20. Archie Bronson Outfit - Coconut
From the opening track Magnetic Warrior, which is amongst the best album openers of 2010, through to the closer, the Archie Bronson Outfit on Coconut has finally realised its full potential with an urgent and fretful collection of smashed-up rock songs which at last relate to one another as songs must for an album truly to be a body of work (rather than just a few extra wordy wig-outs book-ending one ferocious riff). Chunk for example, despite having a predominantly clean sound, is as lick-laden as the Bronsons could make it - with multiple guitar phrases spiralling in and out of its loosely mechanical percussive vortex. Combined with a tastefully overdriven lead-vocal from Sam Windett, it is a faultless piece of rock originality. Welcome to the first-division. Scorching.
Magnetic Warrior live Double Six Club Session
Magnetic Warrior live Double Six Club Session
19. Liars - Sisterworld
When you hear the word 'challenging' - do you too often conclude that this could well be an album for me to own, however I'm certainly not going spend my precious free-time listening to the thing?!! Well, in Sisterworld, Liars help you now to relax while injecting a purposefully dubious cocktail of new approaches right between your ears. Sisterworld is a pleasure to listen to, even whilst it expands your appreciation of discipline in dissonance. Not like homework.
Proud Evolution live @ Insound Club Deville
Proud Evolution live @ Insound Club Deville
18. Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
Sounding like a cross between a Hal Hartley movie soundtrack and the Go-Betweens, Beach Fossils present an unassuming little record of disarmingly sanguine and uplifting guitar motifs. While the bulk of the songs exhibit obvious lineage and derivation, they are played and recorded so lovingly it's hard not to adore them also. Lo-fi for lovers.
Youth live in Utrecht Netherlands
Youth live in Utrecht Netherlands
17. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Kevin Drew and crew have opted to rock-for-forgiveness on this latest venture and the results deliver them a tuneful absolution. Unlike many other outsize groups, Broken Social Scene enjoy a harmonious, collective restraint which prevents the songs from sprouting a thousand legs and trampling all over any sense of direction. That they should achieve this with their sense of humour intact, I think is the whole point. Perspicacious.
Texico Bitches live on Q TV
Texico Bitches live on Q TV
16. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts
Capturing a sense of contagious urgency is difficult to do when you're sitting around in a studio for twelve hours at a time trying to recreate that allusive live-music flash-point. For Male Bonding however, it's no biggie. They just rocket along as through 'nothing (really) hurts'. That, plus a dose of commanding songsmithery has delivered a seamless collection of punk-pop gems with next to no passengers. Pocket rocket.
Live in Brooklyn for Tunnelvision
Live in Brooklyn for Tunnelvision
15. Bill Callahan - Rough Travel For A Rare Thing
Mr Callahan announces from the outset, "we're gonna get right down to business", and from that moment on the listener is led through the bittersweet highs and breathtaking lows of an ordinary man's emotional journey while nestled in the warm, reassuring embrace of Callahan's crystal-clear baritone. Live double albums are rarely this intimate. Master craftsman at work.
Cold Blooded Old Times on Don't Look Down
Cold Blooded Old Times on Don't Look Down
14. Junip - Fields
While it can sometimes be too easy to hear a quantum of over-earnestness in Jose Gonzalez' lyrics and voice, it is his nylon acoustic which supplies all the brilliant irony and breathless enjoyment you could ask for. And as a three piece, Junip knows exactly what's required to harness these acoustic elements and launch them into amplified outer-spaces. Starship Junip - now boarding.
Rope & Summit at the The Knitting Factory
Rope & Summit at the The Knitting Factory
13. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Never has being smashed in the face seemed so appealing. When the band is the most likely culprit at an all-in pub brawl, you know you've come to the right place. Titus Andronicus deliver their unique brand of New Jersey fisticuffs with a tuneful snarl and probable collapsed lung. You dare not turn them off before it ends, for fear of getting a clip 'round the ear. Stick 'em up.
The Battle of Hampton Roads
Titus Andronicus | FOR NO ONE from FOR NO ONE on Vimeo.
