In League With Paton

Top 100 (and a bit) of 2011 (In One Place)

2011-12-25T16:04:00.003Z

100)Feist - Metals (Polydor)
99)Cornershop - And The Double-O Groove Of (Ample Play)
98)Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou (World Circuit)
97)The Field - Looping State of Mind (Kompakt)
96)Tyshawn Sorey - Oblique 1 (Pi)
95)Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Wichita)
94)Kuedo - Severant (Planet Mu)
93)SBTRKT - SBTRKT (Young Turks)
92)Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth (Wichita)
91)CANT - Dreams Come True (Warp)
90)Africa Hitech - 93 Million MIles (Warp)
89)Cass McCombs - Wit’s End/Humor Risk (Domino)
88) Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica/Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure (Software)
87)A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Erased Tapes)
86)John Escreet - Exception To The Rule (Criss Cross)
85)Battles - Gloss Drop (Warp)
84)Roly Porter - Aftertime (Subtext)
83)Ambrose Akinmusire - When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
82)Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Vol.1 (Southern Lord)
81)Phil Robson - The Immeasurable Code (Whirlwind Recordings)
80)Andy Stott - Passed Me By/We Stay Together (Modern Love)
79)Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
78)Sidi Toure - Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
77)Six Organs Of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain (Drag City)
76)Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel)
75)Deerhoof - Deerhoof Vs. Evil (ATP)
74)Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
73)Kairos 4tet - Statement Of Intent (Edition)
72)Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
71)Outhouse & Hilmar Jenssen - Straw, Sticks & Bricks (Babel)
70)Rustie - Glass Swords (Warp)
69)Clams Casino - Instrumentals (Type)
68)Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (Domino)
67)Moritz Von Oswald - Horizontal Structures (Honest Jon’s)
66)Hiss Golden Messenger - Poor Moon/From Country Hai East Cotton (Black Maps/Paradise of Bachelors)
65)Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
64)Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
63)The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (Rough Trade)
62)St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
61)Mara Carlyle - Floreat (Ancient and Modern)
60)Julia Holter - Tragedy (Leaving Records)
59)Avishai Cohen - Seven Seas (Blue Note)
58)Machinedrum - Room(s) (Planet Mu)
57)Vijay Iyer with Prasanna & Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (ACT)
56)Destroyer - Kaputt (Dead Oceans)
55)Keith Jarrett - Rio (ECM)
54)Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (Drag City)
53)Micachu & The Shapes with London Sinfonietta - Chopped & Screwed (Rough Trade)
52)Dean McPhee - Son of the Black Peace (Blast First Petite)
51)Nils Frahm - Felt (Erased Tapes)/Nils Frahm and Anne Muller - 7fingers (Erased Tapes)
50)Sully - Carrier (Keysound)
49)Bill Frisell and 858 Quartet - Sign of Life (SLG)
48)Bon Iver - Bon Iver (4AD)
47)Khyam Allami - Resonance/Dissonance (Nawa Recordings)
46)Kit Downes Trio - Quiet Tiger (Basho)
45)The Weather Station - All Of It Was Mine (You’ve Changed)
44)Aquarium - Aquarium (Babel)
43)Joe Lovano - Bird Songs (Blue Note)
42)Dalglish - Benacah Drann Deachd (Highpoint Lowlife)
41)John Taylor - Requiem For A Dreamer (CamJazz)
40)Phaedra - The Sea (Rune Grammofon)
39)PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Universal)
38)The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies (Ghost Box)
37)Tom Waits - Bad As Me (Anti-)
36)Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die (Blood and Biscuits)
35)Kate Bush - Director’s Cut / 50 Words For Snow (Fish People/EMI)
34)Becca Stevens Band - Weightless (Sunnyside)
33)King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine (Domino)
32)Low - C’Mon (Rough Trade)
31)Thundercat - The Golden Age Of Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
30)Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD)
29){Ma} - The Last (Loop)
28)Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
27)Bjork - Biophilia (One Little Indian)
26)Mark Hanslip & Javier Carmona - DosadoS (Babel)
25)Kathryn Calder - Bright & Vivid (File Under Music)
24)Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
23) Hallock Hill - The Union/There He Unforeseen (Hallock Hill)
22)James Blake - James Blake (A&M)
21)Colin Stetson - New History Of Warfare Vol. 2 (Constellation)
20)Bill Orcutt - How The Thing Sings (Editions Mego)
19)Brad Mehldau - Live In Marciac (Nonesuch)
18)Tinariwen - Tassili (V2)
17)Pinch & Shackleton - Pinch & Shackleton (Honest Jon’s)
16)Matthew Herbert - One Pig (Accidental)
15)Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One (Constellation)
14)Grouper - AIA: Alien Observer / AIA: Dream Loss (Yellowelectric)
13)Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau (ACT)/The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen (Basho)
12)Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - We’re New Here (XL)
11)Charles Lloyd Quartet/Maria Fantouri - Athens Concert (ECM)
10)Zomby - Dedication (4AD)
9)tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
8)Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch (Thrill Jockey)
7)Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
6)Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion (Edition)
5)Julian Siegel Quartet - Urban Theme Park (Basho)
4)Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (ECM)
3)Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 / Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
2)Radiohead - The King of Limbs (XL)
1)Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)

The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 5: 20-1

2011-12-25T15:53:00.003Z

20) Bill Orcutt - How The Thing Sings (Editions Mego)
Bill Orcutt is that rare breed of artists who can actually break established boundaries on his chosen instrument and seem as if he is approaching it from a new angle entirely. All conventional techniques are abandoned. In their place comes a visceral, almost violent approach, yet at the same time an ability to draw out resonance and emotion as well as tension. The centrepiece of How the Thing Sings is the triumphant, visionary A Line From Ol Man River, one of the most shocking and remarkable recordings of the year.

19) Brad Mehldau - Live In Marciac (Nonesuch)
Recorded in 2006 but only now seeing the light of day, this extraordinary live package was one of the year’s most essential investments, consisting of 2CDs and a DVD. It captures Mehldau in a solo setting, at his most expressive and musical, improvising with extraordinary harmonic and melodic skill and a world away from the neutered Highway Rider. Every quality that has lead to Mehldau being hailed among the greats is here in abundance - his refined touch, his extraordinary separation and integration of parts, the long, fluent lines and his openness to a range of source material.

18) Tinariwen - Tassili (V2)
Opinion seems to have been divided as to whether Tinariwen’s move into a more acoustic sound world compromised their distinctive musical quality. Certainly, one of the most appealing aspect of the Malian group’s approach has been their dogged consistency of tone and attack - a bubble that Tassili defiantly pierces. It’s a bold move - but this album retains the group’s sense of hard won experience whilst expanding their lexicon. For me, it’s something of a triumph.

17) Pinch & Shackleton - Pinch & Shackleton (Honest Jon’s)
Shackleton seems to be building a career on releasing fantastic albums that little bit too late to be considered for most end of year lists. Is this a noble abrogation of the media PR circus? Or is it simply his obvious desire to release as much of his work as possible? Either way, this collaboration with Pinch is dependably brilliant - sometimes dark and oppressive, sometimes sinister, always masterfully controlled. It is a coherent whole rather than a collection of mini-masterworks.

16) Matthew Herbert - One Pig (Accidental)
By some distance the year’s most controversial album, One Pig had already enraged PETA and other animal rights supporters many months before its release. Whilst the idea of recording the life cycle of a pig farmed for meat and making musical instruments from its remains may seem like anathema to some, I found One Pig to be a thought provoking and intelligent statement from a consistently radical and committed political artist. Herbert’s intentions were less to shock and more to once again draw attention to industrial food processes (see his previous masterpiece Plat Du Jour, a particular favourite for this blog) and, most importantly, the sheer level of waste involved in animal rearing. The music itself was tough, abrasive and - at least until the daring irony at the end - entirely unsentimental. One Pig was another imaginative triumph of modern electronica and sampling techniques.

15) Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One (Constellation)
Chicago/New York saxophonist Matana Roberts appears to be the sort of constantly restless musician ideally suited to the field of improvisation. So far, she has yet to establish a regular stable ensemble, instead recording with various groups depending on her musical intentions and location. Coin Coin Chapter One, apparently the first part of a hugely ambitious project in twelve parts that aims to document her ancestral heritage back to the 1700s, was recorded live in the studio in front of an invited audience. It utilises a huge fifteen piece ensemble from Montreal. It has the urgency, passion, excitement and danger of a live recording. Much of it sounds highly liberated. But it also has plenty of compositional flair, clarity and organisation too, much of it dealing with the difficult subject of slavery. The use of the human voice is frequently masterful.

14) Grouper - AIA: Alien Observer / AIA: Dream Loss (Yellowelectric)
Whilst this eerie, beautiful double album doesn’t exactly tear up Liz Harris’ by now established sound, it does suggest that her work is becoming increasingly refined. Some reviewers have suggested that ghostly memories of composers past can be heard buried within these soundscapes (Satie, Messaien). I’m not sure I could pick out any possible samples, but I can be sure that A I A is a tremendous achievement - a consistently enthralling suite of sound.

13) Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau (ACT)
The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen (Basho)
Simcock, among the UK’s most virtuosic pianists, has long been a big name in jazz - but 2011 was the year in which he boldly stated his claim to artistic greatness. Whilst the young jazz scene in London is buzzing, it’s hard to see whether there is anyone among the legions of gifted, creative players who might join the ranks of legends or bring jazz to a wider audience. Simcock may now be that musician. On his last album, he was caught a little between his uninhibited improvising and his love for the formalism and rigour of classical composition. Good Days At Schloss Elmau, his first solo piano album, seems to integrate all his musical concerns brilliantly. At last, there’s an energy to his playing here - and a percussive quality that sometimes makes him sound, alone, like a complete ensemble. There’s also an abundant lyricism and an emotional richness to the material here.

Simcock also appeared on the debut album from The Impossible Gentlemen, a transatlantic jazz supergroup that could hardly fail to dazzle. Really, though, this album is all about Mike Walker - a superb guitar player with an incisive sound and a sophisticated composer sadly all too little known at home in the UK. He finds melody in every sequence here, playing with an authority that is genuine and devoid of ego.

12) Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - We’re New Here (XL)
For some, remix albums are ineligible for these kind of lists, and it’s easy to see the argument for this. But Jamie XX’s take on Gil Scott-Heron’s final recorded work felt like a valedictory statement, and a fitting epitaph for a musical legend. Even though the two artists did not meet and communicated by post, We’re New Here still feels like a considered and complementary meeting of minds. Isolated from its original context, and contrasted with earlier recordings (including snippets from the classic Home Is Where The Hatred Is), Scott-Heron’s worn-down latterday voice acquired an even greater authority and lived-in power. Jamie XX’s music - minimal but inspired - pushed him to new artistic levels and showed that his solo career may well prove more fruitful than that of his parent band.

11) Charles Lloyd Quartet/Maria Fantouri - Athens Concert (ECM)
Along with Wayne Shorter’s Quartet, Charles Lloyd’s current ensemble are among the most stable and ceaselessly exciting in contemporary American jazz. Their concerts are completely unmatched for sustained spiritual intensity. This pairing with Greek singer Maria Fantouri is an unexpected setting for Lloyd’s rich and lyrical sound, but it works superbly, with both sides of the collaboration bringing passion, conviction and emotional depth. Lloyd’s latterday catalogue is substantial and inspiring.

10) Zomby - Dedication (4AD)
One of those strangely divisive 2011 albums, Dedication proved challenging not least because it saw Zomby branching far away from the musical approach and character that made his, erm, name - but also because of the necessarily disparate and fragmented nature of the album’s structure. Dealing as it was with issues of grief, loss and memory, this seemed an intelligent and reasonable approach to take, even if it made the experience for the listener unpredictable and strange (quite why this should be a bad thing is something of a mystery). Dedication was haunting, immersive and, perhaps most importantly of all, artistically courageous.

9) tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
Merrill Garbus is so relentless inventive that her manic, exciting music can leave you breathless. w h o k i l l represents a substantial step forward, with studio production techniques making for a big improvement in sound quality. There’s also a feeling that these performances have been well orchestrated and arranged. Yet there’s still a certain roughness around the edges - a looseness and perhaps even improvisatory approach to songwriting that makes it all so unpredictable and wild. Certainly, few artists in the alternative pop field have made so much gold from rhythm and phrasing. She sounds entirely like herself - with little in the way of obvious reference points.

8) Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch (Thrill Jockey)
By far Tucker’s most successful fusion of electronic noise and arcane musicology yet - Dorwytch is a triumphant and innovative record - weird and wonderful at every turn. It’s also a world away from his sometimes stoically combative live shows. This sounds like a real narrative, incorporating drones, songs and some delicate passages of improvisation. What emerges is a fearlessly modern form of chamber folk.

7) Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
This exquisite merging of musical history and modern technology really deserved more attention. Barwick loops her own vocals to create an ecstatic one woman choir - and the results are somewhere between early music and contemporary performance. Certainly, a return to the music of the distant past makes for far more stimulating retrogression than so much of the regurgitation of recent cultural history discussed in Simon Reynolds’ excellent Retromania book. There is a purity and beauty in Barwick’s voice that makes her wordless reveries all the more haunting.

6) Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion (Edition)
Golden Xplosion was undoubtedly the year’s most virtuosic jazz album but it also stood out as uniquely thrilling and involving. The title is apt, given that much of this album sounds like a fireball of bright colours. There is a genuine restlessness at work here, not just in Neset’s tricksy, rhythmically challenging compositions but also in the individual contributions from all the musicians, not least the extraordinary drummer Anton Eger. Barely a bar goes by in which he is not putting in all his musical energy and resources in service of the impact of the ensemble. Neset’s brilliant mentor Django Bates is a characteristically mirthful presence, but is very much in a supportive role here. Whilst Neset is an outrageously gifted and articulate musician, he also finds space for some disarming lyricism and quiet reflection.

5) Julian Siegel Quartet - Urban Theme Park (Basho)
Julian Siegel is one of the great artists in British jazz and ought to be recognised as such. His work with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron is significant enough but, for Urban Theme Park, he formed what can only be described as a fantasy jazz ensemble. With Liam Noble on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Gene Calderazzo on drums, Siegel armed himself with a rhythm section that is at once supportive, propulsive and creative. His compositions are deft and subtle, always seeming slightly elusive and mysterious. Yet there is also a vibrance and spirited interaction at work here that makes this a theme park of thrills and delights, which is exactly as it should be.

4) Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (ECM)
With Gwilym Simcock’s brilliant Mercury nominated Good Days At Schloss Elmau, Brad Mehldau’s stunning Live In Marciac, Keith Jarrett’s Rio and this, the solo piano marketplace has been crowded with excellence in 2011. Taborn is a world away from Simcock’s hybrid of classical lyricism, gospel energy and jazz harmony however. He is inventing a language for the piano that seems bold and innovative. Whilst his technique is near-flawless and his flow of ideas often intuitive, Taborn is more interested here in a controlled minimalism. Every note is carefully considered and the result is a sparing, unconventional creation.

3) Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 / Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
There are few artists in the field of noise soundscaping more consistently compelling and haunting than Tim Hecker. Where sometimes this musical space can seem cold and forebidding - Hecker imbues it with a sense of longing and curiosity. Whilst the titles of the pieces hint at paranoia and anxiety - the music, particularly in its use of organ, also hints at something more mournful and a sense of faded grandeur. The additional material collected on Dropped Pianos is harsher and more unforgiving.

2) Radiohead - The King of Limbs (XL)
It seems utterly bizarre to have to refer to a Radiohead album as one of the most underrated releases of the year, but this has been the strange fate meted out to The King of Limbs. It is apparently one of the group’s more divisive recordings and can mostly be found languishing near the lower end of top 50 lists. Some found the transparent variation in style and mood between the album’s two halves difficult. In light of the special edition’s two 10” vinyl discs it would appear the track sequencing was entirely deliberate. To my ears, KoL marked a continuation and further development from In Rainbows, an even more seamless and successful fusion of a now super-relaxed, confident and impressive working band and their preoccupations with electronica and modern composition. Seeing the band live in 2012 with Clive Deamer joining as an additional drummer will surely be essential. Perhaps most impressive is how unshowy an album this is - unlike, say, OK Computer - it is completely unconcerned with being seen as important or epochal, and much more concerned with relaxed, consummate musicality. Together with the two additional singles that followed the album release, this represents Radiohead’s best music.

1) Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)
Good things come to those who wait. After eight years in the wilderness, Gillian Welch and her partner David Rawlings returned with a near flawless album. Returning to the stripped down bare essentials that characterised their previous masterpiece Time (The Revelator), The Harrow & The Harvest proved a wonderful companion piece to that album, similarly intoxicating and so fluent in the language of traditional American songwriting that any questions of authenticity are simply meaningless. The balance of their harmonies, kept in serene proportion throughout (although in fact more sparingly used here - everything extraneous is jettisoned), the splendour of Welch’s telling lyrics, the sweet elegance of the melodies - everything just sounds so effortless, but behind it is the work of two musicians who have studied their craft with honesty, conviction and determination.

The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 4: 40-21

2011-12-25T15:45:00.002Z

40) Phaedra - The Sea (Rune Grammofon)
What an utterly beguiling album this is - at once icy and warm - and perhaps one of the most charming albums in recent years to be so thoroughly preoccupied with death and decay. It’s a beautiful, intensely focused work with a calm but magical presence. Ingvild Langgard already feels like a contemporary folk auteur. Sadly, it appears to have passed by unnoticed in much of the mainstream UK music press.

39) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Universal)
It would be easy to be distracted by the ubiquity of Polly Harvey’s dependably beguiling musings on war and empire. There was a crushing inevitability about her becoming the first artist to win the Mercury prize - as if going against the collective wisdom on this occasion would have been tantamount to sacrilege. Still, Let England Shake is a confident, and coherent album - a work of mature, direct and poetic artistry that somehow manages to be accessible and uncompromising in equal measure. What is perhaps more impressive is that it seemed to be a point of consensus in what is now a very disparate, fragmented and over-saturated music marketplace.

38) The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies (Ghost Box)
It’s tempting to be a little sceptical about the retrofuturist vision of the Ghost Box label - this new album from Jon Brooks’ Advisory Circle uses seventies and eighties government advice advertisements (from the now defunct Central Office of Information) for its main source material. ‘We make the decisions so you don’t have to’, as the introduction proudly (and somewhat threateningly) proclaims. There are hints of underlying sinister currents (Village of the Damned meets The Midwich Cuckoos, with a touch of Boards of Canada) and the swathes of old school synthesisers brilliantly capture a blend of menace and awe.

37) Tom Waits - Bad As Me (Anti-)
There has long been a sense that Tom Waits has journeyed so far across contemporary music’s wide terrain that there is little truly new ground left for him to cover. Bad As Me somewhat confirms this impression, feeling a little like a career summary in new songs. Still, it’s a typically thrilling, scattershot and engaging trip, made all the more appealing by virtue of being one of Waits’ more concise albums. Most wonderful of all about all this is Waits’ voice, which has never been more versatile or theatrical.

36) Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die (Blood and Biscuits)
Bands of this level of invention and quality in the UK are all too rare in the UK, and often it seems like critics are unprepared to take the risk in investing time and energy in their progress. After a series of mind-blowing EPs, Three Trapped Tigers finally brought their slanted take on heavy post-rock to the full album format. If anything, the intensity seemed to have been amplified even further, to the extent that it’s often hard to believe just how attacking and visceral this music is. At times perhaps a little clinical, but always virtuosic and near-perfect in execution, TTT remain one of the country’s most exciting bands.

35) Kate Bush - Director’s Cut / 50 Words For Snow (Fish People/EMI)
Kate Bush albums, it would appear, are like buses. You wait several years, and then two come along at once. Director’s Cut was almost dismissed by a pop media for whom reworking older material appears to be anathema. It’s hard to understand this attitude, which appears in sharp contradiction to that same media’s obsession with constantly reaffirming the rock and pop canon. In almost any other art form, developing existing works is seen as an essential part of the artistic process. Director’s Cut is not consistently successful - and there are points at which one might prefer the original takes - but it is a challenging, ambitious set. At its best, it offers radical and satisfying reversions (Deeper Understanding, This Woman’s Work). Both Director’s Cut and the patient, graceful 50 Words For Snow are enhanced by the colourful, textural drumming of session legend Steve Gadd. He adds a lightly jazzy tinge that heightens the expressive qualities of the music. On 50 Words For Snow, Bush’s compositions are minimal but elongated - they take as long as required to deliver her typically eccentric, poetic narratives.

34) Becca Stevens Band - Weightless
Stevens is a singer-songwriter from New York deserving of much wider attention. She operates in that hinterland between jazz, folk and Americana beloved of Norah Jones, but doing so in a much more provocative and idiosyncratic manner. Far from coffee table music, Stevens’ own songs can be rousing and touching but are often also mysterious and charming. Even more impressive here are her radical interpretations of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Animal Collective’s My Girls and Seal’s Kiss From A Rose.

33) King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine (Domino)
For plaintive and disarming beauty, few albums could compete with this all too brief but thoroughly delightful collaboration between the eccentric Fife songwriter Kenny Anderson and film composer and arranger Jon Hopkins. Satisfyingly, this seems to have put to rest the brief but disconcerting drive to turn King Creosote into a bankable indie-crossover act. How much more affecting and honest his music is when it takes place in this kind of intimate, personal space. Diamond Mine provides the perfect setting for his peculiar musings (Diamond Mine may be the only album ever to contain a verse about the difficulty in gaining planning permission).

32) Low - C’Mon (Rough Trade)
Even by Low’s doggedly consistent high standards, C’Mon feels like something of a watermark recording. After a succession of detours through territory both more aggressive (The Great Destroyer) and more experimental (Drums and Guns), C’Mon returned them to their most accessible and familiar territory, reaffirming the fundamental strengths of their slow, repetitive songs and the beautiful blend of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s voices and the defiant simplicity of their performances. Yet, C’Mon felt fresh because of its brilliant, irresistible intensity.

31) Thundercat - The Golden Age Of Apocalypse (Brainfeeder)
In which the unfairly reviled fusion genre is reconstructed and modernised with mastery and effervescence. Few albums this year have been quite as overwhelming, quite as brazenly unfashionable or quite as fun as this effort from Flying Lotus’ bass player. It’s not just a set of rapid fire bass solos (Thundercat is astoundingly dexterous and is more than capable of turning the bass into a melodic, frontline instrument) - there is soul and fire in here too.

30) Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD)
Along with Radiohead’s King of Limbs, this probably ranks as among the most listened to albums of the year for me. Its polished diversions and unusual sounds may have proved too much for the Iron & Wine fan drawn in by Sam Beam’s acoustic ruminations, but I can’t help but admire Beam’s adaptability and willingness to absorb influences from outside the American folk tradition. His voice is stronger and more upfront now, although still charmingly understated and he remains a lyricist of peerless invention.

29) {Ma} - The Last (Loop)
Among top level US jazz musicians, a debate has been raging recently over the quality (or lack thereof) in contemporary jazz. Some have conservatively criticised the prevalence of hybrid forms, something increasingly common in the thriving London jazz scene. The Last seems to be a prime example of just how well hybrids can work - improvised music with reference to the jazz tradition but placed in vivid and compelling new contexts. The blend between Matt Calvert’s bristling electronics and Tom Challenger’s fluent, sometimes caustic improvising is brilliantly executed. The textures are multi-faceted and exciting and this feels like a complete work with a detailed, filmic quality.

28) Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
One of 2011’s most criminally ignored achievements, The Dissolve shared with the stunning Thundercat album unfashionable preoccupations with fusion, jazz-rock and heavy seventies funk. It addressed these concerns through the prism of UK bass music, in which area Boxcutter has been an underrated pioneer. The vocal tracks should perhaps have reached a wider audience, whilst the music here is consistently intricate, nuanced and forged with a great sense of enthusiasm and fun.

27) Bjork - Biophilia (One Little Indian)
These days, Bjork releases, whilst still infrequent and conceptually extravagant, have delivered something dependable, with a diminishing sense of the shock of the new. Perhaps, long into a career that has consistently hit the highest levels of artistry, we no longer have the right to expect the breaking of new ground. Biophilia attempts to change the way music is consumed and utilised - with its technological and educational dimensions. The music itself is more of what we’ve come to expect from Bjork - detached and intellectual whilst also wonderfully intimate and tender. The arrangements are superb, with Bjork reunited with the Icelandic choir that helped make Vespertine such a masterpiece. If anything, Biophilia is more of a grower, its tracks highly nuanced and taking a while to reveal their magic.

26) Mark Hanslip & Javier Carmona - DosadoS (Babel)
A refreshing improvised duo session, with Carmona’s free flowing textural percussion providing the perfect counterpoint for Hanslip’s eloquent, occasionally visceral saxophones. There’s a real empathy and understanding between these two musicians and the results - captured permanently on disc but never to be replicated - are thrilling.

25) Kathryn Calder - Bright & Vivid (File Under Music)
Still woefully under-promoted in the UK, Calder (a member of New Pornographers and of the sadly now defunct Immaculate Machine) is undergoing a remarkably rapid development as a solo artist. Are You My Mother? was an affecting and mature debut - but Bright & Vivid succeeds in making a bolder, more ambitious, more cinematic musical statement. Again, the songwriting is infectious, melodic and touching, and the arrangements and production detailed and clear. This is indie-pop without any of the regression and introversion that sometimes stifles the genre. It is bold and brilliantly executed songwriting.

24) Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
James Blake may have been the name to drop for downtempo electronica in 2011, but the more stealthy choice may have been this superb album from Nicolas Jaar, another impossibly young and prodigious musician in this field. With a childhood spent in Santiago and influences ranging from Satie to Mulatu Astatke, Space is Only Noise presented a poised balance between reflection and rhythm.

23) Hallock Hill - The Union/There He Unforeseen (Hallock Hill)
Tom Lecky’s two albums as Hallock Hill were prime examples of composition through improvisation. The Union was a meditative, haunting reflection made up of layered guitars whilst There He Unforeseen somehow both broadened the canvas and managed to create a more claustrophobic atmosphere. Lecky also has an assured and confident hand when it comes to complex and intricate structure. His music is beautiful, spacious and compelling.

22) James Blake - James Blake (A&M)
Few albums seemed to divide opinion quite as sharply as this debut long player from the much feted Blake. Perhaps the criticisms sprung from subconscious resentment - Blake is young, having only recently graduated from a Goldsmith’s music degree, tall and handsome, and had been given a big PR boost through the BBC sound of 2011 poll. There was also his frequent creative use of vocoder - something that fascinated some but irritated many (although it bears repeating that he wasn’t using the device as an autotune). Even without the technology, his voice is decidedly odd, yet appealing in its inherent vulnerability. The most cursory listen to this debut should establish Blake’s musicality - he has embraced the song form with as much thought and intuition as he did production at the edges of UK bass music. He’s a master of space and tranquility, two qualities so rarely found in contemporary mainstream music, and he clearly understands harmony very well. Repackaged later in the year with the broody, strange Enough Thunder EP (which included a collaboration with Bon Iver), the album became a substantial, impressive document.

21) Colin Stetson - New History Of Warfare Vol. 2 (Constellation)
Saxophonist of choice to the American indie scene (he has spent much of the year playing as part of the massive extended Bon Iver ensemble), Stetson is a hugely creative musician in his own right. Occupying a hinterland somewhere between jazz, improv and contemporary composition, this second part of the New History of Warfare series was compelling and imaginative. Stetson approaches his instrument more percussively than melodically, challenging convention and building a broad palette of sound.

The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 3: 60-41

2011-12-24T23:58:00.002Z

60) Julia Holter - Tragedy (Leaving Records)
This is a fantastic, beautiful record, but one that is very difficult to pin down. Free from restrictions, it appears to veer over a very wide terrain, incorporating fuzzy found sounds, moments of operatic grandeur, folk ballads, and Angelo Badalamenti/Julee Cruise cinematic eeriness. In spite of this open-minded spirit of enquiry, this album still sounds emotionally overwhelmed and somehow isolated and self contained. It’s a strange and remarkable achievement.

59) Avishai Cohen - Seven Seas (Blue Note)
Few musicians operating in jazz and improvised music have quite as advanced a sense of melody as Avishai Cohen. Everything he does is supremely lyrical - with a singing, resonant quality underlying it. Added to that is the powerful but lightly executed rhythmic drive of his band. Seven Seas is once again a memorable, touching album that melds the language of jazz with the traditions of various forms of folk music.

58) Machinedrum - Room(s) (Planet Mu)
For me, this was one of 2011’s most unsettling and disturbing albums, although it came wrapped up in the guise of energising club music. Still, there’s little denying its oppressive and murky textures (ingeniously constructed), or the restless and disorientating nature of its underlying rhythms. Like much of the post dubstep/footwork landscape, it makes superb use of the sound of the human voice - fragmented and manipulated in imaginative ways - but it also has a character and approach that is entirely distinctive.

57) Vijay Iyer with Prasanna & Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (ACT)
Although this is perhaps the most explicit investigation of Vijay Iyer’s roots in Indian traditional music, it is also a refined and empathetic collaboration between three musicians with shared concerns and musical vocabulary. It is a brilliantly relaxed and exploratory venture - full of both innovation and heritage and effortlessly flowing. It sounds completely unforced - much more a natural meeting of minds.

56) Destroyer - Kaputt (Dead Oceans)
Vancouver’s Dan Bejar, also a non-touring member of Canadian supergroup New Pornographers, has been recording strange, dense and allusive music under the Destroyer name for some time now, although Kaputt is probably the first of his albums to gain significant attention in the UK. His lyrics remain surreal and verbose, whilst the music here seems like an homage to the lusher, more detailed end of 80s pop (Roxy Music, Scritti Politti, early Talk Talk). If it initially sounds dated, repeated plays reveal a deft and clever creation, with Bejar expending time and a great deal of care on every small detail.

55) Keith Jarrett - Rio (ECM)
Perhaps this should be higher up the list - there are places where it hits the dizzy heights of Jarrett’s most inspirational solo performance work. Yet there is also the lingering sense that recorded examples of Jarrett’s solo concerts are now so plentiful as to have made them seem somehow less special. Then there’s the infuriating issue of ECM’s exorbitant CD prices (£19 - £22 for this double set in most stores and no download available). Still, there’s no escaping the spiritual thrill of his rolling, urgent vamps or some of his wilder flourishes. Rio also has its moments of calm and considered reflection - almost as if Jarrett is pondering an entire career spent in the riskiest performance environment of all.

54)Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (Drag City)
Apocalypse intitially sounded like one of Bill Callahan’s more otiose and obtuse works, but an utterly spellbinding performance at London’s Barbican Centre, in which the creative, improvising drummer Neal Morgan played as significant a role as Callahan himself, brought these songs into sharper relief. It’s a brilliant, tumbling, expressive work - one of Callahan’s most musically and narratively bold.

53) Micachu & The Shapes with London Sinfonietta - Chopped & Screwed (Rough Trade)
This live concert recording of Mica Levi’s collaboration with the wonderful London Sinfonietta (one of this country’s greatest musical assets) is every bit as weird, dislocated, dissonant and invigorating as one might expect. Even the most wayward and fuzzy ideas are somehow carefully calculated and the unconventional ensemble sounds carefully integrated, although often markedly disorientating in sound and effect.

52)Dean McPhee - Son of the Black Peace (Blast First Petite)
This is an exquisite collection of solo electric guitar pieces, drenched in enough reverb to make it sound as it if were recorded in a grand cathedral. It is one of those solo albums that genuinely does sound isolated and individual - mostly tranquil, but also sometimes imbued with a fragile, brittle tension. McPhee eschews unnecessary displays of virtuosity, instead always aiming for mood and feeling.

51) Nils Frahm - Felt (Erased Tapes)
Nils Frahm and Anne Muller - 7fingers (Erased Tapes)
The German musician and composer Nils Frahm has been involved in not just one, but two wonderful albums in 2011. Felt is probably the most significant - a brilliantly touching and intimate album of calm and considered reveries, on which Frahm mutes the strings of his piano with thick felt. It is subtle and demanding, but also hugely rewarding. 7fingers, a collaboration with the cellist Anne Muller, is a superb, highly creative balancing act between the modern and the traditional. It has been unfairly neglected in the light of Frahm’s achievement with Felt.

50) Sully - Carrier (Keysound)
So much has been made of the post-dubstep landscape that this wonderful album surprised by reaffirming the classic sample and bass-heavy dubstep sound, with plenty of references back to UK garage too. In the album’s second half, he does show awareness of the prevailing trend for Chicago ‘juke’ or footwork rhythms, but in this case it is more successfully subsumed into a distinctively British sound. Carrier is a crisp, clean, focused and consistent set.

49) Bill Frisell and 858 Quartet - Sign of Life (SLG)
Frisell’s first recording with this group, inspired by a series of Gerhard Richter paintings, was one of the great guitarist’s more abrasive ventures. It gave little notice of the deceptive simplicity and staggering beauty of Sign of Life. The sense emerging here is that the 858 Quartet, with violin, cello, bass and Frisell on electric guitar, is essentially a contemporary chamber ensemble. The music traverses the great American musical landscape, from Reich, Copland, Adams and Ives to The Impressions by way of the Delta Blues singers. With its delicate themes recurring in the form of echoes and embellishments, Sign of Life feels like a coherent suite of music.

48) Bon Iver - Bon Iver (4AD)
This widescreen, meticulously arranged piece of rock composition inevitably divided opinion this year. Moving so far beyond the intimate, highly charged personal confessions of For Emma would always be controversial - but how much more exciting this is than any kind of forced attempt to repeat the unrepeatable. Arguably a little too much attention was given to the Peter Cetera of Phil Collins-esque closing track Beth, Rest. Much of the rest of this music is haunting and beautiful as well as epic, although there is the lingering sense that any kind of spontaneity and excitement has been forced out through Vernon’s almost obsessive sense of organisation. It will be interesting to see where he goes next - Bon Iver is so brilliantly crafted as to leave a suspicion that it would be difficult to take this compositional approach any further.

47) Khyam Allami - Resonance/Dissonance (Nawa Recordings)
Initially a drummer, but now justly regarded as a great exponent of the oud, Khyam Allami made one of the year’s great solo instrumental albums (and there have been many of those this year - see also Taborn, Simcock, Mehldau, Hallock Hill, Dean McPhee etc). His music is graceful and sounds effortless, but is also prone to rapid and intense flurries of activity. With a beautiful balance of composition and improvisation, this is a work proudly displaying traditional Middle Eastern influences, but also utterly unconcerned with genre restrictions.

46) Kit Downes Trio - Quiet Tiger (Basho)
When is a trio not a trio? Emboldened by the presence of various guest musicians, not least the inspired, adventurous reedsman James Allsopp (who also plays with Downes in the fiery Golden Age of Steam project), much of Quiet Tiger is at the very least a Quartet project. It’s a refreshing and satisfying departure from the reflective tone of Downes’ Mercury-nominated debut, demonstrating that he is a consummate musician with the ideas to match his phenomenal technique. Quiet Tiger is an album where the listener would be right to expect the unexpected.

