jj // KILLS (Chopped & Screwed)

One of my favorite parts about compiling my year-end list is to come up with the winner of the annual “Scott Walker Award.” Every year since I started doing these lists, the last entry has always been a quirky, off-the-wall addition that, somehow, still sounds pretty damn good. As my taste has become more and more skewed towards the weird over the years, it has been increasingly difficult to find an album so far-fetched for inclusion, however, the folks at Sincerely Yours made it easy on me this year by releasing a Chopped and Screwed version (produced by Joel Rampage) of last years #21 favorite album, jj’s KILLS mixtape. Now before you knock a remix album of a mixtape by a Swedish pop group heavily influenced by hip-hop (Kevin Bacon is at the eventual end to that descriptor chain), you might want to give a listen to the opening track, a reimagining of a reimagining of Dre/Snoop’s “Still” before passing judgement. If you don’t nod your head to that, well, you probably don’t have a head to nod.
jj // Still (Joel Rampage Chopped & Screwed)

Teams // Dxys Xff

Teams is one of those hard to describe artists that you can’t quite pigeonhole into a genre box. A listen to tracks like “Stunts” or the title track “Dxys Xff” might give you the impression that chillwave hasn’t quite gone by the over-hyped wayside, but then you hit the bass-heavy, synth-heavy explosion of “Comfort Slave” and you’re ready to hit some 22nd century discoteque to sweat your brains out. Follow that with the 80s retro, possibly Lil B inspired, “Based Love” and you’re ready to throw on some spandex and do some aerobics with Jane Fonda, but hold up, you got the smooth R&B sounds of “The Only One” that make you want to get freaky in the bedroom. Although synths and nostalgic sounds are reoccurring themes on Dxys Xff, the album is all over the place, which makes it an interesting listen every.single.time.
Teams // Comfort Slave

Minks // By the Hedge

Dave over at Rawkblog was the dude who helped up my love for these Captured Tracks all-stars. I’ve listened to some of Mink’s 7’’s over the years, but somehow their latest LP had slipped under the radar for me. If you know anything about Mike Sniper (founder of C/T – the label of Minks), you know that he loves 80s punk and 80s-inspired pop, and Minks are, loosely, a kind of fusion of the two. Shimmering guitars and synth melodies are there, but so are driving beats and sloppily sung vocals that stick within an octave range (re: “Funeral Song”). It just always amazes me how Mike finds these incredibly good unknown/unsigned bands that complement his label so well – and if you ask him, that’s what all labels should strive to do.
Minks // Kusmi

Elite Gymnastics // Ruin

Acephale Records was kind enough to give me a preview of Elite Gymnastics latest a couple of weeks before the release – and boy, have I spun the shit out of those mp3s this winter. It seemed that anytime snow was in the forecast, the whispered vocals of James Brooks and the mechanical drum beats of Elite Gymnastics always struck the right note. Their music is the audio equivalent of a wool blanket for me: warm, and so easy to cozy up with.
Elite Gymnastics // o m a m o r i

Acid House Kings // Music Sounds Better With You

Sugary sweet Swedish pop: uh, yes please! This trio of musical confectioners returned with little fanfare in 2011, but for those who did pay attention received quite the treat. Marked by sing-along lyrics and Disney melodies, The Acid House Kings would be the kings of feel-good music if it wasn’t for their pointedly sharp lyrics of lost love and messed-up relationships. After all, life isn’t always rainbows and lollipops, is it?
Acid House Kings // Would You Say Stop

Albino Father // Age

Now I’m not one to just casually throw a local band or artist onto any of my “Best Of” lists (in fact, only The Numerators have been on one – and that was for favorite 7’’/cassettes), so when you see Salt Lake City’s Albino Father on the list, you know they deserve it. The slogan “support local” can only take you so far. In order to land on the list, you have to have produced an album that I always find myself coming back to, and with Age, there were very few albums I played more the second half of 2011. If you want a full review, check out what I wrote about them here, but in a nutshell, Age, is a genre-spanning, easy-on-the-ears, jam-out of an album that just doesn’t get old!
Albino Father // Dirty Mirror

Destroyer // Kaputt

Not since Coltrain has the saxophone sounded so good! On paper, the sax-centric concept of Kaputt sounds absolutely terrible – in practice, however, it’s another story. The only disappointment with this album is that there isn’t a grainy, fan-shot youtube video of Dan Bejar tearing it up onstage with Kenny G. Otherwise, this album is an excellent update to the Genesis/Police schtick of the 80s: brilliant vocals with equally cheesy melodies. Only Bejar can pull something like that off.
Destroyer // Chinatown