The Battle of Hampton Roads
12. No Age - Everything In Between
'Intelligent punk' sounds like an oxymoron at best, and downright pretentious at worst. However the extent to which No Age gives a toss, in either direction, is probably negligible. This duo is capable of unleashing two and three-minute punk frenzies while still finding room (almost accidentally) for nuanced artistic flourishes. And Randy Randall's preparedness to allow his guitar to feedback off-key, but somehow tunefully, for the entirety of a song is endearing rather than annoying. Scrunched-up beauty.
Life Prowler and Glitter live in Brooklyn
Life Prowler and Glitter live in Brooklyn
11. Charlotte Gainsbourg w/Beck - IRM
Watching Charlotte Gainsbourg pursue her various art forms is riveting, even if you do have to close your eyes from time to time. And this album sets a new high standard for her accomplishments as a recording artist. A collaborative effort with Beck, IRM almost has the feeling of a novel rather than an LP. Gainsbourg's ability to distill complex characters from her voice, without the need (or ability) for vocal acrobatics is a masterclass in subtlety and delicacy. The album possesses an almost chameleonic quality in which different elements reveal and shroud themselves at different times - seemingly dependent on when and where you're listening to it. This is truly a detailed scan on Gainsbourg's inner workings with Professor Beck at the controls. A fantastic voyage.
Heaven Can Wait with Beck live @ KCRW
10. Fang Island - Fang Island
Heaven Can Wait with Beck live @ KCRW
Supremely joyous post-punk petulance, which admittedly doesn't make a whole lotta sense, but is infinitely listenable. Along with a healthy dose of cackling, the album comes with its own fireworks! Fang Island have somehow achieved the impossible by appropriating corny metal-style time signatures and dampened power chords and reinstating them as a viable and laudable indie technique. Spasmodic and irregular shifts in time, tone and texture appear more likely to have resulted from a comical mishap with a guitar lead rather than any sense of deliberate deconstructionist agenda-bending. Grab your pirate outfit and set sail for Fang Island!
Sideswiper live @ KEXP Radio studios
Sideswiper live @ KEXP Radio studios
9. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
If the Swiss Alps were to play host to a Close Encounters of a Third Kind-style musical dialogue with recently arrived extraterrestrials, you'd certainly be checking Hendrik Weber's availability in case NASA got off on the wrong foot and manage to upset our potential new cosmic overlords. Weber's music is universal in the outer-space sense of the word. Over the course of eleven lengthy explorations, Weber challenges his fellow techonauts to travel back to where it all began - planet Music. The results are, if not astounding, still incredibly rewarding. Not just music for the Von Trapp's after-hours chill-out sessions.
Live @ LA's The Echo
If the Swiss Alps were to play host to a Close Encounters of a Third Kind-style musical dialogue with recently arrived extraterrestrials, you'd certainly be checking Hendrik Weber's availability in case NASA got off on the wrong foot and manage to upset our potential new cosmic overlords. Weber's music is universal in the outer-space sense of the word. Over the course of eleven lengthy explorations, Weber challenges his fellow techonauts to travel back to where it all began - planet Music. The results are, if not astounding, still incredibly rewarding. Not just music for the Von Trapp's after-hours chill-out sessions.
Live @ LA's The Echo
8. Twin Shadow - Forget
Where are we going with this 80s thing? Whether it's the Psychedelic Furs or Echo and the Bunnymen, anyone who was any good at the time (and there were a few) is under the microscope as part of some deranged experiment to harvest quality 80s taste cells and graft them on to present-day musical organisms hopefully without infecting them with 80s haircuts and highpants. Or preferably with the highpants - I don't know. Anyway, George Lewis Jr's Twin Shadow is a cut above the quiffs with this most excellent effort, superbly realised by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor on twiddling duties. Easily one of the best sounding studio guitar mixes of the year. I challenge you not to do a running on the spot dance, fingers clicking, singing, "s/he loves my moves" during I Cant Wait. The Killing Moon strikes again.
