Other Music Staff Picks for 2006

GEOFF ALBORES
Icy Demons "Tears of a Clone" (Eastern Developments)
Paul St. Hilaire "A Divine State of Mind" (False Tuned)
Keith Hudson "Entering the Dragon" (Trojan)
Beny More "El Barbaro del Ritmo!" (Rev-ola)
Cody ChesnuTT "Boils" (4AD)
Cat Power "The Greatest" (Matador)
[V.A.] "Chicago Boogie" (Eskimo)
Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble "Drumdance to the Motherland" (Eremite)
Kaos & Sal P. "Collectors Series Pt. 2 - Danse, Gravite Zero" (Faith)
Omar "Sing (If You Want It)" (Ether)
Skygreen Leopards "Disciples of California" (Jagjaguwar)
Lee Perry Presents "African Roots featuring Seke Molenga and Kalo Kawongolo" (Trojan)
Karen Dalton "In My Own Time" (Light in the Attic)
Ethiopiques 21 "Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou" (Buda Musique)
Loren Connors "Night Through" (Family Vineyard)
White Magic "Dat Rosa Mel Apibus" (Drag City)
Matana Roberts "Lines for Lacy" (Self-Release)
Arthur Russell "Another Thought" (Orange Mountain)
Tortoise "A Lazarus Taxon" (Thrill Jockey)
Arsenio Rodriguez "Quindembo" (Epic Japan)
Abdul Aziz El Mubarak "Straight from the Heart" (World Circuit)
Jolie Holland "Springtime Can Kill You" (Anti)
Justin Timberlake "FutureSex/LoveSounds" (Jive)
Ali Farka Toure "Savane" (World Circuit)
TV on the Radio "Return to Cookie Mountain" (Interscope)
White Mice "s/t" (Basic Replay)


CHE CHEN
1. Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy "I Was a Creep" 45 (Locust)
- Two choice cuts of no-wave era hillbilly music from the seemingly endless back catalogue of Henry Flynt. If you think you already know what Henry Flynt sounds like, guess again.
2. Music of Central Asia, Vol. 1 "Tengir-Too: Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan" (Smithsonian-Folkways)
3. Music Of Central Asia, Vol. 2 "Invisible Face of the Beloved: Classical music of the Tajiks and Uzbeks" (Smithsonian-Folkways)
- Following the success of their 20 CD "Music of Indonesia" series, the good people at Smithsonian Folkways are giving some long overdue attention to the music of Central Asia. These albums, the first two in the series, are simply extraordinary, and are testament to the rich and varied folk and classical traditions of the region.
4. R. Keenan Lawler "Music for the Bluegrass States" (Xeric/Table of Elements)
- Finally, a widely available release by one of the truly great guitarists around today. This Kentucky native's solo steel guitar playing draws on country blues, 20th century Minimalism, and the tonalities of Indian ragas and Indonesian gamelan in equal measure.
5. Josephine Foster "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" (Locust)
- Foster went heavyweight in my book this year with this strange and beautiful collection of covers of 19th century German Art songs. Ancient sailors throwing themselves overboard probably heard a voice that sounded something like this.
6. UW OWL "Thorn Elemental" (Phaserprone)
- Everything about this band, from it's cryptic all-caps moniker to the slurred speech moans on the bent, synth-laden tracks on this record, is something of an enigma. I hope they stay that way, and that they drop another one of these babies soon.
7. Dirty Projectors "New Attitude" EP (Marriage Records)
- 2005's "the Getty Address" was a tough record to follow, but Dave Longstreth delivered a taste of what's to come with this killer batch of microtonal choral breakdowns, sine wave rhythms, broken guitar strings, and chamber hip-hop moves.
8. Robbie Lee "Sleep, Memory" (I and Ear)
- An adventurous solo outing by idiosyncratic songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Robbie Lee, "Sleep, Memory" strikes the perfect balance of pop hooks, asymmetrical musical structures, and strange instrumentation. Not quite a concept album, but arranged in "Suites" of songs and instrumental "Interludes," Lee creates a sound world filled with unusual timbres, delicate harmonies, and allusions to an Americana both real and imagined that shouldn't stay overlooked for long.
9. Jessica Rylan "Synthesizer Music for Cassette" (irfp)
- Originally released as four cassette tapes on four different labels, "Synthesizer Music for Cassette" is a collection of outsider electronic music made on Rylan's own home made synthesizers. From percolating not-quite-organic chirps to dense pulsating waves of sound to her own spectral, highly processed voice, Rylan's breadth of vision and ability to use and conceive of these machines is truly badass.
10. Joanna Newsom "Ys" (Drag City)
- There's not a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said-Newsom's ambitious sophomore record is heavier and more mature sounding than her first, with lush arrangements by Van Dyke Parks.


JO COLAGIACOMI
Cat Power "The Greatest" (Matador)
Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
Ghostface Killah "Fishscale" (Def Jam/Island)
Lou Harrison "Chamber & Gamelan Works" (New World)
Loren Connors "Night Through: Singles and Collected Works 1976-2004" (Family Vineyard)
Hugh Masekela "Presents the Chisa Years 1965-1975 (Rare and Unreleased)" (BBE)
Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble"Drumdance to the Motherland" (Eremite)
Psychic Ills "Dins" (Social Registry)
Henson Cargill "A Very Well Travelled Man" (Omni)
Dead Moon "Echoes of the Past" (Sub Pop)


AMANDA COLBENSON
Beirut "Lon Gisland EP" (Chouette)
Holy Shit "Stranded at Two Harbors" (UUAR)
Susan Christie "Paint a Lady" (B-Music)
- Technically this was never released before even though it was recorded in 1970
Grizzly Bear "Yellow House" (Warp)
OM "Conference of the Birds" (Holy Mountain)
Espers "II" (Drag City)
Psychic Ills "Dins" (The Social Registry)
Vetiver "To Find Me Gone" (DiCristina)
TK Webb "Phantom Parade" (The Social Registry)
Electrelane "Singles, B-Sides, & Live" (Too Pure)


