i have really been trying not to break down and do the year-end list thing because each time i start, i am totally overwhelmed by the number of brilliant releases from the past year. i’ve been really fortunate this year, and the music, thankfully, has been great as well. not only were there several anticipated albums which delivered big, but i discovered even more

artists who emerged for the first time with stunning debuts. of course, my first introduction to releases from years past filled a huge portion of the rotation as well.

with that being said, i don’t think i can do justice to the year in a list. most of what i would include has assuredly been on other lists both big and small, and i will admit, it is usually far easier to remember the names of the major players than it is to recall the hidden gems when trying to amass something like this. even the month-by-month notes and lists that i made for exactly this occassion seem so barren and incomplete as i read through them. with so many brilliant albums surfacing at times months past their release dates and so many more finding themselves incredibly difficult to track down just to hear at all, i must say that the musical output of 2005 did an incredible job of keeping up the pace while soundtracking a very exciting and rewarding year of my life.

with that having been said, i must also admit that i am working on my 2006 list already.

band of horses are one of the first on for next year. the official band site here is very nice. i read a mention of this awhile ago due to the carissa’s weird connection.

band of horses – for wicked gil

boy omega have a site here. there are some downloads of the band, which is itself pretty interesting. i’m often very impressed to find non-american bands out-americana’ing us, as is the case here with the swedish roots of main boy martin gustafsson. according to the site news, they’ll hopefully be touring as an eight-piece.

boy omega – by midnight we’ll give it a go

minmae have a bunch of their mp3s posted here – not to mention a nice presence on archive.org

another very brilliant band i’ve just been introduced to is hammock.

hammock – the air between us

hammock – blankets of night

both are incredible, with the former being exceptional. this band will immediately call to mind conglomerate comparisons involving many of your favorite epic, spatial, wall-of-sound shoegaze bands in an attempt to define them, which is definitely not a bad thing.

my friend basic recommended this mix by sasha pafos (in .rar format) . . . it’s very nice.

here’s the tracklist:

01 Das Bierbeben – Staub (Robag Wruhmes Remix)

02 Luciano & Mathew Jonson – Alpine Rocket

03 Jeremy P. Caulfield – Grotbox (Alex Smoke Remix)

04 Robag Wruhme – Mensur

05 Dominik Eulberg – Der Totenkopfschwärmer Im Bienenstock

06 Pan/Tone – Radio Dispatch

07 Alex Under – Tormenta De Cerebros

08 Sweet ‘n Candy – Marzipan

09 Alex Under – Jerome Y Alex

10 Basteroid – Dawaj Dawaj

11 Ryan Crosson – Junk Mail

12 Berlin By Night – Living On Video (Extended Mix)

13 Frank Martiniq – Extrashark

14 Quarks – Allein (Augen Zu Und Durch) (Sascha Funke remix)

oh, and by the way, much to my surprise, i have a myspace account. i’d totally forgotten i’d even signed up for it, and, in fact, i hadn’t logged in since the day i opened it back in june of 2004. i’m working on getting some basic stuff up there. i don’t mind paying the $4 a month to host my own site, but it is obviously a major force in the online world for bands, information dispersal, and networking alike. it’s fairly bare-bones so far, but check it out here.