Blog

Well, it had to be done, and it's a handy excuse to go back and listen to all of these again. Limiting myself to one release per artist and with apologies to
Lawrence English, Sylvain Chauveau, Black Dice, Jan Jelinek, Jasper TX, The Wrens, The Unicorns and all the others I either forgot or didn't have room for, here's one way of looking at my favourite records of the decade:


1. Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of... (2001)
I can't think of another album in my adult life that has influenced the music I listen to more than this one, and it's fitting that it was released at the beginning of a decade that for me personally was a discovery of ambient music. Together with its successor, ...And Their Refinement Of The Decline, this is where I go when I get paralysed by the agony of choice. Like a Rothko painting, it appears from a distance to be simplistic, but when you stand and stare for a long while, it turns out to be as detailed as your own imagination. A soundtrack to thought.


Stars of the Lid - Requiem For Dying Mothers, Part 1


2. William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I-IV (2003)
From bohemian New York rooftops to drab and wintry Southwick chimney pots, but the spellbinding melancholic beauty of these records transcends circumstances and back stories. Condensation on windows, graffiti furtively scratched into plastic, long necklines and grids of railings. Just some of all possible worlds that exist in these loops.


An excerpt from William Basinski - D|P 1.1


3. Joanna Newsom - Ys (2006)
With courageously poetic and challengingly inventive lyrics set to the subtlest and most absorbing arrangements, Ys took a good few listens before you could stand back far enough to see the whole picture. I love the way her voice seems to have a different sound for almost every word on some stretches of this album, and I still find myself smiling at the wonderful rhymes, assonance and alliteration of the lyrics:

But walk a little faster
And don't look backwards
Your feast is to the East which lies a little past the pasture
When the blackbirds hear tea whistling, they rise and clap
And their applause caws the kettle black
And we can't have none of that!
Move along, Bear; there, there; that's that.
Monkey & Bear


4. Machinefabriek - Marijn (2006)
This spot could have gone to one of about a dozen or so of his releases (including the fantastic Ranonkel, Dauw, Box Music with Stephen Vitiello and Drawn with Soccer Committee , such has been the prolific and consistently brilliant nature of Rutger Zuyderfeldt's output over the last 6 or 7 years, but, after over 1600 plays according to my lastfm stats, I might as well give it to the one which started it all off for me, Marijn. The most interesting experimental musician working today.


Machinefabriek - Dauw (from the album Dauw)


5. Deaf Center - Pale Ravine (2005)
Although this wasn't itself on the Miasmah label, it was made by its founder, Erik Skodvin (a.k.a Svarte Greiner) and seemed to me to be the father of a succession of fantastic albums (for example, from Elegi, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Jacaszek and Gultskra Artikler) that bore the label's trademark mixture of elegaic beauty and sinister sonic debris.


Deaf Center - White Lake


6. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (2004)
One of the most ambitious, entertaining and defiantly individual bands of the decade's finest achievement, Blueberry Boat is an out-of-control splatter-gun attack of ideas, characters and melodies.


7. Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36 (2007)
Clicks, pops, sparks, beats, bangs, twangs, loops, hoots, snaps, whirls, claps, crackles, hisses, rips, taps, ticks, thumps, whacks, jumps, darts, dunks, barks, blinks, zips, bumps, rumbles and ripples. Earphone heaven from a Chilean genius.




8. Burial - Untrue (2007)
Darkly beautiful, like the glint of a knife.


9. Jacaszek - Treny (2008)
Electronics, samples. live strings and haunting soprano voices curl around one another in this heartbreaking album from last year.


Jacaszek - Zal


10. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
This seems to be a divisive choice, but from where I am, a million miles away from the source and the chatter and the associations that surround the band, this completed a trio of flawless art-pop albums. It's kind of cool to hear a band who are into ideas like synthesis, harmony and family as well, a kind of.


