Top Albums of 2008
Katherine, Music Director
Top 20 Local Albums
1. Various - Local Anesthetic [Smooch]
2. Bad Luck City-Adelaide [Self]
3. Bum Kon - Drunken Sex Sucks [Smooch]
4. 16 Horsepower-Live March 2001 [Alternative Tentacles]
5. Overcasters-Revolectrocution [Self]
6. The Christines-Here it Comes Again [lsd25]
7. Wovenhand -Ten Stones [Sounds Familyre]
8. Widowers-the Widowers [Self]
9. DeVotchKa-A Mad & Faithful Telling [Anti]
10. Git Some-Cosmic Rock [Self]
11. Roger Green - Clear Running Water [Self]
12. Swayback-Long Gone Lads [Self]
13. Blue Million Miles-Of Building Walls [Self]
14. d.biddle-rabbit and the moon [Self]
15. Knew-Boom Bust [Self]
16. Otem Rellik-Chain Reaction Robot [Dead Space Volume]
17. Slim Cessna's Auto Club-Cipher [Alternative Tentacles]
18. Porlolo-Meadows [Self]
19. Drag the River -You Can't Live This Way [Suburban Home]
20. Wentworth Kersey-Wentworth Kersey [Self]
Tyler, Program Director
Top 12 (in no particular order)
1.Heaviness - s/t [Self-Released]
2.LSD Pond - s/t [Archive]
3.Boris - Smile [Southern Lord]
4.Patti Smith and Kevin Shields - The Coral Sea [Pask]
5.Current 93 - Birth Canal Blues EP [Durtro]
6.Earth - Bees made Honey in the Lions Skull [Southern Lord]
7.Black Angels - Directions to sea a Ghost [Light in the Attic]
8.Oneida - Preteen Weaponry [Jagjaguwar]
9.Darker My Love - 2 [Dangerbird]
10.Wooden ships - volume 1 [Holy Mountain]
11.Bardo Pond - Batholith [Three Lobed]
12.Stereolab - Chemical Chords [4AD]
Jessi, Volunteer Coordinator
Top 10 Songs
1. Bon Iver - "Skinny Love" - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Why? -"These Few Presidents" - Alopecia
3. Crystal Castles - "Love and Caring" - S/T
4. Lykke Li - "I’m Good, I’m Gone" - Youth Novels
5. MGMT - "Kids" - Oracular Spectactular
6. Human Highway - "The Sound" - Moody Motocycle
7. Blitzen Trapper - "Furr" - Furr
8. MIA - "Paper Planes" - Kala
9. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "Let’s Makeout" - You Have No Idea What You’re getting Yourself Into
10. Raphael Saadiq - "Let’s Take a Walk" - The Way I See It
Runners Up
Hot Chip - "Ready for the Floor" - Made in the Dark
Magnetic Fields - "Too Drunk to Dream" - Distortion
Bombadil - "Johnny" - A Buzz, A Buzz
Boy Eats Drum Machine - "La La La La LA" - Booomboxxx
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club - "Children of the Lord" - Cipher
George, Membership Director
Top 10
1. The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam
2. Charlie Parker - Bird In Time 1940-1947
3. Magnetic Fields - Distortion
4. Drive-by Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
5. Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher
6. James Jackson Toth - Waiting In Vain
7. Woodbox Gang - Drunk As Dragons
8. Hauschka - Ferndorf
9. Akrobatik - Absolute Value
10. Old 97s - Blame It On Gravity
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
Moondoggies - Don't Be A Stranger
Hank Williams III - Damn Right Rebel Proud
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Scott Dubois - Banshees
Chuckanut Drive - Fidelity Grange
Charles, Production Director
Top 10 Jazz Releases
Matthew Shipp Quintet - Cosmic Suite [Not Two]
Orange - S/T [De Stijl]
Guiseppi Logan Quartet - S/T [ESP-Disk]
Conveniens - Clear [Self]
Paul Bley Quintet - Barrage [ESP-Disk]
Milford Graves Percussion Ensemble - S/T [ESP-Disk]
Charlie Parker - Bird in Time [ESP-Disk]
Totem - Solar Forge [ESP-Disk]
Steve Reid Ensemble - Daxaar [Domino]
Scott Dubois - Banshees [Sunnyside Communications]
Top 10 Albums
Boris - Smile [Southern Lord]
Yximalloo - Unpop [ESP-Disk]
Matthew Shipp Quartet - Cosmic Suite [Not Two]
Various Artists - Como Now: The Voices of Panola, Co., Mississippi [Daptone]
