ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2015

As blizzard thaws to meltwater, so too must ILM's TOP 77 TRACKS of 2015 give way to ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2015.

Thanks for taking the time to nominate and vote for your favorite albums; my understanding is that we had 137 votes cast. Other cohorts in crime on the creation of this countdown include johnny fever, seanandalai and gr8080 (who will be completing the countdown on Wednesday and Thursday).

You can listen along at home on Spotify if you're inclined using this playlist link:
ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2015 Spotify Playlist
More than 90% of the placing albums will be on this playlist; we'll provide links for sampling the rest.

We'll start tomorrow but it's likely to be a somewhat erratic schedule on Monday (77 to 61) and a later start on Tuesday (60 to 41) due to my busy life. Consider yourself forewarned and forearmed.

Enough preamble! Let the speculation begin!

all these albums suck!

albums are bad

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/178664-klax-genesis-screenshot-it-is-the-nineties-and-there-is-time.png

https://www.allgigs.co.uk/images/object/artist/73168/Gaz_Coombes-1-200-200-100-crop.jpg

albums are rockist

my DN was between this and Sufjan Sund4r

If you were a gurl (or willing to challenge the gender binary), you could use "Susanne Sund4r".

http://cdn1.umg3.net/95/files/2015/01/site-banner-album-more.gif

press blurbs otm

"CLICK HERE TO BUY" otm

thk u press blurbs

Nature abhors a vacuum but spoilers still suck. Gaz Coombes speculation excepted natch.

too low!

Excited for the joke #2

saw a poster today promoting a gig by GAZZ COOMBES

I heard from somewhere that the guy's "[a] bastion of British songwriting"

who the fuck is gaz coombes?

the drummer from superchunk

While we're killing time, here's the all-time list for the albums poll:

2014 D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah (2105 points, 58 votes, 8 #1 votes)
2012 Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream (1909 points, 51 votes, 7 #1 votes)
2013 Haim - Days Are Gone (1792 points, 56 votes, 3 #1 votes)
2014 Taylor Swift - 1989 (1624 points, 40 votes, 8 #1 votes)
2013 Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (1532 points, 44 votes, 5 #1 votes)
2013 My Bloody Valentine - MBV (1520 points, 47 votes, 2 #1 votes)
2014 FKA twigs - LP1 (1509 points, 43 votes, 2 #1 votes)
2013 Beyoncé - Beyoncé (1450 points, 39 votes, 9 #1 votes)
2013 Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time (1426 points, 45 votes, 2 #1 votes)
2013 Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City (1397 points, 39 votes, 8 #1 votes)

2013 was a big year for points

What is it with you people and Gaz Fucking Coombes

^board description

Prediction: 2/25

lol i was all "no results yet, must be the preemptive AFL thread"

oh please don't say you fuckers have comedy-voted g*z c*****s into this -_-

expecting 7/25, hoping for 10

can't wait to see what crazy shit the rogue voters have gotten into 77-61 eh folks

I didnt vote for any albums but maybe I will like one of these.

For the purposes of this, do mixes count as albums? There are 3 or 4 mixes i would have voted for

they do and iirc a few mixes have placed in the past

mostly commercially available mixes right? only online freebie i recall was nguzunguzu's perfect lullaby, which went out of its way to look like an auteurish work rather than RA podcast 8493 or fact mix 94938 (i am surprised we don't see more of the latter sort nominated, but then i don't engage with them the same way i engage with albums)

I'd assumed commercially available mixes would, though the mixes I would have voted for were soundcloud podcasts, it didnt occur to me until just now that they might. There weren't so many, but....there were some!

4/25 at best, hopefully at least 3, but you never know

Dunno what I'll win, but I expect 7/25, maybe 8 if we still love Colin Stetson.

http://in1.ccio.co/Z3/G4/J8/3181071365207931502831646676354nlarge.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/92SB039.jpg

77 KURT VILE "B'lieve I'm Goin Down" (225 points, 8 votes)
Pitchfork - 23 / P&J - 27

this is an outrage!

that's right, get the crap out the way.

that all-time albums list upthread is pretty dreary imo.

TOO HIGH lol

On Matador records I believe ~it's a sign~ #gazwatch

8-vote threshold huh :/

if it turns out joanna wang was 78'd by this record then there will be hatred

8 votes though, think that means goodbye to 98% of my ballot oops xp

I think #77 on the tracks poll was 8 votes as well, but I think something with as few as 5 votes made it in iirc.

this is the most annoying apostrophe in rock, maybe? discuss

xp

yeah fkn Radiohead

Several things with 5 votes, actually. That seems to be the threshold this year.

http://i.imgur.com/d7coN7X.jpg

76 PROJECT PABLO "I Want to Believe" (226 points, 6 votes, 2 first place votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - DNP

idk even what this is...off to the internet!

huh, would've expected that to get more than 6 votes (nb: it did not make my ballot)

Never heard of it, fuck cassettes though.

quite good techno/bobbins of the Todd Terje school imo
try "Follow It Up"

v cool graphics this time btw

project pablo is a terrible name but i will give this a listen

this is some

'deep'

'vibes'

hopefully the countdown will be full of this stuff

Fugazi-looking dude in the photo

Wow, with that name and cover image I never would've pegged it as techno, more like DIY hipster noise or something.

(xxpost)

Fugazi coombes

I do not possess whatever emotion Project Pablo is trying to make me feel with this music.

Great rollout art though!

Yeah, I can get with this. Charmingly amateurish.

idk even what this is...off to the internet!

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, 25 January 2016 14:41 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permali

Hah, for some reason I had it in my head that you had told me about this on Facebook. Must have been Michael B.

I'm a bit so-so about this. Not sure about the lo-finess of it. Some nice melodies but the careworn production standard doesn't do much for me.

all dap due to gr80 for the art btw

Two #1s and four voters averaging ~#9 on their ballots. We may not see a more loved album (by the few that knew it) this year.

the careworn production standard doesn't do much for me

This is my favourite part. Charming is right.

think we might xp

If an ILXor made this for a compilation, I'd dig it - I guess I'll adjust my expectations accordingly

I mean, it kind of sounds like something one of us would do, so

never heard of project pablo before but this just sounds like music made by wankers who fetishise cassettes

i mean, it's perfectly listenable though, not bad, but i don't need my music to sound like a fucking cassette

it's got a nice homemade vibe about it. what nonplusses me about music like this though is whether the lo-fi clunk was borne out of necessity or if it's just some guy just putting his productions through a bunch of digital patches.

Now that I've listened to some more of it, there are songs that are just fine and others that are like a serrated knife in the eye.

The Soichi Terada compilation kinda filled my need for this emotion, this year.

lmao i googled and they ARE cassette fetishists

why are canadian electronic producers all so annoying?

track 3 was the one i meant i'd dig if it was made by an ilxor fwiw, track 4 is just really annoying

Kind of wonder how people would react if they had no knowledge of it being a cassette release.

last track is the pick

i don't want to get too much into the cassette debate (my stance: yeah, fine but i don't have a player, so) - but i can kind of imagine this sounding nice on a cassette. There are people like Bass Clef who does everything analogue and mixes down to cassette,so I think he's therefore justified in releasing things on cassette.

Kind of wonder how people would react if they had no knowledge of it being a cassette release.

― Evan, Monday, January 25, 2016 2:57 PM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i had no knowledge until after i listened. it is p obvious tho on account of the production sounding like ass

this wasn't just released on cassette though was it?

last track is the pick

― ogmor, Monday, January 25, 2016 2:57 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this isn't so bad!

don't mind the production at all myself but then my ideology and lex's tend to conflict on this issue so idk pick a side

consciously making a cassette sound is quite an annoying aesthetic decision, rather than just keeping it lo-fi

ah didn't vote for it but that project pablo record was great!

<3 "the feeling"

That Kurt Vile album was a snoozefest, 8 votes for 225 pts probably means it was way down the list for most people who voted for it. At least I hope so.

I never got around to that Kurt Vile due to lack of inspiration, and that's despite liking some of his past albums which were also made fun of here. How do the fans of it rank it?

god why do you care so much if people like cassettes

http://i.imgur.com/YAD8Gmv.jpg

75 BRANDON FLOWERS "The Desired Effect" (226 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 150

today is a write-off huh

Lurker revolt.

jesus

Great album. I didn't know he had it in him.

No one ever answered my question in the other thread whether this guy is the son of Mike Flowers, but I guess he's not?

he's the cousin of Tim Flowers, Tuomas

Tuomas Flowerrs??

I dunno who's that?

(Xpost)

Tuomas you've single-handedly justified this album's placement.

Some good songs on this record, but I didn't think the one that made the tracks poll was one of them.

http://www.youtube.com/v/WN2F6WQk8zk&fs=1&hl=en

some sort of metaphor whereby ILM, music, the EOY poll and Kitchen Person are played by Collymore, Flowers, the ball and the divot, but I'm not sure in which order

hi Tuomas, Tin Flowers is your mom

no youtubes!

god why do you care so much if people like cassettes

― hi-nrg candidate (crüt), Monday, January 25, 2016 10:11 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think people are upset that an artist might purposefully fashion the production to sound cassette-ish as a gimmick.

Forks, what time are you planning on starting the proper rollout?

i love this album, surprise

sozzles fevesy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Flowers
Early life
Brandon Flowers, the youngest of six children, was born on June 21, 1981, in Henderson, Nevada, to Jean Yvonne (née Barlow) and Terry Austin Flowers.
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/x-files/images/8/86/The_Truth_Is_Out_There_tagline.jpg/revision/latest%3Fcb%3D20070529002506

http://www.opinionatedbastard.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/truthisoutthere.jpg

actually, David Bowie said that

god why do you care so much if people like cassettes

― hi-nrg candidate (crüt), Monday, January 25, 2016 10:11 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think people are upset that an artist might purposefully fashion the production to sound cassette-ish as a gimmick.

