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   December 18, 2010  
       
   

OTHER MUSIC'S BEST OF 2010: NEW RELEASES & REISSUES
Every time we compile our annual "Best Of" list, it's inevitable that we draw the same conclusion: what a great year of music! The thing is, it's always true, as we're truly blessed to have access to so many exciting new sounds and a plethora of mind-blowing reissues representing practically every genre imaginable. Of course, there's always a little bit of drama unfolding behind the scenes when you've got a group of music enthusiasts trying to cull hundreds of noteworthy achievements down to two brief lists ranking the 25 best new releases and 25 best reissues of the year, but here they are at last. Ultimately, a list like this is subjective, but we do think that this is the music that defined 2010 for all of us at Other Music. We hope you enjoy looking through the selections, and if you haven't already heard some of these great records, that you'll take the opportunity to tune in to some of our favorite music.

You'll notice that several of the albums listed below are sale priced, due to our 15 Year Anniversary Sale on Other Music's Top Selling CDs, which lasts through December 31. (If you haven't yet, you can peruse these titles on the Charts page of our mailorder website, and we also have these discs prominently displayed in the store.) And of course, it's a great time to take advantage of our Free Domestic Shipping on Orders Totaling Over $60, which we're offering through the end of the year as well.

Other Music Gift Certificates may be redeemed for purchases made both in the store and off of our CD/LP website. You can buy a gift certificate in the shop, or on-line by going to: www.othermusic.com/giftcertificates.html. Gift Certificates are also available for Other Music's MP3 download site, in $25, $50 and $100 increments.

On behalf of all of us at Other Music, we'd like to say thank you for all of your support and have a safe and happy holiday!


 
 
 
   
       
   

 

 

     
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  BEACH HOUSE
Teen Dream
(Sub Pop)

"Norway"
"Zebra"

The Baltimore duo's change of labels from Carpark to Sub Pop telegraphed their intentions to take their sublime dream pop to a new level on their third album. From the songwriting to the production to the group's powerful, sexy live show, Beach House stepped it up in 2010 and delivered a version of their sound that was as focused and driven as it was hazy, lazy and seductive -- just as interesting as their excellent early recordings, but more immediate and commercial. Hooky, poppy and dramatic without sacrificing any of the quirks that have always made the band something special, Teen Dream is probably the group's most diverse offering, and it is definitely their best. And in a field crowded with excellent music, it gets our vote for the best new album of 2010.

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  ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
Before Today
(4AD)

"Bright Lit Blue Skies"
"Can't Hear My Eyes"

Though Ariel Pink had pretty much spawned a whole new genre of music based on the sound of his cracked, home-brewed, '80s-idolizing lo-fi pop, he threw everyone a curveball this year, recording an album for a large independent label with a full band in tow, and actually applying a little studio polish to the mix. Still, the music on Before Today was as befuddling as anything in his back catalogue, yet there was a newfound sense of focus and economy that had been missing on his previous releases. The single and album highlight "Round and Round" might stand out as the greatest pop song Pink has ever produced, and it's a good marker of the quality of the rest of the record. A massive, deep album that improves with every subsequent play, Before Today was a triumph for the artist, and shouldn't be missed under any circumstance.

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  ZOLA JESUS
Stridulum EP
(Sacred Bones)

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ZOLA JESUS
Valusia EP
(Sacred Bones)

"Poor Animal"
"Sea Talk"

2010 saw Nika Roza Danilova transform herself from a little-known experimental shrieker to a dark pop chanteuse, and without even a full-length album to her name she toured the world opening for the likes of the xx and Fever Ray. These two EPs find the young artist hitting her stride, with fragments of prime-period 4AD, elements of cold wave and British '80s pop, but what strikes us most is just how current Zola Jesus sounds. Danilova's evolution across these two EPs is marked, and we can't wait for her full-length in 2011.

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  EMERALDS
Does It Look Like I'm Here?
(Editions Mego)

"Shade"
"Now You See Me"

On Does It Look Like I'm Here?, Emeralds dropped the twenty-minute drone-scapes of earlier albums in favor of leaner, more economical near-pop excursions. The sound was bright, loud and dare we say lush; synths tumble and explode in shockingly high fidelity and Mark McGuire's signature guitar licks sound crisper and cleaner than ever. The murk and muddiness that characterized older recordings is gone; it does indeed appear that Emeralds are here, and they've brought with them one of the best albums of the year.

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  MOUNT KIMBIE
Crooks & Lovers
(Hot Flush)

"Would Know"
"Ode to Bear"

Having had a few singles, EPs and remixes under their belt, Mount Kimbie's first full-length outing veered away from the obvious dancefloor one-hitter and into a more subtle bedroom/headphone pre-/post-party album atmosphere. Picture the melodic downtempo of Boards of Canada brought up to date through soulful, Akufen-esque cut-ups and the techno/house-tinged side of dubstep. Mixing field recordings with simple loop generating software and the occasional live instrument, this album delivered a powerful slice of minimalist composition, one ear on the dancefloor, the other on the pillow. Mount Kimbie came in under the radar with an imaginative and original album that became an instant classic.

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  DEERHUNTER
Halcyon Digest
(4AD)

"Revival"
"He Would Have Laughed"

Due in no small part to the presence of frontman Bradford Cox, a character in his own right who's put his own personal quirks in the public eye as well as his love of music, Deerhunter has become one of the most interesting indie bands of the recent past, embracing diverse sounds ranging from sterling, selective '80s noise-pop revivalism to the whole of '90s alternative. With their latest, Halcyon Digest, the band pulled off a double-coup: Deerhunter wrapped up the childlike innocence that defined the most memorable music of the past decade, and crossed it up with a '60s pop sensibility that added a dreamlike structure to these songs that's totally clean and completely integrated with their sound. It's their best, most engaging album yet.

