a lot to get through...
How about that cover design uh?
The 2011 Rewind issue of The Wire is out. James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual is its Number One Release of the Year. I'd voted for Julia Holter's Tragedy as number one and put Far Side Virtual in second place. Agonised over that for a while but in the end I couldn't give the top spot to a pastiche, albeit an incredibly clever, timely and accomplished one. Not over Tragedy, which I can't recommend enough - I'm finding new depths with each listen. Very few of my top choices made it into the chart, possibly a testament to some social fragmentation of listening this year, but perhaps it was also because artists like Mark Fell, Maria Minerva and Andy Stott had multiple releases this year, all with a similar level of quality, and it felt wrong to pick more than one from each of them. Maybe one day the chart will rate Musical Objects of the Year, allowing votes for musicians, instruments, genres, riffs, performances, lyrics, cover art and everything else as well as releases of all shapes and sizes...
The issue also has an Electronica chart I helped compile, personal reflections from all writers, reviews of Yves de Mey, Land Equivalents and a Harold Budd & The Necks gig from me, and an Epiphany in which I contemplate the graphic score of Cornelius Cardew's Treatise. On Jan 12th next year I'll be discussing Infinite Music at a Wire salon with Nightwave and Mira Calix, of which more here (link includes the YouTube playlist I did for it).
I've reviewed the Kuedo album Severant over at Dummy (click here). From Jamie of Vex'd, it's yet another clever twist on 80s retroism and compulsive listening, but shouldn't be confused with futuristic music (or should it?). The architecture it brings to my mind is exemplified by the Broadgate estate on the Eastern edge of the city of London, specifically 135, 155 and 175 Bishopsgate, my pomo architecture guilty pleasure whose intestine I recently discovered you can walk through, taking you past Liverpool Street station:
Sounds just like Kuedo
Fascinating writing continues to pour out of Tiny Mix Tapes , including this manneristically written but well-aimed review of Oneohtrix Point Never's Replica (click here) and a brilliant response to the Retromania hypothesis from Jonathan Dean (click here). And in case you missed it, Simon Reynolds identified maximalism as a major trend in contemporary pop at Pitchfork (click here).
As the anniversery of the vote to triple the cap on University tuition fees approaches, I feel disappointed that I wasn't able this year to find more time or words to address the subsequent tripling of what can only be known as The Crisis, and the response to it. As far as historic events go (inside and outside of the UK), 2011 has undoudtedly been one of the most historic, disturbing and, at times, inspiring years I've lived through. I've been glued to Al Jazeera. I marched on #march26, #nov9 and #nov30. Being abroad during the phone-hacking scandal and then the riots gave me a certain perspective on how troubled this country has become. The student occupations of last year have become civic occupations all over the world. It seems pretty clear that next year will be even more intense - I hope 2012 will see everything we should fight against revealed to everyone even further, and more and more people getting off the fence and getting heard.
Two things that have recently shown the modern situation painfully clearly have been Dan Hancox's post on the #nov30 police cordon, the state of exception and Olympic security (click here already) and the first episode of Charlie Brooker's new TV programme Black Mirror, which I'm having bizarre trouble dissociating from all the disturbingly media-framed events that actually happened this year.
Regarding the ongoing marketisation of education, Howard Hotson's article and the subsequent exchange in the LRB really recharged my batteries this year.
Following our small joint Zer0 launch in Oxford, I'm reading Alex Niven's Folk Opposition, a beautifully concise and timely polemical essay on the uses and abuses of folk and class representations in contemporary Britain. Highly recommended as yet another key example of this crucial new wave of socio-political critique.
I've been trying my hand at radio, courtesy of the very exciting new web-based radio station NTS, broadcasting from Dalston, London. NTS recorded and broadcasted the launch of my Maus book and the Critical Beats seminars, and have given me the music slot in an arts magazine show Kiss My Arts (KMA) on Saturdays at 1pm, which comes around every 5 weeks or so. You can listen to my latest show here. It's far from perfection - please bear in mind that I'm still getting used to the studio and speaking on air, but I'll hopefully be posting audio and tracklistings up here when I'm in the swing of things. Do listen to the other shows too, catering for Literature, Film, Fine Art and Theatre each. I was there at the recording of the first Theatre show: chaotic, interesting and very fun.
