Mixtape #25 : Best Albums of 2012

by 5:4

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Today marks 5:4‘s fifth anniversary, and so i’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who regularly read, share and respond to the articles and music explored here. Since 2008, the blog has grown from being an occasional hobby (reading the earliest articles, that fact is rather painfully obvious) to something that now receives significantly more time and attention. i very much hope that 5:4 can grow and become even more interesting and useful in the next five years; all comments, criticisms, suggestions and other feedback is always very warmly encouraged.

But to return to the present, and to continue our annual tradition, here is a new mixtape featuring one track from each of the forty entries on my Best Albums of the Year list. The mix includes more extreme dynamic variety than in previous years, so while i’ve done a little to mitigate that, be warned that at times the music veers between extremely soft and very loud indeed. As ever, if you like what you hear in the mix, please support the artists and buy the music; links are included on the last two days’ posts.

i’ve remarked in the past on the provisional nature of all ‘Best of’ lists, and so to keep things current, i’ve updated the summaries of the Best Albums/EPs of the Years, to reflect further listening than had been possible at the time; the revised lists can be found under The Lists on the main menu.

The mixtape lasts a little under 3½ hours; here’s the tracklisting in full:

Sleep Party People – Chin (from We Were Drifting On a Sad Song)
Metric – Clone (from Synthetica)
Au – Solid Gold (from Both Lights)
Hanne Hukkelberg – The time and I and what we make (from Featherbrain)
Lindstrøm – De Javu (from Six Cups of Rebel)
irr. app. (ext.) – From Out of the Loins of Pestilence: Joy (from Their Little Bones, Becoming Sharp, Find Repose But Fail To Avoid Worrying A Breach In The Ghostly Skin, The Which Separates That Above From That Below (This Being The Last And Final Seal) And Whereupon All Light Evacuated The Furnace. Several Consequences Ensue.)
Dai Fujikura – Okeanos – Touch of Breeze (from Secret Forest)
The Flashbulb – Good Luck Out There (from Opus At The End Of Everything)
of Montreal – Spiteful Intervention (from Paralytic Stalks)
Kettel & Secede – Missing Time (from When Can)
Yeti Lane – Warning Sensations (from The Echo Show)
Kenneth Kirschner – January 10, 2012 [excerpt] (from kennethkirschner.com)
voidesque – gestalt saw (from moving walls and simpler things)
Susanne Sundfør – White Foxes (from The Silicone Veil)
Sunken Foal – Licking the Foil (from Friday Syndrome Vol.1)
The Legendary Pink Dots – Poor Louis (from The Creature That Tasted Sound)
Ramon Humet – Quatre jardins zen – II (from Niwa. Chamber works)
Scott Miller & Carla Rees – Beauty Is Eternity Gazing In A Mirror (from Devices And Desires)
Julia Holter – Four Gardens (from Ekstasis)
Deerhoof – Bad Kids to the Front (from Breakup Song)
Scott Walker – ‘See You Don’t Bump His Head’ (from Bish Bosch)
Gareth Davis & Frances-Marie Uitti – Cold Call (from Gramercy)
Ben Lukas Boysen – Jeva (from Restive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack))
David Byrne & St. Vincent – The Forest Awakes (from Love This Giant)
Sarah Blasko – Bury This (from I Awake)
Chubby Wolf – Seasick [excerpt] (from Seasick)
Helm – Stained Glass Electric (from Impossible Symmetry)
Elliott Carter – Esprit Rude; Esprit Doux (from Claire Chase – Terrestre)
Greg Haines – Ernetti (from Digressions)
Beach House – Wild (from Bloom)
K2 – Tube of Dying Mystique (from Funeral Songs)
Aaron Cassidy – I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips (from The Crutch Of Memory)
Evan Caminiti – Symmetry (from Dreamless Sleep)
iamamiwhoami – good worker (from kin)
Monty Adkins – Kyoto Roughcut [excerpt] (from Four Shibusa)
Edward Ka-spel – Spectrescape 2 [excerpt] (from Ghost Logik)
Jakob Ullmann – solo I + II + III [excerpt] (from fremde zeit addendum)
Black Swan – Heaven: Part II (from Heaven)
Richard Barrett – transmission II (from Dark Matter)
Kreng – Snuff – Part 1 [excerpt] (from Works for Abattoir Fermé 2007 – 2011)



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Markus

Simon, Happy New Year and many thanks, as always, for this year’s roundup. Some interesting stuff for me to check out. Best regards, Markus.

Dan

Great stuff. Contributed to a profound experience flying over Mongolia and Siberia last winter for me….

Cheers

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