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:
Mediafire part 1
Mediafire part 2


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

Various - White Dot Music Best of 2011

Message to fucking arseholes representing Graveyard or their label. There is no Graveyard in this post, nor will there ever be in any future post, should there ever be one; just as I will never purchase anything relating to Graveyard, or anything on your label. There was no Graveyard either in this post, or the Mediafire links when you reported them all. I specifically removed anything related to a major label, then re-posted.
However, being the utter cunts that you are, you felt the need to report this blogpost, and links, which contained nothing related to you or your label; therefore which you had no legal stake in. Now my mediafire account has been suspended, all links are dead, and you have ruined a blog designed to introduce people to obscure music. Good job.
Nuclear Blast, folks. This is what you get when you sign a distribution deal with a major - you suck major cock.


3 month posting gap, blimey. Here's a kind of best of 2011 - there's a few omissions, like Radiohead, and Innercity's Terrestriality, which is a great album, but I don't have it on mp3. I've left off some metal, too - not a vintage year for metal, but I've also been listening to lots on older metal. I would say my favourites of the year were Ulcerate, Rwake, Cannabis Corpse, Azarath, Trap Them; and probably my favourite - Glorior Belli - The Great Southern Darkness. I've also been listening to tons of techno, and hope to get a mix together of recent stuff.
Best albums of 2011:
Bill Callaghan - Apocalypse
Grails - Deep Politics
Byetone - Symeta
Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen & Samuli Kosminen - Uniko
The Fear Ratio - Light Box

What's left then? Lots of psych-synth-space rock. This is a slightly smaller list than the one I originally posted, which got reported because because because tiresome bollocks. Hopefully nothing on this list now contains anything tainted with a major label or distributor. If you are going to spend cash on music, don't buy anything on a major - support the independents, and buy direct from bands wherever possible.

1. D Charles Spee r - Markos's Cave (Arghil edes )

2. Deerhoo f - Must Fight Current (Deerhoo f vs Evil)

3. The Haxan Cloa k - The Fall (The Ha xan Cloak)

4. Six Organs of Admitt ance - Light of the Light (Asleep on the Floodp lain)

5. Byeton e - Black Peace (Sym eta)

6. Grail s - Future Primitiv e (Deep Po litics)

7. Uganda n Methods - Untitled (Mat Opu t 1/2 Vinyl)

8. Le Révélateu r - Age Maze (Fictio ns)

9. Locria n - The Crysta l World (The Crystal Worl d)

10. Mini Mansion s - Kiddie Hyp nogogia (Mini M ansions)

11. Oneid a - Pre-Human (Absolute II)

12. Anim a M orte - Devoi d of a Soul (Face the Sea of Dark ness)

13. Circle - Saarnaa ja (Infektio)

14. Surgeo n - Transparen t Radiation (Break ing The Frame)

15. Seefe el - Sway (Seefee l)

16. Alexand er Tuck er - His Arm Has Grown Long (Dorwy tch)

17. Evan Camin iti - heavy wh isper (When Califor nia Falls Into The Sea)

18. Bill Callaha n - Baby's Breath (Apocalypse)

19. Kronos Quarte t, Kim mo Pohjonen & Samu li Kosmin n - Unik o: III Sarma (Un iko)

20. Mind Over Mirror s - Round, Around (The Voi ce Rolli ng)

21. Master Musicians Of Bukkak e - Prophec y Of The White Camel / Namou arre (Tote m Three)

Part 1
Part 2

Genre for these tracks = 'white dot 2011'

You need both parts to unpack.

