2. Tom Waits – Bad as Me . song: Satisfied

3. Bon Iver – s/t . song: Holocene

4. A Winged Victory for the Sullen – s/t . song: We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced

5. James Blake – s/t . song: The Wilhelm Scream

6. The Antlers – Burst Apart . song: Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out

7. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues . song: The Shrine/An Argument

8. Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter 1 : Gens de Couleurs Libres . song: Pov Piti

9. True Widow - As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth . song: Skull Eyes

10. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol.II . song: A Dream of Water

1. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Spirit

WOW. These guys started with a good promising debut, but who would expect an epic like this?! this album is a mashup of all the clichés in the history of rock music – which would normally be an awful thing to do –  but Girls drink up some 60′s pop standards, some 70′s psychedelia, a bit of California dreams and digest it into a beautiful, honest and perfectly crafted work. Each and every song sounds like a perfect craft of these elements, extremely catchy (you can sing along after the 1st listen) and with simple, yet powerful lyrics. please, don’t be scared by the apparent idea that this is nothing new, because even not being, it is genius work.

2. Tom Waits – Bad as Me

This is Waits’ most friendly record in a very long time, and by far not one of his best, but still, it is a magnificent collection of good songs, and a sampler of american culture in a whole, the lyrics are poetry as usual, the mood is mainly blues. Songs range from highly energic and groovy (courtesy of the amazing Marc Ribot, and contributions of Keith Richards, Flea and Les Claypool) to the amazingly emotional ballads Waits has gotten us used to. as every other Tom Waits album, this is a beautiful black pearl.

3. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

With an amazing, incredible and over the top debut, Bon Iver (or Justin Vernon) were/was in a very difficult situation. when ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ was listened to, it revealed one of the most intimate, heartbreaking, songwriter’s work in a very long time, and the reviewers rejoiced, acclaiming it as one of the greatest albums of the last 10 years. probably true. when ‘Bon Iver’ was released, people didn’t really know what to expect. and Justin Vernon surprised us in any possible way. this is no longer lonely, minimalist folk songwriting. this is something i don’t even know how to describe, while still walking through the indie folk grounds, it is a mind-twister, with rich, intelligent arrangements and structure. somewhat progressive, somewhat introspective, it is surely a magnificent tapestry, as rich as they come. i didn’t like it at first. now I love it.

4. A Winged Victory for the Sullen

People who are into ambient music and modern classical, will surely have heard about Stars of the Lid and about Dustin O’Halloran. while the duo Stars of the Lid create stunning ambient landscapes filled with beauty and oniric substance, almost dream-like sounds, Dustin O’Halloran is a pianist whose sensibility astonishes, who explores melodic and harmonic textures, having been called the modern Debussy. ‘A Winged Victory for the Sullen’ is a collaboration between Adam Wiltzie (SotL) and O’Halloran, and we can almost transparently feel the role of each one in the final sound. O’Halloran fills the voids of the discreet sound layers of Wiltzie with his melodic piano phrasing in a beautiful way, and the entire album feels like a beautiful dream, a contemplative reflection of good feelings.

5. James Blake – James Blake

During this year everyone’s been talking about the rise and fall of dubstep. Is it really dying? My opinion diverges, we can either see it as a little robot that was shot to serious injuries by the new decade and is rapidly being rebuilt with extra functionalities, or we can see it as the bird that died and gave place to a burning phoenix rising from the ashes. Anyway, what I want to say is that there are quite a lot of people drinking from the dubstep influence, and making something which some already call post-dubstep. I don’t know if we can go that far, but I can guarantee that like a fragmentation grenade, the different styles that sprawled from the debris are immensely rich and worth a while. James Blake is the flagship for a new generation of musicians, and he is truly an original icon. Blake picked up on the remains of dubstep to give his songwriting a new face, and create something quite new, fresh and beautiful. It is electronic music, it is singer/songwriter, it is soft, it is powerful. I advise you to listen to the sound of the new world.

6. The Antlers – Burst Apart

This is a two-sided sword. while I loved The Antlers’ previous work ‘Hospice’, this new one didn’t really get at me at first. i had gotten used to the lyrical magnificence and concept of ‘Hospice’ and ‘Burst Apart’ didn’t really seem to have any of those at first listen. as I normally am wrong at first listens, I gave it another try, and it constantly grew on me. now, after intense listening and one live show, I can say: it is absolutely great, even greater than Hospice. it is an assumedly  song-driven, minimalist, stripped-down, beautiful piece of work. each song speaks for itself, bringing us up and down on an emotional roller coaster, either melancholic, either happy, either intense, either relaxed. simply great. can’t get tired of it.

7. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

What to say, what to say… fleet foxes are one of my favorite bands. they brought a lost sound from the past, put it in a beautiful ‘geometric pattern dress’, and gave me another good reason to imagine countrysides and contemplate nature. not only excellent songwriters, they are crafters of dreams, passion and beauty. if their talent was consolidated by their debut, ‘Helplessness Blues’ is an extension of that talent. a bit like ‘Bon Iver’, this sounds richer and more carefully crafted than the previous. it is a beautiful work of art, that should be listened to, and sung until the end of times. ♥

8. Matana Roberts – Coin Coin, Chapter 1 : Gens de Couleurs Libres

The only jazz record i’ve really enjoyed this year, for very strong reasons. matana roberts is a saxophonist and composer, mainly working in improvisation and creative composition. she has played with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, TV on the Radio, and many others, and is a landmark in New York’s improvised music scene. the project Coin Coin is about the roots of african americans, and explores themes of history, memory and ancestry. it is avant-garde free-jazz, sometimes noisy, sometimes cathartic, sometimes beautiful, and most of the times as painful as reality. in the second song ‘Pov Piti’ you listen to an anguished, painful scream, followed by the beautiful crescendo of saxophone and a tormented narrative in spoken word. matana roberts has created a monolith of feelings and emotions, and I highly recommend it, even if you’re only used to music that makes you feel good

9. True Widow - As High As the Highest Heavens and From the Center to the Circumference of the Earth

Are you a stoner type? Do you worship cult bands Earth, Sleep or Kyuss? then True Widow is the thing for you! these guys are doing the some of the best stoner music of the last decade. This album is a monolith of drowsiness, slow-pace and powerful riffs. It’s so slow it makes your metabolism lower and you can enter a dream-like state if you’re not careful. The songs are good, the riffs are simple and catchy and the voice is just what the music asks for. All in all, a very solid work by True Widow, and a must of for people who like it slow.

10. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol.II

I don’t even know how to start talking about Colin Stetson. Baritone saxophone player, Stetson has been slowly building his way up in the Canadian music scene, playing with Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Feist, TV on the Radio, and lots more. Recently he has started presenting to the world, his own vision. New History Warfare (parts I & II) are truly original pieces of art. Conceptual in their core, these albums show what Colin Stetson has been developing as the work of his life : a literally breathtaking technique. New History Warfare Vol.II is a musical experience like few you have had. Armed mainly with his saxophone, Stetson breathes life into the instrument through the use of dense layers of multiphonic harmonies and other strange techniques, and creates music like no other I have heard before, in the borderline of minimalist classical, free-jazz, free improvisation and almost noise. This, my dear readers, is art.

this album is a fine example of great songwriting from beginning to end. why? the humorous lyrics mixed with the subtle but intelligent arrangements and the catchy melodies are imprinted from the first song to the last. it sounds retro, it sounds modern, it sounds great. allmusic says “it’s like The Smiths met up with Simon and Garfunkle” and it really feels that way. Not exactly the pop you’re used to, and not exactly the alternative you’re waiting for, and that’s the good surprise, it sounds really fresh and new “Sinister plays like a great forgotten album, couched in ’80s indie, ’90s attitude, and ’60s folk-pop. It’s beautifully out of time…”. beautiful stuff.

2. The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin

The Flaming Lips are undisputedly  one of the most experimental indie rock bands to ever stroll musical reality and this is their masterpiece. It is a perfect blend of catchyness and experimentalism, as much emotional as straight out psychedelic! The arrangements of futuristic lush orchestrations fill our ears with bliss and the amazing harmonies and celestial melodies. It is perfectly in-balance of pop and edgy experimentation. the concept and lyrics are all the way interesting, exploring existentialism, and the relationship between mankind and science, and Wayne Coyne’s singing is ultimately original, straightforward and honest. it is a blissful conquest, like pouring rainbows into your ears.

3. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

The most important thing to say about this album is : LISTEN TO IT! Apart from the excellent songwriting, the production is just AMAZING. Jim O’Rourke (ex-Sonic Youth, and experimental/noise/free-improv god) gave his midas touch to this record, creating something that is admirable and extremely interesting. All throughout this album, the details of production are a world to explore. The background noises, sounds, build-ups, textures, etc are worth every minute you put into this. Now enough about O’Rourke’s masterpiece production and let’s talk about YHF. every song in this album is perfect. perfect choice of chords, perfect lyrics, perfect singing, perfect feeling. it’s just perfect, in everything that concerns pop music. lyrically, there is a particular detail worth notice: this album was launched before 9/11, and yet the lyrical and aesthetical coincidences are overwhelming. the album’s cover features two buildings, the overall feeling of the album is tense, melancholic and apocalyptic, song names like “War on War” or “Ashes of the American Flags” and lyrics like “tall buildings shake, voices escape, singing sad sad songs” or the disappointment with american society. this album captured the strange tension, pre-apocalyptical feeling leading to the horrible attacks on USA’s pride. it goes down in history for what it is: recorded perfection.

the ‘Book of Angels’ is considered to be the second Masada book, which, very much like the first, consists in Zorn’s exploration of traditional Jewish music and its rich scales/harmonies, and very much like the first is quite damn exploratory (probably more).

what we are talking here is exactly 300 songs composed by Zorn in less than three months. these 300 compositions follow the line of thought of the Masada theme, focusing on the ‘radical jewish culture’ concept. quoting John Zorn on his first Masada book, “the idea is to put Ornette Coleman and the Jewish scales together.”, and on this ‘Book of Angels’ we see this being explored further beyond.

now, the most interesting fact about this collection of songs, is that Zorn intended these songs to be played by different ensembles (not only his previous Masada ensembles), but a wide array of musicians/bands, which turn out, in my opinion to be extremely interesting.

another notable fact is that each album title is inspired in demonology and Judeo-Christian mythology.

the ‘Book of Angels’ is now on the 17th volume (yes, 17 albums!) and still counting. as it is impossible to review all of them, I will only talk about some personal choices. consider my top 5 ‘Book of Angels’ releases:

1. Volume 9 – Xaphan by Secret Chiefs 3

As this is also one of my favorite bands and Trey Spruance (ex-Mr.Bungle), one of my favorite musicians, this opinion is probably biased, but nonetheless, this is an amazing amazing album. gathering on all the usual technicality, mystique, and oriental spices of Secret Chiefs 3, these musicians are AMAZING playing Zorn’s compositions. it’s frenetic, sensitive and just damn great (check the song below)

Xaphan

2. Volume 17 – Caym by Cyro Baptista’s Banquet of Spirits

This one is a true delight. Cyro Baptista and his Banquet of Spirits transform Zorn into a world music galore, with Cyro’s exotic rhythms, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz’s frantic oud solos and all the musicianship that blends perfectly in this album, it is a living proof of eclecticism and intelligence. WOW. (check the song below)

Caym

3. Volume  7 – Asmodeus by Marc Ribot/Trevor Dunn

Asmodeus is a twist. Marc Ribot (Tom Waits’ favourite guitarist)  and Trevor Dunn (ex-Mr.Bungle) deliver a demonic rage of proto-punk/noise-rock whatever! It is ugly, it is intense, it is awesome. really, it is. (check the song below)

Asmodeus

4. Volume 12 – Stolas by Masada Quintet (feat. Joe Lovano)

Probably the most straight-forward jazz record of the collection, Stolas is incredibly consistent and just plain beautiful. John Zorn delivers a couple of solos, and Joe Lovano is flawless. Thumbs up for the Masada Quintet, with their tighter than the pope’s ass performance. (check the song below)

Stolas

5. Volume 8 – Volac by Erik Friedlander

This one is one of the favorites simply because it is perfect. Erik Friedlander handles his cello like he is handling his long lost love, and it is a beautiful, beautiful thing to listen to. This sound is minimalistic and pure, just like a stream of musical water. (check the song below)

Volac

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the band is a quintet from Brooklyn, NY, formed by formerly solo folk singer Luke Temple. Luke started his career creating songs with acoustic guitar and synth loops, which he turned into an album called ‘Here We Go Magic’. He then expanded the project by adding up two beautiful girls (bass and synths) and a guitarist and drummer.

Here We Go Magic

The result is an amazing melting pot of neo-psychedelia, endless synth loops, noise, melodic genius and addicting rhythms. And wow, do these guys know what they’re doing.

S/T

Their first album, self-titled ‘Here We Go Magic’ is enchanting and magical, with great songs like ‘Fangela’ and an overall feeling of coherence and ambiance which can only be explained by the music itself.

Pigeons

The second album, ‘Pigeons’, apart from having a really amazing cover art, is a refined collection of psychedelic folk songs with an amazing quality and full of great ideas.

Here We Go Magic is addicting and blows your mind with amazingness. Really. Listen to it!

