Five Favorite Things:
The Wire Soundtrack : OK so what I've really discovered this year is The Wire, and yeah I know I'm a bit late, but that did mean I could watch all five series back to back in the space of a month. And the soundtrack is rather fine as well, from Tom Wait's version of Way Down In The Hole, the shows theme tune, to numerous tracks from Balitmore's burgeoning scene. In tune with the shows policy of using 'real' people from Baltimore in place of actors for some characters the show also picked tracks from the Baltimore underground scene, rather than just getting some synch agency to source tracks, all of which add to the authenticity, and genius, of the show.
Slagsmålsklubben: some Swedish Electro-prog anyone? Slagsmålsklubben (Fight Club in English) played a blinding set at this years Bestival festival, despite the stage being soaked with water and all six of them regularly getting shocks from their gear and have three album's of the best electro noodlings under their belts. Sagan om konungens årsinkomst, the second album, will give you a taste of their feel good pop.
Moondog : A dead, Viking obsessed American composer, poet, philosopher and eccentric genius, who's work I've so got into this year that I've decided to put together an album of his music. An inspiration to a diverse range of musicians from Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Mr Scruff and Simian Mobile Disco, his massive output has something for everyone, the album Moondog 1 is a good place to start.
WFMU : I struggled to find a decent, advert free, online radio station to listen to until I came across the free form New York station WFMU, when I first tuned in I was greeted by a Samuel Becket short play, a show of music from played entirely from 78's followed by 2hrs of reggae and I was hooked. Other highlights include Laura Cantrell's Radio Thrift Shop and Glen Jones and X-Ray Burns' two hours of stoned ramblings, which is more entertaining, and addictive, then it may first seem.
Stoner Rock : This year saw SL Records embrace stoner rock, with the signing of the mighty Lords of Bastard and the release of their debut, self titled album. Not being a connoisseur of the genre myself, Mike Bastard has been guiding me through it with a series of recommendations, from the desert rock of Kyuss to the doom of Om and Flood and Sleep's epic Dopesmoker.
The Past/The Future:
After years of calling in favours and asking friend in order to get the SL Records website updated, this year I've knuckled down and learnt how to do it myself and rebuilt the SL website, and in the process re-discovered my geeky programmer side that I thought I'd laid to rest when I was 18. Being slightly obsessive, having learned html and css, I'm now working on PHP, SQL with javascript and flash still to come (see, the geek in me is alive and well). While I'm wasting time on that, you can be downloading sessions, videos and a whole host of other sh*t at SL Records.net.
Next year sees the launch of our online singles club, two tracks each month, one new track and one 'lost' classic, and old track that's no longer available that's being put up for people to re-discover, plus the aforementioned Moondog covers album and new material from Recording The Impossible (Paul Vickers side-side project), Withered Hand (who's working with producer Krammer) and Thomas Traux (who's working on an album of covers of tracks from David Lynch films)
About Me:
I run SL Records, an independent label based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
