7gp ["seven good plays"] album-listening exchange

If I know that there's someone out there giving perhaps grudging, but well-meaning and fair attention to some niche favorite of mine, I'm more likely to put in the effort to listen to something *they* like a lot.

So I was thinking we could do something like this:

Each person who signs up for this "7gp" album exchange will agree to give seven good plays to an album someone else recommends, abiding by these two rules:

1. These should be seven honest, careful listens in a setting comparable to what you'd give an album you're getting to know by an artist you already like;

2. Each listen should be at least two days apart. So if today is Monday and I play an album (let's say it's the first time I play it), the second play should be on Thursday or after.

(Clarification for Rule Number 2: if you play it multiple times on Monday, or on Tuesday and Wednesday, it doesn't violate rules but the official "second play" won't be counted until you listen on Thursday.

My reasoning here is, my appreciation for an album usually grows when I give it space. If I play something seven times in a row one afternoon, I won't have engaged with it as deeply as if I play it seven times across the space of one month.

Also, when I *don't* like something, playing it seven times in rapid succession will just leave me laser-focused on the things I don't like about it. If I space out those listens, there's more chance for me to notice interesting things.)

So, whoever's onboard would recommend between one and three albums (if you recommend more than one, your randomly-assigned listener will choose only one; if you want to be helpful, you can write a 1-2 sentence gloss of each album you recommend, so that your listener has some vague idea of what they're getting themselves into when they're choosing). And each of us who's onboard would also get assigned one album.

If we got some momentum with this and kept it going, we could do a round every month or two.

I figure we who sign up should be ready for & open to all kinds of genres. ILM hosts all types. Let's try not to back out of an assignment because the album isn't the kind of thing we'd normally play.

And when we assign/recommend an album, let's be sincere. Don't recommend something you don't care for much. Knowing "I'm listening to something that means a lot to [fellow ILMer]" can help with the patience that's usually lacking when I'm trying out something I wouldn't typically go in for.

Anyone in?

it's 2025, sad state of affairs is I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone willing to give any album a single coherent, focused listen

I quite like this idea and would like to participate. A couple of possible issues/queries:

1) The randomly assigned listener might get assigned a choice from albums they already know. In this case I guess there could be a re-assignment? Maybe to be successful the exercise needs to gain a certain critical mass.

2) How do listeners report back on the experience? Like, do they say "I'm at listen number 4 and ____ is really starting to click," etc., or do they try to write something more comprehensive after the seven spins?

The Fall Forum used to do anonymous mix CDs without tracklistings that were randomly exchanged by a self-assigned coordinator. Then people would do a writeup of the whole thing, track-by-track (with as little or as much detail as they liked) and the compiler would then out themselves and respond. Maybe they still do? It was a lot of fun. 7gp takes out the compilation and guesswork labor (finding the song by Googling lyrics or using Shazam was frowned upon) while preserving the random element.

I like both ideas (mix CDs and individual albums). I feel like I would've had a much easier time with this 10 years ago though, seems like all the seemingly obscure stuff I dug has been thoroughly discovered now!

I feel like I would've had a much easier time with this 10 years ago though, seems like all the seemingly obscure stuff I dug has been thoroughly discovered now!

I'm guessing it might work better if you end up listening to something in a genre you don't know as much about. Of course some ILMers have considerable breadth of knowledge, but no one has heard everything. I would need to do some work myself to come up with three albums I love that aren't more or less well-regarded. Beyond that, some albums more obviously reward repetition than others — although the challenge to hear something different on the seventh spin of, say, a randomly chosen Ramones LP might be worthwhile.

I'm thinking of this partly in terms of what Carl Wilson does in his 33 1/3 album about Céline Dion's Let's Talk About Love, deliberately choosing something he hates to try and think more deeply about taste. (I tried an assignment once where my students did something comparable; for most, it really didn't work!) But of course the exercise doesn't have to go in that direction.

normally this would be exactly my thing but I have already made my life into a music discovery project and have no more time free for any new ideas. would take interest in thread though.

seems like all the seemingly obscure stuff I dug has been thoroughly discovered now!

― frogbs, Saturday, February 8, 2025 12:11 PM

i have read some very distressing and upsetting things on these forums in my day, but nothing scares me more than these kinds of sentiments. my condolences, frogs.

i'm interested in this. seven listens over 2 weeks seems like too much of an investment though. i'd give 3-5 days and three full listens. even with new stuff that i like a lot, that's how i listen to albums, revisiting as the mood hits.

maybe it's because most of the music discovery I do is on this board, or on hyper-specific Discords, as opposed to irl with my roommates and friends like it used to be. also as you get older more of your music listening is devoted to things you already like (which hopefully should be a ton of stuff by now) or rediscoveries, I'm not really interested in what's "new" these days like I used to be, but I probably should put more work in because I find cool stuff in Music League all the time

i get that. i hope new-to-you goodness continues to flow. in the past, your postings have helped me find a handful of great catalogue picks, so thank you for that!

NJS, I did think about that too --

1. Right, we could do a reassignment in that case. Alternately, if there are multiple options and all are familiar, the listener could choose the album they feel they know least well and have a nice bed-in, you know? There's a lot of stuff I've "heard" but not really "listened to." Hell, I don't think I've heard Exile in Main St all the way through twice.

-- which leads me to -- frogbs! On a general level sure, corners of the YMO universe and Hirasawa (these being the areas you've helped map that I've visited) have gained considerable traction. But how many people on ILM have heard Paraiso seven times? Let alone Technique of Relief? We wouldn't necessarily have to go ridiculously obscure, since chances are our listener won't be knowledgeable in our particular fields. And since you could list three albums, you could pull them from different domains -- I might know some Hirasawa at this point but I've never really listened to TMBG or Ween -- as NJS pointed out too.

