1. Keefe Jackson’s Project Project – Just Like This (Delmark)
All right, I’m cheating: Just Like This was a December 2007 release. Nonetheless, it set a great tone for the year, with rich, soulful free jazz placed into a big band context that was great fun to listen to and to decipher. I wrote at its release that “It’s no coincidence that Project Project is from Chicago: Just Like This places Jackson into the tradition of Windy City stalwarts like Henry Threadgill and Muhal Richard Abrams. Those giants aren’t yet passing the torch, but Jackson will be a worthy recipient when they do. ”

2. Wadada Leo Smith – Tabligh (Cuneiform)
An AACM stalwart since the ’60s, trumpeter Smith makes music as mysterious as it is cerebral and culture-spanning. Tabligh uses sinuous elements of European, Asian, and especially Middle Eastern music to forge musical links between Muslim religious rites (”Tabligh”), American musical traditions (”DeJohnette”) and even the civil rights movement (”Rosa Parks”). A quartet of legends young and old—pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist John Lindberg, drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson—make breathtaking contributions to the effort.

3. Mary Halvorson – Dragon’s Head (Firehouse 12)
28-year-old Halvorson’s debut as sole leader (she’s co-led sessions in the past) is very likely the most exploratory album on this list. The guitarist leads a Hendrix-inspired trio featuring bassist John Hebert and drummer Ches Smith through a set of her own intuitively designed compositions. Between her unconventional approach to structure and her thorny guitar style, however, it’s impossible to tell where composition ends and improv begins, and vice versa; the effect is not unlike watching a cat unfurl a ball of yarn, with no telling which directions the string might end up going but, ultimately, a layout of distinct but unusual patterns.

4. Sun Ra – Newport Jazz Festival/Electric Circus (Transparency)
Sun Ra was as psychedelic as rock’s most far-out acid kings in 1968-69, and this compilation of two gigs from those years demonstrates exactly that. Ra’s freakouts here are almost indistinguishable from those of, say, Can or The Mothers of Invention, save the jazzy flute and horn solos and readings of his cosmic (in the literal sense) poetry. This latest in Transparency’s bootleggish collection of Ra’s concerts is an inspired, intoxicating romp through the liberation of experimental music in the ’60s, and despite its oddity it has all the inclusiveness (and percussiveness) of a drum circle.

5. The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton (Mosaic)
It’s tempting to suggest that this 8-disc behemoth is all the Braxton you’ll ever need. Alas, the man is too complex for that, but these recordings from his fruitful mid-’70s work will go a hell of a long way towards understanding the ultra-cerebral saxophonist and composer. There are solos, duets, quartets, orchestras, and even his 1978 album For Four Orchestras, capturing Braxton the academic, Braxton the experimenter, Braxton the fiery jazzman, and Braxton the tunesmith. There are even a few standards thrown in to show you Braxton the interpreter. Rarely do even box sets get quite this expansive.

1. Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne

Yea, Tha Carter III is uneven but the singles from this sounded wonderful on the car radio. It was even fun hearing 14-year-olds at little league games trying to recite the gloriously ragged, tongue-twisting lyrics of “A Milli” and high-schoolers on city sidewalks chanting the “Whee Ooh Whee Ooh Wee (like a cop car)” verse from “Mrs. Officer.”

“Mrs. Officer”:

2. New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, Erykah Badu (Universal Motown)

I ignore her stupid Farrakhan plugging lyrics and focus on the funk.

“The Healer”:

3. Niña de Fuego, Buika (Warner Music Latina)

Imagine if Nina Simone was born in Equatorial Guinea, grew up in Spain, and visited Portugal and Brazil. Others can retreat in the woods with Bon Iver, I’ll take this.

“La Falsa Moneda”:

4. MTV Unplugged, Julieta Venegas (Sony International)

In a just world Venegas would have filled the Kennedy Center Concert hall not once (as she did), but twice, if only indie twee fans, old-school power-poppers, and your cousins and nieces who listen to 99.5 had been exposed to her, yes it is in Spanish, pop.

“Algo Está Cambiando [Live]“:

Pair up old-school gospel vocals with funky New Orleans horns and you get this pleasant effort.

