ILM's 2024 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / VOTING & CAMPAIGNING THREAD

It's time to vote! Here's the link: https://forms.gle/pgCbaWuSfCSUgsbr7

Voting ends at MIDNIGHT PST on Friday, January 24th, 2025.

The procedure is simple: enter your tracks and album ballots (up to 25 items on each), one item per line, in the appropriate fields below. Please copy each line directly from the nominations list; do not number your ballot.

You can choose one of three ballot types, which determine how points are allocated to each item you vote for:

(1) Weighted: The first item on your ballot receives 50 points, the second receives 48 points, and so on, until the 25th item receives 2 points.

(2) Unweighted: Each item on your ballot receives 26 points.

(3) Mixed: To submit a mixed ballot, you must divide your ballot in two with an extra blank line. The upper portion of the ballot will be treated as weighted, with the first item receiving 50 points, and so on. The lower portion will be treated as unweighted, in that all items will receive the same number of points. The score allocated to items in the unweighted portion is calculated as 26 minus the number of items in the weighted portion (this is so that any weighted, unweighted or mixed ballot consisting of 25 items will allocate a total of exactly 650 points).

NOMINATIONS

Track Nominations
Album Nominations

PLAYLISTS

Tracks on Spotify
Albums on Spotify

This thread is also for campaigning - convince/cajole/threaten the ILM community to check out your favourites. Just keep it easy on the Youtube embeds so the thread stays loadable, if you're posting more than one track please link instead.

thanks seandalai!

Wheeee! As I said on the other thread, I feel like I haven't listened to much this year, so am open to some lobbying to fill up any potential space in my ballot (paging imago, NickB - you guys in particular will probs have some cool stuff I might be interested in).

Thanks seandalai and tipsy for the playlists! I’m still going thru the playlist… I’ll maybe campaign for one of my own noms but I think I like to campaign for songs I didn’t nom better… so, i’ll be back.

I nominated this, but it isn't on Spotify (in the UK anyway) or Youtube, so I'll post a link to it here -

https://www.boomplay.com/songs/147143140

(it was on spotify at one point because that's where I heard it, though I don't remember how I came across it - it's pretty though)

sorry, I forgot the name - the track is called 'Early Riser', it's by Astral Unity

stuff I wrote about stuff I liked

EGG PUNK ETC:
Media Puzzle - Strategic Living EP (smart, hilarious, frequently obscene, catchy af egg punk from Australia, prob my fave of the year, they just put this out as a vinyl LP along with their equally great EP from late last year on the B-side)

The Gobs - S/T 2024 EP
This is on Bandcamp like all their stuff and it totally rules, they sound like a jet engine, the punk equivalent of High Rise but also insanely catchy, don’t sleep on the great lyrics (mostly unintelligible w/o a physical lyric sheet hint hint). This band used to be based in Olympia WA but I think they relocated to Portland OR? I am obsessed. You can also see them live on Youtube.

Various - Palestine Solidarity Compilation Volumes 1 & 2 tapes (or Bandcamp downloads with proof of donation)
These bookended my year and turned me on to a lot of these great new bands, essential compilations with something for everyone.

Busted Head Racket - Go! Go! Go! Go! EP
Another catchy bit of Australian egg punk madness.

Gee Tee - Prehistoric Chrome LP
OK this is a collection of demos and outtakes but still fantastic, they also put on the best live show I saw all year (some of which is on Youtube courtesy of my buddy Ed Cole). From Australia, again, duh.

Dru The Drifter - The Squirrel Hunter/The Thriller/The Moon Walker LPs
All three of these short 2024 albums have some great tracks, really snotty snarly pissed off punk with a pop sensibility and the occasional acoustic guitar track. I’ve seen Jay Reatard comparisons which totally make sense to me. He already has another new one coming on Jan 1st!

honorable mentions go to Billiam, Rude Television, Todd Briefly/Beige Banquet, Drunk Mums, JJ And The A’s, Judy & The Jerks, Itchy & The Nits, Bootlicker, Goblin Daycare, NTSC PAL, Snooper, Ismatic Guru, HÄGÖL, Prison Affair, 1-800-MIKEY, Power Pants, Titanium Expose, etc.

“ROCK BANDS” for lack of a better term:
Znous - 4
Tunisian band doing grungy metal weirdness, I rarely dip into metal at all but this is impressive. On Bandcamp of course.

