Well, everyone else is doing it..
To the casual observer, 2013 gave us much to be pessimistic about musically. Excitement was predictably hard to find amid the drab conservatism of the Later Live/6 Music/Uncut magazine pseudo alternative media. Adding to this the Barlowisation (noun:1.The arrangement of established musical forms in such a way as to suck every last drop of joy out of them leaving them all sounding like a house band at a Young Conservatives ball. 2.The description of the previous as “real talent”) of pop music and the efforts of the form over content worshipping vinyl revivalists (NB. You are not music fans. You are those kids from “Swap Shop” with the tank tops and nascent personality disorders who had 160 Smurfs and you can so fuck right off) to reduce music to the level of owning artefacts and it could be argued that this year was as dull as a Saturday afternoon in Homebase.
But digging a little deeper, there were cheap and dirty thrills to be had. Below is a list of things that came out in 2013 (and one that came out in late 2012 – bite me, pedants!) that made the soul soar with the righteous fever that comes from exposure to creativity,transgression and sheer don’tgiveashittedness.
Everyone on this list from 17-54 is a hero and I herby award you all imaginary medals in the war against mediocrity.
Special mentions go to LP list toppers Tingle In The Netherlands whose gleeful rudery and spot on electropop sounded like a neon -lit “Confessions” film directed by Luis Buñuel with Gary Numan in the Robin Asquith role and made me go all funny when I listened to it – and along the way raised the phrase “Shagging The Milkman” to the level of high art, and to the two tunes which crown the tracks list (try as I might I couldn’t pick a favourite) from the joyful to listen to but tedious to type Girl One and The Greaseguns whose “(Here Come The) Catastrophe Machines” is a life affirming fuzz dusted arseshaking romp of a tune that were it to take corporeal form would be out looking for Robbie Williams with a bag of stink bombs and an evil grin. In any other year it would have been number one hands down if it wasn’t for the fact that Footwork produced the all time classic that it’s threatened to for the past 4 years in DJ Rashad’s “Rollin” – which takes lines from Jagged Edge’s fairly unremarkable R&B (the modern rubbish kind not the old good kind) slopfest “Walked Outta Heaven” and twists them into a roiling stew of regret,self doubt and doomed optimism that summed up the feeling of a one in a lifetime love sundered by base desire and betrayal – and then it asks you if you’ve got any E’s – really.
You can find all these tunes on Youtube and you can,should you desire,hear me playing some (most) of them on BCB this Friday 20th December at 10pm and Wednesday 25th December at midnight.Happy Christmas and don’t let the Smurf collectors grind you down.
LP’s of the year
1.Tingle In The Netherlands – “Why Can’t You Write Something Nice For A Change?” (Nerve Echo)
2. The Fall – “Re-Mit” (Cherry Red)
3. Young Echo – “Nexus” (RAMP Recordings)
4. Dean Blunt – “The Redeemer” (Hippos In Tanks)
5. Luciano – “The Qabala Man” (AL.TA.FA.AN)
6. Melt Banana – “Fetch” (A-Zap)
7. Grandmaster Gareth – “Magical Sound Shower” (GM Sounds)
8. Body/Head – “Coming Apart” (Matador)
9. Neko Case – “The Worse Things Get,The Harder I Fight,The Harder I Fight,The More I Love You” (Anti)
10. Denis Callaci and Simon Joyner – “New Secrets” (Shrimper)
Tracks of the year
1= Girl One and the Greaseguns – “(Here Come The) Catastrophe Machines” (7″) (Squirrel)
1= DJ Rashad – “Rollin'” (EP – “Rollin’) (Hyperdub)
3 The Fall – “Sir William Wray” (7″) (Cherry Red)
3. Royal Headache – “Stand and Stare” (7″) (Matador)
4. Walls – “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (12″) (Ecstatic)
5. Wolf Alice – “Fluffy” (7″) (Chess Club)
6. Good Throb – “Bag” (S/T EP) (SuperFi)
7. Kabaka Pyramid – “Liberal Opposer” (download EP “Rough Road – Green Lion Crew”) (Soul of the Lion)
8. Jackal – “Power Move” (no label – soundcloud)
9. Vampire Weekend – “Diane Young” (download) (XL)
10.Macka B – “Black Security” (7″) (Ariwa Japan)
