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The Best of 2016, End of Year... Whatever

  • Rye Wax
  • Dec 31, 2016
  • 6 min read

What a fantastic year it has been. From David Cameron being jettisoned into a low earth orbit to be used as a weather satellite for developing countries, to David Bowie's first US no. 1 of his illustrious career - surely in times to come, this year will be remembered fondly, in the same way that we think of PJ getting blinded by a paintball on Biker Grove.

Well, here at Rye Wax we've also heard, felt or ingested some fantastic shit over the past 12 months and we thought we'd write it down. So without further a do, here are the workers of Rye Wax (who replied to my mail) with their own picks of the year. Let's all just try harder next year, eh. Collectively.

Chris Coupe (First Word Records/FYI Chris)

BEST ALBUM

For me this is a perfect album. A heady mix of the punk rock lyricism and energy that we have come to expect from the Brooklyn band executed in a really original way.

BEST REISSUE 12”

I had a bit of a phase of going through all the old intangible releases this year. A bunch of them have been repressed which is great news for my pocket! This one stands out a lot for me.I love the way you hold me is piano house 101. Chunky piano stabs and euphoric vocals. Has popped up in most DJ sets and seems to give the dance floor a lil energy boost every time.

BEST NUT 2016

I became slightly obsessed with pistachio nuts in 2016. I feel like they need a special mention. Long live pistachio ...

CLAIRE (Souvinir)

Most-Mourned 2016: Prince

The Rye Wax lights were set to purple for about half a year. I almost made a permanent shrine in the corner but it was deemed a fire hazard. Honourable mention Pauline Oliveros R.I.P.

Best Reissue 2016: Mariah: Utakata no Hibi

After many years of this otherworldly-sounding record remaining unattainably expensive, record fanatics heaved a big sigh of relief when this LP was finally reissued by US label Palto Flats earlier this year. Another possible contender for this category (and a record in a very similar vein) would be Aragon's self-titled 1985 LP.

The interplay between moving image and sound created an audacious audiovisual experience in this incredible just-finished exhibition. Notable for me were the post-Internet-art style 'documentary' following Japanese dancehall queen Bom Bom competing in Jamaica, and Kahlil Joseph’s dual-screen film installation m.A.A.d. made in response to Kendrick Lamar's GKMC album.

SYBIL (SIREN)

Best unexpected shop find: Various ‎– Vakum 004

Seriously trippy weird abstract wonk electro. It’s broken n’ bassy, frantic and polyrhythmically twisted. It looks unassuming on the outside, and I have no idea where it came from. It's split between four different artists, none of whom I knew before, but all their tracks bang!

Roguest 90’s lounge euro trance £1 bargain bin find:

On paper a tune to laugh at and relegate to the past, but this donwtempo banger was a chart topper in 24 countries for good reason. There is large joy to be had in putting it on and slinking around to it’s dated naive sonics. Everyone deserves a record which opens with gregorian chanting.

Most must-have classic album to show up in our 2nd hand:

The sleeve of this album is a purple so dark it’s almost black, which speaks volumes as to the sumptuous nature of this LP. So delicate and deep it leaves you wondering what it was that managed to lead Richie so far astray...

JOE (Cotch International)

Best Club 12"

I came late to this one, but its front to back fire. The perfect balance of experimentalism and danceability, this one has been picked up right across the DJ spectrum, and rightly so.

Reaching out to one of Jamaica's most experimental and veteran production houses was genius touch by the Demdike Stare posse (who've had a great year with their own productions too), and it's great to see labels reach out to the source as opposed to signing approximations of the sound.

Best Sunday Morning Records

This one has hardly left the side of my decks since its release in March. Big pad swells and full, warming production to take the edge of the roughest of Sunday mornings.

Peckham Anthem

This one has been ringing out for me all year long (despite the Chelsea reference). The UK Afrobeats scene has had a great 2016, and has genuinely carved out a new movement to rival the Grime and Road Rap scenes currently thriving in the capital, but while many of it's leading lights have shot for the big time with more upbeat, feel good tunes, Omo Frenchie injects the sound with an extra dose of LDN grit that hits the spot perfectly. A Cotch anthem and a serious one to watch next year.

Henry Morris (Tasty Treats)

3 Things I Found In The Second Hand

Super deep & breaky house biz from Insync found on a banging comp of compiled by The Orb & Youth. 12" Still super cheap on Discogs !

Proper good edits (all 3 have just been repressed!) from the Eros label. Does the trick every time. Every track is a winner.

After-after party material from Larry Heard. Always warms up the mood in the room.

Here's my three musical moments:

Best Live Performance 2016: Damo Suzuki @ The Shacklewell Arms, Dalston.

Sometimes I like to venture out and visit other basements in London - and this is what I did last October to see the former CAN frontman, now in his late 60's.

Pints and hot breath hung in the air as we swayed together, spellbound by Damo's ability to lose us completely and then bring us right back again, with moments of pure groove and clanging vocals. This kind of genius improvisation can only be felt, not learned - we thought - as we clapped in appreciation and spilled out into the last vestiges of a long and hot London Summer...yeh, it actually was that poetic.

This was one of records that I plucked from the Rye Wax racks on a punt to play in the bar and totally fell in love with. A double LP from Major Problems, a little Irish label nobody knew much about. Full of tracks that are hard to define, from ethereal electro cracklers and wavy avant garde moments to stuff that sounds like Super Mario at the after-party. The whole thing is great, particularly the second track on the first side, Big City Orchestra - Kitty Push Here or "that weird cat record" as my housemate likes to call it.

Best Little Sister of 2016: Solange

Yeh yeh, someone from the basement had to say it. From one little sis to another, props to Solange for supplying us all with a R&B classic and taking a side-step from her galvanising sister. Sure, there was a big ol' team behind this record but it's on point vocals and dry seamless production are a pleasure to listen to, and I'm still rinsing it.

Best Indulgent Collection Of >15 Minute Synth-Play

Narrowly beating James Holden and pals’ Outdoor Museum of Fractals in a hotly contested category this year (turns out 2016 was the year of ambient wig-outs as much as bigotry).

Smith’s proper full-length Ears took a lot of accolades but listening to this reciprocal love-letter between former mentor and protégé was triumphant. It sounds like cells splitting under a microscope.

Best Concept Album About Vampires and Menstruation

Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch

Jenny Hval is a boundary-bashing artist in the Bjork mould. She made this record with the noise producer Lasse Marhaug and scattered about it are echoes of the Nordic Black Metal they’ve both made in the past.

But it’s also delicate and withdrawn, emboldening and uplifting, even reverent. I’m a sucker for high-minded concept albums like this and Blood Bitch nails the transportation that a good one can achieve. In a year when pop records had more scope and power than ever this was still a step beyond for me.

Best Album Not By Parquet Courts

Marching Church – Telling It Like It Is.

Growling, gloomy, Goth romanticism from Iceage frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt. I’ve been rinsing it for months now. If you dig Nick Cave, Tom Waits, The Cure or any of those kinds of authoritative pillars of ‘other’ then this is your juice.

~ ~ ~ ~

And as 2016 and the truly awful cacophony it has been subsides and gives birth to a more grotesque, oxygen-starved sibling, we implore you -

Have a good time, all the time.


 
 
 

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