My Top 30 Influential Albums of 2011

My apologies for the long hiatus. I've just been busy, but I'm back with routine posts. For right now, I think it's important to list my top 30 influential albums of 2011.

01. Atlas Sound – Parallax

Genre: Neo-Psychedelia, Post-Rock

Mood: Nocturnal, Atmospheric, Dreamy, Hypnotic, Reflective

Sample: http://youtu.be/XSB0FVt5XnQ

02. Mazzy Star – Common Burn (single)

Genre: Dream Pop, Alternative Country

Mood: Detached, Soothing, Brooding, Restrained, Sensual

Sample: http://youtu.be/KZUoYK_-nr4

03. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

Genre: Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock

Mood: Atmospheric, Eerie, Weary, Spooky, Angst-Ridden

Sample: http://youtu.be/-2tGhWVMc2E

04. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

Genre: Psychedelic Pop, Ambient Dub, Electronica

Mood: Ambitious, Dramatic, Dreamy, Gritty, Hypnotic

Sample: http://youtu.be/rjJ8IPDQk6Q

05. Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Genre: Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Indie Folk

Mood: Wintry, Autumnal, Earnest, Laid-Back/Mellow, Melancholy

Sample: http://youtu.be/bo6lKQYVUBU

06. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

Genre: Folktronica, Indie Rock, Ethnic Fusion

Mood: Cheerful, Freewheeling, Ironic, Naïve, Playful

Sample: http://youtu.be/YQ1LI-NTa2s

07. The Weeknd – House of Balloons

Genre: Contemporary R&B, Trip-Hop

Mood: Nocturnal, Atmospheric, Hypnotic, Laid-Back/Mellow, Futuristic

Sample: http://youtu.be/PGCVhhUxnp8

08. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer

Genre: Indie Pop

Mood: Carefree, Confident, Exuberant, Freewheeling, Literate

Sample: http://youtu.be/f_BKLMtQZpY

09. Pharoahe Monch – W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)

Genre: Underground Rap, East Coast Rap, Conscious Hip-Hop

Mood: Confident, Street-Smart, Uncompromising, Angry, Dramatic

Sample: http://youtu.be/FYgJDTVnUj4

10. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Electronic, Indie Pop, Indie Rock

Mood: Atmospheric, Hypnotic, Melancholy, Quirky, Searching

Sample: http://youtu.be/i00_qTtyxWM

11. The Weeknd – Thursday

Genre: Contemporary R&B, Trip-Hop

Mood: Nocturnal, Atmospheric, Hypnotic, Laid-Back/Mellow, Futuristic

Sample: http://youtu.be/1lZu5DZIxfE

12. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

Genre: Abstract Hip-Hop, Alternative Rap, Left-Field Hip-Hop

Mood: Rebellious, Street-Smart, Atmospheric, Brash, Druggy

Sample: http://youtu.be/znDsRydk3_w

13. Joe Goddard – Gabriel (ep)

Genre: Indie Electronic, Club/Dance

Mood: Boisterous, Party/Celebratory, Bright, Gleeful, Stylish

Sample: http://youtu.be/p-GWKBe-u8Q

14. Björk – Biophilia

Genre: Electronica, Art Pop

Mood: Delicate, Ethereal, Passionate, Sophisticated, Stately

Sample: http://youtu.be/br2s0xJyFEM

15. Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx – We’re New Here

Genre: Dubstep, Poetry, Dark Ambient

Mood: Austere, Aggressive, Angry, Fiery, Confrontational

Sample: http://youtu.be/rm4zJSyxlOQ

16. Panda Bear – Tomboy

Genre: Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Indie Electronic

Mood: Ambitious, Ethereal, Gentle, Insular, Plaintive

Sample: http://youtu.be/eoOv1tyWHe0

17. Adele – 21

Genre: Blue Eyed Soul, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock

Mood: Autumnal, Bittersweet, Calm/Peaceful, Intimate, Poignant

Sample: http://youtu.be/eVLJ4HOzi1c

18. Tori Amos – Night of Hunters

Genre: Classical Crossover, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock

Mood: Ambitious, Brooding, Earnest, Intimate, Literate

Sample: http://youtu.be/9gzKwOcCOYA

19. Wild Beasts – Smother

Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock

Mood: Eccentric, Indulgent, Quirky, Outrageous, Whimsical

Sample: http://youtu.be/q-qZgIz79ts

20. Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys!

