Machinefabriek and 9 other artists

[Nick Ink]

1 Grizzly Bear 29

Yellow House was one of the very few band-based albums that I really loved over the last few years (I think Menomena's Friend and Foe and the recent AC albums would be in there too). I hope they can live up to it with the new one out soon.

[maarit]

That 29 GB plays is mostly Yellow House, don't want to download the new leaked album.

[RavingLunatic]

10 The Tallest Man on Earth 12
Kind of Dylan-esque, which is said about a lot of young folk singers, but his voice is a bit similar. Really like him.

I've never been able to enjoy much Dylan, but Tallest Man On Earth is freaking amazing. I may go see TMOE + Mountain Goats in April.

[Ignatius]

is that at earlham? it's too bad I don't really have a reason to visit there any more, but I might be able to find you a place to stay overnight if you're inclined to do so, or even just some people to hang out with.

[RavingLunatic]

Nah, Mountain Goats are at Earlham on April 4th, but not with Tallest Man On Earth. On April 6th they're both in Bloomington, and I think it's the only date they're playing together. It's a good 3-hour drive. If I get to feeling better by then there's a good chance I'll go. IThanks for the offer though.

[edison]

1 Jacaszek 20
1 Goldmund 20
Both Treny and The Malady Of Elegance have become staples in my listening habits, and I still am far from having exhausted either's charms - guess what I'd contribute to that other thread about 2008 records?

3 Animal Hospital 15
Listened to Memory on Nick's recommendation. It's too early to say how much I liked it. I liked it, but I'm not sure I liked it a lot yet. We'll see.

4 Animal Collective 12

4 Sarah Dougher 12
No one seems to have mentioned it anywhere, which is kind of sad, but Sarah Dougher has a new album! And it sounds awesome - it's made of music she composed for a staging of Orestes, if I understood well, and the album is composed of six pieces ("odes") with lyrics, and then the same six pieces in instrumental versions. I grabbed this off Emusic, but immediately after I started listening ordered it from her label.

6 Marissa Nadler 10

6 Pantha Du Prince 10
The guy is opening for Animal Collective tonight, and I thought I'd check out This Bliss. I was fully prepared for it not to be my thing, but found it surprisingly easy to enjoy (especially for a 75-minute-long album) and am now excited about his set.

8 Elegi 7

9 Camera Obscura 5
That's just the two singles from their forthcoming album on 4AD on repeat - they're both brilliant songs that continue in the vein of Let's Get Out Of This Country and insanely catchy. I'm pretty fond of the silly wordplay in the album's title, too, I have to admit (My Maudlin Career)

9 Emeralds 5
Another Nick Ink recommendation, and clearly a winner (gave it a second listen yesterday afternoon) - I was particularly impressed by the last two pieces on the record.

[Nick Ink]

6 Pantha Du Prince 10
The guy is opening for Animal Collective tonight, and I thought I'd check out This Bliss. I was fully prepared for it not to be my thing, but found it surprisingly easy to enjoy (especially for a 75-minute-long album) and am now excited about his set.

This is an interesting choice of support. I really liked this album too, the hypnotic, wqarped, bendy bass motifs that sew it all together especially. Driving music for people with imaginary cars.

[Nick Ink]

1    Celer   91
29 tracks, mostly between 1 and 3 minutes long, and all bried ambient sketches. Some of these pieces are a bit like William Basinski's shorter, heavily reverbed and distorted piano loops on albums like Melancholia, but most are quite straightforwad exercises in a very narrow range of sounds and tones. Having gone through the album quite closely 4 or 5 times this week, there seem to be a few longer movements going on and, when you can stand back far enough to see it, it's really growing on me as quite a surprisingly coherent and emotionally affecting album. They've made albums before I gather, but this is the first time I've come across them.

2     Hannu   28
This is the second album fron Hannu, after Worms In My Piano a few years ago. That one didn't sink that far in with me, although I liked it a lot, but this year's Harhailua is hitting me harder. The glitchy aesthetic and repeated, broken melodies are what pull you in, but there's a typical Finnish/Fonal sound palette here, with loads of beautiful little touches throughout the short album.

3    Mountains   25
I've always liked Mountains, but felt they've never quite matched peers like Fennesz and Tim Hecker. This year's Choral, however, has got me quite excited on the first few listens. There's a nice depth and layering to the drones, and a very pretty overall sound to the record.
4    Headhunter   15
4    Pinch   15
6    Animal Hospital   14
7    Stars of the Lid   11
8    Jasper TX   10
9    Scuba   8
10    Alva Noto   7

[edison]

6 Pantha Du Prince 10
The guy is opening for Animal Collective tonight, and I thought I'd check out This Bliss. I was fully prepared for it not to be my thing, but found it surprisingly easy to enjoy (especially for a 75-minute-long album) and am now excited about his set.

