Moka’s Top 12 albums 2006
December 15, 2006 at 12:14 pm
I was planning on publishing my list a few weeks ago but I kept having second thoughts and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything (useless as I’ll inevitably miss something) and also because I find making best-of lists as a masturbatory exercise rather than an objective piece of work. But on the other hand, when honest, making this type of lists is a love statement for the records and the artists behind them and the desire to have their music reaching out to other people.
Another thing itching me is that there’s will always be an album you didn’t know existed until the year after its release or one you come back to find it’s amazing after initially writing it off. Case in this list are the white birch’s “come up for air” and lindstrom & prins thomas’ s/t, two albums that were originally released on the last weeks of 2005… I guess that makes my list a bit of a sham, though the white birch record was released originally on Glitterhouse records and got an official US release on Rune Grammofon this April where the cover art and the tracklist was modified - I’ve also seen many sites listing the Lindstrom & prins thomas as a 2006 release so I want to think this one was reissued around February or March. This would partially justify my inclusion of both albums.
Just before I start I want to direct you to the running monster list of best of’s at largehearted boy where you will surely find something that’ll you’ll fancy and also to two of the most interesting lists I’ve read: Artforum’s 2006 picks selected by Matmos and Christina Kubisch the end of year articles at Dusted Magazine and Other music’s 2006 year end recap which covers a lot of music - I haven’t heard around 75% of the records listed in these ones which either means they’re all pretentious blokes or that after all this months, I’ve been reading the wrong people.
Ah yes, before I forget I also published a Top 12 Contemporary music albums 2005-2006 list back on July based on diverse reviews rather than my own personal taste that you might want to read. I still don’t know if some of the other motel member’s will be writing their personal “best of 2006″ lists but I’m pretty positive judging on the music they’ve been putting up that they had far more interesting and pleasing things rounding their ears this year, stay tuned. Now, without further ado, here are some of the best things I heard this year:
12. The knife - silent shout (Rabid)
MP3: One hit
MP3: Forest Families
I will be lying to myself if I excluded this album from the list as on the first months of the year “silent shout” kept haunting my stereo day and night non-stop- The magic wore off on the following months and I stopped listening to it with the same frequency but still “silent shout” contains one of the most ornately strange and addictive music I heard this year. And what’s more important, with this album the knife have found their trademark sound making their music immensily creepier but, ironically, at the same time more beautiful drawing the listener completely into the twisted little world they’ve created.
11. Mahogany - Connectivity! (Darla)
MP3: Domino Ladder beta (Robin Guthrie rework)
MP3: My bed is my castle
There were many records attempting at the shoegaze/dreampop sound this year but none of them were as bright and celestial as “Connectivity!”. If you like dream pop, this album is a must.
10. Fujiya & Miyagi - transparent things (Tirk)
MP3: Cassetesingle
MP3: Transparent things
Unfortunately coming in at a mere 35 minutes, “transparent things” mimics krautrock metronomic rhythms and post-disco guitars for one of the freshest and most welcome debuts of the year albeit a very short one leaving me to expect great things from this Brighton trio in the future.
9. Bill Wells & Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Osaka Bridge (Karaoke Kalk)
MP3: Liquorice tics
Osaka Bridge finds Scotland jazzman, Bill Wells and Japan’s willfully amateur Maher Shalal Hash Baz band crafting a sunny vision of pop music’s past that makes you think at moments you’re listening to some sort of wonderful Beach boys or Belle and Sebastian jazz session. Without doubt the most genuinely joyful record of the year.
8. Pattern is movement/Scott Solter - canonic (Hometapes)
MP3: In Glasstone
MP3: In Tapegrass
Using nothing but analog equipment, Scott Solter takes Pattern is movement’s album “Stowaway” (on which he takes production credits) to create a completely different piece of music which he entitled “Canonic”. Exquisitely packaged as it has become usual with the always caring hometapes label, this is one of the most amazing remix albums I’ve heard in a long time, Scott Solter splits whole chunks of the original work off, distorting, re-ordering, changing tempos, density and adding ghost rhythms with the intention of obfuscating and at the same time giving a whole new different light at the source material. This should be taken as the benchmark on how to do proper remix albums.
