2011 Favourites

A re-up of my best of 2011, with no major label 'product' stinking it up. I've just checked this list, and all the albums I've selected these tracks from are high quality, so do yourself a favour and pick one up. I've tried to pick a representative track in each case, but there's always Youtube if you want to explore these artists further.
Tracklist:

D Charles Speer - Markos's Cave (Arghiledes )
Deerhoof - Must Fight Current (Deerhoof vs. Evil)
The Haxan Cloak - The Fall (The Haxan Cloak)
Six Organs of Admittance - Light of the Light (Asleep on the Floodplain)
Byetone - Black Peace (Symeta)
Grails - Future Primitive (Deep Politics)
Ugandan Methods - Untitled (Mat Oput 1/2 Vinyl)
Le Révélateur - Age Maze (Fictions)
Locrian - The Crystal World (The Crystal World)
Mini Mansions - Kiddie Hypnogogia (Mini Mansions)
Oneida - Pre-Human (Absolute II)
Anima Morte - Devoid of a Soul (Face the Sea of Darkness)
Circle - Saarnaaja (Infektio)
Surgeon - Transparent Radiation (Breaking The Frame)
Seefeel - Sway (Seefeel)
Alexander Tucker - His Arm Has Grown Long (Dorwytch)
Evan Caminiti     - heavy whisper (When California Falls Into The Sea)
Bill Callahan - Baby's Breath (Apocalypse)
Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen & Samuli Kosminen - Uniko: III. Sarma (Uniko)
Mind Over Mirrors - Round, Around (The Voice Rolling)
Master Musicians Of Bukkake - Prophecy Of The White Camel / Namoutarre (Totem Three)
The Fear Ratio - Ax (Light Box)

Currently posted on Depositfiles
Mirror:
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I'll try and get this up on a mirror, soon, along with some previous years' best ofs.

Zombi - Spirit Animal

Excellent grooving synth-prog rock-out from 2009. Obvious comparisons are John Carpenter and Goblin, but with a more toughened up and streamlined sound - propulsive drumming and metal/post rock bass drive along the layers of vintage synth sweeps and arpeggios. The tracks also tend to be longer than the aforementioned people, who generally composed shorter pieces for soundtracks. On this album are lots of epic instrumental songs that evolve and develop, change pace; ebb, flow and build to sometimes euphoric peaks. This duo has a great sense of melody to back up their obvious musical skill, and they aren't afraid to chuck in a suitable key change when necessary, which makes this a wholly satisfying listen, rather than just an apreciation of old synths and cinematic references. It's brilliantly conceived and performed, and hugely enjoyable. Also, highly recommended for driving.
Most of their stuff is frustratingly out of print and expensive on LP, you may still be able to find their excellent new album 'Escape Velocity' on vinyl. Also available on cd as well as various Ts etc - buy direct from Relapse

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Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die

Released back in 1996 as the burgeoning post rock scene was rising to prominence, this contains what I think is still one of the genre's greatest ever statements - 'Djed'. This was the 21 minute epic that took up the entire first side of the album. At the time, it was a common characteristic of post rock that the bass would often lead the melody, and this piece is driven by a monstrous chugging bass line that provides rhythm and melody in equal measure, as an electric piano slowly comes in riffing over the top. Obviously a 21 minute track has to progress, as in Prog-ress, like all great tracks that take up an entire side of an LP. The beat slows down as the bass mongs out on one note, before some slightly Phillip Glass-esque syncopated keys and vibes arpeggiate all over the place in a rather epic section. Everything then spanners out as if your stereo has broken, then these broken sounds are looped into their own groove, while more instruments are brought in, until this, too breaks down into an ultra-low, slow pulsing bass groove. An awesome track, an inspired construction.
The rest of the tracks are also excellent, combining clenched brain jazzism with piles of bass blocks and electronic smudges vibraphones and a lush closer. The desertified beauty of 'Along The Banks Of Rivers' soundtracking an imaginary western where all the protagonists are having an afternoon kip in a hammock for the film's duration.

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Michael Rother - Sterntaler

From 1978, this is the second solo LP by the Neu guitarist. He is quite clearly revelling in his freedom to be both more expansive, and more tuneful than he generally was in Neu. He has a good ear for melody, and the tunes on this album are very redolent of the period, too. Sometimes the songs veer toward the wistfully epic, especially combined with the driving, post-Kraut rhythms, which almost prefigure the headband-wearing sleeves-on-the-jacket-rolled-up excesses of bombastic 80s rock. However, these tracks always stop way short of cheese, because they are gorgeous, and because the love and enthusiasm of Rother is always shining through. Also it has Jaki Liebezeit on drums, but more importantly, is produced by Krautrock superhero Conny Plank, and therefore sounds lush, luminous and beautiful. What you have, then, is a set of guitar-led intrumentals with glorious melodies over driving, minimal grooves with shimmering, spectral synths, and it is rather wonderful.
I've seen Michael Rother play live with Moebius a couple of times, back in the early 2000s when Moebius was still using lots of analogue synths. They were both excellent gigs, but definitely had moments high on the cheese-ometer as Rother went into guitar hero mode, before reining himself in as the track gradually morphed into some warped analogue noodlings. They seemed to be semi-improvised sets, and hopefully they will team up again in the future.

