20. Dope Body - Nupping (Hoss)
From the ruins of rap-metal, Dope Body have shown that there's no reason you can't improve on your source material. With an outstanding drummer, a guitarist the love-child of Tom Morello and Arto Lindsay, and a barking bro-tastic drill-sergeant lead singer who rarely keeps his shirt on, Dope Body are too weird for the frat, and too cool for the schooled. --M@
19. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica (Mexican Summer/Software)
Replica seems to be the first piece of Daniel Lopatin's work to polarize, though is also the first to distance his Oneohtrix Point Never project from just about any other synth-rekindling artist today with a beautiful, haunting, and bewildering crossbreed of kosmische and plunderphonics. --Carter Mullin
18. Givers - In Light (Glassnote)
It's not surprising that Givers' debut name-checks Talking Head's classic Remain In Light, considering its make-up: three vocalists, short-circuit guitar playing, and a skewed Afro-beat sensibility. Givers' infectiously upbeat album was has broad, full-band widescreen feel refreshingly different than the cloistered bedroom pop of recent years. --M@
17. John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (Ribbon)
I've been a huge fan of John Maus' since 2009. It was understandable to see people ripping on him for making weird synth pop and singing songs about having sex on top of cars. Personally this is not my favorite release from him but I think he still does a fine job at making haunting and catchy synth driven tunes. It's still a little weird how everyone is in love with him now but it's about goddamn time. --Alisa Rodriguez
16. Skoal Kodiak - Kryptonym Bodliak (Load)
Who knew raw noise could be so danceable? Like Holy Fuck led by a schizophrenic karaoke robot, or Black Dice congealing into a fragrant new concrète, this band occupies a uniquely disorienting space between cold, harsh electronics and pulsating human junk. --M@
15. Death Grips - Exmilitary (Third Worlds)
The cunning Death Grips gang are to be credited for defying hip-hop stereotypes to boundary-pushing heights. With subject matter regarding obsessions with drugs and sex, references to Minutemen and Sonic Youth, and becoming your inner demons, Exmilitary conjures noise-rap reckless abandon backed by abusive and intricately designed beats. --Carter Mullin
14. Balkans - Balkans (Double Phantom)
I have a tendency to underrate "pop" music (with the notable exception of UMO, below), and it's hard to say exactly why; is it because nowadays albums seem singles-based, or because I lack the attention span to enjoy an entire album of "pop" music? For whatever reason, this classic twin-guitar/drums/bass lineup captivated me from the start, and reaffirmed my love of albums made up of well-crafted, singable, danceable, enjoyable music. --M@
13. tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L (4AD)
At a time when pop music seemed boring and dull, this band came out head first with a creative punch in the face! Loved by 'indie kids', bloggers, soccer moms, and music haters everywhere. --Brandon Greter
12. Real Estate - Days (Domino)
Real Estate make it sound easy-- almost *too* easy, but that's sort of the point. It wouldn't work so well if the band wasn't so self-aware-- as singer Martin Courtney sings on "Green Aisles": "those endless drives down green aisles/our careless lifestyle/it was not so unwise." Beneath all the sunny jangle there's a real melancholy for a youth that's either fading away, or-- sadder still-- already gone. --M@
11. Apollo Brown - Clouds (Mello Music Group)
How Apollo Brown managed to make it all sound so simple, yet so god damn effective from start to finish I still don’t know. Holding a simplistic approach in hip-hop has for a long time meant a stripping of creditable, artistic merit. Apollo Brown comes out on Clouds with every gun loaded, drum-machine and sampler in hand, with 27 loop-based project beats, guided by whirling cosmic-lite synthesizers and sentimental orchestral samples, that simply don’t miss a beat. If a consistent lyrical flow is what makes a good MCee great, then the same is true for an instrumental hip-hop artist consistently delivering quality beats. --Tyler Chambers
10. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up (Sub Pop)
Hip-hop has blossomed and ventured into daring realms in 2011, and none more cerebral than Shabazz Palaces' particular journey. Referencing his days in Digable Planets and lamenting the decline in quality of the genre he's long championed, Ishmael Butler voices poignant commentary on our current musical state while Tendai Maraire transmits the message through an abstract, metaphysical, and cosmic lens of production. --Carter Mullin
9. Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair (Dead Oceans)
I heard this album described brilliantly as "the sound of Tears for Fears turning themselves inside out." A wonderful example of how a band can embody and combine their influences while at the same time being entirely and inimitably themselves. --M@
8. Grouper - A I A: Dream Loss/Alien Observer (Yellowelectric)
