by Brad Rose

Bryon Hayes

Best Album
Mudboy “Hungry Ghosts! These Songs are Doors.” (Not Not Fun/Digitalis)
Normally I try to avoid listing Digitalis-related material in these ‘end of year’ lists, so I don’t get accused of conflict of interest. However, I own the Not Not Fun version of this one, so I’m innocent (at least in my mind). Both the artwork and the music on this one are essential, top-notch and nearly indescribable. Horror has never sounded so good!!!

Best Song
MV and EE with the Golden Road “Hammer (The Pacifist)” from "Gettin’ Gone" (Ecstatic Peace!)
A work song transformed into quite possibly the most powerful anti-war epic written in the last 20 years. Beauty, power, emotion, and purity: “Hammer” embodies all of it!

Best Debut
RV Paintings “Trinity Rivers” (Root Strata)
This disc contains some seriously mammoth drone-scapes, and features members of Northern California’s Starving Weirdos. Amazing, amazing, amazing!!!

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Frannce" (Ruralfaune/La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
This totally epic 3-disc compilation of most of your favourite artists features far too many exceptional names to list here. Get it (if you still can) and hear for yourself!

Best Cover Art
Anything from Beniffer Editions
Every release by this Toronto label is unique, often including the materials used to create the packaging! Seriously mental stuff brought to you by seriously mental individuals! Everything they release must be seen (and heard)!

Best Vinyl Only
Black Monk “Flowstone” (Not Not Fun)
Yeah, so the only vinyl I bought this year came courtesy of Not Not Fun. But can you really blame me?? This massive slab of black death features Roy Tatum (Changeling) and seriously slaughters brain cells. Drums, drones... ...dang!

Best CD-R Only
Meursault “Sleeping Debris” (Students of Decay)
This is Shaun Falconer’s 4th CD-R, and his first for the amazing Students of Decay imprint. Gorgeous drones melt their way deep into the subconscious, like contrails wrapped around moonlight.

Best Cassette Only
Ignatz “They are Quiet as Mice” (Beniffer Editions)
Oddball Belgian folk has never sounded this good. Packaged in the remnants of forgotten Canadian mating rituals. What does that last sentence even mean??????

Best Live Show
The Bottled Smoke Festival @ Echo Curio and Mr. T’s Bowl, Los Angeles, May 25th-27th
Yeah, another Digitalis-related entry, so what??!! Where else could one see (VxPxC), Heavy Winged, Robedoor, Pocahaunted, Xela, and about 100 Brad Rose-related projects in one weekend? This one goes out to Burrito Autopsy, the best band that never was!!

Biggest Surprise
I lost love, only to find it again five months later. Long story... ...but seriously, I was mostly surprised that I actually like that Dan Deacon Album, “Spiderman of the Rings” (Carpark). All the hype surrounding the guy nearly made me pass this one over. It’s totally worth listening to; especially to soothe the 5-year-old kid that you know still lurks inside you...

Biggest Disappointment
There were so many deaths this year of important artists. Recently I heard that Stockhausen passed away...

Most Overrated
M.I.A. “Kala” (XL/Interscope)
I’m probably going to be shot for this one, but I just don’t see what all the fuss is about... ....sorry!!!



John Bullabaugh

Best Album
1. Pulga "Pulga Loves You" (Fire Museum)
Swells and warms, envelops you in a musical embrace.

2. Bruce Springsteen "Magic" (Warner Brothers)
3. Wooden Shjips "Wooden Shjips" (Holy Mountain)

Best Song
This varies from moment to moment, but:

1. Animal Collective "For Reverend Green" from "Strawberry Jam" (Domino)
This sounds like a totally unhinged Paul McCartney/Pixies demo that should’ve been released. Massive killerness.

2. Bruce Springsteen "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" from "Magic" (Warner Brothers)
Just masterful painting using life’s seemingly small moments.

Best Debut
Violence Jazz "Violence Jazz" (L'Animaux Tryst)
These folks raise a Borbetomagus-like racket despite being a duo.

Best Reissue
Masayuki Takayanagi "La Grima" (doubtmusic)
This is one of the guitar-skree master’s finer moments, full of color so as to better blow one’s doors off with the moments of all-out blare.

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Frannce" (Ruralfaune/La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
This covers all the bases as far as top-notch psych/folk/drone artists go, along with a few that delightfully defy categorization.

Best Cover Art
Chaob "Chaob" (Foxglove)
was quite nice to look at.

Best Vinyl Only
Boris/Merzbow "Walrus/Groon" (Hydra Head)
This absolutely bludgeons the mind into an unrecognizable, but very happy, piece of smoking roadkill and manages to surpass the way-rad Spooky Tooth "Walrus" cover (yes, it’s "I Am the Walrus.").

Best CD-R Only
Man, so many Foxgloves alone…

Best Cassette Only
Magic Lantern "At the Mountains of Madness" (Not Not Fun), or maybe Suishou No Fune "I Throw A Stone Into the Endless Depths" (Sloow Tapes)
They were both really awesome psychmurk.

Best Live Show
P-Funk, the only one I saw.

Biggest Surprise
How good the Ian Hunter record is.

Biggest Disappointment
Not seeing more shows.

John Cavanagh

Best Album
The 1990s "Cookies" (Rough Trade)
I saw John McKeown's band Yummy Fur more times than I could count in the 1990s. They were never less than first class entertainment and John always had the knack of coming up with incredible and improbable lyric lines. Back then, we were of the opinion that if John was seen by a large enough audience, he had unique, if highly unconventional, pop star potential. After Yummy Fur had split, it was their late period bass player - a certain Mr. Kapranos - who became the pop star. Cut to 2007 and we found John - restyled as Jackie McKeown - fronting a trio called The 1990s and playing a kind of trash-glam-rock'n'roll which certainly has put him in front of that wider audience and is simply a
lightning bolt charge of magical energy. Just when the format of blokes* with guitars seems jaded, The 1990s refresh my faith in rock'n'roll. This is music for leaping around to with wild abandon and is the record I've played most during the last year.

*Jackie and the 1990s aren't very "blokey", it has to be said!

Best Song
Nas "Hip Hop Is Dead" from "Hip Hop Is Dead" (Def Jam Recordings)
Hip Hop is Dead is based on Iron Butterfly's riff from In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. It's not a sample: the backing for Nas's rap is a new recording. I used the first and last few seconds of the original cut together as an opening jingle for a BBC radio show for several years, so I was well accustomed to the rather stodgy sound of that particular track! Anyway, rather than driving me back to the original as looped riffs often to, the Nas record soon became something I would play a lot and is, I think, a distinct improvement on Iron Butterfly's original.

Best Debut
Family Elan "Stare of Dawn" (Locust)
Alright! Hands up! I recorded this. However, I can't leave it off here just because you might want to fire an accusation of nepotism at me. The Family Elan album started out as purely a solo project from Chris Hladowski, one of the three extraordinary people who form the band Nalle. Chris can, it seems, pick up anything with strings on it and, by some process of alchemy, produce poetic musical sounds from it in a trice. If I didn't like him so much on a personal level, such talent could be deeply annoying. On Stare of Dawn, Chris's many faceted interests in North African, Eastern European and other folk forms meld with his own unique style and voice. Hanna Tuulikki joins him to play flute and recorder on a couple of tracks and since this album was made they've taken Family Elan out on tour as a duo, their work under this name entirely distinct from what they play in Nalle. Stare of Dawn has received a glowing review elsewhere on this site, so if you want a fuller description of the music, please seek it out.

Best Reissue
Ken Hyder Talisker "Dreaming of Glenisla" (Reel Recordings)
I was given the original LP version of this for my 11th birthday and, at that age, I first saw Talisker play live. There weren't many 11 year olds at free jazz gigs in 1976 (or, I suspect, any other time) and following that show I rather felt I was adopted as a sort of band mascot.... Ken Hyder has described me as The Fan! I used to be sent copies of work in progress and Hyder also turned me onto such things as African talking drums and Dollar Brand records. Ken Hyder's music has been one of the constant threads in my life ever since, as he is still innovating with his remarkable K-Space line up and other diverse projects. However, going back to that first Talisker album has been a very rewarding experience. The line up of drums, two double basses and two saxophones, one doubling on clarinet, sounds so fresh and the transfer to CD has been lovingly crafted by a valve audio specialist in Canada. Talisker fused Scottish forms like pibroch (solo bagpipe music) and Gaelic psalm singing with Ken's other influences: Albert Ayler, The Meters, John Coltrane. What came out then still sounds remarkably fresh and alive now. I know this list is starting to look like "me-me-me", but this was a very important record when I was growing up and to have the re-issue with extra tracks included which actually come from a tape I made as an 11 year old means rather a lot. I hope you'll bear this in mind as you accusation of nepotism becomes more solid by the minute!

Best Various Artists Compilation
"The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" (Yazoo)
A fantastic double CD anthology of rare 78s from the 1920s and '30s. It would be worth the price of admission for "Chicken Don't Roost Too High" by the Georgia Pot Lickers alone, but it is only one of 46 gems to be found here. The whole thing is immediately striking because of the Robert Crumb artwork on the front and there's a cartoon strip by the great man inside too.

Best Anthology
Ivor the Engine/Pogles Wood soundtrack by The Vernon Elliott Ensemble (Trunk Records)
Oliver Postgate created some of the most magical miniature worlds ever revealed via the medium of children's television. Bagpuss and The Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Pingwings, and on this album we have soundtrack material for another two classic series. Ivor was the Welsh steam engine who wanted to sing in the choir (as you do) and the Pogles were a family who lived in Pogles Wood (as you do.... or, at least, as I wished I did when I watched them!). Many of Oliver's programmes had music by Vernon Elliott, a bassoon player more often found on orchestral recordings conducted by the likes of Sir Thomas Beecham. Elliott's scores lent themselves perfectly to Postgate's animated characters, but they also stand very well on their own. Amidst the music on this disc, we also hear Oliver Postgate and his collaborator Peter Firmin working on effects for the shows. There's even a brief solo bassoon piece called "Ivor Parps". What more could one ask for?

Best Cover Art
Hanna Tuulikki's sleeve for Family Elan's "Stare of Dawn" (Locust)
Not only is Hanna Tuulikki possessed of one of the most incredible voices you'll ever hear, she's a fine visual artist too. The old line about a picture being worth a thousand words applies. Have a look at this sleeve (especially in LP format) and you'll see at once why I've chosen it.

Best Vinyl Only
Pink Floyd "Dolls House Darkness" 1967 BBC sessions (Sodium Haze)
Now, whilst I'm quite certain this wasn't exactly sanctioned by the surviving band members, it is one of the most essential documents around for fans of Syd/early Floyd. The transfers are, for the most part, better or more complete than any versions of these sessions I already had. A diamond, a crazy diamond.

Best CD-R Only
Pefkin "Lie On The Ground And Breathe" (Cook An Egg)
Previous notes on nepotism and this list apply one again, as I recorded this too. It appears here not for further self congratulation (heaven forfend, to use an Ivor Cutler-ism), but because it is a very lovely record. Throughout the 21 minute piece, Gayle Brogan explores myriad textures of hammer dulcimer, voice, whistles, bass and more. The Cook an Egg 3-inch CD packaging style is one I like a lot and Carrick Smith's line drawings compliment the music so well.

Best Cassette Only
Anna Kallio "balladi neidosta joka rakasti varjoritaria" (Sloow Tapes)
I only heard this towards the close of 2007 and it very quickly became a regular on the cassette deck, with homages to Atari Teenage Riot and Baader Meinhoff, plus a version of Buddy Holly's "Everyday" like you never heard before. I can't really fit this in with any particular genre, but if you've enjoyed the likes of Kuupuu, you really ought to have a listen, although that's not to say they sound alike - they don't. At the time of writing I've played two tracks from this on my Soundwave radio show and I suspect I'll be featuring more from A.R.J. Kallio in 2008.

Best Live Show
Nalle, Josef Van Wissem and Steffen Basho Junghans @ CCA, Glasgow, 30th November
Glasgow's CCA (Contemporary Arts Centre) provided a particularly crisp soundstage for this show, which highlighted the strengths of all the players. Nalle's set was comprised of the six pieces from their forthcoming second album (it'll appear in lots of lists of favourites at the end of 2008, I promise you!) and showed the band at their best, JVW and SBJ's solo sets were exquisite and the whole experience was what a great night out is all about.

Biggest Surprise
The unlikely pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Kraus
Who'd'a'thunk it, as the expression goes.... Robert Plant singing sweet mountain music and Everly Brothers songs with the doyen of bluegrass? Well, raising sand is a beautiful album and a testament to Plant's open minded attitude to taking his music where it hasn't been before. Their voices blend beautifully and I think this is a wondrous surprise for fans of both artists.

Biggest Disappointment
Terry Riley's live show @ the Triptych Festival, Glasgow, April
Sorry folks, but for my £26 ticket price I had hoped for something more enlightening than a rather iffy version of Rainbow In Curved Air, a percussionist of dubious merit who wasn't even much use at turning the pages of a pianist's score and Terry singing interminable and awful blues vamps with his son playing guitar. The best part of this show was the opening set: performances of recent works by TR when he wasn't even on stage. Then we still had anticipation and hope.....

Most Overrated
Coco-Custard
I'm not a regular reader of The Wire and I hadn't thought of explaining this cryptic reference, however... may I direct you to the November 2007 of said publication? The letters page is where you should be looking. The item in question is headlined "The Colour of Mud".




Cory Card

Best Album
Angels of Light “We Are Him” (Young God Records)
Another amazing offering from Michael Gira, diverse, cohesive, gentle and explosive, richly textured songs ranging the whole gamut of human emotion; a real masterwork.

Best Song
MV and EE with the Golden Road “Susquehanna (Sole Art Trample)” from “Gettin’ Gone” (Ecstatic Peace!)
Heavy, dirty rock n’ roll encased in warm Vermont summer sunshine vibrations.


Best Cover Song
Big Blood's “Vitamin C” (originally by Can) from “Sew Your Wild Days Tour Vol. 1” (Don’t Trust The Ruin)
As if Can’s original wasn’t enough; the amazing Big Blood duo offer up a version that stays true to form, but also offers up some surprising twists, with some killer accordion and some powerful vocals.


Best Debut
Fire On Fire “Fire on Fire” (Young God)
Featuring Colleen and Caleb from Big Blood, along with some other former members of Cerberus Shoal. This is a limited edition precursor to their forthcoming full-length on Young God, and is an amazing testament to the power of song. With five members and five voices, the music harkens back to old-timey folk, yet manages to remain fresh.


Best Various Artists Compilation
"Post Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music" (URMK)
A compilation of mainly Western musicians who find their muse in the wide ranging sounds of the East. It’s almost like reversing the concept of the “Folk and Pop Sounds of… series, released by Sublime Frequencies, and frankly it’s nearly as sublime.


Best Anthology
Omar Souleyman “Highway to Hassake” (Sublime Frequencies)
“Highway to Hassake” takes you to the heart of Syrian folk/pop, blending high-octane keyboard riffs with traditional Syrian instrumentation; this is one wild ass ride.

