Top Fo'iy Nigh!

Well, while others listed only top 1 or 10 or 15, I in my usual excess, made 49. Why 49? Well cause after I made the list I realized that one of the albums was from 2011, and that can never be accepted! Accursed past! So, it's split up into top 26-49, then 25-15, then 14-6, then Top 5. Truly insane i know. Inside there its mostly alphabetic order cause I'm lazy and also, really, in realityland, who can do such a feat! That's just not real life! Description wise we'll see what happens, i may just highlight some hotties or whatevs. I'm aware that I missed many awesome albums from this year, which are thus not included in this list. That's why i like these lists so i can see what i missed and check it out. Maybe you can get some o' that from my list too!

Wet your chops to these traczzz:

Top 26-49 (in alphabetical order)

These are all great but were they great enough? NOPE cuz they don't makes its top 25ers!! BUt seryiously they are grat and you should listen!

Actress - R.I.P. not as good as last year, even though i seem to be the only person to think that.

Animal Collective - Centipede Hz kinda disappointing but not terrible

Bitchin Bajas - Vibraquatic This band and album seems like it was made by Aaron Senter

Beach House - Bloom mostly the song Myth, also i've never paid attention to beach house. are they good?

Charlatan Meets The North Sea - S/T

Chrome Wings / Ladyshapes Split 

Colin Stetson & Mats Gustafsson - Stones (wow! double sax double fax, although I kinda feel like a tool that both of my jazz related releases involve Mats Gustafsson)

Ectoplasm & DenMother - 416

Gangrene - Vodka & Ayahuasca Oh No is always better with others than by himself

Hell Maf / Daz-Ini - Hell Maf Remix Daz-Ini: Pour Encore Plus de Ma French Rap!

Inspired School Of Astral Music - Celestrial Stairway 

Jahiliyya Fields - Unicursal Hexagram

The Jazz Jousters - Some Other Time Bill Evans remixed to instrumental hip-hop, great but could have been bette.

Jeary! - Jeary For Dolo!

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Visiting This World

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, m.A.A.d City not as good as everyone says but still good

Lambchop - Mr. M I've always ignored lambchop but suddenly didn't and then this album was really great and exactly what i needed at the first moment i heard it.

The Kevin Costner Suicide Pact - My Hand Holding a Still Photograph of the Same Scene better than the band name might suggest

Mark Bradley - Offerings

Mondo Lava/Eternal Tapestry

Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio on paper it was a dream but then at first i wasn't into it but then later i was quite a bit and still am.

Sean McCann, Matthew Sullivan & Jeff Witscher - Barb

Spectral Being - Ritualistic Burning

Sylvia Monnier - Never More Camellias

Top 25-15 (Also In Alphabetical Order)

Hey now, almost there to the top. things are getting serious, hot and heavy in here and who knows how this will all end up. don't kowtow!

Captain Murphy - Duality (Self-Released)

Flying Lotus's free stoner (think Madliby/MF Doomish) rap mixtape. Just released so almost didn't make the list but its just that good. Everything FlyLo does is a golden hen which should be caressed. And its free!

Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes (Warp)

As I was saying earlier about Golden Hen's, This is also a golden hen. Flying Lotus is great always and forever!

Former Selves - Limits (Rotifer) /Many Moons (Hooker Vision)

Just found Former Selves this year. Lots of great stuff. Here are two of them. Mostly quiet ambient.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (Constellation)

Ol Godspeed back in the stable eh? I was worried this would suck bad but its not only great but great!  It still sounds like Godspeed but it also doesn't sound outdated. It sounds very current in the experimentally droney scene in many ways but not in like a "hey we're old guys trying to get in on the trends" way but just a "hey we know how to make good music" way.

Holy Other - Held (Tri Angle)

This was a last minute find. sweet dance jams from a fine label. honestly haven't listened to it enough but its great. check it!

How To Dress Well - Total Loss (Acephale)

Now I love lo-fi stuff and do not think that when a lo-fi artists loses the lo-fi they are "maturing". In fact I thought that I wouldn't like this and just figured I would be a one album how to dress well fan. But geez this is still good! Quite very good infact!

Lindstrøm - Smalhans (Smalltown Supersound)

If you like dance music at all your probably know who Lindstrøm is. Well this is him being him. Nothing spectacular or insane about this release, just a very good Lindstrøm album. I guess he is a reliable guy this guy. good alb.

