ANIMAL COLLECTIVE LEAK! ANIMAL COLLECTIVE LEAK! MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION IS HERE! Sorry, didn't mean to go all "fan boy" on you. As many of you probably already know, the new AC album leaked via a vinyl rip (I think the bit rate is 160 kbps) Christmas day. Even with all of the build up around this album's release, it still delivers. It definitely builds off of the sound of the Panda Bear album, and features more vocals from him than any previous album (which seems to be a good recipe, as their last album to use this much from him was Sung Tongs, their best album). Additionally, Avery Tare sounds downright smooth, epsecially giving how jarring his vocals can normally be. Tare and Panda Bear now seem to be working in some sort of strange harmony, rather than acting as counterparts to each other. Following the transition started with Strawberry Jam, the album is mostly electronic. Noise, and freak folk tendancies have basically vanished as psychedelic, ambient, trance-pop sounds dominate the album (or even house, as evidenced by the 4/4 wallop found in the second half of "In the Flowers"). As seen with the Water Curses EP, the last release by them, this album is also poppier (for them at least). Despite the softening of their sound, this album can't be seen as an attempt to pander to wider audiences - rather it is proof positive of a veteran band who has dedicated themselves to constantly evolving and growing better. It will be hard for 2009 to produce an album better than this. "In the Flowers", "My Girls", and "Brother Sport" are currently my favorite tracks, but every song has its appeal.
So, the lists begin... I followed a few rules in making my top songs lists. First of all, no repeat artists - this way I can steer away from just posting every track from my ten favorite albums of the year. Also, I generally stayed away from remixes. There are too many, most of which are absolute crap, and they are not worth my time trying to keep up with when I could be finding another great album instead. Lastly, I ignored my album of the year list when making this to ensure that I did not just post a song for each album I ranked. Download of all 100 songs is available at the bottom of the post. Let me know what you think!
I'll have descriptions, album art, and mp3's available for the rest of the songs at a later date (I only have the first 20 up now), but the list is still here, as well as the link to a download of all the songs.
100) "Nothing, Then" Punch Brothers Punch
99) "California Bird Dudes" No Age & Zach Hill Flannel Graduate
98) "Move" Q-Tip The Renaissance
97) "Eyes Lose Their Fire" Kyte Two Sparks, Two Stars
96) "In Ear Park" Department of Eagles In Ear Park
95) "Son the Father" Fucked Up The Chemistry of Common Life
94) "Don't Wait for the Needle to Drop" Dosh Wolves and Wishes
93) "Untrust Us" Crystal Castles Self Titled
92) "Smile For Me" Quinn Walker Laughter's An Asshole
91) "The Magnificent Jinn" Trey Gunn Music For Pictures
90) "Mercy" Plants and Animals Parc Avenue
89) "Nieve Sacra" Natural Snow Buildings The Snowbringer Cult
88) "Peel Some Off" These Are Powers Tarot Tarot
87) "Geraldine" Glasvegas Self Titled
86) "Aly, Walk With Me" The Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust
85) "Quarantined" Atlas Sound Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
84) "Ergot (Relief)" Genghis Tron Board Up the House
83) "The Clockwise Witness" Devotchka A Mad & Faithful Telling
82) "Millie Rode to Heaven on the Back of an Orca" The Photographic Pictures of a Changing World
79) "You Were Too Old For Me" PAS/CAL I Was Raised On Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura
78) "Iamundernodisguise" School of Seven Bells Alpinisms
77) "Gin Divide Us" Sybris Into the Trees
76) "Don't Look That Way At It" White Denim Workout Holiday
75) "Dodovoodoo" Elephant9 Dodovoodoo
74) "Batcat" Mogwai The Hawk is Howling
73) "Blind and Faithless" Jesu Why Are We Not Perfect?
72) "All the Best Wooden Toys Come From Germany" Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning Something For All Of Us...
