ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

seandalai has just revealed to me some very distressing news about the albums poll results. I shall not share, but know that I am sitting at my desk fighting tears.

― Johnny Fever

lol

― seandalai

http://i.imgur.com/s4G3zjg.png

77. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Centipede Hz (204 Points, 8 Votes, 1 First Place Vote) Spotify

This one crept into the top 77 in the final days of voting, hence my comment above.

That's it for now. I'll be back later today with #'s 76-61.

http://antiherofitness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/profarsnworth.jpg

People still like this band huh.

lol. didn't realize they didn't even place on Pitchfork.

hahahaha wow.

btw, surprised at this starting so early

I'm a nerd who wanted to kick it off at midnight (on the east coast, anyway).

It's a soft launch.

barf

Kinda sad that Anco did better here than P&J or Pfork, but still having them at #77 is perrrrrfect

78 woulda been better

anco at 77 is even better than anco not placing at all imo.

also no way ilx was going to let an anco record go w/out voting for it

still haven't listened to this. kind of curious all of a sudden as to why the general response was so underwhelming.

damn, when are you planning on rolling this out?

mob mentality in part.

also poor production choices.

I've never heard anything by them that didn't have terrible production choices.

I was the one who placed it at number one. It is probably the best thing anco has made since Here Comes the Indian (only Strawberry Jam might compete): Chaotic, weird and LOUD. And of course the whole indie-sphere recoiled and opted for safer ground. Yeah, I might have become more ardent about it because of it's response, but it is really great. They march in 7/4, shout 'monkey' at the rich, and dissapear into a mushroom forrest.

yeah i thought that was a part of the appeal? xp

I thought the #1 vote would've been someone trollin' hard but ey fair enough Frederik I suppose. I'm a terrible Anco fanboy but apart from a couple of songs (probably more moments than songs, even) I didn't come close to getting into this. The brash + ugly aesthetic that I think they somehow made work on Strawberry Jam and to a lesser extent on MPP is just ugly-ugly here.

good post frederik.

yep, nice post Frederik and power to you for sticking to your guns.

bahahahaha @ JF contemptuously flicking this out of the way ahead of time

I've been one of ilm's most vocal supporters. The amount of word space I've dedicated to defending them since 2004 when I first discovered them as a troupe of noise/folk beach boys-influenced weirdos is unaccountable. But here was where the buck stopped. After three albums of diminishing returns they finally made the album they'd always threatened to. It's pretty much guff all the way through. Every irritation they're all too often associated with was amplified on this album. It's just so fucking wanky I haven't been able to get through the whole thing more than once.

I still rep for that crazy sample-based 2-track single, Honeycomb/Gotham they released last year though. I'd hoped the new album was gonna sound like that but no, it was just terrible.

Re: production choices - these have marred the last two albums or so very badly. For some reason they seem hell bent on finding this disgusting frequency and then distorting it to thw point it sounds like a lo-bit mp3 scraping through a cheese grater. While on previous albums it was less present, and any graininess could have been attributed to the fact they were once very much entrenched in the same Brooklyn noise scene as Black Dice, since MPP it's developed into an excruciating blanket of constant high-mid screeing.

Amazed that it didn't place on PF though. Wow.

obviously not flavour of the week on pitchfork now.

didnt vote for it but that album is good so stfu

I refuse to believe this is radically worse than the rest of their music.

Flavour of the week - PF have been propping up AC for years now. At some point, and I don't know who came to meet who, they became representative of THE typical PF band.

For me, AC's decline is more to do with them slowly going from noise-influenced deconstructed folk/psychedelia experimental pop with shitloads of ideas --> prissy, cloying, "fashionable"-in-a-horrible-way, increasingly influenced by their own imitators, and apparently doing their best to exacerbate the issues that have been attributed to them over the years. Since Strawberry Jam, I've been waiting for them to somehow consolidate everything and actually make an album as good as Sung Tongs, Feels or Campfire Songs, but the only times they seem to come close are on EPs and side-projects. Their album output appears to be cursed into compromising the band as something in Pitchfork's making, and now even the hand that feeds them has lost interest.

I'm glad some people enjoyed this record. I still hope they'll one day come back with a truly excellent album, but for the last several years it's felt like "making do" for me.

Stoked for this list anyway, for the last few years the albums list has tended to be the one that throws up a load of curveballs and interesting shit.

more like coughing up a hairball so far

was kind of jf to post a b&w version of that album cover btw. this sounds v. dumb, but that horrible thing completely killed any residual excitement for hearing it. i was disappointed before i even played it.

Looking forward to having a read and maybe checking out an album or two. From the tacks list that has currently gone over into a few albs anyway but I'm expecting a couple more I'd be compelled to check whose tracks didn't make it onto that poll.

Want to encourage everyone to post youtube links (not embeds!!!) to what they think are the best trax off the albums they like btw.

(You don't need to do it yet, I don't think I'd willingly click on an Anco link in a million years. Doesn't "Anco" sound like the abbreviation of a stock exchange?)

liking the imgs so far too - JF was it deliberate to cut off the band name so that it basically reads "bad collective"?

xpost
Reminds me of Amstrad or something, although I've only seen the abbreviation used (usually in a negative context) on ILM.

I think it's a Hipster Runoff thing. Maybe now that we're post-buzz they're relegated back to plain old AC.

Want to encourage everyone to post youtube links (not embeds!!!) to what they think are the best trax off the albums they like btw.

Was going to ask this but thought I might be the only person NOT on spotify. Otherwise I'll check out random tracks if I feel it might be something interesting.

liking the imgs so far too - JF was it deliberate to cut off the band name so that it basically reads "bad collective"?

No abbreviations are deliberate, but every image is made with the same template and I'm going b&w this year. A few of the albums' art really pops more than you'd think with the color removed.

seandalai has just revealed to me some very distressing news about the albums poll results. I shall not share, but know that I am sitting at my desk fighting tears.

― Johnny Fever

I assumed this was a comment on the lack of love for Niki & the Dove.

http://i.imgur.com/zqEyGav.png

76. JEREMIH Late Nights With Jeremih (206 Points, 10 Votes)

Didn't think that many people on here rated this Jeremih album. Might have put it on my list, but only heard it a few days before I voted.

Didn't really like the track I heard of that on the other poll, seemed like a soup of different prod effects without anything much as back up.

iirc

Yeah, 773 Love was one of the only tracks in the 77 that I felt didn't deserve to be there - so inert - so I haven't heard the album.

i did like "fuck u all the time" off late nights - really compelling minimalism - but in the main i agree with what rtc said on the trax poll; it's an adequate stopgap mixtape that isn't as fully realised in terms of songcraft or vision as jeremih's best work. surely even fans of "773 love" must acknowledge there's tons of nondescript filler on it? in terms of r&b mixtapes, kalenna's chamber of diaries - which is far from perfect itself - still seemed much more of a statement.

also, one of the best tracks on late nights, "ahh shit", is just an inferior take on the beat for goapele's "play"

Late Nights isn't as good as his first album and there is nothing in the same league as Another Song (his best moment by a mile) but it's a really good album, only a little filler. Agree that his take on the Goapele track is pointless, the original is already perfect.

http://i.imgur.com/VBMFhzP.png

75. BIGBANG Alive EP (210 Points, 6 Votes, 1 First Place Vote) Spotify

Is this k-Pop?

It is.

Highlight from the Big Bang album in my opinion http://youtu.be/1qnV55LUFVM

Many people will point to 'Fantastic Baby', though.

'Monster' is on there too yeah? Or was that a special edition?

all the k-pop i see makes me think it's where the spirit of early-00s pop-rap/pop-r&b went

the videos are incredible too

have you heard gangnam style yet lex?

not that one

The videos I've seen are always incredibly fun. It's good to see unabashed excess at a time where a lot of Western music errs on the side of restrained tastefulness. That said, personally I'm not convinced I'd really want to listen to much K-pop outside of a YouTubing context.

bah, that was badly worded.

I bumped that 2NE1 tracks from last year's poll in my car for a long while, but yeah...I'm more of a day tripper in the K-Pop world than a regular.

Big Bang is on the same label as Psy (although he didn't start out there), hip-hop and rnb-centered YG Entertainment. Founded by a member (who mostly just danced) of one of the influential k-pop groups of the 90s. Important for all of k-pop's homebred sounds.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb684lWq2d1qhnjc2o1_1349022389_cover.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/61vbpNN.png

74. DAPHNI Jiaolong (213 Points, 9 Votes) Spotify

ah glad to see big bang place, narrowly missed out on my ballot

I'm getting into this Daphni album on a cursory listen. The synths are meaty.

Oh we've started, cool. Couldn't really get into Jiaolong, a bit too functional for me.

I was one of the Centipede Hz voters; it's far from AC's recent peak and the production doesn't help, but it's still an album I enjoy. I'm not going to waste keyboard strokes defending it though. Nobody who disliked Feels or MPP is going to be won over by CHertz.

I've had it hanging around for a few weeks. Been meaning to give it a proper listen but have been put off cos I'm not a big fan of Snaith as Caribou (at least, I didn't really understand the praise for his last album, Swim - it really felt like an indie guy's idea of what a dance record should sound like). Still, whenever a track from Jiaolong pops up on shuffle I end up quite enjoying it. There's one track that comes up quite often that has a classic disco beat that's been chopped up and it sounds a lot more satisfying than anything on Swim.

Oh, is this Snaith? I had no idea. I totally missed this all year.

a bit too functional for me

I could see this, but the synth parts look intersting

daphni album is cool, makes me happy whenever i hear it, didn't strike me as ~essential~ enough to come near my votes but it's way better than anything i've heard in his caribou guise

The remix of the old funky Togolese song is the highlight of the Daphni album for me. I suppose it is a very slight type of album, but I still play it very often. I think I voted for it.

what's the deal with Daphni? how does it differ in concept to Caribou?

Manitoba/Caribou has always had a psychedelic tinge and iirc a ton of live instrumentation. This seems largely sample-based and electronic.