Nova Scotian Arms - Cult Spectrum (Digitalis)

Great droney boneys from steady releasing steed.

Raime - Quarter Turns Over A Living Line (Blackest Ever Black)

Reading descriptions of this I thought this would not be my thing at all. It sounds like its very industrial and darkly industrial at that. But i love it all the way through. Very surprised. Perhaps you might feel the same?

Seth Martin and the Menders - Putting the Sky to Sleep (Self-Released)

An excellent album of gentleman's folk from a good friend made in Korea. Listened to it many times and it gets better with the more listens. Available as a name your price download on bandcamp. go get it!

Sundrips - Dream Studies (Koppklys)

Sundrips put out great blissful slightly noisy drone/ambient all the time with mostly high success. this is true here too as this another great album by themsters, despite the terrible cover art.

Top 14-6 (Also In Alphabetical Order)

Now this is where its at! WOW! what a grat plac to hain out! If you don't know these gemjams then you are missing the boatride! or maybe you took the wrong boat to somewhere dumb...If you ignored everything else i said, don't ignore me now! please don't ignore me guys! hey guys!

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love)

Definitely Top 14 material. Dance music which is not very dancy and if described would almost sound like something industrial but i swear its not. Experimental dance music...uh It's good you guys, just check it out

Emeralds - Just To Feel Anything (Editions Mego)

You know these guys, still at it, still doing right by the lord of jams. Probably should have put this in the Top 5.

Guenter Schlienz - Tape Studies (SicSic)

Hey Hey. Another new fella for me. I knew I would love this from the getty up. Put a PCB on the cover of a tape and call it tape studies and I'm sold. And its great. Definitely top ten material.

Inner Tube - S/T (Pacific City Sound Visions)

Check out that cover. Yessss. The music pretty much sounds like that looks. Super Good Collab between emeralds Mark McGuire and Spencer Clark/James Ferraro Pal Charles Berlitz.

very good. possibly belongs in the top 5.

Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)

Way way back when I only know about Killer Mike as a guest rapper on Outkast stuff i was kinda like, "who is this guy?" and not necessarily in a good way. But slowly the fellow came into his own and started tearing it up. This is his best album yet, and I feel like he's only just going to keep getting better. Definitely my top Hip-Hop album of the year.

Oliwa - Rituals (Zeon Light)

This was a totally random bandcamp find for me and it turns out these buenos aires synth jams are one of my top albums of the year. very good. get in on it. A name your price download from band camp or a tape from Zeon Light (actually all Zeon releases appear to be name your price band camp downloads)

Panabrite - The Baroque Atrium (Preservation)

Panabrite is another reliable force for good. A go to for all your nostalgic synth needs. He had several this year but i think this is tops.

Sand Circles - Motor City (Not Not Fun)

When I first started getting into the world of lo-fi psych/drone cassettes etc... Not Not Fun was my go to. I thought they were untouchable. Later I decided that they were actually sort of hit or miss and that there are plenty of other labels i like better. However that doesn't mean that the label sucks or can't put out the goods. Here is clearly the case. one of best albums of the year. a sort of fake soundtrack to a post apocalyptic wasteland detroit or something. tops.

Suaves Figures - Nouveaux Gymnastes (Sangoplasmo)

A great album of gentle synth jams. First time to hear of Suaves Figures. I'm not sure if its meant to be a synth update to Erik Satie but the name and tone makes one feel as such. I could probably look it up but i'm not going to. Top 10 to be sure!

Top 5-1 (In pretty much order of ranking, probably)

OMG it just keeps getting more intense and battle hardened. Are you ready for theseeses!

Lunar Miasma - Impermanent Nature (SicSic)

Another all hands on the golden hen deck person, pretty much everything Greek Synth jammer Lunar Miasma puts out can be trusted to be either totally great or down right awesome. There were several releases I could have put here but i chose this one.  The third track, Insight (Gone II) is one of my favorite tracks of the year.

잠비나이 (Jambinai) - 차연 (Differance) (GMC Records)

Another Top fiver. Jambinai are a sweet Korean experimental band. They play sort of doomy drone with lots of korean traditional instruments. Sometimes there is a metal influence as a result of the main dude's previous bands having been that sort of thing. Awesome 1st full length release by great newish band who hopefully will go on to destroy the earth. Totally good news. If you can't find this and would like a taste, let me know.