And thus back to NJS,

2. Either way. I'm definitely the type to come and comment as I go, but a single write-up at the end of the seven-listen run would be fine too. A really neat result of all this could be that, though I give seven listens to the album I've been assigned, I'll also end up checking out a lot of tracks based on what other people are discovering and reporting to the thread about.

I'm a diehard album head (even though it's 2025... people like me are out there) (it's my favorite art form, period!) but if a recommender wanted to submit a self-curated mix instead of an album, that'd work just as well.

although the challenge to hear something different on the seventh spin of, say, a randomly chosen Ramones LP might be worthwhile.

Yes indeed! The persistence might reveal a lof of things even about an album you know pretty well. I had my huge Dylan kick more than a decade ago now. I wouldn't mind at all being pushed to find out what I'd make of Blonde on Blonde if I gave it seven listens *now.* which is why I wouldn't stress the obscurity levels of what we submit.

deliberately choosing something he hates to try and think more deeply about taste

This is an interesting element too, yeah! If I got assigned a modern EDM-based pop album I would definitely flounder, but even so, the exercise would go a long way to clarifying what I like and don't like in an album or sound, and that'd be appreciated. Plus it'd be a good challenge / opportunity -- to really try to hear my way into it, knowing it's something that my recommender loves. (Which is why sincerity is key... if someone recommends something they hate just for the laughs, this won't work.)

Austin,

i'd give 3-5 days and three full listens. even with new stuff that i like a lot, that's how i listen to albums, revisiting as the mood hits.

That does fulfill Condition 1, so I'd say come on in! If the spirit of the thread takes you, you might end up playing the album more, or worst case scenario, your recommender will think "goddamit, I got Austin again. So be it, 3-5 listens it is." The listeners/recommenders would get shuffled every round so if we manage to get, say, seven people, the different combinations each round will become their own fun element.

Where's imago, by the way? I thought that with the amount of stuff he likes that the rest of ILM doesn't, he'd be glad of a captive audience.

Also -- say you recommend three albums in the first round. You can reuse the two that went unpicked next time around. And then, third round, recommend only one, thereby forcing *somebody* to play your still-unpicked third. (Or do all new stuff each round, whatever you fancy.)

So for now:

TheNuNuNu
Neue Jesse Schule
frogbs
Austin

We could make this happen with just four people -- I can't do math for shit, but we'd need what, seven or eight rounds before each of us had recommended something to the other?

Let's give it a few more days and see if anyone else can be persuaded. (Daniel_Rf to thread!) and more people might sign up in another round or three.

as you get older more of your music listening is devoted to things you already like (which hopefully should be a ton of stuff by now) or rediscoveries, I'm not really interested in what's "new" these days like I used to be

Exactly, that's what I've found to be the case too. And I'm perfectly happy with it -- I could probably spend the next four years barely venturing out of the Japanese folk-rock/synthpop kingdom. But (a) I did get into XTC and Gizzard and Hirasawa this year, and am better off for it; and (b) anything is worth it if I can get someone listening to Agata, mwahaha

I'm in.

I often miss how I listened to music when I was saving up my lunch money to buy cds. Even if I didn't like something I bought, I would try to like it because one album was precious back then. Some things that initially put me off I worked my way into out of stubbornness, and not wanting to waste money. The Velvet Underground & Nico sounded AWFUL the first five times I listened to it.

The sixth time was pretty good though.

Hahaha! YES! In the years of 3-5 new CDs a year... you had to just keep pushing... whereas nowadays I have to trick myself into similar behavior. One way has been to limit my buying on Bandcamp, and it works sometimes -- there's a different weight to an album when I know it's sitting in my Bandcamp collection. (And this, clearly, is another!)

Have you considered signing up for the Music League on here?? It’s a similar idea and you’ll discover all sorts of new things.

That one looks -- intense...! The amount of listening that needs to be done to keep up seems pretty high, and it feels more of a lateral than a vertical spread -- lots of songs to hear, but probably not multiple times? Plus song- versus album-focused. All exacerbated by my not having Spotify out here. But it's been a fun thread to peek in on.

Oh and "inflicting" something on others seems frowned upon, whereas here it'd be 50% of the point!

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone willing to give any album a single coherent, focused listen

I mostly listen to entire albums that are new to me, and probably give each of them close to seven plays apiece. I'm more interested in depth than breadth, though I try to balance familiar acts or genres with ones I haven't explored.

have no more time free for any new ideas. would take interest in thread though.

I mean, I'm still following up on record reviews I read in 1986, not to mention all the books, magazines and websites and radio etc. since then. It usually takes more than one person saying "this is great" to tip the scales for me, but if someone recommends something that is already on my radar, I will diligently listen and report back.

Alright, so just the five of us. (me, Neue Jesse Schule, frogbs, Austin, Cow_Art)

Let's give ourselves a couple days to figure out which album (or, up to 3) we want to recommend this round. When you've figured it out, post here. By Wednesday, let's say? After that I'll do the random assigning, and we can begin.

Oh yeah, let's cap album runtimes at 90 minutes! In theory I'd love to be assigned something as good and as long as Sandinista but, we do all have our own other trips.

It usually takes more than one person saying "this is great" to tip the scales for me, but if someone recommends something that is already on my radar, I will diligently listen and report back.

Ah, Halfway -- does this mean you'd like to join the draw? (And recommend your own things?) If the rec(s) you get assigned don't mean much to you, you're free to back out of the round, and I'll reassign where necessary.Or were you just making a general statement about your following-up-on-recs habits?

Alright, my three:

HIS - 日本の人 (Nihon no hito) (1991)
An enka singer, an odd-voiced glam rocker, and emperor of weird synthpop Haruomi Hosono team up to pay tribute to the folk music they loved in the '60s.

あがた森魚 - ぐすぺり幼年期 (Gooseberry younenki) (2012)
A concept album about early childhood - the light and mystery, the fear and helplessness. Among the gentler records in Morio Agata's punk-folk catalogue. Lightly psychedelic arrangements, rootsy group vocals.

