The Wire magazine’s album of the year is a typically perverse choice. I doubt whether James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual on Hippos In Tanks records will top any other ‘best of 2011’ list and probably won’t even figure in most.
This will probably please the Wire team as they want to demonstrate the sharpness and originality of their ‘cutting edge’ selections.
The album is certainly topical as it taps into the year’s obsession with tablets, pads and androids.An I-Pad features prominently on the album cover and many of the samples are the sounds any internet user will recognise.
It’s a playful collection of tunes and has a certain novelty value but I suspect it will date very quickly. Ferraro describes it as an “opera for consumption civilisation” and he is, I’m sure, aware that it is a product that is as transient as computerised jingles that inspired it.
Ferraro is highly prolific, both as a solo artist and with Spencer Clark in The Skaters. As if to emphasise the trashy, disposability of his output, a a lot of his music has been released on limited edition cassettes or Cdrs. It would be ironic if The Wire’s elevation of Far Side Virtual to the number one slot means that it is viewed as a classic but frankly I don’t think there’s much danger of this happening.
A fun and clever record but ‘best of the year’? No way.
