Airborne Event's Dan Bodah's Year-end Faves

Some records that interested Dan Bodah in 2008:

Christina Kubisch Five Electrical Walks  (listen to "Homage With Minimal Disinformation")
Kubisch created headphones equipped to translate electromagnetic fields into audible sound.  These recordings reveal the interwoven patterns of electrical fields that penetrate almost every aspect of our environment and are with us in every moment of our life.

Pekko Kappi Jos Ken Pahoin Uneksii  (listen to "Mariainen")
Pekko plays clean, direct folk music for jouhikko, a traditional Finnish bowed instrument with horsehair strings.  There's a formal yet amused quality to his (Finnish) vocals, and the jouhikko spreads out sheets of sound around his voice.

Cath and Phil Tyler Dumb Supper (listen to "Farewell My Friends")
Speaking of folk music...No, they are not angry at their meal.  A dumb (or silent) supper is a traditional way to mourn the recently departed.  Cath's honest, stark vocals and Phil's hoary modal American old-timey guitar and banjo sounds combine to draw the ghosts out with tales of woe, misfortune, and domestic bliss gone sour.

Toumani Diabate The Mande Variations (listen to "Cantelowes")
Gorgeous solo kora mastery from Malian Toumani Diabate.  All the songs are dedicated to someone's memory, and each explores a different kora tuning or style of playing, from composed pieces in traditional styles to improvisations.

Religious Knives Live at Big Jar Books and The Door  (listen to "96 Tears")
Mike Bernstein, Maya Miller, and Nate Nelson play rock and roll (guitar, organ, drums) minus all the flash, most of the rock, and at least 50% of the roll.  All that's left is the smoldering burnt vinyl of a 10-foot-high stack of Question Mark and the Mysterians albums left out in the Mohave for too long.

Other stuff Dan liked a lot:

Sun City Girls, You're Never Alone with a Cigarette
Burning Star Core, Challenger
Nalle, The Siren Wave
Dan Friel, Ghost Town
Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple
Ilyas Ahmed, The Vertigo of Dawn
Larkin Grimm, Parplar

and a lot of other things, too.

For more DJ year end lists go here.

Comments

[News Review]

Congratulations to Toumani Diabate.. Your album was great..