6) In Motion #1 - The Cinematic Orchestra (TOP 20 OF 2012)

In Motion #1

The Cinematic Orchestra

Ninja Tune Records.

Original SCQ Review.

Too transparently collaborative to be a proper Cinematic Orchestra record but too ambitious to be merely a stopgap release, In Motion #1 was released this past spring to listeners in a cloud of soft focus. At least that’s my way of explaining the indifference it was met with from fans and critics alike…

Yes it looks like a pretty enormous undertaking on paper – 80 minutes of scores (one over twenty-minutes in length, the others no less than eight) and without visual accompaniment – but let’s not forget the orchestrators assigned to such a task. Grey Reverend turns in “Regen”, an exceptional landscape of guitar and ambience gradually unfolding into an orchestral dawn. The tragically late pianist Austin Peralta offers the woozy but brilliant “Lapis” while Dorian Concept and Tom Chant lend two of the disc’s more meditative fusions, “Dream Work” and “Outer Space”; post-classical codas fed with avant-jazz tensions.

Between these contributions lies Jason Swinscoe’s efforts; “Necrology” maintains The Cinematic Orchestra’s trademark sound while the heroic “Manhatta” and life-affirming suite “Entr’acte” provide the disc’s more romantic moments. Perhaps these cuts lack the experimental edge longtime fans were hoping for; maybe the boundless nature of these maneuvers triggered a ‘schmaltz alarm’ people never expected from Ninja Tune. But In Motion #1 leaves nothing to heavy-handed emotion; even the over-arching moments of grandeur swirl with undercurrents of The Cinematic Orchestra’s eclectic past.

5) Aufheben - Brian Jonestown Massacre (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Aufheben 

Brian Jonestown Massacre

A Records.

Original No Ripcord Review.

It’s to the credit of Anton Newcombe’s fleeting genius that every wildly divergent Brian Jonestown Massacre record has been worthy of at least some consideration. Rebounding off of 2010’s Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?, in which signs of life were increasingly tough to find or take comfort in, Aufheben has the renewed energy of a band’s second era. Like The Cure’s The Head On the Door or Mogwai’s Happy Songs For Happy People, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s twelfth full-length officially subverts the band’s old reputation by consolidating influences Newcombe once wore on-sleeve and instating them as smooth gears of the BJM Sound 2.0. Judged on the merits of “Blue Order New Monday”, an unsurprising but bold entry into new wave’s dance-y corridors, and “Face Down On the Moon”, a flute-leading instrumental replete with eastern accoutrements, Aufheben makes virtually no sense. But taken as a mind-expanding whole, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s latest ushers a journey as deliberately narcotic and bewildering as anything they’ve done before, stepping confidently into a mystical rebirth.

4) Bring Me the Head Of... - Kyle Bobby Dunn (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Bring Me the Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn

Kyle Bobby Dunn

Low-Point Records.

Original SCQ Review.

Kyle Bobby Dunn has been building toward due recognition for a while now. The rural Ontario-via-Brooklyn composer’s capacity to transmit beauty from the most transient points of tonal elegance has always elbowed itself a spot within SCQ’s listening habits but, this year, his efforts became unavoidable. Alongside November’s bare and lovely In Miserum Stercus, Bring Me the Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn finds the minimalist achieving some of his finest work yet.

In all likelihood, we’ve acclimatized to his trajectory a hell of a lot more than Dunn’s bent any rules to our favour. But it's a dynamic that's paying off for both parties. After all, this is music to internalize and learn from; it wouldn’t make any sense for Dunn to cater his gorgeous ambience toward any tangible scene when he occupies such a minimalist throne. Blessed and cursed are those who let this record of pure sadness soundtrack their lives this year.

3) Landmark - Apollo Ghosts (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Landmark

Apollo Ghosts

You've Changed Records.

Original SCQ Review.

