"Who hates the Stooges?"
*loud cheers from the crowd*
"We don't hate you. We don't even care."
-Iggy Pop with the Stooges, live at the Michigan Palace, February 9, 1974, Metallic KO
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Definition
Musical historiography has spent at least the last four decades warping our view of rock. Over the last couple of years I’ve come to view the history of rock music as a continuum, rather than by the far more common discourse on genre ghettoization. Revisionist history written by orthodox rock critics has attempted to obscure this essential truth in service to advertising concerns. To clarify, I am not opposed to the use of musical definitions. Terms like thrash, grunge, punk, sludge and so on have their uses as sonic descriptors. When someone says a band thrashes, you generally take that to mean that they play fast, heavily distorted chugging rhythm guitars with lots of complex, winding instrumental breaks, jackhammer drum beats and shredding guitar solos featuring lots of hammer-ons. The problem arises when artificial barriers are erected between styles that are only superficially different. Music is fluid, and the best bands, as they themselves have been saying all along, cannot be pigeonholed.
Rock is a specific term, not an umbrella one. When I say rock, I’m talking about small band music that is dominated by the electric guitar, bass and drums and built mainly on amplified and usually distorted guitar riffs. For a band to be a rock band it must rock, and if you’ve been listening long enough now, you know what that means. Rock is a non-dance music that provokes a physical response. The physical impact of rock music when amplified generally is the force that compels acolytes to bang their heads or play air guitar. Despite their stylistic differences, the Rolling Stones, Stooges, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Replacements, Soundgarden, Kyuss, High On Fire and White Stripes are all working within the same idiom. These bands and thousands more are all quintessentially rock. The instrumentation is the same, as is the small band format. A drummer, a bass player and a guitarist or two are the central voices in their sound. Vocals may be handled by a dedicated singer or one of the players. It serves the interest of the media (whose goal is to sell advertising, not music) to subdivide rock bands into categories because they can be more easily marketed or ignored, as the case may be. Guns ‘n’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction crawled out of the same Los Angeles club scene and parlayed the same set of arena-ready, classic rock approved influences and a similar glammed up media profile into short-lived but brilliant parallel careers as avatars for diametrically opposed scenes, MTV hair metal for G’n’R and SPIN’s Alternative Rock Nation for Jane’s. Why? It’s not as though Pearl Jam and Bad Company were all that different musically to begin with, but for the majors to present the Pearl Jam in 1991 as the Next Big Thing, an artificial break with the dinosaurs of the past had to be created to produce a groundswell of hype and move units. Failing to hide from the crucial twenty-something Generation X demographic the fact that their new sounds were highly influenced by their parents’ boomer rock would have been commercial poison, hence the need for a new name – grunge. Being an arena rock band to the core, Pearl Jam and the far more metal-influenced Alice In Chains and Soundgarden were lumped in with the ragged pop-punk of Nirvana. Sonically they all were extremely different, but still essentially rock. So basically we have this ridiculous paradigm constructed by which these bands do not share their historical antecedents but instead lept fully formed into the public's consciousness as a homogeneous "new wave" of music. I'm not buying it. Again, it was not the bands themselves who were saying this, but their major label handlers' marketing departments doing their best to obscure the music and wrap it in fashion conceits to move units. Pearl Jam themselves realized this once they were left in the dust by contemporary trends and at least had the integrity to own up to their influences and play on record with Neil Young.
Revisionist rock history has come along for the ride. Typically, a survey of early 90's rock makes some point about the symbolic gesture of Nevermind knocking Michael Jackson's Dangerous off of the top spot on the charts, but this is hardly surprising given that album charts always reflect more accurately (although not all that accurately) the serious record-buying public's perception than the fickle pop audience and insular broadcast industry. These outlets are better represented by the singles charts, which are based on airplay. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" only ever hit number 6 on the Billboard charts, and did so after a slow and steady climb rather than an explosive debut. Conclusion? The song that gets picked again and again and again as the greatest song of the '90s was never as ubiquitous as we are taught to remember. And as for the idea of Nirvana and their alt-rock ilk ending the reign of MTV hair metal well... MTV might have jumped off the bandwagon some time around 1992, but Quiet Riot's Metal Health still sold two million copies during the 90's, and Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood sold twice that. People were still listening to and even buying this music. These sorts of sea changes don't actually happen and take place only in the minds of broadcasters and music writers.
Music criticism as it stands has contributed to the problem for decades. The vast majority of music criticism is not about music at all, but instead catering to the core audience demographics’ self image as being tuned in to what is cool. The advertisers which supply the revenue want to be able to sell their products to these people. If you’ve read as much music media as I have and have at least a modicum of critical thinking ability in your brain, you should have noticed how little time is actually spent talking about music itself. Where they are from, what they wear on stage, who in the industry they are associated with, what their videos look like and so on do not tell us anything about what a band actually sounds like. The idea is to build an image for the band and the publication itself and by implication the advertisers. Sometimes you will see albums advertised in the same publications that are reviewing them! How can we expect an impartial critical review if the advertiser is paying the writer’s salary?
Fashion and production trends have obscured the relative stability of rock as a style (ignoring its fluctuating commercial prospects) to a large degree, and their primary influence on the music itself was to date it. This doesn’t have to be the case, and the bands that have always remained committed to finding their musical voices have discovered this time and time again. If they are good enough and work hard, they might with luck even be able to make a go of it for a little while, touring and recording. Really, playing in a rock band is not a commercially rewarding enterprise, and aside from a few obvious exceptions it never has been. Again though, commercial concerns are irrelevant to the quality of music. As long as the sound of a rock band is built on solid musical bedrock, timeless and relevant music can be made whether or not the musicians themselves are aware of their own musical DNA. For this reason, bands that are superficially different due to whatever production tricks happen to be in vogue (giant, arena-ready gated reverb snare drums in the ‘80s, pseudo-electronic industrial textures in the ‘90s, digital distortion and auto-tuned vocals in the ‘00s etc) can be appropriately grouped together based on the musical traits they all share. The Who and Mountain and the Clash and Black Flag and Kyuss and the Smashing Pumpkins and the Black Lips might sound different, because the techniques used to record them differed and because each band’s particular voice was unique, but their instruments and techniques and song structures are all based on similar antecedents -- they all speak the language of rock.
Musical differences between bands and styles are a different factor, and by this I mean techniques. Morbid Angel use blast beats and guttural vocals, the Jimi Hendrix Experience did not. Earthless play guitar solos, the Ramones did not. These are not arbitrary or qualitative judgments, but simply statements of fact. The presence or absence of identifiable musical qualities such as these allows us to accurately refer to Morbid Angel as a death metal band and the Ramones as a punk band. Rock has sprouted its fair sure of offshoots, punk and metal being the most important and each of these encompassing their own sub styles. It is important to remember that these all fall under the dominion of rock however. There can be, and except for the most extreme cases (Napalm Death, Deicide, Mayhem, Extreme Noise Terror, Fear, Crucifucks, Hirax, Cryptic Slaughter) almost always is crossover between the styles in the work of all bands that do not fit squarely into the rock mold. Just as Led Zeppelin and Cream could easily be thought of as super loud blues bands, Motörhead and Metallica could easily be thought of as amped up, ultra-heavy rock bands (something Lemmy himself has always claimed), and Minor Threat and Sick Of It All as rock bands in a (sometimes permanent) state of pupation.
Certainly the bands themselves were aware of this, if not consciously, then at least musically. They were all listening to each others’ records anyways. Malcolm McLaren’s manipulation of the media and Johnny Rotten’s mouth got a lot more attention for the Sex Pistols than Steve Jones’ conventional pub rock approach to the guitar ever did, but it was the boys in the band who knew how to give Budgie and Black Sabbath licks a steel-toed boot to the ass and play them more primitively than even those artisans had. The media fell for it and went along for the ride because they love shit like the idea of the front man for a rock band talking about destroying roll. Yeah right. I’m sure there was no rock whatsoever that went into peeling off the riffs and solos (!) that make up “Anarchy in the U.K.”At the end of the day it was still the same power-trio racket that had defined rock ‘n’ roll since the ‘50s. Never mind the Bollocks indeed.
Don’t be fooled by Madison Avenue and its cronies. It’s about the music, and always has been. Ignore the extraneous bullshit and listen without distraction. Maximum volume yields maximum results.
Rock is a specific term, not an umbrella one. When I say rock, I’m talking about small band music that is dominated by the electric guitar, bass and drums and built mainly on amplified and usually distorted guitar riffs. For a band to be a rock band it must rock, and if you’ve been listening long enough now, you know what that means. Rock is a non-dance music that provokes a physical response. The physical impact of rock music when amplified generally is the force that compels acolytes to bang their heads or play air guitar. Despite their stylistic differences, the Rolling Stones, Stooges, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Replacements, Soundgarden, Kyuss, High On Fire and White Stripes are all working within the same idiom. These bands and thousands more are all quintessentially rock. The instrumentation is the same, as is the small band format. A drummer, a bass player and a guitarist or two are the central voices in their sound. Vocals may be handled by a dedicated singer or one of the players. It serves the interest of the media (whose goal is to sell advertising, not music) to subdivide rock bands into categories because they can be more easily marketed or ignored, as the case may be. Guns ‘n’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction crawled out of the same Los Angeles club scene and parlayed the same set of arena-ready, classic rock approved influences and a similar glammed up media profile into short-lived but brilliant parallel careers as avatars for diametrically opposed scenes, MTV hair metal for G’n’R and SPIN’s Alternative Rock Nation for Jane’s. Why? It’s not as though Pearl Jam and Bad Company were all that different musically to begin with, but for the majors to present the Pearl Jam in 1991 as the Next Big Thing, an artificial break with the dinosaurs of the past had to be created to produce a groundswell of hype and move units. Failing to hide from the crucial twenty-something Generation X demographic the fact that their new sounds were highly influenced by their parents’ boomer rock would have been commercial poison, hence the need for a new name – grunge. Being an arena rock band to the core, Pearl Jam and the far more metal-influenced Alice In Chains and Soundgarden were lumped in with the ragged pop-punk of Nirvana. Sonically they all were extremely different, but still essentially rock. So basically we have this ridiculous paradigm constructed by which these bands do not share their historical antecedents but instead lept fully formed into the public's consciousness as a homogeneous "new wave" of music. I'm not buying it. Again, it was not the bands themselves who were saying this, but their major label handlers' marketing departments doing their best to obscure the music and wrap it in fashion conceits to move units. Pearl Jam themselves realized this once they were left in the dust by contemporary trends and at least had the integrity to own up to their influences and play on record with Neil Young.
Revisionist rock history has come along for the ride. Typically, a survey of early 90's rock makes some point about the symbolic gesture of Nevermind knocking Michael Jackson's Dangerous off of the top spot on the charts, but this is hardly surprising given that album charts always reflect more accurately (although not all that accurately) the serious record-buying public's perception than the fickle pop audience and insular broadcast industry. These outlets are better represented by the singles charts, which are based on airplay. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" only ever hit number 6 on the Billboard charts, and did so after a slow and steady climb rather than an explosive debut. Conclusion? The song that gets picked again and again and again as the greatest song of the '90s was never as ubiquitous as we are taught to remember. And as for the idea of Nirvana and their alt-rock ilk ending the reign of MTV hair metal well... MTV might have jumped off the bandwagon some time around 1992, but Quiet Riot's Metal Health still sold two million copies during the 90's, and Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood sold twice that. People were still listening to and even buying this music. These sorts of sea changes don't actually happen and take place only in the minds of broadcasters and music writers.
Music criticism as it stands has contributed to the problem for decades. The vast majority of music criticism is not about music at all, but instead catering to the core audience demographics’ self image as being tuned in to what is cool. The advertisers which supply the revenue want to be able to sell their products to these people. If you’ve read as much music media as I have and have at least a modicum of critical thinking ability in your brain, you should have noticed how little time is actually spent talking about music itself. Where they are from, what they wear on stage, who in the industry they are associated with, what their videos look like and so on do not tell us anything about what a band actually sounds like. The idea is to build an image for the band and the publication itself and by implication the advertisers. Sometimes you will see albums advertised in the same publications that are reviewing them! How can we expect an impartial critical review if the advertiser is paying the writer’s salary?
