Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

weak year for music in general or?

No, a weak year for that strain of indie.

I know there's a school of thought that says that no year is worse than any other, and there's always good stuff to be found, but I'm sure I found more killer albums last year.

there were definitely fewer albums this year that provided that social rush of loads of people rallying round something to praise it - i think in my top 30 or so, miguel is the only one that kinda qualifies. maybe jessie ware but even that has a "will this do" air to it. even my favourite indie-leaning albums seemed to only get people who were already fans talking - school of seven bells, neneh cherry, fiona apple, even leonard cohen.

which isn't to say that the music i did love wasn't as fantastic as it always is, it's just that too few bothered with my favourites because they didn't have massive ~news pegs~

i think in my top 30 or so, miguel is the only one that kinda qualifies

I'm assuming Kendrick Lamar misses out on your top 30 then?

oh i forgot about that, it's between 20-30 at the moment

xposts it's just so prevalent, as though things haven't moved on since halfway through the last decade - distant, indistinct vocals; gloopy "textures"; general feyness; superficial keening and yearning and an overall lack of presence. I just don't feel inspired in any way by this stuff - and yet I guess I class myself as an alternative/indie fan deep down, but when I hear Grizzly Bear or whoever, I can barely make it through a song without getting frustrated. And yet when Animal Collective decided to lay off the reverb for once, they released a shit album that doesn't even compare to their legions of soundalikes. So it's lose/lose I guess.

listening to animal collective at any time is def lose/lose

It certainly feels like there's less of a unilateral pushing of certain releases. The only thing I can think of really is Bish Bosch (which isn't out yet) and to a lesser extent The Seer, but that's only from my own, Quietus-influenced perspective. That said there've been some classic moments (great year for footwork's upward rise for example), and I really like the current flavour of leftfield pioneers from this and last year - Julia Holter, Neneh Cherry & The Thing, Julianna Barwick, Swans, Scott, Colin Stetson, ummm, can't think of too many off the top of my head from this year but it's all been great and very inspiring.

I've heard dance fans bemoan the state of the genre this year; that there doesn't seem to be a thing to rally around - loads of individual micro-scenes rather than the usual cause celebre. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing though. Dance music has come to operate so much around "now everyone listens to electro" "now everyone listens to minimal" "now it's dubstep" that maybe this breaking of generic barriers is sort of positive? I dunno.

I dunno in dance music this year the big thing has definitely been straight-up house music. The bobbins thread is a lot more slamming than in previous years, Hot Creations and Huxley and Maya Jane Coles are bleeding over into the garage interzone, throw jackin' in there as well and there's a definite 'story' there but not exactly a convenient rallying point.

there were several pretty great dance albums in 2012. andy stott, michael mayer, voices from the lake, lindstrøm, vatican shadow, smallpeople, blondes. dunno why people didn't rally round them, they certainly should have.

That Blondes album got a fair bit of buzz, in fairness. Obviously the Talabot one as well.

oh yeah i'm guessing talabot will prob be top 20 at least on the ilm poll

claro intellecto and silent servant albums were are both terrific, as are the collected untold eps from this year. have no idea whether any of these were a thing or not.

I think the main complaint was more that there was no "ah, hot new genre, everybody go apeshit crazy!" than a lack of decent releases. It seems to be more made up of individual artists and labels carving out their own particular niche. As I say, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.

I think the Talabot album is one of my favourite records of the year.

It's around this point in a decade that things tend to take a bit of a sea-change anyway. I think about the disparity and diversity of the pop charts in 1982, how new wave was turning into new pop, reggae into dancehall, disco into electro blahblah - it probably felt like a bit of a mishmash at the time, but in retrospect it was actually the true beginnings of what would come to define the rest of the decade. Similar sentiments with the mid-early 90s, 70s and 60s. To me it always feels like the first couple of years of a decade are a kind of "putting to bed" of the last decade before really kicking things off. But maybe not.

