Albums of The Decade - 94. Blanck Mass - World Eater

94. BLANCK MASS - WORLD EATER 

R̶a̶r̶e̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶s̶e̶l̶d̶o̶m̶,̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶t̶e̶n̶,̶ ̶o̶c̶c̶a̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶r̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶n̶t̶r̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶L̶P̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶ ̶

Well, I just broke that rule and put on the LP. I was listening to my favourite radio show - The Gilles Peterson show https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fm4ss, whilst actually making Spaghetti Bolognese, and it was so soft compared to the intensity of this journey of a grizzle. It's the same old shizzle over here - reckoning that this should be higher up the list, but still, it's warranted. Shit, it was on Spotify shuffle. Shoulda played it through front to back.

While I lament the fact that the days of The Chemical Brothers, Underworld and The Prodigy are over - not to mention Leftfield (editor)  - 20 years on there are glimmers of hope with beats - and this is all on that. I wrote in 2017 "Relentless, unassuming, sputtering, splattering electronica that derives from Fuck Buttons." on this blog and that sums up the style and the origin of Ben Power, the solo-guy in this project. What a way to conclude this entry - let it sputter, as your heart flutters - mine certainly is. Fuck.

Albums Of The Decade - 95. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

95. PJ HARVEY - LET ENGLAND SHAKE

As concepts album go - it doesn't get much better than this. Polly Jean Harvey has been on my hit radio since about 2000 when I got into her with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, but it was 2007's White Chalk that indeed made the #54 cut on last decade's century on this blog.  At times as sparse as White Chalk and at times as full-bodied as, say, Stories From the City, yet Let England Shake is still woven from its own historical cloth. Yarns spun from fractured voices, soldiers wounded - it's written in such a measured way, and still sounds hysterical and muddled.

Tonight I made a fish soup for the first time in a decade - and the winter vegetables, alongside leek and potatoes, coupled with the lemon drenched hake made for a tranquil backdrop for this ace piece of work. However, my mood isn't to pull aces out of my sleeve tonight, as I've just finished a very tough jog after a bout of flu this week. I'm not gonna head into Saturday night and make my system shake - but I'll be eternally grateful to Polly for giving me a much-needed break. Back once again. ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Albums Of The Decade - 96. The Walkmen - Lisbon

96. THE WALKMEN - LISBON
In the year of 2016, I took a trip to Lisbon a few days before Christmas, during a three month long sabbatical stint, between moving continents - Asia to Europe - a mammoth step. I fell in love there, made a great accomplice also, drank cask-loads of wine, spent time looking at the water and witnessed a pigeon fucking up eating my pizza; as a seagull deservedly took away the crust.

The Walkmen, just on the turn of the decade, managed to craft a 1950's style homage to this most luscious of cities using horns and mariachis, amongst other dis-harmonic strings. Hamilton Leithauser plays on the binary oppositions of feeling fractured and repaired at once - and that's been the story of the last 10 years for me, especially the former.

At the time of writing, I'm currently listening to Heaven - the 2012 follow-up to Lisbon and it's more of a full-bodied work, than the stripped down nature of this aforementioned modern classic. The Walkmen, prior to this in decades past I'd seen as a support band, and occasional headliner on the live circuit. But with this installation into Spaghetti Blogonese's  hallowed Top 100, they're officially seen as outright champions.

Albums of the decade - 97. Deerhunter - Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?

97. DEERHUNTER - WHY HASN'T EVERYTHING ALREADY DISAPPEARED?

Deerhunter have had a special place in my heart after 2008's stunning Microcastle. For them to penetrate the top 100, especially in 2019, speaks wonders of the fact that this is a band that always comes through.

I saw them live last in 2008, in Brighton, and they blew the house down in terms of playing, performing and piling on the quality. I don't remember any specific song but I remember the angular quality of the riffs, the molten lead of Bradford Cox's vocals and crimson lights flooding the stage. 

They're my epitome of intelligent rock and roll. This latest album is not only gonna be one of the best records of 2019, but will also sit with me as one of the band's greatest tokens. "Futurism" especially captures the vitality of effortless groove. I ran up the hill today and had it in my head even before I hit the play button. I had it on on the bus yesterday - yes I used a double "on" - and it will keep playing and burning in my thoughts. Playing me in, in flames.