Genre: Dream Pop, Indie Rock

Mood: Atmospheric, Reflective, Epic, Somber, Autumnal

Sample: http://youtu.be/f_QABAt0iLs

21. Radiohead – The Kings of Limbs

Genre: Experimental Rock, Art Pop, Indie Rock

Mood: Hypnotic, Tense/Anxious, Weary, Insular, Spooky

Sample: http://youtu.be/8A9bMTh9rdQ

22. Meg Baird – Seasons on Earth

Genre: Contemporary Folk, Alternative Singer/Songwriter

Mood: Atmospheric, Bittersweet, Bleak, Calm/Peaceful, Delicate

Sample: http://youtu.be/QsKtljlJyAA

23. Feist – Metals

Genre: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Indie Pop

Mood: Intimate, Reflective, Sentimental, Earnest, Gentle

Sample: http://youtu.be/rhoPZ9bbrwA

24. Sondre Lerche – Sondre Lerche

Genre: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Pop

Mood: Autumnal, Calm/Peaceful, Cheerful, Gentle, Intimate

Sample: http://youtu.be/Drqu_iw4ubk

25. The Roots – undun

Genre: Alternative Rap, East Coast Hip-Hop

Mood: Distraught, Dramatic, Tense/Anxious, Weary, Austere

Sample: http://youtu.be/6vP24wNuRXs

26. Cold War Kids – Mine Is Yours

Genre: Indie Rock

Mood: Earnest, Passionate, Amiable/Good-Natured, Bittersweet, Brooding

Sample: http://youtu.be/GS8NYRLU-xs

27. Lamb – 5

Genre: Trip-Hop, Art Pop

Mood: Passionate, Hypnotic, Atmospheric

Sample: http://youtu.be/gzkGWdw9ieM

28. Little Dragon – Ritual Union

Genre: Trip-Hop, Art Pop

Mood: Bitter, Delicate, Restrained, Warm, Bright

Sample: http://youtu.be/HXn02jofXGk

29. Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

Genre: Alternative Rap, East Coast Rap

Mood: Humorous, Witty, Aggressive, Confident, Freewheeling

Sample: http://youtu.be/WdgLMslbDuY

30. Bibio – Mind Bokeh

Genre: Indie Electronic, Post-Rock

Mood: Trippy, Atmospheric, Brittle, Complex, Enigmatic

Sample: http://youtu.be/cPCLbJujU8E

Music Video of the Day: Glasser - Apply

Back in 2009, a year before their album release, Glasser's Apply created a huge impact in the electronic fanbase. Simple yet experimental, Glasser combines tribal percussion with electronic synthesizers and modulated vocals. As for the video, it's a complete dreamscape-trip-fest into the cerebral psyche. The video is heavily based on the movement of colours on a digital canvas painting. The vocalist appears as an apparition; all blurred, hazed, and overlayed. The video has no concrete plot or direction, it's just a nice journey through art.

Album of the Day: Björk - Homogenic

Björk - Homogenic (1997)

alternative dance, art pop, progressive pop, trip-hop

Following the release of Post (1995), Björk had undergone numerous obstacles that she never had before in terms of her love life, music, and near murder. Sticking with her single word naming conventions, Homogenic (originally titled Homogeneous) is a testament to the poetry of her intuition that this creative watermark so beautifully corresponded with the most turbulent time in her life. Björk’s creative rebirth invited her to re-evaluate the way she had handled herself in the wake of such fame. For someone who had spent the past four years continually undone by travel and tour, concepts of home and belonging resonated strongly to her. Thus, the record is all about her embracing her homeland and reclamation of self as home.

Harnessing artistic bravery and strength, not only did Björk charge with full force in unusual sonic textures, but she wrote and co-programmed it entirely by herself. In addition, she collaborated with a few friends and idols including Dravs, Howie Bernstein, Guy Sigworth, and LFO’s Mark Bell to help her create the exact sounds that brewed in her head. Björk, therefore, gathered all her outrageous concepts and molded those ideas to create sonically captivating paint-on-canvas-like music. As a result, Homogenic consists of a strange but effective mixture of hard electronic beats and string octet performances embracing the beautiful glimmer of ice and rock. As for vocals, Björk stepped up extremely far, screaming out pain in such songs like Pluto and reminiscing tranquility in such songs like Unravel. From dramatic shell shock, Björk returns with a flaming album of fierce poetic expression. Let's delve into the songs more.

