WOEBOT

I grew up on lists like these, especially Paul Gambaccini's super cheesy 1987 survey of 50 top critics entitled "The Top Rock'N'Roll Albums Of All Time" a book I cherished and investigated slavishly at school, and which went on to be horrifically influential. The "Top 100" is now, I suppose, one of the key marketing tools of music magazines. I've always wanted to do some kind of similar break-out, and let's face it, which music magazine would ever afford me the space?

Recently my friend Jon Dale caught me whingeing at Dissensus about David Keenan's best albums ever...honest and he took me to task. Although I stand by my criticisms, which boiled down to the selection not being "all that", Dale was right to pull me up. If you think you can do better yourself you have to be a mensch and do your own list. Here was my chance. It wasn't a particularly difficult thing task, I just combed my collection, chose roughly five hundred records, and then systematically reduced that selection to what I REALLY rated.

The potential pitfalls one has to avoid however are many. You can't be needlessly obscurantist for one. That's difficult because the spice in these lists are the things that are slightly more obscure, the records you're hipping people to. It'd be so easy to make a list of "minor gems", but if you're presenting a Best 100, you can't do that. One of the other major pitfalls is trying to be comprehensive, picking records for what they represent, rather than how good they actually are. It would have been tempting to insert token Bhangra records, token South African Jazz records, token Punk records for instance. Another error is what I'd call taking a left-turn into someone's catalogue, choosing Can's "Landed" above their earlier stuff. That's another typical, lame hipster tactic that makes me groan. Again choosing things on the basis of how "seminal" they are, their supposed "influence" is to be avoided. Some people pressage these lists with a smarmy, "Well these are my favourites today, but probably not next week"-shtick. Not so with this list. The only thing that is probably more general about it is the ordering, however there is a definite drift upwards and I put a lot of thought into the top ten.

I noticed a few things in compiling this, firstly that only one CD (Monton) crept in. That's largely because if I buy I CD I love, I make it a mission to track down the vinyl. I was also surprised that only three singles made the grade (I have lots...) with LPs and twelve inches ruling the show. This could be construed as an oversight, after all the scariest record-collector's collections are dominated by 7"s. I guess that I'm a rabbit of a different colour, never known to stray unfeasible deep into holes like roots reggae or funk, only venturing a certain distance down from the surface, I've never lost sight of the sun's rays. I was pleased to reflect that there wasn't a single recording I wanted to include that I didn't own (with the exception of "Electric Ladyland" which appears to have vanished) and accordingly all these sleeve shots are from my own collection, not sourced from Google. Even though there is absolutely no concession whatsoever to availability in the shops (Keenan's rather cooly has links to Amazon) I would say this is a buyers guide "sine qua non". These records are veritably the bollocks.

People may remark about what's not included: no Cabaret Voltaire, no P.I.L, no Roxy Music, no Dizzy Rascal, no Van Der Graf Generator, no Mizell Brothers, no Joy Division, no Funkadelic, no Mothers of Invention, no La Monte Young, no Stooges, no MC5, no Aphex Twin, no Stone Roses etc. They may even say where are the Talking Heads, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Band, Neil Young and Doors records? What can I say? In my own opinion, this lot swallows all that stuff whole. No apologies whatsoever for the grunty telegrammatic commentary.

100 Riuichui Sakamoto Riot in Lagos

80's Global Egg-head Electro Oddity. The shimmering basslines of which are best appreciated on the twelve-inch cut. Riuichi teams up with Dennis Bovell and, perhaps more improbably with hindsight, Andy Partridge of XTC.

99. AR Kane: Lollita

Celebrated UK Indie space-rock. Hard-to-find EP on 4AD from that period before the LP "69" when the crew were hopping from label to label. Feedback harder-edged here than elsewhere, and a gorgeous tune.

98. Robert Johnson: King of The Delta Blues Singers

The greatest blues record. Quite often the first Blues record one will buy, and after years exploring Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Albert King, John McDowell, Son House, Otis Rush, Skip James, and John Lee Hooker you return to "King of The Delta Blues Singers" to discover it's still the greatest.

97. Big Black: Songs about Fucking

Steve Albini's paranoid architecture of feedback. Used to play this very loud as a seventeen year old. The drum machine and the Kraftwerk cover version were particularly unusual and far-sighted touches.

96. The Young Gods: The Young Gods

Late 80's Swiss Indie-Industrialists. I saw them on this and the L'Eau Rouge tours. They were massive. Interviewed them in Glasgow some years later. At the time this was an unbearably hip record, and it has remained pungent with possibilities.

95. Riko: Chosen One

Righteous Grime. Colleagues despair whether Grime will ever reach this kind of peak ever again.

94. Position Normal: Stop Your Nonsense

Crumbly Indietronica. We thought it was a one-off, but it's gone on to have lasting repercussions. I've only recently lost touch with Chris (I made them a video), last seen tangoing with Massive Attack's Melankolic label, svengali Damian Lazarus now on the international DJ circuit.

93. The Normal: Warm Leatherette

Vintage Electro-Punk, a genre which arguably has yet to happen, all The Normal's more obvious progeny (Trent Reznor, Depeche Mode etc) veering unchecked towards the bombastic and cod-epic. Mark K will write you an essay on this cf Ballard's "Crash", Grace Jones and William Gibson. See also Thomas Leer.

92. Flourgon and Ninjaman: Zig It Up

Iconic Dancehall. This was also notable for the stunning proto-junglistic Main Attraction Hip-Hop remix, the first record by none other than Reinforced stalwart Nookie.

91. A Certain Ratio: Flight

Mancunian Post-Punk. A gigantic ethereal sound like a yet more liquid Can with superbly doomy vocals. ACR never came close to doing anything as majestic as this.

90. Cheb Khaled: Hada Raykoum

Fabulously drunken Rai. This came up in conversation the other day with DJ/Rupture as proof positive of Rai's true lumpen roots. Apparently within France its reputation is as a soupy bourgeois music. The synths here are pure guttertronics.

89. Metalheadz: Angel

Ambient Jungle prototype. Picture disc innit. Largely for the sublime chiarascuro dynamics of "Angel (Instrumental Flight)" though Diane Charlemagne's vocals are wonderfully cracked.

