My Top 40 Albums of 2011

 

So here are my top 40 albums this year in order of how much I’ve personally enjoyed them. Links to reviews I’ve written, and maybe I’ll do an update on some others.

1 When Saints Go Machine – Konkylie
2 Jon Hopkins & King Creosote - Diamond Mine
3 Panda Bear – Tomboy
4 Console – Herself
5 Perc – Wicker And Steel
6 Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
7 Death Grips – Exmilitary
8 Various Artists – Bangs & Works Vol.II
9 Art Department – The Drawing Board
10 Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise
11 Rustie – Glass Swords
12 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
13 John Maus – We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
14 Josh T Pearson – Last Of The Country Gentlemen
15 Sully – Carrier
16 Katy B – On A Mission
17 Africa Hitech – 93 Million Miles
18 Ford & Lopatin – Channel Pressure
19 Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
20 Yuck – Yuck
21 Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder
22 Author – Author
23 Tom Waits – Bad As Me
24 Bass Clef – Inner Space Break Free
25 Zomby – Dedication
26 Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
27 Tyler, The Creator – Goblin
28 St Vincent – Strange Mercy
29 Toddla T – Watch Me Dance
30 Plaid – Scintilli
31 E-40 – Revenue Retrievin’ Overtime
32 EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
33 Kuedo – Severant
34 Moon Duo – Mazes
35 Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra
36 Chrissy Murderbot – Women’s Studies
37 Austra – Feel It Break
38 Wild Beasts – Smother
39 The Caretaker – An Endless Bliss Beyond This World
40 Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica

Futuremania: Retro Goes Cold Turkey In 2011

Please follow this link to The Quietus.com for my latest bit about how pop isn’t really eating itself.

Various Artists – Bangs & Work Vol.2

Originally appearing on TheQuietus.com

If footwork ever goes on to prove as influential as dubstep, the first Bangs & Works will be recognised as its Run The Road, its Dubstep Allstars – the definitive compilation that brought the genre out of its own hyper-localised scene and under the wider global radar. Mike Paradinas’ original haul has made minor stars of hitherto unknown DJ/producers such as Roc, Spinn and Rashad, all of whom have released solo efforts on Paradinas’ UK electronica label Planet-μ. Twelve months since its release, and we’ve already seen the likes of Africa Hitech, Machinedrum and Sully paying tribute to Bangs & Works‘ 160bpm sample-splitting madness, to great effect in most cases.

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An Interview with Bass Clef

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet Ralph Cumbers, commonly known as Bass Clef, and have a poke around his flat on behalf of The Quietus.

A flourish of gaily coloured audio tapes adorns the mantelpiece of an upstairs kitchen in Hackney. I pick out the only spine written in English. And there, in impeccable Letraset, reads the rather fitting title: SPATIAL DISCO MUSIC.

“Sadly not as good as it looks,” Ralph Cumbers assures me, as he lifts a steel kettle off the stove and pours tea, “It’s a great name though. I might use it. These were bought in Israel – mostly Arabic, from Lebanon and Libya I reckon. Just a little kitchen-listening selection. You should see the massive stack of the bastards in the other room. Here’s one with a highly unimpressed grandfather on it”.

For Cumbers, the artist most commonly known as Bass Clef (though who also releases under the aliases Some Truths and Coseph Jonrad), the audio cassette is a crucial tool. From mixing all his work on a simple four-track recorder to the myriad cassette releases available through his label Magic + Dreams, this supposedly dead format has come to epitomise a lifetime’s obsession with analogue sound and technology.

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Tom Waits – Bad As Me

taken from theQuietus.com

“I’m the last leaf on the tree,” Tom Waits croons on new song ‘Last Leaf’, “The autumn took the rest but it won’t take me”. Whether this is a boast or a lament, I’m not sure, but it certainly rings true of Waits. Even our most beloved senior rock & rollers experience years of artistic fallow and famine from which many never recover. David Bowie, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, The Stones continue to release records of varying quality each year. But while these acts sell shows out on a regular basis it’s really only the dedicated few who are out buying their latest studio offerings. Hard to imagine now, but even Johnny Cash’s career suffered a prolonged period of obscurity before he bounced back towards the end of his life. Everyone goes to oldies hell, but not Waits. It’s remarkable to think that in all this time, he’s never released a sub-par album nor swayed away from his unique furrow.