Best Cover Art
A Broken Consort “Box of Birch” (Sustain Release)
Personally I really enjoy when the artist pays close attention to how the object can offer its owner an experience that extends beyond the eye candy stage and offers an experience that enhances or compliments the musical experience. Richard Skelton continuously strives and succeeds in doing just that and with “Box of Birch” he’s reached his apex to date. This one is high on tactile sensation, with some gentle earthy aromas; featuring linen, prints and birch branches all contained within a beautiful jeweler’s box.

Best Vinyl Only
Ashtray Navigations “Throw up in the Sky/With Fine Clinking Magnets" (QBICO)
Though I was somewhat previously versed in Phil Todd’s soundworld, this is the album that really forced me to understand it. Needless to say, I like to live there when I can.


Best CD-R Only
Crush the Junta “The Curse of Abraham” (Carbon)
Pure crushing heaviness, with some amazing textures, and odd approaches to heavy improvisation

Best 3-inch CDR Only
Riftmusic “Riftmusic” (Sustain Release)
Driving shimmering drones created through layer upon layer of scraped and bowed strings.

Best Cassette Only
(VxPxC) “Reticent to Manifest" (Abandon Ship)
I find these guys to be consistently great, and they’ve released a ton of stuff this year, but I really think this one is their most fully realized and cohesive albums to date.


Best Box Set
A Broken Consort “Box of Birch” (Sustain-Release)
Two 3-inch CD-Rs wrapped in linen with birch limbs, and photos, all packaged in a small jewelers box with a dedication to the recipient on the cover, and then there’s the music, which is simply a transportation device to another time and place… absolutely gorgeous!!!!

Best Live Shows
Michael Gira @ Soundlab, Buffalo, NY
Simply put; a profound musical experience

Sleepwalkers Local 242/Century Plants/Antique Brothers @ Soundlab, Buffalo, NY/No Radio Records, Ithaca, NY/UAG Gallery, Albany, NY
Some of the best times and music of the year, hands down. Thanks guys.

Sunburned Hand of the Man @ Bug Jar, Rochester, NY
Each time I see them its better and better, this one was wild!

MV and EE @ Bug Jar, Rochester, NY
Amazing new tunes and approaches to song, good times and laughs afterwards


Biggest Surprise
Big Blood
Discovering this duo and subsequently Fire on Fire, has just been a musical revelation to me. They’ve really accompanied me throughout the year and are by far one of the best musical discoveries I’ve made in a while.

Biggest (music-related) Disappointment
Not being able to see Up-Tight due to US customs.

Most Overrated
Greg Weeks
…ego… yawn….

Daniel Spencer
Best Album
Pocahaunted/Robedoor "Hunted Gathering" (Digitalis)
Don't know if there are any rules against me naming a Digitalis joint as my top album, but if I'm being honest with you and with myself, this has gotta be my pick. These two bands have injected more fun, wonder and genuine excitement into the whole noise/drone thing than anyone else in the past couple of years. This stands as their finest moment thus far.

Best Song
Heather Leigh "Loch Awe" from Can't/Carly Ptak/Heather Leigh/Zaimph split lathe (Curor)
Appearing on a Curor records four way split lathe with Jessica Rylan, Carly Ptak and Zaimph, this Heather Leigh track might have been my most played thing this year. A riotous and courageous cut featuring only drums and vocals in a hymn of post-Yoko free yowling.

Best Debut
xNoBBx "Sunshine of Your Love" (Siltbreeze)
Not, strictly speaking, a debut, given their piles of cassette-only squiggle, but a debut on the international stage perhaps. This record, essentially their first practice session, outdoes all the pretenders at rock primitivism. A colder than stone moronic classic.

Best Reissue
Michael Yonkers "Grimwood" (DeStijl)
One the loneliest and strangest records ever sees the light of day and remarkably doesn't disintegrate in the sunlight.

Best Various Artists Compilation
Cherrystones "Word" (Holy Mountain)
This psych rock garage comp has no unifying theme or purpose as far as I can tell, except to ease you down the highway on the wings of some heavy shit, some of which you've heard before, some of which you haven't. Dead Moon Night is the anthem for all good times ever.

Best Anthology
"Breakdancing the Dawn" (Rhizome)
I'm not sure I've heard a more necessary anthology this year than this greatest hits barrel scraping from one of Australia's most vital underground labels. Taken en masse this stuff is brilliant, inept, confusing and funny as hell.

Best Cover Art
Sun City Girls "Beginnings Dark" LP (Enterruption)
Holy shit, this thing was a joy to unpack. The stickers, the photo of Charlie (R.I.P.), the Bonnie Banks liner notes and the vinyl itself, emblazoned with a picture of kali and playing from the inside out. Immaculate.

Best Vinyl Only
Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood "Suppress (Detached) Orchestra" (Students of Decay)
The greatest band in the universe appear in two distinct incarnations here, the early duo and the current group mind meld. Long overdue for a vinyl release, this doesn't disappoint. Everything you love about them.

Best CD-R Only
Lakes "Magic Food" (Inverted Crux)
This short burst of Sean Bailey's magic is something to cherish. As a member of Paeces and solo as Lakes he is producing some of the most unique music I've heard in a while. This CDR sounds like it was recorded on a junk stereo with whatever was lying around. Some great songs and a ramshackle compositional sense make for a truly beautiful pileup. An artist on his own flight path, not to be missed.

Best Cassette Only
No Neck Blues Band "Large Taquat" (Fuck It Tapes)
The always reliable Fuck It Tapes surprised me with this unexpected issuance of a lost NNCK side, an early jam to get you lost like an unmanned hot air balloon over the Sahara. Could leave this shit on repeat for days.

Best Live Show
The Winter Tragic Festival, Akemi, Blue Mountains
An unprecedented meeting of bands from the Australian underground. Freaks from all around the wide, brown land converged in the Blue Mountains for a day of winter solstice celebration. Almost zero audience, other than the bands, but those who were there will have their psyches branded forever by this incredible day.

Biggest Surprise
Demons "Evocation" (No Fun Productions)
I was expecting another solid Wolf Eyes side project, instead got classic synth minimalism unafraid to plunge into the cold depths where oxygen becomes a memory and you gotta learn to breathe water or perish.

Biggest Disappointment
No Guru debut record remaining unreleased.




Francois Hubert

Best Album
My Cat Is An Alien “Leave Me In The Black No-Thing” (Important Records)
Maybe the most beautiful thing they have ever done. Stellar.

Axolotl “Telesma” (Spooky Action)
So intense, it's unbelievable.

And I really loved the new Growing CD “Vision Swim” on Troubleman Unlimited. Great band too…


Best Song
Rameses III “Honey Rose” (Important Records)
This gentle, pastoral suite is like a song to me. Magical.

Oh... and let’s not forget this one too: “Even If You’re Never Awake (deuxieme)” by Stars of the Lid (from their latest double CD “And Their Refinement of the Decline” on Kranky).


Best Debut
Horse Palace “Horse Palace” (Cook An Egg)
All right, this may sound like some sort of self-promotion here, but please keep in mind that 1) this is not my music ; 2) I would have included it here anyway even if it had come out on another label. This was also one of the biggest surprises for me this year.

RV Paintings “Trinity Rivers” (Root Strata)
Music that I thought would only exist in my dreams... (see also Cloaks in the "Best CD-R Only" category).


Best Reissue
Maybe the Christina Kubisch “Night Flights” and Pauline Oliveros CDs “Accordion and Voice” and “The Wanderer” on Important Records. Oh... and we definitely need more re-issues of all the wonderful music that goes out of print in a second. Thank you.


Best Various Artists Compilation
I haven’t been able to listen to all the compilations that came out this year, but I really liked this one: “The Dead Sea Liner Sports Day” on the criminally-underrated Dead Sea Liner label from England. I don’t know if this counts but the Claypipe/Pekko Kappi/Blithe Sons 3-way split CD “The Amazed Map” on Music Fellowship is really wonderful too.


Best Anthology
I guess that would be two releases that came out on the always-amazing Dust-To-Digital label this year. First, the Sacred Harp singing anthology called “I Belong To This Band” and also the ”Art of Field Recording, Volume 1 – 50 Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum”. This stuff is essential as is the new Loren Connors collection “As Roses Bow” on Family Vineyard, of course.


Best Cover Art
I really loved the anonymous drawing that was used for the Cloaks CD-R on Atheists Are Gods... and all the artworks done by Roberto Opalio in general (the photograph he did for the cover of My Cat Is An Alien’s “Leave Me In The Black No-Thing” CD (Important) complements the music in the most beautiful way...).


Best Vinyl Only
Although it was re-released on CD, I would choose the first pressing of the Hala Strana LP “Heave The Gambrel Roof” on Music Fellowship. I’m sure many FD contributors and friends will add this one as well!


Best CD-R Only
Ahh... one of my favorite categories! Ok, so here’s my list :

Cloaks “A Crystal Skull In Peru” (Atheists Are Gods)
Enjoy this slice of never-ending bliss.

The Cosmic Nanou “Frontier Malaise” (Cosmic Tones)
Simply wonderful.

Boy Swung Tunnel “Boy Swung Tunnel” (Dizzy Records)
The best music you have never heard of.

SRX “Vessel” (Dead Sea Liner)
Great new music from this excellent French artist.

Eaten By Children “The Sword Swallower’s Grave” (State Sanctioned Recordings)
Amazing label too.

Chora “Chora” (267 Lattajjaa)

Meursault “Sleeping Debris” (Students of Decay)

And last, but not least:

Music For Phantoms “Music For Phantoms” (Opax)
The perfect Christmas gift... A meaningful presence, faintly glowing in the dark.


Best Cassette Only
Definitely, the Starbird tape "Nanook of the North" on Sloow Tapes.
Did I say “underrated”?

Best Live Show
Warmer Milks
As if time had stopped for a while on a cold, rainy day in March)

Josephine Foster
Music made flesh, just breathing through.

Growing
Real uplifting and definitely unique !!

Lichens
Soul music.

And, of course, the Massive Alien Attack on Dijon in late September 2007, now immortalized on Opax Tapes !

I also think that Rafael Toral is paving the way for something truly amazing as far new ways of making music are concerned.


Biggest Surprise
Me running a small label and all (and doing the best I can for it...). But as far as new music goes, I would say it was definitely the music of Cameron Deas. It is just fantastic!! Please check it out here.

Oh... and coming across those 3 wonderful EPs by Fovea Hex “Bloom”, “Huge” and “Allure” (Janet Records/Die Stadt).
That was completely unexpected too.

Clodagh Simonds is really amazing... As they said, these are “Songs that don’t go where you think. With voices to match...” Seeing them live as part of the David Lynch exhibition that took place earlier this year in Paris was also very special.


Biggest Disappointment
Too much music made by people who seem to have only listened to the Jewelled Antler guys in their whole lives... even if I'm sure it's not true!! Oh... and the fact that there was (almost) no new Kindling records this year, except for the new Stuart Busby CD-R which I still need to order! And also the fact that I had to cancel the show for Rameses III and Cul de Sac that I was trying to put on in May with the help of ali_fib. Just sad...


Most UNDERrated
I would just like to say that a band like Zelienople is (still) highly underrated in my opinion.

Joris Heemskerk

Best Album
Suishou No Fune "The Shining Star" (Important)
The hardest part. Choosing one record of the year. I’m starting to loathe these year end lists and it’s mostly because I’m so goddamn precise. I have to re-listen to around 30 albums that all linger somewhere in my memory as being great, potential winners. And they’re all winners, from different point of views. I got too much love, for almost everything and that’s great, except when these things called year end lists pop up. 2007 was great (musically), not exceptional but great enough to make it a memorable round. And just discovering a new genre like Sudanese blues belongs here really. But it’s about the records of 2007. The best one, and I’ll have to go with Suishou No Fune here. This live album captures everything I love about music, maybe rock music to be more precise. Psychedelic, over the top, emotional and intense. Melancholic, I love melancholy and even when they sing in Japanese and the lyrics are (presumably) pretty cheesy, I feel this album more than anything else I’ve heard this year. And that’s a lot.

Honorable, obligatory mentions
Religious Knives "Remains" (No Fun)
Hair Police "The Empty Quarter" (Harbinger Sound)
Wold "Screech Owl" (Profound Lore)
Magik Markers "BOSS" (Ecstatic Peace!)
Cadaver In Drag "Raw Child" (Animal Disguise)
Kanye West "Graduation" (Roc-A-Fella)
Emeralds "Allegory of Allergies" (Gods of Tundra)
Yellow Swans "At All Ends" (Load)
Demons "Frozen Fog" (AA)
Emaciator "Neglect" (Monorail Trespassing)
The Opposites "Begin Twintig" (Top Notch)
Wolf Eyes "Black Wing Over the Sand" (iDEAL)
Silvester Anfang "Echte Vlaamsche Geiten" (Eclipse)
Radiohead "In Rainbows" (W.A.S.T.E.)


Best Song
The Opposites "Dom, Lomp and Famous" from "Begin Twintig" (Top Notch)
Dutch hip hop has been on a roll for some time now, maturing production-wise and even topping most U.S. hip hop at this time, seriously. Opposites bring a thick, often Southern sounding production. Sturdy, hardknock flows and lotsa, lotsa humour. The title of this track translates to ‘I’m dumb, rude and famous, bitches be touching my penis’. I know, maybe you just have to be Dutch to fully appreciate it, but it would be interesting to hear some U.S. opinions.

Best Debut
Cloaks "A Crystal Skull in Peru" (Atheists are Gods)
The beauty of the underground is that you don’t have to care about personalities. There aren’t many noise/drone/free-whatever acts around that are defined by a person. It’s all about the sounds and even though this record came out at the beginning of this year I still know nothing about this guy. Other than that he’s released this terrific album. Drone minimalism, micro piano symphonies for early Sunday mornings.

Best Reissue
Maurizio Bianchi "Symphony for a Genocide" (Hospital/W.M.O.)
I’m always a bit underwhelmed when I read interviews with Bianchi. Maybe his English is just really bad or he only gets inspired when doing what he does best: giving me the chills. This one to me is the masterpiece, cold air blowing through my earholes. Over and over.

Best Anthology
C.C.C.C. "Early Works" (No Fun)
I think I love everything Hiroshi Hasegawa does and this box set is the absolute culmination of the perfect, psychedelic storm. Could have been album of the year as well, but I like variety and all these categories give me the chance to list more records so that’s AWESOME. Plug: Astro album on Cut Hands in ’08.


Best Cover Art
Extremely underwhelmed by this year’s cover art. Nothing that really stands out, so here’s a few that might come close.
Hair Police "Blind Kingdom" (Ultra Eczema)
Demons "Frozen Fog" (AA)
Typhoon "Tussen Licht en Lucht" (Top Notch)


Best Vinyl Only
Aaron Dilloway/C. Spencer Yeh "The Squid" (Hanson)
Talk about couples made in heaven. This might be the most genius pairing in noise today.

Best CD-R Only
Taliban "Gutted" (Gods of Tundra)
Yeah, "Gutted" they haven’t released more jams and I’ve heard they’re not even recording anymore. So that’s "Bummed" as well as "Gutted". Scrapyard terror noise, harsh horror tales from the sewers of New Blockaders city. Rugged and not to be fucked with, or on.