45) The Weather Station - All Of It Was Mine (You’ve Changed)
Operating in a similar space to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings or The Be Good Tanyas, The Weather Station produce a more modest take on traditional American folk. This is a minimal but richly empathetic album, utterly unforced and delivered without any extraneous elements.

44) Aquarium - Aquarium (Babel)
This first album from the gifted pianist and Royal Academy of Music graduate Sam Leak proved to be one of the year’s most stylistically varied and exciting British jazz releases. Leak is a sophisticated composer with a clear ability with melody and harmony. Yet he’s also clearly inspired by the wilder possibilities of improvisation and rhythm. With Aquarium he has formed a superb ensemble that is deep in expression and nuance.

43) Joe Lovano - Bird Songs (Blue Note)
Joe Lovano imbues everything he does not just with his peerless articulacy but also his highly individual, bold and vibrant sound. Now joining Django Bates in a growing group of contemporary jazz musicians suddenly keen to revisit the legacy of Charlie Parker, Lovano has taken the spirit of Bird but brilliantly adapted it for his excellent current ensemble Us Five. The results are fluent and exciting, a reminder of how important the history of this music is for its contemporary practitioners, but also a living, breathing and fresh document in its own right.

42) Dalglish - Benacah Drann Deachd (Highpoint Lowlife)
An album I’ve very quickly regretted not purchasing immediately on release as it appears to have all but disappeared, at least in its digital form. Still, this must be Dalglish’s finest work so far, a deft combination of lingering atmospherics and high frequency sonic attack. It is some of the year’s most unsettling and nervy music.

41) John Taylor - Requiem For A Dreamer (CamJazz)
Still one of the most sophisticated and innovative composers in British jazz, John Taylor has here unveiled a mature and deeply felt set of music dedicated to the late, great American writer Kurt Vonnegut. A brilliant example of how other art forms such as literature can serve as extra-musical inspiration, Requiem For A Dreamer is richly melodic and characteristically subtle. Taylor’s trio with Palle Daniellson and Martin France is communicative and light of touch, whilst the presence of Julian Arguelles on saxophones adds weight, attack and melodic potency. Splendid.

The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 2: 80-61

2011-12-24T23:47:00.003Z

80) Andy Stott - Passed Me By/We Stay Together (Modern Love)
These two EPs/mini albums were repackaged together as one long album towards the end of the year. Bass heavy and influenced by dub, but in an altogether distinctive space of its own, Passed Me By is singularly detached and agitated, filtering soul, reggae and r&b through all manner of abstract textural intrusions.

79) Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
The hazy dub of Peaking Lights proved to be one of 2011’s more straightforward pleasures, and one that did a great deal to enhance the reputation of the Not Not Fun label. The cascading, incandescent sound of much of 936 is immersive. Whilst the duo tend to eschew verse-chorus song structure, there were plenty of imaginative vocal hooks here too.

78) Sidi Toure - Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
Sahel Folk was the first internationally distributed album in sixteen years from the artist hailed by Bassekou Kouyate as a ‘worthy successor to Ali Farka Toure’. Sahel Folk is a series of duos with a variety of collaborators, and this setting seems to suit Sidi remarkably well. The music is relaxed, sensitive, unshowy and unobtrusive but also quietly authoritative.

77) Six Organs Of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain (Drag City)
This may have been overlooked simply by being one of Ben Chasny’s most inviting and least foreboding albums under the Six Organs moniker. It’s mostly an album of soft drones and calm reveries that have a cumulatively hypnotic effect. Chasny may be at his least provocative here, but he is also at his most musically eloquent and articulate.

76) Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel)
A great example of where freedom and flexibility meet discipline and control, Twelves’ second album is both supple and fascinating. With new guitarist Rob Updegraff adding a gritty, incisive undertow to the ensemble sound, The Adding Machine further develops the group’s inspired balance of knotty compositions, melodic development and turbulent free improvisation. A strong sense of narrative is apparent throughout.

75) Deerhoof - Deerhoof Vs. Evil (ATP)
Having already achieved so much, there seems to be little that Deerhoof can do now save for repeating themselves, although each release now seems to veer further towards what might be described as accessible pop territory. There’s still plenty of infectious quirkiness here though, and the band are as innovative as always with rhythm. With every release, their sound gets crisper and more dynamic.

74) Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
Spaceape is less of a rapper and more of a surrealist storyteller. When paired with the claustrophobic soundscapes of Kode9, his words assume an even greater potency. Black Sun is another album to veer beyond the conventions of UK bass music and microgenre classifications, often emphasising texture more than the lower end frequencies. Over on musicOMH, I described the effect of Black Sun as being a kind of ‘disaster idealism’ - a dystopian urban vision tinged with the hope that something better and more sustainable will emerge.

73) Kairos 4tet - Statement Of Intent (Edition)
Remarkably now winners of the MOBO award for best jazz act, Kairos 4tet have had a busy, impressive year. That all this has been achieved as a result of an album considerably subtler and more refined than its urgent, memorable predecessor is all the more satisfying. Now with Ivo Neame’s graceful, considered touch on the piano, and still benefiting hugely from the experienced, empathetic rhythm section of Jasper Hoiby and Jon Scott, Adam Waldmann’s compositions have taken elegiac and unpredictable turns here.

72) Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
Steven Adams has managed to weather the quiet storm of the Broken Family Band split with consummate ease, forming a new band and simply getting on with business as usual. Singing Adams (initially a solo side project but now a band of the same name) inevitably share some qualities with BFB - Adams’ barbed humour and his deft hand with a tune being one. Some of the shuffly or chuggy rhythmic urgency remains too. But there’s also a sense that Everybody Friends Now is a less forthright, more reflective affair - perhaps the start of Adams’ maturity as a singer-songwriter. He certainly deserves more attention.

71) Outhouse & Hilmar Jenssen - Straw, Sticks & Bricks (Babel)
The Loop Collective’s flagship band continue their brilliant explorations of groove, texture and communication here, this time working in collaboration with Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jenssen. Jenssen adds an air of menace and threat, whilst the band sound increasingly confident and controlled. The album is often brooding and mysterious but also fleet-footed and intuitive.

70) Rustie - Glass Swords (Warp)
Of all the wild electronic music released in 2011, Rustie’s long awaited debut album came brimming with the most fun. This is a sly, insanely over the top stew of retro synthesisers and modern awkwardness that is unashamedly entertaining. As the year draws to a close, it seems, perhaps surprisingly, to have moved outside genre circles to be picked up by major publications such as The Guardian.

69) Clams Casino - Instrumentals (Type)
2011 seems to have been the year of the ‘mixtape’ (even as I write this, singer-songwriter Marques Toliver has just unleashed his own rather splendid series of mash-ups), compilations of material released online, usually for free. Perhaps this format is where we’re headed in this new technological age - ‘albums’ becoming less important, but ‘selections’ of material both old and new becoming increasingly prevalent. This was a selection of beats that Mike Volpe sent to various rappers - but it’s pretty much like nothing in hip hop right now - and completely far from being generic. Although it’s termed a set of instrumentals - one of those instruments is certainly the sampled human voice, of which Volpe makes highly creative use. Much of this music is bold, intense and brilliantly arranged.

68) Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (Domino)
Will Oldham’s music seems to assume greater subtlety as he enters his mature period. After the red herring of the direct and bold opener No Match, much of Wolfroy Goes To Town is so subdued as to almost be vaporous. Whilst it’s one of his least immediate recordings to date, it does yield significant rewards. The highlight for me is the wonderful, quietly evocative New Whaling, a song largely unlike anything else he has recorded so far. Overall, this may be the best result of his experiments with female vocalists so far, the balance of the voices being remarkably complementary.

67) Moritz Von Oswald - Horizontal Structures (Honest Jon’s)
Horizontal Structures made for a marked contrast with Oswald’s previous trio release, the more propulsive Vertical Ascent. If the music here was more challenging and less immediate, it proved equally successful on its own terms. Horizontal Structures mostly eschews rhythm in favour of stark textures and rumbling undertones. These sound collages mix found sound, live instrumentation, improvisation and programming to brilliant effect.

66) Hiss Golden Messenger - Poor Moon/From Country Hai East Cotton (Black Maps/Paradise of Bachelors)
Although clearly informed by the American folk tradition, there’s something extra - something more intuitive and mysterious - about MC Taylor’s work as Hiss Golden Messenger, much of which finally saw the light of day here in the UK in 2011. From Country Hai East Cotton was a delicate and vulnerable affair, patiently unfolding and admirably understated in its execution, but with some lush string arrangements and a soulful vibe. Much has been written about Taylor’s understanding of bluegrass and folk - but less seems to have been written about the soulful side of his music, which echoes writers such as Dan Penn and Tony Joe White. His language is rich and evocative and his delivery soft and almost conversational. These two albums are an absolute delight.

65) Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
Given the impact wearemonster had a few years ago, it’s bewildering just how ignored this latest, supposedly long-awaited Isolee album has been. Perhaps it’s too straightforward and lacks cultural currency in an electronic world that has been dominated by bass music trends in the period between Isolee albums. On the other hand, it really ought to be invigorating to hear an electronic album with rather different concerns. Well Spent Youth strikes me as being thoroughly enjoyable, and rich in melody and a careful ear for sound. It’s depressing when albums this strong are dismissed by those demanding an instant classic.

64) Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
This austere but thrilling album from Toronto’s David Psutka felt like an artist challenging himself and rising even above his already lofty reputation (at least within bass music circles). In fact, Bible Eyes is largely free from dubstep cliche - instead reaching into other areas of minimal electronic music. It’s a confident, refreshingly consistent album.

63) The Decemberists - The King Is Dead (Rough Trade)
This is the sort of unassuming, straightforwardly decent album that is all too easy to neglect when making these round-up lists, especially as it was released very early in the year. Still, it’s worth noting that this is a rare case of a ‘reaction’ album actually working very well - it’s a definite retrenchment after the theatrical excesses of The Hazards of Love. It’s a real reminder of Colin Meloy’s narrative and melodic gifts as a songwriter, and the playing is frequently marvellous, including a guest appearance from Peter Buck.

62) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
It’s immensely satisfying that Annie Clark’s odd, angular take on pop music seems to have reached a surprisingly wide audience this year. For all of Strange Mercy’s tricksiness, it also comes armed with some superb hooks and melodies, even if Clark often tries to hide this by dressing them in very elaborate, unpredictable arrangements. Clark is adept at using the studio to its full potential.

61) Mara Carlyle - Floreat (Ancient and Modern)
The long-awaited Floreat (first shelved by EMI as far back as 2008) makes me wish I had taken more notice of Mara Carlyle much earlier. She is an idiosyncratic and bold singer-songwriter, keen to explore a wide variety of musical spaces. There are hints of early jazz and show tune stylings - but also a decidedly modern touch and approach. Carlyle has a bite and a sense of humour that brilliantly undercuts her more florid, theatrical moments.

The 100 (and a bit) Best Albums of 2011 Part 1: 100-81

2011-12-24T17:28:00.003Z

100) Feist - Metals (Polydor)
Metals didn’t quite have the same personal impact on me that The Reminder had (save for The Bad In Each Other, a truly remarkable song placed first that rather overshadows the rest of the album). That said, it was still a remarkably refined and controlled offering full of exceptional songwriting. Occasionally, it veered out into rawer, less polished territory, with intriguing results.

99) Cornershop - And The Double-O Groove Of (Ample Play)
These days, Cornershop seem entirely comfortable with their status as more-or-less one hit wonders. Brimful of Asha hardly seems to be an albatross around their necks. Rather, it has freed them to veer off in more artistically fruitful directions. In fact, this collaboration with Bubbley Kaur may be the highlight of their career. The fusion of traditional Indian sounds with funky grooves is surprisingly successful.

98) Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou (World Circuit)
Although born in the Ivory Coast and of Malian heritage, Fatoumata Diawara now resides in Paris and this may explain the refreshingly diverse, cosmopolitan and summery sound she achieves on this delightful album. It’s one of the most accessible albums to have emerged from the World Circuit staple in recent years - immediate, light and catchy - but this is by no means a criticism. Diawara seems brilliantly assured and her vibrant songs deserve a wide audience.

97) The Field - Looping State of Mind (Kompakt)
Axel Willner here continued his persistent explorations of repetition and cumulative intensity. Yet with every release as The Field, he continues to give the sound a slight new twist. Looping State of Mind has ratcheted up the intensity and energy levels to offer something yet more muscular and insistent.

96) Tyshawn Sorey - Oblique 1 (Pi)
Sorey is one of New York’s most astonishing, visionary drummers, having concocted the sort of rhythmic support that seems so proficient as to be near-physically impossible for the likes of Steve Lehman, Fieldwork, and Steve Coleman. This is his first album as bandleader (his solo work Koan is an entirely different beast altogether), and the work shows him to be an intelligent composer as well as a gifted musician. Sorey studied with Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan University, and Oblique 1 demonstrates a contemporary approach to composition, perhaps inspired by musicians such as Henry Threadgill, in which cells and intervals are the founding blocks for development rather than melodic lines. By Sorey’s own description, many of these pieces are ‘strategies for improvisation’, and the resulting performances are turbulent and inspired.

95) Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Wichita)
This collaboration between Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater Kinney and Mary Timony ended up being much greater than simply a Sleater Kinney album minus Corin Tucker. Anything powered by Janet Weiss’ irresistible snare drum thwack is always going to be an enjoyable listen - but Wild Flag distinguished themselves by adopting a poppier approach. Many of these songs are blisteringly exciting but also memorable and enduring.

94) Kuedo - Severant (Planet Mu)
Former Vex’d member Jamie Teasdale’s first album as Kuedo shares with Zomby’s Dedication a rather fuzzy sensibility - a series of auditory hallucinations perhaps, or vivid dreams, although it is not as boldly fragmentory as the Zomby album. Throughout, there’s a nostalgia for sci-fi visions of the future that never quite arrived, and Vangelis’ work, particularly for Blade Runner, appears to have been a major source of inspiration.

93) SBTRKT - SBTRKT (Young Turks)
Of all the albums to emerge from the post-dubstep landscape, this is actually one of the most conventional. This, however, turns out to be its refreshing virtue. Working with a range of guest vocalists, SBTRKT works as something close to a pop producer here, and the resulting work shows a great deal of respect for the song, as well as a drive for sonic experimentation. There is a clear sense of intention throughout and the results are immediate and soulful but not overly dazzling.

92) Meg Baird - Seasons On Earth (Wichita)
I had rather casually and unfairly dismissed Meg Baird and Espers because of their association with Devendra Banhart, a musician I’m afraid I’ve never been able to take entirely seriously. This has been a big mistake, for Seasons on Earth is one of the most honest and affecting folk albums in recent memory, one that continues to grow with every listen. Baird’s voice is understated but perfect for this style, and her songs are delicate but beautiful. She is also versatile here, moving from lightness to emphatic authority with apparent ease.

91) CANT - Dreams Come True (Warp)
This side project from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor may lack the meticulous compositional design and rich harmonies of his parent band, but it more than compensates for that with other examples of musical invention. By simplifying the writing, Taylor is freer to experiment with sound design, instrumentation and texture, the results of which take him some way from Grizzly Bear’s modern folk-tinged psychedelia.

90) Africa Hitech - 93 Million MIles (Warp)
Why has this one slipped through unnoticed? This collaboration between Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek takes slices of post-dubstep and footwork and reworks them through the prism of sleek soul. There’s a really great spirit of exploration here - finding the connections between various examples of human rhythmic experience and electronic production techniques.

89) Cass McCombs - Wit’s End/Humor Risk (Domino)
Cass McCombs has been remarkably prolific and I’d rather lost touch with his output after A, a debut I felt showed some unrealised potential. His music has become considerably less ragged since then. Indeed, County Line from Wit’s End is essentially a soft rock ballad (but an utterly brilliant one) and the production on Humor Risk is crisp and clear. McCombs is still a minimalist at heart - his songs often have little in the way of structure, preferring to repeat phrases and lines until they become very well ingrained in the memory. These two albums together do feel like his strongest burst of creativity yet but, like Ryan Adams, he may need an editor.

88) Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure (Software)
Increasingly one of the most discussed and influential musicians at work today, Daniel Lopatin’s journey towards the critical and perhaps even commercial mainstream has been somewhat remarkable. Replica and Channel Pressure saw him journey yet further from the Tangerine Dream-esque dronescapes that made his name, incorporating sound effects, TV advertisement samples and rhythmic trickery, all in the service of his ingenious play on reconstruction, memory and recall. The retro stylings of Channel Pressure ought by rights to be horrifying - yet they are somehow completely irresistible. Any album with a song title like Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me) must revel in its own irony and gleeful subversion and Channel Pressure does exactly that.

87) A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Erased Tapes)
This collaboration between the Californian pianist Dustin O’Halloran and Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie has a rather European flavour to it, as well as an overriding sense of melancholy reflection. It’s a sensitive, patient beast - and one of the most haunting and beautiful releases to have emerged from the wonderful ‘post-classical’ staple on Erased Tapes.

86) John Escreet - Exception To The Rule (Criss Cross)
John Escreet is a musician I’ve only approached very recently (having seen his bizarre and compelling opening piano set at the Henry Threadgill show at this year’s London Jazz Festival). I need to spend a great deal more time with Exception to the Rule before I’m in any real position to assess it properly - but on first few experiences, it seems that Escreet is as unconventional a composer as he is a player, juxtaposing extremes for strange and disorientating effect. His touchstones must surely be the great avant-garde piano players (Cecil Taylor and perhaps Paul Bley) but he also seems to an intellectual, considered approach with his contemporary Craig Taborn. The ensemble here includes the great David Binney and the incredibly musical drummer Nasheet Waits - these two musicians alone are prime ingredients for an inspired session, There’s a subtle element of electronic sound here too which is fresh and exciting.

85) Battles - Gloss Drop (Warp)
‘Battles without Tyondai Braxton is like cereal without milk’, so I proudly declared on Twitter when learning of the departure of the group’s nominal frontman. Too often, Braxton has been desribed as the group’s former vocalist, when in fact his musical contributions were equally significant, not least his compositional flair. Without him, the remaining power trio is surprisingly effective. Much of this music is Battles stripped down to its fundamentals, powerful, attacking and imposing. It still grooves righteously, and some of the guest vocalists prove inspired choices (even Gary Numan).

84) Roly Porter - Aftertime (Subtext)
Listen to this next to Kuedo’s Severant and it is hard to believe that the two artists were once both part of Vex’d. Whereas Jamie has gone down the Vangelis-inspired cinematic synth route with Kuedo, Roly Porter has here produced something altogether more uncompromising and decidedly uncommercial. To call this album downbeat would be misleading, as that at least implies some sort of rhythmic impetus. Instead, it is mournful, perhaps even dark - characterised by drones and sustained sounds and often confidently confrontational.

83) Ambrose Akinmusire - When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
Still only 28 years old, Ambrose Akinmusire (who played with Steve Coleman from the age of 19) emerges as a fully formed mature talent on this debut album as a bandleader. There is an immense outpouring of energy, passion and soul on this collection, as well as a fearsome technical proficiency. The set neatly juxtaposes fiery exposition with moments of resonant beauty. With the talents of Walter Smith III, Gerald Clayton, Justin Brown and Harish Raghavan also involved (and with the great pianist Jason Moran producing), this is something of a dream team from this new generation of American jazz pioneers.

82) Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light Vol.1 (Southern Lord)
More of the beautiful same from Dylan Carlson - slow, patient, epic doom rock and windswept desert blues. As with other recent Earth releases, there is a delicious tension underpinning these five long pieces. Some subtle differences occur due to the sweeping presence of cellist Lori Goldston. Carlson remains a brilliantly selective musician, making the space as important as the limited number of notes. Volume 2 is coming early in 2012.

81) Phil Robson - The Immeasurable Code (Whirlwind Recordings)
This impressive Anglo-American ensemble features the superb, mellifluous saxophonist Mark Turner, virtuosic flautist Gareth Lockrane, bassist Michael Janisch and drummer Ernesto Simpson. The result, recorded live, is a combination of imperious groove from a crackling rhythm section and fluent, lengthy improvised lines from Robson, Turner and Lockrane. A tremendous, highly underrated ensemble gem.

Albums of the Year 2011: Honourable Mentions

2011-12-20T21:33:00.006Z

First of all, sorry for not posting anything here since 1802.

For anyone who has not followed my writing elsewhere, my albums of the year list this year will appear from out of nowhere. I wish I had time to write about everything I've heard and enjoyed this year, but it's just not possible, especially given that my focus increasingly lies elsewhere (this has been a pretty big transitional year).

Here are some albums that, had I been in a slightly different mood, might easily have made my top 100 this year but, in the end, have lost out. The final list will appear here some time between tomorrow and Christmas Day, but I've still got a fair amount of work to do on it.

Wilco - The Whole Love (I agonised about this - Art of Almost and One Sunday Morning are two of the best songs this remarkable band have yet produced, but much of the ornate Beatles and Stones-y stuff in between doesn't quite do it for me).

Ry Cooder - Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (a fine album but not on the level of Chavez Ravine or the Chieftains collaboration in the latterday Cooder stakes)

Olafur Arnalds - Living Room Songs (lovely, as always with Arnalds, but I've included certain other examples of the neoclassical genre).

Jenny Hval - Viscera (still deciding exactly what I think of this very weird, possibly wonderful record).

LV & Joshua Idehen - Routes
JuJu - In Sound
Tamikrest - Toumastin
Alex Garnett - Serpent
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet
Master Musicians of Bukkake - Totem Three
Sebastian Rochford and Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Zun Zun Egui - Katang
Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin’
Matthewdavid - Outmind
Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
Pat Metheny - What’s It All About
Fringe Magnetic - Twistic
Atlas Sound - Parallax
Matthew Shipp - Art of the Improviser
Gyratory System - New Harmony
Container - lp
Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What (lovely in places, but I'm not sure it's quite as good as everyone is making out. To be honest, I'd rather listen to the unfairly maligned Hearts and Bones).

Majiker - The House of Bones

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Mirror Traffic (definitely his crispest, most enjoyable post-Pavement album since the debut, well worth a listen)

Shelby Lynne - Revelation Road

The Roots - Undun (I've listened to very little hip hop this year and am not sure where to place this. On first few listens I'm intrigued).

TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light
Sam Crowe Group - Flood Tide

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (I really liked this on release, but haven't listened to it for quite a while now)

Metronomy - The English Riviera
Peter Gabriel - New Blood
Me’Shell Ndegeocello - Weather
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything’s Getting Older
How To Dress Well - Love Remains
White Denim - D
White Denim - Last Days of Summer
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
Bibio - Mind Bokeh
Panda Bear - Tomboy
13 & God - Own Your Ghost
Dark Dark Dark - Wild Go
Youth Lagoon - The Year Of Hibernation
The Necks - Mindset
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know (by far her best yet and pretty much enough to convert me)

The Weeknd - House of Balloons/Thursday (an astonishing word of mouth hipster success this year - do I actually like it? I'm not sure)

Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tell Me

Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (Glass Jar is amazing - what comes after kinda doesn't quite match it).

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jams
The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh

Wild Beasts - Smother (I admire them for doing something different, but I can't quite get into it - at the very least, I'd rather listen to the bands that supposedly inspired it - Talk Talk, Japan etc)

Washed Out - Within and Without
Cindytalk - Hold Everything Dear
Goldmund - All Will Prosper
Pete Swanson - Man With Potential
The Leisure Society - Into The Murky Water
Martyn - Ghost People
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Other Lives - Tamer Animals
Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
Junior Boys - It's All True
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part 1

musicOMH Reviews

2011-08-13T15:59:00.003+01:00

I should also take the time to post links to some of my musicOMH pieces. It may seem like it has been a bit quite around these parts recently, but this is mainly why! I must get a system in place where I can link to musicOMH reviews as they are published.

Nat Baldwin - People Changes
Junior Boys - It's All True
{Ma} - The Last
Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Pat Metheny - What It's All About
Sebastian Rochford & Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Destroyer - Kaputt
JuJu - In Trance
The Impossible Gentlemen - The Impossible Gentlemen
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - The 1st Album
Roy Harper - Songs Of Love & Loss Vols. 1 & 2
Thomas Dybdahl - Songs
Three Trapped Tigers - Route One Or Die
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister
Murcof - Le Sangre Illuminada OST
13 & God - Own Your Ghost
Chrissy Murderbot - Women's Studies
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
Tamikrest - Toumastin
Boxcutter - The Dissolve
Jenny Hval - Viscera
Marius Neset - Golden Xplosion
Kode9 & Spaceape - Black Sun
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Phaedra - The Sea
Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now
Outhouse - Straw, Sticks & Bricks
Sebadoh - Bakesale (Reissue)

Anonymity

2011-08-13T15:24:00.002+01:00

Zomby - Dedication (4AD)

Who is Zomby? I ask this question not simply because of his commitment to concealing his identity (his real name has never been given out and he masks his face in publicity shots). I also ask it because of the often confounding nature of the music he makes under a consistent alias. Dedication is his second full-length album, but YouTube and other internet platforms are cluttered with other tracks, some half-formed, some fully-flegded, that have never been officially released. By this stage, it's quite clear that he cannot simply be categorised as a 'post-dubstep' artist, or any such fatuous classification critics might use when they are unable to find adequate language to describe music. If Where Were You In 92? offered a sincere paen to the hardcore and rave eras, Dedication is attempting something very different.

Commentary on this album seems to have been beleaguered by a lack of understanding. It has been dismissed in some quarters as being overly fragmented or incomplete. For sure, the tracks are often brief and many end abruptly and unexpectedly. Yet if Dedication really is a response to grief - the loss of a love one - then the artistic approach adopted here seems to be wholly justified. One's emotions at such a time are often not easily defined or reduced to something coherent and simple. Dedication is a complex beast, flitting rapidly between a variety of styles, colours, textures, atmospheres and emotions. Such techniques are common in acoustic improvised music (although admittedly usually over much more sustained forms), but not so often explored within electronica, with its inevitably more limited dynamic range.

With the music on Dedication, Zomby has found fascinating and original ways of compensating for the music's lack of acoustic properties. Although there are certainly some well-worn influences here (Vangelis, hints at early electronic pioneers such as Daphne Oram), Zomby's work here appears to offer some clear routes away from post-dubstep cul de sacs. It is rhythmically interesting, and predictably dominated by the effects of sound and texture, but melody and harmony are also restored to a prominent place. Sometimes the music here sounds dislocated, withdrawn and distant, sometimes it sounds surprisingly and welcomingly intimate (especially on Natalia's Song).

Although it is fragmented, it is clearly intended to be approached and digested as a whole, rather than through its individual segments. It is completely out of step with the download, attention deficit era. It has a sense of mostly wordless, musical honesty and candour that demands attention and serious consideration. Sometimes it is its briefest moments that provide the greatest interest - I love the melancholy effect of the percussion sounds on Salamander and the pads on Lucifer. Taken individually, these tracks might seem slight, but within the context of the album as a whole, they are potent and imaginative.

Albums such as Dedication remind me that, although I am a committed acoustic musician, there is much to be learned from the techniques used by electronic producers and much to be appreciated and enjoyed. Listen to the polyrhythmic approach on Digital Rain - a track that manages to be at once musically creative, contemplative and gently humorous. Here and on the wonderful A Devil Lay Here, Zomby brilliantly creates emotional impact from the most detached and ambivalent of sounds.

Dedication may only be fully appreciated with the passing of time, something that is rare for the often more immdediate, constantly flucuating trends of electronic music (I fully confess that I cannot keep up with them). It is one of 2011's most underrated releases.

Playlist

2011-07-22T10:52:00.003+01:00

I've been out in Vermont recording with Adrian Roye and the Exiles and the amazing Michael Chorney, so listening recently has partially been inspired by him:

Michael Chorney - Oom-Pah of the Ghost Parade
Michael Chorney - Songs In Secret Ink
Anais Mitchell - Hymns For The Exiled
Anais Mitchell - The Brightness
Becca Stevens - Weightless (2011)
Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake - You Stepped Out of a Cloud
Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Nice Guys
Lhasa - The Living Road
Jenny Scheinman - Crossing The Field

Also some listening inspired by Portishead's ATP event this weekend:
Portishead - Third
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Beak> - Beak>

Contemporary:
Mark Hanslip and Javier Carmona - DosadoS
Zomby - Dedication
Ambrose Akinmusire - When the Heart Emerges Glistening
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Ma - The Last
Nat Baldwin - People Change
Seb Rochford and Pamelia Kurstin - Ouch Evil Slow Hop
Pat Metheny - What's It All About
Memory Tapes - Player Piano
Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
Battles - Gloss Drop

She's An Artist, She Don't Look Back?

2011-05-25T12:53:00.003+01:00

Kate Bush - Director's Cut (EMI)

By audaciously re-recording and repackaging tracks from two albums in her back catalogue, Kate Bush seems to have caused some consternation. First, it's astonishing that in spite of being told that the new material from Kate Bush was not going to be a new album as such, many people still seemed to be expecting exactly that. Secondly, and more significantly, why do so may people seem to think revisiting material from the past is such a musical crime? Jazz musicians do so all the time, not just in re-interpreting the standard repertoire, but in reworking their own material. Wayne Shorter has recorded Footprints several times with a variety of ensembles. I see no reason for a song to be a solid, locked in artefact once it has been recorded. Why can it not be a living, breathing artefact, open to new performances and arrangements as time passes? Bob Dylan has long understood this very well.

Another subjective issue in any asssessment of Director's Cut is the apparent consensus that The Sensual World and The Red Shoes (the two albums from which these tracks are sourced) are the weakest and least admired of Bush's albums. I've never quite understood why this might be. For sure, Hounds of Love set an impressive conceptual and artistic standard - but I've always found an embarrassment of riches across these albums, even when they apparently present Bush at her most conventional. Her songwriting has been consistently strong.

Clearly, there were elements in the production and arrangement of this material that Bush herself was never happy with - Director's Cut has afforded her the chance to go back and make alterations. Some of these are very minor, pedantic changes. Others are massively significant. The result is an album that probably has little chance of rising to the top of fans' favourites, but which offers a brilliant case study of Kate Bush's artistic temperament and attention to detail - and, most interestingly of all perhaps, evidence of the change in timbre in her voice since the original tracks were recorded.

This change is immediately clear on Flower of the Mountain, a new version of The Sensual World in which Bush has finally been given permission to use Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's Ulysees. Her voice seems older, perhaps wiser but also less adventurous somehow. Other than the new vocal, there isn't a lot of difference between this new version and the original, and I have to admit that the original sounded more erotic and involving to my ears. It sounds rather as if Bush is struggling to adapt the song to the words she always wanted to use. Her own actually worked more effectively. There are other alterations that seem to spoil the atmosphere of the original songs too - Lily is transformed into a rather lumbering funk-rock track, with superfluous streams of distorted guitar. It actually sounded less dated in its original guise.

Perhaps the most significant change throughout is the drums. These often seemed over-produced on the original albums, but here she has captured a much more natural, warm and acoustic drum sound. This comes across particularly clearly on the wonderful new versions of Deeper Understanding and Song of Solomon. The latter is a great example of how very subtle modifications can have a tremendous impact. The backing vocals of the Trio Bulgarka much clearer, and it has a tremendously detailed mood. The vocoder section of Deeper Understanding (featuring Bush's son Bertie) has caused some controversy. It perhaps makes the song sound less futuristic and even more of its time, however prescient it was when first released. Bush's tale of computer addiction has very much been borne out in the internet age. The mysterious, wordless extended coda, with its lithe, expressive drum pattern, is simply magnificent.

The most substantial changes are sure to divide opinion. This Woman's Work, among her most loved songs, and something of a power ballad in its original form, has been completely transformed into an Eno-esque, spacey, ambient lament. It tugs on the heartstrings a little less, but perhaps its distinctive contemplative melancholy is more nuanced and more realistic. I love both versions - the old one, of course, is very much still there. Less successful for me is Rubberband Girl, now remodelled as a clunky Rolling Stones pastiche. This kind of context just does not really suit Bush's flighty, theatrical approach to singing - it simply shows that she works far better as an idiosyncratic solo artist than as frontwoman in a rock and roll band.

Less transformative, but brilliantly designed nonetheless, is the new version of Moments of Pleasure. This was always a strong song - but even the most die-hard of Bush fans would surely have to admit that the original was a little over the top. This new version retains the piano ballad template, but the delivery and execution are considerably more restrained and elegant. Along with Song of Solomon, Deeper Understanding and This Woman's Work, it is one of the album's great triumphs.

On listening to Director's Cut, I'm reminded of something Ian Carr used to say a lot in his jazz workshops at WAC (now threatened with closure due to Arts Council cuts) - 'sometimes you have to look back in order to move forwards.' It's very wise advice actually, and I wonder when new Bush material does emerge, it might be considerably stronger as a result of her hard work on this project. Even if I'm wrong in this prediction, there's something hugely satisfying in seeing Bush wrongfoot everyone in such committed, steadfast style. Once again, it seems she is restless and on the move.

Case Sensitive

2011-04-19T16:42:00.002+01:00

tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)

It seems as if everyone has been talking about this second album from Merrill Garbus - to the extent that it's almost tempting to veer into stubborn hype avoidance mode and simply ignore it. This would be a massive mistake though, for this album is every bit as wonderful and inventive as Garbus'type-setting is infuriating.

Garbus' solo debut Bird-Brains (OK, I can't be bothered with the upper and lower cases now) gradually worked its way to cult status, its extremely erratic recording quality failing to detract from Garbus' anything-goes approach. If anything, the frequently maxed out distortion added to the record's immense charms.

whokill is a different beast, however. It's more carefully edited, and its relatively concise running time definitely works in its favour. Also, it sees Garbus entering a professional recording studio for the first time, polishing her craft while retaining the essence of her maverick, scattershot style (The backing vocals on Gangsta are as harsh and biting as anything on Bird-Brains). In addition to whatever imaginative, creative merit this album undoubtedly has - the first impression of Garbus' ingenious work is that it is tremendous fun.

Garbus' approach is both brutally direct and wondrously wayward. Sometimes it feels as if she is throwing absolutely everything at the wall - whokill has avant garde saxophone freak-outs, Nigerian hi life style guitars and thunderous lo-fi drums. What holds it together is the element that reigns triumphantly over the melee - Garbus' jagged, unconventional voice. It's hard to find parallels for Garbus' style, but it seems to be influenced as much by hip-hop and dancehall toasting as by soul and more traditional forms of soundcraft. It is likely to be as polarising as the strange, intervalic daring of Dave Longstreth or the saccharine swoop of Joanna Newsom. For me, Garbus' versatility alone makes her an important vocal talent - she can be overpowering at one moment, the next expressing stark, naked vulnerability. When Riotriot stops and she belts out 'there is a freedom in violence I don't understand' with all the force in her lungs, it is genuinely disturbing, and yet somehow also strangely euphoric.

