Tuesday 20 December 2011

Fixin The Charts: Top 50 of 2011

1) Destroyer- Kaputt
2) Fucked Up- David Comes To Life
3) Los Campesinos- Hello Sadness
4) Widowspeak- Widowspeak
5) Cloud Nothings- Cloud Nothings
6) Big Deal- Lights Out
7) Twin Sister- In Heaven
8) Youth Lagoon-Year of Hibernation
9) Mikal Cronin-S/T
10) Atlas Sound- Parallax
11) Tim Hecker- Ravedeath 1972
12) Slow Club- Paradise
13) I Break Horses- Hearts
14) Wild Flag- Wild Flag
15) Future Islands- On The Water
16) Richmond Fontaine- The High Country
17) Girls- Father, Son, Holy Ghost
18) No Joy- Ghost Blonde
19) Forest Fire- Staring at the X
20) Lia Ices- Grown Unknown
21) Wye Oak- Civilian
22) Pure X- Pleasure
23) Maria Taylor- Overlook
24) Say Hi- Um, Uh oh,
25) The Dears- Degeneration Street
26) Liturgy- Aesthetica
27) Handsome Furs- Sound Kapitol
28) Total Slacker- Thrashin’
29) Other Lives- Tamer Animals
30) Brilliant Colours- Again and Again
31) Julianna Barwick- The Magic Place
32) EMA- Past Life Martyred Saints
33) Fungi Girls- Easy Magic
34) Minks- By The Hedge
35) Bright Eyes- Peoples Key
36) Peaking Lights- 936
37) Thousands- The Sound of Everything
38) Grimes- Halfaxa
39) Dirty Beaches- Badlands
40) Braids- Native Speaker
41) Part Time- What Would You Say?
42) Thao & Mirah-S/T
43) Smith Westerns- Dye It Blonde
44) Craft Spells- Idle Labor
45) Little Scream- The Golden Record
46) Dark Dark Dark- Wild Go
47) True Widow- As High As The Highest…
48) 200 Years- 200 Years
49) Oneohtrix Point Never- Replica
50) Big Troubles- Romantic Comedy

Year in Review: November 2011

November 2011

1. Los Campesinos- Hello Sadness
2. Atlas Sound- Parallax
3. 200 Years- 200 Years
4. Oneohtrix Point Never- Replica
5. Blouse- Blouse
6. AA Bondy- Believers
7. Childish Gambino- Camp
8. High Places- Original Colours
9. Carter Tanton- Freeclouds
10. Gem Club- Breakers
11. Dan Michaelson- Sudden Fiction
12. Caveman- Coco Beware
13. Spotlight Kid- Disaster Tourist
14. Johnny Foreigner- Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everyone
15. Wax Idols- No Future
16. My Sad Captains- Fight Less Win More
17. Cass McCombs- Humor Risk
18. The Do- Both Ways Open Jaw
19. Steve Hauschildt- Tragedy & geometry
20. Odonis Odonis- Fight Less Win More

Year in Review: October 2011

1) Youth Lagoon- Year of Hibernation
2) Wild Flag- S/T
3) Future Islands- On The Water
4) Forest Fire- Staring At The X
5) Holiday Shores- New Masses For Squaw Peak
6) Mikal Cronin- S/T
7) Big Troubles- Romantic Comedy
8) Total Slacker- Thrashin’
9) The Strange Boys- Live Music
10) Zun Zun Egui- Katang
11) Mark Mcguire- Get Lost
12) Loch Lomond- Little Me Will Start a Storm
13) Witch Cult- S/T
14) M83- Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
15) Lights- Siberia
16) Darkness Falls- Alive in Us
17) Real Estate- Days
18) Still Corners- Creatures of an Hour
19) Blue Daisy- The Sunday Gift
20) Cuckoo Chaos- Woman

Year in Review: September 2011

1) Big Deal- Lights Out
2) Twin Sister- In Heaven
3) Slow Club- Paradise
4) Richmond Fontaine- The High Country
5) Girls- Father, Son, Holy Ghost
6) Cant- Dreams Come True
7) The Duke Spirit- Bruiser
8) The Horrible Crowes- Elsie
9) New Villager- New Villager
10) Teeth- Whatever
11) St. Vincent- Strange Mercy
12) Lanterns on The Lake- Gracious Tide, Take Me Home
13) Waters- Out in The Light
14) Mara Carlyle- Floreat
15) The Drums- Portamento
16) Peggy Sue- Acrobats
17) Nurses- Dracula
18) Zola Jesus- Contanus
19) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Hysterical
20) Jeff The Brotherhood- We Are The Champions