Fashion and production trends have obscured the relative stability of rock as a style (ignoring its fluctuating commercial prospects) to a large degree, and their primary influence on the music itself was to date it. This doesn’t have to be the case, and the bands that have always remained committed to finding their musical voices have discovered this time and time again. If they are good enough and work hard, they might with luck even be able to make a go of it for a little while, touring and recording. Really, playing in a rock band is not a commercially rewarding enterprise, and aside from a few obvious exceptions it never has been. Again though, commercial concerns are irrelevant to the quality of music. As long as the sound of a rock band is built on solid musical bedrock, timeless and relevant music can be made whether or not the musicians themselves are aware of their own musical DNA. For this reason, bands that are superficially different due to whatever production tricks happen to be in vogue (giant, arena-ready gated reverb snare drums in the ‘80s, pseudo-electronic industrial textures in the ‘90s, digital distortion and auto-tuned vocals in the ‘00s etc) can be appropriately grouped together based on the musical traits they all share. The Who and Mountain and the Clash and Black Flag and Kyuss and the Smashing Pumpkins and the Black Lips might sound different, because the techniques used to record them differed and because each band’s particular voice was unique, but their instruments and techniques and song structures are all based on similar antecedents -- they all speak the language of rock.
Musical differences between bands and styles are a different factor, and by this I mean techniques. Morbid Angel use blast beats and guttural vocals, the Jimi Hendrix Experience did not. Earthless play guitar solos, the Ramones did not. These are not arbitrary or qualitative judgments, but simply statements of fact. The presence or absence of identifiable musical qualities such as these allows us to accurately refer to Morbid Angel as a death metal band and the Ramones as a punk band. Rock has sprouted its fair sure of offshoots, punk and metal being the most important and each of these encompassing their own sub styles. It is important to remember that these all fall under the dominion of rock however. There can be, and except for the most extreme cases (Napalm Death, Deicide, Mayhem, Extreme Noise Terror, Fear, Crucifucks, Hirax, Cryptic Slaughter) almost always is crossover between the styles in the work of all bands that do not fit squarely into the rock mold. Just as Led Zeppelin and Cream could easily be thought of as super loud blues bands, Motörhead and Metallica could easily be thought of as amped up, ultra-heavy rock bands (something Lemmy himself has always claimed), and Minor Threat and Sick Of It All as rock bands in a (sometimes permanent) state of pupation.
Certainly the bands themselves were aware of this, if not consciously, then at least musically. They were all listening to each others’ records anyways. Malcolm McLaren’s manipulation of the media and Johnny Rotten’s mouth got a lot more attention for the Sex Pistols than Steve Jones’ conventional pub rock approach to the guitar ever did, but it was the boys in the band who knew how to give Budgie and Black Sabbath licks a steel-toed boot to the ass and play them more primitively than even those artisans had. The media fell for it and went along for the ride because they love shit like the idea of the front man for a rock band talking about destroying roll. Yeah right. I’m sure there was no rock whatsoever that went into peeling off the riffs and solos (!) that make up “Anarchy in the U.K.”At the end of the day it was still the same power-trio racket that had defined rock ‘n’ roll since the ‘50s. Never mind the Bollocks indeed.
Don’t be fooled by Madison Avenue and its cronies. It’s about the music, and always has been. Ignore the extraneous bullshit and listen without distraction. Maximum volume yields maximum results.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Top Albums Of 2010, #10-1
Well, another year has past, and it was a good one. They all are, if you know where to look.
First, a few honorable mentions.
Architect - Consume. Adapt. Create.
Autechre - Oversteps
Mondo Drag - New Rituals
Myelin Sheaths - Get On Your Nerves
Pontiak - Living
Red Cedar - Enter The Sun Gods
Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer
Royal Baths - Litanies
Secret Pyramid - Ghosts
The Sharp Ends - The Sharp Ends
Shlohmo - Shlomoshun
Solar Bears - She Was Coloured In
UNKLE - Where Did The Night Fall?
Vex'd - Cloud Seed
White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights
And now, the list. Have a taste of these...
1. Kylesa – Spiral Shadow
2010 saw a plethora of polished, accomplished heavy rock albums from a generation of rockers that have re-established heavy rock as a viable prospect for music coverage. Kylesa’s Spiral Shadow was the best of them. Kylesa, along with their contemporary stylistic cousins in High on Fire, Black Wizard, Zoroaster, The Sword, Bison, Black Tusk, Year Of No Light, White Hills, Withered, Fucked Up, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Ufomammut, Eagle Twin, Black Cobra and other bands who released records this year are in the primes of their careers. This generation has come of age as the internet has allowed musical fans of all stripes to cross-contaminate their music with previously separate sonic ingredients. These new, omnivorous heavy bands have generally made between two and five records, having established an identifiable and unique band-voice, and are now making creative adjustments within (and sometimes outside) these parameters. Veteran heavy bands like the Melvins, Harvey Milk and Electric Wizard all released solid albums that garnered them significant attention, another sign that hard rock is alive and well. In Kylesa’s case, they have emerged from a fertile climate for the growth of extreme metal bands (and fans) that has seen its waters muddied considerably in the last ten years by strains of psychedelic, sludge, hardcore, classic heavy metal and traditional hard rock. Geographical contemporaries, chief among them Mastodon and Baroness, have also earned similar accolades for re-shaping recognizable mediums with memorable songs and modern hard rock production methods. Now, folks are really starting to pay attention, and Kylesa’s time on the road for the better part of the last decade has turned them into a powerhouse.
Kylesa’s fifth full-length makes use of textures only previously hinted at on last year’s Static Tensions without sacrificing the ferocious energy that has been this band’s trademark since day one. Heroic guitar leads are featured prominently in some, but not all of the songs, and these emphasize melody and tone rather than chops. Spiral Shadow is equal parts studied intensity and inspired imagination. The polyrhythmic dual-drummer setup is more noticeable than ever, particularly within the more prominent shifts in dynamics. Though Kylesa are operating from a pronounced hardcore base, the sharpness of the players and the agility of the band’s punishing rhythm section are grounded firmly in the ass-kicking super-rock tradition. The juxtaposition of (tuneful) male and female hardcore vocals lends the songs a memorability and intensity to match the instrumental performances. The production is explosive, with a brickwalled guitar-intensive mix that recalls Fucked Up’s The Chemistry Of Common Life. At a lean 40 minutes, the album does not waste a second, hitting with blitzkrieg force and but providing enough sonic variety to make each song a treat. A few highlights are the sludgy opening blast “Tired Climb,” the exotic face-melting leads on “Crowded Room,” the explosive chorus of “Don’t Look Back” and the epic solo on the record’s centerpiece title track. Kylesa have crafted an exceptional listening experience and secured their place as one of the world’s best rock bands.
2. Black Wizard – Black Wizard
I debated whether or not to actually put this album on my list, because it was technically released last year. I did because I 1) I didn’t hear it until this year, 2) they are local and I wanna give them the props they are due, and 3) this record is so unbelievably awesome that I would be an absolute dick not to. Their self-titled debut is a delicious stew of everything that I have loved about rock n’ roll since I was 12. Huge anthemic choruses, dueling guitar melodies, crushing riffs and sludgy thrash workouts all battle for space as a leather-lunged rock god bellows over top with a stratospheric roar that is a dead ringer for Louder Than Love era- Chris Cornell. At less than 34 minutes, this masterfully-paced album says everything it needs to and leaves you wanting more every time. Vancouverites, if you are even a little bit into rock music and you haven’t heard these guys, you need to get yourself a copy of this record right now.
The first song, “Long Way Home” condenses everything great about the band into six and a half glorious heart-pounding minutes. It stomps out of the gate with a pounding main theme, then kicks into high gear with a rollicking riff straight out of an East London dive bar, circa 1979. Soon everything breaks down into an ominously psychedelic interlude, the guitars gorgeously weave in and out of the mix before the riff once again makes its grand return, this time complete with epic twin guitarmonies. As a double-time thrasher of a riff kicks in, you can’t possibly think this could get anymore awesome. You’ll wish you had a beard. You’ll wish you were doing speed with Lemmy. You’ll wish you were driving a van with a chainmail bikini-clad heroine wielding a battleaxe. Then you realize it’s five minutes into the song and the singer hasn’t even opened his mouth. At the absolute peak of this ever-ascending rock masterpiece, he lets forth a bellow so powerful that it could only have been delivered from the peak of Mount Everest. Incredible. I’m in awe of those lungs.
Every single track here is an absolute barn-burner, with the surprisingly gorgeous acoustic interlude “Winds Of Helliwell” providing the only respite from the rock n’ roll assault. There is absolutely nothing here you’ve never heard, but who cares? This is ROCK. The only prerequisite is that it rocks, and Black Wizard do that as well as anyone. “Evergreen” boasts the most badass headbanger of a riff this side of Leaf Hound’s “Freeland Fiend” and “Drugs” crushes its riffs into oblivion like Dopethrone-era Electric Wizard. I can’t say this enough. These guys are fucking awesome.
3. Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
It may not top their absolute stone classic debut Passover, but the Black Angels have put together their most consistent and adventurous set of songs to date on Phosphene Dream. Unlike their previous albums, which wallowed in too much droning fuzz and druggy haze for the norms to appreciate, this album actually could appeal to non-psych aficionados. Not only that, but the hooks that were largely absent from 2008’s sprawling nod-fest Directions To See A Ghost have finally returned. Christian has managed to ply his instantly recognizable voice to the best batch of tunes the Angels have ever written, and there is more sonic variety here than ever before. The tone is not as gloomy as it has been in the past, with songs like “Yellow Elevator #2” and “Telephone” and the title track brightening up the mood somewhat while still sounding like refugees from the Summer of Love on bad acid. There are still some classic Black Angels ragers like the explosive “River Of Blood” and the unstoppable “Entrance Song,” each of these songs rampaging like the best tracks on Passover. And finally, there is “The Sniper.” Closing the record, this track is easily among the best songs the band has ever recorded. Opening with a funeral trudge of a guitar figure, a slide riff from hell’s side of the crossroads soon slashes across the sky, deep-fried in southern fuzz. Soon the tumbling rhythm picks up, and drummer Stefanie Bailey lays the hammer DOWN. The band takes off on a patented Angels death march, and Christian wails the whole time for all he’s worth. If this ‘aint rock brother, then I don’t want to know what is.
4. Sun Araw – On Patrol
This is less an album than a spiritual jouney. A pilgrimage to a mystic holy land. The dubby basslines and ‘luded-up waka-waka guitars will transport you to a different planar existence. You could spend an hour there, or spend weeks. Sun Araw’s shamanic mantras simply defy time as we beings can perceive it. On Patrol is their most expansive collection yet, sprawling in its conception and its sheer scale majestic. The entire whole moves with a rhythmic determination that reveals a dark undercurrent to the relaxed tempos. It sounds like the Amazon at midnight. This is a soundtrack to practice astral projection by. The companion EP Off Duty ‘aint too shabby neither.
5. Sleepy Sun – Fever
One of the world’s best rock bands releases its sophomore album, and they are better than ever. Although the jams have been reined in a touch, the songwriting has improved. The result is a cohesive listening experience that is still intense and exciting on the quieter tracks. “Rigamaroo” is an absolutely gorgeous duet, while the blissful drone of “Acid Love” show these guys can still make nod-out drug music with the best that the California freak scene has to offer. Still, the band’s trademark is face-melting guitar jams, and those are here in abundance. Colin Stewart gives these tracks a classically golden analogue treatment, resulting in a lush, expansive record that feels lived-in and comforting. The fuzz on the guitars is otherworldly, resulting in riffs that scorch and smolder and leads that cut with deranged focus. All this may sound like orthodox rock stuff, and to be sure, it is. Sleepy Sun are no bar band though. Their mastery of the rock form and the intensity of the players allow them to succeed on conviction. They also know how to vary the formula just enough to surprise. On “Marina” and “Desert God” percussion breakdowns and Mississippi delta rhythms shake things up a bit, while lysergic jams like “Sandstorm Woman” and “Open Your Eyes” are just as incendiary as anything on Embrace.
Until Comets On Fire get back on their high horse, Sleepy Sun is the world’s premiere psychedelic rock band, and their live show continues to absolutely demolish just about anyone who shares a stage with them. Here’s hoping they decide to go in Ufomammut’s direction and not Black Mountain’s though.
