Top 20 albums of 2005..?

michael

Bring out the vacuum
And I forgot both of Jan Jelinek's releases for 2005, both of which I've listened to a lot.

The Exposures - Lost Recordings 2000-2004 (Eastern Development)
Jan Jelinek - Kosmischer Pitch (~scape)

Exposures has a funny fake band bio where they diss this young upstart Jelinek and his stupid electronic music (Jelinek did an earlier release as "Jan Jelinek avec The Exposures").

Anyway, I reckon Jelinek's Farben stuff was about the best thing on offer in the world of "microhouse", but these albums both go in different directions.

The Exposures sounds like it should, being on Prefuse 73's label, but it also sounds like Jelinek's returned directly to his influences in funk and rare groove rather than just doing hip-hop instrumentals. His usual techniques of stumbling loops of shifting sizes and so on are all in effect, so it's not all soporific and smooth. It puts me most in mind of his excellent contributions to ~scape's 'Staedtizism' comp and his great great great remix of Phil Ranelin.

'Kosmischer Pitch' is going back as well, but to Kraut rock. Basically. The press release says stuff about "wild pitch" house, but I don't hear that nearly so much. I hear Kluster, maybe some Ash Ra Temple and a bit of the quieter side of Neu! (well, maybe just Harmonia) in there. Unlike the short beat-based instrumentals of The Exposures, this is a set of long droney tracks, with a good bit of forward motion to them.

In fact both are at least a little pertinent to that 'one step forward, two steps back' thread, to my mind. They sound to me like imagined alternative futures for older types of music?
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
That Surjan Stevens Illinois album is actually reall, realy good as well. I thought it had a bit of a Jon Brion vibe about it myself...
 

henry s

Street Fighting Man
michael said:
Ooh ooh, that's a much better touchstone than 'Hair'... Haha. Yeah, I reckon it's awesome. Took a few listens to warm up to it though.
that "My Beauty In The Moon" track on the Kelley Polar LP is totally, TOTALLY dumb, but I can't stop listening to it!...I think he's stumbled onto a new subgenre:

acid barbershop
 

mohair

New member
1-20

Isolée: We Are Monster
Deerhoof: The Runners Four
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Worn Copy
Animal Collective: Feels
Paavoharju: Yhä Hämärää
Dandy Jack and the Junction SM: Los Siete Castigos
LCD Soundsystem: s/t
M.A.N.D.Y.: Body Language
The Clientele: Strange Geometry
The Focus Group: Hey Let Loose Your Love
Welsh Rare Beat
Choubi Choubi! Pop & Folk Music of Iraq
Target: Aim High Volume 2
DJ Koze: Kosi Comes Around
Scritti Politti: Early
Ellen Allien: Thrills
Jamie Lidel: Multiply
Orange Juice: The Glasgow School
Art Brut: Bang Bang Rock & Roll
Boris: Akuma No Uta
 
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