So 2011… what a year huh? What made it so awesome? Chaos?
On the positive side I helped bring a baby boy into this crazy world, made some pretty decent music and got a few steps closer to submitting my exegesis.
So what other music rocked my world this year?
Mr Maps – Wire Empire (bandcamp)
Released in the middle of the January Flood, this was the release that made me like Mr Maps for reasons other than them being friends. Where they once soundtracked long-distance conversations now they underscore the make-up sex.
Marcus Schmickler – Palace of Miracles (boomkat)
Very hard to listen to all the way through but it does to my ears and brain what Maryanne Amacher used to do.
Hauscka – Salon Des Amateurs – (amazon)
I’ve certainly heard plenty of nice prepared piano but none put in the service of a groove like this.
Ekoplekz – Memowrekz (boomkat)
While many internet critics gushed about Oneohtrix Point Never my favourite old skool elektronix comes from Bristol this year. Rough like early Cabaret Voltaire – groovy like early Aphex. WIN!
Golden Retriever – Arda Viraf (bandcamp)
More spacey head music this was a most pleasingly cosmic riff on early to mid 70s Terry Riley
Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer – RE:ECM (ECM SITE)
A total mind-blower but in a creeping subtle way… remixing ECM to sound like nothing on earth (except maybe some of David Toop’s late 90s Virgin albums like Pink Noir)
Disasterpeace – Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar (bandcamp)
The best chip-tunes album i’ve ever heard. Complex detailed composition that remains immediate and catchy.
Richard Skelton – The Complete Landings (bandcamp)
Seemingly aleatoric bursts of cello writhing like weeping willow tendrils this paean to Skelton’s dead partner is also a portrait of the West Pennine moors in Northern England. Something so mournful yet life affirming and dare I say magical emerges… this was the soundtrack to the birth of my child and the clear favourite this year.