“Free at Last”:

6. Microcastle, Deerhunter (Kranky)

Rock’s like jazz and everything else these days, it’s all been done before, but some manage to throw those ingredients together and still make it sublime. Bradford Cox and company utilize shoegazer fuzz, postpunk, psychedelia and indie guitar pop and meld it into vibrant tunes.

“Cover Me (Slowly)”:

7. I Never Take a Day Off, Ms. Jody (Ecko)

Not marketed to the Sharon Jones-loving indie crowd or pale-faced blooz-loving bud-drinkers, Ms. Jody is a soulful, bluesy wailer who sings double-entendre lyrics over synths and minimalist guitar rhythms, not bar band cliches. You can often hear her on Saturdays between 12 and 2 on WPFW 89.3 FM and online. She’s part of a still thriving world of chitlin’ circuit soul that lives from Southeast DC down through PG and Charles County down to its home in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama.

“I Never Take a Day Off”:

8. The Recession, Young Jeezy (Def Jam)

My other fave raspy-voiced rapper.

“My President (feat. Nas)”:

9. Desert Crossroads, Etran Finatawa (Riverboat)

Get members from two different nomadic North African tribes to come together and you get mesmerizing guitar lines, Arabic-feeling vocals, and distinctively syncopated calabash percussion.

“Iguefan”:

10. Fearless, Jazmine Sullivan (J)

“Need U Bad” is like Lauryn Hill Singing over a Sly and Robbie dub reggae meets R&B beat while on “Broken Windows” Jazmin’s powerful vocals soar over old-school strings and handclaps that hearken back to early ‘60s Ben E. King-style NYC R&B.

“Bust Your Windows”:

1.

Los de Atras Vienen Conmigo, Calle 13 (Sony International)

Calle 13 have the gusto and fortitude to give the world of Latin urban music a shot in the arm, mixing electic beats with cheeky Spanglish lyrics, and dismissing their competition (particularly reggeaton acts) as tourists in their genre.

2.

MTV Unplugged, Julieta Venegas (Sony International)

An accidental pop-rock star after toiling as an emo rocker in the ’90s, Venegas has spent this decade playing the joyful, universally appealing norteño music of her native Mexico.

3.

Mediocre, Ximena Sariñana (Warner Music Latina)

The Latina Norah Jones? Perhaps not, but Sariñana made a name for herself at the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York last summer with the über-catchy pop guitar-tinged “Vidas Parallelas”—her jazz scat singing may yet spreading the genre to the Latin world.

4.
Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne (Cash Money)

“Next time you mention Pac, Biggie or Jay-Z/Don’t forget Weezy baby,” Lil Wayne raps “Mr. Carter.” Mission accomplished.

5.

Evolver, John Legend (G.O.O.D. Music)

Legend got his start singing about love and how it falters, and his evolution continues on this album, adding themes about pursuing an elusive girl, giving up his playboy ways, and finding his one true love, though he’ll probably be best remembered for his Obama-inspired call-to action anthem, “If You’re Out There.”

6.

Sonidos Gold, Grupo Fantasma (Aire Sol)

This lively orchestra fuses old-school rhythms like cumbia, funk, and salsa with psychedelia, making for an danceable and fresh take on traditional Latin genres.

7.
The Renaissance, Q-Tip (Universal Motown)

It’s taken him nine years to release a follow up to his debut solo CD, but the former A Tribe Called Quest frontman made it worth the wait, going back to his roots of using cerebral rhymes and classic samples fused with live instrumentation.

8.

9.

Radio Retaliation, Thievery Corporation (ESL Music)

The “outernational” movement­ a term coined by Jamaican rastas for an appreciation and empathy for all people­has kept Thievery Corporation going strong for the past dozen years, sampling from all sorts of music, both new and decades old. On their latest, the D.C. duo smartly sticks with groovy beats, but with an expanding arsenal of global rhythms.

10.

Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords (Sub Pop)

Formerly New Zealand’s fourth-most-popular guitar-based digi-bongo-a cappella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo, the Conchords had to leave their homeland since this bizarre genre was apparently too competitive back home. That benefits the American fans who get to hear these parodic songs of wooing the ladies, with lines like “You’re so beautiful, like a tree or a high-class prostitute.”

