It's Not All About The Boobies

Here's a brief, thowaway article on alternative manga i did for The London student. It doesn't really say anything new or interesting and it's not even especially comprehensive, but i thought i'd post it here for posterity's sake.

Your local bookshop hides a dark secret. It’s in a corner, hidden away…probably towards the back. It emanates exoticism, the unknown. The lights flicker eerily, and the ceiling is cobwebbed in a stereotypically hammer-horror fashion. The carpet is caked with grime and on the grime-caked carpet sits a grime-caked man with a grime-caked beard, in a Batman t-shirt.

I’m talking about manga, obviously! If you like buxom, anatomically-unlikely women and swords as giant phallic metaphors manga is for you!

Of course, this is all a horrible, horrible stereotype. We think of comic books as ‘sub-culture’ in the UK (with emphasis on the sub-...); Not so in Japan, where manga is enjoyed by a hugely diverse cross-section of the population. What I’m trying to say is that, in Japan, normal people read comic books. It truly is a paradise on Earth.

It’s a shame that in the UK we perceive comic books as being somehow infantile. This moronic and infantile attitude baffles me.

The manga I'd like to talk about are all seinen, that is, they’re classified as being appropriate for males aged 18-30. There’s a tradition of strict classification by gender/age in Japan, and it rarely reflects the readership, so don't let it put you off.

Mushishi is the antithesis of everything that you know and demonise manga for.
It's all about nature and people, and the interactions thereof.

Ginko, the titular Mushishi, is a witch doctor of sorts, possessed of a wry smile and the perpetual stub of a cigarette. Much of the narrative follows Ginko as he wanders the countryside, curing ailments and dealing with mushi. The mushi in question are ghostly, ethereal automata; Beings on the the thin line between life and non-life; They cause trouble but do so out of their own natures, not out of malice. More often than not, it is the greed or pride of a man which is to be blamed.

Mushishi is sedate and tranquil but it never drags, each stand-alone tale is an ode to the beauty and cruelty of nature.

Gantz is the 'Lost' of manga. Many think that its esoteric and often indecipherable plot is overrated, but it has managed to attract a cult following. The art, heavily indebted to virtual storyboard technology, is something to behold, the level of detail is unrivalled.
Gantz stands out, not because it's all about the action (they're plenty like that), but because it realises said action so well. Reading Gantz is exhilarating like few other comic books can ever hope to be.

Death Note should come with a health warning. If you start reading it be prepared to lose sleep until you finish it.
Shinigami, akin to grim reapers, play a rather prevalent role in Japanese pop-culture. Death Note injects the Shinigami myth into a dark, psychological thriller with truly unexpected results. The premise alone is enough to sell it: Student is bright yet bored. Student finds mysterious notebook. Student realises that upon writing a person's name in the notebook, the person will die. Needless to say, chaos ensues, and i'd be spoiling the fun if I were to elaborate.

Mushishi, Gantz and Death Note are but three notable titles of a veritable glut of thought-provoking and intelligent manga. Akira and Ghost In the Shell helped bring the medium into Western conciousness and are well worth a read. The work of Osamu Tezuka, considered the 'godfather' of manga is especially notable, recommended are Phoenix and Buddha. A classic historical epic comes in the form of Lone Wolf and Cub, spanning nearly 30 volumes. Honourable mention also goes to the grimy, multi-layered Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White and the girly, but strangely compelling Oh My Goddess!

Listing things.

Lists tend to make for pretty lazy journalism. This list is a rare exception.

Tom Chick lists 10 genuinely innovative sci-fi settings in videogames, i.e. The ones that weren't just a polygonal Bladerunner (incidentally the official Bladerunner game was fantastic).

Igotlockedoutandcouldn'tgetinbutthenigotin. There, now you don't have to read the post.

