first in this week? Getting up ridiculously early does have its benefits

1 Robert Wyatt 86
2 Quasimoto 55
3 Amon Düül II 34
4 Future Of The Left 29
5 Wu-Tang Clan 28
6 Venetian Snares 26
6 Roxy Music 26
8 The Auteurs 25
9 The Dragons 24
10 Ghostface 22

So yeah, the new Robert Wyatt album is superb. I wasn't sure about it at first (mainly on the lyrical front - it seemed to be a bit clumsy at times) but it's really grown on me. The middle section (explicitly about Iraq) is just incredible. And although you could argue that the 3 segment concept stops it from being a unified piece (the first, more personal bit is slightly removed from the rest), it still holds together somehow. I really need to explore his other post-Soft Machine stuff.

Also, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas is a seriously fucked up album. So many bizarre pieces dragged into position and mixed around, making some sort of jazz noise collage which remains smooth and has an absolutely perfect flow. Is it Madlib's (production) masterwork? I've not spent enough time with it to say for sure, but it feels like a definite possibility