88. Mark Stewart and The Maffia: Learning to cope with cowardice

Echo-chambered Post-punk. I picked up my copy in 1988 and it felt like 1983 was a hundred years before. So disappointing that the Post-Punk revival didn't even manage to echo the original era's sense of revolt.

87. Ambassadeurs: Mandjou

1970s Mali. The first of the African records here, and a bonafide monster-jam. Salif Keita's masterpiece. This is, I reckon, a rock record, if that makes any sense to anyone.

86. Virgo

Divine Chicago post-Acid House. You can still buy the Ride EP on Trax, but this LP on London's Radical Records (something to do with the very early Black Market?) has two other completely sublime tunes on the flip-side as well.

85 Egyptian Lover: And My Beat Goes Boom

Stunning minimal electro. With just a splashing 808 and micro-pontillistic bleep pattern the Egyptian Lover's rap becomes as important as the drums for this track's propulsion. A whisker away from The Last Poets.

84. Thomas Leer: 4 Movements

Lushly verdant bedroom electronics perfectly and charmingly balanced between New Pop and Post-Punk. Two Leer records on this list!

83: Derrick Laro and Trinity: Don't Stop Till You Get Enough

Late Roots Reggae Jacksons cover version. In the grand tradition of Reggae cover versions of Afro-American tunes, and the twin of "Rockers Delight" cover of "Rappers Delight" on the same label, this a Joe Gibbs record I very often play out. The vinyl here so very loud and Trinity's rap guaranteed to get the party rocking.

82. Ruff Sqwad: Jam Pie

Sino-Grime. Jammer's best production proves slower beats don't make it UKrap. Best Grime lyrics ever, especially the whole "Back to the.." skit.

81. Renegade Legion: Torsion

Gloomcore's greatest hit. The opening salvo might be a candidate for the best start of any record ever...

80. Nearly God: Poems

Paranoid Trip-Hop. Tricky's last cannabis-psychosis masterpiece before he descended into cartoon cut-out theatrics. Exquisitely eerie, Terry Hall and Martina are inspired here as well.

79. Joni Mitchell: Blue

Chirper-cleffer. Looking forward to reading Barney Hoskyns' book about the whole Californian rock phenomenon of the 1970s. You'd have to be emotionally stunted not to be affected by Joni here.

78. Manuel Gottsching: E2-E4

Post-Krautrock after-thought. Its own micro-genre vis a vis Sueno Latino, Derrick and Carl Craig's mixes. Can't tell you how excited I was to find this in Edinburgh in 1992.

77 Tibetan Buddhism Tantras of Gyotu: Makhala

Ethnographic. David Lewiston's best recording. One of the heaviest, most spooky records ever made. The percussion on this like steel girders falling onto your car. Don't mess with these monks!

76. Slint: Spiderland

Prescient US Post-Rock. One of those haunting, unconfigurable listening experiences that you return to again and again. I'm a big fan of Davo Pajo's "Live from a Shark Tank" as well. After Tortoise's debut, that was the next great record in this micro-continuum.

75. Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music

Jazz pianist's private sketchbook of ideas. Amazingly dense and fecund. I've always loved Coltrane's remark about playing with Monk that "it was like falling into an empty elevator shaft."

74. New Horizons: Scrap Iron Dubs

Rootical bashy 2 Step. Not archetypical 2-step (see Y-Tribe, Groove Chronicles, Dem2), but enthralling nonetheless.

73. Scientist: The Bee

Explosive Ardkore. One of DJ Hype's earliest productions. Transcends Ardkore's cliches, when even those cliches were so fine as to not need transcending.

Steve Reich: Six Pianos

Gourgeous Minimalism. Particularly "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voice and Organ". Easily the greatest Reich recording, I was delighted to notice recently that he was particularly pleased with it as well.

71. Diamond and The Psychotic Neurotics: Stunts, Blunts and Hip-Hop

Classic Mid-period Hip-Hop. There's one other contender here which is TCQ's "Low End Theory", maybe a more consistent record, but the highs on this, the title track, "Best Kept Secret", "Pass Dat Shit" etc are astonishing. Even licks Mobb Deep's "The Infamous" and Main Source's "Breaking Atoms"...

70. VA: Rare Groove

The best funk compilation ever. It might appear to be cheesy to have a compilation listed here, not some dusty 7", but take my word for it, this is splendid. In its own way, as a relic of pre-acid London clubbing, it's an historical curio in its own right.

69. Liquid Liquid: Cavern

New York Post-Punk glides effortlessly downtown. Cavern, as y'all know, is the basis for "White Lines". Hearing the original for the first time is such a joy.

68. Roy Harper: Stormcock

Mature UK folk balladry. Mature because after a while Nick Drake just irritates the hell out of you. Sepulchral and incredibly bold, I've never heard another Harper LP that touches it.

67. Fela Kuti: Roforofo Fight

Afrobeat. Although "Open and Close" is splendid, this is Fela's greatest record, the horn section almost hilariously top-heavy.

66. Les Vampyrettes: Biomutanten

Krautock gentlemen dilletantes Czukay and Plank make forbidding bass-heavy proto-Gloomcore twelve inch. Still yet to see a reissue.

65. Tortoise: Tortoise

Post-Rock rosetta stone. Forget everything else they did.

64. Herbie Hancock: Sextant

Far-out Jazz-Funk. It's Dr. Partick Gleason who does the damage here with his synths. We caned this at night in Africa.

63. Prince Dirty Mind

New Wave Funk. Even though he went on to crossover with such panache with "Sign of The Times" "Dirty Mind" is winningly fresh and nimble. Curiously indebted to UK Post-Punk too, that is if you believe Jah Wobble's stories of the young Prince being forcibly ejected from P.I.L's dressing room.

62. Don Cherry: Mu Part Two

Liberated Free-Jazz. Growing up as he did kicking around a rural Texas backyard, Don Cherry's playing doesn't painfully strive for release it's just sound evidence of his free-wheeling soul. Ed Blackwell's second-line licks here are an added bonus.

