24. Missy Elliott - Miss E... So Addictive (2001)

This was Missy's third album following the equally excellent 'Supa Dupa Fly' and 'Da Real World', where teamed up with production wiz Timbaland, her songs would bring back a lot of freakish intergalactic funk back into hip-hop following the hardcore gangsta era of Biggie and Tupac.
Hip-hop at the end of the 90's had gotten quite soupy, dusty and dense, with the exception of Neptunes, Kool Keith, Shock G and Outkast - Hip hop needed back some of the space you used to get in the sparse early rap, to allow movement; to allow dancing.  Missy and Timbo cleverly were able to use heavily syncopated polyrhythms whilst keeping them both experimental by stretching the boundaries of hip-hop, and addictive with mass appeal. They were also a production house producing a run of futuristic classics for the likes of Aalyiah and Total.

This album went gold, was a major worldwide hit, and produced probably the most remixed track of 2001 in 'Get Ur Freak On'.
Hip-hop's choice of drug in 2001 would have been weed, alcohol and cocaine. Ecstasy was reserved for rave crowds, the love vibe just didn't seem fitting. However, Missy openly uses Ecstacy references multiple times on this, not to mention the lurid dayglo artwork. Some of the tracks even have a 4x4 danceflloor kick running throughout. This might be the most lasting influence of this music on the hip-hop scene, as 'molly's' and dance music have been fully assimilated into modern rap since.

The album goes in hard with 'Dog In Heat', featuring guests Redman and Method Man, ubiquitous serial collaborators, who kick thing off with this raunchy stomp.
Single release 'One Minute Man' pits Missy's saucy challenge to punchline star Ludacris, who comes off second best, but puts in a good show against a wiggly worm melody, taunting R&B whoops, and constantly moving details which add interest whilst always staying on the One.



'Get Ur Freak On'; possibly Missy's second best tune after 'The Rain', flips a bhangra sample (then a popular pastime in Jamaican dancehall), and weaves an audacious and hilarious track so good it had to be a hit, yet also so weird. That bit where she pauses then spits in your face, funny and sick.



'Scream A.K.A. Itchin', does marvelous things with a shaker and a clockwork rhythm; the best maracas this side of The J.B.'s 'The Grunt'. Missy then gives the perfect kiss off when a guy pulls up with the line, 'Where's your pot to piss in'.
'Old School Joint' freaks some Roger Troutman moog action for an R&B banger with a 4x4 undertow.
'Take Away' then slows things down, metaphorically and literally strips off, leaving the lushness of some vocodered simpering over pizzicato strings.
'4 My People' goes back onto the dancefloor. Eve guests, talks about stripping off in the club, and losing your shit. Missy shouts out 'for my ecstasy people'.



'Whatcha Gonna Do' stands equal to any experimental dance of the era, with Timbaland and Missy throwing all kinds of textures at the rhythm to see what sticks, unusually for hip-hop they settle on a slide guitar sample.
'Step Off' might share the name with the '84 era Grandmaster Melle Mel classic where Melle Mel compares himself to Shakespeare, but Missy comes off more like The Time's Morris Day, cause she's gonna, 'Do you like you like it'.
The album is quality to the end, and in case you didn't get the message, the track next up is called 'X-Tasy'. Fully immersive experimental electro, a backwards loop, some stuttering bossa rhythms and a vibe like 'Something In The Water' vintage Prince gets the serotonin flowin'. Great track.
To finish up we get 'Slap! Slap! Slap!' an excuse to rap the line 'slap slap slap, all across your melon, eaaasy', and some En Vogue style R & B gospel to finish.

2001 was a time when the creativity in hip-hop, UK garage and dancehall was outstripping rock music. The rock bands of 2001 were either the post Oasis, dadrock likes of Coldplay, Travis and Snow Patrol who seemed content churning out singalong ballads to crowds who looked indistinct from the bands. Or the new retro scene of The White Stripes, Strokes and country revivalists, who although often very good, seemed to want to avoid reality altogether, opting for the safety of the good old days.
Missy then is those best of things, both progressive, pushing things forward, treading where no fem-funk soldier had gone before, but also populist. So obviously good, no one could resist.

25. Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind (2004)

Michigan, Detroit has a glorious history of groups who went more noisy, more out there than the competition. Barrel-house R&B groups, MC5, Stooges, Funkadelic & Destroy All Monsters. The often cited industrial crunching of the car factory may be an influence, but more recently as the car factories have closed and been replaced by boredom, unemployment and white flight; bleak landscapes of pain and madness may be the primary reference. Those who stay continue to seek to kick out the jams.
Wolf Eyes emerged from the punk noise cassette sub-underground, taking influence from a massive array of non mainstream maneuvers like local punk house gigs, free jazz, horror b-movies, skateboarding & D.I.Y. electronics.
The refreshing thing about Wolf Eyes was their openness and attitude. Whereas a lot of noise acts can keep the audience at arms length, with their seriousness and anonymity; Wolf Eyes, in common with the aforementioned Detroit acts, came to have a good time, make some noise and party. It made sense that their pal was 'Party 'til you punk' mentalist Andrew WK. Therefore, in being approachable and inclusive Wolf Eyes have probably done more to introduce the appeal of noise, and free music into alternative culture than any other act in the last 15 years.
Wolf Eyes are John Olson: expert on all things sub-underground, insatiable appetite for all things rad, he often changes noise making machinery, have seen him use a variety of jerry made electronic devices, a homemade guitar, clarinet and saxophone all played through heavily distorting effects boxes.
Nate Young: Brings the party, kicks out the jams etc, often triggers headbanging electronic stomps.
Aaron Dilloway: Left shortly after this, performed on electronic circuitry, first time I saw him live the electronic noise he made seemed to stem from a bulldog clip he had attached in his mouth.

Wolf eyes aim for otherworldly, liberating noise, but never water down their sound for a mainstream audience. Following a brace of self-released underground CD-R's and cassettes, and a growing live reputation, they arranged an unlikely team up with major label Sub-Pop for this release.
The cover which depicts a crow pecking a two decaying human skulls are a good analogy to the music contained within. Swathes of circuit bent analogue distortion, creeping non rhythms and instruments twisted out of any recognizable shape dominate proceedings. Dead In A Boat and Stabbed In The Face include the machine driven giant thumps that send audiences mad, and provoke fist pumps and whoops from the group. Rattlesnake Shake, has a nauseating bass-tone, a windy effect, oscillations, an ominous rattlesnake sound surrounding big echoed steps. Burned Mind pulls out the axe and makes it sound like the Id in Forbidden Planet traversing the force field. Black Vomit clatters like Metal Mickey trampolining.

Wolf Eyes have the distinction of being the only group I have seen with people who have walked out in disgust, and this has happened twice!
The first time was in 2004 at All Tomorrow's Parties festival at Camber Sands curated by Sonic Youth. The stoner guy I was with was certain that Wolf Eyes were spreading bad vibes, and got the fear, walked out. Damn right man.
The second time was again at ATP festival, one of the last at Prestatyn, Wales 2014. This friend felt that Wolf Eyes were taking the piss, and had no discernible structure or tunes. Walked out.

It's true that free music or noise is never gonna appeal to a wide audience. But the overall vibe of Wolf Eyes, though based in horror, is freedom, community and thrill seeking joy.
Those guys kick ass, and still do. Saw them last year at Bristol's Exchange, and they get better with age. They are always approachable, and mix with the audience at shows. Living the D.I.Y. punk dream.

26. Om- Conference Of The Birds (2006)

Om are Chris Haikus and Al Cisneros from San Francisco, and formerly from the heavy stoner rock riff merchants Sleep, who made the genre classic Jerusalem, an epic album length track of sludgy Sabbath bong worship.

When the duo resurfaced as Om they ditched the lead guitar entirely, and replaced the noise with a concentrated meditative skyward groove of just bass, drums and monotone chant like vocal.
The aim in all of this seems to be quasi religious transcendental experience akin to Gregorian chant, Alice Coltrane or Nyah-Bingi Rasta drum circles.

This is Om's sophomore release, just two lengthy tracks of maximum meditational usefulness. The lyrics seem to follow some oblique logic, maybe some ancient Haiku or the encrypted instructions for a psychedelic shamanic ritual. Or perhaps just a heavily tripping Jerry Horne like individual describing the flight of a swan. Slow paced hypnotic words in changing patterns; sample: 'The orphic glow seen - as arwal sounds rise - cumbent to the throne - within on spine's attained plow'.