WU LYF

‘WU LYF’ or ‘World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation’ started out in Manchester UK, as a group of four friends which appeared to the world surrounded in a shroud of mystery. the band appeared using masks and maintaining a ‘cult-like’ anonymity, a very smart marketing move which resulted in having the press completely falling in love with the idea of finding out who these youngsters were in reality and what were their intentions.

WU LYF again

having gathered attentions, WU LYF were ready to record their songs. what would surprise the press again would be their decision to abandon the typical studio sessions and recording their album in an abandoned church in Ancoats, Manchester, self-producing it and thereby getting an unique sound.

Go Tell Fire to the Mountain

talking about the music now, ‘Go Tell Fire to the Mountain’ is WU LYF’s first recording, and oh my god, is it strangely unique and amazing. we can easily identify the influences on their sound, but the boldness to mash them up and the mastery of how it was done gives thumbs up to WU LYF. so, as we listen to the first song in the album, we start by hearing a church organ melody, followed by guitars building up an intro, then when we realize : ‘wait, this kinda sounds post-rocky and shoegazy’ the bass line comes in with an almost caribbean mood and all of the sudden we’re involved in an afro-beatish post-rockish thing thinking nothing else could add up here. and then the singer starts howling. howling in a way which captain beefheart and tom waits would be proud. then we also realize : “underneath all this cacophony of amazingness, there is a pop song that’s sticking to my ears”. and here we have it : indie post-rock shoegaze afro-beat with an howling vocalist. can you imagine it?

well, neither could I, if someone told me, so if you want to make sure this is real, listen to it, and then come back and agree with me

WU LYF’s ‘Go Tell Fire to the Mountain’ has already creeped up to my favourites for the year, and if someone is going to take them out of there, they better be very very original.

‘A Start On Such A Night Is Full Of Promise’

there are post-rock acts. there are modern classical artists.

we like the experimentalism, the reverb and the walls of sound that Godspeed You! Black Emperor bring. we also like the fragile sensibility that Johan Johánesson has in each note he plays.

what if we had the best of both worlds? what if we had a concept album with as much beauty as tripping qualities?

maybe i’m exaggerating, but this album stroke me as one of the most beautiful things in quite a long time. i must confess, i am the biggest fan of concept albums, specially when the whole concept/work is seamlessly unbindable. in this case, The Mountaineering Club Orchestra, a band from York, UK, present us with an album which tells the tale of the first crossing of Greenland made by an expedition led by Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen in 1888, and the account that he wrote of the expedition.

'Fridtjof Nansen'

the music they create fits perfectly to the theme, and I strongly feel that if Nansen had a soundtrack on his mind during the crossing of the bright white snow covered planes of Greenland, it would surely be like this, cold, ethereal and beautiful. and oh, is it beautiful. it’s as beautiful and textured as the color palette of the cover art that fills our thoughts with good feelings.

unfortunately i’m a mood person, and the weather doesn’t allow for the needed mood for this great work. so i’ll be saving it for next winter.

fans of Sigur Rós, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Johan Johánesson, Max Richter, and everything which is beautiful, rejoice, the mountaineering club orchestra have come, and they are here to bring ice and beauty into our lives. we can only hope for a long time.

the first of my discoveries is a group called Sleep Party People from Copenhagen, Denmark, founded by mr. Brian Batz who very interestingly explores some weird (in a good way) dreamscapes and oniric sounds.

Sleep Party People

their sound is somehow set between dreampop, post-rock and noise music, with a great songwriting sensibility. batz’s voice is maybe the most difficult thing to accept in this sound, but after getting used to it, it makes perfect sense, this innocent, almost childish chipmunk voice blends perfectly with the environments created. listening to it might transport you to a dreamlike world, which sometimes can be of good feelings, but often drifts to a darker place. they’re live performances have a very interesting set-up where the band dresses up in these lynchean rabbit costumes and just drift and drift and drift and drift… it’s almost therapeutical in a way that hipnotizes, grabs your mind and transports you to another realm. this is true cinematic dream music.

Sleep Party People (2010)

overhall, the album is pretty well done, shifting between happy and sad melodies, always maintaining the musical coherence. it is a nice trip to ride, and i highly recommend it. take a look at the videos below to better understand what i mean.

Teen Dream has to be here because it is just perfect. Beach House’s dream pop is like the most beautiful dream you’ve ever had. Every song is great, crafted with detail and beauty, and Victoria’s voice just has to belong to another dimension. Just let yourself drift to the sound of this Teen Dream, and hopefully never wake up from it.

