best records of 2009

[horaflora]

Ekkehard Ehlers and Paul Wirkus – ballads
Rafael Toral – Space Elements vol 1
Lionel Marchetti – Adele et Hadrien
Lee Patterson – Seven Vignettes
David Sylvian – Manafon
David Kirby – Cittacaura
current 93 - aleph at hallucinatory mountain


Re-Issue - Patrick Kosk – Mondweib

I just couldn't figure out what to think about that Ekkehard Ehlers disc. Listened to it a bunch of times and still can't decide whether I like it or not.

Woah!

I enjoyed it enough to get it on vinyl... but I enjoy most of his work... really just unravels my wind up coocoo just right...

[Jason Brogan]

I'm surprised that there isn't a "Favorites of the last decade" thread...

[frozen reeds]

I'm surprised that there isn't a "Favorites of the last decade" thread...

What's the point when people would just end up listing 10 years' worth of Keith Rowe records?

[leroysghost]

I'm surprised that there isn't a "Favorites of the last decade" thread...

What's the point when people would just end up listing 10 years' worth of Keith Rowe records?

so? the difference would be in the records they choose to omit.

[Brian Olewnick]

I'm surprised that there isn't a "Favorites of the last decade" thread...

What's the point when people would just end up listing 10 years' worth of Keith Rowe records?

That's sorta what's keeping me from doing one....but I still might.

[RFKorp]

Are we really THAT nerdy?

Meanwhile, if the new Cremaster album had come out earlier, I guarantee it would be on a LOT of people's lists. I've only listened once so far but I can safely say it's AWESOME.

[Brian Olewnick]

Are we really THAT nerdy?

Meanwhile, if the new Cremaster album had come out earlier, I guarantee it would be on a LOT of people's lists. I've only listened once so far but I can safely say it's AWESOME.

Yeah, sounded very fine on my one listen as well.

[gohleekwang]

my best albums of 2009

revenant (Yannick Dauby Olivier Feraud John Grzinich Hitoshi Kojo Patrick McGinley) - topolò
Jason Kahn - Vanishing Point

and i also to mention "Patrick Farmer- The Wandering Rhizome" which release on Why Not is something i enjoy very much too.

[will]

Thanks to everyone who's posted their lists, I've missed a lot of interesting-sounding releases this year, I'll have to start catching up.
I felt as if most of the releases I connected with this year were more satisfying than eye-opening. Tengu et Kitsune II and Goat Vs. Donkey really clued me into what Taku Unami's been at for the last few years, and Imaoto set work from Radu Malfatti in a way that opened some previously obscure corners of his approach.
I stayed pretty firmly stuck on the album of Helmut Lachenmann's string quartets Kairos released late in 2008, I think it's some of his best work performed excellently.

[skrobek]

Mubles – Bilbocentrismo (Hamaika)
Taku Unami + Taku Sugimoto – Tengu et Kitsune 2 (Slub)
Drunkdriver + Mattin – List of profound insecurities (Badmaster)
Seymour Wright + Eddie Prévost – Gamut (Matchless)
Emonaldia – Tiempo de dar (Hamaika)
Michel Henritzi + Junko + Masayoshi Urabe – Ecstasy of angels (Opposite)
Ryu Hankil – Becoming Typewriter (Taumaturgia)
Goh Lee Kwang - Waver (Appel)

[anastasia vronski]

Phil Durrant, Lee Patterson, Paul Vogel Buoy Cathnor

Jez Riley French As (urfaces) Engraved Glass

Mattin "Feedback Conceptual" Larraskito (E.H.)

Ghost Youth The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Domistiku

Bob Dylan: Christmaz in the Heart

FROM RUSSIA. Piano music by Stravinski Rachmaninov,Arenski Scriabin played by Panagiotis Trochopolos Cameo classics

Alexeï Borissov Before the Evroremont on line 2009

Between My Head and the Sky Yoko Ono on Chimera Music

[Daniel Jones]

Okay, I have now received 'Imaoto' and 'Musik - Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht' and they're both really excellent. Both deserve to make it onto anyone's end of year list, they also make up for me finding 'Soba to Bara' and 'Circle' both fairly impenetrable...

