What was your personal discovery of 2010?

Unless you spent last year trawling the dustier regions of your music collection in a pique of nostalgia, chances are you found out about some music you hadn't previously known or realised you liked.

I'd be interested in hearing about your discoveries, be they brand new releases that changed the way you felt about music, a break into a new style of music you'd previously had trouble with or didn't know about, or an existing album or artist without whom you don't know how you managed to cope with life...

Basically, I discovered These New Puritans were making music I'd been fantasizing about doing for about 20 years and Sleigh Bells were dope stupid fun.

70s Scorpions. I knew a few tracks before, but their 80s cheese metal stuff was what I had grown up with and it didn't entice me to look at the back catalog. Their 1975 album, In Trance, was easily the best album I first heard in 2010. Blew my little mind with rockin' goodness.

For me, I think the main thing that clicked was new r'n'b. I've always been a bit ashamed of my lack of knowledge/ability to get a grasp on it, but last year felt like a breakthrough to some extents. My choices might seem a bit obvious, even indie to some, but it was the double whammy of Janelle Monae and Badu's albums that simultaneously and altogether converted me. Listening to tracks by Neyo, Cassie, Amerie and Ciara during the 2009 and 2000s polls also helped. I think it's helped me appreciate a whole load of stuff, not just r'n'b, but certain aspects of hip hop and dance of which I'd been previously been ignorant or had trouble with.

Either the Spratleys Japs album, Kate Bush's Aerial, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci or unknown progpoppers To Arms Etc

last year i picked up all the dusty springfield reissued albums i could, and totally fell under their spell for a few months.
easily my favourite "discovery" of the year.
other notables : the holy mackerel/paul williams, and donovan.
as you can see, not a lot made in 2010 ..

Louis, I love Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - I'm sort of surprised you hadn't heard them before. What you been listening to them?

connan mockasin

la dusseldorf my favourite, if you are even remotely interested in neu! then you need to investigate, that i had not done so despite neu! being favourites for a decade is a bit of a mystery in retrospect

rhys chatham, also pretty great, anyone with a liberal interest in music should listen

the feelies, nice post-punk era curiosities, not essential

actress, autre ne veut albums from 2010

got into The Move big time

Gorky 5 (which iirc you don't like so much :P but christ alive, Not Yet and the last 2 tracks) and How I Long... are my favourites but there's a few albums I'm yet to give a proper listen to. Astonishing opening track aside I'm not actually a big Barafundle fan (Bwyd Time is better IMO) - I think they really blossomed a bit later

and their Why Are We Sleeping cover is *immense*

Is "Why Are We Sleeping" a cover? I didn't know. I've grown to like Gorky 5 a bit more, for its icy bleakness if anything. "Hush The Warmth" is the best song they ever did, and Catrin is very nice. Actually, I may dig it out tonight when I get home. "How I Long" is great all the way through. The first four tracks on Barafundle are unfuckablewith. Bwyd Time is really weird and great fun vintage stuff. Haven't listened to them for ages. Oh, Spanish Dance Troupe is well worth a look too if you haven't check it out yet..

yeah that's the one I really need to check out

How I Long... is a truly amazing record, and to think first time I heard it I thought it was a bit dull (n.b. it is beautiful)

It deceived me at first too. Thought it was way too Anglophone and straitlaced, which is its strengths really.

Sun Ra's Space Is The Place
Harold Faltermeyer
Red Temple Spirits - Dancing To Restore An Eclipsed Moon

btw Why Are We Sleeping is a Soft Machine cover - make them your discovery of 2011, DL! First three albums. Do it.

terry riley probably

New stuff: Heartless Bastards The Mountain, OFWGKTA, The Body

Old stuff: Dadawah / Ras Michael, X's Ain't Love Grand

the feelies, nice post-punk era curiosities, not essential

^^^^ this is madness - you were born during the Clinton administration

???

think he's just making the (correct) point that the feelies are the best band ever

they're really nice, but no

they are the most inessential band that people go gaga over that I've ever encountered

it's not even that they're bad, they're just... THERE, all competent and boring

Biggest discoveries of the year: ILM and Spotify. As a result of these I heard more new music in 2010 than I had in any previous year.

Actual music:

Properly discovering and exploring the genius of Tom Tom Club, Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso, Laura Nyro, Kate Bush, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Planxty (as in, I knew of them before but hadn't taken the time to appreciate them)
From the Metal Poll I discovered Alcest and "Stargazer".
The arpeggios thread set me off trawling Youtube for forgotten Italo classics.
The 20th century poll inadvertently introduced me to "Tarzan Boy".

