26-28 May, 2011

The final part of our round-up of Primavera. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here respectively

Saturday
Due to bad planning on my part, myself and my travelling partner have to check out early in the morning on the Saturday after 5 hours sleep. We at this point know our flight is at 10.20 the following morning, and with airport transfers and such, it will be 30 hours before we will be able to be comfortably horizontal. So we start the day with some nice sitting down at the beautiful Auditori venue for John Cale performing Paris 1919. It’s a wonderful experience, and the orchestra and Cale boom out the songs, which transfer naturally from the introspective tone on that record to a setting such as this one. An encore which lasts almost as long and focusses on old and new material is wildly inconsistent, and too much for a lot of people to take. At one point, during what sounds like a new lounge trip-hop song, people stream to the exits as if Cale had just dedicated it to Franco. It’s difficult to take in some of this material with the level of tiredness I’m feeling, but he’s earned the right to do it after playing songs like ‘Paris 1919′ and ‘Andalucia’.

PJ Harvey

The question now is, should I do my professional music reviewer thing and go to see Kurt Vile or Gang Gang Dance? Or should I go and sit in a field and watch the Champions League Final? Perhaps I can pretend I did the professional thing by switching the names around. Kurt Vile comes out fighting, harrying everyone with a lot of energy which initially promises we have a better set on our hands than the one two years ago. However, it only takes Gang Gang Dance a very short period of time to get into their rhythm and, really, apart from one isolated moment of genius from Kurt Vile, it is no contest at all. It begs the question, are Gang Gang Dance the best band we’ve ever seen in the history of music? The dancing Catalans all around me seemed to think so – with the dejected Kurt Vile fans making a hasty exit to drown their sorrows with PJ Harvey!

Ah, PJ Harvey! A very subdued set which I’ve since heard does not maintain the interest of everyone, but to me, this is a perfect headlining set given the nature of her new material. It is fully cohesive – every old song played meshes into the sound of her excellent new album Let England Shake. She has stagepresence and grace without the high camp and harsh guitars of her previous records, and this set seems to confirm she has entered a new era of creative control and single-mindedness which bodes very well for her future records. Highlights include the full-band versions of White Chalk songs, which actually work much better with her new setup, and brilliant versions of stand-outs from Let England Shake, including ‘The Last Living Rose’ and, one of the best songs played at the festival, ‘Written on the Forehead’.

No one was expecting Goblin to be as dull as it was, so Odd Future have surely become one of the first bands to face a backlash from their first album. It doesn’t mean the band still don’t have potential, because they’ve collectively got enough good tracks to give them a number of second chances, but their live performance at Primavera won’t have convinced anyone apart from those loyalists in the crowd chanting “Kill People Burn Shit Fuck School” because they’ve just finished their Masters thesis. They have a knowing charisma on stage at times – there’s something genuinely entertaining about seeing Tyler do a ridiculous stage dive before the first song is even halfway through – but the sound is awful, equivalent to overhearing someone shouting along to a rap song to which they only know half the words. Apparently there is a stage invasion by the end, but my tired head has long since had enough.

Animal Collective headlining over PJ Harvey? Surely not. I tell myself it’s some mistake and settle in to watch a familiar sight – Animal Collective working through new material on-stage, only this time it’s a festival audience and a lot of people are keen to hear some classics. Now, you should always follow your muse, but is this really the time to be jamming through some only-vaguely interesting sketches of songs? There’s a level of disengagement here which makes them The Anti-Pulp, and while the very few recognisable songs they play are welcomed, they are quickly transitioned into new songs. It’s a set which, (possibly combined with the fact that I realise it’s 3am and I still have another 12 hours to stay awake), leaves me feeling incredibly irritated.

The two final acts that I see are well-placed to help anyone in a similar position to me. I’m not too familiar with Holy Ghost! but their up-tempo, Cut Copy-esque (really an understatement – they supported them on their recent tour, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people thought Cut Copy had generously played a 2 hour set with a small intermission) tracks are perfect for getting people up on the floor. It’s also heartening to see a band truly embrace the Primavera effect of having a much, much larger audience than you would be accustomed to – especially considering the choices get more limited at this time of night. Afterwards, it’s Kode9, and since The Spaceape doesn’t turn up, we are treated to a rich set of UK electro that could be tenuously linked to dubstep. It’s nice to pretend that because I’m in London all these Europeans are dancing to my local music; completely untrue of course, since I’ve only been to two dubstep nights, but it’s the kind of ego-boost I need to keep me dancing during this surreal endurance test.

Overall, then Primavera 2011 was great. It took a while for this to sink in, seeing as I was dazed for the next two days at least, but Primavera is an exceptional, very individual festival which you can and should book early for. You will know that the organisers have a good idea of what their target crowd want, and that they will endeavour to achieve this. The level of organisation this year, with the infamous Portal system and the lack of the proper promised ‘relaxation’ areas, was pretty subpar though. Also, despite a cinema which I never found, it really is simply a music festival and little else – you won’t find many other attractions and it probably isn’t the ideal environment for just relaxing with friends and dipping into music when you muster up the energy. But as you’ve seen from my, possibly quite smug, list of bands that were on offer, and then realise by looking at the list how many I actually missed, you’ll know you’re completely spoilt for choice here, and all in the centre of a beautiful city too. An excellent, exhausting few days, and thoroughly recommended – book everything early for next year and be sure, no matter what the exact lineup, that you’ll enjoy it.