1. St. Vincent at Rock & Roll Hotel, February 26
2. Nels Cline Singers at the Paramount Theater, June 6
3. Tim Berne’s Bloodcount at An Die Musik, February 9
4. Amanda Palmer at the 9:30 Club, November 18
5. Wilco at Lyric Opera House, December 14
6. Salome at DC9, August 10
7. Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin at Blues Alley, March 3
8. Earth at Rock & Roll Hotel, May 4
9. Nobu Stowe at George Washington University, September 7
10. Evangelista at Velvet Lounge, April 16
11. Boris at the Black Cat, July 8
12. Škampa Quartet & Iva Bittová at the Library of Congress, April 11
13. Dälek at Rock & Roll Hotel, February 27
14. Kamelot at Jaxx, October 16
15. Woven Hand at Iota, October 17

This year, as always, I struggled with whether to give more weight to the albums I admired as complete works, or the ones that contained the greatest number of blazing singles.

Album artistry won out, for the most part. The Renaissance, 808s & Heartbreak, and New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4^th World War, for example, are discs that I listened to from beginning to end, over and over again. T.I. and Lil’ Wayne’s projects, on the other hand, were included off the strength of a few insanely catchy tracks on each one. The yodeling O-Zone sample on “Live Your Life” and the man-made siren sound effects on “Mrs. Officer” made up for the less exciting moments on Paper Trail and Tha Carter III.

Still, some albums were such bricks that not even the sickest, most unbelievably catchy singles could save them. So, as much as it pained me to overlook the trashy goodness of T-Pain’s “Can’t Believe It” and “Chopped n Skrewed,” they couldn’t quite make up for the rest of Thr33 Rings. Sorry, Teddy P. Maybe next year.

1. The Renaissance, Q-Tip (Universal/Motown)

See Dunlap’s brilliant analysis of The Renaissance for everything you need to know about this disc, which more than makes up for Amplified.

2. Smoke Sessions, Vol. 1, Devin the Dude (BCD Music Group)

Devin is still stuck in the time of The Chronic, and that’s a good thing. While his peers are all blathering on about how much cash they got, Devin uses his stoner delivery and storytelling skills to rhapsodize about a different kind of green.

3. Lay It Down, Al Green (Blue Note)

This wouldn’t make my list of the best Al Green albums of all time, but I’m in awe of the production work that ?uestlove and James Poyser put in here. They channel Willie Mitchell and capture the feel of Green’s Hi Records years.

4. The Bake Sale, The Cool Kids

I, like Dunlap, initially dismissed Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish as overrated Clipse clones. But you know what? I like that The Bake Sale delivers the walloping bass and alien beats of Hell Hath No Fury, but replaces the icky drug talk with rhymes about parties, mag-wheel dirt bikes, and pagers.

5. The Recession, Young Jeezy (Def Jam)

I’m with Goins on this one. Jeezy’s thoughts on the economy, healthcare, and Obama make this the most topical disc of the year, despite all of the flossy car and money talk. Tune out the part about the Bentley and focus on the part about auntie’s kidney.

6. Tha Carter III, Lil’ Wayne (Cash Money)

Yes, he’s totally commercial and his image is contrived, but Weezy F. is still churning out some of the most inventive wordplay in hip-hop. He’s a poor man’s MF Doom, and in a year when the masked one didn’t make much noise, this disc filled the void quite nicely.

7. New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4^th World War, Erykah Badu (Universal Motown)

Everyone knows that whenever Erykah dates a fellow artist, some of her crazy rubs off on ‘em. So what happens when, instead of sharing, Erykah stores up all of that nutty for five years and then unleashes it on an album? This.

8. 808s & Heartbreak, Kayne West (Roc-A-Fella)

It took me a long time to even give this one a chance, because it incorporates so many elements that I typically despise: gratuitous Auto-Tune, singing rappers, and, if I’m being totally honest here, Kanye West. Yet, somehow all of those things, along with trippy production and a lonely Little Prince vibe, resulted in one of the strangest, most inventive discs of the year. Go figure.

