WFMU's Beware of the Blog

$mall ¢hange's omewhat tardy top 11...

$¢ presents some classics that got heavy rotation for 007.  Yes we're a little on island time.  Yes all this shit is mad old.  So Ffffing what?  Mofos still wile e coyote out to 'em.  Go easy on me kid, I'm just an old man playing old rekkids.

Love Unlimited Orchestra  'Strange Games and Things'  20th Century
those strings always kill me, esp on the beginning.  When you have the full power of an orchestra with a groove that killer, hmmmm mmmm.  (Ex-squeeze all my mindless chatter over the link)

Ike and Tina Turner  'You Got What You Wanted'  Pompeii
heavy ballad type ish.  Super badass.  RIP Mr. Turner.  Lyrics are right on right on.  Something to be learned here children.

Beatfanatic  'Jogando Capoeira'  Raw Fusion
The raw fusion / gamm / etc record family outta stockholm has been KILLING shit for a while now, and this track is the creme of the creme, like the top of a properly served espresso.  A modern stone cold classic no doubt.  Played it at midnight of 08 to boot.

Beenie Man and Barrington Levy  'Murderer Remix'  Yaga Yaga
As if the OG Berrington Levy's Murderer wasn't badass enough (one of my favorite riddims), this remix with the 'to all the geto yuths' intro always slams mofos.  But lots on this, love the Simple Simon, Spragga Benz, its hard to go wrong with murderer.

Frankie Paul  'Pass the Tu-Seng-Peng'  Volcano
pass it over!  Dunno why I've slept on this old school classic for so long.  Happy but hard hitting reggae, the best.  Heard Mr. Scruff drop this recently in a set and made my night.

Sleezy D  'I've Lost Control'  Trax
classic tres-demented acid haus from the Trax label.  For the stepchildren.  Shouts to my man Ron Morelli for schooling me on this.  The sound of a trip gone bad.

Ogyatanaa Show Band  'Disco Africa'  Sound Way
an afrobeat heater for the dance floor.  Been comped a few times, good a great organ and chorus.  Kinda prefer the OG but nuff respeck to Quantic's edit that came out on Sound Way.

Four Tet  'A Joy' (feat. Percee P) (Part 2)  Domino
Part 1 ain't bad but part two es muy stupido.  Uptempo funky baseline hip hop joint that's shorter then some rockabilly instros played on fool's paradise.  So make sure you have another selection cued when dropping this or you'll be scramblin', never a good look.

Fred Williams  'Tell Her'  Solo (or Jazzman via Midwest Funk comp)
Again we go deep people.  Life is short, go for the jugular.  Subtle but crazy good guitar riffs with a slow solid backbeat and homeslice wailing about his heart being broken.  One of the tastiest people, and big shouts to Josh Davis for giving me a good deal on this at the last FMU rekkid fair.  I try not to stamp collect too much but this one is essential.

Marion Black  'Who Knows?'  Capsoul (or Numero via the Eccentrc Soul: Capsoul label comp)
who knows anything at all...another slow and steady soul grinder with killer lyrics/music.  And not just for the 5am set, I've dropped this in the middle of open minded dancefloors and people jam.  Try it you'll like it like like Mikey from Life (cereal).

Prinza feat. the Demolition Man  'Fire'  Labello Blanco
crazy fresh 94 ragga jungle biz.  As the years go on some things get dates while others retain that freshness.  I'll be the 1st to admit there's a lot of boring DnB out there, but do your homework and look around, plenty of jams like this.

and many many others.  Even some from this year, really!

Billy Jam's Top 10 of 2007 (belated)

Somehow Billy Jam's top 10 list for 2007 fell through the cracks here at WFMU Centralia, and we apologize for the tardiness of its presentation. If you missed out on 2007 listmania, click here.

Billy Jam's Top Ten of 2007

1) The number best thing of the last year for me was getting to do a show on WFMU every Friday afternoon and having the fortune to be on before Bronwyn C's great show and to follow the two wonderfully creative FMU DJs Bryce and Scott Williams.

2)  OCDJ "Hooray" (Wildfire Wildfire)
Speaking of cool ass WFMU DJs to follow on the radio, my old on-air partner OCDJ who I had the pleasure of following on the air but who sadly left WFMU about a year ago to sail the Atlantic, make music (among other things), and relocate to Baltimore where he hooked up Wildfire Wildfire to drop one of the best fuckin albums of the year with this lil puppy (Hooray indeed) that is underground cool with the potential of being global pop - if it were given the right push with a proper budget behind him. Fuckin brilliant!

