Should've

These are the incredible albums that I cannot deny knowing about and still, by some force I have not yet identified, neglected to list among my favourite albums for this past decade. If I did it all over again, each of these would find a spot on the list, without question. Essentially: my bad.


MoHa!
One-Way Ticket to Candyland
(Rune Grammofon, 2008)

What I feel was my largest omission, the biggest hole in my ragged end-of-decade list, was the masterwork of noise and confusion that is MoHa!’s One-Way Ticket to Candyland. Corralling their freejazz noise splatter into tighter, more structured bursts of hardcore punk fury, this album should have sunk deep into the top 50 of my list. I know that I thought of it during my deliberations. The band’s tonal attack must have dislodged a memory circuit or something. They'll do that.


El-P
Fantastic Damage
(Def Jux, 2002)

With production as crumbled and noisy and paranoid as anything on The Cold Vein (of course, you already knew that those are his fingerprints on them beats too, right?) and with a thick cadence and lyricism that constantly informs any attempts I make at poetry/lyrical-fiction, how could I throw Fantastic Damage under the bus? Forever repentant.


Interpol
Antics
(Matador, 2004)

I like Interpol better than Joy Division and I like Antics better than Turn On The Bright Lights (which is a fairly recent development). Sue me. Then sue me again for not listing this the first go around.




Skeletons
Money
(Tomlab, 2008)

An underappreciated (even by me, apparently) avant funk trip, Money is a crowning achievement of hybrid indie rock aesthetics. Jazzy, rocking, bluesy and all that. Skeletons, as the constantly shifting moniker of genius musician Matt Mehlan and his cronies, has never been more vibrant, colorful, dark and enveloping as on this album. That the group will find commonalities with The Dirty Projectors doesn’t mean that they aren’t unique; also, Money is way better than Bitte Orca (IMHO).

-Thistle

MoHa! - One-Way Ticket to Candyland

MoHa!
One-Way Ticket To Candyland
(10.2008, Rune Grammofon)
Verdict = More Focused and More Potent

MoHa! are back with their third full length release in three years and despite adding another unsavory album cover to a year that has been filled with them, the release is more than a welcome addition to the band’s discography. It's really not too surprising that this Norwegian duo is able to release something substantial, new and inventive on a yearly basis; the vigorous pace of their grizzled onslaught almost requires it. It’s a self imposed world of evolve or die. On One-Way Ticket To Candyland MoHa! has evolved. While this release is still every bit as identifiable in terms free jazz noise rock, MoHa! has added an enhanced electronic edge to their standard guitar/drums ruckus. In addition to the electronics is a newfound sense of repetition and control, however fleeting the ideas might be. One-Way Ticket To Candyland is every bit as convulsive, adrenaline raddled and exciting as its predecessors, yet with a new penchant for intermittent rhythms and a bursting sense of structure, MoHa! have left something for us to grab hold of so as not to get lost amongst the clatter. The results steer the band’s violently spastic attack into Lightning Bolt territory, that is, if territory Lightning Bolt inhabited was under attack by waves of malfunctioning robot suicide bombers. Not a bad place to inhabit and, as the album title suggests, one filled with delicious moments throughout.

-Mr. Thistle

MoHa! on Myspace