Sailors with Wax Wings

100 Unheralded Albums from 2010

Among the thousands of under-appreciated or under-publicized albums that were released in 2010, hundreds became our favorites and were presented in ALARM and on AlarmPress.com. Of those, we pared down to 100 outstanding releases, leaving no genre unexplored in our list of this year’s overlooked gems.

Morrow vs. Hajduch

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Mark McGuire’s Living with Yourself

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Mark McGuire: Living with YourselfMark McGuire: Living with Yourself (Editions Mego, 10/12/10)

Mark McGuire: “Clouds Rolling In”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Mark_McGuire_Clouds_Rolling_In.mp3|titles=Mark McGuire: “Clouds Rolling In”]

Hajduch: Living with Yourself is the most recent solo-guitar release of Mark McGuire, who also plays guitar in Emeralds. Much like Emeralds, McGuire’s music spins a gradual yarn over a combination of picked arpeggios and buzzing drones, delayed and looped and layered into a hypnotic tapestry that has become impossible to ignore.

Pyramids’ R. Loren heads new drone project with incredible cast

You never thought it could happen in your wildest drone-metal dreams, but it has: noise honchos Ted Parsons (Swans, Jesu, Godflesh), Aiden Baker (Nadja), and Colin Marston (Krallice) have joined James Blackshaw (Current 93), Marissa Nadler, Vern Rumsey (Unwound), and many others to work with R. Loren of Pyramids in his collaborative project titled Sailors with Wax Wings.

The debut self-titled album is due for release on September 28, via Angel Oven Records, and the project has premiered the song “And Clash and Clash of Hoof and Heel”with accompanying video.