good albums of 2009

in no particular order:

tim hecker // an imaginary country // kranky
at first i thought this album was soft but then i realized it's like a normal-looking guy on the bus who is actually muttering memorized manifestos to himself.

aidan baker & tim hecker // fantasma parastasie // alien8recordings
completely awesome. better than having a black mirror which shows the future.

current 93 // aleph at hallucinatory mountain // coptic cat
david tibet sings more like kevin spacey in se7en, which is a step-up from his tormented-zoomorphic-cartoon-minstrel-schtick.

nurse with wound // the surveillance lounge // united dairies
a soundtrack to a movie perhaps. nice spot varnish. a good one!

excepter // black beach // paw tracks
excepter does improv on the nudist beach. dvd included (true story.)

the no neck blues band // ...at 6 a.m. we become the police soundtrack // locust music
kinda like a comp, but of new material. so it's nnck's physical graffiti.


cold cave // love comes death // heartworm records & matador
at first it reminded me so much of joy division i turned it off and put on unknown pleasures instead, but then it hit me: a band that sounds like joy division enough to be awesome but not totally derivative and annoying is hard to find.. so i listened again, and it was good.

eddy current suppression ring // s/t & primary colors // goner records
no one but me thinks this band sounds like mclusky, but that doesn't mean they don't. but where mclusky was stupid, this band is clever (like the name!) check them out now before you hate them from their beer commercials and endless tours.

kurt vile // constant hitmaker & the hunchback // ugh...?
these two are pretty neat, and there were other good ones too. soft electric folk songs for the mellow-hippies of today. but the matador release sounds like devandra banhardt and once you make that neural connection it cannot be undone.

muslimgauze // cobra head soup // staalplat
all hail muslimgauze. ten years into death and his albums are still better than 95% of everything. (oh and 2009 also saw the release of four muslimgauze cds, two cds re-issued, another double LP of new material from staalplat and a 3xLP boxset re-issue of Uzi Mahmood.)

andrew liles & daniel menche // progeny of flies // betalactamring records
this might be my record of the year. i have to percolate on it s'more.

magik markers // balf quarry // dragcity
ugh yeah it was okay. shit sounds like shit falling apart, and i think i'm getting saturated.

richard pinhas & merzbow // keio line // dirter
this one is like "oh: i'm floating on some liquid, how nice. why, what's this bellow me in the liquid—half-crystal half-worm seacreatures, battling in perpetuity? well.. let's watch, just for a moment or so." also: this album is six LP sides long. or perhaps 5 sides and an etching of a bird. i do not recall. it may have come out in 2008, but i'm just finishing it now. (merzbow also put out at least 8 other CDs this year, as well as two LPs.)

throbbing gristle // third mind movements // industrial records
all TG albums since the reunion kinda sound like haunted museum exhibits, but that's okay.

zola jesus // the spoils // siltbreeze

think about life // family // alien8recordings

black feelings // alien8recordings

fever ray // rabid records
also a strong candidate for record of the year. will probably not place due to major-label connections. full pedigree audit pending final results.