Best Cassette Only
Emeralds "Allegory of Allergies" (Gods of Tundra)
Emeralds have proven to be a justified underground hype, they’re just not bothered a bit by all the sweet talk. No pressure, just blazin’, whether it’s a spliff or a jam. 90 minutes of solid drone sorcery.

Honorable mentions
Miles Devens "Atlantic Woman" (New Age)
Emaciator "Neglect" (Monorail Trespassing)
Kakerlak "Slick and Brown" (Abisko)

Best Live Show
Aaron Dilloway @ Worm, Rotterdam
A true master at work. Visceral, dramatic, psychedelic and LOUD. Perfect.

Biggest Surprise
The ever surging underground.
Cases in point: Emeralds, Tusco Terror, CAEN, Emaciator, Halflings, Impregnable, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Craniopagus, etc., etc.

Biggest Disappointment
The endless postponing of the sequel to one of the best hip hop albums ever, Raekwon’s "Only Built for Cuban Linx". I need that it now! It better be good! Probably not! Aaah…

Most Overrated
Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" (Merge)
How can a band devolve from an underground epiphany to pretentious wank this quick?



Jan-Arne Sohns

Best Album
Grails "Burning Off Impurities" (Temporary Residence)

Best Song
Tocotronic "Sag alles ab" from "Kapitulation" (Buback)
I like the aggressive retro punk of this one. And the lyrics just hit me real hard. The first time I seriously re-considered my life after listening to pop music. Sounds terribly “About a Boy” but that’s how it is.

Best Debut
Deepchord Presents Echospace "The Coldest Season" (Modern Love)
The people behind this are actually veterans but as a collab, this is a debut. I haven’t heard any better dance music than this in 2007.

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Frannce" (Ruralfaune/La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
Thanks, Bruno!

Best Anthology
Jessica Bailiff "Old Things" (Morc)
This took me by surprise but has been close to my heart all year.

An honourable mention goes to Machinefabriek’s “Weleer” (Lampse).

Best Cover Art
Hala Strana "Heave the Gambrel Roof" (Music Fellowship)
The LP version with the cover made of wood, that is. I also totally dig Steven R. Smith’s woodcut aesthetics. Not only does it match his musical style perfectly but it has also drawn me back to Durer. My friend and I actually consider getting a woodcut wallpaper for our new flat. “Heave the Gambrel Roof” is where this new obsession started.

Best Vinyl Only
Silvester Anfang "Satanische Vrede" (Kraak)
The whole Silvester Anfang concept is hilarious. And the music is pretty great, too. The Belgian free-folk collective is definitely one of the winners of 2007.

Best CD-R Only
Sapthuran "Beast in the Cave" (God is Myth)
This 3-inch is part of a series devoted to H.P. Lovecraft and is limited to 100. Sapthuran once shared a split with Leviathan, so you know what to expect. I like the concept of the whole series, the cover art, and one of the three black metal tracks on here is particularly brilliant.

Best Cassette Only
Ignatz "They Are Quiet As Mice" (Bennifer Editions)
I hadn’t even known this existed before I read Sean Herman’s review of this beautifully packaged tape. The tracks on here are actually better than most of the material on the two LPs out on Kraak (which are nice, too). Total free-folk-frenzy, and lovely packaging as well. No idea if this is limited but it seems it’s actually still available.

Best Live Show
Melvins
The Melvins have been my favourite band since around 1992 and this was the first time I saw them in years. They have taken on the two guys from Big Business and actually had two drummers play simultaneously. As if anyone had thought Dale Crover’s drumming wasn’t heavy enough. Audience response was what the term ‘floored’ must have been coined for.

Honourable mention: Joanna Newsom.

Biggest Surprise
Helios "Ayres" (Type)
I was almost frightened when I heard that Keith Kenniff was going to sing on his next release. But it turned out excellent.

Biggest Disappointment
dysfunction of Hausmusik label/distro/shop in Munich
It’s alarming to see such a well-established enterprise run by nice, enthusiastic and reliable people go down. Hausmusik distributed labels like Morr, Type, Moteer, and a lot of others.

Most Overrated
Birchville Cat Motel
Sorry. I totally like Black Boned Angel and keep buying BCM stuff, assuming I just had to get it sooner or later. Fact is, I haven’t. Still tempted to buy the latest 3cdr. What a fool I am.

Joe Luna

Best Album
Karen Dalton "Cotton Eyed Joe, the Loop Tapes" (Megaphone)
Straight out of time past, these songs reach into the world and create it. Utterly compelling.

Best Song
anything by Lamborghini Crystal

Best Debut
Monopoly Child "Piper Maru" (New Age Cassettes)
I know, a debut in moniker only, but I have to get this tape in somewhere.

Best Reissue
John Fahey "Railroad 1" (Takoma)

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Bound With Skin" 5xCD (Skulls of Heaven)

Best Cover Art
Son of Earth "Pet" LP (Apostasy)

Best Vinyl Only
Srei Sothear and Sin Sisamouth "Cambodian Psych-Out" (Eclipse/El Suprimo/Defective)
Not much beats dancing to this stuff. Hopefully the recent revival of Khmer psych-pop will result in the archives being raided way more comprehensively – box sets, historical liners, the whole deal…

Best CD-R Only
Usurper "You're a Winner!" (Giant Tank)
Usurper at the CCA in Glasgow this November was totally thrilling, and this is their best recorded effort to date. You will not like it, then you will love it.

Best Cassette Only
Watersports + Aaron Rosenblum "More" (Arbor)
Brilliant, tiny cassette from these two. Side A sounds like bleached-out Polaroids of Kashmir in the 1970s. Side B sounds like gold. Awesome.

Best Live Show
Lau Nau + Tomutonttu + Pymathon + Kuupuu @ Bush Hall, London, 4th November (part of the Wire’s 25th Anniversary gigs).
Lau Nau in a massive early-Edwardian hall with a bottle of red wine and sneaking beer in down Ben from On Fire’s kecks with fireworks going off and Werner Herzog, etc.

Biggest Surprise
Dicky Deegan @ Palimpsest Festival
In a great way, having never heard Uilleann pipes before. Deegan opened the Palimpsest Festival in Cambridge, where Vibracathedral, Dead Rat Orchestra and Kemialliset Ystävät also played, and would have been the Best Live Show had Lau Nau not been so unfathomably beautiful.

Biggest Disappointment
All the Anne Briggs re-issues + vinyl pressings.

Most Overrated
Foxy Digitalis



Mike Wood

Best Album
Porter Wagoner “Wagonmaster” (Anti-)
The mini-trend that started with the Johnny Cash releases in the 90’s of young producers giving aging legends solid material for the first time in decades reaches a peak with this release. Forget the rhinestones and CMT kitsch; here Wagoner digs deep with a range of emotion he certainly hasn’t accessed in at least 25 years. A record filled with heartbreak and hope, delivered as raw as can be.

Best Debut
Wildidlife “Six” (Crucial Blast)
Psych-drone with smarts and a touch of menace, this is one of the rare debuts that comes out of the shoot confident, seasoned and strong. Right out of the gate, “Six” is majestic, risky and has the humor to rescue and potential stumbles.

Best Reissue
Sly and the Family Stone “There’s a Riot Goin On” (Sony)
Easily one of the top ten records ever made, for its power, vision and uncompromising anger, “Riot” is given new life with a fresh production and some bonus tracks. This is one reissue that was long-overdue, and its primary benefit is that now it is more available than it has been in years. Essential, or nothing is.

Best Various Artists Compilation
Motel Lovers "Southern Soul From The Chitlin Circuit" (Trikont)
Sweaty and greasy soul from an underground of booze, infidelity, funky juke joints, house parties and x-rated picnics, these are the tunes you can only hear on late night southern radio, if then, and can only sing when you lover is out of the room. Naughty but not nice.

Best Cover Art
Decay of the Angel "Decay of the Angel" (Nice and Friendly)


Best Vinyl Only
Julie Mittens “April/June” (Roccoco)
Loud loud loud and sugar shit sharp, Julie Mittens is a band that roars with huge guitars and a slightly perverse funk sense that makes the world taste good.

Best Live Show
Black Lips
They may not be pissing as much on stage anymore, but that doesn’t mean they are settling in to a more refined period. Live, this psych-garage beast is as sloppy as the early Replacements, with transcendent moments tossed in with equal frequency. You may not want to be too close to the stage, but just being in the building on the right night will change you…or at least change the opinion the person you are with has of you.

Biggest Surprise
Nathaniel Mayer
Resurrected two hit wonder from the 60’s teams with a young band to issue a powerhouse release of funk, soul and psych that makes Why Don’t You give It To Me? bite and groove. Mayer’s voice may fray at times, but that adds to the honesty and the sense of joy; give a man an evil band that believes in him, and give him one more chance to have his say after all these years (though he did release an official comeback record a couple of years ago) and you have the potential for monumental results. Hear 'tis.

Biggest Disappointment
No Flipper reissues!
—but expect a live DVD early in 2008!

Most Overrated
Always, or until he begs our forgiveness, Bono. At least he hasn’t adopted an African child yet.



Alex Cobb

Best Album
Andrew Chalk "Time of Hayfield" (Faraway Press)
My favorite album of last year was "Goldfall," so it is perhaps not surprising that the recently released "Time of Hayfield," an album culled from the same 2005 sessions, should be my choice for 2007. "Hayfield" contains more of the gorgeous, barely-there billows of warm sound which Chalk has slowly refined over the course of his exceptional and distinguished recording career. Essential listening from a contemporary master.

Honorable Mention
Jonathan Coleclough and Andrew Liles "Torch Songs" (Die Stadt)

Best Song
Grouper "Cover the Windows and the Walls" from "Cover the Windows and the Walls" (Root Strata)
This title track from Liz Harris' 2007 vinyl only Root Strata album epitomizes what I find to be so wonderful about Grouper: soft woozy, post-FSA guitar lines, distant and blasted vocals, penetrating pathos and an unerring pop sensibility. In what appears to be trend in recent Grouper material, "Cover the Windows..." marks a veil-lifting movement away from total processing obfuscation, with Liz allowing her vocals to burn bright through the gauze. I must say, she's all the better for it.

Best Debut
RV Paintings "Trinity Rivers" (Root Strata)
This terrific CD, released by Jef Cantu's impeccable Root Strata imprint, is the debut of a trio which features members of Starving Weirdos and Cloaks. It's a dark, glassy headtrip if ever I've heard one. Wonderfully effaced loops, percussion and bowed everything. Stay in the woods.

Best Reissue
Yoshi Wada "Lament for the Rise and Fall of the Elephantine Crocodile" (EM/Edition Omega Point)
Utterly ESSENTIAL reissue of this early 80's masterpiece on CD. With the original LP fetching astronomical prices and being rumored to disappoint in the fidelity department, EM have done a major service to all of us by making a remastered digital version of this available. A must-have.

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Yasujiro Ozu: Hitokomakura" (And/OAR)
Well, ANY album which takes its origins from the films of Ozu is going to be immediately appealing to me, it just so happens that the music on this record really lives up to the ambitions of the project. Rather than coming across as stuffily academic or overly conceptual, the pieces here are as effortlessly and autonomously poetic as the 'pillow shots' which inspired them. A wonderfully rich and diverse collection.

Best Anthology
Loren Conners "As Roses Bow" (Family Vineyard)
How can this NOT be my anthology pick? Conners is one of, if not my favorite, working musicians and his airs, in particular those from the Road Cone album of the same name, are some of my absolute favorite recordings of his. Ace remastering by Jim O'Rourke makes this another LMC winner on Family Vineyard.

Best Cover Art
Twinsistermoon "Levels and Crossings" and Isengrind "Golestan" (self-released)
These two releases pretty much put to shame the visual presentation of every other CD-R, and CD for that matter, that I've damn near ever laid eyes upon. Both discs were limited to under 50 copies, and with good reason - I can't fathom the labor involved in assembling just one of these. Solange Gularte's impossibly gorgeous art and impeccable use of handmade papers make for some of the most personal and affecting packaging conceivable. It's a thrill to even own these! 2008 should be a colossal 'coming-out' year for Natural Snow Buildings and these two related projects. Stay tuned.

Honorable mentions
all Phaserprone output
Damian Romero's "Twins" 2LP (Tone Filth)

Best Vinyl Only
Jonathan Coleclough and Andrew Liles "Torch Songs" (Die Stadt)
This album was BARELY nudged out of my number one slot by the late arriving Andrew Chalk album. Many probably balk at the weight price-tag of this monster 2LP set. But fear not, this is one of the best atmospheric drone records I've heard in a LONG time and absolutely worth the price of entry.

Best CD-R Only
Cloaks "Crystal Skull in Peru" (Atheists are Gods)
This album really took me aback. Spencer Doran employs piano (channeling Charlemagne Palestine at his most levitating), guitar, and electronics to sublime effect. The two massive, sprawling pieces contained here have gotten a lot of play time around these parts this past year. Wonderful, transportive listening.

Best Cassette Only
Marble Sky "The Sad Return" (Callow God)
Eesh, hate to have to choose a tape limited to only 15 copies as my favorite, but this is absolutely the best tape I've heard this year. Fear not though, a reissue is on the way. Superbly executed, impossibly nostalgic, wistful ambience from Jeff Witscher. The dichotomous nature of Witscher's output of late is nothing short of thrilling.

Honorable Mention
CAEN "The History of Your Immediate Surroundings" (Monorail Trespassing)

Best 3-inch
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "The Phantom Harp" (Root Strata)
Continuing his streak of infallibility this year, "The Phantom Harp" is a heavenly slab of floating tone clouds sourced from an Autoharp and a few pedals. Just plain gorgeous atmospherics.

Honorable Mention
Howard Stelzer "Mincing Perfect Words" (Chondritic Sound)
Emaciator "Remorse" (EMR)

Best Live Show
Yellow Swans with Mike Shiflet, Spencer Yeh and Grouper, both Columbus, OH
I don't make it out to many shows, but this one couldn't be missed. Fantastic live set as usual from DYS with guests Spencer Yeh and Mike Shiflet, the recording of which is apparently featured on Blossoming Noise' Burning Star Core/D Yellow Swans LP. An appropriately spellbinding, hushed set from Liz Harris as Grouper made for the perfect comedown.

Best Collaboration
Ellen Fullman and Sean Meehan (Cut)
Three loooong, gorgeous overtone vistas conjured by Fullman's long-stringed instrument and Meehan's dowel-rodded drum. There's a lot to dive into here.

Biggest Surprise
Harshheads turn drone drifters (CAEN, Impregnable, etc.)
Man what gives?? All of a sudden all these HARSH noise guys are doing soft, humming ambient material, and I, for one, am thrilled by it. CAEN/Concern (feat. Gordon from Oscillating Innards and Impregnable/Marble Sky (feat. Jeff of Callow God/Deep Jew etc), along with Jon Pedestrian Deposit/Emaciator all came with some truly beautiful soft drone albums this year which definitely got some major lullaby-time plays around here.

