British artists: Pulp, James, The Horrors*, Yuck*, Arctic Monkeys*, WU LYF*, The Midnight Beast*, Wolf Gang*

French artists: Breakbot, M83, SebastiAn, Madeon*

Texas artists: The Black Angels, Neon Indian, Explosions In The Sky

intense artists: Refused* (hardcore scream punk), Death Grips* (hardcore hiphop), Atari Teenage Riot* (digital hardcore)

women: Mazzy Star, EMA, Hello Seahorse!, honeyhoney*, Ximena Sarinana*

rap/soul/reggae: Frank Ocean, Jimmy Cliff*, Kendrick Lamar

artists I didn’t know very well before doing this and was impressed by: EMA, The Black Angels, Hello Seahorse!

personal favorites of the day: Mazzy Star, Pulp, Frank Ocean

* = not on my mix

Coachella 2012 Fridays from almostaghost on 8tracks.

Life In Mixtape Form #38 from almostaghost on 8tracks.

In case you’re new here, every day I pick a sort of “song of the day.” After eight days, I’ve got a mix I can upload to 8tracks. This is my 38th week in a row doing this, and I still enjoy using it as a form of daily reflection. I’m sure that’s meaningless to all, so aside from that, it’s generally just a bunch of cool songs.

January 2012 from almostaghost on 8tracks.

A short handful of new 2012 songs–most are from EPs, mixtapes and singles because there weren’t all that many new albums that I heard and liked enough to want to share a song. But there was still some cool tunes out there this year, and I liked this selection.

set this town on fire from breathmint on 8tracks.

a gentle gentle shift sent all intents adrift

I wanted to mention Cyrk here, because it is a really cool album, that I keep enjoying more and more with each listen. I read somewhere that “cyrk” is the Polish word for “circus,” so I got to thinking about that in relation to the music. I guess it is a sort of apt title, for a couple of reasons. The songs have a touch of familiarity to them, but lying just underneath are some unique twists. Sort of like a circus perhaps? Cozy and familiar, but with slightly bizarre happenings. For example, “Greta” here:

Cate Le Bon “Greta”

As you can hear, there is nothing blindly original about it, as Le Bon purrs over a light electro pulse. But by the end, the song had mutated into a jazz beat. That may not be a totally unique idea either, but together? I love these odd little songwriting twists that show up throughout Le Bon’s music.

Similarly, much of the time I have no idea what Le Bon is singing about. Her voice is good, and clear, but the way she sings (perhaps her Welsh accent too?) makes much of the lyrics incomprehensible to me–sometimes phrases pop up here (“fold the cloth or cut the cloth” she wonders on “Fold The Cloth”) and there but overall, there’s some distance to that part of her songs. But this distance ends up putting that much more focus on the music’s subtle twists, so it works and I don’t mind.

The other note I had about the circus is the ’60s synth carnival vibe throughout. And I don’t mean that her songs are on some circus gimmick like “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” or something. It’s much more subtle than that. You can hear it underlying songs like “Puts Me To Work”:

Cate Le Bon “Puts Me To Work”

Anyway, the ’60s vibe runs throughout Cyrk. It is a clever work I think, in how Le Bon finds her way comfortably into a spot combining warmth/familiarity and experimental/distance. It may not make a huge mark on anyone, but it does impress. Like a circus.

Life In Mixtape Form #37 from almostaghost on 8tracks.

Songs!

geezerology

Spielgusher – Spielgusher (2012): Legendary bassist Mike Watt joins with some Japanese musicians (Yuko Araki and Hirotaka Shimizu) to back rock critic Richard Meltzer, who reads his silly pseudo-beat poetry (“red snapper is the lettuce of fish!”) over their brief little jazzy blips. There are 63 (!) tracks on the album, which seems daunting at first, until you see how short they all are. The album feels amateurish to me, though I did dig a few of the musical moments–Watt’s bass in particular. But it is hard to get a sense of the work/creativity when it runs through so many moments so quickly. And frankly, sweet jazz bass is hardly enough to recommend an album.

Spielgusher “Minus Five And Counting”

PS. Instead of writing a select bunch of longish reviews at the end of the year, I am going to try to more regularly post shorter ones all year long. Mint and I always talk about expanding like that, so time to try it out! I’m sure if something comes along that inspires me, it will be longer and more thoughtful, but most will probably be like this one. And hopefully an increase in quantity won’t hurt the quality!

Life In Mixtape Form #36 from almostaghost on 8tracks.

Onwards, 8 more days, 8 more songs. These, I must say, are some great songs. Also, got tickets to Coachella again this year, so expect a lot of info/thoughts about artists in the line-up out of me for the next couple of months.

Life In Mixtape Form #35 from almostaghost on 8tracks.

Thanks to Mint for updating the blog look, looks awesome! Here’s my last 8 songs-of-the-day mix!

^ first, a mix. It’s not ALL songs from my top 20 albums either. I do like other things too.

And had a couple of requests for an extended list, so here it is. A few that narrowly missed the top-20 just came out, and if I’d had them longer and given them more of a chance, they could’ve climbed up. Artists, next time, release your albums before November, kthxbye!

1. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
2. The Antlers – Burst Apart
3. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs
4. The Kills – Blood Pressures
5. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
6. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
7. Lia Ices – Grown Unknown
8. Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver
9. The Black Keys – El Camino
10. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
11. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
12. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
13. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
14. Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
15. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer
16. Cut Copy – Zonoscope
17. Disappears – Guider
18. Youth Lagoon – The Year Of Hibernation
19. Vetiver – The Errant Charm
20. Bjork – Biophilia
21. Death Cab For Cutie – Codes And Keys
22. Sophie Zelmani – Soul
23. Little Dragon – Ritual Union
24. Gudrid Handottir – Beyond The Grey
25. My Morning Jacket – Circuital
26. Radical Face – The Family Tree: The Roots
27. Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
28. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
29. Feist – Metals
30. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
31. Anna Ternheim – The Night Visitor
32. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Hysterical
33. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
34. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
35. Rachel Goodrich – Rachel Goodrich
36. Bell X1 – Bloodless Coup
37. Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams
38. Wilco – The Whole Love
39. Wire – Red Barked Tree
40. Marketa Irglova – Anar
41. Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler
42. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne
43. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Mirror Traffic
44. Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam
45. Release The Sunbird – Come Back To Us
46. CANT – Dreams Come True
47. Babette Hayward – You Might Be Somebody
48. The Roots – Undun
49. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
50. Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What
51. Thea Gilmore – John Wesley Harding
52. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
53. Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves
54. The Black Belles – The Black Belles
55. Alela Diane – Alela Diane & Wild Divine
56. Snoop Dogg – Doggumentary
57. Washed Out – Within And Without
58. Ringo DeathStarr – Colour Trip
59. Pterodactyl Plains – In The Air
60. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials

that’s enough; all 60 of these I do like! You can listen to my 20 favorites on my Spotify playlist. Add me on there!

Thanks for reading. Thanks for following along. Thanks for talking about music, making recommendations, and sharing stuff with me. On to 2012!