Opinions on a year past

Another year passed (yes, it's really over so we're sure all releases of 2008 can be included) and we at musique[machine] happily list our favourites of 2008!

Erwin Michelfelder

• Lawrence English - Kiri No Ot
  
• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down in the Light
  
• Gavin Bryars /Philip Jeck /Alter Ego - The Sinking of the Titanic
  
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!!, Lazarus, Dig!!!
  
• Alan Courtis - Unstringed Guitar & Cymbals
  
• Expo '70 - Black Ohms
  
• Luca Formenti - Tacet
  
• Aidan Baker - Book of Nods
  
• Harvey Milk - Life … the Best Game in Town
  
• Letters Letters
  
• Lull & Beta Cloud - Circadian Rhythm Disturbance (3"CDR)
  
• MGR/Xela - Shipping Gold/Calling for Vanished Faces
  
• Isengrind/TwinSisterMoon/Natural Snow Buildings - The Snowbringer Cult
  
• ORCHESTRAMAXFIELDPARRISH - The Silent Breath of Emptiness
  
• Sic Alps - A long Way Around to a Shortcut
  
• Skullflower - Desire for a Holy War
  
• The Dead Science - Villainaire
  
• The Fun Years - Baby, It's Cold Inside
  
• Ulaan Khol - I
  
• Wooden Shjips - Vol. 1
  
• Jay Reatard - Matador Singles '08
  
• Jay Reatard - Singles '06 - '07
  
• Fleet Foxes
  
• Cobra Verde - Haven't Slept All Year
  
• Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Continued
  
• Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel
  
• Crow Tongue - Ghost: Eye: Seeker
  
• Nadja - Desire in Uneasiness
  
• The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
  
• Portishead - Third
  
• Neil Young - Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968
  
• Valet - Naked Acid
  
• Christina Carter - Original Darkness
  
• Charalambides - Rose/Thorn
  
• Eat Skull - Sick to Death
  
• Naked on the Vague - Blood Pressure Sessions

Reissues

• Skullflower - IIIrd Gatekeeper
  
• Big Dipper - Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology
  
• Replacements - Let It Be
  
• Replacements - Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash
  
• Flipper - Generic
  
• Flipper - Gone Fishin'
  