Shellac - To All Trains
RIP you prickly dude, thanks for all the production jobs and the awesome live show memories going back to 1987. Lots of eerily prescient death references on this one, and the sound is (as usual) the platonic ideal of a rock trio.

X - Smoke And Fiction
How does this band do it? It’s so weird to have one of my high school favorites make not one but two great new albums 40+ years after their first blazing successes. More power to them, the vocal blend is still perfect. The sound is a bit too ultramoderncompressed for my ears, but the skill and care at hand is undeniable.

Dirty Three - Love Changes Everything
One of the world’s best instrumental trios finally makes a new album, this one is WAY more abstract and improv-oriented than the previous two (from 2005 and 2012 respectively, they take their time). Violin, guitar, drums, just let it wash over you.

Kim Gordon - The Collective
This is the record I have wanted her to make ever since Sonic Youth broke up. I think this is the best expression of her deadpan irony so far, I could never get into the Body/Head albums even though I wanted to. Relentlessly modern and compression-crushed, but she uses that sound to serve her vision.

honorable mentions: the “Cardinals At The Window” benefit compilation for the North Carolina floods (available on Bandcamp, link in comments), Jim White’s solo album (see Dirty Three above, he is my hero and my favorite living drummer).

EXPERIMENTAL/INDUSTRIAL/JAZZ/AMBIENT/UNCLASSIFIABLE:
Legendary Pink Dots - Chemical Playschool Volumes 23 & 24
I have loved this band since 1986 and was deeply skeptical of the Silverman retiring, along with Edward Ka-Spel I viewed him as the founder/core duo of the original band which I think is still true (although I have since learned that the early tape Apparition was done without Phil/Silverman, which I admit does put things into perspective a bit as I love that one too). I saw them live a couple years back with the “new guy” (Randall Frazier from Orbit Service) on keyboards and was even more skeptical/unimpressed. I thought my long love affair with the band might have come to an end. BUT NO. This new installment of my favorite long-running Dots project (all the Chemical Playschool volumes are worth your time) is a big step forward into sharp focus, the trio of Ka-Spel/Drost/Frazier plus guest musicians are really locked in and the band gives Edward the balance and tension that has always made the LPD’s work distinct from Ka-Spel’s innumerable solo records. Now I’m excited for the new album that’s coming in January.

Rafael Toral - Spectral Evolution
I still don’t think this is “better” than his older classics like Wave Field or Aeriola Frequency, but it’s definitely a step forward in terms of the complexity and variation of the sounds, still primarily coming from electric guitar but even more mutated than before.

Baldruin - Mosaike der Imagination
More bewitching deep German forest sounds from this guy, somewhere in that unclassifiable ambient-adjacent realm.

Merope - Vėjula
See above, the stroom.tv label that released this has ties with Baldruin and their friends, this features Laraaji among others and again is in that sweet almost-ambient spot. Tons of great stuff on this label, I barely scratched the surface this year.

Jim Wallis - Discreet Music
A lovely steel-guitar based treatment of the Eno classic, both reverent and imaginative.

Saagara - 3
More great unclassifiable music from Wacław Zimpel collaborating with musicians from India, available on Bandcamp.

Aphex Twin - Music From The Merch Desk (2016 - 2023)
I am a big Syro fan and this fills in a lot of gaps between that album and now, probably for fans only but there’s a lot of variation and creativity on display here.

Andrew Chalk - Songs Of The Sea
A welcome return to more long-form abstract work, this guy has an extensive back catalog of unclassifiable yet soothing homemade music.

honorable mentions: Michal Banabila (really the whole Music From Memory label, see Bandcamp), that gigantic weird Nicolas Jaar collection “Archivos de Radio Piedras”, Chris Irregardless, Laurie Anderson’s “Amelia”, Amy Denio’s “Varianti”, and Six Organs Of Admittance.

REISSUES:
John Balance - The Art & Writing Of John Balance 7LP box set
What can anyone even say about this lavish/insane box, the definitive document of the era leading up to the formation of Coil out of the splintering of TG and then PTV. The Stabmental zine reviews were the coolest things to read, the dude had good taste and cared about his writing. This was reasonably priced as a pre-order but is now an $800+ collector item, to the dismay of many fans.

Bernard Parmegiani - Early and Rarities
This year has seen a flood of Bandcamp digital reissues from him, this is probably for fans only but I like the overview aspect. Adventurous musique concret.

