The noughties have seen probably the most radical changes in the music industries since the advent of the record. Consumption habits have dramatically moved from traditional to digital formats, music has been increasingly seen as something to steal rather than to buy, and listening habits means that nowadays, the album is becoming increasingly redundant. Or is it? Whereas it had, at least in some circles, become totally acceptable to fill records with substandard music, it is now essential for artists to create consistent pieces of work if they want to retain the attention of their audience. The last ten years have delivered their fair share of hits and misses, and this list doesn’t pretend to be in any way shape or form exhaustive. This is just, in no particular order, the definitive list of the 20 albums that have defined the noughties at themilkfactory.

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Twelve months compiled into just twenty albums. From the thousands of records released each year, it is difficult to get even a handful on the site, and even more difficult to decide which ones were the best of the lot. This is however the twenty albums that have marked the 2009 for themilkfactory.

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THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again
HPLL037
Highpoint Lowlife 2009
01 Track. 58mins36secs

Buy: MP3

Scotland has long been a fertile ground for electronic music, and one of the country’s best exports is undoubtedly the Marcia Blaine School For Girls collective, whose three members, Bryan Kerr, David Donnolly and Ruaridh Law, have released music on labels such as Benbecula, Unlabel, Static Caravan or Metal-On-Metal, either collectively or individually, for over ten years. It is however on London-based Highpoint Lowlife that the trio have found their natural home, first producing the excellent Some Paths Lead Back Again project four years ago, then their album Halfway Into The Woods two years ago. It is also on Highpoint Lowlife that Ruaridh Law’s seminal solo effort Et In Arcadia Ego, as The Village Orchestra, was published, again in 2005. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Magnetism, That Electricity
HPLL026
Highpoint Lowlife 2008
12 Tracks. 74mins46secs

For some time now, the excellent Highpoint Lowlife have refocused their outputs by publishing extremely limited hand crafted CDR editions, but the quality of the music released has in no way waned, as recent releases by Tigrics and Erstlaub have shown. Magnetism, That Electricity is the latest project initiated by label head Thorsten Sideb0ard, and follows the Analog For Architecture DVDR compilation released a year and a half ago. The project was devised primarily to be pressed on vinyl and released as a double EP, with four very different acts from the HPLL stable given the full run of a side each. Answering the call are atmospheric drone rockers Mandelbrot Set and electronic outfits Fisk Industries, The Village Orchestra and The Marcia Blaine School For Girls. Continue Reading »