#94/100 – War – Greatest Hits

I originally bought this album at a store called The Bookshelf in 1991, mostly because of how Low Rider was used in the Spike Jonze directed skate video called Blind Days. It also featured then skater, now actor Jason Lee. It’s sat on the shelf for most of those three decades, but that’s really a shame, as I found a lot to like on side A. The World Is A Ghetto is a beautiful, melancholy track that I’ve never heard quite like this. It’s a testament to sitting down with some music on a good hi-fi and just listening.

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#93/100 – House of Black Lanterns – Kill the Lights

I’ve been a casual follower of this artist since he released music under the King Cannibal moniker. His music has always been a deep, dark pleasure and an intriguing look into another sound that I am tempted by. There’s just something dangerous about it, I guess.

Side C has my favorite track on the album, You, Me, Metropolis, and that must be my pick for this listen. It’s just so hard hitting, intense, calculated, and vibrant. What a terrific cut.

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#92/100 – Televangel – Anthropocene Blues

I couldn’t do this project without at least touching on something by the artists of Blue Sky Black Death. While I own a few of the band’s albums, this one is a bit of a tangent, but still incredibly true to the band’s sound and style. I keep forgetting how much I love it, in fact, which made it difficult to pick a track on Side A. I did decide on SoonerLater, which has the telltale thick bass, lush and melodic synths, and jangling percussion that typifies the work of Young God, one of the members of BSBD. There’s just everything here that I want and love.

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#91/100 – Mux Mool – Planet High School

This is another one of those albums from what felt like a somewhat golden era of music in the early 2010s. Streaming wasn’t really a thing yet. I was still getting huge piles of CDs from the radio station for Nerd Show. Labels like Ninja Tune, Warp, and Ghostly were finding and promoting really talented artists. I got to see many more of them than I thought at SXSW in the following years, so that helps too.

Planet High School fits solidly in to that feel. Lots of experimentation here without feeling too distant. In fact, this is a very close sounding album in a lot of ways and maybe a little personal. I picked Side B because the art was different than Side A, which was just the cover art. I really like Hand on the Scantron, the opening cut, but the last track, called Baba, was just a bit more melodic and what I needed this listen.

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#90/100 – Wynton Marsalis

Jazz is a very interesting musical genre where a single word can encompass such a wide array of related, but different sounds. More modern Jazz, like this Wynton Marsalis album, takes cues from the past and builds on those notes. Most of my Jazz ear comes from the era between 1955 and 1970. Anything older seems like it’s early steps in the sound while the artists figure it out. Later than 1970, and especially 1980, the more experimental things get.

This album was released in the early 80s and is very much early contemporary Jazz with what is also known as the modal sound, which is complicated but intellectually and sonically stimulating. It is, however, not really my bag, so when I put this one on and listened to Side A for the first time, I was pretty sure I knew what I was getting in to. I did appreciate, as it happens, one of the two tracks not written by Wynton himself but by the legendary bass player Ron Carter. It’s a very rapid double-time jaunt that feels very much like a bass player wrote it. I found a lot to like on that track.

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#89/100 – FaltyDL – Hardcourage

This was a very impressive album when it turned up as a Nerd Show promo back in 2012 and I played it a lot on the radio. It had a different sound that was a bit more quirky but in a very thick and chunky way. A few very good singles but a pretty solid album, on a full listen. This copy I picked up on what is my best music night ever outside of SXSW, when FaltyDL opened for James Blake at The Depot in SLC, after which I saw Bonobo at Urban Lounge, on my birthday.

Side A is two impressive tracks to open the album, but She Sleeps just has the most lush and vibrant feel on the album and it was an easy pick this time around. It’s what I needed this evening.

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#88/100 – Arcadia – So Red the Rose

This project by Duran Duran members is most notable not for that fact to me, but for the striking cover art. It’s better than my experience with the music, as it seems like this was a prog version of Duran Duran and not something in keeping with the New Wave band’s style. I picked Side B unknowingly and after a listen I found The Promise the most likable and interesting track on the side. I would have picked Rose Arcana only because it’s the shortest.

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#87/100 – Danger Doom – The Mouse and The Mask

This was a no-brainer buy when I saw it for sale at Randy’s in SLC. I’m a long-time DOOM fan and I liked what Danger Mouse had done with The Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley, so yeah, I was on board. Not sure if I got any of this album for Nerd Show, but Sofa King, Mince Meat, and other tracks were just top shelf DOOM.

Side B on my copy seems to have the track Basket Case as B1, but it’s not showing up like that on Discogs. Either way, I really like this track and it’s very similar to Mince Meat in the groove, but just beat that track this listen. Lovely flow and groove and vibe throughout.

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#86/100 – Jori Hulkkonen – We Are Invisible

This is one of those weird and quirky EPs that I picked up somewhere, somehow, long ago, and basically forgot about. It was in my much smaller collection when I was still playing vinyl on the Nerd Show in the studio, so I’d play Back When We Was Attached on occasion if I was feeling weird. However, on this occasion things were a little bit different and we also listened to Side B.

I’d not originally sat down to listen to anything for this project, but a recent home renovation meant dismantling the studio entirely and moving equipment around. This was just a record close to the temporary turntable/mixer/amplifier setup I’d assembled to test the room sound and it occurred to me that this totally qualifies.

Flash Boy is a track that I would not normally like, to be completely fair, but in this new studio arrangement the sound staging was so interesting and wide, with a lot of on- or slightly off-center instruments going on that captivated me. It gets the nod this time.

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#85/100 – RJD2 – Since We Last Spoke

One of a few happenstance purchases from Waterloo records in Austin one year, this sophomore effort from the then Definitive Jux artist is an interesting one. Recent podcast interviews with the Dad Bod Rap Pod and Can’t Knock the Shuffle have enlightened my understanding of RJD2’s origins and work quite a lot. This album remains pretty similar to Deadringer, and has a few notable tracks, but is a solid work of his.

I chose Side D and the track One Day because it just had that fly RJD2 groove where you know he was really on point with the samples and it just has all of the fingerprints of one of his tracks.

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