As the first decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, Epigram's music writers look back on their favourite releases from 2000 to 2009
SINCE I LEFT YOUThe Avalanches
November 2000
XL Records
Since I Left You, the only long player from Melbourne’s finest plunderphonics collective The Avalanches is an album that has rarely left my side since uncovering a copy in my local library several summers ago. Released at the start of the decade, it is an album that manages to sound so overwhelmingly fresh on every listen, brimming with sheer energy and charm in equal measure, a quality that few dance albums since have managed to achieve.
Moreover, it is difficult not to appreciate Since I Left You as a technical masterpiece, painstakingly assembled from over 3,500 vinyl samples seamlessly woven together, twisting, turning and metamorphosing through an infinite number of genres in little over an hour. From ‘70s funk outfit Mandrill to Madonna, Boney M to foul-mouthed rapper Blow Fly, everything is here. But it is when these scraps of nostalgia are brought together under the helm of The Avalanches that something beautiful, danceable and downright brilliant is born.
Jon Bauckham
BURN, PIANO ISLAND, BURNThe Blood BrothersMarch 2003V2 RecordsAll snarling, barbed wire guitars and shrieking dual vocals, Burn, Piano Island, Burn is a fairly divisive listen. For my money it’s the apex of hardcore and nothing since has come close. Its relentlessly experimental, surreal stream of conscious poetry is matched by a tour de force of unbridled decaying youth chaos that barely lets up in intensity even in its most introspective moments.
The Blood Brothers had no qualms with following the San Diego punk scene’s reactionary adoption of femininity; none more represented than Johnny Whitney’s half creamed falsetto. Paired with Jordan Billie’s baritone vocals, the whole record exudes an almost sexual menace which up til then was completely foreign to the genre; one of many interesting contradictory dualities. Out of the chaotic discordance come strangely catchy repeated mantras, whilst bizarre avant punk freakouts are recorded with almost radio friendly precision and clarity. It’s a difficult but ultimately rewarding listen, a complex piece of art punk unrivaled in this decade and unlikely to be in the next.
Simon Docherty
I AM A BIRD NOWAnthony & The JohnsonsFebruary 2005Secretly CanadianI Am A Bird Now is a punishing album emotionally, painfully involving the listener with intimate lyrics dealing with sexuality and the longing for a new life incarnated in the body of the opposite sex. Antony’s characteristic voice, strongly influenced by the equally tormented Nina Simone, allows for the delicate yet powerful delivery of the lyrics, which together with the tactful musical accompaniment presented by The Johnsons makes every syllable resonate in your heart. Musically, the album is timeless combining new and old with an impressive list of collaborators ranging from the contemporaries Devendra Banhart and Rufus Wainwright, to the icons Lou Reed and Boy George. Particularly impressive is the manner in which every collaborator has his distinct place in the album and can clearly be identified while the album remains unified and constant throughout, with a sound that will be forever accredited to the Johnsons.
Daniel Sanchez Clemente
TOMAHAWKTomahawkOctober 2001IpecacWhat do you get when you mix the Jesus Lizard, the Melvins, Helmet and alt. rock titans Faith No More? The answer: Tomahawk, a band that lives up to its frightening potential on paper. Their eponymous debut came screaming onto the scene in 2001, and remains one of Mike Patton’s most consistent post- Faith No More projects to date. Sonically the album is a journey through America’s sordid underbelly; windswept desert highways and serial killer fantasies are evoked through dirty lo-fi guitars that jut out across huge, distorted bass riffs whilst John Stanier (now in Battles) lashes out lethal rhythms befitting of the schizophrenic visions of Mr. Patton. Vocally he lets rip with trademark intensity, yelping, screaming and melodising his way through an album full of dark twists and turns, from the grinding nightmare of ‘God Hates a Coward’ to the poignant release of ‘Cul De Sac’.
Mike Hine
LONDON ZOOThe BugJuly 2008Ninja TuneThe Bug, AKA veteran electronic producer and dubstep pioneer Kevin Martin, manages to effortlessly blend dubstep, dancehall, ragga, and a touch of Basic Channel-esque techno to create one of the most unique and least forgettable albums of the last decade. Featuring some of dancehall’s finest MCs, musically it’s unpredictable, with jumpy unquantised beats and shifting rhythms. Every time you think you know where the music is going, it changes again. It’s chock full of wobbling synths, slick beats, intense bass, inviting grooves, and great MCs. What more could you want?
David Biddle
LE FILCamilleFebruary 2005Virgin FranceWith its squelching mix of percussive mouth raspberries, gulps and erratic vocal ticks, Le Fil is unlike any album made this decade. True, it shares a similar ambition to Björk’s Medúlla, to investigate the most meandering possibilities of the human voice (coincidentally, they both comment on the American government’s response to 9/11), but it transcends its self-imposed conceptual limitations. Working around a single note (“le fil” means the thread or wire) a double bass and keyboard, Camille moves between beatboxing like a new wave JT, emoting in powerful, wave-like swoops and fiercely spitting contradictions on the three parts of ‘Janine’ as if embroiled in a battle rap with a dictionary. But that’s not to say you need to know any French to appreciate this record – you can stop and start at “magnifique”.
