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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3419145250499447012014-12-08T00:21:55.895-08:00Olive MusicCarter firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-74253965926111170292012-12-28T06:00:00.002-08:002012-12-28T14:52:27.149-08:00Favorites of 2012Tyler + Brandon + Carter + Alisa

25. Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse (In The Red)
When he's not making an ass of himself dismissing all that isn't rock, Ty Segall is a pretty cool fuckin' dude. None of his (many) records this year represent that better than Slaughterhouse; the loudest, rawest, most in-your-face garage rock record of the year. Sounding like he got amped up on some proper drugs and told his band to play something TRUE, he turns on the tape and has at it. Question is, how'd they manage to pull off all those catchy hooks? --Tyler Chambers

24. James Ferraro - Sushi (Hippos in Tanks)
Ever since the Skaters' fizzling-out, each consecutive James Ferraro release has raised the bar in his efforts to be postmodern and technologically satirical-- I mean, look at that font. Sushi falls in line with Ferraro's embrace of all things uncomfortably digital, but the execution is far more commendable than what was accomplished on last year's iPad-centric Far Side Virtual. Voices, pops and work-appropriate synths are manipulated to stuttering microhouse and vaportrap proportions that may either evoke wonder or disgust depending on your taste or lack thereof. --Carter Mullin

23. Ultraísta - Ultraísta (Temporary Residence)
After almost two decades of guiding Radiohead into martyrdom, it was only right for Nigel Godrich to get out and start making some proper tunes of his own. Ultraísta is the perfect way to make it happen. Guided by the sultry hypnosis of vocalist Laura Bettinson, these 10 seductive color-wheeled vignettes flirt with synth pop, new wave, and trip hop, blinded by a flashing floodlight revealing the spectrum of their colored silhouette, resulting in the best pop record of the year. How appropriate David Lynch would remix "Strange Formula"; sophisticated pop music for neon lounges draped in blood red curtains, zigzag patterns highlight the floor, and a small stage for Ultraísta to play phantoms on. Are we really here, or is it all just a dream? --Tyler Chambers

22. Moth Cock - Moth Cock (Tusco/Embassy)
You can read my full review of this record, but suffice it to say that this is a record full of stony drones, screeching hiss, and morphing, creepy alien horns that really make you wonder just what the hell is going on. Oh, and did I mention the A-side of the record plays backwards? --Brandon Greter

21. Weird Dreams - Choreography (Tough Love)
Even when Weird Dreams are flaunting menacing song titles like "666.66" or "River of the Damned", their debut album still rings loudly as a cute, affable pop album that never dwindles in the melody department. It may be an overwhelming 45 minutes, for every saccharine verse rises to an ecstatic, syrupy chorus. Choreography doesn't really say anything, but it does sing it pretty well. --Carter Mullin

20. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (Constellation)
I've always put it upon myself whenever I listen to a Godspeed record to make sure it's away from what I'm normally doing. In most cases it's taking my dog on a walk; a really long walk that ends up lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour. Not that Godspeed's music can't be enjoyed in other ways, I just think it would be difficult to get the same experience out of taking in a slowly scaling, 20+-minute epic passively, sitting down staring into a computer screen, vs. being out in the open, walking to the sound of the stirring, inevitable climax with every sense of your being in full attention of the song. Not everybody's opinion can hold equal, and not everybody's going to listen to this music and hear what I hear. But, I do believe the music of Godspeed You! Black Emperor commands a thrust for adventure, an open-ended journey through music's many horizons that no two people will experience the same. It's music for the big picture; songs that challenge predictable notions and in the process stimulate the mind, delving through the recesses of grave memories, deep ideas, sentimental reflections, and moving recollections until a breathtaking emotional catharsis leaves a grand impression on what the future can be to those who wish to escape the predictability, lies, and corruption of the world we live in for their own ultimatum. --Tyler Chambers

19. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (Def Jam)
I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of Nostalgia, Ultra. and the first time I listened to Channel Orange, I wasn't impressed-- boy did that change. What we have here is perfectly crafted alterna-pop, proving once again that the dirty south can do no wrong. Frank Ocean crafts beautiful melodies on this album, both with instruments and with his voice. This record was a lot more drug-inspired than I expected, and if you're looking for the next bunch of sing-a-long party tunes, look no further. --Brandon Greter

18. Gimu - A Silent Stroll on Sombre St. (Constellation Tatsu)
Shrouded in mystery and passionate like few other albums were this year, A Silent Stroll on Sombre St. is the drone perfected. Similar to William Basinski's gradually disappearing disintegration loops, as each song is relatively simple, usually opening from a cloud of hostility, as an impending siren slowly rises from the ashes, swaying up and down through the rusty tunnel surrounding it before the matter is exhausted out a pipe and into a twisted gaseous state to float onwards in the skies. With his magnum opus, Gimu creates short heartaches wrapped in veils of emotional wear and tear; static, noise, and buzz light a spark trailing down a dreary wick, slowly leading to a series of roaring explosions, expanding the sky in a immensity of light, color, and smoke. --Tyler Chambers

17. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city (Interscope / Aftermath / Top Dawg)
Kendrick Lamar is clearly saving lyrical significance these days, with his self-proclaimed debut good kid, m.A.A.d city exploring young love, peer pressure, violence, martyrs and misconceptions of reputability among a plethora of subjects that overstep its Compton setting. As great as the story is, these are just beautiful songs. The hook on "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" is rife with drama and the passion he seeks from seclusion, the instrumental of "Sing About Me" conjures images of paintings that would grace Miles Davis albums and hang from small-scale café walls, and the Janet Jackson sample laced into "Poetic Justice" embellishes an otherwise austere beat with small splashes of color. Studying good kid, m.A.A.d city's narrative is one thing; appreciating the music itself is another. --Carter Mullin

16. Discoverer - Tunnels (Digitalis)
This was a really tough category for me, because 2012 had a lot of great synthesizer music come out. We saw amazing records from Motion Sickness Of Time Travel, Hive Mind, Raglani, Emeralds, and Headboggle, just to name a few, but I really think Discoverer's Tunnels really set the bar on just want a synth record should sound like. It's cold, but not too cold, its dancey, but not shake-ya-ass-dancey, more like, nod-your-head-dancey. It evokes thoughts of modern legends like Oneohthrix Point Never, as well as classic synth gods like Tangerine Dream. Almost instantly Tunnels transports the listener to the great disco in the sky, and I never want to come back down. --Brandon Greter

15. Crystal Castles - (III) (Casablanca)
I've been a Crystal Castles fan for a long time now, and I've always been afraid they would put out a bad record. Too poppy, not crazy enough, to watered down. It seems instead, with the release of (III), they've gone in almost the opposite direction, becoming stranger, less accessible, and perhaps even isolating all but the most dedicated fans (of which there is no shortage). Crystal Castles seems to have taken a turn to the darker side of the spectrum, evoking more elements of noise, witch house, and drone music with them on their descent into madness. What I've always loved about this band is that they don't really give a shit, and that attitude shines through in their music. --Brandon Greter

14. Laurel Halo - Quarantine (Hyperdub)
To me, truly touching music should trigger a nostalgic nerve, and I feel as though I've been listening to Quarantine for years without even remotely understanding it yet. It could just be that it reminds me of certain things (maybe Elizabeth Fraser, early Björk) but it doesn't quite sound like anything else. What Quarantine should be considered is an archetypal ambient pop record: at her voice's most euphoric passages ("Airsick", "Thaw", "Light + Space"), Laurel Halo organizes her melodies into verses and choruses over a nearly formless backdrop, with no convolution and drawing attention solely to the abstruse beauty of her songwriting and the frail tones discreetly placed throughout. --Carter Mullin

13. Swans - The Seer (Young God)
First and for most when I think about great albums of all-time, their power rests in the idea of escapism. When I sit down and start to dissect the year's best music, the single solitary piece that defined it all will always be the one that took me the furthest away from reality; into a state of solace curated by the album's presence. Strip away the nonsense of the band's legacy and the 30 years it took to create, and you have the most brooding, massive, and intense album of the year. The fiery filth of ablazed occult life on Disc 1. Introduced by the processed mind-altering, cult-cleansing "Lunacy", the numbing fury of the mad king "Mother of the World", the haunting fireside prelude "The Wolf", the monumental epitaph at the center of a fallen civilization "The Seer", the rolling pummeled chant in the distance "The Seer Returns", the nightmare of hellish infinity "93 Ave. Blues", and the dreary work-chant gospel of "The Daughter Brings the Water". Further one you're greeted by the enchanted spiritual ecstasy of Disc 2. Opening with the lovely horizon-eyed ballad "Song for a Warrior", the towering colossus in the sky with the heart of a thousand souls "Avatar", the fire exposed folk lament billowing majesty back to the ground "A Piece of the Sky", and the watershed eye of the beast at the end of all things "Apostate". Exhilarating, enchanting, exhausting and empowering-- no album this year was better. --Tyler Chambers

12. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular)
"Am I getting closer? Will I ever get there? Does it even matter?" Lonerism is all about the idea that real life is just something else. Kevin Parker is the mastermind behind Tame Impala and is without the doubt, the most talented musician right now. He records alone in his bedroom and captures the feelings of endless daydreams and escaping real life in his music. Each track on this record is nothing short of pure bliss. --Alisa Rodriguez

11. King Tears Bat Trip - King Tears Bat Trip (Table & Chairs)
A hellishly distorted tenor sax, brutal noise guitar, powerful afro-beat buildups, and endlessly catchy fuck-all grooves hypnotize in an absolutely unrelentingly insane album from start to finish over the course of two mind-numbing "songs". King Tears Bat Trip's debut is one of the most thrilling and engaging jazz albums I've heard in a long, long time. --Tyler Chambers

10. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (Epitaph)
I'm not one to pretend I know what I'm talking about when it comes to metalcore, or that I listen to it much, but there's something about Converge that's always managed to hold my interest. With a genre so built around speed, intensity, and brutality, it's easy for it to fall apart when any one part isn't working; be it vocals, guitars, drums, etc. Here Converge get it all right: fierce vocals, chaotic and snarling guitars, and pummeling drums with enough rhythm sense to avoid sounding grating and indecisive. Though it's also a matter of how they handle their brutality, and All We Love We Leave Behind sees the band balancing their signature relentlessness, with slower, equally engaging sludge jams to create the most complete metal experience of the year. --Tyler Chambers

9. DIIV - Oshin (Captured Tracks)
We all remember when "Doused" came out and how excited we were for the release of Oshin. For some it was a disappointment upon release, for me it was perfect. I would spend endless nights listening to it, dreaming of better days with no fears or worries. Their songs have hit me in my highest and lowest of points in life. For me, DIIV are one of those bands that I never want to let go of, no matter how much I fall in love with something more. --Alisa Rodriguez

8. Teen Suicide - I Will Be My Own Hell Because There Is a Devil Inside My Body (Self-Released)
Feel free to associate Teen Suicide with faux depressed Tumblr posts and chorus-quoting status updates, but the now-defunct Maryland act have standout songwriting and versatility on their side: The piano and string touches on "Give Me Back to the Sky" feel cut straight from the same cloth as Leaves Turn Inside You, while the bedroom-keyboard pop of "Cop Graveyard" conjures nostalgia from the days of The Unicorns. Once the sentimentality inches toward sappiness, a Waka Flocka Flame-referencing snippet will bar any hindrances with cynicism. --Carter Mullin

7. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love)
Andy Stott's change in trajectory and double-EP revamp last year was distinctly cavernous, and anyone aware of those may consider his full-length followup only a minor bent to the bleak dub techno they remember. Calling solely upon his former piano teacher for vocal contribution, Stott finds a beautiful way to obscure the divide between human and mechanical timbres. --Carter Mullin

6. bvdub - Don't Say You Know (Darla)
I'm surprised it took this long to create the kind of epic, monolithic sized ambient drum 'n bass tracks of Don't Say You Know, but thankfully it happened at all. bvdub has managed to stay prolific over the past couple of years with an array of techno and ambient albums, but Don't Say You Know feels important. Every track basks in gorgeous puddles of ethereal drones, slowly building and building, until being taken over by a charging drum 'n bass pattern lifting the mix to a skyward climax high above the clouds. It's deeply affecting music, with the same emotional tug as the grandest, prettiest post-rock, but also has the spirit and mystical qualities of ambient and new age. --Tyler Chambers

5. Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance (Kranky)
Lockett Pundt's project never seems to get as much recognition as it deserves. Spooky Action at a Distance is a huge step from the Ableton recordings of The Floodlight Collective. Here, he went straight into a studio and recorded each track all on his own. Pundt is not just a member of Deerhunter, but a musician who is capable of creating beautiful soundscapes effortlessly. --Alisa Rodriguez

4. Mac DeMarco - Rock and Roll Night Club (Captured Tracks)
Mac DeMarco deviated far from the innocence and charm of his former band Makeout Videotape with his solo debut. Those who thrive off nostalgia associated with Elvis would likely be offended by the sheer sleaze DeMarco douses the persona in. That has an appeal in and of itself, though, and paired with the fluidity provided by a radio station motif makes Rock and Roll Night Club brim with personality. --Carter Mullin

3. Death Grips - The Money Store (Epic)
Epic had a swell year, with at least one of its big three (The Idler Wheel, Pluto, The Money Store) topping someone's list. Future's auto-tuned croaks do sound pretty weird stumbling over those bloopy, arpeggiated trap beats, but The Money Store is easily the top contender for "Most Peculiar Major Label Decision Made" this year. With more convoluted production and a hungrier MC Ride, Death Grips have surpassed their excellent debut in every respect. --Carter Mullin

2. Merchandise - Children of Desire (Katorga Works)
I first got into Merchandise last year and the last song I drove home to on New Years Eve was "I Locked the Door". It's a 3-minute track with a hypnotic 80's drum beat and crooning vocals awash in an ocean of haze. I always hoped they would come back with another record and sure enough they did. Children of Desire is one of the finest releases and undoubtedly the most underrated of this year. There are only six tracks on this record, two of them being 11 minutes long each. The one that hits me harder than any other song I heard this year is called "Roser Park". I remember listening to it while driving back home from Madison with a friend and we could not get over how beautiful it was. Till this day, I still can't. --Alisa Rodriguez

1. Mac DeMarco - 2 (Captured Tracks)
Mac DeMarco is like the ideal friend who's funny, crazy, delightful, and always nice at the same time, down for anything but understands when enough is enough. I'm not sure how I came to such a conclusion, but the careless utopian backyard daydream that is 2 is enough to feel like I've got a good understanding of the man. Jangly, innocent, and off-color like a fuzzy mid-90s children's show (Pete & Pete I'm looking at you), stripped of any gimmicks and blissfully ignorant to an increasingly pessimistic world. 2 is a lot like a modern day version of R.E.M.'s Murmur in that the songs are incredibly simple and familiar, yet hold a sophisticated charm that nobody is tapping into at this level. It's subtle and irresistibly honest, a quiet force. --Tyler ChambersCarter firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-27676757666686363102012-12-28T06:00:00.001-08:002012-12-28T14:52:16.625-08:00Favorites of 2012: Carter's Selections
2012 was yet another year of discovery for me with plenty of musical revelations and subgenre-digging, and I'm happy to have talked about most of it on Olive Music and shared music with Ty, Alisa and Brandon to hear their input. Since May 2009 I've met plenty of great people through the blog-- musicians, fellow blog writers and friendly readers alike. Sadly, I don't have the time to update the blog as frequently as I once did, and running Olive doesn't even seem feasible at this point. Hopefully those who have stumbled upon it had a good read and/or received some worthwhile recommendations, and if so, thank you. Take care.

