 |  |
Listed [2005-01-21]Here we go again. Second year in a row that we submit to the trend: here's what rocked the musique[machine]'s writers world in 2004! Each contributor thought about his individual list, and we left it that way because we are very lazy, and we like it. Browse our archive for reviews and may 2005 be good for all of you, for all of us.
David Bauwens
Pointless banality: 2004 was a good year for music.
Well, of course it was; but what year isn't?
There were a few towering box sets: the Ayler box, the Goodbye Babylon box; the archival releases of Wadada Leo Smith, of Shrimp Boat, etc. Good, let's not let any of this fall through the cracks.
There were tremendous amounts of reissues: hurray! Most noticeable were Cans and Enos, of course, but a lot of other, more obscure recordings have been revived.
Two that spring to mind:
L's 'Holy letters', which I got from VHF when they mysteriously found a few dozen remaining copies one or two years ago. Now re-released in a handsome digipack including the 7" and some extra material. Gorgeous.
Christina Kubisch's 'On air', which I'm sure you picked up back in 1984 when it was released in a limited run on cassette... I on the other hand had to wait for this very beautiful CD.
And finally there were compilations; which can be nice; or annoying. Anyway, a few winners:'Spire' on Touch; 'Noli me legere. To Maurice Blanchot'(Sirr-ecords), 'Tape/Operette' (Cubicmusic), 'Rural Psychogeography' (Nexsound).
Three cheers for consistently excellent labels: Erstwhile, Rune Grammofon, Touch, For4Ears, Tzadik (50 releases in one year seems to be pushing it a bit, but plenty of jewels among them), the list goes on.
Not that many concerts this year; the best were CocoRosie, obviously (3 times); The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band; Devendra Banhart (solo!! please, dump those 'Queens of Sheba'!); Fennesz; Haco & Sakamoto Hiromichi.
My completely pointless, worthless, largely arbitrary list (understandably, especially towards the end the ranking hardly matters at all) that is already completely obsolete at the time of writing:
- CocoRosie - La maison de mon rêve
- Fennesz - Venice
- Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the hands & Niño rojo
- Joanna Newsom - The milk-eyed mender
- Wovenhand - Consider the birds
- Shuji Inaba - The rapture of being destroyed is the flipside of the misery of destruction
- Arve Henriksen - Chiaroscuro & Food - Last supper
- Sachiko M/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide - Good morning good night
- Rosy Parlane - Iris
- Keith Rowe/Burkhard Beins - ErstLive 001
- Kazuo Imai - Far and wee
- Tomas Korber/eRIKm/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide - Brackwater & eRIKm/Günter Müller/Toshimaru Nakamura - Why not béchamel
- Carla Bozulich - I'm gonna stop killing
- Castanets - Cathedral
- Trapist - Ballroom & Radian - Juxtaposition
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Abattoir blues/The lyre of Orpheus
- Animal Collective - Sung tongs & Panda Bear - Young prayer
- Charalambides - Joy shapes
- Michael J. Schumacher - Stories
- MIMEO - Lifting concrete lightly
Roger Batty
- Subtle - A New White
- Coil - Black Antlers
- Nurse With Wound - Ship wreak radio vol 1
- The Dead Texan - The Dead Texan:
- Slipknot Vol 3 - The Subliminal Verses
- Fog - Hummer ep
- Blood Box - The Iron Dream
- Oliva Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle
(OK, it's a reissue) - Coil - ANS
- Passgae - The force field kid
- Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind
- cLOUDDEAD - Ten
Movies
- Lost In Translation
- Shaun of the Dead
- 21 Grams
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
- Dawn of the Dead (remake)
Dvd's
- The Residents - The Commercial DVD
- Ren and Stimpy - Uncut: the complete first and second series
- The Norman J Warren Collection
Books
- Dark Tower 5: Song for Susannah - Stephen King
- In This Skin - Simon Clark
- Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore - Albert Mudrian
The good stuff
Finding the wonder of Morton Feldman's exquisite modern classical music, finding the heady low budget sleaze of horror mister Andy Milligan, Vesting High Gate Cemetery and seeing the Berlin Wall.
