10. Stark Reality - Acting, Thinking, Feeling
I picked up the Stark Reality boxset at the start of the year, and also had a trouser rubbing moment seeing it on the wall at my favourite record store in Oakland. Stark Reality is thee break digging record de jour - in the Tribe documentary Q-Tip makes no prisoners, appearing with two copies of the Music Shop LP in the background when he's talking. The Music Shop record I find a little trying, but the real gem here is Acting, Thinking, Feeling - a jazz piece in three movements. The second movement does it severely for me, but the whole thing is a wondrous reminder about the power of indie jazz. Also vibraphone. It's wonderful and uplifting and magical in equal measures:
09. Noh Mercy
I've been buying a lot of stuff on a local label called "Superior Viaduct". They do a lot of Noise type recordings, but also Bay Area weirdness. This was a favourite on there (though the Factrix records are well worth picking up also), a complete channeling of Bikini Kill type sound but in the late 70s instead. The back cover states "No Boys With Guitars" and rightly so. This has swears in it, but it's pretty good at capturing their sound.
08. Danny Paul Grody
My new strategy when buying is records is to a) don't be afraid to buy things I'm sniffy of and b) always buy at least one thing I've never heard of and sounds interesting. So this came by a recommendation in Amoeba records, Berkley. I'm heavy into the Guitar Soli type sound at the moment and this hits the spot. Unsurprisingly DPG was initially in a Post Rock group. The LP is "Between Two Worlds" but I couldn't find any of it on You Tube so here's the man himself playing live. This type of stuff is the type of stuff that makes me feel wobbly inside at the moment
07. Gill Melle - Andromeda Strain
Never ever make a list of "records I would spend money on". I did this. I did do this, and within a week I was flicking through the "Rare" section in Stranded - Nothing is better than seeing records you'd never be able to afford, just to see them, and along comes the Hexagonal version of this soundtrack in good condition at a fair(!) price. I was ready and paid the money. The Andromeda Strain is an interesting one - the movie is 50% tedious procedure and 50% vague excitement but the soundtrack is this photo electro bonkers piece of magic that gives me jelly legs. I think it's worth the money - it's basically a 10" record, cut hexagonally in a hexagonal fold out sleeve. Beautiful and bonkers.
06. Mogwai - Les Revenants
Les Revenats was thee TV show that I got most excited and freaked out by this year - French, but looks like Swiss to me, a genuinely creepy and upsetting show about the dead suddenly coming back to life and acting as though nothing had changed. The show was perfect at capturing the kind of creeping dread that makes for a really good horror film. The score was perfect too - and I had to begrudgingly buy a Mogwai record.
05. Neil Young
My time in California has been cornerstoned by a newfound appreciation for Neil Young. I was initially sniffy but I bought Harvest and that became the record I would always listen to when driving - I spent my mornings driving to the Supermarket listening to "Are you ready for the country" over and over. I am now working my way through his back catalogue (in year order natch) and finding these types of little gems all over the place. Never knew that this was a cover, nor that the original would be (for me) way better:
04. Elias Rahbini - Mosaic of the Orient
One I kind of tracked down - I really like the Quakers LP, and there was a beat on there that was kind of Turkish like and just a really nice sample. So I dug around the internet for a bit and uncovered this record. The track is 'Dance of Maria' and is the jam - a song I can play (and have played) over and over and over. The whole LP is worth a listen (but it took a wee while to track it down), but this is the business.
03. Cecil Leuter - Pop Electronique
I now have three copies of this library record. One Crea Sound, vague original, the Vadim reissue on vinyl and the same on CD. To me, this is it in terms of Libraries - a totally freaked out marriage of Moog, Drums and Guitar. You can take your Afro Rocks, and Stefano Torrosi's and leave me with this one. Fully outstanding from start to finish and completely unique and why I will always love picking up weirdo library records like this.
02. Robbie Basho - Wine Song
Didn't buy this this year but I think it was gifted to me a few years ago. It's weird what pops up in times of need, and I needed this record this year. Robbie "Beard" Basho made a bunch of Guitar Soli stuff, but I think this is his only serious vocal effort. The whole record is the sort of thing that makes me crumble inside but this song especially supported me through dark times and truly captured my mind state at times in the year. Basho records are surprisingly hard to come by, but they're good - this is probably a borderline acquired taste but my god, it's burrowed deep inside me, and I've spent far too much time in floods of tears whilst this has played and lifted my up:
01. Swell Maps - Trip To Marineville
At number one by time alone. Bought this in March, listened to it once and thought it was a solid but largely unsurprising post punk LP. Give it a decent listen in November and within minutes I'm dancing round my bedroom like a loon. Why it took me so long to pick this one up I don't know. I can well imagine the discussion around "Full Moon in my Pocket": "What are we going to do for the baseline on this one?", "Errrr, Mother Sky?", "Let's go!". The pairing of Full Moon and Blam! is the best thing I've heard all year - the drum crack that separates the two is incredible and the whole thing completely captures me every time:
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