In a time when this is even an option, the following acts are our last line of defense. These were the outstanding albums by which Uza will remember 2011 favorably.
Andrew Liles - Muldjewangk, Morgawr and other monsters (Tourette, 14/02/2011)
It is a la mode to diss concept albums. Given the time we live in (and the average music "critic"), where the only thing that can keep you focused from more than 140 seconds/characters is a fucking legal drug, it comes as no surprise that the young crowd has developed an innate aversion to concepts of any shape, form and style. However, everybody knows that young means stupid, so what do they know? In the case of our dear friend Andrew Liles they know Jack shit. Liles, a longtime collaborator with the titan of anything experimental (Steven Stapleton for you) has a monster fetish, and no, it has nothing to do with Lady KaKa. He has devoted several albums to the exploration of this fascination but this last one tops the bill. MMaOM is a pristine textbook example of what experimental should be like. On the one hand you must show a firm grip and a steady hand in this basic thing we call composition or song-writing. In the second, you go full body Tourette and bounce off every wall possible. Spoken word, industrial, found sound, musique concrete, old-school European techno, what have you. A common pitfall for those who attempt navigating their ship in such troubled waters is that they try to do too much, but the veteran and well-seasoned Liles knows his craft cover-to-cover and makes zero mistakes in handling the delicate task of taking wild turns seemingly woven into the preceding ones. This is, hands down, the best experimental album of the year, not only for being truly loyal to the meaning of the name, but also for providing a stellar exemplar to that effect.
Ane Brun - It all starts with one (Balloon ranger, 07/09/2011) http://anebrun.com/
Boy, do the Scandinavian have a penchant for melodrama. Ibsen, Dryer, Bergman. Sooooooo heavy, uber-dense, slow-pacing, emotionally pounding and relentlessly pushing all the buttons in your guts. Ane Brun is no different, she just likes to do it with music. Press play on this one, and thick, dark syrup will slowly start oozing from the speakers, creating long stalactites, crushing on the floor with a thunderous thump. Brun anguishes with every sentence and each bar, giving birth to a musical fetus whose head is just too big. The labor is excruciating and no string arrangement will facilitate delivery. However, the newborn is a beautiful and magnificent beast: 75 minutes of concentrated Nick Drakesque music, backed by an orchestra that pulls you back with a death grip so to keep the pace as slow as possible. This is probably the best drone album of the year without even being one. This is not a listen for the emotionally unstable (she even makes Alfonsina y el mar sound as a soundtrack for a Swedish documentary about teenage suicide in Lapland), but for everybody else it's a must buy.
Arabrot - Solar anus (Fysisk format, 09/09/2011) http://www.arabrot.com/
In the last three years it has become clear that there is only one metal act that is really worth a damn, and that's the Norwegian duo Arabrot. Now, many connoisseurs of alternative/indie have developed a penchant for metal in the last decade, perhaps countering the disastrous hipster culture and their obsession with mainstream culture. Within this framework, ridiculous (not to say puerile) obsession with Finnish folk metal, French black metal and anything that has the word drone in it has emerged. People playing watered down, slowed-downed to a grinding hold versions of metal have been heralded as geniuses and avant-garde. Well, you know what? Those acts are the exactly the opposite: they are those that even metalheads in high school would bully. And then there's Arabrot: you don't wanna fuck with them. They bring back to metal the sense of pride it once had without compromising metal sensibilities and that means loud, aggressive, angry, pummeling, thundering, visceral, boiling angst. They ARE metal because they understand what metal as a culture is and dare take it to new places. Only two
Evangelista - In animal tongue
(Constellation, 20/09/2011) http://carlabozulich.com/
I am running out of superlatives to describe the work of Carla Buzolich. When the album came out, I wrote this: "Carla Bozulich is becoming not only synonymous with true avant-garde but a real staple of quality. Her previous albums, under the moniker Evangelista, were shiny gems and the new album, though taking a different turn and style, is a fine example of how swimming against the current gets you to the right place". Buzolich and her gang are another example of the theme guiding this list: when you do something truly different you cannot go wrong – you either make a stellar achievement or you fail miserably, but even a botched attempt at experimental is better than following the crowd. Fortunate for us, Buzolich has yet to have failed.