61. Centrafrique: Musique Gbaya

Central African Pygmy chant. It's crass to start talking about trance states, largely owing to the efforts of an entire generation of dance music journalists, but with this masterpiece of soft-edged circum-sonic hocket, unfortunately one has to fall back on the appellation. This has always reminded me of Oval's "Diskont".

60. Forrrce: Keep on Dubbing

Disco Dub. This Francois K masterpiece is a David Toop tip-off. Mashes up the dance with its whip-lash bassline. Surprisingly not more widely known.

59. John Coltrane: Giant Steps

Modern Jazz perfection. Trane's solos here are as he described them to Wayne Shorter and reveal him "trying to learn how to start in the middle of a sentence and move in both directions at the same time." In India I once had time-travelling hallucinations of busy New York Streets in the 1960s to this.

58. Steve Poindexter: Chaotic Nation

Post-Acid Chicago riddim guru. Powerful grumbling beats. Poindexter is THE man. Critically (critically) unappreciated.

57. Acen: Trip II The Moon

Epic Ardkore. Parts one AND two of course! Only in a genre as merciless, functional and transitory as Ardkore could a talent like Acen just fall of the map. One can hardly imagine him being inducted into the Rock'n'Roll hall of fame...

56. Popol Vuh: Hosianna Mantra

Pastoral Krautrock. Florian Fricke's greatest and most symphonic record.

55. Rammelzee & K.Rob: Beat Bop

Remarkably both Hip-Hop's artiest AND its rootsiest record.

54. Hector Zazou: La Pervisita

French Post-Punk. Seb Morlu hipped me to this, I played it to my pal Sacha and he has now sold copies of it to drooling cognoscenti like The Chemical Brothers and Andy Weatherall. Do yourself a favour and find one.

53. Afrika Bambaata: Death Mix Throwdown

Old Skool Hip-Hop. Originally coming out on Paul Winley records (though my copy is on Castle and I picked it up in 1987). One side is a recording of a stunning Bambaata live mix. The other is a veritable lightning sword of death, the Soul Sonic Force rapping over a red-hot, specially-recorded funk track (goes to prove there is room for instruments in Hip-Hop...)

52. LFO: Frequencies

Sheffield Bleep'n'Bass. The greatest long-player to emerge from the UK's Acid-House scene?

51. Just-Ice: Cold Getting' Dumb

Old Skool Hip-Hop. Mantronix's crunchiest, hookiest track. This is a killer.

50. Tom Jobim: Matita Pere

Langorous Brazilian post-bossa orchestral stylings. Divine.

49. Pablove Black Bagga and The All Stars: After Christmas

Studio One Dub-plate from heaven. Every Reggae connoisseur I play this to is knocked out, and then tries to buy it off me.

48. The Black Dog: Vir2L

Philosophical, eldritch UK Breakbeat Techno. This may not be their most focussed record, but it's the key.

47. Wailing Souls: Wailing Souls

Studio One Reggae LP. For my money one of the most consistently lovely LPs on Coxsone Dodd's label

46. Minutemen: Paranoid Time

US Punk 7". One of three seven inches here, but with seven tracks on it, it's more like an LP in haiku form. Their conceptual masterpiece, this is not bettered by other contenders like "Cut" and "Double Nickels on the Dime".

45. The Cosmic Jokers: The Cosmic Jokers

Krautrock super-jam. The first of Rolf Ulrich Kaiser's 5 kosmische cash-ins, and easily the greatest. Does no-one else think the likes of 23 Skidoo sound impoverished beside this stuff?

44. Toussaint: Toussaint

New Orleans Soul producer's finest hour. My favorite soul LP.

43. Thomas Leer: Private Plane

Electronic Punk, again. I discovered this very recently through Simon's book "Rip It Up and Start Again", and it really blew me away. Apparently recorded under his sheets in his bedroom so as not to wake up his girlfriend (a classic example of the illicit relationship so many of us have with culture) this may go some way to explain its seductive public/private and innerspace/outerspace stylings. A strong krautrock vibe here too.

42. Tim Buckley: Blue Afternoon

Singer song-writer drifts jazzily. Full of wonderful meandering grooves.

41. The Associates: Fourth Drawer Down

Song-led Post-Punk. Much of Post-Punk was instrumental in tendency. Singers even "instrumentalising" themselves by intoning noise (cf John Lydon, Mark Stewart, Ari Up etc). Billy Mackenzie strikes me as that rarer, more curious beast, a properly Post-Punk singer, with all the deconstruction of self that that would entail.

40. King Sunny Ade: The Message

Nigerian Juju. These songs were weakened when they were re-recorded for the also splendid "Juju Music" LP.

39. Brigette Fontaine: Comme A La Radio

French post-Free-Jazz chanson. Recorded with the AACM as her backing band in early 1970s Paris. Should be more widely known in the English-speaking world.

38. The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground

Peaceful yet sinister LP by rock legends. You can't knock it.

37. Sivakumar Sarma: Santur

Indian Classical. I have lots of Sarma's records, this is on Ocora is the best.

36. Randy Newman: 12 Songs

Dopey yet sardonic portraits of 1970s California. Session-musician-tastic, with Jack Nitzsche and various Byrds in attendance this is blissful on the ear. In spite of his comfortable niche with Pixar, Randy Newman deserves more props.

35. Terry Riley: Rainbow in Curved Air.

Minimalism goes Pop. The least obscure work of his, I have other records like "Les Yeux Fremee" and "Happy End", "Shri Camel" and "Moonshine Dervishes", but this is the most generous, lovingly-crafted and accessible.

34. Underground Resistance: Sonic EP

Detroit Techno. Mad Mike's paranoia writ large, this is one terrifying vision of the fourth-world urban jungle.

33. Indian Ocean: Treehouse/Schoolbell

Weird Disco. One of two Arthur Russell records here. Its hook so slight yet so intoxicating.

32. Suicide: Suicide

Improbably early No-Wave electronics. It's at their most sumptuous that I admire them: "Cheree", "Girl" and "Che".

