Altered Zones

Clive Tanaka says: 
In the mountain parts of Japan, there is a legend that when people perish in the snow, they come to revisit us as Yuki Onna, or Snow Ghost. So when the weather is harsh, I wait up for those of my family who have left and wait for Yuki Onna. Many believe that Yuki Onna is ominous, but I do not think she is. Plus, I always keep warm with some nice hot saki or Japanese scotch! This mix of music is specially designed to attract her, keep her entertained, and then lull her to sleep.

As 2010 draws to an close, Altered Zones brings you its collective year-end recap. Today, we list our favorite albums of the year. Check our list of tracks here, our list of videos there, and don't forget to stay tuned through the holiday break for daily year-end mixtapes from our favorite artists.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Before Today [4AD]

MP3: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Fright Night (Nevermore)"

When attempting to blurb Ariel Pink's ambitious masterpiece Before Today for my own year-end list, it occurred to me that literally every dialogue about this record and its brilliant, transcendent pop songs had been exhausted elsewhere: Ariel emerges from his bedroom, abandons lo-fi, records in a real studio with real musicians for a real label, drops his breakout record, some irrelevant shit about chillwave, etc. So I enlisted the opinion of chillwave inventor Carles of popular weblog Hipster Runoff fame, a longtime Ariel Pink fan himself, who summed it up like this: “It seems as if perhaps the world has finally caught up with Ariel Rosenberg, and our ears are finally ready for his textures. Before Today is history, while the future is a mystery but today is a gift which belongs to Ariel Pink." --Chris Cantalini

Autre Ne Veut: Autre Ne Veut [Olde English Spelling Bee/Upstairs CDR]

MP3: Autre Ne Veut: "Two Days Of Rain"

Of the many R&B-nodding white guys making conceptual pop music this year, Autre Ne Veut's debut on Olde English Spelling Bee/Upstairs was one of few that had a completely unique spin. While HTDW had a darker, more pained take, ANV was minimal, clubby, filled with strange effects and unusual instrumentation. And, unlike HTDW, his live show was amazing, with him squirming on the floor and flailing his limbs like a wounded lamb. What that lamb proved was that Toni Braxton-loving white guys can have their cake and eat it too, and not in some W'burg 2006-era ironic way. This is the pop music everyone makes in their shower or in front of the mirror, only it's real. --Michael P. McGregor

Big Troubles: Worry [Olde English Spelling Bee]

MP3: Big Troubles: "Georgia"

Big Troubles' LP dreams finally came to fruition in the third quarter of 2010, when Olde English Spelling Bee released their debut full-length, Worry. The 14-track record bristles with buzzing grit and downright catchy vocal parts, penned by Big Troubles co-masterminds/songwriters Alex Craig and Ian Drennan. Their sound is often touted as a perfect marriage of searing shoe-gaze distortion and early '90s radio rock, but the sum of the descriptors proves greater than its parts. Big Troubles truly champion an exciting and relentlessly loud form of rock and roll. --Ian Nelson

Clive Tanaka y su orquesta: Jet Set Siempre 1° [Tall Corn]

MP3: Clive Tanaka y su orquesta: "All Night, All Right"

Clive Tanaka is a mysterious figure. Signs point to him being from Japan, Chicago, Brazil, and other far-flung locales, but no one's been able to pin him down yet. It's almost as if he's attemping to throw you off his path by giving false clues. But the international hook works: His Jet Set Siempre 1° tape melts down sounds from all over the globe into vintage synth bangers. How many people can make a robotic voice sound so damn passionate? In futuristic utopias, Clive Tanaka definitely owns the night. --Jheri Evans

Cloudland Canyon: Fin Eaves [Holy Mountain]

MP3: Cloudland Canyon: "Mothlight Pt.2"

Kip Ulhorn's euphoric plunge into synth-driven psych hides an underlying swell of sadness beneath its gauzy pop structures. With the addition of his wife Kelly to the fray, Ulhorn steers Cloudland Canyon away from its Krautrock roots and into a gloriously lush shoegaze present. The result is some of Cloudland Canyon’s catchiest songwriting yet, ensconced in shimmery pop foam and radiant noise, spiraling ever closer to bliss. --Andy French

Earl Sweatshirt: EARL [OFWFKTA]

