Wednesday, January 28
Well, here it is, as promised: my top 100 albums of all time. I cheated by adding a few boxed sets instead of individual albums from a few artists; my logic is, I listen to the boxed sets more than the albums. Anyways, enjoy it!
1. The Conet Project, Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
2. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arkology
3. William Basinski, The River
4. Random Inc., Jerusalem: Tales Outside the Framework of Orthodoxy
5. Richard and Linda Thompson, Shoot Out the Lights
6. The Congos, Heart of the Congos
7. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
8. Belle and Sebastian, If You're Feeling Sinister
9. Radiohead, OK Computer
10. Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime
11. V/A, Tuva: Among The Spirits; Sound, Music And Nature In Sakha And Tuva
12. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico
13. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground
14. V/A, Lowercase-Sound 2002
15. James Brown, Star Time
16. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
17. The Band, The Band
18. The Beatles, The White Album
19. Sigur Rós, ( )
20. Bob Dylan, Biograph
21. Bob Marley & the Wailers, Catch a Fire (Original Jamaican Edition)
22. David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
23. Pan Sonic, Aaltopiiri
24. Gevorg Dabaghyan, Miniatures: Masterworks for Armenian Duduk
25. V/A, Inflation (*0 0.000 Remix)
26. Fennesz, Endless Summer
27. Bobby "Blue" Bland, Two Steps from the Blues
28. The Flatlanders, More a Legend than a Band
29. V/A, Clicks_+_Cuts
30. Bob Marley, Songs of Freedom
31. Sharakan Early Music Ensemble, Music of Armenia: Vol. 2-Sharakan / Medieval Music
32. Tricky, Maxinquaye
33. Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
34. Nirvana, In Utero
35. Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
36. V/A, Soweto Never Sleeps: Classic Female Zulu Jive
37. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
38. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, This Year's Model
39. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main St.
40. Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
41. Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues Singers
42. Richard Thompson, Watching the Dark
43. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?
44. Shuttle358, Frame
45. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love
46. William Basinski, The Disintegration Loops I-IV
47. Michael Hurley & the Unholy Modal Rounders, Have Moicy!
48. V/A, Afghanistan Untouched
49. Joe Hisaishi, My Neighbor Totoro (Original Soundtrack)
50. Nirvana, Nevermind
51. Joy Division, Closer
52. V/A, The Harder They Come (Soundtrack)
53. Massive Attack, Mezzanine
54. V/A, The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan
55. Talk Talk, Laughing Stock
56. Salamat Sadikova, The Voice of Kyrgyzstan
57. King Tubby, Dub Gone Crazy
58. Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children
59. The Replacements, Let It Be
60. DJ Shadow, Entroducing…
61. Sogar, Apikal Blend
62. David Bowie, Low
63. Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance
64. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Blackboard Jungle Dub
65. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Divine Madness…Definitely
66. Air, Moon Safari
67. Autechre, Tri Repetae
68. Theodore Levin (ed.), The Hundred Thousand Fools of God
69. Pan Sonic, A
70. Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
71. Björk, Homogenic
72. Scientist, Rids the World the Curse of the Vampires
73. The Clash, The Clash
74. Depeche Mode, Black Celebration
75. Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York
76. The Velvet Underground, Loaded
77. Augustus Pablo, King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
78. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Super Ape
79. Abyssinians, Satta Massagana
80. Bernhard Günter, Univers Temporel Espoir
81. Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove
82. De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising
83. Stephan P. McGreevy, Electric Enigma: The VLF Recordings of Stephan P. McGreevy
84. Coh, Mask of Birth
85. Charles M. Bogert, Sounds of North American Frogs
86. Brian Eno, Discreet Music
87. Peter Gabriel, Passion
88. Big Star, Radio City
89. Louis and Bebe Barron, Forbidden Planet (Original Soundtrack)
90. Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads
91. Rechenzentrum, Director's Cut
92. Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
93. Autechre, EP7
94. Bretschneider & Deupree, Balance
95. Horace Andy, In the Light/In The Light Dub
96. Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
97. Prefab Sprout, Steve McQueen (aka Two Wheels Good)
98. Bulgarian Female Choir, Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares
99. King Tubby, The Roots of Dub/Dub From the Roots
100. "Weird Al" Yankovic, Permanent Record: Al in a Box
1. The Conet Project, Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
2. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arkology
3. William Basinski, The River
4. Random Inc., Jerusalem: Tales Outside the Framework of Orthodoxy
5. Richard and Linda Thompson, Shoot Out the Lights
6. The Congos, Heart of the Congos
7. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
8. Belle and Sebastian, If You're Feeling Sinister
9. Radiohead, OK Computer
10. Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime
11. V/A, Tuva: Among The Spirits; Sound, Music And Nature In Sakha And Tuva
12. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico
13. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground
14. V/A, Lowercase-Sound 2002
15. James Brown, Star Time
16. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
17. The Band, The Band
18. The Beatles, The White Album
19. Sigur Rós, ( )
20. Bob Dylan, Biograph
21. Bob Marley & the Wailers, Catch a Fire (Original Jamaican Edition)
22. David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
23. Pan Sonic, Aaltopiiri
24. Gevorg Dabaghyan, Miniatures: Masterworks for Armenian Duduk
25. V/A, Inflation (*0 0.000 Remix)
26. Fennesz, Endless Summer
27. Bobby "Blue" Bland, Two Steps from the Blues
28. The Flatlanders, More a Legend than a Band
29. V/A, Clicks_+_Cuts
30. Bob Marley, Songs of Freedom
31. Sharakan Early Music Ensemble, Music of Armenia: Vol. 2-Sharakan / Medieval Music
32. Tricky, Maxinquaye
33. Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
34. Nirvana, In Utero
35. Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
36. V/A, Soweto Never Sleeps: Classic Female Zulu Jive
37. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
38. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, This Year's Model
39. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main St.
40. Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
41. Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues Singers
42. Richard Thompson, Watching the Dark
43. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced?
44. Shuttle358, Frame
45. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love
46. William Basinski, The Disintegration Loops I-IV
47. Michael Hurley & the Unholy Modal Rounders, Have Moicy!
48. V/A, Afghanistan Untouched
49. Joe Hisaishi, My Neighbor Totoro (Original Soundtrack)
50. Nirvana, Nevermind
51. Joy Division, Closer
52. V/A, The Harder They Come (Soundtrack)
53. Massive Attack, Mezzanine
54. V/A, The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan
55. Talk Talk, Laughing Stock
56. Salamat Sadikova, The Voice of Kyrgyzstan
57. King Tubby, Dub Gone Crazy
58. Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children
59. The Replacements, Let It Be
60. DJ Shadow, Entroducing…
61. Sogar, Apikal Blend
62. David Bowie, Low
63. Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance
64. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Blackboard Jungle Dub
65. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Divine Madness…Definitely
66. Air, Moon Safari
67. Autechre, Tri Repetae
68. Theodore Levin (ed.), The Hundred Thousand Fools of God
69. Pan Sonic, A
70. Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
71. Björk, Homogenic
72. Scientist, Rids the World the Curse of the Vampires
73. The Clash, The Clash
74. Depeche Mode, Black Celebration
75. Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York
76. The Velvet Underground, Loaded
77. Augustus Pablo, King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
78. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Super Ape
79. Abyssinians, Satta Massagana
80. Bernhard Günter, Univers Temporel Espoir
81. Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove
82. De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising
83. Stephan P. McGreevy, Electric Enigma: The VLF Recordings of Stephan P. McGreevy
84. Coh, Mask of Birth
85. Charles M. Bogert, Sounds of North American Frogs
86. Brian Eno, Discreet Music
87. Peter Gabriel, Passion
88. Big Star, Radio City
89. Louis and Bebe Barron, Forbidden Planet (Original Soundtrack)
90. Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads
91. Rechenzentrum, Director's Cut
92. Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
93. Autechre, EP7
94. Bretschneider & Deupree, Balance
95. Horace Andy, In the Light/In The Light Dub
96. Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
97. Prefab Sprout, Steve McQueen (aka Two Wheels Good)
98. Bulgarian Female Choir, Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares
99. King Tubby, The Roots of Dub/Dub From the Roots
100. "Weird Al" Yankovic, Permanent Record: Al in a Box
Thursday, January 22
Here's an article I wrote for Stylus Magazine, for their "Perfect Moments in Pop" feature. Enjoy it! Oh, and for the record, I've put together my Top 100 Albums of All Time list, but I probably won't post it until February, so you can look forward to that, all two of you who actually read this (and that includes me).
mh
King Tubby's "Dubbin' of the Ten Thousand"
I got into reggae and dub music the same way most everyone else does—first Bob Marley, then Burning Spear, Culture, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and so on. In my younger, more political days (read: my undergrad years), hanging out in Berkeley and reading socialist newspapers, I was drawn to the uplifting political messages of such songs as "Marcus Garvey" and "Get Up, Stand Up." I've never lost my love of these songs; if anything, my appreciation for Marley's music continues to grow. But my interest in the directly political side of Jamaican music is not nearly as strong today as it once was. In part, it's because of my own disillusionment with politics (which, in the United States, has become a sad, depressing joke). However, it's also because I've become far more interested in Jamaican music than I ever was with Jamaican lyrics.