This is an interesting choice of support. I really liked this album too, the hypnotic, wqarped, bendy bass motifs that sew it all together especially. Driving music for people with imaginary cars.

I can attest to the fact that it's not bad driving music for people with real cars, either.

This week:

1 Hildur Gudnadottir 37
This was a good part of this weekend's listening, prompted by a glowing album of the week review on Boomkat. Beautifully melodic and enveloping cello music, looking forward to giving this more spins.

2 Jacaszek 30
Jacaszek's new album Pentral is a departure from Treny, perhaps with more hidden layers of weird textures and punctuated by unexpected bursts of noise (church organ noise). It was a bit bewildering at first, but it's making more and more of an impression after each listen. The CD comes with a short DVD documentary on the process of recording the album in the church, and it looks fascinating, but sadly there are no English subtitles.

3 Machinefabriek 29

4 Prince 26
Black Amnesia has a point in that other thread when he says this is reminiscent of Dirty Mind. Not quite as minimal and sharp (especially the slightly saccharine - but still enjoyable - ballad section in the middle), but still, some excellent songs here.

5 PJ Harvey / John Parish 14
I'll be buying A Woman A Man Walked By on the way back from work - from now, I've only listened to radio sessions from last week. They had the effect of making me much less enthusiastic about the record, but we'll see.

6 Jeremy Jay 10
Jeremy Jay has quite a contingent of fans in Strasbourg - I got curious after hearing him at a friend's place. On first listen this sounded like a pretty good album of catchy pop songs, but nothing special that's drawing me to listen closer, really.

7 Swan Lake 9
As I said elsewhere, this is pretty much a perfect album, and got at least a dozen of spins in the kitchen and in the car.

8 New Order 8
A friend of the ladyfriend's who bought the reissue sent her his old copy of Power, Corruption & Lies. I've never been very intrigued by the little New Order I've heard in my life, but I was interested in checking this out especially because of "Leave me Alone", which Joe Pernice covers so beautifully on the Chappaquiddick Skyline record. I'll be listening again, someday.

8 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 8

10 Death 7

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

4 Prince 26
Black Amnesia has a point in that other thread when he says this is reminiscent of Dirty Mind. Not quite as minimal and sharp (especially the slightly saccharine - but still enjoyable - ballad section in the middle), but still, some excellent songs here.

Now that I am sane I can say that it's yet another uneven Prince album. Were its best moments combined with the best of LOTuSFLOW3R we'd have a damn monster on our hands, probably his best since Gold Experience. Alas.

And "Valentina" is one of the worst things Prince has ever done. But then "No More Candy 4 U" is the most excited I've gotten listening to a Prince track since... um.

[Andrew_TSKS]

8 New Order 8
A friend of the ladyfriend's who bought the reissue sent her his old copy of Power, Corruption & Lies. I've never been very intrigued by the little New Order I've heard in my life, but I was interested in checking this out especially because of "Leave me Alone", which Joe Pernice covers so beautifully on the Chappaquiddick Skyline record. I'll be listening again, someday.

I've been playing "Age Of Consent" pretty frequently this week. It's awesome. The rest of the album varies in quality, but that one song is fucking great.

[Nick Ink]

1    Grizzly Bear   57
2    Akron/Family   51
3     Hildur Gudnadottir   14
4    Alva Noto   11
4    Goldmund   11
6    Bill Callahan   8
7     Hannu   7
8     Jacaszek   6
8     Emeralds   6
10    The Fiery Furnaces   2

No time to annotate today, alas, but I will concur with edison that the Hildur Gudnadottir is some warm, droney cello loveliness. My big two current obsessions don't really exist yet, so I'll say no more just yet.

Except - jeb! are you on it yet?

[narlus]

8 New Order 8
A friend of the ladyfriend's who bought the reissue sent her his old copy of Power, Corruption & Lies. I've never been very intrigued by the little New Order I've heard in my life, but I was interested in checking this out especially because of "Leave me Alone", which Joe Pernice covers so beautifully on the Chappaquiddick Skyline record. I'll be listening again, someday.

I've been playing "Age Of Consent" pretty frequently this week. It's awesome. The rest of the album varies in quality, but that one song is fucking great.

"Leave Me Alone" is my favorite...probably because it sounds more like Joy Division than New Order.

