The Jig is Up, 2007 ...

The dwindling days of December are no laughing matter for the music geek. It's time to cut the bullshit, roll up the sleeves and get down to business sculpting an unnecessarily obsessive "Best of ---- List" for no reason in particular, other than a self-affirming display of "how I spent my spare time this year." So here's a compilation of my 100 favorite albums from '07 (give or take one or two), starting with a numerically ranked Top 20, followed by an arbitrarily-ordered list of 80 other records well-deserving of recognition. I already wrote out a more descriptive list over at Dusted; you can check that out here. Of course, I had to add several releases that previously slipped my mind or just arrived in the mail, so here's a more comprehensive, "final" version. Most of these filtered through the playbox at WXYC, and we were thrilled to broadcast such goodness over our frequency. We've got big plans for '08 at our station, so keep listening and thanks for reading. Onward!

1. Ohsees - Sucks Blood (Castle Face)
2. Devin the Dude - Waitin To Inhale (Rap-A-Lot)
3. Pumice - Pebbles (Soft ABuse)
4. David Watson - Fingering An Idea (XI) / Throats (Ecstatic Peace)
5. Group Inerane/Group Doueh (Sublime Frequencies)
6. Pole - Steingarten (~scape)
7. Las Malas Amistades - Patio Bonito (Honest Jon's)
8. Burning Star Core - Operator Dead, Post Abandoned (No Quarter)
9. DJ Jazzy Jeff - Return of the Magnificent (Rapster)
10. Uncle Woody Sullender and Kevin Davis - The Tempest is Over (Dead CEO)
11. Dielectric Field Recording All-Stars - RE: Record (Dielectric)
12. Authenticite: The Syliphone Years (Stern's Africa)
13. Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
14. Psychedelic Horseshit - Magic Flowers Droned (Siltbreeze)
15. Voice of the Seven Woods - s/t (Twisted Nerve/B-Music)
16. Stephen Vitiello - Listening to Donald Judd (Sub Rosa)
17. Phosphorescent - Pride (Dead Oceans)
18. Shackleton/Applebim - Soundboy Punishments (Skull Disco)
19. Susan Howe and David Grubbs - The Souls of the Labadie Tract (Blue Chopsticks)
20. Art of Field Recording Vol. 1 (Dust-to-Digital)

I get tired of ranking after 20, so these probably aren't in any particular order:

MF Grimm - The Hunt For the Gingerbread Man (Class A)
No Age - Weirdo Rippers (Fat Cat)
People Like Us/Ergo Phizmiz - Perpetuum Mobile (Soleilmoon)
Theo Angell - Auraplinth (Digitalis)
DJ Elephant Power - Scratch the Hulu (Sonig)
La Drivers Union Por Por Group - Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana (Smithsonian Folkways)
Brian Harnetty - American Winter (Atavistic)
UGK - Underground Kingz (Jive)
Oren Ambarchi - In the Pendulum's Warm Embrace (Touch)
Noah Creshevsky - To Know and Not to Know (Tzadik)
Wooden Shjips - s/t (Holy Mountain)
Kemialliset Ystavat - untitled (Fonal)
Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36 (Fabric)
Toby Dammit - The Legend of Apple Jack (Hit Thing)
Pan Sonic - Katadiviohe (Blast First)
Army of the Pharaohs - Ritual Battle (Babygrande)
Vibracathedral Orchestra - Wisdom Thunderbolt (VHF)
American Band - American Band's First Album (Blossoming Noise)
Dalek - Abandoned Language (Ipecac)
Disrupt - Foundation Bit (Werk)
Omar Souleyman - Highway To Hassake (Sublime Frequencies)
Tinariwen - Aman Iman (World Village)
Ov - Noctilucent Valleys (Soft Abuse)
Boxcutter - Glyphic (Planet Mu)
Demons - Evocation (No Fun)
Raccoo-oo-oon - Behold the Secret Kingdom (Release the Bats)
Robert Wyatt - Comicopera (Domino)
Spiritualaires of Hurtsboro Alabama - Singing Songs of Praise (Casequarter)
Flaming Fire - When the High Bell Rings (Silly Bird)
Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino)
Circle - Katapult (No Quarter)
Akron/Family - Love Is Simple (Young Gods)
Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings (Carpark)
M.I.A. - Kala (XL)
Deerhunter - Cryptograms (Kranky)
Keith Rowe - The Room (Erstwhile)
Mohammed "Jimmy" Mohammed - Hulgizey (Terp)
Mudboy - Hungry Ghosts! These Songs Are Doors (Digitalis)
Axolotl - Memory Theatre (Important)
Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores - The Blind Spot (Cuneiform)
Tujiko Noriko - Solo (Editions Mego)
High on Fire - Death Is This Communion (Relapse)
Ginaluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi - The Stones Know Everything (Digitalis)
Wzt Hearts - Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones (Carpark)
Henry Flynt and Nova’Billy - s/t (Locust)
Jeru the Damaja - Still Rising (Ashenafi)
Michael Hurley - Ancestral Swamp (Gnomonsong)
Carl Stone - Al-Noor (In Tone)
Sir Richard Bishop - While My Guitar Violently Bleeds (Locust)
Samara Lubelski - Parallel Suns (Social Registry)
Turf Talk - West Coast Vaccine (Sick Wid It)
Infinite Livez vs. Stade - Art Brut Fe De Yoot (Big Dada)
Wiley - Playtime Is Over (Big Dada)
Magik Markers - Boss (Ecstatic Peace)
Black Milk - Popular Demand (Fatbeats)
Area C - Haunt (Last Visible Dog)
Richard Youngs - Autumn Response (Jagjaguwar)
Standing Nudes - Ghost Story (True Panther)
Pig Destroyer - Phantomb Limb (Relapse)
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (XL)
Uke of Spaces Corners County -So Far on the Way (Corleone)
Flat Earth Society - Psycho Scout (Crammed)
Jazzkammer/Howard Stelzer - Tomorrow No One is Safe (Troniks/PacRec)
Yellow Swans - At All Ends (Load)
Burial - Untrue (Hyperdub)
Eats Tapes - Dos Mutantes (Tigerbeat6)
Babils - The Joint Between (Stilll)
V/A - I Belong To This Band (Dust to Digital)
Cadaver in Drag - Raw Child (Animal Disguise)
Jeff Rehnlund - Our Thin Mercy of Error (Hymns)
Exploding Customer - At Your Service (Ayler)
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (Domino)
Lubos Fiser - Valerie and Her Week of Wonders OST (Finders Keepers)
Tom Recchion - Sweetly Doing Nothing (Schoolmap)
Megafaun - Bury the Square (Burly Time)
Religious Knives - Remains (No Fun)
MV & EE with the Bummer Road - Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace)
Shape of Broad Minds - Craft of the Lost Art (Lex)
DJ Scotch Egg - Scotchhausen (ADAADAT)

And since I already had these mapped out:

Compilations:
-Dust to Digital records in general
-Authenticite: The Syliphone Years (Stern's Africa)
-The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru (Barbes)
-Carolina Funk (Jazzman)
-Songs of the African Coast: Cafe Music of Liberia (Yarngo)
-Everything Is a Theory (Cephia's Treat)
-La Kodi Ya City Council (Mississippi)
-Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay (Numero Group)
-Box of Dub: Dubstep and Future Dub (Soul Jazz)
-Awon Ojise Olorun: Popular Music of Yorubaland 1931-1952 (Savannaphone)

Reissues:
-Prince Jammy - Prince Jammy Destroy
-Ju Suk Reet Meate - Solo 78/79 or Do Unseen Hands Keep You Dumb? (De Stijl)
-Orlando Julius - Super Afro Soul (VampiSoul)
-Don Cherry/Jon Appleton - Human Music (Water)
-Tim Hecker - Radio Amor (Alien8/Mille Plateaux)
-Lee Rockey - Lee Rockey Music (De Stijl)
-Terry Riley - Music For the Gift (Ellison Fields)
-Noah Howard - Black Ark (Bo'Weavil)
-Dorothy Ashby - The Rubiyat of Dorothy Ashby (Dusty Groove America/Cadet)
-Annea Lockwood - Early Works 1967-82 (EM)

7", 12", Singles, EPs:
-The Bug feat. Killa P and Flow Dan - "Skeng"/"Skeng (Kode9 Remix)" (Hyperdub)
-Yikes - Whoa Comas/Blood Bombs (Kill Shaman)
-El Jesus De Magico 7" (Columbus Discount)
-Cloudland Canyon - Silver-Tongued Sisyphus (Kranky)
-Parts and Labor - Escapers One 12" (Broklyn Beats)
-Ariel Pink - My Molly (Tiny Creatures)
-Bass Invadurrz (frequeNC)
-Duran Duran Duran - Face Blast 12" (Planet Mu)
-Gorge Trio/Uske Orchestra - Divorce6 split 7" (Ache)
-Gaybomb/Ironing split LP (Hymns)

I feel much better now, thanks for your time. I hope you all have a very happy New Year ...

yrs,

-Cole-
cole@wxyc.org