2011 was a good year in music. You can say that about any year, but it wasn’t until we sat down to work out this list that it really hit home how many amazing records were put out in 2011 — there is a lot of stuff that’s not on this list that would probably have made it in past years.
Over the next week, you’ll see us writing about our personal favourite records of 2011, but right now it’s time for the lifeisnoise.com top dozen albums of 2011:
12. Mental Powers — HOMOH
On a balmy October night in Maylands, something incredible occurred. Lew began to play something astral n’ spiralling on the guitar, all time-stretching and winsomely furrowed. The rest of the band moved in time and step, teasing out the edges of what was unfurling.
When it was over, I tumbled out into the evening and looked up at the stars, knowing (part booze, part wanderlust) that I now had a new vocabulary with which to relate to them. Does this sound ridiculous? Probably; but I know for sure that I hadn’t heard anything like it before, and I don’t expect to again; therein lies the great promise of Mental Powers.
HOMOH documents four such sound islands, wherein shapes are held, pulled and molded until they become the very forms they initially seem only to represent; “Mossman” moves from an approximation of a gummy and rising water line to the experience itself– “Hamneck” might well be the moment of panic concomitant with losing control of an extremely powerful drill, fashioned into an infinity loop .gif style. If 2012 provides another MP LP, consider me a content HOMOH.
- Alex Griffin
Check out and buy HOMOH here.
11. CAVE — Neverendless
If you don’t like this record, there is something seriously wrong with you.
Seriously — I know music is subjective and all (note: irony), but Neverendless is just such damn good fun that if for some reason you can’t enjoy its psychy, krauty goodness then I pity you.
The Chicago group lays down some amazing sounds over the record’s five tracks, taking a locked-in groove and branching out from it; beating rhythms into the listener’s head and then offering sweet synthy, crunchy-guitar relief.
Neverendless is a great driving album. While a good driving album usually requires a straight stretch of open road, where Neverendless is going, not only do we not need roads, we don’t even need a car.
- Jack Midalia
10. Amon Tobin — ISAM
Amon Tobin is back with another extraordinary piece of electro-scape mindfuck for the pleasure of your earholes, mind and feet. Tobin’s newy, ISAM, continues his move away from the record sampling of his earlier work and focuses on the field recordings he has utilised since the 2007 masterpiece, The Foley Room. It’s fascinating to see how he goes about constructing his work (check Youtube for details) and his live show is now a visual feast, but none of this would work if the squelching, bass heavy assault of sounds wasn’t so damn good.
The stand out track is the opening salvo “Journeyman” — a twisted brew of soft and dark synthetic sounds with an anthemic feel and a splattering of heavy beats. Listen with headphones and a normal stereo on so you can feel the mountains of floor rumbling bottom end and the crazy stereo action in your head. Trust me, it works.
- Dave Cutbush
9. tUnE-yArDs — w h o k i l l
Merrill Garbus is a badass, and there’s a pile of reasons. There’s her defiant semi-moustache, her willingness to imitate a police siren then harmonise with herself, and her androgynous, anything-can-happen-and-will-happen-now voice.
The best reason is less obvious, but is written all over w h o k i l l; Where her contemporary Dave Longstreth often overstretches in his desire to impart to you the fact that he’s a compositional savant/guy who really gets Nietzsche, Garbus packages Big Ideas into compulsively rhythmic and devastatingly comprehensible packages. As it were, like most great American works of art, w h o k i l l is alternately confronted and obsessed by sex, death and the Nation; what sets it apart is that Merrill Garbus is teaching her Great White Whale to dance. Though the essay that manages to unpack all the post-structuralist and feminist discourse underpinning this album is yet to be written, her meaning, desperation and insight is crystal clear and relentlessly enjoyable. W h o k i l l is never reminiscent of anything like Scritti Politti trying to hide the Marxist peas in the pop song dinner; rather, it’s the transparent reflection of a woman’s struggle to reconcile the inequality she sees and the conflicts between her responses.
There are some massive ideological fights going on here (man vs woman, America vs the poor, hipster entitlement vs entrenched disadvantage), but the most fascinating one in w h o k i l l is Merrill Garbus vs Merrill Garbus.
- Alex Griffin
8. Wolves In The Throne Room — Celestial Lineage
To be honest ever since getting this album I have been seriously addicted to it. American atmospheric black metal exponents Wolves in the Throne Room haven’t strayed too far from the terrain they inhabited on previous releases, but have honed their craft to near perfection.
Let’s face it, black metal isn’t for everyone — but if you haven’t listened to a lot of it then Celestial Lineage is a good way to start. It’s an album full of crushing guitars, field recordings, percussive mayhem and undeniable power. Sure, it’s heavy, it’s bleak and in some parts terrifying but there is melody and beauty that cannot be underestimated.
A friend of mine calls bands like WITTR “black metal for indie kids” and maybe they are, but the power and the intensity is there for those with darker leanings. Have a listen or two – it is truly an amazing release.
- Dave Cutbush
7. Nicolas Jaar — Space Is Only Noise
That such an accomplished, sophisticated record came from someone so young is, quite frankly, a little scary. Raised in Chile, but now once again a resident of New York City, Nicolas Jaar’s Space Is Only Noise is a stunning piece of work that mixes house, field recordings and instrumental hip hop influences that somehow manages to sound like none of these things and all of these things at the same time.