Wire #335
The 2011 Rewind issue of The Wire is out. James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual is its Number One Release of the Year. I'd voted for Julia Holter's Tragedy as number one and put Far Side Virtual in second place. Agonised over that for a while but in the end I couldn't give the top spot to a pastiche, albeit an incredibly clever, timely and accomplished one. Not over Tragedy, which I can't recommend enough - I'm finding new depths with each listen. Very few of my top choices made it into the chart, possibly a testament to some social fragmentation of listening this year, but perhaps it was also because artists like Mark Fell, Maria Minerva and Andy Stott had multiple releases this year, all with a similar level of quality, and it felt wrong to pick more than one from each of them. Maybe one day the chart will rate Musical Objects of the Year, allowing votes for musicians, instruments, genres, riffs, performances, lyrics, cover art and everything else as well as releases of all shapes and sizes...
The issue also has an Electronica chart I helped compile, personal reflections from all writers, reviews of Yves de Mey, Land Equivalents and a Harold Budd & The Necks gig from me, and an Epiphany in which I contemplate the graphic score of Cornelius Cardew's Treatise. On Jan 12th next year I'll be discussing Infinite Music at a Wire salon with Nightwave and Mira Calix, of which more here (link includes the YouTube playlist I did for it).
Online Music Criticism
I've reviewed the Kuedo album Severant over at Dummy (click here). From Jamie of Vex'd, it's yet another clever twist on 80s retroism and compulsive listening, but shouldn't be confused with futuristic music (or should it?). The architecture it brings to my mind is exemplified by the Broadgate estate on the Eastern edge of the city of London, specifically 135, 155 and 175 Bishopsgate, my pomo architecture guilty pleasure whose intestine I recently discovered you can walk through, taking you past Liverpool Street station:
Fascinating writing continues to pour out of Tiny Mix Tapes , including this manneristically written but well-aimed review of Oneohtrix Point Never's Replica (click here) and a brilliant response to the Retromania hypothesis from Jonathan Dean (click here). And in case you missed it, Simon Reynolds identified maximalism as a major trend in contemporary pop at Pitchfork (click here).
Politics
As the anniversery of the vote to triple the cap on University tuition fees approaches, I feel disappointed that I wasn't able this year to find more time or words to address the subsequent tripling of what can only be known as The Crisis, and the response to it. As far as historic events go (inside and outside of the UK), 2011 has undoudtedly been one of the most historic, disturbing and, at times, inspiring years I've lived through. I've been glued to Al Jazeera. I marched on #march26, #nov9 and #nov30. Being abroad during the phone-hacking scandal and then the riots gave me a certain perspective on how troubled this country has become. The student occupations of last year have become civic occupations all over the world. It seems pretty clear that next year will be even more intense - I hope 2012 will see everything we should fight against revealed to everyone even further, and more and more people getting off the fence and getting heard.Two things that have recently shown the modern situation painfully clearly have been Dan Hancox's post on the #nov30 police cordon, the state of exception and Olympic security (click here already) and the first episode of Charlie Brooker's new TV programme Black Mirror, which I'm having bizarre trouble dissociating from all the disturbingly media-framed events that actually happened this year.
Regarding the ongoing marketisation of education, Howard Hotson's article and the subsequent exchange in the LRB really recharged my batteries this year.
Following our small joint Zer0 launch in Oxford, I'm reading Alex Niven's Folk Opposition, a beautifully concise and timely polemical essay on the uses and abuses of folk and class representations in contemporary Britain. Highly recommended as yet another key example of this crucial new wave of socio-political critique.
Radio
I've been trying my hand at radio, courtesy of the very exciting new web-based radio station NTS, broadcasting from Dalston, London. NTS recorded and broadcasted the launch of my Maus book and the Critical Beats seminars, and have given me the music slot in an arts magazine show Kiss My Arts (KMA) on Saturdays at 1pm, which comes around every 5 weeks or so. You can listen to my latest show here. It's far from perfection - please bear in mind that I'm still getting used to the studio and speaking on air, but I'll hopefully be posting audio and tracklistings up here when I'm in the swing of things. Do listen to the other shows too, catering for Literature, Film, Fine Art and Theatre each. I was there at the recording of the first Theatre show: chaotic, interesting and very fun.
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