For all its sonic onslaught, whokill also has moments of disarming tenderness. Powa begins with strummed guitars and Garbus' fragile falsetto, before moving into more gutsy territory (Garbus' warped take on classic rock perhaps). Wooly Wooly Gong is more delicate still - a beautiful, haunting moment amidst some turbulent surroundings. These juxtapositions are always handled with thought and are carefully constructed. Garbus is clearly constantly alive to the possibilities of sound and timbre.

This is an important record - one that really establishes Garbus as a major female talent to watch alongside the likes of Bjork and Kate Bush. She is a true idiosyncratic individual, fully deserving of the hype and attention.

Playlist

2011-04-19T00:23:00.004+01:00

Enjoying lots of great music at the moment and struggling to find time to write about it.

Grouper - A I A (Yellowelectric)
tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l (4AD)
Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes (Night Slugs)
Bibio - Mind Bokeh (Warp)
Vladislav Delay Quartet - Vladislav Delay Quartet (Honest Jon's)
Murcof - Le Sangre Illuminada (Infine)
Tindersticks - Claire Denis Soundtracks (free sampler with Sight & Sound)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister (Nonesuch 3 disc box set - their first two albums plus a disc of extras and rarities)
Look, Stranger! - If You're Listening EP (http://lookstranger.bandcamp.com)
Low - C'Mon (Sub Pop)
Singing Adams - Everybody Friends Now (Records Records Records)
Boxcutter - The Dissolve (Planet Mu)
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun (Hyperdub)
Chrissy Murderbot - Women's Studies (Planet Mu)
Paul Simon So Beautiful Or So What (Decca)
Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain (Nonesuch)
The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh (Bella Union) - finally checking this out properly in light of their brilliant QEH gig last week, a review of which should be going up on musicOMH shortly.
TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light (Polydor)
Cass McCombs - Wit's End (Domino)
Avishai Cohen - Seven Seas (Blue Note)
Metronomy - The English Riviera (Because)
How To Dress Well - Love Remains (PIAS) - something else I should have checked out ages ago!

More Reviews

2011-04-04T13:20:00.002+01:00

Some links to some more of my work for musicOMH

Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
Alela Diane - Alela Diane & Wild Divine
Kairos 4tet - Statement of Intent
Joe Lovano - Bird Songs
Howe Gelb & Band Of Gypsies - Alegrias
Twelves - The Adding Machine
Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau
Fringe Magnetic - Twistic
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Isolee - Well Spent Youth
Peaking Lights - 936
Vijay Iyer with Prasanna and Nitin Mitta - Tirtha

I do seem to have a default setting for four star reviews - but there's some really excellent music here. The Tim Hecker album strikes me as being something very special indeed.

Sanctuary

2011-03-18T09:55:00.001Z

Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)

The recent expansive folly of Sufjan Stevens on The Age of Adz gives little hint of the nature of releases on his Asthmatic Kitty label. This latest release from vocalist Julianna Barwick has a timeless feeling to it, perhaps by virtue of being as in thrall to medieval choral music as it is to modern electronics and home studio recording techniques (it was recorded at Stevens’ personal studio). Whereas Stevens threw every conceivable piece of electronic trickery at the wall for ...Adz, Barwick focuses on the startlingly pure sound of her own layered, wordless voices, with haunting and impressive results.

There’s an inevitably hymnal, sacred quality to much of this music. It’s possible that Barwick might have been influenced as much by minimal, spiritually concerned contemporary composers such as Arvo Part as much as by the solipsistic vocal arrangements of, say, Bon Iver. The desire to move beyond language also has much in common with the ethereal, powerful music made by The Cocteau Twins. Comparisons may well also be made with Sigur Ros but, for the most part, The Magic Place lacks that band’s tendency towards portentous overstatement.

Barwick’s voice always occupies the foreground of the music, sometimes in glorious harmony, sometimes with compelling polyphonic dissonances. Perhaps the best example of her real skill in arranging comes with Keep Up The Good Work, where parts that initially seem in conflict with each other are carefully entwined. The dense reverb inevitably makes Barwick sounds ghostly and detached - but this is evidently the intended effect. Often it feels like Barwick’s multi-tracked voice is communicating from every possible dimension and more.

Barwick’s chief weapon would appear to be repetitive looping, hardly itself a particularly original gambit, but she uses it to create an illusion of complexity whilst keeping her music direct and resonant. She also makes intelligent use of pitch and range - shaping her phrases by using the extremes of her register. When instruments do join or take over (there is a piano coda to the majestic Flown), they occupy the same spare, reflective ground, with languid melodic lines, long held chords and acres of space.

Slightly unexpectedly, the penultimate track Prizewinning adds in a pulsating synthesiser line and the slightest suggestion of a beat, but even this tentative step towards minimal electronica fits with the album’s cohesive mood. Barwick has managed to find an open, broad sound that is at once ancient and modern.

Implosion

2011-03-04T10:25:00.003Z

R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now (Warner Bros)

The critical consensus surrounding latterday R.E.M. continues to mystify me. The general belief is that the group lost their way when Bill Berry left, recording a couple of albums that did not really 'represent' them (Up and Reveal) before making the first genuinely bad album of their career (Around The Sun) and finding their true voice as a 'rock' band again with Accelerate. My highly personal regard for Up aside, the generous reaction to Collapse Into Now is even more confounding. Around The Sun begins to look like a solid gold masterpiece when placed next to this. Reviews on both sides of the Atlantic have suggested this is R.E.M. sounding like themselves - and that it is the best album we can hope for them to make at this stage. This is hugely uncritical, and in some ways disrespectful to both the band and their longstanding fans.

Of course it's unreasonable to expect R.E.M. to make music that ranks with their greatest works (and I would include New Adventures In HiFi and Up in this list, along with everything from Murmur to Automatic For The People, perhaps even Monster as well - they have been a remarkably consistent band). It's not unreasonable, however, to expect something a little more than mere third rate facsimiles of their history. It's not unreasonable to expect a decent and sympathetic production. It's not unreasonable to expect some good songs, or some maturity and insight at this stage in a career.

The biggest problem here, it pains me to admit, is Michael Stipe. His voice and lyrics have often been one of the band's great assets, even when he preferred a subdued and sometimes incomprehensible voice. If anything, his lyrics have been on the decline since Up. That album was intensely personal, honest and powerful and it would appear to have exhausted him. Reveal's musings on man and nature were a little glib and Around The Sun was dogged by benign platitudes. Here, he reaches a new nadir of self parody, often resorting to the worst aspects of his nonsense doggerel or lazily assumed profundity. It Happened Today is the worst example of the latter, with Stipe allowing himself to rhyme 'this is not a parable/It is a terrible....a terrible thing') because he has earned his wings. When the grand chorus of Stipe, Eddie Vedder and, unexpectedly, Joel Gibb from the Hidden Cameras, takes over with a chorus of aaaahs which lasts for half the song, it's almost as if Stipe has recognised what a disaster it is and can't be bothered to finish it. This is a long way from Find The River.

Cliches abound elsewhere too. Uberlin finds him 'flying on a star', Blue's detour into spoken word represents a flagrant attempt to reprise E-Bow The Letter (it even features Patti Smith for heaven's sake). Disoverer is a little better, a reminder that Stipe once wrote songs where the meaning was opaques, but where it at least felt there was a meaning somewhere. A number of the lyrics on Collapse Into Now feel clipped and underwritten, as if he was lacking inspiration. His voice sounds tired and uninterested throughout.

As for the music, it's largely ruined by Jacknife Lee's production. This makes me desperate to hear the demos the band supposedly recorded with Tucker Martine, a producer far more likely to capture the band sensitively, instead of applying heavy compression and stadium bombast. Lee was kept at bay a little on Accelerate (although both he and the band did seem to confuse distortion with radicalism) - here he is allowed to run riot. The worst moment is the hilarious Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter, featuring uncomfortable guest vocals from Peaches. It's an attempt to recapture the strident glam rock of the Monster-era, but its ludicrous rhyme scheme ('alligator/escalator') is more reminiscent of U2's 'mole in a hole' fiasco on Elevation, for me one of the worst songs in recent memory and not a good role model. It all suggests that the band are, in spite of refusing to tour this album, looking for a way back into the stadium big league that feels unnatural and unforced.

Some have suggested that Collapse Into Now feels like a band comfortable with who they are, perhaps because it is balanced between upbeat rockers and acoustic numbers (with mandolins!). For me, it feels like a band trying to recapture what they were. Uberlin is a direct facsimile of Drive but it has no bite, instead just floating by aimlessly. Oh My Heart is shamelessly self-referential, alluding to a song as recent as Houston. It's at least a hearfelt piece about New Orleans and Katrina - and arguably the strongest thing here. Mine Smell Like Honey sounds like The Wake Up Bomb with less energy and some very silly lyrics. The portentously titled Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I is regrettably forgettable. There's a distinct lack of strong melodies here - far more so than on Up.

What a shame that every R.E.M. album since Up has been hampered by self consciousness, and an attempt to make the band what people seem to expect them to be. On Reveal, it sounded like they wanted to move through the doors they had boldly opened with Up, but they had to temper this movement with some breezy, summery pop with a heavy Beach Boys influence. The whole has its moments, but is a little wishy-washy overall. Around The Sun was purposefully ballad heavy, in an attempt to be another Automatic For The People (although they seemed to have forgotten that that album had Ignoreland and The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, and was never as relentlessly plodding). Accelerate was a blustery reaction to the criticism meted out to Around The Sun. Collapse Into Now is a desperate attempt to collect everything they have already achieved in one place - it just seems so half-hearted and browbeaten.

Perhaps there is pressure from Warners given the astronomical amount of money they invested in the band just as they were beginning a long commercial decline. But it says much about the status of R.E.M. in 2011 that there is a good deal more interest in the new Elbow record than in Collapse Into Now. I'm not for a minute suggesting they should stop making music - their artistry has sustained them well beyond the lifespan of most bands and has made them immeasurably important. Yet they should at least make the music they want to make - move to something more reflective and mature. It seems unlikely now that they will ever finish the job they started with Up.

Playlist

2011-02-28T16:20:00.005Z

Some things I must get round to writing about, either here or elsewhere:

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise (Circus Company)
Vijay Iyer with Prasanna and Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (Act)
Gwilym Simcock - Good Days at Schloss Elmau (Act)
Joe Lovano Us Five - Bird Songs (Blue Note)
Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun)
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx - We're New Here (XL)
Isolee - Well Spent Youth (Pampa)
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
Destroyer - Kaputt (Merge)
Trichotomy - The Gentle War (Naim Jazz)
REM - Collapse Into Now (Warner Bros) - I suspect my review of this is not going to be too positive unfortunately.

Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't I?

2011-02-28T15:38:00.003Z

Radiohead - The King of Limbs (Download/XL)

Perhaps the best aspect of Radiohead's mischief-making release methods is also the worst - the fact that music critics are no longer privileged enough to hear the music before the fans. The impressive lack of leaks means that everyone is making the same snap judgement on the music at exactly the same time. In some ways this is refreshing, but in others it is deeply irritating. However important a band Radiohead are, I'm not sure that the very fact of an album's release really merits live blogging. Perhaps it's interesting to see how people's first reactions gradually change - but they don't really help anyone trying to form an impression of the album.

Having spent a good few days with The King of Limbs now, I can confess that my own thoughts on it have changed too. Lotus Flower, the first track to appear online with that ludicrous Thom Yorke dance moves video, underwhelmed on first listen - but its subtleties only emerge after a few plays. That it's actually one of the album's most straightforwarly melodic moments says a great deal about how far Radiohead are now veering from the demands of the mainstream rock marketplace. This, in itself, is nothing new really.

This, I suppose, is the general issue with The King of Limbs. Like In Rainbows before it, it feels less like a complete redefinition of the group's sound, but more like a subtle expansion. There are sounds and textures here that suggest Thom's recent collaboration with Flying Lotus proved influential, as well as a fair hint that the group have been consuming radical UK bass music. Colin Greenwood is very prominent in the mix on many of these songs, creating a general sense of murky claustrophobia. It is in the areas of sound and atmosphere that King of Limbs really excells - from the tremendous, overwhelming, disorientating initial blast of Bloom to the off kilter, disturbing Feral. Even in the album's more approachable second half, the treatment of Yorke's vocals and the discreet entrance of strings and other elements never prove anything less than imaginative.

Rhythms are important too. Another common thread with In Rainbows are that many of these songs are built up from propulsive, urgent drum loops. There's not a great deal of dynamic contrast (as Edward Randell has already stated here) but the band arguably compensate for this with more textural approaches (drums drop in and out, at times the bass disappears, leaving everything feeling very stark and naked). Much of The King of Limbs also extends the more sensual, evocative approach the group have assumed since Hail To The Thief. The band completely eschew any anthemics or emotional manipulation here - everything is rigorous and austere. In this sense, this may be a very timely recording.

Some commentators have made claims implying that there are little or no guitars on King of Limbs. This is palpable nonsense. The guitars are simply used sparingly and sensibly - as a means of creating a new mood or texture rather than simply being there to define every aspect of the band's sound. The appropriately haunting Give Up The Ghost is ushered in by an acoustic guitar strum, whilst Mr. Magpie has muted, picked lines that add to the track's tetchy, twitchy feeling. Perhaps the best use of guitar anywhere on the record comes on the superb final track Separator, a song that is gradually worming its way into the upper echelons of my unwritten list of favourite Radiohead songs. The delicate, intertwining guitar lines are so deftly blended with the overall sound that it takes a while to register their presence.

It is the second half of King of Limbs that provides the album's more transparent pleasures - but even these are handled with dignified restraint. It seems that Codex might at any point explode into something bigger and more grandiose, but even with strings and brass, it's just a subdued heartbeat. Giving Up The Ghost and Seperator are both beautiful, Thom Yorke's voice multitracked to heartbreaking effect. Yet none of this should blind us to the more visceral impact of the album's more combative first half, nor to the band's impressive attention to detail.

King of Limbs is an unusually short album, but its consistent quality is arguably a first for post-OK Computer Radiohead. I've always a maintained a true masterpiece could have been constructed from the most successful moments from Kid A and Amnesiac - instead, we ended up with both and some slightly tentative moments. A similar argument could be made when both discs of In Rainbows are taken into consideration. There's little doubt that Hail To The Thief was overlong. This one seems purposefully balanced, carefully sequenced, meticulously composed and, as ever, superbly recorded. With every listen, it reveals new details and fresh perspectives.

England's Dreaming

2011-02-15T20:22:00.003Z

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Island)

Much as I really admire the writing and expertise of Rob Young, I can't help but question his assessment of the new PJ Harvey album in this month's Wire magazine. It's good to read a balanced review that steers clear of hyperbole or cynical attacks but his assertion that Let England Shake feels unfinished feels like a mistake to me. As is often the case with PJ Harvey albums, the music is raw, direct and sometimes combative but to me this feels like one of Harvey's most cohesive and successful artistic statements. It's impressive that so far into a recording career of perhaps surprising longevity, Harvey is continuing to develop and expand her horizons.

Thematically, Let England Shake could be presented as a logical extension of the concerns of its predecessor, 2007's White Chalk. On that album, Harvey seemed preoccupied with images of the English landscape - concerns that seemed to inspire her to traverse new musical terrain too, finding a new, higher vocal register and basing many of the arrangements around her rather rudimentary piano playing (even starker and less finessed than Joanna Newsom's). Some of those thoughts recur - as Harvey sings of the white cliffs of Dover for example - but Let England Shake seems to be aimed at broader concerns. Here, PJ Harvey addresses both imperial history and a war-dominated present, perhaps suggesting that England's glory has been blighted by war.

Few songwriters would have the historical impulse to make reference to the doomed Galipoli campaign, but sometimes Harvey's lyrics feel more impressionistic than some writers have suggested. On 'The Last Living Rose', she risks sounding like a Daily Express leader - 'Goddamn Europeans! Take me back to beautiful England'. Presumably, her attention is ironic, drawing attention the nation's imperial decline (for which reason I'm never quite sure whether she really means England, or is in fact speaking more generally about Britain).

Perhaps the most interesting feature about Let England Shake, the element that most reviews have bafflingly ignored, is how it sounds. Harvey has always had a tremendous gift for getting maximum results from the bare minimum of material. That she seems to do this without ever really repeating herself makes this all the more impressive. Whereas White Chalk foregrounded rudimentary piano, the guitar and Harvey's autoharp are at the heart of Let England Shake. Much of the music is based on very basic strumming patterns - yet it sounds primal and urgent rather than purely reductive. A finely balanced degree of reverb adds to the sense of impending doom.

Another common feature is call and response vocal techniques, which are used to superb effect on both The Glorious Land and The Words That Maketh Murder (on which Mick Harvey joins in), two of Harvey's finest songs to date. Basic rock and roll music is transformed into something more mysterious - something much closer to an English folk tradition.

Harvey also adds elements that seem incongruous - sometimes they are very obviously exactly that. The sample of Niney's Blood and Fire that underpins Written On The Forehead is not matched to the song's pitch or tempo and neither is the bugle clarion call on The Glorious Land. Elsewhere, baritone saxophone seems like a more forceful presence than bass guitar, especially on the ominous, drifting All and Everyone.

The quality and depth of feeling of the music here is remarkably consistent, but a few songs stand out nonetheless. On Battleship Hill is remarkable. It veers between a gentle, relaxed strum that might seem twee in any other context and some freer, subliminal moments on which Harvey's high register vocal sounds desperate. It ends with the devastating assessment that 'cruel nature has won again'. It's a startling, unpredictable, deviously clever piece of writing. England is a poignant, melancholy lament that demonstrates the great versatility of Harvey's voice on this album. Here she sounds more ragged and unhinged. Hanging In The Wire is simply beautiful, whilst Written On The Forehead is just disarmingly weird.

PJ Harvey seems to be one of those artists that just seems to get better as she matures. There is a case for her being right up there with Kate Bush and Bjork in the pantheon of great contemporary female artists. Sometimes in the past, her work has tended to be raw to the point of being difficult. Let England Shake is brilliantly realised - a Harvey album that can be loved as much as it can be admired.

Chain Links

2011-02-15T20:14:00.002Z

Here are some of my most recent pieces for musicOMH:

Moritz Von Oswald Trio
Six Organs of Admittance
Aurelio
Gruff Rhys

One That Got Away

2011-02-06T15:51:00.002Z

Partikel - Partikel (F-IRE)

Amazon has the official release date for this debut album from London jazz trio Partikel as October 2010, but somehow it's only just passed under my radar. It's a shame I didn't pick up on it earlier as it should undoubtedly have been included in my albums of the year list.

Partikel are a young band and it would be an easy argument to suggest that they might perhaps have recorded their debut album too early, before the individual players had really found their compositional or improvisational voices (they are recent graduates from Trinity College of Music's jazz course). This proves emphatically not to be the case, however. Saxophonist and composer Duncan Eagles, bassist Max Luthert and drummer Eric Ford honed their skills hosting jam sessions at the Hideaway venue in Streatham, South London, and so emerge as a fully formed, empathetic and interactive unit on this thrilling debut album.

Eagles' writing is melodically accessible and direct, thus potentially introducing new audiences to more sophisticated rhythmic techniques and to more interactive performance. This is a world where Luthert's propulsive lines and Ford's creative drumming (often incorporating an interesting range of auxiliary percussion instruments) have fundamental and vital roles in the ensemble. There are other contemporary jazz groups operating in a similar area - Kairos 4tet spring to mind as the most obvious contemporary comparison point. Partikel are exploring these avenues with a similar commitment to creativity, energy and accuracy.

Although the melodies may be direct, this is not to say that they are without depth. Oojimaflip has lines that seem straightforward - but it is a real skill to write compositions this immediate, but which serve as an inspiring springboard for improvisation and experiment - rhythmic modulation is a common feature of the band's daring and exciting music.

The band make great use of the space and freedom afforded by the piano-less trio format. Eagles plays with an impressive dynamic range and a full bodied sound, with consistently imaginative phrasing. He is more than ably supported by Luthert and Ford, the former a completely dependable presence, anchoring the music, while Ford plays creatvely and expressively throughout. Often, as on the track that gives both the band a name and the album its title, the band create a wealth of material from very minimal foundations - in this case a simple riff built from very few notes. Even when the music veers into freer territory, there is still the sense that the band are still exploring outward from the basis of the original idea.

The album is bookended by two short segments recorded at soundchecks, perhaps there simply to demonstrate the band's open-mindedness and continual development. In between are compositions rich in variety. Highlights include the unexpected twists and turns of Cryptography and the delicate, graceful lilt of The River.

The Backlash Blues

2011-01-29T18:25:00.003Z

James Blake - James Blake

In some quarters of the media, the blogosphere and on twitter, James Blake has become a victim of cynicism. It's all very tempting of course - and I've no doubt been guilty of it myself. Given some of the selections that have graced the annual BBC tastemaking polls, it would be easy to dismiss Blake as a novelty or a pastiche merchant. The Quietus have been tweeting seemingly dismissive jokes about his use of autotune, whilst others have candidly decided that this debut album is either dull or indulgent. I had my own suspicions on hearing Blake's cover of Feist's 'Limit To Your Love', but that turns out to be something of a red herring. It's fine enough, but easily the most conventional track here.

What Blake appears to be doing with the rest of the album is something a good deal more ambitious than the Feist cover's take on Massive Attack esque modern soul. There are hints at R&B throughout the rest of the album, but as Blake himself admits, he has also been strongly influenced by the likes of Bon Iver and Laura Marling. Much of this courageous and well defined debut seems to be an attempt to combine the emotional punch of modern folk songwriting with some of the stylistic traits and minimalism of electronic production. In doing this, Blake will wrongfoot some of the admirers of his early EPs which, perhaps misleadingly, had been assumed by many to fall under the dubstep or post-dubstep banner. It's perhaps worth noting at this point that the outstanding Klawierwerke already gave some hint of what was to come on this full length. 'James Blake' the album demonstrates that Blake still has much in common with producers such as Jamie xx or Mount Kimbie, but he is also acutely aware of the power of the human voice and the purity of a simple melody.

Two tracks, both operating largely on the power of repetition and manipulation of a simple phrase, neatly sum up Blake's approach. 'The Wilhelm Scream' is a miniature masterpiece of minimal arrangement - spacious but cumulatively intense. 'I Never Learnt To Share' is similarly electrifying. It's built almost entirely around what seems like a candid confession ('my brother and my sister don't speak to me...but I don't blame them') but which assumes a stranger sentiment in the knowledge that Blake is in fact an only child. Much like 'The Wilhelm Scream', the song has a sense of a gathering storm. Blake generally eschews conventional song structures - these are arranged pieces rather than sets of verses and choruses.

Blake has a strong sense of harmony and rhythm. The gospel and blues undertones to the tantilisingly brief 'Give Me My Month' or the beautiful closer 'Measurements' suggests he has absorbed a far wider range of music than many commetators have given him credit for. He also has a keen sense of sound and a hugely impressive attention to detail that make even his most subtle pieces (such as the two parts of 'Lindisfarne', where his voice is electronically altered) have a depth of feeling and a real strength in commmunication. Anyone who closes their minds and ears to this excellent debut is missing the work of a talented and adventurous musician - one that could have career longevity simply through an ability to move in completely unpredictable directions.

First Playlist of 2011

2011-01-15T14:15:00.003Z

Here's the first selection of the new year - new and old material. I wonder if the new Decemberists album might transpire to be a better new REM album than the upcoming new REM album. The Broadcast material is included as a result of devastating circumstances. The loss of Trish Keenan is massive, tragic and shocking. It's always good to return to their early albums - I just wish I was doing it for more positive reasons. I will have plenty to say about the Iron & Wine and James Blake albums soon.

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead
Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
James Blake - James Blake
Jonny - Jonny (collaboration between Euros Childs and Norman Blake)
Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
Sidi Toure - Sahel Folk

Broadcast - The Noise Made By People
Broadcast - Ha Ha Sound
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedos
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head (compilation)
Richard Thompson - Dream Attic
Richard Thompson - Henry The Human Fly (this seems to have been recently added to Spotify, which serves as some consolation for all the great jazz which has recently been removed).
Oriole - Migration
Oriole - Song For The Sleeping
Van Morrison - Moondance
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Richard Thompson Interview

2011-01-15T14:11:00.003Z

A few days ago, I was lucky to have a brief telephone conversation with the incredible Richard Thompson. The results of that chat can be found here.

Richard had plenty of informed and inspiring things to say about social commentary, the folk music tradition and the idea of music being a process of constant exploration. He is clearly deeply immersed in music and deeply committed to every aspect of his work. I respect him even more as an artist now.

Review of 2010 Part 3: My 100 (and a bit) Best Albums

2010-12-22T19:40:00.004Z

100. Phantom - Smoke and Mirrors (La Nausee)
Hardly anyone in the mainstream media noticed this wonderful download-only album from Canadian-British duo Phantom. Luckily, I gave it a warm review over at musicOMH. Consisting of two long tracks, themselves comprised of shorter pieces segued together, Smoke and Mirrors was both demanding and rewarding. Clearly intended to be digested as a whole, it went against commercial imperatives calling for bitesize chunks of music, and aimed at reinvigorating the album format for the download market. If it didn’t quite succeed, it wasn’t for lack of imagination and ambition in the music - Phantom constructed their own seamless, intoxicating sound collage with real skill.

99. Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (Virgin)
I surprised myself with just how much I liked this second album from a singer I’d previously dismissed as a coffee table prop. Having been through a great deal of personal tragedy and strife, that Bailey Rae returned to music at all was remarkable. That she returned with an album this deep, coherent and powerful is all the more impressive.

98. Teebs - Ardour (Brainfeeder)
This release, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, was one of the many great electronic releases of the year - a pretty, lush, expansive work in the pastoral manner familiar from Four Tet circa Pause or Rounds.

97. Vijay Iyer - Solo (ACT)
Vijay Iyer’s solo piano music doesn’t quite have the incredible impact of his recent trio work, but it does demonstrate his knowledge of the jazz tradition as much as his intriguing attempts to subvert or develop it. He doesn’t seem as comfortable in this idiom as Keith Jarrett or Bill Evans, and he is a very different kind of pianist from those two great revolutionaries of jazz piano. ‘Solo’ shows him to be thoughtful as well as intelligent. As a result of this and some careful selections of material, ‘Solo’ is a satisfying album.

96. Andreya Triana - Lost Where I Belong (Ninja Tune)
Vocalist with Flying Lotus’ extraordinary Infinity project, Andreya Triana also made a decent album in her own name this year. Lost Where I Belong is spacious, delicate, sometimes exotic music - reminiscent of Minnie Riperton.

95. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (Anti)
Mavis Staples’ gritty voice still sounds striking and authoritative even now. Here, in Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, she finds another musician-producer completely attuned to her needs and abilities. This is a fine, carefully crafted album of excellent songs, delivered with passion, commitment and soul by Staples.

94. Field Music - (Measure) (Memphis Industries)
Field Music’s ‘hiatus’ turned out to be refreshingly brief, a detour of a couple of years to allow Peter and David Brewis to collaborate on separate projects. Now reunited under the Field Music moniker with one of the year’s many long albums (what was in the water in 2010?), it’s hard to resist dubbing them the OutKast of British indie. The Brewis brothers certainly revel in writing far more superior and sophisticated music to your average British indie band - this was cerebral, individualistic guitar pop.

93. The Bad Plus - Never Stop (Emarcy)
I greatly preferred this to For All I Care, The Bad Plus’ previous album with vocalist Wendy Lewis. Never Stop is their first album to consist entirely of original compositions, and it served as a timely reminder that their own writing has for some time now been stronger than their infamous interpretations. They remain one of the best contemporary jazz trios - with a strong sense of time and groove, and a thrilling ability to interact.

92. Mountain Man - Made The Harbor (Bella Union)
This lovely piece of appalachian folk reminded me greatly of the very popular O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, but with much less of a gently parodic sensibility. In fact, Made the Harbor sounds like a deeply serious record, in thrall to the sound of combined human voices.

91. Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo (Sub Pop)
Inevitably, much has been made of Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg’s youth (he’s still not even 20), but this would have been an impressive debut at any age. Zahner-Isenberg is a superb guitarist, and much of the excitement in the music comes from the relationship between his wiry but pretty melodies and the sudden bursts of heavy guitar improvising. If some of the song titles (Five Little Sluts, Summer Cum) lean towards the misogynistic or pointlessly provocative, this is the only downside of a summery album full of quality.

90. Mary Gauthier - The Foundling (Proper)
This is one of Gauthier’s finest album - an unflinching, brutally honest album about her own life as an adopted, initially abandoned child, and chronicling the pain and suffering of the rejection she felt on finding her birth mother. This is raw, heartbreaking music and Gauthier is one of the most undervalued singer-songwriters at work right now.

89. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (DFA/EMI)
Basically more of the same from James Murphy - a small sense of diminishing returns after the fantastic Sound of Silver, but it would be churlish to complain when the results are this enjoyable. Murphy is, however, entirely right that it is time to move on to something different.

88. Matthew Dear - Black City (Ghostly International)
This sleek, robotic, dark and occasionally erotic album from Matthew Dear is fascinating. Dear has little shame in electronically manipulating his voice to produce some distinctly unfashionable sounds, and Black City is an individual and authoritative statement as a result of this.

87. Secret Quartet - Bloor Street (Edition)
This is essentially an album of classic-sounding acoustic jazz, benefiting from the melodic invention and clarity of tone from Martin Speake and the strong foundations provided by pianist Nikki Iles. The compositions are consistently strong and the improvising full of insight and inspiration.

86. Autechre - Oversteps/Move of Ten (Warp)
Another act to produce more music than strictly required in 2010 were electronic pioneers Autechre. I should have investigated the Autechre catalogue more throughly than I have. Occasionally, I find myself gently reminded of their existence and their deserved status. Oversteps may be the better of these two excellent albums - it’s not beat-driven and therefore avoids glitchy cliches entirely. It possibly harks back to the 80s or even earlier, with hints of Riyuchi Sakomoto or Tangerine Dream. This is all presented with a decisively contemporary spin though - and it’s impressive to find an act still keen to reinvent themselves so long into such an illustrious career.

85. Olafur Arnalds - and they have escaped the weight of darkness (Erased Tapes)
More of the same from Arnalds here on this portentously titled album (apparently inspired by the great Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr). Arnalds’ slow moving, direct and haunting melancholy is again very much in evidence, and the music is gently moving.

84. Paragon - Quarterlife Crisis (Shakewell Records)
This Anglo-German ensemble of young musicians (with composing duties shared between pianist Arthur Lea and saxophonist Peter Ehwald) now convenes infrequently but makes quirky, confident and appealing music. Quarterlife Crisis, recorded in Koln in 2009 after plenty of touring, is a delightful album characterised by a fine balance between charm and searching improvising.

83. High Places - High Places vs. Mankind (Thrill Jockey)
Another of the year’s more perversely underrated record, this infectious and likeable second album from High Places seemed to see the band relegated further to the margins. This seems strange when the album contained bright, accessible gems such as On Giving Up. The group’s approach is minimal but effective, making impressive use of space and making each note and sound matter.

82. Kurt Wagner and Cortney Tidwell present KORT - Invariable Heartache (City Slang)
This long-awaited collaboration between Lambchop mainman Wagner and the talented singer-songwriter Cortney Tidwell ended up quite a traditional affair, the duo tackling a set of Nashville country songs associated with Tidwell’s parents. Wagner’s voice sounds older and more experienced, Tidwell pulls off the difficult trick of providing a softer, but no less fascinating harmonic foil.

81. The Chieftains with Ry Cooder - San Patricio (Decca)
Everything Cooder touches seems to turn to gold. This collaboration with Irish group The Chieftains take on the weighty subject of the Irish conscripts who deserted from the American army to fight with the Mexicans in the border war of the 1840s, fusing Irish folk music with sounds from the southern US border. It’s a lengthy, challenging album, but both process and results are inspired and it stands as a fascinating document.

80. Marnie Stern - Marnie Stern (Souterrain Transmissions)
Yet more vigorous shredding from Marnie Stern and Zach Hill - their technical brilliance remains a coruscating source of inspiration rather than frustration.

79. Fool’s Gold - Fool’s Gold (Iamsound)
A group possibly named after a Stone Roses song may not necessarily float my boat these days, but Fool’s Gold are actually a treasure trove of riches. A little like Dirty Projectors, the Los Angeles-based collective fuse Western rock and pop with a variety of rhythms and playing styles from around the world. Vocalist Luke Top sings in Hebrew, adding an additional element to their extraordinary melting pot.

78. Avey Tare - Down There (Paw Tracks)
Avey Tare has sometimes seemed like the dangerous member of Animal Collective, swamping their earliest material with abrasive feedback screeches and moments of childlike whimsy. As the band have found a more successful balance within themselves, Panda Bear and Tare have both established themselves as independent artists as well. Down There is, mercifully, much less obtuse than Tare’s previous work outside the band - it features moments of twisting, eerie psychedelia and spidery melodic invention. It’s less sweet and joyful without the presence of Panda Bear, but no less peculiar and synaesthetic.

77. Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now (Names)
This faithful exploration of American country stylings is one of the best examples of this in some time. Rose is fully conversant in the vernacular of this musical tradition, and her songs are affecting and full of emotion. With her sensitive, empathetic band in tow, Rose has all the elements that make a superb singer-songwriter.

76. Jamie Lidell - Compass (Warp)
It’s a shame that this imaginative album seems to have failed to bring Lidell to a wider audience. Wisely, Lidell abandoned the slavish blue-eyed soul that rendered Jim something of a disappointment - Compass was sexier, weirder and considerably more honest. We can now again see the Lidell that made the best bits of Multiply, the Lidell who was one half of the amazing Super Collider, and even the Lidell that made the glitchy, confounding Muddlin’ Gear. Compass contained predictable hints at Prince, but less predictably, some of the meandering, fluid songwriting style of Terry Callier or even Terry Reid was also in operation here. Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor is just one of Lidell’s many collaborators here, and his sonic palette is in evidence throughout the album. For all the trickery and experimentation, it’s also personal and intimate too.

75. Robert Plant - Band Of Joy (Decca)
Plant seems to have entered a new, mature and staggeringly confident phase of his career now. With many clamouring for a direct follow-up to Raising Sand, Plant refused to acquiesce, instead forming a new version of his Band of Joy ensemble. This is every bit as assured and impressive an album as Raising Sand, and is stronger still for exploring some unexpected ground (the album features faithful covers of Low’s Monkey and Silver Rider). Plant’s interests seem to move further away from straightforward rock and more into a wide range of American music as he gets older. This seems like another honest, thoroughly committed statement.

74. Cheikh Lo - Jamm (World Circuit)
Jamm’s title suggests a righteous musical party, but the word actually translates to mean ‘peace’. Cheikh Lo’s music here, although groovy and celebratory, is also light and subtle too. The warmth of Pee Wee Ellis’ saxophone is a memorable feature of this carefully balanced, hugely enjoyable album.

