January 2012 Hotlist

These are the best albums I managed to check out during this month and some stuff i've been listening to the most during this month. No reviews, just a list with pictures.

Kourosh - "Back From The Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock From Iran: 1973-1979"

Ballin Jack - "Ballin Jack" 1970

Skrillex - "Bangarang" 2011

Global Goon - "Carbon" 2011

M.E.D. - "Classic (Instrumentals)" 2012

Apollo Brown - "Clouds" 2011

Tech N9ne - "Collabos: Welcome To Strangeland" 2011

Giraffage - "Comfort" 2011

Of Montreal - "Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse" 2001

AraabMuzik - "Electronic Dream" 2011

Noah23 - "Fry Cook On Venus" 2011

"Getting Off!: The Seductive Sounds Of 70's Adult Cinema"

Opeth - "Heritage" 2011

The Residents - "Lonely Teenager" 2011

Moka Only - "Martian Xmas 2011" 2011

Ernest Gonzales - "Natural Traits" 2012

Atomic Forest - "Obsession"

Of Montreal - "Paralytic Stalks" 2012

Guts - "Paradise For All" 2011

12th Planet - "The End Is Near" 2012

The Beach Boys - "The Smile Sessions"

The Squidbillies Present: "Music for Americans Only Made by Americans in China for Americans Only God Bless America, U.S.A." 2012

White Mic & Z-Man - "The Vegetable & The Ferret" 2012

Wagon Christ - "Toomorrow" 2011

Jonti - "Twirligig" 2011

Best Of 2011 part 6

Sole & The Skyrider Band - "Hello Cruel World"

This album is really interesting to me. He hits a lot of different angles of hip hop, but it still sounds focused and like all the songs fit on an album with each other. Unlike the other Skyrider Band albums, this does not have any live band elements, but the beats on here are quite nice. Boomin bass and definitely a much different sound from his early Anticon days, both lyrically and production-wise. In a good way.

Zion I & The Grouch - "Heroes In The Healing Of The Nation"

I don't know if they really live up to the title they made for this one, but it's still a good LP full of them doing what they do good. This is pretty on par with their first collaborative LP, the only thing that ever seems to hold them back is the occaisional lackluster beat from Amp Live, which he always makes up for on the dope beats.

People Under The Stairs - "Highlighter"

A par for the course PUTS album. Nothin wrong with that, they're always tight.

Louis CK - "Hilarious"

One of the strongest stand-up sets i've ever heard.

Hank Williams III - "Hillbilly Joker"

This was his last major label album. More of a long EP, only about 33 minutes long, this is all mostly what he calls his 'hellbilly' style, which is like rockabilly with a hard edge. During his live shows he uses this material to transition from the country songs into the metal songs he does later on in the show.

Beastie Boys - "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two"

This isn't really the comeback album i'd hoped for, but it's still an acceptable Beastie Boys LP. I think I enjoy this more than "To The 5 Boroughs" just for the grimy production style on most of the tracks, I don't think it's actually better. I also think it's amusing they still have a hit single off this that fits in with today's music world ("Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win"), even if it doesn't really fit on this album or even really sound like a Beastie Boys song. That single has some fresh remixes on it too, actually.

Mayer Hawthorne- "How Do You Do"

Straight from Stones Throw to the major labels, he hit this one out of the park. Better than his debut in every way, this is the opposite of a sophomore slump album. They need to release the song with Snoop Dogg on here as the next single, it's a huge hit waiting to happen.

Mastodon - "The Hunter"

I actually hated "Crack The Skye" when it was new, and it took a good year for it to grow on me. Luckily this new one didn't have the same effect, they just always seem to make good sounding rock music.

Jazzsteppa - "Hyper Nomads"

The mixture of jazz and dubstep seems kinda gimmicky, but I can't help but like this album.

Salem- "I'm Still In The Night"

Really looking forward to their next full length after how bugged out this 4 song EP is. Light it up and throw this on and get astro.

Nick Diamonds - "I Am An Attic"

Nick Diamonds is the lead singer of Islands, and formerly The Unicorns. He gave away this solo album for free, but it's hardly throwaway material. This has me eagerly anticipating the new Islands album that's about to drop. Apparently him and El-P are also working on a collabo project called The Stepsons. I can't wait for that.

Mariachi El Bronx - "II"

This band is normally a rock band called The Bronx that I don't particularily care for, but they started doing this mariachi music as a side project, and it sounds great. This is the 2nd album of them doing this as indicated by the title.

Best Of 2011 part 5

Com Truise - "Galactic Melt"

This was a little more solid than "Cyanide Sisters" to me, but they are both interchangable pretty much. Music that makes you feel good.

Hank Williams III - "Ghost To A Ghost"

This is an interesting album with a range of styles that definitely is not limited to classic country, although that's mostly what it is. There's some avant-garde psychedelic-ness on some songs, a few zydeco styled tracks, and some more rock tinged stuff on here. The title track is something to be heard, with the production almost sounding like Devotchka or something along those lines, and featuring Tom Waits and Les Claypool among other guests. This was an ambitious year for Hank. He finally burned up the last album on his major label contract and started releasing his albums independently through his own company. This is the first "traditional" Hank III album to come out of that. The other 2 projects he self-released in 2011 didn't fare as well for me as this album did. Hank 3's A.D.D. is his stoner metal band, but it just kinda seemed thrown together, and I wasn't really feeling the style he did the vocals in. Hank 3's 3 Bar Ranch was even a bit more experimental, combining heavy metal music with the recordings of auctioneers playing over it. It sounds OK for a short while, but I can't take listening to the whole LP straight through, it gets a little grating. I wouldn't even say that "Ghost Of A Ghost" is a 100% solid album either, but the best songs on it are classic sounding, and it's quite an ambitious project that sounds like the end result of a man doing exactly what he wants to do with his career.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack"

Clearly David Fincher liked what they did with "The Social Network" soundtrack and rehired them on again for the next film. This is one of the most ambitious soundtracks I can think of. 3 full CD's worth of material, all very surreal sounding instrumental movie score style songs except for 2 tracks with vocals. One is a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" done fabulously by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, and the other a new track by Reznor's post Nine Inch Nails, female led act, How To Destroy Angels. I still haven't seen the film, but either the whole thing must be filled with music, or they gave us the unused stuff on this soundtrack too, which is cool.