Biggest Disappointment
Hototogisu
What happened to the wonderfully blissed, ethereal whiteouts of "Floating Japanese Oof! Gardens of the 21st Century" (which is, to be sure, one of my favorite releases from the past few years)? Instead we get the same churning, wall-of-guitar/electronics/vox dronenoise on every damn release. Switch all your friend's 2007 Hototogisu CD-Rs and CDs around... he'll never put 'em back in the right cases.

Most Overrated
OM
I really feel like I MUST be missing something. This stuff bores me to tears and seems like its already been done, ad nauseum, back in the mid-90's by tougher dudes with longer hair.

Label of the Year
Root Strata
Everything Jefre put out this year has been simply SUPERB. Though there is a lot of diversity in the catalog, to be sure, there is a definite Root Strata vibe that you get from each release that I can't get enough of. Fantastic!

Honorable mentions
Faraway Press
Monorail Trespassing

Stephan Bauer

Best Album
Thurston Moore "Trees Outside the Academy" (Ecstatic Peace!)
While the last two Sonic Youth albums were not half as great as Murray Street, Thurston Moore´s 2007 solo album is a great collection of pop songs with enough twists and turns to make it more than just a pop album.

Best Song
New Young Pony Club "Ice Cream" from "Fantastic Playroom" (Modular)
Forget the entire album by Nu Rave sensation New Young Pony Club, also forget all the remixes. The original version of this song simply kicks ass.

Best Debut
Meg Baird "Dear Companion" (Drag City)
Espers singer Meg Baird has recorded a really pretty selection of songs for her Drag City debut, which puts her in the lead regarding Espers members going solo. I like this even better than Greg Weeks´ solo stuff.

Best Reissue
Fennesz "Endless Summer" (Editions Mego)
“Endless Summer” is a total classic and I was always bummed that it was no longer available. The reissue is very well done and features two bonus tracks which would not have been necessary because they don’t really enhance an already great album.

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Bound With Skin" 5 x CD (Skulls of Heaven)
“Bound with Skin” continues the run of multi-disc monster compilations started with the “Invisible Pyramid” comp. The compilation relies mostly on already established artists and features lots of great exclusive longform tracks by the likes of Axolotl, Zaimph and Fursaxa or Kyrgyz. Actually, “Bound with Skin” was among the only really good compilations. I rather have one disc with killer tunes than three with lots of fillers.

Best Cover Art
Hala Strana "Heave the Gambrel Roof" (Music Fellowship) (the woodcut edition)
This is probably the best Steven R. Smith album anyway, but the limited woodcut edition gives it the status of a classic album. The music and the packaging go great together.

Best Vinyl
GHQ "California Night Burning Dreams" LP + 3-inch CD-R (Not Not Fun)
GHQ had a good year, releasing several excellent albums on various labels. “California Night Burning Dreams” earns first place though, not only because of the mixed format (LP + 3-inch CD-R), but also because it contains the best tunes by them released in 2007.

Best CD-R Only
MV and EE "Eye in the Pines" (Child of Microtones)
The CD-R format might be inflationary right now, but among a lot of trash, there are also great releases like “Eye in the Pines” on the always reliable CoM imprint. It was recorded by Matt Valentine and Erika Elder as a duo, but already features the “Golden Road” songs in a slightly stripped down version + some older classics.

Best Cassette Only
The Shitty Listener "Hunt to Die" (Sacred Harp)
It seems like the Sacred Harp imprint from Florida has vanished as quickly as it had turned up. But at least it has left a small run of “Hunt to Die” tapes which look more like a new wave cassette than a release full of sweet mourning songs interpreted by Jason Honea.

Best Live Show
Decembrists @ Postbahnhof, Berlin, September 2007
Best live show in years, the sound was perfect, the interplay between the musicians, too. And on top of everything, they were incredibly entertaining.

Biggest Surprise
That the Sloow Tapes Label is getting better and better. Its peak still seems far away.

Biggest Disappointment
Almost everything involving Tom Carter (except the new Charalambides record and the latest two Badgerlore releases). Be it his recent solo work, the Sarin Smoke discs, Sky City, Mudsuckers or Turnstone. Somehow, everything sounds always the same and never surprising.

Most Overrated
Blues Control
I don’t see any appeal in their music.



Ken Zubiate

Best Album
Mudboy “Hungry Ghosts! These Songs Are Doors” (Not Not Fun/Digitalis)
While Mudboy has been putting out stellar work for the last few years, I never expected to be so utterly blown away by one of his albums. “Hungry Ghosts!” may be the epitome of “dark cinema,” an album that’s equal parts serenity, terror, groove, and chaos. Sounding like Contagious Orgasm as a church organ enthusiast, this was a hard album to top coupled with the innovative laser-cut design provided to both LP and CD by Not Not Fun and Digitalis respectively.

Best Song
Blues Control “No Sweat” from “Blues Control” (Holy Mountain)
Sick 9-minute composition that is the best song and best album closer of the year. The track moves from a sentimental keyboard ballad opener to fist-pumping guitar riffs and a dope drum break. Lea begins to fight for dominance floating on clouds of reverb keyboards equal parts trippy and laid-back, yet strangely dominant. Eventually someone steps in and breaks up the fight allowing a bit more relaxed keyboard/guitar interplay. And then there is the drum machine duel. Fuck yeah. Loved every last second.

Best Debut
Slow Listener “Bad Coffee Day” (Peasant Magic)
My runner up for best tape of the year gets the nod as best debut. Slow Listener has been doing big things on great labels all year, but this first release has really stuck it with me. 40-minutes of unique, precise and maybe a bit sllloowww, yet altogether mesmerizing feedback manipulation. No matter how abrasive and difficult, I’m always wanting more.

Best Reissue
J.D. Emmanuel “Wizards” (Bread and Animals)
Brilliant LP reissue of this New Age Space Synth classic from 1982. It’s more like “In the Summer” Terry Riley than Steve Roach, though. Pure bliss out material, that’s as simple as a Midi-game soundtrack yet there emerges depth in its effect on my psyche. Am I wrong in saying I want more re-releases like this LP rather than the flood of outsider folk/psych stuff? It’s all good, really. I’m just saying.

Best Various Artists Compilation
“Untitled Box Set” (Epicene/Public Guilt/Underadar)
If my rambling two page review for this release didn’t get my point across, hopefully this will. “Untitled” is an overwhelming 3CD collection of the most forward-thinking noise artists working within and beyond the fringes of the “scene.” If you thought noise had shot its hyperactive wad long ago, this will reaffirm your faith in the most extreme ends of the underground. So many ideas, too much to talk about coherently. How could it be titled?

Best Cover Art
anything Ultra Eczema
I couldn’t limit it to a single release so I decided to honor a single label. I’m a big fan of Dennis Tyfus’ illustration and his vinyl releases are the most eye-popping spectacles to grace the record stacks in So Cal. Too bad they cost so much, yet every dollar spent is rewarded tenfold with an amazing piece of art to add to your collection. Favorites this year include Commissaris Hjuler En Mama Beer’s “Mensen Die ‘Kort Staan’ Voor De Zelfdoding” (can someone translate please), the trippy blue-line art on Jos Steen’s LP, as well as the one-sided, screen-printed Hair Police release.

Best Rap Album
Awol One and Factor “Only Death Can Kill You” (Cornerstone R.A.S.)
My favorite LA mumble-hop artist pairs up with my favorite prairie producer for a truly inspired collaboration in another same-old-bullshit year for rap. This album is so necessary for the lost faithful looking for something strange but accessible from the genre. Melodic, depressed, surreal.

Best 12-inch Vinyl
X.0.4. “Cataracts” (Ecstatic Peace!)
Another mind blower. The first and only thing I’ve heard from the trio this year, but an incredible document of the unique improv zones excavated by these genius-caliber players. Though its members have been busy with their various projects, I’m hoping to hear plenty more from these guys in ‘08.

Best CD-R Only
6majik9 “Rubber God Head” (Phantom Limb)
It looks like the harvest finally arrives at the MYMWLY compound and from its leafy green abundance sprouts a crazed horde of 6majik9 releases over the course of 2007. This is what CD-Rs are made for. A 38-minute jam of double drum boosted sway, shiver, and bray from one fucked up mass of stoned human. The best of Donnelly-affiliated crews.

Best 10-inch Vinyl
Machinefabriek and Aaron Martin “Cello Recycling/Cello Drowning” (Type)
Also available on CD but made for the 10” format. A very stellar year for Type and a prolific year for Rutger Zuydervelt’s Machinefabriek project. This, of his several collaboration discs, is among the most beautiful and intense. I’m a big fan of the rich tonal range of the cello and Rutger adds an amazing touch with his electronic manipulations, sculpting deep, elegant waves of drone. Of his dozens of ’07 releases, this is essential listening.

Best 7-inch Vinyl
Shepherds “Bush Babies” (DNT)
This Jeremy Earl/G. Lucas Crane combination has proven to be one of the most inspired partnerships in underground improv. “Bush Babies” stretches a single jam over both sides, finding the duo reaching into ecstatic tribal rhythms and free jazz assault with plenty of underlying tape trickery. Easily the most satisfying seven-inch of ‘07.

Best Cassette Only
Emeralds “Allegory of Allergies” (Gods of Tundra)
An absolutely epic c120. That’s right: one tape, a full hour per side, all pure stoned ambient bliss. Easily the best thing this Midwest trio has compiled in their short history. It’s been a real blessed-out year folks. I’m really hoping some label steps up with a double CD release of this because it’s too good to be this limited.

Best Live Show
Theo Angell @ Echo Curio, Los Angeles, May 27 for the Bottled Smoke Festival
And I thought nothing would top Friday night’s epic Sea Monsters set. But this Theo Angell set had a whole different energy to it. I’ll never forget standing out front and having an old El Salvadorian woman ask if it was some kind of religious ceremony. It kind of made me pause, not only to consider my Spanish response, but to wonder how the term “religious” could be applied. Help from Ilyas Ahmed, Tim, and Kat Goodwillie made this performance a truly staggering music experience. I’m wondering if I’ll get the same feeling after listening to the upcoming CD-R-document in the Arroyo series.

Biggest Disappointment
The American Dollar
Why do you got to suck so bad right now? All these Euro-waving customers are kicking our asses at the short-run label catalogs. Why can’t Americans get a break for once? (Kidding, of course. Don’t send me hate mail.)




Todd Brooks

All around best of the Year...including Best Album
Demons ”Frozen Fog” (AA Records)
Demons “Invisible Darkness” (AA Records)
Demons “Life Destroyer Box” (AA Records)
Demons “Infinity Mirror” (AA Records)
Damaged-synths, haunting mangled music… what a rave would sound like filtered through the mind of someone freakin’ on a bad acid-trip. Demons simply destroyed this year. They blew it out… From the visuals, the artwork, the music, the bad vibes, the hypnotic videos of Alivia Zivich, the totally sick packaging …for the handmade double-cut mirror lathe alone… Just when noise seemed to be moving toward a flat line, Nate Young and Steve Kenney made broken synths sound like a new beginning, a reinvention. Pure analog is here in a big way and that’s awesome. I caught two of their live shows this year and was possessed each time. Total immersion. Total death. I know that four releases from one group sounds a bit overstated, but I just can’t leave out one of these, in fact could’ve added a few more from them. Essential!

Best Song
Religious Knives “Luck/In The Back” (Heavy Tapes)
Haunting downers… warm reverb and dark echoes wrapped in late-night drug-hazed melancholia… Love the knives!

Best Debut
Lamborghini Crystal “Demon Channels” (New Age Tapes)
Looking for the totally fringed out and weirded… try the newest incarnation from the ingeniously warped mind of James Ferraro (Skaters) with his partner in crime, J.C. Peavey. Mind-scattering psychedelia. A twisted barrage of psychotic, mushroomed radio-cutups and effect-heavy vocalized overdubs. Brilliant.


Best Reissue
Maurizio Bianchi “Symphony For A Genocide” (Hospital Productions)
Originally released in 1981 and couldn’t have been reissued at a more appropriate time. For those interested in harshsynth, PE, and industrial music, this is a great place to start your journey back to the present. If you didn’t know anything about this record and someone told you it came out last week, you’d have no reason not to believe them. It’s that un-dated. Synths and tape loops had never sounded more foreboding than they did here. This is an important landmark.

Best Vinyl Only
Blues Control “Puff” (Woodsist)
From early on in 2007, it was immediately apparent that "Puff" would be in the top lists of reviewers everywhere. It’s one of those rare moments when you just know that something incredible is happening. The music, the album cover… everything gave it away. The duo of Lea Cho and Russ Waterhouse are creating some of the most innovative music out there. This was really the beginning of it all (despite a few earlier cassette releases) and to anyone who has been following their movements, this was a banging start to a pretty flawless output of music culminating with their outstanding self-titled recording this year on Holy Mountain. Looking forward to 2008.


Best CD-R Only
Spirit of the Positive Wind "East Wind/West Wind" (Our Mouth)
A strange CD-R put out on Mouthus’ own label featuring Karl Bauer (Axolotl), Pete Nolan (Magic Markers, Vanishing Voice, GHQ), Brian Sullivan (Mouthus) and Nate Nelson (Mouthus, Religious Knives). Dark psychedelics beautifully recorded and specially hazed over with a warm analogue glaze. West Wind, the second track, was played over and over again on my stereo almost obsessively. Atmospheric cosmic bliss. True Magick.

Best Cassette Only
Excepter “Tank Tapes” (Fuck It Tapes)
Nothing like tapping into the unconscious with Brooklyn’s weirdest collective of dub-friendly free-electronic jammers. This is a pristine spaced-out bass-heavy live recording.

Best Various Artists Compilation
“Frannce” (Ruralfaune/La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
Although, this is not a flawless collection of tracks (some do feel a bit phoned-in), this collection comes out on top due to its thoroughness and sheer scale. It’s a compilation that truly captures the eclectic spirit of 2007 in all its uneven glory. Although each track is meant to embody and invoke the idea of Frannce, this compilation transcends the concept and becomes a wonderful historic document of some of the most creative collectives and individuals currently making music. A year in a bottle, and like a fine wine, should taste even better with age.

Best Anthology
I can’t seem to pin down a best anthology collection… We live in a scavenger culture with an increasing number of musicologists that are rapidly anthologizing past and current music at a faster rate than any one can keep up with. It’s truly amazing the amount of work that is currently going on digging up impossibly obscure and nearly-forgotten recordings. I have chosen here to simply give respect to my top three archivist/anthologist labels at the moment who are devoting their time to difficult but rewarding work: Dust-To-Digital, Sublime Frequencies, and Creel Pone. Thanks for shining a light on an endless labyrinth opening new doors to uncharted hallways and tunnels without a foreseeable end.