KEVIN COULTAS (Update Contributor)
2006 Lucky 13 + 2 Box-sets
Goslings "Grandeur of Hair" (Archive)
- This CD affected me unlike anything I’ve heard in years. Such brutally beautiful patience.
Matt Elliott "Failing Songs" (Acuarela)
- Elliott has become quite the singing troubadour of late. I think of M. Gira’s “Tied to the mast on the g-ddamned slave ship of FAILURE”.
M Ward "Post War" (Merge)
- A perfect pop record.
Tom Verlaine "Around" + "Songs and Other Things" (Thrill Jockey)
- Not one, but 2 excellent records by one of New York’s premier art-rock guitarist.
Neko Case "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" (Anti)
- With that voice and those lyrics she could have Green Day backing her and it would be good.
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra "Melody Mountain" (Rune Grammofon)
- Best covers record, maybe ever – they totally stole those songs from their owners.
Bob Dylan "Modern Times" (Columbia)
- Cantankerous and excellent.
Joanna Newsom "Ys" (Drag City)
- Wow, what is this music??? Popular???
Wolf Eyes "Human Animal" (Sub Pop)
- W.E.s are one of the only scary bands left – like the Germs or the Stooges, they have nothing to lose.
In The Country "Losing Stones, Collecting Bones" (Rune Grammofon)
- Best use of the least. Marc Ribot doesn’t hurt either.
Calexico "Garden Ruin" (Quarterstick)
- Calexico has become one of the best bands on the planet. They can pull those heart-strings too.
Lisa Germano "In the Maybe World" (Young God)
- Not much talk about this one, but I found it to be her best release to date – stripped down in proper measure, to perfection. Quite the emotional affair too.
Juana Molina "Son" (Domino)
- I don’t understand a word, but it somehow makes sense to me. Like an updated version of Caetano Veloso’s Joia.
Tom Waits "Orphans" (Anti)
- It’s hard to believe some of this stuff was considered throw-away. He covers a lot of ground between the brawlers, bawlers and bastards.
This Heat "Out of Cold Storage (ReR)
- With this box-set This Heat’s mountainous importance is felt.

Other good 2006 stuff:
Wife and dog. In the Country w/ Marc Ribot live at Tonic (incredible!). Wolf Eyes live @ North 6 (jaw on floor)! Living in New York was great and all, but moving back to Kentucky...The two kids in ”Talladega Nights.” Europe with CBRB – ilirska bistrica, Zagreb, Maniago, Barcelona and Madrid in particular. http://youtube.com/watch?v=iQG_UOuqlM0 - “little fat man who sold his soul, little fat man who sold his dream...” Hope drawn from election time. Jamie battling off cancer! Jackass 2!


J DENNIS
Album of the Year:
Neko Case "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" (Anti)


LISA GARRETT (Update Contributor)
The Knife "Silent Shout" (Mute Records)
- Much like Kate Bush, you either love it or you hate it. At first listen, I almost hated it because of the unusual KB-like vocals (which I shunned in the '80s upon first listen), but damn it, the songs, especially "We Share Our Mother's Health," and the title track just got stuck in my head. I blame the vocals and the beats -- together with the arrangement -- not to mention the mysteriousness surrounding the band.
Liars "Drums Not Dead" (Mute Records)
Karen Dalton "It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best" (Light in the Attic)
- This record came in used at OM when I first started working there. I played it in the store, intrigued by the Billie Holiday references, and fell in love with it, and fended off people trying to buy it right then and there. But for some reason, I ended up not getting it , and it was gone...until five-odd years later, this reissue! The "In My Own Time" reissue should be counted here, too, for the cover of Katie Cruel alone...
J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw)
M Ward "Post War" (Merge)
Wolfmother "s/t" (Modular)
Boris "Pink" (Southern Lord)
- Their name was taken from a Melvins song. They are Japanese. They have an awe-inspiring female bassist. At times stoner, drone, psych and ambient, this Boredoms fan didn't need much more than that to love 'em.
El Perro Del Mar "s/t" (Control Group)
Comets on Fire "Avatar" (Sub Pop)
White Magic "Dat Rosa Mel Apibus" (Drag City)

Top Live Shows: Os Mutantes/Death Vessel (Webster Hall), Final Fantasy (Solid Festival, Berlin), Adem (Solid Festival, Berlin), Love Is All (Knitting Factory), Andrew Bird, Centromatic (Mercury Lounge), Stephen Beck, A Hawk and a Hacksaw (Good Shepard Faith Church)
Top books: Abundance - A Novel of Marie Antoinette (Sena Jeter Naslund), The Madonnas of Leningrad (Debra Dean), Empress (Sun Sha), The Dissident (Nell Freudenberger), Rip It Up and Start Again (Simon Reynolds)

