Best of 2013 - Part One

2013 was an excellent year for music. Thinking back it seemed to have been a good year before I sat down to list my highlights, but as my shortlist got longer I realised just how much good music I'd heard in 2013.

Traditionally I've produced a top 5 or 6 albums list based on new releases alone, but this year I'm going all "music mag" with favourite tracks, reissues and new release lists as well. It's a sneaky way of recognising a few of the other albums that made the year's music so enjoyable.

In case the title of this blog post wasn't too much of a giveaway I've decided to split the list into two posts; the first part covers new album releases whilst the second covers reissues, tracks/songs and compilations.  

Here goes...

New Release Albums

My Bloody Valentine – MBV: Took a gamble and bought this without hearing it first; the great fear being that it would be just a re-tread of past glories with no new ideas - it wasn’t! No one else could have made this album.

Rovo and System 7 – Phoenix Rising: Japanese techno-improv meets hippie guitar hero-turned chill-out master and his keyboard-toting missus; sparks fly, genre-straddling tunes emerge – joyous sounds result.

Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest: From the midst of a baffling but intriguing pre-launch campaign emerged the most consistently haunting and coherent album from BOC since ‘Geogaddi’ or maybe even the ‘In a Beautiful Place in the Country’ EP. Repays repeated listens.

Jacco Gardner - Cabinet of Curiosities: Jacco is from the Netherlands but sings in English. He’s made an album of psych-folk which features a variety of instruments which, combined with cleverly harmonised vocals, delivers beautiful soundscapes and textures that linger in the brain. Is this part of the psychedelic revival the music press say is taking place? No idea, it’s just a belter – and this from a man who generally doesn’t do “folk”.

Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin:  Should you ever actually find yourself in a floating coffin, get someone to stick this on and you’ll soon be up and out of it:  ‘No Spell’ and ‘Strawberries 1 +2’ are amongst the standouts. Pedal to the floor headlong guitar dash into a wall but with inventive swerves and skids to sustain interest.

Acid Mothers Temple – Doobie Wonderland:  Allegedly this album was inspired by the sounds of Earth Wind and Fire and ‘Boogie Wonderland’ in particular. If Kawabata Makoto can tell that to anyone and keep a straight face then he must be a demon poker player; that oddity aside this is a masterful freak out which peaks in the tracks ‘Dance with Space Gypsy Queen’  and ‘MJ Love 666’.   Every time I listen to this album it makes me smile.

Jon Hopkins – Immunity:  2013 was quite a year for electronica, this album could easily have made way for either Daniel Avery’s ‘Drone Logic’ or Darkside’s ‘Psychic’; in the end the sheer precision and subtlety of ‘Immunity’ just edged it.  ‘Open Eye Signal’ is the standout track.

Todd Rundgren – State:  Still at it. Still experimenting. No doubt many fans await a new ‘Something/Anything?’ or ‘A Wizard A True Star’, but Todd has always had a habit of changing direction whenever there was a chance success would constrain him.  The journey into dance music was too much for many, but the songs were still there – witness ‘Imagination’ and ‘Sir Reality’ – though of course, true to form, there had to be one absolute stinker: I nominate ‘Angry Bird’ – WTF???? ‘Party Liqour’ came a close second, but it worked well live, so it gets a reprieve ;-)

Kawabata Makoto’s Mainliner – Revolution Space:  Noise. Relentless, beautiful guitar noise splattered with feedback and vocals floating in from a monastery in space. Mellow out indeed!

John Wizards – John Wizards: Unmistakably African from the word go; yes there are trebly guitars, yes some of the songs have that “jolly”, upbeat feel...but it has so much more to offer.  Words cannot do it justice, it is just a joy – twists, turns, and analogue synths!

A Category all of its own (Not new, not a reissue...)

Robert Wyatt – 68: Flippers, kippers, and wallpaper strippers! If ‘Volume 2’ or ‘Third’ float your boat then this is an unmissable view into the creative mind of an artist at his peak. You even get Jimi Hendrix on bass.

See you at part two...