∞ The Brown Noise ∞

Well guys, this is what it all boils down to: our list of the 25 best albums of the year. This is a long list, so I'm gonna skip any real introduction, and just get right into it. Follow us on Twitter (@brownnoiseblog) as we continue to bring you the best Hip-hop, Rock, Pop, EDM, and Shoegaze in 2012.

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25. The Roots - undun

Within the stale environ that is “real hip-hop” lurks The Roots, America’s last consistent rap crew and one of the best live acts of their era in any genre. Though the hip-hop concept album has been done before - Deltron 3030 and The Constructus Corporation come to mind - I don’t recall any recent ones that have moved me, thrilled me, and made me think like undun did. Definitely the strongest release yet by The Roots.

 <span>Make My f/ Big K.R.I.T. by the_roots</span> 

24. Kraddy - Anthems of the Hero

I wish more producers were making EDM like Kraddy is. Huge, sweeping synth polyphonies and oceans of churning bass inspired by the classic rock anthems of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath? What about that sounds bad in any way? I guess I understand why a lot of producers aren’t trying - Not everybody has access to drummers from The Mars Volta, experience and virtuosity with their DAW, and the willingness to experiment with lacunae and live instrumentation like Kraddy does. For a free album, this sure sounds expensive.

 <span>ANTHEMS OF THE HERO by KRADDY</span> 

23. Let’s Make Out - Grand

The debut mixtape from Steven Hernandez’s Let’s Make Out project snuck up on me to become one of my favorite releases of the year. Though I was initially turned off by his monotone flow, Hernandez’s intricate storytelling and the mixtape’s warm, lo-fi feel helped to make it one of my favorites this year. Catch up on this one before he drops his next tape or two - this guy’s prolific almost to a fault. When he releases tapes as good as Grand, though, who’s to say that’s a bad thing?

 <span>prom queen by Let's Make Out</span> 

22. A$AP Rocky - Live.Love.A$AP

“Inhale, Exhale/Cocaine, X Pills/Import, Export/Harlem catchin’ wrecks still/so mami show me how that neck feel/and later show me how the rest feel/for now, just chill”. There hasn’t been a greater statement of intent in hip-hop music this year, and it’s all on A$AP Rocky’s “Peso”. Rocky is part of a new breed of hip-hop stars, one that prides himself on rapping in double-time flow over airy “cloud rap” beats, searching more for feeling than incredible lyrics - even though he’s capable of both. But his influences reach back to the syrup-soaked ‘90s, UGK and DJ Screw, when a zip, a double cup, and a side chick were all it took to make the days move easily. We saw echoes of this style emerging when Drake’s So Far Gone mixtape referenced Screw a couple times, but with A$AP Rocky, it goes beyond mere name-checking. This is a kid that wishes he was born in Houston, who wants to bring style, class, and  charisma (not “swag”) back to hip-hop, and will be the one blamed after high school children start sneaking out of school to drink lean instead of hastily passing joints. A legend in the making, and it’s apparent on even his first tape.

 <span>A$AP Rocky - Palace by horrorshowtunez</span> 

This was a big year for bedrooms, and nobody did better things with them this year than Yellow Ostrich. A bedroom, as everybody knows, is a place reserved for two things 1. Privacy (if you live with your parents or something) and 2. Going to sleep. Yellow Ostrich definitely takes care of the first one, creating heartfelt melodies, pairing them with lyrics possibly ripped out of some teenager’s diary, and recording them with cheap, fuzzy microphones. The second one, he gets halfway. These aren’t songs for when you hit the pillow at night, when you’re tired and just want to have some lightweight vibes floating through your ear canals. These are songs, however, for dreams, dreamers, and everybody who is in point A and desperately wants to be at point B. Yellow Ostrich isn’t striving to achieve the impossible, but he’s so psyched about what will happen when he does.

