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The Best Psych Albums of 2009
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/117451-best-psych-albums-of-2009
11 December 2009
By Rob McCallum
At the close of a year in which live performance overtook album sales
in terms of revenue for the first time in many years, and a decade in
which 'indie' has become very much the mainstream, truly alternative
artists have continued to look for different ways to write and
record, both delving into the past and innovating with new ways to
alter the boundaries of their output.
With the seismic shift away from major labels spending major money in
the industry, a path has been paved for a whole plethora of DIY
imprints, often run by the artists themselves, willing to test just
how far they can push their art form, and with this the outlook for a
decade has never looked so promising.
Although many may question the labeling of certain albums in the
following list as 'psychedelic', the phrase has come to mean much
more than its 1960s counterparts. Psychedelia has influenced so many
things in 2009whether the band is labeled freak-folk, psych-pop, or
garage psychedelia to name a fewthat the creative approach to
songwriting has influenced and been adopted by so many genres that
barely any independent label has remained untouched by its reaches.
Brooklyn has arguably been the decade's 'taste maker', and its lo-fi
boom of late is heavily entwined with psychedelic tinges. The
aesthetic has been expanded further, influencing a wave of
psych-artists that have enjoyed success on both the American and
European scenes. The weird and wonderful worlds of the likes of
Takeshi Murata and Jim Drain serve as a perfect visual that will
immortalise what is going on in the creative worlds right now for
years to come.
With penned release dates in 2010 for the likes of Yeasayer, psych
looks like a genre that may run strong into next year, and the
freedom with which artists are approaching their music makes for what
could quite possibly be one of the most exciting and innovative
decades the art form has ever seen.
--
10
Crystal Antlers
Tentacles
Since their self-released debut EP last year, Crystal Antlers were,
unsurprisingly to many, snapped up by Touch & Go and, well, quite
frankly haven't looked back since. As with their live shows, on
Tentacles Crystal Antlers can often sound like numerous bands all
playing at the same time, with each individual getting their own way,
but each is so tightly locked to the that other the mayhem sounds at
no stage off kilter. Alongside the machine-like drumming of Kevin
Stewart, second percussionist Damian Edwards adds a great deal
towards the chaotic sound, but this is not done in any way to cover
flaws in any of their musicianship, but rather highlights the amount
of immense individual talent there is on show: this is snarling
psych-rock music as boys will play it.
After the initial prog-rock, the organ in "Andrew" lays the first
discernable melody to break through from under the guitars and layers
of instrumentation with the record, then transgresses back to these
psychedelic type ballads at numerous stages, and as you listen,
aspects manifest themselves as way more melodic than you might
originally think.
Tentacles further displays the immense talents of Johnny Bell on
bass, as previously seen on the EP's monumental closing track
"Parting Song for the Torn Sky", and although no track probably
stands out on its own quite as much as this, the record seems to have
been built more as an LP, and as accomplished as it is from the
offset, you can't do anything but think it was supposed to be this way.
With Bell's voice largely inaudible amongst the screaming guitars,
organs, and other layers, what initially strikes you as angst in the
lyrics quite quickly reveals itself to be desperation, and although
you cannot make out exactly what he's saying, you sure as hell know
he means whatever it is he's singing about. As the last track closes
with the line "Lonely again", it completes what is, as a self
produced album, dazzlingly accomplished, and seems a sure signal of
even greater things to come.
9
Sunn O)))
Monoliths & Dimensions
After what seems like an infinite list of collaborative projects, the
colossal drone duo from Seattle returned with the career-defining
Monoliths & Dimensions. For those that don't know Sunn O))), they are
a pair that test the limits of altered instrumentation with
explorations of experimental minimalism, often with no discernable
drumming or beat, less replacing music with feedback than creating
music with it. For those that do know their past works, the record
manages to push the format in new directions that are even further
beyond what was previously imagined. Prior to its release, the band
stated that it is "the most musical piece we've done, and also the
heaviest, powerful and most abstract set of chords we've laid to tape."
First track "Aghartha" bears the expected abrasive noise of previous
epic death drone and possesses the same kind of beauty as an art
house horror movie, where distinctly vivid images are painted as an
awe inspiring visual. Listen to the opening 20 minutes to the record
and you can't help but be spooked.
