Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

it's really popular alright. anecdotally i feel like people i know who are generally more into indie are into it.

i bought one of his old records for my parents a few years ago, the v global communication chilled thing he did. i was trying to get them into music so i got them that and the gotan project album. not altogether negative response.

xpost

the 2nd track of the Hopkins record

its a good track though!

Yeah Open Eye Signal's great. Good choice birthday girl.

Didn't really follow 'Don't Fight the Feeling' by Master Force but you've got to be a man of the people at these things really haven't you.

People who aren't expert in a certain genre are drawn to albums with buzz, just like they'll vote for Yeezus as their favourite hip hop album.

haha this sentence concisely sums up basically every complaint i've ever had about EOY lists (apart from the usual gender/race issues). i feel like this is ok for casual listeners but i should expect more of professional critics

― lex pretend, Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Haven't you in the past noted on ilx threads how you have not heard certain 60s rock records, and certain late 70s/early 80s punk and postpunk records, yet you still offer your take on rock.

I think you're being harsh on the Hopkins there. Some of the sound palette is certainly Border Community circa 2005, but not all of it. Friends of mine who like it but don't know BC stuff have been comparing it to Four Tet and Eno too. I think the way he uses pianos and space on the second half of the record is something quite substantially different to Holden et al. I like the Holden record more than the Hopkins one - it feels more alive, more epic, more dangerous, more weird - but the Hopkins record is still very good.

enjoying this secret circuit album nickb! moroderesque bassline on "parascopic rope", nice

glad you like it!

the black deer album is another good one along similar lines, maybe a bit closer to holden though

Listening to James Holden now and baffled about what's so strange and challenging about it. Maybe this will become obvious when I've heard more of it.

Still no love for After Dark 2? People that is a doozy. Even though there is no roots rock influence, I find myself playing it constantly.

"Caterpillar's Intervention" is the best new RIO track I've heard in ages.

Still sounds like Atlas by Battles to me when it starts up

I had no idea there was a Secret Circuit album, their tracks have been popping up on Balearic/disco mixes for years and I've always enjoyed them.

What is RIO? I love Caterpillar's Intervention and keep meaning to search out more stuff like it.

the black deer album is another good one along similar lines, maybe a bit closer to holden though

i have a few of the 12s, must check it out.

RIO = Rock in Opposition. Half joking, but only half. Could definitely imagine this being made by a Fred Frith associate.

I had no idea there was a Secret Circuit album, their tracks have been popping up on Balearic/disco mixes for years and I've always enjoyed them

i did search on ilm for mention of them and yes, it was bringing up all sorts of blueski results from 2003 or 04 or something

I feel so out of touch bc as a dance music person, I have no idea what the fuck most of these records you guys are talking about are.

it's mostly death metal.

Listening to Holden for the first time right now. It's good.

I have no idea what the fuck most of these records you guys are talking about are.

Some of this stuff is sounding like dance music you don't actually dance too anyway.

I had no idea there was a Secret Circuit album, their tracks have been popping up on Balearic/disco mixes for years and I've always enjoyed them.

two albums in the last two years, i think? haven't heard the one from this year but i liked last year's (tropical psychedelics? or smthg)

that black deer album is one of my favorites too, not sure i'd compare it to holden tho

the first track on that black deer album is a real stunner, 16 minutes veering all over the synth spectrum from crunchy drone to kraut to cosmic to acid

black deer is willie burns, right? I think I need to hear that.

sure is. here you go:
http://open.spotify.com/album/0WcTTrJW4N5rrka5CnQKbO

Laut - Die Metal-Alben des Jahres
http://www.laut.de/News/Best-Of-2013-Die-Metal-Alben-des-Jahres-22-11-2013-9985

Im Jahr eins nach der Apokalypse bekommt Edele Gesellschaft: Erstmals richten mehrere Redakteure die Hartwurst-Schlachtplatte an. Evil!

