Oh yeah, I forgot to mention…

I listen to way more music than I end up writing about and these albums caught my ear for good or bad over the last year or so yet I never got round to exploring them on here. Some of the music is pure brilliance and others well… left me a little cold after spiking my interest, but I tried to show a little balance instead of just hating.

Pantha Du Prince – This Bliss [Dial]
I came late to this guy after seeing his name all over the place a few years ago and never getting round to checking him out, but my got This Bliss is just that, bliss… Deep driving and mesmerizing dance music; underwater melodies with a warm, pulsing comforting edge, its like a musical larva lamp.

Eero Johannes – Eero Johannes [Planet Mu]
Easily up there in my albums of the year top ten at the end of last year, yet I still didn’t get round to writing about it. This is Skweee, the 8-bit funk hybrid from Scandinavia if you don’t know, at its very best. Toy town chip tune funk played through bent synths with a massive sense of fun, you can play it over and over and it brings a smile.

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping [Polyvinyl]
Either: brilliant and flamboyant or an annoying indie version of Scissor Sisters depending on my mood. Not quite as funny or musically accomplished as Flight of the Concords but there are so many ideas in here that it’s almost interesting almost by default and I think that’s what brings me back to it more often than not. It’s the inventive cut’n’paste song writing and dark humour that reminds me of a musical Naked Lunch but executed with a really light twee sunshine edge instead of full on darkness, quirky.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion [Domino]
The artwork is so fucking cool on this one but something about the music left me a little cold. Indies great hopes for the year made an interesting yet slightly mundane album somehow. Its almost as if I want to like it more than I do, the swirling psychedelic sounds and ideas are right up my street yet its still a miss. I can’t get enough of Brother Sport though that is a killer track.

The Horrors – Primary Colours [XL Recordings]
Interesting band with promise but they seem to in debt to their influences to me, I mean embarrassingly so. The album plods and drags yet shows the band can play and appeal to the wider audience. When/if they grow out of their influences they really will be ones to look out for.

Giggs – Walk In Da Park [Spare No1]
Road Rap king pin with a slow-mo monotone flow, he is so laid back that it all nearly goes past in one single dull drone yet when he pulls it off he makes some compelling stuff. The beats are sparse and slow in debt to the US gangsta/Dr. Dre template but with a really dirty and raw UK vibe. There are some killer tracks on here if your in the mood for some lyrics on coke, clubs, cash and guns executed with a dead eyed stare.

D.O.K. – Document Chapter 1 [Flash]
Pumping and bumping grime instrumentals, half the time they sound like big brash jacking bassline monsters and the rest of the time like P-Funk played on Fruity Loops at 140bpm. It’s raw, uncompromising and full of dancefloor hype. You get a grime re-fix of Timberland and Bros all on one CD what more could you want?

Deerhunter – Weird Era Cont. [4AD & Kranky]
This is the bonus disc/extra album that came with the fantastic Microcastle from last year. It’s a sprawling mass of ideas from the prolific band. It continues where the album on the flip left off, all be it in not such a concise narrative, its raw and freewheeling in comparison not unlike the live shows. There are some amazing tracks ‘Backspace Century’ and ‘Operation’ for starters are up there with the best of Deerhunter.