The paranoid snares and aching violins work in excellent and darkly contrast with Björk's haunting vocals opens Homogenic in the song Hunter, which explains the omnipresent fear of abandonment. Following Hunter’s chaos is the poignantly gorgeous tune, Joga, which is a track of gratitude for her friend Joga. The song’s beats were unbelievably constructed and manipulated from Icelandic volcanic bubble sounds adjacent to patriotically played strings. Rising and falling to the actual sounds of Iceland's volcanoes, the lyrics explain how love and hate as parallels disappear with greater love. Unravel is one of the most heartbreaking songs of Björk's career, accentuating her misfortune in a gentle yet brooding atmosphere within the pit of a gently thumping heart and blood coursing through the veins. Here, Björk effortlessly combines hope and disaster majestically. Additionally, the lyrically metaphoric song of Bachelorette surrounds listeners in gorgeously haunting violins, chaotically toxic beats, and powerfully painful vocals. The thickly textured tune describes a woman who personifies herself as this loving passive object, while the man she loves is an active animal (or person who comes and goes as he will). The crunchy distorted tune, 5 Years, is Björk’s frustration for a guy—who is acting as if afraid of love—to be straight up with her. Similar to Joga, 5 Years is constructed by manipulated earthquakes, dancing with a Nintendo-like synthesizer tucked away behind the punches and pounds of the beats, and the always brilliant harmonious strings. Trance styled, Immature takes the listener to a less aleatoric surrounding, showing how lyrical repetition is highly effective without any tedium. The rhythmic beats with Björk’s emotional vocals turn infectious within seconds. The track begins with stunningly eerie Björk humming to her own tune, before she scolds herself for being immature, and questioning her actions. Alas, the album ends a massive duo of songs encompassing a contrast sonically and similar brilliancy. Pluto is the most hardcore and audacious songs in Björk history. Consisting of extreme, outrage of shrieks, it is a song of Mars, but radiantly composed. About ending rebirth; shedding your skin on purpose, Pluto is undoubtedly conjured up from a great deal of aggravation. In complete contrast, Pluto follows up with the album closer, All is Full of Love. The tune is none other than pure driving and uplifting beauty. Beginning with an almost electrical serge sound and the gradual enter of cold crisp strings, All is Full of Love is stripped from beats from the aforementioned songs and left with shimmers of enigmatic tones. The rain comes crashing down on all physical matter in its molecular density containing seeds of love. Björk then enters with an umbrella in the dead of night staring at the starry sky and lamenting for one last time. I am in awe by this album, I really am. Not only did Björk show her most inner deepest and darkest soul, she created an unforgettable world to mourn in.

Homogenic is unquestionably a tour-de-force. Riveting form start to finish, the album overflows with brilliant and intellectually structured songs: creative sounds and one of the greatest voices of modern electronic music. Every track is indispensable, genuine, astounding, each flowing to the next perfectly like blood streams. This is the record that characterizes Björk completely: eccentric, emotional, childlike, reflective, distinctive, and forevermore changing. Within Homogenic, Björk manages to present herself fearlessly. As a result, the album displays exterior textures of robustness and intensity, and interior textures of warmth and emotion.

The Musical Photoshop

Quoted once by Pablo Picasso, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." To me, this proverb is complex, but primarily illustrates the evident difference between aping and assimilating; copying and internalizing; being unoriginal and innovative. For better of for worse, every artist of every kind builds on what was done by his or her predecessors. It's only when these craftsmen take things to new heights, in new directions, when we see greatness emerge.

In music specifically, sampling is the act of extracting a portion of sound recording and reusing/remodeling it into another tune; sometimes for laziness, other times creativity and respect. The widespread use of this technique originated with the birth of dance, hip-hop and industrial music in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Why sample, you ask? It's more for the craft of bringing sounds, ideas and emotions together like a scrapbook or musical journal. From then, it has progressed into more songs and more genres than ever before. Despite harsher clearing/copyright laws today, sampling, when executed aesthetically well, is an integral part of modern music.

