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

[Resonance FM #28] Mutual Benefit, Halls, Sharon Van Etten, New Beard, Co La, Some Gorgeous Accident

The 29th This Music Wins podcast/radio show will air Saturday 3rd December on Resonance 104.4FM (listen). Download the full audio below or stream tracks via 8tracks.

DOWNLOAD: This Music Wins #29 (MP3)

• Mutual Benefit - Auburn Epitaphs (MP3)
• Halls - Colossus (MP3)
• Sharon Van Etten - Mike McDermott (MP3)
• New Beard - Given (Feat. Gustav Ejstes) (MP3)
• Co La - Visions Of Excess (Wet Version) (MP3)
• Some Gorgeous Accident - Panorama (MP3)

follow @thismusicwins on twitter for regular updates and click here to find concert tickets for all of the above.

Friends Records - Friends Records 2011