David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything that Happens, Will Happen Today
The Black Angels - Directions to See a Ghost [Light in the Attic]
Larkin Grimm - Parplar [Young God]
Steve Reid & Kieren Hebdan - NYC [Domino]
Various - Algerian Proto Rai Underground [Sublime Frequencies]
Pete M. Wyer - Stories from the City at Night [Thirsty Ear, Blue Series]
Top 10 Re-releases
Debris - Static Disposal [1974, Static Disposal]
Boscoe - S/T [1971, Numero Group]
Giuseppe Logan Quartet - S/T [1964, ESP-Disk]
MIJ - The Yodeling Astrologer [1965, ESP-Disk]
Hank Williams - The Rare and Unreleased [1954, Time Life]
Charlie Parker - Bird in Time [1936-46, ESP-Disk]
Matthew Shipp Trio - Cosmology [1998, Hatology]
ReR 25th Anniversary Compilation [1983, ReR]
George Coleman - Bongo Joe [1965, Arhoolie]
Orange - S/T [1974, De Stijl]
Top 5 Concerts
Boris @ Marquee Theater
Kraftwerk @ Fillmore
Spiritualized @ Ogden
Low @ Bluebird
Moonspeed@ Hi-Dive
Guthrey, Engineer
1. Frost* - Experiments In Mass Appeal
2. Opeth - Watershed
3. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
4. Ayreon - 01011001
5. Demians - Building An Empire
6. Seventh Wonder - Mercy Falls
7. The Pineapple Thief - Tightly Unwound
8. Van der Graaf Generator - Trisector
9. Fiftywatthead - Fogcutter
10. No-Man - Schoolyard Ghosts
Professor Mikey, General Manager
Best Albums of 2008
- Directions to See a Ghost The Black Angels
- Fleet Foxes
- Dig Lazarus Dig Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- Attack and Release The Black Keys
- Dear Science- TV On the Radio
- Saturdays=Youth M83
- Med Sun I eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust Sigur Ros
- Sugar Mountain-Live at Canterbury House 1968 Neil Young
- Third Portishead
- Tell Tale Signs Bob Dylan
- Distortion - Magnetic Fields
- In Ear Park Dept of Eagles
- The Unreleased Recordings Hank Williams
- Modern Guilt Beck
- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - Brian Eno and David Byrne
- Evil Urgers - My Morning Jacket
- Acid Tongue Jenny Lewis
- The Stand Ins Okkervil River
- I Flathead Ry Cooder
- Hercules and Love Affair
- Harps and Angels Randy Newman
- Real Emotional Trash Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
- Midnight Organ Fight Frightened Rabbit
- Conor Oberst
- The Supreme Genius King Khan and the Shrines
- Romanteek
- Surfing Megapuss
- A Mad and Faithful Telling Devotchka
- Rabbit Habits Man Man
- Consolers of the Lonely - Raconteurs
- Another World Antony and the Johnsons
- Local Anesthe tic Various Artists
- o Tilly and the Wall
- Chemical Chords - Stereolab
- Casting Shadows The Black Hollies
- Meadows - Porlolo
- NYC Brazillian Girls
- The Glow Pt 2 The Microphones
- Fate Dr. Dog
- The Rhumb Line Ra Ra Riot
- BBC Sessions Belle and Sebastian
- Elephant Shell Tokyo Police Club
- Dark End of the Street Cat Power
- Carried to Dust Calexico
- Songs in A&E - Spiritualized
- Life the Best Game in Town Harvey Milk
- NYs Finest Pete Rock
- The Living and the Dead Jolie Holland
- Dark Developments Vic Chestnut, Elf Power, and the Amorphous Strums
- Skeletal Lamping Of Montreal
Dave, Underwriting Director
Top 10
1. The Black Keys- Attack and Release
2. Q-Tip- The Renaissance
3. Beck- Modern Guilt
4. El Guincho - Alegranza
5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
6. The Cool Kids- The Bake Sale
7. Animal Collective- Water Curses EP
8. Wavves- Wavves
9. Gnarls Barkley- The Odd Couple
10. Girl Talk- Feed The Animals
Uncle Jeff, Route 78 West
1. Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever [Jagjagwar]
2. Hank Williams- The Unreleased Recordings [Time Life]
