January was an interesting music month. Animal Collective’s new album slapped me in the face, and a lot of freak folk and experimental stuff I hadn’t cared much for before finally hit me (Bowerbirds, Gang Gang Dance, Fredrik).

I also met a few cool girls — Gayle Skidmore, Valeri Lopez and Soyu Sae — who played some very inspiring music at a coffee shop a few weeks ago. Two of their songs got stuck in my head like whoa and thus appear here. Hopefully I’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future.

1. Eluvium – “New Animals From the Air” (Talk Amongst the Trees)
2. T.I. – “Whatever You Like” (Paper Trail)
3. Bowerbirds – “In Our Talons” (Hymns For a Dark Horse)
4. Hammock – “City in the Dust on My Window” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
5. Gang Gang Dance – “House Jam” (Saint Dymphna)
6. Fredrik – “Black Fur” (Na Na Ni)
7. 3oh!3 – “Punkbitch” (Want)
8. Jay-Z – “Threat” (The Black Album)
9. Jay-Z – “Moment of Clarity” (The Black Album)
10. Animal Collective – “My Girls” (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
11. Gayle Skidmore – “Crazy” (Cowley Road)
12. Valeri Lopez – “Just PB&J Thank You” (Eugene Lovely)
13. Bon Iver – “Woods” (Blood Bank)
14. Modeselektor – “The White Flash feat. Thom Yorke (Trentemøller remix)” (Happy Birthday! Remixed Pt. 1)
15. Animal Collective – “College” (Sung Tongs)
16. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
17. Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Forever Heavy” (Dandelion Gum)
18. Lil’ Wayne – “Lollipop” (Tha Carter III)
19. Lil’ Wayne – “La La” (Tha Carter III)
20. Sigur Rós – “Gódan daginn” (með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust)

I like ambient music.

Correction: I love ambient music. I can’t get enough. It’s good to fall asleep to, it’s great to wake up to and it’s perfect, undistracting background noise when I’m working during the day. In fact, it’s 12:10 am right now and I’m listening to Eluvium’s Talk Amongst the Trees as I write this.

Ambient is “a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes. It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.” (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Some say ambient music began with Erik Satie’s experimental piano compositions in the early 20th century. Satie’s best-known work is simple piano parts that could loop for several hours. He coined the term “furniture music,” meaning that it was part of a room’s decor or ambiance (pun intended) rather than a focal point.

Others point to Brian Eno’s work in the 70s as when the genre began. Eno is best known as the producer of U2′s The Joshua Tree and other albums, as well as his part in the band Roxy Music. His groundbreaking album Ambient 1: Music for Airports is widely considered to be the first ambient album, and it is still looked to as a prime example of the genre today. There Eno took simple, looping pianos and single note tones and covered them in a wash of subtle noise. Loops would overlap on themselves, creating new tones and sounds as a result. The songs clock in between six and sixteen minutes.

Aside from enjoying ambient for its utilitarian aspects, I have a great respect for ambient artists for their skill. When dealing with quiet, repeating sounds that are hardly melodies, they walk a fine line between mundane and genius. The focus required to make the music effective rather than annoying or boring takes great finesse and an attention to details that would be unimportant in other forms of pop music.

Ambient music can be effective and enjoyable for everyone. It may take time to find the music you particularly enjoy but once you find that album or two, I’d bet it would be hard to ever give them up.

Here are a few ambient (or almost-ambient) albums that have done the trick for me:

• Brian Eno – Music for Airports
• Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline
• Hammock – Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow
• Eluvium – Talk Amongst the Trees
• William Basinski – Disintegration Loops I-IV
• This Will Destroy You – This Will Destroy You

It’s a sad realization when I get on here and see that my last post was a monthly playlist. Maybe one of my goals for next year should be to write more often. It’s not so much a lack of content as it is a lack of time. So maybe my other goal should be to not have so many goals.

Adam Pasion’s new album is worth checking out and listening to ten times. Do it. And Matthew Robert Cooper is a “side project” for one-man band Eluvium who you already know I love. Check him out too. And all the rest of the songs, of course.

Also, if you can get your hands on Aphex Twin’s bootleg from Coachella 2008, listen to that ten times too.

1. Adam Pasion – “Run By Faith” (O Hear the Rattling)
2. Joshua James – “Dangerous” (The Sun is Always Brighter)
3. Adam Pasion – “Awake” (O Hear the Rattling)
4. Calexico – “Crumble” (Feast of Wire)
5. Danielson – “Don’t You Be the Judge (live version)” (Trying Hartz)
6. DJ Rupture – “Mass Dampers: Ekstrak” (Uproot)
7. Tobacco – “Dirt (feat. Aesop Rock)” (Fucked Up Friends)
8. Kings Of Leon – “Use Somebody” (Only by The Night)
9. Joshua James – “Lovers Without Love” (The Sun is Always Brighter)
10. Sufjan Stevens – “Oh God Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)” (Michigan)
11. Sufjan Stevens – “Redford (for Yia-Yia and Pappou)” (Michigan)
12. Matthew Robert Cooper – “Miniature 7″ (Miniatures)
13. Matthew Robert Cooper – “Miniature 9″ (Miniatures)
14. M83 – “Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun” (Before the Dawn Heals Us)
15. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Electronic Dream Plant” (Cotton Teeth)
16. Aphex Twin – “Nannou 2″ (Drukqs)
17. Port O’Brien – “I Woke Up Today” (All We Could Do Was Sing)