Richard Dawson - Nothing Important (2014)
Dark, minimalistic, literary, gnarly, qawwali-indebted, distorted folk music. The forum search shows it made some mark on ILM in 2014, but hasn't come up much since. Home to two of the most unsettling and touching songs I know.

does this mean you'd like to join the draw? (And recommend your own things?)

Maybe if we were all stranded on an oil rig near Antarctica with nothing but CD collections to exchange. But that kind of time investment right now requires that I'm already intrigued by a record.

So participants name three albums and we get randomly paired up?

1-3 albums, yep. And then I'll do the random pairing.

(You only need to choose one album each round.)

(As a listener, I mean. As a recommender you can recommend up to three, *if* you want to give the listener who'll get your assignment some volition.)

I do think seven plays in a month will be demanding — in 2024, that was the max I played any album the whole year. (Question: How many times do those of us who reviewed albums professionally usually play them?) But I'm up for the challenge, partly because my own listening habits feel a little moribund lately.

I'm mulling over my selections. TNNN has stressed that we should love the records we choose. I also feel like I should choose titles I'd be willing to play seven more times in a month myself, which I wouldn't typically choose to do with an old favorite. Of course projecting myself into the mind of the imagined listener is a little pointless, but I want to imagine how the experience could be worthwhile.

I also feel like I should choose titles I'd be willing to play seven more times in a month myself

Yes! Very much a part of my own thinking.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness, NJS. I'm excited about this project.

I could overthink this, but I'm just going to go with the last three albums that I have actually listened to repeatedly over an extended time because they were new to me and I liked them a lot.

1. Sinéad O'Connor - Throw Down Your Arms (2005)
Reggae covers recorded at Tuff Gong with Sly & Robbie. Music to alleviate doom.

2. KD Lang - Watershed (2008)
Solid adult contemporary, lushly produced in the best way, sometimes reminiscent of Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg with a bit of Muppet banjo.

3. Teenage Fanclub & Jad Fair - Words Of Wisdom And Hope
As a middling fan of Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair, I find this to be the best of both worlds.

yeah trying to think of albums that I'd actually listen to 7x in a month myself. when we kicking this off, tomorrow?

Tomorrow, o Amphibian!

Or whenever you, NJS, and Austin get the recommendations together. I'm not a draconian sort.

Cow, all three of those sound enticing (and all new to me!)

here's 3 rando personal classics that i have strong connections with. trying to be mindful and pick albums under ~45mins. i'm including spotify links for reference (+youtube when available):

gary burton quartet ― country roads and other places (1969) JAZZ
gary burton-vibes (+sometimes piano)
roy haynes-drums
steve swallow-bass
jerry hahn-guitar
not a full blown country/jazz hybrid sound, but definitely more folky funky than the standard post-bop of the day. recent revives around bill frisell got me thinking about this kinda "urban rural americana" sound. this album kinda sorta nails it.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7yGbCVYfpeGrWBdil0pOmo?si=3Qdovu0kQOWoVa_MUniPJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fz-G82uiAw

the roots ― from the ground up ep (1993) HIPHOP
even though i didn't hear it until after illadelph halflife, the band's first ep remains one of the most charmingly idiosyncratic and refreshing hiphop releases of the 90s. from scott storch shoutouts to malik blunt identifying himself as such, it almost seems quaint by now. however even with the cynicism towards the band flowing thoroughly for the past decade and change, i can't overstate how fucking awesome this music is.
https://open.spotify.com/album/67el5xZUlIE1u0Z6CdZ0so?si=uUx7bRZfQ-S7hAyIkGHTcw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbacy3t8Kzg

terry callier ― i just can't help myself (1973) R+B/FOLK
gonna skip the 2 preceding (more revered) albums in favor of this one, mostly on the strength of "can't catch the trane." musical homages can be be a slippery slope, but terry understood the assignment completely. the rest of the album is more of a gritty soulful folk rock sound.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1PIkkbEskqfpCLCNpXTdbf?si=kdbOAClmRMmXVQy7tQvwoA
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mSKhc6bH3g2m6ee-3tGQdns_BWkvtOJMc

let's goooooo!!

Excellent. One act I've been half-meaning to check out for years and two totally new to me, and apparently Takashi Matsumoto of Happy End liked Terry Callier because a few years later he wrote a song called Satin Doll too -- unless they're both referencing something else? Anyway, I would be delighted to draw either of you, and I can't imagine that frogbs or NJS will disappoint either. More & more hyped for this daily.

Oh indeed, Satin Doll is a Duke Ellington cover. So be it. Still, just read through the whole Terry Callier thread -- intrigued -- bridging the gap between John Martyn and Gil Scott-Heron, you say...

Okay, here are my 3:

Sora - re.sort (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i87AYSywcVA

In the first half of the 00's "folktronica" was a pretty big thing, in online circles at least. It didn't really last though and I assumed the music hadn't held up but I think it actually sounds better now than it did back then. Like what the "music of the future" should've been. Sora is interesting because he's a total enigma - outside of this one album there is almost nothing else to his name (a couple of tracks on 90s electronica comps, but that's it). Spread entirely through word of mouth and online folks who were into this kind of thing. Didn't go very far. But somehow, about 5 years ago, it wound up getting a reissue, and for whatever reason really took off then. Despite its 2003 release, 99% of its ratings on RYM have come since 2019. I know I posted about it in one of the ambient threads here and people seemed to like it. It's really great, stuffed with jazz and bossa nova samples, which I think sets it apart from similar albums. My favorite is the final track "Satellite Towers".

Simon Bookish - Everything/Everything (2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWX0MblnWm0

I'm guessing some ILXors know about this album. One of those things that seems like it would be up the alley of anyone who posts here. Simon Bookish is an experimental electronic artist who, for some reason, decided to make a grand, overwrought pop album. And it rules. It's sort of an amalgam of stuff like Todd Rundgren, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Thomas Dolby, etc. - but it's got its own thing going on too. It feels a bit like a musical. Lots of horns, no guitar (I think). Really catchy tunes. The album did okay, I think Pitchfork liked it, but his career didn't really take off and he went back to making more experimental and formless stuff after this. Seems like the sort of album that'll get rediscovered and lionized some day.