Best Cover Art
Odd Clouds “Cleft of the Woods” (Tasty Soil)
Could’ve chosen a number of records with cover art by Chris Pottinger (Cotton Museum, Odd Clouds, Slither). He just makes some of the illest out there. Totally fucking weird gore-psych with an added touch of delightfully sadistic zaniness; super intense line-work and incredible use of color. This album cover just stands out above the rest. Chris Pottinger is one/half of Odd Clouds with Jamie Easter. The CD, Cleft of the Woods, is a banging collection of live free-jams recorded over a period of a few years featuring Heath Moreland (Sick Llama), Glen Morren (Cygnus), and others from the Fag Tapes and Tasty Soil cult/clique. It’s an eclectic arrangement of recordings representing elements of tribal, dub, kraut, and free jazz while pushing further out into the deepest nether-regions of outer-musics. Stunning stuff and highly recommended. Also, of some serious noting, be sure to check out Slither (Chris Pottinger and Heath Moreland) bashing out severe wreckers and deep blackouts on electronics, tape-loops and reeds.

Best Live Show
Seeing Negative Approach at No Fun Fest this year has a secured permanent placement in my top hardcore shows of all time. Kept secret from most attending, including myself, a rumor began circulating about half-way through the night that they would be playing. So not only was it a total shock, but an earth-shattering history-making event was unveiled before our eyes as Thurston Moore began hooking up his guitar to an amp on stage… could this be happening? Thurston Moore ripping it with legendary NA while we chanted along screaming every lyric to NOTHING with Brannon? Yes, it happened and it was amazing!



Biggest Surprise
Sightings “Through the Panama” (Load/Ecstatic Peace)
Ok… so here we have a brilliant record… one of my favorites of the year, but I decided to put it in the Biggest Surprise category. Reason?
Rewind…
In 1998, while recovering from the collapse of the DIY hardcore scene and after reading Unterberger’s Unknown Legends of Rock n Roll, I listened to Scott Walker for the first time and immediately fell into his somber, weirdo world. Walker’s work felt completely alien and distant from anything that was happening in the underground at the time and definitely brought something fresh and new to my ear.
Fast-forward a little…
In 2002, I first listened to the self-titled Sightings CD on Load nearly coinciding with the first time I saw Andrew WK’s Party Hard video. These two at the time couldn’t have felt more at odds with each other. MTV’s rock revival vs. the rising noise underground.
Fast-forward to present…
In 2007, these seemingly unrelated events culminated when Sightings delivered Through the Panama, an absolutely amazing powerhouse of a record produced by Andrew WK with a Scott Walker cover on it. Somehow Sightings managed to retain all the abrasive and tonal elements that made their sound distinctive and unique while reinventing themselves completely through it all. How was this nexus possible? Who could’ve guessed it? I mean, yeah, in hindsight we know that Andrew WK was loosely affiliated with Wolf Eyes back in the day, but most of us didn’t know it then; nor could we have guessed that he would later be playing shows with Will Oldham, To Live and Shave in LA, and Current 93. I ‘m sure there are probably people who can say they were in on it the whole time, but for me… this album is the biggest surprise of the year and a pleasant one.

Biggest Disappointment
Another year has passed by without the chance to see Steven Stapleton.

Most Overrated
Grime

Franklin Teagle

Best Album
Mammal “Lonesome Drifter” (Animal Disguise Records)
My most anticipated album of the year didn’t disappoint one bit. Mammal takes a break from the relentless static and squall to deliver a personal, thoughtful meditation on isolation and misanthropy. From the primitive, crushing stomp of “Repulsion” to the end, it’s one of the boldest and most cohesive records I’ve heard in a long time.

Best Song
Deerhunter “Spring Hall Convert” from “Cryptograms” (Kranky)
Blog hype superstars or not, I still can’t get enough of this song. The teenage narcotic voyage narrative set and swirling, fuzzed-out pop combine for absolute perfection.

Best Debut
Blank Dogs – everything
The world needs more weirdo synth punk projects. Well, maybe not, but this Brooklyn mystery band had me chasing down every piece of wax they released this year (two 12-inch’s and three 7-inches). Each record adds up to an intriguing beginning that will hopefully continue with their first full-length, to be released on Troubleman Unlimited early next year.

Best Reissue
Harvey Milk "My Love is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be" (Relapse)
One of the best bands of the past two decades finally began to receive a fraction of the recognition they deserve last year. Thanks to Relapse, everyone can hear where it all began for one of the strangest, most engaging metal bands. Let the confusion set in and tears stream as the Southern-fried sludge ceases and singer Creston Spiers and a female vocalist begin to croon over the orchestral swell of early 20th century composer Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter”.

Best Various Artists Compilation
Bored Fortress 7-inch Club (Not Not Fun)
I might be cheating here, but I don’t think I bought any compilations this year. This 7-inch club ruled, though. Exquisite artwork, fun extras for subscribers, and a nice, varied set of jams hit my mailbox every few months. Standout contributions: GHQ, Blues Control, The Goslings, and Deep Jew.

Best Anthology
C.C.C.C. "Early Works" (No Fun Productions)
An exhaustive, four disc set from Japan’s experts in noise as a medium of pure ecstasy, erotic intrigue, and cathartic release. It’s going to take a long time for me to wrap my brain around this one, but I’m already thoroughly enjoying the ride.

Best Cover Art
Hoor-Paar-Kraat “The Huntington Chapters” (Small Doses)
Absolutely stunning design on this 3-inch CDR released by one of this year’s most promising new labels. It features twisted-looking birds and camels intricately laid out on a sturdy, folded sleeve that features no spray paint whatsoever. You really have to hold it in your hands to appreciate it.

Best Vinyl Only
Bone Awl “Meaningless Leaning Mess” (Nuclear War Now! Productions)
The digital-thwarting, Artaud-quoting, crusty black-metallers delivered on the hype with their first full-length LP. Raw, malicious, and ugly—the album doesn’t let up for a second. Since Ildjarn is dead, long live Bone Awl.

Best CD-R Only
People’s Parties "People’s Parties" (Cut Hands)
Greatness came out of the Emeralds’ Cleveland drone camp in abundance this year. Guitarist Mark Maguire’s solo work is pure ambient bliss that’s too strong to be issued in an ultra-limited amount on my least favorite of formats.

Best Cassette Only
Emeralds “Allegory of Allergies” (Gods of Tundra)
This one deserves recognition for its audacity alone: two hours of music on a single cassette! But it’s also Emeralds’ best release to date. 120 minutes of drones that continually drift from cold and alienating to warm and comforting. Give in and let it probe the recesses of your subconscious.

Best Live Show
Incapacitants, live @ The Hook, Brooklyn, NY, for No Fun Fest 2007
It was no surprise at all, but Incapacitants absolutely destroyed at No Fun Fest. The Japanese harsh noise heavyweights, on banking holiday, played to a house packed full of sweaty bodies that writhed and collided to those familiar sounds they probably never thought they’d hear in person. Words don’t even begin to describe the sheer joy I felt watching diminutive T. Mikawa smash his equipment against his forehead at the peak of the performance.

Biggest Surprise
Tonic closing
I suppose this wasn’t much of a surprise after seeing the new monolithic luxury condo building being constructed above one of the best, most adventurous venues in New York City. It’s unfortunate to see the avant-garde get exiled from Manhattan. I suppose all we can do is enjoy the still-thriving scene in Brooklyn before the luxury condos take that over too.

Biggest Disappointment
Khanate is still broken up
It happened in 2006, but I’m still reeling. I tried Monarch, I tried Whitehorse, I tried Moss…and while those bands are all great in their own respective ways, none of them can fill the void that the masters of aural anguish left behind when they broke up last year.

Most Overrated
Animal Collective "Strawberry Jam" (Domino)
The indie world’s favorite “avant” superstars cued up the samplers, turned the whimsy up to eleven, and cranked out a bunch of unlistenable pop drivel. Even Panda Bear’s new baby Brian Wilson persona can’t save the record. I should have realized this band wasn’t for me anymore when I saw them play at South Street Seaport and stood behind Sofia Coppola (who talked to her friends throughout the entire set) and to the right of a bunch of frat boys (who extolled lyrics about “meow kitties”).



Jon Pitt

Best Album
Giant Skyflower Band "Blood of the Sunworm" (Soft Abuse)
I’m a big fan of most things Glenn Donaldson records, but there is something special about this album. It’s almost a pop record, but it’s too ragged. But then I wouldn’t say it’s experimental either. It’s fractured, and tricky; it lets you think you know what’s going on, but upon trying to dissect it, it’s an entirely different beast than it appears to be. Donaldson’s incomparable voice and deft sitar playing anchor this record, and sound more like the echo of a past time than a product of it. Hell, there’s even a Hidden Cameras cover on here. What more could you really ask for? Somehow this record sounds both sunny and dark, and its lyrics are deliciously abstract. In many ways, this is some of the most straightforward Donaldson has recorded, even more-so than some Skygreen Leopards tunes, but it still surely floats out there in some as-of-yet unattained time. In this way, I see “Blood…” as a meditation, albeit one you can sing along to. Interestingly enough, the Skyflower Band has added Papercuts’ Jason Quever to their ranks, and have begun performing a widely different set of songs live. “Blood…” may stand on its own in its bubblegum drone, but like most of Donaldson’s one-off projects, it’s more than enough on its own.

Best Song
Magik Markers “Bad Dream/Hartford’s Beat Suite” from “Boss” (Ecstatic Peace!)
How the hell does a band with a track record like the Magik Markers go about writing as beautiful and classic a song as this? Shocking in its immediacy and strengthened by its tenderness, its here that we get to see exactly how good Elisa Ambrogio is as a vocalist. It’s short, catchy, and sweet, and definitely the highlight of this record for me (and it’s fine record at that). It’s almost as if we can have our cake and eat it too: somehow the Markers went normal without compromising what made their early work so awesome. And as this song best sums all that up, it also carves out the best and most haunting 4 minutes of ageless songwriting I’ve heard this year.

Best Debut
Wooden Shjips “Wooden Shjips” (Holy Mountain)
Seems everyone’s singing the praises of Wooden Shjips these days, and it’s well deserved. SF’s own Wooden Shjips do what the best shoegaze bands do: jam without boring the listening, getting sloppy, or losing sight of the song. Fantastic guitar playing, terrific keyboard work, and very cool, very Jim Morrison-esque vocals. How does this not sound retro? That’s the magic, mystique, and mastery of this band. This is a band that could become legends, and seem likely to do so, without capitalizing on anything current or hip. Can’t wait for more.

Best Reissue
Karen Dalton “Cotton Eyed Joe” (Delmore)
Maybe this doesn’t really count, as it was never officially released before this, but this set of live recordings from 1962 is a real gem. Although many people I know were a bit let down by finally hearing the reissue of Dalton’s “In My Own Time,” a record too polished for its own good, “Cotton Eyed Joe” is really a goldmine. It’s quite unpolished, and it’s as close as we’ll ever come to hearing Dalton play live. Which really is a shame, considering just how well she sings her ass off here. Much of her best material is included here, as well as countless covers and traditionals. I’m a firm believer that Dalton’s “It’s So Hard to Tell Who’s Going to Love you the Best” is one of the finest records ever made, and this is the perfect companion piece. And, like all good folk music, it actually makes me proud to be an “American.” No small feat, Ms. Dalton.

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Cris et Cuchotements" (Crier Dans Les Musees!)
A very nice and weird little compilation from this French label; exactly the kind of thing that makes comps so cool. Full of out there compositions and packaged with beautiful artwork, this contains some of the most exciting sounds I’ve heard all year. The Kuupuu track alone is worth the purchase, haunting and just out of reach, but there’s really nothing bad here at all. Totally realized and sewn together as few comps are. And damn that Black Forest/Back Sea song is creepy, but the sweet chimes of Aaron Martin bring it back to a safe place. Definitely an enjoyable and challenging listen, and just the right thing for 2007.

Best Anthology
Loren Connors “As Roses Bow Collected Airs 1992 - 2002” (Family Vineyard)
So gentle and warm, no one can do this kind of stuff as well as Connors can. Instantly sad and reassuring, like hearing melodies you’ve somehow always known. I can’t quite figure out how a single guitar can sound so good, but I’m glad it does, and I’m glad Family Vineyard collected all these into one package, as they sound great together.

Best Cover Art
Sea Wolf “Leaves in the River” (Dangerbird)
Full disclosure: the artwork for this record was made by my brother, James Sterling Pitt. Regardless, I do believe that this is the most beautifully packaged record to hit shelves this year. James’s simple-yet-off-kilter drawings perfectly match Sea Wolf’s musical world, and much of the items that adorn the booklet hold significance to lead singer and songwriter Alex Brown Church. So take it with a grain of salt if you will, but check it out too. It looks fantastic and fills me with a sense of pride, nostalgia, and wonder, and probably would even if it wasn’t drawn by my brother. God bless the success for the Silversun Pickups, as Dangerbird Records must have spent a pretty penny on printing this. But it’s well worth it, and proof that artwork does make a difference, and shouldn’t fall by the wayside in the digital age.

Best Vinyl Only
Hmmm… I somehow managed to let 2007 slip by without getting one vinyl only release. I’m sure there was tons of good stuff put out this year, but somehow nothing floated my way. I am however anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Skaters’ record, “Dispersed Royal Ornaments,” which I ordered from Aquarius. I’m sure it’ll be rad. If you’ll allow me to recommend a record I haven’t heard yet, this is the one.


Best CD-R Only
French Quarter “Jump Chant” (self-released)
I had the good fortune to get to know Arizona native Stephen Steinbrink this year. His extensive back catalogue of self-recorded/self-released CD-Rs is impressive not only for its quality but also for the fact that these 5-some albums have been written and recorded by a man not yet 21 years of age. “Jump Chant,” a tour-only CDR Stephen prepared for his first 2007 jaunt, is by far the best of his work. Stephan’s gorgeous vocals, spooky and stark electric guitar work, and top-notch lyrics make him one of the most exciting young musicians around today. And while this particular CDR is out-of-print, much of it was re-released as an eponymous vinyl record by Gilgongo Records this year. Go pick it up!

Best Cassette Only
The Brain Band “The Brain Band” (Fuck It Tapes)
What’s great about this album is how it takes a stellar line-up of well-established musicians (Glenn Donaldson and Donovan Quinn of the Skygreen Leopards, Karl Bauer of Axolotl, and Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers) and makes them sound nothing like themselves. Instead, we get two wild and raw cuts, closest in kin to the Markers, but somehow even weirder and a bit more organic. Primal and otherworldly, howling and dense. Hard to grasp even after repeated listens, but always worth coming back to. And, like all Fuck It Tapes releases, fantastic cover art!

Best Live Show
Okay
The great thing about living in the Bay Area is getting to see so many great bands that don’t seem to tour very much. Marty Anderson of Okay has good reason not to travel, i.e. his well documented illness that informed his 2005 masterpiece “Low Road/High Road.” Anderson does make live appearances every other month or so in San Francisco and Oakland, and every one is an amazing dose of existential questioning mixed with palpable “Be Here Now” urgency. Every show seems to incorporate a different set of backing musicians and a different set of songs as well. Anderson is a prolific guy, and every night he treats his audience to songs that other artists would die to just get to tape. It’s easy (and dangerous) to romanticize Anderson’s illness, but there is something unmistakably powerful about seeing someone who by all accounts almost didn’t overcome his physical ailments get on stage, and with a fragile voice sing some of the most profound and inspiring songs ever. Hopefully Okay will continue to keep performing. I will keep going.