6. Bonobo – Black Sands
Bonobo is so locked-in at this point it seems effortless for him to produce dark, beautifully textured trip-hop albums. This one is not too different from any other albums he has made in the last decade, but there are a few twists. Andreya Triana takes a guest turn on a few tracks, and her smoky voice lends in particular the showstopper “The Keeper” a seductive veneer. Meanwhile, Bonobo tempers his crepuscular jazz with enough interesting beats to keep what should be by now a tired genre fresh and exciting. A haze surrounds this album that could only have been induced by fields of psychosilosibin, and psych heads, blunted-out hip-hoppers, bliss-out electronic fans, jazzbos and chill jam rockers will all be able to come together over its wonderfully organic and layered mosaic of influences. The sounds here are soft and cool, perfect for an evening with a lover, a moonlit drive, or a walk on the beach at twilight. This is not mere background music though, as careful listening reveals gorgeous subtleties, and repeat journeys highlight new avenues of sound. Black Sands is a new high water mark for Bonobo.
7. Zoroaster – Matador
Zoroaster vaulted themselves into hard rock’s elite this year with Matador, a rampaging beast of a record that flat out destroys their debut, last year’s Voice Of Saturn. Whereas that album had a tendency to get lost in its own sludge and lose focus, a vastly matured approach to songwriting and an abundance of fully resolved melodic ideas have resulted in a vastly improved group of songs. The psychedelic flourishes that put the Saturn in Zoroaster’s early work remains, particularly in the spacey vocal effects. It is pretty apparent that vocals are this band’s Achilles heel, but their playing is top notch, and thankfully most tracks spend the majority of their time stoking a runaway train of apocalyptic jamming.
This time the clearer production has sharpened the band’s attack, making the heavy moments hit with more punch and throwing the psychedelic elements of their sound into sharper relief. Vicious acid-metal solos cut and slash through the mix with laser-like focus on “Ancient Ones” and “Odyssey I,” while the meaty chugging riffage on the opener “D.N.R.” sticks to your ribs. It’s also become apparent that the band has become significantly more technically advanced in the past year. These guys can fucking shred. By embracing the more metallic elements of their sound, the band’s feature-length cosmic doom epics become more effective as counterpoint. A pair of seven minute behemoths dominates the second side, “Old World” and the title track. These monsters are far more effective than anything on Voice of Saturn.
That a promising young band can band can improve so drastically in such a short time speaks volumes about their talent and dedication to their craft. These guys should have plenty more good records in them.
8. Ufomammut – Eve
If you know anything about Ufomammut, then this isn’t really a surprise. If you don’t, well… Italian cosmic-doom outfit releases their magnum opus, a 45 minute single-song album. It’s basically their attempt to create the heaviest thing EVER, and damned if they don’t come close to doing it too. Such a classic move, maybe they’ve been sharing incense with Boris? I suppose it had to happen sooner or later, these guys have easily cracked the 20 minute barrier before. Anyways, the song is well-constructed and never feels as long as it is. There are some interesting space-rock flourishes here that will be entirely familiar to fans of Electric Wizard, YOB or Sons Of Otis. And when the hammer drops, BOY DOES IT EVER. You’ll see it coming from a mile away, but when that godlike riff creshendo hits, it’s worth the wait. Listen to it loud and don’t say I didn’t warn you when the walls start to melt.
9. Duffy & The Doubters - Scriptural Supplies
Solo album from Ladyhawk mainman Duffy Driediger goes for a more varied approach than his main band’s slowed down and emptied out drankin’ rock. Very short, the record only clocks in at about 20 minutes. Each and every song is an absolute earworm though, and Duffy tries his hand at a number of different styles, each one proving to be perfectly adaptable to his whiskey-soaked voice. “Sorry Ma, My Brain Is Dumb” is a scorching punk rock number, while “Doubters” is a touching account of a dying relationship. The songs are all very short and the mix of styles can seem like too much at times, but the album’s stunning middle stanza, tracks 4 to 8, are all keepers. Now, how about a follow-up to Shots, Duffy?
10. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Cosmogramma is a sprawling mosaic of influences so diverse and multi-dimensional that it is initially disorienting. Listen closely, and you’ll soon latch on to the familiar sounds as they present themselves in wholly unique contexts. Flying Lotus (who is John Coltrane’s nephew, incidentally) has spent the last two years letting the rest of the world’s bedroom producers catch up to his woozy beats on 2008’s Los Angeles. This time out he’s so thoroughly exploded his previous style it sounds as if he is simply in a league of his own. Cosmogramma takes glitch music, dubstep, ambient, jazz, r&b, pop, hip-hop, funk, dance and fusion music, breaking down their component parts and rearranging them into an infinitely intricate collage that defies categorization or minimization. As a musical achievement, Cosmogramma stands a million miles tall, so completely separate from the whole tradition of recorded music that it simply defies analysis. State of the art.
First, a few honorable mentions.
Architect - Consume. Adapt. Create.
Autechre - Oversteps
Mondo Drag - New Rituals
Myelin Sheaths - Get On Your Nerves
Pontiak - Living
Red Cedar - Enter The Sun Gods
Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer
Royal Baths - Litanies
Secret Pyramid - Ghosts
The Sharp Ends - The Sharp Ends
Shlohmo - Shlomoshun
Solar Bears - She Was Coloured In
UNKLE - Where Did The Night Fall?
Vex'd - Cloud Seed
White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights
And now, the list. Have a taste of these...
1. Kylesa – Spiral Shadow
2010 saw a plethora of polished, accomplished heavy rock albums from a generation of rockers that have re-established heavy rock as a viable prospect for music coverage. Kylesa’s Spiral Shadow was the best of them. Kylesa, along with their contemporary stylistic cousins in High on Fire, Black Wizard, Zoroaster, The Sword, Bison, Black Tusk, Year Of No Light, White Hills, Withered, Fucked Up, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Ufomammut, Eagle Twin, Black Cobra and other bands who released records this year are in the primes of their careers. This generation has come of age as the internet has allowed musical fans of all stripes to cross-contaminate their music with previously separate sonic ingredients. These new, omnivorous heavy bands have generally made between two and five records, having established an identifiable and unique band-voice, and are now making creative adjustments within (and sometimes outside) these parameters. Veteran heavy bands like the Melvins, Harvey Milk and Electric Wizard all released solid albums that garnered them significant attention, another sign that hard rock is alive and well. In Kylesa’s case, they have emerged from a fertile climate for the growth of extreme metal bands (and fans) that has seen its waters muddied considerably in the last ten years by strains of psychedelic, sludge, hardcore, classic heavy metal and traditional hard rock. Geographical contemporaries, chief among them Mastodon and Baroness, have also earned similar accolades for re-shaping recognizable mediums with memorable songs and modern hard rock production methods. Now, folks are really starting to pay attention, and Kylesa’s time on the road for the better part of the last decade has turned them into a powerhouse.
Kylesa’s fifth full-length makes use of textures only previously hinted at on last year’s Static Tensions without sacrificing the ferocious energy that has been this band’s trademark since day one. Heroic guitar leads are featured prominently in some, but not all of the songs, and these emphasize melody and tone rather than chops. Spiral Shadow is equal parts studied intensity and inspired imagination. The polyrhythmic dual-drummer setup is more noticeable than ever, particularly within the more prominent shifts in dynamics. Though Kylesa are operating from a pronounced hardcore base, the sharpness of the players and the agility of the band’s punishing rhythm section are grounded firmly in the ass-kicking super-rock tradition. The juxtaposition of (tuneful) male and female hardcore vocals lends the songs a memorability and intensity to match the instrumental performances. The production is explosive, with a brickwalled guitar-intensive mix that recalls Fucked Up’s The Chemistry Of Common Life. At a lean 40 minutes, the album does not waste a second, hitting with blitzkrieg force and but providing enough sonic variety to make each song a treat. A few highlights are the sludgy opening blast “Tired Climb,” the exotic face-melting leads on “Crowded Room,” the explosive chorus of “Don’t Look Back” and the epic solo on the record’s centerpiece title track. Kylesa have crafted an exceptional listening experience and secured their place as one of the world’s best rock bands.
2. Black Wizard – Black Wizard
I debated whether or not to actually put this album on my list, because it was technically released last year. I did because I 1) I didn’t hear it until this year, 2) they are local and I wanna give them the props they are due, and 3) this record is so unbelievably awesome that I would be an absolute dick not to. Their self-titled debut is a delicious stew of everything that I have loved about rock n’ roll since I was 12. Huge anthemic choruses, dueling guitar melodies, crushing riffs and sludgy thrash workouts all battle for space as a leather-lunged rock god bellows over top with a stratospheric roar that is a dead ringer for Louder Than Love era- Chris Cornell. At less than 34 minutes, this masterfully-paced album says everything it needs to and leaves you wanting more every time. Vancouverites, if you are even a little bit into rock music and you haven’t heard these guys, you need to get yourself a copy of this record right now.
The first song, “Long Way Home” condenses everything great about the band into six and a half glorious heart-pounding minutes. It stomps out of the gate with a pounding main theme, then kicks into high gear with a rollicking riff straight out of an East London dive bar, circa 1979. Soon everything breaks down into an ominously psychedelic interlude, the guitars gorgeously weave in and out of the mix before the riff once again makes its grand return, this time complete with epic twin guitarmonies. As a double-time thrasher of a riff kicks in, you can’t possibly think this could get anymore awesome. You’ll wish you had a beard. You’ll wish you were doing speed with Lemmy. You’ll wish you were driving a van with a chainmail bikini-clad heroine wielding a battleaxe. Then you realize it’s five minutes into the song and the singer hasn’t even opened his mouth. At the absolute peak of this ever-ascending rock masterpiece, he lets forth a bellow so powerful that it could only have been delivered from the peak of Mount Everest. Incredible. I’m in awe of those lungs.
Every single track here is an absolute barn-burner, with the surprisingly gorgeous acoustic interlude “Winds Of Helliwell” providing the only respite from the rock n’ roll assault. There is absolutely nothing here you’ve never heard, but who cares? This is ROCK. The only prerequisite is that it rocks, and Black Wizard do that as well as anyone. “Evergreen” boasts the most badass headbanger of a riff this side of Leaf Hound’s “Freeland Fiend” and “Drugs” crushes its riffs into oblivion like Dopethrone-era Electric Wizard. I can’t say this enough. These guys are fucking awesome.
3. Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
It may not top their absolute stone classic debut Passover, but the Black Angels have put together their most consistent and adventurous set of songs to date on Phosphene Dream. Unlike their previous albums, which wallowed in too much droning fuzz and druggy haze for the norms to appreciate, this album actually could appeal to non-psych aficionados. Not only that, but the hooks that were largely absent from 2008’s sprawling nod-fest Directions To See A Ghost have finally returned. Christian has managed to ply his instantly recognizable voice to the best batch of tunes the Angels have ever written, and there is more sonic variety here than ever before. The tone is not as gloomy as it has been in the past, with songs like “Yellow Elevator #2” and “Telephone” and the title track brightening up the mood somewhat while still sounding like refugees from the Summer of Love on bad acid. There are still some classic Black Angels ragers like the explosive “River Of Blood” and the unstoppable “Entrance Song,” each of these songs rampaging like the best tracks on Passover. And finally, there is “The Sniper.” Closing the record, this track is easily among the best songs the band has ever recorded. Opening with a funeral trudge of a guitar figure, a slide riff from hell’s side of the crossroads soon slashes across the sky, deep-fried in southern fuzz. Soon the tumbling rhythm picks up, and drummer Stefanie Bailey lays the hammer DOWN. The band takes off on a patented Angels death march, and Christian wails the whole time for all he’s worth. If this ‘aint rock brother, then I don’t want to know what is.
4. Sun Araw – On Patrol
This is less an album than a spiritual jouney. A pilgrimage to a mystic holy land. The dubby basslines and ‘luded-up waka-waka guitars will transport you to a different planar existence. You could spend an hour there, or spend weeks. Sun Araw’s shamanic mantras simply defy time as we beings can perceive it. On Patrol is their most expansive collection yet, sprawling in its conception and its sheer scale majestic. The entire whole moves with a rhythmic determination that reveals a dark undercurrent to the relaxed tempos. It sounds like the Amazon at midnight. This is a soundtrack to practice astral projection by. The companion EP Off Duty ‘aint too shabby neither.
