WHAT I REALLY LISTENED TO IN 2006
The selections on my year-end top ten only occupied a fraction of what I actually listened to this year. The following records were the ones that I got the most mileage out of in 2006, whether they were new releases, re-discoveries, or reissues.
JANUARY
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Arsis A Celebration of Guilt Willowtip 2004 |
After a roughly three-year stint of a metal-free existence, I returned to the Dark Side earlier this year for reasons still unclear to me. Perhaps it was because I realized that unlike most other styles of popular music, there are still exciting and unexplored possibilities in metal, and I felt like I had missed out on a lot of underground bands pushing the envelope in ways that I had never imagined. Arsis threw my welcome home party, so to speak, and although this duo from my old haunt of Richmond, Virginia aren’t exactly redefining the genre, they sure as hell kick a lot of ass at what they do. On their Willowtip debut A Celebration of Guilt (2004), guitarist and vocalist James Malone blazes through fiery thrash riffs, churning death metal passages, and black metal nightscapes with a ravenous fury and precision, all the while reliable drummer Michael Van Dyne thunders along determinedly. Sounding like a less melodic, demon-seeded spawn of Carcass and At the Gates, I had this on a daily rotation for a good three weeks back in January.
“Return” – Arsis 4:42 (A Celebration of Guilt, Willowtip 2004)
FEBRUARY
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Cocteau Twins Lullabies to Violaine 4AD 2006 |
To say that I was ecstatic upon the release of Lullabies to Violaine (2006), a four-disc collection of every EP and single during the Cocteau Twins‘ existence, would be a laughable understatement. “Euphoric lunacy bordering on institutionalization” would be a more apt descriptor. Diving into the material contained within this exquisitely-packaged box set is the closest I could ever get to returning to the womb. Sure, the completist in me quibbles about the absence of a few scattered compilation tracks and rarities, but these are immediately silenced at the sheer scope of this package: every glorious EP and single remastered by Robin Guthrie himself, spread out over a beautiful four-disc sleeve and a in-bound booklet, and coated in a strange rubbery texture that gives me shivers when I touch it. There was a blizzard during one weekend this past February when my wife was out of town at a wedding, and I spent the entire two days inside listening to this over and over again. Really, I’m unable to think of anything I could have ever wanted more than this, and I state with no exagerration that it made my whole year. Remarkably, these are already fetching prices of $100 or more on eBay; mine will have to be pried from my cold, dead hands.
“Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” – Cocteau Twins 4:47 (Lullabies to Violaine, 4AD 2006)
MARCH
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Meat Puppets Up on the Sun SST 1985 |
Upon emerging at the surface from my all-consuming Lullabies to Violaine dependency, I realized that I needed something more direct, grounded, terrestrial. The Meat Puppets, like Guided by Voices, are a band whose back catalogue I have always wanted to explore, so I figured back in early March that it was as good a time as any to start digging. Over the course of a few weeks I acquired everything from Meat Puppets (1982) to Huevos (1987) (Rykodisc did an outstanding job with these reissues), but it was their third release Up on the Sun (1985) that caught my ears the most. Fitting in snugly between the lo-fi sloppiness and charm of Meat Puppets II (1984) and the country-fried ZZ-Top caricatures on Huevos, I became captured by Up on the Sun’s sunny desert jams, the instrumental dexterity, and overall coyish weirdness. What I enjoy most about the record is Cris Kirkwood’s near-virtuosic bass playing, thumbing out lines of mind-numbing complexity with a sloppy, enthusiastic amateurishness, as if he suddenly realized that he was in way over his head here.
“Hot Pink” – Meat Puppets 3:37 (Up on the Sun, SST 1985)
APRIL
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Ghostface Killah Fishscale Def Jam 2006 |
This one is obvious. I was listening to Fishscale (2006) pretty religiously for a month or so after its release, but what hip hop head wasn’t? I burned a copy for my car and I don’t think it left the CD player in there for at least a good two weeks. Even after that period of daily consumption, I would still play it sporadically over the summer, wondering why it hadn’t worn out its welcome yet. Hell, I just played it yesterday and heard lines that I hadn’t noticed before; I even got a brief spell of goosebumps during a moment on “Jellyfish.” Ten years ago, while nodding my head to Ironman (1996), I would have laughed dismissively if someone told me that I would be as utterly fascinated by Ghostface and his contradictions as I am now.
(See my Top Ten for a summary and an audio track.)