Animal Collective - My Girls


11. David Thomas Broughton - David Thomas Broughton Vs. 7 Hertz (2007)


12. Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet (2006)


13. Junior Boys - Last Exit (2004)


14. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs (2002)


15. Autechre - Confield (2001)


16. Broadcast - Tender Buttons (2005)


17. Claro Intelecto - Neurofibro (2004)


18. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (2002)


19. Chihei Hatakeyama - Minima Moralia (2006)


20. Library Tapes - Feelings For Something Lost (2006)


21. Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Vrioon (2002)


22. Goldmund - Corduroy Road (2005)


23. Half Man Half Biscuit - CSI:Ambleside (2008)


24. Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks (2004)


25. Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co. (2003)


26. Charalambides - A Vintage Burden (2006)


27. Panda Bear - Person Pitch (2007)


28. Gonzales - Solo Piano (2004)


29. The Books - Thought for Food (2002)


30. Natural Snow Buildings - Dance Of The Sun And The Moon (2006)


31. Fennesz - Endless Summer (2001)


32. Gas - Pop (2000)


33. Rameses III - Basilica (2008)


34. Lucien-N-Luciano - Blind Behaviour (2004)


35. Colleen - The Golden Morning Breaks (2005)


36. Akron/Family - Akron/Family (2005)


37. Menomena - Friend & Foe (2008)


38. Voices And Organs - Orphanage (2006)


39. Christopher Willits & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Ocean Fire (2008)


40. Robyn Hitchcock - Spooked (2004)


41. Pan American - Quiet City (2004)


42. Oren Ambarchi - Grapes From The Estate (2004)


43. Lichens - Omns (2007)


44. Rolan Vega - Documentary (2007)


45. Four Tet - Rounds (2003)


46. Gultskra Artikler - Kasha Iz Topora (2007)


47. Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (2008)


48. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (2000)


49. Emeralds - What Happened (2009)


50. The Notwist - Neon Golden (2002)

ignore the dreadful formatting im lazy





10. Boredoms - Seadrum/House of Sun



This completely epitomised my long-time love for long, long music that you allow yourself to be enveloped in, to notice
all the subtle changes in sound and direction, music that makes you feel like you're almost there with the creators as
it's being made - this lush, pulsing album really makes you feel like you're there with Boredoms as they pound away
at the drums while the sea comes in. I don't know the story behind House of Sun but what I do know is that it is their
most trance-inducing song yet. A real experience of a release.

9. Gnaw Their Tongues - bubonic burial rites


(doesn't have a cover...)

An extremely intense sonic journey through so many facets of humanity - for example, the title track feels like you're
being led on a tour of all the pain and suffering in the world, through places which can only be described as hell on
earth, and then you're just dropped onto the ground to think it all through - and as the strings come in, you realise
this is an overwhelming sadness, beyond even anger. Truly the high point of GTT so far.

8. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Holon



An exercise in subtlety and rhythm, each song in this album builds ever-increasing structures starting from the simplest
little piano arpeggio or percussive shake, each layer twisting in a new level of complexity; each song has a really great groove
but at the same time it feels impossible to move to, each instrument playing in its own time signature but all coming together
to form this crazy addictive polyrhythm you want to experience over and over again.

7. Nadja - The Bungled & The Botched



This record took the whole idea of post-rock/metal and drone and shook it to its logical high-point. Every single note
and flicker of sound fits so well, like it was created just to be there for the song. Both songs breath from start to finish,
developing to a natural and incredible climax, though at the same time they both form a piece in itself, track one tiding over
into track two in a sea of explosive noise. Absolutely beautiful.


6. Guilty Connector - Beats, Noise and Life



Still one of the best noise releases I've ever heard. The first time I ever heard noise was in the track "Cosmic Conspiracy",
and it was truly overwhelming - at the time, I didn't know what to make of it, now, I revel in it. It's tough to define
exactly what makes noise great, but the sound in this record in particular works so perfectly. Works from the harshest layered noise
through really interesting percussive sound all the way to quiet, tinny, ambient sounds that leave you not knowing quite what to
expect. A truly unique and outstanding album.