White Fence // Is Growing Faith

Jesus Christ, this is an album. Sixteen solid psych/indie-folk/rock tracks that I can’t wait to get my vinyl grubbing hands on! Man, I can just envision the lo-fi production, with its series of small pops and static warbles, just adding, not taking away, from the quality of this album. Although the record only clocks in at 46 minutes, the ebbs-and-flows between up-tempo rock songs and jam-band ballads make it seem like you’ve been listening to the tunes of Tim Presley for hours and hours – without a care in the world the whole time. Now, let me just click “order” for the record, and I can continue with the list…
White Fence // Lillian (Won’t You Play Drums)

Cass McCombs // Wit’s End

For Cass McCombs, lyricism comes first. McCombs has a knack for making you sympathetic and emotionally attached to some of the most beautiful (although sometimes “out-there”) storylines in modern songwriting. With Wit’s End, Cass keeps some of the zaniest of Catacombs (re: “Don’t Vote,” “Prima Donna”) by touching on several songs with bits about astrolology, Tarot card reading, and general fortune telling, however, on other tracks, like “County Line,” which discusses a person returning home to a county that has changed so much that it becomes nearly unrecognizable, Cass is more focused on realism storytelling. Now all this emphasis on lyrics is not to imply that the music isn’t great, because the sweet sounding piano chords and easy-listening guitar work is nothing but beautiful, but it certainly plays second-fiddle to the words. And man, those words… pure gold!
Cass McCombs // County Line

Big Troubles // Romantic Comedy

Saw these chilled out New Jersey bros when they swung through Salt Lake City, opening for Real Estate. I hadn’t heard of them much beforehand, but their performance got me easily sucked into buying their debut at the show and I have loved it ever since! Pretty simple indie-pop tunes with vocals duties switching between Alex Craig and Ian Drennan (kind of like a less cerebral, more easy-going Wolf Parade) that are ripe for any beach road trip or lazy walks to nowhere.
Big Troubles // Misery

Puro Instinct // Headbangers in Ecstacy

I’ve been listening to Puro Instinct since about two iterations of their name ago (Pearl Harbour -> Pearl Harbor -> Puro Instinct), when they were self-releasing CD-Rs of their music with hand painted sleeves. It makes me nothing but happy to see how these two Cali girls are touring the world and releasing proper records on reputable labels. With Headbangers in Ecstacy, gone are the roughed up, noisy guitar melodies of the past (check out the difference between Calistonia Dreamin’s “Lost at Sea” and Headbangers “Lost at Sea” for an example), due to the increase in production quality taking everything into sharper focus. Thankfully, the angelic off-kilter vocals are still present, lingering above the haze of reverbed, shimmering guitars, making this album a bit more palatable than past ones while still keeping the vibe of the old.
Puro Instinct // Silky Eyes

Clams Casino // Instrumentals

Just want to say I liked Clams Casino’s throwaway album B-Sides and Instrumentals a lot too, but his more singularly titled Instrumentals absolutely killed. Sometimes it’s nice to edit-out the rap vocals and just jam out to some heavy beats – and that’s exactly what Clams Casino gives you: heavy beats. Supplying everybody from Lil B to A$AP Rocky to Soulja Boy (yes, Soulja Boy) with his thumping instrumentals, Clams is slowly making a name for himself in the production world. If 2011 was a breakout year for him, I’d imagine 2012 will be an explosion. Stay tuned.
Clams Casino // Motivation

John Maus // We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

On first listen, you can’t help but think that John Maus’s music is a bit of a joke. I mean, the first time someone played “Cop Killer” for me – with lyrics “Cop Killer / let’s kill the cops tonight / Cop Killer / Kill every cop in sight” sung by the most whitest of white people – I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. But when the opening chimes of “…And The Rain” played, I became an instant fan of the quirkiness of John Maus and his baritone voice. Not only does We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves have one of the most original titles since Fiona Apple’s When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight And he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring There’s no body to batter when your mind is your might So when you go solo, you hold your own hand And remember that depth is the greatest of heights And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land And if you fall it won’t matter, cause you’ll know that you’re right, it has some of the most original music created this past year. Who could have thought that high-pitch synth flutters and deep sounding vocals paired so nicely.
John Maus // Hey Moon

RxRy// Alpha

As long time readers of the site are well aware, RxRy is one of my favorite electronic artists of the past five years, and it seems like I’m not the only one to recognize how good this dude is. Originally being released in autumn of 2010, Alpha got a vinyl release this past year, and man, it sounds wonderful on wax! RxRy produces some of the most luscious ambient tracks, and Alpha is chalk full of them (20 “songs” in total)! In January of 2012, RxRy released another album, entitled DLTRA (which you can check out here), that I’m sure you’ll be seeing on next year’s list.
RxRy // P.2_Smoke

