Well now that the 2007 pendulum is officially on its return swing, I figure it’d be a good time to have a look back at some musical highlights so far this year. Because I’m a bit of audiofilehead, listening to too many different things at once and often to the detriment of a quality experience with the music, whittling down to a definative list took a bit of shrewdness. In this case it meant setting up a very basic criteria: what got played most.

Turns out it was these seven…

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Studio - Yearbook 1
“West Side”
(0:00 - 6:59)
It’s always nice to get an out of nowhere suprise, something that instantly hits the ear perfectly and without expectation. With this record, the ‘West Coast’ Swedish duo have laid down THE SUMMER JAM. Self described “Experimental/Afro-beat/Pop” on their myspace page, Yearbook 1 is a series of totally fucking cosmic grooves that take their time getting to where they want to go and without insulting your intelligence along the way. Genuinely fun, innovative music.
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Grinderman - st
“Honey Bee (Let’s Fly To Mars)”
(7:00 - 10:18)
Want to hear four grown men rapturuosly blast through their collective mid-life crisis? Not really? Well, this record makes the case. Nick Cave and a few of the Bad Seeds throw down some reckless, dirty, stripped down stuff on this short but sweet album. Song titles such as “Get It On,” “No Pussy Blues,” and “Love Bomb” bluntly point towards their specific frustrations, all of which get thoroughy exorcised in some passionate blasts of noise. Rock ‘n’ Roll as the kids say.
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Grails - Burning Off Impurities
“Origin-ing”
(10:19 - 17:18)
Big, Dark, Brooding psychedelia with an eastern bent. You can feel the dust in your nose and throat and the hot wind on the back of your neck with each note. This is either the score to an as yet unmade Werner Herzog epic set in the Tunisian desert, or the product of four guys desperately in love with a wide range of global music. Probably the latter.
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Battles - Mirrored
“Race_ In”
(17:19 - 22:06)
Recently just saw these guys live, and indeed, it is a freakin’ battle what they do on stage. A rhythmic warzone tightly wound and bursting with kinetic energy. References are hard to come by talking about this band, as they are an utteryly singular presence in the contemporary landscape. But gun to my head, I’d go with interlocking polyrhythmic 80’s King Crimson meets Devo/Zappa pop eccentricity meets Steve Riech phase patterns. Yeah, something like that. Basically there’s a shitload going on and these guys got it all wrapped around their finger. If you could bottle this stuff, oil would be obsolete.
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Do Make Say Think - You, You’re a History in Rust
“You, You’re Awesome”
(22:07 - 25:40)
Toronto collective whom I also got the pleasure of checking out live earlier this year. A very deft and adept (always wanted to use those words together) band that seamlessly weave all the best of jazz, folk, blues, classical, rock, whatever into an entirely cohesive whole. This record is one of many subtleties, each of which entwined by a dozen more; it’s a record that cracks and groans with each inhalation, as if strapped tight into an old rocking chair. Keep the ears perked or you might miss it.
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Jesu - Conqueror
“Stanlow”
(25:41 - 31:14)
Slow, lumbering, star-gazed melodies that fill out the sky. Justin K. Broadrick, former metalhead dude obsessed with Eno, sees through on his vision started with last year’s Silver EP (featured in my 2006 year-end wrap up). Conqueror is definately what they call a ‘labor intensive listen’, but the rewards are there. The imposing weight of it threatens but never quite overpowers the underlying sense of optimism, exuded through each of the songs. Pretty delicate stuff considering the heavy aesthetics.
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Explosions in the Sky - All the Sudden I Miss Everyone
“The Birth and Death of the Day”
(31:15 - 38:55)
The always reliable. They’ve mastered their craft of lyrical instrumental music and are now in that refining stage, tweeking the nuts and bolts to their desired effect. Compositions that allow ample room for the mind to jump in and create the story. No one makes the guitar weep and sing as beautifully as these guys. No one I tells ya.
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