WHAT MUSIC WAS EVEN GOOD LAST YEAR?
- Watson
- Jan 7, 2016
- 3 min read
Hello one and all to the future. A strange world that somehow looks exactly the same as the rubbish old world, but comes with exciting and demographic pleasing twists. Try to imagine a place where Chris Brown has (allegedly) punched a woman, Guns n Roses are thinking of playing some gigs, and Richard Blackwood is regularly on TV. That isn't 20 years ago, that's right fuckin' now. The winds of change are a-blowin' indeed. it's 2016, which coincidentally is the number of bar fights Lemmy's death inspired, and it's time to take stock.
At rye wax, much like a lot of musical dispensaries, we attempted to collate the staffs favourite releases of the past, inferior year and put them into an easy to digest list of tidbits so "People-in-the-know-on-the-go" could study for the upcoming season of pub debates. Each staff member picked their favourite five in the following categories:
BEST SINGLE/EP
BEST ALBUM
BEST REISSUE
So far so good, we thought.
However, after carefully analysing the results, which meant making a tally chart filled with one's and occasional two's, we concluded that not only does everyone in our staff seem to have completely individual opinions, they also may never have actually met one another at all.
So, while below is a list of some of the music that one person in the shop may occasionally play on their holo-device without skipping it, please be aware that no one else may share this opinion and you could be listening to the inner playlist of a crazy person - We'd tell you but we've literally never met these people.
Levon Vincent - Levon Vincent
The grand advocate of cutlery unleashed his opus on an unsuspecting and bedazzled audience early last year to rapturous applause. Here was a sprawling, cinematic journey from the lightest ambient highs to the deepest trenches of Technos cerebral core.
It also, as Tom likes to point out, the best industrial record in recent memory, with sonic creaks and wails that show the proof is in the P-Orridge. Of course, everyone thinks it's fucking shit now that you've found out he can also say silly things online. What is Levons YouTube name? What answers do its comments hold?
Tom Blip - Wrong Guanco
A single so popular, two members of staff put it forward for the list! And rightly so, as the donkey kong concoction of bat-shit fills and rump shaking snaps have been heard throughout the land, turning dancefloors into the Zion club scene in the second matrix film, except with more health goths.
The Maghreban - Now Easy EP
A producer we're happy to call a regular. Now Easy has slowly permeated through the record bags of pretty much everyone here since he dropped the first copies of down to the shop. Original musings on club ready material produced and promoted by Mags himself. We can't wait for this years output!
DJ Sottofett - Dripping For a Tripp
A raucous, genre-orgy from one of the fetts which completely blew everyone away here early last year. A collage of influences and global collabs that's kinda like going on a cruise around the cape but without weird old people and cabaret dinners.
Linkwood - Expressions
If Firecracker records decided to branch out from music and form some kind of moon-worshipping death cult, we'd be the first in line to denounce our families and join them in the forever. Linkwood's effort last year was the Kool Aid, and we slurped it up. We've seen the future, and it's silk-screen printed.
Lena Platanos - Gallop
At least five current pop acts would kill their first born for an album this good. Creepy, foreboding, sexy and haunting, It sticks with you long after side B is done. It's reissues like this that show us again and again that YOU CAN'T FUCKING CREATE ANYTHING NEW, YOU SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE. SOMEONE DID IT BEFORE, AND IN GREEK.
Golden Teacher in general
The band of the NOW! Without a shadow of a doubt. The "Band-Does-Dance" shtick perfected. A no frills punk attitude and production that Martin Hannett would approve of make them appear like a lost relic of the post-punk/punk funk heyday of the 80s, all the while actually being the best live act you're likely to see right now. They got so many different mentions we're including the band as a whole. Buy 'em, book 'em, see 'em, love 'em.
That's pretty much as close to a end of year circle jerk as you're gonna get from us so we'll leave you alone again. All alone, with your thoughts.
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