Best Discoveries in 2009

Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star

AWATS is hands down the best thing I came across this year. I had been listening to Something/Anything? for a while and rediscovered it during my period of unemployment. Then someone recommended the follow-up and I was blown away. No other album has jumped as quickly into my pile of favorites. I'm also very glad my discovery of this album coincided with his tour where he played the album in its entirety. I've never cared much for Patti Smith, but in her review she declared that this album is "preparing us for a generation of frenzied children who will dream in animation." If only...


Van Dyke Parks - Discover America
Millenium - Begin

As far as Van Dyke Parks goes, Song Cycle gets the attention, but Discover America has gotten more playtime for me. Exploring the genre of late-60s chamber pop in the vein of Smile-era Beach Boys led me to plenty of great albums; above all, Begin is the one I cannot believe has gone overlooked for so long.


Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85

I had dismissed this album as too saccharine for so long, but I'm glad I finally came around to it. What a treat. So perfectly distilled and consistent, and not too far removed from the over-production of Rundgren or the orchestration of Parks. Another association I have with this is Destroyer's Your Blues, one of my favorite albums of the past decade. Although worlds away in tone, they both occupy a very specific niche on the music spectrum that, in my mind, overshadows anything within range.


Harmonia - Deluxe
Manuel Gottsching - E2-E4
Walter Wegmuller - Tarot

I made an effort to explore Krautrock beyond the canon of Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, Neu!, Amon Duul II, and a few others. Getting into Ash Ra Tempel was a big help, as I prefer the trippy rhythms and comic guitar that Ash Ra Tempel puts forth over the more experimental Krautrock of, say, Conrad Schnitzler. The transition as Ash Ra Tempel became Ashra and then just Manuel Gottsching was great to hear, as the end-point for Gottsching was basically arriving at a new genre.

I was familiar with Cluster but less so with another Neu! offshoot, Harmonia. Their debut album is interesting, but I find Deluxe more enjoyable. Its summer sunset cover perfectly suggests the ideal time to blast Deluxe as loud as possible.

Walter Wegmuller's Tarot is like a Krautrock SuperFriends double-album. And just to hedge their bets, they made it a concept album: each track is themed after a unique Tarot card. There are a few dull ambient moments to sift through, but the high points more than make up for it.


Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
Kevin Ayers - Bananamour

Soft Machine was something I found a bit ahead of my time. I'm not sure how I came across them, but I was really into their first three albums while in high school. I wasn't a music nerd then; I don't think I had even found the Velvet Underground or Pavement. At any rate, revisiting Soft Machine and further exploring the work of its solo members was a real treat this year.


Bill Holt - Dreamies

Arguably the biggest thing in music this year was about the Beatles, and the biggest thing on television was Mad Men. With the release of Rock Band: Beatles Edition, the remastering of their catalogue, and the death of Michael Jackson, it was a fairly good year for the Beatles. In the midst of all of that, I frequently listened to Bill Holt's Dreamies, an "auralgraphic experience" loosely constructed as an extension to "Revolution No. 9" from the Beatles' self-titled album. Over slow, Lennon-like guitar strumming, Bill Holt sings and occasionally interjects bursts from Beatles songs, as if your radio temporarily picked up a different station. Also sampled are speeches from JFK, LBJ, and news reports from the JFK assassination. For me, this coincided with Mad Men's third season, which took place mainly in late 1963 and (spoiler alert!) featured the JFK assassination heavily. Of all the great music that came out of that decade, Bill Holt's Dreamies seems like the one vintage looking-glass suited perfectly for use in 2009.

purchases

Christmas gifts:
Harmonia - Deluxe
Bill Holt - Dreamies
Van Dyke Parks - Discover America
Zombies - Odessey and Oracle

From Grimey's in Nashville:
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Raincoats - Odyshape
Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale

Mustafa Ozkent - Genclik Ile Elele

From Amazon:

After what seems like a decade of cross-continental detective work and blind alley buffoonery, Finders Keepers finally have the auspicious privilege to introduce the incredible music of Anadolu pop's very own Dr. Frankenstein - Maestro Mustafa Ozkent. Regarded amongst hardened collectors of Anatolian rock as The Daddy of all Turkish rarities, this record simply has to be heard to be believed and even then it's still literally unbelievable. Is this record for real? Either these guys had time-machines or DJ Kool Herc had secret Eastern connections. If a box of original copies of this seldom-sighted album had made its way to the South Bronx in the late seventies then Mustafa Ozkent would be sharing throne space with other ultimate breaks and beats such as Michael Viners 'Incredible Bongo Band', Funky Drummer and Johnny The Fox bringing modern record collectors new found Turkish obsession forward by some 20 years.

