Hammock (SCQ's Year-End Questionnaire Part I)

The Nashville-based duo tend to let their epic instrumental scores speak for themselves, typically remaining faceless and quietly proud behind each release. So it was refreshing to get some opinions out of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, including their top releases of the year and recent projects they’re proud of. If you’ve heard even a track off their Chasing After Shadows… Living With the Ghosts, you’ll want to read on…

SCQ: Every list-lover's favourite question: what are your top albums of 2010? Feel free to include any older yet worthy records you discovered this year.

Hammock: The National‹High Violet
Brian McBride‹The Effective Disconnect
Olan Mill‹Pine
Greg Haines‹Until the Point of Hushed Support
Rafael Anton Irisarri‹the North Bend
Arcade Fire‹The Suburbs
Max Richter‹Infra
Fabio Orsi‹Winterreise
Federico Durand‹La siesta del cipre's
Matthew Ryan‹Dear Lover (acoustic version)
Chihei Hatakeyama‹A Long Journey
Olafur Arnalds‹And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness
Marcus Fischer‹Monocoastal
Clouwbeck‹From Which the River Rises
Johann Johannsson‹And In the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees
Murralin Lane‹Our House Is On the Wall
Rafael Toral‹Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance
Nils Frahm‹Unter I Uber
Loscil‹Endless Falls
Goldmund‹Famous Places
The Sight Below‹It All Falls Apart
Pausal‹Lapses
Eluvium‹Static Nocturne
Nest‹Retold

Singles:

Tim Hecker‹Apondalifa
Grouper‹Hold/Sick
Foster the People‹Pumped Up Kicks
Blackbird and the Fox‹the Twilight Singers
(featuring Ani DiFranco)

Rediscovered:

the Stooges‹Funhouse

SCQ: What were you listening to a lot of while recording your excellent Chasing After Shadows... Living With the Ghosts?

Hammock: Tim Hecker—An Imaginary Country
William Basinski—92982
William Basinski—Vivian and Odine
Last Days—the Safety of the North
Jonsi and Alex—Riceboy Sleeps
TU M’—Monochromes vol. 1
Heather Woods Broderick—From the Ground
Anything from Stars of the Lid, the Church, the Cure, Joy Division, the Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, New Order
The Church #23

SCQ: Be cocky for once in your life: what was the finest thing you did all year? That moment where you actually thought "shit, I nailed that..."?

Hammock: Several things—the BT reinterpretation that we did of his song called, Every Other Way. We definitely took it somewhere different. Also, working with Tim Powles from the Church—we had the start of some great creative moments when he came over to Nashville for a few days to jam. Also, working with Matthew Ryan—that was magic, almost effortless. I also think this last ep for the year, especially the work we did with Matt Slocum came about rather organic.

SCQ: Effect and Cause: Every Spring I get a craving for good post-rock but typically have to reply on classic Mogwai, Tortoise and Fridge records. So you can imagine how excited I was when your new album emerged in time for Spring and challenged the best of post-rock with tracks like 'Tristia'. Okay, your turn: confess a true tale that inspired one of the songs from Chasing After Shadows... Living With the Ghosts.

Hammock: Well we usually make a lot of our music in the winter all the while hoping for a winter release. It’s our most inspiring time of the year. The song, You Lost the Starlight In Your Eyes started as a piece that was just written on the organ. We had our doubts but Andrew was a strong advocate for it. So we kept working and developing. The finalized piece with the vocals became one of our favorites on the record. The strings, horns and mix/productions moves that Tim Powles did brought it over the top.

SCQ: If all the reasonable and implausible ideas in your head came to fruition in 2011, what would they be?

Hammock: We would release another great record that we feel good about. Get picked up in some films that we like. Go on tour with Sigur Ros or others that we love, know and have respect for. Not suck…