7. Nobody & the mystic chords of memory - tree coloured see (Mush)
MP3: Walk in the afterlight
MP3: The seed
Probably one of the most overlooked albums of the year. I’m honestly surprised the blogosphere didn’t embrace “tree coloured see” as one of the most delightful albums of the year as it really takes one listen to realize what a wonderful work this is. “Tree coloured see” finds LA-based psychedelic hip-hop (?) producer, Nobody teaming up with folk-popsters Mystic Chords of Memory to craft a subconcious state of sound somewhere in between the Byrds and Stereolab with a pair of winks to shoegazers. Lovely.
6. Islands - return to the sea (Equator)
MP3: Volcanoes
Rising from the ashes of Unicorns (great band if I may add), Islands crafted one of the most irresistible sun-kissed indie-pop albums of the year while delivering a gently threatening feeling through the destructive and at times ridiculous imagery of their lyrics. Return to the sea is a disturbingly fun tribute to the timeless sound of great pop music that begs for repeated listens.
5. The white birch - come up for air (Rune Grammofon)
MP3: We are not the ones
Soundwise, “come up for air” is one of the most staggering releases I heard this year. Vocally, Ola Fløttum’s baritonic and drowsy voice fits wonderfully the soundscape, the delicate arrangements kept luring me towards the speakers in awe and the lushproduction in charge by Helge Sten (Deathprod) is attentive to detail giving space for every sound to breathe through making the record sound surreal on a very basic, physical level. The combined effect is a powerhouse of melancholy and beauty.
4. Grails - the black tar prophecies Vol’s 1, 2 & 3 (Important)
MP3: Erosion Blues
MP3: Smokey room
A massive and solid record by a mysterious collective from Portland. Grails make instrumental music influenced equally by folk psychedelia, ambient, doom metal and jazzy improvisations but rest assured, their music has something that so many others are lacking and that’s the emotional connection that makes each track a personal experience for the listener.
3. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - s/t (Eskimo)
MP3: Claudja
MP3: En dag i mai
Squeaky fret work, midtempo rhythms, dreamy guitar lines, sweet mélanges of synth fills and rich layers of overdubs are the main ingredients that took this nordic magicians holding tightly the kosmiche crown to make me throw off my shirt their way. I confess it: I’m biased by my love for this record as the one that opened my eyes to the cosmic/beardo disco scene, a genre that has no doubt passed its “consume by” date, but this is good music, irrespective of trend.
2. Destroyer - Rubies (Merge)
MP3: Painter in your pocket
MP3: Watercolours in the ocean
Mike Powell on his review for Rubies on Stylus stated: “Destroyer is for people who feel let down by the gap between indie rock in theory -challenging, exciting- and in practice -bloated, tiresome-”, if he’s right then I’m compelled to accept I have become a premature greying indie rock fan as I found “Rubies” to be the most pleasant and polished album I heard this year and ultimely a record that makes music for me seem exciting again. The chamber rock arrangements while not technically challenging, are quite poignant, layering melody upon melody and the pop-hooks are pristine enough for Dan Bejar to rant with his usual insight without ever compromising the energy and the beauty of it all. Too irresistable for my mere troubled words.
1. Liars - drum’s not dead (Mute)
MP3: The wrong coat for you Mt. Heart attack
MP3: Drum gets a glimpse
A very unlikely nominee for the best album of the year given its inaccessibility and mixed opinions yet “Drum’s not dead” was the first album I bought this year that I was genuinely excited about and it will be a while again before I find another one with the same propulsive energy, intractable ambition and infectuos enthusiasm as this one. Couched in the concept of two competing elements, Drum and Mt. Heart Attack, the album is a meticulously recorded praise to rhythm constantly pushing forward from a blurring haze of drones and noise-scapes. “Drum’s not dead” is the most intense and violently beautiful rock record you will hear this year.
sweet list! i’m gunna shoot ya an email, moka…
-A
mis favoritos en la lista son definitivamente The Knife, los demas había escuchado poco o nada. Asi que este post me resulto perfecto para conocer buenas producciones
gracias Moka
Moka loved this list! Islands and destroyer were probably my favorite of the year good to see they got some good positioning in here. I would have liked to see some ratatat here.
oh yes ratatat
oh, another thing! You mention belle and sebastian while describing some of this records music but you completely forgot about “the life pursuit”. That’s a great one.