Atlas Sound // Parallax

With an output rate that rivals Ryan Adams, it seems like Bradford Cox holds a perennial post on my year-end lists just because he makes so much damn good music. Taking the reins of Atlas Sound once again in 2011, Cox gives us another stellar, crisply executed indie-rock album that rivals even his own personal best. So, you know, just a typical year for Bradford & Company.
Atlas Sound // Te Amo

Braids // Native Speaker

2011 seemed to be the year of the opening track. Braids added their name to the list of stellar albums with stellar openers with the absolutely killer “Lemonade” off of the absolutely amazing Native Speaker. Now these might just sound like superlatives, but all it takes is one listen to the bubbly melody (re: Animal Collective’s “My Girls”) and effervescent vocals to nod your head in agreement. Probably one of the most overlooked album of 2011, Braids knocks their debut out of the park with track-after-track of energetic dream-pop (if there is such a thing) that simultaneously puts you to bed via Raphaelle Strandell-Preston’s sleepy singing only to jolt you awake with Red Bull alertness due to instrumental climaxes.
Braids // Lemonade

Grimes + d’Eon // Darkbloom

No doubt, Grimes is going to have a better 2012 than 2011 (if that’s possible) with the release of her stand-alone Visions LP, but it was tough to beat her collab album with fellow Canadian d’Eon from this past year. If you didn’t have the track “Vanessa” on your year-end favorites list, you are probably the only one of the planet to do so, and if you didn’t dance on your hardwood floor in your socks to “Crystal Ball,” well, I don’t think we can be friends. Not to play backup to Grimes, d’Eon also slayed it on Darkbloom with his electro-soul tracks “Transparency” and “Thousand Mile Trench.” Damn, March can’t come fast enough…
Grimes // Vanessa

Washed Out // Within and Without

Wasn’t chillwave suppose to be dead? Well if that was the case, then “Amor Fati” must have been the defibrillator paddles that brought it back to life. Unlike Ernest Greene’s Life of Leisure EP, Within and Without required a couple of listens to fully get over the chillwave burnout I endured back in 2010, but after a couple of spins I sensed I was becoming nostalgic for the nostalgic feeling the end of last decade – with all those bubbling synths and reverbed vocals – provided me with. Only Greene and his music could be this meta.
Washed Out // Amor Fati

Rangers // Pan Am Stories

Great noise album from a noise band that keeps getting better and better. This review from the Portland Mercury hits the nail on the head so spot-on, that I can’t possibly improve on it with my words.
Rangers // Sacred Cows

James Blake // S/T

Kind-of surprised how absent this album has been from people’s year-end lists (see: GvB). Yeah, it’s no CMYK, but it still is pretty fucking amazing – and it’s been one of my top listened to albums of the year (however, maybe the January release helped that out). Gorgeous Anthony Hedgegard-like vocals sung over some sparcely laid-out beats and melodies: what’s not to love?
James Blake // Wilhelms Scream

Colleen Green // Cujo

I’ve always been a fan of girl-driven garage rock and Colleen Green is its latest champion. Blazed lyrics and fuzzy guitars with some “don’t give a fuck” vocals, Colleen Green is everything that Best Coast should have been – and that’s just half of the music Green produces. On the flip-side, with tracks like “Mike” and “Cujo ” you have some rough-around-the-edges twee-pop, which are perfect song selections for your next angst driven karaoke party. All-in-all, this six track EP is a roller coaster ride of getting your ass kicked and kicking some ass that I’m sure glad to have ridden throughout 2012.
Colleen Green // Rabid Love

Weeknd // House of Balloons

In a genre that has remained virtually unchanged in this post-R Kelly world, House of Balloons is a reimagining of what R&B can be in the 21st century. I remember distinctly the first time I listened to the breakdown half-way through the title track – right when it switches to the “Glass Table Girls” part – when I said the words “damn, that was tiiiight” while driving alone in my car. The Weeknd seems to have found that sweet-spot between killer fresh beats and hyper-seductive lyrics and vocals. I mean, I’m pretty sure you could impregnate a girl just by playing “Wicked Games” on repeat. With three digital mixtapes to Weeknd’s credit (with a physical release of all three planned for 2012), House of Balloons is narrowly the best, so really, any of the three would have been worthy of inclusion in a year-end recap.
Weeknd // House of Balloons – Glass Table Girls