Terminal Intensity - Tentatively Terminal tape/download
How the hell is this still not on Discogs (edit: it is now!)? For everyone (like me) who thought Billy Nightshade (RIP) was cool as fuck and the “coolest” member of The Gizmos, no shade on Dale or Shadow or Kenny or Ted or the other guys. Turns out that Billy and his brother had a crazy pre-punk basement group going before he joined up with The Gizmos, the tunes are primo sludge reminiscent of Rocket From The Tombs. A very cool piece of the Gizmos puzzle, unearthed at last.

honorable mentions: Soundtracks & Head - Daga Daga Daga (for all Swell Maps fans), the two volumes of Broadcast demos that came out this year.

It's unlikely to crack the Top 77 but this beautiful acoustic mantra from Brazil deserves some votes

Alvaro Lancellotti Ft. Mateus Aleluia - A Calma

there's only 2 things i really want to campaign hard for:

.1 the non-platform kendrick lamar tracks from 2024, namely "let the party die" which is probably the most prescient thing to come out of the beef with drake.

.2 "clouds" by temani hill. i nommed it so it’s in the tracks playlist. it's r+b/neosoul.

i'll be back for thoughts and further banter later, but i've been shuffling the tracks playlist the past week and have already found a ton of new to me jams, several of which i'm voting for.

I think the tracks playlist is up to date on the nominees, minus the handful not on Spotify. At 918 songs, it just tops last year's playlist of 907 nominees — but it is also about three hours shorter. Average song length of this year's nominees is 4 minutes 14 seconds, down from 4 minutes 29 seconds last year. Lot of short pop and hip-hop, the TikTok effect I guess.

(though tbh there may be a couple of double entries on there, so don't rely on my sabrmetrics)

An album I nominated and want to campaign for is Spill Gold's Zaza, a record that really dug its claws in me over the course of the year. SG are a Dutch synths-and-live drums duo who play intricate and inventive Krautrock-ish pop with eco-conscious lyrics. Anyone into the Stroom / Knekelhuis axis of leftfield pop would enjoy this (their previous record, Highway Hypnosis, came out on Knekelhuis, also v much recommended) - also reminds me of Automatic and even The Knife at points. It's also a short album (barely over half an hour) so if you listen to it and don't like it you won't have wasted very much time. Here's a link to the title track:

Spill Gold - Zaza

I missed the nominations window, but thank you to whoever nommed "Proclivities" by LL Cool J, which was my favorite "wait he didn't just say what i think he did, did he?" moment of the year.
He also manages to make the word Piscataway sound cool.

That was me I think. I mostly just like the spacey synth track, but the whole album is a banger

"Try to come off like you're soft and well-spoken
Jack off to lyrics by Leonard Cohen"

I do find it funny that I'm campaigning for one of the biggest albums of the year but there hasn't been a lot of talk about this album on this board. Short n' Sweet is by far my most played album of this year and so here we are. This album is so additive and it's the bass that gets me every single time. It's really, really hard for me to pick a favorite song as it seems to be coming down to "Taste" or "Please Please Please." But then there is also "Juno" which seems to be the biggest of the songs outside of the song on the EOY lists and then again "Bad Chem" is the song on the radio all the time these days.

It's a really good album!

A few albums I want to campaign for:

Vejula - Merope: Didn't nom them which is awesome. Hope this places! To me it's the sound of walking through a beautiful garden in the early summer after it's just rained. This music "shimmers", as if looking at bedewed flowers and vines in the sun. Love it

Ex-easter Island Head - Norther: Fun use of acoustic textures and instruments arranged in what would normally be a very Berlin-esque experimental/ambient techno record. A couple songs utilize percussion really well and the rest sit in this experimental electro-acoustic/texture hybrid space that reminds me of artists like Rrose, but with strings.

Lars Bartkuhn - Nomad: This feels like a lovely tonal mashup of Scandinavian space disco and psych tinged Balearic exotica. Lindstrom meets Seahawks put through a low pass filter? I only just found this and I'm in love. Fantastic summer record I totally missed out on until winter lol

Jichael Mackson - Wait for It: Really pretty and textured beats that just creates a fully immersive atmosphere. Past records that this reminds me of are SW.'s debut LP, the slower parts of Skee Mask's Compro, and Pretty Sneaky's self titled full length. Ignore the annoying 2010s style gimmick name. Legit awesomeness here.