 <span>Yellow Ostrich - Mary by lechoix_fr</span> 

20. Chris Bathgate - Salt Year

“What secret did he tell you/Wild lilac and diapensia/was he as far gone/with the engine light on?” Have fun deconstructing that one. Chris Bathgate released his earthy “Salt Year” during a year that included such venerable folk-rock albums as Bon Iver’s Bon Iver, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues, yet after a couple months with all three in rotation, this is the one I have revisited time and time again. Beautiful harmonica caterwauling, shimmering pianos, and Neil Young-esque guitar solos help create a portrait of recession-era America as seen through the pensive eyes of a lone Detroit singer-songwriter. Stunning lyrics, dynamic instrumentation, and absolutely deserving of it’s spot here.

 <span>Chris bathgate - Eliza (hue) by lamogliedianselmo</span> 

19. Mark McGuire - Get Lost

2009’s near-perfect Living With Yourself may prove impossible to top, but Get Lost still featured the textural guitar heroics that we have come to love from the Emeralds’ axeman. His 2011 album features a departure from his last release’s nostalgic stylings and a broader use of ‘80s synthesizer stylings and his effects pedal collection, not to mention his first-ever turn on vocals on “Alma (Reprise)/Chances Are”. It’s the sort of forward-thinking album we have come to expect from a guitarist who has never been showy, but still manages to create evocative arpeggio soundscapes and space-y, post-rock symphonics that would rival any of the classic guitar gods. “We try to evolve”, he sings on “Alma (Reprise)”, and evolve he has.

 <span>Mark McGuire - Get Lost - Get Lost (editions mego) by pdis_inpartmaint</span> 

18. Crystal Fighters - Star of Love

The Basque region of Spain has always been known to play host to a mishmosh of traditional musical styles, but Crystal Fighters are the first band to take that approach into the new millennium. Blending flamenco, footwork, folk-rock, electro-house, and world music into a dense gumbo that never feels overpowering is difficult work. Creating a concept album centered around a grandfather’s unfinished opera, written during his final months of insanity, while using those same musical styles is near-impossible. But Crystal Fighters pull it off, and with such passion and finesse as to make Star of Love impossible to ignore for all fans of any of the above genres.

 <span>Crystal Fighters - Champion Sound by Crystal Fighters</span> 

17. James Blake - James Blake

Who knew that post-dubstep’s posterboy had such singer-songwriter aspirations? Heck, who knew that he could pull it all off with such panache? Building his album out of repeated lyrical motives, sub-bass that could seem either open-armed or confrontational, and that delicate voice that seemed to be ready to break at any moment, the self-titled debut by London-native and classically-trained pianist James Blake is a quiet, yet intensely personal, album from a musician that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. 

 <span>James Blake - Lindesfarne I & II by Dustdreams</span> 

16. The Lonely Island - Turtleneck & Chain

Hey, remember the roughly two-month period when this was the best rap release of the year? I don’t want to go to far into the intellectual side of Andy Sanberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer’s hip-hop side project, but I will say this: Turtleneck & Chain is one of the best deconstructions of rap tropes I have ever heard, not to mention has one of the best all-star supporting casts of any hip-hop album released this year, not to mention features better use of sampling than most professional hip-hop releases (Laura Lee’s “That’s How It Is” on “We’re Back” is one of the best flips of the year). Truth is, though, it all boils down to the fact that The Lonely Island is really goddamn funny, a lethal combination of The Beastie Boys and “Weird Al” Yancovic that every rapper and their grandma wants to work with. This is the one record on this list that everyone I know can cop to enjoying. In 2011, that should count for something.

15. Delicate Steve - Wondervisions

Delicate Steve is signed to a world music label owned by David Byrne. Although this is technically only a brand identification, “David Byrne playing instrumental world music” is probably the best way to explain Delicate Steve’s wonderfully unclassifiable guitar-pop. A solo project in the studio, but a five-person band on stage, Delicate Steve is a master at taking blistering, almost skweee guitar solos, pattering tom-toms, and blooming bass and making it all into the happiest-sounding guitar album of the year. It’s no wonder that he opened for self-described “high-fivecore” act Fang Island on their recent North American tour- they both share the same interests. Principally, making guitars do amazing things, and helping people grin as widely as possible.

