2011 Albums of the Year: 10-1

And finally, we reach the end of the year and my 2011 Albums of the Year, numbers 10-1:

10. Belong - Common Era

I am a shoegaze addict. I admit it, and I am not ashamed of it. Generally, if I read a review and it even mentions the term, I will likely buy it. Doesn't mean I will necessarily like it; I have lost count of how many bands have been poor imitators of my heroes My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush, Slowdive, and Swervedriver. But the call of the genre always at least peaks my interest. I was astonished to hear that New Orleans drone duo Belong had released their follow up to October Language (a classic of ambient glitch drone) and it was a shoegaze record. Belong has been very restless with their sound; moving from ambient drones to more song based structures. Common Era wears its influences on its sleeve, but I think there is enough originality in it, especially with the more drone-like atmospheres. Besides, I just can't stop listening to it. It just beautifully encapsulates a mood for me.

9. Clams Casino - Instrumental Mixtape

New Jersey producer Clams Casino is best known for his work in the "based music" genre, usually associated with Lil' B, mixing laid back free-assocation lyrics with stoner beats, stretched out samples, and dense production work. The blueprint for this style is Lil' B's single "I'm Am God," featuring his drawled delivery over a manipulated sample of Imogen Heap's "Just For Now." Clams Casino has released a mixtape of instrumentals he has put together for artists like Lil' B, Soulja Boy, and Squadda B sans vocals; putting his music out front without the rapping is an interesting concept, one that works surprisingly well. On their own, the intricacies of his productions are more apparent, standing tall alongside releases from electronic masters like Burial, Flying Lotus, and Mount Kimbie. As with "I Am God," Clams Casino is still working with samples, folding and manipulating them into something unique and different. Whether it is taking Bjork's "Bachelorette," on "Illest Alive," cutting and elongating it, pushing it through a killer hip hop drum loop, Janelle Monae's "Cold War," taking the drama and tension of the original and looping it into a paranoid fantasy; or "Realist Alive," drawing out a sample from Adele's "Hometown Glory," turning his own piece into something gorgeous and haunting

8. Burial - Street Halo EP

It's been almost four years since the release of Burial's landmark album Untrue. Might as well be 4 decades in the electronic music world considering how fast trends and genres change and mutate. While there will likely always be imitators of his distinct sound, Burial will never be duplicated. In a flurry of activity over the past few months, Burial has released several new projects. Whether producing and advising material on Jamie Woon's debut cd Mirrorwriting, or collaborating with Thom Yorke and Four Tet on a single, he has whet people's appetite for the follow up to Untrue. If anything, these three tracks reveal that Burial is still working with the same minimal palate, but is pushing outside the framework. The songs are distinctly Burial tracks, however, there are subtle differences in approach. Still notable is how, even on three tracks, he can so easily evoke moods of isolation and darkness.

7. Active Child - You Are All I See

Active Child (Pat Grossi's one man project) follows up the Curtis Lane EP with his full length debut, You Are All I See, which streamlines the angelic dream pop of the former into a gorgeous collection of tracks that hover on the edge of precious, but always retain an edge of distant melancholy that keeps the project from becoming cloying. Grossi, harpist and former choir boy, doesn't really fall neatly into a genre at all, the songs here draw equally from chillwave, shoegaze, dream pop, fractured R&B, and gauzy electronica, all of which are bound to each other by Grossi's gorgeous falsetto (sounding like a distant cousin to Antony Hegarty) and trills of heavenly harp.

6. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

The album cover is a striking image of the first piano drop at MIT. There is an amazing tension at play with the piano perilously perched on the edge of the building just before it plummets to the ground, shattering into a million pieces. Ambient-drone artist Tim Hecker found this photo while researching images of the tremendous amounts of digital garbage in the world: piles and piles of used up CDs, floppy disks, and other effluvia. Hecker claims "there's some connection between the computerized engineering that led to the codification of MP3s and music's denigration as an object and thus a viable means of economic survival." Thus, Ravedeath, 1972 is Hecker's comment on how music (specifically electronic music) in the digital age is becoming more homogenized, sanitized, and sterile. Hecker attempts to bring back a solemnity and purity to music, recording the album in one day in a church in Rekjavik, Iceland, using an old pipe organ as the basis for the 12 tracks. All of the pieces are dense, sculptural, and breathtakingly beautiful. The album is divided into shorter, singular tracks that are almost a battle between organic, analog elements and harsh digital effects, evoking the tension of the album cover photo; and longer suites of music that are simple and haunting.

