Chimpomatic

Best of 2006

BC

Top 5 Albums of 2006

1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
2. Joanna Newsom - Ys
3. The Diableros - You Can't Break The Strings In Our Olympic Hearts
4. Loney Dear - Sologne
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

Runners Up:
Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Howie Gelb - 'Sno Angel Like You
Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
Clinic - Visitations


Top 5 Films

Little Miss Sunshine
The Departed
Capote
Casino Royale
Borat
Pan's Labyrinth


Biggest Disappointments (In order of disappointment)

DJ Shadow - The Outsider
Miami Vice
England Football
England Rugby
England Cricket
Thom Yorke - The Eraser


Top 5 Gigs

Radiohead - Hammersmith Apollo
Pearl Jam - Dublin
My Morning Jacket - Astoria
TV On The Radio - Koko
Morrissey - Alexandra Palace

#Music
#BC

20th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2006

c71

Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
Cat Power - The Greatest
Herbert - Scale
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther (prob need to check this, like for another month or so)
Yacht Rock - (special mention?)
Outkast - Idlewild
The Early Years - The Early Years
CSS (maybe)
Bat For Lashes (maybe)
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain

shall we do movies too?
Brick
The Departed
Pan's Labyrinth
The Squid and the Whale
Capote
Hidden
A Scanner Darkly

and tv?
er... Entourage
State Within

#Music
#chimp71

20th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2006

CSF

For me this has been one of the best years for music in a long time. A handful of new bands have emerged with debut albums that have set the tone for a promising career, and this is the first time I have struggled to narrow down the list of favourites... rather than struggle to fill it. Accomplished debuts from The Early Years and The Longcut just missed out on a place, as well as albums from returning artists like Yo La Tengo, Yeah Yeah Yeah's and M. Ward finally making it clear to me what all the fuss is about. And Pearl Jam had a new album and put on the show of a lifetime in London.

My top albums, reduced to as few as possible and in a vague ascending order:

6. Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon
With the awesome single leading the charge (see below) this self-released debut from the Minneapolis band has all the right ingredients, and as one inspired hack wrote "This is the record I'd want to make if I formed a band". It's certainly not perfect, and although it never lulls it doesn't quite flow in a couple of places... but for a debut album it's awesome.

5. Oxford Collapse - Remember the Night Parties
These guys were a shot from the blue and if this was a November/December list they'd probably take the gold medal. Again it's a slightly uneven start, but by the midway point I'm totally hooked. Pure garage band fun.

4. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
I've been so generally underwhelmed by The Strokes that it took a hooky copy of this mid year to even provoke me to try before I buy... but I take it all back. Far more adventurous that Room On Fire and an easy equal to Is This It?

3. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
The ups and downs or the tone of an album has been on my mind recently and this is possibly the one album in this list that gets it right. Mellow start, build up, high point around the middle, wind down, strong finish. A definite band to watch.

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
I was already thinking the worst when this album arrived, and the double track listing took a look to break down. It's biggest flaw is the length and pacing - as track by track there's hardly a dud on here. Easily their best album, with some absolute classic tracks. Their next one will surely get it just right...

1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
You can argue that it's a 2005 release, but since it took off 12 months ago this infectious debut has never faltered and never lulled on rotation. You can't listen to track one - which is surely a negative - but it's like a non-stop rollercoaster ride with your friend who's one drink a way from plastered, with a finale that should never stop.



Singles
Midlake - Head Home. Great rolling vibe that is slightly lacking on the album as a whole.
Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor. I thought it might dull, but it's still the note-perfect highlight off The Loon.
Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh). For a track that momentarily sounds like it's heading into funky monk territory, this is possibly RHCP's greatest. The constant build up and the amazing final chorus are inbelievebale. Just when you can't take any more you can almost hear Frusciante plugging in an extra guitar.

Films
Brick - a great Sundance debut
The Departed - flawed but thoroughly entertaining
Little Miss Sunshine - touching, with non-stop laughs
Awesome - awesome. Resurrecting the near zombie that is the concert movie.