DANIEL GIVENS
26 Artists for 2006, in no particular order...every one is worth a listen!
1. Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury" (Re-Up Gang/Jive/Zomba)
2. White Flight "s/t" (Range Life)
3. Georgia Anne Muldrow "Olesi: Fragments of an Earth" & "Worthnothings EP" (Stones Throw)
4. Justin Timberlake "FutureSex/LoveSounds" (Jive)
5. Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble "Drumdance to the Motherland" (Eremite)
6. Skream "Skream!" (Tempa)
7. The Roots "Game Theory" (Def Jam)
8. Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
9. Keith Hudson "Entering the Dragon" (Trojan)
10. Screamin' Jay Hawkins "At Home with" (Acadia)
11. Clark "Body Riddle" (Warp)
12. Gnarls Barkley "St. Elsewhere" (Downtown)
13. Monoton "Blau" & "Monotonprodukt 07" (Oral)
14. TV on the Radio "Return to Cookie Mountain" (Touch & Go)
15. Dudley Perkins "Expressions (2012 a.u.)" (Stones Throw)
16. Ike Yard "1980-82 Collected" (Acute) & [V.A.] "New York Noise Vol.3" (Soul Jazz)
17. Lupe Fiasco "Food & Liquor" (Atlantic)
18. Idris Ackamoor "Music of 1971-2004" (EM)
19. J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw) & "The Shining Instrumentals" (BBE)
20. OOIOO "Taiga" (Thrill Jockey)
21. White Mice "s/t" *vocal & versions (Basic Replay)
22. Benoît Pioulard "Precis" (Kranky)
23. Marc Moulin "The Placebo Years 1971 to 1974" (Blue Note)
24. [V.A.] "Soul Gospel Vol. 2" (Soul Jazz)
25. Ghostface Killa "Fishscale" (Def Jam)
26. Arthur Russell "Another Thought" (Orange Mountain) & "First Thought Best Thought" (Audika)

Radio single of the year: Cassie "Me & You" (Bad Boy)
7" of the year from a local band: El Michels Affair "C.R.E.A.M." / "Glaciers of Ice" & "Dual of the Iron Mic" (Truth & Soul)
Cross-generational mix of the year: Kaos & Sal P. "Collectors Series Pt. 2 - Danse, Gravite Zero" (Faith)
Best new band that didn't put a record out in 2006: J'Davey
Best old band(s) that I couldn't stop listening to in 2006: Gang of Four & Funkadelic
Best band that it's just good to have back, even if the album wasn't great: OutKast
Best CD that's new to OM, but was not released in 2006: Syretta "Stevie Wonder Presents Syretta" (Hip-O Select)
Freaky screamin' diva of the year: Beyonce "B'day" (Sony)
Surprised I listened to it as much as I did: Thom Yorke "The Eraser" (XL)
Loss of the year, yet still released albums: James "J-Dilla" Yancey


HARTLEY GOLDSTEIN
1. J-Dilla "Donuts" and "The Shining" (Stones Throw/BBE)
- Word on the interweb is that 2006 was a "good year for hip-hop." Sure. That said, however you choose to classify the sounds Jay Dee was cooking, he was making music so important, genre-defining, and heartfelt it basically took the life out of him. Whatever the doctors said, dude died from dopeness - And in the span of two records he sublimely defined his life in two divergent flavors: the dusty past ("Donuts") and the shimmering future ("The Shining").
2. Producer John Agnello
- In 2006 one man made me care about two bands that I had absolutely zero interest in - that man is producer extraordinaire John Agnello. If the Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls in America" and Sonic Youth's "Rather Ripped" proved anything, it's that nobody knows how to get a guitar sound like Agnello. And hell, both these bands stubbornly resisted actually writing songs with little things like hooks and choruses until Agnello came around. And that's actually saying something for Sonic Youth who've seemingly been blue balling their collective demographic with "two song albums" now for over two decades. Who woulda thunk that when Sonic Youth and the Hold Steady put their mind to it, they would make two of the most sing-a-long-able joints of the year!? Thank you John Agnello.
3. Destroyer's "Rubies" (Merge)
- Up until this year, the only time I ever wanted to hear Dan Bejar was when he was making all-too brief scene-stealing, Marc Bolan-biting appearances on New Pornographers records. Nothing could've prepared me for "Rubies" - certainly nothing he's ever done previously as Destroyer can hold a candle to reference-addled, semantic-stoner folk rock of "Rubies." No record had more to teach me this year. I've listened to "Rubies" dozens of times - sleepy drunk off wine at 2 A.M., in gypsy cabs home from too late nights in Brooklyn, Sunday mornings over eggs benedict, playing in the background of some random design store in Tribeca. The album stalked me like a mixed-up lover who I pretended not to take note of, just 'cause I didn't know what I ever would do if it went away.
4. Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
- I still don't know what the hell this album is. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a folk record; it does come in that worn cardboard packaging, and I'm pretty sure Will Oldham had something to do with this band's first album or something. No matter, it took balls to make a record like this…balls, and lots of weed. In theory, it looks like a complete disaster - a whole album of just murky mid-tempo Rhodes keyboard driven grooves. But listen after listen, one just has to marvel at how effortless the whole thing sounds. The "studio" is the least "vibe-y" place there is, and the fact these dudes could make something so other-worldly, so mellow, shimmering, and somehow holistic sounding. If I believed in a God, and then that God went and made a hippy folk record, this is that record.
5. Shogun Kunitoki "Tasankokaiku" (Fonal)
- I'm a sucker for packaging. It's no surprise then, that I basically blindly picked up a bunch of the releases on Fonal. They look so enigmatic and alive--basically, irresistible. This love-affair with album packaging, like most love-affairs, usually just ends up kicking me in the ass. Shogun Kunitoki's "Tasankokaiku" was the big exception in '06. Shogun Kunitoki essentially sounded like I'd always hoped Broadcast would - unapologetically retro without being kitschy and super, super jammy. Like Terry Riley's "Persian Surgery Dervishes" with a heavy, propulsive, and vaguely Kraut-rock rhythm section powering the whole thing. If you love organs, and loud percussion - there was no better record for you in 2006.
6. Peter, Bjorn and John "Writer's Block" (Wichita/V2 Import)
- Peter, Bjorn and John's third album,"Writer's Block," essentially plays like a NOW comp of essential "Indie Rock" hits of yore. There's some My Bloody Valentine in the production, and some Belle and Sebastian in the lyrics, some Pete Doherty in the vocals, and some Television Personalities in the overall genre-hoping playfulness. And yet, for all this band's stylistic pretensions, they never failed at sounding like nothing less than themselves. Even Ric Ocasek loved 'em. Ric. Ocasek. 'Nuff Said.
7. Peter and the Wolf "Lightness" (Worker's Institute)
- For the "we only like lo-fi albums with yearning hushed male vocals and gently-strummed acoustic guitars" set, Peter and the Wolf's "Lightness" was like tear-stained manna from the sad-boy heavens. But all that is just surface, "Lightness" sonically, and at its heart, was all about the songs--and one after the other. Wolf mastermind Red Hunter seemed to be pulling from an endless well of post-Brill Bldg inspirations. Hunter's insights were as clever and unsentimental as Stephen Merritt, and yet as earnest and transfixing as Elliott Smith. However, most of all, and unlike either Merritt or Smith, Hunter never takes himself too, too seriously. In other words, this is the best Little Wings record Kyle never made.
8. Coke Rap Records that didn't need "grunts" or "uuughhs" or "dances" to get me to like them, or, the Inevitable Ghostface and Clipse Spot.
- Both Ghostface's "Fishscale" and the Clipse's "Hell Hath No Fury" talked about tireless rap clichés like drugs, and money, and violence, and getting "trill," and had segues with gun shots, while both records were still more intelligent than you are. Ghost and Clipse essentially invented a new language for themselves--dizzyingly abstract post-slang, cryptic as fuck, and yet, there was never a moment on either of these records when you didn't know what these dudes were talking about. There was also never a moment when the production didn't stand up to the lyrics. And thankfully, neither Ghost nor the Clipse needed a "hit single" with a dance to get anyone to care about them. They did it their way: uncompromising, and most importantly, intensely artful. No one was more "real" than these guys in 2006.
9. Vetiver "To Find Me Gone" (Dicristina)
- "To Find Me Gone" is a long slow-burn of an album. All of its songs take their sweet time to unfold, and for a wistful folk-rock record, "Gone" was practically Buddhist in its conception; it's packed with hooks and songs about old loves, sure. But in its own mellow way, "Gone" ostensibly sounds like a 45 minute drone of sweet pedal steels and lush vocals and reedy guitars lines and hazy strums to boot. I've yet to hear an album that makes you more intensely aware of the present. It's a modest, and transfixingly strange little record--and surely, one of 2006's most overlooked, beautiful gems.
10. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names "#3" (Minty Fresh)
- While Jens Lekman was off quitting music altogether and then reportedly back hard at work in the studio, his fellow Swedish indie-pop loving brethren, Suburban Kids with Biblical Names fed my Lekman-pop itch. "#3" is packed with delightfully twee-pop, reference-addled lyricism, dour baritone vocals, and ADD-injected lo-fi soundscapes. "Rent a Wreck" was the only song I liked all year that managed to use the so-tired post-punk hi-hat on the up-beat rhythm, and they even name-dropped Pavement. A sugar-sweet surprise. Biggest guilty pleasure of 2006.

