Sixty Year Vintage: Ten Top Artifacts from 1955

1. Otto Luening & Vladimir Ussachevsky - Tape Recorder Music

2. Hugh le Cain - "Dripsody"

3. Elvis Presley - "Mystery Train"

4. Julie London - "Cry Me a River"

5. Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours

6. Bill Haley & His Comets - "Shake Rattle and Roll"

7. Olivier Messiaen - "Oiseaux Exotiques"

8. Fats Domino - "Ain't That a Shame"

9. Chuck Berry - Maybellene

10. Etta James - Dance with Me Henry (The Wallflower)

10 Year Vintage: Top Torrents and Massive MP3s of 2005

Top 50 LPs of 2005

1. Animal Collective- Feels
2. Vex'd- Degenerate
3. Burial- South London Boroughs EP
4. MIA- Arular
5. Coil- The Ape of Naples
6. The Advisory Circle- Mind How You Go EP
7. Kanye West- Late Registration
8. Lichens- The Psychic Nature of Being
9. Broadcast- Tender Buttons
10. Mountain Goats- The Sunset Tree
11. Grouper- Way Their Crept
12. Ladytron- Witching Hour
13. Jackson & His Computer Band- Smash
14. Boredoms- House of Sun/Seadrum
15. Koushik- Be With
16. Of Montreal- The Sunleandic Twins
17. The Goslings- Between the Dead
18. Anthony Rother- Art is a Technology
19. Kavinsky- Teddy Boy EP
20. Mu- Out of Breach
21. Vashti Bunyan- Lookaftering
22. Depeche Mode- Playing the Angel
23. Northern Valentine- Rusted Gate: Leopards Mouth
24. Rachel Stevens- Come and Get It
25. Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
26. Mordant Music- The Tower
27. Antony and the Johnsons- I Am a Bird Now
28. Liars- Drum's Not Dead
29. Virus Syndicate- The Work-Related Illness
30. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us
31. Andy Stott- Replace EP
32. Goldfrapp- Supernature
33. Soulwax- Nite Versions
34. The Perceptionists- Black Dialogue
35. Venom 18- Mystery Organization
36. Daft Punk- Human After All
37. The Lickets- Fake Universe Man
38. Talib Kweli- Right About Now
39. Bibio- Fi
40. Mark Clifford and Simon Keahola- Running Taper
41. Justus Kohnchke- Schwabylon
42. The Game- The Documentary
43. Byla- Byla
44. Lawrence- The Night Will Last Forever
45. Final Fantasy- Has a Good Home
46. The Field- Things Keep Falling Down
47. Lindstrom and Prins Thomas- Lindstrom and Prins Thomas
48. Why?- Sandollars EP
49. Nine Inch Nails- With Teeth
50. My Morning Jacket- Z


Top 50 Singles of 2005


1. Animal Collective- "Grass"
2. M83 - "Don't Save Us from the Flames"
3. Burial- "Southern Comfort"
4. Amerie- "1 Thing"
5. Broadcast- "Arc of a Journey"
6. Mountain Goats- "This Year"
7. Three 6 Mafia- "Stay Fly"
8. Au Revoir Simone- "Back in Time"
9. Modeselektor- "Silikon"
10. Boards of Canada- "Dayvan Cowboy"
11. Robyn- "With Every Heartbeat"
12. Kanye West- "Crack Music"
13. Skream- "Midnight Request Line"
14. DJ Pinch & P Dutty- "War Dub"
15. Toasty- "Take It Personal"
16. Coil- "Cold Cell"
17. Of Montreal- "Wraith Pinned to the Mist"
18. Sia- "Where I Belong (Various Production Mix)"
19. D5- "Flotation Tank"
20. Ladytron- "High Rise"
21. Four Tet- "Sun Drums and Soil (Sa-Ra Creative Partners Mix)"
22. Spacek- "Rapid Rate"
23. Shackleton- "I Am Animal"
24. Clipse- "Zen"
25. Death Cab for Cutie- "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
26. Jamie Lidell- "The City"
27. Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd- "Snowfall"
28. James Ruskin- "Return"
29. Matt Tolfrey & Craig Sylvester- "The Horn"
30. Yin Yang Twins- "Wait (The Whisper Song)"
31. Jackie O Motherfucker- "Hey! Mr. Sky"
32. Kavinsky- "Testarossa Autodrive"
33. D-1- "I Believe"
34. Missy Elliot ft Ciara & Fat Man Scoop- "Lose Control"
35. Michael Mayer- "Lovefood"
36. Rosa Mundi- "The Snow Man"
37. Fat Joe- "Safe 2 Say"
38. !!!- "Get Up"
39. Panda Bear- "Comfy in Nautica"
40. Tree Wave- "Sleep"
41. Ashanti- "Still on It"
42. British Murder Boys- "Father Loves Us"
43. The Game - "Hate it or Love It"
44. Boxcutter- "Sunshine"
45. Imogen Heap- "Hide and Seek"
46. Murderbot- "Onlyworld"
47. Hot Chip- "Over and Over"
48. DJ Godfather and Starski- "Moments"
49. The Perceptionists- "Black Dialogue"
50. Koushik- "Be With"

20 Year Vintage: Tunes and CeeDees of the Year 1995

Top 50 Singles of the Year of our lord 1995


1. Bjork - "Hyperballad"
2. Underworld- "Born Slippy (.NUXX Mix)"
3. Slowdive- "Blue Skied n' Clear"
4. PJ Harvey- "Down by the Water"
5. Pulp- "Common People"
6. David Bowie- "The Motel"
7. Nicolette- "No Government"
8. Tricky vs the Gravediggaz- "Tonite is a Special Nite"
9. Low- "Transmission"
10. Saukrates- "Father Time"
11. New Order- "Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction mix)"
12. Smashing Pumpkins- "1979"
13. Autechre- "Second Bad Vilbell"
14. Windy and Carl- "Emerald"
15. Mariah Carey- "Fantasy"
16. Todd Edwards- "Saved My Life"
17. PFM- "One and Only"
18. Perceptrons- "Contempt"
19. Claude Young- "Wind Up"
20. Plaid - "Angry Dolphin"
21. Oasis- "Some Might Say"
22. The Cenubites - "How the Fuck you Get a Deal"
23. Sonic Youth- "The Diamond Sea"
24. Total feat Notorious B.I.G.- "Can't You See"
25. Garbage- "Supervixen"
26. Parris Mitchell feat Waxmaster- "Ghetto Shout Out"
27. Fatboy Slim- "Santa Cruz"
28. Folk Implosion- "Natural One"
29. Daft Punk- "Da Funk"
30. Aphex Twin- "Ventolin"
31. T-Power - "Police State"
32. Blur - "The Universal"
33. I-F- "I Do Because I Couldn't Care Less"
34. Fret- "Stuck"
35. Smokin Beats- "Time Are Chargin'"
36. The Chemical Brothers- "Leave Home"
37. Green Velvet- "Flash"
38. Ghost Town DJ's- "My Boo"
39. Shake- "Get a Feeling"
40. Thomas Bangalter- "Ventura"
41. Ministry- "The Fall"
42. Mojave 3- "You're Beautiful"
43. The Infinity Project- "Feeling Very Weird"
44. Radiohead- "Planet Telex"
45. Adina Howard- "Freak Like Me"
46. Facemob- "Among the Walking Dead"
47. Nightmares on Wax- "Rise"
48. Roots Manuva- "Next Type of Motion"
49. The Apples in Stereo- "Tidal Wave"
50. Marilyn Manson- "Down in the Park"


