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Fri 5 Sep – Tortoise, Sandro Perri

Sandro Perri wasn't very good, but Tortoise, the band I went to see, got me dancing and sweating in a way I've never before in a concert.

25. Battles - Mirrored 24. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours 23. Sigur Rós - Takk... (220) 22. J Dilla - Donuts 21. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise! 20. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike 19. Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun 18. Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup 17.Tortoise - TNT 16. The Knife - Silent Shout 15.Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children 14. FemBots - The City 13. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary 12. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 11. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon 10. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 9. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam 8. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses 7. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds 6. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala 5. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time 4. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless 3. Jim Guthrie - Now, More Than Ever 2. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin 1. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

I discovered independent and underground music too late. Though I've always known what it's tasted like, it took years for it to fully blossom, and that year was 2007 when I purchased my first two indie records, one of them being St. Vincent's fantastic "Marry Me." The review is long overdue, but it's taken countless revisits for me to be undoubtedly convinced that the album in subject is as great as I claim it is. It's one of the first albums that led me to believe - as surely as the Pope believes in God - that independent music has a charm, complexity and quality that surpasses what goes for quality mainstream today. So, what is it about Annie Clark's music that thrills me so?

Oh, that's right - Annie Clark. The latter is the lady who spearheads St. Vincent, and to answer the question without further ado: It's her eccentric compositions that thrill me so. Marry Me never stands still. It begins with the morose, agitated yet cooly collected Now Now, a track that is sure to stand out with the double vocals: One is Annie, focused on her statements, and the other is what must be the voice inside her head, clearly disgruntled. Many things are done right here, the first being Annie's vocals - soulful, often somber, and always on-key - perfectly coupled with her lyric's content and pacing, carried by the aforementioned eccentricity in the music. Though, said eccentricity only lasts for the first half of the disk - the second half beginning with Landmines - until it subsides to chamber-pop: mellow, soulful, and given the content of the closer What Me Worry, forgiving of the subject that made her cross in the first place. Not all is right with Annie as the album closes, as the music, no matter how low-key, feels a mite unsettling and mocking, a thought cemented by the triangle ding! heard at its very end, as if Annie winked at its listeners, promising that her story isn't over yet.

How fortunate we will all be if her story is indeed just beginning. "Marry Me" barely pushes the 40 minute mark, making this an easy album to digest in a first listen, but one which gets better as it becomes more familiar, and as time goes by. The album takes the listener through some jumps, loops and twists, so be sure to give it a listen if you want to be part of that. It's not mind blowing, but it is insatiable. If all is right with the universe, expect Annie to get better as the years go by.

Chances are that if you are a Matthew Good fan, then you have already branded one of his records as your favourites, depending on which Matthew Good era you grew up with (with the Band or post Band). Chances continue to be this: If you were to ask a Matthew Good fan which record is their favourite, they will name it, and if it is not Avalanche then they will admit that despite the fact, it is still Matthew Good's strongest effort.

Here's why: His collaborations. Good employs the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for Avalanche, and how fortunate are his listeners for it. Good's vocals have always transcended his immediate musical surroundings, but never has his voice soared as high as it does here, aided in no small part by the Orchestra's strings and the sound escapes they create. The songs here are haunting, along with the vocals crisp, clear, and if you are listening to the album correctly - say, in your room, on your lonesome with your headphones on - smothering. By this I mean that the album will make your surroundings less significant than they were the second before the disk began spinning, and its somber demeanour will entrance you, probably against your will.

Or they may just liberate you.

His music has always been powerful, though many have tended to ignore it due to his irritating persona. His past efforts are never as powerful in comparison to what Avalanche accomplishes, and as such it may throw some Good haters off guard, forcing them to be quiet and listen to what the man must be alluding to in each track.

It's the record I have owned the longest, and you really owe yourself to listen to it.

1998 was a great year for independent music. Audiences were treated to Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over The Sea and Boards of Canada's Music has the Right to Children, both alongside the album in-subject: TNT by Tortoise. The music here is as eclectic and interesting as the album cover and its back sleeve suggest.

Here, the sound is epic, going through twists and turns but never ending up in a different place than it had begun, nor do any of the tracks sound very significantly unlike each-other, except for Almost Always is Nearly Enough, which is much more electronica and a lot less minimalist [kraut]rock. The album is also submerged in Progressive rock, evident in the way that each track flows from one to another, and in-between there are two tracks with the multiple-day interval motif (Ten day and Four day intervals, respectively in order). This is all instrumental, however, so there is no actual narrative, though each song is arranged in good order.

The fault in having all of the songs blend so perfectly into the other, whilst each track does very little to differentiate from its peers, is that there isn't much that stands out. On the flip side, the album feels like a complete whole, like no track in this collection could have belonged in any other Tortoise effort, not as easily as they do here.

Due to its progressive nature, the album is best digested over time, after multiple listen-throughs, and even better in brief, yet attentive, bursts.

A first listen-through will leave a great impression in the listener, beginning with the incredible first track, also titled TNT. Its quirks, sounds and rhythm will loop in the brains of its listeners, and thus will make said listener feel like they have to come back and get a better taste of the TNT.

Definitely a record worth looking out for if you are a fan of music that grows on you.

I've always enjoyed this record, but the excitement of the first listen-through tired me out for a long time, evident for the fact that I haven't listened to any of the songs in a few months.

Then, something compelled me to listen to the album once again, and its like listening to it for the first time, though with a slight sense of familiarity for all the tracks.

I've always thought that some of the songs are so light and bouncy that they remind me of the jingles played in Christmas songs, but these are clearly summer songs. The most apparent example comes in the form of "Your Arms Around Me," which briefly reminds of a Christmas tune, but the lyrics describe hot places and sensual states of being.

I've never been happier to have bought this record than now.