Or, The Music That Appealed To Me Most This Year Was Music In Which Desire Became Enmeshed With Technology, and Voices Lost Their Bodies (Or Never Had Them To Begin With), And What This Says About Me I’m Not Too Sure, But Perhaps It’s Time That I Read Some J.G. Ballard:
Burial, Untrue
50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake, ‘Ayo Technology’
T2 feat. Jodie Ayesha, ‘Heartbroken’, ‘Baby’ (remix)
Mark Pritchard & Steve Spacek, ‘Turn It On’
Britney Spears, ‘Gimme More’
David Thomas Broughton vs. 7HZ, ‘Weight Of My Love’
Pikelet, Pikelet
Radiohead, ‘All I Need’
I Listened To A Lot of Dubstep This Year and Spent Too Much Money on 12″ Singles Imported From the UK, But For Me The Best Tracks Were Neither ‘Spongebob’ nor ‘Night’, ‘Cos I Prefer To Disco In The Comfort of My Own Home, and The Club Bangers Don’t Make As Much Sense There:
Loefah, ‘Disco Rekah’
Appleblim, ‘Fear’
Shackleton, ‘Stalker’ and ‘Hamas Rule’
The Bug feat. Killa P & Flow Dan, ‘Skeng’ (Kode9 remix)
Martyn, ‘Broken’
I Don’t Know Much About Grime, But I Know What I Like:
Fuck Radio 5 feat. Ghetto, Griminal, Chipmunk, etc
Trim, Soulfood Vol. 1 & 2
Wiley, ‘Gangsters’ and ‘Newham Generals War Dub’
The Field Album Did Nothing For Me and A Lot of This Minimal Techno I Find A Bit Too Neat Though There Are Some Good Moments, Nevertheless, I Generally Prefer My Minimalism To Be A Little Warmer At Heart:
Stars Of The Lid, And Their Refinement Of The Decline
Opitope, Hau
Ricardo Villalobos, Fabric 36
Deepchord Presents Echospace, The Coldest Season
It Was A Pawtracks Kind Of Year, Though the New Animal Collective Didn’t Quite Make The Cut, Lucky, ‘Cos They’re Not Signed To Pawtracks Anymore, Anyway:
Panda Bear, Person Pitch
Eric Copeland, Hermaphrodite
The Year’s Best Indie Record (See Above) Had The Dancefloor At Its Heart, And Only Local Bands Seemed Able To Lift Guitar Pop Out Of Its Creative Doldrums:
Rand & Holland, Caravans
Sly Hats, Liquorice Night
School Of Two, School Of Two
Sun, I’ll Be The Same
In Fact, The Year’s Most Perfect Album Featuring Guitars Was Actually a Quarter of a Century Old:
Young Marble Giants, Colossal Youth (re-release)
There Was Also A Fair Bit Of Spooky Stuff Going On Locally, Some Of It Drone-Based, Some Of It Lo-Fi and Shockingly Intimate, A Lot Of It Was Excellent:
Moonmilk, The Winter Sun Has Teeth
Castings, Punk Rock Is Bunk Squawk
Fabulous Diamonds, Fabulous Diamonds 7″
Fulton Girls Club, Teeth & Air, I Wish I Had X-Ray Vision
Three Leading Ladies Made Flawed But Rewarding Albums, And One Band That Brought Ovaries To the Boys’ Club of Post-Rock Will Be Sorely Missed, And What Is It With the Letters ‘K’ and ‘A’?
Bjork, Volta
PJ Harvey, White Chalk
M.I.A, Kala
Electrelane, No Shouts, No Calls
Amiina, Kurr
Moving On to the Category of Live Performance, the Award For A 3am Slot Best Suited To the Dreamy Pre-Dawn Mood Goes to:
Tim Hecker @ The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, for This Is Not Art
Best Use of a Constantly Shifting Line-Up for Shows of Rewarding Unpredictability:
Rand & Holland @ various places
Most Austere Yet Simultaneously Self-Indulgent Guitar Solo, I Didn’t Think People Played Those Anymore:
Ned Collette @ The Hopetoun
Most Blindingly Amazing Performance By a Band I’d Never Seen Before, AKA, I Was An Instant Convert:
Ohana @ The Pitz
Strongest Performance By a Band With Few Live Shows to Their Name, Incorporating the Warren Ellis Memorial Violin Players’ Trophy:
Charge Group @ various venues
Most Imaginative Use of a Line-6 Delay Pedal:
Pikelet @ Spectrum
Best Collaboration At A Show That Happened To Be My Birthday Party, It Ruled:
Sly Hats & Guy Blackman @ The Hopetoun
Have You Noticed Yet That All the Pictures Are In Black & White? Good. Happy 2008.
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