The bad stuff
Sad loss of both Jhonn Balance and John Peel, plaster that don't stick
Martijn Busink
A strange year for me. I got to work a 32 hour workweek while on the other hand I expanded my reviewing activities by writing for Dutch metal magazine Aardschok. A real highlight was certainly seeing Buckethead perform in Belgium. The downside was that my surgery got bumped ahead four months. After some more mishaps I finally ended on the slab, on my 33rd birthday. First time for me to spend some time in hospital. All in all I'd been having health issues, first the illness and then the recovery, for about an entire year.
Hopefully 2005 will be kinder to me, but as the everflowing stream of music will never stop here are a bunch of musical events that made 2004 worthwhile:
- Secret Chiefs 3 - Book Of HorizonsAmazing: diverse yet coherent. Adventurous and full of interesting concepts and mystery to which doors have been opened for me this year.
- Susanna & The Magical Orchestra - List Of Lights And BuoysStunning. Calm but engulfing, gently working towards a complete rapture at the end.
- Gåte - IseliljaStill young and not mellowing down despite huge success in their homeland Norway. The buzz outside Scandinavia is becoming audible here, which the recent show in Groningen illustrates.
- Winds - The Imaginary Direction Of TimeNeo-classical yet timeless. Subtle metal, as paradoxal as it may seem.
- Duvelduvel - Aap-O-TheekThis year I discovered the mighty Rotterdam-Zwolle connex with Opgezwolle (whose album I picked up way to late), Kubus and these 'apen' from Rotterdam. Dutch hiphop at its finest.
- BaBa Zula & Mad Professor - Ruhani Oyun Havaları
- Björk - Medúlla
- Fennesz - Venice
- Shape Of Despair - Illusion's Play
- Electric Masada - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 4
- The Haunted - Revolver
- Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
- Jóhann Jóhannsson - Virðulegu Forsetar
- 213 - The Hard Way
- Fates Warning - FWX
- Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - The Equatorial Stars
- Sunn0))) - White2
- Kubus & Sticks - Microphone Colossus
- Deathprod - Morals And Dogma
- Brian Wilson - Smile
- Masta Killa - No Said Date
- Buckethead - Cuckoo Clocks Of Hell
- Mayhem - Chimera
- Track Addicts - Handgrenades & Butter
- Enslaved - Isa
- John Zorn - Magick
- Cadaver - Necrosis
- Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album
- Squarepusher - Ultravisitor
- Void Of Silence - Human Antithesis
- Stian Carstensen - Backwards Into The Backwoods
- Isis - Panopticon
- Tom Dissevelt, Kid Baltan, Henk Badings, Dick Raaijmakers - Popular Electronics
Best reissue:
- Eddie Hazel - Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs
Best concerts:
- Screaming Headless Torsos @ Melkweg, Amsterdam
There were times where chances of seeing Dean, the Vox Populi, perform with the Torsos seemed slim. But it happened and it was all I hoped for.
