WINTER IS COMING: Ten Records to Keep You Warm During The Holidays and Beyond

As the year draws to a close, and every music writer in America gears up to countdown their best and worst of 2011, some great records are still being released. Below is a collection of some recent albums that will get you through the dark cold months ahead, and will sooth your soul as the hectic holiday month unfolds. Again, in no particular order.

#1 KATE BUSH - 50 Words For Snow (Anti-)

Anyone who thinks I'm just a whiskey drinking dunderhead who wants to see Burzum eat the guts of Neon Indian has never seen me listen to "Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush. I don't think I've ever made it through that song without tears pouring out of my eyes. Kate Bush has that effect, even on grown men who eat too much red meat. Her lyrics, arrangements and voice cut to the core of the human heart and remind you of what is truly important in life, which is usually those around you that you hurt the most, causing you to feel a chasm between the person you want to be and the person you are, not that I would know anything about that. It's ethereal music that you should probably listen to ever day in order to be a better person, but it's weight is too much to listen to every day. In some ways it's a good thing that she has only produced two records of original material in the past 17 years, because her records take years to digest and stay with you twice as long. For those novices out there who have never heard Kate Bush, she is sort of like Joanna Newsom, but a thousand times better.

"50 Words For Snow," is hands down her best record following "Hounds Of Love." It is the perfect medium for Bush's vision comprised of minimal compositions built on piano that grow gradually over time into quite epics that are as effecting as anything she has produced. I was stunned on the first listen of this record, and as I explore it I am consistently overwhelmed by what I hear. Yes, there is a duet with Elton John on this record, and yes, it is one of the best songs on the album. If one needed proof that our elder statesmen and women can craft much better music than the youth of today, "Snowed In At Wheeler Street" will provide every Rolling Stone critic with enough ammunition to last a lifetime. For my money, though, "Misty" is the song I want to get lost in forever. A beautiful piano melody plays over slight jazz drums and stings working itself into a subtle climax that recalls all that was great about 80s art rock. It's like Talk Talk backing up Kate Bush, and really that is all I need to say. I probably don't need to explain further why an album called "50 Words For Snow" is the perfect record for this season, but all of the reasons I just discussed above are also why this is one of the best records of 2011.

"Misty" excerpt

#2 BORIS - New Album (Sargent House)

Every winter needs its stupid rock album to get you out of the doldrums, and this winter has been gifted by one of the best bands in the world with what is arguably their worst album (that is still great in its own way). There is no way to justify this record to long time fans of Boris; the band that at one time stood toe to toe with Earth and Sunn 0))) for sovereignty of the doom drone world are now turning in what can only be described as a J-rock record, but goddamn if it isn't fun. For the most part this is a much more electronicized mix of songs from the band's "Heavy Rocks 2011" and "Attention Please" records from earlier in the year. It basically gathers together all of the pop songs, pumps up the disco and lets loose with abandon. It still rocks, promise, but in a different way.

This record has been out in Japan for a while, but I get the feeling that Boris knew they were going to piss off a lot of American fans with this, and so kind of buried its release, which is a shame, because if you can't get your four on the floor on with Boris and have fun, you probably aren't living. I'm not about to say I want to hear the band go down this road again, but this has became a guilty pleasure that makes even the shittiest days feel grand, in other words: the perfect cure for the winter, or any, blues.

"Spoon"

#3 WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS - The Resurrections Unseen (Type)

William Fowler Collins is the modern György Ligeti. He creates the kind of drones that emit from "2001's" black obelisks. He produces some of the deepest music being made today, and by deep I am referring to the philosophy of "deep listening" that experimental legend Pauline Oliveros has dedicated her life toward, which is basically the act of taking the time to put a pause on all the extraneous bullshit in life long enough to immerse yourself into the soundworld being created by a given artist. It's kind of like sonic meditation, and Collins' music deserves to heard under those circumstances to be fully appreciated. As academic as that may sound, his music is also incredibly visceral, calling to mind your most unsettling moment, your worst nightmare or some primal collective memory. Personally, I love to put on his music when I have to drive through rural Indiana, as it casts a blackened grip over the heartland in a way that makes "Children Of the Corn" look quaint.