Tim Hardin

The Boss
New Order

tim hardin is a beast

they are the most inessential band that people go gaga over that I've ever encountered

it's not even that they're bad, they're just... THERE, all competent and boring

I don't understand this at all. Do you find Television similarly 'competent and boring?'

Abner Jay
the whole world of 60s highlife, palm wine guitar, vintage african soul &c

se rogie is so great!

it's fine if you can't dig on the feelies, just that they're sorta the perfect band for me -- a great blend of velvets/eno/richman/television

I don't understand this at all. Do you find Television similarly 'competent and boring?'

I have never knowingly heard Television and couldn't name a single song of theirs so... maybe?

Earlier Feelies albums may be drastically different but I bought Only Life when it came out based on Rolling Stone mentions and basically thought, title track aside, I was listening to some bland shit.

crazy rhythms is pretty different from only life ...
anyhoo, didn't mean to derail! probably my main discovery of last year is Black Sabbath. I know, behind the times, but this was the first time they really clicked.

I love Only Life but you really need to start with Crazy Rhythms. I think most ILX0rs would concur.

And you need to hear Television dude, come on. That's like not knowing who The Beatles are.

Yeah, sorry for derailing, just O_o

definitely Rock Bottom -- Robert Wyatt

And you need to hear Television dude, come on. That's like not knowing who The Beatles are.

... probably not, since I know who they are; I have just never listened to them (and also AFAIK Television are not as culturally omnipresent as The Beatles)

oh man yeah that was mine from a few years ago, rock bottom is so gorgeous

... probably not, since I know who they are; I have just never listened to them (and also AFAIK Television are not as culturally omnipresent as The Beatles)

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Tuesday, January 11, 2011 11:49 AM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hmm is television as popular as pizza?

just heard a busker playing "friction" on the streetcorner

honestly it was starting to take guitar lessons in an organized way instead of just fucking around on my own.

having more of a feel for the whole blues-based canon of guitar stuff has opened up a lot of music that i really never cared about before. i wouldn't say i like, uh, eric clapton any more than i do but i kind of appreciate what he was working with and trying to do

It's kind of heartening for me that I'm not the only one ignorant of really-important-everyone-on-ILM-knows-this-backwards artists/albums...

xpost that's cool, i've thought about taking lessons from time to time -- i'm pretty much self-taught. did you just kinda start from scratch with the teacher or ... ?

Lots of Italian prog from the 70s, esp. Maxophone, Semiramis, Premiata Forneria Marconi (aka PFM) and Osanna. Um, nothing contemporary really, this year I'll try and catch up on a lot of stuff from labels like Another Timbre, Erstwhile etc.

Just wanna say that I thought Marquee Moon was competent and a little boring, so I never bothered with any other Television.

I do know the Banshees cover of "Little Johnny Jewel" if that helps

I was shamefully ignorant of most of Eightball and MJG's stuff until last year. In Our Lifetime Vol. 1 and Space Age 4 Eva have since become personal favourites. Oh and Karma by Pharoah Sanders, thanks to ILM.

The Kinks Koncept Albums (Preservation 1&2, Soap Opera, Schoolboys). Can't believe I let bad reputation scare me away for so long. Really need to pay less attention to reviews.

tylerw:

yeah i sat down with the teacher the first time and kind of told him my story: good musical education as a kid, self-taught on guitar, knew all about scales and chords and al that, but never was shown any of the classic rock or blues stuff that 'everyone' learns, and don't listen to that stuff myself anyway. i just said i want to learn all the 'guitar stuff' that i didn't know.

and so he loaded me up with all the 70s heavies, and a bunch of electric blues guys who did x thing on the neck first, that kind of thing. and we've messed around with some jazz stuff, and a little fingerstyle stuff too. it's pretty loose and not very demanding (so basically totally different from my childhood experience of what a 'music lesson' is). it's been really fun.

The Nuggets catelouge. Which I now have to listen to on random because I've memorised the order of tracks. It's been playing constantly on my stereo all 2010.

hey goole how much are lessons w/yr dude?

ILM, being a Luomo fanboy every once in a while I like reading reviews of Vocalcity and I somehow ended in this very plain white board where everyone seemed so knowledgeable. Particularly liked how the thread spanned years and years.

2010:

Actress, I didn´t knew you could make music like that. Theo Parrish meets Autechre from the future! Coincidentally the only place where I found actual context - and I really scanned the web for writing on Splazsh - for what Darren J. Cunningham is doing is that ILM RNB concrete thread.

