djvenus Top 50 Albums of 2015

A formatted list is here but the numbered bullet points weren't compatible so here is an unnumbered list! Some labels were omitted (mostly majors). My apologies!

(Not posted on Twitt'r below this point)
Battles: La Di Da Di - Warp
Saun and Starr: Look Closer - Daptone
David Torn: Only Sky - ECM
Zella Day: Kicker - Hollywood
Alex G: Beach Music - Domino
Jono McCleery: Pagodes - If Music
Made of Oak: Penumbra - Partisan
A Tribe Called Red: Suplex EP -
Rae Sremmurd: SremmLife
Tone of Arc: Urgent Turquoise - Om Records
Tomas Barfod: Glory - Friends of Friends
Tom Jones: Long Lost Suitcase
Nozinja: Nozinja Lodge - Warp
Leftfield: Alternative Light Source - Infectious
Prodigy: The Day Is My Enemy - Cooking Vinyl
Son Little: Son Little - ANTI
Tamaryn: Cranekiss - Mexican Summer
Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express: Junun - Nonesuch
Songhoy Blues: Music in Exile - Transgressive
Karavan Sarai: Woven Landscapes - Electrofone
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: Ba Power - Outhere/Glitterbeat
Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa - World Circuit
Monoswezi: Monoswezi Yanga - Riverboat
Junkie XL T(om Holkenborg): Mad Max: Fury Road - WaterTower
Shigeto: Intermission - Ghostly
The One and Only PPL MVR:  The One and Only PPL MVR - Elektra
Floating Points: Elaenia - Luaka Bop

(The below *were* posted on Twitt'r:)
PINS: Wild Nights - PIAS
Metz: II - Subpop
Little Wings: Explains - Woodsist
Lower Dens: Escape from Evil - Ribbon Music
Solorazaf: Reprises avec amour - Acoustic Music Records
Rhodes: EPs - MoS
Rainy Milo: This Thing of Ours - Big Picnic
DJ Spooky & Kronos Quartet: Rebirth of a Nation - Cantaloupe NY
Khun Narin's Elecric Phin Band: S/T - Innovative Leisure
LoneLady: Hinterland - Warp
St. Lenox: 10Songs About Memory and Hope - Anywhere
Lymbyc Systym: Split Stones - Western Vinyl
Birthmark: How You Look When You're Falling Down - Polyvinyl
Francesca Belmonte: Anima - False Idols
Mauro Picotto: From Heart to TEchno
Oliver Englafjord: Myrki Heima
Bob Moses: Days Gone By
George FitzGerald: Fading Love
Kasper Bjorke: After Forever Revisited
Hardkiss: Delusions of Grandeur - Hardkiss Music
Seinabo Sey: Pretend
Andreya Triana: Giants - Counter Records
Kelela: Hallucinogen EP - Warp

revelations of a music snob

regarding:

* new STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS record - i couldn't say it much better than Tiny Mixtape's Ed Comentale:

"Ultimately, Mirror Traffic doesn’t quite recapture the shaggy
grandeur of Wowee Zowee, and, perhaps to its detriment, it abandons the proggy
jam-band bliss of Real Emotional Trash."

it's still a pretty great freaking record, though. you just need to skip tracks 1 and 3.

* bass guitar - SPECTOR2112 is my new favourite youtube guy. if you look at the selection of stuff he plays, it's like he grew up with me...or at least down the street from me...except, he has the Rush, Frente and BN Ladies songs (so i guess that means he actually was up the street from JaHe! ahahahahahaaahahaha ). :(



* taylor swift - made the following observations in no particular order:
- LA crowds kinda suk, even at arena shows: the entire audience sang along to every song, loudly. but, hardly anyone applauded or hooted in between songs. in fact, some pauses in the show were downright silent. AlSto sez it's cos everyone was busy texting or otherwise doing something else to occupy their attention-deficited minds.
- fathers seated next to a person other than his daughter on one side are oblivious when their ample backsides begin to slide over to occupy part of the other person's seat for more than one song.
- i can recognise a justin bieber song in less than four notes.
- justin bieber can dance pretty well even when he's half-a$$ing it.
- t. swift's backup dancers dance better than justin bieber.
- her guitar players are the type of guys i don't like, meaning too much hairspray and too many Les Paul guitars for their age. and they can play so-so.

(click for more photos, but not of the guitar players!)

- t.s. puts on a decent show, she really does! and i'm talking about the entire production, not just her. the sets are beautiful, and she does the quick-change thing that would put most people, including Chinese opera singers, to shame.
- it's funny cos a bunch of people asked if she really couldn't sing or uses autotune live. i was watching her closely. there was a slight lag between the stage and video screen. i think there might be a little backing track action happening, but what do i know?
- even if one doesn't think one knows t.s.' repertoire, one does. it may also be because a lot of her songs sound the same...but still, they're tolerable and written well.
- t.s. prefers audio technica handheld mics and she holds it in her right hand. always. i think she plays Taylor guitars, too, but that is a little on the nose.

who knew one could score points with the kids (my friend ScoTe's daughter, EmTe) and some coworkers (who are parents) simultaneously?!!!??

100 Worst Album Covers?

YOU decide...but there are some pretty hideous ones here...

MUSIC: the Sun Paulo

so now that myspace won't allow me to post the albums i am 'currently listening' to, i am experimenting with various ways of posting them on here. too bad blogger makes it a total freaking hassle.

anyway, the SUN PAULO is an electronic psychedelic parliament/funkadelic rock dance freakout from Japan. their album's released next month on the Malicious Damage record label.