Selling Acid Was a Bad Idea

2011-12-15T14:14:00.003-05:00

17. M.I.M.E.O. & John Tilbury
The Hands of Caravaggio
Erstwhile, 2002

Mustering quite a bit of star power for an improv set (MIMEO includes Kevin Drumm, Thomas Lehn, Kaffe Matthews, Peter Rehberg, Keith Rowe, Marcus Schmickler, Rafael Toral, and others), this outing pits the members of MIMEO against pianist John Tilbury in a somewhat adversarial set. No musician ever attains dominance, and pianist Cor Fuhler spends much of his time disrupting Tilbury's phrasings by clamping down the latter's piano strings and anticipating his moves. Meanwhile, the electronics-wielding members of MIMEO must exercise some self-restraint to keep from overwhelming Tilbury's delicate phrasings. The process forces everyone outside his comfort zone, and generates a performance that is both sympathetic and adversarial. The result is as arresting as the Caravaggio painting that inspired the proceedings.

2011-12-15T14:04:00.002-05:00

18. Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Matt Sweeney
Superwolf
Drag City, 2005

Many Superwolf reviews emphasize that, while nominally a collaboration, this project sounds remarkably Bonnie "Prince" Billy-ish. After all, we do see same melodic conventions, the same lyrical themes, as in much of Will Oldham's other work as Palace and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. But with the benefit of hindsight, Superwolf also sounds like a remarkable interruption in Oldham's career, a moment at which he traded his developing country-rock side for a spare, heavy, and metallic brand of folk music. We can most certainly attribute this sound, which brings out the desperate angst that always lurks in Oldham's songs, to Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan), an accomplished guitarist who deserves far more credit for this record than he got at the time. Sweeney's skeletal structures and elegant melodies gave Oldham the last top-notch album of his career so far, and his best since 1999's I See a Darkness.

2011-12-14T17:47:00.002-05:00

19. The Boredoms
Vision Creation Newsun
Birdman, 2001

"A whole beach vibrating with the sun was surging behind me. I took a few steps toward the source. ... The scorching sun attacked my cheeks and I felt drops of sweat forming in my eyebrows. It was the same sun as on the day I had buried Mother, and, as then, my forehead hurt and all my veins were pulsating underneath my skin. Because of this heat which I could no longer stand I took a step forward. ... The Arab took out his knife and pointed it at me in the sun. The light flashed on the steel and it was like a long blade attacking me on the forehead. At the same instant the sweat that had been forming on my eyebrows ran down all at once over my pupils, covering them with a warm thick veil. ... I felt nothing more than the cymbals of the sun on my forehead, and, indistinctly, the bursting blade of light from the sword continually in front of me. This burning sword was eating at my eyelids and digging into my aching eyes. It was then that everything reeled ... It seemed to me that the heavens had open to their full extent in order to let it rain fire. My entire being became tight and I closed my grip on the revolver. The trigger gave."

2011-12-14T17:19:00.002-05:00

20. Geir Jenssen
Cho Oyo 8201m (Field Recordings from Tibet)
Ash, 2006

Complied from audio of a Tibetan mountain-climbing expedition, Cho Oyo bridges the gap between Jenssen's life as a mountain climber and his career as an ambient techno artist (Biosphere) with a flair for the naturalistic. In what seems almost like a day by day document of his climb of this 8,000-meter mountain, Jenssen blends recordings of supply trucks, birds, wind, rain, yak bells, voices, radios, horses, and hailstones into a subtly edited, wholly coherent, and adventurous listen. It would be hard to call this ambient music, as the raw flapping of birds' wings on "Nangpa La" are certain to snap the listener out of any kind of trance, but one can easily see the connections between Jenssen's love of nature and his musical day job. Cho Oyo is a striking listen, and the best compilation of field recordings in a decade that saw outstanding work from Francisco Lopez and Philip Samartzis, among others.

2011-12-14T17:07:00.002-05:00

21. Nina Nastasia & Jim White
You Follow Me
Fat Cat, 2007

Singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia's dusty, intimate voice graces a streak of outstanding records on the Touch & Go and Fat Cat labels from 2002 to 2010 (The Blackened Air, Run to Ruin, On Leaving, The Outsider). But her stripped-down collaboration here with drummer Jim White (Dirty Three, Grinderman) brings out the best in her. Nastasia takes full advantage of the record's empty space, at times filling the room with denunciations or self-recriminations ("I always dreamt of the day I would bury you / I never thought on the day I'd stop hating you"), or letting the silence speak for itself.

White's skill as an accompanist is almost unmatched, as his hyperactive polyrhythms and deft brushwork unsettle even the quietest songs, and keep the record moving forward. His restless work on the album's outstanding centerpiece ("Our Discussion") captures perfectly the narrator's nervous sense of impending dread. Together, these two musicians absolutely embarrass the host of drab indie-folk singer-songwriters who litter the past decade.

2011-12-14T15:51:00.002-05:00

22. Bill Dixon
17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur
AUM Fidelity, 2008

The second half of the aughts (2005-10) were an exciting time to be following avant-garde jazz, as the scene was teeming with rediscovered or reactivated veterans. Bassist Henry Grimes simply walked back onto the stage after decades of mysterious absence, and he began touring with Rashied Ali, formerly a drummer for both Alice and John Coltrane. At the same time, Bill Dixon, who had seemingly retreated from heavy performance and recording in favor of teaching in Bennington, began playing a host of startling performances, of which 17 Musicians is one.

Recorded at the Vision Festival in 2007, Dixon's large-ensemble record sounds at turns gruesome, ominous, energetic, and elegiac. The title track shivers with dread, and the epic-length "Sinopia" lapses into queasy, bent tones that simply won't let go. Dixon also has his solo moments on this recording, though he is spotlighted even more on his date with Exploding Star Orchestra that same year. Both records serve as a fitting tribute to an outstanding career. Dixon sadly died in Vermont in 2010.

2011-08-01T16:43:00.003-04:00

23. Loren Connors
The Departing of a Dream
Family Vineyard, 2002

Bill Orcutt
A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Palalila, 2009

All of Loren Connors' works, to some extent, emphasize silence, distance, solitude. But Departing of a Dream, recorded around the quaking fear of 9/11 and consisting of a brief tribute to that day and a longer suite inspired by Miles Davis's haunting "He Loved Him Madly," is positively devastating for what it does not say. Connors' guitar wails endlessly in the opening nine-minute epic, but the noise gives an expression of never finding the right note, the correct thing to say. The album's frustrated inarticulateness is its genius.

Bill Orcutt's first solo guitar record screams with an inarticulate genius of a different sort. In Orcutt's hands, ten decades of folk traditions---country blues, jazz, punk---spill out in jagged shards, rippling with the intensity and immediacy of the most bracing hardcore. I put these two records together mainly in order to cram in a record that has grown on me since I first generated this list in 2009. But Orcutt and Connors represent the range of solo guitar innovations over the past ten years.

2011-08-01T12:49:00.003-04:00

24. Sleater-Kinney
One Beat
Kill Rock Stars, 2002

I saw Sleater-Kinney in Dallas on this tour, where the encored with a version of Bruce Springsteen's "Promised Land" from 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was an appropriate reference point, communicating the uncomfortable mix of patriotism, existential fear, righteous anger, and cynicism that many of us felt amid the United States' response to the 9/11 attacks. It was also a touch ironic, considering that the 9/11 references on One Beat hit so forcefully that they made Springsteen's contemporaneous 9/11 record (The Rising) look downright dopey. I doubt the Boss has even thought to exhort his listeners to "shake a tail for peace and love."

2011-08-01T12:34:00.002-04:00

25. Sunn 0)))
Monoliths & Dimensions
Southern Lord, 2009

Monoliths and Dimensions starts off the Top 25 of this list, which has taken two years to complete. Appropriately then, Monoliths was something of a taste-changing record for me. Sunn 0))) had long been on my radar, but I didn't quite get it. As much as I loved the Earth-influenced metallic drone, I couldn't quite get behind the blacker-than-black horror theme that tended to pervade their work. With its meticulous orchestrations and omnivorous approach, Monoliths situates Sunn's brand of drone metal within a broader musical context, openly displaying an allegiance with the avant-garde: "Alice" pays tribute to the recently departed Alice Coltrane, and EAI guitarist Oren Ambarchi contributes some sounds.

This is how I felt at the time:

ME: I got the new Sunn 0))) album. I think if they could get past using this detuned horror-movie voice on so many of their tracks (he sounds kind of like that evil dude on the Kate Bush album), they'd be pretty good. They make really cool noises and things.

SCOTTY: [My girlfriend] and I spent a week in California. I tried playing that album on a long drive and she politely, but firmly, insisted that I change it. I like it though.

Turns out the horror voice is Attila Csihar (aka Void), a longtime affiliate of infamous metal act Mayhem. I like that now, too.

2011-08-01T12:12:00.002-04:00

26. M.I.A.
Kala
XL, 2007

The record where M.I.A. truly found her voice, Kala places Maya's increasingly commanding presence amid a clattering cacophony of plundered beats, globetrotting sensibilities, and curious alt-pop references. Where Arular self-consciously cultivated the sense of a gifted amateur, tossing off dancehall bangers from a cheap synthesizer, Kala's sophisticated, layered production comes off as grand artistic vision. Maya rises to the challenge here, too, displaying newfound range in her vocal presentation and attitude. Propulsive opener "Bamboo Banga" shows off Maya's growth, unwinding from the initial Modern Lovers' quote into the ominous: "We're knocking on the doors of your hummer, hummer."

2011-07-31T14:57:00.002-04:00

27. Brendan Murray
Commonwealth
23Five, 2008

In talking with Wire magazine about creating Commonwealth, Brendan Murray talks less about the techniques he used in making the record, than about the ones he set aside. He stopped using field recordings for this record, as if these sources represented more of a conceptual anchor than a vital aspect of any of his creations. In the end, Commonwealth feels remarkably unfettered. An epic, 49-minute drone, it unfolds beautifully and patiently, no doubt the result of a well-considered restraint on the part of its creator. Though it's billed as a nod to classic minimalism, Commonwealth is more than a tribute piece, as it assimilates the best features of Murray's earlier music into his most cohesive, most confident statement.

2011-07-31T14:47:00.002-04:00

28. Ornette Coleman
Sound Grammar
Sound Grammar. 2006

Any one of Ornette Coleman's ideas would have been enough to make him a legend. Think of the out-of-shape bop tunes on Something Else!!!, the classic "Lonely Woman" from Shape of Jazz to Come, the founding moment of a new genre on Free Jazz, the space-jazz of Science Fiction, or the relentless, nasty, out-as-hell funk on Body Meta. To have Ornette still making vital music in 2006, when I was discovering his work in a big way, was delightful, if not all that surprising.

Sound Grammar, a live date, finds Coleman seeming almost relaxed. Coleman is the only horn on this date, and he uses the pianoless space created by his quartet to explore a series of compelling contrapuntal ideas. The interplay between bassists Tony Falanga and Greg Cohen creates its own weird set of harmonic structures, especially on the outstanding noir tune "Sleep Talking."

This record won the Pulitzer prize in 2006. It was widely thought that the award was given more for a lifetime of achievement than for this one record, but that shouldn't cheapen Sound Grammar, which is easily one of the greatest jazz records of the decade.

2011-07-29T12:16:00.003-04:00

29. Mission of Burma
The Obliterati
Matador, 2006

Mission of Burma changed my life. In the time between age 14 and age 20, someone like me goes through a remarkable series of shifts in taste and allegiance. At 15 it was the brooding, synthesized aggression of Nine Inch Nails, then the ceaseless sloganeering of Rage Against the Machine. Age 16 brought the shaggier grunge of Mudhoney and Green River, as well as other big, dumb hard rock of the 1990s (e.g., Jane's Addiction). Age 17 shifted into the self-indulgence of emo and its associates (Sunny Day Real Estate, the Promise Ring, At the Drive-In, Shudder to Think, Fugazi). And so on.

Burma made me realize I could have it all. I could take the self-absorbed and emotional alongside the sloganeering of hardcore punk. We could be impressed with sophisticated musicianship while also being drawn to one-chord screamers. Jazz, psychedelia, minimalism, King Crimson, and folk music all began to seem valid and important influences. I came to Mission of Burma around the time I stopped shifting and started growing, both as a listener and a musician.

Obliterati is the best of the band's three post-reunion albums, and easily stands among their two great studio records of 1981-82.