It's a Snaith fully embracing dance music type side project.

glad to see the BIGBANG EP place, was my #1

Yeah Daphni is him basically doing straight-up house and techno. It's pretty good but got culled from my ballot.

I am loving these chords on "Ahora"!

http://i.imgur.com/7uQHzdK.png

73. TWIN SHADOW Confess (214 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

i constantly get mixed up between this and gazelle twin

it's the one they're all talking about

i constantly get mixed up between this and gazelle twin

― more like bog satin (dog latin), Monday, January 28, 2013 1:14 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even for a dl post this is amazing to me

i don't know what either sound like TBF

i gawped a bit, didn't know how to respond.

if only more people confused them to the extent of repping for gazelle twin instead ;_;

I do like some tracks on this album, but it's not as much my thing as the debut was.

i always get Twin Shadow confused with Wild Nothing in the sense that i gave both of their albums a cursory once over earlier in the year and they were both fairly innocuous things that didn't stick.

Surprised this is so low, thought it had a lot more support. I still haven't got round to hearing his first album.

I haven't heard the Daphni album yet, but from all descriptions I thought it'd be more ilx-bait than a 74 placing.

And poor old Animal Collective.

Did "Today's Supernatural" make the singles poll? I voted for that, but the album itself? Nah.

http://i.imgur.com/lK9Q2t7.png

72. VATICAN SHADOW Ghosts of Chechnya (216 Points, 7 Votes) Spotify

Next up DJ Shadow.

The Shadows.

This was the only thing in the top 77 I'd never even heard of. Where/what thread were people stanning for it?

I think he had his own thread?

yes!!!!

first of my votes to place. spent a lot of time with it this winter. heard it too late for it to make some of my other ballots (eg guardian) but it snuck into my top 10.

despite the lolaustere titles, it's actually a rather beautiful and beguiling album, eg "snipers as a breed tend to be superstitious" - even at its doomiest, it's never just about being forbidding - love how "the hamburg cell was born in chechnya" builds, the brutal percussion set against the imperious synths. i think i could even imagine "peace rage" on a dancefloor.

Oh, and there was definitely chatter on the mutant techno thread, whatever unwieldy title that had. xp

yes

Vatican Shadow has released SO MUCH STUFF this year, it's pretty hard to know where to start, or even what's what. I'm a fan of his power-electronics alter-ego Prurient who released a fantastic album about a year or two ago called Bermuda Drain. Ghosts of Chechnya I've only given a quick listen to, but it's very good. Not quite dance, not quite industrial, not quite ambient, there's a foreign affairs concept running through all these works which I like, and the music itself is plaintive, esoteric and very much something to get lost in.

(vat shad released another album this year which was a lot more industrial, which i couldn't get into - i've been vaguely aware of him for a while but not a fan til GOC, he seems to be quite prolific, i believe ghosts of chechnya is his first overtly techno-y album?)

Oh, almost all of that took place around xmas when I was out of town and away from computers.

lol @ this from the thread:

he says he started making Vatican Shadow tracks because... he wanted more Muslimgauze albums to listen to.

― 2am chopped top (brimstead), Tuesday, 25 December 2012 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Surely the world has enough

haha

I think this guy needs to get out of his bunker and collaborate w/Diamanda Galas or something something

love that vatican shadow album!

that would be amaaaaaaazing

xp

For some reason I see him as the anti-Skrillex

this twin shadow album is real fucking drag on the first couple of tracks but five seconds is a pretty good song if you like that sort of thing - sounds like a cross between icehouse and john waite

five seconds was the track that placed in the tracks poll

lol it did sound familiar

Lol I always get Twin Shadow confused w Vatican Shadow

I get vatican shadow confused with gazelle twin

Vatican Gazelle

Vatican Gazelle will top next year's album poll.

100% Pitchfork DNP so far

http://i.imgur.com/1VSBYUC.png

71. NITE JEWEL One Second of Love (216 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

I get them confused with Vincent Black Shadow (which featured a twin engine)

weird that Twin Shadow didn't place on pfork. didn't it get a glowing review or something?

Want to hear the last two for sure

voted for the title track off the nite jewel in the tracks poll, but a whole album of that was just a bit too much for me

I like what she's aiming for, but it's a really clumsy album.

i think i listened to Nite Jewel once through and left it at that, but its solid placing here is encouraging me to listen with fresh ears.

This is the first thing I'd heard from Nite Jewel and I haven't fully explored its many layers yet. From what I can tell it's a pretty complicated album that'll take a while to fully get to grips with. Her vocal style reminds me of early-mid 90s Madonna a little bit, and I like the production. Love the fact the album starts with the lines "I'm a broken record / You have heard this before", which I suppose is kind of brave, but it works.

whoa we got an early start today didn't we

nite jewel album was a misfire but i still have faith in her

I was the one who placed it at number one. It is probably the best thing anco has made since Here Comes the Indian (only Strawberry Jam might compete): Chaotic, weird and LOUD. And of course the whole indie-sphere recoiled and opted for safer ground. Yeah, I might have become more ardent about it because of it's response, but it is really great. They march in 7/4, shout 'monkey' at the rich, and dissapear into a mushroom forrest.

― Frederik B, Monday, January 28, 2013 12:41 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also yeah this is a good post, centipede hz is the first anco album i've liked at all and it's because they seem to be reveling in their quirks and weirdness rather than half-pretending to be a regular band.

One Second of Love was one of my votes - stripping away the hazy production was a brave move that I guess lost her some fans but it works for me. Patricia Rushen vibes are not entirely an unfashionable influence atm but at the same time the album feels quite singular. Autograph is a song I've had in my head for most of the year.

i just think too much of that album is kinda sleepy

Really didn't like the Nite Jewel record, which was a shame as I loved the previous one. The last track and the lead single are good but the rest lacked the depth of its predecessor.

Lack of hazy production = a good thing in my eyes, maybe why I like this. There's a lot of music that sounds a bit like Nite Jewel at the moment, but this is different in that even the slightly clunky bits are there bold as brass and not smothered in greasy sustain. See also the Laurel Halo album (which a lot of people, perhaps quite rightly, really hate) but could be seen as a statement against what has become the default practice of applying reverb and other fx by the spadeload.

http://i.imgur.com/g0APvrK.png

70. LONE Galaxy Garden (216 Points, 9 Votes) Spotify

For all those who found Inspector Norse too polite, may I suggest Lone's Galaxy Garden?

yay

also lol

Did you mean that the other way? Inspector Norse is a massively polite track.

Okay, I have no idea what this is. Thoughts from fans?

xp I thought he meant it was less polite than Norse? But I don't know...

DJP loves it. When I listened to it, it sounded like they have trouble finding the beat (for which I was promptly chastised). Whatevs, but I did not like it very much.

i tried with this, but it didn't grab me as much as the last album

basically it's a dude in 2012 making sparkly rave music with lots of gorgeous synths and samba syncopation

Did you mean that the other way? Inspector Norse is a massively polite track.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, January 28, 2013 9:41 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no it was explained to me in the other thread that it's a rowdy upending of good taste to emphasize all the fun embarrassing elements of disco, apparently

lone falls under the "uk bass"/"FACT music" umbrella i guess? i listened to this album and thought it was better than the singles i'd heard previously, but there's something about the synths he uses that i find slightly...off, and i didn't return to it much.

i also didn't return to nite jewel much, i feel like i'm basically on board with her and what she's going for, but still waiting for that one song that'll blow me away

Liked the track 'Crystal Caverns 1991' but wasn't feeling the album.

basically Lone strikes me as what 808 State would be doing now if they were still a going concern, there's that same type of metallic reverb sheen across his tracks and a similar love of syncopation

i also didn't return to nite jewel much, i feel like i'm basically on board with her and what she's going for, but still waiting for that one song that'll blow me away

Yeah, I definitely feel like this with NJ. Though probably what we're waiting for is in completely opposite directions. ^__^

Crystal Caverns 1991 is probably the best track on it

btw this was like #18 on my ballot, I do like this album a ton but a bunch of better stuff came out this year

I never got round to Galaxy Garden although I liked the previous Lone album, is he still doing Black Dog-ish throwback techno?

The Vatican Shadow album is amazing and my first vote to place I think. Intrigued by Nite Jewel as well.

oh yeah, Black Dog is another good reference point, I always forget about them

haha actually "Black Dog meets 808 State" is probably the best description of what dude is doing

i also didn't return to nite jewel much, i feel like i'm basically on board with her and what she's going for, but still waiting for that one song that'll blow me away

Yeah, I definitely feel like this with NJ. Though probably what we're waiting for is in completely opposite directions. ^__^

― emil.y, Monday, January 28, 2013 2:47 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha well surely she has to please at least one of us at some point then!

So glad the Professor Norse controversy hasn't petered out yet. Is it wild? Is it crazy? Is it a dance party sensation?

Lone's take Radiohead's "Feral" was one of my favorites on the King of Limbs remix album. I'd never bothered to check out his own stuff, but this album is sounding really nice so far.

that Lone album is great. Like Zomby doing his old skool rave thing with Rustie's gleaming synths. Crystal Caverns 1991 definitely the stand-out, but the whole record is excellent.

didn't notice this had started! yes to BIGBANG... justice after missing out on the tracks poll.

kept meaning to check out the Daphni and Vatican Shadow records but never got around to it.

man I just went back and played a few seconds of "Inspector Norse" after playing a few seconds of Lone/Machinedrum's "As A Child" and afaic the controversy should roll long and hard through all of 2013

The Lone album sounded pretty good on first listen, love the cover too.

http://i.imgur.com/T6Sgful.png

69. NINA KRAVIZ Nina Kraviz (218 Points, 7 Votes, 1 First Place Vote) Spotify

what is this

wow really surprising. i'm very pro-nina kraviz in general - her 2009 single "i'm gonna get you" is an ALL-TIME CLASSIC imo - but i didn't think this album was much more than your typical three-star fine-enough dance lp

xp I thought he meant it was less polite than Norse? But I don't know...

