Selections From 2011

I have finally stumbled upon a few small blocks of time; with it I've put together a selection of albums from 2011.  While I could write pages of praise about Feist's Metals, Fleet Foxes' Helplessnes Blues or Obscura's Omnivium, I'd rather put some effort into picking out some perhaps less obvious releases that haven't showed up on most of the top 2011 lists that I've seen.  This list is in no way ordered or ranked - they are each great records in their own right.  I hope you enjoy.

Tones
Small Sur
The latest release from this Baltimore, MD band is very warm, mellow, and rich with a vibrant and appreciative energy.  Their lyrics are simply beautiful, undeniable, and powerfully recharging.  Tones reminds you of how absolutely wonderful it is to be a living human animal being amidst the lush landscapes of earth.  I LOVE this record.

The Long Procession
Amia Venera Landscape
This technically came out in December of 2010, but I cannot help but include it here.  Technical, bludgeoning, and massive riffs meet with sweeping ambient interludes, dissonant cyclones of noise, and melodic melancholic doom.  This album is relentless, and dare I say perfect.  AVL's more-than-impressive self-released debut is a monumental triumph of modern metal.

Your Name In Secret I would Write
Red Heart The Ticker
Heartwarming and homey New England folk by husband and wife duo Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons.  With a mixture of mostly traditional and some contemporary instrumentation Your Name... recreates several "lost" Vermont folksongs which MacArthur's Grandmother spent many years tracking down.  You can read and/or listen to the story behind this very unique record on NPR Music.

The Volume In The Ground
Adeem
Hiphop from New Hampshire...learn it.  This LP keeps you swaying from beginning to end with original beats, catchy loops, smooth grooves, and thoughtful words.  Hiphop with insight is the best best hiphop and Adeem does it right.  The Volume In The Ground is forward-stepping recognition of what is, with a realization of positive intent for what will be created...for what is at the leading edge.

Searchlight Needles & Blue Highways

Cabinet Of Natural Curiosities

CONC has a classic aesthetic - a vibe that resonates with a simple and introspective expression.  I can't help but hear these two records with a mental movie being projected in my mind.  There's something theatrical yet understated here - like montage music in an artsy indie film, or the backdrop to a solemn actress providing a lonely stage performance - a lovely monologue mirror to the soul.

Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light
Earth
Ambient psychedelic stoner rock at its finest.  Slow, repetitive, and sonically rich tapestries are carefully woven over three sides of vinyl.  Ghost tones swell and ebb between guitar, cello, and various "devices".  The result is a creation of intimate and warm space, in which each musical movement breathes with the listener in appreciation of presence.

Acrobats
Peggy Sue
Poppy, brilliant UK indie rock chock full of amazing songwriting, creative twists, and musical exploration.  Acrobats is gorgeously melody rich and impeccably heartfelt.  Vocals are cute, sultry, and very well trained.  Each piece of well-varried instrumentation works for the whole of each song in a beautifully balanced way...and each song, offering a distinct flavor, complements the others, making for a diverse but cohesive work of art.  This album is an absolute joy.

777: Sect(s) & 777: The Desanctification

Blut Aus Nord

Experimental psychedelic black metal...maybe.  I don't know what to call this except quite interesting and quite good.  Here Blut Aus Nord provide an intense artistry to the mathematics and mystery of musical sound: overlapping repeating illusionary patterns, majestic and cryptic motifs, grating dark dissonance, and odd time changes.  These elements combined with gritty guitars, sweeping eerie keyboard ambiance, and haunting vocals comprise the sound of the two 777 records.

His Young Heart & The Wild Youth
Daughter

I fell in love with Daughter toward the end of last summer; I listened to His Young Heart's four catchy tracks too many times to count.  Daughter's work is concise, passionate, soft, and bursting alive with the human experience.  There is a vulnerableness and yet also a fierceness present in Tonra's lyrics - her voice carries them into your heart where they settle in as your own.  These two EP's are simply beautiful.

Night Gallery
Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw
Lustrous, sensual waves of shimmering, living, meditative celebration.  This collaboration is an uncanny match made in heaven.  Droning organ, airy scrambling synths, reverb soaked electric guitars, drumming bass, and subdued percussion repeatedly climb into space and slowly glide down again.  This record is like the lost live interlude outtake from the most tranced-out Doors show imaginable.  That is all you need to know.

