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Heathen Disco with Doug Mosurock writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2022: Doug Mosurock
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2022. Our next list is from DJ Heathen Disco Doug Mosurock.
Saw too many lists this year that were, like, dozens of releases. It's OK to like a lot of stuff but there's value in editing. There's also value in looking beyond what's in front of you, so once again the diligent listener is the one who's listening. The pandemic is still with us, the mere effort of creating isn't an act to applaud. You gotta come out on top. Here are the records that did that.
Offed by Roller (Radical Documents)
Stunning debut from this electroacoustic noise/claustrophobia duo out of Los Angeles, the group's first release after 15 years of playing together. The cream rises to the top.
Glorious brain snags of synth/twang, alien maze soundscapes, abrupt rhythms and an oddly danceable presence. Maybe the only noise you need from 2022.
Reverberant Scratch: 9 Shots in Tha Dark by Tha Retail Simp$ (Total Punk)
This guy from Montreal named Joe Chamandy runs a zine and label called Celluloid lunch, and has been in bands that have been progressively more awesome (Kappa Chow, then The Protruders, then Itchy Self) with each go.
With The Retail Simp$ there is finally the footing for Joe and his crew of wreckers to really swing the sledge. Like The Bar-Kays as fronted by Ron House, this is both a groover and a chaosmonger, and though there may have been better garage records this year, I wouldn't know because I've been in too deep with this wailer.
Bonus points for getting kicked off the last date of a short tour opening for Daniel Romano, then posting the texts. Air it out!
Limousine Beach by Limousine Beach (Tee Pee)
This guy Dave Wheeler has been hitting it hard out in Pittsburgh for quite a while, in stoner/metal configurations like Carousel, OutsideInside and Magic Wolf. He's a master shredder, and somehow has roped in two more lead guitarists (who sing in three-part harmonies as well) and a rhythm section to roll out this magnificent clock-punchin' timecard, all 5 o'clock whistle jams, all heat, absorbing and spitting out every reference you could throw at this. It's NUTS. Thin Lizzy meets Urge Overkill sounds a lot like The Darkness meets Van Halen, and it's all here, and it's about time you stepped to it.
Fine Thread by Long Odds (self-released)
Recorded over a long period of relative activity, homesteading, etc., this is the latest work from Columbus, OH's Adam Elliott (late of Times New Viking and Connections), and is a perfect encapsulation of the warm, felted lo-fi space he's been chipping away at for the past 15+ years.
Pulls together the unique strum of Peter & Graeme Jefferies against the background of his own musical catalog. Seriously underheard, it's one of two albums on this list that didn't get a physical release. Hope it doesn't take five years until the next one; this project is too good to be dismissed.
¿Kieres Agua? by Rose Mercie (Celluloid Lunch)
Made possible by Joe from Tha Retail Simp$ (see above), this outstanding, moody avant-pop and baleful second album of postpunk from Parisian quartet Rose Mercie is truly special.
Consisting of four women hailing from France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, with lyrics in native dialects plus English, ¿Kieres Agua? manages to top their debut. Stopping short of a groove, this band has a strong forward momentum, methodically hanging with simple, repetitive chord structures.
They project an image of forthrightness, of a struggle and of not giving up, something a lot of us could use in our lives in this advance date in history. RIYL The Raincoats and Marine Girls/Tracey Thorn, Horsegirl, and Automatic. Wonderful record.
Desire Choir by Non Plus Temps (PPM)
There's a big pop scene that's been slowly expanding in the Bay Area, mostly consisting of the same people on each record (draw a map between RAYS, The World, Children Maybe Later, Galore, Almond Joy, Famous Mammals, Preening, Blues Lawyer, Flex TMG, Naked Roommate, and on and on) but few rolled in fog-like the way Non Plus Temps did.
With two or three core members and additional friends piling in, this is that scene's tribute to Singers & Players in a way, very leftfield dub oriented in the Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound motif, and simultaneously borne out of the same urges of late '70s/early '80s activist postpunk from the UK from which that sound got at least one of its feet for footing.
Bulletproof late night burner that goes far beyond what you'd expect.
Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy by Jeff Parker (Eremite)
Former Chicago resident and Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker returns with one of his finest works, four sidelong pieces recorded live in Los Angeles in a quartet with saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Jay Bellerose. Abbreviated by the pandemic, three of these sides were cut in 2019 and the fourth in 2021, and in that space of time the band lost NOTHING -- none of their hivemind interplay, none of the preternatural groove. It's the best record of its kind of this year, and there were a lot; still, none of them have the focus and tenacity of what the band accomplishes here, and this stands to be a true landmark in Parker's ever-evolving body of work.
War & War by Weak Signal (Colonel)
Loud, spacious songs out of this NYC trio's subliminal campaign to become the most heady primitive rock band in the world, as they shift down to a new path.
Their third album finds the trio of Mike Bones (Soldiers of Fortune, Cat Power) and the rhythm section of Tran Huynh on drums and Sasha Vine on bass, with participation from Cass McCombs as a leg-up.
The candle is struggling to stay lit for most of this, as Weak Signal burrows down into a low-slung, downtuned funeral march tempo that is heavy by nature and heavier by writ, like Leonard Cohen working down the Melvins into a slow growl, or Crazy Horse trudging on one cylinder at dawn (or dusk), out of which comes a sterling cover of Johnny Thunders' "It's Not Enough."
One of the best rock bands in America right now, a notion that doesn't seem to hold much value, so get in while it's cheap.
Step on Step by Charles Stepney (International Anthem)
Late Chicago record producer and arranger Charles Stepney came to my attention pawing through my college radio station's record library, looking for anything close to the acid buzzsaw he used to reinvent Muddy Waters on 1968's "Electric Mud." His legacy reveals a Chicago legend hidden in plain sight.
Stepney was a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer who worked closely with Marshall Chess in the revitalization of Chess/Cadet Records as a modern urban force to be reckoned with. He was a founder of Rotary Connection and gave Minnie Riperton her best songs and stunning debut album "Come to My Garden;" he produced both Muddy Waters' and Howlin' Wolf's scalding forays into psychedelic rock; he worked closely with Marlena Shaw, Ramsey Lewis, the Emotions, Phil Upchurch, and countless others; then, as the '70s dawned, he found greater success as the steady hand behind Earth, Wind & Fire and the nascent career of Deniece Williams.
Stepney's productions are easy to spot -- a shotgun snare with custom reverb, sounds bubbling up from seemingly nowhere, lots of echo on choral effects, to where it's an unspoken standard of Chicago soul and R&B.
Stepney passed away in 1976, leaving behind untold legacies of what he could have done, and well more than a career's worth of work. International Anthem, with the blessing of Stepney's children, has now issued this incredible compendium of his home demos, recorded in his South Side basement studio "where Daddy would do his business." None of this has been issued before. All of it will brighten your life.
Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This? by The Soft Pink Truth (Thrill Jockey)
Drew Daniel (one half of Matmos) returns with a disco-house opus from his moving target of a solo project, The Soft Pink Truth. Moving towards a centrally understood dance music imperative, this one's a lot bigger and more straightforward than any previous works, the experimental qualities of those ones giving way to a more fully incorporated statement, with strings, horns, guitar, bells and electronics raising the spirits of these tracks to the sky.
The sweep of the first half of this is a stronger statement than just about any other record had in it this year.
Honorable Mentions
Listen to my show and you will get a good idea of the stuff that almost made it.
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