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  JOANNA NEWSOM
Have One on Me
(Drag City)

"Jackrabbits"
"Esme"

Joanna Newsom proved definitively in 2010 that she couldn't be pigeonholed as a waifish freak-folk icon or really anything less than one of the most dynamic singer/songwriters working today. Both her sound and her voice matured, and Have One on Me was a breakthrough that easily justified its epic two-hour length, spread over three CDs or three LPs. Newsom holds the songs together on her harp or piano, but there are subtle flourishes of everything from electric guitar to horns and strings to African and Balkan instrumentation, and while her classic bag of influences are all at play here, with her more mature and confident voice and the relaxed, natural sound of the playing and recording, Have One on Me owes as much to '70s-AM-radio-era Joni Mitchell or the Laurel Canyon scene as it does to Celtic ballads, classic waltzes and rural folk forms. It was a truly game-changing two-hours of music that is her best and boldest statement yet.

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  WILD NOTHING
Gemini
(Captured Tracks)

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Wild Nothing wistfully refashion the sonic textures of the 1980s for their own purposes -- lovingly and painstakingly recreating the chirpy reverb of Johnny Marr's guitar, the Phil Collins-trademarked gunshot snare drum sound, and that Christmas-y synthesizer bleat that serves as a cue for the heartwarming moments of most John Hughes movies. But unlike many of their '80s-obsessed contemporaries, who unabashedly wear their influences on their sleeves, the Nothing's Jack Tatum uses the templates of the period as a foundation, not a finish line -- resulting in a debut album at once familiar but remarkably fresh and innovative.

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  LOWER DENS
Twin Hand Movement
(Gnomonsong)

"Hospice Gates"
"Truss Me"

Lower Dens is the new full-band project from Jana Hunter, whose songs as a solo artist always seemed to inhabit a much darker world than many of her so-called freak-folk contemporaries, a world rooted more in the spirit and tradition of southern blues than the Incredible String Band. With the group's debut album, Lower Dens moved forward with this conceit, taking that blueprint and adapting it for a more-or-less traditional "rock" band set-up. And while not much here would actually qualify as "rock," there are some surprisingly spirited numbers folded into Hunter's traditionally mid-tempo brooders, and this record quietly slipped into our consciousness as one of the best of 2010.

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  SHED
The Traveller
(Ost Gust Ton)

"Atmo - Action"
"HDRTM"

The Traveller found German producer Rene Pawlowitz (a/k/a Shed) exploring new roads and repaving some old ones. His 2008 debut, Shedding the Past, was a sleeper hit at the shop, a backward-looking but still forward-moving record that our staff frequently -- and with great success -- recommended to techno fans looking for something new. He upped the ante this year, however, skillfully combining his appreciation for the spacious, minimal work of Basic Channel with a more diverse rhythmic palette than before. Touching on dubstep, garage, drum & bass, and straight-up techno, Pawlowitz created a subtle, moody flow by linking the tracks together with lots of beatless interludes, and by moving beyond the 12" format he established himself as a new visionary in the post clicks-n-cuts world of techno.

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  SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS
I Learned the Hard Way
(Daptone)

"The Game Gets Old"
"She Ain't a Child No More"

Nobody could have predicted this group's skyrocketing worldwide success, but after even one listen to their fourth full-length, I Learned the Hard Way, it's hard to imagine any other outcome. Lush arrangements (soaring winds, parping horns, slashing strings and ric-tic guitar) back Ms. Jones' timeless voice, sashaying through another watertight set of mid-tempo heartache and balladry with the perpetual insistence of this city's rhythm. On this go-round, the group steps back in time even further, recalling the decadence of Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach in the album's second half, and extending the authenticity back to the grand ballrooms that would host such acts in their day. But at its heart, this is another stellar album of hard-driving deep funk, and it cemented Jones and her Dap-Kings' place amongst the legends of the genre. Nothing beats their live show, but this album comes close.

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  FLYING LOTUS
Cosmogramma
(Warp)

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Steven Ellison (a/k/a Flying Lotus) called his third full-length, Cosmogramma, a "space opera," an apt descriptor for such an ambitious album. While FlyLo continued to reach well beyond his hip-hop based roots, stretching his ideas way past any single genre, this also proved to be a more cohesive listen than earlier releases, his vibrant, swirling digital palette wonderfully infused with live instruments like Migel Atwood-Ferguson's strings and Rebekah Raff's harp, which linked him to the expansive nature of his late great-aunt, Alice Coltrane. And any time his intergalactic soundscapes seemed to be stretching out too far, the vocals of Laura Darlington (Daedelus/Long Lost), Thundercat (Erykah Badu/Shafiq Husayn), Niki Randa, or Thom Yorke would offer that grounding touch of humanity.

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  THE NATIONAL
High Violet
(4AD)

"Sorrow"
"Bloodbuzz Ohio"

Ten years in, the National released the best album of their career. High Violet was a huge commercial and artistic success from an unassuming group making soft-spoken music about everyday folks and everyday problems, yet they nonetheless rose head and shoulders above the rest, clearly striking a chord in popular culture. Matt Berninger's woozy baritone will always be at the center of this band's music, but it was the instrumental sound here that delivered such a powerful wallop, with meticulous restraint building these humble songs into moving epics. This was indeed their most lush and dynamic production to date, and for many listeners, 2010 will be remembered as the year of High Violet.

