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Heathen Disco with Doug Mosurock writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2020: Doug Mosurock
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2020. Our next list is from DJ Doug Mosurock.
I don’t think I’ve done one of these for CHIRP before, but things change. Having the ability to go and do a radio show every week in the midst of all this walking delirium and uncertainty has been one of the most rewarding experiences in this godforsaken year.
So much music passed my way this year, and I feel fortunate to have been able to mix it all for you on the show. Listen and feel; totemic sounds will outlast this era and feed the beyond.
If you’re new to Heathen Disco, welcome. It’s the burnt ends of CHIRP programming, Sunday nights 9-midnight, mostly made from the records I bring in each week and the new stuff that sustains both me and the station/our DJs alike. Archives are here.
Top 10 albums, historical (alphabetical):
Book of Curses by Adulkt Life (What’s Your Rupture?)
Concret by Bailterspace (self-released)
Wi-Fi on the Prairie by The Cowboy (Feel It)
Live by Angel Bat Dawid and Tha Brotherhood (International Anthem)
All Through the Year EP by Home Blitz (Sophomore Lounge)
Sour Cherry Bell by MJ Guider (kranky)
Staunch Honey by David Nance (Trouble in Mind)
Wuddaji by Theo Parrish (Sound Signature)
Speech Copy Rap Master by Schisms (Fort Evil Fruit)
Hunger for a Way Out by Sweeping Promises (Feel It)
25 more, also alphabetical:
Ana Roxanne – Because of a Flower (Kranky)
Clemency – References EP and remixes (2 B REAL)
Tara Clerkin Trio – self-titled (Laura Lies In)
Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger – Force Majeure (International Anthem)
DJ Python – Mas Amable (Incienso)
FACS – Void Moments (Trouble in Mind)
Green/Blue – self-titled (Slovenly)
Gun Outfit – Clean Runs the Thread (Joyful Noise)
Janedriver – You Know It’s True EP (self-released)
Junk Drawer – Ready for the House (Art for Blind)
Lavender Flu – Barbarian Dust (In the Red) / Tomorrow Cleaners (MEDS) … technically two releases, but really just chapters in the same book
Lewsberg – In This House (12XU)
Melenas – Dias Raros (Trouble in Mind)
The Midnight Steppers – Isolation Drives (Radical Documents)
Oily Boys – Cro Memory Grin (Cool Death)
Optic Sink – self-titled (Goner)
Permission – Organised People Suffer (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Pool Holograph – Love Touched Time … and Time Began to Sweat (Sunroof)
Riki – self-titled (Dais)
Sacred Product – Same Old Gag (Eternal Souncheck)
The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (Thrill Jockey)
Special Interest – The Passion Of (Night School/Thrilling Living)
Luke Stewart – Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet (Astral Spirits)
Vanessa Worm – VANESSA 77 (Optimo Musik)
Jim White & Marisa Anderson – The Quickening (Thrill Jockey)
15 reissues/archival, alphabetical yet again:
Dadamah – This Is Not a Dream (Grapefruit)
East Village – Hotrod Hotel (Slumberland)
The Eighteenth Day of May – self-titled (Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube)
Endless Boogie – The Gathered and Scattered (No Quarter)
Flaming Tunes – self-titled (Superior Viaduct)
Anthony Moore – OUT (Drag City)
Musica Transonic – self-titled (Black Editions)
Naujawanan Baidar – self-titled (Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube)
No Trend – Too Many Humans/Teen Love box set (Drag City)
The Only Ones – Live in Chicago 1979 (Alona’s Dream)
Rema-Rema – Wheel in Small Doses Extended Version (Le Coq Musique)
Vertical Slit – Live at Browns (Siltbreeze)
Vivienne Styg – Rose of Texas (Tall Texan)
The Whip – self-titled (Wantage USA)
Various Artists – Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground (Captured Tracks)
Top 10 Record Scores this year, A to zed:
The Church – Sing-Songs 12” EP (Parlophone)
The Equals – Equals Party live promo 12” (Phonogram)
HNO3 – Doughnut Dollies 12” (R & S)
Annea Lockwood – Glass World of Anna Lockwood LP (Tangent)
Optik/Equal Phaze – split one-sided 12” test press (no label)
Six Finger Satellite – Severe Exposure LP/12” (Sub Pop)
Sweet Breeze – Across the Desert LP (Feathers)
Tappi Tíkarrass – Miranda LP (Gramm)
Various Artists – Best of the Beat Greatest Hits LP, purple sleeve (Espera)
Various Artists – Le Mysterieux 12” EP (Musique Pour La Danse)
Favorite movies discovered in 2020 (all of which definitely had an influence on the sound and mood of each week’s Heathen Disco):
“Animals” | 2019, d. Sophie Hyde
“Band of the Hand” | 1986, d. Paul Michael Glaser
“Bell, Book & Candle” | 1958, d. Richard Quine
“Breaking In” | 1989, d. Bill Forsyth
“Le Choc du Futur” | 2019, d. Marc Collin
“The City Girl” | 1984, d. Martha Coolidge
“Conquest” | 1983, d. Lucio Fulci
“Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992” | 2018, d. Jeremy Deller
“G.B.H” | 1982, d. David Kent-Watson
“Luz” | 2018, d. Tilman Singer
“The Pyx” | 1973, d. Harvey Hart
“Ring of Darkness” | 1979, d. Pier Carpi
“Rivals” | 1972, d. Krishna Shah (and RIP to Mike “McBeardo” McPadden, who made me aware of it, as he made many people aware of the insane secret histories of genre cinema)
“Satisfaction” | 1988, d. Joan Freeman
“Savage Three” | 1975, d. Vittorio Salerno
“Simon, King of the Witches” | 1971, d. Bruce Kessler
“Swallow” | 2019, d. Carlo Mirabella-Davis
“Thief” | 1981, d. Michael Mann
“Two Gentlemen Sharing” | 1969, d. Ted Kotcheff
“X, Y & Zee” | 1972, d. Brian G. Hutton
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