[a year in sound]

[ALBUMS OF THE YEAR,IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER OF PREFERENCE:]
*Joanna Newsom: The Milk-eyed Mender [Drag City]
Young miss Newsom is your friendly yoghurt-weaving,harp-plucking SanFran folkie woman with a unique sound- At times her singing sounds like a pregnant seacow in a seastorm,trapped inside the planks of a sunken ship,watching the marelight sweetly shine through the swaying/bubbling seaweed,lowing its voice of telltale songs to woo the passing narwhales and mermaids– Elsewhere,she displays a tint of that playful,quirky,childlike and wide-eyed Björkish innocence...enough to charm your socks off...But in Newsom’s case,there are no darker/more “adult” undertones,it’s all storybook/fairytale-land and green summer meadows with gingerbread houses scattered around the dixon village,an achingly blue sky with clusters of colourful balloons ascending through the skies...A true auteur with her celebration of childlike wonder and positivism,you will cast your misanthropic scowl off for days,ending up with a big grin on your face as you hear her swoop and yelp and rant and whisper all while the lumpy harp gets some serious plucking action...Wonderful. -Music Barbarella would have dreamt to,if she was a young kitty living in a hippy commune with the surrounding birds and forest animals as her only companions...Drifting off into a parallel world with the Barbapapa cuddling her,with his great blob arms...It would have been just beautiful. –And just that is this record,too...:) Beautiful.

*Yadahanai: One Atonement [Igrad Records]
-You’ll get no attempt on my behalf in actually trying to “describe” this record, as i won’t try to pass as one who knows anything much about reggae, but this one thing i do know,comrades:...It is a work of great beauty.(It is indeed...A beautiful,deep roots effort.)Totally lush. :)
Get it now,you won’t be sorry...Great new things will be expected from this little liliput label,with HQ on the Virgin Islands...Check out their website for some more tasty soundclips,streaming audio radio waves and suchlike...mmmmm....deep.:)

*V/A: Shockout! [Tigerbeat6]
...If you want to turn into a ragga machine,speak-and-spell style...Let’s go,you ragga robot. Mash it up.

*Adem: Homesongs [Domino]
British folkie pal,a.k.a.Adem Ilhan of Fridge. Decent guitar-strumming melancholia and an ear for pretty melodies. Check.

*V/A: Grime vol.2 [Rephlex]
-Grime is the new english sound.Fuck hiphop,this is where it’s at!

*the Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike! [Memphis Industries]
Retro playskool electro-guitar-poppy goodness. If the A-team had been releasing records with a Cornflakes price,this would be the coolest little prize to get. And in bright neon colours too!...Irresistable,sweet,and catchy.

*Tom Waits- Real Gone [Anti]
Our lovely old tramp returns with his whisky-gravelled voice to lull you into his world of secret circus heroes and men made out of tin cans. May he bang the drum of difference for ever and ever.

*V/A: Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music vol.1 [Sublime Frequencies]
The joy of 1970’s thriftstore khmer-pop cassettes,now for a bigger audience. Spread the word!

[OTHERS: Dizze Rascal, Ghost, Wiley, Vetiver, Tara Jane O’Neil, Shitmat, the Necks, Yes My Pretender, Deerhoof, Butch Cassidy Sound System, Boris, Mission Of Burma, Arthur Russell++++]
[REISSUES OF THE YEAR:]
-of course the newly reissued Can records were close runner-uppers, but as most people already have them (what?you don’t? you gotta hear that tight Jaki Liebezeit groove,he’s the original whiteboy funky drummer- R.I.P.,man!)Tago Mago,Future Days and Ege Bamyasi are great starting points for the uninitiated...)
...And the sound on the Brian Eno reissues are SO much clearer,my speakers rumbled with the sub frequencies- the only minor drawback here was the evil EMI music empire’s decision to use CopyControl technology and thereby effectively eliminating your prolonged/future enjoyment of the music- who wants to keep buying new copies if the disc gets scratched?...who doesn’t want to make copies of their music for um,”personal use”,be it the car stereo or your girlfriend or granny or whatever....(and with the recent cd-r mixtape/switch network trend,it feels like a major ripoff not being able to burn your own records,which come from your hard-earned money in the first place...You want to share your music,and why is that a crime?-And why do the big greed labels feel the need to bite the hands who feed them?...All available facts show that the more music you download,the more music you buy...Filesharing and downloading are good for music,not killing it...but how long will it take for the industry to get that,i’m wondering...? Downloading can be a great promotional tool too,for the artists to get in direct contact with their audiences,sans the mediator...And the quick feedback/response-option you can get from online discussion forums/guestbooks/websites etc.,can be a litmus paper for seeking out new things....But of course,for the big ones it’s all about the money,not the music...which is a shame really...Let’s hope the new year will see even more D.I.Y. activity and new independent labels/distribution network appear, it is so important to support these people, what they do is as much a work of love and genuine dedication to good music, we can’t afford to lose them, what would the world look like if it was all streamlined plastic pops and Top40 paystations?..I’m dreading the thought,and hope we have better days waiting for us around the corner of bleakness...

*Brian Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets [EMI]
*Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) [EMI]
*V/A: The Conet Project [Irdial]= Recordings of shortwave number stations. From the Cold War era. Spooky/eerie lo-fi transmissions of incomprehensible mumblings/foreign voices,static,arcane blips and bleeps...Will freak out your cats. Or your headphones.
[MUCH ANTICIPATED RE-RELEASES,HOPEFULLY APPEARING IN 2005:]
*Comus- First Utterance
*A Guy Called Gerald- Black Secret Technology
...oh,there are so much more...but i've run out of time...enjoy the list and get listening!...so many great sounds are out there,i defy you to seek them out! enjoy...:)
------------- as always, yours truly,[[- the X ]]--