73. Philip Jeck - An Ark For The Listener (Type)
I remain a little suspicious of ‘sound art’ as a concept distinct from music, but Jeck strikes me as one of the strongest examples of a completely modern composer. He builds his swirling, encircling pieces from the use of old vinyl, although this is by no means a ‘sampling’ endeavour like DJ Shadow. Jeck’s mysterious, spectral sound worlds depend on careful manipulation of texture and pitch. An Ark For The Listener is Jeck’s brilliant response to a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, and it has all the wonder and complexity of Hopkins’ language.

72. Actress - Splazsh (Honest Jon’s)
Darren Cunningham’s self-contained, insular and mechanical electronica reached a new pinnacle on this tremendous set. It somehow sounded cold and loveless, yet deliciously seductive at the same time.

71. Hot Chip - One Life Stand (EMI)
This is Hot Chip’s most streamlined and focused work to date, perhaps a conscious response to the criticism the group received (unfairly in my view) for Made In The Dark’s scattershot tendency. There’s still room for diversity - as One Life Stand takes in English pop melodic stylings, Chicago House, Techno and modern soul. Alexis Taylor’s delicate, plaintive voice remains an intrinsic part of the group’s artistry. Their peerless merging of Taylor’s melodic sensibility with Joe Goddard’s independent, individual production values has expanded to feel more like an ensemble work. The Hot Chip live show is now impressively slick too.

70. Jason Moran - Ten (Blue Note)
The status of Jason Moran in the jazz world seems to increase year on year, Ten being another exceedingly impressive addition to his own catalogue and his work with Charles Lloyd perhaps providing an even stronger example of his rhythmic and melodic invention. This flexible, bold piano trio has, as the album’s title suggests, now been a working, trailblazing band for ten years and more. This album finds room for some healthy nostalgia - including a piece co-written with Moran’s teacher Andrew Hill, as well as interpretations of composers as diverse as Thelonious Monk and Conlon Nancarrow. Perhaps more than any of Moran’s previous releases, it offers a clear view of the heritage that has influenced his distinctive improvising. His group can still swing hard as well.

69. Nico Muhly - I Drink The Air Before Me (Decca)
It would be easy to find Nico Muhly’s ubiquity in his early-20s somewhat nauseating. Not only has he achieved considerable success as a composer, he’s produced some wonderfully evocative film soundtrack work and has become the string and brass arranger du jour for America’s indie bands. Yet listening to this recording of his major score for a dance piece, it’s hard to dispute his talent. This is a big, muscular, exciting work that even manages to make sensitive and effective use of a child’s choir. The work moves in a fragmentary fashion from the very unusual to diatonic plainchant whilst sustaining a coherent sense of identity and flow.

68. Dave Holland Octet - Pathways (Dare2)/ Pepe Habichuela and Dave Holland - Hands (Emarcy)
I am cheating more than a little here by putting these two Dave Holland recordings together, but they serve as a timely reminder of Holland’s versatility. He has now established such a coherent and winning formula with his own ensembles (as evidenced by the thrilling ensemble playing on the live recording Pathways) that it is great to here him again in an entirely different context, playing outstanding Flamenco music with Pepe Habichuela. The album is at once both substantial and delicate, with some superb cajon playing from Juan Cormona.

67. Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things - Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)
Mike Reed’s People, Places and Things project has illuminated a new side to the exciting Chicago jazz scene. Rather than venturing into modernist abstraction or contemporary jazz-rock fusion, drummer and arranger Reed has used this ensemble to explore the venerable history and achievement of modern jazz in Chicago. This excellent live recording contains a mix of new arrangements of lesser known works (Sun Ra’s El is the Sound of Joy for example) and original pieces dedicated to Reed’s chief influences. Considering Reed is a drummer-bandleader, it’s interesting how restrained and supportive his playing is here - much of this is far more about the fresh take on horn arrangements.

66. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts and Crafts)
This fourth album from Broken Social Scene was in places exhilarating and menacing, even if by now the shock factor in their ideas had worn off a little. Perhaps Forgiveness Rock Record is chiefly interesting for its cleaner, crisper production - something that, perhaps surprisingly, does not really diminish the band’s ragged glory in any way.

65 = Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here? (Editions Mego)
65 = Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (Editions Mego)

I find it very difficult to separate these two Editions Mego releases in my own mind, although there seems to have been a healthy competition between the two of them for many journalists. I’m usually suspicious of music that tries so very hard to abandon rhythm (an essential element of music), but these two releases achieved their goals so superbly that they became impossible to ignore. The Oneohtrix album is more like a contemporary noise suite - brilliantly structured, moving from its most combative and abrasive to its most affecting and soothing. Throughout, there are gentle hints of melody and form, so the fact that the single version of the title track featured vocals from Antony Hegarty came as less of a surprise than might otherwise be expected. Emeralds’ album took them away from the sprawling What Happened? in favour of something a little easier to navigate. That didn’t stop Does It Look Like I’m Here? from being one of the year’s most quietly mesmerising albums, full of supremely effective ideas.

63. Laura Veirs - July Flame (Bella Union)
Another massively underrated album from a female singer-songwriter in 2010. Post-Carbon Glacier, Veirs appears to have been taken for granted a little, as she has produced decent album after decent album, but each lacking a distinctive edge that would propel her back into critical consciousness. For me, July Flame ought to have been that album - it’s a much warmer and embraceable record than its predecessors, and the writing is full of compassion and humanity.

62. Benoit Pioulard - Lasted (Kranky)
Thomas Meluch’s third album as Benoit Pioulard is his most sophisticated and coherent yet, with a sense of rapture and awareness breaking through the pervading heat-haze. This time Meluch’s understated voice seems less buried and the melodies have greater impact as a result. This is achieved without sacrificing any of the strange, eerie qualities to Meluch’s music.

61. Kairos 4Tet - Kairos Moment (Kairos)
Although much of this album seems like rhythmic brinkmanship, Adam Waldmann’s Kairos 4Tet still emerge as a more accessible, less cerebral take on contemporary British jazz. Kairos Moment is brimming with infectious riffs and hooks, and the engine of the band is the dynamic, propulsive, ceaselessly exciting playing of bassist Jasper Hoiby and drummer Jon Scott, two of the strongest musicians currently at work on the London scene. A guest appearance by vocalist Heidi Vogel also provides a simmering, delightful highlight. The group, now with Ivo Neame on piano, have just finished work on their second album due for release in 2011.

60. Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden - Jasmine (ECM)
This first duo recording between those great old friends and musical colleagues Jarrett and Haden had a wonderfully informal feeling to it. It’s unlikely that this will go down as one of Jarrett’s most revolutionary or adventurous statements - but then both these musicians did all that with the American Quartet. This instead has an intimate feel to it - the product of sincere mutual respect, both for each other and for the standard material they are playing. Haden’s bass sound is full and resonant, Jarrett is disciplined but typically passionate.

59. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part 2 - Return of the Ankh (Universal)
I was a little surprised not to find the long-delayed second part of Badu’s New Amerykah project absent from so many list. For sure, it’s not as surprising or imposing as the first part - instead, it refocuses attention on Badu’s most characteristic stylistic traits. Many of these are virtues, however, as her supremely relaxed phrasing and understated, near-conversational style mark her out as one of the best modern R&B singers.

58. Jaga Jazzist - One Armed Badit (Ninja Tune)
One Armed Bandit is perhaps the most focused and immediate of the Jaga Jazzist albums - full of the usual dexterity and technique, but somehow delivered in a much more compact and less showy manner. It’s tremendously exciting - a fusion music with a peculiar dancing quality.

57. William Tyler - Behold The Spirit (Tompkins Square)
One of the great joys of being a music obsessive is discovering that a musician you are familiar with from one context has an entirely different near-secret musical life. Lambchop guitarist William Tyler’s solo album is a graceful, eloquent take on similar territory to that handled so well by James Blackshaw. It’s perhaps not quite as mysterious and pervading as Blackshaw’s All Is Falling. Some of the material here seems comforting and familiar, especially The Green Pastures, which luxuriates in the textural effects of pedal steel guitar as well as Tyler’s dexterous steel string fingerpicking. This is no bad thing - Tyler is an impressive guitarist, and the music he has produced here feels homely and inviting.

56. Luke Abbott - Holkham Drones (Border Community)
This is a gently superior album, one of those recordings that worms its way into one’s consciousness and eventually refuses to leave. On first listen, it seemed like distinctive but unassuming take on electronica. Repeated listens reveal a sense of fun as well as intelligence. Probably the best release from Border Community so far.

55. Richard Thompson - Dream Attic (Proper)
Dire cover art notwithstanding, this is an urgent, vibrant album from Thompson. Recorded live on a US tour, it provides plenty of evidence not just of Thompson’s outstanding guitar playing, but of the commitment and force of his accompanying musicians. Not only this, but the songwriting is superb too, with some wry and biting lyrics.

54. Tamikrest - Adagh (Glitterhouse)
It’s perhaps tempting to dismiss Tamikrest rather casually as an identikit Tinariwen, but actually ‘Adagh’ shows them to have a potency and power that is very much their own. This is a rousing, spirited album played with insistence, determination and a wonderfully natural feel.

53. Wyatt, Atzmon, Stephen - For The Ghosts Within (Domino)
Hearing Robert Wyatt’s beguiling, idiosyncratic voice - somehow always both comforting and startling - wrap itself around some of the most recognisable standards in the Great American Songbook proved one of 2010’s singular treats. The original music on this worthy collaboration is also fascinating. If not always wholly artistically successful, this is the work of brave and committed musicians and activists flying the flag for principled idealism.

52. Konono No. 1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
Fears that international acclaim and success might dilute Konono No. 1’s approach or sound proved mercifully unfounded. ‘Assume Crash Position’ was just as intense and thrilling an experience as its Congotronics predecessor. There is an urgency and excitement in this music that is impossible to resist.

51. The Roots - How I Got Over (Mercury)
Never quite convinced by Kanye West’s reliance on manipulated soul samples, I find that The Roots are a dependable example of how better to integrate rap and song. The unusual guest artists here (including Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors and Joanna Newsom) fit surprisingly well into this album’s imposing and coherent sound.

50. New Pornographers - Together (Matador)
After jettisoning some of their quirkier, more appealing characteristics in favour of plodding orchestra-bolstered indie on Challengers, Together saw New Pornographers recapturing the kinetic, thrilling eruptions of joy that always made them so appealing in the first place. Carl Newman’s songwriting remains gleefully obtuse, whilst Dan Bejar continues to add his distinctive whimsy. The whole set seems to cohere more this time though, and is delivered with the confidence of a band who know exactly what they are doing.

49. Lobi Traore - Rainy Season Blues (Glitterhouse)
Of the many tragic losses in 2010, the premature death of Lobi Traore may be the saddest, robbing the world not only of one of its brightest talents but, one senses, of a musician yet to make his strongest statement. Rainy Season Blues, Traore’s first and last solo album, was recorded on the spur of the moment, after plans for an ensemble recording fell through. That it sounds so completely assured is revelatory. This is a record so deeply immersed in the blues that it drips with it. That Traore could have continued to make many more even better albums is devastating.

48. Lorn - Nothing Else (Brainfeeder)
This year belonged to Flying Lotus in so many ways, not just for the music released under his own moniker, but also for his production duties and his work as a free-spirited svengali with the Brainfeeder label. The Lorn album may be the label’s most substantial statement so far - a heavy, insistent US take on bass music that never fails to stimulate or surprise.

47. Lonelady - Nerve Up (Warp)
Warp’s attempts to branch out beyond glitchy and ambient electronica have produced mixed results, but I liked Lonelady’s twitchy ball of nervous energy far more than reviews suggested I might. This is four-square wiry post-punk set to a drum machine, with occasional nods to the relentless garage southern gothic of early R.E.M. Some angular, agitated vocals and some memorable songs enable Lonelady to communicate with stark authority.

46. Nina Nastasia - Outlaster (FatCat)
For me, this was comfortably the strongest Nina Nastasia album to date, a substantial leap forward in terms of both process and product. The arrangements on Outlaster are simply wonderful - full of unexpected dissonances and tensions, and the extra colour helps transport this well away from the conventions of singer-songwriterdom. Nastasia has always been an excellent writer - but she has never made an album quite this distinctive and compelling before.

45. Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (Warp)
Gonjasufi is a genuinely strange and unpredictable character. This collection is an inspired set of warped modern psychedelia, with inventive production from Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer. Gonjasufi’s vocals are not easily digestible - sometimes they are uncompromising and abrasive. Yet the music is mostly curiously uplifting.

44. Phosphorescent - Here’s To Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans)
Here’s To Taking It Easy is not exactly the most radical or forward thinking album in this list. It is instead a hugely successful attempt at classic American songcraft - much better than over-praised efforts from the likes of Drive By Truckers or Dylan LeBlanc. Matthew Houck’s work interpreting Willie Nelson for the previous Phosphorescent album may have had a lingering effect - much of this album comes bathed in a hazy melancholy. Much of it sounds effortless - relaxed but also literate and burning with feeling and intensity where necessary. Heij, Me I’m Light also provides a slightly incongrous, but wholly inspired detour into quasi-gospel fervour.

43. Phronesis - Alive (Edition)
This live recording may be the strongest example of Jasper Hoiby’s bass-lead piano trio so far. With Mark Giuliana on drums and the exquisite Ivo Neame on piano, there’s a real urgency and depth of expression as well as the fluid interaction we have come to expect. Hoiby’s compositions are deceptive - initially they seem rhythmically driven, but eventually come to reveal subtle hooks and intelligent use of harmony and space.

42. Trembling Bells - Abandoned Love (Honest Jon’s)
Along with Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells are at the absolute forefront of contemporary folk music. Propelled superbly by Alex Neilsen’s fluid drumming, an unusual quality in this music, and with Lavinia Blackwell’s majestic voice claiming ownership of Neilsen’s melodies, this is one of the most captivating and imposing ensembles working in this area of music. Trembling Bells sound at once disciplined and liberated - informed by a sophisticated understanding of the tradition but also driven by a fervent desire to take the music in new directions.

41. Vampire Weekend - Contra (XL)
Vampire Weekend’s second album, released with surprising rapidity yet actually an improvement on their debut, seems to have been rather casually forgotten come the end of year lists. Perhaps it lacks some of the debut’s ivy league humour - but if anything it builds on the open-minded fusion of the first record. Ezra Koenig’s wordy lyrics and agitated vocal phrasing remain crucial characteristics - and they elevate the group above facile and misguided accusations of cultural tourism. Make no mistake that Vampire Weekend are an intelligent and significant band more than worthy of attention and discusssion.

40. Janelle Monae - The Archandroid (Bad Boy/Atlantic)
A highlight for many music lovers and critics this year, it’s easy to see why this dynamic slice of retro-futurist pop was so greatly loved. Sophisticated pop music is hard to find - and Janelle emerged with a tremendously strong brand - a smooth but gutsy voice, great style and a commitment and passion for her music. It went almost unnoticed then that The Archandroid breaks all the rules for marketable commercial pop music - it veers wilfully from one style to another, its flow gleefully interrupted by abrupt transitions. Monae’s madcap, conceptual structure could benefit from a stronger melodic core - but the ideas keep coming so thick and fast that the flaws seem insignificant when the project is so brilliantly reckless.

39. Oval - O (Thrill Jockey)
Featuring no less than 70 tracks, many of them intentionally confounding miniatures, Markus Popp seems to have designed O in order to manipulate last.fm stats. The conceit is not entirely malicious though - through these tiny bitesize pieces, a wider coherent whole emerges. It’s clearly not about the individual tracks, but more about how the sketches combine to create something meticulously ordered and yet strangely beautiful.

38. Alasdair Roberts and Friends - Too Long In This Condition (Navigator)
Roberts revisits the traditional songbook for the first time since No Earthly Man on this dependably excellent collection - this one, as the ‘friends’ moniker suggests, a little more reliant on the ensemble sound. If it’s not quite as glorious as last year’s Spoils, it’s still a tremendous collection, Roberts’ choice of narratives occasionally erring towards the dark and terrible as much as the wistful and romantic.

37. Mount Kimbie - Crooks and Lovers (Hot Flush)
For a while, this looked as if it might be the dubstep ‘break-out’ release of 2010, a word of mouth success to rival that of Burial. If it never quite got there, it wasn’t because of lack of imagination and quality in the recordings. This is a nuanced, atmospheric work that repays close attention - a haunting statement of intent.

36. Demdike Stare - Forest of Evil/Liberation Through Hearing/Voices of Dust (Modern Love)

One of the many acts proving in 2010 that quantity could be just as significant as quality, Lancashire’s Demdike Stare unleashed three albums of similar intensity and imagination, but each with its own individual character. Forest of Evil is comprised of two dense, lengthy pieces full of murk and menace. The final album in the trilogy explores ghostly sounds and voices to tremendous effect, finding a hinterland between dub, the radiophonic workshop and local landscape. An output as compelling as it is prodigious.

35. Polar Bear - Peepers (Leaf)
Seb Rochford’s outstanding contemporary jazz group added subtle variations to their sound on this fourth album, with Leafcutter John playing guitar as well as electronics. The addition of an accompanying harmony instrument makes a substantial difference, but the group’s credit, it has not completely altered their musical personality. Rather, it has expanded the possibilities. The quirky compositions are as rhythmically stimulating as ever, but its the album’s more pensive, reflective moments that show Rochford maturing as a composer.

34. Django Bates - Beloved Bird (Lost Marble)
Django’s virtuosic, mischievous, scurrying improvising didn’t find a particularly fruitful outlet in the collaboration with The Bad Plus at King’s Place, in spite of all the mutual respect between them. Far more exciting was this brilliant, highly exciting take on the music of Charlie Parker with a Danish trio - Bates proving that Parker’s nimble writing can have audacious and exciting contexts away from BeBop revivalism. Bates imposes his own character and style on this material with complete conviction.

33. Scuba - Triangulation (Hot Flush)
The Hot Flush label is helping to steer dubstep in exciting new directions, already suggesting that it might be a sub genre with some mileage. This second album from Scuba is a significant development from his debut, pregnant with tension and murkiness, full of bold explorations of the previously unknown.

32. Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth - Deluxe (Clean Feed)
This righteous, propulsive ensemble provided one of the American jazz highlights of 2010. Lightcap’s engaging, zestful compositions provided consistent interest, whilst the playing (especially from the superb keyboardist Craig Taborn) was imaginative and sprightly.

31. Shackleton - Fabric 55 (Fabric)
Emerging at the very tail end of the year and therefore absent from most lists, this is one of the most powerful arguments for the DJ mix album as artistic statement in some time. It’s perhaps the best mix set since DJ/Rupture’s majestic Minesweeper Suite. The difference here though is it’s not just the mix that provides this album with its character - it is that is is a mix consisting entirely of Shackleton’s own work. Now forging far beyond anything that might be labelled dubstep or, more nauseatingly, post-dubstep, this is the work of an artist fascinated by the broader possibilities of rhythm, sound and speech.

30. Erik Friedlander - Alchemy (SkipStone)
The Cello has always been one of the most versatile instruments - in Friedlander’s hands it seems that it can be made to do almost anything at all, from excoriating, searing sounds to moments of sweet and tender longing. Alchemy is a solo recording that covers these bases and much, much more - a brilliant document of Friedlander’s musical awareness and expressive manipulation of his instrument.

29. Bill Frisell - Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz)
Perhaps this trio recording doesn’t really break new ground for Frisell - but then this is an artist who has covered such diverse ground that it would be hard to find another truly radical position now. Still, the music is wonderfully played, with Frisell as ever finding the common ground between various American musical traditions. There are few musicians with such a gripping contemporary voice, but with a simultaneous expert grasp of musical and cultural history. Even the most hackneyed of standards - in this case Tea for Two - sound daring, playful and fresh when played by Frisell. This does not seem to have been written about very much - but, for me, it's one of Frisell's best albums.

28. Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises (Caldo Verde)
Mark Kozelek’s unwavering consistency continued in marvellous fashion on this mesmerising, beautiful album. It was the first to see Kozelek play a nylon stringed classical guitar, an instrument he appears to have taken to with genuine commitment. The songs are typically wistul, detailed and evocative and Kozelek’s voice is one of those familiar, comforting sounds that can never lose its understated appeal. What is new is the passages of elaborate virtuosity on the guitar. One of Kozelek’s best records to date.

27. Chris Abrahams - Play Scar (Room40)
This solo album from The Necks’ pianist is deceptive, lulling the listener into a false sense of security from which moments of distinct creepiness arise. Just when it feels Abrahams has achieved some kind of inner peace, a rush of Hammond Organ makes for a turbulent intrusion. It’s a strange, spectral, fascinating collection of musical ruminations.

26. Gil Scott-Heron - I’m New Here (XL)
This skeletal record sounded not so much like an artistic renewal, more like a fragmentary, hugely articulate glimpse into what remained of Scott-Heron after drug addiction and prison. It’s a tremendous album, its intimate perspective achieved not just through Scott-Heron’s audacious and autobiographical poetry but also through judicious choices of material for interpretation (Robert Johnson, Smog’s title track). One doesn’t immediately consider Scott-Heron one of the great interpreters - I’m New Here makes it clear just what a skilled vocalist he remains, perhaps even because that smooth baritone is something much more wild and ragged now.

25. Caribou - Swim (City Slang)
Dan Snaith’s work as Caribou has always been teetering on the brink of something poptastic - but his slightly mischievous streak seems to have held him back from fully exploring his music’s melodic potential. Swim is at once his most immediate and his most assured album under the Caribou moniker. It still explores some of the psychedelic pathways he has traversed already, but it feels much more streamlined and less cluttered. His voice, never the strongest of instruments, works best when at its most intimate and conversation as on Odessa, one of the tracks of the year. Much of Swim is vibrant and intoxicating.

24. Atomic - Theater Tilters (Jazzland)
Intense, tempestuous, whirlrlwind contemporary live jazz from Norway. These performances, spread over two discs, have the fire and fury of jazz-rock fusion but also the liberation and propulsion of free improvisation. It’s a manic, consistently surprising experience.

23. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and The Cairo Gang - The Wonder Show of the World (Domino)
Has Will Oldham, now on his umpteenth album, become one of those artists who is too easily taken for granted? The Wonder Show of the World seems to have been forgotten in the end of year polls. It’s a sufficiently different statement from the more acclaimed Beware to merit attention in its own right. The Cairo Gang - yet another new incarnation - is essentially a trio with Emmett Kelly and Shahzal Ismally, and the arrangements are mostly sparse and demure but this is a far stronger intimate album than Master and Everyone. These are some of Oldham’s strongest songs though - full of wit, wisdom and some characteristically candid moments.

22. Nedry - Condors (Monotreme)
Somehow I almost missed this quite wonderful album. There’s more than a slight resemblance to Bjork in Ayu Okaita’s flighty vocals and the music is soulful, evocative and occasionally daring. This is a supremely confident debut, a fully formed mature statement than grows with every listen.

21. Food - Quiet Inlet (ECM)
ECM has had a strong year, with its best releases steering clear of European jazz cliches (indeed, it’s harder to find an act more in tune with the American tradition than Charles Lloyd’s Quartet). This is a new incarnation of Food that finds Thomas Stronen and Iain Ballamy collaborating with Nils Petter Molvaer and electronic wizard Christian Fennesz. The results are glacial and insidious, in the best possible way.

20. Matthew Herbert - One One/One Club (Accidental)
If Herbert had seemed to be coasting a little recently (a pleasant if slightly unremarkable album in Scale followed by a second Big Band project), his One trilogy (the final part, One Pig, will now be released in 2011) shook things up considerably. Few could have been expecting anything quite as personal and intimate as One One, on which Herbert assumed vocal duties for the first time. Clearly his is not a technically accomplished voice, but it provided the vulnerability and honesty that the material required. It was refreshing to see Herbert veer away from political or conceptual concerns and try something different. One Club saw a new application for the modern musique concrete techniques Herbert first employed on Plat du Jour, the whole album being made from source recordings Herbert made in a nightclub. As ever with Herbert, it is more cerebral than hedonistic.

19. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (4AD)
Whilst Ariel Pink’s initial compilations of home recordings provided plenty of examples of his wayward brilliance, his insistence that the clock be reset for this first studio recording with a band suggested it offered something different and more substantial. This may be true - these lush, fuzzy detours through unfashionable realms (Hall and Oates, 10cc and Todd Rundgren may be influences) did more than just attempt to reclaim FM rock as art. Pink created a new, odd soundworld in which conventional musical taste was thrown out of the window and the resultant quirky, unpredictable sounds were completely irresistible.

18. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise (Rough Trade)
17. Four Tet - There Is Love In You (Domino)
Two of the best electronic albums of 2010 arrived relatively early in the year. There Is Love In You may be the best work Kieran Hebden has yet produced under the Four Tet moniker, particularly striking in its use of human voices and in its dizzying cut-up rhythms. The Pantha du Prince album may have been a little sidelined by longstanding listeners who found it mildly inferior to its predecessor This Bliss. This seems a little churlish when the quality level is so palpably high. There’s a brilliant sense of atmosphere on Black Noise, and there is a warmth and a melodic quality sometimes absent from electronic music.

16. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot - Son of Chico Dusty (Mercury)
Whilst the emergence of Janelle Monae as a retro-futurist pop sensation excited almost everyone, this solo album from one half of OutKast didn’t quite get as much adulation. For me, it was actually the better record, a wonderful pot-pourri of modern soul, finding much of the common ground between hi-tech US R&B and UK bass music. Big Boi himself remains a brilliantly charismatic rapper.

15. James Blackshaw - All Is Falling (Young God)
Just when it seems that the prodigious James Blackshaw might have nowhere left to go, he takes another surprising and successful left turn. All is Falling adds yet another string to his bow by virtue of being a long form composition, its unwavering consistency being one of its many strengths. Blackshaw’s technically adept guitar playing is now taking a back seat to his assumption of a wider role as composer. By the conclusion of All is Falling, Blackshaw has dealt with both chamber arrangements and more contemporary techniques, suggesting that Blackshaw may even have yet more tricks up his sleeve.

14. Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother? (File Under Music)
It would be hard to find a stronger collection of indie-pop songwriting than this sugar rush of a solo debut from Kathryn Calder, member of both New Pornographers and the perenially underrated Immaculate Machine. As is all too predictable, it seems to have given little support in the UK, lacking adequate distribution and completely ignored by critics. This is a massive shame, as Calder is a substantial songwriting talent and this album is an affecting personal statement. Occasionally, the sweetness of its melodies threaten to overshadow the grief from which it was created. Recorded in a defiantly low-key manner at home, much of this sounds carefully arranged and crafted, and it’s hard to see how it could have been any stronger had Calder taken this material to a high end studio.

13. Clang Sayne - Winterlands (Clang Sayne)
Technically, this should probably be classed as a 2009 release, although it was only with its 2010 second run that this outstanding work started to gather more attention. Clang Sayne have to be one of the most inspired bands currently at work in this country, operating in a curious intersection between traditional folk song, jazz and free improvisation. The term ‘free folk’ has been banded around with reference to all manner of music but here, at last, was something to which it might be more appropriately applied. Laura Hylands’ beguiling voice provided the springboard for deeper, highly focused explorations of timbre and melody. This was without doubt a mature starting point, although a recent performance at Cafe Oto suggests the 2011 follow-up will be even stronger.

12. The Knife with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock - Tomorrow, In A Year (Mute)
If The Knife’s contemporary ‘opera’ about Charles Darwin (in reality perhaps more of a dance piece) was slightly patchy in performance, this should take nothing away from the extraordinary score that underpins it. At the centre of it all is the remarkable ‘Colouring of Pigeons’, comfortably one of the finest tracks of the year. Yet there are other moments equal to that achievement, and the poised combination of abrasion and lingering melody gives a combination of shock and awe appropriate to the nature of Darwin’s discoveries.

11. Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate - Ali and Toumani (World Circuit)
It seems odd that this second group of improvisations from two of the masters of Malian music was held back for so long but we can only be grateful that it has now appeared. Those who fell in love with In The Heart of the Moon will swoon equally to this collection - this music is so beautiful and moving that mere familiarity could never breed contempt for it. It’s the supremely balanced blend between guitar and kora that makes it so powerful - two brilliant musicians so bound in tradition and culture, playing with both expression and discipline.

10. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown (Righteous Babe)
Finally, Anais Mitchell is getting some of the attention she deserves. Her previous albums, although far more unassuming, contained some insightful, literate and delicate folk pop songs delivered in her idiosyncratic, slightly nasal pinch of a voice. Mitchell herself is a less dominant presence on Hadestown, if only because she has assembled an impressive cast of established singer-songwriters to play the various roles this reconstruction of the Orpheus myth requires. The concept would not be enough in itself to merit a top ten ranking in my list - it’s Mitchell’s execution of it, through the vehicle of some vivid narrative songwriting, that makes this so impressive. Drawing on a feast of roots music, this is steeped in tradition but delivered with individual authority.

9. The Golden Age of Steam - Raspberry Tongue (Babel)
Despite the involvement of the Mercury-nominated Kit Downes (on organ rather than acoustic piano), this vigorous, highly charged example of collective improvisation never quite got the attention it deserved in 2010. The Golden Age of Steam are both virtuosic and uncompromising, and sometimes the intensity level is so high that the music can be overpowering. Yet there is also subtlety and nuance aplenty in this superb set - this is a group of people alive to the possibility inherent in sound, in rhythm and in melodic lines.

8. Wildbirds and Peacedrums - Rivers (Leaf)
It’s barely been noted, but this conjoining of two short form EP releases presents a rather new Wildbirds and Peacedrums. It’s not just the new level ambition inherent in the choral arrangements of the album’s first half - it’s also in the attention to detail applied to sound and dynamics. This is a much less abrasive and arguably therefore also a much more widely appealing version of the group. Yet they have lost none of their imagination and desire to innovate. This music is profoundly beautiful and immersive.

7. Afrocubism - Afrocubism (World Circuit)
This project is something close to what was originally conceived for the Buena Vista Social Club, before visa issues scuppered the dream. Now some of the finest African and Cuban musicians meet in a highly empathetic, perhaps even symbiotic recording, that finds the shared ground in musical heritage. It’s a deeply traditional work, but one that gains fresh impetus and appeal from some unfamiliar instrumentation and through the knowledge and experience of the musicians involved. It is delivered with a relaxed grace typical of these musical masters and it is a consistently enriching and enjoyable listening experience.

6. Richard Skelton - Landings (Type)
Not so much an album as a full blown geographical and personal study, Skelton’s wonderful achievement transports us back to a time where landscape and location provided fertile inspiration for artists. With his nuanced, compelling music (an intriguing blend of acoustic and electronic elements), Skelton wordlessly explored links between place, grief and recovery. It’s a testament to the importance and influence of environment and the resilience of the human spirit.

5. Steve Lehman and Rudresh Mahanthappa - Dual Identity (Clean Feed)
This collaborative project between two of the most imaginative and thrilling alto saxophonists at work in US jazz is every bit as fascinating and challenging as one might expect. The group now features Liberty Ellmann on guitar, Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums and the whole ensemble share Lehman and Mahanthappa’s preoccupation with rhythmic intricacy. Ellmann’s spiky, dissonant accompaniment is particularly crucial. The compositions are pieced together like intellectual puzzles, but the resulting music is immediate and weirdly groovy. The sound of two alto saxophonists duetting remains unusual, but Lehman and Mahanthappa carry it off with real skill - interweaving between each other with nimble flurries without ever crowding each other’s space.

4. Tim Whitehead - Colour Beginnings (Home Made)
Based on work Tim Whitehead undertook whilst composer in residence at Tate Britain during 2009, Colour Beginnings is inspired by encounters with a series of JMW Turner paintings and watercolour sketches. It is a process-driven work in which the process is human, personal and emotional. Whitehead recorded his improvised responses to the Turner artwork and then developed ensemble compositions from these improvisations. The result is a long form work of genuine inspiration, with moments of searing, passionate joy. Whitehead not just establishes the atmosphere of Turner’s work, but also its physicality - the crashing of waves, the sun’s reflection dancing on the water, clouds floating in the sky. The recordings are impressive given the unusual performance spaces (half of the album was recorded at the work’s premier at a gallery room in Tate Britain). Whitehead sounds committed and intense as always, ably abetted by keenly aware, sensitive playing from Liam Noble, Oli Hayhurst, Patrick Bettison and Milo Fell. Colour Beginnings is the best British jazz CD of the year, and a personal and professional triumph for Whitehead.

3. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (Drag City)
Never entirely convinced by Ys, I approached this colossal triple album with some trepidation. I needn’t have worried though - Have One On Me retains all that was magical, idiosyncratic and charming about Newsom whilst jettisoning some of her more extreme, grating tendencies. Her voice is more rounded and soulful, far less abrasive and the songs, whilst lengthy and exploratory in terms of Newsom’s ceaselessly inventive lyrics, benefit greatly from the chamber arrangements of her chief collaborator Ryan Francesconi. There are elements of West Coast folk and New Orleans jazz, but the resulting melting point is very much Newsom’s individual, original statement. Have One On Me is moving and inspiring at the same time as being overwhelming.

2. Charles Lloyd Quartet - Mirror (ECM)
Whilst some fawned over Brad Mehldau’s syrupy, over-produced Highway Rider, others realised that Lloyd’s current quartet (featuring Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland) is among the best groups currently at work in American jazz, perhaps even the equal of his hugely influential late 1960s quartet. Their studio dates tend to be calmer than their rousing, sometimes tempestuous live performances, emphasising Lloyd’s tendency towards spiritual balm. Mirror works remarkably well though - a graceful, elegant and meditative work brimming with thoughtful statements, beautifully balanced ensemble sound and refined musicianship.

**1. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (Warp)**
FlyLo’s magnum opus divided opinion between those completely immersed in its enticing alternative cosmic reality and those infuriated by what they viewed as attention deficit disorder. Yet FlyLo has never really made isolated tracks as such - these small segments may veer suddenly and unexpected into new territory, but the overall picture makes a warped kind of sense. Cosmogramma is the most intricate and sophisticated sound collage Steven Ellison has yet produced, incorporating elements of hip hop, IDM, the astral jazz beloved of his great-aunt Alice Coltrane (particularly through Rebekah Raff’s harp) and 70s fusion. It’s a challenging but deeply rewarding work with a coherent vision and appealing philosophy.

Review of 2010 Part 2: Preamble and Honourable Mentions

2010-12-22T19:16:00.005Z

In part thanks to streaming services such as Spotify, and in part thanks to taking up a reviewing role for musicOMH, I heard more new music in 2010 than ever before. I've never felt that this blog should be about being selective or about following a consensus, so my review of the year has gradually gone up from a top 50 to a top 75 and, in more recent years, to a top 100. This strikes me as the only way to capture the diverse range of music I enjoy and which has had a major impact on me in 2010.

