More of the best of Madison music of 2009

Yesterday we shared with you our 10 favorite Madison records of 2009, but of course that couldn't come close to representing all the little warrens of creativity that contributed to local music this year. So today we follow up with a streaming mix from 13 more locally made albums that topped the pile in 2009.

Bawku West Collective, Vol. 1
Luke Bassuener of local bands This Bright Apocalypse and Control pulls together music from musicians he's met on his travels to Ghana, then adds his own bass, guitar, drums, and thumb piano. Not only is it a true African-Madisonian collaboration, it also documents African musicians you're not likely to hear on even Western-friendly world-music labels like World Village. Sometimes it's hard to know where to start looking for this stuff, especially since some of the musicians on this CD play only at such traditional occasions as funerals. Plus, it's probably the only CD you can buy through local fair-trade roaster Just Coffee. Overall, one of the coolest ideas a local musician has had all year.

The Cemetery Improvement Society, Lonely Dog Island
We wouldn't call The Cemetery Improvement Society's take on electronic music catchy, agreeable, or stylish. Too bleak for even the most gothed-up of dance floors, Lonely Dog Island is built on austere drum machines, guitars, and mysterious sounds that suggest circuitry full of termites. Not that it isn't sometimes funny or melodic, but this is really 80 minutes of pathological shut-in music.

Cougar, Patriot
Only one member of instrumental-rock band Cougar still actually lives in Madison, so unlike the band's first album, Law, this one came together via e-mailed fragments rather than in some house downtown. If Patriot feels more remote and less organic than Law's graceful weave of guitars, it also allows the members more freedom to mess around in their own head-spaces, going beyond hooks and into strange rhythms, bursts of guitar-pedal noise, even an artificial drum line and choir.

Flatbear, Flying Days
Jentri Colello and her band (who morphed into Flight after this album came out) slow down and add in more classy shades of piano, strings, and even some horns on Flying Days, yet the arrangements don't intrude on the quiet heart of Colello's songwriting or her understated vocals. With a wise blend of polish and roomy reverb, the record challenges us to figure out where "singer-songwriter" ends and band begins, all without fitting too comfortably among other folk-, country-, or indie-rock-influenced acts.

His And Her Vanities, The Mighty Lunge
A good amount of Madison music is made by moms and dads, and judging from His And Her Vanities' third CD, the experience of having a family can at once bottle up your creativity and light a fire under your ass. This isn't quite the same new-wave tweakery that married couple Terrin and Ricky Riemer were into when they started the band—it's leaner and better, pressing its bright guitars and half-shout-half-sing vocals into a struggle between frustration and relief.

Kitty Rhombus, When The Walls Fell EP
Though the recording quality doesn't quite capture all the sick thrills Kitty Rhombus offers live, When The Walls Fell still demonstrates the splintered progress of the band's songwriting. If Kitty Rhombus isn't the only band out there picking up on The Jesus Lizard's militant noise-marches, it certainly does more than most to get in there and re-scramble the DNA of its influences—and isn't that what dissonant, freakish music is all about?

Phonetic ONE, Phonetic Phenom EP
Alright, so most people under 40 aren't surprised anymore by the growing interaction between hip-hop and academia (we hope). Even so, we didn't know what to expect from some EPs the UW's First Wave hip-hop program put out from its student artists. What we got was a confident, often quite skillful intersection of old-school rap and spoken-word. Of all these, Phonetic ONE shows off the most momentum and versatility, stretching and condensing his lines like a very rhythmically inclined Slinky.

Pushmi-Pullyu, Together and Golden Days EPs
Pushmi-Pullyu played in member John Kruse's basement nearly as often as it did actual venues this year, and released only a couple of split EPs (sharing Together with a New Zealand outfit called The Enright House, and the cassette- and torrent-only Golden Days with fellow local and collaborator K. Wilhelm). Kruse is a shy singer and relies on a bunch of stuff plugged into a laptop. All these factors make Pushmi-Pullyu seem a little more hard-to-get than it actually is. Kruse's synths are more likely to ring out in welcoming, glass-pure tones than fart out kitschy dance hooks, carving an accessible trail through this pairing of slow-building pop and electronic ambience.

Revolving Doors, Songs For Car Commercials
You'd usually expect an instrumental-rock album to feel ostentatious and help itself to an exorbitant chunk of your time. Revolving Doors' live sets may involve a mountain of gear, but the actual music on Songs For Car Commercials values brevity as much as it does pretty layers of sound. And when Revolving Doors do try to get boisterous and epic, as on the song "Fog," it's by bringing drums, guitar, and synth into focus on a strong hook, not just by suddenly hitting a distortion pedal.

Spectrum Trio, self-titled
Recreating traditional West African chants and Afro-Cuban rhythms in a convincing way would be a tall order for any Wisconsin-bred act. The three percussion-heads in Spectrum Trio manage to keep invested in the details without losing the rhythmic impact up-front, and experiment with synths and more fully fleshed-out jazz numbers in the process.

F. Stokes And Lazerbeak, Death Of A Handsome Bride
F. Stokes is another Madison-connected artist claiming multiple hometowns (here, Chicago, Brooklyn), and, like local hip-hop band Dumate, fills a big need with a solid live presence and raps that manage to feel friendly and sympathetic even when the details get nasty.

Vartan Mamigonian, self-titled
Sax player Patrick Breiner has added some fresh blood to Madison jazz on both the more straightforward and adventurous ends. This solo-sax album from his alter-ego strikes somewhere in-between, often rooted in melodic composition, but just as often chasing itself into dissonance and uneasy rhythms.

Wormsblood, In The Stars
Like many black metal-inspired miscreants before him, Clay Ruby (who's in our local best-of for his Burial Hex project) almost makes us believe he's more interested in spite, foreboding, and the occult than in crafting a beautiful record. Under In The Stars' cracking sonic skin—and alongside Ruby's truly enviable catacomb-file of wretched vocals—is a set of songs that master the crude metal basics and explore the gloom beyond.