― emil.y, Monday, 28 January 2013 14:43 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, that's what I mean. I love Inspector Norse (my #1 track), but DJP is OTM here. I think Lone's mission is to pick up where early-90s aardkore left off.

pretty pleased to see kraviz place though, she's such an awesome dj. oddest place i saw her pop up in 2012 - midway through the khodorkovsky documentary about russian corruption

That spotify link is actually not for the right thing (the album doesn't appear to be available there). Here's a sampler on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rekids/rekids010cd-promo-nina-kraviz

lone album is great, its weird to see something that's basically 90s IDM on the list in 2013

The IDM description kind of goes against the impolite shiny rave description... Which is it, ILM?

(To be honest, it doesn't sound like it'd nec. be my thing, though I still have fondness for various IDM tropes.)

it's a proper party album though. the only other thing i can equate with galaxy garden is young smoke's space zone (which i will spend a good chunk of this poll waiting in vain to appear)

Neil was spot on with his Zomby call on the Lone record, it's very Where Were U In 92

yeah thats probably a better reference point than idm actually

Dunno, people who were into the Nina Kraviz album seemed to be really really into it, although it didn't do much for me at all.

Seemingly more bobbins in the albums poll than in the tracks poll already.

which... is kind weird, no?

Anyone making a Spotify playlist?

I haven't played this Nina album in a long time, but these clips on Soundcloud are reminding me why I liked it.

which... is kind weird, no?

It's definitely kind of surprising. It's not like any of the albums that have placed have been from particularly auterish or crossover artists either.

jesus either my keyboard or my brain is broken, I keep missing words in my posts

http://i.imgur.com/dWLEH6f.png

68. METZ Metz (219 Points, 10 Votes) Spotify

the only metz i know is the french town where there's an atp tournament every year

in that case, i much prefer the tennis metz tbh. found this album a bit tedious.

I find it strange, that with a decade of microhouse and minimal house under the bridge, people are saying Inspector Norse is polite. It's not exactly nosebleed gabba, but it's got loads of bounce and plenty of stuff going on in there.

WTF is METZ?

This Metz album seems okay, but if I'm in the mood for something like this I'll just play Hot Snakes.

oh cool, i was hoping someone else would go for metz! they're consistently good, but "sad pricks" stuck out for me (tee hee)

youtube - sad pricks

didn't vote for it but i enjoyed that albums the few times i heard it. it's very jesus lizardy guitar rock dog latin

WTF is METZ?

sort of a 2012 take on jesus lizard, drive like jehu, occasional in utero-style drumming,

I heard that the Metz is a good record for us metal doods. True?

The Metz record made me dig out old Jesus Lizard, so thanks Metz!

the only metz i know is the french town where there's an atp tournament every year

Didn't know this, I'm assuming they're named after that rather than the alcopop.

unlike andrew wkd

it doesn't have the same lustre or immediacy as JL, or DLJ for that matter, perhaps because it's plying in a second-hand kind of way for the same effect so many years down the track.

metz record holds up fairly well; theres always a place for one or two records like this a year

I like the riff in "Knife in the Water" like whoa. But I agree that this is largely not a patch on what it's copying.

Almost impossible to imagine an improvement on Jesus Lizard type stuff these days, that's the problem.

Maybe in 20 years...

wow, listening to Knife in the Water now, that riff is 100% Drive Like Jehu. don't know why i didn't pick up on that before.

This Metz album is fun!

enjoying Metz, but the production is a bit odd. Needs a bit more bottom end IMO, but then again I'm probably saying that because I'm used to these kind of records being produced in an Albini style.

they're great live, too. imagine the album just 100x louder

ugh the metz album is so boring

yeah, and i don't know, sort of lazy too, which isn't always an issue for me, but apparently it is here.

if you are interested in albini-esque loud obnoxious rock music, i prefer the album "man feelings" by the band fake limbs, it has more personality: http://fakelimbs.bandcamp.com/

again with the personality

hey can I get a definition for 'bobbins' before we proceed further

Techno and house music.

xpost house and techno as opposed to d'n'b, dubstep, jungle, "bass" etc

http://i.imgur.com/w4K8QdC.png

67. GUNPLAY Bogota Rich: The Prequel (220 Points, 9 Votes)

ty

didn't vote for any Gunplay but if i had i would've voted for 601 & Snort. cool to see him place, though.

would have voted for this if i'd got into it in time

bitches ain't shit freestyle (track starts at 1:15)
"never had a gift, damn sure i had a curse / now who next to climb out the back of that hearse?"
m1

yeah that track is great!

i think my fav gunplay track in 2012 wasn't on this tape though (was it on another? or just standalone?)

take this

NO STRAITJACKET I'M JUPITER JACK DANIELS

did Metz place in the Metal poll?

erm, i also hadn't seen the actual video before today and now i wish i hadn't posted it or watched it :////

xp lol it was #112. should be an interesting week.

ha lex, that is a fantastic summation of my conflicted relationship with Gunplay

every time I hear him on something, I go "wow this dude is great" and then I watch him in something or read an interview and it's like "there is no way in hell I can support any of this"

erm, i also hadn't seen the actual video before today and now i wish i hadn't posted it or watched it :////

Yeah, that was...troubling.

i'm annoyed because i have been SO INTO that track for the past month, one of the best discoveries of the rap EOY lists for me, just in awe of how he lands his syllables and his obvious love of words but how he never loses the rush of energy, and then, ugh

haha P sure you posted that youtube in the rap thread and I remember thinking at the time "really, Lex is okay with this video?"

M1 is straight fiah tho

nah i only heard it for the first time about a month ago

i post youtubes without watching too much though. ALWAYS CHECK

http://i.imgur.com/vfYgKdl.png

66. KATY B Danger EP (223 Points, 8 Votes)

That was eligible?

he says he started making Vatican Shadow tracks because... he wanted more Muslimgauze albums to listen to.

That was one of the comparisons that popped into my head when I tried listening to some Vatican Shadow. I've tried really hard, but never found any Muslimgauze I've liked at all.

4-song EPs should not be eligible for album polls

and 4-song EPs with 2 completely inessential songs should not be voted for in album polls, regardless of whether "aaliyah" is the best track ever or not

4 normal length songs, that is, it's not like this is a suite of 4 epics

the whole thing is like quarter of an hour long

I'm all for EPs being eligible, because if not here then where?

There's plenty of great Muslimgauze, the problem is about 90% of it is redundant, so after 3 albums one wonders why bother.

That k-pop thing above was an EP so..xp

take it to the EPs poll

so much for keeping tracks and albums separate

I'm in favor of EPs in the album poll. I don't think this one really is a strong, long, or coherent enough collection to merit a vote.

i didn't object to EPs being eligible because some "EPs" are basically album-length, and some 6/7-track EPs feel as substantial as a mini-album (like the bigbang one, i presume), but i thought people would regulate it themselves to stop it being ridiculous. COME ON, 4 songs and 15 minutes doesn't belong in an albums poll.

In the three years that J0rdan, seandalai and I have been doing the eoy poll, eps have always been eligible on the albums ballot. Don't remember what the rules were before, but sometimes eps are so great they need to be voted for...but there aren't enough to have an ep poll.

this is kind of the ILM equivalent of putting five National album tracks on your singles ballot

Also, I've only heard "Aaliyah" and I have no opinion on the other three tracks. They might suck, but a 4 song 15 min ep is definitely eligible.

Yeah I'm all for inclusivity at the nominations stage...if enough people consider an EP worth voting for, it makes the countdown, otherwise it doesn't.

i'm ok with people voting for eps but i'm opposed to them voting for anything by katy b

'Aaliyah' and 'Got Paid' are both fantastic but really that's like eight minutes worth of decent music.

i don't see what's wrong with EPs being included in the album poll. i agree w/ lex tho that in the end it's prob a bit slight to warrant a vote, but i don't think EPs should be cast off.

That's 8 more minutes of decent music than the AnCo album, so fair game imho.

(xpost)

zing!

i voted for two EPs myself, i'm not arguing they shouldn't be included, i'm saying that the self-regulation has failed in this instance and these voters need to have a word with themselves

^yeah

should have just voted for the two good songs in the tracks poll and called it quits

http://i.imgur.com/wY312tz.png

65. LOWER DENS Nootropics (227 Points, 7 Votes) Spotify

couldn't get into this

idk what this is

i liked this way more than the first Lower Dens album, nice sophomore curveball

Yeah, it was better than the first and definitely better than Jana Hunter's solo albums were. Still, it's not something I throw on regularly.

Talk about something else with a couple great songs and a lot of "meh". "Brains" is fantastic, but I found the second half of that to be pretty boring.

It appears to be wispy shoegaze stuff?

thank you for pulling the DJP batsignal, will now be checking out Lower Dens

it's kind of motorik indie rock iirc

was a bit too polite for me i think

the first album was strictly shoegazey, 2nd album had a bunch of unexpected Kraftwerk moves xp

motorik indie rock???!!!

it has one really cool song and then ynot much imo

Listening to the beginning of the alb on youtube and it has a kinda 70s ambient rock vibe (eno-ish without it being eno because there is only one eno).

doesn't seem understated enough to be called post-rock, too song-y.

i'm always confused when new indie albums that sound pretty consistent/cohesive get dismissed as 'one single and a bunch of filler' or whatever when i haven't even registered which song was the single

"Brains" was the song of note from Nootropics (and it's only specific single iirc).

An EP made my top ten, for what it's worth. Had it had just two more tracks of equal quality, it would have been top three for sure. It wasn't Katy B, though.

motorik indie rock???!!!

maybe i'm just remembering brains and blanking the rest of it out?

(I realise the conversation has moved on somewhat)

yeah but to me there's no discernable gap in quality between "Brains" and the rest of the record and it never particularly stood out to me. makes me wonder if people sampling that song before the rest of the record let that shape their perception of the album.

maybe i'm just remembering brains and blanking the rest of it out?