31. Total: What About Us

R'n'B. Timbaland's greatest moment bar none and practically impossible to find (the Puffy remix on the other hand is ubiquitous). The collision of the paranormal beat-boxing and the girl's vocals is near perfect.

30. Byrne and Eno: My Life In The Bush of Ghosts

Dance music ethno-thinkpiece. Still remains relevant. I've always been taken by the presence here of DNA hero bassist Tim Wright.

29. Upsetters: Blackboard Jungle Dub.

Dub Reggae. Not as flashy, or maybe as "interesting" as Perry's later productions but thrillingly violent and righteous.

28. Monoton: Montonprodukt07

Underground NDW. The square root of Basic Channel, Kompakt and Oval.

27. iMPLOG: Holland Tunnel Dive

New York No-Wave Electro. Long been one of my causes. Apparently just reissued by Erol "Trash" Alkan.

26. Scott Walker: Scott 4

Existential croonery. If only you and I could sing like this.

25 Milton Nascimento Clube Da Esquina

Incredibly affecting rural Braziliance. There was some kind of crucial synergy that occurred here between Milton and singer/hero Lo Borges that elevates this above either of their other works. The making of this record was apparently akin to the rural/communal creation of The Band's "The Band".

24. The JBs: Food For Thought

Funk. Quintessentially so, and on "The Grunt" irresistible.

23. Led Zeppellin: IV

Sort of Heavy Metal, but not quite. Give or take "Stairway to Heaven".

22. Vivien Goldman: Dirty Washing

The Marianne Faithful of Post-Punk. When I first played this to my friend Sacha he movingly remarked that it reminded him of a scruffier, much more human London that has now disappeared amid the depressing globalisation that affects culture everywhere.

21. Rhythim is Rhythim: The Beginning

Art Techno. The End therof, somewhat innappropriately and sadly.

20. Burning Spear: Burning Spear

Roots Reggae. The MOST consistently lovely LP on Studio One, and I reckon the best Reggae LP. I challenge anyone to not be moved by "Creation Rebel".

19. Marvellous Caine: Hitman

Jungle proper. Absolutely rinsin'.

18. Alexander Spence: Oar

LSD-addled Haight-Ashbury loner-rock. I probably over-identified with this record.

17. Neu!: 75

Krautrock. Probably the greatest full-throttle hard-rocking LP there is. With its bewitching geist-like alter-ego in tow.

16. Sun Ra: Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy

Freak-Jazz. Its almost academic abstraction seems to contain the germ of both riotous twins: Techno and Rock music.

15. Miles Davis: On The Corner

Derailed pseudo-Improv. As much as I appreciate straight-up Jazz-Funk, this and "Sextant" will always trump it as far as I'm concerned. The ethnic colour here predates "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts" stark global No-Wave inflections.

14. Edu Lobo: Missa Breva

The Brazilian Bryan Ferry. Again it amazes me that this record, clearly Lobo's greatest is passed over for others. Stereolab fans would love this sublime catholic oddyssey.

13. My Bloody Valentine: You Made Me Realise EP

Blissed-out Indie Rock. Not a hipster shortcut in place of "Loveless", this is very much the superior record. Every single one of the five tracks here is a total corker.

12. John Cale: Paris 1919

Velvet Underground man's solo LP. A case of every track's a winner. Sheer wonder and beauty. When you read Cale's autobiography, with its stories of his childhood in Wales growing up drugged to the nines on morphine, its blurred snapshots make perfect sense.

11. Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland

Rock Classic. It'd be firmly lodged high up in a Q, Mojo or Uncut chart (the kind of 100 Greatest this is a self-styled antidote to) but let's not forget Charles Shaar Murray's great, and wholly correct, contextualisation of Hendrix as a Black Avant-Gardist.

10. Captain Beefheart: Safe As Milk

Over-ripe garage punk. You prefer "Lick My Decals Off Baby" to this! Bullshitter.

9. Vashti Bunyan: Just A Diamond Day

Sublime UK Folk. This snuck up on me in a huge way over the past two years. I know it's fairly well known now, but it ought to be, like, super-super famous. Vashti should never have to pay the bills again. Thanks to big Jon Dale for hitching me up with this in the first instance.

8. Bernard Parmegiani: De Natura Sonorum

Music Concrete. If you're a music head, someone who's into sound for its own mystical and tactile qualities, an aural fetishist, you deserve to hear this. Once you have it under your belt, it's so philosophically profound, so good at what it does, that it practically negates the need for any other form of "head" music. Leaving you to fritter away your time listening to Grime. Like wot I do.

7. The Ragga Twins: Reggae Owes Me Money

Not quite Ardkore. I posed the question earlier as to whether LFO's "Frequencies" was the best record to emerge out of the UK Acid House scene. Well, the answer is no. This is. It's also, by default, the best record to come out of the UK's Dancehall scene. And the best Grime LP ever!

6. Kraftwerk: Computer World

Kraftwerk, like La Monte Young, are the embodiment of some kind of holy musical abstraction. Perfection, though I contend that they may yet surpass this masterpiece.

5. The Beatles: The Beatles

Moptop 1960's combo of incidental celebrity.

4. The Meters: Look Ka Py Py

Funk. Everyone knows the best funk came out of New Orleans, be it Eddie Bo or Professor Longhair, but there's no way of getting away from The Meter's centrality. From early work with Robert Parker, Lee Dorsey, and Irma Thomas to later projects like The Wild Tchoupitoulas and The Neville Brothers practically everything they touched was blessed with a divine musicality. For me, this is the highlight.

3. Arthur Russell: World of Echo

Disco's bones and ectoplasm. Must, I reason, be understood as one of the only records to grapple with the horror that is AIDS. That that isn't more widely pointed out is a crime.

2. Can: Tago Mago

Krautrock, innit. The Mothership. Sometimes I think Ege Bamyasi may have the edge on this, other days the rolling power of the drums on "Hallelulwah" utterly seduces me. I remember Julian Cope taking a very purist line that by "Tago Mago" Can had burnt out, that the Malcom Mooney-era was the shit and that "Soundtracks" was their last great record, but really, what twaddle.

and the best record of all time?