The band have always put an emphasis on collaborative practice, after
an abundance with the likes of Gravetemple, Merzbow, Julian Cope, and
experimental cellists Aaron Martin and Alexander Tucker, to name a
few, and the pair haven't changed on Monoliths, with the record
moving well into double figures of contributors by its close. The
influence of Dylan Carlson, considered by most a pioneer of the style
with Australian band Earth, can be heard all over "Alice", a track
that also uses jazz composer Eyvind Lang to arrange trombonists
Julian Driester and the improvisational Stuart Dempster. It is an
entirely new sound for the band, pushing the compositional formats of
Sunn O))) further, and although it may have been hard to swallow for
the doom metal hardcore, Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's
dedication and contribution to experimental music is unsurpassed in
their generation.
8
Ganglians
Monster Head Room
Earlier this year, Ganglians released two records, both their
eponymously-titled Ganglians EP, and this, Monster Head Room, almost
simultaneously. And although this is the stand out of the two
records, the contrast in styles seem entirely intentional, as
Ganglians is a far less cohesive affair than the lo-fi surf rock of
Monster Head Room.
"Lost Words" epitomises much of the LP, with its psych-drenched
lackadaisical acoustic guitars weaving distant melodies, and the
wandering echoes creating a removed form of dream pop with a
distinctly laissez-faire feel. "Valiant Brave" portrays the contrasts
on the album, beginning with the previous indolent acoustic
strumming, but this time with chant-esque vocals breaking into a '60s
pop riot much in the vein of a new age the Seeds.
The record shares the Californian haze of the Beach Boys with the
final product far sweeter than many across this list, with "The
Void"'s gibbering vocals underpinned by a delicate backtrack serving
as a prime example, yet it maintains the record's loose structuring,
split into two sugar-coated parts that are separated by a general
freak-out sour centre midway through.
Laden with seemingly hastily applied field recordings and echoing
harmonies, Monster Head Room has thick psych borders running around
every edge that blend in an out of the main picture as Ganglians see
fit. Whilst many artists in their stable are busy covering up their
bedroom recording techniques, Ganglians leave theirs plain to see,
and although it may not seem the most original record on the list,
"100 Years" is reminiscent of the psych-blues of the Black Lips at
their most immersive selves, and it's so damn listenable you might
just not care.
7
HEALTH
Get Color
Often disregarded as nothing more than mindless noise krunk, with
little to no real creative stimulus beyond total destruction of all
that stood before it with the kind of music your parents would ask
you to turn down, Get Color's industrial noise pop proved to all
those doubters that HEALTH are merely carving out their own style
with their DIY approach. The band harnesses this to produce a record
that, surprisingly, takes a turn towards affairs with much more
melody amongst the madness, with "Die Slow"probably the band's
finest work to datebeing one of the biggest crossover successes of the year.
In the time between records, HEALTH have been working in a
collaboration with fellow purveyors of noise Crystal Castles, and
this influence is certainly prominent, as you can't deny the
infectious techno-punk of "Nice Girls". HEALTH share in the same
alien structures as bands like Deerhoof, and the same mental melting
pot of tension that refuses to give the listener a moment, and,
despite its more melodic turns, still sounds like music being beamed
in from another, more sinister, dimension.
The record does wander off back into the same caustic noise
experimentation of their self-titled debut, but in tracks like
"Before Tiger", the band manage to build a surprising level of
atmosphere for the genre, as the record is held together at all
points by the incessant AK-47 drumming of Benjamin Miller. My initial
reaction to writing a review of the record earlier this year was to
pen a work on a noise-rock band that has predecessed them, such as
Liars, then change all the words in each sentence around in order to
make little to no grammatical sense, but still maintain the same
overall structure.
HEALTH have established themselves as one of the live acts of the
year with performances as intense as Get Color itself, and you have
to feel this makes them destined for a string of monumental festival
appearances in 2010.
6
The Amorphous Androgynous
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol 2: Pagan
Love Vibrations
Although strictly a mix CD rather than an album, given the fact that
the double record epitomises all that is going on within this list
and beyond in psychedelic music right now, and after 2005's Alice in
Ultraland went largely unnoticed by press and public alike, I feel
the Amorphous Androgynous deserve all the exposure they can get.
Pagan Love Vibrations, the second Psychedelic Bubble from the men
behind one of the most innovative and groundbreaking production
partnerships of the dance generation, Future Sound of London,
reminisces of a time when the hippy was considered as more than a
wacky ideal, as opposed to the experiment of psychedelic proportions
that was Vol 1. Harking back to a time when incense, amongst other
fragrant forms, burnt long and free, Vol 2 will have you reaching for
the hemp quicker than you can say Pagan Love Vibrations.
Rumour has it that the entire Amorphous Androgynous moniker was
inspired after one half of the duo, Garry Cobain, spent some extended
time in India, and these influences show, the album seeming to get in
touch with some sort of spirituality akin to that of psychedelic
maverick Donovan.