It's a Sunday, i'm feeling wonderfully invigorated after being pelted by the shower, my hair is fresh and tousled, falling in moist ringlets over my eyes, head tilted coquettishly, towel slung casually over one shoulder...I'm sure you get the picture. It's a nice picture. Anyway...to my utmost horror my lock is completely and utterly jammed. Moments later horror strikes again, as i realise what a terribly mundane anecdote the whole affair is going to make. Anyway, five soggy hours later the Fearnley-Whittingstall-esque locksmith drags himself away from his glazed ham-shank for long enough to install a new one (a lock, not ham-shank), everything is wonderful, primroses burst from my ears, rainbows spill forth from the rather attractive warden's eyes, i realise that 5 hours sitting on a cold towel has done absolutely nothing for my mental health.

Anyway, i arrive home this evening, new key in hand glistening like excalibur, my wrist already swivelling in anticipation....It doesn't fucking work. To cut a long story short, The Halls in their infinite wisdom ordered a second new lock to replace the replaced one, slipping a letter underneath my door asking me to come and collect the new key. Can you spot the fatal flaw in their logic? They slipped a letter under my door. The bastards.

Ahem, i'm glad we got that over and done with, aren't you? Like an awkward first date, blogger and blog-reader mentally spar, both fickle in their commitment, attempting to interest but not to push to far. I hope i pitch at the right level, stories about getting locked out are always fascinating.

Founds some great stores in Camden the other week, the first being a record store; I can't remember what it was called but it has an old American DJ in the basement gently singing along to his choices. I bought The Auteur's second record in there. Right next door is a comic book shop owned by what must be a rather anal fellow, for he bags not just his singles but the trade paperbacks as well! What madness! What inconcievable insanity! But maybe he's onto something.

I apologise for not having much interesting to say right now, after the massive work-related climax of last week i'm in a distinctly post-coital lull, which i think may last well into next week.

Some girls only have room for themselves.

The Witch Riding Your Back

I've been reading up (on wikipedia of course) on sleep paralysis, something i've experienced for the last few years on a pretty regular basis. Basically, what happens during normal REM sleep is that the brain becomes hyperactive and the body is in a state of paralysis, 'sleep paralysis' occurs when the brain regains conciousness during REM sleep. The body remains in a state of paralysis and the experience usually coincides with extremely vivid hallucinations.

Pretty. Fucking. Terrifying.

"This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. In addition, the state may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual due to the vividness of such hallucinations."

I'm not sure i want to sleep now.

"The person may think that someone is standing beside them or they may hear strange sounds"

Eek.

Ulysses...

...is the name of the new Franz Ferdinand single. It's been doing the rounds for a while now, you can listen to it here.

I've been anticipating the new Franz material for a while now, and while this isn't terrible it certianly isn't great either. It strikes me as a very awkward amalgamation of musical styles. It's certainly a far cry from Franz at their best.

See what you think, anyway.

Got 3000 words to do for Friday, as well as revision.

Blah.

The Proverbial Note-On-The-Fridge

Just a quick post to let you know that there's going to be a distinct lack of prolixity until, at earliest, Friday afternoon. This is due to various factors, not least of which my stupidity at leaving a 3000 word essay until the last possible moment, and an exam on Friday morning.

But...yeah, thought i'd check in. And by way of keeping you occupied until then:

The Animal Collective's new album is the shiz, listen to the spacey new single 'My Girls' at their myspace. It's The Animal Collective at their most concise and accessible, and this turns out to be no bad thing.

RockPaperShotgun have an excellent interview up with Edmund McMillen. Distinctive artist behind some absolutely fantastic flash-gamery. Check out his Newgrounds profile for more info. Aether and Coil are particularly special. Seriously, check them out. They're short-form games, so they'll take up half an hour of your time at most, and i found them to be both thought-provoking and aesthetically brilliant.