MP3: Earl Sweatshirt: "EARL"

OFWGKTA: soon to become a household acronym striking fear into the hearts of parents nationwide. These adolescent Los Angeles natives don't just produce their own warped beats; they spit rhymes that even Ted Bundy would find kinda fucked up. Their now missing member, Earl Sweatshirt, isn't any less twisted than the rest of his crew; he's just able to make some of the most vile verses sound eloquent. On "Assmilk", a track from OFWG founder Tyler's Bastard LP, Earl calls himself the "reincarnation of '98 Eminem", a pronouncement that rings true in both content and delivery. His eponymous LP was self-released earlier this year, and the kid leaves no rock unturned. With themes ranging to threesomes with Pam Anderson and Miley Cyrus to stabbing cops and cannibalism, he's definitely not tackling your everyday high school problems. Unfortunately, his parents failed to see anything creative about this and shipped him off to boot camp (or so we think). Hopefully, he'll take this as a learning experience and come back even more ferocious than before. #freeEARL --Nathan Smith

Games: That We Can Play [Hippos In Tanks]

MP3: Games: "Planet Party"

It's interesting to watch our perception of the '80s evolve from a kitschy, "what was I thinking?" decade into an endearing, "those were the days" one. Once upon a time, the era was the butt of as many jokes as Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris combined. Despite flashbacks of gaudy clothing, nowadays the '80s would seem to have some lasting value after all. With their That We Can Play EP, the Brooklyn electronic duo of Joel Ford and OPN's Daniel Lopatin sums it up in a phantasmagoria of lithe synths, robotic melodies, and stiff drum-machine beats. Their songs bring back childhood memories of lying on the living room floor watching Airwolf and MacGyver, or wishing you had more Atari games to play. It's precisely this sort of nostalgia that makes for GAMES' best instrument. That We Can Play soundtracks our memories with sounds as familiar as they are fresh. --Will Abramson

Gatekeeper: Giza [Merok]

MP3: Gatekeeper: "Serpent"

Gatekeeper’s Giza EP is an immaculate sound wave designed to paralyse unexplored areas of the human psyche with fear and delight. "Look in the mirror", say Gatekeeper three times. The only valid boarding pass for this voyage is your soul, so please have it open and ready. Upon launch, "Serpent" burrows its way down to the spinal column, where it takes control of your body with an injection of Front 242 serum straight to the nervous system. The rest is a feverish hallucination of wild contortions and glimpses from horror films that were never made. This EP is literally a killer. --J

How To Dress Well: Love Remains [Lefse/Tri Angle]

MP3: How To Dress Well: "Walking This Dumb (Live)"

How To Dress Well has had an amazing year, and much of that centers around Love Remains. The songs are inspired by R&B from the late '80s and '90s , but they have a distinct bedroom sound that elevates their emotional resonance. The entire album holds together seamlessly, but each track stands just as strong on its own. Love Remains grabs you by the heartstrings and allows you to experience How To Dress Well's most impassioned emotions, and that's no small feat. --Jheri Evans

James Blake: CMYK [R&S]

MP3: James Blake: "Footnotes"

On this his third EP, released through legendary label R&S, London's unspeakably prolific James Blake came into the collective consciousness and established himself as one of the most forward-thinking, genre-defying, and exciting producer/songwriters of the year. Whilst all four songs on the release continue to hold their own, its status as landmark of the last 12 months is won by the title track's chopped, haunting R&B sample, and its seamless transition from a sparse and subtle, atmospheric arrangement to a heart exploding, sub-bass tour de force.  --Sahil Varma

Julian Lynch: Mare [Olde English Spelling Bee]

MP3: Julian Lynch: "Just Enough"

Sound-shaper Julian Lynch composed the low-key, non-traditional psychedelia of Mare in his home states of New Jersey and Wisconsin. With its eclectic instrumental palette, ranging from Eastern to Western and Native American spiritual, the LP boasts more influences than the ear can absorb in one sitting. Like lots of '60s and '70s psych-folk songs, Lynch's have a carefree and endearing yogic leisure about them. --Ryan Ellis

Mark McGuire: Living With Yourself [Editions Mego]

MP3: Mark McGuire: "Brain Storm (For Erin)"