EPs:
10. Supa Sortahuman & Lil Ugly Mane - Supasonic (Self-Released)
9. Lil Ugly Mane - Uneven Compromise (Self-Released)
8. Mister Lies - Hidden Neighbors (Self-Released)
7. Arca - Stretch 1 (UNO NYC)
6. TNGHT - TNGHT (Warp)

5. Blawan - His He She & She (Hinge Finger)

4. Shawn Kemp - External Files (Self-Released)

3. Roomrunner - Super Vague (Fan Death)

2. Each Other - Heavily Spaced (Self-Released)

1. Arca - Stretch 2 (UNO NYC)

50. d'Eon - Music For Keyboards, Vol. 1 (Hippos in Tanks)
49. Key Nyata - Tha Phonkilation (Self-Released)
48. Egyptian Hip Hop - Good Don't Sleep (R&S)
47. Captain Murphy - Duality (Self-Released)
46. Purity Ring - Shrines (4AD)
45. Wizard Rifle - Speak Loud Say Nothing (Seventh Rule)
44. Lovesliescrushing - Shiny Tiny Stars (Handmade Birds)
43. BNNT - _ _ (Qulturap)
42. Gaza - No Absolutes in Human Suffering (Black Market Activities)
41. Thoughts on Air - Paleo Sails (Avant Archive)
40. Loma Prieta - I.V. (Deathwish)
39. METZ - METZ (Sub Pop)
38. Crystal Palace - Spirit Quest (Rotifer)
37. King Tears Bat Trip - King Tears Bat Trip (Table & Chairs)
36. Vestals - Forever Falling Toward the Sky (Root Strata)
35. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (Epitaph)
34. Deerhoof - Breakup Song (Polyvinyl)
33. Spaceghostpurrp - Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of Spvcxghxztpvrrp (4AD)
32. Dope Body - Natural History (Drag City)
31. Isengrind - Night of Raining Fire (Blackest Rainbow)
30. Phantom Horse - Phantom Horse (Dekorder)
29. Meshuggah - Koloss (Nuclear Blast)
28. Yowie - Damning With Faint Praise (Skin Graft)
27. Field Music - Plumb (Memphis Industries)
26. Jessie Ware - Devotion (Island)

25. Teen Suicide - I Will Be My Own Hell Because There Is a Devil Inside My Body (Self-Released)
Feel free to associate Teen Suicide with faux depressed Tumblr posts and chorus-quoting status updates, but the now-defunct Maryland act have standout songwriting and versatility on their side: The piano and string touches on "Give Me Back to the Sky" feel cut straight from the same cloth as Leaves Turn Inside You, while the bedroom-keyboard pop of "Cop Graveyard" conjures nostalgia from the days of The Unicorns. Once the sentimentality inches toward sappiness, a Waka Flocka Flame-referencing snippet will bar any hindrances with cynicism.

24. Freddie Gibbs - Baby Face Killa (Self-Released)
Amid every gangsta persona with mainstream appeal, Freddie Gibbs is one of few who actually makes catchy songs as proven by his latest mixtape Baby Face Killa. Whether he's dipping his toes into cloud rap with more than successful results or just effortlessly doling out bangers, Gibbs remains himself, with a rough voice, infectious flows and a fixation on a drug-dealer lifestyle.

23. Traxman - Da Mind of Traxman (Planet Mu)
Footwork had a pretty fruitful year, with DJ Rashad and Traxman dominating most of the Chicago genre's coverage. As massive as the former's introduction to the Teklife series was, the latter seemed to take the most sampling liberties on his effort. Unlike the rigid repetitions accustomed to footwork, Traxman put it best that he brings soul to his music. This speaks for more than what he samples: his way of manipulating showcases impressive melodic chemistry and a careful ear for grooves.

22. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love)
Andy Stott's change in trajectory and double-EP revamp last year was distinctly cavernous, and anyone aware of those may consider his full-length followup only a minor bent to the bleak dub techno they remember. Calling solely upon his former piano teacher for vocal contribution, Stott finds a beautiful way to obscure the divide between human and mechanical timbres.

21. White Lung - Sorry (Deranged)
Expounding upon the strengths of 2010's It's the Evil, White Lung condense melody and fury into an unrelenting 20 minutes referencing both early-Kill Rock Stars attitude and Drive Like Jehu guitar convulsion, and attempting to describe Sorry any further would fail to reflect its directness.

20. Beach House - Bloom (Sub Pop)
Beach House displayed their comprehension of ethereal pop years ago, but Bloom is testament to the opinion that the Maryland duo needn't change lanes just yet. If anything, Alex Scally's guitar lines have risen to a celestial magnitude and Victoria Legrand's melodies are more tightly woven together, comprising their most cohesive album yet.

19. bvdub - Don't Say You Know (Darla)
Brock Van Wey spent his early days as bvdub soaking subtle grooves in phased-out synth pads but has since flown higher for an extensive view of empty fields and vast bodies of water. As quick as ambient techno savants are to deem bvdub generic, the heartbreaking vocal samples employed on Don't Say You Know (originally a companion to Serenity) transcend the album's picturesque mood and reach for something elusive.

18. Normal Love - Survival Tricks (ugEXPLODE / Public Eyesore)
No wave has reached a challenging apex with how Normal Love have composed their latest album. Employing a wide array of instruments, Survival Tricks is perhaps the most meticulously orchestrated barrage this year.

17. Mac DeMarco - Rock and Roll Night Club (Captured Tracks)
Mac DeMarco deviated far from the innocence and charm of his former band Makeout Videotape with his solo debut. Those who thrive off nostalgia associated with Elvis would likely be offended by the sheer sleaze DeMarco douses the persona in. That has an appeal in and of itself, though, and paired with the fluidity provided by a radio station motif makes Rock and Roll Night Club brim with personality.

16. The Walkmen - Heaven (Fat Possum)
Achieving 'Laziest Album of the Year' status, the Walkmen pen some of their best-written melodies to the simplest instrumentals, allowing Heaven to illustrate their age, languor and ability to tap into nostalgia.

15. bvdub - Serenity (Darla)
Serenity and Don't Say You Know are a perfect pair, because they're almost identical albums, each exceeding an hour in length, bearing 6 tracks that develop a foundation of swirling, diaphanous vocal cuts before a sharp groove ruptures the nebulous world created. Serenity surpasses my perception of its appendage with one track: "Love" is arranged almost exactly like everything else, but the opaque melodies passing through one another, meditative piano chords, twitchy keyboard line and gentle hi-hat rhythm in place of a throbbing beat are all constituents of one of the year's most captivating tracks.

14. James Ferraro - Sushi (Hippos in Tanks)
Ever since the Skaters' fizzling-out, each consecutive James Ferraro release has raised the bar in his efforts to be postmodern and technologically satirical-- I mean, look at that font. Sushi falls in line with Ferraro's embrace of all things uncomfortably digital, but the execution is far more commendable than what was accomplished on last year's iPad-centric Far Side Virtual. Voices, pops and work-appropriate synths are manipulated to stuttering microhouse and vaportrap proportions that may either evoke wonder or disgust depending on your taste or lack thereof.

13. Grizzly Bear - Shields (Warp)
New York indie rock darlings Grizzly Bear elaborate upon the dusty baroque pop leanings of 2009's Veckatimest with what are essentially better songs with more notable sonic flair: "Sleeping Ute" sports an impenetrable guitar hook and a cinematic decline in volume toward its close, and "Gun-Shy" manifests a new, harmonically complex zenith for the band. Shields feels like something that has been around for ages but has just been uncovered.

12. Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber (Fat Possum)
Melody Prochet's fixation on the vintage tone of Tame Impala records definitely informs the warmth of her debut album, but I'd be hard-pressed to claim that her songwriting doesn't play just as large a role. Based on plaintive arpeggios and gossamer vocals, numbers like "I Follow You" and "Bisou Magique" are bolstered by marshy bass frequencies and distortion thanks to Kevin Parker's production, and the perfect balance of sweet and sour lies solely within the composition of harder-edged songs such as "Some Time Alone, Alone" and "Quand Vas Tu Rentrer?" The vibrant personality typically achieved by well-aged projects has been captured by Prochet on her first outing, which is remarkable to say the least.

11. Chairlift - Something (Columbia / Young Turks)
Something is this year's synth pop monolith, as crowded as the competition was. Like its title ceases to illustrate, its appeal is almost intangible. Tracing it is pointless, but getting lost in the starry-eyed keys on "Wrong Opinion" and the nimble pulse of "Amanaemonesia" isn't.

10. Micachu and the Shapes - Never (Rough Trade)
Mica Levi's voice and subject matter may have an air of boredom, but Micachu and the Shapes' eccentric instrumentals will liven the landscape as long as their untraceable timbres are clamoring away. It's idiosyncrasy that feels inherent to Levi rather than like an outcry. Perhaps more liberal with experiments than its predecessor, Never is a catchy, ideal exploitation of day-to-day drabness, voiced with endearing singalongs and dense noises waiting to burst at the seams.

9. Mac DeMarco - 2 (Captured Tracks)
The charming crooner you heard when tuning into 106.2 Breeze FM on Rock and Roll Night Club dominates Mac DeMarco's quickly delivered followup and carries some of his best songs thus far. Whether detailing a story about his father cooking meth or penning a cute serenade, DeMarco sings it with unshakable ease and tunefulness.

8. En - Already Gone (Students of Decay)
West Coast duo En's otherworldly textures surpass those of their 2010's The Absent Coast on their sophomore effort. Maxwell August Croy and James Devane have proven themselves to be a stellar pair on Already Gone, with whistling guitars quivering in harmony and plucked koto strings complementing them with tactility. Studied yet naturally composed, En flawlessly trek through calm and dusky habitats.

7. YYU - TIMETIMETIME&TIME (Beer on the Rug)
As you probably know, vaporwave and Beer on the Rug have had a hell of a year having been graced with massive critical reception, and it's possible that the nascent genre has already met its demise. A total anomaly in the catalog, TIMETIMETIME&TIME was quietly slipped into the Beer on the Rug catalog deserving just as much attention as the many Vektroid monikers dispensed throughout the year. Fractured folk and irregular plunderphonics cross paths and create a gorgeous hybrid almost totally isolated from our current musical climate.

6. Lil Ugly Mane - Mista Thug Isolation (Self-Released)
Raider Klan's recent strain of Memphis revivalism has been pretty faithful, and Mista Thug Isolation should seem like a treasure-trove to anyone bumping early Three-6 Mafia or Frayser Click. (Notice the similarity in flow between Denzel Curry on "Twistin" and Lord Infamous on "Now I'm High, Really High".) Even so, Lil Ugly Mane's serious crate-digging prowess distinguishes him from all of BRK, with lush horns, off-kilter piano phrases and chopped-and-screwed samples pervading the album. Barring the immaculately smoked-out production, Ugly Mane's verses never cease to amaze, from "I'm getting neck from this dime ho, booty like a rhino / What's her name? ...Hell if I know" to "Lungs fulla smoke and a bag fulla guts / Not the innards of a dutch, just a bag fulla guts". Considering the excellence shared by Mista Thug Isolation, the EPs Uneven Compromise, Supasonic with Supa Sortahuman as well as the Shawn Kemp instrumentals, it feels like Ugly Mane will continue to kill it for years to come.

5. Bersarin Quartett - II (Denovali)
Thomas Bücker has achieved an absolutely massive sound with his second full-length under the Bersarin Quartett moniker. Using weeping strings, twinkling refrains, and fluid IDM percussion as a guide, II expands from microscopic to cosmic crescendos in every track, more cinematic and moving than an IMAX visit.

4. Weird Dreams - Choreography (Tough Love)
Even when Weird Dreams are flaunting menacing song titles like "666.66" or "River of the Damned", their debut album still rings loudly as a cute, affable pop album that never dwindles in the melody department. It may be an overwhelming 45 minutes, for every saccharine verse rises to an ecstatic, syrupy chorus. Choreography doesn't really say anything, but it does sing it pretty well.

3. Death Grips - The Money Store (Epic)
Epic had a swell year, with at least one of its big three (The Idler Wheel, Pluto, The Money Store) topping someone's list. Future's auto-tuned croaks do sound pretty weird stumbling over those bloopy, arpeggiated trap beats, but The Money Store is easily the top contender for "Most Peculiar Major Label Decision Made" this year. With more convoluted production and a hungrier MC Ride, Death Grips have surpassed their excellent debut in every respect.

2. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city (Interscope / Aftermath / Top Dawg)
Kendrick Lamar is clearly saving lyrical significance these days, with his self-proclaimed debut good kid, m.A.A.d city exploring young love, peer pressure, violence, martyrs and misconceptions of reputability among a plethora of subjects that overstep its Compton setting. As great as the story is, these are just beautiful songs. The hook on "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" is rife with drama and the passion he seeks from seclusion, the instrumental of "Sing About Me" conjures images of paintings that would grace Miles Davis albums and hang from small-scale café walls, and the Janet Jackson sample laced into "Poetic Justice" embellishes an otherwise austere beat with small splashes of color. Studying good kid, m.A.A.d city's narrative is one thing; appreciating the music itself is another.

