right.
late as a late thing, here i am with ruminations on the decade’s top 10 plus some other musings. the usual disclaimers apply – of course i’ll kick myself for forgetting 18,902 other records, tracks etc. basically, i’ve tried to narrow this down by highlighting the sounds that i returned to most often.
many of these are interchangeable. zomby and sunn o))) could have easily finished in the top 10, but i figured i only had a year, not a decade, to judge them. and they were in my best of ‘09 list too. oh man i’m arguing with myself again.
without further ado…nothing is in any particular order, except burial, who put out my fave album of the noughties.
TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE DECADE
burial – burial (2006)
i’d read about burial before I heard him. Just like rave, just like jungle. And as with those genres, when I did get around to hearing burial – I picked this up on a visit to London in 2006 – it sounded better than I could have imagined. this was a huge release for hyperdub, yet it didn’t really follow the dubstep template that had been laid down by that point. this album is immense and intimate and heartbreaking on its own terms. and yet it’s also defined by an intense longing for some hallowed, hallucinatory past, for the raves and sounds that faded before burial had a chance to experience them in the sweaty, frissoned flesh. and it’s that sense of dislocation that makes this album resonate so powerfully. It’s haunted by what’s gone before, and yet timeless.
queens of the stone age – songs for the deaf (2002)
rawk album of the decade, for those of you into that sort of thang. josh homme and crew – including a thunderous dave grohl on drums – put out a jewel that’s oh so heavy yet maddeningly catchy. these songs pummel. they seduce. they rip off your ears and then croon sweet nothings in them while the blood’s still fresh. mebbe it’s homme’s falsetto. mebbe it’s some secret magic potion of hooks and doom and heft – whatever it is, songs for the deaf is anything but. it’s a consummate pleasure to wallow in.
lcd soundsystem – self-titled (2005)
i remember being somewhat sceptical when I first heard this album. It just seemed a bit too knowing, a bit too self-referential, a bit too nudge-nudge wink-wink. y’think? and that element’s still there. but it doesn’t matter because the songs are, well, fantastic. sure, james murphy wears his muso-crit influences on his sleeve…but when those influences are early eno, remain in lights-era talking heads, krautrock and acieeed, and tim goldsworthy is your secret weapon, who the hell am I to bicker? This album is a monster, and the standouts – “tribulations,” “beat connection,” “yeah yeah yeah (crass version)” still floor me with their energy and force. best gig of the decade too.
black mountain – self-titled (2005)
a glowering debut, courtesy of vancouver’s very own stephen mcbean. it’s heavy, as in riff heavy, and it rocks and rolls and waves the freak flag high with some great jazz/noise spazzouts thrown into the mix. mcbean also put out some of this decade’s most endearing albums under his pink mountaintops moniker – and together, these two mountainous acts constitute the best bands ever to hail from the ‘Coov. and yes, that’s counting the new pornographers. and doa. and michael bublé.
junior boys – so this is goodbye (2006)
a canuckian triumph. this Hamilton duo (well, i think one of them lives in berlin now) concocts an electronic elegy that mixes “ghosts”-era japan with a subtle beat that also bites. no wonder kode9 re-mixed “double shadow.” and the carl craig remix of “like a child” is epic.
daft punk – discovery (2001)
this takes the hard edges of homework and reworks them with a day-glo disco sheen that just keeps jackin’. I’m paraphrasing Simon Reynolds here, but I believe that he likened “digital love” to electric pink jizz or something similar when this came out a thousand years ago. And really, I can’t put it any better – discovery is a robot orgasm that just keeps coming (sorry, pun intended).
kanye west – college dropout (2004)
before kanye became a cognac-swilling gucci thug (we still love you, taylor), he put out college dropout – and produced an album that breathed life and passion and freakiness into hip hop’s rapidly decaying corpse. Who the hell raps about the life-saving qualities of jesus? who samples half a track’s worth of chaka khan? who raps for 12 minutes about the minutiae of his life story? and who conjures one of the most sublime pop moments of the decade – when “kanye’s workout plan” switches from cartoon pastiche to robotic rave (this was before autotune became declassé) and the result sounds like the daft punk androids on steroids? Kanye does, that’s who. at least he did here.