Duane Pitre - Monolithic Youth (Sonic Meditations)

Duane Pitre used to be a pro skater and then i think he was in some bands or something. Now he makes full on blisstimes drones. He is an unsung hero of the drone, whom I feel no one is ever talking about but should be. You love it. This is awesome. As is everything he does. In the Top 3!

Daphni - Jiaolong (Jiaolong)

Oh Dan from Caribou/Manitoba! You also are a golden hen! Daphni is he going straight on techno with great results, possibly my #2 Album of 2012!

Fire! with Oren Ambarchi - In The Mouth A Hand (Rune Grammofon)

YES! Fire! is Scandanavian Free Jazz legend/stalwart Mats Gustafsson and two other apparently sweet dudes. Also sweet Guitarist Oren Ambarchi comes along for the ride. They've been around for a bit but although I listen to lots of Mats Gustafsson related stuff, I somehow missed this group. This is probably my top album of the year. Soooooooooo Gooooooood. If you like heavy psychy jamouts and were like "hey maybe i should like some free jazz but I don't know", then you should get in on this real fast real bad. You need to give it time and immerse in it. At first I tried listening to it very quickly and was like meh, but later it nailed me hard!


And the rest is history! Let the history books behold!

Paco's Top 56 Albums of 2008: 23-14

Almost there…

23. WYLD WYZRDZ - we are everyone. (A. Star) : With such a ridiculous name I thought for sure that this would be some kind of silly pranksters. But in actuallitywiseitude, Braden J. McKenna, the one man wrecking crew, has put out a nice album. For fans of Emeralds and Co., Adam, or actual Wizards, provided said wizard enjoys sort of electronic psych rock that builds a good head of steam until it crashes into an ocean of sound just outside the dronesville depot. Additionally! He gets bonus points for giving away all albums and EPs free on his website! I have only downloaded this, but I plan on taking all that I can soon. His website also has plenty of good grammer and the letter "z." Lastly, dude says, "Email blah blah blah if you have any WYZRDZ things to ask, I want to make an Album with you." Something I have yet to do, but Perhaps we should look into contacting him and making an album with him. Course he's in Salt lake city. But still! Still!!! P.S. The album rules!

22. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant (Sub Pop) : Yeah, Yeah, I liked it too, who doesn’t like mellifluous harmonies? Although, just to be contrary, I felt like the full length didn't quite live up to the promise of the EP. But promises are hard to keep, unless you are in Promise Keepers and then its just a given I guess. Additionally they get bonus Promise Keepers™ street cred because some members were in Unwed Sailor and one was even in Scientific! Scientific!!!! Weird! Talk about NBA Street Cred Bennies®! And look where he is now. Where's Josh Mackey when you need him? Additional Note is Minus points for members being ex-members of Saxon Shore, who I thought sucked way back when, but I guess could actually be okay.

21. Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour (130701) : Max Richter makes his best record yet, and nobody seems to have batten down an e ye. Note to Max: No annoying British lady's voice saying dumb cliché and cheesy sounding narration = your best album yet. It’s more than that, but that plays a big role. The title says it all. 24 Postcards. Mini-pieces all of beautifulness. I think I heard tell that these were meant as ring tones. If so they are the most beautiful (and therefore probably ineffective) ring tones ever. I don’t know cause I don’t have a phone. Try it out for yourself. Report back in two weeks. (by the by, I just found out while writing this that dude did the soundtrack for "waltz with bashir" the movie, which I now want to see even more.)

20. Isengrind/TwinSisterMoon/Natural Snow Buildings - The Snowbringer Cult (Students of Decay) : Isengrind (no, not Isengard) is Solange Gularte. Mehdi Ameziane is TwinSisterMoon. Together they are Natural Snow Buildings. Mix all three (Disc 1: Solos, Disc 2: Buddies), add a dash of cool album art drawings, and some long droney faux eastern psych folk, some low-key electronics, and an insane variety of other dense, delicious sounding hits = Huge Double Disc goodness, "The Snowbringer Cult." If you love trends, then you may have thought that New Weird America/Freak Folk/Whatever stopped being cool even before Devendra started dating Natalie Portman. Well, you may be right, but these humans are French. And additionally they are totally laying waste to the genre and re-writing it from the ground floor. It's like the best parts of every reference you could name, but better, and then some. Seriously this album is a monster. It's like the Lord of the Rings of slow drone yet somehow epic, almost GYBE folk. You will need 2.5 hours to even listen to it once, but you'd be better off trapping yourself in a cave, shut off by a landslide, for about 3 years, to really get a hold of this. Finally a cult we can all feel good about! Prepare to be Destroyed! Jonny, if quiet is the new the loud, get your lil' mitts on this pronto! Vermont ought to be erased and replaced with a giant version of this album.

