Alpine - Hands (Goldroom Remix)
This remix is head and shoulders above the original. What was once a soft, lush indie darling is now a pumping, electronic body-mover. It's amazing the change a song can go through with a different chord progression.
"It's ok to feel the rain on my hands, my love, my enemy"

Michael Kiwanuka - Tell me a Tale
The return of Mr. Otis Redding? Maybe I'm too in love with Michael Kiwanuka, but to hear modern soul this good warms the cockles of my heart. The album is a great journey.
"Turn me around so I can be, everything I was meant to be"

Electric Guest - Awake
The hook, good lord. Electric Guest channels their inner Mamas and Papas with a stellar harmonized chorus with out-of-left-field chord changes.
"The truth is that I never shook my shadow, every day it's trying to trick me into doing battle"

Paper Tiger - The Bully Plank
A great piano and drums groove up to the 1:11 mark, where... the same piano line plays backwards? Awesome. And the out of the blue vocal line just kills it.
"The man I used to be: don't know why I loved you"

Kamp! - Cairo
After those first 45 seconds, when that heavy synth groove kicks in... it gets me every time. I've scoured the internet for more Kamp! but 3 songs is all I've found. All three, though, have been as impressive as this.
"I'm the sand leaking through your hands, until you're here"

Without Further Adieu...

St. Lucia - We Got it Wrong
Six tracks of glorious synth-heavy indie gold is what comprises my favorite EP of the year: St. Lucia's self-titled first release. When that heavy, dancey synth break comes in, the only thing I can't do is stand still.
"We shake illusions of trust, we gotta know your heart"

Chairlift - Amanaemonesia
This song is bizarre... but I just can't stop listening to it (despite the fact that I still don't know how to spell amanamoneaniemsiansia). The video for this is something you can't miss: A unitard-clad interpretive dance karaoke. Be sure to check it out.
"Becoming a habit? Chasing the rabbit. Is it amnesia?"

Alexander - Truth
Maybe Ernio Marricone's 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' soundtrack has scarred me, but when I listen to this, I see nothing but dusty, horse-trod trails that lead to whisky bars. This is phenomenal indie magic.
"The truth is that I never shook my shadow, every day it's trying to trick me into doing battle"

The War on Drugs - Baby Missiles
This sounds like the latest single from Men Without Hats: the sing-talking-warble of questionable pitch lives on... and how! Fantastic 80's rock that has a frenetic, urgent vibe that can't be ignored.
"Just the sound of the northeast. Because I don't mind when all the pioneers go soft on me"

Pharaohe Monche - Still Standing
Any rapper who boasts of his non-gangsta ways immediately makes me perk up my ears. Pharaohe Monch's 'Still Standing' is an epic creation. Nevermind the massive horns and strings, it's the ascending guitar line from 0:56 to 1:15 that speaks volumes to how well this track is produced.
"I have no dead bodies to claim, never been a trigger man. Crack? Never peddled that, opposite of Jigga man"

Have at you, new year!

The Naked and Famous - Young Blood

It's the middle of winter, and Vancouver has been cold, and rainy day in and day out. That's why you should play this song .really. loudly and let these sweet sunshiny synths wash your blues away. Pretty sure this is what MGMT would sound like if they had a female vocalist.

Pastor T.L. Barrett And The Youth For Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)

To listen to this properly: 1) Put on headphones. 2) Turn it up loud. 3) Let the twin tambourine attack rock your world as Pastor T.L. Barrett preaches the good word. Beautiful. This may have been released in 1971, but it's as good today as it was then.

The Ruffled Feathers - Home

Honest-to-goodness goodness straight from Vancouver. From the newly released Lost Cities EP, Home's sing-a-long chorus, trumpet solos, and syncopated beats do nothing but send out good vibes. There's talk of a full-length album coming soon, so stay tuned!