MAY
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Slum Village Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1 Barak 1996 |
I had been trying to get my hands on a copy of Slum Village’s first LP for years, so not surprisingly, I was thrilled when I heard that Barak was reissuing it earlier this year. J Dilla’s passing back in February ignited a subsequent unofficial dissection and analysis of his catalog by many fans, with myself joining the fray as well. His producer’s log is pretty much one big highlight, with a few scant missteps here and there, but it’s the early, rawer material on Fantastic Vol. 1 (1996) that I really go nuts over. The entire album has the feel of little more than a polished underground demo, with the mix beautifully unbalanced and distorted, the levels questionable, and the wordplay loose and under-rehearsed (although given that the MC’s were spitting over nothing more than a click-track here makes it all the more remarkable). Most of the disc’s 24 tracks are little more than a minute long, either half-completed ideas discarded after a verse or a brief MC showcase acting as a segue. But the beats are irresistible: whip-cracking snares, thick tremelo’ed Rhodes licks, hissing hi-hats, noisy vinyl pops, awkwardly-truncated samples. In this author’s opinion, this was Jay Dee at his finest.
“Keep It On” – Slum Village 3:02 (Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1, Barak 1996)
(See also this feature.)
JUNE
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Herbert Scale K7! 2006 |
This was in not only in constant rotation during the month of June, but pretty much the entire summer. I’ve unintentionally written about Matthew Herbert more than anyone else here on the site, so I would be repeating myself by further elaborating on the genius that is Scale (2006). Trust me, it’s worth having.
(See this feature as well as my Top Ten for a summary and an audio track.)
JULY
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El Michels Affair Sounding Out the City Fastlife 2005 |
My wife and I were planning on settling into our new house at the end of July, but since our closing date was the 15th, we figured we could save time and energy on the big moving day by trickling some boxes down in my car over the two-week interim. So every evening after work I would load up the back seats and trunk of my little Toyota with boxes, drive to Providence and unload, then head back to our Boston apartment. What was initially a monotonous chore of a drive became something I looked forward to in a way, mostly because of Sounding Out the City (2005). The idea of a group of white dudes trying to create the long-lost sequel to the Truck Turner (1974) soundtrack couldn’t be more off-putting to me, but El Michels Affair understand a crucial element to that dirty ’70s instrumental funk sound: fidelity. Eschewing a snazzy Pro Tools rig for an 8-track reel-to-reel makes all the difference in the world, and being the analog compression geek that I am, I drooled over this stuff without hesitation. Few records capture the vibe and ambience of cruising through I-95 traffic during the late-afternoon summer haze like this one.
“Musings to Myself” – El Michels Affair 3:13 (Sounding Out the City, Fastlife 2005)
(See also this feature.)
AUGUST
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Hieroglyphics 3rd Eye Vision Hieroglyphics Imperium 1998 |
Being a creature of habit and fastidious organiziation, I nearly pulled my hair out by having all of my CDs and vinyl taped up in boxes for most of the month of August. During these few weeks, whenever I was itching for music, I would resort to blindly sticking my hand in an open storage box and listening to whatever I happened to grab. Hieroglyphics‘ 3rd Eye Vision (1998) wouldn’t have been my first choice, as didn’t make much of an impression on me when I picked it up six or seven years ago, but I could hardly be choosy with this kind of limited access to my archives. Such was the scenario of how this disc inadvertently became part of my daily routine, and the more I became acquainted with it, the more I gravitated toward it. I still can’t comprehend those backpackers who have built a shrine to this record, but as far as hip hop albums go, there are really no weak tracks here and it covers the basics rather nicely: first-rate production and plenty of variety from a group of skilled, but not quite mind-blowing, emcees.
“You Never Knew” – Hieroglyphics 4:33 (3rd Eye Vision, Hieroglyphics Imperium 1998)
SEPTEMBER
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Gojira From Mars to Sirius Prosthetic 2006 |
To whet my appetite for the upcoming Mastodon record this past September, I would spin Gojira’s From Mars to Sirius (2006) as an appetizer; to my surprise, it became my main course. Few records matched the stark intensity of those dark, late-summer thunderstorms like this one, a monolithic slab of distorted sound that’s as beautiful as it is heavy.
(See this feature as well as my Top Ten for a summary and an audio track.)
