Heligoland

Featuring guest appearences from Tunde Adebimpe, Dave Sitek, Hope Sandoval, Damon Albarn, Guy Garvey, Martina Topley-Bird and more.

For me, it's a step on from Mezzanine, and Pray For Rain and especially Paradise Circus are up their with anything they've done. Best album I've heard for a long time, and like last years' surprise discovery Royksopp's Junior - an unexpected treat

Listen to Massive Attack - Heliogland on Spotify here

Soundtrack to this post: Woven Bones, Massive Attack

Spotifriday (On Monday)

I meant to do this with the posts on my favourites of 2009, and then before the weekend - and then I got prodded by a few friends, so here we are - a selection of Spotify playlist links to keep you entertained over the festive periods:

Albums Of 2009

Tracks Of 2009

and finally, here is the link to a playlist with stuff I'm listening to at the moment. This will change over time, possibly bite me on the arse, and be forgotten about at somepoints. But for now it might make some interesting listening

whiskas playlist (Dec '09)

Soundtrack to this post: Jay-Z, Olfar, Maccabees

Albums Of 2009

Here's the second part of my year in lists - my favourite albums of the year.

This should probably come with a few proviso's

I feel guilty for not including Merriweather Post Pavillion (Animal Collective) and Veckatimest (Grizzly Bear) but I'm just not that in to you

I feel like I should have listened to Tarot Sports (Fuck Buttons) and These Four Walls (We Were Promised Jetpacks) more

In a few weeks, Beast Rest Forth Mouth (Bear In Heaven) would probably chart a lot higher

1. Röyksopp – Junior

Royksopp feels like an odd choice, but it is an album that really has so muched. Prompted to listen by collaborations with Fever Ray and Lykke Li amongst others, it seems to do master the duo's famous electro sound, and with some awesome contributions create some dark, dance-pop masterpieces

Listen to 'Junior' on Spotify here

2. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

It was hard to work out how to place Josephine, another great album from Jason Molina, but without perhaps as much of a focal point as some previous albums, and a slightly more 'blissed out' feeling. Upon consideration, it's still better than pretty much anything else this year

Listen to 'Josephine' on Spotify here

3. The XX - XX

XX is certainly the hipsters record of choice - they were everywhere in Berlin earlier this year. It's rare an album and band create such an atmosphere on a record, and this album does more than that, backed up with some haunting gems with a unique (I said it) mix of sounds

Listen to 'XX' on Spotify here

4. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

From breathless start to finish, the size of tunes on this album is massive, with a beatiful interlude in the middle with the atmospheric two-parter Love Like A Sunset. Grammy nominated it as always seems a shame they haven't been able to breakthrough quite so much in the UK - Phoenix are the indie-pop band we need

Listen to 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' on Spotify here

5. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

The first of two Spencer Krug contributions, despite this album being very much a side project affair, and suffering from the potentially schizophrenic contributions of numerous writes, this is a quirky Canadian indie at it's best, and filled a whole in my world for a while

Listen to 'Enemy Mine' on Spotify here

6. Rock Plaza Central - ...At The Moment Of Most Needing, Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone

Rock Plaza Central's follow up to 2006's 'We Are Not Horses' would've been hard matched to improve on that, and 'At The Moment' takes a more laid back approach, further away from the psycadelic imagery of it's predecessor. In the process it gains a level of subdued beautiful to revel in

Listen to '...At The Moment Of Most Needing' on Spotify here

7. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Truely there is like no other as Dirty Projectors' immense vocal acrobatic harmony's. Sometimes distracting, always enticing, the melody's really are like no other

Listen to 'Bitte Orca' on Spotify here

8. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer, Spencer Krug's true sole side project, was a veritable mix sounds and songs, that grew with every listen and utterly bombastic live

Listen to 'Dragonslayer' on Spotify here

9. Kong - Snake Magnet

First delivered to me in 2007 by the hands of Biffy Clyro (I plugged them as a Band For 2008), it took a while getting released, but it's riffs are the size of massive bollocks only these screams could emanate from

Listen to Kong on Myspace here

10. School Of Seven Bells - Alpinism

Strictly released in late 2008, before a re-release this year - one of the most intense live bands I saw this year, the sonics and songs make me warm and fuzzy inside

