The first half of 2009 has seen a hodgepodge of interesting and important releases. Some established underground artists have broken further into mainstream music, and other newcomers have interjected themselves into online publications’ collective consciousness by offering small-time releases broadened by the scope of Internet downloads.

Hip hop has seen a quiet year thus far, but its prominent releases have been exceptionally strong. Possibly the strongest rap release yet has come from last year’s top-selling artist Lil’ Wayne in the form of his ‘Hottest N*gga Under the Sun’ mix tape.

The mix continues Wayne’s auto-tune trend (which he completely rid himself of on his latest ‘The Empire 7’ mix), finding room for endless small-time guest spots from his Young Money crew as well as a track with Chingy, ‘Let’s Get It.’ While the mix tape sees some pretty awful material (like ‘Prom Queen’ from his new cringe-worthy ‘rock’ record ‘Rebirth’), more than half of the 26 tracks are bangers, ready to blast out of open car windows all summer. From the opening verse in ‘My Name Is’ (taken from the Santigold song ‘Unstoppable’), Wayne spits line after line dissing you and amping himself up, cycling through all his personalities ‘- the player, the sweetheart, the hunk, the killer, the business man.

Wayne continues to wedge himself into fans’ ears and establish himself as today’s greatest (case in point ‘- ‘Hi, my name is best rapper alive, and your mouth is the best crapper alive’). Key tracks include ‘Filet Mignon,’ ‘Yes’ (featuring Pharrell), ‘Hello World,’ ‘Blow My Mind’ and ‘Yeahhh.’

Radio-ready rap hasn’t been the only noteworthy hip hop to hit shelves this year. DOOM’s new record ‘Born Like This,’ released March 24 on Lex Records, has been anticipated for a while as the next work from perennial lord of underground hip hop Daniel Dumile.

He dropped the ‘MF’ (‘Metal Face’) from his name, kept the mask from which his namesake is derived, and proceeded to create an all-over-the-place yet comfortable hip hop record. DOOM too enlists many guests (Ghostface as Tony Starks, Raekwon, members of De La Soul, borrows J Dilla beats) and poetically wrestles with his tongue to get every necessary syllable out from his head and through his mouth. While this was a solid release in full, it merely allows listeners to anticipate what’s to come ‘- a full new Raekwon record, a full-length DOOM/Ghostface collaboration and a new posthumous J Dilla record, which will in fact be produced by Dilla’s mother.

Other genres have been successful as well, as Animal Collective’s journey from obscurity and near-unlistenability to pop culture awareness and accessibility has been completed. Their album ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion,’ released January 6 on Domino Records, incorporates the group’s tribal tendencies with beefed up production, which brings strong rhythms and chanting harmony to the forefront in place of their former muddled, washed-out sound.

This was one of the most highly anticipated releases of the early part of the year and succeeded almost across the board, attracting new fans, astonishing die hard junkies and pleasing critics alike. The second track on the album, ‘My Girls,’ is one of their most perfect attempts at pop supremacy to date. It provides a driving, danceable rhythm which builds over the entirety of the song as well as some human, almost sugar-sweet sentiments about daughters and wives.

Another act rising to pop prominence is Grizzly Bear with their new album ‘Veckatimest,’ out May 26 on Warp Records. The band landed a spot on critics’ best-of lists in 2006 with its beautiful ‘Yellow House’ LP and with its new record, which continues to work within pop boundaries, squeezing out tight structures, gorgeous guitar tones and percussion to bind all the loose ends. Also in the upper-production spectrum lies the new Dirty Projectors album ‘Bitte Orca.’

The follow-up to 2007’s Black Flag-referencing ‘Rise Above,’ the new album sees even more harmonies from the band’s female vocalists, seeing comparisons to Mariah Carey, though nowhere near as accomplished. The album officially drops June 9 on Domino Records, but a 12′ single for stand-out track ‘Stillness Is the Move’ is already available. The track’s noodly guitars ring out and compliment the steady rhythm, something the Dirty Projectors don’t seem too fond of finding often as their songs are often very loose and ethereal.

Many smaller acts are beginning to pop up all over the country as well.

One label, Underwater Peoples, has corralled many such acts together to make up a forthcoming compilation ready for summer listening. Featured on the compilation, among others, are Real Estate, Julian Lynch and Ducktails. Real Estate ‘- New Jersey residents via Hampshire College ‘- craft pleasant summertime jams, recalling loose acts such as Galaxie 500 and jammier acts such as the Grateful Dead. They’ve got a couple 7’s under their belt and will release a proper debut this year. Their songs tell tales of Suburbia: pools, dogs, hot pavement, comfort. One of their members, Matthew Mondanile, works his solo project Ducktails in the downtime, crafting airy, repetition-based psych work-outs with tape-loops and other noise-making devices. His self-titled 7’ was released last year on Breaking World Records (based locally in Northampton) to endless critical acclaim. The record’s anchor, ‘Beach Point Pleasant,’ provides the sound of utter guitar bliss wrapped around what sounds like a tiny snippet of a children’s tape sped up ten times. The results are fantastic, sounds melting in and out of each other until the track dissolves into oblivion. His self-titled LP awaits release this year along with a split wit
h Julian Lynch.

Julian Lynch is a friend of Mondanile’s from Wisconsin, whose musical intentions don’t stray too far from those of Ducktails. Lynch crafts revolving melody, quietly singing in his high-pitched croon while layers of guitars fill up any and all desired space. The songs found on his release ‘Orange You Glad’ seem recorded in a bedroom rather than a garage: fuzzy and easy to warm up to. His music, much like that of Real Estate and Ducktails, waits patiently for the slow motion ease of summer where an entire day can be spent sitting on the porch watching the sun burnt grass slowly turn to brown. Lynch will release that previously mentioned split with Ducktails on Underwater Peoples, as well as a proper LP release of ‘Orange You Glad.’

One more interesting act to emerge at the beginning of this year is Teengirl Fantasy, a duo composed of Logan Takahashi and Nick Weiss who both attend Oberlin College in Ohio. The two craft pulsating, circular dance rhythms which build blips and washes of sound into heavy, tangible compositions. Thus far they’ve only got their ‘Portofino‘ 7’ out on Merok Records, but surely there’s more to come.

A digital EP simply named ‘TGIF’ was recently released on the internet, featuring one new track ‘Floor to Floor’ in addition to three previously available tracks. The duo played shows this past winter with Telepathe and absolutely blew them out of the water, at least at their Vassar College show, and will tour with them again at the beginning of the summer including a June 2 date in Cambridge at the Middle East. They’ve crafted some of the best summer jams of the first half of the year and are sure to crank out more as the year progresses.

Ian Nelson can be reached at [email protected].