#1 album of 2010: Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”

A Masterpiece. Arcade Fire released their third Studio Album, The Suburbs, in 2010 to further critical and commercial success, receiving another Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album, as well as a nomination for Album of The Year. Extra points for superb Artwork, Website (in HTML5!) and a Web 2.0 marketing as it should be… Nuff said, everybody loves that Album and deservedly so! Album in iTunes. Ready? Video on YouTube: read complete article…

#2 album of the year: Caribou “Swim”

Don’t let the name fool you. This is not Ethno World Music or Happy Caribbean Steeldrum Sound. This is psychedelic electronic singer-songwriter kraut pop…with an experimental twist and a little dub, too . Swim is a really outstanding album by Canadian mastermind Daniel Snaith who is based in London now. Amazing music that doesn’t chum up with anybody. Check out Jamelia and Odessa and the goddamn rest of the album! Easy and well done. This is what 2010 sounds like! This is what we all wanted the Hot Chip album to be like Our album of the year 2010 if there wasn’t the other one that will be shown tomorrow! Frogfisher says: Hey man, this was a good year! Listen to and buy Caribou on iTunes. read complete article…

#3 album of the year: Broken Bells “Broken Bells”

Broken Bells is an American alternative rock band composed of artist-producer Brian Burton (better known as Danger Mouse) and James Mercer, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Oregonian indie rock band The Shins. Broken Bells compose and create as a duo, but are joined by a full band on tour. Following the success of their first self-titled album, Broken Bells, Mercer and Burton have announced intentions to record a follow-upThe project was first announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The pair decided to work together after meeting at the Roskilde Festival, a Danish music festival, in 2004 and finding they were fans of each other’s work. It took four more years before the two started working together and by March 2008 Mercer and Burton began recording together in secret at Burton’s Los Angeles-based studio. The two describe their material as “melodic, but experimental, too.” read complete article…

#4 album of the year: Klaxons “Surfing The Void”

Nu Rave is no dead. The Klaxons don’t care, they’re more than that. Spacy, heavy, abstract, psychedelic, this is what they sound like in 2010. Even more songs and styles – compared to their furious debut album and still unmistakable with the one-of-a-kind Klaxons sound. Mind the great deep dirty Rickenbacker Bass, which is set by the Klaxons almost like a lead guitar. A few Frogfishers saw them live in Hamburg and it was a blast! See more of the Klaxons on their Myspace-Page. Make sure you get  4 new tracks for free download on the Klaxon’s Christmassite. We love the songs! Listen and buy “Surfing the Void” on iTunes. Check out “Echoes “, “The Same Space”, “Twin Flames” and “Future Memories”. And yes, extrapoints for the cool cover artwork! read complete article…

#5 album of the year: Massive Attack “Heligoland”

Our #5: Massive Attack “Heligoland”. Rumours had abounded for a few years as to which vocalists would contribute to the new album. Backing tracks had been sent to Alice Russell, Patti Smith and David Bowie respectively that did not develop further and past discussions also had with Tom Waits and Tricky have not, to date, worked out. In interviews, both Grant and Robert stated that they had recorded a number of tracks over the last couple of years which were later scrapped, and sessions for the album had started again at Damon Albarn’s studio. read complete article…

#6 albums of the year: New German “Wunderkinder”: Die Drogen, Bakkushan, Tocotronic, Paul Kalkbrenner

The wild ones come from the outskirts of Bavaria and Swabia; The established are from Hamburg  but the hot shit is from Berlin – as always: Indie- or Junk-Pop by “DIE DROGEN, … same in Rock n’ Roll by BAKKUSHAN, TOCOTRONIC from the “Hamburger Schule” and PAUL KALKBRENNER did a fantastic live DVD. Ready? The following will be written in german, but the beats are international.

Aus der Band-Site: Es tut sich was in der deutschen Szene. Guter Stoff wird mittlerweile zu neunzig Prozent aural konsumiert, und das Zeug zum Reinziehen kommt nicht mehr aus Kolumbien, sondern aus München. Der Jugendschutz ist alarmiert: was ist passiert? Glaubt man den Gerüchten, ist eine aufstrebende Indiepop-Bande für den neuen Trend verantwortlich. DIE DROGEN erzeugen feinste akustische Substanzen – eine raffinierte Mischung aus DIE ÄRZTE und FRANZ FERDINAND – mit denen sie ihre Junkies in eine euphorische Mitsing-Stimmung dröhnen. Mit Hilfe ihres Junk-Pops dringen sie ungebremst in die Köpfe ein und drehen die Lautstärke auf elf. Was bleibt einem da anderes übrig, als sich zu 60′s-Twang-Gitarren-Beat-Songs wie „Ana (Ist Die Beste)“ die süchtige Seele aus dem Leib zu pogen? read complete article…

#7 album of the year: Goose “Synrise”

Christmas time and new year are great times to discover what you may have missed in 2010. Why not our 9 albums of contemporary music 2010, recommended by Marc Dienewald former “Starwash”, Hamburg. Until new year we will post one album a day. Here is our #7: Goose “Synrise”. PopMatters has a great review by Josh Langhoff on the album: “You can’t stop them now! They’re standing on the edge! Goose play electronic stompers that are gregarious and muscular, as though their beats are slapping high fives while bounding across the dance floor. Blokish singer Mickael Karkousse sounds like the spawn of Simon LeBon and an exclamation point; even his most ambiguous lyrics (“We need one or more! / That’s what we want! / It’s for sure!”) barrel you over with dance commander urgency. Goose are on the hunt, they’re after you, and they probably smell like they sound: Jäger shots and sweat. read complete article…

#8 album of the year: Gorillaz “Plastic Beach”

We have chosen our 9 albums of contemporary music 2010, edited and picked by Marc Dienewald former “Starwash”, Hamburg. Until new year we will post one album a day. Here is our #8: Gorillaz “Plastic Beach from Damon Albarn. The Gorillaz’ Website: http://gorillaz.com/ is excellent as well. Biography (taken from Wikipedia): Gorillaz is a musical project created in 1998 by British musician Damon Albarn and British cartoonist Jamie Hewlett.This project consists of the Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a “virtual band” of animated characters. This band is composed of four animated members: 2D (lead vocalist, keyboard), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboard, and occasional vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums and percussion). Their fictional universe is explored through the band’s website and music videos, as well as a number of other media.
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#9 album of the year: Duran Duran “All You Need Is Now”

The Album just appeared on December 21 and its great. The Comeback of the Year! Here is our #9: Duran Duran “All You Need Is Now. Surprisingly great, one of the very few 80′s dinosaurs that are still alive and kicking. “I’m feeling that Ronson beat and it scares me too…” Producer Mark Ronson took them back to Rio and that was a very good idea! The album features Kelis and some Scissor Sisters on vocals. The track Safe (In The Heat Of The Moment) features Miss Ana Matronic so be sure to give it a listen, especially the fantastic part starting at 2:44. The album just dropped digitally on the 21st of December and will physically appear in February 2011. Check out Girl Panic, Being Followed or the first single, All You Need Is Now. Listen and buy Album on iTunes. See the official Video on YouTube. It is very good.

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