Excellent list, Moka (esp Liars up at the top)! I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know some of these records, but will look out for them. And I agree, Artforum and Dusted had some of the most interesting pro lists.
Awesome list Moka! Some stuff on there I need to check out! Liars at #1 is an interesting choice. It’s a good album, but not something that I could listen to a lot. I can handle the abstract, but that one is way out there.
Especially Destroyer’s Rubies. Been hearing a lot of good stuff about that one.
Hey, that’s a pretty cool list Moka! Some stuff at the lower end of your list that I’ve never even heard of.
Feels good doesn’t it, now that you’ve got the whole year-end list off your chest. You must be relieved! I’m still working on mine and can only barely handle the pressure. ;-)
I’ll make sure to write my own personal best-of somewhere around next weekend.
really enjoyed this list, as it, like your blog, reflects lesser known artists that I often havent heard before, or heard in depth.
eagle: I still havent received any email of yours, did you send it already? Hopefully you didn’t send it to my yahoo account, it’s full of spam and I never check it nowadays.
Fk & ana: ratatat and the belle and sebastian were one of my favorite of the year too but at the end they didnt made the cut. Still “wildcat” was easily one of the songs I played the most.
Amy: Thank you, awaiting for yours :)
Eric: I’m amazed you haven’t picked rubies yet. Liars takes some time. It’s a really fun record too! Try playing it to your grandma or your parents, they would most definitely be asking why you were listening to this sort of devils music. (mine did)
Bubbachups: It does feel good, last year I picked my favorite records in 10 minutes this year it took me some days. Loved to read what’s been pleasing you this year.
Satisfied 75: Thank you :) Your list in turn offered many records didnt heard in depth neither and I’ve been hunting down ever since I read it.
Moka, your list is wonderful, particularly as some of the artists are unknown to me . . . .
Hey Moka,
Thanks for the kind words about the mixtape. Looks like we have similar taste. We should have our year end list up sometime this week. Feel free to check it out.
Cheers
hey-
i really enjoyed your list. well done. what did you think of Joanna Newsom’s album/possible explanation of why it isn’t on there (at #1)
[...] Well you know what time of year it is, Listmas. That time where everybody and their mother creates lists. We’ve already released our fav. albums and a couple of us are working on random lists for your viewing pleasure. I’ve been reading quite a few people’s lists because it’s impossible to catch everything that was released this year at the time its being promoted. Perhaps my favorite list so far is Said the Gramaphone’s favorite songs of the year and MdM’s favorite albums. Not because I agree, but because it filled to the brim of quality songs I’ve passed over. My favorite so far has to be this project of elementary school kids rapping to some guy’s beats and random loops, under the guise of Rapper’s Delight Club. What makes this more than a novelty or gimmicky is the individual kids’ ability to imitate the styles that they probably watch everyday on t.v. Favorite contributor goes to the girl who sings about chicken noodle soup and selling more cookies than your whole girl scout troop. [...]
[...] The Brooklyn octet has been getting lots of love lately on their most recent effort, Connectivity!, gaining a spot in Motel De Moka’s Top 12 Albums of the Year as well as Other Music’s Best of the Year. Pitchfork, who released their Top 50 Albums of 2006 today, also weighed in on Connectivity!, which made staff writer Matthew Solarski’s list. [...]
Great to see Liars there! Very inaccessible album but I had to keep coming back for more until it clicked. Happy christmas.
Thank you everyone :)
Will: Joanna Newsom almost made it to the list- I find Y’s ridiculously overwritten and over-performed but at the same time I admit there´s an immediate appeal to it, the string and oboe arrangements by Van dyke parks are amazing, you can’t possibly sound bad having Jim o’ rourke producing you and all in all the finished product is stunning. Joanna Newsom is a talented songwriter and a great harpist. My problem is with her vocalization - too willful and pretentious for her own good. It seems to me she’s trying too hard to sound european, like a fey Ute Lemper. Her vocalization stylings pretty much ruin the whole experience to me, and yet and yet… I like this album just like everybody else does, the pedigree of musicians involved is top notch and i think it’s a grand statement for an artist her age. If the list was broader I’d definitely had it on a 13 or 14 rank.
