Best Of 2016

LONG
Professional Sunflow - Laraaji & Sun Araw
Rock To TN34 - eMMplekz
Purple Reign - Future
Exit Pantomime Control - Moon Wiring Club
Blackstar - David Bowie
Lodestar - Shirley Collins

Creaking Haze & Other Rave Ghosts - Assembled Minds

Black Peak - Xylouris White
Blank Face - Schoolboy Q
Caramel - Konx-Om-Pax
Strands - Steve Hauschildt

Return - Blue Smiley
Toll - Kemper Norton
2845 - Convextion
Colour - Katie Gately
Pacific Image - Hybrid Palms
...Presents The Mechanical Abrasions Of (Volumes 2&3) - Ashtray Navigations
Stranger Things OST - Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein
Holy Sauce - Sauce Walka

FENCE
I, Gemini - Let's Eat Grandma
Sometimes I think this is a fantastic missing link between Kate Bush, Grime and god knows what else, other times I just wanna smash the stereo in.
Jeffery - Young Thug
Some good tunes here but something about the production is not quite right....but it's good though...I think... maybe it's still growing on me.
Borderland: Transport - Juan Atkins & Moritz Von Oswald
Classic intersection of Detroit techno and 90s Berlin dub-tech or a bunch of old geezers recording trax for the electronic music preservation society?

WTF?
Islah - Kevin Gates
His mixtape run up to this, his major label debut, was unsurpassed. What happened?
New Ways Out - Belbury Poly
Their previous 4 records were ace, this however...
The Life Of Pablo - Kanye West
I listened and listened again but I'm sure there's only two good songs here.

ARCHIVES
Close To The Noise Floor (Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984) - Various 
No Cabs, Numan or Depeche, but hey you've heard them. Have you heard Third Door From The Left, We Be Echo, Storm Bugs or 5XOD?

The Emperor's New Music - Gerry & The Holograms
Even unplayable art prank 7"ers are getting reissued. Why not?

When A New Trick Comes Out I Do An Old One - Moon Wiring Club
A 3 cd compilation of archive material from Hauntology's finest.

Cryptik Stepperz - Ekoplekz
Archival gear from 2012. Nick's off-cuts are just as good as his on-cuts.

Venezuela 70: Venezuelan Experimental Rock In The 1970s - Various
Soul Jazz Records go in search of further afield South American sonic delights and strike gold.

Boogie Breakdown: South African Synth Disco 1980-1984 - Various
Get down to these sweet South African soundz courtesy of the marvelous Cultures Of Soul Records. Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1984!

Doin It In Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco In 1980s Nigeria - Various
Soundway Records does it again! Get down to these sweet Nigerian soundz. Contains one of the greatest tunes ever in Steve Monite's Only You.

Space Echo: The Mystery Behind The Cosmic Sound Of Cabo Verde 1977-1985 - Various 
Get Down To These Sweet soundz from Cabo Verde. Another Analog Africa joint.

TELLY
Fleabag
Atlanta
Line Of Duty
Happy Valley

BOOK
Shock & Awe: Glam Rock & Its Legacy - Simon Reynolds
Grant & I - Robert Forster

Best Tunes Of 2016

CHOONZ

Purple Reign - Future

Pick Up The Phone - Young Thug & Travis Scott feat Quavo
Perky's Calling - Future
The Face In The Mirror Is Not Mine - Assembled Minds 
Why You Always Hatin' - YG feat Drake & Kamaiyah
So High - Beatking feat Gangser Boo
Eat Shittake Mushrooms - Let's Eat Grandma
That Part - Schoolboy Q feat Kanye West
OOOUUU - Young M.A.
Starboy - The Weekend feat Daft Punk
Guwop - Young Thug feat Quavo, Young Scooter & Offset
Awake Awake/The Split Ash Tree/May Carol/ Southover - Shirley Collins
Wolves (Balmain Campaign) - Kanye West feat Sia
Webbie - Young Thug feat Duke
Low Life - Future feat The Weekend
Lazarus - David Bowie
50 On My Wrist - Sonny Digital
Black Beatles - Rae Sremmurd feat Gucci Mane
Do Ya Mind - DJ Khaled feat Nicky M, Chris B, August Alsina, Jerimih, Future & Rick Ross
Bad & Boujee - Migos feat Uzi Vert

Pick Up The Phone - Young Thug w Travis Scott feat Quavo

I can't believe this wasn't a number 1 smash...if it wasn't.

