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.