71) "In Search of the Youth Crew" Cadence Weapon Afterparty Babies
70) "Jog On" Dub Trio Another Sound is Dying
69) "Collapsing At Your Doorstep" Air France No Way Down
68) "In My Room" The Last Shadow Puppets" The Age of the Understatement
67) "The Area Play" Eliot Lipp The Outside
66) "Some Nettles" Stars Like Fleas The Ken Burns Effect
65) "Doubt/Hope" Wildbirds & Peacedrums Heartcore
64) "Okay, Let's Talk About Magic" Fuck Buttons Street Horrrsing
63) "Tired Eyes" +/- Xs on Your Eyes
62) "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" Titus Andronicus The Airing of Grievances
61) "Transmigration (Stranger)" PSY/OPSogist Suffused With Static
60) "Bloodhail" Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness
59) "Empty Legs" Thank You Terrible Two
58) "Un Dia" Juana Molina Un Dia
57) "Dear Broken Friend" {{{Sunset}}} Bright Blue Dream
56) "Red Line Season" These Arms are Snakes Tail Swallower and Dove
55) "Transformer" Marnie Stern This Is it and I Am it and You Are it and so Is That and He Is it and She Is it and it Is it and That is That (seriously what kind of a fucking album title is this)
54) "Where in this World" The Notwist The Devil You and Me
53) "Take Refuge" Grails Take Refuge in Clean Living
52) "California Dreamer" Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer
51) "Arms Like Boulders" The War On Drugs Wagonwheel Blues
50) "Ghosts Under Rocks" Ra Ra Riot The Rhumb Line
49) "Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey" Bodies of Water A Certain Feeling
48) "On the Death of the Waters" Shearwater Rook
47) "Learn to Learn" The Week That Was Self Titled
46) "Chains" Pocahaunted Chains
45) "Eaguru Guru" Deerhoof Offend Maggie
44) "Emergence" Trifonic Emergence
43) "Sax Rohmer #1" The Mountain Goats Heretic Pride
42) "Lawncare" Women Self Titled
41) "A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under" Why? Alopecia
40) "Plötsligt händer det inte" Vapnet Döda Fallet
39) "Dead Destination" Boris Smile (Japanese Version)
38) "Real Emotional Trash" Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Real Emotional Trash
37) "Skeleton Man" Evangelicals The Evening Descends
36) "Love Dog" TV on the Radio Dear Science,
35) "Wanga Doll" Red Snapper Pale Blue Dot
34) "20k Money Making Brothers" Re-Up Gang We Got It 4 Cheap Volume 3
33) "Buriedfed" Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson Self Titled
32) "Mollie" Leila Blood Looms And Blooms
31) "Old Skin" Young Widows Old Wounds
30) "Parisian Goldfish" Flying Lotus Los Angeles
29) "In Lust You Can Hear The Axe Fall" Xiu Xiu Women As Lovers
28) "Dark Leaves Form a Thread" Destroyer Trouble in Dreams
26) "Heart Failure (Featuring Sage Francis)" B. Dolan The Failure
25) "Hands Tied To The Roots Of A Hemorrhage" Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fungus
24) "Triumph of Venus" Torche Meanderthal
23) "Folk I Farta" DiskJokke Staying In
22) "The Modern Leper" Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ
21) "Jodi" The Dodos Visiter
20) "Long Story Short" Black Milk Tronic
Nothing revolutionary about this song, but it is just done so damn well. I have already extolled the virtues of Black Milk on this blog, so I won't belabor the point. Great song, great album.
19) "Tane Mahuta" The Ruby Suns Sea Lion
Is it possible to be in a bad mood after listening to this song? I love the upbeat, world music infused sound - also, the wide range of instrumentation makes the song even more interesting.
Cowbell? I think that is what starts off this song, before the tangled mess of howls, swirling guitars, and torrents of drumming dominate. Propulsive, relatively straight forward as far as Raccoo-oo-oon goes, and just a plain good noise rock song. Love how much this song evolves over 8 plus minutes.
17) "Molten Light" Chad VanGaalen Soft Airplane
Great lo-fi sound to this artist, with impeccable lyrical abilities. VanGaalen, also the producer on the Women release of this year, has crafted in "Molten Light" a song that lodges itself in the back of your head and just will not get out. "I'll find you and I'll kill you" - what a strange phrase to have keep popping up in your mind.
16) "New Year Storm" Clark Turning Dragon
This song certainly signaled a change of direction from Chris Clark's previous material. Dark industrial beats pummel the listener from the beginning, but before the 2 minute mark the dynamics of the song really open up. A great song to kick of yet another great release for Clark.
15) "Rise Rice" Mahjongg Kontpab
This is the epic track of the album. Clanging drums and repeating, fuzzed out synths devolve into polyrhythms and muttered vocals, before breaking out into a strange dance song with "rise rice" repeated over and over again. Chaotic, entirely originally, but catchy for reasons I can't even begin to explain.
14) "Blackmail Blues" Extra Life Secular Works
Gothic aura, gregorian chanting styled vocals, crashing, dense rhythm section - what a great song. Charlie Looker's Extra Life is my favorite of all of his projects, and "Blackmail Blues" puts on full display the extent of his talents.
13) "The Gods of the Upper House" Snowman The Horse, The Rat and the Swan
What the hell is this stuff? Modern no-wave? Swans meets Liars? Whatever you would categorize this as, I am completely enamored with this highly intense Australian band. "WE ARE MACHINES!" Wow!
12) "The Era When We Sang" Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema
The strings, the sampled vocals, the horn accents, and infectious beat had this song on repeat for me for quite a while. The entire album is great, but as soon as I heard the first track (this song) I knew this was going to be the highlight. One of many impressive efforts in the world of instrumental hip hop this year.
