| Best Music Of 2008 |
| This was another year that I started thinking was a not so good year for music, but then I moved to NYC and somehow started getting slightly more excited about lo-fi noisy indie rock stuff again. We'll see what happens in 2009... (also, I'm not even trying with these descriptions, so just listen to the music and make your own damn blurbs...) #1: Rokhausen: The Data Cloud Sessions: self-released / digital release through Scolex Recordings The best mix I've ever heard. Download it right now if you haven't already. #2: DJ Donna Summer: Panther Tracks: Cock Rock Disco Jason Forrest's danciest album yet; 100% RAAAAAVE, glowsticks not included. #3: Grouper: Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill: Type Sometimes life is just too heavy and there's no place you'd rather be than safe and sound in your bed, asleep. This is the type of album I just wish I could crawl inside and live in. #4: Vivian Girls: Vivian Girls: Mauled By Tigers / In The Red Short fast indie pop songs, girl group harmonies, over in 20 minutes. I like. A lot. #5 :Paavoharju: Laulu Laakson Kukista: Fonal More of the same, as in still completely original and undescribable bizarreness from a mysterious Finnish collective, except this one's a bit more ambitious and all-over-the place (there's even some disco!) but somehow it works, and might even be better than their first album. #6: Growing: All The Way: The Social Registry Like the sound of guitars running through "gate" filters? Here's a whole album of them! And it's great! #7: Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles: Last Gang The chiptune scene can hate this duo all they want, I still enjoy this album for its unique sound and catchy tunes. #8: Project Serendipity: Linear Lullabies: Hollow Soul IDM isn't dead!!! Really!!! #9: Von Hayes: Evident Eyelid: State Capital For anyone who thinks Alien Lanes is the best album ever, here's your album of the year. #10: Starkey: Ephemeral Exhibits: Planet Mu American dubstep: the bar has officially been set. #11: Beck: Modern Guilt: Geffen After phoning it in for 2 albums, Beck tries something different and ends up with his best album since the '90s. I think I'm looking forward to his sad albums more than his happy ones now... #12: Twenty Knives: Royal Invitation: free download from his site A short EP of acid, singing robots, and octopods. #13: Jacaszek: Treny: Miasmah Stunning ambient/opera/glitch from Poland (I think). #14: Benga: Diary Of An Afro Warrior: Tempa 2008 was probably the best year for dubstep yet, and this was another landmark album of the scene. #15: Venetian Snares: Detrimentalist: Planet Mu Aaron Funk is unstoppable. This is the best Snares album in forever (in Snares years that is). #16: Cardopusher: Unity Means Power: Murder Channel I thought this guy was strictly going dubstep (maybe the breakcore tracks are old or something) but anyway, his brand of ridiculous samplemashing is miles beyond anything coming out of either genre. #17: High Places: 3/07-9/07 + High Places: Thrill Jockey One of those bands whose sound you can't really describe and can't really describe how or why it works, but it does. It's reverby, it's sunny, it makes me happy. #18: Buraka Som Sistema: Black Diamond: Enchufada This will probably get more hype next year, but it came out this year in Europe so I'm including it. I'm still not sure if this actually counts as kuduro or if it's some sort of bastardized version, but it sounds fine to me. #19: The Sight Below: Glider: Ghostly International I don't know if it's a coincidence that this came out the same year as the 4cd box set reissue of the Gas back catalog, but it sort of feels like a sort of epilogue or sequel to it. Minimal ambient techno with post-rock guitars. #20: Meat Beat Manifesto: Autoimmune: Metropolis / Planet Mu This wasn't quite the return to Satyricon that I heard it was rumoured to be (except for "Solid Waste"), and it's not quite MBM gone dubstep (they've been doing dubby bass-heavy stuff for years) but it is their best album in a very, very long time. Honorable Mention: Zomby: Where Were U In 92: Werk Gas: Nah Und Fern: Kompakt Crystal Stilts: Alight Of Night: Slumberland Wavves: Wavves: Woodsist King Darves: The Sun Splits For The Blind Swimmer: De Stijl NOMO: Ghost Rock: Ubiquity Grails: Doomsdayers Holiday: Temporary Residence Animal Collective: Water Curses EP: Domino Toecutter: Here I Go Again: self-released Mr Oizo: Lambs Anger: Ed Banger Abe Vigoda: Skeleton: Post Present Media v/a: Little Things: flau Better Beatles: Mercy Beat: Hook Or Crook Enduser: Left: Ohm Resistance Portishead: 3rd: Mercury Xervious/Raid: The Xerve 3": Scolex Recordings caUSE co-MOTION!: It's Time: Slumberland etc. |