Top 50 Albums of the Year of our sweet Satan 1995


1. Bjork- Post
2. Carl Craig- Landcruising
3. Seefeel- Succour
4. Nine Inch Nails- Further Down the Spiral
5. A Guy Called Gerald- Black Secret Technology
6. Oval- 94 Diskont
7. Hum- You'd Prefer an Astronaut
8. The Cenubites- The Cenubites
9. Autechre- Tri Repetae
10. Elecktroids- Electroworld
11. Mr. Bungle- Disco Volante
12. PJ Harvey- To Bring You My Love
13. Download- Furnace
14. Plug- Rebuilt Kev EP
15. David Bowie- 1.Outside
16. Boards of Canada - Twoism
17. Pharcyde- Labcabincalifornia
18. Mercury Rev- See You on the Other Side
19. Slowdive - Pygmoelian
20. Smashing Pumpkins- Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
21. Techno Animal- Re-Entry
22. Drexciya- Aquatic Invasion
23. Dopplereffekt- Fascist State
24. Mouse on Mars- Iahori Tahiti
25. Pulp- Different Class
26. Yo La Tengo - Electr-o-Pura
27. Tricky- Maquinequaye
28. The Advent- Elements of Life
29. Ol' Dirty Bastard- Return to the 36 Chambers
30. Flying Saucer Attack- Furthur
31. DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like EP
32. Prick- Prick
33. Aghast- Hexerei Im Zweilicht Der Finsternis
34. Oasis- Whats the Story Morning Glory?
35. The Chemical Brothers- Exit Planet Dust
36. Massive Attack vs Mad Professor- No Protection
37. Swans- The Great Annhilator
38. ElpH vs Coil- Worship the Glitch
39. Ladbradford- A Stable Reference
40. Garbage- Garbage
41. Disjecta- Looking for Snags
42. Microstoria- Innit Ding
43. The Flaming Lips- Clouds Taste Metallic
44. Tarnation- Gentle Creatures
45. Foetus- Gash
46. Radiohead- The Bends
47. Low- Long Division
48. Scorn- Ellipsis
49. Dirty Three- Dirty Three
50. Monster Magnet- Dopes to Infinity

30 Year Vintage: Cuts and Big Ones from 1985

Singles of the year 1985

1. Pet Shop Boys- "West End Girls"
2. Model 500- "Night Drive (Thru Babylon)"
3. The Jesus and Mary Chain- "Just Like Honey"
4. The Revolting Cocks- "No Devotion"
5. The Smiths- "The Boy With the Thorn in his Side"
6. The Cocteau Twins- "Rococo"
7. The Replacements- "Bastards of Young"
8. Death Comet Crew feat Rammellzee- "Exterior Street"
9. JM Silk- "Music is the Key"
10. Prince and the Revolution- "Pop Life"
11. New Order- "The Perfect Kiss"
12. Nu Shooz- "I Can't Wait"
13. Opal- "Soul Giver"
14. Double D & Steinski- "Lesson 3 (History of Hip-Hop)"
15. The Book of Love- "I Touch Roses"
16. Husker Du- "New Day Rising"
17. Shop Assistants- "Safety Net"
18. Ministry- "Over the Shoulder"
19. The Durutti Column- "Silence"
20. World Domination Enterprises- "Asbestos Lead Asbestos"
21. The Cure- "Inbetween Days"
22. Severed Heads- "We Have Come to Bless This House"
23. Cybotron- "R-9 (Instrumental)"
24. Depeche Mode- "Shake the Disease"
25. Mantronix- "Bassline"
26. LL Cool J- "I Need a Beat"
27. Slaughter Joe- "I'll Follow You Down"
28. Barrington Levy- "Under Mi Sensi"
29. Dead Can Dance- "Enigma of the Absolute"
30. Mr Fingers- "Mysteries of Love"
31. REM - "Driver 8"
32. Stacey Q- "Shy Girl"
33. Tackhead- "Whats My Mission Now"
34. Weird Al Yankovich- "Dare To Be Stupid"
35. Tears for Fears- "Head Over Heels"
36. Doug E Fresh- "La Di Da Di"
37. The Dream Academy- "Life in a Northern Town"
38. Jamie Principle - "Waiting on My Angel"
39. Beastie Boys- "Rock Hard"
40. Level 42- "Something About You"
41. For Against- "Autocrat"
42. Wayne Smith- "Under Mi Sleng Teng"
43. a-Ha- "The Sun Always Shines on TV"
44. Dramarama - "Anything, Anything"
45. Robert Palmer - "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On"
46. Meat Puppets- "Two Rivers"
47. Miami Sound Machine- "Conga"
48. Til Tuesday- "Voices Carry"
49. Talking Heads- "Road to Nowhere"
50. Phil Collins- "Take Me Home"
49. Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam- "Can you Feel the Beat"
50. Psychic TV- "Godstar"

Albums of the Year 1985

1. The Cure- The Head on the Door

2. Sheila Chandra- The Struggle

3. Husker Du- Flip Your Wig

4. Big Black- Racer-X EP

5. The Cocteau Twins- Aikea-Guinea

6. Opal- Northern Line EP

7. The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy

8. Einsturzende Neubaten- Halber Mensch

9. The Dukes of the Stratosfear- 25 o clock

10. Front 242- No Comment

11. New Order- Low-Life

12. Sonic Youth- Bad Moon Rising

13. Schoolly D- Schoolly D

14. Mark Stewart- As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade

15. Dead Can Dance- Spleen and Ideal

16. Big Boys- No Matter How Long the Line At the Cafeteria is, There's Always a Seat

17. The Fall- This Nation's Saving Grace

18. Nico - Camera Obscura

19. The Blackouts- Lost Souls Club EP

20. Cabaret Voltaire- The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord

21. Psychic TV- Themes 2

22. The Velvet Underground- VU

23. Chris & Cosey- Techno Primitv

24. Prefab Sprout- Steve McQueen

25. Skinny Puppy- Bites

26. LL Cool J- Radio

27. Prince- Around the World

28. The Smiths- Meat is Murder

29. Severed Heads- City Slab Horror

30. A-HA- Hunting High and Low

40 Year Vintage: Top Albums and Singles of 1975

Singles of 1975

1. 10cc- "I'm Not in Love"
2. Brian Eno- "Another Green World"
3. Minnie Riperton- "Inside My Love"
4. Neu!- "Seeland"
5. Black Sabbath- "Symptom of the Universe"
6. Heart- "Crazy On You"
7. ABBA- "SOS"
8. Roxy Music- "Love is the Drug"
9. Demis Roussos- "Midnight is the Time I Need You"
10. Bobby Moore- "(Call Me Your) Anything Man"
11. Pere Ubu- "Heart of Darkness"
12. Barbara Steisand - "Shake Me Wake Me (long version)"
13. Silver Convention- "Fly Robin Fly"
14. Curtis Mayfield- "Billy Jack"
15. David Bowie- "Win"
16. Donna Summer- "Love to Love You, Baby"
17. The Blackbyrds- "Rock Creek Park"
18. Camille Yarbough- "Take Yo' Praise"
19. Kraftwerk- "Ohm Sweet Ohm"
20. Elvin Bishop- "Fooled Around and Fell in Love"
21. Bobby Moore- "Call Me Your Anything Man (Tom Moulton Mix)"
22. Fleetwood Mac- "Rhiannon"
23. The Bee Gees- "Jive Talkin"
24. Queen- "Bohemian Rhapsody"
25. Earth Wind and Fire- "Shining Star"
26. Cortex- "Huit Octobre 1971"
27. The Doobie Brothers- "I Cheat the Hangman"
28. Boney M- "Do You Wanna Bump"
29. War- "Low Rider"
30. Led Zeppelin- "Kashmir"
31. George & Gwen Mcrae- "The Rub"
32. The Isley Brothers- "Fight the Power"
33. Isaac Hayes- "Feel Like Makin Love"
34. Janis Ian- "At Seventeen"
35. KC and the Sunshine Band- "Get Down Tonight"
36. The Chi-Lites- "Go Away Dream"
37. Ted Nugent - "Stranglehold"
38. Herbie Hancock- "Hang Up Your Hang Ups"
39. The Rubettes- "I Can Do It"
40. Sly Stone- "I Get High on You"


