The Albums We Missed: 2011
Posted by: L.V. Lopez on: November 28, 2011
Records
The holiday season is upon us, and as such, you are probably pondering what to get for that special someone. Might we suggest…a record? Over the next several weeks Frontier Psychiatrist will be providing you with numerous gift-giving options as we countdown our favorites of 2011. But, before we get there, allow us to go back in time and share with you our favorites from 2010 that, for some reason, we were unable to discuss a year ago.
10. Fucked Up – Year Of The Ox EP
Prior to releasing this year’s massive David Comes To Life Double-LP, punk heroes Fucked Up released a series of EPs based on the Chinese Zodiac (!), of which this was the last and best. Comprised of two 10-plus-minute mini-epics, Fucked Up stretch hardcore to its logical limits, combining churning power chords and snarling vocals with gentle washes of synths and saxophones. A reminder of the true potential of rock music by one of the world’s most ambitious bands.
9. Julian Lynch – Mare
I made the mistake of trusting my first instincts with this record last year. On first listen I found it meandering and tiresome, and I tucked it away on my hard drive never to be heard from again. Thankfully at some point this year I decided to give it a second chance, in the process discovering one of 2010′s most beautiful and complex releases. A student of “ethnomusicology” at the University of Wisconsin, Lynch manages to subtly mix traditional folk elements with more unfamiliar rhythms and song structures, in the process creating music that rewards attention and patience. And it’s damn pretty too.
Julian Lynch – “In New Jersey”
8. Grimes – Geidi Primes
In a couple of months Montreal’s Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, will be releasing her LP Visions to what is sure to be great fanfare and acclaim. That hype will be based largely on the accomplishment’s of Grimes debut Geidi Primes, a record which was given a traditional LP release in 2011 but was originally released on limited-run casette (sigh) in 2010. Most of the reviews of Grimes’ material center on words or prefixes like “avant-,” “experimental,” and “weirdo,” but what strikes the listener most are the recognizable, powerful hooks that lie underneath the odd percussion and Dune references. Get aboard the bandwagon before it’s full.
Grimes – “Feyd Rautha Dark Heart”
7. Teebs – Ardour
Instrumental hip-hop has had something of a resurgence over the last two years, thanks primarily to the work of Flying Lotus and his Brainfeeder imprint. One of the best releases on that imprint to date is Ardour, the debut from visual-artist-turned-beatmaker Teebs. Moving from eerie ambience to dance-floor thump sometimes within a single track, Ardour will fascinate your frontal lobes while fueling your feet.
6. Mark McGuire – Living With Yourself/Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here?
As co-editor Keith Meatto and I discovered earlier this year at Lower East Side pop-up jazz club (!), “experimental guitar” typically consists of a lot of strumming below the bridge and running one’s hands up and down the fretboard without actually touching the frets. In other words, it usually sounds awful. Mark McGuire, however, traffics in his own type of experimental guitar. Filled with loops and delays, McGuire’s minimalist ambient compositions wash over the listener like a cool ocean wave. If you enjoy these two records (the second with the guitarist’s Cleveland-based band Emeralds), there’s plenty more to come: McGuire cranked out two more original releases in 2011.
5. Warpaint – The Fool
If you don’t like being intimidated by women, don’t listen to this band. The nine songs on their debut LP The Fool are filled with mysterious, occult-like atmospherics and lyrics drenched in disquiet. Their video for “Warpaint” (an entrant on our list of the top 10 videos of the year) gives you a sense of the band’s ethos: adventurous, risky, and endlessly creative.
4. Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement
Lower Dens is a quartet from Baltimore who make music characterized by understated melodies and haunting female vocals. In other words, everything I like. Most reviews have focused on frontwoman Jana Hunter’s “freak-folk” pedigree, it is the guitar work that stands out most prominently on this record: the meandering, intertwining lines are the closest thing I’ve ever heard to Marquee Moon.
3. Ty Segall – Melted
San Francisco’s long-simmering garage scene broke big this year, with fine new releases from bands like Sic Alps, Thee Oh Sees, and Sonny and the Sunsets. Perhaps no figure personified the scene more than Ty Segall, whose LP Goodbye Bread and Singles 2007-2010 collection were among the year’s most acclaimed. But Segall planted the seeds for the revolution with Melted, a lo-fi acid trip of epic proportions. A good place to start if you want to understand what’s going on in San Francisco today.
2. Earl Sweatshirt – EARL
When it became clear at the end of 2010 that Odd Future was set to become a phenomenon, most of the attention focused on de facto leader Tyler, the Creator, whose astonishing debut Bastard played as a manifesto for the Odd Future movement. But, as Tyler’s story became commonplace (and as his schtick began to grow tiresome), the press began to focus its energies on the groups most talented and enigmatic figure, Earl Sweatshirt. Despite the best efforts of The New Yorker and others, however, Earl Sweatshirt may never record again, leaving the ten songs on EARL as his brief but stunning legacy. Destined to become landmark document for hip-hop geeks everywhere, EARL‘s twisted humor, Möbius flow and raw energy make it unique in the Odd Future catalgoue. Thankfully, you can still hear it all for free; let’s hope there will be something else to hear in the future.
1. Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
Dum Dum Girls released their sophomore effeort Only In Dreams in September, a polished collection of catchy tunes and heartfelt lyrics. It was a perfectly competent record, and, for most bands, would have represented a great victory. But, for Dum Dum Girls, it stands as a disappointment, if only because of the impossibly high standard set by their 2010 debut I Will Be. Most reviews of this record will drip with descriptors like “lo-fi,” “garage,” and “noise pop,” but all such analyses miss the point. The genius of this record is that, despite the fact that it was recorded primarily by a single performer (frontwoman Dee Dee), it captures perfectly the pure joy of being in a band, of writing and playing and singing with a group of like-minded musicians in a state of jubilant abandon. Over a year after hearing it for the first time, I Will Be still brings a smile to my face every single time I listen.
Dum Dum Girls – “Bhang Bhang, I’m A Burnout”
L.V. Lopez is co-editor of Frontier Psychiatrist. He recently published countdowns of the top 10 covers and music videos of 2011. He’s only just begun.
