From: "Jeffrey W. Breeze" <jbreeze-NOSPAM@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
To: Doug Orleans <dougo@ccs.neu.edu>
Subject: My favorite records of 1998
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 21:35:55 -0600 (CST)
Reply-To: "Jeffrey W. Breeze" <jbreeze-NOSPAM@mail.coin.missouri.edu>

For the first time in a while I can't actually say that there was a best
record of 1998.  I mean there was lots of good stuff and just about enough
great stuff, but in truth I'm finding in tougher and tougher to figure out
how I'm supposed to listen to *1* David S. Ware's _Go See the World_
Columbia (one of only six major label records purchased this year) and
compare it to *2* Bright _Blue Christian_ Darla.  These records don't
speak the same language and they have different powers as well as
different Achilles heels.  So the list isn't presented in anything but a
rough sketch of order.  The difference between 1 and 20 really is only the
way that these records speak to me.
	Ware exudes a power unlike anything that you've heard in a long
time, I mean avant artists act like Derek Bailey or John Zorn.  David S
Ware is a presence and his compositions exist on the realm of the natural
not merely the theoretical.  What happens here is fresh and exciting and
powerful.
	Bright, well, someone used the term Amerikraut in reference to
these guys.  They jam and open up in ways which most directly cite their
German antecedents.  And somehow this too is fresh it stands out and above
most of the rest of last years releases.
	*3* Gastr del Sol's _Camofleur_ (Drag City) watched a band get
into an intellectual battle with itself and produce one of those albums
which is looked back at with steamy eyes.  It's like Big Star's 3rd it
seems an ideological conflict where ultimately the band wins and everyone
else walks out without looking back.
	*4* Andre Williams' _Silky_ (In The Red) is probably the nastiest
dirtiest, sleaziest record that came out last year.  And that's before we
even take a look at the lyrics.  Mick and Dan Gorie provide their most
feral backbeat in years, While Andre opens up and shows us the
lecherousness of his soul.  Depraved and brilliant.
	*5* The Northerns _The Tragic Nature of Dead Children_
(self-released local Columbia, MO available at the record store that uses
my email address)  This acoustic trio spent 6 years honing their chops
creating a world of sound that is distinctly their own, they finally grace
us with a 23 song CD (none of the 7" tracks are included).  In reality
what they are is the anti-Minutemen.  They are skinny and find their voice
in an equal but opposite direction.
	*6* Subsonics _Follow Me Down_ (Get Hip) is the sexiest record of
the year. (I already wrote a good capsule review of this which I will
forward to get put in where this is, but it was my summer record of summer
98)
	*7* Aceyalone _Book of Human Language_ (Project Blowed) And for
the first time in too long the sound of big beats booming stirred
something in my latent white fanny.  I had some hip hop to hang on to
something that found its way to make a connection with me.  Smart lyrics
and beautifully crafted sounds and beats.  This made me go back and
listen to all of my rap that had crept to the back of my shelves.  A
rewarding experience that has a world view that stretches beyond the
windshield.
	*8* The Hangovers _Slow Dirty Tears_ (Kill Rock Stars)  Gina Birch
steps away from the Raincoats and makes a record for the year that
reflects the time in a very romantic fashion.  This out-guns PJ at her own
game and makes everyone else look paltry by comparison.  "Sitting on the
Top of the World"  may well be the best vocal performance of the year if
it isn't song of the year already.  Sultry, Sexy and Strong, Slow Dirty
Tears.
	*9* Pere Ubu _Pennsylvania_ (Tim/Kerr) a return of original
drummer brings back the nature of Ubu. The band speaks with the same force
as in 1975.  Transcending time, this Ubu doesn't cut any corners, they
make music that exists on its own.  (Previous recent Ubu issued have been
marred by production faux pas here they sound in control like they haven't
since the Hearpen days)
	*10* Village of Savoonga _Score_ (Hausmusik) The first time you
sit down to this, you hear a band created a unified piece of music.  This
evokes it's mood that nimbly teeters between tension and release, control
and chaos. Also of note from a similarly comprised group The Notwist made
electronica out of classic rock cliches, and hooks that can beat garbage
into submission. *11* The Notwist _Shrink_ (Zero Hour) is the only album I
got this year that appeared on any of the Spin lists.  I didn't realize
how far I was from the fringe.  
	*12* Godspeed You Black Emporer _f#a#8_(imagine the 8 is on its
side)(Kranky!)  First released on some Canadian label on vinyl this passed
below my radar at that time so now I consider it from '98.  Some bizarre
mix that acts like Gavin Bryars reworking Ennio Morricone soundtracks.
Rainy Days, Mondays, and this record always get me down.
	*13* Retsin _Sweet Luck of Amaryllis_ (Carrot Top)  A sweeter more
melancholy album does not exist (not with a 98 copyright at least)  Tara
Jane (Rodan, Sonora Pine,...) finally figures out how to destruct the folk
form and create a new set of sounds that transcend the noise and work when
stripped down to basic guitars and voices and harmonies.
	*14* Pluramon _Render Bandits_ (Mille Plateux) Transient
Soundscapes that leave you breathless and spellbound.  Balancing the
electronics with tangible elements of sound results in a sort of
soundtrack for those left to clean up the party of decadence that is 1999.
	*15* David Grubbs _The Thicket_ (Drag City) In a grand return to
the song form, the elements that were Gastr are retransfigured to create
an actual band, albeit one of the few with a drone violin master.  The way
this all gets put back together looks pretty damn good from here.  And the
songs fit into their cycle telling a story that starts with where the last
chapter left off.  For fans of fine eccentric pop craftsmanship everywhere.
	*16* Gunter Muller/Jim O'Rourke   _Weighting_ (For4Ears)  Where
electronics had taken over on the last two improvisations between this
duo, this record is dominated by an austere naturality that pushes against
its confines.  The mood is more ceremonial, more elegiac and that works
exceptionally.  Also in its favour is the exquisite sound quality... the
sound portends that has been made by Pauline Oliveros in the cistern, 17th
Century Chambers, and a future of unknown.  O'Rourke also contributed a
beautiful piece of tape cut/musique concrete which bears up under the
extra-musical texts of its source material.  It was on a 10" called _Please
Note Our Failure_ (Some)
	*17* L.A.L.(Love as Laughter) _#1 USA_ (K)  While the 70s flashed
their glamorous sides in the guises of the Makers, Velvet Goldmine, Vodka
Collins(Man's Ruin) reissue, and Cadallaca, nobody other than Sam Jayne
(lync, beck) found the heart of it.  With songs that ring and hook
alongside the finest efforts of the Kinks, this is the unsung rock moment
of 98.
	*18* King Sound Quartet _The Get Down Imperative_ (In the Red)
showed us a glimpse at the great garage band that never was.  The meeting
between the North (Mick Collins) and the South (Tim Kerr) showed a band so
aware of what they were doing and so capable as to cover Negative
Approach, Ray Charles and Sun Ra to such a point as that you need to go
into a discussion as to where the definitive version lies.  Unfortunately
this was all that appears to have happened (a single was on Estrus in 97).
Mick also checked in with a Dirtbombs record that features one of the
finest guitar solos on record.
	*19* David Shea _Classical Works_ (Tzadik) While everyone sits
around patting themselves on the back for noticing the brilliance of John
Zorn's _Aporias_, most everyone has missed an even stronger piece of
traditional music.  And Shea's techniques and seamless addition of
Samplers to the classical palate expands the possibilities of sound for
much time to come.  "Chamber Symphony #1" composed for the Ictus Ensemble
shows Shea letting his hands free from his ideas and he gets to watch it
soar.  "The 'Voice' Suite" features Shea with Erik Friedlander and Jim
Pugliese in a trio setting with Shea also manipulating Samples of Ictus
members.
	And somehow there are more quality records than can fit into a
group of twenty.  And instead of forgetting everything outside of those
musical parameters, and to tease the time before you get to 20, here comes
a list of honorable mentions not already mentioned: REISSUES: Sonics
(Norton & Beat Rocket); Moebius, Plank, Thompson (Drag City); This Heat
2*12"(These); v/a (Teenage Shutdown); v/a Fit For Kings (Drunken Fish);
Nuno Canavarro (Moikai);  LOCAL MUSIC: Jerk s/t(Junkpuncher); Jesse
Sterling Harrison _Catch and Release Program_; Darktown House Band _Hot
Toungue, Cold Shoulder_; Amputee Set/Breaker Morant split(BMAS); OTHER:
NRG Ensemble, Zeena Parkins,(Atavistic); Bruce Russell 12" (Siltbreeze);
Plush (Drag City); Pintetop 7, Boxhead Ensemble (Truckstop); Rondelles
(Smells Like); and Shellac with their opening track whose name I can never
remember when I need to which probably defined more mmods of the year than
anything else (it, however you felt about it good or bad, was
interminable).
	And slipping through heavy competition *20* Arnold Dreyblatt's
_The Sound of One String_ (Table of the Elements)  A retrospective of the
missing years after Dreyblatt left the United States, and watching how he
created his own language of sound.  The sounds of excited strings bring
the ideas espoused by minimalists like Riley  and Cage and brought them
into the realm of people, here the ideas were not conceptual and academic
but instead honest and striking.
	And that's what much of 1998 was a search for honesty in a world
where that alone was often the furthest thing from the headlines.


