Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

XXP: Razorlight being taken seriously in the UK as front cover stars/fit to play above Slayer on the main stage of Reading Festival, is entirely down to the preternaturally persuasive campaign launched by a husband wife/ manager PR team, so it's skill rather than size I think.

Also with Florence I can confirm her PR team was formidable. We got bollocked by them. One of their own team got threatened with the axe after he publicly endorsed our (slightly snide and misjudged by me) article on her. The whole experience felt like abseiling into a volcano.

PR people in America can be quite bracing especially if you're talking about classic rock but that said, Ken Weinstein at Q Prime for Metallica was a sweetheart. Nothing compares to some German metal labels however, who in past have made anonymous phone calls to me with voice disguising technology in the middle of the night to tell me that my career was over because of a mocking review.

Also, see Django Django, Crystal Castles, Alt J, Everything Everything etc etc. The horse trading you're supposed to indulge in to even get near to these bands is deeply unpleasant.

The majority of PR people in the UK are ace though. I'm sure I've got more social friends who are PRs than journalists. A really good PR is better for the artist than a mediocre writer. IMHO.

haha the multiple stories about florence's heavy-handed PR. i guess editors are on the receiving end of that more than writers, worst i've had to deal with are a few overly stern ones

being nice is a way more effective PR strategy ime (though it's still a PR strategy! i have thought, well, that act that a lot of critics seem to like inexplicably, their PR is a really genuinely lovely guy, hmmm)

Yeah, I don't cover bands if the PR tries to play hardball with us or indulge in horsetrading as a matter of principle but if the PR person is nice/ funny/ whatever, that can persuade me to go back for an extra few listens.

You've got to know what you're doing though. PR is a dark art. A one man, neo nazi punk rock band sent me a fiver with his cassette. I wrote back thanking him and said that I'd passed his details on to the police and a prominent Anti Nazi magazine. He then self released two singles, 'We Hate You John Doran' and 'Why Don't You Stick This Album Up Your Arse You Sarcastic Creep'. When I gave them bad reviews in Metal Hammer he went mad and attacked his neighbour with a Samurai sword, breaking his arm. He remains, to this day in a secure psychiatric ward unfit to plead. But he had phone privileges for the first year. Which is why Metal Hammer received a death threat for me at 9pm every night for over 300 days.

I think it's good to have an exit strategy when you decide to take a more unorthodox angry PR style with people.

I realize Germany and Japan were allies and all, but is a samurai sword really an appropriate weapon for a neo-nazi?

He didn't strike me as particularly bright - or like a man who had aesthetic criteria when it came to choosing weaponry. I kept some of the death threats he sent to me on cassette... he raps on some of them. I found them dead funny until the sword business. Then it was like, 'Right then Mr Fancy Pants media guy in Chattering Class London, taking on the authentic voice of the streets of Portsmouth are we? Not on my watch.'

how so?

tbh it seems like britishers are always the most vocal to boost female rappers like that lately. i was in england for a couple months earlier this year and it seemed like folks were way more jazzed about, like, azealia banks there than here, even years ago trina's singles seemed to pop more over there than america. feel free to prove me wrong on this, i don't know shit

america is pretty sexist about female rappers

yup

Fuck "lately", wasn't the UK the place where like Monie Love and Wee Papa Girls got started?

Doran, did this guy have a strong Cornish accent by any chance? This is very reminiscent of someone who used to pester my mate's old band by phone and mail.

tbh it seems like britishers are always the most vocal to boost female rappers like that lately. i was in england for a couple months earlier this year and it seemed like folks were way more jazzed about, like, azealia banks there than here, even years ago trina's singles seemed to pop more over there than america. feel free to prove me wrong on this, i don't know shit

― one bish two bish red bish blue bish (fadanuf4erybody), Saturday, December 22, 2012 10:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

plausible, i always thought kim and trina were huge in the US though. oh well score one for us

kim was a big deal in her time, trina was kind of a mid level star

Yeah, Trina was popular but never huge. The difference between Kim's time and now is more than one female rapper was allowed to be on the radio.

uh, doesn't look like Trina's any bigger in the UK than here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trina_discography

i'm a liar, a filthy liar

(i actually have no idea where that idea came from)

trina's uk chart positions are very kind to her if anything, i don't remember her being a thing here at any point outside of my own immediate orbit

as for kim i think a lot more people in the uk know who she is than could name or sing any of her songs ("lighters up" is oddly the one people always seem to hit on first)

The difference between Kim's time and now is more than one female rapper was allowed to be on the radio.

this one-female-rapper-at-a-time thing is a bit of a myth imo (one designed to KEEP FEMALE RAPPERS DOWN) - i was talking to iggy azalea the other week and we were both like, hang on, this has never actually been true, missy/eve/kim/trina/remy ma and prob a few more were all concurrent-to-overlapping

thankfully for iggy there are no other slave masters on the radio right now, so she has that lane clear to herself

Let's go back to the early aughts and look at Good Charlotte. I can't explain their sudden rise to prominence through any other means besides [killer PR] a bunch of hooky, memorable singles.