808s and heartbreak has to be one of the decade’s most under-rated albums too.
mylo – destroy rock & roll (2004)
as Steve said in his top 10 of the decade post, i bought this at the now-defunct fopp on tottenham court road when i visited london in, I think, 2004. and as Marc highlighted in his top 10 of the decade, sometimes fave albums resonate for reasons other than solely the music – they can also function as potent signifiers of place and time. this is one of those albums for me. it reminds me so much of that visit, and of the times that followed it – it’s indelibly burned in my brain. And I’m not sure I can say why, other than that a) I had no idea what to expect when I picked it up and b) it rocked and charmed me with a dance vibe and a gossamer touch that keeps me grinning to this day. I’ve no idea what mylo is up to now…but if you care, the radio one mix that he recorded some years back is also stunningly good fun. kids in bedrooms, eh? what will they come up with next?
kalabrese – rumpelzirkus (2007)
here’s what I wrote for the best of 2007:
everyone’s bemoaning the state of music and then this comes along. i can’t believe it’s been so ignored in the main. rumplezirkus continues to throw me. kalabrese makes electronic dance music that verges on the experimental. no wonder he namechecks fred frith. the album’s all over the place – and oftentimes such electicism falls flat. but the kicker here is that gorgeous, sinuous pulse that threads its way throughout. a stunner.
And yes, I still feel pretty much the same.
cat power – you are free (2003)
chan marshall is healthy and happy, by all accounts – which is a good thing. It’s just too bad that her musical output has declined in direct proportion to the improved state of her personal life. and that isn’t meant to glorify the notion that great art is produced in fucked-up circumstances – although, well, that’s often the case. it’s also interesting that the noughties have been defined, in many ways, by the notion of hauntology (select muso crits and wire readers, raise your hands) – and yet no one ever mentions cat power in this context. yet you are free is a stunning example of a voice that’s hollowed out, a sound that lingers like smoke in the air, delicate to the point of dissolution. and there are surprises. to these ears, “werewolf” was one of the most fragile things I’d heard in ages. i had no idea what it was about because i couldn’t really decipher the lyrics, and I didn’t care. then i found out that it was about, er, a werewolf. and it still didn’t matter.
and 10 more
zomby – where were u in 92? (2009)
Here’s what I wrote for best of 2009:
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.
Ricardo villalobos – fabric 36 (2007)
and here’s what I wrote for best of 2007:
the maestro of minimal remixes all his trax and uncovers worlds of microbeat fission in the process. who knew a particle accelerator could sound so good? and who is that woman who bleats on forever?
And now, let me please add that villalobos is the past decade’s most fascinating figure in electronic music. He continues to push the envelope – from “fieheuer zieheuer” to thé au harem d’archimède to his unrelenting remix of shackleton’s “blood on my hands.” His tracks are often long, sometimes difficult, sometimes glorious…and so rewarding.
Interpol – turn on the bright lights (2002)
A striking debut that takes the monochrome, hollow core of post-punk – think joy division, wire, early bunnymen – and infuses it with a foreboding sense of melody and style.
the streets – original pirate material (2002)
nothing that mike skinner’s done since has resonated with me (aside from one track – see below). he’s just sort of faded from my radar. Yet original pirate material still sounds great, a messed-up mélange of 2 step, bass, UK nightlife culture and literary observations in a modern-day east London stylee (didn’t the guardian compare skinner to pepys and dostoevsky?). to this day “turn the page” sends shivers down my back…it could well be the best opening track of the decade. oh wait…then there’s….
avalanches – since i met you (2001)
the mash-up album, before mash-up became, well, a term. huge fun, and a hugely hopeful album that came out at a time when the decade was beginning to tilt down a dark path.
sunno))) – monoliths and dimensions (2009)
and now, here’s what I wrote for best of 2009:
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. the sunn o))) project continues to unfurl, and this is their crowning achievement. so far.
fuck buttons – street horrrsing (2008)
“my life in the bush of ghosts” gone noise.
think i wrote that last year too.
burial – untrue (2007)
another musing from ‘07:
the anonymous one turns up another gem. like his first album, this one continues to sound like it was made underwater – although this time the sea nymphs are morphed garage divas, rather than jungle maidens. music for the dark side of the moon.
booka shade – movements (2006)
the sound of white light and neon. fitting, then, that one of these luminous tracks is titled “in white rooms.” i’ve not really been moved by booka shade’s subsequent efforts, but movements remains radiant.
the field – from here we go sublime (2007)
and lastly, here’s what I wrote in ’07, comparing from here we go sublime to kalabrese’s exceptional eclecticism:
and on a completely opposite tip, we have alex willner who knows what he likes and canes it to death. and with the gauzy shoegaze techno vibes on display here, that’s fine by me.