Listen to 'Alpinism' on Spotify here

...and the best of the rest:

11. Tegan & Sara - Sainthood / 12. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers / 13. Fanfarlo - Reservoir / 14. Grammatics - Grammatics / 15. Sometree - Yonder / 16. Editors - In This Light And On This Evening / 17. Sonic Youth - The Eternal / 18. Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth / 19. Blue Roses - Blue Roses / 20. Riceboy Sleeps - Jonsi & Alex / 21. Micachu & The Shapes - Jewellery / 22. Monsters Of Folk - Monsters Of Folk / 23. Karen O & The Kids - Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack / 24. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread / 25. Fever Ray - Fever Ray

And, finally, looking at my forever interesting Last.FM stats, my actual most listened to albums released in 2009, are the following:

1. The XX - XX

2. School Of Seven Bells - Alpinism

3. Rock Plaza Central - ...At The Moment Of Most Needing

4. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

5. Röyksopp – Junior

6. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

7. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

8. Grammatics - Grammatics

9. Sometree - Yonder

10. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

With a little note to say that Kong's 'Snake Magnet' would be at #8 in the last fm list, had I not recieved it in 2007!

Soundtrack to this post: Bear In Heaven

Bloc Party - One More Chance

Bloc Party's new single got it's first airplay on Zane Lowe / Radio 1 last night. I'm just listening back right now. The first 10 seconds are utterly ridiculous, but as the song goes on, I don't find it half as bad as I thought I would do from that initial intro.

To explain where I'm coming from, I used to really like Bloc Party. In former incarnations, we played with them, and I was lucky enough to see a few early gigs in small venues. The first album I liked, but I thought the album didn't flow too well. The second album felt like a mess, and I honestly didn't get along with a lot of it. By the time Flux & then Mercury came out, I'd stopped listening out for what they were doing next. I haven't even the 3rd album.

I honestly don't get the band, and more to the point, their infatuation with experimentation in the production of their songs. The odd thing about this song, is that it sounds like there's a good song in there! Unlike Mercury which was just a complete mess. Strip away the bad midi piano and added bells and whistles from the drums, it'd probably sound pretty good. The comparatively stripped back and restrained chorus holds it's own, and benefits from these facets. Why the song as a whole sounds like some mid-90's throwback experiment is anyone's guess.

So in conclusion, ignore the wierd piano - the new Bloc Party single might be the best thing they've done for quite a while. If this was their One More Chance, they might just have grasped it [sorry]

*due respect to It's Getting Boring By The Sea for hosting my intial discovery*

Soundtrack to this post: Bloc Party interspersed with Royksopp

Rock Plaza Central

Rock Plaza Central first came to my attention with their last album, 2006's Are We Not Horses - an amazing concept album about being resurrected as a Steel Horse, witnessing an apocalyptic battle between humans and angels, ending with a realisation you've picked the wrong side. At least that's what I think it's on about. 

They are of course Canadian, and are a many membered beast - although as far as I can tell don't seem to share members with any other notable bands. They sound Canadian, with a heavy dose of 'influence' from the Elephant 6 way of thinking. The new album …At The Moment Of Our Most Needing Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone, seems to indivualise their sound even more, with an even greater array of instruments at their disposal. Unfortunately this new album is only released in USA & Canada at the moment, but I'm pleased to have found it on Spotify today:

SPOTIFY ---> Rock Plaza Central - …At The Moment Of Our Most Needing Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone

RPC seem to exist outside of the modern structure of bands, Are We Not Horses was released without a record label, alongside ring leader Chris Eaton's literary 'career' with 2 books published. The Inactivist is witty look at activism and capitalism, while The Grammar Architect is supposedly a re-telling of Hardy's A Pair Of Blue Eyes which I've yet to crack open. 

I cannot lay claim to their discovery, as it's one of those bands my father managed to pick out from nowhere. And grateful I am too! They had a UK tour lined up last July, but postponed to finish the latest album. Hopefully they will put sometime aside for us in the future

MYSPACE ---> Rock Plaza Central

DAYTROTTER SESSION (April 2007) ---> Rock Plaza Central

Soundtrack to this post: Phoenix / Royksopp