― Evan, Monday, January 25, 2016 10:20 AM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Perhaps. Also, I lived through the cassette era. I owned several hundred of them. It's a terrible format. To see it fetishized is on par with people talking about how fun it is to suck mashed potatoes through a straw.

that project pablo release is available on 12" too and it sounds great.

there's a song on this record that wholesale samples "smalltown boy" how could i not love it

and mp3 so ppl like evan can jizz on it xp

i am actually just getting around to transferring a number of my old cassette mixes to spotify playlists right now (#pvmic); it's a great way to rediscover old songs and evocative sequencing. there's a specific way i like to hear King Pleasure into Eddie Jefferson that brings me back to junior high

http://i.imgur.com/BXpPEqg.jpg

75 DICK DIVER "Melbourne, Florida" (227 points, 7 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 129

Wait what did I do?

xps

hadn't heard the flowers album before. assumed it would sound a lot like a killers album but it has that gaslight anthem / working class rock sound

brandon flowers' great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather christopher flowers died in wiltshire in 1622

I tend to be wary of cassettes, because they often combine two tendencies that I hate in music production: senseless lo-fi aesthetic (how is releasing your music on a format that objectively has worse sound reproduction capability than CD/vinyl/digi a good thing?) and indulgent retro fetishism/obscurantism.

I remember being down with the opening track on this Dick Diver album and then not liking any of the rest of it.

project pablo record is fun, track 2 is my favorite

enjoying the lex vs. canada narrative that's developing in these threads

poll

had "waste the alphabet" on a few playlists but hadn't got round to listening to this one yet

Not nuts about project pablo, but i did enjoy the cfcf and keita sano records on the same label

Made it 4 songs into Kurt vile, he sounds almost as bored as I felt

the brandon flowers album was surprisingly great

and mp3 so ppl like evan can jizz on it xp

― mattresslessness, Monday, January 25, 2016 10:25 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You realize I'm not taking any sort of position right? Was only speculating. Thought I was being pretty careful, too.

get over yourself

project pablo record is fun,

yea i am digging it, idk if i'll listen to it more than once but whatever

uhhh

Dick Diver is 74 presumably? Never heard of this.

I'm liking Project Pablo too.

this is some limp, limp fare

not saying you should always judge a band on their bandname but

the project pablo stands out to me because out of a lot of stuff cut from similar cloth on 1080p and mood hut, much of which is screamingly white, it is definitely more relentless with the hooks.

ppl who meant to vote for jaonna newsom record did ctrl+f diver and made a mistake imo

project pablo was def growing on me (a little) by the time brandon knocked

speaking of white, that dick diver image is doing a good job of making me not want to listen to them ever

You can do interesting things with tape aesthetics. Part of the appeal of early Boards of Canada was the subtle tape flanging sound weaved in that highlighted the sense of nostalgia for childhood. For me at anyrate.

However, choosing to EQ as though you forgot about the high-bias switch? Not so interesting.

i was just kidding above! actually the albums poll is ruined now like everyone said

from this early stage it is ruined and everyone likes bad music and bad formats and everyone is bad and should feel bad and something something variable bit rate magnets

Don't worry. All will be right with the world again when Gaz places.

can't even imagine a life where i'd knowingly listen to an australian indie band called dick diver

wait there was a joanna newsom album in 2015

tape distortion can be used to great effect. see kyle hall.

i double-dog-dare all of you to listen to track 4 of the dick diver album

http://cdn.bgr.com/2015/01/blizzard-2015.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/E5jErKS.jpg

73 BARONESS "Purple" (228 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 117

Dick Diver
Origin Melbourne, Australia
Genres Indie pop
Years active 2008–present
Labels Chapter Music

i think i am done w/ indie pop from australia

can't even imagine a life where i'd knowingly listen to an australian indie band called dick diver

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Monday, January 25, 2016 10:43 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha i didnt see this post otm

YEAH

You can do interesting things with tape aesthetics.

Not that I have one but I thought this was pretty cool. Guy gets cool sounds on his demo tracks.

we have metal

blah

good cover art on metal albums is ubiquitous enough to be almost boring but baronness cover is pretty neat

metal: the real scandinavian pop

we have metal huh

I couldn't have imagined being relieved to listen to Baroness today. I loathe this cover art.

my feeling about baroness is that, while in theory i could have a place for a 2015 alice in chains in my workout playlist, in practice the final fantasy ambiance nixes it.

who the fuck is this brandon flowers dork

yeah the cover art makes 0 sense to me

I still double dog dare everyone to listen to track 4 of the dick diver album

the killers' guy xp

i tried and five seconds in my kid immediately shot it down

Baroness is a band that I've wanted to like, but it just never completely clicks for me.

Not my thing, but I've always loved Baroness cover art.

Artist John Dyer Baizley has a gallery.

project pablo is great, was p high on my ballot iirc, i may have even been one of the #1s on some strategic shit. if you are really allergic to any lo-fi i guess i can't convince you of its merits but it's really best thought of as a light spritzy melodic house trifle. it's like a lemon soda by the pool, and one of the best attempts at mixing house + the am gold softpop pallet. the production and sound design is really good and well-suited to the music imo; it sounds bright but not murky or excessively melted-in-the-sun, the drums aren't loud cause they don't have to be but have a good scrappy breakbeat feel. the one thing that annoys me about it being lo-fi is it doesn't sound great played at loud volumes, the one time i played it out i had to cut it halfway. also i'm sure it's not really a cassette, as in they didn't bounce it off a cassette on the mp3 you're listening to.

flopson otm also it isn't even that lo-fi ffs

i mean yall making it sound like some ariel pink the doldrums or some shit

http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4ef756fcecad04b00500000d/watch-kid-goes-completely-bonkers-after-unwrapping-nintendo-64-game-system.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/mZlXNoj.jpg

72 EEK "Kahraba" (230 points, 7 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - DNP

this is fucking amazing

love this record
gutted to have missed them in december

I didn't manage to vote for it because 2015 was so, so, so, so great, but it's on my extended ballot - my #33

Dont hate dick diver, sounds basically a lot like the chills

Track four is kinda goofy and a bit syd barrett *shrugs*

wild, relentless fire music. so much fun

Oh, great! Didn't make my ballot as I just hadn't heard it as an album enough, but was definitely rooting for it.

Yes! This was incredible! Played the 11 minute opening track in my office last week and everyone left. Wonderfully mad.

my number 3, such a rush

this is everything I wanted out of Omar Souleyman and didn't quite get

I've never gotten a headache this quickly before, so I guess there's that.

How do you do it: "77 logged in users active in the past five minutes"?

This is amazing. More than makes up for Dick Diver.

Great on record. Better live.

Eek gets a thumbs up, dont know why i didnt get round to listening to it before.

ha eek is dope

I haven't heard any of the records that have placed today but this is the first one that's actually intrigued me.

The first track on the Eek album is very funny and would be a lot better if it had a discernible bass line

this live video is intense ty

http://i.imgur.com/UUZVrwY.jpg

71 FOUR TET "Morning/Evening" (230 points, 10 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 104

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/308/481/63f.gif

i haven't given this a proper listen but i assume it's Nice like all his stuff

This Four Tet thing is very polite so far.

Baroness gonna run out of secondary colours soon.

Hm, I like a bit of metal but they always struck me as a bit of a feeble-sounding band, metal watered down with hard rock, which doesn't work so well for me. Someone I know said that this album is good though.

I like the Baroness record. They're a better hard rock band than a metal one.

Been snowed in for days; gimme something new and exciting.

Saw EEK a few weeks back and they were A-MAZ-ZING! The album is the same music, but I can't really listen to it in the same way. One of the few times I'll say they work much better as a live act.

How I'd love to visit Chand Baori in Abhaneri, Rajasthan India

http://splatteronfilm.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/the-fall-by-tarsem1.jpg
(as seen in Tarsem Singh's The Fall)

four tet is almost always nice and polite and these were why morning/evening underwhelmed me (again) when it came out

intrigued by eek!

I've sat through 8 minutes of this Four Tet piece and my main reaction is "I wish this had the edge of BT's early work"

ouch

EEK (and Islam Chipsy) are two live drummers and the most amazing keyboardist I've ever seen. So much energy and excitement in a live setting - and fricking loud too!

Eek is terrific stuff but maybe just a bit too toooo at work

here's something more work friendly

http://i.imgur.com/PKOslnu.jpg

70 GHOST "Meliora" (232 points, 7 votes, 2 first place votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 104

I can actually see the weird transcendent backwards-sample blissout beauty Four Tet is going for here. It almost works

Scando-pop!

god I hate fake Ghost

xp: For the curious, here is an EEK advertisement for Cairo wedding gigs, from 2012.

i haven't given this a proper listen but i assume it's Nice like all his stuff

― ciderpress, Monday, January 25, 2016 11:21 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This Four Tet thing is very polite so far.

― its subtle brume (DJP), Monday, January 25, 2016 11:23 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea i can't bother to give a shit about anything he does really

Is this Ghost album better than the last one? Another hard rock band who play with metal signifiers. I fell in love with Ghost's aesthetic but after listening to their last album a couple of times, I found they were all mouth and trousers.

yeah, for the uninitiated can some metal doodz explain "fake Ghost" and what their deal is?

This Ghost album is so cute. 'He Is' is the most adorable song about Satan ever made.

god I hate fake Ghost

― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Monday, 25 January 2016 16:37 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Forgot about Japanese Ghost. They still about? I loved them.

Haven't really taken to the Ghost album but He Is is properly great.

The Ghost album is basically cheesy schlock with no lasting replay value BUT with 2 or 3 pop bangers on it - He Is being the most notoriously catchy. It is not remotely a metal album

is this the ghost from sweden or japan?

'fake Ghost' look like they're gonna be some OTT super-theatrical metal mayhem, but instead their music is a lot campier - more KISS than Venom.

