(no subject)
Well, several of my friends have done their inevitable best-of lists, so I guess its time for me to put mine on here. As always, my disclaimer...This is my listing of the 10 best albums this year, in alphabetical order. It may be a new album, or it may be an old one, or it may be a rerelease, but whatever the case its got a little 2006 on its packaging so that's what qualifies it here. If a band has more than one release that's listworthy (of which there were several this year), I only allowed one album per artist.
I personally think 2006 was an astounding year for great music, perhaps the best in recent memory, and as such it was extremely difficult to narrow some of these down. And in fact, in doing so some albums made the list that frankly surprised me, but I tried to be as objective as possible (it may sound silly that I'm attempting to be objective to myself but all the same). There was honestly like a 10-way tie for 11th place and honestly I could've put some cooler albums on but truth be told, these were my 10 of the year:
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (Matador) I never would've imagined this to be on the list back on the day I bought it, but its funny what a year can do. All the songs, even the bad ones (and there are a few on here), get stuck in your head over time until there's nothing you can do but give in. Case in point: “We Are The Sleepyheads”, a song that seemingly samples the drum beat from Led Zeppelin’s “The Crunge” and has a late-70s phased disco guitar break for a solo, performed by the most pronounced indie-pop band of our times no less, sounds destined for failure right from the start. And that’s pretty much the way it came across to me too. Now, 10 months later, its my favorite song on the album. I can’t say that The Life Pursuit will stand up to the ages of time, not even within the oeurve of Belle & Sebastian, but it was my most-played album of 2006 so it had to be doing something right.
Charalambides - A Vintage Burden (Kranky) I assumed that 2004’s Joy Shapes would be the swansong (or would vulturesong be more apropos?)of this longstanding drone-folk partnership between Tom & Christina Carter, not least because their divorce occurred during the recording of that exceedingly difficult album. But here they are 2 years later, rested and purged, with a beautiful scraped-to-the-bone affair picking up the sticks and moving ahead with their lives. The most accessible and frankly gorgeous album ever issued under their name, this is the sonic equivalent to the odd quiet you get after the storm of the century has finally receded into the distance.
Comets On Fire - Avatar (Sub Pop) As soon as I started my first listen of this album, much like The Life Pursuit, I nearly screamed “Judas!” into the speakers, but damned if I didn’t get converted to their ways before the end of the disc. The tried and tested Comets formula of unintelligible vocals, electro-destruct guitars, and ECHOPLEX, toned down considerably on 2004’s Blue Cathedral, is barely at all present here. Instead, the band comes out with the best underground record 1971 never released. Much was made of Comets main man Ethan Miller’s side project Howlin Rain, as a whiskey-soaked tribute to the late days of freedom rock, but truly this album does an even better job of conveying that feeling. And when the band does veer back into their old forte, as they do for a few minutes on here, the earth feels on the verge of eruption.
Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg (Numero) I have had a love of soul music since childhood, but for far too long I didn’t buy any of it since I received the 9xCD Stax/Volt box set in college and considered it the be-all end-all of rhythm & blues. I wisely reassessed in 2006, and of all I experimented with the Numero label (particularly the “Eccentric Soul” series) paid off rather lucratively. Of the 4 fantastic soul reissues they did this year, I’d have to say that this comp of Arizona soul from the 60s and 70s (put out originally by Mr. Lenaburg) is the unlikely champ of the lot. How these musicians remained unknown perplexes me, as singers like Ronnie Whitehead come across like Otis Redding leading the JBs. That music like this continues to get unearthed only suggests what musical legacies might get dug up in 2007.
Sachiko Kanenobu - Misora (Chapter) Ms. Kanenobu was a folkie in Japan who, after an apprenticeship in several groups, recorded this one album in 1972 with the influence of Haruomi Hosono from Yellow Magic Orchestra. Anything released by a singing-songwriting female in 1972, regardless of nationality, is going to be indebted to Joni Mitchell and this record is no exception, but there’s also tinges of Neil Young circa After The Gold Rush and a few native flourishes as well. The 21st century has been awash in folk reissues, and I’ve bought a ton of them, but very few are as deserving of status as this one. Some additional trivia: soon after this release, Sachiko met “Crawdaddy” scribe Paul Williams when he toured Japan, and she married him and moved to Manhattan, leaving her music career behind. And at the end of the 70s, they relocated to Northern California where Philip K. Dick became a big fan of her and wanted to produce her comeback. The fact that the music outshines various bits of info like this speaks rather highly.
Reiko Kudo - Kusa (Hyotan) Reiko takes a break from her husband Tori’s band Maher Shalal Hash Baz and issued 2 exceedingly gorgeous albums simultaneously this year. I played the other one, Hito a bit more but I think ultimately the difficult decision of picking one for the list goes to Kusa. Most of the album is an introspective Japanese pop-folk record, inspired by equal parts Syd Barrett and Vashti Bunyan, so for every plaintive piano ballad you also get an upbeat pop melody with a vacuum cleaner for instrumentation. All throughout, Reiko’s voice hovers on the edge of breaking, with a childlike delivery unlike anyone else in music today, the musical equivalent of the blushing schoolgirl putting her hand over her mouth.
