FROM THE DESK OF LARRY "FUZZ-O" DOLMAN:

Hey, so it's been awhile, I've definitely been taking a break, wondering what it all means, thinking about packing it in, buying a pickup, heading down to L.A., etc., but also still working on this thing all the time, trying to redesign some small but crucial details, so we'll see what happens with that. Until something does there's always THIS to tide you over, and that "writer's strike" stuff is a joke -- although submissions have dried up considerably (anyone got anything?), "writer's block" is more like it, and the displeasure is all mine. The blog seems to be curing it a little bit, though, so check there often while I/we regroup over here at the domain name. I sincerely wish you all a great 2008 and thanks for continuing to check out this site.... I know things aren't the same as they were back when Blastitude started, when we updated more often and albums could be mentioned on the internet without a "download album for free" link expected every single time.... and speaking of albums, here's the HQ favorites from 2007. Top 10 is roughly in order of appreciation, and the rest are alphabetical. I know it's huge already but things might still be added. Absolutely no "download for free" links.... hell, I didn't even include the name of the labels....in this age of "too much information" we gotta have something left to dig for, right?

"TOP 10"
Susan Alcorn "And I Await (the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar)"
Pink Reason "Cleaning the Mirror"
Blues Control "Puff"
Emeralds "Allegory of Allergies"
Grouper "Cover the Windows and the Walls"
Magik Markers "Boss"
Group Doueh "Guitar Music From The Western Sahara"
Group Inerane "Guitars From Agadez"
Mammal "Lonesome Drifter"
Cherry Blossoms s/t
Theo Angell and the Tabernacle Hillside Singers "Auraplinth"
Sapat "Mortise & Tenon"
Mouthus "Saw A Halo"

"THE REST"
Air Conditioning "Dead Rails"
Bad Trips s/t
Blues Control s/t
Burial "Untrue"
Burning Star Core "Operator Dead, Post Abandoned"
Cadaver in Drag "Raw Child"
Charles Cohen & Ed Wilcox "Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes"
Circle "Tower (Featuring Verde)"
Collection of the Late Howell Bend/Warmer Milks split
Cooper/Jones/Nichols s/t
Daniel Menche "Bleeding Heavens"
Eyes Like Saucers "Still Living In The Desert"
Face Place "Floralor"
Fantastic Magic "Witch Choir"
The Fun Years "Life-Sized Psychoses"
La Otracina "Tonal Ellipse of the One"
Lichens/Lexie Mountain split
Locrian/Daleth split
Long Legged Woman "The End of False Religion"
Lovely Little Girls "Glamorous Piles & Puffy Saddlebags"
Meg Baird "Dear Companion"
Monotract "Trueno Oscuro"
Monster Island "Children of Mu"
MV & EE with the Bummer Road "Green Blues"
No Doctors "Origins & Tectonics"
Om "Pilgrimage"
Omar Souleyman "Highway to Hassake"
Pocahaunted & Robedoor "Hunted Gathering"
Pulga "Pulga Loves You"
Ricardo Villalobos "Fabric 36"
RST "Axes"
Sightings "Through The Panama"
Sir Richard Bishop "Polytheistic Fragments"
Son of Earth "Pet"
The Terminals "Last Days of the Sun"
These Are Powers "Terrific Seasons"
The Valerie Project s/t
Various Artists "Post-Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music"
Various Artists "Thai Pop Spectacular"
Violent Students "Towelhead"
"Vole Radio 1"
Warmer Milks "Interiors"

I'm just now hearing something from this year's Charalambides album Likeness for the first time, the 13-minute track "Memory Takes Hold," and I'm about to put the whole album on here too just on the strength of this free-floating hall-of-mirrors trance-folk kaleidoscope of a song alone. When will it end?

And here's some mostly unknown but very good 2007 albums I was reminded of by finding 'em in piles under my desk just now: Zelienople "His/Hers", Kevin Frenette 4 "Connections", Argumentix/Ghost to Falco "Widow Masters", Owl Xounds "Stoned & Zoned", Radio Shock "Burn Down Radio" EP, Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores "The Blind Spot", Totally Dad "Ttwwoo Hearts", Keijo "Whose Dream We Live In?"

REISSUES:
J.D. Emmanuel Wizards LP, Home Blitz CD, Jakob Olausson Moonlight Farm CD (reissue of 2006 LP, right?), Roy Montgomery Inroads 2CD, xNoBBQx LP, probably 50 more

SINGLES:
Wooden Shjips "Sol '07 (parts 1 & 2)", Pink Reason "By A Thread", Brother JT "Sweet Purgatory", D. Charles Speer "Past or Beyond"/"Canaanite Builder", The Touched, Eat Skull, These Are Powers, Clockclean er, Car Commercials, Wicked Poseur, probably 32 more

LIVE:
Warmer Milks/Locrian, Blues Control/Number None, These Are Powers/Head of Femur/Domestica @ Duffy's (Lincoln, NE), Berg Sans Nipple, Zelienople/Grouper, Sonic Youth/GZA/Slint @ Pitchfork Festival (Union Park), Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Orchestra @ Pritzker Pavilion (not counting Sonic Youth, best show I saw all year), Om/Circle/Endless Boogie/Ecstatic Sunshine (second best), Air Conditioning/Mammal/Cadaver in Drag/Paranoid Time/Bloodyminded @ Flower Shop, These Are Powers opening for The Black Kids (YAWN) on New Year's Eve.... that's basically just every show I went to all year, in order, and they were all good.... (all shows in Chicago and at the Empty Bottle, except where noted)

BEST ARTWORK/DESIGN:
Susan Alcorn And I Await, These Are Powers Terrific Seasons, both gatefold vinyl

R.I.P.:
Charlie Gocher, Charlie Nothing, Henri Chopin, Rod Poole, Dave Cross, William Pisarri, Mott-ly

CLICK HERE TO READ THE MOST RECENT COMPLETE ISSUE (#25)