2012. I was tempted by different approaches to this task this year. Cut up all albums I had bought in the year and throw them in a hat. Ask my kids to randomly pick no.s assigned to albums. I also thought to divide into categories. Hipster newbies (1st or 2nd albums), seasoned veterans, the electronic domain, metal and finally soul. Out of these departments I would choose 2 from each. Each category seemed to encompass my experience this year..and to certain extent there was crossover. Actually I found that too restricting so as normal…20 top albums. Due to my advancing years (37) I tend less to get to stuff off the bat such as a 1st 7", debut albums, live mayhem e..t.c. I find my entry point is usually off 2nd maybe 3rd albums and comebacks. But I am a twitchy and avid lover of new music and old..eternally questing!
So here is my top twenty in no particular order, with a bit of blurb about each:
Bo Ningen-Line The Wall. A late comer to my top 20. A blistering rock n'roll album that melds elements of Sonic Youth, Fu Manchu and Boris into on electrifying whole.
El Perro Del Mar- Pale FireThere's something quintessentially European about this woman. She crafts absorbing and evocative pop songs with a sensibility that could only be continental, despite the Spanish name she is in fact Swedish. Ever since her captivating debut, on this, her forth and best LP she continues to draw the line between long highways, hot summers and blissed out dance.
Cody Chesnutt- Landing On A Hundred. Cody's 1st was a lurid, hubristic, sex-hole of lo-fi druggy r n b. On this, his follow up he crafted a sequence of classic soaring soul that was in places almost unbearably candid and deeply spiritual. Staggering.
Soundgarden- King Animal- People wondered what a Soundgarden album would sound like in 2012..and more so, would it be relevant? Well, if anyone knows what a Soundgarden album is…it's Soundgarden. This year they returned as conquering rock heroes. Their album, like all of theirs, a series of complex, heavy, unpredictable shifting rock stompers shot through with a new found pastoralism and hard earned experience. Kim Thayil was as expected on fine form, and the rest of the band just melted into the fray, with that great voice of Mr Cornell shining the way.
Mala- Mala in Cuba- Haters step off here. It became increasingly trendy to hate dubstep this year, but really is there such a thing anymore? and we'll all be raving about it again in ten years... Mala one of it's founders has never really subscribed to the term. As DMZ he has been responsible for some soul crushing dub weight, but on 'Cuba' he indulged in all his fantasies of flighty exquisite arrangements, great programming and a few knock out songs. It combined a winning combination of vaulting ambition and conceptual purity.
Silent Servant-Negative Fascination. Glacial precision from epic techno structuralist Silent Servant. Tweaked a number of electronic histories into something resembling a cult 70's group jeopardy thriller with all the freshness and malice you might expect on a Hospital Productions release.
Frank Ocean- Uber hip, sure. Visionary? yes. A totally new direction for soul that took on myriad forms from Flying Lotus-esque beat structures, Prince-like flight and D'Angelo's sweet craving intimacy.
Willis Earl Beale- Acousmatic Sorcery. One of the strangest releases of the year. People cried 'the black Jandek' and I can see why..but there's loads going on here, bits of Tom Waits, Vincent Gallo and Robert Johnson. Electrifying.
JK Flesh- Post Human. God speaks, I listen. The wonderful Justin K Broadrick escaped into grindy brutality backed up by a grime, electro and industrial paradigm.
Laurel Halo- Quarantine. A slippery slidy album with a steely impulse. Laurel Halo, another true original weaved in and out of woozy club-land and spectral soul with dashings of sonic overload. Get it now. Hyperdub on fire.
Shit & Shine- Jream Baby Jream. This is the year I got Shit & Shine. No doubt. and when something attaches itself to your soul, it's hard to let go. This music's like a huge robotic gnat, snarling through midair as it leaps onto your back. The music is black as hell, a toxic grind that shatters everything known. In and out of form. Guitars once plucked are decimated..the beats.almost like a long lost 'Thundercore' revival, rips off my arms. It's not Coldplay.
The Cult- Choice Of Weopon. The eternally sweaty duo of Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy have made some ingenious music in their 30 odd year career. Some of it has been easier to understand than others..but it should allways be understood in it's context. Of where they wanted to go..and where others expected them to. Needless to say they always went their way. And thank God for that. This album ROCKS!
Actress- R.I.P. Spacious, organic mind-sex. And lots of pot. A grainy and off-beat approach to beat making couple with stacked up synths made for a captivating and brilliant 3rd album from Darren Cunningham.
Spiritualized -Sweet Heart, Sweet Light. The year in which Jason Pierce finally topped Ladies+ Gentleman, for what in that 90's masterpiece was despair and broken, Jason finally healed. Luxurious motifs of white heat and beams of light, coruscating break-downs, driving rock n' roll and rustic gospel. Spiritualized effectively renewed his case for staying alive.
Empty Set- Medium. There was non more pure an album than this this year. 'Medium', made from fragments of an actual house, pushed this Bristolian duo more into sound art and away from the heavy-sinew of last years 'Demiurge'. But what set this apart was the presence of the bass, prowling around and making every texture connective.
Unsane- After more than 20 years of military like service to noise-rock, this NYC power-house seemed to arrive. Their US tour with the Melvins placed them in the hallowed ground of almost Jesus Lizard-like reverence for early 90's extreme music. 'Wreck' was the tipping point. More expansive and diverse than the brilliant 'Visqueen' never-the-less equally powerful, because with Chris Spencer, Dave Curran, and Vincent Signorelli what you get is what you deserve.
Black Bananas- Rad Times Xpress IV. Jennifer Herrema is fucking cool. And I can't really say much more than that…except maybe Betty Davis meets Hawkwind.
Mark Lanegan Band- Blues Funeral. Grunge-survivor Mr Lanegan doesn't really make 'bad' music, on this LP he went into new sonic pastures experimenting with synths, electronics, and that guttural swampy rock n' roll tragedy he revels in. There were moments of exquisite beauty embedded in something truly large scale. An epic achievement.
Cooly G- Playin Me. Midnight bass music shot through with plenty of soul, dazzlingly inventive, funky and extremely moorish. This was my summer.
Beach House- Bloom. Victoria Legrand and co. are my favourite 'now' band. They make me feel the way Spectrum and Galaxy 500 made me feel. They make perfect music that cuts a sonic path between the dreamy and profound. And everything they do is executed perfectly. That voice…an unlikely tone that sounds androgynous. It could be anything. They could be anything. But this would be nothing without the songs. The songs rise and fall beautifully, surrounding me in dreamy candy as I pass onto the never-world.
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