From the unnerving “Balance Her Between You Eyes” to the viciously infectious title track, Space Is Only Noise works on a multitude of levels — you can party to it, have it as background music, fuck to it, mourn to it or simply sit down and listen to what could be the beginning of an amazing career.
- Jack Midalia
6. Oneohtrix Point Never — Replica
The new Oneohtrix Point Never release Replica reminds me a lot of Blade Runner. Sure the album has a Vangelis inspired sound, but more so it’s the way it feels like the past looking at a potential future. Replica is a dark and dystopian vision – a place where things are not quite right and far from what they seem.
The opening track “Andro” satiates my hunger for a new Boards of Canada album, and then the album opens up into a collage of beats and samples that confound and astound. If this is the future then I am equal parts concerned and delighted.
Thank you Oneohtrix, for your stupid name and your amazing music.
- Dave Cutbush
5. Seekae — +Dome
+Dome is a great blend of experimentation and dance-floor savvy sounds from Sydney three-piece Seekae.
In what can only be described as a belter of a year, the band released this record as well as selling out shows left, right and centre and gaining crazy amounts of internet buzz. A progression from their first album The Sound of Trees Falling on People, +Dome inhabits a world of electronica that is akin to post dubstep contemporaries like Mount Kimbie. But Seekae have crafted their own style, a cleverly layered and constructed piece of work that has equal parts grit and beauty.
As numerous critics have picked up on, Seekae have managed to create an electronic record that is undeniably human. As we mentioned when +Dome came in at number three in our list of great music from the first half of this year, “This blending of the organic and the artificial has produced a gem of a record that moves from shimmering beauty one minute to a captivating mess of beatsy confusion the next.” Brilliant.
- Dave Cutbush and Jack Midalia
4. Colin Stetson — New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
The saxophone as an instrument has almost been destroyed by its overuse in terribly banal middle of the road music. This is a massive shame as the sax in years gone by was at the forefront of music innovation: think Bird, Coltrane, Sanders and Coleman.
But not to fear: enter Colin Stetson, not just a good player but one that is single-handely making the saxophone cool again. On his new album New History Warfare Vol II: Judges, Stetson redefines what can be done with the instrument. There are no overdubs nor looping, but there are about 20 microphones used to full effect. The result is trance inducing saxophony which on occasion is more akin to dance music than jazz or rock.
With help from Ben Frost and Efrim (Godspeed/Silver Mt Zion) on the knobs and some vocal business from Laurie Anderson and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, New History is an amazingly eclectic mix for what is primarily a solo saxophonists album.
- Dave Cutbush
See how it’s done:
3. Thee Oh Sees — Carrion Crawler/The Dream
WOW! I truly thought that Thee Oh Sees already had their best recorded work behind them. I was completely wrong.
Carrion Crawler/The Dream is a cacophonous gem of the highest order. John Dwyer, in this the second Thee Oh Sees release for 2011, leads us through a string-shredding, microphone-swallowing, garage explosion, the likes of which you are unlikely to hear again. It is vocally twisted, psyched out, distorted and downright dangerous.
Carrion Crawler/The Dream will get you moving, dancing, moshing and if you’re not careful maybe even arrested. WOW!
- Dave Cutbush
2. Thundercat — The Golden Age of Apocalypse
Futurism as a concept feels pretty played out; eternal youth, there are cars in the sky which go impossibly quick, whatever is impossible will occur, drawbacks include issues with what it means to be a human, etc. It has been passed over for flux and repetition; the future is constantly upon us, so we’re stuck with whatever today feels like, forever. Things might get cleaner and easier, but the difference is measured in teaspoons, not Speed Racers.
The fact that the most futuristic sound of 2011 came from the co-opting of aesthetics and attitudes that were on the outs thirty years ago and laughable ten years ago shouldn’t surprise anyone; that it came from the bassist for Suicidal Tendencies just might. In a year when James Blake used strident, diffident digitalia to create a distant, tender, bleeping view of our emotional futures, I’m glad this came out on top.
The reason why The Golden Age of Apocalypse kicks it so hard is the heart involved; Bruner loves these long-maligned ideas, and has the virtuosity to make them sound impossibly new. Side A is a perfect run of gorgeous, wide-eyed pop that absorbs history like a sponge and casts it fresh and sparkling, like the shine on George Jetson’s space-buttons.
As the second half of the record tends towards library vignettes that sketch out the further corners of Bruner’s aesthetic, the frightening thing about this record comes to light; he’s only warming up.
- Alex Griffin
1. Grails — Deep Politics
Grails have crafted a record that’s sublimely complex and wonderfully layered, but without a single overdub too many. The Portland outfit have simply chipped away everything that’s not a great record.
It’s hard to pin Grails down, sound-wise. There’s the influence of the soundtrack work of Morricone, eastern influences, a healthy dollop of post rock and, dare we say it… we can almost hear some love of Dire Straits here.
Without a doubt, the highlights are “Almost Grew My Hair”, (a brooding, snarling eight minute beast of a track) as well as the title track. The song “Deep Politics” sums up the record perfectly, it’s textured, complicated, and incredibly intelligent music.
Deep Politics looms ominously in the background one minute before emerging with all the confluence and vitality and complexity and just sheer bliss that makes this album a perfect choice as our favourite record of 2011.
A breathtakingly brilliant album in a year of breathtakingly brilliant music.
- Jack Midalia and Dave Cutbush
Tomorrow, lifeisnoise.com editor Jack Midalia gives you his top 11 records of 2011.
