Albums of the Year, 2012

1. Memory Tapes - Grace/Confusion [Electronic]

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2. John Talabot - ƒIN [Techno / House]

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3. Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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4. Animal Collective - Centipede Hz [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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5. DIIV - Oshin [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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6. Beach House - Bloom [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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7. Wild Nothing - Nocturne [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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8. Blondes - Blondes [Synthwave / Electro]

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9. OMBRE - Believe You Me [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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10. Sam Willis - Winterval [Electronic]

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11. Julia Holter - Ekstasis [Electronic]

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12. Beat Connection - The Palace Garden [Electronic]

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13. Simon Scott - Below Sea Level [Home Listening / Modern Classical / Ambient]

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14. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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15. The Walkmen - Heaven [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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16. The Tallest Man On Earth - There's No Leaving Now [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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17. Liars - WIXIW [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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18. Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action At A Distance [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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19. Woods - Bend Beyond [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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20. How To Dress Well - Total Loss [Electronic]

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February - April

Okay so I think my career as a music writer has died on its arse. Finding the motivation to sit staring blankly at the screen, whilst trying to think up words to describe music without making me sound like a pretentious cliche-ridden tw*t has proved hard.

So from now on I'm just going to post updates on what new music I've been enjoying recently, and leave it at that.

So here is what's been particularly good since my last update in January.

John Talabot - ƒIN [Techno / House]

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Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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Daniel Rossen - Silent Hour / Golden Mile EP [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action At A Distance [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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Julia Holter - Ekstatis [Electronic]

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White Birds - When Women Played Drums [Indie / Rock / Alternative]

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January 2012 Review

As in 2011, January has been a fairly low-key month in terms of releases - or at least releases that have piqued my interest. Here are my pick of the bunch, along with a taster video from each.

The Caretaker - Patience (After Sebald)

After last year's exquisite An Empty Bliss Beyond This World introduced me to The Caretaker (and inspired this blog's name no less), I've been eagerly awaiting this new release, based on Grant Gee's film of the same name.

The film is, and I quote, "an exploration of the work and influence of German writer WG Sebald (1944 – 2001), told via a long walk through coastal East Anglia tracking his most famous book The Rings of Saturn." (http://www.artevents.info/projects/current/the-re-enchantment/patience-after-sebald). I don't mind admitting however, that I know next to nothing about either Grant Gee or WG Sebald.

The Caretaker's albums are notoriously limited in numbers when it comes to the vinyl release, so I made sure I was quick off the mark in pre-ordering this one. I've since been lucky enough to find a vinyl copy of the aforementioned An Empty Bliss...., although it didn't come cheaply.

Chosen as his source material this time round are Franz Schubert works from around 1927. The album has a familiar style to it in relation to his previous release, but features a darker undertone, and throughout most of the duration a static hiss distorts the compositions.

Side A peaks with When The Dog Days Were Drawing To An End, which despite it's repetitive nature (a recurring theme in this artist's repertoire after-all), proves a captivating listen and is the LP's most ballroom-esque moment.

Increasingly Absorbed In His Own World, with it's almost jazz-like piano lightens the mood on side B after a run of decay-filled eerie numbers, and then the final two tracks allow the album to fizzle out with a soothing, dream-like finale.

Album of the month.

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First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

Following on from 2010's charming folk introduction The Big Black And The Blue, the young Swedish sisters (who came to prominence with their cover of Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song ) have gone all country.

That word alone was enough to make me sceptical of their new album The Lion's Roar, and indeed upon first listen, the opening title-track aside, I was left rather disappointed.

However, on subsequent listens it becomes apparent that despite their move in the Garth Brooks direction, what remains are the innocent hooks and sweetly harmonised vocals that made their debut a sleeper hit. It will be interesting to see where they go from here though.

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Small Black - Moon Killer Mixtape

Strictly speaking this was released in December 2011, but due to the usual busyness of the festive period, I didn't get round to checking this out until early in the New Year. So I'm including it – my blog, my rules.

This free release is the follow up to 2010's New Chain, which rode upon the Chillwave, erm, wave. That album however was one of the highlights of that movement, and this mixtape retains the best elements of their debut whilst adding in some guest vocal spots (Heems), and a move towards hip-hop terrain.

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Starving Weirdos - Land Lines

An intriguing recommendation by the brilliant Boomkat this, and the samples featured on their website were enough to convince me to part with some money for the vinyl edition.

Droney (Middle?) Eastern mysticism, mixed with elements of jazzy instrumentation, I can imagine this album sound-tracking some kind of arty horror movie.

