It would be inaccurate to say that Dead Beat is a subtle album, but the jaw-dropping restraint that Ohana display through its 26 minutes means that not a single moment is wasted. Channelling the minimalism of bands like My Disco, Ohana masterfully use repetition in each song to emphasise climatic emotional moments. Take, for example, ‘Birth of the Clinic,’ which uses both its loudest and its softest moments to have vocalist Will Farrier deliver its one lyrical line. The song is built entirely around these two moments, and their succinctness only makes them more powerful. Of course there are plenty of other amazing moments on the record, but I'll say only this: Dead Beat is a perfect album that brilliantly combines its influences and utilises its musical ideas to create something flawless and powerful that nothing else this year has matched.  / Andrew Hartwig

Ohana @ MySpace  //  Review

19. Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward

Many people consider Blue Lambency Downward to be Kayo Dot's most disappointing moment. Toby Driver further stretched himself from the legacy of Kayo Dot's earlier albums, as well as his previous project maudlin of the Well, and in doing so created his most accessible work yet. Blue Lambency Downward embraces Dowsing Anemone in Copper Tongue's tendency towards mini-crescendos while adding simpler influences like jazz and pop to the Kayo Dot sound. Perhaps Blue Lambency Downward is not the epic that the band's previous records were, but Kayo Dot have once again shown that they are not a band to be labelled redundant.  / Jared W. Dillon

MP3: Kayo Dot - 'Blue Lambency Downward'  //  Full Album Stream  //  Review

18. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack To A Vacant Life

Soundtrack To A Vacant Life is seventy minutes long, and it never blinks once. Moving from genre to genre, instrument to instrument, mood to mood, the 31 vignettes that make up this masterpiece piece together a scattered life of tranquility, happiness, anger, and depression. As with so many remarkable albums, the combination of genres and styles works almost magically. Starting right at the beginning, ‘Kirilan Voyager’ and ‘Steel for Papa’ should not work together by right, but the simple input of birds chirping at the end of the former sets the mood perfectly for the latter. Nuances like this tie the entire album together. All seventy minutes.  / Tyler Fisher

The Flashbulb @ MySpace  //  Review

17. Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town

Having been MIA for a few years, Harvey Milk returned this year to re-take their mantle as the sludge heroes they've always been... but nobody noticed. With Life...The Best Game In Town, Harvey Milk are as interesting and self-aware as ever, channelling through what could possibly be the most immaculate guitar tone in years. Bottom line is: if you don't like this, you're taking life too seriously. After all, it's just a game.  / Channing Freeman

MP3: Harvey Milk - 'Decades'  //  Review

16. The Roots - Rising Down

If the Roots truly are just another hip hop group for suburban white kids to latch onto, then Rising Down is a barrage of gun shots that sends honkeys running. Rising Down is unrelentingly paranoid, dark and incendiary. It's uncomfortably political; at times downright discomforting. Without question, it's The Roots’ most uneasy sounding album, yet they make it sound so easy. Producer/drummer ?uestlove outdoes himself and, alongside Owen Biddle, proves why the Roots have arguably the strongest rhythm section in popular music. But even then there's more to the story: the oft-forgotten Black Thought spits fire and the Soulquarian community joins in on the fun, helping to put an occasional damper on the darkness and mix some fun into the sound. Rising Down is undeniably dense, and certainly a grower, but it grows fast and never stops.  / Tyler Munro

The Roots @ MySpace  //  Review

15. The Dodos – Visiter

At first glance, Visiter seems to be just there, its brand of breezy folk lying naked in the open with all on display. From Meric Long’s seemingly frank, no-frills delivery to Logan Kroeber’s “rainfall of rocks” percussion style, Visiter’s unfaltering solidness makes it a strange offering in a genre so usually bound to intimacy. But it compels the listener to weave in and out of Visiter’s musical tapestry, letting the songs fall around in the spaces in between. And when, as so often happens, the occasional musical idea strikes, it strikes deep, as beautiful lyrics swim over frenzied percussion and hurried, twangy guitar lines. And that, of course, is Visiter’s strength- it’s an album so at ease with itself that it’s hard not to be taken into the folds of its fatherly arms: serious, but in the end, always there for you.  / Alex Silveri

MP3: The Dodos - 'Fools'  //  Review

14. The Drones – Havilah

The Drones may be, instrumentally, one of the best rock bands around, but it’s in their lyrics that the group’s true strength exists. Gareth Liddiard has the uncanny ability to come off emotional, intelligent and nonchalant. and with tracks like ‘The Stark Reflection Of The Lunar Landing,’ it is obvious that Liddiard is a unique and unmatched lyrical force. The rest of the Drones are able to embrace Liddiard's lyrics in every situation, whether it’s a ballad or the haunting post-punk influenced 'The Minotaur.'  / Jared W. Dillon

The Drones @ MySpace  //  Review

13. Portishead – Third

What a comeback. Dense, powerful, and uncompromising, it's Portishead’s best album yet; a bloody-minded romp through the robotic end of psychedelia pioneered by Silver Apples with smatterings of post-punk, Krautrock, and folk, all held together by Gibbon's still arresting voice. Frankly it's an album that offers nothing but highlights – ‘Silence,’ ‘The Rip,’ ‘Nylon Smile,’ ‘We Carry On,’ ‘Machine Gun,’ ‘Small,’ and ‘Magic Doors’ are better than all but two or three of the songs on their first two albums. Essential.  / Nick Butler

Portishead @ MySpace  //  Review

 12. Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols III & IV

Following the success of Vheissu, Thrice could have put out another album that carefully reined in new influences and sounds to color their tried and true post-hardcore nucleus. Instead they took a quantum leap forward, deciding to put out four six-song EPs, each the sonic embodiment of a classical element (fire, water, air, earth). In many ways, they bit off more than they could chew; the resulting collection is wildly diverse and lacks cohesion (in a typical sense). In hindsight, though, The Alchemy Index is more important for proving that Thrice's experimentation isn't empty, artsy dabbling, but can be gorgeously lush (‘Silver Wings’) or surprisingly subdued (‘Digging My Own Grave’). The second half of the index, Air and Earth, doesn't perfectly cash in on the element concept but contains some of Thrice's best songs to date, and serves as a wonderful stepping stone for a future alloy of all of their eclectic influences.  / Nick Greer

MP3: Thrice - 'Come All You Weary'  //  Review

 11. Deerhunter – Microcastle

Microcastle is shoegazer pop as dictated by Brandon Cox's vision of '50s pop rock, but that could very well be the least important aspect of Deerhunter's minimalist classic. With a simplicity that is off-putting to begin with, and slowly builds into a dense, arthouse spectacle, Microcastle takes all the usual indie rock staples (ballads, synths, stoner jam sessions) and makes them into something personal and utterly unique.  / Lewis Parry

Deerhunter @ MySpace  //  Review

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