The year began just after Christmas 2013 when I decided to spend some cash on my 'replacement CD' wishlist on Amazon. That's my list for stuff I've already acquired partially or in whole through the wonders of file-sharing in years gone by. I'm serious about funding the people I like. I've said before that in youth a trip to the local independent music retailer was always an excruciating process of triage, and so bountiful free music was horizon-expanding if not wholly ethical (I admit). Charlotte Hatherley is on record criticising file-sharing, and having greatly enjoyed her third solo album and parts of her first two I decided to put down money on them. I wish I had listened to all of The Deep Blue at the time so I could have enjoyed the sheer uncompromising sound of 'Siberia' many more times over by now. That spurred me to check what she's been doing since her last release in late 2009 whereupon I discovered she'd changed sounds and put out an EP under the name Sylver Tongue. I'm a bit undecided on the change of direction and hope to hear more soon. In the exact same manner, I'd picked up some tracks from Chairlift's album in 2012 and two years down the line was sufficiently hooked I wanted the rest. In order not to miss any of the above's releases I gave in and followed them on Twitter. Metronomy are another band I've tried not to lose track of, yet their new release didn't appeal to me. I wasn't too keen on the 70s visuals and the preview never really grabbed my attention. The song 'Monstrous' did capture a little of the good aspects of their old video-game style sound from five years ago, but even then it's not one I'd have on heavy repeat.
My interest in the Vaporwave genre started to dissipate as quickly as it had formed. 18 Carat Affair and Christtt (officially and trollingly spelt with three typographic daggers) represent the final embers of its hold on my ears. Having gotten into making music via the genre's punk sensibility of needing little musical training, on making my first track and having it turn out firmly in a jazz mould I looked more toward the likes of Skalpel (who surprised me when I saw they had a new album out after ten years) and The Cinematic Orchestra. What soured me to some examples of vaporwave that I had enjoyed, in this case the Contemporary Sapporo album, was on investigating the samples to find they were lifted virtually intact and at length (The Macintosh Plus album was a lot more obvious in its light-handedness and so got a pass). The KLF might have liberally liberated Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' from copyright and flashed two fingers while doing it ("Don't take five, take what you want!") but they did it with their irreverent humour. Vaporwave is supposed to be a critique, via pastiche, of consumerism and the muzak that pacifies consumers and enables it. 'Marble Gardening Theme' seemed like a beautiful song until I found out it completely rips off a prolific jazz-fusion group The Rippingtons. My admiration was misplaced because the song I loved was actually 'Oceansong' by them. It bugged me so much because the sources aren't credited and the samples are so long that the act can't be called sampling - that's what really soured me because I listened to 'Shopping @ Home Network LLC' believing I could assemble clips into something like that. Later in the year I gave the same producer of many aliases a better reception in encountering Neo Cali and Color Ocean Road on YouTube. Eco Virtual secures a spot despite my turn against the genre because 'Lavender Club' re-energised me after a couple of months not making much. I'd been handicapping myself working with single songs when I realised I should have been first to take the saxophone intro of Sting's 'Sister Moon' and put it over another sample. So obvious once you see someone else do it.
The mid-point of the year heralded two albums I was waiting for. VHS Head's sophomore album made it out first after some delays in publishing. It took a while for me to find the tunes in Persistence of Vision. I've listened to Trademark Ribbons of Gold so much I've forgotten a time when I had to work to feel the music. 'Red Ocean Apocalypse' had been previewed on Soundcloud so it took the least effort to catch my ear, followed by 'Gas Human No. 1' and 'Camera Eyes'. A little later the middle section of the album worked its way in, particularly 'Body Magic' which I'm compelled to put on repeat frequently. The latter part of the album still doesn't work for me, though. The song 'Jealousy' sounded impressive for a palette consisting of VHS cassette samples - then it turned out to be pretty much another liberal sample of an existing song.