Albums of 1975

1. Brian Eno- Another Green World
2. Neu!- Neu! '75
3. Miles Davis- Agharta
4. Harmonia- Deluxe
5. Lou Reed- Metal Machine Music
6. David Bowie- Young Americans
7. Heart- Dreamboat Annie
8. Kraftwerk- Radioactivity
9. Don Cherry- Brown Rice
10. KC and the Sunshine Band- KC and the Sunshine Band
11. Edgar Froese- Ypsilon in Malaysian Pale
12. Aerosmith- Toys in the Attic
13. Camille Yarbough- The Iron Pot Cooker
14. Lee Scratch Perry- Revolution Dub
15. Donna Summer- Love to Love You, Baby
16. Can- Landed
17. Elvin Bishop- Struttin My Stuff
18. Einzelganger- Einzelganger
19. Black Sabbath- Sabotage
20. Human Arts Ensemble- Under the Sun
21. The Dictators- Go Girl Crazy
22. Sparks - Indiscreet
23. The Bee Gees- Main Course
24. Lyman Woodward Organization- Saturday Night Special
25. Patti Smith- Horses

50 Year Vintage: Top LPs & Single tracks of 1965

Top 15 Albums of 1965:

1. The Kinks- Kinkdom

2. The Beatles- Rubber Soul

3. Nina Simone- I Put a Spell on You

4. Vince Guaraldi- A Charlie Brown Christmas

5. The Who- My Generation

6. Marianne Faithfull- Go Away to My World

7. Bert Jansch- It Don't Bother Me

8. Antoine Duhamel- Pierrot Le Fou

9. Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited

10. Unit 4 + 2- 1st Album

11. The Supremes- More Hits by the Supremes

12. Jackson C. Frank- Jackson C. Frank

13. John Coltrane- A Love Supreme

14. Jimmy Smith- Organ Grinder Swing

15. The Beach Boys- The Beach Boys Today!

Top 30 Tracks of 1965

1. Nina Simone- Sinnerman

2. The Kinks- See My Friends

3. The Who- The Kids Are Alright

4. Stevie Wonder- Uptight (Everything's Alright)

5. The Beatles- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

6. Vladimir Ussachevsky- Of Wood and Brass

7. The Miracles- The Tracks of My Tears

8. The Zombies- The Way I Feel Inside

9. Loretta Lynn- Everybody Wants to Go To Heaven

10. Guy Marchand- La Passionata

11. Bert Jansch- Needle of Death

12. Pete Seeger- Bourgeois Blues

13. The Rolling Stones- Play With Fire

14. The Pleasure Seekers- What a Way to Die

15. Terry Riley- Birds of Paradise

16. The Vogues- Five O Clock World

17. Jackie Deshannon- What the World Needs Now Is Love

18. The Righteous Brothers- You've Lost That Loving Feeling

19. Gloria Jones- Heartbeat

20. Kim and Grim- You Don't Love Me

21. Frank Sinatra- It Was a Very Good Year

22. The Shangri-Las- Out in the Streets

23. Steve Reich- It's Gonna Rain

24. Irma Thomas- I'm Gonna Cry Til My Eyes Run Dry

25. The Byrds- Turn! Turn! Turn!

26. Sylvie Vartan- I Made My Choice

27. The Young Senators- Jungle

28. The Mamas and the Papas- California Dreamin

29. James Brown and the Famous Flames- Papas Got a Brand New Bag

30. The Bobby Fuller Four- I Fought the Law

A brief piece in PopMatters on Angel-Ho as New and Emerging Artist

Extended Play 2015

Short-Players of the Year

1. Lotic- Heterocetera (Tri Angle)

2. Rizzla- Iron Cages (Fade to Mind)

3. FKA Twigs- M3LL155X (Young Turks)

4. Angel Ho- Ascension (Halycon Veil)

5. Wave Racer- Flash Drive (Future Classic)

6. Kamixlo- Demonico (Codes)

7. DJ Paypal- Sold Out (Brainfeeder)

8. Cakes Da Killa- #IMF (Mishka)

9. Deadboy- White Magick (Local Action)

10. 813- Body Race EP (Hyperboloid)

11. WWWings- Blessed (TAR)

12. Rabit- Baptizm (Tri Angle)

13. SPF666- Scorpion Cache (Club Chemtrail)

14. Cassini- Fermi (Tessier-Ashpool)

15. Boxcutter- Vatic Dreams (Kinnego)

16. Phekz- Off (Mordant Music)

17. DJ Orange Julius- Some Pulp (TAR)

18. Saga- Treachery (Bandcamp)

19. Why Be- SnipeStreet (Halycon Veil)

20. Angels Dust- Slow Tapes (Hit + Run)

2015th Annual Edition

Album of the yearz:

1. Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg)
2. Jlin- Dark Energy (Planet Mu)
3. Dawn Richard- Blackheart (Our Dawn)
4. Oneohtrix Point Never- Garden of Delete (Warp)
5. Rustie- Evenifudontbelieve (Warp)
6. Palmboben II- S/T (Beats in Space)
7. Holly Herndon- Platform (4AD)
8. Vince Staples- Summertime 06 (Def Jam)
9. Dialect- Gowanus Drifts (1080p)
10. Xosar- Let Go (Opal Tapes)
11. Various Artists- NON Worldwide Compilation (NON)
12. High Wolf- Growing Wild (Leaving)
13. Prurient- Frozen Niagra Falls (Profound Lore)
14. Earl Sweatshirt- I Don't Like Shit I Don't Go Outside (Columbia)
15. Emily Hall- Folie A Deux (Bedroom Community)
16. Dylan Stark- Heartland (Civil Music)
17. Bernholz- Consequences 4 (Anti-Ghost Moon Ray)
18. Brian Reitzell- Hannibal Season 3 sdtrk (iTunes)
19. Cat's Eyes- Duke of Burgundy OST (Raf/Caroline)
20. Arca- Mutant (Mute)
21. J.G. Biberkopf- Ecologies (Knives)
22. Strategy- Noise Tape Self (Further)
23. Haunter- Ablesigh, 1993 (Not on Label)
24. Ekoplekz- Reflekzionz (Planet Mu)
25. Robert AA Lowe and Ariel Kalma- We Know Each Other Somehow (RVNG Intl)
26. Zachey Force Funk- Chrome Steel Tiger (Hit + Run)
27. Jam City - Dream a Garden (Night Slugs)
28. Jonas Reinhardt- Palace Savant (Further)
29. Drake- If You're Reading This It's too Late (Cash Money)
30. Kuedo- Assertion of a Surrounding Presence (Knives)
31. Son Of- Social Zombies (Opal Tapes)
32. Jay Rock- 90059 (Top Dawg)
33. M.E.S.H.- Piteous Gate (PAN)
34. Ventila- For Human Consumption (Astro Nautico)
35. L'Orange and Kool Keith- Time? Astonishing (Mello)
36. Hanz- Reducer (Tri Angle)
37. Algiers- Algiers (Matador)
38. Michael Vallera- Distance (Opal Tapes)
39. Emika- DREI (Emika)
40. Marie Davidson- Un Autre Voyage (Holodeck)