3)  V/A "Soul Jazz Singles 2006/2007" set (Soul Jazz)
Wow! What an amazing 3-CD compilation this one is. And near every damn track included is on hit. How do they do it? I don't know but I do know that Soul Jazz is one of those few  rare labels these days that you can almost blindly bank on being good just by the label name. Remember when Def Jam was like that? Ah, I miss the old days.

4)  Emcee T's Bay Area version of the Sopranos intro (watch on YouTube).
Since leaving the Yay Area I miss it but I love the State that WFMU dwells in - New Jersey - home of the Sopranos - so when I first saw this Bay Area version of the Sopranos intro by Emcee T, it was love at first sight, since it brought together NJ and da Bay. Yay!

DJ Bronwyn C's 2007 Top 10

Bronwyn C’s 2007 Top 10

1. “Ulrich Haarburste’s Novel of Roy Orbison Wrapped in Clingfilm” — Absolutely the greatest novel of the 21st century (so far). Google “Troubador Publishing Ltd.” and order your copy before the green American dollar becomes completely worthless overseas.

2. Jerry Ford U.S. Postage Stamps — My favorite president EVER. Still waiting for the Rudy King Jr. postage stamp, though.

3. “Lepechaun IV: In Space” — I saw about 45 minutes of this movie around Halloween, and it made me happier than anything I’d seen in a long time. I keep meaning to rent it so I can watch the whole thing.

4. The Greatest Sentence Ever Written — Lead sentence to a crime-news story in the NY Daily News, by reporter Scott Shifrel:  “A baby jammed in a shoebox amid a swarm of cockroaches, a pile of drugs, and a loaded handgun was well cared for and loved, her teenage mother insisted as she was released from jail yesterday.” An entire novel in 36 words.

5. “Dae Jo Young” — Korean Broadcasting Sytem’s 100-plus-episode historical costume drama about the life of King Go of Balhae, circa late 7th century. Not as good as “Immortal Admiral Yi Soon Shin” but still pretty great. You can make up a fun drinking game based on every time Heuk Sudol says “Blasted Bastards!”

6. The Bacon Shawl — A chart for knitting or crocheting a shawl that looks like an enormous piece of bacon. From Monster Crochet.

7. Program Director Brian putting the latest Britney Spears’ CD into the station’s New Bin in a disguised, handmade cover under the name “Anna Elektronische” to see how many DJs would play it without realizing it was a prank. Genius!

8. Bookbinding classes and the letterpress seminar at the Center for Book Arts, NYC.

9. DJ Mr. Billy Jam’s heroic board-op work during my live broadcast from the WFMU Record and CD Fair in November.

10. Our Boston Terrier, Henne’s Baxter Beans, got his CGC title on the first try! Yay!

Scott McDowell's Top 10 List 2007

Eleven (or Twelve) for 2007:

Listen links are Real Audio from various WFMU shows.

Nels Cline / Andrea Parkins / Tom Rainey - Downpour (Victo) - Tom Rainey (drums) seems to elevate just about every improv meeting he's in. The other two ain't slouches, either. (Anyone know if it was recorded during an actual downpour?) Listen

Poor School - Voor Niets in Zijn CD-R (Cut Hands) - This is a disaster of a record, a jazz-bent plodding guitar/sax/drums assault that calls to mind heyday-era Siltbreeze. Listen

Valet - Blood is Clean (Kranky / World - Can you Feel It Coming in the Air Tonight? (Onomato)  - Loved this creepy psych bedroom glaze from Nudge/Jackie-O-Motherfucker affiliate, Honey Owens aka Valet. World is Honey along with Adam Forkner (White Rainbow) combining forces to build a psychedelic, abstract and rhythmic pillar of sound.  I wish my name was Honey Owens. Listen

Charles Tolliver Big Band - With Love (Blue Note) - Competent brassy big band stuff on Blue Note probably means 'boring' to a lot of people, but this thing brings so much heat, it's a about to spin off the turntable and start orbiting.

Dry Rot - Permission EP 7" (Cold Vomit) - Nauseous Cleveland/Rocket From the Tombs/early-Joy Division/Comsat Angels with unexpected blurpy electronic flourishes rather than Maximum Rock 'n Roll mohawk scuzz, as one might logically expect from the cover.  Listen

Jack Mello's Highlights of 2007

In no order...