Oh yeah, this week i found out that the cognitive scientist and philosopher Jerry Fodor is a total badass. Even more so than Chomsky maybe. There's a great article in Meaning And Cognitive Structure (Pylyshyn, Z. and Demopoulos, W.) in which he just has it out with two of his critics, in the format of a massive bitching session. Needless to say, he put them in their place. Pow!

A choice quote:

"Fodor (In response to Newell): Because you know that the subject solves that problem, and it's your problem to model how he does it. It's his problem and he knows how to solve it but you don't."

...anyways, i have some choice content updates planned for when i'm a free man again, most notable of which is something called DIARY OF A DWARVEN FORTRESS which is going to be weekly and i'm not going to tell you anything about it!

Must not link to some music, oh crud.

Didn't know that Sundays could be useful after all...

It's a Sunday morning and i have 3000 words of essay to pummel out of my caffeine-turgid brain. "What better time to champion some of my favourite independent games?", i think to myself, "No better time!".

I'll start with some oldies (but goodies)...oh, and they're all free by the way...

Ben There Dan That is that rarest of things: A well written and genuinely humorous indie game. Scratch that, the fact that it's well written and humorous makes it unusual amongst most games, be they indie or not. It's a point-and-clicker in the vein of such classics as Sam and Max Hit the Road and Monkey Island, and if you can get past the somewhat messy graphical style (I like it, personally) then there's a good few hours of fun to be had with this one. The dialogue is gold.



Chalk is one of the few SCHMUPs (see R-Type or Galaxian) that I've actually played and enjoyed. It leaves behind the generic space setting in favour of something much more abstract and interesting. The mechanic is novel and genuinely interesting. I'd hate to spoil the pleasure of playing it for the first time by explaining it. You know what to do.



Ah, Cave Story how is it that thou art so good and age so well? What is your secret?
The hushed, reverent tones that accompany any Cave Story discussion should be indication enough of its quality. It's a cult classic which plays similar to the metroid games and is being ported to wiiware soon. Get it while it's still free.



Iji may take itself a little too seriously, story-wise, but it has a genuinely unique blend of pseudo-3D graphics, action, stealth and role-playing elements. Again, similar to the metroid series but at the same time nothing like them at all. The graphics work brilliantly and are really hard to describe, but they make every action uniquely satisfying.



Every single one of Nifflas' games (this includes Knytt, Knytt Stories and Within A Deep Forest). They're nearly as revered among indie gamers as Cave Story. They're all somewhat akin to an environmental tone-poem; Pixel dreamscapes, ambient electronic music (the music is actually superb) and (by and large) a complete lack of fighting. The gaming equivalent of herbal tea and Enya.



If you like pulpy, trashy comic books as much as i do play Masq. It's an interactive, decision-based graphic novel, which also happens to be rather well drawn and written. I can't say much about it for lack of experience (stemming from a lack of time), but from what I've played it's a unique experience.




TRILBY: The Art Of Theft does stealth right, which makes for a nice change. It's akin to a simplified, arcadey Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, but it's much more fun than either of those games. It was made by Yahtzee, famous for his Zero Punctuation videos. It turns out he's a very accomplished games designer.



I Fell In Love With The Majesty of Colours is a short-form game (seriously, it takes about five minutes to complete) that i played for the first time this morning. It's worth it for the initial revelation alone, and it requires very little skill/effort. It's an interesting study in moral choices.



I hope they give you as many hours of enjoyment (and procrastination) as they have me. Something to occupy a lazy Sunday afternoon with at any rate.

I'm in the midst of a fully-featured guide to indie games for The London Student, so expect a more comprehensive post on the topic in the near future.

Now I'm going to try really hard not to link to this...damn.

The Return To The Fourth Wall

A writer sat at his desk, feverish.

"This fourth wall isn't going to break itself..."

That was when it happened. Lightbulbs flickered, curtains twitched, door slammed open and there he was, The Cosmic Poacher of Urquat IV.

"Aha!", he cried, in the language spoken only on Urquat IV, "Long have i sought your kind".

