goals so superbly that they became impossible to ignore. The Oneohtrix album is more like a contemporary noise suite - brilliantly structured, moving from its most combative and abrasive to its most affecting and soothing. Throughout, there are gentle hints of melody and form, so the fact that the single version of the title track featured vocals from Antony Hegarty came as less of a surprise than might otherwise be expected. Emeralds’ album took them away from the sprawling What Happened? in favour of something a little easier to navigate. That didn’t stop Does It Look Like I’m Here? from being one of the year’s most quietly mesmerising albums, full of supremely effective ideas.
63. Laura Veirs - July Flame (Bella Union)
Another massively underrated album from a female singer-songwriter in 2010. Post-Carbon Glacier, Veirs appears to have been taken for granted a little, as she has produced decent album after decent album, but each lacking a distinctive edge that would propel her back into critical consciousness. For me, July Flame ought to have been that album - it’s a much warmer and embraceable record than its predecessors, and the writing is full of compassion and humanity.
62. Benoit Pioulard - Lasted (Kranky)
Thomas Meluch’s third album as Benoit Pioulard is his most sophisticated and coherent yet, with a sense of rapture and awareness breaking through the pervading heat-haze. This time Meluch’s understated voice seems less buried and the melodies have greater impact as a result. This is achieved without sacrificing any of the strange, eerie qualities to Meluch’s music.
61. Kairos 4Tet - Kairos Moment (Kairos)
Although much of this album seems like rhythmic brinkmanship, Adam Waldmann’s Kairos 4Tet still emerge as a more accessible, less cerebral take on contemporary British jazz. Kairos Moment is brimming with infectious riffs and hooks, and the engine of the band is the dynamic, propulsive, ceaselessly exciting playing of bassist Jasper Hoiby and drummer Jon Scott, two of the strongest musicians currently at work on the London scene. A guest appearance by vocalist Heidi Vogel also provides a simmering, delightful highlight. The group, now with Ivo Neame on piano, have just finished work on their second album due for release in 2011.
60. Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden - Jasmine (ECM)
This first duo recording between those great old friends and musical colleagues Jarrett and Haden had a wonderfully informal feeling to it. It’s unlikely that this will go down as one of Jarrett’s most revolutionary or adventurous statements - but then both these musicians did all that with the American Quartet. This instead has an intimate feel to it - the product of sincere mutual respect, both for each other and for the standard material they are playing. Haden’s bass sound is full and resonant, Jarrett is disciplined but typically passionate.
59. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part 2 - Return of the Ankh (Universal)
I was a little surprised not to find the long-delayed second part of Badu’s New Amerykah project absent from so many list. For sure, it’s not as surprising or imposing as the first part - instead, it refocuses attention on Badu’s most characteristic stylistic traits. Many of these are virtues, however, as her supremely relaxed phrasing and understated, near-conversational style mark her out as one of the best modern R&B singers.
58. Jaga Jazzist - One Armed Badit (Ninja Tune)
One Armed Bandit is perhaps the most focused and immediate of the Jaga Jazzist albums - full of the usual dexterity and technique, but somehow delivered in a much more compact and less showy manner. It’s tremendously exciting - a fusion music with a peculiar dancing quality.
57. William Tyler - Behold The Spirit (Tompkins Square)
One of the great joys of being a music obsessive is discovering that a musician you are familiar with from one context has an entirely different near-secret musical life. Lambchop guitarist William Tyler’s solo album is a graceful, eloquent take on similar territory to that handled so well by James Blackshaw. It’s perhaps not quite as mysterious and pervading as Blackshaw’s All Is Falling. Some of the material here seems comforting and familiar, especially The Green Pastures, which luxuriates in the textural effects of pedal steel guitar as well as Tyler’s dexterous steel string fingerpicking. This is no bad thing - Tyler is an impressive guitarist, and the music he has produced here feels homely and inviting.
56. Luke Abbott - Holkham Drones (Border Community)
This is a gently superior album, one of those recordings that worms its way into one’s consciousness and eventually refuses to leave. On first listen, it seemed like distinctive but unassuming take on electronica. Repeated listens reveal a sense of fun as well as intelligence. Probably the best release from Border Community so far.
55. Richard Thompson - Dream Attic (Proper)
Dire cover art notwithstanding, this is an urgent, vibrant album from Thompson. Recorded live on a US tour, it provides plenty of evidence not just of Thompson’s outstanding guitar playing, but of the commitment and force of his accompanying musicians. Not only this, but the songwriting is superb too, with some wry and biting lyrics.
54. Tamikrest - Adagh (Glitterhouse)
It’s perhaps tempting to dismiss Tamikrest rather casually as an identikit Tinariwen, but actually ‘Adagh’ shows them to have a potency and power that is very much their own. This is a rousing, spirited album played with insistence, determination and a wonderfully natural feel.
53. Wyatt, Atzmon, Stephen - For The Ghosts Within (Domino)
Hearing Robert Wyatt’s beguiling, idiosyncratic voice - somehow always both comforting and startling - wrap itself around some of the most recognisable standards in the Great American Songbook proved one of 2010’s singular treats. The original music on this worthy collaboration is also fascinating. If not always wholly artistically successful, this is the work of brave and committed musicians and activists flying the flag for principled idealism.
52. Konono No. 1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
Fears that international acclaim and success might dilute Konono No. 1’s approach or sound proved mercifully unfounded. ‘Assume Crash Position’ was just as intense and thrilling an experience as its Congotronics predecessor. There is an urgency and excitement in this music that is impossible to resist.
51. The Roots - How I Got Over (Mercury)
Never quite convinced by Kanye West’s reliance on manipulated soul samples, I find that The Roots are a dependable example of how better to integrate rap and song. The unusual guest artists here (including Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors and Joanna Newsom) fit surprisingly well into this album’s imposing and coherent sound.
50. New Pornographers - Together (Matador)
After jettisoning some of their quirkier, more appealing characteristics in favour of plodding orchestra-bolstered indie on Challengers, Together saw New Pornographers recapturing the kinetic, thrilling eruptions of joy that always made them so appealing in the first place. Carl Newman’s songwriting remains gleefully obtuse, whilst Dan Bejar continues to add his distinctive whimsy. The whole set seems to cohere more this time though, and is delivered with the confidence of a band who know exactly what they are doing.
49. Lobi Traore - Rainy Season Blues (Glitterhouse)
Of the many tragic losses in 2010, the premature death of Lobi Traore may be the saddest, robbing the world not only of one of its brightest talents but, one senses, of a musician yet to make his strongest statement. Rainy Season Blues, Traore’s first and last solo album, was recorded on the spur of the moment, after plans for an ensemble recording fell through. That it sounds so completely assured is revelatory. This is a record so deeply immersed in the blues that it drips with it. That Traore could have continued to make many more even better albums is devastating.
48. Lorn - Nothing Else (Brainfeeder)
This year belonged to Flying Lotus in so many ways, not just for the music released under his own moniker, but also for his production duties and his work as a free-spirited svengali with the Brainfeeder label. The Lorn album may be the label’s most substantial statement so far - a heavy, insistent US take on bass music that never fails to stimulate or surprise.
47. Lonelady - Nerve Up (Warp)
Warp’s attempts to branch out beyond glitchy and ambient electronica have produced mixed results, but I liked Lonelady’s twitchy ball of nervous energy far more than reviews suggested I might. This is four-square wiry post-punk set to a drum machine, with occasional nods to the relentless garage southern gothic of early R.E.M. Some angular, agitated vocals and some memorable songs enable Lonelady to communicate with stark authority.
46. Nina Nastasia - Outlaster (FatCat)
For me, this was comfortably the strongest Nina Nastasia album to date, a substantial leap forward in terms of both process and product. The arrangements on Outlaster are simply wonderful - full of unexpected dissonances and tensions, and the extra colour helps transport this well away from the conventions of singer-songwriterdom. Nastasia has always been an excellent writer - but she has never made an album quite this distinctive and compelling before.
45. Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (Warp)
Gonjasufi is a genuinely strange and unpredictable character. This collection is an inspired set of warped modern psychedelia, with inventive production from Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer. Gonjasufi’s vocals are not easily digestible - sometimes they are uncompromising and abrasive. Yet the music is mostly curiously uplifting.
44. Phosphorescent - Here’s To Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans)
Here’s To Taking It Easy is not exactly the most radical or forward thinking album in this list. It is instead a hugely successful attempt at classic American songcraft - much better than over-praised efforts from the likes of Drive By Truckers or Dylan LeBlanc. Matthew Houck’s work interpreting Willie Nelson for the previous Phosphorescent album may have had a lingering effect - much of this album comes bathed in a hazy melancholy. Much of it sounds effortless - relaxed but also literate and burning with feeling and intensity where necessary. Heij, Me I’m Light also provides a slightly incongrous, but wholly inspired detour into quasi-gospel fervour.
43. Phronesis - Alive (Edition)
This live recording may be the strongest example of Jasper Hoiby’s bass-lead piano trio so far. With Mark Giuliana on drums and the exquisite Ivo Neame on piano, there’s a real urgency and depth of expression as well as the fluid interaction we have come to expect. Hoiby’s compositions are deceptive - initially they seem rhythmically driven, but eventually come to reveal subtle hooks and intelligent use of harmony and space.