5. Sleepy Sun – Fever
One of the world’s best rock bands releases its sophomore album, and they are better than ever. Although the jams have been reined in a touch, the songwriting has improved. The result is a cohesive listening experience that is still intense and exciting on the quieter tracks. “Rigamaroo” is an absolutely gorgeous duet, while the blissful drone of “Acid Love” show these guys can still make nod-out drug music with the best that the California freak scene has to offer. Still, the band’s trademark is face-melting guitar jams, and those are here in abundance. Colin Stewart gives these tracks a classically golden analogue treatment, resulting in a lush, expansive record that feels lived-in and comforting. The fuzz on the guitars is otherworldly, resulting in riffs that scorch and smolder and leads that cut with deranged focus. All this may sound like orthodox rock stuff, and to be sure, it is. Sleepy Sun are no bar band though. Their mastery of the rock form and the intensity of the players allow them to succeed on conviction. They also know how to vary the formula just enough to surprise. On “Marina” and “Desert God” percussion breakdowns and Mississippi delta rhythms shake things up a bit, while lysergic jams like “Sandstorm Woman” and “Open Your Eyes” are just as incendiary as anything on Embrace.
Until Comets On Fire get back on their high horse, Sleepy Sun is the world’s premiere psychedelic rock band, and their live show continues to absolutely demolish just about anyone who shares a stage with them. Here’s hoping they decide to go in Ufomammut’s direction and not Black Mountain’s though.
6. Bonobo – Black Sands
Bonobo is so locked-in at this point it seems effortless for him to produce dark, beautifully textured trip-hop albums. This one is not too different from any other albums he has made in the last decade, but there are a few twists. Andreya Triana takes a guest turn on a few tracks, and her smoky voice lends in particular the showstopper “The Keeper” a seductive veneer. Meanwhile, Bonobo tempers his crepuscular jazz with enough interesting beats to keep what should be by now a tired genre fresh and exciting. A haze surrounds this album that could only have been induced by fields of psychosilosibin, and psych heads, blunted-out hip-hoppers, bliss-out electronic fans, jazzbos and chill jam rockers will all be able to come together over its wonderfully organic and layered mosaic of influences. The sounds here are soft and cool, perfect for an evening with a lover, a moonlit drive, or a walk on the beach at twilight. This is not mere background music though, as careful listening reveals gorgeous subtleties, and repeat journeys highlight new avenues of sound. Black Sands is a new high water mark for Bonobo.
7. Zoroaster – Matador
Zoroaster vaulted themselves into hard rock’s elite this year with Matador, a rampaging beast of a record that flat out destroys their debut, last year’s Voice Of Saturn. Whereas that album had a tendency to get lost in its own sludge and lose focus, a vastly matured approach to songwriting and an abundance of fully resolved melodic ideas have resulted in a vastly improved group of songs. The psychedelic flourishes that put the Saturn in Zoroaster’s early work remains, particularly in the spacey vocal effects. It is pretty apparent that vocals are this band’s Achilles heel, but their playing is top notch, and thankfully most tracks spend the majority of their time stoking a runaway train of apocalyptic jamming.
This time the clearer production has sharpened the band’s attack, making the heavy moments hit with more punch and throwing the psychedelic elements of their sound into sharper relief. Vicious acid-metal solos cut and slash through the mix with laser-like focus on “Ancient Ones” and “Odyssey I,” while the meaty chugging riffage on the opener “D.N.R.” sticks to your ribs. It’s also become apparent that the band has become significantly more technically advanced in the past year. These guys can fucking shred. By embracing the more metallic elements of their sound, the band’s feature-length cosmic doom epics become more effective as counterpoint. A pair of seven minute behemoths dominates the second side, “Old World” and the title track. These monsters are far more effective than anything on Voice of Saturn.
That a promising young band can band can improve so drastically in such a short time speaks volumes about their talent and dedication to their craft. These guys should have plenty more good records in them.
8. Ufomammut – Eve
If you know anything about Ufomammut, then this isn’t really a surprise. If you don’t, well… Italian cosmic-doom outfit releases their magnum opus, a 45 minute single-song album. It’s basically their attempt to create the heaviest thing EVER, and damned if they don’t come close to doing it too. Such a classic move, maybe they’ve been sharing incense with Boris? I suppose it had to happen sooner or later, these guys have easily cracked the 20 minute barrier before. Anyways, the song is well-constructed and never feels as long as it is. There are some interesting space-rock flourishes here that will be entirely familiar to fans of Electric Wizard, YOB or Sons Of Otis. And when the hammer drops, BOY DOES IT EVER. You’ll see it coming from a mile away, but when that godlike riff creshendo hits, it’s worth the wait. Listen to it loud and don’t say I didn’t warn you when the walls start to melt.
9. Duffy & The Doubters - Scriptural Supplies
Solo album from Ladyhawk mainman Duffy Driediger goes for a more varied approach than his main band’s slowed down and emptied out drankin’ rock. Very short, the record only clocks in at about 20 minutes. Each and every song is an absolute earworm though, and Duffy tries his hand at a number of different styles, each one proving to be perfectly adaptable to his whiskey-soaked voice. “Sorry Ma, My Brain Is Dumb” is a scorching punk rock number, while “Doubters” is a touching account of a dying relationship. The songs are all very short and the mix of styles can seem like too much at times, but the album’s stunning middle stanza, tracks 4 to 8, are all keepers. Now, how about a follow-up to Shots, Duffy?
10. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Cosmogramma is a sprawling mosaic of influences so diverse and multi-dimensional that it is initially disorienting. Listen closely, and you’ll soon latch on to the familiar sounds as they present themselves in wholly unique contexts. Flying Lotus (who is John Coltrane’s nephew, incidentally) has spent the last two years letting the rest of the world’s bedroom producers catch up to his woozy beats on 2008’s Los Angeles. This time out he’s so thoroughly exploded his previous style it sounds as if he is simply in a league of his own. Cosmogramma takes glitch music, dubstep, ambient, jazz, r&b, pop, hip-hop, funk, dance and fusion music, breaking down their component parts and rearranging them into an infinitely intricate collage that defies categorization or minimization. As a musical achievement, Cosmogramma stands a million miles tall, so completely separate from the whole tradition of recorded music that it simply defies analysis. State of the art.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Top Albums Of 2010, #20-11
11. Bison – Dark Ages
The first four tracks on this album are absolute world-beaters. “Stressed Elephant” is the most incredible metal song of the year, featuring an ambitious “Master Of Puppets” arrangement and an unforgettable French horn overture as its secret weapon. “Fear Cave” boasts a devastatingly heavy riff, “Melody, This Is For You” steamrolls with its mighty refrain and “Two Day Booze” features a drunken gang chorus shout-along in the illustrious tradition of party thrashers from Anthrax to Municipal Waste. Unfortunately the quality drops off a touch over second half, but the band still finishes strong with the thundering third chapter to its “Windigo” triology to close the album. A strong follow-up to 2008’s world-beating Quiet Earth.
12. High On Fire – Snakes For The Divine
Like I need to tell you High On Fire put out an awesome record this year. High On Fire are the best heavy metal band in the world right now. They still play berserk war metal and Matt Pike still shreds with wanton savagery. The Oakland power trio packs more brute power than anything this side of Motörhead. Snakes For The Divine has got the sharpest production of their career and Matt Pike’s best vocals to date, he sounds like he’s been chewing on broken bottles of bourbon.
13. Paper Tiger – Made Like Us
A member of the Doomtree hip-hop collective, Paper Tiger released a low-key trip hop record this year that channels a love of rare groove crate-digging and classic hip-hop beats. The specter of DJ Shadow looms large here, but out from under his rhyming cohorts Paper Tiger uses the newfound sonic space to transcend his influences and make a sexy record that reveals new avenues of sound with each listen. Suitable for your bedroom or your burnt-out Camero, Made Like Us is an addictive listen. Get hooked.
14. High Wolf – Ascention
The world’s awash in droney psychedelic these days, so to stand out a record’s gotta have a distinctive flavor. High Wolf incorporate a tropical vibe that breathes colour into an inherently grey genre. In particular the albums’ second side is bright and vibrant, and the languid and layered soundscapes work well simply as background music washing over the listener while still rewarding patient and focused attention. The organ sounds on here are positively triumphant. These guys also put out a very good album called Shangri L.A. this year, but Ascention is the better of the two.
15. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
I’d never been a fan of LCD Soundsystem in the past. But that person died the moment I heard the fatass synth-bass on opener “Dance Yr. Self Clean” hit. The real story for this album is how backwards looking it is for one of the new indie vanguard’s perrenial all-stars. Channeling late ‘70s art rock favorites like the Talking Heads, David Bowie and Robert Fripp has worked wonders for James Murphy’s perpetually unsatisfied muse. Echoes of krautrock standbys like Kraftwerk and Neu! are also apparent in the endless motorik grooves of these tracks. That would make this sound like some sort of experimental release. It’s not. This is Happening works equally well as a party-starter as it does on headphones at 3am. Murphy’s self-aware asides (“love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry, and this coming from me”, “acting like a jerk, except you are an actual jerk”) bring levity to the proceedings. This is a fun, sonically adventurous record with a momentum that holds up from beginning to end.
16. Awesome Color – Massa Hypnos
Much like their spiritual Michigan forefathers The Stooges before them, Awesome Color’s third album is their best and most varied. Massa Hypnos is a short, ass-kicking blast of pure adrenaline-rush Motor City rock n’ roll packed with solid tunes. The opener “Transparent” is an absolute rager that blows the door right off its hinges, while the necrolust anthem “Zombie” nods to as many classic rock paragons as you can name with its Leslied-up vocals (I never tire of that trick, nice touch). This time out they vary the colors of their classicist garage rock pallet with a few influences from the 80’s underground. In particular “Flying” shows a deep understanding of the work of alt-rock signposts like The Replacements. You’d be hard pressed to explain to me how Vampire Weekend and the National have somehow inherited a legacy of critical adoration that (allegedly) ran directly from that same lineage while these guys got painted with the brush of original sin for actually rocking. Born to Lose.
17. Black Tusk – Taste The Sin
Black Tusk hail from the same swampy scene that has already coughed up Baroness, Kylesa, and Withered, and like those bands Black Tusk show a healthy appreciation for their hometown’s legacy of sludge and the bruising assault of Motörhead and High On Fire. Unlike their more established neighbors though they don’t really dress their sludge metal up very much, it’s basically just full-on pummeling throughout the length of the album. Black Tusk display a knack for downshifting into a crushing riff at just the right time. The full-on aggression of the album might cause it to fly by in a destructive blur, and individual tracks might be hard to pick out from the storm of torrential drumming, heavy slabs of brutal bass, scorching guitar riffs and bellowed vocals. If pressed, I’d have to say that “Snake Charmer” and “Way Of Horse And Bow” are the best tracks here, and the car crash trilogy that closes the album ends things on an appropriately destructive high note.
18. Electric Wizard – Black Masses
Acolytes prey to the shrine of the mighty Electric Wizard for one thing: the heaviest riffs ever heard. And as usual, Jus Oborn and crew do not disappoint, dispensing enough sickeningly heavy and oppressively hateful doom metal to keep the fanatics toking on the Dopethrone all night long. These guys are still the Heaviest Band In The Universe, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Others might play slower, or have rawer production or use more guitar tracks or tune down until their strings are hanging in the breeze, but no one has ever been able to equal the sheer evil that this band exudes. If you know about this band, chances are you’ve heard allusions to Satanism, crippling drug and alcohol abuse, children being run over by motorcycles, violent infighting between members and an industrial accident or two. The smoky purple cloud of mystery which surrounds the band obscures any attempt to probe any deeper into their mystique, but what is clear is that these are bad people.
Black Masses is basically a continuation of what we heard on 2007’s Witchcult Today, with the band’s four piece lineup steadily moving in a more professional direction. What is new this time is a slightly sharper production job that should appeal to some new fans who are wondering what the fuss is. Moreover this is the band’s most technically accomplished album to date, with metal-influenced guitar solos and even some slightly-upped tempos, although no one will ever mistake them for anyone but the same sludge merchants who crawled out of Dorsett almost two decades ago. A cleaner, more approachable Wizard might sound like anathema for those still waiting for a new Dopethrone, but consider that the Mk. II lineup has a vastly superior live reputation to the original trio. Moreover, this is all relative anywas: It’s STLL the Wizard. Classic death riff crawls like “Scorpio Curse” and “The Nightchild” will sound instantly familiar to a veteran fan, and will allow newcomers to test the waters a bit before diving into rawer fare like Come My Fanatics. They even manage a cosmic doom epic called “Satyr IX” that dissolves into spacey ether that as out-there as anything the original lineup ever did. The Wizard sill canes harder.
