This was a strange music year for me. After spending the past few years immersing myself almost entirely in ambient, drone, and various strains of dance music, I inadvertently returned to my “indie roots” (sorry, pretentious) and listened to a lot more of the straightforward albums that Pitchfork was slinging. I found stuff like the new Flaming Lips, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Memory Tapes, and, of course, Animal Collective to be refreshing, and it kind of restored my faith in indie music. I gotta throw it out there that I didn’t check out nearly as much new music this year as I have in the past few, so I feel like my list could be stronger. The truth is, I spent a good chunk of the year listening exclusively to Unwound’s Leaves Turn Inside You. Oh, and there were a couple of months when all I listened to was Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday. And nowadays, I’m basically only playing Rage. I was told this is because I’m angsty. So anyway, here’s my top ten albums of 2009:

10. Deuce – EP + Planetary Assault Systems rmx

The techno fans out there are probably well aware of the splashes that both Shed and Marcel Dettmann made last year, with Shedding the Past and Berghain 02 respectively, but for those who aren’t in the know, these two are pretty much putting out the best techno there is right now. While this collaboration yielded very little output this year (a three-track EP and a Planetary Assault Systems remix), they made up for scant quantity with four mind-bending grooves of the highest order. These collective 23 minutes are the most punishing, relentless dance music I heard all year, with the obvious reference point being Jeff Mills’ fabled 1995 DJ set at the Liquid Room in Tokyo and methamphetamines.

9. Ben Frost – By The Throat

Imagine a dude who makes vicious, distorted swells (and the odd wolf growl) with his instruments. Then think about how awesome they might sound paired with Sigur Ros’ string section, Aniima. And then if he added Nico Muhly, a dude from Arcade Fire, and some Swedish metal band. Might as well reference Twin Peaks while he’s at it, huh? Now look at that cover. You want some of this.

8. Brock Van Wey – White Clouds Drift On and On

Perfectly titled, this is a dubbed out, gorgeous collection of overlapping drones, which, much like the clouds overhead, are continually morphing, expanding, and contracting despite seeming stagnant. It’s important to throw it out there that this is on Echospace, which means you’re definitely not dealing with your run-of-the-mill drones here. Even better is that Steve Hitchell (Intrusion) was so enamored with the music, he busted out a track-for-track remix album to be included with the release. If Echospace is one of your go-to labels, make this the next album you check out.

7. Bear in Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth

This one really took me be surprise. Despite my stubborn insistence that indie rock needs to be stuffed with experimental flourishes for me to enjoy it, it turns out that, no, solid songwriting, tons of hooks, spot-on production, and a kick ass drummer is all it really takes to make me happy. Plus, the whole thing smacks of the 80s (in terms of melodies, not production), and the singer kind of sounds like Peter Cetera to me. So there’s that.

6. Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms

OK, first off…There’s a track on here called “Should’ve Taken Acid With You,” so you get a pretty good idea of what you’re in for. This right here is some straight up ear candy. Like Daft Punk or Tispy before him, Neon Indian takes ridiculously cheesy sound sources and melds them into heady, ass-kicking tracks. There’s not a second that goes by without a sound bouncing all over your headspace, and he coats everything in delay, reverb, phasing, flanging, and anything else that’ll make it sound like a jet passing overhead. Oh, and it’s surprisingly effective for getting toddler-aged girls to shake their booties on a Saturday morning.

5. Alva Noto – Xerrox, Volume 2

On Xerrox, Volume 2, Noto once again forsakes his usual m.o. of pummeling listeners with razor-sharp beats, and instead gathers various sound samples and washes them out until they take on the form of heartbreaking, neo-classical compositions. The sound sources, you ask? “Thanks for the samples: Stephen O’Malley, Michael Nyman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Continental Airline Malfunctioning Inflight Program, Metaphysical Function 1 and 2.” Licking your chops yet?

4. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

I learned two valuable things the day that my mother-in-law came into the room where I was painting and listening to Tarot Sport and said, “This is really pretty. Who is it?” First of all, it’s terribly awkward to have to tell your mother-in-law that the music she’s been enjoying was made by a band called Fuck Buttons. Secondly, and more importantly, it really sank in with me just how universally appealing and shiver-inducing this stuff is. Listening to it makes you perpetually feel like you’re running a marathon in slow motion, with the streets lined with screaming supporters all offering you cups of Riptide Rush Gatorade. I started getting into this right when I moved into my house, and spent weeks painting each room and listening to it on repeat. Hell, I even blasted “Olympians” in the car when my wife and I were driving to the house closing. Hypnotic enough to make a mundane task seem transcendent, and triumphant enough to soundtrack life’s truly great moments? You really can’t ask for more in an album.

