1. Birchville Cat Motel - Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (Pica Disk)
MP3: Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (excerpt)
With Gunpowder Temple of Heaven Campbell Kneale has delivered his masterpiece. Massive church organ drones majestically unfold over the course of 40 minutes and collide with shimmering rays of noise and eventually a deep, sluggish pounding. Layer upon layer of blissful drones melt together and grow into a timeless aural monument that sets out to explore the relationship between time and music. The piece manages to challenge its listener’s perception of time by carefully balancing between two opposites: unremitting intensity and unspoilt serenity. With this it has the same effect on me as landmark recordings Charlemagne Palestine’s Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone and Eliane Radique’s Trilogie de la Mort. Each captures and enfolds you and absorbs your full attention yet leaves you in perfect tranquillity, washing out all emotions and thoughts cluttered inside your head and replacing them with a clear and singular state of mind.
The insightful liner notes – written by Dead C founder Bruce Russell – even go one step further and link Gunpowder Temple of Heaven with Messiaen’s trademark approach to music, knowing that Messiaen was also looking for ways to manipulate tempos and structures to affect the listeners’ perception of the passage of time. My personal experience of this album sits very closely to Josef Sudek’s photography of the St. Vitus Cathedral for all the obvious reasons, yet there is a distinct dark edge to Gunpowder Temple of Heaven that just as much seems to praise anything destructive.
Everything is big about this album. Imagine yourself standing at the foot of a colossal temple. An ancient structure so enormous and overwhelming as it towers over you and dominates the sky that you cannot help but to stand there in awe and complete humbleness. Its timeless appearance suddenly putting your marginal existence in perspective as nothing within its surroundings is able to escape from its overpowering grandeur. Listening to Gunpowder Temple of Heaven evokes the same kind of overwhelming experience.
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2. Kazuki Tomokawa - Blue Water, Red Water (P.S.F.)
MP3: Kara Bran
Accompanied by an impressive line-up of prolific musicians, Japanese underground troubadour Kazuki Tomokawa flourishes on Blue Water, Red Water, an album on which he seems to redefine melancholia in his trademark raw and compassionate style. Already in his fourth decade as a poet musician and painter, Tomokawa still largely operates below the radar of far too many people. With Blue Water, Red Water again he proves to be one of the prime musicians of his generation. His intense vocals here backed by a colourful array of instruments – including a tuba wonderfully played by Takero Sekijima and cello by improv-legend Hiromichi Sakamoto – together creating rich arrangements that delicately sweep across Tomokawa’s devastating canvas.
The moon reflecting in my cheeks
And a dancing lord on my back
Is this a sky already lost to me?
Or a long-awaited dawn?
On fingertips that bring blushes even to the wind
Thinking to myself, never mind
As red locusts fell to earth
~Kazuki Tomokawa / Kara Bran ~
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3. Sun Kil Moon - April (Caldo Verde)
MP3: Tonight the Sky
It seems impossible to release anything after the instant-classic Ghosts of the Great Highway that doesn’t lead to disappointment. And yet here comes Kozelek with an album that manages to even exceed those expectations. Five years we had to wait for a true follow-up and on April he is as melancholic as he ever was, often mostly reminiscent of his Songs For a Blue Guitar album but also harbouring several new elements to his style. Though still at the heart of his music lies the gloomy sound that captivates the listener and wraps it in its warm atmosphere. With April Mark Kozelek has shown that even after so many remarkable albums he is still growing as a musician, constantly perfecting his trademark style. More dense and personal than its predecessor, April offers both the gently flowing acoustic ballads as the fuzzy guitar riffs that are so characteristic for his work, with the incredible Tonight the Sky as a definite highlight.
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4. Dennis González & Faruq Z. Bey with Northwoods Improvisers Septet - Hymn for Tomasz Stanko (Qbico)
MP3: Kuntu
Recorded as an homage to the Polish trumpet player and composer Tomasz Stańko, the renowned Italian label Qbico has treated us again with a stellar jazz record from the Detroit based Faruq Z. Bey and Northwoods Improvisers. This time they are accompanied by trumpeter Dennis González to record their follow-up to one of my personal favourites Infa’a, a classic in the making if it weren’t for the strictly limited (and long-sold-out) pressing. On Hymn for Tomasz Stańko their African-tinged sound is as lush and fresh as ever with Mike Gilmore not only adding his cool green on vibes but also delivering a mystical touch to the fourth piece with a magnificent part on tamboura. The homage was inspired as they consider Tomasz Stańko as “one of the most underrated trumpet players ever”. If that’s the criteria for paying homage to a musician, it’s only a matter of time before someone else will do the same for Faruq Z. Bey and the Northwoods Improvisers.
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5. Scott Tuma - Not For Nobody (Digitalis)
MP3: Heeler
This album truly is like a small windup music box, producing fragile lo-fi tunes with a delicate atmosphere full of melancholy. Scott Tuma has created quite an oddball of an album, a wonderful daydream that’s as mystifying as it is entrancing. Beautiful melodies are woven together on guitar and harmonium, fading in and out like foggy memories. An oddly affecting high-pitched voice heart-wrenchingly opens the album and puts you under a spell even before he has enfolded you in wonderful resonant harmonies and bittersweet drones. As elusive as the album is, it’s constantly shifting between ambient, folk and country and in effect creating its own musical universe. There is always something left to discover as the songs seem slightly different with each listen. A landmark album for the Digitalis label.
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6. Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby)
MP3: I Keep Havin’ These Dreams
With his characteristic baritone voice the über-romanticist Micah P. Hinson sings about the dark edges of desire and romance, always longing for something just out of reach. On the inside cover we see a beautifully – in black and white – photographed girl sitting somewhat hesitantly with a phone in her hands. But photographed (by Hinson himself) in such a way that makes it seem as if he’s spying at her through a keyhole, fantasizing about the unreachable. “Constantly craving what isn’t mine” he even sings on Tell Me It Ain’t So. After two terrific full lengths Micah P. Hinson finds himself surrounded again by lush arrangements, with I Keep Having These Dreams even sounding as if Yann Tiersen momentarily stepped into the recording studio. But also on songs like the almost-a-capella The Fire Came up to My Knees that opens side B he draws you in to his melancholic world with ease. A wonderful album from one of my favourite current singer-songwriters.
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7. Richard Skelton - Marking Time (Preservation)
MP3: Fold
Multi-instrumentalist Richard Skelton has been operating under several names on his Sustain Release label for the last couple of years, including A Broken Consort whose breathtaking full length Box of Birch was listed in my album top 10 from last year. Now for the first time under his own name and on the rather excellent Australian label Preservation he has delivered yet another devastatingly beautiful collection of multi-layered sound sketches made with piano, guitar and bowed strings. On Marking Time Richard Skelton takes his trademark sound to another level, making the desperate shrieks of the strings even more drenched in solitude and grief. The pieces evolve in the most natural way, seemingly breathing on their own as they fall and rise without taking note of time. As I said last year, his compositions are immensely emotional and bring comfort and solace in a way that music is rarely capable of. If you’ve somehow missed the extraordinary talent of Richard Skelton up till now, this is really the time to introduce yourself.
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8. Fire on Fire - The Orchard (Young God)
MP3: Sirocco
After last year’s exquisite 5 Song EP on Young God Records, Fire on Fire has delivered another prime collection of exuberant folk songs and rambling sing-alongs. All in their joyous yet dark-edged back-porch atmosphere: “And if we tear this kingdom down, let it be with a deserving and joyful sound!” Fire on Fire is the acoustic reincarnation of the Maine-based collective Cerberus Shoal, backed by one of my personal favourites, Micah Blue Smalldone, whose solo album The Red River released also this year is well worth seeking out too. Besides the obvious appeal of their wonderful vocal harmonies, it’s the richness of their instrumentation what really makes this such an engaging album. On accordion, harmonium, guitar, banjo, upright bass, fiddle and many other traditional instruments they join in stunningly subtle and expressive arrangements, giving proof of the flourishing folk scene currently in Portland, Maine.
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9. Kawaguchi Masami’s New Rock Syndicate - Cat vs. Frog (Palindrone)
MP3: From the Dream
Probably the most addictive album I’ve come across this year as I couldn’t get enough of Kawaguchi Masami’s fuzzy guitar riffs and the intense garage-psych of his New Rock Syndicate. On their debut album this noisy garage rock trio from Japan delivers a soaring piece of psych-rock with distortion, feedback and wailing vocals in all the right places. Debut album or not, Kawaguchi Masami is certainly no stranger to the scene being a member of several influential Japanese psych-rock groups like LSD March, Broomdusters and Miminokoto. Now for the first time leading a group under his own name he is letting it all out. His vocals drenched in melancholic yearning, making the fuzzed out jams almost sound like tragic love songs. With howling guitar solos that instantly hook into your brain. The heritage of the legendary Les Rallizes Denudes is never far away, though Kawaguchi Masami is distinctly more direct in his song structures, effortlessly weaving pop and garage rock elements into feet-tapping stormers.
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10. Fred Eaglesmith - Tinderbox (Sonic Rendezvous / Lonesome Day)
MP3: Worked Up Field
A gospel record was not what I was expecting to be in my top 10 list this year. But this is no ordinary gospel Fred Eaglesmith is preaching. The Canadian growls in a way similar to Johnny Dowd and Tom Waits about tales of the working class, of suffering and of spiritual crisis. He’s preaching the gospel in the most down-to-earth way, backed by jangly instrumentations, you can almost hear the church-house floorboards crack under his stomping feet as he angrily sings about faith and lives without hope. “That god you got is a fancy god, he’s not the one I know” he growls with spirit which seems to sum up the album best. Yet the most striking songs for me are the subdued ones. The ones on which he’s already broken down on the ground. Like the tragic Worked Up Field on which his crooning is overlaid by a woman’s dialogue. For me this is Americana as good as it can get.
I’m kneeling at the edge of a worked up field praying for the rain to fall
I’m kneeling at the edge of a worked up field praying for the rain to fall
I pray and pray and pray all day
But it don’t rain at all
~ Fred Eaglesmith / Worked Up Field ~
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Rest of the year-end list:
11. Philip Jeck - Sand (Touch)
12. Micah Blue Smaldone - The Red River (Immune)
13. Koen Holtkamp - Field Rituals (Type)
14. Lambchop - OH (Ohio) (City Slang)
15. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (Type)
16. Toumani Diabaté - The Mandé Variations (Nonesuch)
17. Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch)
18. Scorch Trio - Brolt (Rune Grammofon)
19. Autistic Daughters - Uneasy Flowers (Kranky)
20. Brendan Murray - Commonwealth (23Five Incorporated)
21. Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness (Bo’ Weavil)
22. Stephan Mathieu - Radioland (Die Schachtel)
23. Death Vessel - Nothing is Precious Enough for Us (Sub Pop)
24. Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli - Yeraz (ECM)
25. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord)
See also:
Moka’s Top 10 Albums 2008
Moka’s top 12 albums 2007
Bubbachups’ top 10 albums 2007
Moka’s top 12 albums 2006
Bubbachups’ top 10 albums 2006
Moka’s top 5 albums 2005
I actually find something I like for a list that I can post. To me the big 2008 theme in electronic are: retro (house, 90’s techno, french disco) and the new stranger sounds. It’s mainly scattered effort, a mix of folks, lofi house, drone into electronica vocabulary. This on to of last year dubstep, which primarily island beat and song + two step. Then there is Kanye West remix. Can we move on already? I can’t stand him. 
Noteable albums: GAS. Magnificent drone ambient. It has texture and listenable, which is hard to do for such sparse musical idea. Flying Lotus and Tussle use folks, lofi and make it into abstract dance album, very intriguing. Then there are the retro tech and electronic ‘Studio’ and Headhunter. I like Ital Tek and 2562 dubstep album. Tho’ dubstep as ambient abstract isn’t as productive compared to last year. 
Maybe everybody is busy making dancefloor mix. OK. that’s for a short 2008 electronica report. Don’t forget to comment if you have something interesting. (no Kanye West remix please) I’ll try to post more standard dancefloor mix if I have time. Tho’ they aren’t that interesting if you don’t plant to actually dance.
