2011 Soul Burners of the Year

This is my list of the Soul Burners of the Year.  I have been exploring the various forms of how to list, in my opinion, the best music of the year.  This is rather an improbable task, and so subjective, but I find there is comfort in lists like this, because you, as a listener, may find a couple hidden gems within the lists to explore on your own, and find a new pathway in music that in some way changes your life.  This has happened to me on many occasions, including the very process of making this list.  Like last year, the opening section of 25 albums is composed of artists and their music that I feel have altered these kinds of pathways in the music industry.  Through marketing, through structure, through lyrical & musical content and context, through evolution of their prior self and sound, these are the selected few that have travelled that enlightened route in 2011 and have carried me with them – through various genres and eclecticism.  The next 25 are very worthy albums, beautiful and powerful, and should be duly noted.  The honorable mentions are nearly as sweet.  The latest additions to this list are the Top Beats for hip-hop and Top Songs.  These are yet to be fully rendered and explored, and there are many songs and beats I have surely missed, but these are the ones that have stuck for me until the end of the year (perhaps this is a section I’ll cultivate more next year, but for now remain in BETA testing version ;).  As always, thank you for your support and your listening contribution!  All the best in 2012, and of course, keep your ears peeled to the sounds brought to you by the Funky Soul Burner!

 

The 25 Facelifting Albums and Artists:

 

1.            The Weeknd HOUSE OF BALLONS / THURSDAY / ECHOES OF SILIENCE: 2011 was the year of the independent R&B electro revival futurism (oxymoronic, ain’t it? ;), in a very positive and innovative way.  At the helm, The Weeknd, or Abel Tesfaye, from Canada released 3 mixtapes filled with 9 awe-inspiring tracks spanning the year.  His sound would not be classified “R&B” if it weren’t for his vocal overlay on top of post dubstep or UK-inspired electronic groove explosions.  Like James Blake, the musical space between notes, the intricately auto-tuned vocals, in a progressive positive manner, and the stretching of the pop format make this year’s R&B the best pop music since Michael Jackson’s Thriller – and what do you know, the first track of Echoes is his cover of one of my favorite MJ tracks, “Dirty Diana.”  Inspired from Radiohead and last year’s Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Fridays, releasing free music every Friday, The Weeknd released all mixtapes as free digital downloads from his website @320kps.  Another on my list this year is Odd Future’s member, Frank Ocean, following the free music suite.  The Weeknd’s lyrics are soaked in drug-related experiences in a club-going extravaganza with equally inebriated women.  With the music and his lyrics, sometimes I feel like I’m in wormhole with the electric pulses vibrated through my eardrums, and though I can’t relate to his drug experiences, I feel he perfectly encapsulates his experiences through his beautiful music.  Top notch wicked, really, without the cheese.  Cheers, Mr. Tesfaye, for your free art, as well as joining the James Blakes and Frank Oceans of the industry, pushing the boundaries a bit further for the pop standard. 

2.            Adele 21: Although she sits at the top of all the Grammy and Billboard lists, there is no denying the fact that this women is truly something special.  She may well have been sitting on top of my list this year had I not heard “Someone Like You” blasting every single night for 6 months across the street at Bugatti’s (Italian resturaunt) at 10:30pm as I lay in bed – most times making me regret ever putting the song in one of my mixes this year.  I know, sad, but the lyrics are a bit creepy – she knows she’s going to find somebody that is exactly like somebody that she can’t get over?  Weird.  However, a decade from now, we can all look back at 2011 as being a year defined by powerful pop with an intelligent edge to it.  I truly hope that Adele keeps her pace (in a year or two, we’ll have 23, most likely, if she keeps up her pattern), steadies her creativity, her phrasing, her voice, and continues to put out quality music.  We can only wait to see what is in store for her, and I hope it is not the same path of her peer, Duffy.  With Amy Winehouse gone (R.I.P.), Duffy falling back, we can only await Estelle and Alice Russell in hopes to keep the UK throwback genre afloat.   

 

3.            Fleet Foxes HELPLESSNESS BLUES: There is not another rock group out there pouring out the quality in musicianship, unique and provocative narrative, and concepts as this creative bunch from the Mecca of grunge, Seattle.  But this ain’t no grunge, homeboy or homegirl!  The moment I heard “Sun Giant” off their debut EP a few years back, I crossed my fingers in hope to hear the evolving sound of this group.  They have not let me down, and in fact, they have exceeded all expectations.  This is intelligent rock, along with Wilco, Radiohead and PJ Harvey, they each stand alone atop their respective class. 