OCTOBER
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Andrew Hill Passing Ships Blue Note 1969 |
For some reason I am inevitably drawn towards jazz once the weather begins to cool and the sun progressively sets a little earlier each evening. Along with Herbie Hancock’s fine The Prisoner (1969), Andrew Hill’s Passing Ships (1969) got an extensive amount of plays throughout the month of October. There is a distinct autumnal quality to the sound of this particular group setting; the dark sonorities of the French horn, trombone, and tuba are somehow better suited for crisp air and quiet, tranquil evenings. Plus, it’s Andrew Hill, one of the most underrated and delightfully enjoyable players to listen to in the jazz canon, so it’s near-impossible to go wrong here. These previously-unissued tracks had to be reassembled and remastered from Blue Note’s dusty vaults, and the cloudy and somewhat askewed mix gives Passing Ships a charm that a crystalline Impulse! or Columbia session from the same period would lack. Even if you have only a passing interest in jazz, this would still have my highest recommendation.
(See also this feature.)
“The Brown Queen” – Andrew Hill 6:22 (Passing Ships, Blue Note 1969)
NOVEMBER
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Dimmu Borgir Death Cult Armageddon Nuclear Blast 2003 |
At the beginning of last month, as it slowly began to dawn on me how much I despise my new job and accompanying commute, my neglected copy of Death Cult Armageddon (2003) somehow went from a rare, once-a-year listen to my daily soundtrack. There was something about my frame of mind that required a dose of pounding jackhammer beats, thorny walls of full-throttle distortion, and unintelligible inhuman shrieks for an hour each evening during my tedious drive home. The unbearably loud mass of sound emanating from my vehicle must have been quite the public menace as well. On occasion, while cuffed in gridlock, a few of my fellow commuters would stare at me as if I was one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse; when I would return their gaze, they would quickly look away in disbelief. It would have been all too easy to stick my tongue out at them and make devils’ horns with my hands, but Dimmu Borgir made me want to claw my way out of my car, crash down on the hood of their poor Mazda, and spew blood and fire all over their front windshield. Good stuff.
(See also this feature.)
“Progenies of the Great Apocalypse” – Dimmu Borgir 5:17 (Death Cult Armageddon, Nuclear Blast 2003)
DECEMBER
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Channels Waiting for the Next End of the World Dischord 2006 |
I purchased Waiting for the Next End of the World (2006) when it was released in late August, but it took me a few months to finally get around to absorbing it. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something comforting and cozy about J. Robbins‘ guitar playing; in the case of his new band Channels, it was like seeing a high school friend for the first time in five years and immediately slipping into that same natural familiarity, as if hardly any time had passed at all. His immediately-recognizable tone discordantly slashes through the mix, but with an embracing warmth that’s inescapable. What you’ll find here won’t break any new ground for smartly-crafted guitar rock, but damned if Robbins and Co. haven’t honed it down to glorious perfection. (If you’d like to spread some of that holiday generosity, Robbins’ son Callum could use your help.)
See my Top Ten for a summary and an audio track.)
WHAT I’M MOST THANKFUL FOR IN 2006
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eMusic (And my wife, of course.) |
I know I resisted it for the longest time, but it was inevitable that I’d be eventually downloading music, burning it to a disc, listening to it, and here’s the catch: enjoying it. I’ve never thought less of anyone who kept their record collection on their hard drive – to each his own – but it was never really my thing. Call my tastes antiquated, but I take pleasure in the little things like artwork and well-written liner notes, the packaging and weight of the vinyl, even the smell of a record or the interior of a CD case. But ask anyone how many records they purchased during the year they bought their first house and see if the response is more than a meager handful. Desperate times call for desperate measures, friends, and my pesky little hangup about “tangible” music soon went the way of the dinosaurs.
So here are my two cents to the execs at eMusic: Don’t change. I know it’s wired into the DNA of every living organism, but try to resist any modifications or transformations whatsoever. We have a great relationship and I’d like it to stay that way. It’s only been a couple of years now, but I feel like we go back further than that. Remember that time when I absent-mindedly thought my downloads “rolled over” every month, and was furious when they were gone because I didn’t use them? You calmly explained how the downloads worked, gave them back to me, and with a quick pat on the head, sent me on my way. That was nice. Or remember the time I almost dropped $28 on that Brigitte Fontaine French import, only to see that it was available on your site with bonus tracks? Very cool. I love the simplicity of you, the easy navigability, the “Editor’s Picks,” the lack of pop-up ads for hideous overpriced T-shirts. Sure, you raised the fees last month, but you wisely retained your existing customers by adhering to their original rates when they signed up. For you, eMusic, I offer a simple proposal: you stay the same and I’ll continue to send anyone within earshot your way.
Finally, a huge thank you to those who have supported floodwatchmusic in one way or another over these past seven months of awkward gestation, especially my friend Laundro aka Mat – dude is my number one comment-leaver and kept me from turning this whole site into a sad exercise in procrastination. See you in ‘07…