1. Laurel Halo - Quarantine (Hyperdub)
To me, truly touching music should trigger a nostalgic nerve, and I feel as though I've been listening to Quarantine for years without even remotely understanding it yet. It could just be that it reminds me of certain things (maybe Elizabeth Fraser, early Björk) but it doesn't quite sound like anything else. What Quarantine should be considered is an archetypal ambient pop record: at her voice's most euphoric passages ("Airsick", "Thaw", "Light + Space"), Laurel Halo organizes her melodies into verses and choruses over a nearly formless backdrop, with no convolution and drawing attention solely to the abstruse beauty of her songwriting and the frail tones discreetly placed throughout.Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-68656474069642456192012-12-28T06:00:00.000-08:002012-12-28T06:03:09.897-08:00Favorites of 2012: Tyler's Selections50. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular)

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As the so-called "death" of guitar music continues to be slammed into your ear year after year by aging baby boomers convincing themselves Bob Dylan, Neil Young, & Bruce Springsteen put out the best albums of the year (REAL MUSIC!!!1!!111!1), a slew of psychedelic gatekeepers led by Tame Impala continue to defy just how good guitar rock can be in its sixth decade. With a heavier emphasis on whirling, wings-to-the-sky synthesizers ("Apocalypse Dreams") and organic color wheeled experimentation ("Sun's Coming Up"), Lonerism proves rock 'n roll is indeed not dead, and never will be.<o:p></o:p>

49. Max Richter - Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (Grammophon)<o:p></o:p>

How suiting in this age of micro-evolution, melting-pot genres, unclassifiability that Max Richter would take the nucleus of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and reconstruct the molecules to create his own intriguing, absolutely gorgeous mutation of some of the most universally recognizable classical music ever recorded. Screwed 'n chopped for ominous, golden-trimmed cathedrals and the rolling English prairie sides, blanketed in sea of flowers.<o:p></o:p>

48. MJ Linckoln - Linckoln Premiere (Sunup Recordings)<o:p></o:p>

Linckoln Premiere serves as a reminder of why the ultra-sheek neon wave-party that was the 80s continues to be a vital injection into the blood of hip hop. Rooted in hot-pink Vice City electro-funk with sluggish and druggy tempo, the party over at MJ Linckoln's is a groove best experienced after a couple of glasses of syrup on the rocks, and the obligatory hit of crank in the bathroom stall.<o:p></o:p>

47. Actress - R.I.P. (Honest Jon's)<o:p></o:p>

Taking simple, repetitive melodies and washing them out in a fuzz of white graffiti, hypnotic tape hiss, and melancholic daydreams, R.I.P. further aligns my position of Actress as a melodic, club-hopping Autechre under the same pill as Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland. It's his strongest record yet, fleshing out a highly original sound documenting the frightening aftermath of the club-ridden vapors that float skywards after they've been pounded into the machine.<o:p></o:p>

46. Burial - Kindred (Hyperdub)<o:p></o:p>

Recently, the enigmatic Burial has embraced the idea of electronic music not being so strictly limited to the LP format, but rather, long EPs with a couple lengthy tracks covering a rich amount of sonic ground. While still sticking to the basis of his poignant 2-step and sleep-deprived atmospheres, the three tracks here each make a different statement. "Kindred" a static-drenched guttural dreamscape warped in chopped lyrics of lost love, "Loner" the frightening memory of a haunted, strobe-immersed club, and "Ashtray Wasp" the siren of an unforgiving night below the slums of perpetually rained-on population; all a testament from one of electronic music's most vital voices. <o:p></o:p>

45. Datavis - Ethics (Self-Released)<o:p></o:p>

While Will Burnett was out turning heads with the sluggish FM-funk of Datavision Ltd., and constructing the sound of a rising internet culture on INTERNET CLUB, Burnett was quietly constructing his best music unnoticed as Datavis. While I certainly enjoyed his other two aliases, Datavis' meandering crystalline smudge is what really stuck with me this year. Ethics brings to turntablist extraordinaire Philip Jeck and his cathartic take on ambient music, as its wrapped in mystery, spooky nostalgia, and all kinds of little sonic intricacies that suggests the possibility of this whole EP being created in the moment, improvising from the eye of a foggy 6AM sunrise and meditational insomnia. <o:p></o:p>

44. Claro Intelecto - Reform Club (Delsin)<o:p></o:p>

Reform Club is 4/4 for clear-headed junkies. Life post-drugs may lack any sharp highs and be a bit repetitive, but it's a beautiful thing once you're past the horror and realize how fragile everything is around you. The lows will always be apart of you, there's no stopping that, but now there's nothing stopping you from becoming the person you could never become. Use this club to fight whatever burden wants to control you.<o:p></o:p>

43. Jessie Ware - Devotion (Island)<o:p></o:p>

It seems everytime R&B takes an interesting new direction, pop music levels up. Jessie Ware isn't writing a new chapter as much as she's taking two elements (traditional, soulful R&B & UK Garage) and seamlessly fusing them into soulful future-R&B that works as well on the radio as it does on an esoteric blog (what's sup). She's gets just about everything right on this brilliant debut; the voice, the hooks, and quirky instrumentals that never distract too far from her soulful gospel.<o:p></o:p>

42. Malibu Locals Only - We Rusticated Earth (Self-released)<o:p></o:p>

Down in grandma's basement, there's an old piano that sits there in the darkness. It's been slowly crumbling away for decades, as dust and the muggy light from the window atop of it decay the rusted strings inside out of tune. But every time I'm sitting there playing it, with the sound of a cousin furiously blowing air into an NES cartridge to get the damn thing to play on the black and white television, the sound floats out like a midnight ghoul with a grin on its face; it's so excruciatingly urgent, far more so than any other piano I've heard. It's almost like every time someone presses down on the floppy keys, you're taking in a dialogue of "Here's me, no bullshit. Like it or not this who I am, this is what I really sound like." Then the NES finally flashes on with a little buzzed distortion in the corner, and out comes a melancholic parody of the Mario Bros. theme from the effort of the exhausted cabinet speakers. Everything in the room on the point of a beautiful decline, like a swan song of pure unbridled honesty.<o:p></o:p>

41. Rivet - Amid the Roar (Kontra-Musik)<o:p></o:p>

Looking back on the year, there were stronger EPs than there were LPs in the world of electronic music, and Rivet's Amid the Roar stands out as one of the finest. With three endlessly enjoyable earworms of deep tech-house to pump up any proper party, one could only imagine what kind of material this is leading up to an LP. <o:p></o:p>

40. DIIV - Oshin (Captured Tracks)<o:p></o:p>

I remember this summer I planned a fishing trip with my brother for the wee hours of the morning to yonder out to a big pond by a Citibank, where you can literally throw a reel into the water and get a bite everytime. Of course, the little shits you catch are about as big as a Pepsi can, but still it was a good ol' American time. Little to my loosening attention span, I "accidently" stayed up all night the night of and somehow managed to drive me and my brother to the pond, and have a damn good time in the process. Looking back, Oshin made that trip. Driving past the over saturated grass and the ultra-bright sunrise reflecting off business parks, blinding my field of view, become an extremely atmospheric thing listening to the loose jangle jams of DIIV. Their washed out haze suited the sparkling pond and Pepsi-can fish oh so well. Sometimes getting off this laptop has benefits. <o:p></o:p>

39. Allah-Las - Allah-Las (Innovative Leisure)<o:p></o:p>

Allah-Las take in the best elements for their dreamy garage rock; scratchy, classic sounding vocals, surf splashed guitar jangles, and a wee hint of psychedelia in for good measure. The sound results in one of the most enjoyable rock albums of the year, to-the-point simplicity from a faraway land from one of the finest new bands of the year.<o:p></o:p>

38. Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse (In The Red)<o:p></o:p>

When he's not making an ass of himself dismissing all that isn't rock, Ty Segall is a pretty cool fuckin' dude. None of his (many) records this year represent that better than Slaughterhouse; the loudest, rawest, most in-your-face garage rock record of the year. Sounding like he got amped up on some proper drugs and told his band to play something TRUE, he turns on the tape and has at it. Question is, how'd they manage to pull off all those catchy hooks?<o:p></o:p>

37. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Visiting This World (Devotion)<o:p></o:p>

It's kind of odd how seamlessly beautiful sounds can fit with harsh sounds. Few prove that point better than Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, who continues to mix achingly gorgeous drones with chaotic swirls of static and noise, that spiral up this ladder to heaven like a spooky siren leading you to a great peace. Or maybe, judging from the cover art, it's the other way around; beauty has its limit, all good things come to an end. All a flower is doing is slowly dying.<o:p></o:p>

36. James Ferraro - Sushi (Hippos In Tanks)<o:p></o:p>

On Sushi, Ferraro takes the quirky internet gospel he created on last year's Far Side Virtual and downloads two new music apps; Hip Hop and Techno. These apps suit him well, giving him a chance to expand his new crystalline desktop background with all kinds of fun programs that's sure to keep the kids up late with sags under their little eyes. In the future, the drug lords of east & west Baltimore will communicate through iPads; when they're 20 years irrelevant. Fuck the police.<o:p></o:p>

35. Ulrich Schnauss & ASC - 77 (Auxiliary)<o:p></o:p>

I'm probably in a small minority here, but I've always preferred video game soundtracks to film scores. I suppose nostalgia has a lot to do with it, but there's something attractive about music composed specifically for imaginative worlds, dimensions, and universes. You could argue the job of a film score is similar (depending on the film), but in a video game (or at least, the best ones) your allowed to experience these realms at your own will; exploring the land, taking in "culture", feeling a sense of risk and urgency through its obstacles, and undergoing these things down to their very mechanics (weather, climate, gravity). The reason I bring this up is that I can't help but compare this EP to the early Spyro soundtracks for Playstation. The game's crystalline soundscapes with a kind of moody, electronic folk element can be heard here to great effect. Though on 77 that sound takes a modern-twist, featuring sets of muted drum 'n bass and electro-rhythms that would carry the series over brilliantly to the next-gen. The Spyro sound is in no doubt thanks to Schnauss' signature, lofty color wheeled palette; painting the game's dreamy, highly saturated levels to a glossy finish. This kind of relationship is similar to how the keyboard lines on Bon Iver's "Beth/Rest", Nas' "Bye Baby", and Lil Ugly Mane's "Breezem Out" all sound like (to my ear) the water theme from Super Mario 64, and when you can find an association in modern music that links you back to wonderful memories of your childhood, it's a beautiful thing.<o:p></o:p>

34. Roomful of Teeth - Roomful of Teeth (New Amsterdam)<o:p></o:p>

So after some hesitation, you decide walk into the weird looking barbershop. The door makes a little ring when you grasp your sweaty palm on the door and open it, to be greeted by a series of awkward smiling barbers dressed in tribal looking outfits. You're immediately sat down in one of the wooden seats that looks more like a throne, and some kind of native cloth is thrown around you to catch the hair. Maybe it was the mood, or maybe it was the fact that you watched the Lion King three times in a row the night before, but over the speakers it sounds like they were playing a warped Take 6 record; pure vocal harmony but spiritual, tribal, jagged, twisted, uncomfortable. The barber starts to chop your hair away in all kinds of angles; front, back, sideways, upside down. It's weird to watch, but he's so gracefully and elegant doing it, such confidence in his face. Finally he spins you around and you glance in the mirror; it looks exactly like you wanted it to. Once you walk out you notice people starting to stare, some laughing. You look down into a puddle, your hair still looking every bit like you wanted it to. They still laugh.<o:p></o:p>

33. Malibu Locals Only - Matterhorn Pt. 2 (Sunup Recordings)<o:p></o:p>

There's a moment on "City Lights; Night Flash" after you've been soaking in rain with a cozy piano melody and dreamy electronic keys, 2:59 to be exact (when the rain's drizzled down to just single drops), when a rapturous piano line fills the track with such a complete sense of innocence that I can't help but melt into this crippled state of awe. It's probably my favorite minute or so of music this year. The rest is wonderful too, with all kinds of field and nature recordings underneath gorgeous piano and keyboard lines, but that moment had me floored.<o:p></o:p>

32. Lone - Garden Galaxy (R&S Records)<o:p></o:p>

The dreamier, technicolor side of Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, GameCube soundtracks, ideal for interstellar clubbing. Also: see cover art. <o:p></o:p>

31. I:Cube - "M" Megamix (Versatile)<o:p></o:p>

I:Cube's idea of short 1-2-minute bursts of sparkling French house is nothing short of brilliant, maximizing a prolific amount of cosmic grooves while seamlessly flowing it all into one hour long infinity party. More dance music should be structured like this. <o:p></o:p>

30. The Caretaker - Patience (After Sebald) (History Always Favours The Winners)<o:p></o:p>

One of Leyland Kirby's strongest assets as a musician is his ability to contrast moods, themes, and concepts, and on Patience he manages to find an intriguing balance between beauty and hostility. Though it is technically a soundtrack to Grant Gee's documentary of the same name, Patience doesn't have to rely on the accompaniment of a visual aid to be effective. Though it's bleaker and less immediate than its predecessor, it expands his sound beyond the ballroom while retaining the wide-eyed beauty and ghastly haunt that's made him such distinct personality in the world of ambient music. <o:p></o:p>

29. Pig Destroyer - Book Burner (Relapse)<o:p></o:p>

This one goes out to all the dads that still use the belt.<o:p></o:p>

28. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Leyfðu ljósinu (Touch)<o:p></o:p>

Apparently recorded with just three microphones, no post-studio tampering, one woman and a cello, Hildur Guðnadóttir manages to channel a lot of emotions with such minimal set up. Beginning with a sterile cello melody, plucking along until being vaporized by a ghastly sweep of musty orchestration, carrying the cellist up and up the sky until the track reaches a heavenly climax surpassed by few this year; Leyfðu ljósinu remains one of the lovely albums of the year. <o:p></o:p>

27. Scott Walker - Bish Bosch (4AD)<o:p></o:p>

Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards. Walker warns anybody who seeks to ride this haunted train of rust that there's no seats, no railing, no support. Just you in a flimsy box hoping you don't wake the demons outside. Though I'll tell you, there's a nice ol' cabaret on the sixth trolley that's got a swingin' big band and some ice cold spirits to offer. That is, if you can hop across the fiery blaze that blocks it.<o:p></o:p>

26. Purl & Deflektion - Growing (Dewtone)<o:p></o:p>

Electronic label Dewtone has been putting out some of the most gorgeous atmospheric electronic music this year, and Purl & Deflektion's Growing is their swan song. Wrapped in layer after layer of dreamy crystallized drone and deep, pumping bass lines, Growing is like the sped-up micro-growth of a plant. Photosynthetic material slowly pumping energy through the stem, while carbon dioxide matter is exhausted from the leafs. It's polished to an absolute gem, but organic like the life that feeds it.<o:p></o:p>

25. Mister Lies - Hidden Neighbors (Self-released)

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In some ways Mister Lies is the polar opposite of Burial. They share similar rhythmic qualities, but where Burial is concerned with darkness and obscurity, Mister Lies is concerned with euphoria and tranquility. Alot of the songs here are kind of meditative in their deep and relaxing nature ("False Astronomy", "Cleam") and others grand and highly orchestral ("Hidden Neighbors (For Beverly)"). All in all in makes for one the finest EPs in 2012.<o:p></o:p>