They Will Find You Here
Sleepy Vikings
This Tampa Florida band has quite a fantastic debut album of somewhat shoegazey, melodic tunes.  Mixed male and female vocals harmonize over acoustic strums and clean electric leads whilst percussion sets the pace, sometimes picking things up a notch.  A softness and loving acceptance pervades the energy of the whole record - it's a great way to refresh and recharge the soul.

Eylsian Magnetic Field
Dirge
The name Dirge is a perfect reflection of this French band's sonic character.  Eylsian Magnetic Field is hugely epic "post-metal" funeral dirge doom.  Ambient, droning, and heavy - this record creates a weighty, introspective, crestfallen space.  Keyboards, choirs, and organs add an airy breathe to the sludge and dirt of tuned-down guitars and downtrodden percussion.  Vocals crown the mix with gruff cathartic wails and desperate laments.  This record leaves you empty and ready to move.

We Will Start A Storm
Loch Lomond
Portland Oregon's Loch Lomond are in the studio right now working on the followup to this record...and they indeed have their work cut out for them.  This album is a treasure-trove of charming and melodious songwriting.  They have reached a pinnacle here: each song is just what it should be - no more, no less.  With varying depth of instrumentation and voice, Loch Lomond have served each song just so.  The result is passionate art: wonderfully lovely to the ears and heart.


Well...that's it I suppose.  There were so many amazing records in 2011 it's impossible to choose a small selection and not leave something out.  I've done my best to pick out the records that I had not already written about, and that seemed to have evaded the praise of many popular bloggers and critics.  2012 is looking to be a powerful year for music; many great artists and bands have already announced releases and projects in the works.  I am very excited to find new and inspired sounds to fill my ears.

Happy New Year!

Looking back, 2011 was not what I had anticipated. Personally, though it at times felt like a hiatus or abandonment of my creative self, it was a gestation period. The events of the year persistently reminded me to slow down and stop - to not do, but be. I refused to listen for most of it and thus lived through many cycles of frustration. The result of these lessons is a greater closeness to my intuition - to feel and allow in presence and in love...and let expectations be what they are: passing thoughts in time.

2011 was a trying, but also fun year.  I went to more concerts than I had in any other year past; I frequented the Toadstool after hours, caught several shows in Western and Central Massachusetts, and flew out for Music Fest North West. I fulfilled my adolescent dream of seeing Soundgarden perform, attended the first show of Opeth's Heritage tour, saw William Fitzsimmons play in a living room, and lay in bliss under the stars listening to Fleet Foxes play at Mountain Park.  I set up my old Technics turntable and went mad buying vinyl. I hunted down strange, limited, and/or local pressings. I even woke up early to drive to Vermont on Record Store Day. During my trip to Oregon I reunited with the North Western forest energy and a city rich with music and movement.

I wanted to sell my house, but instead it has turned into more of a home. I have a dining room and a library nook; the deck is mended and reattached, and the yard is not completely disheveled. A couple of days ago I dismantled, cleaned, rearranged, and reconnected my home recording studio. This was a practical as well as symbolic effort. I've let go of a troublesome part of myself that had not served me well, save but for teaching me the lesson that I do not need for it. The studio is the haven in my home, and is now ready for my creativity when any moment brings it.

I have no idea what 2012 will be for me. My goals have become less specific, conceptual, and tangible. With less rigidity and judgment I will be free to allow more accomplishment, growth, and fulfillment of my needs. While my vision of the new year may be blurry and ever-shifting, I can see well my path with increased clarity and I know that it is the one on which I am meant to be. It will wholly serve me, not merely my mind or ego. It is less what and when, and more how and why. On new years eve, Rosie and I lay outside on the deck looking up at the sky - the deep blue of midnight permeated by the light of thousands of stars...the cosmic brothers and sisters to our sun, caught in a great spiral - our infinite substance swirling, rotating, and breathing alive the matter and condition of all that is.

Timbreleaf is not a well-read blog, but it has been an outlet for my expression during a time when I've felt creatively stifled. Thank you so much to anyone and everyone who reads or has read Timbreleaf, subscriber or no. While I do not write intending an audience it means a lot to know that there is one. Happy new year to each and all...may 2012 be a truly wonderful experience.  I am greatly looking forward to the new: music, places, people, experiences. Be well ~ ~   ~