Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (1975)

So glad I discovered this. This is traditional Bulgarian folk music, which sounds very different but at the same time is instantly captivating. The choir consists of women from Bulgarian villages who have no professional vocal training, which to me is staggering as these are some of the most beautiful vocals I've ever heard. If you love vocal harmonies as much as I do, I'm sure you'll love this as well.

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Exuma - Exuma (1970)

Another forgotten gem of the 70s. Exuma along with Comus helped to pioneer what would become known as "freak folk," which combines folk with more avant-garde and psychedelic forms of music. While maybe not as weird as First Utterance, this almost sounds like the Carribean's answer to it. It's tribal, soulful, and definitely freakin' amazing.

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Slint - Spiderland (1991)

I first listened to this album nearly a year ago, and since then I've only listened to it maybe half a dozen times. It wasn't until listening to it today that it finally hit me how genius this album is. Spiderland was released in 1991, but feels so ahead of its time. It was extremely influential to both the math rock and post-rock genres and is considered by many to be an indie rock classic.

My favourite song here is "Washer" which is the only song that grabbed me upon first listening. As an album associated with the post-rock genre, I expected it to sound more like the genre does today. Sad, reverb-drenched guitars, huge crescendos, the like. Instead, this sounds like nothing I've heard before. The vocals for the most part are spoken-word, with some fragile singing and even some semi-harsh vocals on "Nosferatu Man." The album also has a short running time of 39 minutes, which is also a plus for me. Sometimes the best albums are the ones that don't take an hour or more to make their point, leaving you wanting more.

Wow my reviews are long now.

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Tim Buckley - Starsailor (1970)

I know an album will become one of my favourites when I'm always in the mood to listen to it soon after discovering it. This is the case with Tim Buckley's Starsailor. From looking at the album cover, you'd expect a pretty laid-back, feel-good folk album from the 70s. Looks, however, can be deceiving.

From the first few seconds of the album you know it's going to be weird. Tim has a very unique voice that can sound haunting or batshit insane, but always beautiful. Songs like "Monterey" and "Jungle Fire" revolve around repeating guitar riffs mixed with frantic, jazz-like drumming. The title track is probably the weirdest thing here, a primarily vocal piece that sounds like something Can would do. The record's most famous song is "Song to the Siren" which you might recognize since it's been covered by many artists including This Mortal Coil and John Frusciante.

While more avant-garde than most singer/songwriter fare, Starsailor is an album that instantly grabbed me despite being much different than I expected. I still haven't heard Jeff Buckley's Grace yet, but when I do it will have this album by his dad to live up to.

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Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (2008)

Alright so here I am posting on a Monday like I said I would. Also I'm not going to bother with YouTube previews anymore 'cause I don't like how even the smallest-sized window takes up a ton of space.

So here is my favourite album of 2008: Deathconsciousness by Have a Nice Life. I've been listening to it since it was released, but it didn't become one of my favourite albums until fairly recently. Whether this was because of it's length (it's a double album with a running time approaching an hour and a half) or just the fact that it is so different from anything I had heard at the time I'm not sure.

It really is a unique album. The fact that they have been able to find their sound on their first album is amazing to say the least. Favourite tracks include Hunter, a longer track that slowly builds with its infectious drum rhythm, as well as Deep, Deep, an angry post-punk anthem with washes of dreamy synths during the chorus. But really the entire album is fantastic.

This album is pretty obscure, as the band doesn't even have a Wikipedia page (edit: they actually do have one now but didn't until June 30th of this year) and it's possible that it was made in some dude's basement. But the fact that it is one of my favourite albums really goes to show that good music doesn't always come from signing to a big studio and spending a ton of cash to make a professional recording. It really is the future of music, too bad most of the world isn't ready for it yet.

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