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  SHARON VAN ETTEN
Epic
(Ba Da Bing!)

"A Crime"
"Save Yourself"

After a couple of self-released solo CDs and many entrancing live shows supported by just a guitar, this Brooklyn bard delivered Epic, her first for local label Ba Da Bing, featuring a bona fide band. A batch of great new songs and some tasteful collaborators guaranteed this set to be Sharon Van Ettten's most powerful recording to date, her voice confident and full, the production clear and lush. While the haunting "Don't Do It" practically soars, much of the album still retains the intimacy of Van Etten's earlier work, even as harmonium, lap steel, piano and gorgoeous harmonies complement her captivating songs. Many vocal and musical comparisons peek through, from Joni Mitchell to Neko Case, but none quite pinpoint what's so arresting about Van Etten and her beautiful Epic.

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  GRASS WIDOW
Past Time
(Kill Rock Stars)

"Uncertain Memory"
"11 of Diamonds"

Grass Widow's latest album, their first for the legendary Kill Rock Stars label, proved this young, San Francisco-based all-woman trio to be something of an anomaly in today's underground. With so much previously obscure music now readily available, it is easy for bands to get bogged down in mimicry without even really noticing it, but Grass Widow manage to embody the same intangible qualities that made groups like the Raincoats and Scrawl so great without directly sounding like them. Their intricate, rhythm-driven songs dodge and weave, downplaying their hooks at first in favor of an overall sound, and while Past Time may not be the most immediate record we heard in 2010, it begs repeated listens. This is a grower, in the best possible way.

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  ARP & ANTHONY MORE
FRKWYS Vol. 3
(RVNG INTL.)

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RVNG INTL issued this exceedingly lovely collaboration between Alexis Georgopolous (ARP, the Alps) and a man probably old enough to be his father, Brit composer Anthony Moore (member of Slapp Happy, producer of This Heat, collaborator with Henry Cow, Kevin Ayers, and Pink Floyd). Some pieces here are completely brand new -- such as Georgopolous' tributes to Arthur Russell and Robert Wyatt, Wild Grass pts 1 & 2, composed for piano, violin and cello -- while others use source material dating back to Moore's minimal work in the early '70s, the best of which, "Piano Waves," ends side one with a majestic and repeating sustained piano chord, a simple idea that nevertheless achieves a level of breathtaking grandeur. This LP is great throughout, filled with the kind of minimalism that feels both old and modern, intensely lyrical, with wonderful cyclical patterns born of fleet urgency. There aren't very many left of the limited pressing, so vinyl buyers shouldn't hesitate.

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  TY SEGALL
Melted
(Goner)

"Caesar"
"My Sunshine"

It's easy to forget how young Ty Segall is -- after all he is closing in on a ten-year career in music. Because of that he has done more than his fair share of growing up on record and he occasionally succumbs to the more-more-more school of thought often practiced by his friend John Dwyer of the Oh Sees. Ty does, however, seem to hold the best of the best for his proper releases, which keep getting better and better. The core of his third full-length, Melted, is still a one-man affair, but lots of friends drop in, and while there are tons of blown-out garage stompers, don't be surprised to find them right up against acoustic guitars and some occasional psychedelic flourishes. Many garage rock records seem to be suited for nights full of action and beer, but this one felt tailor-made for bright sunny afternoons with time to kill; no doubt Melted was one of the quintessential jams soundtracking this past summer, but we'll be singing these songs all winter too, and beyond.

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  THE WALKMEN
Lisbon
(Fat Possum)

"Angela Surf City"
"Lisbon"

After a string of highly enjoyable but ultimately flawed albums, with Lisbon the balance was struck, and a new plateau of creativity and personal electricity was reached by the Walkmen. It's their most accomplished record, and the results are soaring, scathing, and mind-blowingly great. Hamilton Leithauser's vocal sparks have been re-ignited, and never has the band seemed so confident in their own sound. A massive accomplishment, the group's best and one of the best of the year.

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  ARNAUD FLEURENT-DIDIER
La Reproduction
(Sony France)

"Imbécile heureux"
"Si on se dit pas tout"

Going all the way back to the heyday of our La Decadanse section, France has been the country of origin for so many of our favorite albums, and this year we added La Reproduction to the list. Here, Arnaud Fleurent-Didier masterfully balances the classic French pop styles of Gainsbourg, Manset, and Polnareff, not to mention the compositional influence of brilliant artists like Francois De Roubaix, with the modern pop efficiency of peers like Air and Phoenix, both groups with whom he has collaborated in the past. In a just world, the album would have broken through to American audiences much in the way records like Moon Safari or United did, but we're still doing our part to spread the word. Sofia Coppola: we hope you're reading.

 
         
   
   

 

 

     
 

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  ROBERT HOOD
Omega
(M-Plant)

"Towns That Disappeared Completely"
"The Family Watches"

This minimal techno originator returned with Omega and staked his claim as one of the most forward-thinking producers in the genre. In excellent form, Robert Hood utilized his signature M.O. -- the time-honored Detroit method of peering from the city's urban decay and looking towards an imaginary future -- and borrowed some inspiration from the post-apocalyptic, sci-fi horror classic, Omega Man, producing a record that just seemed too great to be coming from someone so far into their techno career. His tracks have reached a new level of sonic intricacy, building in unexpected ways but without being cluttered, tricky or in a hurry to get anywhere. Throughout the album, Hood balances his classic relentlessness with a new level of sophistication and finesse, and it's all injected with a rare level of human-ness, i.e. 'soul' -- it's the man running the machines and not the other way around.

