This is my top 5. Other than the top one, it is in no particular order.
<b>The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute</b>
This is my favourite album. As well as the music, I think a part of the reason it is my favourite is the emotional connection I have with it. I was only getting into this band when they announced this album, and the wait was about 8 months long, and the first listen from start to finish was one of the best things ever.
The album has 5 songs, one being 32 minutes long. It contains a lot of ambiance and noise, building into different sections and different tracks. The tracks all run together and the start of the album is identical to the end. It has a mixture of English and Spanish, a mixture of mellow and intense, and mixtures of epic, orchestral sounds and funky pieces. My favourite thing about the album is the vocals. Stand out tracks are Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus and Cassandra Geminni. The weakest link is The Widow.
<b>Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me</b>
This is the latest album for this band. I was never really into them before this, as it was all that stuff that is on bodyboarding vids and whatnot. After those albums, the singer suffered from depression from the effects of fame and other personal matters the band took a couple of years off and reinvented themselves, returning with this album. It is really deep, the lyrics are amazing. It has a really raw sound (production wise) and everything fits together really well. It has a lot of quiet moments, which burst into loud intense pieces. It has a bit of yelling and stuff, so some may be turned off by it.
<b>Aphex Twin - Chosen Lords</b>
I, and A LOT of other people consider Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin and many other names) to be the best dance musician in the world. This guy is the most experimental c**t around. Most musicians talk of how they played their uncles piano when they were 8 years old. This guy opened the thing up and smashed the strings inside, instead. He was producing music around the age of 11, and at around 13 was writing his own programs to make algorithmic beats and melodies. He has been known to use lucid dreams to write music. He lives in a converted bank, and owns a Russian Submarine and an Army Scout Car.
Anyway, he wrote a series of vinyls known as the Analord Series. There was about 10 vinyls in the series. The ENTIRE album was ENTIRELY analogue. He only used analogue drum machines and synthesisers, and pressed the album to vinyl. He then released the Chosen Lords album, which is a digital version on CD, pretty much a best of from the Analord Series. (hence the name Chosen Lords) It has some extremely complex beats and some amazing sounds. It has a very dark sound to it.
<b>PJ Harvey - White Chalk</b>
I didn't know who PJ was until I saw her on Chanel V one NYE with Perm at his mate's house. It wasn't until about 10 months later that I actually went and listened to her music, which happened to be samples from White Chalk. I downloaded it, and loved it so much that I had to buy it. It is a really quiet and peaceful album, with a mixture of instruments, predominantly piano, guitar and harp. It is really raw and the vocals are amazing, particularly her range. It is very different to the rock sound of her previous material. I was lucky enough to see her from about 3 rows back at the Opera House early this year.
<b>Russian Circles - Enter</b>
This is an instrumental band. They have a sound that I can't really describe. Every song fits in, and the music includes a lot of complex guitar and drum work. The band has only 3 members which amazes me because it sounds like there is a few more. There isn't a lot I can say about this band, other than that they have a new album coming out in May called Station, and that if you are into bands such as Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Rs and Tool, you may like them.
I would have a Bjrk album in there to replace Russian Circles, but all of her albums have a few songs that I dislike. If I could pick my favourite songs of hers and put them into one album, it would probably be up there in 2nd place.
Its the live one....