Back in the discotheque era, DJs continued to experiment with sampling in quite facile and basic manners. Repeating electronically generated lines (ie 303 baselines), to studio recordings or samples of live electric bassists, or simply filtered-down samples from classic funk recordings, made such DJs like DJ Francis a musical manipulator guru. Throughout the 80s and 90s, electronic music increased its sample library with sounds from jazz, blues, funk, soul and synth pop. The sole purpose of these samples were often to add the foundation of the drum beat and synth bass line. House music, more specifically, may also include disco and gospel vocals. These fusions made up the musical symbolic representation of freedom, diversity and love. It wasn't until dance music emerged in Britain when rap was sampled, evolving the use of sampling yet again.

Moving along in hip-hop terms, sampling is defined by something a lot more progressive, dynamic and clever. In this genre, sampling started out as splicing out or copying parts from other songs and rearranging or reworking these into a cohesive musical pattern, or better known as a loop. This was the root and main aspect of any hip-hop tune; it drives the rest of the music onward. The sounds ultimately melt into a single instrument and no longer heterogeneous. In 1986, then-Def Jam producer Rick Rubin used Black Sabbith and Led Zeppelin loops in creating the popular Beastie Boy's debut Licence to Ill. Funk and soul are also revisited here in providing breakbeats, especially from the great James Brown. Sometimes, samples are recognizable and other times they're not. The true craft of sampling in any genre is to convert it into another entity.

Some types of industrial music, or Electronic Body Music (EBM) rely heavily on sample use. Unlike electronic and hip-hop sampling, EBM includes heavy use of sampling, yet an absence of vocal modification.

Forwarding to the 2000s up until today, sampling has colossally evolved: despite greater copyright laws, even greater sample usage is implemented today than ever before. We will first delve into non-mainstream music. Electronic pioneers Herbert, Mum, Matmos and Bjork were the first artists to take found-sound sampling to an entirely new level. Herbert introduced this idea of microbeats; Matthew Herbert essentially recorded privatized, introspective sounds, such as teeth clatter, bees buzzing, and a zipper travelling up its spine into creatively passive beats. This began a creative revolution for electronic music. Mum, however, drove down a different route, meddling with cutlery, toys and static TV sets and manipulating them in IDM-fashion. The result brought on a cute and tastefully cluttered side to IDM music that's still considered unique today.

Artists have also been daring in the sampling business. Venetian Snares, for example, is a breakcore artist who has willingly sampled Dinah Washington, Danny Elfman, Billie Holliday and various film and television dialogue in his tracks. Dubstep artist Synkro has sampled Marvin Gaye, Ne-Yo and Aretha Franklin. Even Amon Tobin didn't go anywhere near sample clearance until recent years. There is a fundamental reason why artists like to play with fire like this. Artists remember a time when a great abstract artist once said "[...] great artists steal." And thus, these artists rebel for a chance of artistic freedom by literally dissecting songs, and that can be a powerful asset to work with. Additionally, as underground and with sparsely distributed releases, these artists are not likely to be discovered and attacked by the mainstream.

Now, the mainstream music industry samples as well, obviously with permission. But how much creative power is there? With the money circulating the mainstream industry, artists and producers alike can lazily and blindly take people's work to give their song a "boost". The first time I heard Beyonce's Who Run the World (Girls) I was absolutely shocked. The song is actually, in fact, Pon De Floor by Diplo's side project, Major Lazer, with Beyonce's vocals subbed over top. By not crediting such a large sample, listeners may misleadingly refer to the song as original. A very similar use is illustrated in Kanye West's Bigger Stronger Faster (Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger). Although the song was more artistically blended, it was still apparent that West used a Daft Punk classic. Is this called abuse? Unethical? Disrespectful? That's up for debate. What is known is that sampling has been saturated in mainstream to the point of losing its mystique.

Despite the fact that sampling is good and bad in different situations, it still shaped a great part of music today. I am personally a sucker for great sampling in any style of music. There is something powerful about someone who can successfully musically Photoshop, especially when the artist is under the radar. With limited wealth and fame, artists tend to be more clever and imaginative in creating infectious loops and jolting vox. Conversely, with wealth, artists enter a place where the egoism shadows creativity.

