As Selected by Jim Dwyer, Co-Owner Encore Records in Ann Arbor, Michigan:
The less said about 2020 itself, the better. I’m very happy that you survived and are reading this list, hopefully in good health! As bizarre and difficult a year as it was to endure, there were some good things that will come of it, and many fine musical offerings were released during it. The loss of live shows has been a painful demonstration of just how vital they are in our communities. But we should also thank goodness for recorded and live-streamed music over this past year: It’s kept us all as sane as we may be, to be sure.
I base my rankings on “how many times did I play it, at work and at home? Was it impossible to remove from the turntable at any point and for how long a stretch?” Anything else would be sheer preference (“I really like this artist!”) and a different kind of list.
Top Ten ReIssues is a separate listing and is not usually limited to a strict ten!
1. Yello, Point (Polydor)
2. Deadbeat & Paul St. Hilaire,
Four Quarters of Love & Modern Lash (Another Moon)
3. Juana Molina, ANROML Live in Mexico
4. The Stooges, Live at Goose Lake (3rd Man)
5. Adult., Perception (is/as/of) Deception (Dais)
6. Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Selbsportrait (Bureau B)
7. Pantha du Prince, Conference of Trees (Modern Recordings)
8. Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger, Force Majeure, (IARC)
9. Paul McCartney, McCartney III (Capitol)
10. Arandel, InBach, (infiné)
1. The fact that Yello are still at it, and putting out a record this fine, is cause for rejoicing. “Hot Pan” stands out here as an instant classic, the equal of previous highlights surely. In the concert-less year of 2020, Mars & I (that’s my betrothed) selected Yello’s Live in Berlin (2017) blu-ray for our New Year’s Eve home dance-party, and the dream of seeing Yello live sometime in the future (even if we have to fly to Europe to do so) is just one more reason to keep thrashing about here on the planet of the doomed. No worries – – we can dance with “The Vanishing of Peter Strong” into another dimension.
2. Thankfully, this has recently been re-pressed. Copies disappeared immediately upon release. Only 500 copies were available initially, and no CD available, alas. Copies are back in stock now, & it’s well worth seeking out! Atmospheric, rasta-chant, dub poetry calling for equal rights. It was the soundtrack for the summer of George Floyd/BLM marches. Powerful, righteous, chill but incisive and deliberate. You’ll play one side at a time, over and over and over.
3. What a treat this record is! Infectious, hooky, punky energy right out the gate, and it beguiles throughout. Mars & I saw her perform at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, 2014, and were dazzled with her dexterity in interweaving effects, loops, etc., all while playing and singing as though effortlessly. Recorded in Mexico just before the early pandemic lockdowns in March of 2020, it just might be the only live album from that fershlugginer year. So, break out a copy and go to the show. I hope this exciting record becomes her Cheap Trick Live at Budokan! It certainly deserves to be.
4. Ann Arbor’s finest. A legendary performance, thought lost forever, and recently uncovered. The true beginnings of punk and avant-garde noise rock, with the always hilarious Iggy as frontman to keep things from getting too serious (his comments about “that one guy” in the crowd are most amusing). The supposed rip against this particular performance was that bass player Dave Alexander was out of his mind stoned, and indeed, he does just barely play on the first two numbers. Still, he’s fine after that, and on the two cuts where the bass line truly centers the riff (in both “Dirt” and “Funhouse”), he’s on top of it. And hey, if this is The Stooges on an off day, well Sweet Jesus Creamcorn, what a thing to behold an on day must have been.
5. The best group in Michigan for a little while now. Edgy electro duo with dark angsty super propulsive dance music, crunchy and catchy. Funny & cool that it was largely recorded in Michigan’s wooded “lake country” near my family’s vacation spot “up North.” Adult. are not to be missed live – – our daughter Lillian drove all the way back from Pittsburgh with a friend for Adult.’s “Banger in the Hangar” show which turned out to have been a legendary gig.
6. The surviving half of the German electronic pioneers Cluster is still active and prolific, now well into his 80s, with distinctive melodies and catchy electronic arrangements that surprise in how much emotional content they convey in their seeming simplicity. I have come to calling Roedelius “my favorite living composer”, with his remarkable skills in melody, mood and invention. This was one of the better reading/writing records of the year.
7. Melancholy, pulsing ambient, mostly instrumental. Nice use of bells and gongs for organic tones, great working around the house music. Eno-esque in its dipping into mood/nostalgia-tones, albeit energetic enough to invoke movement and activity. Good also for chill times, this was my “letter writing music” in a year that saw me trying to send more written, mailed correspondence to loved ones.
8. These performances (Douglas and Younger are a bass & harp duo) were originally a podcast, a “Covid concert from our apartment” and the spoken hellos and goodbyes are themselves heart warming. But the emotional richness of what they’ve done here is exceptional. Only two of the songs are original compositions, but their choice of cover material is inspired. Everything from Coltrane (Both Alice & John) to The Stylistics, Kate Bush and Sting. It was their cover of the old Sesame Street song “Sing” that really hit me, though. Kind of a syrupy, even dorky song, right? I was in first grade when Sesame Street began, so it was nostalgic enough, but the lyric took on charged meanings in the context of a pandemic year and filled my heart with love & hope & joy & yes, my eyes with tears. Thank you, Douglas & Younger…
9. There are a handful of LPs that could’ve snagged this spot on my list (to be identified perhaps in a later listing) but I give the nod to my boyhood hero, still making noteworthy records 59 years into his career as a recording artist: Paul feckin’ McCartney. A few listens to McCartney III will make clear that this is a fellow who really enjoys the recording process, and with these self-constructed (for the most part) numbers there’s a sense of actual play in the playing. I mean, to be this stylistically versatile and melodically inventive at nearly 80 years old is really something. I’d say that his his releases here in the 21st century are among his finest post-Beatles work. Initially, LP copies of this were hard to come by, which seemed to add to the holiday-time excitement, just like Beatle LPs in days of…yore. McCartney II is still my top fave from Paul, but this new one gets better with each playing.
10. I like to try and have at least one Various Artist title on my year-end list whenever I can, just to cram as much variety in as possible! Of several good ones this year (it could be another, oh say top 5, list) this is the one that I played the most. It’s all reimaginings of pieces by Bach that combine electronics & vintage-instruments from Bach’s era! The version of the “Passacaglia” alone is worth the price of admission, but the vocal stuff, done in a style that reminds me of The Swingle Singers (whom I dig!), turns the cantata excerpts into pop-like earworms.
“Praise unto the Universe for & with, Music!” – – Jim Dwyer
The Cuttingsville Times 