‡‡ TWO BEES ‡‡

Happy New Year From TWO BEES

When the Four Horsemen arrive, I’ve got Oprah on my side.

What about you?

TOP 5 RELEASES OF 2011 (and THENSOME)

I have posted this up on the Facebook earlier this week while readying myself to go witness one of said TOP 5 artists perform at a house show.  Pointless extra details of that evening aside (like how nice Rachel & Grant Evans are - I’m kidding about that being pointless. You guys rock!), here is the repost for all of Tumblrica to see (and for any of these artists to use for their own review/quote fancy):

TOP 5 RELEASES OF 2011

SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones (Profound Lore Records)

Doom. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Violins. Edwin Black’s War Against the Weak. Apocalyptic sludge. A cappella folk harmonies. Utah.

All of this and more make up one of the strongest, heaviest and most beautiful releases I’ve heard in years. Others (myself included) have tried making critical comparisons, but a friend of mine shushed me after hearing a couple of tracks, telling me that doing so would be a grievous error, cheapening something as grand as this. He was right. One thing is for certain, find this album and you will know the beauty in the end of the world.

Austra - Feel It Break (Domino Records)

As was with NERO, Austra made her way to this list through the likes of Zola Jesus (and her beautiful Conatus LP) and the myriad of other new acts that people enjoy throwing the words “Cocteau” and “Souxsie” at with the use of brilliant pop hooks. One minute and fifty seconds into the album and you already know you’re in for something that will be stuck in your head for awhile. By the second track (“Lose It”), you’re dancing where you sat down. By the fourth track (“Beat and Pulse”), you’re looking out your door for a partner. By the eighth track ( “The Villain”), you’ve got a lust for flesh and find yourself in a Fincher-esque sequence of running downtown, going in and out of every club you come across (with stylistic slow motion shots of you hooking up, of course). By the last track (“The Beast”), you admit what the music has done to you as you crawl back into your bed with your clothes on, staring at the wall while a neighborhood cat jumps out of nowhere and licks your hand.

Dirty Beaches - Badlands (Zoo Music)

Canada-via-Taiwanese musician Alex Zhang Hungtai has stated his thematic influences for Badlands stemmed from Wild At Heart, Blue Velvet, and Lost Highway. His music contains as much love for 50s nostalgia as David Lynch’s films, though the audio is as clear as the plot of Inland Empire. The blown-out, lo-fi distortion, which has become part of the Dirty Beaches sound, would put even the first Black Lips record to shame, but it’s familiar rhythms (“Horses”) and doo-wop piano lines (“Lord Knows Best”) keep the listener hypnotized like Audrey Horne in front of a jukebox. Cavernous crooning through the mythos of Route 66 comes to a close with the clock striking at the speed of vinyl melting in the sun (“Hotel”), and wouldn’t ya know it? It’s only been 26 minutes.

A fair warning: listen with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul.

NERO - Welcome Reality (MTA Records)

“This is the year dub-step goes pop,” said one of many reviews of NERO’s debut, Welcome Reality. With some of the catchiest electronic music I have heard in years (the Wagnerian epic of “Doomsday”, the dub-trance…er…trance of “Guilt”, the drastically remixed Jets classic “Crush On You”, the train-track rhythm [and glorious pay-off chorus breakdown] of “Promises”), NERO has me actually paying attention to a genre of music that, up until this release, I have been just dandy turning my nose up at. The heavy effects of the genre, on top of top-notch production and SONGWRITING (emphasis can’t be stated enough here) make this the prime example of where the genre can go. If future dub-step producers want to make any kind of a splash, this is the bar.

Lee Noble - Horrorism (Bathetic Records)

Touch something hot with one hand. Simultaneously touch something cold with the other. Feel that sensation? Now slow that feeling down to the speed of fog that’s as thick as molasses and you have my take on Lee Noble’s Horrorism. Sure, it’s a rather dark sensation, but it makes you feel something that you normally wouldn’t get if you were just touching one or the other.

(On a side note, I faux-proposed to a friend of mine while “Desire Isn’t Suffering” [Track 1 on Side B] was playing in a dimly-lit room. She said it was better than her ex’s actual proposal. I give most of the credit to Lee’s music for that one.)

::AND THENSOME::
Just cos they didn’t make the Top 5, doesn’t mean they didn’t make the Top 20. Here are my other top releases of the year - no order, all great. Enjoy!

Krallice - Diotima (Profound Lore Records)

Harmony - Harmony (Casa Del Disco)

Puerto Rico Flowers - 7 (Fan Death Records)

Haujobb - New World March (Zweieck Recordings)

Acretongue - Strange Cargo (Dependent Records)

Ohgr - Undeveloped (Metropolis Records)

Helvetia - On The Lam (The Static Cult Label)

Iceage - New Brigade (What’s Your Rupture?)

Zola Jesus - Conatus (Sacred Bones)

Gatekeeper - Giza (Merok Records; technically available via the UK in late Dec.’10)

Die Sektor - Applied Structure In A Void (NoiTekk, Deathwatch Asia, COP Int.)

Chelsea Wolfe - Ἀποκάλυψις (Pendu Sound Recordings)

Basement Jaxx & Steven Price - Attack the Block OST (Universal UK)

Heartbeater - Violent Nights EP (Melt Face Records)

Javelin - Canyon Candy (Luaka Bop)

Grand Opening

Watch out guys.  Man’s got a “Tumblr”…whatever the hell that is.

Oh…it’s this? This is a “Tumblr”?

Aw hell.