I’m really into James Wilkinson’s new record as Post, but the gig as karaoke show tonight was disappointing.

It must have been intimidating working out how to perform such an intricate and studio-bound album live. Some performers can take that challenge on their own, Jamie Liddell’s a perfect example (in fact, he is far better live, solo, than on record – I’m yet to hear what his new full band thing sounds like). Others get a band together or forgo touring. Wilkinson played solo.

But whatever the route, at some point a live performance has to offer something. With a pedigree in bands like High Pass Filter and Bucketrider he is no stranger to live performance. But pressing play on your newly released CD and then playing a succession of instruments over the top seems like a bit of a cop out. Even if they are played beautifully – for example, Wilkinson added deliciously timed farty rhythm with a huge conch shell, he intro-ed the whole thing with an (initially unaccompanied) roar into the microphone, and he played trombone and cornet. People in the audience felt it though, especially the “Right on Jimmy!” guy in front of me.

Seaworthy were wonderful as the early support. The venue’s cool too.

(c/o Throwing the Dice)

I spent a good part of this morning combing the web for Australian bloggers into leftfield music.

I know it’s about this time that lists start to really drag. But I’m keen to read different voices – it gets to be the same bunch of writers in a lot of the magazines, and I don’t get to read street press outside NSW to spot emerging writers in those states and territories. So here’s a list. Feel free to add.

By leftfield I mean anything from electronics and hip hop to jungle and dubstep, house and techno, noise, punk jazz and the interesting edges of the indie scene, and anything in between. Especially from bloggers who have opinions and can write.

Here are my current faves. With any luck you know more.

Thermostat – the Cyclic Defrost contributors group blog
Although I co-edit Cyclic, not including it in this list would be false modesty – I only recently joined the editorial board, and the reasons it’s such a great read – the writing and the thorough coverage of all the sounds above – are the same reasons I decided to write for it in the first place.

Fat Planet – Stuart Buchanan
Stuart Buchanan’s site is the best known Australian blog internationally. Buchanan, the station director at Sydney radio station FBI, writes succinct elegant prose on music from everywhere except the obvious, and sometimes even there.

Melbs – Ben Gook
Ben Gook’s super localised blog is a poetic window into Melbourne’s music scene. I met Ben (who also edits the music reviews section in Mess + Noise) on a panel about musicians and the media at TINA in Newcastle this year. His concise profiles of artists such as Post, Frost and Inquiet have pushed me to find more.

Fangirl – Emmy Hennings
Hennings, a nom de plume (I’m not sure why), used to write for Melbs, and now writes for Mess + Noise, Voiceworks and Cyclic Defrost. Hennings’s rambly blog showcases her refreshingly strong critical opinion, as well as her ability to place music in historical/philosophical context a la Simon Reynolds and co.

Somefreak – Si Hindle
Although far from regular, Sydney DJ Somefreak became an essential blogger this year. He was selected for the Red Bull Music Academy in Melbourne and his evocative daily reports were enough to prod me into fits of jealousy. His blog dropped off somewhat after leaving the academy, but this mention might prod him into activity againn.

Other favourites include Gentle Force, 0dub, Antipodean Underground, Simple Fi, Kodama, and Feral Media.

• Back in Sydney after an abortive overnight karaoke excursion to Canberra. Transit Bar cancelled the song session scheduled for Boxing Day night, and we ended up drinking at various establishments with morose (and freezing) Canberrans. All in all, a typical Canberra night out.
• Tonight on Join The Dots I’m talking to James Wilkinson from Melbs. He’s part of High Pass Filter, Bucketrider and has just released a gorgeous album as Post. Listen to FBI 94.5 from 9pm for jazz-punk, ambient-electronic and Brasilian music.
• A couple of new reviews at Cyclic Defrost for your reading pleasure. Brisbanian Restream’s processed shoegazer epic Loopsforstereogram and LA’s Flying Lotus with the off-kilter instro hip hop jaunt 1983. Both good albums.
• Indie bloggers Who The Bloody Hell Are They have compiled a list of top fives for 2006 from musicians, media and bloggers. My contribution’s in the blogger section (I wonder how they choose which ones go as media and which ones as bloggers and what that even means these days?). You might notice that it’s different from other top lists I have made elsewhere. Yes? Well that’s because it changes every week. Other things that topped 2006 for me were Damian Marley at the Enmore, the Go Betweens as part of the Sydney Festival, Muscles, Faux Pas, My Disco, Ned Collette, the Tactics reissue, Pete Rock rarities compile on BBE, and, well the list gets longer every time I think about it. SMH Metro writer Bernard Zuel’s got a list here, to which I’ve added yet another variant on my top top.