Before 2010:

Basic Channel / Rhythm & Sound / Maurizio / Round 1 to 5 / Chain Reaction
I'm afraid I will be listening to variations on dub techno for the next 10 years.

That is true kelpolaris there is an emphasis on production it seems but not the same on every track.

I discovered LOTS of music this year, though nothing current really...

I'll just say Piero Scaruffi

also memo to Dan Perry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f3d5ZdE4vY

I hadn't heard Marquee Moon til this past year, so it counts as a discovery for me too

still have yet to hear The Feelies

funny, just got that album last night. The inspiration for The Strokes are obvious, but ultimately Marquee Moon is coming down to one of those "guess I should've been there" moments when I hear it and try to discern what makes this a landmark album.

three hints: See No Evil, Venus, Marquee Moon

(though I am of the opinion that the second side drags a little bit)

talk talk

still have yet to hear The Feelies

― some hills are never seen (Drugs A. Money)
Go Crazy Rhythms!

***

My discovery of the year was Oneida. I had the Seeds of Contemplation comp and a few tracks wound up on mixtapes but for some reason I never really checked them out thoroughly. Then sometime in the early part of the year Rated O kicked in for me and OMFG!etc. Past few months I've been listening to not much else. Great running music, too.

Oh, interesting!
I overdosed on Oneida in May. I listened to the complete discography whilst doing my taxes... don't know when I'll be going back to them. (Soon.)

yeah I got heavily into Oneida too this year, mostly from the recommendations on the Jon Williams/Neu! 2 thread

other stuff:

The Unutterable
f/I
Parson Sound
S.F. Sorrow
Hawkwind
The Byrds
Acid Mothers Temple
Tanz der Lemminge
High on Fire's first two albums
Boris's Flood
first Comets on Fire album
White Heaven
Les Rallizes Denudes
13th Floor Elevators
Snapper
Bailter Space
Couch's Fantasy
Gang Gang Dance
M.I.A.
Quasimoto
Supreme Clientele
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Tame Impala

missing a couple...

Return of the Giant Slits
The Melvins' Stag
Wolf Eyes

^all this stuff (+Television) is highly recommended!

Drexciya/Arpanet/Dopplereffekt
Herbert
Detroit Techno (Jeff Mills, Carl Craig)
Dubstep
Classic House
Basic Channel/Chain Reaction
Kompakt
Yen Records (Interior, Testpattern, Logic System)
(Non-Italo) Disco
GAS/Wolfgang Voigt

I'm hoping Crazy Rhythms sounds like Liquid Liquid crossed with Television/Chronic Town-era REM...

how far off am I?

Charanjit Singh
Ariel Kalma - Osmose (but not his other stuff, too hippie)
Junior Kimbrough
Got back into John Lee Hooker right after that.

So analog synths and blues chords mostly.

Sam Cooke - Night Beat
Outrageous Cherry

I'm hoping Crazy Rhythms sounds like Liquid Liquid crossed with Television/Chronic Town-era REM...

how far off am I?

― some hills are never seen (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 16 January 2011 06:11 (3 hours ago)

delete 'liquid liquid' and yr kinda there

I explored the synthier, dancier side of indie last year. Stuff like Cut Copy, Crystal Castles, M.I.A., Ladytron, Royskopp. I mean, that's all pretty pedestrian stuff by ilm standards, but I hadn't fucked with it yet.

i explored listening to music w/out input from critics or peers and made little effort to remember names or titles. dunno quite what I discovered. came back here to lurk for a bit as my listening time/space changed.

The Necks - Hanging Garden, Piano, Bass & Drums and Drive by. Thanks to ILM. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way.

Jay Reatard - Felt a bit guilty about dismissing him when he was here after 'discovering' him in his fashionably dead phase.

The Belbury Poly have probably been my main obcession of the year and I would recommend all three of their albums as utterly fucking essential.

In 2010 this lot were permanently on my walkman and still are.

The Numero Group Label
And So I Watch You From Afar
Wax Tailor
Cool Calm Pete
Mount Kimbie
The Radio Dept
Sunset
Damien Jurado

i do a decades thing from the current year so dug into a bunch of 1990 albums that I ignored back in the day

Digital Underground - Sex Packets
A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
Breeders - Pod
Pixies - Bossanova
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
Neil Young - Ragged Glory
Happy Mondays - Pills, Thrills & Bellyaches

and new abs faves:
Jellyfish - Bellybutton
Ride - Nowhere (godlike)

also started following current/00s hip-hop that's not just old guys like Ghostface (thanks to Goon thread) - Weezy, Jeezy, Gucci, Waka, Curren$y etc

Susumu Hirosawa & P-Model, thanks to ILM about & two days before the end of last year.