Guitarist Mark McGuire is perhaps best known as one-third of Cleveland Kosmiche revivalists Emeralds, but he has released no less than 30 solo albums in his 23 years on Earth. His Living With Yourself LP on Editions Mego is not only one his most accessible works to date (read: physically available), but also his most technically accomplished. Across eight loop-based sound collages, McGuire whisks through a psychic landscape as vast and minutely textured as America seen from 10,000 feet above. But Living With Yourself is less an exploration of space than an excavation of time, setting McGuire’s processed guitar reveries alongside sound-fragments from the musician’s own childhood. Hard not to feel a little bit like a voyeur when we hear a five-year-old McGuire introducing himself as “Mark”, but who are we to say that pop music hasn’t always been the highest form of autobiography? --Emilie Friedlander

oOoOO: oOoOO EP [Tri Angle]

MP3: oOoOO: "Burnout Eyess"

"NoSummer4u", the track that put San Francisco-based bedroom recorder oOoOO on the map, is an enchanting, gothic-tinged synth-pop ballad, underpinned by foreboding atmospherics and a clinical, hip-hop-inflected beat. His debut self-titled EP presents a darker, more confused vision; oOoOO's skewed take on commercial electro-pop celebrates its decadent glamour while going out if its way to expose its rotten core. From the stuttering, fractured R&B wasteland of "Mumbai" to the barren faux-funk of "Hearts", oOoOO is a beautiful still of urban yearning and mindlessness captured through the stained glasses of a romantic outsider, a guttural fairy tale orchestrated by delayed vamps and diseased synth tones. --Noam Klar

Oneohtrix Point Never: Returnal [Editions Mego]

MP3: Oneohtrix Point Never: "Returnal"

Returnal sees psychedelic-drone linchpin Daniel Lopatin's amorphous, ambient landscapes mapped with more definition than ever before. Attached to OPN's ever-so-slightly rigid structures, the sad, far-out sprawl and bottomless celestial drip of "Drifts" render a consistently beautiful, frequently devastating effect. OPN draws sadness and redemption out of distinctly alien textures with the deftest of touches. --Jack Shankly

Rangers: Suburban Tours [Olde English Spelling Bee]

MP3: Rangers: "Deerfield Village"

Every time I put on the debut full-length from fellow former-DFW-suburb-dweller Rangers, I find myself moved by all the woozy, warped filmstrip vibes, inextricably tied to murky memories of a time and place in my youth. I think this is the kind of (possibly manufactured) nostalgia Nick Sylvester was talking about in his piece about Ariel Pink and hypnagogic pop, where he jokingly describes "half-sung melodies refracted through the quarter-remembered chopper blades of the opening sequence of Airwolf as I fell asleep in my basement." Okay, good point; but Suburban Tours emanates an affectingly real, often melancholic warmth that transcends any of these increasingly derogatory, of-the-moment genre tags.--Chris Cantalini

The Samps: The Samps [Mexican Summer]

MP3: The Samps: "Peppergood"

On their self-titled debut EP, Haunted Graffiti member/new Nite Jewel full-timer Cole MGN and his side-project the Samps take deconstructed, sample-based pop to a whole new level. Their chopped-and-flipped retro-futuristic electro-funk is never anything less than exhilarating, elevated as much by the crew's obvious affinity for pioneers like the Bomb Squad and Dilla as their desire to create "glorious compressed FM gold." The whole thing's a blast; more than anything else, this shit gets us psyched to see where the Samps and like-minded dudes like Games are going to take this steez next. --Chris Cantalini

Sun Araw: On Patrol [Not Not Fun]

MP3: Sun Araw: "BEAT COP"

On his fourth LP, Sun Araw, aka Cameron Stallones, delves deeper into the heavy-psych he's been maneuvering in for a few years. On Patrol was not only a manifesto, but a coming out party for this deepest of zoners. His work with Magic Lantern and releases on Not Not Fun and Woodsist have been extremely influential on kids tempering in mystic psych explosions. On Patrol, a 2xLP featuring some of the most vibe-encompassing album art I've seen in a long while (also by Stallones), is the culmination of the exotic psych-dub sound he has been chipping away at for ages-- one that is uniquely Sun Araw, while harking where the diesel rumblings are headed. --Michael P. McGregor

Ty Segall: Melted [Goner]

MP3: Ty Segall: "Girlfriend"

