Before we keep going, I'd like to comment on two albums from 2009 that have totally kicked my ass.
Richard Youngs - Under Stellar Stream
During my first listen to this album, I could not breathe. Here, Richard Youngs creates music so tense and repetitive that it becomes almost oppressively beautiful. Using mostly synthesizers and piano, he's created a soundscape that seems drenched in regret and longing. Please listen to his latest Jagjaguwar record.
Ergo - Multitude, Solitude
Ergo are a jazz trio more interested in texture and space than in your typical jazz performance. I guess you could call it cool jazz for a new generation? This is one of the better "jazz" albums I've heard, and I highly recommend that you buy it. A track from this Cuneiform release is below.
This list is actually of discs that I have finished reviewing this month (January), but it also includes some releases from 2009. Can't do anything about that. Shrugs!
Download here! (18:54)
1) Tsigoti - With a Mirror and a Magnifying Glass
These guys are one of the newer rock oriented bands (along with the amazing Talibam!) to put out an album on the typically jazz-oriented label ESP-Disk. However, unlike Talibam!, these guys need to work on their form a little bit. "Private Poverty Speaks to the People of the Party" is an avant-punk album, not too far off from The Ex or The Minutemen (with both of their upfront political statements as well). Interestingly, the band is fronted by a pianist, named Thollem McDomas. I'd keep track of this band.
2) Nana Grizol - For Things That Haven't Come Yet
These guys play a sort of folk-punk type sound, but with a poppier edge than groups like This Bike is a Pipe Bomb or Against Me! I really don't care for this guy's music, nor do I think his latest album, "Ruth", is worth discussing.
3) Sufjan Stevens - Movement IV: Traffic Shock
It finally happened: Sufjan Stevens has released a classical album. "The BQE" is a tribute to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and, oddly enough, rather good, if predictable. Every aspect of his songwriting style appears, except his singing. IF you love the instrumental bits of his albums, this is basically an extension of that. This song is the exception: it's a return to his electronic style, and fairly unique.
4) Ergo - She Haunts Me
As I mentioned above, I love this album. This track is typical of the exploration made on this album. Dig it.
5) Olof Arnaulds - Ævagömul Orkuþula
Olof Arnaulds plays rather beautiful troubadour style folk music. It stays rather simple most of the time, which is for the best. The songs on here debut "Við Og Við" can best be compared to someone like Josephine Foster: repetitive but enchanting. Oddly, this album came out back in 2007, but is just now being made available in the states by One Little Indian.
Best wishes!