5. Rustie - Glass Swords

Glasgow based producer Rustie's debut album Glass Swords doesn't care if you think it is the most cerebral album of the year. The motive is not the brain but the feet, and it succeeds wildly in creating its own universe of euphoric party music. Whether you want to call it rave, grime, two-step, garage, wonky, dubstep, aqua-crunk, etc., it doesn't really matter, as Rustie barely takes a breath through 13 tracks, whiplashing through every genre possible. What strikes one the most with this album is simply the exuberance of the music, the sheer joy that emanates from every pore. Every track is packed to the gills with ideas and sounds, and each time it threatens to get too cluttered, Rustie seems to instinctively know when to pull back. There is not a dull moment or weak track on this album, and is perhaps the most exciting electronic album of the year.

4. Phantogram - Nightlife EP

After touring relentlessly for the past two years in support of their debut album Eyelid Movies, New York duo Phantogram (Sarah Bartel on vocals/keyboards and Josh Carter on vocals/guitars) have returned with the 6 track EP Nightlife. There is no drastic change to their trip-hop inspired electro-pop, which they have deemed "street beat, psych pop." Street beat is sort of an apropos name to describe their sound, as it easily could be a soundtrack to late night taxi rides in Manhattan; gritty, over-saturated, world-weary. While the sound has not changed much, what has changed is the focus and breadth of the tracks. No longer does it just feel like the work of two people. There are so many details lurking within these tracks, that are revealed slowly over multiple listens.

3. Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair

Denver, Colorado art-punks Andy R. and Craig Nice are all about fractured noise. Their debut album takes heavily reverbed everything (vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards), and throws it all together, watching the various elements smash into each other, creating odd textures and sensations. Someone asked me to succinctly describe their sound and it was practically impossible. You hear snippets of Vini Reilly's pointillist guitar technique, Animal Collective's lurching, sonic experimentation, Sleigh Bell's cavernous beats, and all of the shoegaze bag of tricks. There are not a lot of stylistic changes over the course of the record; indeed, the nine tracks are all basically variations on a theme, which can be the album's curse and saving grace. Strangely, you can basically enter the album at any point and get the same impression from it. You will either fall in love with its spell, or be put off by the somewhat murky recording techniques. I have been entranced with this record from the moment I heard it. It is a record to get lost in.

2. The Weeknd - House of Balloons

At the beginning of 2011, mysterious Toronto R&B collective The Weeknd, the project of 20-year-old singer/ songwriter Abel Tesfaye, teased us with several singles, then releasing a free mixtape, House of Balloons, that can be downloaded here. The 9 songs are generally long, slow jams; creating a sustained mood of desperation, emptiness, and doubt. The music is lush and haunting, perfectly coinciding with the hedonistic tales set forth. House of Balloons is all about mood. Frequently oppressive, steeped in loneliness, the narrators in the songs searching for pleasure to compensate for the emptiness that is never filled. It is a difficult album to listen to straight through, as there is little joy or light in this dark world. This singular approach, however, works, and the production and song writing quality is so strong, it cannot be dismissed.

1. Wild Beasts - Smother

Over the course of now three records, Wild Beasts have spent their time dwelling on the romantic/philosophical/debaucherous nature of sex, particularly the debaucherous side. Their debut Limbo, Panto, dealt with themes of sexual depravity and vulnerability, lead singer Hayden Thorpe's ear-shattering falsetto playing with expectations of gender. It was a striking debut, one of the few records in 2008 that sounded like nothing else out there. Aside from a couple of more pop-oriented numbers, most of the album felt like a cabaret act on crack. It was an exhilarating listen, but also exhausting. Two Dancers, the follow up, was still sex obsessed, but charted new waters, being more subtle in their approach. The album was a major leap forward as the band reigned in their all for broke style and focused on their strengths. The most notable change was Thorpe's voice. While still one of the most distinct voices out there, he showed more control over his wild flights of fancy, even giving over several songs to bassist Tom Fleming's deep bass/baritone, which couldn't have been more different, providing a nice counterpoint to Thorpe's more distinct style. Based on the Mercury Prize nomination and widespread critical acclaim for Two Dancers, all eyes, and ears were on what Wild Beasts would come up with next. Smother finds the band in complete control, slightly altering their sound, creating a set of songs that work as a whole, yet stand alone perfectly. The album shares more with Two Dancers than Limbo, Panto, and while some fans will likely bristle at the band's neglect of its more fanciful sojourns, Smother shows a mature sound (read more complex and agile, and not boring or fuddy-duddy), placing them, in my mind, in line with Spirit of Eden era Talk Talk, forging a new path ahead for themselves. Smother is gorgeous and sensual album that unfolds like a lovers' assignation, furtive and stumbling at first, building to almost unbearable levels of passion, then over much too quickly, sending you out into the dark night, forever damaged and scarred.