Say, what gives, McGillicuddy? Looking back on my ’16 list, I’ve realised that I barely got back around to some of those choices during ’17. Odd. I did really like that Car Seat Headrest record. Pinegrove too. Here’s what I discovered in ’17 that I hope will continue to excite me into ’18.
haruka nakamura PIANO ENSEMBLE,
Ben Lukas Boysen & Sebastian Plano,
Max Richter,
Jilk,
Throwing Snow,
Tom Hobden & Eliot James,
Páll Ragnar Pálsson,
Soundwalk Collective, Francisco López,
Valgeir Sigurðsson,
Zu,
fuck 17
I know we all know someone/love someone/hate someone who said
Wow! I’m glad that fuckin’ year’s over when 2017 finally broke.
But wasn’t it a prologue in many ways? A year older/closer/nearer the fire?
And who knew that fire was a bushland combustion,
devouring our time/our senses/our songs?
Who knew the forward rate of spread
would be so rapid? The department of this/the department of that
acting as accelerants, torching canopy and street. Leaping fire breaks
w/a single bound. An uncontrolled disaster. The coup behind
the theatrics. A smoldering transition scorching the air.
Great vertical differences you feel in your bed/your shower/your soul.
A stack effect, for sure, as air rises when it’s heated. Birthing new updrafts,
sucking the air from the baby’s room.
2017 done, dusted … and we’re still alive! We may be the laughingstock of the planet, but at least we’re still here to laugh. And at the end of these next four years (or less … hope springs eternal!) we may even have learned something valuable about ourselves as a nation. There is a feeling somewhere inside me that says this struggle we’re facing will make us a better people and a better nation. Don’t get me wrong, I still think most people don’t know what’s good for them, but I think enough people will realize that what we have…
Well, I gotta Pflug my own work first.
Bob Lukomski Höre CD (Earwaker Recordings)
Not that it’s the greatest thing out there, but I put good time and energy into this little 6 track CD of electronic epigrams. Old synths, new synths, borrowed synths, and yes, a blue synth. And I wasn’t even getting married. Kraftwerk meets David Axelrod in spots, lots of clean lines and simple electronic percussion. No vocals, you can get it local.
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile,
Grandaddy,
Happyness,
Kevin Morby,
Mogwai,
queens of the stone age,
Roger Waters,
The Feelies,
The Replacements,
The War on Drugs,