42. Trembling Bells - Abandoned Love (Honest Jon’s)
Along with Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells are at the absolute forefront of contemporary folk music. Propelled superbly by Alex Neilsen’s fluid drumming, an unusual quality in this music, and with Lavinia Blackwell’s majestic voice claiming ownership of Neilsen’s melodies, this is one of the most captivating and imposing ensembles working in this area of music. Trembling Bells sound at once disciplined and liberated - informed by a sophisticated understanding of the tradition but also driven by a fervent desire to take the music in new directions.
41. Vampire Weekend - Contra (XL)
Vampire Weekend’s second album, released with surprising rapidity yet actually an improvement on their debut, seems to have been rather casually forgotten come the end of year lists. Perhaps it lacks some of the debut’s ivy league humour - but if anything it builds on the open-minded fusion of the first record. Ezra Koenig’s wordy lyrics and agitated vocal phrasing remain crucial characteristics - and they elevate the group above facile and misguided accusations of cultural tourism. Make no mistake that Vampire Weekend are an intelligent and significant band more than worthy of attention and discusssion.
40. Janelle Monae - The Archandroid (Bad Boy/Atlantic)
A highlight for many music lovers and critics this year, it’s easy to see why this dynamic slice of retro-futurist pop was so greatly loved. Sophisticated pop music is hard to find - and Janelle emerged with a tremendously strong brand - a smooth but gutsy voice, great style and a commitment and passion for her music. It went almost unnoticed then that The Archandroid breaks all the rules for marketable commercial pop music - it veers wilfully from one style to another, its flow gleefully interrupted by abrupt transitions. Monae’s madcap, conceptual structure could benefit from a stronger melodic core - but the ideas keep coming so thick and fast that the flaws seem insignificant when the project is so brilliantly reckless.
39. Oval - O (Thrill Jockey)
Featuring no less than 70 tracks, many of them intentionally confounding miniatures, Markus Popp seems to have designed O in order to manipulate last.fm stats. The conceit is not entirely malicious though - through these tiny bitesize pieces, a wider coherent whole emerges. It’s clearly not about the individual tracks, but more about how the sketches combine to create something meticulously ordered and yet strangely beautiful.
38. Alasdair Roberts and Friends - Too Long In This Condition (Navigator)
Roberts revisits the traditional songbook for the first time since No Earthly Man on this dependably excellent collection - this one, as the ‘friends’ moniker suggests, a little more reliant on the ensemble sound. If it’s not quite as glorious as last year’s Spoils, it’s still a tremendous collection, Roberts’ choice of narratives occasionally erring towards the dark and terrible as much as the wistful and romantic.
37. Mount Kimbie - Crooks and Lovers (Hot Flush)
For a while, this looked as if it might be the dubstep ‘break-out’ release of 2010, a word of mouth success to rival that of Burial. If it never quite got there, it wasn’t because of lack of imagination and quality in the recordings. This is a nuanced, atmospheric work that repays close attention - a haunting statement of intent.
36. Demdike Stare - Forest of Evil/Liberation Through Hearing/Voices of Dust (Modern Love)
One of the many acts proving in 2010 that quantity could be just as significant as quality, Lancashire’s Demdike Stare unleashed three albums of similar intensity and imagination, but each with its own individual character. Forest of Evil is comprised of two dense, lengthy pieces full of murk and menace. The final album in the trilogy explores ghostly sounds and voices to tremendous effect, finding a hinterland between dub, the radiophonic workshop and local landscape. An output as compelling as it is prodigious.
35. Polar Bear - Peepers (Leaf)
Seb Rochford’s outstanding contemporary jazz group added subtle variations to their sound on this fourth album, with Leafcutter John playing guitar as well as electronics. The addition of an accompanying harmony instrument makes a substantial difference, but the group’s credit, it has not completely altered their musical personality. Rather, it has expanded the possibilities. The quirky compositions are as rhythmically stimulating as ever, but its the album’s more pensive, reflective moments that show Rochford maturing as a composer.
34. Django Bates - Beloved Bird (Lost Marble)
Django’s virtuosic, mischievous, scurrying improvising didn’t find a particularly fruitful outlet in the collaboration with The Bad Plus at King’s Place, in spite of all the mutual respect between them. Far more exciting was this brilliant, highly exciting take on the music of Charlie Parker with a Danish trio - Bates proving that Parker’s nimble writing can have audacious and exciting contexts away from BeBop revivalism. Bates imposes his own character and style on this material with complete conviction.
33. Scuba - Triangulation (Hot Flush)
The Hot Flush label is helping to steer dubstep in exciting new directions, already suggesting that it might be a sub genre with some mileage. This second album from Scuba is a significant development from his debut, pregnant with tension and murkiness, full of bold explorations of the previously unknown.
32. Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth - Deluxe (Clean Feed)
This righteous, propulsive ensemble provided one of the American jazz highlights of 2010. Lightcap’s engaging, zestful compositions provided consistent interest, whilst the playing (especially from the superb keyboardist Craig Taborn) was imaginative and sprightly.
31. Shackleton - Fabric 55 (Fabric)
Emerging at the very tail end of the year and therefore absent from most lists, this is one of the most powerful arguments for the DJ mix album as artistic statement in some time. It’s perhaps the best mix set since DJ/Rupture’s majestic Minesweeper Suite. The difference here though is it’s not just the mix that provides this album with its character - it is that is is a mix consisting entirely of Shackleton’s own work. Now forging far beyond anything that might be labelled dubstep or, more nauseatingly, post-dubstep, this is the work of an artist fascinated by the broader possibilities of rhythm, sound and speech.
30. Erik Friedlander - Alchemy (SkipStone)
The Cello has always been one of the most versatile instruments - in Friedlander’s hands it seems that it can be made to do almost anything at all, from excoriating, searing sounds to moments of sweet and tender longing. Alchemy is a solo recording that covers these bases and much, much more - a brilliant document of Friedlander’s musical awareness and expressive manipulation of his instrument.
29. Bill Frisell - Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz)
Perhaps this trio recording doesn’t really break new ground for Frisell - but then this is an artist who has covered such diverse ground that it would be hard to find another truly radical position now. Still, the music is wonderfully played, with Frisell as ever finding the common ground between various American musical traditions. There are few musicians with such a gripping contemporary voice, but with a simultaneous expert grasp of musical and cultural history. Even the most hackneyed of standards - in this case Tea for Two - sound daring, playful and fresh when played by Frisell. This does not seem to have been written about very much - but, for me, it's one of Frisell's best albums.
28. Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises (Caldo Verde)
Mark Kozelek’s unwavering consistency continued in marvellous fashion on this mesmerising, beautiful album. It was the first to see Kozelek play a nylon stringed classical guitar, an instrument he appears to have taken to with genuine commitment. The songs are typically wistul, detailed and evocative and Kozelek’s voice is one of those familiar, comforting sounds that can never lose its understated appeal. What is new is the passages of elaborate virtuosity on the guitar. One of Kozelek’s best records to date.
27. Chris Abrahams - Play Scar (Room40)
This solo album from The Necks’ pianist is deceptive, lulling the listener into a false sense of security from which moments of distinct creepiness arise. Just when it feels Abrahams has achieved some kind of inner peace, a rush of Hammond Organ makes for a turbulent intrusion. It’s a strange, spectral, fascinating collection of musical ruminations.
26. Gil Scott-Heron - I’m New Here (XL)
This skeletal record sounded not so much like an artistic renewal, more like a fragmentary, hugely articulate glimpse into what remained of Scott-Heron after drug addiction and prison. It’s a tremendous album, its intimate perspective achieved not just through Scott-Heron’s audacious and autobiographical poetry but also through judicious choices of material for interpretation (Robert Johnson, Smog’s title track). One doesn’t immediately consider Scott-Heron one of the great interpreters - I’m New Here makes it clear just what a skilled vocalist he remains, perhaps even because that smooth baritone is something much more wild and ragged now.
25. Caribou - Swim (City Slang)
Dan Snaith’s work as Caribou has always been teetering on the brink of something poptastic - but his slightly mischievous streak seems to have held him back from fully exploring his music’s melodic potential. Swim is at once his most immediate and his most assured album under the Caribou moniker. It still explores some of the psychedelic pathways he has traversed already, but it feels much more streamlined and less cluttered. His voice, never the strongest of instruments, works best when at its most intimate and conversation as on Odessa, one of the tracks of the year. Much of Swim is vibrant and intoxicating.
24. Atomic - Theater Tilters (Jazzland)
Intense, tempestuous, whirlrlwind contemporary live jazz from Norway. These performances, spread over two discs, have the fire and fury of jazz-rock fusion but also the liberation and propulsion of free improvisation. It’s a manic, consistently surprising experience.
23. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and The Cairo Gang - The Wonder Show of the World (Domino)
Has Will Oldham, now on his umpteenth album, become one of those artists who is too easily taken for granted? The Wonder Show of the World seems to have been forgotten in the end of year polls. It’s a sufficiently different statement from the more acclaimed Beware to merit attention in its own right. The Cairo Gang - yet another new incarnation - is essentially a trio with Emmett Kelly and Shahzal Ismally, and the arrangements are mostly sparse and demure but this is a far stronger intimate album than Master and Everyone. These are some of Oldham’s strongest songs though - full of wit, wisdom and some characteristically candid moments.
22. Nedry - Condors (Monotreme)
Somehow I almost missed this quite wonderful album. There’s more than a slight resemblance to Bjork in Ayu Okaita’s flighty vocals and the music is soulful, evocative and occasionally daring. This is a supremely confident debut, a fully formed mature statement than grows with every listen.
