Paris DJs: The best of 2014 according to Nicolas Ragonneau @ Musique Non Stop

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The best of 2014 according to Nicolas Ragonneau Posted: 02 Jan 2015 02:39 AM PST Nicolas Ragonneau used to write amazing pieces for Paris DJs: interviews, portraits, record reviews… Until one day he couldn't do it anymore. Day job, kids, etc., you know the deal! But the man has a lot of taste, he doesn't produce music, hence still finds time to listen to some new stuff. So we asked him to send us his "best of 2014" selection and the records he picked are quite surprising: besides the fantastic 'Brown Sabbath' album from our Austin collaborators Brownout, there's nothing else in that list we've received and heard (else you would have read about it in those pages). Nicolas told us to add the top-of-the-class Paris DJs compilations to this list and our own picks but we've decided to publish the list as it is. We have this feeling that music is going back at what it was in the 1950s, with a few big hitters buying all the media exposure and leaving nothing to the smaller fish. With so few records stores, now replaced by diggers selling antiques and reissues. Distribution has became obsolete, replaced by direct-to-fan and crowdfunding, among other new solutions for artists. Labels are in a bad shape, disappearing from the radar more and more every year… Well who visits a label's website nowdays anyway? "Me, me, me, myself and I", "My artists, my releases, my dates and my news"... This egocentric bullshit doesn't mean anything for anyone anymore. The 21st century is one of sharing and there isn't one damn label sharing his love of music produced/released by others. They all still think music is a competition. Well there is one indomitable label resisting this trend. It's a small one based in the French capital - and they don't have any magic potion. The best of 2014 according to Nicolas Ragonneau Albums : Brownout - Brown Sabbath (Ubiquity) Chicano Batman - Cycles of Existential Rhyme (El Relleno) Chlorine Free - Le Fish (Dunose) Curtis Harding - Soul Power (Anti-) Erlend Øye - Legao (Bubbles) Fumaça Preta - Fumaça Preta (Soundway) Joan As Policewoman - The Classic (Pias) Karl Hector & The Malcouns - Straight Ahead (Now Again) Maggie Bjorklund - Shaken (Bloodshot records) Medeski, Martin & Wood + Nels Cline - The Woodstock Sessions (Woodstock Sessions) Melvin Van Peebles + The Heliocentrics - The Last Transmission (Now-Again) Nick Waterhouse - Holly (Innovative Leisure) Orlando Julius + The Heliocentrics - Jaiyede Afro (Strut) Smoove + Turrell - Broken Toys (Jalapeno) Stanton Moore - Conversations (Royal Potato) The Cambodian Space Project - Whiskey Cambodia (Metal Postcard) Singles : Calibro 35 - Butchers Bride / Get Carter (Record Kicks) NASA + Karen O - I Shot the Sheriff (Spectrophonic Sound) Reissues : Marshall Allen presents Sun Ra And His Arkestra - In The Orbit Of Ra (Strut) Robert Wyatt - Different Every Time (Domino) Various - Northern Soul: The Film Soundtrack (Harmless)