2011-07-29T12:03:00.002-04:00

30. DJ /rupture
Minesweeper Suite
Tigerbeat6, 2002

"DJ /rupture wields samples like weapons," I wrote in 2005. Today, I think that's a little ridiculous. /rupture's self-conscious eclecticism approaches something closer to reverence than to the martial arts. Minesweeper Suite weaves a globe-spanning soundscape, drawing together the sounds of Jamaican and U.K. dub, African and Arabic dance music, Platinum-selling American hip-hop (Foxy Brown, Aaliyah), and experimental music (Cul de Sac, Borbetomagus). It's not a Girl Talk-style nostalgia trip; instead of playing on our memories, /rupture uses his three-turntable setup to make the familiar sound unknown.

It begins with a slow burn, mixing the work of Egyptian drummer Mahmoud Fadl with UK dub artist J. Boogie. When Foxy finally emerges, it's amid a bombast of Jamaican dancehall and Arab street music. But the finest moment is /rupture's blend of digital hardcore artist Eiterherd into Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly," which then fades into Timbaland's unforgettable instrumental to "Are You that Somebody?"

2011-07-29T11:57:00.002-04:00

31. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
Hearts of Oak
Lookout!, 2003

There's not much I can say about Ted Leo that I didn't say in this weepy, nostalgic post (No. 67). But, where Tyranny of Distance is perhaps the fieriest of Leo's output, and features the singular "Timorous Me," Hearts of Oak is the Pharmacists' sound perfected. The tightly wound nostalgia on "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone," and the aggressive travelogue "Ballad of the Sin Eater" made clear that, while Leo was not changing his sound much, he also wasn't running out of ideas. I can't pick a single highlight, and there's no "Timorous Me," but this is an overall unstoppable record, and definitely his best.

2011-07-29T11:48:00.003-04:00

32. Liars
They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
Mute, 2001

It's funny today to remember that this kind of revivalist post-punk was such a big thing in 2001-03. Following the trail blazed by Les Savy Fav and other late '90s indie bands, a growing pack of punk bands in 2001 began dealing in the jerky, semi-danceable dissonance pioneered by Gang of Four and the Fall. There were a million: Panthers, the Rapture, Apes, !!!, Out Hud, Radio 4, Klaxons, Death from Above 1979, even LCD Soundsystem. But Liars were the best: snotty, overly enthusiastic, with knotty, propulsive arrangements that made Trench seem like something more than just retro-mania.

All these bands would leave the dissonant sound behind by mid-decade, with Rapture and !!! going for slick, dancefloor-ready pop, and LCD Soundsystem indulging in a glossier disco-pop. Liars just got weirder and noisier. (Drum's Not Dead also appears on this list.) Liars' Monument memorializes a time when the old sounds of 1979 seemed fresh once again,

2011-07-21T18:07:00.003-04:00

33. Nels Cline
New Monastery: A View into the Music of Andrew Hill
Cryptogramophone, 2006

One of jazz's best guitarists since Sonny Sharrock, Nels Cline deserves a mention on this list for successfully placing himself at the intersection between Sonic Youth, free improvisation, and contemporary jazz. Cline retains a punk-rock heritage that arises in his more fiery, destructive playing, but he also displays a remarkable lyrical sensibility that has served him well with late-career Wilco (though not much could really rescue Jeff Tweedy from his lapse into adult contemporary).

Of Cline's many records I could have chosen, New Monastery is special, because it's the sound of an artist finding himself in the work of another. Here Cline with a unique array of instrumentalists (guitar/clarinet/coronet/accordion/bass/drums), working through a small selection of the works of Andrew Hill, arguably one of jazz music's ten best composers of all time. (Brainstorming: Ellington, Bird, Diz, Monk, Miles, Trane, Ornette, Mingus, Sun Ra, Hill). The group recreates Hill tunes without sheet music, giving the session a free-flowing, dynamic, and exploratory quality. Longtime collaborator Andrea Parkins' accordion and Cline's guitar combine to replace Hill's piano in an absolutely stunning fashion.

One weekend in New York in 2006, you could have spent a Friday in the village listening to Cline's group perform these pieces, then head up to Midtown on Saturday to catch Andrew Hill. I had to work those nights, and I'll always regret not seeing Hill, who died the following year. But these reinventions of his work are a fitting tribute to one of jazz's greatest creative minds.

Nels Cline is indeed prolific. His own releases this past decade included the freewheeling Destroy All Nels Cline in 2001 on Atavistic, and at least two more lyrical records with Nels Cline Singers (Draw Breath in 2007, and Instrumental in 2002). The solo record Coward (2009) stands as an emotional tribute to the slain guitarist Rod Poole. His affiliation with Wilco did not exactly capture the best of the group, as it includes only Kicking Television (2005), Sky Blue Sky (2007), and Wilco (The Album). His influence (and his guitar) can be heard on Jeff Gauthier's work, most recently 2008's House of Return. He's also contributed to the work of Sonic Youth, Henry Kaiser, Wadada Leo Smith, Low, Lydia Lunch, John Zorn, Carla Bozulich & Evangelista, Mike Watt, Wayne Kramer, and The Blue Man Group? Yes. The Blue Man Group.

2011-07-21T13:41:00.000-04:00

34. Low
Drums & Guns
Sub Pop, 2007

Dear all soldiers, little babies, poets, liars, and, esp., all you pretty people,

You're all gonna die.

-Low

2011-07-21T13:30:00.002-04:00

35. ASTRO
The Echo from the Purple Dawn
Important, 2008

ASTRO is the alter-ego of Hiroshi Hasegawa, a former half of C.C.C.C. whose Ascension 999 also appears on this list. Under the ASTRO moniker, Hasegawa indulges in less frenetic, more slow-building drones. But that's not to say that he fits in with the post-2008 trend in noise music toward placid, listenable tones (think Emeralds, Mark McGuire's solo work, and Oenohtrix Point Never). No, ASTRO's work stretches itself without sacrificing any of the bracing impact. Echo buries wild signals and schizophrenic melodies underneath massive tides of feedback and drone; listening for the repeating patterns on "Live at Art's Birthday" is like trying to find intelligent signals buried inside cosmic background radiation. In an era where the retro-obsessive psychedelia of Emeralds and co. might be the biggest thing going in noise music, Hasegawa reminds us that freeform music can be transcendent and challenging at the same time.

2011-07-20T19:44:00.003-04:00

36. Sun Kil Moon
Ghosts of the Great Highway
Jetset, 2003

Mark Kozleck's various projects always exhibit an obsession wiht memory, and the sepia-toned photographs that adorn the songs on Ghosts of the Great Highway are no different in this respect. But Kozleck more willingly stepped outside of his own head for Ghosts, giving space to a portrait of the banality of evil in "Glenn Tipton" (or is it just a metaphor?) and to the character studies of the unsung fighters who died before their time in "Salvador Sanchez" and "Duk Koo Kim." Apparently, the writer of this Allmusic review was too impatient with the brief guitar solo to catch the chilling twist at the end of "Glenn Tipton."

2011-07-19T17:44:00.002-04:00

37. M.I.A.
Arular
XL, 2005

It's not an understatement to say that, in 2005, M.I.A. seemed like one of the most exciting things to happen to pop music in some time. Along with Arular, MIA's earlier mixtape (Piracy Funds Terrorism) displayed a bombastic personality, literate in outsider traditions of punk, reggae, and hip-hop without retreading old ground. Her artless flow, commanding presence, and relentless, digitized beats seemed a fresh revival of the punk tradition, bringing some spark to relatively stale mainstream indie rock and hip-hop. (Let's face it: Jeezy and Game were fun but not classic, and Bloc Party was never good.)

Arular's acidic combination of punk fury, dancehall beats and hip-hop linguistics still seemed fresh in 2009, when I first drafted this list, so much so that I thought no one had so much as attempted to replicate Maya's half-sung, careless delivery. Then Ke$ha happened.

2011-07-17T16:59:00.003-04:00

38. Broken Social Scene
You Forgot It in People
Paper Bag, 2002; Arts & Crafts, 2003

I mentioned Pitchfork Media in my last post, and I suppose that website should get its own entry on this list. Alongside Tiny Mix Tapes, Wire magazine, and NYT critic Ben Ratliff, Pitchfork has been a primary source for my obsessive listening and consumption over the past decade. (Props also to A Thousand Grams, Michael Azerrad and Alex Ross.) I was drawn to Pitchfork when still in high school, attracted by the gonzo reviews of Brent DiCrescenzo, and the site's impatience with some of the artier pretensions of the era. As in, "Here's the reality: Do I wanna buy three more CD players with which to enjoy Zaireeka or, say, eat?" (I also briefly played in a band with a one-time Pitchfork critic. Not that band, the writer.)

That was before Pitchfork hit the big leagues, before Broken Social Scene. BSS were the band that made Pitchfork, and Pitchfork made this band. They had been floating around for a couple of years when editor-in-chief Ryan Schreiber fell madly in love with You Forgot It in People. The resulting hysteria brought the droney, vaguely experimental pop that had been cluttering the indie scene for years into the sudden spotlight of mainstream culture. It made Pitchfork the arbiter of the next big thing. It made sensitive guitar rock the biggest thing going, thus rendering the tag "emo" irrelevant and unhelpful. And all of a sudden my kind of music was everyone's favorite thing.

(NB: The Zaireeka review quoted above has now been removed from the site, and, well, I kind of like Zaireeka too.)

2011-07-17T11:13:00.002-04:00

39. Sigur Rós
Ágætis Byrjun
FatCat, 2000

Though originally released in Iceland in 1999, Ágætis Byrjun stands with Kid A as one of the indispensable documents of early 21st-century experimental pop music. At the time, the band was lumped in with the generally aloof genre of "post rock," but the group's gently building and rolling pop epics always exhibited a deeper Romantic quality than many of their contemporaries.

The fact that, by the end of the decade, Sigur Ros would seem almost too commonplace doesn't negate the remarkable majesty of this record, which, in 2000, was unlike anything we ever heard. (Brent DiCrescenzo said in 2000 that Jón Thór Birgisson's voice might only be replicated by blending "whales, Jeremy Enigk, cherubs, Björk, and the blue alien from The Fifth Element.") I bought this record shortly after its stateside release, in a stifling Texas June, while suffering from a ridiculous summer cold, and it still felt like breathing fresh air.

2011-07-07T14:59:00.002-04:00

40. Drive-By Truckers
Decoration Day / The Dirty South
New West, 2003/2004

Since the Drive-By Truckers hail from the Florence-Muscle Shoals area, where I was born, it shouldn't be surprising that their small-town southern-rock nostaliga tends to get me all misty-eyed. But the Truckers' albums can be weighted down by overwrought concepts, most notably the Skynyrd-Civil-Rights-Autobiographical-Something that was 2001's Southern Rock Opera. As with many of the South's greatest artists, the short form arguably suits the Truckers best, and Decoration Day and Dirty South deliver two sets of near-flawless vignettes of hard living, hard luck, and hard rock.

Highlights include the murderous "Sink Hole," the terrified "Where the Devil Don't Stay," the bluesy "Marry Me," and the cowpunk "Careless." Newcomer Jason Isbell almost outdoes bandleader Patterson Hood at his own game, delivering updated versions of the Hatfield-McCoy feud ("Decoration Day") and the John Henry story, as well as the tearjerking "Outfit," recounting his own father's advice on being like a man. Somewhere I have a copy of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, in which a friend told me "Don't let em take who you are boy, and don't try to be who you ain't."

2011-07-07T14:45:00.002-04:00

41. Anthony Braxton
9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006
Firehouse 12, 2007

Avant-Garde saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton is well-regarded as a master of jazz and structured improvisation, in groups both large and small. I've sometimes found him to be too cold, lacking the emotion of some other post-Coltrane avant-gardists, but this record has more than enough personality. For these dates Braxton surrounds himself with a host outstanding personnel, including Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon and Taylor Ho Bynum on coronet and flugelhorn, and many bring a sense of brightness to the proceedings.

What's immediately noticable about these sessions is the relative lack of drums (Aaron Siegel, who spends much of his time on vibes, is the only credited percussionist). This gives the music a light, airy quality despite the rather large size of the ensemble, in direct contradistinction to the propulsive, rhythmic quality of idiomatic jazz music. Siegel and guitarist Mary Halvorson (an excellent bandleader in her own right) traces out delicate sound structures for the ensemble to play inside, filling these compositions with myriad harmonic, melodic, and almost geometric riddles that are worth spending some time with. When the drums do kick in, they grant energy to the melodic instruments, without overwhelming.

I'll never fully understand everything that Braxton is up to with his Ghost Trance Music series (or really anything he does), but 9 Compositions will remain a puzzle box that I'll keep reopening.

2011-07-07T14:31:00.002-04:00

42. Fennesz
Endless Summer
Editions Mego, 2001

If free improvisation has a "mainstream," Viennese guitarist Christian Fennesz is probably its brightest star. His music can be just as uncompromising and difficult as any electro-acoustic improviser's: see the high-frequency squall on 2000's Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08". But Fennesz also displays a tendency toward lyricism, giving his music a kind of breathing, organic quality shared by Fripp/Eno and fellow EAI guitarist Oren Ambarchi.

