The Red Circle

20. Venetian Snares – Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett (2005)
Though IDM may have been born in the 1990’s, Venetian Snares mastermind Aaron Funk was one of its most prominent standard-bearers through the 00’s. The album Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett was inspired by a trip to Hungary and is constructed largely of glitchy breakbeats and classical music melded into an album so intriguingly unsettling that it demands repeat listening. Tempo and mood swing wildly back and forth, most notably on “Öngyilkos vasárnap” which samples Billie Holiday’s rendition of the urban legend-fueling “Gloomy Sunday.” It’s not that Funk was pioneering new techniques at this point but rather that he was giving the audience a new frame of reference with which to consider both IDM and classical music. It wasn’t just making something old new; that had been done hundreds of times over. By tailoring his style to these classical pieces (or was it the other way around?), he made something relatively new seem as if it had always been a part of music’s history.

19. Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (2006)
Though no match for their career-defining If You’re Feeling Sinister, The Life Pursuit was a stunning accomplishment in its own right. Much of the album sidelines the twee pop that the group pioneered and instead embraces the delightfully pleasant sounds of everything from Tin Pan Alley to glam rock and R&B. It’s a musically Cubist take on the band’s style that reveals all influences equally rather than allowing the listener to assume the most obvious point of view. Stuart Murdoch’s brand of dark, confessional lyricism creates a startling contrast with the music’s sunny disposition, an interesting development for a band whose well-established sound was still revered ten years on. Virtually every track is pure golden pop as only a band so fully devoted to their craft can create, arranged and performed to perfection.

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