I enjoyed a fair amount of dubstep this year, but, as usual, I can’t say I have a lot of proper dubstep full-lengths from 2009. The compilations offered a wealth of riches (Hyperdub, Tectonic, RSD’s Good Energy), and I’ve played the hell out of the mixes now filling up my relatively new hard drive (FACT Magazine, Joker’s Purple Wow Sound, Sonic Router’s offerings, etc.). Just grabbed Grievous Angel’s mix for Blackdown. Getting a hold of his Margins Music treatment is a high priority of mine — Dusk + Blackdown’s is easily one of the strongest, diverse dubstep albums to date. I wrote about it when it came out for PopMatters last year, and I hope to post about the new edits. Anyways, here are a few more of my favorite electronic- and hip hop-oriented releases for 2009, a couple of which are stellar examples of recent dubstep albums.

10. 2562, Unbalance (Tectonic)
9. Madlib, Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6 (Stones Throw)
8. Worriedaboutsatan, Arrivals (Gizeh Records)
7. Nosaj Thing, Drift (Alpha Pup)
6. Clubroot, Clubroot (Lo Dubs)

The second LP from Netherlands-born producer Dave “2562” Huismans is built on a more melodic techno/dubstep approach, with loads of interesting sample work and staggering rhythms. I’ve said as much for Blurt, and you’ll see some more from me about Unbalance in the days to come. Also worthy of note is the self-titled Clubroot album. He’s getting a lot of Burial comparisons for ever-present air of mystery that just hovers over the percussion. As I’m loath to oversimplify the sounds that either artist produces, I’d like to avoid those kinds of comparisons altogether — there are enough terrible blog posts out there and unsubstantiated, aimless claims being made by major online outlets for that. In ambient, hazy synth melodies and wafts of empty street atmospherics, Clubroot finds his footing with just as much emphasis on unpredictable beats and patches of dreamy electronic textures. Without a skippable concoction in the bunch, a great debut indeed. Download his Mary Anne Hobbs mix here.

I posted here back in February about Madlib’s newest installment of his “Beat Konducta” series, and I’ve been listening a lot since then. There isn’t much more to be said about this guy. He’s one of the brightest, most curious producer/selectors out there, and I couldn’t be more excited about this way-out news concerning the The Madlib Medicine Show (“Announcing: The Madlib Medicine Show,” November 10, 2009). Check out an excerpt of his forthcoming “Fall Suite” at Wire Magazine.

Worriedaboutsatan’s Arrivals came my way via email in the early summertime. I don’t know that it’s a summer record per se, and I was fairly taken aback by the act’s name, honestly. It didn’t take long for Arrivals to completely consume my personal listening space. I wrote about it for Remix Magazine, and in listening again, I feel pretty strongly about confirming that this is one of the more displacing albums I’ve heard this year. A tide of competing textures and sounds — one minute, the Leeds, UK duo is crafting deep, minimal techno (“Evil Dogs”) and the next, it’s restrained but glitchy and sensuous ambient (“Arrivals”). What an extraordinary album.

By now, I have great hopes that readers here headed over to PopMatters during their summer vacation for my feature on Nosaj Thing (“Now Hear This! Nosaj Thing,” August 19, 2009). Alongside the meticulously techy Arrivals and the classic beat efforts on Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6, Drift makes an good neighbor. Jason Chung incorporates a whole world of influences into his work, and Drift makes for an excellent medium to communicate his appetite for pulling together really compelling beat music. Head to PopMatters for more, and to grab his Low End Theory podcast.

Check back for more thoughts on my favorite electronic and overall albums for 2009.

Read Part One of this series here.
Read Part Two of this series here.

I’m having great difficulty with the idea that Deru’s record was pushed to 2010. I wrote about his Mush outing for Remix Magazine this year, and it was an absolute shoe-in for my favorites of 2009 lists. So I guess it’s been shifted to next year. Anyway, I’m recommending Say Goodbye to Useless if you shuffle past it in the digital or physical stores. It’s one of the more beautiful beat records out there. Or not yet out there. Here are a few more of my favorite electronic, etc. albums for 2009.

15. Port-Royal, Dying In Time (n5MD)
14. Mokira, Persona (Type)
13. Bibio, Vignetting the Compost (Mush)
12. Voodeux, The Paranormal (Mothership)
11. Black Moth Super Rainbow, Eating Us (Graveface)

I think what I find most compelling about the Mokira record, which I hope I made clear in my PopMatters review, is that each avenue explored by Swedish producer Andreas Tilliander (Mokira is but one of his pseudonyms) is almost miles away from the next — Persona is literally all over the place. Restless droning forms, long-echoing chords, and lots of decayed textures, as if worn by time. A diverse and very rewarding experiment.