19. Deaf Center - Vintage Well (Type) : This was a 3 song 7” lasting approximately 10 minutes. And it’s my 19th best album of the year. Must be pretty good then, eh? Norway represent! The blessed home country! This 7” is definitely making some promises that I hope it intends to keep. If their next full length follows in the pattern of this sweet youngster, then they are in for releasing the number one monster of awesom e ambient/modern classical of whatever year it is that they eventually release the best album of that year. Which is hopefully next year. Did you even love quietness or quietude? Does you even love this? Wow, whaoh!!!!

18. Benoît Pioulard – Temper (Kranky) : Kranky is having a good year too. Pioulard wraps his fairly straight forward yet pleasant acoustic singer/songwriter fare in blankets of melancholy, brown noise, warm fuzz, cold rain, and lo-fi field recordings. Only thing is missing is a song about Ohio. Good times here.

17. Cloaks – Serene (Students of Decay) : See what I mean about Students of Decay though? Yet, another case of the album art telling it all, Cloaks kinda sounds like that looks. This release is two tracks, The first a 35 minute ambient/field recording joint and the second a short contemporary classical piece. While both are good, its clearly the first which ranks this bad boy a mention. Like most 35 minute songs its take some work to get through it. Most ambient is best at night time or at least in a dark cave. But This is sun beam ambient. This is day-walking over hills and through forests ambient. Very fine.

16. Matthew Robert Cooper – Miniatures (Gaarden) : This almost didn’t make my list because for some reason I spent most of 2008 thinking that this came out in 2006. MRC may not sound familiar to you, but Eluvium probably does. Well, this is his real name. I’ve always been mixed about eluvium. While I do enjoy them, especially I often have a feeling of generic-ness or incompleteness when I hear them and I feel like they only camp at the outskirts of the city gates of goodambientopolis. This release, however, is welcome inside the doors and right down the main drag. Composed of 9 Miniatures, none of these noisy or weird, giving them a feeling that everyone, even non-fans of experimental or ambient music can enjoy.

15. M83 - Saturdays=Youth (Mute/EMI) : Even if the whole album sucked, Kim and Jessie is awesome enough to carry it all. But the album doesn’t suck, and its definitely a return to greatness for M83. Plus I love Tears for Fears real bad.

14. Crystal Castles - S/T (Last Gang/Different) : Hated in the small small world of chip-tune/8-bit/video game/bloopy bleepy music for a couple of controversies. Disliked in other circles as possible hipster posers. But I’ll be darned if they don’t crank out catchy dance hits, and do so with a delicious Nintendo style. Who evan gives a car? Just listen in and dance it up! They’re good! That’s all there is too it. Will they stand the test of time? Who cares? The test of time is a fake and meaningless test anyway. Crank it up while you still have the chanst.

Next Time: The End of it all!

Paco's Top 56 Albums of 2008: 34-24

It just keeps going!

34. Burnkit2600 - This is the Sound! (burnkit2600.com) : I know very little about this free internet download, I found it on a circuit bending blog I read, and its awesome. Additionally, rather than hide thier cool diy instruments from wannabes they encourage you to try it yourself and explain their gear in depth. The first song, which has a lot of shouting, is kind of annoying but it really gets going with "When Demons Attack." "b00" is a spooky time jam of the highest quality. If you like circuit bent sounds, crossed wires, and messed up electronics with catchy beats, or that Dan Friel album, you will like this little guy. And its legally free.

33. Hercules & Love Affair - S/T (DFA) : Hey, wow, thanks for looking out! Hey, Good Dancin' Out! Thanks for dancing out, thanks. whoah! Antony has a weird voice but its all good and the dancing beats are hott. Check out all these traxx in your ride. or more like on the floor! Don't you love it?

32. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colors (Modular) : This was popular enough I don't think I need to talk about it. Nice Dancing Pops. Catchyness which borders on cheesy at first listen, until you realize that its not, and everything is totally fine, so don't even worry about it. I like "Hearts on Fire" the best.

31. Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8) : Man, I'm getting really tired of writing about all these things. I should listen to less music. Or maybe I should just go to bed, get over my stomach flu, eat a huge sandwhich, and then do these again. But in anycase this is good. Imagine Aidan Baker (NOT of Godspeed), ambient guitar processor extraodinaire, hanging out with Tim Hecker, ambient electronics jimmyrigger supreme, and bam! You get this. It's good. It should probably be better. But its real good.

30. Peter Wright - Pretty Mushroom Clouds (aRCHIVE) : I first found about Peter Wright when I downloaded (and never really listened to) a live show of him with my main men, Stars of The Lid. Although I never really gave it the listen it needed, if a fellow can collab with SOTL then he’s just alright with me. But then I forgot about him. Then one day, browsing my sites, checking my sites, checking in with my check in buddy, This release popped up. And I nabbed it. According to Pete, its got a lot of “noisy ambient” that didn’t go on some of his other more quiet releases. This appears to be mostly true. In addition to that musty truth, this is an excellent album of ambient, field recordings, and occasionally noisy sounds and tones. Gentle and Non-Gentle, for Gentile and Jew alike!

29. Black Milk - Tronic (Fat Beats) : Looks like I was late to the Black Milk boat too. Well at least I’m on board now, and tying my legs to the stern. If you do not like Black Milk then perhaps I will talk sternly to you, young wo/man! General consensus is that while his beats are incredibly tight (especially his drums), his raps don’t hold up as well. I, however, will mildly disagree. It think he comes out alright. He’s not an amazing MC but he seems fine enough, and he’s not bad or annoying. His beats are truly great though, and in light of how good they are, maybe it is his mic abilities that are keeping this out of masterpiece range. I care more about sweet beats anyway…

28. Taiga Remains - Descend From Ivory Cliffs (Waterscape) : Sleep on this! Head of one of my fav. new labels "Student of Decay," Taiga Remains is one track of sweet ambient build up goodness. Ignore the lame looking typeface on the cover.

27. 14KT - The Golden Hour (ASide Worldwide) : You would be forgiven if you walked into a room (or perhaps even a juke joint) where this was playing and asked if it was Dilla. After all it is a mostly instrumental beats album, it does have that Michigan/Detroit City sound, and it is extremely good. He’s even got a song for Dilla and another that uses the same sample as Dilla. But after you got over all that, and started giving the thing a few listens, I would hope that you would begin to realize how good an album, and of his own style, 14KT ("KT" is apparently pronouced "Kaytee") as just issued into our grimy mits and sweaty paws. Hailing from Yipsilanti, MI and a member of the acclaimed Athletic Mic League family, KT definetly knows and loves his Dilla and is also clearly from the area. But he also knows the boards and he’s not ripping anybody off. Why would he be number 27 if he was?

26. Gerald Cleaver's Violet Hour - Gerald Cleaver's Detroit (Fresh Sound New Talent) : I saw Gerald Cleaver and his Violet Hour for the first time ever after a long day of Jazz at the Chicago Jazz Fest this year. They were playing an after fest kinda show a little ways uptown. Now, at the time, I had just watched like 10 hours or so of Jazz. And I like Jazz but I was also incredible exhausted and ready to go to bed. However, I suddenly found myself walking about 30 blocks at about midnight and arriving at the show. After a forced donation, in light of my long walk, and how sleepy and tired I was, I was in a pretty bad mood. Not to mention, my girlfriend was with me and also experiencing all the same things as me, thus making me feel worse. Additionally there was no where to sit, so I had to stand…there was no way it could be worth it…And then they played…and it was exactly what the doctor ordered! They played my tiny shriveled face off and put it into a small leather case! And excellent and impeccable mix of east coast and midwest jazz, and everybody was swinging like hell. But the main man was Gerald hisself. Dude was pounding the skins like tammy skinpounders and all the while smiling a super happy smile. Of course the albums not as good as all that. But it’s still very good.

25. HEALTH - //Disco (Lovepump United) : It's funny that I still haven't bothered to listen to any unremixed HEALTH. They are probably good. In anycase, this is just the kind of rough, extra noisy dance rock that I can really sink my teeth into. Plus who doesn't love a band named HEALTH?

24. John Robinson - Who is this Man? (Project: Mooncircle) : My boi MF Doom on the boards. John Robinson on the bikes. J-Rob (not his real nickname) has apparently been around in high quality and positive undie rap groups for a while, but I missed all that. Better late than never. It's always good to hear new Doom beats and John is a nice man on the mic.

Stay tuned, we’re almost done…