Best Album I Didn't Listen to in 2006: TV on the Radio "Return to Cookie Mountain" (Interscope)
Best Album That Technically Didn't Come Out This Year That Technically Isn't Even an Album Really: Heron "Upon Reflection" (Castle Music)
Best Album I Have to Pretend to Have Heard to Impress This Girl I Know: Pants Yell! "Recent Drama" (Asaurus)
Best Album I Forgot Came Out in 2006, But Really Enjoyed: Arctic Monkeys "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (Domino)
Best Album to Not Make It on To Too Many Peoples Top 10's That Really Should've: The Roots "Game Theory" (Def Jam)
Best Album You Are Most Likely to Hear in Giant Robot: Lupe Fiasco "Food and Liquor" (Atlantic)
Best Album No One Will Admit to Liking in Exactly 3 Months: Girl Talk "Night Ripper" (Illegal Art)
Best Album That Unintentionally Makes Great Music to Run to: The Thermals "The Body, The Blood, The Machine" (Sub Pop)
Best Album That Intentionally Makes Great Music to Run to: LCD Soundsystem "45:33"
Best Live Album of This Year and Probably Ever: Sandy Bull "Still Valentine's Day 1969" (Water)
Best Album to Make You Seem Like a Really Intense and Difficult Person: The Knife "Silent Shout" (Mute)
Best Album as Determined by the Total Number of Magazine Cover Stories Attained: Tie. Cat Power "The Greatest" (Matador) and Joanna Newsom "Ys" (Drag City)
Best Song Used as Transition Music on channel 25's New York Noise: "Rent A Wreck" Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

GERALD HAMMILL
Lindstrom "It's a Feedelity Affair" (Smalltown Supersound)
Peter, Bjorn & John "Writer's Block" (Wichita/V2)
Serge Gainsbourg "D'Autres Nouvelles Des Etoiles" DVD (Universal France)
Paulo Bagunça e A Tropa Maldita "s/t" (Mariposa)
Beirut "Gulag Orkestar" (Ba Da Bing)
Achim Reichel "Die Grune Reise/Erholung" (Melting Point)
J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw)
Hisato Higuchi "Dialogue" (Family Vineyard)
Cassy "Panorama Bar 01" (Ostgut)
Junior Boys "So This Is Goodbye" (Domino)
Shogun Kunitoki "Tasankokaiku" (Fonal)
Bibio "Hand Cranked" (Mush)
Jesu "Silver EP" (Hydra Head)
Ilous & Decuyper "s/t" (Lion Productions)

DUANE HARRIOTT
J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw)
Neil Hamburger "The World's Funnyman" DVD (Drag City)
Groupies: The Movie DVD (Cleopatra)
Theo Parrish Live at APT on August 4, 2006
Ghostface Killah "FishScale" (Def Jam/Island)
Beirut "Gulag Orkestar" (Ba Da Bing)
White Magic "Dat Rosa Mel Apibus" (Drag City)
Syreeta "s/t" (Motown)
Tom Moulton "A Tom Moulton Mix" (Soul Jazz)


