Best album from the 2019 ILM EOY album poll that received only ONE top 3 weighted vote

Unlike years past, I actually have heard more than a few of these. Trying hard not to just go ahead and pick Yosi Horikawa off the bat.

Hadn Dadn! Hadn Dadn! Хадн Дадн!

Fun, beautiful, indie-synth-pop with tremendous folkish vocals.

I got a fair bit of mileage out of the Davachi/KaIma, Fire! Orchestra and the Pekler after playlist exposure. (Thanks peeps!) So maybe one of those...

Santilli - Surface

That was my number one - far from the most conspicuosly amazing thing that came out last year but something I kept coming back to for its understated gentleness. Sounds pretty much like if Gaussian Curve had been on ECM records. Also somewhat drawn to it by the fact it's just one guy playing all the instruments on it.

― ymo sumac (NickB), Friday, 7 February 2020 08:23

Two if these are mine (Moon King and Grace Lightman) and this wasn't even tactical.

Tuomas at 8:36 7 Feb 20

Gavin, Leeds at 12:53 7 Feb 20

Tayhana - Tierra del Fuego

I listened to this the other day and liked it!

Glad to hear, as I was the one who nominated this and gave the only vote it got. I knew putting it on the top of my list would probably be futile, but it does have a weird melange of fast and complex breaks and evocative horrorcore synths, so it was unlike any electronic music I'd heard last year, I'm sure fans of artists like Jlin or Gazelle Twin might appreciate it. Anyway AFAIK Tierra de Fuego is the first thing Tayhana's ever released, so hopefully she has bright future ahead.

Bartosz Kruczyński - Baltic Beat II

Also one of mine, was rocking that all summer until the Santilli came along. Again it's basically placid music for zoning out to

Oh, I was also the sole voter for the Marilyn Mazur's Shamania album. If you like impressionistic fusion jazz with folk influences and plenty of percussion, you should check it out. It's also notable for having a 10 strong jazz band where all the players are women, without this being a gimmick or a selling point.

Will need to try a few before voting, but I'm immediately familiar with and a fan of the Charlie Cawood - really lovely chamber-prog-folk by a dazzling multi-instrumentalist. He is also part of the band I voted into #5 (Lost Crowns) and a very pleasant chap to boot

Feel straight up betrayed at being the only voter for Anna Webber. Come on, ilx, I thought we had something?

Anyway, it's jazz. Based on modern compositional music like Xenakis, etc. Microtonal themes and weird grooves in 13/8. I loved the sound of it, and it was weirdly dancable like late Autechre or experimental d'n'b. No album freaked me out more over the year, it was basically the catalyst for so much listening throughout the year.

many things

LISTENING LINKS + vague descriptions by some people on the internet

Afriqua - Colored – another set of Afrofuturist dancefloor tackle

Alice Coltrane Sextet - Live At The Berkeley Community Theater 1972 – This is a bootleg, make no mistake!

Andrew Pekler - Sounds From Phantom Islands – experimental ambient electronic music exotica field recording

Anna Webber - Clockwise – *lives* the overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music

Bartosz Kruczyński - Baltic Beat II – Polish ambient music alchemist

Charlie Cawood - Blurring Into Motion – mystical sounds, invoking the music of a long-forgotten time

Copeland - Blushing – a gorgeous reminder that the heart never sleeps

Covey - Some Cats Live, Some Cats Die – indie rock Brooklyn

Dominic Miller - Absinthe – "Lautrec and Van Gogh and a lot of these guys were tripping on absinthe"

Filmmaker - Somber Realm – electronic coldwave dungeon electro Colombia

Fire! Orchestra - Arrival – a mere 14 people groove in a thoroughly unexpected, loose-limbed, and Kosmische fashion

Girlpool - What Chaos is Imaginary – the pair explore worlds more ambitious than ever before

Grace Lightman - Silver Eater – disco-nodding, genre-spanning, alt-pop record

Hadn Dadn - Lyaoakyn – Cool electronic indie pop with folk elements

The Hold Steady - Thrashing Thru The Passion – rock and roll

Kris Baha - Palais – alienation, detachment, melancholia and lust

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry - Rainford – sessions that span Jamaica, Brazil and the UK

Lightning Dust - Spectre – "It’s for all the women warriors"

Magma - Zëss – one 38 minute long track

Marilyn Mazur's Shamania - Shamania – the latest stunning venture in a consistently intrepid career

MC Yallah & Debmaster - Kubali – A prime showcase of east Africa’s incredibly fertile electronic dance music scene

Meernaa - Heart Hunger – r'n'b rock post-rock Oakland

Minor Pieces - The Heavy Steps of Dreaming – heart-rending avant-folk

Moon King - Voice Of Lovers – new dance-floor-focused version of Moon King

Pulselovers - Cotswold Stone – hauntology motorik psychedelia Doncaster

Santilli - Surface – deep and sprawling jazz in an ECM vein

Sarah Davachi & Ariel Kalma - Intemporel – a single trip on the edge of time

Tayhana - Tierra del Fuego – Darkly absorbing new dembow mutation

Terminal Cheesecake - Le Sacre Du Liévre – 7 tracks of unyielding psych freak outs

Yosi Horikawa - Spaces – Detailed electronic sound design meets jazzy, chords-driven broken beats

haha, those all sound tremendous tbh!

yeh, thanks for that sbahnhof!

