As usual, my categories are heedlessly over-subjective, assymetrical and arbitrary, just serving to give me the opportunity to spout off about whatever. If this will annoy, delete now. No particular order and I know I'm missing few things.
*Best Label* Downlow Releases: Polarius - Jams From The Funk Dump Dan Curtin - Distort.Archive.Desire I missed Convextion's Gray Sky/Warm Car, but after the above 2 (and 'Beauty In Decay' last year) I won't be making the same mistake again. *Best Detroit Techno LP* Rob Hood - Wire To Wire (Peacefrog) Unmistakably special. More people know Hood's tougher, purist techno, than know about his more meditative, yearningly emotive, musical side, a la 'Night Time World' etc. WTW sounds like an introduction to that. *Best LPs* Alex Cortex - Inwards Ctrl - (Ann Aimee) Cim - Noki Bay (Ann Aimee) Secret History Compilation (New Religion/EMI) Pavel Kostiuk & The Musicals (2000 Black) Tread - Tread 03 (Third Ear) *Drexciya LP of the year* ;-) Abstract Thought - Hypothetical Situations (Kombination Research) By a thin margin, based on the slightly harder, slightly more 'Euro' feel vs other Drexciya stuff this year, but also because of its sweeter moments too. *Kraftwerk LP of the Year*! Tour de France Sountracks. Imagine listening to this in a 'blind' test. If you didn't know it was Kraftwerk, would you think it was good? (At least?). I'd wager that most would. That's all that matters. *Best 12s/Double 12s* Andre - Untitled EP - (Mahogani) Tres Demented -Tres Demented - (Planet e) Yunx - this is marked 02, but copies didn't really start to circulate till this year Mute - Direct Cuts EP (Running Back) Shake -Convalesence EP (Frictional) DJ Gregory - Elle (Fayacomba) Blaktronics - This Is Your Drug On Brains EP - very future, very broken, very techno. Rei Loci - Rei Loci (Seventh Sign) Unlike most reviewers of this, I found it really, really relaxed! But I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Certainly 'Faction' is the 'deepest' record of its kind I heard this year. Cesaria Evora - Angola Remixes (LusAfrica) DJ Spinna feat. Shaun Escoffrey - The Music In Me *Grossest case of being overlooked* Patrick Richard - New Positions EP *Most Mixable Loop* The Three Chairs - All Over. If you dismissed this as barely-changing, with a weird stutter in the hi-hat pattern, and likely to be badly-pressed to boot, then you really missed-out imho. Like the best classics, this steadfastly refuses to come to conscious on the first listen. Or even the third or fourth. But eventually, you'll notice some artful delay in the chords, intriguing sequencing, and hints of wider dimensions. Most Neglected Genre (by me): hip-hop. My feeling is that in terms of 'futuristic music' it's likely to have something of a renaissance year in 04. Here's hoping '04 is as good for the music we like in general as this one has been. Happy holidays all! k
