Wednesday, January 2, 2008

:::: ALBUMS OF 2007 ::::


HERE ARE MY TOP RATED ALBUMS OF 2007 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
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V/A "50 Years of New Music in Darmstadt 1946-1996" -Reissue (Col Legno)
Bernard Parmegiani "Chants Magnétiques" -Reissue (Fractal)
Janek Schaefer "In The Last Hour" (Room40)
Pan Sonic "Katodivaihe" (Blast First)
Oren Ambarchi "In the Pendulums' Embrace" (Touch)
Lost in Hildurness "Mount A" (12 tonar)
V/A "Hitokomakura : Yasujiro Ozu" (and/OAR)
Adrian Klumpes "Be Still" (Leaf)
Tord Gustavsen Trio "Being There" (ECM)
Ultralyd "Conditions for a Piece of Music" (Rune Grammofon)
KTL "2" (Mego)
Luigi Nono "Prometeo" (Col Legno)
Gavin Bryars/Philip Jeck/Alter Ego Ensemble "The Sinking of the Titanic" (Touch)
Marcus Schmickler "Altars of Science" (surround-DVD edition) (Mego)
Zeitkratzer/Lou Reed "Metal Machine Music" (Asphodel)
Peter Brotzmann Octet "Complete Machine Gun Sessions" -Reissue (Atavistic)
Boris/Merzbow "Rock Dream" (Southern Lord)

Another pretty darn explorative year in sound, there were many works that took the ears to exciting places (especially appearing this past fall) that did so in distinct, expressive and adventurous ways. In particular appearing in the strange
crossroads where modern classical, musique concrete, improv and noise all meet. Some of these were even witnessed
out in the world in a 3rd Dimension kind of way, performed live, loud and vital.

As an aside, this year dubstep replaced hip hop as my musical candy/junkfood of choice, offering a nutrition-less but
tasty counter to the more brainy culinary-type sounds listed above:

Burial "Ghost Hardware" (Hyperdub)
Sub Version "Soul-Jah Boogie" (Soul Jazz)
Gatekeeper/Shackleton "Soundboy's Bones Get Buried in the Dirt" (Skull Disco)
Pole "Achterbahn - Shackleton Remix" (Scape)