2021
Apart from one PTSD-flavored post (since deleted), this is my first missive for PROTEAN NORM in a year. Those who know me know why to the fullest (sorry all them poor peeps) but in barest form if you need it: I needed more CA$H to pay for hospice care for burdens both Mom & Pop --- then some more for the constant travel from coast to coast, then a bit more to relocate to a hostile Buffalo I hardly recognised --- hey, rent #1 in Cali wasn't killin' me quick enough. This meant doin' MUCH more of the music PA puff I write by the yard, where I fritter my precious time on meager talents (more on them later), when I wanted/tried in this blog and some places beyond to fritter my meager talent on precious talents (more but not enough of them later). If you need endings (happy or not), then Pop passed first (mercifully, noisily) on a hot day in June, Mom soon after (quickly, gratefully). The death rites and other dance steps kept me occupied till the fall when I finally returned to listening to music for pleasure - not comfort or relief or therapy - but actual pleasure.
And thank the skies, there was the plenty of it and plenty of time to hear it on flights and super long car journeys cross country and up and down state. I even caught some stuff live (all hail them SanFran venues). On the downside, feel like I got some very heavy doses of the usual in my inbox: underwritten, overproduced note-rote-indie; limp, mithering faux folk; breast-formula-one misogyny hiphop....and....and this a very special appeal....can we please, please, please quit the duvet mountain of medicinal ambient shit soon? Please? Even in my fragile state, I craved some barbs and flint. And, on the flip (but actually not): if I have to endure another interminable-atmospheric-portent-with-fuck-all-else-digi-collage-record/cassette (but it's "a dystopian vision", see?) generally (but not exclusively) produced by the men children, I will gladly swap 'em all to listen to Doris Day forever.
All that said, this is a pretty strong list if a bit hasty and late in the assembly. Some BIG caveats: there's heaps I wanna listen to and haven't yet (a zillion Jad Fair albums AND a new Jonathan Richman record!!!), but for where I am now and where I was when this music spoke to me, this is it and I will try not to retrofit too much later...though it could expnad to a 50.
Just a couple of notes: Besides being a fucking masterpiece, the Santa Sprees' record also boasts the stand out single song of the year in Run Wild When I'm Gone and is even more remarkable for the bait and switch (late) turn it takes from wild, hingeless pop to songs about death and dying that are as funny and odd and flat out brilliant and unprecedented as pretty much anything this one-off duo have ever done...and in a year when I'd had more than my fill of death and dying, that seemed an extra special feat and an extra special solace. The new Phew has never been far from me since it came my way, its riches of experiment and detail and beauty have gotten richer and closer with every listen. In an age when the a superficial put-some-near-past-in-a-blender-with-a-vintage-patch approach guitar pop/rock classicism can get you a long, long way (for 15 minutes), Leapardo's Malcantone is a thrilling, winning blast of artful, anti-diffidence with all the right kinds of sonic roughage, ragged edges, wrong rightness, and an assured simplicity that a) melts your heart and b) turns you into a reckless driver.
I think there are signs of my need for warm milk and cookies and a good darn sob elsewhere here but we all permit ourselves that sometimes, right? Click on the title to link to the music and buy direct from the artist when you can...and digital really is best y'know...unless you really love the pointless and ruinous use of postage, plastic and petro-chemical byproducts.
1 Santa Sprees / Fanfare For Tonsils
2 Phew / New Decade
3 Leopardo / Malcantone
4 Blusens Fasong / Gaute Granli
5 Old Million Eye / Warm Alliance with the Outside
6 Moor Mother / Black Encyclopedia Of The Air
7 Ben LaMar Gay / Open Arms To Us
8 Xenia Rubinos / Una Rosa
9 Shuko No Omit / Himitsu-no Kaiko-Roku
10 Low / Hey What
11 Kramer / And the Wind Blew It All Away
12 Mdou Moctar / Afrique Victime
13 Aquaserge / The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge
14 Sourdure / De Mort Viva
15 Bons / Ready Reckoner
16 Dry Cleaning / New Long Leg
17 Jazmine Sullivan / Heaux Tales
18 Matt Sweeney and Bonnie "Prince" Billy / Superwolves
19 Tony Jay / Hey There Flower
20 Cassandra Jenkins / An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
21 Ben Pritchard / Up In Air
22 Josh Medina / Drifting Toward the Absolute
23 Lev Kowalczwk / The Young Woman Crosses Herself as an Ambulance Goes Rushing Past
24 Pauline Ana Strom / Angel Tears In Sunlight
25 Cindy / 1:2 and Standard Candle Demos
26 Lingua Ignota / Sinner Get Ready
27 Faye Webster / I Know I'm Funny Haha
28 Les Filles de Illighadad / At Pioneer Works
29 Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt / Made Out Of Sound
28 Snail Mail / Valentine
30 The Modern Folk / Primitive Future