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Top 10 Albums of 2013
B ecause it was a calendar year that existed in time, the List of incredible albums released
by Athens-based musicians in 2013 extends far beyond this selection of 10. Even so, we
think it's worth highlighting some of the various releases that made our ears perk up.
Below, Flagpole's favorite local albums of 2013, as voted on by our music writers.
This is the final installment in Flagpole's year-end music coverage. For our Defining Athens
Music and Favorite Musical Moments of 2013 features, visit fLagpole.com.
1. T. Hardy Morris: Audition Tapes
For his debut solo release, Dead Confederate frontman T. Hardy Morris turned down and tuned
up, dishing out a toothsome and well-balanced collection of poignant, muscular folk-rock. Like
so many contemporary LPs, Audition Tapes was a foray into nostalgia, sort of. But unlike most,
it gladly took the bad with the good: Centered largely on themes of addiction and regret, the
album pumped harrowing honesty from its analog heart. With assists from longtime compatriots
Matt Stoessel and Thayer Sarrano, Morris' 2013 outing was a pleasant and sure-footed surprise.
Less surprising? It was the only album to receive a vote from every Flagpole writer who partici
pated in putting together this list. [Gabe Vodicka]
2. murk daddy flex:
MDF
When three mysterious mixtapes of experi
mental, sample-driven hip hop appeared on
Bandcamp last year with the "Athens" tag,
one question buzzed through town: Who was
murk daddy flex? Turns out it was the alter
ego of Terence Chiyezhan, a guitarist known
for his scorching work with post-hardcore
standout Nurture (more on that band later).
Chiyezhan solidified his status as one of the
most exciting local artists last June with the
Audacity-constructed MDF LP, where his ency
clopedic sampling and truly expert sense of
balance met with a refreshingly playful atti
tude. It was all amplified by a subversive live
show, where Chiyezhan boldly spun cardboard
"turntables," challenging the status quo (or
at Least enraging humorless DJ purists) in the
process. [GV]
3. Brothers: Street Names EP
Street Names represented yet another step forward for songwriter Ryan Gray Moore, a collec
tion of studio recordings that emphasized the role Live performance plays in Moore's creative
process. On the EP, Moore and his band of Brothers treated each instrument as a parallel plat
form of transport, independently building and ultimately striking in unison. Moore's intricate
poetry and wounded vocals served as
a beautiful jumping-off point, creating
plenty of those group-listening moments
where you just had to smile and Look
around to see if anyone else had that
same grin on their face. [Will Guerin]
4. Faster Circuits:
Tunes of Glory
Derek Almstead, the man at the helm
of Faster Circuits, won the blue ribbon in
2013 for his quiet woodshedding. Word
about this psychedelic gem was kept
mostly hush-hush, simply because its
construction proceeded in such a matter-
of-fact way. Rather than play the promo
game, continually announcing the album
as forthcoming, Almstead and his talented crew chose to concentrate on sketching out and fill
ing in a deft collection of Kraut-influenced, multi-layered mind matter. When it was done, they
simply said, "Oh, yeah. Here's a record we made." Brilliant. [Gordon Lamb]
5. El Hollin:
Holey Smokes
El Hollin's third fuLL-length
release in three years found the
band having punched through
the growing pains of learning
effective track-sequencing,
song-transitioning and full-
figured arrangement. Whereas
previously the group could occa
sionally become bogged down
in its own chaotic, multi-instru
mentalist stew, Holey Smokes
was a wonderfully realized
album of pure, harmonic indie-
pop utterly free of the forced
childishness for which the genre
is known. It was an edifying lis
ten all-around. [GL]
6. The Darnell Boys: The Darnell Boys
Great folk songs seem to have an anachronistic quality, resonating in the moment at hand
but also sounding like they came from another decade. It's no easy task, but The Darnell Boys
managed to strike that balance on their debut album. Recorded at the state-of-the-art The Glow
Recording Studio with engineer Jesse Mangum, the three Darnell brothers (Austin, Gus and
Caleb), along with Elijah Neesmith and Patrick Weise, released a dozen tracks that could have
emanated from the 1950s???but sounded just as slick in 2013. [Dan Mistich]
7. Nurture:
In the
Middle of
Everything
At the start of In the
Middle of Everything, a
blindside thrashing erupted
from the spring-loaded
guitar riff, tangled and dis
cordant. A knockout blow
hit unexpectedly, evoking
the violence of bodies
rushing into the pit, slam
ming you from behind and
putting you on the ground.
And that was just the first
15 seconds. From there,
Nurture continued to chal
lenge itself with this pov
erty of time, distilling the
ornate complexity of post-hardcore into as dense and efficient an emotional outpouring as pos
sible. The album emphasized what the band does best: taking the mathematics of technical song
layouts and drowning out the cold Logic with brash, unfiltered emo sensibilities. [WG]
12 FLAGPOLE.COM ??? JANUARY 8, 2014