I decided not to limit myself to the arbitary round figure of 10 since there are more than 10 albums worthy of a mention. It’s also hard to put them in order of preference, so I’m going to take the easy way out by stating up front that Waxing Gibbous by Malcolm Middleton is my album of the year and everything else came a very close second. Links go to the album on Spotify where available, otherwise to the bands Myspace.
Malcolm Middleton – Waxing Gibbous
And So I Watch You From Afar
Balls as big as watermelons. This album sounds like Mogwai if you hacked out all the quiet bits with an axe and then surgically grafted even more loud bits on. A good thing.
Lord Cutglass
Ex Delgados man Alun finally released his much touted solo album this year under the Lord Cut-Glass moniker. Pretty much encompassing everything I loved about the Delgados in it’s relatively brief running time.
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Set aside ten minutes of your life and listen to Olympians in it’s entirety on the link above. When I first heard it, I tweeted that they could actually be the saviours of music.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
In last years top ten, I mentioned that I had just heard the pre-release of this and thought it was going to be the album of this year. Certainly, it’s the one on this list that’s seen the most blog hype but it pretty much justifies every word spoken about it. Not as good as Strawberry Jam but still a complete belter of an album
Yes it’s waaaay to long but to complain too much would be churlish when you consider that A) it’s a charity album and B) it contains exclusive tracks by pretty much all my favourite acts…Andrew Bird, Sufjan Stevens (sounding like Rufus Wainwright here), Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Stuart Murdoch, Yo La Tengo and loads more.
Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
The song, Charlie Darwin was the real standout on the ever excellent Rough Trade Counter Culture compilation at the start of the year and when the album finally dropped in September, it was more than worth the wait. Not quite this years Bon Iver but not too far off.
The List described them as the missing link between Arab Strap and Boards of Canada. So much more than that but as confident a debut album as you could possibly want.
You Already Know – Stop Whispering
In many ways, this album complimented the And So I Watch You From Afar album. They are both different albums and both worthy of being on the list on their own merits though.
The Daredevil Christopher Wright – In Deference to a Broken Back
Produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the album as reminiscent of early Elephant 6 recordings like Neutral Milk Hotel (more of which below) and Of Montreal (back when the wanted to be the Beach Boys rather than the Beegees)
Honorary mention to albums I discovered this year that came out before now:
Neutral milk hotel – In The Aeroplane over the Sea
I normally pride myself on having a fairly good musical knowledge and being reasonably up to date with all the good bands. I’ve also been a big fan of a few other Elephant 6 collective bands since the late nineties. Somehow though, it took until the middle of this year for me to hear this album, which was originally released 13 years ago! And incredible it is too.
Angil + Hiddntracks – Oulipo Saliva
Would be album of the year if it weren’t for the fact it came out last year. Probably soundtracked my year more than any other. Written entirely without E’s. Either the letter or the note.
”Comment
I decided not to limit myself to the arbitary round figure of 10 since there are more than 10 albums worthy of a mention. It’s also hard to put them in order of preference, so I’m going to take the easy way out by stating up front that Waxing Gibbous by Malcolm Middleton is my album of the year and everything else came a very close second. Links go to the album on Spotify where available, otherwise to the bands Myspace.
Malcolm Middleton – Waxing Gibbous
And So I Watch You From Afar
Balls as big as watermelons. This album sounds like Mogwai if you hacked out all the quiet bits with an axe and then surgically grafted even more loud bits on. A good thing.
Lord Cutglass
Ex Delgados man Alun finally released his much touted solo album this year under the Lord Cut-Glass moniker. Pretty much encompassing everything I loved about the Delgados in it’s relatively brief running time.
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Set aside ten minutes of your life and listen to Olympians in it’s entirety on the link above. When I first heard it, I tweeted that they could actually be the saviours of music.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
In last years top ten, I mentioned that I had just heard the pre-release of this and thought it was going to be the album of this year. Certainly, it’s the one on this list that’s seen the most blog hype but it pretty much justifies every word spoken about it. Not as good as Strawberry Jam but still a complete belter of an album
Yes it’s waaaay to long but to complain too much would be churlish when you consider that A) it’s a charity album and B) it contains exclusive tracks by pretty much all my favourite acts…Andrew Bird, Sufjan Stevens (sounding like Rufus Wainwright here), Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Stuart Murdoch, Yo La Tengo and loads more.
Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
The song, Charlie Darwin was the real standout on the ever excellent Rough Trade Counter Culture compilation at the start of the year and when the album finally dropped in September, it was more than worth the wait. Not quite this years Bon Iver but not too far off.
The List described them as the missing link between Arab Strap and Boards of Canada. So much more than that but as confident a debut album as you could possibly want.
You Already Know – Stop Whispering
In many ways, this album complimented the And So I Watch You From Afar album. They are both different albums and both worthy of being on the list on their own merits though.