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Mordant Music - SyMptoMs

Mordant music are a mysterious and intriguing collective. Their music is fascinating, and they don't seem to be the kind of folk who employ voracious lawyers who are desperate to keep themselves in employment, trying to influence thinking and policy about music rights or legislation about copyright. The kind of cunts who offer nothing creative, who only want to syphon off their earnings from the creative industries. Expect lawyers to be at the forefront of all forthcoming copyright/mp3/pirating debates, trying to save their own bacon, and fatten it up at the same time. They don't give a shit about artists, but they certainly earn a shitload of money from them. But I digress.
This album sees this weird collective sometimes embrace a Pop Group-style polemic; classic Underworld repetition, and an ultra-modern aesthetic that keeps them fresh and strange. The title track is a truly glorious combination of these elements: pulsating epic Berlin techno backgrounds some proper spoken vocals, but also surges into the foreground, with chiming, tinkling melodies. This track is truly magnificent, and is worth downloading for. 'You Are A Door' is another fabulous track, with a wickedly chugging electro beat, and more spaced out atmospherics. Mordant are a curious bunch - definitely worth investigating further.

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Phantomsmasher - Phantomsmasher

Phantomsmasher is the pet project of avant guitar master James Plotkin, who has collaborated with a large and fine array of weird-beard musicians, including harrowing mega-doom merchants Khanate. This album couldn't be further from Khanate's crawling, crushing music: it's often hyper fast, with the beats ranging from metallic blast beats to splattercore drum & bass style, played by grind master extrodinaire Dave Witte. It's severely ADHD, manic and brilliant. Smeared across the top are harshly edited and scratched vocal loops, and Plotkin's spangly clanging guitar and bass - often heavily processed, playing queasily grating riffs, and chords that tremble like metal pylons in an electrical storm. It's pretty harsh, and totally unhinged, but is great fun. Plotkin's level of invention on his instruments, and the crazy range of noises and brilliant editing keep up the interest, although the music can be challenging.

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Harvey Mandel - Cristo Redentor

Harvey Mandel is a fantastic guitarist who never settled in a band, although his talents would not have been out of place in virtually any rock band of any kind of the late 60s or 70s. This was his debut album from 1968, and is an intrumental psych blues rock bonanza. The opening track, a version of the old gospel blues track 'Wade In The Water' shows off a variety of styles: he comes in with a filthy fuzz tone over a strings and rhythm groove, before switching to a clean tone to demonstrate his trademark liquid style of play, using volume pedals, panning and delay to awesome effect. This is a real guitar-heads album, with some glorious guitar tones, and some ridiculous sustain that out-Santanas Carlos Santana. It's also beautifully recorded, with a crystal clear mix, and is a joy to listen to. There are great string arrangements aplenty, and the layering of Harvey Mandel's guitar lines is genius: the wah stomp of 'Bradley's Barn' has some scintillating backwards guitar over the top as well as some unusual low end dive bomb noises. The gloriously expressive 'You Can't Tell Me' is even better, as sweet phrases flow into and over one another over a great groove. The sound palette is expanded on a few tracks: the title track has a female choir, and sounds like a prog synthesis of Nelson Riddle and Santana. Then 'Before Six' comes on like fuzzed out acid jazz, with some tremendous horn section blasts and Jimmy Smith type organ duelling with the guitar, and the best bass and drum rocking out of the album. Looking at the sleeve notes, this appears to have been recorded all over the place, and the producer credit says "Believed to be produced by Abe Kesh'. It's amazing that there is such a unity of (fantastic) sound, and that the album has such a strong identity.
Harvey Mandel released a few more solo albums in the following years, and the one I've heard are all pretty decent - they toned down the psychedelic elements a bit, and became slightly more jazzy - Feel The Sound, Shangrenade and Baby Batter are all worth checking out. Lastly - check that classic cover! I'm pleased I've also got this on vinyl.
I haven't included the bonus tracks - buy the cd!

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Grails - Burning Off Impurities

Grails are a psychedelic instrumental band from Portland, and this is one of many excellent releases by them, from 2007. They specialise in a hazy, drifting, shuffling kind of post rock forged from ostensibly cliched components - reverby psych guitar, eastern cadences and a smattering of acoustic instruments (sitar, mandolin, piano); all held together with gummy resin from the inside of a bong. The whole adds up to much more than the sum of the parts, convincingly delivered at a perfect pace, with a masterful grasp of ambience and dyamics. They often rock out as a counterpoint to the glowing ambient parts, but never with a wall of heavy guitars, which is quite refreshing, despite how much I love heavy guitars. Brilliant stuff - you can buy loads of Grails stuff from Temporary Residence.