Laurel Halo // Hour Logic

A bit more accessible than Oneohtrix Point Never but similar in vibe, Laurel Halo has found herself a nice niche (and probably some nice venues) to fill. About as good as King Felix (which is saying something because I really loved that album), Hour Logic is 30+ minutes of rhythmic assaults and seemless synth morphings, creating something like a soundtrack of your imagination. Although it’s just an EP, it feels longer, more complete than what you get with six tracks (maybe the 9-minute epic title track has something to do with it). Listening to it strips you of your sense of time so that, before long, you wake up realizing that you’ve just played through the record six times non-stop and you’ve missed everything you had planned on a Saturday afternoon.
Laurel Halo // Aquifer

Widowspeak // S/T

So I wrote most of my list in December of 2011 only to have my finishing touches delayed due to work stuff all the way to February 2012. If I had the opportunity to rescore any album on the list, it would be this one – and I would have placed it waaaaaaay higher. The past three months, I have played Widowspeak pretty much everywhere I’ve gone – in the car, on an airplane, at parties – and have loved every single listen. There’s something about Molly Hamilton’s voice, that I just can’t quite put into words, that keeps me spellbound. From the first lyrics of “Puritan” (the drugged-out “farrrrrr outtttt draggggg”) to the closing line of the last bonus track “Burn Out” (the heartfelt “it can waaaaait”), I am entranced the whole time like I’ve been hypnotized. FYI: I somehow blew through the album twice while typing the paragraph – it has that much of a mesmerizing effect.
Widowspeak // Harsh Realm

Peaking Lights // 936

Super psyche and super trippy, Wisconsin’s Peaking Lights made the most sonically iridescent albums of the year. Other worldly elements come in and out of focus only to effortless dissolve in a sea of sound – Pitchfork’s Zach Kelly penned it right by describing 936 as “working like a kaleidoscope.” It’s heavy at times (“All the Sun that Shines”) airy at others (“Birds of Paradise Dub Version”), but the constant changes between tracks (and within them) keep you on your toes listening.
Peaking Lights // Birds of Paradise Dub Verison

Holy Other // With U

If the amount of mp3s of a song you have in your library tells you something, then the five (!) copies of “Touch,” acquired through five different sources, must mean that it’s the song of the year. Go ahead and add Holy Other’s With U to the growing list of EPs that have crept their way on this year lists and let the complaints start, but if your release is being anchored by something as original as “Touch” I can’t help to put whatever release that track came on onto the “Best Albums” list – even if it was just a 7’’! Fortunately, Holy Other made it easy on me and compiled an EP with four additional tracks that are just about as good. Even the haters of the Tri-Angle Records roster have to respect the creativity all of these artists seem to possess, and Holy Other is certainly at the head of the pack.
Holy Other // Touch

Grouper // A|A

For me, Liz Harris has been and will always be a favorite of mine just because of her choice of how to distribute her music. Sticking to ultra-limited releases on obscure labels, Grouper makes the experience of finding her music physically a sort of scavenger hunt (most of the time, 7’’s or EPs are long sold out before people even know that they are for sell). Add that to the random collabs Harris is known for, and you got quite the unique music listening/buying experience for the consumer. This kind of distribution model matches perfectly with the mysterious, ambient music that Harris seems to concoct effortlessly. Her latest double LP sub-titled Alien Observer | Dream Loss, is easy to get hooked on, but don’t expect to find it anywhere but on ebay at this point.
Grouper // Alien Observer

Korallreven // An Album by Korallreven

Looks like the Swedish dominance of the past half decade or so is here to stay. Following in the footsteps of fellow countrymen jj, Taken by Trees, Jens Lekman, and The Tough Alliance (where one member is the cornerstone of Korallreven), this Gotenburg based act released the sweetest electro-pop record of the year. Best known for producing killer mixtapes and one-off mp3s (all released via Acephale or Sincerely Yours), now they have mastered a complete LP. The bar is set pretty high for these guys, but they always find a way to pleasantly surprise you with their releases.
Korallreven // Loved-Up

Oneohtrix Point Never// Replica

It’s amazing what a year makes. After Returnal exploded on everyone’s year-end list last year (including yours truly), Daniel Lopatin has shifted from just another unknown DIY artist to a synth God, appearing everywhere from Altered Zones to The New Yorker. Trying to outdo himself, Lopatin’s latest, Replica¸ not only holds the title of best album cover of 2011 but also one of the best releases of the year. An ever-expanding, all encompassing album, Replica, shows off the limitlessness of Lopatin’s talent and imagination.
Oneohtrix Point Never // Sleep Dealer