My list, as always, is defiantly personal and subjective. There are numerous lists in print and on the web that aim to showcase a consensus view from a group of writers. In writing this blog, I am not in contact with any PR companies, and I feel little obligation to include some of the albums that seem to have been wildly overrated this year. With that in mind, my review of 2010 will be a strictly Paul Weller, John Grant, MGMT, Kanye West, The Black Keys and The National-free zone, amongst many others no doubt. That I could still find 100 albums and more for possible inclusion might shock some of the UK's more complacent music critics, many of whom seem to think that there is little music of importance. Some of my choices undoubtedly come from the margins, but I think everything in this list deserves at least a shot at wider attention. Looking at the relative success of Oneohtrix Point Never and Emeralds this year, I feel real encouragement that just about anything IS possible.

Much as I like to leave publishing a review of the year list until as close to the end of the year as possible, I inevitably have to draw a line somewhere. This means that there are some notable absences. Two albums of uncovered older music deserve special mention - the wonderful live recording of Loose Tubes called 'Dancing on Frith Street' and Bruce Springsteen's 'The Promise', which revealed some superb outtakes from the recording of 'Darkness On The Edge of Town'. As for contemporary recordings, Supersilent released two albums worth of music in 2010, neither of which I have managed to hear yet. I also haven't managed to hear the latest releases from Steve Coleman and Henry Threadgill, two particular favourite artists of mine. There are no doubt others still awaiting my ears.

There is though, this year, a substantial list of albums that could easily have made the list, but which I didn't include, either for reasons of balance within the final list, or because of a slight lack of consistency within the albums themselves, or because they didn't quite hit me on a personal level. So, here are some of my omissions, many of which deserve more than a mere mention:

Superpitcher - Kilimanjaro
Walls - Walls
The Books - The Way Out
Myra Melford's Be Bread - The Whole Tree Gone
Tom Jones - Praise and Blame
These New Puritans - Hidden
Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Steps Ahead
Max Richter - Infra
Ellen Allien - Dust
I Am Kloot - Sky At Night
Morning Benders - Big Echo
Mark McGuire - Living With Yourself
Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner
Susumu Yokota - Kaleidoscope
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Barn Owl - Ancestral Star
Beach House - Teen Dream
Teeth of the Sea - Your Mercury
Steve Mason - Boys Outside
Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights
Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Elephant9 - Walk The Nile
Bushman's Revenge - Jitterbug
Allo Darlin'- Allo Darlin'
The School - Loveless Unbeliever
Olof Arnalds - Innur Skinni
Diskjokke - En Fin Tid
Darkstar - North
Manu Katche - Third Round
Nels Cline - Initiate
Wooden Wand - Death Seat
Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal - Chamber Music
Solar Bears - She Was Coloured In
Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Live In New York
Paul Motian, Chris Potter, Jason Moran - Lost In A Dream
Billy Jenkins - Born Again (And The Religion Is The Blues)
Lindstrom and Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool
To Rococo Rot - Speculation
The Magnetic Fields - Realism
S Carey - All We Grow
Nat Birchall - Guiding Spirit
Bandjo - Bandjo
CocoRosie - Grey Oceans
Gayngs - Relayted
Everything Everything - Man Alive
Mose Allison - The Way Of The World

Review of 2010 Part 1: Short Form Releases

2010-12-22T19:02:00.002Z

Before I move on to the inevitable albums of the year list, it's worth briefly drawing attention to the year's best short form releases.

James Blake - The Bells Sketch/CMYK/Klawierwerke

So significant were these three EPs from James Blake that many online publications appear to be treating them together as an album. If I had adopted the same approach, they would have comfortably slotted in to my top ten of the year. Klawierwerke was probably the most coherent and consistent overall - Blake had submitted it as coursework for his Goldmsiths music degree. The single highlight of the three EPs had to be the Kelis-sampling CMYK, an absolutely massive tune. I fear that Blake's vocal-dominated album due early next year (heralded by his recent cover of Feist's Limit To Your Love) may be a slightly worthy, sub-Massive Attack affair. Let's hope not, but if so, these three EPs together represent a major body of work.

Bjork and Dirty Projectors - Mount Wittenberg Orca
Perhaps the only disappointing thing about this EP-cum-mini album was that it sounded exactly as one might expect a collaboration between Bjork and Dirty Projectors to sound. It's meticulously arranged and brilliantly executed, and all have clearly worked hard to ensure that Bjork's presence is well integrated and not overpowering. As for Dirty Projectors, it's hard to see how they can get any better.

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
This formed an intriguing bridging point between the exuberance of Merriweather Post Pavillion and the weirder, more introspective nature of their earlier material. What Do I Want? Sky and I Think I Can were sublime.

Flying Lotus - Pattern + Grid World
As if the colossal, extraordinary Cosmogramma wasn't enough!

Robyn - Body Talk
Robyn's brand of commercial pop may be little different from that of the world dominating Lady GaGa, yet her strong collection of wonderfully melancholy somehow seems more honest. The Body Talk project was optimisitically billed as three albums from Robyn in a year - really, it was two mini-albums and a complilation, with some infuriating duplication of material.

Ikonika - Edits
I suspect Ikonika's debut album for Hyperdub suffered only from being a little overlong. On an EP format though, her music works supremely well - this is a sonically inventive and energising set of cut-downs from the album.

Short Cuts 2

2010-11-26T13:35:00.003Z

The Roots - How I Got Over

Given their committed work ethic and prolific output, I can probably be forgiven with having lost touch with The Roots a little after Game Theory. They are a band easy to take for granted. How I Got Over must surely rank among their best efforts. It's not ambitious and unwieldy like the superb Phrenology - rather, it's more a concise, tight affair showcasing the group playing to all their strengths. The grooves are righteous and, inevitably perhaps, there are plenty of collaborations. What is particularly exciting about How I Got Over is that the roll call of guests is unusual and intriguing. Right On effectively reworks Joanna Newson's The Book Of Right On into an insistent hip hop track, with surprisingly effective results. The sublime voices of Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian usher in the haunting overture A Peace of Light. ?uestlove's outrageously strong groove feel dominates the group's sound as usual and Radio Daze and Walk Alone are prime examples of the group's musical skill.

Janelle Monae - The Archandroid

Plenty has already been written about this sprawling, hugely impressive work and quite rightly it has been hailed in many quarters as one of the albums of the year. Janelle Monae has superstar quality - she is an assured songwriter with a strong voice and plenty of quirky charisma. Inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis, this album veers all over the place and then some, breaking the unspoken industry rule that often places artists in a straightjacket. It seems likely that there is no containing Monae, who is as happy on driving, memorable future pop such as Tightrope as she is on moments of striking vulnerability. I'm not yet convinced that The Archandroid is an unmitigated masterpiece though - sometimes Monae seems to have foregrounded sound and ideas at the expense of strong melodies. Still, it's an exciting and original achievement - and it's great to have an artist this bold and brave striving for a place in the mainstream.

Richard Thompaon - Dream Attic
Although the sound of the Richard Thompson band is by now very familiar, it's hard to imagine Thompson making a bad album. His songriting remains focused and powerful, whilst the sound of the ensemble, never as vividly captured as on this ferocious live recording, is tough and muscular. Thompson's robust, incandescent guitar playing remains a significant defining feature of his music but Dream Attic works well because the group can sink their teeth into some outstanding material. There are some great songs here that veer from the melancholy and moving (A Brother Slips Away) to angry responses to the financial crisis (The Money Shuffle). There are a number of artists continuing to make fascinating and confident musical statements late into their careers - Robert Plant, Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris are all good examples. Thompson should definitely be included among their number.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?

As open-minded as I am about music, I sometimes struggle with the breed of electronic composition that emphasises noise above rhythm or harmony. It is difficult to comprehend music that lacks any kind of rhythmic expression or interest. Yet these two albums, both issued on the excellent Mego album, strike me as great examples of how this kind of music can be done in a sophisticated way, without punishing the ears and testing the patience of its audience. Oneohtrix Point Never's Returnal is brilliantly structured, beginning with the most sonically abrasive textures before moving towards a surprisingly peaceful, hypnotic conclusion. The stormy fuzz threatens to conceal what appears to be a benevolent melodic streak lurking just beneath the surface. The Emeralds album is harder to pin down - but somehow both mysterious and graceful. It's main achievement is to produce an edited, more manageable take on the group's improvisational history without any sense of compromise or dilution. Both records share some of the hazy, blissful introversion of Fennesz's extraordinary Endless Summer. It's easy to see why Mego took interest in both releases.

Lorn - Nothing Else
This is another winner from Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder operation. It's a brilliantly dirty, intoxicating collection - full of slow but riveting beats and bursting with ideas. Much of the music seems dark, perhaps even tinged with sadness, yet it remains a curiously enjoyable listen. This music has a magnetic pull from which it is almost impossible to escape. Bass music may be at its zenith right now - it's hard to see how the music will develop beyond splintering into ever more numerous sub genres.

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
For some, this has been something of a disappointment. For others, it represents a distillation of BSS' most accessible traits and a pruning of their more wayward tendencies. I'm not sure the latter is actually true. For sure, the album's first half is an irresistible blast of superbly produced, near-anthemic indie-rock. Once again, BSS have placed themselves at the far more imaginative end of this music. The playing is now crisper and tighter, but the arrangements are no less fascinating. Opener World Sick arrives on a bed of delicate, strage electronics, whilst Chase Scene and the fantastic Art House Director have a cinematic energy and vividness. The album's second half is less memorable and more obtuse. It feels like something of a struggle, and there's the sense that the whole thing may be a little overlong. Still - not being quite as good as their previous work, when those albums really did set a benchmark for quality and inventiveness in rock - is hardly that much of a crime.

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
This is a classic example of the completely lazy misuse of that old journalistic cliche 'return to form'. Shadows is not a return to anything - it's far more a continuation of the hazier, lighter, less immediate style of songwriting Teenage Fanclub have been pursuing over their last couple of albums. Like Man Made and Howdy, it's a completely democratic affair - with Raymond McGinley's more elusive, subtle songs given equal weight. Norman Blake's slices of unashamed pop brilliance - Baby Lee and When I Still Have Thee - are the exceptions here. Prevalence comes from songs of gentle, considered reflection - The Past and The Fall from Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love's rather splendid Shock and Awe and Sweet Days Waiting (the latter a song delivered with such a light touch that it could easily fall apart). The album suggests a gentle acceptance of ageing and new concerns. It seems unlikely that Teenage Fanclub will make an album as crunchy and carefree as Bandwagonesque or as bright and chiming as Grand Priz again. But why should they?

Short Cuts 1

2010-11-14T19:22:00.008Z

Nina Nastasia - Outlaster (FatCat)
Nastasia seems to have become one of those artists quietly taken for granted by a critical fraternity unwilling to construct much more than a generalised impression. Given her unwavering consistency, this is not entirely unfair - but few seem to have noticed that Outlaster is surely a standout album in her now sizeable catalogue. The songs here seem richer and both more confident and more nuanced. It's really in the detail of the arrangements - written in collaboration with Paul Bryan - that the artistry of Outlaster becomes apparent though. This is a record full of tension and dissonance - familiar acoustic American music made starker and darker. Nastasia has managed to make her writing more sophisticated and expansive without losing her characteristic spare style.

Golden Age Of Steam - Raspberry Tongue (Babel)
This is, at least for me, a long awaited treat of an album. I've seen Golden Age of Steam, ostensibly a trio consisting of reedsman James Allsopp, organist Kit Downes and drummer Tim Giles live a few times over the past couple of years. Their music has evoked a series of strange and contradictory emotions in me - running the gamut from fear to ecstacy. Their improvising is pitched at an intense and demanding level - sometimes it is baffling, sometimes completely entrancing. What is clear is that these are three of the most talented musicians currently at work in London. These sessions capture some of the spontaneous kinetic energy of their live performances - but also demonstrate a musicality and compositional flair too. There's plenty of gleeful rhythmic subversion on display here - but also a piercing quality to some of the lines that Downes and Allsopp conjure up. Similarly, drummer Giles is capable of executing fearsomely complex patterns at terrifying speed, but is also musically adroit, voicing his patterns carefully to create interweaving statements and phrases. The music is fiercely propulsive, but also full of colour and concealed melodic invention. One of the highlights of British jazz this year.

Benoit Pioulard - Lasted (Kranky)
Thomas Meluch has now made three albums of hazy, translucent, homespun music under the alias of Benoit Pioulard. With each release his recordings sound more deliberate and more integrated. Lasted is the most coherent of his full lengths so far, with Pioulard's idiosyncratic soundworld at its most detailed and nuanced. With real success, he has allowed his calm, understated voice to become a stronger, clearer presence. There are all manner of intriguing stories lurking within his warm fuzz and beneath his muffled strum. Sometimes he takes some familiar, perhaps even conventional language from the world of indie-pop and transforms it into something pregnant with mystery and illusion. Tracks like Sault and A Coin On The Tongue are wistful and melodic yet also full of unexpected twists and turns. The results are spellbinding, and a powerful argument against over-production.

Kurt Wagner and Cortney Tidwell present KORT - Invariable Heartache (City Slang)
This is a collaborative effort I've known about for a while - and the resulting album is a quiet, unassuming gem. The tracklist mostly consists of cover versions of country songs from the vaults of Chart Records, a Nashville record label operated by Tidwell's grandfather. Tidwell's solo records, though beautiful and fascinating in their own right, have disguised what is actually a remarkably pure and emotive voice - one that is surprisingly suitable for these songs that are charged with longing and regret. Wagner has such a characterful, unique voice - one that is reliant on phrasing for its effect, that it would seem nearly impossible to harmonise with him. Tidwell pulls it off though, often rounding off the harsher edges of Wagner's peculiarly articulated half-singing with something warmer, but no less powerful. It is, I suspect, a deceptively conventional work - and one that has been very carefully sequenced to reveal unexpected secrets and surprises. It will almost certainly be casually categorised as a bonus curio for fans of both artists - it deserves a little more recognition and attention.

Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth - Deluxe (Clean Feed)
This is one of those insidious jazz albums - being far more about communication and vibe than intricate harmony or fluent improvisation (not to say that the latter two qualities are not also present). Much of the album's distinctive mood is created by Craig Taborn's Fender Rhodes piano. This could be a mere period detail were it not for the wiry, often radical way Taborn plays on it. The warmth of Taborn's varied textures aid in the creation of a spacious, open sound. The album is, perhaps inevitably, somewhat dominated by an illustrious three-pronged saxophone frontline, although it works given how all three saxophonists (Chris Cheek, Tony Malaby and Andrew D'Angelo) play with a united sense of purpose. Deluxe is the sound of an invigorted ensemble playing refreshing, exciting music.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
James Murphy has given strong indications in interviews of his intentions to abandon the LCD moniker and return with something a little different. This Is Happening suggests this may be a good idea. It's not that it's a bad album - in fact, it's rather good - it's just that it relies heavily on what are by now very familiar LCD tropes. The irony and wit of Murphy's lyrics remain intact, particularly on the poweful opening sequence of Dance Yourself Clean and Drunk Girls, but there's now a strong sense that this is merely repeating ground already covered to stronger impact on the wonderful Sound of Silver. Many critics have seemed unsympathetic to Murphy's rantings against the music undustry on You Wanted A Hit, particularly given how much freedom Murphy appears to have been given. I wonder if the track might not have been intended so literally - it seems like another example of Murphy's knowing wit - a thinly concealed attack on indier-than-thou hipsters. LCD really only do one thing (two if you count their occasional tender ballads). They became very good at it from the get-go - making mazimal results from the most minimal of musical ingredients. The possibility for Murphy to become a victim of his own very distinctive sound is now obvious. It's time to move on.

Tom Jones - Praise and Blame (Island)
If someone had told me I'd be writing about a Tom Jones album on this blog at the start of this year, I'd have laughed, yet here I am. I've never been a particular fan of Jones - though he's always professed to love the blues and early rock n' roll, most of his artistic decisions have tended towards the highly commercial. Sometimes, in attempting to do something hip and avoid ridicule, he has merely courted it. He also has a tendency to over-use his tremendous vocal power, brow-beating an audience into accepting his talent. On Praise and Blame, however, he may at last have found the right material for his voice as well as a sympathetic producer in Ethan Johns. The album touches on gospel, blues, country and rock and roll - and it is unashamedly uncomplicated - the kind of raw, as-live recording that Jones has been been studiously avoiding until now. The version of Dylan's What Good Am I is more painful and wracked with self doubt than the original - and benefits from a straightforward arrangement largely stripped of the Lanois murk. Elsewhere, the song selection is unfailingly judicious - and even old standards like Nobody's Fault But Mine sound full of life and vitality when passed through Jones' revitalised vocal chords. For the first time in many years, he appears to be exercising some degree of control.

Anais Mitchell - Hadestown (Righteous Babe)
For all the understandable noise surrounding Joanna Newsom's Have One On Me, this similarly ambitious gem of an album seemed to escape largely unnoticed. Mitchell is a hard-working, increasingly inspired songwriter who has pushed herself way out of her comfort zone with this concept piece about the Orpheus myth. The huge roll call of guests (including Bon Iver's Justin Vernon as Orpheus, The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller and Ani Difranco as Persephone) has helped Hadestown attract more attention - but really it ought to be vying with Newsom's magnum opus in the upper reaches of critics' end of year lists. By recontextualising the Orpheus myth in depression-era America, Mitchell has created a quintessential American folk album - one that is full of the passion and drama one might expect from the stage version, but which also comes alive because of Mitchell's strong melodies and distinctive vocal character. Even when divorced from their context, a number of these songs are remarkably strong. Wait For Me, a strong feature for Vernon, is full of longing and pain whilst Way Down Hadestown offers a memorable theme, with some of the drunken, lurching quality of Tom Waits' theatrical music. The production is suitably naturalistic and restrained, allowing the vocalists to clearly portray their characters and for the quality of the writing to cut through. Superb.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge)
Perhaps my tastes have changed since Arcade Fire released Funeral and played that extraordinary debut London show at King's College Student Union. They have not, of course, veered too far from the formula that made them successful in the first place. It's just that, well, it's become so much more formulaic. The Suburbs is a long album and it certainly has its moments. Best of all is probably The Sprawl II, which takes the group way out of their comfort zone into a stranger world with a strong hint of 80s synth pop.

The Suburbs is less grandiose and pompous than Neon Bible for sure, but I'm not sure a concept album about suburban boredom and frustration is a novel or even particularly interesting idea. Win Butler's lyrics continue to fall into the pitfalls of cliche, not least in his numerous rather dismissive references to 'the kids'. For a band that have always maintained a close rapport with their audience, this seems like a strange move. On Funeral, Arcade Fire excited because they described a whole other world in vivid detail. The Suburbs describes a world that seems depressingly earthy and familiar. The stronger vocal presence here is Regine Chassagne - her floaty, wafer-thin voice adds intrigue to the otherwise relentless Empty Room. The delicate shuffle of the title track is deceptively simple and reveals greater rewards over time, but the punishing insistence of tracks like Ready To Start and Modern Man has become rather predictable.

The Missing Links

2010-10-16T12:35:00.003+01:00

I've not been writing that much here lately - instead devoting myself to the lovely people over at musicOMH. I thought I'd publish links to some pieces on albums I would have written about here.

http://www.musicomh.com/albums/alasdair-roberts-3_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/neil-young-5_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/gold-panda_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/afrocubism_1010.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/sufjan-stevens-2_1010.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/wyatt-atzmon-stephen_1010.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/matthew-herbert-6_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/dungen_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/lobi-traore_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/el-guincho-2_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/mice-parade_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/roots-manuva-4_0910.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/oval_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/phosphorescent_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/wildbirds-peacedrums-3_0710.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/james-blackshaw_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/luke-abbott_0710.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/women_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/drivan_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/dylan-leblanc_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/matthew-dear_0810.htm
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/marconi-union_0710.htm

Some great music amongst the above - particularly Alasdair Roberts, Matthew Herbert, Luke Abbott, James Blackshaw, Lobi Traore, Afrocubism and the Wyatt, Atzmon and Stephen collaboration.

My stern review of the Sufjan Stevens epic seems to have been a little controversial. I didn't think I was saying anything particularly contentious - but the album appears to have been reviewed very favourably elsewhere and certainly has its passionate defenders. I should point out for the record that I'm certainly not against 'difficult' or ambitious albums - but they have to work artistically. This one, in my view, does not.

Back To The Future

2010-08-03T11:29:00.002+01:00

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today (4AD, 2010)

Ariel Pink is a name many will be familiar with thanks to his series of home-recorded solo releases on Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label. These recordings have had an influence wildly at odds with their scale and ambition, informing critics as much as musicians (spurious categories such as hypnagogig pop seem to link back to Pink). In spite of this wide-ranging impact, Pink is making 'Before Today', his first album made with a full band, a clean slate. It's the first time he has recorded with the explicit intention of releasing the results to a sizeable audience. As such, it's predictably a cleaner, more carefully orchestrated affair than his previous work, although it retains much of the lo-fi, ramshackle charm that has gained him considerable support and acclaim. It successfully both defines and improves his distinctive aesthetic.

Much of this aesthetic involves making a case for the much derided radio music with which Pink may have grown up - the likes of Hall & Oates, Foreigner, Christopher Cross, Todd Rundgren and 10cc. The two most obvious examples of this here are 'Round and Round' and 'Can't Hear My Eyes'. Both have that soft touch drum sound and the enveloping synth pads characteristic of the early-80s (before stadium rock and the Power Station sound took over). The latter has a quite ludicrous slinky saxophone solo. These tracks don't sound like direct facsimiles of that era though. Pink takes something of the slick smoothness and syrupy melodic sensibility and refashions it for his own, more ambiguous purposes. Whilst Pink's melodies are straightforwardly infectious (whether consciously or not, the exuberant chorus of 'Round and Round' owes a debt to Deacon Blue's 'Fergus Sings The Blues'), the music is more confusing and ghostly. This is not just a nostalgia trip - but rather something a little more radical. It's a remodelling of the past.

Pink's role models are not all stereotypically unfashionable. 'Before Today' ends with 'Revolution's A Lie', which features a moody, pulsating bassline that hints at Joy Division or The Cure, two bands whose influence has never really diminished in spite of the risk of cliched miserabilism. Again, Pink makes it all much more warped and otherworldly though. This sounds like a hallucination or a nightmare, rather than any very real personal suffering. At the other end, the album is ushered in with the alluring 'Hot Body Rub', which seems to mesh 2-Tone saxophones with a mechanistic rhythm reminiscent of Neu!. Pink's new wave fascinations continue to emerge throughout - on the frazzled 'Little Wig' and the propulsive 'Bright Lit Blue Skies' particularly.

Pink has an offbeat sense of humour that results in faintly ludicrous song titles such as 'Beverley Kills' and 'Butt-House Blondies'. This also takes him into more surreal territory, such as on 'Menopause Man'. This is a rather peculiar swampy ballad that, perhaps questionably, conflates gender confusion with sexuality ('rape me, castrate me, make me gay').

Pink has little fear of the unusual, the bizarre or the frankly daft, both lyrically and musically. This means that 'Before Today' could be either a collection of elaborately constructed jokes - or it could be a brave work of near-genius. The way the absurd dual fuzz guitars of 'L'estat' slip into a lopsided swing groove would be nonsensical in almost anyone else's hands, but Pink and his band make it sound not just planned but somehow appropriate. Context is everything here of course. It's the way Pink transforms his reference points into something strange, hypnotic and utterly irresistible that makes him convincing.

Alone Together

2010-07-30T10:50:00.003+01:00

New Pornographers - Together (Matador)
Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother? (File Under: Music)

The fifth album from Canadian supergroup New Pornographers appears to have been rather casually dismissed by British rock critics. Perhaps it's simply because it's easy to take a band for granted once they've got five albums into their career. It could be because their previous album, 2007's 'Challengers', with its heavy-handed orchestrations, was a little plodding and overwraught. It's worth stepping back and taking stock though. Did anyone seriously expect that the New Pornographers, a band who hardly ever all appear on one stage at the same time, would manage to produce five albums?

After 'Challengers', 'Together' is quite simply a breath of fresh air. The crisp, crunchy opener 'Moves' provides a timely reminder of just how distinctive and sophisticated a pop songwriter AC Newman is. The album contains some of their most infectious and irresistible songs to date. 'Valkyrie in the Roller Disco' is every bit as glorious as its title - shimmering, shiny and wonderfully slow-building. It may be their finest song. 'Up In The Dark' is pounding power-pop. 'Your Hands (Together)' is a colossal tease - leaving us primed for a full on rock shuffle beat that never arrives. Dan Bejar contributes the delightful jangle of 'Silver Jenny Dollar' and 'If You Can't See My Mirrors'. The sound throughout is colossal - cymbals seem to crash from all directions, the guitars chime beautifully.

'Together' eschews the self-importance that occasionally marred 'Challengers'. It seems that the band have rediscovered their characteristic effervescence. As a consequence, it makes for joyful listening. It's certainly sugary - the New Pornographers remain a band best consumed in small doses. Within itself, this is another fine record with a big, bold sound.

Even better though is the debut solo album from Kathryn Calder, a member both of The New Pornographers and the chronically underrated Immaculate Machine. Calder has done a great job in the New Pornographers in taking over vocal duties in Neko Case's absence at live shows, although her voice is identifiable for being more understated and less imposing than Case's. Whilst 'Are You My Mother?' occasionally traverses similar power-pop terrain to that claimed by her other bands, it's very much an individual, very personal work. It also benefits from a broader dynamic range and greater stylistic diversity. Calder is as comfortable singing a tender piano ballad as she is quixotic, unpredictable indie-pop songs such as 'Slip Away'.

The album was recorded in Calder's childhood home and was thematically informed by the two years Calder spent caring for her terminally ill mother. It can't have been an easy experience to make this music - which is why it's all the more impressive that 'Are You My Mother' is in essence such a life-affirming record. It contains songs of loss and grief ('Arrow', 'Down The River'), but it is also stoical, mature and ultimately hopeful. The lush, determined rush of 'Castor and Pollux' might be the best example of this.

With little in the way of recording technology, the help of a few friends (including members of Ladyhawke, Frog Eyes and New Pornographers), and some household items recycled as percussion instruments, Calder has made a rich, powerful sounding album. Her songwriting is offbeat, melodic and sophisticated. She pays careful attention to instrumentation - the mandolin on 'Follow Me Into The Hills' elevates the song. The ragged percussion gives 'If You Only Knew' an energy and collective spirit. Her melodies flow gracefully in elegant phrases, and her calm, sometimes soothing voice conveys insight. 'Are You My Mother?' is a tremendously accomplished debut that suggests that, with the help of a little publicity, Calder could eclipse the achievements of her colleagues.

Playlist

2010-07-23T19:28:00.004+01:00

It's been a bit quiet around here lately, I know. I've not been letting the writing slip, however - I've been contributing reviews to the lovely MusicOMH. I plan to write a bit more here soon - there's a huge backlog of releases I've been meaning to write about. In the meantime, here's a small sample of my recent listening.

Wildbirds and Peacedrums - Rivers
Luke Abbott - Holkham Drones
I Am Kloot - Sky At Night
Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son of Chico Dusty
Department of Eagles - Archives 2003 - 2006
Max Richter - Infra
Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother?
Dirty Projectors and Bjork - Mount Wittenberg Orca
The Roots - How I Got Over
Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises

Here's a new blog that's really worth checking out:
http://thomnambulist.tumblr.com/

Good Vibes

2010-05-20T15:12:00.002+01:00

Dadawah - Peace and Love (1974, reissued by Dug Out)

Here is a little known gem, now lovingly reissued by Dug Out and Honest Jon's. I remember this record well from my childhood, the Trojan vinyl edition being one of the weirder selections from my father's wide ranging record collection. I remember bracketing it with Keith Hudson's 'Pick A Dub' as one of the weirder, more mesmerising examples of reggae. It's not as sinister as the Hudson classic, rather more spiritual and devotional, and it still sounds absolutely revelatory. The fuddled, murky sound of the record is every bit as intoxicating as whatever producer Lloyd Charmers and engineer George Raymond were smoking when mixing it. Apparently, they stayed up all night after the session to complete the job. It's rare that albums with such a powerful, characterful sound get made with such spontaneity nowadays.

'Peace and Love' is an example of the Nyabinghi Grounation sub-genre of roots reggae. Essentially, it's a form of Rastafarian devotional music founded on the use of nyabinghi drums. The Dadawah project was one of the vehicles for Ras Michael, whose imposing, resonant voice still dominates these recordings, in spite of the fascinating presence of the music. The traditional chanting and hand drumming form the foundation of the music, but these four tracks have sublimely extended durations - ebbing and flowing delightfully, and uniting Michael's nyabinghi expositions with bass, guitars, piano and organ and a small brass section.

Roots reggae remains little explored in music criticism and in the reissue market, perhaps because greater commercial value was placed on more accessible hybrids of reggae with other western pop styles. There's so much more to discover here though - for this personal and honest music still sounds deeply unusual and exciting. Do seek this out - as well as Michael's other work as Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus. It's all tremendous.

Infinite Space

2010-05-19T16:29:00.003+01:00

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (Warp)

It's very difficult to make a convincing written case for just how amazing the disjointed, disorientating, genre-spanning work of Steve Ellison is. Every rule that governs the operation of the music business, both in creative and marketing terms, Ellison breaks. His output as Flying Lotus has been lazily classified as 'instrumental hip hop' in the past, or, perhaps even more misleadingly, bracketed with the UK dubstep movement. Whilst some of the Flying Lotus work might share with the likes of Burial a compelling and murky atmosphere, Ellison's scope is considerably wider. On 'Cosmogramma', he seems to have inherited some of his Aunt Alice Coltrane's spiritual concerns. This is a work as indebted to the revolutionary jazz sound as it is to hip hop and electronica.

Initial promotional copies of 'Cosmogramma' were sent out as one long track, although the finished product is divided into seventeen largely brief segments. Part of FlyLo's approach so far has been, much like the work of Prefuse 73, a scattershot approach that makes rapid switches between styles and never allows ideas to outstay their welcome. This might be a major problem, were it not for the coherence and power of the overall vision and architecture.

To my ears, 'Cosmogramma' might helpfully be divided into three distinct movements. The short opening section, comprising 'Clock Catcher', 'Pickled!' and 'Nose Art' is the most electronic and funky section, mixing sinister undertones and playful humour. The opening gurgles and bleeps of 'Clock Catcher' offer the listener a false sense of security - it feels like we're in fairly predictable Warp territory. Similarly, the bass extravaganza of 'Pickled!' could have come from a Squarepusher record.

As it's title suggests, 'Intro/A Cosmic Drama' takes us somewhere else entirely. The longer, central section of this album is beautifully orchestrated and ferociously intense. Even so, this allows for FlyLo to veer from the delightful analogue electro of 'Computer Face/Pure Being' to the improvised drum solo that initiates 'Arkestry'. Again, the title is a giveaway - the sonic and spiritual outlook of Sun Ra is clearly a major influence. All the disparate strands are held together through the serene harp playing of Rebekah Raff.

Within this highly imaginative sound collage are some of FlyLo's most transparently commercial offerings to date. In his hands, however, they sound wondrous. The familiar murmurings of Thom Yorke make '..And The World Laughs With You...' sound eerie and mysterious. The wonderfully titled 'Do The Astral Plane' is a further reminder of Ellison's superb sense of humour. It's an irresistible slice of cosmic disco. 'Mmm..Hmmm', which features Thundercat, is possibly the most straightforwardly melodic thing Ellison has produced to date, but it also has its own unique slinky, cerebral and atmospheric charm.

Some critics have found fault in the final stretch of 'Cosmogramma', from 'Satellliiiite' onwards. It certainly becomes more impressionistic, hazy and distant at this point. To me, it is suggestive of the numinous - something unfathomable beyond the known limits of the universe. This is Ellison at his most expansive and abstract.

It's unlikely that there will be a more diverse, pleasurably confusing, radically unpredictable album in 2010. It's also unlikely that there will be another album with as convincing and exciting a vision. This is brighter, more celebratory and at times more accessible than previous Flying Lotus records - but it's certainly no artistic compromise.

Number One

2010-05-03T19:15:00.004+01:00

Matthew Herbert - One One (Accidental)

Occasionally, it's easy to get a little too accustomed to an artist's signature sound, or perhaps more accurately in Matthew Herbert's case, his approach. We know about his radicalism and political activism, we know about his sampling techniques and his didactic, musical ideology. We also know that this approach somehow resulted in some of the finest music of the past decade - music of palpable relevance but with a reach much wider than its immediate context. His most recent Big Band record, on reflection, appears to have been significantly underrated.

It's probably unfair to judge 'One One' in isolation, given that it is part of a projected trilogy of albums all due for release in 2010. This will conclude later in the year with 'One Club', a work made from sounds recorded in nightclubs, and then with the highly controversial 'One Pig', made from sounds recorded from the life cycle of a pig farmed for meat. The latter appears to be a more specific extension of concerns Herbert has already tackled with the astounding 'Plat du Jour' (on which he showcased his own distinctive brand of musique concrete), whilst we might reasonably expect 'One Club' to be one of his more conventional house-influenced records.

The trilogy therefore starts with a total curveball. 'One One' is completely unlike previous Herbert records in both sound and approach. First, it's based less on samples and sounds and more on instrumental parts, all of which were played and recorded by Herbert himself. Secondly, there are no collaborators here - Herbert also sang all the vocal lines.

A cursory listen might suggest this was a rather reckless idea. Herbert is neither a gifted instrumentalist nor a powerful singer. Indeed, the vocals are conversational at best, and often out of tune. Yet the effect of this minimal, peculiar music is disorientating and surprising. This is not a confrontational record - rather, it's Herbert's most intimate and hypnotic work to date.

Although all the tracks are named after major cities ('Manchester', 'Milan', 'Leipzig', 'Porto' - and, er, spot the odd one out, 'Tonbridge'), the overarching concept here is that 'One One' supposedly details one night in its creator's life. Musically, it's largely quiet and unobtrusive, but it's also deftly nuanced, and it's precisely for this reason that it sounds like a journey and an adventure. Songs often threaten to build into something explosive but frequently hold back - 'One One' is full of tantalising promise.

The outstanding example is 'Dublin', built on the simplest of ostinato figures on a guitar, over which Herbert layers increasingly intoxicating vocal lines. 'Leipzig' is full of dark temptation, excitement and perhaps even threat, all concocted from the very simplest of ingredients. In the most part, the rhythms are simple and direct, but also delicate, suggesting vulnerability. Most confounding of all is the closing 'Valencia', which gradually fades to almost nothing, lingering in the memory largely because of its sheer weirdness and originality.

If it initially sounds tentative, 'One One' eventually reveals itself as a very carefully judged, superbly timed, logically and musically coherent statement. It will certainly confuse many of Herbert's long-term fans, although perhaps less so those who have followed the weird world of home-baked folk, electronica and bedroom soul released across his Accidental label. It's difficult to predict what the rest of the trilogy will sound like now - but it's already beginning to sound like one of the year's bravest and most surprising achievements.

