2011 List of Lists

I make absolutely no claims to this list being anything other than what caught my attention in a good way in 2011.  I wouldn't know if it's the best, and I'm not even sure I care about the concept "best" anymore.  Some of the music mentioned didn't even get released in 2011, it's just what I'm listening to.  In no particular order:

Tyler the Creator: Goblin  Enough ink has been spilled on this already, but I stand by this as one of the most interesting records of the year.  And yes, I know you don't agree.  So far I like most of what I've heard from OWFGKTA.

Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972  This would be the year that I really started listening to ambient music.  2012 will probably be the year I stop.  This, however, is a record I am sure I will return to quite often, along with a few other pieces of Hecker's discography.  Other ambiance that caught my attention this year (and is likely to stay in rotation for me): Black to Comm, God Destroyer, Biosphere, Johnny Raper.  Listened to a whole lot more ambient music, discovered I really didn't like most of it.

Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo  A bit underwhelmed by the E.P. that came out later in the year, but Smoke Ring really delivered.  I am continually surprised by how much I like Kurt Vile's stuff; it's nothing like anything I would normally gravitate toward.

Death Grips: Ex-military  If pressed to pick a favorite record of this year, this would be it . . . I mean, they sample Link Wray, for the love of god.  HARD.

Shabazz Palaces: Black Up  Smoky, smart, dark, politcal, and funky.  Another really nice hip hop number.

Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi: Live at the Hungry Brain
Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi: And That's the Story of Jazz . . . Free jazz is becoming the new punk rock in the sense that it's getting harder every day to stand out from the masses of improvisers.  Sakata's spare, biting alto brings some distinction to the proceedings, and Chikamorchi (Darin Gray, bass, and Chris Corsano, drums) has to be among the best (if not the best) rhythm section currently working.  When O'Rourke gets his turn, he doesn't eff things up.

Loren Connors: Red Mars  I've listened to Loren Conners for a while now, but this year I really started to listen to him.  Red Mars is the kind of music that seeps into your consciousness so subtly that you often don't even notice until its gone.

Boris: Attention Please
Boris: Heavy Rocks 2011  I guess I didn't expect to Boris to become one of the foremost purveyors of disposable pop music, but there it is.  The breadth that the band demonstrates is sometimes at the cost of good taste, but I can live with that, overall.  Haven't even had a chance to really listen to New Album, their third release of 2011 . . . what I've heard sounds like cheesy theme songs to Japanimation dramas they show late at night on [adult swim], which isn't a good thing.  While I like these two albums quite a bit, I really miss the days when they did whacked-out feedback fests and hung out with people like Merzbow and Sunn O))).

Bill Orcutt: How the Thing Sings  As a fan and practitioner of all sorts of guitar fuckery, Bill Orcutt is one of my current favorite guitarists.  It is tempting to see him as a Derek Bailey-esque one trick pony; but, like Bailey, sometimes when your style is so far outside the norm, it's hard to see where the subtleties are.  I'll be curious if I'm still as fascinated several albums down the line, but for now, everything he does is pretty OK by me.

I was going to finish up this post with a few of the things that got on my nerves this year, but I guess I'll not bait all the Das Racist/Sun Arraw/Bon Iver fans this post.  Love to you all, and happy Hanukkah/Christmas/Solstice/Kwanzaa/New Year/and any other holiday I may have forgotten to you all.

Okay, Here We Go . . .

1.)  Singer Saints is back.  I'm jazzed about that.  That Andrew Hill looks sweet, though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet.  And Call Me Burroughs?  Are you kidding me?

2.)  This is absolutely amazing.

3.)  Yeah, I know.  Y'all are over Tyler 'cause Pitchfork's all over him now.  And besides, you want to bump the sound loud on a hot summer day, and Gobln doesn't lend itself to that.  But I'm telling you, this is some of the best hip hop in years, and when we look back ten years hence, this stuff will be some of what has continued to define the genre.

And besides, psychodrama aside, this is one of the best tracks of the millennium:



Oh yeah, NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

4.) And finally, do you want New Wave or do you want the truth?



There's mine . . . more soon.

I'm Bad Milk - Drink Me

I snagged Tyler the Creator's Bastard late last year and listened to it a few times, but I had no idea that he (or his collective - Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All [OFWGKTA, natch]) was so hot until I saw that he was one of the showstoppers at SXSW.

This stuff is generally filed under the label "horrorcore" . . . which seems about right, given how over-the-top violent and misogynist it is.  And yet (there's always an "and yet" when it comes to middle-aged white guys apologizing for politically incorrect hip-hop, isn't there?) there is a self-aware & literate edge to this which puts it in the realm of classic transgressive literature like Georges Bataille, Leopold Sacher-Masoch, Octave Mirbeau, Marquis de Sade, etc. . . . that is, it may be vile, but it can't be dismissed as just the same old regressive/repressive/reactionary bullshit.  If you have a strong stomach, give it a listen.

Also, make sure and check out the videos, especially the live ones.  Live hip-hop is a sometimes dodgy proposition, but OFWGKTA is brilliant, especially Tyler: I've never seen an MC attack the stage like he does.

For an interesting in depth look at Tyler and OFWGKTA, check out "Odd Futurism" by Bethlehem Shoals, founder of FreeDarko.com, the best current basketball site on line.  He collects a number of videos with his essay, but it's also worth looking for their performances on Jimmy Fallon or some MTV awards show to get more of a feel for them live.  By the way: the videos, except for the TV performances, are definitely NSFW.

Tyler is dropping a slab called Goblins in early May.  Expect it to be discussed.