ALBUMS OF 2011 #45 - #41

#45 Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion - Shake The Shackles (MP3)

Brooklyn garage rock at its finest; ‘In Love With Oblivion’ comprises of crisp and courageous, and occasionally gallant post-punk from apparent veterans of the scene Crystal Stilts. The 2011 Slumberland release is afflicted with the dark and incommutable vocals, strange key changes and strikingly full melody. An instant classic of the era it evokes, summed up thematically in the black and white colouration of above album cover.

#44 Grimes / D’eon - Darkbloom Split 12” - Vanessa (MP3)

Grimes is Claire Boucher, a solo electronic artist known for her retro 80s sound, and less so, for her discography of donation only releases via Arbutus Records. This latest EP ‘Darkbloom’, a collaborative split LP with D’eon and his idiosyncratic skittering fusion of percussion and RnB tinged arrangements, is available, albeit digitally, for just £3.95 via Boomkat.

#43 DUDES - Narcissists Anonymous - TURF TALK (SWAG EDIT) (MP3)

Lo-fi recorded and funk-induced (in the sleazy Ariel Pink sense of the word) dance music with muffled vocals and scratchy vocal samples shifting in and out of focus. This is a limited edition cassette tape riddled with cheesy melodies and discordant electronica. DUDES hail from San Diego, and have their tape available on the GrizzlyRecords band camp page over here. The digital release is free.

#42 Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams - Coming Down (MP3)

Dum Dum Girls’ Only In Dreams is a far cry from their first effort, originally a parallel to the media crazes centring upon Vivian Girls and Best Coast in 2009. Two years on and with an album and EP under their belt, Dum Dum Girls present an incredibly well produced and matured effort of powerful girl group pop, a personal highlight of mine being the thunderous atrophy of six minute song ‘Coming Down’ - the others being a little more punchy in comparison. Buy here from Sub Pop.

#41 Young Prisms - Friends For Now - Breathless (MP3)

Young Prisms - overwhelming and pungent surf noise with a sunken, almost inaudible vocal buried deep in the mix; the results are expressionless and emotionless songs with a kind of instant appeal which is interesting in and of itself but bereft of any elements which command repeat listening. Noise and punk as an art form which I vividly remember catching at Digital Brighton alongside No Joy and Kanine label-mates Surfer Blood. Available to buy here. 

read the full list / read #40 - #36

ALBUMS OF 2011 #40 - #36 

#40 Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Vomit (MP3)

Arguably Girls’ most courageous attempt yet, here the San Francisco surf rock band venture in to the realm of classic rock, not stopping short of cheesy licks, walking bass-lines or even gospel choirs. The soulful backing singers and hammond organs characterise most of ‘Vomit’, a song which strikes at the heart of Girls’ sound in pinpointing something deeply moving in amongst an otherwise brilliantly orchestrated and uplifting arrangement. FSHG was released on September 17th viaTrue Panther Sounds.

#39 Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise - I Got A Woman (MP3)

The earlier of Nicolas Jaar’s three releases thus far in 2011, ‘Space Is Only Noise’ sees the Chilean-American Brown University student on an investigative mission in the niche which lies somewhere between ghostly minimal techno, world folk and classical music. This is something like how I’d imagine Jordan Busson’s music to develop one day, abstract sounds and unconventional percussion, tinges of world jazz and understated, deformed classical melodies. Recently revealed as Rough Trade’s number two album of the year.

#38 Peter Wolf Crier - Garden Of Arms - Settling It Off (MP3)

Characterised by a woody gauze of forest colours and grainy tones, Peter Wolf Crier field ‘Garden Of Arms’ in a context more furiously charged, moody and painstakingly restrained than ever before. The duo depart ‘Inter-Be’ in favour of a more weathered, Radiohead-esque collection which oozes maturity as much as it does idiosyncrasies of PWC’s past. Tightly strung enough to cause serious discomfort inside 2 and half minutes, I’d have very much liked to listen to a 6-minuter play out. Album stream still up in full over at MTV USA and I recommend you spend some time with it.

#37 Jape - Ocean Of Frequency - The Oldest Mind (MP3)

Ocean Of Frequency plays out a little simply to warrant a significant rant, but its highlights are really special. Jape’s ‘The Oldest Mind’ is a pulsating dance track with a lingering acoustic twang hovering in the mist, a searing keyboard sound and multi-layered vocals taking on a the form of a dream-like electronica. The Oldest Mind is the perfect balance between the dreamy and the over-emphasised.