He stood in the doorway a while, grinning thirteen grins. His eight eyes twinkled and his antennae rotated, playfully.

After several minutes had passed, the writer opened his mouth.

"Oh.", he said.

"Oh." The Cosmic Poacher repeated, "Ohhh.", he cooed, "OH OH OH!", he spat, trying the syllable out for size. The writer, now duly ignored, returned to his work.

Grinning a twinkly grin, The Cosmic Poacher swept up his multi-faceted ceremonial petticoats and leapt up onto the writer's desk. He screamed, "OHHH!!!", and the writer gagged at the putrid smell of the long-haired fish native to Ingrid IX, which was really quite evident. "This won't do at all.", the writer thought, his concentration shattered. Casually, he drew a miniature death-spud launcher from his inside jacket pocket and blasted The Cosmic Poacher into a billion purple pieces.

Sighing with satisfaction, free from distraction, the writer focused on something very far away.

"Right..."

Gantz : Tentative Impressions

I finished the second volume of the Gantz manga yesterday, and to be quite truthful i wasn't overly impressed. Perhaps this will change with re-reads, but that's why these are 'tentative' impressions rather than anything else.

I'll start with the art, since all of the reviews i've read have a tendency to gush about it. The mangaka (artist) has quite an interesting technique, which is (quite admirably) explained at the end of the first volume:

"First, Hiroya Oku drew out a rough storyboard...then the talented staff created 3D images on the computer based on the storyboard...these would form the studies that Hiroya Oku would use to trace his drawings...these are drawings of the characters. Once they were done by pen they were scanned into a computer...The background, which was drawn in 3D, was simplified into lines. It looks so good you'd think an amazingly talented assistant drew them...the characters and backgrounds were merged and colour was added..."

As the writer generously admits (in reference to the backgrounds):

"Of course, since they're drawn on a computer, they lack that wamrmth you get from something done by hand."

I totally agree with that sentiment, and i'd go even futher with this manga. The backgrounds are characterless and exude a weird sterility, similar to the sort of thing that happens when 3D animation is clumsily incorporated into anime. The character art is a little better, although they do have a strange, mannequin-like quality. The one piece of character art that really shines is, ironically, the adult 'onion alien', one of the only non-human characters. The artist doesn't seem very adept at representing anything like a wide range of human expression, the androgynous hero is the main culprit, his facial expression flitting between anger, fear and confusion, all of which look pretty much exactly the same.

Don't get me wrong, the quality of the art is technically very good, but it lacks something that the more 'messy' hand-drawn styles have. I'm talking about something like Mushishi; That's how to do manga right.

Here's a comparison of the two for your consideration (click for a larger image):


And i wish that was where the criticism ended, because while the art is important it's not the be-all and end-all. Unfortunately, the writer seems to follow the Lost school of thought that replaces plot and depth with mystery and half-baked ideas.

Again, this is hardly a sin unique to Gantz. Like most serialised manga, it drip-feeds information at a painstakingly slow pace. Two volumes through and i still have no idea what's going on, and more importantly, why i should care. Action scenes are great, i've got nothing against them. The action scenes in Gantz are head and shoulders above average. Unfortunately they tend to stretch out to many pages in length, to a point where even the most interesting and skilfully drawn action sequence would become boring.

Characterisation is rudimentary at best. The lead (Kei) is a whiny little prick who you'll learn to dislike pretty quickly. The dialogue and general conversational structure that occurs between characters seems very forced and false to me, but that may well be the result of a poor translation.

And finally, the sex and the violence. Much has been made about the explicitness (even by manga standards) of Gantz, and although nubile young women and severed arteries are no subsititute for what the manga lacks, they do go a long way.

So there you have it. It's a bloody, brainless, sexual manga masquerading as a bloody, brainy, sexual manga. I enjoyed reading it, but only just.

Stuck In Nowhere-land

Why did i think that isolation would breed productivity?