2015 Re-New

Aphex Twin Soundcloud uploads

Ministry- Trax Box

Patrick Cowley- Muscle Up

Savant- Artificial Dance

2015 Visual Component

Some other stuff I enjoyed in 2015, relatively in order:

Films:

Ex Machina

Inside Out

Map to the Stars

Mockingjay Pt 2

The Duke of Burgundy

TV:

Mr Robot
Hannibal

Fargo

The Americans

Broad City

Rick and Morty

Mad Men

Orange is the New Black

The Eric Andre Show

Jessica Jones

Wet Hot American Summer First Day of Camp

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Shapednoise- "Intruder"

Forcefeel- Closed Circuit City

Angels Dust- "Alone"

100 songs in 10 Brackets: The Best of 2015

MAXIMALIST CLUB edition  

813-Damn Yeah

Dux Content- Snow Globe

Grandtheft- Hold On

Kasbo- World Away

Nice Feelings- Fresh

Panda Bear- Come To Your Senses (Danny L. Harle Mix)

Popcorn_10- Dennis

Pusher- Basic

Rustie- First Myth

Sophie- Just Like We Never Said Goodbye

Dylan Stark- Shelter

Wave Racer- Flash Drive

BRUTALLY DARK TECHNO edition 

Certain Creatures- An Allegory for the Dispassionate

Drew McDowall- Hypnotic Congress

Florian Kupfer- Explora (Slave)

Inhalants- Soft Opener

Ital- Syndrome

Kamikaze Space Programme ft Emika- Choke

M/R- Just Say No

Michael Vallera- Dream Lense

Perc- Gob

Truss- Kymin Lee

Xosar- Evocation

HOUSIN’ edition

DJJ- Just a Lil

Keita Saino- Onion Slice

Romare- Love Song

Wwy Brix- plea

MOSTLY NEON & FOOTWORKIN’ CLUB Edition

Alfred English- Maroon 6

B.R.E.E.D- Dimension

Cassini- Fermi

Death Grips- Death Grips 2.0

DJ Orange Julius ft DJ Mastercard- Gangs

DJ Paypal- With Uuuuuuu

DJ Taye- Hood Twins

Ghost Mutt- Oh Baby Oh Boy

Na Nguzu- Ectasy Cut

Nozinja- Baby Do U Feel Me

Rizzla ft. Odie Myrtil- Iron Cages

Foley Grime Edition

Angel-Ho- Yah Cunt

Gremino- Dystopicity

Kali Musta- La Telenovela (Sudanim mix)

Lotic- Surrender

SPF666- Scorpion Cache (mike G mix)

Tarquin- Lost My Marbles

Wasted Fates- Free Like El Chapo

Why Be- Deeq

WWWings- Delerium

POP/R&B Edition

Dawn Richards- Adderall/Sold

Giorgio Moroder ft Kylie Minogue- Right Here Right Now

Jeremih ft. J-Cole – Planes

Kanye West ft Paul McCartney- Only One

The Internet feat Kaytandra- Girl

Miguel- Coffee (fucking)

Rihanna- Bitch Better Have My Money (GTA mix)

Rytmeklubben- Girlfriend

The Weeknd- Can’t Feel My Face

HIP-HOP Edition

Big Sean feat Drake, Kanye West- Blessings

Danny Brown & Clams Casino- Worth It

Drake- Know Yourself

Earl Sweatshirt- Grief

Falcons ft GoldLink & Chaz French- Aquafina

Father- Look at My Wrist

Jay Rock/Black Hippy- Vice City

Kendrick Lamar- Alright

Little Simz- Dead Body

Oddisee- CounterClockwise

Rick Ross & Gunplay- Scuffed Timbs

RL Grime ft Big Sean- Kingpin (Salva mix)

Travis Scott- Antidote

Vince Staples- Norf Norf

POST-ROCK/ART-POP edition

Amnesia Scanner- AS Angels Rig Hook

Blanck Mass- Dead Format

Chino Amobi- Non Shall Rise Above

FKA Twigs- Figure 8

Holly Herndon- Morning Sun

Jam City- Dream 15

J.G. Biberkopf- Waters

Kaoss Edge- Looking Glass

Kelela- Rewind

Magic Fades- Ecco (Vektroid mix)

Oneohtrix Point Never- Sticky Drama

INDIE POP & INDIE PROPER edition

Algiers- Blood

Chromatics- I Can Never Be Myself When You’re Around

Destroyer- Dream Lover

Gazelle Twin- Love and Mercy

Hudson Mohawke ft Antony- Indian Steps

Japanese Wallpaper- Arrival

Kero Kero Bonito- Picture This

Kitty- Second Life

Nadastrom ft. Nina Kinert- House Shoes

Sexwitch- Helelyos

A Sunny Day in Glasgow- In Love With the Useless

Zackey Force Funk- Firefly

WEIGHTLESS & AMBIENT edition

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma- Love without Love

Dark0- The Past

Deadboy- White Moon Gardens

F Ingers- Tantrum Time

Iglew- Regalia

SETH- Meth Face

Steve Hauschildt- Sundialed

The "Meh"st of 2015

Middlebrow Subjects of Critical Adoration:

"Trap Queen"
Future
Courtney Barnett
Jamie XX
Carly Rae Jepsen
Tame Impala
Adele
Beach House
Father John Misty
"Divers"

unpublished singles going steadies

Sia- “Alive”

Throughout this song, I kept thinking that it reminded me of the MOR-leaning tunes that have defined Rihanna’s late career.  Now, I see on the Wikipedia page
for this song that the tune was actually written for Rihanna, who rejected it.  I kept thinking that its middling verses and its big dramatic chorus bluster would make it a huge hit, and now I see that it was written by Adele, the queen of transforming such bland histrionics into unavoidable smashes.  It all makes sense now.  If you want your pop music to make sense and reaffirm bygone “survivor” tropes from 10 years previous, then here’s the track for you.  Sia is alive, as in she is present. Let’s stop being present and be future.  Let’s stop making sense.
[3/10]


Animal Collective- “Floridada”

Around Centipede Hz, people had overdosed on the collective, which is understandable.  It was not their strongest LP, but neither was the previous record which won them profound accolades for essentially arriving at the right moment in history.  That moment correlated with an explosion of weird tapes and assorted digitrash posing as pop to flood the overground in waves of chills and thrills.  The ramifications of that flood are still being felt today in the most challenging and essential releases of 2015, so this critic in particular at least owes Animal Collective a great deal of gratitude for their contribution the sonic haze.  That said, “Floridada” sounds as much of a sunny-side parody of A.C. as you could get.  It screams “zany” from every angles from its sing-songiness to its “Florida Man”-isms on over to its Sufaris sample.  They’ve sure leaned in to their inner hippy quite a bit.  Maybe I’m just bitter because this is so off-season.   I’ll let it slide for now.  The rest of the album better spike the rest of all this goddamned sunshine with the bitter wine of melancholy though.

[6/10]


Zibra- “Wasted Days”

In the spirit of our era, there are two potential readings of this music video; living for the love of the common people or mocking them in their delight.  The chord progression is similar enough to The American Authors’s  “The Best Day of My Life” that it could even substitute as a lazy inversion of it, complete with obnoxious hooted hook.  “Best Days” vs. “Wasted Days”.   Does the band care?  Is there any intentionality behind this other than for the song to grind itself into you?  If in 6 months this is playing at a pub just like the own depicted, will the mission have come full circle?  Whether or not we all fall down, time will tell.

