Max's TOP 10 SONGS OF 2011

1. Royal Headache - Never Again
from Royal Headache (R.I.P. Society/Goner)

Some records are great without making you want to be a part of them, and that's fine. It doesn't make them less great. But some are so exuberant and rich and alive-sounding that they make you want to sing along to every song at every show and be involved and there's something so special about records like that and what I'm saying is that Royal Headache's debut album is like that. There are so many great cuts from the album, but this opening track - Never Again - is extra frenetic and just a perfect introduction to my record of the year.

2. Total Control - One More Tonight
from Henge Beat (Iron Lung)


A couple of reviews of Total Control's Henge Beat have talked about the album's take on retrofuturism, and that approach is certainly one of the most interesting things about the album. Luckily, as well as being interesting, it's also full of great songs that reference enduring classics like Eno, Talking Heads and Joy Division. There's something so intriguing and also unsettling about this song's repeated refrain of "A burst of laughter / introduces your friends"; it's kind of genius.

3. John Maus - Believer
from We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (Ribbon/Upset The Rhythm)

There was nothing else this year (or any other year, really) that sounded like John Maus's cavernous space-synths & death metal vocals, and this closing track from his record is such an anthem.

4. Ford & Lopatin - Emergency Room
from Channel Pressure (Mexican Summer) 

It's such a pleasure to hear a band employ artificial textures so gleefully; everything about Channel Pressure sounds synthesised & mechanical. But even though Ford & Lopatin clearly have so much fun assembling their plastic beats, they never forget to write hooks and beats that stick in your brain, and that's just what Emergency Room does.

5. Kurt Vile - On Tour
from Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador)

Smoke Ring For My Halo is the sweetest & gentlest release by Kurt Vile so far. Even so, he fits in some terrifically macabre imagery on songs like On Tour, my favourite from the record: "On tour. Lord of the Flies."

6. Ghost Wave - Hippy
from Ghost Wave EP (Arch Hill)

I will never not love New Zealand bands who play Flying Nun-inspired garage punk. All of Ghost Wave's debut EP was great, actually, but Hippy's minimalist guitars and brilliantly unexpected bridge refrain is basically as good as it gets.

7. Panda Bear - Last Night At The Jetty
from Tomboy (Paw Tracks)

Tomboy might not have captured the zeitgeist the way Panda Bear's debut did, but if you're asking me (and I guess you could say that you are, in a way) Last Night At The Jetty is as good a song as he's ever written: sweet, wistful and sad.

8. Twerps - Dreamin'
from Twerps (Chapter/Underwater Peoples)

80s jangle-pop might be the last aesthetic that can possibly be mined from that exhaustively revised decade, but it's kinda surprising that it's taken this long to happen: it's such a listenable sound. On their debut album, Twerps ditched the scrappy milkbar punk that they'd been messing with to write some extra grown-up songs with strings and everything; super impressive stuff.

9. Real Estate - It's Real
from Days (Domino)

It's just so easy to love Days, the second album from Real Estate. It's catchy and melodic and totally sincere, and this song from it features expertly deployed whoa-ohs; everything's there, really.

10. Guerre - Millennium Blues
from Darker My Love (Yes Please)

You could say that 2011 was "the year of new R&B", or whatever, but as with so many microgenres, it only really happened at all because a handful of talented practitioners. Guerre is one of the best.

Laugh for a world filled with fantasy

Panda Bear - Working for Ariel (Live at the Ottobar)
I've been trying to find out information about this song that is/was apparently a fixture of Panda Bear's live sets, though apparently it has since been turned into an Animal Collective song. I can't figure out which song this might be and I feel inadequate considering the other lengths of Paw Tracks completism I've gone to ie. seeking out Panda Bear live sets just to hear new tracks, actually I'm thinking that this probably isn't that rare for a 'music fan', in fact, it's probably 'typical'. It does seem kind of weird though, that they would slot this into the AC side of things considering just how Panda Bear it sounds; a very simple loop, a straightforward beat given that drugged out (or; high on life), floaty kind of vibe, totally carefree, maybe this is what Lisbon sounds like and I can't stop listening to it, but does anyone know what AC song it has been turned into? This is from a live set played at the Ottobar in Baltimore on June 06, 2007.

