Twenty oh ten

Though we haven't even finished with November yet, a certain online magazine has asked me for a ballot of my favourite records of 2010 by today. They won't publish the results of their writer poll for a couple weeks, but I thought I'd share my list right now. Here's what I've dug so far this year the most.

1. Kemialliset Ystävät - Ullakkopalo

2. The Chap - Well Done Europe

3. Islaja - Keraaminen Pää

4. Shugo Tokumaru - Port Entropy

5. Sambassadeur - European

6. Minamo & Lawrence English - A Path Less Travelled

7. Hauschka - Foreign Landscapes

8. Yona - Pilvet Liikkuu, Minä En

9. Owen Pallett - Heartland

10. Northern Portrait - Criminal Art Lovers

Something from each of these will be on the forthcoming 2010 mixtape. Meanwhile, all the caveats about the utter subjectivity of these sorts of lists apply. Undoubtedly, there were at least a few really amazing records this year that I won't discover until next week, or 2011, or 2012, or never. That's life.

That said, that album by Kemialliset Ystävät (or "Chemical Friends") is a playful but meditative joy from start to finish. Follow that link, listen to the samples, order the CD, be happy.

Oh no, it can't be true

Finland's TV-Resistori produced a pair of delightful, offbeat synthpop albums in 2004 and 2006, making some of my favourite music of the mid-decade period. They have kind of fallen off the face of the earth since then, but according to their label Fonal, they've just been "doing and re-doing their new album" all this time. And while there is still no release date promised for opus no. 3, today the indie pop perfectionists are finally sharing new song "Voi ei, ei voi olla totta" (or "Oh no, it can't be true") with the rest of us. It's a very likable and catchily propulsive tune that bodes well for whatever else might emerge from the collective's strict quality-control vault in 2010.

TV-Resistori - Voi ei, ei voi olla totta




And for old time's sake, have a listen to the eponymous track from their 2004 album Intiaanidisko, which charmed me so much in the first place.

TV-Resistori - Intiaanidisko

Happy solstice

On the longest night of the year, Paavoharju's "Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi," or "Light Seeps Through Everything" is good music to be listening to. Happy solstice.

Paavoharju - Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi




Above: a still from Eija-Liisa Ahtila's triptych video installation The House (2002).

Listomania

The Line of Best Fit have posted their Top 50 albums of 2009, as voted on by their contributors. Each of us had a ballot of 25; six of my choices made the list, three of them (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Fever Ray) made the Top 10.

I can't say I'm overly surprised by the absence from the list of my favourite record of 2009, Es' Kesämaan Lapset (or, "Children of Summerland"). But in some alternate universe, this warm and inviting piece of folk-electronic-drone-chant from Finland would be on everyone's communal party stereos. I would have found a place for an excerpt on my 2009 mix, but the most compilation-friendly track is designated for my decade mix (forthcoming soon).

I'm a little bit more surprised by HEALTH's Get Color not finding any love. I had thought their shiny blend of noise-thrash was gaining traction out in the wider world beyond anarchist performance spaces and vegan cafes, but apparently not so much (at least when it comes to British music webzines). In any case, seeing them nearly burn down the Echoplex in L.A. was my personal live event of the year. Fucking astonishing.

Further down on my ballot, Get Back Guinozzi! made a late entrance to my jukebox this year, leaving enough of a happy impression to splash in at #10. Their idiosyncratic, ye-ye-ish take on C86 charms me greatly.

My full ballot is after the jump.