5. Thomas Bangalter - IRREVERSIBLE (Irréversible)



An amazing album as it was, packed full of harsh beats, euphoria and journeys through light and dark all made to look so easy,
yet being the soundtrack to the film Irréversible gave it even more depth. No longer was Outrun just an excellent house track,
it took on a dreadful sense of foreboding. Suddenly the classical symphony at the end, such a casual sounding piece,
became the most horrific sound in the world, perhaps beaten only by the barrage of noise that takes over for the final track,
simply titled, "The End".

4. Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up 'til It Was Light



My teenage love, my rash and capricious attachment to something that engaged me so much I was fixated for at least a year,
identifying with lyrics that meant almost nothing to me, gradually becoming more happy in my tastes
as I realised that I didn't care how unashamedly cool this album was. This album is nailed into my heart as much as my
perpetual crises of confidence and incapability to understand my own thoughts.


3. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi



I don't know what other people think but when the last two tracks of an album are first a tiny piece of looped ambience
and second 2 minutes of pure silence and they manage to become the highlight of the album it really says something
about this album. This album feels like a journey through weather experiences, through fragmented thoughts
scattered across every mind in the world. Alongside this was really really neat sound constructions, strange combinations
of odd sound sources that somehow came together to form this drifting, suddenly skipping, so natural-sounding whole.
Absolutely beautiful.

2. Scissor Shock - The Mars Travolta



The main reason for me picking this particular release of theirs above any other is this: it feels like it takes all the
very best elements of Scissor Shock and puts it into one place, where without this you would have to scour every single album
(although you should be doing that anyway!). There's the Beefheart played through a tape recorded while
under angular pressure side, the hella dirty, trashy, droney side, the side that sounds like what cybergrind should
have sounded like (chaotic, sudden, shocking, like a million sounds all being played once at 800bpm), the moments of pure beauty
(thinking "bodymelt" in particular here), so many sides to Scissor Shock it really is impossible to list them all.
They basically encompass so much that is the best thing about music.

1. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History



Ranging from amazing compositions of music that feels like a really messed-up and philosophical musical number ("A Hymn To the Morning Star", "Cockroach")
to detailed experiments in percussion ("Bring Back the Apocalypse", "The 17-Year Cicada") like Nils Frykhdal's ranging voice from the gruffest baritone to the highest falsetto, this album is truly
incredible from start to finish. The concept behind the album talks of human's gradual emulation of the lower animals and tries to work
out exactly why this is, while looking at the views of the Futurists and the Freedom Club (Theodore Kaczynski's, aka. the "Unabomber", group
of activists) providing two starkly contrasting views on society and the human as a species yet with eerie similarities. The songs
each tell tales of elements of the world, yet are in no way done in the usual concept album style where the songs try too hard to
fit in a story and sacrifice the music. Using unusual instrumentation and even custom instruments that didn't exist before,
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum constructed, for me, the single most inspirational album I have heard that came from this decade.

1. Autechre
Two nerdy white boys from England making non-rhythmic instrumental "music" on extremely complex and expensive equipment, then they have the gall to mention hip-hop in an interview. Yeah, you're so totally hip-hop.

Another thing: Quaristice sucks. It used to be that your music was confusing because it was so abstract and otherworldly. Quaristice is confusing because I can't tell whether I loathe it or love it.

It's totally obvious that you're using Machinedrums exclusively now, by the way. Please go back to your old way of making music--EXPERIMENTING! If your next album is another Quaristice-type affair, then you're pretty much dead to me. Just being honest.

2. Download
No matter how hard they try, they're never going to make anything as good as The Eyes of Stanley Pain ever again. But with Fixer it seems like they're trying to, and so they're probably never going to make anything as good as III ever again either.

3. Skinny Puppy
You're taking too much influence from "IDM" cliches like snare rushes and all that bullshit. Don't turn into Aphex Twin or I will hate you forever. Also, Mythmaker is very hit-or-miss, which frustrates me, but I'm not really expecting you to make anything as good as Last Rights or Too Dark Park again.