After releasing some of the most sonic sounding records of the past
decade, the pair now seem to have set out to illustrate their
influences, with the track list reading like a who's who of
psychedelia over time, with the original artists alongside those they
have come to influence. The '60s sound of Sunforest's "Magician in
the Mountain" sits alongside the all out Hendrix-like groove of Bo
Diddley's "Elephant Man", followed by the altogether out there-ness
of Electroid 2000. Pagan Love Vibrations is littered with tracks that
will have you reaching for the history books: Comus? Faust, anyone?
The mixes are often separated with recordings that romanticise the
spirit of the '60s, speaking of things such as "the magic regions of
your mind" and free living amongst sun drenched beaches. The Eastern
influences are strewn across the record with sitars and other world
instrumentation that, once so popular, has often been lost from the
genre, coming from the likes of Ananda Shankar (Ravi's nephew) and
the beautiful Dzyan. This is all seamlessly blended with music from
new artists such as Animal Collective. CD1 contains part 4 of the
Amorphous Androgynous's remix of the late Oasis's "Falling Down",
where Liam is all but replaced by the beautiful eastern vocal styling
of Alisha Sufit. This is music that will put a bounce in your step
and a spring in your groove.
5
Kurt Vile
Childish Prodigy
At a time when most of his piers are busy with their fresh lo-fi take
on folk, punk, pop, and any number of other 'freak-' affairs, Kurt
Vile has gone very much his own way with his personal take on classic
American rock.
Vile (real name by all accounts) is part of the recent boom from
Philadelphia (Espers, Silk Breeze), and for this record has moved
from the Woodsist label (see number two in this list), responsible
for the release of his Constant Hitmaker LP, to the home of Pavement:
Matador. Stating in interviews that Childish Prodigy is "my
masterpiece, thus far," and where previous efforts might have been
"slacker to the discriminating ear," the record possesses more full
band arrangements, having brought in his touring band, the Violators,
to record with him on the album. Although Childish Prodigy at no
stage sounds over-produced, it is distinctly more balanced than
either Constant Hitmaker or God Is Saying This to You. That said,
even dubbed his most "serious" recording, all the tracks on Childish
Prodigy are, as the name would suggest, still damn good fun.
The fact that Vile is a guitarist by trade (in the massively
underrated War on Drugs) is distinctly evident as he sows devastating
melody with his often warped rambling vocals that, as on previous
releases, feel wholly off the tongue. Whispers of the
not-so-classical pop song writing on perhaps his most known track,
"Freeway", can be heard, but he stretches these across the format of
an LP recording. It's not a comparison I often like to make, as I
feel his ingenuity stands on it own in so many ways, but imagine if
Dylan had fried his brain with too many psychedelic drugs and this is
what he might sound like, where simple pop songs are seemingly elevated.
Album opener "Hunchback" has all the swagger of the Stones, and the
name of his previous work, Constant Hitmaker, really does seem to sum
up Vile's songwriting ability, where amidst all the haze there are
some distinctly catchy tunes. The tongue in cheek title of his most
recent piece may just be true, and give signs of more to come.
4
Fever Ray
Fever Ray
Fever Ray, aka Karin Dreijer Andersson, of previous fame as one half
of Swedish duo the Knife, released this year's debut (and rumoured to
be only LP under this guise) in March. The record is an effecting
portrayal of Andersson's time spent suffering from insomnia following
the birth of her first child.
Stripping away all the dance beats, but keeping the pitch-shifted
distorted tones found on previous recordings with the Knife, Fever
Ray creates a desolate, isolated soundscape that is at times
reminiscent of an '80s Kate Bush, and gained the inevitable
comparisons with Bjork. With synths and drumpads alongside more
traditional instrumentation, the record really shows how music, and
more predominantly, psychedelic music, can be pushed with the use of
modern technology.
Slow pulsating album opener "If I Had a Heart" sets the tempo of the
record and translates the feeling of extreme sleep deprivation, with
time seemingly slowing down, directly into a stark yet mesmerising
resonance. With tracks portraying the often unreasonable
prepossessions of an insomniac, with startlingly honest and cutting
lyrics of life amongst "Concrete Walls", the record feels like it is
delivered direct from the heart, from a way of life rather than an
outsider's perspective.
A record as harrowing to listen to as it was to make, there is
solitude to Fever Ray and a distinct sense of longing throughout. It
would have been easy for Andersson to write an album full of
desperation and gloom, but there is an idiosyncratic feeling of
optimism amidst what, at times, verges on an uncomfortable fear held
within the record, one that which seems to serve as much of a therapy
for the artist as it does a triumphant release to its listener.
