In an interstellar burst...

VII: a year in music


That's quite enough silence from me. I'm back, it's 2009, Harpooned Nightmares is open for business once again. To kickstart the year, I've looked back at the new releases, both songs and albums, that I enjoyed most in 2008...

Here is a list of the 25 new albums I enjoyed most, each accompanied by 3 easy-to-digest phrases or buzzwords which, when taken together, should produce an effect similar to the experience of listening to the album, without the need to spend time or money on it. (joking)

Albums:

25. Rarely Seen Above Ground - Organic Sampler [drummer's one-man band/motorik/hypnotic]
24. Eine Kleine Nacht Musik - Eine Kleine Nacht Musik [70s electronica/krautrock/dancefloor]
23. Autechre - Quaristice [magnificent electronica/distant/cerebral]
22. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping [psychedelic/ambitious/bizarre]
21. The Bug - London Zoo [dark/urban/angry]
20. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles [fun/funk/freak]
19. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dympna [astonishing/fierce/boundary-pushing]
18. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing [wonderful/lush/epic]
17. The Field - The Sound Of Light EP* [sublime/ethereal dance/blissful]
16. She & Him - Volume One [M. Ward + Zooey Deschanel/gorgeous/caramel]
15. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. [Bradford still rising/krautrock/kill yr. amps]
14. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip [especially its second half/euphoric/bleak]
13. Grace Jones - Hurricane [still peerless/dub/superb]
12. Clark - Turning Dragon [visionary/vicious beats/hyperkinetic]
11. Daedelus - Love To Make Music To [melting pot/unique/electronic virtuoso]
10. Sunken Foal - Fallen Arches [lush/experimental/shimmering electronics]
9. The Advisory Circle - Other Channels [forgotten ceefax glow/beautiful/ghostly]
8. Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling [post-rock masters/gigantic/faultless]
7. Dusk & Blackdown - Margins Music [urban/intense/hugely impressive]
6. Leila - Blood Looms And Blooms [electronica/layered/rich]
5. Fennesz - Black Sea [oceans/vast/atmospheric]
4. Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel [dreams/sorrow/drowsy garage]
3. Beach House - Devotion [singular/heavenly/nostalgic]
2. Pivot - O Sountrack My Heart [electrifying/Vangelis synths/angular Battles guitars]
1. Portishead - Third [masterful/pitch black/haunting]

Most of these albums are available from iTunes, Warpmart or Boomkat.

* qualifies as it's an hour long!

Other fine albums were released by the Dodos, Meshuggah, Jape, Max Tundra, Erykah Badu, Bonnie Prince Billy and DJ/Rupture.
The Hold Steady are still appalling and should just stop.


Incidentally, my favourite soundtrack of the year was Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood.


Here's a "top 20" of songs from 2008. To coin an infectious phrase, twenty is plenty. Some of them were saddled with flabby, pointless, divisive or forgettable albums; some, including the top 3, stood out as the high points of superb LPs. I can't explain the abundance of glitzy electropop in the list (at least three separate instances), nor am I prepared to omit any of those songs. You may well hate everything I've chosen, but either way, a mixtape - with the #7 song unfortunately missing - is available to download; just click the links at the bottom of the list.

Songs:

20. Nine Inch Nails - Head Down
19. Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat
18. Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Letter From God To Man
17. Lisa Hannigan - Lille
16. Kylie Minogue - The One
15. Grace Jones - Corporate Cannibal
14. Leila - Mettle
13. Kanye West - Bad News
12. Girls Aloud - Turn To Stone
11. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
10. Atlas Sound - Recent Bedroom
9. Crystal Castles - Untrust Us
8. Mystery Jets - Flakes
7. Sunken Foal - Of Low Count And Light Pocket
6. DJ Mujava - Township Funk
5. Beck - Youthless
4. Patrick Kelleher - Coat To Wear
3. Portishead - The Rip
2. Pivot - O Soundtrack My Heart
1. Beach House - Gila

Songs of 2008 (you'll need to download both parts): [ part 1 ] [ part 2 ].

