Crack

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10
Shabazz Palaces
Black Up
Sub Pop

Track: Free Press and Curl

Of all the individuals to emerge as one of the leading voices of rap in 2011, the name of Ishmael ‘Butterfly’ Butler of 90s jazz-rap outfit Digable Planets didn’t exactly leap to the lips, but in Black Up he produced a vital piece of work. Of his musical history all that remains is the freedom from structure innate to jazz, along with a knack for sublimely flowing, articulate rhymes, and this is a darkly electronic, daringly experimental album which has effortlessly left countless formulaic hip-hop contemporaries in its shade.

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9
Metronomy
The English Riviera
Because Music

Track: Everything Goes My Way



The way in which The English Riviera has positioned Metronomy as the new darlings of English pop music is no accident. This collection of gems bedded them in territories and consciousnesses far removed from the awkward, albeit superb, electro outfit of their previous two records. Smooth, charm-filled songs re-imagine lead singer Joe Mount’s home in Totnes as a sun-soaked paradise through pop sparklers like The Look and The Bay. Warm, beautiful and like all great pop records, perfectly simple.

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8
Zomby
Dedication
4AD

Track: Mozaik



Zomby’s preoccupation with the outskirts of UK dance music culture saw his debut album, Where Were U In ’92, focus on hardcore music, and his DJ sets have often been known to be filled with jungle tracks. Then there’s also the fact no one knows who he is. It’s this mystique that made Dedication the album Zomby was meant to make. The dub/bass culture nods are there (Things Fall Apart) as are the wild synths (Black Orchid), but it’s those spacious, sinister, undertones that really engage.

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7
The Horrors
Skying
XL Recordings

Track: Still Life



Who knows how many times the words ‘coming of age’ have been be used in reference to The Horrors. It was certainly the case with 2007’s Primary Colours, where it hit home that we had a proper band on our hands. But with this, their third record, they display the confidence and maturity of a band finding themselves with a flourish. From the title down, this is an album of far-reaching, grand scale ideas, embracing the sheer scope of shoegaze along with stylistically 80s new wave melodies.

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6
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins
Diamond Mine
Domino

Track: Bubble



The marrying of King Creosote and Jon Hopkins on this melancholic vision of a rural Scottish town is an achingly beautiful record which, although short in length, packs so much depth of feeling it’s hard, on an intense listen, not be slightly overcome. From opening track First Watch, the sense of the everyday dispersed throughout instils it with a human quality which provokes an intense warmth towards the theme. This is even before Kenny Anderson’s beautiful vocals begin to permeate the music.

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5
Clams Casino
Instrumental Mixtape
Self Released

Track: All I Need



For those unversed in the work of Clams Casino, aka Mike Volpe, he is the 23-year-old brain behind the most grabbing hip-hop beats we’ve heard in eons. Far from the bravado and masculine swagger of many East Coast contemporaries, the beauty of these beats lies in their intricacy and atmospherics, creating a record which is easily digested as a brilliant instrumental collection rather than a series of thumps for a rapper to whip-crack over. The delayed breakdowns and sluggish style generate a real moodiness, but it’s the use of vocal samples on tracks like Realist Alive that transport these beats to an emotive plain most hip-hop producers daren’t go.

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4
Other Lives
Tamer Animals
Play It Again Sam

Track: For 12



Lovingly crafted and painstakingly constructed slabs of Americana that achieve an almost orchestral effect through layers of sound: this is what makes Tamer Animals such a striking listen. But it’s the quality of the songs which keeps the hairs on your arms rising time and time again. Without bewitching melodies like For 12 or the title-track, the hours spent on that textured musicality amount to nothing. Indeed, Other Lives don’t need time to craft their wondrous landscape; despite their grandiose feel, the songs rarely clock in at over four minutes, and opener Dark Horse needs just over two and a half to get beneath your skin. Stunningly evocative stuff.

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3
Radiohead
The King of Limbs
Self Released

Track: Separator



Thrust into our consciousness complete with Thom Yorke’s contorting figure in the video for the hypnotic Lotus Flower, new material from the world’s most enduringly important band always comes with a disclaimer to prepare for anything. Having given everyone what they’d wanted with the masterful, song-based In Rainbows, this record sees Yorke’s beatsmithery take centre stage – the exception being the sublime double- header of Codex and Give Up The Ghost. Just eight songs in length, as with most of Radiohead’s output we probably won’t understand its significance for another five years, but right now, The King of Limbs is a superb piece of work, purely on merit.

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2
PJ Harvey
Let England Shake
Island Records

Track: Let England Shake



There is something hugely reassuring about the consistent acclaim Let England Shake continues to receive. Thematically one of the most challenging and deeply personal pieces of album work in recent memory, Polly Harvey’s war-themed odes are moving, tragic, songwriting masterpieces that see her delve into some of the darkest places a British songwriter has tread in recent times. The resultant album is a creation of absolute beauty and intelligence that does not falter from start to finish in its relentless tugging of emotional cords.Let England Shake seems certain to go down as one of the greatest records of the last ten years, if not all time.

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1
Nicolas Jaar
Space Is Only Noise
Circus Company

Space is Only Noise was the first album of 2011 to leave us breathless. Arriving back in February, it has been a constant point of reference throughout the calendar year, a year in which Jaar has grown from a figure of outstanding potential in the world of house music to being accepted as a truly prodigious, genreless talent.

Colomb



Raised between the disparate worlds of Chile and New York, Jaar’s study of Comparative Literature is an intriguing insight into his view of his, and others’, art. This album is a meeting point, a place of understanding cultures, genres, languages, dynamics, and of creating something entirely other.

I Got a Woman



The detail and the intimacy of the sampling is something to be truly revered. Voices and natural sounds merge, instantly recognisable yet strangely distant, on the likes of Être and Almost Fell which are barely pieces of music, rather pieces of feeling. He also finds a strangely compelling and memorable voice on the warped, downbeat pop of Too Many Kids Finding Rain in the Dust, Keep Me There and Problem with the Sun.

Keep Me There



It’s a work of such astonishing care, confidence and bravery that perhaps could only go hand in hand with achieving so much at so tender an age. And perhaps it’s this reason, as much as the content of the album, which compelled us to declare Space is Only Noise is Crack’s Album Of The Year. Because we’re certain that in many years’ time, we’ll remember 2011 as the year Nic Jaar first got hold of us.

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