Baltic Beat II was a cut from my ballot at the last moment. Didn't quite connect with me the same way the first one did (which was my #1 pick that year)

copeland

i thought it had no hope of placing so i didn’t vote for it. tbh i was right

The ilm Meernaa thread never really took off, but I thought that album would get more than just my vote. It was my #1 for a good part of last year until a couple other things dislodged it.

Totes forgot to vote for the Lightning Dust, or else it would haven't gotten this lonely distinction.

Pulselovers - Cotswold Stone – hauntology motorik psychedelia Doncaster

This sounds good on first listen!

yeah that caught my eye, ditto terminal cheesecake

"Anna Webber - Clockwise – *lives* the overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music"

probably won't accumulate much ilm interest but it is a fucking fine album.

Moon King was my #1 - evident influences include Patrick Cowley, early Ministry, DAF, DFA, 80s Italo, The Knife...listened to it only slightly more than Shura

― nashwan, Thursday, 6 February 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJZllxsq66Q

Also wanted to post about Grace Lightman before based on the original releases of 'Faultless' and 'Repair Repair' in 2015/6 but couldn't decide where and for the album they've been re-recorded and imo inferior to the originals (the latter had an intro totally different from the rest of the track and would've been a great way to start the album - still not sure why this was ditched) but still a promising debut. TBH she can be comfortably slotted in with many other Shambha-lectro edge pop chanteuses so if you like several of them already you ought her too (she deserves as much attention as ones who have placed in previous EOY lists put it that way). Single 'Aztec Level' due to its schaffel beat will either seem too dated or a perfectly reasonable Goldfrapp homage all these years later. The Moloko-ish 'Exoskeleton', kosmische instrumental 'Deep Space Getaway' and dreampop ballad 'Iridescent Behaviour' are also highlights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa1AW3xO-KI

I listened to Moon King a bit back when they were a duo, but haven't followed closely (or at all) since Daniel began doing it alone. This is way different.

Looking forward to hearing these albums - it's the most promising bunch we've had since the polls started!

Girlpool would've been in my own top 3 had I voted, so that.

I liked the Moon King track that was nominated in the tracks poll. Will have to check out the rest. Thanks, nashwan.

really surprised I was the only vote for Magma

Minor Pieces was my #2 pick and in most years it would have been #1. Fell hard for that record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reH405dth3w

man, i loved that meernaa album and then totally forgot about it. i think i must've forgotten to add it to the playlist where i keep the new albums i hear.

anyway, that's my vote.

ha, my #1s always end up in these polls :(

Pulselovers was my 3rd place vote. On the Castles in Space label, which had an annus mirabilis last year but this was the pick of their album releases. While the guy behind it lives in Doncaster, this record captures memories of summers spent in Burford in Gloucestershire during his youth. Incredible packaging with the physical edition too, with lots of extras like postcards and badges - I believe there are still copies available.

Of the rest, I have heard Copeland and Meerna and both are recommended.

Anna Webber's Clockwise is the only one in the list where I couldn't find a full-album version online -- Bandcamp has 3 tracks for free.

It's on Apple music... Honestly the inclusion of pi music on am is the best argument for the service

https://youtu.be/0VL1Uyx0MHI

I should probably stan for Yosi Horikawa as it was my number 1. He's a Japanese 'sound artist' who employs his own field recordings to the cause of hyper detailed and beautiful new-agey kinda balearica. Easily played this album more than any other last year

https://youtu.be/0VL1Uyx0MHI

Nope, I *still* can't do embeds :'(

Sarah Davachi & Ariel Kalma - Intemporel (1st)

this was my #1 so voting for that obv

ha, my #1s always end up in these polls :(

― geoffreyess, Friday, February 7, 2020 5:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

wear it as a badge of pride imo!

After a cursory listen to the records I hadn't heard, Afriqua, Andrew Pekler, Bartosz Kruczyński, Fire! Orchestra, and Santilli really stood out to me. Still going with Yosi Horikawa though - Spaces is really good, up there with his last one, Vapor. Baltic Beat II I'm somewhat surprised for being orphaned. The first Baltic Beat made the 2016 Albums Poll.

that copeland album rules

that Santilli album is gorgeous, I would have voted for it if I thought there was anyone else out there listening to it

Yes this Santelli album is lovely!