As its title suggests, Endless Summer highlights these more accessible aspects of Fennesz's music, breaking the static and high-frequency noise characteristic of electro-acoustic improvisation with moments of clear sunlight and calm breezes. The resulting pastiche of pops, hisses, drones, ambient washes, and clean electric guitar strums stood astride a range of genres, both experimental and popular, in the cultural zeitgeist of 2001: crackling glitch and microsound electronica, experimental IDM, noise, neo-psychedelia, Sonic Youth, and the dying star of "post-rock." Nothing sounded quite like it, and not even Fennesz's own attempts to revisit the sound (Venice, Black Sea) have been wholly successful.

2011-07-07T14:16:00.004-04:00

43. Gillian Welch
Time (the Revelator)
Acony, 2001

Gillian Welch described this record as her collection of "tiny rock songs," and certainly "I Want to Sing that Rock and Roll" and "Elvis Presley Blues" express a compelling nostalgia for the bygone sound of amplified hillbilly music. But the most welcome aspect of Time's rock-and-roll influence arises in epic openers and closers ("I Dream a Highway" burns for almost 15 minutes), and in the ruined, broken disaster and tragedy songs: "April the 14th" and "Everything Is Free."

The opening title track almost deserves an entry unto itself. Unfolding slowly but deliberately, it recalls the relentless pull of psychedelic rock, or at least the country-fried version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" and Creedence's "Effigy." Even stripped of all amplification, Dave Rawlings' guitar digs into the beat and won't let go, reminding me a little of early Ash Ra Tempel (certainly an unintentional reference). Welch's half-comprehensible travel narrative, sung in her earthy, unaffected voice, recalls the swirling mysticism of Robbie Robertson's "The Weight." Welch sings of a fortune teller on the road, that "every word seemed to date her." Time, however, is undatable---an absolute masterpiece of americana.

2011-06-17T18:14:00.004-04:00

44. Fugazi
The Argument
Dischord, 2001

When a young man of my age got a little to old for Rage Against the Machine, he turned to Fugazi. When I was turning this corner, it was 2000-2001, and the D.C. punk heroes were coming off a short hiatus after 1998's relatively drab End Hits. I stood outside Tower Records at midnight Oct. 15, 2001, to be the first to get this record. The following Easter, I was the first person inside Emo's Austin when they played.

Coincidentally, this record is what happens when Fugazi gets a little too old for Fugazi. (After the show, I heard drummer Brendan Canty talking to someone about the difficulties of touring with a family and kids.) The Argument finds Fugazi playing with a range of sonic textures, as on the creepy "Life and Limb" or the piano-oriented "Strangelight." One would think that adding a second drummer (Jeremy Busher) would bring even more intensity to the proceedings, the band seems to be more interested in intricacy, as Busher and Canty play with syncopation and accents. It's too bad that Fugazi slowed after this---The Argument had enough ideas to fuel another decade's worth of records.

2011-06-17T18:02:00.003-04:00

45. Gavin Bryars / Philip Jeck / Alter Ego
The Sinking of the Titanic
Touch, 2005

This work, one of Bryars' most well-known, dates to 1969, and has enjoyed several excellent recordings in the intervening years. The premise is well-known: it is said that, as the Titanic sank, the band on the ship's deck continued to play. The hymn Autumn, which an observer is said to have heard as the Titanic tipped upright, forms the centerpiece of Bryars' composition. In the original version, the tune would be warped by reverberations and effects as the instrumentalists fell into the ocean, lending the piece a dreamlike quality.

The contributions of Philip Jeck on turntables, as well as the appearance of Bryars himself on double bass, make this 2005 performance particularly special. Jeck is known for employing turntable surface noise like a photo album or sound archive, bringing to life half-remembered memories. His turntables work to great effect here, melding with the mournful fragments of Autumn, and highlighting the way in which this moment might have seemed to have extended forever, both in the minds of the terrified passengers, and as a defining moment in our history.

2011-06-17T17:44:00.002-04:00

46. Boris
Pink
Disk-Union, 2005 (Japan); Southern Lord, 2006

Since this record transformed the Japanese three-piece from misfit sludgemongers into international heavy-metal superheroes, Boris has grown a little big for its britches. Currently, the band is in the middle of four planned releases for Sargent House records, running the gamut from slicked-up glam-metal to the requisite collaboration with noise godfather Merzbow. Boris has become a brand, pushing what might be called "thinking-man's hair metal," and it's more than a little silly.

But Pink, Boris's first confident step into the realm of gratifying, over-the-top rock and roll, stands as one of its finest works, and as one of the best metal records of the decade. To call it "metal" is to use the term in a looser (and more rewarding) sense, recalling the proto-metallic stomp and fury of bands like MC5 and the Stooges, as well as the stoner-punk of Eyehategod's faster work. In the extended passages that open and close the record, Boris harness their skill with drone and psychedelic noise to sculpt strikingly emotional moments.

Pink heralded the beginning of a burst of creativity for Boris, leading to fruitful collaborations with Sunn 0))) and Ghost's Michio Kurihara. But nothing would be as breathless as this record.

Everyone inside is getting high tonight

2010-12-29T01:06:00.002-05:00

47. Les Savy Fav
Let's Stay Friends
Frenchkiss, 2007

This release saw Les Savy Fav return after years of writers block. In their absence, the band's angular, party-friendly indie rock had been taken up by a legion of "dancepunk" bands---the Rapture, !!!, and early Liars among them---who, like LSV, owed much to post-punk groups like Gang of Four, A Certain Ratio, New Order, and the Fall.

But Les Savy Fav always felt fresher than that, combining the choppy post-punk sound with a pop sensibility drawn from early 1990s groups like Archers of Loaf, Pavement, and Superchunk. Nowhere is this formula more expertly explored than on Let's Stay Friends, from the cheerleading chorus of "Patty Lee" to the teeth-grinding punk blast of "The Equestrian."

'A Dreamer Who Is too Weak to Face Up'

2010-12-29T00:46:00.002-05:00

48. Melt-Banana
Cell Scape
A-Zap, 2003

Though noise flourished in the new century, it also continued to depart from the punk-rock idiom. We saw the rise of laptoppers and button-pushers, cracked jazz, free improvisation, musique concrete, improvised acid-washed psychedelia, and extreme black metal. All of these styles tended to abstract away from the kind of nasty, sharp, frenetic punk rock that kept a steady beat and adhered to something like a song form.

In a way, Melt-Banana are unlikely torch-bearers for this latter style. The flailing, stop-start arrangements typical of their earlier records, unpredictable except in their intensity, resembled bracing noise pieces more than rock songs. But Cell Scape finds the group honing its focus, weaving intricate arrangements that couch the band's explosive tendencies in between moments of release. The result is a collection of frenetic, screeching bangers, as appropriate for 5:00 drive time as for the art house.

Ain't gotta buy Doritos cuz we already got chips

2010-12-29T00:21:00.003-05:00

49. Paul Wall & Chamillionaire
Get Ya Mind Correct
Paid in Full, 2002

Big thanks to Ramon and Reggie over at A Thousand Grams for this one. Ramon brought this record up at a Daily Texan staff meeting, after he noticed that our best of 2001-05 list failed to represent Texas hip-hop. Ignorant that we were, we took his word for it. I'm glad we did.

Get Ya Mind Correct presents Houston rap int he best possible light. The beats thump hard, with top-down, breezy synthesizer work deeply in debt to Dr. Dre & Co. Wall and Chamillionaire's melodies perfect the loping, singsong tactic common to many Southern rappers, and they deliver their verses with unmatched wit and charisma.

The record comes three years before Chamillionaire and Paul Wall hit big with their respective major-label debuts. By that time, the two were in the midst of a pretty serious beef, but here, they're best friends, even taking the time to compliment each other on "Thinkin' Thoed": "Paul I'm impressed / I thought you was the best / but you just said I was the best / so it's a tie I guess."

the sweetness of being till we don't be

2010-12-26T01:24:00.004-05:00

50. Joanna Newsom
Ys
Drag City, 2006

It takes a lot for a record like this to be good. Imagine describing it to a friend: "Well, you know, there's a lot of Renaissance-faire kind of imagery, and she sings it in this kind of innocent-sounding, wide-eyed voice." So there's lots of mandolins and stuff? "She mainly plays harp, but there's also these sweeping, dramatic string arrangements that move the narratives along." Uh, narratives? "Yeah, see, the songs are all around the ten-minute mark. One is about a bear and a monkey that fall in love at the circus." By this point, you're the friend who likes stupid music.

But despite all its pretensions, Ys is a remarkably mature record. The string arrangements allow Newsom to explore an emotional range that was reached in only the handful of great songs on her 2004 debut. She has learned to control her voice while retaining its character and charm. And this newfound discipline allows her to deliver the best (and knottiest) lyrics of her career: "I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight / No, I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright / So: enough of this terror / We deserve to know light / And grow evermore lighter and lighter."

They'll never wake us in time

2010-12-26T00:58:00.004-05:00

51. Low
Things We Lost in the Fire
Kranky, 2001

Low's fifth studio album fluttered out of the sky just as I was wrapping up my tenure as an eighteen-year-old youth culture correspondent for the local newspaper. Because of this record, I included Low on my list of artists who would doubtlessly influence the next generation of innovators. It was the characteristically wide-eyed rantings of someone who had just discovered a world beyond Nirvana: My Bloody Valentine and Godspeed You Black Emperor! also made the list. But I am sad that we don't hear more of Low's expert use of negative space and calculated, austere minimalism in today's indie rock business.

At the time, I emphasized the vast emptiness of Low's sound. But, now as then, the record also stands as a remarkable turning point in Low's sound. In the 1990s, the band's glacial guitarwork and commanding harmonies helped define a genre of unfortunately named "slowcore" artists. By 2007's Drums & Guns, the trio had mastered drum machines, psychedelic effects, and all manner of synthesizers. Along the way, they'd record a full-on guitar-pop record (The Great Destroyer) and collaborate with the expert post-rock trio Dirty Three.

Fire presages all these moves. It compliments the trio's striking harmonies and stark guitar tone with a broader palette of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. The lyrics take a turn toward the noir, evoking, at times, deep senses of dread, of loss, and even of suffocating nostalgia. It's fitting that a group in the middle of such a grand transformation would end the record with "In Metal," a song that finds a mother almost wishing she could bronze her child's body, keeping it young forever.

Damn sure got away

2010-12-26T00:36:00.003-05:00

52. Harvey Milk
Life ... The Best Game in Town
Hydra Head, 2008

Harvey Milk is a difficult group to get a handle on. In their 1990s iteration, they shifted from practiced unlistenability (My Love Is Higher than Your Assessment of How High Our Love Could Be) to ZZ Top-lovin' party rock (The Pleaser). At both ends, the group's work sounds more than a little prankish and self-mocking.

Life, the band's triumphant synthesis of all its varied personae, plays games with the listener just as well as its predecessor. The epic opener "Death Goes to the Winner" mixes a weighty storyline of anonymity and alienation with a few playful perversions of Beatles and Velvet Underground lyrics.

But the arrangements here also display the practice and focus of a tight, thoughtful ensemble. "Motown," a sweeping mid-tempo blues-rock anthem, harnesses the singer Creston Spiers' anguish into something that resembles sincerity. Other forceful rockers, like "Barnburner" and Fear cover "We Destroy the Family" leap forth with unrestrained enthusiasm. Beneath the muck, Harvey Milk, who reformed in 2005 after a long hiatus, sound thrilled to be playing together again.

When the bells ring twelve times in hell, the bells ring twelve times in this town as well

2010-12-19T23:46:00.004-05:00

53. Songs: Ohia
Didn't It Rain
Secretly Canadian, 2002

Some of the decade's great indie-americana records are for nights at home alone, just you and your own nostalgia (Iron & Wine) or self-deprecation (Califone). Jason Molina's Didn't it Rain is for the times when you think you might not make it home. You might die, frostbitten and snow-drenched, stumbling into oncoming traffic. Or you might give up and sit down on the frozen sidewalk. Molina has made a career of dreadful and destabilizing songwriting, but the windswept Didn't It Rain is his most paralyzing, isolating, and starkly beautiful.

'The Inferno'

2010-12-19T23:38:00.003-05:00

54. Kevin Drumm
Sheer Hellish Miasma
Mego, 2002

Miasma is as intimidating as it looks. At its center lie two monstrous noise epics that startle in the way they spit across the entire spectrum, chewing up speaker cones and spitting digital rust and grease. It's extreme music at its most oppressive, and it makes you feel like a bad neighbor, but Drumm's work always invites both high volume and deep focus. Miasma is the greatest example of this, continually rewarding repeated listens with new textures and rich layering.

