As with all of his magisterial Kosmischer Pitch (note to reader: Check this fucker out now!), the musical paternity of Jan Jelinik's "Universal Band Silhouette" is shrouded in a profusion of multihued mists. Sure, the German click-house veteran uses loops and beats. But the latter provide a mere pulse, half-buried in the former's richly layered shades of Krautrock, minimalism, techno, and psychedelia, not unlike familiar syllables in the lyrics of Papua New Guinea–based liltmeisters Alir Pukai Stringband's 2/3 eponymous theme. Does the chorus of Songs of the Volcano's opening track actually end with "do me, brontosaurus"? More important still, am I actually ending this mix with the vertiginously yammering "Yaya," from newly released Aerial (2)? That's right! A double shot of Dockstader! Even if I can't gobble up every last bit of 2005's mystery, I at least wanna clean my plate for next year. Yours too!
1. LCD Soundsystem, "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" (Capitol/DFA). iTunes
2. The White Stripes, "Walking with a Ghost" (V2). iTunes
3. The New Pornographers, "Star Bodies" (Matador). iTunes
4. Judee Sill, "That's the Spirit" (Water).
5. Teenage Fanclub, "It's All in My Mind" (Merge). iTunes
6. Out Hud, "It's For You" (Kranky). iTunes
7. Deerhoof, "Spiral Golden Town" (Menlo Park). iTunes
8. The Juan Maclean, "Tito's Way" (DFA). iTunes
9. Tiger Tunes, "Kirsten Is a Fuck-Machine" (V2 Europe).
10. Duplex!, "Mr. Slim" (Mint). iTunes
11. Melt-Banana, "Sweeper" (Sounds of Subterrania).
12. Fireball, "Arsonist" (High Roller Society).
13. The Fiery Furnaces, "Here Comes the Summer" (Rough Trade/Sanctuary). iTunes
14. Robyn, "Konichiwa Bitches" (Konichiwa). iTunes
15. Supersystem, "Everybody Sings" (Touch & Go). iTunes
16. Franz Ferdinand, "Do You Want To" (Epic). iTunes
17. The Legendary K.O., "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" (MP3). k-otix.com
18. Neung Phak, "Fucking USA" (Abduction).
19. Sleater-Kinney, "Entertain" (Sub Pop). iTunes
20. Sufjan Stevens, "Chicago" (Asthmatic Kitty). iTunes
21. Charming Hostess, "Ms. Lot" (RéR/Ad Hoc).
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The biggest influence on my taste this year was becoming someone's dad. (He's awesome, 9 months old, and really into Krautrock and Cecil Taylor.) It didn't Change Everything like some people said it would—there's only one kids' song on my list, Duplex!'s ode to a free-spirited kitty—but it did make me start paying a lot more attention to the way I relate to music and to everything else. That means that I was more itchily aware of the big political picture, including my own twitching, half-willing participation in the cultural-social-economic machine. So I loved the Legendary K.O.'s repurposing of Kanye West's repurposing of Ray Charles' repurposing of "Jesus Is All the World to Me"—the only good piece of new music I heard about the year's biggest domestic story, and way better than "good." Likewise, I appreciated Neung Phak's cover of a North Korean protest song about the biggest bully on the block, and Sleater-Kinney's very loud complaint about the complicity of both performers and audiences. And Charming Hostess' frantic Bulgarian-folk setting of a Muriel Rukeyser poem about Lot's daughter captured exactly the sensation of being overwhelmed by forces large and small.
Other than that, a lot of my important musical experiences this year were at my local karaoke joint. Karaoke's as close to a tradition of musical amateurism as there is right now, and my favorite way to see and hear what Toronto critic Carl Wilson calls the "personalized gnosis" people who aren't professional musicians find in the songs they love. A lot of my list is songs I wish were in the joint's book (I assume "Do You Want To" will get there eventually), and not just because I want to sing them. It'd be great to open up for public habitation LCD Soundsystem's idol-worshipping-and-surpassing fantasy, Robyn's kittenish cartoon of old-school self-glorification, and most of all Supersystem's brittle, blurting robo-funk track "Everybody Sings," an anthem about the sublimity of pop music that carefully avoids idealistic lies. Best duet lyric of the year: "Do you feel a connection to everyone you meet?" "Yes and no. Yes and no."
Finally, a few statistics: Artists here I heard for the first time this year: six. Songs I heard on the radio at some point: one. Songs I first encountered through audioblogs: four. Songs from records I paid money for: six.
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