Another year with my ear all over the place. Since my schedule necessitated a gym membership, and the gym music largely isn't my thing, I've been indulging lately with the guilty pleasures: faves from "urban" radio and the stuff of my youth -- hip-hop and dance music. Battle circle music. Funk, breaks and Kraftwerk-inspired electro. B-boy badness on the elliptical trainer.
None of the songs make this list because they're usually singles and/or one-offs from 25-plus years ago. In 2008, I really need to start making monthly playlists again -- my faves covering a fixed period, a way to keep track of great singles that might not be on great albums.
And of also remembering things more deeply. Alas, if music is a foothold in place and time, then one can't live on old memories. So, some new ones:
• A restless night on a crosscountry train trip, listening to Bill Ricchini's latest and watching the lights of a snow-covered Salt Lake City come and go against the blackness of the Great Salt Lake.
• Beulah's opening "goodness knows it's been a wonderful run" after a delayed late night flight into Oakland.
• From The Cinematic Orchestra's latest, Fontella Bass singing the stark meditations "Breathe" and "Familiar Ground" the day my old friend Jeff passed away from cancer. Jeff would play Kool Moe Dee's "I Go to Work" to get us hyped before football games.
I go to work like a boxer
trained and aimed to out fox ya ...
You wanna know my occupation?
I get paid to rock the nation.
I go to work.
If I had to pick highlights from this list, it'd be Sun Ra's Languidity with a nod to Ricci Rucker's samplist's delight Fuga da Voi. I think I've listened to more jazz this year than I have since college. If I were to explain why, you'd think I'd gone off the deep end. But it has to do with light and movement and color and dance. The imagery when listening to it. Agh. I've said to much. Jazz doesn't explain. It doesn't apologize.
Know By Heart, American Analog Set
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon
Free, Fontella Bass
CéU, CéU
Fuga da Voi, Ricci Rucker
Again and Again, Destani Wolf
I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, Yo La Tengo
Tonight I Burn Brightly, Bill Ricchini
Languidity, Sun Ra
Sound Grammar, Ornette Coleman
None of the songs make this list because they're usually singles and/or one-offs from 25-plus years ago. In 2008, I really need to start making monthly playlists again -- my faves covering a fixed period, a way to keep track of great singles that might not be on great albums.
And of also remembering things more deeply. Alas, if music is a foothold in place and time, then one can't live on old memories. So, some new ones:
• A restless night on a crosscountry train trip, listening to Bill Ricchini's latest and watching the lights of a snow-covered Salt Lake City come and go against the blackness of the Great Salt Lake.
• Beulah's opening "goodness knows it's been a wonderful run" after a delayed late night flight into Oakland.
• From The Cinematic Orchestra's latest, Fontella Bass singing the stark meditations "Breathe" and "Familiar Ground" the day my old friend Jeff passed away from cancer. Jeff would play Kool Moe Dee's "I Go to Work" to get us hyped before football games.
I go to work like a boxer
trained and aimed to out fox ya ...
You wanna know my occupation?
I get paid to rock the nation.
I go to work.
If I had to pick highlights from this list, it'd be Sun Ra's Languidity with a nod to Ricci Rucker's samplist's delight Fuga da Voi. I think I've listened to more jazz this year than I have since college. If I were to explain why, you'd think I'd gone off the deep end. But it has to do with light and movement and color and dance. The imagery when listening to it. Agh. I've said to much. Jazz doesn't explain. It doesn't apologize.
Know By Heart, American Analog Set
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon
Free, Fontella Bass
CéU, CéU
Fuga da Voi, Ricci Rucker
Again and Again, Destani Wolf
I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, Yo La Tengo
Tonight I Burn Brightly, Bill Ricchini
Languidity, Sun Ra
Sound Grammar, Ornette Coleman
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