Best Albums of 2010 (Part 2)

Bringing the year to a very happy end, here's the second twenty of my forty Best Albums of 2010:

20 | Anders Brødsgaard - Galaxy
In terms of CD releases, precious little contemporary instrumental music has made any kind of impression this year, which i find rather worrying • Not so with Anders Brødsgaard, whose 40-minute orchestral work Galaxy, composed over 10 years ago, finally found a release on the innovative Danish Dacapo Records label • A work of that scale, composed as a single movement span, is likely to put off some people, but it's such a relief to hear music not constrained by the kind of generic limitations that afflict so much new music • Brødsgaard lives up to his cosmic title; drawing on a plethora of compositional ideologies, & structuring them on a spiral, he's created one of the richest orchestral works i've heard in a long time •

19 | Get Well Soon - Vexations
Neil Hannon pissed away his credentials as a pop sophisticate long ago, & the mantle has fallen to Konstantin Gropper, whose Get Well Soon project has been gradually making a name for itself over the last few years • His unique brand of instrumental pop, akin to Belle & Sebastian but more bullish, is brilliantly displayed on Vexations, the lyrics of which are worthy of a lengthy discussion in their own right • i wrote at length about this album back in March, & my views have, if anything, intensified; ever serious but always accessible, Gropper's melodies are utterly exquisite, augmented by the deftest of instrumental accompaniments •

18 | Celer - Rags Of Contentment / Honey Moon / Panoramic Dreams Bathed In Seldomness / Dwell In Possibility
Celer topped last year's Best Albums list, & my plea that their music be allowed rather more time to emerge hasn't really been heard: 2010 saw no fewer than 12 releases, amounting to 11 hours of music • It's a regrettable state of affairs, & is already having a negative impact; this year i've heard a number of people express the view that their interest is waning, which seems to have more than a little to do with the rate at which these releases appear, with little time in between to absorb & digest them • But anyway, to my mind, these four stood out significantly more than almost all of the rest, displaying most impressively the kind of laser-beam focus that characterises Celer's best music • Beauty & stillness continue to be the epicentre of Celer's interest, & the way they've managed to achieve both on each of these albums is as breathtaking as ever •

17 | Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love
Not many people can get away with the kind of laid-back, easy-listening stylings that Belle & Sebastian call home • What saves them from twee-pop oblivion is the depth of Stuart Murdoch's lyrics coupled to the musical maturity brought to bear on them • There are throwbacks aplenty to music of earlier decades—the title track is staunchly rooted in the '60s; "I'm Not Living In The Real World" evokes the late '70s; "I Can See Your Future" is somewhere between late '80s & early '90s—yet they're all unerringly modern, unmistakenly new • Best of all though is "I Want the World to Stop", one of the finest songs of the year •

16 | Ambarchi/O'Rourke/Haino - Tima Formosa
Presumably like many people, i wasn't sure what to expect from the coming together of three such diverse, creatively strong figures • The resulting disproportional triptych is almost unbelievable, the power of the electronics nearly too much to take yet kept so brilliantly under control • But nothing can prepare one for Keiji Haino's simply astonishing vocal delivery, soaring & screeching like some inconsolable keening, far, far beyond what seems remotely possible • There's a distinct shift through the small central & large final panels, but it's Haino again, now turning his flute into a jet whistle, who again dominates • Ambarchi & O'Rourke's ability to work so seamlessly together with Haino is remarkable, their respective electronics & piano noodlings constructing a wonderfully dense, oppressive broth of clatters & drones •

15 | Jonathan Uliel Saldanha - The Earth as a Floating Egg
The most exhilarating avant-garde album of the year (& one of the best i've ever heard), this is nothing less than an epic from Saldanha, in which instrumental forces & electronics are equal partners • It's almost operatic in scope, & not just because opera singers are involved; ancient mythologies & legends are evoked, presented with great, even overwhelming, ceremony • At times (as in the awe-inspiring "Chasm"), it's as though Saldanha has pulled the earth of the title to a standstill, its elements colliding together with mounting force • Language finds itself turned inside out, phonemes transformed into the building blocks of wildly spinning textures; brass counterpoint dissolves into a pair of sopranos at the limits of their upper register • The sheer range of invention is astounding, & while its unflinching surrealism could prove alienating, Saldanha keeps a firm grip on reality, enabling his complex vision to blaze coherently •