- Larry Heard/Fingers Inc. reissues ("Sun Can't Compare," "I'm Strong") [Wiki]

- Black Dice and related ("Load Blown," Eric Copeland "Hermaphrodite," Soft Circle "Full Bloom") [Black Dice Dot Net]

- Boredoms 77 Boadrum event [YouTube]

- A smokin' soulful house track by Dennis Ferrer called "Church Lady". [MySpace]

- Josef van Wissem - A Rose By Any Other Name (Bvhaast/Incunabulum) [Homepage]

- Terje Rypdal - s/t (ECM) [Wiki]

- Fucked Up - Year of the Pig 12" (What's Your Rupture?) [Wiki]

- The Good, The Bad, and the Queen - s/t (Parlophone/Virgin) [Homepage]

- Post-dubstep vibrations from Shackleton ("Next to Nothing," Skull Disco singles/2 CD comp.), Bass Clef, 2562, Burial.

- Italians Do It Better (Glass Candy "B/E/A/T/B/O/X," Chromatics "In Shining Violence"/"IV Night Drive," "After Dark" comp., singles by Professor Genius and Farah Holly) [MySpace]

- Cadenza Records (cool Swiss/Chilean label with next-level double-pack 12s" from Luciano, Petre Inspirescu, Argenis Brito, Digitaline, Villalobos; singles by Pikaya, Rhadoo, Andomat3000 & Jan) [Homepage]

- Dial Records (Hamburg label with deep/minimal electro-glide house albums from Pantha Du Prince and Efdemin and singles by Lawrence and Sten) [Homepage]

- Kompakt (techno stalwart label stretches out with electro-pop [Juergen Paape U Boy Schaefler Gesang "We Love" from "Total 8," Supermayer CD] and genre-defying [sort of] albums from The Field, Gui Boratto, Thomas Fehlmann) [Homepage]

- England (visiting friends in Brighton to the south and ruined abbeys/castles up north, Durham Cathedral, jellied eels at pie-and-mash shop in Hackney, driving on the wrong side of the road) [Wiki]

- Getting engaged! [Congrats, Jack!]

Diane Kamikaze's 2007 Year End Faves

Records That Kicked Ass This Year: (click to hear a Real Audio sample:

White Mice (2 LPs this year, yay!)
Jesu - The Conqueror
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Lugubrum - De Ware Hond
Glenn Mercer - Wheels In Motion
Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
Mammatus - The Coast Explodes
Alabama Thunderpussy - Open Fire
Sigh - Hangmans' Hymn
Obscurus Advocam - Verbaia Daemonicus
Black Ice - Myopia
Coliseum- No Salvation
Trelldom - Til Minne...
Circle - Panic                                          
Core of the Coalman - Anxiety

Mike Lupica's Randomly Ranked Favorites of 2007

Top Ten 90s Singles of 2007:
("Listen" links will open streaming MP3s from the Anti-Static archives.)

1. Beak - Airplane [Listen]
Blowing up in the face of the San Francisco pop punk expulsion came Beak, who served up a throbbing cocktail of Flipper-like noise on this Insignificant Records single. (And then again later, on their impossible to find "Autoselfreplicationalism" full-length.) Blarin' sax, wailin' vox, and a would-be Muppet behind the drumkit -- you tell me what's not to love.

2. A Bullet for Fidel - The Last Day of Fall [Listen]
The curiously named A Bullet for Fidel is actually one guy -- Brian DiPlacido -- who recorded a handful of records for the Scat label throughout the 90s. Although I never saw him perform and have no solid memory of buying them, I somehow managed to acquire all of his releases and they only really connected with me quite recently. Some truly threadbare sounds here, but they carry an autumnal starkness that's brilliantly affecting.

3. Sun City Girls - Eye Mohini [Listen]
A nice prelude to the interstellar pop of their "Torch of the Mystics" LP, the "Three Fake Female Orgasms" double single from which this track comes was one my most oft turned-to audio irritants at the dawn of my radio career. (To say nothing of the eyebrow-raising enjoyment afforded by saying the words "Three Fake Female Orgasms" on the radio.)

4. Leslie - Via Dolorosa [Listen]
The absolute pinnacle of Washington DC post-hardcore. These ex-members of Jawbox, Swiz, and Edsel came out of nowhere with this mysterious 45 on Jade Tree Records, and were promptly never heard from again. The modern noir sensibility of "Via Dolorosa" really makes me hope that George Pelecanos has heard this record.

