Yearly Archives: 2007

So, structurefall considers it a point of pride that his musical taste and discoveries are consistently ten years in the past (to the point that it's very much a self-fulfilling prophecy.) Anyway, yesterday he was telling this story yet again, and said "Why, now that I'm up to 1997, I'm even starting to appreciate futurepoop!" By which he meant progressive-house bullshit like VNV Nation.

I started only-semi-coherently ranting at that point, and if he wasn't driving I probably would have grabbed and shaken him.

Anyway, at that point I rattled off a list of bands from 1997 that he should be listening to instead of that recycled lukewarm pabulum. I think most of what I shouted out was actually from 1996 or 1998, but when I got home, I spent ten minutes making a list.

Today he posted his list of the best of 1997, and his favorite bands suck. (I find it hard to be in his car because of this music, srsly.) Here then, is my rebuttal, in two parts:

<LJ-CUT text="The Best of 1997, or, Fuck Futurepop            --More--(28%) ">

The Best of 1997, or, Fuck Futurepop:

Big beat, trance, IDM, trip hop, and just a sprinkle of goth:

• The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
• The Crystal Method - Vegas
• Fluke - Risotto
• Les Jumeaux - Cobalt
• Juno Reactor - Bible of Dreams
• Underworld - Pearl's Girl
• Panacea - Low Profile Darkness
• Add N to (X) - Avant Hard
• Not Breathing - Sangre Azul
• Autechre - Chiastic Slide
• Mono - Formica Blues
• Portishead - Portishead
• Recoil - Unsound Methods
• Perfume Tree - Tide's Out
• Locust - Morning Light
• Mistle Thrush - Super Refraction
• Trance to the Sun - Delerious

Rock and/or industrial:

• Veruca Salt - Eight Arms to Hold You
• Hanzel und Gretyl - Transmissions from Uranus
• Course of Empire - Telepathic Last Words
• Engorged With Blood - Engorged With Blood
• Morphine - Like Swimming
• Sky Cries Mary - Moonbathing
• Radio Iodine - Tiny Warnings
• C-Tec - Darker
• Souls - Bird, Fish or Inbetween
• Gary Numan - Exile
• Sister Machine Gun - Metropolis
• Tanya Donelly - Lovesongs for Underdogs
• Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
• L7 - The Beauty Process, Triple Platinum
• Bile - Biledegradable

Thank you. Drive through.

In fact, yes, I did put this off until almost the last possible moment.

In only approximate order of favoriteness, here is my year-end wrap-up. As in previous years, a few of the entries on the following list were released earlier than 2007, but that is when I discovered them, so I'm allowing a little slack. In 2007, I acquired roughly the same amount of new music as I did last year: around 160 new-ish albums, and a similar number of older releases.

You've heard tracks by, I believe, all but three of these bands on the jwz mixtapes so far.