The dominant features of Jamaican music are rhythm and experimentation. At the heart of both these features is one name: King Tubby. True, "Scratch" and Marley get the lion's share of the accolades when it comes to Jamaican music history. That's probably because Tubby didn't perform; he was a studio wizard and an entrepreneur. But his production techniques and dub plate experiments are without equal, and his greatest tracks are, quite simply, on par with the best music ever created.
Sadly, it's only been in the past few years that the bulk of Tubby's recordings have become widely available. I've picked up most of these albums, and I enjoy all of them immensely. However, there's one Tubby song that stands out above and beyond everything else that bears Tubby's name: "Dubbin' of the Ten Thousand." It's from Motion Records' 1999 album, The Sounds of Channel One: The King Tubby Connection. It's a fairly obscure disc, featuring unreleased vocal and dub tracks recorded in the late 70s and early 80s at the famous Channel One studio in Kingston, Jamaica, and mixed by Tubby in his Drummlie Avenue studio. "Dubbin'" is the dub of dancehall DJ Badoo's "Rockin' of the Ten Thousand," which in itself is a version of Badoo's minor UK hit "Rockin' of the Five Thousand." To make this even more complicated, the rhythmic structure in all three versions—a strong, looping bass line and a bouncy beat—is actually taken from the classic 60s song, "Drum Song," which was first performed by Jackie Mittoo and Sound Dimension but has been used and reused by countless Jamaican artists ever since.
Now, I've heard the original, Sound Dimension song, and I've heard Badoo's vocal version of both the "5,000" and the "10,000" songs. They're all decent tracks, but they're nothing spectacular. The driving beat in the original was interesting enough to be used by other artists, but it wasn't really the focus of that first version (the horns dominate, and those horns now sound pretty dated). Badoo's monologues in his two versions paint a picture of a typical sound system evening in Kingstown. And while the driving beat and the guitar chops are the same in the vocal versions as they are in the dub version, it's Badoo's voice that is prominent.
What Tubby must have realized, after producing these two Badoo songs, is that the beat here is simply out of this world. So, for Tubby's version of the song, he kept things as simple as he could: crank up the bass, the drums, and the looping guitar lick, and strip out all but a smattering of Badoo vocal samples that he uses as accentuation. And although this is a dub, Tubby's not interested in overproduction. There are no moments (as in many dub songs) when everything disappears except a stretched-out, echoing cymbal clash. The effects used merely enhance what is already in this song: adding a dusty, echo effect to the cowbell-like snare and bongo-like drums, a reverb warmth to the guitar, and a delay effect to a few of the Badoo samples.
The results of Tubby's production: one of the best beat-driven songs I've ever heard. I've been a fan of reggae for a long time, but the first time I heard this song was the first and only time I've ever sensed what reggae might sound like in Jamaica, in a culture submerged in music and poverty, where music and expression are the only things that keep some people alive. There's a deepness in this song that I've only glimpsed in other works. It's as if this song was not a few decades old but a few hundred, a few thousand years old, performed by the earliest musicians, sitting around a fire at night, wondering if the sky would ever return.
Now, I'm fully aware that Tubby was as much a scientist as a musician, and the "deepness" I felt was a product of studio manipulation, not a live, fire-induced trance. But, in a way, that's why this song is so perfect: Tubby managed to create in a studio a sound that could only exist in our imagination. The minor additions of reverb, delay, and echo here merely accentuate the very elements of this song that most deserve accentuation. He didn't have to turn this song into an elaborate dub voyage because he didn't have to. He had this beat; that was enough. So he took everything else out and added a few accentuations to make that beat even stronger. That's why they call him the King: because he knows when to stop. Believe me, that's a lot harder to do than it sounds (ask Brian Wilson).
This is not the most groundbreaking reggae song ever made. This is not the most technically advanced song Tubby ever created. This is not even a particularly popular song. But, to me, this is the perfect song and the perfect beat.
mh
King Tubby's "Dubbin' of the Ten Thousand"
I got into reggae and dub music the same way most everyone else does—first Bob Marley, then Burning Spear, Culture, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and so on. In my younger, more political days (read: my undergrad years), hanging out in Berkeley and reading socialist newspapers, I was drawn to the uplifting political messages of such songs as "Marcus Garvey" and "Get Up, Stand Up." I've never lost my love of these songs; if anything, my appreciation for Marley's music continues to grow. But my interest in the directly political side of Jamaican music is not nearly as strong today as it once was. In part, it's because of my own disillusionment with politics (which, in the United States, has become a sad, depressing joke). However, it's also because I've become far more interested in Jamaican music than I ever was with Jamaican lyrics.