Om's music then is psychedelic in the original sense of 'mind expanding' or 'mind altering', certainly for the duration, and more effective as loud as possible. Mighty bass grooves and eastern drone scales weave patterns around the ride cymbals, burrowing as deep as Sabbath or Melvins but without guitar.

Following this there would be one further studio album 'Pilgrimage' which is also great. They would also reform Sleep to perform Jerusalem live on several dates. More recently Al Cisneros, the Bass and vocal part of the duo would put out a few singles of dub reggae influenced music, which were great, and made perfect sense in the context of the deep grooves of the best doom/stoner rock. In actual fact a dub remix of all the Om stuff could work well. Looking forward to seeing the next guise they will appear under.

27. Aphex Twin / AFX - Analord (2005) & Chosen Lords (2006)

Richard D. James had an unbeatable 90's, producing albums and singles which remain among the greatest of that decade and ending with the one-two sucker punch of the chart busting 'Come to Daddy' and 'Windowlicker', both signaling the future more than anything since. Perhaps they were the end of the future? The 90's would see him hailed as the new Mozart among the serious composition world, and have heavyweights like Bowie falling over themselves to get a remix. RDJ ever the prankster would openly admit taking these remix commissions for the cash, whilst often producing something that bore little or no resemblance to the original, even suggesting that he had no interest in listening to the original (or his remix!).

In the ensuing decade RDJ would play it much more low-key, slowing his (visible) work rate, but still producing some great music when he chose to make it public. I saw him play an epic drill 'n' bass set at the Autechre curated ATP in 2003, with seemingly everyone at the festival present to see the rare appearance in support of his less well received 'Drukqs' album. It remains one of the most exiting shows I have seen, despite being essentially, a bloke behind a bank of machinery.

What makes RDJ different to other techno artists is TUNES. Image and hardware is only part of it. Having such a distinctive sound is rare in electronica, and only the best can do it. Whether making ambient techno, crazy breakbeats or Roland 606 acid tracks, RDJ has such a distinctive way of writing melodies, that even when he's seemingly taking the piss, the tunes are deeply human and connect with the emotions.
In fact RDJ's melodies are so specifically his style, that any attempt others make to sound a bit Aphex, come off like pastiche, a cheap copy. He is similar in this way to Paul McCartney as you can also spot a McCartney melody a mile off, and his tunes have an emotional resonance, even if he's singing about fish and chips or something.
The other artist I'm (perhaps strangely)  reminded of is Ghostface Killer, who can tug at the heart strings simply with his rap flow, even when he can be rapping nonsensically. It makes you wonder whether any of this is by design even by the artist themselves.

After a few quiet years RDJ in his AFX guise went back to his rave and acid roots for the Analord project. This came as 3.5hrs and 42 tracks released on 11 EP's released throughout 2005. The following year, the best of these tracks were compiled onto a CD as 'Chosen Lords'.
Analords for the heads, Chosen Lords for the rest. All recognizably Aphex; with an emphasis on analogue acid squelch bangers.
There are many choice tracks among the set, but among the best are:
Where's Your Girlfriend? on Analord 1.
Analord 2 has 'Pissed up in SE1', mid-paced techno with gradually builds in intensity whilst the ever changing percussion effects hold your attention. 'Laricheard' is a tribute to the pioneering Chicago house musician.


Analord 3: 'Klopjob' warm pads and a nostalgic childlike essence, one of the best AFX tracks.



Analord 4 has the syncopated tick-tock 2-step bass rumble and orchestral synth that is 'Crying in Your Face'.
Analord 5 is a particularly good two track 12", that has 'Reunion 2' and 'Cilonen', there's a similarity across both tracks melodies. The label of this 12" is a photograph of the gravestone of a Miss Anna Lord, adding to the title confusion, which can be taken as meaning, analogue or anal or lord of the analogue, but is probably all three.
Worth mentioning on Analord 6 is the spooky themed 'Batine Acid', a complex rhythmic pattern you can't quite groove to, and 'Analoggins', a low frequency bowel mover credited to 'Captain Voafose & Smojphace'
Analord 7 has a great electro and trance influenced tune called 'Pitcard', with unexpected stop/starts.
'PWSteal.Ldpinch.D' is one of the best Analord tunes, deeply emotional, with a soulful house feel.



Analord 8's 'PWSteal.Bancos.Q' is a total acid banger of headfuck trance psyche, taking you down all sorts of wormholes. This is the most bonkers of the 12"s.


Analord 10 which non numerically was the first Analord release and came with a binder for all the other 12"s. Another two track release of similarly themed tunes of constantly inventive drum programming and 8-bit metallic crashes.
Analord 11, the last in the series (until 2009) when RDJ put a load of unreleased Analord tunes online to go alongside each individual EP, making each 12" the length of an album in itself! There is variety in this last 12", going from epic 8min fast paced drum workouts to ambient tracks. 'VBS.Redlof.B' is demented but never annoying.



 The whole set with binder might currently set you back around £500, so perhaps the Chosen Lords and YouTube is the way to go with this.
Aphex Twin would end the noughties as quietly as he started, but this decade has seen more activity with the well received 'Spyro' album, the mechanized electronic instruments EP's and a huge dump of unreleased old and new tracks on soundcloud to keep even the most obsessive Aphex fans occupied for years to come. I can't wait to see what comes next.

28. Alasdair Roberts - Spoils (2009)

Scottish musician Alasdair Roberts could first be heard in his band Appendix Out, a fine late 90's indie act, much loved by John Peel. Roberts first came out as a solo act with his debut in 2003, signed by Domino records, after impressing Bonnie 'Prince' Billy with a cassette handed over when his tour touched down in Glasgow.
An updating of British folk forms was overdue. During the 90's all the interest lay in American folk forms. Alt-Country, Gillian Welsh, Oh Brother where art thou, lavish reissues of Harry Smiths anthology all came at the end of the 90's. British innovations in folk lay very far underground, in the freak forms of Current 93 and Eyeless in Gaza. It was nice then that new voices began to emerge from the British Isles, taking the lead from their US counterparts and the subterranean hidden reverse. It may not have surprised us late 90's Peel listeners who heard (especially Scottish) indie groups like Appendix Out and Delgados gradually incorporating twisting folk melodies, narratives and instrumentation.
What Alasdair Roberts brought to the hoedown, was collaboration with others, namely Alex Neilson a superb drummer who could also play jazz and improv and developed a light, ever changing percussion which followed the song instead of simply provided a backbeat. This was the biggest innovation in folk rhythm since Dave Mattacks practically invented the folk rock drum style for Fairport Convention. Roberts can also spin tales in an Incredible String Band like journey both winding, direct and sometimes abstract.
The Album opens with Grief and Joy, a consonant heavy pilgrimage, wrangling words with an 'Eternally returning' theme like Incredible String Bands Cellular Song. Finding similarities in all human life however wretched 'for all the penitents in hell and all the celebrants in heaven'.
You Muses Assist has an upbeat flute and finger picking jig, with an unlikely chant of 'sterile rams & simulacrum' against a distorted guitar and Neilson sublime fluid drumming.
So Bored Was I is a post punk Trees or early Steeleye Span, ending with a great folk rock breakdown.

Unyoked Oxen Turn is surrealist in the tradition of nonsense British verse, and ends up jangling away like a Ukrainian era Wedding Present feast.
The Book of Doves has loose stringed bass sound and percussive finger picking, maybe inspired by African music with thumb piano.
Ned Ludd's Rant (For World Remembered) is a identification with 17th century English rebel who angrily snapped his weaving loom, thereby giving the luddites their name. The aforementioned rant includes the tasty 'you poters, you haters, you whores and fornicators'.
Hazel Forks is like a merry band of fools, getting lost in the country. It reminds me of Ben Wheatley great movie 'A Field in England' with it's civil war yokel psychedelia; 'dowry of the leper, a walnut shell and a peck of pepper'.
The album ends with Under No Enchantment (But My Own) suitably titled as Roberts follows his dreams.
Alasdair Roberts would continue to release many great records, but none as yet have come close to this very special collection.