[5/10]



Wolf Alice- “Freazy”

Swirls of fluffy lite-psychedelia that is catchy as sin.  Begrudgingly, I’m sold.  I trust that the cassingle is still available in Earth Traders next to the Manic Panic?  Or should I just call 1-800-MUSIC-NOW?

[6/10]



Lana Del Rey- “High By the Beach”



Born to Die’s string swells were designed to crawl up your legs and creep into your feels, but  Lana Del Rey has since forgone them in an attempt to modernize her retro pop malaise. In dropping the emotional guidance of her cinemascope purview, she’s revealed her bourgie range to be way closer to Miss Kittin’s than, say, Blossom Dearie. To those of use for whom Lana is not the goddess but also not the antichrist, “High By the Beach” may be the perfect place to situate her vaguely disaffected tonality.  It doesn’t offer much, but it doesn’t demand much. All it wants to do is get high by the beach, get high by the beach and maybe spout out the most dispassionate use of “bad motherfucker” ever captured on record.  How you feel about this will depend on your perception of the value in half-decent M.O.R., which has always been Del Rey’s core strength.  Has there been any better M.O.R. than “Summertime Sadness” since “Rhiannon”?  “High By the Beach” is not of that caliber, but surely of the canon.  I always saw Born to Die, along with Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop” video and maybe Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, representing a Verhoeven-esque cultural shift, a desire to break free from hegemony, to teeter into neoliberal critique but with only the limited vocabulary of  the hedonic economy of desire to convey this conflicted stance.  She may not be the feminist icon we’re looking for, but there’s still much she can teach us about our failures.   Revolution is hard. It lacks the appeal of getting high by the beach, getting high by the beach, getting high. No one captures the tragedy of being so blissfully useless better.  [5/10]



 

COMA- “Lore”



This sounds exactly like the softened, numbed, and generally lifeless thing you could expect from a once-vibrant label pushing 15.  Are those tech-house hangers-on really freaking for new releases with muffled bass and dry, dull indie singers diluting the mix or do they secretly just go back to the original Rex the Dog records like everybody else?  It’s that type of archeological inquiry that most strikes me since there’s little else of interest to latch onto here.  I suppose this would be halfway pleasant if left as an instrumental.  Swap the mollies for some Percocet and couch yourself in the waiting room for 5 minutes before Mr. Voigt will be right out to see you. [3/10]

Loving 2015 is Complicated

Here, there and around the web.

I have entries on some PopMatters lists.

On the Albums of 2015 list, I sing praise to:

Dawn Richard

Jlin

Kendrick Lamar


Over on the Singles of 2015, I write of:

Rizzla's "Iron Cages"

and

Algiers' "Blood"


Elsewhere, some singles reviews of

Hudson Mohawke feat Antony

and

M. Ward


I'll throw up my own personal lists in a bit when

it's closer to the actual year end

and

you're way sick of lists

Secular Posthumanism

True to its impulsive nature EVENIFUDONTBELIEVEME is a moment-based music, not a reflexive music. It’s not for nothing that the track titled “4Eva” is only two minutes long, a vocoder enunciation of its title looped through the entire duration. EVENIFUDONTBELIEVEME’s fullness, perhaps its most defining quality, doesn’t allow any existential dilemma to permeate in its midst, which may seem to headier types a tad anti-intellectual. Indeed, Rustie’s stadium ambitions ride parallax to a recent history ripe with douchery. As dubstep crossed over into the mainstream in the years following the purple sound, a wind-up menagerie of anonymous tinkerers have concocted tracks whose core audience has been a salivating series of alphas eternally “waiting for the drop”. When Rustie composes himself in this manner, as he does on in the accelerated drum roll crescendos of nearly every track of his latest, one can see him creating an altar of the self on the dancefloor, arms raised in faux messiah pose like Tiesto, Deadmau5, or Zach Effron in that ill-fated EDM movie. 

As the skittering drums tense up on intro to “Big Catzz”, one could even be forgiven for thinking that the album was being interrupted by a YouTube trailer for the next Michael Bay thriller. It’s only when the alien phasing on those sinewaves bursts in that you realize this is not the spectacle society itself, but its substitute, something that takes the exhilaration those dizzying edits are supposed to reproduce and actually attempts to introduce it. It’s less prescriptive medicine and more like getting high, less mandatory fun than elective recreation. 

Part of what distinguishes rave music from indie is the difference between community music and personal music, which has long been what much of the indie community resents about dance music, the way it broadly reconciles for an audience rather than dismisses its larger audience in favor of individuation. In the culture wars, it’s clear the latter has won, with multiple platforms bragging about how personalized their selections are, perfect for tuning out the environment in earbud isolation. Rustie, for better or worse, screams out how rad it is from every orifice and begs the whole club to synch to this perpetuity in unison.

This is no doubt extreme music, no less so than Merzbow or Napalm Death, but just facing in the direction of euphoria. Rustie’s recent admission that he falls asleep to happy hardcore music seems to confirm this. So, the question is how many pixie sticks can you eat before you puke? How amped can you get before you’re just depleted? Is hi-end the new bass? How does it feel to live inside a Lisa Frank coloring book?

- from my review of Rustie's EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE

Thomas White- "Waiting for Someone"

from Hyperboloid's fantastic new compilation CYBERGHETTO

See Abby's 50 day countdown to COP21, currently in session

Apropos of Sanders:

 Once, he escorted Norman Thomas (Princeton, 1905) back from a lecture. “What was your greatest achievement?” Ralph asked of the famous socialist and six-time presidential candidate. “Having the Democrats steal my agenda,” Thomas replied.

 -Mark Green, How Ralph Nader Changed America, The Nation

Na Nguzu- "Ecstasy Cut"

RudeBoyz- "Gqom Originators"

from NON's new compilation.  Some sick stuff on here

Collapsed

I had words on Drew McDowall's debut LP

The Host- "New Relic"

From Safety to Where?

"This past week, the news media has energetically discussed student unrest at Yale and at the University of Missouri, where students are protesting administrative insensitivity or inaction in the face of troubled racial climates. At Mizzou, in particular, student activists have demanded safe space. A student journalist, Tim Tai, was denied access to the protesters’ tent city in a public area of the campus. The protesters didn’t want to be photographed or interviewed, possibly not trusting journalists to tell their story accurately.

The next day, they rightly changed their stance, opened their space to the media, and a debate on free speech and safe spaces found new life. Quickly, the student protesters were accused of not tolerating free speech in regard not only to Mr. Tai, but also to those who use racial epithets and otherwise engage in hate speech. They were accused of being weak, of being whiny for having the audacity to expect to attend college without being harassed for their blackness.

As a writer, I believe the First Amendment is sacred. The freedom of speech, however, does not guarantee freedom from consequence. You can speak your mind, but you can also be shunned. You can be criticized. You can be ignored or ridiculed. You can lose your job. The freedom of speech does not exist in a vacuum....

And so the students at Mizzou wanted a safe space to commune as they protested. They wanted sanctuary but had the nerve to demand this sanctuary in plain sight, in a public space. Rather than examine why the activists needed safe space, most people wrapped themselves in the Constitution, the path of less resistance. The students are framed as coddled infants, as if perhaps we should educate college students in a more spartan manner — placing classrooms in lions’ dens.

...All good ideas can be exploited. There are some extreme, ill-advised and simply absurd manifestations of the idea of safe space. And there are and should be limits to the boundaries of safe space. Safe space is not a place where dissent is discouraged, where dissent is seen as harmful. And yet. I understand where safe space extremism comes from. When you are marginalized and always unsafe, your skin thins, leaving your blood and bone exposed. You live at the breaking point. In such circumstances, of course you might be inclined to fiercely protect yourself, at any cost. Of course you might become intolerant. Of course you might perceive dissent as danger.

