So we're fuck-all of the way through 2008; what records are worth attention?

i've already heard a modest bunch of singles this year i think are great, but from an album point of view, whatever that's even worth these days, there's fuck-all on the ground. the raveonettes, maybe the i was a cub scout (or was that last year?)..

if the singles released thus far are any indication, the 2nd young knives album will be very good indeed.

So far this year the jazz scene is shit-hot with lots of bizarre awesome stuff that is actually kind of pop-friendly (see the jazz thread), I have heard some great r&b and amazing metal (see those threads), and a couple of things that are in no category.

Also I really enjoyed the Mountain Goats album, turns out that John D. is a pretty good songwriter after all.

Had you not liked his earlier work, D5? Or had just not heard his stuff yet?

Kind of a weird year for me so far listening-wise, actually -- nothing so far has impelled me to a series of repeat listens, which is always my litmus test for whether or not I'm really enjoying something. Then again at this time last year I only had one album like that, Jesu's Conquerer, so I'm not fretting or anything; also my attention's been more divided among many different non-musical things than it has been in a long while.

Are pixeltan releasing their album this year?

I really like the Vampire Weekend, it did the miraculous job of dislodging Blackout from my mp3 players constant rotation. I really feel like I might have worn that part of the drive out.

HAS ANYONE HERE HEARD A MOUTHFUL BY THE DO?

Also, All Is Yes by The Blessing is a wicked album, on the jazz front.

For fuXXors like me who don't like proper jazz. Or don't know about proper jazz. That is.

DJ Mencap- thanks, that sounds good, will check it out.

I think I would like the Raveonettes album, I've only ever enjoyed Whip It On by them though, the first proper album was such a letdown. I think I'm just very sick of a particular sound which is pretty constant in indie rock, particularly British indie rock. I don't know if it's a production thing, but I just hear it and think "Oh, indie". Apart from it I think I would like a lot of indie a lot more, if it weren't going so out of it's way to sound so, y'know, indie. The Sons and Daughters album was a case in point. I downloaded it based on a lot of "60's girl groups with edge" reviews. But 60's girl groups (well, the Ronnettes, Shangri-La's, the Chiffons anyway) have way more edge and imagination, and this more "serious" rehash sounds (to me) like a band that the girls might have formed for an episode of "Byker Grove"

That said I can like a lot of indie ish signifiers, and a lot of the time indie-goes-[insert musical genre here] bands can be really helpful as an entry way into a genre of music as it makes a slightly more familiar version of it that seems to become more and more irrelevant as you listen to more music from that genre. If that makes any sense.

Vampire Weekend got you into Afropop, you mean?

!

No, but I can see me going that way, it works all the time, I think my interests in techno, noise, krautrock, folk etc, all stemmed from some indie band that Pitchfork or someone ranted about, and I usually end up listening to that original band way least. I think I like Vampire Weekend because they remind me of Graceland and Clang of the Yankee Reaper, both of which I love.

Know any afropop I might like by any chance?

HAS ANYONE HERE HEARD A MOUTHFUL BY THE DO?

-- Scik Mouthy, Saturday, 23 February 2008 14:39 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^This is good.

Also receiving thumbs up from me: Los Campesinos, eMC, Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans, Glass Candy.

I've picked up the following in 2008: Atlas Sound, Cat Power, Hot Chip, Mountain Goats, Xiu Xiu -- and I enjoy all of them to various degrees, some more than others obviously, but nothing *incredible* has come down the pipeline in 2008, yet. I'd most recommend Mountain Goats and Atlas Sound albums, both are excellent; Hot Chip is spotty in places, still pretty good; Cat Power is sorta disposable; Xiu Xiu I haven't played enough yet to figure out.

The best album I've heard (not out yet, officially) is the Gutter Twins' release, Saturnalia, coming out in a week or two, I think. If you check out the Gutter Twins thread, there's a link to the whole album, streaming online. Really, really solid album.

Otherwise, I'm most looking forward to Portishead; based on their past work (duh) and everything I've heard about the new release, especially from those who've heard it and *LOVE* it, I'm thinking this could be the best thing to come out in the first half of 2008.

Destroyer - trouble in dreams - almost perfect.
Vampire weekend - very good.
Mgmt - 1st half - classic, 2nd half - dud.
Chauchat - upon thousands - almost perfect.
High places - i've only start listening to it yesterday, but looks promising.

btw,i can't stand the gutter twins the gutter twins .