 <span>Delicate Steve extracts from 'Wondervisions' by GOLDSTARPR</span> 

14. Nero - Welcome Reality

2011 was the year dubstep reached it’s saturation point. After breaking into popular consciousness in 2009, when artists like Joker and Rusko managed to adjust the dub reggae, 2-step, and future garage influences of the genre into it’s poppiest, albeit heaviest possible forms, this was the year that people threw up their hands and said, “enough!”. Dubstep was everywhere. Everyone from Gucci Mane to Sean Kingston to Britney Spears had a dubstep track this year, remixes of artists from Wacka Flocka Flame to motherfucking BRAND NEW cropped up on Hype Machine, and artists engaged in a pissing contest to make the heaviest sound possible, filthier than Joseph Fritzl’s basement or fingering your sister and finding your dad’s wedding ring or any of the other ridiculous things people said about “brostep” this year. So it was with some trepidation that I approached Nero’s debut album, Welcome Reality, believing it to be another album full of “sick drops” and paint-by-numbers buildups. Thankfully, it was not that. Welcome Reality managed to create the most effective blend of The Bloody Beetroots’ wonky fidget-house and the more respectable atmospherics of DnB producers like Goldie, blowing them up to stadium-sized proportions in the process. From the laser-synth blasts of “Me and You”, to Alana Watson’s vocals and the chainsaw guitars of “Guilt”, to even Daryl Hall lending a helping hand to “Reaching Out”, Nero created the biggest and best dubstep sounds of 2011, (mostly) without resorting to the flavorless bass music their peers have succumbed to. Nero’s low-slung bass blasts and blockbuster drums are the sound I want dubstep to pursue in 2012, as long as everybody hasn’t thrown up their hands in defeat and moved on moombahton already.

 <span>Nero - Reaching Out by Advanced Placement</span> 

13. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2 - Judges

I played saxophone for several years, and did a brief stint in a jazz band. I like to think of myself as fairly versed in the sounds a sax can make, in alto, tenor, and baritone (“barry” for those in-the-know) forms. So it struck me as a complete shock when I downloaded Colin Stetson’s New History Warfare Vol. 2 - Judges and had trouble even recognizing the sounds he was making as saxophonic in nature. The barren, icy soundscapes Stetson creates with his saxophone are alien, thanks to his novel recording technique. In addition to wearing the microphones he would use to record on his body - upwards of 30 of them - Stetson recorded all the songs in one-take, using his rare ability to continuously circulate air through his nose and out of his mouth, simultaneously inhaling and exhaling. As a result, Stetson manages to create Malsteem-like blizzards of neverending notes, one of the only saxophone players I’ve heard who can truly shred on his instrument. This album isn’t on this list, however, because of it’s incredible concept. The real reason it’s here is because Stetson is gifted with the novel ability to tell story through slanted arpeggios of sound, crafting complete narratives that are only aided by long, oblique titles and the occasional bit of narration. That, and that it is the only free-improv jazz record that I can remember such a large number of people caring about so vigorously in a long, long time. 

 <span>colin stetson - new history of warfare vol.2 by minimal exposition</span> 

12. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

In a genre like hip-hop, where any innovation is usually met with raised eyebrows (see: Drake), Shabazz Palaces were met with universal acclaim for creating a hip-hop album that didn’t really sound like hip-hop at all. Outside of the fact that they rap on it, this sounds like an experimental DnB album, or something Def Jux would have rejected back in the ‘90s for being too weird. “weird” is probably the best compliment you could give to this album.The lyrics read like paragraphs from lost research papers on the art of emceeing, real works of art, architecture with words. The beats take the best elements of musique concrete and apply it to hip-hop as seen through a filter of amber. At the center of this underworld hip-hop album is Ishmael Butler as Isis, Pharoah, and Ra all rolled into one, spitting at once like a lowly street scholar and The Oldest Man Alive. I didn’t think it was possible to follow up an EP as quietly masterful as 2009’s Of Light so wonderfully, but Shabazz Palaces does just that, creating the soundtrack to Blade Runner’s Los Angeles and the album emcees of the future will regard as the record that made them rethink hip-hop. Black Up arrived at my door in a felt-lined jewel case, shimmering all over like gold dust scattered across black velvet. Presentation is always key, and it's clear that Shabazz Palaces wanted the listener to regard their take on hip-hop as something precious, valuable, and worth protecting.

