Obsession Du Jour

Here, at last, we go.
Amsterdam Klezmer Band - Oy Oy Oy (vinyl w. download code, 2016)
Anne Briggs - Four Songs (vinyl)
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (vinyl, used)
Heart - Dreamboat Annie (vinyl, used)
Kate Bush - Before the Dawn (4LP, 2016 AND downloads from Qobuz)
Kate Bush - The Dreaming (vinyl, christmas present)
King Crimson - various individual tour downloads (Downloads, DGMlive)
King Crimson - Beat (40th Anniversary Edition 2016 Reissue, CD+DVD)
King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair (40th Anniversary Edition 2016 Reissue, CD+DVD)
King Crimson - Radical Action to Unseat the Hold Of The Monkey Mind (3CD+Blu-Ray, 2016)
King Crimson - Thrak (2015 reissue, CD+DVD)
Marek Bili?ski - Best of the Best (vinyl, christmas present)
Marek Bili?ski - Ogród Króla ?witu (vinyl, christmas present)
Lobi Traoré - Bamako Nights (download, Bandcamp)
Noura Mint Seymali - Arbina (download, Bandcamp, 2016)
Opeth - Sorceress (vinyl, 2016)
Pentangle - Finale (2CD, 2016)
Testament - Brotherhood of the Snake (vinyl, 2016)
The Tourists - Reality Effect (vinyl, used)
Various Artists - Lazarus: The original cast recording to the musical by David Bowie and Enda Walsh (2CD)
Yes - Talk (CD)
Yes - Union (vinyl)

Yeah, having friends in Polish means I get to hear some Polish music now. My favorite albums of 2016, in no particular order:
Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
Zeal and Ardor - Devil Is Fine
David Bowie - Blackstar
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS
Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
It is unusual for me to have two country albums among my favorites, AND an album of synthesizer-based music, and an alternative metal album.

For 2017, I plan to slow down a bit with the buying of records. I see some financial belt-tightening in my future - or rather, in everybody's future. Also, I want to focus on going to live performances over listening to records, so I will need to make money available for that. I expect I will be digging more deeply into my existing record collection including vinyl bought over the past 30 years, and streaming more.

Yeah, I don't really post here much anymore and I even let the deadline, if you can call it that, for these quarterly posts lapse. Collecting records is literally the least demanding hobby I've ever had, but I'm still not keeping up with it well.
Not that I didn't buy any records! I did, and the first few for the final quarter are already in as well. More on that at the end of the year, when I put up an end-of-year list. That would be a first for me, because I have never bought as many records in the year of their release as I have in 2016.

Here's the list, with albums from this year clearly indicated as well as the format, source and other details I may want to reference later:

Anderson/Stolt - Invention of Knowledge (vinyl w. CD, 2016)
Betty Davis - The Columbia Years 1968-1969 (CD)
Imarhan - Imarhan (vinyl w. download code, 2016)
Jeff Beck - Loud Hailer (vinyl w. download code, 2016)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani - Synergy (download, Bandcamp, 2016)
King Crimson - Islands (vinyl w. download code)
King Crimson - The Wake of Poseidon (vinyl w. download code)
Marsh Dweller - The Weight of Sunlight (download, Bandcamp, 2016)
Nemesis - Early Days (download, Bandcamp, EP)
Nemesis - Early Days 3 (download, Bandcamp, EP)
Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä (Download, Bandcamp, 2016)
Peter Gabriel - So (vinyl w. download code)
Steeleye Span - Parcel of Rogues (vinyl, used)
Stick Men - Prog Noir (download, Bandcamp, 2016, preordered)
Tuner - Pole (download, Bandcamp)
Zeal And Ardor - Devil Is Fine (download, Bandcamp, 2016)

Singles:
Imarhan - Imarhan (Moscoman Remix)

I had a bit more of an interest in metal this quarter than I've had in the past five or six years. Another interest early in the quarter was music recorded on Fostex four-track cassette recorders, which explains the presence of two obscure records by Finnish ambient electronica duo Nemesis (not to be mistaken for any of a dozen other bands by the same name).

For records released this year, I now have three different Spotify playlists:

Best new albums of 2016
Best live albums of 2016
Best reissues of 2016

All of these are incomplete because releases not on Spotify are obviously not included. All will be both expanded and culled as I prepare for a final end-of-year list.

This quarter, Aggie and I finally completed the restoration work on our Thorens TD 165 MKII turntable, so I've been buying a lot of vinyl to play on it (as well as digging through both my old LPs and the ones I bought in the past few years but hadn't got around to open yet). Before that, he passing of Prince in April was an occasion to revisit some of the records from his imperial phase. A record store in Groningen had them on discount before the great man died, and still does. I don't know the reissue history of Prince's classic records, but the ones I bought turned out to be identical to the original CD releases from the 1980s, complete with blurbs about what a great new format CD is. Here's how things shook out:

ELO - Xanadu (vinyl, used)
Eric Bibb and North Country Far With Danny Thompson - The Happiest Man in the World (CD, 2016)
King Crimson - Toronto, November 20, 2015 (download, DGMLive, 2016)
Bert Jansch - Avocet (vinyl w. download code)
Bert Jansch - From The Outside (vinyl w. download code)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears (vinyl w. download code, 2016)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Euclid (vinyl w. download code)
Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms (download, Qobuz)
Margo Price - Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (vinyl)
Prince and the Revolution - Around the World in A Day (CD)
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain (Hi-Res download, Qobuz)
Prince - 1999 (CD)
Prince - Sign of the Times (CD)
Steeleye Span - All Around My Hat (vinyl, used)
Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor’s Guide to Earth (CD)

Singles:
Bert Jansch - Black Birds of Brittany (vinyl single, RSD, with download)
Janelle Monáe - Heroes (download, iTunes)
Linda Perhacs - The Dancer (download, iTunes)
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox feat. Nicole Atkins - Heroes (download, iTunes)

I've made a Spotify playlist of albums I enjoyed in 2016 so far which will be updated regularly. It includes reissues and a few of the singles to mix things up. It is very rare for an album of synthesizer-based music and two country albums to be among my favorites in any given year!

A lot of West African music this first quarter of the year. More from non-physical sources as now that we've brought back a lot of our stuff from storage, all our rooms are getting a bit full, so I don't want to add a lot of physical objects. Likely to skip out on Record Store Day this year for the same reason.

Aretha Franklin - Original Album Series (5CD, contains I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, Lady Soul, Aretha Now, Spirit in the Dark, Aretha Live at Fillmore West)
Bert Jansch - Avocet (download, Bandcamp)
Björk - Medúlla (CD)
Björk - Vulnicura Strings (CD)
Bombino - Azel (Hi-res download, Qobuz)
David Bowie - Blackstar (Hi-res download, HDTracks)
David Bowie - Nothing Has Changed (3CD)
Donny Hathaway - Original Album Series (5CD, contains Everything is Everything, Donny Hathaway, Live, Extension of a Man, In Performance)
Fairport Convention - The Bonny Bunch Of Roses (used Vinyl)
Fleetwood Mac - Original Album Series (5CD, contains Then Play On, Kiln House, Future Games, Bare Trees, Mystery To Me)
Jherek Bischoff and Amanda Palmer - Strung Out in Heaven: A Bowie String Quartet Tribute
Ott - Fairchildren (download, Bandcamp)
Rokia Traoré - Né So (Hi-res download, Qobuz)
Tal National - Zoy Zoy Zoy (download, Bandcamp)
Vieux Farka Touré and Julia Easterlin - Touristes (download, Bandcamp)

My Bandcamp collection, started back in 2011. Likely to grow a bit in the next few weeks.

With only a month to go before nominations close, I want to share with people what I'm planning to put on my ballot for the Hugo Awards 2016 nominations. My ballot is not, at this time, complete and even my present list of nominations may change before the deadline as I read other people's nominations posts and more importantly, read the books and articles and watch the movies and shows they nominate. However, I don't want to hold off any longer, because I would like other people to be able to read, watch and consider my recommendations as well. Also, if something turns out not to be eligible or is misspelled or credited to the wrong author or publisher, I would like to hear about it. So, here goes:

Best novel
N.K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season - Orbit
Kim Stanley Robinson - Aurora - Orbit
Nnedi Okorafor - The Book of Phoenix - DAW

Best Novella
Paul Cornell - Witches of Lychford - Tor
Nnedi Okorafor - Binti - Tor
(I have one more work by N.K. Jemisin penciled in but need to confirm whether the novella in question was first published in 2015.)

Best Novelette
Best Short Story
These two categories are still empty as I'm not a big novelette or short story reader. This should be easy to fix.

Best Graphic Story
Brennan Lee Mulligan, Molly Ostertag - Strong Female Protagonist Issue Five - Self-published: Strongfemaleprotagonist.com
Boulet - The Gaeneviad - Self-published: English.bouletcorp.com
Eligibility is a big issue with these works. As far as I can tell, only Chapter 5 of Strong Female Protagonist was published entirely in 2015, but I may be mistaken. The Gaeneviad is a 24-hour comic created in 2014, but the original publication was in French. The English version debuted in February 2015.

Best Related Work
Phil Sandifer - Guided By The Beauty of Their Weapons: Notes on Science Fiction and Culture in the Year of Angry Dogs - Eruditorum Press
Alexandra Erin (Writing as John Z. Upjohn)- Sad Puppies Review Books: Children’s Books Reviewed by Childish Men - Self-published
Alexandra Erin (Writing as Theophilus Pratt)- John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author and I Myself Am Quite Popular - Hymanaeus House
These works are pretty much the best things to come out of last year's kerfuffle. Each of these has a good chance of making it to the shortlist, and of being vigorously no-awarded in the final vote. They have my back, though.

Best Dramatic Presentation, long form
George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris - Mad Max: Fury Road - Warner Bros. Pictures
Best Dramatic Presentation, short form
Bo Johan Renck, David Bowie - Blackstar - Columbia

I am also not a huge watcher of movies and television. That does, however, leave me four more slots in each category for contrarian nominations (of which Blackstar is already one, but don't tell me it doesn't deserve to be on the ballot)

Best Fan Writer
Alexandra Erin
Phil Sandifer
Camestros Felapton
Still needing to find examples for this one. All other categories still empty. Some will stay empty as I'm not that interested in them, or knowledgeable about them. Though it won't hurt anyone at all for me to put Boulet in under Best Professional Artist as well.

Since last May, I've kept a booklog and made a real effort to read more again. Nevertheless, I still don't read as much as I used to, or as much as I feel I should. At some point in my life, buying books and reading stopped being a habit and became something I have to remind myself to get the fuck off Twitter for. I'm working on this: To make more time for absolutely everything else in my life, I installed the Focus app on my Mac computers so that all social media are now unavailable to me for long stretches of time. It's a crutch, but one I clearly need. In March, I will tighten up the settings for it so I'm kicked off earlier and allowed back later.

Full disclosure: In addition to nominating Phil Sandifer in more than one category, I also took a few suggestions from his Hugo ballot, all of them works I read/watched and enjoyed but some of them works that I would not otherwise have considered, such as Blackstar.

I am open to suggestions! Please let me know if there's something I should get the fuck off Twitter for!

A slow trimester during which I mostly bought reissues and live albums. Only one of these would make my Top 5 for the year and I'm considering selling off some of the physical items already.

Bert Jansch - Moonshine (Bandcamp)
Deep Purple - …To The Rising Sun (Live in Tokyo 2014) (CD/DVD)
Gentle Giant - Octopus (CD + Blu-Ray Disk)
Ghost - Meliora
Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (CD, deluxe edition)
Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier (iTunes)
Judy Dyble - Fragile (iTunes, EP)
Judy Dyble - Live at WM Jazz (iTunes)
Judy Dyble - Talking With Strangers (CD)
Marcus Reuter - Mundo Nuevo (Bandcamp, free download)
Peter Gabriel - 3 (Vinyl w. download code)
Peter Gabriel - 3 Deutsches Album (Vinyl w. download code)
Peter Gabriel - 4 Deutsches Album (Vinyl w. download code)
Queen - A Night At The Odeon (DVD+2CD)
Ritchie Blackmore - The Ritchie Blackmore Story (2DVD+2CD)
Stick Men - Deep (Bandcamp)
21st Century Schizoid Band - 21st Century Shizoid Band (iTunes)
21st Century Schizoid Band - Live In Tokyo (iTunes)
Various artists - Wonderland Presents The Eephus
Yes - Fragile (CD+DVD)

Best albums of 2015, in no particular order:
Ibeyi-Ibeyi
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba - Ba Power
Björk - Vulnicura
D’Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah (came out in 2014, but after the deadlines for that year's Best of the Year lists had passed)
Ghost - Meliora

2016 has one album purchase to its name so far. Yeah, it's that one. No, I won't review it. Not now, anyway.

Holy crap I bought a lot these past four months! Some of these were on my “Just buy this already” list, because I had been playing them on Spotify or Tidal a lot. Others were provoked by my rediscovery of a band I enjoyed a lot when I was in my late teens; it is sad that it took the passing of one of their members to trigger this, but that is what happened.

Nicole Atkins - Slow Phaser (CD, on my “Just buy this already” list)
Björk - Vulnicura (Download, Hi-Res, Society of Sound)
D’Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah (CD, on my “Just buy this already” list)
Day One - Intellectual Property (download, Society of Sound, Hi-Res)
Deep Purple - From The Setting Sun… (Live at Wacken 2013) (CD/DVD) - This album has a companion called "…To The Rising Son", a live album recorded at Budokan at the end of the same tour. That one hadn't arrived in the store yet, so I'll pick it up early September.
Deep Purple - Long Beach 1971 (CD, on my “Just buy this already” list)
The Crimson ProjeKct - Live in Tokyo (CD)
The Crimson ProjeKct - Official Bootleg Live 2012 (CD-quality download, Bandcamp)
Ghost - Meliora (CD)
Bernard Haiting, London Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven Symphony No. 3, Leonore (download, Society of Sound, Hi-Res)
Ibeyi - Ibeyi (CD)
Jethro Tull - Minstrel in the gallery box set edition (2CDs/2DVDs, includes Steven Wilson Remixes, live concert from 1975)
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba - Ba Power (CD)
John Metcalfe - Kites and Echoes (download, Society of Sound, CD quality and Hi-Res vinyl needledrop)
Hannah Peel - Rebox 2/Fabricstate (download, Society of Sound, Hi-Res)
Songhoy Blues - Music In Exile (CD)
Richard Thompson - Still
Wilco - Star Wars (free download from their website)
Yes - Yes (Hi-Res download, HDtracks)
Relayer (Hi-Res download, HDtracks)
Relayer (CD/DVD, 2014 edition with Steven Wilson Remix)
Original Album Series (5-CD set in cheap package, includes Going For The One, Tormato, Drama, 90125, Big Generator)

I’ve decided not to count frequently-streamed items as acquisitions. In fact, I’m giving up on streaming. I’ve canceled Tidal and Spotify though I still have a week to go on the latter. Don’t know how I’ll explore new music from now on- probably Apple Music until the end of September when my free trial runs out. Or maybe I’ll use Bandcamp exclusively for music discovery. I had no problems finding new stuff before the streaming era, so I’ll manage.

I read The Dark Forest the week before its prequel, The Three-Body Problem won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, 2015. Two-thirds of the way through it, my reading was interrupted for a few days and I had to think hard about whether I wanted to pick it up again. I did, and in the end I was glad I did, but my God, what an unholy mess this novel is, and did I ever have to work hard to make it through the first third of the book.

The Three-Body Problem won its Hugo despite its faults, which were very obvious: Liu’s characters act like puppets, mere functional devices to keep the story going, to push the many interesting, inspired ideas that are also there. Their emotional and actual responses are implausible, their motivation often only hinted at or even completely arbitrary. The ideas were the real stars of The Three-Body Problem, and because the novel hung together well enough as a story, the ideas ensured the novel got enthusiastic responses that took it all the way to the most prestigious award in science fiction fandom.

Wellp, those flaws haven’t been mitigated any in The Dark Forest; I would say they have been exacerbated. Instead of a protagonist who is a bit of a blank slate, we now have one who does whatever it is he does for no good reason at all, and whose actions in the novel include inventing a perfect woman after his romance-writer girlfriend challenges him to (oddly, the fact that she issues this challenge is one of the few things any character does that make sense - the idea that writing is addictive and shapes reality). He then leaves his girlfriend for this imaginary woman, and later, when he is provided with near-infinite financial resources, he locates a real woman who is just like her and has her brought to his mansion, where they start a deep romantic relationship. Prior to this, Liu saw fit to include a few Neal Stephenson-esque digs at post-modern, English Literature Department-approved writing. I kid you not. It doesn’t help that the terms in which this perfect woman is described include lines like

“He was completely overcome by her childlike nature.”
“You’re like the blank space in a traditional painting: pure, but to a mature appreciation, infinitely appealing…”
“She tilted her head, giving his heart a jolt. The naïve expression was one he had seen on her countless times before…”*

I would have thrown the book violently across the room there and then if I hadn’t been reading it in a tent, on an expensive MacBook Pro. I did, however, start live-tweeting my reading for a while and was about ready to switch to hate-reading mode. Trust me, there was plenty to hate, including one paragraph that entirely disqualifies the protagonist from being the hero of absolutely anything, no matter what else he does in the story (which includes some very heroic acts that save the Earth, for the time being, but all of those are done by authorial fiat, because everything in a work of fiction is. I’d write more on that if these blog posts were serious literary criticism, which they're not). I would HOPE that the paragraph in question is only the protagonist’s opinion, not the writer’s, and I’m really surprised that more readers haven’t picked up on it, based on the reviews that I’ve read.

And the plot? Spans two centuries, or rather, fast-forwards two centuries midway through. In a way, this redeems The Dark Forest - moving the action to a more distant-future Earth and removing the romance for the time being allows Liu to do what he is good at: surprising the reader with strong world-building, action sequences that thrill and also surprise, and generally letting his powerful, but well-disciplined imagination run loose. It does not make for a coherent novel, let alone one that deserves another Hugo after putting the reader through all that bullshit in the first third. But it creates the impression that after that very bad novel with the ill-conceived romantic bits, you get to read a second, short novel that is a lot better.

If I was handing out star ratings, which I’m not, because these blog posts are not reviews, the final third would rescue The Dark Forest from being a two-star book and qualify it as a three-star one. Was it worth sticking with the book for that long, though? I’m honestly not sure. There are always other books to read and a book that is worth three stars overall takes time away from reading one that is truly great.

Most years, I barely buy enough new albums released the same year to put together a top 10 at the end (I buy a lot of reissues as well as many albums released during the previous few years, and the total number of albums purchased each year is very large, but I'm usually a little behind the curve), but most years, I try anyway. This year, I had a bit of a budget squeeze as I was preparing for a move, which is now canceled. Over time, I was able to relax the budget restrictions; also streaming has made it easier for me to stay up-to-date under those conditions, so I can at least present some sort of Top 5 for the first half of 2015:

1. Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba - Ba Power (Spotify | Tidal)

Bassekou Kouyaté is the best blues guitarist who doesn't play the blues, or guitar. His band/clan consists entirely of virtuoso players of traditional and newly developed Malian instruments, discreetly complemented here by a rock drummer and some horns and keyboards. Normally I am quite wary of the practice of having West African music overdubbed with Euro-American instruments, but in this case, the additions complement the rock feel that Ngoni Ba were already moving towards.
(There is an official video for the opening track, "Siran Fen" on YouTube, but embedding is disabled on it, so I'm showing the teaser vid instead)

2. Ibeyi - Ibeyi - (Spotify | Tidal)

The album I turn to for spiritual uplift. Previously discussed on this blog.

