Aural Innovations Staff Top Picks For 2001
NOT limited to 10, or just music

Chuck Rosenberg

1. Census of Hallucinations - "The Fourth Dimension"
2. F/i and Vocokesh reissues on Lexicon Devil
3. Mushroom - "Compared to What?"
4. Shay - "Dreamers and Stalkers"
5. V/A - "Flourescent Tunnelvision"
6. Defender - Live and promo CD-R's
7. Guild Navigators - "Phase 1: '91-'97"
8. Nik Turner - "Transglobal Friends and Relations"
9. Upsilon Acrux live at the Barn, Riverside, CA
10. Anubian Lights - "Naz Bar"
11. Saturnia - "The Glitter Odd"
12. The Grandmothers live at the Palace, L.A. (Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Roy Estrada, etc.)
13. Avey Tare and Panda Bear - "Danse Manatee"
14. Kopecky - "Orion"
15. The Bellrays live at Back to the Grind, Riverside, CA

Scott Heller

1. Gas Giant vs. WE- Riding the Red Horse to the Last Stronghold of the Freaks (Burnt Hippie 005)
2. WE- Dinosauric Futurobic (Not yet released) (Black Ballon Records 2001)
3. Gov't Mule- The Deep End Vol. 1 (ATCO)
4. Ozric Tentacles- Pyramidion (Stretchy)
5. Hidria Space Folk- Self Titled (Private release- Finland)
6. Monster Magnet- God Says No (Interscope)
7. Spids Nøgenhat- En mærklig kop Te (Orpheus 003)
8. Black Label Society- Alcohol Fueled Brutality live
9. Darxtar- Tombola (Record Heaven
10. Tool- Lateralus (US)

Jerry Kranitz (in no particular order)

1. Man In Space - "How To Potty Train A Supernova"
2. Friends Of Mescalito - "Nagual Music For Tonal People"
3. Krom Lek - "Collective Conscious"
4. Various Artists - "Fluorescent Tunnelvision" (amazing space/psych compilation)
5. Heavy Liquid's 3-song debut, their performance at Strange Daze, and the news that their first full length will be released very shortly
6. Quarkspace - "Drop"
7. Skye Klad - s/t
8. Spirits Burning - "Reflections In A Radio Shower"
9. Unlimbo - "See What You Think"
10. Salamander - "Birds Of Appetite"
11. Circle - "Taantumus"
12. The Helio Sequence - "Young Effectuals"
13. Djam Karet - "New Dark Age" and "Ascension" (2 CD's released simultaneously, both fantastic)
14. The Magic Potty Babies - "Sacralicious!"
15. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Grand Opening And Closing"
16. All the Alien Planetscapes reissues Doug Walker released (and hopefully 2002 will see more)
17. The Strange Daze 2001 Space Rock Festival and everyone who performed there
18. Mr Quimby's Beard playing in the USA!!!
19. Quarkspace's farewell show at Ruby Tuesday's, Columbus, Ohio (lots of guests, and Rich Orlando traveling from NYC for the show which was very very cool)
20. Quarkspace and Carl "Nomuzic" Howard's cover of "Low Space High Heeled Boy" at the Quarkspace farewell show

Jeff Fitzgerald

10. Anathema - A Find Day to Exit
9. Romislokus - Between Two Mirrors
8. Quarkspace - Spacefolds 7
7. Anubian Lights - Naz Bar
6. Nebula - Charged
5. Porcupine Tree - Recordings
4. Opeth - Blackwater Park
3. Quarkspace - Drop
2. Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
1. Surface of Eceon - The King Beneath the Mountain

Anish Bhatia

MUSIC
1. Manilla Road - Atlantis Rising - CD
2. Vintersorg - Cosmic Genesis - CD
3. Sopor Aeternus - back catalog - CDs
4. Qntal - II - CD
5. This Empty Flow - Nowafter - CD
6. maudlin of the Well - Bath - CD
7. The Helio Sequence - Young Effectuals - CD
FILM
1. The Fellowship of the Ring - Theatrical Release
2. Twin Peaks - Season 1 - DVD set
3. Red Dwarf, BBC series
4. The Sopranos - Season 1 & 2 - DVD sets
5. Mulholland Drive - Theatrical Release
6. Blackadder, BBC series
7. The Goonies - DVD
LITERATURE (general reads, not new releases)
1. The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (re-read)
2. The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan (first 4 books only)
3. Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Travellers - Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
4. Asterix - Goscinny & Uderzo (entire set)
5. The Rajah's Heir - Sydney Lyon
6. Have a Nice Day - Mick Foley
7. Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees - Alf Hiltebeitel

Doug Walker

Note: An indication of the ill-health of the music business is the fact that most of the releases on the list are of music made in the 1970s! The current era has been dismal, although independents are quite active, and Underground Music is doing very well! Perhaps our current situation will result in the sorts of social and cultural upheaval which stirs the pot and fosters the growth of esthetics which embody change, re-evaluation, justice, lots more truth, and PEACE!

