Honorable mention: 8 more great Madison records from 2011
We put out a list of our top 10 Madison records earlier this week, but that amount doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the music that came out of the city this year. So we thought about it and decided on eight more great releases that we think deserve attention. There are some that we covered before and left off the list, and there are some that we totally overlooked previously.
Burial Hex: Book Of Delusions
Looking for a spot to plunge in among the nearly 40 releases posted to Burial Hex’s Bandcamp won’t be easy. Dissecting 2011’s wondrously deep Book Of Delusions won’t be easy either, but the album’s a good place to start. On the 15-minute title track, Clay Ruby’s voice echoes out over a warm, pulsing beat that starkly contrasts the sharp guitar fractions. Combining elements of Throbbing Gristle-style power and kraut-rock precision, Book certainly isn’t as immediate as the radio remix Horrid Red—one of Ruby’s other bands, which released the fantastic Celestial Joy this year—did of Hex’s “Far.” But the giant living space the album creates demands repeat visits and rewards repeat listens.
Direct Hit: Domesplitter
It’s okay to be a little scared looking at the raw hamburger spilling from a human head on the cover of Direct Hit’s latest, Domesplitter, as well as to feel some trepidation when the first words you hear on the album are “fuck you.” But as opener “Snickers Or Reese’s (Pick Up The Pieces)” shakes off its intro, singer Nick Woods’ bratty screams slam up against the spazzed-out guitars and drums to assure us that Domesplitter will be a super-fun and perfectly snotty good time until the end.
Jeremiah Nelson: Drugs To Make You Sober
Following the dissolving of his band and the shelving of lots of material, Jeremiah Nelson could have called it a day, and no one would have thought less of him. Instead, he gathered a collection of songs that cycle through sweet folk (“Show To Show,” featuring Heidi Spencer) and alt-country ramblers (“Skin To Touch”). But most important, this album finds Nelson with an astoundingly confident grasp of his songwriting strengths. That is never more apparent on the record than during the stunning title track, with that clickety-clack percussion leading listeners through the wandering intro and into perhaps the most powerful, arresting chorus you’re likely to hear this year. The best part is that, once you take that song off repeat, Drugs offers so much more worth exploring.
The Midwest Beat: Gone Not Lost
Because the instant rush of Gone Not Lost’s perfect openers, “Sister Mary Katherine” and “Bethany,” jumps up your brain stem and jangles your synapses so swiftly, it’s excusable to forget just how well-crafted The Midwest Beat’s guitar-pop confections actually are. The sweet sounds of “Alone Now,” “Spent Love,” and “All Night Long” never age, partly because of timeless adherence to beloved British Invasion styles, but mostly because the band built the album to breeze right on by so effortlessly that listeners barely realize what happened before they know all the songs by heart.
Samantha Glass: Celestial Night Queen
After laying a supernal sonic foundation over the past few years with drone project Anvil Dome, Madisonian Beau Devereaux took on the guise of Samantha Glass and built a castle from said foundation for this year’s ossicle-tickling Celestial Night Queen. A foggy highway to nowhere, CNQ is a ballet of warm keyboards prancing over minimal, stalking rhythms, occasionally warped by Devereaux’s animalistic vocal chirps and howls or the groaning, fuzzed-out bass guitar that creeps and swirls across “Quarter Dance.” Samantha Glass recently expanded to a duo with the addition of keyboardist Willie Thurlow, and the two have an LP on the way through the Los Angeles-based Not Not Fun label. The A.V. Club is stoked to see where Samantha Glass’ dark highway will lead in 2012.
Slow Loris: Routine Glow
For a bedroom-pop project, Slow Loris keeps its gaze firmly locked on the world outside the window, particularly on this year’s Routine Glow. Wes Doyle calls on fuzzy musical memories of ’90s college-radio rock to project his boredom on “People You Meet” and “Everybody Knows,” but he never lets that feeling turn into laziness, as he uses the whole runtime of Glow to explore every facet of his considerable songwriting talents. As his voice and guitar echo in and out over the top of distant drums on “Window By The Stairs,” the sound can’t help but to expand beyond his tiny apartment studio.
Whorelord: Whorelord
Everything about Whorelord’s self-titled debut and swansong is liquid fucking metal. (The band broke up earlier this year.) Where many death-metal/grindcore bands pride themselves on stepping beyond the boundaries of metal’s longstanding traditions with broken time signatures, jazz riffing, and roller-coaster dynamics, Whorelord takes a piss on that experimentation and follows the rules with near-militaristic intensity on its gritty collection of primal rhythmic bashing piled over with ugly layers of growling bass, evil riffing, and throat-shredding vocal terror. But even as these headbangers’ boundaries remain knowingly unbroken, and the album’s sonics remain harsh and assaulting, Whorelord still packs the secret ingredient that made source material like Venom and G.I.S.M. so great: It’s really, really fun.
Wormsblood: Black & White Art For Man & Beast
“Rumored” to feature members of Burial Hex, Jex Thoth, and Kinit Her, Wormsblood’s deceptively titled Black & White Art For Man & Beast is truly the sum of its colorful parts. Yes, from deep within in a cave in the background, you can hear the faint aesthetic howl of Darkthrone’s A Blaze In The Northern Sky. But what’s important is that said cave is mostly blocked off by intricately gorgeous (and other times nasty) guitar work, complex basslines that never lag behind, precise and sledgehammering rhythmic blasts, and power electronics. It’s all topped off with the unmistakably contorting, tortured screams of (a guy who might be) Burial Hex’s Ruby. Also be sure to check out the sword-swinging power-folk anthem “Crypt Inside A Kingdom,” which features some soaring fiddle lines (possibly) from Troy Schafer of Kinit Her and Spiral Joy Band. This release is well worth the two-year wait since 2009’s Mastery Of Creation collection.