3. Björk - Vulnicura - (Spotify | Tidal)

You've heard about this one, I'm sure. I've only listened to it 3 or 4 times since it became available on the streaming sites, but its woozy, detailed compositions live up to the hype. I'm not even a fan of Björk, normally, but this album just works for me. Best listened to with good headphones.

4. Songhoy Blues - Music in Exile (Spotify | Tidal)

A more energetic take on Malian blues, with Dan Auerbach's production footprint. This one does fizzle a bit after a very strong start, but that start is very strong indeed.

5. King Crimson - Live at the Orpheum (Not available on Spotify or Tidal)
(No officially sanctioned footage with sound that is representative of the 2014/2015 Crimson appears to exist, and I won't be linking to clandestine recordings)
With only six songs, this live album is more of a teaser for greater things to come, and I'll honestly be surprised if it makes my end-of-year list. But it is a sign of life from the Crims and it showcases a tight, powerful new version of the band.

I'll keep this quick: I adore Orphan Black. It's full of twists, has an interesting mix of gritty and comedic, presents a convoluted story with a large group of characters in a way that I find easy to follow, and Tatjana Maslany's acting performance as multiple characters is a delight. When I queue this show up on Netflix, I know I'm not going anywhere the rest of the evening and into the night.

That said, the episode "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried" is not going to be my no.1 pick for the Hugos, for two reasons. One, while the show as a whole is great, the individual episodes don't stand out as much for me. In Doctor Who, each episode has its own tone and identity; I don't get that from Orphan Black. Two, the show does have some glaring flaws, especially in its plotting. These faults are not so much plot holes (all stories have them, and a lot of the times the best thing to do with those have been to just let them slide rather than try to fill them) as signs that the viewer is being given the runaround. Here, we get that in the bone marrow donation subplot: Seven-year-old Kira donates bone marrow to cure the disease that is going to kill her "aunt" Cosima; the bone marrow gets coopted by her other "aunt" Rachel, and then destroyed to give Kira's mother Sarah the motivation to shoot a pencil into Rachel's eye. The whole donation subplot is thus nullified with very little in the way of plot progression to show for it. Oh, and Cosima starts feeling better anyway, for a while at least. One instance of this isn't deadly to a series, but by the end of season 2, there are already multiple instances of the same phenomenon, and the show has been confirmed for a fourth season already.

Many years ago, I read the Belgian comic XIII. It was very similar in setup to The Bourne Identity and its sequels, indeed so similar to it that many have accused the writer, Jean van Hamme, of plagiarizing it. But it was a setup that worked: Van Hamme knew how to tell a mystery tale, and was a great match to the hyperrealism of the artist, William Vance. Over several albums we learned everything about the background of the man who was found washed up on the shore with a roman numeral XIII tattooed on his collarbone and no memory of his life before that. Except we didn't. The story that we learned turned out to be a red herring, as did the one that replaced it, and the one after that. I bounced off the series after the seventh book, at which point it was clear the author had no interest in giving us a definite answer as to who XIII was and what happened to him, let alone any kind of closure. At that point at a pace of one or two books a year, the chronology had already begun to strain: 'XIII' was at some point identified as a vietnam vet, and six books on he was still quite a young man despite it being 1990-ish now. Thirty years on, spin-offs of the original series are still running. In them, 'XIII' is still a youngish man, and characters who were high-ranking officers during the Vietnam war are still active participants in the story. I can see some of this happening with Orphan black easily. The writers have carefully kept the setting generic, but it is clearly 2014, and one of the characters is a seven-year-old child. By season six, we may see that child as a tween, with completely different technology in the setting, and with only a few months of in-story time having passed and no sense of when the font of answers has been exhausted. Let's hope that doesn't happen: this show deserves better.