FRICTION NYC

I was debating whether or not to put together a favorites list this year, but decided to go ahead and do one. Like last year, this list is not meant to say one particular album is better than another, but more to say which albums moved me the most this year. It’s a list that has more to do with personal taste than anything else and those of you that know me will understand why I picked the albums I did. Look for the rest of the crew to be posting their lists in the coming days and weeks.

10.

Envelopes - Demon
I caught Envelopes my first night at SXSW and was really impressed with their quirky pop sound. The Swedish/French quintet’s debut album Demon (Swedish for demo) is actually a collection of 11 demo tracks that were recorded in a rented house in rural Yorkshire. The band mashes up influences from The Velvet Undergroud, the Pixies, Stereolab, and Pavement to name a few. A stellar debut album.

09.

120 Days - 120 Days
120 Days had me hooked at about the 1:17 mark of “Come Out (Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone)” the first time I heard it. Clocking in at just under nine minutes, the track explores the terrain between electro and Krautrock and sets the standard for the rest of the album. The first minute of the song builds with Kraftwerk’s chugging synths before exploding into an electro rock assault and then drives forward in true “motorik” fashion complemented by Ã…dne Meisfjord’s desperate vocals. That singular driving beat hooks me everytime. I’m looking forward to good things from this young quartet.

08.

Mahogany - Connectivity!
I was listening to Mahogany’s Connectivity! just before taking off from LaGuardia yesterday. As the plane climbed into the atmosphere, we banked slightly, perfectly framing the Manhattan skyline in the small porthole window and for a few moments I felt relieved to be removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I saw a toy-like model of a city where so much is happening all the time, people were unnoticeable, the cars were the size of ants, and it was like I could just peel back the layers of the streets, exposing the electrical lines, sewers, subways, and water lines. I related this view to the cover of Connectivity! and to the 14-tracks contained within the album. The Brooklyn octet takes the listener outside of everyday life focusing their songs on the bigger picture, things like city planning, architecture, sustainable design, space, and retro-futurism. The entire package is wrapped up with boy/girl vocals over dream pop melodies, motorik grooves, pop hooks, and Factory-starched post-punk. A true gem of 2006.

07.

Joanna Newsom - Ys
I would have called you crazy or drunk if you told me earlier in the year that Joanna Newsom’s Ys would crack my year end top ten list. It’s not that I disliked her or anything like that, but really never gave her first album much of a chance. I still haven’t gotten around to listening to The Milk-Eyed Mender, but Ys has been getting some pretty heavy listens throughout the tail end of the year. It wasn’t easy listening from the start, the fantastical stories were a bit hard to swallow, but Newsom’s voice (yes, her voice) and by Van Dyke Parks’ ornate string arrangements won me over in the end.

06.

Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things
Brighton UK’s Steve Lewis, David Best, and Matt Hainsby make up the group Fujiya & Miyagi. They’re just pretending to be Japanese, as they state on “Photocopier.” On their third full-length, the group combines elements of krautrock, new-wave, and electronica producing a sound somewhere between Kraftwerk, Talking Heads, Aphex Twin, LCD Soundsystem, and Boards Of Canada.

05.

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
In a post earlier this year, a commenter praised Condon for capturing the heart of true Balkan music on Gulag Orkestar. I couldn’t agree more. Hype aside, this is a remarkable, timeless album that went against any current trend and it’s something the listener will be spinning for years to come as those Voxtrot, Arctic Monkeys, and Tapes ‘N Tapes albums gather dust in the corner.

04.

Thom Yorke - The Eraser
The Eraser isn’t so much a solo album, but more of a collaboration between Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich, which revisits the electronic elements that made Kid A and Amnesiac such a remarkable and innovative albums. The Eraser is a showcase for Yorke’s elastic voice and solid songwriting, further reinforcing the fact that he is one of the greatest musicians of our generation.

03.

Beach House - Beach House
Beach House’s delicate, hazy, self-titled slow burner was the perfect sountrack for autumn. The album exudes warmth and draws me in everytime I put it on with its thick organ swathes, slide guitars, and Legrand’s intoxicating croon. I’m looking forward to this one keeping me warm well through the winter months.

02.

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
I put this album off long enough and finally picked it up a little while ago and f*cking loved every second of it. I’m kicking myself in the ass for missing the duo at Hiro back in August. A collaboration between DJs Ellen Allien and Apparat (Sascha Ring), Orchestra of Bubbles finds a common ground between IDM and electrohouse. The entire album is warm and smooth. “For anyone sincerely interested in the open territory of electronic music and its possible futures, this is not only a microscope to examine the new bacteria with, it’s the pulsing life form beneath it.” [AllMusic]

01.

Asobi Seksu - Citrus
Shoegaze perfected? Sure, Loveless is hailed as the perfect shoegaze album and Kevin Shields was the pioneer of the sound, but who is to say that a band today can’t spark that same kind of flame and breathe life into a genre where everything has been done already? On Citrus, Asobi Seksu have done just that. My hat goes off to guitarist James Hanna, he’s simply amazing. The entire album from it’s production to packaging is superb and will stand well among the staples in a genre thought to be exhausted.