#5 David Kristian: Electronica

David Kristian is one of those electronic music artists who owns literally hundreds of pieces of musical equipment and can be considered a "knob twiddler" in every great sense of the word. Not only does he never sample any other work (he creates everything from scratch on his vast array of components), but he's also intent on not letting anyone else sample his work. I don't blame him either, if I lived my life tangled in a constant jungle of patch cords, putting together just the right combination of things to create an interesting sound, I wouldn't want some hack stealing it just because it sounded cool.

As it states in the booklet to this CD, the material on Beneath The Valley Of The Modulars spans over 4 years in its creation. Not only that, but the more subtle concept at work behind it is that the sounds on the release were "assembled from material based on the common element of voice-like timbres created purely from synthesis." Before you think that this release is going to sound too homogenic, though, just think of how many different sounds you can make with your vocal chords.

After listening to the disc, one might get the feeling that not all the sounds are based on vocal timbres, but upon close listen it's very easy to pull out lots of individual elements that have an eerie man/machine quality about them. In terms of composition, the disc is all over the place, sometimes sounding like Autechre, while other times coming across more like Aphex Twin with little bits of glitch electronics like Pole coming into play. It's very nearly all "intelligent dance music" (which is to say, it has a beat but you can't really dance to it very well) and as mentioned above, it's the sounds that rule.

Basically, if you like the above mentioned artists or simply want some electronic music that's a little more challenging than your normal release, Kristian is someone to check out. Not only are the sounds on the disc completely interesting and original, but the tracks are solidly-constructed as well.

#4 Beirut: sooo indie

Gulag Orkestar is an indie rock album filtered through the mind of a teenager who dropped out of high school to travel across Europe and soak in as much culture and music as possible. The result is something that sounds a bit like the Microphones crossed with Neutral Milk Hotel. It might be the only rock album you hear that doesn't contain any guitars, and it conveys an emotional and worldly power that I have never heard before.

Largely inspired by Balkan folk music, the album moves through mournful ballads and more upbeat tracks (that sound more like the work of a 10-plus member ensemble) with ease, layering horns, stringed instruments, ukeleles, mandolins, glockenspiel, drum, organs, piano, and other percussion under the vocals of Condon himself, who has a similar range and style as Andrew Bird. The disc opens with the album-titled track of "The Gulag Orkestar," and after some warbling horns and cascading piano, the track turns into a shuffling march that finds Condon flying over the top of it all with his rich voice.

The album really hits stride with the gorgeous "Bandenburg," which finds deft mandolins playing out over heaving drums and percussion as accordions wheeze and the track builds gracefully with delightful horn sections and vocals. "Postcards From Italy" follows, and it may very well be the best track on the disc, moving along with a playful opening section that mixes shuffling mandolin, piano and horns before shifting halfway through to a more reflective section that completely tugs at the heartstrings before bursting into a celebratory ending that's absolutely stunning.

The second half of the album finds Condon taking a few more chances, and amazingly he pulls things off just about every time. "Scenic World" uses a programmed casio-beat that sounds straight out of Magnetic Fields, but layers horns and accordion over the top for something completely unique while "After The Curtain" takes the non-traditional instrumentation and runs it through some filters, giving the track a slight electronic tinge without making it ever feel out of place. Beirut is stunning and unpredictable, which makes them a good find in the search for good music.

I recommend the Beirut for anyone searching for a good indie band.

#3 More instrumental/post-rock: MONO

This wasn’t the first post rock album I listened to, and it wasn’t the first one I enjoyed. But it is my favorite. Hymn to the Immortal Wind is the fifth album by MONO, an instrumental band who’ve been going since 1999. It’s a little over an hour long and only consists of seven tracks, yet it doesn’t plod along but constantly moves along through clever movements and passages.

What really makes the album is the harmony between the guitar line and the orchestra parts. Recorded with a 28 piece orchestra, the strings in particular take the music and push it from ‘amazing’ to ‘it feels like I’m soaring through the sky‘. It’s hard to get across what I mean by that, but I suppose ‘uplifting’ is a reasonable if boring term, and this stuff is anything but boring. The opener “Ashes in the Snow” goes from a calm, almost timid set of strings emerging from radio static into an all out battle of guitars and drums versus swooping orchestra. It sounds like it should be a noisy mess but it’s actually a single harmony, carved out of a wall of pure energy.

It’s truly incredible music. But there are tracks that don’t follow MONO’s wonderful formula. “Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn” and especially “Follow The Map” are two incredibly calm tracks, beautiful pieces of moving music that serve both to entertain but also to act as interludes between epic pieces like ‘The Battle To Heaven’.

Something I was always advised as a child was “save the best for last” and it looks like MONO heard that one, too. The final track Everlasting Light is my favourite song on the album and probably the best song I’ve heard all year. It starts off as a set of strings and piano. It’s so simple. To be honest if the song ended at the 2:30 mark it would have been a wonderful piece of classical music, but it keeps going. The piano keeps winding it’s way over an ever growing chorus of strings. Then, all of a sudden, things start getting serious. Their style and creativity automatically give grasp your emotions and make the show a moving experience.

I highly recommend MONO if you are looking for a soothing instrumental band.

#2 All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone.

This Texas band plays instrumental music of huge ambition, built with a few simple ingredients: Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani's haiku-like guitar figures, spinning in stinging-treble tornadoes, then given then an explosive attitude by drummer Chris Hrasky and bass guitarist Michael James. But there is no watch-me soloing. Explosions in the Sky (who made real mark in Hollywood with their 2004 score for the film Friday Night Lights) are like the Kronos Quartet with big amps and John Bonham in the back, exploring the composed details in their music before blowing 'em up. "It's Natural to Be Afraid," the near-quarter-hour centerpiece of the band's first studio album in two years, opens with the guitars in a double dance anchored by a stern, repeated piano note while a bee swarm of distortion slowly overwhelms the mix. Later, Smith and Rayani emphasize the darkness in the song's title with galactic-folk sorrow, until Hrasky beats back the shadows with marching-snare dynamite. In this band, a real singer would just get in the way -- or get run over. Overall, if you tire of whining vocalist and seek serenity in music for the soul, Explosions is the answer for you.