#36 High Places - Original Colours - Year Off (MP3)

First and foremost a pop duo, High Places have abandoned much of the darker side of their experimental sound for something furiously dubby on ‘Original Colours’. A new emphasis on the vocals makes for a cavernous, spoken-word sound encased in a willful percussive section. The Thrill Jockey record shares some atonal motifs with Animal Collective’s playful repertoire, but Original Colours is no flailing psychedelic album, it is more carefully considered, warm and measured. A cult sci-fi filmic feel and at times a thoroughly disturbing listen.

read the full list / read #35 - #31

ALBUMS OF 2011 #35 - #31

#35 Destroyer - Kaputt - Poor In Love (MP3) 

A January release date rendered Destroyer’s Kaputt one of 2011’s first great records. Its the ninth studio album from Vancouver’s Dan Bejar, a re-imagining of 1980s synthpop and glamorous shoegaze, laden with female harmonies and brass sections, squealing dance synths and seamless intertwining transitions of close-mic vocals, watery background noise and modern synthesisers.

#34 Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact - Mindkilla (MP3)

Glittering and defiant psychedelic disco with a heavy dance beat, sprawling laser-like melodies and an intense sci-fi feel. ‘Mindkilla’ I find a truly very disturbing and confusing experience, and wonder where people like Gang Gang Dance come from? As far as electronica goes this is some of the most outgoing and tropical and awe-inspiring I’ve come across. Otherworldly pop music.

#33 Lady Lazarus - Mantic - The Eye In The Eye Of The Storm (MP3)

Lady Lazarus is the solo project of Californian singer-songwriter Melissa Ann Sweat; her sound is something of Northern America, and she’s fearless to meddle with the drone in ways markedly similar to Sharon Van Etten. Her vocals are buried in the instrumentation in a similar occasionally raspy manner, skipping and sliding in and out of timings and outlining sparsely told stories in a strong country accent. Manticreminds me of Jessica Jalbert’s stunning ‘Brother Loyola’ a little.

#32 Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT -  Silly Bears (MP3)

Akron/Family are a caricature of what I’d imagine a nightmarish Wolf Parade era-Mount Zoomer (anyone remember Kissing The Beehive?) to sound like. ‘The Cosmic Birth..’, reportedly written next to a Japanese volcano and recorded in an abandoned train station in Detroit, is a purpling guitar-ridden epic, coalesced into the jottings of an over-amplified freak folk jam session. Eclecticism is Akron/Family’s defining feature here as ever. Buy here from Dead Oceans.

#31 Little Dragon - Ritual Union - Ritual Union (MP3)

Little Dragon, a Swedish electronica act formed in Gothenburg in 1996, might have just brokered some real success with their third record ‘Ritual Union’. Interpreting the sparse, sample-based drumming of dubstep in terms of TVOTR and Jamie XX and striking this against the girlish neo-soul vocal of Swedish-Japanese Yukumi Nagano with a band who made their livings as session musicians has won them fans inclusive of Jimmy Fallon, and collaborations with Dave Sitek, SBTRKT, Jose Gonzalez and Gorillaz. With an arrangement which could easily have left their sound icy and unconvincing, comes the forever-repeatable title song ‘Ritual Union’ a sleek, stylish and soulful.

Read the full list / read #30 - #26 

ALBUMS OF 2011 #30 - #26

#30 Tycho - Dive - Dive (MP3)

In addition to being a fairly successful graphic designer (as indicated above), Scott Hansen has also been performing as electronic act Tycho since 2002. ‘Dive’, aGhostly International release from 2011, eschews paranoia in its constantly unfurling, dream-like soundscapes and vast, holistic appeal. Its recorded with live drums, but assembled on the computer, this approach dowsing a pulsating deep bass with a sun-soaked tone which revels in its own warmth. Buy the album or check out Hansen’s extensive design collections at the Tycho website.

#29 Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place - The Magic Place (MP3)

Has there ever been a more fitting name for an album? This hymnal interpretation of chamber folk music echoes the hovering mystic ambience of experimental acts such as Volcano Choir, but in an entirely different context; Julianna Barwick’s ‘Magic Place’ is an adventurous yet solemn voyage into the empyrean, far-removed from reality and modern times not just for its distinctively sunken reverb sound, but for use of choir and vocal layering to present a magical, textured and idiosyncratic ode to religious music.

