2010: Records

This is starting to become an annual event: the moment when I realise I haven't bought anywhere near enough records this year, and I might have to write a 2010 year-end list, and it will necessarily be horrifically incomplete, my face lighting with shame as I peruse others' lists, noting everything I missed. Then, the moment when I remember that it doesn't matter anyway, mine being one insignificant drop in the ocean of ill-considered opinion that is the internet! The records that I heard of, but didn't get to actually hear (e.g. the Moon Wiring Club and Shackleton albums, the Joseph Hammer and Keith Fullerton Whitman LPs on Pan, Krayon's LPs from Our Love Will Destroy the World and Moon Unit) will have to wait their turn until the mythical moment when I will have money again. So, here are some records I liked - no restrictions on number, no ranking, no consequence:

Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal (Editions Mego)

Philip Jeck – An Ark For The Listener (Touch)

Actress – Splazsh (Honest Jons)

Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (Warp)

Autre Ne Veut – Autre Ne Veut (Olde English Spelling Bee)

Ikonika – Contact, Want, Love, Have (Hyperdub)

Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (Def Jam)

Matthew Dear - Black City (Ghostly International)

Hot Chip – One Life Stand (Parlophone)

Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (Young God)

Gayngs – Relayted (Secretly Canadian)

Richard Skelton – Landings (Type)

Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen – For the Ghosts Within (Domino)

Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me (Drag City)

Xiu Xiu – Dear God I Hate Myself (Kill Rock Stars)

Jailbreak – The Rocker (Family Vineyard)

Yellow Swans – Going Places (Type)

Stellar Om Source – Trilogy Select (Not Not Fun)

Sun Araw – Off Duty + Boat Trip EP (Not Not Fun)

LA Vampires ft. Matrix Metals – So Unreal (Not Not Fun)

v/a – DJ Kicks: Kode9 (K7!)

v/a – Ecstatic Music of the Jemaa El-Fna (Sublime Frequencies)

Field Music – Field Music (Measure) (Memphis Industries)

Autechre – Oversteps (Warp)

VHS Head - Trademark Ribbons of Gold (Skam)

Abe Vigoda – Crush (Bella Union)

Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise (Rough Trade)

Strong Arm Steady – In Search of Stoney Jackson (Stones Throw)

Black Milk – Record of the Year (Fat Beats/Decon)

Forest Swords – Dagger Paths (Olde English Spelling Bee)

Terror Danjah – Undeniable (Hyperdub)

Rangers – Suburban Tours (Olde English Spelling Bee)

The Fun Years – god was like, no (Barge)

Chris Abrahams – Play Scar (Room40)

Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here? (Editions Mego)

Beach House – Teen Dream (Bella Union)

Singles/EPs/etc.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – 'Round and Round' (4AD)

Belbury Poly/Mordant Music – 'Welcome to Godalming' 7” (Ghost Box)

Broadcast & the Focus Group – 'Familiar Shapes & Noises' 7” (Ghost Box)

Grouper – 'Hold/Sick' 7” (Room40)

James Blake – 'Klavierwerke' EP (R&S)

James Blake – 'CMYK' EP (R&S)

Girl Unit – 'Wut' 12” (Night Slugs)

Team Brick – 'Hardon For Hadron' 3” CD-R (Journal of the Belge Folk Club)

Astral Social Club – 'Smashed Tractor' 3” CD-R (Journal of the Belge Folk Club)

Forest Swords – 'Rattling Cage' 7” (No Pain in Pop)

Balam Acab – 'See Birds' EP (Tri Angle)

Keith Fullerton Whitman – 'Variations For Oud and Synthesizer' 7” (no label)

Yaaard/C-Powers – split tape (Reckno)

Games – 'That We Can Play' EP (Hippos in Tanks)

Ancients of Days - Reissues and Golden Oldies:

David Bowie - “Heroes” (RCA)

Donna Summer – Once Upon a Time / I Remember Yesterday (EMI)

Sparks – Kimono My House / No. 1 in Heaven (EMI)

Arthur Russell - Love is Overtaking Me / Calling Out of Context (Rough Trade/Audika)

The Ex - 30 (Ex Records)

Shackleton – Three EPs (Perlon)

v/a – Panama! Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965-75 (Soundway)

v/a – Panama! 2 Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk on the Isthmus 1967-77 (Soundway)

King Midas Sound – Waiting For You (Hyperdub)

Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides – Bataille de Battle (Singing Knives)

Fennesz – Venice / Endless Summer (Touch)

James Ferraro – Marble Surf / Heaven's Gate (New Age Tapes) / Last American Hero (Olde English Spelling Bee)

Roy Orbison – The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison (Capitol)

Emeralds – Solar Bridge (Hanson)

Bikini Kill – Pussy Whipped (Kill Rock Stars)

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Doc at the Radar Station / Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) / Unconditionally Guaranteed / Trout Mask Replica / Safe As Milk (Elektra)

Pulp – His 'n' Hers (Parlophone)

African Head Charge – My Life in a Hole in the Ground (On-U Sound)

Borbetomagus – Live in Allentown (Agaric)

AMM III – it had been an ordinary enough day in pueblo, colorado (Matchless)

Max Roach – We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (Candid)

v/a – London is the Place for Me: Trinidadian Calypso in London, 1950-1956 (Honest Jons)

Moondog – The Viking of Sixth Avenue (Honest Jons)

Coil – Live 3 / Live 4 / ...And the Ambulance Died in His Arms (Threshold House) / Selvaggina, Go into the Woods (self-released)

Guilty Simpson – Ode to the Ghetto (Stones Throw)

There might be another post about books, as soon as I can recover my list of books I've read this year.