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  ANIKA
Anika
(Stones Throw)

"No One's There"
"The End of the World"

We were well into compiling this top 25 list and had to do a little rearranging to make room for Anika's eponymous full-length when it hit our store shelves last week. This young singer was splitting time between Berlin and Bristol working as a political journalist when she met Portishead's Geoff Barrow through a mutual friend. The two quickly bonded over their shared love of post-punk, dub, Krautrock, and '60s girl groups, and a week later entered the studio with Barrow's Beak> project for a 12-day session which resulted in her debut. Anika's cool vocal delivery is a cross of Nico and Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and is a perfect match for the band's sparse, vintage sounding post-punk-funk arrangements, a la gritty, dubby basslines, jagged guitars and a mix of real drumming and primitive drum machine rhythms. They even take on covers of the Kinks' "I Go to Sleep," Yoko Ono's "Yang Yang" and Bob Dylan's "Masters of War," and make these classics their own.

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  SUPERCHUNK
Majesty Shredding
(Merge)

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Though Superchunk were technically still together, considering that it had been almost a decade since the band's last full-length, the release of Majesty Shredding sure did feel like a comeback. And what a comeback it was, Mac, Laura, Jim and Jon eschewing the introspection of their last few albums for a frantic return to the power/pop/punk glories of yesteryear -- the band reveling in their 40s and wearing their age as a badge of ass-kicking honor. This album could have been made 15 years ago, the only difference being that Mac and Laura's Merge Records is now among the most successful indie labels in history, with Arcade Fire's Suburbs hitting #1 on Billboard just weeks before Majesty Shredding's release. But this is far more than a victory lap or a vanity project; it is a classic album from one of the essential bands of American indie rock.

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  ANBB (ALVA NOTO & BLIXA BARGELD)
Mimikry
(Raster Noton)

"Bernsteinzimmer (long version)"
"Mimikry"

This full-length collaboration between Alva Noto and Einsturzende Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld is surprisingly more accessible than most anything else either of these two parties have done in their respective careers. Following the 10-minute litmus test of an album opener, which moves from a few minutes of Bargeld's processed and looped shrieks into elegiac organ clusters and fragments of speech, fluttering banshee wails and "industrial" klangtones, Mimickry dives headfirst into what Suicide might have sounded like had they been formed today in the file-sharing age. Imagine if Max's Kansas City were a dingy internet cafe rather than a playground for New York's scuzzy glamorous underworld -- glitching, malfunctioning textural machine rhythms, throbbing patterns of test tones, and Blixa character acting and overdubbing himself into a performance that's part theatre, part post-punk, part exorcism. But both collaborators deliver a peculiar sort of pop musicality that was a wonderful surprise; let's hope these two keep this collaboration going on for a while, as this is one of the best recorded documents to come out of the digital age of sound production.

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  PHOSPHORESCENT
Here's to Taking It Easy
(Dead Oceans)

"It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)"
"Tell Me Baby"

If you had been following the albums of Matthew Houck and his Phosphorescent over the past few years, from 2007's much-praised hazy, lazy Pride to last year's album of outlaw-period Willie Nelson, which won wide acclaim, even from the former outlaw himself, it was impossible not to have been aware of the expectations flying around the release of Here's to Taking It Easy. Sure enough, the album marked the arrival of a musician entering a higher-profile stage of his career. Though Houck's shaky, haunting whiskey-and-cigarettes voice was the same, his songs deepened and swelled with newfound emotion and pathos, and his band delivered a thrilling country/R&B swing that -- no exaggeration -- held its own with classic cuts from Jim Ford, the Stones and Neil Young. Phosphorescent just wound down a long and busy year with a blistering performance of "It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)" on the Late Show with David Letterman last week, Dave himself quipping at the end of the song, "According to a recent poll, 70 percent of Americans loved that." He was right.

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  THE PARTING GIFTS
Strychnine Dandelion
(In the Red)

"My Mind's Made Up"
"Keep Walking"

Reigning Sound/Oblivians' Gregg Cartwright is arguably one of our generation's greatest American songwriters, the man effortlessly incorporating 50-plus years of rock and roll and its various offshoots into his own music, but still sounding fresh while doing so. Working with the Ettes' Coco Hames as well as a Black Key and a Raconteur/Greenhorne, Cartwright's latest project picked up where the last Reigning Sound record left us, which was a good thing. As usual his choice of songs and covers (including an ace run through the Stones' "Sleepy City") are top notch here, and Hames' pulls her weight as well, with solid tunes and vocal performances that recall the great Lorie Collins and also provide a nice contrast to Cartwright's whiskey-soaked voice. While the Parting Gifts may fit the criteria of a side project, Strychnine Dandelion stands toe to toe with the best work of all involved.

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  SYL JOHNSON
Complete Mythology Box
(The Numero Group)

"A Half Love"
"I'm Talkin' Bout Freedom"

The most lovingly assembled and revelatory box set of the year! Six LPs document legendary soul singer Syl Johnson's pre-Hi endeavors -- two of which are detailed reproductions of his classic albums Dresses Too Short and Is It Because I'm Black, with the remaining four grouped according to his label work of the era and styled like '60s artifacts that never were -- and digital lovers also get these 81 songs collected across four CDs. This is an impeccably crafted, oversized set featuring ruminations from Syl himself, a treasure trove of photographs, and a lot of new detail on the origins of these tracks. A lavish package so thorough and all encompassing that it easily stands as our pick for the best reissue of the year. (Free domestic shipping through December 31, 2010.)