The dominant features of Jamaican music are rhythm and experimentation. At the heart of both these features is one name: King Tubby. True, "Scratch" and Marley get the lion's share of the accolades when it comes to Jamaican music history. That's probably because Tubby didn't perform; he was a studio wizard and an entrepreneur. But his production techniques and dub plate experiments are without equal, and his greatest tracks are, quite simply, on par with the best music ever created.Sadly, it's only been in the past few years that the bulk of Tubby's recordings have become widely available. I've picked up most of these albums, and I enjoy all of them immensely. However, there's one Tubby song that stands out above and beyond everything else that bears Tubby's name: "Dubbin' of the Ten Thousand." It's from Motion Records' 1999 album, The Sounds of Channel One: The King Tubby Connection. It's a fairly obscure disc, featuring unreleased vocal and dub tracks recorded in the late 70s and early 80s at the famous Channel One studio in Kingston, Jamaica, and mixed by Tubby in his Drummlie Avenue studio. "Dubbin'" is the dub of dancehall DJ Badoo's "Rockin' of the Ten Thousand," which in itself is a version of Badoo's minor UK hit "Rockin' of the Five Thousand." To make this even more complicated, the rhythmic structure in all three versions—a strong, looping bass line and a bouncy beat—is actually taken from the classic 60s song, "Drum Song," which was first performed by Jackie Mittoo and Sound Dimension but has been used and reused by countless Jamaican artists ever since.
Now, I've heard the original, Sound Dimension song, and I've heard Badoo's vocal version of both the "5,000" and the "10,000" songs. They're all decent tracks, but they're nothing spectacular. The driving beat in the original was interesting enough to be used by other artists, but it wasn't really the focus of that first version (the horns dominate, and those horns now sound pretty dated). Badoo's monologues in his two versions paint a picture of a typical sound system evening in Kingstown. And while the driving beat and the guitar chops are the same in the vocal versions as they are in the dub version, it's Badoo's voice that is prominent.
What Tubby must have realized, after producing these two Badoo songs, is that the beat here is simply out of this world. So, for Tubby's version of the song, he kept things as simple as he could: crank up the bass, the drums, and the looping guitar lick, and strip out all but a smattering of Badoo vocal samples that he uses as accentuation. And although this is a dub, Tubby's not interested in overproduction. There are no moments (as in many dub songs) when everything disappears except a stretched-out, echoing cymbal clash. The effects used merely enhance what is already in this song: adding a dusty, echo effect to the cowbell-like snare and bongo-like drums, a reverb warmth to the guitar, and a delay effect to a few of the Badoo samples.
The results of Tubby's production: one of the best beat-driven songs I've ever heard. I've been a fan of reggae for a long time, but the first time I heard this song was the first and only time I've ever sensed what reggae might sound like in Jamaica, in a culture submerged in music and poverty, where music and expression are the only things that keep some people alive. There's a deepness in this song that I've only glimpsed in other works. It's as if this song was not a few decades old but a few hundred, a few thousand years old, performed by the earliest musicians, sitting around a fire at night, wondering if the sky would ever return.
Now, I'm fully aware that Tubby was as much a scientist as a musician, and the "deepness" I felt was a product of studio manipulation, not a live, fire-induced trance. But, in a way, that's why this song is so perfect: Tubby managed to create in a studio a sound that could only exist in our imagination. The minor additions of reverb, delay, and echo here merely accentuate the very elements of this song that most deserve accentuation. He didn't have to turn this song into an elaborate dub voyage because he didn't have to. He had this beat; that was enough. So he took everything else out and added a few accentuations to make that beat even stronger. That's why they call him the King: because he knows when to stop. Believe me, that's a lot harder to do than it sounds (ask Brian Wilson).
This is not the most groundbreaking reggae song ever made. This is not the most technically advanced song Tubby ever created. This is not even a particularly popular song. But, to me, this is the perfect song and the perfect beat.
Wednesday, January 7
Biggest and best news so far from 2004: the release of parts 2-4 of William Basinski's epochal The Disintegration Loops. I've heard part one, which was released earlier, and find it to be a wonderful continuation of the music he released on The River and Watermusic. The remainder of TDL promises turn this four disk series into yet another Basinski masterwork.
This is ambient music of the highest order, music that is as beautiful and as rich as anything I've ever heard. All of these works are available at Forced Exposure and M.DOS.
This is ambient music of the highest order, music that is as beautiful and as rich as anything I've ever heard. All of these works are available at Forced Exposure and M.DOS.