24. Drape - An Idea and Its Map (Infraction)<o:p></o:p>

I'd like to thank the sound the Seyda Neen Silt Strider makes the minute you get off the boat. This howling means I'm playing the best game ever made.<o:p></o:p>

23. d'Eon - LP (Hippos In Tanks)<o:p></o:p>

After releasing a split with Grimes last year, it's weird to look back on how it all turned out. Grimes blew up, and well, d'Eon didn't. While I do like Grimes, it's sad because d'Eon is a much more interesting <o:p></o:p>

character. He managed to put out some of the most interesting and prolific music this year, with the nostalgia-overloaded, ambient-crushing Music For Keyboards series and (most importantly) on LP, where d'Eon manages to take the 80s pop of Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins with elements of contemporary R&B, dream pop, new age, and electronic fuckery and create the most unique pop record of the year. It's a massive album with a massive sound, and remains one of the most overlooked of 2012.<o:p></o:p>

22. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)<o:p></o:p>

One of the reasons OutKast managed to become a vital voice in hip hop was their emphasis of the groove, the funk, & the soul. Killer Mike's claim to fame could be found guest-spotting for the Kast, until R.A.P. Music came around and changed all of that. With its thick, curvy grooves, brooding lyrical juke, and wonky electro production (thanks El-P) Killer Mike has finally arrived, representing the best of the old and the new. The old school grooves of the furious "Don't Die", the BBQ PARTAAY "Southern Fried", and the spiritual catharsis "R.A.P. Music"; Killer Mike defined what rap should be in 2012.<o:p></o:p>

21. Vikki Jackman, Andrew Chalk & Jean-Nöel Rebilly - A Paper Doll's Whisper of Spring (N/A)<o:p></o:p>

Vikki Jackman and Andrew Chalk have quietly been some of the great minds in ambient music over the years. Jackman specializes in subtle, childlike rhythmic patterns under lucid drones, and Chalk in droning orchestral slumber, resonating in all kinds of emotional thickness. Jackman and Chalk combine these two ideas with Jean-Nöel Rebilly on A Paper Doll's Whisper of Spring, like a rainy day music box gradually taps out foggy notes, as the ominous clouds above carry the notes higher and higher on elevated drones. Easily one of the most intimate records of the year. <o:p></o:p>

20. Taylor Deupree - Faint (12k)<o:p></o:p>

Faint is like a deconstruction of sound to its smallest form. Gentle waves of static are decomposed and strung out, relieving their core. Distant drones curve a faint skeleton behind it, guiding silvery glitches, errors, and malfunctions along the memory of a signature as they play out a cold and distant melody. It's the ambience of natural phenomena, zoomed in and focused so sharply it feels like lens will shatter at any moment. But it never does. It simply continues to resonate a pretty song, unnoticed.<o:p></o:p>

19. Reso - Tangram (Civil Music)<o:p></o:p>

Since last year's Valken / War Machine EP, Reso has managed to transform the obnoxious Americanized recall of dubstep into an intricately wielded cannon of colossal beats, complex drum 'n bass patterns, lucid tech drones, and a flood of computer error to give the songs a sense of head warping disarray. Reso's archetype Tangram is no different, taking that sound and expanding it in every direction. Whether it's bold technical onslaught ("Exoframe", "Ishimura"), aggressive drum 'n bass invasions ("Axion", "Check 1,2"), or gorgeous downtempo ambience ("Virtua Rhythm", "Nempo"), Tangram offers dubstep an invigorating vision of the future.<o:p></o:p>

18. Emeralds - Just to Feel Anything (Editions Mego)<o:p></o:p>

Virtually panned by every publication out there, Just to Feel Anything remains one of the most misunderstood records of the year. Eyebrows raised as drum machines, a more traditional (Berlin-school) structure of progressive electronic, and Mark McGuire's firebird guitar solos were introduced, following the dreamy, hypnotic passages of their 2010 breakthrough Does It Look Like I'm Here. Hinted at in the twinkling audio synthesis of Steve Hauschildt's Tragedy & Geometry and Mark McGuire's Nightshade, here Emeralds find themselves ascending away from the sunken obscurity of Does It Look Like I'm Here and floating towards a mourning of 80s FM gloom, led by McGuire's gorgeous moonlit condominium guitar lines and Hauschildt's escalating synthesizer rhythms that sound like an 2am NES stuck on a boss battle. It's the sound of an ominous silhouette of Miami Vice detectives as the credits roll, or Tommy Vercetti walking out from the docks and into a neon drenched night club to pop quarters into an arcade game. <o:p></o:p>

17. She - Electric Girl (Shemusic)<o:p></o:p>

Taking the spunk and charm of a J-pop record with the groove and technicality of a French House record, Electric Girl is the party album of the year. It's like if Capsule produced a Justice record; full of delightful robo-girl glitch with Ed Banger-style distorted groove and bass. Running through neo-Toyko with your virtual Tamagotchi in your backpack, ready for an intense DDR tournament below the city in an sunken internet cafe with sweat and urgency on the face of every kid who watches your long awaited, much deserved victory.<o:p></o:p>

16. King Tears Bat Trip - King Tears Bat Trip (Table & Chairs)<o:p></o:p>

A hellishly distorted tenor sax, brutal noise guitar, powerful afro-beat buildups, and endlessly catchy fuck-all grooves hypnotize in an absolutely unrelentingly insane album from start to finish over the course of two mind-numbing "songs". King Tears Bat Trip's debut is one of the most thrilling and engaging jazz albums I've heard in a long, long time.<o:p></o:p>

15. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (Epitaph)<o:p></o:p>

I'm not one to pretend I know what I'm talking about when it comes to metalcore, or that I listen to it much, but there's something about Converge that's always managed to hold my interest. With a genre so built around speed, intensity, and brutality, it's easy for it to fall apart when any one part isn't working; be it vocals, guitars, drums, etc. Here Converge get it all right: fierce vocals, chaotic and snarling guitars, and pummeling drums with enough rhythm sense to avoid sounding grating and indecisive. Though it's also a matter of how they handle their brutality, and All We Love We Leave Behind sees the band balancing their signature relentlessness, with slower, equally engaging sludge jams to create the most complete metal experience of the year.<o:p></o:p>

14. Livetune - Tell Your World (Toy's Factory)<o:p></o:p>

Let's get one thing straight, Hatsune Miku is not a real person. In fact, she's a singing synthesizer application with a female persona, and is portrayed to be a 16-year-old girl with long blue pigtails and has her own anime. Yes, the Japanese are fucked. The program is known as a "Vocalic", and features other characters with distinctive vocal characteristics that's become something of a subgenre to J-pop in recent years. Just think Japanese Roger Troutman. Though Livetune is indeed human, being the alias of KHz, a Japanese producer who produces pop songs using this vocaloid. Shamelessly synthetic and endlessly catchy, Tell Your World is the finest J-pop record I've heard in a long time, and represents the genre better than anything else out there right now. Open your mind and get lost in the ever-flowing technicolor dream world that is Tell Your World.<o:p></o:p>

13. Mediafired - The Pathway Through Whatever (Beer On The Rug)<o:p></o:p>

As "Vaporwave" turned more into an essay on internet culture rather than a legitimate genre, surely dooming other sleep deprived bedroom pirates with a hard on for kitsch commercialism that they inadvertently acquired nostalgia for (fucking me) who want to have a go at this sound in the future into laughed at parodies of an already dead sound. Though it's all bullshit really, at least in Mediafired's case, because the only thing these songs have in common with the aimless and meandering flamboyant vapordrag of INTERNET CLUB, Macintosh Plus, and WHATTHEFUCKDOESTHISMEANvirtual is that the songs sound like they could be made by any old functioning sociopath slacker with audacity and offliberty (trial version of Ableton if you really want to get fancy). That being said, I do respect the artistic integrity of Mediafired. Sure I could take the YouTube video of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" and copy the URL on offliberty, get the mp3, slap it on audacity, cut it off to around the 0:53 to 0:56 part, and seal it into a 2 minute and 26 second seamless loop and call it "Pixies", but I didn't. He did, and it sounds fucking lush. I could take the mp3 to Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" and essentially make a screwed 'n chopped remix that sounds nothing like the original and call it "Spring Is Here", but I didn't. He did, and it's one of my favorite songs of the year. I could take a collection of little samples I've taken in through FM radio from childhood to now, and warp them into something new, adventurous, and unfamiliar and call the whole thing The Pathway Through Whatever, but I didn't. He did, and it's one of the best albums of 2012.<o:p></o:p>

12. Lil B - God's Father (Self-Released)<o:p></o:p>

From a man who puts out a new mixtape every couple of weeks, usually over an hour long each, it's a wonder how the hell he managed pull off this 34-track, 2-hour opus. No, he's not the greatest rapper alive (he's not even a great rapper), but lyrically he's one of the most interesting in the game. Whenever I turn on the local classic R&B station, there's about a 25% chance I'll hear a sample from God's Father. "Hey, that's Lil B!" ...Is it though? Funny the backwards ideology that comes with hearing a sample before the original. While he certainly steps up his flow here ("Gods Father" is probably the best he's ever sounded) God's Father is all about these god damn instrumentals, featuring some of the top beats of the year ("I Own Swag", "Fuck Ya Money", "Tropics", "Fonk Aint Dead", "Remy", "I Aint Neva Won", "Deep Ass Thoughts", "Glourious BasedGod", "Secrete Obsession", "Turned Me Cold", "Wake Up Mr Flowers 3mix"). It seems like Lil B is always operating from the fourth wall as he's out shouting "SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS" or "Sometimes I think I can talk to the bugs, but that's another chapter" under absolutely gold beats that make for a surreal mental hijack. The fact alone that a 2-hour mixtape works at all is a huge accomplishment, but that the fact this is the strongest hip hop album of 2012 is something to go fucking ape shit never-ending-rave about.<o:p></o:p>

11. Seafoam - Seafoam (Self-Released)<o:p></o:p>

Oh surfy dream pop, how I fancy you. Cascades of lulling daydream tranquility pour from coral reefs, a streaming set of jangly seagull-strung chords gently ripple against misty vocals. Slow motion waves glide across a watery horizon, splashes of vocal ambience greet a thick rising sun beyond it. Early morning dew and chlorine dreams ascend from coastal grooves, gorgeous guitar line's bathe the sea in the whisper of cyan surf. No EP was better this year, lacking a single weak track. Brilliant.<o:p></o:p>

10. Merchandise - Children of Desire (Katorga Works)<o:p></o:p>

Merchandise take a couple of familiar influences from The Smiths and post-punk as a whole and smear it into something unfamiliar; ominous cathedral heavy production drenched in gigantic floods of synth, organ, and noise. The result is gorgeous pop music tangled in thick weaves of experimentation, heard best on the massive "Roser Park"; as Carson Cox's Morrissey / Layne Stanley hybrid vocals sway over aerial pop songs on love and loss that are catchy, harsh, emotional, & experimental, all at once.<o:p></o:p>

9. Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance (Kranky)<o:p></o:p>

Have to wonder how long Lockett Pundt's had been sitting up there at Deerhunter shows with these absolutely gorgeous jangly daydreams o'plenty. As well as they'd work as Deerhunter songs, Lotus Plaza manage to give these songs a unique spin of their own by creating a set of dreamy, suburban-tuned nostalgia for late night drives after an hour of reminiscing through elementary school playgrounds. <o:p></o:p>

8. bvdub - Don't Say You Know (Darla)<o:p></o:p>

I'm surprised it took this long to create the kind of epic, monolithic sized ambient drum 'n bass tracks of Don't Say You Know, but thankfully it happened at all. bvdub has managed to stay prolific over the past couple of years with an array of techno and ambient albums, but Don't Say You Know feels important. Every track basks in gorgeous puddles of ethereal drones, slowly building and building, until being taken over by a charging drum 'n bass pattern lifting the mix to a skyward climax high above the clouds. It's deeply affecting music, with the same emotional tug as the grandest, prettiest post-rock, but also has the spirit and mystical qualities of ambient and new age. <o:p></o:p>

7. Animal Collective - Centipede Hz (Domino)<o:p></o:p>

Centipede Hz was a tough sell. Attempting to follow up the breakthrough album of one of the most beloved indie bands in the world was bound to spark criticism, no matter what direction they decided to head in. Ditching any indication of laid-back or ambience Merriweather hinted at, Centipede is packed to the brim with whirling synthesizers, aquatic vocal freaky, surging electronics, twisting rhythmic patterns, and radio screwed fuckery. The FM-sonic transitions holding Centipede together remind me of Joseph Hammer's I Love You, Please Love Me Too, where he took small random samples of seemingly unconnected songs and laid them out into two long strings of seamless, hypnotic "songs". Centipede sort of works on that same level, taking all their native rhythmic qualities and signature psychedelic harmonies and taking every instrument they can find and wrapping them in a helix of spiraling distortion, caution tape surrounding the edges. The result is nothing short of amazing.<o:p></o:p>

6. Mac DeMarco - 2 (Captured Tracks)<o:p></o:p>

Mac DeMarco is like the ideal friend who's funny, crazy, delightful, and always nice at the same time, down for anything but understands when enough is enough. I'm not sure how I came to such a conclusion, but the careless utopian backyard daydream that is 2 is enough to feel like I've got a good understanding of the man. Jangly, innocent, and off-color like a fuzzy mid 90s children's show (Pete & Pete I'm looking at you), stripped of any gimmicks and blissfully ignorant to an increasingly pessimistic world. 2 is a lot like a modern day version of R.E.M.'s Murmur in that the songs are incredibly simple and familiar, yet hold a sophisticated charm that nobody is tapping into at this level. It's subtle and irresistibly honest, a quiet force.<o:p></o:p>

5. Eli Keszler - Catching Net (Pan)<o:p></o:p>

Eli Keszler is a deconstructionist. On Catching Net, the drum isn't simply something to bang on with a stick; it's something to resonate off of, something to saw at with a hammer, something to throw around a room, something to rip apart entirely. Combined with a set of crotales, micro-controller metal plates, piano wires, pin blocks, tuning pins, various bass drums, a snare drum, a noise guitar, a clarinet, installed motors, and installation piece in the Boston Center for the Arts consisting of large metallic wires being strung on via mechanical set up on a wall, which also happens to serve as a gallery piece, Eli Keszler creates a sound like no other. Absolutely lost in a chaotic mirage of gnarled and twisted percussion of every volume, timbre, and tempo coming at every angle, guitar feedback drones and frenzied string plucking, the loud trembling of a rusty motor making hazard on the floor, sharp sine waves cutting sanity, and an ominous clarinet buzzing in the distance; it's total fucking chaos, but absolutely thrilling in a way no other album was this year. <o:p></o:p>

