2013

2013 was the year of the comeback.  Mazzy Star, My Bloody Valentine, Throwing Muses, Boards of Canada, Beck, Cibo Matto, Daft Punk, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, and countless others I can't remember at this moment all released new music after years of silence.  The pictures above reference the two great shows I saw this year: Speedy Ortiz and Body/Head.  I loved many things this year, but here are 30 records that I'll still be playing next year.



1. Akkord - Akkord (Houndstooth)
2. Autechre - Exai (Warp)
3. Basic House - Oats (Alter)
4. Beyoncé - BEYONCÉ (Capitol)
5. Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (Warp)
6. Body/Head - Coming Apart (Matador)
7.The Focus Group - The Elektrik Karousel (Ghost Box)
8. Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet - Photographs (Erstwhile)
9. Inc. - No World (4AD)
10. IVVVO - All Shades White (Opal Tapes)
11. Julia Holter - Loud City Song
12. The Julie Ruin - Run Fast (The Julie Ruin)
13. Kim Free - Nevermind The Blue Skies (LA's Fine)
14. Kit Grill - Mirror Image (Get Me!)
15. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)
16. Laurel Halo - Chance Of Rain (Hyperdub)
17. The Magik Markers - Surrender To The Fantasy (Drag City)
18. My Bloody Valentine - MBV (MBV)
19. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven (Warp)
20. Ovlov - Am (Exploding In Sound)
21. Perfume Advert - Tulpa (1080p)
22. Phoenix - Bankrupt (Glassnote)
23. Phono Ghosts - Chrome Position (Skam)
24. Polvo - Siberia (Merge)
25. Special Request - Soul Music (Houndstooth)
26. Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana (Carpark)
27. Synkro - Acceptance (Apollo)
28. Throwing Muses - Purgatory / Paradise (The Friday Project)
29. Tim Hecker - Virgins (Kranky)
30. Two Inch Astronaut - Bad Brother (Exploding In Sound)

Guantanamo

Brand new video by the enormously talented Kim Free. Her record, Angel Shadow, is available now from LA's Fine in a limited edition of 500 copies. Easily one of the best records of the year, hard to think of anything else quite like it. It's right up there with World Of Echo and other classic band-of-one inner thoughtforms. Her solo bass/vox/violin shows are equally transfixing.. live loops, classical vibes, and Russian tropics existentials. You can also catch her on violin as part of Zola Jesus on tour now.

Vatican Shadow

Lucky enough to catch the live debut of Dominick Fernow's Vatican Shadow this past weekend at Los Globos (along with Demdike Stare and Tropic of Cancer). The last time I saw him perform was years ago as Prurient with Graveyards, Hair Police, and Heathen Shame at Tonic in 2006. His brief and impossibly perfect set as Vatican Shadow the other night is without a doubt one of the greatest performances I have ever been around. Like staring straight into heaven/joyrex/the very beginnings of time/immense ancient beauty, totally controlled, and channeled straight from the inside out. Absoutely intense, euphoric, and loud. He has released several tapes, downloads, and records on his own Hospital Records, as well as on Type and Blackest Ever Black. Kneel Before Religious Icons and Washington Buries Al Qaeda Leader At Sea are both excellent points of entry.

Lorca Not Orca

Strings

Lately listening...DISKJOKKE - Sagara (Smalltown Supersound) || GEOFF MULLEN - Bongo Closet (Type) || HONG KONG IN THE 60S - My Fantoms (Proper Songs) || ANGÉLICA CASTELLÓ - Bestiario (Mosz) || JULIA HOLTER - Tragedy (Leaving Records) || ST. VINCENT - Strange Mercy (4AD) || YUICHIRO FUJIMOTO - Komorebi (Smalltown Supersound) || PETE SWANSON - I Don't Rock At All (Three Lobed) || MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL - Luminaries & Synastry (Digitalis) || GESCOM - Gescom EP (Skam) || ROLL THE DICE - In Dust (Leaf) || FORMA - Forma (Spectrum Spools) || AKI ONDA - Precious Moments (Softlmusic) || HUDSON MOHAWKE - Satin Panthers (Warp) || CALL BACK THE GIANTS - The Rising (Kye) || ANTHONY GUERRA / JOEL STERN - Stitch (Impermanent) || JESSIKA KENNEY & EYVIND KANG - Aestuarium (Editions Mego) || FAMILY UNDERGROUND - Demon Parade (DNT)

Baby's Arms

Psychic Hearts

Holocene

My favorite albums of 2011 so far. Other worlds and the infinite eternal, girl-group lost tropics and L.A. haze, a truly life-affirming rumination from the most inspired and evolved woman out there, four modern-day troubadours rethinking the classic song and what it sounds like, marital summer dub, a static return after 15 years, and the world's biggest rock band pulling back and letting go.

1. Eye Contact - GANG GANG DANCE
2. Headbangers In Ecstasy - PURO INSTINCT
3. Let England Shake - PJ HARVEY
4. Bon Iver - BON IVER
5. Smoke Ring For My Halo - KURT VILE
6. Demolished Thoughts - THURSTON MOORE
7. 936 - PEAKING LIGHTS
8. Seefeel - SEEFEEL
9. Terra - JULIAN LYNCH
10. The King Of Limbs - RADIOHEAD

Open, To Love

Three piano classics.

Warpaint

Warpaint have made what has to be hands-down one of the best albums of the year. The Fool jumps so far ahead of their first release, Equisite Corpse, that its almost hard to believe they are even the same band. Produced partly by Madchester giant Andrew Weatherall, there are hints of those great rave-soaked early-90s days, but wrapped in dread. These songs are heartbreaking, terrifying, and unmistakably gorgeous. Warpaint are easily on my short-list of the all-time great girl bands.