01 Motörhead – Aftershock
02 Black Sabbath - 13
03 Carcass – Surgical Steel
04 DevilDriver – Winter Kills
05 Ghost B.C. – Infestissumam
06 Immolation – Kingdom Of Conspiracy
07 Purify – Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
08 Watain – The Wild Hunt
09 Suicidal Tendencies – 13
10 Korn – The Paradigm Shift
11 Amon Amarth – Deceiver Of The Gods
12 Haken – The Mountain
13 Fates Warning – Darkness In A Different Light
14 Killswitch Engage – Disarm The Descent
15 TesseracT – Altered State
16 Dark Tranquillity – Construct
17 Hacride – Back To Where You've Never Been
18 Ancient VVisdom – Deathlike
19 Heaven Shall Burn – Veto
20 Leprous – Coal
21 Hybris – Heavy Machinery
22 Sparzanza – Death Is Certain, Life Is Not
23 Nero Di Marte - Nero Di Marte
24 Buckcherry - Confessions
25 Shining - One One One

I called you after midnight
Then ran until my Hartwurst

I had no idea there was a Secret Circuit album, their tracks have been popping up on Balearic/disco mixes for years and I've always enjoyed them.

two albums in the last two years, i think? haven't heard the one from this year but i liked last year's (tropical psychedelics? or smthg)

that black deer album is one of my favorites too, not sure i'd compare it to holden tho

― akadarbarijava (psychgawsple), Wednesday, November 27, 2013 12:53 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

really surprised you haven't heard the secret circuit album yet! there was mention of it on the balearic revival thread, it's fantastic, kinda odd to see discussion of it here, though. two other great nu-balearic-ish albums (though in very different styles) that might have some "crossover potential" are pharoahs' replicant moods and almunia's pulsar.

i've been lazy lately and haven't been able to find it through the usual channels, i should probably just suck it up and buy the thing

pharoahs' replicant moods

This is really good FYI

So I'm guessing The Wire will go in heavily on The Knife and Laurel Halo and Oneohtrix. The first two are incredible and gorgeous and wonderful and will be in my own picks. The Oneohtrix is kinda clever but sterile, in the same way that Ferraro LP was last year. Was that last year?

I'm finding myself not wanting to listen to the Oneohtrix Point Never album, even though I like parts of it quite a bit. I like the previous two best of what I've heard.

It's - okay. I'm having much more fun with the last Laurel Halo cd. It's really really good.

Ferraro was the year before last - Laurel Halo was their #1 in 2012.

Apparently this is Uncut's top ten?

10. Tomorrow's Harvest - Boards of Canada
9. AM - Arctic Monkeys
8. Wakin On A Pretty Daze - Kurt Vile
7. Dream River - Bill Callahan
6. Man & Myth - Roy Harper
5. Once I Was An Eagle - Laura Marling
4. Pale Green Ghosts - John Grant
3. Push The Sky Away - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2. The Next Day - David Bowie
1. MBV - My Bloody Valentine

some kind of mythtake

yeah it's an awkward situation that

bad puns aside, I suppose kudos for taking the "innocent until proven guilty" line- or at least not gaming the results to re-write history.

agree with that but also perhaps the news came out too close to the deadline?

I like the new Halo, but I was introduced to her stuff via Quarantine (which I know a lot of people hate but I really really like) and I miss the vocal presence. Always had trouble giving much of a hoot about Oneohtrix for some reason (outside of Ford & Lopatin/Games), I never found this style of electronic music very exciting and yeah, this new album sounds a lot like a retread of Far Side Virtual). I should go back to the Holden album - was disappointed by The Idiots Are Winning all those years back but I heard it's much better. The Hopkins record is just okay but nothing new and the nice piano bits are practically a reprise from his collab with King Creosote.

Not making much headway with the Laurel Halo here, thought it would grow on me like Quarantine did, but nope. Also kind of disappointed that it wasn't more like the two 12"s that came before it, those had some of the most beautiful music of the last year or so on them imo.

I found it instantly appealing, tho it isn't really anything too original, just... techno.

The Black Deer record is good. Worth seeking out the 12s if you like that one. He's been so prolific this year with all the Willie Burns stuff too.

I gave it a go this morning but had to turn it off because at that time of day my brain just wasn't ready for techno that austere. Only made it three tracks it but I can see it working for me at night. Am I right in assuming there are no vocals this time round? If so, yes!

but her vocals are often really lovely :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPz-LPbIbQE

"Throw" from behind the green door was good seems to have been disappeared from the internet

that was the fabulous wonky piano house one right?

yep. Best thing she's done this year for def

still trying to make nyman house happen

Is ilx the only music forum whose posteurs regularly boast about not having heard most of the music on year-end critics' lists?