Biggest Let Down:
Miami Vice

TV:
Wire
Entourage

Live:
PJ Astoria
PJ Dublin
MMJ Astoria

#Music
#CSF

20th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2006

Chimpovich

I've got to say that my biggest revelation this year has been wondering why I didn't get into Yo La Tengo sooner. Their concert in Madrid at the start of December was one of the best I've seen for a while. Although they had a new album out this year, I still need a few more listens - besides, i'm still working through last year's Best of: Prisoners of Love.

So:

Music (In no particular order)

The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off (Rambling Shambles)

Band of Horses  - Everything All the Time (Sublime)

Constantines  -  Tournament of Hearts (Frontline)

Steve Turner - New Wave Punk Asshole (Comforting)

Wolfmother - Wolfmother
(Party!)

Special Mention:
Swearing at Motorists - Exile on Grippe Strasse (Pure)

Film
Hit = The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Miss = The Departed (Not a bad film, but up against Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas which I watched around the same time - seems Scorsese tries too hard nowadays)

#Music
#chimpovich

20th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2006

marmot

I'm struggling to think of ten.... but here's a few.

MUSIC
Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon
M.Ward - Post-War
Cat Power - The Greatest
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Loose Fur - Born Again In The U.S.A.
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther


FILMS
Brick
Hidden
The Departed
Borat
Casino Royale
Capote


TV
Haven't got a TV.

#Music
#marmot

19th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2006

CJ

2006 for me was a poor year in comparison to 2005.

Music
Roots - Game Theory
Some of their best tracks to date. Innovation at no expense to entertainment.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
Double album with few turkeys. A rare feat.

The Charlatans - Simpatico
Been around long enough to produce a reggaesque album

Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
The new MMJ


Movies
Awesome - I Fuckin Shot That

Live
Pearl Jam - Astoria

#Music
#CJ

19th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best of 2006

HHG

Here's my best of 2006:

Music
Subtle - For Hero For Fool
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor
The Roots - Game Theory
Mr. Lif - Mo' Mega
Liars - Drums Not Dead
Dosh - The Lost Take

HHG o.u.t.

#Music
#HHG

19th Dec 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

L. Pierre

Dip

In 2002 Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat made one of the most beautiful electronica albums I have ever had the joy of hearing. Hypnogogia laid down thick, all consuming washes of sublime classical samples while slowly fading in the most delicate of beats. The contrast of the warm, earthy strings and these cold, electronic constructions was just perfect and gave the listener exactly what his ear and heart wanted to hear. 2004's follow up Touchpool employed similar tactics, the strings became more earthy and the beats moved more towards the foreground. The beauty was still there but somehow failed to seduce the same way it's predecessor did. It was almost as if the perfection of Hypnogogia didn't need to be improved or even followed. I wanted it to exist alone and this follow up, great as it was, was treading on hallowed ground.

So next year we are to be treated to the next installment. L. Pierre is not so much of a side project now - following the surprise split of Arab Strap - and "Dip" sees Moffat move his sound into new territory. "My favorite L. Pierre tracks have always been the quiet ones so I wanted to pursue that mood and record something gentle and lovely," he says. "I also took a shine to field recording and bought myself a little Minidisc recorder, which I took on holiday to record some natural ambience." "Dip" is a stripped down revision of the previous sound. It's as if Moffat has looked long and hard at his work and meticulously identified which elements are working and which to discard. The looped, sampled percussion has all but disappeared and the musical orchestrations that remain have a more organic, live sound. Nature plays a big part in this album. The sound of crashing waves introduces and concludes the record suggesting the infinite cycle of life and greatly contrasting the clinical electronica that went before.

If Touchpool gave us too much of what we want, Dip does the opposite. The epic second track Weir's Way spends the first eight minutes on the most sublime orchestral wave then just as you think it's all coming to a close he hits us with the kind soft, synth beat that dazzled us before. The result is huge. He withholds this from us for so long that when he finally decides we are ready for it it's power is awesome. Except for the erratic drum beats of Hike this is all we get. The rest is majestic yet humble arrangements of cello, trumpets and keyboards and not a beat in sight.

