Domingo 8 Fev 2009, 14h:15
Another year has passed, and it is again time to scribble some notes on the past year. I listened to a lot less music this year, and I became less obsessive about constantly discovering new stuff. Maybe I changed, or maybe I realized my hard drive was almost full and I am too lazy to buy anything.
I recently topped 40,000 tracks. At 3 minutes a track, that is 83 days of listening. My youth drains away.
On to, the top 10 artists:
1. HECQ (704) - this includes periods of listening to 0000 and Night Falls obsessively. This is such genius stuff. While Night Falls was the album I always hoped he would make, I think it might age worse than 0000, which has more colors and range.
2. Current 93 (308) Number two is not even close in plays. I love Current 93, and am starting to like the live albums better now. Black Ships Ate the Sky does not have much replay value for me, hopefully Tibet has not played out his talent.
3. In Strict Confidence (252) By rights, all of these plays also belong to HECQ, since I only listen to HECQ remixes of ISC these days. Those two albums are brilliant, as long as Mr. Boysen is able to deal with the awful lyrics he is given to remix.
4. Coil (237) Coil's originality will never be imitated successfully. Their music is just un-musical enough to be different, just complex enough to be art. This year I listened more to their ambient period than the "yelling" period. The New Backwards was a pleasant surprise, though clearly was missing their usual finishing touches - Careful What You Wish For was almost too accessible. Seems a bit callous of me to fault a band for that, especially on a posthumous farewell album.
5. Sir Edward Elgar (219) All enigma variations. Each variation is only a minute or so long, so this is really only 3 and half hours listening.
6. Seabound (204) Sigh. I guess their lyrics are more tolerable than other groups of this stripe. Now and then we all must eat candy.
7. Porn Sword Tobacco (186) A new discovery this year. A minimalist ambient style that does more than drone. Thanks for this music.
8. Death in June (182) The last of the big Neofolk acts that I got around to listening to, and I am sorry I did not start earlier. Just when I was sure Rose Clouds of Holocaust was their best, I listened to Nada!. Full disclosure - half of these plays are Leper Lord.
9. Kattoo (159) - Whatever you do, don't read his website too often, it is too much reality. All of us who have downloaded our music collections ignored the possibility of the pain to the artists, instead delighting in the corporations we were cheating. Kattoo's departure from music reminds we live on earth, not in a dreamland.
10. Agalloch (144) - Some fans of Agalloch whined about The White. It seems we all want our artists to produce the same music, but somehow keep it fresh. How paradoxical, since within each style there is not that much room to wiggle. Even if they have changed for good (totally impossible), we will always have Ashes Against the Grain.
I am uninspired to write any more, leave me a message.