19. The Besnard Lakes – Are The Roaring Night
The Besnard Lakes do a majestic neo-shoegaze thing that’s shot through a cathedral of reverb. The opening two-parter is called “Like The Ocean” and it brings the goods, complete with gorgeous male and female harmonies and lush guitar swells. After that it’s more of the same, but Canada’s Besnard Lakes have so completely nailed down their hazy wall of sound on Roaring Night that it makes their past efforts (and really any other early 90’s shoegaze throwback you care to name) sound like a warm-up. The signifiers of such early 90’s favs as The Verve, My Bloody Valentine, The Smashing Pumpkins and Slowdive are all here in spades, but the Besnard Lakes never sound too reverent, always aiming for massive impact in their guitar explosions rather than extended blissouts. They may work with a limited pallet of colours, but within the confines of their sound, these kids are masters.
20. Robedor – Burners
Robedor’s discography grows bigger by the minute. While parallels with Boris or Sunn O))) can be spotted, their lo-fi drone-doom makes occasional and effective use of drums, and on the whole subscribes to a dungeon production aesthetic which is far more Grimmrobe Demos than Monoliths & Dimensions. If anything, Burning Witch might be the closest sonic reference point due to beyond moribund tempos and lurching heaviness, although Robedor do not share that band’s enthusiasm for extreme volume peaks and suffocating basement distortion, not to mention a singer neck-shackled to a wall of feedback. Instead they focus on crafting a minimal sort of evil ambient music. Burners might be one of the heavier Robedoor albums, but it’s still a long way removed from a number of today’s darkest drone, noise or ambient artists. I have to give them credit for following their muse and cranking out as many recordings as they possibly can. This can only be the work of some extremely dedicated wierdos. That's a good thing.
The first four tracks on this album are absolute world-beaters. “Stressed Elephant” is the most incredible metal song of the year, featuring an ambitious “Master Of Puppets” arrangement and an unforgettable French horn overture as its secret weapon. “Fear Cave” boasts a devastatingly heavy riff, “Melody, This Is For You” steamrolls with its mighty refrain and “Two Day Booze” features a drunken gang chorus shout-along in the illustrious tradition of party thrashers from Anthrax to Municipal Waste. Unfortunately the quality drops off a touch over second half, but the band still finishes strong with the thundering third chapter to its “Windigo” triology to close the album. A strong follow-up to 2008’s world-beating Quiet Earth.
12. High On Fire – Snakes For The Divine
Like I need to tell you High On Fire put out an awesome record this year. High On Fire are the best heavy metal band in the world right now. They still play berserk war metal and Matt Pike still shreds with wanton savagery. The Oakland power trio packs more brute power than anything this side of Motörhead. Snakes For The Divine has got the sharpest production of their career and Matt Pike’s best vocals to date, he sounds like he’s been chewing on broken bottles of bourbon.
13. Paper Tiger – Made Like Us
A member of the Doomtree hip-hop collective, Paper Tiger released a low-key trip hop record this year that channels a love of rare groove crate-digging and classic hip-hop beats. The specter of DJ Shadow looms large here, but out from under his rhyming cohorts Paper Tiger uses the newfound sonic space to transcend his influences and make a sexy record that reveals new avenues of sound with each listen. Suitable for your bedroom or your burnt-out Camero, Made Like Us is an addictive listen. Get hooked.
14. High Wolf – Ascention
The world’s awash in droney psychedelic these days, so to stand out a record’s gotta have a distinctive flavor. High Wolf incorporate a tropical vibe that breathes colour into an inherently grey genre. In particular the albums’ second side is bright and vibrant, and the languid and layered soundscapes work well simply as background music washing over the listener while still rewarding patient and focused attention. The organ sounds on here are positively triumphant. These guys also put out a very good album called Shangri L.A. this year, but Ascention is the better of the two.
15. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
I’d never been a fan of LCD Soundsystem in the past. But that person died the moment I heard the fatass synth-bass on opener “Dance Yr. Self Clean” hit. The real story for this album is how backwards looking it is for one of the new indie vanguard’s perrenial all-stars. Channeling late ‘70s art rock favorites like the Talking Heads, David Bowie and Robert Fripp has worked wonders for James Murphy’s perpetually unsatisfied muse. Echoes of krautrock standbys like Kraftwerk and Neu! are also apparent in the endless motorik grooves of these tracks. That would make this sound like some sort of experimental release. It’s not. This is Happening works equally well as a party-starter as it does on headphones at 3am. Murphy’s self-aware asides (“love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry, and this coming from me”, “acting like a jerk, except you are an actual jerk”) bring levity to the proceedings. This is a fun, sonically adventurous record with a momentum that holds up from beginning to end.
16. Awesome Color – Massa Hypnos
Much like their spiritual Michigan forefathers The Stooges before them, Awesome Color’s third album is their best and most varied. Massa Hypnos is a short, ass-kicking blast of pure adrenaline-rush Motor City rock n’ roll packed with solid tunes. The opener “Transparent” is an absolute rager that blows the door right off its hinges, while the necrolust anthem “Zombie” nods to as many classic rock paragons as you can name with its Leslied-up vocals (I never tire of that trick, nice touch). This time out they vary the colors of their classicist garage rock pallet with a few influences from the 80’s underground. In particular “Flying” shows a deep understanding of the work of alt-rock signposts like The Replacements. You’d be hard pressed to explain to me how Vampire Weekend and the National have somehow inherited a legacy of critical adoration that (allegedly) ran directly from that same lineage while these guys got painted with the brush of original sin for actually rocking. Born to Lose.
17. Black Tusk – Taste The Sin
Black Tusk hail from the same swampy scene that has already coughed up Baroness, Kylesa, and Withered, and like those bands Black Tusk show a healthy appreciation for their hometown’s legacy of sludge and the bruising assault of Motörhead and High On Fire. Unlike their more established neighbors though they don’t really dress their sludge metal up very much, it’s basically just full-on pummeling throughout the length of the album. Black Tusk display a knack for downshifting into a crushing riff at just the right time. The full-on aggression of the album might cause it to fly by in a destructive blur, and individual tracks might be hard to pick out from the storm of torrential drumming, heavy slabs of brutal bass, scorching guitar riffs and bellowed vocals. If pressed, I’d have to say that “Snake Charmer” and “Way Of Horse And Bow” are the best tracks here, and the car crash trilogy that closes the album ends things on an appropriately destructive high note.
18. Electric Wizard – Black Masses
Acolytes prey to the shrine of the mighty Electric Wizard for one thing: the heaviest riffs ever heard. And as usual, Jus Oborn and crew do not disappoint, dispensing enough sickeningly heavy and oppressively hateful doom metal to keep the fanatics toking on the Dopethrone all night long. These guys are still the Heaviest Band In The Universe, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Others might play slower, or have rawer production or use more guitar tracks or tune down until their strings are hanging in the breeze, but no one has ever been able to equal the sheer evil that this band exudes. If you know about this band, chances are you’ve heard allusions to Satanism, crippling drug and alcohol abuse, children being run over by motorcycles, violent infighting between members and an industrial accident or two. The smoky purple cloud of mystery which surrounds the band obscures any attempt to probe any deeper into their mystique, but what is clear is that these are bad people.
Black Masses is basically a continuation of what we heard on 2007’s Witchcult Today, with the band’s four piece lineup steadily moving in a more professional direction. What is new this time is a slightly sharper production job that should appeal to some new fans who are wondering what the fuss is. Moreover this is the band’s most technically accomplished album to date, with metal-influenced guitar solos and even some slightly-upped tempos, although no one will ever mistake them for anyone but the same sludge merchants who crawled out of Dorsett almost two decades ago. A cleaner, more approachable Wizard might sound like anathema for those still waiting for a new Dopethrone, but consider that the Mk. II lineup has a vastly superior live reputation to the original trio. Moreover, this is all relative anywas: It’s STLL the Wizard. Classic death riff crawls like “Scorpio Curse” and “The Nightchild” will sound instantly familiar to a veteran fan, and will allow newcomers to test the waters a bit before diving into rawer fare like Come My Fanatics. They even manage a cosmic doom epic called “Satyr IX” that dissolves into spacey ether that as out-there as anything the original lineup ever did. The Wizard sill canes harder.
19. The Besnard Lakes – Are The Roaring Night
The Besnard Lakes do a majestic neo-shoegaze thing that’s shot through a cathedral of reverb. The opening two-parter is called “Like The Ocean” and it brings the goods, complete with gorgeous male and female harmonies and lush guitar swells. After that it’s more of the same, but Canada’s Besnard Lakes have so completely nailed down their hazy wall of sound on Roaring Night that it makes their past efforts (and really any other early 90’s shoegaze throwback you care to name) sound like a warm-up. The signifiers of such early 90’s favs as The Verve, My Bloody Valentine, The Smashing Pumpkins and Slowdive are all here in spades, but the Besnard Lakes never sound too reverent, always aiming for massive impact in their guitar explosions rather than extended blissouts. They may work with a limited pallet of colours, but within the confines of their sound, these kids are masters.
20. Robedor – Burners
Robedor’s discography grows bigger by the minute. While parallels with Boris or Sunn O))) can be spotted, their lo-fi drone-doom makes occasional and effective use of drums, and on the whole subscribes to a dungeon production aesthetic which is far more Grimmrobe Demos than Monoliths & Dimensions. If anything, Burning Witch might be the closest sonic reference point due to beyond moribund tempos and lurching heaviness, although Robedor do not share that band’s enthusiasm for extreme volume peaks and suffocating basement distortion, not to mention a singer neck-shackled to a wall of feedback. Instead they focus on crafting a minimal sort of evil ambient music. Burners might be one of the heavier Robedoor albums, but it’s still a long way removed from a number of today’s darkest drone, noise or ambient artists. I have to give them credit for following their muse and cranking out as many recordings as they possibly can. This can only be the work of some extremely dedicated wierdos. That's a good thing.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Top Albums Of 2010, #30-21
21. Forest Swords – Dagger Paths
Dagger Paths is a midnight drone record that channels classic soul influences chopped and screwed into dub basslines and dark psychedelia. It’s quite short, but all 6 songs are heavily layered, my favourite being “Visits.” Its combination of electronic and organic analogue textures swathed in reverb gives the record a dreamy feel, but is too dark and druggy to properly be called ambient. Definitely a grower, enjoy some syzzurup on the side.
22. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
I kind of forgot about these Jersey garage rockers after their good but not great debut in 2008, but it sounds like they’ve got the goods for the big time here. This time they’ve upgraded to stadium-sized ambitions with an American Civil War concept album and have brought out such hard-worn second album standards like the violin and piano while songs stretch past the seven and eight minute marks with regularity. It would sound ridiculous, except that these guys rock like vintage Replacements. The Monitor comes charging out of the gates with “A More Perfect Union.” The song is a call to arms, and even with an obvious Springsteen rip (“’cause tramps like us, baby we were born to die!”) they beat the Boss himself at his own game. It rocks with the intensity of prime Hüsker Dü and peaks with a glorious refrain sung by whiskey guzzling rockers who eat nails for breakfast. Elsewhere “Theme from Cheers” is the best barroom anthem of the year, and the 14 minute “The Battle Of Hampton Roads” brings things to a stirring close.
23. Free The Robots – Ctrl Alt Delete
Glitchy bass-driven beat music. A few break-beats and some wonky Flying Lotus-style psycho-disorientation make their appearance here, but mostly Free The Robots are about getting those heads bobbing. The best track here is “Global Warning,” a nine-minute behemoth that breaks down into a massive half time head-nodder in the middle of the track. Mars Volta organ player Ikey Owens also guests on “The Eye” and splashes his 70’s fusion-era Miles Davis punctuation all over the track. The album is extremely well-sequenced and the production pulls no punches, hitting hard while still conveying subtle flourishes. Ctrl Alt Delete holds up as a complete listening experience, a rarity in the age of digital music distribution.
24. Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones
I was a huge fan of Celtic Frost’s 2006 comeback album, Monotheist. Although it seems as though the guys in the band couldn’t put aside their differences very long, fortunately Tom Warrior has not changed his M.O. one iota without his long-time compatriots around. Eparistera Daimones revives the grandiose flourishes of classic Celtic Frost records and marries them to a more contemporary doom metal sensibility and an absolutely crushing modern production job. Essentially, it’s the same dif. Warrior’s guitar is tuned so low the strings must be swaying in the breeze, although there is less of an overt doom feel this time out. His timeless voice still sounds like it is emanating from the centre of the earth, encrusted in dirt and filth. There are the usual standbys here, female vocals, strings, dark ethereal soundscapes. This is an art-metal record, but one that will still grab you by the balls. It is long and not easy to digest, but if you’ve been on Warrior’s wavelength any time since the Hellhammer days, that won’t be a problem at all.
25. Magic Lantern – Platoon
Working on the outskirts of the current psych-drone movement, Magic Lantern take a more restless and aggressively rocked-out and fuzzed-up path than some of their peers. Parallels with scene stalwarts like Sun Araw (who share members with Magic Lantern) and Robedor are present in the form of the ever-present wah-guitars and hazy undertow of menace in Magic Lanterns’ sound, but the real spiritual forefathers here are “Psychedephia’s” legendary pharmacopeians, Bardo Pond. Magic Lantern deal exclusively in shroomaroomic jams, and their hallucinogenic vibes are enough to make your speakers melt. True shamans, these boys.
26. Baths – Cerulean
Digital love for late nights and rain, Cerulean is a more chilled-out take on what Flying Lotus has been up to recently. It takes a lot to pull make a unique ambient trip-hop listening experience these days, but I was immediately taken with this album. It is the rare listening experience that immerses the listener completely in its own self-contained world. The whole album has a nostalgic-childlike feel to it. It’s like waking up and still feeling as if you were dreaming. I’m not really sure what parallels to draw. I hear connections with Boards of Canada’s work, but they aren’t really all that similar. Anyone who has an interest in lap-top electronic should hear this. There are some absolutely gorgeous textures here and the album as beautifully recorded. Considering how well put together the album is to form a cohesive listening experience, my guess is we should be hearing more from Baths soon.
27. The Liars – Sisterworld
Experimental rock unit releases another excellent record. Though parallels with Radiohead may be drawn more in looking at intent than in actual sound, the Liars’ career trajectory at this point has seen them morph from turn-of-the century dance punk fashionistas to abstract noise manipulators to percussive groove researchers to left field looper-rock experimentalists to kraut-punk indie paradigms. Pretty impressive. Sisterworld is their most aggressively rocking album to date, but still takes to time to make nods to 70’s experimentalists like Faust and Brian Eno as well as 90’s post rock like Tortoise and Stereolab while elaborating on their own past fields of discovery. The most interesting thing about the Liars at this point is that they’ve been able to make these schizophrenic leaps in style without falling outside of their established idiom- every record sounds like the Liars. Sisterworld is an impressive effort from one of the past decade’s most fearlessly creative musical groups.
28. Lorn – Nothing Else
I know nothing about Lorn except that he (she? they? It?) makes glitchy beats for Flying Lotus’s label, Brainfeeder. Though the similarities are there, Flying Lotus is all over the map, while Lorn is content to stick with what works. Percussive beats and some placid soundscapes are frequently contrasted, resulting in music that at times is visceral and powerful, and others pretty and contemplative. Make no mistaken though, there are real songs here, and each of them could function as effectively with a live verse or some cut-up glitched-out hip-hop samples as they do on their own. Laptop mashup mixers take note. Nothing Else is also quite short, just around 32 minutes. That means this album is a satisfying, well-paced trip that never overstays its welcome.
29. Tobacco – Maniac Meat
Spinoff group from experimental electro-psych group Black Moth Super Rainbow releases a strange record of sound manipulations. It sounds difficult but it’s not at all. These are real songs that get weirdly lodged in your memory banks. Even Beck stops by to lend a hand on a few tracks, but you might not even recognize his voice. Go ahead, lick the witch.
30. Ty Segall – Melted
These scuzzy fuzz merchants are experts at writing tight, catchy as hell pop songs and then drenching them in sonic muck. They are easily comparable to partners in crime Thee Oh Sees, although less overtly psychedelic. Unlike some garage bands which hide either a dearth of inspiration or chops behind their curtain of lo-fi noise, Ty Segall have the confidence and the ability to put the songs front and centre. The production is as good as it needs to be, but still ragged, raw and powerful. Ty Segall never waver in their commitment to rocking, and their energy pushes each song on here into the red. Bright, bouncy tunes like “My Sunshine” and “Girlfriend” sit comfortable alongside garage rock rave ups and sludge mountains like “Sad Fuzz” and the title track.
Dagger Paths is a midnight drone record that channels classic soul influences chopped and screwed into dub basslines and dark psychedelia. It’s quite short, but all 6 songs are heavily layered, my favourite being “Visits.” Its combination of electronic and organic analogue textures swathed in reverb gives the record a dreamy feel, but is too dark and druggy to properly be called ambient. Definitely a grower, enjoy some syzzurup on the side.
22. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
I kind of forgot about these Jersey garage rockers after their good but not great debut in 2008, but it sounds like they’ve got the goods for the big time here. This time they’ve upgraded to stadium-sized ambitions with an American Civil War concept album and have brought out such hard-worn second album standards like the violin and piano while songs stretch past the seven and eight minute marks with regularity. It would sound ridiculous, except that these guys rock like vintage Replacements. The Monitor comes charging out of the gates with “A More Perfect Union.” The song is a call to arms, and even with an obvious Springsteen rip (“’cause tramps like us, baby we were born to die!”) they beat the Boss himself at his own game. It rocks with the intensity of prime Hüsker Dü and peaks with a glorious refrain sung by whiskey guzzling rockers who eat nails for breakfast. Elsewhere “Theme from Cheers” is the best barroom anthem of the year, and the 14 minute “The Battle Of Hampton Roads” brings things to a stirring close.
23. Free The Robots – Ctrl Alt Delete
Glitchy bass-driven beat music. A few break-beats and some wonky Flying Lotus-style psycho-disorientation make their appearance here, but mostly Free The Robots are about getting those heads bobbing. The best track here is “Global Warning,” a nine-minute behemoth that breaks down into a massive half time head-nodder in the middle of the track. Mars Volta organ player Ikey Owens also guests on “The Eye” and splashes his 70’s fusion-era Miles Davis punctuation all over the track. The album is extremely well-sequenced and the production pulls no punches, hitting hard while still conveying subtle flourishes. Ctrl Alt Delete holds up as a complete listening experience, a rarity in the age of digital music distribution.
24. Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones
I was a huge fan of Celtic Frost’s 2006 comeback album, Monotheist. Although it seems as though the guys in the band couldn’t put aside their differences very long, fortunately Tom Warrior has not changed his M.O. one iota without his long-time compatriots around. Eparistera Daimones revives the grandiose flourishes of classic Celtic Frost records and marries them to a more contemporary doom metal sensibility and an absolutely crushing modern production job. Essentially, it’s the same dif. Warrior’s guitar is tuned so low the strings must be swaying in the breeze, although there is less of an overt doom feel this time out. His timeless voice still sounds like it is emanating from the centre of the earth, encrusted in dirt and filth. There are the usual standbys here, female vocals, strings, dark ethereal soundscapes. This is an art-metal record, but one that will still grab you by the balls. It is long and not easy to digest, but if you’ve been on Warrior’s wavelength any time since the Hellhammer days, that won’t be a problem at all.
25. Magic Lantern – Platoon
Working on the outskirts of the current psych-drone movement, Magic Lantern take a more restless and aggressively rocked-out and fuzzed-up path than some of their peers. Parallels with scene stalwarts like Sun Araw (who share members with Magic Lantern) and Robedor are present in the form of the ever-present wah-guitars and hazy undertow of menace in Magic Lanterns’ sound, but the real spiritual forefathers here are “Psychedephia’s” legendary pharmacopeians, Bardo Pond. Magic Lantern deal exclusively in shroomaroomic jams, and their hallucinogenic vibes are enough to make your speakers melt. True shamans, these boys.
26. Baths – Cerulean
Digital love for late nights and rain, Cerulean is a more chilled-out take on what Flying Lotus has been up to recently. It takes a lot to pull make a unique ambient trip-hop listening experience these days, but I was immediately taken with this album. It is the rare listening experience that immerses the listener completely in its own self-contained world. The whole album has a nostalgic-childlike feel to it. It’s like waking up and still feeling as if you were dreaming. I’m not really sure what parallels to draw. I hear connections with Boards of Canada’s work, but they aren’t really all that similar. Anyone who has an interest in lap-top electronic should hear this. There are some absolutely gorgeous textures here and the album as beautifully recorded. Considering how well put together the album is to form a cohesive listening experience, my guess is we should be hearing more from Baths soon.
27. The Liars – Sisterworld
Experimental rock unit releases another excellent record. Though parallels with Radiohead may be drawn more in looking at intent than in actual sound, the Liars’ career trajectory at this point has seen them morph from turn-of-the century dance punk fashionistas to abstract noise manipulators to percussive groove researchers to left field looper-rock experimentalists to kraut-punk indie paradigms. Pretty impressive. Sisterworld is their most aggressively rocking album to date, but still takes to time to make nods to 70’s experimentalists like Faust and Brian Eno as well as 90’s post rock like Tortoise and Stereolab while elaborating on their own past fields of discovery. The most interesting thing about the Liars at this point is that they’ve been able to make these schizophrenic leaps in style without falling outside of their established idiom- every record sounds like the Liars. Sisterworld is an impressive effort from one of the past decade’s most fearlessly creative musical groups.
28. Lorn – Nothing Else
I know nothing about Lorn except that he (she? they? It?) makes glitchy beats for Flying Lotus’s label, Brainfeeder. Though the similarities are there, Flying Lotus is all over the map, while Lorn is content to stick with what works. Percussive beats and some placid soundscapes are frequently contrasted, resulting in music that at times is visceral and powerful, and others pretty and contemplative. Make no mistaken though, there are real songs here, and each of them could function as effectively with a live verse or some cut-up glitched-out hip-hop samples as they do on their own. Laptop mashup mixers take note. Nothing Else is also quite short, just around 32 minutes. That means this album is a satisfying, well-paced trip that never overstays its welcome.
29. Tobacco – Maniac Meat
Spinoff group from experimental electro-psych group Black Moth Super Rainbow releases a strange record of sound manipulations. It sounds difficult but it’s not at all. These are real songs that get weirdly lodged in your memory banks. Even Beck stops by to lend a hand on a few tracks, but you might not even recognize his voice. Go ahead, lick the witch.
30. Ty Segall – Melted
These scuzzy fuzz merchants are experts at writing tight, catchy as hell pop songs and then drenching them in sonic muck. They are easily comparable to partners in crime Thee Oh Sees, although less overtly psychedelic. Unlike some garage bands which hide either a dearth of inspiration or chops behind their curtain of lo-fi noise, Ty Segall have the confidence and the ability to put the songs front and centre. The production is as good as it needs to be, but still ragged, raw and powerful. Ty Segall never waver in their commitment to rocking, and their energy pushes each song on here into the red. Bright, bouncy tunes like “My Sunshine” and “Girlfriend” sit comfortable alongside garage rock rave ups and sludge mountains like “Sad Fuzz” and the title track.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Top Albums Of 2010, #40-31
31. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Australian psych rock band nicks the trappings of Dungen’s style, sings in English and gets catapulted into the hype-o-sphere. Sounds like a recipe for backlash to me. Innerspeaker is simply a very good psychedelic rock album. There are obvious debts to the Beatles, although more recent paisley-attired rockers like Mercury Rev and Apples In Stereo come to mind as well. Tame Impala do know their way around a good vocal hook, and like to play with texture enough to experiment a bit. This is slightly left of center stuff that you could easily play for unsuspecting classic rock fans. Tame Impala never get too far out the way an Olivia Tremor Control or Flaming Lips might. There is also enough variety to please a wide cross-section of music fans, from heavy riff rockers like “The Bold Arrow Of Time” to trippy psych pop tunes like “Solitude Is Bliss.” And it was much better than Dungen’s disappointingly boring new record.
