1. Paavoharju – Laulu Laakson Kukista (Fonal)
MP3: Ursulan Uni
Laulu Laakson Kukista feels like gazing into the global subconscious, like finding a damaged film reel filled with some of the most beautiful and mysterious images you’ve ever seen, while a silent frustration overcomes at all those cigarette burns and missing scenes. The story might not make any sense, but you cannot resist the urge of watching it unfold. This is what Paavoharju does best, weaving together all sort of disparate musical elements to make one loveably pastiche whole.
2. Jacaszek – Treny (Miasmah)
MP3: Walc
MP3: Powoli
Aided by a small string ensemble and inspired by a series of writings renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski wrote after the death of his three year-old daughter, Jacaszek has created in Treny one of the most gorgeous sounding albums I’ve heard in years. Despite the mournful nature of the poems which could suggest a dismal and wearisome experience, Treny is remarkably cohesive. Jacazsek’s adept sense of pacing and stark attention to detail, allows each of the album’s 11 tracks to unfold as if they were blossoming into a living, breathing entity. It’s easy to become deeply engaged with the sound, discovering new intricacies and small features in the music with each further listen. This is season fruit, one that grows best in cold weather and cabin fever.
3. Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody (Digitalis)
MP3: Tiktaalik
MP3: Rakes
On Not For Nobody, Tuma creates structureless pieces consisting mainly of acoustic guitar and then plays with the tape speed and pitch all over the album without ever sacrificing the pungent nostalgic sound that made his last albums so memorable. Ideas only stick around as long as they’re interesting, many times giving the feel of 3 different songs condensed into one, when it’s actually the same guitar figures continously evolving, falling off a cliff and coming back even more striking than they did before.
4. Shed – Shedding the Past (Ostgut Ton)
MP3: Estrange
My soundsystem is far from being perfect, speakers are blown and some of them are apart in construction by decades. Basically all I did was take every speaker from every stereo there was in my house and see what happened when assembled together. I’m telling you this because this was my favorite record to test my faulty soundsystem to. Shedding the past loves the speakers, it licks every sound with its steely-hued tongue and touches every corner of the room filled with glimmering vigor and energy. Not an inch is left unmoved. Shedding the past is a stud. You can tell my speakers loved him too.
5. Tape – Luminarium (Häpna)
MP3: Moth Wings
Tape’s blending of electronic and acoustic instruments are steeped in a consistency and elegance that only few artists can master. Luminarium sounds at many points weightless but it wraps around you like a warm blanket, making it my album of choice for the many sleepless nights I spent this year. This is a slumber-inducing album with a subtle erotic pulse and of course I say this with the utmost respect and adoration for their music. To paraphrase Brian Eno, sometimes falling asleep to an artist’s music can be the greatest compliment a listener can give.
6. Fleet Foxes – fleet foxes (Sub pop)
MP3: White Winter Hymnal
For me, this is all about the vocal harmonies, underpinned by slowly building melodies sometimes embellished by winds, strings and piano, these Fleet Foxes chant in a gorgeous mixture of southern baptist and sunshine pop choirs which seem to lift every sound around to a higher level. The production is unfortunately soaked in reverb in all the wrong places, but the overall product is so good on the ears that it is easy to overlook its minor flaws. One of the strongest and most refreshing debuts of the year.
7. Bruno Pronsato – Why can’t we be like us (Hello? Repeat)
MP3: At home I’m a tourist
In a genre mostly known for its mechanical precision and a desire to erase any traces of humanity, Bruno Pronsato’s unconventionaly erratic execution and his ability to give some undeniable psychedelic characteristic to the album’s production separates ‘Why can’t we be like us’ from the rest of its techno counterparts, achieving what many others aspire to, but ultimately fail at: creating an album that seeps into your subconscious with subtlety, but still leaves a lasting imprint.
8. Grouper – Dragging a dead dear up the hill (Type)
MP3: Travelling Through a Sea
MP3: Heavy Water / I’d rather be sleeping
After her previous album efforts which had a heavy emphasis on atmosphere and texture rather than on fully formed melodies, on ‘Dragging a Dead Deer’, Liz Harris reduces her style to a singular approach of layers of guitar and voice, finally allowing her songs to breathe and drown everything in sight with their unsettling melancholia, a testament to the power of simplicity in music. Listening to this record is a disorienting experience, like stuffing on barbiturates and attempting a 90 mile nocturnal drive on deer-crash season. You’re free to guess how that story ends.
9. Lykke Li – Youth Novels (LL)
MP3: Little Bit
In a year where I felt most of the mainstream pop became too cynical for its own good, Lykke Li was like a breath of fresh air. Ingeniously produced by Bjorn Yttling, the arrangements in every song on ‘youth novels’ are disarmingly minimal, all charmingly simple melodies and genuinely naïve lyrics that are hard to unglue from your brain. One of the most immediate and enjoyable albums of the year.
10. Zdzislaw Piernik & Piotr Zbrodzki – Namanga (Vivo)
MP3: Lekcja Chemii
MP3: Perły Przed Kruki
Perhaps it is because I don’t listen to enough jazz, but hearing Namanga for the first time was a bewildering experience for me. Piernik’s tuba slobbers and gurgles out of control like an epileptic alien form while the rest of the ensemble follows along in a commonly restrained and melancholic fashion, as if they were trying to calm this hyperactive creature down. At times menacing, at others playful, you can’t help but feel ambivalently confused and amazed at all of the different emotions Namanga keeps bringing up and down in such a short time span.
See also:
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.
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