| GHOST'S favourite albums released
this year.
Lyre Of Orpheus / Abattoir Blues / Nick
Cave & The Bad Seeds
Fulfilling & exceeding the ambition of a double album, Nick’s
wordcraft has never been wittier or more multi focused & the
best most under utilised band in popular music melds the melodies
with perfectly nuanced power & precision, add a gospel choir
& you have their lushest & best album. You get the feeling
that there’s a few more to come.
Bubblegum / Mark Lanegan
Band
His strangely beautiful & lived in voice purrs & powers
songs that range from country empty to industrial clatter &
every ragged port in between. It’s a long compelling lonely
journey into his dark soul.And yours if you dare.
Desperate Youth Blood
Thirsty Babes / TV On The Radio
The first time I heard Pere Ubu’s Modern Dance was on the
car radio at midnight zooming around The Dandenongs in a stoned
state, I felt like I’d picked up an alien broadcast from some
planet in galaxy a bit like ours but strangely different. That’s
the feeling that I got from this gonzo trio’s debut, everything’s
slightly off kilter but somehow majestic & raw as they take
us from Africa to The Beach Boys & into inner & outer space.
Altamont Diary / Black
Cab
What an audacious idea! A concept album based on an American event
that occurred almost 40 years, made by a Melbourne duo. But that’s
just their launching point as they take us on a mesmerising journey
into the dark soul of the hippie dream gone sour. The epic 1970
was my highlight for the year, listening to it I feel taller better
looking & more stoned & righteous.
The Unrelenting Songs
Of The 1979 Post Disco Crash / Jason Forrest
Propulsive, compulsive & totally dazzling, be prepared to be
hurtled through a subsonic hyperkinetic soundscape, where snippets
are administered homeopathically & send the whole mash up into
another reality. The Who’s “ Who are you “ is
claimed back forever from TV crime show prostitution.
Van Lear Rose / Loretta
Lynne
I must admit that country music is under represented in my record
collection, might have something to do with living next door to
a redneck a couple of years ago who came home late & played
“You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me Lucille “ at blaring
volume at 2 AM every night. So I‘m only familiar through the
odd radio hit with the venerable now 70 + lady, but what a revelation
this disc was, beautifully crafted songwriting heartfeltly sung
& perfectly produced by Jack White without a hint of parody
or irony.
Damage / Blues Explosion
I didn’t like this guy’s earlier material, his wannabe
black schtick smacked of Black & White Minstrel Show condescension,
but in recent times he’s discovered how to rock, while refining
his standup almost falling down comedic routine so that everyone
has a good time, not just him . Adventurous guests & producers
make the pungent stew even tastier.
Now Here Is Nowhere /
Secret Machines
Widescreen rock dynamics strapped to pointed pop & cosmic epics
propelled by a kraut rock groove makes this trio’s debut sound
bigger than all the others.
Real Gone / Tom Waits
The sort of rowdy rambunctious record that people a third of his
age should be making but are too timid to. I must confess it’s
not a frequent play but when I want to play in the saucepan cupboard,
it’s my soundtrack of choice.
The Radio Tiddas Sessions
/ Tinariwen
The legendary poet guitarists & soul rebels from the southern
Sahara desert released an excellent studio album Amassakoul this
year, but this set, recorded overnight at a primitive radio station
until the generator ran out of fuel was more direct & ragged.
Play this next to Beggars Banquet & it all makes sense.
God’s Got It / Reverend
Charlie Jackson
You Without Sin Cast The First Stone / Isaiah Owens
I didn’t get religion this year but I did get these remarkable
collections of primitive gospel music, overmodulated ragged electric
guitar & supernaturally loud sanctified vocals deliver a visceral
uplifting effect. Kinda the blues in reverse
London Calling / The Clash
What an incredibly driven & productive band they were, they
were men on a mission, never more evident than this double album
that genre stretched & rocked from beginning to end, showing
just how much better they were than most other bands of their era.
World Of / Arthur Russell
Soul Jazz Records do a great job of reissuing quality music from
the inventive 80s, some like this collection has been only heard
by a small coterie of devotees, a collection of singles & album
tracks that the late songwriter / singer/producer / instrumentalist
made as part of the New York Downtown scene that gave us Talking
Heads, a band he almost joined. Like a feather on a gentle breeze.
50,000 Fall Fans Can’t
Be Wrong / The Fall
Heaven & Hell / The Mekons
All Times Through Paradise / The Saints
Each of these collections reaffirmed why I loved the tracks that
I was familiar with, but exposed me to other material that I’ve
come to enjoy just as much, The Fall have released over 20 albums
over 25 years & The Mekons have been around & as productive
for just as long, only the most rabid of fans have all their material,
this is a perfect way to catch up. And the complete story of an
Australian band who’s brief career trajectory was disproportionate
to their enduring legacy.
Dear Heather / Leonard
Cohen
The incantatory voice, intensely human, the bass deeper than a drum,
the blurred whisper almost a breath, beautifully intimately recorded
bringing us gentle wisdom from 70 years lived well & full &
the lessons learned.
Ghost Translations / The
Sand Pebbles
I don’t what it was exactly about this disc, perhaps the freshness,
the lack of calculation, the great combination of enthusiasm &
craft, but everytime I put it on, their pop/rock sensibility makes
me a little more joyful.
DFA Presents Vol2 / Various
This 3 album collection, one a mix disc, captures their post everything
production style that can bring out the urban primitive in all of
us.
Outernational / Thievery
Corporation
Inspiracion Espiracion / Gotan Project
2 masterful mix discs that work as well for listening as they do
for group grooving. I’ll keep them close all summer.
Sunset Scavenger / DJ
Zeph
A surprisingly eclectic mix that avoided gimmicks, embraced variety
& delivered a sort of faux DJ Shadow for the year.
Walking Cloud & Deep
Red Sky / Mono
Symphonic emotional instrumentals that move from a whisper to a
roar & back again with authority & dignity.
Nino Rojo / Devendra Banhart
Sooner or later one of those street busking barefoot hippies that
you try not to bump into on the footpath would have their dream
come true, make records, make money & fly first class. That
said, his prolific idiot savant lyricism & a certain almost
ancient tone to his voice makes him more than just this year’s
novelty.
Gwotet / David Murray
& The Gwo-Ka Masters
Where Afro beat funk jazz & big (14 piece) band musics meld
seamlessly, with guest player Pharoah Sanders’ free blowing
on a couple of tracks, a joyous communion of cross cultural musical
hearts & minds
Satan’s Circus /
Death In Vegas
A late inclusion, an album of electronic instrumentals that homages
Kraftwerk, Neu, Tangerine Dream, Eno, Cabaret Voltaire & others
in a very entertaining way, with a live album that matches the duo
with a snarling guitar rock band that captures the drone of their
drugged out dirges perfectly.
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