14 | CocoRosie - Grey Oceans
It's been three long years since the Casady sisters' last album, but everything about Grey Oceans makes the wait worthwhile • Few female artists have done more to loosen the strictures of song structures, & the eleven tracks on this release are more elastic than ever • Above all, the album attains an unfettered lyricism way beyond their earlier music; their experimental nature hasn't changed one iota, but whereas in the past the girls' enthusiasm to throw all manner of disjunct ideas into the pot to some extent diminished the power of the vocals, here they reinforce & clarify them (heard to excellent effect in "R.I.P. Burn Face") • & they're still beautifully eccentric; "Hopscotch", a song with more weighty intentions, keeps losing focus, hilariously collapsing into music hall piano riffs •

13 | Yui Onodera & Celer - Generic City
Field recordings (e)merge seamlessly & effortlessly in this album (reviewed back in October), kept at arms length from the ambient textures early on, later brought together & interspersed more boldly • Third track "The Street of a Rainy, Gray Day" achieves a sense of union between the two kinds best, nicely blurring the distinction between raw & processed sounds to great effect • Above all, as its title implies, Generic City is about evocation & allusion, bringing vividly to mind the sensations emanating from city life, but stylised & abstracted beyond mere reportage •

12 | Hans Zimmer - Inception - Music from the Motion Picture
Film soundtracks are at their most effective when they're assimilated into the visuals, enhancing them with a light, almost invisible touch • While the complexity of Inception's narrative could have led Hans Zimmer to take that to extremes, he had the confidence to match Christopher Nolan's bold images, eschewing the brain-dead genericism that epitomises most soundtracks these days • Zimmer's score brings some imagination back to the genre, blending electronic elements among the orchestral histrionics with real skill, producing the most exciting score of this kind since Don Davis' The Matrix: Reloaded • Centrepiece "Mombasa" is breathlessly exhilarating, while the languid ambient numbers (chiefly "Old Souls") recall Vangelis in their immobile beauty •

11 | Matthew Herbert - Mahler Symphony X Recomposed
The only album this year, i think, to make me exclaim a genuine "WTF?" when i first read about it • Herbert's take on Mahler's 10th Symphony Adagio (& it's just this first movement that Herbert has taken on, not the whole thing) is not so much "recomposed" as reconceived; in his hands it becomes some kind of post-apocalyptic relic, washed-up, diminished, defocussed & wrecked • Never lapsing into hauntological cliché, Mahler's music occasionally blasts through Herbert's layers of obfuscation; at moments like these, as in the fourth track, the collision of forces is nothing short of awesome •

10 | Richard Skelton - Untitled
Towards the close of last year, Skelton brought out his much-heralded Landings (which featured in my Best Albums of 2009); this release, in a complete contrast, came out quietly, almost tacitly, attached as a bonus disc to the reissue of his Crow Autumn • It contains a fabulous selection of pieces from several of Skelton’s musical alter egos; as Heidika, the focus, twice, is on overlapping guitarwork (the "Reworked" version proves the more interesting); as A Broken Consort, he's in trademark territory, fashioning dense fabrics of noisily bustling strings • As himself, he appears in three more guises, solo artist, collaborator (with Machinefabriek) & interpreter (of Saddleback); all demonstrate Skelton's powerfully potent, single-minded vision, heavily informed by folk practice, infused with both the grief & the geography from which it all emerges • Looking forward, a survey of Richard Skelton’s work will appear on 5:4 in the spring, together with an in-depth interview •

9 | Of Montreal - False Priest
i defy anyone to listen to Of Montreal without a broad smile on their face—even if, as was the case with 2008's Skeletal Lamping, it's a smile expressing confusion as much as delight • False Priest, though, is all merriment from start to finish, Kevin Barnes defining himself as the archmage of post-funk retro campery • Each song's delivered with the élan of the world's most outré extrovert, never showing off for a moment, displaying nothing but the most incredible array of influences & raw talent • Given a lengthy review back in September, anyone hosting a New Year party should put this album on to be guaranteed a smash of an evening •

8 | United Bible Studies - The Gascoigne Observatory
United Bible Studies didn’t just take a step forward with this release, they launched into entirely new sonic territory, bidding an emphatic farewell to their folk foreground • Defying easy categorisation (as all the best music does), this 36-minute improvisation spends a good five or six of them simply setting the scene for what's to follow; & what does follow (described more fully in my recent review on Fluid Radio), emerging from hesitant strings, is music as from the dead of night, moving with minimal haste, its sounds only occasionally recognisable in the gloom • That is, until the latter stages of the piece, when more radiant ideas slowly emerge; i described this conclusion as "a vast, coruscating worship" & that was no mere hyperbole, it really is as powerful as that •