Whether you pump Dead Moon full of steroids or blast The Stooges through a megaphone, you'll probably get something equally as robust as Ty Segall's third album Melted. It's a throwback album, treading retro ground as far back as The Sonics, and taking a flame to the oil stains that dripped on the floors of garage rock for so many years. Simultaneously, Ty manages to ignite the same fire in the current, gaseous cloud of seemingly omnipotent, hazy, nostalgic rock. Melted is a step forward from the snarky days of his debut Lemons, with Ty letting go of the defiant angst he once harbored. He still keeps that punk rock sword in hand, but rather than flail around wildly, he dishes out calculated thrusts and slices. --Will Abramson

Yellow Swans: Going Places [Type]

MP3: Yellow Swans: "Limited Space"

The Portland drone duo of Peter Swanson and Gabriel Saloman recorded the majority of Going Places after deciding to part ways in 2008. With a backstory like that, it’s hard not to feel touched by these six wooly excursions into the void. Relying more on tape loops and field recordings than their previous efforts, Going Places piles fuzz, hiss, bells, and aborted melodic lines into mile-long vistas of undulating, overtone-speckled squall. It's as dense as a brillo-pad, as tender as a beating heart, and as devastating as the sound of a distant werewolf howling past the point of exhaustion. --Emilie Friedlander

Zola Jesus: Stridulum [Sacred Bones]

MP3: Zola Jesus: "Night"

Between Stridulum and Valusia and collaborations with LA Vampires and Former Ghosts, 2010 has been a busy year for Zola Jesus. She cast her biggest stride early in the year with Stridulum, a departure from '09's considerably lower-fidelity, "diamond in the rough" album, The Spoils. Stridulum paved the way for a clearer, more sonically refined and diverse Zola, exchanging 15 crunchy, overly saturated noise pop tracks for 6 fully developed, silky smooth synth pad and drum-machine driven songs. Zola's voice is undeniably among the most unique and arresting around. But it would fall flat if the atmosphere that fostered it weren't as lush and subtly nuanced as its counterpart. Swelling crescendos, doom, and gloom in all the right places. --Ric Leichtung

In the last several years, there's been an explosion of small-scale DIY music. Altered Zones is a team of 14 music blogs dedicated to exploring these emerging musical worlds, traversing genres from psych and drone to electronic and underground pop. Our mission is to highlight the most notable and adventurous new artists, and to serve as a focal point for the flood of creativity coming from deep within the music underground.

To launch the site, we've each chosen one favorite track, cassette, and album from the first half of this year. Yesterday, we opened with tracks. Today, we cover cassettes, and albums will run on Friday. Our regular posting schedule begins Monday. We hope you enjoy reading and listening.

Welcome to Altered Zones.

No UFO's: Soft Coast

20 Jazz Funk Greats says:
No UFO's Soft Coast first found its way to us back in April, cut up and edited together as snippets. Assembled into an album by May, it became a longer-form but equally channel-hopping glide through Chris and Cosey’s early-electronic loops, cosmic Legeti drifts, and Jamie Principal arpeggios-- and that’s in the space of about five minutes. The influences here are sewn together in the best possible tradition of mix tapes; you appreciate the connections as they’re replayed in a joyous, nebulous drift. This is music by one person trying to come to terms with his influences by making something frankly beautiful.

We also dig the Juan Atkins reference.

MP3: No UFOs: 00/00/2010

Soft Coast is out now on Nice Up Int'l and available at Mimaroglu

Grimes: Geidi Primes

Gorilla vs. Bear says:
With her debut cassette release, Montreal's Grimes has created a beautifully hypnotic and eerily inviting soundscape by drawing from such disparate genres as dubstep, wobbly lo-fi bedroom disco, and more straightforward '80s pop (see "Rosa"), all filtered through a strange, vaseline-smeared kaleidoscopic lens. Spooky coos and strangely familiar, half-realized melodies drift in and out from a distantly twinkling ether, as the tape plays out like a bent, no-budget dream collaboration between Kate Bush, Nite Jewel, and Paavoharju, as produced by the low-end theorists at Hyperdub.