1. Miles Davis Ensemble….It's about that time
2. MEV ……………………SpaceCraft
3. John Coltrane…Live in Harlem 1967
4. Matching Mole………….Smoke Signals
5. COMA….various Live shows at ABC-NO RIO ( NYC) 2001
6. Hawkwind………The Weird Tapes
7. Octavia Butler…Reissues of her Xenophon Novels, and MacArthur prize for Literature 2001
8. Traffic…Heaven is in Your Mind (Reissue of US 1st LP release)
9. David Levering Lewis…On Dubois (TV interview on Cspan 7/01)
10. Jimi Hendrix….7/4/70…CD Bootleg reissue
11. Morphogenesis…..In Streams (Volume 1 & 2)
12. Ozric Tentacles…Cup of LSD 8/8/85….3 CD Bootleg
13. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company…"Free Music Store" Bootleg CD
14. Van Der Graaf Generator….VDGG Box
15. Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell….MU 1st part
16. Norman Spinrad…Greenhouse Summer
17. Sam Rivers…Firestorm
18. Amon Duul II…Archangel's Thunderbird…5/20/72 Bootleg CD
19. Mahavishnu Orchestra…The Lost Trident Sessions
20. Tangerine Dream…3/19/78 Bootleg CD
21. Zorch…"Ouroboros & Zorch Live 1975 (Bootleg CD)
22. Miles Davis…Live at Olympia 7/11/73
23. Medeski, Martin & Wood…Albany NY 12/1/00 Bootleg CD
24. Robert Calvert…Captain Lockheed Reissue
25. Every single musician who has ever played with ALIEN PLANETSCAPES
26. News that Grant Richter, Brian Wensing and Richard Franecki have begun working together again as F/i
27. The Current Hawkwind (Brock, Tim Blake, Keith Knivedon, Ali Davey, Rich Chadwick, Simon House)
28. The Fact that Rush Limbaugh is going deaf! (hope he becomes MUTE too!)
29. The Cooler (NYC) closing Down! (Good riddance to bad rubbish!)
30. Strange Daze 2001

Keith Henderson

1. Mirza - Last Clouds (Ba Da Bing!)
2. Various Artists - Fluorescent Tunnelvision (Mother West)
3. Circle - Taantumus (Bad Vugum/tUMULt?)
4. Into the Abyss - Adrenochrome (Cyberdelia)
5. Bedouin - As Above, So Below (Salahadin)
6. DarXtar - Tombola (Record Heaven)
7. Paul Chain - Sign from Space (Beard of Stars)
8. Hana (Jeff Greinke/Anisa Romero) - Omen (First World Music)
9. Saturnia - II, aka The Glitter Odd (Cranium)
10. University of Errors - e2 x 10 = tenure (InnerSpace)
11. IEM - Arcadia Son (Headphone Dust)
12. Tony Hill - Inexactness (Woronzow)
13. Dave Brock - Memos & Demos (Voiceprint)
14. Nik Turner - Transglobal Friends & Relations (Transparency)
15. Gas Giant vs. We - Riding the Red Horse... (Burnt Hippie)
16. Quarkspace - Drop (Eternity's Jest)
17. Man in Space - How to Potty Train a Supernova (Man In Space)
18. Various Artists/Solarized - Scene Killer (Meteor City)
19. Bethany Curve - You Brought Us Here (Unit Circle)
20. Marble Sheep - Stone Marby (Captain Trip)

and I'm still waiting for new releases by ColorStar, Farflung, VDO, and Mikrokosmos, and others yet to be discovered....so consider this list still incomplete!

On that note...
Special notion to the following 2000 releases that should have appeared in last year's list (but I didn't hear them in time):
Insider - Jammin' to Smiling God (Beard of Stars)
Boredoms - Vision Creation New Sun (Birdman)
Tristeza - Dream Signals in Full Circles (Tiger Style)
Gong - Live 2 Infinitea (Snapper)
Masfel - Anglyatojas (Bahia)

More special notions to a couple archival releases that first saw their light of day in the year 2001:
Erna Schmidt - Live '69-'71 (Garden of Delights)
"Vander-Top" (1974-76) 3CD set (Jannick Top/Utopic Records)

Some Memorable Live Performances of 2001:
Acid Mothers Temple (Columbus)
Mr. Quimby's Beard (Columbus, Cleveland)
Alien Planetscapes (Cleveland)
Harvey Bainbridge (Columbus, Cleveland)
Nik Turner & Friends (Cleveland)
godspeed you black emperor! (Columbus)
Quarkspace farewell show (Columbus)
Speaker/Cranker (Cleveland)

TOP 10 2001 News Events in the Space-Rock Universe...
1. Several legends pass...including Beatle George Harrison, Can's Michael Karoli, and Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh. All had been suffering from illnesses for some time.
2. Hawkwind reform in the 1987 configuration, with Huw Lloyd-Langton, Alan Davey, and Simon House all returning, then announce Death Generator album project renewed, with Michael Moorcock intending to contribute.
3. Amon Duul II does one-off gig with classic 70s lineup including Renate Knaup, Chris Karrer, John Weinzierl, et al., but then plans many more shows for 2002 and possibly another album.
4. Porcupine Tree gains major label status with Atlantic (Lava) Records, while Spiritualized (live on Jay Leno!) and Sigur Ros become 'mainstream.' The latter partly due to published comments by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, who still sucks.
5. Nektar reunite and announce headlining performance at NEARFest 2002, with all original members performing, including Larry Fast and lighting specialist Mick Brockett. Roye Albrighton and Taff Freeman (with guests) release 'The Prodigal Son' under the Nektar banner.
6. DarXtar's fifth studio CD ('Tombola') finally released by Record Heaven, following years of delay and (completely misguided) record label indifference. The band plan a return to live performance for the Copenhagen Space Rock Festival in late March, 2002.
7. Strange Daze moves indoors (suburban Cleveland Ohio), still kicks ass, as Mr. Quimby's Beard and Harvey Bainbridge headline to great acclaim.
8. Quarkspace retire from live performance, while simultaneously releasing "Drop" into cyberspace for free download and open trading.
9. New York's Alien Planetscapes return as five-piece space-rock machine.
10. Hawkwind and Gong play first-ever combined gig in Nottingham, UK.


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