Haven't heard the Islam Chipsy album, but I watched a video someone linked to and for about five minutes, I thought it was amazing, but then he kept doing the same damn things over and over again on the keyboard, especially. I can see how it might work at a low budget wedding, but was not impressed. Will still check the album.

this is everything I wanted out of Omar Souleyman and didn't quite get

― I remember you was vote-splitted (imago), Monday, January 25, 2016 11:06 AM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

speaking of which it seemed like souleyman's new album was completely ignored

Ghost sound like opeth playing chase scene music from scooby doo

lol

the real Ghost appears to be defunct but Masaki Batoh has a new band and recent albums

(xps to dog latin)

oh my god listening to eek and this is wild. sirens!!

especially the bit where it sounded like it was about to turn into "pon de floor"

xps lol, that is very spot on

Ghost sound like opeth playing chase scene music from scooby doo

this sounds like a fucking amazing thing and approaches one manifestation of my platonic ideal of What Music Should Be

it doesn't sound like that at all.

unless Opeth have gone totally pop now?

pretty weird countdown so far...

i dunno "From the Pinnacle To the Pit" gets that corpse paint velma vibe more or less right on to the point where i imagine adult swim is optioning it now

i also hear some mountain goats in there maybe? might just be shades of the lead singer's unmodulated voice peeking through.

I'm listening to 'He Is' now. It sounds like, I dunno, like the theme from Thundercats ft. Benny and Bjorn.

Nah it's more or less equal parts Blue Oyster Cult and Alice In Chains on this one. Still, their best yet and now that they have three albums to mine their live show is a hugely entertaining greatest hits package. They're basically the Rammstein of the 2010s.

From the Pinnacle to the Pit is a bit more Soundgardeny though.

http://38.media.tumblr.com/ed9f1949b5c95a6bfd7877b54b48cd26/tumblr_ncqulfFitn1qkoulvo3_400.gif

This is fun! I might be coming round to Ghost. Still wish they were a bit heavier though. As it happens, the corpse-paint and goth imagery is completely removed from the music.

http://i.imgur.com/6IGFiye.jpg

69 FETTY WAP "Fetty Wap" (232 points, 11 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 103

Ghost AND Baroness? I'm going back to bed.

BOC was the comparison that came to mind when I first heard the Ghost BC album. Then I played "Cirice" for someone who compared it to Smashing Pumpkins - that's usually what I hear now. I love both bands.

WTF with this Four Tet so far? Did he just stick a house beat and synth pads behind a Bollywood vocal track??

As with the hopeless contingent indie music on the tracks poll, I kind of hope Baroness and Ghost aren't all that ILM can offer in terms of metal. It totally skews representation of the genre towards the tepid.

oh i didn't realise there was a Fetty Wap album. I only knew about the Trap Queen mixtape.

WTF with this Four Tet so far? Did he just stick a house beat and synth pads behind a Bollywood vocal track??

― Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Monday, January 25, 2016 11:54 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol pretty much i guess

it is growing on me though

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if those have greater crossover appeal than Ad Nauseam and Mastery.

xp to dog latin

I didn't vote for any metal, there's a pretty big metal poll already.

there's one more metal album that i reckon will probably place

Sund4r, no I get it, and this is kind of an obvious question, but why should ILM, with all its supposed music experts, be voting for the metal albums with the most crossover appeal? That is to say, when the best of pop, dance, hip hop and r'n'b are so well represented on here, it seems its only the most MOR indie and the lightest-weight metal that makes the poll. Guess Jute Gyte counteracted that in tracks though.

surprised the fetty album placed, its highlights (which go beyond "trap queen" for sure) worked soooo much better in isolation, every time i tried to listen to the album as an album it dragged

still loving eek, it's relentless in the best way. love the way they keep pushing it further and further towards potentially being unbearable but instead make it end up almost hypnotic, like there's a point at which you go past wondering how much more you can take into never wanting it to end

I gave that Fetty album one chance too many. Even the "Trap Queen" singles disapointed me.

glad lex is digging the eek tbh

trap queen amazing single obv but all the other fetty singles were a little grating imo

surprised the fetty album placed, its highlights (which go beyond "trap queen" for sure) worked soooo much better in isolation, every time i tried to listen to the album as an album it dragged

He's got such a great, idiosyncratic delivery but it's best taken in 4-minute bursts.

Fetty Wap is a singles album but if you want an hour-long burst of joy, listen to the whole thing.

still loving eek, it's relentless in the best way. love the way they keep pushing it further and further towards potentially being unbearable but instead make it end up almost hypnotic, like there's a point at which you go past wondering how much more you can take into never wanting it to end

This is exactly;y why it's good. Sometimes it feels like looking through a kaleidoscope except the chambers keep dividing and getting smaller and smaller until there are millions of them.

I'm a big fan of the post TQ singles, Again being my favorite. RGF Island and Jugg are great too.

I don't think I voted for the album, but my 10-song spotify playlist of Fetty highlights would've made my top 20.

Fetty Wap album is certainly too long but there's at least five or so great songs (TQ, 679, Again, My Way, No Days Off) and almost again as many very good ones (Jugg, RGF Island, I'm Straight, Couple Bands, Time); that was enough for me.

voodoo chili, curious if we are in a mind-meld here; what's your ten?

Sund4r, no I get it, and this is kind of an obvious question, but why should ILM, with all its supposed music experts, be voting for the metal albums with the most crossover appeal? That is to say, when the best of pop, dance, hip hop and r'n'b are so well represented on here, it seems its only the most MOR indie and the lightest-weight metal that makes the poll. Guess Jute Gyte counteracted that in tracks though.

Well maybe they're experts in all things poppy exclusively.

why should ILM, with all its supposed music experts, be voting for the metal albums with the most crossover appeal? That is to say, when the best of pop, dance, hip hop and r'n'b are so well represented on here, it seems its only the most MOR indie and the lightest-weight metal that makes the poll.

Well, if 'pop'/dance/hip-hop/R&B experts are dominating the poll, I don't find this very surprising.

xp

http://i.imgur.com/WPMYOwV.jpg

68 NEON INDIAN "VEGA Intl. Night School" (244 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
Pitchfork - 35 / P&J - 134

I guess it's the similar (but reversed) to how in metal places the non-metal music being praised would still be the most metal-like of their own musical family (ie. Chelsea Wolfe etc.)

i like the singles from the neon indian record but as a whole it kinda felt like an overwhelming amount of sound without enough tune to anchor it

and yeah i realize that could be recast as a positive for a lot of people

Yes, I have a lot of good will toward Palomo but the bulk of the album seems borderline unlistenable and not in a good way.

(rectification: I did actually vote for some metal this year - five out of 25 even, including Ghost.)

I voted for either 7 or 8 metal albums depending on whether PC Worship count as metal. It is fine to vote for metal.

Fetty Wap album is certainly too long but there's at least five or so great songs (TQ, 679, Again, My Way, No Days Off) and almost again as many very good ones (Jugg, RGF Island, I'm Straight, Couple Bands, Time); that was enough for me.

― ulysses, Monday, January 25, 2016 12:08 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

voodoo chili, curious if we are in a mind-meld here; what's your ten?

― ulysses, Monday, January 25, 2016 12:09 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Almost exactly that haha, got Trap Luv, Rock My Chain and How We Do Things in there

lol nobody gives a shit about this neon indian album

it was widely acclaimed? borderline unlistenable is pretty otm

i thought the neon indian album was fun in a nostalgic for college way but that's pretty specific for someone my age

new metal records don't tend to have a lot of visibility on here outside the rolling metal thread. a lot of the results in these polls, especially where they deviate from the pitchfork-type music critics lists, are just things that someone repped hard for during the year

Oh, Project Pablo is fun.

http://i.imgur.com/ITzrDrT.jpg

67 DEAFHEAVEN "New Bermuda" (248 points, 7 votes)
Pitchfork - 26 / P&J - 54

\m/

ew

t(o_ot)

I get Deafheaven confused with Deftones

anyway i love the fetty record even though it doesn't work as an """album"""

If you include Elder and Ghost, I voted for eight metal albums. (Ten if you want to be perverse and include Mew and Voice Coils.)

lol

25 by a truly broad definition

Ten if you want to be perverse and include Mew and Voice Coils.

Thank you if you nominated Voice Coils. That was a beautiful discovery in the massive albums playlist. Never would have realised it was Mitski singing either...

np

trap queen amazing single obv but all the other fetty singles were a little grating imo

"trap queen" follow-up singles > "trap queen"

i mean it's not a huge gap but

didn't vote for Fetty but it's a fun album, i kinda respect that he did a data dump of all the songs he made before he was famous instead of going into the studio with a bunch of famous people and trying to make the usual labored "debut" album

yes xp

tangenttangent: if you haven't checked it out already, I think "In Sixths" might be my favourite song of theirs.

I think I said it on the rolling metal thread already, but Deafheaven really improved as a metal band but I still think some of the post rock sections are beyond parody esp the Champagne Supernova ending.

riffing off some dude's post, i really appreciated the fact that Fetty didn't take the easy route and put Drake's "My Way" on the album.
http://www.vibe.com/2015/12/fetty-wap-buys-monty-with-brand-new-bmw/

I think "In Sixths" might be my favourite song of theirs

Saved, ty

http://i.imgur.com/jzjl9TX.jpg

66 JME "Integrity>" (250 points, 9 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 635

Integrity is really fun. Lots of flaws but difficult to care too much about them.

Integrity a ton of fun

integrity> fell off my ballot but it's pretty great, really consistent, beats are mostly terrific, jme's always an enjoyable presence to have around

i guess highlights aside from "don't @ me" would be "taking over?" (love that preditah beat) and "again"

jme strikes me as a bit jokey compared to skepta and stormzy. I liked German Whip and Don't @ Me but they're borderline comedy songs, right? guess I ought to listen to the album some more before I make sweeping pronouncements like that tho

He's doing political stuff all the time.

Integrity made its way onto my ballot at the last minute when I gave it a semi-arsed spin and realised it was actually kinda great.