Jónsi - First Flight: This caught me by surprise and I feel has been overlooked by many. This is an entirely instrumental (non-lyrical at least) record by the Sigur Ros lead singer and it is immensely beautiful and pretty triumphant sounding. The focus here are the string arrangements and piano. Vocals are few and mixed more in the background as a compliment to the strings.

These are all of a "type" so to speak, all instrumental, downtempo, softer sound records that sit in between electronic and acoustic palates. So you're probably going to love/meh all of them I imagine.

I just saw The Jesus and Mary Chain in November and feel bad they aren't going to be represented in either albums or tracks. I should have thrown them a bone.

xxp Merope is the artist name! I nommed it and mentioned it above, let the record show this is the first album to get two mentions itt

and wow nobody nommed JMC? dang, I would have

voted :)

Let's go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UTD6VlYSPI
Angelica Garcia - Paloma

Spanish art pop so high it lives on a whole other plane. The album is good but I'm also voting for this track - the closer. Nominated by seandalai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S8nFEgG1eY
Vanishing Twin - Life Drummer

Discovered on the playlist. Streamlined, very efficient rendering of early percussive post-punk, groovy, with a haunting church organ. Nominated by donna rouge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObhUaQWsjfw
Dlala Thukzin, Funky Qla & Zee Nxumalo - Ama Gear

The hammering rhythms of Durban, the jazzy flourishes of Johannesburg, a song both delicate and sea-rolling, Zee one of those surprisingly personal and charismatic voices. Nominated by yours truly.

Similar to emil I'm quite behind this year, but that also means more time spent on the ILM playlist.

My favourite track was Bezodnya by Ariadna (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3OeWphHyDA). Dramatic Ukrainian witchhouse synth-pop.

D. Silvestre’s self-titled album was the most exciting Brazilian funk record I’ve heard in years. idk who else can make a club go crazy with a kick-less track that sounds like a jackhammer setting off a street full of car alarms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plM5Amyl0CA)

Apologies - weren’t supposed to embed!

ShariVari's nominations have been a joy to hear going through the playlist. SHADES ON is another ultrabanger

i mostly just want to advocate for hakushi hasegawa's glitch-pop opus mah​ō​gakkō. the most thrilling sound design i've heard all year

fans of low's double negative really should listen to the nin/low collaboration "vaster than empires" which has burton and sparhawk recreating the double negative sound for reznor & ross

whoa I'll have to check that out, anything on Brainfeeder is worth a gander. Would never have stumbled on Little Snake otherwise, for example.

Ex-easter Island Head - Norther... A couple songs utilize percussion really well...

― octobeard

Have you seen them live? The mallet guitars stuff is basically transcendent rave. So good.

ShariVari's noms definitely sound very up my alley, must check these!

Let me also compile a short overview of stuff I know already, emil.y...your yearly dose of imagocore...

Let's keep it to Singles With Videos that I reckon might have a chance of placing, for now

Okay well the most important thing is that everyone hears Clarissa Connelly - Give It Back - it is hard to exaggerate how hard this hits me, and I'd classify it as very much an ILM thing too. Genre is basically Artpop Loveliness idk

Oh, you want more Artpop Loveliness, except with more of a jazzy pep? That'll be Fievel Is Glauque - As Above So Below which, once heard, will burrow DELIGHTFULLY into soul

Outside pick for Artpop Loveliness? Let's keep the pep, dial up the jangle a little and make the video even bolder, it's time for Joanna Wang - There She Smiles (In A Memory) - wow! What a rush of mixed-up Artpop Loveliness feelings this is!

Lest I be pigeonholed however, VR SEX - Inanimate Love is neither Artpop nor Lovely: the band is, or was, kind of a trainwreck - a wild psychedelic postpunk explosion (and the best live act I've seen in years) that broke up a few months ago over seemingly, um, political differences (the main guy and songwriter at least being on the right side of them); the video is definitively NSFW; the whole thing exudes the stench of a moral and aesthetic decay it's documenting all too vividly. But somehow, there's beauty here too, if approached in a certain light...

