The Silent Ballet staff counts down its top picks of December, including a couple late-year surprises.

With so many year-end lists compiled in November, many decent December releases became orphans: too late for one year, too early for the next.  One of these releases managed to crack our Year-End Top 20, thanks to an advance copy and a flurry of excited emails; the others snuck in under the wire and brightened our holidays.

Hard copies of these releases are incredibly hard to find.  One is only available from Japan (with a worldwide release scheduled for February), another from Iceland, and a third only by contacting the artist.  In recent years, physical releases have become increasingly superfluous to one crowd and increasingly valuable to another.  We salute the labels and artists who continue to traffic in the tactile; we just wish their releases weren’t always so limited in availability.

As we begin a new year of this feature, we thank the staffers who choose and blurb the winners, the readers who tune in each month to find out the results, and the artists who make it all possible.  A happy and healthy 2011 to all!

 

1) Wires.Under.Tension ~ Light Science
& (Japan)
In January, as part of Slow Six, Christopher Tignor and Theo Metz participated in one of the year’s best albums.  As the clock ticked closer to the end of the year, they astounded us yet again.  Light Science is an explosion of passion and fury, a nod to the underlying chaos that has been suppressed in the duo’s music until now.  These seven tracks tell seven different stories, all meticulously crafted and all equally brilliant.  With three prolific albums in less than three years, it’s obvious that Tignor has the Midas touch.  (Mohammed Ashraf)

2) *AR ~ Wolf Notes
Corbel Stone Press
The first pressing of this gorgeous release included two chapbooks and a phial of incense, but a beautiful face only goes so far without a personality to match.  Fortunately, the contents of theis album are wonderfully paired with the packaging, as well met as collaborators Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson.  Wolf Notes is an elegy for a wounded animal, a dedication to an evocative location, and a moving musical document that stands on its own, even when removed from cover and context.  It’s the further evolution of an already accomplished artist, and we can’t wait to hear what happens next.  (Richard Allen)

3) Apparat Organ Quartet ~ Pólýfónía
Apparat Organ Quartet
After one joyous listen to Pólýfónía, it dawned on me why I cannot stand the Black Eyed Peas.  The pop group’s masturbatory use of the vocoder is like an improper fraction: top-heavy, over-stated, a boob job.  Like Will Ferrell, the vocoder has historically been maximized in a supporting role.  Its synthetic spirit often alienates sound from the original performance, and while the vocals heard on Apparat Organ Quartet’s second full-length album remind us of Kraftwerk, they compliment the lead voice: the organ.  In fact, there are four organs here, rocking away with occasional distortion.  Add an array of chemically altered vocals, vocoder, and a wealth of staircase-climbing arpeggios, and the result is an affair rich in bubbly fuzz, sparkly bleep-bloops, and engaging drumming.  One might not imagine TSB favorite Jóhann Jóhannsson (one of the four players) as the type of person to turn the darkest of winter days into a Nintendo world adventure, but that’s exactly what happens here.  Pólýfónía is delightful and fascinating, a welcome contrast to the extended night.  (Nayt Keane)

Written By: jordan
Date Posted: 1/3/2011
Number of Views: 1076