32. Dessa – A Badly Broken Code
This is a beautiful, dark and emotionally compelling trip-hop album by Dessa, the siren/MC from the Doomtree collective. Her voice on these songs is always compelling, and her intimate, confessional lyrics are matched by the opaque beats laid down courtesy of Doomtree cohorts Laserbeak and Paper Tiger. Sounds like if Daria had listened to a lot of Massive Attack and Portishead. Dessa on “Children’s Work, “Mineshaft II” and “Matches To Paper Dolls” gives fantastic demonstrations of emotional power and compelling storytelling in her vocal performances.
33. Thee Oh Sees – Warm Slime
This record is less immediately accessible than previous albums like Help or The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In. For instance, there is nothing here as immediately catchy as here “Ruby Go Home.” Instead, Warm Slime opens with its sprawling title track, a 13 and a half minute garage psych opus. The rest of the album is made up of the kind of rock n’ roll rave-ups and exuberant hoot-along hooks that are this band’s bread and butter. Thee Oh Sees’ familiar stomping attack and boundless energy are what push these tunes over the top, resulting in a veritable half hour of power. This is a lively and rambunctious band that is deeply rooted in the greaser garage rock tradition. Fortunately this style is enjoying yet another resurgence, and aggressive rock n’ roll rebels like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, The Sharp Ends, and Myelin Sheaths are big reasons why.
34. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Bradford Cox and company have completed their transition from skuzzy noise punk terrorists to dream pop iconoclasts with Halcyon Digest. Their artistic stock remains high however, despite their less abrasive tendencies these days. The wistful autumnal feel of this record conveys an atmosphere of romantic nostalgia that is still tempered with enough propulsive rock sense to score big with indie rock fans, classic rock record collectors, guitar mangling noise enthusiasts and hazed out psych heads. The songwriting this time out is more consistent than on 2008’s Microcastle, and the sublime production and ethereal textures lends an otherworldly fog to the proceedings. The band always manages one stone classic per album, and Digest’s “Desire Lines” easily ranks with “Heatherwood” and “Nothing Ever Happened” among the best Deerhunter songs ever. Songs for walking in the leaves on a chilly day.
35. The Black Keys – Brothers
The Black Keys have been working the same territory for so long that it is easy to take them for granted. Over the past decade their greasy garage blues has been consistency defined, with each record sporting a generous helping of inspired songs. Their last couple albums wiped away some of the grime and tempered the approach with neo-psychedelic production flourishes that have even started to garner them legitimate mainstream success. Brothers continues this trend, and this time out soul infused vocals on songs like “Everlasting Light” and “Unknown Brother” are tempered with the gritty attack of Keys classics like “Next Girl” and “Long Gone.” Even the nifty single “Tighten Up” has finally gotten them some well-deserved play on that cultural desert known as modern rock radio.
36. Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
So they did the professional studio in L.A. thing and wrote the most accessible album of their career. The band’s druggy murk and trademark ‘McBean-isms’ are conspicuously absent, so take from that what you will. I’ll take the early stuff any day, but “Let Spirits Ride” is a vicious thrasher and “Rollercoaster” absolutely crushes. Half the songs sound like rejected Pink Mountaintops songs though. Can you guys get back to rocking now please?
37. No Age – Everything In Between
Everything In Between is less noisy or visceral than either of No Age’s previous records. How you feel about the record will depend entirely on whether you think that is a good thing or not. While Nouns certainly packed a mean rock punch, I found that the short tracks and lo-fi recording caused the album to run together and become somewhat monotonous. Everything In Between is actually their longest album to date, but the band’s enhanced grasp of dynamics has led them to construct a far better group of songs. This is also the most cleanly recorded album the band has had yet, and their attack has been sharpened as a result. The choruses are bigger and the guitars hit harder. Again, your thoughts on the lo-fi aesthetic will dictate your response to this record. There is no single track to match either “Teen Creeps” or “Every Artist Needs A Tragedy” for previous records, but standouts like “Glitter,” “Fever Dreaming” and “Shred And Transcend” are all great rock songs with fully-formed melodic ideas at their core.
38. Caribou – Swim
Caribou consistently make lush, ornate records that envelop the listener in their warm electronic tones. So it’s no surprise that Caribou has been up to mostly the same thing since we last heard from them. Leadoff track “Odessa” rides a spooky off-kilter disco beat and features the ethereal vocals that have been a Caribou trademark since the Manitoba days, while “Sun” boasts some absolutely gorgeous analogue synth tones and “Leave House” sports a nifty motorik groove. Perfect for headphone listening or you know, like a car commercial or something.
39. White Hills – White Hills
Another space rock opus from these guys, who definitely have more than a little of Lemmy-era Hawkwind’s DNA (and probably some other substances) running through their veins. Similar to UK kings of speed Litmus or Oregon laser-metal dudes Danava, perhaps with a touch of Superjudge-era Monster Magnet’s grizzled biker grooves, these guys do not mind stretching out and letting the jams take off. Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
40. Wolf Parade – Expo ‘86
Quebec indie rock super-group makes another solid album. Considering the songwriting and instrumental firepower this group possesses, it’s not surprising they once again have produced a superb batch of songs. There’s no epic to match “Kissing the Beehive,” but “Pobody's Nerfect” sports a great ramshackle rhythm and the drummer sounds like he’s beating his snare into the floor while classically wailing leads make this song the highlight of a very good album.
Australian psych rock band nicks the trappings of Dungen’s style, sings in English and gets catapulted into the hype-o-sphere. Sounds like a recipe for backlash to me. Innerspeaker is simply a very good psychedelic rock album. There are obvious debts to the Beatles, although more recent paisley-attired rockers like Mercury Rev and Apples In Stereo come to mind as well. Tame Impala do know their way around a good vocal hook, and like to play with texture enough to experiment a bit. This is slightly left of center stuff that you could easily play for unsuspecting classic rock fans. Tame Impala never get too far out the way an Olivia Tremor Control or Flaming Lips might. There is also enough variety to please a wide cross-section of music fans, from heavy riff rockers like “The Bold Arrow Of Time” to trippy psych pop tunes like “Solitude Is Bliss.” And it was much better than Dungen’s disappointingly boring new record.
32. Dessa – A Badly Broken Code
This is a beautiful, dark and emotionally compelling trip-hop album by Dessa, the siren/MC from the Doomtree collective. Her voice on these songs is always compelling, and her intimate, confessional lyrics are matched by the opaque beats laid down courtesy of Doomtree cohorts Laserbeak and Paper Tiger. Sounds like if Daria had listened to a lot of Massive Attack and Portishead. Dessa on “Children’s Work, “Mineshaft II” and “Matches To Paper Dolls” gives fantastic demonstrations of emotional power and compelling storytelling in her vocal performances.
33. Thee Oh Sees – Warm Slime
This record is less immediately accessible than previous albums like Help or The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In. For instance, there is nothing here as immediately catchy as here “Ruby Go Home.” Instead, Warm Slime opens with its sprawling title track, a 13 and a half minute garage psych opus. The rest of the album is made up of the kind of rock n’ roll rave-ups and exuberant hoot-along hooks that are this band’s bread and butter. Thee Oh Sees’ familiar stomping attack and boundless energy are what push these tunes over the top, resulting in a veritable half hour of power. This is a lively and rambunctious band that is deeply rooted in the greaser garage rock tradition. Fortunately this style is enjoying yet another resurgence, and aggressive rock n’ roll rebels like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, The Sharp Ends, and Myelin Sheaths are big reasons why.
34. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Bradford Cox and company have completed their transition from skuzzy noise punk terrorists to dream pop iconoclasts with Halcyon Digest. Their artistic stock remains high however, despite their less abrasive tendencies these days. The wistful autumnal feel of this record conveys an atmosphere of romantic nostalgia that is still tempered with enough propulsive rock sense to score big with indie rock fans, classic rock record collectors, guitar mangling noise enthusiasts and hazed out psych heads. The songwriting this time out is more consistent than on 2008’s Microcastle, and the sublime production and ethereal textures lends an otherworldly fog to the proceedings. The band always manages one stone classic per album, and Digest’s “Desire Lines” easily ranks with “Heatherwood” and “Nothing Ever Happened” among the best Deerhunter songs ever. Songs for walking in the leaves on a chilly day.
35. The Black Keys – Brothers
The Black Keys have been working the same territory for so long that it is easy to take them for granted. Over the past decade their greasy garage blues has been consistency defined, with each record sporting a generous helping of inspired songs. Their last couple albums wiped away some of the grime and tempered the approach with neo-psychedelic production flourishes that have even started to garner them legitimate mainstream success. Brothers continues this trend, and this time out soul infused vocals on songs like “Everlasting Light” and “Unknown Brother” are tempered with the gritty attack of Keys classics like “Next Girl” and “Long Gone.” Even the nifty single “Tighten Up” has finally gotten them some well-deserved play on that cultural desert known as modern rock radio.
36. Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
So they did the professional studio in L.A. thing and wrote the most accessible album of their career. The band’s druggy murk and trademark ‘McBean-isms’ are conspicuously absent, so take from that what you will. I’ll take the early stuff any day, but “Let Spirits Ride” is a vicious thrasher and “Rollercoaster” absolutely crushes. Half the songs sound like rejected Pink Mountaintops songs though. Can you guys get back to rocking now please?
37. No Age – Everything In Between
Everything In Between is less noisy or visceral than either of No Age’s previous records. How you feel about the record will depend entirely on whether you think that is a good thing or not. While Nouns certainly packed a mean rock punch, I found that the short tracks and lo-fi recording caused the album to run together and become somewhat monotonous. Everything In Between is actually their longest album to date, but the band’s enhanced grasp of dynamics has led them to construct a far better group of songs. This is also the most cleanly recorded album the band has had yet, and their attack has been sharpened as a result. The choruses are bigger and the guitars hit harder. Again, your thoughts on the lo-fi aesthetic will dictate your response to this record. There is no single track to match either “Teen Creeps” or “Every Artist Needs A Tragedy” for previous records, but standouts like “Glitter,” “Fever Dreaming” and “Shred And Transcend” are all great rock songs with fully-formed melodic ideas at their core.
38. Caribou – Swim
Caribou consistently make lush, ornate records that envelop the listener in their warm electronic tones. So it’s no surprise that Caribou has been up to mostly the same thing since we last heard from them. Leadoff track “Odessa” rides a spooky off-kilter disco beat and features the ethereal vocals that have been a Caribou trademark since the Manitoba days, while “Sun” boasts some absolutely gorgeous analogue synth tones and “Leave House” sports a nifty motorik groove. Perfect for headphone listening or you know, like a car commercial or something.
39. White Hills – White Hills
Another space rock opus from these guys, who definitely have more than a little of Lemmy-era Hawkwind’s DNA (and probably some other substances) running through their veins. Similar to UK kings of speed Litmus or Oregon laser-metal dudes Danava, perhaps with a touch of Superjudge-era Monster Magnet’s grizzled biker grooves, these guys do not mind stretching out and letting the jams take off. Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
40. Wolf Parade – Expo ‘86
Quebec indie rock super-group makes another solid album. Considering the songwriting and instrumental firepower this group possesses, it’s not surprising they once again have produced a superb batch of songs. There’s no epic to match “Kissing the Beehive,” but “Pobody's Nerfect” sports a great ramshackle rhythm and the drummer sounds like he’s beating his snare into the floor while classically wailing leads make this song the highlight of a very good album.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Top Albums Of 2010, #50-41
41. Woods – At Echo Lake
A sprightly little record that sports some first-rate Neil Young-inspired roots rock. The songs are more consistent this time out and the production is brighter. Personally, I preferred the darker material on last year’s Songs Of Shame, not to mention a nice heady psych jam mid-record, but At Echo Lake is chock full of solid tunes, and it’s brief 27 minute run-time will keep you wanting more.
42. Over-Gain Optimal Death – Over-Gain Optimal Death
These guys do heavy, acid spiked jammin’ like nobody’s business. Like Earhtless, Comets On Fire and Electric Wizard all rolled into one. “Aurora” sports a riff that is absolutely planet-sized, and they take a full 15 minutes to ground that bitch into dust. Sounds like an interplanetary rocket in perpetual liftoff.
43. Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here?