There is also this. Those who mock the idea of safe space are most likely the same people who are able to take safety for granted. That’s what makes discussions of safety and safe spaces so difficult. We are also talking about privilege. As with everything else in life, there is no equality when it comes to safety." 

- Roxanne Gay, The Seduction of Safety, On Campus and Beyond, New York Times

"Framing free speech and political correctness as opposing forces is a false dichotomy intended to derail uncomfortable but necessary conversations, a smokescreen ginned up by the ethically lazy. The fact is, political correctness doesn’t hinder free speech – it expands it. But for marginalised groups, rather than the status quo.

On the campuses of Yale University and the University of Missouri last week, the weariness and anger of black students coalesced into protests that have inspired much anti-PC handwringing and infighting in progressive circles. In Missouri, student protesters forced the resignation of university president Timothy Wolfe, who they said had allowed a racist campus culture to flourish. At Yale, black students clashed with white professors over whether or not discouraging kids from wearing blackface on Halloween was an authoritarian silencing manoeuvre. Yale protestors were filmed screaming in the face of Silliman College master Nicholas Christakis, demanding his resignation; at the University of Missouri, protestors shut out and shoved (which, yes, absolutely crosses a line) a news photographer who was attempting to document their hunger strike. Videos of the screaming and the shoving have been used to discredit the protests, downplay systemic racism, frame protesters as frivolous whiners (especially in the Yale case) and argue that college activists are not simply ignorant of the first amendment, they’re openly hostile to it.

But here is the thing: white students parading around campus in blackface is itself a silencing tactic. Telling rape victims that they’re “coddled” is a silencing tactic. Teaching marginalised people that their concerns will always be imperiously dismissed, always subordinated to some decontextualised free-speech absolutism is a silencing tactic.

Framing student protests as bratty “political correctness gone mad” makes campuses a hostile environment for everyone except for students who have no need to protest. Blandly discouraging minority groups from full participation in civic life is such an old, entrenched tactic that it doesn’t register. It’s like furniture. Meanwhile, it’s Chait’s demographic that holds the real institutional power; the Chaits of the world who make up the majority of finance and entertainment and government; Chait and company who have the short-sightedness to imply that black Americans being shot in the streets by agents of the state are the real puppetmasters of an authoritarian regime. Right.

If you’re genuinely concerned about “free speech”, take a step back and look at what’s actually happening here: a bunch of college students, on the cusp of finding their voices, being publicly berated by high-profile writers in national publications because they don’t like what they have to say. Are you sure you know who’s silencing whom?"

-Lindy West, Political Correctness Doesn't Hinder Free Speech- It Expands It, The Guardian

Inhalants- "Side Opener"

Basic House- "Ursa Minor"

demented

There's been a historical inaccuracy circulating that launched within moments of the curfew set in Paris last night that stated that the last time this was done was during World War II. Intentional or not, the creation of this point of comparison proposes an analogy between our time and that one, one that hints that massive global conflict is afoot and more may be on the way. Indeed the blood had not even stopped spilling before many began declaring their intentions against Islam and Syrian refugees (who are ironically fleeing ISIS terror) and salivating over the retaliation.

But WWII was not the last time Paris had a curfew. In May of 1968, there was a general strike precipitated by University agitation against the excesses of capitalism and the right wing government. De Gaulle responded with a show of police force, which spurred riots and closed down parts of Paris, the government implementing a curfew.

One of the major slogans of May 1968 was Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible. ("Be realistic, demand the impossible"), an affront to the brand of "realism" that demanded a constant current of inequality, intolerance, and aggression.

The point of bringing this up is that nothing is inevitable at this point. The horror of war lingers in the air, but it is not written yet. Sometimes in the rush to respond, we get the details wrong. We fail to see the whole picture.

What happened in Paris is a massive tragedy. The death toll is gruesome, stultifying, and unacceptable. But for context, this same amount of people are murdered in the US by handguns every five days. As this took place, bombings also rocked Bagdhad and Beiruit. It's hard to resist the urge to sympathize with this tragedy only when it happens in the West, but this is the everyday reality for many in the globe. Often these incidents, such as the recent intentional bombing of a Medecin Sans Frontieres hospital, are done with US/European complicity.

Until we grieve those loses the same we grieve attacks on the West, the plans of terror regimes to bifurcate the world succeed. Until we paint our Facebook pictures in the color of every country wronged by violations of their biological right to life, we indirectly prioritize the supremacy of our own culture, even if we pay lip service declaring that "all lives matter".

But we can rise above, resist, and declare ourselves unified against any cretin who would kill to achieve political aims. Stop the spread of pain by declaring yourselves without borders and call out your government when it acts against the interests of this world community. Hold all murderers accountable. Demilitarize the planet.

Phlekz- Off EP

Gorgeous little EP of 90s-ish Aphexy/Seefeely IDM from Phlekz, who appears to be another name for Baron Mordant of Mordant Music

An Egg in the Cosmic Crack

Another review up at PopMatters, this time on the latest in the Patrick Cowley reissue frenzy, Muscle Up, a sequel of sorts to his other collection of porno soundtracks, School Daze, a clip of which is below:

Cowley is (rightfully) turning into something of an Arthur Russell figure.  But while Russell kind of knocked around on the sidelines and the fringes of various scenes for a decade or so, Cowley had some mild mainstream success and kept a basement of insanely good unheard tracks recorded during a relatively short period of time.

Also a couple briefs on

Irmin Schmidt and Bruno Spoerri

Ariana Grande

Will Butler

Stills from Miss Anthropy-"Noise" video I made circa '97

Doctoring Without Orders

"Indeed, the overriding sentiment among many U.S. journalists is that their country and government are so inherently Good that they could not possibly do anything so bad on purpose. Any bad acts are mindlessly presumed to be terrible, uintended mistakes tragically made by Good, Well-Intentioned People (Americans). Other, Bad Countries do bad things on purpose. But Americans are good and do not.

They cling to this self-flattering belief so vehemently that they not only refused to entertain the possibility that the U.S. government might have done something bad on purpose, but they scornfully mock anyone who questions the official claim of “mistake.” When you’re lucky enough as a government and military to have hordes of journalists so subservient and nationalistic that they do and say this – to exonerate you fully – before knowing any facts, why would you ever feel the need to submit to someone else’s investigation?"