WinRar is available for free here.
Save both parts to the same folder, then extract part 1 and the second part will automatically extract, resulting in a listenable end product, shorn of mess and unwieldy file extensions.

Remember, if you like what you hear, you can and should support the artists by buying these tracks on either iTunes, Warpmart or Boomkat.

Now that that's out of the way, I can begin posting in earnest again...

Inverted Bliss - a mixtape

VI: an unexpected surprise

Here's a mixtape I made. It's called "Inverted Bliss" and it's a collection of elegant electronica, beautiful instrumentals and haunted songs. Ideal for solitary listening as the night falls. Download links are at the end. Don't forget to come back and comment when you've had a listen!



1. The Knife - I Just Had To Die

This song, taken from The Knife's eponymous debut album, deals with typically dark themes, and unfolds in such a way that the sadness envelops the listener by the end.

2. Robert Wyatt - At Last I Am Free

Wyatt's haunting cover of a Chic song, taken from his 1981 album "Nothing Can Stop Us".

3. Atlas Sound - Recent Bedroom

Featured on Bradford Cox's debut album as Atlas Sound, cloaked in his trademark layers of reverb and melancholy, Recent Bedroom shimmers and floats.



4. Beth Gibbons - Drake

Gibbons' piece of Nick Drake-inspired magic from her solo album.

5. Aphex Twin - Hy A Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow

Treated piano loveliness from Aphex's "Drukqs" double-CD collection.

6. Pantha du Prince - Asha

A twinkling piece of minimal techno, simultaneously microscopic and vast, by Germany's Hendrick Weber, from last year's "This Bliss".

7. Spectac - Archangular

A formidable figure on the Irish electronic scene, Spectac released his debut album "Rabbid" in 2003. It was a unique, compelling, twisting, fresh collection of complex, wildly original tunes. This track just builds and builds.

8. Scott Walker - Farmer In The City

This just comes from another place entirely. "Tilt" is a staggering work by one of the world's great musical mavericks. This, the first song, is simply astounding.

9. Mogwai - A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters

Apart from its great title, this vibrates with intensity and emotion. The closing track on Mogwai's ferocious debut "Young Team", it's restrained, bleak and beautiful.



10. Van Dyke Parks - Van Dyke Parks

From his 1968 solo debut "Song Cycle", this is an unnerving experiment recalling the song that was allegedly sung as the Titanic sank.

11. Pivot - Fool In Rain

A great reflective electronic piece from Pivot's debut, one of the best albums released so far in 2008.

12. Nine Inch Nails - Right Where It Belongs

Sounds like a man who's been hollowed out by life, by fame, by self-doubt, the works. One of his masterpieces.

13. Radiohead - How I Made My Millions

A b-side from the "OK Computer" era. This proves conclusively that nobody else can do what Thom Yorke does. Just him singing and playing his piano, recorded on his minidisc player with his girlfriend washing dishes in the background.

14. Junior Boys - When No One Cares

A powerful Sinatra cover from Junior Boys' 2006 album "So This Is Goodbye".

15. Boards Of Canada - Sixtyniner

This opened BOC fine "Twoism" album. Indescribably sad and lovely. I see at a sort of companion piece to Autechre's "Nine" and "Bike" for some reason. Feel free to disagree!



16. Autechre - Nine

Nine is actually the seventh track on Autchre's classic album "Amber". Ghostly, magical electronica.

17. John Frusciante - 23 Go in to End

A gorgeous, brooding electronic instrumental from "Shadows Collide With People", one of the 6 albums Frusciante released in 6 months a few years ago. Vintage and deathly. What a talent.

18. Philip Glass - Prophecies

Heard during the final scene of Godfrey Reggio's seminal film Koyaanisqatsi, and taken from Glass's hypnotic score.



19. Tangerine Dream - Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares

Basically a solo piece by Edgar Froese. The second track from 1974's "Phaedra". Utterly compelling and magnificent.


Download the Inverted Bliss mixtape here (split in two, 1 hr 31 mins total):

Tracks 1-11
Tracks 12-19

You might need to download WinRAR (it's free) here.

If you like what you hear, all of the albums mentioned above are available through the major online stores.