Some noise records invite you to consider the ugliness, revel in it, confront it. Sheer Hellish Miasma does much more, barreling through the muck and dancing in the sunlight at the other side.

Texas looks like Galilee

2010-12-19T23:31:00.003-05:00

55. Califone
Quicksand/Cradlesnakes
Thrill Jockey, 2003

New Year's 2008, I stood on the roof of my Harlem apartment, watching the distant fireworks over Midtown, and drinking Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Later I lay in bed trying to sleep, Qucksand/Cradlesnakes playing as I listened to the fireworks that sounded like gunshots, or vice versa, and having escape fantasies. "Buzzing like a worn-out fret," sings Tim Rutili on "Horoscopic Amputation Honey," "cut our hair and fake our deaths."

The Black Card Era

2010-12-19T23:16:00.003-05:00

56. Clipse
We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 2
Mixtape, 2005

In 2002, Clipse appeard as one of hip-hop's greatest hopes: tough, sharp, and even danceable, their hard-edged drug rap tempered by the production of Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes. But label troubles kept their sophomore record under wraps for four years. Clipse took the opportunity to make a lot of noise on the mixtape circuit, absolutely murdering some of the day's most popular beats. The first two installments in the We Got it 4 Cheap series with the Re-Up gang are widely regarded as some of the best rap of this era.

Volume 2 finds the duo becoming increasingly frustrated with their ex-friends in the industry, including Pharrell. They come out extremely hungry, gnashing at beats that were intended for the Game, Ludacris, Lil Kim, Amerie, Common, and Ghostface Killah. Their studio work, especially the stark Hell Hath No Fury, were notable in their own right (and deserved a higher spot on this list). But there is something special about these records, made in the shadow of industry cluelessness.

...to the riff-filled land

2010-12-19T23:02:00.003-05:00

57. Sleep
Dopesmoker
Teepee, 2003

I didn't know what to do with this one. Dopesmoker was recorded in 1995, and its sound remains thoroughly a child of that era. A 60-minute, single-song discourse on the pilgrimage of the "Weedian" people to the riff-filled land, this record represents the logical conclusion to the epic, dense sludge purveyed by colleagues Fu Manchu, Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, and Kyuss. An earlier version was even released in 1999 (as Jerusalem), though that one was arbitrarily divided into six tracks.

But Dopesmoker is also more than a mid-1990s stoner document. Officially released as a monolithic single track in 2003, it stands as a foundational influence on the throbbing minimalist rock aesthetic that has captivated fans of Acid Mothers Temple, Sunn 0))), Boris, even Lightning Bolt. Not to mention Sleep members' own later projects, such as the hypno-rock duo Om and the more traditional metal outfit High on Fire. Thus, the merciless, snakelike Dopesmoker belongs in at least two times, and certainly deserves a place on this list.

'...to me, "s" will always stand for "seal humping car"'

2010-12-19T22:41:00.005-05:00

58. The Avalanches
Since I Left You
XL, 2000

A couple years ago, I got a text from the friend of mine: "I just told this aggressive guy in line at the drug store to 'get a drink. Have a good time now. Welcome to paradise.'" These phrases are among the clearest that bubble up from the chatter that opens the Avalanches' only full-length record. It's easy to recognize the quote---it sets the perfect tone for one of turntablism's breeziest, most adventurous, and all-around greatest records.

In the mid- to late-1990s, DJs like Shadow and Cam demonstrated the versatility of the breakbeat format, pushing it beyond dance music, into more psychedelic and "ambient" realms. But, like the traditional club-oriented breaks, their work remained pulsing, heavy, and vaguely oppressive.

Avalanches take this progression to the next level, blasting a ray of sunlight through the late-1990s fog. Their effortless, tropical sound may not be that remarkable at the end of the decade, when indie-electronic music has thoroughly soaked up the sunny beats of Barcelona techno, and when every indie blogger pretends to have spent his or her best summer days at Lisbon dance parties. But, in 2000, this was a revelation.

You're watching this on the internet --- a thing that pays us zero dollars

2010-12-19T22:40:00.000-05:00

59. Times New Viking
Rip It Off
Matador, 2008

The sudden rise of the Slitbreeze sound represented one of the sweetest and most unexpected treats of this past decade. Bands like Eat Skull, Fabulous Diamonds, Psychedelic Horseshit, and Sic Alps recalled the best underground pop groups of the '80s, combining undeniable hooks with scuzzy and aggressive lo-fi recordings. But they did it with a reckless abandon and extreme volume that belonged firmly in the '00s.

If not the best of their little substratum of indie rock, Times New Viking were certainly the most well balanced. Their sound may owe a bit to much to Rob Pollards and Ira Kaplans of the previous era, but by sheer exuberance, they make it feel like their looking forward, not just thumbing through their record collections. Beth Murphy invites us to "do something that hasn't been done yet" on "Faces on Fire," and I'm almost convinced.

You won't be the first pig I've gutted

2010-12-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

60. Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano & C. Spencer Yeh
A Rock in the Snow
Important, 2006

Few trios are as exciting. Chris Corsano, drummer of the decade, and Ayler disciple Paul Flaherty had been recording remarkably sympathetic dates for at least five years. But violinist C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) brings a whole new element. Compared with the previous Flaherty-Corsano duo records, A Rock in the Snow sizzles with new colors and new life. Even a drummer as tuneful as Corsano cannot provide a melodic foil to Flaherty's manic sax, and Yeh provides such a counterpart. He also leads the group in a series of otherworldly screams, grunts, and Gollum-sounding vocalizations, particularly on the epic "Do You Have Any Prurient Releases?"

greater dangers may be gathering

2010-12-19T11:05:00.000-05:00

61. William Basinski
The Disintegration Loops I-IV
2062, 2002-2004

Committing to listening to all the Disintegration Loops in one sitting is a big thing, like watching all six Star Wars movies in a row. I've done it once, and found it to be at once draining, hollow, and exhilarating. It's like observing the fall of Anakin Skywalker, without the redemption.

This five-hour project recounts the physical destruction of old tape loops. As the loops are played repeatedly, the tapes literally fall apart: the sound becomes stretched and warped, gashes appear and widen. It's the sound of collapse, coincidentally recorded around September 11, 2001.

Welcome to the Future of Horror

2010-12-19T11:02:00.001-05:00

62. Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
In C
Squealer. 2002

We should all feel blessed that this actually happened. Makoto Kawabata's ever-expanding and contracting collective take on Terry Riley's classic minimalist work In C. Riley's pulsing, maddening jam laid the groundwork for the relentless drive of German psychedelia, a genre that has in turn worked considerable influence on Acid Mothers Temple and its offshoots.

On the title track, AMT offer a spirited but faithful rendition of the piece. The result lacks the wildness as some of their own work (like "Psycho Buddha" from the previous year), but the rigor of the piece relates its own kind of psychosis. Whereas In C was freeing compared to contemporary compositional work of its time, the format places tight, rule-based strictures on the otherwise unhinged Acid Mothers. The resulting tension is not released until several minutes into the Mothers' own "In E," a heavier, guitar-based derivative of Riley's original.

It is hugely un-hip to hype In C out of all of the possible Acid Mothers Temple releases, many of which are: (a) weirder; (b) wilder; and (c) not as loudly touted by Pitchfork. These include Wild Gals a-Go-Go (Riot Season, 2000), New Geocentric World of Acid Mothers Temple (Squealer 2001), Mantra of Love (Alien8 Recordings, 2004), IAO Chant from the Cosmic Inferno (Ace Fu, 2005), Starless and Bible Black Sabbath (Alien8, 2006), Psychedelic Navigator (as Acid Mothers Guru Guru) (Important, 2007), and Pink Lady Lemonade/You're From Outer Space (Riot Season, 2008).

try to avoid contact with other people

2010-12-19T11:00:00.000-05:00

63. Dinosaur Jr.
Beyond / Farm
Fat Possum (2007); Jagjaguwar (2009)

The reunion of Dinosaur Jr. was a downright gift to those of us who were too young for PG-13 movies the last time that J. Mascis' trio made a great record. Aside from packing some of the group's tightest songs in years, Beyond demonstrated a small but measurable sense of maturity. The atmosphere was just a bit brighter---truer to the "ear-bleeding country" appellation that the band had adopted in the past. And the lyrics of songs like "This Is All I Came to Do" transform Dinosaur's slacker image into something of an anthem.

Farm is turbid, heavier, more muscular. Like the lumbering swamp things on the cover, it emphasizes sludgy, smokey power over emotional portraits. But "Over It" and others prove that the trio is not yet finished with sharp songcraft.

collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity

2010-12-19T10:45:00.001-05:00

64. Modest Mouse
The Moon & Antarctica
Epic, 2000

Coming at the end of the century, and, consequently, in my senior year of high school, the bright, airy pop songs that bracket Moon and Antarctica felt like getting over a long illness. In my life, Modest Mouse's major-label debut shared this role with Sleater-Kinney's All Hands on the Bad One, Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun, and live albums by Sunny Day Real Estate and Archers of Loaf. It cleared away the dull, acrid detritus of 1990s melodic metal, and, despite its dripping irony, pointed toward a better, more honest, and more mature way of listening to and making music.

I still remain with the camp that sees Moon and Antarctica as Modest Mouse's most focused, most effective songwriting effort. This may be because I credit the record with rescuing me from Fear Factory and Sevendust. But, no matter how it stands up compared with their 1990s output on Matador, Moon is something that Isaac Brock & friends will never top.

the intimate and persistent relations between local populations and their ancestors

2010-12-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

65. MV & EE with the Bummer Road
Mother of Thousands
Time-Lag, 2006

I have an ongoing debate with a friend about the best stretch of Live/Dead, the Grateful Dead's first official live album. He thinks it's the two chord throb of "Dark Star," followed by the out-and-out blast of "St. Stephen." I'm more partial to the slow-burn of Rev. Gary Davis' "Death Don't Have No Mercy," which tumbles into the nine-minute "Feedback," closing with the brief a cappella of "We Bid You Goodnight." The Davis song ranks among my favorite folk-blues tunes, and I love the way the noise of that songs runs over, spilling into "Feedback" before dying out.

But Mother of Thousands may be the source of our disconnect. A spectacular two-disc set from Matt Valentine and Erika Ehlers, it runs from blissful sunrise ragas to heavy-lidded folk before careening, after more than an hour, into an electrified, rattling, and utterly captivating version of "Death Don't Have No Mercy." This version propels itself far further than the Dead were willing to go, but the 1969 Live/Dead rendition is clearly an inspiration. After all, MV & EE would later rename their ensemble "the Golden Road."

The cover shot, of Valentine and Ehlers standing American Gothic-style in front of their Vermont trailer, communicates some sense of rural authenticity, perhaps a return to something simpler and more honest. But this record is ridiculously sophisticated, girded with an erudite knowledge of blues and folk heritage, colored by a (somewhat) authentic approach to Indian raga, and buzzing with eminently modern drone-making techniques. Still, there is something strangely apart-seeming about this duo's sound world, perhaps referencing the distance that the two musicians feel from their contemporary indie-folk artists. (Matt Valentine has said that he felt more at home touring with the punk-noise group Harry Pussy.)

This is the last time everything would seem so weird. After Mother, Valentine and Ehlers would put out a record on Thurston Moore's label, invite J. Mascis into the studio, and generally join the ragged and more interesting wing of indie-folk's establishment.

Your life as you know it is gone

2010-12-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

66. The Books
The Lemon of Pink
Tomlab, 2003

Below is a rather incomprehensible rant written quite late at night. Posted here unedited:

For those who still need to be convinced that electronic music plays a role in the transmission of modern folklore, the Books' sophomore release might provide a relatively inoffensive introduction. The crackling guitars, dancing banjos, and sweeping string lines provide enough familiar ground for comparisons to traditional folk music. We are also treated to a deeply bluesy refrain in "Don't Even Sing About It."

But The Lemon of Pink bears the marks of more modern musicians who, in their own way, may also be said to contribute to the development of a contemporary folklore. The Books' melodic lines wrap themselves around innumerable field recordings and vocal samples, exploring the musicality of everyday speech in much the same way as Steve Reich has done. The duo's homage to Dada sound poetry likely references a kind of anonymity, in which the identity of the speaker is cloaked in nonsense and otherworldly sounds.