On "The Resurrections Unseen" Collins moves away from the blasted rural soundscape of the phenomenal "Perdition Hill Radio" for something deeper, more cosmic and more primal. This is an album that takes place in either deep space or far below the Earth's surface, depending on your prospective. Canyon sized drones burn across this record and sink the listener into a place that is both harrowing and familiar. If the evolution of the universe had a soundtrack, this would be it. I can't shake how massive this record is, how entirely beyond our individual moment in time it sounds. It's more like a transmission from the origins of the cosmos than the work of a lone individual living here and now. Although one could easily call this dark experimental music, it is bigger than that; it's a sound beyond the distinction of light and dark. The only other act that I can think of making music this expansive, this primitive and this spectacular are Sunn 0))). With "The Resurrections Unseen," Collins has solidified himself as one of the premier artists on the experimental scene. This record should be in every single serious music fan's collection, it is nothing short of astonishing.

"Abattoir"

William Fowler Collins - Abattoir from John Twells on Vimeo.

#4 URAL UMBO - Delusion Of Hope (Utech)

Ural Umbo is the duo of Reto Mäder and Steven Hess, who some of you might recognize as a member of Locrain, Haptic and On. To call them a dark experimental project would technically be correct, but it doesn't quite do them justice. "Dark experimental" gets thrown around a lot (hell, it's getting thrown around a lot on this list alone), but like all such descriptors it threatens to reduce a band's sound into a pigeonhole that sheers off the individual uniqueness of a group, which is often what makes one group or artists better than the next bunch of guys armed with electronics and guitar pedals who have an appreciation for both Burzum and Penderecki. So yeah, Ural Umbo is a dark experimental duo, but their approach is more organic, more fully realized, and, frankly, scarier sounding than their peers.

If you thought Locrian was dark, you haven't heard Ural Umbo. This is brutal nightmarish music that draws on soundtrack, industrial, black metal, doom, drone and krautrock that ends up being the most dynamic and unique sounding collection of sounds that I have heard in the whole "dark experimental" genre. While Mäder is playing with a wide swath of instrumentation that resembles a small orchestra, Hess' massive sounding drums blows it all up with a sense of heated urgency. Even when things aren't smashing and crashing all around you, the sound is tense and creepy, like the best horror soundtrack never made for a film. I'm not saying that an album called "Delusion Of Hope" will give you any comfort in the dead of winter, but it will put you on edge like the protagonist fighting for his or her life against unknown evil in a horror movie, and that may be exactly what you need to beat back the lethargy that accompanies the dark days ahead, or you could just listen to this and succumb to the darkness altogether. Either way, you need this.

"Self Fulfilling Prophecy"

#5 LEVIATHAN - True Traitor, True Whorrer (Profound Lore)

Leviathan, a/k/a Wrest, a/k/a Jef Whitehead is accused of doing some bad shit. I'm not going to go into it here, since a simple google search will produce all the salient details. I will only say this, while I am certainly hoping that he has been falsely accused, whether or not he committed the crime has little bearing on my ability to enjoy his music. Some people struggle ad nauseum about whether or not you can separate the artist from the art, and whether or not that means the art should be thrown out if the artist is a particularly deplorable person. I am not one of those people. A lot of that probably has to do with my day job as a criminal defense attorney. I've seen a lot of people do a lot of really bad shit, much worse than Whitehead is accused of, and at the same time I have never met a monster. I've only met people who have done some abhorrent things in their lives, stuff that under different circumstances, we would all be capable of, if we are honest with ourselves. Yes, some of them are more, or less, scum, but not a one of them haven't been human to some degree, and humans capable of destruction are also sometimes capable of creating great art. Therefore, the personality or actions of the artists doesn't really ruin the art for me. Burzum is a piece of shit, but his music is some of the greatest of the last 20 years, and I'll continue to buy and enjoy his records as quickly as he can produce them. On a smaller scale, rumor has it that the best new band of the last three years is comprised of a couple of real assholes (and one decent guy), but so what? I'm not looking to be friends with them, I just want to hear their music.