Darkside // S/T

Normally I get my album mp3s from free handouts given by labels with vinyl purchases or through promo e-mails (and sometimes through, uh, alternative means), so I say it with near certainty that Darkside’s self-titled EP is the first album I have bought digitally in four years. Coming in at a whopping three tracks and a smidgeon over 15 minutes, it was tough to justify the inclusion of the EP on this list; that is, until you take a listen to it. Nicholas Jaar is some kind of savant when it comes to producing powerful, minimalist jams (although he would call it rock & roll) and Darkside is his best effort to date. A mix of funk and pop melodies, with a twist of Hot Chip-like vocals thrown in, the EP is pure sonic gold that is sure to get your head nodding.
Darkside // A1

Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti

It might seem unfair to include Strange Cacti on this year’s list (since the cassette of the same name and make-up made last year’s Best Cassettes/7’’s), but damnit (!) this album is just too good. With the upgrade to vinyl, you got a cleaner, more hi-fi sound that certainly makes Angel Olsen’s sharp vocals crisper and more poignant (although the heart of her act – the powerful songwriting – remains unchanged). Really looking forward to hearing a follow-up to this record in 2012.
Angel Olsen // Creator, Destroyer

Youth Lagoon // Year of Hibernation

It’s always nice to be at the front cusp of breaking trends. I was one of the first sites to hear and write about Trevor Powers’s strikingly intimate (yet at times, bombastic) bedroom pop tunes when he only had a bandcamp page with two tracks on it, and I have been a die-hard fan ever since. Although not as lo-fi a recording of some of John Darnielle’s albums, Year in Hibernation matches The Mountain Goats in effect: soaring crescendos, emphasis on lyrics, and an accomplishment of a grandiose vision.
Youth Lagoon // Cannons

Balam Acab // Wander|Wonder

Balam Acab’s ranking may have been influenced by my purchasing a better set of headphones. With a set of Sennheisers, the warm bass sounds and the sun-rise melodies that Balam Acab wraps you in, Wander|Wonder just seems that much warmer and sunnier. A marked transition from his earlier, darkly constructed See Birds EP, Balam’s latest is epitomized by his album cover: a beam of light shining through a crack in a cave. This youngster is so innovative and imaginative that even inventive-and-imaginative genre names (“witch house” being the surprising winner) don’t come close to sticking. In a year where electronic music expanded further than any other genre, this was one of the albums doing all the pushing.
Balam Acab // Oh, Why

Real Estate // Days

Not too surprising that the second best album contains the best song of the year (re: “It’s Real”). If Days is suppose to be Real Estate’s “sophomore slump,” then I can’t wait to see what this group of dudes have in store for us in the future. Unlike trying to reinvent themselves on their second album, Days is a nice add-on to their ever growing discography (with some tracks – like “Younger than Yesterday” – tying to older releases). After seeing them live on a couple of occasions, you can’t help but think that Real Estate is the modern day reincarnation of the 60s/70s jam band. I mean, all the basic jam band elements, like rambling guitar solos, drum lines with no end in sight, frequent opportunities for improv breakdowns, are still there, but Real Estate is a bit more user-friendly, so that both stoners and sobers can sit through a set with their eyes glazed in awe.
Real Estate // It’s Real

Tim Hecker // Ravedeath, 1972

Tim Hecker has been around a while, although I must admit that I’m a late addition to his fandom (both in general and with this record) – so I can’t quite tell you Hecker’s influences or how this record compares to some of his releases of yore. What I do know is that his darkly atmospheric Ravedeath, 1972 is like the birth-child between Fennesz and Pantha du Prince and is the best album that I’ve heard all year. To say that Ravedeath is complex is an understatement: there are textures and layers so dense that you’d need a jackhammer to excavate them. No doubt, listening takes a lot of effort that most people in the e-generation will forgo, but for those that sit through will find beautiful swells within the tidal waves of sound that Hecker produces. Like the Peaking Lights album, Ravedeath is a kaleidoscope of pulsating chords that not only leave you with the thought of “what am I listening to” but also with the question “how the hell did he make this.” Although the album title is a nod to a past event, the music is all future.
Tim Hecker // The Piano Drop

Top 35 Albums of 2011 [Recap]:

• [35] jj // KILLS (Chopped & Screwed)
• [34] Teams // Dxys Xff
• [33] Minks // By the Hedge
• [32] Elite Gymnastics // Ruin
• [31] Acid House Kings // Music Sounds Better With You
• [30] Albino Father // Age
• [29] Destroyer // Kaputt
• [28] White Fence // Is Growing Faith
• [27] Cass McCombs // Wit’s End
• [26] Big Troubles // Romantic Comedy
• [25] Puro Instinct // Headbangers in Ecstacy
• [24] Clams Casino // Instrumentals
• [23] John Maus // We Must Become…
• [22] RxRy // Alpha
• [21] Atlas Sound // Parallax
• [20] Braids // Native Speaker
• [19] Grimes + d’Eon // Darkbloom
• [18] Washed Out // Within and Without
• [17] Rangers // Pan Am Stories
• [16] James Blake // S/T
• [15] Colleen Green // Cujo
• [14] Weeknd // House of Balloons
• [13] Laurel Halo // Hour Logic
• [12] Widowspeak // S/T
• [11] Peaking Lights // 936
• [10] Holy Other // With U
• [09] Grouper // A|A
• [08] Korallreven // An Album by Korallreven
• [07] Oneohtrix Point Never // Replica
• [06] Darkside // S/T
• [05] Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti
• [04] Youth Lagoon // Year of Hibernation
• [03] Balam Acab // Wander|Wonder
• [02] Real Estate // Days
• [01] Tim Hecker // Ravedeath, 1972

As longtime readers of the site will know, I hardly ever shine the spotlight on local bands from wherever I am living at the moment. There are a couple of reasons for this, but the chief one is I don’t like to give preferential treatment to groups just because I know them and hang-out with them. I guess my philosophy is, if the music is great it’ll speak for itself regardless of where it was made – and I’ve maintained that attitude with the site since its inception.

With that in mind, Salt Lake City’s Albino Father has added their name to the relatively small list of relative local bands that deserve wider attention, and the group’s debut LP Age is just the release to help them do that. Clocking in at just under forty minutes, the twelve track album is a psych/garage/blues rock swirling orb of sound that you can’t help but be caught up in. If you’re a fan of messy guitars, heavy pedal effects, and guitar solos that you hope don’t end, then you are sure to find something you like with each track. I’ve gone through the album four times in total, and each time I can’t help but to press replay afterwards.

It’s tough to pick stand outs on this records as each song has its own personality and personal (or personable) sound. Do I go with the slow-paced guitar-centric ballad “Dirty Mirror” that’s suited perfectly for the smoke-filled, cramp venues of Anywhere USA? Or how about the surf-rock jam appropriately titled “Deth Jam” that bands like The Allah Las (PT-Music’s Cali favorite) would be chomping at the bit to play? Or maybe the blazing sub-two minute “Little Girls” that leaves you in a trail of dust wandering what just happened by the end?

If I had to choose, I would say I dig “Dirty Window” the most because what you finish with is so radically different than where you started. The track opens with the smoothest of smooth guitar line that’s straight out of the classic rock playbook and continues that way for the first two minutes. Before your high from “Ghost Dad,” the previous track, has completely mellowed out, in comes the raucous drums and kick-ass, fist-pumping rips that boost your energy more than a six-pack of Red Bull. Talk about a roller coaster ride of a song!

You can stream the whole album from Albino Father’s bandcamp page (and buy it via a “Name Your Price” scheme) and head over to their facebook to “like” them because I’m pretty sure you will after listening to this album.

Albino Father // Deth Jam

When I first popped open the e-mail sent by the enigmatic artist known as Slow Magic, I didn’t know what to expect. With an album title like ▲, one can’t help but think this is another B-rated witch house album that the internet seems to churn out on an hourly basis. However, the multilingual description (ranging from Icelandic to Japanese) of:

Slow magic is the sound made by an unknown imaginary friend.

遅い魔法は未知の想像上の友人が作った音です。

Slow galdur er hljóðið gert með því að óþekkt ímyndaða vini.

La magie lente est le bruit fait par un ami inconnu imaginaire.

made me think that this was some sort of an offshoot of a Sincerely Yours artist. However, all is settled when you finally get around to pressing play and slipping into that chillwave-tinged dream-pop trance.

With the likes of acts such as Weeknd and Cults seemingly coming out of nowhere to land on the big stage in a matter of nanoseconds, it’s becoming less and less surprising to be hit with an out-of-left-field e-mail from someone who has producing a high quality, exceptional album. Certainly Slow Magic falls in this category, and the three track geometric-titled EP is ready-made to be slapped on some wax tomorrow and sold through a worldwide distro by Tuesday.

