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Last Year. By Ben.
Last year was great for music. It wasn't quite so great for the record companies but for anyone who wanted a wide range of challenging, interesting new music it was a blinder. What with all the major groups of recent years (Oasis, Radiohead, The Verve, Blur) having a year off, the huge marketing machines lay dormant and we got to choose what we wanted to listen to. So we chose a series of joyously disparate records like Mercury Rev's revisionist take on the American dream in 'Deserter's Songs', Air's retro-futuristic loungecore, Elliott Smith's bitter-sweet pop and J5's brilliant reinvention of the old skool. Even the big sellers who made records made fascinating ones. Pulp's 'This Is Hardcore' was a strange exploration of what it is to be famous, R.E.M.'s 'Up' saw the band lose a drummer but make their widest ranging album to date and the Beastie Boys followed up 'Ill Communication' with 'Hello Nasty' which left no genre unmolested. While all this was happening the people whose job it is to name scenes and say what's in and what's not were left in a state of perpetual confusion as to what was happening. Music magazines fumbled around trying to figure out who was big enough to put on the cover and the quality papers were left missing as much good stuff as they covered. Of course the growth industry was teeny pop with Steps, 5ive, Billie and all the rest having their fifteen minutes in the spotlight but leaving any self-respecting critic admirably mute. The charts gorged on this disposable pop and its just as ignorable cousin in the shape of the old timers like Cher and George Michael. Top of the Pops and daytime radio returned to this natural habitat revelling in the return to the vacuous pop that mirrored its vacuous presenters. And so we enter this year with a glut of good releases already hitting our doormat, Pole's brilliant ambient dub, Will Oldham's new incarnation 'Bonnie Prince Billy' and Four Tet's fascinating experimentalism to name three, but with the feeling that all the boring Britrock bands are about to pounce. Oasis's publicity machine will start rolling and crush everything interesting in its way, Blur will release an album that they will profess is artistic and experimental and Suede will attempt to continue to convince everyone that since Bernard has left they can write a tune that can't be found in Bowie's back catalogue. Record companies will desperately try to sell us albums by established bands because they are too chicken shit to try and predict the next big thing. People will half-heartedly buy these records but will refuse to accept them as anything new. Hopefully though, this might mean a flourishing scene for the smaller labels who can react more quickly to the sprinklings of originality that will pepper our pallets as we enter the next century. Movements will flourish out of sight from the mass media and brilliant music will still be produced. I'll just be happy if I get as many surprises as I got this year. I am still amazed every time I listen to the Beta Band's 'Three EPs' collection, I still rejoice in the Afghan Whigs joyous '1965' and I am just starting to get round the deep beats and bizarre goings-on in the Boards of Canada album. There is loads of great music out there, it's just a case of finding it. Luckily we're here to help.
Ben. |
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