4. Black Dice
Your first four albums are amazing. Well, perhaps that's an overstatement, but they were really good because even though you were working with some very amusical sounds, the results were almost undeniably musical, but still quite experimental. With Load Blown, you pretty much perfected your skills in turning obtuse noises into pop songs.

That's enough complimenting though. Repo fucking blows. You've become just another "experimental" (notice the quotes) band. As I listen to Repo, half of me is enjoying the weird sounds and textures you make, while the other half is crying softly because of those fucking drumloops. You've lost your experimental edge, and for what? Your sound was perfect, and you tainted it with one of the most cliche things in electronic music. I hate drumloops in experimental music. They're so overused and fucking BORING as hell. Maybe you could've saved yourselves if they were at least drenched in effects, but all you did to them was a little bit of distortion. Fuck drumloops, fuck Repo, and fuck you.

5. Dead Voices on Air
Shap, Frankie Pett Presents..., and Piss Frond were all really great records, so what the hell happened with From Labrador To Madagascar? It's pretty wanky. You have a new album out that I haven't gotten yet. I hope it's better.

6. Scorn
I really liked the first track on Stealth, but not enough to want to hear it seven more times.

7. Prurient
Just because Pleasure Ground was pretty good doesn't mean you should start using melodies all the time. If I wanted melodies, I wouldn't be listening to you. What happened to the emptiness of Black Vase and the action-packed ragefest of Church of Ammunition? The latter was an EP of two tracks, and it's still my favorite thing you've ever done. TWO TRACKS! That is NOT enough! Do more in that style and drop this melodic bullshit.

8. Gorillaz
Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be listening to music this cool. Why was this project retired? Also, I keep forgetting to check out that new (old now) "Monkey" album. I don't remember what it's called.

9. Swans
Why so serious?

10. La Peste
I seriously hate Second Life because of people like you. Instead of making your music available in the real world, you perform concerts in Second Life. That is fucking lame as hell. I don't want to get an account on Second Life just to hear new songs by you. Seriously, work on the Hangars-Liquides website. Make some music available for free. You have no idea how hard it was for me to find the little that I got, and most of it was from your speedcore/throwaway era, not the flashcore I was expecting. I hate to end my rant about you on a good note, but the three flashcore albums I do have by you are fucking amazing. Do more of that, and not in Second Life. Please.

11. Final
Why is it that the further I get from my #1, the harder it is to come up with criticisms of these artists? Shouldn't it be the opposite? Well, anyway, I don't like the online distribution thing you're doing. I'd rather just get actual CDs. 3 was a great album, and I really don't expect anything after it to be as good, so I guess the online distribution thing isn't really that big a deal to me. Just from what I've read, it sounds like they're going to be drone made from guitar. I prefer the highly-processed form of drone like Burning Star Core and your first three albums. If I wanted guitar drone, I'd listen to Boris with Merzbow.

12. Mindless Self Indulgence
You'll Rebel to Anything and If were jokes. And I don't mean "joke" in the "Mindless Self Indulgence is a joke" sense of the word. I mean that you sold out, and fuck you. "If" is just pure pop-punk bullshit. MSI is dead to me.

13. Boredoms
Chocolate Synthesizer and Super Ae were good. Seadrum/House of Sun went on for far too long. I get the feeling that when you FINALLY release your next album, it won't be very good.

14. Gridlock
Further was too long, Trace was too "IDM" and Formless's tracks all sound the same. I rarely listen to an album by you all the way through. Also, your music can be very colorless and boring unless I'm in the mood for it.

15. Ryoji Ikeda
Dataplex was good enough; we didn't need another one in the form of Test Pattern. But we also didn't need See You At Regis Debray, because it sounds like a fucking joke.

16. Burning Star Core
Did you run out of ideas with Challenger? You released TWO amazing albums in 2007, so it shouldn't be that hard to make something for 2009. Time is running out, and so is my patience.