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The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden - The Owl Of Fives

2003 solo album by one third of Volcano The Bear. This more of a psychedelic world-folk brew than VTB, and has less of the derangement of that band. That is not to say that this album does not contain it's fair share of weirdness; just that crazed vocals are more restrained, for example on the excellent French-Arabic sounding 'Farewell My Porcupine' they are just part of the backing rather than the main focus of the track. Most of the songs on here are lovely sketch/compositions based around piano, fiddle, guitar and other acoustic instruments, and embellished with found sounds, drones and odd vocals.
There is a dusty aura of otherness, that suggests lost archive folk of some corner of Europe that doesn't actually exist - perfectly encapsulated in the music and title of 'Baltic Chunks Of Antiquity'. This album is imbued with a skewed charm, and just enough oddness to keep it interesting without interfering too much with the music.
Volcano The Bear were another band I saw at the sadly missed venue Spitz, and they were very entertaining indeed. Check them out if they play near you - they toured less than a year ago.

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Kev Hopper - Whispering Foils

Excellent release on Stereolab's Duophionic imprint from 2000. Kev Hopper was the (fantastic) bassist in 80s musical-weird-beards Stump ('Chaos' on Youtube). He went on to release mostly instrumental albums, featuring samples, bass, and lots of musical saw, which he plays.
The results vary from the totally brilliant 'Return Of The Bung', with it's basslines slithering and rolling around weird ambient textures and some clean tremelo guitar - this could almost be an outtake from Eno's Another Green World. 'Lamalou Les Bains' is a combination of saw, acoustic guitar and vibes, and is very High Llamas-y; and I could even imagine Monsieur Hulot wandering around with this in the background. 'Canary Lights' is another excellent track based around the tumbling sound of Hopper's percussive bass - tapping and popping over a shuffling groove while mandolin, accordion and vocals add the melodic textures. The whole ambience also reminds me of Tortoise, and this could obviously fit into the post rock category, but comparisons do this album a bit of a disservice (even though I've made loads), as it sounds quite unique. Also, it is rather lovely sounding.
Check out Kev Hopper's Website. It's pretty interesting, and also he is giving away all his music - so download it and donate him some money: I recommend 'I Saw Spoombung's Daughter Consumed By Kirby Dots'.

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Ulaan Khol - I

Ulaan Khol is an alias of Steven R. Smith, who is a prolific guitarist in the realms of ambient/psych/drone. I didn't know anything about him until I decided to post this album, whic I have been enjoying immensely for quite a while. Composed from layered guitar and feedback, enveloped in an atmosphere of reverb. It begins with a full band fuzz psych-out sound, but most tracks have minimal, distant percussion, or none at all. There are ringing overtones, angelic choirs and space horns singing in the mix, conjuring an epic devotional vibe of mystic depth. This is the first part of a trilogy, which I must acquire now that I know about it, especially as the last track is like a laser of distilled and focused Popol Vuh at their most ecstatic. Beautiful and cosmic.

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Do Make Say Think -Do Make Say Think

Debut album from the still-going-strong DMST - scary to think that this came out way back in 1998. I saw them on tour shortly after at the Garage in Islington - the refurb of which I still have yet to see. I don't think I've heard all their output since, and the other albums I've heard have been decent, especially the new one; but none have bettered this. A lot of post rock albums in the intervening years are quite obviously influenced by other post rock, but this still has loads of influences from all over the shop. Like a lot of similar albums this has a strong dub element, with bass-led melodies, as well as references to post punk/industrial experimentalists; soundtracks, and prog/space rock. This music is also completely comfortable rolling along at a very slow pace, and letting the compositions unfold in their own time. Opener '1978' rumbles along for 9 low slung minutes before a guitar melody comes in. 'Highway 420', probably my favourite, is a definite throwback to the 70s - opting for a 'Wish You Were Here' style intro of shimmering synths which ushers in some space-country style guitar twanging; then a sax joins in, and the track becomes something like 1973 Gong stretched out to a 10th of its speed before dissolving into the ether in a blissful haze. It's not entirely laid back - 'Dr. Hooch' lays down a thundering and pretty menacing groove of strident bass, with alien attack siren synths cutting though the mix to slightly fry your brain. Later on, 'Disco & Haze' explodes with fuzz and wah guitar.
Another refreshing aspect of this album is that it steered away from the consciously epic crescendos of a lot of other instrumental and Constellation bands; relying on great grooves, tuneful embellishment and finely recorded analogue sounds to make its case. Terrific stuff that I've listened to countless times over the years.

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State River Widening - State River Widening

1999 debut album of acoustic post rock loveliness. State River Widening are a trio featuring Kieron Phelan and David Sheppard who have also recorded an album under their own names, playing instrumental music of a very laid back and pleasing variety. Consisting almost entirely of real instruments - very nicely recorded shimmering electric guitar, acoustic, electric organ, and adorned with glockenspiel and vibes, this is music with a definitely sunny disposition, but is no less engaging for being sweet and light. It's not too dissimilar to The Sea And Cake without vocals, possibly being more syncopated and arpeggiated, and occasionally stepping up the tempo somewhat.
Ideally this music would soundtrack some hot sunny weather. We can live in hope.

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