You kinda are. There were a couple other songs that did the same thing as "Brains", but not as well. The rest was just really wispy indie that never stuck with me.

well yeah, it was the first song i heard; i think i was looking for a song that was as good as brains or interestingly distinct from brains and didn't really get either

EPs are short albums imo. as long as they're not, like, two songs that would fit on a 7" or one song with remixes or whatever they should be fair game in albums polls.

Two tracks in, this is nice enough but nothing I'd ever vote for.

'It's The Arps' will probably go top 10 if EPs are eligible.

lol the question marks and exclamation marks were exaggerated indicators of interest

I am really, really digging this album

listening to "brains", loving the music, not so much the voice

i honestly never thought i'd see the day lex enjoyed the sound of a guitar more than the sound of a woman's voice

Propagation sounds really amazing to me right now. I don't remember that being the case the few other times I've played this.

it will be interesting to see if TOY shows up after "Colour's Running Out" got snubbed

Lex have you heard Neu!

i think i have but not very much/not in any detail/not in my last.fm, maybe just a track somewhere? or maybe it was can

also i didn't realise that was a woman singing, lol

Neu! is the reason I couldn't get into this Lower Dens. And lord knows I have enough of the 'gaze guitars.

http://i.imgur.com/eh78zXF.png

64. ACTION BRONSON & PARTY SUPPLIES Blue Chips (230 Points, 7 Votes)

lower dens was on my list. it's not wispy shoegaze, and although on the whole it's not close to motorik, a few songs do pay homage to neu! Brains has the motorik beat, and Propagation has the neu!/la dusseldorf style "you are surveying the landscape from above like a mythical stoned beast in the year 3449" guitar tone.

blue chips rad

yesssssss

blue chips! top 5 for me

nice. action bronson killed it this year.

last year.

idk what this is

― questino (seandalai), Monday, January 28, 2013 10:50 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is my reaction to basically everything on here, aside from gd anco, which is my autosignal for "do something else now, nothing else you care about will follow a discussion of this band" but maybe this time i'm wrong (still waiting)

i think i have but not very much/not in any detail

well you may like something by them - obv point is the 1st alb.

LL my #1 was meridian brothers :)

i'm pretty sure that if anything i cared about a lot (swans aside) is going to place, it'll probably be today
and it doesn't matter if it does or doesn't -- i realize that -- it's just another reminder that my world is small and i guess everyone else's is too, así es la vida

yaaay gr8080 -- that is a good choice. not my #1 but respectable!

not really my #1 either but I really wanted to see it place

fairly sure ms j. foster will make the cut

and i don't mean jodie

had i submitted my ballot s few days later however, My Dick would have been my #1

YAY! Galaxy Garden made it! Fucking chuffed.

I wish that would've been discovered in time for nominations, for real. There's always 2013, thanks to the "year of impact" clause.

Also: as far as Animal Collective are concerned, I've always thought they were a load of shite. Sorry folks.

it's ok, turrican

Yay for "Blue Chips". If I'd submitted a weighted ballot, that one would have been top 3. I have a feeling that mixtape will overshadow his actual major label debut.

his 2012 output was strong altogether.. a bunch of the singles/videos that weren't from "blue chips" were just as good.

http://i.imgur.com/CXqoZGW.png

63. CHRISTIAN MISTRESS Possession (232 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

i thought it was weird that blue chips became the consensus best 2012 AB mixtape, he was really consistent all year

hah mordy will be chuffed

aw yeah! christian mistress! just in time!

(also i agree abt Jojo)

Two tracks into the Lower Dens album and I'm definitely feeling it.

The first "real" metal inclusion (though apparently Metz got some votes over in the metal poll).

that was some magical bitching on my part, good job me

I just bought that one from Amazon and await hearing it!

no idea why I didn't vote for that one. Or did I? Oh well.

if you like awesome female singers, you need to give christian mistress one chance, pls
the songs are also memorable/catchy, nothing EXXXTREME METAL about it, more hard rock imo
it's great, hooray

Yeah, I can get with this.

(The opening track, at least)

christian mistress! my first vote to place. yay.

I haven't heard this yet. What's the deal?

and i was getting so despondent about being way outside the ilm critical zeitgeist. ALL Is FOrgiven!

Nice to see Christian Mistress place. I didn't vote for it here (I didn't like it as much as the prior album; felt it didn't hold together) but did put "Haunted Hunted" on my singles ballot.

i just told you the deal, now go listen to it!

yeah the previous album was better

First take: a harder Heart with riffs instead of hooks.

nothing EXXXTREME METAL about it, more hard rock imo

Put a couple of tracks on. Wanted some harder riffage tbh.

Deep Purple Heart

so much NWOBHM in their sound. Totally approachable.

hahaha i put on "haunted hunted" and i...kind of like this!

i like the crunching, deeper guitar riffs more than the guitar which keeps going widdly-widdly over the top (forgive my ignorance of proper metal terms here). her voice is pretty awesome! walks the line between seriousface and silliness quite adeptly.

yeah i hadn't heard this before but it's pretty fun

widdly-widdly is the proper term!

widdly-widdly is actually the proper metal term!

(jk but i'm thrilled that u like it)

haha xp

that's awesome Lex!

now you gotta check out that ester rada ep

Haven't heard it yet but also pretty thrilled that lex likes it.

i'm saving my enthusiasm for when i may need it most (have other things to do today, you know) but i congratulate you all on your first christian mistress experience.

widdly-widdly is the proper term!

― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, January 28, 2013 5:54 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or 'fretwanking' (!)

if i hadn't picked up a few lyrics here and there (and if it wasn't for the widdly-widdly guitar) i'd have thought it was just heavy blues rock rather than metal. listening to another random youtube now, "pentagram and crucifix", not feeling it as much - again she's a great presence and i'm not turning it off, but i don't really think i'd play it again.

now you gotta check out that ester rada ep

i did this, i liked it but don't have any other helpful thoughts yet

I'd also like to give this album my seal of approval as running music, since you're also a runner, iirc?

no helpful thoughts needed - i just thought it would be something u might like and i'm happy to hear that you did xp

oh i am a runner but i never listen to music when i run, it's when i ~get away from music~ and also if i try to listen to music when i run i get tangled up and distracted by my headphones, unfortunately

i do treasure my work-out music, it's almost always techno/house though i can imagine this doing the job in certain moods

Christian Mistress = the anti-Fucked Up
(I'm gonna be doing a lot of these, so get used to it)

http://i.imgur.com/4RyoffK.png

62. GRIZZLY BEAR Shields (233 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

i try to get into grizzly bear whenever they put out a new album but they're so boring

I basically like one Grizzly Bear song, and it's the song that's clearly their most popular song.

Meh.

i was pretty firmly idgi about grizzly bear but there are jams on that album

this is technically proficient

otm

They were the "G" in GAPDYX, right? Oh those golden days!

didn't grizzly bear miss the ilm poll completely last time round?

Came in 42nd.

"Speak In Rounds" is pretty cool, actually

the only GAPDYX that didnt make top 10 in 09 iirc

I liked Two Weeks and Cheerleader, havent heard the new album at all

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_meizwe9MHE1qzrq97o1_500.jpg

lol

I guess Edward Droste shares no appreciation for Frasier.

Ha ha. Ed Droste is so friendly and likeable on Twitter that I wish I liked his records more but I mainly just like Two Weeks.

Yeah I have no idea what it means to be the Frasier of rock music but didn't people generally like Frasier?

I'm 4 tracks deep on Shields and I am being bored to death.

My drummer is obsessed with Grizzly Bear but it just sounds so nothingy to me. The absolute event horizon of nothingy, unassuming music in the 2000s. There are definitely some interesting in there somewhere but they're executed in such a brittle way, it sounds like an interesting band playing miles away while I lie down under a pile of old twigs and leaves.

I wonder who perp thinks is the "who's the boss" of rock music

feel kinda bad for matty p there but his backpedaling is pretty hilarious

xp It's not meant as a compliment. Perpetua's extended comparison is some glib, lazy bullshit: "the rock equivalent of reading The New Yorker in a cashmere sweater while sipping a latte and feeling a vague sense of ennui.” At least he didn't mention dinner parties.

i find bands/artists interacting with critics in any way on twitter mildly embarrassing

next pls

feel kinda bad for matty p there but his backpedaling is pretty hilarious

the backpedalling was just embarrassing, if you're going to try to zing a band in public at least own the damn zing

LL otm

Patchy, a cariacature of itself, run on past its welcome. (Frasier and/or Grizzly Bear)

Okay, but it's the final one for the day...

shields is a fine record

http://i.imgur.com/LLdMMY2.png

61. LAUREL HALO Quarantine (246 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

the christian mistress didn't really hit me on first listen but this second listen is pretty killer

oh hey, laurel halo, what's up record i respect more than i actually enjoy

xp I once got an irritated tweet from Pat Kane after complaining about someone playing Hue & Cry at a wedding. I didn't @ Pat Kane, I didn't even name Pat Kane, and Pat Kane doesn't follow me, so I can only assume that he regularly searches Twitter for "Hue & Cry" in order to have socially awkward exchanges with people who don't like him.

I love the Laurel Halo album cover a good bit more than I like the actual album

otm

hahahahaha

the laurel halo was the actual single worst album i listened to in 2012

haha

the single worst album i listened to in 2012 was alt-j, the laurel halo record is at least going for something i think i would appreciate were it more fully formed

it was also sort of disappointing to hear after how straight up beautiful hour logic is

xp I once got an irritated tweet from Pat Kane after complaining about someone playing Hue & Cry at a wedding. I didn't @ Pat Kane, I didn't even name Pat Kane, and Pat Kane doesn't follow me, so I can only assume that he regularly searches Twitter for "Hue & Cry" in order to have socially awkward exchanges with people who don't like him.

los campesinos once tweeted me to say that we have mutual friends who might disagree with my assessment of them as the worst people to exist, ever, in the world (i had not @ed them, obviously) o_0

how embarrassing, maybe they'll write a song about it ("i killed alex macpherson with my big fucking dick")

Quarantine and No Love Deep Web should have traded album covers

should've thrown some numbers into that name, sorry lex

not a lot of people expressing enthusiasm for most of today's choices

I thought the laurel halo album was strange, but astonishingly beautiful, the best thing she's ever done, and unlike anything else I've ever heard

I really really liked the Daphni record.