Stagefright

2010-04-23T16:17:00.001+01:00

Lonelady - Nerve Up (Warp)

This album ticks so many hipster boxes that I ought really to despise it. There’s the moody, enigmatic monochrome cover shot. It’s one of Warp records’ increasingly frequent ventures outside the world of intelligent electronica. The musical reference points are specific and fashionable – a bit of wiry Gang of Four scratchy guitar, the jangle of early REM or the skeletal funk of ESG. Julie Campbell is from Manchester – the sound of the Factory era clearly also still resonates with her. Surely, ‘Nerve Up’ is simply traversing old, very familiar ground?

Beneath the surface though, there’s actually something a little out of the ordinary about ‘Nerve Up’. Perhaps it’s that Julie Campbell has had the audacity to cherry pick from all these influences, rather than focusing too tightly on a tired punk-funk agenda. More significantly, it’s that the music, thanks in part to Campbell’s songwriting, mostly rises above mere facsimile. It is taut and exciting – with a nervous itchiness of its own.

It’s rare to find a female solo artist that sounds so solitary and alienated. Usually, we get the sensual, idiosyncratic, fantastic personalities of the likes of Kate Bush, Bjork, PJ Harvey or Joanna Newsom. Lonelady does not belong in that world. Her voice is strange, slippery and beguiling. Her music is precise, rigid and austere rather than flighty and wild.

It’s odd that the twitchy, anxious outsider position that Campbell has assumed became such a male pursuit. One of the most exciting things about Nerve Up is hearing Campbell’s distinctive thin but intoxicating voice set against this resolute, propulsive music. The Byrdsian twang of ‘Immaterial’ might hint back at Murmur-era REM, but Campbell’s voice also adds a fairytale sense of mystery and enchantment.

Everything here is minimal, perhaps even slightly desolate. There’s scratchy guitar, a drum machine and Campbell’s voice. The title track particularly succeeds in building a detailed impression with a rigorous approach. There are very few constituent elements. What further overdubs there are always serve the tense, nervous mood. On tracks like ‘Army’ and ‘Intuition’, there’s also an irrepressible and irresistible urgency.

Campbell won’t be able to repeat this trick too often. Yet the closing ‘Fear No More’ betrays a softer core. Whilst it’s not in itself entirely successful, it at least demonstrates another dimension to Campbell’s world and hints at other paths that she could follow. In the meantime, ‘Nerve Up’ is an authoritative, surprisingly satisfying work.

Dive In

2010-04-19T23:05:00.002+01:00

Pantha du Prince - Black Noise (Rough Trade)
Caribou - Swim (City Slang)

There's already a sense that 2010 is shaping up to be a particularly fine year for electronic music. We've already enjoyed superb albums from Four Tet and Hot Chip, and there have been a number of releases I haven't yet managed to digest (including Autechre). Although there's an argument that his debut album 'This Bliss' (released in 2007) is even better, Pantha du Prince's 'Black Noise' adds to the list by virtue of being a lush, compelling piece of work. Like its predecessor, it's a rapturous and immersive experience.

This is spare and minimal music that still finds room for a warmth and beauty amidst the mechanical precision. It's repetitive and relentless but in a pleasingly hypnotic, rather than irritating way. The overarching atmosphere is rather magical. A number of the titles are almost onomatopaeic in their aptness ('Lay in a Shimmer', 'The Splendour', 'Bohemian Forest') such is the glimmering, haunting effect of the music.

Much of this is achieved through percussion sounds - be it the clicks and clatters in the background or the steel pan and glockenspiel sounds that yield the subtle but charming melodic lines. The music unfolds slowly and delicately, somehow achieving an effect that is both melancholic and euphoric, reflective and uplifting.

The last album from Caribou, aka Dan Snaith and the artist formerly known as Manitoba, 'Andorra', won Canada's equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize whilst continuing his preference for bucolic, hazy psychedelia and chaotic, cluttered percussion. It was an appealing, summery set but one that hinted that Snaith's sound, however distinctive, may have run its course.

Pleasingly, he has refreshed and refined his approach on 'Swim', which manages to combine some familiar elements of the Caribou sound with at least one eye firmly fixed back on the dancefloor. This is certainly the grooviest album Snaith has made yet - his rhythms have been stripped back to their most essential elements and a lot of the dense noise has been removed. This doesn't mean there isn't room for ambition - towards its conclusion on tracks like 'Hannibal' and 'Jamelia' have bold, expansive arrangements that suggest Snaith may have been listening to Ennio Morricone or David Axelrod.

'Swim' is most surprising when at its simplest and most direct. There's a touch of Prince to the propulsive but light disco of 'Odessa' that makes it both fluffy and infectious and curiously intelligent. On 'Sun', some of Snaith's recognisable concerns reappear, but it's a much more shimmering and aquatic creation, with plenty of breathing space. Perhaps most impressive of all is 'Bowls', the album's stunning, wonderfully linear centrepiece.

Snaith is not blessed with the world's greatest singing voice and there are plenty of borderline Caribou admirers who might well be completely converted were Snaith to abandon singing entirely. 'Odessa' at least hints at a use of his voice that is both more sensible and more creative - the delivery is largely conversational. It's when he attempts to make his vocal the melodic heart of his music that it risks descending into fragile whimsy. Still, the music that dominates 'Swim' is so resonant and so elegantly constructed that this is ultimately a minor concern. This is one of 2010's most enjoyable and adventurous albums so far.

Identity Crisis

2010-04-14T19:00:00.000+01:00

I Am Love (dir: Luca Guadagnino)

Perhaps this movie’s very title, pretentious and grandiose as it is, should have been a giveaway, but I’d read enough positive thoughts on this film (not least Jonathan Romney’s rapturous piece in ‘Sight & Sound’) to believe it might be a bold and exciting piece of cinema. Whilst the film begins with considerable promise, the final impression is one of incoherence and catastrophic misjudgement. Ultimately, ‘I Am Love’ is exhausting and infuriating.

Film critics are now so frequently blinded by technical skill. As a result, directors such as Carlos Reygadas are all too easily indulged for pompous and didactic work. There is certainly enough technical accomplishment in ‘I Am Love’ to suggest that Luca Guadagnino is a promising director. The names of many Italian masters have been used as reference points – not least film-makers as different from each other as Visconti and Antonioni. In the early stages of the film, with its superb family dinner sequence, and with some elegant, meticulously framed shots of the Recchi family’s extraordinary mansion home (particularly of Tilda Swinton’s graceful walks up and down the staircase), I felt a more transparent influence was the great Orson Welles.

The film begins as what appears to be a subtle, restrained but simultaneously poised family saga. When the retiring grandfather unexpectedly bequeaths the family textile empire to both his son and grandson to share, it sets the scene for an intriguing and compelling power struggle. Yet this becomes simply the restrictive and repressive context for the film’s central concern – the tragedy that accompanies Emma Recchi’s sexual awakening and discovering of her true self.

There are some positive aspects to this film. Daughter Betta’s lesbianism (a no doubt still shocking and unacceptable thing to a wealthy Italian family such as this) is handled with great tenderness, and there are some delightful scenes between her and Emma. Swinton is every bit as majestic as you might expect – brilliantly capturing the conflict between social duty and inner desire.

Also impressive is the way the film withholds crucial information until quite late in its running time. We only find out Emma’s personal history through the course of her affair with Antonio, and this is the film’s one intriguing and original device. Unfortunately, it is only really used to inform the film’s hackneyed and rather muddled theme of personal identity.

However, this is most certainly a film with fatal flaws that sadly linger long in the mind. Many critics have praised the film’s exploration of the sensual aspects of food – but I found this crass. Guadagnino and Swinton seem keen to browbeat the audience with culinary eroticism. Had they left this notion implied or understated, it could have been much more interesting. Instead, these scenes come across more like a piece of gastropornography from a Nigella Lawson programme.

Even worse is the film’s handling of sex itself. Emma and Antonio’s lengthy soft focus al fresco love scene might have been better placed in one of the Emmanuelle films, so horribly clichéd is its cutting between the building natural elements and the moving bodies. The close-ups of skin are unusual in contemporary cinema and could have been quite erotic if left on their own, but the opening scene of Resnais’ ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ achieved so much more to this effect.

Perhaps more fatally is the way that, in spite of the film’s overlong two hour running time, characters and plot strands are left undeveloped. Given his youthful energy, natural talent and passion for food, it’s easy to see why Emma might be attracted to Antonio, but less easy to see why she would fall in love with him. It’s even harder to accept that this love would endure the terrible, cataclysmic event that befalls her family as an indirect result of her actions.

It is perhaps suggested that Emma’s son and heir to the business Eduardo may too have affections for Antonio (‘when I first tasted this man’s cooking, I fell in love with him’), but we are supposed to accept that Emma is completely impervious to this closeness. Similarly, we are expected to accept that Antonio would be completely careless in his attitude towards protecting the secrecy of his relationship with Emma (the ultimate revelation, inevitably, involves food).

What we are left with is a rather didactic and unsubtle divide in the family between socially repressed women allying themselves in self-discovery, and authoritarian, conforming men. This might well be an entirely fair and observant comment on wealthy Italian society – but it is hardly in itself original. The film’s final descent into melodrama merely serves to bludgeon the audience with this point, with entirely embarrassing results.

The confrontation between Tancredi (who is a stereotyped sexless regal male throughout) and Emma in the cathedral, complete with the obligatory baptismal rainstorm, is screamingly awful. However impressive an actress Swinton is, she cannot rise above this level of cliché and heavy-handed direction. Whilst the nature of the tragic event that destroys the family is in itself shocking and unexpected, the film’s treatment of its immediate aftermath is completely lacking in nuance or understanding.

If the melodramatic final scenes, complete with religious symbolism (a post-credits coda shows Emma and Antonio entwined in a cave) are supposed to betray the influence of Douglas Sirk, the only plausible response is to highlight how superior a homage Todd Haynes made with the wonderful ‘Far From Heaven’. Many have praised the use of the bombastic music of American composer John Adams here, but I found it intrusive and unpleasant. Whilst I could just about tolerate its role in the sequence where Emma follows Antonio through the streets of San Remo (where the film achieves an enjoyable albeit decidedly Hitchcockian balance of tension and playfulness), the grandiose music that accompanies the final moments is cloying and overblown.

The problem is precisely that ‘I Am Love’ tries so hard to achieve a grand operatic sweep. This is a film crying out for a little more intimacy, reflection and care. In fact, its precisely in its more tender, less provocative moments that this picture is at its best. In trying to make theatrical gestures and romantic statements from the idea of self-discovery, it conspicuously fails to engage with what self-discovery actually entails, or even what it might mean, save for the inevitable collapse of one wealthy family. I am also deeply suspicious of the film’s implied sense that the discovery of a dormant true identity is a purely feminine thing – why are all the male characters left so stilted and underwritten? It’s entirely reasonable to make a film about female subjugation in Italian society – but it is necessary to do much more than simply render the male characters as cardboard cut-outs.

Given the response this film has had elsewhere, I know there will be people stumbling across this review who passionately disagree with me. Yet the very fact that Guadagnino and Swinton spent seven years working on this project betrays that it is, at its core, a vanity project no more worthy of serious attention than those of Mel Gibson. I honestly find it hard to defend a film that is such an inherent stylistic mess and that so thoroughly botches all its themes.

It is not enough to throw together a disparate array of knowing references for the benefit of cinephiles, nor is it enough to try to make weak material transcendent through the use of melodrama. If we accept films like this, however impressive the photography, acting and staging may be, as the best modern cinema has to offer, we are doing audiences, the art of criticism and the medium of cinema itself a huge disservice. That is simply not good enough.

Quantity

2010-04-03T12:13:00.004+01:00

Field Music - (Measure) (Memphis Industries)

The story of Field Music is one of the more interesting industry sagas of recent years, and a refreshing example of how a combination of imagination and sheer persistence can reap rewards. Unfairly written off as an inferior cousin to The Futureheads, there's now plenty of evidence that Field Music were always the better band - a group with an unusual ability to be as inventive as possible with the traditional rock group set-up. Perhaps their quirky, angular, constantly shifting approach to classic pop was never likely to have mass appeal, but the excellent 'Tones of Town' album was cruelly overlooked both by critics and the public. Meeting with such indifference, Field Music announced an indefinite hiatus, but rather than abandoning their musical dreams altogether, the Brewis brothers sub-divided into two separate projects, School of Language and The Week That Was. Both yielded outstanding results and had distinctive individual identities.

With their profile now duly raised by this clever musical and promotional game playing, the Brewis brothers return as Field Music with a substantial double album demonstrating their ambition, if not quite the full scope of their interests. As if by way of atonement, '(Measure)' has received ecstatic featured reviews in the monthly rock press. Critics are correct to eulogise the Brewis' melodic and rhythmic gifts - and '(Measure)' is unsurprisingly filled with structural intelligence and exceedingly clever writing. At times, it also sounds remarkably taut - the sound of a well-rehearsed, carefully arranged small unit.

There is much to admire on '(Measure)', from the nimble chamber-pop of the title track to the insistent, spiky adrenaline rush of 'Effortlessly' or the infectious chime of 'Them That Do Nothing'. Many of these songs are astute lessons in how to produce guitar based pop with sophistication and clarity. The Brewis brothers work brilliantly together, and their refined vocal harmonies are a major feature of the group's sound. Similarly, they design their songs to feature intricate, complementary guitar parts. They rarely resort to bland strumming or the simple marking of time. This is often what makes their songs stand out as exciting.

Sometimes, I suspect, it makes their music seem more adventurous than it actually is. '(Measure)' is very much rooted in classic British pop - and for much of its duration it seems like a more progressive reformulation of the essential ingredients of pop music as defined by the great acts of the 60s and 70s. Perhaps as a result, it does occasionally drift into slightly plodding, guitar-rock formula ('Lights Up'). As much as I enjoy it (and I really do), I can't help feeling it's a less intriguing project than either the School of Language or The Week That Was albums. Those albums had strong conceptual foundations and drew from a less obvious array of musical influences.

'(Measure)' works best when it hints at this broader knowledge - the superb minimal synth and percussion workout of 'Let's Write A Book' or the Afro-Cuban informed coda to 'All You'd Ever Need To Say'. The latter is a good example of another frustrating tendency here - occasionally, the Brewis brothers have great ideas which they simply throw in loosely and fail to develop. Still, there's no doubting the Brewis brothers have major talent and an appetite for adventure - and it's great to see their peculiar business model sustaining them. This should set the benchmark for British rock bands. It provides clear evidence that it is possible to play classic rock music with a pioneering spirit.

New Directions

2010-04-02T11:48:00.002+01:00

Polar Bear - Peepers (Leaf)

I don't always admire the work of Paul Morley, but his current Guardian video series investigating the nature of modern jazz in Britain is fascinating and important. So often, jazz cocoons itself in existential worries ('is this jazz?' 'is it too accessible?') and shields itself from other forms. Yet in this country right now, there is a very vibrant scene of improvising musicians forging connections across the contemporary musical spectrum. It was pleasing to see Polar Bear's Sebastian Rochford and Pete Wareham, in conversation with Morley, highlighting the likes of Zed-U and TrioVD, but also recognise that adventurous, compositional rock bands such as Grizzly Bear might offer inspiration to the aspiring jazz musician.

Rochford appears to see jazz as more of a concept or approach than a sound - it doesn't have to swing, but it does have to be 'liberating', confident and prepared to take risks. Rochford is something of an old-fashioned collector of music who enjoys making new discoveries in independent record shops. He has absorbed a massive range of music yet the result of his avid listening is a remarkably distinctive compositional voice. Perhaps there was a danger of this developing into a formula - many will probably feel that 'Peepers', a relatively concise and focused set, is exactly what was required after the dense, sprawling exploration of their previous self-titled work (for the record, I loved that album too).

There are two central relationships crucial to Polar Bear's alchemy - the powerful connection between Rochford and Tom Herbert, which is both steady and dynamic, and the relationship between saxophonists Mark Lockheart and Pete Wareham, as contrasting and complementary a frontline as you could hope to find. 'Peepers' sees Rochford now using this foundation to branch out into new territory. Electronics wizard Leafcutter John plays guitar on a number of tracks, giving the band harmonic accompaniment for the first time. If anything, though, the effect is largely rhythmic or atmospheric, either producing ska-infused choppiness or surprising tenderness.

The exhilarating burst of unashamed joy on the opening 'Happy For You' will be familiar to long time Polar Bear fans, as will the lurching groove Rochford deploys on the hugely enjoyable 'Drunken Pharoah'. These are unselfconcious pieces of music, rich in character and humour, but with a strong musical understanding and interplay cementing them. What will be less familiar are the moments of delicacy and vulnarability that mark 'Peepers' out as Polar Bear's most varied and immersing work so far. 'The Love Don't Go Anywhere' is an impressionistic piece tinged with sadness and regret, whilst 'A New Morning Will Come' is a shimmering delight.

Perhaps my favourite moment on the album is the subtle 'Want To Believe Everything', on which the internal dynamics of Rochford's drumming are brilliantly controlled. The piece takes Polar Bear's familiar off-kilter groove and plays it out in a lighter, more airy setting. The gentle closer 'All Here' has something of an inspirational feel - like a soft prayer. It sounds like a Stax soul ballad - a Mavis Staples song as played by a jazz ensemble. This is new territory for the group, and certainly not unwelcome.

'Peepers', contrary to its title, is not the sound of a band tentatively peeping at another direction. It's a confident, assured opening of new doors. It has a raw, unpolished sound that may infuriate some but which delights me - it sounds like a real band playing intuitively.

Summer tinged with sadness

2010-04-02T11:07:00.003+01:00

Laura Veirs - July Flame (Bella Union)

Laura Veirs is the sort of singer-songwriter it's all too easy to take for granted, releasing new albums of dependable quality at regular intervals without really making radical shifts in direction. Amidst all the noise currently being made around female talents (the elaborate fantasias of Joanna Newsom or the supposed prodigious maturity of Laura Marling), it would be easy for 'July Flame' to fall by the wayside. This would be a real shame, for there's definitely an argument to be made that 'July Flame' is Veirs' most accomplished work.

As its title suggests, 'July Flame' works as a warmer, brighter flipside to the icy charm of her previous career watermark 'Carbon Glacier'. The albums Veirs has released in between the two have all been good, but maybe burdened by the weight of one or two standout songs apiece. 'July Flame' is a good deal more consistent - brimming with largely simple, unaffected but strikingly beautiful songwriting. The arrangements are mostly minimal but characterised by delightful textural nuances.

Veirs continues to work with producer Tucker Martine and 'July Flame' contains the finest results yet from this fruitful collaboration. I became tremendously excited when I heard the news that REM were recording new demos with Martine, for he is exactly the sort of producer to reinject some mystery into that band - but it seems they have returned to the ugly, hyper-compressed commercialism of Jacknife Lee for their forthcoming album. What a shame because judging by what Veirs and Martine have achieved here - an unassuming, home recorded work still full of richness and beauty - a Martine-helmed REM might have been something both surprising and special.

'July Flame' delicately unfolds into a mission of quiet discovery. There's the gentle reverb (applied carefully and thoughtfully) that renders 'I Can See Your Tracks' a mesmerising introduction. There's the otherwordly, slightly woozy waltz of 'Little Deschutes' and the southern gothic tapestry of 'Where Are You Driving?'. Veirs seems to have ironed out some of the harshness from her voice and, whilst these songs are not without her trademark wistful melacholy, they do seem to have a warmer, more enchanted gaze. Perhaps best of all is the sensual, rapturous but avowedly linear title track.

Veirs comes across as a disarmingly modest writer and performer (and her humility comes across in her sincere tribute to legendary session bassist Carol Kaye), but also a meticulously honest one - and this is perhaps why she appears to have so many admirers. Colin Meloy from the Decemberists campaigned for 'July Flame' to get a proper release when Nonesuch records declined to put it out (did they learn nothing from the 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' farce?) and Jim James from My Morning Jacket provides some suitably spectral vocal harmonies. It's good to hear James' voice in a more sympathetic context after the uncomfortable fusions of 'Evil Urges'. I suspect 'July Flame' will be one of the albums I listen to most this year, such is its winning combination of adventure and accessibility.

The Return

2010-04-02T10:43:00.002+01:00

I've not been able to blog in some time now. My life is taking all sorts of interesting twists and turns at the moment, involving plenty of uncertainty but also, I hope, some new opportunities. I hope, slowly but surely, to ease back into regular writing again.

Whilst I've been busy working and planning for the future, plenty seems to have happened in the world of music, not least the sad loss of two figures personally significant for me (and many others). Along with John Peel, Charlie Gillett was surely one of the two most important voices in British broadcasting. He treated his listeners with respect, trusting them to have the same keen and adventurous ears that he had. His style was totally and refreshingly unshowy and unpretentious, allowing the music to speak for itself whilst also communicating his enthusiasm and passion for it in a naturalistic, almost effortless manner. He was a broadcaster of real integrity - compromising his own tastes and interests in the service of his career would have been unthinkable. Compare this with the excitable preaching of Zane Lowe and it's easy to see what has been lost to the tradition of radio with Charlie's passing. He can't be replaced - but I do hope the World Service continues to devote a small part of its schedule to sharing music from around the world.

Alex Chilton was a more tricksy character but, at his best, undeniably one of the great pop songwriters. Big Star were a band that sounded like they ought to have had hit after hit but, in the end, they remained a cult concern. It's worth remembering that, over time, cult interest bands have considerable impact on a wide range of people - and the many tributes to Alex on Twitter are testament to the fact that conventional, commercial measures of popularity often serve to marginalise immensely significant players. 'The Ballad of El Goodo', 'September Gurls', 'Thirteen', 'Thank You Friends', 'Kanga Roo' rank among some of the finest songs I know. As a solo artist, Chilton was wayward and unpredictable - although there are those for whom the ragged charm of 'Like Flies on Sherbert' holds more interest than the more polished sound of the first two Big Star albums. There's definitely a sense that, middling quality of the recent Big Star album notwithstanding, Chilton had more to offer.

I now have a large task on my hands attempting to catch up on everything I've been enjoying recently. Blogging will probably remain intermittent as I start a month of new work on Tuesday and I really hope to get the best out of a short amount of time.

Rock Heritage

2010-03-09T14:43:00.001Z

John Cale and The Heritage Orchestra perform Paris 1919
Royal Festival Hall – 5th March 2010

Having never seen the great John Cale live before, and with the knowledge that he would be performing his superb ‘Paris 1919’ album in full, I’d been eagerly anticipating this concert for some time. I use the word ‘concert’ rather than gig because that is very much what it was – a stately, reverential and, for the most part, somewhat uninspired recreation of Cale’s 1973 hymn to cold war Europe, coupled with a rather short and ungenerous second half of more adventurous pieces for the band.

‘Paris 1919’ is rightly regarded as one of Cale’s more conventional albums. Whilst it has rich orchestral arrangements, it’s very much a set of melodic pop songs and there is very little hint of Cale’s interest in the avant garde, or of the poised confrontation of The Velvet Underground. The recording, however, is beautifully nuanced and with members of Little Feat in the original band, even the languid ballads threaten to tip into a lithe groove.

Yet when the band finally joins the orchestra onstage after a somewhat unprofessional and uncertain pause, the opening ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ simply lacks punch. Perhaps it’s something to do with drummer Michael Jerome playing an unconventional kit, largely sticking to brushes and providing the kick from a cajon. The problem isn’t confined just to this song, unfortunately, with the entire rendition of the album seeming slick, over-rehearsed and lacking any injection of immediacy or inspiration.

The arrangements seemed to suffer from overthinking how best to combine band and orchestra. Perhaps wary of cutting through the string section, guitarist Dustin Boyer repeatedly resorted to a clichéd and grating distorted rock ballad guitar sound that undermined the sensitivities of the songs. Rather than touching or affecting, the album’s ballads ended up overcooked and bordering on histrionic. The album’s livelier moments, such as ‘Macbeth’ (moved to the end of the set presumably to create a rousing finale), seemed to lack teeth. Only ‘Graham Greene’, one of my least favourite songs on the album, seemed to achieve a fresh impetus – less playful but more insistent than the studio version.

If the original recording has a significant fault, it’s that Cale’s consistently double tracked vocals are often uncomfortably flat. Tonight, his voice sounded stronger, more confident and more articulate. The intelligent, wry wordplay of much of the album’s lyrics at least came through with clarity and purpose. This made it all the more unfortunate that the sound of the musicians was so muddy and undefined. At one point, a near constant low level feedback from the horn section threatened to completely destroy the mood.

After a short break (the brevity of which certainly caught out those who insisted on another trip to the bar), the group returned to perform some choice selections from Cale’s career. These included a wiry, claustrophobic interpretation of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Femme Fatale’ (intercut with ‘Rosegarden Funeral of Sores’), a somewhat dreamy ‘Amsterdam’ and an outstanding, clamorous, deeply weird deconstruction of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. In this short section of the concert, the band played so much more intuitively and intelligently, crafting thrilling and futuristic music. I would have appreciated more of this. Both orchestra and bombast return for a rapturously applauded ‘Hedda Gabbler’.

The concert has been well received elsewhere in the press, and the audience afforded Cale a rather uncritical standing ovation. Yet, to me, it all seemed rather perfunctory and ungenerous – an example of getting a job done rather than anything more artistically adventurous. The performance of ‘Paris 1919’, curiously unsatisfying as it was, didn’t even provide the warm glow of nostalgia one might reasonably expect. Perhaps there is a broader problem with this recent trend of performing classic albums in full – but if classical audiences pay to see complete symphonies, I don’t really see the difference. For a large portion of popular music’s history now, the album has been the nearest equivalent to a full composed work, and reports of its death are no doubt greatly exaggerated. Still, any attempt to produce a tasteful facsimile of the original work, rather than something living, breathing and challenging, ought to be avoided at all costs.

Enough To Get You Drunk

2010-03-08T16:16:00.001Z

Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (Drag City)

Joanna Newsom seems to be one of those artists about whom writers are incapable of exercising nuance – she’s a polarising figure who has taken to making grand, indulgent and idiosyncratic works that demand to be either loved or hated. There’s little room for indifference. Looking back over my rather cursory review of Joanna Newsom’s last album ‘Ys’, I wasn’t quite as dismissive as I’d thought I’d been, but I did question the lack of perspective and distance deployed in criticism of the record. Music critics (mostly males it must be admitted) seemed to veer into rhapsodic swoons at Newsom’s unrestrained verbosity and the romantic sweep of Van Dyke Parks’ grandiose arrangements.

I’ve been a good deal more agnostic about Newsom. ‘The Milk Eyed Mendor’ had some endearing songs but was undermined by Newsom’s grating childlike whimsy. ‘Ys’, on the other hand, was a bizarre detour into a world of excess. With barely a moment free from the piercing sound of Newsom’s voice, certainly an acquired taste, it seemed to me oppressive and not especially likeable. It was rare to find a record rooted in conventional harmony and folk traditions that also sounded so confrontational and difficult.

‘Have One On Me’ sounds even more daunting on paper – more than two hours of Newsom’s music spread across three CDs! She simply does not know how to edit herself. In reality, though, it’s a much more accessible album than ‘Ys’ and arguably a more artistic one too. There are no Van Dyke Parks arrangements here, instead that responsibility falls to Ryan Francesconi, leader of Newsom’s touring band. The arrangements here are occasionally intricate, but always serve to complement or enhance the song. On five of the eighteen tracks, Newsom even forsakes the harp in favour of the piano. Most importantly, these factors combine to ensure that there is a great range in texture and dynamic that had been largely absent from ‘Ys’.

Also immediately noticeable are the changes in Newsom’s vocal delivery. Apparently she underwent surgery for vocal chord nodules last year – I’m not sure whether it’s this or a conscious decision that has prompted the greater restraint. She now sings with a much greater depth of feeling, poise and soulfulness. Sometimes the delivery is so subtle it’s almost ghostly, a big contrast from Newsom’s previous tendency to impose her personality with unwavering intensity. She still sounds quirky, for sure, but now far more naturally so and much less irritating as a result. There’s also much greater attention paid to phrasing, and there are fewer moments when Newsom seems to be forcing her flighty lyrics to scan. The squeakier, less controlled side of her voice threatens to re-emerge on the third disc, but it sounds more surprising as a result of her control elsewhere.

Newsom also displays a penchant for direct and simple melodies here, as well as her gradually unfolding, lengthy linear narratives that will be familiar to devotees of ‘Ys’. The uncharacteristically concise ‘On A Good Day’ resembles a hymn and elsewhere it sounds as if Newsom might be crafting her own traditional folk songs or nursery rhymes. This is not a criticism – a lot of these songs have direct and clear charm. On much of ‘Have One On Me’, Newsom appears to have developed the artistry and self belief to be simple but not simplistic. It’s pretty clear that she herself recognises the difference.

There’s so much material here it’s hard to know where to start. The most striking tracks are those that present the clearest sense of departure for Newsom. There’s the gently rolling road song ‘Good Intentions Paving Company’, on which Newsom sings with a chorus of her band members, phrasing the vocals in line with the song’s harmonic rhythm. It’s light and bouncy but, for those used to Newsom’s harp and voice based performances, also curiously strident. It also takes a completely unexpected twist into romantic territory as Newsom realises that the long journey has to end somewhere. The song is driven by Newsom’s basic piano style, not unlike Dylan’s untutored gospel touch on ‘New Morning’, and by the limber, creative drumming of Neal Morgan.

Similarly impressive is ‘Baby Birch’, which begins as a plaintive, gospel tinged ballad but gradually builds a delicate momentum, punctuated with bursts of electric guitar. What is most striking here is that, in contrast to pretty much all of ‘Ys’, ‘Baby Birch’ is full of space and calm – moments where Newsom no longer feels she has to browbeat us with linguistic or musical clutter. She has the confidence here to let her ideas unfold slowly and gracefully.

There are many tracks that take off where ‘Ys’ left off. They begin with Newsom alone with her harp, or have her accompanied by a string or woodwind section, and feature dense, sprawling fantasies brimming with alliteration. Disc three probably presents the more challenging of these rapturous fantasias, including the uncompromising, exaggerated ‘Esme’. Perhaps the most successful example is the extraordinary ‘Go Long’, during which no lyrical conceit seems too bizarre or wild for Newsom (she is carried in on a ‘palanquin’ made from the naked bodies of many beautiful women). Her disconcerting intensity is softened, however, by a spine-tingling integrated mesh of harp and kora.

Indeed, the instrumentation throughout hints at a wider range of influences, many of which add texture, depth and nuance to Newsom’s idiosyncratic visions. Andrew Strain’s trombone is a particularly welcome presence, adding warmth and a hint of New Orleans to ‘You and Me, Bess’ and ‘Good Intentions Paving Company’. Newsom’s piano playing, slightly untutored and unsophisticated, has something of the gospel-infused urgency of Dylan’s piano playing on the still underrated ‘New Morning’. The closing ‘Does Not Suffice’ is therefore unexpectedly soulful. The hints of Eastern musical flavours on ‘Kingfisher’ are similarly unpredictable and charming. Newsom’s range on ‘Have One On Me’ is broader and more inclusive.

Lyrically, there are still certainly moments when Newsom’s insistence on luxuriating in language leads to uncomfortable displays of verbose banality (‘her faultlessly etiolated fish-belly face’ on ‘No Provenance’ is a line that sticks out like a sore thumb). However, the overall impression left by ‘Have One On Me’ is that Newsom has balanced her expansive dreamy reveries with a new lyrical directness and self reflection. There’s the affecting pleas at the end of ‘Good Intentions…’ (‘I only want for you to pull over and hold me, til I can’t remember my own name’) and Jackrabbits (‘tell me that I can love you again’), or there’s the preoccupation with the idea of home on songs like ‘In California’ or ‘Autumn’. Then there’s the celebration of drinking, not only confined to the extraordinary title track.

Given that I listened to ‘Ys’ only three times before giving up on it and confining it to the shelves, it’s entirely surprising just how much I’ve wanted to revel in the plethora of ideas and riches on display here. For anyone previously averse to Newsom, I recommend keeping an open mind – ‘Have One On Me’ is indulgent and extravagant for sure, but it’s also deeply touching and brilliantly imaginative. It’s the kind of record no-one else would dare to make. The question, of course, is where she could possibly go from here – one hopes it doesn’t all result in a dreadful hangover.

Caught In The Waves

2010-03-04T19:23:00.003Z

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea

The fact that I'm sitting down to write a review of a Corinne Bailey Rae album comes as something of a surprise to me. I should state for the record that I don't have any particular axe to grind with Ms. Rae, it's simply that her debut was far too light and frothy a concoction to really have registered with me, although her Jools Holland performances certainly showed she had vocal talents. Her follow up album 'The Sea' is a totally different story.

It would be very tempting to write about the sad and untimely death of Bailey Rae's partner Jason Rae and how it has informed this album. Whilst it is a record touched by grief and loss, much of the writing had been done before the event, and certain songs have probably been made more poignant by the tragedy. There can be no doubt that this must have affected Bailey Rae tremendously - perhaps some of the pain was poured into completing this surprisingly powerful, dramatic and engaging album. But this is speculation - what seems more important from the context of Bailey Rae's developing career is that she seems to have been left free to make precisely the album she wanted to make. So many different styles inform this liberated, free flowing music. There are hints at Bailey Rae's love of jazz (particularly Billie Holliday records), but also material drawn from the folk world, and even from indie rock. The seductive opener 'Are You Here?' begins with an electric guitar riff that could have been drawn from a PJ Harvey record. Indeed, it comes as something of a surprise to hear Bailey Rae's soft, playful vocal delivery over it.

This sophisticated, superbly executed music is quite some way from the coffee table blandness with which Bailey Rae has been, perhaps unfairly, associated. It's a record that suggests that of all the recent heavily hyped, BBC sound-of-the-year approved female solo artists, Bailey Rae may well turn out to be the one with long term artistic potential. Artists that spring to mind when listening to 'The Sea' include Joni Mitchell, John Martyn and Terry Callier - the kind of solo artists that blurred genre boundaries with effortless, intoxicating ease.

Even the single 'I'd Do It All Again', itself a powerfully linear, deeply expressed and passionate song, gives little indication of the quality of the writing and the ensemble performances on 'The Sea'. The music is sensitively delivered and thoughtfully textured. A song like 'Feels Like The First Time', which initially threatens to be generic summery funk-lite unfolds to reveal a slightly exotic, menacing chorus with vaguely threatening string lines.

More surprising are the upbeat, sultry and insistent pieces such as 'The Blackest Lily'. With Hammond organ and spiky electric guitar, the song has a slightly retro vibe, but everything about the delivery is so righteous and confident that it ends up being thoroughly irresistible. Perhaps the breezy pop of 'Paris Nights/New York Mornings' is slightly out of place on an otherwise intense and rapturous set of songs, but the sheer panache of the band performances make it seem necessary.