I’ve been lazy with the blogging as of late. It’s more fulfilling to post stuff like that on Buzzgrinder because people actually comment on it. So I’ll just link you to my top 10 list there and give you (who is “you” anyway?) 11 through 20 with no descriptions:

20. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
19. Eluvium – Copia
18. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
17. Bright Eyes – Cassadaga
16. The Snake The Cross The Crown – Cotton Teeth
15. Band Of Horses – Cease To Begin
14. M.I.A. – Kala
13. Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
12. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
11. Daft Punk – Alive 2007

1. Bjork – “It’s Oh So Quiet” (Post)
2. Bjork – “Hyper-Ballad” (Post)
3. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “Storm” (Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven)
4. Akon – “I Wanna Love You” (Konvicted)
5. Calexico and Iron & Wine – “He Lays In The Reins” (In The Reins)
6. Plan B – “Sick 2 Def” (Time For Plan B)
7. Van Morrison – “Gloria” (At The Movies)
8. !!! – “Heart Of Hearts” (Myth Takes)
9. Brand New – “Jesus Christ” (The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me)
10. Brett Dennen – “When I Go” (Brett Dennen)
11. Brett Dennen – “Ain’t No Reason” (So Much More)
12. Brett Dennen – “Darlin’ Do Not Fear” (So Much More)
13. Autechre – “Vletrmx21″ (Warp 10 Vol. 3: Remixes)
14. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore – “Way Back Into Love (Demo Version)” (Music & Lyrics Soundtrack)
15. The Sounds – “Tony The Beat” (Dying To Say This To You)
16. Explosions In The Sky – “What Do You Go Home To?” (All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone)
17. Eluvium – “Taken” (Talk Amongst The Trees)
18. The Mountain Goats – “No Children” (Tallahassee)
19. Eluvium – “As I Drift Off” (When I Live By The Garden And The Sea)
20. Explosions In The Sky – “The Birth And Death Of The Day” (All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone)
21. Johann Johannsson – “Part I” (IBM 1401 A User’s Manual)
22. Mika – “Grace Kelly” (Grace Kelly Single)
23. Rhymefest – “Fever (Dirty)” (Blue Collar)
24. Eluvium – “Prelude For Time Feelers” (Copia)

A while back my best friend started keeping a monthly playlist. Any particular song that she felt was a favorite or most-played item was added to this list. The idea is that, at some undefined point in the future, she’ll appreciate being able to go back and see what she was listening to at a particular era of time.

I took the idea and changed the rules to fit me a little better. I create a monthly playlist but it not only contains favorites of the time, but any song that caught my attention (in a good way) during the month, whether or not I really listened to it a huge amount.

So now I’m going to post these on my blog at the end of each month. For this introductory post I’ll post January’s because it’s the first playlist and I need to catch up. February is soon to follow. Oh, a little disclaimer: the songs aren’t sorted in any order other than whatever order they went on the list.

Monthly Playlist – January 2007

1. Band Of Horses – “The Funeral” (Everything All The Time)
2. The Black Keys – “Thickfreakness” (Thickfreakness)
3. Brand New – “Sowing Season (Yeah)” (The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me)
4. Calexico and Iron & Wine – “He Lays In The Reins” (In The Reins)
5. Calexico and Iron & Wine – “Sixteen, Maybe Less” (In The Reins)
6. DragonForce – “Through The Fire And Flames” (Inhuman Rampage)
7. Eluvium – “The Well-Meaning Professor” (An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death)
8. Fujiya & Miyagi – “Ankle Injuries” (Transparent Things)
9. Fujiya & Miyagi – “Collarbone” (Transparent Things)
10. Gomez – “See The World” (How We Operate)
11. Jeremy Enigk – “Been Here Before” (World Waits)
12. John Mayer – “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” (Continuum)
13. John Mayer – “Bold As Love” (Continuum)
14. Birdman & Lil Wayne – “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy (Street)” (Like Father Like Son)
15. Neko Case – “Star Witness” (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
16. Ratatat – “Wildcat” (Classics)
17. Ray LaMontagne – “Be Here Now” (Till The Sun Turns Black)
18. Regina Spektor – “Fidelity” (Begin To Hope)
19. Ryan Adams – “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
20. The Crystal Method – “High Roller” (Vegas)
21. The Decemberists – “The Perfect Crime #2″ (The Crane Wife)
22. The Shins – “Phantom Limb” (Wincing The Night Away)
23. Damien Rice – “9 Crimes” (9)
24. Caspian – “Quovis” (You Are The Conductor)
25. Caspian – “Further Up” (You Are The Conductor)
26. Portishead – “Glory Box” (Roseland NYC Live)
27. mewithoutYou – “Carousels” (Catch For Us The Foxes)
28. Explosions In The Sky – “The Only Moment We Were Alone” (The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place)