Year in Review: August 2011

August 2011
1) Widowspeak- Widowspeak
2) I Break Horses- Hearts
3) Pure X- Pleasure
4) Maria Taylor- Overlook
5) Other Lives-Tamer Animals
6) Brilliant Colours- Again and Again
7) Fungi Girls- Easy Magic
8) Stephen Malkmus- Mirror Traffic
9) Maria Minerva- Cabare Cixous
10) Pepper Rabbit- Red Velvet Snow Balls
11) The War on Drugs- Slave Ambient
12) Son Lux- We Are Rising
13) SWHRT- Compact Disc
14) Balam Acab- Wander Wonder
15) Her Space Holiday- Her Space Holiday
16) Gazelle Twin- The Entire City
17) Eleanor Friedberger- Last Summer
18) Wooden Shjips- West
19) Devon Williams- Euphoria
20) Young The Giant- S/T

Year in Review: July 2011

July was a slow month this year but still some hidden gems in amongst the shelves

Spotify Playlist to be added....



July 2011
1) Part Time- What Would You Say?
2) Chad Vangaalen- Diaper Island
3) Gardens & Villa- Gardens & Villa
4) Fair Ohs- Everything is Dancing
5) Unknown Mortal Orchestra- Unknown Mortal Orchestra
6) Copy Haho- Copy Haho
7) Washed Out- Within & Without
8) The Horrors- Skying
9) La Big Vic- Actually
10) Pictureplane- Thee Physical
11) Memory Tapes- Player Piano
12) William Elliot Whitmore- Field Songs
13) Little Dragon- Ritual Union
14) Crystal Antlers- Two Way Mirror
15) Night Beats- Night Beats
16) She Keeps Bees- Dig On
17) Zomby- Dedication
18) Dave Depper- The Ram Project
19) Gold Bears- Are You Falling in Love?
20) Fire With Jim O Rourke- Unreleased?

Year in Review: June 2011

Summer! Coming Home Blues! But The Month in which two of my favourite records of the year had the offical UK releases.

Spotify Playlist to Follow:

June 2011
1) Destroyer- Kaputt
2) Fucked Up- David Comes To Life
3) Handsome Furs- Sound Kapitol
4) Dirty Beaches- Badlands
5) Mechanical Bride- Living With Ants
6) Kindest Lines- Covered In Dust
7) White Hills- H-P 1
8) The Middle East- I Want that You Are Always Happy
9) The Men- Leave Home
10) Hong Kong In The 60s- My Fantoms
11) John Maus- We Must Become...
12) Secret Cities- Strange Hearts
13) Sons & Daughters- Mirror Mirror
14) Jolie Holland- Pint of Blood
15) Ice Age- New Brigade
16) Herman Dune- Strange Moosic
17) Blanck Mass- Blanck Mass
18) Tombs- Path of Totality
19) United Fruit- Fault Lines
20) The Grates- Secret Rituals

Year in Review: May 2011

From Chicago to LA to Seattle to Toronto and many in between...

The May Twenty is as follows:

May 2011
1) No Joy- Ghost Blonde
2) True Widow- As High As The Highest…
3) EMA- Past Life Martyred Saints
4) Love Inks- ESP
5) Julian Lynch-Terra
6) Smith Westerns- Dye it Blonde
7) Death Cab For Cutie- Codes and Keys
8) Wild Beasts- Smother
9) Thee Oh Sees- Castelmania
10) Austra- Feel it Break
11) The Antlers- Burst Apart
12) Cults- S/T
13) Woods- Sun and Shade
14) Bird of Youth- Defender
15) Bass Drum of Death- GB City
16) Weyes Blood- The Outside Room
17) No Babies- S/T
18) Royal Bangs- Flux Outside
19) Idiot Glee- Paddywhack
20) Hunx & His Punx- Too Young to be in Love

Year in Review: April 2011

In the month of fools and my journey from Georgia to Chicago, Here's the next installment of my twenty albums that rocked me through April...

Spotify Playlist available at: http://open.spotify.com/user/joefordy24/playlist/7yXChe3Dsd9Dc1qMxdq0Hp

1) Liturgy- Aesthetica
The Hipster's Death Metal Band as many dubbed them, but that didn't stop Aesthetica being a revolution of genre.



