30) Strip Steve- Micro Mega
Here is another great Ed Banger
Records release. Strip Steve’s Micro
Mega is a great mix of French house and Electro-house. While this album went relatively unnoticed
compared to Banger’s Boys Noize album released this year, I felt Micro Mega was by far superior.
If you are a fan of Justice/ Daft
Punk/ SebAstian/Vitalic, and want more of that style Electro-house, this album
will match up just fine. While it by no
means changes the genre, Micro Mega
does, at times, really pull out all the stops in fully capturing this
sound. The Song ‘Skate Control’ is a
perfect example of this genre, and showcases it perfectly. The song starts out in utter chaos, with
crazy electronics which could never fit together, than, once the drums kick in
it suddenly makes sense.
At times this album also reminds me
of Juan Maclean. ‘Astral Projection’
sounds like it would fit perfectly on some of Juan’s albums, not to mention his
DJ Kicks release. It is in songs like
‘Astral Projection’ that Strip Steve shows he can do more than just electro-house. While I have never been a huge fan of French
house, Strip Steve does it well.
Overall, this was a great album
which caught me offguard. I look forward
to hearing Strip Steve’s next album, and plan on backtracking through his
previous works as well.
29)
Black Pus- Pus Mortem
While Lightning Bolt did not give us
a full album this year (only Oblivion
Hunter EP), its drummer, Brian Chippendale did release a great album under
his solo alias, Black Pus. Released on
bandcamp as a pay-what-you-want release, Pus
Mortem was a nice surprise.
To me, Black Pus has always seemed
like a more accessible version of Lightning Bolt. The drumming is slower overall; the vocals,
while still muddied, work to create better melodies; and the songwriting in
general feels more refined.
What is really impressive about
Black Pus is the live videos. Watching
these videos, you can see that the songs on Pus Mortem are not a creation of a
studio full of producers, but the recordings of songs being performed by an
extremely talented man.
One of my favorite aspects of this
album are the techniques used to fill in sound.
Always is a rhythmic sample of a single bass note. The addition of such a single repetition creates
a much more dynamic landscape. On top of
this, while this album does not use vocals in a traditional sense, the vocal
ranges that are created throughout is quite astounding. Songs like ‘Play God’ show the amount of
effects being ran on the vocals and showcase Black Pus’ ability to act as a
vocal synthesizer.
28)
Black Dice- Mr. Impossible
Many of the reasons most people
disliked this Black Dice release I thought were strengths. People criticized that it had too much rhythm
and song structure. People protested the
pop sound found on the newest album. I
found these changes in the Black Dice’s sound to be an acceptable consequence
resulting from the growth of the band.
Bands should grow, their sounds should change; Black Dice seem to have
accepted this, and I feel this allowed them to create an album far superior to
their previous release, 2009’s Repo.
This is not the first time that
Black Dice have reinvisioned their sound.
Beaches and Canyons sounded
much different than Load Blown Record
(still my favorite). Mr. Impossible is the sound of a more
unified band. The band still works with
only crazy scraps of sound, but rather than creating such an out-their sound,
the band weave these sounds together in a way that could be almost palatable to
the average listener. No harsh pitches
are to be found on the album, nor do any tracks exceed 10 minutes. Black Dice are literally taking noise and
turning it pop.
The sound of Mr. Impossible is fantastic.
It is unique, even to the band; what’s more is it takes a genre known
for distancing itself from the listener and give the listener catchy riffs and
even moments of funk. While ‘pigs’ is
the single from the album, ‘Spy vs Spy’ is the standout track to me.
27)
NAH- TAPEFUCK & END
When TAPEFUCK came out in February I couldn’t stop raving about it to
anyone willing to listen. Unique samples
and heavy drumming with a sound which made me want to draw comparisons to a
darker/heavier Tobacco. Right from the
start of the album, the saxophone squeals pulled me in, and I knew that I had
found a hidden gem. My only complaint,
though, was that the album was so short. Sitting at under 20 minutes, the
albums 9 tracks were always over before I was ready.
In September I noticed that END had come out a few months earlier,
again slipping under the radar. END really expands NAH’s sound. The samples still hold a tapewarp sound, but END sounds more like a beat album at
times. Songs like ‘Brain Chips’ really
highlight this sound and I would love to hear a track from this album make its
way onto some rappers mixtape.
While really it is END that sits in 27, TAPEFUCK feels like a precursor to NAH’s
sound on this album and END should be
listened to after TAPEFUCK. Given the amount of great music put out by
NAH in 2012, I am expecting another great release some time this year.
26)
Charles Gayle Trio- Streets
Streets is named after its front man’s persona while he was living
homeless. Charles Gayle, 73, is the
saxophonist pictured on the cover. Often
going by the name ‘Streets the Clown’, Gayle creates performed spoken word,
acted as a mime, and most importantly, played saxophone.
Streets is an impressive album for a few reasons. One being this is Charles Gayle’s 31st
album that he has fronted on. Second is
that free jazz is becoming a less and less seen form of music in the modern
world. Gayle could have easily chosen to
sit back and let the backing band carry the album, or allowed for the album to
be more structured. But he chose not to,
strongly leading the 7 tracks of wild free form music.
It is a bold move to put out such an
album, and this album shows that Gayle has not lost his touch on jazz. And the times when his two counterparts make
solos, such as the drum solo on the title track around 6:30, they show that
they too understand Gayle’s sound and can accompany it as well as recreate it
(just listen to that bass solo at 7:45 on ‘Streets’.