 <span>Shabazz Palaces - Are you... Can you... Were you (Felt) by popgunbooking</span> 

11. Blu - No York!

A while back, I was talking with a couple of my friends, when the subject turned to music. We started talking about why certain artists last longer than others, and one of my friends came up with a theory that he dubbed the Beatles/Radiohead Grand Unified Theory of Innovation. From what I remember of this theory, an artist is able to stand the test of time if they subtly innovate on each record, changing their sound gradually throughout their career, until their early-period work and late-period work sounds like the product of two different bands. Bands that follow this rule will receive not only critical acclaim, but commercial success. Blu is the epitome of that to me. He started out making traditionalist boom-bap in the early 2000s, then linked up with exile to expand on that classic sound. After that, he took a turn for the enigmatic, hiding his voice under a soft pillow of jazz melodies and lo-fi rustle and hum on various mixtapes and EPs. Around this time, he started producing, and his beats were often as deceptively humble as his rapping. On No York!, the album that was supposed to be his Warner Brothers debut, he innovates yet again, rapping over low-slung bass music from producers like Flying Lotus, Daedalus, and Samiyam, getting basically everybody in his phonebook to feature on his record (Pac Div, J*Davey, like 20 other dudes), and folding in flecks of harsh noise, musique concrete, and dubstep into his ill gumbo of sounds. Sure, this record divided his fans, but I firmly believe that they’ll come around eventually. An artist stands the test of time by innovating just ever-so-slightly, and Blu does this, creating both a record that feels like the culmination of his career and an exciting new chapter in one of my favorite rapper’s careers.

 <span>Blu - "Hours" by EARMILK</span> 

10. Fred Falke - Part IV

Fred Falke’s debut album after two decades in the EDM trenches rightfully feels like the culmination of a career. After one of the most prolific and consistent remix careers of any DJ, the frenchman debuted a collection of original songs that could have been created during the same year Daft Punk dropped Homework. Hell, Part IV   could have been called Music Sounds Better With You: The Album. It uses the same fuzzy synth leads, the same 909 kicks and four-on-the-floor templates. Yet what Part IV lacks in originality, it makes up for in songcraft. A tune like “808 PM At The Beach” are just as thrilling now as they were in the mid 2000s, when Fake first released it as a single, because it’s so incredibly warm, floating along on a leisurely groove that early-evening sunsets on the sand are best accompanied by. The rest of the songs on this album have a similar quality, a pleasurable, laconic vibe that can add sparkle to even the brightest of nights.

 <span>Fred Falke - 808pm At The Beach by Fred Falke</span> 

 9. Spank Rock - Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar

“Turn that weak shit off.” That’s how one chorus on Spank Rock’s Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar goes. Offensive, voyeuristic, and ferociously intellectual, Spank Rock’s sophomore effort found him departing from the zonked-out  future-electro of his 2006 album YoYoYoYoYo and instead experimenting with Prince-like funk-hop, machine-gun spazz rap, and N.O. Bounce. The result was an album that refused to buck to trends, painting a portrait of an artist that is as dedicated to the pursuit of pussy as he is to pissing on his generation’s insoucance. Spank Rock sums up his whole worldview in one brilliant, breathless eight-bar stretch on ‘Turn it Off”: “I hate my generation/everybody always wants something for nothing/ you fags ain’t got no gumption/rush to market that shit, ain’t got no function/that ship just sailed out/nigga you late, fail and get bailed out/like the public school system, automotive industry, iPad, ferry car, Tower Records, Pope Benedict XVI, Squidward, Jay Leno/Suck a dick!” Three cheers for hip-hop’s most passionate pugilist.