1. Pere Ubu: The Modern Dance

Without too much thought involved either. If there's one record which would make sense of the entire selection here, it'd be "The Modern Dance". Cue long essay waxing rhapsodic. Nah. I got this in 1987 and it's stuck with me ever since. I reckon it's as pungent as it has ever been. I wish I had the original pressing, the one with the black and white linocut, rather than my shitty silver limited edition reissue. When I was 18 I hung around backstage at a Sonic Youth gig (when Ubu were supporting them) and met David Thomas. He was cool.

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed that. Feel free to skim, but do take the selection as it stands. I know from checking these kind of things myself, the temptation is to tick things off mentally in the manner of "Oh, Allen Toussaint, well I have his "Motion" LP so I can ignore that suggestion", but really EVERYTHING here is solid gold.

Posted by WOEBOT at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Heads should check out this Great 2Step thread at Dissensus wherein, amongst others, Tim Finney and Matt Mason drop some scary science.

Part of the reason I started the thread was I was gearing up to do a Christmas 2Step mix. However I deliberated and decided that my really extremely respectable collection of 2Step wasn't what it should be. Furthermore I've taken a tape measure to and it and isn't the apocryphal 2 feet deep, but a (coughs) slightly more modest ten inches. Yeah, don't scoff, I use the same line trout fishing.

(sticks out chest) I could still pack a mighty mix but it'd rely a good deal on a comp I've already cc'd Jon Dale and Simon, and even though I've probably 10 more tracks to add to that, well it wouldn't quite be the heavyweight survey it needs to be to meet my high standards. Natch.

My other idea was to do a DJ Wrongspeed-style collage from of my radio recordings made back in the day 1998-2000 (see the jpeg above), but to be honest, shamefully, I don't have the time. When I've put a bit more work in I'll offer up a really proper mix, and then we'll see who the daddy is ;-)

Posted by WOEBOT at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Over the moon to see that The Books "Lost and Safe" has been made LP of the year by The Wire. It's a really lovely record and Nick and Paul can justifiably pat eachother on the back.

I must have pestered poor Chris Bohn with about three hundred emails over six months before he let me do my piece on them and I probably ought to thank Rob Young for mangling my doggerel into something approximating a proper piece. I'll get the hang of this writing lark sooner or later.

It's worth taking 30 seconds to remember that if it hadn't been for the omnivorous Nick Kin, who dumped "The Lemon of Pink" on me amongst about 3 gig of other mp3s, then I'd never have had the pleasure of checking out their music.

Posted by WOEBOT at 04:46 PM | Permalink

I've been ever so slightly embarassed by the Blissblogger's evaluation of me as an optimist and consequently feel duty bound to address some of his points about the state of Grime. See, when it comes to sensing a sea-change, be it a dip in energy or a subtle curdling of atmosphere one has to give Simon props. He's got it right time and again. Also, if one accepts the accepted model of the "Ardkore Continuum" as it stands, refuting the demise of Grime is almost like denying the existence of entropy. The rule of thumb seems to be that any musical development along the Pirate Radio axis, has a maximum of four years at the cultural cutting-edge before lapsing into formulaic patterns and micro-historical repetitions (like Jungle's vacillations between the tropes of Happy, Jazzy and Dark, or Techno's endless re-repeats of Acid). However, let us not forget that some generic formats have ended up, not as straight-jackets but canvases, spaces within which possibilities seem ever-present, but not suffocatingly multiplicitous. Hip-Hop for instance. Or Dancehall.

When Simon bemons the scene as being "like an endless fuck with no climax", I can't help but reflect that I'd *never* imagined that Grime would blow up. I can't imagine a world in which, in its current form, that it would ever reach beyond, er, London. I've always been totally comfortable with it being "a permament underground" (more or less as Martin points out). This is not to say that I haven't relished "Pow" and Dizzee's success. As for Simon's assertion that its energy and quality is tied up with its "explosive, hungry-to-conquer, extroversion", well there's no denying that that's one of the things that separates it from UK Rap. That it threatens to be "another UKrap scene on the top of the one we already got" is a scenario which I most dread. I've noticed Logan Sama taking a pretty much an identical stance to me here, hoarsely calling for out distinction between the scenes. However I've always believed that Grime's essential form *is* (like Hip-Hop and Dancehall's) flexible, permeable, and changeable. It fundamentally differs from UK Hip-Hop, because American music is irrelevant to it, and this is what will lead it to prosper.

I've been moaning as much as anyone about the dearth of good releases, but, all told, the tracks compiled here in tandem with my earlier snapshot of the scene this year point conclusively to a scene which even though it is treading water, and coping with the diminishing horizon of expectations, is producing powerful music. Danny Weed is going from strength to strength, Trim has emerged as a force to be reckoned with on vinyl, producers P-Jam and Statik have made an impression, SLK are proving to be no one-hit wonders, the Essentials' Young Dot and DJ Eastwood (who produced the Sick Sense Crew track) have emerged as new talent and Wiley's still cutting it as an MC and a producer. For all the creative low-points: Ruff Sqwad dropping the ball with "Cuckoo", Terrah Danjah falling out of view, Bruza failing to deliver anything to match his early promise, there are still other Ruff Sqwad tunes where they've worked wonders, and Aim High Vol.3 and the Newham Generals LP in the pipeline. Optimist it is.

Posted by WOEBOT at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I found this record six months or so ago in the now defunct Reckless shop in Islington and I paid a miniscule $5 for it. Sonton, as I found out recently in Johnny Trunk's mighty survey of Library Music, was a heavy-hitting German Library collection with nuff distribution power and marketing muscles. The Sonton covers in the tome are quite as fantastic as this one. What really sold me on the disc was a loop on the fist track which I immediately pegged as being archetypically Basement Jaxx-ish.

The economy of loops is a strange thing. The entire record might be drek, but so long as there is a nifty drum-break it's worth money. Or some money anyway! Man, Madonna sampling Abba's "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man after Midnight)" on "Time Moves Fast", that's a total no-brainer innit. I've caned that track at weddings for years, real dark nordic power to it.