3
Wooden Shjips
Dos
Immediately upon beginning Dos, the album introduces itself as a
record that could blow the unsuspecting citizen's mind with its
throbbing '60s garage tunes laden with repetition and hypnotic
production. The San Franciscans probably owe more than any other
artist on this list to vintage psychedelia, as the tracks have so
much kraut groove they make you want to get up and shake your undeserving rump.
Dos develops a minimal approach that echoes the noisy trance rock of
the Velvet Underground immersed in reverb-drenched grooves. The
acid-soaked hooks pick up from where "Dance California", perhaps
their most well known work prior to this album, left off, with their
trademark thick haze bearing the blasé of Suicide as Erik "Ripley"
Johnson's vocals echo amongst the warped, intense funk.
Amp Dos up on a loud stereo and the results are outrageous, with the
combination of organ stabs and warbles emitting a throbbing
Pennsylvanian graveyard freak-out. The relentless motorik chug is
drenched in reverb, but in a genre that often relies upon this,
Wooden Shjips (not a typo) harness the mysterious effect to propel
their accomplished arrangements. The rhythm section stick to it
doggedly throughout as screaming guitar solos wander in and out of
psychedelic jams that haven't been so danceable since the Stooges.
The programmatic grooves are reminiscent of the Spacemen 3, and give
the distinct feeling they could just keep going forever. As the
slickest Wooden Shjips work to date, this is the sound of a band that
are destined to make way more than obscure records for the next
decade and, we can but hope, beyond.
2
Woods
Songs of Shame
Woods, fellow Brooklynites of Animal Collective and dozens of others,
come from a city that has been synonymous with the lo-fi boom of
2009. Jeremy Earl, guitarist and frontman of the band, has had a busy
year, finding time to both release a plethora of the best lo-fi
recordings of the past twelve months (a number of which can be found
on this list) from bands based in the city and beyond, as well as
help pen the label's greatest export.
The record quickly establishes that something quite special is going
on amidst all the tape hiss, with its scuzzy, guitar-driven,
psyched-out folk music. The trio share in Stephen Malkmus's lazy
sounding perfection, masterfully blending a hybrid of influences that
possess a kind of futuristic nostalgia.
"Down This Road" sounds like you could be listening to the idle
thoughts of a youthful Neil Young without the filter of the writing
process or a recording studio upon him, and echoes of a youthful
Young can be heard across the record, whilst the cover of Crosby,
Stills and Nash's "Military Madness" is a masterstroke.
One minute a melodic freak-folk affair, the next a psychedelic jam,
the album continually reinvents itself without sounding at any stage
schizophrenic, creating its own brand of free-folk in the process.
With a distinct penchant for infectious melody, the only real
ever-present theme throughout Songs of Shame is that of a record that
seems to develop further every time the LP is played, the sign of a
truly great album.
1
Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Perhaps astoundingly, Merriweather Post Pavilion is Animal
Collective's eighth studio record since debut Spirit They've Gone,
Spirit They've Vanished in 2000, with their back catalogue spanning a
release in some format for every year of this past decade. Ranging
from the experimental electronic 'pop' of Merriweather to single
take, live recordings of the Collective in a forest, theirs is an
output that knows no boundaries.
I feel almost as if writing what the record is about here would just
be covering old ground, as the horde of blogs, forums, and critics
that blew up both prior to and following its release covered every
inch necessary, and beyond, back in January of this year. All I will
say is, if you are reading this and have yet to hear the album, I
implore you to do so. It is quite simply one of those records that
everybody should have in their collection, and seems to be rapidly
moving towards defining a generation.
However, what I do feel is relevant to highlight is the effect its
release had, not only shining a light on what the band has been doing
for almost a decade, but also on what a whole host of experimental
artists have been slowly building over in the States for the past few
years. Forget the 2008 indie-psych of MGMT, these are experimental
acts that, although influences from past genres exist on the fringes
of their music, are truly original in their creations, and give a
final, definitive answer to the question, "Has it all been done before?"
Whereas previous albums have often taken more time to settle,
Merriweather Post Pavilion is much more instant, with all the traits
of past Animal Collective albums existing in perfect harmony, and
although this was, quite predictably, labeled as the band's 'pop'
album, it merely is that their music never has sounded so together.
That isn't to say it is even necessarily their best, just certainly
their most fluid of any record from start to finish.
For me, the album of the year, bar none, 2009 has simply been Animal
Collective's year, affirmed by the headlining of a whole host of
festivals across the globe, inadvertently creating the perfect
soundtrack to an altered summer.
.
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