Published by James January 31st, 2007
in Lists.
In an obvious attempt to avoid posting anything of substance I bring you my half-thought out list of twenty-four must have albums if stranded on a desert island (as inspired by this Flickr pool).
[Reading left to right, top to bottom]
A Band of Bees—Free The Bees
Amon Tobin—Permutation
Arcade Fire—Funeral
Bebel Gilberto—Tanto Tempo
Black Uhuru—Sinsemilla
Boards of Canada—Children Have The Right To Music
Burning Spear—Creation Rebel: The Original Classic Recordings From Studio One
Count Basie—Listen My Children And You Shall Hear
Dave Brubeck—Time Out
DJ Shadow—Entroducing
Don Caballero—American Don
Duke Ellington—Latin American Suite
Fugazi—Repeater + 3 Songs
Jaga Jazzist—What We Must
John Coltrane—Ole Coltrane
Led Zeppelin—Houses of the Holy
Miles Davis—Kind of Blue
Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos—Llegaron Los Camperos!: Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos
Nick Drake—Pink Moon
Nitin Sawhney—Beyond Skin
Paris Combo—Motifs
The Future Sound of London—Lifeforms
Yes—Tales from Topographic Oceans
Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern—Shostakovich: Trio, Op.67/Sonata, Op.40
There you have it. From Classical to Mariachi with a little of everything else in between.
Published by James January 11th, 2007
in Lists.
Suffering from 3I (Infant Induced Insomnia) I’ve decided to take the lazy route and repost my list from my blog and while I’m titling this a Best of 2006 it is by no means comprehensive nor definitive. In 2006 I purchased and listened to some 94 albums, which works out to roughly 8 per month and 2 per week, or in other words a metric-crap-ton of music and this is not to mention the albums kicked my way by friends and family as well as taking the time to stream music from Last.fm. Long excuse short, this list best approximates those albums that have been nodding my head and bouncing my feet.
Other notables that I haven’t gotten to reviewing yet…
And there you have it, 2006 has to have been one of the best years I’ve experienced in terms of finding and loving new music.
Published by Scott January 1st, 2007
in Lists, Album and 2006.
You’re probably listed out but I’ll go ahead and give my favorites from ‘06 anyway. David posted his here last week and James in all of the excitement surrounding the birth of his daughter - congratulations! - forgot which of his blogs was about music. (I’m kidding. You can find his list here.) Surprisingly we have no overlapping artists. I haven’t even heard most of the albums those guys have down! Here’s my top ten in alphabetical order:
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Centro-Matic - Fort Recovery
Elf Power - Back to the Web
Head Like a Kite - Random Portraits of the Home Movie
Islands - Return to the Sea
The Minders - It’s a Bright Guilty World
The Minus 5 - The Gun Album
Snowden - Anti-Anti
Starflyer 59 - My Island
Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 - …tick …tick …tick
Published by David December 29th, 2006
in Random, Lists, Singles, Album and 2006.
Making lists is a personal activity that alomst everyone does in their daily lives. We create lists for our shopping, our daily projects: “to do”, home projects for the year, our new years resolutions. But we rarely get to share our everyday lists unless others are involve with the said list. “Here’s the grocery list, did I miss anything?” “Take a look at all these Christmas gifts we have to buy, is there anything else you can think of?” Most people do not have a desire to see other people’s lists until they actually see them. Curiosity would arise if the list maker wasn’t around or if someone left their list in the shopping cart, “baby wipes, diapers, condoms, oranges.”
Year end wrap-up music lists that are put out by music critics and reviewers are essentially the same thing as these personal lists, that’s if they are not a consensus from a larger group. I usually have a list on the top of my head that contains my favorite albums and another with all the songs that came during the year that I liked. When I am asked during the year what I think is good, I try rattling it off from memory but the list is ever-changing. After some contemplation and reviewing I narrowed a year’s worth of albums and songs that I have been listening to and put it on paper. Well not really since it’s all in the computer and I reviewed in iTunes all the stuff I listened to during the year. So pretend you’re in my kitchen and scattered among my bills lie the following two lists.
My 21 Top Favorite Albums of 2006:
- Bob Dylan- Modern Times
- Mark Mallman- Between the Devil and Middle C
- Chris Smither- Leave the Light On
- The Gourds- Heavy Ornamentals
- Michael Franti & Spearhead- Yell Fire!
