I probably didn’t listen to enough records to do this legit, but since it was requested these are the ten records I submitted to the Village Voice critics poll.
James Blackshaw – Litany of Echoes (Tompkins Square)
Blackshaw distances himself from the folk tradition that has sustained him thus far by taking an unexpected classical turn and somehow comes into his own in doing so. This is John Fahey playing Philip Glass. This is the most beautiful record of 2008.
Deerhunter — Mircocastle / Weird Era Cont. (Kranky)
Though not a wholly even 2-disk affair, Microcastle and Weird Era Cont. repeatedly offer something that seemed surprisingly rare in a year in which countless bands sought to bathe flimsy songs in either Spector-aping reverb or skeuomorphic recording hiss: sturdy and shimmering rock songs that sounded better with each listen.
Birchville Cat Motel — Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (Pica Disk)
A single 40-minute slab of droning organs and feedback. Both somber and blaring. A gorgeous exercise in polyphonic stacking. Thick, translucent, glowing like a thousand flickering neon halos about to burn out.
Hercules and Love Affair — S/T (DFA)
In 2007 Hercules maestro Andy Butler told me that I was the first writer to interview him. He told me he loved Yaz and the “theatrical” instrumental ornamentation absent in dance music post-1982. In 2008 Hercules and Love Affair seemed to be in more magazines than anyone else. Offering up 4 or so tracks that immediately occupy the apex of disco revival in the 00’s will do that. It’s more than enough to forgive the record’s underwhelming second half. Finally new disco music too gay for the gym’s sound system.
Sam Amidon — All is Well (Bedroom Community)
Old-sounding new takes on very old folk songs. Simply put, no man and guitar combo struck those archetypal folks notes in as true a fashion as Sam Amidon this year.
Grouper — Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill (Type)
Though some baristas were visibly shaken, Liz Harris’s decision to plug in her pedal board at the open-mic night took her Grouper project to new levels. And no matter how much espresso you drink, it’s damn near impossible to stay lucid listening to this eerie reverb-laden beaut.
Emeralds — Solar Bridge (Hanson)
Wow, people who make dark, textured, droning ambiance have friends — who knew? Three buds from Ohio come together to make their most realized recording to date, in which all the promising noise experiments in their limited edition CDRs and cassette tapes are focused in a beautiful proper album.
Philip Jeck — Sand (Touch)
This is the music we have when deconstruction has run its course, endlessly splintered and recombined into nothingness. This is the haunt of desires which both predate and will outlive the style games that occupy music now. This is music as the memory of music, as memories just beyond reach.
Silver Jews — Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (Drag City)
Oh David Berman we love you, write another book.
Arthur Russell — Love is Overtaking Me (Audika)
Russell’s best? Hardly. But 2008 was the year that many caught on to the fact that every Russell release is essential. [Captions for Grouper and Emeralds by Tony S]
