Best of 2012: I Break Horses - Hearts

Even though it's everywhere, music is still an incredible mystery. What's new? What's good? What's going to keep me listening? If I get a lead on something, I'm still ready to investigate - and when it pans out, I find something as good as this I Break Horses record.

The two gateways were an intriguing Mojo review (although not a glowing one) and the fact that the record was released by the usually reliable Bella Union. Good start. I think I made it through half a song on Spotify before I went all in and bought it.

Hearts is a very electronic album, but it's hardly inorganic. Most songs build off a sequenced pulse which gradually is swallowed by waves of lush sounds and vocals. The throb of the beat is always there, but it's a distant signal by the time that songs hit their stride.

Winter Beats begins as technopop but ends up sounding like a homage to the sea of sound of Loveless.
Wired puts me in the mind of Stereolab's best marriages of French melody and German motorik rhythms (plus a couple of the 'Lab's classic breakdowns - a white noise section early on and a "wrong" sounding set of pitch downs to conclude.)

As for the majesty of mystery, I've realized that I still know almost nothing about I Break Horses, other than they are a duo and they are Swedish. I'm perfectly happy staying focused on the music instead.

Best of 2012: Grimes - Visions

Nobody's perfect. After all, how can an album so good be housed in a sleeve so atrocious and misrepresentative?

Visions by Grimes is not speed metal or gnarly Oi punk, nor was it created by a teenage skaterdood from Southern California. It is in fact the ugliest record cover in the history of 4AD Records, breaking a 30+ year streak of immortal to pretty good sleeves.

Luckily, it is one of the best records 4AD has put out in ages, mixing etherea with electronic, goth and pop, and other things you like with other things you like. For example, Genesis takes a call-and-response type vocal melody and drops layers of wordless voices and drummy loops to make a quite lovely pop confection.

In fact, there are loads of those varying vocal charms, mixed with modern electronica and classic technology. (Is that an Art Of Noise Fairlight string sting I hear on Oblivion? Not to mention a lot of OMD-before-they-met-John-Hughes sorts of bits too.)

When I put this in writing, it all sounds a little been there, done that, but there's a real magic to Visions. This isn't some retro throwback synth pop record. Nor is it some high-falutin' theoretical imagining of the future of music. At its heart, it's just... fun.

Don't believe me? Check out the ecstatic vocal swoops in Circumambient or the sheer hookiness of Be A Body. This one might take a while to grow on you. I'm still finding new favorites months later!

Best of 2012: VCMG - Ssss

When's the last time you bought a Depeche Mode or Erasure record? I would take the "under" on 1992, if you are like most people.

Twenty years later (yikes!), guess what? The two main guys from both bands* team up and make one of the best records of 2012. VCMG (that's Vince Clarke and Martin Gore) don't exactly reject their past, but this is electronic music that's pretty far afield of their current volume of work. For one thing, there are no vocals, and therefore no gloomy meditations of lust (DM) or dancing (E). There could be dancing, I suppose, since the beats are much more club oriented than latter-day DM drudgery, but only in the right kind of gothy Batcave club.

Sometimes, you'll hear the perky sequencers of an Erasure dancefloor anthem or some of the signature gloomy tones of Depeche Mode, but only in secondary roles. This is a completely different animal. Supposedly composed and recorded completely in isolation from one another, this is a very collaborative (and even playful) sounding record.

Spock and Single Blip are standouts to me, both anthemic, but I think they'd be ruined if turned into "real" songs with their most likely lyrics and vocals. (Sorry, Dave Gahan and Andy Bell.) Lowly puts me in mind both of a BBC World News intro bumper and Public Image's Radio 4 with a jacked up beat. Speaking of soundtracks, the most inspired bits of Ssss put me in the mind of Barry Adamson and his scores for imaginary films. Despite the bangin' beats, you might be surprised by putting on headphones and closing your eyes to conjure up your own chase scenes.

* I'm well aware that Vince Clarke founded Depeche Mode, but his stay was so short, saying that he was a driving force behind their signature sound is like The Wall was all Syd Barrett. But yes, Clarke and Gore have worked together before. 

Jam On It

I'll finish my Best of 2011 someday (pinkie swear), but here's my current jam of the day, courtesy of This Is My Jam. 

The best of the Best Of's are going live at Poddish

Ever wondered what people are really listening to - instead of what they claim they are listening to? Poddish is the home of real playlists and real playcounts. Guilty pleasures are finally revealed!

(The 2011 rundown continues soon!)

Records Of The Year: Brave Irene

Getting caught by surprise is kind of hard to do these days. Sure, there's still flat tires and finding a twenty on the ground, but you generally know a lot about the band or movie or restaurant you are going to check out. You tend to have a pretty good idea about what you are getting into. Add to that the fact that I am voraciously looking for new music and keeping track of my favorite people pretty steadily. Or so I thought.

I still don't know how I didn't hear that Rose Melberg had a new band - and I'm still lucky that I found out when I did. Because it's awesome. And I haven't stopped playing it since I got it in November.

I've been a massive Rose fan since she was in Tiger Trap twenty years ago. I love The Softies - a perfect blend of tender harmony and hook-laden indie pop. And her solo stuff has been pretty darn good too. Happily, her new band, Brave Irene, distills the best bits of her career so far. Jangly guitars, overdriven Farfisa organ, sweet harmonies, catchy songs... it's not gonna change the world but it's gonna keep me in a good mood.

Brave Irene is an EP with eight great songs. I love them all, but start with Tangled (one of my top, top tracks of the year), Grass Running, and Good Ideas.

Those three are on my Spotify playlist Marquee Mark's El Perfecto De 2011.

So how did I track this fine band down? Well, it sure helped that they are on my label of the year: Slumberland Records. (Making an amazing comeback exactly when labels are supposed to be a thing of the past. More on them later...)

Tracks Of The Year: You See Everything by Low

Easily the most beautiful song to make my list this year, this is such a welcome return from the mighty Low.

I've stuck with them since the start but I haven't been excited about a Low record in almost 10 years. To their credit, they haven't been phoning it in but I've been less than thrilled about most of their new styles and sounds.

And yet, You See Everything (and the rest of the C'Mon album) aren't retreats to the original Low sound. If anything, there's a defrosting of the old Duluth chilliness that permeates the early records. But that doesn't mean that it's all sunshine and rainbows here.

You See Everything is an abstract take on relationships and tensions swaddled in a lush, warm blanket of acoustic guitars, brushed drums, and strings - and of course the honeyed voices of Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk. (Mimi takes the lead here, and I'm not going to lie and say I don't favor her selections. Her voice has become more subtly expressive over the years.)

The song builds slowly and by the the time the violins swoop and swirl, you've got to have a cold, cold heart to turn away here. Lovely.

You See Everything is featured on my Spotify playlist Marquee Mark's El Perfecto De 2011.