9. Tronic, Black Milk (Fat Beats)

This work from the Detroit-based Dilla pupil has me thinking it might not be so cold in the D after all.

10. Paper Trail, T.I. (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)

“Swagga Like Us,” and “Live Your Life,” are great, but “Whatever You Like” is my favorite track on this album. Despite lines like “Late night sex/so wet, so tight,” T.I. comes across as sweet and old-fashioned. It’s about time a rapper told men that it’s acceptable to spend a little cash in order to romance women instead of making guys feel like chumps if they spring for anything more than a value meal and a Red Box rental. Thanks, Tip!

U.S. Girls: Live On WFMU

U.S. Girls is Megan Remy. She plays through messed-up keyboards and loves the sound of a messed-up drum machine. Her myspace page claims she’s from Philly. Her music comes from no place. Imagine Bruce Springsteen as a avant-goth kid bellowing through a messed-up microphone. Remy makes noisy anthems for people who hate noisy anthems. [She also does a lot of covers including a dirty version of a Springsteen tune]. This set is a live one done for the famous New Jersey station. I found it as a download on a message board. You can find it on WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. The blog claims she’s from Chicago. Does it matter?

The blog does have a pretty damn good summation of the U.S. Girls’ set up and sound:

Packing nothing more than a reel-to-reel tape deck, a mic, and 2 stomp boxes, U.S. Girls delivered a maelstrom of classic pop filtered through something unknowable and kinda crazy, I don’t know what it is.  I’ll indulge the facile “A meets B” thing by saying imagine Phil Spector covered by The Conet Project

Listen to her version of the Dave Clark 5 song “Bits & Pieces”:

Children’s Hospital: Alone Together (Sacred Bones)

This is the latest project from the avant-wing of the indie world, the A-Frames/Intelligence/Rodent Plague/AFCGT axis (the Stranger has a fine early profile as well). This Seattle duo made my favorite basement doom album. I alternated between really digging the Sacred Bones catalog and, well, being really freaked by its cold-brittle take on early industrial. The ’80s ain’t just Factory Records. This era has seen its share of ’80s retreads (too many to name). It’s nice to see a band like Children’s Hospital take chances. Its source material comes from bands like This Heat and Throbbing Gristle. I love the album’s semi-sour fem vocals, demented clang and brutal guitar scrapes. The band’s name makes google searches a little tough, but there’s at least one very fine review out there.

Listen to “Unseen”:

The Cool Kids: The Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries)

This Chicago hip-hop duo turned out to be everyone’s favorite underground hip-hop act. This EP proved pretty irresistible with its hip-hop heyday beats and sly humor. One of our cool critics loved ‘em. Even Kevin Garnett loves the Cool Kids. This song rocked my summer mix.

Listen to “88″:

Beach House: Devotion (Carpark Records)

Two reasons I slept on this album: it came out in early 2008 and the band’s performance at the Rock and Roll Hotel was drowned out by all the talkers in the crowd. The show was so terrible it made me not want to listen to the album. That’s too bad. Because it’s still close to perfect.

Listen to “Holy Dances”:

There once was an audio format called mp3
Where parts of the digital word were sent off to sea.
The data was minced,
for the song that convinced
us that vinyl more pleasing, you see?

Don Zientara is owner of Inner Ear Studios, and has engineered records for such bands as the Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, Scream, Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, Lungfish, Jawbox, the Dismemberment Plan, Q and not U and many others.  He also writes and performs his own music, and has released two solo albums, Sixteen Songs and Clocks & Watches.

All contributors to this series were guests on DISSONANCE, a DC punk oral histories show on Radio CPR. Don Zientara’s interview can be heard here.

While gathering info for my piece “Beats Working” (featured in this week’s 2008 Music and Arts in Review issue), I spoke with several DJs and promoters who had very interesting things to say, though space constraints prevented their quotes from making the print. Good thing we’ve got this spacious Internet to stretch out in.

