Year-End Critics' Polls '07

For dubbier, I'd check Soul Jazz's two <I>Box of Dub</i> compilations, which have a much rootsier feel. You also might like the Skull Disco compilation, <I>Soundboy Punishments</i> (which is really 90% Shackleton productions), recently reissued in the U.S. by Rough Trade.

dubsteppier, I mean(t).

whoops, sorry for that poor formatting.

Plus, I have this weird idea that albums are meant to be lived with, a little; sometimes it takes more than a few months (and maybe a couple hit singles) to figure out how good an album is.

Yeah, I noticed that of my top ten albums of the year (still subject to change), eight came out in the first the first half, and none came out later than September, and I got the feeling I wasn't quite comfortable including newer albums that I haven't had as much time to digest, even if I might end up valuing them more later on.

still always subject to change

I love that Soundboy Punishments disc. Is that, in your view, more dubsteppier than Burial?

BTW, while I'm not crazy about Soul Jazz's Box of Dub, Vol. I and II, Vol. I did contain one of Burial's best songs, Unite.

possibly both dubbier and dubsteppier.

Yeah, the first Burial album is DUBstep, whereas the second is dubSTEP.

If I'm voting for "I'm a Flirt (Shoreline)" how do I credit the artist? R. Kelly vs. Broken Social Scene? The Hood Internet? ABX?

Precedent created by votes for Freelance Hellraiser in 2002?

Is The Hood Internet the person who did the mashup? If so, I'd go with that. (I'd never heard of him/her until you mentioned it... I know the track thru youtube, where it's uncredited, at least the version I bookmarked is.)

Anyway, it seems like the person who did the mashup would be the logical 'artist,' no?

Just the man I was looking to talk to!

The Hood Internet is the mash-up project of two guys, ABX and DJ STV SLV. They're put up on the website www.thehoodinternet.com, but the link that you click to download the song mentions the individual mash-upper. Also the title of the post is ARTIST VS. ARTIST. Confusing.

ilx rap clique will definitely want to know about the hip-hop list at indie surfer:

15. Timbaland - Presents Shock Value
14. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
13. Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
12. Freeway - Free At Last
11. Cunninlynguists - Dirty Acres
10. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
09. Talib Kweli - Eardrum
08. Pharoahe Monch - Desire
07. Common - Finding Forever
06. Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
05. Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
04. Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3
03. Jay-Z - American Gangster
02. Kanye West - Graduation
01. M.I.A. - Kala

For what it's worth, I know nothing about dubstep and I really liked the album. I think some of my enjoyment came from listening for the vocals on Archangel (like a lot of the reviews referenced) and while I was appreciating that, the music grew on me. I still can't talk about it in any meaningful way outside of my own personal reflections.

Also, what is up with Mona Lisa and Mad Hatter never being a hit? I LOVED that song.

(My little sister's bat mitzvah is next year!)

I'll post altpress/punknews/amp magazine lists when they come out.

Other than the most obvious thing about putting someone who is questionably rap at number one on a list of best rap albums, there's nothing particularly wonky about that list, which isn't to say all the albums are great. If you took M.I.A. out, there would be nothing that screamed "rap list by indie dudes".

14. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
13. Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
11. Cunninlynguists - Dirty Acres
10. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
09. Talib Kweli - Eardrum

Lots of backpack dudes who don't listen to indie like those people.

i thot "indie dudes" meant dudes who listened to indie rap

(Actually, I like the El-P album, and have been meaning to hear the Kweli, and liked Brother Ali when I saw him live.)

xp: Oh, that makes sense.

is there an interesting hip-hop albums list anywhere? (i.e. i'm too lazy to go looking for one.) unless i'm missing it the only hip-hop on this thread is the vibe singles list.

i liked that brother ali album. i listened to it twice!

(and i mostly thought m.i.a. was a funny rap #1. i haven't heard half the things on that list. including kanye, except the singles.)

There is considerably more hip-hop in those polls than ragas, opera, symphonic rock, Bulgarian traditional music, reggae or even rockabilly.

or even.

Fake Rockist Scientist. (xp)

(i'd like to see a best of '07 rockabilly list too, actually.)

Fake Rockist Scientist. (xp)

Hmph.

ZANG?

the last thing on earth I want to see is an '07 rockabilly list. OK, I'm lying--I'd find it fascinating, probably.

rockabilly bands have good names.

frantic frank and the flattops.

Crazy Joe & the Mad River Outlaws
The Taildraggers
Sue Moreno with Jussi Huhtakangas
Levi Dexter & The Rockats
Three Bad Jacks
Slim Jim Phantom & Eddie Angel
Buck Stevens
The Seatsniffers
The Vibro Champs
The Lucky Stars with Dave Stuckey
Charlie Thompson with the Lucky Stars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_fNnFTlNck

"NO wonder YouTube is so successful and risisng when it comes to music and radio is falling; it has what's really out there and what folks want really hear: rock-a-billy, surf...American styles essentially banned from commercial radio.