This EEK album is completely nuts though.

deafheaven though wtf?
I hope Star Rzeka places. Gnaw Their Tongues would provide be a stretch.

really love the JME, just missed my ballot. my favourite grime in years, really - he's suxh a sound guy and can work a line with the best of them

Too many self righteous vegan bars though, but I'm prepared to forgive that for "she sells seashells on the seashore, no he sells weed scales on the P4". #iputonformybusroutes

Stormzy is pretty much nothing but jokes...

(not a criticism)

i enjoy the vegan stuff. you got no taste like vegan cheese

they say you are what you eat
so go against me and you're dead meat

JME feels a little more light-hearted than some of his peers, which I think a few people mistake for light

Love that JME record, so many good moments. Electro break on 'test me' <3

jme has always been very serious

well exactly

I reckon he's a nicer guy AND a better wordsmith than Skepta but what do I know rly

i guess i gotta grit my teeth all 77 times that the album titles are put in quotation marks instead of italics smh

I noticed that too, but it's not my poll this year.

tbh for all his light-heartedness jme probably relies way less on comedy punchlines than eg stormzy or lady leshurr (the latter especially seems like a stand-up comedian a lot of the time), and more on verbosity and technique

the JME album is great so far. i actually like a lot of the songs on the Dick Diver album, now that i've listened to it.

Kurt Vile isn't bad either but i've always liked him.

Ghost and Baroness and Deafheaven aren't my kind of metal, exactly...i voted for a metal album but i don't know if it's gonna show.

I was going through songs on my phone the other day and realized that I had completely forgotten Failure put out an album last year that was really, really good

'Test Me' is the real sleeper banger on the JME record but I still find myself wishing his choice of beats had been more limber, more garagey.

I show bare love like Ivor the E

Aww! I love this. Favourite track is Calm

the dick diver album is excellent. deft dole-ite lyrics and a lazy and charmingly melancholic guitar sound that reminds me of the best of Flying Nun and Go-Betweens...but folks here gotta knee-jerk reaction to indie i guess

I noticed that too, but it's not my poll this year.

http://i.imgur.com/JUHMNmv.jpg

65 COLLEEN GREEN "I Want To Grow Up" (254 points, 7 votes, 1 first place vote)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 635

ap style y'all

I'm listening to the Project Pablo album, and it's not as bad as I though, some decent grooves... But now I'm really baffled by the lo-fi sound (it's not just a cassette thing, you can hear it on the digital version on Spotify, so it must've been a conscious production choice), as it doesn't fit this kind of deep house at all! If they'd put some proper effort to the sound, they could've compared to acts like Moomin or Netto Houz or Swayzak (though still not as good, obviously!), now they remain just a weird curiosity.

anyway i should listen to this record. i hated her live so much that i got really sour about it

for a sec i was happy bc i thought colleen had placed

Holy shit, I listened to the first tune on the Colleen Green one for 30 seconds and I already want to drown this album! How can it sound so irritating?

what is this?

Seriously, is this some kind of crap irony, or is someone making this kinda dentist-drill equivalent music for real?

Heard this during ballot prep. Awful.

so, Colleeen Green is terrible

This sounds like someone took all the worst bits of 90s American rock music and made them into some kinda torture chamber tool.

she's so good, sort of my ideal for lo-fi guitar indie. she hits the same spot for me that an album like Pacer by the Amps does. it's not exactly like them, because it's less of a rock sound and the vox are more deadpan. but there's something about it that does. this was my #7.

It's quite a good album IMO but in a year with lots of 90s throwback indie rock (Torres, Dilly Dally, Sppedy Ortiz, Veruca Salt, etc) not one that I revisited much.

TV is my friend
And it has been with me everyday
From an early age
TV is my friend
And it has been always there for me
In time of need

It keeps me company
When nobody else
Is around and I'm all by myself
It's easier to be with somebody else
In my room

I feel a real connection
When my TV's one
And it's the truest one
That I'll ever make
TV is my friend
Made me who I am
And if you're not a fan
Then I can't relate

Such satire! Such insights!

I have never heard of Colleen Green.

god this is so brutal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHO0BtjIXw

This sounds like someone took all the worst bits of 90s American rock music and made them into some kinda torture chamber tool.

― Tuomas, Monday, January 25, 2016 1:33 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea pretty much

this feels like someone took the Go-Gos template and said "what we really need to do is Interpol the shit out of this"

She followed me on twitter so I followed back and got a coupla free mp3s before the album dropped. I deleted them pretty fast from my iTunes tho. Had forgotten all about her until the nominees playlists.

i knew this would place bc it's so good but i also knew that the reactions would be like this

so upon listening to the album i can see 1) why it didn't translate live at all 2) why i'd be into it if it were perhaps less deadpan and pop punkier (though i realize neither of these would contribute to the point of her music)

Track 2 "Wild One" isn't making me want to set myself on fire; I'm at least getting an inkling of why someone would vote for this now even if I wouldn't.

Well actually the chorus is making me want to singe myself a little but it's not full-on horrible like the opening song.

i like "tv" a lot though

Were I watching them live, I'd set the bar on fire.

i really like her. shes good!

5 seconds into "TV" and NOPE NOPE OH HELL NO

'deeper than love' is the jam from this album.

Alfred OTM.

deadpan delivery is usually a good look but not when your lyrics are #makeuthink stupidity. that tv song, serious second-hand embarrassment for her

i didn't actively enjoy the guitar when the first song started but god it was bludgeoning my head in by the end

I think "Deeper Than Love" is the only song here that I would say is worth listening to based on the listening/sampling I've done so far

Were I watching them live, I'd set the bar on fire.

ok now imagine these songs without drums

hahahahaha what

listened to 'TV' by Colleen Green. it's not as terrible as a few people here make out, just kind of limp and anachronistic. like, that song could easily have come out in 1993. Ex Hex do this kind of stuff so much better.

she was also playing between two really energetic pop-punk bands and it was just this utter drain

she was the star attraction though, the room was packed during her set

'deeper than love' is perfect. but obviously people who are allergic to this specific kind of thing are going to react adversely to Colleen Green.

It's moments like this that make me truly realize the gaps that separate us & how alone in the world each of us is! Like, I cannot even fathom the inner workings of a human being who feels this is the best music s/he heard in the year 2015. Even if you lived last year on a unihabited island and it was the only CD you managed to bring along, surely the seagulls would be preferable to... this?

Allergic? I voted for Speedy Ortiz

you guys broke Tuomas

The reaction to this is so extreme I feel like I have to hear it.

shame it's the only thing that's extreme about it

yea i just cannot get w/ this at all

if nothing else i'm glad colleen green has re-illuminated the stark nature of humanity to tuomas

"I have taken fewer than 15 minutes to listen to this album and I can safely say that it is worse than the sounds of seagulls" has convinced me that my opinion is bad and wrong. Please subtract my eight points or whatever.

surely the seagulls would be preferable to... this?

lol

seriously this is like some fuckin dollar bin 90s alt rock, like you put this out in 2016 in the middle of a 90s alt revival and i guess you get acclaim

seagulls are p dope tbf

Never would have realised it was Mitski singing either

I didn't know she was also a solo artist tbh. This sort of indie rock isn't usually what I go out of my way to hear but I'm enjoying a lot of it, in no small part because of her voice.

(re Mitski, not Colleen Green, whom I haven't listened to yet)

it's not THAT BAD for god's sake people, it just sucks. it's like some of you had never heard an electric guitar in your lives.

Mitski is great yeah

oh mitski fucking rules, i don't think her album qualified or was nominated for this poll?

i'm going to listen to the mitski album instead of the colleen green record lol

it's the lyrics that really tip colleen green over the edge for me, like they're almost belligerently stupid and self-satisfied and confident they're the voice of a generation

After half a listen of the CG album, I've decided that Speedy Ortiz give me what Colleen Green should.

the "i wanna do drugs right now" part of "things that are bad for me (part ii)" really threw me out of the album

lol i don't think colleen green is confident she's the voice of a generation

Wow theres no way in hell my #1 is going to make it

Im def going to give this Colleen Green album a listen some time later. I like noisy 90s stuff (though coudnt get behind S Ortiz, curiously)

That EEK album sounds great though

Mitski was voted for in the previous year's poll! She did a cool little avant-progge EP with some weirdos this time around

oh mitski fucking rules, i don't think her album qualified or was nominated for this poll?

Yeah, it's from 2014. Was just having a conversation about Voice Coils with tangenttangent.

xp what LJ said

http://media.giphy.com/media/kLk1Qa8mrYdQA/giphy.gif

Got to stop doing things that are bad for me
Got to stop doing things that are bad for me
Cause I don't want to live with disease
Want to rid myself of toxicity
Too much of the same routine
And I give into insecurity

Like a pet trained to return
But humans are supposed to learn
And change when things are going wrong
I always let it go for way too long
But maybe there's a chance, ooh
I know what I need to do

I got to stop doing things that are bad for me
I'm thinking maybe I can change my body's destiny
And start listening to my own advice
Then maybe my life could be twice as nice

Based on her nasal, "I don't care" singing voice I actually though she was somethin like 18, so I almost was willing to forgive lyrics like this, because everyone that age thinks they're sooo deep... But according to Wikipedia she's 31! Who writes shit like this in their 30s?

Mitski was voted for in the previous year's poll!

that's what i figured. did it place? bury me at makeout creek was reissued by dead oceans last year too

anyway i love mitski. just here to say that

the appropriately titled "Grind My Teeth."

Im def going to give this Colleen Green album a listen some time later. I like noisy 90s stuff (though coudnt get behind S Ortiz, curiously)

please liveblog your impressions. plz plz plz plz plz

Also: I feel like this conversation here and now is a consolation prize from the universe for JG not placing

You reckon? I think they might...

http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/hope_quote.jpg

anyways, talk about a tough act to follow

http://i.imgur.com/MjrbEJR.jpg

64 JOAN SHELLEY "Over and Even" (256 points, 8 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 80

YES

dang it is hard to hear this record. what is it like

I'm not particularly into Joan Shelley on first listen but she has a great voice.

oh this is lovely!

You reckon? I think they might...