True for anyone. Nobody is going to say something is good unless they personally like it.

The sense of value judgement about acts who have bigger PR teams is just ancient bullshit IMO. It's not a dark art of mind control or some shit.

A one man, neo nazi punk rock band sent me a fiver with his cassette. I wrote back thanking him and said that I'd passed his details on to the police and a prominent Anti Nazi magazine. He then self released two singles, 'We Hate You John Doran' and 'Why Don't You Stick This Album Up Your Arse You Sarcastic Creep'.

Wtf, btw.

Razorlight being taken seriously in the UK as front cover stars/fit to play above Slayer on the main stage of Reading Festival

lol at 'fit to play'

reading festival promoters failing to uphold objective standards of musical integrity and quality and just bowing to corporate propoganda ;_;

The sense of value judgement about acts who have bigger PR teams is just ancient bullshit IMO. It's not a dark art of mind control or some shit.

who was arguing this? and what, precisely, do you think PR teams are paid for?

this one-female-rapper-at-a-time thing is a bit of a myth imo (one designed to KEEP FEMALE RAPPERS DOWN) - i was talking to iggy azalea the other week and we were both like, hang on, this has never actually been true, missy/eve/kim/trina/remy ma and prob a few more were all concurrent-to-overlapping

― lex pretend, Sunday, December 23, 2012 3:38 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah Rev was saying that there USED to be more than one female rapper in the mainstream spotlight at once in the days of Missy and Kim and Eve and so on, but in the era of Nicki (and the 5 years before her that nobody female was really poppin') it feels like there's not as much room being made for multiple stars.

Music industry economics really, why bother with multiple stars, who are expensive and risky, when you can take one surefire bankable one and throw all your ideas at them? See also Rihanna. And I don't think anyone from the late 90s/early 00s had the sort of ridiculous workrate of those two.

well there are still as many rap stars as ever, this is about all but one being male instead of all but a handful

Well yeah there's the institutional sexism thing as well, in that the music business is prepared to invest and support multiple male rappers and even let some of them do it on their own terms. But I can't envisage them really bothering with a female rapper who they couldn't simultaneously push as a mainstream pop star, and Nicki is really canny and supremely good at her own positioning. But it's virtually impossible to imagine a female Rick Ross existing or succeeding.

true. a lot of the female rappers trying to get in the door have pop star ambitions just as overt as Nicki's though. a "female Rick Ross" (has any phrase ever had such disturbing connotations?) could happen, but gangsta type female MCs never had a big presence to begin with.

10 Pig Destroyer – Book Burner (OK but they've still never topped Terrifyer and never will)

month late on this but Phantom Limb is a better album than Terrifyer

http://www.theworld.org/2012/12/global-hit-picks-for-2012/

7 or so lists from folks involved with this public radio show. Not much metal or r'n'b.

who was arguing this? and what, precisely, do you think PR teams are paid for?

I said, "the sense", that doesn't imply an argument, it implies a prejudice.

PR is about promoting awareness, not duping the eternal everyone whom the casual rockist assumes to be thick and duped in every decision they make.

PReeple

horse-trading for access is gross.

also i mean it doesn't exactly engender trust with the reader

lol j0rdan

I linked to my year-end summary last week, and here's the overall top 100. I also finished my mix last weekend, 100 songs, 1.2 GB, 9 hours, 31 minutes, 56 seconds. It's linked from the usual cover image at the beginning of the summary. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, Solstice, Krampusnacht, and holidaze!