7 | Clouwbeck - From Which the River Rises
Richard Skelton's assorted aliases have already been mentioned, but it's as Clouwbeck that he's impressed me most • This album—despite being, at 33 minutes, one of the shortest in the list—is one of his finest creations • "From the Aegir" almost seems to peak too early; 6 minutes in, there's already been a slow introduction & a huge climax • But Skelton's forces fade without dying away, lurking at the periphery, before returning for an even more effulgent display • It may be Skelton's most multi-layered composition to date; the latter climax is a bewildering seething mass of strings • "The Water's Burden" opts to glower rather than shine, its broodings finally ushering in an unexpected piano, scattering some of the darkness but never losing it completely •

6 | Celer - Dying Star
Reviewed back in August, i described Dying Star as a masterpiece, & that view hasn’t changed • Its overwhelming restraint was clearly an issue for some, while others sought to make a rather crude & over simplistic connection to the death of one of its creators, Dani Baquet-Long (honestly, can’t we move on?) • Demonstrating just how arresting quiet, gentle material can be, this album goes way beyond conventional ambient music; it is, in fact, Celer's most courageous release since Sieline, about as minimal as one could ever get in this medium • Within such a context as this, the tiniest of fluctuations becomes a major gesture, & one's perception of time is transfigured; i've never felt 50 minutes pass so quickly •

5 | Stefano Scodanibbio - Oltracuidansa
In perhaps the year’s most fascinating electroacoustic work, double bass aficionado Scodanibbio has turned the stereotypically ungainly perceptions of the instrument upside down • The 8-channel tape part expands the solo instrument into a double bass chorus, & the result is a tour-de-force of ingenuity in which at almost no point does Scodanibbio play the instrument in a manner one might consider conventional • It's the duration that makes the piece succeed as well as it does; anything shorter could become a vacuous circus piece; at just under an hour, though, one is irresistibly drawn into its massive canvas, the edges becoming lost from sight • In any case, Scodanibbio is no showman; Oltracuidansa is a work more concerned with subtlety than virtuosity •

4 | Christopher McFall - Lost at sea and seldom found / The Anatomical Submissiveness Of Lions
McFall's impeccable handling of field recordings was taken to a new level of experience on this pair of releases, the former of which is available free here, from the Impulsive Habitat netlabel • On cassette release The Anatomical Submissiveness Of Lions, the sources are disfigured beyond the point of recognition, taking on a horribly ominous countenance • Lost at sea and seldom found, on the other hand, while hardly less brutal with its material, allows in a greater amount of both diversity & light • & even when things become briefly identifiable (as in the hydrophone recordings in "The persistence of breakable memory"), they do nothing to trouble the concentration of McFall's sonic environment • Both these albums suggest McFall is perhaps the best artist working with field recordings today •

3 | Keith Fullerton Whitman - Disingenuity/Disingenuousness
Despite its brevity—which, at a mere 33 minutes, only just goes beyond the realm of an EP—the amount of boundless energy with which Whitman teases his analogue paraphernalia makes this seem like a much longer release • The sheer relentlessness is impressive enough, but it's the filigree surface movement that stands out most; in fact, it makes a distinctly refreshing change to hear music of this sort, not content to settle for interesting textures, but instead taking charge of the minutest of details, pulling, contorting, flicking & yanking them into ever new shapes • All of this intense detail may account for the album's duration, but it makes for a breathless rather than an exhausting listen, & i'd have loved to have heard much, much more of this fantastic stuff •

2 | The Birthday Massacre - Pins and Needles
As i pointed out in my review back in September, The Birthday Massacre's previous releases have been good, but by no means outstanding • The relentless energy & songwriting prowess on show through each & every song on Pins and Needles therefore set it miles apart not just from their earlier work, but pretty much every other electronic rock act around • Despite being a studio creation, it has the scope & vitality of a live concert performance, the songs following each other in an order that's both satisfying & logical • Utterly thrilling from start to finish, it's also the perfect vehicle for singer Chibi’s superb vocals, alternating between soft whispers & passionate declamations • Fourth track "Control" is without a doubt my song of the year, as relentlessly infectious now as when i first heard it three months ago • Whatever you may think about music with the "goth" epithet attached, or synthrock for that matter, The Birthday Massacre have redefined the genre on this outstandingly brilliant album •