Future of the left - Polymers are forever EP (Xtra mile, 14/11/2011) www.myspace.com/futureoftheleft
Put simply, nobody does this kind of (intelligent?) rock better than these Scotts. A combination of angular punk math with pop sensibilities a-la early Beaufitul south and dry British humor give birth to this killer EP. This album behaves as if it wants to go into the charts so that once it settles in the top 40 it'd start to wreak havoc and devour its neighboring artists whom it despises and loathes. This would satisfy anyone looking for pounding rock without compromising style, unique vice, originality and lyrics.
Gablé - Cute horse cut (Loaf, 01/04/2011) http://www.gableboulga.com
Gablé showed initial signs of promise in previous years, but it was only this year that their experimental pop project has come to fruition. This is a message from the future, a glimpse at what quality pop should be. With zero compromises, this French act maintans pop sensibilities while adorning them with pyrotechnics and perfect 10 gymnastics. Every left and right turn here are calculated to perfection, planting surprises where one has become used to expect the obvious. Gablé lead, and we follow, not only down the rabbit hole, but also up, sideways and back again. They have so many tricks up their sleeves that it seems almost unfair: maybe they have stolen this bounty of original ideas from poor souls that now wonder in musical limbo? Whatever they have done to produce this album, it is a masterpiece nonetheless.
GeishaNo - Dystopia (Bandcamp, 05/01/2011) http://geishano.bandcamp.com
This explains why they are here
http://kingdomofuza.blogspot.com/2011/02/geishano-dystopia-album-review.html
Gevolt - AlefBase (Gevolt, 02/2011) http://www.gevolt.com/Discography/AlefBase/
Continuing the amazing year Israeli indie had, are the suburban Russian immigrant band Gevolt, and they are here on account of their huge balls. When was the last time you've heard an Yiddish album? Was it by any chance a rock album? Off course not. So enter Gevolt, with a mission: metal covers of Yiddish ghetto songs. This can only go in one of two ways: complete and utter insult to the ear and mind, or an outstanding salute to a cultural heritage that only does it grace. Fortunately for us it is the latter. Gevolt do not fall into the horrid pitfalls of modern metal which is a slave to pyrotechnics and warships technical abilities. They know that their raw material is strong enough to the front stage and they use drape it with fitting metal attire. They do not growl, as this lowly technique will only offend the very language they try to revive. This album is so good simply because it opens a window to real life and culture gone while adoring it with contemporary soundtrack. It's not the best metal album of the year (this is still Arabrot's job) but it need not be. Instead, it is the most beautiful and moving musical homage in recent memory.
Immortal technique – The martyr (mixtape) (Self released, 28/10/2011) http://www.immortaltechnique.info/
IT is here not because of his music. Don't get me wrong: it's great, but no end-of-the-year-great. IT is here because of the violent juxtaposition to the banal, apathetic, bling-bling driven, sinister and sordid state of hip-hop today. If Lil B and Odd future pass as quality of any sort, than hip hop is in its Pompeii days and IT is the prophet at the gate. He is obviously not all alone (B. Dolan, Dead prez, Paris just to namedrop a few) but in a year of political turmoil, it is IT's time to shine. An erudite and eloquent orator, a true disciple of culture jam, a strong and confident voice that shows us that Americans have been bamboozled to believe things have changed somehow. He's not the first to say those things, and not the first to bring them to music or to hip hop, but hopefully he will be the one to cross the bridge and preach not only to the choir but also to the neighboring congragations.
