Favorite Music of 2010

Massive Attack - Heligoland

Strange, beautiful and dark, Massive Attack's first full album after a seven year absence was worth the wait. The return of Daddy G and guest vocalists Martina Topley-Bird and Horace Andy makes Heligoland seem much more like the long sought sequel to Massive's landmark Mezzanine (1998) than the generally disappointing 100th Window (2003). Their latest album has a warmth and a texture to it that 100th Window lacked, and as many reviewers have pointed out, a fair bit of soul as well.

Standout tracks include Splitting the Atom, Girl I Love You with Horace Andy's signature Rastafarian vocal tremolos, Psyche with haunting guest vocals by Martina, and Paradise Circus with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. If you dig the album version of Paradise Circus as much as I did, you will LOVE the Gui Boratto remix. For me it ranks right alongside Angel and Teardrop (both from Mezzanine) as the best Massive tracks of all time.

While some of the tracks on Heligoland can be challenging (I'm looking at you Pray for Rain and Flat of the Blade), as a whole this album is a welcome triumph, and pushes far ahead of so many mediocre releases from other artists that I heard this year.

I was also fortunate enough to catch Massive Attack live in San Francisco this year, which was probably one of the top five best shows I've ever seen. It stands in stark contrast to the outdoor show they put on at the Greek Theater in Berkeley a few years back, which lacked Daddy G and a lot of the punch that a smaller venue like The Warfield could provide. All I can say is- see Massive Attack in a small venue if you can. It's the difference between decent and amazing for them. Plus the 1-2 punch of seeing Martina (in person) sing Psyche and Teardrop back to back... priceless, I tell you.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network (soundtrack)

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been working together behind the scenes for the past nine or so years on projects mostly outside Reznor's main musical endeavor, the electronic-soaked hard rock tour-de-force known as Nine Inch Nails. In 2008 Reznor and Ross collaborated on an experimental series of short instrumentals known as Ghosts under the NIN moniker, a decidedly different tone given NIN's past discography. After Trent publicly declared in early 2009 that he would be parking NIN for awhile after an exhausting few years of non-stop touring, he immediately began work on a new project called How To Destroy Angels, featuring the instrumentation of himself and Mr. Ross, as well as the vocals of Mariqueen Maandig formerly of West Indian Girl (and who is also incidentally Reznor's wife). The music of HTDA's self-titled EP (released earlier in 2010) presents listeners with a lo-fi electronic sound and downtempo structure that sets it far apart from the frenzied onslaught of NIN, but offers a fresh new approach to the realms of dark electronic music. While it didn't make any huge waves, this small offering was important in that it signified a distinct taste of things to come.

At some point back in 2009 after NIN's Lights in the Sky tour had come to a close and HTDA hadn't yet come into full swing, Trent was approached by filmmaker David Fincher, who asked for his help completing an upcoming film soundtrack. Naturally Trent jumped at the opportunity, but backpedaled when he realized how overwhelmed he was with his other projects and things going on in his personal life at the time. So Trent politely bowed out of the project to allow some time for things to calm down a bit. Once Trent had decompressed several months later, he called Fincher back to assure him that he was still interested in collaborating at some point, and to keep him in mind for future projects. Fincher replied by asking if he was still interested in working on The Social Network, the project he'd offered to Trent when they last spoke. Trent of course said yes, to which Fincher said- "Good! We've been waiting on you!"

So it seems as though this collaboration was inevitable, which was great news for me. As a devout NIN follower, I've especially clung to the small bits of Trent's film soundtrack work throughout the years, hoping someday that he would release something larger. In 1994 Trent produced the soundtrack for the Oliver Stone pic Natural Born Killers, a favorite of mine at the time, and then the following summer a remix of NIN's famous anthem "Closer" played over the opening credits of Seven, David Fincher's second major feature in the director's chair (and another favorite of mine). At this point I was convinced Trent was being drawn closer and closer to a full cinematic/electronic score, with further evidence stemming from his contributions to David Lynch's Lost Highway soundtrack in 1997.



But since then Trent hasn't really been involved in film scores per-se, even though many a Nine Inch Nails tune can be heard on any number of movie trailers in a given year. One of the most memorable of the last few years was Just Like You Imagined which played over the trailer for 300 in 2006. So NIN and Trent's relationship with movies has always been pretty strong, even if he wasn't actively involved. Kudos to Fincher for finally making my dream of a feature score by Trent Reznor a reality in 2010!

The soundtrack for The Social Network starts out very simply, with a slowly building crescendo and a soft-spoken piano lead, expanding into a bubbling arpeggio of layered analog synths, until finally propelling the piece forward into a searing electronic flight through hyperspace. By the end of the second track the listener is completely immersed in the unique yet somehow familiar soundscape. The score continues to dazzle as it progresses, growing with more and more complexity, though at the same time the clean synth instrumentation is deceptively simple. This can only be fully appreciated while wearing headphones, or at least by listening through a decent set of speakers, perhaps in a dark room with your favorite beverage. This is INDEED one of those albums.

And like all great movie soundtracks/scores, The Social Network's stands completely apart from the film, creating a narrative of its own, and taking the listener on an insider tour through the dark interactions of unseen characters and the obsessive persistence of a mad genius. All of this comes across without so much as a flicker of a single image, as was my experience having not seen the actual film until several weeks after the release of the soundtrack.

Perhaps needless to say, this release makes me very excited to contemplate where Reznor and Ross might go next with their work. Ross's technical wizardry combined with Reznor's pop/rock sensibilities combine to make an awesome new blend of musical intelligence that pushes me into indifference over the prospect that an official NIN release may never surface again. This partnership churns out an incredible amount of novelty and possesses qualities that much of the electronic music of today is missing, while providing a welcome and mature continuum of Reznor-influenced compositions. Bravo, I say! Keep em comin, gents!

Honorable Musical Mentions (via Pandora):

For the first time ever, this year I heavily supplemented my normal mode of musical consumption (Amoeba Records cd buying-sprees, rec's from friends, general word-of-mouth, random clicks in Rhapsody) by throttling my usage of Pandora 100-fold, listening nearly full time while at the office and at home. These were just a few of the great artists I came across this year, which are worth checking out:

Lily Allen - awesomely snarky British pop
BassNectar - complex, dubstep-infused electronic madness
Natalie Walker - female-driven pop with a sweet electronic twist and an even sweeter voice
Jem - Not an 80s cartoon- light, beat-driven pop/electronica
Mocean Worker - the evolution of acid jazz, with a bit of jungle flavor
E. S. Posthumus - adrenaline-rush-inducing classical/choral crossover (you've heard it in movie trailers)
Adele - Amy Winehouse without the drug problems