21. Food - Quiet Inlet (ECM)
ECM has had a strong year, with its best releases steering clear of European jazz cliches (indeed, it’s harder to find an act more in tune with the American tradition than Charles Lloyd’s Quartet). This is a new incarnation of Food that finds Thomas Stronen and Iain Ballamy collaborating with Nils Petter Molvaer and electronic wizard Christian Fennesz. The results are glacial and insidious, in the best possible way.
20. Matthew Herbert - One One/One Club (Accidental)
If Herbert had seemed to be coasting a little recently (a pleasant if slightly unremarkable album in Scale followed by a second Big Band project), his One trilogy (the final part, One Pig, will now be released in 2011) shook things up considerably. Few could have been expecting anything quite as personal and intimate as One One, on which Herbert assumed vocal duties for the first time. Clearly his is not a technically accomplished voice, but it provided the vulnerability and honesty that the material required. It was refreshing to see Herbert veer away from political or conceptual concerns and try something different. One Club saw a new application for the modern musique concrete techniques Herbert first employed on Plat du Jour, the whole album being made from source recordings Herbert made in a nightclub. As ever with Herbert, it is more cerebral than hedonistic.
19. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (4AD)
Whilst Ariel Pink’s initial compilations of home recordings provided plenty of examples of his wayward brilliance, his insistence that the clock be reset for this first studio recording with a band suggested it offered something different and more substantial. This may be true - these lush, fuzzy detours through unfashionable realms (Hall and Oates, 10cc and Todd Rundgren may be influences) did more than just attempt to reclaim FM rock as art. Pink created a new, odd soundworld in which conventional musical taste was thrown out of the window and the resultant quirky, unpredictable sounds were completely irresistible.
18. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise (Rough Trade)
17. Four Tet - There Is Love In You (Domino)
Two of the best electronic albums of 2010 arrived relatively early in the year. There Is Love In You may be the best work Kieran Hebden has yet produced under the Four Tet moniker, particularly striking in its use of human voices and in its dizzying cut-up rhythms. The Pantha du Prince album may have been a little sidelined by longstanding listeners who found it mildly inferior to its predecessor This Bliss. This seems a little churlish when the quality level is so palpably high. There’s a brilliant sense of atmosphere on Black Noise, and there is a warmth and a melodic quality sometimes absent from electronic music.
16. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot - Son of Chico Dusty (Mercury)
Whilst the emergence of Janelle Monae as a retro-futurist pop sensation excited almost everyone, this solo album from one half of OutKast didn’t quite get as much adulation. For me, it was actually the better record, a wonderful pot-pourri of modern soul, finding much of the common ground between hi-tech US R&B and UK bass music. Big Boi himself remains a brilliantly charismatic rapper.
15. James Blackshaw - All Is Falling (Young God)
Just when it seems that the prodigious James Blackshaw might have nowhere left to go, he takes another surprising and successful left turn. All is Falling adds yet another string to his bow by virtue of being a long form composition, its unwavering consistency being one of its many strengths. Blackshaw’s technically adept guitar playing is now taking a back seat to his assumption of a wider role as composer. By the conclusion of All is Falling, Blackshaw has dealt with both chamber arrangements and more contemporary techniques, suggesting that Blackshaw may even have yet more tricks up his sleeve.
14. Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother? (File Under Music)
It would be hard to find a stronger collection of indie-pop songwriting than this sugar rush of a solo debut from Kathryn Calder, member of both New Pornographers and the perenially underrated Immaculate Machine. As is all too predictable, it seems to have given little support in the UK, lacking adequate distribution and completely ignored by critics. This is a massive shame, as Calder is a substantial songwriting talent and this album is an affecting personal statement. Occasionally, the sweetness of its melodies threaten to overshadow the grief from which it was created. Recorded in a defiantly low-key manner at home, much of this sounds carefully arranged and crafted, and it’s hard to see how it could have been any stronger had Calder taken this material to a high end studio.
13. Clang Sayne - Winterlands (Clang Sayne)
Technically, this should probably be classed as a 2009 release, although it was only with its 2010 second run that this outstanding work started to gather more attention. Clang Sayne have to be one of the most inspired bands currently at work in this country, operating in a curious intersection between traditional folk song, jazz and free improvisation. The term ‘free folk’ has been banded around with reference to all manner of music but here, at last, was something to which it might be more appropriately applied. Laura Hylands’ beguiling voice provided the springboard for deeper, highly focused explorations of timbre and melody. This was without doubt a mature starting point, although a recent performance at Cafe Oto suggests the 2011 follow-up will be even stronger.
12. The Knife with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Tomorrow, In A Year (Mute)
If The Knife’s contemporary ‘opera’ about Charles Darwin (in reality perhaps more of a dance piece) was slightly patchy in performance, this should take nothing away from the extraordinary score that underpins it. At the centre of it all is the remarkable ‘Colouring of Pigeons’, comfortably one of the finest tracks of the year. Yet there are other moments equal to that achievement, and the poised combination of abrasion and lingering melody gives a combination of shock and awe appropriate to the nature of Darwin’s discoveries.
11. Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate - Ali and Toumani (World Circuit)
It seems odd that this second group of improvisations from two of the masters of Malian music was held back for so long but we can only be grateful that it has now appeared. Those who fell in love with In The Heart of the Moon will swoon equally to this collection - this music is so beautiful and moving that mere familiarity could never breed contempt for it. It’s the supremely balanced blend between guitar and kora that makes it so powerful - two brilliant musicians so bound in tradition and culture, playing with both expression and discipline.
10. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown (Righteous Babe)
Finally, Anais Mitchell is getting some of the attention she deserves. Her previous albums, although far more unassuming, contained some insightful, literate and delicate folk pop songs delivered in her idiosyncratic, slightly nasal pinch of a voice. Mitchell herself is a less dominant presence on Hadestown, if only because she has assembled an impressive cast of established singer-songwriters to play the various roles this reconstruction of the Orpheus myth requires. The concept would not be enough in itself to merit a top ten ranking in my list - it’s Mitchell’s execution of it, through the vehicle of some vivid narrative songwriting, that makes this so impressive. Drawing on a feast of roots music, this is steeped in tradition but delivered with individual authority.
9. The Golden Age of Steam - Raspberry Tongue (Babel)
Despite the involvement of the Mercury-nominated Kit Downes (on organ rather than acoustic piano), this vigorous, highly charged example of collective improvisation never quite got the attention it deserved in 2010. The Golden Age of Steam are both virtuosic and uncompromising, and sometimes the intensity level is so high that the music can be overpowering. Yet there is also subtlety and nuance aplenty in this superb set - this is a group of people alive to the possibility inherent in sound, in rhythm and in melodic lines.
8. Wildbirds and Peacedrums - Rivers (Leaf)
It’s barely been noted, but this conjoining of two short form EP releases presents a rather new Wildbirds and Peacedrums. It’s not just the new level ambition inherent in the choral arrangements of the album’s first half - it’s also in the attention to detail applied to sound and dynamics. This is a much less abrasive and arguably therefore also a much more widely appealing version of the group. Yet they have lost none of their imagination and desire to innovate. This music is profoundly beautiful and immersive.
7. Afrocubism - Afrocubism (World Circuit)
This project is something close to what was originally conceived for the Buena Vista Social Club, before visa issues scuppered the dream. Now some of the finest African and Cuban musicians meet in a highly empathetic, perhaps even symbiotic recording, that finds the shared ground in musical heritage. It’s a deeply traditional work, but one that gains fresh impetus and appeal from some unfamiliar instrumentation and through the knowledge and experience of the musicians involved. It is delivered with a relaxed grace typical of these musical masters and it is a consistently enriching and enjoyable listening experience.
6. Richard Skelton - Landings (Type)
Not so much an album as a full blown geographical and personal study, Skelton’s wonderful achievement transports us back to a time where landscape and location provided fertile inspiration for artists. With his nuanced, compelling music (an intriguing blend of acoustic and electronic elements), Skelton wordlessly explored links between place, grief and recovery. It’s a testament to the importance and influence of environment and the resilience of the human spirit.
5. Steve Lehman and Rudresh Mahanthappa - Dual Identity (Clean Feed)
This collaborative project between two of the most imaginative and thrilling alto saxophonists at work in US jazz is every bit as fascinating and challenging as one might expect. The group now features Liberty Ellmann on guitar, Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums and the whole ensemble share Lehman and Mahanthappa’s preoccupation with rhythmic intricacy. Ellmann’s spiky, dissonant accompaniment is particularly crucial. The compositions are pieced together like intellectual puzzles, but the resulting music is immediate and weirdly groovy. The sound of two alto saxophonists duetting remains unusual, but Lehman and Mahanthappa carry it off with real skill - interweaving between each other with nimble flurries without ever crowding each other’s space.
4. Tim Whitehead - Colour Beginnings (Home Made)
Based on work Tim Whitehead undertook whilst composer in residence at Tate Britain during 2009, Colour Beginnings is inspired by encounters with a series of JMW Turner paintings and watercolour sketches. It is a process-driven work in which the process is human, personal and emotional. Whitehead recorded his improvised responses to the Turner artwork and then developed ensemble compositions from these improvisations. The result is a long form work of genuine inspiration, with moments of searing, passionate joy. Whitehead not just establishes the atmosphere of Turner’s work, but also its physicality - the crashing of waves, the sun’s reflection dancing on the water, clouds floating in the sky. The recordings are impressive given the unusual performance spaces (half of the album was recorded at the work’s premier at a gallery room in Tate Britain). Whitehead sounds committed and intense as always, ably abetted by keenly aware, sensitive playing from Liam Noble, Oli Hayhurst, Patrick Bettison and Milo Fell. Colour Beginnings is the best British jazz CD of the year, and a personal and professional triumph for Whitehead.
3. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (Drag City)
Never entirely convinced by Ys, I approached this colossal triple album with some trepidation. I needn’t have worried though - Have One On Me retains all that was magical, idiosyncratic and charming about Newsom whilst jettisoning some of her more extreme, grating tendencies. Her voice is more rounded and soulful, far less abrasive and the songs, whilst lengthy and exploratory in terms of Newsom’s ceaselessly inventive lyrics, benefit greatly from the chamber arrangements of her chief collaborator Ryan Francesconi. There are elements of West Coast folk and New Orleans jazz, but the resulting melting point is very much Newsom’s individual, original statement. Have One On Me is moving and inspiring at the same time as being overwhelming.
2. Charles Lloyd Quartet - Mirror (ECM)
Whilst some fawned over Brad Mehldau’s syrupy, over-produced Highway Rider, others realised that Lloyd’s current quartet (featuring Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland) is among the best groups currently at work in American jazz, perhaps even the equal of his hugely influential late 1960s quartet. Their studio dates tend to be calmer than their rousing, sometimes tempestuous live performances, emphasising Lloyd’s tendency towards spiritual balm. Mirror works remarkably well though - a graceful, elegant and meditative work brimming with thoughtful statements, beautifully balanced ensemble sound and refined musicianship.
**1. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (Warp)**
FlyLo’s magnum opus divided opinion between those completely immersed in its enticing alternative cosmic reality and those infuriated by what they viewed as attention deficit disorder. Yet FlyLo has never really made isolated tracks as such - these small segments may veer suddenly and unexpected into new territory, but the overall picture makes a warped kind of sense. Cosmogramma is the most intricate and sophisticated sound collage Steven Ellison has yet produced, incorporating elements of hip hop, IDM, the astral jazz beloved of his great-aunt Alice Coltrane (particularly through Rebekah Raff’s harp) and 70s fusion. It’s a challenging but deeply rewarding work with a coherent vision and appealing philosophy.
Hardly anyone in the mainstream media noticed this wonderful download-only album from Canadian-British duo Phantom. Luckily, I gave it a warm review over at musicOMH. Consisting of two long tracks, themselves comprised of shorter pieces segued together, Smoke and Mirrors was both demanding and rewarding. Clearly intended to be digested as a whole, it went against commercial imperatives calling for bitesize chunks of music, and aimed at reinvigorating the album format for the download market. If it didn’t quite succeed, it wasn’t for lack of imagination and ambition in the music - Phantom constructed their own seamless, intoxicating sound collage with real skill.
99. Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (Virgin)
I surprised myself with just how much I liked this second album from a singer I’d previously dismissed as a coffee table prop. Having been through a great deal of personal tragedy and strife, that Bailey Rae returned to music at all was remarkable. That she returned with an album this deep, coherent and powerful is all the more impressive.
98. Teebs - Ardour (Brainfeeder)
This release, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, was one of the many great electronic releases of the year - a pretty, lush, expansive work in the pastoral manner familiar from Four Tet circa Pause or Rounds.
97. Vijay Iyer - Solo (ACT)
Vijay Iyer’s solo piano music doesn’t quite have the incredible impact of his recent trio work, but it does demonstrate his knowledge of the jazz tradition as much as his intriguing attempts to subvert or develop it. He doesn’t seem as comfortable in this idiom as Keith Jarrett or Bill Evans, and he is a very different kind of pianist from those two great revolutionaries of jazz piano. ‘Solo’ shows him to be thoughtful as well as intelligent. As a result of this and some careful selections of material, ‘Solo’ is a satisfying album.
96. Andreya Triana - Lost Where I Belong (Ninja Tune)
Vocalist with Flying Lotus’ extraordinary Infinity project, Andreya Triana also made a decent album in her own name this year. Lost Where I Belong is spacious, delicate, sometimes exotic music - reminiscent of Minnie Riperton.
95. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti)
Mavis Staples’ gritty voice still sounds striking and authoritative even now. Here, in Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, she finds another musician-producer completely attuned to her needs and abilities. This is a fine, carefully crafted album of excellent songs, delivered with passion, commitment and soul by Staples.
94. Field Music - (Measure) (Memphis Industries)
Field Music’s ‘hiatus’ turned out to be refreshingly brief, a detour of a couple of years to allow Peter and David Brewis to collaborate on separate projects. Now reunited under the Field Music moniker with one of the year’s many long albums (what was in the water in 2010?), it’s hard to resist dubbing them the OutKast of British indie. The Brewis brothers certainly revel in writing far more superior and sophisticated music to your average British indie band - this was cerebral, individualistic guitar pop.
93. The Bad Plus - Never Stop (Emarcy)
I greatly preferred this to For All I Care, The Bad Plus’ previous album with vocalist Wendy Lewis. Never Stop is their first album to consist entirely of original compositions, and it served as a timely reminder that their own writing has for some time now been stronger than their infamous interpretations. They remain one of the best contemporary jazz trios - with a strong sense of time and groove, and a thrilling ability to interact.
92. Mountain Man - Made The Harbor (Bella Union)
This lovely piece of appalachian folk reminded me greatly of the very popular O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, but with much less of a gently parodic sensibility. In fact, Made the Harbor sounds like a deeply serious record, in thrall to the sound of combined human voices.
91. Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo (Sub Pop)
Inevitably, much has been made of Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg’s youth (he’s still not even 20), but this would have been an impressive debut at any age. Zahner-Isenberg is a superb guitarist, and much of the excitement in the music comes from the relationship between his wiry but pretty melodies and the sudden bursts of heavy guitar improvising. If some of the song titles (Five Little Sluts, Summer Cum) lean towards the misogynistic or pointlessly provocative, this is the only downside of a summery album full of quality.
90. Mary Gauthier - The Foundling (Proper)
This is one of Gauthier’s finest album - an unflinching, brutally honest album about her own life as an adopted, initially abandoned child, and chronicling the pain and suffering of the rejection she felt on finding her birth mother. This is raw, heartbreaking music and Gauthier is one of the most undervalued singer-songwriters at work right now.
89. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (DFA/EMI)
Basically more of the same from James Murphy - a small sense of diminishing returns after the fantastic Sound of Silver, but it would be churlish to complain when the results are this enjoyable. Murphy is, however, entirely right that it is time to move on to something different.
88. Matthew Dear - Black City (Ghostly International)
This sleek, robotic, dark and occasionally erotic album from Matthew Dear is fascinating. Dear has little shame in electronically manipulating his voice to produce some distinctly unfashionable sounds, and Black City is an individual and authoritative statement as a result of this.
87. Secret Quartet - Bloor Street (Edition)
This is essentially an album of classic-sounding acoustic jazz, benefiting from the melodic invention and clarity of tone from Martin Speake and the strong foundations provided by pianist Nikki Iles. The compositions are consistently strong and the improvising full of insight and inspiration.
86. Autechre - Oversteps/Move of Ten (Warp)
Another act to produce more music than strictly required in 2010 were electronic pioneers Autechre. I should have investigated the Autechre catalogue more throughly than I have. Occasionally, I find myself gently reminded of their existence and their deserved status. Oversteps may be the better of these two excellent albums - it’s not beat-driven and therefore avoids glitchy cliches entirely. It possibly harks back to the 80s or even earlier, with hints of Riyuchi Sakomoto or Tangerine Dream. This is all presented with a decisively contemporary spin though - and it’s impressive to find an act still keen to reinvent themselves so long into such an illustrious career.
85. Olafur Arnalds - and they have escaped the weight of darkness (Erased Tapes)
More of the same from Arnalds here on this portentously titled album (apparently inspired by the great Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr). Arnalds’ slow moving, direct and haunting melancholy is again very much in evidence, and the music is gently moving.
84. Paragon - Quarterlife Crisis (Shakewell Records)
This Anglo-German ensemble of young musicians (with composing duties shared between pianist Arthur Lea and saxophonist Peter Ehwald) now convenes infrequently but makes quirky, confident and appealing music. Quarterlife Crisis, recorded in Koln in 2009 after plenty of touring, is a delightful album characterised by a fine balance between charm and searching improvising.
83. High Places - High Places vs. Mankind (Thrill Jockey)
Another of the year’s more perversely underrated record, this infectious and likeable second album from High Places seemed to see the band relegated further to the margins. This seems strange when the album contained bright, accessible gems such as On Giving Up. The group’s approach is minimal but effective, making impressive use of space and making each note and sound matter.
82. Kurt Wagner and Cortney Tidwell present KORT - Invariable Heartache (City Slang)
This long-awaited collaboration between Lambchop mainman Wagner and the talented singer-songwriter Cortney Tidwell ended up quite a traditional affair, the duo tackling a set of Nashville country songs associated with Tidwell’s parents. Wagner’s voice sounds older and more experienced, Tidwell pulls off the difficult trick of providing a softer, but no less fascinating harmonic foil.
81. The Chieftains with Ry Cooder - San Patricio (Decca)
Everything Cooder touches seems to turn to gold. This collaboration with Irish group The Chieftains take on the weighty subject of the Irish conscripts who deserted from the American army to fight with the Mexicans in the border war of the 1840s, fusing Irish folk music with sounds from the southern US border. It’s a lengthy, challenging album, but both process and results are inspired and it stands as a fascinating document.
80. Marnie Stern - Marnie Stern (Souterrain Transmissions)
Yet more vigorous shredding from Marnie Stern and Zach Hill - their technical brilliance remains a coruscating source of inspiration rather than frustration.
79. Fool’s Gold - Fool’s Gold (Iamsound)
A group possibly named after a Stone Roses song may not necessarily float my boat these days, but Fool’s Gold are actually a treasure trove of riches. A little like Dirty Projectors, the Los Angeles-based collective fuse Western rock and pop with a variety of rhythms and playing styles from around the world. Vocalist Luke Top sings in Hebrew, adding an additional element to their extraordinary melting pot.
78. Avey Tare - Down There (Paw Tracks)
Avey Tare has sometimes seemed like the dangerous member of Animal Collective, swamping their earliest material with abrasive feedback screeches and moments of childlike whimsy. As the band have found a more successful balance within themselves, Panda Bear and Tare have both established themselves as independent artists as well. Down There is, mercifully, much less obtuse than Tare’s previous work outside the band - it features moments of twisting, eerie psychedelia and spidery melodic invention. It’s less sweet and joyful without the presence of Panda Bear, but no less peculiar and synaesthetic.
77. Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now (Names)
This faithful exploration of American country stylings is one of the best examples of this in some time. Rose is fully conversant in the vernacular of this musical tradition, and her songs are affecting and full of emotion. With her sensitive, empathetic band in tow, Rose has all the elements that make a superb singer-songwriter.
76. Jamie Lidell - Compass (Warp)
It’s a shame that this imaginative album seems to have failed to bring Lidell to a wider audience. Wisely, Lidell abandoned the slavish blue-eyed soul that rendered Jim something of a disappointment - Compass was sexier, weirder and considerably more honest. We can now again see the Lidell that made the best bits of Multiply, the Lidell who was one half of the amazing Super Collider, and even the Lidell that made the glitchy, confounding Muddlin’ Gear. Compass contained predictable hints at Prince, but less predictably, some of the meandering, fluid songwriting style of Terry Callier or even Terry Reid was also in operation here. Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor is just one of Lidell’s many collaborators here, and his sonic palette is in evidence throughout the album. For all the trickery and experimentation, it’s also personal and intimate too.
75. Robert Plant - Band Of Joy (Decca)
Plant seems to have entered a new, mature and staggeringly confident phase of his career now. With many clamouring for a direct follow-up to Raising Sand, Plant refused to acquiesce, instead forming a new version of his Band of Joy ensemble. This is every bit as assured and impressive an album as Raising Sand, and is stronger still for exploring some unexpected ground (the album features faithful covers of Low’s Monkey and Silver Rider). Plant’s interests seem to move further away from straightforward rock and more into a wide range of American music as he gets older. This seems like another honest, thoroughly committed statement.
74. Cheikh Lo - Jamm (World Circuit)
Jamm’s title suggests a righteous musical party, but the word actually translates to mean ‘peace’. Cheikh Lo’s music here, although groovy and celebratory, is also light and subtle too. The warmth of Pee Wee Ellis’ saxophone is a memorable feature of this carefully balanced, hugely enjoyable album.
73. Philip Jeck - An Ark For The Listener (Type)
I remain a little suspicious of ‘sound art’ as a concept distinct from music, but Jeck strikes me as one of the strongest examples of a completely modern composer. He builds his swirling, encircling pieces from the use of old vinyl, although this is by no means a ‘sampling’ endeavour like DJ Shadow. Jeck’s mysterious, spectral sound worlds depend on careful manipulation of texture and pitch. An Ark For The Listener is Jeck’s brilliant response to a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, and it has all the wonder and complexity of Hopkins’ language.
72. Actress - Splazsh (Honest Jon’s)
Darren Cunningham’s self-contained, insular and mechanical electronica reached a new pinnacle on this tremendous set. It somehow sounded cold and loveless, yet deliciously seductive at the same time.
71. Hot Chip - One Life Stand (EMI)
This is Hot Chip’s most streamlined and focused work to date, perhaps a conscious response to the criticism the group received (unfairly in my view) for Made In The Dark’s scattershot tendency. There’s still room for diversity - as One Life Stand takes in English pop melodic stylings, Chicago House, Techno and modern soul. Alexis Taylor’s delicate, plaintive voice remains an intrinsic part of the group’s artistry. Their peerless merging of Taylor’s melodic sensibility with Joe Goddard’s independent, individual production values has expanded to feel more like an ensemble work. The Hot Chip live show is now impressively slick too.
70. Jason Moran - Ten (Blue Note)
The status of Jason Moran in the jazz world seems to increase year on year, Ten being another exceedingly impressive addition to his own catalogue and his work with Charles Lloyd perhaps providing an even stronger example of his rhythmic and melodic invention. This flexible, bold piano trio has, as the album’s title suggests, now been a working, trailblazing band for ten years and more. This album finds room for some healthy nostalgia - including a piece co-written with Moran’s teacher Andrew Hill, as well as interpretations of composers as diverse as Thelonious Monk and Conlon Nancarrow. Perhaps more than any of Moran’s previous releases, it offers a clear view of the heritage that has influenced his distinctive improvising. His group can still swing hard as well.
69. Nico Muhly - I Drink The Air Before Me (Decca)
It would be easy to find Nico Muhly’s ubiquity in his early-20s somewhat nauseating. Not only has he achieved considerable success as a composer, he’s produced some wonderfully evocative film soundtrack work and has become the string and brass arranger du jour for America’s indie bands. Yet listening to this recording of his major score for a dance piece, it’s hard to dispute his talent. This is a big, muscular, exciting work that even manages to make sensitive and effective use of a child’s choir. The work moves in a fragmentary fashion from the very unusual to diatonic plainchant whilst sustaining a coherent sense of identity and flow.
68. Dave Holland Octet - Pathways (Dare2)/ Pepe Habichuela and Dave Holland - Hands (Emarcy)
I am cheating more than a little here by putting these two Dave Holland recordings together, but they serve as a timely reminder of Holland’s versatility. He has now established such a coherent and winning formula with his own ensembles (as evidenced by the thrilling ensemble playing on the live recording Pathways) that it is great to here him again in an entirely different context, playing outstanding Flamenco music with Pepe Habichuela. The album is at once both substantial and delicate, with some superb cajon playing from Juan Cormona.
67. Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things - Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)
Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things project has illuminated a new side to the exciting Chicago jazz scene. Rather than venturing into modernist abstraction or contemporary jazz-rock fusion, drummer and arranger Reed has used this ensemble to explore the venerable history and achievement of modern jazz in Chicago. This excellent live recording contains a mix of new arrangements of lesser known works (Sun Ra’s El is the Sound of Joy for example) and original pieces dedicated to Reed’s chief influences. Considering Reed is a drummer-bandleader, it’s interesting how restrained and supportive his playing is here - much of this is far more about the fresh take on horn arrangements.
66. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts and Crafts)
This fourth album from Broken Social Scene was in places exhilarating and menacing, even if by now the shock factor in their ideas had worn off a little. Perhaps Forgiveness Rock Record is chiefly interesting for its cleaner, crisper production - something that, perhaps surprisingly, does not really diminish the band’s ragged glory in any way.
65 = Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here? (Editions Mego)
65 = Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (Editions Mego)
I find it very difficult to separate these two Editions Mego releases in my own mind, although there seems to have been a healthy competition between the two of them for many journalists. I’m usually suspicious of music that tries so very hard to abandon rhythm (an essential element of music), but these two releases achieved their goals so superbly that they became impossible to ignore. The Oneohtrix album is more like a contemporary noise suite - brilliantly structured, moving from its most combative and abrasive to its most affecting and soothing. Throughout, there are gentle hints of melody and form, so the fact that the single version of the title track featured vocals from Antony Hegarty came as less of a surprise than might otherwise be expected. Emeralds’ album took them away from the sprawling What Happened? in favour of something a little easier to navigate. That didn’t stop Does It Look Like I’m Here? from being one of the year’s most quietly mesmerising albums, full of supremely effective ideas.
63. Laura Veirs - July Flame (Bella Union)
Another massively underrated album from a female singer-songwriter in 2010. Post-Carbon Glacier, Veirs appears to have been taken for granted a little, as she has produced decent album after decent album, but each lacking a distinctive edge that would propel her back into critical consciousness. For me, July Flame ought to have been that album - it’s a much warmer and embraceable record than its predecessors, and the writing is full of compassion and humanity.
62. Benoit Pioulard - Lasted (Kranky)
Thomas Meluch’s third album as Benoit Pioulard is his most sophisticated and coherent yet, with a sense of rapture and awareness breaking through the pervading heat-haze. This time Meluch’s understated voice seems less buried and the melodies have greater impact as a result. This is achieved without sacrificing any of the strange, eerie qualities to Meluch’s music.
61. Kairos 4Tet - Kairos Moment (Kairos)
Although much of this album seems like rhythmic brinkmanship, Adam Waldmann’s Kairos 4Tet still emerge as a more accessible, less cerebral take on contemporary British jazz. Kairos Moment is brimming with infectious riffs and hooks, and the engine of the band is the dynamic, propulsive, ceaselessly exciting playing of bassist Jasper Hoiby and drummer Jon Scott, two of the strongest musicians currently at work on the London scene. A guest appearance by vocalist Heidi Vogel also provides a simmering, delightful highlight. The group, now with Ivo Neame on piano, have just finished work on their second album due for release in 2011.
60. Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden - Jasmine (ECM)
This first duo recording between those great old friends and musical colleagues Jarrett and Haden had a wonderfully informal feeling to it. It’s unlikely that this will go down as one of Jarrett’s most revolutionary or adventurous statements - but then both these musicians did all that with the American Quartet. This instead has an intimate feel to it - the product of sincere mutual respect, both for each other and for the standard material they are playing. Haden’s bass sound is full and resonant, Jarrett is disciplined but typically passionate.
59. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part 2 - Return of the Ankh (Universal)
I was a little surprised not to find the long-delayed second part of Badu’s New Amerykah project absent from so many list. For sure, it’s not as surprising or imposing as the first part - instead, it refocuses attention on Badu’s most characteristic stylistic traits. Many of these are virtues, however, as her supremely relaxed phrasing and understated, near-conversational style mark her out as one of the best modern R&B singers.
58. Jaga Jazzist - One Armed Badit (Ninja Tune)
One Armed Bandit is perhaps the most focused and immediate of the Jaga Jazzist albums - full of the usual dexterity and technique, but somehow delivered in a much more compact and less showy manner. It’s tremendously exciting - a fusion music with a peculiar dancing quality.
57. William Tyler - Behold The Spirit (Tompkins Square)
One of the great joys of being a music obsessive is discovering that a musician you are familiar with from one context has an entirely different near-secret musical life. Lambchop guitarist William Tyler’s solo album is a graceful, eloquent take on similar territory to that handled so well by James Blackshaw. It’s perhaps not quite as mysterious and pervading as Blackshaw’s All Is Falling. Some of the material here seems comforting and familiar, especially The Green Pastures, which luxuriates in the textural effects of pedal steel guitar as well as Tyler’s dexterous steel string fingerpicking. This is no bad thing - Tyler is an impressive guitarist, and the music he has produced here feels homely and inviting.
56. Luke Abbott - Holkham Drones (Border Community)
This is a gently superior album, one of those recordings that worms its way into one’s consciousness and eventually refuses to leave. On first listen, it seemed like distinctive but unassuming take on electronica. Repeated listens reveal a sense of fun as well as intelligence. Probably the best release from Border Community so far.
55. Richard Thompson - Dream Attic (Proper)
Dire cover art notwithstanding, this is an urgent, vibrant album from Thompson. Recorded live on a US tour, it provides plenty of evidence not just of Thompson’s outstanding guitar playing, but of the commitment and force of his accompanying musicians. Not only this, but the songwriting is superb too, with some wry and biting lyrics.
54. Tamikrest - Adagh (Glitterhouse)
It’s perhaps tempting to dismiss Tamikrest rather casually as an identikit Tinariwen, but actually ‘Adagh’ shows them to have a potency and power that is very much their own. This is a rousing, spirited album played with insistence, determination and a wonderfully natural feel.
53. Wyatt, Atzmon, Stephen - For The Ghosts Within (Domino)
Hearing Robert Wyatt’s beguiling, idiosyncratic voice - somehow always both comforting and startling - wrap itself around some of the most recognisable standards in the Great American Songbook proved one of 2010’s singular treats. The original music on this worthy collaboration is also fascinating. If not always wholly artistically successful, this is the work of brave and committed musicians and activists flying the flag for principled idealism.
52. Konono No. 1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
Fears that international acclaim and success might dilute Konono No. 1’s approach or sound proved mercifully unfounded. ‘Assume Crash Position’ was just as intense and thrilling an experience as its Congotronics predecessor. There is an urgency and excitement in this music that is impossible to resist.
51. The Roots - How I Got Over (Mercury)
Never quite convinced by Kanye West’s reliance on manipulated soul samples, I find that The Roots are a dependable example of how better to integrate rap and song. The unusual guest artists here (including Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors and Joanna Newsom) fit surprisingly well into this album’s imposing and coherent sound.
50. New Pornographers - Together (Matador)
After jettisoning some of their quirkier, more appealing characteristics in favour of plodding orchestra-bolstered indie on Challengers, Together saw New Pornographers recapturing the kinetic, thrilling eruptions of joy that always made them so appealing in the first place. Carl Newman’s songwriting remains gleefully obtuse, whilst Dan Bejar continues to add his distinctive whimsy. The whole set seems to cohere more this time though, and is delivered with the confidence of a band who know exactly what they are doing.
49. Lobi Traore - Rainy Season Blues (Glitterhouse)
Of the many tragic losses in 2010, the premature death of Lobi Traore may be the saddest, robbing the world not only of one of its brightest talents but, one senses, of a musician yet to make his strongest statement. Rainy Season Blues, Traore’s first and last solo album, was recorded on the spur of the moment, after plans for an ensemble recording fell through. That it sounds so completely assured is revelatory. This is a record so deeply immersed in the blues that it drips with it. That Traore could have continued to make many more even better albums is devastating.
48. Lorn - Nothing Else (Brainfeeder)
This year belonged to Flying Lotus in so many ways, not just for the music released under his own moniker, but also for his production duties and his work as a free-spirited svengali with the Brainfeeder label. The Lorn album may be the label’s most substantial statement so far - a heavy, insistent US take on bass music that never fails to stimulate or surprise.
47. Lonelady - Nerve Up (Warp)
Warp’s attempts to branch out beyond glitchy and ambient electronica have produced mixed results, but I liked Lonelady’s twitchy ball of nervous energy far more than reviews suggested I might. This is four-square wiry post-punk set to a drum machine, with occasional nods to the relentless garage southern gothic of early R.E.M. Some angular, agitated vocals and some memorable songs enable Lonelady to communicate with stark authority.
46. Nina Nastasia - Outlaster (FatCat)
For me, this was comfortably the strongest Nina Nastasia album to date, a substantial leap forward in terms of both process and product. The arrangements on Outlaster are simply wonderful - full of unexpected dissonances and tensions, and the extra colour helps transport this well away from the conventions of singer-songwriterdom. Nastasia has always been an excellent writer - but she has never made an album quite this distinctive and compelling before.
45. Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (Warp)
Gonjasufi is a genuinely strange and unpredictable character. This collection is an inspired set of warped modern psychedelia, with inventive production from Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer. Gonjasufi’s vocals are not easily digestible - sometimes they are uncompromising and abrasive. Yet the music is mostly curiously uplifting.
44. Phosphorescent - Here’s To Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans)
Here’s To Taking It Easy is not exactly the most radical or forward thinking album in this list. It is instead a hugely successful attempt at classic American songcraft - much better than over-praised efforts from the likes of Drive By Truckers or Dylan LeBlanc. Matthew Houck’s work interpreting Willie Nelson for the previous Phosphorescent album may have had a lingering effect - much of this album comes bathed in a hazy melancholy. Much of it sounds effortless - relaxed but also literate and burning with feeling and intensity where necessary. Heij, Me I’m Light also provides a slightly incongrous, but wholly inspired detour into quasi-gospel fervour.
43. Phronesis - Alive (Edition)
This live recording may be the strongest example of Jasper Hoiby’s bass-lead piano trio so far. With Mark Giuliana on drums and the exquisite Ivo Neame on piano, there’s a real urgency and depth of expression as well as the fluid interaction we have come to expect. Hoiby’s compositions are deceptive - initially they seem rhythmically driven, but eventually come to reveal subtle hooks and intelligent use of harmony and space.
42. Trembling Bells - Abandoned Love (Honest Jon’s)
Along with Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells are at the absolute forefront of contemporary folk music. Propelled superbly by Alex Neilsen’s fluid drumming, an unusual quality in this music, and with Lavinia Blackwell’s majestic voice claiming ownership of Neilsen’s melodies, this is one of the most captivating and imposing ensembles working in this area of music. Trembling Bells sound at once disciplined and liberated - informed by a sophisticated understanding of the tradition but also driven by a fervent desire to take the music in new directions.
41. Vampire Weekend - Contra (XL)
Vampire Weekend’s second album, released with surprising rapidity yet actually an improvement on their debut, seems to have been rather casually forgotten come the end of year lists. Perhaps it lacks some of the debut’s ivy league humour - but if anything it builds on the open-minded fusion of the first record. Ezra Koenig’s wordy lyrics and agitated vocal phrasing remain crucial characteristics - and they elevate the group above facile and misguided accusations of cultural tourism. Make no mistake that Vampire Weekend are an intelligent and significant band more than worthy of attention and discusssion.
40. Janelle Monae - The Archandroid (Bad Boy/Atlantic)
A highlight for many music lovers and critics this year, it’s easy to see why this dynamic slice of retro-futurist pop was so greatly loved. Sophisticated pop music is hard to find - and Janelle emerged with a tremendously strong brand - a smooth but gutsy voice, great style and a commitment and passion for her music. It went almost unnoticed then that The Archandroid breaks all the rules for marketable commercial pop music - it veers wilfully from one style to another, its flow gleefully interrupted by abrupt transitions. Monae’s madcap, conceptual structure could benefit from a stronger melodic core - but the ideas keep coming so thick and fast that the flaws seem insignificant when the project is so brilliantly reckless.
39. Oval - O (Thrill Jockey)
Featuring no less than 70 tracks, many of them intentionally confounding miniatures, Markus Popp seems to have designed O in order to manipulate last.fm stats. The conceit is not entirely malicious though - through these tiny bitesize pieces, a wider coherent whole emerges. It’s clearly not about the individual tracks, but more about how the sketches combine to create something meticulously ordered and yet strangely beautiful.