Ultimately, the Books' reliance on a folkish melodicism, aside from being strikingly lovely, seems to make a statement about the role of modern electronic music. Laptoppers and electro-acoustic musicians like the Books are participating in a contemporary retelling and reconstruction of history. By decontextualizing and fragmenting the data to which we are consistently subjected, this kind of music tells new stories about the global cosmopolitan community. The message might be a populist one: that the important sounds, the meaningful noise, is the music that we make daily.

meedly meedly meedly MEEEE

2010-12-19T09:45:00.001-05:00

67. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
The Tyranny of Distance
Lookout!, 2001

In June of 2001, one could be forgiven for thinking that Tyranny of Distance foreshadowed the future of indie rock. The grunge hangover had faded, and Pavement, the heroes of '90s guitar rock, had been defunct for two years. Leo spattered the old formula with bursts of color: psychedelic swooshes, a mod-like electricity. And he realigned indie rock's punk influence from Black Flag to the Clash. It was hopelessly romantic, but less self-involved than the Strokes or the White Stripes. And it felt like something we could actually get behind.

It wouldn't happen this way, of course. The artists who are arguably most indebted to Leo have replaced his taut, explosive songwriting with a predilection for melodrama and repeated, exhausting climaxes. But Leo's shining guitar pop still stands with groups like Superchunk, the Clash, Pavement, and the Minutemen, reminding us of the pure fun we can have with only guitars, bass, drums, and an undying earnestness.

I wondered how badly ditching was going to hurt.

2010-12-19T09:15:00.000-05:00

68. The Mountain Goats
Get Lonely
4AD, 2006

I remember it said about Alfred Hitchcock that he regularly ducked questions about the symbolism or emotional resonance of his films, preferring to focus on his technical and visual achievements. To the extent that this reflects an effort to avoid discussing buried anxieties, consider this discussion thoroughly Hitchcockian.

In any case, the technical achievements here are remarkable. Get Lonely also features the most subtle and interesting arrangements of Darnielle's long career. The trembling, hollow snare drum fills "New Monster Avenue" with unending dread. And the major-key bounce of "Woke Up New" highlights with bitter irony the shivering, crumpled figure sketched by Darnielle's lyrics. And his attention to detail is in as fine a form as ever: "And then I hear angels in my ear / like marbles being thrown against a mirror."

An alternative-medicine doctor just outside of Belgrade

2010-12-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

69. Earth
The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Southern Lord, 2008

Earth 2, the classic 1993 record from Dylan Carlson's Earth, is something of a rite of passage for those heading from rock music outward into the morass of the avant-garde. Its drumless sludge and highly repetitive riffage endlessly seek the frequency that will blow a hole in your skull and drain your brain out the back end. It's a heavy, thunderous punishment, but at times a welcome adventure.

On Bees Made Honey, Carlson presents the culmination of the new sound he has been workshopping ever since he re-formed Earth earlier in the decade. With the distortion stripped away, and helped along by the steady thump of Adrienne Davies' drums, we find that Earth is as ominous as ever, but also that Carlson's music is remarkably elegant.

I remember staring out the northward window of the B train as it passed over the Manhattan Bridge, ice creeping from the shores into the East River, the post-industrial landscape of the Brooklyn Navy Yards set against a gray-brown sky. "Miami Morning Coming Down II" blaring in my ears, all shimmering chords and impossibly elongated melodies. It's an image I will never shake.

You're playing like the village idiot

2010-12-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

70. Castanets
Cathedral
Asthmatic Kitty/Sounds Familyre

Ray Raposa's grinding, apocalyptic folk music lay the soundtrack for many a night's drive between College Station and Austin, Texas. The horns on "You Are the Blood" wind woozily like an endless two-lane highway, and Raposa's arsenal of toys, drums, and effects reverberate like the squeal of tires or the roar of a Ford F-350.

As you approach the city lights of Austin, the drum machine of "Cathedral 4" bounces as the record ends on a hopeful note. But the record always starts again, and across the pastures, through the empty gas stations, and into the windows of the motor inn, you can hear the chorus' refrain: "It's alright / to want more / than this."

We have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we have no future.

2010-12-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

71. Four Tet
Rounds
Domino, 2003

It's rare that the electronic music community can turn out a record that's both eminently listenable and forward-thinking, while retaining the relentless throb that gives the genre its distinctiveness. Kieran Hebden, the mind behind Four Tet, manages to make a career out of doing this over and over again. And he does so without gimmicks, without pretension, without Thom Yorke, and without breathy, semi-sexy female vocal contributions.

Rounds, the third album from Hebden's Four Tet alias, places the emphasis on organic sounds, brittle frameworks, swing feel, and easy-breathing sound-worlds. Sure, there are some hard driving moments hear, such as the deceptively tense "She Moves She," but the record is overall focused on developing a more dreamy mood. All the while, it steers clear of "ambient" territory, largely through Hebden's creative interpolation of jazz idioms. The track "As Serious as Your Life," which references this outstanding new-jazz memoir, conjures the pulse and headiness of '60s and '70s jazz, but with the breezy accessibility of DJ Shadow's ambient breakbeat.

Kieran Hebden remained a force in electronic music throughout the decade. His other records as Four Tet, particularly Everything Ecstatic (2005) and Ringer (2008), are almost on par with this one. Hebden's Exchange Sessions with drummer Steve Reid also represent vital contributions to post-millennial jazz. He can also be heard on Four Tet's DJ-Kicks entry, on an interesting split single with Burial, remixing J. Dilla tracks, and playing in his post-rock band Fridge.

Any thug can kill. I need you to take your ego out of the equation

2010-12-19T07:45:00.000-05:00

72. T.I.
King
Grand Hustle/Atlantic, 2006

Ride wit me for a minute: Last time I spun King, it was on my trip to the Atlantic Ave. Target. You know, to pick up some household items. Light bulbs, mechanical pencils, some 409 to clean up in case anyone wants to come over and kick it with a stand-up guy. So I loaded up King on the mp3 player, grabbed my two-wheeled pushcart, and headed down Hanson Place in my flip-flops. Shinin'. What you know about that?

I couldn't find the shampoo we needed, and someone else took the last package of the kind of blue pens that I prefer. Target, why you wanna go and do that, huh? And I got the wrong halogen bulbs, which cost me a bill or two. But I returned them, and got all my money back. All of it. Yeah, bitch. I'm talking to you.

Who Is Andrea Yates?

2010-12-19T07:30:00.002-05:00

73. Aufgehoben vs. Gary Smith
Magnetic Mountain
Junior Meat, 2001

In 2007, Aufgehoben marveled at their popularity, then rising along with the rest of the noise scene. "I don't feel any affinity to the rest of the scene," said David Panos. "I think other bands have more hair than us. Or they're using laptops."

As aggressive as they are intellectual, and as meditative as they are physically brutal, Aufgehoben develop a one-of-a-kind sound. They record spontaneously, without re-takes, but then the shape the sound in post-production for months or years before release. The result is a fiery combination of live rock madness and meticulous, considered composition.

For this outing, guitarist Gary Smith adds another layer of density to the assault, which was recorded in a single day in 2000. The session has a shaggier and more direct feel than the group's later work, though the year-long delay between recording and release gave the group ample time to sculpt and alter these monolithic pieces.

After the session, Aufgehoben engulfed Gary Smith, who continues to record with the group---a fact that speaks to the transformative power of this band.

"Was it part of a game, or was it about the money?"

2010-12-19T07:20:00.002-05:00

74. David Banner
Mississippi: The Album
SRC/Universal, 2003

My introduction to this record came with a Wire magazine feature on Southern and Texas rap, which included a photo of thousand-pound David Banner lugging a 2x4. I thought, "I bet this guy makes great records."

That he does. The gruff-voiced MC's thug tracks thump harder than any would-be contenders, laying down a nearly non-stop narrative of sun-scorched violence, crime, and poverty. They're also supremely clever: "we're throwin' ... hot lead parties." But Banner also shows some surprising nuance, and the reflective "Cadillac on 22s" still stands as an undeniable classic.

...immense new power to heal

2010-12-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

75. Weakling
Dead as Dreams
Tumult, 2000

Weakling did it first. By the end of the decade, bands like Wolves in the Throne Room would be riding high on the resurgence of black metal. Their epic-length songs, squealing between thunderous blastbeat and stunning melodic passages, would win the praise of mainstream metal critics, as well as indie blogs and experimental music fiends.

But Weakling did it first, and did it best. No song is shorter than 10 minutes. Song titles include "Cut Their Brains and Place Fire Therein," and "This Entire Fucking Battlefield." Their drummer used the name "Little Sunshine."

the most serious crimes of concern to the international community

2010-12-19T06:18:00.000-05:00

76. The Mountain Goats
Tallahassee
4AD, 2002

When talking about The Mountain Goats, everyone remembers the psychotic, self-destructive love thing. And every fan recalls the Alpha couple: one of John Darnielle's most demented and obsessive creations. Tallahassee devotes fourteen songs to these ill-fated lovers, and the barreling, self-obsessed choruses of "See America Right" and "No Children" remain a hit for anyone who reached sexual maturity in the early years of the 21st century.

For Darnielle's part, he seems to have accepted his newfound budget with glee on the Goats' first studio album. "America" and "Oceanographer's Choice" bring a full-bodied rock sound and a four-on-the-floor punch to Darnielle's finely honed angst. And the animosity-driven love story make be what makes "No Children" timeless, but the rollicking piano figure burns it into your memory.

The quiet songs, though, are equally brilliant achievements. "Old College Try" trembles as the organ player lays down a subtle pedal point. "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" replicates the intimate feel of early Goats ballads, but the studio space adds an entirely new dimension of emptiness. The repeating guitar figure on the title track lend the perfect accompaniment to Darnielle's lost and sputtering lyrics: "there are loose ends by the score / what did I come down here for? / you."

'I'm sure young people in this country are going to kind of like them kind of representing a little bit'

2010-08-28T18:30:00.000-04:00

77. Flying Lotus
Los Angeles
Warp, 2008

I read about this guy when the Reset EP landed in 2007, and at the time, Flying Lotus was just a neat little factoid. Like "Oh, Alice Coltrane's great nephew is a beatmaker, and he's apparently a Madlib/Dilla disciple. How sweet." There were some cool tricks --- bent vocals, snappy beats --- but nothing you couldn't get elsewhere.

But, in ascending to Warp Records, Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison) found his niche. The seventeen dusted, fragmented tracks on Los Angeles take a similar approach to musical geography as Madlib's WLIB-FM: King of the Wigflip, released that same year. Except, where Madlib draws on horns, beats and vocals to evoke a retro-American, hard-funk image of downtown LA, Ellison's is more of a global approach. Ducking into the corners and alleys of the city, he finds the scents and flavors of a multitude of cultures, as in the drumbeat on "Melt!" or the track "Beginner's Falafel." Stitching these fragments together is a pulsing sense of rhythm that Ellison's cosmically conscious great aunt would be proud of.

It must have come from space. I hope it did.

2010-08-28T18:25:00.000-04:00

78. Mirah
Advisory Committee
K, 2001

Much of Mirah's success as a performer is due to the defiantly sexy and ever-optimistic attitude the pervades both her voice and her lyrics. You can hear it in "Murphy Bed," from her debut You Think It's Like This but It's Really Like This, which spins a tale of light bondage into a sweet love letter.

But Advisory Committee truly establishes Mirah as a creative force. Engaging the often ominous buzz and flutter of tracks like "Body Below" and "Mt. St. Helens," she finds a new emotional range and depth, one that would repeat to almost as great success on C'mon Miracle in 2004. And, alongside producer Phil Elvrum, she pushes herself to epic heights on "Cold, Cold Water" and "The Garden," which her previous work only hinted at. Magnificently varied, playful, and exploratory, Advisory Committee stands among the records of this decade that raise the bar significantly for singer-songwriters.

She kept the boy's shoes

2010-08-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

79. Missy Elliott
Missy E ... So Addictive / Under Construction
Elektra/WEA, 2001 / Elektra/WEA, 2002

Missy's video for "The Rain," with that weird trash-bag suit and those fish-eye lenses, is one of my formative memories of MTV. I was fifteen when the mind-bending, hydro-loving, Anne Peebles-sampling single established Missy Elliott as one of the hottest and most adventurous voices in rap. At the time, I just thought it was weird. But it did make me think that MTV, and the world of pop music, could be an exciting and challenging place.

But nothing about "The Rain" could foreshadow the singular, versatile voice that she would establish on these two records, released back to back in 2001 and 2002. So Addictive could have exploded out the gate with the timeless "Get Ur Freak On," but Missy and Timbaland instead start the record at a slow simmer, exploring Missy's liquid flow and standing her next to Method Man and Ludacris as a first-tier lyricist. "Freak" hits the sweet spot, and then the record veers into left field with old-school disco, club tracks and a solid love ballad in "Take Away." The whole record is restless, searching, and challenging in its own way.