Sacha, my best-friend and celebrated dealer, came round the other evening, and he mentioned he was visiting the Jaxx to sell them records. He was also apparently quite low on stock, so I did what I never usually do and gave him the Sonoton "Disco" record to sell to them, pointing out the sample.

Round at Felix and Simon's gaff, Sacha produces the disc. "This", he declares, "is a totally Basement Jaxx record!" Cue baffled expressions, raised eyebrows etc as the tune spools into the room. He has to GIVE the record to them, throwing it into the deal. I was gutted when he recounted the story to me, but slowly (as ice thaws) I've come to see the funny side of it.

Given their total disinterest in it I've decided to offer the loop here for everyone's amusement. Was I really so far off the mark? Can anyone make a better track with it than the Jaxx could? If so I'll host the result.

Posted by WOEBOT at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Bhangra and Islam.

“Perhaps what (the Extreme Muslims) really need isn't Communism so much as a surrogate belief system/ideological framework for their rage ... they need their own kind of rock'n'roll... something to divert and defuse them as effectively... as rock culture has done vis-a-vis Western youth these past 40 years...” Simon Reynolds.

This informal remark by the New York-based Music Theorist Simon Reynolds prompted by the bombings in London on July 7th zoned in on the similar “profiling” shared by July’s Suicide Bombers, and the make-up of the characters who have historically been the motor of many innovations in the UK’s music scene. Statistical data collated by Israeli agencies has revealed that “the typical suicide bomber” is young, well-educated (23% of suicide bombers since 2000 possessing a University Degree), from a lower-middle class background and hungry for celebrity. Contributing to his speculation, Reynolds highlighted the unabashed flirtation with terrorist imagery present in Punk (spun off from the RAF and Baader-Meinhoff) and Jungle and the pseudo-terrorist stance taken by The Clash, and MIA. There is a sense in which Reynolds is denigrating Rock’s role in depoliticisation through diversion over the decades, though these “neutered” cultural forces do have their own validity.

Music is external to the religion of Islam. Recitals of the Koran, though their delivery has Psalmic qualities, are never accompanied by instrumentation. Music is seen as clouding the message of the holy book. Many Islamic scholars, such as Mustafa Sabri are unequivocal that music is “haraam”, forbidden by the prophet. These scholars cite incidents in the Quran in which Mohammed denounces it. On the other hand more moderate voices say there is a place for Music if it’s content is in accordance with Islam, pointing to its appropriateness in some situations, such as before war. In spite of the mundane fact it’s common for Muslims to download “Nasheeds” (religious songs) from the Internet, there is an unsureness about the ethics of music which leads even the lofty artistic pinnacles of Qawwali to be viewed with some suspicion.

Harry SONA of London’s SONA Family, riding high in the UK Bhangra charts with the effervescent “Glassy”, describes himself playfully as “a Friday Jumma Boy”. He might not pray five days a day but will do his best to say Friday prayers at the Mosque every week. Harry’s cousin Usmaan, who had garnered a reputation as “the Asian Tupac” on account of his gritty raps, left the group to become a more orthodox Muslim. Aware that their music business lifestyle were “Jihali” (contravening the moral code of Islam) he saw no way of combining his beliefs with their music, surer still that the boys and girls on the street heard enough talk of religion at home. But could the message of antipathy to US Imperialism and disgust at the politics of oil, content-wise the musical counterpart to the writing of free-thinking firebrand Tariq Ali, be harnessed to the Bhangra Beat? Harry remarks: “If I could find the right voice and the right person, I would do it in a flash. But it’s not like when Public Enemy came out and were preaching Black pride and Black power. To an extent they were going to get shut down, but this is just too close to the bone. That’s like loyalists coming out and doing Rap songs!” Conflating Islamic Music with Bhangra might appear to be slovenly journalistic shorthand. After all, Bhangra is a Sikh invention isn’t it? Truthfully the matter becomes more shaded and complex the closer one examines it. Asian Musical culture in the UK has an internal unity that is as much to do with unity in opposition to the “White” mainstream as Bhangra’s geographical legacy. The Punjab, Bhangra’s spiritual home, is split in two with the larger section in Western Pakistan. While the province’s faith as high as 63% Sikh, it’s cultural impact on predominantly Muslim Pakistani state is disproportional to its scale. In the UK, in the same way Bangladeshi cuisine dominates restaurants, so Bhangra rules the Asian music scene.

RDB (three brothers Kuly, Surj and Manj) reinvented Bhangra with their debut LP in 2002 and have subsequently dominated the music thanks to their massive label Untouchables and their year-old, insanely popular website RDBTV.com, which acts as a video gazette for the entire Bhangra scene. They’ve recently returned from Pakistan and the biggest concerts they’ve ever thrown. In Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi their audience at each show was between 20,000-30,000 people. Kuly: “We were surprised. They don’t care that we’re Sikhs… I don’t think it’s ever reached that level here. We’re like amazing superstars out there.” The bleed between the Sikh and Muslim is perhaps more pronounced over here. Half of the SONA Family are Sikh and the other half Muslim and RDB’s Guitarist and engineer is Muslim, indeed RDB venture to describe their audience in the UK as predominantly Muslim: “They’ve claimed Bhangra as theirs.” There are many big names in Bhangra who are Muslims, like Metz and Trix and Tariq Khan. While Harry describes The SONA Family as never having been a Bhangra group: “We are Desis who do Hip-Hop and R’n’B”, their records sit squarely in the Bhangra charts.

The bombings in the summer hit RDB particularly hard. Based in Bradford, a few miles down the road from where Hussain, Khan, Lindsay and Tanweer lived, they were appalled: “When they linked the attacks to those clowns to Leeds we were shocked, it was just the last thing we needed. After the Bradford Riots and all the negative aspects of life this side of Yorkshire. It put the nail in the coffin.” His brother Surj remarks: “Some idiots set fire to a Sikh flag at a Sikh temple as well. There was a time when ANY Asians, ANY Brown person would be scared to go out.” The riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley in the Summer 2001 might be seen as some kind of precursor to the July bombings. The Cantle report commissioned by the Home Office after the riots described communities where people were living “parallel” and “polarised” lives. Is it too simplistic to imagine a situation wherein Bhangra, at the same time as acting a mouthpiece for discontent, contributes to a weakening of this divide? Before conceding that Harry SONA may be right in concluding that Muslim dissent, or indeed extreme orthodoxy, will continue to be channeled through Islam, and not sprout into something illicit yet vibrant like the UK’s early post-Acid House culture, it’s worth reminding one-self that according to most Muslim authorities the acts of July 7th represented, not an expression of Islam, but a perversion of it.