Radio Algeria (Sublime Frequencies) It wouldn’t be a best-of list without something from Sublime Frequencies showing up. There were only 3 albums from them this year, their quietest output to date, but this compilation of Algerian radio from 2005 ranks among the best of all releases. I really knew nothing about Algeria other than its geographical location and its history of colonization, so it was shocking to hear exactly what typifies their musical culture. A hodgepodge of sounds, from the rhythms of its native continent, to Arabic pop structures and even subcontinental melodies can be found within. And of course its just across the Mediterranean from Europe so there’s some French chanson-style numbers thrown in for healthy measure. And of course the Bishop brothers mash it into all sorts of madness to make it even more mystifying. The Radio seriesare certainly the most controversial of the Sublime Frequencies catalog entries, as they’re making a profit simply by bringing a mini-disc recorder on vacation with them, but with results like these who can complain?
Tom Waits - Orphans (Anti) This looked like a cash cow just ready to be milked. One of the living legends of our day releases his first “Odds ‘n Sods” release in a 3-disc box just in time for the holiday season. Of course its Tom Waits so it can’t be bad, but I figured it’d probably be an enjoyable release that, like his live album Big Time, would ultimately be a marginal one alongside his discography. How wrong I was. As it stands I consider this collection to be his strongest and, surprisingly, most cohesive release since 1992’s Bone Machine. All the more surprising as this runs the gamete from the public domain to Ramones covers, working-class spoken word for mechanics to perhaps his first outright political song in his oeurve. The discs are split up into junkyard rockers, boozed-out ballads, and the “other” where all of his gypsy/beatnik/oddball tendencies are made manifest. Forgive me for cribbing this from NPR, but this really is Tom’s Exile On Main Street.
Yo La Tengo - Yo La Tengo Are Murdering The Classics (Egon) Oh, how this tore at me. Which Yo La Tengo album do I put on here? The comeback studio album, their first diverse listen in a decade, which has rekindled the flames that were dying out among people who were giving up on them and their increasingly mellowed-out albums, or the long-awaited fringe collection of wacky requested covers performed on WFMU marathons in return for listeners’ donations? You can see what won out, and this list will probably be the only best-of you’ll run across that thinks this way. After all, everyone else is going to praise the wonderfully titled I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass to death, as they should, but this one will almost certainly go under the radar. But it contains so much of what I love about this band and why they have remained my favorite group for well over a decade. The anything-goes sense of humor, the respect for all periods of pop music history, and of course the top-notch musicianship of the trio (plus the wonderful Bruce Bennett of the A-Bones, the 4th Yo La for these shindigs). How anyone could not fall in love with a band of record critics who nevertheless bungle the opening of “Oh Bondage! Up Yours”, who nail a driving “Roadrunner” all the way until the last 3 seconds of the song, and who bang out the definitive version of “Roundabout” after a fewminutes’ rehearsal, perplexes me. When’s Volume 2 coming out?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live At The Fillmore East 1970 (Reprise) Way back in 1992, I read a Neil Young interview where he discussed his ridiculously extensive archive of live recordings, and how he wanted to roll out an indefinite number of box sets that would virtually rewrite our history of the man, from his early days backing up Rick James through his extensive Crazy Horse concerts to his 80s experiments and beyond. And he’s never done a damned thing with it...until now. And unbelievably, this delivers on the hype. Recorded just after the release of his first true classic Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Crazy Horse performs most of the album faithfully to the last angelic “la-la”, and raucously to the last extended guitar solo. Make no mistake about it, THE definitive version of “Cowgirl In The Sand” is found within. After all, they had Miles Davis opening for them that night (whose extraordinary set was released a few years back as It’s About That Time), so they knew they’d need to deliver the goods, and they did. This must have been what it felt like for the Israelites when they saw the first few waves of the Red Sea part.
And the other thing I always like to do...this is the deck I was dealt. These are the CDs I got this year (hmm, I just realized that 2006 was the first year in at least a decade where I didn't buy any LPs, although I did get a 7"). That way, you see what I listened to and what made the final cut. I thought about doing a shortlist this year since there were so many great albums, but my shortlist would only have been slightly less than the complete list of what I got so I decided to just stick with 10 and show you everything else. Here we go...