On Under Construction, she tightens up. It sounds as if she decided that conquering the rap game was the only way to deal with the trauma that comes with losing so many talented colleagues so soon. Where So Addictive was expansive and exploratory, Construction is taut, assertive: "I don't carry guns / kick ass with a chain." Both records make me feel like I did when I was fifteen.

They wed the most beautiful girls; they are building big houses; they have new cars; new guns

2010-08-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

80. Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III
Cash Money, 2008

I have two friends who like to sing "A Milli" at parties. But not the verses or the hook, to the extent that there is a hook. One hunches over, sticks out his forearms like he's about to impersonate a hummingbird, and chants, "amilliamilliamilliamilliamilliamilli..." This goes on for a couple bars. Then the other friend comes in: "boom. boom-kh. boom. boom-kh. boom. boom-kh. kh-kh-kh kh kh kh." They really love doing this.

Change the subject by bombing Iran

2010-08-07T15:01:00.000-04:00

81. The Thermals
The Body, the Blood, the Machine
Sub Pop, 2006

'I have a vision -- maybe just a hope -- of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country.'

NY Times columnist (and sometimes liberal blowhard) Paul Krugman wrote these words in 2003, when the United States was setting fire to the globe. But he resurrected them in 2006, when the previously unthinkable became reality: as a people, we reversed course, began to admit we were wrong. The Great Revulsion had arrived.

Hutch Harris and the Thermals could be the voice of the turning tide. The trio's first record, More Parts Per Million, screamed out of the Sub Pop catalog in 2003, the same year that Krugman first prayed for a mass rejection of Bushism. It's crackling, lo-fi punk hurled itself in every direction, a confused frustration that sat perfectly with the divisionism of the time.

Just as appropriately, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, sounds focused and cutting, revolted and a little guilty. Its villains rage across the record's landscape, chewing up the weak and shouting to the supplicating masses, "Keep your eyes straight / for chrissakes / remember we're your friends." But it also paints a sympathetic and rousing portrait of the sheep on "Returning to the Fold." And no one is redeemed.

Make sure your outfit matches your dread

2010-08-07T14:23:00.002-04:00

82. Mclusky
Mclusky Do Dallas
Beggars Too Pure, 2002

Hopefully, one or two records like Mclusky Do Dallas will drop every decade until I die. This Welsh group was otherwise a B-list noise-rock band. Despite its awesome title, 2005's The Difference Between You and Me Is That I'm Not On Fire didn't exactly deliver. But here, they find the pressure point, and stab at it, hard, fourteen times in a row.

Spastic without overplaying its hand (fuck you, Franz Ferdinand), and misanthropic without being too cool for school (fuck you, Black Lips), Do Dallas spits out a taut brand of indie cock-rock that lays down the perfect soundtrack for doing absolutely stupid things. Like puking out the side of a moving vehicle stupid. The best line: "pull up my pants / now that the camera crews have gone."

it assembles images based on GPS and creates a centimeter-accurate blueprint of any building

2010-06-27T12:48:00.003-04:00

83. Various Artists
Clicks + Cuts
Mille Plateaux, 2000

It's not hard to understand why the asthetes of the early '00s were drawn to glitch. It's spasmatic, sputtering and twitchy, while at the same time tapping into that eternal rhythm that in the 1980s flowed between Detroit and Berlin before spreading across the globe. The style's embrace of surface noise and skipping CDs lends it a grounded, earthy texture, while retaining the consciousness-expanding, throbbing basslines of early techo. Working at the micro-level, the style can be stunningly complex and intricate, but there is also something punk rock and aggressively sexual in its pulsing, wide-open spaces and glittering static.

Vladislav Delay and Farben push the first disc along with heady, pounding tracks, and the hugely influential producer Pole underpins his clattering dub excursion with a pulsating, sinister bass. Dettinger's contribution, "Strange Fruit," is the most mysterious, a swirling and engrossing mix of tones and samples. Many of the artists here, including Brettschneider, Wolfgang Voigt, and Dettinger, contribute top-notch work. But it's hard to tell whether or not Kid 606's track, which sounds like evil robotic crickets, is mocking the whole enterprise.

In addition to being excellent on its own, this record's appearance on this list also serves as a monument to other artists who did not get enough recognition. These include Vladislav Delay, who, as Luomo, appears at No. 128. However, under this name, he dropped at least two top-notch records of expansive, experimental techno: the collection Multila (2000), and the long-form Anima (2001). Luomo's Convivial (2008) is also worth grabbing.

Wolfgang Voigt, here under the alias All, appeared at No. 99 as Gas. He remains prolific under several other names. German techno-dub master Pole had his best records in the late 1990s, but his 2007 return, Steingarten, was absolutely stunning. Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) made lovely, lowercase glitch records in the early 2000s --- Prototypes and Transform --- but his best work may be found in his collaborations with Riyuichi Sakamoto, on records including Insen and Revep. For, a limited-run 2006 release, is also worth tracking down.

Pan Sonic released the monster four-disc set Kesto in 2004, and they returned with the heavier, almost industrial Katodivaihe in 2007; I found them through Wire Tapper 16. Frank Bretschneider's long-form 2007 record Rhythm is good for studying, and Kid 606's misanthropic Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You (2003) is good fun. Then there are the artists I still want to get to know: Farben, Ultra-Red, SND, Kit Clayton, Thomas Brinkmann, and Dettinger.

to jerk back the pretty carpet that covers over the deep jagged hole in the floor

2010-06-27T12:10:00.004-04:00

84. Iron & Wine
The Shepherd's Dog
Sub Pop, 2007

Described as Sam Beam's Swordfishtrombones, The Shepherd's Dog represents nothing less than a stunning transformation for the songwriter, exploding with color and exploring an of arrangements and compositional techniques.

It's funny then, that it was the record's most "typical" tune that drew me in. "Resurrection Fern" adopts the same elegiac tone that endowed Beam's debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle, with such emotional momentum. It's full of locked-away secrets, and of souvenirs from lives long gone: "Like stubborn boys across the road, we'll keep everything," Beam sings. "Grandma's gun, and the black bear claw that took her dog."

So, in a way, this is just another Iron & Wine record: despite Beam's growth as a composer, what matters is the lyrics. What seems to be a crime narrative, "White Toothed Man" is cluttered with verbal gems and curiosities, such as the titular character who "sold me a gun and a map of Canaan and a government bond." The record possesses the same weaknesses as earlier I&W releases, namely Beam's soulless, limited voice, but these can be overlooked. In all, this record stands as one of the decade's high-water marks for sentimental indie rock poetry.

Mongolian Eyes

2010-06-25T18:00:00.002-04:00

85. Lightning Bolt
Hypermagic Mountain
Load, 2005

Unlike most noise artists, Lightning Bolt's is a disciplined kind of freakout, a stop-start barrage of iron-fisted riffs and drum fills. This structured approach makes Hypermagic Mountain's chaos and freakdom an unsettling echo of 1970s punk rock's flirtations with and parodies of European fascism, but this attitude that provides the perfect commentary to the mid-2000s climate of hysterical paranoia. The duo's expanded palette on this record may suggest transcendence or escape, but Hypermagic remained very much grounded in the throbbing, grinding, and frightful present of 2005.

a desire to experiment, to use information to create extraordinary drawings, objects and systems

2010-06-25T17:57:00.000-04:00

86. Keith Fullerton Whitman
Playthroughs
Kranky, 2002

It's been a long time since drone was a new thing, much less a revolutionary thing. Four years after Whitman's Playthroughs, the group Emeralds would put out a record on American Tapes titled Bullshit Boring Drone Band.

But, when patiently, thoughtfully crafted, drone records work like adrenaline on the mind, opening up wide spaces for exploration and creativity. Keith Fullerton Whitman's Playthroughs stands as a monument to inspired stillness, wide open spaces, and structured, somewhat controlled meditation. Get this and the live follow-up, 2006's Lisbon.

Now there is talk of war --- a war with the human world

2010-06-25T17:36:00.002-04:00

87. Hiroshi Hasegawa
Ascension No. 999
Steinklang Industries, 2008

White-hot fragments, chest-rumbling stutters, and a mess of feedback that spans the whole audio spectrum. It's like surfing the radio dial in hell, except that the sound is so thick, so dense, so compelling, you might actually want to spend eternity with it.

A lot of extreme noise music desperately tries to revel in ugliness, thumping on contact mics, grunting, wearing fetish gear, and playing with feces. Hasegawa's old group, C.C.C.C., may have been guilty of some of this, and I've never found it very compelling. But Ascension, as the name implies, is all about transcendence.

The Mandrill with his multicolored Wonder Ass that he used to bedazzle opponents

2010-06-25T17:30:00.000-04:00

88. Quasimoto
The Unseen
Stones Throw, 2000

Perhaps Madlib's most fully realized solo statement, The Unseen presents the first album of Otis Jackson's pitch-shifted alter-ego. It's a jazzy, dubwise, and smoked-out party, with enough surface noise and horn fragments to evoke the musty smell of an old record store. "I stab a nigga in the chest with a pitchfork," Madlib declares on "Bad Character, but the lawbreaking on this record tends much more to the egg-throwing and pantsing variety. But, for all the experimentalism and goofiness, reviewers often overlook Madlib's tight rhymes, heavy beats, and nonchalant, fuck-tha-police demeanor. "Try keepin' it real, you should try keepin' it right."

'He knew them.'

2010-06-25T17:22:00.000-04:00

89. Liars
Drum's Not Dead
Mute, 2006

"It Fit When I Was a Kid" is the key:

we will drive you in the boot
through your crooked past
to your resting place

we will leave you in the woods
tell your friends you slipped
down the Lumen Tree

Huge Hole Found in the Universe

2010-06-13T01:10:00.001-04:00

90. Flower-Corsano Duo
The Radiant Mirror
Textile, 2007

This list offers a litany of great drummers. Jazz veteran Han Bennink pops up on Spring Heel Jack's Live (# 113). Madman Hamid Drake backs up William Parker on O'Neal's Porch (# 115), and Guillermo E. Brown brings his ecstatic but tasteful chops to Freedom Suite (#185) and High Water (# 168). Ches Smith, an indie rock mercenary who has played with Xiu Xiu and Camper Van Beethoven, pounds out Mary Halvorson's brittle song structures on Dragon's Head (#149). And we've seen Paal Nilssen-Love ("the best drummer in the world," I called him) with Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound (#144) and with The Thing (#96). From the rock/pop side of things, it's worth mentioning Katherina Bornefeld (# 122), ?uestlove (# 133), and Yoshimi P-Wee (# 143). We'll also see Brian Chippendale before it's all over. Kevin Shea, one of Brooklyn's best avant-jazz drummers, was dropped last minute.

This is all to say that none of these people are anything like Chris Corsano. Over the past decade, this young, American avant-jazz musician has done more to advance both pop and experimental music than anyone else currently working. A solo artist himself, Corsano has mastered the tunefulness of "colorists" such as Paul Motian, as well as the frenetic drive of Bennink or Chippendale.

Here, Corsano engages in three shamanistic discussions with Michael Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra), who also turns in excellent performances on a droning, overdriven bulbul tarang. That instrument's fluid approach allows Corsano to push and expand the music rhythmically, while simultaneously offering melodic and harmonic counterpoints. As a result, these three tunes rise and spread like wildfire in wind. A second release, The Four Aims, finds the duo branching out further, but their first release is their rawest and the best.

Now bitter winds were screaming in from the west, searing the land and ripping the grass from the soil

2010-06-13T01:02:00.000-04:00

91. Raekwon
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. II
Ice H2O, 2009

In The Wu-Tang Manual (yes, I own it), RZA admits that he usually makes winter records, with icy timbres and muffled beats, instilling a sense of isolation and paranoia. All of the early Wu releases were winter records, he notes, except for Raekwon's 1995 debut (Only Built 4 Cuban Linx). You can hear the summertime shine in the bouncy beat of "Knuckleheadz," in the hot, aggressive flow of "Criminology," and in the sex-rap of "Ice Cream."

For Part II, however, Raekwon brings a blizzard. The record is dominated by the Wu's colder side, with the steel-eyed death-traps and drug raps on songs like "House of Flying Daggers," and with the dark statement of purpose "Cold Outside." This shift may have something to do with the fact that RZA apprentices Mathematics and Inspektah Deck contribute heavily to this record. Or it may be a function of Raekwon's age, or of the times, soldiering on after Katrina and amid an endless war.

It is a black box they have refused to share

2010-06-13T00:38:00.000-04:00

92. Evan Parker & Keith Rowe
Dark Rags
Potlatch, 2000

As I became drawn to avant-garde music around 2005, I had trouble connecting with AMM veteran Keith Rowe. It wasn't the tabletop guitarist's atonality that bothered me, but his particularly cold, metallic approach to improvisation. It didn't swing, it didn't sing, and it even lacked the immersive quality of most ambient and drone music.