A I A feels like an odd step for Liz Harris. Contrasting the clarity that graced 2008's Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, this double-LP submerses the scope of her pattern-developing songs through the obscuring murk of Wide or Way Their Crept. Grouper has struck a perfect medium through this coupling of old and new visages, though, as Harris' austere voice is blanketed by her fervent guitar melodies. Dream Loss wanders into malaise, whereas its successor, Alien Observer, is tangibly comforting. --Carter Mullin
7. Battles - Gloss Drop (Warp)
A lot of people seemed to be upset when Tyondai Braxton left Battles. After all, he was the lead vocalist but he was certainly not the focal point of the band. With Gloss Drop, Ian Williams, Dave Konopka, and John Stanier managed to make the most energetic and outstanding record of their music careers. Almost every other track features a guest vocalist who adds an extra twist on the vibrant instrumentals. One of the highlights is Blonde Redhead's singer Kazu Makino's vocals on "Sweetie & Shag", which could be considered as the first pop song Battles has undoubtedly perfected. "Sundome" is the mind-blowing finale that features vocalist Yamatanka Eye from Boredoms, howling gibberish onto a layer of cheesy 80s synths and a pulsating drum beat. I wouldn't call this album a sequel to Mirrored but more of a step up from their dark, post rock sound. It's Battles without chipmunks. --Alisa Rodriguez
6. Doomsday Student - A Jumper's Handbook (Anchor Brain)
Generally speaking, I would anticipate my noise rock album of the year to explode with detail, but Doomsday Student's execution remains straight and narrow throughout A Jumper's Handbook, with piercing guitar leads, pummeling drum assault, and vulgar ramblings; nothing I could expect more from the men once behind Arab on Radar. --Carter Mullin
5. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (History Always Favours the Winners)
There’s a scene in The Pianist where Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist in hiding during World War II, is caught by a German officer. In the swollen tapestry of a run-down slum consists a piano, and soon after Szpilman is caught, he’s asked by the officer to play a piece on it. It’s an engrossing, utterly haunting piece, and every time I put on An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, I’m echoed of its memory. Szpilman’s condition is devastating and his ballad is somber, yet there’s a ghostly beauty to it all; a man on his last leg, with all circumstance against him, releasing such a delicate elegance through the keys of music. The Caretaker created an entire album of such quality, ultimately rivaling any ambient release I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. It’s entrancing, emotional, and timeless music that anyone with two ears and a pumping heart can get completely lost in. --Tyler Chambers
4. Radiohead - The King of Limbs (XL)
Four years after In Rainbows, one of the most reliable acts in rock music unveil The King of Limbs, an opus with not a single "Bodysnatcher" in sight and almost devoid of rock essentials. Radiohead pursue an unforeseen procedure of songwriting, basing Thom Yorke's sprawling croons over meticulously looped cadences. As another chapter in the discography should do, The King of Limbs continues to define the spirit of Radiohead while baffling devotees all the same. Considering the fluctuating accompaniment of "Bloom" and "Little By Little" the band feels so incredibly comfortable in this state that it seems effortless, spawning anxiety for forthcoming efforts despite the album's final words. --Carter Mullin
3. The Field - Looping State of Mind (Kompakt)
In many ways Looping State of Mind is the unintentional dance pop sequel to Gas' Pop. The way the album takes lush, fragmented loops of deep sonics and almost subconscious drones is astounding. Its subtle incorporation of nature samples, which often times is difficult to decipher whether or not it's coming from your own backyard, creates the ultimate effect of entranced disillusion. The Field's Looping State of Mind is similar, in that repetition is key, though replace the deeper low-ends and nature samples of Pop with thicker beats and subtle vocals samples. Looping State of Mind is the kind of dance album that's bound to be a rewarding listen, as subtle complexities and woven grooves are distinguished in given time. Ladies and gentlemen, this is real trance, not that it fits the particular genre, but the very essence, the very definition of the word. --Tyler Chambers
2. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Fat Possum)
Their debut manages to be irresistibly funky, weird, ramshackle and consistently fun with every listen. The name's a hint at the sound; like a golem cobbled together with old 45s, UMO is both warmly familiar and utterly strange. --M@
1. Grooms - Prom (Kanine)
Grooms debuted two years ago with Rejoicer, a vivid snapshot of seminal acts that peaked before the turn of the millennium, from Sonic Youth to Polvo. And though Prom is deeply rooted in nostalgia, the band exhibits its darker facets-- times of insecurity and angst. It's gnashing and visceral but equally colored by beauty and grace; frontman Travis Johnson puts it best before "Aisha"'s tense close: "These are my primitive feelings on sophisticated dealings." --Carter Mullin
Fantastic round-up, guys! Obviously, I've got some shopping to do...
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