ROB HATCH-MILLER (Update Contributor)
Sibylle Baier "Colour Green" (Orange Twin)
Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
Ghostface Killah "FishScale" (Def Jam)
Heron "Upon Reflection: The Dawn Anthology" (Castle)
J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw)
Sachiko Kanenobu "Misora" (Chapter)
Joanna Newsom "Ys" (Drag City)
Emmanuelle Parrenin "Maison Rose" (Lion Productions)
Shogun Kunitoki "Tasankokaiku" (Fonal)
Scott Walker "The Drift" (4AD)


DAN HOUGLAND
White Magic "Dat Rosa Mel Apibus" (Drag City)
[V.A.] "Shimauta Pops" (Polystar Japan)
Monoton "Blau" & "Monotonprodukt 07" (Oral)
Black Dice "Manoman" (DFA) & "Gore" (Picture Box)
Destroyer "Rubies" (Merge)
Haroumi Hosono "Cochin Moon" (Avex IO)
Babyshambles "B-sides" (Rough Trade) & "Blinding EP" (Regal)
Holy Shit "Stranded at Two Harbors" (UUAR)
Ocrilim "Anoint" (I and Ear)
Flying Canyon "s/t" (Soft Abuse)
Lindstrom "It's a Feedelity Affair" (Smalltown Supersound)
Hermine "World on My Plates" (LTM)


MIKEY IQ JONES (Update Contributor)
Yoshio Machida "Naada Steel Pan" (Amorfon)
- Pure beauty. Best record of the year. 'Nuff said.
Kahimi Karie "Nunki" (Victor)
- She tore her playhouse down years ago, and on "Nunki" she's out in the wilderness, claiming it all for herself and building herself a bridge further out into the unknown. Simple, stunning, and gorgeous.
Serge Gainsbourg "...et Caetera - Enregistrement public au théâtre Le Palace - 1979" (Universal France)
- Best reissue of the year, and the one release I listened to the MOST in 2006. A 2CD set documenting Serge's end-of-the-year run at the Palace in 1979 (the last gig was on New Year's Eve). He was touring the "Aux Armes Et Caetera" LP, playing live for the first time in over 15 years, celebrating his most succesful (and controversial) LP thusfar. As on the LP, his backing band is Sly & Robbie's Revolutionaries -- they absolutely TEAR UP the "Aux Armes" material AND rework some of his '60s ye-ye material inna rockers style, and the crowd goes batshit crazy throughout, literally stomping and clapping along throughout. One of the most well recorded (and strongly performed) live records I've ever heard, and probably the first thing I'd use the time machine to go back and see. It's also the only time a Pitchfork review totally pissed me off because dude just completely missed the point. The only thing Gainsbourg could have done to top all of this was to purchase the original Rouge De Lisle manuscript of "La Marseillaise" for a laugh -- like it was a pack of smokes at the cornershop -- and he f*cking did. No one in music will ever be as brilliant as this man. NO ONE.
Afra & Incredible Beatbox Band "IBB" (Megaphon Importservice)
- This Japanese trio does THE most jaw-dropping acapella version of "Apache" with nothing but three voices and gallons of saliva. It boggles my mind that Missy, Timbaland, WHOEVER aren't biting this shit or at least hooking up for a collab. Perhaps the only hip-hop crew that can rock the house, blow the circuit breakers in the joint, and then rock the house even harder with no electricity whatsoever - the electricity's all in the arrangements. It's an expensive import, and the Alvin & the Chipmunks cover art is ridunkulous, but seek it out. Trust me.
Caetano Veloso "Cê" (Universal Import)
- Caetano went into the studio with son Moreno at the helm and comes out with this - perhaps the most focused and minimal record the man (and by the man I mean THE MAN)'s done since "Cinema Trancendental" back in 1979, but possibly the most wholly rocking set he's recorded since the early '70s. In two months, when Nonesuch puts this out domestically, everyone'll be RAVING about this album. You heard it here first - beat your blogger blokes to the punch!
Gnarls Barkley "St. Elsewhere" (Downtown)
- Cee-Lo could read me the ingredients in a box of Corn Flakes and it'd sound soulful. An album that deserved every ounce of chart success it received. Cheers.
Lily Allen "Alright, Still" (Regal)
- The new lovers' rock, and perhaps my fave lovers' rock record since Janet Kay's 1980 "Silly Games" LP. It's coming out domestically in '07, and if there's any intelligence left in the minds of American record buyers, this'll blow up like Gnarls... I just hope the US pressing includes the granny-dissing "Nan, You're a Window Shopper."
Cornelius "Sensuous" (MSI Import)
- If anyone has come close to earning Haroumi Hosono's crown as the all-out king of Japanese electro-wise collusionism, it's Keigo Oyamada. He offers up recognition and props on the b-side of the "Breezin" single with a gorgeous cover of YMO's "Cue" which might actually be better than the original. The clipped & cut-up guitars, arpeggiations-as-melodies, airport-music ambient landscapes, and mathy synth-funk of "Sensuous," the album from which "Breezin" is pulled, is Oyamada's best yet... so why isn't it coming out in the States?
Dudley Perkins "Expressions" (Stones Throw)
- When I first heard the sample of Spandau Ballet's "True" all cut up and sounding like it was actually sampled off of an AM radio broadcast and not a record, my soda went through my nose and all over my pants because my head was still nodding to the beat of the track. That's funk. The rest of the record's good, too.
Nouvelle Vague "Bande a Part" (Luaka Bop)
- My vote, though, is for the limited-edition European pressing with the cover of Siouxsie's "Israel" done in the style of Desmond Dekker's "Israelites" - two of my all-time fave songs frankensteined together with glorious results. Their version of Visage's "Fade to Grey" was one of the most beautiful things I'd heard this year, and then it segues into Blancmange's "Waves" and I'm back in steel pan blissy heaven again. The haters simply lack the knack for mixing class with guiltless pleasure.
Justin Timberlake "FutureSex/LoveSounds" (Jive)
- The first half of this album is excellent; once the emo-rock guitars kick in during the second half of "Lovestoned," though, things get pretty ridiculous, and the track produced by will.i.am just sounds like a ripoff of Lidell's "Multiply" LP. The "Hi my name is Bob" crack song ties with the entirety of the recent Rapture LP for weakest lyrics of the year, hands down.
Dani Siciliano "Slappers" (K7) / Herbert "Scale" (Accidental)
- Dani's record was just a tad more satisfying on the whole for me than Herbert's, despite the fact that my heat pipes were the core of the rhythm for "Just Once" on Matthew's LP (yes, I called that hotline and left a recording) and "Something Isn't Right" was one of the best shoulda-been-a-hit songs this year. Hearing both of these records together and realizing that one of the most creatively fertile domestic partnerships may be coming to an end is a serious bummer.
Scott Walker "The Drift"(4AD)
- Will someone please just crown this man "God" already and make it official? My nightmares look like lightweight pantywaists compared to the darkest recesses of this record, and you know what? My nightmares are enjoying their new panties just fine, thank you very much.
Ike Reiko "Kokotsu No Sekai" (Tiliqua)
- From the sounds of this record, someone else is ALSO enjoying my nightmares' new panties very much.
Ricardo Villalobos "What's Wrong With My Friends?" (Perlon) / "Achso" (Cadenza)
- Everyone's talking about "Fitz," and in the process are completely sleeping on/forgetting about these fantastic vinyl-only double packs (released on Perlon & Cadenza, respectively) also released this year. Will someone please invent the 24-inch single for this man already?
Cassy Britton "My Auntie" (Perlon) / "Panoramabar 01" (Ostgut)
- Another one-two punch of slept-on mini-house bliss. I still feel that Villalobos's best work was done in collaboration with Cassy; on the Perlon single she shows the world that she's got flavor of her own and freaks it low-key like a double-date with Fingers Inc. She followed that up with a self-released 12" that upped the ante while lowering the lyrics. Pick these up if you see 'em - this girl's going places.
Tim Maia "Racional Vol 1" (Trama)
- If this is the sound of Brazilian Scientology, give me an L Ron Hubbard novel, a couch to bounce on, and a one-way ticket to Rio De Janeiro, please.