I *cough* 'located' a whole mess of his music on the internets and have started to wade in with the P-Model music first and it is ace, totally apposite to the kind of stuff I want to hear at the minute. As a YMO fan and I guess a crude analogy would be, P-Model are to Devo what YMO are to Kraftwerk. I'm going to Japan later this year and I'm gonna track me down some P-Model obi.

So Frogbs, I've never really had any exchanges with you but thanks for enlightening me man.

I'm glad you like them...not surprised that you were able to enjoy the guy's music considering that you have a Cardiacs-related username (I'm assuming). You can actually draw a lot of parallels between SH and Cardiacs; was blasting "Ashura Clock" in my car and it reminded me so much of "Dirty Boy" (of course it's much more techno, but whatever). That's when I noticed that fans of that group who were looking for something similar should probably check out a few P-Model/SH albums. The music is catchy and epic, memorable and complex in the same way Cardiacs often are. BTW as amazing as the big discography torrent is online there's a lot of stuff in crap bitrate...Soulseek should provide the answers (or you can just add me, username: JAMOOL)

My major discoveries:
Harry Nilsson: kinda ashamed that I only pictured him as a novelty artist in the past. Listening to his first few albums have really turned my ears onto some great music from a period before my "comfort zone" (that is, 1977 on)
Ram Rider (recent Japanese technopop with every track written like a hit single; one of the best pure pop albums I've encountered likely)
OMD: really dig the first two albums. Still not sold on the third but I'm glad these guys exist.
Mouse on Mars: they are exactly how I thought Autechre would be...somehow I am digging them much more

easy answer: Neil Young, got about 15 albums from his back-catalog over the course of 2010 and found them all rewarding in different ways. there's lots of new stuff i found as well, but Neil sticks out

You can actually draw a lot of parallels between SH and Cardiacs

drudgesiren.gif

frogbs did you hear Pandemonium Shadow Show? what did you think of that one?

drudgesiren.gif

Hear for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1qzfB7YEZY

frogbs did you hear Pandemonium Shadow Show? what did you think of that one?

I think that one's great; it sounds a lot like what I was hoping the early Beatles albums would be like. The album that combines this with Aerial Ballet is a great package, as the original albums are really short. Really dig the cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" as well whichever song it is that quotes like a dozen Beatles tunes.

In 2010 I spent most of the year getting obsessed and collecting albums by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Spoon, Bohannon, Cardiacs and Barry White. I went from quite liking to loving The Cars and Devo this year too.

A few other albums that I've really fallen for in the last 12 months that I'd never heard before..

Al Green-The Belle Album
The Feelies-Cray Rhythms
Cheap Trick-Cheap Trick
Chairmen Of The Board-Skin I'm In
The DB's-Stands For Decibels
The Exloding Hearts-Guitar Romantic
The first 3 Telex albums
Mandrill-Is
Iggy Pop-New Values
Weezer-Pinkerton
Both the Buggles albums

wasn't really much of a listening year for me but got into betty carter, and got a better feel for a lot more jazz vocalists. letting stuff drift in and out of my periphery for the last couple years like bert upthread
waded back into rap and bullshit toward the end of the year i guess. gucci gucci gucci stupid! < see i have no idea how played out that is

Th' Faith Healers - loved a lot of Too Pure stuff through the 90s but never listened to them before
YDI - knew one or 2 songs on comps before but listened to their Out For Blood discography and it's awesome blistering hardcore
The Detonators - great punk rock bit reminiscent of Kill From The Heart-era Dicks
Sacrilege (UK) - crusty thrash with female vocals
Budgie - esp Squawk

probably

John Phillips - John the Wolfking of L.A.

super malevolent L.A. folk pop...the pop version of On the Beach

considering some of the obscure stuff on this thread, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that my big personal discoveries of 2010 were: The Talking Heads, Wire, and Gang of Four. I listened to Remain in Light, Chairs Missing, and Solid Gold more than any 2010 release.

Ashura Clock is masssssive and I can see exactly where that comparison comes from!!! :D Has elements of a fully technofied Devin Townsend as well! Awesome...will definitely check out more!

