Talking music, 2007′s been a strange year. I’ve felt more connected to and more detached from music than ever before – that’s just where I’m at, I guess – from being out at gigs and parties every weekend to doing a lot more of my listening to music at home or on the bus. That, and the gradual impact of storing music on a hard drive, have paralleled a shift in my listening habits… away from house and techno and other dancefloor sounds, which I really still love, and towards more… song-y? indie? maybe just back to my roots. But it’s a broader malaise, I think, with massive, exponential changes in the way people interact with music.
Hearing bits of my brother seep out of the edges of his second solo record (Urthboy’s The Signal) was a personal highlight. And, even though ‘We Get Around’ wormed its way into my head for months, it was the anthemic ‘Modern Day Folk’ that anchored the record for me, and that I keep going back to.
It took me a while to notice Adrian Klumpes’ sound in Triosk’s thrilling wash of sound, but at some point I realised his phased arrangements were the magnet that really drew me in. The worst band name in a world of worst band names, according to The Wire, Roam The Hello Clouds’ debut, Near Misses, had me listening over and over. Following on from collaborations for Perth’s Meupe label, and Klumpes’ gorgeous solo record, Be Still, this new collaboration with Dave Miller and Phil Slater is a real Matt07 fave.
One of my favourite shows for 2007 was a little birthday gig at the Hopetoun Hotel (for/by Emmy Hennings) with Founder, Charge Group, Rand + Holland, and a duo show from Geoff ‘Sly Hats’ O’Connor and Guy Blackman. It was a spectacular lineup, and just reinforced O’Connor’s talent. Considering he recorded one of last year’s best pop hits with Crayon Fields’ Animal Bells, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but his naive, minimalist bossa nova was one of this year’s unexpected pleasures. The other favourite show from this year was Sydney’s Jazz in the Domain, featuring Oscar Castro-Neves, Airto Moreira, Abraham Laboriel, Alex Acuna and others, playing a magical set of Brazilian jazz (I wonder if 08′s nuyorican set will match it?).
After an exhausting series of gigs late last year, Animal Collective faced a Brisbane crowd at the Zoo, and caved – “Our singer’s sick!” – they called it a night after just five songs, leaving drummer Noah ‘Panda Bear’ Lennox to hold the fort. He played what’s been described as a single dub track. It didn’t sound so great, but when Panda Bear’s Person Pitch appeared early the next year, it was so much more. A favourite. The other big record for the year was Burial’s Untrue. I slept on his debut – I get a bit allergic to hype, and sometimes it takes a while to go back and reevaluate big records. No such problems here. It’s been called Enya crossed with the Artful Dodger, but I’d say This Mortal Coil crossed with El-B.
There have been so many favourites this year. More than any other, it’s been a year of overwhelming amounts of music. New and old. Alela Diane’s gorgeously familiar The Pirate’s Gospel, Disco Inferno’s Five EPs (how did I miss that back in the early ’90s?), Underlapper’s lovely Red Spring (I may never forget wandering into the Bat & Ball, Surry Hills, to them playing just as the election tally began to turn against Howard), Saddleback, Iron & Wine, Seaworthy, Caribou, Andy Weatherall’s fantastic Sci-Fi Lo-Fi compilation, Deepchord, Young Marble Giants, Skull Disco, Sun, Swoop Swoop, Aluf, Animal Collective, Rand + Holland, Groove Chronicles, Kinski, Westernsynthetics, Pikelet, Go Betweens, Faux Pas, Naked On The Vague, AR Kane, Birth Glow, Ed Kuepper. There’s a lot more too. To be perfectly honest, hit me up for an annual list next week and it’ll probably be different.
Talk to me