MP3: Grimes: Rosa

Geidi Primes is sold out on Arbutus

Various Artists: Dark as Night

Weekly Tape Deck says:
Dark as Night is a mind-bending four-way split that Bathetic Records has now twice released upon the world. Each side of the cassette takes you on an ephemeral vision quest of magical proportions. Though the two tracks submitted by each band (oOoOO, SLEEP ∞ OVER, Terminal Twilight, S U R V I V E) run the gamut of soundscapes from haunted to angelic, they all blend into one ethereal sound. Reactions may range from nodding your head in enjoyment to a meeting with your spirit animal.

MP3: Terminal Twilight: The Fire of Love (Fire Mix)

MP3: oOoOO: NoShore

Dark as Night is sold out on Bathetic Records

Wild Safari / Cough Cool

Yours Truly says:
Although song titles like "History of Savannah" and "Flower Reading" exude a sense of late spring warmth, you can almost see your breath around this split cassette from Wild Safari and Cough Cool. There's lava burning at its core, though, like blood pumping faster in an attempt to fend off the bitter cold.  These tracks simmer beneath their surfaces, slowly building but never boiling over. Despite the cold it brings, this split cassette still keeps you warm enough to make it through any winter.

MP3: Wild Safari: History of Savannah

Wild Safari / Cough Cool split is out now on Leftist Nautical Antiques

Campfires: Burning Rivers, TV Flickers, Drifting Off to Bed

Visitation Rites says:
Stamped out before the three-minute mark, the songs on Campfires' debut cassette seem tailor-made to our impatient ears, so accustomed to clicking from one mp3 or YouTube video to the next.  As we chase fleeting moments of musical gratification, we Y-Generation listeners may actually be using the web to actively construct our own musical narratives. Campfires' Jeff Walls seems to anticipate this, minting eight fuzzed-out musical moments that pack a strong melodic punch and then stringing them together into a yarn of his own: "The songs all occur in one evening in a place that is [...] a lot like my hometown in southwestern Michigan." Walls' concept is foolproof: rather than click on to the next artist, we await the next plot twist.

MP3: Campfires: Tired Old Sun

Burning Rivers, TV Flickers, Drifting Off to Bed is nearly sold out on Leftist Nautical Antiques

Active Child: Sun Rooms

The Road Goes Ever On says:
Between the sparkling beauty of “Wilderness” and the pounding drums and resounding vocals of “When Your Love is Safe,” Active Child has a knack for dreamy hooks. The six tracks on his Sun Rooms cassette may at first seem slightly stiff, but they always reach out a soft, warm hand in the end, lifting you up and taking you home. Something about Pat Grossi’s ethereal voice atop all those mysteriously airy synths makes this a great tape to pop in when you’re driving into a brilliant sunset on a quiet, Sunday evening.

MP3: Active Child: When Your Love Is Safe

Sun Rooms is sold out on Mirror Universe

His Clancyness: Always Mist

Transparent says:
His Clancyness is Jonathan Clancy of Bologna, Italy via Ottawa, Canada. Always Mist, his first full-length release, is a tender, clean, and consoling collection of snug little dream-pop blankets to ball up in, marked by gliding harmonies into which Clancy injects his rich, wistful sigh. These are not songs that demand a great deal of insight. In fact, there's no need for understanding at all; the simple arrangements and heartbreak hooks bypass the nerd-centres, burrowing straight through the chest only to manifest themselves two minutes or so later as lumps in the throat and knots in the stomach.

MP3: His Clancyness: Ottawa Backfired Soon

Always Mist is out now on Mirror Universe (limited to 100)

Coma Cinema: Stoned Alone

Delicious Scopitone says:
Coma Cinema is the solo project of Mat Cothran of Columbia, South Carolina. Without a doubt, one of the most engaging personalities we've had the pleasure of coming across this year, Cothran's singular enthusiasm and sincerity radiates through every last note of Stoned Alone, his debut release. Falling somewhere between the writhing axe-work psychosis of Lou Barlow and the disarmingly delicate intensity of James Mercer of the Shins, songs like "Sucker Punch" or "Come On Apathy" are magnetic and moving to the point of being cleansing.