3. Ilyas Ahmed- Vertigo of Dawn [Time Lag]
4. Neil Young- Live At Canterbury House 1968 [Reprise]
5. Willy Vlautin & Paul Brainard- Northline [Soundtrack CD with Novel-
Harper Perennial]
6. Stephen Malmus and the Jicks- Real Emotional Trash [Matador]
7. Josephine Foster- This Coming Gladness [Bo Weevil]
8. Paul Westerberg- 49 [mp3 release]
9. Suarasama- Fajar Di Atas Awan [Drag City]
10. Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes [Sub Pop]
Best Show of 2008- Boris, at the Marquis in Denver. Mind melting!
Cody, Rotation DJ
Top 10 Albums
10. Brendan Canning - Something For All Of Us
I am a guilty of obsession in the past decade or so with the amount of music coming out of the Arts and Crafts label, as well Toronto and other Canadian areas these days. However, I have felt this way with good reason: the music always seems to carry such an "indie" spirit with me in a whole "new" way of celebrating your neighborhood and pride in your hometown. Follow with a disregard to what a traditional band "should" be, and then use this fantasy as an excuse to invite all your friends to come rock the f*** out and party onstage all at once, and you have a winning formula. I thought this was a better structured album then Kevin Drew's 2007 release, but nonetheless, these guys keep producing quality indie rock, and I am looking forward in the near future towards the next individual showcase for this band.
9. Deerhunter - Microcastle
The opening lines "Come For Me, You Come For Me, Come For Me, Comfort Me" in opening track "Agoraphobia" are a hypnotizing mantra into the hazy world of Microcastle, and through all the reverb, this album does not necessarily ROCK out, but rather it took me into a spacey transience of aural comfort. Through a somewhat interestingly slower middle, pace picks up again as Cox sings out "Nothing ever happened to me, Life just passing, flash right thru me" to carry us all the way through this LP . Combined with Cox's own Atlas Sound release "Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Not Feel" and a tour with stadium-rockers NIN, these guys are charging with energy towards even more projects in the next years ahead.
8. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
This was a little bit of a late discovery and a late listen for me this year, but in a moment where I was somehow in a rut within a world of "pop-oriented" formulas, these guys drew me in within the realm of using a more freely structured "wall of sound" and tiny trinkets of "prettier" instruments to shape these six tracks, which actually lead from one to another to create one whole form of art. "Bright Tomorrow" sung to me as one of the most "optimistic" tracks of 2008 with a computer-generated bass kick that leads into a crescendo of keyboards and a peak of heavily distorted vocals (with an ingenious use of a toy microphone!). In the midst of avant-garde noise musicians that can sometimes take directions way too "out there," I felt these guys were making this "noise" in the best possible direction.
7. Dodos - Visiter
The simple folky-flatpicking in opener "Walking" gives a proper introduction to the lyrically reflective paradox that any sort of upcoming artist must endure in his or her life ("Man, I've been wasting so much time, Walking the same street every night, Don't you think maybe it's about time?"), and from here on out through 2008's Visiter, San Francisco's The Dodos burst into a joyal celebration of energetic acoustic guitars, happily ringing bells, explosive distant shouts, and a variety of percussion rudiments with heavy toms and rimshots in the drums that carry the band in a whole new way unheard before to my ears. Delightful!