The Bran Flakes - Help Me (2017)
https://open.spotify.com/album/1LFN5fcTGiaqIsJXSbXs4X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZEUYrP_XbM

The most recent album from a couple of Canadian plunderphonics weirdos. Originally they were maybe a bit like Negativland, some of their early work is downright disturbing, but over time they became more fun and demented, leading up to this, honestly one of the most fun and bonkers album I know. They sample a ton of stuff from the 50's through the 70's - kids records, educational tapes, polka 45s, commercials, TV shows, etc. Their prior album I Have Hands is also really fun, but I picked this because it's shorter. Despite being real gimmicky I think I did listen to this at least 7 times the month it came out. Just so many bits that stick in your head, I couldn't get enough.

Posted a Spotify link of that one since the YouTube playlist has some junk in it, like all album playlists do.

Have fun :)

Thank you for your thoughtfulness, NJS. I'm excited about this project.

My choices won't win any obscurity contests, but here goes:

Coachwhips - Bangers vs Fuckers (Narnack, 2004)
This is basically the “randomly chosen Ramones LP” I considered upthread. Eleven garage rockers in 18 minutes, with largely inscrutable vocals chortled through a busted telephone mouthpiece atop crushed-out drums and organ blaring through as if from another planet. On the face of it, it might seem to say all you need it to after a single listen (or, according to taste, a fraction of one). But there’s something compelling in this extremely overdriven recording that seems intent on clearing your brains out of your head. Will documenting the cumulative effect recover said brains? Your best choice if pressed for time!

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns (Asylum, 1975)
A justly celebrated and endlessly rewarding, mysterious album. So many sounds and textures (a bit lite fusion plus folk balladry, but that sells it short) accompanying Joni’s more or less direct singing, a real fever dream of an album. It’s a peculiarity that I’ve been listening to this for twenty-five years but still only vaguely know the lyrics, despite the reputation of the lyricist.

Jan Jelinek - Tierbeobachtungen (~Scape, 2006)
I think this came along when the moment for glitch/microhouse had started to wane, so it’s relatively overlooked. I hear it as a dark take on “all watched over by machines of loving grace,” where the dank whooshing and washing and whistling sounds obliquely suggest “nature” even as their repetition signals its uncanny absence. But the album is also be quite soothing: is the title (Tierbeobachtungen = animal observations) anthropocentric or zoomorphic?

Don't you fret, NJS, two of those have never crossed my radar. And the Joni, acknowledged classic though it be, is like Exile, I've only played it all the way through twice. And that was years & years ago.

I think I'd be happy with *any* of these twelve.

Alright now. Draw time...!

And, the results (courtesy of www.random.org/lists... for a more thrilling experience next round I should do this old-school, with names written on paper, and scissors and a hat)

> Neue Jesse Schule chooses one of mine.

> Cow_Art chooses one of NJS's.

> frogbs chooses one of Cow's.

> Austin chooses one of Frog's.

> I choose one of Austin's.

Sampling Austin's three. Embarrassment of riches.

Gonna go with Terry Callier. I swear by Al Joshua, and I love the mystical edges of the Van Morrison catalogue, and Curtis Mayfield's There's No Place Like America Today (thanks to a Sinead O'Connor rec), and (Alley-Wind Song was my sample) this is putting me in mind of all them.

On first listen: feels like there's a lot of interesting stuff happening quietly in the background of Side A, stuff that will take a few listens to unravel. I think I noticed a tendency to fade out / end on a great repeating vocal melody. As for Side B, though, holy fuck. How did I not know about this album sooner? Astral Weeks and Veedon Fleece should be packaged with a sticker that reads, "Next station on the line: I Just Can't Help Myself."

Just seen this thread, good idea! Is there room for another next time around?

Absolutely!!! Would love to have you on board, Mare.

Jan Jelinek - Tierbeobachtungen is what I’ll be listening to. I’m a huge Joni fan so I know Hissing Lawns backwards and forwards. Garage rock is something I was more into as a youngster, so Coachwhips are out.

I don’t know much about glitch/microhouse, so this should be good. Glitch to me means Oval’s 94 Diskont which I love but it’s the only thing i’ve heard like that. Microhouse is like…. Gas? I have a Gas album that I like. Looking forward to this!

Speaking of the Coachwhips, garage rock is not my native ground, though I do adore Dead Moon. But if I'd drawn NJS, I would've seriously considered choosing it just because NJS's write-up is so good.

Thanks Nu, look forward to it!

Did Terry just sing "the famine and/or feast wind" ?

Side B raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

Oh holy fuck,

Beware of the East wind,
A god of man and beast wind,
A famine and/or feast wind,
And the last but not the least wind,
A threat of silver fleece wind,
A follow great release wind,
Blowin all across the land,
Blowin all across the land,
Where you stand,
Where will you stand,

No more looking up lyrics, this is cheating, this is too good

really happy you're diggin it!! he's incredibly articulate and that album has some of his best words.

i chose sora, mostly based around the lore recounted in the comments. three tracks in and very pleasantly reminded of the integration of this sort of thing into more radio-friendly indie and some mainstream bands. a very dated sound, but in a nice way. browsing through the "fans also like" (i'm listening on spotify) and there's rei harakami and nuno canavarro among the lot ― figures i love it. and oh hey, as i was typing this, a bill evans sample popped up. lol yeah, i won't have any issues thoroughly soaking this one up. thank you, frogs!

some noteworthy environmental notes:
it's pouring rain right now, but i'm able to be inside next to an open window with Re.sort playing on a small bookshelf stereo. "traces" sounds absolutely perfect accompanied by the natural sound of rain outside.

also not sure who is singing on this but they sound an awful lot like Prekop!

