[b]#10.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/Com-Truise-LP-Galactic-Melt-cover-300x300.jpg]
Com Truise
[search="com truise galactic melt"]Galactic Melt[/search]
Glo-Fi[/b]
[b]#9.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/martyn-ghost-people_0.jpg]
Martyn
[search="martyn ghost people"]Ghost People[/search]
21st Century Bass Music[/b]
[i]Ghost People[/i] is, by and large, an album that one would absolutely expect to come from its label, Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder. Fully instrumental, the album dabbles in several different structures, ranging from almost-dnb to almost-dubstep, but usually returning to a groovy instrumental upbeat hip-hop tempo. Featuring a healthy glitch aesthetic which one would expect from a Brainfeeder signee, Martyn's sound is unique enough that it becomes difficult to describe, but fans of the LA scene will not be let down. More accessible than Flying Lotus's own work but less ambient and more upbeat than Matthewdavid or Teebs, [i]Ghost People[/i] is a late release from 2011 that I would have been sad to miss.
[b]#8.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/wander-wonder.jpg]
Balam Acab
[search="balam acab wander wonder"]Wander/Wonder[/search]
Witch House[/b]
[b]#7.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/Holy-Ghost-Hi-Res-Cover-Art-300x300.jpg]
Holy Ghost!
[search=""holy ghost! - holy ghost!""]Holy Ghost![/search]
Indie Disco[/b]
[i]Holy Ghost![/i] is far and away the most fun album on my list. While many of these albums knock on the door of dance-worthy, [i]Holy Ghost![/i] is already in the party and breaking down on the dancefloor. Featuring great rhythms and basslines, disco beats, and lyrically-driven tracks that are as fun to listen to as they are to sing along with, [i]Holy Ghost![/i] has all of the synthy indie pop energy of Phoenix, Cut Copy, or Two Door Cinema Club, but with a fresh disco twist. I actually found this group because they were touring with Cut Copy after the release of Cut Copy's [i]Zonoscope[/i], and wound up liking [i]Holy Ghost![/i] better than the album that led me to it.
[b]#6.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/space_is_only_noise.jpg]
Nicolas Jaar
[search="space is only noise"]Space is Only Noise[/search]
Minimalist Techno[/b]
[b]#5.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/itsartificial.jpg]
Andrew Bayer
[search="andrew bayer it's artificial"]It's Artificial[/search]
Progressive House[/b]
Andrew Bayer's [i]It's Artificial[/i] is, for me, a decidedly traditional album. The album has an identifiable genre and the structure is layered but otherwise uncomplicated. As such, it lacks any gimmicks and instead shines through pure composition and choice of synths. Truly a beautiful album, the songs flow into one another and the tempo moves from near-ambient to almost-danceable, and the lead track [i]Counting the Points[/i] would be dancefloor ready if it didn't take so long to wind up. But don't get me wrong-- the long-winded nature of this album is something I greatly enjoy, and this album will catch the ear of all but those with the very shortest attention spans.
[b]#4.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/mirrorwriting.jpg]
Jamie Woon
[search="mirrorwriting"]Mirrorwriting[/search]
Modern Soul[/b]
[i]Mirrorwriting[/i] comes in the recent resurgence of soulful vocals layered over electronic beats; it was somewhat overshadowed by James Blake's eponymous debut (which is excluded from this list because it quite literally goes without mentioning and received more than enough hype this year), and it is unfortunate that is the case, because [i]Mirrorwriting[/i] fills an entirely different niche, despite being in a similar genre. The album somehow strikes a middle ground between [i]James Blake[/i] and Miike Snow's [i]Miike Snow[/i], with an upbeat structure and soulful vocals performed by Woon. The album is far more accessible than Blake's, but has less of a pop feel than Miike Snow's. A collection of strong singles define the album; [i]Night Air[/i], [i]Lady Luck[/i], [i]Middle[/i], and [i]TMRW[/i] could each stand entirely on their own. However, the other tracks are hardly filler, and instead transition between the catchier, more vocal-driven tracks, and act as the album's binding. As a whole, this one is wonderful to sit back and chill to, especially when you want something modern and soulful that isn't as dark as James Blake or The Weeknd, and will be more widely and easily appreciated with company.
