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Henry Peach [Northwest Correspondent]
Okay, here we go, dudes! This is really one of my favorite end
of the year activities. Are we four years running now on this?
Time flies…
Well, this year has been weird for me. I finally stopped DJing
and forcing myself to buy obscure European free jazz records
for radio shows that no one listens to. I quit the yapping,
and just started following my fancies. Just like the good old
days. My Top 10 is pregnant with reissues. However, everything
reissued came out this year. Which brings up a good point, why
does some of this stuff reintroduce itself when it does? I always
wonder about that.
Also, this is definitely not a poorman’s Top 10. Everything
is on LP, and the Oram, Sun City Girls and Congotronics box
sets in particular saw me dropping some serious coin. Anyway,
here we go….
10 Bird Show Band/Self-Titled/LP/Amish
This was one of the last cool records I got doing the free jazz
show on Hollow Earth Radio. The guy that runs the station told
me about it. He said that they sounded like Sun Ra. Well, there
are no horns on it, and that kind of killed the Allen/Gilmore/Patrick
brass blowouts that I was hoping to find. Turns out to be two
drummers, a stand up bass, an ARP 2600 player, and this dude
soloing his ass off on the Moog Voyager. The rhythm section
just throws it down on this one. Jeff, I think you liked the
Amish label at one point, right? I’ve never heard anything
like this on that label, but I am pretty sure you would like
this one. Charles, same thing.
9 Les Rallizes Denudes/Heavier than a Death in the Family/2LP/Phoenix
Conor and I were geeking on this since the day it came out.
I saw this frequently on Charles’ show setlists, too.
If I was telling you that the Bird Show Band rhythm section
was steady, LRD takes it to an entirely different level. High
volume guitar rape. I listened to Heavier in headphones all
the way through with no breaks the day I bought it. That is
the last time I’ve listened to it. It will be there on
the shelf when I need it again. This might be my locust record.
You know, one listen every 17 years or so.
8 Daphne Oram/Oramics/4LP/Young Americans
A collection of electronic experiments and tunes from the BBC
Radiophonic workshop owner. I came to this entranced by the
packaging, and fascinated by a woman playing so fundamental
of an early role in the development of electronic music. I was
also sort of afraid that I might be wasting my money. A contemporary
of hers, also a woman, named Delia Derbyshire had a reissue
a little while back entitled Electrosonic. It was disappointing
from the standpoint that it fell into that wacky electronics
realm that makes so much early electronic music sound like a
whoopee cushion as far as content goes. This was completely
different. Compositions stand out for their musicality, rather
than the wow-that-sure-is-a-wacky-sound factor. The rock music
manipulation work she does is flat out killer.
7 Dick Dale and His Del-Tones/Singles Collection '61-65/2LP/Sundazed
I had my eye out for a solid early Dick Dale comp, and this
is it. I’ve come to realize that I like Dale’s vocal
tracks as much as his instrumentals. Dale is such an asshole,
right? Right!
6 Various Artists/Ghana Special/5LP/Soundaway
I’ve got Jeff to thank for this one. After visiting him
prior to his fire drama, he passed me the CD version of the
album, and told me that it was the best one in the Soundaway
series thus far. He was right. I am sort of tired of all of
the afrobeat reissues going on, and that made all the highlife
tracks on here so enjoyable. Highlife tracks just sort of float
along without all that Tony Allen propulsion. Definitely a summer,
road-trip record. Uncle knows best!
5 Lauryn Hill/The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill/2LP/Sony
Errrrr. Okay, the hell with it. I love this. Have you heard
this record? It even has schoolteacher interludes. What could
I do, here, even if I had the power to? Listening to this woman
is living with this woman.
4 Sun City Girls/330,3003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig
Veda/3LP/Get Back & Abraxas
So, the Sun City Girls put out their last record this year called
Funeral Mariachi. I heard it at a friend’s house last
week, and it is amazingly behaved for this crew. It was enjoyable,
sort of reminded me of an even more somber version of the Mr.
Lonely soundtrack that they did with Jason Pierce. However,
the real cause for rejoice was the reissue of this baby in 2010!
Long awaited on vinyl, this is a Polynesian punk wacko blowout.
Do me a favor. Everybody keep their fingers crossed for the
Torch of the Mystics reissue in 2011, and maybe it will happen.
Seriously, why are the Bishops sitting on that shit? Torch of
the Mystics is the one, but this is a close second.
3 Fumio Hayasaka & Masaru Sato/Akira Kurosawa's Movie Soundtracks/4LP/Doxy
An unusual buy for me. I went out on a limb. I really like it,
but I can’t say much substantive about it right now. I’ve
never seen any of his movies, but now I want to.
2 Various Artists/Congotronics Box Set/ 6LP/Crammed
Jeff, I still feel bad about keeping that first Konono No.1
record for myself. Well, a few bucks later, here comes the box
set. All Konono No.1 records, Kasai Allstars records, etc. in
the series with some bonus 7”s. What I found is that one
of the other LPs in the box by Staff Benda Bilili turned out
to be a new personal favorite in the series. A 7” has
the Akron Family with Kasai, and is quite unusual. It doesn’t
sound like an African They Might Be Giants, which I was relieved
to have discovered. Yes, Ed, you are still a portal.
1 Death in June/Peaceful Snow/2x 10"/ NER
This album reminds me of George Winston’s December. My
dad used to play that all the time right through the holidays.
Can you imagine if those two collaborated? Just the cover art
would be enough to sell it. Consider these two guys together
on one record sleeve:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-winston-p139098
http://mikkisays.net/2010/11/29/loungeneofolk-death-in-june-peaceful-snow-lounge-corps-2010-mp3/
Priceless!
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