Al Schmitt, who did the mixes for the two hi-fi tracks on Natureza, has also mixed the last few albums by Yumi Matsutoya, the artist I've been listening to on repeat for a couple weeks now. Maybe Schmitt is a big enough name that he moves in all kinds of pop circles, but this struck me as a bizarre and wonderful coincidence. Before this 7gp round, his name would've meant nothing to me.

Oh yeah, I didn't report in from Station 3. My main impression was simply of pure and sustained enjoyment, but two thoughts did present themselves:

1. The jam that ends opener Feminina is incredible. The "song" ends after three minutes or so, but the musicians play ecstatically on for eight more.

2. The final song, Pega Leve, emerges out of Cicla da Vida's patient, eerie questing, and returns the album to its main mode -- sunlight and good cheer -- but it's both the album's shortest song, and the weirdest of the cheerful majority. It's pleasantly disorienting.

I wanted to link the Yoko Kanno song that I wrote about above -- the one that gave Natureza its wide and straight highway to my heart. I though Jesse might like to hear it.

I also wanted to link another song from the same Kanno album that, as it occurred to me on second listen to Natureza, also has a heavy Joyce-in-'77 vibe to it.

So I betook myself to YouTube, and discovered that the name of the vocalist on those two songs of Kanno's is Joyce Morena.

Google turned up the official history on Joyce's website:

In 2003, Joyce was invited by the film composer Yoko Kanno to participate in the sound track of the anime Wolf's Rain, shown on Japanese TV.

Further digging reveals that not only did Joyce sing those two songs, she wrote them. And her husband Tutty, whom she got to know around the time she was making Natureza, plays drums on half that (Kanno) album.

Unbelievable.

7gp is an incantation; 7gp warps the world!!

So here you are, Jesse: two Joyce/Kanno collabs from 2003:

Coração selvagem (quoth me, April 5th: "in my longlist of favorite songs ever")

Run, Wolf Warrior, Run

Now excuse me while I collect the scraps of my skull from the floor.

I've been playing The Coctails as frequently and carefully as if it had been my official pick, so I might as well report back the same way.

So, Coctails Station 3:

Man, this goes down smooth.

That's partly because it reminds me of other music I've loved over the years -- it's got ditch-era Neil's drift and emotion, it's playfully technical like early-'70s Jethro Tull, the vocals are charmingly frail like Meddle-era Floyd, and speaking of Floyd, the acoustic songs call to mind the agrarian Zabriskie Point/Atom Heart Mother period.

Partly it's the slacker vibe. You get the sense that they could put a lot more lyrics and vocals on these songs, but just don't feel like it. Some songs I wait and wait for someone to start singing -- it really feels like someone's about to -- but instead the songs float contentedly away on gorgeous chord progressions.

Things kick into gear for a single song right before the album ends. "Aw hell, we have all this leftover energy, why waste it!"

But the actual end of the album is a pump organ jam that *also* sounds like Neil, except contemporary Neil this time -- although Neil wasn't using his pump organ to record haunted ambient instrumentals.

Stronger than the slacker vibe is the sense that I'm an outsider, peeking in on a band who have been modestly committed to their artistry, outside the public eye, for years. Despite the reference points, they don't sound like people who listened much to Neil or Tull or Floyd -- it sounds like they're playing this way because nothing else would fit.

It's been a day of rain and mist, and I listened while biking through the park as usual, along the shore of the bay -- no one around, the paths glistening, the mountains dim and blue, the spring day cold. Hard to imagine a better setting.

I ordered my pick on CD but it turned out it was from Canada, not inside the USA. Should be here any day....

I'm on the 4th listen to that Coctails album - its def very easy to listen to. though the last track always makes me think my phone glitched and threw something else on :)

Naturenza, Station 4: what a wildly all-star band this must have been. Everyone is playing so imaginatively and passionately that the ear hardly knows what to attend to. And it's no small ensemble!

Natureza, Station 5: only on this listen did it fully hit me that I was listening to an early album by the writer and singer of Coração Selvagem and Run, Wolf Warrior, Run. This was so exciting that I found myself impatient during the two Mauricio Maestro songs! It's wonderful to be aware that the same artist can be this good in 1977 and still just as good in 2003. Really doesn't happen often.

Been a slow round for me -- I'm swamped with work and have had trouble clearing the mental space for good listens -- but maybe that's a nice thing in this case, as each next listen to the Joyce has felt significantly more beautiful and profound, and maybe it wouldn't have in quite the same way if I was "on time," listening every three days.

How are you all? Cow Art, did your Die Donnergötter make it?

No! It’s taking longer than it should, perhaps packages are going through the post slower because of Canada/US relations? Not sure. I broke down and soul-seeked it and hope to give it a proper listen today.

Die Donnergötter is fabulous. I'm focusing on the title track and I've had two good listens so far but the entire CD is great. "Drastic Classicism" is my new favorite pick for driving around with the windows down and terrorizing the world.

I'll write more later after I've absorbed it better, but the kinda standard rock drumming alongside the thick guitar work is *chef's kiss*. At this point I'm excited to have a 25 minute ride somewhere because it means I can listen to the first song all the way through.

Natureza, Station 6:

Just, just THE DRUMMING

These people knew how to play, and record, a ride cymbal

70% of our stuff in boxes, the term at work winding down, lots of work to be done to prep for the *new* work further south. Still haven't found the right calm space to take in Natureza Listen 7 and belatedly complete this round.

Anyone else make it to 5+ ? Did we launch into a second round too soon, or has life been keeping you folks as frazzled as me?

Definitely kinda frazzled, sorry for going silent. I've listened to Bone Bells four times. It's grown on me, but I do need to make the time to listen again and explain why and how.

I've missed you, Jesse! Glad to see you post, and looking forward to the eventual write-up.