17. Gescom
See #1. Let's be honest here--Gescom is hardly an "umbrella project". It's probably 99% Autechre, and maybe somebody from Boards of Canada helps out once in a while. If it isn't, it sure sounds like it.

A1-D1 suffers from the same problem that Quaristice does--some tracks are just mindblowingly good, while others are just mindblowingly bad.

18. Krovo
Self-conscious humor can be kind of lame sometimes, but I don't care. The current image you have up is really lame. For how much you claim to hate MySpace, you sure don't have any problem with taking pictures in that stupid MySpace way--holding your own camera at a vomit-inducing angle and then applying some angsty black-and-white effect.

Skk was better than Senkyder. Senkyder was a fucking sell-out, and the title track is just ridiculous. You seem to have dissolved into self-parody. Some of your tracks go on for a few minutes too long for the amount of ideas they have. Just because you have semidecent writing skills and can thus make your project sound cool in the biography doesn't mean you should, because you make it sound a lot more experimental than it is. (I'd like to note, though, that I do have tracks in the works that are much more experimental than the things currently on last.fm... Also, if you haven't caught on by now, Krovo is my project. Shameless self-promotion alert!)

19. Pan Sonic
When you limit yourself to a VERY small sound palette, it's inevitable that some of your songs are going to sound pretty much the same. Contrary to popular opinion, Kesto probably isn't your best album. (I really like A better.) But I can't say for sure, since I've never listened to the whole thing. You know why I haven't? It's FOUR FUCKING DISCS LONG!

20. Pigface
DO ANOTHER REMIX ALBUM, WHY DON'T YOU? Oh, and I see on RYM that you have another album in the works. Took you long enough!

21. Venetian Snares
It pisses me off that you're in the top artists for the tag glitch. (If you want to know why, read my shout on that page.) It saddens me that your recent work is so melodic. You're so much better with rhythm, but it seems like you're downplaying that aspect of your music. Doll Doll Doll is a great album, but it's doubtful that you're going to make anything as different and atmospheric as that was ever again. Maybe I should stop assuming things about the future of artists in order to diss them, though.

22. Merzbow
It's too bad that your songs are usually so long, because I really love your sounds, but they go on for too long most of the time. Anyone who has OCD about their music collection hates you, by the way, because it's pretty much impossible to get everything you've ever done. I'm glad I don't have OCD. Unfortunately, I do have a bit of ADD, hence the hatred for your long songs.

23. ohGr
Maybe you should've left it at two albums. Devil's In My Details is decent but it's got the same problem as Mythmaker in that it's far too hit-and-miss for my tastes. Some of the songs are just stupid, like that one with the chicken clucking.

24. Winterkälte
Disturbance's beats were too obvious, Structures of Destruction's beats went on too long, and Drum N Noise was too samey. You have yet to make your perfect album, but it would seem you've dropped off the face of the Earth. That's too bad, because a lot of the other power noise acts I've listened to are pretty cheesy IMO.

25. Plastikman
Your lyrics are terrible, and Closer as a whole wasn't very good, especially compared to Musik and Consumed. I don't know if you've got another album in the works, and I don't even care enough to check right now.

of course it's my opinion, I just don't put that shit in the title of a journal.


I'm Not a Fan But the Kids Like It by Brokencyde

Don't worry, these guys already know they suck. And we're all aware of their obvious gimmick, but these guys give me worst headaches than any Merzbow album ever could.


The Resistance by Muse

Really, these guys have lost the little artistic merit they had with this whiny little wankfest. They're pitted against Dream Theater in an effort to completely bury progressive rock in the ground, except WAIT. THEY AREN'T PROGRESSIVE ROCK. God forbid this band writes pop songs longer than 4 minutes. And they've become 100% dependent on Matt Bellamy's constant strained yodeling, but everyone just calls it an "opera-influence." Give me a fucking break.