 <span>Turn It Off by Spank Rock</span> 

8. Danny Brown - XXX

Danny Brown made the most wild, rewindable, and outright fun hip-hop mixtape this year - but he also made it’s most poignant one. XXX is a character study of a 30-year old man’s descent into poverty and a myriad of drug addictions, told with the same gravitas, strong characterization, and attention to detail of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Brown’s music isn’t for every hip-hop fan. There’s a noticeable lack of “songs for girls” on XXX, and Danny’s high-pitched yelp might be off-putting to some people. Those people, however are missing out on incredibly strong flow, battle-worthy punchlines, and a ferocious, bouncing cadence reminiscient of a T.I. or B.I.G. One of the most charismatic and singular new rappers out, making music unlike anyone else.

 <span>12 - Adderall Admiral by foolsgoldrecs</span> 

7. The Throne - Watch the Throne

How do you top the skyscraping ambition of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, or the capitalism-fueled mediocrity of The Blueprint 3? 1. You don’t try and 2. You try. That was the key to Watch The Throne’s success - on songs like “Otis” and “Primetime” it was a thrill to hear Kanye go back to having fun again, after the morbidly serious 808s and Heartbreak and the soul-exposing cathersis of MBDTF. Yeezy drawls out his syllables, invents words, and flips Otis Redding just because he can, because that’s what he wants to do. Conversely, Jay-Z raps harder than he ever has post-retirement. His verse on ‘Welcome to the Jungle” is a brilliantly desperate peek into Jay’s wild soul, from an artist who rarely lets us past that barrier of ineffable coolness (don’t say “swag”). Some listeners were disappointed that this was not MBDTF 2.0, or that Jay and ‘Ye would have the gall to call their supergroup The Throne. On the first point, Kanye has nothing left to prove, and shouldn’t be forced to make a sprawlingly ambitious concept-album when all he wants to do is let girls know that they will not control the threesome. On the second point, oh no! Rappers insinuating that they are the best?! What has hip-hop come to?! Face it, everybody, Kanye West and Jay-Z are the two most important, and likely best, rappers working right now. Watch the Throne is the sound of those rappers doing whatever the hell they want, and doing it well. They already proved that they deserve their space on the throne, through careers lasting two or three decades. At this point, they have a license to show off.

 <span>Illest Motherfucker Alive by TMD.com</span> 

6. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse

“I asked the room if I’d said enough/no one really answered/they all just said, ‘don’t go, don’t go’”. That’s the question at the center of Apocalypse. Sure, Lines like this show that after more than thirty years recording, Bill Callahan hasn’t yet lost it - but is it time for Bill to throw in the towel? How can we answer this impartially, as fans of his music? It’s a testament to Callahan’s lyrical acumen that he makes us think about issues like these, or even think at all, and truly these are some of the best lyrics recorded this entire year. This album isn’t just great because of its transcendent lyrics, though - it also features some of the finest alt-country instrumentation of the year, all dry drumkit thumps, breathy flute, and whispering guitars, perfectly evoking the sprawling beauty of the American countryside. Bill Callahan made the late career record that Paul McCartney can only dream of, a beautiful, if barbed, love-letter to the great existential questions of our time, and the people that ask them.

 <span>Bill Callahan - Drover by marginalissimus</span> 

5. EMA - Past-Life Martyred Saints

Listening to EMA is like reading your arty older sister’s diary after she moved out of the house. The intricately-woven stories she tells are captivating not just because of the sparseness with which they’re told - grandma carrying the gun, arms made of glass, a red star - but because you feel like you know this girl, that you have met her now or in some other life. EMA is like the inverse of Lady Gaga, an artist whose distance from the listener is merely due to proximity, who plays with song structure in ways that challenge the listener in ways beyond the ones we have been expected to be challenged in. EMA exudes realness like Katy Perry excudes fakeness, and this isn’t some bullshit anti-pop rant either - EMA couldn’t write an impersonal song if she tried. She’s just a different kind of artist, one who’s personality colors every note, lyric, and harmony, who wants to take you on an album-length, cathartic journey about an abusive relationship and see how long it takes you until you can’t take much more. Play this album, close your eyes, and get lost on Erika M. Anderson’s journey.