Biggest Surprise
Lovers "Sleep with Heat" (Orange Twin Records)
This record kind of came out of nowhere for me, and I’m glad it did. Lovers get some off-the-mark Bright Eyes comparisons, and while there are some semi-tragic/dramatic lyrics here, the fuzziness and focus are really what carry this record. It’s dark but full of wisdom, and Carolyn Berk may well be one of the finest female singer/songwriters out there. It’s neither twee nor obvious, and owes more to the heyday of 4AD than it does, say, Cat Power. “Saint Jude” could easily have been my song of the year. Refreshing and nostalgic all at once. And I’m sold.

Biggest Disappointment
Little Wings "Soft Pow’r" (Rad Records)
Okay, to be fair, this is not a bad record. It’s actually very far from a bad record. It’s concise, pretty, well written, and well produced. But you know what? That’s not what I look for in my Little Wings albums. This is a classic case of too-high expectations. While many bemoaned California’s Patron Saint Kyle Field’s last two efforts, the off-kilter “Magic Wand” and the even more off-kilter “Grow,” I found in them worlds of sound, lyrical imagery, and hope and strangeness and, to use Field’s word-of-choice, wonder. Then I had the good fortune of seeing a truly mind-blowing Little Wings live set down in Big Sur, where, with the aid of a full band and an electric guitar, Field rocked and reminded me how versatile and damn good he is as a song-writer. So, when I rushed to the store to buy “Soft Pow’r,” popped it into my CD player, and heard the soft strains of piano track after track, after track, after track, I was indeed disappointed. Where was the manic energy and joy that seeped from all his previous work? Not here. Where is the arc? The up and down? Somewhere else. This is a tired Little Wings album. And as I’ve listened to it again and again, trying to “get” it, it has grown on me. It’s a pleasant enough addition to the overall LW catalogue, and perhaps full of good choices for mix CDs, but as an album start to finish, it’s too even-keeled, it’s too mature. This is a comment I don’t use often in a negative way, but I, for one, don’t want my Little Wings to grow up. Stay young, stay wild, and stay loose, please, it gives us all hope.

Most Overrated
Devendra Banhart
There was time, say 5 or so years ago, when Devendra was one of the most exciting people writing songs. “Oh Me Oh My…” is a jaw-droppingly good record, full of mystery and spookiness, dark and silly and wonderfully original, Marc Bolan comparisons aside. And now we get “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon?” What happened? Overtly retro guitar sounds? Faux-Elvis vocal posturing? Reggae-inspired dorm room jams? Banhart’s still throwing 16+ songs on a CD and calling it a record, only its gone from a good thing to a bad thing. With each subsequent release, Banhart’s star seems to rise, yet the quality of his work has declined dramatically. Instead of working his influences into his own sound, Banhart seems to merely be in the aping game these days, appropriating whatever sound seems to fit his mood. And when an artist has to write a special note to fans on his (Management-run) MySpace page to explain how he wishes Pitchfork had accurately conveyed his sarcasm in calling Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” a good film, maybe it’s time to lose to irony, lose the “I Have a Better Record Collection than You” song-writing style, lose the “I Have Cool Friends” collaboratory approach, and get back to writing good songs.

John Twells

Best Album
Religious Knives "Remains" (No Fun)
It’s funny because this isn’t really a ‘proper’ album since it’s compiled from the Knives’ 12-inch’s and 7-inch but I don’t care, it’s the best thing I’ve heard this year and it’s the one album that keeps my jaw firmly nailed to the floor whenever I hear it. If I could throw in a vote for their two preceding 12-inch’s too then that’s on there – everything they do seems to be just slightly different and everything is essential. Hate to go on about them but they manage to blend the spiritualism of Popol Vuh, the basement noise rock of Sonic Youth, the rhythm section of a Balinese Gamelan Orchestra and the grit of the cassette scene without ever losing focus, and that’s a tough thing to do. Genius stuff…


Best Song
Kid Sister "Pro Nails (feat. Kanye West)" from "Pro Nails" (Fool's Gold)
It was a toss up between this and "International Players Anthem" by UGK (which is well worth hunting down too!) but Kid Sister won in the end because she just sounds so fresh. This and her previous 12-inch are some of the best dance tracks I’ve heard this year, and both coming with heavy duty remixes to boot. I guess Kanye got involved thanks to A-Trak being on production duties but he’s not slouching on his verses, makes me wish his latest album was a little more arresting. I get the feeling that whenever Kid Sister’s debut album drops she’s gonna kick Kelis from my top spot. HEAVY.


Best Debut
Marnie Stern "In Advance of the Broken Arm" (Kill Rock Stars)
I got this album at the end of a long day – kind of a ‘last in the pile’ CD, it was at the bottom of about 30 albums I’d had to review, but as soon as I pressed play I knew it was something super special. Firstly the girl can play guitar, and not in a ‘she knows all her chords’ kinda way, this is in a Don Cabellero kinda way, but without the anal qualities that go hand-in-hand with math rock. It’s funny that Battles have gotten all the attention this year when for me ‘In Advance of the Broken Arm’ does everything that ‘Mirrored’ does and gives it that unavoidable riot grrrl quality which is impossible not to fall in love with. Bikini Kill crossed with Hella, and that’s a good thing.


Best Reissue
Sun Kil Moon "Ghosts of the Great Highway" 2CD (Caldo Verde)
Mark Kozelek, in my opinion is one of the best songwriters in America and ‘Ghosts of the Great Highway’ is his crowning achievement. Sure the Red House Painters’ albums are essential, but what he does here is re-frame American music so perfectly and personally it keeps me coming back again and again. It’s not an old record but it got the re-issue treatment all the same and comes with a whole disc of bonus material – lets hope it’s leading up to an actual new Sun Kil Moon album?



Best Various Artists Compilation
"Home Schooled: The ABC of Soul" (Numero)
I don’t listen to a lot of ‘various artists’ albums but this particular one stood out to me. All the Numero Group records this year have been stunning in their own way but hearing this collection of lesser heard ‘child acts’ from the soul era was just eye opening, and of course hugely enjoyable. Well worth tracking down.


Best Anthology
Daphne Oram "Oramics" (Paradigm Discs)
Daphne Oram, in case you were unaware started the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and having grown up a Doctor Who obsessive, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop were a soundtrack to my childhood. I hadn’t heard a lot of her pieces before (not many had) but this double disc collection gathers just about everything she recorded and it’s a revelation, and some of the most amazing early electronic music I’ve heard. Added to this you get a very informative booklet detailing her life and her incredible synthesizer which she pioneered, it’s just a perfect package of her work. Anyone with even a vague interest in experimental synthesizer music should check this out.


Best Cover Art
Low "Drums and Guns" (Sub Pop)
I’m a big fan of simplicity when it comes to cover art and this album struck me in its utter simplicity. Text, texture… it’s all you need when you’re representing an album like ‘Drums and Guns’ which stripped Low’s sound down to the very bones of what they do… perfectly framed, I think.


Best Vinyl Only
Prurient "Adam Tied to Stone" (Blossoming Noise)
I’m a total Prurient junkie so I have a habit of buying almost anything I can get my hands on but this record is something special. It’s thick and industrial but at the same time Fernow carries on the melodic angle he’s been exploring recently so you get an unusual depth, a depth you don’t usually find in the genre. I guess this comes from his obsession with black metal but he doesn’t make his references obvious, everything is shrouded in a genuine darkness and what sounds like purest hatred. Beautiful, for want of a better word…


Best CD-R Only
Jefre Cantu Ledesma "Shining Skull Breath" (Students of Decay)
I feel like a total fraud because I know Jefre real well and I feel like I’m bigging him up now, but I wasn’t expecting to have this record on repeat as much as I have done. I’ve loved absolutely everything he’s released recently but ‘Shining Skull Breath’ seems to do what so many artists try to do and fail miserably – make a genuinely noisy ambient record. With references to Gas, Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker and the heady golden era of Kosmische music there’s so much depth in this record it’s hard to write too much about it suffice to say that it’s been something that makes me green with envy every time I listen. I’m like ‘how the fuck did he do that?’, ‘oh know he’s never done that, yes he has…’. If you have the opportunity to snap one of these babies up, do so, rapidly.


Best Cassette Only
Grouper/Inca Ore split (self-released)
I’m a total Grouper junkie, and again I know her so I feel kind of dumb writing this but if there’s an artist I’ve listened to more than anyone else this year it’s Liz Harris. When I heard ‘Way Their Crept’ it was a revelation, but since then her music has gone through evolution after evolution, culminating with the hazy post-shoegaze tracks on this cassette (and her forthcoming full-length). The track ‘Poison Tree’ is possibly one of the most singularly beautiful thing’s I’ve heard this year, and these songs have become like a comfort blanket for me in times of need, that’s how lovely they are. Added to the fact that you get a bunch of new Grouper material there’s a whole side from the very excellent Inca Ore on the flip, which sees her moving away from the clattering insanity of ‘The Birds in the Bushes’ and back to the vocal led oddness of ‘Brute Nature Vs. Wild Magic’ which is a very good thing indeed. If you can get hold of one of these tapes you won’t be disappointed.


Best Live Show
Grouper @ Sacred Trinity Church, Manchester
Bah, I’m doing it again, but this show just re-affirmed to me how beautiful the tracks were, and how defiantly simple. It was the high point of a very bad year, and kind of coincided with my departure from Manchester, so it wasn’t just the music itself that made this night great.


Biggest Surprise
Hip hop getting good again (see Common, Shape of Broad Minds, Jay-Z, Wu Tang, Percee P)
Hip-hop has been a love of mine for years, but in the last couple I’ve been wondering whether I’ll ever love it like I used to. I was wondering whether I was getting old, but I only seemed to be following the mainstream singles, there were no albums dropping that actually had me listening again and again, until this year. We’ve seen the genre suddenly re-invigorated and I’m not sure why, sales are down in a BIG way, but the records have been coming thick and fast; Lil Wayne’s killer mix tape ‘Da Drought 3’ does a lot to sum things up, but we’ve got killer artist albums from Common, Percee P (a record that’s been a million years in the making), Shape of Broad Minds (showing Lex on the pulse once more), UGK (tragically), Jay-Z and most surprisingly the Wu Tang who despite the fact they slag each other off pulled it together once more. This year reminded me why I loved the genre in the first place…

Biggest Disappointment
Bjork "Volta" (Atlantic/Wea)
I don’t wanna dwell on this but with all the musicians she got on the record (Chris Corsano being the most obvious) you’d think it would be absolutely explosive and it’s really not. I was listening to it waiting for it to blow my mind, and it didn’t even make me want to listen again, which is sad considering her shocking pedigree. She’s working with the right people, that’s for sure, but when you re-edit a Timbaland beat you gotta wonder…


Most Overrated
Animal Collective "Strawberry Jam" (Domino)
Animal Collective are just one of those bands I think I’ve resigned myself to not ‘getting’. That doesn’t mean I have anything personal against them, Panda Bear’s solo joint for instance is one of the finest records of the year, but Animal Collective always manage to leave me cold, and I always go in with an open mind. Sure ‘Fireworks’ is a great single, but apart from that I just can’t hack it. I just don’t see the draw really… whoops.



Magnus Schaefer

Best Albums
Antoine Chessex “Lost in Destruction” (Absurd/Editions_zero)
Very intense noise music, created by playing saxophone with circular breathing techniques and extreme amplification.

Richard Francis “Together alone, together apart” (CMR)
A work based on subtly processed and arranged field recordings and concrete sounds.

Zaïmph “Emblem” (w.m.o/r)
Minimal guitar drones, one track of heavy, opaque noise, one track of gentle, at times almost meditative pulsations and modulations.

Tetuzi Akiyama/Greg Malcolm “Brombron 12 – Six Strings” (Korm Plastics)
Stunning all-acoustic collaboration by these two guitarists, seamlessly merging blues, pop sensibilities and free improvisation.


Best Song
Beequeen “White Bike” from “White Bike” business card CD-R (Moll)
Could have been this year’s summer hit.

Best Debut
At Home “At Home” (Home.pop.rec)
Abstract, free pop music with a beautifully melancholic touch.

Best Reissue
Zbigniew Karkowski “Uexkull” (Audio Tong)
Reissued in CD quality for free download.

Best Various Artists Compilation
“Frannce” (Ruralfaune/La Belle Dame Sans Merci)
A monumental collection of remarkable quality.

Best Live Shows
Tony Conrad @ Tesla, Berlin
A highly impressive example of drone music’s potential to affect the listener through extreme duration and physical intensity.

Sunburned Hand of The Man and Vanishing Voice @ Maria, Berlin

Keiji Haino playing in Raymond Pettibon’s theatre piece “The Weathermen” @ Sophiensäle,
Berlin

Blue Sabbath Black Fiji @ Zentrale Randlage, Berlin
They are so cute and so much in love with each other.

Thriller Bingo @ Udo’s place, Berlin
Duo project of Jonna (Kuupuu) and Xavier (Buffle).

Dandelion Fiction @ Udo’s place, Berlin
Daniel plays quirky improvisations and odd, lovely cover versions on his self-built daxophone; both this and the aforementioned concert took place in a very cozy living room-like space in my neighborhood on two warm evenings in late August.

Way of the Cross @ Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin
A free-folk supergroup, including members of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystävät, The Skaters, No Neck Blues Band, and many more. Maybe it wasn’t the music so much as the whole atmosphere (the venue, the music, the musicians sitting on the floor surrounded by the audience, the people in the audience, etc.) that made this evening stick in my mind as something special.

Yannick Franck @ Wendel, Berlin
I had never heard Yannick’s music before, and its soft, warm and organic quality fascinated me immediately.

Antoine Chessex @ ZAA, Berlin and Total, Berlin
Two acoustic performances, showcasing the quieter aspects of Antoine’s music

Mattin @ Stralau 68, Berlin
Recording the sounds of the space and the audience and playing it back in real time and without any processing, resulting in feedback or silence and provoking direct reactions from the audience; a conceptual take on field recordings, the role of the performer and the relationship between artist and audience.

Junko and Mattin @ Ausland, Berlin

Volcano the Bear @ Belleville Store, Berlin

Heatsick @ Festsaal Kreuzberg’s basement, Berlin

Burkhard Beins @ West Germany, Berlin


Biggest Surprise
KTL live @ Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin
Far more intense than I would have imagined.

Kiwako Kaneda “Cake of Sea” (absurd)
Her CD on the Greek absurd label came as total surprise for me. I had never heard of this Japanese musician before (nor would I have ever heard of her without absurd, I guess) and her sweet folk-influenced toyshop-pop provided my soundtrack for much of this year’s summer and fall.


Biggest Disappointment
Mik Quantius (Embryo) at the “Way of the Cross” concert
Redundant vocals, childish and clichéd hippy behavior; his clothing was cool in a way, though, as he looked like a junkie from the next subway station and wore those monstrous 1990s Buffalo shoes that you don’t see around anymore (and wouldn’t want to see).


