The End of Best-Of Lists

Derek Walmsley of the The Wire posted his Office Dissonance 2008 list - music that was so out there that someone was compelled to yank it off the stereo in the magazine's offices. THIS is my kind of list. I feel I push the envelope of good employee relations playing what I play at moderate volume in my own office with the door mostly closed, but I don't work at a magazine that specializes in difficult-to-listen-to music. The magazine even offers a monthly-updated stream of of their band of delicious racket.

These three are the only ones on Derek's list available on lala.



Tetuzi Akiyama The Ancient Balance To Control Death (lala)
Paul Flaherty Aria Nativa (lala)
Carlos Giffoni Adult Life (lala)

The one album I found this year I could not sit through - not a bad record or a boring record that I didn't want to sit through but one I had to eject immediately upon each listen was

Viking Moses - The Parts that Showed
I am reticent to post this because I prefer to let sleeping dogs lie when it comes to music I don't like, but the singer's choked vocal style on this record killed me (listen to "Jones Boys"). The music comes off as pleasantly unformed hippie-folky-bumout-sunshine, crisp on the edges, still mushy in the middle, but I couldn't get past that clipped singing. I rather like the vocals on the guy's myspace page...why he chose to dock his shaggy dog lope like a Doberman's tail on The Parts That Showed is beyond me.