13-15 May, 2011

We live in hard times, friends. Not hard like it was back in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s obviously, or even the early 80s of course but you know, bread is pricey these days, so pretty damn hard. The enforced economic cutbacks are far reaching and have inevitably spread to everyone’s favourite indie-cred festival, ATP. Now down to just one May festival from the previous years’ 2, one will become none in 2012 due to a big dip in ticket sales caused by all manner of possible reasons; a perceived lack of quality in the curators and invitees of recent years, too much choice in the festival peak season, general overkill and that phrase much used of late: ‘tightening of the belt’.

FRIDAY

After our first ever traffic issues getting to Butlins and then sorting out an apartment mix up (we’re given non catering accommodation when we ordered otherwise), I am verging on desperate for my first ale of the weekend and this is accompanied by the lo-fi solo ditties of Highlife. It’s a gentle musical introduction, pleasant enough but fairly forgettable. Dent May was a bit of a let down when he was behind his promising ‘magnificent ukulele’, now strumming a standard acoustic, he is even less interesting than before.

At this point, it’s clear to see that numbers are well down on previous festivals (rumours suggest that only 55% of the ticket allocation was sold) and this leads to some pros; MUCH shorter queues at the bar, less packed stages, and some cons too; no Pavilion stage, less atmosphere. Lee Scratch Perry tries his very best to get the smaller crowd whipped up and he’s pretty successful at it. It’s not often you’re in the presence of a supposed legend and while the 70 year old’s archetypal reggae gets my toe-a-tapping and my head-a-bobbing it doesn’t quite get my pulse-a-racing. Extra marks to the stylish pensioner though for wearing the most ostentatious outfit of the weekend; a kind of mashup of a German World War 1 uniform, adorned with Prince style robotic chrome. 

Grouper‘s slight soundscapes are just too minimal to make any kind of connection. Perhaps this is a timing thing following on from Mr Perry but I’ve seen plenty of similar acts who have made a far greater impression from equally slight levels of output. Big Boi, on the other hand, is far from minimal. As the name would suggest, he is big and boisterous and though hip-hop is far from my favourite genre of music, Mr Boi is surprisingly engaging.

SATURDAY

The Meat Puppets (Photo by Peter Harris)

Saturday starts with the footy and the successes of Manchester – this puts a smile on this United fan’s face and on the face of my City following festival accomplice. The Meat Puppets only add to the joy, playing their classic album Up on the Sun in its entirety. Although the album is 26 years old and some of these songs may never have even been played live, the set is a clear front runner for act of the weekend. The brothers Kirkwood clearly still revel in playing live music and they thank Animal Collective for setting up the obstacle course of having to re-familiarise themselves with an album over a quarter of a century old.

Ariel Pink looks like a trouble maker. Awkwardly hunched over, with arms loosely swinging, there’s an air of petulance surrounding him as if he’s always only 30 seconds away from a tantrum. An unlikely front man embodying the stage apprehension of Kurt Cobain with the apparent temperament of Axl Rose; the music however is miles from either. Pink’s Haunted Graffiti are a total anachronism playing music from 2010 which sounds like it’s from 1979 in that era of slight cheese before the big fromage of the new romantics came along. It takes a while to click but when it does, our group all agree that the show is surprisingly enjoyable.

Beach House are an absolute joy. The set list is wisely heavy on Teen Dream and Victoria Legrand’s voice fills the room magnificently, never better than on my favourite song of last year, ‘Zebra’. Kurt Vile and The Violators, in contrast, prove to be disappointingly bland, lacking all the spark that made them a fairly enticing prospect on record. 

At this stage, I am probably less excited about seeing Animal Collective than any of the past ATP curators. I really like Merriweather Post Pavillion but having seen them before and knowing how they work live, ie, they don’t tend to actually play their songs, choosing instead to ‘jam’, improvise and rework, the pull of bed seems equally if not more enticing. But when in Rome…

And to be fair to Panda Bear and co, they work so much better here then when I last saw them. Yes, if you’re waiting to hear ‘the hits’, you are going to be sorely disappointed but the disco party vibe they create is actually pretty good. I don’t manage anywhere near the 90 mins of the set but I’m happy while it lasts.

SUNDAY

Deep Fried Mars Bar

The cut backs strike again Sunday lunch time as we head into Minehead for our traditional Sunday roast in the slightly ramshackle yet charming pub, The Hobby Horse. As we near the door though, our hearts sink with disappointment as we see a pile of unopened post behind it. The Hobby Horse is no more. We find an alternative but it’s just not the same without the drunken locals and scabby carpet. At least my wife is able to continue her somewhat icky tradition of grabbing a deep fried Mars Bar from the local chippy (well, I say icky but they’re actually much better than they look, or smell for that matter).

Later, Group Doueh gives ATP a new unlikely hero. As Doueh and his band belt out their Hendrix flavoured traditional African/Arabian music (yep, really), one of the band’s 3 backing singers OWNS the stage. Possibly the second oldest artist at the festival after Lee Scratch Perry, she shakes her shawled booty across the stage, milking the cheers with a near constant double thumbs-up gesture. Only at ATP! The Entrance Band then bring us back down to earth with a boom of a bass. Paz Lenchantin, previously of Perfect Circle and Zwan is the true lead of this band though she doesn’t sing. Her prominent bass grooves are the anchor for the fairly straight forward psychedelic rock trio. They’re a welcome slice of normality.

The brief taste of normality, however, is skewed again as Prince Rama begin their set. They are a female duo, comprised of simple percussion and keyboard/samples, backed with Far Eastern-tinged vocals. Joining them on stage is a quite beautiful bharatanatyam (classical Indian) dancer who aptly represents the duo’s output. The immersion is only slightly broken when we find that the traditional Indian dancer is called Melissa!

We want to like Tickley Feather more. Annie Sachs is very excited to be here, infectiously interacting with the crowd in between songs. But it’s the songs that let her down today in a set which is far, far too quiet. The potentially pretty music ends up sounding wet and insipid. Sorry to say, but TF are the let down of the weekend.

As the weekend draws to a close we catch 2 more, polar opposite acts. Atlas Sound is gentle and swirly and simple, Bradford Cox once again at ATP, comes over like a shy, bumbling geek. It’s nice and that adjective is all that’s required. Gang Gang Dance throw everything and the kitchen sink into their music, some of it sticks but in general it sounds like a chaotic and often annoying mess. 

I have mixed feelings as we drive home. The dominant one is back ache but that’s to be expected. I am a bit sad that there will be no more May ATPs for the foreseeable future. Minehead has its charms in the spots of pleasant weather that May occasionally brings. But as you may have gathered from the above ramblings, this has not been the strongest ATP in terms of music, in fact, this is easily the weakest lineup of the 7 festivals I’ve been to. It wouldn’t have swayed me from booking next May’s however because regardless of who curates and who is invited, ATP is the only festival of the year which I absolutely cannot miss. I’ll be back in December.

Avey Tare - Down There

If, like me, you think of (dare I say, ‘have correctly identified’?) the back-to-back of ‘For Reverend Green’ and ‘Fireworks’ of 2007’s Strawberry Jam as the most towering of Animal Collective’s many lofty achievements, then perhaps you share my slight resentment towards the reputation Panda Bear has garnered for himself recently as ‘the creative one’ of the band. Following the release of Panda Bear’s staggering Person Pitch it felt that, just because he lacked a solo album, Avey Tare had been marginalised, made to look as if he were being carried by his ‘more talented’ band mate. Where’s the respect for ‘The Purple Bottle’? Where’s the love for ‘Peacebone’?

I had hoped that the release of Down There would finally close this perceived gulf between the two songwriters, but it would seem that Avey isn’t interested in engaging with Panda Bear in combative terms. This is no demonstration of ability; this is no opus – it’s just Avey putting out some material, take it or leave it. It’s difficult to be comparative between Animal Collective-related releases because each new album usually feels more like a jagged diagonal move than a linear, forward progression. Nevertheless, here goes: Down There relies far less heavily on the pop-based structures of MPP, but is a little (a little) lighter in tone than Avey’s work within ODDSAC.

But this is a murky piece of work, to be sure. From the opening seven-minute waltz, Down There finds Avey at his most wordy (even by his standards) – as if these songs were just half-formed vehicles for the therapeutic outpouring of darkness, rather than bona fide jams. These tracks often lack form, almost always undervalue vocal hooks, and sometimes descend into outright tunelessness.

Early single ‘Lucky 1’ is about as coherent as these songs get; the thumping kick of ‘Oliver Twist’ the closest to a groove; the gloomy slurs of ‘Ghost of Books’ the closest to a chorus.  Sure, we get snatches of the almost sing-along in songs like ‘Oliver Twist’, which finds Avey at his most direct and playful. But, by and large, especially in the album’s midsection, we’re adrift in a sea of swirling dirge; Tare’s trademark yelps, howls and warbling drifting in and out of focus, stripped of humanisation thanks to distortive vocal filters.

That’s not to say that the album is bad, or that it’s not a worthwhile listen. I should hardily have to tell you that Avey Tare is a consistently vibrant musician, one who is always at least interesting even when at his most alienating. But rather than choosing to submit his debut album as irrefutable proof of his song writing prowess, Avey treats it as a playground-cum-laboratory; a chance to experiment with the sort of sonic abstractions that would have clouded the verse-chorus directness of Animal Collective’s more recent work. Laced with skittering, claustrophobic beats and affectively dark moods, this is Avey Tare at his most experimental – and inaccessible – in years.

Kanye West

Forgive me if this feels like I’m already straightening out 2010’s picture frames, pushing its chairs under its tables and hurrying you out of the door marked ‘2011’ when we’re only halfway through August. The trouble is music release schedules operate several months ahead of real time so, as someone who is informed about music releases on a daily basis whether I like it or not, I’m currently existing in a parallel universe where it’s late October/early November.

Luckily, from my position in this imagined future (all release dates are of course subject to change), this autumn looks like continuing what was already been a strong year for new records. 2010 has seen many of the previous decade’s primary acts return in some form or another, to varying degrees of success, such as The National, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Big Boi and Broken Social Scene. At the same time, newer acts have continued to hone their sound (Wavves, Best Coast) or seemingly burst out fully formed (Wild Nothing, Male Bonding, Baths). When looking ahead, it’s always the big names that stand out then – but don’t rule out a few surprises along the way.

