100. Top 10 of 2008

#1. Detektivbyran - Wermland

I have come very far in three months. My 100 albums reviews before 2009 was birthed out of a recording slip during a recording of Transmission Protocol. It was a lame attempt at a publicity stunt but instead of redoing the recording, I decided to leave it in. No one was listening to the podcast, so It wasn't that much of a task. 100 albums reviews from Halloween to New Years, which rounded out to about 2 reviews a day.no one would of cared if I did completed 100. but I was urged by my brother Epileptic Peat to stop being a girl and finish what I started. During this year I listened to more records than I wrote about and everyone was easy to pin down and label. Dubstep, grime, black metal, hard rock and swiss yodeling were all common styles which applied to these artists. Detektivbyran is not new. They have been releasing EPs and compilation albums since early 2007. Wermland is the first proper LP. I have always liked to stray away from the description of genreless. Whenever hearing the phrase "our band does not fit conventional labels" usually means they are modern rock and I got duped into watching their band on a Friday night. I hate the term genreless. Everything can be classified. Some are just harder than others. Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Tom Waits all can be shoved into a closet with a piece of paper on the door; its just harder than others. Detektivbyran plays with a glockenspiel, toy piano, acordian and drums. I can only call their music genreless because I do not think we have found the words to describe this type of music. Some people may remember their Sprint commercial while other people may remember Epileptic Peat mentioning their video in his online interview. interviews. Some comparisons have been made between their sound and Yann Tiersan, or that "guy that did the Amelie music." Detektivbyran's very incomplete wikipedia page labels their music as "folk/electronic." Detektivbyran could be folk music; for a country or culture we have not yet discovered. That would make sense. A culture were there may or may not be gnomes who live in hallowed trees. These gnomes may not be enchanted and who are only seen at night from the glow emitting from their bellies. Wermland, is not a perfect record. In fact the transition between tracks is a little disjointed and certain tracks can feel "very familiar to others on the record. however despite these flaws, the quality in each of these tracks far surpasses anything made this year. It is one of those albums which is perfect in its own sense; music to accompany a carousel...at the end of the universe.