Yeah, the Cat Power is very disappointing, but it has made me listen to the original Metal Heart a lot which is a good thing.

btw,i can't stand the gutter twins the gutter twins .

s'okay, i think your list sucks too ;-)

Seriously though, Gutter Twins album is *excellent*; stream here:

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/luisterpaal/39261992

but my dad is stronger than your dad!

Goslings - Occasion

Aaron Martin - River Water

Maninkari - Le Diable avec ses Chevaux...usually I avoid anything described as "cinematic" but this is beautiful kitchen sink ethno-psyche, somehow holds up over its nearly 2 hrs.

Box - Studio 1...hitting all those spots I wanted from the last Supersilent...like a wankier Supersilent, if Deathprod left the room and they decided to have "fun"

Ned -- I had never actually heard any other Mountain Goats albums before.

GET IT HEARD/HERD OH I SLAY ME

moto boy
ruby suns
july skies
vampire weekend

oh and je suis animal is probably great but who can find it?

I'm liking the Gutter Twins - Saturnalia quite a bit. Bought tix to see them in March. Still like Vampire Weekend and Black Mountain a lot. Am absorbing these, all have good moments:

Apes - Ghost Games
Big Sleep - Sleep Forever
Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Bob Mould - District Line
Protest The Hero - Fortress
Die! Die! Die! - Promises Promises
Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers
Nada Surf - Lucky
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
Clark - Turning Dragon
These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid

El Guincho seconded. There is an awesome new Nicole Mitchell/Black Earth Ensemble album called Black Unstoppable but I dunno if it's actually from '08.

D5, I like jazz, but it's hard for me to find reliable recommendations for new jazz discs (even on ILX's Rolling Jazz thread). What are the best new jazz discs you've heard this year?

Hercules & Love Affair, Black Mountain, Sian Alice Group, Silver Mt. Zion, Lee Scratch Perry's Chicken Scratch, and the Crystal Antlers EP have been the best I've heard so far.

Atlas Sound is pretty but kinda shallow (reminds me of Matthew Dear), These New Puritans is OK if you want to hear someone new ripping off the Fall, Clinic is OK and I like it more than their previous album (it's got a messy sound to it that I'm digging).

And fuck, I'm sick of Destroyer.

Someone asked once on another thread if there were "new release" lists online for various global/non-English albums. Not sure if anyone is doing that gatekeeper function, which would be difficult considering the number of small and large label efforts in countless genres around the world.

so far for 2008 :

Radio Scarecrow - The Black Dog (gorgeous from start to finish, a wonderfully layered rich album.)
The Invisible Line - Temposhark
The Heliocentrics - Out There
Clark - Turning Dragon

Oooh, I didn't know Clark had a new album out this year. Has it been released yet? I really enjoyed his last one.

daniel esq start here, also n.b. the next entry

"If That Arm Heals, It Ought To Be Broken Again" 2008 Jazz D Minor Bags Thread

I'll second the Raveonettes and Gutter Twins and add Drive-By Truckers' Brighter Than Creation's Dark and Sam Amidon' All Is Well. I'm hoping the Erykah Badu will turn out good.

The Hot Chip is pretty good. Avoiding Vampire Weekend like the plauge til the furor dies down, though I plan to pick it up this summer. Really liking Genghis Tron's new record Board Up the House, started a thread on it.

And fuck, I'm sick of Destroyer.

I wondered when this was going to happen.

Also, that Shelby Lynne album is nice. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say it's the best covers record by a female singer-songwriter so far this year.

dance album of the year so far: prosumer & murat tepali - serenity

OK, Nicole Mitchell album not from this year, but check this out for April!!!:

NEW HAVEN, CT -- Firehouse 12 Records will kick off its 2008 release schedule on April 29th with Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler (FH12-04-01-006), the new studio recording of Chicago-based flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell's extended composition of the same name.

Times New Viking!!!Times New Viking!!!Times New Viking!!!

Dimension 5ive, can you list some of those jazz albums you're talking about for lazy people like me?

I almost bought it...but I didn't.

