The Wire: 50 Records of the Year

The Wire also do a genre breakdown, and those getting the big box review treatment in each case were:

AVANT ROCK: Jackie O Motherfucker

DUB & ROOTS: Various: Studio One Roots

ELECTRONICA: Matmos

GLOBAL: The Monks of the Monastery of Gyuto, Tibet: Voice of the Tantra

HIPHOP: Aesop Rock

IMPROV: String With Evan Parker: s/t

JAZZ: Sun Ra & His Intergalatic Arkestra: It Is Forbidden

MODERN COMPOSITION: Stefan Scodanibbio: Six Duos

OUTER LIMITS: Keiji Haino: Abandon All Words...

There's also compilations and re-issues listed alphabetically, but sod that...

I hate when people include reissues on a year-end list.

The Wire is getting to be much more pop, isn't it? Maybe this mirrors a general trend of the avant-garde trying their hand at pop forms. I hope so.

(i once voted for level 42 in a wire jazz poll hurrah)

Checks back-issues...

This is the first time I've seen them explicitly order the top ten (each one gets a little picture of the disc peeking out of a Discman and a capsule review), and I inferred the order of the rest from the main list.

They normally say "50 Records of the Year", but then list them in a non-alphabetical way so you naturally assume there's some kind of ranking going on. By this token, Anti-Pop Consortium's "Tragic Epilogue" was the 2000 chart-topper, Mouse On Mars' "Niun Niggung" was 1999's and Sonic Youth's "A Thousand Leaves" was #1 in '98.

And what's up with Shuggie Otis placing so high? I like the record alright, but sheeeez. I must be missing s'thing.

Vespertine at #1 is just plain wrong. Her worst record and suddenly she's all over every damn top of the year list.

my 2cents:: maybe not the best album of the year,but still worthy of making any best of for the year. bjork still manages to come up with interesting stuff that challenges after all these years. there are a ton of artists that have maybe a 3 to 5 year run where they come up with really incredible stuff....then for whatever reasons,just sort of fizzle out creatively. see:: elvis costello or paul westerberg. i have to give bjork credit for continuing to be fresh. for those that slag "vespertine" ,give it another chance in 6months and see how it sounds .

The Wire has as much relevance to the state of modern music as Donatella Versace has to the implementation of subsidy programs at the Department of Agriculture -- NONE.

They are deeply engaged with... the past.

Just my two cent's worth, of course. Your opinions may differ.

Sincerely,

Laura N.

(Oh bugger my next selection is FRIDGE chiz I R REVEALED).

NO! I HAVE THE LOW ALBUM! Actually, the fact I know any of these kids is testament to THE WIRE HAS SOLD OUT.

and producing them too, probably (but *I* like them enough to make up for it; phew).

Two good records on the list: credit by association:

1. Charley Patton: cos Dylan has song referring to / based on him, 'High Water (for Charley Patton)' on his LP LOVE AND THEFT which is 2nd best LP of the year.

2. Velvets bootleg, cos was recorded by Quine so is grate (Quine inevitably supplies most blood-halting breath-taking moments on 1st best LP of the year).

("See? It all works out.")

And putting the worst album of Nick Cave's solo career in the top twenty doesn't exactly win my respect either...

you say this like it would be a BAD thing.

I'd second that. Surely problem with end of year lists = they are aggregate of a bunch of individual prefs, therefore albums on list are ones which everyone thinks *are the best* and the whole exercise is predictable because you're aware of what genre(s) that publication/website focus on? e.g. it would be v. surprising if pitchfork had, say, aaliyah as #1 or musik had the dismemberment plan?

so most interesting lists = individuals. e.g. the pitchfork writers lists are more interesting (less predictable/boring) than the aggregate.

sorry about being so vague, I have a plane to catch. (seriously)

I have to say that as a wire reader the covers have sucked, though. Jim O'rouke, Tortoise, Bjork have already made the cover before. Mercury Rev and Signur Ros are absolute stinkers (i suppose you gotta get hold of the indie crowd).

but if you entirely are in the habit of distrusting/disliking yr first love, you are in danger of mis-seeing the negative aspects of yr graduation

i've already had a letter published in the wire on this topic (it's the acid mothers temple issue, wherefor you can read robin's delia derbyshire obit...ilm massif reprazent), but i came off as rather vague, so perhaps for clarification: perhaps because i came to the wire late i don't remember a time before it seemed like a genre polyglot and wonderfully so. i can think of no other print magazine which covers pop music (when it does) with as much scrutiny and insight (i.e. a lot like freaky trigger, no?) and still has time for yet another ten reviews of d. bailey's last toy guitar explorations.

I'm 17. My first love was Radiohead. I'm ready for Bailey now.

keiko nails it. i wonder why it was so hard and spotty to find the wire @ tower in the days when evan parker and tony conrad were on the cover...

otis is like one of robin c's snarky creations without the conceptual slight-of-hand enjoyment factor.

It's not that I graduated to music that's more important (Braxton/bailey, etc.). To me, Different class and For Alto speak to the heart in the same way.

