Music faves from 2009

It seems that 2009 is the year when I shifted my atten­tion back to rock and pop music. Dub­step still holds my atten­tion but not to the extent that it did back in 2006 when it took over my brain. Here are the things I enjoyed most in 2009, in no par­tic­u­lar order.

Best Albums

The XX — XX
Thanks to my friend, Tony, who first men­tioned this band to me. The XX are a young bunch who make lean pop music con­sist­ing of boy/girl vocals, hand-played drum machines and per­fectly placed gui­tar lines. This album quickly became a habit.
The XX — Islands:

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The XX — Night Time:

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The XX — VCR:

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Mos Def — The Ecsta­tic
Mos Def has never quite deliv­ered a stu­dio album to match his great cameos and col­lab­o­ra­tions. There are no radio-worthy hits here, but this is his most con­sis­tently inter­est­ing album in years. The combo of Mos Def with Madlib is very very sat­is­fy­ing.
Mos Def — Audi­to­rium ft. Slick Rick:

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Mos Def — Revelations:

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King Midas Sound — Wait­ing for You
At the meet­ing point of dub­step and Lovers Rock this full-length from King Midas Sound expands on the ideas put forth on their hand­ful of sin­gles. Atmos­pheric yet heavy. The weight of the bass lends phys­i­cal­ity to each track, anchor­ing down the gen­tly float­ing falsetto.
King Midas Sound — Cool Out:

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King Midas Sound — Dahlin':

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Tim Hecker — An Imag­i­nary Coun­try
Mas­ter­ful ambi­ent drone tex­ture explo­rations. Per­fect bal­ance of gen­tle and abra­sive sonic tim­bres. This work man­ages to seem empty and emo­tional simul­ta­ne­ously.
Tim Hecker — The Inner Shore:

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Tor­toise — Bea­cons of Ances­tor­ship
"Post-rock" stal­warts Tor­toise expanded their sound once again while retain­ing their core strength of polyrhyth­mic elas­tic­ity. Tor­toise came fuzzier in 2009.
Tor­toise — High Class Slim Came Floatin' In:

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Tor­toise — North­ern Something:

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The Flam­ing Lips — Embry­onic
The Flam­ing Lips also came fuzzier in 2009. Gritty, over­driven drum sounds gave a low rent haze to the album. Sound­ing almost like a rehearsal tape some­times, Embry­onic reminded me of Six Fin­ger Satel­lite circa Severe Expo­sure and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew with a dash of Can's Tago Mago or early Pink Floyd. But buried in the fuzz is Wayne Coyne's dreamy earnest­ness which floats up out of the muck to hook your heart and keep you afloat.
The Flam­ing Lips — The Spar­row Looks Up at the Machine:

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Father Divine — Requiem for Intel­lect
Here's what I wrote in my ama­zon review:

Dis­clo­sure: I played in a band with Joe Fer­rara from 1992–1995.

My friend­ship with the singer/songwriter/creative force behind Father Divine may indi­cate poten­tial bias to some, but I think the asso­ci­a­tion is far enough in the past to give me some crit­i­cal distance.

The music of Requiem for Intel­lect is a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward from Great Amer­i­can Pas­time. While still styl­is­ti­cally rec­og­niz­able as the same musi­cal mind at work, there is added tex­tural and rhyth­mic den­sity in the new music. And it gets heavy when it needs to.

This is music informed by every­thing from Big Black to Daz­zlingkill­men to 90s down­town NYC jazz skronk. And yet, melody still stands front-and-center. Intel­li­gent, unpre­dictable, uncon­ven­tional, chal­leng­ing. But these are SONGS.

The album is son­i­cally fan­tas­tic, as well. The gui­tar tones are espe­cially note­wor­thy. I bought the mp3s so I am miss­ing out on some fidelity but there is a great level of detail to the pro­duc­tion and mix­ing that really lends the songs depth and lay­ers with­out get­ting in the way.

Bravo, padre.

Father Divine — Idyll for a Botched Frontier:

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Father Divine — Vox Lupine:

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Father Divine — Don't Know Mind (It Means Nothing):

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Shlomo — Shlo­moshun
Yes, yet another apple fallen from the Dilla tree… reminds me of Fly­ing Lotus, Samiyam, Ras G, etc. but I went back to this more than I went back to Nosaj Thing's album. Not ground­break­ing, I'll admit, but I like the songs.
Shlomo — Ghosts:

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Shlomo — Hot Box­ing the Cockpit:

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Griz­zly Bear — Veck­a­timest
I didn't pay much atten­tion to this band before this year, but my ears have been opened. Lush arrange­ments, inter­est­ing vocal har­monies, unusual chord changes… this is like pop music played by a pro­gres­sive rock band. Slightly psy­che­delic at times, but decid­edly poppy always. Quite enjoy­able.
Griz­zly Bear — Two Weeks:

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Mika Vainio — Van­dal
Itchy pound­ing elec­tron­ics from Mika Vainio. More akin to Pan Sonic than to his other solo releases.
Mika Vainio — Teutons:

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Best Com­pi­la­tion

5: 5 Years of Hyper­dub
A five year ret­ro­spec­tive release from Kode9's Hyper­dub label. This dou­ble album con­tains one album of past releases and one album of new mate­r­ial. A new track from Bur­ial is a high­light, but there is great music across the whole col­lec­tion.
Bur­ial — Fostercare:

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L.V. — Turn Away:

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Best Mix­tapes

Wiley — Race Against Time
"The most unusual star on the planet…" con­tin­ues to hold my fas­ci­na­tion. I am not very fond of the clubby songs, but a few of these tracks are jaw­drop­pers for their sheer lyri­cal den­sity.
Wiley — Off the Radar:

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Wiley — Hum­mer Activity:

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The Niyat — Raxus Prime
Snap — Snap­page Vol­ume 1
Two mix­tapes from Houston-based rap­pers. Snap is a part of The Niyat, so there is some over­lap of mate­r­ial. There is some out­stand­ing stuff in here that war­rants fur­ther explo­ration.
Down­load Raxus Prime
Down­load Snap­page Vol­ume 1
The Niyat — Aintcha:

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Snap — Fly Away:

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Snap — Vul­gar Spit:

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