Albums of the Decade - 66. Clams Casino - Instrumentals (2011)

66. CLAMS CASINO - INSTRUMENTALS (2011)

Chunky with the bleak; this is the best pre-game manifesto still out there - as in if you want to play songs before the pub - these instrumental jams will see you through. If there was a Grand Theft Auto game to be made, set in the chillwave, cold and broken isolation of the last 10 years, then surely this album would be apt as the whole soundtrack - just saying.

Pitchfork described this mixtape back in 2011 as "woozy" and I think that it is as close as it gets. Further, I just checked up on said site, and Michael Volpe has just today announced his new album drops on November 2nd this year - I am listening now and I can't believe how opportune and seasonable this all is. It is chilly outside, but things are looking up and this can go soundtrack that shit.

Albums of the Decade - 67. James Blake - The Colour In Anything (2016)

67. JAMES BLAKE - THE COLOUR IN ANYTHING (2016)

Tonight is James Blake night once more; autumnal and wet. Perfect. For anyone new to this man, it's not James Blunt or James Joyce or Blake Yeager (a 2 year old youtube star - wtf.) If you ever feel like you're walking a tightrope with someone (and believe me - this is currently happening to me more than ever) - then this is the soundtrack. Piano and vocals with a bunch of candle and a pinch of bluetooth speaker.

I write and jam my head to Put That Away and Talk To Me which is very lamentable a notion - that whole smartphone thing. It's an epic journey this album, bundling up 17 tracks into 76 minutes - messy as a messy room, but all good :) - He is my singer-songwriter of the decade for sure - catching him in concert in Taiwan in 2014 was incredible.  I won't write some sloppy journalism like "so good I can't describe" - but it was something along those lines.

James Fake. Fake Jimbo. Plain Blake. Plan Blake. He's a star, depite the plain name. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Albums of the Decade - 68. Tim Hecker - Love Streams (2016)

68. TIM HECKER - LOVE STREAMS (2016) 

Love style poem, high-school style.

Total
Immersion of impluse
Manifesting itself into every audio corner

Hatred can back-off
Especially when love is like....
Crack cocaine and occasionally like...
Ketmaine, popping ito a hole, but impossible to..
Erase from memory, as it's
Recorded forever like all your data

This one's about to play a gig that I'm regretfully not gonna attend. Nevertheless, a pair of phones will dutifully do, as Love Streams gives a whole lotta love the closer it spuzzes into your ear.The glitch and pulse of the noise of the drone of the white noise of the dissonance. Nobody does it better. Nobody.

Albums of the Decade - 69. Cavern of Anti-Matter - Void Beats / Invocation Trex (2016)

69. CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER - VOID BEATS / INVOCATION TREX  (2016)

Motor
Stereo
Cog
Whir
Rev
Spin
Clutch
Aibag
Dirt Machine
Plug
Spark
Free
Boost
Conscrict
Screech
Halt
Go
Speed
Deck
Emergence
Juice
Over and clear

Albums of the Decade - 70. Forest Swords - Engravings (2013)

70. FOREST SWORDS - ENGRAVINGS (2013)

Could pick either three of his dusty records for an entry on-board these parts, but this sophomore LP secures it, as it is just dusty enough before his dub became widescreen. Think Ry Cooder mixed with Lee Scratch Perry mixed with Burial mixed with garlic and onions.

When the drums rumble through the sensational "Onward," it makes this gravelly journey feel paradoxically smooth; a smooth rumble. Also the superb densened vocal jam on "Gathering" is wedged into such a tail section of the wagon overall, that the dust wags off.

I just shot down a glass of apple cider vinegar, and while it might take for some tough-going at first, the benefits pay off later with some perseverance and trying. With the fantastic and optimal closer "Friend, You Will Never Learn" we know that we've secured the dub record of the decade. Not everything is pretty on the outside, but it's what's buried beyond the surface that counts.

Albums of the Decade - 71. Everything Everything - Man Alive (2010)

71. EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - MAN ALIVE (2010) 

This band were a multi-coloured lightning bolt that came from nowhere in 2010, with this debut of insanity, syncopation and flamboyance. The falsetto vocals of Jonathan Higgs play on one going insane; see 2:07 in, on second track "Qwerty Finger:"

"I can't Let you turn yourself off oooh..." 
...which has got the kind of awkwardness in the title that only the British could muster in a spewy imagination that constantly has a battery in its leg before warbling: "To draw asunder every leper curtain, would be a hail of every flower to ash Ah!!!" - well that's according to one lyrics site. Every. Day. Life. Is. Fucking. Weird. And. We. Should. Acknowledge. It

