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every year i put together my favorite ten albums i have purchased. all albums must be released in the year in question, and i do not discriminate between popular and underground. this year brought a new revelation in listening. for the past couple years, my taste had been limited to electronic music, world beat, and jazz. this year opened up such avenues as hip-hop, indie rock, and pop music into my ears and my heart. i present to you my top ten albums of the year for the reasons listed below. it's a very biased list. ::smile::
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10. dj krush - code 4109 - If someone would have said japanese hip-hop two years ago, i would have laughed and said it wasn't possible. now i'm on the search for more. dj krush is one of the best djs out there, fusing obscure samples, overlaying tracks like it's nobody's business, and not afraid to use his own stuff in this particular set. the mix quality is near perfect and when the album is done, i want more everytime i hear it. |
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9. air - virgin suicides soundtrack - a reviewer said that this could have been called 'dark side of the moon safari' and i think they are dead on. a soundtrack, or in this case a score, needs to properly complement the movie without destroying the vision it is supposed to envelop. i am also a firm believer that the score should be able to stand by itself, which this one can. air is one of those bands that will continue to haunt and intrigue me throughout my life, that cd i'll keep on the shelf and my kids will ask 'how can you like this stuff'? if 'playground love' isn't the best song of the year, especially for the loving, then i don't know what is. mmmmmmm... i'm your high school lover... |
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8. lazy dog - lazy dog - yes, yes, yes... give it to me, more, more, more! i looooooove deep house. i love jazz and horns and guitars and pianos and all sorts of sounds that make the music accesible to myself and my peers. i love how vocals and instruments can come together over a 4/4 beat and meld itself to a journey through the elements of house/jazz/funk/world over two hours. lazy dog took me by surprise, and every time i listen to it, i get a warm feeling in my soul, knowing that the music is taking me on a journey up and away from the days of my life to the rainy days on dirty streetcorners that i imagine heaven to be. |
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7. doves - lost souls - surprisingly, all the releases i dreaded on astralwerks became my favorites after subsequent listens. as much as i think an album should grab me by the balls before i enjoy it, the soundscaping of the guitar and the percussion is reminiscent of steve roach's soundscapes, and the music itself borders on shoegazer one moment and alternative rock the next. the lyrics are achy, and make me remember my roots in alternative music and my new love of goth music. this strange dichotomy is what makes it number seven. |
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6. v/a - xen cuts - normally, i think it's cheezy to put a compilation on any 'best of...' list because they don't seem to have anything to them. however, when ninja tune goes digging for b-sides, scrapped tracks, unreleased hype, and whatever else their ninja hands can get a hold of, the result is wonderful. disc one is a wonderful jumping point for both hip-hop and turntablism. disc two is fusion jazz at it's best, putting the two together without destroying the other. disc three is a treasure hunter's dream. big ups to ninja tune and this compilation. better packaging next time, though! |
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5. kozo - planned penetration - after recommending this so many times and not hearing a single response, i'm going to try one more time to appeal to the idm and jazz fans out there to give this a whirl. it debuted in january, and i love every bit of it. detached beats with improv trumpet run through a pole-esque mixer, and you have kozo. it was so radically different from anything i've heard that i had to give it a try. waveform found a gem with kozo, and i eagerly await the next album. |
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4. day one - ordinary man - i like most of this album, but most importantly the last track, 'ordinary man'. if any track could sum up the inadequacy i feel toward myself and the world, this is it. in fact, this song was my theme for proposing to my fiancee, and to this day, if i hear this tune, i get teary eyed, if i don't start crying. the rest of the album, while not as emotional, hit upon a british take of things that have happened in my short life right now, and that affinity places it up here with the rest of the albums of the year. |
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3. luke vibert/bj cole - stop the panic - this album came out of left field for me, and i wasn't sure what to expect as i found wagon christ to be delightfully weird, yet incomprehensible at times. i've strangely been a fan of bj cole and not even known it until purchasing this album and looking up other references to bj. very neat. the mix of vibert's kookiness and bj cole's mastery of the steel guitar makes this a wonderful album as well. seeing them live in chicago was a wonderful experience. |
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2. eric clapton/bb king - riding with the king - take two legends in blues, put them together in a studio, and out comes bliss. the album is distinctly half clapton and half bb king, but they work together so well that one begins to wonder who is doing what and where. blues guitar will never be the same after these two, and this album shows how far each has come, and that the road is not yet finished for either of them. why this wasn't nominated for something is beyond me. again, the critics have their collected heads up their ass. 2000 was the year i rode with the king. |
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1. dimitri from paris - a night at the playboy mansion - this particular cd did three things for me that no other cd this year could do. (1) it made me want to be a dj in the worst way, and lead to me purchasing turntables within two weeks of purchasing this disc. (2) it showed me that dj'ing could be fun and have soul and not be a trendy, holier-than-thou, bow to my fucking name house mix. (3) it got my father into electronic music as he was a chef at the playboy club in chicago back in the 70s. these three things, combined with solid mix quality and brilliant track selection and reconstruction make it my album of the year. |
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