Big names don’t come much bigger than recent Twitter convert Kanye West, who revealed in his recent surreal, hilarious, and even endearing Ustream monologue that his still untitled new record will finally be released in November. Leaked track ‘Power’ sees him return to rapping after 808s and Heartbreak (and already has its own Kanye-as-Roman-God trailer – he’s beyond simple music videos now) and if he can retain this song’s intensity and energy over a whole record, he could be approaching a career best.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Bradford Cox rivalled Kanye (at least on particular sections of the Internet) in the questionable blog post stakes for a while, and Deerhunter will return in September with Halcyon Digest. Free (so far) of the leak controversies that have dogged his last couple of releases, early previews have been positive. ‘Revival’ further demonstrates the malleability of Deerhunter’s sound, and there are reports that the record includes synth touches, more acoustic guitars and even an oboe solo. Who’d have laid out this path for this band after Cryptograms?

If Deerhunter continue to carve out their own distinctive body of work, two artists are looking to further expand on their own in the coming months. Nick Cave and a few of his Bad Seeds reconvene as Grinderman for their second album in September. If you needed further proof that this is a vehicle for them to flex their musical muscles in new ways while also having a laugh (in a terrifying sort of way) then look no further than the video for ‘Heathen Child’. It turns out the gods are just dirty old men. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how Corin Tucker’s first record since the Sleater Kinney (hopefully) hiatus shapes up – 1000 Years track ‘Doubt’ only lets up for the sound of waves crashing on the beach.

We’ve also recently had a taste of the new record by Antony and the Johnsons – Swanlights is due in October and lead single ‘Thank You For Your Love’ is Antony at his loosest and most at ease than ever before. Whether this is a good thing or not is up for debate – I Am A Bird Now and The Crying Light both worked due to their atmospheric restraint that set Antony’s tremendous voice apart. However, The Crying Light’s songs sounded odd taken out of an album context, so the wait for Swanlight continues. Speaking of restraint, one band knows when to open up and when to hold back is The Walkmen. Their forthcoming album Lisbon will please those who fell for You & Me – ‘Angela Surf City’ and ‘Blue As Your Blood’ pack the same punch as ‘I Lost You’, and the album closes with a set of their best ballads yet. Gone are the days of ‘The Rat’, when they’d throw everything at you from the off and, surprisingly, they’re all the better for it.

Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 2

Another band who appear to be settling into their sound is No Age. Their forthcoming record Everything In Between anchors their ferocious two-pronged noise attack with ambience and electronics and appears to be the summation of their sound that Nouns was claimed to be at the time of its release. Lyrically, the songs address the mundane ups and downs of life, which gives their otherworldly noise a human touch. Robyn has always been adept at zoning in on fragile, human moments in her pop songs, and Body Talk Pt. 2 arrives in September. With ‘Hang With Me’ as its emotional centre, it’s difficult to see how she can fail and with Body Talk Pt. 3 also due by the end of the year, she could be about to pull off a quite astonishing run.

Finally, although the die hards haven’t had an Animal Collective album this year, the band’s members haven’t exactly been slacking off. There’s ODDSAC, a collaboration with Danny Perez that sounds like it’s aimed at fans of acid flashbacks rather than fans of ‘My Girls’. And then there’s the solo projects – Avey Tare’s first solo record Down There will be released in October and apparently has a lot to do with crocodiles. Meanwhile, Panda Bear will follow up Person Pitch (which arguably spawned chillwave) with Tomboy. Expect many ecstatic reviews followed by disappointing and/or confusing live shows.

What’s left? Interpol’s new line up have a self-titled record due soon; The Clientele, despite threatening otherwise, have new material on the horizon; The Thermals will release Personal Life in September; expect Calories to fly the flag for British DIY in September with the expansive Basic Nature; and Royksopp follow last year’s bright Junior with the sombre Senior.

So, should we care more about Interpol? Should we care less about Robyn? As ever though, it’s often the records you aren’t expecting that have the most impact – are there any hidden gems that have yet to catch our eye?

Tortoiseshell

Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Track of the week: ‘This Girl’ by Tortoiseshell (Canyons dub)

I find Canyons a terribly, terribly strange band. Some of their stuff have me in hallelujah mode, while some songs seem unnecessarily longwinded. This is their dub of Tortoiseshell’s ‘This Girl’. And it quite works for me actually. It begins understated, yearning male vocals up front, and a lovely, lovely understated bass that goes with it. The bass stays, drums are added, and the vocals go up up up. And rightfully so, because the first time I heard that I was pretty impressed. I could probably live a day on that bass and vocal combination alone. I just love it when vocals do that, and good vocals are quite underrated me thinks. Definitely try and get to that chorus part and see whether it ticks your box, because if it does I think you’re in for a treat.

http://hypem.com/track/1135463/Tortoiseshell+-+This+Girl+Canyons+dub+

‘House’ by Fredrik Carlsson

You gotta love that Australia and Scandinavia are really churning out some really stellar electronical music. Scandinavia more Italo tinged, Australia is a bit more disco-ey. This one is a mixture of Italo and a bit of house I reckon. Dreamy, female vocals are on the forefront, and behind her throbs the song along with a nice mixture of bass, drums and synth, the latter sounding decidedly different in the chorus than during the verses. As said, bit Italo, also due to the vocals which certainly put a stamp on the song. Definitely dictates the atmosphere it does. I quite like this one actually, pretty catchy, I like how much up front the vocals are in the mix. You don’t quite see that enough in my opinion.