Over the the next week or so, I’ll be posting a series of Q&As, quotes, and other additional insight from D.C. folks who are hard at work in the city’s dance culture.  The series will serve as a supplement to the article—which on its own is by no means an exhaustive survey of all the many great dance nights that are currently happening around the District.  Principally, I intended to spotlight the most successful stuff from ‘08, and promising stuff from ‘09 in the no-dress-code, no-holds-barred side of the D.C. dance scene. Hopefully, these posts will add to that scope.

First up is a full Q&A from Sean Peoples: In addition to running the Sockets CD-R label, Peoples is co-creator of the monthly funk and soul dance night Fatback (mentioned at the beginning of “Beats Working”), which celebrated its one-year anniversary last Friday. He already tipped us off to his some of his favorite things from ‘08, but here’s a more in-depth look at the progress that led Fatback from its origins at Local 16 and Dahlak to a packed house every second Friday of the month at Red Lounge, seven DJs strong. Follow the jump for the full text.

Fatback took place at Dahlak for a while before moving up to the Red Lounge. How did that space work out for you?

Dahlak’s great—it’s a restaurant, first and foremost. I think one of the things about Fatback was that we didn’t really want it to be a pretentious dance night at all, and having it be in a restaurant for the first 6 months is definitely one way to go about that, because you get up, you show up early, you’ve got to pull all the tables out, you’ve got to set everything up—there’s really no set up already there, besides a couple speakers. So you really have to change the space into something that’s different from what you walk into. But the owner, Daniel is really great. I think he’s found out that his space is really well located, and he’s trying to get more people to come through, and he’s found that DJ nights and bands are one good way to do that.

Well the Red Lounge seems to fit you more in terms of size, but do you think you’ll have to expand to larger venues in ‘09?

I think we’re gonna try to do some more special events outside of the regular Fatback night. But I think right now we’re pretty comfortable at Red Lounge—we don’t really want to grow it more. I mean, I think if you start to grow it too large, the only way to go from there is to peter out, so we’re trying to keep the same energy at Red Lounge as long as we can. But it’s definitely a topic of conversation each time, because we don’t want to alienate people in one way by saying, “hey we’re gonna stay at this venue,” but then the people that want to come have to stand outside—that’s something we’re trying to prevent. But just in terms of trying to do bigger events, we’re gonna be doing a big inauguration party, and we’re also doing a huge Valentine’s Day thing with Brightest Young Things. So we’re trying to do these things that are taking the name and join forces with some other people to have parties that are located in bigger venues so we can draw on different crowds. But now we’re trying to cultivate and keep the people we have, and match Red Lounge’s space a little better.

It’s weird though, because we’ve all been smacked in the face by this. So now we have to get organized, and it’s funny to hang out with your friends, but then have to do a business meeting. It’s something that all our DJs are trying to get used to.

One of the things you mentioned was that you didn’t want Fatback to be pretentious. Is there a large amount of pretension at other dance parties in D.C. that you’ve seen firsthand? Is that one of the reasons you started Fatback? How does pretension get in the way of a good dance party?

It’s not necessarily something that we’ve seen firsthand. One of the things that all our DJs love to do is dance at a house party. House parties are so much fun because—at least in the terms of the ones we’ve throw in the past three years—you know there’s gonna be great music, and people that you want to see. And that atmosphere is sometimes hard to translate over to a club. So it’s less about reacting to what we’ve seen, and more about trying to replicate what we know we like. We just love dancing. There is a lot of pretension in terms of having the DJ up off the floor, and there being a limited contact between the DJ and the people who are consuming the music. But for us, it’s less about the DJs and more about what we’re all creating. That sounds really dorky, but I think that’s what we honestly try to do. We have the DJs and turntables set up really close to the dancers—it’s like we’re on the same level. It’s just the stuff like, us being able to feed off the energy of the people, because they give off a lot. That’s the whole idea: We want to make them dance, and we want to flip them out.

In terms of other dance nights around town, does Fatback fill a particular niche? How does it fit into the overall scene?

Hopefully it fits the house party niche, the one that’s not staid, or too buttoned-up. It’s tough to find a space, but we’ve lucked out in terms of the spaces that we’ve gotten. Some of the nights I’ve been to, one month’s it’s OK, and the other month it’s off the hook. And I feel like that can happen to any night, but it’s been really good each night at Fatback. I mean, even if 50 less people showed up at ours, it would still be fun.