29. (Smog) - Supper (2003)

This might not be the greatest Smog album, that's probably 'Knock Knock' from 1999, or 'The Doctor Came at Dawn' from '96. It might not even be the greatest Smog album of the '00's; the follow up 'A River Ain't To Much Too Love' is certainly more popular and immediate.
However, 'Supper' holds a special place in my heart and it will always be a personal favorite of mine, let me explain why...
Bill Callahan's journey began in the lo-fi underground scene with home recorded tales of introspection, longing and asocial misanthropy, and developed into slightly more accomplished tales of outsiderism and weirdness, but always kept a blackened heart of humor.
These tales followed me through the latter 90's, and I was happy to submit to their negative energy.
When Callahan released 'Supper', (billed as (smog), the brackets perhaps a sign that Callahan no longer felt the Smog persona fitted like it use to) there was a clear change in the air. Suddenly Callahan's twangy country flecked baritone finished lines on the up-note, he sang of stability, happiness, even marriage. He became more accessible, touring the UK, and instead of the previous rare and shy appearances, he even made eye contact with the audience, including my future wife.
It seemed that Callahan's journey into stability, love and new found happiness had mapped my own. In 2003 I had moved in with my fiance, was deeply in love (still am) had a job and was fully prepared to embrace Callahan's new world. Michelle and I listened to this all through 2003, went to the show, and it remains a special album for us.
If you have a working knowledge of the old Smog stuff, it is remarkable what a change in mood this album was. Without losing the essential Smog soundworld of Cohen like poetry, with minimalist country refracted through the Velvets and punk.
The album opens with 'Feather by Feather', describing his relationship as Ali Vs Clay, still, any relationship with an actual living human is progress from '96's 'All Your Woman Things' where he strikes up a relationship with a doll, made from an ex-partners deserted items.
'Butterflies Drowned in Wine' boasts a Lou Reed alike riff, plus a lovely slowed down and speed up bit. No longer wishing he lived in a bathysphere, he sings "Move the tables & the chairs aside and give me some room', Callahan staking his place in the world.
'Ambition' is a rocker, and delights in a success unimaginable in Smog's old world, 'I'm in your bedroom, just off the highway'.
'Vessel in Vain' finds Callahan able to face and compartmentalize past traumas, 'I cant be held responsible for what I've seen, my ideas have me on the run, my connection with everyone'.

Callahan always strikes me perhaps as a son of disciplinarian parents, they were language analysts for National Security. The early Smog records came at the same time as films like American Beauty and similar themes do emerge. Callahan always displays a strain of righteous deviance fed through his punk background, fueled maybe as a result of childhood hypocrisy. Speculation of course. But all the more impressive to see this positivity emerge.

'Truth Serum' feature lush pattering brushes, and suggests that real truth can only be found between two people.
'Our Anniversary' is a floaty jig, where everything is infected by love. It is refreshing to hear an underground artist doing something this honest and heartfelt, there is no edge at all.
'Driving' evokes a hazy summer drive through the rain, with a drunken woozy instrumental.
Finally 'A Guiding Light' provides the saddest song on the album, and the only one where he appears alone, reminding us we are all alone, but finally opens up to love as a deliverance from pain,

Callahan would become doubtful and make sad music again, later. But for this one glorious moment, everything was right with his world. I'm thankful that he chose to share this moment with us.

30. Company Flow - DPA (As Seen On TV) (2001)

El-P chose this to be the first release on his newly minted underground indie hip-hop label Def-Jux. It was also the final release from his rap crew Company Flow, who had done so much to bring back the punk spirit of 'two turntables and a mic' era hip-hop. In the era of major pop breakthroughs, the likes of Puff Daddy and G-Funk ruled with a smoothed out sound, soul singers, and interpolated chunks of old music, as opposed to more clunky samples. Company Flow were a deliberate rebuke to this trend; using the harsh cuts, strained vocals, sirens, bells, bone crunching beats and bursts of distorted synth noise of the old cut 'n' paste era, Run DMC style.
With added punk attitude, lo-fi production values and a angry political edge; they look forward to groups like Moor Mother, Death Grips and Sleaford Mods, not to mention El-P's current and highly successful duo with Killer Mike as Run the Jewels.
Co-Flow first impacted with the double album 'Funcrusher Plus' in '97, which stands as a high watermark of indie rap music of the era. They would be a center point throughout the Rawkus label and Soundbombing comps. 'Patriotism' from Soundbombing 2 is a particular anti-political masterpiece. Following the fizzling out of Rawkus, Def-Jux would be the go-to label for underground hip-hop for a good few years.

This release came as a double 12", twinned three new Co-Flow pieces with two cuts from Cannibal Ox's forthcoming debut (see entry 34). Down to a duo of El-P (production and rapping) and Mr. Len (rapping), with guest vocals from the sick and demented Ill Bill, on day release from Non-Phixion.
DPA (stands for drum pattern analyser) is an epic track with three distinct parts, hard to pick out reverbed NY drawl and insane 'say what the fuck we want' rapping.
Simian Drugs follows, with record scratches, monkey noises, bursts of Biz Markie, and a debauched effort where Ill Bill confesses 'I'm friends with God and I'm friends with Satan, It all depends upon the situation'. All recorded presumably on the aforementioned monkey drugs.
The last track before Cannibal Ox blow our heads off is 'Simple', which is anything but. Drunken beats try to catch up with a sampled guitar lick, what sounds like a live recorded bass, and bridges which consist of loads of overlapped voices, like it was recorded a a party and just chunked into the track. Mind-melding and psychedelic in a very down to earth NY street way.
El-P's rapping has certainly sharpened up since then and his beats are more funky and laid-back now than this industrial cacophony. Still this is essential stuff for those who want to go deeper.

31. Junior Boys - Last Exit (2004)

Junior Boys are a duo from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Initially comprising bedroom producers Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark; they spent the first few years of the new millennium putting together demos and shipping them around. Johnny Dark then left the group to pursue other interests, and in the meantime the Kin label showed interest in the demos and commissioned further work.
Teaming up with local engineer Matt Didemus, Greenspan worked on the demos and wrote some new material which led to the release of the debut album Last Exit.

Last Exit was a slow burner, not initially selling, but gradually building a reputation, especially on the new format of the blog. This was the golden age of the blog, and many of the most progressive and interesting writers came to this new format, attracted by the lack of an editor and the freedom to express ideas and write in long form, which would never be excepted in a monthly or weekly publication.

Artists were also able to write and publish in real time, quickly creating scenes with like-minded acts and individuals around the planet. Authors like Simon Reynolds and the Hyperdub label boss Steve Goodman (AKA Kode9) were early champions of Junior Boys.

Last Exit was an important development in North American dance music, and might represent the New Order at Paradise garage, Depeche Mode moment, as an act that could combine song craft and real dancefloor knowledge. It feels as though the beats come from a genuine love of grassroots house, grime and 2-step garage. Unlike contemporaneous British shite like Klaxons, who, like a pisstake of rave, appeared as an art school rock band with glow sticks.

Greenspan's songs on Last Exit combine intricate electronic rhythms with soft breathy vocals, reminiscent of Prefab Sprout or Scritti Politti, albeit without such good lyrics!
Themes of travel, distance and a yearning sweetness inhabit these tracks of groove and seduction. Subject matter which was familiar to the indie crowd, who embraced them; as did dance producers like Manitoba and Carl Craig who provided remixes.

Birthday and High Come Down were released as singles and are both on the album, proper pop. Stuttering intricate garage beats, Greenspan wants to 'see you shake this whole damn crowd'. Birthday about being forgotten on your birthday or some such nonsense, is almost Morrisseyesque in it's self-pity (a good thing).
This kind of melancholy has since been fully absorbed into the music of acts like The Weeknd or Drake, the natural successors of Morrissey.



Under the Sun is a good track, driving and mid paced like Krautrock meets Madchester. Teach Me How to Fight, expresses sentiments last heard from early 90's ultra indie Sarah records groups like the Sea Urchins, although perhaps The Field Mice with their electro indie heartbreaks are a closer fit.
Very underrated group The Field Mice.


Anyhoo Junior Boys went on to more success with their following album, the also excellent 'So this is goodbye'. Their most recent album Big Black Coat came out this year.