11) "The Rip" Portishead Third
Beth Gibbons is a fucking god. Her performance on "Third" is probably my highlight of the year as far as vocals go. Absolutely haunting. This track is emblematic of the album, dark, yet beautiful, simple, yet never predictable. Talk about a shocker - who would have predicted that Portishead's first album in over a decade would be this amazing?
10) "Princes (Featuring Tinchy Stryder)" Gang Gang Dance Saint Dymphna
I could have put up any track off of the album, but the shear ridiculousness of this song compelled this choice. Tinchy Stryder is both awful and amazing, while Gang Gang Dance provided an oddly fitting match.
9) "Until the Sun Dies (Part 2)" Crystal Antlers EP
Noisy, psychedelic, punk rock perfection. The shear propulsive energy of this release, makes their first full length one of my most anticipated albums of 2009.
8) "Dirt (Featuring Aesop Rock)" Tobacco Fucked Up Friends
Combine the tripped out analog synths of Black Moth Super Rainbow with the spitfire delivery of Aesop Rock and you have a recipe for success. Tobacco, a BMSR side project, should really do some more collaborations, as this one (the lone one on the album) easily stands above the other tracks on the record.
7) "Gobbledigook" Sigur Ros Me...Fuck it, I'm not even going to try it. Some Icelandic gibberish.
It appears Sigur Ros has discovered freak-folk...and the results are nothing if not spectacular. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of the album. If you enjoy this song and naked people I recommend checking out the video.
6) "Heaven Can Wait" Metaform Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
The repeating, sampled piano line fits so well with the beat being employed on "Heaven Can Wait" that it is almost scary. So many great things on this song - the impeccable drum fills, the way the song explodes out of transitions, etc. Instrumental hip-hop perfection.
5) "End Resolve" Pyramids Self Titled
Pyramids issues some pretty non-standard metal. This fuzzed out, metal-gaze track comes complete with haunting chanted vocals and pummeling double bass. This is the most overlooked album of the year, and "End Resolve" is possibly the best track of the year.
4) "Pwnd" The Mae Shi HLLLYH
The Mae Shi's spaz-rock epic, "Pwnd", is a fist-pumper of the first degree. I can't even describe how obsessed I was with this song when this album first came out. Everyone talks about "Run to your grave", when they speak of songs off of HLLLYH, but it pales in comparison to the intensity of "Pwnd".
3) "Raise" Son Lux At War With Walls & Mazes
Composer turned hip hop producer/indie musician, Ryan Lott has all of his divergent musical interests cumulate perfectly in this track. While I can't say the same for the rest of the album, this climax near the end of the song sent chills down my spine upon first listen.
2) "White Winter Hymnal" Fleet Foxes Self Titled
Angelically beautiful harmonies soar over perfectly played acoustic instrumentation. Is it possible to not feel at least a little bit better about the world after listening to this?
1) "Water Curses" Animal Collective Water Curses EP
While Animal Collective did not release an album this year, this EP yielded plenty of satisfaction. Perhaps the poppiest of all Animal Collective songs, "Water Curses" achieves perfection, without diluting the odd ball AC delivery too much.
The year is winding down, and that means "best of" lists. Over this holiday weekend I will be putting up my own lists. Each will come with an mp3 sample of the album or song referenced, many will have videos as well. Additionally, downloads of all albums and songs will be made available.
First: Top 100 Songs of 2008. Second: Honorable mentions - albums just outside of my top 100 that are still worth checking out. Third: Top Albums of 2008, #100-51. Fourth: Top Albums of 2008, #50-1
Bad news: Psychedelic, noise rockers Raccoo-oo-oon have broken up. While the members of the band will continue to produce music, it will now be as a series of solo projects with equally ridiculous band names ranging from Pukers to Trash Dog.
Good news: A terrific, self-titled, last release. I'm not even sure when the release date was for this album (news about them is hard to come by), but their fifth full length does not disappoint. While the four piece from Iowa may not match the highs reached on "Behold Secret Kingdom", this sprawling 76 minute epic still can be considered one of the most challenging, original, and impressive releases of the year. The formula hasn't changed much from previous releases - rapid, often disjointed, drumming, a manic haze of tortured moans and chants, and jagged blasts of guitar play form the crux of their sound. This release manages to be even less accessible than the previous one, with song structures broken down, then stretched to their limits. Their is a sinister quality to this music that I can't quite describe, but it is well worth checking out. Fans of noise rock, experimental music, and heavier psychedelic genres owe it to themselves to explore this release, as well as the band's back catalog.
Live clip (looks terrifying, but in an enjoyable kind of way):
2008 has seen a slew of great instrumental hip hop releases (Flying Lotus, Metaform, Blue Sky Black Death, PSY/OPSogist, Clutchy Hopkins), however there really has been a dearth of good albums put out by emcee's this year.
