![]() ![]() Love the fact that even though it’s bleary, arty rock, there are vestiges of the classic girl group sound in the singing. Warpaint Heads Up (Rough Trade)Hooky, atmospheric, almost early Cure-like at times. Peter Baumann Machines of Desire (Bureau B) Played this at home a lot! No one does ecstatic dread better, and with the uncertain times ahead, I feel we have yet to see Radiohead’s best work. Johnny Greenwood’s work in film scoring is paying dividends for the band with these string arrangements, but the band throughout is strong. Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool (XL Recordings) By way of description, think Blonde Redhead plays Morricone. Pushing all sorts of buttons for me, and the most hook laden record of the year for sure. If it weren’t for the Strong-Works-by-Legendary-Heroes category topping my list, this would be as good a pick for favorite of the year, just based on repetition of play alone. Scream of the year belongs to “In the Lobby” and the celebratory “Sunday” has as its coda the prettiest music you’ve ever heard on an Iggy record. Juggling rage, contentment, joy, angst, and wonder, his tone and voice are thoughtful (Iggy until of late overlooked as one of rock’s intellectuals) and wry throughout. Iggy Pop Post Pop Depression (Eagle Vision)Īn august work from local lad Jim Osterberg. Thank you David Bowie, for all the…everything. It almost makes you forget the Spanish Inquisition. The result is pure delight, bubbling with pleasure and joie de vivre. It is a real ear-opener to listen to the pre-Baroque and Baroque composers of the era blend their more formal musical structure and polyphony with the rhythms of Africa and the Amerindians. I don’t tend to associate this period of the Iberian Counter-Reformation with joyful noises. A blending of classic European styles with popular music of the native peoples and colonists of South and Central America, this is one of the most intriguing musical discoveries I’ve made in many years. Released in 2003 on the Spanish AliaVox label, this is dance and vocal music from the period of Spain’s conquest of the New World. Villancicos y Danzas Criollas de la Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo 1550-1750 La Capella Reial de Catalunya/Hesperion XXI/ Jordi Savall Uncovered Treasure: Not a new release, but discovered this year, Swirly, hypnotic washes of sound, with an unsettling mix of non-Western tones and a rush of bat wings over your shoulder, Goat manages to sound both vaguely familiar and deeply alien at the same time. If you threw Gong, the Casiokids, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, some traditional Andean musicians, and a couple tabs of purple microdot in a blender, you would get something like the Swedish commune/band Goat. It is pure rhythm, designed to make you move in ways that foot-washing Baptists guarentee will send you straight to hell. ![]() This year, they teamed up with Angolan electronica wiz/producer Batida to create my favorite record of the year. ![]() When these Congolese street musicians exploded on the scene a few years ago with their car-battery amplified likembes (thumb pianos) and beat boxes made from old packing crates and toaster ovens (I’m guessing here), their sound grabbed my ass and threw it around the dance floor like it was possessed by something delightfully unholy. Beautiful, moving, slyly witty, and full of grace. Plenty of ink has been spilled picking this one apart I can only add that Blackstar would make the top of most ‘best of’ lists this year, even if Bowie had blessed us with a couple more decades of music-making. The following is a small representation of some of the sounds that made my life endurable in 2016.Īs a coda for a creative life well-lived, you couldn’t do better than Bowie’s final studio album. Proust (Thirty Tigers)Īlejandro Escovedo Burn Something Beautiful (Fantasy)Ĭhris Robinson Brotherhood Anyway you love, we know how you feel (Silver Arrow)ĭuring a year which brought profoundly tragic news in the music world, I am once again reminded of the redemptive solace of that music – the power of rhythm and melody to restore balance and meaning to our psyches in the face of seemingly unrelenting despair. Ryley Walker Primrose Green (Dead Oceans)įranklin Kiermyer Closer to the Sun (Mobility Music) ![]()
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