(Mustafa Ozkent - Genclik Ile Elele)

The Association - ...And Then, Along Comes the Association

The group's debut album may be better listening today than it was in 1966, because it can be appreciated more -- and it definitely deserves a better reputation than it has among folk-rock, psychedelic pop, and pop/rock enthusiasts. The album is usually neglected because of the Association's reputation as a soft rock outfit and the prominence of the hits "Cherish" and "Along Comes Mary," both of which are too poppy for most serious '60s archeologists. The original LP was one or two songs short of uniformly high-quality material, but that defect was compensated for by the better numbers and the production of the late Curt Boettcher. Admittedly one of Boettcher's softer creations, And Then...Along Comes the Association displayed the same creative use of stereo sound separation -- the interlocking instrumental and vocal parts divided in discreet two-channel sound -- that was to characterize his work with groups like the Millennium and Sagittarius a little later in the decade. Indeed, And Then...Along Comes the Association was among the earliest American rock albums to make full creative use of stereo sound and to exploit it on behalf of a group. In those days, the stereo mix on a rock album was usually little more than an afterthought by the producer and engineer (most of whom hated rock & roll), but Boettcher appreciated just what he had here, with the six singers and instrumentalists in this band, and he spread their work out in front of the listener in vivid detail, giving each "voice" (human and instrumental) a close airing, yet meshing them together as well.

(The Association - ...And Then, Along Comes the Association)

23 Skidoo - Seven Songs

A more descriptive title would have been "Seven Panic Attacks," but even a bland title isn't able to prevent the undeniably savage, pungent impact of Seven Songs, a half-hour long album that plays out like a soundtrack to being bounty hunted in an expansive jungle. Following "Kundalini," a hectoring brain shake that hardly resembles the dormant energy it's named after, "Vegas el Bandito" enters and doesn't imply the James Brown of "Cold Sweat" so much as the panic of night sweats, churning out a taut groove of slap-happy bass, pattering drums, horn trills, and a scratchy-scratch guitar line that chases its tail. An echoing trumpet carries through the end of the song and drifts right on into "Mary's Operation," an anemic drone of even creepier horns and tape loops. "New Testament" is an industrial death lurch of rusted metallic sheets, giving way to "IY," a cluster of conga acrobatics with needling saxophones and frenetic chants thrown on top. "Porno Base," the real knockout, contains little more than a series of abysmal bass pluckings placed just far enough apart to induce chronic paranoia, sounding less like a smut-film score than "Welcome to the Terror Drone." The finale, "Quiet Pillage," despite its exotica reference, could only be played in the ruins of a lounge post-carpet bombing. This is post-punk at its most invigorating and terrifying.

(23 Skidoo - Seven Songs)

Slits - Cut

One of my favorites, now expanded and remastered!

Almost as well-known for its cover (the three Slits are half-naked and covered in mud) as for its music, Cut is an ebullient piece of post-punk mastery that finds the Slits' interest in Caribbean and African rhythms smoothly incorporated into their harsher punk rock stylings. Ari Up's wandering voice (a touch like Yoko Ono) might be initially off-putting, but not so much so that it makes listening to the record difficult. Six tracks are revamped from earlier Peel Sessions and sound better for the extra effort (especially "New Town" and "Love und Romance"). With its goofy charm, gleeful swing and sway, and subtle yet compelling libertarian feminism, this is one of the best records of the era.