1 | Chubby Wolf - Ornitheology
Danielle Baquet-Long's legacy is only just beginning to emerge from the shadows, but this, her first posthumous release, sets the bar exceptionally high • Released on cassette, yet in effect a double album, Ornitheology is one of the most relentlessly impressive ambient albums to have ever seen light of day • Baquet-Long's solo music has always been demanding—& presenting the listener with twin 40-minute tracks is certainly quite a demand—but the rewards are remarkable • While the second track more-or-less keeps its reserve ("too warm to be ascetic, too cool to be ecstatic" i wrote back in July), the opener, "On Burnt, Gauzed Wings", throws open the floodgates of raw, unchecked beauty • Every time i've listened to this track—which, by itself, lasts longer than some albums—i've never failed to be very deeply moved • It seems to work on every possible level; whether approached from a cerebral or an emotional angle, it responds & relates to that approach • Without wishing to get anthropomorphic, it's as though it empathises with the listener, & music like that is rare indeed •

Best Albums of 2010 (Part 1)

Continuing the 5:4 retrospective, & after probably far too much deliberation, here are the first twenty of my forty Best Albums of 2010 (to be concluded tomorrow):

40 | Jenks Miller and Nicholas Szczepanik - American Gothic
Barely suppressed abrasion is the undercurrent throughout this fruitful collaboration • The context for it couldn't be more gentle; "Sin Killers", for example, suspends the rough edges as in a viscous liquid • But when the noise senses freedom, it's like a bull at a gate; at first, in "White Light", it emerges in fits & starts, but ultimately runs amok in final track "Cranberry Sauce", turning its exquisitely beautiful stasis into an overwhelming torrent of effluvial overdrive •

39 | Supersilent - 10
Last year’s 9 proved conclusively that there was life for Supersilent after Jarle Vespestad's departure, & its successor goes even farther • It's Arve Henriksen's astonishing trumpet-work that dominates this album, by turns evanescent ("10.1"), claustrophobic ("10.6"), & lyrical ("10.8" - one of this year's most beautiful tracks), but at no point sounding remotely like a conventional trumpet • The evocative use of organ & electronics takes turns in both background & foreground; restraint is the watchword, though, only very occasionally protruding more forcefully, as in the bass thuds of the penultimate track •

38 | Talvihorros - Music in Four Movements
Talvihorros—the pseudonym of London musician Ben Chatwin—was a new name to me this year • The control demonstrated on his latest album is impressive, identifiable sources firmly melded into more abstract, gritty textures • The focus isn't always maintained, but the intensity Chatwin brings to his music is weighty & keeps things engaging • Third track "Thoughts of Violence" stands out most, staving off its climax for over ten minutes, but all the better for it •

37 | Greg Haines - Until the Point of Hushed Support
A four-minute introduction which spends half that time at the limits of audibility is a bold way to start an album • Lush, stately lyricism follows (stylistically akin to Jóhann Jóhannsson), but it's the breathtaking third track "In the Event of a Sudden Loss" that remains with me most • Ponderous & expansive, much of its time is spent in search of just which ideas are the meaningful ones; it's almost like an overture in search of a tune, but what it finds instead is a cortège, from which a plangent counterpoint—borne on emotive soaring violins—struggles in vain to develop •

36 | The Silesian String Quartet - getString
The year’s most exhilarating chamber music release seems to have fallen under the radar of most reviewers • It showcases a cluster of Danish composers, their respective quartets bound together in a series of brief electronic studies by Morten Riis • The spirit of Helmut Lachenmann seems to permeate many of the pieces, which, despite being far removed from conventional styles & manners, avoid lapsing into mere novelty & empty gestures • Perhaps most striking is Jexper Holmen's Intend/Ascend, an epic struggle placing the players at the limits of their instruments (or should that be the instruments at the limits of their players?); in Holmen's words, "the music burns through the surface of the instruments..." •

35 | Noveller - Desert Fires
Sarah Lipstate's latest album finds her in ambivalent mood, her trademark drones sometimes allowed to rise & expand untroubled, elsewhere worried & tickled by any number of surface anomalies • The layers of guitar make the fires in her particular desert blaze with a kind of tempered ferocity, heard to best effect in the central tracks "Kites Calm Desert Fires" & "Toothnest (For Chris Habib)" • Lipstate evokes a rawness—even, perhaps, a primitivity—in her album that makes one feel drawn into a kind of intimate ceremony •