Perhaps the album's greatest strengths lie in its lush, rhapsodic ballads, which are emotional without becoming histrionic. Bailey Rae has a control and delicacy that suggests turmoil in the most unforced and convincing of ways. 'I Would Like To Call It Beauty' is particularly beautiful - sensual and gentle but compelling from start to finish, whilst 'Love's On Its Way' gradually builds into something somehow both overwhelming and underplayed. The closing title track is aptly named - the sensation of listening to it is akin to being washed with waves of water. It feels like writing it may have been a cathartic, purgatorial experience.

There will always be some people for whom Bailey Rae is just not edgy enough a personality. Yet these people will miss out by unfairly ignoring this excellent album. Whilst her soft, sometimes childlike vocals could sit very comfortably in lightweight presentation, the contexts Bailey Rae has chosen here are a good deal more mature and adventurous. A great deal of attention has been paid to the detail of the arrangements and the sounds of particular instruments and to the overall mood. 'The Sea' is an elemental triumph.

Celebrating a Polymath

2010-03-02T18:26:00.002Z

Ian Carr - A Celebration of a Life in Music
Nikki Yeoh
Art Themen, Norma Winstone, Michael Garrick, Don Rendell, Dave Green, Trevor Tomkins
Musicians from Royal College of Music, Guy Barker, Tim Whitehead
Nucleus Revisited: Geoff Castle, Mark Wood, Rob Statham, Nic France, Tim Whitehead, Chris Batchelor, Phil Todd, plus guests John Marshall and Ray Russell
Queen Elizbeth Hall, 23rd February

Given his achievements as a jazz musician, a composer, a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion and also as a writer and educator, this concert celebration of the great Ian Carr (who died from Alzheimer’s disease last year) was always going to be an ambitious task. Luckily, it had been carefully planned, satisfying those in the audience who knew Ian well (I myself was one of his students at WAC in North London) and offering a neat snapshot for the uninitiated.

The words often seemed as vital and important as the music. The musings and memories of Nikki Yeoh, Julian Joseph and Michael Garrick captured Ian’s character (his breadth of knowledge, his passions for literature as well as music, his encouragement and his occasionally acid tongue) with real detail and affection, with Garrick even veering into an uncanny impression.

The concert opened with a short solo set from Nikki Yeoh, a star student of Ian’s, who spoke openly and honestly about his inspirational teaching. Her ‘Dance of Two Small Bears’ seemed appropriately indebted to Keith Jarrett (who, along with Miles Davis, represented the pinnacle of musical achievement for Ian), delightfully playful and vibrant but with a deeper, more romantic substance.

Yeoh was followed by a group lead by Michael Garrick, and featuring members of the great Rendell-Carr quintet. The rhythm section of Dave Green and Trevor Tomkins seemed more pensive and less propulsive, but compositions such as ‘Dusk Fire’ and ‘Voices’ still have a commanding resonance. The involvement of the great vocalist Norma Winstone elevated the performance, even if she occasionally threatened to interject too frequently. The appearance of an aged but still powerful Don Rendell drew deserved cheers from the audience.

The second half began with arguably the concert’s highlight, the London premier of Carr’s work for jazz trumpet, saxophone and small string orchestra ‘Northumbrian Sketches’, originally commissioned twenty five years ago. These pieces vividly capture a sense of time and place and the writing, whilst unassuming, is absorbed in the blues and rhythmically driven. Soloists Guy Barker and Tim Whitehead played with clarity and feeling and conductor Mike Gibbs controlled the ensemble with the very minimum of physical effort. Hearing a string orchestra swing will probably always remain an unusual experience. In this case, it was also a richly enjoyable one.

The finale of a very long evening was provided by a large ensemble based on the Nucleus fusion groups of the 70s and 80s. It was extremely loud, and dominated by distorted guitar and a tightly grooving rhythm section (with Rob Statham on bass and the excellent Nic France on drums). Geoff Castle’s keyboards, especially the acoustic piano, were sadly occasionally overwhelmed. The short selection of Ian’s pieces was judicious, including ‘Mister Jelly Lord’, ‘Selena’ (inspired by Miles Davis’ ‘All Blues’ and writer for Ian’s daughter), ‘Lady Bountiful’, ‘Roots’ and a majestic ‘Things Past’. I must admit to preferring the more intuitive and considered improvising of special guest guitarist Ray Russell to the histrionic shredding from Mark Wood, although the roof-raising finale featuring two guitarists and two drummers (John Marshall joining Nic France) was as vibrant and brilliantly chaotic as one of Ian’s WAC workshops. Tim Whitehead’s exultant solo on the closing ‘Things Past’ was both fittingly emotional and musically articulate.

Playlist

2010-02-24T12:04:00.003Z

I haven't had much time to write recently - apologies for that. I definitely need to write something about last night's epic Ian Carr celebration concert, and I must also express my thoughts on all of these releases at some point:

Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Laura Veirs - July Flame
Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate - Ali and Toumani
Fringe Magnetic - Empty Spaces
Kairos 4Tet - Kairos Moment
Jaga Jazzist - One Armed Bandit
Bass Clef - May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way
Myra Melford Be Bread - The Whole Tree Gone
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
Polar Bear - Peepers
Field Music - (Measure)
Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (no, really...)
Tamikrest - Adagh
Richard Skelton - Landings
The Knife with Mt Sims and Planningtorock - Tomorrow in a Year
Pat Metheny - Orchestrion

Orchestral Manouevres In the Dark

2010-02-10T17:35:00.004Z

Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back (Realworld)

For those who have us who have been waiting for ‘I/O’, the new album of original material Peter Gabriel has been promising for the past eight years, his ‘song exchange’ project ‘Scratch My Back’ is somewhat unexpected. For some, it will no doubt also be frustrating. It is now conventional for the covers album to be seen as a disappointment, a sign of diminishing creative powers or an abrogation of artistic responsibilities. This is something that always irritates me given the importance of the art of interpretation in the development of popular music.

In Peter Gabriel’s case, there’s a strong argument to be made that ‘Scratch My Back’ is the most radical move he could have made. Although his previous two albums ‘Us’ and ‘Up’ came spaced far apart, they gave a strong sense of consistent artistic preoccupations. Gabriel was fascinated by sound, by linear song structure and by a wide variety of music from around the world. He had developed a perfectionist streak in his own private studio and would rework his compositions for as long as he felt it necessary to tinker and tweak. He was also becoming strongly associated with personal, confessional lyrics, which added a human dimension to what could easily have been made for alienating listening. Both albums are brilliant and original – but I wonder what more of the same would have added to our understanding of this most underrated of artists.

Given the extent to which Gabriel’s sound is associated with his regular rhythm section (not least bassist Tony Levin and his customised ‘funk fingers’), recording an album without drums, guitar or electric bass and with an orchestra represents a substantial departure. For the most part, the orchestrations on ‘Scratch My Back’, by John Metcalfe, are not particularly adventurous, although sometimes stirring, sitting squarely in film soundtrack territory. It therefore falls more to Gabriel’s strengths and limitations as a singer to determine which of these musical settings work and which do not. His voice has not sounded this exposed since ‘Here Comes the Flood’ on his debut solo recording. Sometimes the results are grandiose or schmaltzy, but on other occasions, Gabriel finds a restrained and dignified sense of reflection and regret in his material.

Although its title suggests there is something lighthearted, entertaining, perhaps even humorous about this project, but the album that Gabriel has produced is unflinchingly earnest and sincere. Whilst he alters the mood of many of these songs, he also treats them with tremendous reverence. His aim seems to have been to strip these songs of the trappings of their original productions and amplify the emotions beneath the artifice. This is a bit difficult to achieve with a selection such as Neil Young’s wonderful ‘Philadelphia’, which was all about naked simplicity and vulnerability in the first place, the song demonstrating considerably more artistry than the film it soundtracked. Gabriel speeds up the temp slightly and makes the phrasing more precise, meaning that there’s less lilt and gentle swing. The orchestrations eventually drown both the melody and the purpose of the song. Similarly, it’s hard to add additional dense arrangements to Arcade Fire’s ‘My Body Is a Cage’, hardly a song that could have been much more portentous in its original guise. Somehow Gabriel succeeds in making it so however, although he finds something more intimate and restrained in the song’s coda.

There are moments, however, when his approach works to startling and transformative effect. With Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’, he alters the phrasing of the vocal in the opposite way from ‘Philadelphia’, protracting the lines and finding the song’s inherent sadness and claustrophobia. His voice is cracked and wayward here. He’s by no means the most technically gifted of singers, but his voice has rarely been used so compellingly as an instrument before. Regina Spektor’s ‘Apres Moi’ sounds enticing when stripped of her indulgent kookiness, whilst Elbow’s ‘Mirrorball’ sounds a good deal more mysterious and elegant when divorced from Guy Garvey’s homely blokiness. It’s one of the more slippery and elusive songs here, and Gabriel handles its subtleties adroitly.

Best of all surely must be the lush, captivating take on Bon Iver’s ‘Flume’. This somehow retains all the passion and the emotion of the original, adding theatricality and drama but removing Justin Vernon’s trademark vocal trickery. It helps that this results in a clearer communication of the lyric. Gabriel completely inhabits this song, sounding at once powerful and mournful. This is a tremendous reading of an already excellent song.

Elsewhere, the situation is more complicated than merely a matter of straightforward success of failure. Removing the joyful township spirit of Paul Simon’s ‘The Boy In The Bubble’ radically alters its mood and feeling, although I can’t help feeling that this slow motion version is a little too soporific. The success of the version of The Magnetic Fields’ ‘The Book of Love’ depends on whether or not Stephin Merritt’s songs work when his layers of irony are peeled away. Some will find this conversational take sweet and endearing, others may feel it is sentimental. The piano-lead take on Randy Newman’s ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ is arguably too faithful and certainly pales into insignificance when placed against Nina Simone’s magisterial version. Uncharacteristically, Gabriel overdoes the forced emoting at the outset of his version of Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, but the song magically comes alive with the introduction of a Steve Reich-esque string figure. This in turn allows Gabriel’s voice to take full, natural flight.

By some distance the most surprising setting is a de-funked, chamber take on Talking Heads’ alarmingly prophetic ‘Listening Wind’. It’s the one that seems least likely to work given how much Talking Heads songs tended to rely on their spindly, angular grooves. Gabriel’s reading emphasises the importance of David Byrne’s vocal phrasing, and his ear for an engaging melody.

‘Scratch My Back’ is by no means a masterpiece, but it is an important addition to the catalogue of a major artist. Bob Ezrin, far better known as a fairly blustery rock producer, but who of course worked wonders on Lou Reed's 'Berlin', has captured the orchestral sound effortlessly, although I would have preferred it had the orchestrations focussed more on texture and colour and less on cinematic sweep. Nevertheless, Gabriel has pushed himself outside his usual comfort zone. The results are mixed, but never less than interesting.

Second Album Fail

2010-02-10T16:45:00.000Z

Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Mute)

Yeasayer’s debut album ‘All Hour Cymbals’ seemed precariously balanced on a knife-edge between two extremes – hippy idealist psychedelia on one side and over-egged 80s pop on the other. It succeeded in walking a tightrope between the two due to its graceful melodies and the group’s instrumental prowess and skills in arranging. Its follow-up ‘Odd Blood’ certainly favours the band’s 80s preoccupations, frequently resembling Tears for Fears or Duran Duran.

It starts auspiciously with a total red herring. ‘The Children’ is an uncomfortable and sinister concoction dominated by creepy vocal effects, eerie sounds and a slow pace that serves to bewitch and hypnotise rather than soothe the listener. Its sheer weirdness suggests that ‘Odd Blood’ might live up to its title.

What follows mostly favours bright, infectious choruses that border on irritating. The musical backdrop largely consists of tribal-sounding tom toms and swathes of synth pads that do little to enhance or support these rather thin and lightweight songs. Occasionally, there is superimposed faux-sophistication that feels forced and lacks depth. The frequent comparisons with Animal Collective are understandable, but the similarities are all superficial. ‘Odd Blood’ doesn’t invoke anything as startling as the joyful synaesthesia of ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’.

This sonic consistency perhaps shouldn’t be all that surprising. ‘2080’, one of the most popular songs on ‘All Hour Cymbals’ worked in spite of its strong resemblance to ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’. Sometimes they pull off a similar trick here. Despite its litany of lyrical clichés, ‘Ambling Alp’ still manages to be maddeningly irresistible. This is at least in part because the band imposes an entirely unexpected and highly imaginative middle section, complete with bizarre saxophones and deviating from the song’s otherwise predictable and formulaic structure.

The biggest problem with ‘Odd Blood’ is the switch of focus away from the arrangements and on to Chris Keating’s slight, reedy vocals, particularly grating when he adopts an untutored falsetto. ‘I Remember’ is another song of love, loss and memory to add to the substantial canon, but the bland and dated backing makes it difficult to experience any emotional impact. Peter Gabriel might be a reference point for this and the preceding ‘Madder Red’, but Gabriel’s songs have always had so much more depth and honesty. Most of the songs on ‘Odd Blood’ seem tricksy and contrived.

‘O.N.E.’ and ‘Love Me Girl’ make up the album’s quirky, upbeat centre. It’s difficult to resist unfavourable comparisons with Hot Chip here. There are a number of musical similarities – not least the 80s influences and single line synth riffs. But there’s nothing affecting or emotionally nuanced here. Regardless of the lyrical context, the insistent but limited melodies offer little hint of longing, melancholy, regret, excitement or discovery. ‘Love Me Girl’ particularly emerges as something of an incoherent mess of pick and mix influences (Prince, Depeche Mode, A-Ha, Duran Duran and much more besides).

In the album’s less focused second half, there are teasing hints of what might have been. The asymmetrical ‘Strange Reunions’, with its offbeat handclaps, devious melodic lines and psychedelic influences is initially beguiling, but it fades out abruptly, seeming like an interrupted journey. Nevertheless, it’s the one point where the group sound relaxed, not trying too hard to be accessible or clever. The saxophones are back to entertaining effect on ‘Mondegreen’, a nimble update of the Motown Stomp severely let down by some silly lyrics (‘everybody’s talking about me and my baby making love ‘til the morning light’ – are we really?).

However elaborately produced ‘All Hour Cymbals’ may have been, it was still believably the work of a band. On ‘Odd Blood’, Yeasayer appear to have stifled any sense of interaction or musicality in favour of a self-regarding, artificial sheen. It’s worth remembering that if the band really are hinting at the artful electro-pop of Talk Talk, then those records sound more durable and satisfying now than ‘Odd Blood’ does. This is a record that is trying desperately to impress, but ends up deeply irritating. It’s a real disappointment from a band that appeared to have considerable potential.

Bruised but Unbeaten

2010-02-05T17:34:00.001Z

Gil Scott Heron - I'm New Here (XL Recordings)

This intriguing comeback from Gil Scott Heron is actually an incredibly difficult album to review. Scott Heron has arguably never made a bad record – even his last release, 1994’s ‘Spirits’, had its moments. Whilst ‘I’m New Here’ belatedly continues the quality streak, it stands alone in Scott Heron’s catalogue in terms of its sound and instrumentation. Yet it’s faintly ludicrous to applaud it for ‘incorporating hip-hop’ when, along with the Last Poets, Scott Heron is one of the founding fathers of rap. XL boss Richard Russell’s production therefore represents a sensitive and logical modernisation, rather than a forced or unnecessary one.

The sonic environment Russell has crafted for Scott Heron may not actually be all that radical. His claustrophobic, sinister but minimalist combination of strings and beats could easily have come from a Massive Attack album. He at least seems to be a good deal more creative with such backing tracks than Massive Attack themselves are these days. His accompaniments take Scott Heron away from his natural comfort zone without making him sound distant or uncomfortable. There’s no Fender Rhodes piano or live percussion and no attempt to smooth over the rough, nervy reality of Scott Heron’s words. The jazz lineage (the world of ‘lady Day and John Coltrane’) may have been sacrificed – but the results are suitably dank and fearsome.

What is most interesting about this record though is Scott Heron’s voice, which now sounds deeper and more resonant, but somehow simultaneously more weathered and dry. He now sounds like a man who has been through a tough prison sentence and various drug rehabilitation programmes. In this sense, the musical backings work remarkably well, given that they are atmospheric but unobtrusive – allowing that peculiar but powerful voice space to communicate.

This set supremely reaffirms Scott Heron’s talents as a performance poet. It is full of interludes and brief skits which complement the flow of the overall album rather than interrupt it. It is bookended by two parts of an autobiographical tale entitled ‘On Coming From A Broken Home’ in which Scott Heron’s elaborate language is as rich and evocative as the sound of his voice. Even more intense is the stark, pounding ‘Running’, which seems confessional in light of Scott Heron’s recent life experience.

The album is rather dominated by the choice of covers, which leads to obvious comparisons with Rick Rubin’s rehabilitation of Johnny Cash’s career. Yet, to hear Johnny Cash singing with acoustic instrumentation was not surprising. To hear Scott Heron doing it on the surprisingly effective version of Smog’s ‘I’m New Here’ is rather radical and unexpected. The song’s combination of irony and honesty is the perfect vehicle for Scott Heron’s resurrection, with its brilliant chat up lines (‘I met a woman in a bar and told her I was hard to get to know, but damn near impossible to forget’) and self-reflection (‘I had an ego the size of Texas. I forget –does that mean big or small?’).

Perhaps less unexpected are versions of Robert Johnson’s ‘Me and The Devil’, relocated from the Mississippi Delta to a paranoid urban environment, and an ostensibly soft take on Bobby Bland’s ‘I’ll Take Care Of You’. Here, Scott Heron’s harsh voice suggests not compassion or commitment – but rather defiance and conviction.

The only original ‘song’ here – ‘New York Is Killing Me’ – is excellent, and suggests that there may be much more to come from this resurrected artist. Set to a handclap backing reminiscent of the Dixie Cups’ ‘Iko Iko’, the accompanying vocal is anything but lightweight, actually weighed down by its burdensome natural gravitas.

I’ve long had reservations with the image of Scott Heron as a prophet of equality and human rights, given his early song ‘The Subject Was Faggots’, a rather unpleasant piece of observational writing. Perhaps now that he has singlehandedly failed to take his own advice (having fallen victim to the very drink and drugs he warned so gravely about) we can now see him in a different, more nuanced light. On ‘I’m New Here’ he seems defiant, but also wiser and slightly vulnerable too. This is an unexpected, powerful return to the real world.

Ready For The Four-to-the-Floor

2010-02-05T16:20:00.001Z

Hot Chip - One Life Stand (DFA/EMI)

It’s quite a long way from ‘drivin’ in my Peugeot, blazin’ out Yo La Tengo’ and being ‘sick of motherf*ckers trying to tell me that they’re down with Prince’ to ‘why can’t I be bright, like my lover’s light?’, ‘happiness is what we all want’ and the various other platitudes that populate Hot Chip’s fourth album. With this record, Hot Chip have moved towards a concept of maturity that favours monogamous relationships and expressions of love. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course and unlike, say, Badly Drawn Boy (whose creativity seemed entirely stymied by domestic contentment), there doesn’t seem to be any diminution of Alexis Taylor’s gift for a melancholy melodic line, or Joe Goddard’s production talents.

There has, however, certainly been a reduction of the musical quirks that made Hot Chip such a distinctive proposition. There is already a consensus building around ‘One Life Stand’ being their most consistent (and therefore best) album. If consistent means the most accessible – this is certainly true. Most of the references that spring to mind when listening to these insistent and infectious ten songs are pop songs – New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, Eurythmics circa ‘Sweet Dreams’, the Pet Shop Boys take on ‘Always On My Mind’, early 90s Italian house singles, even Madonna on ‘I Feel Better’. The skittering, uneasy, sometimes disorientating grooves of ‘Coming on Strong’ and parts of ‘The Warning’ have been jettisoned in favour of a constant four to the floor kick drum pulse. The result is a near seamless and richly enjoyable collection of artful pop songs that rejects both the wayward, unpredictable charm of ‘Made In The Dark’ or the radical sophistication of ‘The Warning’.

Hot Chip still work best when deploying their mysterious balance of the sinister and the saccharine. It is this, both natural and unforced, that raises their music above the sum of its influences. Sometimes this peculiar equilibrium is achieved through the highly contrasting vocal contributions of Goddard and Taylor (and it’s great to hear Goddard back to greater prominence here), sometimes it just sounds like they’ve spliced two completely different songs together. This is the case with the title track, which I first heard several months ago in one of Alexis’ DJ sets, in a version that only included the outrageously infectious chorus. That this deceptively simple melody has hardly left my head since is itself testament to Alexis’ melodic strengths but the finished product is substantially more satisfying. The synth riff and verse melody seem almost to stand in opposition to the theme of the song – perhaps influenced by the Chicago house boom, and offering something predatory and seductive before the chorus’ sweet statement of commitment.

The group pull off a similar trick with the magnificent closing track ‘Take It In’. Goddard’s vocal is propulsive, dark and murky, before a wonderful, shimmering chorus takes over and eventually dominates. More linear but no less inventive is the delightful ‘Alley Cats’. This might just be my favourite Hot Chip song to date, slowly building from a subtle, unassuming introduction into something elegiac, haunting and affecting. The intial theme bears more than a passing resemblance (presumably intentionally) to Arthur Russell’s ‘That’s Us/Wild Combination’, a song with which I’ve become somewhat infatuated of late, but it develops into much more than mere homage. It’s a continuously developing, shifting narrative and Taylor’s counter-melody is plaintive and wistful.

Elsewhere, there are a handful of tracks with which I have minor reservations. ‘Brothers’ is a bit earnest, and reminds me inescapably of Boney M, although I’m not sure why. I’m usually a staunch defender of Alexis’ bittersweet ballads, but ‘Slush’ might be a step too far into Bacharach-lite territory even for me. Having said that, its more mysterious, lush and somewhat unexpected coda complete with steel pans takes it to an entirely different space. ‘I Feel Better’ perhaps overplays its synth string hand and steals its chorus melody from Madonna’s ‘La Isla Bonita’. It’s unfortunate also, particularly given that this album was largely completed some time ago, that its use of vocal autotune no longer sounds particularly novel.

Yet the album’s best moments render such problems largely trivial. In addition to the aforementioned triumphs, ‘Keep Quiet’ provides an essential moment of delicate intimacy, whilst ‘We Have Love’ and ‘Thieves in the Night’ are irresistible dancefloor tracks. ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’ ingeniously marries an Italia house piano stomp with the sweetest, most yearning string-laden chorus. As usual with Hot Chip, it’s the material that really shouldn’t work that somehow ends up being the most successful. Whatever they try here, they do so with confidence and conviction. It’s an immediately engaging sugar-rush of an album, but also one which grows with each listen. This one could be for the long term.

Insincerity

2010-01-26T18:12:00.000Z

The Magnetic Fields - Realism (Nonesuch)

Anyone who still thinks that Americans don’t get irony should be pointed to the work of Stephin Merritt immediately. In fact, in titling the latest Magnetic Fields album ‘Realism’, Merritt has taken his laconic wit to new levels. As ever, Merritt is being slippery and disingenuous here – there’s no greater level of sincerity or honesty than on previous Magnetic Fields albums, and plenty of familiar wordplay and dry humour.

In packaging design and sonic intent, ‘Realism’ is clearly intended as a flip side to the Jesus and Mary Chain-inspired ‘Distortion’. It dispenses not only with that album’s overpowering swathes of noise, but also with all synthesisers, using only acoustic instruments. There’s an obvious problem here that few critics seem to have observed, namely that Merritt has used this particular sonic conceit before, on the album ‘i’. The two albums are not identical by any means – on ‘I’ Merritt sang every song, whereas here he makes bountiful use of guest vocalist Shirley Simms. ‘Realism’ also pays more explicit debts to folk music, and not every song title begins with the letter ‘I’. The similarities probably outweigh the differences though – and there will be no great surprises here for long term followers of Merritt’s work. It’s probably fair to say that this is symptomatic of a wider malaise. Merritt’s magnum opus ’69 Love Songs’ was both an ambitious undertaking and a massive success. Understandably, he has struggled to know exactly how to better it.

This doesn’t mean that the subsequent Magnetic Fields projects have been bad – to the contrary, there are some excellent songs spread across them. It’s just that none has seemed quite so conceptually and musically compelling, or as uniquely ludicrous. It’s actually Merritt’s side projects, the fascinating ‘Showtunes’ album and the musical interpretation of the Lemony Snicket books as The Gothic Archies, which have provided more original and adventurous takes on his by now familiar songwriting tropes.

‘Realism’, then, is another adequate Magnetic Fields album, albeit one that focuses more on Merritt’s purposeful parodies than on his best pop writing. I always feel Magnetic Fields songs are best when they can be interpreted either as ironic commentaries (as the famously acerbic Merritt no doubt intended them), or as pithy expressions of identifiable and real human experience. ‘The Book of Love’ works like this, hence Peter Gabriel was able to cover it as a disarmingly straight (in more than one sense), string-laden ballad for his forthcoming ‘Scratch My Back’ project (quite what Gabriel song Merritt plans to deconstruct in return is anyone’s guess). The first half of ‘Realism’ favours unashamedly silly, nursery rhyme-esque ditties like ‘We Are Having A Hootenanny’ (‘get the lowdown on our hoedown’), ‘The Dolls’ Tea Party’ and ‘Everything is One Big Christmas Tree’. The latter, hilariously, even has its entire lyric repeated in a high-camp German chorus. They are fun, but the appeal is limited, and the acoustic instrumentation, somewhat inevitably when xylophones and glockenspiels are involved, makes them seem a bit plinky plonk.

Luckily, the front half also includes two prime examples of Merritt’s genius, two songs that pull of the neat trick of somehow being endearing and thoroughly charmless at the same time. ‘I Don’t Know What To Say’ is touchingly vulnerable and drenched in surprisingly effective reverb. With its knowing devaluations of romantic clichés, it could have sat comfortably on ’69 Love Songs’. Even better is ‘You Must Be Out of Your Mind’ (followed in the chorus by the brilliantly chastising, patronising word ‘son’). As other reviewers have already noted, it features one of Merritt’s great lyrics in ‘I want you crawling back to me, down on your knees, yeah/Like an appendectomy, sans anasthaesia’.

The best songs here seem to be the most laconic – ‘Walk A Lonely Road’, ‘Better Things’, the accordion-laden ‘From a Sinking Boat’ and Shirley Simms’ wilting vocal on ‘Always Already Gone’ certainly stand out. Merritt’s attempts to balance these with jauntier moments seem to fall flat. ‘The Dada Polka’ irritatingly and inescapably reminds me of Boney M. Wryly amusing though the lyric is, the mock-baroque stylings of ‘Seduced and Abandoned’ have been repeated ad nauseam by Merritt now.

‘Realism’ is a continuation of Merritt’s dogged, largely unchanging path. He sings of ‘real’ rather than ‘absurd’ birds, accompanying his vocals with cheesy sampled birdsong. This album dependably overflows with lyrical and musical conceits. The most radical thing for him to do now would be to record something completely sincere.

Celestial Dancing

2010-01-21T17:05:00.002Z

Four Tet - There Is Love In You (Domino)

Kieren Hebden has been so busy over the past few years DJing, remixing and collaborating (notably with improvising drummer Steve Reid), and briefly reuniting Fridge, that it’s easy to forget that it’s been four years since his last release under the Four Tet moniker. His recent path seems to have veered far from the laboured ‘folktronica’ tag with which he has been somewhat unfairly burdened. ‘There Is Love In You’ achieves quite a neat trick by serving as a reminder of Hebden’s skill for crafting a hinterland where electronic and acoustic sounds meet whilst also imbuing his distinctive vision with fresh and absorbing ideas.

We’re familiar with the bright, sparkling, pastoral melodies with which Hebden has long been associated. Unsurprisingly, ‘There is Love In You’ is liberally peppered with them. Yet the album starts with two pieces founded primarily on vocal sampling, a technique that has not traditionally been a Hebden hallmark. It seems possible that Hebden has digested the pervasive influence of his former schoolmate and dubstep producer Burial, to whom the masterful ‘Angel Echoes’ and ‘Love Cry’ bear some resemblance. Yet these tracks are not mere pastiches or facsimiles of the innovations of other producers – the percussive textures and shimmering sound are entirely characteristic of Hebden. Whereas Burial uses the sound of voices to create something claustrophobic and tense, Hebden uses them to create something open, spacious and invigorating. ‘Love Cry’, particularly, feels like a comprehensive synopsis of recent trends in dance music, all filtered through Hebden’s own distinct and confident gaze.

The abiding mood here is melancholy, but not sad. There’s a sense that private contemplation and reflection can be a comfort and might even result in expressions of joy. In this way, the more languid pace and gentle dynamics of ‘This Unfolds’ make perfect sense in the same company as the insistent, jubilant ‘Sing’. The former is a typically cumulative construction – eventually blossoming into a piece of minimal techno, but with the hazy sensation of its first phase (reminiscent of something from Hebden’s band Fridge) still somehow retained. The latter exhibits more of the physical impetus introduced on last year’s ‘Ringer’ EP. Yet it also has a disorientating false ending before concluding with a more slippery, distant theme.

This combination of the celebratory and the contemplative consistently informs a particularly adventurous, complex and satisfying album, possibly the best of Hebden’s career to date. The music has a rapturous, near-celestial atmosphere, but with the impulsive rhythmic drive of the best club music. It is sensual music in the broadest sense.

A Solipcist's Prayer Meeting

2010-01-15T15:56:00.002Z

Bill Fay – Still Some Light (Coptic Cat)

I should probably warn at the outset that this is likely to be a somewhat confused and disoriented piece of writing, the British singer-songwriter Bill Fay having been a musical infatuation of mine for a while now. I chanced upon the See For Miles reissue of his two albums originally made for Decca in the early 1970s in my local library some time in the early years of the last decade. I picked it up purely on the basis that I knew nothing about Fay and because the original cover images were striking. Later, when working on a piece on Fay for John Kell’s Unpredictable Same fanzine, I discovered that Fay was also being championed elsewhere. MOJO’s Jim Irvin had drawn attention to these classic, underappreciated albums, whilst Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy had been performing Fay’s ‘Be Not So Fearful’ in his solo concerts, having been introduced to the Decca albums by Jim O’Rourke.

After his Decca contract folded, Fay had not, as many imagined disappeared, but had continued to write and record music at home, away from the commercial imperatives of the music industry. Some of this was released by David Tibet on Current 93 on the excellent, spacious and mysterious ‘Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ set. It’s entirely probable that, much like the home tapes of the late, great Arthur Russell, there may be numerous unheard Fay recordings that are worthy of release.

‘Still Some Light’ contains the first brand new Fay recordings for over thirty years, recorded alone at home. It is packaged, delightfully, with a generous set of demo recordings made between 1970 and 1971 with the superb band that made ‘Time of the Last Persecution’ – guitarist Ray Russell, drummer Alan Rushton and bassist Daryl Runswick. All three musicians play beautifully. Russell, better known as a jazz musician with an enthusiasm for ‘freer’ musical forms makes some dramatic and searing contributions, emphasising Fay’s apocalyptic themes of cosmic battle between good and evil.

A number of these demo recordings are invaluable. There are stripped back versions of two songs from the eponymous debut album, which had been embellished with huge orchestrations from Mike Gibbs. ‘The Sun Is Bored’ has even greater menace with the focus shifted from string section to Russell’s violent bursts of guitar, whilst ‘Sing Us One of Your Songs May’ retains its eccentric charm. Then there is the bulk of ‘Time of the Last Persecution’, in prototype form, but largely faithful to the cleaner recordings that ended up on the album itself. The quality of these recordings is not good – there is plenty of residual hiss from the tape sources and the vocals frequently clip in a way that is not easy on the ear. Fay is honest about this in the sleeve notes, and I would argue that he is right that the feel and atmosphere of these sessions, as well as the quality of the songs and the musicianship, outweigh the limitations of the equipment used. It’s actually a great pleasure to hear these songs in such a raw, pure and direct form.

Perhaps even more notable amongst the demos are those songs that did not appear on either ‘Bill Fay’ or ‘Time of the Last Persecution’. There’s a wonderful ‘Love Is The Tune’, which eventually appeared on ‘Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ and the charming ‘Arnold is a Simple Man’ seems to be another of Fay’s brilliant character portraits of sympathetic eccentric individuals. It’s a more than worthy addition to his canon. More unexpected is the distorted sturm und drang of ‘There’s A Price Upon My Head’.

The new material is considerably harder to judge. Recorded at home using a Korg keyboard and a basic microphone, it is awash with generic synth pads, facsimile piano sounds, plinky mock pizzicato strings and very basic drum machines. These arrangements will likely present difficulties for those, like me, who love both the lavish Mike Gibbs scores and the excoriating immediacy of the band recordings. It’s quite a similar feeling to listening to those recent low budget albums Leonard Cohen made with Sharon Robinson, although ‘Still Some Light’ rather lacks their sense of irony.

‘Road of Hope’, ‘City of Dreams’, ‘Fill This World With Peace’, ‘Be at Peace with Yourself’, ‘Peace on Earth’ – the song titles certainly offered a clue as to the mood of ‘Still Some Light’. It’s a sincere and earnest collection of songs searching for the spiritual or the numinous in a troubled world. To many people, this may come across as idealistic, spiritual dreaming - to others, the sincere sense of peace, contemplation and devotion may strike a real, personal chord. It’s tempting to suggest, however, that Fay has already written a couple of definitive examples of this kind of spiritual-inspirational song with ‘Methane River’ and ‘Be Not So Fearful’. In those songs, the sentiments were mysterious and eccentric – here, they are sometimes transparently platitudinous. The nadir is probably ‘Hello Old Tree’, a mercifully brief and very whimsical track in which a tired sounding Bill takes a brief pause to commune with nature.

It’s also a challenge to adapt to Fay’s changed singing voice, which may have been diminished by his years of smoking. It’s a weaker instrument now, although much of its conversational, intimate character is retained. Whether Fay’s tepid attempts at vocal treatment – double tracking and reverb particularly – serve to improve the sound of the vocals is a matter for personal taste. I find myself frequently wishing he’d left them dry. Perhaps the biggest obstacle of all is the gentle, hushed dynamic, languid pace and consistent muted tone. Over twenty six tracks, it begins to become more oppressive than it is dreamy or peaceful. A little more rhythm would have been appreciated.

Yet, even though the production values are modest, perhaps even bizarre, there are still flashes of inspiration that remind us of Fay’s dignity, compassion and melodic invention. If we try and imagine these songs as home recorded prototypes for a studio recording that might never be, it starts to make a little more sense. Imagine the mysterious ‘City of Dreams’ with a real vibraphone and some dusty, brushed snare drum and it might sound a whole lot more evocative. There’s a humane soul in ‘There is a Valley’ and ‘Road of Hope’, in the frailty of Fay’s voice in the latter and in the expansive narrative of the former. One can’t help but wonder if the Willie who has a dream in the forest in ‘All Must Have a Dream’ is the same Willie of ‘Gentle Willie’ from the debut album. There’s a sense that the benign feeling at the heart of these songs might be a genuine inner peace and tranquillity from which a conscious rejection of conflict and intensity results.