Thinking aloud: maybe we could make this dramatic and biyearly going forward -- a spring round and an autumn round -- there's so much stuff that sounded great and that I haven't checked out at all (aka everyone's unpicked recommendations, plus the Round 2 stuff that we didn't hear back about much, which means 3-5 albums per 7gper) which I'd love to spend winters and summers poking around in.

I think I could do an autumn season. Anyone else interested? and I'm talking, like, real genuine commitment?!

I do think with a mix of fondness and guilt of this thread from time to time, partly because of the CD copy I bought of Bone Bells that I still haven't played. Tell you what: I will at least play it this week and post something about it. I'm putting a reminder on my phone. Seems like a good time of year to listen to that album anyway (boo).

Probably the level of commitment I can promise to a new iteration would be that I'd manage one substantial post and aim for a second, as that's what I achieved before. Can't remember if I said this upthread, but seem to max out at five spins in a short period.

Okay, I took Bone Bells out for a walk in my Discman through the park/neighborhood on this fine autumn evening as the sun set. I found myself having trouble not putting my thoughts in front of the music, rather than giving the music the space for me to respond to it, but the album did improve as I went (I played it twice).

Something I read about this album remarked that guitar/piano duo albums are relatively unusual. The question then is "relative to what," as I'm sure there are many, and then why? Of course there are many ensembles in rock and jazz that include both a piano/keyboard and a guitar, but both instruments can also take up quite a lot of space on their own between the six strings and eighty-eight keys. (I've often had a hard time with piano concertos because they seem like showcases for pianos to show off.) On Bone Bells the instruments can be relatively discreet or quite raucous, dissonant and noisy. At times you can have a cartoonish dialogue/argument thing going on, at others each seems to do its own stimming, at still others they play nice.

I thought a bit about hearing this as the work of two professional women musicians who've been working three decades or so, wondering about the gender dynamics of the art music world of which they're a part. A title like "Nags Head Valse" gestures at feminist contrarianism while sounding a bit like the accompaniment to a silent film scene in which someone keeps stumbling out of the dance, perhaps intentionally, perhaps because they can't get their footing. "Float Queens," meanwhile, suggests to me a montage of a driver recalling a series of often troubling experiences and making sense of them while awaiting some final revelation; perhaps the driver is besieged by these ghostly queens. This is the kind of thing I think of when I lack the resources to describe more concretely what's going on in the music.

"Float Queens" is the penultimate track and the album does have a satisfying arch. I kept trying to imagine what film it should soundtrack as I listened to it — my own walk, initially, struck me as a mediocre student film set to the music, and then I told myself "well, I'm walking, and I'm listening to music, and that is the fact of what is happening: it's not a film." But I couldn't stop thinking in soundtrack terms.

The "what film" question is also an audience question, like I'm not sure I feel addressed by the music (which goes back to perceiving it as "lonely," as I did upthread). I read an interview with Courvoisier when she mentioned that she really doesn't know pop music, but would like to know more. I wondered how this could be possible, but then it struck me that unless you're stuck in a lot of retail environments it's probably pretty easy to avoid, and that I myself hardly know what's happening in contemporary pop although I've probably heard and tuned out a lot of it.

I think about this project a lot & feel grateful for it a lot! Everything I drew and/or volunteered my way into has joined my list of keepers.

Not sensing a lot of interest in a revival, but -- Jesse, just you & me? I'll give yours the seven listens and multiple unarticulate-but-genuinely-excited posts, and you give mine the four-to-five listens and two fantastic posts?

I’d be down for it!

Alright!!!

I didnt participate the last time but I would be into it if you want to start it again

Excellent.

Thanks you two, I've already started mulling over titles to recommend.

Odd, I just posted but it seems it didn't take. I said: 1) I'm game, and 2) my posts are flattered to be called fantastic, but 3) I wish I had NuNuNu enthusiasm!

So there we have it!!

Let's post our three selections this Wednesday, shall we?

I couldn't wait. My three picks for this round:

Paul McCartney, "McCartney" (1970) (13 tracks, 34 minutes)

I loved this record from the moment I heard it (back in, oh, early winter of 2011, I think – I was finishing university – feels like some other life), but I've gone totally crazy about it again lately. I figure I played it 70 or 80 times this past month (which makes what, let's see here: three times a day...? – yes, sounds right). It's short and relaxing and infectious – it turns my foul moods into decent ones, and my good moods into great ones. It's "off-the-cuff" as a calculated way to kick your ass. It morphed out of 4-track experiments at home, Linda McCartney encouraging Paul to kick his post-Beatles-break-up depression, reminding him that he's a multi-instrumentalist and killer songwriter, and that he had already recorded Beatles songs all by himself, and so he didn't, strictly speaking, need the band – and Paul warmed up to the task, remembering, "Oh yeah, I *am* good at this – oh yeah, I *can* do this! Actually, I'm *awesome* !! Fuck, how did I ever forget!!" That sense of recovery and rediscovery permeates everything. It's the ultimate "low-key album after a masterpiece", Abbey Road -- or, I guess, in this case, the ultimate "low-key album bridging two masterpieces", since Ram was up next. Emotionally and lyrically, it's a tribute to the love that one human can have for another – songs like Man We Was Lonely and Maybe I'm Amazed aren't messing around. "But now we're fine, all the time." – But don't take it from me alone; here's Neil Young – "I loved that record because it was so simple. And there was so much to see and to hear. It was just Paul. There was no adornment at all ... There was no attempt made to compete with the things he had already done. And so out he stepped from the shadow of the Beatles" – and here Paul and Linda themselves, writing to Penny Valentine, the author of a review that castigated the album for not being a proper follow-up to Abbey Road: "Dear Penny hold your hand out you silly girl I am not being cruel or laughing at you I am merely enjoying myself you are wrong about the McCartney album it is an attempt at something slightly different it is simple it is good and even at this moment it is growing on you love Paul and Linda McCartney"

.