34 | Supersilent - 11
This vinyl-only release continues the ponderings put forward on 8, the material dating back to those sessions • There are times when it emerges into the most accessible of places—as in the soft tonality of "11.2"—while elsewhere ("11.4") a more strident post-rock mood predominates • All the same, Supersilent have already shown the brilliance they're capable of sans Jarle Vespestad, & it's in the ascetic, drumless "11.5" that they seem to reach their most transcendent heights •

33 | Ekca Liena - Sleep Paralysis (Expansion Tracks)
Dan Mackenzie's 2009 Sleep Paralysis was good; these half dozen "Expansion Tracks", offcuts & alternatives to those originals (& available free here), are, if anything, even better • The first three capture & sustain distinct atmospheres, whereupon "Paralysis (Version 2)" launches into a slow but vast crescendo, sloughing off all traces of the beats from the original, preferring a darkly acidic stasis • Closing track "Sleep (Minimal)" shows how comfortable Mackenzie is with material poles apart, its single chord allowed to drift & shimmer for almost nine minutes, captivating the ear through every one of them •

32 | Autechre - Oversteps
Considerable aggravation dogged the release of Autechre's first album in two years, an ostensible leak turning out to be an ill-considered fake, resulting in a wave of suspicion & uncertainty that persisted even after the genuine article had appeared • What all that hullabaloo highlighted most was Autechre's ongoing ability to take their audience by surprise; expecting the unexpected is unavoidable, a condition rare among today's welter of beat-fiends • But Messrs. Booth & Brown are masters of their craft; Oversteps seems to hark back to Untilted in the way it takes sounds & gestures rooted in dance music & turns them inside out, forming exotic, unfolding percussion-scapes that beguile & entrance; dancing has never been more beside the point •

31 | Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
Opening his latest album with the unstoppable onslaught that is "Nil Admirari" ("to be astonished by nothing") isn't just a bold move; considering the rest of Returnal sounds nothing like it, it's a mischievous, even recalcitrant decision • To some extent (& whether or not this was intentional is debatable), this first track serves to cleanse one's aural palate; either way, what follows is unavoidably coloured by it, the exquisite stillness & determined quietude of the remaining tracks enhanced in its wake • Immediate successor "Describing Bodies" is a case in point, glowing with the intensity of gold leaf on an ikon; & even when noise makes discreet inroads later on (as in "Pelham Island Road"), its relative restraint makes it no more troublesome than stardust glistening on the music's surface •

30 | Clem Leek - Holly Lane
Having begun his output so unimpressively—with the appallingly inept Through the Annular—Clem Leek has proved on Holly Lane that he’s made of more talented stuff • The album hovers between calmness & slightly more anxious climes, many of the tracks betraying an aged quality that's difficult to define • His loops occupy varied terrain, encompassing Lethean sublimity ("At The Mercy Of The Waves") & Stygian gloom ("Cliff Castle"), but at his best, Leek allows them to sing, as in the overlapping waves of mournful melody in final track "The Burnt Home" • He still has much to prove, but Holly Lane has begun to do just that •

29 | Tor Lundvall - Ghost Years
How does Tor Lundvall do it? • Each of his albums seems to explore pretty similar territory to its predecessors, yet every time presents different vantage points & fresh perspectives • Ghost Years is another extensive nocturne (can any of his music be listened to properly before midnight?), Lundvall's voice once again subdued & sotto voce, over half-heard beats that serve only to demarcate phrases rather than provide any meaningful forward momentum • Lundvall's ability to sustain this kind of atmosphere is legendary, & in the more abstract episodes, that atmosphere becomes all-enveloping •

28 | *AR - Wolf Notes
In every sense, 2010 has marked the joining together of Richard Skelton & Autumn Richardson (better known to some as Autumn Grieve) • This, their first joint project, combines words & music in a heartfelt homage to the landscape that inspired it, namely the west uplands of Cumbria • An accompanying chapbook of poetic musings & miniature vial of incense set the context for Wolf Notes, which at first seems little different from Skelton's established sound, strings straining to express & emote their weighty ideas • But Richardson's voice soon takes centre-stage, obsessing over a wordless fragment of folk melody, entirely altering both the direction & the tenor of Skelton's textures, which now glide & coalesce around her • The overall sound is in many ways richer than much of Skelton's solo output, & one can only hope further collaborations ensue; Wolf Notes is too good to be a one-off •