Like other posters I'm very conflicted about Quarantine...I want to like it, and a couple of times it's been on and I've gone "hey, this is cool, what is this?", but any time I've sat down to give it a proper listen I've given up before the end.

#1 album in The Wire's list btw

Lower Dens sounded great today too, even though I'd heard it before and previously held a lesser opinion of it.

Two of mine (AnCo and Nite Jewel) placed today, that's about as well as I ever do in these things.

how embarrassing, maybe they'll write a song about it ("i killed alex macpherson with my big fucking dick")

And now it don't work no mo'

Thanks ILM for the tips on Vatican Shadow & a reminder about the what-if FSOL did breakbeat of Lone. The rest, well ee gustibus non est disputandum.

The Laurel Halo album is indeed an interesting experiment but I can't convince myself I love it or anything. The fact she did that (or rather, didn't do anything) with her vocal tracks is cool but they sound very lazily pasted over the tracks, like a very quick overdub with no mastering at all.

77. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Centipede Hz (204 Points, 8 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
76. JEREMIH Late Nights With Jeremih (206 Points, 10 Votes)
75. BIGBANG Alive EP (210 Points, 6 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
74. DAPHNI Jiaolong (213 Points, 9 Votes)
73. TWIN SHADOW Confess (214 Points, 8 Votes)
72. VATICAN SHADOW Ghosts of Chechnya (216 Points, 7 Votes)
71. NITE JEWEL One Second of Love (216 Points, 8 Votes)
70. LONE Galaxy Garden (216 Points, 9 Votes)
69. NINA KRAVIZ Nina Kraviz (218 Points, 7 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
68. METZ Metz (219 Points, 10 Votes)
67. GUNPLAY Bogota Rich: The Prequel (220 Points, 9 Votes)
66. KATY B Danger EP (223 Points, 8 Votes)
65. LOWER DENS Nootropics (227 Points, 7 Votes)
64. ACTION BRONSON & PARTY SUPPLIES Blue Chips (230 Points, 7 Votes)
63. CHRISTIAN MISTRESS Possession (232 Points, 8 Votes)
62. GRIZZLY BEAR Shields (233 Points, 8 Votes)
61. LAUREL HALO Quarantine (246 Points, 8 Votes)

Lower Dens sounded great today too, even though I'd heard it before and previously held a lesser opinion of it.

Glad to hear it JF. I was getting upset about some of the underwhelming descriptions of Lower Dens upthread.

Just remembered...add Nina Kraviz to the list of albums I liked today (Daphni and Lower Dens).

of the things I've paged through on Spotify, Lower Dens was easily my favorite

Laureal Halo is the only thing I voted for so far. Still find the sounds on it compelling and I think it's actually got a lot of beauty to it that people are just totally missing. I mean this sounds ravishing to me in a totally interesting way: Tumor

L'oreal Halo

I doubt any of my album votes are going to make it this year. Admittedly, I submitted a short album ballot. The one from near the bottom of my ballot that I thought might have a chance is probably not going to appear if it hasn't shown up on the first day.

Few things I voted for today:

Animal Collective - I actually like this more than the last couple albums. I'm glad that it's a bit more noisy and aggressive.

Nite Jewel - Fantastic, this really keeps growing on me. The songs are often fairly subtle and low key and deserve multiple listenings to sink in. I really like the production style much more than her previous stuff.

Lone - Been a favorite of mine all year. Not really IDM at all, very shiny, bouncy music and best album cover of the year.

Laurel Halo - just skipped voting for this. It was ok, but didn't quite do it for me.

only thing from my ballot to show up so far is gunplay

Only Lone and Nite Jewel off my ballot, and they were rather low down. Still holding out for Eyvind Kang an Motorpsycho this week, but I'm doubtful.

Still holding out for Eyvind Kang

I have voted as well, but probably no bloody chance. I was expecting it to place in the 70's at best.

Hwat Kang record was that? The one with Jessica Kenney?

Yeah. The Narrow Garden and it is some extreme beautiful shit.

The Narrow Garden is the one that was nominated, not the duo with JK xp

Oh yeah its Visible Breath JK is on.

Actually I think the Kenney one was 2011. Haven't heard The Narrow Garden at all.

Kenney also plays on The Narrow Garden iirc. "The Face of the Earth" duo album (their second?) is also from 2012, it too is worth checking out.

The Narrow Garden is frankly amazing

the christian mistress didn't really hit me on first listen but this second listen is pretty killer

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson),

Yeah, this was my #7 pick. I loved the Agony and Opium album and I really didn't think this one compared. But after sitting with it for a few months I think Possession is the far better album. I don't really even listen to AAO anymore.

I love the Laurel Halo album and it would have been in the upper reaches of my list had I voted so therefore I am going to bitch n moan about its fairly low placement.

The Laurel Halo record is pretty obviously supposed to be alienating and nasty to listen to but I just think can I be arsed really? I'd take it over something as tepid as Grizzly Bear any day though.

Lower Dens started off amazing but tailed off, it doesn't really match those first two songs. The couple of Christian Mistress tracks I listened to were a lot of fun though.

0/17 so far (in both heard in full and voted for terms). Liked what little I've heard of the Laurel Halo record though. Need to check out Lone and Nina Kraviz next time I have Spotify access.

Nice to see Christian Mistress place. Another one I voted for. Nicely straddles the fence between hard rock and metal. I like the Heart comparison but don't see hooks/riffs as an either/or. On this one, the riffs are hooks, at least to my ears. I do think perhaps the dynamics/tempos could use a bit more variety over the course of the album, but still an outstanding effort and I look forward to hearing what they do next.

If there were other great Action Bronson mixtapes this year I must have missed them. The only other thing I heard was the "Rare Chandeliers EP" which didn't grab me as much as "Blue Chips". It seemed like maybe he was trying to sound a bit "harder" on that one but in a more conventional way, with the gourmet cooking show allusions as garnish.

I really really liked the first three songs on Lower Dens and then switched to another album

I've just played the entire Laurel Halo album and this is something I would have been much more receptive towards 20 years ago before I slowly started pushing ambient music out of my life (something I don't think I even consciously acknowledged happening until just now)

The Laurel Halo record is pretty obviously supposed to be alienating and nasty to listen to

I dispute that, some of it's really lovely! But yes, first song is called Airsick for a reason.

Loveliest thing she did all year though was the Sunlight On THe Faded single, which unfortunately wasn't on the album.

Well, this Metz album is... bracing. This would have been my shit 15 years ago. Noisy rock music has gone from being a natural home to a complete blind spot in recent years though, I'd never even heard of it before today.

I love it that Metz have a song called Sad Pricks. I had this for a while but lazily dismissed it. It sounds better now, The Jesus Lizard comparison made my sad prick ears prick up.

Sad Pricks is no Game of Pricks

glad to see christian mistress place, i didn't vote but would have made my list...really love this new mini-movement of nwobh/hard rock synthesis stuff with actual metal singing that doesn't sound like a lovecraft creature trying to shit out a broken lightbulb....chuck wrote a great piece on it in spin:

http://www.spin.com/articles/strange-brew-metals-new-obsession-with-witchcraft-biker-blues-and-tina-turner

^two other bands in the same vein mentioned, royal thunder and witch mountain are also, great and witch mountain features an ilxor of some note :)

also hope pallbearer places

So far I voted for Lone and Nina Kraviz.

I love the Nina Kraviz album for it's warm, intimate deep house vibe. It's almost an album aimed more at the boudoir than the dancefloor. Saw her dj a few months ago at this flashy new club that I can't really deal with. She played nothing like the album, all she played was banging, super-minimal techno, which I can't really deal with either, and left very disappointed. I suspect that's what Lex would have wanted from her.

The Lone album was the most colorful thing I heard all year. Love that dude so much. Yeah, I guess it's kind of like Rustie or old HudMo or whatever that I don't really get down with, but it's less obnoxiously trebly and more rhythmically dexterous than either of those. I'd never been able to articulate exactly what the style of rhythm he favors is, but Dan hit on the head with "samba".

I like the Gunplay but never devoted enough attention to it. I love "773 Love" and "F U All the Time", but the rest of the Jeremih tape didn't make any impression on me. The Katy B EP is a nice trifle. The Laurel Halo album is terrible and I liked Hour Logic. Bronson I've never managed to get past the question of if he needs to exist, but I don't begrudge him that much for being a Ghostface biter because he's currently making better music than Ghost himself is. I need to check out Daphni and maybe Vatican Shadow and maybe maybe Christian Mistress?

btw, this happened mad early. When I got out of class at 10AM, this had already been entirely rolled out.

Vatican Shadow just missed my ballot and, in retrospect, I wish I'd put it on there over a couple of things that popped up near the end pretty much solely due to the number of times I'd played specific songs on them (looking at you, ultimately-disappointing-but-still-decent Sleigh Bells album)

the action bronson & daphni albums are both good fun but i voted for vatican shadow, gunplay & the dreaded laurel halo. vatican shadow is cartoonishly bleak. reminiscent of metal gear solid. bogota rich was my fav unacceptable album of the year, relentlessly hard&catchy even if there was marginally less precision-bellowing than on inglorious bastard. i like how perverse quarantine is. it's so internet. that sort of numb sensitivity you get w/ sleep deprivation. her dispassionate bleating just endeared it to me more aggressively.

btw, this happened mad early. When I got out of class at 10AM, this had already been entirely rolled out.

Yeah, I woke up and went into work super early today. Rolling out the results made the time go by crazy fast too, so there's a good chance I'll stick with this schedule all week (soz west coasties).

:((((

This is a Monday boast. We'll see what time I actually get up and go into work tomorrow. crut can attest to my usual tardiness.

:((((

― The Reverend, Monday, January 28, 2013 12:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Worked for me and I'm a Mountain Time man.

suits me - i got into work just as it started rolling out, and my boss wasn't around so bonus.

PS i will prob be in trouble tomorrow now though.

Mean ol' albums taught me to weep and moan
Got what it takes to make a Mountain Time Man leave his home

Just disappointed there hasn't been a single hint of a clusterfuck yet. What's going on ILM?

Voted for Grizzly Bear and Twin Shadow. Some of the albums I haven't heard sound promising, though.

three of my bottom five (in a ballot of 20) made the list today. i don't know what that means.

this metz album rules.

its like a little less gothy pissed jeans, reminds me of nation of ulysses in some spots

Interesting list so far.

Love the graphics, but I gotta ask, what's with the grayscale?

yeah, gotta say i'm not a fan of the decision to go grayscale

I like it. It's refined.

Makes me feel sad.

the galaxy garden album art just screams in color, it's like my favorite thing ever

http://i50.tinypic.com/dnhd15.jpg

Yeah, but you can look at that cover whenever you like. It's not like JF's jpgs are going to replace the original designs.

Plus, one can read it as sombre mourning for the better albums that should have placed in the poll.

Haha exactly

Well looks like Grizzly Bear got shafted.

xxp i don't necessarily disagree with you but as someone who flips through these polls mainly to be introduced to music i've missed, it is a little weird not having the actual pallet of colors to associate with the album on first glance.

Laurel Halo suffers the most, apparently the cover was all that record had going for it!

fwiw i've seen the lone album cover several times and it never made an impression until seeing the b&w version

i didn't see a spotify list so http://open.spotify.com/user/callalldestroyer/playlist/51xGGGTA0yUpkkCRoHPqhg

I forgot to vote for this. Nothing I would have voted for turning up so far. Im not familiar with any of these albums tbh. As for stuff im familiar with….grizzly bear ARE boring. I never got into animal collective except for that ‘peacebone’ song. I like that Metz track, “sad pricks” a lot but I haven’t heard the album. I just listened to the laurel halo album and its very purty. I gert what the fuss is about, its really good and that’s only my first listen. what ive heard from nina kraviz is good too.

oh hey Metz is kind of great

I was scared by the Dino Jr comparisons but I am digging "Headache"

not feeling the b&w covers :(

if it helps, Metz was already black & white

should have made that one color.

the grayscale thing is interesting to me because i've been banging on the last couple years about every other album cover (in indie/'acclaimed' type cicles at least) is in black/white/gray so i'm curious to see how often it doesn't much change the look of the album cover in question.

but seriously, I like the b&w.

metz sounds like a lot of things but dinosaur jr is not one of them imo

Metz sounds like a late period Alternative Tentacles band.

the reason everyone has different references for what they sound like is because they are v. generic

the grayscale thing it's like... why

the reason everyone has different references for what they sound like is because they are v. generic

otm

That Lone cover is less striking to those who remember Buggy Riphead's digital anenomes for FSOL's Lifeforms era artwork/media and not a few imitators from the psytrance/psyambient scenes thereafter.

I love the Lone cover because it looks exactly like the album sounds like.

Would be fun if the percentage of colour increased with every entry.

or if the percentage of color increased every time someone complained about it

lol just noticed/registered that Lower Dens is also greyscale/b&w

Did someone remix all the albums to be in mono for the Spotify playlist?

you're welcome

Would be fun if the percentage of colour increased with every entry.

― questino (seandalai), Monday, January 28, 2013 4:40 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the wi7ard of o7

could we get Z S in here to subtly animate all the album covers thx

ugh, i'm already spending all my free time animating all of the coint and plick results for next week's rollout!

(also i like the b/w! it's something new to think about when seeing all these covers again for the billionth time!)

um so if it's clear that there is absolutely no good reason for these to be in grayscale can we do the rest in color? so they look like the actual covers of the albums we're polling?

how about people who didn't put in the effort to roll out the poll stfu and let him do w/e he wants, ffs. sepia tone that shit for all i care.

i like the b/w

There is a good reason: that is the design aesthetic the poll roll-out has this year. So suck it.

i hope you're all learning a valuable lesson about the horrible plight of the colorblind and dogs

who cares imo

ILXors, apparently

the horrible plight of dogs

but that's not the same. dogs don't know that there ae colours, we do. and we have even seen them.

ok, points taken, whatever. i think it's important to see what album covers look like, more important than someone's cool color scheme. n.b. i'm an archivist not a designer.

and the "you didn't do the work, don't complain" response is just the worst, i'll work on not caring about changing album covers if u work on not being a moron.

next year all tracks poll screnshots need to be from fan-made youtube videos

btw i'm really digging the accompanying album text boxes, they look fab.

JF shld do a whiney at this point imo

― beez in the katz (zvookster), Monday, 28 January 2013 22:01 (1 minute ago) Permalink

love this one zvook

btw i'm really digging the accompanying album text boxes, they look fab.

― says a future man to his crystal son (reddening), Monday, January 28, 2013 12:01 PM (2 minutes ago)

otm, nice work on this part

cool argument, u guys

JF shld do a whiney at this point imo

this would be funny as hell

sorry i'm "caring." i mean they look great, i just think grayscale is taking it too far. this is cool and fun. the end.

(also i like the b/w! it's something new to think about when seeing all these covers again for the billionth time!)

otm, JF has done a great job.

Would be fun if the percentage of colour increased with every entry.

I still have to make the top fifteen graphics. Could do this.

JF shld do a whiney at this point imo

What's that? Other than just being generally snarly?

and the "you didn't do the work, don't complain" response is just the worst, i'll work on not caring about changing album covers if u work on not being a moron.

― Butt Trump tweet (Matt P), Monday, January 28, 2013 5:00 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, wow

chill, my man

What's that? Other than just being generally snarly?

there was a year the goons ran their own invite-only rap poll and started posting the results to ILM in a big rollout thread which prompted some "wtf get a blog" arguments and culminated in Whiney qutting the rollout after 10 or so albums

J0rdan picked it up shortly afterward but the whole thing was pretty funny

top ten ilx, impo

what the fuck happened here

― J0rdan S., Friday, January 7, 2011 2:55 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whiney seriously how old are you

― J0rdan S., Friday, January 7, 2011 2:55 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i swear to god both you & deej are 12 years old

― J0rdan S., Friday, January 7, 2011 2:55 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

loooool

good times

that was a great poll btw, i was always sad they didn't do another one

ilx definitely need more goon opinions and arguments

but really i'd just comb the individual ballots that we all end up posting after this thing ends anyway

yeah no i can do that; i just liked it summarized so it was easier for me (and more difficult for you i guess)

Next year, we'll include a checkbox during voting so people can "self-identify" as goon or non-goon.

goon or goblin iirc

ugh, i'm already spending all my free time animating all of the coint and plick results for next week's rollout!

is this true? dang, shda voted

the other element to the Great Goonpoll Clusterfuck was that it was conducted in secret on an invite-only basis and most of the board did not know it was going to happen until the rollout. One poster in particular was v v scandalized.

It wasn't that secret. We'd been openly discussing it in the goon thread.

goon thread may as well be a secret board

well there was never a HAY EVERYONE PLEASE VOTE IN THE GOON POLL - LURKERS WELCOME thread, which was enough for some people to be scandalized

The Nina Kraviz first-place vote came from me. I can understand why people might see it as a standard dance long-player but it's a lot more than that. Those vox are so alluring, the whole thing feels like when you come home from a great night clubbing with someone and there's that mix of lingering substance effect, sexual tension, and nervousness - it's like an intimately euphoric bedroom party. Obviously there's that whole "woman in techno makes feminine-sounding techno" narrative around her career which I don't really believe in - there's plenty of sensual and organic dance music out there, and the album is quite dark and verges on abrasive at times. (although I do admit, I did also place this highly because I was certain most of everything else I voted for would place regardless and I wanted to see this get some love)

I thought we were supposed to do a goon poll this year? Xp

they are you just weren't invited

Figured as much.

Any chance of Lace Curtains or Thee Oh Sees placing in the top 60? nah!

77. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Centipede Hz (204 Points, 8 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
I liked the direction they took with Merriweather Post Pavilion but not a fan of this run-away-from-pop, obnoxious squall stuff, and there was too much Avey Tare vox going on. Record reminds me of bad smelling people.
76. JEREMIH Late Nights With Jeremih (206 Points, 10 Votes)
Voted for this and really like it, guess I'm just hanging out for more terius but this was a fine replacement. Of course there are obvious highlights but I wouldn't be so hasty as to suggest that the rest of it has no merit.
75. BIGBANG Alive EP (210 Points, 6 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
Never heard of this, have confined my K and J-pop mostly to singles (I liked the Perfume album from a few years ago initially, but then found it grated with repeat listens). Will investigate.
74. DAPHNI Jiaolong (213 Points, 9 Votes)
Pretty bored by this, and I liked Swim a lot.
73. TWIN SHADOW Confess (214 Points, 8 Votes)
Haven't returned to this as much as I did the gorgeous Forget - but it's a compelling listen and the songwriting is good. All the braggadocio he displayed in interviews was a little off-putting but the delicacy of the lyrics kind of made up for it.
72. VATICAN SHADOW Ghosts of Chechnya (216 Points, 7 Votes)
Haven't heard this - feel like this wasn't the only VS release from last year? Might check it out eventually.
71. NITE JEWEL One Second of Love (216 Points, 8 Votes)
I was really hyped up for this one because I loved the first single and then the album turned out to be very staid and lacking in energy. Feel like she has brilliance in her - clearly inspired by Jeff Phillips - and songs like "She's Always Watching You" have the propensity to get stuck in my head at unusual occasions. But I'd be lying if I said it was anything other than a disappointment.
70. LONE Galaxy Garden (216 Points, 9 Votes)
Respectable enough dance music but not particularly thrilling or exciting to me. Needs more Azealia Banks! lol
69. NINA KRAVIZ Nina Kraviz (218 Points, 7 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
Keep meaning to hear this one. Heard good things.
68. METZ Metz (219 Points, 10 Votes)
Haven't properly listened to any of these bands Pitchfork seems to be lumping together as part of this 90s rock revival (see: Cloud Nothings, The Men, Merchandise, I'm sure there are others. Actually, I have listened to Japandroids, so there you go.) No real interest either.
67. GUNPLAY Bogota Rich: The Prequel (220 Points, 9 Votes)
Haven't heard this either! But I did like "Jump Out" - is that on here? Seems like something I should get into.
66. KATY B Danger EP (223 Points, 8 Votes)
"Aaliyah" rules but I agree with the sentiments expressed upthread, this belongs in some kind of separate EP poll with Kindred and Frank + Derol.
65. LOWER DENS Nootropics (227 Points, 7 Votes)
"Brains" is really good - like an update on "The Rat", almost - but I prefer the poppier stylings of Bloom to this.
64. ACTION BRONSON & PARTY SUPPLIES Blue Chips (230 Points, 7 Votes)
This stuff ain't my thing.
63. CHRISTIAN MISTRESS Possession (232 Points, 8 Votes)
Only album on the list so far I've never heard of before.
62. GRIZZLY BEAR Shields (233 Points, 8 Votes)
I know everyone thinks this band is aural Nyquil but I don't really get it - the arrangements are too intricate for me to nod off! There are Buckinghamisms all over this album which is what really kept drawing me back - that and the rousing final few songs and the fact that it sounded like it was recorded in a really beautiful recital hall. That said I still don't think I found room for it in my top 25.
61. LAUREL HALO Quarantine (246 Points, 8 Votes)
I guess I am supposed to admire this deliberately dissonant vocal technique or whatever but I just think this sounds crap. Like, major interior semiotics vibes. Incredibly disappointing as well given that "Strawberry Skies" is still a pop song for the ages. Lovely album cover though!

Lone aka matt cuttler

okay i lied when talking about christian mistress i hadn't heard of that OR bigbang

there was a year the goons ran their own invite-only rap poll and started posting the results to ILM in a big rollout thread which prompted some "wtf get a blog" arguments and culminated in Whiney qutting the rollout after 10 or so albums

J0rdan picked it up shortly afterward but the whole thing was pretty funny

― Bel-Air the Fresh Prince, sitting in a chair (DJP), Monday, January 28, 2013 4:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

this seriously happened? another thing i learned today.

2010 GOON POLL results: The Top 30 Hip-Hop/Rap Albums of 2010
2010 GOON POLL results: The Top 30 Hip-Hop/Rap Albums of 2010
plz unlock 2010 GOON POLL results: The Top 30 Hip-Hop/Rap Albums of 2010

hahahaha

as much as i love Caribou (and i really love Caribou) I've come to avoid anything tagged with "Caribou Remix" since its reliably boring noneffective attempts at techno. that said, i'm really enjoying this Daphni album!

liking the cloudy sound of that Lower Dens. also like that the songs are presented in quite an understated way, despite the fact there's obviously a lot going on.

the action bronson & daphni albums are both good fun but i voted for vatican shadow, gunplay & the dreaded laurel halo. vatican shadow is cartoonishly bleak. reminiscent of metal gear solid. bogota rich was my fav unacceptable album of the year, relentlessly hard&catchy even if there was marginally less precision-bellowing than on inglorious bastard. i like how perverse quarantine is. it's so internet. that sort of numb sensitivity you get w/ sleep deprivation. her dispassionate bleating just endeared it to me more aggressively.

― ogmor, Monday, 28 January 2013 19:50 (Yesterday) Bookmark

have 2 say oggie u got a good knack of making me kinda wanna revisit albums i know i don't like

i guess i am saying those look like good opinions

you don't like bogota rich??

just endeared it to me more aggressively

this is a sympathetic description to me though I have never knowingly heard Quarantine.

oh no i was talking about the other ones

although for some reason my "hey let's listen to gunplay" mystical tipping point never arrived last year so i still actually havent heard any of his tapes

i'm sure they're as excellent as described though

way behind but v interested in results -- for now I'm in tears reading whiney's goon rollout, thx for linking gr8080

totally forgot abt icey's a+ trolling in that thread

#1 DIDDY DO IT - TAPAS 2010

― ice cr?m

for christ's sakes there were 15 ballots--no one's asking you to take the math sat ii on your friday afternoon

― call all destroyer, Friday, January 7, 2011 2:12 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they're asking me to do shit i dont feel like doing, should be happy with what i'm giving them, and can therefore str8 suck my bawls through my drawers

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, January 7, 2011 9:17 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

... why are you crying into your underwear

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Friday, January 7, 2011 9:18 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

surely this isn't THAT stressful

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Friday, January 7, 2011 9:18 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not stressed, i'm shocked at the fucking entitlement of some people

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, January 7, 2011 9:20 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh boo hoo.

― i don't even vacuum, i'm roomba pimpin (The Reverend), Friday, January 7, 2011 9:20 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like maybe this is different from the 3097098308763 other polls on ilx and ppl should just dealwithit.gif

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, January 7, 2011 9:21 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wish this were a singles poll, feel like im entitled tbh

― ice cr?m, Friday, January 7, 2011 9:21 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like we are on the cusp of something awesome

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Friday, January 7, 2011 9:22 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imo metadata for some larger poll like P&J or the sitewide ILM ones can be interesting, w/ a dozen participants it's kind of pointless

― Johnny Cheever (some dude), Friday, January 7, 2011 9:22 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you whiners can stephen ilxor guess numbers 1 through 17, because i'm not posting them anymore, eat a dick, crybabies

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, January 7, 2011 9:22 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

awesomeness achieved

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Friday, January 7, 2011 9:23 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there it was

lol

suck my bawls through my drawers

I had completely forgotten about Whiney's midpoll meltdown and I'm having a hard time picking myself up off the floor. What a clown.

^ rejected lyric for rihanna's 'cockiness' xp

The real reason Whiney was so resistant to post ballots and points was because he had pulled a total dick move and decided to only count forks' ballot for half points. Just putting that in the open.

really have no idea why i let this be handled by whiney

― J0rdan S., Friday, January 7, 2011 8:04 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm basically just confused as to how whiney figured out the winners without having the number of points handy

― call all destroyer, Friday, January 7, 2011 2:30 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

two years later and i'm still confused by this!

oh wow xp to rev's post; what a dick

let's be rr though, that poll was a 100% accurate representation of how the goon threads work, if it had gone off flawlessly I would have been v disappointed

why the fuck did nite jewel stop being chillwave? this album is terrible.

The real reason Whiney was so resistant to post ballots and points was because he had pulled a total dick move and decided to only count forks' ballot for half points. Just putting that in the open.

― The Reverend, Monday, January 28, 2013 8:34 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whaaat

that is a hilarious post whether Rev is joking or telling the truth

hahahahaha c'mon rev is totally trolling

That's what Jordan told me, at least. ¯\(°_o)/¯

http://c268492.r92.cf1.rackcdn.com/img/election.png

can we talk about the jpgs bcz they were awesome imo

ilx is p awesome tonight, damn

The real reason Whiney was so resistant to post ballots and points was because he had pulled a total dick move and decided to only count forks' ballot for half points. Just putting that in the open.

― The Reverend, Monday, January 28, 2013 7:34 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is hilarious imo

outstanding trivia if it's true

lamp! :)

Hahahahaha

sry, kinda drunk and just happy to see lamp

:-/

rev is telling the truth (unless whiney lied to me) + it's also hilarious

Mostly lol but kinda sad

while a true goon at his core, forks submitted a ballot that was only about half the size of everyone else's and came with a bunch of caveats and apologies that he didn't actually listen to that much rap over the year.

but rev, do continue your stellar work of airing out two-year-old offsite trivia in an attempt to create drama between me and an IRL friend.

don't do the crime if you can't do the time imo

Three of my votes showed up yesterday:

VATICAN SHADOW: This really impressed me on first listen, austere techno when done well can be the best thing ever.
NINA KRAVIZ: Found myself coming back to this over and over again during the year, seemed to suit a lot of different moods.
LAUREL HALO: I really loved this despite not being fussed about LH's previous stuff, I like the queasiness.

The others I've heard are:

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Was a big fan from Sung Tongs through to MPP but this was a bit of a mess. Poor production, low on hooks. They should've just released an EP wih 'Today's Supernatural' as the lead track.
NITE JEWEL: Enjoyable enough.
LONE: Ditto
METZ: Like others here I don't think this compares to its influences but if this had come out 8-9 years ago I'd probably have loved it.
CHRISTIAN MISTRESS: I liked parts of this but it was a bit too corny for me to love. Obviously talented songwriters though.

There was an interview with Julia Holter in the Wire where she said she was friends with Laurel Halo and Nite Jewel and that they'd released some of her favourite albums of the year. Would love to see a collab.

there is this Holter and Nite Jewel collaboration - http://youtu.be/wKchvpb_VPg

also this coming up: http://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-festival-daniel-wohl-laurel-halo-julia-holter-with-transit

well i'll be

when's the roll-out starting again? just wondering cos i have to make up work for yesterday's lackadaisicaliality.

I'll be starting in about 60-90 mins.

grand

Sweet

3... 2... 1...

http://i.imgur.com/3c6nGy3.png

60. DIRTY PROJECTORS Swing Lo Magellan (254 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

Damn, going to miss this part of the results as I'm in Australia at the moment and it's a little late here. I'm starting to give up hope of my precious iamamiwhoami placing. If it doesn't appear in the next few albums it's probably not going to make it.

despised everything about them so much that i avoided this completely (proud achievement!) but if i'm not mistaken this is way down from where the last one placed? ilm coming 2 its senses <3

The only song I've really liked that I've heard by Dirty Projectors was Stillness Is The Move. I found a lot of their last album a bit cloying and ultimately trying too hard and failing at something they probably shouldn't have attempted in the first place (the guy can't pull off those Eastern / R'n'B-influenced melismas all that well to my ears). Should I listen to this?