3. The Antlers – Hospice

I couldn’t have checked out Hospice at a better or worse time. Somehow, within the span of one week, I found out that one of my close friends most likely has multiple malignant tumors, was forced to watch My Sister’s Keeper with my wife, and dove headfirst into this harrowing account of losing a loved one to cancer. This album is absolutely devastating, to the point that it almost feels masochistic to listen to it. We’re taken from the patient’s moment of diagnosis, through the bouts with chemo and morphine doses, to the narrator wanting to climb into the casket with her. Most of the tracks float along as skeletal dirges, but The Antlers wisely infuse them with blasts of widescreen catharsis, which recall the most cinematic moments of both M83 and Arcade Fire. And with lines like, “With the bite of the teeth of that ring on my finger, I’m bound to your bedside, your eulogy singer. I’d happily take all those bullets inside you and put them inside of myself,” well, let’s just say that unless breaking down in public is your thing, you may want to check your level of fragility before cuing up this beast.

2. Jesse Somfay – A Catch in the Voice

Up until four days ago, I was 100% sure that nothing would even come close to touching this album in 2009. (We’ll get to why I was wrong in just a minute.) A Catch in the Voice has two basic elements–huge, cinematic synth lines, and unobtrusive but effective beats–and on paper that’s pretty basic, but Somfay’s execution really defies description. I could bring up Dead Cities-era M83 (or Tarot Sport, even), or how many hours upon hours I got lost in the drift, but nothing I write would really convey how moving and powerful this stuff is. Let’s just leave it at: If you’re wired a certain way, this will bowl you over like few others albums ever have.

1. The XX – The XX

12/12/09: gchat

me: ok, just pressed play

tanner: headphones?

me: obvi

tanner: ba-dur.

me: oh my
the beat just came in
5:03 PM
wow
omg

tanner: yeah.
that stacatto guitar line

me: it’s making my heart aflutter!

tanner: the synth horn uncurrent

me: those beats are so fucking dope

tanner: the kid that does all the beats does a really nice job with the programming, never gets in the way but you’ll constantly be like “nice…”

me: yeah, the interpol guitar is awesome

tanner: all the intruments are stacato and reverbed out like that… lot of bass guitar.

me: if you took away the vocal on “vcr” it could almost pass for an interpol song

tanner: yep or chameleons, or young marble giants.

me: yeah, there’s a ymg thing going on for sure
those galloping drums in the third track

tanner: the chorus, “heyeyeyeyah”
it’s about as built up as it gets on the whole album

me: just got to it and my jaw’s on the ground
so textured

tanner: “So don’t think i’m pushing you away, when you’re the one that i’ve kept closest… heyeyeyeyah”

me: that was the quote i was just about to write to you

tanner: the thing i love about all the tracks is that they start out very subtle, and slowly they built into this miniature epics, and are incredibly memorable in subtle, melodic rhymic ways. i’ve already got the tracks memorized.

me: yeah, the melodies on “heart skipped a beat” are amazing
that reverbed harp!!!
omg!
FUUUUUUCK

tanner: yep there right now

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/13/xx-teen-band

me: the way the bassline goes into a minor key when they say “i’m sure, i’m sure you’ve heard it before”

tanner: yeah it’s so considered.

me: this may be the best song i’ve heard this year

tanner: the way the repeat lines slowly drilling the emotional sentiment deeper into your head.

me: exactly

tanner: wait till “Shelter”

me: it’s honestly the best thing i’ve heard this year i think
that part right there

tanner: that’s great man glad you like it keep going back to it – the last two weeks have seen me listing to it daily multiple times and finding more and more to like. especially when the melodies start to take hold and you realize how incredibly catchy it all is.

me: oh, i can already tell i’ll be going back to this like crazy

tanner: k now is shelter

me: yup

tanner: maybe i had said – something that was wrong – can i make it better with the lights turned on?
then that guitar figure….

me: i know! i’m reading along to the lyrics right now – the way she say “feel” fee-hul - the bassline comes in!

tanner: yeah the delivery is just so darkly romantic and almost, painful

me: and the way the guitar weaves around that bassline

tanner: it’s just so plaintive and filled with remorse… i love it so it’s like, were do we go from here? Basic Space… which is such a smart track.

me: yep, kinda sounds like tricky - what a beat

tanner: yeah kind of that mush mouthy stumbled rhythm
k, and then this track. Infinity… is just killer.
when the big echoed claps come in
when they start repeating… give it up… i can’t give it up….

me: yep

tanner: watch where “Night Time” goes.

me: the beat just came in!
yeah this’ll be in my top 10

…

12/17/09:

The XX – The XX, iTunes play count: 19