http://hypem.com/track/1139234/Fredrick+Carlsson+-+House

‘Welt am Draht’ by Pantha du Prince (Animal Collective remix)

Pantha du Prince and Animal Collective are two names that have been on everyone’s lips since early last year. So, fittingly, the American band makes an aesthetic and haunting remix of the Berlin artist. I like the ghostly vocals, that is always a plus with me. But prior to those vocals you’ve got this intro where the music constantly changes volume, as if it wants to mimic ebb and flood. But in audio that is just a wee bit more annoying than it is visually. It is an atmospheric piece, so don’t expect to be dancing anytime soon. A bit trippy even you can say. At the end it goes a bit mad on the odd sounds, but the middle part with the vocals is pretty excellent. The two bookends I could’ve done without, both having pretty annoying features. Then again, that has always been my stance on Animal Collective, so see where you want to go from there.

http://hypem.com/track/1140256/Pantha+Du+Prince+-+Welt+Am+Draht+Animal+Collective+Remix+

‘All Night’ by Voltage

Oh, this is more like it. Australia, well, there you go, no? And not just someone from Australia, but this apparently is a side project of Dan Whitford of Cut Copy, who will release their album in January. So watch out for that one. This is from the All Night EP, which has a couple of remixes of this track as well (can’t wait to hear the Munk one). Very dancey, very catchy, love the vocals, and can’t imagine this missing the mark at the D.I.S.C.O., as it is pretty rad. For the people who do like Cut Copy but always wished their songs had just that bit more oomph to dance to. Sure, some might consider some elements a bit too straightforward or cheesy, but I never have a problem with that to be honest (well, not never, but certainly not with this song). Just lovely to dance to in the night with other people. I wonder if they’ll be touring it…

http://hypem.com/track/1139317/Voltage+-+All+Night+Radio+Edit+

‘I’m Yours’ by Breakbot (Aeroplane)

Oh it definitely could’ve done without that terrible start. I like how it goes spacey after that and goes into the kind of territory Antoni Maiovvi did so well with last year’s Shadow of the Bloodstained Kiss. It’s got that I’m in a sci-fi B flick and I’m being chased vibe to it, but with some attitude. If you’re riding the bike and this comes on you will demand right of passage at every crossroads probably. And then suddenly, suddenly you’ve got those 80s pop vocals coming on! Well, that brought me tumbling back to earth. Not that they’re bad, mind you, but I wasn’t expecting the first two minutes to be a prelude to that. Then it kind of stays on the fringe of several territories, but it is definitely more Madonna than Maiovvi after the first two minutes. Only the beats are a bit harder. Kind of strange one this is, but I actually like both parts, so I’m liking this just fine. It’s just a bit of a “huh?” moment when the vocals come through and Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde, but both are fine, fine chaps in my opinion.

http://hypem.com/track/1140486/Breakbot+-+Baby+I+m+Yours+Aeroplane+Remix+

‘You and I’ by Washed Out feat. Caroline Polachek

At the start I thought, oh no, not this lo-glo-fi whatever thingy again. But after a few seconds it settles down and you get a pretty perfect soundtrack for your midnight walks. If soundtracks would last five minutes, that is. Definitely dreamy, and it has that kind of you-are-standing-there-in-the-night-and-the-city-goes-by-at-four-times-the-speed vibe to it, you know? That kind of sequence you sometimes see on the telly. Pretty impressive how it keeps that atmosphere for the entire song, and I’m impressed by the vocals as well. They hit exactly the right notes for this song to evoke this kind of image throughout the song. Looking forward to checking this band out at the local festival in a few weeks.

http://hypem.com/track/1139229/Washed+Out+feat+Caroline+Polachek+-+You+and+I

HEALTH - Die Slow

With all the best of the decade lists being flung about at the moment, 2009 is in danger of getting overlooked. You can kind of forgive a few people for wanting to get the ’00s out of the way with to start a fresh in the next decade – in terms of world events it’s been a particularly shocking ten years – but this is a music website (usually) and we must avert our gaze, stick our headphones on and enter the parallel universe that is popular music.

New York cast a long shadow over the independent music world in 2009, just as it had done way back in 2001 – the internet and, more surprisingly, large sections of the mainstream fell for albums by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective and (Jay-Z’s new favourite) Grizzly Bear. These bands made sonically unique albums that still retain a certain amount of insularity – these are carefully-crafted other worlds on record, and they were a little too careful and too crafted for some.

A lot of bands took the lo-fi path in response – either with guitars (Wavves) or laptops (Memory Tapes). One band stubbornly taking their own path was HEALTH – the LA band occupied that largely deserted space between dance and noise music, producing one of my favourite tracks (and videos) of the year, ‘Die Slow’.

In the UK, we were lucky enough to witness the continued emergence of a few unique bands, contentedly removed from any particular scene – Camera Obscura, Future of the Left, The Twilight Sad, The Wave Pictures, Wild Beasts and The XX all made impressive records this year It’s worth noting that The XX are the only band on their with a debut album – perhaps one of the after effects of illegal downloads and the decline in record sales will be that bands will be under less pressure to have hit albums (money will come from touring now, presumably) and so will be able to develop a recorded body of work at their own pace.