So far I would list my favoritest things I've heard like this:

1. Cuong Vu, Vu-Tet
2. Steven Bernstein, Diaspora Suite (Miles-ish space funk, but Jewisher)
3. Louie Bellson and Clark Terry, Louie and Clark Expedition 2 (big-band corny stuff but really good and kinda forward-looking -- Duke Ellington once said Bellson was the world's greatest musician and he was married to Pearl Bailey so that's good enough for me, jack)
4. Matana Roberts, The Chicago Project (only had it for a couple of days, moving up quickly)
5. Cowboys From Hell, Monster Rodeo (metal-jazz from Switzerland, covers of the "Halloween" theme and straight-up beat-jacks from "Eye of the Tiger", so amazing)
6. Jason Kao Hwang/Edge, Stories Before Within (Third Stream weirdness, kinda good while shoveling at midnight)
7. The Wrong Object, Stories From the Shed (Zappa Tribute Band goes jazz-legit LOL)
8. François Ingold Trio, Fat Free (v.nice)
9. Keith Marks, Foreign Funk (jazz flautist gets down with "Axel F"...but actually better than that sounds)
10. Joe Locke Quartet, Sticks and Strings (I'm a sucker for vibes)

-- Dimension 5ive, Friday, February 22, 2008 5:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

okay my copy of Maceo Parker's Roots and Grooves just arrived and it is SHIT HOT Y'ALL. He's playing with the Cologne big band WDR; one disc of Ray Charles covers, one disc of good old Maceo funk stuff including an 18 minute "Pass the Peas." Dude can still play the holy hell out of that saxophone, it's like he hasn't aged a day. WOW BLAM ZING.

-- Dimension 5ive, Friday, February 22, 2008 7:29 PM

V/A Messthetics #104 & #105
Valet - Naked Acid
Belong - Colorless Record EP
Citified - The Meeting After the Meeting
Lee "Scratch" Perry - Chicken Scratch: Deluxe Edition

i just checked out charlottefield, and on first listen i like it very, very much. is the album available in the states? brighton seems like an interesting town...

all i have heard from 2008 specifically is bits and pieces of the new nick cave, the new xiu xiu and hot chip. first two are fantastic, as expected. hot chip is kind of boring but maybe it'll grow on me.

Citified - The Meeting After the Meeting

Wow, you're the only other person in internetland who seems to even know who they are! I'm glad they've started lengthening their songs a little. I just wish there were more than seven on the new cd.

I'll vouch for Decrepit Birth, Eluveitie, Furious Seasons, Gamma Ray, Ida, Joe Jackson, Magnetic Fields, Bob Mould, Mountain Goats, Zapruder Point. And reissues from Burning Witch and Xasthur. And an EPs worth of new songs added to Cradle of Filth's Thornography, and my copy of this Mexico 70 album says 2008 though I think it's really 2005 or 2006.

And my three favorite 2007 releases that didn't make it to me until 2008 are by Hundred Reasons, Kent and Puressence.

Puressence are still around?!

Can't see the new Mudhoney or Melvins albums mentioned so far, so them.

2nd on the Pyramids album. It totally rules.

So far this year my favorite albums are:

Ponies in the Surf – See You Happy
Willie Nelson – Moment of Forever
Adam Green – Sixes & Sevens
Dolly Parton – Backwoods Barbie
No Kids – Come into My House
For Against – Shade Side Sunny Side
Jonathan Richman – Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild
A Weather – Cove
She & Him – Volume One
Jason Anderson - The Hopeful & the Unafraid

Also: Evangelicals, Auburn Lull, White Hinterland, Rameses III, Guilty Simpson, Matmos, Lyrics Born, Festival, Hammock.

The new PAAVOHARJU, Laulu laakson kukista,is absolutely astonishing, awesome and fantastic !!!

soda fountain rag 'it's rag time!', would be goods meets pipas meets florian? she's terrific.

Haha. I see Hegelson is pimping Vampire Hands again. It's really good—a bit quieter than what I usually like, and I wanted more PIL big drums, but it's held up through several listens.

I have been trying hard with Kayo Dot and have just about got it. Torche is v good also.

I thought that Kayo Dot was pretty disappointing, seemed lack some of the intensity that I liked in the earlier albums. It was just a little too composed for my tastes, I was hoping for a little looser attack.

I'm still enjoying the Jamie Lidell album much, much more than I ever expected to.