As the decade comes to a close, and we lay in a quagmire of uncertainty, it's a pity that we can't jog back nine years and yank this out as a soundtrack to show how fractured the inner-soul was before it exploded outwards into vanity and massive societal meltdown. (editors note - especially hear the track "Photoshop Handsome")

Albums of the Decade - 72. Delicate Steve - Wondervisions (2011)

72. DELICATE STEVE - WONDERVISIONS (2011)

Half an hour of noodly instrumentals that is so rare that it's not commonly found on music review sites or the cannon of Spotify. In the summer of 2011, the blogosphere was hypng up Delicate Steve, as the awesome new instrumental surf-pop, Afro-rock, 1970's pop - whatever - just in the main goofy band. This band have previously had time in the studio with Tame Impala, Amen Dunes, Paul Simon, Mac De Marco and The Black Keys.

"Why so significant on this list?" you may ask. Well, at the time, I was just embarking on my second summer in Asia and I was mostly full of glee, shimmering my way through Taipei City, and this was the perfect soundtrack. I would love to hear how this sounds on vinyl, crackling it's way through the air, like a multi-coloured audio smoke machine.

Albums of the Decade - 73. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

73. FLEET FOXES - HELPLESSNESS BLUES

An affinity for this band
Definitely one of my favorites. 
Night-kissed
Sun-drenched, 
Autumnal-blend, 
Fortune-kissed, 
Wipe-the-slate-clean kissed 
Harmony-drenched, 
I am heavenless.

Albums of the Decade - 74. Wild Nothing - Nocturne

74. WILD NOTHING - NOCTURNE 

Light a candle. 
Burn the wax. 
Play this record 
Bedroom pop
Do it yourself. DIY. 
All those sleepless nights I've ever had - 
This one holds up to them

Right now, I am on precious little 
Sleep also, and I'm staying up 
Fighting and braving elements 
To get a normal sleep routine 
Tonight I made a cream of mushroom and chicken soup
I even threw some shrimp in
I can't even think straight

Albums of the Decade - 75. Aphex Twin - Syro

75. APHEX TWIN - SYRO

Sputter. Whiz. Gargle. This LP came at the mid-region of the decade in about the summer of 14. Aphex Twin has had such amazing breadth of balls-busting electronica aplomb. If Selected Ambient Works or Drukqs is heralded as his finest output, then I'd slight at that and proffer Syro to be in with the broth too.

I wanted to type "sprawling 12 tracks at 1 hour and 4 minutes" - but it's hands-down the most elasticky Aphe material out there. I am grimacing, as I just left my Bluetooth speaker, basically my go-to soundsystem at my Mum's house in the UK, so as I was cooking a bolognese -  added tobasco, honey and cayenne pepper to this one - and the experiement paid off -  so I have only one supermarket speaker working and it doesn't do the material justice.

Sometimes you don't get everything you want in life,  sometimes you don't get what you think you want. I had no idea this record is what I'd add on here today, but it feels good. Experimental electronica, experimental cooking. Exceptional circumstances.

Albums of the Decade - 76. Zomby - Dedication

76. ZOMBY - DEDICATION

Back to back with Kode9 on this list for a straight-up double dose of irresistable dub and jungle. Sometimes I wish shit lke this would get a better playout in public, be it a bar or a mall, a carwash or a salon. Essentially a sketchbook of barbed melodies, arpeggiated and off-kilter - it just kicks up a skank and then mellows out, before kicking up a skank again and then mellowing out once more.

Zomby typifies the mess of London in a non-unabridged way. There is a childlike zig-zag to the thematics of this album. It's all over the shop stylewise, but the synths permeate through. When it's 16 songs with smatterings of bass @ just over 35 minutes - you might feel a bit pertubed on paper and I wouldn't blame ya. I was too, until I hit the big green play button; you won't regret it.

Albums of the Decade - 77. Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun

77. KODE 9 & THE SPACEAPE - BLACK SUN

This took the cake for my album of 2011, before the tragic passing of the poet and MC Spaceape in 2014. Think exceptional dub, truncated arpeggios, coupled with grizzly ragga rhymes. The syncopation of "Love Is The Drug" for example provides a cut that outwardly pumps its chest forth while burying the looped vocals under the belt of the mix. If Burial, also on the Hyperdub label is sheltery and mysterious, then this album provides the best of both worlds, a secluded bolt-hole but primed in the brilliance of day.

Kode 9, a.k.a.  Steve Goodman is the flagbearer for the Hyperdub record label, and I urge you to check out its roster of artists. No, I'm not pitching the shit to the man, merely endorsing a carriage-load of London. This album may have zoomed higher up the charts, had it been a bit more recent - there is other poetry to tuneage on this shitstorm of a blog. I need to promote the hashcakes / hashtags a bit better to get my own content ranked further up the brilliance of Google.