100 Unheralded Albums from 2010
Circle of Animals: Destroy the Light (Relapse, 10/12/10)
Circle of Animals: “Poison the Lamb”
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Circle of Animals is a new project by multi-instrumentalist producer Sanford Parker (of Minsk) and saxophonist Bruce Lamont (of Yakuza). It’s a tribute of sorts to Chicago’s industrial scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s, although it ties in influences from other heavy experimentalists such as Swans and Godflesh. You have to dig songs that build in layers to enjoy this album, but it’s well executed, and any given track might really pay off four minutes in.
Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty, 10/12/10)
Sufjan Stevens: “Too Much”
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n 2005, singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens scored a major hit with Come On Feel the Illinoise, his most detailed album and the second installment in his “50-state project.” Last year he released The BQE, an instrumental soundtrack to his film of the same name, and it was even more elaborate and orchestrated than Illinois.
The Age of Adz (pronounced odds) is his first vocal-based release since Illinois, and longstanding fans should appreciate this more for being a great cross-section of Stevens’ career, mixing the electronic embellishments of his earlier material with the sophisticated folk of his latter. It’s well balanced, with enough pop nuggets and layered complexities to attain a happy medium.
Free Moral Agents: Control This (Chocolate Industries, 10/12/10)
Free Moral Agents: “North is Red”
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Mars Volta fans know Isaiah “Ikey” Owens as a master keyboardist, also lending his talents to the related experimental dub/reggae side project De Facto. But Owens’ own one-time side project, Free Moral Agents, has transformed into a full-time band with a second studio release, Control This.
Over a combination of ambient pop and trip hop, crunchy guitar riffs and avant-garde fusion motifs construct a critical foreground, and the esoteric vocals of Mendee Ichikawa make for a strong and fitting melodic element. The music here is an eclectic collection of tastefully clashing sounds.
Julian Curwin: The Mango Balloon (Rufus, 10/12/10)
Julian Curwin: “The Mango Balloon”
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Led by multi-instrumentalist Julian Curwin and buoyed by a healthy eclecticism, The Tango Saloon is a Western-, Gypsy-, and jazz-inflected tango juggernaut.
The Mango Balloon is Curwin’s exploration of this material as a chamber set, providing a glimpse into the band’s quieter moments. With klezmer intricacies, accordion and guitar movements engage in a close-knit dance on the title track; elsewhere, Spanish guitar rhythms join a melancholic trumpet touched by counter melodies. The songs give better access to their players’ unique voices, in arrangements centering on more isolated compositional elements.
White Moth: s/t (Angel Oven, 10/12/10)
White Moth: “Shoot the Clock” (f. Dälek)
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Released one week after the Sailors with Wax Wings debut, White Moth is one of the two new solo projects from Pyramids head honcho R. Loren, who enlisted many notable guest spots for each.
White Moth bests fits in atmospheric post-metal, but its tracks are more compact and structured more like traditional songs. There also are much stronger glitch and digital-hardcore influences, and the latter is at least partially thanks to contributions from Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot and Ashley Scott Jones of Evol Intent.
Yann Tiersen: Dust Lane (Anti-, 10/12/10)
Yann Tiersen: “Dust Lane”
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Dust Lane is the first solo studio album in five years from Yann Tiersen, a folksy French composer whose lighthearted pieces use a lot of accordion, violin, and piano but also glockenspiel, harpsichord, and toy piano.
His earlier work was always very melodic and accessible, but this Anti- debut is a push in a much poppier direction, one that maintains some of the intricate accents but wraps them around basic hooks, often built with synthesizers and guitars.
Dimmu Borgir: Abrahadabra (Nuclear Blast, 10/12/10)
Dimmu Borgir: “Gateways”
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Norway’s Dimmu Borgir is one of the preeminent names in symphonic black metal, and it garnered particular fanfare from two of its most string-infused albums, Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia in 2001 and Death Cult Armageddon in 2003.
Abrahadabra, the band’s first album in three years, is its most spectacular and elaborate release to date. It features one hundred guest musicians – ensemble players and choir singers – helping make this a symphonic-black-metal masterpiece. If you enjoy black metal with orchestral additions — or just dark music in general — be sure not to miss this.
Squarepusher presents Shobaleader One: d’Demonstrator (Warp, 10/19/10)
Squarepusher: “Megazine”
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Bass/electronic guru Tom Jenkinson has covered astounding turf in his 15-year career as Squarepusher, fluctuating between fusion-filled drum-and-bass, jazzy IDM, classical-guitar pieces, pure dance tracks, and experimental electronica.
There isn’t too much that he hasn’t done with his bass, synthesizers, and drum sequencers, but d’Demonstrator is new territory — a new, funky “space band” project as Shobaleader One. And though it’s not an unadulterated riff bonanza as on albums past, the album has enough of Jenkinson’s technical skills peeking from behind the grooves. It’s another new turn in a constantly twisting career — and one that makes for a slinky good time.
