Best Of 2017

Long time no talk friends!

Here are all my favorite music and television favorites for 2017:

Full Lengths

 

1.       Feature – Banishing Ritual  (Upset! The Rhythm)  members of Sauna Youth & Slowcoaches

2.       Meat Wave – The Incessant (SideOneDummy) Frobergian post hardcore

3.       Nev Cotee – Broken Flowers (Wonderfulsound) RIYL Lee Hazlewood, Leonard Cohen

4.       Crescent – Resin Pockets (Geographic Music) UK lo-fi sadness

5.       Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Syne – Resolution (Mello Music Group) / Mr. Lif & Brass Menazeri – Resilient (Waxsimile) Indie hip-hop

6.       Aathens – Virtue Signal (Blank Editions) Sonic indie Rock

7.       Idles – Brutalism (Baliey) Angry and angular

8.       Richard Dawson – Peasant (Domino) Other worldly singer/songwriter

9.       H Grimace – Self Architect (Opposite Number) Pretenders covering Nick Cave

10.   El Michaels Affair – Return to the 37^th Chamber (Big Crown Records)  Psych funk hop soul

11.   Michael Beach – Gravity/Repulsion (Spectacular Commodity) Aussie rock

12.   Dalham – Waves (Public House Recordings)– Electronic

13.   Kid Koala w/ Emiliana Torrini – Music to Draw To: Satellite (Arts & Crafts) Indie-tronica

14.   Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys – S/T (Whats Your Rupture?) *also most awful band name of the year* Aussie rock

15.   The World – First World Record (Upset! The Rhythm) Saxamaphone Post punk

16.    ISS – Pussyfooting (Erste Theke Tontrager) - Electro-punk-new wave mashup*

17.   Modern English – Take Me To The Trees (Inkind Music ) Post punk

18.   Venn – Runes (Full Time Hobby) Later day Wire

19.   Juniore – Ouh la la (Le Phonographe) – French garage psychrock

20.   Botany – Raw Light II (Western Vinyl) Electronic ALA Four Tet with cosmic overtones

 

Reissues/Retrospectives

 

1.       KG – Come Closer, We’re Cool (Manufactured Recordings) Swirling French indie rock

2.       Helium – Ends with And – indie rock (Matador) Indie rock

3.       Look Blue Go Purple – Still Bewitched (Flying Nun / Captured Tracks) NZ indie rock

4.       Geraldo Pino & the Heartbeats – Let’s Have a Party (PMG) Afro-funk

5.       VA- Funky Chimes : Belgian Grooves from the ‘70s (SdBan) Jazz-funk

6.       The 6ths – Wasps’ Nest indie rock (Captured Tracks) Indie synth pop

7.       VA- Le Beat Bespoke #7 (Detour) Garage rock/freakbeat/psych

8.       Claude Lombard – Chante (Sommor) – 60s French Psych Rock / must own for Broadcast fans*

9.       Jacqueline Taieb – S/T (Merlins Nose) 60s French Pop

10.   VA – Come to the Sunshine: Soft pop Nuggets (Rhino)*

11.   The Orchids – Who Needs Tomorrow (Cherry Red) Jangle pop

12.   Jackie Shane – Any Other Way (Numero) Soul

13.   Hayes McMullan – Everyday Seem Like Murder Here (Light In the Attic)

14.   Nahid Akhter – I Am Black Beauty  (Sounds of Wonder) Lollywood

15.   Solid Space - Space Museum (Dark Entries) Minimal electro Pop

16.   Mary Lattimore – Collected Pieces (Plancha/Ghostly) Ambient harp

17.   The Gotobeds – Fucking in the Future (Comedy Minus One) For a rocking good time, call

18.   Yamasuki – Le Monde (The Great Thunder) Psych-jazz-funk

19.   Biosphere – Shenzhou (Biophon Records) Ambient loops

20.   VA – Scared to Get Happy (Cherry Red) Indie pop/C86

 

Singles/EPs:

 

1.       Mick Trouble EP (Emotional Resonse) Indie Pop

2.       Genpop – On Screen  (Lumpy Records) Punk*

3.       Exploded View – Summer Came Early EP (Sacred Bones) Psych Rock

4.       Big Brave – Ardor (Southern Lord) Doom

5.       Slowcoaches – Complex (Leisure & District) Punk

6.       Dame – Glitch/ Lines/Hush (Charm School Records) Goth/Post punk*

7.       The Belles – Melvin (Numero) Garage reissue

8.       Stereoscope Jerk Explosion – Indian Tonik (Bengali Corp) Lounge

9.       Parsnips – Health (Anti fade) Aussie indie rock

10.   Hooded Fang – Dynasty House EP (Daps Record) Sinister angles

11.   Kagoule – Monsieur Automation (Ra-Ra Rock) Heavy indie Rock

12.   Weeping Icon – Eyeball Under (FireTalk/Kanine) Punk

13.   Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – The French Press (Sub Pop) Aussie indie rock