32. MV & EE with The Bummer Road - Mother of Thousands (2006)

MV & EE are partners Matt Valentine and Erika Elder. Prior to this duo, the pair had been a part of the New York based Tower Recordings, now credited as early catalysts of the free folk (a term coined by Valentine) movement which peaked in the mid 00's.
Valentine and Pat Gruber (AKA PG Six) had been main movers in that scene, and from their record shop day jobs, had worked against the prevailing trend of heavy rock and modernist electronics to seek out like-minded outsider artists and in a deliberate retreat from a world which had just become ultra connected, they did an escape to the country. This retreat mirrored an older generation of psychedelic folksters such as Vashti Bunyan, Alexander 'Skip' Spence  and John Fahey, bonds were formed.
The wilderness chosen was in the seasonal north east state of Vermont; Valentine and Elder then went about growing their vision in the country, living at 'maximum arousal farm' and starting an annual 'Brattleboro' festival where peers and outsider artists such as free jazz man Paul Flaherty, out there vocalist Dredd Foole and hobo songster Michael Hurley could play among appreciative ears.
Unlike the early 70's musicians however, who often retreated into commercial non-existence; the new generation were able to keep in touch with their audience through the internet and CD-R's, many, many CD-R's. Cheap to produce and often adorned with hand made artwork, these frequent sonic communications were cheap and often limited to 30 - 100 copies, and you felt like you were experiencing the developments of the scene in real time almost.
MV & EE themselves had innumerable CD-R's on their Child of Microtones label behind them prior to this release. Dealing in a freeform electric country blues or 'lunar raga' MV & EE take the psychedelic explorations of The Grateful Dead or guitar wig out Neil Young to the next logical stage. Heavy analogue reverb and tremolo dominate the production MV termed Spectrasound.
Neil Young once said that during the recording of On The Beach he was ingesting 'honey slides', which are a combination of baked weed and honey, reportedly these were utterly debilitating and the band at Topanga would lie wiped out for days, stoned beyond belief. Well, if you imagine a situation where honey slides continued as the drug of choice, instead of cocaine and the 80's you might get close to the zoned out majesty of this record.
If you are one of those people who find it difficult to enjoy Neil Youngs thin falsetto voice, then you might struggle with MV's weedy refashioning; in the right mood though his laconic NY isms feel right.
Chunks of this record drift by in a blissful stoned revery. Loose interpretations of country blues standards by Charlie Patton, Mississippi John Hurt and Reverend Gary Davis are included. Anthem of the Cocola Y&T feature a lyric about a beautiful stoned girl; C.C. Pills is a horizontal Robert Johnson on mandrax. Raga drone & harmonica feature; the back up band for this outing play instruments called things like cumbus wood flute, yayli tambur, stuti box, electric jug, and mooncrotales. The second disc is even better, opening out over even wider vistas, Meditations on Payday has you looking for pots of honey to cook, you can smell the bongwater. MV's production emphasize tinkly sounds like brushed shells, a dog barks, someone puts up a shed, trip potential maximized. EE sings beautifully on Banty Rooster Blues.
The motherload is remarkable final track Death Don't Have No Mercy, a 23min journey which seems to start completely free and loose and gains form throughout it's duration, like they had smoked themselves sober.
The view from maximum arousal peak is sweet, long may it last.

33. Sunn 0))) - Monoliths & Dimensions (2009)

Sunn 0))) (pronounced Sun, and named after their favorite amp brand) are the Seattle based doom/drone metal duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson. Both have previous metal history with numerous acts, notably Goatsnake and Burning Witch, and many ongoing collaborations within and out of the metal genre. Collaborators tend to bring out the best in Sunn 0)) and include Julian Cope, Julian Priester and frequently the Hungarian vocalist, Attila Csihar, formerly of black metal titans Mayhem.

Primarily best appreciated as a mighty live act. No format is able to capture the might of extreme weight, volume and physical force of witnessing Sunn 0)) in person. So live show remains the best way to experience their peculiar brand of volume ritual if you dare!

The whole Sunn 0))) project can be viewed as a tribute and continuation of the work started by Dylan Carlson in his grunge era Seattle group Earth. Their 1992 album Earth 2 stood alone at that time as investigating long form drone and distorted guitar meditations, forgoing rhythm and melody for immersion and volume. Sunn 0))) follow this tradition into a darkened portal.

For those of you turned off by anything vaguely resembling metal, Sunn 0))) are a hard sell. They fully immerse themselves into the culture and theater of metal, despite also incorporating influences from outside of the metal sphere, namely free jazz and the avant-garde. I would imagine that they fall squarely into what the Sleaford Mods refer to as 'Blow me down with a feather, cloak and dagger bollocks'.
However as mods everywhere look at the world through clear eyes and see the REAL, the worlds of Sunn 0))) and other psychedelecists  also concern the unknown and unseen. As 80's-90's turntablists Coldcut once said, Hip Hoppers would do well to listen to Mark E Smith; well I would also suggest that electronic, Dubstep and D'n'B acts could learn from what Sunn 0))) are able to achieve with bass frequencies, and feedback to build tension over extended forms.

I first saw Sunn 0))) live at Autechres 2003 ATP festival at Pontins Camber Sands (an electronic group natch). Seeing them among the cutting edge of electronica, grime, hip-hop and the avant-garde they made perfect sense. Fully robed, faces hidden, and stage enveloped in toxic amounts of dry ice their sloth like downtuned riffs, was a ritual of the physicality of volume. Sometime vocalist Attila Csihar looked like he had been exhumed earlier that day, maybe he was 500 years old like Dracula, he muttered deep throated incantations to human failure. The effect was biological.

Monoliths and Dimensions was their 6th studio album and most successful as a home listening experience due to its not being an attempt to recreate a live experience, but as a standalone musical piece. The usual blazing white light of feedback drone is supplemented by colour added from collaborators, giving the impression of a shimmering illusion at the bottom of a black lake.
Featured musicians include Attila Csihar on three of the four long tracks, Eyvind Kang who adds orchestration, brass, and strings; and Julian Priester the legendary jazz trumpeter who does blistering work on Alice. There is also a featured choir.

Two tracks, Aghartha and Big Church are named after late 70's period Miles Davis tracks. Big Church starts with some kind of incantation, the track is halted twice by bell tolls, choirs rise and fall, and the dry, cold vocals make like Nosferatu shaping the elements against humankind.
Alice is perhaps the most moving Sunn 0))) track, with the trumpet and a suggestion of ascension providing a glimpse of positivity.


Definitely see them live though. A Bristol gig at Trinity Hall from around this period which I missed, and was attended by my brother Ben and a friend, was described in terms of incredulity in terms of shear volume and spectacle. Attila was clothed in mirrors which reflected a headspinning laser show.
Sunn 0))), give it a go.

34. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein (2001)

Harlem natives, Vast Aire and Vordul Mega came straight out the box in 2000. First introducing themselves on the classic double 12", split with Company Flow's final release.
The following year would bring this, the debut Cannibal Ox album produced entirely by Co-Flow rapper/producer El-P.  It remains El-P's best work (including Run the Jewels) all these years later.
Strange to think that at the time this seemed futuristic in both it's advanced slang editorials and progression of hip hop breaks into industrious, skull cracking, dystopian funk. Now however, it's clear that this was a last gasp of NY hip-hop in it's original minimalist beat and gristle form.
A linear progression from Jam Master Jay to Juice Crew to Public Enemy to BDP and RZA's dusty sampling. El-P's concussive boom-bap, if 'The samples is the flesh, and the beats the skeleton', well the flesh is all sirens, wheezing respirators and Darth Vader gurgles.

New York and it's hip-hop culture would soon be irrevocably changed and shaken by 9/11, just around the corner, and it would never fully recover. The axis was already shifting South.
Perhaps Cannibal Ox reached one possible logical endpoint of hip-hop, with their dense slang riddles and head scratching metaphors, zooming into view and away faster than a cubist train graffiti burner, colourful and complex, the tags only revealing themselves after detailed investigation. The rewards are great for those who want to go.

Cannibal Ox describe Harlem in detached terms of the observer, themes of separation from the physical ('soul from the shell'), horror and science-fiction are common. So called indie or backpacker hip-hop from this era often suffers from being knowingly clever and irritating, or having tricksy rhyme flows which are essentially awkward and unfunky. Can Ox are never less than finger snapping funky and repping Harlem world hip hop with addictive and distinctive flows, Vast Aire is the Q-Tip to Vordul Mega's Phife Dawg. When moments of clarity come among the lyrical stanzas it hits even harder.

Iron Galaxy opens the album, mapping the dimensions of the ghetto. 'You were a still born baby, mother didn't want you, but you were still born/ Boy meets world, of course his pops is gone/ What you figure?/ That chalky outlined on the ground is a father figure?/ So he steps to the next stencil, that's a hustler/ Infested with money and diamond cluster'.



Ox out the Box, has a freestyle feel, with Vast boasting his mic prowess 'I grab the mic like "Are you Experienced", But I don't play the guitar, I play my cadence'. Two posse cuts, 'Atoms' and 'Battle of Asgard' showcases the extended Atoms family of MC's and sounds like a hip-hop episode of Game of Thrones.
A B-Boy Alpha is about growing up around the birth of hip-hop culture.
Raspberry Fields is one of the best cuts, a weird tune which may be semi improvised with a great chorus. The cocky Vast, 'Oh my god, I said a word twice'.



