 THE
TOP 50 ALBUMS THAT CAME OUR WAY IN 2007 - as debated, argued and agreed
by the ORGAN team
1: EFTERKLANG – Parades (The
Leaf Label) – Efterklang are wonderful, they’re probably unique, they’re
a band crammed and bursting with musical treasure – trinkets, details,
bits of silver, shinny bits, bits that catch the sunlight, bits that make
you glow, make you swell with warm delight – and yes this does sound like
great colourful parades –great big happy engaging breathtaking panoramic
parades – www.efterklang.net
2: UPSILON ACRUX - Galapagos
Momentum (Cuneiform) - Extravagant, dazzling Upsilon Acrux are talent billionaires,
and generous with it. . With every track an astonishing mini-masterpiece,
Upsilon Acrux have delivered an album of complexed hard-boiled hardcore
avant prog that will have jaws hitting floors for many years to come. Quite
possibly the coolest band in the world - www.myspace.com/upsilonacrux
3: TOMAHAWK – Anonymous (Ipecac)
– Third album finds Tomahawk trimmed down to a trio and this time reverentially
interpreting traditional native American music for these Other Rock post-everything
avant musical times we happily swim in. a very different, rather rewarding
very respectful, rather fine album, an album that, in going back to the
source may well just be groundbreaking - www.ipecac.com
4: MICHAEL J SHEEHY - Ghost
On The Motorway (Red Eye) – It will enter your ear like honey to your heart.
Michael J Sheehy has made about half a dozen albums now, they’re all rather
good - this is by far the best. Singer/songwriter blues drenched in Catholic
guilt and step in to the strip joint, descend in to hell, then get right
on up again and crawl to church, the one with the bar in the corner. Hell,
he probably did try to burn that church down, he’s probably still paying
for it, you really really really do need this album a lot more than you
need any absolution – www.myspace.com/michaeljsheehy
5: SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM
- In Glorious Times' (The End) - In which magisterial, expansive anthems
to the coming darkness are laced with stabs and dashes of emphatic, brutal
classicism. Avant-prog-punk - with their Idiot Flesh pedigree and array
of remarkable home-made instruments, reports are that SGM shows are not
shoegazing experiences. If the first two albums caused a thrum of
word-of-mouth and web buzz, this is the one that breaks them out of the
Oakland creative crucible, the one you force your friends to hear.
Massively massively gloriously recommended - www.sleepytimegorillamuseum.com
6: AHLEUCHATISTAS - Even
In The Midst... (Cuneiform) - Ahleuchatistas are a contradiction: a fiddly
name that rolls off the tongue with practice, and super-complex instrumental
music made easy. It's not their obvious skill at playing, but what they
do with it. 'Even In The Midst...' might dazzle technically, but ultimately
it's the emotion and empathy radiating from every moment, and the sheer
delight at what they're creating, that makes this 'difficult' music so
accessible. www.ahleuchatistas.com
/ www.cuneiformrecords.com
7: PRE – Epic Fits (Skingraft)
– London’s Pre coming at us via Skingraft - they found their perfect home.
This is a hissy fit of high pitched screeching hardboiled pronkoid song
noise, this is awkwardly difficult listening and pointy stabby twitches
of new wave pink paint on pale flesh.Screaming yelling yelping relentless
girl voice and erase all errata and have Karen O make the tea before they
bring on a Cardiac Arrest - www.myspace.com/prepreprepre
8: 65DAYSOFSTATIC – The Destruction
Of Small Ideas (Monotreme) – A third 65Days album that takes us to new
highs that we now rightly demand from them. There now familiar epic prog-glitch
- real prog, real progression and they never stop grabbing you, sometimes
gently, sometimes demanding, every listen brings out another set of details
and warm textures - www.65daysofstatic.com
9: DEERHUNTER – Cryptograms
(Kranky) – They’re from Atlanta and they’re like some sparse visceral sharkhunt
of an American alt.rock road trip. Kind of Sonic Youth for Spaceman 3 disciples
who don’t mind a dark slice of strung-out primal space-rock Joy Division
via the minimal side of those beautiful Liars. Loosely structured and awkwardly
focused, like they’re challenging you to hang in there with them - www.myspace.com/deerhunter
10: CHROME HOOF - Pre-Emptive
False Rapture (Southern) – A firework of an album - a spectacular no-holds-barred
unflinching declaration of world domination. Swollen with so many
incongruous influences, Pre-Emptive False Rapture defies belief. Disco-prog?