2) Thao & Mirah-S/T
Unlikely combo of mild mannered Mirah and punked up queen Thao, but the balance was intoxicating and demanded to be heard. Live Session from my favourite Radio Station in the world... KEXP



3) Braids- Native Speaker
Robbed of the polaris prize but the gigantic force of The Arcade Fire, Native Speaker is yet another example of how Canada is the country that is pushing boundaries in music right now.


4) Craft Spells- Idle Labor


5) Little Scream- Golden Record


6) The Raveonettes- Raven in The Grave


7) Dark Dark Dark- Wild Go



8) Metronomy- The English Riveria



9) Vivian Girls- Share The Joy


10) Moon Duo- Mazes



11) Colour Music- My ________ is pink


12) Sleepingdog- With Our Heads In The Clouds & Our Hearts In The Fields


13) Sarabeth Tucek- Get Well Soon



14) Memphis- Here Comes A City


15) Singing Adams- Everybody Friends Now


16) PS I Love You- Meet You at the Muster Station


17) Die! Die! Die!- Form


18) Cats Eyes- Cats Eyes


19) Cass Mccombs- Wit’s Ends



20) The Sandwitches- Mrs Jones Cookies

Saturday 17 December 2011

Year In Review: March 2011

And onto March, the magical time of year for SXSW, where I saw some amazing people this year from, Chelsea Wolfe at Beerland, Murray Lightburn's birthday at the dears show for under the radar to secret cities in someone's backyard (won a raffle!) to bright eyes in the park. NXNE for me next year but March soundtracked the beginning of the journey around America.

Here's The Twenty and once again for you spotify fans out there... playlist of these 20 (and a lot more) as follows: http://open.spotify.com/user/joefordy24/playlist/4b7xZ3P0y9kbznYrvvCVdV

1) Wye Oak- Civilian
Wye Oak have always been a force to be reckoned with but finally public attention soared with the release of the Civilian... Amazing Live, Amazing Record, Amazing Band.


2) The Dears- Degeneration Street

Montreal's if not Canada's most underrated band, who have yet to release a disappointing album, so it's unfair to say the Degeneration Street is a return to form. But it is, capturing perfectly the grand live sound of The Dears. One of the best bands I saw at SXSW this year too.




3) Julianna Barwick- The Magic Place


No-one mastered the dreamscape sound better this year than Julianna Barwick.



4) Thousands- The Sound of Everything
Another overlooked gem!



5) Grimes- Halfaxa

Back to Montreal for the Hard to specify, Hard to Define, Grimes' noise pop was a true revelation of 2011.



6) Mother Mother- Eureka!
Hot pop from Vancouver, obviously with a wink to the New Pornographers (yes that good) with which they share clever pop hooks and huge harmonies. Really suprised they did not blow up in 2011. Those vocals kill me! So good! Below my song of the year...



7) Rival Schools- Pedals
Finally an example of a band reunion which excels beyond so many lame reunions. Pedals made Rival Schools hugely relevant in 2011, unlike many of the returning peers.



8) King Creosote & Jon Hopkins- Diamond Mine

The Mercury Nominated duo of King Creosote & Jon Hopkins created a Heart-Breakingly gorgeous debut which was robbed from victory.




9) The Dodos- No Colour

Another fine fine record from The Dodos, effortlessly brilliant as per usual.



10) Hype Williams- One Nation
Mind Blowing!



11) Naked On The Vague- 12 Dark Moons

Probably not quite an album, but any NOTV release deserves attention.




12) Sin Fang- Summer Echoes
Dazzling lo-fi pop from Iceland



13) Magnus Ostrom- Thread of Life


Love A Drummer, and Magnus Ostrom must be at the top of that list.



14) The Naked & The Famous- Passive Me, Aggressive you
Usually turned off when bands are subject to the buzz that naked and the famous were at the end of 2010, wasn't expecting such an impressive debut from them.



15) Erland & The Carnival- Nightingale

Another great album from Erland, released so quickly after 2010's debut.



16) Tom Williams & The Boat- Too Slow

Not a fan of the acts he's usually compared to (Mumford etc) but Tom William's got it just right with this impressive debut.



17) Akron/Family- S/T II
Even Akron at their average is still a excellent record by most band's standards



18) Brown Recluse- Evening Tapestry

Pretty confident Slumberland records does no wrong, named after a rather nasty spider... You'd be suprised at how Evening Tapestry is a shimmering array of the best pop of the year.


19) Kurt Vile- Smoke Ring For My Halo
Not nearly as good as you've been lead to believe nor even near the best record Vile has released, SRFMH was still a bold, brave statement from a stunning artist.
It's all got to start somewhere...