Dip is the sound of Man becoming Nature, city becoming country, land becoming ocean. It is the unequivocal sound of an artist stripping away the real from the unreal, the true from the fake, and though I am left in a frustrating state of dissatisfaction something in me understands why this was necessary.

#Music
#BC

15th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Big Sleep

Son Of The Tiger

French Kiss

The Big Sleep are a 3 piece band hailing from Brooklyn NY and they make a big rock noise. Sometimes it's psychedelic noise, sometimes straight up driving noise, but on the whole it means business. Son Of The Tiger opens with a musical eqivalent of a firm kick in the nuts. Brown Beauty is an instrumental sonic onslaught that holds you in its tight grasp as it steadily builds from dark and brooding to loud and heavy to louder and heavier. As you stand there, breathlessly exhausted, mouth open they hit you with a second wave with Murder. This is Electrelane after a music lesson with Wolfmother. Sonya Balchandani's vocals are sweet and subtle and are an effective contrast to the heavy riffs and crashing symbols around her.

Unfortunately, The Big Sleep are not able or willing to keep up this pace and the album takes a slight dive into no mans land as spacous, plodding stoner rock becomes the prefered method. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but after the power of the opening tracks the album seems to drift off into obscurity. Tracks like S.K.B and Menemy tend to start out fine but soon get lost in muddy cymbols and feedback and all to often lack the guitar structure of the earlier gems. However things pick up with Shima. It's jangly opening guitars are a welcome break from all the fuzzy, heavy riffs and the vocals are more audible becoming the focus that unites the song. It has more of an indie feel and builds more naturally to the familiar cymbal cacophony finale. This short break prepares you nicely for the moody title track that follows. It's a similar deal to earlier but seems to work better here and the screeching guitars and thudding rhythm really satisfy.

The Big Sleep have put together a very refreshing blend of dirty, shit kicking rock with dulcet female vocals and also seem to be in love with the entirely instrumental heavy jams of bands like The Longcut or Kinski. Put all this together and you get an album that isn't perfect but has guts and isn't afraid to grab you by the scruff of the neck and give you a darn good shaking.

#Music
#BC

11th Dec 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Some Loud Thunder

Wichita

No sooner have I compiled my best of 2006 list with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's stunning self titled debut coming in at number one when it's follow up, slated for a January release, lands in our laps. They say the second album is always the difficult one and this must be made all the more so when your debut received such overwhelming critical acclaim. Some Loud Thunder is certainly not what I was expecting and after the first few listens I was quite disappointed not to be dazzled by the energy that was present on the first album. I would like to tell you that now after about 25 plays it has solidified it's place in my 2007 list but I can't. I am enjoying it a lot more than I was, but there remains a slight whiff of disappointment still.

The structure of the first album was was quite relentless with many high points, few lows, some nicely placed instrumental breathers - all of which culminated in a fantastic finale that just made you want to start the whole thing again. This time it's a different agenda. It's a much more low key affair with really only one obvious peak coming mid way through the album. Most of the songs seem as if they are building to something but never do and while they have virtually abandoned the instrumental fillers they have adopted a slow burning sound that whispers rather than shouts. This new approach at times produces some beautiful moments and really challenges the listener to stick with the program but also makes parts of the album quite laborious.

So, purely on the strength of their debut I have persevered with this one and have come to see it in a new light. Instead of viewing it as the weak follow up to a fluky start I have a sneaky feeling that this is the work of a band that intend to be around for a while. It seems their debut was designed to get our attention and all the praise that this brought has provided them with the creative space to explore new territory. This could be the album that calms things down and eases off on the pace that quite often leads to a bands early demise, or it could be just plain crap. - BC (3 stars)

Some Loud Thunder is by turns intense, moving and powerful. There is barely a bum note on the album and the song writing and music have taken on a depth and scope beyond Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The album sounds quite like a movie sound track in places and a lot of the music often seems very familiar - regularly sounding like a reprise to a track you never heard.