[...] This brings me to The White Birch, whose record Come Up For Air placed in the blog’s Top Ten Albums for 2006. This Norwegian ensemble have recently lost all but one of their original members, so future works are sure to be interesting, but for now the songs I’ve heard on their MySpace profile and dotcom website are amazing. They are very Eno-esque, so expect tranquil, intricate songs that transport you to another place and time. [...]
The new LCD Soundsystem is cosmic… and quite Beardo… that’s all I’m gonna say… ‘cos I’m sad now…
Great list and nice selection of MP3s. A few things I hadn’t previously checked out like those terrific Lindstrom tracks. So thanks!
MKRGK -
don’t be. You have to remember MdM is not a “general” blog. It has center of gravity and drift along different path. It’s always been a little ambient-esque.
This was list created from MdM point of view (Moka’s perspective). It depicts some aspect of music that is important for MdM instead of “ultimate” list, that tries to be the be all end all list.
2006 ends in a more quiet accoustic/electro mix, hence the list. I guess MdM is not big into retro-punk.
..huh… no… it’s just the sell by date thing, that’s all… dots…
BTW,
see also
Motel de Moka’s Top 5 albums of 2005
http://www.moteldemoka.com/2005/11/28/motel-de-mokas-top-5-albums-of-2005/
Motel de Moka’s Top 6 -11 albums of 2005
http://www.moteldemoka.com/2005/11/30/motel-de-mokas-top-6-11-albums-of-2005/
hey mkrgk, about the “consume by” date thing on cosmic/beardo music:
There are still many great albums under the genre coming out (btw, I’ve listened to the new lcd soundsystem and it kicks) and there were still be many to come, the music created is clearly ahead of their time and will sound great years to come but in my humble opinion the sound of cosmic beardo has already been fixed, like it happened to trip-hop, chillout, post-rock… it has suddenly stopped to expand. I feel the cosmic revival musicians are focusing on creating a particular sound, rather than participating in the give-and-take of music-making. I still love the genre and think it has much to offer, I just think it’s become sort of stuck in the creative area.
That’s a fair point actually. But it’s almost the nature of the beast in this case. Balearics are the ultimate hippies and the ultimate punks, there is a feeling that what exists is already good enough and you should never try too hard in case you mess up the vibe. But it also depends on your perspective, it can also be considered to be an anti-art, dadaist type thing where whatever happens happens. I have a huge emotional attachment to the original Balearic scene so that’s why it means a lot to me as far as whats happening at the moment, but at the same time it’s the most difficult thing in the world to explain what the point or purpose of Balearic is. Balearic, it’s the hardest word.. hee hee..
[...] “…with this album the knife have found their trademark sound making their music immensily creepier but, ironically, at the same time more beautiful drawing the listener completely into the twisted little world they’ve created. ( Motel De Moka ) “The Knife are the hope of the future. Artists, writers, creeps, and ghouls. Fun and dark, like a clown getting stabbed, The Knife made everyone listen and the remixes doubled what was already amazing.” ( Cobain In Coma ) “Swedish weirdos combine eerie synths and freakish vocals to produce a beautifully primal dreamscape that?s vicious, haunting and utopian.” ( explondingNOW!!! ) “Silent Shout works best when listened as an album due to the consistent themes of darkness (accentuated by the cover art), similar synth sounds and Dreijer’s threaded narrative. The result is a rare achievement in dance music, an intelligent album of beauty and intrigue.” ( nialler9 ) “The throbbing nature of Silent Shout comes off freely, establishing the album as one of great variety and passion.” ( Obscure Sound ) [...]
[...] see also : 2006 List, Best of 2006, AE no.3a-2006, Top 100 Blog pick 2006, Top 10 albums 2006 (Bubbachups), Top 5 albums of 2005, Top 6 -11 albums of 2005 . [...]
[...] xl recordings in london while everyone is creating their beautiful and amazing top lists of the year, im dedicated to the fact that i have no idea what to choose. ive learned so much about why i love what i love that im overwhelmed. [...]
[...] while everyone is creating their beautiful and amazing top lists of the year, im dedicated to the fact that i have no idea what to choose. ive learned so much about why i love what i love that im overwhelmed.all i know is i’d like to live here. [...]
[...] 2007 so far Largehearted boy’s 2007 year-end music lists Moka’s top 12 albums 2006 Bubbachups top 10 albums 2006 Moka’s top 5 albums 2005 [...]