The opener, and arguably the best of the trio of tracks, “Corvette Cassette” makes good use of the light, off-beat arpeggios to lift you up off the couch and float you in the clouds. The distorted vocal sample — which I can’t quite make out the language/lyrics — does a good job of keeping you suspended while the dueling keyboard lines at the two-minute mark push you past the atmosphere and into interstellar space. It’s pretty much everything you could ask for from a quote-unquote chillwave track: breezy, delicate, and surprisingly complex yet easy to listen to. Check out the song below:

Slow Magic // Corvette Cassette

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a chance to listen to a full album all the way through uninterrupted. Fortunately, the spare forty minutes I had this past Sunday was spent very successfully as I was able to listen to Miami/LA electronic artist Teams’s new album, jumble-y entitled Dxys Xff, straight through — something I’ve been meaning to do since the April 3 release.

Strictly my personal opinion, but I feel that the past two years have yielded an uncharacteristically abundant amount of creative and boundary-pushing electronic music that is unparalleled at any point in the past ten years. Whether it’s ambient, 8-bit, “witch house”, or miscellaneous, these are exciting times to listen to music. Maybe if I was more sub-genre proficient, I would be able to categorize Teams’s take on music a little better, but I’ll go ahead and place him in the latter category. With an affinity towards sliced-up, spaced-out synth loops and bombastic percussion, it’s no wonder that any review is fraught with comparisons to UK producer Star Slinger (in fact, they share a track collaboration on Teams’s new album). Although the sound/influence might be similar, there is enough originality in each’s work to distinguish the two.

You can cop a free download of the album from AMDiscs’s Soundcloud and, if you dig it, go ahead and float the man $5 on his bandcamp. Check out my two personal favorites from the album below:

Teams // Stunts

Teams vs. Star Slinger // Hold Me

About a year ago, I whipped together a quick look into Pitchfork’s album rating system in order to give artists who have been reviewed by the site a better understanding of what their numerical value actually meant. In order to do so, I compiled a more-or-less complete breakdown of p4ks album reviews of original music (no reissues, no live albums, no “greatest hits”) from February 24, 2009 to February 24, 2010 and displayed the scores in more meaningful percentiles. I also made a series of observations concerning their “Best New Music” designation which produced a little bit of a stir.

Now, a year later, I decided it would be interesting to see if the dynamic of Pitchfork’s ratings system has changed over time by briefly analyzing album ratings from February 25, 2010 to February 25, 2011 against my previous data set. Again, I focused my attention on original content which meant I had to go through each album review individually and see if it met my criteria for inclusion. In addition to the items mentioned above, soundtracks, label compilations, and comedy albums were excluded but EPs, remix albums, and mixtapes were deemed OK as I wanted to maintain consistency with the previous year’s analysis. The first astonishing thing I noticed when putting together the data sets was how the total number of original albums reviewed by the site were nearly identical from 2009 to 2010 (1025 and 1027, respectively)!

So without further ado, let’s get to some plots (click on the images to view a slightly larger size):

The above histogram shows the distribution of the scores for each year. Glancing at the figures, you can easily tell that there is good agreement between the two years (in fact, the correlation coefficient is .9336, indicating that the data is strongly correlated). This was expected as any long-time p4k readers can attest to the fact that:

• Pitchfork tends to not review low performing albums (the reason why the plots are negatively skewed).
• A majority of album ratings fall within the 6.0 – 8.0 range.
• An extremely small amount are of high quality, explaining the dearth of albums achieving 9.0 and above.

However, a more detailed inspection between the two histograms show a couple of interesting differences. For one, the most recent data set (I’ll refer to it as “albums from 2010″ from now on, which is somewhat of misnomer but close enough for our purposes) shows ratings centered at a higher value than the previous year’s data (which I’ll refer to as “albums from 2009″). This can be shown more clearly by looking at the two histograms overlapped on each other. What this implies is that the albums from 2010 were rated more favorably than albums from 2009.

Another interesting find when you compare the two histograms is that the most frequent album rating has changed from 7.0 to 7.5 over the past year. Not only that, but the number of occurrences for the most common rating has increased 20% (51 vs. 61 albums). In a related point, the 2010 histogram is noticeably more concentrated in the 6.5-8.2 range than the 2009 plot. This implies that Pitchfork is not distributing the scores as evenly in 2010 as compared with 2009. It’s common knowledge that Pitchfork doesn’t fully utilize the 100 potential rating options in the most effective manner (see: normal distribution), however, the fact that they are classifying more albums in less of a range is disheartening at best and troubling at worst. I call this trend towards album ratings homogeneity the “Rolling Stone Effect.”