6. Crystal Castles - S/T
The first time I heard Crystal Castles came from a friend's iPod at a house party, and ever since then, Alice Glass' shrill, distorted screams on top of the Atari-infused electronics have surged through this year for me. Sure, these guys carry a hipster-as-s*** bratty attitude, but sometimes the music is so worth putting those differences aside once the music starts to get you to move. Their "Crimewave," remix, while creating an unfair, blinding spell to noise-rockers HEALTH, may as well have been one of the most popular songs in the independent world this year. Oh yeah, these songs go great with playing Dr. Mario, as happened one fateful night a while ago...
5. M83 - Saturdays=Youth
Jason Gonzales' 2008 release could be seen as the biggest effort this year to revitalize the 80's in the best way possible, if that can ever be said. From the first time I ever heard "Until The Night Is Over" on my satellite radio back in high school, I have been hooked toward what this guy is gonna do next, and this release was a complete surprise to a lot of people. By far, one of the most epic tracks of the year is made within "Couleurs", an eight minute piece-by-piece energy rush into a sheer eargasm of electrified synths and a trip-hoppish beat in the middle. The only disappointment now is that he is FINALLY coming on tour to Denver in January!...only by opening for the Killers. Blasphemy!
4. Fleet Foxes - S/T
Not many artists inside a "folk/indie" realm would choose a hymnal way to open a release, but Seattle's Fleet Foxes four vocal members do it flawlessly in their prestine, powerful vocal harmonies. Follow it with an outstanding simple, American-folk song infused "White Winter Hymnal," these guys then lure you into exploding into nature with a train-engine chugging energy inside "Ragged Wood" ("Settle down with me by the fire of my yearning, You should come back home, back on your own now"). The genius comes within a "Baroque-esque" pause that reinstates a sort of pomp and circumstance moment for these guys, as if they are a group of marauding musicians rolling through the country side, and judging from their flannel/plaid shirts and amount of facial hair, these guys just might as well be these living ideals. Definitely one of the popular ones this year.
3. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
-Anyone that has seen what I might (jokingly?) vote the best music video of 2008 in Flying Lotus' "Parisian Goldfish" can possibly distinguish the effects the Lotus might have to your internal emotions, but more then anything, one of LA's hottest neworiginal hip hop producers, Steve Ellison, will make your mind explode with off-kilter drum hits and spacy sound effects that create a more organic atmosphere in a world of near-perfect quantization and electronic remastering. Coming from recognition by millions of stoned, late-night patrons that would know Flying Lotus' style from the segues of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, I felt Los Angeles paid proper respect to the mysterious late-night atmosphere that is the title-named inspiration for the Lotus' hazy creation. My favorite sample in the entire CD probably comes with the use of a "ray gun" on top of what sounds like mashing video game buttons and computer effects inside "Sleepy Dinosaur". How cool is that? I can not wait for this album on vinyl.
2. Beach House - Devotion
By far this is the dreamiest band at the moment in this world. Vocalist Victoria Legrand's hauntingly romantic pleas are incredibly amplified by her own antique-ish organ harmonies that tie with the singing counterpoint guitars of Alex Scally. Other critics cite that this album may as well have been recorded all during the late hours of the night, and every track in "Devotion" is justification for that understanding. This being the first album I have listened to by them, it was an awesome invitation to their earilier self-titled release and further explore into their seemingly-home grown charm. "Heart of Chambers" by far has become one of my most favorite romantically desperate themes of mine, with such invitations as "In that nook I found you/So old and tired/Would you be the one to carry me?," and stands as the best love song I can think of for 2008.