						Jeff Breeze
						jbreeze-NOSPAM@mail.coin.missouri.edu

From: "Jeffrey W. Breeze" <jbreeze-NOSPAM@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
Subject: Top 20 Addendum, Corrections...
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 17:38:43 -0600 (CST)

Despite remembering the two records which were not mentioned in my first
slew of typing there aren't any numeric correctioins, only textual
corrections.

Subsonics   Follwow Me Down   Get Hip 

	This record exudes an omnidirectional sexuality.  It wants to turn
everyone on.  In the summer of 1998, we see music stratified as either
rock or roll.  The Subsonics seek to unify these 2 disjunct principles.
These are tunes ofd unrequited lust which reveal that we can have a lot
more fun than just getting jiggy wit' it.  The record of Summer 1998.


The best single of the year was Eric Mingus' "How I Miss My Gun" showing
that even if the genius doesn't run as strong in the family, at least the
chops and soul do.
 
The best record of the year for me since i found it now even though it
wasn't reissued or anyhting, but iunstead it is just happenstance: Booby
Darin's _born Walden Robert Cassotto_.  The picture of a musician at a
crossroads and deciding to jump off the face of the earth.  Where this
record comes from, no one really knows, that it is hyperbrilliance is
apparent once the needle touches the groove.


thanks,
jeff 


						Jeff Breeze
						jbreeze-NOSPAM@mail.coin.missouri.edu

***
Nobody's Crazy Enough . . . Locally