ALBUMS ACQUIRED IN 2006 (No Burns Or Zine Samplers Counted) (* = 2006 Release, ** = 2006 Reissue)
Acid Mothers Afrirampo - We Are Acid Mothers Afrirampo (Acid Mothers Temple CD)
Acid Mothers Temple - Have You Seen The Other Side Of The Sky? (Ace Fu CD)*
Acid Mothers Temple - Power House Of Holy (Acid Mothers Temple CD)*
Astro Twin/Cosmos - Astro Twin/Cosmos (FMN Sound Factory 2xCD)
Asuna - Room Note (Powershovel Audio CD)*
Avarus - Jatilaisrotta (Secret Eye/Lal Lal Lal CD)
Avarus - Vesikansi (Secret Eye/Lal Lal Lal CD)*
Robbie Basho - Bashovia (Takoma CD)
Robbie Basho - Venus In Cancer (Tompkins Square CD)**
The Beatles - Love (Capitol CD)**
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (Matador CD/DVD)*
James Blackshaw - Sunshrine (Digitalis CD)
Thomas Bloch - Ondes Martenot (Naxos CD)
Sandy Bull - Still Valentine’s Day: Live At The Matrix (Water CD)**
Charalambides - Dead/Live (Wholly Other CD-R)
Charalambides - A Vintage Burden (Kranky CD)*
Euros Childs - Chops (Wichita CD)*Cluster - 71 (Water CD)**
Colleen - Golden Morning Breaks (Leaf CD)
Colleen - Colleen & Les Boits A Musique (Leaf CD)*
Shirley Collins - Within Sound (Fledg’ling 4xCD)
Comets On Fire - Avatar (Sub Pop CD)*
Noah Creshevsky - Tape Music Of Noah Creshevsky (EM CD)**
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Columbia 2xCD)
Dead C - Vain, Erudite & Stupid: Selected Works 1987-2005 (Ba Da Bing! 2xCD)**
Dungen - Ta Det Lungt (Subliminal Sounds 2xCD)
Embryonnck - Embryonnck (Staubgold CD)*
John Fahey - The Transfiguration Of Blind Joe Death (Takoma CD)
John Fahey - Volume 4: The Great San Bernadino Birthday Party (Takoma CD)
John Fahey - Voice Of The Turtle (Takoma CD)
John Fahey - The Yellow Princess (Vanguard CD)
John Fahey - The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick: Live At The Matrix (Water CD)
Fania All-Stars - Live At The Red Garter Volume 1 (Fania CD)**
Jim Fassett - Symphony Of The Birds (EM CD)
Josephine Foster - A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing (Locust CD)*
Fursaxa - Myriads Of Satyrids (Self-Released CD-R)*
Nick Garrie - The Nightmare Of JB Stanislaus (Revola CD)
Larkin Grimm - Harpoon (Secret Eye CD)
Growing - The Color Wheel (Troubleman Unlimited CD)*
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation (Sire CD)
High Rise - Disallow (PSF CD)
Howlin Rain - Howlin Rain (Birdman CD)*
Hubcap City (From Belgium) - Rollerskate Or Die! (Ponce De Leon 7”)*
Akira Ikufube - Toho Scope (VAP 2xCD)
Sachiko Kanenobu - Misora (Chapter CD)**
Kawabata Makoto - Inui (VHF CD)**
Kawabata Makoto - O Si Amos A Sighire A Esserre Duas Umbras? (Important CD)
Kemialliset Ystavat - Lumottu Karkkipurkki (Vapaa Systeemi) (Fonal CD)
Kiila - Heartcore (Say Hey CD)
Kim Jung Mi - Kim Jung Mi (World Psychedelia CD)**
Kim Jung Mi - Wind (World Psychedelia CD)**
Konono No. 1 - Congotronics (Crammed CD)
Erkin Koray - 2 (World Psychedelia CD)
Sharron Kraus - Beautiful Twisted (Camera Obscura CD)
Reiko Kudo - Hito (Hyotan CD)*
Reiko Kudo - Kusa (Hyotan CD)*
Tori Kudo - Don’t Fear An Adjoining Island (Igloo CD)
Michio Kurihara - Sunset Dreams (Pedal CD)
Bettye Lavette - Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart (Varese Sarabande CD)**
Long Fin Killie - Valentino (Too Pure CD)
Magic Carpathians - Water Dreams (Fly CD)
Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Faux Depart (Yik Yak CD)**
Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Live Aoiheya 2003 (Chapter CD)*
Charles Manson - Sings (ESP CD)**
Marginal Consort - Collective Improvisation (PSF CD)
Kan Mikami - Hiraku Yume Nado Aru Ja Nashi (Avex CD)
Kimio Mizutani - A Path Through Haze (P-Vine CD)
Sam Moore - Moooohieee! (EM CD)
Mouse On Mars - Varcharz (Ipecac CD)*
Mudboy - Free Matter For The Blind (Self-Released CD)*
Seiji Nagai - Electronic Noise Improvisation 1999 (Doppelganger CD)
Pandit Pran Nath - Midnight (Just Dreams 2xCD)
Pandit Pran Nath - Raga Cycle (Sri Moonshine CD)**
New Ghost - Live Upstairs At Nick’s (ESP CD)*
Joanna Newsom - Ys (Drag City CD)*
Noise - Tenno (Alchemy CD)
Matsuo Ohno - The World Of Electro-Acoustic Sound In Music Volume 1 (King CD)
Mustafa Ozkent - Genclik Ile Elele (Finders Keepers CD)**
Paavoharju - Yaa Hamaraa (Fonal CD)
Pelt - Skullfuck: Bestio Turgem Degero (VHF CD)**
Pharoah Overlord - The Battle Of Axe-Hammer (Live) (Last Visible Dog CD)
Puka Puka Brians - Pet Cemetery Sounds (Majikick CD)
Pumice - Yeahnahvienna (Soft Abuse CD)*
Minnie Riperton - Capitol Gold (Capitol CD)
David Rosenboom - Brainwave Music (EM CD)**
St. Joan - One At Twilight (Dakota CD)
Bridget St. John - Songs For The Gentle Man (Cherry Red CD)**
Sala-Arhimo - Sala-Arhimo (Last Visible Dog CD)*
Santo Domingo De Silos - The Mystery Of Santo Domingo De Silos (Deutsche Grammophon CD)
Sayasource - Return To A Source (Minamoto CD)
