the top ten new musics of 2011 in alphabetical order
colin stetson - new history warfare vol. 2: i’m unafraid to admit that other people know more about certain things that i do, though it wasn’t always this way. so, when a former boss of mine extolled the virtues of “jazz”, i started sampling around hesitantly. i latch onto brass, and lean towards melody, but this guy absolutely mangles the saxophone. i used to listen to music for one reason, the hooks, but these days i’m finding other reasons to put a pair of headphones. this shit is genuinely exciting, because i’ve never heard anything like it. and… he’s kinda canadian, if that matters.
chad van gaalen - diaper island: this guy is completely canadian, and had his fingers in the production of two albums by women, the best thing to ever come from alberta. you can hear their influence on him, this time around, and the resulting album is definitely his best. there’s a song called shave my pussy. that’s it. that’s real.
charles bradley - no time for dreaming: i used to have zero patience for old music. i also used to be an idiot. while my status as a reformed idiot is debatable, what is not is that old music is important. this kinda falls into the old/new category, because this guy is somewhere between 50 and 60, and laid down some serious soul vocals on top of some tunes provided by menahan street band. there is something to be said about a weathered man singing about hard times with a voice so strained you can’t help but believe him.
james blake - self titled: this isn’t the kind of music a younger me would have thought older me would be into, but it is. it’s melancholy, sure, but is sonically unique. the heavily electronic musicianship stutters and swells behind an oddly auto-tuned falsetto of a young british man. this is a record about sound. you don’t need to speak the language to know he’s a little bit sad. my girlfriend is wrong about this album. actually, was. she recently admitted i was right about it.
javelin - canyon candy: it’s a short but sweet sample driven record that came out of the blue. it’s western and electronic, dusty and moody as anything i’ve ever heard. music heavy on samples often rides the coattails of a preexisting nostalgia; this album manages to create an image of a past that i wish existed for myself. an electro western for robot john wayne.
kurt vile - smoke ring for my halo: if i had to pick a representative for the direction i hope rock n roll moves in, this guy would be the guy. it’s guitar forward music that interlopes between folk and grungy goodness. it sounds pretty when he wants it to, and sludgy when he doesn’t. everything feels intentional and crafted, without sounding anal retentive, y’know?
m83 - hurry up we’re dreaming: i wasn’t ready for this jelly a few years ago. it takes a certain amount of comfort with oneself to listen to the glammy synth stuff mostly appropriate for coming of age 80’s movies. i’m over the hump, so to speak, and really get down with this. it’s better loud. it’s prettier loud, too. that’s rare.
tinariwen - tassili: when you get beyond the surface of jazz, you can’t help but find a bunch of interesting african music. these guys have been around for a while, and i’ve only just found them. a friend told me they existed. he didn’t tell me exactly how rad they are. it’s soothing and bleak at the same time
wilco - the whole love: saturday night live isn’t always funny, though it tries, but it often plays host to some pretty talented groups. wilco didn’t make sense to me until a few years ago when they were playing snl in promotion of sky blue sky. it was then that i learned that wilco could really fucking play, and they don’t really hide that fact on their newest album. i’m going to see them in the new year, if the world still exists by then.
yellow ostrich - the mistress: the dodos did for me a few years ago what yellow ostrich did for me earlier this year: surprise me. they take the standard arrangement of percussion, guitars, and vocals, and go ahead and make it sound fresh. it’s rythmic and classically melodic, with perhaps the most creative use of harmony i’ve heard in ages. it would be easy to dismiss these guys as the authors of typical indie stuff, but they are clearly tapped into something deeper. try it.