Running counter to this speculation there is evidence in Blakstone’s ground-breaking debut “Dark Dayz” that Hip-Hop, not Bhangra, will prove to be the chosen outlet for the frustrations of Islamic youth in the UK. In its favour “the message” is abundantly clear in rolling English, but (and this from the perspective of a self-confessed white middle-class aesthete) the formulation lacks both Bhangra’s riddimatic frisson and its electrifying Punjabi vocals. Listen to a Bhangra track like Indy Sagu’s “Club Chaleeay” (released on Untouchables RDB’s imprint) and one imagines one’s eavesdropping on a militant fury; tapping into the kind of excitement which made Public Enemy such a vicarious thrill.

Blissblog
RDBTV
Sona Family
Blakstone

This piece was originally published in FACT Magazine. With special thanks to Sean, Simon, Harry, Surj and Kuly.

Posted by WOEBOT at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

STOP PRESS!

I'm on Resonance FM tomorrow night Tuesday 13th December at 10.30 pm doing my NDW Selektion thing.

There will be added extras like Monopol (see above), Alu (c/o Bas Van Hoof) and, I dunno, Kosmonautraum. Whatever I can squeeze in. Tune in and hear me faffing about.

Posted by WOEBOT at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's been a fortnight or so since I made my contribution to Blackdown's yearly round-up. On Friday I was in Glasgow for the day. I walked from the centre of town all way to the Byres Road end of the Great Western Road so as to drop in on one of my favourite stores Defunkt, only to find it had shut down.

The outfitters who were cheerfully converting it into a clothing store slightly jeered at me. Told me I could have the racks if I liked. Trainspotter. Another one bites the dust? Maybe not. I was pleased to discover this morning that Peter who ran the store has downsized and is working out of Glasgow's Savoy Centre.

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:09 AM | Permalink

Eyes practically popped out of my head when I came across this in one of London's emporia. OK it was the Reckless dance division on Berwick Street, practically soul boy hipster central. And they're cool, friendly dude hipped me to Patrice Rushen's "Feels so Real", and this is obviously a joke. But nonetheless!

And notice the geezer who's scrawled "if you wrote this you're a cunt" on it in biro. Guffaw. It's the textbook London dance-music style war on a record sleeve. Folk who live abroad and all those folks who are hip to the Ardkore 'nuum may be oblivious to this dialogue. On the ground things like Grime, "Chav music", are viewed with real disgust. I've been hanging out online for so long that I kind of forgot how little people think about this music. Quite heartening really!

Posted by WOEBOT at 06:29 PM | Permalink

This post has taken a little longer to materialise than I'd originally planned. I wrote to Sa-Ra a week ago. They have a contact form on their quite minimal website. I clicked it and spewed out about seven questions. Not quite as hopeless as you'd maybe suspect as I noticed that other internet bods had had some luck getting hold of them. Maybe my tone was a bit too free-wheeling, shucks, I dunno? Perhaps it's a good thing, as now I'm free to be as critical as the subject demands.

Before I start heaping praise on the project then, it's a good idea to start with my reservations. I dunno, this whole music business CV shit they peddle, man it makes me want to puke. I just don't care about their past licking the balls of major industry "talent", about their engineering gigs and whatnot. That all three of them have this kind of past, well as far as I'm concerned it doesn't translate into tasty supergroup action. As if being a supergroup was some kind of boon anyway! Supergroup, yuk. Like a gigantic flashing pink neon sign: "Supergroup"

This tendency naturally connects to the phenomenon of the guest spot, hence Pharohe Monche and Jay Dilla on the worst tracks on 'The Second Time Around". If they ever get round to making their LP it'll be wall-to-wall Beyonce. Ditto the "Dark Matter and Phonography CD", it's nothing but a resume of their remix work. I've noticed that one or other of them (or is it all of them, sloppiness triumphs) have been signed up to A&R for the re-congealing Rawkus records, hmm looks like the typical Sa-Ra industry insider shenanigans. They'll get lost in it. Their genius will get lost in a maze of demographic profiling and market stats.

Also Kanye. The Kanye connection. Kanye gets quoted on the sticker on the sleeve. Kanye etc. Kanye has lost it. The second LP? Rubbish. Man, what a disappointment..... I heard Kanye on the Westwood show the other day, wow what a fucking embarassment. Like watching two guide dogs waltzing. Please stop freestyling! Please stop trying to appear modest! Just...stop!

Having said all this, I just adore Sa-Ra. They've truly managed to transcend all their own bullshit. In spite of their insistence on how brilliant they are, they've managed to be brilliant. Their recent pinnacles "Intoxicated", "Second Time Around", "Glorious" and "Hanging by a String" have outshone everything else made in the past year.

"Intoxicated" is so sublimely slight you almost hear past it the first time around. Since when has Hip-Hop managed to sound so strange and tender? Chugging into frame on a Trans-Europe-Express drum pattern, geijin bamboo synth, muted push-me-pull-you group harmonies quivering out of earshot. Grown men going "ooh oh ooh oh". Sighs.

I've gone digital before on how stunned I was by "The Second Time Around", this track literally wobbles out of the speakers, stands upright in the sitting room quivering like steel jelly, clopping doubled drums. The lyric is interesting too in the vapid context of a lot of Platinum Hip-Hop, the message is sensuous and dirty not so pornographic and clean.

"Glorious", well I have Jess to thank for alerting me to this, though I suppose like the Russian fishing trawler I am, I would have hoovered it up sooner or later. "Glorious", again the voices perfectly pitched under the beats, instrumentalised and doubly so by distortion. I swear that's a Maximum Joy bass-line, but the chorus (blinks) strong shades of Duran Duran's "Notorious". Drones cycle up and down the soundscape.