MICHAEL KLAUSMAN
Sachiko Kanenobu "Misora" (Chapter)
Emmanuelle Parrenin "Maison Rose" (Lion Productions)
Sibylle Baier "Colour Green" (Orange Twin)
Vetiver "To Find Me Gone" (Dicristina)
Romica Puceanu "Sounds of a Bygone Era" (Asphalt Tango)
Jordi Savall "Orient-Occident" (Alia Vox)
[V.A.] "International Sad Hits" (20/20/20) / Kim Doo Soo "4th Album" (Riverman)
Henson Cargill "A Very Well Travelled Man" (Omni)
Loren Connors "Night Through" (Family Vineyard)
Arvo Part "De Pacem" (Harmonia Mundi)

ANDREAS KNUTSEN
Howlin Rain "s/t" (Birdman)
Bubonic Plague "No Bosses No Bullshit" (Human Ear Music)
Psychic Ills "Dins" / "Early Violence" (The Social Registry)
Ike Yard "1980-82 Collected" (Acute)
Dead Moon "Echoes from the Past" (Sub Pop)
Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
Jonathan Kane "I Stared at the Sun" (Table of the Elements)
Terry Manning "Home Sweet Home" (Sunbeam)
Dale Hawkins "L.A., Memphis & Tyler, Texas" (Rev-Ola)
Jay Reatard "Blood Visions" (In the Red)
Peter, Bjorn & John "Writer's Block" (Wichita/V2)
Cause Co-Motion "Which Way is Up?" 45 (What's Your Rupture?)
Tyvek "Mary Ellen Claims" 45 (X!)
Jackie DeShannon "Laurel Canyon" (RPM)
Rhythm & Sound "See Mi Yah Remixes" (Burial Mix)
Achim Reichel "Die Grune Reise/Erholung" (Melting Point)
Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble "Drumdance to the Motherland" (Eremite)
Idris Ackamoor "Music of Idris Ackamoor 1971-2004" (EM Japan)
Band of Horses "Everything All the Time" (Sub Pop)
Ryoji Ikeda "dataplex" (Raster-Noton)
Indian Jewelry Live

For 2007:
Knicks make the play-offs
Mets win the World Series
A new RTX record?
Braids/White Stains Split 12"


NICOLE LANG
Roky Erickson Live at Threadgills SXSW
- Biblical!!
Johhny Cash "Live at San Quentin" (Columbia/Legacy)
- Essential!
Roky Erickson "Evil One Plus One" (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
- Otherworldly!
[V.A.] "Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal (Numero Group)
- Hot, funky holy!
Transmission "s/t" (Radium)
- Way ahead of its time!
Johnathan Kane "I Stared at the Sun" (Table of the Elements)
- Mesmerising!
Dead Moon "Echoes of the Past" (Sub Pop)
- Realest rock ever! RIP!!!!!!!!
Hunchback "Ugly on the Inside" (Freedom School Records)
- Underground DIY still lives!
We Jam Econo The Story of the Minutemen DVD (Plexi Film)
- Tearjerking!
Dead Moon "Unknown Passage" DVD (Magic Umbrella)
- Life Changing!
Venture Bros. "Season One" DVD (Warner/Adult Swim)
- Hilarity!
Wire "Live at the Roxy April 1 and 2 1977" (PinkFlag)
- Punk as #@*k!
ZZ Top "Tres Hombres" / "Fandango Reissue" (Warner)
- Hellraising, duh!


