Articles
2010 Ten Favourite Labels
Liam Singer

Albums
Akabu
Amorph
Keith Canisius
Carinthia
Cursor Miner
Dark Party
dOP
Evon
Ex-Wise Heads
Forever Delayed
The Fun Years
Dirk Geiger
The Green Kingdom
Chihei Hatakeyama
Hessien
Robin Holcomb
The Inventors of Aircraft
Peter Jørgensen
Loveliescrushing
My Dry Wet Mess
Silje Nes
Ontayso
Piiptsjilling
Pleq
Radioseed
relapxych.0
Sharp & Whetham
Liam Singer
Erik K Skodvin
Sarah Kirkland Snider
Squares On Both Sides
Strië
Sutekh
David Sylvian
Taiga II
Francesco Tristano
RJ Valeo
Victoire
Wreaths
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Buzz.RO! 2010
Crónica L
Timo Maas
Movement Torino Festival
Sebastian Mullaert

EPs
Dday One / Glen Porter
Depth Affect
Enabl.ed
The Gentleman Losers
Gulls
Mimosa
Piece of Shh…
Shufflepunk
Teebs & Jackhigh
Telekaster
thisquietarmy + yellow6
Tom White

Gulls: Mean Sound EP
Boomarm Nation

Portland, Oregon label Boomarm Nation brings us a dynamic four-track outing of experimental brilliance by Gulls (aka Jesse Munro Johnson), which is being touted as the first volume in an intended series of limited-edition twelve-inch releases showcasing the efforts of progressive Portland minds. Johnson assembled each tripped-out track on Mean Sound by building samples (of his own playing) into dizzying whirlwinds of beat swagger, horns, and synthesizers. The A-side's title cut is more than a little aptly named, considering that it rolls out a fabulous future-funk cannonball of claps, beat rumble, and bleepy synth blaze. The head-spinner couples a hammering bottom end with fireball synth blasts that roar so powerfully they could peel one's scalp. Slightly less lethal in tone, “Vetted” drags an entire video arcade's worth of bleepy smears into its bass-throbbing dub swamp. The flip finds Strategy (Community Librarian Paul Dickow) catapulting “Mean Sound” into another galaxy altogether, this one a future-funk universe where the original's elements ricochet off of one another at light speed and where the synth blaze splinters into fragments. Brain-addling too is Gulls' own alternate mix, “Mean Sound Pdx-Slight Return,” which stabs with a merciless, anvil-like intensity. The EP's tracks are sophisticated, dense, and club-ready, and disappear from view far too quickly—always a good sign. Let's hope future installments in the projected series are as good as this one.

November 2010