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  DADAWAH
Peace and Love
(Dug Out)

"Seventy-Two Nations"
"Zion Land"

Deep, deep Grounation vibes for roots heads courtesy of Dug Out, the brilliant reissue label run by Basic Channel's Mark Ernestus and Honest Jon's Mark Ainsley. Dadawah's 1974 album Peace and Love is a holy grail of roots reggae, and indeed, this serenely remastered reissue stands to reestablish this record's status as unique in its class. But to refer to Peace and Love, an album of nyabinghi (Rastafarian spiritual music), as reggae at all could be something of a misnomer. Unlike any reggae we've ever heard, it deserves a categorization of its own. Short of space, we'll just say it is something else: earthy and dazed, sun-scorched and spacious and deeply, deeply psychedelic.

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  ORANGE JUICE
Coals to Newcastle
(Domino)

"Holiday Hymn (Peel Session)"
"I Guess I’m Just a Little Too Sensitive"

Give thanks to Domino for putting together this stunning, impressive box set of Orange Juice's entire recorded discography. Included are six CDs and a DVD documenting the Scottish band's evolution from scrappy, world weary yet culture savvy kids recording barbed-wire pop to refined, polished craftsmen, fusing the jangle of the Byrds, the razor sharp intensity of the Buzzcocks, and the disco-soul throb of Chic into a sound that became heavily co-opted by a series of manufactured imitators in the mid-to-late 1980s up through today, yet whose brilliance ended up in chart success for people other than the band itself. Essential for newcomers to these forefathers of indie pop, and for long-time fans as well, as it features a wealth of unreleased material.

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  CHARANJIT SINGH
Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
(Bombay Connection)

"Raga Bhairav"
"Raga Madhuvanti"

As it turns out, it wasn't Phuture that kick-started the acid house genre in the mid-1980s with "Acid Tracks," but rather a journeyman Bollywood composer named Charanjit Singh. Mostly "known" (if at all) in India as a soundtrack session man and leader of a cover band that toured the wedding circuit, Singh's career was also marked by an almost prescient appreciation of new and emerging gear -- particularly synthesizers. In the early '80s, looking to cross-pollinate the traditional music of his native land with the then-emerging thump of western disco, Singh went to work with a Roland TB-303 and TR-808, along with a Jupiter-8, and emerged with Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, an incredibly forward-thinking album that nonetheless languished in obscurity for decades. Singh's music unfolds like it's unintentionally establishing a template that will be followed for years to come -- all limber, squelching bass lines atop trance-inducing beats. With synthesized ragas supplying oft-joyful yet occasionally introspective melodies, tracks like "Raga Yaman" and "Raga Bhupali" almost seem to take elements of Kraftwerk to Southern Asia, in the process creating a sound that's wholly its own.

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  JIM SULLIVAN
U.F.O.
(Light in the Attic)

"Jerome"
"Highways"

A privately pressed Frankensteined beast of Sunset Strip folk and psychedelic orchestral funk, UFO finally saw the widespread reissue it deserved courtesy of Light in the Attic. This music is extraordinary; accompanied by LA's famous Wrecking Crew of session giants, Jim Sullivan ably combines the sort of troubadour bluesy folk of artists like Gene Clark, Gram Parsons, or Fred Neil circa Everybody's Talkin', but backed by the dark, sparse chamber funk of David Axelrod. Imagine Rotary Connection covering "Wichita Lineman" and you're on the right track. Sullivan's in good voice, and his lyrics ache with the desolate tones of a man who knows he's a loner, but who is grasping for a tenderness which is just at the tips of his calloused fingers. It's one of those LPs that really does sound like it should have been much, much bigger than the short shrift it was dealt, and if you dig the likes of Tim Buckley, the Burrito Brothers, or Terry Callier -- preferably all at the same time -- you need to hear this ASAP.

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  DOLLY MIXTURE
Everything and More
(Dolly Mixture)

We literally waited years for this band's recordings to finally see proper reissue. Dolly Mixture were one of the best, most influential yet under-recognized groups of the post-punk era, largely unnoticed in Cliffs Notes overviews of the period because of their sonic oddity; these three UK teenage girls took the DIY aesthetics of punk and fused them to the sounds of 1960s girl-group pop and Northern soul. They self-released a handful of singles and a private press LP of demo recordings during their lifetime, and in the process predated the whole C86 movement by a few years, sowed the seeds for bands like Vivian Girls and Best Coast to get record deals today, and influenced a wide swath of indie heavyweights from Saint Etienne, who went on to record with bassist/singer Debsey Wykes, to Fucked Up, who released a single of Dolly Mixture covers in 2006.
 
         
   
   

 

 

     
 
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  LEE PERRY & THE UPSETTERS
Sound System Scratch
(Pressure Sounds)

"Dub Plate Pressure" Lee 'Scratch' Perry
"Root Train Number Two" Junior Murvin & the Upsetters

ABSOLUTELY BONKERS collection of Lee 'Scratch' Perry's long lost dub plates, spanning his peak creative period of 1973-1979. There's just some supremely mind-scrambling music to be found here, being mostly one-off Black Ark Studio remixes of classic rhythms where Perry literally took it to the limit. That's not to say it doesn't groove, it does, and relentlessly, but between the parting clouds of pulse, clatter and phase, it's like you can almost physically catch a glimpse of the unspooling of the man's creative genius before your very eyes. One of the greatest collections of Lee Perry's music ever put together, and up towards the very top of Pressure Sounds' tremendous catalogue as well, and about as essential a body of work as we heard all year.