4.            El Columpio Asesino DIAMANTES: This Spanish band conjures the spirits of Pixies, Sonic Youth, The B-52’s, and of course most prominantly, their own innovative sound.  “On The Floor,” which is the opener to Podcast #80 People Loooovvve the End of the World, is in my top 5 best songs of the year.  Rock and Indie music has taken a sour turn towards cheese, same ol’, and a rather bland sound, and even though there are definite influences, El Columpio Asesino pushes their music ahead of the cookie-cutter tunes of the 2000’s.  This is 2011, moving into the New Year, a new wave of rock and indie music must be bestowed.  Let us hope they continue to push the sounds onward. 

5.            Shabazz Palaces BLACK UP: Nobody does hip hop like Palaceer Lazaro, rather Ishmael Butler, better known to the world as Butterfly from Digable Planets.  Back in the days when hip hop music was in its prime, better described as the Golden Years, Digable Planets brought jazz influences into an everyday street view of New York City.  Like Guru and Gangstarr told stories from the corner, Digable brought the view from the other side of the street, always swaying from the rest of the pack.  Now, Mr. Butler has moved to the other side of the country and over the last decade has morphed his sound and style in a 180-degree direction from before.  I honestly do not know of another hip hop artist that has transmigrated into a different self, in such a positive and influential way, as that once Butterfly turned Palaceer.  Butterfly didn’t arrive here easily, after failing miserably with the cocaine-based sound of Cherry Wine.  Black Up has been described by some critics as the ‘Kid A of hip hop,’ challenging its listeners and their peers to up the game a bit, to innovate more, and push the boundaries of electronica sounds mixed with wordsmith rap arrangements.  Like one of their song title suggests, “The King’s New Clothes Were Made By His Own Hands,” Palaceer and instrumentalist, Tendai Maraire, have changed the face of hip hop…again. 

6.            AfroCubism AFROCUBISM (November 2010): This album missed out on the tops of 2010 due to its later release, but it must not go unmentioned.  This is another groundbreaking record from Cuba, but this time including the brilliant sounds from Mali.  Toumani Diabate on kora, Bassekou Kouyate on ngoni, singer Kasse Mady Diate, and legendary guitarist Djelimady Tounkara join a cast from this powerhouse of a musical country in West Africa along with Cuban guitarist and singer Eliades Ochoa and his AfroCuban band.  If you thought Buena Vista Social Club was brilliant, then you’ll equally be as pleased with this underappreciated but most beautiful record.  This is a must in your music collection, period.

 

7.            Talvin Singh & Niladri Kumar TOGETHER:  Finally!  Talvin as resurfaced, and boy, did he ever!  This go-around hooking up with avant-garde sitar(funk) specialist Niladri Kumar.  Talvin has up’ed his tabla-playing game on this one, bringing it more to forefront of the record, and has innovatively woven electronica sounds into the overall production of this record, but stays within the boundaries of classical Indian music.  This album certainly slipped under the radar (nobody even updated Wikipedia as of December 2011), but Talvin is leagues above most electronica producers out there, and his subtle yet effective tactics on this amazingly wicked album will be studied and copied in the years to come – as with all of his work.  The sounds you will hear will be pleasing to your ears, making this incredibly sophisticated music seem effortless.

 

8.            James Blake JAMES BLAKE:  Dubstep, some say triphop, but if there’s anybody that is putting more definition on the differences, it is James Blake.  After a few released EPs, this British electronica producer / singer-songwriter released this self-titled album in early 2011, and shook all its listeners.  This album has transcended the meta-genre of electronica music like Radiohead’s OK Computer and is reaching wide-acclaim in all music critics’ opinions.  This does not happen frequently.  Mr. Blake masters the sluggish tempos like nobody’s business, tastefully implements auto-tune (the dude can sing, no doubt), and even covers the like of Feist here. 