I'm still getting to grips with this, and will be exploring it further over the coming weeks. For the time being though, it has impressed me enough to include it here.

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Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic

I've only had the opportinity to hear this in the last few days, so it's too early to form a solid opinion on it. However, early impressions are really good, and the opening track Tusk should be enough to prompt anyone to investigate further.

Panda Bear – Tomboy (Review)

Yes I'm fully aware that this album is nearly a year old now, but let's just call it a test drive of my new blog.

Panda Bear’s previous album ‘Person Pitch’ is possibly my favourite album of all time. I was a relative new-comer to the whole Animal Collective scene in late 2008 when I heard the first couple of tracks to surface from their soon to be released album Merriweather Post Pavilion. I was immediately hooked, and ended up spending most of 2009 fully indulged in their extensive back catalogue.

At this point in time the thought of looping, repetitive, sample based music didn’t exactly hold a great appeal to me, but then I listened to Person Pitch. Being a big Beach Boys fan, there were always elements of it that were going to chime, but the magnificence of it knocked me for six and not only did it, as previously mentioned, become one of my most loved albums, it has heavily influenced the direction my musical tastes have taken since.

So onto Tomboy. The release of this album was a somewhat convoluted affair. Delay after delay threatened to dampen one’s excitement, but the gradual release of singles from the album helped to relax the hysterical impatience (ask around, I was unbearable), whilst further whetting the appetite. There were also a couple of high quality live recordings floating about, which between them covered most of the songs from the album in one form or another.

Gone were the 11 minute tribal-drone-like-epics, and in were the more beats based, sometimes dub, but ultimately pop-like creations. The lush vocals remained (arguably sounding better than ever), as did the heavy use of reverb (and who seriously doesn't like a good dose of reverb?) and a more focused and accessible work was born.

For the singles, Panda Bear (AKA Noah Lennox) did the mixing himself. For the album however, he brought on board former Spacemen 3 member Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember to mix and produce. The differences between the two were sometimes subtle, sometimes glaringly apparent. An example of the latter being the beginning of Slow Motion, where a sound of what can only be described as an electronic recreation of vomiting abruptly jolts the listener.

As a slight aside, I’ve had the privilege to encounter Sonic Boom himself on an Animal Collective forum, and whilst he posts under heavy influence (ahem, allegedly), these posts were fascinating and gave great insight into his work on the album, and what Panda Bear wanted it to be.

Songs are hard to single out as highlights, as the album flows together brilliantly as a whole (although it seems Panda Bear had a tough time deciding the best order, as shown in his live shows, and in the eventual release of his own mixes on an LP in the special edition boxset – of which I will mention more on shortly). If I had to pick some standouts they would be the uplifting (in sound if not lyrically) second half of Alsatian Darn – particularly the ‘Say can I make a bad mistake?’ part, the aptly named Surfer’s Hymn, and the album’s spine tingling closer Benfica. The later showcasing Noah’s stunning vocals at their glorious best.

If purchasing the album on CD and vinyl wasn’t enough, a special edition vinyl boxset, limited to 5000 copies was announced. All profits from this were to go towards the American Cancer Society. It truly felt like something for the obsessive fans (I include myself in that number as this review as no doubt shown).

Within this boxset was the original album over two LPs (which Sonic Boom later revealed he had made further enhancements to), Panda Bear’s own mixes set out in his (preferred?) running order, and a fourth LP containing some instrumental and a capella versions.

Finally, back in December I got to witness the album played front to back in a live setting, at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. Wow. The show was the icing on the cake to what had been a year immersed in the album. My album of the year.

An expensive but ultimately rewarding year to be a Panda Bear fanboi then. And yeah, a truly wonderful album.

Albums of the Year, 2011

I thought that rather than a long and boring post as an introduction, I'd list my favourite albums of 2011. If nothing else it should serve as a pointer to my music tastes from the off, and help you decide whether to ever bother coming back again. I'll follow this up with a "review" of the #1....

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1. Panda Bear - Tomboy
2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
3. Real Estate - Days
4. Memory Tapes - Player Piano
5. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
6. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
7. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
8. Destroyer - Kaputt
9. Atlas Sound - Parallax
10. Grouper - Alien Observer
11. The Antlers - Burst Apart
12. Active Child - You Are All I See
13. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
14. Nils Frahm - Felt
15. Balam Acab - Wander/Wonder
16. Walls - Coracle
17. Washed Out - Within and Without
18. Ólafur Arnalds - Living Room Songs
19. Beirut - The Rip Tide
20. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lenses Alien