As I write this, I’m spending a little time now listening to Aphex Twin (“Fingerbib,” specifically), and it’s fairly upsetting that some of the best early-morning electronic albums that I own often sit untouched on my hard drive because of the amount of stuff I’m consuming on a daily basis. Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste discussed this problem with contemporary music consumption very eloquently earlier this year (“Pitchfork Interviews Grizzly Bear,” June 29, 2009). I’d like very much for Bibio’s Vignetting the Compost to not be one of these records; although his own output in 2009 — 2 EPs, 2 full-length albums — isn’t sweetening the odds any.

Because there is so much about Bibio’s delicate art that is manipulated and accented with technology (be it very old technology), I lump him in with favorite electronic records issued this year. He’s an electronic artist, but the music he makes, primarily, is folk-centric, with gorgeous layers of rolling, intricate guitar melodies that are then heavily gummed up via tape reel manipulation. His Warp debut that I wrote about for Remix Magazine in June of this year challenges my “primarily” statement with an unforeseen J Dilla influence popping up between all of his regular game, but I happen to revisit Vignetting more often than the other one. Honestly, the Ovals & Emeralds EP is absolutely stunning but alas, it’s merely an EP, so I couldn’t logically dump it into this list.

Port-Royal’s Dying in Time is a far cry from blurry folk compositions, but there is definitely a deep focus on atmospherics. I covered this album for PopMatters’ Short Takes section — Dying in Time is a late ‘09 entry for my favorite electronic releases, but like Mokira’s album, I’m fond of how often the Port-Royal landscape changes, from post-rock to a blitz of drum programming (speaking of Aphex…) to propulsive, new wave-influenced dance music. It’s a bumpy listen at first, but it really grew on me.

The energy that Voodeux harnessed for its Halloween-charged The Paranormal outdoes the heavy focus on imagery that this very adept producer duo tends to communicate. I had a problem with the getup, and I mentioned as much for my review in Remix earlier this year, but the fact that The Paranormal is a fascinating, aurally haunting techno record is undeniable. Equally creepy, as usual, is the Black Moth Super Rainbow album. I posted about Eating Us when it came out; I had little trouble deciding whether or not to include this for a Best Of pick. It’s a much stronger-sounding, more fully fleshed-out BMSR. A completely psychedelic pop record from a bunch of keyboard- and vocal effects-obsessed weirdos. Recipes for good records really don’t get better than that.

On a completely unrelated and random note, I’m pretty certain that some heartless cretin stole my umbrella a few weeks ago from wherever. I really liked that thing, and it’s a necessity this season. Email me for my PO box address if you took my property. How do you sleep at night, man?

Check back for more thoughts on my favorite electronic and overall albums for 2009.

Read Part One of this series here.

While it wasn’t easy to compile at least 20 electronic-oriented/instrumental hip hop LPs that I fell in love with over 2009 (much less order them according to how much each record resonated with me), the mere idea of even drawing up a list at the end of the year is wince-inducing. There is a lot I haven’t heard; to think about the records I ended up not owning/writing about by this time is to be hugely disappointed, but I’m comfortable in saying that I heard a great deal of stuff. For this series, I hope to recommend what sounded pretty nice on my commutes, or at home, on our stereo. Check in at PopMatters‘ end-year genre features and eventually, their bigger main lists in the coming days — there will be a lot of discussion over there. Below, I’ve tried to sort out a few of my own favorite electronic, etc. albums for 2009.

20. Ethan Rose, Oaks (Holocene Music)
19. Telefon Tel Aviv, Immolate Yourself (Bpitch Control)
18. Lusine, A Certain Distance (Ghostly International)
17. Kate Simko, Music From the Atom Smashers (Ghostly International)
16. Applescal, A Slave’s Commitment (Traum Schallplatten)

Obviously, I found a lot of promo material in my mailbox this year that was unappealing — it was usually more of the stuff you heard so much about, the records with the bigger hype framework supporting them. In my mind, 2009 ushered in a great deal of strong dubstep, beat records, techno, and ambient recordings that I’ll still be digesting for a while.

I posted a while back about Ethan Rose’s Oaks. It’s a tranquil affair, with processed vintage Wurlitzer organ tones at its core. It was a listen-at-work record until I began to notice things about its swirling, shifting surfaces and understated loveliness in general that deserved closer attention. I feel the same way about techno producer/classically trained pianist Kate Simko’s 2009 venture into film scoring with Music From the Atom Smashers.

