Joyful Noise Recordings. Joyful Noise Recordings. Need I say more?

Alright, so I’ll give it a shot. I’ve always been aware that some record labels are pretty good and clearly run by people with similar (and therefore obviously excellent) taste in music to me, like Polyvinyl Records, Light In The Attic Records, etc.

This year however I’ve discovered Joyful Noise Recordings and it’s pretty obvious that I’m not the unique snowflake I thought I was. These guys are putting out flawlessly brilliant albums I just love. Literally for me the best, the best records of the year.

Lets take a quick survey of what Joyful Noise have put out this year…

Probably my album of the year, SolosBeast of Both Worlds. Solos is the unlikely collaboration between indisputably insane Hella guitarist, Spencer Seim, and folk vocalist Aaron Ross. Here’s one of the more accessible tracks, Damsel Distressed from the album:

But the point of a blindingly brilliant label is that it’s the combination of all their output that makes them so impressive. Pitchfork described Deerhoof as ‘the best band in the world’ for obvious reasons, and Joyful Noise put out this year’s superb Breakup Song album.
This is the complete album stream:

That’s just two of the new albums for 2012.

They’ve also put out a live album from Don Caballero capturing them with probably their finest line up and material in 2003. Here’s a sample of their live sound, and below is one of the tracks from the insuperable American Don (do yourself a favour and get the album if you don’t already have it!):

Back to Joyful Noise’s new output with the very pleasant surprise that is Sleeping Bag.

Their new album Women Of Your Life has a great spread of sounds throughout, and it looks like this may be the single from it (if they do such things), Still Life:

As a self-confessed Joan of Arc nut, it’s testament to the quality of the label that I haven’t even mentioned that the Kinsella brothers have also signed up with Joyful Noise.

Their approximately 19th album (the last 3 having been on Joyful Noise) is self-titled and stripped back to a level rarely heard before from them.

This is JoA as one Kinsella brother and his guitar. King Song an Elvisy take on unplugged emo is one of the many treats:

Again, I’ve been a fan of Dinosaur Jr since ’93 when someone gave me a copy of Where You Been, and yet haven’t mentioned them yet because of all the other great albums. They’ve also pressed albums from Dinosaur Jr and the superb newish band Helvetia this year.

Monthly Flexi Disc club

Not only have they released all of the above brilliant music, Joyful Noise also have their own monthly Flexi Disc subscription that this year has included brand new tracks from from Jad Fair (of Half Japanese fame), Deerhoof, Akron/Family, Lou Barlow and the legendary Tortoise (not the track below, but the flexis aren’t online anywhere):

I’ve finally managed to get signed up for the highly in demand monthly Flexis, so will be able to share more of the new bands that introduces me to, but wanted to share one of the recent new discoveries thanks to the series, Rafter.

Below is a good sample of their sound, No Fucking Around: