Neil Kulkarni ends his New Nineties series with
an epic rant of an epilogue

(i sensed from the off though that it would end with a list of UK hip hop--can a leopard change its spots? not likely!)

but wait, there's more - Neil's started a blog, F.U.N.K., have a guess what that stands for

this tune, which i heard for the first time only the other day, sums up pop music in 2011



the king of crunk hooks up with the clown princes of party-rocking

result: a track that brings out the latent gabber i always heard in crunk

damn near just-drums and that bugle-like sax parp calling the assembled to attention

Lil Jon mad-barking like a drill sergeant of reckless getting-wrecked-ness

an anthem of concussive hedonism

kickdrum beat like a battery of shots to the dome




have a wicked New Year's Eve

and a happy 2012

christmas rapping



canine rapper, made by Tasmin

RIP Sean Bonniwell

one of my earliest epiphanies with pop involved the disjuncture between



and



i could not get my child-head around the fact that the Beatles could contradict themselves between songs

talking of "Money", recently remembered that another song that made an impression on me as a child was this



i loved the cash-clinky sound effects, the clockwork-treadmill groove, and the lyric's bleakness /feigned-or-genuine cynicism ("a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"--who said that then?)

as an adult, though, what I listen for now is the bit where it takes off with the solo and the abrupt spike in tempo

a measure of listener "maturity": finally learning to appreciate the guitar solos of David Gilmour

like the blistering lickmanship of this one (starts around the seven minute mark)

Nineties and Newness

Kulkarni continues his New Nineties series at Quietus with a paean to Pram, perpetrators (sez Neil) of the Best Album of that decade

in the interview part, Pram's Matt Eaton says this:

"The whole ethic of the band, though it was unwritten and rarely spoken, was to create new music, so if a piece had a similarity/reminded someone of another work it was generally rejected. The emphasis was on new... It was all about new sounds and new ways of writing a song.... Even now, making a new sound is still our first impulse, and that includes not repeating previous Pram recordings...To repeat ourselves or someone else would be boring and not really worth the effort.... My working life is ten times harder than it needs to be because I hate repeating what’s gone before.“

There's people - quite a lot of people, I've discovered this year - who'll tell you that's an old-fashioned attitude, an outmoded approach.

11 for ‘11

Metronomy, The English Riviera
Rustie, Glass Swords
Oneohtrix Point Never, Replica
James Ferraro, Far Side Virtual
Woebot, Chunks
Maria Minerva, Tallinn At Dawn
Ekoplekz, Intrusive Incidentalz Vol 1
KWJAZ, s/t
The Horrorist, Joyless Pleasure
Ursula Bogner, Sonne = Black Box
Moon Wiring Club, Clutch It Like A Gonk



the next 11

Kuedo, Severant
Jon Brooks, Music for Thomas Carnacki
Rangers, Pan Am Stories
Julia Holter, Tragedy
Various, Bangs & Works Vol 2
Kangding Ray, Or
Peaking lights, 936
tUnE-yArDs, whokill
Ford & Lopatin, Channel Pressure
Toro Y Moi, Underneath the Pine
Hacker Farm, Poundland


another 11

Tim Hecker, ravedeath 1972
Laurel Halo, Hour Logic
Andrew Pekler, Sentimental Favourites
The Deeep, Life Light
Maria Minerva, Cabaret Cixous
2562, Fever
Prince Rama, Trust Now
Charles Vaughan, Documenting the Decay
Destroyer, Kaputt
Bee Mask, Canzoni Dal Laboratorio Del Silenzio Cosmico
Clams Casino, Rainforest


tunes of '11

Dev, “In the Dark”
Maria Minerva, “A Little Lonely”
Ke$ha, “We R Who We R”
Rihanna, “Cheers (Drink to That)”
Britney Spears, “Till the World Ends”
Martin Solveig & Dragonette, “Hello”
Etta James featuring Flo Rida, “Good Feeling”
Nicki Minaj, “Super Bass”
New Boyz featuring The Cataracts & Dev’s “Backseat Driver”
Afrojack featuring Eva Simons, “Take Over Control”
LMFAO, “Party Rock Anthem”
LMFAO, “Sexy and I Know It”
Toro Y Moi, “Still Sound”
Scritti Politti, “A Day Late and a Dollar Short (unreleased new-ish track on Absolute comp)
Maria Minerva, “Hagasuxzzavol”
Rustie, “Ultra Thizz”
Lil Wayne, “How To Love”
Y.G., "Toot It and Boot It"
Joker featuring Buggsy & Otis Brown, “Lost”
Big Sean featuring Nicki Minaj, “Dance (A$$)”
Chris Brown not featuring Chris Brown, “Look at Me Now (INSTRUMENTAL)”
Laurel Halo, "Head"
Foster the People, "Pumped Up Kids"
Poolside, "Harvest Moon"
Kreayshawn, “Gucci Gucci”
Lil Jon featuring LMFAo, "Drink"
Pitbull featuring T-Pain, "Hey Baby"
Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack, and Nayer, "Give Me Everything"
Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg + Akon, "Kush"
Ke$ha, "Blow"
Maria Minerva, “Ruff Trade”


inexplicably uninvolved by

Zomby
PJ Harvey
John Maus
Panda Bear
Hype Williams
James Blake


transfixed at the border twixt rapture and revulsion

Drake
Liturgy
Skrillex
Katy Perry

a selection of faves

Steven Hyden of A.V. Club argues it was a year profuse with Good Albums but devoid of Important Albums

here's something I wrote a couple of years back about Importance as an increasingly less relevant criteria for evaluation, or a decreasingly frequent occurrence, or... either way, on the way out... an old-fashioned thing to concern yourself with

porpoises into the past, lambs casino, teehee

trenchant (yet also cloudy) thoughts on EOY lists and cool, from mnml sggs

couple of good personal end-of-year faves:

scott seward's

alex niven's

mine'll be along in a sec

... talking of stocking-fillers, this isn't out officially until next year but, in that peculiar publishing-world jumping-the-gun way, can already be found in some UK book stores such as Waterstones: the B-format edition of Retromania, more economically-priced and portable than the original heavy-paper-stock quasi-hardback edition (now sold out). It comes with a new nifty bas-relief cover and is compact enough to actually fit into a Christmas stocking without undue distension.