Vein is in my top 10 hip hop tunes of the 00's. It's wears it's anxiety like vintage Geto Boys, the vocal tense, sometimes stuttering and overlapping to emphasize a loosening grip on reality. Desperate to escape the ghetto but bound by inequalities real and imagined. Vordul dreams of 'Ghetto acapellas in cathedrals' but is 'lost in this ghetto population, just another face that's facing all types of, like stereotypes and hatred', Vast then takes over telling a chilling narrative of meeting a local teen, bragging, waving a gun. Vast lectures him and says 'Peace, keep breathing' before vividly detailing the crew who hustles guns to kids, naming names, and observes, 'We're all from the same ghettos, and these are the same hollow tips that knocked Milly out of stilletos'. Vordul then delivers a panicked rap
where he's 'Off of this earth to return to my nature'.


The F-Word is a new spin on Biz Markie's' Just A Friend'. More heartbroken than it first appears, just like Biz! Even if it's couched in anger.
Stress Rap is wrapped in shrouds of honks, bells and train brakes and Painkillers is a nauseous lopsided organ and barroom piano funk about addiction.
Pigeons are used as a metaphor throughout Cannibal Ox's work for human kind and especially the Harlem ghetto (now battling gentrification!). 'Most of 'em, would rather expand their wings and hover over greater things/ that's what we call inspired flight/ But the pigeons gotta eat pizza crust every night'.

Cannibal Ox are from a NY of graffiti on trains, breakbeats and cultural isolation. They can symbolize the vast distances of imagination needed to reverse the negative forces of the ghetto, but to reach this precious plain, they walk the razors edge of reality.  Others; Coltrane or Sly for instance have stepped over that edge, but this rarely in hip-hop, as artists are too grounded to 'the real'. Well 'realness' is overrated, and hip-hop needed to take that step, to realize it's psychedelic potential.

35. Ricardo Villalobos - Alcachofa (2003)

Ricardo Villalobos creates wide vistas of engrossing rhythm and noise, often labelled as a minimal or micro strain of techno/house. He has, over two decades built a reputation for epic DJ sets which have been known to last up to 8-10hrs, and is a major draw at the world biggest dance festivals. Enviously straddling both populist energy rave and underground experimentation, his music is quite hard to write about, lacking subject matter and being all about kinetic energy and interlocking percussion. But here we go...

Ricardo Villalobos was born in Santiago, Chile. The Villalobos family fled Pinochet's dictatorship in the 1970's and landed in Germany. The young Villalobos became obsessed with early synth pop, particularly Depeche Mode who he followed when on tour in Europe.
Villalobos' family settled in Berlin, a city with a substantial displaced Chilean population, and as such house parties involving South American music and rhythms were common. Berlin then became the European capital of techno in the 80's-90's. Young second generation Chileans were attracted to and instrumental in this scene, and a good understanding of where Villalobos' style evolved from would include imagining the percussive congas and shakers of samba projected into a technological future, whilst retaining folk elements of the homeland.
Looking into an imagined past to project a Utopian  future. There is also a strong political edge, simply in the fact of glorying in a tradition, and partying in a way that would have been impossible under Pinochet.

Alcachofa was Villalobos' first full length, but he had a long string of 12"s and remixes behind him at this point, the ideal format for this music really. Unlike most techno full lengths though this one does really work as an album you want to listen all the way through.
It begins with Bahaha hahi, a typically onomatopoeic title, and a warm up for what's to come, introducing the palette of textures familiar in much of Villalobos' work. Glitches, squelches and other wet sounds, dry compressed percussion, busy fleshy detail and muttered vocal snatches, all in the service of dance-able rhythm.
Next is the one-two hit of Dexter and Easy Lee, also released as a 12" single. Pared back from their massively extended versions. It is not unusual for his tracks to be 15-20mins long and the 2006 release Fizheuer Zieheuer stretched to 37mins. When Villalobos was asked about the running times, he simply said that this is how long he liked to listen to them for. Like all the best minimal techno, the appeal lies in the magic that can be created by following your ear as the music almost imperceptibly changes, focusing your attention of different sonic elements, playing tricks with time and space.
Dexter, essentially knits a static electricity beat, bass pulse and kick drum around each other, until a minor chord, Cure like bassline comes along to play. These few ingredients can keep my rapt attention for 8+mins.

 

The minimal tag is really a misnomer. Although there may be few elements in each track, there is nothing minimal about the way the tracks build in momentum, or the deceptively complex patterns which are weaved, the effect can be quite busy.
Easy Lee swaggers along with a neat robotic cowboy melody, sung above watery percussion and nautical congas which build and build.



Fool Garden (Black Congas) again uses few flavours, flitting between a vocal ululation, and a twinkling keyboard sound. 
I Try To Live (Can I Live) uses a snatch of reggae vocal with bangin 4/4 kicks and fearsome swathes of acid. Theogenese has a skipping, major key upfull vibe, before Wawomao gets dirty with a post punk, ESG like bass riff and chicken scratch funk guitar.
What You Say presents a series of shiver inducing timbres, which must sound incredible through a loud PA, and the finale Y.G.H. plays out as a perfect outro, with John Carpenter like synth washes and a pulse which holds back from the rush of release.

Unlike many techno albums which play out like a series of tracks, this one feels like a journey, but with tracks which also work in the club.

36. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (2002)

Boards of Canada are brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, and Geogaddi was their second album following the success of their debut Music has the Right to Children (1998) and a handful of EP's.
The brothers themselves have always given very few interviews and personal appearances preferring, as the cliche goes, the music to speak for itself. This then has allowed an obsessive fan base to fill in the gaps where information was lacking and create rumours and myths surrounding Boards of Canada's activities, in particular suggesting occult and esoteric meanings behind much of what they do.
In fairness BOC, and certainly Warp records have done little to deny any of this, surely enjoying the cult that has built around them.
The music and artwork provides recurring themes and motifs inviting listeners to search for hidden meanings. Numerology is often invoked with sampled counting, timings of albums (66mins6secs), 23 track albums (a numerologically significant number) geometric shapes (hexagons), and hints that tracks were created using mathematics formula. Colours are also significant with intensely visual yellows, reds and turquoise skies.
BOC are named after a Canadian film company, and the brothers themselves were raised to pre-teens in Canada before moving to the outskirts of Edinburgh, where when a little older they became part of a electronic rave type scene outside of the cultural centre; much like Richard James was doing at the same time in Cornwall.
Unlike the digital electronica of Aphex or Autechre however, BOC go for the more aged sound of analogue equipment and samples from 70's sources, perhaps deliberately aged, but just as technically astounding and detailed as any electronic boffin type.
What was massively influential about the BOC sound was the way it invoked memories of 70's- 80's childhoods simply due to the quality of the sounds and samples (often children playing or old TV documentary voices). It would be hard to imagine the existence of Ghost Box, folktronica, Animal Collective or Oneohtrix without BOC.
Although BOC came from the future music of techno, they create a kind of pastoral electronica, looking back to grand interior statements like Incredible String Band, The Beatles White Album, Robert Wyatt or My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. The rhythms are less techno than a precise downbeat hip-hop like DJ Shadow with Sheffield's bleep and bass production values.

Any music that deliberately evokes memory will always be tinged with melancholy, as BOC have said, 'any music about memory is music about a time that can never come back'. Music has the Right to Children still managed to sound happy and warm, the memories of child's play and summer holidays.
Geogaddi however (the 4 year gestation explained as being due to the exacting perfectionism of the pair al la MBV) was much darker, although it does seem less dark now following the evolution in spooked electronica since!
Geogaddi then, evokes darker memories of childhood. Whereas ROYGBIV from the debut had sampled children counting as if part of a game, Gyroscope on this album seems like a reversal with a more anxious voice counting but seemingly unable to get beyond 9 without finding itself back at 0 again, the funk beat clipped too short to be traditionally groovy.



Music is Math's vocal sample 'the past inside the present' sounds like a spell, with phantasm vocals unable to escape the squelchy beats containing them.



Sunshine Recorder references EP track Beautiful Place in the Country, but the weirdly timestreched vocal and cool reverse spin has the effect of distancing the beautiful place. One persons beautiful place remember is another's Father Yod style sex cult.

Alpha and Omega features some great sampled congas.



