No doubt about it, 2004 has been a great year for music.
There have been a number of breakthrough groups—
including Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand and Montreal’s
The Arcade Fire—that have received an obscene
amount of attention in the past 12 months. So instead of
preaching the gospel once again, let’s look back at
some of the past year’s overlooked albums that deserve
mention. Some of these are way off the mainstream map,
others just fell through the cracks, but all of them are
definitely worth tracking down.
Baltimore’s The Anomoanon released two albums this
year, both of which highlighted a mature, classic rock
sensibility that reminds us of the first two albums by The
Band as well as the early ’70s output by the Grateful
Dead. The sextet, led by Ned Oldham (older brother of
Will ‘Bonnie Prince Billy’ Oldham), may be one of the
best kept secrets out there currently, and their first 2004
album The Derby Ram (Box Tree Records) is just as
good as any of the Palace Brothers albums.
Magnus Lindberg is much better known as a producer
than a musician—something that can happen when you
engineer quite possibly the most influential hardcore
album of the past decade (The Shape of Punk To Come
by Swedish band Refused). But Lindberg has also been
an integral member of the Swedish post–hardcore
collective Cult of Luna for the past five years,
contributing to their past three albums on Earache
Records. Salvation, their most recent 2004 release, is
the album that ISIS fans wish that band would have
made after their landmark 2002 album Oceanic, and will
appeal immensely to fans of ISIS, Neurosis and those
with an open ear to shifting dynamics who like
intelligent, orchestrated metal.
Operating out of Waco, Texas, songwriter Sean Padilla
records under the moniker The Cocker Spaniels. Over
the past half–dozen years he has recorded and released
a number of lo–fi cassettes and CDRs, but nothing that
had the impact of this year’s Withstand The Whatnot
(Artbreak Recordings, www.artbreakrecordings.com).
Padilla is an African–American who is as at home with
Guided By Voices and Pavement as he is with Jay–Z,
and a number of his songs deal with this theme (“The
Only Black Guy at the Indie Rock Show”). His strong
songwriting skills and commitment to his craft, however,
make this a compelling listen that’s more than just a
curiosity.
Started originally in tribute to Dylan Carlson’s Earth,
Southern Californian guitar droners SUNN0))) returned
this year with their fourth studio album, White 2
(Southern Lord). Crafters of subsonic ambient pieces
made primarily with droning distorted guitars, this time
around the band also has a number of guests appear,
including former Earth/Melvins member Joe Preston and
black metal vocalist Attila Csihar. It sounds, at times, like
the beginning of the apocalypse, but only in the best
possible way. The album’s third track, the 25 minute
bowel–moving “Decay 2” features mile–power
electronics, whispered background vocals and
hauntingly shrill ambiance, and may be this year’s most
terrifying musical experience. The audio equivalent of a
really frightening splatter flick.
Together now more than a decade, Swedish grindcore
enthusiasts Nasum have managed to release only four
full–length albums, the most recent of which, shift, was
issued by the Relapse label late this summer. Just as
intense as its predecessors, the band plays in a style
that requires precision and devotion, and proves to
again be up to the task. Lightning fast—24 songs in just
over 37 minutes—Nasum pays homage to the early
grindcore masters (Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror,
Napalm Death) and retains a modern edge.
Diplo is a Philadelphia producer who has made a name
for himself through a string of highly desirable mixtape
CDRs, both on his own and in collaboration with others.
His most recent, a collaboration with UK–based, Sri
Lankan–born rapper M.I.A., is entitled Piracy Funds
Terrorism, and is one of the most sought after
underground hip hop mixtapes/CDRs of late 2004. You
may run into trouble finding that one, but his newest
studio album proper, Florida, released earlier this year
on Big Dada/Ninja Tune, is nearly all instrumental hip–
hop (outside of a few vocal collaborations) and often
very cinematic in feel.
New York zinester Jack Rabid has been documenting
that city’s underground music scene in his own
publication, The Big Takeover, for more than 25 years.
Not only is he an avid music enthusiast, he’s also a
damn good drummer to boot. Over the years he has
played backstop for a number of different bands; his
most recent outfit to release an album is the post–punk
trio Last Burning Embers. Their album, Lessons In
Redemption, released recently on Pink Frost/Big
Takeover Records, brings to mind another great post–
punk trio, The Wipers, who they pay the ultimate tribute
to by recording a version of their “Nothing Left To Lose.”
If you’ve ever seen the zine and enjoyed it, you should
give this a spin too.
A former member of Royal City and currently the
drummer for Toronto’s Sea Snakes, Guelph native
Nathan Lawr has recently released a new six–song
CDEP under the title Nathan Lawr & The Minotaur
Orchestra. Recorded live at the Music Gallery in Toronto
this past March by the CBC, it finds Lawr backed by a
12–piece mini orchestra and highlights how he may be
one of this country’s best kept secrets. Although his
singing is reminiscent of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, his
songwriting is original and the orchestrated score,
written by sometime–Sadies–member Paul Aucoin,
make Lawr’s songs dance in a way not captured on his
2003 Maplemusic debut. Simply fantastic.
---Sean Palmerston, December 2004