I Hate Year-End Lists--So Here's My Year-End List
2005 was a rough year for us all, with disasters both natural and manmade, but it ended on an upswing; perhaps by the end of 2006 the people of the US will be bracing for the impeachment hearings for GW Bush and Dick Cheney. There was some good music out there this year as always, and here are some releases from 2005 (in no particular order) that helped make a strange year more bearable:
Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain (Load)--what can be said that has not been said before? Those looking for a new sound from this band can fuck off. When your sound sounds like their sound no new sound is needed.
Jack Rose Kensington Blues (VHF)--stately, elegant, and confident playing. Excellent composition. Despite this being a one-man acoustic guitar record it had the loudest mastering job out of any release I heard this year....
Coptic Light Coptic Light (No Quarter)--thunderous trio from Brooklyn with the monstrous Kevin Shea on drums. Loops and riffs and improv add up to dark ass-kicking psych rock.
Earth Hex, or Printing in the Infernal Method (Southern Lord)--Dylan Carlson's new take on his old band is a quiet rumination on American music. More big sky now than noddy drone, this disc is a soundtrack without a movie. Nice Wm. Blake reference in the title as well.
Ultralyd Chromosome Gun (Load)--Kjetil Brandsdal is a bad man. Not only does he destroy people with his bass in the punishing Noxagt, but he slams out the jams in this improvised 4-piece called Ultralyd. Equal parts free jazz and noisy rock, also featuring Frode Gjerstad on saxophone and clarinet. Pretty rocking and brutal stuff.
Nels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano Immolation/Immersion (Strange Attractors)--searing free jazz/free rock improv from this nasty trio. Shoup is in fine form, but Nels Cline is magnificent--elastic in his style, his playing ranges from scorching noise, to fast, fat-toned riffing, to clear and fragile droning. Corsano plays his ass off on this too.
SunnO))) Black One (Southern Lord)--O'Malley and Anderson turn their drone directly towards the heart of the Father of Lies on this one, enlisting such black metal stalwarts as Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan to assist them. Oren Ambarchi and John Wiese also help the lads expand their palette a bit on this one, and the results are fantastic. A truly unsettling record, and the black metal vox are an unexpectedly successful addition to the SunnO))) sound.
Om Variations on a Theme (Holy Mountain)--the former rhythm section for Sleep returns from the wilderness with a bass and drums exercise in power. Monumentally heavy and repetitive and blissful all at once.
Orthrelm OV (Ipecac)--Mick Barr and Josh Blair confound and complicate for one mammoth 45-minute track. Incredible technique on full display along with a shifty sense of composition.
Circle Tulikoira (Ektro/No Quarter)--the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal has commenced. From this rockcrit joke on their insert, psychlords Circle establish their declared intention with 4 longish pieces. Though slightly more metallic than other efforts, their trademark Krautrock grooves are fully in evidence on this release.
and reissues:
the Ex Singles. Period. (Touch and Go)--singles collection dating back to the earliest releases from this Dutch punk rock band. Their musical development grows with each single. Arranged in chronological order for the true rock geek experience.
Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note/EMI)--remastered live brilliance from Monk and Trane. The legendary and brief collaboration between the two jazz icons is finally given its proper due with this excellent release. The drums distort ever so slightly and ever so pleasantly due to the creaky fidelity of the source recordings.
And even though this is a list pertaining to music, I feel I must at least mention that I enjoyed Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture about as much as anything else on this list. And I also enjoyed HBO's Rome and Deadwood series. I think the only movie I saw in the theater this year was the Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo. It was great, a must-see for any fan of the band or Mike Watt. So there it is. I hate year-end lists.
Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain (Load)--what can be said that has not been said before? Those looking for a new sound from this band can fuck off. When your sound sounds like their sound no new sound is needed.
Jack Rose Kensington Blues (VHF)--stately, elegant, and confident playing. Excellent composition. Despite this being a one-man acoustic guitar record it had the loudest mastering job out of any release I heard this year....
Coptic Light Coptic Light (No Quarter)--thunderous trio from Brooklyn with the monstrous Kevin Shea on drums. Loops and riffs and improv add up to dark ass-kicking psych rock.
Earth Hex, or Printing in the Infernal Method (Southern Lord)--Dylan Carlson's new take on his old band is a quiet rumination on American music. More big sky now than noddy drone, this disc is a soundtrack without a movie. Nice Wm. Blake reference in the title as well.
Ultralyd Chromosome Gun (Load)--Kjetil Brandsdal is a bad man. Not only does he destroy people with his bass in the punishing Noxagt, but he slams out the jams in this improvised 4-piece called Ultralyd. Equal parts free jazz and noisy rock, also featuring Frode Gjerstad on saxophone and clarinet. Pretty rocking and brutal stuff.
Nels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano Immolation/Immersion (Strange Attractors)--searing free jazz/free rock improv from this nasty trio. Shoup is in fine form, but Nels Cline is magnificent--elastic in his style, his playing ranges from scorching noise, to fast, fat-toned riffing, to clear and fragile droning. Corsano plays his ass off on this too.
SunnO))) Black One (Southern Lord)--O'Malley and Anderson turn their drone directly towards the heart of the Father of Lies on this one, enlisting such black metal stalwarts as Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan to assist them. Oren Ambarchi and John Wiese also help the lads expand their palette a bit on this one, and the results are fantastic. A truly unsettling record, and the black metal vox are an unexpectedly successful addition to the SunnO))) sound.
Om Variations on a Theme (Holy Mountain)--the former rhythm section for Sleep returns from the wilderness with a bass and drums exercise in power. Monumentally heavy and repetitive and blissful all at once.
Orthrelm OV (Ipecac)--Mick Barr and Josh Blair confound and complicate for one mammoth 45-minute track. Incredible technique on full display along with a shifty sense of composition.
Circle Tulikoira (Ektro/No Quarter)--the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal has commenced. From this rockcrit joke on their insert, psychlords Circle establish their declared intention with 4 longish pieces. Though slightly more metallic than other efforts, their trademark Krautrock grooves are fully in evidence on this release.
and reissues:
the Ex Singles. Period. (Touch and Go)--singles collection dating back to the earliest releases from this Dutch punk rock band. Their musical development grows with each single. Arranged in chronological order for the true rock geek experience.
Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note/EMI)--remastered live brilliance from Monk and Trane. The legendary and brief collaboration between the two jazz icons is finally given its proper due with this excellent release. The drums distort ever so slightly and ever so pleasantly due to the creaky fidelity of the source recordings.
And even though this is a list pertaining to music, I feel I must at least mention that I enjoyed Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture about as much as anything else on this list. And I also enjoyed HBO's Rome and Deadwood series. I think the only movie I saw in the theater this year was the Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo. It was great, a must-see for any fan of the band or Mike Watt. So there it is. I hate year-end lists.
posted by alyosha mcbain at 5:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home