#28 Toro Y Moi - Underneath The Pine - Still Sound (MP3)

Somewhat divorced from the more clear-cut themes present on Toro Y Moi’s debut LP ‘Causers Of This’, ‘Underneath The Pine’ asserts itself less decisively in its incessant darting between 70s disco and soul, Eastern-tinged psychedelia and retro hip-hop. ‘Underneath’ is altogether impeccably eclectic, ‘Intro’ splutters a churning, scintillating feedback, ‘Before I’m Done’ a squeaky acoustic opening, and ‘Still Sound’ a cheesy Ariel Pink-era disco beat. A solid scoop of a second LP from Washington’s Carpark Records.

#27 Connan Mockasin - Forever Dolphin Love - Forever Dolphin Love (MP3)

New Zealander Connan Mockasin’s previous incarnations have unsurprisingly left their mark on his sound, his former blues arrangements (under the “Connan & The Mockasin’s” moniker) deftly transposed via bass line into the midst of his extended psychedelic performances on new LP ‘Forever Dolphin Love’. The record, released by Because / Phantasy (2011), is a languid, spacey and post-modern affair, and from a salient chiming and stringent, dissonant keyboard vibe resurges the main form of the song, a triumphant, riddling funk-bass and an eerily theatrical, Bowie-like set of almost alien utterances.

#26 Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica - Sleep Dealer

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #25 - #21

#25 Sleep Over - Forever - Casual Diamond (MP3)

The now-defunkt Pitchfork subsidiary Altered Zones presented, amongst many others, an album stream for Sleep Over’s Forever in 2011, the haunting solo project of Stefanie Franciotti. I missed them in Brighton with Pure X in the Autumn, but ‘Forever’ has been a regular spin encouraged by its gangly synthesised riffs, mountainous mid-range and haunting Warpaint-esque female voices in constant competition.

#24 Dirty Beaches - Badlands - Lord Knows Best (MP3)

Alexander Zhang Hungtai is a Taiwan-born Canadian immigrant and lo-fi musician who operates under the ‘Dirty Beaches’ moniker. ‘Badlands’ is his debut LP, a jagged and manic rockabilly record gauzed by his heavily stylised lo-fi recording filter. It recalls the overdrive-heavy aesthetic of 70s and 80s wild-western films, with hints of Lynch, Jarmusch and particularly Tarantino, decorated, uniquely, by a disturbing, Elvis Presley-type babbled monologue. The later tracks do well to slow down, and ‘Lord Knows Best’ is a crackling comedown, a comfortably trippy, slow-dancing lo-fidelity ballad.

#23 Co La - Daydream Repeater - Egyptian Peaches (MP3)

Listen enough to Co La’s Daydream Repeater, and you start to appreciate how its put together; most of the album is contained in the drums, and the melodies come not as something divorced from the rhythm, designed to lace the drums as time-keepers, but instead as very much a part of the tribal and exotic percussion. The skeleton is laid bare and built upon, and the artistic element is clear in every disorientating sample and prudent momentum shift. As Altered Zones puts it, Co La exudes ‘the exotic and the luxurious’ - full stream here.

#22 Balam Acab - Wander / Wonder - Apart (MP3)

Balam Acab is 20-year old Pennsylvania-dweller Alec Koone, famed for his down-tempo allusions to witch house on his 2010 debut EP ‘See Birds’. The following year saw him expand in some ways, but drop a little of the hip-hop element in favour of a watery percussive palette and a jangling and flowing electronica sound. Wander / Wonder prides itself upon its subtlety and fluidity, but here ‘Apart’ resonates with that jarring, room-shaking witch-house bass.

#21 Radiohead - King Of Limbs - Lotus Flower (MP3)

Does the assessment of an album include its performance? I’d say no - and subsequently I’m committed to the statement that though Radiohead’s ‘In The Basement’ performance of The King Of Limbs is possibly one of my single biggest musical inspirations of the past few months, I don’t think the recorded album is quite so masterfully orchestrated. ‘Bloom’ is an emotionless uphill surge, ‘Lotus Flower’ bassy, trip-hoppy and moody turned (at precisely 2.02) by Thom Yorke’s vocal performance into a tight and claustrophobic experimental rock gem. 

Read the full list / read #20 - #15