Where do you see Fatback going in 2009? Is there a threshold you want to reach? How do you see it growing?

“We want to keep going. We want to keep the momentum that we’ve had behind our backs. Early in 2009, we’re trying to do two big things: The inauguration party, which is gonna be off the hook, and this Valentine’s Day thing. We’ve got all these ideas that we don’t know what to do them—we definitely have a lot of stuff that we want to do. But you don’t want to over-saturate, you know? I think it’s a testament to us wanting to be cautious, but grow at a good pace. We don’t want to burn out the star too quickly. But yea, going into 2009 we’re really excited, because I think we’ve got a lot of good opportunities to do stuff that’ll hit a lot more people, because we’re gonna try to get some sponsorships and hook up with groups like BYT, to really grow our niche. But yeah—with cautious optimism, we’re really happy to go into next year.

And Washington City Paper has all the answers:

• Brent Burton explains why people still buy full-length albums.
• David Dunlap Jr. measures the maturation of hip-hop.
• Casey Rae-Hunter explains how the Cassettes managed to get so big on, well, cassettes.
• Ted Scheinman and yours truly sorted through a shit-ton of music videos in order to recommend 10 must-sees.
• Ben Westhoff argued that 2008 was a great year for hip-hop, despite the dry spell.
• Cole Goins caught up with local DJs and found out the secrets to their dance-hall successes.
• Don Carr took stock of the District’s big vinyl sales.
• And of course, everybody had something to say about the 10 best albums of the year.

Where 2007 was my love-affair year with free jazz, 2008 saw my affections turn to extreme metal in all its varied forms. The sad departure of Transparent Productions meant a dearth of interesting avant-garde jazz in the District, and I replaced concertgoing expeditions to Sangha (RIP) and Twins Jazz with rather different expeditions to places like Jaxx and various smaller venues booking the more underground kinds of metal. My passion for music tracks closely with what I’m seeing in the live setting, so it makes sense that my 2008 list is dominated by the heavy, evil stuff. (My friends—and especially housemates—didn’t appreciate this so much.)

Be it metal, jazz, electronic music, free improvisation, or whatever, I’ve been convinced for a few years now that, industry woes aside, we’re living in a renaissance period with fascinating new music being made at an unprecedented clip. Granted, I have absolutely no empirical basis for this claim, but I present the following 10 recordings as examples of the freshness of today’s music-making scene…

1. One With Filth, Crowpath (Willowtip)
Pundits can quibble over whether or not “avant-garde metal” is really avant-garde in any meaningful sense, but the latest album from Swedish band Crowpath is an undeniably experimental and edgy slab of death metal. Compared to the band’s two earlier releases, it’s downright catchy and accessible, striking a perfect balance between challenging and immediately rewarding, but it’s still impossibly punishing. “Thinking man’s metal” is an overused phrase and too often refers to dry exercises in technicality, but it’s a perfect term for this recording.

Crowpath, “Cleansed In Chlorine”:

2. Doombringer, Nasum (Relapse)
A more than welcome posthumous live release from these grindcore greats. Although Doombringer clocks in at a mere 23 minutes, the 16 tracks here are meatier than most albums twice the length or more. Brutal and unrelenting from start to finish, like getting punched in the face repeatedly, by a guy wearing spiked brass knuckles. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Nasum, “Inhale/Exhale”:

3. (duck), Buffalo Collision (Screwgun)
A collaboration between two members of the Bad Plus (piano and drums) and older free-jazzers Tim Berne (sax) and Hank Roberts (cello), Buffalo Collision straddles the line between groovy jazz and boisterous free improv. Comprised of three long, almost incomprehensible twisting pieces, this project bears Berne’s distinctive stamp, but the Bad Plus members add a wonderfully melodic tilt to the proceedings.

