ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

True. I'll see if I have some invites later to share with youse.

that'd be greatly appreciated ^^

Cough

what invite what.cd

4 reals tho i have one, 1st person to prove they didnt vote for katy b, webmail me.

lol of all the things to take a stand against

i'm with grady on that one tbh

Oh gr8080 just as I was invited to what.cd last week. You crazy for this one.

woulda voted for katy b, sorry

actually no, i wouldn't have but she woulda been like #36 or something

lol a destroyer fan doesn't get katy b

endless lols

why would they ever understand fun i guess

I didn't vote for anyone, invite me to what.

i dont get destroyer or katy b.

invite you to what? xp

the invite has been claimed.

and katy b isnt fun

hey gr80 whats your what login

hint: i made the 77 collage

really loving the colin stetson. thanks ilx!

i mean, i'm barely into it, even, but i'm just astounded. also, the best cover i've seen all year.

not just the cool horses, but also extending their herded gallop across the frame on the left. awesome.

last post, sorry, but thanks for making the collage on what, gr8080!

you're welcome!

also, yeah that colin stetson cover is gorgeous. very Z S, imo.

grady, im irish, i voted for that destroyer album

english ppl be acting ridiculous here btw

michael b has no love for katy b

i dont actually, her tunes are a bit slight haha

michael b otm

ok grades im drunk rite now and listening to the katy b album but 4 mins in it aint no kaputt CMON LEX HAVE AT YE!!!!

ugh shoutouts...great

hold on a sec this is kinda good haha

XD

So I listened to this James Ferraro thing on my way into work today and... well it's this thread Internet nostalgia made into an album, innit? I totally get why a lot of people think it's nobblers, but I think the Encarta 94 nostalgia trip works on me. Our first family PC, playing demos of Sim City, Beneath A Steel Sky and Magic Carpet, making "funny" Powerpoint presentations from clipart etc. Obv this isn't really a record I'd want to listen to every day, but it's keenly observed (everything from the LO text-to-speech voices to the fast fades at the ends of tracks). It all builds into this Pentium-Inside near-retro-futuristic vision as heard through the medium of Cool Edit as opposed to VHS cassettes. Some of it reminds me of Sufjan Stevens' 'Michigan' album for some reason.

It's also interesting to see, particularly with this album, the exponential rate at which nostalgia seems to be turning over. Assuming retro is an unavoidable aesthetic that is just going to happen at this stage, the rapidity at which artists seem to be rushing through these tropes is kind of staggering - from post-punk revivalism, through chillwave's mid-late '80s TV obsession and now Ferraro's Netscape-aesthetic - it's like retro music is rushing to get to that theoretical point where it literally catches up with the present. Unlike many revivals so far, I'm old enough now to distinctly remember the early days of the internet, but at the time I was so impressed with the fact I could download Pearl Jam tabs and muck around with voice recordings in a sound editor, that the imperfections of these systems weren't apparent to me. It requires temporal/technological distancing to make these talking avatars and bandwith-draining web ephemera seem old-fashioned and naif. I think Ferraro makes that point explicit by putting an iPad on the cover - it's just a reminder that tomorrow, today's cutting-edge ideas will be considered extremely naff within only a few years.

hm. interesting points.

gawd WHEN is there gonna be a new psychic paramount album??!?

Pearl Ensemble is the next best thing j.

Ensemble Pearl

def need to check that out soon

they need to get one (1) hot rhythm section before 'next best thing' makes any sense at all, PP on the other hand cook like a motherfucker

I didn't mean that they were sound-alikes, they are two different bands after all. There isn't anything as delicate as Wray on PP's last record. I just meant it is a psyche/drone album that possesseth a similar undefinable quality, they don't to do anything more.

i was thinking more of their possibly also obliterating the difference between the sky and the ground until everything rushes on ahead in a metronomic cacophony, but ah well, delicacy

I meant to say They don't 'need' to do anything more. Fuck me 'metronomic cacophony' ? I would get some ointment for that.

something to sniff at least