[b]#3.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/JohnMausWeMustBecomeThePitilessCensorsOfOurselvesRecensione.jpg]
John Maus
[search=""john maus - we must become the pitiless censors of ourselves""]We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves[/search]
Avant-Garde Pop[/b]
This is art you can dance to. [i]We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves[/i], with its catchy hooks, would almost be a pop album if it wasn't for John Maus's voice booming in the distance throughout. The whole album has a strange ethereal vibe to it, but somehow it's still upbeat and entirely delicious. Despite often having trouble hearing exactly what Maus is saying, I still find myself singing along and if I don't listen to something else afterward, I wander around humming the choruses all day. John Maus has assembled something that will please both the art critic in you as well as somehow producing a lightweight pop album that is simply a delight to listen to.
[b]#2.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/destroyer-kaputt.jpg]
Destroyer
[search="destroyer kaputt cd 2011"]Kaputt[/search]
Singer-Songwriter/Soft Rock[/b]
Cheese. This is the word that comes to mind when I think of [i]Kaputt[/i], and it's not one that I would have thought I would use to describe my #2 album of the year. But Destroyer's [i]Kaputt[/i] layers on the cheese. From the smooth soft-rock guitar solos to the ever-present saxophone, if you're not paying attention you could accidentally write the album off as an incomprehensibly campy 80s album. But Dan Bejar's voice smoothly delivering his surprisingly-dark lyrics over top of all of that cheese binds the whole package together, and instead of an entirely forgettable album we're left with one which is quite unforgettable. The hooks are catchy and the lyrics are clever, and somewhere along the way you forget that Bejar has chosen 80s soft rock as his medium as it fits together so fluidly, so perfectly, that all of that sax is just one more thing to love about the album. I'll admit that I'm a newcomer to Destroyer's work, and I understand that his previous albums are nothing like this one, so with that knowledge, if you have not given it a listen already, [b]do not overlook this album[/b]. From the lead single, [i]Kaputt[/i], which tells us that it "All sounds like a dream," to the long and winding finale, [i]Bay of Pigs[/i], which reads like a frustrated love letter to every girl Bejar has ever wasted a night with, the whole album has a calming, sad overtone quite in contrast to the soft rock aesthetic, and maybe it's this contrast which brings the album its elusive allure. Whatever the draw is exactly, this is an album that I just keep coming back to.
[b]#1.
[img=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14943993/covers/matthewdavid-outmind.jpg]
Matthewdavid
[search="outmind"]Outmind[/search]
Semi-Ambient Glitch-Hop[/b]
Matthewdavid's [i]Outmind[/i] is Matthewdavid's debut LP, released on the Brainfeeder label, and as always Brainfeeder has an incredible ability to find hidden talent and pull it out of the electronic primordial soup. The only intelligble sample introduces the album: a radio announcer tells us that we are "now listening to the awe-inspiring sounds in Los Angeles California, looking down at the city scene, surrounded in heavy smog", setting the scene before the sample is subsumed by Matthewdavid's growing soundscape. If Teebs's [i]Ardour[/i] was an electronic tour of the jungle, [i]Outmind[/i] is the crowded city, and is every bit as lush, but is decisively inorganic sounding, with the occasional sliced or stretched vocal, never quite intelligible, with copious amounts of compression and white noise. Delicious beats run throughout the album's length, fading in and out as the album sometimes becomes a thick ambient soup and sometimes coalesces into a rhythm. The leading track, [i]Like You Mean It[/i], crests with a drop which can only be described as "huge", and [i]almost[/i] turns into a danceable tune. The more active tracks feature incredible basslines and beats and the more ambient tracks are so thickly textured they are palpable. [i]Outmind[/i] is groundbreaking, bleeding-edge experimental electronic music, but it never ceases to be oh-so-listenable and, at least to those familiar with the scene, quite accessible.