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FEATURE TOP 25 RECORDINGS OF 2006 To paraphrase a line out of Robocop, good music is where you find it. Of course, like a tilt-a-whirl, the music “industry” continues to function in a state of virtual chaos amid an absolute loss of identity and prescience, its innards on the verge of collapse. As always this leaves the best music out on the margins. Labels, particularly those based solely on the CDR model, flourish much like the cassette underground of the 80s—long live DIY! So in some respects music still released on media (CD, CDR, vinyl) seems to be holding its own against the death march onslaught of downloading and MP3s, formats which have practically negated the idea of high fidelity in sound. Despite all this, 2006 was again a superb year for music; much to be discovered, relished and savored, crossing boundary and style. Continuing their desire to issue recordings in unusually-shaped, storage-defying, and collector-fetishistic packages, labels such as Soleilmoon, Raster-Noton, U-Cover, Staalplaat and Spekk still consider the record as objet d’art, not just data, which is a godsend for all of us (at least those who care not a whit for MP3s). Meanwhile, artists such as Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, Zoviet France, and Conrad Schnitzler continue to release fascinating, absorbing work, even decades on, and those who grew up listening to these progenitors are boldly proclaiming that what’s old is new again. There’s always too much music to hear (always will be—a blessing in disguise?), and the ear hardly has the will (or the time) to get to it all, but what I tasted last year certainly made it easier for those past 365 days to go down. DARREN BERGSTEIN - AKUMU: Magmas (Spider) - ALOG Catch that Totem! (Melektronikk) - ATELEIA Formal Sleep (Xeric) - AUTOBAM Quasi Satellite (Leerraum) - CONRAD SCHNITZLER: Trigger Trilogy (Important) - ELVE Infinite Garden (Virtual World) - FOREST JACKSON Cymbalism (Mosz) - GAGARIN: Ard Nev (U-Cover) - GIUSEPPE IELASI & HOWARD STELZER: Night Life (Brombron) - KANGDING RAY Stabil (Raster-Noton) - LOSCIL: Plume (Kranky) - NORBERT MOSLANG: Burst Log (For 4 Ears) - NURSE WITH WOUND: Soundpooling (ICR/United Dairies) - PAN-AMERICAN: For Waiting, For Chasing (Mosz) - PHONOPHANI: Oak or Rock (Rune Grammafon) - ROBERT HENKE: Layering Buddha (Imbalance Computer) - STEINBRUCHEL: Opaque [+Re] (Room40) - STEPHAN MATHIEU / JANEK SCHAEFER: Hidden Name (Cronica) - STEVE ROACH: Proof Positive (Timeroom Editions) - STEVE ROACH/LOREN NERELL Terraform (Soleilmoon) - TOUANE: Awake (Persona) - VARIOUS ARTISTS: Pop Ambient 2007 (Kompakt) - VIDNA OBMANA & BASS COMMUNION: Continuum (Soleilmoon) - WASTELAND: All Versus All (Transparent) - YAGYA: Will I Dream During the Process? (Sending Orbs) - ZOVIET FRANCE: Reformed Faction of (Klanggalerie) |
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