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  VARIOUS ARTISTS
Angola Soundtrack
(Analog Africa)

"Rei Do Palhetinho" Mamukueno
"Fuma" Dimba Diangola

Angola's remarkable, vibrant Afro-Latin fusions have remained seldom-compiled and rarely heard outside of that country's borders, with what few collections that have actually made it out to the rest of the world giving us glimpses of a scene overflowing with some of the most beautiful, swinging, and soulful Afrosounds. Much of the music here was thought lost and unattainable due to the severe disorganization and near dismantling of the Angolan recording industry after the nation's independence and subsequent civil war...so a collection like this is like a gift from above. Sit down with this remarkable album and fully immerse yourself in some of the most liberating, infectious, and gorgeous music ever created.

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  WALTER GIBBONS
Jungle Music
(Strut)

"Sun...Sun...Sun" Jakki
"Go Bang (Walter Gibbons Unreleased Mix)" Dinosaur L

Jungle Music cannot come back in print fast enough, as this is, without hyperbole, one of the most important collections of dance music ever released. Walter Gibbons has remained a somewhat marginal cult figure among dance music aficionados, rather undeservedly. While peers like Francois K, Larry Levan, and Tom Moulton have become canonized as important forefathers in what is now commonplace practice within dance music -- the concept and execution of the remix, the ideas of dub and extended drum breaks, the buildup of tension to create "peak tracks" -- Gibbons was one the first people to take these concepts and apply them to prerecorded pieces of music in an effort to transform them into something new, which would then transport the listener to another plane, another state of mind. In short: the guy's important, and this collection is essential listening to anyone who has ever picked up an Arthur Russell reissue, anything related to the Loft or Paradise Garage scenes, and pretty much anyone who has any interest in dub music's importance in shaping dance music construction.
 
         
   
   

 

 

     
 

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  THE LLOYD MCNEILL QUARTET
Asha
(Universal Sounds)

"Asha" x
"Dig Where Dat's At!"

An impossibly scarce artifact from the heyday of the DIY private-jazz scene, being Lloyd McNeill's self-released debut LP from 1969, Asha. This is extremely flowing jazz performed with eastern and Latin accents that is compulsively listenable. McNeill has a gorgeous, spacious tone on his flute, which is just beautifully offset by the loping, modal grooves of his cohorts. There's a fine balance throughout between exotic shades of darkness and the fine solar rays of a glorious summer afternoon; it's a major album by a mostly unsung genius that we cannot recommend heartily enough.

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  VARIOUS ARTISTS
Pomegranates
(B-Music)

"Helelyos" Zia
"Mosem-e Gol" Parva

The superlative Finders Keepers label expanded its vision of a vintage psychedelic Earth with this excellent collection of Iranian/Persian 1960s and '70s psych-pop, folk, and funk jams, compiled by Other Music alumnus Mahssa Taghinia. Mahssa's liner notes do a wonderful job laying out the history of not only the social and cultural turbulence of the era in her homeland, but also adequately give context to the dreamlike sounds which are compiled within. These are songs of both revolution and evolution, from an era that combined nostalgia for the antiquities of old Iran with a fascination and joy at the arrival of the modern age. An age whose psychedelic and space-age fashions and furnishings created an environment that is both of its time and beyond it -- a concept aptly described in the liner notes as being "neither East nor West," but rather inhabiting an environment all its own.

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  PASTOR T.L. BARRETT & THE YOUTH FOR CHRIST CHOIR
Like a Ship Without a Sail
(Light in the Attic)

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Like a Ship without a Sail is a holy grail of gospel-soul, with Pastor T.L. Barrett (an influential activist and champion of the poor, but nonetheless a man not without controversy) and the Youth for Christ Choir tearing through a truly uplifting and funky set, with some help from the Rotary Connection's Richard Evans and Phil Upchurch. A rich and moving expression of youth and faith from Chicago's south side, circa 1971, this one's been in heavy rotation at our shop for much of the year. Chances are you may have visited OM while it was spinning on our stereo and joined us in feeling the spirit!

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  KENNY GRAHAM AND HIS SATELLITES
Moondog and His Suncat Suites
(Trunk)

"Chant"
"Tropical Sun"

Trunk Records issued one of their best releases yet this year with this set of 1957 recordings from Kenny Graham. Moondog and Suncat Suites sees the UK jazzman arranging and performing ten of infamous NYC composer Moondog's works, with a crack team of British musicians, among them Phil Seamen, Danny Moss, and Stan Tracey. And as if that weren't enough, the record was engineered by none other than the mighty Joe Meek! Graham takes Moondog's music and manages to emphasize the otherworldly harmonies, the slow-breathing, pulsating rhythms, and the ethereal vocal arrangements with spacey vibraphone, flutes, and loads of reverberating percussion. The results come off sounding similar to what Sun Ra was doing on records like Angels & Demons at Play, The Nubians of Plutonia, or Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy, not to mention the work of space-age exotica pioneers like Les Baxter, Esquivel, and Martin Denny. Moondog, Joe Meek, and the heavyweights of UK jazz!? Records like this really weren't supposed to exist in the mortal world.