Between Alice Coltrane and Lee Perry.

Terminal Cheesecake = my #1. Probabky the decade's prd eminent example of this micro-genre:

Crazy Psychedelia (Helios Creed, Butthole Surfers and...?)

I'm enjoying the Filmmaker so far, Somber Realm...

How many albums did they make last year?

8 albums and 1 ep. They're all very good. I'd say the best ones are Somber Realm, The Love Market and Noir Times.

I listened to hours and hours of Filmmaker while working in 2019. It's very good music for focusing.

Terminal Cheesecake bringing the mad bright-weather grandeur rn ty

Hadn Dadn! Hadn Dadn! Хадн Дадн!

Fun, beautiful, indie-synth-pop with tremendous folkish vocals.

― ShariVari, Friday, 7 February 2020 21:18 bookmarkflaglink

That's a great album, very interesting sound.

Hadn Dadn's just brought out a new album, Nostalgia, last week:

- https://hadndadn.bandcamp.com/album/--2
- https://pervoe.online/news/student-v-teme/3278-hadn_dadn_interview/ / autotranslated to English

4 days more of the poll – I'll try to hear a bunch of the albums from K to Z. Even the Magma one if I have time, although they went downhill after "Toca's Miracle" imo

Oh, and either this is a humorous Russian mistranslation, or I've totally missed this famous pairing... has anyone got any idea?

- Coin and Buckwheat are called the voice of a generation. They are practically memes. Can you imagine what generation voice you could be (or are)? What do you think about the Coin and Buckwheat phenomenon? Why did they become symbols?
- Coin and Buckwheat have their recognizable intonations and, of course, that they carry in their songs. On our strange slurred stage they are a new phenomenon, performers with a finished image, speaking modern language.
Our music is more complicated, you won’t immediately enter it, but I really hope that they will soon understand us. - (From the Hadn Dadn interview)

Monetochka and Greshka translate literally as ‘small coin’ and ‘buckwheat’. They’re both young singers with huge followings.

Monetochka / монеточка

ahhhhhh

MC Yallah & Debmaster - Kubali – A prime showcase of east Africa’s incredibly fertile electronic dance music scene

Forgot to mention - the Boomkat review/blurb finishes with the words

"100% bad as fuck."

I was p much ready to vote for Kubali on the basis of that alone.

The Meernaa album is really nice... maybe just "5% bad AF" in their case

Two Vancouver bands' LPs, by Lightning Dust and Minor Pieces, make for a good one-two. The latter one is a bit surprising...

"Taking influence and inspiration from the likes of Low, Grouper, Mazzy Star, Portishead, My Bloody Valentine, Talk Talk and Cat Power, ‘The Heavy Steps Of Dreaming’ sounds at once familiar whilst forging something new, unique and beyond the sum of its influences."

....That got only one vote on ILM? This place has changed

The world has changed.

The world cannot change

I might give this Intemporel another listen later, it's got extensive droneage and an incomprehensible blurb of steel

In the first phase of departure, the mysterious song of the sax winds in archaic echoes, supported by the electronic inlays of the synth (Arp Odissey). Flowing between space rumbles and astral progressions, we sight high celestial bodies. When the infinite drones of the tampura start, we take part in the night ceremonial, surrounded by the deep harmonium and the Tibetan bell chimes.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Got to the end of the alphabetical listening, Yosi Horikawa and Tayhana are grebt

But i have to vote for the badass MC Yallah & Debmaster - that album isn't long, but it's a revelation.

They really love their cassette aesthetic, eh...

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0285077612_16.jpg

this Yosi Horikawa album is very enjoyable. I'm going to try to listen to most of these.

loving Santilli

I wish someone would do a one-line review of all poll options

sbahnhof did!

Best album from the 2019 ILM EOY album poll that received only ONE top 3 weighted vote

Those weren't reviews, they were vague ramblings stolen from the internet

Lightning Dust's second album is one of my favorite indie rock things of the last couple decades so I feel bad that I didn't check out this latest one. Will need to fix that. Amber's voice is so wonderful.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well done, Intemporel, top of the league on the random algorithmic tiebreaker

I hate you all :(

Didn't expect this poll to get more than double the votes the tracks poll got.

I feel like I cheated by voting for my own number 1 on this poll

You can vote for your own No.1

@Fred, man, you can vote for your own No.1

Hell, if it wasn't for sockpuppets on the previous polls, all of my top albums would've been in minuses

It's a pity Shamania didn't get a vote - they're a brilliant group. The album got a few mentions in the jazz thread.

I was like, "how on earth would you even try to reproduce that live...?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxsM2WxL3Lc

Hell, if it wasn't for sockpuppets on the previous polls, all of my top albums would've been in minuses

I keep trying to imagine how albums get in the minuses...I keep imagining the musicians ilxmailing each of us, imploring us to vote for different things...