Evaluating this decade from a cultural standpoint feels, to paraphrase a report card comment from my 11th grade English teacher regarding my ability to focus, a little like nailing Jello to the wall. Unlike the eighties which brought us Back to the Future and hip hop and crack cocaine, this decade was rather short on original iconography, defining itself more by the manner in which past trends were recycled than the rate at which new ones were created. Even Bin Laden’s iconic attack of the World Trade Centre was so obviously lifted from the 1992 Steven Segal action blockbuster, Under Siege.
If forced to find a label, this decade this could perhaps be regarded as the age of irony, a generational fetishizing of bad taste that allowed brashness to trade as talent and cynicism as charm. While certainly a cultural masterstroke on the part of reality television hopefuls and sallow hipsters with no fashion sense who could pass themselves off as hip by hiding under fluorescent sweatshirts and trucker hats, what should have been a summer fad has all but consumed an entire decade, leaving some of us feeling how one does after eating dessert in lieu of dinner.
In summing up this decade’s output, I refrained from doing the standard list of the hundred or so greatest albums and songs, assuming I’d wind up with something as arbitrary as those greatest films lists which attempt to put titles as diverse as Star Wars, Annie Hall, and Casablanca in a definitive order of quality. Instead, I assembled a couple of super-sized mixes of some highlights from a decade when we used to listen to music on CDs, talk about how the Iraq war was really over oil, and about how we still had time to save the environment. It seems like only yesterday.
Part One – A Decade in Computers
Dapayk & Padburg – Black Beauty Matthew Dear – Don and Sherri Mandy vs. Booka Shade – Body Language (Konrad Black Remix) Roxy Music – The Thrill of it All (Mandy & Booka Shade Mix) Alex Smoke – Make My Day (Luisine Mix) Matias Aguayo – New Life Dave Aju – Crazy Place !!! – Shit Scheisse Merde, Pt. 2 Chromeo – Needy Girl Junior Boys – In the Morning Metro Area – Miura Miss Kitten & the Hacker – Madame Hollywood Fischerspooner – Horizon Radiohead – Idioteque Ricardo Villalobos – What You Say (Edit) Stephen Beaupre – Fish Fry (a)pendics Shuffle – Looking for Me (Mossa Remix) SCSI 9 – Mini Enliven Dop Acoustics – The Dust (Enliven Deep Acoustics Mix) Moodymann – Freeki Mutha F cker Soulphiction – Get It Right Elektrochemie – Don’t Go Invisible Conga People – Cable Dazed The Knife – One Hit The Postal Service – Such Great Heights Amadou & Mariam – Sabali Woofly vs. Projections – Starlight Jurgen Paape – So Weit Wie Noch Nie Kraftwerk – Elektro Kardiogramm Air – Run Boards of Canada – In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart (Familijen Remix) Clipse – Grindin’ Aaliyah – Try Again Farah – Law of Life Cassie – Me & U (Chopped & Screwed Version) Theophilus London – Aquamilitia Kid Cudi – Day and Night Tessio – Luomo Mount Kimbie – 50 Mile View Damian Lazarus – Moment Daft Punk – Something About Us Playgroup – Hideaway The Chromatics – Night Drive The Orb – Before Because Dntel – Anywhere, Anyone Burial – Archangel Ratatat – Cherry Cassius – Nothing Schneider TM vs. Kpt Michi Gan – The Light
Part Two – A Decade in Bands and Singer/ Songwriters
Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head Fujiya & Miyagi – Collarbone Of Montreal – Gronlandic Edit Takka Takka – Everybody Say These United States – First Sight Angus & Julia Stone – Paper Aeroplane Stars – This Charming Man American Analog Set – Aaron and Maria The XX – Basic Space Phoenix – If I Ever Feel Better Yeasayer – 2080 The Polyphonic Spree – Solider Girl The Duke Spirit – Masca The Strokes – Last Night The Concretes – You Can’t Hurry Love You Say Party! We Say Die! – Downtown Mayors Goodnight, Alley Kids Rule Serena Maneesh – Her Name is Suicide Sonic Youth – Peace Attack American Watercolor Movement – Sweet Thursday Panda Bear – Take Pills Electralane – The Valleys Amnion – Praise God For the Light Within Me Wilco – Radio Cure Yo La Tengo – Don’t Have to Be So Sad Gregor Samsa – Jeroen Van Aken The Owls – Isaac Beshevis Singer The Wooden Birds – Seven Seventeen Wildbirds & Peacedrums – I Can’t Tell in His Eyes Taken Too Young – Too Young Brightblack Morning Light – Everybody Delight Sam Baker – Odessa Alela Diane – The Rifle Gravenhurst – The Diver Goran Gora – Slow Down Kings of Convenience – I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From Iron and Wine – Lions Mane The Rosemont Family Reunion – Ho Ho Ho Sebadoh – Beautiful Friend Antony & the Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone Papa M – So Warped Sigur Ros – Staralfur Alaska In Winter – Horsey Horse D’Angelo – One More Gin
As featured on August’s Sexier Than Lingerie mix, this impeccable remix from the illusive Salt City Orchestra camp turns this respectable Underworld track into something I would comfortably refer to as classic.