Looking at the box plots of the data confirm both of these conclusions:

Notice the median score, denoted by the red vertical line in the box, shows an increase of .2 points between the two years (7.0 to 7.2) as well as lower quartile increase of .2 points and an upper quartile increase of .1 points. This confirms that, according to Pitchfork, albums from 2010 were generally better than albums from 2009. Also, the difference between the lower and upper quartile has shrunk by .1 (1.4 from 1.5) — and it would have been reduced a further tenth of a point if not for an uncharacteristically high amount of albums garnering an 5.8 rating in 2010 (notice the spike on the histogram at that value). This indicates that the range where a majority of albums score is indeed reducing.

Here are the percentile breakdowns for 2009 and 2010 so that any artist or band whose been fortunate enough to have gotten reviewed by the site can see how they stack up against other albums released within the same year. These percentiles also show how in 2010 an artist had to score a higher value in order to remain in the same percentile, further convincing us that p4k viewed 2010 as a better year in music than 2009:

Switching gears and looking at album’s that achieved the “Best New Music” designation, much of the same complaints from last year still apply:

• 8.7 was the lucky number this year (compared with 8.6 last year). All albums scoring that or higher received an automatic BNM.
• Guitarist William Tyler got the biggest shaft this year as he was the sole person to score an 8.6 and not get a BNM.
• Metal/Hardcore seems to be perennial Pitchfork losers as the two albums receiving an 8.5 but not getting the BNM belonged to these genres (Agalloch’s Marrow of the Spirit and The Body’s All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood). In addition, Kylesa’s Spiral Shadow and Alcest’s Écailles de Lune‘s 8.4s weren’t enough to snag a BNM either (two of only five albums with that score not to get it).
• Several oddball genres also had several high ratings without clinching a BNM.
• Incredibly surprised that Drake’s Thank Me Later (8.4) didn’t get a BNM considering how much coverage it had on the site and I’m personally dismayed by Forest Sword’s Dagger Paths falling a bit short as well.
• Only two of the twenty-nine albums receiving an 8.2 got BNM-ed (the well publicized Morning Benders and Wild Nothing records).
• The lowest scoring album to receive a BNM was Liar’s Sisterworld as it was the lone 8.1 out of twenty-five candidates to get the p4k stamp of approval.
• Released in June 2010, Emerald’s Does It Look Like I’m Here was the last album to score an 8.3 and receive a BNM. Since then a disproportionately high number of albums have scored an 8.4s and have been receiving the BNM honor. To me, this indicates that an informal boundary for Best New Music has been set for 8.3 starting this past summer. (EDIT: Although too recent to be included in either data set, it seems like Lykke Li’s Wounded Rhymes breaks this trend).
• As expected, Kanye’s 10.0 is a statistical outlier.

After last year’s post, a lot of people expressed the position that the “Best New Music” category was meant for high quality albums that are easily accessible to the average music listener. As a result, this would automatically disqualify genres such as metal, electronic offshoots, and jazz. Even if taking this stance, I personally feel that these high scoring albums from “unfamiliar” genres should at least be better represented in the year-end lists (Kylesa landed at #44 and Forest Swords at #48 with Actress and Guido getting Honorable Mentions).

Well that does it for this year! If you want to run some other stats of your own, you can download my raw data here. I have a lot of ideas on where to go further with this project that (dependent, of course, if I have the time). Oh, one last thing I’d like to point out before saying adieu: of all the hyperlinked items and searchable content that is on the pitchfork site (artists, albums, labels, etc…), I find it incredibly surprising that you can not search for album reviews by rating or writer. It isn’t too terribly complicated to code these features and they would be incredibly helpful for site readers (especially data miners like myself). OK, on to the discussion!

It’s hard to out-Book The Books, but there are parts of The Goat’s recently released Super Dreamer Infinite Being EP — offered via bandcamp — that mimics closely the sound collages the NYC duo of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong are known for. Take for example the opener “Spiritual Phase///Walk on Water” which features snippets of spoken-word samples over a drone-y beat; if this couldn’t be a rough cut for something off of Thought for Food I don’t know what could.

Although the similarities between the two groups are certainly there, The Goat takes a different path midstream. Instead of filling the EP with track-after-track of tough-to-grasp songs and phrasings, he opts to switch gears delving into the more melodic (see: hypnotic arpeggios of “Super Dreamer”) and the more atmospheric (re: “Passing Through”). What you’re left with in Super Dreamer… is what you always want from a debut EP: a collection of interesting thoughts and ideas showcasing the potential of an artist.

Check out my favorite song from the recording below as well as a more uptempoed (and dare I say, fun?) version of Balam Acab’s “Dream Out” that The Goat knit together with samples from Katy Perry and Fleet Foxes:

The Goat // 3 Mile Choir

Balam Acab // What A Life I Dream (The Goat Remix)