4E - 4E4ME4YOU

Back to Cologne for another freaky dose of the mighty Khan. Released in 1998, this is actually by Khan as his alias 4E 'introducing DJ Snax'. I'm not sure exactly what Snax contributes to this (just looking at the liner notes: co-wrote 2,3,10; additional keyboards and trumpets on 5 & 9) but this has Khan's personality stamped all over it.
This album is made up of the murky, granular and acidified instrumental hip-hop beats that were being released on the Pharma label, and by some of his compatriots who had moved on from the more bleepy spaced out techno of the early/mid 90s. Air Liquide pursued a similar path, but to be fair, they were doing it pretty early on. This loses none of the trippyness of the earlier work, but achieves the mong-factor through different methods. The beats are insistent and thuggish, and overlaid with freeform acidic splurges, manipulated vocals and a kind of lurching, drunkenly woozy danger; like a possibly scary dude looming in and out of your face speaking a loud foreign language at you in a strange club at 4am, when your eyes aren't focusing properly and you keep having to remind yourself where you are.
It's not all menacing weirdness - there are some cheeky tunes, like the perky 'Smoke Me Up I'm A Cigarette' and 'Stay Fresh', and 'Sleep Taster' and 'Swamp Foot' hit danceable speeds. My favourites, tough, are the slow moody numbers - 'Sonog' weaves some strangely manipulated Polynesian-sounding female vocals aroung a chugging fist of a beat, with some growling analogue. Probably the best of all is 'Iglesia Pentecostal De Electronica', which has Tie Fighter samples added to completely mashed vocals and disconcerting out of time industrial percussion.

Mediafire

Blue - Mexican Church

A dark and classy electronica album from 1996. This was released on the venerable Andrew Weatherall's Emissions Audio Output label, and other than that I know very little about these chaps.
This draws heavily from industrial (and) dub sources, which is perhaps why it has dated better than most of the electronic music from 1996 - foregoing the crispy drums machines and crystalline synths in favour of a more murky and sludgy concoction. Some of the melodies remind me of Coil, which is probably why I like this album so much: the synths at the end of 'Gorgon', for example. There's nice use of backwards sounds, and slightly pitch-bent lines which inject that element of queasy psychedelia. They don't entirely abandon danceability, though - there are some squelchy bass breakbeat groovers ('Dark Blue', 'Lower') for the more mogadon discoteques. Weirdly, last preoper track 'Sand Stone' is a decent example of the more chirpy IDM sound of '96, and although it's good, I prefer the darker areas the rest of the album deals with.

Mediafire

Golden Palominos - Dead Inside

The Golden Palominos was the art rock project of drummer and producer Anton Fier. Often featuring Bill Laswell and Nicky Skopelitis, it was a bit of a who's who NY outfit. This 1996 album has loads of obvious influence from the contemporaneous illbient scene - lots of cut up drum and bass percussion along with Laswell's thunderous bass, and some nice trippy sound design - even some acid lines! Somewhat akin to Meat Beat Manifesto. What sets this apart is the spoken word/poetry from Lori Carson on all tracks. Her delivery is excellent - covering a variety of voices, and is authoritative as well as rich. The words themselves are excellent - the first track is a first person account of an abductee locked in the trunk of the moving car of her abductor; delivered over an ominous, beatless tapestry of sound. The album's centrepiece is 'The Ambitions Are' - a bleakly dystopic vision delivered unflinchingly: the ambitions are "Wake up; breathe; keep breathing". A really good album for engaging your brain.

Mediafire

Various Artists - 2009 favourites

I was just putting together a best of 2010, and realised I never posted my 2009 version, so here it is. The picture is unrelated - just a good one I took last year. I probably would have had more to say about these tracks if I'd done this post at the time. I do remember that Various Production ft. Gerry Mitchell 'The Invisible Lodger' was my album of the year - I highly recommend it. Actually, looking at these tracks, they were all from excellent albums - something that cannot be said for my 2010 selection - these were all pretty good albums.
You can find these in itunes by album artist, which is 'White Dot 2009'.

2009 tracklisting:

1-Various Production feat. Gerry Mitchell: This Invisible Blood (The Invisible Lodger)

2-Oneida: Luxury Travel (Rated O)

3-Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls: Escape From Prism (Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls)

4-Valet: Blood Is Clean (Blood Is Clean)

5-Bardo Pond: Silver Pavilion (Peri )

6-Fever Ray: If I Had A Heart (Fever Ray)

7-Alva Noto: Xerrox Tek Part 1 (Xerrox Vol. 2)

8-Wolok: Transubs(a)tantiation (Caput Mortuum)

9-Various Production feat. Gerry Mitchell: A Hole In Your Memory (The Invisible Lodger)

10-Alexander Tucker: Bell Jars (Portal)

11-Cave: Made in Malaysia (Psychic Psummer)

12-Oneida: What's Up, Jackal? (Rated O)

13-Shackleton: Let Go (Three EPs )

14-Ben Frost: Peter Venkman Pt II (By The Throat)

15-Bill Callahan: Eid Ma Clack Shaw (Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle)

Mediafire

Since Blogger decided to remove my best of 2010 this posting looks faintly preposterous. Ho hum.