Jenny Wilson - Blazing (Gold medal, 06/04/2011) http://jennywilson.net/
Blazing is a reworking of Wilson's 2009 Hardships. Blazing got it's place here because Wilson has managed to take an outstanding album and make it even better. How many artists do you know that took one of their albums, in its entirety, and improved upon it? I cannot think of an example. What Wilson did was to gospelize the hell out of Hardships and I for one cannot think of a better rendition to complement this album. Putting aside her personal ordeal which might have drown her to this form of liturgical music, this combination of clever Swedish pop and a gospel choir is so captivating and engrossing that one has to be made of antichrist molecules to resist it. To top it all off, in the second CD of this double album, Wilson goes experimental, as if she knew Uza would purr stronger. Is it divine? As an agnostic I have a problem with this whole religious terminology I got drawn into, but this album does provide for an experience with an added-value. Make of it what you will….
Otep - Atavist (Victory, 26/04/2011) www.myspace.com/otep
Ever since Queen Adreena, I have become obsessed with female-fronted metal bands. That was long ago. Well, Katie Jane Garside has changed direction by now, but luckily, Otep Shamaya is here to save me. How good is she? Well, it's the only other metal album in this list beside Arabrot. Good enough of a recommendation for ya?
Mirel Wagner - Mirel Wagner (Kioski, 23/02/2011) www.myspace.com/mirelwagner
Folk is probably the oldest of all popular genres, so how can you make it interesting after all these years? Ask Ethiopian-born Finnish phenomenon Mirel Wagner. Building upon the murder ballad tradition Wagner manages to breathe fresh air into a genre that has not only stagnated, but also believed to be immutable, with only her guitar and mesmerizing voice.
Shitty CT - Humus lahamonim (2011) www.myspace.com/shittyct
As was the case with Immortal technique, Shitty CT are not here on account of their music. They play old-school (old-fashioned), straight nu-metal. Enface, this is a reason to ignore them completely and on any given Sunday I would BUT it is the thing beyond the music that got them here. It is yet another band of Russian immigrants working far away from the "lime lights" of Tel Aviv (see Gevolt), and form this position they are best situated to put a zerkalo in the face of Israeli society. One would expect Israel to be rife with political acts, a strong punk movement or some troubadours roaming the country side fighting the many social maladies. Au contraire mon ami! The poverty of political involvement on behalf of Israeli musicians borders the criminal, but Shitty CT are here to rectify the matter. While suffering a bit from political naivety, they managed to precede the social "uprising" by several months by attacking the apathy and ignorance of the diminishing secular sector, obsessed with all the wrong things. Needless to say, this album flew well under the radar of almost all Israeli blogs, since the Tel Aviv bon ton is to stay away from both metal and anything that is created outside the city. I only hope these guys will continue educating themselves more and improve musically, so that they will be able to break through and deserve the recognition they deserve.
The aprons - Sound stains (Hi fidelity, 23/11/2010) http://theaprons.bandcamp.com/album/sound-stains
Go here to understand why they've made the list
http://kingdomofuza.blogspot.com/2011/08/aprons-sound-stain-album-review.html
The bastard (Leigh & Blake) - The bastard (02/2011) thebastard.bandcamp.com
Only the second representative of hip hop in this list, The bastard are as far as possible from the birth place of the genre. This Irish duo is the salvation and redemption of a style that has betrayed everything it once stood for, and they do so simply by thinking outside the box and taking hip-hop to different, better places. Call it experimental, call it doom-hop, whatever. This is by a mile and a nose the most interesting and challenging hip-hop made this year.
The book of knots - Garden of fainting stars (Ipecac, 14/06/2011) www.thebookofknots.com/
Just like Gable, BoK is a project that required some additional time in the oven, and now, fully baked, it's a pure delight. BoK decided to join forces with a stellar line up of collaborators (Blixa Bargeld, Trey Spruance, Mike Patton, Mike Watt), which allows for a multi-faceted representation of different takes on the state of experimental music today. This is a journey deep into the next-generation sound carried out by top-notch musicians. A must buy.
Tom Waits - Bad as me (Anti, 24/10/2011) http://badasme.com/
Someone please call me when this guy makes a mediocre album. Simply put, he's more infallible than the pope, the man who cannot go wrong. If (when?) he does, it'd be the end of times. Was that dramatic enough of an exposition?