Castles in the Snow live @ La Poisson Rouge
Where are we going with this 80s thing? Whether it's the Psychedelic Furs or Echo and the Bunnymen, anyone who was any good at the time (and there were a few) is under the microscope as part of some deranged experiment to harvest quality 80s taste cells and graft them on to present-day musical organisms hopefully without infecting them with 80s haircuts and highpants. Or preferably with the highpants - I don't know. Anyway, George Lewis Jr's Twin Shadow is a cut above the quiffs with this most excellent effort, superbly realised by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor on twiddling duties. Easily one of the best sounding studio guitar mixes of the year. I challenge you not to do a running on the spot dance, fingers clicking, singing, "s/he loves my moves" during I Cant Wait. The Killing Moon strikes again.
Castles in the Snow live @ La Poisson Rouge
7. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Who said anything about quarantining the past? Surfer Blood's debut LP arrived with an almighty crunch in the first month of this year and immediately set tongues wagging about a new Floridian Pavement quite possibly young enough to be fathered by Stephen Malkmus and thoughtful enough to have been raised by Rivers Cuomo. Once the dust and delirium settled, what emerged was a great rock record, indeed indebted to a swathe of indie legends, but also one oozing fresh-as-a-daisy indie guitar goop from a satisfyingly clean wound in the body and spirit of guitar rock. The introspective elements of the record are uncontrived and heartfelt - lyrics and instruments gently sustaining one another. Broken chords and chiming harmonics; parsley stems and erupting volcanoes. Strong and bitey for such a youthful blend.
Floating Vibes live in a garage for Pitchfork TV
Who said anything about quarantining the past? Surfer Blood's debut LP arrived with an almighty crunch in the first month of this year and immediately set tongues wagging about a new Floridian Pavement quite possibly young enough to be fathered by Stephen Malkmus and thoughtful enough to have been raised by Rivers Cuomo. Once the dust and delirium settled, what emerged was a great rock record, indeed indebted to a swathe of indie legends, but also one oozing fresh-as-a-daisy indie guitar goop from a satisfyingly clean wound in the body and spirit of guitar rock. The introspective elements of the record are uncontrived and heartfelt - lyrics and instruments gently sustaining one another. Broken chords and chiming harmonics; parsley stems and erupting volcanoes. Strong and bitey for such a youthful blend.
Pitchfork TV: SPECIAL PRESENTATION by Surfer Blood "Floating Vibes"
- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.
- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.
Floating Vibes live in a garage for Pitchfork TV
6. Wolf Parade - Expo 86
"Just another pair of boat shoes walking away from the harbour?" I think not. But, sadly, probably the last long-player we'll hear from Wolf Parade for the foreseeable future. Retro polaroids enjoyed a new-found prominence on album covers this year and Expo 86 was probably the pick of them. However, any truly insightful reflections on a past golden age were more likely to be found within the album sleeve than on the cover. The dueling song-smiths in Boeckner and Krug supply a positive tension here, rather than the kind of erratic mush feuding egos may have produced in such circumstances. But, perversely, this most excellent record seems tethered ever so slightly by a desire not to explode out in any one particular direction for fear of upsetting the delicate balance between two accomplished songwriters. Oozing pedigree, but just shy of fifth gear. Pobody's Nerfect?
I'll Believe in Anything live @ Sub Pop
"Just another pair of boat shoes walking away from the harbour?" I think not. But, sadly, probably the last long-player we'll hear from Wolf Parade for the foreseeable future. Retro polaroids enjoyed a new-found prominence on album covers this year and Expo 86 was probably the pick of them. However, any truly insightful reflections on a past golden age were more likely to be found within the album sleeve than on the cover. The dueling song-smiths in Boeckner and Krug supply a positive tension here, rather than the kind of erratic mush feuding egos may have produced in such circumstances. But, perversely, this most excellent record seems tethered ever so slightly by a desire not to explode out in any one particular direction for fear of upsetting the delicate balance between two accomplished songwriters. Oozing pedigree, but just shy of fifth gear. Pobody's Nerfect?