In his sleevenotes, essentially a history of his career in the form of an embellished acknowledgements list, Fay comes across as a gentle, calm, very dignified human being. It might therefore be unfair to expect any grandstanding musical statements from him now. For all its pleading for hope and peace, ‘Still Some Light’ still seems like an insular and hermetic work. Perhaps it’s all the more interesting for that. Those who have not heard those two incredible Decca albums should certainly start there rather than here – they are wonderful recordings and, honestly, contain some of my favourite music of all time.

Fun with Fangs

2010-01-11T17:00:00.000Z

Vampire Weekend – Contra (XL)

Pretty much every review and feature I’ve read on Vampire Weekend in the past couple of months starts in the same way – with a lengthy examination of supposed critiques of the band as inauthentic ‘cultural tourists’. I’m still wondering precisely who these detractors are. Every review of ‘Contra’ so far has been at least positive, and it seems as if every journalist is trying to position themselves as valiant defenders of this band against a constant stream of invective that doesn’t really seem to exist. Most of us seem to accept that they are privileged and educated New Yorkers – but this doesn’t stop us from enjoying either their witty lyrics or their enthusiasm for African rhythm and harmony. If this music opens doors to Congolese soukous music or the rich contemporary sounds of Mali, this surely cannot be a bad thing.

‘Contra’ is a typical second album in that it consists in part of laudable attempts to develop and diversify alongside a handful of tracks that could have sat comfortably on their debut. ‘Cousins’, somewhat impressively, is an even spikier and more insistent rewrite of ‘A-Punk’ and ‘Holiday’ is a ska-tinged piece of angular post-punk. There’s nothing remotely surprising on either track, including their inherent infectiousness that borders on irritating.

Late last year, the band already gave clues that the full album wouldn’t be quite that simple by posting opening track ‘Horchata’ as a free download. This track amplifies the African influences to almost dizzying and saccharine levels, with its percussion and thumb pianos. It’s also a brilliant song, with Ezra Koenig’s near-nonsense wordplay operating in excelsis.

Much of the rest of the album downplays the familiar strafing and staccato guitar lines in favour of a lush texture dominated by synths and keyboards. It is, on the whole, a less taut and more expansive proposition. Rostam Batmanglij never seemed like a particularly skilled keyboardist, and many of the parts here are quite minimal. Yet the arrangements and overall sound, in which Batmanglij plays the pivotal role, add up to something invigorating and intriguing. There’s a deceptive simplicity to many of these tracks – the detail often matters more than the fundamental elements.

Initially I wasn’t sure about the excess treatment on ‘California English’ – all vocoder gloss – but the track somehow ends up sounding effortless and fluid. Similarly, whilst on first listen to the epic ‘Diplomat’s Son’, the slightly cloying plinky-plonk piano stands out, repeated listens reveal a plethora of riches, from its unpredictable shifting rhythms to its wonderful vocal arrangement. The most impressionistic moment comes with ‘I Think Ur A Contra’, on which the band manage to craft something emotionally affecting beneath their characteristic archness. Perhaps best of all is ‘Taxi Cab’, an almost-ballad that comes across like a brilliantly imagined hybrid of Salif Keita and early Depeche Mode. On these tracks, not only as the musical context been refined, but Koenig has ironed out some of his more provocative vocal quirks in favour of a more understated and subtle delivery. This is no bad thing – and it helps make the band sound less in thrall to the likes of Talking Heads.

Koenig’s lyrics might well be meaningless, but he certainly delights in the way language can trip off the tongue. On ‘Cousins’, he’s particularly exuberant: ‘Dad was a risk-taker/His was a shoemaker/You, greatest hits 2006 little list-maker’ - it sounds like he’s, ahem, gently parodying nerdy music bloggers. Sometimes the lyrics are just joyfully ridiculous (‘In December, drinking Horchata/I look psychotic in a balaclava’). Yet even on a song where political metaphors abound (‘I Think Ur A Contra’), Koenig is capable of isolated moments of disarming directness (‘Never pick sides, never choose between two, well I just wanted you…’).

Amidst all the cleverness, what really comes across is Vampire Weekend’s mastery of the simple pop song. For all its drive to be more adventurous and sonically diverse, ‘Contra’ is still an album full of memorable hooks. It’s hard to know how many albums of this nature a band can produce before their ideas become formulaic – but, for now, it works just fine. ‘Contra’ is short, but very, very sweet.

Looking Ahead

2010-01-08T16:34:00.004Z

So, having bid 2009 and the noughties farewell it seems only right and proper to highlight some forthcoming releases for 2010. I don't promise to like all of these at this point however!

It's surprisingly hard to find a good list of forthcoming new jazz releases (not reissues or compilations) - but the Curios and Roscoe Mitchell albums should be particular highlights of 2009 for me. I have only heard of the Motian/Moran/Potter ECM collaboration via some messageboard hearsay - I do hope it's true as that would make for intriguing music. If the one track that has made it online is anything to go by, that 'opera' from The Knife, Mt Simms and Planningtorock might be a strong contender for album of the year. The Vampire Weekend album, pleasingly, is already available to stream from their MySpace.

Vampire Weekend – Contra
Bill Fay – Still Some Light
Spoon – Transference
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Jaga Jazzist – One Armed Bandit
Pat Metheny – Orchestrion
Laura Veirs – July Flame
Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Magnetic Fields – Realism
Sam Amidon – I See The Sign
Beach House – Teen Dream
Dan Berglund - Tonbruket
Four Tet – There Is Love In You
Yeasayer – Odd Blood
These New Puritans - Hidden
Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate – Ali and Toumani
Massive Attack – Heligoland
Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back
Field Music – (Measure)
Efterklang – Magic Chairs
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part II: Return Of The Ankh
Curios – The Other Place
Quasi – American Gong
Liars – Sisterworld
The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Matthew Herbert – One Pig
Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory - Far Side
The Knife with Mt. Simms and Planningtorock
Polar Bear – Peepers
The Books – The Way Out
Plaid – Scintilli
Jack Rose – Luck in the Valley
Goldmund – Famous Places
Late of the Pier – Blueberry Pie
David Byrne and Fatboy Slim – Here Lies Love (can’t say I want to hear this!)

Plus albums expected from:
Andre 3000
Arcade Fire
Beastie Boys
Big Boi
Broken Social Scene?
Cee-Lo Green
Devo - Fresh
DOOM and Ghostface
Fleet Foxes
LCD Soundsystem
Madvillain??
Mystery Jets
New Pornographers
OutKast
Paul Motian/Jason Moran/Chris Potter
Jay Phelps
REM
The Avalanches
Panda Bear
Band of Horses
Menomena
Jonsi
Amy Winehouse?!?

Review of the Decade Part 2: Best Albums

2010-01-01T16:44:00.001Z

I've tried to do something a little different with this list. Instead of writing reams of text on all these albums, many of which I've already written about anyway, I've tried to come up with a pithy justification for why I think they are important and merit inclusion here. Anything I couldn't justify in one sentence has missed the cut. Also, I've tried to stop myself from including more than one album per artist. There are some exceptions when two albums are substantially different but of similar quality (Dirty Projectors, Lambchop and Elvis Costello all have two entries). However, such cases are rare and there are a number of albums I really love (Emmylou Harris' 'Stumble Into Grace', Wilco's 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' to cite just two examples) that I don't include as a result of these restrictions. Also, a number of artists who have stayed with me over time (Flaming Lips, REM, Keith Jarrett's Trio, Neil Young) are conspicuous by their absence because I don't feel they've produced their best work over the past decade.

I'm quite sure if anyone can really be bothered to refer back to my old albums of the year lists that I am open to the charge of inconsistency. I don't really care - this list is a snapshot of the albums that have, for me at least, best endured. It is of course personal and subjective.

Also, as I think John Kell also mentioned when publishing his own list, this might be the last time I get to do this, if the digital revolution really means albums become a thing of the past. I'm sceptical as to whether this will happen, but that's a subject for another post...

200. Sylvie Lewis - Translations (2007)
Included for its clever, empathetic songs that grow with every listen and for Lewis' delightful, understated voice.

199. Scott Colley – Architect of the Silent Moment (2007)
Included for its collection of contemporary American talent (Taborn and Moran!), for its flowing, sophisticated melodies and for its gentle groove.

198. The Broken Family Band - Cold Water Songs (2002)
Included for creating the unlikely Cambridge country sound, and for neatly combining raucous humour with an underlying sensitivity.

197. Stefano Bollani – I Visionari (2006)
Included for Bollani's virtuosic technique at the piano, for his deep understanding of music - and for his fusion of different musical worlds.

196. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005)
Included for proving my intial judgment about Sleater-Kinney to be wrong, and as a great example of raw, heavy, blues-infused rock.

195. Elvis Costello and the Metropole Orkest - My Flame Burns Blue (2006)
Included for brilliantly encapsulating Costello's improved vocal prowess and neatly summarising his work outside the conventional rock ensemble.

194. Broadway Project - Compassion (2001)
Included for its murky atmosphere which, in spite of its title, seemed full of menace.

193. The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000)
Included for its inventive, playful and humorous use of sampling.

192. Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man (2000)
Included for Cash's stark, powerful but vulnerable delivery and its intriguing choice of material.

191. Roots Manuva - Run Come Save Me (2001)
Included for its successful and distinctively British take on rap, and for its affinity with dub soundsystem music.

190. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (2003)
Included for being a colossal rock behemoth.

189. Rufus Wainwright - Poses (2001)
Included for finding the profundity in banality and vice versa.

188. Aphex Twin - Drukqs (2001)
Included for gradually making a peculiar kind of sense as the initial confusion subsided.

187. Blur - Think Tank (2003)
For finding a new and intriguing sound in the absence of Coxon - it's a shame they failed to build on it.

186. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain (2006)
Included for its adventurous production values and distinctive sound.

185. Jason Moran - Facing Left (2000)
Included for confirming a major piano talent and for combining superb reinterpretations (especially Bjork's Joga) with sophisticated compositions.

184. Shivaree - Rough Dreams (2002)
Included for its gently meandering impulse and sophisticated songwriting.

183. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (2007)
Included for its engaging combination of austerity and warmth.

182. Immaculate Machine - Ones and Zeroes (2005)
Included, at least in part, to allow me to champion some wonderful underdogs and for its bounding, zestful songs and crisp playing.

181. Two Lone Swordsmen - Tiny Reminders (2000)
Included for making an art form from bleeps and bloops.

180. Gas - Pop (2000)
Included for its overarching influence in the world of atmospheric dance music, and for its depth of imagination.

179. Tomasz Stanko - Lontano (2006)
Included for its deceptive calm and haunting, eerie beauty.

178. Aesop Rock - Labor Days (2001)
Included for its forceful, compelling rap language.

177. CocoRosie - Noah's Ark (2005)
Included for sounding thoroughly mesmeric - like clockwork musical theatre.

176. The Hidden Cameras - The Smell Of Our Own (2003)
Included for its bold subversion in combining unreserved and sexually candid lyrics with sugar-coated, highly infectious melodies.

175. Air - 10,000 Hz Legend (2001)
Included for being a record that only I seem to really like - at least in part for its sense of parody.

174. Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (2008)
Included for its desolate, unsettling mood.

173. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (2005)
Included for being a dark, merciless and compelling song cycle and also for considering the presentation so carefully too - superb artwork!

172. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (2006)
Included for its rowdy, bawdy choruses, drunken emoting and for its incorporation of Eastern European folk music.

171. Erin McKeown - Grand (2003)
Included for McKeown's effortless subsuming of the great American songbook within her own charming musical personality.

170. Manitoba - Up In Flames (2003)
Included for its very contemporary take on psychedelia and for its great explosion of percussion.

169. Craig Taborn - Junk Magic (2004)
Included for being one of the best examples of electronic jazz and for Taborn's feverish imagination and technique.

168. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump (2000)
Included for the human warmth beneath its technocratic sheen.

167. Gang Gang Dance - God's Money (2006)
Included for its primitive party vibe.

166. Electric Masada - At The Mountains of Madness - Live in Europe (2005)
Included for its stamina, savage intensity and gleeful recklessness.

165. Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks (2004)
Included for its languid grace and sensitivity.

164. M Ward - Transistor Radio (2005)
Included for its understanding of and love for a bygone era when broadcast radio had both power and magic.

163. Beatundercontrol - Cosmic Repackage (2008)
Included for being a staggering, mind-blowing recording without respect for genre restrictions that hardly anybody in this country noticed.

162. Efterklang - Parades (2007)
Included for continuing to grow on me nearly three years after its release, and for having a wider profile that also refuses to stop growing.

161. Liam Noble - Romance Among The Fishes (2005)
Included for the empathy and adventure of the ensemble and for Noble's highly distinctive piano language.

160. Junior Boys - Last Exit (2004)
Included for its quiet, unassuming reinvention of the synth-pop wheel.

159. Curios - Hidden (2007)
Included for its attention to detail, highly attuned group interaction and its sophisticated, quietly affecting themes.

158. Doves - The Last Broadcast (2002)
Included at least in part for helping me through my university exams, but also for its careful balance of the melancholy and the anthemic.

157. Pat Metheny/Brad Mehldau - Duo/Quartet (2006/2007)
Included for providing two albums' worth of effortlessly flowing ideas, the result of a meeting of truly brilliant minds.

156. Bobo Stenson Trio - Cantando(2008)
Included for its serenity and quiet exploration.

155. Missy Elliott - Miss E...So Addictive (2001)
Included for being Missy's most strident and confident album and for including some of Timbaland's most adventurous production work.

154. Tord Gustavsen Trio - The Ground (2005)
Included for its spirituality, serenity and strong sense of purpose.

153. Loose Fur - Loose Fur (2003)
For being one of those great records that should have been so much more appreciated - how could Tweedy, Kotche and O' Rourke together be anything other than great?

152. Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me (2002)
Included for being one of the very best of the soul survivor comebacks during the decade, delivered authoritatively without any crass attempts at modernisation.

151. Matmos - A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure (2001)
Included for its radicalism and insightful comment in making engaging, meaningful music from surgical procedures.

150. The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)
Included for its winning combination of shimmering melody, detached production values and meaningful heart, all achieved in separate processes over distance.

149. Paul Burch - Fool For Love (2003)
Included for the warmth in Burch's understated vocals and the delicate, zesty swing in his songs.

148. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan (2005)
Included for its unusual instrumentation, therefore making it the most daring and unexpected of their albums and the only one to affect me strongly on a personal level.

147. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (2007)
Included for allowing pensive reflection to invade the party spirit, and for capturing the dilemmas of the ageing hedonists.

146. Andrew Hill - Time Lines (2006)
Included for capturing the great piano player in full creative flow just before his death and for reminding us of his hugely important, and still somewhat underrated contribution to jazz.

145. Myra Melford - The Image Of Your Body (2007)
Included for introducing me to a new, distinctive and questing musical voice.

144. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2007)
Included for its compelling narrative drive, considered structure and thrilling musicality.

143. Calexico - Feast Of Wire (2003)
Included for the relaxed drama of Calexico's border sound, and especially for 'Not Even Stevie Nicks', increasingly one of my favourite songs of the decade.

142. Isolee - Wearemonster (2005)
Included for its light propulsion and immersive atmospheres.

141. Hot Chip - The Warning (2006)
Included for its daring combination of the satirical, the sinister and the saccharine.

140. Chris Potter - Underground (2006)
Included for its muscular energy and exuberance.

139. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (2009)
Included for its rich orchestration, lush harmonies and thoroughly involving sense of construction and care.

138. Herbert - Bodily Functions (2001)
Included for the smoky sophistication in Dani Siciliano's vocals and the intelligent radicalism at the heart of Matthew Herbert's sonic and political manifesto.

137. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie (2008)
Included simply to represent one of the most adventurous, maverick and off-the-wall bands to have dominated the alternative music landscape of the decade.

136. Tim Whitehead/Giovanni Mirabassi Quartet – Lucky Boys (2006)
Included for being a personal source of encouragement and inspiration.

135. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf (2002)
Included for its sheer hard-hitting vitality.

134. John Scofield – Time On My Hands (2000)
Included for the sheer brilliance and versatility of the ensemble (Scofield, Charlie Haden, Jack De Johnette, Joe Lovano).

133. Orchestra Baobab - Specialists In All Styles (2002)
Included for bringing them back to international prominence with a set at once righteous and elegant.

132. Joshua Redman - Compass (2009)
Included for being Redman's most assured, spacious and versatile collection of the decade, a substantial achievement that seems to have been somewhat neglected in the UK jazz press.

131. Salif Keita - Moffou (2002)
Included for its maturity and sense of craft.

130. The Bug - London Zoo (2008)
Included for its unflinching, uncompromising aggression and confronational agenda and for its snapshot of an urban Britain in fear and division.

129. Patricia Barber - Mythologies (2007)
Included for being a contemporary vocal jazz album I can wholeheartedly embrace for the allegorical depth of its songs and the weight of experience in Barber's breathy voice.

128. Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men (2009)
Included for its seamless flow and masterly construction.

127. Soweto Kinch – Conversations With The Unseen (2004)
For providing a distinctly British and positive take on American forms.

126. Roy Hargrove Quintet – Earfood (2008)
For its glorious, clean sound and for its infectious jubilance, suggesting that jazz can still be a music of the people.

125. Sparks – Lil’ Beethoven (2002)
Included for its riotous sense of humour and its playful irony.

124. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (2006)
Included for being the most consistently involving example of her peculiar, eerie and vital world.

123. Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody (2008)
Included for its golden mix of folk tradition and contemporary innovation.

122. Portishead – Third (2008)
Included for not settling for repetition of past glories and therefore being much better, and more adventurous, than anyone expected.

121. Laurent Garnier – Unreasonable Behaviour (2000)
Included for its combination of insistence, repetition and expression.

120. Olafur Arnalds – Eulogy For Evolution (2008)
Included for its spare beauty and lingering sadness.

119. Cee-Lo Green – Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine (2004)
Included for its madcap, exhilarating and vibrant explosion of ideas.

118. Leila – Courtesy Of Choice (2000)
Included for its sleek, modern conception of bedroom soul.

117. Cinematic Orchestra – Every Day (2003)
Included for continuing to reveal previously hidden subtleties and for the power and determination of Fontella Bass’ vocal contributions.

116. Elbow – Asleep In The Back (2001)
Included for Guy Garvey's compassion and humility and for being the best of their albums that didn’t win the Mercury.

115. Leonard Cohen – Ten New Songs (2001)
Included for coming down from the mountain in the most unhurried manner, armed with the twin forces of wisdom and reflection.

114. Jaga Jazzist - What We Must (2005)
Included for its adventurous spirit, lush arrangements and rhythmic precision.

113. Pat Metheny – The Way Up (2005)
Included for Metheny’s glorious chiming melodic sound and his sustained compositional ambition.

112. James Blackshaw – The Cloud of Unknowing (2007)
For introducing me to this extraordinary talent and his dense, hypnotic twelve-stringed tapestries.

111. Dirty Projectors – The Getty Address (2006)
Included for its cut-up orchestral wizardry, very different from subsequent DPs projects – and for its utterly bonkers premise – a concept album affording Don Henley prophetic status.

110. Carla Bley – The Lost Chords (2004)
Included for establishing an inspired new working band for Bley, an artist whose combination of fun and musicality continues to provoke.

109. Xela – The Dead Sea (2006)
Included for its unpredictable movements between brutality and calm, resulting in an effective, uneasy symbiosis.

108. Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble – Exile (2003)
Included for its unconventional and controversial handling of its theme and for its masterful fusion of jazz with Middle Eastern music.

107. Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra – Not In Our Name (2005)
Included for capturing the prevailing political mood of the times in something close to a folk language.

106. Dizzee Rascal – Boy In Da Corner (2003)
Included for its individuality, spark and brilliant juxtaposition of the confrontational and celebratory – a far cry from the banal forms with which he now sadly preoccupies himself in the aim of increased sales figures.

105. Mouse On Mars – Idiology (2001)
Included for being dance music you’d only be afraid to dance to.

104. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus (2004)
Included for showing us that the great man obsessed with sex, drugs, darkness and death had a sense of humour all along.

103. Four Tet – Rounds (2003)
Included for being the album to best capture Kieren Hebden’s beautiful, lingering pastoral electronic sound.

102. Subtle – For Hero:For Fool (2006)
Included for taking the surrealism of the Anticon anti-rap and placing it in a radically different context, making it something visceral and thrilling.

101. J Dilla - Donuts (2007)
Included for Dilla’s wide-reaching posthumous influence, and for crafting a coherent vision from a piecemeal, scattershot approach.

100. Hans Koller – London Ear (2005)
Included for its powerful, imaginative arrangements and marvellously swinging feel and also for capturing the final recorded moments of Steve Lacy.

99. Panda Bear – Person Pitch (2007)
Included for its resplendent, overwhelming synaesthesia of sounds and ideas.

98. Boom Bip and Doseone – The Circle (2002)
Included for its disorientating, stream-of-consciousness surrealism.

97. Bill Frisell – Blues Dream (2001)
Included for its brilliant achievement in conjuring up precisely the mood its title suggests.

96. Vijay Iyer – Reimagining (2003)
Included for its rhythmic complexity and compelling group dynamic, although it’s worth noting that any of Iyer’s albums this decade could have been included on this basis.

95. Jim O’Rourke – Insignificance (2001)
Included for its rock classicism – which in O’Rourke’s hands sounds fresh and exciting.

94. Plush – Fed/Underfed (2003, reissued 2008)
Included for the sheer commitment and scale of the former, and the emphatic melodic qualities of its de-orchestrated counterpart.

93. Quasimoto – The Unseen (2000)
Included for being the work of hip hop’s greatest mavericks.

92. Colin Towns – Orpheus Suite (2004)
Included for being an outstanding example of big band composition that both fulfils and transcends the brief of its original commission.

91. Mu – Afro Finger and Gel (2003)
Included for Maurice Fulton’s radical, wild production, the perfect backdrop for the uninhibited vocal eruptions.

90. Khonnor – Handwriting (2005)
Included for its adolescent sadness and blissful anonymity.

89. Nick Lowe – The Convincer (2001)
Included for being unafraid of maturity, taste and understatement.

88. Polar Bear – Held On The Tips of Fingers (2003)
Included for being unconcerned with what constitutes ‘jazz’ and, as a result, producing an improvised music that is at once ingratiating and challenging.

87. Elvis Costello – The Delivery Man (2004)
Included for being the highlight of his career revival so far – a loose concept album filled with songs of barbed insight and sly magic, delivered in his strongest voice.

86. Super Furry Animals – Mwng (2000)
Included for the idisyncracy of singing in a language few can understand and the accessibility of playing it in the international language of pop.

85. Kurt Rosenwinkel – The Next Step (2002)
Included for its exuberant, playful twists and turns, driving intensity and for Rosenwinkel’s total mastery of the fretboard.

84. Cornelius – Point (2002)
For its perfect dreamy heat-haze.

83. Broadcast – Ha Ha Sound (2003)
For its retro-modernist austerity.

82. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire (2001)
Included for the haunting quality of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s voices and for the harrowing, stark minimalism of the songs.

81. Jamie Lidell – Multiply (2005)
Included for having the audacity to follow a glitchy electronic debut with an album of white-boy soul, and for making it irresistibly brilliant.

80. Steely Dan – Two Against Nature (2002)
Included for returning and sounding like they’d never been away, with Becker and Fagen’s quirky irony and musical sophistication thoroughly undiminished.

79. Supersilent – 6 (2003)
Included for further developing their original, already influential language of improvisation.

78. Ry Cooder – Chavez Ravine (2005)
Included for being as much a historical and socio-political documentary as vibrant song collection.

77. Est – Seven Days of Falling (2003)
For its subtlety, grace, and unhurried intelligence and, of course, for bringing European jazz to stadium audiences.

76. Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
Included for being a provocative record that I alternately loved, hated and then learned to love again.

75. Scritti Politti – White Bread Black Beer (2006)
For being a home-recorded songwriting masterclass, and for the honey-drenched wonder of Green Gartside’s voice, which remains unchanged from Scritti’s 80s heyday.

74. Steve Coleman – On The Rising of the 64 Paths (2003)
For its rigorous adherence to the groove and Coleman’s understanding that rhythm and time are music’s fundamental elements.

73. The Knife – Silent Shout (2006)
For its sinister sense of malice and cruelty.

72. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black (2006)
For the refreshingly candid songs and the sublime delivery which will hopefully outlast the lurid tabloid-baiting.

71. Daft Punk – Discovery (2001)
Included for its sheer ubiquity in the good times and for being impossible to resist.

70. Joe Lovano – Streams Of Expression (2006)
Included for Lovano’s splicing of personal story with tradition - his understanding of where jazz has been and where it still has to go.

69. Ellen Allien – Berlinette (2003)
INcluded for making brutalist, mechanistic precision sound beautiful.

68. DJ/Rupture – Minesweeper Suite (2002)
Included for defining an art for the DJ mix album.

67. Mark Kozelek – What’s Next To The Moon (2005)
Included for taking the macho swagger of AC/DC songs and exposing their vulnerability, perhaps a greater achievement than having written them in the first place.

66. Alice Coltrane – Translinear Light (2004)
Included for its inner peace and contemplation and for being a comeback of immense dignity.

65. Warren Zevon – Life’ll Kill Ya (2000)
Included for being one of the best expressions of Zevon’s inimitable black humour, one where the production is not intrusive, and where Zevon's wit and melodic strengths can cut through clearly.

64. John Abercrombie – Class Trip (2004)
Included for Abercrombie’s masterly fluidity and the languid atmospheres of the music – a class act.

63. The Bad Plus – These Are The Vistas (2003)
Included for their iconoclastic approach in building a new standard repertoire and for developing a power trio with playful sophistication.

62. Michael Brecker – Pilgrimage (2007)
Included for being so much more than just a last will and testament and, against all odds, standing tall as one of the highlights of a tremendous and justly revered catalogue.

61. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (2000)
Included for a pure expression of romantic songwriting, before his restlessness and complacency destroyed his artistry.

60. John Surman – Coruscating (2000)
Included for its beautiful, hymnal merging of reed instruments and string quartet – an ensemble that transpires to be both serene and immersing, somewhere in the hinterland between composed and improvised music.

59. Prefuse 73 – One Word Extinguisher (2003)
Included for its fragmented and futuristic vision.

58. Ornette Coleman – Sound Grammar (2006)
Included for not resting on his considerable laurels and continuing to push the envelope.

57. Kenny Garrett – Beyond The Wall (2006)
Included for capturing a palpable sense of the East in a largely Western language.

56. Califone – Roots and Crowns (2006)
Included for making the wayward sound coherent and for making the arcane sound contemporary.

55. Konono No. 1 – Congotronics (2005)
Included for subverting expectations of what African music is all about, and for its irrepressible energy.

54. Feist – The Reminder (2007)
Included for her psychological and emotional insight and for her beguiling voice, which here appears adaptable to a wide range of musical settings.

53. Scott Walker – The Drift (2006)
Included for fearlessly shining a spotlight on the terrors and violent extremes of recent human history.

52. Mirouslav Vitous – Universal Syncopations (2003)
Included for Vitous’ deep, resonant bass sound and for its powerful combination of lyricism and daring flight.

51. Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000)
Included for its graceful melancholy and for so brilliantly redefining the group’s sound that they left little space for anything more beyond dependable consistency.

50. Keith Jarrett – Testament (2009)
Included for capturing the performances, delivered towards the close of the decade, which summed up a lifetime’s creative endeavour.

49. Burial – Untrue (2007)
Included for finally justifying the use of the word ‘urban’ as a genre classification.

48. Steve Lehman Octet - Travail, Transformation and Flow (2009)
Included for being the next major voice in jazz, if I were to get my way...

47. Madvillain – Madvillainy (2004)
Included for uniting the two greatest eccentrics in hip-hop, with predictably thrilling and imaginative results.

46. The Microphones – The Glow pt. 2 (2001)
Included for its exquisite musical landscape, attention to detail and imaginative sonic manipulations.

45. Terence Blanchard – Flow (2004)
Included for the singing presence of Blanchard’s lines, the considered pacing of his music and for its ultimate joy.

44. Alasdair Roberts – Farewell Sorrow (2003)
Included for effortlessly connecting the Scottish folk tradition with contemporary songwriting and for the rich quality of its language.

43. Bob Dylan – Love and Theft (2001)
Included for its hilarity, its magpie borrowings and for sounding both as old as the hills and as fresh as the daisies.

42. The Books – Lost and Safe (2005)
Included for its distinctive artistry in reimagining the world from found sounds and samples.

41. El-P – High Water (2004)
Included for making ‘jazzy’ hip-hop something to be both feared and admired.

40. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Included for its perfect isolation and for simply being every bit as beautiful and moving as everyone says it is.

39. Peter Gabriel – Up (2002)
Included for combining meticulous organisation with sensitivity and devastating human feeling and also for simply being his only new material of the whole decade.

38. Max Tundra – Mastered By Guy At The Exchange (2002)
Included for its madcap, relentless ‘anything goes’ spirit and for the unsurpassed musicality and intelligence that comes with it.

37. Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)
Included for enthusiastically embracing the apocalypse.

36. Sufjan Stevens – Greetings From Michigan (2004)
Included for meshing delicate, charming songs with ornate, intelligent arrangements and for capturing both the despair and resilience of the great lake state.

35. Emmylou Harris – Red Dirt Girl (2000)
Included for its haunting, elegiac sound and for displaying a new confidence in songwriting, based on compassion and hard experience, late in her career.

34. Herbert – Plat du Jour (2004)
Included for its unflinching political conviction and for creating a new brand of music concrete from food production processes.

33. Tom Waits – Alice (2002)
Included for its theatrical poignancy and sense of longing – and simply because I underrated it considerably on first listen.

32. The Notwist – Neon Golden (2002)
Included for its drifting atmosphere, textured sounds and sense of space and time.

31. Branford Marsalis – Braggtown (2006)
Included for Marsalis’ conviction and stablility in developing one of the longest running and most impressive ensembles in contemporary jazz, reaching a pinnacle of interaction and expression in the process.

30. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
Included for creating not just a set of songs, but an entire world and cast of characters and for connecting so readily and passionately with their audience.

29. Songs:Ohia – Magnolia Electric Co (2003)
Included for making some unfashionable influences sound raw and righteous and for establishing a distinctive lexicon, one that Molina may now have exhausted.

28. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People (2004)
Included for its stylistic diversity, collective ethos and genuine love of sound.

27. Gillian Welch – Time (The Revelator) (2001)
Included for its spare, delicate purity, wisdom and insight.

26. Antony and the Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now (2005)
Included for the complete and wondrous exposing of a unique soul.

25. Dave Holland Big Band – Overtime (2005)
Included for the adaptability of Holland’s formula, in using his formidable quintet sound as a springboard to a cliché-free set of big band charts.

24. Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (2001)
Included for presenting the harsh reality of America’s urban centres without machismo, bravado or glamour and for combining it with an appropriately heavy, abrasive sound.

23. Evan Parker and Transatlantic Art Ensemble – Boustrophedon (2002)
Included for pushing Parker away from his comfort zone in its subtlety, sympathy and precision.

22. Acoustic Ladyland – Last Chance Disco (2003)
Included for its evangelical fervour in making jazz as physical and insistent as club music and as immovable and immediate as punk.

21. David Torn – Prezens (2007)
Included for making an uncategorisable music of paradoxes – at once furious and elegant, confrontational and inviting, brutal and serene.

20. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009)
Included for its sheer sense of joy and its curious asymmetry.

19. Outkast – Stankonia (2000)
Included for bringing celebrity, flamboyance, insight and humour to a too often po-faced genre and remembering the virtues of funk.

18. Robert Wyatt – Cuckooland (2003)
Included for the staunch principles and beliefs of the artist and the dignity of his art.

17. Lambchop – Is A Woman (2002)
Included for getting to the core of Kurt Wagner’s songwriting artistry and for its pervasive subtlety.

16. Fennesz – Endless Summer (2001)
Included for producing a fuzzy, all-enveloping warmth from ostensibly cold and atavistic ingredients.

15. Boards of Canada – Geogaddi (2002)
Included for their unique, trademark sound, arguably at its best here - sinister, bewitching, uncomfortable and compelling.

14. Iron and Wine/Calexico – In The Reins (2005)
Included for Sam Beam’s regal prose-poetry, the exquisite border flavour and some overwhelming songs of love and loss.

13. D’Angelo – Voodoo (2000)
Included for creating a smouldering, sensational and resilient new soul music and then audaciously refusing to do anything else for the entire decade.

12. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
Included for demonstrating the continued relevance of the American folk tradition to the turbulent geo-political issues of this decade and for Springsteen’s conviction and empathy.

11. Wildbirds and Peacedrums – Heartcore (2008)
Included for its unrestrained emotion and explosive physicality, brilliantly explored through the tension of the percussion-vocal duo dynamic.

10. Derek Bailey – Ballads (2002)
Included for daring to go where avant-garde artists usually fear to tread (the standard repertoire), and for making the familiar sound disconcerting and unusual through doing so.

09. Lambchop – Nixon (2000)
Included at least in part for its recontextualisation of Curtis Mayfield but also for its hope, charm and poetic non-sequiturs.

08. Toumani Diabate and Ali Farka Toure – In The Heart Of The Moon (2005)
Included for establishing a musical relationship of supreme empathy and for expressing something clear, beautiful and meaningful in the simplest of terms.

07. Boredoms – Vision Creation Newsun (2001)
Included for its primal urgency and potency and for its considerable creative risks.

06. Arthur Russell - Calling Out Of Context (2004)
Included for Russell's becoming, sadly posthumously, the artist of the decade and for this album being the closest the collections of his previously unheard material got to sounding like a coherent album.

05. David Sylvian – Blemish (2003)
Included for being genuinely difficult, rather than merely obstinate, and for finding a distinctive, personal form of catharsis.

04. Dirty Projectors – Rise Above (2007)
For respecting the visceral thrill of hardcore punk and the imperatives of formal composition, redefining the parameters of the rock ensemble in the process.

03. Wilco – A Ghost Is Born (2004)
Included for introducing alchemy, spontaneity and adventure into what is ostensibly traditional rock music.

02.Wayne Shorter – Alegria (2003)
Included for not only reaffirming the pre-eminent status one of contemporary music’s greatest talents, but for igniting a whole new phase of adventure in the twilight of a long career.

01. Bjork – Vespertine (2001)
Included for its intimacy and sensuality (a bizarre combination of iciness and warmth) and for Bjork’s innate understanding of the timbre and shape of human voices.

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