So I went into "True Traitor, True Whorrer" with no real prejudices, but the personal life of Whitehead was impossible to escape when listening to this record. Recorded after Whitehead was released on bond from jail, the album is clearly a response to the charges against him and the person who brought them. It is also the portrait of a human being at the bottom of their existence. Wrest may rip on them now, but at one time his recordings had all the structure and linear power of Wolves In The Throne Room. Such is not the case here. "True Traitor, True Whorrer" is an absolute sonic mess. Oddly, this is the first ever Leviathan album produced in a studio. Producer extraordinaire Sanford Parker is responsible for sound, and given his track record of producing some of the crispest and clearest metal records of the last couple of years, it can only be assumed that this atrocity exhibition are what both Parker and Whitehead were aiming for, and certainly given the subject matter it makes sense. This is a document of a man turned inside out, of a living nightmare that won't end. Parker literally turns these songs inside out until they are a grotesque stew of primal blind rage. As a result, everything is buried beneath the bubbling fiery surface of these tracks, which sound like an animal that is either wounded or psychotic, or maybe both. This is not an easy listen, or one that I completely love, nor is it anywhere near Wrest's best work, but it is a singular unflinching piece of art. Arguably it is also one of the most challenging and confrontational pieces of art in any medium in some time, yet all the same, deep within it's hellscape is a living breathing human being that is clawing to escape from his confines. Whether that hell is of his own making, or one to which he has been unjustly imprisoned to by another remains to be seen, either way "True Traitor, True Whorrer" is a singular and unique monument to the darkest realms of human existence.

"Blood Red and True"

#6 KURT VILE - So Outta Reach (Matador)

Kurt Vile didn't need to produce an all killer, no filler ep this year, but he did. In fact he produced an ep so spectacular that - for me at least - it threatens to overshadow his excellent "Smoke Ring For My Halo" album. This is Vile at his heaviest sounding. It's basically a collection of tracks for those who were blown away by his best Elliott Smith impression on "Halo's" "Runner Ups," and needed more of that sort of thing. Backed up by the heft of the Violators throughout, the record is the least delicate, and most fully realized Vile release to date, in terms of instrumentation.

Vile has already established himself well enough, but "So Outta Reach" just sort of seals the deal. If you haven't heard Vile yet, then you are missing one of the truly spectacular musicians of the last few years, and one of the few that stands to become a lasting presence. When you realize that he has only been producing records for three years and that he has already amassed a collection of releases of such incredibly high caliber, as in the kind that legends are made of, it's all kind of mind blowing. Each record finds Vile progressing, and "So Outta Reach" is my favorite step forward thus far, and while one can't help to be excited to hear what Vile produces next, this perfect collection of songs should warm a lot of living rooms this winter.

"The Creature"

#7 YOUTH LAGOON - The Year Of Hibernation (Fat Possum/Lefse)

I've been particularly disappointed by most indie "rock" offerings this year, and was completely ready to throw this one on the ash pile just based on the Pitchfork buzz it was getting. But something happened on the way to me dismissing it, which is that it is actually a pretty great little record. Quiet understated melodies and emotive vocals creep up you and by midway through the album you'll find yourself completely won over by the record's effortless power and beauty.

The album's songs operate like dioramas, slowly but surely drawing you in until you find yourself wanting to live inside of Youth Lagoon's small-scale epics. It's cozy and comfortable in there, and for the time it takes this magical record to play itself out, the outside world shrinks to a point of inconsequentiality. It's that perfect Sunday morning record where everything is slowed, subtle and hopeful. It's also exactly the kind of record you're going to need when the dark gets too dark during the winter season.

"Montana"

#8 BJORK - Biophilia (One Little Indian/Polydor)

"Biophilia" is not a perfect record, nor is it anywhere near Bjork's best, but it is endlessly compelling nevertheless. Much like Radiohead, Bjork long ago quite caring about making crowd pleasing records, and gave herself over to her muse, wherever that took her. "Biophilia" finds Bjork at her most minimal. Songs often are comprised of one or two instruments and effects and either meander or mesmerize depending on your predisposition toward experimental music.

Yet even as a fan of experimental music, the songs that stick out the most are the record's more dynamic pieces like "Crystalline," which sounds like Bjork is fronting Aphex Twin at his peak. Most of the album, though, rewards over repeated close listens. Tracks like "Moon" and "Solstice" may not be immediate, but they expose their beauty over time. "Biophilia" may not please on the first listen, but once you know what you are in for, it will give the listener a lot to explore on a cold winter day when all life seems to have stopped dead in it's tracks.

