[SYRFox]

Hey there,
as you could guess here comes my top 30 of the year.
I've written a short description for each disc so that if you don't know it, you can know if you're likely to enjoy it or not - but they were first written in french and then translated to english so they might include a few translation errors, I don't know. Anyway, here it is. Hope you'll enjoy

30. Experimental Aircraft - Third Transmission: Though the second part kind of drags it down, Experimental Aircraft's still able to catch me for an hour of aerial shoegaze. A few tracks are especially amazing (Upper East Side, With A Gun), and the production is awesome.

29. Pivot - O Soundtrack My Heart: Even if some sounds are probably the most kitsch you'll hear this year, and some things are really forgettable, Warp's brand new sensation has enough interesting elements, making this album, between math rock, post rock and experimental music, clearly good - and especially the fantastic succession of Didn't I Furious, Epsilon and Nothing Hurts Machine

28. railcars - Cities Vs. Submarines EP: In only ten minutes and five tracks, Aria C Jalali's project gets us into its universe, between vocals reminding me of Xiu Xiu (which is understandable, as the EP recorded and produced by Jamie Stewart himself) and lo-fi, electronic programmations and nice melodies, full of details, both melodic and disconstructed.

27. Tickley Feather - Tickley Feather: Thirty minutes of childish synth sounds, basic structures, simple melodies, with no production and a lo-fi recording, kind of an USB MP3 dictaphone. Yet Annie Sachs knows how to pack this album with little pearls of simplicity, catchy and beautiful (The Python).

26. Sonic Youth, Merzbow & Mats Gustafsson - SYR8: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth: Like the last SYR discs, this eighth volume is made of an hour of noisy and experimental ambiances, somewhere between noise, free jazz and experimental rock. And if this SYR8 is the noisiest of the series (Merzbow's touch I guess), it's as immersive as the others, and it's really a pleasure to drown in that harsh sonic flow.

25. Blood On The Wall - Liferz: Eleven tracks of dirty and distorded rock, powerfull and catchy. It's basic, and often stupid (Acid Fight), but still incredibly enjoyable. And a few tracks in particular are some of the best rock tracks of those last years: from Sorry Sorry Sarah to Liferz, you'll listen this album without feeling the time passing away.

24. Cheveu - Cheveu: Lo-fi and electronic post-punk coming from France, including ravaging riffs and high-volted vocals, hypnotic synths and crazy beatboxes. Eleven songs of no mercy, from the furious Dog to the hypnotic Superhero, raging and bitter, and very well-written.

23. The Hospitals - Hairdryer Peace: Those three persons love distorsion, and let us know. Their skeleton-like and atonal songs are always treated with a lo-fi layer of chirurgical distorsion (quite normal for Hospitals). But they're still songs and, if the first listens are difficult, you'll soon become addicted to the band's compositions, somewhere between garage punk, noise rock, harsh post-punk, etc.

22. Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling: Post-rock pionners are back with a controverses album. It may seem boring, but that Hawk Is Howling is in my opinion one of the band's best albums, packed with an omnipresent melancholy, all along its ten tracks. It's the exact opposite of the terrible cover art: beautiful and touching.

21. These Are Powers - Taro Tarot EP: Yes, it's quite classical noise rock. But this trio (including Pat Noecker - ex-Liars, member of n0 things) sure knows how to write catchy songs, so it would be sad to stay on that classification. From the trippy Cockles to the tellurics Chipping Ice and Peel Some Off, that EP is full of great ideas and is really promising for the band's second album, in 2009

20. Truckasauras - Tea Parties, Guns & Valor: At first you could expect a 80's video game nostalgic delirium, but it clearly ain't it. This album, based on Gameboy, Commodore 64, etc, sounds, is actually an excellent electro disc, including dancable (the hit Fak!!!) and chill-out (Up, Up, Down, Down, L, R, L, R) parts. And there's even a cover of Airwolf/Super Copter 's theme, and just for daring doing this, congratulations.

19. Wavves - Wavves: If The Hospitals and No Age melted, it could probably do something like Nathan Williams, sole member of Wavves: a lot more melodic than the formers, really noisier than the latters, Wavves' music has this catchyness which seriously gives you the need to shake your head in rhythm.

18. High Places - High Places: 30 minutes of electronic pop, nocturnal and trippy, with tribal sounds and ethereal vocals. But unlike most contemporary indie-pop bands, those new yorkers haven't forgotten to write songs despite of the hype, and offer us ten great and luminous compositions.

17. Excepter - Debt Dept: The arty experimental electro combo comes back, after the good Alternation, with a really good album, with post-punk influences, full of huge bass lines (Burgers), and lyrics that are spoken, shouted or repeated infinitely so that you can understand them fully (Kill People!). By the way, the band now contains two new female singers and modify their voices a lot - and in particular, in high-pitched tones. In short: Excepter is more accessible but still messy. And it's excellent.

16. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton: Coming right from Los Angeles' scene, Abe Vigoda open with Skeleton their "tropical punk" to a poppier and lighter sound, yet kind of crazy: the band's gorgeous melodies are constantly affected by structures' changing, imprevisible explosions, dissonances... This Skeleton and all its gems deserve all your attention.