Aside from its primary purpose as a soundtrack for a documentary about the work that high energy physicists do and the politically meddlesome factors around it, Kate Simko’s Music stands on its own, with warm, organic textures and hypnotic techno pieces. The chimes and distant, disintegrating synths that stir beneath her “Trouble Brewing,” for example (independent of the film that I’ve yet to see), differ notably from the storm suggested by its title. Also on Ghostly International, Lusine’s A Certain Distance is at times precious and wonderfully atmospheric — a blend between crisp, cut-up techno compositions and very melodic pop. I said as much in my September review for Remix Magazine.

Applescal’s full-length debut for Traum is more scatterbrained than anything in this segment of my top 20. I wrote about A Slave’s Commitment at length for PopMatters. For the LP, the Holland producer turned out a variety of complex techno sounds that incorporate both glitchy rhythms as well as woozy, arpeggiated melodies (“The Forms of Abstract Life” is an ideal example of this venturesome production that, aside from one entry, turns out a mighty high success rate in my opinion).

Immolate Yourself is the third album from Louisiana experimental musician/producers Telefon Tel Aviv, and it’s sadly the last one that member Charlie Cooper was around to see released. Cooper passed away in January of this year, almost precisely when Bpitch Control issued the record. Although darker themes emerge musically and lyrically over Immolate’s rich and heady 46 minutes, this, as co-founder Josh Eustis has painstakingly noted (“Charlie, in Finality,” July 22, 2009), is unrelated to Cooper’s tragic death. I’m only somewhat familiar with Telefon’s catalog of work, and I immediately found that losing myself in Immolate’s ambient, densely layered productions — its slender, often shimmering synth pop — was unavoidable.

Some might argue that writing about Immolate Yourself at the end of 2009 is an easier task, that to look back critically upon a piece of work that was assembled by such a revered member of the independent electronic/rock community after some time has lapsed following his abrupt passing is considerably less arduous than it might’ve been at the beginning of the year. Had I prepared some words without the weight of this considerable part of the “story” looming…out…there, it might have been less difficult to look at this as merely a record, and not as a record that was for Charlie Cooper his last. What I can say now is only that I’ve returned to this album frequently for a number of reasons, and that I’m looking forward to spending more time with it in the years to come.

Check back for more thoughts on my favorite electronic and overall albums for 2009.

Alongside the other playful and overtly splashy releases from the Traum label in recent months, new producer Applescal is a force. Born Pascal Terstappen, Applescal executes his abstract techno with discernible influences who linger in the acid-washed minimal corners of the genre (James Holden, et al.). A Slave’s Commitment reflects an interest in progressive house/techno productions as well as gauzy midtempo electronic. These productions are fitted with lots of development, jumping from jittery glitch to gentle, washed-out psyche, to hard dance music. Read the rest of my review of Applescal’s album at PopMatters.

For weeks, as I’ve already complained, I’ve been kinda mulling over 2009’s finest for some end-year list fun. But the mailbox is still offering some items of interest, and I’ve been buying records, too (an armful of second hand vinyl over the weekend — Joan Baez, Benny Goodman, early Bee Gees — Thanksgiving, indeed). So check back here soon for my favorite “2009 electronic releases list,” and for now, have a look at what’s been scoring the (late November and) December commutes. A couple of links for legal downloads below.

The sophomore effort from The Swimmers is thrilling — a lively, explosive pop (and sometimes new wave) outing from an always entertaining Philly act. We caught the four-piece in their fair city recently, and they pretty much blew the front door off Kung Fu Necktie out into the street. I’d been wielding loads of tissues in a battle with what I thought was The Plague, but I was still able to enjoy The Swimmers’ boisterous set (Disclosure: they play from time to time with my brother’s excellent band, Missing Palmer West. Makes for a great night). People Are Soft (Mad Dragon, 2009) boasts the fruits of a meticulous studio session or two, as its micro-sized, post-recording nuances are as frequent as its classic arrangements and sturdy, sugary melodies. It’s also got a fair share of shambolic surprises — punker “Drug Party” cycles through a mere handful of fuzzbox-tweaked guitar chords while weary choruses during “What This World Is Coming To” quarter-off fizzing organ riffs and fluttering harp mimicry that sounds like a Disney movie. The whole album has been a reliable commute listen — ample instrumentation and gorgeous vocal harmonies (often from primary songwriter Steve Yutzy-Burkey and wife Krista, who lends lead pipes occasionally from behind her keyboard) are plentiful at the very start of People Are Soft, and I recommend it. Listen to the whole thing at the album microsite.

