Records Of The Year, 2011

OFF!- First Four EPs (Vice)
As close to Keith Morris-era Black Flag as you could reasonably hope for, 2011 brought the release of the first OFF! records. Featuring Keith himself (and former RFTC drummer Mario Rubalcaba) OFF! deliver with the short sharp brutality of primitive LA hardcore. There's plenty of referential humour intertwined beyond the title of this release - the band are also named after a flyspray and Raymond Pettibon is on graphic duties once again. The existence of OFF! voids the last 25 years worth of Black Flag indebted false punk.

Tom Waits- Bad As Me (Anti)
Dog-eared bar-room poetry from the 61 year-old, on his 17th album. As focused and game-changing as anything he's ever done.

Real Estate- Days (Domino)
Hopefully the dawn of a new C86 era, the shimmering delights of Real Estate have been delighting audiences over the world since their moved to indie-major Domino. Spotless pop-melancholy oozes from every groove of this, their second full length album.

Roedelius/Schneider- Stunden (Bureau B)
Piano-and-electronics post-ambient experimentalism, from one of the genre's founding fathers and a modern master. At once clever and playful, music for an open mind in an empty room.

Wolves in the Throne Room- Celestial Lineage (Southern Lord)
Transcendental, relentless black metal in the truest sense; the sound of a rain-drenched spectre looming on the edge of a foggy forest. Witness new constellations coalesce...

Zomby- Dedication (4AD)
Smart, synth-y soundsystem psychedelia. Post-everything piano electronics for the discerning rudeboy.

Vittorio Mazzoni - Geografia Della Campania (Not on label)
The soundtrack to a vintage future of disjointed voices, lost guitars and haunted dub. Vintage modernism on cassette.

Git- Imagination (BBE)
Party in your head to the Pete Rock flavoured Bay-Area hip-hop like it's 1995.

Peaking Lights- 936 (Weird World)
Psychedelic kosmiche-dub with other-worldly analogue electronics, but pop.

Gang Gang Dance- Eye Contact (4AD)
New York art-dance-pop of the most fun and experimental kind. A necessary, modernist advancement of dance music.