Morio Agata (あがた森魚), "Urashima 65XX" (浦島65XX) (2015) (12 tracks, 46 minutes)
https://morioagata.bandcamp.com/album/65xx

I really did think about not recommending an Agata album, believe me I did, and yet – I’m sorry, I must, he's too beautiful! In case you've not seen me gush about him elsewhere, Morio Agata is a friend & contemporary of Haruomi Hosono's who, after one freak hit single in 1972, put down roots in the underground, and grew there in blissful poverty. He's the apotheosis (in my own musical pantheon, at least) of "look, I don't give a fuck, I'm here to make music because making music matters, because it brings joy, because it connects spirits across space & time – and I'm inviting you along, so you can recognize all these things too" – it’s the Neil Young ethos, in essence, but maybe even less self-conscious and more welcoming. Agata regularly posts long updates on Facebook, full of "lol"s and ^_^s and declarations of love to whomever's reading, and as far as I can tell, he means it all. He's always out playing free concerts in parks and town squares, and anyone who wants to join in can – you bring an instrument and learn the chords and play along – and in videos of these shows, he looks like the happiest man on earth, like he can't believe his luck, even after multiple decades and dozens of albums… I feel like he's embodied the spirit of musicmaking! And he's been this way since 1970! The eternal romantic, the tireless dreamer! His sound has been fairly consistent all along; he loves slightly woozy folk-rock, with psychedelic embellishments and lots & lots of vocal harmonies, all with a punk-rock motor. He was 67 when this particular album came out, and although in most of his recent stuff, his age is obscured by the irreverence and flair, this one does feel a little ruminative – but I don't know, if this is what being a pensive 67 can feel like, sign me up…

.

Abbey Hoffman, "A Place for Everything" (2025) (10 tracks, 31 minutes)
https://abbeyhoffman.bandcamp.com/album/a-place-for-everything

Leaning hard into the songwriting – this is ten mildly lo-fi home recordings of acoustic guitar and voice. There are no other instruments, but none other are needed. Ostensibly a concept album about getting your house clean, this is also/really ten ways of asking Hayao Miyazaki's question, "how will you live?" My first few listens, I was in awe, because the audacity of the lyrics would make me laugh out loud, but on another listen (or sometimes on the same listen) the exact same lines would be making me cry… now the words have settled in and become familiar, they don't take me aback like they did at first, but the questions they raise aren't easily answered, so they remain profound. And musically, it's sheer pleasure – Abbey’s voice is clear and soulful, the vocal melodies are lovely, and the guitar parts – sometimes just strummed chords, sometimes elegant but uncomplicated fingerpicked patterns – are "just exactly perfect" as old Bob Weir used to say… I'm finding it difficult to be articulate about it (I'm rewriting this blurb for the third time), maybe because it means too much to me. I think my point is, don't be fooled by the simple exterior, these songs are as deep as I've ever known songs to go. All ten make me cry, and laugh, and think, and want to live better. *And* they get stuck in my head. – I'm not sure how much traction an album like this could gain on ILM, but where better to recommend something a little out of the ordinary than in this thread?

With apologies, I probably won't have my choices ready for a couple of days (probably Friday). Or I could just recycle old choices if you want to get going faster.

I figure I played it 70 or 80 times this past month

Not a hurry! New choices are so exciting...

Still mulling over my choices. It'll probably by Friday too.

Okay! I hit the "random item" button on my Discogs collection until I came up with three albums I thought I would good listening to several times in relatively short succession.

João Donato / A Bad Donato (Blue Thumb, 1970, 28 mins.)
This is one of a number of albums I discovered through the Stereolab Origins series on YouTube. Recorded in Hollywood with a couple dozen musicians, it’s one of those Brazil-by-way-of-U.S. albums that can sound a bit ersatz if you’re looking for “the real thing.” Maybe it’s the horns, which say “seventies supermarket,” or the go-go exploitation film partytime keyboards. Through all that, the funk rhythms that sway and smash remain utterly persuasive, while the wonder, longing and melancholy I tend to associate with the best MPB melodies break through in relief — as if to say that we were all coming out of the same ‘60s after all, with all the gains and losses of that propitious time.

Max Tundra / Mastered by Guy at the Exchange (Domino, 2002, 37 mins.)
Dazzling electronic studio concoction of myriad sounds and genres, a bit of a latter-day Van Dyke Parks Song Cycle and a hyperpop antecedent. The quirk (“only last week I noticed that the colors of the lights in my studio was the same as the ones you conjured in my mind”) might irritate, but there’s great sweep of feeling across this very compact and compacted statement. One of those albums that took a few spins to click but which I’ve never gone long without returning to since (by my standards, anyway — about once a year!).

Ekkehard Ehlers / Plays (Staubgold, 2002, 75 mins.)
Originally issued as a series of 12”s/EPs on which the Berlin-based artist paid “tribute” to a series of artists, some (like Cornelius Cardew) by obviously reworking existing recordings with layers of haze, others in decidedly more idiosyncratic and mysterious fashion. Has something in common with process music of the period like Basinski’s Disintegration Loops, not least in how monumentality can be achieved by repeating the same thing over and over (notably in the “Plays John Cassevettes” tracks).

As it happens, the last two selections are both Pitchfork faves of their day by artists who haven’t put out much music to speak of in the past decade and change (apart from the Tundra-written-and-produced Daphne and Celeste album). Given that this is ILM, maybe everyone remembers them... of course, I have to remember not to let myself be overcome by FOMObscurity.

somehow i totally missed this. i'm gonna see if i can squeeze in someone's albums over the next week or two...

El Kinto - Circa 1968

This band blends pop hooks and psychedelia with candombe, an Afro-Uruguayan rhythm built around interlocking hand-played drums that creates a rolling, elastic groove which gives them a natural swing that’s different from Anglo rock or Brazilian tropicália. It sounds relaxed and charming but joyful. One of my favourite albums tbh.