Best Podcast
Collective Voice
Simply one of the best and most comprehensive selections of drone, noise, free folk and related sounds that you can find on the net.

Radio WNE
Great archive of concert recordings (includes, for example, recordings from this year’s No Fun Fest).

Excepter
Recordings of their live gigs.

Inside Inzane Studios (John and Tovah Olson)
Obscure noise and folk sounds


Best title
Black to Comm “Wir können leider nicht ein bisschen mehr zu tun” (Dekorder)
Impossible to translate into English; recalls the language of badly translated user manuals and ultimately helpless service departments in an absurdist manner.

Jazkamer “Balls the Size of Texas, Liver the Size of Brazil” (Purplesoil)
Nicely twisted adaptation of customary notions of intensity.

Bruno Parisse

Best Album
Hala Strana “Heave the Gambrel roof” (Music Fellowship)
2007 wasn’t the year of ONE album and it was difficult to pick one among many good albums. I choose the Hala Strana LP because of my addiction to my Steven R Smith‘s work for years. “Heave” shows that Steven is once again the best to restore the feelings of Eastern Europe.

Honorable mentions
Agitated Radio Pilot “Luminous Blues” and "Thinguma* jigSaw" (Deserted Village)
Pekko Kappi “Jos Ken Pahoin Uneksii” (Peippo)
Jettatore “Au fond du ciel” (Musiques Immédiates)
Agathothodion "Kan Guds Gjort" (E.E.E.)
Claypipe/Pekko Kappi/The Blithe Sons "The Amazed Map" (Music Fellowship)


Best Song
Der TPK “Destroy the future" from "Harmful emotions” (Siltbreeze)
Need to say something more? Bessssy punk!

Honorable mentions
Jettatore “Je suis ce que je dis” from “Au fond du ciel” (Musiques Immédiates)
CJA “Last touch” from “Impact wound” (TanzProcesz)
Je serai une tombe "Down response" from "Je serai une tombe" (Idealstate)


Best Debut
Slow Listener CD-Rs
In a first year of existence, releasing CD-Rs on such good labels as Celebrate Psi-Phenomenon, Peasant Magick, Epicene, Students of decay (...) is simply great, and they all can’t be wrong.

Honorable mentions
Xochipilli "Xochipilli" (self-released)


Best Reissue
Velvet Cacoon “Genevieve” LP (Southern Lord)
Portland again, Portland always.


Best Various Artists Compilation
Claypipe/Pekko Kappi/The Blithe Sons “The Amazed Map” (Music Fellowship)
I know I cheat, it’s not a real compilation but I had to put it somewhere into the list. It’s too much for me: the best ever New Zealand duo, the best Finnish artist, and the best Jewelled Antler project… Music Fellowship killed me.


Best Cover Art
Wolves In The Throne Room's “Diadem of Twelve Stars" LP (Southern Lord)
Mountainous, foggy, and mysterious as a black metal album cover has to be.

Honorable mention
like last year, everything by Not Not Fun
Swanox/Scraps of Dogs "untitled" on Caligulan


Best Vinyl Only
Mythical Beast/Pocahaunted “Split” (Not Not Fun)
2007 was certainly the Pocahaunted year, but this release. Shared with the fantastic MB, this vinyl is an astral journey over California. Certainly my fave from the girls and once again the Beast turns gold what they record.

Honorable mentions
Fursaxa “Alone in the Black Wood” and “Maidenstone EP” (Eclipse)


Best CD-R Only
Jettatore “Au fond du ciel” (Musiques Immédiates)
Lost in the centre of France, they play music between free folk, live sound experimentations, and a ranted prose. The whole thing with a touch of French traditionalism

Honorable Mentions
Korperschwache “Ritual of the Ouroboros” (Crucial Bliss)
Procer Veneficus “The Cold Gloaming” (Students of Decay)
Agathothodion "Kan Guds Gjort" (E.E.E.)
Aidan Baker "Exoskeleton Heart" (Crucial Blast)
Sindre Bjerga "Sinking Slowly, Dissolving Quietly" (Foxglove)


Best Cassette Only
Pillars of Heaven “Silver Tusks Vol.1” (Peasant Magick)
The new age revival! Spaced dreamy drones for a minimalist chill out by Salvatore Giorgi, head of Peasant Magic, a really cool new tape label. A good link with descriptions and reviews.

Honorable mentions
Sorc’henn “Sveyrtin Iars Grekbpearssen” (Keben)
Quintana Roo "Temple of Self Decapitation" (Dreamtime Tape Sounds)
Sheperds tapes
Mrtyu “Ritual Terra Continui’” (Tipped Bowler)


Best Live Show
The Shitty Listener/Polder live @ l’Etincelle, Angers 10/20/2007
Tour report and pics in the two Bouillabaisse news #35 and 36
“…The whole show was amazing and surprising for most of the audience, especially when Jason invited people to play with him and Benjamin of Polder. That great moment saw the eclosion [sic] of new and unknown talents but also the first live performance of the confirmed duo Ghosts Brames...”


Biggest Surprise
The French scene vitality!
“V”, Monks of the Balhill, The Cosmic Mandoliners, Xochipilli, Ghost Brames, Capricorn Wings, Heads of Pagan, El-G, Molah, Prester, Sorc’henn, the Reggaee, Khu, Jack Dove, Jettatore, Maquisard Acoustique, Blue Sabbath Blue Fiji, Polder, Enfer Boréal, Przewalski’s Horses, Placenta Popeye…


Biggest Disappointment
No real disappointment, maybe the end of Foxglove, even it’s for something even better just after.


Most Overrated
Animal Collective
The guys are certainly cool, but I’m not a lot into pop music…



Jordan Spencer

Best Album
Wooden Wand "James and the Quiet" (Ecstatic Peace!)
Straight to the songwriting point. Lacking in the jamming, but strangely, I'm too busy enjoying the songs and singing along to care.

Best Song
Wooden Wand "We Must Also Love the Thieves" from "James and the Quiet" (Ecstatic Peace!)
I must've listened to this song about a million times. I made all my friends put it on their iPods so I could listen to it in their cars.

Best Debut
Big Blood "The Grove" LP (Dontrustheruin)
Quirky and weird jangling folk songs with powerful tribal drumming and ridiculously good hooks.

Best Reissue
O'Death "Head Home" (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)
Like a party in the woods by the side of a river with a smiling (yellow) bearded man and a gaggle of equally hairy drunken friends

Best Various Artists Compilation
"Life is a Problem...But Where There is Life, There is Hope" (Mississippi)
Hand-clappin' Foot-stompin' blues/folk/gospel traditionalism

Best Anthology
Anthology "B.B. King" (Deja Vu Definitive Gold)
5 CDs of B.B. and Lucille

Best Cover Art
Ajilvsga "Earth Lodge" (Not Not Fun)
Probably the best collage ever made. The real flowers and leaves and feathers in each one are a nice touch too.

Best Vinyl Only
Glass Organ "Two Tapes" (Twonicorn)
Perfect fuzzy static-y calm

Best CD-R Only
Twinsistermoon "Levels and Crossings" (self-released)
Pretty and Haunting in a million ways. A dream digitalized and burned onto a piece of plastic.

Best Cassette Only
Pocahaunted "Rough Magic" (Blackest Rainbow)
Absolutely beautiful - the guest violin on the A-side makes it easily one of the prettiest pieces of music ever. So easy to get lost in.

Best Live Show
Emeralds
Half an hour to sit down and drift away - and you never heard the same "song"/set twice. Enjoyed every single one of the half-dozen or so times I saw them

Biggest Surprise
That one Usher song that leaked and has a beat like a Black Dice song..

Biggest Disappointment
Animal Collective "Strawberry Jam" (Domino)
Absolutely nothing like the live versions. Hollow and soulless. Seems a bit half-assed.

Most Overrated
Burial "Untrue" (Hyperdub)
Maybe I just don't get it..



Erica Rucker

Best Album
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss "Raising Sand" (Rounder Records)
This is the album that I have shared and demanded that people listen to. One convert was worried that both of the singers would be screeching banshees only to discover that it was full of beautiful melodies and gypsy rhythms and no screechiness at all.


Best Song
Prefuse 73 "Class of 73 Bells" from "Preparations" (Warp Records)
I have developed a taste for electronic music that isn't cheesy chillout or trite techno and Prefuse is smooth, cool and always interesting.

Best Various Artist Compilation
"Corwood Variations" (Summersteps)
I reviewed it. See Review.


Best Reissue
Skullflower "IIIrd Gatekeeper" (Crucial Blast)
The boyfriend comments: "Primo scree from 1992. Cut from the same cloth as Earth and some Melvins, but this never quite got the recognition that those folks did. Which is too bad, as it's one of the great monolithic statements ever made."


Best Cover Art
Daniel Menche "Animality" (emd.pl)
Hated the album. Love LOVE the cover art. I wish I could frame it. It'd have to be a shadow box of some kind.


Best CD-R
Cabinet of Natural Curiosities "Vineland" (self-released)
I also reviewed this one.


Best Live Show
Boris and Kurihara, Columbus, Ohio 10-5-07
Boris is a beautiful monster, loud, and transformative; an experience for any fan of metal or guitar; with Kurihara a master class.


Biggest Surprise
Circle/Endless Boogie, Lisa's Oak Street Lounge, Louisville, Kentucky
Words can barely describe. Groove en masse. Louder than hell. And some Judas Priest-y metal gear. Fuck Yes.


Biggest Disappointment
Damon and Naomi, Live in Columbus Ohio 10-5-07
Despite having the skill of Michio Kurihara as accompaniment, the sound was flat, and frankly dreary. The levels of the instruments were set too closely together and everything came across as sort of mud. Very sleepy mud. It was disheartening. I liked them at Terrastock 06.


Best Merch Table
Elvis Costello/Bob Dylan, Louisville Kentucky
I believe that Mr. Costello creates a T-shirt every time George Bush makes a mistake in office. There were so many different t-shirts and other merch items that the table was as crowded as a flea market swap
meet. I couldn't do much else other than stare in awe.

Jean-Marc Antuszewicz

Best Album
Six Organs of Admittance "Shelter from the ash" (Drag City)
This record turns my spine into a high tension line. Using guitar-esque virtuosity as decorum to stories of torn relationships, this is Ben Chasny at his most distinctive. But also at his most generous, with a sense of details bringing song crafting to plenitude. A masterpiece.

Best Song
Circle "Tree on the higher mountain" from "Katapult" (No Quarter)
I was more accustomed to blizzard assaults with Circle, but here they turned the heater on and that’s a dreamy landscape that lives again under the melting ice. “Tree on the higher mountain” is a kaleidoscope of guitar riffs dancing around a kraut drum kit and monolithic layer of synths – cool as spring.

Best Debut
Joanne Robertson "The Lighter" (Textile Records)
This is haunted folk music all the way through and Joanne Robertson makes it a journey full of surprises. Songs implode and bloom, stepping off and on the tracks. The mix is excellent.

Best Reissue
The Fall "Hex Enduction Hour" (Kamera)
I didn’t know that early Fall until recently, how could I ? This album contains the most danceable, nasty, weird tracks that The Fall has built, and that was back in 1982. If there was one last man on earth, that would be Mark E. Smith, not Will Smith.

Best Anthology
Thierry Müller 1974 "1984 Rare and Unreleased" (Fractal Records)
This compilation is both a rare collection of sonic gems and a deep dive into European experimental scene in the late 70s. Thierry Müller, also known as Ilitch, was then the best local provider of genres with a prefix – avant-, post- or anti-, and that was worth an anthology.

Best Cover Art
Ruralfaune label releases
Ruralfaune is the one-stop shopping area for getting visually and musically drowned into the ocean of ether. Every release wrapped into a piece of colourful arabesque that seems to be torn out of a giant medieval tapestry.

Best Vinyl Only
Ich Bin’s “Votez Ich Bin” (Poutre Apparente)
The Corsicans have chosen the French political election for President as the opportunity to come back and deliver their one-off outrageous blast over modernity and democracy. Mixing post-Suicide hisses, kraut disgust and hilarious vocals, this is great as chilled vodka after vomit

Best CD-R Only
Valerio Cosi "Freedom Meditations Music, Volumes 1, 2 and 3-inch (Students of Decay, Oneiros, and Ruby Red Editora)
Valerio Cosi’s music is plentiful but still confidential, which is incredible. I could not pick one specific output from his production this year, but I just love the immersive world he builds by colliding planets, stardust and aural light. To taste his music, order one copy of anything on his MySpace page.

Best Live Show
Battles @ Paris La Maroquinerie
Battles is a tremendous live sex machine. Their gig in Paris was sweat, joy, and brain and should have been curated by James Brown. Nowhere else have I seen a faction of math-rockers in damp shirt sell their soul to the demons of afro-beat. We all promised we wouldn’t tell anyone – sorry guys, the time has come.

Biggest Surprise
Jonquil as recorded by La Blogothèque – www.concertsaemporter.com
When in Paris, Jonquil were asked to play 2 titles outside in the Père Lachaise graveyard, a few hours before the “official” gig. Wandering in the alleys or static in the trees, in front of bemused passer-bys, their spontaneous acoustic set was just thrilling.

Biggest Disappointment
I expected a lot from the new Supersilent release but it left me cold. And they cancelled their gig in Paris last September. I miss them.




Charles Franklin

Best Album
Pantaleimon “Mercy Oceans” (Durtro/Jnana)
It’s still fresh on my mind, but I think I’d still be thinking about this one even if I’d heard it at the beginning of the year. This makes me feel like a little kid again, and it’s the kindest thing I’ve heard all year.

Best Song
Pantaleimon “We Love” from “Mercy Oceans” (Durtro/Jnana)
So simple and beautiful- I really needed this song. I could listen to it on repeat for hours. “We love in a boundless joy…”

Best Vinyl Only
Tom Thayer “Tom Thayer” (Cardboard Mirror)
Listening to Tom Thayer’s debut LP is like being so totally captivated by the dusty corner of your attic that you can’t even move for a good solid half hour or so. Thayer has produced a deeply personal and strikingly bizarre album that defies any easy classification. It’s got the self-awareness of the best Nurse With Wound material, but with an entirely different feel. Like a dirty relic from an alternate past or a found tape that’s starting to grow mold on it, this has a really unique life all its own.

Best CDR only
Cloaks “A Crystal Skull in Peru” (Atheists Are Gods)
This was one of several great small-run releases that I heard this year. Cloaks take the long-form drone format and transform it into something unique and personal. Truly great zoning-in music that reaches some deep transformations.

Best Live Show
The Dead Hippies @ Murfreesboro, TN Dec. 18, 2007
Unfortunately, I did not get out to many shows this year, but this one made up for most of that. The Dead Hippies transformed an ordinary house show into an environment all their own. It started with the audience sitting in a different room from the band, separated by a sheet hung between the rooms that displayed an abstract visual collage for the first half of the show. As The Dead Hippies went through a set of trumpet drones and abstract folk songs, things started to work up to a peak. Suddenly, the sheet was torn down to reveal the band in full-on psych rock mode- half naked and covered in white paint/powder. It was totally terrifying and beautiful.

