As 2010 bows out, it is time to look back on a year that has been rich in new music, some from very well established artists, and some from entirely new comers. Here are themilkfactory’s twenty favourite records of the year, and this year for the first time, this list is augmented with thirty other records that have marked the year.

With no less than four albums in the top 20, the year belonged to Rune Grammofon, and more particularly to Supersilent, who occupy two places, including the top spot. Room40 also place two albums in the twenty best records on 2010, while new imprints Desire Path, Hibernate and Textura also feature with some strong releases.

1.

SUPERSILENT
10
Rune Grammofon

2.

CHRIS ABRAHAMS
Play Scar
Room40

3.

PHONOPHANI
Kreken
Rune Grammofon

4.

STIAN WESTERHUS
Pitch Black Star Spangled
Rune Grammofon

5.

SOLO ANDATA
Ritual
Desire Path Recordings

6.

RENE HELL
Porcelain Opera
Type Recordings

7.

PAN SONIC
Gravitoni
Blast First Petite

8.

FENNESZ DANIELL BUCK
Knoxville
Thrill Jockey

9.

K11/PIETRO RIPARBELLI & PHILIPE PETIT
The Haunting Triptych
Boring Machines

10.

ERIK K. SKODVIN
Flare
Sonic Pieces

11.

COCOROSIE
Grey Oceans
PIAS Recordings

12.

SUPERSILENT
11
Rune Grammofon

13.

MINAMO + LAWRENCE ENGLISH
A Path Less Travelled
Room40

14.

BJ NILSEN
The Invisible City
Touch

15.

ARANDEL
In D
InFiné

16.

FOOD
Quiet Inlet
ECM Records

17.

ANDREA FERRARIS & MATTEO UGGERI WITH MUJIKA EASEL & ANDREA SERRAPIGLIO
Autumn Is Coming, We’re All In Slow Motion
Hibernate Recordings

18.

AUTECHRE
Oversteps
Warp Records

19.

MAINS DE GIVRE
Esther Marie
Textura

20.

DAWN OF MIDI
First
Accretions

… AND 30 MORE ESSENTIAL ALBUMS

21. BENOIT PIOULARD Lasted (Kranky)
22. PHILIPPE PETIT & FRIENDS A Scent Of Garmambrosia (Aagoo Records)
23. K-X-P K-X-P (Smalltown Supersound)
24. CLEM LEEK Holly Lane (Hibernate Recordings)
25. TO ROCOCO ROT Speculation (Domino Recordings Co.)
26. ANDREA MARUTTI/FAUSTO BALBO Detrimental Dialogue (AEF Records/Boring Machines/Fratto9 Under The Sky)
27. TAYLOR DEUPREE Shoals (12K)
28. K11 Metaphonic Portrait: 1230 A.D. (Actual Noise Records)
29. HAUSCHKA Foreign Landscapes (130701/Fat-Cat Records)
30. THE BLACK DOG Music For Real Airports (Soma Recording)

31. CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO Boca Negra (Thrill Jockey)
32. LUGANO FELL Slice Repair (Baskaru)
33. TVO/THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (Broken20)
34. JOANNA NEWSOM Have One On Me (Drag City)
35. ICARUS All Is For The Best In The Best Of All Possible Worlds (Not Applicable)
36. ESKMO Eskmo (Ninja Tune)
37. ROOF LIGHT Kirkwood Gaps (Highpoint Lowlife)
38. NIK BÄRTSCH’S RONIN Llyrìa (ECM Records)
39. ON Something That Has Form And That Does Not (Type Recordings)
40. JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees (Type Recordings)

41. SEELAND How To Live (LoAF)
42. DANÍEL BJARNASON Processions (Bedroom Community)
43. STRIË Sléptis (Soundscaping Records)
44. BILL WELLS & STEFAN SCHNEIDER Pianotapes (Karaoke Kalk)
45. TALVIHORROS Music In Four Movements (Hibernate Recordings)
46. MARCUS FJELLSTRÖM Schattenspieler (Miasmah Recordings)
47. MAX RICHTER Infra (130701/Fat-Cat Records)
48. RJ VALEO Atman (Io Records)
49. RICHARD SKELTON Landings (Type Recordings)
50. BIRD SHOW BAND Bird Show Band (Amish Records)

COCOROSIE
Grey Oceans
PIASF191
PIAS 2010
11 Tracks. 47mins11secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

One shouldn’t judge a book, or a record, by its cover, right? CocoRosie’s fourth album will probably be remembered for its truly awful artwork. But, behind the amateurish cover and self-depreciating picture of sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady hides the pair’s best album to date, a treasure trove of wonderful miniature cinematic pop songs cast in juvenile broken folk, tainted with brushes of electronics and opera.

This is nothing new for the two sisters, who have developed their unique style since well before their first album, La Maison De Mon Rêve, released on Touch & Go six years ago, yet Grey Oceans is served by much more delicate and complex melodies, denoting a more mature approach to the pair’s dreamy fairytale songs. While the mix of stripped down instrumentation, based on harp, toy instruments, shaky electronics and found sounds, on one side, and child-like vocals and operatic motifs on the other is still very much at the core of the CocoRosie sound, the pair have widened their horizon greatly and refined their spellbinding melodies to create a totally fascinating collection.

