.... yes it’s time we rounded up some of that week-by-week exceptionality nestling amid the stagflatus....


Feeling

Avarus, Jattilaisrotta (Secret Eye)

Mitchell Bros, “Harvey Nicks”

The Books, Lost & Safe

Magic Arrows, Sweet Heavenly Angel of Death (Wobblyhead)

Juan MacLean, Less Than Human

The Desert Fathers, The Spirituality (A Woebot Turn-On)

Vitalic, OK Cowboy

Roll Deep, “When I’m ‘Ere”/”Shank”; “Heat Up”; “Shake A Leg” (from In at the Deep End)
Accordions rule! As do samba-grime novelty numbers (see also kano, “remember me”)

Terror Danjah, Industry Standard Part 2 EP

Dipset mixtape (An Ethan Brown Turn-On)

The Advisory Circle, Mind How You Go (Ghostbox mini-CD)

Isolee, wearemonster
Been waiting for this for years: Rest was pretty much my favorite album of whatever year it came out; however this initially left me not as whelmed as I’d expected. It sure is value for money in terms of the amount of details he’s folded into it, but the “wow, something changes every four bars!” factor comes over a bit fussy-busy, even goofy (more than a hint of
Herbert-itis), especially on the first four or five tracks. “Face B” is where the writhing strangeness of Rest really kicks in. But I expect I'll succumb fully in time.


Really Feeling

Lady Sovereign, “Tango” (from the Bitchin’ EP)

Kano, “Sometimes”, “I Don’t Know Why”, “Remember Me”, “Nobody Don’t Dance No More”, “Signs In Life”, “Reload It” (off Home Sweet Home)
Check the “War Pigs” riff and drum rolls (which I always thought were like breakbeats) on “I Don’t Know Why”

Duncan Powell, The Something’s Wrong EP
Sublime Todd Edwards clonework that kicks Akufen’s ass.

Public Enemies: Grime 05A (A Woebot Turn-On)

Sway, This Is My Promo Vol 1 and Vol 2

Eric Zann, Ouroborindra (Ghost Box)
The Willows by Belbury Poly (aka Jim Jupp aka Eric Zann) and Hey Let Loose Your Love by The Focus Group currently vying with Worn Copy by Ariel Pink as my fave albums of 05. Eric Zann = Jupp’s darker alter-ego and this is serious Satanic-rites in English corn fields wickerman biznis.

The Lickets, Fake Universe of Man (A Woebot Turn-On)

Ying Yang Twins, “Pull My Hair,” (from U.S.A)
With this and “Wait” Mr. ColliPark goes straight to the front rank of rap auteur-producers. “Pull” made me think of Sontag’s angle on literary modernism and pornography. The extreme focus (sensory, psychological, cinematic) entailed in the erotic transactions here depicted lends itself to a certain avant-garde intensification, most apparent in the stereo-placement and ultra-vivid chromaticism of the vocals, which tripped me out on the first few listens. This is one seriously psychedelic piece of music. But that’s the only sense in which this track is a turn-on.


Really Really Feeling

Kanye West, “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”, “Addicted”, “Crack Music” (from Late Registration)


Retro-Feeling (Reissues)

Various Artists, Meridian 1970

Various Artists, Nao Wave
Various Artists, The Sexual Life of the Savages

Renaissance: The Mix Collection Remastered 10th Anniversary Edition mixed by Sasha and John Digweed
…weeeeeell, yes, I’m pretty surprised too ‘n all…


Retro-Really-Feeling (Reissues)

X Ray Spex, Germfree Adolescents

The Stooges, The Stooges; Funhouse


Retro-Feeling (Not reissued)

Alwin Nikolais, Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theater

Steeleye Span, “Wee Weaver,” “Skewball” (from Ten Man Top)

Edgar Froese, Aqua

Cosmic Privee 08 mixed by DJ Daniel Baldelli
Years back I got a garbled but most intriguing account of a scene called Cosmic in Northern Italy/the Tyrol (where Moroder came from), a fellow regaled me with second-hand stories of lakeside parties and hippy-disco types tripped out and dancing to a mix that allegedly blended late Krautrock and Moroder/Cerrone type eurodisco. This must the source of the legend, Cosmic being a club situated by a lake, at which Baldelli played a peculiar blend of disco-y Italoprog and prog-scented electrodisco. If this mix, archival or recreated I know not, is any reflection, the sound involved lotsa clanky tribally percussion and ecstatic spurting synths, the whole thing suffused with a charmingly Euro-askew quality.A strange pocket of time I would like to investigate further.

J.K. Randall/Barry Vercoe/Charles Dodge--Computer Music

Shirley Collins and Davy Graham, Folk Roots, New Routes (A Worlds of Possibility Turn-On)


Retro-Really-Feeling (Not reissued)

Stockhausen, Gesang der Jünglinge/Kontakte

Fripp/Eno, “Swastika Girls”

Les Vampyrettes, “Biomutanten” (A Woebot Turn-On)