I'll Believe in Anything live @ Sub Pop
5. Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
Black Angels pack up their campsite at Jim Morrison's grave site and move on from Père Lachaise (to a smoky joint just 'round the corner). Psychedelic rocksters must be careful of their influences these days as the genre stumbles, if not unwittingly, certainly stoned and unhurriedly, into the maelstrom of super-stardom - or at least high-rotation radio and an almost inexhaustible global festival circuit. The wig-out is where it's at on this album and who can blame them, they're a fiercely tight outfit. But if anyone's actually behind the Haunting at 1300 McKinley, Jim Morrison will certainly be seeking his pound of flesh from somebody in the Angels' phone book. Whilst the second half spreads its wings and airs its pits somewhat, it's not long before it starts swaying from side to side again, eyes closed, reverbed to all hell, rowing down a river of blood, towards......The End?
Science Killer live @ Canal Plus France
Black Angels pack up their campsite at Jim Morrison's grave site and move on from Père Lachaise (to a smoky joint just 'round the corner). Psychedelic rocksters must be careful of their influences these days as the genre stumbles, if not unwittingly, certainly stoned and unhurriedly, into the maelstrom of super-stardom - or at least high-rotation radio and an almost inexhaustible global festival circuit. The wig-out is where it's at on this album and who can blame them, they're a fiercely tight outfit. But if anyone's actually behind the Haunting at 1300 McKinley, Jim Morrison will certainly be seeking his pound of flesh from somebody in the Angels' phone book. Whilst the second half spreads its wings and airs its pits somewhat, it's not long before it starts swaying from side to side again, eyes closed, reverbed to all hell, rowing down a river of blood, towards......The End?
Science Killer live @ Canal Plus France
4. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone
Have you heard the one about the two Chicagoans who walk into a bar and somebody else says, "do you wanna make a record?" And they say, "shit yeah!", and then walk out again? Well neither have I, and I don't want to hear it again because this record wrote itself for the honour and priviledge of being sung by the spectacular songstress and civil rights activist Mavis Staples. The pleasure of hearing Staples' voice at the helm of a stack of superbly penned and beautifully executed songs cannot be overestimated. Fellow Chicagoan Jeff Tweedy, with his readily apparent forensic-level knowledge and insight into Staples' career - in particular her Stax records era - is a gift of a pairing and one which has produced an album of rare warmth and sensitivity which can still growl and grind with the grindiest of today's artful rockers. Staples' vocal embrace is still uplifting and inspiring and Tweedy is astute enough to frame it with just the right amount of textural backing and songcraft to allow her to soar uncluttered and unrestrained. There are many golden moments on this record, whether cover, new version or new song. They all work. With Mavis and Jeff around...you're certainly never gonna be alone.
Wrote a Song for Everyone live
Have you heard the one about the two Chicagoans who walk into a bar and somebody else says, "do you wanna make a record?" And they say, "shit yeah!", and then walk out again? Well neither have I, and I don't want to hear it again because this record wrote itself for the honour and priviledge of being sung by the spectacular songstress and civil rights activist Mavis Staples. The pleasure of hearing Staples' voice at the helm of a stack of superbly penned and beautifully executed songs cannot be overestimated. Fellow Chicagoan Jeff Tweedy, with his readily apparent forensic-level knowledge and insight into Staples' career - in particular her Stax records era - is a gift of a pairing and one which has produced an album of rare warmth and sensitivity which can still growl and grind with the grindiest of today's artful rockers. Staples' vocal embrace is still uplifting and inspiring and Tweedy is astute enough to frame it with just the right amount of textural backing and songcraft to allow her to soar uncluttered and unrestrained. There are many golden moments on this record, whether cover, new version or new song. They all work. With Mavis and Jeff around...you're certainly never gonna be alone.
Wrote a Song for Everyone live
3. Foals - Total Life Forever
A crafty follow-up to 2008's Antidotes sees the Foals slipping out of the noose of what can sometimes be a regimented math-rock paradigm and throwing all the doors and windows wide-open on their visceral rock algorithms. By absorbing air and organic textures the Foals have launched themselves at a batch of new songs without defaulting to a staple-gun approach to myriad notes and rhythms which, whilst precise and meticulous, can often strangle the band's ability to orbit and tug on a song rather than just crash straight into it. The sound of a group still discovering its abilities, the Foals have submerged their speakers into a liquid texture and have found in themselves an ability to remain calm in a raging rip-current of guitar, bass and drums and float towards a less quixotic, more nuanced songcraft. Still probably on their way to their best music yet - Total Life Forever accidentally, if only very occasionally, slips into just the sort of earnestness their album title is cleverly trying to avoid. The overall result however is a spectacular display of musicianship coming to grips still with the idea of "feel".