The recording of this album started in the sisters’ adopted city of Paris, where they have both been living for some time, and continued in various other cities around the world, from Buenos Aires to Berlin and New York to Melbourne. This has perhaps partly influenced the variety in sounds and samples used, from the oriental overtones of Smokey’s Taboo to the honky-tonk piano which opens Hopscotch and the recording of the sisters’ part Cherokee mum singing in her native language on the stunning Undertaker, a tape recording that the sisters found in a box amongst other of their mother’s possessions. Elsewhere, the delicate aspect of the music is brought to life with delicate brushes of Sierra’s harp and Bianca’s toy instruments, especially on R.I.P. Burn Face, Gallows or Fairy Paradise. All the way through, the sisters’ voices, child-like, approximative and often processed, tell disjointed tales where graveyards, glass eyes, spells, mermaids and pirates are common currency. Sierra’s operatic singing acts as a grown-up counterpoint in this overgrown wonderland, yet it also serves at underpinning the poetic aspect of the songs, very much like it did on La Maison De Mon Rêve.

The Casady sisters’ songs are so perfectly self-contained that it seems as if they could not work in any other context than the one they painstakingly create for each of their records. While this is perhaps a deterrent for some, it is exactly what has gained CocoRosie such a devoted following over the years. With their last album, they seemed to have got lost in their own dream world, their songs appearing for the most part to lack the sparkle that had characterised their previous outputs. With Grey Oceans, the pair have once again found their way, channelling a new found energy into some of their most stunning songs yet, and ultimately creating a truly magical and poetic record. One should not just THIS record by its cover.

4.8/5

CocoRosieLand | CocoRosie (MySpace) | PIAS Recordings
Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

COCOROSIE
The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn
TG306
Touch & Go Records 2007
12 Tracks. 41mins06secs

Toy pianos and human beat boxes, tiny bells and music boxes, dragons and butterflies, the world of Coco and Rosie, or sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady, relies heavily on fantasy, dreams and coded imagery. It is therefore not much of a surprise that they asked French artists Pierre & Gilles, who themselves have developed a very personal sense of symbolism, to shoot the cover of their latest effort, and teamed up with Michel Gondry for the video of the first single to be taken off the album.

CocoRosie first emerged three years ago with a stunning debut album, La Maison De Mon Rêve. Recorded in the bathroom of their Parisian apartment during a rainy summer, the album, collating acidic lullabies and pop vignettes too clever to ever be played on the radio, was wonderfully chaotic and unpredictable. With their follow up, Noah’s Ark, released in 2005, the Casady sisters relied on much more ornate instrumentation and deployed some increasingly widescreen melodies and intricate soundscapes. To further embellish their delicate pop songs, they recruited the services of oddball popsters Antony and Devendra Banhart and French beatbox artist Spleen.

The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn sees the Casady sisters wrap their surreal poetry in slightly less opulent and rich draperies, relying on just a few sound sources for each song. This gives the album a more minimal tone, but it also shows off the pair’s ability to write incredibly dense little vignettes in a much clearer light. Recorded in Island with Björk collaborator and Bedroom Community head Valgeir Sigurðsson, this third opus is somewhat less obsessed with dreams and tales, but this is not to say that CocoRosie have abandoned their toy box pop for more mature musical forms. The sisters’ mix of vocal affectation and elegance is intact here and weights heavily on the overall performance. Sierra’s classically trained voice contrasts greatly with Bianca’s rawer tones, as she goes from soft whispers to little girl’s blabber. As the sisters play off each other, a strange dialogue develops which is carried all the way through without ever failing to intrigue and entertain.

The album opens with the hip-hop infused Rainbowarriors and Promise before the sisters turn to more subtle and delicate song structures with Bloody Twins, on which their voices appear tightly entangled with melody and arrangements, Sunshine, with its clear melodic theme, or the cinematic Houses and Raphael. Elsewhere, CocoRosie playfully assemble pop songs out of minimal sound sources. On the magnificent Japan, the sisters voice their concern with political and social issues (‘everyone wants to go to Iraq / but once they go, they don’t come back / bringing peanut butter jelly and other snacks / we might have our freedom but we’re still on crack’) , while Sophia Lauren, orphans and baby dinosaurs cross paths on Animals. On the closing Miracle, Antony provides a delightful counterpoint to the acerbic verve of Casady sisters and brings this collection of imaginary pop songs to a rather stylish close.

While The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn isn’t quite as flamboyant, dense and dreamy as Noah’s Ark, Sierra and Bianca Casady continue here to craft wonderfully evocative poetic pop songs and subtle adult lullabies. If their work gains maturity, it still bears the touching innocence and naivety that made them so fascinating in the first place.

Explore: CocoRosie | Touch & Go Records
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