4. Ultraísta - Ultraísta (Temporary Residence)<o:p></o:p>

After almost two decades of guiding Radiohead into martyrdom, it was only right for Nigel Godrich to get out and start making some proper tunes of his own. Ultraísta is the perfect way to make it happen. Guided by the sultry hypnosis of vocalist Laura Bettinson, these 10 seductive color-wheeled vignettes flirt with synth pop, new wave, and trip hop, blinded by a flashing floodlight revealing the spectrum of their colored silhouette, resulting in the best pop record of the year. How appropriate David Lynch would remix "Strange Formula"; sophisticated pop music for neon lounges draped in blood red curtains, zigzag patterns highlight the floor, and a small stage for Ultraísta to play phantoms on. Are we really here, or is it all just a dream?<o:p></o:p>

3. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (Constellation)<o:p></o:p>

I've always put it upon myself whenever I listen to a Godspeed record to make sure it's away from what I'm normally doing. In most cases it's taking my dog on a walk; a really long walk that ends up lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour. Not that Godspeed's music can't be enjoyed in other ways, I just think it would be difficult to get the same experience out of taking in a slowly scaling, 20+-minute epic passively, sitting down staring into a computer screen, vs. being out in the open, walking to the sound of the stirring, inevitable climax with every sense of your being in full attention of the song. Not everybody's opinion can hold equal, and not everybody's going to listen to this music and hear what I hear. But, I do believe the music of Godspeed You! Black Emperor commands a thrust for adventure, an open-ended journey through music's many horizons that no two people will experience the same. It's music for the big picture; songs that challenge predictable notions and in the process stimulate the mind, delving through the recesses of grave memories, deep ideas, sentimental reflections, and moving recollections until a breathtaking emotional catharsis leaves a grand impression on what the future can be to those who wish to escape the predictability, lies, and corruption of the world we live in for their own ultimatum.<o:p></o:p>

2. Gimu - A Silent Stroll on Sombre St. (Constellation Tatsu)<o:p></o:p>

Shrouded in mystery and passionate like few other albums were this year, A Silent Stroll on Sombre St. is the drone perfected. Similar to William Basinski's gradually disappearing disintegration loops, as each song is relatively simple, usually opening from a cloud of hostility, as an impending siren slowly rises from the ashes, swaying up and down through the rusty tunnel surrounding it before the matter is exhausted out a pipe and into a twisted gaseous state to float onwards in the skies. With his magnum opus, Gimu creates short heartaches wrapped in veils of emotional wear and tear; static, noise, and buzz light a spark trailing down a dreary wick, slowly leading to a series of roaring explosions, expanding the sky in a immensity of light, color, and smoke. <o:p></o:p>

1. Swans - The Seer (Young God)<o:p></o:p>

First and for most when I think about great albums of all-time, their power rests in the idea of escapism. When I sit down and start to dissect the year's best music, the single solitary piece that defined it all will always be the one that took me the furthest away from reality; into a state of solace curated by the album's presence. Strip away the nonsense of the band's legacy and the 30 years it took to create, and you have the most brooding, massive, and intense album of the year. The fiery filth of ablazed occult life on Disc 1. Introduced by the processed mind-altering, cult-cleansing "Lunacy", the numbing fury of the mad king "Mother of the World", the haunting fireside prelude "The Wolf", the monumental epitaph at the center of a fallen civilization "The Seer", the rolling pummeled chant in the distance "The Seer Returns", the nightmare of hellish infinity "93 Ave. Blues", and the dreary work-chant gospel of "The Daughter Brings the Water". Further one you're greeted by the enchanted spiritual ecstasy of Disc 2. Opening with the lovely horizon-eyed ballad "Song for a Warrior", the towering colossus in the sky with the heart of a thousand souls "Avatar", the fire exposed folk lament billowing majesty back to the ground "A Piece of the Sky", and the watershed eye of the beast at the end of all things "Apostate". Exhilarating, enchanting, exhausting and empowering-- no album this year was better.<o:p></o:p>
Tyler Chambershttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-63236896729781727832012-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:002012-12-26T06:00:06.427-08:00Favorites of 2012: Alisa's SelectionsSo here we are at the end. Not the end of the world, the end of Olive Music; which is kinda the same thing. Carter asked me to join Olive Music in May 2009 and it opened me up to a whole new world of great music and amazing friendships. I'm going to miss this site immensely but it was a fun ride while it lasted. So before I get on with my favorites of 2012, I want to give Carter a huge thank you for letting me start the site with him. You're the best, mang.

Honorable Mentions:
Bear in Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool (Dead Oceans)
Death Grips - The Money Store (Epic)
Dunes - Noctiluca (PPM)
Kindness - World, You Need a Change of Mind (Polydor)
Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim (Modular)
Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love)
Technicolor Teeth - Teenage Pagans (Let's Pretend)
Teen Suicide - I Will Be My Own Hell Because There Is a Devil Inside My Body (Self-Released)
Violens - True (Slumberland)
White Fence - Family Perfume Vol. 1 (Woodsist)

10. Sic Alps - Sic Alps (Drag City)
Finally, Sic Alps created their masterpiece. This is their White Album. It's only a half hour long but it's filled with psychedelic jams and classic sounding cuts. Listen to "Rock Races" and try not to cry, I dare you. The violins get me every time. This is their first record where they recorded in a studio instead using the same ragged 16-track Tascam, but they still sound like the same ol' Sic Alps. Just more polished and godlike.

9. Ringo Deathstarr - Mauve (Club AC30)
I really don't get why this band gets shit. Okay I understand, they sound an awful lot like My Bloody Valentine and of course they're not as great but we've been aching for another MBV record for the past like, 20 years now? Mauve is their second release, following their 2011 debut, Colour Trip and they got some serious monumental tunes this time around. Tracks like "Girls We Know", "Slack", and "Nap Time" will make you not feel so bad that Kevin Shields will probably release the next MBV record till 2025.

8. Mac DeMarco - 2 (Captured Tracks)
With 2, Mac DeMarco created a pleasant jangle-pop album. These Breeze FM jams stray away from his slacker/lo-fi past if you recall his first band, Makeout Videotape. Gary approves.

7. Collage Party - Suki and Me (Self-Released)
Alex Calder's project Collage Party is one of my favorite discoveries of this year. He had a Bandcamp with albums, each filled with lo-fi pop gems that deserve more than just a simple listen. Suki and Me shows Calder's brilliant songwriting and his potential to be more than just an obscurity.

6. Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance (Kranky)
Lockett Pundt's project never seems to get as much recognition as it deserves. Spooky Action at a Distance is a huge step from the Ableton recordings of The Floodlight Collective. Here, he went straight into a studio and recorded each track all on his own. Pundt is not just a member of Deerhunter, but a musician who is capable of creating beautiful soundscapes effortlessly.

5. Death Grips - NO LOVE DEEP WEB (Third Worlds)
An album cover with a huge cock on it has to make you wonder what the fuck you're going to get yourself into when downloading it at 2 in the morning. That was my discovery of this record when Death Grips released it at midnight back in October. NO LOVE DEEP WEB is a 45-minute ride of ear-melting tracks that don't even deserve a listen through a set of small earbuds. You blast this in your room when your parents are having dinner downstairs talking about the latest episode of Storage Wars.

4. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular)
"Am I getting closer? Will I ever get there? Does it even matter?" Lonerism is all about the idea that real life is just something else. Kevin Parker is the mastermind behind Tame Impala and is without the doubt, the most talented musician right now. He records alone in his bedroom and captures the feelings of endless daydreams and escaping real life in his music. Each track on this record is nothing short of pure bliss.

3. Merchandise - Children of Desire (Katorga Works)
I first got into Merchandise last year and the last song I drove home to on New Years Eve was "I Locked the Door". It's a 3-minute track with a hypnotic 80's drum beat and crooning vocals awash in an ocean of haze. I always hoped they would come back with another record and sure enough they did. Children of Desire is one of the finest releases and undoubtedly the most underrated of this year. There are only six tracks on this record, two of them being 11 minutes long each. The one that hits me harder than any other song I heard this year is called "Roser Park". I remember listening to it while driving back home from Madison with a friend and we could not get over how beautiful it was. Till this day, I still can't.

2. Mac DeMarco - Rock and Roll Night Club (Captured Tracks)
This is the Mac DeMarco I fell in love with. The sleazy, glam-rock singer who spends his evenings at the Rock and Roll night club, searching for his boogie-woogie woman. Just look at that cover for godsakes. I spent the majority of 2012 listening to this record more than anything else. Of course I do enjoy 2 a lot, but the tracks on here hit me more than the smooth jangle-pop perfections. Sorry Gary.

1. DIIV - Oshin (Captured Tracks)
We all remember when "Doused" came out and how excited we were for the release of Oshin. For some it was a disappointment upon release, for me it was perfect. I would spend endless nights listening to it, dreaming of better days with no fears or worries. Their songs have hit me in my highest and lowest of points in life. For me, DIIV are one of those bands that I never want to let go of, no matter how much I fall in love with something more.Alisahttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-60374831793455477552012-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:002012-12-28T08:37:26.028-08:00Favorites of 2012: Brandon's SelectionsI always have trouble making year-end lists. It's easy to pick number-one, but figuring out weather that hip-hop album should be above that drone record for the number-seven spot is hard, trivial, and stupid. And a little disrespectful to the music. So this year I'm trying something new, and simply highlighting records I liked this year by genre. Some made up, some real.

Best Hip-Hop Record:

Danny Brown - XXX (Fools Gold)
Ok, so this came out digitally on Fools Gold in 2011, but wasn't available physically until 2012. XXX is an instant classic: it's a drug album, a depression album, a party album, and a pop album. Some of the highlights are "Party All The Time", "DNA", "XXX", "I Will", and "Die Like a Rockstar". I think what really makes it great is Danny's unique Detroit realness. Coming from a relatively unknown rapper on an independent label, one would think his cockiness would disrupt his natural flow and progression, or make him seem fake, but, in actuality, it only adds to his sense of power and skill. Here is an up and coming emcee who can admit to his own flaws while simultaneously claiming ownership of the rap game: impressive indeed.

Best Pop Record:

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (Def Jam)
I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of Nostalgia, Ultra. and the first time I listened to Channel Orange, I wasn't impressed-- boy did that change. What we have here is perfectly crafted alterna-pop, proving once again that the dirty south can do no wrong. Frank Ocean crafts beautiful melodies on this album, both with instruments and with his voice. This record was a lot more drug-inspired than I expected, and if you're looking for the next bunch of sing-a-long party tunes, look no further.

Best Noise Record:

Moth Cock - Moth Cock (Tusco/Embassy)
You can read my full review of this record, but suffice it to say that this is a record full of stony drones, screeching hiss, and morphing, creepy alien horns that really make you wonder just what the hell is going on. Oh, and did I mention the A-side of the record plays backwards?

Best Synth Record:

Discoverer - Tunnels (Digitalis)
This was a really tough category for me, because 2012 had a lot of great synthesizer music come out. We saw amazing records from Motion Sickness Of Time Travel, Hive Mind, Raglani, Emeralds, and Headboggle, just to name a few, but I really think Discoverer's Tunnels really set the bar on just want a synth record should sound like. It's cold, but not too cold, its dancey, but not shake-ya-ass-dancey, more like, nod-your-head-dancey. It evokes thoughts of modern legends like Oneohthrix Point Never, as well as classic synth gods like Tangerine Dream. Almost instantly Tunnels transports the listener to the great disco in the sky, and I never want to come back down.

Best Electronica Record:

Crystal Castles - (III) (Casablanca)
I've been a Crystal Castles fan for a long time now, and I've always been afraid they would put out a bad record. Too poppy, not crazy enough, to watered down. It seems instead, with the release of (III), they've gone in almost the opposite direction, becoming stranger, less accessible, and perhaps even isolating all but the most dedicated fans (of which there is no shortage). Crystal Castles seems to have taken a turn to the darker side of the spectrum, evoking more elements of noise, witch house, and drone music with them on their descent into madness. What I've always loved about this band is that they don't really give a shit, and that attitude shines through in their music.Brandonhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-19089383842537926382012-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:002012-12-24T06:00:14.706-08:00Favorites of 2012: CoversArtwork seems to get more outrageous (for better or worse) as time passes, and perhaps our list will be representative of that progression for some.

Anakrid - A Monstrous Dose of Poison (Black Horizons)

Bear in Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool (Dead Oceans)

Chromatics - Kill for Love (Italians Do It Better)

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (Deathwish)

Death Grips - The Money Store (Epic)

Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South Vol. 1 (Self-Released)

Django Django - Django Django (Because)

Egyptian Hip Hop - Good Don't Sleep (R&S)

Grimes - Visions (4AD)

Holograms - Holograms (Captured Tracks)

Horseback - Half Blood (Relapse)

How To Dress Well - Total Loss (Acéphale)

Jeremiah Jae - Raw Money Raps (Brainfeeder)

Laurel Halo - Quarantine (Hyperdub)

Lil B - God's Father (Self-Released)

Loops of Your Heart - And Never Ending Nights (Magazine)

Motion Sickness of Time Travel - Motion Sickness of Time Travel (Editions Mego)

Oneida - A List of the Burning Mountains (Jagjaguwar)

Port St. Willow - Holiday (Self-Released)

Purity Ring - Shrines (4AD)

Shawn Kemp - External Files (Self-Released)

Teeth - Meme Is the New Riddim (Sound Pellegrino)

Villages - Theories of Ageing (Bathetic)

White Fence - Family Perfume Vol. 2 (Woodsist)

White Suns - Sinews (Load)Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-88376160132031474412012-12-21T06:00:00.000-08:002012-12-21T06:00:13.334-08:00Nyodene D - Edenfall (Malignant, 2012)
Industrial music was a movement started in the late 70's as a way to cope with living in an industrial society. Factories were booming, shipyards and train stations were constantly moving, the air was polluted, and you were considered lucky to get a job in manufacturing. Fast-forward 25-or-so years, and things aren't quite the same, especially here in the midwest/Great Lakes region of the country. While America struggles to embrace a service-based economy, there is absolutely no question that industry is dead. Once great cities like Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Buffalo are now cesspools of rust, unemployment, and some of the greatest industrial music to come out of America ever. Growing up near Cleveland and now living in Eerie PA, Nyodene D has seen it all. The depression, the hate, the fear, the scum. He has seen it all and been moved by it.

So what does this leave for industrial music? Surely 'industrial music for industrial people' can't exist in an environment so ripe with decay, can it? Is this unique subgenre of outsider music finally approaching 'post-industrialism'? Judging by the sheer scope of Nyodene D's most recent album, Edenfall, I'd say so.