[Nick Ink]

1    Akron/Family   26
2    Mokira   19
3     Pendle Coven   18
4    Grizzly Bear   16
5    Autechre   11
6    The Gentleman Losers   10
6    Songs: Ohia   10
8    Gas   6
9    Animal Collective   5
10    Japandroids   4

Wish I had time to report and elaborate on these, but just annoyingly busy with work stuff, when notbeing tortued by dentists, osteopaths and endocrinologists. Grrrr. At least the beautiful abstraction of Mokira's new album on Type, Persona, is there to pull me back from the brink of physical collapse though.

[elpollodiablo]

HOLY SHIT WE'RE ALMOST OUT OF KIRA

[maarit]

1 Devo 51
2 Benoît Pioulard 28
3 bob hund 23
The new album
4 Caetano Veloso 21
5 Fever Ray 20
I think I've already written about how i love the album! It's dark and gorgeous.
6 Casiotone for the Painfully Alone 19
will be the warm-up act for the Handsome Furs in Stockholm.
6 ans.andur 19
An Estonian band
8 Department of Eagles 18
8 Paavoharju 18
10 Stella 16
Another Estonian band http://www.myspace.com/stellatallinn   

[Nick Ink]

Lots of really absorbing music to listen to at the moment, especially Emeralds, which I realise I keep banging on about with a near-religious fervour.

1    Micachu & The Shapes   47
ellaguru was talking about this so I thought I'd investigate. It's the kind of music that will cause some people to burst a blood vessel such will be the outraged fury of their incandescent rage. I on the other hand, like it very much. Short, fuzzy, catchy, ADD, bleepy sketches of songs. Sweetheart is as good as any other 53 second pop song I've heard in 2009.

2    Seaworthy   32

This is a lovely album. Half the tracks are drones, and the other half are long, spidery electric guitar rambles. It's on 12K and has that label's signature warm, minimal feel throughout. I really like it when an album which seems apparently to be using well-worn forms somehow has a whole personality unique to itself.

3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs   26
A lot of these plays are the same trio of standout tracks, which are eminently re-playable when you need an energy kick. You know those times - it's Friday night and you're sprucing yourself up, putting your face on, dancing round the room choosing what to wear to give the kids a bath and a bedtime story in. Then after that, I tend to put on some Stars Of The Lid in order to change back into my joggers and T-shirt.

4    Mokira   25
This is a treat too. Lots of echoes of William Basinski, amongst others. Each track blends into the next for a good minute or two, gradually disappearing under the layers of its successor, and you only realise on later playthroughs that this actually starts with the first track, which begins with the embers of the final track's piano loop, all creating a nice, circular sensation.

5    Emeralds   23
My latest obsession. The tracks are generally 10-20 minutes long, hence the relatively low numbers. I don't suppose they're going to appeal to anyone beyond the narrow boundaries of the drone scene, but if you have any time/patience at all for this kind of stuff, What Happened is the album of 2009. I've also discovered a few more great releases by them, but that one is still the best.

6    Bill Callahan   22
So, the new album Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is a lot more up my street than Woke On A Whaleheart. His voice is wonderful, of course, and the music is really tight. I should probably listen to the lyrics more, but that's always the last thing I get to, for some reason.

7    William Basinski   16
Wow! A brilliant new release here - 92982. The most exciting thing he's done since El Camino Real, and at the moment I prefer the 4 x 10 mins form to 1 x 40'. It gives the album a more rounded feel.

7    Machinefabriek   16
I may have just thrown Stukjes on in order to fulfil the obligation of my own thread title.

9    Akron/Family   12
When the new album is released it will require its own thread.

10   Mountains   6
Choral - another better-than-decent drone-based album. 2009 could be the year of drone???

[elpollodiablo]

HOLY SHIT WE'RE ALMOST OUT OF KIRA

We're gonna need MOKIRA pretty soon!

[davy]

9    Akron/Family   12
When the new album is released it will require its own thread.

And when will that be?

[Nick Ink]

9    Akron/Family   12
When the new album is released it will require its own thread.

And when will that be?

lastfm soundamus site says:

Artist: Akron + Family
Album: Set'em Wild, Set'em Free
Release Date: 05 May 2009

[girl]

I never really comment on your lists, Nick, but I always enjoy reading them. In particular, these two comments really tickled me this week:

Sweetheart is as good as any other 53 second pop song I've heard in 2009.