Selda - Selda (Finders Keepers CD)**
Shogun Kunitoki - Tasankokaiku (Fonal CD)*
Six Organs Of Admittance - The Sun Awakens (Drag City CD)*
Sly & The Family Stone - There’s A Riot Goin’ On (Epic CD)
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped (DGC CD)*
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Origin Volume 1 (Mercury CD)
Space Machine - Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter (Alchemy CD)
The Spacious Mind - Rotvalta (Goddamn I’m A Countryman CD)*
Spires That In The Sunset Rise - Four Winds The Walker (Secret Eye CD)
Burkhard Stangl & Taku Unami - I Was (Hibari CD)*
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan (Asthmatic Kitty CD)
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche (Asthmatic Kitty CD)*
Sufjan Stevens - Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty 5xCD)**
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen (Stockhausen Verlag CD)
Yma Sumac - Recital (ESP CD)**
Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Complexion (Very Friendly CD)
SunnO))) + Boris - Altar (Southern Lord 2xCD)*
Veno Tagashi - Two Things Always Happen Simultaneously (Majikick CD)
Tammen Harth Dahlgren Rosen - Expedition: Live At The Knitting Factory (ESP CD)*
Tenniscoats - Theme Of Tenniscoats (Majikick CD)
Tenniscoats - The Ending Theme (Midi Creative Control CD)
Tenniscoats - We Are Everyone (Majikick CD)
Tenniscoats - Live Wanderus (Chapter CD)*
Terre Thaemlitz - Die Roboter Rubato (Mille Plateaux CD)
Trees Community - The Christ Tree (Dark Holler 4xCD)**
Via - Pwdre Ser (Self-Releaed CD-R)*
Tom Waits - Orphans (Anti 3xCD)**
Weird Weeds - Weird Feelings (Sounds Are Active CD)*
Bill Wells & Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Osaka Bridge (Karaoke Kaik CD)*
Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street (Bootleg CD)
Frank Wright - Unity (ESP CD)**
Peter Wright - Pariahs Sing Om (Last Visible Dog 3xCD)**
Yo La Tengo - Yo La Tengo Are Murdering The Classics (Egon CD)*
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador CD)*
Ami [Yoshida] - Spiritual Voice (Airport CD)
Neil Young - Live At The Fillmore East 1970 (Reprise CD/DVD-Audio)**
Zandosis - George W Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell (Stickfigure CD)*
S/T - Desperate Man Blues (Dust To Digital CD)**
S/T - The Harder They Come (Island CD)
V/A - A Raga For Peter Walker (Tompkins Square CD)*
V/A - Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music Volume 4 (Sub Rosa 2xCD)**
V/A - Darkness Knows No Boundaries (Southern Lord CD)*
V/A - Dust To Digital Sampler 2006 (Dust To Digital CD)**
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label (Numero CD)
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label (Numero CD)
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label (Numero CD)**
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label (Numero CD)**
V/A - Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg (Numero CD)**
V/A - Ethnic Minority Music Of Northeast Cambodia (Sublime Frequencies CD)*
V/A - Gagaku: Traditional Japanese Music (King CD)
V/A - Ghana Soundz (Soundway CD)
V/A - Gion Matsuri (King CD)*
V/A - Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal (Numero CD)**
V/A - Honeymoon Music Volume 1 (Honeymoon CD)
V/A - How Low Can You Go? The String Bass Anthology (Dust To Digital 3xCD)**
V/A - I Belong To This Band: 85 Years Of Sacred Harp Recordings (Dust To Digital CD)**
V/A - In Drawing (Cherry CD)
V/A - International Sad Hits Volume 1 (20/20/20 CD)**
V/A - Lagos All Routes (Honest Jon’s CD)**
V/A - Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music (QDK Media CD)
V/A - Musik In Deutschland 1950-2000: Fluxus - Happening - Performance (RCA CD)
V/A - Not Alone (Jnana 5xCD)*
V/A - Radio Algeria (Sublime Frequencies CD)*
V/A - Radio Thailand (Sublime Frequencies 2xCD)*
V/A - Rough Trade Shops: Post-Punk Volume 1 (Mute 2xCD)
V/A - Shakuhachi: Art Of The Japanese Flute (Nonesuch CD)
V/A - Songs For Nao: 14 Bands From Japan (Chapter CD)
V/A - Space Theatre (RCA CD)
V/A - The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (Yazoo 2xCD)**
V/A - Terrastock 6 (Secret Eye CD)*
V/A - Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon (Numero CD)**
V/A - What It Is! Funky Soul & Rare Grooves (Rhino 4xCD)**
V/A - The World Of Traditional Music (Ocora 7xCD)
V/A - Yemen: Music From The Heart Of Arabia (Buda CD)
Samples of all 10 of my best-ofs will obviously be on the mix I'm sending out to those of you (barring the YLT track, I played it safe and put a song from the proper album on instead) in addition to more tracks from some of the other albums. Disc 1 will be the Year 2006 disc, whether new or reissued, with 20 tracks, while Disc 2 is the "Old Things I Bought In 2006" disc, also with 20 tracks. The burning mayhem starts momentarily...