2. Efterklang – Magic Chairs

Efterklang redefined their sound with Magic Chairs, and it is just original as hell. If you’ve ever heard anything like this, I dare you to show me. The ryhthms, textures and melodies are just incredible and it’s an experience worth your time. I’ve seen them live twice this year and it is surely one of the most original bands in contemporary music.

3. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

If ‘Los Angeles’ was the most refreshing electronic album of the decade, ‘Cosmogramma’ does not let you down from what you’d expect from Flying Lotus. It is a fine blend of electronics, jazz, world music, and whatever crazy things pass through Flying Lotus’ mind. It’s a difficult album to digest, but it’s just filled with surprises and every listen brings a smile to your face as you discover the secrets behind this genious’ mind.

4. Owen Pallet – Heartland

About this guy, i think there is nothing to say. He’s been growing and growing in today’s music scene, as Final Fantasy he enchanted, as Arcade Fire’s choice violinist, as the composer of string arrangements for Beirut’s ‘The Flying Cup Club’, he is just one of the best composers/songwriters living today. Changing from Final Fantasy to his real name, Owen Pallet releases this incredible conceptual album about a farmer, and it is a box of surprises. Pallet is a talented classically-trained musician with a very open mind, and it’s extremely difficult to classify his music. Just listen to it, it’s a trip alright.

5. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

This has to be the best pop album of this year. Bradford Cox’s genious proves once again, creating a collection of songs which sound like 60′s pop songs seen through Cox’s looking glass. Listening to ‘Halcyon Digest’ is magical, it’s beautiful, it’s a dream. I don’t know why but it evokes in my a somewhat Lynchean aesthetic (maybe stupidly), but it somehow posesses that feeling of something/someplace/someone that feels real but doesn’t really exist (like Lynch likes to create). Overhall if you like well crafted songs, this is the album for you.

6. Gonjasufi – A Sufi and a Killer

Gonjasufi is a new talent from the new school of electronics impulsed by Flying Lotus. He made is debut in the song ‘Testament’ in Flying Lotus’ ‘Los Angeles’ and released is own album ‘A Sufi and a Killer’ this year. The album primes for it’s originality, as it is not straightforward electronics, fusing hip-hop, middle eastern melodies, 60′s psychedelia, and much more. It’s a ride on the weird side, like a peyote trip through the desert of Mojave. Really good one.

7. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

It’s hard to beat Sufjan Stevens’ epic masterpiece ‘Illinoise’, but from the look of things we were already expecting something refreshing from this master of songwriting. Previously releasing his ‘BQE’, a completely instrumental album and defying expectations, Sufjan Stevens now presents ‘The Age of Adz’ which returns him to songwriting and introduces heavy usage of electronics along with his well known epic instrumentalizations. Final result : a futuristic monolith of epicness, an opera for the 21st century.

8. Sunn O))) – Monoliths and Dimensions

For years now, i’ve been following Sunn O))) and watching them refining their sound album after album. After their collaboration with Boris in ‘Altar’, it was obvious they were introducing new elements to their heavy drone music, making it more ecletic and ‘listenable’ (not a good term, i know) and more appealing to other audiences. This might as well be their masterpiece. Introducing a brass, reed and wind section, female choirs, and the AMAZING performance of ex-Mayhem vocalist Attila Csihar, they deliver a epic masterpiece of noise, drone and spiritual voyage. Open your mind and let it go through this dark, dark trip.

9. Polar Bear – Peepers

Polar Bear have been one of my favourite modern jazz bands, ever since I discovered them. They keep pushing the boundaries of the jazz formation with explorations through electronics, noise, pop, rock and whatever may come. And they do it really good. Polar Bear write songs, not in the traditional – melody, solo, melody – jazz structure but, they write songs as a songwriter would, and that is their trump card. The mood in this album swings fast, and it is surely (in my opinion) the best jazz album of this year.

10. Toshimaru Nakamura – Egrets

Toshimaru Nakamura is a japanese ‘musician’ (or soundscape forger) which for many years now has been perfecting the art of manipulating a ‘No-Input Mix-Table’. He has come from the minimalist japanese free improvisation school of Onkyo and is considered one of the best. He participated in David Sylvian’s ‘Manafon’ and appeared in the documentary ‘Amplified Gesture’. I chose to put ‘Egrets’ in my top 10 list, because it is simply beautiful and I think some of you will enjoy this experience. As I said before Nakamura plays a ‘No-Input Mix-Table’ which means he only works with feedbacks and noise. In ‘Egrets’ he invites trumpeter Arve Henriksen and guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama to bring some melody into his noise explorations. It is a quiet, very soft album, a very interesting exploration of textures in sound.