- Glenn Greenwald, U.S. Journalists Who Instantly Exonerated Their Government of the Kunduz Hospital Attack, Declaring it an "Accident", The Intercept

Zackey Force Funk- "Hearts on Fire"

from Chrome Steel Tiger, out now on Hit + Run

Oneohtrix Point Never- "Sticky Drama"

from forthcoming Garden of Delete

directed by Jon Rafman and Daniel Lopatin

Andrew Tomasello- "Transmission Raga"

from new album Sundialing Transmissions


I used to keep in touch with Andrew ages ago.  He even submitted something to a very limited run comp we put out (as Android) and he's apparently still making lovely stuff.   At least I think it's the same guy.  There's also a professor of music at Baruch with the same name.  It'd be weird if there were two of them making this type of music.

youBik- Lucid Dreaming is White Privilege

Reagan's Legacy, Based only on His Appearance in Comic Books, Maxwell Yezpitelok, Cracked

RIP Diane Charlemagne

One of the great dance music chanteuses

youBik- "eLusive Dreaming"

hamsters in a maze subordinate to the clause subjugating them to the play-by-play, parts & labor, all ends and no means, reduce the rubble and wrestle for crumbs, shaving evidence down to speculation. artless godless and fucked, mirror images of the feed we've been made out to be, horsefeed RSS, stream of unconcious control, paracrimes in the toxic ether of astral  colonies, troll the familial conflict and castrate the big other, dreams are wastelands unto which we carve a heroic seizure and remember it for you wholesale. seduction of the inner sense, calamity in queue and priced to move with minimal serious short term side effects, morbidity rate captured in these statistics does not include results of prolonged study, Phase III trial bypassed in the editing room, escalated by abbreviated attention spans. failure is a forcefield, shielding you from the tumor of knowledge. history is penned by the courageous and confident status post dialysis, makers and takers do not yield, their victory is tantamount and an MBA in the hand is worth two dead birds in the bush. surrender obsolete, transcend the historical dialectic and bring rot to bear on the clotted communication arteries, an acid consumed without lysergic lies, without the banal barriers of the solipsistic mouthpiece. what is and what isn't are shells, casings for the gunpowder fealty and plot, the death drive praxis, the unresolvable I is a revolving eye, formatted to a timeline and broadcast across a scrolling transcript, the you-learned self  made practical and custom live by logic and proportion, a well-satisfied head begs no shelter; it is safe in the wilderness with its devices, a tablet and an antibiotic, a forcefeel its comforting tit- at the other end a cavity distended because the mandible is stuck, eating the innards will not result in ego death, self-consumption is reproduction. harassed and lifeless is the waking day.  the arcane is tracable. all mysteries solved. the profane verses revered, the venereal arts venerated.  ghosts used to exist beyond, but now they follow our order, obey our end tags. it's clear now we've run our course and will be faded from the market to make way for new toys.  god's own invisible hands choking himself, sputtering for breath and producing only the ooze of novelty, narcissistic spores of spunk that can't even swim in the same pod, that compete just to be born, that collude just to bear fruit. with the X chromosome there is no why, just coordination to return to the tomb of the womb, to exacerbate the initial conquest of the egg. on dead channels, the network traffic is at its peak and so the towers still rise, the flagpole erection, the crucifix on permanent high desubjectified. the parasite knows our blind spot, curveballs around the missle shield, tapdances through the minefield. empty yourself so there's no blood to leech. you're only free when there's nothing left to take. you're only free when there's nothing you could possibly offer. ego death surrenders the self in sacrifice to the eternal reign of the already-almighty, to the pre-ordained and the just-blessed.  hamsters in a maze subordinate to the contract, surrendering to the fine print, lifeless in the play-by-play, bloodless in the paint. all material things must be burned. all that is solid melts into air. all that boils dances on the axis flirting with the planes.there is only darkness in the brightest dreams. there is only defeat in all but assimilation. in order to resist, you must risk survival, but why risk survival when we can guarantee destruction together on a leather coach with the curvature of cup holders. suffering is our greatest natural resource and its energy flows upstream. to give is to forgive, to go is to forgoe, to fit is to forfeit. the resolution is a clockwise counter-fit, tighten the hands and resume the ticking countdown. entropy is the natural order, which is why every demand and every proposal is met with speculation.  the history books are filled with great men risking the seeds sown by others, sacrificing the plateau for the peacock. homeostasis is unacceptable to vermin.  you've scored the lead in every role, the scenery eerily similar in each narrative. what a performance, though. you gave it your soul. what a way to be, so calm and collected like a figurine in the factory-sealed box, gasping for air beyond the adhesive strips that bind you, trying to pluck holes in the barcode.  malleable in every conceivable way, bendable in innumerable action poses. shitty little tykes with mucus-stained shirts and orange fingernails controlling your fate. their oedipal dissent sneering as the mother pleads for them to put back the toys. every item is for sale, mom, contempt ensnarled in the bitter little shit at mom's audacity to reclaim the womb as hers, theirs is to deny the body for the bottle, the colony for the cradle.  a natal burn, the sperm thinks the egg a spore because causality is conditioned to reward the last one dumb enough to survive

Jurassic Browser History

Memocord, Juan Mendez

"Karl Marx once expressed the belief that the end of the capitalist era and the advent of communism would signal the end of human prehistory and the beginning of history proper. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the Futurists, for their part, wanted to destroy museums and libraries in order to usher in a progress contemptuous of tradition and all forms of previous knowledge. It’s hard to think of a way of thinking more alien to the present juncture: that of a long future so assuredly within our reach as to have little or no need for the past.

"Five or six generations after Marx’s declaration, we measure the future in decades, running down an array of doomsday clocks. We speculate that the planet might become largely uninhabitable within the present century. We set symbolic deadlines for action. But the ninety-nine months that Prince Charles said were left in 2010 to take decisive action on climate change are down to a mere thirty; in the meantime we’ve done nothing but burn ever greater quantities of carbon.

"This isn’t paranoia or an existential malaise: we have solid reasons for fearing that humanity may be headed towards catastrophe. Yet it’s a strange, incongruous spectacle, resembling a crude allegorical fable. We have never lived longer or enjoyed a greater capacity for technical progress. In fact, our single greatest achievement may just be that we can measure the exact speed at which the end is approaching, and with it the shortening of our collective future.

"If Marx was right, and if the catastrophe does come to pass, humanity will have ceased to exist before history has even begun. Yet there is arguably no task that we approach with as much urgency as documenting, cataloguing and storing that soon-to-be-meaningless past and the unfolding present"

-Giovanni Tiso, On Measuring Our Future, Bat Bean Beam

Razorblades and Ecstasy in your Halloween Bag

One of my favorite things to do every year is to assemble a juicy, deranged Halloween mix. This year, I decided to focus exclusively on things released in the past year (there may be a few from the tail end of 2014, but this is heavy on 2015). Focus was mainly on the darker sound emanating from experimental clubland.

1.satan by blkhts
2.sleeper carriage by slackk
3.I'm Your Doll by FKA Twigs
4.as angels rig hook by amnesia scanner
5.laugh track by buku
6.stalker ha (DJ Heat mix) by Kingdom
7.vamp by  EPROM
8.Airlock by Rizzla
9.Auto Shade by Angel Ho
10.looking edge by kaoss edge
11.ghosts of rotwood by april larson and daniel bowden
12.explora (slave) by florian kupfer
13.hex by rabit
14.dead body by little simz
15.Heterocetera by Lotic
16.Guantanamo by Jlin
17.death grips 2.0 by Death Grips
18.$10000 ca$h in hand by C H L O R I N E
19.temps perdu (edition de tenebres) by Haunter
20.endgame by ital
21.maggots by russell e butler
22.clawdd du by Truss
23.bleak drift by Dialect
24.dystopicity by gremino
25.choke by Kamikaze space programme ft emika
26.Kingpin (salva mix) by RL Grime ft Big Sean
27.Sad Sniper by Deadboy
28.haunted by angels dust
29.ecco (vektroid mix) by magic fades

Romans- "Delmenium"

from Ambulare Aude EP

on The Bunker

Slight Return

After a long hiatus, I've done another review for PopMatters.  This time of Rizzla's very excellent Iron Cages

In part, I just wanted to talk about:

A new genre had been born, Foley Grime, a term I’ve dubbed after the sounds of postproduction which make up the often-exaggerated diegetic noises of cinematic spectacle, combined with the electronic movement from which most of these tracks and artists stem. Using sound effects to pepper riddim tracks is not a new device in music, nor even in the 15-year-old grime genre itself. More than a decade ago, Dizzee Rascal, Lady Sovereign, and M.I.A. were peppering their snares and hi-hats with the noises of cash registers, gunshots, video game one-ups, and the like. What distinguishes the current lot, which includes Lotic, Bloom, Rabit , M.E.S.H, and Miss Modular (whose label is named after the aforementioned Jam City song), is that the icy, atonal FX form the basic engine of their sound, not just supplemental flair.