Alright, let get the war of the words going!
I personally think 2006 was an astounding year for great music, perhaps the best in recent memory, and as such it was extremely difficult to narrow some of these down. And in fact, in doing so some albums made the list that frankly surprised me, but I tried to be as objective as possible (it may sound silly that I'm attempting to be objective to myself but all the same). There was honestly like a 10-way tie for 11th place and honestly I could've put some cooler albums on but truth be told, these were my 10 of the year:
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (Matador) I never would've imagined this to be on the list back on the day I bought it, but its funny what a year can do. All the songs, even the bad ones (and there are a few on here), get stuck in your head over time until there's nothing you can do but give in. Case in point: “We Are The Sleepyheads”, a song that seemingly samples the drum beat from Led Zeppelin’s “The Crunge” and has a late-70s phased disco guitar break for a solo, performed by the most pronounced indie-pop band of our times no less, sounds destined for failure right from the start. And that’s pretty much the way it came across to me too. Now, 10 months later, its my favorite song on the album. I can’t say that The Life Pursuit will stand up to the ages of time, not even within the oeurve of Belle & Sebastian, but it was my most-played album of 2006 so it had to be doing something right.
Charalambides - A Vintage Burden (Kranky) I assumed that 2004’s Joy Shapes would be the swansong (or would vulturesong be more apropos?)of this longstanding drone-folk partnership between Tom & Christina Carter, not least because their divorce occurred during the recording of that exceedingly difficult album. But here they are 2 years later, rested and purged, with a beautiful scraped-to-the-bone affair picking up the sticks and moving ahead with their lives. The most accessible and frankly gorgeous album ever issued under their name, this is the sonic equivalent to the odd quiet you get after the storm of the century has finally receded into the distance.
Comets On Fire - Avatar (Sub Pop) As soon as I started my first listen of this album, much like The Life Pursuit, I nearly screamed “Judas!” into the speakers, but damned if I didn’t get converted to their ways before the end of the disc. The tried and tested Comets formula of unintelligible vocals, electro-destruct guitars, and ECHOPLEX, toned down considerably on 2004’s Blue Cathedral, is barely at all present here. Instead, the band comes out with the best underground record 1971 never released. Much was made of Comets main man Ethan Miller’s side project Howlin Rain, as a whiskey-soaked tribute to the late days of freedom rock, but truly this album does an even better job of conveying that feeling. And when the band does veer back into their old forte, as they do for a few minutes on here, the earth feels on the verge of eruption.
Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg (Numero) I have had a love of soul music since childhood, but for far too long I didn’t buy any of it since I received the 9xCD Stax/Volt box set in college and considered it the be-all end-all of rhythm & blues. I wisely reassessed in 2006, and of all I experimented with the Numero label (particularly the “Eccentric Soul” series) paid off rather lucratively. Of the 4 fantastic soul reissues they did this year, I’d have to say that this comp of Arizona soul from the 60s and 70s (put out originally by Mr. Lenaburg) is the unlikely champ of the lot. How these musicians remained unknown perplexes me, as singers like Ronnie Whitehead come across like Otis Redding leading the JBs. That music like this continues to get unearthed only suggests what musical legacies might get dug up in 2007.
Sachiko Kanenobu - Misora (Chapter) Ms. Kanenobu was a folkie in Japan who, after an apprenticeship in several groups, recorded this one album in 1972 with the influence of Haruomi Hosono from Yellow Magic Orchestra. Anything released by a singing-songwriting female in 1972, regardless of nationality, is going to be indebted to Joni Mitchell and this record is no exception, but there’s also tinges of Neil Young circa After The Gold Rush and a few native flourishes as well. The 21st century has been awash in folk reissues, and I’ve bought a ton of them, but very few are as deserving of status as this one. Some additional trivia: soon after this release, Sachiko met “Crawdaddy” scribe Paul Williams when he toured Japan, and she married him and moved to Manhattan, leaving her music career behind. And at the end of the 70s, they relocated to Northern California where Philip K. Dick became a big fan of her and wanted to produce her comeback. The fact that the music outshines various bits of info like this speaks rather highly.
Reiko Kudo - Kusa (Hyotan) Reiko takes a break from her husband Tori’s band Maher Shalal Hash Baz and issued 2 exceedingly gorgeous albums simultaneously this year. I played the other one, Hito a bit more but I think ultimately the difficult decision of picking one for the list goes to Kusa. Most of the album is an introspective Japanese pop-folk record, inspired by equal parts Syd Barrett and Vashti Bunyan, so for every plaintive piano ballad you also get an upbeat pop melody with a vacuum cleaner for instrumentation. All throughout, Reiko’s voice hovers on the edge of breaking, with a childlike delivery unlike anyone else in music today, the musical equivalent of the blushing schoolgirl putting her hand over her mouth.