DOUG MOSUROCK (UPDATE CONTRBUTOR)
1. Clockcleaner "Nevermind" (Reptilian)
- Hard, violent, and bleeding raw, Philadelphia trio Clockcleaner made the only noise rock record that's mattered in quite some time, rolling up the meat of the best '90s scum (Cherubs, Breeders, Six Finger Satellite) with splinters of '80s goth and death-rock. It's like getting punched in the face and if you go see them live, it just might happen. I didn't listen to any record more in the past year, and have decided that these guys are my new favorite band.
2. Harvey Milk "Special Wishes" (Mega Blade) / "Courtesy and Good Will Towards Men" (Relapse) / "Anthem" DVD (Chunklet) / Pies-n-Thighs (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
- An embarrassment of riches herein: Athens, Georgia's Harvey Milk, the lost hope for truly heavy, personal sludge throughout the '90s, is the subject of a double-disc reissue of their most profound album ( "Courtesy and Good Will"), a four-hour DVD of archival live footage (when they kick into Led Zep/ZZ Top worship with drummer Kyle Spence, watch out), and a brand new album ("Special Wishes") that is every bit as good as they were the first time, if not better. The hard sounds of wisdom, age, pain, and coping, laid nerve-bare and standing proud. Cap it all off with some of the best Southern food available in the city at bassist Stephen Tanner's South Williamsburg restaurant, and you're set.
3. Oakley Hall "Second Blessing" (Amish) / "Gypsum Strings" (Brah/Jagjaguwar)
- This was Oakley Hall's year: the celebrated Brooklyn psych/country/roots outfit, once the victim of label foreclosure, tragic events and lineup instability, hunkered down and released two albums; the former blowing out a traditional singer-songwriter scope with panoptic influence, and the latter charged-up with the wonder of discovery, taking the genre to limits merely toyed with in its '60s/'70s heyday. They took the show to Europe as well, before completing the kind of extended jaunt across America that would have killed a lesser band. Their stock is rising and you'll be hearing something big from them in 2007.
4. Zao "The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here" (Ferret)
- "Doug Mosurock," you ask, "why would you put a Christian hardcore band on your Top 10 list?" That's ex-Christian band, at least from a philosophical standpoint (think of them as you might think of Trouble), and you show me some metalcore that fell out of 2006 this punishing and throat-ripping. Grand Canyon-sized recording from Steve Albini and the crushing drumming of Jeff Gretz (he's in NYC now, put him in your band) embellished the kind of record that stands with Botch's "We Are the Romans" and Converge's "Jane Doe" as the exemplary titles of their genre.
5. Om "Conference of the Birds" (Holy Mountain)
- Seeing these guys live sold it for me; it was like being shot through a bong and landing head-and-shoulders into the quivering center of the universe. But I continue to return to this, their second album, a leavened and spiritually-minded meditation on bass/drum heavy plow.
6. Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury" (Re-Up Gang/Jive/Zomba)
- We'll quote me from dustedmagazine.com: "I listen to this and feel like my spine is freezing. No hip-hop has done that in a while."
7. The Walkmen "A Hundred Miles Off" / "Plays Pussy Cats" (Record Collection)
- The Walkmen end their uneven days and get right down to it, presenting their most consistent and confident album yet, then covering Harry Nilsson's nadir with all the off-the-cuff respect of guys who would rather be playing this music for you than anything else in this world. Shattering, reverb-charged singer-songwriter fare that braces itself on punk, old-timey music, and sumptuous imagery, all of which prevents it from violently shaking to pieces.
8. Terry Manning "Home Sweet Home" (Sunbeam)
- Since my Dusted #8 pick (Mind Eraser's "Glacial Reign") might scare off a lot of OM subscribers, here's the year's top reissue in its stead: a one-of-a-kind rediscovery from a Memphian minor legend, who parlayed his relationship with the Box Tops and Stax Records into giving Chris Bell his recording debut, signing Big Star, and lest we forget, this killer 1970 album, an impossibly prescient and ridiculously fun collection of glammed-out, punked-up tributes to the soul, country, garage, and Beatles tunes that inspired Manning's early career. It's unfathomable that this was recorded through 1968-69, when it took England and the rest of the world about 5 years to catch up.
9. Jarvis Cocker "Jarvis" (Rough Trade, UK) / The Veils "Nux Vomica" (Rough Trade, UK)
- A pair of imports well worth your time. Two sides of the same decadent coin: Pulp's frontman fighting the years down in as grand and comforting a fashion as one could hope for, and on the other, young upstart Finn Andrews junking his entire band, moving back to New Zealand from London, and making the sort of dark, mannish record Nick Cave no longer can muster.
10. Alela Diane "The Pirate's Gospel" (Holocene Music)
- Bumping my original Top 10 right off the list, here's a reason why we should wait till the bitter end to submit these things. I can't quite figure out why Alela Diane makes the nearly dead horse of "freak folk" work for her, when it doesn't for so many others. Probably because there's not so much freak in it at all; this is a simple, assured debut by a young woman with a decades-old soul, short and bittersweet, and it'll stay with you.

