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Best Of 2009...
Blk Jks: After Robots (Secretly Canadian)
In the jaded world of music journalism, wading through acres of ho-hum heard it all before-ness, it’s always a huge pleasure to stumble across something so genuinely different as the Blk Jks careering prog and horn driven jazz, spaced out dubby ambience and raucous guitar riffage driven debut.
Clark: Totems Flare (Warp)
Chris Clark, with no weight of expectation (unlike his Warp label peers), calmly continue to deliver the most out there IDM sounds around, marrying acidic squelches, motorik sequences, polyrhythmic about-turns and all out dirty tech-thug beats to just about anything he damn well pleases.
Bill Callahan: Sometimes I wish We Were An Eagle (Drag City)
Fans of Smog will already know Bill Callahan and this is his most fully realised release so far, wreathed in that bone dry, lo-fi baritone the results often leaving you in mind of Nick Drake and on the jaunty ‘Eid Ma Clack Shaw’ he has possibly written the best song of his career to date.
Jah Wobble: Chinese Dub (30 Hertz)
Another outsider artist with enough of a fan-base that he can release pretty much whatever he wants to, and generally jams more ideas into one album than most 'pop' chancers manage in their whole career. This time out it’s Chinese dub music, sounds peculiar on paper, sounds magnificent on disc.
Grand Duchy: Petits Fours (Cooking Vinyl)
Still primarily known as the portly driving force behind the mighty Pixies, Frank Black’s fine solo catalogue is now far more extensive than that of his illustrious previous outfit however Grand Duchy’s returns to a balancing female vocal contribution - from new partner and co-writer Violet Clark – is possibly the best so far.
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Not only but also...
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
The Qemists: Join the Q (Ninja Tune)
Prefab Sprout: Let’s Change the World With Music (Kitchenware)
Monsters Of Folk: Monsters Of Folk (Rough Trade)
Oneida: Rated O (jagjaguwar)
Gong: 2032 (G-Wave)
David Sylvian: Manafon (Samadhi)
Icy Demons: Miami Ice (Leaf)
The Mars Volta: Octahedron (Mercury Records)
Jackie-O Motherfucker: Ballads Of The Revolution (Fire)
Dinosaur Jr.: Farm (Jagjaguwar)
KTU: Quiver (Westpark)
Drive By Truckers: Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008 (New West)
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (EMI)
Ian Hunter: Man Overboard (New West Records)
Think we've missed something? Horrified by our writers selection? Or are you just a bit bored and fancy sounding off? Then why not head over to Twitter and let us know your top ten albums, DVD's, gigs, books or favourite shopping channel for this or any other year...
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