Laura Snapes
BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICAThe Hold SteadyOctober 2006Vagrant RecordsThe Hold Steady are unjustly tagged as a bar band. When have you ever heard a bar band reel off literate tales of John Berryman conversing with the devil before diving into the Mississippi, a girl who can predict the outcome of any horse race but gets too high to reap the benefits, or of lovers who meet in the first aid tent after ODing at a festival? Boys and Girls in America represents the ebullient spirit of youthful excesses better than any other album this decade, and the kaleidoscope of bright confetti falling on screaming, sweaty teenagers is perhaps the most pertinent album cover of the 2000’s. Kerouac was clearly more of a jazz man, but if he’d have heard The HS playing songs from Boys and Girls in America (even in a bar) somewhere, I know he’d have been real proud of these guys.
Dylan Williams
HISSING FAUNA, ARE YOU THE DESTROYER?of MontrealJanuary 2007PolyvinylAn endlessly imaginative indie band that knows how to make people dance makes a disco-pop album which is thoroughly depressing: of Montreal’s astonishing Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? delivers on all fronts. Wildly creative and original, especially for a band’s eighth (!) album, this saw frontman Kevin Barnes write and record most of the record himself, turning it into an outlet for the personal demons tearing him apart. But while the lyrics are bleak, there’s not a dirge to be seen. ‘A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger’ begins with an infectious ice-cream-van synth riff, only to deliver the sucker punch of, “I spent the winter on the verge of a nervous breakdown whilst living in Norway.” And the second half, which sees him transform into his latest alter-ego, 40-year-old black transsexual Georgie Fruit, adds an even weirder dimension to the catharsis. Immediately loveable yet rewarding on multiple levels, this album takes pains to stand out in every possible way.
Mike Mantin
SOUND OF SILVER
LCD Soundsystem
March 2007DFAWith an album-opener like ‘Get Innocuous!’ it’s hard to imagine Sound of Silver getting any better, but LCD Soundsystem visionary James Murphy “sets controls for the heart of the sun” and comes out with a seminal sound in electronic music. Sound of Silver adds layer upon layer to an up-tempo beat until you think it can go no further, ‘Us V Them’ and ‘Get Innocuous!’ being prime examples of this ever-growing euphoria. Sound of Silver is a definitive party-starter but would not be out of place for more intimate moments, especially in delicate tracks ‘Someone Great’ and ‘All my Friends’, two songs about longing that become all the more raw in such surroundings. Both tracks remain so touching in the unique juxtaposition of electronica and emotion that defines this album of the decade.
Laura Richards
AMNESIACRadioheadJune 2001EMI“I jumped in the river and what did I see? / Black-eyed angels swam with me”. Such is the nature of Amnesiac, denounced by many as ‘Kid B’, a collection of also-rans to the majesty of Kid A. Get beneath the surface of this record, however, and you will find yourself in a potent and disquieting world of funereal passion and unscaleable intrigue. Some of Radiohead’s greatest compositions are present on this release, with the off-kilter apparitions in ‘Pyramid Song’, the menacing ‘You And Whose Army’ and the desperate beauty of ‘Knives Out’, but it is in the album’s three closing songs that the true baptismal power of Amnesiac is realised. Commit yourself to ‘Hunting Bears’, ‘Like Spinning Plates’ and ‘Life In A Glasshouse’ with attentive ears and you will be duly rewarded with the decade’s most commanding and immersive musical architecture.
Matt Grimble
YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT
Wilco
April 2002
NonesuchSinger/Songwriter Jeff Tweedy’s guitar-based songs have seen many different styles over the years but have never been both as simple and as captivating as on Wilco’s fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. With traditional instruments, sampling of everyday noise and electronic effects - the music sums up a band at a creative peak looking at past, present and future for inspiration.
Lyrically, Tweedy considers the often smothering effect of modern technologies on 21st century life - “My mind is filled with radio cures, electronical surgical words,” whilst also contemplating morality with a healthy dash of mortality “All my lies are only wishes, I know I would die if I could come back new.” But it’s not all serious: pop song ‘Heavy Metal Drummer,’ recalls summery days of ‘Shiny shiny pants and bleached blond hair.’ Few albums blend the profound with the light-hearted in such a way that there’s a song for every mood, and this is one of them.
Tom Holcroft
They say that when the baby Jesus was born, he didn’t let out a bawl or a whimper. The Lord’s arrival clearly wasn’t serenaded with a Tori Amos Christmas record. If only the Wise Men had had the foresight to forget the gold and bring this instead.