Joanna Newsom's Take on Lady Gaga

In the six years since Joanna Newsom released her debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, she has remained a constantly surprising presence. The reasons are legion. She makes ambitious folk-inspired records in an era when the album is meant to be dead. Her lyrics mix archaic language with modern vocabulary, sung in a distinctive, stark voice – which a critic for AllMusic.com described as "somewhere between Bjork and a handbrake". She has made harp music influenced by Venezuelan and west African rhythms fashionable to indie fans. And stranger still, this mix sells out venues such as the 3,000-capacity Royal Festival Hall in minutes.

Newsom, however, worries that she doesn't read enough and watches "too much crappy TV". She's also a big fan of Jay-Z and Kanye West – though not Lady Gaga. "I'm mystified by the laziness of people looking at how she presents herself, and somehow assuming that implies there's a high level of intelligence in the songwriting. Her approach to image is really interesting, but you listen to the music, and you just hear glow sticks. Smart outlets for musical journalism give her all this credit, like she's the new Madonna …" She breaks off and laughs. "Although I'm coming from a perspective of also thinking Madonna is not great at all. I'm like, fair enough: she is the new Madonna, but Madonna's a dumb-ass!"

Later, she emails to clarify what she describes as her "late-afternoon dopiness" on this subject: "I may have contradicted myself. My problem isn't actually with Lady Gaga. But there's not much in her music to distinguish it from other glossy, formulaic pop. She just happens to wear slightly weirder outfits than Britney Spears. But they're not that weird – they're mostly just skimpy. She's fully marketing her body/sexuality; she's just doing it while wearing, like, a 'fierce' telephone hair-hat. Her sexuality has no scuzziness, no frank raunchiness, in the way that, say, Peaches, or even Grace Jones, have – she's Arty Spice! And, meanwhile, she seems to take herself so oddly seriously, the way she talks about her music in the third person, like she's Brecht or something. She just makes me miss Cyndi Lauper." And on the subject of Madonna: "I shouldn't have called Madonna a dumb-ass. Her music and she have just gotten so boring to me, this last decade. I think maybe she doesn't hold her money very gracefully, the way some people can't hold their drink. But one thing she is surely not is dumb." Newsom says it as it is in the truest and bluntest form, and I, for one, agree. And as the smart artist she is, I'm glad she re-assessed and clarified her opinions.

Music Video of the Day: Mario Basanov & Vidis - I'll Be Gone

This video is as intricately composed as the music itself. The director ingeniously brings sound directly to picture by illustrating four different polygraphs in four corners picking up on specific sounds within the composition itself. Regardless of its simplicity, the video does not allow our eyes to drift away, instead creatively warps our perception. The red ink on white paper (which I find to symbolize energy in sound form) is a moving and evolving entity within the video and its illustrated in a fantastic way by mixing live video with computer animation. Probably one of my favourite videos.

New Artists to Pay Close Attention To

Abel Tesfaye is a Toronto-based singer/song writer/producer. He steps outside of the box and challenges the structural definitions of genres, particularly R&B. He is the one-man project of The Weeknd; a futuristic, drugged-out, after-after-party take on R&B, yet I would not consider it R&B nor dubstep. Alongside R&B vocals, he incorporates dubstep and indie rock style instrumentation. As a result, he creates some amazing atmospheric elements to involve the listener into pure euphoria. His astounding debut, House of Balloons, truly hits you in the gut--not only emotionally, but as a music fan as well. He breathes life into the boring and stale R&B music culture today.

The Weeknd - What You Need by ajay-patel

Experimental Brit artist, James Blake, arrived with a large splash following his stunning cover of Feist's beautifully elegiac Limit to Your Love. As an artist he is a disciple of the less-is-more school with his self-titled debut album characterized by a predominant sparsity. His music is often introspective and undefined, charting to strange landscapes and unknown textures. Unlike The Weeknd, James Blake's atmosphere is a lot more experimental and minimalistic. There is something about how he provokes emotion in silences and spaces that lie in his songs--makes you want to lye down in them for a while.

James Blake - Air & Lack Thereof by ajay-patel

British producer, Jamie Smith of indie-pop band The xx, made himself a powerful ingrediant of dubstep overnight from his debut, We're New Here, with Gil Scott-Heron. Jamie xx knows how to seamlessly sample poetry and spoken-word into trance-inducing music. As a result, he creates some cutting-edge, high-quality post-dubstep tracks. His sound is said to be influenced by fellow British acts Burial and Kode9.