Half-Arsed Review Of The Year 2008: Music

I'm probably the least qualified person to be summarising the year in music because, despite buying a van-load of CDs in 2008, my choices continue to regress to days of yore. What started last year as a determination to educate myself about classical music (conclusion: I like mostly late-romantic period and 20th Century composers) has broadened in scope to embrace other genres about which I knew pitifully little. Hence, I have been delving into old-school blues, jazz and a little soul, listening to artists like Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James; Fats Waller, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk; Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave.

I did manage to buy some records that were actually released during the auspicious year of 2008. Five to be precise. So this is not so much a review of the best releases of 2008 but rather a review of the handful I have actually got.

First up is Jamie Lidell's Jim, the white English soul record that Duffy can only dream of making. Jamie certainly has a fine pair of lungs on him and the fact that he isn't a massive twat like Jamiroquai's Jay Kay is much to his credit. Jamie made his name as a techno producer, to which his work as one half of Super Collider and his solo debut Muddlin' Gear attests. However, Jim is more of a straight soul album rather than the fusion of soul and electronica of his 2005 record Multiply. But what Jim may lack in experimentation it makes up for with charm, wit and good tunes, and Jamie still mucks about with a sampler and effects box when performing live, building loops on the fly of his backing band, beatbooxing and layering up vocal improvisations over the top. It's a bit of a shame there is not so much of this aural tomfoolery in evidence on the album but it is a still a damn fine collection of songs.

dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip proved that they were more than a one-trick commandment spouting pony with the album Angles. Dan's electro/hip-hop production may be a little musically pedestrian but it provides solid, simple and effective backing for the Scroob's rhymes. His words are by turns funny, ruminative, angry and tragic. Scroob is less a rapper than a performance poet who eschews the usual trappings of hip-hop lyrics. To quote the man himself, "Thou shalt always remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be." Darn tootin', Mr. Pip. le sac 'n' Pip put on a great live show, too, sharing an easy banter and sense of wry humour. May their collaboration be a long and fruitful one.

I was gutted when Red Snapper called it a day around 2001. I was chuffed as a doped up donkey when they reformed at the end of 2007. I positively shat myself when I was able to see them play live again. Oh, and they also released a new "mini album", which was jolly decent of them, and that album was A Pale Blue Dot. There is always a little trepidation when a favourite artist releases new material, especially after a prolonged hiatus, a slight fear that they may have lost it and the new stuff will be rubbish. Fortunately, though, the Snapper boys have delivered and A Pale Blue Dot is as good as anything in their esteemable back catalogue. It's back to basics, in a way, with the sound concentrating on the core elements of bass, guitar, drums and horns. There is a stronger rock feel mixed in with the familiar jazz, dub, funk and trip-hop ingredients of previous albums. It is raw and energetic, and a sense that the band are simply having great fun playing together again permeates the music. "Wanga Doll" kicks all kinds of arse all over the shop.

Slime & Reason by Roots Manuva is brilliant. If you think that Dizzie Rascal represents the apex of British hip-hop then put some Roots in your ears and reassess. Like Scroobius Pip, his rapping style is resolutely English. His lyrics are witty, intelligent, playful, gritty and melancholic. The music and production are an inventive blend of dub and grime, and yet there are plenty of catchy hooks in amongst the dirt. Superb stuff.

My final choice is a bit cheeky because, although the album was released in 2008, I only bought it last week. But this is my blog so I don't care.

David Holmes is a bit of a musical chameleon. After making a name for himself as a DJ, his first album, This Film's Crap, Let's Slash The Seats, was a collection of minimal and menacing techno. The follow up, Let's Get Killed, was full of funky, soulful, urban electronica inspired by an acid-fuelled lurch around New York. Bow Down To The Exit Sign added rock to the palette. There was a brief stint as band leader with the Free Association and then Holmes went off to Hollywood to score Steven Soderbergh movies like Out Of Sight and the Ocean's triptych. What was always evident in Holmes' work was a great love for all kinds of music. His music is effortlessly cool whilst remaining unpretentious. But while his previous albums have their fair share of haunting and moving tunes such as "Gone" and "Hey Lisa", you never felt that Holmes was revealing much about himself other than his love of music. That's not a bad thing by any means and that's not to say that his music was soulless; there was simply a distance. It's not about me, just listen to the music, man.

His latest album, therefore, is a revelation. The Holy Pictures is an astonishingly personal record, a piece of work that has been bubbling away inside Holmes since the death of his mother in 1996. It is a touching tribute to his late parents and a thanksgiving to love, family and friendship. Musically, it is a typically effective blend of styles from rock to electronica. Unlike the roll-call of zeitgeisty guest singers on Bow Down... Holmes assumes vocal duties, his hushed delivery permeating the music to haunting effect.

The result is a wonderful and genuinely affecting record. The instrumental "Theme / I.M.C." is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I have heard for a long, long time; "I Heard Wonders" and "Love Reign Over Me" are brilliant atmospheric pop songs; "The Ballad Of Jack And Sarah" is achingly beautiful.

Oh, just go and buy the fucking thing.

To round things off, here is my Top 50 Most Played Artists of 2008 according to my Last.fm stats:

1. Otis Redding
2. Howlin' Wolf
3. Arnold Schoenberg
4. Karol Szymanowski
5. Ramones
6. Muddy Waters
7. Lightnin' Hopkins
8. Wilson Pickett
9. Elmore James
10. Charlie Parker
11. Sam & Dave
12. Roots Manuva
13. Krzysztof Penderecki
14. Fats Waller
15. Miles Davis
16. Fudge Tunnel
17. Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
18. Alban Berg
19. Igor Stravinsky
20. Béla Bartók
21. Faith No More
22. Jamie Lidell
23. Tommy McClennan
24. Crass
25. Claude Debussy
26. David Bowie
27. Red Snapper
28. Killing Joke
29. Amon Tobin
30. Nirvana
31. Sergei Prokofiev
32. Wire
33. Pixies
34. Orbital
35. Pavement
36. The Orb
37. Death in Vegas
38. Atomic Hooligan
39. The Fall
40. Primus
41. mclusky
42. Four Tet
43. Underworld
44. Living Colour
45. Robert Johnson
46. Prefuse 73
47. Aram Khachaturian
48. Luke Slater
49. Kettel
50. Alexanders Dark Band

Here's to all the amazing music I find in 2009. Cheers.