“The Wire” Shares A Laugh With Robert Wyatt

jharv | December 19, 2007 9:30 am
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Brit experimental institution The Wire has just dropped its weighty year-end issue, which features Brit experimental (pop) institution Robert Wyatt at No. 1 on its list of the top 50 albums of 2007. As for the rest of the mag’s rundown, it may prominently big up LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A., but hey, it’s also got saxophone records that you can barely hear!

THE GOOD: The Wire is always reliable for a dose of hair-straightening hairshirt noise, serious sound art, and/or free improv. Like Sightings’ brutalist Through at no. 37, Throbbing Gristle’s unexpectedly excellent reunion record at No. 32, or the ramshackle brilliance of drummer Chris Corsano and guitarist Mick Flower’s duo LP at No. 27. THE BAD: Rough and tough experimentalists beware: bloggers and message board denizens are already grumbling that The Wire‘s Top 10 features many of the same records that appeared on all sorts of square lists this year. On the other hand, those who feel the magazine has lost the connection to (avant) pop music that marked its ’90s heyday may find this development heartening. THE WHAAAA? In Rainbows? Even down at No. 34? You’re The Wire! You don’t have to play these mainstream reindeer games!

01 Robert Wyatt – Comicopera (Domino) 02 Burial – Untrue (Hyperdub) 03 Panda Bear – Person Pitch (Paw Tracks) 04 OM – Pilgrimage (Southern Lord) 05 LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver (DFA/EMI) 06 Von Südenfed – Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino) 07 Pram – The Moving Frontier (Domino) 08 MIA – Kala (XL) 09 Battles – Mirrored (Warp) 10 Ricardo Villalobos – Fabric 36 (Fabric) 11 Grinderman – Grinderman (Mute) 12 Kassin+2 – Futurismo (Luaka Bop) 13 Matthew Dear – Asa Breed (Ghostly) 14 Strategy – Future Rock (Kranky) 15 Laub – Deinetwegen (AGF Producktion) 16 Björk – Volta (One Little Indian) 17 Pole – Steingarten (~scape) 18 Harmonia – Live 1974 (Grönland) 19 John Butcher – The Geometry Of Sentiment (Emanem) 20 Akio Suzuki – K7 Box (ALM) 21 Deerhunter – Cryptograms (Kranky) 22 Lil’ Wayne – Da Drought 3 (Mixtape) (No Label) 23 Peter Evans Quartet – Peter Evans Quartet (Firehouse 12) 24 James Blackshaw – The Cloud Of Unknowing (Tompkins Square) 25 Kemialliset Ystävät – Kemialliset Ystävät (Fonal) 26 Pandit Pran Nath – Raga Cycle (SRI Moonshine) 27 Flower-Corsano Duo – The Radiant Mirror (Textile) 28 Electrelane – No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure) 29 Zeitkratzer & Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music (Asphodel) 30 Gudrun Gut – I Put A Record On (Monika Enterprise) 31 Marnie Stern – In Advance Of The Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars) 32 Throbbing Gristle – Part Two: The Endless Not (Mute) 33 Rhys Chatham – The Crimson Grail (Table Of The Elements) 34 Radiohead – In Rainbows (www.inrainbows.com/XL) 35 The Focus Group – We Are All Pan’s People (Ghost Box) 36 The Terminals – Last Days Of The Sun (Last Visible Dog) 37 Sightings – Through The Panama (Load) 38 Anthony Braxton – 9 Compositions Iridium 2006 (Firehouse 12) 39 Steve Jansen – Slope (Samadhisound) 40 Haswell & Hecker – Blackest Ever Black (Warner Classics) 41 Colleen – Les Ondes Silencieuses (Leaf) 42 Dial – 168K (Cede) 43 Wooden Shjips – Wooden Shjips (Holy Mountain) 44 fORCH – Spin Networks (PSI) 45 PJ Harvey – White Chalk (Island) 46 Hanne Hukkelberg – Rykestrasse 68 (Nettwerk) 47 Susan Howe & David Grubbs – Souls Of The Labadie Tract (Blue Chopsticks) 48 Lichens – Omns (Kranky) 49 Low – Drums And Guns (Sub Pop) 50 Frank Bretschneider – Rhythm (Raster-Norton)

Year-End Critics’ Polls ’07 [ILX]