(Slits - Cut)

Kevin Ayers - Bananamour

Bananamour is ripe with Kevin Ayers' most mature and accessible compositions to date. Ayers grounded himself in a newly formed trio for his follow-up to Whatevershebringswesing. With bassist Archie Leggett and drummer Eddie Sparrow at the hub, Ayers selected guest artists for a handful of the tracks: Whole World colleague Dave Bedford ("Beware of the Dog"), Gong's new guitarist Steve Hillage ("Shouting in a Bucket Blues"), and former Soft Machine mates Robert Wyatt ("Hymn") and Mike Ratledge ("Interview"). "Interview" is easily one of the album's strongest, most original tunes, charged with a rugged, positively electrifying guitar sound courtesy of Ayers and psychedelic organ flourishes by Ratledge. And "Shouting in a Bucket Blues" is Ayers' inspired pop/blues groove. Armed with a few biting lyrics, the song became a concert staple, fronted by a number of well-known guitarists over the years including Mike Oldfield and Andy Summers. Hillage delivers heat in this original studio recording of the song; he went on to repeat the performance many times while in Europe with Ayers' Bananatour band, Decadence. The song "Decadence" is the album's centerpiece and towering achievement. Here, Ayers, Leggett, and Sparrow create progressive, atmospheric music quite unlike anything else on the record. An original, spine-tingling workout with potent lyrics concerning Nico, "Decadence" is a kind of superior foreshadowing to the following year's "Confessions of Dr. Dream" epic, which features a vocal collaboration with Nico on "Part One." The compositions on Bananamour emphasize the vocal aspects of the material; in fact, Ayers secured the industry's premier session vocalists to back him on the recordings: Liza Strike, Doris Troy, and Barry St. John. In various configurations, the trio fleshs out the songs, adding a compelling depth to the album that pleasantly expands Ayers' eclectic repertoire. In particular, they lend a gospel quality to the Beatles-tinged opener, and imbue "When Your Parents Go to Sleep" with rather soulful Ray Charles stylistics. Intended to break Ayers to a wider audience, Bananamour was his last release on EMI/Harvest before switching to a new label (Island) and a new manager (the influential John Reid, Elton John's manager at the time). The ideas on Bananamour, arguably Ayers' finest work, gave way to some very focused, full-fledged prog rock and blues numbers on his ambitious follow-up, The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories (Island Records, 1974).

(Kevin Ayers - Bananamour)

Ash Ra Tempel - Inventions for Electric Guitar

This album is sometimes credited to Ash Ra Tempel, but the music was composed and performed by Manuel Göttsching alone. All sounds were created with guitar, but Göttsching's use of echo, delay, and assorted treatments give these pieces the flavor of sequenced synthesizer music, occasionally reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's work from the period. The opening "Echo Waves" is a trance-inducing space guitar masterpiece, with repeating rhythm figures and gradual phase shifts creating a warped sense of time. The first 14 minutes of the track consist of short, subtly changing melodic phrases, until Göttsching questionably chooses to close with a searing, acid-fried guitar solo. "Quasarsphere" is much more contemplative, with Göttsching processing his guitar to sound like a synthesizer in the vein of Robert Fripp. The closing "Pluralis" consists of endless variations constructed around a simple guitar sequence; it possesses a structure similar to "Echo Waves" (down to the late-breaking blast of psychedelic soloing) with a bit more space and a slower tempo. In some respects a precursor to the groundbreaking proto-techno of E2-E4, Inventions for Electric Guitar is an essential document for space rock enthusiasts.

(Ash Ra Tempel - Inventions for Electric Guitar)

Solex - Solex vs. The Hitmeister

Solex, aka Dutch record shop owner Elisabeth Esselink, creates a pure, offbeat musical world on the 1998 debut, Solex vs. the Hitmeister. All of the songs contain the band's name; Esselink delivers her English-sung vocals with dreamlike, rhythmic phrasing, and the album's cavernous production makes it sound as though it were recorded deep inside her head -- it all adds up to an abstract, alien collection of songs that owes very little to electronica or indie rock as the outside world knows it. Instead, each song on Hitmeister flows to its own musical logic, built on samples of discounted, long-forgotten records and Esselink's expressive, sweetly foreign voice, supported here and there by touches of guitar and keyboards. "When Solex Just Stood There" suggests industrial dance with its relentless beat, one-note vocals, and screeching sound effects, while "Solex All Licketysplit" bounds around the room on a rubbery bassline and sparkly keyboards. "Some Solex" marries a somewhat ominous bass drum to a warm guitar line, while spaceship sound effects hover in the background. "One Louder Solex" and "Solex in a Slipshod Style" have a fluid, stream-of-consciousness style that recalls daydreams, adding to Hitmeister's overall surreal quality. A completely unique combination of beats, samples, and voice, Solex is insular and inventive, revealing an artist with a very personal kind of creativity.

(Solex - Solex vs. The Hitmeister)