Dirty Gold - California Sunrise

This is my go-to Sunday morning wake up music. Despite the busy drums, it has such a relaxed, almost lazy feel to it, especially with the airy vocals and minimalist instrumentation.

Twin Shadow - Castles In The Snow

This is the first single from the Dominican Republic's George Lewis Jr., AKA Twin Shadow dark and moody debut disc. Produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, it has an atmosphere eerily reminiscent of the aforementioned's Veckatimest. The full album just works wonders.

Strange Talk - Eskimo Boy

Naming your band 'Strange Talk' is pretty fitting if some of the lyrics in your song go "ooohhh like a jigsaw... It's just another word for an eskimo." Regardless of their comprehension of the English language, they write some damn fine electro-pop.

The Wailing Wall - Bones Become Rainbows

With the background of sitars, tablas, xylophones, tambourines and handclaps this song just feels so good. Add on top of that the vocals reminiscent of the Tallest Man on Earth, or the Cave Singers, and baby, you've got a stew goin'.

Blood Group - My Arms

Blood Group is the Icelandic equivalent to a combination of The XX, and The Knife: dark, strange, electronic, awesome. Their sophomore disc Dry Land has plenty of great moments, especially this slow building track, their first single, My Arms.

The Head and the Heart - Sounds like Hallelujah

A simple boy-and-his-guitar intro quickly shifts into an almost entirely different song at the 1 minute mark as the drums, violin and piano kick in. This Seattle group switches it up again, less than a minute later, as the rousing chorus of "Sounds like Hallelujah" kicks in, complete with handclaps, and great harmonies. A great debut EP.

FM Belfast - Synthia

How awesome of a song can you write when you make the song 90% staccato synth? This awesome. The sparseness of it really makes it jump, accentuating the great beat. With reverse echo's coming straight from the 80's, this FM Belfast track is was introduced to me courtesy of a co-worker.

Playing Catch-up

To start things off for proper, I'm going to brush the dust off a couple of tracks that have just rocked my socks this year.  From a white-bread disco-funk song about a chess match, to a guy rapping about his bling bling (in this case, his 1986 Volvo), all the way down the line to a Fleet Foxes-esque Vancouver group harmonizing their way through a spell of bad weather.

Gordon Voidwell - Ivy League Circus
This gem of synthed out electro-funk from the Bronx by Gordon Voidwell is tough to beat. His racially-charged humor continues to inspire songs with such titles as "Black Kids," and "White Friends." This toe-tapper does a great job of poking fun at white privileged ivy league students while encouraging you to put on your dancing shoes.

Ra Ra Riot - Too Dramatic
With their sophomore disc "The Orchard,"  Ra Ra Riot doesn't disappoint.  The pop-rock group out of Syracuse are backed by a cello and violin which consistently add a unique twist to their sound.

David's Lyre - Heartbeat
What starts out as a sweet, quiet tune with simple plucked strings and vocals, quickly becomes almost frenetic with a drumbeat that helps give a feeling of apprehension and a sense of purpose to the repeated line "this heart won't beat forever."

Yukon Blonde - Wind Blows
It's immediately apparent who the influences for this Vancouver indie-rock group are.  With vocal harmonies, and pop hooks reminiscent of West coast artists like Fleet Foxes, and Said the Whale, Yukon Blonde is a joy to listen to.  Their refrain of "listen to the wind blow, can you hear the rain drops outside of your window" gives such fitting imagery to the multi-layered storm that hits at the 3:20 mark.

The Bloodsugars - Light at the End of the Tunnel
Pure indie pop at its finest from a four-piece out of Brooklyn. The ebb and flow of this song really gets me with lots of break downs, build ups, single instrument sections, and multi-layered choruses.  Despite the possibilities of optimism you may glean from the title, "Light at the End of the Tunnel " retains an overall theme of anguish, and heavy hearts.