"Moon"

#9 BARN OWL - Lost In The Glare (Thrill Jockey)

Everyone's favorite experimental folk doom guitar duo return with their fourth full-length. Following in the wake of their spectacular and majestic Popol Vuh-like "Shadowland," the duo of Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras sound restless and energized throughout "Lost In The Glare." The addition of more drums and percussion throughout helps ratchet up the tension, making for a beefier sound that colors even the tracks that don't feature smashing cymbals and plodding dirge beats. As a result, there is a consistent heaviness here that makes for a more menacing album than anything these guys have done before, which is saying something. All in all this is Barn Owl's most dynamic record to date.

To that end, there is also a healthy injection of middle-eastern and Persian-influenced guitar work that characterizes the record. While drone has always played an important part in Barn Owl's music, those moments of static cosmic bliss are fewer here, instead strings interplay with organs in a dance of desert mysticism that finds transcendence through communal motion rather than solitary meditation. As a result, the record exudes a heat and sensuality that I would have never attributed to Barn Owl before. It's a perfect record for keeping things warm inside, even as winter's winds threaten to batter down your door.

"Turiya"

Barn Owl - Turiya from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

#10 ZOLA JESUS - Conatus (Sacred Bones)

Zola Jesus, a/k/a Nika Roza Danilova, returns after a series of well received eps with her third full length record "Conatus." The album finds Danilova maintaining the cleaner production apparent on the "Stridulum" and "Valusia" eps, but the overall feel is as dark and gothic and her earlier work. Upon hearing "Valusia," in particular, I was concerned that Danilova was not only leaving behind her lo-fi beginnings, but also shunning the darkness for light. Thankfully, those concerns were unfounded. Instead, she has focused her attention on more complex and experimental song structures. Many pieces start out skeletal and end up as multi-layered anthems of love and loss.

Of course, the real star of the proceedings is Danilova's voice, which is the strongest in contemporary music. As a result, musical accompaniment is almost secondary, but here, as on "Stridulum," the music is often as compelling as it is complementary to the Voice. The record's mixture of 80's industrial dance and art rock is the perfect vehicle for Danilova, giving "Conatus" the feeling of the familiar while maintaining enough edge to satisfy fans of her earlier work. As winter approaches, "Conatus" is feeling more and more like an essential release; a perfect record for the cold dark days ahead.

"Vessel"

LOCRIAN - The Clearing (Fan Death Records)

Locrain are at the top of the dark experimental music heap these days. Although their songs lack traditional form and structure, there a visceral quality to their music that recalls some of the most potent and powerful metal and post-rock. Last year's stunning genre-smashing "The Crystal World" made Locrian the band to pay attention to, while raising the bar for everyone else. Since then, they have produced a collaborative LP and single with the like-minded Horseback and the "Dort Ist Der Weg b/w Frozen in Ash" 7", which, for my money, is one of the best releases in any format this year. So to say that "The Clearing" was one of this year's most anticipated releases for me is a bit of an understatement. Even without hearing the whole thing, this was already a must have album among discerning music fans. Naturally, "The Clearing" not only lives up to expectations, but exceeds them to an extreme.

As amazing as "The Crystal World" was, the addition of drummer Steven Hess sounded at times like a guest player. A superb guest player, no doubt, but someone who seemed to be brought in to flesh out the sound of the album. Since that record, though, the trio of Hess, André Foisy and Terence Hannum have clearly coalesced as a group. "The Clearing" is their first long-form statement as the incredibly balanced band that they have become. Each member is essential here, and the success of the album's sound can be traced to the ability of each member to play off of each other. That fact is no more apparent than on opener "Chalk Point." The track, which sounds like the liturgy to a secret rite, finds the band at their doomiest, with Hess playing stately drums, Foisy offering up consistently scorching guitar, and Hannum's keyboards simultaneously stimulating while providing a tragic backdrop to the whole affair. Each player interlocks with the other to create a mood that captivates the listener with images of woods, black robes and bonfires where unspeakable things happen.

As awesome as "Chalk Point" is, it barely prepares the listener for "Augury in an Evaporating Tower." I'm not sure what the title means (other than it has something to do with the art of divination...in an evaporating tower), but I can promise you that it is intense as hell. This piece would come in at the climax in any awesome film, and it is surprising that anything else can follow it, but the ponderous and meditative "Coprolite" does so quite nicely. Foisy's melancholic acoustic guitar plays over Hannum's effects and Hess' thoughtful accents to make for what is oddly one of the most effective songs the band has produced. There is such a powerfully mournful feel to the piece that it cuts to the core of the listener in a way that precious little music does these days.