The Devil is in the Details could be described as that Chris Morris phrase 'disgusting bliss' which he used for the black comedy series Jam, about the same time as this record and both connected to Warp records. What sounds like a hypnosis session is punctuated by ominous wails and a munching that reminds the listener of what a heavily LSD dosed Brian Wilson must have heard in his head when he recorded Paul McCartney munching celery for the recording of Smile.



Dawn Chorus remains probably my favorite BOC track; blissful funk, an MBV psychedelic swirl of off-colour organ melody and an vocal sample like that bit in Purple Rain where Prince plays Appolonia the tape and she can't tell whether the woman is laughing or crying.



BOC's next album The Campfire Headphase is almost equally as good as Geogaddi and uses more live instrumentation especially strumming and folk sounds.

37. Trim - Soulfood Volume 1, 2 & 3 (2007-8)

Trim. AKA Trimbal, Trimski, Taliban, Shankvan, Monkey Features, Trimothy etc...

Yeeeeeooohhhhh! Teeth, Gums, Can U see 'em? They alright? Lissssssseeeeennnnnnn!!!!

Grime lost it's way following it's initial rush of success 04-05, with Dizzee's Boy In Da Corner, The Streets and Lethal Bizzle on TOTP. Record companies hesitated to understand and sign artists, club nights closed down amid institutionally racist police concerns; and leading lights of grime were imprisoned (Crazy Titch), the movement lost confidence. Grime artists who got signed to majors found themselves with less artistic control, with their releases stalled. Some successes like Tinchy Strider or Chipmunk branched into crossover territory, and are now remembered for guest spots on pop records.

One Grime MC however thrived in these adverse circumstances and produced a fantastic series of mixtapes building his reputation, and nowadays he's viewed as one of the most poetic, adventurous and skilled British MC's.
Trim was there at the inception of Grime, being in garage party crews, but always viewing himself as a lyricist. Raised by a Rasta mother, Trims languid baritone flow reflects his love of reggae and dancehall, he flows over Turbulence and Sizzla riddims on these tapes. Unlike the majority of the Grime scene which hail from Bow E3, Trim was brought up in Tower Hamlets E14 and he proudly reps this, perhaps he also knows this adds to his outsider reputation within grime. Trim was 15 when Damilola Taylor was stabbed and left for dead in this area, and Trim's black comedy raps will often depict a grim, melancholic environment.

Trim joined Roll Deep, one of the biggest garage crews (not yet called grime), as they were already up and running, spotted by local scene catalyst Wiley. He contributed to the Creeper comps, the In At the Deep End debut album with the Grime high water mark of When I'm 'Ere, and released the solo Boogieman 12". So far, so promising, however it's here in the story that things start to unfurl.






Maybe it was the sheer amount of personalities and egos battling to be heard within Roll Deep. Wiley, Footsie, Riko, Flowdan, Scratchie, Breeze plus others passing through. Shortly following the release of the debut and a group trip to Ayia Napa, a beef developed between Trim and Flowdan and Trim left the crew.
Trim has not been shy in vocalizing this beef on record, the track Lowdown seems to suggest that he felt Flowdan was not looking out for him and may have been actively undermining him. Trim also says he looked up to Flowdan as an older MC he admired, making the perceived slight hurt deeper.
You do wonder though, whether two deep voiced MC's both with dancehall influenced flows was one too many for the crew. Maybe Flowdan was worried by Trim who hasn't quite got the dread delivery of Flowdan, but is certainly more lyrical and funny. Trim is also one of the best free-styling and battling MC's, unafraid of any competition.



Don't look for a classic album among these mixtapes, there's no Revolver or Nation of Millions, and there likely never will be. Like a classic Reggae DJ e.g. Dr. Alimantado or Big Youth, the point is to make great tracks, and to fire up the rave. You will have to trawl through these tapes to find the classic tracks among the skits, remixes, guest appearances and tracks cut short. Trim has been promising an album 'Crisis' for about 6 years now, but it seems no closer to release now than it did 6 years ago!
After leaving Roll Deep, Trim took Roachie, another Roll Deep alumni with him and proceeded with the Soulfood mixtapes.



Roachie then went to jail until 2008 and a 'Free Roachie' theme runs across all of these tapes. Trim uses producers from all across grime, Wiley, Target, Jerzey, JME, Mega, The Streets, Danny Weed but is also unafraid to look at more experimental areas of electronica and dubstep.
Soulfood 1 has the great Lowdown, Liar Liar (I'm a liar, I need help from More Fire) and Taliban.



Soulfood Vol 2 contains Confidence Boost (United we stand, divided we lose) later versioned by James Blake.


Soulfood Vol 3 is perhaps the most consistent tape, with the majority of tracks presented in full.
Trim is full of catchphrases; Middle finger up, index with it, the way he repeats his punchlines a second time with a chuckle, in case you missed them the first. On Signal he raps 'if you didn't catch my name i'll throw it to you, and for those who can't catch i'll roll it to you'. 
Ask For Trim runs through some local E14 spots or The Bits, with a foreboding air 'Tower Hamlets where we help people get badges for disabled parking'.
I'll Do Me is a possee cut with a great snaking flute and shaker riddim, indebted to Missy & Timbaland, with a no biters theme.
I'm Not is Trim defining himself against what he's not, 'If you're a bad boy, then i'm not'.
Inside Looking Out is an introspective realization of Trim's outsider status, and seems to come to a sort of peace with the fact that he could never be part of a crew.
The Low-Dan expands upon part 1, Trim claims he should have been called Flowdan, and accuses Flowdan of trying to get him arrested over war like pummeling bass kicks and lazer synths. It's here that we get our first promise of an official album!




I Can C U is Radioclit produced UK Garage clip clop funk, and It's A Cold World demonstrates Trim's talent for twisting everyday catchphrases much like US rapper MF Doom 'United we stand, divided we're like odd socks', 'eye for an eyewitness'.
Gave Him An Inch is produced by The Streets and is the punt at a hit single release, but seems to be inbuilt with the problems which mean the charts and Trim will always be at arms length. 'Is it me or am I different, In at the deep end but water resistant' and Mike Skinners assessment 'Too greasy, you can feel the ape in his bars'.




Trim sees himself as a mix of Old Dirty Bastard and Dennis Brown, and this is not far off the mark. Grime MC's have always had the problem of standing out from each other, with similar flows and voices. Trim has never had this problem, he's a natural and makes the whole thing seem effortless, his persona is his act with all of it's eccentricities.
If Grime has a Captain Beefheart or a Kool Keith then surely it's Trim, Trimothy, Shankvan.......

38. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - The Doledrums (2004) / Worn Copy (2005)

Ariel Pink, real name Ariel Rosenberg is really where the new Millennium started. Some of the albums at the top of this list (oh the anticipation!) in retrospect now seem like great end of 90's pieces. Whereas Ariel belongs squarely in the new millennium, with a whole shtick that is so post everything. Haunted by an enormous musical past which Ariel seems to have swallowed whole. Previous practitioners who borrowed from older styles, even when they are good can come off like either pastiche (Strokes, White Stripes), or wacky and ironic (Beck, Beastie Boys). Where Ariel differed was that you could hear his love for 80's indie and pop, but you never felt like he was taking the piss out of it. In fact on his first run of records he often sings and beatboxes with a passion that can be intensely moving; sometimes channeling the narcissism, self-obsession and self pity (all good things in pop life) of characters like Morrissey, Robert Smith and Elizabeth Frazer.

It's an unlikely story, Ariel a lonely outsider into all kinds of music, popular and obscure, works at record store, the Jewish son of a gastroenterologist inspired by outsider artists particularly R.Stevie Moore. Moore has released hundreds of albums with little attention to promotion or sound quality but the music itself often brilliant rock and pop deserving of a massive audience. Ariel thus embarked on his own outsider pop career and in the early 00's, alone in his room with an 8-track and a few instruments recorded hundreds of songs that he would then pass around locally on cassette. These were called Haunted Graffiti and comprised many volumes, some of which have been officially released. One of Animal Collective who were then on the rise as the new psychedelic thing was handed one of these cassettes, The Doledrums - Haunted Graffiti 2 and vowed that it would be the first release on their nascent label Paw Tracks. Ariel, although very different from Animal Collective, fitted in well, and there were similarities, both acts are psychedelic and both often look back to the innocence of childhood in their music.
The first thing you notice when listening to Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti series is the super saturated sound environment; tape hiss, echo and reverb give the impression of listening through a poor radio signal, a result of the DIY equipment used. Wobbly keyboards, and what might be 80's electro beats are actually Ariel's close miked beatboxing. All the drumming is done by mouth, and lots of it is great, nothing like trad hip-hop beatboxing at all. Mick Fleetwood and Funkadelic spring to mind.
Ariel has no qualms about harsh jumps from minor verse to major key chorus, reminiscent of 1980's pop cheese like Split Enz, Flock of Seagulls or Tears For Fears, no act from the 90's would've dared try it, far too corny. Ridiculous falsettos, out of range but maximum effort given and incredibly moving.
There so much pleasure to be had from immersing yourself in this music and 10 years later it still sounds just as good. Tracks like For Kate I Wait, with the repeated yearning verse, which is never resolved, Oh she's never coming back to you, by the end when Ariel's in his room weeping and moaning, you seriously doubt whether Kate was there in the first place, just a masturbatory fantasy.