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  IRMIN SCHMIDT + INNER SPACE PRODUCTION
Kamasutra Vollendung Der Liebe
(Crippled Dick Hot Wax)

"I'm Hiding My Nightingale"
"Indische Liebesszene"

It almost goes without saying that the appearance of Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt's 1968 soundtrack to the erotic/educational film Kamasutra was a pleasant, if unexpected, surprise. The music here, while unmistakably Can-esque, also incorporates more traditional Eastern instrumentation in the form of sitars and flutes, assuming a meditative hash-den vibe at times. Far from being a completists-only proposition, the record is strong enough to stand alone, setting a mood that works beautifully independent of the film itself, and points the way towards classic Can releases Monster Movie and Soundtracks. Cop one for the country house and one for the penthouse.

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  EDWARD LARRY GORDON
Celestial Vibration
(Univeral Sounds / Yoga)

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Soul Jazz/Universal Sounds stepped into the New Age on this incredible co-release/reissue with Yoga Records of Edward Larry Gordon's privately issued album from 1978 of zonked zither/kalimba mind excursions. At the time of its release, Gordon was a street musician keen on overtones and the healing properties of music, and he figured the zither was the ideal instrument to work out some deeply resonant harmonic patterns. What we have here then are two 25-minute-long tracks that ceaselessly explore his instruments' possibilities, which run from the flowingly peaceful to the almost aggressively assertive, as tones converge on tones creating pulsating waves of sound. The results are endlessly inventive, and a headphone masterpiece to boot.

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  JUNIOR MURVIN
Police and Thieves - Deluxe Edition
(Universal/Island)

"Childhood Sweetheart"
"Roots Train (Extended Mix)"

Produced in 1976 by the infamous Lee "Scratch" Perry during his heyday at the Black Ark Studio, its title track covered by the likes of the Clash (and more recently by Get Back Guinozzi), Police and Thieves has gone down in the annals of music history as one of those "bucket list" albums -- one you need to hear at least once before you kick it. A mix of enlightened Rasta/roots philosophy, heady sociopolitical commentary, tough rockers rhythms, and Perry's black (ark) magic behind the boards, here Murvin and Perry take reggae to new heights, applying soul, studio ingenuity, and most importantly, classic, catchy tunes to what ended up becoming one of the most damn-near perfect records ever made in the genre. As essential as an album can be in its original form, Island's stellar deluxe edition only ups the ante, packing on an overwhelming amount of bonus material for some serious listening.

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  RIKKI ILILONGA & MUSI-O-TUNYA
Dark Sunrise
(Now-Again)

"Dark Sunrise"
"Sansa Kuwa"

Now-Again delivered this wicked, stunning collection of Zambian psych-rock king Rikki Ililonga's early years just in time to get a deserved spot on our Best of list. Dark Sunrise collects the debut album of Ililonga's first group Musi-O-Tunya, as well as his first two solo LPs, which see the man regarded as the Godfather of Zamrock kicking out his jams in a one-man band, recording all of the parts and playing all of the instruments himself. Musically, this stuff is KILLER, fusing together the junkyard funk of the Chrissy Zebby Tembo record so beloved amongst OM staff with a strain of dark voodoo psychedelia similar to 1970s Donald Byrd or electric Miles Davis records like Dark Magus or Get Up with It. These three LPs were also the first pop albums released in Zambia after its independence; the sound of liberation is all over these recordings, and the songs cry, scream and shout as much as they rejoice. This stuff is deep, funky, and trippy as hell.

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  CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX
The Electric Harpsichord
(Die Schachtel)




Die Schachtel unearthed a rare slice of drone minimalism in Catherine Christer Hennix's The Electric Harpsichord, an intense 26-minute piece recorded in 1976 and released for the first time ever in tribute to her mentor Pandit Pran Nath in a lavish package which pairs the CD with a gorgeous 60-page book which includes two poems by La Monte Young, an in-depth discussion of the music by Henry Flynt, and a detailed description/deconstruction of the piece by the composer. After lengthy studies with both Pran Nath and La Monte Young, Hennix devised a mathematic, synthesized interpretation of the tamboura drones and spiraling, cascading note clusters of their music using sine wave generators, the aforementioned keyboard (tuned to Just Intonation), and a series of feedback tape delays. The piece, while perhaps brief to some, is so packed with texture and tone that it simply rewards repeated listening rather than dilution via extraneous additions to the CD.
 
         
   
   

 

 

     
 

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  PETER GORDON
Love of Life Orchestra
(DFA)

"Beautiful Dreamer" Justine & the Beautiful Punks
"Extended Niceties"

LCD Soundsystem mainmain James Murphy and his DJ partner/drummer Pat Mahoney unearthed an uncanny disco hybrid crafted by downtown minimalist Peter Gordon. Gordon studied under luminaries like Terry Riley and Robert Ashley and has collaborated with everyone from Laurie Anderson to Suzanne Vega, David Johansen to the Flying Lizards. Of course the most telling interaction occurred between Gordon and Arthur Russell, two gifted composers of the mid-'70s who realized the most dynamic music being made in New York City was for the dancefloor and set about putting their chops to disco. Russell collaborated with Larry Levan and Walter Gibbons while Gordon set about making a disco big band, the Love of Life Orchestra, and throughout this set LOLO serve as nexus for any number of NYC strands: free jazz, minimal composition, disco, no wave, rock and funk, yet beholden to none.