Bros before whoas

It's time to talk PROFOUND SHIT on Gmail chat again. Shea, host of the New Zealand indie radio show Guitar Media is, again, the one to come up with the goods. Last time he hooked us up with new Beirut and here we are again surprising ourselves with procrastination-fueled eloquence. LOL.

Guitar Media: hey listen to thisss http://www.zshare.net/audio/3617232fe669ab/
Sent at 1:24 PM on Wednesday

me: what is it?

Guitar Media: panda bear/some rapper mashup
it's pretty cool

me: okay
Sent at 1:27 PM on Wednesday

me: this is infinitely better than i would've thought

Guitar Media: yeah i listened out of curiousity not expecting much but it's pretty well done

me: it's got a bassline that sounds like wu tang's 'clan in da front'

me: and he raps about gi-joe
Sent at 1:31 PM on Wednesday

Guitar Media: im reading about the rapper on wikipedia, seems pretty dubious hhaa. he's collabed with p diddy and shit

me: you say that like it's a bad thing

Guitar Media: lolol

Blow out yr cherry bomb

I am excited, barely able to contain myself. I'll be by my mailbox if anyone needs me, because I just ordered:

1x Panda Bear Tshirt
1x Panda Bear - 'Take Pills' 7"
1x Panda Bear - Person Pitch double LP

And I'm listening to The Clientele's Suburban Light. I want to post up songs from this and the new Panda Bear bside from the 'Take Pills' single but I think if you look back throug hthe archives of this blog there'll be more than enough entries about both bands, maybe it's not such a bad thing, after all, I feel happy when I do actually get obsessed with just one or two bands rather than just as much music as possible in general, I haven't listened to music with such hunger since The Smashing Pumpkins when I was 14 or when I found out about The Pixies. Did you know that 'Take Pills' is not about taking Ecstasy but in fact about anti-depressant drugs? This may or may not be true but at least that's what my new friend told me on the weekend.



If you go to Gorilla Vs. Bear you can check out a new remix of Panda Bear's 'Comfy in Nautica'. It's by a Spank Rock DJ apparently! Also, you can watch the video for 'Master of None' by Beach House (one highly obsessed over band from last year and still this year, I'm going away to a large country house an hour out of Tamworth on Sunday and this is where I discovered the best place to hear Beach House is in the very hot country sun sprawlled on grass, and that the best place to listen to The Clientele's Strange Geometry is playing tennis with old Adidas tennis rackets with towel handles and wooden bodies and broken strings on a court with vague chalk markings for lines, I need a boombox so I can play tennis with a white Nike sweatband or so I can listen to Run DMC while playing indoor soccer with mint green shorts and a red tshirt and white Nike socks and a Nike sweatband).

The new Ian Curtis biopic Control is really amazingly good in lush (or bleak, or lushly bleak) black and white, the cinematopgraphy was meticulousy enough to distract me from the somewhat heavy life and dramas of Curtis and life in Manchester. Biopics are a really good idea if they are done this well; informative, illuminating. It must've been hard to try adn be objective being based on a book written by Curtis' wife Deboroah who seems ot have had it a little rough with him having affairs and being a tortured artist and what not, he seems like a bit of a jerk in palces but mainly just a guy with a lot of very real weight on his shoulders, it seems he's no matyr but an extremely young person struggling with suddenly shooting to fame. Dead at 23, blimey.

Scooters, Vacation, Fall

Just listening to the new Animal Collective on repeat, it's pretty much all I do here, but I don't think it's such a bad thing, I mean there are certainly worse things to be doing with my time, like watching BIG BROTHER or something like that, or biking real far to an art gallery opening just for the free booze and when you get there you find out that a glass of wine is $5, shit. At least there was free cheese. Anyway, here's an interview with Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox aka the maker of the best freakin' album you could imagine apart from maybe the new Animal Collective (his other - main? - band). This was done in April 07. CHECK IT:

Person Pitch took a reasonable amount of time to make. Have you been reading many reviews of it?