 <span>EMA - The Grey Ship by souterraintransmissions</span> 

4. Zeroh - Awfulalterations

There isn’t a single rapper that inhabited his own world this year better than Zeroh did on awfulalterations. Spitting over a hodgepodge of microwaved beats, some originals, and some refried by zeroh for his own purpose, the California-based emcee created one of the most intricate, yet homespun, hip-hop sounds of the year. On tracks like “holup (klipdidit)” or “HippieHop”, not a single syllable is wasted or placed without purpose,  and what may feel like abstract, anticon.-esque beat experiments at first listen is gradually revealed to be so much more after each subsequent listen. Zeroh is a frazzled, working-class individualist akin to Blu, or Warm Brew’s Ray Wright, a wide-eyed dreamer who has probably never felt comfortable in the “real world” his parents or teachers had attempted to lead him towards. Whether laying down brutal bar after bar on the brooding, assaultive “FKIT” or making fun of his friend’s Odd Future preoccupation in a breathless, stream-of-consciousness rant on “FKTUP”, awfulalterations is one of the most wide-ranging, experimental, and downright funny mixtapes of the year, brought to you by an MC who hasn’t necessarily shown an ability to write songs yet (no choruses on this tape), but makes up for it handily in the personality department. Zeroh is the type of guy you want to have a conversation with, the rare thinker that can match the power of his thoughts with the power of the art he creates. I sincerely hope that Zeroh makes it- he’s tied with Action Bronson for my favorite new rapper of the year, and after something like three more tapes released in 2011 alone, it seems like he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. I sure hope not.

 <span>FKIT by Zeroh @blqbrd</span> 

3. DJ Quik - The Book of David

“I don’t give a fuck about you, you, her, him, that bitch, that nigga, y’all, them.” That’s how DJ Quik introduces his eighth studio album. After more than two decades in the game, Quik has earned the right to not care. The man known to the IRS as David Blake made a tidy sum of money producing some of the biggest singles to come out of the West Coast during the early ‘90s, and has earned old-head street cred as one of the founding fathers of G-funk. So what does Quik do when it’s time to remind everybody exactly who soundtracked their favorite barbeques, block parties, and lovemaking sessions? Drop a classic hip-hop album, from a forgotten year somewhere in the mid-90s, featuring all his old friends just having fun, making beautiful music. The basslines are understated but never underwhelming, the flow is ferocious, and Quik shines through with more personality than any veteran rapper releasing a hip-hop album this year. The instruments are all live, highlife horns and analog synthesizers, save for the MPC that Quik employs with tact and finesse. Unlike Dr. Dre, Quik remembers where he came from, trading off verses with Ice Cube and giving the late P-Funk All-Star Garry Shider five minutes of space all to himself, five minutes that have more gut, grit and soul than any major R&B single released in the past five years. But even though he frequently cedes the spotlight to his buddies, the life of the party is always Quik, the triple O-Genius who at age 41 still has the same pugilist’s spirit he did at 21, taking shots at his abusive sister, and wierdly, Pharrell - but that’s just Blake being Blake. The album ends with hidden track “Quik’s Groove 9”, an ornate symphony of warbling synths, sylvan guitars, and drum taps. It’s almost as if Quik wants to give you a breath of fresh air, a moment to think, before turning around and queing up the album again.