3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs   26
A lot of these plays are the same trio of standout tracks, which are eminently re-playable when you need an energy kick. You know those times - it's Friday night and you're sprucing yourself up, putting your face on,  dancing round the room choosing what to wear to give the kids a bath and a bedtime story in. Then after that, I tend to put on some Stars Of The Lid in order to change back into my joggers and T-shirt

[Nick Ink]

Horray! I tickled a girl!

 

[edison]

1 The Thermals 46
The new album had me in its claws until the softer pleasures of The Handsome Family and Bill Callahan took over. I should add my two cents in the Thermals thread, I suppose.

2 The Handsome Family 43
A few runs through Honey Moon, the CD version of which I've been listening to *a lot*, plus one through In The Air, which is a damn great album.

3 Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds 13
Checked out the new album Dracula Boots after his Saturday night show. It's nice, but I think not picking it up at the show was a good decision.

3 Xiao He 13
I've been getting into that solo album with the longest title ever that I bought at the show the other day, even though I initially was a little underwhelmed as it doesn't quite live up to his live performance (well, actually, it's just fairly different). Subsquent listens have proven this to be an excellent record, and one that will no doubt still grow on me in the weeks to come. Also, it's one of these records which seem to me to work much better in a specific atmosphere somehow - in this case, it's been doing a lot better for me on the few warm but cloudy and humid days we had than on sunny days.

5 Bob Dylan 12
Hmm, can't remember what that was, really. Oh yeah, probably the recording of the Montauban show I attended a few years back. I'd been looking for it for years and found it just a few weeks ago. That was a great show, one that will hopefully be topped by tonight's, but it's going to be hard.

6 Glamorous Pharmacy 9
More Xiao He exploration. I really need more time with this one, as it's very much all over the place and the songs are really long.

6 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 9
Beware! Still a very good record.

6 Olivier Messiaen 9
Part 1A of my ongoing introduction to classical music, more or less based on recommendations from The Rest Is Noise. (Not that there haven't been previous attempts - and successful ones, at that - but I guess we'll call those part 0). I picked up a recording of Quatuor pour la fin du temps on Emusic, a choice that I'm not exactly unhappy with so far. Yes, that was an understatement right there.

9 Arvo Pärt 8
Part 1B is this recording. I am even less unhappy with it.

10 Black Flowers 5
Alex Neilson has been a busy man lately - I'm looking forward to receiving his awesome Trembling Bells record in the mail this week; this other band involving some of the same people is also in the same vein, revisiting 60s/70s English folk, but even more experimental and occasionally cacophonous. The main draw here is a thunderous take on Richard Thompson's "Calvary Cross".

10 Emeralds 5
What Happened, aka. "the requisite Nick Ink-related entry in the weekly stats".

[davy]

Japandroids x a million

[Nick Ink]

1    Magnolia Electric Co.   67
A little jaunt through bits of the Sojourner box, and several plays of the nice new single (4 tracks, all sub 2 minutes)
2    Konntinent   45
Degrees, Integers - Another epic and incredibly involving experimental album which is hard to classify. I think this is such a creative area of music just now with so many great bands, artists and ideas. This is a long album, packed with drones, field recordings, thrumming strings, subtly krautrock-inspired drum rhythms and the odd disembodies vocal sample. A real winner.
3     Micachu & The Shapes   35
3    Seaworthy   35
This is still growing on me nicely, though I like the guitar-based pieces more than the drones, and the two sides of the album don't seem to sit together that cohesively for me.
5    Stars of the Lid   26
I played snooker with my brother the other night and we had Tired Sounds Of... on in the background. Top break - 34. Stephen Hendy can rest easy for the moment.
6    Robyn Hitchcock   22
What was this? Oh yes, a live bootleg from a year or so ago - I think there are loads of these concerts legitimately available on one of those free sites that host unsigned bands and stuff - archive.com is it? Anyway, the Robyn Hitchcock ones are worth checking out, as much for the between-songs talky bits as the music itself.
7    Casiotone for the Painfully Alone   20
Not too keen on the new album so far, although the first two tracks have some good lines. Maybe I need to listen to it when not exhausted.
8    Akron/Family   17
And you are no longer river to me.....
9    Bill Callahan   15
Half to two thirds of these songs are really great, especially the first half of the album. The voice, the lyrics, the instrumentation and arrangements. And also the voice again.
10     Emeralds   14
Nick's revised all-time favourite bands top 5:
1. The Human League
2. The Beatles
3. Stars Of The Lid
4. Throwing Muses
5. EMERALDS
11    William Basinski   10
The beautiful, sumptuous, gorgeous, vibtrant, hypnotic, somnambulant wonder that is 92982. Only 4 tracks, but over an hour of the best music this year.