This quality is also it's flaw and the first few tracks sound like a slow building intro into the album, before the remaining tracks quickly sound like tghings are winding down. With the exception of the obvious single Satan Said Dance there is no middle ground on the album and it feels like it is missing it's heart. The album never quite grabs hold of you as a complete piece of work, and it lacks the cohesiveness of the first record. The infectious, awkward quality of their previous effort is also noticeably absent.

The relative lows are no where near as annoying as the ditties on album one, and the album remains almost completely solid in quality - but also lacking in the giddy highs of Yellow Country Teeth, Is This Love, Home On Ice or the countless other peaks on the rollercoast ride of the debut album. Some Loud Thunder's main flaw is in it's pace. Improved track sequencing and editing back of some of the tracks, plus a couple more more tracks would have made this an instant classic, rather than just a solid follow up - CSF (3.5 stars)

Here's a song by song break down:

1 - Some Loud Thunder. The album starts abrubtly, with the band mid-flow and sounding at their most Talking Heads. This seems an odd place to start as it sounds like a mid-album track. This song makes it clear that this isn't going to be an album like the first one. No real chorus to speak of but some nice rhythm and hand claps. Hopefully the shocking sound quality of this track is due to the promo only featuiring a rough mix, that will be improved by January.

2 - Emily Jean Stock. This seems a better place to start but sums up the first half of this record. The whole song seems to brew like it's building up to something but never does, but it has a lot of the harmonies that made the first album so listenable.

3 - Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles In The Air And Burning? A very low key affair and continues the steady build up of the record. It simmers up to mid point then plateaus nicely into a harmony filled home-straight. A bit like a Radiohead b-side, with a few tuning up/washing up sounds.

4 - Love Song No.7 (mp3). The beautiful piano opening of this one mark it pout as a definite highlight. The sparse, atmospheric atmosphere smake sit sound like a love song rising out of the chaos of a sound check.

5 - Satan Says Dance. This is where the album peaks and it's tempo puts the previous songs into context as you realise that everything has been building to this point. It is the one song that recalls their previous work as we are treated to the rolling drum running pace that made the last record so electrifying. They have thankfully updated this format with a myriad of electronic bleeps and tweaks that lay down a rich tapestry of sounds, sounding like tuning up chaos in a kids music class. We get the familiar repeated vocals of and the odd "alright now" which certainly gets the toes a tapping. This song rises like a polished, crisp gem from a murky pool to become the standout peak of this album, and a certain single. "No whips, no chains, just dancing, dancing, dancing". Welcome to Hell.

6 - Upon Encountering The Crippled Elephant. This is the only instrumental ditty here and and makes fine use of the stereo recording format. It's as if you're walking down a deserted street and in the distance a lone figure approaches, as he gets closer you realise he is playing the accordian and you stop and cautiously watch as he passes you by without so much as a glance, then he is off on his way into the distance once more. That is unless he bumps into Damon Albarn and spends the afternoon in an East End music hall.

7 - Goodbye To Mother And The Cove. This is a beautiful song that starts off with a delicate high pitch plucking and ever so slowly builds. Sounding like a reprise to earlier themes, the vocals are dripping with melancholy and help to gently carry the tune to the military drum finale.

8 - Arm And Hammer. The acoustic strumming structure of this song never seems to go anywhere and the vocals jar more than ever making this one of the weakest tracks, which should probably have been relegated to b-side status.

9 - Yankee Go Home. The free-wheeling of the first album is a distant memory on this methodical and well-planned track. The first of several finales.

10 - Underwater (You And Me) (mp3). This could be the closing credits to a film. The pounding drum beat gives the mood a light feel and never changes all the way through. It is accompanied by a floating bass line and clanging bells that have cropped up frequently throughout the album, again echoing the idea of reprise and themes of retreat. Sadly it's not the final track as it's monotony seems to draw things to a close nicely.

11 - Five Easy Pieces. The monotony is continued however here on the album closer. An acoustic structure this time provides the background to the reverb-heavy distant vocals that wine and wail and threaten never to stop. They are punctuated every now and again by the gloriously dreamy bass line that really makes this song a fine one to bring things to a close.

#Music
#Chimpomatic

8th Dec 2006 - 9 comments - Add Comment - Tweet