Curtis Cross, the 25 year old rapper/producer who goes by Black Milk, has been the excpetion. With 6 releases this year, Cross has not let his prolific rate of production effect the quality of his releases.
Contributing as a producer to Slum Village's second album, Cross has since gone on to work with everyone from Lloyd Banks, to Pharoahe Monch. His brightest moments have come with his work with fellow Detroit underground hip hop artists though. His production on Elzhi's "The Preface", Fat Ray's "The Set Up", and Sean Price and Guilty Simpson's "Random Axe" builds upon the soul based, cut and paste sample, production style of his greatest influence, the late J Dilla. In these albums we see Cross trying to get back to where one producer creates a unique aesthetic for an album, rather than having a different producer on each track. The crashing drums, and "raw" east coast like production style (in the same vein as rza for example) are great on their own, but that coupled with a more focused approach to making a hip hop album really sets him apart from the rest of the hip hop scene in 2008.
Even though production is where Cross started, and has been acclaimed, his emcee abilites are far from lackluster. "Tronic", his second full fledged solo album, sees himself capably carrying the vast majority of the emcee duties. With influences ranging from sly and the family stone, to a tribe called quest "Tronic" is far and away the best rap album of the year. Cross has established himself as not only the leader of the burgeoning underground rap scene in Detroit, but as one of the preeminent hip hop artists today. Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/175396119/Black_Milk-Tronic-2008-.zip.html
Great video from 2006 of Black Milk creating a great beat on the spot in about 15 minutes:
If you are not already aware, anticipation for the new Animal Collective release, "Merriweather Post Pavillion", has reached a fever pitch. Web sheriff's (what the fuck does that even mean?) have cracked down on leaks - even throwing Grizzly Bear into the controversy when they upped a song to their blog. All of this for an album that comes out on in just 2 weeks (January 6th)!
The new album is supposed to further build on Animal Collective's trend towards more electronic beat making and utilize more of Noah Lennox's techniques he used so adeptly on his last Panda Bear album. Apparently, while touring Europe they became obsessed with the house and trance scene, and subsequently that is supposed to be evident in their new recordings.
I'm about as excited for this release as I have been for any release in recent memory. If this isn't the best album of 2009 it will likely be a let down for me. Animal Collective is known for playing all new material live first, letting it evolve over a tour, before commiting it to recording and due to this most of the tracks on the new album are available as live recordings (though they could sound significantly different). I have secured a live recording of every song on the new album, and from what I have heard it sounds pretty fucking mind blowing. For your downloading pleasure:
As for other exciting releases coming out: Andrew Bird Noble Beast: This has actually already leaked. Nothing that has knocked my socks off, but solid as usual.
... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead The Century of Self: Hopefully they can put an end to their terrible downward spiral. As great as Source Tags & Codes was, their past couple of releases were unforgivably awful.
Antony And The Johnsons The Crying Light: Even though I'm not one who is into the whole house/disco-revival scene, I thought Antony's work with Hercules and the Love Affair was solid. I have enjoyed his past releases, and based off how the single sounds, this album should be a bright spot as well. Said single:
The Appleseed Cast Sagarmatha: Hopefully this album can repeat the achievement's of their Low Level Owl releases.
Bad Plus For All I Care As much as I enjoy this band, you have to wonder how good a band can be considered when their covers are their best songs.
Crippled Black Phoenix200 Tons of Bad Luck Features members of Mogwai. I'm pretty psyched about this one. Track from the album:
Missy Elliott Block Party Do I even need to say why this is highly anticipated? IT'S YOUR FREMME NEPPA VENETTE!
Mos Def The Ecstatic Probably will just be him going through the motions again, like on his last release. We can all hope for a return to form though.
While laboring through the last couple of albums that I have from 2008 before I make my year end list I found myself coming back to one genre in particular: jazz. Three artists have stood out among these last few albums - Scorch Trio (album: Brolt), Supersilent side project Elephant9 (album: Dodovoodoo), and ValerioCosi (album: Heavy Electronic Pacific Loop). The first two represent the flourishing Scandinavian free jazz/fusion scene, while the latter hails from Italy and is a bit more droney and avant-garde. These three releases, coupled with two earlier Bar Kokhba related albums (one by Bar Kokhba itself called Lucifer, the other written by Bar Kokhba, but performed by Mr. Bungle offshoot Secret Chiefs 3 titled Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9) and the second Original Silence record, make clear the strong showing jazz, as a genre, has made in 2008. Then again, I generally prefer more fusion, and free jazz styled jazz, and these albums, for the most part are just that. Though not '08 releases, I have also been really digging stuff by Isotope 217 and Art Ensemble of Chicago recently, as far as jazz goes. Check out the live videos - pretty crazy stuff (I should have links to downloads up soon).
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE LEAK! ANIMAL COLLECTIVE LEAK! MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION IS HERE!