Dubstep, another aspect of 2009’s musical fabric that has grown away from the mainstream, seemed to be bigger than ever this year. Hyperdub’s compilation was a fitting summary of its first five years, and if Skream’s remix of ‘In For The Kill’ and the dubstep-inspired tracks on Rihanna’s (slightly disappointing) new record are anything to go by, more mainstream artists will be plundering the ever-shifting sounds of dubstep into the next decade. New Joker and Burial in 2010 anyone? Yes please.

One overlooked aspect of the musical year was the abundance of albums from artists who resist categorisation – if 2009 has stood for anything in terms of music, it is the continued fragmentation and expansion of listeners’ habits and musical tastes. File sharing has made more music available for less (or no) money, and the new musical landscape means success (in varying amounts admittedly) for records such as the atmospheric, otherworldly Heavy Ghost by DM Stith, the foreboding, domestic Fever Ray, Patrick Wolf’s extravagant, determined The Bachelor, Micachu’s pop experimentation on Jewellery, Bibio’s late flowering with Ambivalence Avenue, PJ Harvey’s continued journey with John Parish on A Woman A Man Walked By, Antony Hegarty growing into The Crying Light, and Bradford Cox’s solo work as Atlas Sound on Logos, which could easily turn out to be a more fruitful artistic outlet for him than Deerhunter.

These are all relatively marginal acts and albums of course. I’ve intentionally ignored the large, X Factor-shaped elephant in the room because the abundance of musical alternatives allows me too. Televisions and radios can be turned off, newspaper headlines ignored. 2009’s musical landscape, superficially at least, looks grim – Simon Cowell’s golden grip may appear to be tightening if you look to the charts, but who does nowadays? He’s not killing music – he’s just making money. Off the beaten track, but within reach, 2009 has produced some strange, unique, joyous, heartbreaking music.

Read more:
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008

While we’ve given you plenty of editorial on our albums of the year (50-41, 40-31,30-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-7. 6-4 3-1), we’re keeping it simple with this list of what releases our gaggle of writers collectively voted their singles of 2009. How did we reach this list, I hear you cry? May I hand over to our trusty friend, Excel Guru, who was last seen pre-ambling our top 50 albums end-of-year thingamejig:

“Everyone sent in a top 10 list and the 50 singles with the most nominations were collected; tie-breaks were decided by how high up those lists the songs were. Then everyone chose 10 ordered singles from the list of 50 and they were ranked using the same criteria as the album poll.”

Make no mistake either; these were all released as singles and not just hand-picked as our writers’ favourite tracks from albums. And it’s interesting to note that of these 50, 28 were from long-players (or not from LPs at all) that didn’t feature in our top 50 albums of the year, chosen by the very same gaggle of writers.

The radio-friendliness/commercial success of many of these singles forms an interesting near-dichotomy with our albums synopsis too. Are we spoon-fed by different channels when it comes to singles? Or does that awful notion of ‘guilty pleasure’ prevail (the amount of justification for some of our writers including Lady GaGa in their list said it all – and that’s honest), where it’s somehow more permissible to enjoy a Dizzee Rascal one-track than an album?

Of course it could just be that these tracks are stand-outs, but I fear a greater sub-text even within our own ranks. We’ll continue to cover singles because without that, there’s a great fear that the early falling-in-love-with stage of discovering an artist will dilute entirely.

And on that contemplative note, here’s our list:

1       Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
2       Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
3       Bat For Lashes – Daniel
4       Wild Beasts – All The Kings Men
5       The Horrors – Sea Within A Sea
6       Animal Collective – My Girls
7       HEALTH – Die Slow
8       The XX – Islands
9       Animal Collective – Brother Sport
10      Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone
11      The XX – Crystalised
12      Camera Obscura – French Navy
13      Phoenix – 1901
14      Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is In The Move
15      Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
16      Casiokids – Verdens Störste Land / Fot I Hose
17      Blue Roses – I Am Leaving  / Moments Before Sleep
18      La Roux – In For The Kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix)
19      Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
20      Lady Gaga – Paparazzi
21      The Big Pink – Velvet
22      Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
23      Muse – Uprising
24      Future of The Left – Arming Eritrea
25      The Cribs – Cheat On Me
26      Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers
27      Lily Allen – The Fear
28      Kasabian – Underdog
29      Brand New – At The Bottom
30      Burial/Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Club
31      Girls – Lust For Life
32      Regina Spektor – Laughing With / Blue Lips
33      The Prodigy – Omen
34      Sunset Rubdown – Idiot Heart
35      The Big Pink – Dominos
36      Noisettes – Never Forget You
37      Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
38      tUnE-yArDs – Hatari
39      Emmy The Great – First Love
40      Pulled Apart By Horses – I Punched A Lion In The Throat
41      Patrick Wolf – Hard Times
42      The Maccabees – No Kind Words
43      Jay-Z feat. Rihanna & Kanye West – Run This Town
44      The Twilight Sad – I Became A Prostitute
45      Biffy Clyro – That Golden Rule
46      Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is a Computer
47      Gold Panda – Quitters Raga
48      Editors – Papillon
49      O.Children – Dead Disco Dancer
50      Paramore – Decode

Here is a Spotify playlist featuring 41 of the 50 singles. Run along and have a listen, why don’t you.

Hello, young chaps. We’ve been moving towards this moment for the past two weeks and the time is now here to tell you lucky folks which albums comprised our writers’ collective top three of 2009. The top 50 has been chock-full of some excellent choices, a sizeable amount of which could happily’ve taken these top three spots. But when it came down to it, it was these three that had the most votes from the writers. So here they are!

3) Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion by Russell Warfield

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective have been so diverse over the last ten years that they haven’t so much created a back catalogue of albums as they have a series of alternate debut records. The band whimsically flit from ear piercing noise drone to stripped down acoustic sounds in a manner which allows them to simultaneously progress and start afresh with each passing album.

Reinvention of their musical identity is something Animal Collective have once again achieved with Merriweather Post Pavilion, turning their hand this time to electronic-based material, but never have they accompanied it with such mainstream crossover appeal. Throughout this album in particular, the band triumphantly marries Panda Bear’s penchant for loops and samples with the tightly focused song structures of Avey Tare.

When you add to this the most glorious production the band has ever cultivated; lyrics which have taken a sudden turn for the literal and relateable and, perhaps most crucially, catchy-as-hell melodies, you have a recipe for something which, in an alternate reality, would probably break the UK top 30 album charts – oh, hang on. It did.

2) The XX’s XX by Jamie Smith

The XX - XX

In a year that will mostly be remembered for the rise of Brit-rap and electro-pop, the xx stood out like a sore thumb with their gentle ambience and careful melodies.

If the Big Pink laid the foundations for the resurgence in subtle British alternative music with their electric-rock debut earlier in the year, the xx built on them in stunning fashion with an eponymous record so accomplished and sure of itself you wouldn’t believe it was their first. The xx were the most precious delicacy of 2009 in more ways than one. Deliciously simple yet spellbindingly immersive, they proved that sometimes blogosphere hype is well deserved.

The boy/girl vocals of Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft offered a fresh take on sharing lyrical duties with their sexy, sumptuous simpering to each other, while multi-instrumentalist and this writer’s namesake Jamie Smith put together the gorgeous backing tracks for the pair’s aural lovemaking.

1) Wild Beasts’ Two Dancers by Natalie Shaw

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

From the opening chimes of ‘The Fun Powder Plot’, the stage was set for a boldly original album of true originality, sonic warmth and labyrinthine, admittedly thorny subject matter. The brazenness and volatility of the mating game, the quest to explore new senses through expansive, vivid passages of foreplay – it tempered the brashness by creating characters to despise and be ashamed of yet still, somehow, embrace.

With every listen, something surprising snuck out from behind the elegance; breathless, uncluttered production that gave the songs space for their extravagant eloquence and scope to slowly seep out. From the moment it was released in early August, Two Dancers capitalised on the unique charm of first album Limbo, Panto, piling on top of it crystal-clear tales of a dark underground via lecherous slapstick, tribal-style desperation and wild passion.

The “elegant and ugly” reference on ‘Hooting and Howling’ is a perfect pre-cursor to an album structured around such such striking sounds. And Hayden Thorpe’s outrageous falsetto isn’t used as a comic device, more as a foil for the harrowing feeling of threat the songs portray; not to say Wild Beasts haven’t seen the lighter side of their sound. Take the background “ooh”-ing on ‘Two Dancers (ii)’ against Tom Fleming’s rich baritone and you’re left with a quieter, ruminating band than on much of that first album. And the ‘Through The Iron Gate’ ends Two Dancers in a dark room, with guitar sounds mimicking reverberating thoughts.

Wild Beasts immortalised bleak tales of a social class usually side-stepped by the eloquent, with each note ringing out, longing remorsefully in the uncomfortably depravation set up by Chris Talbot’s core-of-steel drumming. The “guts fried up” imagery on ‘Underbelly’ and the oft-quoted “this is a booty call; my boot up your arse hole/This is a Freudian slip; my slipper in your bits” one-two on the album-opener are simply crane-arm picks from an anthology of breathtaking lyrics that scale the heights in their own right.

Two Dancers is a genuinely one-off piece, a truly unique album and it sits proudly on top of 2009′s tree of storming albums as less of an album, more of a world.

And that concludes that. If you’re not read more about the albums that finished below that lot, be sure to gander over to mathematical geekery on how we got this countdown, the 50-41, 40-31, 30-21,  20-16, 15-11, 10-7. and 6-4 – the full top 50. And check out Wild Beasts’ verdict on the news right here.

Please also read out Editor’s choice for the top 20 albums of 2009. Interesting stuff indeed.

Free Energy

Free Energy rock Muso’s Guide’s socks. Their show at the Barfly a few weeks ago left me completely astounded – have a read here.

We employed them temporarily to review the singles out this week, so you can get to know them a little bit better. And we even got them to review their label boss James Murphy’s new single! Yes, they’re on DFA, and yes this was a leak at the time but check it out, it’s the first time they ever heard ‘Bye Bye Bayou’!

Relax, grab a beer, light a fag [Ed - no, don't!], take it easy, do as they do…

LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Bye Bye Bayou’:

Fenech Soler’s ‘Lies’:

‘You Got Your Head’ by Cosmo Jarvis:

‘Brother Sport’ by Animal Collective:

Los Campesinos!

Eighteen million blogs (I don’t know, but you get the idea), even more songs: it’s really hard to chart that. So lets not pretend to do such a silly thing here. Instead in this weekly column we go ahead and talk about a rather random take of six tracks that came to our attention through the blogosphere in the past week. The songs are collected from Wednesday to Wednesday, and we quickly and swiftly review them here. The Hypem links make sure that you can listen to the track if you haven’t heard it yet so you can instantly disagree (or in a stunning move, agree) with what is said about it. And hopefully you come across something you like but had overlooked in that ever-crowded internet.

