Best music of 2008

A selection of some of my favourite music from 2008, and where to find it if you are so inclined.

Some of the best stuff thats been released this year. And no, theres none of that shit that gets produced by politicos who form punk, folk, or, (god forbid) reggae bands to 'spread the message'. Links are to external sites, nothing is hosted here.

Parts and Labour - Receivers

Anthemic post-punk with really nice subtle noisiness and soundscaping.

Luomo - Convival

Minimal house from Finland, with slightly sleazy vocals from various guest singers, including Jake Shears. Couldn't find this on the internets, sorry.

The Bug - London Zoo

Filthy 'Yardcore' dancehall/dubstep/grime. Massive bass pressure involved, obviously. MC spots from various UK dancehall talent - Tippa Irae, Ricky Ranking, Warrior Queen etc.

Autechre - Quaristice

Good album from the Rochdale electronica overlords, with a sound thats much closer to their live shows, which can be gut-quaking with a proper setup. Some really nice short ambient tracks too.

Dusk + Blackdown - Margins Music

Cool music coming out of the post-dubstep scene, mixing the standard syncopated beats with the 'world music' (urgh) sounds of the far east and Indian subcontinent. Wicked MC spots from Durrty Goodz and Trim.

Woven Hand - 10 Stones

If you can live with the (mostly impenetrable) 'spiritual' lyrics, this is pretty awesome album of epic rock songs.

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

(Mostly) instrumental hiphop from Californian Steven Ellison, part-time composer for Cartoon Network and relative of the late Alice Coltrane.

Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

Dancable noise (I know - wtf) by two guys from Bristol who look like emo kids.

Edit - forgot these:

Portishead - Third

Disrupt - Foundation Bit

German based dub/electronica producer's debut full-length.

Comments

Cheers, will check some of

Cheers, will check some of those out, a few I haven't heard of.

I might do some blog like this as well...

The Disrupt album is worth

The Disrupt album is worth getting hold of just for the track which is built around samples from this scene

Steven. wrote: I might do

Steven.

I might do some blog like this as well...

Please do. I'm sure I've missed loads of good stuff.

Weeler

Luomo - Convival
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1682730/775222/

nice one, though it should have been written as 'Convivial' in the original post. It might be easier to find on limewire/soulseek etc minus the typo.

Django wrote: The Disrupt

Django

The Disrupt album is worth getting hold of just for the track which is built around samples from this scene

I love that track!

Really want to see that film now, thanks for the tips :)

Roots Manuva's 'Slime and

Roots Manuva's 'Slime and Reason' is siiiick.

P Brothers' 'The Gas' was good but they shoulda stuck with Nottingham emcees (such as cappo and scorzayzee) rather than Bronx ones who were just pretty average.

can't think what else came out this year. Not heard the new Q-Tip yet. or Million Dan. got a bit of catching up to do.

TV Times - 17 - 23 November 2007

This weeks highlight in a strong week for political programming is the documentary which tells the story of the Hungarian uprising of 1956…

Greece: the antifascist response

The far-right continues to grow in Greece but so to does the antifascist response. The last few weeks alone have seen antifascist actions across…

mental institutions and its barbaric treatments

Responsibility, accountability and punishment all do have an essential and pivotal role in our society in order to live within boundaries of civility. Unfortunately, contemporary psychiatry views all of this differently. Throughout the course of time, as a society, we have institutionalized mental patients with some form of mistreatment and abuse. Locking patients in a cell, caged in 8’ by 10’ rooms, being subjected to humiliation, mental, verbal, physical and even psychological abuse is not the answer. Reasonable, caring people would definitely disagree. The million-dollar question is why as a civilized society do we not bring about desired changes? Even our elected government officials do not realize that there is room for much improvement. It’s quite obvious, it all has to do with maintaining social control and hold down behaviour to determine what is acceptable and is deemed abnormal, inappropriate, weird/strange, bizarre behaviour. However, we don’t track down, apprehend, lock up, and punish corrupt politicians who constantly implement arbitrary laws that only benefit the rich and ultimately stick it to the poor and other disadvantaged people. Do we go after Wall Street brokers who have literally stolen and screwed working class people’s lives and deprived them of their life savings? If that isn’t two-tier justice, I don’t know what justice is. The history of asylums can be traced back as early as 490 in Jerusalem, Unfortunately, even after all these years, advances in treatments are still lagging behind and are regressive in nature. Psychiatric wards have not fully evolved to treat patients with due respect, understanding compassion. To name a few people, going back in time, French historian, Michel Foucult, condemned the use of institutionalized torture. Former prominent psychiatrist, Franco Basaglia, condemned his own profession of its abuses, including torture, humiliation, clearly stating that it serves as unnecessary punishment and cruelty. Thankfully, the horrific tortures of asylums of the past are history now but there is still much room for improvement Today, at Riverview Hospital and places like Colony Farm in Coquitlam, B.C., patients are not re-habilitated but drugged into a stupor. Doctors, nurses and staff basically just pump their patients with mind-altering, brain/nerve damaging drugs; so therefore, the profession of psychiatry does not have the patients’ best interest at heart. How could those who study and train as medical doctors, swear under the medical oath not to do harm patients end up doing the exact opposite. If the majority of society was well informed they would find it utterly and totally untenable. There are solutions to urban psychiatric wards such as safe houses for people in mental crisis/emotional distress. A couple of examples are a runway house in Germany, Soteria house in California. The cost of “imprisoning” people in psychiatric wards is roughly about a thousand dollars per day per person to run and operate. I encourage and implore people to fully lobby their MP’s and their Provincial MLA’s to bring about progressive measures to treat patients with dignity and the respect they so fully deserve.