Best Of 2008

[krakow]

I've started to think about my top albums of 2008 and am wondering if anyone else here has thoughts on what their favourites would be.

I'm also fishing for suggestions, as once again I failed to make notes as the year progressed, so am struggling to even remember what came out this year that I liked, especially from early on.

So please, if anyone else does have thoughts, post them up. Here's the scrappy list that I've generated so far, to be duly pruned, tidied and ordered:

Deerhunter - Microcastle (4AD)
Desalvo - Mood Poisoner (Rock Action)
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (ATP)
Euros Childs - Cheer Gone (Wichita)
Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling (Matador)
Portishead - Third
Spiritualized - Songs In A & E
Keiji Haino & Tatsuya Yoshida - Uhrfasudhasdd (Tzadik)
Keiji Haino - The 21st Century Hard-Y-Guide-Y Man (PSF)
Grails - Doomsayers Holiday
Coffins
Cloudland Canyon
Deerhoof
Torche - Meanderthal
Don Caballero - Punkgasm
Harvey Milk
Earth
Melvins
Earthless
Rhys Chatham
Fourtet
The Drift

I've deliberately omitted rereleases so far, hoping to do a separate list for those.

[Coquille]

....anyone else here has thoughts on what their favourites would be.......
....rereleases ..... a separate list .....

Does
Seazer 5CD+bonusCD
qualify?

[krakow]

Having reissues listed separately is just one of my own little foibles, don't worry.

Maybe showing myself up, but I've never heard any J.A. Seazer, by the way.

[Coquille]

...never heard any J.A. Seazer, by the way.

Myself, i only came to know of Mr. Julious Arnest (Seazer/ Cezar/ シーザー) reading of the ‘60’s scene, cinema, Terayama, etc. So, sought and only previously heard “Kokkyou Junreika” (1973, what was an LP’s worth, subsequently expanded on 5CD+bonusCD)  & “Shinto Kumaru” (1978) both on Belle Antique (ベルアンティーク) and rereleased a year ago (in the original, shorter version).

[Coquille]

Next week, still being 2008, comes an almost diminutive Jacks 40th Anniversary 2CD+bonusCD  set…
It’s for the reissue/ remaster list of ‘best of 2008’?!
Presented on Nippon Nipper’s ‘SHMCD’ – apparently, it’s SACD except it actually plays on CD players…
First two albums “Vacant World” and “Super Session” with alternate single versions tacked on plus “Echoes in the Radio”(non-‘SHMCD’) all previously issued by EMI.
But, I think it comes with a poster too.

Better than the “Jacks CD Box”(SFD, Solid) 7-CD,  1,000 limitation set some 20 years ago?
Well, another hundred pound difference…
...thus causing me to stray into
"...vs Yahoo!オークション watch" territory… .

[alancummings]

The label seems to have turned up one previously unreleased track for the Jacks box. A version of 'Vacant World' from the 1967 Yamaha Light Music Contest, that predates the group's recording debut. A bit of a scoop, as there has been a lot of Jacks material released and it was assumed that pretty much everything that could have been released already had been.

The poster is another one of these Disk Union-only special offers, not a part of the box itself.

Anyway, sounds like it's going to be nicely put together. More info (in Japanese) here:
http://diskunion.net/jp/ct/news/article/1/5589

[phos]

 Keiji Haino / Makoto Kawabata / Tatsuya Yoshida DVD should be released on Magaibutsu on 20 dec.

[Coquille]

....turned up one previously unreleased track for the Jacks box....poster is another one of these Disk Union-only special offers, not a part of the box itself.

Oh, just great - that's the tipping point !!! incentives for me to just go out get everything i got on 24 kt. gold  Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab CDs on Super High Material CDs 

[alancummings]

Well, so long as the Japanese consumer can continue to be convinced to keep on rebuying the same records (in papersleeves, deluxe editions, 24-bit remastered, etc etc), the more likely it is that Japanese labels take an occasional chance on reissuing something odd and interesting.

And even given the current value of the yen, the Jacks set isn't exactly overpriced.

And actually i do have a vague memory of gold-plated Japanese CDs appearing a few years ago...

[Coquille]

.....papersleeves, deluxe editions, 24-bit remastered, etc etc....

The 2 EMI albums so rendered would have set one back 5,000 yen alone, not including the single version tracks of the Columbia CD. The 3oth Anniversary issue of the 2 albums + "Echoes" were: 3 x 1,650 yen.

Therefore, this new box set, for the same price is worthwhile even for someone new and not just the Jiyakatsu-otaku who can snap up bonus posters, etc  at the Tokyo retailer..

And even given the current value of the yen, the Jacks set isn't exactly overpriced.

Depends on your exchange rate!