Abstract Expression by Dominique Leone

I didn't list these albums in order of least to most hated, but this is slated in 2nd place VERY close to Brokencyde. To think this sack of shit excuse for a man pitchforked Boredoms and gave that website the very small credibility they have. This isn't any deeper than your average "indie pop" with really awful beats, but it feels as though he wants to harmonize every fucking song the wrong way to make it sound like a true "hipster" album. Well, sorry bud, even your own colleagues don't like it. A 6.7 is pretty fucking generous.


Ocean Eyes by Owl City

Teletubbies + The Postal Service = ^


Wilco (The Album) by Wilco

Let's face it, Jeff Tweedy NEEDS Jay Bennett. Too bad he's dead now so a chance of them ever coming to terms with each other is gone. And to think I heard great things about Nels Cline (he hasn't done jack shit to make this band any better.) Now we'll be seeing Jeff at the 2010 Grammies singing an acoustic duet with Taylor Swift.


The Empyrean by John Frusciante

Not only does Frusciante now completely sound like Phil Collins with 80s production values, he butchered one of my favorite songs.


Wavvves by Wavves

We all know really shitty production in the end doesn't hamper good songwriting. But there is no good songwriting here, at all. Plus, he acts like a two year old in front of a paying audience. Double whammy for this fucker.

Trolling and bad jokes encouraged below.

"Side A features none other than Eye from Boredoms doing a remix of the album's opening track High Class Slim Came Floatin' In. Side AA features the legendary dub/version master Mark Ernestus of Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound doing a Version of the track Gigantes."
The EP that was released this summer is now on sale on iTunes. As for the vinyl, Thrill Jockey claims that it's sold out but it seems to be available from the Tortoise online store...

Unrelated: There's an interesting Tortoise Fireside Chat Radio Show for Red Bull Music Academy you can stream in its entirety.

Arab on Radar - Soak the Saddle


Black Eyes - Black Eyes


The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower - Dissertation, Honey


Liars - They Were Wrong, So We Drowned


PRE - Epic Fits


Boredoms - Pop Tatari


Melt-Banana - Charlie


XBXRX - Sixth in Sixes


Ex Models - Zoo Psychology


Daughters - Hell Songs


K.K. Rampage, Mutators, Shearing Pinx, Night Wounds, Gay Beast, Microwaves, TV Ghost, The Hospitals, Coughs, Silver Daggers, The Sick Lipstick, Die Monitr Batss, crack und ultra eczema, Dmonstrations, But God Created Woman, Fat Worm of Error, Kid Commando, Jaks, Neptune, Les Georges Leningrad, Naked on the Vague, The Scissor Girls, Bride of No No, Child Pornography, Men's Recovery Project, Old Time Relijun, The Flying Luttenbachers, Zs, The Creeping Nobodies, White Mice, Mikaela's Fiend, Business Lady, Brainiac, Aa, Foot Village, AIDS Wolf, Six Finger Satellite, The Chinese Stars, Made In Mexico, Athletic Automaton, Mi Ami, These Are Powers, Experimental Dental School, Erase Errata, The Intelligence, Le Shok, Abe Vigoda, HEALTH, Yip-Yip, Hella, Lightning Bolt, The Locust, The Blood Brothers

Be sure to go to www.dystopiaq.com and check out the new dystopiaq compilation and two new releases from Incentive and Flaccid Redux!









Incentive Flaccid Redux Kindergarten Hazing RitualScissor Shock syrfdraken catchers of mad wreck Wreck Tone O.B.B.B.M:\/ Daniel Clough MiniluvMerzbow Boredoms DJ Krush The Mad Capsule Markets AA= Takeshi Ueda KYONO BACK DROP BOMB Aphex Twin Boards of Canada Adam Johnson Machine DrumIlkae ShakySuperFly je.vi Zombie Ninja Schmoe Blamstrain Amish82 Amish 82 Sleepy Town Manufacture Goth-Trad Rebel Familia Burial rex mentula John Cage