Resident Advisor top 20 Albums 2008

UPDATE : pass and Links edit 04/01/2009 9.07pm

 

20. Scuba – A Mutual Antipathy [Hotflush Recordings] 

password: lowintellect.blogspot.com

“Scuba’s relocation to Berlin has been an important one. No, he hasn’t started making minimal, but the textures of Berlin—and the influence of Detroit—are all over these songs. Antipathy is a stunningly successful combination of London dubstep beats and subs with the floating textures of early ’90s and contemporary techno, all pitched just right for home listening.”
– Jacob Burns

19. Claro Intelecto – Metanarrative [Modern Love] 

 

 

“Pounding, floor-friendly and sharply produced, Intelecto’s Warehouse Sessions delved into the darker sides of techno and electro, but Metanarrativeis something different again. Where Sessions was functional, Metanarrative is emotional, although, in typical Intelecto style, distilled from an extensive array of influences—electro, IDM, Detroit techno, dub techno.”
– Janet Leyton-Grant

18. Kenny Larkin – Keys, Strings, Tambourines [Planet E] 

 

 

“Throughout Keys, Strings, Tambourines, Larkin peppers his elegant tech house rhythms with jazzy keyboard fills, strings, tambourines and oddball synth blurts, making for an especially tuneful listen that doesn’t skimp on the ass-shaking. Fans of Larkin’s classic works will not be disappointed here, nor will those discovering his music for the first time.”
– Todd Hutlock

17. Dave Aju – Open Wide [Circus Company] 

 

 

“Dave Aju’s conceptual precision on Open Wide is admirable—’all tracks written and produced…using only his mouth as a sound source.’ But the album works because, while its concept is ultimately subservient to the overall composition, you can’t imagine these tracks in quite the same manner without the particular tenor of Aju’s mouth-noise.”
– Jon Dale

16. Quiet Village – Silent Movie [!K7] 

 

 

Quiet Village caused a bit of commotion amongst the disco beards with their long awaited full-length. Was it an album of edits? Or just a sample-based record? However you classify the material, there’s no escaping Silent Movie’s ability to transport your mind to the most tropical climes imaginable. If that isn’t Balearic, then I don’t know what is.
– Richard Carnes

15. Ricardo Villalobos – Vasco [Perlon] 

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“The Spanish translation of Basque, Vasco refers to a people whose language bears absolutely no resemblance to its neighbors. Fittingly, Vasco is an album that lies in contrast with all that surrounds it. After the stark musings of Fabric 36, Villalobos is now crafting lengthy, enigmatic pieces that either vastly redefine ‘house’ or defy categorization altogether.”
– Will Lynch

14. Minilogue – Animals [Cocoon Recordings]  

password: enmixed.com

 

“Animals is firmly progressive in form and length, recalling both drum & bass and ’70s progressive rock at its most overblown. Yet their revisionism is subtle, keeping to a linear rhythmic template with frequently wonky analogue flourishes, familiar from ‘Elephant’s Parade.’ If earlier tracks hinted at a trademark sound, here it becomes a firmly established one.”
– Joshua Meggitt

13. Ezekiel Honig – Surfaces of a Broken March Band [Anticipate Recordings] 

 

 

“Surfaces of a Broken Marching Band is a symphony transmitted from the bottom of the sea. Cold and murky, it’s warmed by sudden currents and shifts of sediment from the ocean bed, kicking up brief flickers of light and sound that you notice whether or not you catch the disturbances that created them. There hasn’t been a better ‘ambient’ album this year.”
– Derek Miller

12. Deadbeat – Roots & Wires [Wagon Repair] 
 

 

“Roots and Wire succeeds because the different intensities and beat structures of each track offer an ebb and flow, bound together by a dub reggae spirit. More importantly perhaps, Monteith’s refusal to aim for moody, vacuous postures aids in letting the whole thing breathe. In fact, being so good, the only complaint you’ll have is that isn’t a little bit longer.”
– Chris Mann

11. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli – Serenity [Ostgut Ton] 

 

 

“It’s no light thing to say that Serenity is a perfect partner for a musico-romantic involvement with Larry Heard’s classic productions as Mr. Fingers. And it’s no mean feat that the duo have managed to produce a collection of tracks and songs that not only echo but amplify and renew the passion that they draw their form and voice from.”
– Peter Chambers