Zach Hill: Face Tat (Sargent House, 10/19/10)
Zach Hill: “Memo to the Man”
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In 2008, drumming dynamo Zach Hill took time from his impossibly crammed itinerary to release his first solo album, Astrological Straits. Packed with friends and guest musicians, it showcased his pop side — albeit one with crazy beats, complex polyrhythms, and weird vocals.
Face Tat is the second in what should be a long line of solo releases, despite Hill’s renewed activity in Hella and more releases with Marnie Stern, Bygones, and others on the way. Though still intricate, noisy, and strange, it’s a little easier to follow than its predecessor, with a few more parts being focused on a single melody, rhythm, or vocal line.
The Octopus Project: Hexadecagon (Peek-A-Boo, 10/25/10)
The Octopus Project: “Fuguefat”
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Over the past decade, Austin’s The Octopus Project has built a solid portfolio of electronics-infused post- and indie rock, with each of its four multi-instrumentalists (the eight arms of the octopus) contributing in different ways for each song.
Hexadecagon, the band’s fourth full-length, is not an album but rather a multi-sensory audio-visual experience, with eight-channel audio to accompany eight synchronized video projections of kaleidoscopic video montages. The repetitious polyrhythms and dense layers of minimalist composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich were major influences on this material, and those elements mesh excellently with the band’s rock grooves, making something distinct and new that works without the intended visuals.
Kylesa: Spiral Shadow (Season of Mist, 10/26/10)
Kylesa: “Tired Climb”
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Savannah sludge-rock quintet Kylesa has garnered a respectable following by combining its core genre with a touch of Southern psych rock and a three-pronged vocal attack. In 2006, the group added a second drummer/percussionist, bulking up the rhythm section and ratcheting up its live intensity.
Spiral Shadow is Kylesa’s fifth studio album and first on Season of Mist. It follows the same basic guidelines as its predecessors, but it’s a little more melodic and structured like a rock record. Long-time fans will pick up the nuanced differences, but regardless, any psych-metal listeners who enjoy straightforward riffs and songwriting should dig Spiral Shadow.
Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp, 11/2/10)
Brian Eno: “2 Forms of Anger”
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Long credited as a pioneer of ambient music, Brian Eno is back with his first album in five years and his first for Warp Records.
Small Craft on a Milk Sea is a collection of 15 short, sullen instrumentals that achieve simultaneous beauty and creepiness. Pieces may build from a slight, elongated intonation or assemble more quickly, but something is always appearing, changing, or disappearing. Eno is credited for synthesizers, production, and (hard-to-discern) vocals, but the album couldn’t deliver greatness without co-conspirators Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams.
James Falzone’s Allos Musica: Lamentations (Allos Documents, 11/12/10)
James Falzone’s Allos Musica: “The First Lament: Raqs al-Janub”
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Composer and clarinetist James Falzone has written a small library of intricate pieces for his own ensembles and countless other groups, covering chamber, jazz, world, folk, and classical music in the process. His Allos Musica ensemble has served as a conduit to many of those genres, and its newest release, Lamentations, reflects Falzone’s appreciation of Arabic music.
The album, in fact, reflects Falzone’s troubles with the second US invasion of Iraq, and as a result of these troubles, he sought Arabic neighborhoods around the time that the war began in order to study Mesopotamia’s rich musical history. Lamentations is a collection of songs performed by trio (clarinet, oud, and hand percussion), and it’s a beautiful effort — one that hopefully is effective in humanizing victims of war.
Maserati: Pyramid of the Sun (Temporary Residence, 11/16/10)
Maserati: “We Got the System to Fight the System”
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Nearly one year prior to the release of Pyramid of the Sun, Maserati and !!! drummer Jerry Fuchs died in a tragic accident. His loss, naturally, was a devastating blow for his many bandmates, who have cited him as the propulsive energy behind each outfit’s work ethic and driving rhythms.
So it was with heavy hearts that the remaining members of Maserati decided to finish Pyramid of the Sun, an album that Fuchs was helping to record when he passed. The music continues the direction of the past few releases, combining spacey dance rock with old synth sounds and and elements of campy 1970s horror scores (partially, at least, thanks to contributions by Steve Moore of Zombi). It also retains a great 1980s dance-rock vibe, and when it’s all combined, it creates the band’s release yet.
Harmonious Bec: Her Strange Dreams (Monotreme, 11/16/10)
Harmonious Bec: “Progress”
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With members who go by ZaMaRoo and From Vapor to Water, Harmonious Bec is a relatively mysterious Japanese duo that makes exotic, far-reaching IDM. Her Strange Dreams is the duo’s debut, and it’s a marvelous first effort.