You might remember the name Nyodene D from a cassette I reviewed a few years back on this blog, God and Country. God and Country really set a new bar for Nyodene D, and not just 'photos of faces of statues as album art' (which I really do love), but musically as a whole. Lyrically, Edenfall really lightens up on the political and religious themes, yet not sacrificing any of the edge. The themes of resentment towards humanity and society are there, but masked beneath facades of deeper poetry and anthropological motifs. The lyrics are subtler, more relaxed, and seem to work better that way. The best part is they sound really intelligent without sounding pretentious, a rare trait in modern music. Nyodene D's lyrics are as complex, listenable, and well polished as the production and overall atmosphere of this album. While dark synthesizers crush in and out, mutilated samples play. If that sounds like it would make you sick, especially since there is an overall rhythm to the dissonance, don't fear. For every dark and abrasive sound I hear on Edenfall, I also hear reverb and more serious, less distorted synths droning away in the background. This adds a sense of place to the music and doesn't make you feel so stuck in harsh noise land. When the last track had played and all was said and done, I really enjoyed Edenfall, probably more than anything I have heard Nyodene D do before, and I can't wait to see more from this project.

The album itself comes in a really nice digipack, with lyrics and artwork, on pro-pressed CDs, for only $11. There is also a deluxe edition that comes with the record, a special Nyodene D + Sektor 304 collaborative CD, a few stickers, and a beautiful box for only $24. This would make a great christmas gift for anyone you know who has a taste for the macabre.

[Nyodene D Bandcamp]
[Buy Edenfall from Malignant Records] Brandonhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-40621982001009823362012-09-05T06:00:00.000-07:002012-09-05T06:00:04.689-07:00Sacred Tapestry - Shader (Self-Released, 2012)
Greetings new Sacred Tapestry software users, advances in new millennium concepts have required we adjust the new urbanization of city life by shifting the paradigm, its plaza dubai, silicon oasis, and productivity suite to unconference the heart of the online workshop. It's time to synergize and utilize your impact on the next level of integration and optimization for maximizing efficient offices across the new digital frontier; by redefining the workplace, reaching out to our global connections, and displaying 110% proficiency each and every day. You will be briefed further on these issues through one of our many InfoTech towers across the local metro area. These issues include learning the ins and outs of webinar, the 1080p collection, the digital nightscape, and practicing a number of digital team building exercises, held in any one of these convenient hotel conference rooms listed below.

- The Dystopian Inn (Room 132A) FAX #: (Please Log In or Register To Unhide This Number)
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Prism Corp (a subsidiary of Windows 98: codename "Memphis") is also proud to unveil to the public: Project Shader, a revolutionary new aural experience from Sacred Tapestry (the finale opus from the developers of New Dreams Ltd, 情報デスクVIRTUAL, Macintosh Plus, and Laserdisc Visions). The complete color spectrum is all here in this convenient package; that means the entire RGB spectrum (clipped, condensed, and recoiled from its original binary state) is here in all of its sweet, euphoric glory. Original sound clips from the past, present, and future are all presented here in stunning crystal-clear 240p clarity. Optional sonic filters include misty daydreams of dolphins on the wing, Isla Nublar tropics glazed in the scent of ice, the neon heat of sunken neo-Tokyo internet cafés, 3D screen-saver sky diving (with optional "Realistic Clouds" background by Windows 98), spiraling floods of rain in the business park across the greater Silicon Valley area, and last but not least, a deluxe package of video loops featuring Bill Gates jumping over a computer chair (presented in x100 slow-motion) and Phil Collins' VHS video diary of his nostalgic trip to Sea World.

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[Stream Shader from Prism Corp]Tyler Chambershttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-11003161200791096512012-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:002012-09-04T06:00:11.664-07:00Micachu and the Shapes - Never (Rough Trade, 2012)
Bored? What you're reading right now is how I relieve my boredom, or rather how I coax myself into believing that I've done so. Beyond my case, boredom permeates the lives of some of the most expressive people, and Surrey, UK's Mica Levi is of that ilk, or at least it seems that way on Never, her sophomore album in the trio Micachu and the Shapes. Over a mutated "Then He Kissed Me" melody, she portrays herself on the standout "Holiday" anticipating a day to escape the tedium of her job, dryly moaning the chorus after a fed-up declaration "Another year another/ If this carries on I might leave my job." Were it not for the refrain peeking through, she'd almost sound stoic, but the instrumental commotion is incredibly bouncy so as to signify her anxiety. This wondrous tune is just one example of how someone can excite themselves out of the drab reality.

It's in this world (that which is illustrated across Never) that I find myself having more fun than elsewhere this year. On camera, it consists of the Shapes singing and dancing about in environments that look as if they've been designed using Mario Paint, and on record, the ease in envisioning it negates the use of a visual component. As was the case with 2009's Jewellery, Levi turns ostensibly boring household items into kitchen-sink noisemakers to which most of Never's fun is accredited. However, unlike the bare rocker "Lips" from their debut-- wherein a contorted guitar riff is paired with a simple drumbeat-- "Slick" bobs along with a cornucopia of sundry textures. From its bizarre, slightly off-key harmonies to tumbling rhythmic breaks, this memorable love song is embellished into a deft experiment in adorable trash-pop. The album's colorful backdrop carries logic behind its many noises, coexisting in a remote yet cozy microcosm.

Micachu and the Shapes straddle makeshift sound-art and adept songwriting, at times teetering with just as impressive results. "Fall" and its successor "Nothing" distort the concept of balladry but appear as polar opposites. The former is almost as quiet as a whisper-- a deliquescing assembly of chords that meet a baffling detour. The latter is a tender waltz (featuring a fantastic appearance from Wesley Gonzalez of Let's Wrestle) and simultaneously a dismissal of normality articulated through a saccharine melody, easily making for Never's most beautiful moment. Even so, the additions subtly looming over it are marred beyond identification and still manage to project discomfort.

Neither utopian nor dystopian, Never's animated environment seems provoked by the inescapable mundane. In sync with sporadic bursts across the verses of "Low Dogg", Levi sings "My everyday's the same/ Days the same, stays the same, days the same/ How can I explain this panic in my brain?" It needn't be explained, because it's voiced through a relentless fuzzed-out growl, constantly on the precipice of exploding. At this point, when liberation will arrive becomes the greatest question, and the fussy closer "Nowhere" answers it with invigorating volume. An in-the-red punk blitz, it blares with a jubilee of pinging synths and a bent guitar hook supporting the consolation, "There's nowhere in this world I'd rather be," a line I stand in total agreement with as I flip back to side A.

[Micachu Website]
[Stream/Buy Never from Rough Trade Records]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-20374138861897754342012-09-03T06:00:00.000-07:002012-09-03T06:00:10.247-07:00Seafoam - Seafoam EP (Self-Released, 2012)
While scouring the blogs, lists, forums, and databases in our subterranean habitats, computer-gazed and glossy-eyed till the wee hours of the night, often we seek aural satisfaction in the music of the seasons. Whether it comes from mood, nostalgia, or simply what's outside our windows, pinpointing the sounds of spring, summer, fall, and winter can be one of the best ways to experience music. On an atmospheric level it can evoke rich imagery and sensory details of nature's many wonders-- the lush, flower-tangled prairies of spring, the dampened earth-toned debris of fall, and the crystalline blanket of winter's ethereal chill-- impressions of sound we can all relate to.

Athens, Georgia's John Jagos knows this idea well, as everything from his moniker to his cover art suggests the sounds of summer's cauldron. Even bolder of an impression is the five songs that make up his debut EP. Immediately we're introduced to slow motion waves gliding across a watery horizon on the opener "Breakers (Awakening)", with splashes of vocal ambience greeting a thick rising sun beyond it. Early-morning dew and chlorine dreams ascend from the coastal groove of "Collapsed Lung", as a gorgeous guitar line bathes the sea in a whisper of cyan surf, before drifting waves reveal the synths of a psychedelic game show. The tropical ballad "Sarah" shimmers in similarly engrossing guitar work, with a certain strobe-lit tenderness that brings to mind hazy memories of high school dances.

A cascade of lulling daydream tranquility pours from the corals of "We'll Be Free", streaming a set of jangly seagull strung chords that gently ripple against Jagos' misty vocals. The tide finally drifts to a calm impression of the cool breeze above on the closer "Goodbye For Now", as the glow of the moon reduces the song to one last ethereal wave of sparklingly guitars and mesmerized vocals. Throughout the EP, Jagos' airy vocals can be traced to the likes of Brian Wilson's sun soaked harmonies and M83's atmospheric take of 80s synth pop, and fusing both into five ultra-sleek, and all-around gorgeous pop tunes. If the music here is indeed Seafoam's own translation of the sounds of summer, he's succeeded on all fronts; creating a cohesive, memorable, and utterly hypnotizing document of the memories we leave behind during those few beloved months.

Sarah by Seafoam
[Seafoam Facebook]
[Stream/Buy the Seafoam EP from Seafoam]Tyler Chambershttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-38074766955176855672012-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-31T13:29:46.524-07:00Deerhoof - Breakup Song (Polyvinyl, 2012)
Deerhoof are creating one of the weirdest developmental arcs a group of their age and stature has ever made. Had I not already known, I would have never guessed that the band behind "Tiger Chain" would go on to craft a ditty as irresistibly cute as "+81". Having reached their pop zenith, they've managed to find equilibrium between the sweet and sour with Offend Maggie and Deerhoof vs. Evil, balancing the guitar spikes of "Buck and Judy" with bubblegum sing-alongs like "Behold, a Marvel in the Darkness". Deerhoof work wonders in both departments, regardless of whatever obstacles they may face along the way.

Breakup Song can be considered an extension of its predecessor, for Deerhoof continue to imbue their frisky yet elegantly composed numbers with a clinical ear for complication. The pluralized title track tucks noise into all the right pockets, leaving hunger for Satomi Matsuzaki's hypnotic "Hell yeah!" chorus. Though not exactly bearing the melodic prowess they've shown over 20 years, it's a loving reminder that Deerhoof's appetite for clamor has yet to dwindle even in an age of omnipresent electro-cleanliness, all the while expertly working in the burgeoning influence of future garage on "Bad Kids to the Front"'s skittering rhythm. The overlap is impeccable when taking place within the same song as well: the guttural, jammed-gear bass from "The Merry Barracks" is resurrected on "Zero Seconds Pause" and met with glistening synthesizers that become more an eyebrow-raising dichotomy than a perfect marriage.

Needless to tell any frequenter of recent efforts, Deerhoof let earworms consume their music like ants would an open cookie jar. "Flower"-- oddly enough not a revamp of the mantra off the modern classic Apple O'-- brims with the youthful rapture you'd find in The Jackson 5's best singles, and "Mothball the Fleet" is upheld by unreal harp-like embellishments. More often than ever before, the band's compelled to season their songs in foreign flavors. Salsa coats Breakup Song's least shakable number "The Trouble with Candyhands" in sensual horns and an intoxicating vocal refrain and hurdles any plausible cheese, while "Mario's Flaming Whiskers III" flares with a vaguely polka zest.

Out of all the bodily magnetic hits you can glean from Deerhoof's catalog prior, they amount to less than what's contained within Breakup Song, arguably their 'party' album. Drummer and principal songwriter Greg Saunier has even declared this in its press release and on a sticker bearing the endorsement "noise jingles for parties!" Fear not, for they haven't breached Andrew W.K.'s sociably pizza-stuffing kegstand-metal even remotely. Breakup Song feels far more relevant to the uninvited headphone listeners (people like me, duh) eager to swing their heads, tap their feet, and vogue to bustling, exotic sensory pop that tastes more like ear candy than just about anything else.

[Deerhoof Website]
[Stream/Buy Breakup Song from Polyvinyl Records]Carter firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-23783995433695105192012-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-30T06:00:11.944-07:00BNNT - _ _ (Qulturap, 2012)
In the dwindling corner of noise rock, Poland's BNNT could be seen as deconstructionists, not in the same sense as how the seminal U.S. Maple once reduced rock to slowly disintegrating rhythms and sporadic guitar interaction, but closer to how Boston performance-art outfit Neptune express rock through homemade instruments that could double as art pieces, rendering every strum a bulky vibration and every drum hit an example of reinforced trash. Like Glenn Branca before them, BNNT use rock-oriented tools to achieve something beyond the music with which they're associated. Their debut album _ _ isn't in search of transcendence, though; it avoids the spiritual and takes ahold of the alien.

Formerly named Brown Note and having the wherewithal to sample Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers, BNNT seem to make noise in the interest of turning stomachs. Member Konrad Smolenski's weapon of choice is known as a baritone missile that is, as its title delineates, equal parts instrument and weapon: thanks to Michal Kupicz and Weasel Walter's efforts from behind the boards, you can hear the strings being battered and rattling within the concave neck. When locked into every pummeling quarter note gleaned from the drum kit, it's awe-inspiring how driving their calibration is. To put it bluntly, the sonic makeup of _ _ is more punishing than just about any compressed metal recording today.

Smolenski's baritone missile is pivotal to BNNT not unlike how Brian Gibson's whammy pedal is to Lightning Bolt because it's not the only contributor to their uncommon set of sounds. Macio Moretti's mind-numbing vibraphone on "Operation Diesel_ British troops have taken Afghan heroin factory" brings the track's abusive pulse to disorienting new heights, and the opener "Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga recruiting children" reaches a hellish culmination once Tomasz Duda's brass contribution swarms over the groove like flies on a corpse. Additions like these may read minor on paper, but when performed they separate descriptors like "noisy" and "cataclysmal".

BNNT are comparable to acts swinging in a rock orbit, but their ambition largely constitutes that of a noise band. Tones over notes, violence over rhythm, what Smolenski and drummer Daniel Szwed conjure gives directness to the effect-laden mania of MoHa! and delivers it with monosyllabic attack. It even remains eye-opening once they relent during the kraut-skronk of "Joseph Kony, a former Catholic altar boy from northern Uganda" served à la Skull Defekts. Embodied by a void title and cover, BNNT handle only achromatic shades, but with heavy contrast and arrangement in mind they prove that tact means everything.

[BNNT Facebook]
[Stream/Buy _ _ from Qulturap]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-16389556552504680392012-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-28T16:25:08.796-07:00Giant Claw - Mutant Glamour (Orange Milk, 2012)
Keith Rankin is one of few keeping his synth-led compositions playful, peculiar, and unashamedly bold. Last year's Midnight Murder burst with color and tension, featuring opuses like "Big Heat" following hard-hitting cadences that were rigid on the surface but cleverly unpredictable. As the album's pixelated j-card perfectly illustrated, Giant Claw's greatest asset was its knack of putting Nintendo-influenced nostalgia into a misshapen, chaotic context. Rankin references past greats such as Jean Michel Jarre and Cluster, but never has his material under the Giant Claw alias been lost in the kitsch.

