…welcome to pondablog. after endless dithering, i’ve finally taken the plunge. i figure i’ll write about, well, just about anything here, although i suspect that 99.9 per cent of the time it’ll be about music. hope you enjoy it – let me know what you think and yes i accept hate mail. and love mail.
top 10 albums of 2009, plus a bunch of other stuff
alright, so here they are, finally. damn i’m late and behind and everything else. working on decade picks now too. why do i do this to myself?
anyways, they’re in no particular order, except for zomby, which is my album of the year. cheers.
zomby – where were u in ‘92?
i think this came out in the UK at the tail-end of ‘08, but it didn’t show up on these shores until ’09, so i’m counting it. i was looking forward to this big-time, and when i finally heard it (thank you steve!) it, well, it blew me away. it felt so EXCITING - like you were smack-dab in the middle of some crazy, full-on rave, which zomby would probably take as the ultimate compliment. from the fantastic title on down, this one is massive….taking the past and yet not making it sound like a mere homage, but something new and strange and truly awesome again. the cut-up, spliced technique on display – sorry folks, no smooth mixes here – only enhance the jumped-up vibe. even the last tune is a great come-down track – the party’s over, and yet it isn’t. the ‘nuum is dead. long live the ‘nuum. and long live hyperdub.
micachu and the shapes
this is what lo-fi should sound like – short sharp bursts of insanely addictive avant bubblegum weirdness, rather than aimless monochrome weirdness that sounds like it was recorded in yo’ momma’s bathtub. which it probably was. i don’t know how matthew herbert ended up producing this, but his talents obviously stretch beyond house. and big bands.
fuck buttons – tarot sport
slightly more glossified take on the gorgeous mountain of noise that these two misfits from bristol introduced to the world with last year’s stunning street horrrsing. no doubt, the addition of andrew weatherall – yes, that andrew weatherall – as producer has had an impact. not surprisingly the songs this time around are a bit more palatable, a bit more nuanced, and, well, a bit more groove-y/dance-y. but this is no disastrous example of merely grafting trendy beats on top of noise (i.e. the very same weatherall’s execrable remix of my bloody valentine’s “soon”). speaking of ’80s noise, tarot sport veers close to prime shoegaze at times…but the biggest change here is the fact that this is completely instrumental. and i do miss those serrated vocals that hit like a tidal wave on street horrrsing. but the buttons of fuck still sound great.
oneida – rated 0
so just how many triple albums do you know of? i can barely think of any. the clash’s sandinista, and neil young’s decade, although that’s really a compilation of hits and tunes from over the years. that’s it. surely there are others, but it’s not exactly a common phenomenon. well, now you can add oneida’s rated 0 to the list. i sort of bought this on a whim. i’d heard a tiny bit of oneida before. and i have to admit that the sheer audacity of releasing a triple album intrigued me as well. plus it’s delivered in a beautiful package, whose inner sleeves feature a whacked-out volcano-rainbow montage that just makes think of some conceptual proggy krautrock mindmeld masterpiece. which is pretty much what rated 0 is. didn’t know what to expect, and the opening track – the industrial dub of “brownout in lagos” (awesome title) didn’t make matters any clearer. which is a good thing.
broadcast and the focus group investigate witch cults of the radio age
belbury poly was supposed to be in this list. but then i heard witch cults and, well, my mind shifted. i’ve always loved broadcast’s ethos, which is based on some other world in some other galaxy where gary numan and sandy denny are king and queen. but this one really goes out there…the vibe reminds me of the ’60s sun ra records. it ain’t really “jazz,” it’s space music.
moritz von oswald trio – vertical ascent
the moriz von oswald trio – consisting of vladislav delay, max loderbauer and, er, moritz von oswald – comes across like a bunch of free formers getting together and jamming as a full-on, solid, tight unit. well, at least two of the four tracks strike me that way. the other two are drifting affairs – in a good way. and the common denominator is a keen sense of space….informed, no doubt, by herr von oswald’s deep love of dub.
dirty projectors – bitte orca
art rock, meet hooks. this staggers, soars, then staggers and soars some more. it’s off kilter and off key, yet poptastic and seductive. nice nietzsche reference too.
