Rest in Peace Mark Hollis

Genius.  Talk Talk has a perfect discography.  Utter intuition and grace.



ps
it is a titanic achievement to make a Spotify Radio algorithm enjoyable, but Talk Talk radio picks only the crème de la crème of New Wave and it will improve your day, I guarantee it.

Favorite Albums of 2018

20. The Road Chief Still in a Dream
19. William Basinski/Lawrence English Selva Oscura
18. Mark McGuire The Broken Home
17. Blake Mills Look
16. Marissa Nadler For My Crimes

15. GABI Empty Me
14. Grouper Grid of Points
13. Lori Scacco Desire Loop
12. Dylan Carlson Conquistador
11. Robyn Honey

10. Midwife Prayers Hands
9. DJ Koze Knock Knock
8. Kelly Moran Ultraviolet
7. Nils Frahm All Melody
6. Rhye Blood

5. Steve Hauschildt Dissolvi
4. Mr. Fingers Cerebral Hemispheres
3. Chris Reimer Hello People
2. Sarah Louise Deeper Woods
1. Annelie After Midnight




it was a very quiet year for pop, so I trended towards wordless consolation, roundabout pleasures and purposeful spelunking

Default Genders MAIN POP GIRL 2019 (2019)

glammy progvaporwave Postal Service one-bettering Ben Gibbard's loquaciousness

MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN by Jonathan Lethem (2000)

we only really went to the Hollywood neighborhood library, a bizarre building that family friends later turned into a bakery.  I read somewhere around a hundred Hardy boys books from there, until the Franklin W. Dixons really started sucking and fourth grade me branched out (around #128, Day of the Dinosaur) my suspension of disbelief began to waver. it is odd, getting back into detective fiction over twenty years later, finally reading the classics that were getting ripped off by pulps, and the juvenile distillations thereof.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but something with Poe inventing the form, the detective being a uniquely American creation, beholden to nothing but a code of ethics and a quest for the truth, damn the torpedoes.  I did read Agatha Christie in middle school, and watched more than my fair share of Poirot and her other detectives, all safely removed from danger, as they puzzle out the parlour room, but I've always preferred the American PI, someone with a cousin of a death wish.  Lethem understands being this sort of literary inheritor, a low-fat imitation of the real McCoy, who lives life just as vividly but can't read people as quickly, who is fooled and manipulated and hoodwinked against his own best interest, how the difference between a man and a true detective is that a detective just can't stay home, it's an Ahab of sorts, a mental illness is often an addiction to narrative, an unease with ambiguity, a refusal to let sleeping dogs lie.

there's a film, long in gestation, that is supposedly due out this year, but they've set it back a half century, and Bruce Willis is supposed to be the most charismatic character, so expectations are below sea level.

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (2018)

If you spare three owl eggs, maybe your mercy will be a bullet clean through.



How high can a bird count anyway?

DON'T WORRY, HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT dir. Gus Van Sant (2018)

Portland icon shared with the wider world through Van Sant's steadfastness and vision. based on an autobiography, addled like only inebriated memory banks can be, it could only be maudlin if there wasn't such rich, pulpy juice to squeeze from Callahan's joie de vivre, and from Donny's tremendously patient humanism and humor. Jonah Hill steals the show from even Joaquin goddamn Phoenix. I wonder, if he'd gotten to make it, if Robin Williams could have stayed sober. maybe the twelve steps don't matter, it's just the walking.



It is hard teaching people faith.



Deal with pain, deal with shame, before it's too late.

Nivhek AFTER ITS OWN DEATH/WALKING IN A SPIRAL TOWARDS THE HOUSE (2019)

an alias of grouper, queen of astoria, the city that should be. i wish i could tell you it was more Paradise Valley but it sounds like Ms. Harris is Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill again and its morosity has ferocity.  and elegance, like a jungle cat that was transported by steamship to a European country estate and is now loose in the manor, stalking and killing the blithe, keeping young in the wine cellar.

Snail's House エイリアン☆ポップ II (2019)

Japan's answer to The Go! Team- euphoric roller rink zoom, dizzy with disco ideas and energy.  your old friend ordered joy for the table and picked up the check on his way out.

David Harrington Group PURE IMAGINATION, NO COUNTRY (2019)

absolutely beautiful atmospheric jazz album, with only one free jazz moment to muddy the waters.  The closer is a re-imagining of Willy Wonka's song, one of my favorite moments in film, and its faithfulness to the spirit of Gene Wilder's performance is gorgeous and devastating.

EIGHTH GRADE dir. Bo Burnham (2018)

Having the guts to write and shop a film so small, then the instincts to find the perfect young actor, deftly and patiently direct a vignette about youth, anxiety....I'm not a huge fan of his comedy, but now I need to pay attention to this guy, he can make a ship in a bottle.

Takashi Kokubo Partial Discography

1/10

2/10

first album  

later work

Astounding how much this and other ambient/environmental music from Japan in the 80's sounds fresher and more inventive than much of today's offerings.  What is constricting our aperture?Who needs another European no dude, it-is-for-the-busride-HOME-from-the-club downbeat techno album? I mean, it crosses genres, indie is tired as fuck, but at least we have some gender equity now, rock has been dead for going over two decades.... Anyway, hoping the rest of this man's work get posted soon.



The Chancel and Crossing of Tintern Abbey, Looking towards the East Window J. M. W. Turner, 1794.

Low DOUBLE NEGATIVE (2018)

i've been giving this plenty of chances, pioneers of slowcore or not-- open your hymnals to utter despair-- it's done better and more interestingly for years, as with My Bloody Valentine, this isn't a mutual fund, and you're not shares of Berkshire Hathaway, ROI isn't built into your business model, if you haven't kept pace, kept your ears sharp, don't dump it on my doorstep, as with m b v, just go sell it to the other olds