Yeah, I’ve seen a bunch of them. There’s a lot of stuff online that I’ve been reading.

Did any of these surprise you much?

The whole level of attention the album received was really super surprising to me. That’s not to say that I thought the album was bad, but what I expected was that I thought it would do just a little bit better than Young Prayer. But I certainly didn’t expect it to get a whole lot of attention.

Do you think it is doing better than Young Prayer because of the whole happier tone of it?

It’s definitely a lot easier to swallow than Young Prayer was, I guess that’s why I thought it would do a little bit better.

It all sounds quite carefree to me; and I find that big thing that comes through is a sense of instinctiveness. I was wondering just how naturally the album came in the making to you?

It was pretty natural, as you say. I think it helped that I was only working in little bits, just in my free time, and I didn’t have any deadlines or anything. So it was always kind of a relaxed atmosphere, I was working from home so there was always a mellow vibe going on. I should also say that after the last one which was so intense, and where the subject matter was so serious, it was definitely a conscious decision on my part to try and do something that I felt was way more casual and didn’t take itself too seriously. Overall, and on the most basic level, I just wanted the music to be just positive on any level, for somebody when they were listening to it, and for me making it too.

I think the change in sounds from Young Prayer to Person Pitch is at least a little bit reflective of what I’ve gone through the past couple of years. I feel like I’ve bee a much happier person overall and its something I’ve definitely worked on. I guess I’m always working on being a happier person; I suppose everyone is in different ways.

So was the whole album recorded in Lisbon? I feel weird knowing all this stuff like how you got married and had a child.

[laughs] Yeah it was all recorded in Lisbon.

From what I hear it’s a pretty chilled out place. It’s funny how the whole idea of the ‘casual’ in your music seems so apt. Even though there are so many sounds going on in the record it still just sounds so laid back. There’s a certain rhythmic spontaneity that comes through for me. I was listening to this record by The Field just before I came here, this techno record, and one of the tracks really reminded me of one of the tracks on Person Pitch; ‘Bros’ maybe. Have you heard that record?

Yeah for sure. I’ve heard a lot of those jams. I feel like dance music on the production side of things, as well as dub music (which kind of has its own place in the lineage of dance production); those were the two most influential things for me when I was thinking about it, and in terms of the production of the album.

I was wondering what it was in particular what you liked about dance music and DJ culture?

I think the biggest thing is I get really psyched on being in a club with lots of people dancing and the music sounding really loud and feeling the bass really heavy and in yr body. It’s a special way to experience music and I really like that sort of environment a lot. I guess my dream for the album was that it would be played in that sort of environment. I don't really think it will be, but that was what I really wanted.

It’s funny, because I find it a very uplifting record to hear. I think it’s the rhythmic element of the record that makes me want to move around or dance.

Yeah, well it’s funny that you say that because I have that sensation too, like when I was making it I wanted to kind of move around. It’s the rhythms of it or something about that, but it’s like, my body can’t do that; I cant move that way!

It’s this urge to dance but yeah, I don't know how yr meant to move to that sound.

In terms of dance music and how it relates to that, I think it’s the repetitions of everything and how monotonous the loops are in a way. To me, it harkens back to that sort of music, dance music and that sort of format.

You put a couple of tracks out on 12” single, is that to do with that too?

Yeah that was definitely a direct influence of dance culture, the way things are produced.

Are you much of a dancer yourself?

I’m not, no, unless I’m in a room by myself at home. I’m not much of a public dancer, I should say. But every once in a while, if I’m drunk enough [laughs]

I’m glad you feel the sensation of that as well, though. Because there was one time in Sydney when the Animal Collective played and me and my friend couldn't contain ourselves and danced fairly ridiculously during the whole set and then this guy was like 'DUDE CAN YOU GUYZ STAY STILL I'M JUST TRYING TO WATCH THE BAND; GOSH. And I was like (in my head) 'DUDE YR NOT GETTIN' IT'.