Live at KCRW Los Angeles
2. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
Could that be a question asked by this Cleveland-based three-piece outfit's faithful synthesizer? And if so, would it be expecting a meaningful answer? The answer to both questions surely must be 'why?' One need only look at the titles to these precision-guided sonic bursts to get a sense of where the Emeralds are coming from/going to. 'Summerdata', 'Access Granted' and 'Double Helix' all suggest the band members could probably get out more - but, if anything, I reckon they're getting just the right amount of extragalactic background light wherever they find themselves. These are exquisitely crafted, fast-traveling, enveloping pods of light and sound which replay with a deep lusciousness absent from so much other synth-based recording these days. Mark McGuire's elliptical guitar injects an organic quality to the soundscape without ever dissenting or disuniting from the core ideology driving the band's ambitious towering musical creations. Access recommended.
Candy Shoppe
A crafty follow-up to 2008's Antidotes sees the Foals slipping out of the noose of what can sometimes be a regimented math-rock paradigm and throwing all the doors and windows wide-open on their visceral rock algorithms. By absorbing air and organic textures the Foals have launched themselves at a batch of new songs without defaulting to a staple-gun approach to myriad notes and rhythms which, whilst precise and meticulous, can often strangle the band's ability to orbit and tug on a song rather than just crash straight into it. The sound of a group still discovering its abilities, the Foals have submerged their speakers into a liquid texture and have found in themselves an ability to remain calm in a raging rip-current of guitar, bass and drums and float towards a less quixotic, more nuanced songcraft. Still probably on their way to their best music yet - Total Life Forever accidentally, if only very occasionally, slips into just the sort of earnestness their album title is cleverly trying to avoid. The overall result however is a spectacular display of musicianship coming to grips still with the idea of "feel".
Live at KCRW Los Angeles
2. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
Could that be a question asked by this Cleveland-based three-piece outfit's faithful synthesizer? And if so, would it be expecting a meaningful answer? The answer to both questions surely must be 'why?' One need only look at the titles to these precision-guided sonic bursts to get a sense of where the Emeralds are coming from/going to. 'Summerdata', 'Access Granted' and 'Double Helix' all suggest the band members could probably get out more - but, if anything, I reckon they're getting just the right amount of extragalactic background light wherever they find themselves. These are exquisitely crafted, fast-traveling, enveloping pods of light and sound which replay with a deep lusciousness absent from so much other synth-based recording these days. Mark McGuire's elliptical guitar injects an organic quality to the soundscape without ever dissenting or disuniting from the core ideology driving the band's ambitious towering musical creations. Access recommended.
Candy Shoppe
1. Flying Lotus - Cosmagramma
The sheer scale, furious complexity and colossal depth to be found inside this album can leave you a little breathless, if not outright concussed, if you come at it with anything less than an eager ear and all the right gear. The jazz inflections alone seem immediately to show the listener that they are held in very high regard by the artist, aka Steve Ellison, which leads you to want to listen even more intently. The cycle is then replicated throughout the entire album until such time as you either fall on your face or seriously begin to wonder whether anyone out there actually has a John Coltrane portrait tattoo - or whether you would in fact be the first. Then, inevitably, you want some more. The intercellular nature of the songs on Cosmagramma heralds a new kind of album experience - one where the musical narrative climbs, descends, levels-out and climbs again almost without anything resembling a traditional songwriting device or structure. It's a powerful display of musical love and inspiration. Journey skywards with the Flying Lotus. Today.
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble "Drips/Take Notice" feat Flying Lotus from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on Vimeo.
FlyLo live with the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble "Drips/Take Notice" feat Flying Lotus from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on Vimeo.
FlyLo live with the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble
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