Loved this one a few years back.  Can't remember if it made the top ten or not, but it was at least close.  I imagined Rizzla as a way different artist then though

Red Sails in the Sunset

"These recordings all have differing relationships to left-wing terrorism. Some were created in a parallel social milieu (Amon Düül, Les Rallizes Denudes) or shared political environment (Ivan Delle Mea, Eugenio Finardi), some condone the violence (Marianne Faithful), some dare to rationalise it (Crisis, Luke Haines) some revel in its eldritch moral ambivalence (SPK, Cabaret Voltaire), at the outer limits some merely tip their hat (Brian Eno, Kosmonautetraum) or, like with the reception of Alan Sorrenti's Figli Delle Stelle its presence is explicit in a refusal of acknowledgment.

It is clear though that music is woven into the fabric. Where any of this is good music depends in some part in the way in which a wholly negative impulse, to kill and maim people in the name of a flawed idea, transforms when that energy is spent in the name of creativity. So for instance the most sympathetic recordings by Crisis and Luke Haines, by merit of their being acts of creativity, rather than violence, turns them into redeemably positive ones."

- Woebot, The Red Armies and Pop 

Fascinating rundown of the relationship of music to commie terror groups of the 60s and 70s.

Conceal the Bern

I heard someone say politics is more interesting than music right now. Probably true.

We all know polls says relatively nothing, just as we know debate "winners" are in the eye of the beholder and are definitively skewed when they are announced to us.  I think what this link speaks to more than anything is a continued undermining of our intelligence by the punditry, who believe it is ultimately their authority to tell us what we believe, what we stand for, and who we should vote for (because everyone else is "unelectable").  They believe they define the parameters of the future. And it's shocking and saddening to see how many of my smart friends fall prey to this iron cage reasoning.

I've seen time and time again tons of friends reflect on the tainted fatalism of how they support Bernie but "he won't win", perhaps because the mouth-drooling plebes will never possess the masterful will of theirr superior intellect and know who the correct candidate to vote for is.  But the only reason he couldn't win, or any candidate couldn't win really, is from exactly this kind of pathological insistence on the everlasting durability of the power structure, which is actually so fragile that its funny money scheme to generate pretend-growth nearly collapsed the entire world economy by itself Jenga-style in 2008. It's always been a key strength Capital and control to make its enemies do their jobs better than they could have. 

That said, here's my take on the debate.  Hilary performed very well, and the key word is performance.  She's been practicing for this role for about 20 years and she seemed as plasticine and rehearsed as ever, which fell to her advantage. She did little to evade her reputation as an establishment politician, but she came off as likable as she's ever been and did a fairly decent job bullshitting some good bullshit on why establishment candidates make the best leaders.  Her attempts to answer for her complicity in the dominance of disaster capitalism, the Iraq War, the mass incarceration state, targeted killings, silencing of whisteblowers, and other issues were distractifying, if not edifying. 

I think the left and right come down a bit hard on moderators, whose job should be to ask hard questions.  Case in point is Anderson Cooper's attacks on Sanders's relatively weak stance on gun control, which is a huge concern, particularly since it's an issue something like 90% of the country is in agreement on.  This is fair game and Sanders needs to own the fact that his votes against various gun control measures has cost countless Americans their lives.  It’s something we, as people who could vote him into office, could hold him to account for.  This is something Black Lives Matter activists knew when they crashed his speech a few months back.

But it was clear before anyone even walked on stage that CNN's role that night was to essentially hand the primary to Clinton and discredit anyone who got in her way.  With Chaffee and Webb, all that meant was handing them shovels and asking them to dig. But there were a number of moments designed by Cooper to be gotcha moments for Sanders that spectacularly failed- pressing him to denounce socialism and praise capitalism, asking whether he'd ever use force or just sing kumbaya and try to levitate the pentagon, denouncing the democratically elected Sandinista government our government overthrew, and equating Bush's disastrous and dehumanizing immigration plan with Obama's.  Each time, Sanders swung right back and didn't try to backpeddle into some flimsy middle ground that the half-wit fence sitters who can't tell the difference between a democrat and a republican until election day might find slightly more satiating. 

My favorite response came when Cooper made the rounds asking each non-dynasty candidate why they were even wasting our time since his sponsors had already announced the winner to him before the taping.  Sanders shat all over the electability question by rightly pointing out that elections should always- every single time- not be about the people who've made up their minds or those who've decided to flip a coin, but about the half of the voting public who each time an election rolls around sees no one on the ballot worth voting for, sees nothing ever changing, and sees only their culpability in the whole mess by voting for it.  Studies have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of those who do not vote are of the largest growing portion of the population- the poor and working class- exactly the people Sanders has been advocating for his entire 40 years in politics.  It’s easy to see these people as apathetic, lazy, uninvolved, what have you.  It’s far harder to accept that choosing not to vote is a form of protest.  It may not be one that you agree with, but choosing not to vote is a deliberate choice.

Cooper’s only gotcha moment that actually landed was when Cooper weirdly asked Sanders to reply to a comment by Lincoln Chaffee in which he wasn't mentioned, which caught Sanders, who clearly wasn't paying attention, off-guard.  And maybe this is a telling moment.  Maybe it's not.  It would never happen to image hyper-conscious/image-mediated Hilary, who was both on the ball and in her element.  Sanders has remarked before that he dislikes campaigning, whereas Clinton clearly thrives on it (lord knows why- she of all people she be puking at every aspect of the sick charade by now). What Sanders has hinted at though, and what all of us secretly know, is that the presidency is largely a symbolic position. In many ways, as we've seen with Obama, it’s often one of the more powerless offices you can hold.

That's why Sanders has been adamant that he alone is not going to change things in Washington.  Towards the end of the debate, Sanders called for a "political revolution", as he has done in many stump speeches.  The line got a huge applause at the podium and immediately after the mic was then handed to Jim Webb, who promptly and definitively, like a dad cancelling the trip to the rock concert, said "I don't think there's going to be a revolution".  Nah, son.   Here Webb echoes what we've all been saying ad nauseum as we repeat the line CNN and their corporate oligarch buddies have been feeding us; "It's cool to believe in things, but Bernie's not going to win. Let the grownups talk.  We’ll let you know when we’re ready for you to get married, or to get paid a fair wage, or to not be killed by assault rifles, or…"

It's hard to buy in to this fatalism given that Sanders is already changing things.  He set the terms of the debate.  He refuses to go negative on Hilary, but instead would like to cordially and respectfully debate and let the people decide who the better candidate is. All night, each of the candidates clamored to bark about which one of them would fight the hardest for income inequality, which was the most progressive, which was going to be the most pro-government/anti-business.  Anderson Cooper wasn't the only struggling on stage to prove Bernie's candidacy irrelevant.   

Maybe he won't win, but if we can't at least entertain the notion that something new is possible perhaps we should just give up and join that giant block of non-voters.  In that case, I'll see you at the next mass shooting.  See you at the next police lynching.  See you at the next recession.  See you at the next war.  See you at the next overdue insurance payment.  See you at the next unemployment line.  See you down in Arizona bay. See you at the bottom of the trick-down shit shower of the next rich president's toilet.  And see you next Tuesday, motherfuckers, because our planets about one pipeline or oil subsidy away from turning into a sweltering hellhole of biblical proportions.  We can't wait one more day for the media to give us permission to dream something new.