I want everybody to have a good time; I mean I can sort of see his point of view but I’m kind of bummed out that he wasn’t in to it in that way. I’m always kind of dancing in my own weird way up on stage, I must look like a moron for sure.

Do you still play most of the drums in Animal Collective now?

Yeah, that’s still my main role in the band by default.

A lot of articles and music press say that you’re the most melodic member of the group. Would you say that’s fair enough?

I wouldn’t really agree with that actually. I mean Dave certainly writes most of the songs and I feel like his is the strongest voice in the band by far. So I don't think its accurate to say that im like the melodic or the pop side of the band at all. More recently I’ve written more songs for the band but still I feel like the bulk of it is his jams.

Right. But with your solo stuff, have you been playing much of that live?

Yeah, I have, here and there over the past two years. I did one small European tour with Ariel Pink and then I’ve played maybe about five times in the past couple of years here in Lisbon. I played twice in the UK about a month ago. I did this one here recently that was at this like African disco, and that was so sweet; I had a really good time at that one. And also a couple of days ago I played at my wife’s fashion show. It was on the roof of this mall, it was really intense.

What sort of stuff does she design?

She’s a designer who makes pieces that are all unique. She really cranks it out, too. It’s pretty surreal and weird on a certain level. I think her stuff is unique because it’s kind of casual and comfortable but weird at the same time. It’s like something that yr not used to seeing.

It’s funny that yr describing these clothes like that because you could probably say that exact thing about Person Pitch.

Totally. It’s weird; we talk a lot about our places in our respective fields and there are so many similarities in our own places in terms of what everyone else is doing. Or how we feel like we fit in, or don't fit in to things.

Did it all work at this fashion show, yr music?

Yeah I think it really worked well, and she seemed to think so as well. It felt good to me. We spent a while picking the different songs I would use. I took a lot of the songs off Person Pitch and cut them up and put them together with other songs. They were all mainly the more subdued jams. It’s nice to play in the fashion show setting; I’d done it a couple of times previously. It’s nice not to be the focus of attention in a way.

So how do you react to playing solo and just being up there on your own?

It’s kind of nerve racking really, because if I make any kind of mistake it’s really obvious, because there’s no one else making sound except for me. The system I’ve got is just two samplers and singing; if I hit the button at the wrong time its really noticeable. I practice pretty heavily to limit those events. I guess I do pretty good with it, but it’s definitely something I get more nervous about compared to the Animal Collective shows.

Were you nervous about releasing yr album?

Not really. Maybe I would’ve been if I thought people wre going to care about it. At the time though, it was sort of the leak on the internet that made people pay attention to it. Before that, though, I thought it would do just a little bit better than Young Prayer.

Are you planning on staying in Lisbon for the near future?

Yeah, I should say that my wife and I are totally happy here. I was definitely concerned about how it was going to work but its turned out in a really positive way. It hasn’t really seemed to be a problem so far. At least for now, I think we’re totally satisfied and happy being here.

You were just in Arizona recording with Animal Collective. Did you find that the way you made music there was a lot different to making it in Lisbon?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, we had written all the songs and we knew pretty much exactly what we were going to do before we got there; there wasn’t much of a songwriting process going on. It was so much more of a formal experience in terms of recording. It was way more organized with the band. And it followed a more strict path, whereas on my own I could just do whatever I want, I didn’t have any deadlines, it was kind of more…well, to use the word casual again.

I was about to mention that word again myself. But its strange, because it all sounds so dense as well, you can tell that a lot of work has gone into it. I was wondering where you dug up all the samples from.

They’re all off the Internet. Almost all of them, something like 95% I just got from free sound FX sites and things like that. I’m kind of psyched about it being this real digital, internet age sort of album. And at first, I was like, ‘I’m definitely not going to release this on vinyl’. But now lots of people have been asking about it’s vinyl release so we probably will.