27 | O. Children - O. Children
In a year with umpteen surprises, O. Children's debut release was one of the most striking examples • From the first track onwards, i was thrown back into the maelstrom of music that precoccupied me in the early 1980s: Fields of the Nephilim, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, et al • It's a risky endeavour to revive the sounds & mannerisms of such artists, whose contributions to the evolution of post-punk & goth rock are so deeply engrained in the fabric of British music, & remain so deeply loved • But this is no empty pastiche; O. Children are not a tribute band & Tobi O'Kandi's remarkable bass voice is no imitation Carl McCoy or Andrew Eldritch • Laden in grandiosity they may be, but their songs are no less lyrical for all that; third track "Heels"—its melody rising from the gravel of the verse to the sky of the chorus—is one of the most glorious of the year •

26 | Robyn - Body Talk
Despite being released in a somewhat convoluted manner, the collection of songs Robyn's released through 2010 have redefined electronic pop for the rest of the decade • Her trademark snarl persists in tracks like "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do" & "None of Dem", but Robyn's more vulnerable side is projected with far greater prominence & urgency • In these songs is romance from all angles, from nascent beginnings ("Hang With Me") through becoming the other woman ("Call Your Girlfriend") & being a full-on stalker ("Dancing On My Own" - perhaps the year's best song) to one racked with guilt & regrets ("Time Machine") • In them all, Robyn is a Romantic with a capital 'R'—lyrics such as "Don't you tell her that I give you something you never even knew you missed?" speak of emotions both deep & profound—& despite everything, she's abounding in hope, heard nowhere more passionately than on "Indestructible": "I'm gonna love like you I've never been hurt before / I'm gonna love you like I'm indestructible" • No other pop album this year came close to Robyn's perfectly crafted, insanely catchy music •

25 | Benjamin Dauer - Burning of Wine
The first netlabel release to feature in this list comes from one of the most discerning of them all: Distance Recordings • Unlike most netlabels, Distance prefers quality to quantity, & Benjamin Dauer's new album—available free, here, in both lossless & lossy formats—is undeniably first-rate • Dauer takes his time, allowing the first couple of tracks to establish a mood, before bringing out more potent ideas • It undulates between the front & back of one's attention, as the best ambient does, giving the distinct impression Dauer has taken pains over each & every moment of passing sound • It's therefore a constantly engaging listen, with some well-judged surprises en route, of which the unexpected textures of "Duotone Pulse" & "Contoured Silhouettes" are the most striking • But for a bass lover like myself, nothing tops the powerful subsonic rumblings of penultimate track "Succession" •

24 | Jónsi - Go
It took some effort to push expectations aside before listening to this new release from Jónsi, due to my serious distaste for all things Sigur Rós (i've tried to like them, i really have) • But it's worth the effort, as on his own, Jónsi's music is a revelation, displaying an acute melodic sensibility • His delicious falsetto hurtles about all over the place, seemingly wanting to be everywhere at once, unbounded enthusiasm seeming to be the guiding principle • The instrumental arrangements that surround Jónsi's delightful vocal gymnastics are brilliant, both supporting the songs & driving them to ever more effusive heights • Overflowing with raw energy & ebullience, Jónsi has created the feel-good album of 2010, without compromising in any way • How come Sigur Rós have never done that? •

23 | Solo Andata - Ritual
i'm extremely grateful to Michael Vitrano at Desire Path Recordings for putting this excellent release my way • Described as "sonic 'topographies' ", the four tracks that comprise Ritual are equal parts musique concrète, sound sculpture, post-ambient drone & blatantly unclassifiable • More than anything, though, they're an aggressively imaginative amalgam of field recordings, organic sounds, prepared piano & much, much else besides (including, apparently, "the vibration of human cancerous cells"); in fact, 'imaginative' doesn't do this album justice, the extravagant level of invention at work here is magnificent •

22 | Demdike Stare - Liberation Through Hearing / Voices of Dust
Both of these albums made deep impressions on me this year, in no small part due to their almost incomprehensible originality • If one analyses what's going on in any particular track, the basic elements never seem too out of the ordinary, yet what Demdike Stare make from them is music truly beyond the sum of its parts • It can even be difficult to articulate what precisely one feels they're evoking—something several decades old, raw & monochromatic—but the atmosphere is unmistakeable & astoundingly vivid; & for all its seeming familiarity, it is very disquieting •