Saxophonist Evan Paker, however, is another story. I caught him solo at John Zorn's The Stone in 2006, shortly after he released an album of double-tracked sax tunes (Time Lapse, 2006, Tadzik). Firmly rooted in jazz, but way, way out, his continuous, winding flow takes no time at all to travel up your spine and take hold, moving you back and forth in an unending sway.

Parker, it turns out, was my key to understanding Rowe. Dark Rags is the pair's first date together, but it would be impossible to know from listening. Here, Rowe and Parker demonstrate an unmatched ability to sympathize and respond to the other, as Rowe's guitar releases sheets of sound that swaddle Parker's loping melodies. The record rarely rises above a lower-case intensity, but it never loosens its grip. And, buried in the static are layers of secrets, waiting for repeated listening.

The remains of the victims were thrown over the nearby cliff

2010-06-13T00:30:00.000-04:00

93. The Bug
London Zoo
Ninja Tune, 2008

The singles began creeping out in 2007: "Skeng" and "Jah War" with Roll Deep's Flowdan; "Poison Dart" with Warrior Queen. It was like knowing that something terrible was coming, like seeing the river rise or watching an army advance. Kevin Martin's "The Bug" alias is known for this: thumping, ominous beats that latch onto the most apocalyptic and the maddest tendencies of dub. Trembling silence. Merciless basslines. Something's coming.

When London Zoo did drop in 2008, it was everything these early salvos promised. Supported by an incredible cast of vocalists, Martin takes a snapshot on a city at the edge of madness, flailing, always looking over its shoulder. Each singer brings his or her own best game as well. Ricky Ranking turns in the dancehall paranoia of "Murder We" and the meditative closer "Judgment." Flowdan murders the aforementioned tracks. Spaceape drops the decade's angriest rant on "Fuckaz." And the always sexy and dangerous Warrior Queen take the reins on the clattering masterpiece "Poison Dart." Margins Music (No. 198) is nice, but London Zoo is the definitive record of post-dubstep London.

Revolution is hard to pronounce

2010-06-13T00:18:00.001-04:00

94. Rafael Toral
Space
Staubgold, 2006

For David Bowie and Tangerine Dream, the music of space was that of a formless, lonely void. For Sun Ra and George Clinton, it was an endless adventure, a party, a place of possibility where the wrongs on Earth could be made right. Then Modest Mouse said space travel was boring.

With his Space Program, for which this record was the overall statement of purpose, Toral imagines an entirely new vocabulary, revealing his own understanding of the Final Frontier. The record opens with an amplified spring (sounds like a Star Wars blaster rifle), reverberating in an seemingly endless void. But Space is not another droning ambient record. Instead, Toral's void sounds more like the squiggles and endless melodies of free jazz, though understated, without the bleating and the skronk that genre is known for. In this sense, "space" sounds like a lightspeed voyage with a radio telescope, picking up the universe's endless variety of signals and noise, as well as the pulsing silence of the space in between.

I chose to build Rapture

2010-06-13T00:07:00.000-04:00

95. DJ Spooky
Creation Rebel
Trojan/Sanctuary, 2007

"Dis is a musical connection!" shouts the sample and scratch bombast that opens Spooky's rummage through the vaults of Trojan records. The record features revised and repurposed versions of several classic tracks, including "Under Mi Slang Teng," Michael Rose's "Freedom Reign," Dawn Penn's "No No No," and two versions of Marley's "Mr. Brown." But with his sequencing and knob-twiddling, Spooky makes his own vital contribution to reggae in the 21st century. Get this, if for no other reason than to hear Mutaburaka's "Dis Poem Burns Babylon": "Dis poem was copied from the Bible, your prayer book, Playboy magazine, the New York Times, Reader's Digest, the CIA files, the KGB files / dis poem is no secret ... dis poem is watching you trying to make sense of this poem."

a tan trench coat, a steel mallet, a folding knife with a 4-inch blade, 3 to 4 feet of rubber tubing, large plastic garbage bags and about $600 cash

2010-06-12T23:50:00.000-04:00

96. Cato Salsa Experience & The Thing with Joe McPhee
Two Bands and a Legend
Smalltown Superjazz, 2007

All you need is the groups' cover of The Sonics' "The Witch." Thing bassist Ingebright Håker Flaten sets it off by demolishing his bass for two minutes. Then a brief pause before both bands come in, pounding the riff: dun-dun-DAH-DAH-dun. dun-dun-DAH-DAH-dun. As the title of the next track clearly states, this record is "Too Much Fun." It's childish, like throwing-a-temper-tantrum fun. Like what I imagine stealing a car feels like.

In keeping with The Thing's garage-y approach to jazz, this record is made up mostly of wild, freak-out versions of other people's tunes. In addition to The Sonics, these groups cover P.J. Harvey, James "Blood" Ulmer, the Kingsmen, and South African trumpeter Mongezi Feza. But the trip through saxophonist Mats Gustaffson's own "Tika Loo" is the centerpiece, with both drummers flailing thrashing, Cato Thomasson's guitar kicking out the riff like Chinese water torture. Joe McPhee introduces the tune with free-verse poetry that might stand as the record's statement of purpose: "Fight it down / fight it down / FIGHT IT LOUD!"

Shock Doctrine

2010-06-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

97. Deerhunter
Cryptograms
Kranky, 2007

Hearing Deerhunter was a tremendous relief in 2007, when indie rock had splintered into the Irony Camp and the Sincerity Camp. The Irony Camp, encompassed the smug self-effacement of LCD Soundsystem, the outlandish costume-pop purveyed by Of Montreal, the ultra-sceney Animal Collective, and the goofy, semi-fratty Black Lips. To connect with these artists usually meant getting the joke (or, in LCD Soundsystem's case, getting the reference). Apart from the odd song or two --- "All My Friends," "For Reverend Green," --- the music wasn't supposed to make you feel anything.

The Sincerity Camp was too much in the opposite direction. Arcade Fire, the National, and the Broken Social Scene folks all had developed a tendency to tug at your heartstrings without speaking to your head. It felt somewhat vapid.

Indie rock demands both of these elements. Sonic Youth may have sung with detachment and a bit of a sneer, but they wore their love for their music on their sleeves, and it came out in rolling, unstoppable crecendos. Or go back further, and think about the wretched, twisting performances of Iggy and the Stooges.

This is what made Cryptograms so great: it hit the sweet spot. Singer Bradford Cox's penchant for self-abasement (and for wearing victorian dresses) occupied the press. But the record was also beautiful, lovingly pieced together from a psychedelic era they were far to young to have witnessed, and from the art-punk sound that had developed a generation ago in their home state of Georgia. Sure, Cryptograms was nothing if not derivative. But Deerhunter struck just the right pose: bored, suburban, obsessive, and wonderfully adventurous.

A Coney Island sort of thing

2010-05-15T18:22:00.001-04:00

98. Valerio Cosi
Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock
Digitalis, 2008

Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock is a rare avant-garde record for the '00s. It's well-thought-out, but feels casual and spontaneous. It constantly challenges, but never overwhelms. And it's perfectly pleasant without falling into the trap of "drone."

"Studies for Saxophone and Electronics," the album's masterpiece, is a case in point. In 20 minutes, Cosi flies from the vaguely swinging minimalism of Riley and Reich's counterpoint pieces through to an ecstatic noise blast and a lovely denouemont of synthesized strings. On the followup, "A New Vipassna," three saxophones dance circles around each other: one bleating, one singing lyrically, and one in an unstoppable pedal point.

The record's monumental closer finds Cosi's saxophone moaning noir-ish melodies amid a windswept tundra of subdued electronic drones. Challenging but not difficult, way out but not unpleasant, it's the perfect ending to this outstanding set from a stellar improviser.

'There's more life in a sewage channel than this river '

2010-05-15T18:00:00.000-04:00

99. Gas
Pop
Mille Plateaux, 2000

Producer Wolfgang Voigt's final album as Gas presaged much of the first-rate experimental electronica that would develop in the first decade of the twenty-first century. His obsession with languid, mid- to high-end tones, at the expense of throbbing bass, predicts the wavering, melodic approach of subsequent records by Four Tet and others. The endless, feverish repetition dovetails with the development of glitch, microhouse, and minimalist techno. Even his album covers might be a precursor to a rising interest in field recordings and the trend toward natural soundscapes followed by some of electronica's best artists. (See Biosphere's Dropsonde).

Other reviewers have mentioned the train-like sound of Pop's final track, and it does clatter along rhythmically, much like the work of the previous generation of German experimentalists. But unlike the synthetic industrial landscapes, Voigt suffuses his train songs with a compelling naturalistic warmth.

the question of the Chosen versus the universal nature of salvation

2010-05-09T23:01:00.002-04:00

100. Horse Feathers
House With No Home
Kill Rock Stars, 2008

Horse Feathers are victims. They're victims of coming too late to catch the first wave of indie-americana that dominated the early '00s. Even worse, they're victims of comparisons to folkies like Iron & Wine and sad-sack songwriters like Bright Eyes -- comparisons that are not only unfair, but also border on ignorant.

Sure, Horse Feathers write American folk music in a rambling, gravelly contemporary style that recalls a host of other indie-folk artists. But two things make Horse Feathers a unique and absolutely serendipitous find. First is singer Justin Ringle's voice, reedy and gravelly, but not at all strained. Its closest comparison is Tallest Man on Earth, or perhaps Tim Rutili (Califone) and Eric Bachmann (Crooked Fingers) without the years of damage and misuse.

Then there are Peter Broderick's arrangements. Employing a dizzying array of tones and colors, Broderick makes the songs dance and spin across a vast landscape in just 37 minutes. "Curs in the Weeds" stretches on like miles of pine forest, and curls like chimney smoke. Broderick is not afraid of negative space, however, and House's songs are just as bracing for what is not there: no strummed rhythm guitar, no backbeat. Ghosts haunt the empty cracks in these songs, and bring a sense of longing and absence to songs like "Helen."

Then Justin Ringle brings it back home: "Helen if you call my name you know I'll go / much the same way the sun steals the snow."

I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat

2010-05-09T23:00:00.001-04:00

101. DJ Muggs vs. GZA the Genius
Grandmasters
Angeles, 2005

This East-West collaboration features two '90s hip-hop legends at the top of their game. Everyone knows GZA, the cerebral Wu-Tang member and the author of the 1995 classic Liquid Swords. And, in addition to making beats for House of Pain and Ice Cube, DJ Muggs is a regular member of Cypress Hill. Muggs' sound has developed significantly since "Jump Around" and "Insane in the Brain," and here he lays out a cold, trip-hop-flavored tapestry that suits GZA's dispassionate crime narratives.

Indeed, though the themes of this record revolve around chess, it's best described as a series of stone-cold police reports. Riding on Muggs' smoky, frozen beats, GZA's tales evoke images of blood spatter, yellow tape, and terrible plots hatched in dim back rooms. The album's highlight comes early, with "Exploitation of Mistakes," a CSI-styled track accompanied by the clatter of a typewriter.

Note: This decade saw the rebirth of both of these veterans' careers. In addition to dropping a solo album that I haven'theard, Muggs also appears on a similarly styled 2008 record with rapper Planet Asia (Pain Language). He also turns in production for both of GZA's solo albums this year: Legend of the Liquid Sword (2002) and Pro Tools (2008). On top of these records, GZA turned in excellent perfomances on Wu-Tang's two group projects this decade: The W (2000) and 8 Diagrams (2008). UPDATE: Somehow I forgot Iron Flag (2001). It's also very good.

Motherfucking snakes

2010-05-09T16:30:00.001-04:00

102. Extra Golden
OK-Oyot System
Thrill Jockey, 2006

In its second day, about halfway into the afternoon, the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival hit a dead spot. Titus Andronicus had fallen all over themselves; Fleet Foxes had done their cute harmonies; and Fuck Buttons and Dizzee Rascal had ripped shit up. I found myself watching !!!, and dying a little inside. The band had taken the twtichy, cutting dance-punk of Gang of Four and early Liars, and turned it into some kind of indie rock frat party. I'll never forget it: Singer Nic Offer jumped around in these tiny red shorts, biting his bottom lip and thrusting his pelvis at the crowd. I had to get out of there.

Then I stumbled on an oasis at the second stage. The music was relaxed but unrelenting, as the band's several guitarists twisted around each other's melodies. A singer in a pressed white shirt waived his finger, chanting on every offbeat. The air held this irrepressable sway. This was Extra Golden, and it's the happiest I've ever been at a rock show.

