STARTING AT 2010.

In the age of the fractured music audience, it only seems fair that this be a list of albums I discovered in 2010 rather than those that came out in 2010. With almost all music standardised, accessible and instantly available, time has flattened. We just have now an astounding catalogue of sound that has quietly crept up on us and presented, to be explored via the internet (and hopefully bought too).

The 10 in this list illustrate that very point in my view, coming from different eras and genres, even the oldest/most obscure of which- Al Wilson’s Show and Tell is really just a type away. It’s filed below Al Green and above All American Rejects. Sleigh Bells’ Treats is conversely probably the ‘biggest’ album on the list. Like La Roux, Bombay Bicycle Club or Phoenix, they have steadily but quietly built an imposing profile (here in Britain), spearheading this year’s output of blogosphere headline-making pure indie. By comparison, James Blake is perhaps at an earlier stage of his germination into the popular zeitgeist, and it remains to be seen where he will go. CMYK and Klavierwerke EPs were two defining records of 2010: they sat on the dance counter at Rough Trade in Shoreditch and very soon trickled away. They spawned an ambush of the Radio 1 playlist, shows and the announcement of his first long-play, due in 2011. A young, promising and exciting artist making music in a great era of creativity and musical dialogue, his success next year might be a further measure of the potential the online music world has granted artists to cross boundaries and escape genres or musical and geographic scenes. Musically, James Blake and How to Dress Well, as well as many other artists on both sides of the Atlantic show that past, present, dance, hip-hop, pop, R&B, dubstep, dub, dancehall, electronic and organic instrument-led music can be seamlessly brought together. Mount Kimbie's Crooks & Lovers is another such example, and the remaining album on the list released in 2010.

The #1 in the list is DJ Jazzy Jeff’s second solo effort The Return of the Magnificent, which I think-although I don’t know- passed unnoticed on the US R&B charts, as well as here. The star who is so often (hell, always) obscured by his lankier former co-artist deserves not just commercial and critical recognition beyond his 90s pop smashes with Will Smith, I think, but a profile that matches the best R&B and hip-hop artists of the post-millennium. When I first heard ‘Come On’ from the album covered here, it was immediately up there with 2Pac’s ‘Keep Ya Head Up’ in my mind, and has not yet come down. The druggy chill of ‘The Garden’ and summer strut of ‘The Definition’ sound like they deliver exactly what Jeff wanted from them- a perfect, focused flow of open-top car radio goodness that lasts through the initial high, out into the open road and into half-asleep in the back chill out in a hefty 78 minutes. The other hip-hop album on my menu is Jurassic 5’s self-titled LP. Yes, I know- this is firstly a classic that perhaps shouldn’t be on the list (not least because I should have discovered it sooner), but it’s fresh to me so it stays. ‘Concrete Schoolyard’, ‘Improvise’, ‘Without A Doubt’, ‘Lesson 6’: of course some of the most awesome sounds of the rap underground, splicing drum fills, Cut Chemist’s crazy public information samples and turntables that sound like flutes…or the other way round.

Turning to some other random choices, White Denim have been referred to previously on this blog and is one artist that you could be sure is the only in any list of the top 10 of 2010 that wasn’t meant to be in there. Last Day of Summer was in fact just an online-only update on how the band’s third LP is coming along. See below to download it.

With regard to Life of Leisure, that was for me, the album that led the tidal wave rushing towards our shores in late 2009 of American lo-fi indie. A dirge of sluggish, distant melody and synthesisers beating reluctantly, wearily, Washed Out captured the haziness of long, lazy hot days and bottled it. Best Coast, Summer Camp and others pushed similar buttons over the year, employing similar production techniques and pushing for their formulations of lethargic disconnection, but to me, no other finished product was as multi-layered or resonant. This has been an exciting year generally for lo-fi music, driven by many excellent blogs presenting excellent bands seemingly out of the blue. Although featuring on them, Bonobo’s Black Sands was brought to my attention by a friend, and from the first opening montage of soundscape I was hooked. (See below). That particular part of the album might have been a suitable soundtrack for the blockbuster of the year, Inception, with all its soaring strings and ominous undercurrent chanting brewing a dream-like world. However, as opposed to that created in Life of Leisure, it is one that brims with detail. That world makes the album: it fleshes it, informs it, gives it wings. You can soar over endless green hills and into tropical storms: an atmosphere so pertinent that music becomes just an accompaniment to imagination.

Lastly, I was glad to discover Talking Heads this year. The band’s big, consistent output has been rewarding and fun all round, and finally ‘clicked’ when I heard ‘Sugar on my Tongue’ from the album 77: a provocative, slightly disturbing test tube filled with either sex, anger, man, woman- some combination of everything with an angst plug and shaken.

So concludes. At a bit of a stretch and ramble, that was my top 10 of 2010. There was a lot of enjoy this year-a great deal- a huge deal- most of it unknown and untouched, inevitably leaving us all basking in little wee specks in contrast to the massive edifice. And to think that we sleep…

1. DJ Jazzy Jeff The Return of the Magnificent (2007)

DJ Jazzy Jeff- She Was So Flyy feat Kardinal Offishall
DJ Jazzy Jeff- Come On feat. Dave Ghetto

2. Bonobo Black Sands (2010)

3. White Denim Last Day of Summer (2010)

White Denim- Some Wild Going Outward

4. Jurassic 5 Jurassic 5 LP (1998)

Jurassic 5- Concrete Schoolyard

5. Sleigh Bells Treats (2010)

6. James Blake CMYK/Klavierwerke (2010)

James Blake- Klavierwerke

7. Talking Heads Best Of (2004)

8. Washed Out Life of Leisure (2010)

Washed Out- Hold Out

9. Al Wilson Show & Tell (1973)

Al Wilson- Broken Home

10. Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers (2010)

Mount Kimbie- Before I Move Off

Best Coast

An up 'n' coming band called Best Coast have been making waves (ha!) for a string of summery, noisy pop tunes since the start of 2010. Just search them on Hype Machine for an idea of just how rampantly hysterical indie blogs at home, and especially in the States have become about them; writing about their latest track and debut album especially (see?). The LA band are fronted by Bethany Cosentino, whose deliberately slurred vocal style has led her cheeky little outfit to be dubbed "chillwave"- a (very) loose term for a range of American lo-fi bands that have mixed fuzzy production values with a relaxed breeziness in the melody and vocals. See Memory Tapes, Neon Indian (great tune by the way) and Washed Out for an idea. Really, Cosentino's music could simply be described as the solo record Julian Casablancas of The Strokes might have made had he possessed different junk in the cupboard under the stairs (been a woman), and not ditched his band's crackliness. Best Coast's first 7" vinyl releases on the Black Iris label were a total hit. Printed in limited numbers like most niche alternative artists, copies of 'When I'm With You' (original production 500, USA only) have been sold on ebay in the US for $42. Can you see why?

Best Coast– When I’m With You

Sure, the deliberate claustrophobia is hard to stomach sometimes on this record, especially when Cosentino's not-so-delicate decibels push the microphone over the edge. New track 'Boyfriend' is perhaps more mainstream-radio friendly, having lost much of that distortion, but once again they have made catchy seem effortless. Pull a lever, and Cosentino will create it:

Best Coast– Boyfriend

To celebrate the release of their debut album Crazy For You on 2 August, I might do a few star jumps. Second, the band will play at Cargo in London. Be warned though: they are that cool that anyone thinking of going probably won't turn up.