Rustie - "Glass Swords"

This is one of those rare occasions where someone simplifies their style a little from their previous output, and it actually works out in a positive way. This album is great, and not a dubstep album at all, even though that's what he's most known for.

Battles - "Gloss Drop"

I didn't find out about this band until this album, but apparently the vocalist left the band, and they just kept going as a lushly produced instrumental band with occasional vocal guests, not unlike Air, but with a more rock based approach similar to a band like Tortoise. The end results are great.

Thundercat - "The Golden Age Of Apocalypse"

This guy is something of an enigma is music. This came out on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder record label, but is mostly a progressive jazz/funk album with electronic tinges. This guy has also been the bassist for Suicidal Tendencies for the last 8 years or so, but he must really have to hold back within that setup after hearing how good of a bass player he actually is on this album. He's almost on some Frank Zappa type shit with his skill level. People who sit and say that "no good new music ever comes out" need to shut the fuck up and check this out.

Ital Tek - "Gonga"

You can tell he really likes a lot of the juke stuff that comes out on Planet Mu. I like his version of that style more than I like that whole style, I think. This is great hard hitting club music to me.

Primus - "Green Naugahyde"

The triumphant return of Primus. Not one of the best albums of their career, but not one of the worst either. Super solid.

Dimlite - "Grimm Reality"

To put it simply, Dimlite makes uncategorizably fucked up, yet compelling music. It never seems like he's being weird just to be weird though, it all seems natural.

Groundislava - "Groundislava"

Debut LP that's mostly planted within the 'beat scene' sound, but has some other variances too that sound more techno-y at times, but not in an annoying way.

Bare - "Hard As Hell EP"

This is pretty much "bro-step", but it sounds great to me, and "2 Die 4" is one of the funniest dubstep songs since "Warface" by Jakes with the Space Ghost samples from Zorak.

Skream - "Hats Off"

A nice dope little single.

Best Of 2011 part 4

Baron Zen & Tekblazer - "Elektrik Surgery"

Nice lo-fi crazyness. This is a good mix between the comedy garage rock style of the original Baron Zen album and the instrumental electronic sounding Rhythm Trax EP from a couple years back.

AraabMuzik - "Electronic Dream"

I'm gonna be honest. The first time I heard this, I thought it was cheesy as hell. It grew on me kinda fast, and I find myself listening to this a lot lately. If you're familar with his hip hop material, it's not that different, he just puts his style of drum programming over samples taken from really cheesy techno songs. This is a great car stereo album.

The Warlocks - "Enter At Your Own Skull"

This is an album of b-sides and demos by them, but it's a great album. They show some different sides of the band on this one that aren't apparent on their regular albums. They usually have a more sludgy sound, but some of these songs remind me of T.Rex type stuff.

Skratch Bastid - "The Entertainer"

A good Z-Trip style DJ mix, especially for a free download.

Zombi - "Escape Velocity"

Not to be confused with electronic solo artist 'Zomby', this is a synth based instrumental band fronted by a dude named Steve Moore from Pittsburgh. There must be something in the water there, because I end up straight LOVING certain music that comes from there.

Rapper Big Pooh - "Fat Boy Fresh Vol. 1- For Members Only"

2 dope solo albums in one year. He's come a long way since "The Listening".

Patton Oswalt - "Finest Hour"

He's not my favorite stand-up, but he always comes through with a strong set.

Toro Y Moi - "Freaking Out"

This is a more dancy side of the band. This EP seems like it was made for DJs. It's really too bad they were so weak live when they came here last year supporting this release.

Skream - "Freeizm History"

I actually have no idea when these songs were recorded, this just showed up as a free download at the end of the year. Not all of this stuff is the dubstep that he's known for, he delves into other sub-genres, and there's some new sounding stuff on here too. A little something for everyone.

Noah23 - "Fry Cook On Venus"

I don't know how, but I never heard of this dude until last year, but apparently he's been around in the underground for years now. He calls himself the "Canadian Based God" on one of the songs on here, if that gives you any indication of how humorous he is. Noah is just a really versitile MC, who seems like he could rap in any style and pull it off extremely well and sound at home within that style. I'll definitely be checking out his older stuff now.

Shigeto - "Full Circle Remixes"

An extension of his great 2010 album, just about all these remixes are super tight.

Count Bass D - "#FULLCOUNT"

Count Bass D is such a weird anomaly to the rap world. He was signed to a major label in the mid 90's and flopped because they didn't know how to market him or who to market him to. Even in the underground, I feel he's kinda looked over. He has a very simple laid back sounding rap style that some people call boring, but i'm never bored when I listen to him. His production style is very chopped up MPC preciseness, that other beatmakers can really appreciate, but I feel like all his finesse is lost on regular people.