"Hanging on a String" just so mentally decomposed. Any more disintegration and we're into Mark Stewart and The Mafia territory. The drums come in and they're *supposed* to hold it together, but instead they just kick it even further out of shape. Literally hanging together by a thread. It's at moments like these that I ponder the Sa-Ra/Sun Ra connection.

There are many other great great tracks: "Birds", "Daylight", "Jumbo", "Love Stomp", "Rosebuds" and "Space Theme". Really special stuff. My man gumdrops at Dissensus holds a candle for "Butterscotch", "Downtown", "Hollywood" and "Bitch", however these tracks haven't had an official release yet. I spoke to the guy at Honest Jon's and he's pretty sure they have only been available as a CD-R which apparently some DJs have managed to get hold of, and which has presumably been cc'd to mates. Their catalogue IS a bit of a mess. The great Cosmic Dust and Cosmic Lust EPs are only available as super-expensive Japanese imports. What's the deal there? Anyway track breakouts bore me, so I'll leave it at that.

So what are Sa-Ra up to? If you wanted a really crude snapshot of their sound it'd be as follows: like "Juicy Fruit"-era Mtume, very Marcus Miller-period Miles (think "Tutu" and "Man with the Horn") a little 1980s George Duke..... Do you get the gist? That's right, it's a re-vivification of the 80's post-cosmic Jazz. That time when the heavy hitters abandoned concept LPs for some commercial Jazz-Funk action. Everyone knows Mtume right? Well Mtume started out with Miles on "Get Up With It" then went solo on straight up cosmic Jazz like "Rebirth Cycle" (pyramids on the cover...) before penning groovy Jheri-curl-tastic LPs like "Juicy Fruit", "You Me and He" and "Theater of the Mind". Still shades of the cosmic present, albeit transmutated into slick paens to the orgone. Good shit.

My theory, and I put this to Sa-Ra (in my, ahem, unanswered email) was that they were using this music to reverse engineer the trajectory of the capitalistic Hip-Hop hegemony, using it to open a wormhole in time, a metaphorical illogical but lateral step backwards, by way of an escape route in much the same way that a Queen in chess may advance forward, yet also retreat diagonally. Anyway we'll never know what they thought about that, but if Afro-American music gets yet more cosmic please feel to write to me and tell me how clever I am.

The other 80's current is the New Wave inflection present in Sa-Ra's music. This gives their oevre a zeitgeisty feel which it appears Kanye is only just wising up to (via Catchdubs). The whole miscegenation aspect of this is really appealing vis-a-vis SFJ's fetishisation of Liquid/Sugarhill 1980's New York. Skin colour not such a big issue. I like to flash on Bootsy digging Devo (true), Bernie Worrell playing with Talking Heads and the first Prince LP. Old Skool New Wave Funk.

People say their sound owes something to Jay Dilla's. I'm not qualified to comment just yet. Certainly Dilla's fluidity in the face of Techno and Disco sorta indicates this might be right, but (again still awaiting concrete evidence) I suspect the comparison may be superficial.

Will Sa-Ra be massive? Will they be the next Timba-tunes in the absence of Lil' Jon managing to pull off the feat? Hmmm. I dunno. I suspect not. In interviews (with more levelheaded journalists) they talk about wanting to operate at a Coldplay 'cross-over' level. However the problem seems to be that their music kicks off when they're at their most care-free and introspective. Whenever they "go for it" (and this is usually sign-posted by the presence of those characteristic guest artistes) they stumble, become tedious and generic, like on "Double Dutch". "Fish Fillet" and "Thriller".

Just because they look appear be a Jazz-Funk/Nu-Soul outfit and Gilles Peterson likes them, you'd be wrong to write 'em off. Most interesting crew in the world.

Posted by WOEBOT at 10:37 PM | Permalink

I've mentioned occasionally before that my Grandfather Michael Ingram was a celebrated collector of Drawings and Watercolours, mainly Dutch Old Masters and English Watercolours. Grandad died this Summer after having been uncomfortable for a long time. Why this isn't "off-topic" for WOEBOT is, of course, that we shared collecting as a pass-time. My Grandad was, perhaps like me, always keen to share his interests with other people. Over a period of twenty years I spent many, many afternoons going through his drawings with him. We'd sneak in "just another box" before having tea.

His pictures were broadly regarded as the finest private collection of their kind in Britain, and he was regularily visited by the leading lights of Sotheby's and Christies who presumably were not just on fact-finding missions, but were also keen to secure the collection for their respective auction houses. Whilst there are are many pictures contained within it which are famous (works by Constable, Gainsborough, Turner, Samuel Palmer and Girtin) my Grandfather championed relatively obscure characters like John Scarlett Davis and E.T.Davis and had a particular fondness for the work of amateurs like The Reverend Wlliam Bree and Brabazon.

Although it's scarcely reasonable to draw the comparison, I've often thought his fondness for the cheaply and quickly executable media of watercolour and pencil drawing, the quite specific temporal window during which it was seized upon and mastered in England, and the fact that it was often roving amateurs who took to the task, mirrors my own love of Ardkore. He would often buy pictures decades ahead of the curve for pound or two, pictures which will now sell for unfeasibly high sums of money. If only the Ardkore I spent equally small sums upon were quite as profitable (give it time.....) Grandad's other arch collecting trick was his ability to discover important work in unusual places, he once discovered a Rowlandson in someone's loo and bought the picture off them during lunch.

If anyone in London is interested, and this is the other "point" of my post, they should know that his collection (or at least that larger section of which hasn't been claimed by the family, I took a modest five pictures away which I've always particularly liked) can be viewed at Sotheby's (34-35 New Bond Street) this week between Monday 5th and Wednesday 7th. The auction takes place on 8th December.

Posted by WOEBOT at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For years I moaned on and on about how the wonderful "Bird In Hand" from Lee Perry's masterpiece "Return of The Super Ape" was a cover version of a Bollywood tune. Without further ado I give thee:

Talat Mahmood and Shamshad Begum's - "Afsana mera ban gaya"

Just discovered more info myself here.

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:05 PM | Permalink