Oh and just for you, I've already dragged Music League through this. Written as a terrifying love song by one of my friends to another of my friends who's gone to live with her and make more terrifying beautiful insane music together. Also the fullest realisation of 'imagocore' possibly yet:
https://april1830.bandcamp.com/track/demo-lucy

am open to some lobbying to fill up any potential space in my ballot (paging imago, NickB - you guys in particular will probs have some cool stuff I might be interested in)

okay, challenge accepted! :)

if i were to make a mixtape for my friend emil.y in the year of our lad 2024 i think i would pick the following tracks...

Florence Adooni - Otoma da Naba
Florence Adooni - Vocalize My Luv
No other musician has filled me with as much pure happiness this year as Florence Adooni, who comes from a Ghanaian tradition of spiritually-inclined highlife known as fra-fra gospel, and makes this joyful and highly danceable music that just sets my heart alight. Otoma de Haba is her most startling track so far, incorporating acid house synth lines and somewhat frantic polyrhythms with Florence's lovely voice floating on top of it all. Vocalize My Love is more of a straight-up afrobeat bomb but again full of squiggly synth work which is a delightful new development in her sound. I can't choose between these tracks, sorry - have them both!

Erika Angell - Let Your Hair Down
Erika Angell has been around in various groups for a good long while but her debut album 'The Obsession With Her Voice' came out this year and is just totally off the chain. It's kind of Laurie Anderson-esque synths and spoken word mixed with avant-jazz vocalising that make me think of Annette Peacock. Throw in some great slippery strings and it's a wonderfully deep and involving listen, feels like you're on a solo mission into deep space.

Tristwch Y Fenywod - Ferch Gyda'r Llygaid Du
Got a feeling you might already know this album? Witchy, feminist, welsh-language post-punk meets crepuscular folk music, they need to be writing soundtracks for low-budget folk horror films imo.

DJ Subaru - My Love (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
Queer cosmic disco from DJ Subaru with the excellently named Tiss Vampiric on lust-filled vocals. the synths on this are so heavy with this sense of impossible yearning, i find it both sleazy and heart-breaking

Wallace - Cravings (ft Love Letters)
Been a breakout year for Scottish house producer Wallace, whose productions have mostly been fairly happy-sounding party-friendly bangers with some sort of clever twist to them (e.g. 'Tanzanite' features this massive mobile-phone-on-vibrate noise as its hook, would love to have experienced that one out in the wild). This one is something else again though, this is for 3 o'clock in the morning when you're full of bad chemicals and your mind is so dark you can't even remember who you even are anymore. Again a bit of a sleazy electro thing, with a vibe that makes me think of early Chicago house from the likes of Jamie Principle or K. Alexi Shelby

Romain FX - 宇宙女人 Spacer Woman (Kaona Vocal Version)
This cantonese version of the italo classic 'Spacer Woman' has been circulating as a mysterious and unidentified track for a few years but only got an official release this autumn. Not sure it actually got nommed but definitely one of the tunes of the year

Arash & Quasar - Double Moon
Ludicrous track tbh but if anyone else can love it, i know emil.y will. Tatar folk music meets acid-laced italo disco, one for the rave cossack playlist

Robert Sotelo & Mary Currie - 'Expectations'
Old-school DIY art-pop from two lifers, RIYL This Heat, Robert Wyatt

Th Blisks - Knuckledust
Smudged and skeletal indie-pop from Australia, a primitive take on 90s beats, Grouper-like gauzy textures, some beautiful jangle pop harmonies

Hiro Ama - Everything Is Going To Make Sense In The End
In Hiro's own words... “I sometimes think after all the difficulties and challenges we face during our lifetime, it might not make sense at that time, but I hope that everything will fall into place, and somehow everything is going to make sense in the end. Playful melodies represent optimism, and the song is a reminder to myself to approach life with a sense of lightness and humour. Ultimately in the grand scheme of things, nothing really matters. Having said that, I think it’s important to find peace and harmony in our lives. The moments we share, the experiences we cherish, and the journey to find one’s own inner peace and harmony do matter. It's in these moments of tranquillity and connection that true fulfilment is found.”

i didn't nominate and i'm not voting, but i'd like to advocate for the following albums:

kelly lee owens - dreamstate
or:la - trusting theta
moin - you never end
tems - born in the wild
two shell - two shell
total blue - total blue
naemi - dust devil
fine - rocky top ballads
syclops - black eye
clara la san - made mistakes

i ended up voting for three tems tracks lol. only two from that album tho ;P

was great seeing total blue place on a few eoy lists, magnificent record

yeah i'm going to be voting pretty highly for that one, any gigi masin fans out there need to check that one out, big echoes of the gaussian curve stuff

(perks up ears)

Total Blue - Corsair

bit of an Eberhard Weber ECM-ish thing going on too

DIIV - Brown Paper Bag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4CXXWO-9M

Putting the shoe into shoegaze. I think "Raining on Your Pillow" might be the bigger song from this album and is also great. Can't speak about the rest of this album yet but BPB will make my Top 25.

