1. Rodney Graham (“Verwandlungsmusik”) The provisional expanded to the scale of a monument.
2. Cortical Foundation Especially its 1998 “Beyond the Pink” festival, which included works by Yves Klein, Emmett Williams, La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, and others.
3. My Bloody Valentine (The Roxy, LA, 1992) When the locked-groove cadential chord of the penultimate number approached the duration of twenty minutes, it was clear that a new genre of popular music had been invented that evening.
4. Gastr del Sol (Mirror Repair) My introduction to that loose confederation of musicians variously grouped as The Sea and Cake and Tortoise, as well as to Jim O’Rourke and David Grubbs. Or: I’m on my hands and knees working in my studio when Tortoise’s “Glass Museum” comes on the radio. I pause and reflect, “This is the music I should have been making all along.”
5. Tony Conrad (Slapping Pythagoras) Reminds me of how it feels to hear.
6. Scott Walker (Tilt) This majestic voice of the ’60s returns coupled with the acknowledgment of all that has transpired since.
7. Christian von Borries (Podewil, Berlin, 1996) Restores the function of architect of sound to the conductor’s role.
8. Tom Recchion (Chaotica) Produced with “pre-recorded stereo tape-loops, records, cassettes and keyboards (no samplers),” these recordings are some of the tenderest coaxings out of the world of hardware one could ever know.
9. Polar Goldie Cats Urban folk density.
10. Michael Webster (Mt. Washington, CA, 1998) Always a sucker for a tunesmith, I fell hard for the exquisite turns placed on the art-song form.