Eric Hardiman

Best Album
Pocahaunted/Robedoor “Hunted Gathering” (Digitalis)
This one captures 2007 for me – two amazing bands doing their best work, in a perfect package. Every time I hear this in years to come, it will remind me of what an amazing year this has been, discovering new sounds, finding a musical community, and being utterly inspired. The music destroys and never gets old. And although it wasn’t a surprise at all (everything I’ve heard from both bands being phenomenal), having it together in the same place is a great thing. It’s also the perfect starting point for introducing this music to others. Should have been mandatory Xmas giving for lots of folks…

Honorable Mention 1
Meursault “Sleeping Debris” (Students of Decay)
An utterly beautiful, calming, and peaceful record. Still gets at least weekly airplay in my world, and is definitely one of those releases that should be more widely heard and available. It could be easily dismissed as “ambient”, but it’s so much better and more subtle than what that word implies. Organic, melancholic, and lovely throughout.

Honorable Mention 2
Birchville Cat Motel “Birds Call Dead Their Home” (Celebrate Psi-Phenomenon)
As with the #1 above, no huge surprise here. Campbell Kneale churns out masterpieces the way most people take breaths. This one is no different, but shows his genius in full form. Three tracks that show new sides to the BCM formula, yet don’t stray too far. A close contender was also the massive 3cdr set “Astro Catastrophes”, but I spent far more time with this one.

Honorable Mention 3
Slow Listener “Snow Falling From a Clear Blue Sky” (Ruralfaune)
Like discovering Robedoor and Pocahaunted, finding Slow Listener was one of the highlights of 07 for me. I’ve yet to be disappointed by any of the music Robin makes. This one on Ruralfaune is perhaps the best and most focused example of his ideas (yet). Its beauty for me lies in its simplicity. The sounds, even when distorted and roaring, are treated with kid gloves, and each listen reveals new details and levels. No matter what Robin does, there’s always a candy core on the inside with a soul-destroying melodic sense that never fails to move me. The anticipation of his next few releases is incredibly exciting too. I’m releasing one early in 2008 (“Desolation Sound”), and it’s an absolute honor to help spread the word.

Best Debut
The Glass Shivers “Forest Floor” (self-released)
Self-released CD-R from this Providence, RI trio consistently intrigued me. I’ve listened to it so many times, and I still love it. Like some of the other releases on my list, this one is super short (26 minutes), but I don’t mind a bit. The brevity works. Totally exciting to think what they’ll do next.

Best Reissue
Harmonia "Harmonia Live 1974" (Groenland)
It was great jumping back into the kraut waters with these new jams, along with a live Kraftwerk radio broadcast I found this year too. This is still in heavy rotation here, and it’s a pretty damned compelling listen. Great sound quality, great performances, and really nice to hear them stretch out in the live setting. The cover is awesome too. Wonder if there are more sessions like these out there just waiting to be unearthed. We can only hope.

Honorable Mention 1
Les Rallizes Denudes recordings
Somehow I never tire of hearing these guys. It’s been nice to see some of them getting legit releases recently, and at affordable prices too. The recording quality only adds to the appeal for me, and I played these as often and as loudly as possible. Hypnotic psych rock trances of the HIGHEST order.

Best Various Artists Compilation
“The Crests of the Avians Dance to Our Vibes” (Celestial Jars)
Amazing packaging, and captivating music on this collection of 17 tracks from assorted folks from all over the world. Not sure why this didn’t get more attention when it was released. Participants included Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood, Seht, Ben Reynolds, the North Sea, Aaron Lennox, and many more. Predominantly acoustic based and on the quieter side of things for some of these folks, it’s a lovely collection.

Best Anthology
"Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday and Today 1966-2006" (Sub Rosa)
This is a 2CD anthology, with one disc from Alireza Mashayekhi and one from Ata Ebtekar/Sote. Interesting liner notes (though I wanted more of them), and wonderful music. Much more along the lines of academic electronic music, but the use of Persian cultural influences, musical scales, and even folk melodies makes this a fascinating collection.

Best Cover Art
Pocahaunted/Robedoor “Hunted Gathering” (Digitalis)
PERFECT for the sounds inside.

Also dug the Sarin Smoke LP "Smokescreen" (Three-Lobed) artwork and the Christina Carter/Pocahaunted split LP (Not Not Fun) too.

Best Vinyl Only
Gregg Kowalsky “Tendrils in Vigne” LP (Root Strata)
Utterly utterly utterly beautiful music. Words don’t do any justice here. Sure it’s one-sided and less than 15 minutes long. For me, that just adds to the mystique. When it arrived in the mail, I listened to it maybe 10 times in a row and sat there stunned and immobile. It’s that good. It transcends its academic origins (it’s a student piece from Mills College) with its ambition (a large ensemble interpretation of an earlier Kowalsky piece) and most importantly the execution. Vinyl is the perfect format here and it comes alive in a way that digital would never allow. Don’t sleep on this – grab a copy from Root Strata ASAP before they’re gone!

Honorable Mention 1
Christina Carter/Pocahaunted split LP (Not Not Fun)
Just what I expected from both, but there was no disappointment at all. Great cover art, great marbleized vinyl too. Christina’s side is sparse and drifting, while Pocahaunted lay it down in their typically amazing fashion.

Honorable Mention 2
Sarin Smoke “Smokescreen” LP (Three-Lobed)
Pete Swanson and Tom Carter – a match made in heaven. Easily Swanson’s mellowest work, and a nice addition to Carter’s growing body of work. This record got lots of late night play at Tape Drift headquarters, and we’re all the better for it. Lovely subdued guitar mastery.

Best CD-R Only
Talisman “Initiate into the Mystery” (Night Goat)
An absolutely amazing masterpiece. From out of nowhere comes this perfect mix of drone, doom, and lovely acoustic instrumentalism. Bozoukis, tape loops, guitars, drums, and the occasional organ coalesce into a near perfect album. It should probably be my top record of 2007. It’s certainly gotten more listens than anything else.

Honorable Mention 1
Aethr Myth’d “The Eight” (Spirit of Orr)
Mysterious sounds everywhere on this killer release from Ron Schneiderman’s collection of Vermont-based characters. Loose folk/rock/psych/drone improv, if we have to talk terms, but jeez - trying to deconstruct the sounds and put words on them only does this record a huge disservice. So many sprawling visual images came to mind whenever I blessed out to this one. I think I played nothing but this for a solid two weeks at one point, and I didn’t miss other music. Get a copy.

Honorable Mention 2
6majik9 “Rubber God Head” (Phantom Limb)
The Australian counterpoint to the above. This was underwhelming on first listen, but soon revealed itself to be capable of transporting me to perfect other worlds. What seems formless and wandering at first soon becomes a multi-layered work of mystery and intrigue. Hard to keep up with their output, but it’s worth it.

Honorable Mention 3
Stone Baby “Fully Render(ed) /Cloud/s” (Carbon)
What to say about this one? They’ve been described as ambient chamber noise, and I gotta say, it fits. Like their other stuff, it’s layered and murky in the best way possible, and full of sonic depth and richness. It’s really a stunning record, just like their Foxglove CD-R was too. Recorded with care and a masterful sense of timing, this one never fails to provide the goods. Another great late night record, and one that I think will keep revealing new secrets many years from now.

Best Cassette Only
James Ferraro “Alternative Soundtrack to Scream in Blue Surf Video” (New Age Cassettes)
Have no idea what’s being done here or how, and it’s best that way. I just put this on and succumb to its weirdly wrought soundworld. More playful than Skaters, and it’s on the perfect medium of course. Deserves to be more widely heard, as with all the other stuff he’s doing.

Honorable Mention 1
Fantastic Magic “Witch Choir” (Abandon Ship)
WTF? Biggest head-scratcher of the year here, but I kept coming back to it. A short and unexplainable masterpiece, this is an aptly titled release. Some very bizarre acoustic psychedelic alchemy at work here, with helium induced vocals, ukuleles, and other assorted madness-inducing instruments. More times than I can count, I found myself driving around with this cassette in the car deck wondering how they made such a weirdly addictive tape. Can’t wait to hear what they come up with next.

Honorable Mention 2
Lamborghini Crystal “Little Deuce Coupe TV Dinners” (New Age Cassettes)
See the above description for the Ferraro tape. These two were always paired together in my listening, and neither were ever far from reach. I’m thrilled Ferraro’s out there making this crazy shit and so much of it. The world’s a much better place as a result.

Honorable Mention 3
Sleepwalkers Local 242 “Passive Attack” (Snakefork)
This tape shows Grant Capes’ solo project just getting better and better. Too short of course, and so I’m left clamoring for more. Grant’s an all around amazing person and inspiring musician, and I can only hope we’ll be getting gems like this for years and years to come.

Best Live Show
Stone Baby/Mirabile Dictu/Sleepwalkers Local 242/Antique Brothers @ No Radio Records, Ithaca, New York
We (Century Plants) had the privilege of doing a mini-tour with Stone Baby, Sleepwalkers, and Antique Brothers in November. On this show, the second, Mirabile Dictu (Aaron Tate) joined us for a solo no instrument mixing set. After getting the initial nerves of the first night out of the way, the bands all spurred each other on to utterly amazing sets this night. A perfect little venue, great people, and magical music made by friends. Doesn’t get much better. Stone Baby blew me away with the HEAVIEST set I could have ever imagined from them, Grant dazzled as Sleepwalkers with an inspired vocal turn, killer guitar work, and great accompaniment from Adam Richards (House of Alchemy). Next, Aaron slayed us all with an intensely-focused and awe-inspiring solo set that bridged the drone, noise, and EAI worlds with total ease. And then the expanded touring version of the Antique Brothers cleaned up as the closers and practically leveled the whole audience with their beautifully ecstatic sounds. A wonderful night. Close behind were Albany and Hudson, but Ithaca was where it all came together perfectly.

Biggest Surprise
discovering Night Goat Records
Based in Hudson, NY (just 30 minutes away from me), it was a shock to find this label that’s just getting started, but already building a killer catalog. The first set of releases are massive, particularly the Sleepy Demons, Talisman, and Jeremy Kelly CD-Rs. Add a Cyrus Gengras (Antique Bros) solo joint that rules, a great CD-R from Piano on Trampoline, and a split between Fantastic Ego and Jeremy Kelly, and you simply can’t go wrong.

Biggest Disappointment
Not finding enough time to put out more music. But that’s ok - there’s a great batch of new Tape Drifts on the way in early 08, including Slow Listener, Burnt Soil (one-off collaboration between Burnt Hills and Soil Sing Through Me), and the debut from Fossils From the Sun, which I’m thrilled about. And after that, much much more…




Andrew Sadowski

Best Album
Dan Deacon "Spiderman of the Rings" (Carpark)
Dan Deacon is the pied piper of Casio keyboards. He’s managed to transcend the cheap limitations of Casios and make a crazy orchestra that’s broader in scope than any other band working in the same area. You know those demo songs they have on keyboards that sound really cheesy and impossible? I hope that one day Dan Deacon will quit touring and solely focus on making the demo songs on keyboards cooler.

Best Song
Deerhunter "Hazel St." from "Cryptograms" (Kranky)
This song has what I wish more My Bloody Valentine songs had: more ambience, sweet transitions and above all a melody that makes you wanna listen to it on repeat forever. The best thing about this song is that its melancholy isn’t at all cliché, which is often the case with sad songs.

Best Debut
Wooden Shjips "Wooden Shjips" (Holy Mountain)
Over the past few years I’ve gotten more and more bored with stoner music, but finally there’s a band that makes me wanna smoke myself retarded. Thank God!

Best Reissue
Michael Yonkers "Grimwood" (Destijl)
"Grimwood" is my favorite Michael Yonkers record, second only to "Microminiature Love". Its more demented and chill than "Microminiature Love" and DeStjil is awesome to have reissued it.

Best Various Artists Compilation
"After Dark (Italians do it Better)" (Glass Candy)
I’m so pleased that Glass Candy has finally found their niche, and they fit there perfectly. They got past that awkward stage where you don’t quite know what you were meant to do, but then stumble upon it and now all your clothes fit perfectly and your drum machines sound better than they ever have.

Best Cover Art
Sir Richard Bishop "While My Guitar Violently Bleeds" (Locust Music) and Panda Bear "Person Pitch" (Paw Tracks)
The cover for Sir Richard Bishop’s album looks classy, timeless, and nasty, which are three things that make for sweet covers. The Panda Bear cover has this sweet vibe that not only fits perfectly with the music, but also makes you wanna stop believing in Noah’s ark and start believing in Noah Lennox’s hot tub party.

Best Vinyl Only
GHQ "Crystal Healing" (Three-Lobed)
Zaimph "Mirage of the Other" (Gipsy Sphinx)
Blues Control "Puff" (Woodsist)
Grouper "Cover the Windows and Walls" (Root Strata)
The moral to the vinyl story for this year is: anything Marcia Bassett touches is awesome, Blues Control are two for two, and Liz Harris makes the most beautiful records ever.

Best CD-R Only
Lamborghini Crystal "Alien Microwave" (New Age Cassettes)
James Ferraro put out more tapes and CD-Rs this year than I could listen to, but this first little gem is bubbly like 70’s porno soundtracks and is to huffing glue what Ariel Pink is to crystal meth.

Best Cassette Only
Excepter "Tank Tapes" (Fuck It Tapes)
Excepter’s Fuck It tape is the best way to kill time in the heat and makes you feel like you’re sweating brain cells in the outfit Eddie Murphy wears in Delirious.

Best Live Show
Sunn 0)))
Sunn O))) push the theatrics of metal better than any other metal act I’ve ever seen. The robes, the fog, the coffins, the random dude screaming like he’s being killed. It’s all so much fun to watch that it’s hard to think of a world without Sunn O))).

Biggest Surprise
Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan "Pullhair Rubeye" (Paw Tracks)
When this leaked, it was the Internet mind fuck of the year. Was it intentional? Was it not? Then the un-reversed one surfaced, and it was immediately apparent that it was intentional because frankly reversing that album was the only way to make it something that didn’t sound like a forgettable one night stand with a 4 track. I saw Inland Empire too and didn’t waste thousands of dollars on a sub par record.

Biggest Disappointment
Growing "Vision Swim" (Troubleman Unlimited)
Shellac "Excellent Italian Greyhound" (Touch & Go)
When I got the Growing record, I was psyched. I waited all day until I was ready to go to sleep and put it on and waited to be lulled or something. Instead they decided to move from walls of drone to unsettling sawing noises and jarring loud parts. Suffice it to say I didn’t really sleep that night, and for that I hold Growing responsible. As for the Shellac record, what happened? Seriously.

Most Overrated
Liars "Liars" (Mute)
Om "Pilgrimage" (Southern Lord)
Pissed Jeans "Hope for Men" (Sup Pop)
If Liars self titled album this year was Angus expanding his realm, I think he expanded it a bit too much. It wasn’t horrible, but honestly, I don’t know what it is. Om’s new album sounded entirely too much like the last two, and apparently Pissed Jeans found a loophole in the acceptable lyrics clause with “[I] Figured out why I hate their parties, I could use a good magazine”.