Radio Algeria (Sublime Frequencies) It wouldn’t be a best-of list without something from Sublime Frequencies showing up. There were only 3 albums from them this year, their quietest output to date, but this compilation of Algerian radio from 2005 ranks among the best of all releases. I really knew nothing about Algeria other than its geographical location and its history of colonization, so it was shocking to hear exactly what typifies their musical culture. A hodgepodge of sounds, from the rhythms of its native continent, to Arabic pop structures and even subcontinental melodies can be found within. And of course its just across the Mediterranean from Europe so there’s some French chanson-style numbers thrown in for healthy measure. And of course the Bishop brothers mash it into all sorts of madness to make it even more mystifying. The Radio seriesare certainly the most controversial of the Sublime Frequencies catalog entries, as they’re making a profit simply by bringing a mini-disc recorder on vacation with them, but with results like these who can complain?
Tom Waits - Orphans (Anti) This looked like a cash cow just ready to be milked. One of the living legends of our day releases his first “Odds ‘n Sods” release in a 3-disc box just in time for the holiday season. Of course its Tom Waits so it can’t be bad, but I figured it’d probably be an enjoyable release that, like his live album Big Time, would ultimately be a marginal one alongside his discography. How wrong I was. As it stands I consider this collection to be his strongest and, surprisingly, most cohesive release since 1992’s Bone Machine. All the more surprising as this runs the gamete from the public domain to Ramones covers, working-class spoken word for mechanics to perhaps his first outright political song in his oeurve. The discs are split up into junkyard rockers, boozed-out ballads, and the “other” where all of his gypsy/beatnik/oddball tendencies are made manifest. Forgive me for cribbing this from NPR, but this really is Tom’s Exile On Main Street.
Yo La Tengo - Yo La Tengo Are Murdering The Classics (Egon) Oh, how this tore at me. Which Yo La Tengo album do I put on here? The comeback studio album, their first diverse listen in a decade, which has rekindled the flames that were dying out among people who were giving up on them and their increasingly mellowed-out albums, or the long-awaited fringe collection of wacky requested covers performed on WFMU marathons in return for listeners’ donations? You can see what won out, and this list will probably be the only best-of you’ll run across that thinks this way. After all, everyone else is going to praise the wonderfully titled I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass to death, as they should, but this one will almost certainly go under the radar. But it contains so much of what I love about this band and why they have remained my favorite group for well over a decade. The anything-goes sense of humor, the respect for all periods of pop music history, and of course the top-notch musicianship of the trio (plus the wonderful Bruce Bennett of the A-Bones, the 4th Yo La for these shindigs). How anyone could not fall in love with a band of record critics who nevertheless bungle the opening of “Oh Bondage! Up Yours”, who nail a driving “Roadrunner” all the way until the last 3 seconds of the song, and who bang out the definitive version of “Roundabout” after a fewminutes’ rehearsal, perplexes me. When’s Volume 2 coming out?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live At The Fillmore East 1970 (Reprise) Way back in 1992, I read a Neil Young interview where he discussed his ridiculously extensive archive of live recordings, and how he wanted to roll out an indefinite number of box sets that would virtually rewrite our history of the man, from his early days backing up Rick James through his extensive Crazy Horse concerts to his 80s experiments and beyond. And he’s never done a damned thing with it...until now. And unbelievably, this delivers on the hype. Recorded just after the release of his first true classic Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Crazy Horse performs most of the album faithfully to the last angelic “la-la”, and raucously to the last extended guitar solo. Make no mistake about it, THE definitive version of “Cowgirl In The Sand” is found within. After all, they had Miles Davis opening for them that night (whose extraordinary set was released a few years back as It’s About That Time), so they knew they’d need to deliver the goods, and they did. This must have been what it felt like for the Israelites when they saw the first few waves of the Red Sea part.
And the other thing I always like to do...this is the deck I was dealt. These are the CDs I got this year (hmm, I just realized that 2006 was the first year in at least a decade where I didn't buy any LPs, although I did get a 7"). That way, you see what I listened to and what made the final cut. I thought about doing a shortlist this year since there were so many great albums, but my shortlist would only have been slightly less than the complete list of what I got so I decided to just stick with 10 and show you everything else. Here we go...