It's around this point in a decade that things tend to take a bit of a sea-change anyway

what

that's not how...time works

I dunno about on you guys' side, but tarp (lol) was def the big sound in dance music this year over here. Does seem like a better year for house than the past few though, yeah.

i think it does. generational shifts, economic patterns, the overall psychology that is wrapped up in "a new decade, time for something new" - i think it affects everything from the artistic instinct, consumer trends and label management decisions - it will affect the music that reaches us.

xpost

what's tarp, rev?

oh TRAP!

haha, i know nothing about trap. I'd like to though. I'm more interested in tarp though now you've said it.

oh yeah, lex - i listened to Armour On on the train today; really enjoyed it. must give it another listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HzyUHxmkg0

^Total anthem. I have issues with the name "trap" and the lack of feminine pressure in the genre, but some of it's fun to dance to. There's a lot of really lazy stuff out there tho. I mostly try to avoid djs who lean too heavy on it, esp as such parties tend to attract too many bros.

still can't believe a bunch of dance geeks co-opted "trap" and are pretending it means something other than dope boy rap

and are being taken seriously by anyone, it's ludicrous

Oh yeah, I've heard that Hudson Mohawke track - it's cool, but I had no idea that's what trap was supposed to be. assumed it was dope boy rap.

would like to hear a footwork/trap crossover actually..

But it's basically almost exactly the same production style being reappropriated. But without rappers over the top I find it difficult to find much to latch on to.

(xpost - to Some Dude)

Unfortunately, no one's come up with a better word for this stuff. But my point is it's all over the place in clubs right now. xps

white electronic guys appropriating black electronic styles, i guess it's inevitable in all cases. similarly, it's hard to differentiate between the kind of music made by Rashad and that by Machinedrum even though there's a clear stylistic difference.

*differentiate in generic terms, that is.

Unfortunately, no one's come up with a better word for this stuff. But my point is it's all over the place in clubs right now. xps

the thing is it doesn't actually sound noticeably different to the stuff that was played in those clubs before people started using the word "trap"

well on the one hand it's good to acknowledge what they're biting but the way those people have basically taken ownership of the word to describe what they've been doing in the last year as opposed to Shawty Redd or something, it's all very "you didn't build that!" -- plus when you take into account the origins of the term it's kinda fucked up for some european dude to make an aggressive drum loop and go "look i've made a 'crack house' song lol!"

xpost what, like Night Slugs stuff, or?

i mean, those DJs and producers have been using southern hip-hop drums and dropping southern hip-hop tracks for years and years, i remember hudson mohawke playing a fabric set about half a decade ago that was full of this

also i don't know who the people actually using the genre name "trap" are, the only time i see it is when i see people mocking it (not that this isn't annoying in itself, the way they go on about it)

I suppose the reason I'm suspicious of it a bit is that I don't see it as having much connection to the rest of British dance music bar a bit of dubstep crossover. Also I find it difficult to imagine Hudson Mohawke doing anything without an annoying smirk on his face.

xpost yeah, but the point is (as far as i understand it) it's blown up beyond just one or two nerds playing around with a sound in their bedrooms and assimilated itself into an actual scene recognised by the dance/party mainstream beyond its initial intended audience.

well on the one hand it's good to acknowledge what they're biting but the way those people have basically taken ownership of the word to describe what they've been doing in the last year as opposed to Shawty Redd or something, it's all very "you didn't build that!" -- plus when you take into account the origins of the term it's kinda fucked up for some european dude to make an aggressive drum loop and go "look i've made a 'crack house' song lol!"

― some dude, Friday, November 23, 2012 4:32 AM Bookmark

Yeah, obviously. I kind of feel that the dumb name (which actually a lot of people making music in the style eschew for the same reasons) has become a stick to beat the music with, which isn't entirely fair, although by all means do shit on goddamn fucking UZ or whoever.

the thing is it doesn't actually sound noticeably different to the stuff that was played in those clubs before people started using the word "trap"

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, November 23, 2012 4:31 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

People were playing stuff that sounded like this at dance nights a couple years ago? I call bullshit. The only thing I can think of is "Wut", which I kind of look at as inadvertently kicking this whole thing off.

xpost yeah, hudson mohawke's name is very offputting. but the current state of UK bass music is pretty all-encompassing right now. I really like it - dubstep basslines, trappy-drums, housey melodies, female vocal samples - taking the Night Slugs sound and running with it in various directions I guess - fewer prescribed rules than how things were with dubstep.

Aquacrunk - The sound of urban glasgow/please explain this to me

People were playing stuff that sounded like this at dance nights a couple years ago? I call bullshit. The only thing I can think of is "Wut", which I kind of look at as inadvertently kicking this whole thing off.

hudmo is not exactly a new face

xp yes

Hudmo's old stuff sounds completely different iirc?

not so much that this constitutes a radical new direction

"fuse" was soooooooo amazing he will never ever top it ;_;

lol what the fuck is aquacrunk