william_kent's top 10 2024 edition

[william_kent]

10:

mainly for the front cover

Rhythm Doctor - Digital Juju

"wow! that'll look great while tripping!"

I said those words many years ago when I saw the back cover to Tim Blake's New Jerusalem

of course when we were coming down off Courtney Love's dad's CIA supplied acid we'd stick the B side of the Tim Blake album on as the sun was rising and I'd look at the back album cover expecting TRIP SENSATION but it was all bit "meh"

but the Tim Blake tune would have us in stitches so all was OK, the lyrics are hilarious, we'd laugh out loud at the earnest new age crystal guff



Tim Blake - New Jerusalem

I had a fake "Persian carpet" in those days and WOW, so much more effective on acid than the Blake back album cover

on the A side of the Tim Blake album there was a tune called "generator"



Tim Blake - Generator ( Lazerbeam )

one of my favourite FREE FESTIVAL moments was at STONEHENGE FREE PEOPLES FESTIVAL 1983 when the POLYTANTRIC CIRCLE were passing around a bucket for the "Jenny" and the power cut out and all you could hear was the guy selling hot knives, "BLACK AND SMACK 80p" and then some wag shouted out "GENERATOR - LAZERBEAM" and how did we laugh

but anyway, this RHYTHM DOCTOR album, a SOUL JAZZ EXCLUSIVE 300 copies ONLY, he was Jerry Dammers FAVOURITE DJ, has a tune that reminds me of HAWKWIND ( who I've seen at STONEHENGE more than once, etc) crossed with SHOTTA TAPES

no one has uploaded the full track to YouTube but here is a taster



Rhythm Doctor - Someday, Somewhere

 

[william_kent]

9:



Les Rallizes - Darkness Returns

some random dude who once stood on stage with the legendary Mizutani decides he is the official DE NUDE and maybe I don't mind that he is cashing in

this tune starts off as standard rawk and rolls off into intense feedback distorted piss stained leather kek regions

I had a mission earlier this year to a shop on the former frontline where my copy of the LES RALLIZES book was delivered and, I'm not saying the lady behind the counter was slow, but it took me an hour to pick up the parcel

everything I love, repetition and distortion, drug feel

 

[william_kent]

8: I will buy any version of "WADE IN THE WATER"

this year I paid BIG MONEY for a fucked up 45 of



Chester Lewis - Wade in the water

and then a week later I found the same tune, same version, on a £5 album in MINT, pristine, still sealed condition

a favourite, any year

edit: and when. I say any year I sort of mean it, here is my favourite from 1924 (? )



Sunset Four jubilee singers - wade in the water

edit: MY FAVOURITE TUNE IS A 100 YEARS OLD! FUCK ME ETC

 

[william_kent]

7;

DUB!



MAFFI - Ghetto Riddim

8 Bit dub madness straight out of Leipzig via Copenhagen

I got stuck in Copenhagen airport once en route from Tokyo to Manchester, overpriced Danish pastries and when I tried to pay for the duty free tobacco I realised I had lost my bank card at border control, it was probably still sitting in some stupid plastic tray, I had to cancel my card on return to Manchester, "bummer, man"

edit: TRUE STORY, REAL TALK

lol

 

[william_kent]

6:

this was a DIGIKAL HOLY GRAIL!

now I can own it for a paltry tenner thanks to the re-release this year



Blacka Shine - Fraid A prison

I'm not afraid to admit I'm afraid of prison, I have too many friends who have told me horror stories, and I'm too good looking, I don't want to be a forced prison wife

I once visited a friend in prison and I almost didn't leave because of the stupid machine they had that was supposed to measure your hand span, measurements didn't match up on my exit, alarms went off, fuck tech

 

[william_kent]

5:

I got a bit excited about this tune earlier this year

I might have chundered on about "what if" the Velvet Underground did reggae or something



Joy White - Lay Besides You

I love JOY WHITE, I might have played this when I was on the bill about 12 hours earlier than Juan Atkins, ( my last public appearance playing records, what went wrong? lol )



Joy White - Dread Out Deh

 

[william_kent]

4:

I've not really thought this out properly

but this re-release saved me hundreds of pounds

but

of course I could have played the tune off the CD I've owned for years, but in my world that is cheating, so fool me, I'm a dick lol for thinking vinyl is superior

I once ranted when a guy on blood and fire forum ( LOL, that was REALLY his name, LOL BELL BROWN ) lost it and stated that you don't OWN a tune unless you have the original shitty press vinyl

so I might have had a CD of this tune, BUT I DO NOT OWN it, and now I have this years re-release but I, apparently, still don't own it

and the vinyl re-release was a bit of a dodgy pressing so I still defer to the"I do not own this tune" Cd

but

333 re-release



Hortense Elis - Hell & Sorrow

"GET OUT OF MY LIFE I TELL YOU BABY!"