The Rosequartz #1s

I decided it would perhaps be a nice idea to see what you other kids are listening to, so have acquired the albums the others rated number one that I was not previously in possession of and have listened to the all and I offer you my thoughts. Although, as I have been unable to acquire Person Pitch, and am basing my opinion of it on a quick whizz through at work on a copy that was specially ordered in for someone, I'm including The Clientele also, as it featured prominently on a couple of lists. So I Begin!

Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls

I quite enjoy this, it progresses a lot from previous recordings with which I am familiar, as well as their "Lots of Shouts, Lots of Calls" live show. That said, there are still a few tracks which are of the ilk of their predecessors, that are constructed with the love and attention of a sand-castle artist. The arrangement and harmonic patterning has always been my favourite aspect of this band, and Five exemplifies this for me on this album. The new instrumentation is pretty fun as well!

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

As mentioned previously, I haven't got a very good idea of what this is about, but it sounded pleasant enough whilst I helped lovable old dears finding a particular Andy Williams recording. I think it could have been done better justice through earphones however. I've never quite fallen to the floor in admiration of Animal Collective, but this has definitely helped me to see what they are all about. The instrumentation in particular is a lot nicer, and the rhythms blend quite nicely with one another.

The Clientele - God Save The Clientele

First thoughts are that this is MUCH better than Strange Geometry. I might be harping on about instrumentation a bit in this post, but arrangement and orchestration really do add so much in terms of richness of sound, and give many more options for harmony/dissonance. As was mentioned before by my honourable colleagues, this is pretty sublime and summery. Just wonderfully crafted pop songs can make so much right.

Sir - The Brando Room

This has quickly risen to the top-end of my releases for this year, and Max has risen to the top of my music reviewers for ever. It is touching, poignant and has been the soundtrack to me writing this post. Occasional glimpses of a second voice, stripped back instruments, touches reminiscent of a circus or merry-go-round revolving slowly, if it weren't so damn well written it would almost sound like a parody of itself, the quality brings such irreversible and undoubtable sincerity.

The RQ Mid-Year Review: Richard

5. Kes - The Grey Goose Wing

I did this interview with Karl E. Scullin and got mega excited; we both spoke at ridiculous paces because I'd just heard the album for the first few times and found the ideas to sound so fully-realised and just generally extremely interesting and WEIRD. I think it's hard not to use the word weird but it's also very engaging. It's sprawling and the concepts are visible; they usually work but sometimes they don't but even in the off moments it sounds wonderful and immediate. The production is really nice, done on some old analog setup. Such a unique voice; there's not much else like it.

4. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal.

I loved this from the get-go. Twee-shoegaze: it doesn't get much better in terms of genre combos. Of course, there's more to it than that; it's noisy, it experiments and meanders and fuzzes about all over the place but all this allows for some beautiful sounds and interesting ones, too. My ears like this. It sounds good on speakers and headphones (especially on a bus in the country) and at work as well.

3. The Clientele - God Save the Clientele

Like Max had written about a band focusing on simply crafting an assured aesthetic, the main reason I've listened to this album such a ridiculous amount of times this year is because this particular aesthetic gives me shivers and revelations every time I hear it. Same goes for their earlier records, this is one of my favourite sounds: it's extremely accomplished and lush and beautiful and I just wish I was driving a nice vintage car through Britain in the springtime because it would be absolutely perfect. When Strange Geometry came out in 2005 I surprised nerdy radio co-hosts on our end of year run down show with my digging on this one. 'It's not that good!' they said. But it is! And this new one is one thousand times better because it has violins and piano and somehow here the band further all those brilliant ideas even more.

2. Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey EP

Their full-length Cryptograms is stunning but this four-song EP (that actually comes with the vinyl now) has all the best elements of the record sans fuzzy ambience and meandering bits; it cut's straight to the driving rocking bits that I always search for in music but there are surprisingly few bands that do it well, especially not this well, it's a narcotic and warm and positively addictive.

1. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

This is obvious because of the numerous times I've spouted 'OMG BEST ALBUM EVER' way too many times on this blog and on the radio and to everyone but really, Noah Lennox is a visionary and my mind is blown in different ways every time I hear this. I feel like I've thought about this record way too much but most importantly it transcends all that. He's interested in DJ culture, in dance music, 12" singles, beats, rhythms. Apparently Luomo's record Paper Tigers was the largest influence on his making of Person Pitch (amongst other things; dub, falling in love, getting married, having a child, moving to Lisbon). Luomo's is a techno record that not everyone will enjoy; a little too techno for some, I'm sure, a little too abstract for others. He also digs on a record called From Here We Go To Sublime by The Field, which, strangely, I had been listening to before the interview and considering it's similarities to the repetition and beats and rhythms of Panda Bear's music. The Field is driving and relentless. Panda Bear is supremely carefree; wandering, dawdling. Of course, they sound very different, but there's some very similar ideas at work in each. Emmy Hennings has been blogging about notions of the polyrhythmic and the track from The Field at the top seems in line with those sorts of sounds. I can see how Noah Lennox can have heard this sort of techno but I'm constantly amazed at how he could use its influence in such a fucking brilliant and unique and personal way.

And All I Want To Do Is Take It Easy

The Field - A Paw In My Face

I did a long interview last night with Noah Lennox - Panda Bear - who I know I've blogged about here already but I really do think that this new record, Person Pitch is the most exciting thing I've heard in a long time or ever(?!). It's the sort of record that begs for explanation or understanding even if it's so simple in its repetition and lyrics but so beguiling and otherwordly in it's melodies and samples.

He's interested in DJ culture, in dance music, 12" singles, beats, rhythms. Apparently Luomo's record Paper Tigers was the largest influence on his making of Person Pitch (amongst other things; dub, falling in love, getting married, having a child, moving to Lisbon). Luomo's is a techno record that not everyone will enjoy; a little too techno for some, I'm sure, a little too abstract for others. He also digs on a record called From Here We Go To Sublime by The Field, which, strangely, I had been listening to before the interview and considering it's similarities to the repetition and beats and rhythms of Panda Bear's music. The Field is driving and relentless. Panda Bear is supremely carefree; wandering, dawdling. Of course, they sound very different, but there's some very similar ideas at work in each. Emmy Hennings has been blogging about notions of the polyrhythmic and the track from The Field at the top seems in line with those sorts of sounds. I can see how Noah Lennox can have heard this sort of techno but I'm constantly amazed at how he could use its influence in such a fucking brilliant and unique and personal way.

Another interesting aspect of Person Pitch are the notions of digital media that Noah Lennox became interested in during the creation of the record. It surprised me to hear that he collected all of the samples found on the album from the internet, from free sample and sound affect sites. Still, he maintains a strictly analogue feel across the whole album. When listening to 'Bros' (the 12 minute centrepiece of the album) the peculiar sound affect of a duck honking or other weird FX drifting in or out of. Noah Lennox is not much of a dancer, in public, at least. But it's hard to imagine him not being completely carried away when creating these beats, and it's hard for me not to want to dance ridiculously; because it's something innate, this sound.

Mike Tyson wears Rolex, you should too!

Panda Bear - Take Pills
It’s only March, but I honestly fail to see how an album could be better than Panda Bear's Person Pitch this year. Yeah, superlative music press babble: who cares what the best albums of the years are, and lesser still, who cares what my favourite records are. But listen to that link up there. I can’t pin down a favourite track on the album but this is probably the most accessible, even if it starts and finishes with experimental sounding ambience and crackles. ‘Take Pills’ eases from Panda Bear’s slower, signature blissed-out and melodic chants into something buoyant and somehow danceable, driven by beat and bass. Animal Collective has always been about tribal style beats, propelling their pop along, riotously and blissfully.

Here, it works perfectly, numerous styles mingling, Noah Lennox (it’s staggering that Panda Bear is a real person) trying out lots of genres with all the fervor and excitement of hearing them for the first time. It’s just all so seamless! Its one big transitionary piece. He’s fucking ambitious, and that’s something that seems to be important in the best music made these days.