With Mutant Glamour, his official full-length debut, Rankin expands his palette as new themes ("mutation, fashion, sex, trash culture, our weird alien bodies"), methods of performance (employing both improvisation and orchestration), and instruments (saxophone) enter the fold. Even the album's most boisterous passages, such as the opener "Brain on Cream", may inconspicuously fly as standard Giant Claw output, but others carry arrangements too bizarre not to be recognized: "Empire of Summer" bounces along a shuffling snare and buries free-jazz sax at the volume of a car radio as heard from the sidewalk, and it's heard upfront in the right channel on "Mutants in the Bedroom" wailing alongside a vaguely melodic sequence being stretched out of tune. Discordantly bleating, Rankin primarily incorporates the saxophone to stress a given work's pandemonium. Elsewhere it's used to his harmonic advantage, subtly giving way to the meticulous detail in his electronics.

The length of Mutant Glamour's side-closing tracks ("LA Christ", "Trapped in the Mirror") may already showcase Rankin's careful artistry, but some of its finest moments are the most fleeting. "Glitter Logic" has a graceful flutter to its patch, and its absent rhythm section allows it to lithely introduce whistling leads and flickers of vibrato; and on "Man or Cream" spiraling sax winds intertwine in lush harmony, later channeling a call and response on opposite ends of throbbing synth squiggles. To some, Mutant Glamour may read as a blur of 8-bit clutter through a lens of kosmische glorification, but I see it as testament to its solidarity. Here Giant Claw is more complexly layered than ever, and analyzing the prismatic psychedelia will only give you a headache.

[Giant Claw Bandcamp]
[Stream/Buy Mutant Glamour from Orange Milk Records]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-56424983489637138012012-08-21T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-30T16:45:16.607-07:00Superstorms - Superstorms (Experimedia, 2012)
Earlier this year, the Akron, Ohio duo Trouble Books featured a contribution from noise neighbors Tusco Terror on their most recent LP. Envisioning the pairing, Trouble Books' reflective synth- and guitar-based ambient pop and Tusco Terror's scraping, degenerate clamor would be an uncomfortable clash. At the close of Concatenating Fields, it was an outstanding contrast of gentle arpeggios and unhinged feedback that may have alluded to future pursuits, though not necessarily from the band's Keith Freund and/or Linda Lejsovka.

Michael Tolan-- former member of Tusco Terror and transient to Trouble Books-- unearthed the moniker Superstorms to deflect modern ambient music conventions, pushing digital sounds to their limit and manipulating source material. If that and the fact that the project's self-titled debut is mastered by ex-Khanate guitarist James Plotkin aren't indicative of anything, it's safe to assume that Tolan's desire to conjure a damaged and tumultuous atmosphere must have been insatiable. Disseminated across five movements, Superstorms's colossal drones resound with the magnitude of celestial bodies, but Tolan gives their manifestation an arc by closely examining every nearby star.

Superstorms may have been born out of opposition to contemporaries, but Tolan's approach to composition and digital decay isn't unfamiliar: household names Tim Hecker and October Language-era Belong come to mind when diving into the saturated solution of wistful harmony and eroding synthesis, and like the opening to Axolotl's Memory Theatre, Superstorms has a mutability to its amorphous flux. Notwithstanding timbre and key, the separation lies within its path, generating at a cosmic volume and downsizing to the warmth of a back porch. In between certain elements enlarge and clash with others as a different pair will fuse into a fine alloy; abrasive clusters dissipate as unprocessed guitar swims to the surface and a frictionless hum coats the denouement in thorough serenity. Tolan has best displayed that he understands the possibilities of his music, and he demonstrates them all at their most fractured and cohesive.

[Superstorms Soundcloud]
[Buy Superstorms from Experimedia]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-50658258154944766962012-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-21T05:47:20.478-07:00Solos - Beast of Both Worlds (Joyful Noise, 2012)
There are people who, to this day, are still trying to make sense of Hella's There's No 666 in Outer Space. There was no ease into its confounding, sinister veneer for either the band or its fans: Hella went from an elastic math-rock alternative to what sounded like the Mars Volta pressed to glue instilled with lock grooves galore and spun using a bad needle, which could have been a blessing or a curse depending on whether you were willing to parse through the suffocating guitar debris to locate its harebrained brilliance. This wasn't another case of neo-prog ego-flexing, though-- vocalist Aaron Ross's compelling, hypnotic melodies repeated into oblivion underneath the cluttered instrumentals.

Why the band reverted to a two-piece on last year's Tripper may have been due to listeners' discontent, but I'm willing to speculate that Beast of Both Worlds, the debut full-length from Ross and guitarist Spencer Seim, contains a handful of songs that could have been on a more refined follow-up had Hella remained a quintet. Ross' songwriting in the duo depends less on the delirium of 666 than it does the unadorned folk of his solo material. Solos bridge the gap between both outings, employing both direct refrains and psych-informed experimentalism, all aided by producer Guy Massey, whose clients include Radiohead, Depeche Mode, and Spiritualized among others. Seim and Ross use the accommodations to their advantage, committing every possibility to tape.

The duo's priorities are rearranged on Beast as Ross mans the guitar and Seim assumes his first drumming position since sBACH. Though not as maniacal as comrade Zach Hill, he puts just as much intricacy on display, namely in the frenetic hi-hat and snare interplay preceding the mounting hook of "Carpe Diem" as well as the tumbling tom rolls that permeate "Damsel Distressed"'s verses. Ross's tapped leads on "Schooled Fools" are seized from Seim's own tactics, but distributed in terse fits so as to punctuate the narrative, "Sick of wasting all our time for you/ Pointing fingers get the knife/ They get themselves removed."

If Solos have put more forethought into anything other than their sophisticated instrumentality, it'd be their choruses, which are uniformly infectious and massive, nearly to a fault on the lighter-readying "Crackin' the Modern Age", but Ross and Seim know their limits well enough to completely obliterate structure for slow-burner "The Darwin Blues", which trudges along a 5/4 pattern before it's swept away in an overdriven sandstorm. Solos exercise grandiosity to an effect just as successful as Hella's in 2006. Rather than seeking out the exploratory, Beast simply churns out excellent anthems. Each of which is ostensibly prog-ambitious, but intensive observation will lead one to adhesive melodicism, guileless and upright.

[Solos Facebook]
[Buy Beast of Both Worlds from Joyful Noise Recordings]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-51470072684365069402012-08-17T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-17T06:00:14.228-07:00Amalgamated - Spark I (Intangible Cat, 2012)
When I first got a good look at Spark I, I was thrilled. It had been far too long since a piece of music has gotten me excited just from looking at it, and I was already pondering what sounds could be found inside this package. The artwork is simply a picture of some complex, mysterious circuit board, with an equally intriguing symbol cut out of vinyl and stuck atop the sleeve. Add in that this is a 3-inch CD-R (one of my all-time favorite formats), and I'm sold. But I'm still full of questions: What is this circuit? Is it one of the members mothers old fax machine, the board of a Commodore 64 or some other archaic processor, or maybe a synthesizer used on the album? Some questions are better left unanswered.

Turns out Spark I is the first in a two-part series of recordings by Amalgamated, recorded live at a venue in La Salle, Illinois, and then cut, chopped, screwed, and re-processed into two 3" CD-Rs. Now, usually knowing the method in which a record is conceived doesn't make much of a difference to me as a listener, however knowing that most of this music was improvised and not premeditated actually makes me appreciate the music more, as the level of cohesion found here is impecable. This is clearly ambient music, not drone music, though what the difference is, I couldn't say. At times I'm reminded of Phillip Glass and Tangerine Dream, and at other times I feel Amalgamated is closer to Miss Kittin and The Hacker or VNV Nation. The beats that fade in and out of the wall of synthesizers and samples are so subtle, so tasteful, so perfect, that I'm pretty sure I even caught my dog nodding her head subconsciously.

Spark I evokes stream of consciousness images of science fiction as well as futurism, and at 23 minutes long, doesn't overstay its welcome as so many modern-day ambient projects do. When the disc is over you feel neither unquenched nor over-satiated. I'd even go so far as to say I felt refreshed after hearing Spark I in its entirety. At $4PPD a disc and $3 a download, I'd say this would sit nicely on a shelf right between Brian Eno and Akira Yamaoka.

[Amalgamated Bandcamp]
[Buy Spark I from Intangible Cat]Brandonhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-84941607523673920522012-08-16T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-18T06:44:15.307-07:00Morriconez - Cloud of Dust, Cry of Death (Wil Ru, 2012)
When I first saw that the title of this project was "Morriconez" and the the artwork indicated some kind of western feel, my first though was "you've got to be kidding me." Turns out, they're not. Now, the press release indicated to me that this artist was formerly known as Jjango Cleefworth Morriconez, as well as about fifteen other monikers, though it all stems back to one guy, a Mr. Jeffery Wentworth Stevens, who appears to be quite the fan of spaghetti westerns. But enough about semantics, let's get down to the music.

Now, I first want to mention that, while I initially thought the goal of Morriconez was to rip off recognizable elements of the legendary Ennio Morricone and turn them into some kind of 'cowboy-wave' internet sensation, it became clear that Morriconez is actually just a guy from the Southwest who was inspired by his surroundings and their culture, and was therefore naturally drawn to Ennio Morricone. And while I didn't hear any whips cracking or horses trotting, what I did hear was actually rather enjoyable. Morriconez uses tons of live drum loops, which is a really cool way to use electronica style composition and still sound as organic as possible, and the result is a backbone that sounds both analog and digital, magical and scientific, half man half machine.

While Morriconez does evoke images of the west, deserts, tumbleweeds, and peyote buttons, it is actually the other side that sticks out to me as the strength of this record. Leads that sound somewhere between horns and strings, vocal effects that sound robotic, and reverb that doesn't quite sound warm enough is actually what pushes Cloud of Dust, Cry of Death above and beyond the average 'experimentalist' record and into the void of memorable, unique, records from 2012.

[Morriconez Bandcamp]
[Stream/Buy Cloud of Dust, Cry of Death from Wil Ru]Brandonhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-54569795690875373322012-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-15T06:00:09.632-07:00Traxman - Da Mind of Traxman (Planet Mu, 2012)
Chicago's footwork scene reached a fruitful zenith this year, with its most notable exploits being Deejay Earl's hyper-repetitious Above & Beyond LP, DJ Rashad's ambitious and hooky TEKLIFE Vol. 1: Welcome to the Chi, and the most bare-bones and fascinating of the three, Da Mind of Traxman (birth name Cornelius Ferguson). In its strict toolset of footwork's traditionally sharp hi-hats and snares, gut-punching kicks and relentless vocal loops, Traxman's followup to 2009's Get on tha Floor feels archetypal, at least to the brand of juke this side of 2012.

Though equipped with the barest of necessities, Da Mind of Traxman is far from complacent. His forte of aligning samples with elaborate rhythms is mesmerizing, and his efforts to derail a given groove, i.e., how the funky sway of "Setbacks" is obliterated by a distressing skip, make for disconcerting trips through fractured pattern. The samples themselves are peculiar, at times lifted with the same ear for quick mantras as Traxman's fellow Ghetto Teknitianz and neighbors ("Going Wild", "Conq Dat Bitch") and at others from transitional moments that hide their sublimity, as heard on "Itz Crack"'s clock-stopping break and the transfixing croon and trickling piano that open "Rock You". The latter instances are spotlighted by an infectious, not incessant, application of iteration.

In the midst of experimenting, Da Mind stumbles onto numbers that are just that-- experiments. The twitchy "Let There Be Rockkk", in theory, could bring the explosive chorus of the AC/DC hit on which it's based to new levels of sonic excess, but the result has little bite to it even when examined simply as modernization. A squirming synth line on "1988" provides a piquant timbre, but when paired with an equally effervescent beat limits it to escalation that never seems to resolve. As underwhelming as they may be alongside craftier works, they're not misplaced; these still showcase other facets of Traxman's adroit production.

Exploration and exposition are essentially Traxman's M.O. on Da Mind. When not eschewing interpretation of human language on "I Must Deadly Killer" and "Conq Dat Bitch", he crosses the road paved by legendary beatsmiths Madlib and J Dilla on bustling, harmonic frenzies like "I Need Some Money" and "Lady Dro", which are stellar hybrids that bear both street-strolling swankiness and foot-tiring metric underscores. Given the length and many stylistic intersections, one could guess that Da Mind would fall prey to incongruity, but they should consider that it's bookended by a tantalizing micro-banger and a Prince-sampling life lesson about eternity; and notwithstanding the diversity, Traxman advances while consistently using simple but flexible means.

[Traxman Soundcloud]
[Buy Da Mind of Traxman from Planet Mu Records]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-63413457596767086942012-08-14T06:00:00.001-07:002012-08-14T06:18:36.046-07:00Domo Genesis & The Alchemist - No Idols (Self-Released, 2012)
Now, this isn't the first time that I'll say I think Domo Genesis is the most talented member of Odd Future (alongside Mike G), and after Domo's newest mixtape with the legendary Alchemist, it's certainly not going to be the last. I may be a little biased because for about two months before this mixtape dropped, my Twitter feed was so filled with hype for this I had to unfollow Domo. So when I finally got to hear it, I was excited, but I really didn't think it would blow me away as much as it did.

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with The Alchemist that the best part of this mixtape is its production. The beats are complex yet elegant, every sample is perfectly placed, and the use of vocal effects is sublime. But again, that should come as no surprise to anyone. What is surprising is how hard Domo spits it. On the Odd Future tracks I've heard him on he always rips it harder than anyone else, but always seems overshadowed by the other members. Indeed, most of OF's work as a group seems crowded and rushed, but the solo efforts are usually pretty decent. No Idols, though, really lets Domo shine through as one of the most talented rappers in the game today.

A lot of critics were quick to dismiss Domo's solo work and work in MellowHigh as weed-worship rap, having a strain of medical named after him (Domo OG) and his obviously THC drenched lyrics, and rightly so, but No Idols breaks from that formula a little, but not much. True, No Idols is definitely a tape to smoke to, but I feel it could be enjoyed by 'non-heads' just as easily. I really see No Idols as a turning point in Domo's carrer, and I can't wait to see where he goes next.