 <span>16 The End (Featuring Garry Shider) by DJQuik</span> 

2. Action Bronson - Dr. Lecter

Why has nobody ever done this before? What with hip-hop’s preoccupation with food (Raekwon the Chef, DOOM’s album “Mm..Food?”, Rick Ross’s existence) it seems only natural that there would be a chef-turned-rapper blowing up in the blogosphere somehow. How a larger-than-life personality like Action Bronson has ever escaped the public consciousness is questionable, at best. Bronson’s rap-name is made up of william “action” jackson’s name, and the name of tough-guy actor Charles Bronson, which should tell you a bit about the style that Bronsonelli is going for. Bronson embodies a shit-talking, hard-working style of old-world masculinity that corporations, governments, and Drake are trying hard to make us forget, a gritty style that is hard to achieve, but damn near impossible to combat. Classic hip-hop flavor abounds on this record, as Bronson crafts loving rap tributes to Barry Horowitz and someone named Larry Cszonka (Bronson is ashamed that we don’t know who this is) over rare breakbeats courtesy of producer wunderkind Tommy Mas. Dr. Lecter is unmistakeably the result of a collaboration, Mas playing the young DJ Premier to Bronson’s tough-talking Nas. Yet Bronson has an earthiness about him that Nas has never been able to touch, a largeness, a gravitas that fills up a room and even managed to steal the spotlight from Ghostface Killah on the song they were both featured on on Raekwon’s album. With five (!) recorded albums sitting in the vaults, it doesn’t look like Bam-Bam Bronson is going anywhere anytime soon - and for good reason. The rap game needs a guy like Bronson to set these eyebrow hair-plucking, Big Sean-type punks in line.

 <span>Action Bronson - Barry Horowitz by Hevehitta</span> 

1.Shlohmo - Bad Vibes

I’ll be honest, 2011 was sort of scary.  In between tremendous natural disasters, civillian uprisings around the globe, and the disaster that is the European economy, 2011 will be remembered as a year in which a lot of frightening stuff went down. According to economists, if you have a job, you’re not very likely to lose it, but for those who are still searching, you’re more unlikely to get a job than ever. According to scientists, global warming is set to become irreversible in five years. According to NBC, Community is a few bum episodes away from getting cancelled. We live in scary times, when it’s not all too uncommon to hear about people turning CNN off, recycling their newspapers, just trying to forget all the craziness that’s going on around us. It’s not a bad impulse to want to retreat, to cocoon yourself, to isolate. To separate yourself from...well, the bad vibes.

Henry Laufer’s debut album as Shlohmo acknowledges and promulgates these desires, sheltering the listener in a warm cave of itchy, unsyncopated drums, wooly synth textures, and slide guitar that fades in and out of tracks like fireflies in the night sky. The vocal instrument is used, but not to give direction. Rather,  Laufer intends his coos, moans, and cries to serve as yet another texture, adding intense reverb to his voice so that the tracks can wash over you, envelope you, swallowing the listener under a wave of sonics. You have two choices with an album like this: Use Shlohmo’s music to help meditate on, and sort out, your troubled thoughts, or to succumb, to give yourself to the music and allow Bad Vibes to carry you far away from anything resembling your own identity. Bad Vibes is an album that is succinctly 2011. The tracklist reads like a list of chapters from a book written about these troubling times: “Get Out”, “Big Feelings”, “Anywhere But Here”. In interviews, Laufer talks extensively about feelings of disaffectedness, about not feeling like he belongs amid the hustle and bustle of a New York or Los Angeles. He mentions his recording process, how he locked himself in his apartment, isolated from social contact, and just recorded like his life depended on it. 

I guess that’s why I relate so strongly to this record. There’s something about Henry Laufer’s drive, determination, and mild misanthropic tendencies that speaks to me, and his hazy, cinematic instrumental hip-hop is the sound I’ve used to soundtrack many a sleepless night or late-evening drive. Bad Vibes is an important record for those wishing to understand our time, the best thing to come out of the L.A. beat scene since Flying Lotus dropped Los Angeles, and The Brown Noise’s definite Album of the Year.

 <span>Shlohmo - Anywhere But Here by Fareezsiva</span> 

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What was your favorite album of the year? Seriously, what was it? You should especially tell me if it wasn't listed here, as I'm always anxious to hear new music. Trust, I'll listen to it. We'll have a talk. Let me know what your AOTY was in the comments section below