5. Big Nurse - Hey Hey [Listen]
My days of drunkenly arguing over the best-ever NJ punk single are gone forever, but that probably says more about the sissy company I keep these days than it does the quality of local noise being made. These shore-core darlings forever endeared themselves to me with this pick-axe-through-your-spinal-column number, as brought to you by the appropriately named Heat Blast label.

Todd-O-Phonic Todd's Top Ten of 2007

1. The Sadies - New Seasons (Yep Roc) [Real Audio]

2. Going to Citizens Bank Park with Three Chord Monte host Joe Belock to see The Phillies come back and complete a four game sweep of the Mets, followed up with a visit to Tony Luke's.

3. Roddy Jackson - Central Valley Fireball (Ace)

4. Luis & The Wildfires - Brain Jail (Wild CD/Norton vinyl) [Real Audio]

5. The Packers return to prominence this season

6. Ham Torta (sandwich) at El Mixteca (Jersey City Heights)

7. Ponderosa Stomp shows in Hoboken & Brooklyn

8. Fabienne Delsol - Between You And Me (Damaged Goods)

9. Hixville:We'll Have A Fine Time Yes-Siree! compilation (Jasmine)

10. Debut visits to The Margate Dairy Bar (Margate, NJ) and The Friendly Tavern (Philly, PA)

Click here for more of the Todd-o-Phonic Todd that you crave!

Resident Clinton's Top 10 Places Visited in the US during 2007

1) THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK, Spring Green, Wisconsin

2) DETROIT METROPOLITAN AIRPORT LIGHT TUNNEL, Detroit, Michigan

3) THE HARVARD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Cambridge, Massachusetts

4) CASA BONITA, Denver, Colorado

5) CICADA INFESTATION, Chicago, Illinois

6) CONEY ISLAND, New York City

7) THE ORIGINAL ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE, Austin Texas

8) PIKE PLACE MARKET, Seattle, Washington

9) POWELL'S BOOKS, Portland, Oregon

10) RESTAURANT FLORENT, New York City

Details, videos and much more on all of the above after the jump.

Jeffrey Davison's Favorite 2007 Releases

Susan Alcorn - And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar
Olde English - Spelling Bee
Meg Baird - Dear Companion - Drag City
James Blackshaw - Cloud of Unknowing   Tompkins Square
Tom Brosseau - Cavalier - Fat Cat
Vic Chesnutt - North Star Deserter - Constellation
Clogs - Lantern - Brassland
Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieuses - Leaf
Nancy Elizabeth - Battle and Victory - Timbreland
Ron Franklin - City Lights - Memphis International
David Garland - Noise in You - Family Vineyard
P.J. Harvey - White Chalk - Island
Sean Hayes - Flowering Spade - Ambient Egg
Michael Hurley - Ancestral Swamp - Gnomonsong
Glenn Jones - Against Which the Sea Continually Beats - Strange Attractors
Lewis & Clarke - Blasts of Holy Birth - La Societe Expeditionnaire
Samara Lubelski - Parallel Suns - The Social Registry
Paul Metzger - Deliverance - Locust
Sean Smith - Sacred Crag Dance Corpse Whisperer - Isota
Tiny Vipers - Hands Across the Void - Sub Pop
Mike Wexler - Sun Wheel - Amish

Some Favorite Reissues:

Paul Adolphus - The Dawn Wind - Shadoks
Vashti Bunyan - Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind - DiChristina
Loren Connors - As Roses Bow - Family Vineyard
Karen Dalton - Cotton Eyed Joe - Megaphone
Fraser and DeBolt - s/t - Fallout
Asa Irons & Swaan Miller - s/t - Important
Wizz Jones - When I Leave Berlin - Sunbeam
Lambert and Nuttycombe - At Home - Fallout
Propiniquity - s/t - Numero
Silmaril - Voyage of Icarus - Locust
Michael Yonkers - Grimwood - DeStijl

Rich Hazelton's Best of 2007

1. Life With Tamar - Retaining her hold on the number one spot is my lovely wife. She has stated that I have dug myself a hole that will be very difficult to extricate myself from. However, I counter that she
knows the exceptions that will force her from the top spot (sudden wealth and/or success, neither of which have a chance of ever appearing on this list; personal tip: bet on Snowball in Hell before betting on a
new number 1) and realizes that I am unlikely to ever utter the words "What a great book/film/record that was, sorry Tamar you're number 2 this year". She retains her top spot by being her and this year that includes her first appearance as published author. Mother always told me to marry a doctor, and my favorite doctor of geography continues to prove her right.