1. TV On The Radio - Dear Science...
I really do not know if there can be an order to saying how "good" an album can be for 2008. However, I saw these guy's success this year as breaking down all racial, genre, and "distinguishing" barriers within their music, and within under a decade, have developed a new political protest voice that can not be "categorized" into some of the traditionally dominating genres of this realm, as what hip-hop or punk has done for us probably the most representatively. The CD, in short, is pretty damn stellar: "Halfway Home" soulfully tunnels into the setting of social unrest and depression, and from thereon out, funk-electro-rock-hip-hop-infused compositions carry the listener from one chapter of this "story" to another, even with a gorgeous ballad of "Family Tree" in the middle of all the outrage, before the more triumphantly protesting finish of the rest of the album afterwards. The move to a larger label and super high-end production could be seen as a "loss" to some fans, but to these guys' desires, they wanted recognition and success in the largest degree possible, and I feel Dear Science is no drop to the spirit of these guys, as they have also digressed the importance of "roots" in their first indie label towards their achievements today. Top off with Adebimpe's Hollywood role with bombshell Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married and Sitek's production of other gorgeously-notable Scarlett Johansson's debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head, and you can call 2008 quite a f***ing good year for these guys.
Other Incredible Notables (in no particular order):
Bon Iver- "For Emma, Forever Ago" (found about it this year, but it was "released" in 2007!)
Portishead- "Third"
Health- "Health//DISCO"
Luomo- "Convivial"
Buff 1- "There Is Only One"
Nomo- "Ghost Rock"
High Places- "S/T"
Frightened Rabbit- "The Midnight Organ Fright"
Ponytail- "Ice Cream Spiritual"
Francois Virot- "Yes Or No"
Harvey Milk- "Life: The Best Game In Town"
Los Campesinos!- "Hold On Now, Youngster...
Bonnie "Prince" Billy- "Lie Down In The Light"
Lambchop- "OH (Ohio)"
Jackson Conti- "Sunjinho"
Ben Allison And Man Sized Safe- "Little Things Run The World"
Best Compilation: "You Don't Know: Ninja Cuts"
Best Historic Compilation: "Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afrosounds, and Nigerian Blues"
Most OVERRATED CD of 2008: Vampire Weekend- "S/T"
Biggest Hype Disappointment: Wolf Parade- "At Mount Zoomer"
Radio 1190
Top 100 Albums
1. Magnetic Fields - Distortion (Nonesuch)
2. Kasai Allstars - In the 7th Moon, the Chief Turned into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of his Enemy By Magic (Crammed)
3. Various - Local Anesthetic (Smooch)
4. Autodrone - Strike a Match (Claire)
5. Various - The Outskirts of Deep City (Numero)
6. 16 Horsepower - Live, March 2001 (Alternative Tentacles)
7. Hauschka- Ferndorf (Fat Cat)
8. Man Man - Rabbit Habits (Anti)
9. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat)
10. James Jackson Toth - Waiting in Vain (Rykodisc)
11. Mt. Eerie and Julie Doiron - Lost Wisdom (Southern)
12. Hercules and Love Affair - S/T (DFA)
13. Boscoe — S/T (Asterix)
14. Rodriguez — Cold Fact (Light In Attic)
15. Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
16. Eddy Current Supression Ring — Primary Colours (Goner)
17. Why? — Alopecia (Anticon)
18. The Black Angels — Directions to See a Ghost (Light In Attic)
19. Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
20. People Under the Stairs — FUN DMC (Gold Dust)
21. Hank Williams — The Unreleased Recordings (Time Life)
22. Figures of Light — Smash Hits (Norton)
23. Charlie Parker — Bird in Time (ESP)
24. Black Mountain — In The Future (jagjaguwar)
25. Devotchka — A Mad and Faithful Telling (Anti)
26. Josephine Foster — This Coming Gladness (Boweavil)
27. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks — Real Emotional Trash (Matador)
28. Slim Cessna's Auto Club — Cipher (Alternative Tentacles)