The second awaited release was Lone's follow-up to Galaxy Garden. I've written many words about how fucking much I love that album. As time goes on, now two and a half years since release, it continues to make a home in my heart. In 2013 he'd dropped the single 'Airglow Fires' and I ate it up, heightening my expectations for the next album. With those sentences in mind, you can perhaps foresee my disappointment. The first problem was well before release when the track list was revealed in February. Earlier that month I'd shelled out for a vinyl copy of Airglow Fires. Being a digital and vinyl release with no CD print, I definitely wanted its physical presence - same with the Echolocations EP. I bought it on vinyl in addition to already having bought it as a download because I thought it was another one-off single in the vein of 'Joy Reel', 'Once in a While', or 'Pineapple Crush' as Lone often does between albums. Some of these usually indicate a slight change of direction. 'Once in a While' foreshadowed the lush summery tone for Galaxy Garden. 'Airglow Fires' appeared to me to do the same, along with its B-side 'Begin to Begin' continuing the water sounds theme (rain, a jug of water, a stream, the ocean) that ran through Galaxy Garden and introducing a new radio tuning effect (that indeed ran through the album). Thus, Reality Testing got off to a bad start when the A and B sides of Airglow Fires sat slap-bang in the middle of the album. I was happy to pay twice for a song I loved, but now I felt I was being cheated into buying it a third time and getting an album with two fewer tracks. There was an interview and preview of the album on YouTube in which he addressed this issue. In my mind I still can't shake the feeling this was a move to pad out the album. It pains me to say that and that the album fell short for me. The Needle Drop YouTube channel often revels in being harshly critical, but his negative review of Reality Testing didn't infuriate me. I had to agree I was disappointed, and it disappoints me to be disappointed because I can hear the change of direction Lone was producing on this album. I wonder if it could have done with an extra year's work and then I also wonder whether it was rushed out on the back of Galaxy Garden's success - particularly if we're to believe Airglow Fires was a lead single from it, the explanation for its inclusion. It's natural for an artist to want to explore different territory, but sometimes you can't follow them everywhere - we all know the cliché of 'I only like their early stuff'. The tracks that I enjoyed most descend quite regularly from Galaxy Garden - 'Meeker Warm Energy', 'Aurora Northern Quarter', '2 is 8', 'Coincidences', 'Jaded' - all actually feel quite short or my mind drifts because they often struggle to progress and I typically end up listening to them twice. 'Vengeance Video' harks back to the edgier Detroit influenced work on Emerald Fantasy Tracks (2010). 'Cutched Under' was a left-field change of direction I didn't expect. I saw it derided on WATTM.com as sub Luther Van Dross, yet somehow it ended up a firm favourite. As I absolutely refuse to recognise the Airglow Fires release as part of Reality Testing, the album is left with those seven tracks reaching only 31 minutes running time. I'm quite eager for what Lone has in store because this meal fell short of the recommended intake. I still have fond memories of listening to this the first few times, though, on account of having it on whilst working in scorching June in a seafront area. Context matters.
And so to the awards, it being awards season since I'm so late in writing this.
The Obscure Alternatives Award goes, as always, to a song no-one's heard of and even once they have they can't bloody get it because it's out of print and you have to rip it off YouTube in awful quality to your generic music device just to satisfy your desire to listen to it over and over again on the go. The selection is somewhat limited this year. However, Tom Browne's 'Throw Down' clinches it on account that the parent album (Browne Sugar) is available only via US import on Amazon for the current prices of £35 to £45 - still a bit steep for my tastes. Once again I have to thank Grand Theft Auto's radio stations for some of the choices in the middle of this year.
The Roygbiv Eargasm Award is my most prestigious award that could so easily have been named the Can't Get You Out of My Head award if I'd started this more than a decade ago. The sentiment is the same. What has been looping in my ear this year? Electronica tends to triumph here. VHS Head won it in 2011 with 'Sunset Everett' and Lone won 2012 with 'Dream Girl/Sky Surfer', so whilst both were in the running this year they are ruled out in favour of a newcomer. Vektroid is a close runner-up evoking Pokémon memories with 'Seafoam Island', yet my finger hit rewind the most in April when I added the Under the Skin soundtrack to my iPod (and (mostly inherited) vinyl collection). I've spent so much of 2014 harping on about that film that I'm almost pressuring myself to retract it. Mica Levi's music is so perfectly weird a fit for the film, somewhere between classical and super-abstract electronica. I've actually refrained from watching it again in some strange effort to crystallise my viewing of it in my memory. The track 'Love' is just so astonishingly sickly beautiful. If I had to describe it, and I suppose that description would also serve the scene it accompanies - it would be soundtrack to an insect falling in love for the first time or at best simulating some kind of approximation of the emotion.
Here then is the annual selection which, whilst it may be the shortest to date, may probably be the most contemporary too - the average is heavily weighted to the last two years.
- Siberia - Charlotte Hatherley ; The Deep Blue (2007)
- Something Big - Sylver Tongue ; Something Big [EP] (2012)
- KACL 80 AM - Christtt ; Frasierwave (2013)
- T'Leche - 18 Carat Affair ; Televised Tragedies (2011)
- Monstrous - Metronomy ; Love Letters (2014)
- Quem Me Leva - Thievery Corporation ; Saudade (2014)
- Amanaemonesia - Chairlift ; Something (2012)
- Love - Mica Levi ; Under the Skin OST (2014)
- Tears Strained Eyes - Konami ; Snatcher OST (1995)
- Body Magic - VHS Head ; Persistence of Vision (2014)
- Aurora Northern Quater - Lone ; Reality Testing (2014)
- Ashley's Roachclip - The Soul Searchers ; Salt of the Earth (1974)
- 1759 (Outro) - Richard Spaven ; Spaven's 5ive (2010)
- Crockett's Theme - Jan Hammer ; Miami Vice (1984)
- Throw Down - Tome Browne ; Browne Sugar (1979)
- Peculiar Paradise - Chairlift ; Amanaemonesia [Single] (2012)
- Little Bird / Little Boat (Medley) - Bill Perkins ; Bossa Nova with Strings Attached (1963)
- Seafoam Island - Vektroid ; Color Ocean Road (2012)
- Lavender Club - Eco Virtual ; Atmospheres 第3 (2014)
- Triste - Howard Roberts ; Guilty!! (1967)
- Siesta - Skalpel ; Transit (2014)
Jan 13th 0430
[2000]
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