Albums of the decade - 98. Fennesz - Bécs

98. FENNESZ - BÉCS

Timing is everything and this nicely coincided with the release of the artists new LP Agora which came out last Friday. I write this in my kitchen now as noise and dissonance washes all over me. Black coffee is the fuel to pump in, after a brunch of shrimp and tomato sandwiches. The Dire Straits ran a lyric once that went "I run on heavy fuel" - that juxtaposed with Christian Fennesz's ambient washes - provide a sunny, non-jokey April 1st as Spring truly sets into life.

I first encountered Fennesz in 2004 at The Coronet in London, and he was on the same bill as Four Tet, Caribou, Animal Collective and Explosions In The Sky. Brilliantly - I've just clicked that event - and it transpires that it was on 30th April, so we must have been fresh as a whistle. The discordance of sound from Fennesz, in between post-rock, folktronica and electro-funk sets, brought the mood down to a suitable down. This man is the sound of poised.

His debut LP Endless Summer was a breath of fresh air and came in at #86 on my list of best albums of the 2000's. A few LP's in-between ,and this conceptual follow-up to that debut has never felt better timed. As the seasons blend into one, and a new page begins, the sound artist crafts another tapestry.
Static, submerged, complex, beautiful. Go get 'em kid.

Albums of the decade - 99. James Yorkston - The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society

99. JAMES YORKSTON -  THE CELLARDYKE RECORDING AND WASSAILING SOCIETY

Next on my pick list is this by James Yorkston from Scotland, who has been omnipresent and understated for the last 10 years around these parts - I've scrolled down and around on Spaghetti Blogonese and seen some sloppy late-night red wine posts, enthusing about his folkmanship and I can't guarantee that there won't not be a bit of nonsense repeated in the gloaming. 

Keeping it real for now though, after a chilled Sunday recuperating with some Adrian Younge, I sank into this full hour of lavish folk after coming back from the Vilnius International Film Festival, and felt a strong sense of teapots and folklore. As The Guardian said of this record in 2014 "James Yorkston fans get their money's worth: dense with dialogue and spanning 16 tracks, the folk songwriter's eighth album feels like an hour with old friends."

Yorkston's bassist Doogie Paul tragically died of cancer in 2012 and the song "Broken Wave (Blues for Doogie") is one of the most beautiful songs written this decade, maybe ever. I have to fill the right side of my blog up with hashtags in a minute, to try and get some more exposure and readers - but James Yorkston feels like the least worthy of hashtaggery in this 100. You know me though - I'll plough it through nevertheless. 

Albums of the decade - 100. Adrian Younge - Something About April II

100. ADRIAN YOUNGE - SOMETHING ABOUT APRIL II

I originally thought that this was a soundtrack to a film, but instead was thankful to discover that the record was a sequel to the producers original debut in this series. The vibe here in this room, right now, is that I'm waiting on roast cauliflower, onions and garlic to come out of the oven. I also threw half a bag of peas into a carrot soup - but it's hardly as exploratory as what Younge was doing in 2016. I'm just going to go and stir the peas and then I'll write the second paragraph.

This list is intended as a diary through the last ten years, and where I'm at now. I'm not so bothered about rankings as I used to be - but still it's good to have some vertebrae, Whatever follows this album at #99 - it doesn't mean I like it more than #100 - Adrian Younge has driven my mood today and it's nice to pull this soulful treasure out of the crypts.

I think he did something else with Ghostface Killah a few years ago, so it may make sense to give that a listen, as when Tony is rapping over this wholesome kind of sampling, it sets the day alight. Without a rapper though, Younge still called in some cats like Bilal and Laetitia Sadler from Stereolab and while there are not vocals on every track - it adds some kind of glue.

One of my best friends has just MOVED the place I'm living, so after a Friday blowout - Saturday was actually a day of being in my own kind of crypt, despite spring starting afresh. After today's jog and the upcoming veg however - there couldn't be a better album to play to signal renewal, even if the second song on this is called "Winter Is Here". Oops.