Track of the week: ‘These are Listed Buildings’ by Los Campesinos!

Have there ever been songs more wordy than those of Los Campesinos! I sometimes wonder. Whatever the outcome of that questions may be, after a slightly more subdued song they are back in the jangly pop area with this one, of course with those catchy stanzas in which Gareth pours a waterfall of words onto his audience. If you are able to divert your attention from the lyrics you might also notice the pretty nifty guitar play that can be heard underneath it and which leads you right into the chorus. A chorus which even has some kind of “oe-ah-oe” backing vocals. It is less daring — or perhaps less of a departure is better wording — than the track that came out a few weeks ago, but it is nonetheless another fine addition to the ever growing oeuvre of this hard working band. Plus their tracks always give you some nice lyrics to work with, although my current interpretation on this one probably is too twisted, as usual.

http://soundcloud.com/loscampesinos/there-are-listed-buildings

’5th Sun’ by Pictureplane (Heliopolis Mix by Rainbow Arabia)

I saw Pictureplane live recently in Amsterdam and was not entirely convinced by his music. He occasionally finds a good beat, but more often than not he disturbs that by adding some additional noises. And probably there are some very valid and modernist reasons as to why he disturbs this flow, yet in my opinion the music doesn’t get prettier because of it. The reverse quite so actually. Naturally, as this is a remix, possible disturbing elements are taken out by Rainbow Arabia, but the song does now have to deal with some Arabic noises as part of the trade off. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of that genre, so those additions I could have lived with out. It also seems as if the synths have to take a step back on this one. It does sound better than the original, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be on heavy rotation in this house. Not at all actually.

http://hypem.com/track/928789/Pictureplane+-+5th+Sun+Heliopolis+mix+by+Rainbow+Arabia+

‘Love Like A Sunset’ by Phoenix (Animal Collective remix)

Animal Collective and Phoenix are perhaps the most critically acclaimed bands of this year. With that said – and I am sure you will not agree with me on this one – these two bands did not click with me at all this year. And the same goes for this remix really, not surprisingly now of course. To me it sounds as if Passion Pit is trying to do a “serious” song here. The vocals are too sterile and smooth for my taste, always a problem I have had with Phoenix. The remix seems to trot along going nowhere. Probably it is intended as an atmospheric song intelligently produced with every layer calculatedly starting and stopping at exactly the right moment. And perhaps it indeed does so, but with me it doesn’t click, and quite frankly I was fairly bored fairly soon with this remix.

http://hypem.com/track/924983/Phoenix+-+Love+Like+A+Sunset+Animal+Collective+RMX+Deakin+s+Jam+

‘Horchata’ by Vampire Weekend

To me, “sandals” is probably the least poetic word in the dictionary. Combine that with words as “horchata” and “balaclava” and I’ve already lost all interest just based on aesthetics alone. Vampire Weekend and me have never seen eye-to-eye though, as their style does not coincide with mine at all. So not surprisingly my opinion of this song isn’t very high. Vocally I don’t really like it as well, especially the way he lengthens the words on, for example, “handle” and “sandals”. The cheery music does not make me cheery at all, and at the end something which I can only identify as being flutists come in to do some happy slappy version of Patrick & the Wolf, or whatever they do. The appeal of this band has always escaped me with great vigour, so lets just say that if you weren’t a fan of the band already, this will not convince to be one now.

http://hypem.com/track/928376/Vampire+Weekend+-+Horchata

‘Pearl’s Dream’ by Bat for Lashes (Skream’s pour another glass of champers remix)

The good thing about Skream is that even if you don’t like the artist Skream makes a remix of, you might still like the track. This remix has a bit of a haunting atmosphere along with some hypnotizing beats. Natasha Khan’s voice sounds a bit on the fragile side here and there, but her vocals do suit the song and the atmosphere really well. If you are waiting for some break-and-go bit as Skream did on that La Roux one you can wait a while, but it would also have been quite inappropriate to put it in a track like this one. Although there is a bit at two/thirds of the song where Skream strips it down and the focus is solely on Khan’s vocals, but after that Skream puts on the same drums as before that intermezzo. But it does work good enough for it to make an interesting track.

http://hypem.com/track/928568/Bat+For+Lashes+Pearls+Dream+Skreams+Pour+Another+Glass+of+Champers+Remix

‘Dust Cloud’ by Bear in Heaven!

Psychedelic rock group Bear in Heaven will release the album Beast Rest Fort Mouth, which is the follow-up to Red Bloom of the Boom released two years ago. With old-fashioned guitars and drums they build up the song instrumentally and try to sweep you along for the ride, and it succeeds in doing that quite nicely. The singing goes per word instead of per sentence, which nine out of ten times will annoy me to absolutely no end, but here it works fine. At the end he stretches the words quite long, but it suits the atmosphere. It is not really an immediate song, one that you can put on at any time of any day and in front of a few friends, but it does have a good structure and a good build-up. And the vocals fit the song quite nicely. I can see it working really well under certain circumstances.

http://hypem.com/track/926780/Bear+In+Heaven+-+Dust+Cloud