Year-End Critics' Polls '07

(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

Another 5 of The Wire's 2007 genre lists

Global

Tony Allen - Moyege (Mark Ernestus Mix) & Ole (Moritz Von Oswald Mix) (Honest Jons)
Bob Brozman - Lumiere (Riverboat)
Extra Golden - Hera Man Nono (Thrill Jockey)
Group Doueh - Guitar Music From The Western Sahara (Sublime Frequencies)
Group Ineane - Guitars From Agadez (Sublime Frequencies)
Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra Of Algiers - Abdel Hadi Halo & The El Gusto Orchestra Of Algiers (Honest Jons)
Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests - Moa Anbessa (Terp)
Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed - Hulgizey: Always, Forever (Terp)
Omar Souleyman - Highway To Hassake: Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria (Sublime Frequencies)
Rachid Taha - Diwan 2 (Wrasse)

Hiphop

Black Milk - Popular Demand (Fat Beats)
Coughee Brothaz - Waitin' Our Turn (Coughee Brothaz Entertainment)
Devin The Dude Featuring Snoop & Andre 3000 - What A Job (Rap-A-Lot)
Flying Lotus - Reset EP (Warp)
Jay-Z - American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella)
Lil' Wayne - Da Drought 3 (Mixtape) (No Label)
7L & RaZor - Bladerunners (Five Day Weekend)
Shape Of Broad Minds - Craft Of The Lost Art (Lex)
Trim - Soulfood Vol 2 (No Label)
UGK Featuring OutKast - International Players Anthem (Ear 2 Da Street)

Jazz & Improv

Derek Bailey - Standards (Tzadik)
Anthony Braxton - 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (Firehouse 12)
John Butcher - The Geometry Of Sentiment (Emanem)
Peter Evans Quartet - Peter Evans Quartet (Firehouse 12)
Susie Ibarra's Electric Kulintang - Dialects (PR)
The Necks - Townsville (RER)
William Parker & Hamid Drake - Piercing The Veil (AUM Fidelity)
Cato Salsa Experience/The Thing/Joe McPhee - Two Bands And A Legend (Smalltown Superjazzz)
Matthew Shipp - Piano Vortex (Thirsty Ear)
David S Ware Quartet - Renunciation (AUM Fidelity)

Modern Composition

Earle Brown - Tracer (Mode)
Philip Corner - Extreme Positions (New World)
Morton Feldman - String Quartet No 1 (Hat Art)
Morton Feldman - Three Voices (Col Legno)
Jonathan Harvey - Angels (Soupir Editions)
Jonathan Harvey - Choral Music (Soupir Editions)
Tim Hodgkinson - Sketch Of Now (Mode)
Mauricio Kagel - Quirinus' Liebeeskuss (Winter & Winter)
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stimmung (Harmonia Mundi)
Charles Wuorinen - Cyclops 2000/A Reliquary For Igor Stravinsky (London Sinfonietta)

Outer Limits

Astral Social Club - Neon Pibroch (Important)
Axolotl - Memory Theatre (Important)
Eyes And Arms Of Smoke - A Religion Of Broken Bones (Cenotaph)
Henry Flynt - Nova'Billy (Locust)
Ben Frost - Theory Of Machines (Bedroom Community)
Moha! - Norwegianism (Rune Grammofon)
Charlotte Moorman - Cello Anthology (Alga Marghen)
Charlemagne Palestine - The Golden Mean (Shiin)
RST - Other Machines (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon)
Stephen Vitiello - Listening To Donald Judd (Sub Rosa)

That Derek Bailey album was pretty bitchin. I'm surprised no one has hyped Basya Schechter on any of the Global/World Beat lists. Haran was a great album.

That Rachid Taha disc was very good, but it was definitely an 06 release.

I think it came out in November though, or anyway, some time late in the year. I liked it initially, but I can't take his singing on the more challenging material. His lack of technique doesn't work for me on songs originally written for classicaly trained singers, but the more street things sound fine. Also, the orchestra/band backing him up is excellent. But you can't just croak out songs like "Gana el Hawa."

Jesu's "Conqueror" is on way fewer lists than I expected, especially given the midyear kudos it received. And the fact that it was probably grower of the year for me.

I can't take his (Taha's) singing on the more challenging material. His lack of technique doesn't work for me on songs originally written for classicaly trained singers

Rani is fire, though.

The hip-hip side, the hardcore side and the instrumental funk side.

http://www.nndb.com/people/185/000098888/rivers-cuomo-1-sized.jpg

Yeah, "Rani" is one of my favorite tracks on the album.

Man, I just grabbed Burial's album from a friend, and it's amazingly boring. It's totally reminiscent of the illbient stuff from the late '90s, and doesn't seem to have any variation in rhythm or anything. It's all slow, treated vocals and background washes of synth strings—what do so many people like about this? It just feels like safe wallpaper music, and not anything I can imagine putting on an end of year list. I thought that dubstep was supposed to at least have some relation to a dancehall or something that MOVED.

Arguments like that are Tricky to pull off.

what do so many people like about this?

i've given it some thought and i think what i like about it is the slow, treated vocals and the background washes of synth strings, and that it's reminiscent of the illbient stuff from the late '90s.

harharhar...

xp

where's the rebop?

good post about 'Untrue': http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/11/burial-untrue/

It's totally reminiscent of the illbient stuff from the late '90s

Ha, I was listening to Burial the other day, and it made me want to put on this:

http://www.trip-hop.net/images/jacquettes/big/703.jpg

"i've given it some thought and i think what i like about it is the slow, treated vocals and the background washes of synth strings, and that it's reminiscent of the illbient stuff from the late '90s."

Ugh. It makes me feel like I'm in a GAP. And the fucking rain sounds brought in? The whole thing reeks of pretension and bad sex.

Dude what is more rock and roll than pretension and bad sex?

(I haven't heard Burial, and I don't really care to.)

how often does it rain in a GAP anyway?