Buffalo Collision, “2nd of 4″:

4. The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, Earth (Southern Lord)
Classic drone metal band meets renowned jazz/Americana guitarist Bill Frisell… and the results are gorgeous. There’s little vestige of Earth’s doomy past to be found here; the new version of the band is obsessed with painting desolate pictures of rural America using extremely sparse, twangy, still heavy guitar notes. Frisell contributes a few lonely, windblown solos that take the album from good solidly into the realm of great.

Earth, “Engine of Ruin”:

5. Salome, Salome (Vendetta)
The D.C. area’s best doom metal band, Salome is a simple guitar-drums-vocal band, but that lone guitarist sounds like three downtuned guitarists and a bassist all combined. The band has just about the biggest sound imaginable from a mere trio, and vocalist Kat’s memorable growls and shrieks just add to the stark, evil atmosphere.

Salome, “Black Tides”:

6. Keio Line, Richard Pinhas and Merzbow (Cuneiform)
Ambient music at its best, Keio Line is a meeting of two very different but equally brilliant minds: a French guitarist and a legend of Japanese noise. The result is more than the sum of the parts, music that blends well into the background but still manages to reveal layer upon fascinating layer under a close listen.

Richard Pinhas & Merzbow, “Shibuya AKS”:

7. Secular Works, Extra Life (Planaria)
What happens when you mash up rhythmically complex avant-rock with the stark, monochromatic vocal melodies of early Western music? Guitarist Charlie Looker, formerly of Zs, explores the possibilities with this new band. The album never quite lives up to the promise of its explosive opening track, but the sheer freshness of Looker’s ideas makes any of his work worth a close listen.

Extra Life, “Blackmail Blues”:

8. Oneiromantical War, Wrnlrd (FSS)
Listening to this D.C.-area one-man atmospheric metal band’s latest album is akin to falling endlessly through a dark, damp abyss in slow motion. Oneiromantical War is as ugly and lo-fi as any early-’90s DIY Norwegian black metal record; “wall of sound” might be a good descriptor, but only if one imagines walls covered in sandpaper and sharp edges. Yet the overtly evil stuff is often hidden away in long, ambient drones, giving the album a nuance that the vast majority of metal recordings lack.

Wrnlrd, “War”:

9. Belle Ville, Townhouse Orchestra (Clean Feed)
Second album by this all-star European quartet, led by Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and featuring legendary British saxophonist Evan Parker. Belle Ville consists of two 45-minute long collective improvisations. Listening to it is a bit like wandering through a corn maze: you’re never quite sure what comes next, you can’t quite remember all the twists and turns, and eventually you emerge out at the end, a bit unsure of what you just went through but feeling a certain sense of satisfaction nevertheless.

Townhouse Orchestra, “Belle Ville”:

10. Pitom, Yoshie Fruchter (Tzadik)
I found much of this year’s output from John Zorn’s Tzadik label a bit disappointing, but Pitom was a pleasant surprise. Imagine the loping, heavy prog of 70s-era King Crimson meets Zorn’s free-jazz group Masada, with a dash of Sonic Youth for good measure. Melody, chaos, noise, whimsy, fun.

Yoshie Fruchter, “The Dregs”:

11. Twenty honorable mentions:

Holon, Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin (ECM)
Studio 1, Box (Rune Grammofon)
Carried to Dust, Calexico (Quarterstick)
Traced in Air, Cynic (Season of Mist)
Incendio, Los Dorados & Cuong Vu (Intolerancia)
Hello, Voyager, Evangelista (Constellation)
V1.1, Fessenden (Other Electricities)
To Sail, To Sail, Fred Frith (Tzadik)
Street Horrrsing, Fuck Buttons (ATP)
Disgorge Mexico, Fuck the Facts (Relapse)
The Way of All Flesh, Gojira (Prosthetic)
Stockholm & Göteborg, Henry Cow (ReR)
Krallice, Krallice (Profound Lore)
Teeth, Little Women (SocketsCDR)
ObZen, Meshuggah (Nuclear Blast)
River Mouth Echoes, Maja Ratkje (Tzadik)
This Is It…, Marnie Stern (Kill Rock Stars)
Now and Forever, The Thing (Smalltown Superjazzz)
Beat Reader, The Vandermark 5 (Atavistic)
Oud Bass Piano Trio, Yitzhak Yedid (Between the Lines)