ALBUMS ACQUIRED IN 2006 (No Burns Or Zine Samplers Counted) (* = 2006 Release, ** = 2006 Reissue)
Acid Mothers Afrirampo - We Are Acid Mothers Afrirampo (Acid Mothers Temple CD)
Acid Mothers Temple - Have You Seen The Other Side Of The Sky? (Ace Fu CD)*
Acid Mothers Temple - Power House Of Holy (Acid Mothers Temple CD)*
Astro Twin/Cosmos - Astro Twin/Cosmos (FMN Sound Factory 2xCD)
Asuna - Room Note (Powershovel Audio CD)*
Avarus - Jatilaisrotta (Secret Eye/Lal Lal Lal CD)
Avarus - Vesikansi (Secret Eye/Lal Lal Lal CD)*
Robbie Basho - Bashovia (Takoma CD)
Robbie Basho - Venus In Cancer (Tompkins Square CD)**
The Beatles - Love (Capitol CD)**
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (Matador CD/DVD)*
James Blackshaw - Sunshrine (Digitalis CD)
Thomas Bloch - Ondes Martenot (Naxos CD)
Sandy Bull - Still Valentine’s Day: Live At The Matrix (Water CD)**
Charalambides - Dead/Live (Wholly Other CD-R)
Charalambides - A Vintage Burden (Kranky CD)*
Euros Childs - Chops (Wichita CD)*Cluster - 71 (Water CD)**
Colleen - Golden Morning Breaks (Leaf CD)
Colleen - Colleen & Les Boits A Musique (Leaf CD)*
Shirley Collins - Within Sound (Fledg’ling 4xCD)
Comets On Fire - Avatar (Sub Pop CD)*
Noah Creshevsky - Tape Music Of Noah Creshevsky (EM CD)**
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Columbia 2xCD)
Dead C - Vain, Erudite & Stupid: Selected Works 1987-2005 (Ba Da Bing! 2xCD)**
Dungen - Ta Det Lungt (Subliminal Sounds 2xCD)
Embryonnck - Embryonnck (Staubgold CD)*
John Fahey - The Transfiguration Of Blind Joe Death (Takoma CD)
John Fahey - Volume 4: The Great San Bernadino Birthday Party (Takoma CD)
John Fahey - Voice Of The Turtle (Takoma CD)
John Fahey - The Yellow Princess (Vanguard CD)
John Fahey - The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick: Live At The Matrix (Water CD)
Fania All-Stars - Live At The Red Garter Volume 1 (Fania CD)**
Jim Fassett - Symphony Of The Birds (EM CD)
Josephine Foster - A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing (Locust CD)*
Fursaxa - Myriads Of Satyrids (Self-Released CD-R)*
Nick Garrie - The Nightmare Of JB Stanislaus (Revola CD)
Larkin Grimm - Harpoon (Secret Eye CD)
Growing - The Color Wheel (Troubleman Unlimited CD)*
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation (Sire CD)
High Rise - Disallow (PSF CD)
Howlin Rain - Howlin Rain (Birdman CD)*
Hubcap City (From Belgium) - Rollerskate Or Die! (Ponce De Leon 7”)*
Akira Ikufube - Toho Scope (VAP 2xCD)
Sachiko Kanenobu - Misora (Chapter CD)**
Kawabata Makoto - Inui (VHF CD)**
Kawabata Makoto - O Si Amos A Sighire A Esserre Duas Umbras? (Important CD)
Kemialliset Ystavat - Lumottu Karkkipurkki (Vapaa Systeemi) (Fonal CD)
Kiila - Heartcore (Say Hey CD)
Kim Jung Mi - Kim Jung Mi (World Psychedelia CD)**
Kim Jung Mi - Wind (World Psychedelia CD)**
Konono No. 1 - Congotronics (Crammed CD)
Erkin Koray - 2 (World Psychedelia CD)
Sharron Kraus - Beautiful Twisted (Camera Obscura CD)
Reiko Kudo - Hito (Hyotan CD)*
Reiko Kudo - Kusa (Hyotan CD)*
Tori Kudo - Don’t Fear An Adjoining Island (Igloo CD)
Michio Kurihara - Sunset Dreams (Pedal CD)
Bettye Lavette - Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart (Varese Sarabande CD)**
Long Fin Killie - Valentino (Too Pure CD)
Magic Carpathians - Water Dreams (Fly CD)
Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Faux Depart (Yik Yak CD)**
Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Live Aoiheya 2003 (Chapter CD)*
Charles Manson - Sings (ESP CD)**
Marginal Consort - Collective Improvisation (PSF CD)
Kan Mikami - Hiraku Yume Nado Aru Ja Nashi (Avex CD)
Kimio Mizutani - A Path Through Haze (P-Vine CD)
Sam Moore - Moooohieee! (EM CD)
Mouse On Mars - Varcharz (Ipecac CD)*
Mudboy - Free Matter For The Blind (Self-Released CD)*
Seiji Nagai - Electronic Noise Improvisation 1999 (Doppelganger CD)
Pandit Pran Nath - Midnight (Just Dreams 2xCD)
Pandit Pran Nath - Raga Cycle (Sri Moonshine CD)**
New Ghost - Live Upstairs At Nick’s (ESP CD)*
Joanna Newsom - Ys (Drag City CD)*
Noise - Tenno (Alchemy CD)
Matsuo Ohno - The World Of Electro-Acoustic Sound In Music Volume 1 (King CD)
Mustafa Ozkent - Genclik Ile Elele (Finders Keepers CD)**
Paavoharju - Yaa Hamaraa (Fonal CD)
Pelt - Skullfuck: Bestio Turgem Degero (VHF CD)**
Pharoah Overlord - The Battle Of Axe-Hammer (Live) (Last Visible Dog CD)
Puka Puka Brians - Pet Cemetery Sounds (Majikick CD)
Pumice - Yeahnahvienna (Soft Abuse CD)*
Minnie Riperton - Capitol Gold (Capitol CD)
David Rosenboom - Brainwave Music (EM CD)**
St. Joan - One At Twilight (Dakota CD)
Bridget St. John - Songs For The Gentle Man (Cherry Red CD)**
Sala-Arhimo - Sala-Arhimo (Last Visible Dog CD)*
Santo Domingo De Silos - The Mystery Of Santo Domingo De Silos (Deutsche Grammophon CD)
Sayasource - Return To A Source (Minamoto CD)
Selda - Selda (Finders Keepers CD)**
