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Electronica 2009. Where are we at?

End of the year electronic album review. This year I actually manage to rank them, tho’ please listen to the albums, because a single track simply can’t do justice. I try to balance between presenting a top ten album endof year albums and listenable playlist.

01. Moritz Von Oswald TrioVertical Ascent. Rarely an electronic album can sustain acoustic percussion and sample balance like this one. Despite an entire album comprises of nothing but thick polyrhythmic layers, the interplay of acoustics drum, electronic echoes and samples are addictive and delightful. +++ 02. Squarepusher - Numbers Lucent. Tom Jenkinson understands jazz and can compose complicated pieces, uncommon skill in electronic circle. And he is back with an EP containing rave, DnB and funk. It is a candy colored psychedelia tricycle running at 200 mph. +++ 03. Wisp - The Shimmering Hour. This little gem may be more of an archive what Rephlex record, aka Richard D. James’s label, the Aphex Twin guy has done in the past few years. Seems like a small sketch book of things he considers well balance between abstract IDM, danceable electronica, experimental ambient and pop bleep. +++ 04. Few NolderNew Folder . Minimal house done by Linus Strockis, from Viluis, Lithuania. The composition is refreshing. A proof that one doesn’t need to crowd entire frequency spectrum to shake things up. A bleep here, a boom there and off you go, happily bouncing on the floor. +++ 05. Vibrasphere - Selected Downbeats Vol. 2. A wholesome Swedish electronic album. Nothing outrageous or fancy, well balanced and can be left alone in stereo for weeks at a time.

06. Venetian SnaresHorsey Noisers. The latest EP from the bad boy himself, master of electronic layering and complex rhythm. This ep is danceable and fairly sane comparatively. Mother approved, child tested sort of breakcore. A good interlude for his beefier far too fast for your health album ‘Filth‘ +++ 07. Alva NotoXerrox Vol.2. Please people. I like this guy. Minimalism and glitch done right. And this latest album probably the most accessible from all his work. (aka, the frequency range is within mammalian biped hearing range, instead of a bat) +++ 08. 5 Years of Hyperdub. My lazy pick of the year. A compilation from hyperdub record. It’s delightful and full of work by known dubstep artists. Nothing earth shattering yet comfortable. +++ 09. LusineA Certain Distance. The most accessible album in this list. This album is classic downtempo. If you like “The Field” from 2007, this album is for you. Same texture, a bit louder. +++ 10. Peverelist - Jarvik Mindstate. I don’t know why not many people like this album. I thought this is album is charming. It doesn’t beg, but draw people in, calmly dishing out beat in his own term like a story teller who knows what his audience want to listen. A bit of a teaser actually. A perfect small room ambient DnB. +++ 11. Yppah - They Know What Ghost Know. Second album from an Austinite shoegazer meets house musician. Joe Corrales Jr. drifts deeper into electric guitar and relies less in house/dance beat, making this second album hard to define. Think odd pairing such as folktronica. It is happy spells backward afteral.

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11 Best Albums in 2009 and their track

01. Moritz Von Oswald TrioPattern 3
Vertical Ascent (Honest Jon’s, 2009)
02. Squarepusher - Arterial Fantasy
Numbers Lucent (MSI:Warp, 2009)
03. Wisp - Summoner’s Hollow
The Shimmering Hour (Rephlex, 2009)
04. Few Nolder - Top
New Folder (Planet Mu, 2009)
05. Vibrasphere - Tierra Azul (Omnimotion Feat. Krister Linder Remix)
Selected Downbeats Vol. 2 (Cloud 99 Music, 2009)
06. Venetian SnaresHorsey Vag Island
Horsey Noisers (Planet Mu, 2009)
07. Alva NotoXerrox Rin
Xerrox Vol.2 (Raster Music, 2009)
08. L.V.Turn Away
5 Years of Hyperdub (Hyperdub, 2009)
09. Lusine - Twilight
A Certain Distance (Ghostly Int’l, 2009)
10. Peverelist - Valves
Jarvik Mindstate (Punch Drunk, 2009)
11. Yppah - Southern Sky Tells
They Know What Ghost Know (Ninja Tune, 2009)

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Also great in 2009. Boxcutter - Arecibo Message, Clark – Totems Flare, Mike Slott – Lucky 9Teen, Morphosis Records – Evolved Breaks, Pantha Du Prince – The Splendour, Printempo - Printempo, Shackleton - Three EPs LP,

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see also: Electronica 2008.

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Category: Electronica

10 Responses

  1. Wohaa! I’ve been looking forward to your (and moka and Bubbachups) lists for the year 2009.
    I really like the tracks by “Moritz Von Oswald Trio” and “Yppah”. But to me Squarepusher never really gets there where all the fun is.

    Is Dan Deacon to wacky to make it to the list?

  2. Yppah is just godly.

  3. Marcel says:

    I really like the list but i would like to add the following…

    junior boys – begone dull care
    holger zilske – holz
    fever ray – fever ray
    damian lazarus – smoke the monsters out

  4. i second that vote on luisine. that album came out of nowhere! beautiful and listenable. so warm and pretty.

    great list as always…

  5. JOG says:

    Nice selection

  6. Fat Roland says:

    Thanks for switching me onto Peverelist. It’s like really delicate choppy micro-rave.

    Erik – I managed to squeaze Dan Deacon into my own little list (at http://www.fatroland.com or direct link here: http://bit.ly/7I0rfs).

  7. Nao says:

    PleaseSquashed listen again to From Here We Go Sublime.
    It has nothing to do with L’Usine.
    L’Usine turned into a Electronica for American Dummies (don’t get me wrong I love the US but wonder why they think that the US ain’t ready for techno) (thanks Matthew Dear & Ghostly)
    nothing to do with the beautiful frozen sound of the Hamburger Kompakt products (melt with a lil’ bit of Sweden)
    Just give an ear to the Field
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I41qt-O8Rk

    Sorry for the complaint, but I was so chilled reading what you wrote (Yeeeeaaaaahhh another The Field) and fell down the minute I played twilight.

  8. Vaicius says:

    Thanks for the list. I have been waiting for it.
    The Telefon Tel Aviv record was a great release this year too.

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The song makes its imprint
in the air, making itself felt,
a felt world. Here, there,
the stunned silence

of knowing I will not remember
what I heard;

futures that will never happen,
a fluidity we cannot achieve
except as a child
creating possibility.

This is the untranslatable song
hidden in the earth.

-Untranslatable Song [1]