The Stars of Heaven - Rain on The Sea (1986)

Irish indie band that shone brightly and briefly and were signed to Rough Trade. This is a collection of their Peel Sessions which does sound better than the actual albums which were a bit tarnished by the studio production of the times. Think stuff like Go Betweens & The Byrds. Big 12 string guitar melodies. Stephen Ryan had a plaintive and direct voice that I love. A rainy afternoon mood to it, fragile and a bit introspective.

These sound incredible, Jesse, and are -- as ever -- new to me.

Ah, and as I clicked "Submit Post", Michael's arrived! Likewise exciting!

Map, in case you feel like taking the plunge and joining the draw, there's still time, the new round hasn't quite begun yet! You'd need to recommend two or three albums of your own choosing, like me and Jesse and Michael B did; then you'd be randomly assigned one of us participants (there's four of us, so far -- paging frogbs for his picks!), and be asked to listen several times to & report back on *one* of this person's three picks -- seven listens being the original ideal, but 4 or 5 also works!

Do we only comment after all 7 listens or?

Whatever you like! I tend to comment obsessively along the way, whereas Jesse sticks to a couple of longer posts.

Once frogbs posts his recommendations, and if/after we hear back from Map, I'll do the random draw =)

i'm not sure i can participate this go-around, but i'll definitely be following along.

Last call for the Amphibian.

Sorry for the delay!!! I’ll have them later today or sometime tomorrow!!!

The Nu allows it.

Alrighty...here are my three...tried to make them as different as possible :)

Neil Hamburger - Still Dwelling (2019)
A tribute to the celebrity novelty albums of the 60s and 70s, which were generally high budget, labored over productions inevitably ruined by the untrained voice of the "star"...while these albums are generally notoriously bad, they're also quite interesting because the star in question generally goes all out, at least *trying* to do the best they can. This album really gets to the core of what's so amazing about such albums; it really is lovingly crafted, with lush orchestral arrangements that really do recall the way things were done back then, and then you've got Neil trampling all over them, though it's hardly with a wink or a nod...he's singing them the way Neil Hamburger would sing them. In a sense it's about as successful as a parody album can be; to me, it's actually better than any of the albums it's lampooning.

Jonzun Crew - Lost in Space (1983)
This was a Boston synth funk outfit who probably did have a claim to be as big as Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash but things just didn't work out. As the cover implies it's rooted in sci-fi but in the corniest possible way; this album features some of the worst lyrics you've ever heard, but it's also funky as hell, and as a bonus I think all the synths are played by hand, so it feels organic in ways similar albums don't. Lots of Kraftwerk influence, though the band themselves (rather hilariously) deny this. I think they may be a little bit bitter over their lack of success. They released two more albums after this which clearly tried to land hit singles but they were terrible. This one however still rules. Fun story, a copy came into my local shop a few months ago and the owner contacted me directly about it - "you gotta hear this crazy funk album that came in, I think it's right up your alley"...I was bummed I had to tell him I already had a copy!

Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit (2010)
Norwegian rock band who, sorta like King Gizzard, have dedicated their lives to pushing the boundaries of rock regardless of what everyone else around them is doing. They've released something like 20 albums in their 30+ years of existence and show no signs of slowing down (they have another one out this month). Many of them are double LPs and most of them are very very good, making them one of those rare bands that almost has *too much* great material out there. I could've picked ten of their albums for this but settled on this one because its one of their proggiest, but its also very riff heavy which I think is when they're at their best. I try to tell all the Gizz fans I know about these guys because I think they operate on a similar wavelength.

Alright then!! Our draw:

> Michael B selects one of frogbs's picks.

> TheNuNuNu selects one of Michael B's picks.

> Neue Jesse Schule selects one of TheNuNuNu's picks.

> frogbs selects one of Neue Jesse Schule's picks.

And on that note -- Michael B, do you have a digital copy of Rain on the Sea you could send my way? I found Circa 1968 straight off, but only a couple tracks on YouTube from this Stars of Heaven release.

I dont unfortunately. Just a vinyl copy of it. I could pick something else instead?

Won't be necessary, the opening track of the Circa 1968 is astonishing. Excited to give this record seven plays.

El Kinto - Circa 1968

This band blends pop hooks and psychedelia with candombe, an Afro-Uruguayan rhythm built around interlocking hand-played drums that creates a rolling, elastic groove which gives them a natural swing that’s different from Anglo rock or Brazilian tropicália. It sounds relaxed and charming but joyful. One of my favourite albums tbh.

So, this is my pick this round -- gave it my first listen yesterday and was charmed. The first song has an otherworldly chord progression, delivered by a yearning electric guitar -- instantly absorbing. A few later songs were also striking, though naturally things tend to blend together on a first listen. I love the unschooled voices -- there are several singers here, yeah? The raw mid-'60s Beatles influence (backwards electric guitar!) and the multiple voices and the sheer energy of the thing put me in mind of Happy End, another band of the era who were far away from the USA and UK but decided to process those influences in their own local way. "Circa 1968" gives me a similar "supergroup in reverse" vibe -- I have no context for this yet other than a comment somewhere that Eduardo Mateo, who's part of El Kinto, became a big deal afterwards -- but it does give that feeling of a bunch of 20-year-olds working together who would then go on to each build an epic body of solo work on their own.

I guess I need to check out Happy End!

I listened to frogb's Motorpsycho pick. I liked it. Its stuffed to the gills so not easy to take it all in on first listen. Heavy af riffs, prog bombast followed by stark ballads, lots of classic rock nods throughout. im going to enjoy digging deeper into it, I think.

I'm gonna go with this: Ekkehard Ehlers / Plays (Staubgold, 2002, 75 mins.) - since I've already heard Max Tundra and this is the longer of the remaining two. So far I like it...I always dug that glitchy early 00s electronica sound...so far the John Cassavetes tracks are my favorites, there's something particularly haunted about those