ARTICLES
2006 Top 10s and 20s
2006 Artist Picks

ALBUMS
17 Pictures
Angina P
Ateleia
Benni Hemm Hemm
The Boats
Cappablack
Celer
Dead Letters Dead Words
Deceptikon
Deerhunter
Denzel + Huhn
Displayaz
Dollboy
Drone
Eluvium
Emanuele Errante
The Eternals
Fear Falls Burning
Marcus Fjellström
Fonoda
Funkstörung
Goldfrapp
Gyroscope
Robert Henke
James Holden
The Idealist
Anders Ilar
Landing
LCD Soundsystem
Library Tapes
L Pierre
Lullatone
Tor Lundvall
Mad EP
Mahogany
Melodium
Mem1
Daisuke Miyatani
Mole Harness
Momus
Monoceros
Mormo
Mothboy
Original Hamster
Pierson & Horton
Prince Valium
Radical Face
Retail Sectors / Yaporigami
Rylander & Elggren
Scott Solter Plays PIM
Sideshow
Silicone Soul
Skream
Splinters
Mark Templeton
Thread Pulls
T. Raumschmiere
Tycho
Ultre
Virculum
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
AudioArt 03
Cumulous
Dubstep Allstars Vol. 4
Eriksen / Toft / Utarm
Katapult VA Vol. 3
Let's Lazertag Sometime
Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft
Tectonic Plates

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Gabriel Ananda
Robert Bardini
DAT Politics
Dead Letters / R. Sundin
Dogmixer
Benjamin Fehr
Fenin
HL
I Make This Sound
Zoë Irvine
Kyriakides and Moor
Lamont & 2tall
Ljud. & Piloten / Kama Aina
Jacob London
Sam Mcqueen
Miskate
Ryo Miyashita & Hiiragi_
[nara]
New Faces
Of / Greg Davis
Charlemagne Palestine
Phon.o vs Litwinenko
Portable
PostPrior
Samarah
Nicholas Sauser & Ditch
Someone Else
Hannes Teichmann
Tractile
Andy Vaz

IMAGES
F.S. Blumm

The Boats: Tomorrow Time
Moteer

Something's clearly up with The Boats. On its third album, Tomorrow Time, song titles like “You're An Idiot,” “May Our Enemies Never Find Happiness,” and, ahem, “A Sincere Fuck You” indicate a perplexing level of vitriol and bitterness (even stranger is the contradiction between its aggressive title and musical gentleness); more importantly, there's a sonic change too, with the group's formerly piano-laden sound (brought to refinement on the sophomore effort We Made it For You) noticeably less shrouded in mist and fog. Abetted by vocal contributions from Chris Stewart and Elaine Reynolds, Boats' partners Craig Tattersall and Andrew Hargreaves embrace a slightly more conventional song-based sound this time around which generally works well enough. Dreamy acoustic-electronic instrumentals (“This Song Is One Colour,” “I'm Talking Facts, Not Shit,” “Wasn't Changing Your Mind An Option”) glow and sparkle as softly as before and the beats pitter-patter as delicately too. A shame, though, that the singing isn't always a match for the music streaming so elegantly behind it (Reynolds' and Stewart's vocals verge on off-key and somnambulant, respectively, in “If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?” and “I Never Had You Down As A Liar” and the banal platitude “May the sun rise to meet you / May the road rise to greet you” weakens “You're An Idiot”). Other than that, Tomorrow Time fits snugly alongside We Made it For You and Songs By The Sea.

January 2007