sunn o))) – monoliths and dimensions
after black one, this is sunn o)))’s white album, where they explore timbres and washes of sound that they haven’t broached before. it’s still brain-crushingly heavy (thank goodness), and attila csihar still cleaves reality in two with his tar-blackened baritone, but…this time around, they also drift a bit in the heavens while wallowing in the depths. this direction’s aided by a stellar list of guest musicians, from sun ra alum julian priester to tromboner stuart dempster to canuckian meta-violinist eyvind kang – who also plays on the mesmerizing six organs album (see 10 more below). the sunn o))) project continues to unfurl, and this is their crowning achievement. so far.
demdike stare – symbiosis
excellent electronic scariness from this UK duo. icy, enveloping and at times, quite massive. this is dubstep minus the step – and what remains is hypnotic deep space bass-noise. this reminds me, quite often, of aphex twin’s superb selected ambient works volume II. uncomfortable and uncanny.
pink mountaintops – outside love
vancouver’s stephen mcbean is, well, kind of a freakin’ genius, and outside love is yet another side of his pop-rock-scuzz brain exposed. the spacemen 3 buzz of the previous slab, axis of evol, mostly takes a breather while outside love wanders down another beautifully melodramatic and hypnotic path. “while we were dreaming” has to be my song of the year.
bibio – ambivalence avenue
summer album of ‘09. lovely hit of weirdo pastoral folk-pop spiced up by the occasional excellent foray into warped hip hop. apparently the remix album is killer too.
compilations
dj koze – reincarnations
el b – the roots of el b
all the tracks date from 1999-2003, with the exception of the last track, which is from ‘07. this stuff would be, well, fairly impossible to find on its own, so kudos to tempa for bringing this all together in a gorgeous package with voluminous notes (featuring a superb burial quote: “The thing about those drums, they’re still the future….It’s an unknown thing.It’s like the last fucking secret left in music: how do you do those drums. I’ve tried…”). A fascinating snapshot of a sound that expertly straddles the junction where jungle, drum ‘n’ bass and two-step meet. and you can hear hints of the dubstep wobbles from a future that has yet to arrive.
hyperdub – five years of low-end contagion
untouchable, really. more in coming posts.
and 10 more
belbury poly – from an ancient star
japandroids – post-nothing
dj hell – teufelswerk
arthur and martha – navigation
lindstrom and prins thomas – II
them crooked vultures – self-titled
six organs of admittance – luminous night
the field – yesterday and today
animal collective – merriweather post pavilion
neko case – middle cyclone
mixes
steffi – mixtape
dj pete - wax treatment podcast
rinse fm podcasts
dj koze – resident advisor mix
king midas sound – fact mix
resissues
germs – (mia) the complete anthology
death – for the whole world to see
best non-’09 finds
morton feldman – rothko chapel
grouper – dragging a dead deer up a hill
gigs
gang gang dance
franz ferdinand
kode9
marcel dettman in san francisco with marc and cara
girl talk
don’t get it
these aren’t bad albums per se, but i’m mystified by the hype that’s surrounded them….
grizzly bear – veckatimest
art rock for hipsters who think death cab for cutie rock. and yes, that means you, zooey deschanel!
bat for lashes – two suns
fur and gold didn’t do much for me, and neither does this. it’s pleasant. and forgettable.
the xx – xx
nice, spacey feel and a swell enough listen…but if this is how today’s indie kids interpret “club music,” gimme screamadelica any day.
…and a few other things that stuck out for me this year….not necessarily released/published etc. in ‘09, but whatevs
movies
let the right one in
[rec]
the baader meinhoff experience
drag me to hell
revolutionary road
district 9
anvil! the story of anvil
the september issue
books
seven days in the art world – sarah thornton
the road – cormac mccarthy
the blind side – michael lewis
rip: rashied ali, les paul, mj
and finally, a big shout out to steve and marc for their inspiration and debate and tunes – and thanks to marcus for reviving my interest in house and turning me on to some fantastic music as a result. divas and saxophones are still verboten, however.
and ta as well to dan, who helped me sort out all this interwebblognet stuff.
peace oot!