That Apollo Ghosts, after achieving Skeleton Crew Quarterly’s crushing 90% score in the spring, don’t have the numero uno spot on this year-end list says more about the SCQ office than it does about Landmark. Nothing says “black sheep” like a punk-fueled, impossibly catchy rock record surrounded by a growing proclivity for post-classical, ambient, sad-sack, etc-music but Apollo Ghosts made it stick with a ripe grove of riffs for the plucking. “What Are Your Influences?” spearheads an uninterrupted flow of tight guitar-rock and creative bluster without getting caught in ego or self-seriousness.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed but “indie-rock” has gradually become an oxymoron in parlance with popular music’s changing tide. To see that something has been lost amid the Grammy wins and high-profile crossover collaborations isn’t being contrary or snobbish; it’s understanding that embracing the mainstream means leaving the core need for independent music. Apollo Ghosts aren’t penning a new genre or stirring the cultural pot counter-clockwise but with “Weekend Fantasy”, “Why Can’t I Be the Man On Stage?”, “Guitar Brother” and virtually everything on show here, they’re a fresh reminder why real indie-rock cannot be topped. Oh, and you can grab that – for free, even – right here.

2) Below Sea Level - Simon Scott (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Below Sea Level

Simon Scott

12k Records.

Original SCQ Review.

Last year’s Top 20 Albums list played out over a mountainous event in my personal life – the uphill anticipation and aftermath serenity bookmarking my September wedding – and, as such, the event informed the criteria of several top listens. Although bringing far less intensity, 2012’s big event – my moving away from Ottawa – still left lingering traces over the year in music, classifying records in old or new geographies.

Since no record on SCQ’s year-end list approaches the investment Below Sea Level has in geography, it’s fitting that Simon Scott’s ode to The Fens in Eastern England so prominently scored my Ottawa farewell. Early spins of this record, occurring about a month from our packing-up and departure, encapsulated my last weeks of walking to work, taking in the sun-drenched parks and sidewalks of a town unknowingly on the cusp of a drought, while hearing the insects, birds and plant-life resident to an area thousands of kilometers away. Sometimes Scott manipulates the found-sounds into electronic rhythms that form the bedrock of his ambient movements, other times he lets the various organic sounds collaborate with his tones as they like, improvised. But when Scott fully confesses his love of the Fens through nostalgic guitar-work, it speaks to attachments we can hardly enunciate – the places we’ve left pieces of ourselves. 

1) Among the Leaves - Sun Kil Moon (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Among the Leaves

Sun Kil Moon

Caldo Verde Records.

Original SCQ Review.

I’ve been a late-bloomer over the course of my entire relationship with Sun Kil Moon. Arriving in time for 2008’s April and anxiously awaiting 2010’s Admiral’s Fell Promises didn’t accelerate those records’ slow-burning intensity, although both placed well on SCQ’s Top Twenty Albums lists, respectively. But music this isolated and sparse shouldn’t take so long to digest, should it?

I mean, Mark Kozelek’s greatest smoke-and-mirrors – his strictness against embellishment, insistence on saying exactly what he wants (regardless of how long it takes) and an oft-mumbling delivery – should be weakened by the straight-up candor of Among the Leaves, but it isn’t. Taking direct shots at former loves, life on the road, aging friends, sad-sack fans and occasionally himself, Kozelek’s restlessness no longer weaves a subtext but the diary-detailed plot of Among the Leaves. And somehow, perhaps thanks to the record’s very Sun Kil Moon-ish length, these seventeen songs hide their graces for that unassuming upteenth listen, when Kozelek’s lonely croon hits your headphones at the most opportune moment.

Granted, there’s more than enough evidence to support the idea that Kozelek’s writing more for himself than any of his fans, but that’s part of what makes his records so exceptionally insular. Getting lost in Among the Leaves’ pristine guitar work and instrumental subtleties, to the point where the bludgeoning force of Kozelek’s lyrics fall completely unexpected into our laps, is a sorrowful joy to behold, ensuring a rare immediacy amid one of indie-rock’s more impenetrable catalogs.