- Burial - Self-Titled. A truly haunting album. Like an imagined, abandoned half forgotten future.
- Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer. Last year's Achso EP was sort of a precursor to this excellent album/track/whatever. Pulsing bass, syncopated rhythms and those spectacular gypsy horns. Villalobos is the Roger Federer of techno.
- Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain. Death to false metal. This album fucking kills me. So dark, organic, ornate, relentless. Anoint these men for doing it right: no studio wizardry, no hard rock crossovers, no awkward Josh Homme love letters. I'm pretty sure Europe would give these guys their own castle, country and fiefdom. Unfortunately no one in the US gives a shit.
- Destroyer - Rubies. An incredible, dense and ornate album with plenty of charm and pop sensibilities. Like a Thomas Pynchon novel sung by Elton John.
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones. Second albums are a pain the ass for band and the YYYs did a great job expanding on their sound while maintaining their intensity. Better than I would have done, anyway. And "Phenomenon" bumps like crazy.
- The Knife - Silent Shout. An album that simultaneously familiar and strange, analog and digital, etcetra etcetra. And the singles, with remixes by Trentmoller, Bookashade, Rex the Dog, Radioslave, are just killer.
- Rick Ross - Port of Miami. The rap equivalent of the Scarface video game: Obviously derivative, self aggrandizing, places style way-way above substance, a ridiculous amount of time spent discussing the sale and distribution of cocaine. And so fucking fun. The dude rhymes "Atlantic" with "ATLANTIC" for chrissakes. I love it.
- LCD Soundsystem - 45:33. This should be higher on the list but it's physically impossible for me to run longer than thirty minutes.
- Various Production - The World is Gone. What happens when two musical sub-genres, folk and dubstep, collide? Beards, blunts and this record. Also: Hater is the Sour Times of this decade.
- This could be any of a dozen albums but I will go with one I listen to the most and I think I will be listening to for years: Aidan Baker - The Sea Swells a Bit. Here's a bit I wrote about it in August: This album is perfect in that hazy droney Stars of the Lid/William Basinski/Deaf Center kind of way. Tranquil and beautiful like a calm blue sea. In other words: hella tight bro.
Can't Forget to Mentions:
Daft Punk & The Knife live. My two favorite musical moments of this year were by costumed people playing prerecorded music. How quaint!
The whole DJ Harvey/Lindstrom/Bumrocks/Rub N Tug Cosmic Disco Beardo lovefest. Yeah, it's sweaty and retro and trendy and goddamn fun.
Daft Punk & The Knife live. My two favorite musical moments of this year were by costumed people playing prerecorded music. How quaint!
The whole DJ Harvey/Lindstrom/Bumrocks/Rub N Tug Cosmic Disco Beardo lovefest. Yeah, it's sweaty and retro and trendy and goddamn fun.