I write this as a warning to those that would think so; It doesn't. I've totemised this essay to the point where i have to work myself up to a zen-like hollowness of being before attempting even the most inconsequential of note taking. I partially blame the early deadline. Deadlines warp the normal passing of time.

The rate that time passes is a function of the time left before the deadline, with the days immediately before stretching out to unforseen, torturous lengths.

Anyway, i went out and about around Camden last night in an attempt to break the cycle, and even though i awoke horrendously late this morning and with a moderate hangover, i feel oddly cleansed. I suppose i, at least partially, succeded. I think it's odd that i find drinking to be like a kind of detoxification. After i get over the initial guilt (both monetary and for my body) i always have this 'cleansed' feeling, for want of a better word.

I've been listening to a lot of music by a man called Luke Haines recently, as well as releasing records under his own name, he was the most prominent creative force behing the bands The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder. His music as an appealing cocktail of acerbic, dark wordplay and perfect pop hooks.

Ere iz a video ov im dat u can watsh.

Lyrics in pop music seem to matter to me much more than they ever used to, and it's not that the music matters less. I suppose that the sub-genres i used to be into included words as an afterthought rather than a focal point, and i do like words. I've also gained more of an appreciation for brevity, to the point where i find it very difficult to listen to anything past the four minute mark. A pop song should never need to go beyond four minutes, in my opinion.

After much consideration, i've finally came up with a New Year's resolution for myself: Only use adjectives where absolutely necessary.

Steering The Craft

I found this wonderful explanation of narrative whilst sifting mindlessly through the web, thinking about how to write a good story. It makes me wish i had more time to write (good) stories.

"I define story as a narrative of events (external or psychological) which moves through time or implies the passage of time, and which involves change.

I define plot as a form of story which uses action as its mode usually in the form of conflict, and which closely and intricately connects one act to another, usually through a causal chain, ending in a climax.

Climax is one kind of pleasure; plot is one kind of story. A strong, shapely plot is a pleasure in itself. It can be reused generation after generation. It provides an armature for narrative that beginning writers may find invaluable.

But most serious modern fictions can’t be reduced to a plot, or retold without fatal loss except in their own words. The story is not in the plot but in the telling. It is the telling that moves.

Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.

Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.

We don’t have to have the rigid structure of a plot to tell a story, but we do need a focus. What is it about? Who is it about? This focus, explicit or implicit, is the center to which all the events, characters, sayings, doings of the story originally or finally refer. It may be or may not be a simple or a single thing or person or idea. We may not be able to define it. If it’s a complex subject it probably can’t be expressed in any words at all except all the words of the story. But it is there.

And a story equally needs what Jill Paton Walsh calls a trajectory — not necessarily an outline or synopsis to follow, but a movement to follow: the shape of a movement, whether it be straight ahead or roundabout or recurrent or eccentric, a movement which never ceases, from which no passage departs entirely or for long, and to which all passages contribute in some way. This trajectory is the shape of the story as a whole. It moves always to its end, and its end is implied in its beginning.

Crowding and leaping have to do with the focus and the trajectory. Everything that is crowded in to enrich the story sensually, intellectually, emotionally, should be in focus — part of the central focus of the story. And every leap should be along the trajectory, following the shape and movement of the whole."

Ursula K. Le Guin ( from 'Steering the Craft')
Source.

A Free Thing Is A Good Thing

Ok, so that isn't necessarily (or sufficiently) true, but it does appeal to my deeply ingrained instinct as a cheapskate.

This has been doing the rounds over the past couple of days, so forgive me if you've seen it already but Deadspace #1 is free over at Newsarama. It's a comic based on the game so it's a bit of an unknown quantity, i haven't had the chance to read it yet but the art and the colouring certainly look nice.