I had never heard Kayo Dot before this album, so it really hit me pretty hard. I should probably check out some of that older stuff then.

maybe it's bc i'm $+0|\|3D but this Atlas Sound album r u l e s

I'm getting the Kayo Dot, hopefully. Since leaving ILX I got hold of their first two albums and was completely blown away by both. "The Manifold Curiosity" and "___on limpid form" in particular are absolutely masterful creations. I gather Mr. Driver decided to sack everyone in the band who wasn't his girlfriend though so can't really imagine how the new one turned out.

wye oak 'if children' album isn't anything terribly different but it's quite lovely and the perfect antidote for people who used to like cat power

Add Debut Album by Terminus to my list. It's like Broadcast and/or Ladytron, with an added (and none-too-subtle) sci-fi movie component.

God this thread is annoying to search for.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R3MWCGYF9TLFUQ/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm%5Fbb=

I usually go through your Amazon lists at the end of the year to pick up anything I might've missed. Got Electrelane & Caribou that way, so cheers Nick.

Wow, they work!

people need to get with as high as the sky by THE MOLE. finest quality house thumpers.

yeah that mole album is excellent

2008 has generally been kind of amazing so far though.

top albums, top trax...

erykah badu, new amerykah part one (the world war)
mariah carey, e=mc²
lil' wayne, tha carter iii
ashlee simpson, bittersweet world
ellen allien, boogybytes vol 4
robert hood, fabric 39
akiko kiyama, 7 years
trus'me, working nights
bun b, ii trill
the bug, london zoo

cassie - turn the lights off
young jeezy ft. kanye west - put on
lil' mama ft. chris brown & t-pain - shawty get loose
addictive ft. t2 - gonna be mine
jordin sparks ft. chris brown - no air
sway ft. $tush - f ur x
trina ft. missy elliott - i got a bottle
the-dream - ditch that...
kelley polar - entropy reigns (in the celestial city)
solange - sandcastle disco
son of raw - a black man in space
booka shade - control me
estelle ft. kanye west - american boy
wiley ft. blaze & triggz - if you're going out i'm going out too
hood headlinaz - rollin'
hercules and love affair - blind
ne-yo - closer
lloyd ft. lil' wayne - girls all around the world
santogold - les artistes
etienne jaumet - repeat again after me (âme remix)
jay haze - ass to mouth
warrior queen - things change
kat deluna ft. busta rhymes - run the show

Lex you have zero funky house in your list?!?!?

I need to help you with this problem.

funky house basically doesn't figure on my radar at all except for when it bleeds into other kinds of house, or grime or whatever

i forgot wiley's grime wave and the appleblim dubstep sllstars mix! and the roland appel album and and and

Finds of the year so far:

Get Well Soon - Rest Now Weary Head You Will Get Well Soon
The Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine
The Week That Was - The Week That Was
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Islands - Arm's Way
Lawrence Arabia - Lawrence Arabia
Sennen - Where The Light Gets In
Tilly & The Wall - O
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
The Presets - Apocalypso
CSS - Donkey
The INdelicates - American Demo
Pop Levi - Never Never Love
Blood Red Shoes - Box Of Secrets
Gotye - Like Drawing Blood
Mystery Jets - 21

Fuck, it's been a good year so far! Also, lol indie.

(nb: SAX MIX of 'a black man in space')

Three favorites:
Inara George - An Invitation
Kleerup - Kleerup
Jerusalem and the Starbaskets - The Howling

GOOD:
Animal Collective (EP)
Bauhaus
Excepter (comp.)
LSD Pond
Malkmus + Jicks
REM
Stars of the Lid (tour only EP)
Wedding Present

BETTER:
Autechre
Boris
Earth
Fuck Buttons
Mountain Goats
Spiritualized
Times New Viking

BEST:
Atlas Sound
Nick Cave
Gutter Twins
Jamie Lidell
M83
Portishead
Raveonettes

Not yet heard, looking forward to:
Breeders
Four Tet
Growing
No Age
Notwist
Roots
Sun Kil Moon

these are albums i love:

animal collective - water curses
booka shade - the sun and the neon light
bruno pronsato - why can't we be like us?
disfear - live the storm
mara trax - it got me funk

and these ones are pretty darn good too:

evangelista - hello voyager
v/a - step up 2 the streets

i haven't really been keeping track of singles too well.

The INdelicates - American Demo

fuck me this band swings from not half bad to fucking wretched on this record

Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-1976