Not going to get too geeky in this thread but is the weekend and chilling listening to music.

I know this album has at least some ilm fans, but Dina Ogon's Orion was my go-to all year. (Confirmed by Spotify as my most-played.) I liked their previous albums too and I think I voted for the prior one that year, but the full yacht vibe of this one was total comfort food. And the groove on the title track alone (nominated in Tracks, as well) I could listen to on an hourlong loop.

Dina Ogon - Orion

Total Blue was a last minute nom from me. Didn't realise it would be so well received here although totally deserves to be.

And stellar job on the tracks nominations as usual everyone. Will have the playlist on shuffle for the next few weeks (and probably beyond)

Thanks for the recommendations - haven't listened to everything yet, taking some random samples and there's some great stuff here.

Just want to note this in particular:
Arash & Quasar - Double Moon
Ludicrous track tbh but if anyone else can love it, i know emil.y will. Tatar folk music meets acid-laced italo disco, one for the rave cossack playlist

THIS IS INCREDIBLE AAAAAAARGH I LOVE IT SO MUCH

hahaha! :))

lots of similar nonsense on the EP btw:
https://skylaxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/double-moon-mellah-3

The Arash & Quasar is great - NickB also nominated it last year and I voted for it:

Arash & Quasar - Double Moon
https://skylaxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/double-moon-mellah-3
Been obsessing over this all of last month but looking back at that i'm not even sure it's out properly yet, so maybe i'll be repeating all this again in 12 months time? anyhow, it's new italo disco stuff from a tatar duo singing in their native tongue and using traditional instruments with some acidy synth touches for good measure. entire EP is fantastic and includes a kraftwerk cover also in tatar, but this was that track that hooked me in

(Another track on that EP is a great version of Kraftwerk's "The Model": https://arashandquasar.bandcamp.com/track/super-soul-you-are-wasted-in-life-cause-you-drink-too-much-arash-quasar-edit )

Some industrial-y NZ stuff that might be of interest to imago/emil.y:

Grecco Romank - Asbestos Tarot
Beauty-and-the-beast bogan EBM purveyors return with a ravey Kate Bush tale of cryogenics.

Moider Mother - Hierarchy of Grottos
Nick Harte (DFA's Shocking Pinks)'s punk-funk anchors Hannah Harte's Heavenly Creatures scowling and shrieking. Goth-y God Is My Co-Pilot vibes.

Louisa Nicklin - The Shroud
Portishead's Third as genre; contemporary classical background gives her Shayne Carter-produced post-punk swoon a subtle spatiality.

Night Lunch - Dog Show
Munted Dunedin duo take Hairy Maclary's Showbusiness to the landfill; Lightning Bolt played at 33.3rpm.

Ducklingmonster - I know​.​.​.​.​.​.​a​.​.​.​way​.​.​.
Barnacled boombox field recordings and scratched 45s macraméd into dalek disco.

NickB also nominated it last year

lol, i did? i'm fucking going crackers. release date is Jan 2024 though so still valid, huzzah!

some hot tips not yet mentioned:

- Deni Kristani - Pupus Gedang: over on the Outernational thread, ArchCarrier shared a cool genre of music from Java, idk whether calling it "gamelan pop" is technically accurate but it's a useful description. "Pupus Gedang" is a 2024 song I liked, the shimmering percussion and Deni's voice fly off together (plus the periodically whooping dude in the background!).
- LEENALCHI - Bird: Korean traditional pansori song-storytelling jazzed up with modern arrangements. RIYL Ukrainian Eurovision entries.

- Caoilfhionn Rose - Constellation: gorgeous chamber folk, I've been swimming in this album all year. RIYL Movietone or Music for People in Trouble
- Kumio Kurachi - Open Today: Japanese artrock blending up Roxy, math-rock, old punk guys who got really into folk music, repeated listens to Cloudbusting,...puts a smile on my face.

btw daerest tipsy mothra, my final track nomination has now been added to Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/track/49RdDBQj8TMEGsdJFCt01l?si=KMsL_s2MQ1-b8yhaGoNr2g&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A4Krf6o2IsXJ8TTWgkmKpvK
Cheeeeeeers

'Double Moon' is the one nominated and that everyone should vote for.