10. Loco Dice – 7 Dunham Place [Desolat] 

 

 

“Besides the floor-fit swagger of ‘Tight Laces,’ Dunham Place trades pressing for peaceful, focusing on the momentary smear of all its parts over their sum. If there’s an album from this year that’s kissing-cousins with Dice’s, not as much in sound but in the weight it places on attention to minutiae, it’s Move D and Benjamin Brunn’s Songs from the Beehive.”
– Derek Miller

09. Bruno Pronsato – Why Can’t We Be Like Us? [Hello? Repeat]
 

 

“Why Can’t We Be Like Us is like the unexpected fulfilment of a promise: unexpected because none of Bruno Pronsato’s EPs so far had hinted at anything this good; and a fulfilment in the sense that he has spared nothing with this work—there is nothing missing, lacking, insufficient. All you other wannabes, you’re on notice: the bar has just been raised.”
– Peter Chambers

08. Portishead – Third [Mercury] 

 

 

“Third is so dense yet humanely touching, so diverse yet consistent, so remote yet profound, so vaguely cold yet keenly warm it goes beyond any generic conventions and expectations. Portishead doesn’t do musical genre: it only does music. Nothing more, and nothing less. How often can you say that about any contemporary producers or so-called artists?”
– Stéphane Girard

07. Lindstrøm – Where You Go I Go Too [Smalltown Supersound] 

 

 

“Even for cosmic, with its inherent tendency for hubris, Lindstrøm’s ambition is dizzying. The three tracks on Where You Go clock in at 28:58, 10:11, and 15:58, allowing him to ‘develop different themes and let them evolve.’ But despite appearances, Lindstrøm doesn’t stray too far from his comfort zone of melody-based music. And as it turns out, that’s a good thing.”
– Daniel Bates

06. Lee Jones – Electronic Frank [Aus Music] 
 

 

“What’s surprising about Electronic Frank is how low-key it is: There are few obvious peaks. But hidden beneath the veil of subtlety, these tracks conceal a wealth of charms, new textures that unfold with every listen. Like the red-striped zebra on the cover, the album’s songs are delicate confections, wonderfully crafted and hard to dislike.”
– Robin Wilks

05. The Mole – As High as the Sky [Wagon Repair] 

 

 

“On first listen, one thing that’s apparent is that The Mole bloody loves his live disco beats. Whether they’re shuffling, skippy, looped up or just plain rolling, the sound of live drums is plastered over this record from start to finish, which makes it all the more shocking that As High as the Sky flows beautifully from track to track, each segue as measured and natural as the last.”
– Richard Carnes

04. Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair [DFA Records] 

Password: www.evolutionized.co.uk

 

 

“Rarely has an American dance music LP been so in touch with its oft-forgotten house and underground disco past while sounding so current. The admiration for genre luminaries Frankie Knuckles, Kevin Saunderson or even Morgan Geist is no mere redundancy, though: You can hear real and brilliant bedroom craftsmanship all over these ten cuts.”
– Stéphane Girard

03. Flying Lotus – Los Angeles [Warp Records]
 

 

“The cover of Flying Lotus’s Los Angeles will remind most viewers of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine. The image perfectly captures the complicated, compelling and otherworldly sound contained within. Steven Ellison’s second full-length comes together from all directions at once, a beautiful mess of contradictions, sacred thoughts and visual sounds.”
– Chris Mann

02. Move D & Benjamin Brunn – Songs from the Beehive [Smallville Records] 

 

 

“David Moufang’s work as Move D is geometric. Benjamin Brunn’s sound signature, meanwhile, is closer to fluid mechanics. Together these two approaches harmonise wonderfully, with Moufang’s structures providing solid shapes for Brunn’s melodic whirlpools and rhythmic glidings to unwind through: D builds the beehive, Brunn makes the honey.”
– Peter Chambers

01. Shed – Shedding the Past [Ostgut Ton] 

 

 

“Shedding is an album that harkens back to its influences for the sake of progress rather than nostalgia. Over the course of these eleven tracks, Shed paints a stark landscape, glistening with steely hues of early techno and forming something sleek, jagged and as he puts it, ‘full of energy and vigor.’ Much like Berghain/Panorama Bar and its illustrious cast of resident DJs, Shed perpetuates the visceral excitement of old school rave by ceaselessly presenting the listener with something cryptic, physical and modern.”
– Will Lynch