Now I just need to lay my hands on 'Berlinerstrasse 20' to make my top ten even less of a sturdy personal overview of the year.

[jon abbey]

Okay, I have now received 'Imaoto' and 'Musik - Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht' and they're both really excellent.

nice! I was into 'The Cat From Cat Hill' on one listen also, nice one. where did you get the project name 'Loris' from? Yuko and I were big fans of the slow lorises in the Ueno Zoo this past summer, even when they were excited and going for their food, not so fast.

Both deserve to make it onto anyone's end of year list, they also make up for me finding 'Soba to Bara' and 'Circle' both fairly impenetrable...

do you mean 'Circle' or 'Contact'?

[Dan Warburton]

Mubles – Bilbocentrismo (Hamaika)
Taku Unami + Taku Sugimoto – Tengu et Kitsune 2 (Slub)
Drunkdriver + Mattin – List of profound insecurities (Badmaster)
Seymour Wright + Eddie Prévost – Gamut (Matchless)
Emonaldia – Tiempo de dar (Hamaika)
Michel Henritzi + Junko + Masayoshi Urabe – Ecstasy of angels (Opposite)
Ryu Hankil – Becoming Typewriter (Taumaturgia)
Goh Lee Kwang - Waver (Appel)

I'll forgive you for choosing an album on your own label, Julien, but did you really think that Henritzi Junko Urabe was that good? I thought it was terribly disappointing, and I'm a big fan of all three musicians.
Pretty heavy on the Basque stuff there, too. Are you getting paid off by the Spanish government?

[maRi]

but did you really think that Henritzi Junko Urabe was that good? I thought it was terribly disappointing

I'd appreciate if you could be more specific. I haven't read any reviews of this record and I'm sort of curious. I remember looking forward to Je t'aime! by Henritzi, Junko and Mattin, but that turned out really bad.

[Dan Warburton]

I just thought it didn't take off - I like Michel's solo stuff, and the albums with the Howlin Ghost Proletarians (RIP) very much, but his earlier trio on Absurd with Mattin and Junko was a dud, and this one, though much better, is a bit flat too. Urabe is an extremely intense musician, and so is Junko (so, come to think of it, is Henritzi, when he stops noodling and brings the noise), but I find their approaches pretty incompatible. One directs the energy inward, the other outward, and Michel doesn't know which way to turn and doesn't seem able to catch any of it. If it had been Tamio Shiraishi, maybe it would have worked better.

[maRi]

Thanks.

I like Michel's solo stuff, and the albums with the Howlin Ghost Proletarians (RIP) very much

Yes, me too. Do you know the duo with Akiyama?

In relation to your picks I have to say that Grutronic is among my favourites also. Great fun!

[Dan Warburton]

Thanks.

I like Michel's solo stuff, and the albums with the Howlin Ghost Proletarians (RIP) very much

Yes, me too. Do you know the duo with Akiyama?

Broken Blues? Haven't heard that for a while, so probably shouldn't comment - but I think I prefer the Ghosts. Sometimes Tetuzi's fingerpicking does it for me (love the two with Van Wissem), sometimes it's just.. nice. Nothing wrong with that!

In relation to your picks I have to say that Grutronic is among my favourites also. Great fun!

Yes, and fun without trying to be funny.

[RFKorp]

Mattin "Feedback Conceptual" Larraskito (E.H.)

This is actually a really good call. I feel dumb for forgetting about it already. But I have an assortment of psychological issues with non-physical releases...

[maRi]

Broken Blues?

Yes. This is a convenient reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7fVorDy8k

I liked it, though I might have been primarily impressed by this clip around the time I heard the record, and not because of the visual aspect, but because it probably includes the most musical moments of the whole performance.