21 | Svarte Greiner - Penpals Forever (And Ever)
Not a million miles removed from Demdike Stare, but even more startlingly sinister, Greiner's expanded vinyl version of his 2008 cassette release is one of this year's most sonically distressed albums • The first side is often harsh but muted, percussive sounds in the middle distance, later appearing in relief against a threatening drone that, at the last, turns nasty • Side two, more bizarre, is even more arrestingly effective; less coherent at first, it eventually deconstructs into a sparse, resonant space before reconsituting itself as a baleful wall of sound • Dizzying & disorienting, this is music that leaves one needing silence for some time afterwards •

Best EPs of 2010

& so it finally begins, the lengthy annual retrospective of all that was best in 2010 • As usual, let's start with my run-down of the 10 Best EPs of the year:

10 | dB Soundworks - Steambirds (iOS) Soundtrack
Something of an oddity in this list, perhaps, but Danny Baranowsky's synthetic score for the splendid iPhone game Steambirds is incredibly effective • He's managed to capture perfectly the atmosphere & mannerisms suitable for the game's airborne antics, bringing to mind the soundtracks of any number of British WWII films • The four-minute "Main Theme", in particular, is full of variety, never composing by numbers, while the additional "Boss Track" takes the invention even further, supplemented by two splendid miniatures, corresponding to success or failure in the game • It's available free (or not, if you're feeling generous) via the dB Soundworks Bandcamp page • While you're there, check out Baranowsky's music for Canabalt, also stirring stuff •

9 | David Lynch - Good Day Today/I Know
Okay, hands up anyone who predicted David Lynch would bring out a single this year? • Keep your hand up if you also knew it would be a delicate electronic dance number • No-one? • Defying expectations with his typical enthusiasm & flair, Lynch’s twin A-side took everyone by surprise, maybe even Lynch himself • Über-processed vocals, autotuned to the nth degree, laid over a brisk, unimposing disco beat, it could all have been horribly cheesy • But Lynch somehow pulls off experiments like this, not only sounding like no-one else, but actually making it kind of cool • The more laid-back “I Know” is even better, more obviously Lynchian, ominous & rather unnerving •

8 | Steven Wilson - Cover Version VI
Wilson brought his unique series of cover versions (spanning seven years) to a close with this sixth installment, choosing Donovan's "Lord of the Reedy River" • It's given a beautifully hazy, blissed-out treatment, somewhere between the sound of Porcupine Tree & Wilson's solo Insurgentes project • It's coupled with a new song of Wilson's, "An End to End"; deliciously tuneful, Wilson stretches out the slow, simple melody (showing off the very real beauty of his singing voice) before wrapping it in opulently rich harmonies •

7 | Ekca Liena - Orb Night
It seems with each passing month, ambient music (so-called) atrophies further, becomes more of a parody of itself, misappropriated by the talentless & listened to by the undiscerning • Yet, from time to time, a voice with something different to say in this most maligned of genres appears, & Ekca Liena (aka Dan Mackenzie) has just such a voice • Available as a digital download (free, or otherwise) from Blindsight Records, Orb Night is pretty much the only ambient EP i've heard in 2010 to demonstrate real maturity • Opening track "Strange Dusk" begins pleasantly enough, but undergoes such a large-scale disintegration later that one's left dazed in its wake; Mackenzie is satisfyingly unafraid where noise is concerned • But it's not all as full-on as that; the 10-minute closer "Wing Footed" plays with a simple foreground motif, under which the ground is forever moving, concluding with the richness of a myriad organ stops •

6 | Christopher McFall - A Long Time Running from the Suicide Strays
A major factor in the decline of ambient music is the junk peddled by many netlabels • Resting Bell, on the other hand, keeps one's dying faith in the enterprise alive, their output (all free) at the more engaging end of the spectrum • They're in perfect company with Christopher McFall, who never fails to impress, & on this 25-minute release he's at the top of his game • His ability to blend different flavours of field recordings together is astonishing, & apparently effortless, the results always sounding utterly organic; there's really no-one working in this area whom i admire more at the moment • As usual, the tracks are themselves subdivided into shorter sections, all of which are among McFall's darkest material to date (strongly reminiscent of 2008's The City of Almost); McFall's source sounds remain just out of reach, making for a disorienting, overwhelming experience • Available free here, but sadly—& stupidly—there's no lossless option; McFall's music really requires nothing less •