MP3: Coma Cinema: Come On Apathy

Stoned Alone is out now on Arcade Sounds Ltd and available for free download at comacinema.org

Dylan Ettinger: New Age Outlaws

Raven Sings the Blues says:
Syrupy synth projects seem to be falling down two avenues of late: either they douse themselves in the frosted pink nostalgia of 80s ski weekends and infomercial bed music, or take the scholarly high road to analog experimentation. But Dylan Ettinger is an outlier. He’s certainly not running down the Day-Glo path of banana-clipped past-gazing, but he might not possess the pedigree to hang with Analog Masters just yet. Instead, he’s captured the latter’s sense of wonder and applied it to a loose concept album of gritty crime drama and darkened noir corners. Definitely my favorite on the small spools this year.

MP3: Dylan Ettinger: Rico's Pawn Shop

New Age Outlaws is out now at Not Not Fun (limited to 500)

Tracey Trance: The Fountain

Chocolate Bobka says:
Slugs, beetles and worms mill about the surface of the Earth. Often the beetles will roam in a circular pattern, occasionally bumping into a termite or a fire ant as if bug life were a game of miniature bumper cars. The music of Tracey Trance-- and especially The Fountain-- combs the uneventful ether for these types of collisions. Cascading like a waterfall over endless cliffs, Tracey hits buttons and melodies that a trained musician could never replicate. Instead, his outer-worldly melodies seem more natural, as if sparked by collaboration between a plastic woodwind acolyte and a manic Geppetto with a knack for the squeeze box.

MP3: Tracey Trance: Fountain 1

The Fountain is out now on Night People

Twins / Luke Perry: Guts

Rose Quartz says:
For all the Peace Agers mining 90210 nostalgia, these two East Coasters add the most electro zest to that hyperreal televised romanticism. Twins and Luke Perry's brand of day-glo is about as close to a VHS Supersoaker commercial as it gets; "bodacious" is about right for this ultra "Californian"-sounding sample-heavy pop, highlighted by trebly guitar wailage that sounds perfect on tape via your worst boombox. These bouncy hits may be scratchy and lo-fi, but they still fit great alongside hazy electro acts like Blondes and schizoids like The Samps.

MP3: Twins / Luke Perry: Malibu Body Crew

Guts split is out now on Peace Age

Dem Hunger: Caveman Smack

Friendship Bracelet says:
I've been nothing short of addicted to the work of Dem Hunger since first coming across his free download Heavy Spinach in the first half of last year. His first physical release, Caveman Smack, has only further intensified my obsession-- a sonic patchwork of spaced-out dub, beats that snap as heavy as any other on the planet, and eerie, mind-frying vinyl samples. Scenes skip as you try to keep up, but keeping up simply isn't an option. Time flies and you're left stunned.

MP3: Dem Hunger: DEM5master

Caveman Smack is out now on Leaving Records

Clive Tanaka y su orquesta: Jet Set Siempre No. 1

Get Off the Coast says:
Jet Set Siempre No. 1 has two personalities: Side A is labeled "For Dance" and Side B as "For Romance." From the opening notes of the A-side, you're immediately caught in a groove that entraps you until the tape is tightly wound around its second spool. While the B-side retains the rhythm, its added sense of enchantment ensures your moves connect with the eyes you're trying to attract. With Jet Set Siempre No. 1, Clive Tanaka y su orquesta have created one of the best electronic jammers I've heard in a long time. The only downside is that I'll probably wear out the cassette before summer ends.

MP3: Clive Tanaka y su orquesta: I Want You (So Bad)

Jet Set Siempre No. 1 is available now at clivetanaka.jp

Cruisin': What Is Quality?/Cruising in the Year F-Zero

Don't Die Wondering says:
Cruisin' is the latest analogue adventure from the ever-quirky Peace Age conglomerate, designated to be meekly laid down as a sacrifice before the volatile drug gods. What Is Quality? brings together the collective talents of Twins (Matt Weiner), Luke Perry (Ryan Howe), CH-ROM (Charlie Lanning), E-Tip (Elise Tippins) and Alex500 (Alex Morrison), which I imagine translates into a sweaty room centered around a heap of dusty electronics which are then subjected to forms of torture the manufacturer would not approve of. The resulting 20 minutes feel like a car ride through the changing scenery of one’s psyche, peering passively out the backseat window to find sights alternately pastoral, menacing, strange, and lovely, and sometimes just focusing on your own reflection peering passively back.

MP3: Cruisin': Default Magic

What Is Quality? is out now on Peace Age