2. The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky DVD box set (Abcko) - "Fando y Lis", "El Topo", "The Holy Mountain" and the soundtracks to both "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain" (never before released collaboration between Jodorowsky and Don Cherry) along with extras. I don't think there needs to be anything else said about this except for the fact that I do miss the Japanese subtitles from the old bootleg videos taken from laserdisc. And, "The Holy Mountain" is my favorite film. And when itcomes to Jodorowsky I am like a fanboy. [Click here for Real Audio from the Holy Mountain soundtrack.]

3.  Eliot Weinberger - An Elemental Thing (New Directions) - Beautiful writing filled with information from a lifetime of reading that you can never exhaust no matter how many Google searches you do. It isn't very often that a book comes along that I pick up again and again and find something new in both book and myself no matter how many times I read it (Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" and "T Zero", John Crowley's "Little Big", a few others). I think this is such a book. I believe that the sum of the parts are threaded through its divisions; so many wholes.

HotRod's Top 10 of 2007

HotRod checks in with her 2007 picks (in no particular order):

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead  (listen | watch)
Bjork - Volta  (watch)
Mum - Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy  (listen)
Modeselektor - Happy Birthday  (listen | listen more)
Tomahawk - Anonymous  (listen)
Apparat - Walls  (listen)
Tegan and Sara - The Con  (listen | watch | watch more)
Bat For Lashes - Fur & Gold  (listen | watch)
Justice - +  (listen)
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position  (watch)

*Runners Up:*
!!! - Myth Takes
Black Dice - Load Blown
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Blonde Redhead - 23
Battles - Mirrored
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Mavado - Gangsta For Life : The Symphony of David Brooks
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Bogdan Raczynski - Alright!
Sarolta Zalotnay - S/T
Selda - S/T

Bob Brainen - Favorites of 2007 (in no order)

"New New"
The Bird and the Bee - The Bird and the Bee  (Blue Note)
Innocence Mission - We Walked in Song (Badman)
Yesterdays New Quintet (aka Mad Lib) -Yesterdays Universe (Stones Throw)
Alec K . Redfearn and the Eyesores - The Blind Spot (Cunieform)
NRBQ - Live at the Calvin Theatre 4-28-07 (MP3 ONLY)
Bettye Lavette - The Scene of The Crime ( Anti)
Graham Haynes - Full Circle (RKM)
Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (Light In The Attic)
Thelonious Moog - American Standard (Grown-Up Records)

Webhamster Henry's Top 10 Imaginary Sound Events of 2007

1. Cassarole : Mash Covers (Honor Among Thieves, 2007)
Another step in the mainstreaming of mash-up culture: karaoke and live covers of popular mashups, done with a backing band.

2. A Word With You  (Parent Helper, 1959)
A 7" record dressing down potential Juvenile Delinquents, with a Chubby Checker label as protective coloration.

3. A Bull in a China Shop 1-25 (Affected, 2007)
As hi-fi gets higher and higher, sound effects need to be more and more accurate. Here is the top of the line floating point 192kHz 5.1 series of sound effects, many of them  super hi-fi recreations of old cartoon studio effects (boings, screeches, water splashes, trumpet gobbles...), and many new effects (actually letting a bull loose in a china shop!) that are in themselves things of beauty.

4.  Bird's Ear View  (NYBC, 2007)
A short passionate plea in favor of pigeons, BY pigeons. Tiny radio mics strapped to the birds' bodies as the go though the day, revealing just how much they interact with humans and how we interact with them. Also, some interesting financial information overheard on Wall Street which may or may not still be useful.

5. The Nun Such: The Word You've Not Heard  (Yeesh, Eva! Records, 2007)
In the 50s, the Gibson Bible Institute undertook a massive project to record the entire Bible on LPs and the tapes never made it to the record pressers. But here they have been excerpted, just the weirdest parts of the Bible: giants, orgies, sacrifices, plagues, commandments you've never heeded before, all underscored with a Hammond organ by the somewhat obsessive audionauts the Nun Such.