10 songs for a dead decade
panda bear – bros
dj zinc – 138 trek
burial – distant lights
daft punk – digital love
lcd soundsystem – yeah yeah yeah (crass version)
sugababes – freak like me
kode9 – 9 samurai
white stripes – fell in love with a girl
mylo – drop the pressure
the streets – blinded by the lights
themes
two themes stand out for me this decade – dubstep/grime and noise.
The ‘nuum keeps on
The second decade of the hardcore continuum continued to breed, as two sine sounds evolved from very specific loci – east London (grime) and south London (dubstep). the latter has spread its tentacles beyond its geographic origins – just witness dutch maestro martyn, the Bristol clan, hell, even vancouver’s lighta crew. grime, meanwhile, seems grounded as a London ting. But these two sounds, interwoven and interconnected, represent the most exciting sounds of the decade. have they stumbled on aesthetic cul de sacs? course they have. show me a sound that hasn’t. but have they also both accounted for some of the most sublime moments of the past decade? absotively.
take grime. here was my recent response to an argument, put forward by sasha frere-jones, about hip hop’s demise:
…why why why in all these arguments about the death of hip hop is grime never mentioned? okay, i guess the obvious response is that, well, 99.999999999 per cent of hip hop is american. fair enough…but why not think a bit more outside the beat box – grime in many ways was just as much an offshoot of american hip hop as it was of uk bass music – jungle, garage, etc. i don’t think it could have come into being without either influence. and if you’re looking for something new and mind-blowing, well, grime has resulted in some fantastic music. some of the best tracks of the decade, and also one of the decade’s most exciting developments. i think when a genre becomes basically a worldwide lifestyle brand – like hip hop has – you really gotta look to the margins to find the different stuff, and realize that no, it ain’t all dead, even if it ain’t what we’re used to.
So there. Plus, grime accounted for some of the best names ever: kano, wylie, tinchy stryder, terror danjah, shystie, dizzie, roll deep, d double e, lethal bizzle, et fuckin’ cetera. yes, let’s run that road.
then there’s dubstep, which took on the mantles of jungle, drum ‘n’ bass, techno and 2 step and melded them into the next step of the ‘nuum’s progression. when it’s on, dubstep moves like jungle in slo mo, and that’s why i love it. it’s a hazy x-ray of a sound – jungle – that ignited me like no other, and continues to ignite me to this day. And…the confluence between deep house and dubstep was another particularly intriguing development. I remember last spring, I got a steffi mix from marc. then, about a week later, I caught kode9 in vancouver. And the similarities between these two polarities – dubstep (the offshoot) and house (the standby) – definitely outweighed the differences. It’s electronic bass and beat music, and it lives.
the noise ‘nuum
nietzsche’s eternal return. the more things change, etc. call it what you want, but this decade was a modern-day take on the ‘80s, when sonic youth and swans howled and metallica and slayer, er, slayed. the difference this time around is how much the aesthetic proclivities have narrowed. does one file sunn o))) under noise? are the fuck buttons metal? are wolf eyes either? and most importantly, who cares? the noise ‘nuum rose with a vengeance this decade, and its entrails became ever more convoluted and intriguing.
label of the decade: hyperdub
the first single is “sine of the dub,” a subtastic version of prince’s “sign o’ the times.” then there’s burial’s bruising, glittering debut. then zomby’s cartoon doomscapes. and darkstar. joker. martyn. flying lotus. king midas sound. the bug. and on and on. Steve Goodman brings the noise, marinates it in theory (see his MIT Press-published sonic warfare), refuses to be bound and gagged by scene orthodoxies, and puts out a consistently amazing array of sounds, topped off by a superb five-year anniversary comp. long live hyperdub, indeed.
resolution for a new decade
start david foster wallace’s infinite jest. finish by 2020.
rip
stockhausen
