Happy holidays everyone! In the midst of our first snowstorm (The Weather Channel's first year naming winter storms, "Draco") of the year. However, it does not appear to be the End Times (argh, I said it... now it surely will happen. wait - how conceded a thought is that? sheesh...).
2012 was indeed another stellar year of new and exciting music. I'm glad to not have to be in the end-of-year list making business anymore. I probably haven't even had the time to listen to what will eventually be my album of the year 2012. Some notables: Marcus Fischer's barely there melodics (the sounds of a musician/musicians 'tuning up' for the real thing actually is the real thing), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's scorching, melting ecstatic guitars, the Pan label, Oren Ambarchi, Pausal, Spiritualized, Sun Araw, Editions Mego, Mark McGuire, Students of Decay, and like I said, tons and tons of stuff I still haven't gotten around to: Zelienople, Villalobos, Mark Fell, Sensate Focus, Robert Hampson, Sean McCann, Old News, Derek Rogers, Eleh...
I'm still trying to dream up a scheme to DJ a coffee-house with experimental, ambient, indie, jazz, techno, kitchen-sink aesthetics. Hitting patrons with something familiar, like, the Beach Boys or something, only to pull the rug out with something like William Basinski to follow.
I read something uplifting today in Stumbling Toward Enlightenment by Geri Larkin, "[what if I told you] that one of [us] is a great teacher, a teacher people have been waiting for--for more than a thousand years." What if that great teacher actually is you? "So now that the rest of us are depending on you, how can you be your wisest self?"
Until next year, here's a couple stanzas from one of my favorite poems called "So There," by Robert Creeley:
Moving on. Mr. Ocean,
Mr. Sky's
got the biggest blue eyes
in creation –
here comes the sun!
While we can,
let's do it, let's
have fun
Forthcoming:
Mark templeton – jealous heart (under the spire)
Kassel jaeger – fernweh LP (senufo edition # thirty five) december 2012
Grouper – the man who died in his boat (kranky 177) February 2013
Mountains – Centralia LP + CD w/ bonus, unedited live material f/ early and improvised versions (thrill jockey) January 2012
Kevin drumm – tannenbaum (hospital) February 2013
Derek rogers – mist & drift c30 cs (jehu & chinaman) preorders include bonus track, “Apathy”
Sebastian roux – more songs
Autechre – exai 4LP/2CD (warp) march 2013
New this week:
Alessandro bosetti – stand up comedy (weird ear records) December 2012
The slaves – ocean on ocean (Helen scarsdale 23) December 2012
Va - …and darkness came (headphone commute bandcamp 87-track album featuring helios, marcus fischer, simon scott, marcus fjellstrom, kane ikin, autistici, kreng, julien neto, machinefabriek, pinkcourtesyphone, simon scott/tomoyoshi date/corey fuller/marcus fischer, honig + templeton, Lawrence English, loscil, peter Broderick, johann johannsson, olan mill, erik k. skodvin, Rafael anton irisarri, Ezekiel honig, celer, Christopher willits) December 2012
Grabbed:
William basinski – the disintegration loops box set (temporary residence) november 2012
Lawrence – garden of moss 12” (mule musiq 154) November 2012
Jon porras – orilla oscura (immune 025) november 2012
Eleh – retreat return repose 3CD (important) December 2012
Yo la tengo – fade (matador) December 2012
Charlatan – isolatarium (type) December 2012
Va – touch 30 years and counting (touch) December 2012
Mike shiflet - the choir, the army (under the spire 045) December 2012
Mark mcguire – nightshade (bandcamp) november 2012
Mark mcguire – surrogate channels (bandcamp) november 2012
Derek rogers – everything that mattered at once (tape drift) October 2012
Raime – Quarter Turns over a Living Line
Between – between (12k 2026) December 2012
Jon Mueller – death blues (taiga 024) January 2013
Villalobos – baby ep (raum…music 085) December 2012
Eleh – the weight of accumulation (important 369) october 2012
Ricardo villalobos – dependent & happy pt 3 (perlon 93-3) September 2012
Sensate focus vs heatsick – deviation heat-treated (pan 38) December 2012
Times new viking – over & over ep (matador) October 2012
Stephan Mathieu & david sylvian – wandermude (‘blemish’ reinterpretation) (Samadhisound 023) january 2013
Older stuff:
The slaves – spirits of the sun (digitalis vinyl 42) july 2012
Hildur gudnadottir – leyfou ljosinu (touch) may 2012
Bruce gilbert – monad 7” (touch sevens 12) august 2011
Year End Lists:
The Wire 2012 Rewind (of note):
Sun Araw & M Geddes Gengras meet the Congos – Icon Give Thank
Ricardo Villalobos – Dependent and Happy
Haino/O’Rourke/Ambarchi – Imikuzushi
Andy Stott – Luxury Problems
Richard Skelton – Verse of Birds
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
Thomas Koner – Novaya Zemlya
Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Lee Gamble – Diversions 1994-1996
Heatsick – Deviation
Duane Pitre – Feel Free
Pelt – Effigy
Jason Lescalleet – Songs About Nothing
Michael Pisaro and Toshiya Tsunoda – Crosshatches
Laurel Halo – Quarantine
Actress – RIP
Julia Holter – Ekstasis
Scott Walker – Bish Bosch
Josephine Foster – Blood Rushing
Swans – The Seer
Pye Corner Audio – Sleep Games
Aaron Dilloway – Modern Jester
Shackleton – The Drawbar Organ/Music for the Quiet Hour
CC Hennix & The Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage – Live at the Grimm Museum 1
Bob Dylan – Tempest
Morton Feldman – Crippled Symmetry: At June in Buffalo
Mark Ernestus Presents Jeri-Jeri with Mbene Diatta Seck – Mbeuguel Dafa Nekh
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Film:
Senna
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Street Fight
The Parking Lot Movie
Winnebago Man
Fearless Freaks
Spirit of the Marathon
Drive
Fonts:
Casper
Stiff staff
Tikal sans
Tikal sans itl
Oranienbaum
sreda