- Hank III- Straight To Hell
- Cat Power- The Greatest
- Phoenix- It’s Never Been Like That
- Carey Ott- Lucid Dream
- Dion- Bronx In Blue
- David Mead- Tangerine
- Camera Obscura- Let’s Get Out of This Country
- Alice Smith- For Lovers, Dreamers & Me
- Alexi Murdoch- Time Without Consequence
- Wayne Hancock- Tulsa
- Yo La Tengo- I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
- Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3- Ole! Tarantula
- Josh Rouse- Subtitulo
- Bobby Bare Jr.- The Longest Meow
- deadboy & the Elephantmen- We Are Night Sky
- Pearl Jam- Pearl Jam
My 21 Favorite Songs From 2006:
- Michael Franti & Spearhead- I Know I’m Not Alone
- Gnarls Barkley- Crazy
- Mark Mallman- Substances
- Camera Obscura- Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken
- Cory Branan- She’s My Rock-n-Roll
- Osaka Popstar- Wicked World
- Josh Rouse- Summertime
- The Lovely Sparrows- Your Flowers Will Bloom
- Pearl Jam- Parachutes
- Phoenix- Consolation Prizes
- deadboy & the Elephantmen- Stop, I’m Already Dead
- The Gourds- Decline O Meter
- Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins- The Charging Sky
- Cat Power- Could We
- Darondo- True (Reissue)
- The Coup- We Are the Ones
- Alexi Murdoch- All My Days
- Drive-By Truckers- Feb 14
- Gomez- See the World
- Alejandro Escovedo- Dearhead On the Wall
- Cat Empire- Cities
Published by James October 25th, 2006
in Lists.
Cracking my knuckles and readying myself for the frantic season that is end-of-the-year list making. Surprisingly, there are less albums this year than last. Am I listening less or am I more jaded? Pshaw! I’m listening just as much and prefer to say that I am more sophisticated.
Anyways, in no particular order are my tops so far:
- Luomo - Paper Tigers
- Quantic - An Announcement to Answer
- The Contingencies - Viva Ole
- Wale Oyejide - Africa Hot!
- Ratatat - Classics
- The Format - Dog Problems
- DJ Cheb I Sabbah - La Ghriba: La Kahena Remixed
- Hallelujah Chicken Run Band - Take One
- Nino Moschella - The Fix
- The Coup - Pick a Bigger Weapon
- Loka - Fire Shepherds
- Bibio - Hand Cranked
- Sayag Jazz Machine - Anachro’mix Experiences
- Natacha Atlas - Mish Maoul
- John Coltrane - Fearless Leader
I’m sure a couple more might find their way on before the year is out and likely several after I have set my final ten in stone.
Published by James June 18th, 2006
in Free Tracks and Lists.
After a rough Friday I decided to take it easy over the weekend and per usual was listening to my collection on random. However some artists and albums bubbled to the surface that pulled me in for a closer listen.
Kad - Societe
He’s been compared to both Manu Chao and Serge Gainsbourg and it holds up. Societe is a fun and sometimes campy, romp with a tropical splash of Brazilian Electronica to round things off.
Pitchfork - 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler
Twenty-Four tracks. Free. Hot. Get it. Now.
Banco De Gaia - Farewell Ferengistan
Eighties inspired Ethno-tronica with a heady political edge. Dreamy yet informed.
DJ Cheb I Sabbah - La Ghriba, La Kahena Remixed
Incredible followup to last years excellent La Kahena sees those tracks reformed into French-Algerian rap numbers, swirling and thrashing dance numbers, and trance inducing minimalist techno pieces.
Guido Möbius - Klisten
Glistening layers of guitars and other instruments makes for a wonderful companion to Bibio’s sublime Hand Cranked. Delightful music for heady summer evenings.
Published by James April 3rd, 2006
in Free Tracks and Lists.
It can be said that I am forgetful, lazy even, but I have a good excuse–yard work. What about nights you say, yard work is only done during the day? Well, there comes my backup excuse–wedding reception. With regards to the latter let me just add that we were subjected to what could quite possibly be the worst DJ we have ever heard. Now wedding DJs are not known for their mad skills behind the decks but this guy was in a league all of his own with skipping CDs and an utter lack of crossfade between tracks relying rather on the amateurish 3-5 second gap of dead silence. Painful. On the plus side, though, he spun neither The Chicken Dance or The Hokey Pokey.
So what is on my listening list for this week? Piles of free tracks!
Linuxaudio.org - Made in Linux Vol.1: Tux Power!
Some would say that I am a bit of a zealot when it comes to my choice of OS and while I wouldn’t go that far I will grant that I am fairly enthusiastic. Tux Power! is a collection of free tracks that showcase the open source tools available to the average Linux user and demonstrate that those tools can result in polished work that is indistinguishable from their commercial counterparts. The album spans several different genres from the requisite techno to country and folk to jazz and while not all the music is to my liking it does an excellent job of dispelling the myth that only Windows and OSX can lay claim to being the “Best of Breed” for audio production.
Mush Records - Sampler
Coming in at some forty-one tracks is this excellent collection that spans much of the Mush Records collection. I have been slowly working my way through it and some of the artists that standout for me are Bibio, Aesop Rock, cLOUDDEAD, Scientific American, and Curse ov Dialect whose track “All Cultures” puts the hitch in my step. Judging by the quality of these tracks I’ll be getting myself more familiar with Mush Record’s roster.