To close the album out, the band produces a nearly eighteen minute title track, which draws down everything that has come before into a singular pinpoint. The piece starts out somewhat reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's legendary soundtrack to "The Thing" before desperate screams pierce the soundfield and give way to a cavernous denouement. Over the next twelve minutes the band heaps effect on top of effect, instrument on top of instrument, to craft a cumulative and crushing drone that results in a blasted finale to what is a perfect record.

What is so stunning about "The Clearing" is how diverse the album is overall, even as it all sounds a part of a whole. The band explores a variety of approaches throughout, each successfully casting a consistent mood that leaves the listener feeling like they have taken a singular journey by record's end. If "The Crystal World" announced the presence of Locrian as the band to pay attention to, "The Clearing" solidifies their position as a powerhouse. Locrian is THE band that matters right now, and if you didn't know that already, "The Clearing" makes damn sure you do.

DUM DUM GIRLS - Only In Dream (Sub Pop)

It's a sad irony that often great and beautiful art grows out of tragedy. Whether it be horrific world events, or individual struggle and loss, artists of note often express their sorrow and quest for catharsis through their art. What usually emerges is a work stripped of pretense and artifice featuring the artist's raw naked soul. Such emotional nudity is easy to discern when the work arises out of an art form that is characterized by melancholia or anger to begin with. Leviathan is getting a lot of press currently for his work "True Traitor, True Whore," because of it's emotional starkness, but really when isn't Leviathan emotionally stark? His brand of black metal is inherently raw. What happens instead when tragedy strikes an artist who channels in poppy girl-group punk? Do they turn in a bleak, downtuned album that breaks with what they know or do they continue on with their patented sound? If you are the Dum Dum Girls, you double down on what you do best and go for broke, as evident on the expansive and exuberant "Only In Dreams."

Last year front-woman Dee Dee's otherwise healthy mother, whose image appeared on the cover of the band's superb "I Will Be," was diagnosed with a series of brain tumors that quickly took her life. Many of the lyrics on "Only In Dreams" center around Dee Dee's reaction to her loss, even as the band lays down some of the cleanest and most accessible music of their career. As a result, what emerges is a collection of incredibly pristine and shiny garage-pop songs whose sunny facade cannot hide the heart-wrenching purity of the emotional turmoil that lie at their core.

Sonically the band eschews their former lo-fi sound for the hi-pro glow that marked the "He Gets Me High" ep. While some old-time fans may be turned off initially by the far more professional sound of "Only In Dreams," Dee Dee's songwriting has always been the Dum Dum Girls' real strength, regardless of what fidelity it is recorded in. Opener "Always Looking" resembles the serrated pop of the band's previous work, it just sounds grander. Yet, there is a move here away from the band's previous tough as nails approach and toward a more classic 60s girl-group sound, as is evident on tracks like "Bedroom Eyes," "In My Head," and "Heartbeat (Take It Away)." Each song is equipped with simple sing-along verses and soaring bridges and chorus that sound not a day older than 1965.

The band saves their best work for the album's second half. The Mazzy Star-like "Coming Down" showcases Dee's amazing vocals while the band provides a gorgeous and spacious backdrop. The record closes out with three back to back tracks that clearly center around the death of Dee Dee's mother. "Wasted Away" is an urgent garage-tinged number that finds Dee chasing her mother in dreams as she fades in real life. "Teardrops On My Pillow" follows, and may be the best track on the record. It begins as urgent as "Wasted Away" as Dee details her anguished emotions, but then the track suddenly comes to a halt and a simple guitar and drum back her as she sings "all that's left is teardrops on my pillow." Lyrically it's an incredibly sad number, but Dee Dee's voice is as strong and determined as ever and one cannot help but be moved by how powerful she sounds in the face of such personal tragedy. "Hold Your Hand" closes the record with a wearier sounding Dee as she sings "I wish it wasn't true, but there's nothing l can do, except hold your hand until the very end." Musically, the track sounds like a 60's girl-group love song, which is fitting given the great love between child and parent evident throughout "Only In Dreams." The track ends suddenly with a simple drum beat, leaving the listener alone in a sea of devastating emotions. It's not exactly what you would expect from what is basically a pop album, but this isn't your average pop record, even by indie rock standards. This is heartfelt and powerful stuff that will bring tears to your eyes if you let it, even as you are humming the songs' addictive melodies and tapping out their beats.

"Bedroom Eyes"


"Coming Down"