GANG GANG DANCE - "EYE CONTACT" LP (4AD) Nothing is perfect in this world, but Gang Gang Dance's "Eye Contact" came pretty damn close to it.A highly addictive, and strangely accessible album, brimming with good vibes and plenty of weird jaunts.We can't put it down, and we don't really want to either.Art damage made for strange nightclubs.Dazzling.
EKLIN - "ONWA" CS (Night People)
This little gem randomly showed up at our doorstep on morning, like some kind of tiny plastic bastard child, and what a pleasant surprise it was.This young dutch group has crafted an entire album's worth of deep, rhythmic pulses, lonely guitar cries and desolate female vocals.Eklin has created it's own world that they "Onwa", and it's a dark and beautiful place that we never want to leave.
EXTRA LIFE - "RIPPED HEART" EP (Last Things)
Could this band get any better?Charlie Looker's one time solo project, has since morphed into a full time touring machine, and each monstrous release gives off a totally different vibe.Deeply personal and painfully intricate, they've become a genre-defying musical entity, and they're very special to us.
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - "REPLICA" LP (Software/Mexican Summer) OPN delivers his most expansive album yet.An undercurrent of samples, and a not-so-hidden percussive element, pushes these vast synth explorations in a whole new direction.These tunes are deep, wordless washes, overflowing with personal growth.
WATER BORDERS - "HARBORED MANTRAS" LP (TRI ANGLE) This SF duo scored big in 2011, with their first proper full length.A dark and harrowing collage, with elements of early goth and industrial music, experimental electronica, percussive tribalism and modern drones.An eerie, dramatic album made for after hours isolation and all kinds of downers.
PEAKING LIGHTS - "936" LP (Not Not Fun)We've always had a deep love for this Iowa duo, but we had no idea what we were in for with the birth of 936.It's very well crafted, and very unique blend of psych and dub, all brought together with an arsenal of homemade noisemakers, various found machines, and circuit bent casios.These two are taking psychedelic music in all sorts of new directions, and I hope they do this for a very long time.Hail Peaking Lights.
THE SOFT MOON - "TOTAL DECAY" EP (Captured Tracks) Their recent debut LP floored us, and now we're severely hooked on this new EP.These guys are doing their own style of psyched out dark wave, with just a touch of industrial muscle, and all the woozy synthesizers you can handle.A total winner.
Brisbane's dark sons gave us a killer of an LP this year.A strangely tuneful change in vocal styles, and a much tighter rhythm section showed us some new directions for Slug Guts.Sleazy, dismal, and painfully addictive post-punk swagger.Their new live LP is worth a mention as well.
ZS - "THIS BODY WILL BE A CORPSE" (Playbutton) Zs' latest, and easily their brashest work to date, was given to us via- Playbutton, a fun new label of sorts, who puts albums onto wearable flare.Neat.It contains 75 minutes of VERY raw material, recorded during their recent live assaults over the past year.Harsh, abrasive, unique, total confusion.Zs forever.
ICEAGE - "NEW BRIGADE" LP (What's Your Rupture?) These Denmark teens have made one of the most diverse, and wildly varied punk records of the year.They effortlessly blaze through a ton of styles, and it's a virtually flawless mess.A conglomeration of blatant post-punk, goth, and hardcore elements, taken from the past three decades or so, and it somehow still sounds fresh and completely of their own.
HONORABLE MENTION:
THE MEN
BLANCHE BLANCHE BLANCHE
SEX CHURCH
TUNNELS
SKULL DEFEKTS
FACTORY FLOOR
TAME IMPALA
TRUST
PSYCHIC ILLS
ROBEDOOR
LOST TRIBE
LAKE
DAWN OF HUMANS
THE DREAMS
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