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Plaid – Scintilli

taken from TheQuietus.com

SO THERE you’ll be, discussing electronic music with likeminded nerds as you do, when some unsuspecting soul dawdles straight into the semantic minefield called ‘the IDM argument’.

This is the Godwin’s Law of electronica: Once invoked, meaningful commentary ceases, dissolving into outcry, malaise and general pedantry all round. It’s true, “Intelligent Dance Music” is one of the worst genre terms to exist in a world where “pronk” and “rape gaze” are actual things. It’s clumsy for a start – “IDM” sounding every bit like the acronym for a faceless tech-corp run by jowly people with big blue heads. Secondly – and I speak from experience here – you can’t really dance to much of it without looking like a demented ostrich doing the Step Master challenge. More prominent in the IDM argument though, is that this tag assumes a condescending stance towards other styles, implying other dance music is stupid and therefore less worthy. It allows tech-geeks to lord it over

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Sully – ‘Carrier’

taken from TheQuietus.com

Living as I do, in a commuter-belt limbo boasting a citizenship of peculiarly large forehead size, it’s not every day I get the chance to drop a name. But as I puzzled over Carrier, a chance Google search revealed to me that I used to hang out with this guy once upon a time. The Jack Stevens I knew was a reticent metalhead playing dextrous sheet-glass guitar for local Darkthrone-a-likes, Niroth. Metal fans are an obstinate bunch by reputation – perhaps the most tribal of cliques. Those who dare dabble in other arenas are often treated by their peers with marked suspicion. Being true to True Metal requires a complicated hopscotch: step on the wrong square and you risk sullying (pun intended) your metal name. That said, there’s almost always an exception to prove the rule. I’ve known many a hardcore metaller harbouring a secret love for the likes of ABBA, the Commodores, ELO – even cheesed-out happy hardcore and Euro-trance. This very website is testament to the diverse tastes of even the most dedicated metal fans. Still, I couldn’t help feeling perplexed, upon our last encounter, to find Jack Stevens shorn of head and affecting a rude Jafaican drawl – the kind of behaviour that’d get you turfed out the True Metal Fan Club faster than you can growl “The Splendour Of A Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath The Blazon Of A Hyperborean Empire (Part III)”.

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Michael Mayer – Live at Field Day

taken from TheQuietus.com

Night starts to fall as the God-King of minimal house and head ambassador for the German dance scene takes to the stage in Bugged Out’s packed tent. Once upon a time such an event would have been met with great reverence. This is, after all, the guy behind the innovative Kompakt label and creator of Immer, the mix responsible for many a spiritual experience circa 2002. But dance music is as fickle as fashion and tonight’s crowd is itchy and frantic. Mayer’s style has been appropriated by so many successors since Kompakt’s heyday that tonight’s set of mid-tempo tech-house just doesn’t have the impact it might once have had. This isn’t helped by a surprising lack of oomph coming from the soundsystem, perhaps no fault of his own.

Nevertheless, it takes a good while for Mayer to win his crowd over – an otherwise confused pinball of bodies unwillingly trampling and elbowing each other in a bid to have a great time. ‘C’mon, get into the vibe!’ a raver goads-on his mates, only half sarcastically. But his fellow dancers remain unfocused, more concerned about not tripping over each other’s feet to be encouraged into dancing as a single unit. This is an inherent problem with dance tents at festivals. While the indoor environment helps recreate the clubbing atmosphere, the immense crush to get in can result in extreme difficulty in expressing oneself. The freeform joy of dancing becomes a confused and uncomfortable scrum – quite the opposite of what a dance experience should be. Whatever happened to raving outdoors? It would be great if festivals could take the lid off of dance tents and let the music (and crowds) breathe a little easier.

On Riots and Reason

The following is adapted from a Facebook note written on the fourth night of riots throughout the UK in August 2011.

I’m turning in.

I know I’ve had a bit of a rant today – as most of you know, I tend to keep my opinions to music and not politics – so to those who are not interested in them, I apologise. I’ve never felt so incensed about current affairs in all my time. There’ve been some interesting discussions

When Saints Go Machine – Konkylie

taken from TheQuietus.com

“Konkylie” means ‘conch shell’ in Danish, but When Saints Go Machine don’t remind me of the sea. Instead, it’s the band’s own moniker that most aptly describes this album’s vision of hymnal chant and motorik monasteries. As any GCSE Lit student will tell you, the conch was used as a symbol of order and democracy in William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies. Only the holder of the conch shell was allowed to speak at meetings, ensuring the undivided attention of all those present.

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