This also gives me the oppurtunity to plug Phonogram, one of my favourite comics of recent years. Phonogram: Rue Britannia #1 is free over at Image's website and there's also a preview of Phonogram: The Singles Club, which is in the middle of a wildly successful run, at the moment. It would take a while for me to extol the virtues of this particular series, and i'd prefer to devote a whole post to that topic. Just stop reading this and go and bloody read them instead.

Free comics are especially good when the cost of comics is apparently rising due to the weakening of the pound against the dollar. Is nothing sacred?

In Real Life news, i have a huge essay due in next Friday which i have yet to start. I moved back to the halls on the 3rd (a week early) in the hope that the isolation would spur me on...no such luck, unfortunately. The essay is worth a fifth of the entire year, so suffice to say that i will be wracked with guilt until such time as i can bring myself to put my head down. Idiot.

Since free comics (and underlying that, procrastination) seems to be the major theme of this post, i leave you with news that the comics on Eegra.com are hilarious. For a web comic anyway. They're even moderately well drawn! Shock horror and all that. This is no Ctrl Alt Del.

The archives are well worth clicking through, if you have twenty minutes to kill.

The Twenty-Five Tracks Of Two Thousand and Eight

I stole this idea from another blog. That's right. It's not my idea. Just to clarify; Making a list of favourite songs is NOT EVEN REMOTELY ORIGINAL...in case you thought otherwise.

But i'm going to do it anyway, partly because i like music, and partly because i feel like it's my responsibility as a member of society. Besides, most culture in 'the noughties' is nothing more than glorified playlisting.

The sole criteria for the tracks is that they were released (in one fashion or another) within the confines of 2008. Links will be included as often as i can be bothered.

25. The Black Keys - Strange Times

A band that i haven't listened to a whole lot, but i have an incomprehensible affection for, and feel like i should champion.

As the ancestral genre that spawned a little thing that i like to call pop music, the blues should be treasured and furthered at every oppurtunity. The Black Keys accomplish what Jack White has been trying to for years and manage to modernise the blues whilst creating something truly of its time.

Youtube link.

24. R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious

The album wasn't a return to form for R.E.M., no siree, this song was though. It has everything; The (brilliantly) cliched lyrics, the killer guitar riff and above all, Michael Stype's inimitable voice. Could've been on Automatic For The People.

Youtube link.

23. The Futureheads - Radio Heart

Barry Hyde introduced this as "...a song about a girl who has a radio instead of a heart.", and who am i to disagree? I don't so much like this for the music, but because of what it stands for: The Futureheads recovering from being dropped by a major label and managing to self release a not-half-bad third album. Even so, it's pretty darn catchy.

Ready, steady, put on your best Geordie accent...go!

A girl with a radio heaaaart....

Youtube link.

22. Beck - Gamma Ray

I was so pleased that Beck released a decent new album last year that i would've included this above much better tracks, and maybe i did. I've always liked Beck, even during his rough patches (see Guero) and now that he's cool again i get to rub this in everbody's collective face. The partnership with Ceel-Lo is a match made in heaven. Gamma Ray, with its repetitive, slightly off-kilter melody and bizarre lyric (With the transistor sound/And my Chevrolet terraplane/Going round, round, round) is just the right length at 2:57. A weirdly sinister nugget of pop.

Myspace link.

21. Luke Temple - More Than Muscle

Luke Temple is an artist who i'm probably not quite cool enough to like. Certainly, everything i've heard about him exudes hipster chic. A painter from Brooklyn, he allegedly earned a living by painting murals on the walls of wealthy Brooklynite's flats. His quite startlingly feminine falsetto is a bit of an aquired taste.

Myspace link.

20. Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook

Sigur Ros, in a move that must have shocked many of their loyal followers, myself included, release something completely different. It's rollicking, folky and best of all it's fun. Nothing like the Sigur Ros you know and love from panoramic BBC 2 adverts, and, some might say, myself included, a massive improvement.

Myspace link.

19. Future Of The Left - The Hope That House Built

I'm afraid i don't have much to say about this song, i just desperately wanted to include something by Future Of The Left and this happened to be the only new thing they released last year. Future Of The Left are one of the bands that appeal to my primordial, masculine instinct to just rock the fuck out.

Myspace link.

18. Extra Life - The Refrain

Pretty much one of the most bizarre pop songs i've heard all year. The vocals are supposedly inspired by Gregorian chanting. It all sounds strangely flat and abrasive, which adds to its strange charm, i think.

Myspace link.

17. Of Montreal - Wicked Wisdom

"I'm a mother fuckin' headliner bitch you don't even know it..."

Of Montreal continue to tickle me with their sheer audacity. A great, tongue-in-cheek opening makes way for what seem like hundreds of shifts in style and in rhythm. The Queen-esque chorus is a particular highlight.

Last.fm link.

16. Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

I'm a little embarrassed to have VW appearing on this list, but i'd be lying to myself if i didn't say that Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa was one of my tracks of the year. It's a wonderfully nostalgic, upbeat little musical reminiscence, and anything that name-checks Peter Gabriel is alright in my book.

Youtube link.

15. The Week That Was - Scratch The Surface

Forever a Field Music fanboy, i was always going to like Peter Brewis' next project, no matter how it sounded. I've had the privelege of being present at this band's debut and many of its concurrent gigs and they are absolutely blistering live. The machine-like rhythm of this song works in tandem with Peter's angry, sometimes taunting vocal to create a beautifully unsettling soundscape. Clearly inspired by Peter Gabriel.

Youtube link.

14. Deerhunter - Never Stops

Deerhunter do majestic things with four notes, and this song is a prime example. It makes me want to go out into the world and really do things; It's wonderfully uplifting. I love the contrast of the lubricious vocal over the percussive, abrasive instrumental.

Myspace Link.

13. Deerhoof - The Tears And Music Of Love

Brilliant name for a song. I'd stick this in here on the strength of that alone (my standards are obviously pretty low). It does help that the cock-rock, pelvic thrust of the guitar riff provides a glorious contrast to Satomi Matsuzaki's fragile vocal. If you know Deerhoof, you probably know what this is going to sound like without me having to tell you; This is no bad thing. Expect to flit between hyper-condensed chaos and minimal beauty.

Youtube link (live)

12. Portishead - The Rip

Not a happy song by any stretch of the imagination; It's a good one to curl up to on a cold day, for lack of another person. Half-way through, and the delicate guitar picking melds seamlessly into oscillating synths. I didn't even notice the first time round, the song held me in a dream-like state, enraptured. Beth Gibbon's voice never fails to astound me, and is more touching, elegant and human here than ever.

Youtube link.

11. Cryptacize - No Coins

Oho, cue a sly little reference to the Ongoing economic crisis! Oho! Sadly, the song isn't even remotely political; It was recorded and released before 'credit crunch' was ever even coined. Oh my god, i can't stop the puns!

What No Coins is however, is an elegant pairing of a delicate female vocal and sparse, jangly electric guitar. The arrangement is as near perfect as it's possible to get. The melodies are sparkling and effortless. I don't know what this song is really about, and i don't really care; This is what pop music should sound like.

Wow, I didn't even know that Cryptacize had an album out until i compiled this list. Time to BUY.

Myspace link.

10. Yohoghani - Time Passes By

Ok, so i'm quite plainly flouting my own criteria now. Yohoghani's eponymous album was definitely released in 2007. Charmingly, i was emailed it in zip. format by the singer. I would be exaggerating if i said that this band were overlooked critical darlings...They were my critical darling, but shockingly, they've managed to be overlooked by pretty much everyone. I've listened to this a lot this year, and i love to champion an Underdog, so i'm going to include it all the same. And bully to you for not knowing who Yohoghani are.

Myspace link.

09. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

Ever since Yellow House i've been waiting with baited breath for Grizzly Bear's next studio album. In fact, much of 2008 was characterised by sitting at a desk, waiting, baiting my breath. This appeared on Youtube way back in July, and even though i hate listening to music on Youtube, I listen to this at least once every few days. The crooning vocal, the euphoric chorus, the sweeping arpeggios...it really floated my boat. And continues to do so.

Youtube link.

08. Of Montreal - An Eluardian Instance

Of Montreal may very well be the band of 2008 for me. There's no doubt that i'm late to the Of Montreal Party, but i'm a lot earlier than most in this uniquely reserved part of the world. If The Scissor Sisters, Patrick Wolf and the ghost of Freddy Mercury all had a massive orgy in a palace made out of fabulous, and this was all somehow chanelled into a record, it would sound like this.

Live on Letterman

07. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

The album is mediocre and a little self-indulgent, but i never seem to tire of the exhilirating title track. The guitar riff is extremely simple and works stupidly well, the vocals are just about angsty enough without being overbearing. By accident or intention The Raconteurs have managed to craft one of the best rock songs of 2008.

Youtube link (live).

08. Fleet Foxes - He Doesn't Know Why

Fleet Foxes are about as Dad-ish as Dad-rock gets. Reminiscent of such Dad-radio staples as America and The Beach Boys, Fleet Foxes are bearded, melodious, harmonious, bearded...did i already say that one? As it happens, i bought my Dad the album for Christmas and he fucking loved it.

I say all this partly in jest, as i genuinely love this band. I saw them at the Shepherd Bush Empire 'bout a month back and they managed to reduce an otherwise rowdy crowd of thousands to reverant silence. Seeing them live is a spiritual experience - The harmonies that just sound plain nice on the record sound magical and brutal in a live setting; they genuinely gave me the shivers. Fittingly, i have no idea why He Doesn't Know Why happens to be my favourite track from the album; i like to think that it typifies the soaring, spine-tingling nature of the live experience.

Youtube link

07. Bon Iver - Flume

No doubt you all love Bon Iver now, you band wagon hoppers, you scene surfers...I'll forgive you just this once though, although i was digging this long before it hit the mainstream, i'm proud to say. Bon Iver's ballad-spinnery deserves all the mainstream appeal and plaudits that come to it. Something really special.

Youtube Link.

06. Deerhunter - Microcastle

One part Doo-wop, one part Bends era Radiohead and 3 parts awesome. "So that's five parts altogether then" you think, "Why five parts?". Five people in the band, like duuuh.

Youtube link. (ignore the video, if possible).

05. Spoon - Don't You Evah

It's a cover, but it's so ridiculously good that you won't care. Technically, this is a thoroughly 2007 song, but seeing as it was re-released as part of the eponymous EP i feel justified in including it (that, and it's ridiculously good). The bass-line is just delicious; I want to eat it. The arrangement is gloriously minimal. This song is supremely danceable.

Myspace link.

04. Yeasayer - 2080

Nobody even remotely self-concious could write a song as openly ridiculous and fantastic as 2080.

Myspace link.

03. Radiohead - Nude

With Nude Radiohead finally achieve something that they've been attempting since the Kid A era: They totally transcend pop music. Please excuse the hyperbole - I'm likely to spout it whenever Radiohead come up, but Nude is genuinely a thing of beauty and unlike other pop songs. Everybody should hear this at least once.

Youtube link.

02. School Of Language - Dissapointment '99

Three words: Ooh Ooh Ooooh...You gotta listen to the song to understand, man.

You know it's good when three, instantly-recognisable notes blossom into an elaborate in-joke between friends.

Myspace link

01. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Nick Cave is my hero. There, i said it. I want to grow a big, handlebar moustache in tribute to him.

That took a while.

I've got a few descriptions to polish off, but i really should go to the library now. I've decided to post what i've got so far for you eager beavers, but i'll finish off this mother of a post this evening.