Angel Rada

This is taken from the Soul Jazz comp Venezuela 70 which was released this year. I don't think I'd ever heard anything from Venezuela before. I have many records from Brasil, Columbia & Peru but this is a new territory for me. The above tune is the outstanding one for me on that collection - South American space synth jam dedicated to Klaus Schulze.



This one's on Venezuela 70 as well.... pretty good too. Details about Rada on the web are v sketchy. He was in the band Gas Light then went solo. He studied music in Germany in the 70s. That's about it.



Wow...this tune is not on the Soul Jazz compilation but is incredible. Upadesa puts me in mind of an even stranger Illitch if that's possible. This is fabulous lost Kosmische synthesiser music. A musical revelation to the eardrums. So all of the above tracks were on Angel Rada's record Upadesa released sometime in the 70s (???). This is the kind of thing that would have been posted on Mutant Sounds back in the day. Is there more unheard gold out there?

...from1983 apparently [added entry 11/11/22]

Sister - Sonic Youth

TIM'S ULTRA ROUGH GUIDE TO ROCK - PART 9?

Sonic Youth - Sister

I think Schizophrenia, which opens Sister, was the first Sonic Youth song I ever heard. This was on a visit to the big smoke in 1987 and it was played on either 3RRR or 3PBS in Melbourne. What an introduction to a phenomenal band. I’d listened to the Primitive Calculators, The Birthday Party and Cosmic Psychos before but who knew you could make noise beautiful? This is probably the Sonic Youth album I’ve played the most. The cover was perfect. This is the sound of skyscrapers, cows. suburbia and intergalactica all rolled into one. Cotton Crown still sounds unbelievable today with its girl/boy vocals and those swirly out of tune guitars then when that change where the bass goes bezerk Sonic Youth elevate rock to one of its loftiest peaks. This band were on an outstanding roll that had begun with the two previous LPs and would continue for their next three records. Then as elder statesmen/women of art rock they had a terrific late re-flowering and issued a classic trilogy of albums that began with 2002’s Murray Street. Sister = Awesome!

Hashim - Al Naafiysh

Just discovered this classic bit of old School electro from 1983 the other day...mmm...mm!

Hip Hop's Founding Fathers

We're not talking about Kool Herc or The Bronx here. This doc tries to set the record and history books straight on who the real innovators in hip-hop were. Founding Fathers presents an alternative narrative to hip hop's past that shines a light on a bunch of forgotten cats who were involved in block parties from other boroughs of NYC other than The Bronx. It's all about turntables, big sound systems, DJs, Bigger sound systems, park jams and really big sound systems. Chuck D narrates. I wouldn't post it if I didn't think it was excellent.

Halloween - Ennio Morricone Edition

One of Morricone's lesser known scores but it's another fucking cracker. I only came across this one last year and it blew my mind a little bit, couldn't believe my ears. Kick off your festivities with this cranked on the hi-fi. This is the score to a 1972 Giallo directed by Massimo Dallamano which features saucy female students, sleazy teachers, nudity, abortions, girls on bikes and murders. What did you expect?



Now this has to be one of Morricone's most underrated horror scores. If you're dropping acid at your festivities tonight this will be the perfect soundtrack! I've never watched the film but the sounds here get pretty insane, perhaps I'll finally watch it tonight. They even made an Exorcist III ...who knew?



Ooh...I just found this. It's a collection of tunes from a bunch of Ennio's Giallio scores, nothing new to me here but looks like it'll be a great creepy mix. Tracklist below.

COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE? (TITOLI) from “Cosa avete fatto a Solange?” 00:00
1970 from “Il gatto a nove code” 02:37
NEBULOSA PRIMA from “Il segreto” 11:17
VALZER from “La corta notte delle bambole di vetro” 16:49
SEGUITA from “Gli occhi freddi della paura” 19:07
OSTINAZIONE AL LIMONE from “Cosa avete fatto a Solange?” 22:21
IL SERPENTE from “Il serpente” 24:48
BAMBOLE DI VETRO from “La corta notte delle bambole di vetro” 31:24
SPASMO from “Spasmo” 38:07
OLTRE IL SILENZIO from “Il diavolo nel cervello” 40:04
EMMETRENTATRE from “La corta notte delle bambole di vetro” 43:32
LE FOTO PROIBITE DI UNA SIGNORA PER BENE from “Le foto proibite di una signora per bene” 47:45
TRIO INFERNALE from “Trio infernale” 52:23
INSEGUIMENTO E FUGA from “Revolver” 56:30
SENZA MOTIVO APPARENTE from “”Senza movente” 01:00:15
LA RAGIONE, IL CUORE, L'AMORE from “Il diavolo nel cervello” 01:04:38
EVANESCENZE from “Gli occhi freddi della paura” 01:08:04
L'ATTENTATO from “L'attentato” 01:11:25
NINNA NANNA IN BLU from ”Il gatto a nove code” 01:16:04

Don't ya just love this cover. Eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. Eyeball goodness. Eyeball art! Below is a review I once did on this soundtrack.

Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura - ENNIO MORRICONE
Now this was another 1971 soundtrack but it didn't get a release until 2000. I didn't miss this one. I think it has been reissued again in the last year or two. So Morricone recorded this with his improv band Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. This score is not only one of the best soundtracks ever, its also one of the best albums ever. I guess people into AMM, Nihilist Spasm Band, Spontaneous Music Ensemble or Miles Davis in the 70s should take a special interest here. This is some top notch improv jams under the direction of the one and only Bruno Nicolai. Produced by none other than Gianni Dell'orso. We've got fuzz guitar duelling with jazz bass and electronics. That's just for starters. This LP is so unpredictable you never know where it's heading next. There's many a clank and a scrape to be heard amongst other haunting sounds. The group had been going since 1964 and are considered one of the pioneering collectives of experimental composers. It was by no means Morricone's band. Other members included Egisto Macchi (library music legend), Walter Branchi and Franco Evangelisti. I think it was Evangelisti who got the whole thing together. They were aspiring to a new form of composition through improvisation and other methods such as (like John Cage) chance. Apparently they sometimes used the game of chess as an inspiration. Anyway the credits on this one go to Morricone but that seems arbitrary as surely everyone contributed to each tune. Fabulously free percussion mixed with of sour sax/trumpet(?) and textural keyboards play their part on this recording. More than anything though its not the separate sounds that make up the music, its the sound of the unit itself. This is an incredibly switched on unit comparable to Can and the ensembles Miles Davis put together in the 70s. Half the time I don't know what's making the sounds anyway. This doesn't sound like any other soundtrack I've ever heard. Most of the time you forget this incredibly fluid music even went with images as the tangent of where the hell they'll go next has you so engaged. You start to feel that your own ear is also an integral part of the unit as well. This is a hell of a strange trip that never gets old. They have other albums as well, maybe I'll discuss them another time. Its quite hard to believe a film director just saying 'yeah sure' to this mental project. This is a unique record that could have a special place in your heart if you give it a listen. Like Harmonia's Deluxe this is an unheralded classic of 20th century music that deserves a better status.