Chilly Gonzales - You Can Dance
Any song that has the words 'dance' in the title, starts off with a robot voice, and is about chess is immediately in my good books.  Canadian piano virtuoso, Chilly Gonzales, supplies the soundtrack to "Ivory Tower," a film about an epic chess battle between Tiga, and Gonzales himself.  Hand claps, huge choruses, and breakdowns ensue.

Grynch - My Volvo
The practice of covering yourself and your dog in diamonds is a theme that is much too frequent in main-stream rap these days.  That's why Grynch's "My Volvo" is a refreshing twist:  a solid hip-hop track about a guy and his beloved 1986 Volvo.  "You want to hear about my Bentley?  I'll probably never get one."

Dog is Dead - Glockenspiel Song.mp3
The huge, triumphant opening vocal section of this song just sells it immediately.  The syncopated rhythms from the band stand opposite of the sweeping melodies of the vocal lines.  This Nottingham group describe themselves as "Louis Armstrong lost in disco."  Well, you can draw your own conclusions on that one.

Gin Wigmore - Too Late for Lovers
Without New Zealand's Gin Wigmore and her fantastic vocals, this track could easily dissolve into a campy, cheesy love song, complete with backing strings.  However, her Amy Winehouse-esque voice gives it an entirely new feel, making it more sincere, and letting you forget about the fact you're listening to a pretty traditional love song.

The Acorn - Restoration
With no discernible chorus, 'Restoration' is a great piece of songwriting that goes against the grain of traditional song structure. The entire 3+ minute running of this song is one steady build up of increasing intensity, culminating in a celebratory last verse.

Time for toe tapping.

Music has always been a huge part of my life.  Growing up with a dad who is a professional musician has some great perks:  From access to his great record collection, to sitting in the orchestra pit for almost every musical that passed through Vancouver, to always having instruments around so I could make some noise. Nowadays, that love for music has transformed itself into a near obsessive compulsive desire to seek out new music, and to listen to as much as I can. ( The lowest number of playcounts on my 7000+ music library is 4!).
The form that the most influential music to me has taken has shifted over the years, but there was always an underlying theme. This theme, however, was one that I wasn't even aware of, or at least didn't notice, until a couple of years ago.
My first independent musical choice was progressive rock:  Dream Theater, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Genesis...  I was drawn to it for two main reasons:  their sheer talent for creating musically rich, yet technically crazy songs, and also their ability to throw out the traditional ABABCB song structure, to somehow make it unique. 

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Miles Beyond
Yes - Siberian Khatru

My next big influence, I discovered by accident.  Waaaay back, a friend made me a CD which had the track "The Magnificent Tree" by Hooverphonic on it.  They sampled this amazing acoustic guitar loop that just hooked me. My dad overheard me playing the track one day, and said he recognized the loop, so we put the song on repeat, and searched through his massive record collection.  I was determined to find it.  We narrowed it down to just three records, then found it:  "Guinnevere" by Crosby, Still, and Nash.  My love for folk music, and rich harmonies was born: Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, The Zombies, and Nick Drake took over.

Nick Drake - Time Has Told Me
Crosby, Stills and Nash - Guinnevere

Many moons later I was out for some fizzy adult beverages at a bar with some friends and I met a girl.  Music was an obvious conversation.  The night ended with her writing me a scribbled note written on the back of a soggy beer label:  no, not her phone number, but instead simply "Sufjan Stevens."  My love for indie music was born. Finally, an artist who could make technically complex music, who ignored time signatures, and could write a fantastic folk song. Belle and Sebastian, Patrick Watson, Beirut, and Midlake quickly followed suit.

Patrick Watson - Man Under the Sea
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche.mp3

In the end, I just really like music.  It has an incredible ability to take a snapshot of a mood, a feeling, an experience, a place, and it it lets you experience it aurally.  I'm always looking for something that makes a song unique, be it a chord progression, an odd time signature, an unusual orchestration, technical prowess, stand-out lyrics, or something that challenges me as a listener... but then again, sometimes a good hook and a bass line is all you need.