29. Compilation — Don't Stop: Recording Tap (Numero)
30. Clinic — Do It! (Domino)
31. Menahan Street Band — Make the Road by Walking (Dunham)
32. The Breeders — Mountain Battles (4ad)
33. Pete Rock — NY's Finest (Pioneer)
34. Boris — Smile (Southern Lord)
35. Compilation — Verve Remixed 4 (Verve)
36. King Darves — The Sun Splits for the Blind Summer (De Stijl)
37. Charlie Feathers — Rare and Unissued Recordings (sampler) (Norton)
38. Compilation — Calypsoul 70 (Strut)
39. The New Year — The New Year (Touch and Go)
40. Compilation — Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1974-1983 (Strut)
41. Compilation — Como Now: Voices of Panola Co, Mississippi (Daptone)
42. The Lines — Flood Bank (Acute)
43. Steve Reid Ensemble — Daxaar (Domino)
44. Mochipet — Microphonepet (Daly City)
45. The Dirtbombs — We Have You Surrounded (In The Red)
46. Lou Reed — Berlin - Live at St. Ann's Warehouse (Matador)
47. Maus Haus — Lark Marvels (Pretty Blue Presents)
48. Compilation — Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli (Numero)
49. Bum Kon — Drunken Sex Sucks (Smooch)
50. Beach House — Devotion (Carpark)
51. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti-)
52. Compilation — Nigeria Disco Funk Special: Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-1979 (Soundway)
53. Portishead — Third (Mercury Records)
54. King Khan and the Shrines — The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines (Vice)
55. Sigur Rós — Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (XL)
56. Steinski — What Does it All Mean?: 1983-2006 Retrospective (Illegal Art)
57. Karen Dalton — Green Rocky Road (Megaphone)
58. The Herbaliser — Same As it Never Was (K7)
59. TV On the Radio — Dear Science (Interscope)
60. Bad Luck City — Adelaide (self released)
61. Crystal Castles — S/T (Last Gang)
62. Dr. Dog — Fate (Park the Van)
63. M83 — Saturdays=Youth (Mute)
64. Compilation — Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story 1980-1986 (Strut)
65. The Black Hollies — Casting Shadows (Ernest Jenning)
66. No Kids — Come Into My House (Tomlab)
67. MIJ — Yodling Astrologer (ESP)
68. Large Professor — Main Source (Gold Dust)
69. The Mae Shi — HLLYH (Team Shi)
70. Darker My Love — 2 (Dangerbird)
71. Jeffrey Lewis — 12 Crass Songs (Rough Trade)
72. Compilation — Eccentric Soul: The Tragar and Note Labels (Numero Group)
73. Davila 666 — Davila 666 (In the Red)
74. Bitter:Sweet — Drama (Quango)
75. No Age — Nouns (Sub Pop)
76. Nomo — Ghost Rock (ubiquity)
77. Big Dipper — Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology (Merge)
78. Compilation — Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted = Baghdad, 1925-1929 (Honest Jon's)
79. Compilation — You don't know (Ninja tune)
80. Wovenhand — Ten Stones (sounds familyre)
81. Arabian Prince — Innovative Life: The Anthology, 1984-1989 (Stones Throw)
82. Compilation — 1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground (Sublime Frequencies)
83. Shugo Tokumaru — Exit (Almost Gold)
84. Islands — Arm's Way (Anti-)
85. Suarasama — Fajar di Atas Awan (Drag city)
86. She & Him — Volume One (Merge)
87. VSS — Nervous Circuits (Hydrahead)
88. Breez Evahflowin & Dirt E. Dutch — Troublemakers (Stronghold)
89. Crystal Stilts — Alight of Night (Slumberland)
90. Compilation — 25th Anniversary of ReR Records (ReR)
91. Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis — Indian Giver (Birdman)
92. The Mountain Goats — Heretic Pride (4ad)
93. Atlas Sound — Let the Blind lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky)
94. Au — Verbs (Aagoo)
95. Compilation — Well Hung: 20 Funk Rock Eruptions from Beneath Communist Hungary Vol. 1 (Finders Keepers)
96. Vanishing Kids — Skies In Your Eyes (Bright as Night)
97. Jamie Lidell — JIM (Warp)
98. SP Double — Change the Station (Akomplice)
99. Panther — 14kt God (Kills Rockstars)
100. Spiritualized — Songs in A&E (Fontana International/Spacemen)
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