Laub - Unter Anderen Bedingungen Als Liebe

Laub were kind of electronica/post rock crossover who fitted nicely into a loose scene alongside To Rococo Rot, Kreidler; and labels like Payola, Kiff SM, and Kitty Yo - on which this album was released in 1999. These labels and artists are German, and the vocals, by Antye Greie-Fuchs are delivered in German, and it shares the live drums favoured by many of their contemporaries. There is a kind of detached iciness to the vocals that fits perfectly with the clean synths, crisp noises and crystalline tones underneath them. Delivered often in half whispered, or half spoken manner, they add a quiet and restrained intensity to the music. This intensity peaks and bursts forth in the epic title track. It begins with gorgeous pulsating harmonic synths, hi hats, and a keening, melancholy descending 3 note trombone line. Antye is joined by one of her male bandmates on vocals, their combined whispers giving the impression of some kind of ominous warning being delivered, or a description of some kind of ruined dream-like world from a Tarkovsky film. My German is poor - it's probably about something banal, but it certainly doesn't sound like it. The bubbling, resonant synths all the while are rising in the background, becoming more acidic. Some nicely understated guitar lines, and more horns propel the song further upwards. It's a wonderful track, not to dissimilar in overall mood to The For Carnation album, and makes an otherwise decent album completely worthwhile.

Mediafire

Kiyoshi Izumi - Effect Rainbow

I've been a bit slack recently, so I'm going to post a couple of EPs tonight, and not write much about them. First up is a brilliant EP from this obscure Japanese gent. This 3 tracker was released on Rephlex in 1997. I don't remember if it caused much of a stir, but I bought it on vinyl and was blown away by it. It's full of oddball melodies, wonky drums, and crazy arrangements. There is some great drum programming, and some strange little samples and vocals thrown into the mix for extra trippy effect. There is a real eastern feel to this, from the chiming, ringing sounds that evoke old Japan, and also from the 8-bit game noises bleeping about. Fabulous stuff, that really peaks on the last track 'Bedroom Glow', which is a bit of a rocker.

Mediafire

Tricky - Angels With Dirty Faces

Tricky's 3rd album from 1998 saw him retain his unique production style, but removed a lot of the lushness and melody that were apparent on the first two albums, especially on Maxinquaye. This upset a few people, and a lot of critics complained that it was too dark, uncommercial etc. Whilst this isn't quite the joy to listen to that the first albums are, it's still brilliant, just a bit more intense - the miasma of wobbly guitars, sax parps and assorted weird samples that throb along under the beats of 'Singin' The Blues' is a perfect example. This is definitely music of the bong - Tricky's smoke addled, rasping vocals just about intelligible; layers of relentless, weird-noir loops; loping beats. There is a tangible sense of both claustrophobia, and paranoia - Martina Topley-Bird's vocal contributions sound vaguely distressed and strung out. All that may sound slightly negative, but each song has a hypnotic and enthralling wall of sound effect, almost alchemically conjured out of the sounds and samples. Strange, offbeat rhythms and patterns work their way into solid grooves by way of repetition. 'Carriage For Two' has an amazing backing track that, except for a tolling bell and some weird guitar, almost defies analysis - it's almost like an organic being pulsating in a dark room. Last track 'Record Companies' is a glorious psychedelic swamp beast.
I thought Tricky has lost the plot with 'BlowBack', which I pretty much hated instantly, but 'Knowle West Boy' was a return to form, with some really excellent stuff on it, and is well worth checking out. Also, if you've never heard 'Maxinquaye', do yourself a favour and buy a copy.