Let's hope the Internet does no go the same way as radio and televsion. Long Live YouTube!"

i told you they had good names. jussi huhtakangas!

feel free to share some choice year-end interweb blurbs:

Justice - Cross
"I hate hate hate dance music… or, at least, I did. Something about the crop of music to come out this year has given me a second look at music to which one shakes their booty. This was one of the albums to do so. There are points where it totally gets dark and evil, like “Stress,” but “D.A.N.C.E.” is such a boogie down, feel good song that i can’t help but get it on - much to the shagrin of my co-workers."

did anyone post ABC News top 50(!!!):

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/FallConcert/story?id=3999759&page=1

that list's not half bad!

THE SHAGRIN!!!

It's like a cross between Boogie Down Productions, Bjork, and the Slits with an Eastern twist.

Except their number 1 was actually released in 2006

never heard of rough trade's number one:

http://www.roughtrade.com/site/content.lasso?page=top100_2007.html

this page has too many lists:

http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2007/11/2007_online_bes.html

like four zillion lists.

Wow, the blurbs on the ABC list are just chock-full of chestnuts.

When the Beastie Boys' instrumental album "The Mix Up" came out, it was painfully obvious to distinguish the true hipsters from the poseurs. The poseurs were the ones who pretended they had been Beastie Boys fans all along and then said things like, "Get this. They actually play instruments on this record!" The hipsters knew that the Beasties were not merely rappers. After all, they began as a hardcore punk group in 1982, and then slowly morphed into the rap-trio we met four years later of "Licensed To Ill." (Trivia fact ? Their original drummer was Kate Shellenbach who was later a member of Luscious Jackson.) Anyone who listened to the Beasties' nineties output would know that there were three sides to their sound: The hip-hip side, the hardcore side and the instrumental funk side. "The Mix Up" is all about the instrumental funk. With longtime keyboardist Money Mark by their side, they rip through a groovy 12 song set. Yes, it's not the tightest sounding record, but is that always important. "Suco de Tangerina" sounds like Henry Mancini on a pseudo-Latin side-trip, and "The Gala Event" is both ominous and cool. All the naysayers should keep quiet. It's cool that this record even exists. Name another group who would take such a bold chance and test their range like this. This is a great soundtrack for relaxing on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

it was painfully obvious to distinguish the true hipsters from the poseurs.

Does not compute.

That Alela Diane record sounds interesting, as long as she doesn't actually "sing" like Joanne Newsom.

ok i watched that green bay rockabilly clip and it's sort of great. the live sound via youtube makes it sound like times new viking, or bad reception late at night. (which i guess is sort of what times new viking sounds like.) like it's but breaking up in the atmosphere.

(i'd correct that last sentence but i'm not sure how.)

Here's the first four genre lists. I felt too tired when I turned the page over to find another seven to do those as well, so Global, Hiphop, Jazz & Improv, Modern Composition, Outer Limits, Reissues and Compilations will have to follow later.

Avant Rock

Sir Richard Bishop - Polytheistic Fragments (Drag City)
Loren Connors - The Hymn Of The North Star (Family Vineyard)
Ghost - In Stormy Nights (Drag City)
High On Fire - Death Is This Communion (Relapse)
Kousokuya - Ray Night (Ray Night Music)
Liars - Liars (Mute)
Mouthus - Saw A Halo (Load)
MV & EE With The Bummer Road - Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace)
Six Organs Of Admittance - Shelter From The Ash (Drag City)
Yellow Swans - At All Ends (Load)

Critical Beats

Benga - Crunked Up (Tempa)
Blackdown & Dusk - The Blitz (Keysound)
The Bug Featuring Flowdan - Skeng (Hyperdub)
Durrty Goodz - Axiom EP (No Label)
Petre Inspirescu - TIPS (Cadenza)
Junior Boys - Like A Child (Carl Craig Remix) (Domino)
Kalabrese - Rumpelzirkus (Stattmusik)
Thomas Melchior - No Disco Future (Perlon)
Shackleton - Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix) (Skull Disco)
Skull Disco - Soundboy's Ashes Get Chopped Up And Snorted (Skull Disco)

Dub

Bullwackies Allstars - Free For All (Wackies)
Disrupt - Foundation Bit (Werk)
D-Roy Band - Mawamba Dub (D-Roy/Badda Music)
Keith Hudson - Nu Skin Up (Pressure Sounds)
Kiddus I - Rockers: Graduation In Zion (Dub Store)
Carlton Patterson Meets King Tubby - Black And White In Dub (Hot Pot)
Lee Perry & The Upsetters - Ape-ology (Trojan)
The Revolutionaries - Drum Sound: More Gems From The Channel One Dub Room 1974-1980 (Pressure Sounds)
King Tubby Meets Aggrovators - At Dub Station (Trojan)
Wailing Souls - Classic Cuts 1978-1984 (Greensleeves)

Electronica

Deepchord Presents Echospace - The Coldest Season (Modern Love)
Thomas Fehlmann - Hönigpumpe (Kompakt)
Fennesz & Sakamoto - Cendre (Touch)
Giuseppe Ielasi - August (12K)
Murcof - Cosmos (Leaf)
September Collective - All The Birds Were Anarchists (Mosz)
Signal - Robot (Raster-Noton)
Andy Stott - Fear Of Heights EP (Modern Love)
Underground Resistance - Electronic Warfare 2.0 (Underground Resistance)
Uusitalo - Karhunainen (Huume)

http://community.livejournal.com/leakage_channel/401801.html