• Warren Zevon - s/t Collector's Edition

Roger Batty

1. Riccardo Dillon Wanke - Caves
   
2. Sand Snowman - The Twilight Game
   
3. Justin Bennett - Wildlife
   
4. Jasmina Maschina - The Demolition Series
   
5. Pyha - The Haunted House
   
6. Various Artists - Wilde Jaeger
   
7. Sole and the Skyrider band - Self Titled
   
8. Andrew Liles And Daniel Menche - The Progeny of Flies
   
9. Shit & Shine - Küss Mich Meine Liebe
   
10. Vetiver - Thing Of The Past
    
11. Painting Petals On The Planet Ghost - Fallen Camellias
    
12. Kevin Tomkins - Square Pegs for Round Holes
    
13. Kylie Minoise - Fucking Loves You
    
14. Death In June - The Rule Of Thirds
    
15. Hoor-paar-Kraat & Fecalove - Dyonisus- Dyonisos
    
16. Caïna - Temporary Antennae
    
17. Nordvargr - Pyrrhula
    
18. Un Festín Sagital - Epitafio a la Permanencia
    
19. Mattias Petersson - Floodlight
    
20. Have A Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
    
21. Thinguma*jigsaw - awakeinwhitechapel
    
22. Lasse Marhaug & Anla Courtis - Jordslev Hojaldre
    
23. Steve Howe - Motif Volume one
    
24. Guapo - Elixirs
    
25. Maja S.K. Ratkje - River Mouth Echoes
    
26. Sissy Spacek - California Ax
    
27. Tau Emerald - Travellers Two
    
28. Septicflesh - Communion
    
29. William Basinski + Richard Chartier - Untitled 1-3
    
30. Demians - Building an empire
    
31. Coffins - Buried Death
    
32. Richard Pinhas + Merzbow - Keio Line
    
33. Procer Veneficus - Saltwater & Glassmoon
    
34. Hiroshi Hasegawa - Ascension no.999
    
35. Striborg - Autumnal Melancholy
    
36. Boduf songs - How Shadows Chase The Balance
    
37. Down In June - Covers … Death In June
    
38. Stefan Goldmann - The Trasitory State
    
39. Oren Ambarchi & Z'ev - Spirit Transform Me
    
40. Werkraum - Early Love Music
    
41. The Hub - Boundary Layer
    
42. Sharron Kraus - The Fox's Wedding
    
43. Carl Michael Von Hausswolf - Perhaps I Arrive - Music For Atatürk Airport, Istanbul
    
44. The Fighting Cocks - Music for lap dancers
    
45. John Zorn - The Dreamers
    
46. Huntsville - Eco,arches & Eras
    
47. Whispers Of Wolves - Language of The Dards
    
48. Coffins - Buried Death
    
49. Kangding Ray - Automne Fold
    
50. To blacken the pages - A Semblance of Something Appertaining to Destruction

Reissues

1. Mort Garson & Jacques Wilson - The Wozard of Iz
   
2. Derek Raymond, James Johnston & Terry Edwards - I Was Dora Suarez
   
3. Contrastate - A Live Coal Under The Ashes
   
4. Ennio Morricone - Teorema/La stagione dei sensi/Vergogna schifosi
   
5. Christina Kubisch - Night Flights

Movies

1. Cloverfield
   
2. There will be Blood
   
3. The Strangers
   
4. The Changling
   
5. Horton Hears a Who
   
6. In Burges
   
7. The Ruins

Nicholas Szczepanik

• Jason Crumer - Ottoman Black
  
• Scott Tuma - Not For Nobody
  
• Thoughts On Air - Deep Wood Society
  
• Celer - Discourses of the Withered
  
• Lau Nau - Nukkuu
  
• Brendan Murray - Commonwealth / Wonders Never Cease
  
• Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
  
• Women - Women
  
• Lorenzo Senni - Early Works
  
• Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion
  
• Chessie - Manifest

Martijn Busink

1. De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig - De Machine
   
2. Farmers Market - Surfin' USSR
   
3. ﻳﺎﺭا - ﺇﻧﺖ ﻣﻨﹼﻲ
   
4. John Zorn/Secret Chiefs 3 - Masada Book 2 - Book Of Angels, Volume 9: Xaphan
   
5. Den Saakaldte - Øl, Mørke og Depresjon
   
6. Eleanoora Rosenholm - Älä kysy kuolleilta, he sanoivat
   
7. Virus - The Black Flux
   
8. Trinacria - Travel Now Journey Infinitely
   
9. Urfaust - Drei Rituale Jenseits des Kosmos
   
10. Darkspace - Dark Space III
    
11. Praxis - Profanation [Preparation for a Coming Darkness]
    
12. The Advisory Circle - Other Channels
    
13. Meshuggah - obZen
    
14. Asva - What You Don't Know Is Frontier
    
15. Mats/Morgan Band - Heat Beats Live
    
16. Paavoharju - Laulu laakson kukasta
    
17. Portishead - Third
    
18. Box - Studio 1
    
19. John Zorn - The Crucible
    
20. Richard Pinhas + Merzbow - Keio Line
    
21. Nicholas Szczepanik - A Stillness Rarely Seen
    
22. Auton - Any Where Out Of The World
    
23. Cynic - Traced In Air
    
24. Heltah Skeltah - D.I.R.T.
    
25. Arkan - Hilal

10 excellent examples of old stuff that rocks:

• Michel Chion - Requiem
  
• Enore Zaffiri - Musica Per Un Anno
  
• Manouchehr - The Best Of…
  
• Ananda Shankar - Sā-Re-Gā Machān (+ India Remembers Elvis), 2001 and Missing You (+ A Musical Discovery of India)
  
• Funkadelic - Toys
  
• Mystifier - Baphometic Goat Worship
  
• Peste Noire - Mors Orbis Terrarum
  
• Various Artists - 1970’s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground
  
• Various Artists - Rembetika 3: Vassilis Tsitsanis – 1936-1940, All the pre-war recordings of the most important figure in Greek Popular Music
  
• Ersen

5 excellent music dvd's

1. The Pentagram - 1987
   
2. Faxed Head - From Coalinga to Osaka: Live in Japan 1995
   
3. Striborg - Journey Of A Misanthrope
   
4. Van Oekel's Discohoek
   
5. Morgan Ågren - Tourbook Live 1991-2007

5 excellent live shows

1. Anekdoten Uden
   
2. Secret Chiefs 3 Rotterdam
   
3. Farmers Market Utrecht
   
4. Cosa Brava Amsterdam
   
5. Earth Eindhoven

N.S. Endebo

• Opeth - Watershed
  
• The Hub - Boundary Layer
  
• 1970’s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground
  
• Portishead - Third
  
• John Zorn/Secret Chiefs 3 - Masada Book 2 - Book Of Angels, Volume 9: Xaphan
  
• Krisiun - Southern Storm
  
• Shadow Music of Thailand
  
• De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig - De Machine
  
• Ed Motta - Chapter 9
  
• The Matthew Herbert Big Band - There's Me and There's You
  
• The Advisory Circle - Other Channels
  
• Paavoharju - Laulu laakson kukista
  
• Sir Victor Uwaifo - Guitar-Boy Superstar 1970-76
  
• Zombie Zombie - A Land for Renegades
  
• The Devil's Blood - Come, Reap
  
• Yoshie Fruchter - Pitom
  
• Bollywood Steel Guitar
  
• Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted (Baghdad 1925-1929)
  
• TV on the Radio - Dear Science
  
• John Zorn/Medeski, Martin & Wood - Masada Book 2 - Book Of Angels, Volume 11: Zaebos
  
• John Zorn - Filmworks XX: Sholem Aleichem
  
• John Zorn - The Crucible
  
• Virus - The Black Flux
  
• Eleanoora Rosenholm - Älä kysy kuolleilta, he sanoivat
  
• Bill Frisell - History, Mystery
  
• Nevermore - The Year of the Voyager

Disappointments

• Cynic - Traced in Air
  
• The Car Bomb split with Burnt by the Sun
  
• Judas Priest - Nostradamus (their weakest album to date!)

Best past releases only discovered this year

• Farid El Atrache - Rissala Men Emraa Majhoula
  
• Confusional Quartet - Confusional Quartet
  
• Ennio Morricone - Controfase
  
• Insiememusicadiversa
  
• Franco Evangelisti - Anthology
  
• Egberto Gismonti & Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra - Meeting Point
  
• Ejwuusl Wessahqqan