Idk, Im on a fast track to succumbing to despair...and I havent even queued up Colleen Green yet, buh-dum-bum

(J/k, I got ILX poster fffv's back ever since he or she retroactively gave two thumbs up to the Alla mixtape that I loved the absolute fuck out of in '13)

I didn't really "get" this record, good voice and playing but the songs don't click with me... another thing to re-listen to

Joan Shelley is AMAZING. i also nominated an album she did with her old timey group Maiden Radio. it's not gonna place obv...

This Colleen Green record is sort of lamely brazen comfort blanket alt-rock but I have a weirdly high tolerance for this specific strain. It's hardly a great example of it though.

this is very nice

also the Eek album is pretty cool, kind of hectic for my vibe, but I still like it.

For whatever reason, I'm letting this Colleen Green album play while I'm working and while I generally agree with the general sentiment in this thread for the first couple of songs, "Deeper Than Love" is actually pretty good.

not really sure why Project Pablo is so controversial. Seems pretty good to me, definitely a bit lo-fi, but then I'm listening to the super high tech mp3 version, so maybe I'm missing out on infuriating tape noise

wow, lots of bad records today

Ok Collen Green is like a parody/deconstruction of Letters to Cleo. Obv the irregular chorus of the title track gets on my nerves a little, but there's a nice bit of sunny hook-writing around 2:30

project pablo is good, the tape hiss doesn't scan to me as any different than standard mp3 earbuds distortion

http://i.imgur.com/DFnnFeH.jpg

63 HEALTH "DEATH MAGIC" (256 points, 10 votes)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 82

death magic doesn't sound very healthy

my roommate loved this record so i have only heard it through a wall. sounded pretty ok though

ok joan shelley is nice, is this actually just an EP?

But they've included hiss even on the digital versions of the tunes (on Spotify), you can hear it on "Always" for example! So it's just bullshit lo-fi fetishism that should have nothing to do with house music.

Re: Project Pablo.

ugh

for some reason there are only four songs from that album on spotify. it has 12 tracks.

xp to CAD

oh ok cool

for me Colleen Green is mostly about "okay, I'm old enough that I shouldn't constantly be obsessing about these dumb things, but I'm going to obsess about them anyway," which I find highly relatable. I'm also a sucker a drum machine and a Descendents homage.

also had HEALTH on the low end of my ballot, and for somewhat similar reasons.

the Health album is definitely more my type of shit

imo this is the sort of hideous trendy shitmusic that never fails to get the requisite blogbuzz to make these polls

it's all done with graphic design

Tuomas, I'm not hearing it as some kind of big "lo-fi" statement that they are making. More likely they just had a small recording budget and that's how the tracks turned out.

Health is reminding me of Trust in places

didn't HEALTH used to be more of a noise band?

this new one seems ok

okay Trust crossed with Fuck Buttons

for me Colleen Green is mostly about "okay, I'm old enough that I shouldn't constantly be obsessing about these dumb things, but I'm going to obsess about them anyway," which I find highly relatable.

It's not really the subject matter but the incredibly straight-faced (faux?) naive way she writes about these things. "And start listening to my own advice / then maybe my life could be twice as nice", who the hell thinks this something that needed to be recorded?

yeah they've gotten less noisy and more boring

out of today's discoveries, i actively like (in order of preference): eek, jme, dick diver, project pablo

Joan Shelley sounds nice, think I'll be adding this to my road trip play list.

fuck buttons without the thing that makes fuck buttons good: enormous builds

if yall weren't constantly talking about project pablo being lo-fi it prob wouldn't have crossed my mind tbh

true

I take back my reservations about the countdown so far, it's already been waaaaaayyyy better than the tracks one

Ok the lame jokey aspect is ruining the Colleen Green experience for me. "TV" sounds like it couldve been a college rock hit in 94 but I doubt even the most arch ironists back then wouldve given these lyrics a pass. Way too on-the-nose

the Dick Diver record is perfectly fine, I reviewed it for the radio station. terrible band name though.

I thought the Joan Shelley was an EP also, I should check out the whole thing.

joan shelley is nice, shame it's not all on spotify

Tuomas, I'm not hearing it as some kind of big "lo-fi" statement that they are making. More likely they just had a small recording budget and that's how the tracks turned out.

If you have a low budget and you're doing electronic music, most likely you're doing it in your bedroom on a computer, and no way in hell would there be the kind hiss of his you hear on tunes like "Always" without it being intentional! The only way it would get there unintentionally was if they were using some kind of a tape recorder to do the master tape, but using a tape recorder (and not a hard drive) to record house music is pointless lo-fi fetishism in on itself.

CG's lyrics seem to come from a place of questioning and self loathing and it's a bit of an internal monologue or w/e, i appreciate what feels like a raw honesty coming from her and while perhaps 'how dare she!' record them, idk i think they hit at something moving for me.

I kind of don't care if Health used to be noisier/weirder; this my first exposure to them and they are giving me accessible gothy synth-based pop with intermittent blasts of noise. I generally like this kind of thing and I like this.

using a tape recorder (and not a hard drive) to record house music is pointless lo-fi fetishism in on itself.

rong

you have no taste tuomas stfu

We discovered Boy Harsher on the goth playlist yesterday, Dan - try 'em, seriously

http://i.imgur.com/flLpj3O.jpg

62 NEW ORDER "Music Complete" (257 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - 74

i didn't vote for New Order but it's a good album

using a tape recorder (and not a hard drive) to record house music is pointless lo-fi fetishism in on itself.

rong

Okay, can you then explain why someone would record something in a way that's more difficult, more expensive, and with worse sound quality, if not for lo-fi fetishism?

I spent so much time playing "Unlearn This Hatred" that I'd forgotten how much I love "Singularity" and "Plastic"

New Order still exists?!

because it sounds good! xxp

had no idea new order released anything in 2015

today has been sooooo rocky. indie rock, metal rock, guitars fucking everywhere :(

these joan shelley songs are really pretty though, at least her and eek have been worthwhile discoveries

it's absurd to admonish people for "fetishizing" good sounds

today has been sooooo rocky. indie rock, metal rock, guitars fucking everywhere :(

welcome to the albums poll

I still don't like Colleen Green's lyrical style, but "Deeper Than Love" is pretty gripping

Anyways, Im done for now. Stick around if #61 has anything to offer, but I have a feeling it'll be a long week

don't worry tons of garbage-sounding digital nightmare shit is yet to come

had no idea new order released anything in 2015

today has been sooooo rocky. indie rock, metal rock, guitars fucking everywhere frown emoticon

these joan shelley songs are really pretty though, at least her and eek have been worthwhile discoveries

― cher guevara (lex pretend)

i hope it continues this way just to piss Lex off

because it sounds good! xxp

It sounds good if you like a lo-fi sound. If you don't, something like a tape hiss is not a good sound, it's a recording defect.

then it's not pointless!

i for one love this conversation

it reminds me of 2009

it reminds me of 1989

oh wait OH MY GOD THE EEK RECORD

this is so waaaaackyyyy aaaaaa

I saw Health and Pictureplane play a few months ago and it was not v impressive and I did not even realize they had a record this year

Tooti.
Frooti.

I played it for a while without loving it but I'll walk around humming bits of "Academic." It's not much different from Get Ready or Waiting for the Sirens Call.

Health ended up in my top three, which might be a result of hasty list-making. But I love a lot of that album, especially Life. There lyrics remind me of Swedish band Broder Daniel, at times there's an embarrassing forthrightness that I mostly get from non-English speakers.

then it's not pointless!

It's pointless because house music is about quality music that sounds pristine on a good PA system, that envelopes you and you can feel the craft that's put into producing that sound while you dance to it. Lo-fi may fit rock music and some other genres, but it's antithetical to basic concept of house. People who came up with this genre and refined it put so much care and effort into sound design, adding some tape hiss or whatever "dirty", "rock" elements into it is stupid and insulting.

eek record clearly the best itt so far

house music is about

just going to stop you there

But they've included hiss even on the digital versions of the tunes (on Spotify), you can hear it on "Always" for example! So it's just bullshit lo-fi fetishism that should have nothing to do with house music.

― Tuomas, Monday, January 25, 2016 12:20 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you must not have heard of this guy named ron hardy...

nice to see people enjoying kahraba

Health live was a fun show. The encore was all of 90 seconds and brilliant. This is my least favorite album of theirs, though.

eek record is more effective than a cup of coffee

the pablo and the joan shelley are the only ones ive been able to cope with so far, the problem with the joan shelley is it sounds like they are playing live in Starbucks in the town centre where I am having to wait because there is some problem with the buses. I am actually inside a Starbucks which may have a bearing. I didnt mind the Pablo record either, but a record needs a 'something' though. like the Shelley, it didnt have it. A good ale cant be alcohol free, its better to go without

I played it for a while without loving it but I'll walk around humming bits of "Academic." It's not much different from Get Ready or Waiting for the Sirens Call.

I agree, which is part of why I loved it.

house music is about quality music that sounds pristine on a good PA system

House music is about emotion, vibeyness, hope, and a light breeze

big dogs and lombardy poplars

Didn't end up voting for New Order but happy to see them make it. It's not quite in the same league as Pet Shop Boy's Electric but still a really great album. So much better than I expected it to be.

and escaping the capitalist yoke

I may have missed my bus

<3 u saer

tuomas's euro rave casualty take on house is pretty far removed from chicago 82 but more problematic is that his 'old guy in thread' routine is more mediocre and second-hand than any of the music discussed so far.

OTM

It's pointless because house music is about quality music that sounds pristine on a good PA system, that envelopes you and you can feel the craft that's put into producing that sound while you dance to it. Lo-fi may fit rock music and some other genres, but it's antithetical to basic concept of house. People who came up with this genre and refined it put so much care and effort into sound design, adding some tape hiss or whatever "dirty", "rock" elements into it is stupid and insulting.

― Tuomas, Monday, January 25, 2016 7:47 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

house music doesn't needs its own reinheitsgebot

getting ready to write a Peanuts book of sentiments titled "House is..."

seriously you guys need to put Tuomas back together; at this point, he'll never become a real boy

A 909 Makes A Lousy Umbrella

House is.......A FEELING

Pour one out for the house music pioneers who gave their lives in the great tape hiss wars of 1989.

lo-fi house was definitely some sort of trend in 2015, the project pablo is the tip of the iceberg

it was a trend in 2015?

*unearths the 100% silk thread*

Listening to Eek now. This is something I could actually see myself listening to of my own choice.

http://i.imgur.com/1gNbjwV.jpg

61 DOMENIQUE DUMONT "Comme ça" (262 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
Pitchfork - DNP / P&J - dnp

Project Pablo is part of the Outsider House culture

Outsider House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_house

That's it for the day; more tomorrow!

ILX 77 Albums of 2015 - Day One Recap - Spotify Playlist

77 KURT VILE "B'lieve I'm Goin Down"
76 PROJECT PABLO "I Want to Believe"
75 BRANDON FLOWERS "The Desired Effect"
74 DICK DIVER "Melbourne, Florida"
73 BARONESS "Purple"
72 EEK "Kahraba"
71 FOUR TET "Morning/Evening"
70 GHOST "Meliora"
69 FETTY WAP "Fetty Wap"
68 NEON INDIAN "VEGA Intl. Night School"
67 DEAFHEAVEN "New Bermuda"
66 JME "Integrity>"
65 COLLEEN GREEN "I Want To Grow Up"
64 JOAN SHELLEY "Over and Even"
63 HEALTH "DEATH MAGIC"
62 NEW ORDER "Music Complete”
61 DOMENIQUE DUMONT "Comme ça"

only found this after a track placed in the other poll
beautiful record!

ugh. By way of comparison, last year at this point we'd had:

77 BABYMETAL Babymetal
76 CHER LLOYD Sorry I'm Late
75 MICA LEVI Under the Skin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
74 NOURA MINT SEYMALI Tzenni
73 REAL ESTATE Atlas
72 CALL SUPER Suzi Ecto
71 STURGILL SIMPSON Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
70 NINOS DU BRASIL Novos Mistérios
69 OUGHT More Than Any Other Day
68 WARPAINT Warpaint
67 FUTURE Honest
66 KHUN NARIN Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band
65 THEO PARRISH American Intelligence
64 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Brill Bruisers
63 LEON VYNEHALL Music for the Uninvited
62 DEAN BLUNT Black Metal
61 FREDDIE GIBBS & MADLIB Piñata

You'd never know 2015 was actually a stellar year for albums!

65 THEO PARRISH American Intelligence

this one's better than any album that's going to place this year. otherwise eh

yeah i've been looping dumont since the tracks poll, such a nice little record

The Joan Shelley album was my favorite discovery from the end-of-year discussions on ILM. Gorgeous voice and a bunch of good tunes.

xp i'm aware of that thread but i feel like i heard way more of this stuff in 2015 than any previous year, maybe i just missed out on a lot of it before

Shelley really is awesome. Salsburg's accompaniment is fantastic as well.

62 DEAN BLUNT Black Metal

This one's probably worse than anything that's going to place this year.

Interesting day...I think the only album I voted for was EEK (yay!) but Four Tet was on my longlist (cut for being a bit too boring).

Ghost won the ILM metal poll, if it had the same number of votes here as there it would have been top 20 at least.

Keen to check out JME and Joan Shelley. And Colleen Green I guess, so I can share in the end-times feelings.

Project Pablo is part of the Outsider House culture

Outsider House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_house

― djmartian, Monday, January 25, 2016 10:04 PM

Yeah, it makes sense that this isn't done by people interested in doing proper house music rather than folks who want to process it through their own "outsider" lo-fi filter. And I'm okay with people liking it, it's not my thing, but I don't get why it's so hard to admit that the lo-finess is a deliberate aesthetic choice instead of some "accident".

And it's pointless to compare this stuff to the gritty sound of some of the early Chicago house tunes, because those early producers were truly limited by their equipment, whereas these guys aren't, the way their music sounds is a deliberate choice. Do you honestly think those Chicago producers would've intentionally put tape hiss on their tunes if they'd had the chance to record them digitally without it?

Shelley really is awesome. Salsburg's accompaniment is fantastic as well.

― Evan, Monday, January 25, 2016 8:13 PM (21 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh cool Nathan Salsburg is involved - I voted for Ambsace.

Wholly approve of the Domenique Dumont. Definitely in the lineage of Camino Del Sol, a respite we could all use while contemplating the end of civilization.

Shelley really is awesome. Salsburg's accompaniment is fantastic as well.

― Evan, Monday, January 25, 2016 8:13 PM (21 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh cool Nathan Salsburg is involved - I voted for Ambsace.

― conditional random jepsen (seandalai), Monday, January 25, 2016 3:15 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I did too! Speaking of, Elkington guests on Shelley's album as well.

a lovely end to a kind of crappy start of the countdown. without looking at my ballot, I'm pretty sure I voted Domenique Dumont at #2. Small and perfectly formed album. So easy to just put on and enjoy. Shame people get her / him mixed up with Duke Dumont. My favourite is L'Esprit de L'Escalier which placed in the tracks poll but also been digging Bataille de Neige a lot lately.

Other than that - lots of lightweight quasi metal and unsatisfyingly lo-fi everything else. EEK is great, although I only put it on when I want to remember the live show. seriously, if you ever get to see these live, just go.

Just listening to the Domenique Dumont album for the first time, lovely stuff. Kind of reminds me of Peaking Lights so far.

this is supposed to be the most interesting part of the list

One of the (man) great things about the JME album is how he swapped a copy of the vinyl for a long-sought-after shiny Charizard and commemorated it in song/video:
https://youtu.be/-XvsTYq9INU

wrt/1080p tape releases, I preferred Wywy Brix's Clear Licorice which reverse-engineered bits of YMO & p-funk via Boredoms/eYe's house side-projects.

Dick Diver as a band name doubles up as dolewave sneer + Tender Is The Night reference thought maybe not committed to essential Aussie-ism as The Goon Sax or King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard or w/e, ps happy Invasion Day.

you must not have heard of this guy named ron hardy...

― mattresslessness, Monday, January 25, 2016 11:47 AM Bookmark

Yeahh, I was gonna say. Y'all do realize that house music was born on shitty cassette demos, right?

I've only had a chance to give about half of these a taste but EEK, Petey Pablo (sorry not calling him anything else), and Ghost are my discoveries so far. I voted for Fetty Wap, could have voted for JME but it missed my ballot just cause I voted for other things I'd listened to more. Good record though.

don't get why it's so hard to admit that the lo-finess is a deliberate aesthetic choice instead of some "accident".

because no one as far as I know has been in project pablo's studio to really know. no one's saying it is or it isn't an accident. maybe he just likes this particular sound? in the same way as some rock fans like early Pavement and others like the 1975?

I love that house has now been around so long that people are ready to pedestalise it based on some hardwired reasoning based on something our forefathers fought and died for, just like people have done with punk and rock'n'roll and jazz before.

FWIW this exact conversation used to take place 12 years ago on this board about lo-finding rock

*lo-fi you stupid phone

the lo-fi tape thing in house and techno has been a trend for the last 5 years, see l.i.e.s. and 100% silk like brad says. it's always had a gimmicky over-'authentic' side to it but when it's done well as part of a less ideological and cloistered package it can sound really good in a club environment imo. like w/ dj deep doing his take on it with the rebeval record on l.i.e.s. or marcos cabral being super out there, or some others that take from the aesthetic but have a little more going on in their productions. as per djmartian's wonderfully illuminating data point there is a white hipster element there that that stems from internet-fed retroactive appreciation of early chicago, but i think that since lots of n.y. and l.a. producers who were part of that initial wave have moved to europe, the sound has migrated to vancouver and like greece and mutated. anyway the thing about tape distortion harmonics is they can sound really good and warm, especially when paired with the right hardware, and actual younger u.s. black dance music artists like kyle hall or jay daniel use it to great effect, and really it's been around forever it's just riding a trend cycle atm.

xp to tuomas, i'm not going to get into a hypothetical alternate history argument with you, but here's the ron hardy wikipedia entry for your reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Hardy. i think that lots of producers from that era mainly cared about connecting with the communities they were making music for, and a raw underground sound was tied into that.

I love the HEALTH album. It reminds me of accidentally watching Gregg Araki's The Living End when I was way too young for it. "Fleshworld" should be a gay bondage club anthem.

tape hiss is just great all the time

the dance mania reissue compilations of 90s juke tracks should be mentioned along with revival of interest in artists like steve poindexter or marcus mixx. xps

Neon Indian does not sound like what I expected Neon Indian to sound like? The name had me thinking AnCo-esque freak folk but this is cool.

you must not have heard of this guy named ron hardy...

― mattresslessness, Monday, January 25, 2016 11:47 AM Bookmark

Yeahh, I was gonna say. Y'all do realize that house music was born on shitty cassette demos, right?

― The Reverend, Monday, January 25, 2016 10:28 PM Bookmark

I already answered to this point upthread... It's totally different from being truly limited by the technology you have at hand, as some of those early 80s producers were, to deliberately producing a lo-fi, distorted sound, as this Project Pablo is doing. (Anyone who says that is nothing but intentional to do this kind of sound in the year 2015, where you can produce and record quality electronic music on your laptop, is not really being honest.)

When those original Chicago house producers got hold of some proper equipment and a recording studio, they certainly didn't go on and reproduce the shitty cassette sound of their original demos.

dominique dumont... nice. weird #1 choice tho

again, see dance mania. stop saying the same shit and learn something. xp

kinda like a balearic-tinged camino del sol

There's been lo-fi dance music coming out of Chicago at all points since.

I think my favorite thing from today's reveal that I hadn't heard before is the Neon Indian. This is what music sounds like when you're listening to music while trying to fall asleep at the same time. Oddly, but pleasantly, disjointed.

https://youtu.be/TWi-S0voyBk

oh no it's lo-fi

xp: For the curious, here is an EEK advertisement for Cairo wedding gigs, from 2012.
― astrophagy might not be immediately obvious (Sanpaku)

Yes! I was like "Are they going to bumrush the stage?" and then they bumrushed the stage and that other guy stayed mad and they were like too bad we're way more lit than you and it was great.