Maybe the fact that the songs are somewhat closer to what normal people would actually think of as such means that Emeralds have tired of touring the cosmos. If so, that would be a shame because few make spacey drone music as compelling as they do. Be that as it may, Does It Look Like I’m Here is an accessible record for a band which really does not play accessible music at all. With most drone music, melody is almost non-existent. It is texture and sound which become the focal points, and the shift in focus can be off-putting for a neophyte. As an entry point to their already massive discography, it fits the bill perfectly. When the cadets have earned their wings on this training flight, they can then try the far more expansive opuses like What Happened and Allegory Of Allergies and find out what these guys are really about.
44. Purple Rhinestone Eagle – The Great Return
This outfit out of Birmingham by way of Portland has harnessed the smoky, ritualistic vibes which originate directly from Black Sabbath. Like contemporaries Blood Ceremony and Witchcraft, these Eagles have managed to tap into the seam of ceremonial proto-doom metal that runs somewhere between Mercyful Fate and Witchfinder General all the way back to the masters themselves. On their sophomore release, the band has sprinkled mosh-pit dynamics into their sound, but their forte remains the suffocating riff crushers and Jethro Tull/Master Of Reality style renaissance faire guitar interludes that made their debut so resonant. “Burn It Down” is my personal favourite, even sporting a wah-fuzz bass solo.
45. Harvey Milk – A Small Turn Of Human Kindness
Apparently the blown-out Motörhead impressions on Death Goes To The Winner upset some long-time fans, so Harvey Milk turned around and made one of the most gut-churningly heavy albums of the year. There are no rave-ups here, just bleak, oppressive sludgy doom from a band that has been doing it right for almost two decades now. Even the best could risk monotony when pursuing so single-mindedly the goal of crushing the life out of the universe. At 35 minutes however, it’s positively bite-sized for these guys.
46. Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier
Iron Maiden have once again defied father time and released an excellent heavy metal album. Not much more to be said here, you should know by now what that means. Opener “Satellite 15...The Final Frontier” is the most overtly sci-fi song on the album and it’s surprisingly heavy intro reminds me of Voivod. The troubling tendency on 2006’s otherwise solid A Matter Of Life And Death was for the songs to get stuck in a midtempo march rather than the exhilarating full speed gallop that has defined so many of the band’s best work. Fortunately first single “Eldorado” puts any fears to rest as it comes charging out of the gate in fifth gear and sports the kind of arena-ready chorus that Maiden has spent the last three and a half decades perfecting. They haven’t slowed down a bit. Elsewhere The Final Frontier is exactly what you’d expect from a band releasing its 15th studio album and still selling out stadiums the world over. You get Bruce in fine form bellowing for all he’s worth, the triple lead guitar attack of Smith, Murray & Gers supplying copious shredding and wailing solos, heavy triplet riffage and dueling guitarmonies. Steve Harris’ aggressive basslines supply the unstoppable musical base while ever-inventive Nicko Mcbrain hammers it down behind the kit. Lots of lengthy epic songs, the best of which is the nine minute “Isle Of Avalon.” Like A Matter Of Life And Death, the long run time (77 minutes!) and relative lack of short punchy anthems like “Aces High” or “Run To The Hills” means the album can be a somewhat intimidating listen, but it is a grower as far as Maiden albums go. Yet at an age that most begin to ponder retirement, Maiden has released an ambitious, powerful record, proof that they still have the strength to swing the hammer of the gods with authority.
47. Quest For Fire – Lights From Paradise
Opener “Greatest Hits From God” is an absolutely massive psychedelic monster. Slowly it rumbles to life and begins laying waste to everything in its path with that gloriously triumphant main theme. The rest of the album is good psychedelic rock from a band to who sound and tone take precedence over songwriting. Quest For Fire do a cool, bongwater-soaked jam thing and they basically only have one gear, but Lights From Paradise is somewhat less anonymous than their debut due to an improved songwriting sense which emphasizes sonic space and a lush, reverb-heavy mix that envelops the listener in gooey globules of guitar.
48. The Dead Weather – Sea Of Cowards
Jack White can simply do no wrong. Although there is no track on Sea of Cowards as immediate as the best tracks on the band’s debut, this album is more consistently solid all the way through. The guitars slash, stab and dart like rabid hyenas throughout, as these players simply attack their instruments. There are very few bands who have managed to succeed on a mass level in the past decade, and fewer still who did it while making rock music this raw and uncompromising. Now how about a new White Stripes album?
49. Cough – Ritual Abuse
Clearly Cough know all the doom metal moves. They wallow in feedback and let their doomy dirges march past the ten minute mark through tar pits of sludge. They have songs with names like “Crippled Wizard” and “A Year In Suffering.” But Cough also have done a fair bit of time listening to some of the more out-there acid-damaged strains of heavy music. The malevolence level is turned down somewhat compared to some other bands of this ilk, although if a straight sludge trudge is what you’re after, the title track will do just fine. The result is a very heavy album that often coats its attack in a syrupy fog of reverb, making the band sound more like an even slower Dead Meadow than Burning Witch. The variety of textures used makes the album stand out from the crowd of sub-Boris and Electric Wizard imitators like Moss, Thou and Ocean Chief. The track “Crooked Spine” is perhaps best gateway drug here, but surprisingly there are some fully resolved melodic ideas running through many of these songs, similar to vintage Saint Vitus, and Cough know how to ramp up the tempos and rock when necessary. A young heavy band worth paying attention to.
50. Year Of No Light – Ausserwelt
You’d think that this style would be pretty much exhausted by, now but Year Of No Light figures it’s better to be late than never. French post-metal outfit clearly worships at the shrine of Isis, but you can tell that some of these guys have been imbibing some classic black metal on the side. It works to their advantage, the cathedral-ceiling grandiosity recalls late period Emperor. You’ll find lots of dense, suffocating riffs and gigantic crescendos here. Year Of No Light wins the final ranking on my list for their harsh and ornate sound which sets them apart from the pack.
A sprightly little record that sports some first-rate Neil Young-inspired roots rock. The songs are more consistent this time out and the production is brighter. Personally, I preferred the darker material on last year’s Songs Of Shame, not to mention a nice heady psych jam mid-record, but At Echo Lake is chock full of solid tunes, and it’s brief 27 minute run-time will keep you wanting more.
42. Over-Gain Optimal Death – Over-Gain Optimal Death
These guys do heavy, acid spiked jammin’ like nobody’s business. Like Earhtless, Comets On Fire and Electric Wizard all rolled into one. “Aurora” sports a riff that is absolutely planet-sized, and they take a full 15 minutes to ground that bitch into dust. Sounds like an interplanetary rocket in perpetual liftoff.
43. Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here?
Maybe the fact that the songs are somewhat closer to what normal people would actually think of as such means that Emeralds have tired of touring the cosmos. If so, that would be a shame because few make spacey drone music as compelling as they do. Be that as it may, Does It Look Like I’m Here is an accessible record for a band which really does not play accessible music at all. With most drone music, melody is almost non-existent. It is texture and sound which become the focal points, and the shift in focus can be off-putting for a neophyte. As an entry point to their already massive discography, it fits the bill perfectly. When the cadets have earned their wings on this training flight, they can then try the far more expansive opuses like What Happened and Allegory Of Allergies and find out what these guys are really about.
44. Purple Rhinestone Eagle – The Great Return
This outfit out of Birmingham by way of Portland has harnessed the smoky, ritualistic vibes which originate directly from Black Sabbath. Like contemporaries Blood Ceremony and Witchcraft, these Eagles have managed to tap into the seam of ceremonial proto-doom metal that runs somewhere between Mercyful Fate and Witchfinder General all the way back to the masters themselves. On their sophomore release, the band has sprinkled mosh-pit dynamics into their sound, but their forte remains the suffocating riff crushers and Jethro Tull/Master Of Reality style renaissance faire guitar interludes that made their debut so resonant. “Burn It Down” is my personal favourite, even sporting a wah-fuzz bass solo.
45. Harvey Milk – A Small Turn Of Human Kindness
Apparently the blown-out Motörhead impressions on Death Goes To The Winner upset some long-time fans, so Harvey Milk turned around and made one of the most gut-churningly heavy albums of the year. There are no rave-ups here, just bleak, oppressive sludgy doom from a band that has been doing it right for almost two decades now. Even the best could risk monotony when pursuing so single-mindedly the goal of crushing the life out of the universe. At 35 minutes however, it’s positively bite-sized for these guys.
46. Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier
Iron Maiden have once again defied father time and released an excellent heavy metal album. Not much more to be said here, you should know by now what that means. Opener “Satellite 15...The Final Frontier” is the most overtly sci-fi song on the album and it’s surprisingly heavy intro reminds me of Voivod. The troubling tendency on 2006’s otherwise solid A Matter Of Life And Death was for the songs to get stuck in a midtempo march rather than the exhilarating full speed gallop that has defined so many of the band’s best work. Fortunately first single “Eldorado” puts any fears to rest as it comes charging out of the gate in fifth gear and sports the kind of arena-ready chorus that Maiden has spent the last three and a half decades perfecting. They haven’t slowed down a bit. Elsewhere The Final Frontier is exactly what you’d expect from a band releasing its 15th studio album and still selling out stadiums the world over. You get Bruce in fine form bellowing for all he’s worth, the triple lead guitar attack of Smith, Murray & Gers supplying copious shredding and wailing solos, heavy triplet riffage and dueling guitarmonies. Steve Harris’ aggressive basslines supply the unstoppable musical base while ever-inventive Nicko Mcbrain hammers it down behind the kit. Lots of lengthy epic songs, the best of which is the nine minute “Isle Of Avalon.” Like A Matter Of Life And Death, the long run time (77 minutes!) and relative lack of short punchy anthems like “Aces High” or “Run To The Hills” means the album can be a somewhat intimidating listen, but it is a grower as far as Maiden albums go. Yet at an age that most begin to ponder retirement, Maiden has released an ambitious, powerful record, proof that they still have the strength to swing the hammer of the gods with authority.
47. Quest For Fire – Lights From Paradise
Opener “Greatest Hits From God” is an absolutely massive psychedelic monster. Slowly it rumbles to life and begins laying waste to everything in its path with that gloriously triumphant main theme. The rest of the album is good psychedelic rock from a band to who sound and tone take precedence over songwriting. Quest For Fire do a cool, bongwater-soaked jam thing and they basically only have one gear, but Lights From Paradise is somewhat less anonymous than their debut due to an improved songwriting sense which emphasizes sonic space and a lush, reverb-heavy mix that envelops the listener in gooey globules of guitar.
48. The Dead Weather – Sea Of Cowards
Jack White can simply do no wrong. Although there is no track on Sea of Cowards as immediate as the best tracks on the band’s debut, this album is more consistently solid all the way through. The guitars slash, stab and dart like rabid hyenas throughout, as these players simply attack their instruments. There are very few bands who have managed to succeed on a mass level in the past decade, and fewer still who did it while making rock music this raw and uncompromising. Now how about a new White Stripes album?
49. Cough – Ritual Abuse
Clearly Cough know all the doom metal moves. They wallow in feedback and let their doomy dirges march past the ten minute mark through tar pits of sludge. They have songs with names like “Crippled Wizard” and “A Year In Suffering.” But Cough also have done a fair bit of time listening to some of the more out-there acid-damaged strains of heavy music. The malevolence level is turned down somewhat compared to some other bands of this ilk, although if a straight sludge trudge is what you’re after, the title track will do just fine. The result is a very heavy album that often coats its attack in a syrupy fog of reverb, making the band sound more like an even slower Dead Meadow than Burning Witch. The variety of textures used makes the album stand out from the crowd of sub-Boris and Electric Wizard imitators like Moss, Thou and Ocean Chief. The track “Crooked Spine” is perhaps best gateway drug here, but surprisingly there are some fully resolved melodic ideas running through many of these songs, similar to vintage Saint Vitus, and Cough know how to ramp up the tempos and rock when necessary. A young heavy band worth paying attention to.
50. Year Of No Light – Ausserwelt
You’d think that this style would be pretty much exhausted by, now but Year Of No Light figures it’s better to be late than never. French post-metal outfit clearly worships at the shrine of Isis, but you can tell that some of these guys have been imbibing some classic black metal on the side. It works to their advantage, the cathedral-ceiling grandiosity recalls late period Emperor. You’ll find lots of dense, suffocating riffs and gigantic crescendos here. Year Of No Light wins the final ranking on my list for their harsh and ornate sound which sets them apart from the pack.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