And if there is a really record with great songs on it, then bring it on. The only difference is that this stuff is more obscure and I quite like the wire to put some of it on the cover. It wouldn't hurt. (But this is coming from someone who doesn't know anything abt selling magazines, so I'll shut up).

Of the records I've heard from this list, I'm starting to feel like I should really give Fennesz another listen. It didn't make that huge an impression when I heard it, though I didn't mind it. But I was hardly listening closely. I don't like So Addictive very much though I'm quite fond of Supa Dupa Fly. We Love Life is shit by any standard. I'm still on the fence about Run Come Save Me.

The three albums I liked from this year:

Ryoji Ikeda's Matrix: This is really a stupendous work. I'm amazed the Wire doesn't list this. The first disc is a very accomplished impressive resonant drone piece that is immaculately and subtly structured with very highly developed drift properties. The second disc is a an epic of sparse subtle beats that flow perfectly.

Alva Noto's Transform: More pop than Ikeda but just as finely crafted, with the clicks, bubbling tones, and drones arranged flawlessly.

Vincent Courtois/Marc Ducret/Dominique Pifarely - The Fitting Room: I just bought this yesterday but it seems like a substantial disc of improv featuring cello, guitars, and violin that move through moments of sparseness, scrapes, melody, noise, tension, and tenderness.

I bought about 30-35 new albums this year. About the same number as usual - I bought a lot more albums in total but most of them were old ones. I liked a higher number of those than normal.

I don't usually do an end-of-year list but this year I have to so I'll write it up and post it either on FT or here and you can all yawn at me. All my favourite albums are very predictable and most of them are on the NMEs list too.

Thanks Sundar. Probably the most sensible posting on ILM this year. Even the conscientious and dedicated fan with a decent sized disposable income and a good quantity of leisure time will always be catching up. There's albums from 1994 Wire/Melody Maker/NME/Select end of year polls that I'm still waiting to get and listen to. You can only hear so much if you're not sad and stuck in the bedroom all year round. With so many polls and sources of recommendation nowadays you can only dip n' pick with the restrictions on money and time. It only now seems realistic to choose the 1998 or 99 poll!!! Anyway, Happy New Year to all you guys. I love this site.

Something is vaguely troubling to me about the above "graduating into/out of" Wire-esque music comments. I can't quite put my finger on it right now, but I don't feel like that's the way individuals' tastes and listening habits really work.

Another thing: I love the Wire, but sometimes it seems so goddamn mild-mannered; sometimes I just want to read a rant, a complete dismissal of something, a flaming bit of ferocity--ANYthing but the even-handed, curatorial, detached, subtly self-congratulatorily eclectic tone that a lot of the reviews take.

However since there is nothing worse than former editors constantly leaning in to say, "You know, you should be doing it THIS way," I try not to dwell on such things. They have kept it going and it makes a profit: which was EMPHATICALLY NOT THE CASE when I ran that odd little ship.

I still maintain that The Wire is a magazine you arrive at *after* you have decided (rightly or wrongly) that other mags have something wrong with what they cover, or how they cover it.

As well you know, I grew up as a kid/teen with Bailey, Cecil T, Tippett/McGregor axis and Carla Bley (up to Escalator at least) as my idols, and may very well have been indirectly responsible for the Wire starting in the first place. Evidence? Well, before '82 and apart from Cook and Lock in NME and maybe Lynden Barber in MM, all we really had was the ghastly Jazz Journal. In early '81 I wrote a vituperative letter to them (I think it was something to do with Eddie Cook - surely no relation to our Richard? - agreeing with Jack Massarik of the Standard dissing improv with the usual squeaky balloons analogy). Not long afterwards, JJ's editor Sinclair Traill died and EC took over with an equally vituperative editorial mentioning my letter and proclaiming that post-Ornette jazz was (a) not jazz; (b) not music; and (c) would find no place in the pages of JJ. A list of offending musicians was appended, including such avant- titans as Woody Shaw, Gary Burton and Art Farmer. Not long after THAT I was in the old Honest Jon's shop in Camden High Street, which at that time was run by a guy called Anthony Wood. I mentioned the JJ affair to him and remarked, "well you really ought to start your own mag, something that will cover Ornette and beyond," and he replied, "Oh I'm working on it, believe me - I've had so many customers come in pissed off with Eddie fucking Cook and his crappy magazine." About a year later the first issue of the Wire appeared, and the rest you know. It started out with a specific brief but subsequently expanded. But, in its presumed role as a beacon for those too old to listen to S Club 7/read the NME, does the Wire differ in essence from, say, Mojo, and does that difference give it the moral/aesthetic advantage?

a) Forced Exposure finished

b) The Wire (thanx to Cook/Sinker) moved away from exclusive jazz content and began to feature many of the same acts as FE (eg Fushitsusha, Derek Bailey etc etc) - coincidence?

c) NME, Melody Maker gave up on most music outside the indie-pop remit

d) Q began to define the 'adult' pop mag.

Still don't know of another music mag that covers improv, glitch, dub, modern classical etc. etc. in anything like the same detail. And I'm sort've glad The Wire doesn't have a 'position' or 'aesthetic' - it assumes a certain amount of listener promiscuity...

