Rise 2001 (Chart For Year Ending 30th April 2001)

1 Gurus Of The New Millennium – “II” (553)

2 Sirenée – “Distance” (558)

3 Karda Estra – “The Land Of Ghosts” (572)

4 Blacklight Braille – “The Castle Of The Northern Crown” (563)

5 Sleepy People – “Paint A Ceiling On The Sky” (560)

While Karda Estra and Blacklight Braille have their moments to come, Sleepy People (left) remain the greatest band on M&E not to have topped our charts. They were one of the only three bands that ever picked up the highest 5 star review rating, along with The Witches and Barra, yet neither "Blunt Nails In A Sharp Wall" (later a CD release on Sean Worrall's Org label) or "Paint A Ceiling On The Sky" hit no.1. But, sales of those two, combined with the Distro Direct sales of their wonderful Edgy Records CD, "Typhoid & Swans" (one of my personal all time favourite albums), did at least propel them into our 20 best selling bands chart. And rightly so, any band that can manage to condense pure joy on to various recorded media deserve greatness. The best thing to have come out of Newcastle since brown ale, the band later changed their name to Blue Apple Boy. Propa belta.
*That's not Latin, they speak like that in the north east.

Fall 2001 (Year Ending 31st August 2001)

1 Karda Estra – “The Land Of Ghosts” (572)

2 Blacklight Braille – “The Castle Of The Northern Crown” (563)

3 Sirenée – “Distance” (558)

4 Lord Litter – “Downpayment - M&E Special Edition” (571)

5 Toshiyuki Hiraoka – “T” (554)

Another very deserving no.1 is this, a fitting tribute to the immense talent of Swindon based musician and composer, Richard Wileman. I'd been a fan of his work for years, going back to his old band Lives & Times, so it was a great pleasure to finally be able to release a whole album of it. My joint Release Of The Season for New Year 2001, and as we're now up to M&E's brief back in the day 'online era', you can read my original review right here... M&E 572. Now, I said 'joint' Release Of The Season, right? Yup, there was a tie, in a manner of speaking, between Karda Estra and Lord Litter's "Downpayment", an expanded 90 minute version of the original album, plus bonus material, full details of which can be found in my original review, which is on the same page as the Karda Estra one, but down a bit further... M&E 571. Ah, the appliance of science...

THE MAGIC INTERVIEW: LORD LITTER

New Year 2002 (Year Ending 31st December 2001)

1 Karda Estra – “The Land Of Ghosts” (572)

2 Lord Litter – “Downpayment - M&E Special Edition” (571)

3 Blacklight Braille – “The Castle Of The Northern Crown” (563)

4 Toshiyuki Hiraoka – “T” (554)

5 Tutsis / Pajama Slave Dancers – “Black Widow” (565)

Ah, well, Blacklight Braille still have their big moment to come, the last word, as it were, so let's take a look at the 4th and 5th best selling albums of 2001 while we're waiting. I'd first come to hear of highly respected Japanese muzo, Toshiyuki Hiraoka (left), through a split tape (with Kronstadt) we'd released in April 1992, courtesy of Matthias Lang's Irre Tapes label. There followed a couple of collaborations with Okaniwa Fumihiro, which we released in 1995, then this excellent collection of short pieces of retro, yet still quite original sounding electronica, simply titled 'T'. You can read my original review here...

M&E 554, a little way down the page on the left. Our final release by Toshi was his collaborative album with ex Virgin Prunes frontman, Dave-iD Busaras, "Bushy Luxury" (M&E 591, May 2003). Running in at 5th place was a lively split tape put together for us by Dagger Tapes, aka Keith 'Earl E.' Grave of Sanity Assassins, so expect smoke to be coming out of your ears. Keith played with the Tutsis, so we hold him personally responsible for the damage we did to our old Frimley base by stage diving off the sofa. You can read my original review right here... M&E 565, at the foot of the page on the right.

The Very Last Ever M&E Best Sellers Chart

(2001-2004)

When the last batch of releases finally happened in May 2003, after a 28 month gap, there was no newsletter at all, let alone a chart. Nothing more than a handful of photocopied review sheets would arrive on the doormat (or in the inbox, natch) of our patient supporters. However, when I started this website in 2012, I collated all of our remaining sales, from the last published chart (1st January 2001) to the very last item we ever sold, before it all ground to a halt, sometime in 2004. The full Top 50 is published elsewhere on this site, but in keeping with the format of this article, here's the Final Top 5 M&E Chart...

1 Blacklight Braille – “The Castle Of The Northern Crown” (563)

2 Karda Estra – “The Land Of Ghosts” (572)

3 Judge Trev & Nik Turner – “Judgement And Thunder” (440)

4 Garfield’s Birthday – “Peepshow (Special Edition)” (578)

5 Sirenée – “Distance” (558)

Blacklight Braille (right) were different, even on a label that prided itself on different. It was a gathering of like minded spirits, based in and around Cincinnati, who came together to make much music, mostly under the inspirational direction of Owen Knight, singly the most incredible septuagenarian I had ever had the good fortune to come into contact with. Their musical direction was wherever the spirit lead them, from blues to the avant garde to folk and back again, occasionally interspersed with the words of the saw-playing poet. There is no way enough space here to provide you with more than that slightest inkling, but I'm lining up an interview with Owen soon and will be sure to add a link at the end of this feature. The only new name to appear in this chart were Garfield's Birthday (left), fronted by Simon Felton of Pink Hedgehog Records. Unusually for our catalogue, they were quite a jangly indie band, but they are actually quite underground in many respects when you really listen. Though sales had seriously dwindled by this point and the value of the accolade become a tad diminished, they were, nevertheless, our best selling band in 2003. To every band / artiste who ever had music released on M&E, my eternal gratitude for making my life such an amazing adventure. Thank you all.