"YOU ARE TROUBLE AND MISERY!"

edit: I have copies of this tune on vinyl and optical media but STILL I DO NOT OWN THIS TUNE

 

[william_kent]

I've really fucked up here, because it seems that there may have been more than 10 tunes I have loved this year

and some them were actually from this year, or not

so I'll cut out the weird "did I piss on that rare reggae 10 inch while jet lagged" story and re-investigate my love of ELECTRO

3:

these are some ELECTRO tunes I rinsed this year



Davy DMX - One for the treble

^ faux cockney vox

"DAVY D CUT THE BEAT COZ IT IS SO FRESH"



Pretty Tony - Fix It in The Mix

err...

I own the two above on 12 inch vinyl

but I fell in love with this tune and I don't "own" it in any format, yet is a tune of my year



Egyptian Lover - Poppers anthem

WHERE MY RAVERS AT!?

THIS MY ANTHEM FOR THE POPPERS

lol
edit: I haveSO MUCH TO Say about THE FORMLESS FORM & the onlydude SCORPIIO ask me at the gnotechdissensusmeetup @ snandabr!xaratlo

 

[william_kent]

2:

best film I watched this year was ironically courtesy of @catalog even though I paid money for its production and my real government name is mentioned in the credits at the end, yet I had to rely on @catalog's pirate copy to even see that, fuck you kickstarter

but a highlight of "FREE PARTY - A FOLK HISTORY" was the footage of the RIGHT TO PARTY protests soundtracked by Dave Clarke

and this year I bought a copy of the limited edition ARCHIVE ONE BOX SET

and I might have tales about DOVES and RED but this year this tune had me dancing ( metaphorically, in my imagination ) on a table



Dave Clarke - RED ( UMEK REMIX )

I was sat down arms in the air when I first played this

BANGER!

CHOON!

FUCK. YEAH CHOON

WHERE U FROM WOT U ON?

 

[0bleak]

and this year I bought a copy of the limited edition ARCHIVE ONE BOX SET

/jealous

 

[william_kent]

1:

I fucking love ECHO LTD and CHALLENGER DEEP

and as much as I'd love to have a ECHO LTD tune at the number one spot in my drunken, ill conceived chart, it's this fucking awesome 2 STEP UK GARAGE B SIDE BANGER that claims my CHOON OF THE YEAR":



KROTONE - BAD. ( CHALLENGER DEEP # 14 - B )

DEM SELEKTA BILL HE BAAD

DEM SELEKTA DEM BAAD
DEM BAAD

DEM BAAD

DEM SELEKTA DEM

BAAAAD

DEM BAAD



edit: this is the one tune in this list that might have been recorded this year, a sad state of affairs really

 

[william_kent]

MINUS ONE

this is probably my tune of the year

Dnnny Bovell MBE

this dub tune:

 

[william_kent]

+ / -

when I got the DENNIS BOVELL ( MBE ) double LP in the post I played the first tune and I was LEEE PERRY? what tune?

and then I realised it was the dub of a Bristol, the city of drum and bass, the sufferer tune in the post above ^






Joshua Moses - Africa

I love these Shaka Killers, out of tune female vocals , 'conscious lyrics

DON"T LET THE WICKID MAN FOOL YOU

the Dennis Bovell *
Sufferer Sound double LP has the best sleeve notes of the year, so much UK reggae history

* MBE

 

[william_kent]

I fucked up on this top ten, I was going to use it as a vehicle for a rant about how I felt ripped off by the CHRYSTABELL ./ David Lynch album and how AGENT TAMMY from TWIN PEAKS THE RETURN was strangely fascinating but it turns out she can't sing for shit, she is no Judy Cruise

 

[william_kent]

MINUS 2


I once played some records on the (ex) "LOVE & HARMONY" SOUND SYSTEM in the car park of a Manchester high rise

various elderly caretakers of Jamaican heritage remarked on my collection of studio one tunes, the sister of a fabled WARRIOR SOUND MAN chatted on the mic, and some resident asked me if I could play SILLY GAMES
of course I could produce a 7 inch with the chart version

but only now can I play the exclusive DENNIS BOVELL MBE dub



GAME OF DUBS

thanks to the SUFFERERS SOUND 2 LP set that came out this year

I wish I had recorded the guy who was on after me, it was a RENO street soul hit list, I'd say we all were all fucked, but the wray and neph and skunk was doing serious damage and I can't really recall