- Khanate @ Worm, Rotterdam
- Material @ Vooruit, Gent
- Pachora @ Rasa, Utrecht
- Vistar & Najma Akhtar @ Rasa, Utrecht
- Kultur Shock @ De Helling, Utrecht
- Anathema @ Tivoli, Utrecht
- Ryoji Ikeda @ Kikker, Utrecht
- Cadaver/Mayhem @ De Kade, Zaandam
- Suffocation @ Musis Sacrum, Arnhem
Best dvd's:
- Ferrera/Masada - Tonic, 1999
Yes, another Masada release. This one is special though. I already had a couple of pro-shot video's but this one's has a bootleggish atmosphere that almost made me applaude after songs. - Khanate - Northern European Deride
- Primus - Hallucino-genetic 2004
- Heuermann/Zorn - A Bookshelf On Top Of The Sky
- Estradasphere - Passion For Life: Live Form The Estradasphere Archives
Justin Faase
- Fennesz - Venice
- The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
- Isis - Panopticon
- Biosphere - Autour De La Lune
- The Streets - A Grand Don't Come From Free
- Secret Chiefs 3 - Book Of Horizons
- Madvillain - Madvillainy
- Bliss - Quiet Letters
- Rodney Hunter - Hunter Files
- Gåte - Iselilja
- Annie - Anniemal
- Brazzaville - Hastings Street
- Brian Wilson - Smile
- Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
- Zero 7 - When It Falls
- Trijntje Oosterhuis - Strange Fruit
- Nasum - Shift
- Neurosis - The Eye Of Every Storm
- Air - Talkie Walkie
- Arcade Fire - Funeral
Frankco Lamerikx
- Faun Fables - Family Album
- Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
- Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons
- Master Musicians of Bukkake - The Visible Sign of the Invisible Order>
- Electrelane - The Power Out
- Sunn0))) - white2
- Boredoms - Seadrum/House
- Sun City Girls - Carnival Folklore Resurrection Vol.13: 98.6 IS DEATH
- v/a - Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk and Pop Music Vol. 1
- v/a - I Remember Syria
- Las horas del dia (Spain, Jaime Rosales, 2003)
- Bu jian bu san aka Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Taiwan, Tsai Ming-liang, 2003)
- Le monde vivant (France/Belgium, Eugène Green, 2003)
- Peep "TV" Show (Japan, Yutaka Tsuchiya, 2004)
- Zero Day (USA, Ben Coccio, 2002)
- Akarui mirai aka Bright Future (Japan, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2003)
- Lost in Translation (USA, Sofia Coppola, 2003)
- Elephant (USA, Gus van Sant, 2003)
- Platillos volantes aka Flying Saucers (Spain, Óscar Aibar, 2003)
- Kill Bill Vol.2 (USA, Quentin Tarantino, 2004)
- Twentynine Palms (France, Bruno Dumont, 2003)
- Panj é asr aka At Five in the Afternoon (Iran/France, Samira Makhmalbaf, 2003)
- Ong-Bak (Thailand, Prachya Pinkaew, 2003)
- 5x2 (cinq fois deux) (France, François Ozon, 2004)
- Buongiorno, notte (Italy, Marco Bellocchio, 2003)
- The Saddest Music in the World (Canada/USA, Guy Maddin, 2003)
- Osama (Afghanistan/Netherlands/Japan, Siddiq Barmak, 2003)
I haven't seen Fatih Akin's Gegen die Wand, but I suspect that would've ended up in the Top X as well.
My favorite event of 2004: the birth of my daughter Lente.
François Monti
I don't know how to judge a year with objectivity. 2004 has been fantastic, that's the way I feel. But for real? Well, I should have a look at the hopes I had a year ago. I graduated. Can't drive. Got a girl. Love her. Didn't go to London, don't live in Brussels anymore. I read much more than last year. Listened to tons of cool music.
2005 will be even better. I want a job and more time with the special lady. I want more Cd's. I want Jesu, Boris, Sunn, Khanate, Sage Francis, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Coil (Balance RIP), ODB, RZA, Ulver, Stars of the Lid, dälek, Depeche Mode. Should be good.
Here is what I liked this year:
- Einstürzende Neubauten - Perpetuum Mobile
After four years without any studio recordings, Neubauten released one of the highlights of their career (in a career full of highlights), in the shape of this superb album.
- Coil - Black Antlers cd-r
Coil died with John Balance but its legacy will live on. The tracks released on this cd-r as demos should be released as a finished product. If their even slightly better than the versions on Black Antlers, we're in for a treat.
- Interpol - Antics
Yeah. Best pop/rock album of the year, great songs, great vocals, great everything.
- Raymondo - s/t
I told you in the review I wrote how great this album is. From what I told, it didn‚t have much effect on the sales. A real shame! Go and buy it here, it's cheap.
- Isis - Panopticon
Better than Oceanic. Maybe.
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus
A stunning return to form.