Fabio's Best (and the gone) of 2007

(In no particular order)
Films.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Director: Sidney Lumet
No Country for Old Men. Director: Coen Brothers
It is Fine! Everything is Fine. Crispin Hellion Glover (With Slide show presentation and Q&A) hear Crispin interviewed on WFMU by Clay Pigeon, and by Pseu Braun (also here)
There Will Be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson
Eastern Promises. Director: David Cronenberg
World of Glory. Director: Roy Andersson (Sweden, 1991. Released on Cinema 16: European Short Films 2x dvd collection)
Brand Upon the Brain. Director: Guy Maddin (Performed with Live orator, orchestra and live foley crew).
Los Muertos. Director: Lisandro Alonso (Argentina)
The Films of Alejandro Jodorowski. DVD box collection check this link to hear soundtrack music splayed on FMU
The Fernando Arrabal Collection. DVD box set (featuring Viva La Muerte, I Will walk like a Crazy Horse, and The Guernica Tree) hear music from Viva La Muerte on FMU here
Mafioso. Director: Roberto Lattuada (1962, re-released. Italy)
The Lives of Others. Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Radio On. Director: Christopher Petit (DVD re-release, 1980)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Director: Niels Mueller (from 2004. Missed this the first time around).
3:10 to Yuma. Director: James Mangold
I'm Not There. Director: Todd Haynes hear soundtrack music on FMU here
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. Director: Mary Jordan (Primarily for the incredible footage of Jack Smith himself)

Jump, for music, live-and-other-stuff, and R.I.P. lists

Doug Schulkind's Favorites of '07

Doug's original favorites page is here.

Moussa Doumbia
Keleya
(Oriki Music)

Godfather of Soul wannabes sprang up like kudzu in the 1960s and '70s, and, outside of Chicago and Detroit, the most badass Brown imitators per hectare came from the gritty urban centers of East and West Africa. Anwar Richard and Matata ruled Nairobi, Geraldo Pino & the Heartbeats concquered Lagos, but the heaviest of heavyweight Afrofunkateers may have been Mali's sax-playing, leather-lunged soul belter Moussa Doumbia, who toiled in semiobscurity in the nightclubs of Ivory Coast's capital city Abidjan. Doumbia was a cool cat but no copycat. While others merely reproduced the James Brown sound, Doumbia seemingly conjured, on a nightly basis, the very soul of Soul Brother No. 1 itself. His massive funk workouts featured all the withering, from-the-gut grunts and squeals, but they were layered over a dense thicket of his native Dioula rhythms—along with, of course, skronking horns and skanky guitars. This French compilation of Doumbia's rare singles and one album may be the greatest single-disc trove of African funk ever released.

Listen to: Keleya (extended lp version)
Listen to: Yeye Mousso

Various
Música Tradicional do Norte e Nordeste 1938
(SESCSP)

Give this astonishing collection seven hours and it'll give you the world of Northeastern Brazil as it sounded 70 years ago. Comprising six CDs presenting nearly 300 performances, this tour de force is a time-travel kit worthy of H.G. Wells. The brainchild of poet Mário de Andrade, São Paulo's municipal secretary of culture back in 1938, the Folklore Research Mission was a four-man team of music archeologists dispatched to record and preserve the incidental music of street peddlers, dockworkers, schoolchildren—virtually anyone they came across. It was a massive undertaking intended to document the region's culture just as Brazil was rapidly modernizing under the spell of radio and film. More than just a compilation of precious artifacts, this wondrous set captures the sound of the soul of a people.

Listen to: Boi Pai do Campo Teu Dia Chegou by José Antonio Castro and others
Listen to: an instrumental track by José Rocha (Zé Padre) and others
Listen to:  Aboios by José Gomes Pereira (Zé Gago) and others

Ernst Reijseger
Requiem for a Dying Planet
(Winter & Winter)

Benjamen Walker's 2007 TOP TENish

Music:

Klangmutationen - Weiße Messe (link)
Citay - Lttle Kingdom (link)
(D)ynamic (B)rown (H)ips - Wave The Old Wave (link)
Pulse Emitter - Progression To Desolation (link)
Robert Wyatt - Comicopera (link)
Various Artists - Summer Records Anthology 1974-1988 (link)
Blockhead - Uncle Tony's coloring book (link)
Focus Group - We Are All Pan's People (link)
Donnacha Costello - ColorSeries (link)
Witchcraft - The Alchemist (link)

Movies, Books follow

DJ Rix's Top Ten of 2007

The year according to Rix: click on the links to check out Real Audio samples or otherwise.

