PULLING SHAPES

Taking stock of the best music of 2009 so far, because the blog’s six months old and so is the year and everyone loves a list feature.

Micachu & The Shapes – Jewellery The first record ever reviewed on this blog remains the best, with its near-indefinable mix of electronica, tape hiss, lo-fi indie, low-budget beats, tangled lyrics and a vacuum cleaner. Whether with The Shapes, composing classical pieces or making grime mixtapes, Mica Levi is a true 21^st century maverick.   

Mastodon – Crack The Skye In which the ‘new Metallica’ finally grab the title with hairy, tattooed hands. Ten-minute songs about souls travelling through space to possess Rasputin might not be typical stadium-filling, Grammy nominees, but chugging psych-tinged riffs are.       

Jonah Matranga/Far – ‘Pony/Kiss’ This cover of Ginuwine’s 1996 debut single might have been released last year by the reconvened Far, but frontman Jonah Matranga combined it with a cover of Prince’s ‘Kiss’ at his April London show to make a filthy double act.

Frightened Rabbit – Quietly Now! The Glaswegian emo/folk four-piece are probably more appreciated in North America (especially by Death Cab For Cutie) than in the UK, but the audience at this touching, live and acoustic run through of second album Midnight Organ Sound are suitably enraptured.

Speech Debelle – ‘Go Then, Bye’ (Esser remix) Speech Debelle’s original (below), a deceptive combination of angsty wordplay and laid back, jazzy arrangements, is turned into a murky, electro-grime number by Essex odd-pop bod Esser, which puts her words in a more fitting and menacing context.

Napalm Death – Time Waits For No Slave The fourteenth album by the grindcore legends is the best extreme metal release of the year and their best album ever – adding new textures and breakdowns to the barrage of blastbeats and radical politics. A listen well worth the occasional hard work.  

Castrovalva – ‘Triceratops’ Instrumental duo/occasional three-o Castrovalva bulldoze through mixed album reviews and DFA 1979 comparisons with this bass-heavy, groovy, noise-pop monster (think Parts & Labor doing metal covers).  

Copy Haho – Bred For Skills & Magic Copy Haho’s debut EP on Big Scary Monsters is one of many crowning glories for the label this year, but the Scots’ joyous Kinsella brothers-meets-Blur indie hybrids are the pick of the bunch.  

Telegraphs – We Were Ghosts Out of the broken romance of frontman Darcy Harrision and bassist Hattie Williams came We Were Ghosts, an emotionally charged, alt. rock dissection of human relationships from a band with stardust to burn.  

Prodigy – ‘Omen’ Invaders Must Die is the first Prodigy album to feature Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim since 1997, and while everything about this single screams, “WE’RE ALL FUCKED” (the dark techno squelch, Maxim’s robotic vocals), it’s a pleasure to have them back together.  

Grizzly Bear – ‘Two Weeks’ The whole of Grizzly Bear’s third album, Veckatimest, is a dream (especially soothing for a hangover in the sun), and has seduced Radiohead and Letterman, but it’s this soon-to-be-ubiquitous single that will define their, and many other people’s, 2009.