Click here for part one of our guide to 2009’s must-hear LPs. We’ll run a list of honorable mentions on our Tumblr page this weekend. Happy New Year everyone!
The Artist/Album: The Antlers, Hospice (Frenchkiss)
The Vibe: Front-row seats to the last rites of a flat-lining relationship.
RIYL: Concept albums that aren’t cloying; Funeral proceedings; breakup albums that are big on metaphors and light on lovey-dovey nonsense
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The Artist/Album: Black Meteoric Star, Black Meteoric Star (DFA)
The Vibe: A joyride to the center of the earth.
RIYL: Asymmetric and analog synth lines; Reich-ian techno; David Hasselhoff’s one redeeming quality (read: Knight Rider)
Related Reading:
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The Artist/Album: Circlesquare, Songs About Dancing and Drugs (!K7)
The Vibe: Minimal meditations on what happens when the drugs don’t work and the night never ends.
RIYL: Vapor trails; last calls; driving from dusk ’til dawn
Related Reading:
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The Artist/Album: Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport (ATP)
The Vibe: The machines have taken over, but they don’t want to kill us. They want to party and make us feel alive again.
RIYL: K-holes; time travel; feeling fucking triumphant
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The Artist/Album: The Horrors, Primary Colours (XL)
The Vibe: Recovering schlock rockers get a serious makeover courtesy of Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and Chris Cunningham (one of the greatest music video directors of all time, as proven by the following mind-fucking clips: “Windowlicker” and “All Is Full of Love”).
RIYL: Krautrock keys; moody Brits; second chances
Related Reading:
- BUY IT: The Horrors
- An exclusive illustration from Faris Rotter, as inspired by Blank Dogs’ Under and Under LP
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The Artist/Album: King Midas Sound, Waiting For You (Hyperdub)
The Vibe: The bleakest dub-derived masterpiece since Burial’s Untrue LP.
RIYL: Massive Attack’s Mezzanine era; beat poetry; the shape-shifting soundscapes of Kevin Martin (The Bug, Techno Animal, Pressure)
Related Reading:
- THE TIPPING POINT: King Midas Sound Share Their Favorite Poets, Artists and Producers
- TEST PRESSING: Download a King Midas Sound Mix Featuring My Bloody Valentine, Burial, Sade & More
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The Artist/Album: Krallice, Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore)
The Vibe: Corpsepaint-free KVLT-ness.
RIYL: Plate tectonics; scholarly shredding; riding the snake
Related Reading:
- A QUICK TALK WITH MICK BARR ABOUT … His Long-Lost Black-Metal LP, 45-Minute Guitar Solos and Just How Killer the New Krallice Album Is
- SUPPORT THIS: And This Week’s Must-See Opening Act Is…Krallice
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The Artist/Album: Leyland Kirby, Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (History Always Favours the Winners, 2009)
The Vibe: A four-hour tone poem about the “fragility of existence‖one that’s strikingly beautiful and (surprisingly) never boring.
RIYL: Power naps; quality-controlled trilogies; the Selected Ambient Works period of Aphex Twin
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The Artist/Album: Shackleton, Three EPs (Perlon)
The Vibe: Paranoia, paranoia, everybody’s coming to get me.
RIYL: Drum-driven dread; deviant dubstep; what happens to buzz-worthy electronic artists after they move to Berlin
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The Artist/Album: Telepathe, Dance Mother (IAMSOUND)
The Vibe: Nocturnal nursery rhymes set against sinister samples, lazy loops and subterranean bass lines.
RIYL: Laser tag; Grimm’s Fairy Tales; Dave Sitek’s hypnotic hand
Related Reading:
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The Artist/Album: Tombs, Winter Hours (Relapse)
The Vibe: Ravenous but refined.
RIYL: Skinny dipping in Dante’s Inferno; killer bee chords; charred remains
Related Reading:
- BUY IT: Tombs
- FEED THE ANGER: Tombs @ Union Pool, 2.4.09
- LISTENING STATION: Tombs Shares Their Record Collection
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The Artist/Album: YACHT, See Mystery Lights (DFA)
The Vibe: What electro-clash should have sounded like.
RIYL: Self-help seminars; cowbells; call-and-response choruses
Related Reading:
