2009.

The nature of The Opposer is clearly to oppose, and obviously its mainly PR and press guff that gets us riled - but in the spirit of not always wanting to always be moaning about everything all the time for ever, I thought I'd have a run at a 'Best of 2009' list.

I found this quite difficult: most of the things I've been listening to a lot this year turn out to have been released last year. Several of the things that I was really looking forward to turned out to be a bit disappointing.

These all stood out though, and I've played all four a lot:

Police Teeth – Real size monster series
Do Make Say think – Other truths
Julie Doiron – I can wonder what you did with your day
Wussy - Wussy

With honourable mentions for:

You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons – Contact high
Daniel, Fred and Julie – Daniel, Fred and Julie [but don’t buy the mis-pressed vinyl!]
Sharon Van Etten – Because I was in love
Glorytellers – Atone
Mountain Goats – The life of the world to come
Built to Spill – There is no enemy

And notable re-issues:

Loop – All of them, but especially A Gilded Eternity
Giant Sand - Ramp

Wrong question

I must have watched a different Question Time to everyone else, last night. I saw the one where everyone pilloried Nick Griffin for being a misguided little fantasist playing to the fears of the white suburban classes [which, of course, he is], but where no one dared to discuss actual facts more recent than the Ice Age [ok, that was funny ... but still, do some research, people! And no, I don't mean on You Tube.]

No one challenged the way that his mere existence has been allowed to shape government & opposition policy way more than it should ['community cohesion' = another kind of scaremongering]. Why did Jack Straw look more scared than Griffin? Why do the Tory party shriek at Griffin whilst furtively adopting watered down versions of his idiotic policies [witness them pandering to the same fears, by talking about 'being honest' and then capping immigration]? And how come Michael Portillo [of all people] was sensible and rational enough to point out that we need more [not less] immigration to cope with the demographics of an ageing population? I have a lot of issues with my residency in the shitty 21st century, ok - but I really never expected to be agreeing with Portillo on anything.

Griffin and the BNP aren't any kind of direct political threat - but the panic they engender in other political parties is. Gah! Bonnie Greer was good, but he got off too lightly by half – it was all about the personality and beliefs. It should have been about the politics.

Still. I did see a heron, in the canal, on the way to work. That was lovely.

Fuck Buttons

‘Bad 80s techno-rave hybrid with an edge’ for perpetual adolescents still mired in a haze of recreational drug-use, and Guardian reading buzzcuts who sadly wish that they still were. Redolent with the defunct charms of The Orb and the godawful Ozric Tentacles, The Fuck Buttons’ so-called ‘edge’ is supplied neither by the musical tone [which appears to rely exclusively on one-dimensional rhythmic structures and uni-directional dynamics of the kind already done to death by GSYBE] or thematic content [there isn’t any, because, hey, its all instrumental, man] but depends entirely upon the effect of the signifier ‘Fuck’ in the duo’s name. Would anyone care about this jet of steaming piss if they were called ‘The Buttons?’ No, they fucking wouldn’t. When computers can actually make music of their own, the first thing they will do is hunt down all examples of this dreary off-tossing genre, and erase it from the digisphere.

Next.