Haunted Graffiti the track itself from Doldrums has some great vocal effects akin to sound poetry, sheeeeeesh, pfffftttppph, chhhhhhhh! and is massively catchy. A whole scene called Chillwave developed as a result of this sound during the late 00's, just as shoegaze had following the innovations of MBV a decade earlier. Relatively straightforward songs are hidden beneath this new psychedelia which dismantled the song in a way which was more than just slathering distortion over everything.



Often the tracks on the Doldrums contain a fug of indulgent depression, similar to The Cure in the Seventeen Seconds era, sometimes he uses a deep robot Gary Numan voice, What does it mean if you can't see the Sun.




Songs like Let's Build A Campfire There, contain a surreal darkness beneath the childlike themes, like that scene in Twin Peaks where Ben Horne reminisces about a time he and his brother watched an older girl dance in their room, fascinated from their bunks, all through a distorted gauze of impending puberty and shaky memory.
There are two epic pieces on Doldrums and Worn Copy; The Ballad of Bobby Pyn and Trepanated Earth. You will hear expansive funk jams using mouth and organ, scissor cuts and Zappaesque misanthropic interjections, overreaching emotional outbursts, rock riffs and balladeering. Budget yacht rock and just as bitter under the surface. Both these tracks would work well as soundtracks to a really weird movie. In fact Ariel has made an attempt at a Trepanated video, but so far only an excerpt exists.





Juelz Lost His Jewels is a hair metal song about cat castration, CREDIT is a thunder funk with jangling REM guitars and Life in LA covers one of Ariel's favorite subjects the emptiness and loneliness of living in the most glamorous city in the world, down and out in Beverly Hills, and contains some great mouth trumpet.



Horror is another influence of Ariel's, particularly 80's horror movies he would have seen as a kid. Both Fright Night and Creepshow evoke zombies, werewolf's and Bronx gangs fighting in luminous socks. Sometimes he paints his face in tacky horror make up. I vividly remember films like Creepshow and the 80s Twilight Zone seemingly watched by all children at the time. Ariel himself says he was brought up by these movies and MTV as a child.




Everything in Haunted Graffiti land feels perverse, an open and mischievous sexuality.In One On One he puts himself in a spin the bottle situation, encouraging orgiastic fun. Ariel seems like the kind of guy who lost his virginity to the topless girl who gets killed first in the horror flick. Ariel's perversity has become even more apparent since with gender bending and more blatant sexual posturing.
One year at ATP festival 2011 Ariel had put together a crack band who could play these tracks successfully live, ushering in the next phase of his career which would bring success, he now used a proper studio and band, but never lost the strange haunted vibe behind his pop music. Outside the main building one night we stood next to J Mascis and his band quietly chatting, then along came a drunken young girl wearing a huge fur coat, she was looking for Ariel's chalet as apparently that's where all the best parties and drugs were that weekend. J shook his head disapprovingly.

What Ariel did next...

39. The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent (2008)

One of the remarkable things about The Fall is how they always bounce back from an under par record (still better than your new favorite indie band's best album), to create something quite astounding. Long time Fall watchers have learnt never to write them off. Think about it, after Room To Live came Perverted by Language; after Curious Orange came Extricate; after Are You Are Missing Winner came Country On The Click.
So it was with Imperial Wax Solvent which came after Reformation Post TLC. IWS was a real reformation if you think about it, showcasing a new line up which is pretty intact to this day. Peter Greenway, Keiron Melling, Eleni Poulou, Dave Spurr, MES, and always a mark of quality - Grant Showbiz on production.

This new line up hit upon a darker seam of the country'n'northernkrautgarage than the previous US group were able to muster, unafraid to experiment and bringing more to the fore Eleni's keyboards which were starting to shade the tracks with a grotty sci-fi mood.
The album starts with Alton Towers an attempt at a Mansion style intro with a foreboding ghostly keyboard line, although not quite epic enough. MES sets the dystopian scene where 'The spawn of J. 'Loaded' Brown and L. Leverne are laughing, and their sons are singing songs'. Sadly that future has now come to pass. James Brown as the editor of Loaded mag once infamously interviewed MES, which resulted in MES trying to stub his fag into J.Browns face for asking stupid questions, Lauren Laverne however interviewed MES briefly on TV and made a joke about sacking his wife, MES was visibly put out and she's been on the shit list ever since.
Incidentally on Bronx in a 6 from Sleaford Mods latest Key Markets, they rant 'Lauren Leverne keeps playing Tumbling Dice', and manage to make it sound the the saddest line going, choked me up when I heard it first live.
Wolf Kidult Man perhaps concerns some mollycoddled child man, but who knows. A great garage racket nonetheless, maybe the deep crunching bass synth and sinister samples point at a deeper meaning. All Fall lyrics resist easy interpretation, just look at the scholars of http://annotatedfall.doomby.com/ endlessly decipher meanings into these words.
50 Year Old Man achieved instant Fall classic status, perhaps one of two tracks from here that would make a best of the Fall tape. An 11min epic of hammering garage trance, MES utilizing his growl in the paranoid vision, 'Steve Albini is in collusion with Virgin trains against me'; which compliment 2015's claims that Pierce Brosnin is selling MES bed wet pills. I mean who among us can honestly stand up and say this is not true! The track then seems to dissasemble before our ears, MES tells us he pisses on hotel towels, and before you realise it you're listening to a banjo hoedown and MES is laughing at you. Cut back into an even fiercer riff and fade out to MES 'I'm an inferior product man'.



Eleni takes lead vocal on I've Been Duped, opportunity for MES to take a rest when played live. The topic being shit TV, a favorite of MES. Contains the memorable line about 'two hairy men digging up Scotland', Hey I saw that episode!
Strange Town is a cover of an early 70's Groundhogs tune from highly recommended album Thank Christ For The Bomb, an under recognized band. You can't beat the original though.



Next come two less appreciated but great tunes, Tureg and Can Can Summer. Tureg is a short instrumental piece, but with a lovely driving synth melody. There was an even better version with some whispered MES lyrics used as an intro tape at gigs, available online if you look hard enough. Can Can Summer is one of my favorite Fall tracks of recent years, rarely played live, presumably due to the tricksy funk rhythm and abrupt cuts. This track is like funk in negative, an itchy groove demanding that you sit still, MES barking orders to resist dancing 'change back', 'stop twitching', 'turn the radio off', 'you are no dog' The meaning remains vague, but I always think of this as an attack on groups like LCD Soundsystem and Talking Heads who MES dislikes. MES's anti showbiz heads down funk, that shouts in your ear every time you start tapping your foot.



Tommy Shooter is another great track, perhaps the best on this record. A strumming choogle supports  dread filled evocative lyrics, one of his WW2 tracks with dire warnings, darkening sky's and the brilliant line 'Reduce your knees to noodles, your Doberman Pinschers to Poodles'.

Thereafter the album tends to tail off a bit, Latch Key Kid, Is This New and Senor Twilight Stock Replacer are solid and fast paced but inessential, the latter too similar to the unbeatable Guest Informant. In 2008 The Fall appeared on US live in the studio show From the Basement and bettered the versions of some of these tracks, sad that we'll never have a radio session from this period, this is the closest to that.