A collaboration between D.C.-based guitarists and Kenyan benga musicians, Extra Golden weaves a unique fusion of American indie rock, Ry Cooder- and David Byrne-informed world music, and benga. OK-Oyot System is the first and best of the band's three excellent records, and it is the only to feature founding member Otieno Jagwasi.

Lights going on and off

2010-05-08T17:05:00.003-04:00

103. The Microphones
The Glow, Pt. 2
K, 2001

This is what imagination sounds like. Everything happening in hyperreality. Raindrops pinging against the window, the sun rising with the earth-shaking roll of a floor tom. Seemingly incoherent ideas flow into each other seamlessly, and swelling organs and shattering guitars sing the triumph of it all. With Glow, Phil Elvrum takes these hypercolors and paints a shambling, scattershot masterpiece of the wide-eyed Pacific Northwest indie scene. Whimsical and schizophrenic, sure, but deeply, magnificently sincere.

the sun deep in the darkness like a flash of knives in a cave

2010-05-08T17:02:00.001-04:00

104. Burial
Burial
Hyperdub, 2006

There must be a rule that an underground style dies at the moment it sees its "first great full-length album." Like, sure you love Burial's first record. But that's not really dubstep -- it's not the real shit, the live shit, the heavy shit, the raw shit. It's not the stuff that you can only find on limited-run 12'' singles. It's not the stuff that was only played that one night in a cavernous club in London when we were all on ecstasy and rubbing up against each other in the dark.

Well, I've never done ecstasy, and I definitely wasn't there for the early rumblings of dubstep, a dark, bass-heavy, shivering style of electronica that takes dub and jungle to another plane of existence. But I sure as hell was there when then-anonymous producer Burial killed the whole damn thing with this record. This record raised the bar almost impossibly high, forcing subsequent artists to continue innovating.

Though wracked with wind and freezing rain, Burial's tunes capture a kind of muffled humanity, finding a faint light in the stillness and darkness on the edge of a sprawling city. In the 2006 year-end issue of Wire magazine, Burial noted his enthusiasm for The Road, Cormac McCarthy's vision of a dystopian future released that same year. It's no surprise that the producer latched on to McCarthy's work, which discovers a dulled warmth amid the frozen and murderous ruins of civilization. Burial may have killed dubstep, but sometimes the aftermath is the best part.

'I can't read War and Peace anymore'

2010-05-08T17:00:00.000-04:00

105. No Age
Nouns
Sub Pop, 2008

When someone told me recently that he didn't get the hype surrounding this L.A. duo, I wanted to say, "That's because you haven't been waiting for this your whole life." For people of a certain age (nearly thirty), this is the band we've always wanted. No Age draws on all the great music we missed, the tunes of our older sisters and cool professors: Eno-esque ambient washes, My Bloody Valentine-style psychedelic flourishes, and the innocent glee of lo-fi pop. And it comes packaged in the wildest, loosest punk furor this side of Frank Black. Nouns is the punk rock that everyone raised on Sonic Youth and Pavement tried to make.

So if you never wanted to sound like this, then maybe Nouns doesn't mean anything. Or maybe you're not listening loud enough.

Murder in Small Town X

2010-05-08T16:40:00.001-04:00

106. Olivia Block
Mobius Fuse
Sedimental, 2001

Anchored in the tradition of Charles Ives, Block's Mobius Fuse catches the tiny moments of Americana, often missing from the bloody, Southern Gothic explorations of modern folk singers. Her's is a landscape populated with chirping crickets, punctuated by crackling fireworks, and alive with a dizzying, relentless hum. It's America on a small scale: the quiet times, the lush and languid spring days.

But, despite its microscopic focus and its brevity, Mobius Fuse is in no way miniature. The main piece sprawls like the suburbs themselves, tumbling out over a terrain with its own personality, one that demands attention. On the record's denouemont, an ensemble of brass, drums, crickets, and fireworks plays in reverent tribute to what was witnessed. But the piece only emphasizes the musicality of the formless, expanding mass that came before.

Face paint and fake blood

2010-04-23T00:20:00.002-04:00

107. Jazkamer
Metal Music Machine
Smalltown Supernoise, 2006

Oh god. Oh. God.

Jazkamer is Scandinavian noise artists Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre, although here they're joined by a cast of Norwegian black metal artists. The title hints at the record's production process, in which live instrumentation is cut and rearranged by Marhaug/Hegre. This results in absolutely punishing noise cuts, like opener "Friends of Satan," though Marhaug and Hegre stretch the longer tracks into throbbing, horrifying drones. ...

Oh, you don't care. Get this record.

Oh god.

Such is the happiness which made this rabbit.

2010-04-23T00:18:00.004-04:00

108. Edan
Beauty and the Beat
Lewis, 2005

Producer, turntablist, and rapper Edan throws his entire crate of tricks at this record, emphasizing retro-hop beats and the sugary side of psychedelic rock. There's nothing seamless about this record; it's more broken and disorienting. "Funky Voltron" arbitrarily increases its speed in the last minute, and "I See Colors" slams together a range of vocal samples, with nothing like the tidiness of DJ Shadow. But this spinning, cut-and-paste landscape only adds to Edan's overall chaotic, retro-futurist variety show, and it works.

If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut

2010-04-22T23:54:00.005-04:00

109. Jay-Z
The Black Album
Roc-A-Fella, 2003

I knew nothing about rap when I bought this record. Really, nothing: I thought Snoop Dogg sounded pretty cool, Talib Kweli had an impressive flow, and Chuck D sounded like an angry old man. Even two years later, when I voted this as one of the best albums of the past five years, I had never really given Blueprint a hard listen.

But The Black Album, along with a handful of classics (Liquid Swords, Nation of Millions, Black Star), brought me to hip-hop. You know how hard these songs hit, but it's the flourishes that make Jay's "retirement" record one of the decade's best. It's the way he raps a cappella and tosses the mic down on "What More Can I Say." It's the vicious sample on "Public Service Announcement." And, "If you shoot my dog / I'm gonna kill your cat / Just the unwritten laws in rap." What?

Stop listening to me: ATG says it better.

This rumbling, like Old Faithful

2010-04-22T23:26:00.000-04:00

110. Joëlle Léandre & Kevin Norton
Winter in New York: 2006
Leo, 2007

Léandre, a contrebassist from Aix-en-Provence, is not someone I would want to encounter in a back alley. It's not just the way she thwacks her bass, or the way she grunts when things get intense. The sweeping melodies and trembling, bowed riffs that she drags out of her instrument speak to a sharp, deep-thinking, and possibly sinister mind.

This live date finds her at The Stone (John Zorn's club) in Manhattan, paired with percussionist Kevin Norton. Free improvisiation may be best served by the duo setting, where two great musical minds have the opportunity to engage to sympathize, to attack, to react, and even to cohere as a single unit. Norton and Léandre are no exception. Given the bassist's ability to exact every nuance from her instrument, she's a perfect fit for Norton, who employs an array of mallets, bells, and cymbals here.

With Norton wringing piercing drones from his toys, and with Léandre's lonely, diving melodies, the record does indeed take on a decidedly wintery quality, though it's certainly a far cry from, say, "Fairytale of New York."

The Bird's Nest

2010-04-22T23:13:00.000-04:00

111. Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet
Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet
Nettwerk, 2008

On this, her second record, Washburn comes out as an outstanding songwriter in her own right. The majestic opener "A Fuller Wine" finds her voice effortlessly navigating through peaks and valleys. She turns whimsical on "Great Big Wall in China," while things threaten to get bloody on "Captain." Not to mention the traditional tunes: "Banjo Pickin' Girl" brings some levity, and her "Strange Things" isn't the best version on this top 200 list (that honor goes to Ekkehard Ehlers), but it's close.

Washburn speaks Chinese, and this record was recorded after the Sparrow Quartet took a spin through Tibet, playing bluegrass and absorbing local folk melodies. This cross-cultural dialogue brings some interesting experiments and diversions, such as "Taiyang Chulai" and "Kazakh Melody."

Oh, and Bela Fleck is on this record, which is a thing that matters to some people.

He's buried someplace in northern Mississippi

2010-04-16T22:56:00.007-04:00

112. Jackie-O Motherfucker
Fig. 5
Road Cone, 2000

If I didn't know better, I would have thought the phrase "cosmic American music" would be reserved for Jackie-O. While rooted in a kind of folk-spiritualism, the Portland-based group serves an electro-acoustic soup of skroking noise, shimmering guitar tones, random clatters, and half-melodies scraped out on a violin. With all the drone and buzz, Jackie-O certainly earns the term "space rock," but the descriptor is incomplete without the group's more organic tendencies.

Fig. 5 revolves around three long-form folkish numbers, whose influence makes the entire record sound less like spaceflight than shamanism. "Your Cells Are in Motion" recalls the post-rock americana of Tortoise as interpreted by a Native American dance ceremony. "Go Down Old Hannah" employs the voice of guitarist Honey Owens in a Sacred Harp-style rendition. And the groups rattling ten-minute version of "Amazing Grace" is nothing short of astounding. When the familiar theme surfaces (and it does), it sounds like shooting stars and smoke signals, automobile factories and subway stations. Which is to say, Fig. 5 isn't drippy, nostalgic folk revivalism, but something much more adventurous, modern, and honest.

'you need a little more decaf'

2010-04-10T19:19:00.006-04:00

113. Spring Heel Jack
Live
Thirsty Ear, 2003

I have very little idea who these Spring Heel Jack guys are. (Apparently, they started out in the 90s making drum-n-bass records.) And I really could care less. Instead, let's talk about William Parker's propulsive basslines, or about keyboardist Matthew Shipp's unique melodic voice. Or let's talk about the enormous, trembling sheets of distorted guitar from J. Spaceman (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized). Or about Evan Parker's wandering melodies. Finally, let's talk about Han Bennink, one of the great jazz percussionists, a veteran of Eric Dolphy's group and a hard-swinging, no-nonsense improviser.

We can talk about drum-n-bass, too. Specifically, we can talk about the destructive drum and bass duel between Parker and Bennink that sets off the second half of this record. We can talk about the tension, the explosions, the ridiculous horn blast at 8:30. Spring Heel Jack? I guess they make some nice sounds. But here, the guests steal the show.

Tomb of the Roaring Lions

2010-04-10T18:05:00.001-04:00

114. Carnival Skin
Carnival Skin
Nemu, 2006

Carnival Skin, a project of guitarist Bruce Eisenbell, trumpeter Peter Evans, drummer Klaus Krugel, clarinetist Perry Robinson, and bassist Hilliard Greene, dig into six nasty takes on a style of jazz that could be characterized as The New Swing. Heavily influenced by the heavy-as-fuck Chicago jazz of Ken Vandermark, these musicians engage in sinewy, free, and often noisy tunes that dance along to a finger-popping rhythm evoking the jazz of simpler times.

Carnival Skin may be the genre's greatest statement, as the musicians navigate the treacherously jagged terrain, cracked and bruised by Eisenbell's guitar, and collaborate to develop lively pieces rich with surprises, ear-bending melodies and off-kilter counterpoint.

I believe that we have to fight for that future by ourselves

2010-04-10T17:26:00.003-04:00

115. Old Time Relijun
Witchcraft Rebellion
K, 2001

"Greet Death," a threatening, glacial instrumental by Austin's Explosions in the Sky may best represent the thunderous, choking silence that the United States experienced on September 11, 2001. But Witchcraft Rebellion embodies the howling madness our country embraced in the months and years after the attack. It's the absurd atrocities of Mahmudiyah, the blood and dust of Fallujah. Arrington de Dionyso's groans foreshadow the screams of black sites, and the songs' panicked narritaves unravel like the best conspiracy theories.

Music this gritty and demented is made all the time (Pere Ubu, Electric Eels, Pussy Galore), but, released in the spring before 9/11, Witchcraft Rebellion ushered in the era of foreign wars and crimes against humanity with laudable ferocity.

a lot of fun except for the losing

2010-04-10T16:58:00.003-04:00

116. William Parker Quartet
O'Neal's Porch
Centering, 2001; AUM Fidelity, 2002

William Parker, one of the greatest living bassists, turns in a relaxed and free blowing session on O'Neal's Porch. The record is named for Parker's Uncle O'Neal, and, as the original liner notes indicate, the pieces are colored by a sense of nostalgia and childlike freedom.

Whatever the program, these pieces blow like a fresh breeze through the territory of post-millennial jazz, a field that can be clogged with too much noise, too much backward-looking retro trash, and too much Brad Mehldau. Parker, backed by drummer Hamid Drake, trumpeter Lewis Barnes, and saxophonist Rob Brown, kicks out eight jams that update the avant tendencies of the post-bop set with contemporary flavors. Some pieces resemble the classic small-group records Mingus released by the truckload in the 1950s; "Rise" even seems to echo "Fables of Faubus."

Play them on a sunny day.