Along with disarmingly pleasant chord progressions, the electronic/organic hybrids from producer Scott “Tycho” Hansen are paired with a crinkly, analog aesthetic — think Bibio or, the unavoidable point of reference in Tycho discussions, Boards of Canada. While Hansen’s kaleidoscopic work as a graphic designer is also representative of an appreciation and celebration of vintage appeal, his ambient recordings reflect a comely showdown between nostalgia and foresight, where gently unfolding, glassy tones and looped acoustic guitars roll overtop a usually slumping beat. On his new Coastal Brake twelve inch (Ghostly International, 2009), Hansen blends just as gingerly-paced an arrangement with a soft house tempo. Its warm and hissing textures give way to an occasional flurry of chimes or tinty keys, but they’re entering and exiting against the percussion, which also proves elusive toward the middle. There are several remixes from Hatchback, Manual, and Lusine, but I keep returning to the original piece — it’s lush and summery enough to stir up retirement plans over here. I understand there’s a full-length on the way. Let’s hope so. Sample/buy the mp3s/pre-order the Coastal Brake vinyl. Download the title track at XLR8R.

London beatmaker/sound librarian (literally, by trade!) Paul White dropped his newest bundle of beat-driven psychedelia for free, on the Web this week. Sounds From the Skylight (One-Handed Music, 2009) is spastic and all over the place — it’s a mini-album that’s as hard to pin down as his mix for FACT Magazine is (expired on the site, but let me Google that for you). Side B of Sounds became available late Monday night, as far as I could tell, as I had an email about it in my inbox yesterday morning. So I’ve loaded that into my iPod, but I’m still getting my head around it. Side A is not for those interested in long-form, easily digested experiments. White’s stitched-up workouts mirror those cobbled together by the eccentrics wandering around the Stones Throw HQ. These are heady beats that fire into a number of directions, not unlike those dreamt up by labelmate Bullion. When you’re pretty sure you’ve got one of White’s trips down pat, new strings or brass bubble up into earshot, brightening a head-nodder that’s already of the most serene brand (see “Highlife” on Side A), so when he’s not carving out a danceable track that’s as much Michna as it is RJD2 (Deadringer era, the era we’d wholeheartedly welcome back), it’s tranquil and sunny. Sounds From the Skylight is also chock full of typical weirdo Cut Chemist/Kid Koala crate-digger stuff, too, so that crusty novelty tunes and canned laughter are strewn between tracks. I don’t yet have White’s well-received The Strange Dreams Of…, and it’s been on my hit list for months. Gotta get moving on that one. Download Side A of Sounds From the Skylight here for free, and Side B is now available here, also for free.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the Whisper Council feed or with your email address.

Over the last week or so, I’ve been compiling Top Ten and Top Twenty Albums lists for this space and for PopMatters, where I am a regularly contributing writer. I’m planning on posting a good deal about my favorite electronic records that have been issued in 2009, and I’ll have a lot to say about my favorite overall records for this year as well (even though there might be a shift or two in the order from now until then).

While I largely cover music of an electronic or DJ/instrumental hip hop nature, I listen to a great deal of other stuff, so I think that some Whisper Council visitors might find some surprises in my favorite overall albums list for 2009, but most of y’all know that The Small Faces make as regular an appearance on the living room hi-fi as Madvillainy, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Boards of Canada, or Trojan Records comps do.

As long as I’ve been writing about music, whittling down my annual favorite records list into a top ten or twenty releases grows more arduous every year.

It’s always tough to make decisions like the ones that go into crafting an end-of-the-year Best Records list, particularly when the year isn’t over. In recent years, I’ve been blown away by how much good stuff ends up in my p.o. box, or by how many great records I end up spending so much of my paycheck on. I’m also surprised by how much of it sucks, but that’s another story altogether.

Developing a favorites list is a chore because I’m forced to think about all of the records that I listened to so much during the course of a year in a new way — pinned against the others that have grabbed my attention for one reason or another, so that a minor contest of sorts begins to brew (only in my feeble mind), centering on a) why this album stayed with me in the manner that it did; b) why I think it’s better than these others, contextually; c) how I felt when I first heard it; and d) how much of those feelings lingered during the tenth or e) fifteenth listen. These aren’t the exact metrics, but I’m sure you get the point. Anyway, it ends up being a rewarding exercise for me because I get to again sift through, celebrate, and critically think about all of the art and musical innovation that I was fortunate enough to absorb this year. Scouring the end-year lists in the print and web worlds (as well as those that my friends and I tend to send back and forth via email, and in poorly lit taverns) is far more enriching, however. After all, what’s better than finding out that aside from what you see as the greatest records released this year, there’s a whole bunch more out there that you need to hear? I only just picked up the polished new batch of what sounds like discarded (but meticulously arranged) 1960s film soundtracking from The Postmarks, for example (even though I hoped to write about it in August and an editor of mine wasn’t much interested, sadly), and it’s made for some wonderful listening this weekend.

I’ll post more on my favorite 2009 albums in the weeks to come (or sooner), and don’t forget to check in on PopMatters’ mammoth lists when they go live — they’re always heavy with insight and are expansive as all get-out. You can take a look at last year’s lists here.