Music Banter - Albums of the year 2010

My ten (from my post on another board)

10 - Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko
Melodic Japanese noise- rock. Much more fun than the mostly dull US counterpart. Afrirampo are a female duo, although the sound made by Oni and erm . . Pikachu often suggests a full blooded rock band. The drums especially are immense and 'Umi' features my favourite guitar freak out in years. I've just discovered these, too late it seems, as according to them, it will be their last album. Oh, and it's a double album, so there's the inevitable duff tracks but luckily they're reserved for the second disc.

09 – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I won’t bother adding to what’s already been said about this except it’s perhaps not as good as Kanye thinks it is, ‘Hell Of A Life’ is a neat interpretation of Sabbaths ‘Iron Man’, Kanye’s lyrics seemed to have digressed, ‘Power’ is a stone cold classic and like all his albums, I will probably like it less other time.

08 - James Bake - CMYK EP
With records from the Ghost Box crew, as well as the whole witch house scene there's been some interesting electronic noise in 2010. This is the best of the bunch. Judging by the samples Blake has a thing for peak era Rnb (Timberland, Neptunes), but the music here is always stuttering and just out of reach, which makes it all the more fascinating,

07 - Robyn - Body Talk
So she kinda cheated and didn't really deliver three brand new LPs this year, but this culmination sorta thing is still the best pop record since her last. A nice mix of wide eyed teen pop, trendy club beats and 80's futurism. 'Dancing On My Own' has the most anthemic chorus of the year, and is like the femme pop equivalent of 'Mr Brightside'. Except its good. The Scandinavia goes Jamaica patois of 'None Of Dem' is a golden and is a plea to escape small time life, and it's a joy when the reggae synth comes in on the second verse. There is some odd track choice decisions but I forgive.

06 – Kano – Method To The Madness
Kano’s still far from the best on the mic, but this is all about the production. A tour de force of star turns from Boys Noize, Hot Chip, Georgie Dodds and the living legend that is Damon Albarn. Obviously with those producers this isn’t really grime, but that genre’s unfortunately dead and buried anyway(in LP form). From Latin beat, dancehall to the soft boy electro of Hot Chip, this is pure sonic pleasure. The track ‘Slaves’ is simply beautiful - with its gut wrenching guitar chord, regretful female vocals and synths that sound like their being played from inside a giant tube, over which Kano rants against the music business and consumerism, and ends with the line “before I become a slave to the game bro', I'll be the artist formally known as Kano”. Where some of his contemporary' s are chasing pop stardom Kano is happy to revel in the ‘maadness’, that being the Daily Mail paranoia of hooded youths or the ‘IPod generation’, and the song ‘Upside’ features the lyric “Will lose dough before I lose my soul” which I admire.

05 - Big Boi - Sir Luscous blah blah . .
Time will tell of course, but I'm enjoying this more than any Outkast LP. Big Boi was always my favourite emcee and Andre's forays into Prince territory were never convincing. Sure his lyrics are tiresome, especially on 'Tamberine', but who can resist the ominous guitar lines, rigid millatant beats, sqealchy ambient synths and that silky, dizzying flow. The Harold Melvin bassline on 'Shine Blockas' always gets me smiling from ear to ear. 'You Ain't No Dj' and 'General Patton' are skippable but at least this ain't full of the skits that pad out Outkast LPs.

04 – These New Puritans – Hidden
The self conscious intellectualism that pervades throughout this record is something I can’t usually stand in my music but there’s no getting round it . . . this is the best art rock album I’ve heard in years. It takes a lot to sound original these days but this is like nothing before it. Using march band and electro beats, synth stabs woodwind, delicious Talk Talk style brass, a children's choir, TNPS create their own ancient, battle scarred world. Oddly enough ‘Attack Music’ sounds like ‘Jenga’ from Kano’s album, with added fruity brass, and pretentious nonsense lyrics. I forgive the lyrics though as the vocals on this album mostly serve as another layer to the musical Morse codes of the music. When an indie band experiments with digital/dance sounds they usually fall flat on their face, so I applaud the execution here.

03 – Gonjasufi – A Sufi And A Killer
Gonjasufi is Sumach Ecks who is, according to Wiki, a rapper, Dj, and Yoga instructor of Mexican heritage. He first got noticed from a guess spot on a Flying Lotus record. But this is not Flying Lotus or rap or yoga. This is most genre defying album I’ve heard in a long while covering Hip hop, psychedelia, old skool electro, disco and countless more, all with an underbelly of Indian chants and sitar. Sometimes it sounds like Revolver era Beatles getting high on weed, Ravi Shankar and trip hop hile at others sounding like a ruff and gruff lo-fi hip hop LP. What makes this so good is that it all sounds natural and coherent. Also 'Advice' is my favourite depression song of the year ("This is your only life, so it’s only right to take your own advice", good advice which I inevitably won't take.)

02 - Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms
OK this did come out last year but it was re released this year, plus I only discovered it this summer so :P . A record full of retro electro crumble and hazy blessed out vocal vocals. ‘Chill Wave’ the kids call it.

01 – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti – Before Today
There was no doubt really. Ariel Pink has been lurking the indie underground for years, releasing brilliant, drug damaged, loner pop gems usually in debt to 70’s AOR. His first eight albums mainly consist of compiled tracks that Pink recorded to a cassette tape in his basement in the late 90’s. I’m a big fan of these oddball and influential releases, but not everyone can appreciate the sound of Pink using arm pit farts as percussion and production values that make the White Stripes cheapest album sound like Jacko’s Invincible. Before Today is Ariel’s first album with a backing band and it was recorded in a proper studio and everything. Thankfully the music doesn’t suffer from the beefed up sound and Pink (Marcus Rosenberg) retains his individuality and identity. For me, guitar lead song smithery is a pretty archaic thing, and you better be original and interesting enough to pull it off. Pink delivers again, always the most idiosyncratic of songwriters, every track is full of melodic twists and turns, songs inside songs and countless moments where you think to yourself “why haven’t I heard this before? It’s obvious”. At a time when indie’s been lacking in inspiration, Pink is a visionary and he makes the sort of music that won’t register at first, yet he trusts that his listeners ears will adjust to his eccentricities. Indeed it is Pink’s brand of retro futurism that is responsible for the ‘chill wave’ scene. Is this album any good? Well it has some filler but there’s never a dull moment and never a time to question Pink’s wonderful, restless vision. And no apologies for the gushing as, for me, Ariel Pink is the closest thing rock has had to a genius (and I hate that word) in a long time.