Is this the best of 2007 thread then...?
Ok...
best/favoured/of note albums:
Gui Boratto - Chromophobia
Pantha du Prince - This Bliss--- the most haunting album of the year, near perfect emo-techno. Whilst others may have mined the bell-riff angle on minimal (cf efdemin) none sounded like this- an icily melancholic yet expansive take on the genre, exceptionally melodic and filled with a surprising grace... its horrifying to me that The Field should have predominated as the crossover techno album of the year when this is superior in every single way (also interesting when much minimal headed towards an entirely dry reverb-free aesthetic this album took the diametrically opposed approach, every chiming bell-riff caked in a sea of reverb... the overriding effect being of a kind of holy wonder)
Thomas Fehlman - Hongpumpe
Stephan Bodzin - Liebe Ist
Distance - My Demons
Cyrus - From The Shadows--- everything I ought to hate in Dubstep but somehow it just works- the total antithesis of the Geeza-step which emerged mid year from Rusko/Caspa etc, turgid, yes, but filled with a cracked 4am liminal lysergic quality, almost alarmingly peaceful but filled with an implicit unease, not spliffed out but like a brain sitting in the dregs of drugs, surveying the landscape at dawn, entirely depopulated and eerie in its crispness and disconnection... and with the overriding aesthetic being one of hypnosis, there was no need for either aggressive mid-range bassline action or skipping techno-emulating drum work...
Burial - Untrue
Pinch - Underwater Dancehall
Nadja - Radiance of Shadows--- vast molten psychedelic drone/bliss metal, in a year filled with various acts takes on the metal/drone/shoegazer/post rock nexus this one hit the mark the best- being both grindingly rock, heroin-flatline-bliss-death droneful and crucially psychedelically all-consuming, coming as close as possible to the descriptions of MBV given by fans (but which the band themselves lets be fair never even came close to) an awe-inspiring wall of seething feeling, a sonic plane of pure immanence...
Ben Frost - Theory of Machines--- cunningly filled in the gaps between minimal datamatic electronica, metal, and guitar/noise composition, only to reconfigure them into a readily digestible listener friendly synthesis. I think Zhao might have recommended this one, so cheers for that...
COH - Strings
David Toop - Sound Body--- pan global lower case improv, beautiful and filled with unexpected sonic juxtapositions, all masterfully curated...
Studio - The West Coast--- waaay superior to Yearbook 1.
KTL - 2
Singles and other stuff to follow...