Record scratch: stop, drop, and name your best albums of 2008!

Jackablade on 23/12/2008 at 21:16

There are tons of ambient releases coming out all the time. What does it have to sound like to be considered 'dark ambient'. Do you know about the (http://www.infractionrecords.com/) infraction label? Just off the top of my head one of their artists, Beautumn, is fairly dark.

Aja on 23/12/2008 at 21:40

Dark ambient (I think) is like Eno's On Land kinda stuff. Infraction is a good bet.

Kuuso on 23/12/2008 at 22:38

My opinions seem to be going a bit against the grain, mostly on the electro-indie front, but there are some similarities to here and the media. Here's my top ten for year 2008. Naturally, since I am a Finn, there's a few Finnish entries, which creates some diversity compared to you guys. I'm not that good with annual lists, because there's too much stuff from recent years I am still catching on (Is it just me, who finds pretty much at least hundred records per year, which are then mostly put into "I'll get to that soon" pile?). There's also links to youtube videos for the highlights from the respective albums. (some of them don't have proper videos, which is a shame).

10. Von Herzen Brothers - Love Remains the Same
Cliched, overdrawn piece of proggy shite with way too soppy lyrics. Yet I can't help myself loving the bombastic and dynamic climaxes and long, huge crescendos and intricate playing (especially by the solo guitarist and drummer). It's a love/hate relationship really.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DupyIXxpVjs)
"Freedom Fighter"

9. Benga - Diary of an African Warrior
I am not that into dubstep, yet I feel strangely compelled to put Benga here. There's something magical in these songs, they just make your head bob and body move. I guess that might be a sight, when similarly playing Dota :p Anyways, I found the songs to be exactly as they should be, there's enough room for the music to play in, yet there's enough effects and notes to keep one satisfied and interested.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNStVlJWy88)
"Night"

8. Disco Ensemble - Magic Recoveries
It sounds dangerously like something from MTV sometimes, but that's quickly forgotten about, when the next verse kicks in with as much as energy all the ones before. It's explosive post-punk, something that's too soft and diverse to be straight out punk, yet too hard-hitting to be emo. Now that the band has managed to properly get synths involved in the songs, the songs have grown more diverse and deep in them too giving the record more life than just a few spins. Yet, it still hits hard.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR82qgx5WHE)
"Poltergeist"

7. Venetian Snares - Detrimentalist
An absolutely ridiculous record, so it's nothing new from Aaron Funk. Yet, it's nothing like Doll Doll Doll, Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole or Rossz Csillag Allat Született. This time he looks to 90's jungle - which isn't as horrible as some might think! It actually turns out to be crazy and something you'd like to move to, yet can't cause, it's too fast and too weird. The guy never repeats himself.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5x-es6y_5Y)
"Circle Pit"

6. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
A bit too long and a bit too flat on the production side of things, but those remain the only negative points of this record. It's a feat to listen this through on one sit, yet it offers infinite replay value and immense depth. There's so much talent crammed into this band that it's baffling. The vocals split opinions, personally I think they're fitting. Pridgen drums amazingly, he proves he's more than a substitute of Jon Theodore. Rodriguez's guitar playing (and overall songwriting skill) shines again.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDtb9cBG73k)
"Wax Simulacra"

5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
This semi-acoustic record surprised me quite much. It's one fluid moment from start to finish, where Fleet Foxes take you to an ethereal plane of their own. I have a hunch, these guys will be forgotten about, if they ever release a second album, but I don't care, this one came just at the right time to lighten up this shitty winter (a marketing campaign surely? Who sings about animals and happy stuff in the middle of the winter?).

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE)
"White Winter Hymnal"

4. Joose Keskitalo ja Kolmas Maailmanpalo - s/t
What to say. Lyrics can be compared to Bob Dylan's yet, Joose's are mordibly realistic and without hope. The guy also has a bearable voice unlike Dylan (some people would lynch me for this). I guess they're more like Tom Waits' ones then. Great singer/songwriter stuff, with so little amount of elements, the ones that are used must be rock-solid and in this album, they are.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80XmwWVzobs)
"Haudan Lepoon"

3. Portishead - Third
I didn't enjoy this record at first, I thought it wasn't nearly as good as their self-titled one. Yet, as time passed, it started growing on me. In the end, I was engrossed in the atmosphere, metallic and edgy, something that's so strange coming from Portishead, but something so fitting. The songs are simplistic in nature, but full of stuff you're left to wonder how they've done them. Beth Gibbons vocals combined with metallic and cold music makes one hell of a melacholic record, which is nothing short of awesome.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoZRBZvdOc)
"Machine Gun" - Live at Jool's

2. Bon Iver - For Emma
Months of secluse in a cabin in the woods with only a guitar and an old laptop after a rought relationship with a rough end can only lead to great music. For Emma is so full of real emotion it's near enough to make you cry and send a letter to wish the guy good luck for the future. Just like Joose's album, few elements, but what's included is there for a reason and just works.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9lrVZdaluk)
"The Wolves act I&II"

I love the use of auto-tuner as an effect in there.