- Fourcolor - Water Mirror
- Sunn0))) - White2
- Subtle - A New White
- Tom Waits - Real Gone
- Mastodon - Leviathan
- Guapo - Five Suns
- Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo
- Neurosis - The Eye of Every Storm
- Faust vs. dälek - Derbe Respect Alder
- Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld
- The Dead Texan - s/t
- Comets on Fire - Blue Cathedral
- Corrupted - Se Hace Por Los Sueños Asesinos
- Electric Masada - 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 4
- Björk - Medúlla
- Brian Wilson - Smile
- Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
Special mentions to two Cd's released at the very end of 2003:
- Circle - Guillotine
- Shuren the Fire - My words laugh behind the mask
Best gigs:
- Einstürzende Neubauten in Brussels
- Pelican in Kortrijk
- Khanate in Antwerp
- Wolf Eyes in Hasselt
John Pusieski
2004 was a year of great tragedy and great truimph for me personally, I learned that sometimes from the ashes of the greatest tragedies come the greatest rewards life can give. It was a year of reflection about rethinking whats really important to me.
- Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum
The man has done it again
- Drive By Truckers - The Dirty South
Kick ass southern fried rock and roll
- When - Pearl Harvest
Had a permanent place in my cd changer all year long
- Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons
Simply stunning
- The Melvins/Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Did not see this one coming, but great it is.
- Enslaved - Isa
- Theory of Ruin - Front Line Posterchild
- Björk - Medúlla
- Brian Wilson - Smile
- John Frusciante - The Will to Death
- Venomous Concept - Retroactive Abortion
- Social Distortion - Sex, Love and Rock N’ Roll
- Rocket Science - Eternal Holiday
- Mike Watt - The Secondman's Middle Stand
- Darkthrone - Sardonic Wrath
- MUL - Litany Circus
- Polysics - or Die!!!
- John Frusciante - A Sphere in the Heart of Silence
- John Frusciante - Dc
- John Frusciante - Inside of Emptiness
- Red Harvest - Internal Punishment Programs
- Fantômas - Delìrivm Còrdia
- Sunn0))) - White2
- Mayhem - Chimera
- Col. Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - The Big Eyeball in the Sky
- William Shatner - Has Been
- Kaada & Patton - Romances
- Graveland - Dawn of Iron Blades
- Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal
- Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
- Beastie Boys - To the 5 Boroughs
Niels Van Rongen
If someone in ten years time asks me if I can name my favourite album of 2004 then I surely can't. A lot of things happened this year and my interest in music has decreased a bit. I'm not instantly buying every new album when it hits the store anymore. Not every week going to the three cd shops I've been visiting since I can remember. Music has been slipping away. Or well, new music at least. I've been buying and downloading some older releases through the year. The Talk Talk catalogue is almost complete and I've been getting into The Verve since I heard one of their songs on a funeral But I still have some favourite new albums of course. The list of 13 says enough. I guess I will never totally lose interest in music. It just has it's ups and downs. This year it was going down, let's hope 2005 will be an up year. For me and for new releases.- William Shatner - Has Been
At least as interesting as those Star Trek Original Series DVD boxsets.
- Therapy? - Never Apologise Never Explain
Their tenth album and still going strong.
- Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
A big hype. But they did prove they can write good songs.
- The Dears - No Cities Left
Canadian band who don't have anything to do with other 'The' bands. Check them out!
- The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
I can sing along this time!!
- The Gathering - Sleepy Buildings
Brilliant live album from the best band from the Netherlands.
- Secret Chiefs 3 - Book Of Horizons
Simply genius! Trey and co really let me wait, but this is better than expected.
- Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum
As raw as old bubblegum on the sidewalk. The best release from the QOTSA family this year.
- The Eagles Of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal
And the second best release from the QOTSA family.
- Keane - Hopes And Fears
My mom must love this. For some reason I do as well. Great songwriting!
- Orquesta Del Desierto - Dos
For those desert vibes at home.
- Fantômas - Delìrivm Còrdia
The only Mike Patton release in my list this year. It was a slow year for the guy. Next year Peeping Tom?
- Lamented Souls - The Origins Of Misery
I've known these songs for over five years now, but they're still as strong as back then.
|
|
|
|
 |
| | | Listed | Here we go again. Second year in a row that we submit to the trend: here's what rocked the musique[machine]'s writers world in 2004! Each contributor thought...
 | |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| | | Frank Chickens - Ninja Legends 19... | Ninja Legends is a four-CD box set bringing together all the output of the Japanese-born, London-based two-piece Frank Chickens, who blended Western pop trop...
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