There's been lo-fi dance music coming out of Chicago at all points since.

So? I wasn't saying that no house track ever made in Chicago in the last 30 years has never had lo-fi sound, either because of technical limitations or an aesthetic choice. I was merely responding to the claim that original Chicago house had some sort of inherent lo-fi aesthetic just because the early tracks were circulated on shitty cassette demos. When those original producers went to the studio and recorded with proper equipment, the result was not particularly lo-fi. Even the one track Ron Hardy did for Trax in 1985 sounds fairly polished for its era.

"Sensation" doesn't even have a consistent tempo!

Have you fucking tried to mix that record? Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

Also, if you read old interviews of people like Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan, etc, sound design and sound quality was quite important to them. Sure they might've been exceptions, but it's not like preference for a lo-fi sound was the norm.

(xxpost)

While Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse (and later the Power Plant) had a very smooth style of playing, Hardy was very different. He had less regard for sound quality and would play with a manic energy, mixing everything from classic Philadelphia Disco classics, Italo disco imports to new wave, disco and rock tracks. Hardy also pitched records up way more than Knuckles (pitch being the difference between normal speed and the speed at which the record is currently playing. Usually expressed as + or -, with 8 being maximum/minimum). Techno artist Derrick May remembers hearing Ron playing a Stevie Wonder cut with the speed at +8.

Trademarks[edit]
Hardy played a lot of reel-to-reel edits and was always tweaking the soundsystem and playing with the EQ. A Ron Hardy trademark was playing a track backwards. Theo Parrish and several others have said that he did this by turning the needle upside down and putting the record on a cylinder so the needle played the underside of the record, although Stacey Collins says that he did this by using a reel-to-reel. Hardy's residence-club The Muzic Box was also known for its very loud sound volume.

Yes, I can read Wikipedia, can you read my posts?

sadly

i've been reading the same posts from you about dance music for 10 years.

i like the domenique dumont, very pleasant. sounds like a wes anderson soundtrack, in a good way.

is it actually six tracks or is it another weird spotify truncated album?

Thomas, yr saying lo-fi is antithetical to all house music, which is wrong. Your arguments are switching.

Hardy was an exception that proves this. Also there's a load of great cheaply made, non veneered house music throughout history. Sheen is not intrinsic.

it's actually six tracks xpost

I just want to interrupt this boring argument to say that this Joan Shelley record is really fucking good.

Kurt Vile, Fetty Wap (both of which I voted for, I think) and Colleen Green (meh) were the only ones I've heard so far today, but the Joan Shelley, Domenique, and Pablo were all good discoveries. I had avoided the HEALTH until today because of the band's previous reputation but I liked it, will have to listen again.

Not a fan of the new New Order.

Pretty obsessed with the Dumont record now, hoping the rumors of a repress are true.

I don't like Colleen Green either, but I am lolling so hard at you guys getting flustered about it, it's unbelievable.

Yeah, the reaction seemed ott for something that's fairly boilerplate 90s alt revivalism.

I already lived through that once, I don't have to sit through it again

i have this albums playlist on random and i was peeling beets and wearing kitchen gloves caked in beet juice and a horrible brandon flowers song came on and i wasn't able to change it.

I hope it was this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmPEoC7vg4

if you read old interviews of people like Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan, etc, sound design and sound quality was quite important to them.

and it's important to Project Pablo too! christ. do you automatically assume anything with tape hiss is intentionally lazy?

project pablo is better than any of the other albums, that's why i voted it #1

it's wild to me it has inspired the most heated discussion of the poll so far. shame it's such a boring one

“This one’s for North Carolina, come on and raise up!”

tuomas go listen to some hieroglyphic being

i never thought about the lo-fi-ness of it until flopson mentioned it in the bobbins thread. it's rough around the edges but that makes it mix well with a variety of old records, so it serves a practical purpose for me.

also, there are house/techno producers that bounce their shit off of cassette that you would not expect. legowelt is not necessarily considered a "lo-fi" "outsider" dude, but he does this all the time

xp: For the curious, here is an EEK advertisement for Cairo wedding gigs, from 2012.

― astrophagy might not be immediately obvious (Sanpaku)

this is rad btw

― ulysses, Monday, January 25, 2016 8:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so fucking good

I don't have a problem with tape hiss as an aesthetic choice but I thought that Project Pablo album was boring and unimaginative

why are canadian electronic producers all so annoying?

lol'n. u can never be strong u can only be 1080p.

feel like if ilm has time for that bring yr inner architect to work shit that villalabos is on than its good it has time for the quiet grace of the four/tet ep. its a nice thing to listen to sometimes

feel like Colleen Green as 90s revivalism is a total misread, but I also only really feel strongly about one track on the album so I should probably just go to bed. hoping Dilly Dally gets in as genuine 90s revivalism. I'll check in tomorrow.

the Four Tet reminds me of this, which is never a bad thing and part of the reason I voted for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJOIpqJ2VqA

eh sorry I didn't mean to embed

thought eek might have been a bit less to peeps tastes
v happy to see the love

don't have a problem with tape hiss as an aesthetic choice but I thought that Project Pablo album was boring and unimaginative
― boxedjoy, Monday, 25 January 2016 22:15 (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it doesn't quite do enough to hold my attention. using it in a mix context as karl said upthread is a neat idea though.

didn't vote but would've voted for eek

tuomas go listen to some hieroglyphic being

hey i'll tell you something, i reckon tuomas would actually love the hieroglyphic being record 'we are not the first' that came out this year where he's working with a live jazz musicians like marshall allen. it's murky but it's pretty wild arkestra-goes-techno stuff. good tracks to check are 'civilization that is dying' which has got some really great avant-seagull vocals from shelley hirsch on it, and 'cybernetics is an old science', which isn't on youtube at all but is more of a straight-up skronky techno banger.

tuomas go listen to some hieroglyphic being

― lute bro (brimstead), Monday, January 25, 2016 2:10 PM Bookmark

I had to shave the Hieroglyphic Being album from my ballot :(

feel like Colleen Green as 90s revivalism is a total misread

A lot of it sounds like Matador-era Liz Phair, at least in spirit, so I wouldn't call it a total misread.

would love to see him on this list, he had a good year xp

not going to happen though alas

A lot of it sounds like Matador-era Liz Phair, at least in spirit, so I wouldn't call it a total misread.

Meh, it feels a little too art-damaged to be 'boilerplate' though. More like Veruca Salt as an Itchy 'n Scratchy cartoon

Colleen Green is maybe akin to what Hot Fruit might turn into once they get the Nike endorsement

Now I''m intrigued!

I'm so happy that one of the highlights from today's rollout was Mitski.

You and me both.

Thirded. And although I already knew about it, I've not gotten EEK out of my head at any point this evening. Like, Islam Chipsy is just in there, playing keys. Forever.

it gets me pumped

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/1724383/gabber-from-the-hollands-o.gif

All we need now is for Voice Coils to show up for real... Oh I listened to those two tracks from 2014 too - stunning!

This Joan Shelley album (well the bit that's on Spotify) <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Didn't vote for anything today! I loved the last kurt vile record but this one was boring as hell imo

agreed

the domenique dumont is pretty cool taken as a whole piece, good music for making dinner.

tbh i love this project pablo stuff. lot more joy in this than i've heard in deliberately lo-fi house over the past few years

^_^

i get thinking that deliberately inhabiting a kind of extramusical aesthetic of early house can be read as...cynical maybe? but there's a lot of warmth and delight here

gets it

lord

what's the early house that sounds like petey pablo?

idk i was just talking about tape hiss

listen to more house music

ok

i luv gimmicks

just saying... there's a massive massive history of classic house tunes (starting from the genre's very beginnings) that aren't joyful, delightful, warm etc.

still have no idea what your point is

that's not what i'm saying!

my point is mostly "tuomas is ridiculous, and this record is good"

lol @ me i totally moved the goalposts there, sorry.

kyle hall's album from last year had TONS of hiss

tuomas would probably complain about that too, though. oh well, i like noise and distortion etc in music.

65 COLLEEN GREEN "I Want To Grow Up"
63 HEALTH "DEATH MAGIC"

My votes to place so far (assuming I'm remembering right).

3/17

interesting day, i really don't know that many of these.

Tuomas strikes me as making a more ham-fisted (b/c less attuned to nuanced social dynamics) version of some of the criticisms made of 100% Silk in the Hipster House thread (which prompted a much better and more thoughtful discussion than we're able to have here so long as Tuomas' complaints are framing the terms of the argument), so it seems worth reposting this great Dan Selzer post to that thread:

it's hard to sort out who's coming from where because of the crossover. That Two Dogs track is Ron Morelli and Jason Letkiewicz. Ron is yr classic old school punk kid turned house/techno guy who's been spinning house and techno since the pre-DFA days. I don't know Jason's background as well because I only met him recently but he's obviously well versed in the history of dance music, with his various projects/psuedonyms, Steve Summers, Rhythm Based Lovers, Innergaze, and he actually vacillates with this aesthetic. Sometimes it's more purist stuff, other times its more hazy/crossover hipster stuff. (again, hipster not in a pejorative sense). They're distinct stylistic choices and there is a difference. Innergaze, which he does with Aurora, cover star of a Minimal Wave comp, has a more lo-fi/minimal synth/experimental influence vibe.

Runaway/On the Prowl etc mentioned above is Marcos Cabral, who was working at Sonic Groove Records in NY w/ Brennan Greene and a serious techno head back before anyone in NY was even playing disco, let alone classic house, (except for actual house DJs, who existed in their own little ghetto separate from techno). It's him and Jacques Renault, and they're coming out of more recent nu-disco scenes, but they're hanging out with L.I.E.S. and going to the same parties.

