looking back : 2008

2008 has consigned itself to the past, and music-wise, it has been another year of discovery of old and new music. A quick glance at my lastfm most played artist of the last 12 months gives an indication of my leanings this year, though it is not in any way the final word in my music consumption since I do like using my stereo to listen to CD's as well. I've been hearing a lot of The Jam since I discovered how well versed they are in the Northern Soul tradition, which is actually only logical, since they were inspired by the Mods movement, a movement which adopted 60s soul as their music of choice. Soul, along with funk, has featured heavily this year too, Kashmere Stage Band being one of few bands to really made it's mark on my life. The occasional soul and funk compilations also regularly found their way to my stereo. I haven't heard as much hip-hop as I'd actually like, but a few highlights this year are Flying Lotus's Los Angeles, Main Source's Breaking Atoms, Gang Starr's Daily Operation and Eric B and Rakim's Paid in Full. African Music made it's first mark this year, the catalyst being the magnificent Amadou & Mariam, and Nigeria 70, an African Funk compilation (all my thanks to Ffonz from the Ludovico here). Indie will never break it's hold of me, and I'm not complaining. 2008 has seen great records like Microcastle from Deerhunter, and Times New Viking's Rip It Off. Fleet Foxes has been greeted by the press with an enthusiasm that surprised me, though it is really well deserved, and Ice Cream Spiritual by Ponytail has been pretty much ignored all year long, despite it being better than the likes of No Age, who despite being good, somehow sounded too much like a few other bands that made their mark this year. TV on the Radio's Dear Science was good, although not as good as some people would like you to think, a bit like Vampire Weekend then. I also actually discovered how good The Kinks and The Byrds are this year. How I didn't discover them before is a mistery.