The All Ear Trio (with John Tchicai) - Boiler.  (CD, Ninth World Music).

Earle Brown - Tracer (CD, Mode)

Lara Downes - American Ballads. Lara Downes, piano. (CD, Arkadia)

Electronic Music from the University of Illinois - Gaburo/Hamm/Hiller. (LP, Heliodor)

George Enescu - Symphony No. 2., Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra; Cristian Mandeal, conductor. (CD,  Arte Nova)

Sol Hoopii - In Hollywood, His First Recordings 1925. (CD, Grass Skirt)

Charles Ives - Complete Works for Violin and Piano: Nobu Wakabayashi & Thomas Wise (CD, Arte  Nova)

Neil Rolnick - Shadow Quartet  (CD,  Innova)

Tim Dorsey - Hurricane Punch  (William Morrow, 2007).

Samuel G. Freedman -  Who She Was: My Search for My Mother's Life. (Simon & Schuster, 2005)

Top CDs in "The Teenage Wasteland" for 2007

Fans of Bill Kelly's "Teenage Wasteland" radio program, prepare your clicking finger to pounce: the part-time King of Sunday Afternoon has prepared your winter listening list. 

(All links lead you straight to the gloriously lofi legion of WFMU's Realaudio archives)

#1 Mark & the Spies (eponymous) on Screaming Apple,
#2 Hell On Heels "Dogs, Records & Wine" on Dionysus,
#3 The Maharajas "In Pure Spite" on Low Impact,
#4 The Miracle Men "They're Coming..." on Teen Sound,
#5 Mickey & the Salty Seadogs "Salt Water And Whiskey" on Sympathy For The Record Industry,
#6 Southern Culture On The Skids "Countrypolitan Favorites" on Yep Roc,
#7 The Tol-Puddle Martyrs "Psych-Out USA" (self released),
#8 The Dee Rangers "Blue Swedes" on Screaming Apple,
#9 The Urges "Psych Ward" on both Screaming Apple and Off The Hip,
#10 The Manganzoides "El Entierro De Los Manganzoides" on Rastrillo,
#11 The Cynics "Here We Are" on Get Hip,
#12 The Len Price 3 "Rentacrowd" on Wicked Cool,
#13 The Chesterfield Kings "Psychedelic Sunrise" on Wicked Cool,
#14 The Kaiser Chiefs "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" on Universal/Polydor,
#15 The Royal Purple "Psychoacoustics" on Umbrella,
#16 The Midways "Manners Manners" on Screaming Apple,
#17 The Dollyrots "Because I'm Awesome" on Blackheart,
#18 The Satelliters "Where Do We Go" on Dionysus,
#19 The Sadies "New Seasons" on Yep Roc,
#20 The Gore Gore Girls "Get The Gore" on Bloodshot

DJ Trouble's top 10 and then...

-I'M NOT THERE by Todd Haynes  Breathtakingly beautiful, his provocative film about what music is, what it does to the people who make it, listen to it and love it, left me floating on a cloud.  Truly a subject that Todd Haynes holds close to his heart, his musings about music have been slowly leaking out in his previous films; SUPERSTAR: the Karen Carpenter story and Velvet Goldmine.  I am not a massive Dylan fan, but his music sounds perfect as it tumbles out of alien mouths, telling us the story of being human in America.  The CD soundtrack is also a great compilation of interesting characters, some that didn't make it into the movie.

-Meg Baird, DEAR COMPANION
The  first solo effort by Espers band member Meg Baird is a collection of traditional based and more contemporary covers, gorgeously sung and played.  I still haven't been able to get this cd off my heavy roatation mix.

-SECOS & MOLHADOS
A band of profoundly skinny and campy Brazilians making the most tuneful,wacked out, dirgey pop tunes to come out of post Tropicalia Brazil.  Massive stars in their homeland, Scott Williams was the man who
introduced their hard to find 70's sounds to most of us at the station, but then I found a budget re-issue at my local record shop.  Strange indeed...

-FANS of WFMU who live far and wide, and communicate their affections, and their stories about where they are grooving to our free-form vibe.

-MARISSA NADLER live on This is the Modern World.  Marissa and Miles  win the "most gracious" award for continuing to play beautifully through a fire alarm and noisy visit by the JC Fire Department.