So you've got people who've been making "techno" and "house" for years and years who are involved in this, and then you have people who are very new to it with varying levels of experience/understanding. In NY there's this whole bushwick yoga house scene, which ties into New Age revivalism as well, and aesthetically is maybe closer to the 100% Silk stuff. They too DJ the real stuff, but when making new stuff, these other influences will come to play.

But a lot of the west coast stuff we're talking about, the 100% silk and Ital stuff, I think has that early Italians Do It Better influence, where it's more lo-fi and artsy take on house music. House music neophytes (recent studies or not) coming out of more experimental noise contexts who don't have the baggage of purism even when they try to be slavishly derivative. But I think Ital just moved to Brooklyn anyway? So maybe he'll suddenly decide to go Diva house anyway. Maybe he's just visiting. In any case, the "difference" doesn't have to be "they don't know how to produce proper dance music" or "hipsters think they're cooler than proper dance music", it's just dance music with a few different influences then people are used to. Maybe that makes it OK for "hipsters" to finally like house music, like Justice made it OK for rockers to like club music or LCD or Glass Candy or whomever. I think there's a noticeable sonic difference from people tweaking dance music from the outside and from the inside. Take Metro Area and LCD Soundsystem. With the former you have artists coming up through "proper" house and techno, bringing in New Wave and Disco and Boogie influences, with the latter you have an artist coing up through punk/post-punk/rock. Both stretched the sound in their times in different ways.

And I think there's a conflict between admiring the mixed to cassette aesthetic, which is a big part of the sound, and an understanding of what sounds good on a system. I know certain hip local labels who started dabbling in music for clubs with similar acts recently and were initially frustrated by the realization that they have to mix and master for the dancefloor if they want it to sound good mixed in with other dance musics. This is a lesson every dance label in the history of dance music has learned, usually the hard way. It's not just about making it work at the Ministry of Sound, if 100% Silk hear their 12"s played enough at venues that aren't a house party rocking through somebody's stereo speakers, they'll get bummed. It's just harder to dance to stuff that sounds quiet and mushy. I'm assuming that's the complaint, I've never heard those 12"s.

― dan selzer, Thursday, October 13, 2011 12:44 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah yeah that is a great post, i had totally forgotten about it

Even if you lived last year on a unihabited island and it was the only CD you managed to bring along, surely the seagulls would be preferable to... this?

― Tuomas, lunes 25 de enero de 2016 18:47 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hahaha. I voted for Colleen Green and I love it (unsurprising since I've been described around here as the corny indie blogger around here and this is pretty much corny indie music) but I love Tuomas reaction to this. I'm stealing this phrase to use it in real life.

Don't blame me for today. I'm just an EEK cheerleader (1, 2, 3). 1/25

yeah that post was great, prob could've bumped that thread to discuss the mood hut stuff over the past couple years

EEK is good. Reminds me of Khuna Narin Electric Phin Band from last year. I guess both are modal psychedelic jam bands that sometimes play weddings. Kind of intrigued by Health as well. This is the sort of synth pop I could get into.

HEALTH is excellent. Definitely recommend their early stuff.

that 100% silk thread is thee best

kurt vile - mvp in the guy-playing-guitar-at-the-party big leagues

project pablo - my #1. love reading this by tuomas as someone who has never heard of any of the artists mentions and for whom they just sound like made up names:

If they'd put some proper effort to the sound, they could've compared to acts like Moomin or Netto Houz or Swayzak (though still not as good, obviously!)

brandon flowers - skimming thru a full album youtube... (first song) i never would have expected the singer of the killers to make music like this, very am radio americana. (second song) chorus won me over, 'no youre NOT gonna NOT gonna DENIE!' lmao. (third song) i like the hi pitched soft cell bxg vocals

dick diver - listening to 'year in pictures', kinda rem-ey, nice subtle chorus. 'tearing the posters down' really downtempo indie rock, another subtle & carefully constructed song. bit too much of a slow chugger though.

baroness - not in the mood to listen to this buut... cool drummer. alternates between parts where i'm like 'is this even metal?' and parts where i'm like 'oh yeah this is metal'

eek - read people's reactions to this so expecting something pretty weird... fuck i think i'm listening to am album sampler. pretty sweet though, that bagpipe-like squeal is pretty intoxicating. echoing what lex said above it kinda tugs at the borderline of being irritating without ever crossing the line and playing with that tension. love their logo

four tet - listening to 'morningside'. beautiful. the swell of the bass, mmmMMmmm... mmMMMmmmmmm...curious as to whether its just this asian ballad so i'm skipping ahead... sum clangin beats

ghost - the scooby doo comment upthread otm re the intro. very boring chugging metal with bland vocals that sound like the thermals?? wtf?!!

fetty wap - love this album. 679 potentially the best fetty song

neon indian - i liked the single from this. reading j0rdans post and feeling chagrined that music that was popular when i was in college already sounds dated. it's cool that he kept with his schtick though instead of ditching it for the next thing, he is forever a master of squelchy pop. (clicked on full album youtube of saint pepsi - hit vibes on a whim, pretty fun!)

deafheaven - i guess only the bad metal gets onto the boardwide list. jk this gets pretty good. another great drummer

jme - all the grime songs in the last 2 years polls have been awesome. listening to the title track of this... woah... so good. great video, too. listening to 'taking over' as per lex' request. idk if its cause of the video (of jme exploring an abondoned house) but beat sounds very spooky mario dungeon. lol @ 'too many self righteous vegan bars'. now listening to 'serious' from 2007... ok this is way better

colleen green - listening to 'pay attention'. i like it. surprised by the strongly negative reactions in the thread. i mean, it's not great. love this micro review by saer:

the problem with the joan shelley is it sounds like they are playing live in Starbucks in the town centre where I am having to wait because there is some problem with the buses. I am actually inside a Starbucks which may have a bearing.

*became curious about who mitski is, looks up her bandcamp* pretty good, didn't really read the context but if this is being held up as vastly superior to colleen green, i can't say if it's definitively better or worse on one listen? the squawking feedback is great though, CG could use somma that

joan shelley - listening to title track. it's good when a poll like this can tip you off from something like this i never would have checked out otherwise. transfixing in more ways than one: the looping guitar that sounds like it's tying a knot over and over (ha!), the harmonics in the background, her vocals

health - tried this one out before, not sure i can dig it but i want to because i believe in tim

new order - god am i really going to listen to this? how could this be good? listening to 'resistance'. hey, not too bad! thread got good so i'm reading more intently now, and kinda finding myself grooving to this. i like when singers let their voices change naturally as they age and don't go out of their way to recreate their style when they were younger

domenique dumont - i listened to this at work the other day after the trax thread, super good

good music today folks

ps- tuomas is the god damn mvp of this thread, as in every year

100% Silk had a quite good 2015, imo

My enjoyment of HEALTH is strongly bound up in a lot of half-formed ideas about industrial and pre-millennial apocalyptic thinking and deviant sex culture and gay clubbing and HIV and a whole bunch of other things and instead strongly suspect that this subtext ain't gonna rapidly become text for anyone other than me.

getting a very strong Sandy Denny vibe from Joan Shelley

not sure I'm capable of understanding the appeal of Fetty Wap, guess I'm just old

Sorry I've been working all day and couldn't play music, but holy fuck, guys, EEK

eekphus!

i'm not worthy

project pablo - my #1. love reading this by tuomas as someone who has never heard of any of the artists mentions and for whom they just sound like made up names:

moomin is still releasing good stuff, mostly very polite acid-tinged deep house on smallville. wouldn't be surprised if saer likes some of his stuff. swayzak made some classic minimal tech house tracks, has nothing to do with project pablo at all. idk about the other one

62 DEAN BLUNT Black Metal

This one's probably worse than anything that's going to place this year.

Ha. I love that record!

ugh. By way of comparison, last year at this point we'd had:

77 BABYMETAL Babymetal
76 CHER LLOYD Sorry I'm Late
75 MICA LEVI Under the Skin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
74 NOURA MINT SEYMALI Tzenni
73 REAL ESTATE Atlas
72 CALL SUPER Suzi Ecto
71 STURGILL SIMPSON Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
70 NINOS DU BRASIL Novos Mistérios
69 OUGHT More Than Any Other Day
68 WARPAINT Warpaint
67 FUTURE Honest
66 KHUN NARIN Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band
65 THEO PARRISH American Intelligence
64 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Brill Bruisers
63 LEON VYNEHALL Music for the Uninvited
62 DEAN BLUNT Black Metal
61 FREDDIE GIBBS & MADLIB Piñata

You'd never know 2015 was actually a stellar year for albums!

― Jeff W, Monday, January 25, 2016 8:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the most obvious thing about last year's 77-61 batch is how much more diverse it is. yesterday's was spectacularly undiverse imo.

hoping that 2015's brilliance has ended up in a concentration higher up of the interesting stuff...

moomin is still releasing good stuff, mostly very polite acid-tinged deep house on smallville. wouldn't be surprised if saer likes some of his stuff. swayzak made some classic minimal tech house tracks, has nothing to do with project pablo at all. idk about the other one

yeah that post was great, prob could've bumped that thread to discuss the mood hut stuff over the past couple years

I Havent been grabbed by any Moomin records ive heard, but some of the Swayzak records are fantastic. The distinction between 'real stuff' and 'other' is entirely arbitrary once its in a mix, never write a record off because of a name on the sleeve, log cabins, big dogs, canal dredgers, they can be found anywhere. One of the pender street steppers records Ive not been able to stop playing since it came out, I heard it before i knew what it was, a feeling inside where mental stress and anxiety is immediately replaced with serenity and hope is more important than finding out later it is also on a cassette. its just a name on a sleeve

not quite the same level of intensity, but those enjoying eek might also enjoy 'king of keyboard' released by rizan said last year too

and if you dont like the word you can always paint over it!

someone mentioned lex vs canada upthread but i'm not sure whether lex vs australia isn't a more bitter fight

it is their day today after all

best smallville track this year was smallpeople's "lowrider anarchy"

feeling the Neon Indian!