My recommendations 2006:Yellow House by Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear: Yellow House
Warp 9/5/2006

It's great to see that Warp Records is finally diversifying their portfolio. For years, their catalog was all IDM all the time: Autechre, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, etc. While these acts are all great, what will Warp do when IDM falls out of favor? It seems that they are beginning to hedge their bets, and wisely so. Last year they released Maxïmo Park's great (though overhyped) debut, a skittering, spastic post-punk album that was similar in ethic, if not in style, to their established artists. Now, they have released Grizzly Bear's sophmore effort. Yellow House continues the trend of postmodernist genre recombination that some of the year's best albums have exhibited. Americana, psychedelia and post-rock are the primary sources used for constructing Grizzly Bear's sound. If Warp is wise, they will make Grizzly Bear the flagship band of a new cadre of artists, more eclectic and diverse than the label has ever had.