 

9.            CYNE THE WASTELAND VOL. 1: KILLMORE: A very late addition to the TOP 10 (expanding the list to Top 11 for 2011 ;) this year, knocking Blu from the number 9 spot (no offense, Blu).  CYNE, or Cultivating Your New Experiences, dropped this bombshell of a record late into the year with a book-like approach to the music. The album is only 6 songs long, but each track nears or breaches the 10-minute mark with lyrical mastery encompassing the first few minutes of each chapter leaving the remaining sum to an array of amazing beat and instrumental production.  The instrumental portion of this album, alone, is the best beat record since J Dilla’s Donuts, but not in the same vein.  This is not your ordinary hip-hop album, and CYNE, a group from Gainesville, Florida with MCs Akin and Cise Star and producers Speck and Enoch, experiment with this format on the risk of losing many of their longtime fans.  Many ‘heads’ will think they’ve been shorted due to the lack of lyrics and rhymes in this album, but it’s a musical journey in songbook form that takes much more musical and group thought than the regular format of 3 minute looped beats with hooks and verses laid on top.  The ‘book’ is based on the life of a cyborg-like killing machine with laser teeth for mass annihilation.  CYNE are pushing their creativity and art form, and the result is nothing less than mesmerizing hip-hop, which is severely lacking these days.  Along with Shabazz Palaces, this is the kind of music pushing a genre into new dark and beautiful territory, shedding new light in an area of music that feels a bit too comfortable inside a 3-minute structured box.

 

10.          PJ Harvey LET ENGLAND SHAKE:  Polly Jean has certainly struck again, this time not only shaking England, but the entire music industry.  There’s not another musician in the world that morphs his or her sound successfully record-to-record as PJ does.  This Mercury Prize winning effort (for the second time in her career) integrates the autoharp (yeah, remember this from grade school?) along with crazy old samples and stories from her perspective in England on war, on history, on life, and anything she can conjure up to musically crack the core of earth. 

 

11.          Blu HER FAVORITE COLO(U)R / NoYork!:  One of the most prolific underground producer / rappers of today, who was twice featured on The Roots’ How I Got Over record, has released nearly 10 LPs, numerous EPs, and countless guest appearances in a four-year period.  He easily releases new music every season of the year, and each bringing new styles and sounds to the table.  One of these sounds that this Los Angeles based phenom has introduced to us is Her Favorite Colo(u)r, which was originally released as a mixtape for free late 2009/10.  Nature Sounds picked up the record and released it for the masses in 2011.  NoYork! was a mixtape released in the fall, changing Blu’s hue, confusing his listeners, but pushing his creativity further than any other underground artist this year.  From rapping over Billie Holiday snippets to free jazz mayhem and video game snapshots spliced with DNTEL-like electronic gangsta beats in NoYork!

 

12.          Tune-Yards W H O K I L L  

13.          AraabMUZIK ELECTRONIC DREAM (aka, the MPC drum machine master!  This man is no joke – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts_5mset9Js)

14.          Beans END IT ALL / Matthew Shipp feat. Beans, Hprizm & William Parker KNIVES FROM HEAVEN

15.          Le Trio Joubran AS FâR

16.          Radiohead KING OF LIMBS

17.          Anna Calvi ANNA CALVI

18.          Cunninlynguists ONEIROLOGY

19.          The Kills  BLOOD PRESSURES

20.          Motopony  MOTOPONY

21.          Wilco THE WHOLE LOVE

22.          Bon Iver  BON IVER

23.          Nicholas Jaar SPACE IS ONLY NOISE

24.          Frank Ocean NOSTALGIA / ULTRA

25.          The Roots UNDUN

 

25 More Recommended Albums of 2011:

 

26.          La Vida Boheme NUESTRA

27.          Raphael Saadiq STONE ROLLIN’

28.          Lykke Li WOUNDED RHYMES

29.          Siriusmo MOSAIK

30.          Tinariwen TASSILI

31.          Apparat THE DEVIL’S WALK

32.          Cass McCombs WIT’S END / THE HUMOR RISK

33.          Jay Z & Kanye West WATCH THE THRONE

34.          The Antlers BURST APART

35.          Eric Bobo & Latin Bitman WELCOME TO THE RITMO MACHINE

36.          Everything Everything MAN ALIVE 

37.          Ghostface Killah APOLLO KIDS (DECEMBER 2010)

38.          Gillian Welch THE HARROW & THE HARVEST

39.          Metronomy THE ENGLISH RIVIERIA

40.          DJ Quik THE BOOK OF DAVID

41.          Allen Stone ALLEN STONE 

42.          Ghostpoet PEANUT BUTTER BLUES AND MELANCHOLY JAM

43.          Rival Schools PEDALS 

44.          Jamie Woon MIRRORWRITING 

45.          Wu Lyf GO TELL FIRE TO THE MOUNTAIN

46.          Bright Eyes THE PEOPLE’S KEY

47.          Modeselektor MONKEYTOWN

48.          Red Hot Chili Peppers I’M HERE 

49           Freestyle Fellowship THE PROMISE

50.          Curren$y WEEKEND AT BURNIES

 

HONORABLE MENTION: Common THE BELIEVER / DREAMER, Peedi Crakk CRAKK FILES, VOL. IV (MIXTAPE), Goapele BREAK OF DAWN, Jill Scott THE LIGHT OF THE SUN, Death Cab for Cutie CODES & KEYS, My Morning Jacket CIRCUITAL, Destroyer KAPUTT, Battles GLOSS DROP, TV On The Radio NINE TYPES OF LIGHT, The Dear Hunter BLACK EP, Tom Waits BAD AS ME, Kate Bush 50 WORDS FOR SNOW

 

HIP-HOP BEATS [BETA TESTING] (new section inspired by Pete Rock’s sick beat of 2010 for Kanye West & Jay-Z on “The Joy”):

 

     1.     CYNE “Chapter 1: Enter Killmore” (SPECK / ENOCH) – the drum grooves alone in this first collection of beats as a song is better than 90% of all hip-hop records in the last 10 years.                                  

     2.     The Weeknd “Glass Table Girls” (ABEL TESFAYE)

     3.      Shabazz Palaces “Swerve…The Reeping of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)” (S.P.)

     4.     Blu “Amnesia” (BLU)

     5.     Jay-Z & Kanye West “Murder to Excellence” (KANYE WEST)

     6.     DJ Quik “Fire and Brimstone” / “Hydromatic” (QUIK)

     7.     AraabMUZIK “Free Spirit” (ARAABMUZIK)

     8.     Common feat. Nas “Ghetto Dreams” (NO ID)

     9.     Ghostface Killah “Black Tequila” (FRANK DUKES)

    10.  Freestyle Fellowship “We Are” (ELIGH)

    11.  Jill Scott “Some Other Time” (SCOTT / KHARI MATEEN)

    12.  Curren$y “This Is the Life” (MONSTA BEATZ)

    13.  The Roots “I Remember” (?UEST LOVE)

    14.   Nas “Nasty” (SALAAM REMI)

    15.  Zion I & Grouch feat. Silk E “Rockit Man” (AMP LIVE)

    16.  tUnE-yArDs “Gangsta” (TUNE-YARDS)

 

SONGS [BETA TESTING] (Songs mentioned in Hip Hop Beats section are omitted, since my section of hip hop beats means that the rapping must be top notch – hey if the producer put something hot out, the least the lyricist can do is step up to the plate!)

 

     1.     Wilco “The Art of Almost”    

     2.     El Columpio Asesino “On the Floor”                       

     3.     Fleet Foxes “The Shrine of an Argument”

     4.  Kurt Vile "My Baby's Arms"

     5.      PJ Harvey “The Words That Maketh Murder”

     6.     AfroCubism “Nima Diyala” (Late 2010)

     7.     Azaelia Banks feat. Lazy Jay “212” (although a hip-hop track, not in the other section due to the nature of the beat, which was not originally composed for her lyrics.  Lazy Jay originally dropped the instrumental as 12” single).

     8.     La Vida Boheme “El Sentimiento Muerto”

     9.     Raphael Saadiq “Good Man”

   10.     Rival Schools “Wring It Out”

   11.  Antlers “Parentheses”

   12.  Anna Calvi “Morning Light”

   13.  Lykke Li “I Know Places”

   14.  Gillian Welch “The Way It Goes”

   15.   Radiohead “The Butcher”

   16.   Peedi Crakk feat. Chinko Da Great “Sucka Free Sunday” (another hip-hop track, but all beats are from the old school, and are a part of a mixtape release – not full LP release.   Reminds me of Ice Cube’s “Jackin’ For Beats” back in the day off the Kill at Will album)

   17.   Wu Lyf “Heavy Pop”