The material is packed with hyperactive melodies, glitchy cut-ups, atmospheric effects, and sporadic dissonance. When put together, it channels more than a dozen electronic sub-genres — it builds upon some of the best genre-smashing artists that electronic music has to offer, such as Aphex Twin. Undoubtedly, Her Strange Dreams is one of the best electronic releases of the year.
Soviet League: s/t (Angel Oven, 11/16/10)
Soviet League: “Shylight”
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Singer/songwriters Ben Eshbach and Matthew Kelly have separate histories in the LA underground, but from their recent collaborative project, Soviet League, the two have created a dense and masterful indie opus.
With the help of countless guest musicians, the self-titled debut presents 12 meticulously crafted tracks, tapping into orch-pop, electronica, and Western music. There are oodles of pretty guitar tones, big bass tones, and overabundant harmonies, and the music routinely crosses into baroque pop. Despite its lack of name recognition, the Soviet League debut threatens to be one of the best indie-rock albums of 2010.
Gregory and the Hawk: Leche (FatCat, 11/16/10)
Gregory and the Hawk: “Landscapes”
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Meredith Godreau is Gregory the Hawk, and on this, her third album, the singer-songwriter makes a delicate racket with her high-pitched voice and cinematic strings. It’s a formula familiar to fans of Joanna Newsom and Mirah, and will undoubtedly give rise to comparisons, but Godreau carves a niche all her own within the folk-pop genre with smart, biting lyrics, and myriad highs and lows of volume and emotion.
Gangrene: Gutter Water (Decon, 11/23/10)
Gangrene: “Chain Swinging”
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Gangrene is the new hip-hop duo of The Alchemist and Oh No, each an esteemed producer-slash-rapper. Gutter Water is their first collaboration, and it calls upon a number of friends and guest MCs too, including Raekwon, Evidence, and Planet Asia.
The material has ample rawness, with hard-hitting beats and rhymes, but there’s an underlying sophistication, whether from string, piano, and flute samples or from quick references to conspiracy theories.
God of Shamisen: Smoke Monster Attack (11/23/10)
God of Shamisen: “Last Shamisen Master Attack”
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Featuring a pair of members from genre annihilators Estradasphere, God of Shamisen is a boundless project of East/West fusion combining heavy metal, improvised Japanese folk, and much more. The band’s music is built on Kevin Kmetz’s mastery of the shamisen, a slender, striking, three-stringed Japanese instrument, but it has drawn the ire of some traditional shamisen masters for adding thrash riffs and rapid-fire metal beats.
Smoke Monster Attack, the band’s digital-only second release, accentuates that mix. It features a few unreleased originals as well as a handful of video-game and movie covers, including wild renditions of the themes to Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Star Wars, and co-production by Billy Anderson makes Smoke Monster Attack that much stouter.
Killing Joke: Absolute Dissent (Universal, 11/23/10)
Killing Joke: “In Excelsis”
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Over the past 30 years, England’s Killing Joke has helped shape the industrial-rock and post-punk landscapes. Absolute Dissent is the band’s first new album in four years, but remarkably, it’s Killing Joke’s first with its original lineup since 1982.
The album is another great mix of heavy riffs, synth-rock influences, and epic choruses – and more importantly, it’s more protest music, with themes about omnipresent surveillance, microchipped populations, shadowy international powerbrokers, and never-ending wars. Like the band’s 2003 self-titled album, it’s another powerful return to form.
Shawn Lee’s Ping-Pong Orchestra: Hooked-Up Classics (Ubiquity, 12/7/10)
Shawn Lee’s Ping-Pong Orchestra: “Swan Lake”
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Shawn Lee is a highly productive multi-instrumentalist and producer known for applying his funky, soulful style in myriad ways, and as Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra, he has tackled assorted world styles, famous pop songs, cinematic string pieces, and even Christmas songs.
His latest release, Hooked Up Classics, is a collection of rock, funk, and dub covers of classical favorites, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and “Swan Lake,” Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” and Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra.” If you love these classical hits and want to hear them in a new way, or if you’re not familiar and want an entry point to the expansive genre, pick this up.
Igor Boxx: Breslau (Ninja Tune, 12/14/10)
Igor Boxx: “Alarm”
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Polish electronic artist Igor Boxx, also known as Igor Pudlo, is one half of electro-jazz duo Skalpel. Skalpel explored Polish jazz from the 1960s and ’70s while reconstructing it with modern aesthetics, and though Igor Boxx’s solo debut has sonic similarities, it’s a weighty concept album about the Soviet Red Army’s 1945 Siege of Breslau.
It’s a sort of a reflection on the consequences of war, including the tension that was felt in Breslau in the decades following WWII, with music that’s a head-nodding collage of woodwind melodies, percussive clangs, and atmospheric samples. There are hooks and grooves, but it’s not nearly as lounge-y or dance-y as Skalpel’s material, and it’s an exciting new part of Igor’s career.