Esp as afterwards everyone STILL said "That was incomprehensible gobbledygook mark":

1. Smugness. Excessive use of phrases like "the extraordinary musical universe that falls under the Wire's purview"

2. Predictability. What was once a very diverse remit (they even used to write about soul music, once upon a time) has narrowed into a little niche of the universe marked out as the Wire's own. Ironically, as the range narrows, they wave the banner of their difference ever more furiously.

3. Adolescent masculinity. Magazine reads like an auto-mechanic's journal; letters page confirms that it is reaching its intended audience of anal gearheads. I always laugh when they wheel out Louise Gray for the token female artist review.

anyone want a pile of back-issues of the wire (free but you'll have to collect, south manchester) ... probably the last five years. if so, e-mail me off-board. d

2. Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein

8. Missy Elliot: Miss E... So Addictive

11. Saul Williams: Amethyst Rock Star

12. Jay-Z: The Blueprint

37. Roots Manuva: Run Come Save Me

38. Buck 65: Man Overboard

44. Aesop Rock: Labor Days

lol 2001

I have it on good authority that there will be no living people whatsoever in the 2007 Wire EOY poll.

x-post

Because now the Wire would fill it with Z-Ro mixtapes and Turf Talk?

Also, all of those albums totally hold up for me except Saul Williams.

The Wire has Wiley on the cover this month

Now who would have expected that?

i thought that blog house had replaced rap as the sound of the hip clubs? i'm interested in seeing what rap selections make it this year. uffie??

lil wayne will make it for sure, if he drops a REAL ALBUM

Because now the Wire would fill it with Z-Ro mixtapes and Turf Talk?

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, June 14, 2007 2:24 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

betcha this year theres more south/cali rap than the 01 list even tho that was the year of space boogie smoke odyessy and diary of a sinner and concrete law and mista dont play and he think he raw and thugs r us and etc etc etc

and 07 is the year of uh rich boy and a shitty young buck album

tell me about concrete law
the rest are good yeah, i won't make fun of the casual cd since its actually been awhile since i listened to it and i might have been rong.

i liked most of the young buck! not touching mista don't play or anything though.

you forgot 'face off'

although i guess some of those songs were older

yeah & 'move to mars' is straight up mark sinker wire-ready afrofuturism

Sounds good but what's it all got to do with hauntology, abandoned plants in Chingford, Stratford fauna, deconstruction of rock, Dead C limited seven-inch mouse droppings, Coil etc.?

http://gelandweave.blogspot.com/2005/05/pastor-troy-move-to-mars-1.html

thought it was gonna be an old stuffz post

RIP old stuffz

so backbone is dungeon fam affiliated...i am so disconnected from the classic dungeon fam records, love cool breeze and witchdoctor tho

wire's best of '06

01. Burial - Burial
02. Scott Walker - The Drift
03. Joanna Newsom - Ys
04. Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
05. Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
06. Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar
07. Ekkehard Ehlers - A Life Without Fear
08. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
09. Om - Conference Of The Birds
10. Phill Niblock - Touch Three
11. Scritti Politti - White Bread Black Beer
12. Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast
13. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
14. Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton - Black Vomit
15. The Knife - Silent Shout
16. Christian Wolff - 10 Exercises
17. Keiji Haino & Sitaar Tah! - Animamima
18. Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light
19. Arthur Russell - First Thought Best Thought
20. Broadcast - Future Crayon
21. Niobe - White Hats
22. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
23. Reanimator - Special Powers
24. Current 93 - Black Ships Ate The Sky
25. Excepter - Alternation
26. Alexander Tucker - Furrowed Brow
27. Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Azioni
28. Rafael Toral - Space
29. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
30. MV/EE & The Bummer Road - Mother Of Thousands
31. Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice - Gipsy Freedom
32. Celtic Frost - Monotheist
33. Kieran Hebden & Steven Reid - The Exchange Sessions Vols 1 & 2
34. Ran Blake - All That Is Tied
35. Mordant Music - Dead Air
36. Julius Eastman - Unjust Malaise
37. Little Annie - Songs From The Coalmine Canary
38. Ruff Sqwad - Guns And Roses Volume 2
39. Volcano The Bear - Classic Erasmus Fusion
40. Leopard Leg - The Seven Sistered Sea-Secret Of Shh Shh Shh
41. Harlassen - A Way Now
42. Text Of Light - Metal Box
43. Peaches - Impeach My Bush
44. Robert Ashley - Foreign Experiences
45. Charalambides - A Vintage Burden
46. Peter Evans - More Is More
47. Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar
48. Dabrye - Two/Three
49. Chris Corsano - The Young Cricketer
50. Josephine Foster - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

i think you've overstated the impact rap's made on critics recently

the wire scorns postmodernism in rock music unless it's like richard youngs doing "prog" or something, amirite?

total rockism

are you confusing postmodernism and irony?

no.

i mean, the significant thing about rock bands moving away from the modernist impulse into postmodernism was not that it was ironic that they were a contemporary band playing this old style or that and identifying themselves completely with particular styles. the styles themselves were the significant things.