38. Alasdair Roberts and Friends - Too Long In This Condition (Navigator)
Roberts revisits the traditional songbook for the first time since No Earthly Man on this dependably excellent collection - this one, as the ‘friends’ moniker suggests, a little more reliant on the ensemble sound. If it’s not quite as glorious as last year’s Spoils, it’s still a tremendous collection, Roberts’ choice of narratives occasionally erring towards the dark and terrible as much as the wistful and romantic.
37. Mount Kimbie - Crooks and Lovers (Hot Flush)
For a while, this looked as if it might be the dubstep ‘break-out’ release of 2010, a word of mouth success to rival that of Burial. If it never quite got there, it wasn’t because of lack of imagination and quality in the recordings. This is a nuanced, atmospheric work that repays close attention - a haunting statement of intent.
36. Demdike Stare - Forest of Evil/Liberation Through Hearing/Voices of Dust (Modern Love)
One of the many acts proving in 2010 that quantity could be just as significant as quality, Lancashire’s Demdike Stare unleashed three albums of similar intensity and imagination, but each with its own individual character. Forest of Evil is comprised of two dense, lengthy pieces full of murk and menace. The final album in the trilogy explores ghostly sounds and voices to tremendous effect, finding a hinterland between dub, the radiophonic workshop and local landscape. An output as compelling as it is prodigious.
35. Polar Bear - Peepers (Leaf)
Seb Rochford’s outstanding contemporary jazz group added subtle variations to their sound on this fourth album, with Leafcutter John playing guitar as well as electronics. The addition of an accompanying harmony instrument makes a substantial difference, but the group’s credit, it has not completely altered their musical personality. Rather, it has expanded the possibilities. The quirky compositions are as rhythmically stimulating as ever, but its the album’s more pensive, reflective moments that show Rochford maturing as a composer.
34. Django Bates - Beloved Bird (Lost Marble)
Django’s virtuosic, mischievous, scurrying improvising didn’t find a particularly fruitful outlet in the collaboration with The Bad Plus at King’s Place, in spite of all the mutual respect between them. Far more exciting was this brilliant, highly exciting take on the music of Charlie Parker with a Danish trio - Bates proving that Parker’s nimble writing can have audacious and exciting contexts away from BeBop revivalism. Bates imposes his own character and style on this material with complete conviction.
33. Scuba - Triangulation (Hot Flush)
The Hot Flush label is helping to steer dubstep in exciting new directions, already suggesting that it might be a sub genre with some mileage. This second album from Scuba is a significant development from his debut, pregnant with tension and murkiness, full of bold explorations of the previously unknown.
32. Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth - Deluxe (Clean Feed)
This righteous, propulsive ensemble provided one of the American jazz highlights of 2010. Lightcap’s engaging, zestful compositions provided consistent interest, whilst the playing (especially from the superb keyboardist Craig Taborn) was imaginative and sprightly.
31. Shackleton - Fabric 55 (Fabric)
Emerging at the very tail end of the year and therefore absent from most lists, this is one of the most powerful arguments for the DJ mix album as artistic statement in some time. It’s perhaps the best mix set since DJ/Rupture’s majestic Minesweeper Suite. The difference here though is it’s not just the mix that provides this album with its character - it is that is is a mix consisting entirely of Shackleton’s own work. Now forging far beyond anything that might be labelled dubstep or, more nauseatingly, post-dubstep, this is the work of an artist fascinated by the broader possibilities of rhythm, sound and speech.
30. Erik Friedlander - Alchemy (SkipStone)
The Cello has always been one of the most versatile instruments - in Friedlander’s hands it seems that it can be made to do almost anything at all, from excoriating, searing sounds to moments of sweet and tender longing. Alchemy is a solo recording that covers these bases and much, much more - a brilliant document of Friedlander’s musical awareness and expressive manipulation of his instrument.
29. Bill Frisell - Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz)
Perhaps this trio recording doesn’t really break new ground for Frisell - but then this is an artist who has covered such diverse ground that it would be hard to find another truly radical position now. Still, the music is wonderfully played, with Frisell as ever finding the common ground between various American musical traditions. There are few musicians with such a gripping contemporary voice, but with a simultaneous expert grasp of musical and cultural history. Even the most hackneyed of standards - in this case Tea for Two - sound daring, playful and fresh when played by Frisell. This does not seem to have been written about very much - but, for me, it's one of Frisell's best albums.
28. Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises (Caldo Verde)
Mark Kozelek’s unwavering consistency continued in marvellous fashion on this mesmerising, beautiful album. It was the first to see Kozelek play a nylon stringed classical guitar, an instrument he appears to have taken to with genuine commitment. The songs are typically wistul, detailed and evocative and Kozelek’s voice is one of those familiar, comforting sounds that can never lose its understated appeal. What is new is the passages of elaborate virtuosity on the guitar. One of Kozelek’s best records to date.
27. Chris Abrahams - Play Scar (Room40)
This solo album from The Necks’ pianist is deceptive, lulling the listener into a false sense of security from which moments of distinct creepiness arise. Just when it feels Abrahams has achieved some kind of inner peace, a rush of Hammond Organ makes for a turbulent intrusion. It’s a strange, spectral, fascinating collection of musical ruminations.
26. Gil Scott-Heron - I’m New Here (XL)
This skeletal record sounded not so much like an artistic renewal, more like a fragmentary, hugely articulate glimpse into what remained of Scott-Heron after drug addiction and prison. It’s a tremendous album, its intimate perspective achieved not just through Scott-Heron’s audacious and autobiographical poetry but also through judicious choices of material for interpretation (Robert Johnson, Smog’s title track). One doesn’t immediately consider Scott-Heron one of the great interpreters - I’m New Here makes it clear just what a skilled vocalist he remains, perhaps even because that smooth baritone is something much more wild and ragged now.
25. Caribou - Swim (City Slang)
Dan Snaith’s work as Caribou has always been teetering on the brink of something poptastic - but his slightly mischievous streak seems to have held him back from fully exploring his music’s melodic potential. Swim is at once his most immediate and his most assured album under the Caribou moniker. It still explores some of the psychedelic pathways he has traversed already, but it feels much more streamlined and less cluttered. His voice, never the strongest of instruments, works best when at its most intimate and conversation as on Odessa, one of the tracks of the year. Much of Swim is vibrant and intoxicating.
24. Atomic - Theater Tilters (Jazzland)
Intense, tempestuous, whirlrlwind contemporary live jazz from Norway. These performances, spread over two discs, have the fire and fury of jazz-rock fusion but also the liberation and propulsion of free improvisation. It’s a manic, consistently surprising experience.
23. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and The Cairo Gang - The Wonder Show of the World (Domino)
Has Will Oldham, now on his umpteenth album, become one of those artists who is too easily taken for granted? The Wonder Show of the World seems to have been forgotten in the end of year polls. It’s a sufficiently different statement from the more acclaimed Beware to merit attention in its own right. The Cairo Gang - yet another new incarnation - is essentially a trio with Emmett Kelly and Shahzal Ismally, and the arrangements are mostly sparse and demure but this is a far stronger intimate album than Master and Everyone. These are some of Oldham’s strongest songs though - full of wit, wisdom and some characteristically candid moments.
22. Nedry - Condors (Monotreme)
Somehow I almost missed this quite wonderful album. There’s more than a slight resemblance to Bjork in Ayu Okaita’s flighty vocals and the music is soulful, evocative and occasionally daring. This is a supremely confident debut, a fully formed mature statement than grows with every listen.
21. Food - Quiet Inlet (ECM)
ECM has had a strong year, with its best releases steering clear of European jazz cliches (indeed, it’s harder to find an act more in tune with the American tradition than Charles Lloyd’s Quartet). This is a new incarnation of Food that finds Thomas Stronen and Iain Ballamy collaborating with Nils Petter Molvaer and electronic wizard Christian Fennesz. The results are glacial and insidious, in the best possible way.
20. Matthew Herbert - One One/One Club (Accidental)
If Herbert had seemed to be coasting a little recently (a pleasant if slightly unremarkable album in Scale followed by a second Big Band project), his One trilogy (the final part, One Pig, will now be released in 2011) shook things up considerably. Few could have been expecting anything quite as personal and intimate as One One, on which Herbert assumed vocal duties for the first time. Clearly his is not a technically accomplished voice, but it provided the vulnerability and honesty that the material required. It was refreshing to see Herbert veer away from political or conceptual concerns and try something different. One Club saw a new application for the modern musique concrete techniques Herbert first employed on Plat du Jour, the whole album being made from source recordings Herbert made in a nightclub. As ever with Herbert, it is more cerebral than hedonistic.
19. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (4AD)
Whilst Ariel Pink’s initial compilations of home recordings provided plenty of examples of his wayward brilliance, his insistence that the clock be reset for this first studio recording with a band suggested it offered something different and more substantial. This may be true - these lush, fuzzy detours through unfashionable realms (Hall and Oates, 10cc and Todd Rundgren may be influences) did more than just attempt to reclaim FM rock as art. Pink created a new, odd soundworld in which conventional musical taste was thrown out of the window and the resultant quirky, unpredictable sounds were completely irresistible.
18. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise (Rough Trade)
17. Four Tet - There Is Love In You (Domino)
Two of the best electronic albums of 2010 arrived relatively early in the year. There Is Love In You may be the best work Kieran Hebden has yet produced under the Four Tet moniker, particularly striking in its use of human voices and in its dizzying cut-up rhythms. The Pantha du Prince album may have been a little sidelined by longstanding listeners who found it mildly inferior to its predecessor This Bliss. This seems a little churlish when the quality level is so palpably high. There’s a brilliant sense of atmosphere on Black Noise, and there is a warmth and a melodic quality sometimes absent from electronic music.
16. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot - Son of Chico Dusty (Mercury)
Whilst the emergence of Janelle Monae as a retro-futurist pop sensation excited almost everyone, this solo album from one half of OutKast didn’t quite get as much adulation. For me, it was actually the better record, a wonderful pot-pourri of modern soul, finding much of the common ground between hi-tech US R&B and UK bass music. Big Boi himself remains a brilliantly charismatic rapper.
15. James Blackshaw - All Is Falling (Young God)
Just when it seems that the prodigious James Blackshaw might have nowhere left to go, he takes another surprising and successful left turn. All is Falling adds yet another string to his bow by virtue of being a long form composition, its unwavering consistency being one of its many strengths. Blackshaw’s technically adept guitar playing is now taking a back seat to his assumption of a wider role as composer. By the conclusion of All is Falling, Blackshaw has dealt with both chamber arrangements and more contemporary techniques, suggesting that Blackshaw may even have yet more tricks up his sleeve.
14. Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother? (File Under Music)
It would be hard to find a stronger collection of indie-pop songwriting than this sugar rush of a solo debut from Kathryn Calder, member of both New Pornographers and the perenially underrated Immaculate Machine. As is all too predictable, it seems to have given little support in the UK, lacking adequate distribution and completely ignored by critics. This is a massive shame, as Calder is a substantial songwriting talent and this album is an affecting personal statement. Occasionally, the sweetness of its melodies threaten to overshadow the grief from which it was created. Recorded in a defiantly low-key manner at home, much of this sounds carefully arranged and crafted, and it’s hard to see how it could have been any stronger had Calder taken this material to a high end studio.
13. Clang Sayne - Winterlands (Clang Sayne)
Technically, this should probably be classed as a 2009 release, although it was only with its 2010 second run that this outstanding work started to gather more attention. Clang Sayne have to be one of the most inspired bands currently at work in this country, operating in a curious intersection between traditional folk song, jazz and free improvisation. The term ‘free folk’ has been banded around with reference to all manner of music but here, at last, was something to which it might be more appropriately applied. Laura Hylands’ beguiling voice provided the springboard for deeper, highly focused explorations of timbre and melody. This was without doubt a mature starting point, although a recent performance at Cafe Oto suggests the 2011 follow-up will be even stronger.
12. The Knife with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Tomorrow, In A Year (Mute)
If The Knife’s contemporary ‘opera’ about Charles Darwin (in reality perhaps more of a dance piece) was slightly patchy in performance, this should take nothing away from the extraordinary score that underpins it. At the centre of it all is the remarkable ‘Colouring of Pigeons’, comfortably one of the finest tracks of the year. Yet there are other moments equal to that achievement, and the poised combination of abrasion and lingering melody gives a combination of shock and awe appropriate to the nature of Darwin’s discoveries.
11. Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate - Ali and Toumani (World Circuit)
It seems odd that this second group of improvisations from two of the masters of Malian music was held back for so long but we can only be grateful that it has now appeared. Those who fell in love with In The Heart of the Moon will swoon equally to this collection - this music is so beautiful and moving that mere familiarity could never breed contempt for it. It’s the supremely balanced blend between guitar and kora that makes it so powerful - two brilliant musicians so bound in tradition and culture, playing with both expression and discipline.
10. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown (Righteous Babe)
Finally, Anais Mitchell is getting some of the attention she deserves. Her previous albums, although far more unassuming, contained some insightful, literate and delicate folk pop songs delivered in her idiosyncratic, slightly nasal pinch of a voice. Mitchell herself is a less dominant presence on Hadestown, if only because she has assembled an impressive cast of established singer-songwriters to play the various roles this reconstruction of the Orpheus myth requires. The concept would not be enough in itself to merit a top ten ranking in my list - it’s Mitchell’s execution of it, through the vehicle of some vivid narrative songwriting, that makes this so impressive. Drawing on a feast of roots music, this is steeped in tradition but delivered with individual authority.
9. The Golden Age of Steam - Raspberry Tongue (Babel)
Despite the involvement of the Mercury-nominated Kit Downes (on organ rather than acoustic piano), this vigorous, highly charged example of collective improvisation never quite got the attention it deserved in 2010. The Golden Age of Steam are both virtuosic and uncompromising, and sometimes the intensity level is so high that the music can be overpowering. Yet there is also subtlety and nuance aplenty in this superb set - this is a group of people alive to the possibility inherent in sound, in rhythm and in melodic lines.
8. Wildbirds and Peacedrums - Rivers (Leaf)
It’s barely been noted, but this conjoining of two short form EP releases presents a rather new Wildbirds and Peacedrums. It’s not just the new level ambition inherent in the choral arrangements of the album’s first half - it’s also in the attention to detail applied to sound and dynamics. This is a much less abrasive and arguably therefore also a much more widely appealing version of the group. Yet they have lost none of their imagination and desire to innovate. This music is profoundly beautiful and immersive.
7. Afrocubism - Afrocubism (World Circuit)
This project is something close to what was originally conceived for the Buena Vista Social Club, before visa issues scuppered the dream. Now some of the finest African and Cuban musicians meet in a highly empathetic, perhaps even symbiotic recording, that finds the shared ground in musical heritage. It’s a deeply traditional work, but one that gains fresh impetus and appeal from some unfamiliar instrumentation and through the knowledge and experience of the musicians involved. It is delivered with a relaxed grace typical of these musical masters and it is a consistently enriching and enjoyable listening experience.
6. Richard Skelton - Landings (Type)
Not so much an album as a full blown geographical and personal study, Skelton’s wonderful achievement transports us back to a time where landscape and location provided fertile inspiration for artists. With his nuanced, compelling music (an intriguing blend of acoustic and electronic elements), Skelton wordlessly explored links between place, grief and recovery. It’s a testament to the importance and influence of environment and the resilience of the human spirit.
5. Steve Lehman and Rudresh Mahanthappa - Dual Identity (Clean Feed)
This collaborative project between two of the most imaginative and thrilling alto saxophonists at work in US jazz is every bit as fascinating and challenging as one might expect. The group now features Liberty Ellmann on guitar, Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums and the whole ensemble share Lehman and Mahanthappa’s preoccupation with rhythmic intricacy. Ellmann’s spiky, dissonant accompaniment is particularly crucial. The compositions are pieced together like intellectual puzzles, but the resulting music is immediate and weirdly groovy. The sound of two alto saxophonists duetting remains unusual, but Lehman and Mahanthappa carry it off with real skill - interweaving between each other with nimble flurries without ever crowding each other’s space.
4. Tim Whitehead - Colour Beginnings (Home Made)
Based on work Tim Whitehead undertook whilst composer in residence at Tate Britain during 2009, Colour Beginnings is inspired by encounters with a series of JMW Turner paintings and watercolour sketches. It is a process-driven work in which the process is human, personal and emotional. Whitehead recorded his improvised responses to the Turner artwork and then developed ensemble compositions from these improvisations. The result is a long form work of genuine inspiration, with moments of searing, passionate joy. Whitehead not just establishes the atmosphere of Turner’s work, but also its physicality - the crashing of waves, the sun’s reflection dancing on the water, clouds floating in the sky. The recordings are impressive given the unusual performance spaces (half of the album was recorded at the work’s premier at a gallery room in Tate Britain). Whitehead sounds committed and intense as always, ably abetted by keenly aware, sensitive playing from Liam Noble, Oli Hayhurst, Patrick Bettison and Milo Fell. Colour Beginnings is the best British jazz CD of the year, and a personal and professional triumph for Whitehead.
3. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (Drag City)
Never entirely convinced by Ys, I approached this colossal triple album with some trepidation. I needn’t have worried though - Have One On Me retains all that was magical, idiosyncratic and charming about Newsom whilst jettisoning some of her more extreme, grating tendencies. Her voice is more rounded and soulful, far less abrasive and the songs, whilst lengthy and exploratory in terms of Newsom’s ceaselessly inventive lyrics, benefit greatly from the chamber arrangements of her chief collaborator Ryan Francesconi. There are elements of West Coast folk and New Orleans jazz, but the resulting melting point is very much Newsom’s individual, original statement. Have One On Me is moving and inspiring at the same time as being overwhelming.
2. Charles Lloyd Quartet - Mirror (ECM)
Whilst some fawned over Brad Mehldau’s syrupy, over-produced Highway Rider, others realised that Lloyd’s current quartet (featuring Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland) is among the best groups currently at work in American jazz, perhaps even the equal of his hugely influential late 1960s quartet. Their studio dates tend to be calmer than their rousing, sometimes tempestuous live performances, emphasising Lloyd’s tendency towards spiritual balm. Mirror works remarkably well though - a graceful, elegant and meditative work brimming with thoughtful statements, beautifully balanced ensemble sound and refined musicianship.
**1. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (Warp)**
FlyLo’s magnum opus divided opinion between those completely immersed in its enticing alternative cosmic reality and those infuriated by what they viewed as attention deficit disorder. Yet FlyLo has never really made isolated tracks as such - these small segments may veer suddenly and unexpected into new territory, but the overall picture makes a warped kind of sense. Cosmogramma is the most intricate and sophisticated sound collage Steven Ellison has yet produced, incorporating elements of hip hop, IDM, the astral jazz beloved of his great-aunt Alice Coltrane (particularly through Rebekah Raff’s harp) and 70s fusion. It’s a challenging but deeply rewarding work with a coherent vision and appealing philosophy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)