Best record of this year is Eleanoora Rosenholm - Älä kysy kuolleilta, he sanoivat. A story of a mass murderer, who's ravelling with her split personality all told with music that resembles children music the most. The influences are uncountable, the lyrics make you laugh out loud (if you understand Finnish that is) and cry, the music takes directions you can't predict. It's something that won't come out every year. I know it's a cliché to say this, but this is more than music, it's an experience.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKRgfQl4ZuE)
"Ambulanssikuskitar" It sounds like a children's song about how fun an ambulance driver's job is, yet the lyrics and imagery is of absolutely morbid things. I love it.

Things that were shite, although people seem to enjoy them:
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - Rehashing 70's disco is absolutely horrible, if you have no idea what you're doing AND if you can't sing.
Hercules and Love Affair - Same as Aja on this, doesn't he know that vibrato would be hilarious, if it wasn't atrocious to ears? The music is thin and devoid of interest with some fancy effect laid on top of it, meh.
Vampire Weekend - Afropop my arse, this is a normal "indie" record. Not exactly bad, but nothing different either.
Poets of the Fall - Have gone gradually worse with every album released.

Special mention to Metallica for reaching a new low in a different area this time. St.Anger was musically absolutely shite, Death Magnetic is that on the production side. The guys surely could have intervened, so I must conclude they actually liked the sound. It's overcompressed hell. There is no dynamics in the record. The drums sound like tin cans and the overall volume is pushed high to make it "hard and loud". Well, compared to Chinese Democracy (which is superbly produced, mixed and mastered), it doesn't sound loud at all. Loudness comes from dynamic changes, which Chinese Democracy does offer.

I do have to mention that Chinese Democracy was a horrible record though. Drivel is a good word for it.

Jackablade on 23/12/2008 at 23:27

Kuuso, I like your list.

but Hercules and Vampire Weekend are awesome.

Aja on 23/12/2008 at 23:30

You think Rosenholm would still be good for those of us who don't understand a word of Finnish (or who probably couldn't even recognize it as being Finnish?)

Kuuso on 23/12/2008 at 23:48

Quote Posted by Jackablade

Kuuso, I like your list.

but Hercules and Vampire Weekend are awesome.

Cheers, it took some time to write out too. :p

I don't have anything against Vampire Weekend expect the fact that they were hyped on false promises. Hercules I just not my cup of tea.

Quote Posted by Aja

You think Rosenholm would still be good for those of us who don't understand a word of Finnish (or who probably couldn't even recognize it as being Finnish?)

You can definitely enjoy the music and the singing without understanding Finnish! You will actually be more aware of the diversity I'd guess, because there's everything from traditional Finnish world music to synths that would best accompany Knight Rider.

I'd download it, if I were you, just to test it out (that is, if you were planning on acquiring it by legal means at first). Personally, I rate the lyrics really high. It's just so macabre listening to the girl singing about shooting a police officer, eating glass and fighting against asylum workers just to be into medicated sleep, all this to really fun and calm music. The lyrics build up a character, an interesting one that is.

Jackablade on 23/12/2008 at 23:56

I watched the video of Rosenholm and though it is pretty good music I think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew what she was saying. Seems like the kind of music where your perception of it would change after listening to the lyrics, like Walter Becker...

Kuuso on 24/12/2008 at 00:08

Quote Posted by Jackablade

It kind of makes me sad that this kind of Finnish stuff is mostly also sung in Finnish, since if this was released in UK with English vocals, it'd be a hit. Then again, a record like this wouldn't have been created there in the first place, because of the influences stem from Finn stuff partially.

The song in that video is a good example of the style though. It starts with a description of how someone's lying on the ground all bloody and dying, then she comes and escorts the hurt beyond the border...followed by the whole "dy dy dydy" thing and lyrics that are pretty much like this "I am Anna the ambulance driver, I drive my car through the city. If there's cars in the way, I use my horn like this" "ty ty tytyy" and you're left wondering, what the hell is going on.

Scots Taffer on 27/12/2008 at 06:41

Morcheeba's Deep Dive came out this year, didn't it? I liked that disc a lot.

Dia on 27/12/2008 at 23:23

Quote Posted by Kuuso

Poets of the Fall - Have gone gradually worse with every album released.

I have to soooooo disagree with you there. If anything, their songs have become more interesting. I saw a video of one of their earlier live performances when they'd only been together as a group for a short while and the difference between their performances then and those of the past year or so are noticeable. The Poets seem to have become more practiced, polished, and professional; their newer songs reflect this. Diamonds for Tears is one of the best songs I've heard in the past year.

And no, I'm not a Fangirl. :p

Inline Image:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c262/Diah_/Fangirls.jpg