Aural Innovations Staff Top Picks For 2003
NOT limited to 10, or just music

Jerry Kranitz (in no particular order)

Man in Space - "For Medicinal Purposes Only"
Not Of The Earth: A Tribute To Sci-Fi Movies 3-CD box set
ColourHaze - "Los Sounds de Krauts"
SubArachnoid Space - "Also Rising"
When's The Future - "Then"
Diatonis - "Ambient Life"
Linus Pauling Quartet - "C6H8O6"
F/i - "A Question for the Somnambulist"
Djam Karet - "A Night For Baku"
Nekropolis 23 - "Vol.1"
Primordial Undermind - "Thin Shells Of Revolution"
Spirit Caravan - "The Last Embrace"
Gas Giant - "Mana"
Simply Saucer - "Cyborgs Revisited"
Most fun artist to review: Hal McGee
All of Roger Neville-Neil's Action Man stories

Scott Heller

WE - "Lightyears Ahead"
Gas Giant - "Mana"
Colourhaze - "Los Sounds de Krauts"
Spiha - "Egoreactor"
Black Label Society - "The Blessed Hellride"
Gov't Mule - "The Deepest End"
Ektroverde - "Ukkossalama"
Man in Space - "For Medicinal Purposes Only"
Pothead - "Tuff Luv"
Nebula - "Atomic Ritual"

Jeff Fitzgerald

1. Jeff Sherman - Home
2. Saturnia - Hydrophonic Gardening
3. The Electric Family - Ice Cream Phoenix
4. Mind of a Squid - Down Low
5. F/i - A Question For the Somnambulist
6. Kinski - Airs Above Your Station
7. Colour Haze - Los Sounds de Krauts
8. Man in Space - For Medicinal Use Only
9. Acid Mothers Temple - Magical Power From Mars
10. Tsurubami - Tsukuyomi ni

Keith Henderson

Top 10 CDs of 2003 (including a couple "late arrivals"):
1. Spacious Mind - Live Volume One: Do Your Thing But Don't Touch Ours
2. Rättö ja Lehtisalo - Kopernikus Hortoilee Näkinkengässä/Helvetissä
3. Hawkwind w/ Arthur Brown - Spaced out in London
4. Not of this Earth (3CD) compilation
5. Porcupine Tree - XM
6. ColourHaze - Los Sounds de Krauts
7. Hawkwind, Mr. Quimby's Beard, Tribe of Cro, et al. - Hawkfest 2002
8. Gas Giant - Mana
9. Laika - Wherever I Am I Am What is Missing
10. University of Errors - Ugly Music for Monica
11. Liquid Sound Company - Inside the Acid Temple ('02)
12. The Land of Nod - Inducing the Sleep Sphere ('02)

Top 10 Concerts/Events of 2003:
1. Hawkfest 2003 - 8-10 August (St. Michaels on Wyre, UK) (Highlights: Afresco Mantis, Mr. Quimby's Beard, Tribe of Cro, Hawkwind, Moonloonies, Litmus, and more)
2. Burg Herzberg 2003 - 18-20 July (Eckardtshausen bei Eisenach, Germany) (Highlights: Nektar, Caravan, Epitaph, Man)
3. Korai Öröm - 13 December (Denkendorf bei Stuttgart, Germany)
4. Amon Düül II - 13 April (Verviers, Belgium)
5. Hidria Spacefolk, Mantric Muse, Bland Bladen - 26 September (Copenhagen, Denmark)
6. Hawkwind Christmas Party - 21 December (London)
7. Finkenbach Festival - 25-27 July (Finkenbach, Germany) (Highlights: Guru Guru, Damo Suzuki with Tiere der Nacht, Man)
8. Porcupine Tree - 30 March (Zürich, Switzerland)
9. Circle - 8-9 June (Bern & Zürich, Switzerland)
10. Seid - 12 October (Singen, Germany)

Brian Faulkner

Albums/CDs whatever (not in any particular order really)
1) Sunburned Hand of the Man - S/T "Bootleg" LP, Magnetic Drugs CD-R
2) Exias - J Avant Garde CD
3) Davis Redford Triad - Blue Cloud CD
4) Jutok Kaneko/Takahisa Kikukawa - Wedged Night LP
5) Six Organs of Admittance - For Octavio Paz LP
6) Black Forest/Black Sea - S/T CD
7) Keiji Haino - To Start With, Let’s Remove the Colour CD
8) The Birdtree - Orchards and Caravans CD
9) The Iditarod - Yuletide 2CD
10) Guignol - Angela, David and the Great Neopolitan Road Issue CD
11) Alastair Galbraith/Constantine Karlis - Radiant CD
12) Steffan Basho-Junghans - Rivers and Bridges CD
13) Avarus - 3 LP
14) V/A - Ameratsu 2CD
15) Cul De Sac - Death of the Sun

Live: Tom Carter, Blithe Sons, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Comets on Fire, Miminokoto, Subarachnoid Space, Scenic, Sun Ra Arkestra, Dirty 3, Kinski, Bardo Pond, Six Organs Of Admittance, Sharron Kraus, Black Forest/Black Sea

Chuck Rosenberg

1.Census of Hallucinations "The 8th Dwarf"
2.F/i -- All the Lexicon Devil reissues
3.F/i "A Question for the Somnambulist"
4.Rollerball "Your Hair"
5.Twin Atlas "Inside the Skate Scandal"
6.Primordial Undermind "Thin Shells of Revolution"
7.Boredoms "Vision Creation New Sun" (released 2000, discovered this year)
8.Jackie O' Motherfucker live @ "All Tomorrow's Parties" Festival, L.A., Nov. '03
9.Mogwai and Treluna live @ Cal State San Luis Obispo, summer '03
10.Best Musical Discovery: Barry Adamson

Doug Walker (in no particular order)

Living Colour: "Collidescope" Columbia/Sony (2003)
Tangerine Dream: "Bootleg Boxset" Castle Music" (2003)
Todd Dockstader: "Eight Electronic Pieces"
Family: "Live 1971"
Sun Ra: "Live at Club Delisa 1960"
Cecil Taylor: "Student Studies" (2003 reissue)
Anthony Braxton: "Trio & Duet" 1974 Sackville Records (2003 Reissue)
King Crimson: Central Park 7/1/74 Collector's Series
Soft Machine: BBC Session 1967-1971 Lux Records
Miles Davis: Jack Johnson Boxset
Nucleus: Bremen 1971 Cuneiform Records
Steve Reich: "Four Organs/Phase Patterns" Live 1970
The Dixie Chicks Standing up to the media, condemning GW Bush's War
Cabaret Voltaire "The Attic Tapes", "Conform to Deform" and "Live at The Hacienda"
Sun Ra & Arkestra: Live at Club Delisa 1960
Sun Ra & Arkestra: Nuits de la Foundation Maghet
Jack Bruce: first 4 LPs
Area: Live Boxset
Larry Young: Mothership
Larry Young: Lawrence of Newark
Larry Young: Into Something (reissue)
Sonny Sharrock: Paradise
Ozric Tentacles: Live at PongMaster's Ball


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