SCOTT MOU
Scott Walker "Drift" (4AD)
Monoton "Produkt 07" (Oral)
Pantha Du Prince "This Bliss" album (Dial)
Carsten Jost / Efdemin split 12-inch (Dial)
Panda Bear "I'm Not" / "Comfy in Nautica" (UUAR)
Cassy "Panoramabar 01" (Ostgut)
Henson Cargill "A Very Well Travelled Man" (Omni)
J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw) & "Shining Instrumentals" (BBE)
Umela Hmota "II Ve Sklepe 76/77"

MORE STUFF O' THE YEAR:
Bubonic Plague, Supercreep and Vibe Central on Human Ear Music
Boris "Dronevil" (FangsAnalSatan)
White Magic "Dat Rosa Mel Apibus" (Drag City)
Yura Yura Teikoku "Sweet Spot" (Jasrac)
Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury" (Re-Up Gang/Jive/Zomba)
Tyvek "Mary Ellen Claims" 45 (X!)
[V.A.] "Lost Tapes" (Minimal Wave)
[V.A.] "Wierd" (Wierd Recordings)
GG Allin and the Jabbers "Always Was, Is and Always Shall Be" reissue LP
Rich Jacobs - guest artist board on Krooked


BERT QUEIROZ
NEW
Concretes "In Colour" (EMI/Astralwerks)
Phoenix "It's Never Been Like That" (EMI/Astralwerks)
Futureheads "News & Tributes" (Vagrant)
Basement Jaxx "Crazy Itch Radio" (XL Recordings)
Juana Molina "Son" (Domino)
Gotan Project "Lunático" (XL Recordings)

OLD
[V.A.] "Gospel Music" (Hyena)
Sisters Love "Give Me Your Love" (Soul Jazz)
Paulo Bagunça e A Tropa Maldita "s/t" (Mariposa)
Shinehead "Rough & Rugged" (Alm)
Wire "Pink Flag" / Chairs Missing" / "154" (Pink Flag)
Jesus & Mary Chain reissues (Rhino)

DVD
Bad Brains "Live at CBGB 1982" (MVD)
Minutemen "We Jam Econo" (Plexi Film)
Serge Gainsbourg "D'Autres Nouvelles Des Etoiles" (Universal)

JEREMY SPONDER
1. Beirut "Gulag Orkestar" (Ba Da Bing)
2. Band of Horses "Everything All the Time" (Sub Pop)
3. Vetiver "To Find Me Gone" (Dicristina)
4. Eric Bachmann "To the Races" (Saddle Creek)
5. Ghostface Killah "Fishscale" (Def Jam)
6. Annuals "Be He Me" (Ace Fu)
7. Arctic Monkeys "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (Domino)
8. Grizzly Bear "Yellow House" (Warp)
9. Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury" (Re-Up Gang/Jive/Zomba)
10. Lupe Fiasco "Food and Liquor" (Atlantic)
11. J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw)
12. TV on the Radio "Return to Cookie Mountain" (Interscope)
13. The Knife "Silent Shout" (Mute)
14. Thom Yorke "The Eraser" (XL)
15. Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
16. TK Webb "Phantom Parade" (The Social Registry)
17. Lily Allen "Alright, Still" (Regal)
18. Burial "s/t" (Hyperdub)
19. Black Devil Disco Club "28 After" (Lo)
20. Psychic Ills "Early Violence" (The Social Registry)

Reissues
1. David Crosby "If I Could Only Remember My Name" (Rhino)
2. Mark Fry "Dreaming with Alice" (Sunbeam)
3. Paulo Bagunça e A Tropa Maldita "s/t" (Mariposa)

Singles
Rick Ross "Hustlin'" (Def Jam)
Justin Timberlake "My Love" (Jive)
JR Writer "Grill Em" (Diplomat)
Jim Jones "We Fly High" (Koch)
Cassie "Me & U" (Atlantic)
Lil Wayne and Birdman "Stuntin' Like My Daddy" (Cash Money)


MAHSSA TAGHINIA
MOMENTS OF 2006, IN SOME ORDER
Inland Empire (directed by David Lynch)
- One of the most extraordinary experiences, as of several weeks ago... for a long time to come.
J-Dilla "Donuts" (Stones Throw)
Ghostface Killah "FishScale" (Def Jam/Island)
OM "Conference of the Birds" (Holy Mountain)
Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band "s/t" reissue (Art Yard)
Brightblack Morning Light "s/t" (Matador)
Selda "s/t" (B-Music / Finders Keepers)
- Shamelessly so... also finally getting B-Music off the proverbial ground, and making things happen like Jean-Claude Vannier LIVE at the Barbican in London, performing "L'enfant Assassin" AND "Melody Nelson" in their entirety (Oct. 21) .... D-Percussion Festival in Manchester UK (Aug. 5) ... DJing at Funky Sole with Egon and Cut Chemist, in Hollywood (Apr. 1) ... B-Music label launch party with David Holmes, Jazzman, Votel at Rubulad NYC (Jun. 3) ... also the fate meeting with my Persian 'pomegranates' co-hort to-be, Arash, in LA.
Istanbul (written by Orhan Pamuk)
- Melancholic memoirs... one of the best works this year, alongside the new print of "They Burn the Thistles," written by Yashar Kemal.

Notable and notorious: Edan and Dagha live every time, Persian diner Ravagh in midtown and that posh joint on Portobello in London for gastronomy purposes... World Cup!... Big Love Season 1.... Tehran during the spring solstice... Sheila B (cheers on the Grammy nomination!!) and Duane behind the decks and in person, ANY time. Rest in power - Dusk, Dilla, Syd Barrett, JB


CHRIS VANDERLOO
Jesu "Silver EP" (Hydra Head)
Joanna Newsom "Ys" (Drag City)
Vetiver "To Find Me Gone" (Dicristina)
James Blackshaw "O True Believers" (Important)
Skygreen Leopards "Disciples of California" (Jagjaguwar)
Califone "Roots and Crowns" (Thrill Jockey)
Gram Parsons "Complete Reprise Sessions" (Rhino)
Bridget St. John "Ask Me No Questions" (Cherry Red)
The Walkmen "A Hundred Miles Off" (Record Collection)
Elizabeth Mitchell "You Are My Little Bird" (Smithsonian-Folkways)
Robbie Basho "Venus in Cancer" (Tompkins Square)