Doom metal, , the P-Funk of George Clinton, the complex, colourful mythologies
of Sun Ra and no doubt Magma Pre-Emptive False Rapture is for real - true
Other galactic funk. - www.myspace.com/chromehoof
THE LIST IN FULL....
1: EFTERKLANG – Parades (The
Leaf Label)
2: UPSILON ACRUX – Galapagos
Momentum (Cuneiform)
3: TOMAHAWK – Anonymous
(Ipecac)
4: MICHAEL J SHEEHY - Ghost
On The Motorway (Red Eye)
5: SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM
- In Glorious Times' (The End)
6: AHLEUCHATISTAS - Even
In The Midst... (Cuneiform)
7: PRE – Epic Fits (Skingraft)
8: 65DAYSOFSTATIC – The
Destruction Of Small Ideas (Monotreme)
9: DEERHUNTER – Cryptograms
(Kranky)
10: CHROME HOOF - Pre-Emptive
False Rapture (Southern)
11: THEE MORE SHALLOWS –
Book Of Bad Breaks (Anticon)
12: GALLHAMMER – ILL INOCENCE
(Peaceville)
13: THE FUTURE KINGS OF
ENGLAND – The Fate of Old Mother Orvis (Backwater)
14: FRANK TURNER – Sleep
Is For The Week (Xtramile)
15: MINSK – The Ritual Fires
Of Abandonment (Relapse)
16: SHINING – Grindstone
(Rune Grammofon)
17: DEERHOOF – Friend Opportunity
(ATP/R)
18: LIARS – Liars (Mute)
19: BY THE END OF TONIGHT
/ TERA MELOS split - Complex Full Of Phantoms (Temporary Residence)
20: EVERY TIME I DIE – The
Big Dirty (Ferret)
21: TURBONEGRO – Retox (Cooking
Vinyl)
22: YOU AND THE ATOM BOMB
– The Spirit Of Things (Sink And Stove)
23: ORIGINAL SILENCE – The
First Original Silence (Smalltown Supperjazz)
24: GEORGE WASHINGTON BROWN
– On The Night Plain (Static Caravan)
25: CAR BOMB – Centralia
(Relapse)
26: EYVIND KANG – Athlantis
(Ipecac)
27: LOU REED/ZEITKRATZER
– Metal Machine Music (Asphodel)
28: ANTIGAMA – Resonance
(Relapse)
29: ANEKDOTEN – A Time Of
Day (Virta)
30: NEUROSIS – Given To
The Rising (Neurot)
31: WEEDEATER – God Luck
And Good Speed (Southern Lord)
32: AMERICAN STEEL – Destroy
Their Future (Fat Wreck)
33: TWO BANDS AND
A LEGEND – Featuring Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing (Smalltown Superjazz)
34: ATHLETIC AUTOMATON -
A Journey Through Roman's Empire' (Skin Graft)
35: SLEEPING PEOPLE - Growing
(Temporary Residence)
36: LASSE MARHAUG – Alive:
Live Recordings 1998-2006 (Smalltown Superjazz)
37: AKERCOCKE – Antichrist
(Earache)
38: RASHOMON - The Ruined
Map: Film Music Volume 1 (Mirrors)
39: APSE - Spirit (Acurela)
40: SHORT SHARP SHOCK –
SSS (Thrashgig)
41: RICHARD PINHAS - Metatron
(Cuneiform)
42: BIONIC – Black Blood
(Signed By Force)
43: ODD NOSDAM – Level Live
Wires (Anticon)
44: MOTORHEAD – Better Motorhead
Than Dead – Live At Hammersmith (SPV)
45: SOHODOLLS – Ribbed Music
For The Numb Generation (Filthy Pretty)
46: MIKROKOSMOS – Is The
Heart Of The Home (Ignatia)
47: CHARGER – Spill Your
Guts (Undergroove)
48: LEFTOVER CRACK / CITIZEN
FISH – Deadline (Fat Wreck)
49: MORVISCOUS - Free Pop
(self released)
50: DJ MAYONNAISE – Still
Alive (Anticon)
Now send
us your top 10 and we'll have the readers poll here for the start of the
year
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