Current stuff:
Oneohtrix Point Never
OFWGKTA
The whole Night Slugs label/scene

Older things:
The two '80s Eno/Budd collaborations
The three numerically-titled Pole albums
Ariel Pink (already owned The Doldrums but had never got properly into it; now it's a firm favourite)

I was the last person to discover Ariel Pink- love! And Night Slugs.

I was pretty late on discovering A Pink too; listened to the Doldrums last Christmas. It's really cool!

KP otm re: Mandrill-Is

newer: gnaw their tongues and ural umbo. older: maurice fulton

Caetano Veloso (mainly via the 'A arte de...' comp) and the continual discovery of electric Miles - chiefly the 'In a silent way' sessions and Cellar Door gigs.

i could have a really long list if my memory didn't suck, but:
Black Sabbath
OMD
Hall & Oates - voices, big bam boom, H20
Feelies - Only Life
Scritti Politti - Black Beer and White Bread
Mena
A night at the opera/A day at the races
Elton - Caribou, tumbleweed connection
the knife/fever ray
and a whole buncha Jorge Ben from that Brazilian listening club thread

my big personal discoveries of 2010 were: The Talking Heads, Wire, and Gang of Four. I listened to Remain in Light, Chairs Missing, and Solid Gold more than any 2010 release.

Yaaay! If it's new to you, it's NEW! Down with the cult of the 'new'!

Anyway, these bands and albums may be a gateway for you to so much more, I'm very excited for you!

For me, I spent a chunk of 2010 digging in my own crates and rediscovering bits and bobs, mostly obscure post-punk. This year's started off with a full-fledged embrace of 60s garage rock and UK popsike! Go figure...

been diggin a lot of 60s stuff too recently! Awesome!

non stop Steely Dan and Chic

Definitely the biggest discovery for me was Harry Nilsson, who I'd always heard about being a big Beatles fan. Really jaw-droppingly amazing performances on alot of his stuff.

Really trying to think. New, that I just picked up on. Difficult.
Tend to be discovering & rediscovering things all the time, so specific to 2010?

Picked up several Electric Wizards but that could have been the year before.

Reminded of listening to Fela Kuti's Zombie on Glengad beach which sticks in the mind. Pretty iconic.

I think the Rockabilly stuff was all 2009, but has been sitting on my walkman and turning up at weird times.

Did finally get 2cds by Marlena Shaw whose version of Wade In The Water I'd been after for years. lots of good stuff on there.

& the Thin Lizzy reissues in November. & the later ones this month.

Swedish stoner stuff? Dead Man, Graveyard, Siena Root

Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, George Jones & Buck Owens. Probably couple of years back too.

btw Why Are We Sleeping is a Soft Machine cover - make them your discovery of 2011, DL! First three albums. Do it.

― legerndrymayne (acoleuthic), Tuesday, January 11, 2011 12:27 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

^Cosign.

Richard Skelton... never did I think I'd fall for his sound so much. It crept up on me big time: http://alwayseverything.tumblr.com/post/1283163908/richard-skelton-clouwbeck That was maybe the bigest suprise.

enjamin Lew and Steven Brown!

beautiful, moody, weird, muted, menacing

jazz, noise, minimal synth-meets-New Music/20th c.

they put out two albums in Belgium in the early 80s and man this shit is great, esp. the first album

def. for fans of Demdike Stare, Oneohtrix, Wierd records

info about the first album is here:

http://www.discogs.com/Benjamin-Lew-Steven-Brown-Douzi%C3%A8me-Journ%C3%A9e-Le-Verbe-La-Parure-LAmour/release/1261983

every time I play this record at home somebody goes "what IS this?" and wants to know

― the tune is space

thanks for this recommendation, and it also led me to Lew's Nebka, which is also cool. haven't heard Demdike Stare or Oneohtrix yet but i'm pretty pumped

Totally forgot my major purchase of last year was Daniel Miriani & Shirati Jazz Kings Of History. Benga, Luo guitar material by an artist I'd wanted more stuff by since discovering a single by him in the mid 80s. Awesome, entrancing repetitive percussive guitar melodies played by a member of my dad's tribe. Not funk but very booty shaking.

Also Mystic Tide Solid Ground was a great discovery & very cheap from the record label's website.

Wanda Jackson. Always meant to get up to speed on her, but then she came to town and I had to interview her, so I took the plunge and was more than grateful for the chance. So awesome. Fun to talk to, too, and put on a really great show. The new one with Jack White is fine, but those '50s-'60s sides, yow.