5 | Hecq - Sura
After 2009’s Steeltongued, Ben Lukas Boysen declared he was bidding farewell to beats • His memory’s clearly playing tricks on him, though, if this energetic, Dubstep-infused EP is anything to go by • Reviewed back in June, Sura explores the more fantastical reaches of beat-play, bass-heavy & imposing, opting to bludgeon the ears more casually than in his earlier work • While the title track interpolates the beats with ambient meditations, as only Hecq can (at least, this well), central track "Tiamat" jettisons anything remotely gentle, lumbering over its shifting percussion like a labour of love • Matta's remix of the title track is no mere add-on, but a powerful reworking that exposes even more starkly its Dubstep roots •

4 | Kyle Bobby Dunn - Rural Route No. 2
At his best, Dunn's sonic constructions have a surface like polished marble: impossible to grip on to, riddled with grain & texture • This 20-minute edifice captures precisely that quality, & more besides • Its opening minutes beguile but also deceive; soft, gently building washes of sound gradually turn increasingly firm & unyielding, achieving solidity • One becomes increasingly aware that noise is at the heart of this music, ultimately fixating on a series of sheer, pulsing slabs of sound • The more lengthy second part (titled after an obscure term for the final period of life) takes a different approach, somewhat blunted but more mobile, presenting an unceasing parade of questioning surges, noise lurking at its fringes, like a half-remembered memory of the seashore •

3 | Cosey Fanni Tutti & Philippe Petit - Mist While Sleeping/Invisible Whispers
At a little over eight minutes, this has the shortest duration of any of the releases in this list—yet its impact & aftertaste are among the most breathtaking of anything i've heard this year • Entrenched in dirty layers of surface noise akin to the concentric rings of Dante's Inferno, Cosey's voice emerges like a siren from the end of the world, the one remaining soft-edged thing in a sharp & jagged landscape • It's a relentless, harrowing & ultimately exhausting listen; the vestiges of former things heard at the periphery betray little of their former glory • In the midst of such desolation—particularly through "Invisible Whispers"—Cosey's fragile soprano seems to fluctuate between singing & keening •

2 | Demdike Stare - Forest of Evil
There can be little doubt that 2010 has been Demdike Stare's year, in which no less than a trilogy of releases have seen light of day • At 24 minutes, Forest of Evil may be the shortest of these, but if anything, seems to ramp up & focus the intensity • Surprisingly, the evolutionary beats early on in "Dusk" can be heard to make allusions to Autechre, later coalescing into something more regular; underpinned for much of its duration by drone elements, it makes for a hypnotic quarter of an hour • That's when it's not breaking off completely, fragmenting into shards of noise & field recordings, which form the very fabric of "Dawn", ultimately turned into a quasi-tribal, ritualistic evocation • The lengthy, mildly hauntological, conclusion seems at first to take the sting out of proceedings, but as it falls into distant, anonymous clangs & surface noise, one's left feeling distinctly unsettled •



1 | Kayo Dot - Stained Glass
For seven years, Toby Driver's Kayo Dot project has explored the outer reaches not only of sound, but of the entire process of composition • The results, at times, have an unavoidable tendency to sprawl, although the strength of such releases as Choirs of the Eye & Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue (in my view, their best album to date) is a searing testament to Driver's methods & ideas • Stained Glass is their first small-scale release, & finds these ideas concentrated to the point of intoxication • It opens, somewhat ritualistically, with the semblance of a song, one that sets out with seemingly antitheistic aims & outlook (evoking—&, indeed, quoting—at first, words from Isaiah 14:13):

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God
Will chain the stars and pull down the heavens
Will sow the seeds of corruption...

But Stained Glass is more, so much more, than just a song, & for the remaining two-thirds the group are occupied in a kind of sonic alchemy, creating an instrumental outworking as irresistable as a tractor beam • Support on this occasion is enlisted from Russell Greenberg on vibraphone & guitarist Trey Spruance, in whose group Secret Chiefs 3 Driver himself has taken part • Greenberg's contributions, in particular, give the music a flavour unlike Kayo Dot's previous output, coating it in supersize pieces of glitter, harking too at the world of avant-jazz • Once Spruance gets going properly, about three-quarters in, he distorts himself so drastically in the pursuit of his soaring melody that almost any semblance of guitar is lost •

Let's put it plainly: Stained Glass is a masterpiece, a mind-blowing demonstration of raw compositional muscle, in which the group's disparate forces improvise & intermingle to perfection, impossibly focussed on Driver's all-seeing creative vision • That such radical music should also be so beautiful—&, thereby, so accessible—is simply amazing • Essential listening for anyone & everyone •