Chewed up VHS - Part 2

REWIND THIS (2013 DOCUMENTARY)
Here's another doco on VHS culture and another excellent cover/poster. This one is a bit all over the place but it is watchable as opposed to Adjust Your Tracking from the same year (more on that another time). It feels like they're trying to cover too much of video culture all at once though. As if they were in a rush to cover a little bit of each part of the dying, ephemeral culture of video stores and VHS before any other filmmaker got there first. Rewind This was at least compelling enough for me to make it through to the end of the film.

They could have really made 4 or 5 in depth documentaries covering certain aspects of video culture because there is some great subject matter here ie. Cover/poster art, nostalgia for video libraries, how B-grade and horror videos got their foot in the door ahead of studio/hollywood stuff, the bootleg trade/grey market and who the hell is going to preserve straight to video videos. Speaking of straight to video videos, any form of a convincing case isn't really put forth that there is any greatness worth preserving. There however will always be people who are willing to archive and preserve anything no matter how crap or inconsequential it may be because 'it's all relative man.'

HALLOWEEN Edition

Here's some of the soundtrack to the 1968 Giallo film Death Laid An Egg. Why doesn't somebody reissue this classic. I have to thank Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan of The Daughters of Darkness podcast for introducing me to this film and in particular this fucking great soundtrack. They referred to it as 'noise-core chicken jazz'. I think a lot of the noisy chickeny bits have been left off here just leaving the score, which is great on it's own anyway. Bruno Maderna was a serious conductor but he composed as well. He did 10 soundtracks and this was his last.



Speaking of great soundtracks, we've been waiting for a reissue of Messiah Of Evil for years but to no avail. Some odd gems are getting attention though like Richard Einhorn's Shock Waves OST which got issued last year. Einhorn's other great one Don't Go In The House remains out of print. Releases of film soundtracks like Let's Scare Jessica To Death, Deathdream and Slaughter Hotel would be most welcome. Some of these may have used library music though...er...haven't done much research into them.

Anyway check out this creepy movie. It stars the very beautiful Marianna Hill and Anitra Ford. Don't go looking for a cohesive narrative here. I see at it more like a series of disturbing surreal scenes, many of which are unforgettable. It's in the public domain so here's a download link.

HORROR PODCAST
The Hysteria Continues 
I missed this podcast in my recent set of podcast posts. This must have been introduced to me by Bill Ackerman of Supporting Characters. This is the best horror movie podcast I've come across. We've got 4 chaps in three different countries (England, USA & Ireland) discussing their favourite genre of film - slasher movies. They've got the balance just right. Nobody talks over anybody else, they don't speak too fast, they're knowledgable, passionate, funny and have a good formula.

I'm not even what you would call a slasher fan. Sure I like Black Christmas, Halloween and Slumber Party Massacre plus some of the influences on slasher like Peeping Tom and Psycho as well as many Giallo movies. But as I've mentioned before I missed the whole 80s video thing due to boring parents. The Hysteria Continues has had me watching the likes of Happy Birthday To Me, Mortuary, Funeral Home, My Bloody Valentine, House On Sorority Row, Pieces, Slaughter Hotel, Prom Night, The Burning, Chopping Mall and Terror Train. The hosts have also been kind enough to make me avoid many slasher titles which sound like total and utter shite.

The Hysteria Continues have occasionally covered proto-slashers, quasi-slashers and Gialli too. They don't just talk about slasher related things though, they go through general horror films and television in their 'recently seen' segment and often veer off into conversation about other things. Who thought anyone would be talking about Toyah in 2016? There's a great segment on 'top 3s' covering such topics as best final girls, best theme music, best death scenes, best killer masks etc. One of the hosts Justin Kerswell wrote The Slasher Book aka Teenage Wasteland as well as running the website Hysteria Lives. The website The Body Count Continues is/was(?) run by one of the American co-hosts....see what  they've done?...er...combined the two website names and come up with the podcast name. If you can handle puerile humour coming out of the mouths of grown men and love your genre cinema this comes highly recommended.

*Finders Keepers Radio have done a Halloween podcast here.
**FACT have done a Hip Hop Halloween mix where each tune contains a horror movie sample here.