20) Brave Irene- Brave Irene

Rose Melberg. Legend! Brave Irene! Awesome!

Thursday 15 December 2011

Year in Review: February 2011

Day Two and we move on to the shortest month February, you'll notice there's no PJ Harvey on here, the winner of this year's Mercury Music Prize, its crazy i know!
Once again, for spotify users, most of these albums are on this playlist, plus other greats from the month of the groundhog.

http://open.spotify.com/user/joefordy24/playlist/2WRjuoTdcSg4JCQwsm9CBx

1. Tim hecker- Ravedeath 1972

In a month of diversity, Tim Hecker's Ravedeath 1972 is the stand-out, beautiful and ornate, designed to be much more than an ambient album but a refreshing soundtrack to the most brutal and sad mundane small town movie. It's truly an adventure through a forgotten wasteland. Like Winter's Bone but without the heroine. No Video's I'm afraid but... give this a listen.




2. Lia Ices- Grown Unknown

Underrated gem of a record, sadly missed off critics end of years...



3. Bright Eyes- peoples key


Refreshing return for Oberst and Mogis' ever changing posse.



4. Peaking Lights- 936

Another Excellent release from Not Not Fun/Weird World


5. Gruff rhys- hotel shampoo

It's Gruff Rhys! Need I Say More!



6. Mogwai- hardcore will never die but you will

It's Mogwai! Need I Say More!


7. Trail of The Dead- Tao of The Dead

See Above.... It's Trail of The Dead



8. Ringo Deathstarr- Colour Trip/Sparkler

Austin's Finest, bringing back psychedelia in the right way. Bliss



9. The Babies- S/T

Member of Woods, Member of Vivian Girls, Simple Bratty Punk Rock better than both of the full time bands releases this year. Live from my favourite new york venue!




10. Yuck- Yuck

Pavement/Guided By Voices/Superchunk alt-rock rip-off, but they do it pretty well.



11. Telekinesis!- 12 Desperate Straight Lines


Great Indie Rock band on Merge (The Daddy of record labels) from Seattle.



12. The Luyas- Too Beautiful To Work

Toured With Blonde Redhead and on the equally legendary Dead Oceans



13. Papercuts- Fading Parade


Another excellent record from the still sadly unknown sub pop band,



14. Slug Guts- Howlin’Gang

Epic Australian Punk Rock who gnawed a massive hole in my skull at SXSW. for Fans of Birthday Party, Eighties Matchbox etc




15. Ghost Society- The Back of His Hands, Then The Palms

Lush Danish dream pop.




16. Dustin O Holloran- Lumiere

Another Epic Piano Genius.



17. Axxonn- let's get it straight



18. Harry’s Gym- What Was Ours…
In The Absence of Azure Ray...



19. Devotchka- 100 Lovers

Another Incredible album from the highly Talented Devotchka




20. The Rural Alberta Advantage-Departing


Canada + Saddle Creek = Super Awesome Good Time Yeah!

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Year In Review: January 2011

Start My Year in Review with the month of the year that is always the most difficult to find new releases... mostly just a plethora of later bloomers of the previous year finally getting wider releases, but here's the twenty greatest records from the top.

Also if your spotify inclined, these albums and more are handily put together in a playlist for you: http://open.spotify.com/user/joefordy24/playlist/2EMOEb1dMP9DCH3CRiYwFi

Here's The 20.

1. Cloud Nothings- Cloud Nothings
Smart and intricate indie punk record from Cleveland's bratty genius Dylan Baldi, who kick started summer fun in the darkest month of the year, talented beyond his years and with so much more potential he is sure to be set to release another staggering album in early 2012.


2. Say Hi- Um, Uh Oh


3. Minks- By The Hedge


4. Apex Manor- The Year of Magic Drinking


5. British Sea Power- Valhalla Dancefloor


6. Tu Fawning- Hearts on Hold


7. Sun Airway- Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier


8. Lemuria- Pebble

9. Ruby Coast- Whatever This Is


10. Joan as Police Woman- The Deep Field


11. The Phoenix Foundation- Buffalo (UK Release)


12. The Joy Formdiable- The Big Roar


13. Reading Rainbow- Prism Eyes (UK Release)


14. Young Prisms- Friends For Now (UK Release)


15. The Go Team- Rolling Blackouts


16. Tennis- Cape Dory


17. Y Niwl- Y Niwl


18. Jeff The Brotherhood- Heavy Days


19. Selebrities- Delusions


20. Sic Alps- Napa Asylum