I grabbed this album on a whim and I
have found myself increasingly impressed with the sound that it creates.
25)
Yowie- Damning With Faint Praise
I always am skeptical of music
emailed to me by the artist. While I
appreciate them reaching out to me, I do tend to judge music slightly harsher
when it is given to me and not found. Damning With Faint Praise, however,
passes over this high bar with ease.
Let’s start off first with the
technicality displayed on this album. I
read one interview where the band stated practice was often a few hours long
perfecting one 30 second section. Truly
on this album that shows. Odd time
signatures coupled with multiple time changes appear on almost every
track. While I am by no means on top of
all of the math-rock albums of the year, I can still say with some certainty
that this may be one of the most ambitious.
‘Slowly but Surely’ immediately
captures the albums sound. To the
average listener it would almost seem all over, but a focused listen confirms a
method to the madness. One of my
favorite aspects of the song, which is different from much math-rock, is the
quivery sound of guitar notes. I do not
play guitar so, so I am left wondering if they are simply turning their whammy
bars up to 11 or what, but the sound is unquestionably their own.
Another aspect I love about this
album is often while one guitar is giving almost les-claypool gone guitar
riffs, the other dances between strange mutations of arpegiations and high
pitch squeaks.
Finally, I must say I do love the
longer song lengths. To some, a five
track album may seem daunting, but really, Yowie uses this time to allow for
the songs to grow/ mutate, and really create a much more cohesive voice than
they would have if they were shorter.
This is literally the sound of music
collapsing in on itself. It is hard for
me to describe, both because of its sonic breadth and terrifying
dissonance Because of this, this may be
the shortest description in my Top 50 of 2012.
Aufgehoben push to the furthest
outsets of noise rock, often traversing into noise just long enough to blast
any perceptions the listener has of the true meaning of music, only to bring it
back to a rhythmic state just before the listener cannot take anymore
abuse. Ambitious is a word I throw around
quite a bit on this chart, but truly, this album is an elaborate display of the
deconstruction of music, and truly must be visited to understand.
23)
Dope Body- Natural History
Let me start out first saying that I
was not a fan of Nupping. I wanted to like it, I really did, but I just
could not appreciate it. The guitars
were to sharp, or the vocals to nu-metal, or something, I don’t know. Whatever it was, Natural History made me have to relook at how I viewed their band.
For starters, this album reminds me
of Andrew W.K. but slightly more genre crossing. We are given moments of party rock, times of
heavy riffs, but then there are jam session guitar solos and calypso-esque
music. Dope Body took a chance with this
new sound and I think it worked great.
‘Road Dog’ is definitely my favorite
track. I was completely unprepared for
the breakdown into a drugged out psyche fest and equally surprised how well
they pulled the sound back. So much in
fact, I told myself that I didn’t think they could do it live and youtubed
it. Sure enough, live recordings sounded
equally great. After that, I decided
they are now one of my top ‘need to see live bands’, if not just to bounce my
head to tracks like ‘High Way’ and ‘Powder’.
I now can see why this band has
gotten so much love on the internet, and though I still cannot get into Nupping, I am excited to see where there
sound goes from here.
22)
EPROM- Metahuman
The first time I heard this album I
was very confused. I was told only that
it was electronic music, and from what I had gathered it was gaining
comparisons to Flying Lotus’s wonky style.
After hundreds of listens, I can tell you for sure that this is wonky,
but in a different way. The songs have
more space between the sounds, and the sounds are often very strange in an
almost humorous way on first listen. At
first, they were almost offputting, but as I left the CD in my car, I kept
coming back to it and each time with more and more favorite tracks.
EPROM’s album ranks so high on my top
50 because of all of the crazy details hidden in it. Many songs on the surface have a ‘trap’ feel,
but when you pay attention, the details of swells, filters on sounds, and
variations and repetitions of rhythms are astounding. If robots listen to techno, than Metahuman is for androids. It has a sound that is a hybrid of mechanical
and organic sounds.
I cannot stress how unique this
album sounds. The deep bass compliments
the trap snares, and somehow the bleeps, bloops, and vocal chops all fit as
well. As one review I read stated
(extremely paraphrased) EPROM has
perfected his craft with Metahuman.
While this is a sound I would never attempt to create in the first
place, he has refined his work into a seamless, impeccable display of a style
no one ever knew existed.
While you may have never known this
style of electronic music existed, this is the quintessential album to it…until
EPROM makes another release.
21)
Guardian Alien- See the World Given to a One Love Entity
I like long songs; I Loved Boredom’s
Vision Creation Newsun; I think Dan
Deacon can make some good music.
Therefore, It is almost obvious that See
the World Given to a One Love Entity made it on my list.
Consisting of one 37 minute track, See the World Given to a One Love Entity
is a psychedelic ride full of oriental strings, Boredom’s styled drum rhythms
and repetitive chants. Overall, it
appears the theme of this album is giving the world to a Rastafarian alien, as
depicted in the artwork and the music video teaser.
While all of this sounds like
complete hippy wankery when written out (and don’t get me wrong, it totally
is), See the World Given to a One Love
Entity is still a great listen.
Guardian Alien do a great job keeping a constant feel to the track while
allowing for the song to still grow and the sounds to occasionally swell. This music works good to create a trance, and
sounds even better through headphones.
If you are as upset as I am that you
cannot purchase Vision Creation Newsun on
vinyl, pick this up instead.
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