(Probably a bit late for campaigning, I'm just about to submit my own ballot and I'm always one of the last ones to get them in)

Gah, submitted! Both mixed ballots, felt pretty haphazard in places, but overall I think I'm happy with what I put down.

maybe my first time voting without nomming, which was an interesting constraint

Voted without thinking about it much. Probably will regret many decisions.

I can't wait for the rollout. This year has been off to a bad start but at least I get to hear some good new music

got my album shortlist down to 46, I can do this

Asake is misspelled "Asaka" in track noms (both times)

agonizing over little points. Strong year!

fuggit. voted. thanks!

So... pretty much exactly 24 hours left, innit?

I have 26 songs that I can't make a dent in. One of the things I've hyped in here will have to miss out. I hope you all manage to forgive me

Or I could get rid of one of Mine. Gosh

Ahhh yes. Okay. Yes. Decision reached (have cut something that is neither one of Mine nor something I've hyped)

voetd!

also voted!

voted

voted!

voted!

trying to fit shortlisted into the tracks ballot as brutal as ever

i know everyone has their favs+priorities and i like too much, as opposed to not enough. so here's a few last minute things i discovered on the playlist, but needed to cut from my ballot. consider this shadow campaigning because i didn't vote for these either. they jam though, check em out!

gorgeous ― "natural high" (soft rock/harmony rock, completely stunning vocal on this one!)
the amazing ― "streetfighter" (indie guitar jams, very television reminiscent, incredible toans and big singalong chorus)
georgia ruth ― "i'm not driving" (big sigh folk rock ballad, top lyrics)
mabe fratti ― "enfrente" (baroque daw pop, this was actually the last thing to get cut from my ballot, which caused me momentary physical pain)

this is just gonna get more fun as we go and i'm here for it.

oh yeah, "bubblegum" by newjeans is totally ace. i have a feeling that one has a few fans already though!

Vetoed!

Can I send my vote tomorrow? Currently no power due to Storm Eowyn.

voted:)

meant to campaign for the Mui Zyu album, oh well

Glad you liked that Georgia Ruth song, Austin!

voted! first time in a few years i’ve been able to get one in :)

Voted!

Ok, voted! 👍🏽

Got power back and have voted

Voted

vote vote vote

It'll be interesting to see how many voters we got compared to last year. Especially in light of so many people leaving social media and finding succour in ilx

I will be on a plane at the deadline so there may be a bit more time before I can double check everything and close up shop on Saturday

Hello! I voted earlier but have subsequently been to the pub. Now I’m drunk I heartily recommend ‘Lettuce is a type of Lettuce’ to anyone trying to fill their tracks ballot.

Swiss charrrrrrrrrd.

i will be voting tonight, already know most of my picks. didn’t nom anything this year which is weird for me but hey, fun!

I voted for Lettuce is a type of Lettuce!

Voted! only put one single because honestly i didn't have a lot of time to listen to the playlist and as with most years, i tend to be an albums person.

quite a few records i would have expected on the albums list were not, but maybe my taste in jazz and punk is just a little too wild.

excited for the rollout (and for the Moin record to break the top 20 if there is a just god)

Voted. Hard to limit to 25 and 25.

Wish I had discovered Brazilian singer Luiza Brina earlier and nominated her.

with ilm being so slow i have no idea what any of you are listening to anymore and the poll is the one time of the year i get to find out. looking forward to the results

Voted! probably the first year where my tracks list only had one per artist and was hard to limit to 25.

voted!

Seeing if tt can be remotely provoked into finalising her ballot...

I'm sure she'll wake up and cobble something quickly together shortly. I've done most of the admin for her already ffs. Our ballots don't even overlap that much these days lol

Oops meant to say here - voted! Thanks to imago for adminning while I was at Friday night Magic.

Voted! I only listened to one new album this year :(

Life really got in the way this year, I was so sure I wasn't going to submit, but here I am.

trying to sneak one in over the next 15 min

managed a full album ballot but only several tracks, i tried but just needed to get it in

sorry for the delay, voting really is closed now

if a mod can lock a thread

Bit late but yep, locking now.