Arms and Sleepers: The Organ Hearts (5/5)

Joshua's Top 10 Albums of 2011

#1 of 10 (Album of the Year)

Year: 2011

Genre: Ambient Electronic Soundscapes

Label: Expect Candy

TRT: 41:01

This duo from New England showed up on my radar sometime shortly after their second full length Matador was released in 2009. I liked it and checked out their first album, and liked it as well, but it wasn't until late in 2010 that I really started to get into their sound. That's what they do. They create lush and layed soundscapes that appear simple on the surface, but become more intricate as you start to pay attention to and pick up on the subleties. When I saw them in April of 2010, The Organ Hearts was slated for release about a month later. After they opened their set with the first three tracks from the new album, the anticipation became palpable, and I bought it the day it was released.

This is their best release to date. Everything I love about their previous releases is here, but magnified. At first blush this seems to be the most minimalistic and ambient material they've created, but as you become more familiar with the music, more and more things begin to pop out at you. Over time, listening to this album becomes like watching a time-lapse video of a mountain meadow as it transforms from winter to spring, and the flowers bloom from the frozen ground.

01 Kepesh

02 Tusk

03 I Sing the Body Electric

04 The Afternoon Child

05 A Smile in Sofia

06 Antwerp

07 Serie Noire

08 Reprise

09 Yesterday's Child

10 Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

11 Atelier

12 Airport Blues

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The Caretaker: The Persistent Repetition of Phrases (4.5/5)

Year: 2008
Genre: Ambient Meanderings through Atmospheric Soundscapes
Label: Install
TRT: 43:43

Imagine you land a job as the groundskeeper for an extremely exclusive and high-society resort located in a very remote region up in the mountains, that closes down for the winter season due to the snow drifts thhat inevitable cut off transportation to and from.

Imagine you're a writer, and this is the perfect opportunity for you and your wife and young child to get away for a little R & R while you work on your next book.

Imagine, also, that the hotel is haunted, and the longer you stay, the more overcome by spirits you become.

Next imagine you walk into a ballroom that should be completely vaccant and devoid of life, but instead it is bustling with people and a dinner party is underway. You walk to the bar and order a drink from the bartender, and sit and chat for a while, as you sink further and further into madness.

The Caretaker began his career in pursuit of emulating this famous scenario from the Stephen King classic, as well as deriving his name from it. And although this is not the record he wrote for that (check out Scenes From the Haunted Ballroom), it evokes that same eerie, classical vibe. You're almost certain you've heard the songs before, but you're not sure if you were dreaming, and you have a niggling suspicion that it wasn't a pleasant dream if you were. Which is actually exactly what this album focuses on, memory loss and things just on the edge of what the mind retains.

This album has an absolutely gorgeous atmosphere to it. Nostalgic and melancholic, walking the knife's edge between cozy warmth, and dark despair.

01	Lacunar Amnesia
02	Persistent Repetition of Phrases
03	Rosy Retrospection
04	Long Term (Remote)
05	Poor Enunciation
06	Past Life Regression
07	False Memory Syndrome
08	Von Restorff Effect
09	Unmasking Alzhiemer's

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School of Emotional Engineering: School of Emotional Engineering (4.5/5)

Year: 2004
Genre: Dark Atmospheric Soundscapes
Label: Architecture
TRT: 46:47

Even though I've had this for a couple years now, it never really clicked with me until just recently. It's the sort of music that seeps into your head and slowly takes over your mind. Very delicate and unassuming. But once it makes it to your core, the sinister undertones sink in and take root, like a juxtaposition of Mago's Definition of Raw Moments From a Different Perspective and Ulver's Teachings in Silence.

I can't stop listening to it.

01 To Be Continued
02 ...Refrain
03 Falling for Sylvia
04 Of Angel Dust...
05 ...Refrain (Bloodline)
06 Redline
07 She Dreams in Car Crashes
08 Slicing the Skin Between My Toes

Purchase School of Emotional Engineering from Waterfront Records

Ulver: Teachings in Silence (5/5)

Year: 2004
Label: Jester
Genre: Dark Ambient Soundscapes
TRT: 52:55

This is the combination of two previous limited release EP's, and is one of my favorite albums of all time. It's difficult to put in to words why, other than to say that it instantly arrested my attention, and took me to places I'd never been. Mysterious, dark, brooding and in it's own way, beautiful, this cd is in a league of it's own.

And Darling Didn't We Kill You is absolutely amazing.

01 Silence Teaches You How To Sing
02 Darling Didn't We Kill You
03 Speak Dead Speaker
04 Not Saved

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Order Teachings in Silence from The End Records