George Anthiel–Ballet Mecanique
Four days after Independence Day, in a new century in a fairly new country Anthiel was born. It only took him 25 years to flee to Paris, where a generation of avant guardians was drinking together. Under this i[…]

Poison — Stupid, Stoned & Dumb
It must be great to be in a rock band like Poison in 2002, no need to worry about respect from your peers, appealing to the kids or finding new musical directions. You can just concentrate on making party rec[…]

At the center of FT’s 2002 round-ups is a rundown of the 101 tracks I heard this year that I want you to hear too — frivolously arranged in a Chart Countdown! Only problem was — I couldn’t settle on 101. Here are the tracks wh[…]

The Roots’ Sacrifice
Previously this Philadelphia Hip Hop crew claimed ‘Things fall apart,’ but with the right attitude the comeback can be miraculous. And it is. Phrenology – the most multi-layered title since “Muse Sic[…]

Tangents on pop books: I agree that Gary Mulholland’s book looks like a waste of time and money but the problem seems to be that he’s got nothing much to say about any of the records he selects, not that they’re obvious choices (tho[…]

Fred’s doing his singles too – I’d better get a move on![…]

Another day, another poll – this one confirming what all wedding DJs know deep in their bones. There’s not a bad song in the Top 10. And courtesy of Team Groke here’s an exclusive chart of our very own – key acts of ’02 […]

That link was c/o Submeat, which is also running its own best singles of 2002 list. Singles are great! We like singles![…]

The Top 212 Singles of 2002, according to Popjustice at any rate. We thought of a joke for PJ’s advent calendar but it got so absurdly long that we’ll be running it as the Freaky Trigger Christmas Joke separately and meanwhile try and thi[…]

NAS – “Made You Look”
One of Nas’ most famous tracks finds him rapping from a gun’s point of view; here that idea gets turned into music. A shot is fired – and the beat is a bullet trail, slowed down John Woo style[…]