The album ends with the scabrous and short Exploding Chimney, possibly about venereal disease. A true lost classic which to be honest I had forgotten about but must rank amongst their recent best.
Imperial Wax Solvent would start a run of top form leading to the also great Your Future Our Clutter

40. Diwali Riddim (2002)

Sometime in the mid to late 90's I became very despondent about rock and indie acts. I had always liked hip-hop, techno, global stuff, equal to white boy rock. But following the petering out of Britpop into embarrassing dadrock and the retro rock puritanism of The White Stripes and The Strokes, the balance tipped heavily towards non rock sounds.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed Peel, and there was some guitar music I could dig, Royal Trux, Flying Saucer Attack and Belle & Sebastian spring to mind. However much of what I listened to and spent hard earned cash on during the '96-'02 era was Drum'n'Bass, hip-hop, electronic and of course Reggae. These musics simply seemed to be innovating and steaming ahead of the competition on a week by week basis. Culminating in the millennial situation where characters like Missy Elliot, Roni Size, Wu-Tang, Daft Punk and the dancehall reggae producers of Kingston Jamaica, had the charts sown up and pop artists borrowing heavily from their styles.
Dancehall reggae had been steadily developing since Prince Jammy first switched on his Casio for Under Me Sleng Teng back in '85. You can trace the development using the budget priced Greensleeves samplers which began in the early dancehall era, they take you through the classics of the genre: Tiger, Ninjaman, Cutty Ranks, Yellowman, Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Capeton et al. fiercely competitive, each new track aiming for the next level.
It was the opposite situation from 4/4 indie rock which wanted to ignore 40 years of progress and multiculturalism in rock, batten down the hatches and party like it's Hamburg 1960. In '97 the NME even declared hip-hop the new rock'n'roll, although they shied away from putting say Wu-Tang or Mobb Deep on the cover and opted for an anonymous drawing of a beanie hatted youth instead.
Every month the new dancehall 7"s from Greensleeves, not to mention the imports , showcased new rhythms voiced by both big DJ's, veterans and upstarts. The 7"s eventually stopped and the new tracks were compiled exclusively on Rhythm albums and mix CD-R's. I preferred the 7"s as you could mix them up, the albums could wear a bit thin after listening through 20+ tracks all on the same rhythm.
There are so many great rhythms from this era, but they seemed to culminate around '02 with the Diwali rhythm, whereby the feedback loop of dancehall, hip-hop and electronica seemed to be reaching the same conclusions. Finding rhythms in the most unexpected and inventive places. Syncopation taken from Jungle, Bollywood and Arabic music, the rise of the internet suddenly making all this stuff available worldwide. For the size of the country Jamaica produces more music than any other nation in the world.
To the uninitiated perhaps dancehall might seem impenetrable, with the Jamaican specific references, fast chat and patois, but repeat plays pays dividends, and even if you can't understand what they're on about (which is sometimes for the best) you can feel the rave energy, vocal skill, personality.
Diwali was when the public seemed ready, there were major hits utilizing the rhythm, which kept coming way after the initial run of 7"s. Even greater is that each rhythm album is a snapshot of it's time, you might not get all the big shots (no Buju, Capleton or Sizzla on Diwali), but you get one shot DJ's doing their best to stand out (Egg Nog, Bling Dawg, Zumjay).
Maybe the competition is what makes this music sound so fresh, without the funds for artists to use live bands, producers create a rhythm and DJ's compete to provide their vocal. A situation that would be criticized in the UK as being like an Xfactor style treadmill.
Steven 'Lenky' Marden created the Diwali rhythm from his 40/40 studio, and this remains the work he is remembered for.
Bounty Killer kicks of proceedings with Sufferer, a conscious selection reminding listeners of his ghetto roots. Bounty Killer had at this point been in the top echelon of DJ's from the mid 90's. After being shot at 14 he decided on the Bounty Killer epithet and a musical life reflecting the realities of ghetto life back at the world in the most dazzling way possible.

This is Bounty Killer at Sting festival Kingston, JA 2002. Hardcore!



T.O.K. are next up as the male boy band trio, who slavered everything in auto-tune way before Kanye. Wayne Wonder then does his No Letting Go, which became a huge tune in it's remixed form, it's a great love song and summer anthem, making Peter Andre seem even more of a twunt.



Assassin then brings the ragamuffin fire with Ruffest & Tuffest, always reliable for a banger. His vocals gruff like Buju with a clever flow, good luck at picking out any lyrics. His career has been a slow burner, although always considered among the best in dancehall circles but never had that crossover success like yer Shabbas, Beenie Man or Elephant Man. However perhaps now his time has come. After a name change to Agent Sisco he was featured heavily on Kendrick Lamar's The Blacker The Berry single.
This is one of his big tunes, albeit not on the Diwali riddim.



If Assassin was up and coming in '02, then Spragga Benz had peaked in the late 90's. Audiences in JA are faithful, to their homegrown artists so there will always be a place for Spragga, he still voices the rhythms and can do conscious and gully styles, although tends towards rasta message music these days.
Tanya Stevens is fantastic on this comp as always. Up and coming in '02 and mentored by the legendary Lady Saw, she more than redressed the gender inequality with always intelligent lyrics.
Check this beauty out....



Egg Nog & Danny English - Party Time on the Diwali riddim. See the hands clapping at the party.



Anthony B is a Bobo Ashanti Rastafarian and spits angry righteous fire like Sizzla and Capleton. Perhaps not best represented by the tune on Diwali, heres a clip of him at Sting with Sizzla. This is what those little emoticon flames were invented for.



Crissy D is up next with an R&B flavoured version adding simple zips and stepping synth chords to the riddim,
Hawkeye is up next, most active from 95-05, he voiced a string of great tunes, but perhaps suffered from a voice not as distinctive as Beenie Man whilst having a similar flow. His lines and choruses are catchy. I'd love to see a single artist compilation of some of these DJ's like Assassin, Buccaneer or Hawkeye. Your move again Soul Jazz.
This is Hawkeye on the Orgasm riddim, and Go Rachel on the Mud Up riddim which I have on 7".





Quite rightly the most unhinged version of Diwali is saved for the 'Energy God' Elephant Man, adding another video with much clapping dancing going on. Hoovering mentasm sounds are perhaps supposed to sound like an elephant? pissicato synth strings and a horn noise following the whole melody creates a suitably unhinged atmosphere for the lunatic of the dance.



Wayne Marshall is a singjay who was breaking out in the early noughties, releasing loads of singles followed by his debut album in '03. Overcome is a good tune with a g-funk style pitched up synth line, however he got overshadowed by Wayne Wonder with his No Letting Go. Marshall released a Jamaican album encouraging good manners in children in 2014 called Do Good Jamaica.
General Degree is shortened to Degree for this album and provides Inna. Underrated and reliable for a banging catchy tune, this is his classic dancehall smash Traffic Blocking.



Zumjay had a short career with a string of singles at the turn of the millennium, he moved to US and joined the army in 2005. This video is great.



Mad Anju also peaked in this era. Wha Dis Fadda on the Ants Nest riddim was his big breakout tune. Got this on 7" too. Sweeet.



Beenie Man then does his War Is Over the first of several tunes he would cut on Diwali. At this point Beenie Man was a veteran of dancehall even though still young. His supreme mic skills developed as a child star DJing alongside the likes of Shabba Ranks, Admiral Tibet and Ninjaman. Until 1994 when he released the clash album Guns Out with Bounty Killer, the rivalry has continued since. Beenie Man has put out tons of great tunes and is worth investigation in his own right, Maestro from 1996 must stand as one of the greatest albums from this era of any genre.
This film explains some of the on/off rivalry between Beenie and Bounty.



Cecile does Respect Yuh Wife, redressing the flagrant misogyny elsewhere. These subjects would not even be covered by white rock music. I've always found it strange how hip-hop and dancehall can be accused of egotism and misogyny, when these are also rife in a rock music filled with big babies. Why can't ghetto styles be seen as a reflection of the truth and potentialities of how men and women behave to each other, good and bad, too ugly too real for some, they would rather black music was preserved in a more acceptable past 1950s Memphis, 1970s Kingston, 1980's New York. But it will keep moving on, that's the point.
Bling Dawg was upcoming in '02 and has been having big hits in the last few years, he has connections with another of the biggest artists who started in this era Vybz Kartel.



Mega Banton was a veteran with a gruff voice like Buju Banton or Burro Banton, his biggest hits were in the 1990s out of the Black Scorpio stable.



That completes the original album. Diwali however would not die. Wayne Wonder was the first to travel and spawn hits both sides of the Atlantic. This was quickly followed by other vocalists who wanted their piece of the Diwali magic. Sean Paul on a rapid rise to stardom with his laid back and addictive flow hit big with Get Busy, then Caribbean pop empress Rihanna with Pon De Replay. 
Diwali the unstoppable riddim, the right riddim at the right time,