3. Essential Logic, Fanfare in the Garden (Kill Rock Stars)
This came out last year, but last year I was really busy, so I didn't get it until late December. It sat caged in its shrinkwrap for a month, and then for another. Finally I stopped waiting for the perfect listening opportunity and just let it spin while I was washing dishes. That was a couple of days ago and I have been having constant "oh my God" moments ever since. Lora Logic's voice is a beautiful mutant earth-sky monster relaying play-by-plays of the Goodwill Games at the Vrndavana-Dhama: a totality of sound so pure that you can only understand what she's saying some of the time, and what she's feeling even less of the time, since there are so many shadings and nuances flitting in and out of earshot. Also, she plays the saxophone. For anybody who doesn't know, Essential Logic formed during the immediate post-punk wave in England; they were among the followers of the Artists Must Dance doctrine. Delicate guitars recall King Sunny Ade or a million unremembered samba collections, and rhythm trumps all, which was pretty radical considering E.L.'s peer group. The last six songs on the first disc of this very reasonably priced collection are positively ecstatic. The rest of them are just great. >>