So far, we've knocked out GAPDYX.

pretty sure the xx will be way down from their debut too

i literally can't even remember what P was!

Stillness Is the Move is the only song I ever need from Dirty Projectors. I gave this album half a listen when it showed up, but I couldn't make it through the whole thing.

There's no P or Y for last year either so there's only the XX left. Who will probably do pretty well but still worse than last time.

I was trying to remember P last night, and drew a blank as well.

Phoenix wasn't it?

Oh right!

Loved the last album, didn't hear a single track from this. Same thing with Animal Collective. There definitely seems to be a massive fall from grace of these guys, which kind of makes me want to give them more of a fair shout, but there was too much other interesting stuff going on this year.

P = Phoenix

Yes, it was a stupidly lumped together bunch of bands who don't sound anything like each other.

xxp

http://www.wearephoenix.com/

was the Y Yeah Yeah Yeahs?

Yeah.

They were lumped together because they appeared on all the lists, often within the top 20. igi

That happens every year, of course. Whiney was particularly surly in 2009 I guess.

God, who listens to that Phoenix album really?

Yes, I realise that. However, it was billed as some sort of 'GAPDYX continuum' or 'GAPDYX phenomenon' or 'GAPDYX is what is wrong with music' -> impossible unless you're charting a musical similarity as well as critical acclaim.

xxp again.

I still listen to Lizstomania all the time, but yeah...I haven't played the whole thing in forever.

There definitely seems to be a massive fall from grace of these guys

yeah it's curious that it's happening to them all, just wondering why - change of direction? same direction but so substandard that even fans of the last one weren't satisfied? whims of fashion?

(in the case of the xx, whom i love, it's probably same-but-substandard)

Anyway, yeah freak-folk-ish indie of the last decade (AC, DP, GrizBear and that sort of stuff) has definitely met its match this year. I guess Tame Impala might count, but they're actually a lot more tenacious and rockin' than people give them credit for.

I saw Tame Impala's 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' vid yesterday - it's what music videos were made for. I'm surprised more pop artists don't just release whole video albums these days. It would make sense.

Pheonix and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the only two I care about from that list, both have new albums in April. Wouldn't be surprised if XX place really soon.

http://i.imgur.com/QLMAPwT.png

59. SHACKLETON Music for the Quiet Hour/The Drawbar Organ EPs (258 Points, 7 Votes, 3 First Place Votes)

I listen to the Phoenix album a fair amount but mainly I just want to watch that PS22 kids Chorus doing Lizstomania on Youtube.

yeah it's curious that it's happening to them all, just wondering why - change of direction? same direction but so substandard that even fans of the last one weren't satisfied? whims of fashion?

You'll almost certainly disagree with me here, but I think there's an inherent psychological effect of "new decade, need to leave behind the old stuff" in listeners, critics, music marketeers. If scenes are built around a tide of promotional push -> sustain -> release -> decline, it kind of makes some sense that the second year into a decade is when listeners start to look around for new sounds rather than latching on to existing factions. Just a theory though...

I don't even know what or who a Shackleton is, but three people voted it #1.

three first place votes, one of them was mine iirc

I'm surprised more pop artists don't just release whole video albums these days. It would make sense.

I think this may well come, though I imagine it'll be one-off promotional techniques rather than standard (adding video production costs to music production costs in order to put up your album on youtube i.e. give it away for free? Not a particularly sound business plan - unless of course you fan-source services for free... hey, AFP, here's an idea).

v pleased about shackleton placing - i only heard this in january (maybe because it was being nominated for the ILM poll) but it's superb. into the drawbar organ eps half a bit more than music for the quiet hour but it's all pretty great. fantastic use of organ. if i'd heard it sooner i might have voted for it.

"seven present tenses" is insane

Okay yeah, I like that.

Hm, the Shackleton stuff I'd heard before I'd not been keen on, but that 'Seven Present Tenses' *is* really good. Nice sounds going on.

This was a really fucking long album, which took me months to get my head round. Very snakey bass music that is just loaded with mysteries. it's in two halves, Drawbar Organ is the more immediate and my favourite part, Music for the Quiet Hour is rather more ambient. Some of it reminds me a bit of NWW and I kind of like the symmetry of Sam Shackleton being the Steve Stapleton of um, whatever this post-dubstep music is called.

Best song is Katyusha btw

2am here in NZ, let's see how much of this rollout I'll see.

Had a friend w/a bunch of '12ish Shackleton vinyl, IIRC it was way more Terry Riley-ish than I'd expected?

I'm another #1 Shackleton voter. Loved the immenseness of both of these. Music to get lost in.

Actually I did find myself getting quite bored halfway through that track... then another nice tune came in, so that was okay.

did shackleton's three eps place in whatever year it was released? that album still has some of my favourite work by him - "asha in the tabernacle", to be specific (that "whole world in his hands" interpolation!!!)

in the main i'm just really into the bleak, grey-day-hangover-friendly mood shackleton creates (similar to vatican shadow) even when there's little to sink my teeth into, but certainly on the drawbar organ side this feels like his meatiest work yet

("That track" being 'Seven Present Tenses'. Will give the other one a try too.)

xp to me

yeah it's curious that it's happening to them all, just wondering why - change of direction? same direction but so substandard that even fans of the last one weren't satisfied? whims of fashion?

Happens to virtually all bands following up a critically acclaimed album.

fell seriously hard for the '09 dirty projectors release but couldn't get into swing lo in the same way

shackleton is an thing i admire but it's so huge and overwhelming and a lot of it is wonky wank

Felt like a detective listen to this thing trying to figure it all out. Lots of little surreal touches (strange voices and chants, the little flute in Katyusha) but also great drums throughout and I love the way that the bass really sneaks up on you in some sections. For something so labyrinthine, some of it really bangs. This is kind of what I hoped Demdike Stare would be more like.

liked that xx album a lot, was surprised at how they fell out of favour given that it wasn't too drastic a change up from the debut. animal collective i could understand falling off the radar as that freak folk sound isn't as popular in indie anymore and also it didn't sound like the most recent, hugely acclaimed album.

phoenix's album still holds up. great band. also revisited it's blitz as prep for mosquito the other day, and there are more hits on that record than you remember

Shackleton is best thing I've heard so far on here from a couple of random tracks. woozy organs and industrial landscape shit and sirens.

Lots of little surreal touches (strange voices and chants, the little flute in Katyusha) but also great drums throughout

See, I really like the little touches, and the majority of 'Katyusha' sounds great, but I find the drums a little flimsy and annoying, and the fact that he goes into long stretches of just those tinny beats is off-putting (NB: I am listening on shit computer speakers). I think I'd like it if I was working to it more than trying to listen hard to it, but then I'd probably end up missing a lot of the good bits...

yeah it's curious that it's happening to them all, just wondering why - change of direction? same direction but so substandard that even fans of the last one weren't satisfied? whims of fashion?

Happens to virtually all bands following up a critically acclaimed album.

AC explicitly said they wanted to make something that was totally different to MPP and couldn't be received the same way. Seems like the only thing worth their while (if not the while of many MPP fans).

The beats don't sound at all tinny to me, lots of it is him playing hand drums and shit iirc. Those long weird stretches are part of the puzzle for me. They're kind of mesmerising, but also they build up this odd computer game sort of landscape, they're like going down a long strange corridor not knowing what's round the next corner. xp

Voice samples on some of the other tracks are sci-fi things and whatnot and it feels like he's very deliberately building some sort of weird post-apocalyptic world.

http://i.imgur.com/bahwHua.png

58. CHIEF KEEF Finally Rich (262 Points, 10 Votes) Spotify

I'm willing to believe that it's at least partly my listening equipment. Though with xyzzz mentioning an 'industrial landscape', I think that's part of my problem, I want it to sound dirtier and more industrial and deeper in general.

xp

Wow at 3x Shackleton number one votes. I love the early stuff, 3EPs and esp the Fabric mix, but didn't get into this. I think it's because I can't really stand Vengeance Tenfold's vocals - but maybe they weren't on the organ half of the record, and I should listen to that more?

Drawbar Organ is definitely the better half.

They're kind of mesmerising, but also they build up this odd computer game sort of landscape, they're like going down a long strange corridor not knowing what's round the next corner. xp

def get this feeling - it's super-detailed even by shackleton standards. i kind of feel that despite the weirdness and doominess it's also more playful and open than he normally is, too?

I think it's because I can't really stand Vengeance Tenfold's vocals - but maybe they weren't on the organ half of the record, and I should listen to that more?

they're not as far as i can tell

People who wanna know about 'Finally Rich' check the ilm thread.
You probably won't make it back to the countdown until sometime Thursday tho.

I like Shackleton a lot but for some reason I didn't get around to these, will have a listen when I get in from work.

I wonder if I could Chief Keef in a rap battle? ;-) ;-) ;-)

Haha my general reaction to this list so far has been "that sounds pretty good" to the stuff I haven't heard and "thank fuck that wasn't higher" to the stuff I have.

lol

I have gone from just really loving a couple of tracks on it to thinking it's at least two thirds a really good record fwiw

still haven't listened to finally rich

couldn't ever understand what was going on in the deej vs the world thread either

spent most of the year not really getting keef, caved late to "i don't like", partly because of the album, in which context it sounds bright and shining like the anthem it is. the album itself is sort of admirable for how keef sticks to his aesthetic, esp in light of the craven messes that so many major label rap albums are these days, but also a) nothing is anywhere near as good as "i don't like" b) but it all sounds the same in a v drab way c) it's still not an aesthetic i particularly care about if i'm not hearing it out & about - mostly it's TOO SLOW, i can't deal with supposed club bangers that are this fucking torpid and dreary

will def need to check out the shackleton album. sounds right up my strasse. I've always been aware of him, and have a bunch of things by him, but I always meant to get round to properly checking him out.

could someone summarise the chief keef thread for the hard of thinking?

Bonus Track on the Keef which isn't on the Spotify link that I dig a lot

Citgo