 
         
   
   

 

 

     
 

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  VARIOUS ARTISTS
Palenque Palenque!
(Soundway)

"Burumburumbum" Casimbas Negras
"La Negra Kulende" Aberlado Carbano

The always-reliable Soundway released a ton of great stuff this year, but our favorite was probably a collection of Colombian Afro-Creole dance tunes in the "Champeta" style entitled Palenque Palenque! The liners to this stellar set of tunes details how, in the '70s and '80s, coastal DJs in Colombian sound systems got heavily into contemporary African soukous, highlife, and Afrobeat records which they used to rock block parties and influence countless musicians across the nation. (Sound familiar? Seems like the USA's playing a heavy bit of catch-up here!) These musicians and bandleaders infused those Afro-jams with the sounds of their own native dance music, creating fiery hybrids that quite simply KICK. These tracks are so stunning, though, because beyond the pleasing collusion of styles, they are delivered with modernist production techniques and a HEAVY dancefloor bounce. The result was entirely unique, entirely funky, and entirely recommended!

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  THOMAS KONER
Nunatak/Teimo/Permafrost
(Type)

"Nunatak"
"Teimo, Ilira"
"Permafrost, Serac"

At this point, Thomas Köner's reputation should precede him. Both as a member of Porter Ricks and as a solo artist, he has presided over a number of excellent releases over the past couple of decades that have pushed at the boundaries of techno, ambient electronics, and pure sound art. Many of these records had been languishing out of print, but the Type label stepped in to do listeners a great service this past year, reissuing Köner's first three solo records, and reviving a clutch of great albums that have influenced more than a few current practitioners of drone-based ambience. These albums are austere and dark at times, but the tones are deliberate, even cautious during some moments, yet he always makes ample use of the full stereo field to highlight negative space and gradually build each track's overall intensity without relying on all-out volume assaults.

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  TED LUCAS
Ted Lucas
(Riverman/Sebastian Speaks/Yoga)

Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store

Thanks to the astute ears over at Yoga Records for puffing and passing this joint on. Lucas did session work for Motown in the late-'60s, even playing sitar on the Temptations' Psychedelic Shack, and was respected in his hometown in the decades following, opening for everyone from Frank Zappa to Black Sabbath. In the early-'70s, Lucas began putting together this, his lone album. His voice has a soft and smoky drawl about it, bringing to mind people like Skip Spence and Kevin Ayers, while his picking is adept and groove-oriented, powering his songs on the first side before dipping into folk, blues, and even a raga on the instrumental second side. Diverse, yet clearly the vision of one player too talented to fit into any one bag, fans of any of the above-mentioned artists shouldn't have hesitated to pick up this crucial reissue.

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  NICK NICELY
Psychotropia
(Grapefruit/Cherry Red)

"Hilly Fields"
"A Hundred Years Later"

There's a classic quote in a 1982 issue of the NME where the reviewer describes Nick Nicely's "Hilly Fields" single as "the best psychedelic record made since the '60s." As bold of a statement as that is, it's 100% true. Part DIY weirdo, part psychedelic wizard, Nicely set out on his own electronic Magical Mystery Tour in the late '70s/early '80s and created some truly unique and out-of-time music. All four sides of the two 45s he released are featured here, including the incredible "Hilly Fields" which invents drum machine psych, and "49 Cigars," an amazing '80s synth-inspired take on Syd Barrett. It's easy to see why he was such a huge influence on Andy Partridge's Dukes of Stratosphear and Robyn Hitchcock. Fortunately for us, it turned out there was a huge wealth of unreleased material in Nicely's archives, which is on par with the two singles.

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  HAMPER MCBEE
The Good Old Fashioned Way
(Twos & Fews / Drag City)

"Wreck of the Number 9"
"Knoxville Girl"

Goddamn if this wasn't one of the most hilarious, moving, profane, and fascinating records of the year. Released by Twos & Fews, a Drag City imprint, The Good Old Fashioned Way resurrects the songs and storytelling of Monteagle, Tennessee's Hamper McBee, a hard-drinking moonshiner, carnival barker, ballad singer, tall-tale teller, and general raconteur who was most impressively mustachioed, recorded in the mid 1970s by famous country-blues historian Charles Wolfe. McBee was a fine, fine, singer, and these tunes go down real easy, with little of the sharp edges and high nasal tones you might expect from a Southern balladeer. You can tell these vocal cords have been loosened by many Mason jars of whiskey. There must have been a pretty remarkable division in this man's character too, as it's incredible how deeply soulful he presents these songs, mostly familiar old-time ballads like "Knoxville Girl" and "Jack of Diamonds," and then immediately pivots to some of the most jaw-dropping and outrageous stories you're ever likely to hear.

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  RILEY
Grandma's Roadhouse
(Delmore)

"Picture"
"Field of Green"

Riley is the intriguing meeting of a Music Row maverick with a shit-kicking bar band, Gary Stewart's eerie high lonesome tenor and guitars blending with Riley Watkins' gritty white chocolate soul tones and pickin' to hollerback to then-dominant, exogamous rustic auteurs like John Fogerty and Robbie Robertson. Nowhere apparent is '60s countrypolitan syrup; the three-way conversation between country, rock, and soul this group of players had first assayed at Muscle Shoals back in 1965 reaches its zenith herein. Often, Grandma's Roadhouse sounds like what the Burritos might have been had they been formed in Nashville's environs rather than Los Angeles, especially through the middle section when Stewart steps out on the Parsons-friendly "Love, Love You Lady" and the funky-fuzzy "You Been Cheatin' on Me Honey."

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Order LP by Texting "omlprileygrandmas" to 767825
 
         
   
   
   
       
   
         
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