Shogun Kunitoki - Tasankokaiku (Fonal CD)*
Six Organs Of Admittance - The Sun Awakens (Drag City CD)*
Sly & The Family Stone - There’s A Riot Goin’ On (Epic CD)
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped (DGC CD)*
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Origin Volume 1 (Mercury CD)
Space Machine - Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter (Alchemy CD)
The Spacious Mind - Rotvalta (Goddamn I’m A Countryman CD)*
Spires That In The Sunset Rise - Four Winds The Walker (Secret Eye CD)
Burkhard Stangl & Taku Unami - I Was (Hibari CD)*
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan (Asthmatic Kitty CD)
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche (Asthmatic Kitty CD)*
Sufjan Stevens - Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty 5xCD)**
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen (Stockhausen Verlag CD)
Yma Sumac - Recital (ESP CD)**
Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Complexion (Very Friendly CD)
SunnO))) + Boris - Altar (Southern Lord 2xCD)*
Veno Tagashi - Two Things Always Happen Simultaneously (Majikick CD)
Tammen Harth Dahlgren Rosen - Expedition: Live At The Knitting Factory (ESP CD)*
Tenniscoats - Theme Of Tenniscoats (Majikick CD)
Tenniscoats - The Ending Theme (Midi Creative Control CD)
Tenniscoats - We Are Everyone (Majikick CD)
Tenniscoats - Live Wanderus (Chapter CD)*
Terre Thaemlitz - Die Roboter Rubato (Mille Plateaux CD)
Trees Community - The Christ Tree (Dark Holler 4xCD)**
Via - Pwdre Ser (Self-Releaed CD-R)*
Tom Waits - Orphans (Anti 3xCD)**
Weird Weeds - Weird Feelings (Sounds Are Active CD)*
Bill Wells & Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Osaka Bridge (Karaoke Kaik CD)*
Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street (Bootleg CD)
Frank Wright - Unity (ESP CD)**
Peter Wright - Pariahs Sing Om (Last Visible Dog 3xCD)**
Yo La Tengo - Yo La Tengo Are Murdering The Classics (Egon CD)*
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador CD)*
Ami [Yoshida] - Spiritual Voice (Airport CD)
Neil Young - Live At The Fillmore East 1970 (Reprise CD/DVD-Audio)**
Zandosis - George W Bush Go Straight To Fucking Hell (Stickfigure CD)*
S/T - Desperate Man Blues (Dust To Digital CD)**
S/T - The Harder They Come (Island CD)
V/A - A Raga For Peter Walker (Tompkins Square CD)*
V/A - Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music Volume 4 (Sub Rosa 2xCD)**
V/A - Darkness Knows No Boundaries (Southern Lord CD)*
V/A - Dust To Digital Sampler 2006 (Dust To Digital CD)**
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label (Numero CD)
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label (Numero CD)
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label (Numero CD)**
V/A - Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label (Numero CD)**
V/A - Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg (Numero CD)**
V/A - Ethnic Minority Music Of Northeast Cambodia (Sublime Frequencies CD)*
V/A - Gagaku: Traditional Japanese Music (King CD)
V/A - Ghana Soundz (Soundway CD)
V/A - Gion Matsuri (King CD)*
V/A - Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal (Numero CD)**
V/A - Honeymoon Music Volume 1 (Honeymoon CD)
V/A - How Low Can You Go? The String Bass Anthology (Dust To Digital 3xCD)**
V/A - I Belong To This Band: 85 Years Of Sacred Harp Recordings (Dust To Digital CD)**
V/A - In Drawing (Cherry CD)
V/A - International Sad Hits Volume 1 (20/20/20 CD)**
V/A - Lagos All Routes (Honest Jon’s CD)**
V/A - Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music (QDK Media CD)
V/A - Musik In Deutschland 1950-2000: Fluxus - Happening - Performance (RCA CD)
V/A - Not Alone (Jnana 5xCD)*
V/A - Radio Algeria (Sublime Frequencies CD)*
V/A - Radio Thailand (Sublime Frequencies 2xCD)*
V/A - Rough Trade Shops: Post-Punk Volume 1 (Mute 2xCD)
V/A - Shakuhachi: Art Of The Japanese Flute (Nonesuch CD)
V/A - Songs For Nao: 14 Bands From Japan (Chapter CD)
V/A - Space Theatre (RCA CD)
V/A - The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (Yazoo 2xCD)**
V/A - Terrastock 6 (Secret Eye CD)*
V/A - Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon (Numero CD)**
V/A - What It Is! Funky Soul & Rare Grooves (Rhino 4xCD)**
V/A - The World Of Traditional Music (Ocora 7xCD)
V/A - Yemen: Music From The Heart Of Arabia (Buda CD)
Samples of all 10 of my best-ofs will obviously be on the mix I'm sending out to those of you (barring the YLT track, I played it safe and put a song from the proper album on instead) in addition to more tracks from some of the other albums. Disc 1 will be the Year 2006 disc, whether new or reissued, with 20 tracks, while Disc 2 is the "Old Things I Bought In 2006" disc, also with 20 tracks. The burning mayhem starts momentarily...
Alright, let get the war of the words going!