The outrageous, the inimitable, the self-proclaimed Godfather of Soul James Brown hit it and quit it for the last time yesterday. Aged 73 he died on xmas day after checking into an Atlanta, US, hospital with pneumonia.

He leaves behind a massive influence on modern music and a veritable library of great songs. By no means spotless – his rep tarnished by arrests for domestic violence and drugs – Brown was undoubtedly a giant of the past half century.

Grime’s my new religion (this xmas) and it’s sets like this messy, wild and inspirational one from Roll Deep on Rinse FM that have taken it from fave genre to way of life.

Inaugural as in the first ever. I’ve never really been that excited about Christmas, but there’s a time for everything and this year I feel excited. Who knows why, not me. But tonight’s show was fun. Many thanks to Wayne and DJ Riko (though Riko’s not the Roll Deep member I thought he was) for their awesome contributions.

Icecube – Until We Rich (instrumental)
I:Cube – Un Proton Pour Toi Un Neutron Pour Moi
I:Cube – Can You Deal With That? (feat RZA)
Wu Tang – Bring Da Ruckus
Cassius – Thrilla (feat Ghostface Killah – Blake Baxter Too Much Tequila remix)
Ghostface Killah – Kilo (feat Megan Rochell)
Prefuse 73 – Hide Ya Face (feat Ghostface Killah)
GZA – Liquid Swords
Mos Def – Crime and Medicine
Geeneus – Da Journey
Shots – Creep
Scratchy – Shangooli (Wiley remix)
Roll Deep – When I’m ‘Ere
Roll Deep – Bus Stop (Radioclit chopped and screwed version)
Wiley – Wot Do U Call It (Igloo Bass remix)
DJ Riko – My Chimney (feat Marcie)
Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song
Wayne Marshall – Remix-mas
Wayne Marshall – Blazing Yule
Roll Deep – DJ Riko (Creeper Vol 2 – track 1)
DJ Riko – Twas the Night Before the Goose Got Fat (Jon Kennedy vs Louis Armstrong)
Louis Armstrong – Zat You Santa Claus?
Bing Crosby & Ella Fitzgerald – Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (John Beltran remix)
John Beltran – Caboclo

Join The Dots is a weekly radio show on Sydney radio station FBI 94.5 – see www.fbiradio.com for the live web stream. It airs Thursday nights from 9pm until 11 (Australian Eastern Standard Time – GMT+10).

It’s almost the end of the year and things being what they are it is highly unlikely that I’m going to come across any new releases. I don’t promise that I’ve come anywhere near a comprehensive listen to all or even the best of the year, but from what I’ve listened to, which for whatever reason has remained at the forefront of my mind, I’ve compiled a favourite music list for Cyclic Defrost.

Listen to a xmassy Join the Dots tonight on FBI 94.5 from 9 pm until 11 for a primer on my favourite label of the year Dumpvalve.

The Australian record industry has scalped mp3s4free.net in a landmark case that could have implications for a whole generation of bloggers, myspacers and webmasters of whatever stripe. The Federal Court report suggests the decision was tied to the website’s commercial focus:

“Mr Cooper [the defendant and operator of mp3s4free.net site] benefited financially from sponsorship and advertisements on the website; that is, that the relationship between Mr Cooper and the users of his website had a commercial aspect. Mr Cooper’s benefits from advertising and sponsorship may be assumed to have been related to the actual or expected exposure of the website to internet users. As a consequence Mr Cooper had a commercial interest in attracting users to his website for the purpose of copying digital music files.”

But when you consider that a lot of blogs make a (miniscule) income from advertising these days, the quote from Music Industry Piracy Investigations general manager Sabiene Heindl (in the SMH report on Tuesday) makes for disconcerting reading:

“We don’t make any distinctions between big websites or small websites [MIPI would consider individual blogs on a] case-by-case basis as to whether it would be appropriate to take action … If you are linking to copyrighted material in an unauthorised fashion, then you can be held liable for copyright infringement.”

(Da Capo best) Music writer Wayne Marshall crafted this blazing yule in Chicago, but it’s made for Sydney.