As the calender turns over t'wards December, the natural need for reflection on the passing of time manifests itself in a taking-stock of the year that's been. Music-lovers the world over usually treat that reflective opportunity as the chance to take stock in a most mathematical way: numbered lists. True to such: this week I'm counting down an array of countdowns in the year-is-ending spirit.

Having already entertained you with a dozen thus-far shadowy albums deserving of a spotlight, the 2008 listmakery rolls on with a litany of 10 Great Debut Albums that were sent out unto the world this here year.

Leading the charge is Fleet Foxes, those charming young chaps mixing cooley high harmonies and countrified psychedelia amidst a bristling sea of facial hair. Since Sub Pop turned out their debut LP in May, a veritable cult has grown around the quintet's magical mountain music, whose Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-inspired four-part harmonies are so fertile they can make flowers bloom and mushrooms sprout, no matter how unconvincing a plasticine beard might look.

“There’s something really human about just singing; it’s almost like spiritual in a non-religious way,” Fleet Foxes' 22-year-old leader, Robin Pecknold, told me back in April. And Fleet Foxes aren't alone. Joining them amongst the list of debutantes are an array of records whose grandness borders on religious experience.

Photo © [David Belisle]

As the few remaining days of the ought-eight slip away, thoughts only naturally turn to the year as a whole. So, for the forthcoming week, I'll be trotting out an array of this-year-in-indie-music lists that'll look at the choicest discs dished out over the past 12 months. Culminating, of course, in the unveiling of my gold-standard list of the Best Albums of 2008.

To kick such off, I've compiled a sterling litany of 10 off-the-beaten track LPs that have flown well underneath the pop-cultural radar. These shadowy ranks include the charmingly odd debut of Tickley Feather, the at-home project of one lass from Philadelphia named Annie Sachs. Discovered and disseminated by Animal Collective, via their Paw Tracks label, Sachs's debut TF LP, on cuts like "Tonight is the Nite," sounds impossibly opaque; creating a particular, peculiar, thick-and-eerie sound that begs repeat listens.

Check out the rest of the rundown, and check back in in the coming days for more numerically-listed clues to hip you to the best discs of the year-that's-been.

Photo © [Kimber VanSant]

Aaron Altes' rock-n-roll band Iran have pencilled in a release-date for their latest longplayer, Dissolver. The third Iran album will be unleashed by noise label Narnack upon the 3rd of February, 2009. Dissolver was produced by TV on the Radio honcho Dave Sitek, which is hardly surprising, given Iran feature a furry-faced fellow by the name of Kyp Malone.

Where the first two Iran albums were stridently lo-fidelity outings, blasting Altes' sadsack, Lou Barlow-esque songs with transient random-noise bursts, the forthcoming Iran album has been buffed into glossy form by Sitek. As is his wont, the producer builds grand, pop-song arrangements teeming with intricacies and flourishes, as typified by the just-issued single "Buddy." It's a song that, one expects, will take Iran from unheard-of to fawned-over come early-'09.

Dissolver Track List
1. "I Can See the Future"
2. "Buddy”
3. "I Already Know You're Wrong"
4. "Airport '79”
5. "Baby Let's Get High One More Time Together"
6. "Digital Clock and Phone"
7. "Where I'm Going"
8. "Cape Canaveral / Buddy (Reprise)"
9. "Can I Feel What"
10. Evil Summer"

Danielle Stech-Homsy's debut disc as Rio en Medio, last year's The Bride of Dynamite, found her operating well within the realms of freak-folk. Released on Devendra Banhart's Gnomonsong label, the LP found collaborations with songsmith Jana Hunter, folk from Vetiver, and, in the closest musical kin Stech-Homsy has, the Casady siblings of CocoRosie. Matching Stech-Homsy's whispery voice —which was often compared to Vashti Bunyan's— to a solemn baritone ukulele, The Bride of Dynamite was a wondrous debut; a stirring set of sad songs and warped samples.

The recently-released second Rio en Medio album, Frontier, has found Stech-Homsy leaving Brooklyn behind for a country house in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. Made entirely in isolation, Frontier is filled with thick atmospheres, opaque lullabies, and disembodied voices, as if ghosts are trying to communicate through the snowy static of radio frequencies.

I recently asked a few questions of Stech-Homsy, seeking to find some enlightenment on the lady behind this mysterious, thus far underexposed artist.