[Domo Genesis Twitter]
[Download No Idols from Domo's Tumblr]Brandonhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-25568315015133097852012-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-10T06:00:11.509-07:00Deep Magic - Closed Eyes (Debacle, 2012)
One of the most productive and reliable psychedelic outsiders today, LA resident Alex Gray, happens to be so due to his absurd versatility. Consisting of endeavors ranging from the noise-laced furtherance of chopped-and-screwed distortions as DJ/PURPLE/IMAGE (formerly Heat Wave) to fleeting thrash punk in the duo Earthsurfers, Gray's trajectory fluctuates so often that his next undertaking could really be anything and stay in character. Among all of his current outlets, the drone-rooted Deep Magic is the least foreign considering his origins in the massive psych ensemble Dreamcolour. Even so, Deep Magic's creeping reach outside of its initial boundaries continues to grab ahold of puzzling abstractions.

Closed Eyes is indicative of Gray's constantly widening scope, beyond last year's glimmering Lucid Thought and approaching the global ambit applied to recent exploits from Sean McCann, coincidentally an ex-member of Dreamcolour and providing mastering for the album. Cultivating a free-flowing, instrumentally teeming microcosm seems limitless enough to have inspired more than the small population employing it, and its prospects (McCann's The Capital, Isengrind's Night of Raining Fire, Black Swan's Aeterna) have been grand. Closed Eyes carries this torch, though Gray allows his affinity for prismatic coloration and delicate tropicalia to bleed into it.

Gray has said that recording involved less introspection and more so dealt with "making a cavernous space and then putting things in that space and seeing how they knock around," but that quote isn't necessarily telling of the dimensions of that space or how frequently they change. Looped marimba swarming "Visual Noise" submerges into a suppressed trance, diffusing into "Visual Snow"'s desolate expanse of piano and windchimes. Conversely, "Motionless" works to erratically manipulate a phrase though in the grander scheme just rotates the view from which it's observed. Bountifully orchestrated, "Dark Retreat" has no defined arc but uses its spiraling passage of elegantly placed effects and pitch-shifted moans to guide the profound opus to a lulling close. For all its sporadic shifts and scattershot arrangements Closed Eyes applies them to create an inconspicuously fluid listen.

Light/Dark by DEEP MAGIC
[Deep Magic Website]
[Stream/Buy Closed Eyes from Debacle Records]Carter firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-75904866897002319102012-08-07T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-07T06:00:04.018-07:00Gaza - No Absolutes in Human Suffering (Black Market Activities, 2012)
In the overcrowded and homogenous world of metalcore (save its much-lauded heavy-hitters: Converge, Botch, The Dillinger Escape Plan) Gaza are among the most versatile. Rather than treading the water of burly riffs, scream-growl dynamics, and an obligatory glimmer of melodic melancholy hoping to pass as an anthemic centerpiece, the Salt Lake City six-piece overlap metal's most pronounced opposites: grindcore and sludge. Bringing together these poles has grouped them with the mathcore class, which, as groan-worthy as the term may sound, has assigned them a reputable list of peers and brought light to the prowess Gaza have strewn across their three albums.

Throwing attention spans about, their debut I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die challenged ears not only with the standard dichotomy of tectonic chugging and piercing microtones, but by allowing one only to attune to a phrase for such a short while before being thrust into another chaotic swing-- a coarseness that seemed almost sanded on the miry-sounding followup He Is Never Coming Back. Though that album didn't resound much less than its predecessor's quake, the thought of further hindrances impinging upon Gaza was perceivable.

Gaza's attack was never out of reach, though, as their latest cuts through as if it had just returned from the bladesmith's workshop, bearing its original weight and deftly filed. With Converge virtuoso Kurt Ballou at the helm of production, No Absolutes in Human Suffering is reassurance in the form of blistering amplification. An affirmation of the band's undying stamina and an ideal entry, "Mostly Hair and Bones Now" pounces onto its cataclysmic stomp after a false start of unnervingly spacious and feedback-ridden guitar chords. At its pummeling apex, the absence of guitarist and founding member Luke Sorenson is almost glaring, but the call-and-response tactic of bending notes and roaring interjections makes simplicity seem just as captivating in Gaza's hands.

No Absolutes basks even longer in its pared-down fortitude as vocalist John Parkin pulls a "We Are the Romans" chant-along mantra on the title track, though it shouldn't be mistaken for receptiveness. Gaza toy with melody, not as a gentler detour but rather a startling admixture, during "The Crown" and "When They Beg": the former imbuing subtle harmonic accents into the maelstrom, the latter slipping into rippling, tapped leads. Closing on maybe their softest note yet-- a patiently arpeggiated dirge-- Gaza don't experiment at great lengths, but what they glean from the upper neck buries a downtrodden complexion within their relatively explicit, rhythmically dense onset.

[Gaza Facebook]
[Buy No Absolutes in Human Suffering from Black Market Activities]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-57748627959566655042012-07-30T06:00:00.000-07:002012-08-01T07:21:58.750-07:00Diamond Terrifier - Kill the Self That Wants to Kill Yourself (Northern Spy, 2012)
It's understandable to suspect that New York avant-everything trio Zs have gone separate ways, even if you've had a sigh of relief reading saxophonist Sam Hillmer's update on the band's official site. After putting out several smaller-scale releases (the 33 double-7", the Sky Burial cassette, and the smallest of them all, This Body Will Be a Corpse, a 1.75" button with a built-in MP3 player) Zs' most prolific member has presumably been guitarist Ben Greenberg, whose current pursuits as Hubble, playing bass in rock-subgenre-hopping four-piece The Men, and recording the latest albums by White Suns and Extra Life among others is telling of what's probably a full schedule. Greenberg's bountiful endeavors shouldn't undermine those of his colleagues, though.

Aside from drummer Ian Antonio's percussion work in ensembles curated by composer John Adams and trombonist George Lewis, Hillmer has been involved in impressive exploits, considering his involvement in You Are Here (an NYC festival held within a maze in the Secret Robot Project gallery, founded by the art duo Trouble he's in alongside Laura Paris) and his output under the moniker Diamond Terrifier, a name shared with the sax-centric first half of the Black Crown Ceremony suite on Zs' forward-thinking New Slaves.

Though Hillmer's performance doesn't deviate too far from the methods of skronk and squelch for much of the hour the 2010 opus lasts, the waters tested across his first proper full-length are worth noting. Kill the Self That Wants to Kill Yourself's opening title track is a gorgeous juxtaposition between resplendence and delirium: against the patient lilt of serene synth chords and a spare, echoing stab, Hillmer's sax twitches and chokes-- a contrast that would seem effortless were the discord unable to carefully drift into harmony with its languid backdrop-- like two sheets of stained glass scraping against each other along a conveyor belt. The stretch of beauty is at risk of mutating itself into something petrifying; it comes closest to transmitting the image of what a Diamond Terrifier may be, which is why it's no surprise that this wondrously inert paean and a reprise bookend the album.

Elsewhere, Hillmer works with more abrasive components and creates even more absurd dichotomies. The bright, galloping loop that leads off "Transference Trance" is met with stuttering sax interjections, but suddenly the stars align, handclaps layer over the cadence, and all tones begin to dance together. Deep gurgles swarm around the uncomfortably vacant atmosphere of "Three Things" not unlike the aforementioned "Black Crown Ceremony" but here the tension may be even more unnerving: as opposed to its predecessor submerging into a ritualistic drone, it percolates and lets out abrupt bursts, and the sputtering clusters converge to form a massive battle cry. Almost entirely uncharacteristic of that is the rhythmic "Adamantine", whose choppy beat sounds like the foundation of a Lex Luger production* sans his signature ticking hi-hats. Hillmer removes the electronic percussion from its trap-rap prominence and contorts the pace with jarring, metallic croaks. In forcing sounds to collide, Kill the Self That Wants to Kill Yourself makes even its most disorderly forays feel premeditated.

[Diamond Terrifier Website]
[Buy Kill the Self That Wants to Kill Yourself from Northern Spy Records]

*Bear in mind that despite the Luger comparison, "Adamantine" samples "Heavy Hitter" by footwork archetype RP Boo.Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-35486945113693079872012-07-24T06:00:00.000-07:002012-07-24T06:00:06.563-07:00Phantom Horse - Phantom Horse (Dekorder, 2012)
There's a slight playfulness unique to the debut LP from Hamburg duo Phantom Horse: as opposed to the formless, even amelodic hums emitting from the synth-centric circle of experimentalists Phantom Horse could be associated with, Ulf Schütte and Niklas Dommaschk perk up ears not with otherworldliness but peculiar familiarity. Though a refrain or timbre may seem reminiscent of something, it becomes so difficult to pinpoint where the recollection stems that it demands revisitation. Soon enough, the search for a possible source will taper off, and the charm will come into view.

John Elliott's buzzing arpeggios on Emeralds' nostalgic Does It Look Like I'm Here? loop like the soundtrack to a Sega Genesis game, but the textures sequenced on Phantom Horse are childlike in their tactility, resembling the sound of Jenga blocks clicking together and the splashing of toys being dropped into a pool. Bitcrushed clang chisels away at the throb of "Twilight Sohn" in a panorama that brings its 8-bit clutter into the corporeal, as if pixelated barrels are tumbling out of the TV screen. Bouncing along plinks of synthesized thumb piano, "Rongo Rongo" develops a buoyant, hasty groove for red-light/green-light guitar-like lines to whistle over. Schütte and Dommaschk don't elicit such youthful sensation through clear-cut referencing, but rather through pronunciation and delivery.

Aside from their acute sense of build and compositional accents, Phantom Horse are one of a very few to hearken back to the German realm of progressive electronics and actually ascribe catchiness to it. At the album's most polyrhythmic, "Fernando" and "Rongo Rongo" are adhesive clusters of polyphony that, despite the duo citing Cabaret Voltaire, Cluster, and Harmonia as inspirations, hardly sound as if they stem from an electronic source, let alone the worlds of industrial and kosmische. When populated by sounds more alike those of Schütte and Dommaschk's ancestors ("Kateshi", "Porzellant"), they approach their loops with a different ear for layering. Rather than cycling through calculated evolution, the loops have much less traceable seams, with melodies intersecting others, intermingling, and soaring overhead.

[Phantom Horse Soundcloud]
[Stream/Buy Phantom Horse from Dekorder Records]Carter email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-44400057256412284932012-07-23T06:00:00.000-07:002012-07-23T16:03:36.183-07:00Guardian Alien - See the World Given to a One Love Entity (Thrill Jockey, 2012)
Music has been interpreted as much more than just art for years: as a form of escapism, a backdrop to the everyday, and in 2011 the idea of transcendence was imbued in the concept of an album for perhaps the first time since Glenn Branca's The Ascension. Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, frontman of Baltimore black metal eccentrics Liturgy, wrote a manifesto expounding the concept of 'transcendental black metal', its distance from other styles of metal, and the themes that separate it from its hyperborean antithesis. Renihilation and Aesthethica brought forth its ideals not only in guitarists Hendrix and Bernard Gann's torrential, blistering harmony, but also in Greg Fox's divine drumming.

Fox upholds this tact in Guardian Alien, a quintet he founded when in Liturgy and continues to perform with having left them. Rather than being locked into Liturgy's ever-alternating time signatures, he assists amorphous drones with free-flowing percussion, from burst-beat gusts to tribal tom-roll panorama. Fox not only leads the band toward ecstatic summits, but he also lets them drop to a foreboding rattle to underscore just how colossal their trips toward ascension are, making for dynamics hard to trace even with attempted studying. The only potential hindrance of last year's self-titled effort is its sonic inhibitions, which suppressed the band's farthest-reaching crescendos at the hand of overdriven crackle.

With their followup See the World Given to a One Love Entity, Guardian Alien have eliminated any fidelity-planted deterrence that may have stood in their path. Every facet of the band's tonal expanse has been fully expressed by mastering engineer Heba Kadry (whose most prestigious endeavors include new full-lengths from Lotus Plaza and The Mars Volta). At this point, they've managed to stretch beyond the electronic yet equally psychedelic achievements of Fox's moniker GDFX and metamorphose into an essence all their own.

Along a sprawling 37-minute voyage, Guardian Alien strive for even higher planes and settle into barer abeyance on Entity. Lost in a pummeling spate, the mutated crunch of Gann's sputtering scales leans against Fox's blast-beats which, in theory, suggests vexation, but is mind-numbing in execution. They unbind and encircle Alex Drewchin's voice rapt with harmony. On shahi baaja-- a widely used electric Indian zither that is played with typewriter keys-- Turner Williams Jr. rapidly strums a Bb drone in unison with Drewchin's synth. The quintet widen their scope further to a sepulchral hum and the vastness of outdoor life and swell with the cosmic magnitude steered by the album's title. With Entity, Guardian Alien manifest transcendence by erasing boundaries and embracing absolute psychedelia.

[Guardian Alien Website]
[Buy See the World Given to a One Love Entity from Thrill Jockey Records]Carter firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-341914525049944701.post-41706759646102266402012-07-11T06:00:00.000-07:002012-07-11T06:00:04.629-07:00Comiskey - Relays (Self-Released, 2012)
It's said that persistence wears down resistance, and after sending me about 5 or 6 different packages containing the same CD, I figured I should give Comiskey the same chance I give recordings I'm seriously excited about. Not that I'm ever not excited to open up a package for review, but it seems the music sent to me is either uninteresting, boring, or I simply don't have the time. Now, while those are all poor excuses, the fact simply remains that I'd rather spotlight new music I'm really really into, rather than write about how mediocre every Tom, Dick, and Harry's bedroom noise-pop project is. And that's exactly what I was expecting every time I opened up one of Comiskey's packages.

Black-and-white art printed on an 11 x 8.5 sheet of regular computer paper and held together with tape simply doesn't catch the eye, even though I'm pretty sure we've all done it at some point. Still, there remains an honest and charming quality in homemade packaging, and it's the same quality that really makes Relays transcend above the average bedroom laptop project. Comiskey's Relays sounds like equal parts Boards of Canada, Fat John the Ample Soul Physician, and Autechre. It's at once relaxing and anxious, stoned and focused, minimal and complex. The best part is that it's only Comiskey's second EP, and it's already a huge improvement over his first, which leads me to wonder where the future will take this destined-to-be prolific project. The worst part about this EP is how short it is, at just under 16 minutes, it feels rushed, almost as though Comiskey was worried about his music sounding boring or repetitive. The tracks don't have time to breathe, which does add to that aforementioned anxiety, though I really feel it is more of a hindrance than an asset.

All said and done, I think everyone should check out the avant-downtempo jams located deep inside the ghetto of Relays, and if you're ever around the Denver area, keep an eye on the local gigs and an ear to the bedroom windows late at night. Oh and while you're at it, visit Comiskey online where you can download all of his recordings for free. Maybe he'll even send you a CD.

[Comiskey Soundcloud]
[Stream/Download Relays from Comiskey] Brandonhttp://email@example.com