The Daredevil Christopher Wright – In Deference to a Broken Back
Produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the album as reminiscent of early Elephant 6 recordings like Neutral Milk Hotel (more of which below) and Of Montreal (back when the wanted to be the Beach Boys rather than the Beegees)
Honorary mention to albums I discovered this year that came out before now:
Neutral milk hotel – In The Aeroplane over the Sea
I normally pride myself on having a fairly good musical knowledge and being reasonably up to date with all the good bands. I’ve also been a big fan of a few other Elephant 6 collective bands since the late nineties. Somehow though, it took until the middle of this year for me to hear this album, which was originally released 13 years ago! And incredible it is too.
Angil + Hiddntracks – Oulipo Saliva
Would be album of the year if it weren’t for the fact it came out last year. Probably soundtracked my year more than any other. Written entirely without E’s. Either the letter or the note.
1. Let The Right One In
2. Moon
3. Where The Wild Things Are
4. Synechdoche New York
5. Up
6. Encounters at the End of the World
7. In The Loop
8. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. Coraline
Also worth a mention: Sleep Furiously, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Star Trek, District 9
[EDIT: I completely forgot about The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, which suffered from some clunky dialogue at times but more than made up for that with Gilliams uniqueness of vision and imagination. Squeeze that one in at number 6 and bump everything else down one.]
I’ve been subconsciously forming an idea for a while which was crystallised a few days ago when I read this article about Alan Moore’s new magazine, Dodgem Logic.
Back in the mid nineties, in the two years between school and work that I charitably refer to as my art school education, I was a huge fan of Deadline Magazine. It brought together all the things that interested me at that point. There were a few other essentially underground magazines which threatened to go mainstream at the time, such as The Beastie Boys Grand Royal magazine and the Herb Garden, but to my mind, Deadline was the daddy. The inclusion of the comics just gave it another dimension which made it stand out from the more mainstream mags like Select and NME.
Of course, the Tank Girl movie sucked so badly, and crashed and burned so terribly it dragged the magazine down with it, and it left a gap on WH Smiths shelves which has never really been filled again.
The first issue of Dodgem Logic isn’t out yet but it looks like it will be taking much of the same inspiration as Deadline, but tying it around what’s going on in Northampton just now. Moore has hinted that he’d like people to localise the magazine for different cities through an 8 page pullout which will carry local event listings and the like, and I hope someone else picks up the challenge to do that for the central belt, but I’d like to read something which is more tailor built around what’s going on up here.
There’s always been a thriving creative scene in Scotland. Glasgow in particular always seemed to avoid the talent drain which affected a lot of English towns and cities, whereby anyone with the slightest hint of talent would leave for London at the first whiff of success. I guess the A&R men never made it past Hadrians Wall? Whatever it was, it sculpted a supportive local scene which functioned in complete isolation to whatever was going on in the rest of the UK. Exactly like what has happened over the last five years or so in more or less every city in the western world, thanks to Myspace, Twitter etc.
Now there’s an army of quality bloggers writing passionately to document the latest bands, artists, photographers and writers. The ever brilliant Glasgow Podcart just posted a round-up of some of the best yesterday. Much as this couldn’t have happened without the internet, like Alan Moore, I still like artifacts. Something to pick up, hold and flick through. I accept the idea of producing something on dead trees in this day and age seems like a backwards step but, particularly when it comes to art, it’s more appealing, for me at least, to have something tactile. A physical printed object to hold.
So my idea is this. A magazine which would incorporate music features, short stories, serialised graphic novels and short strips, as well as features on artists and photographers. Initially, it would focus on what’s going on in Scotland right now but it certainly wouldn’t be a chestthumping ‘wha’s like us’ endeavour and wouldn’t automatically kiss any arses based on home postcode.
It would be full colour and printed on the best quality paper I could afford. I want the thing to look so beautiful, you can’t resist picking it up and flicking through it, like a copy of Juxtapoz or Hi Fructose. The sort of magazine you want to collect and keep, rather than throw out when the next issue arrives.
That’s the idea in a nutshell, and now I’m really looking for your input. Please leave comments. How many of you would be interested in reading something like that? What sort of features would you be looking for? More particularly, is there anyone who would be interested in contributing articles or having their work featured? I’m particularly interested in hearing from amateur graphic novelists, or other comic artists but if you are a writer interested in collaborating with an artist to produce graphic adaptations of your work, or vice versa, I’d love to hear from you too so I can get you in touch with each other.
Please leave a comment even if you wouldn’t be interested, so I can get an accurate idea of what sort of reception it might get.
I appreciate that with Trafigura, the likely imminent tory government and BNP gaining a modicum of political credibility in some camps, there are more pressing issues to be concerned about than the Disney release schedule. But I guess I really am that shallow. Two weeks ago, I sent the email below to Disney but am still awaiting a reply. It’s a bit of a rant so feel free to move along without reading 
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Also Sprach Zarathustra (aka 2001 opening theme) as played by a school orchestra.