14.   Robert Forster w/ Jherek Bischoff & String Quartet – People Say (Noise Records) Go-Betweens alert*

15.   Stroppies – S/T (Tough Love)- Aussie Indie-Pop

16.    Corridor & Halo Maud – Deux Coeurs (Self released?) Montreal art Rock

17.   The Spook School – Someone to Spend Christmas With (Slumberland) Jangle Pop

18.   Cayetana – Tired Eyes (Asian Man) Indie Rock

19.   Modern Cosmology – Summer Long EP (Elephant) Stereolab fans take note

20.   Fieldhead- Meet Me Somewhere EP (Home Assembly) Carpenter-esque bleak synths

 

Runners Up

 

1.       Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology (Fire Records) A must listen to for Stereolab/Ladytron fans

2.       Jamila Woods – HEAVN (Jagjaguwar) Soul

3.       Street Stains – S/T – (self-released tape) Chris from Q & Not U + Sean from Pissed Jeans*

4.       Jesca Hoop – Memories are Now (Sub Pop) Kate Bush on steroids

5.       Sacred Paws– Strike a Match (Rock Action) Post-punk, now with horns

6.       Jacaszek – KWIATY (Ghostly) Imagine the tears of Sylvia Plath vaporizing into electronic music

7.       Prepared – Trust Me (BART Records) 90s post hardcore throwback perfection

8.       Dion Lunadon – S/T (Agitated) Garage rock

9.       Rays – S/T (Trouble In Mind) Art punk

10.   Stevens – Good (Chapter Music) Aussie indie Pop

11.   Operator Music Band – Puzzlephonics I & II (New Professor Music) Technical Kraut-punk

12.   Small World Experience - Soft Knocks (Tenth Court) Cuddle-core

13.   Pardoner – Uncontrollable Salvation (Father/Daughter Records) Post-hardcore circa 1991

14.   Die! Die! Die! – Charm. Offensive (Romantic Rights) NZ indie rock

15.   Fabiano Do Nascimento – Tempo Dos Mestres (Now –Again) Brazilian Folk

16.   Caddywhompus – Odd Hours (Inflated) Indie-Rock

17.   B Boys – Dada (Captured Tracks) Post-punk

18.   Novella – Change of State (Sinderlyn) Garage jangle pop for early Stereolab/Lush fans

19.   Electro Group – Ranger (Research Sound) Dream-pop

20.   Breakfast Muff – Eurgh! Glaswegian DIY boy/grrrl punk 

 

Songs

 

1.       Kane Strang  “Oh So You’re Off I See” – Two Hearst and No Brain (Dead Oceans) NZ indie rock

2.       Mick Trouble  “Second Offense” - EP (Emotional Resonse) Indie pop ALA Television Personalities

3.       Lost Horizons “The Places We’ve Been” - Ojala (Bella Union) Innocence Mission / Sundays fans take note

4.       Shitkid  “Sugar Town” – Fish (PNKSLM) Earworm garage  

5.       Otoboke Beaver “Love is Short!!” EP (Damnably) – crazy Japanese blast beat punk

6.       Petit Fantome “Easy Come Easy Go” Un Mouvement Pour le Vent (Edge of Town Music) French dream Pop

7.       Nadia Reid “Preservation” – Preservation  (Self Released) – NZ singer songwriter

8.       Weed Hounds  “Oxalis” – Double Life(Don Giovanni) Chainsaw Pop

9.       L’orange, Dell the Funky Homosapian “ Blame the Author” – Ordinary Man (Mello Music Group)

10.   Curtis Harding “ Need Your Love” – Face Your Fear ( Anti) 

11.   Cloud Nothings  “Darkened Rings” – Life Without Sound” (Carpark) I like Hazel and Nirvana 

12.   Idles- “1049 Gotho” Brutalism (Baliey) Angry and angular

13.   The Bug vs. Earth “Snakes Vs Rats” – Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune) – Doom dub

14.   Taffy  “ComeHomeBaby” – Nyctophilia (Club AC30) Japanese shoegaze

15.   Mark Wynn “I’m Mint Man Me Man Yeah Yeah” – More Singles… (Harbinger Sound) Too smart for its own good 

16.   The Rubs “Wrong Right Girl” - Impossible Dream (Hozac) Power Pop

17.   James Holden ”Each Moment Like the First” – The Animal Spirits (Border Community Recordings LTD)

18.   Seamus Fogarty “Carlow Town” – Curious Hand (Domino) Electro-folk

19.   Les Amazones D’afrique “Mansa Soyari” – Double Life (Real World) All female supergroup from Mali

20.   Big Thief “Mythological Beauty” - Capcity (Saddle Creek) Indie folk

 

Best Lives Shows 

 

1.       Helium – R+R Hotel

2.       King Woman /  Thou – Strange Matter

3.       Pet Symmetry/Beach Slang tour

4.       Big Baby/Big Quiet/Big Bliss/Serqet – Sound of Music Studio

5.       The Van Pelt/Washers – DC9

6.       Catriona Sturton / Grace Vonderkuhn/ Pretty Greens– WaR3house3!

7.       Street Stains / Protomartyr - R+R Hotel

 

Television

 

1.       The Good Place

2.       Ozark

3.       Glow

4.       People Just Do Nothing

5.       BoJack Horseman

6.       The Keepers

7.       Schitt’s Creek

8.       Great News

9.       Chewing Gum

10.   The Crown

 

   

Wishing all of you a happy new year.

 

PS: #resist