Mediafire

Sensational - Loaded With Power

1997 debut album by this very idiosyncratic rapper, on the Wordsound label. This may be the most mashed hip-hop album ever recorded, from his superb, lurching, deranged rapping style, to the ultra low fi beats. The vocals on this album were recorded through headphones, and the music with a four track and not much else. Whatever was used - it usually sounds like it's malfunctioning, with stumbling beats and massively overdriven bass. It's an album full of wrongness and experiment, but works brilliantly. It does sound like the product of a demented brain, and I remember reading in The Wire that later in his career he sold his equipment to buy crack, although I should add that he sorted himself out again and has continued to record.

Mediafire

White Dot Electronica 2

Another wad of superb electronica for you. Slightly more upbeat, lush and tuneful this time, epitomised by the glorious opener by Four Tet vs. Pole. This also contains what I think could be the finest piece of electronica ever: Autechre's remix of Beaumont Hannant. I'm sure there are proponents of Carl Craig's 'At Les', too - a total classic. The other Autechre remix is completely awesome, too, and the Balil track is one I never tire of. Two hours of niceness: hopefully there will be some revelatory discoveries within.
Tracklisting:
1 - Four Tet vs. Pole - Cload (V/A - Osmosis Leaf Sampler)
2 - Apparat - Limelight (Walls)
3 - As One - Meridian Max 404 remix (Reflections On Reflections)
4 - Softballet - Jail Of Freedom Autechre remix (Softballetforms)
5 - Bersarin Quartet - Mehr Als Alles Andere (Bersarin Quartet)
6 - Mouse On Mars -Owai (Instrumentals)
7 - Dabrye - No Child Of God (Instrumentals)
8 - Kettel - Any Waken Sly Bonda (Whisper Me Wishes)
9 - Balil - Parasight (V/A-Artificial Intelligence 2)
10 - Kiyoshi Izumi - Bedroom Glow (Effect Rainbow 12")
11 - LA Synthesis - Agoraphobia (Matrix Surfer)
12 - Nonplace Urban Field - Roll Over Ehrenfield (V/A-Deutsche Funk)
13 - Boy Robot - Magic Toys For Girls & Boys (Rotten Cocktails)
14 - Principles Of Geometry - Golem (Lazare)
15 - Vulva - Kellog's Corn Circles (From The Cockpit)
16 - Cristian Vogel - The Time Lock (Station 54)
17 - Carl Craig - At Les (V/A - In Order To Dance 5)
18 - 16B - Falling: Two Lone Swordsmen remix (Falling 12")
19 - Beaumont Hannant - Psi Onyx Autechre remix (Psi Onyx 12")

Mediafire

Alexander's Dark Band - Dobutsu Bancho

A 2005 album by J Saul Kane, aka Depth Charge. This is a loose and dirty beast of an LP, full of rough and drunken beats - mostly breakbeats, distorted bass, and rotten analogue keyboards held together with sellotape. There's plenty of influence from dub - check out the rude, throbbing bass on 'Dead Metal Dyno Rock', with nasty backwards sounds and some expert knob twiddling. There are some terrifically monged sounds on here - tweaked beyond the realms of good taste, and ending up crashed in a smoking heap at the end of brainfuck road. Virtually every track exudes a bad attitude, and has the rough beats to back it up, and twisted editing/brain prodding sounds poking you in the chest for extra provocative effect. It also rocks mightily, and has plenty of raised-fist triumphant moments, some lino-polishing retro grooves (The Immortal Squirrel), as well as some menacing frequency assaults (Baka Monkey Doll, EH O400).

Mediafire

Chronomad - Chronomad ep

A rather lovely 4 track ep from 2003 on the Alien Transistor label. These are 4 tracks with a sombre beauty, driven along by tuned ethnic percussion which keeps a driving rhythm, but also manages to be intricate and intriguing. The ep was co-produced with Markus and Micha Acher from The Notwist by Saam Schlamminger, a Turkish born student of eastern music. This accounts for the excellent complex rhythms, and the understated, moody use of melody. The second track 'Sabs' is a brilliant combination of twisting percussion loops and the half-obscured sounds of a dusky bazaar - a use of ethnic music samples that could not possibly be further from cheese. Shady strings surge and retreat as a rhythm is picked out on an Oud-sounding instrument. Although the native drums are played, they are also manipulated with some chopping and timestretching, and although the tunes elicit a kind of sweetly doleful ambience, this is good head-nodding gear.

Mediafire