Born in Kansas before transplanting to London for a stint at St. Martin’s and some British pedigree, pop/ folk artist Piney Gir has recently released this earthy single, perhaps as a purge before embarking on a reported electronica project.
In a perfect world, this song would be ubiquitously popular as I imagine it being played in a centuries old pub with the patrons singing along red-faced, joyously swinging their pint glasses back and forth with the rhythm and knocking them back with a roar of unspecified laughter when the tune is finished.
In the year 2000, flying cars will be everywhere, and doors will open with a swish; a sound we will never grow tired of. The government will tattoo UPC codes into the back of our necks in a move that recalls the most harrowing aspects of Orwell’s dystopian vision of the future; surprisingly, we’ll eventually realize that it is actually an efficient system and that we all overreacted. In the year 2000, scientists will discover a cure for AIDS, however, the following year a new disease will emerge that will make HIV feel like a case of “the Mondays” and a new generation of Jews and Palestinians will have totally gotten over the whole Israel issue, electing to settle Gaza with a region-wide game of Laser Tag. In this new century, every household will have its own computer with which people will make music and exchange pornography, though not remotely in that order.
Lil Louis – I Called U (A Series of Events) File 13 – Taste So Good Benoit & Sergio – Full Grown Man Marek Memmann – NTMYT Session Victim – Memory Lane Captain Comatose – Up In Flames (Glove Mix) Underworld – Show Some Emotion Lil Louis – I Called U (But U Went To the Party) Move D & Namlook – Civilization There! Ytre Rymden Dansskola – Kahluha Madness Optic Nerve – Orgins Interlude Optic Nerve – Orgins Konrad Black & Selfparttwo – Still Waiting… Haven’t Even Started Yet Gaiser – Oolooloo In Flagranti – Brash and Vulgar Circlesquare – Dancers (Taras3000 Remix) Eberhard Schoener – Why Don’t You Answer Billy Dallessandro – Fondue Ricardo Villalobos and Los Updates – Driving Nowhere (Audio George Mix) Oni Ayhun – OAR001-A Jaydee – Plastic Dreams Moodyman – On My Way Home Stewart Walker – LA Walker Omar S – 100% House System 01 – Family Drugs David Hasert – You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Melody System 01 – Disembodied Voices Philip Seymour Hoffman – Firing Missiles at Christmas and Easter Island Instra:mental – Watching You Colorpulse feat Carl Sagan & Stephen Hawking – Glorious Dawn Steve Mason – All Come Down King Midas Sound – Sometimes
Electric Adolescence – The Year 200080:00 mins/ 256 kbps/ 146MB
Now months after the death of Michael Jackson, and with the mind-numbing cable news coverage having only recently subsided, we are undoubtedly due for a wave of work inspired by artists revisiting the catalog of the late pop mogul and accomplished kiddy fiddler. In that vien, the eponymous track from Lindstrom and Cristabelle’s recently released “Don’t Stop” EP offers up an unapologetically derivative throwback to “Off the Wall” era MJ.
Another notable highlight from the duos recent record, Lovesick, has been discretely remixed by Fan Death, an American band named after a South Korean urban legend which claims that an electric fan left running overnight will kill everyone inside the room.
Lindstrom and Christabelle – Lovesick3:16 mins/ 320 kbps/ 7.60MB
In what could best be described as hip hop’s answer to National Geographic, GZA confirms his place as the most gifted lyricist to emerge from the expansive Wu Tang Clan by spitting an impeccable string of animal metaphors in a grand analogy between street strife and life in the jungle.
B. Fleischmann adds a richly textured backing track to Daniel Johnson’s sympathetic retelling of the story of King Kong, doing more in under 6 minutes than what Peter Jackson managed in over three tedious hours, and without the painful experience of having Jack Black look deadpan into the camera explaining that it was beauty that killed the beast.
Had Elvis been alive today, I expect he would think as highly of Germany’s techno scene as he would about the invention of The Stairmaster. Still, no reason not to have Richie Hawtin and Guido Schneider give The King a full Berlin make over.
Elvis Presley vs. Richie Hawtin and Guido Schneider – Visual ID7:39 mins/ 192 kbps/ 10.5MB
It would seem remiss not to post this song as it’s probably the one I’m listening to most often when writing. It’s a shame that “background music” has emerged as a derogatory term, having been cannibalized by Café Del Mar and the like, because there is room for genius in music that allows the listener to tune out.
Such is the case with this standout from Papa M’s background opus Live From a Shark Cage. Taking its time and earning its keep, Drunken Spree gives you space to focus on other things; whether you’re painting illustrations for a children’s book, making a stew, or plotting to rig an election in a small South American country, you can be left alone with your thoughts until the seven minute mark when a slow drum beat and restrained vocal accents gently remind you that you’re in the presence of genius.