Fast 'n' Bulbous Best of 2012
01. Colour Haze – She Said (Elektrohasch)
02. Ufomammut – Oro: Opus Primum & Opus Alter (Neurot)
03. Graveyard – Lights Out (Nuclear Blast)
04. Witchcraft – Legend (Nuclear Blast)
05. Troubled Horse – Step Inside (Rise Above/Metal Blade)
06. Gojira – L'Enfant Sauvage (Roadrunner)
07. Golden Void – Golden Void (Thrill Jockey)
08. Royal Thunder – CVI (Relapse)
09. Spiders – Flash Point (Crusher)
10. Christian Mistress – Possession (Relapse)
11. Motorpsycho & Ståle Storløkken – The Death Defying Unicorn (Rune Grammofon)
12. Goat – World Music (Rocket)
13. At Devil Dirt – Chapter II (Vulgo gratissimus auctor) (At Devil Dirt)
14. Wo Fat – The Black Code (Small Stone)
15. Horisont – Second Assault (Rise Above)
16. Captain Crimson – Dancing Madly Backwards (Transubstans)
17. Jess and the Ancient Ones – Jess and the Ancient Ones (Svart)
18. Torche – Harmonicraft (Volcom)
19. Om – Advaitic Songs (Drag City)
20. Baroness – Yellow & Green (Relapse)
21. Moon Duo – Circles (Sacred Bones)
22. Bong – Mana-Yood-Sushai (Ritual Productions)
23. Crippled Black Phoenix – (Mankind) The Crafty Ape (Cool Green)
24. Corsair – Corsair (Corsair)
25. Castle – Blacklands (Ván/Prosthetic)
26. Witch Mountain – Cauldron Of The Wild (Profound Lore)
27. Venomous Maximus – Beg Upon The Light (Cutthroat)
28. Sun Araw & M.G. Gengras Meet The Congos – Icon Give Thank (FRKWYS)
29. My Sleeping Karma – Soma (Napalm)
30. Wight – Through The Woods Into Deep Water (Bilocation/Fat & Holy)
31. Peaking Lights – Lucifer/Lucifer In Dub (Mexican Summer)
32. Swans – The Seer (Young God)
33. Tame Impala – Lonerism (Modular)
34. Deep Time – Deep Time (Hardly Art)
35. Andy Stott – Luxury Problems (Modern Love)
36. Owl – First Album (Magick Hermit/Lummox)
37. Dawnbringer – Into The Lair Of The Sun God (Profound Lore)
38. Maxïmo Park – The National Health (Warp/Straight To The Sun)
39. Greenleaf – Nest Of Vipers (Small Stone)
40. Glowsun – Eternal Season (Napalm)
41. Black Moth – The Killing Jar (New Heavy Sounds)
42. Six Organs Of Admittance – Ascent (Drag City)
43. The Machine – Calmer Than You Are (Elektrohasch)
44. The Sword – Apocryphon (Razor & Tie)
45. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell – Don't Hear It?Fear It! (Rise Above/Metal Blade)
46. Staff Benda Bilili – Bouger le Monde! (Crammed Discs)
47. Kadavar – Kadavar (Tee Pee)
48. Heat – Old Sparky (Electric Magic)
49. Orcus Chylde – Orcus Chylde (World In Sound)
50. Elder – Spires Burn EP (Armageddon)
51. Alunah – White Hoarhound (PsycheDOOMelic)
52. Zombie Zombie – Rituels d'un Nouveau Monde (Versatile)
53. Light Asylum – Light Asylum (Mexican Summer)
54. Liars – WIXIW (Mute)
55. Lau Nau – Valohiukkanen (Fonal)
56. Wovenhand – The Laughing Stalk (Sounds Familyre)
57. Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars – Radio Salone (Cumbancha)
58. Ice Dragon – Dream Dragon (Yersinia Pestis)
59. Mamont – Passing Through The Mastery Door (Ozium)
60. Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight – Going Home (Trippy Wicked)
61. High On Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis (eOne)
62. Royal Baths – Better Luck Next Time (Kanine)
63. Wild Nothing – Nocturne (Captured Tracks)
64. Dos Cafundós – Capitão Coração (Far Out)
65. Tom Zé – Tropicalia Lixo Logico (Passarinho)
66. Wadada Leo Smith – Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
67. Deepspacepilots – Deepspacepilots (Deepspacepilots)
68. Dinosaur Jr. – I Bet On Sky (Jagjaguwar)
69. Japandroids – Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)
70. O.Children – Apnea (Deadly People)
71. Ice Dragon – Tome Of The Future Ancients (Yersinia Pestis)
72. Ivy Garden Of The Desert – Blood Is Love (Nasoni)
73. Snail – Terminus (Snail)
74. Marissa Nadler – The Sister (Box of Cedar)
75. Wymond Miles – Under The Pale Moon (Sacred Bones)
76. Bnegao & Seletores De Frequencia – Sintoniza La (Coqueiro Verde)
77. Amadou & Mariam – Folila (Nonesuch)
78. Baby Woodrose – Third Eye Surgery (Bad Afro)
79. Conan – Monnos (Burning World)
80. Ancestors – In Dreams And Time (Tee Pee)
81. Dan Deacon – America (Domino)
82. Grand Magus – The Hunt (Nuclear Blast)
83. Gallon Drunk – The Road Gets Darker From Here (Clouds Hill)
84. The Touré-Raichel Collective – The Tel Aviv Session (Cumbancha)
85. Neneh Cherry & The Thing – The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound)
86. Aqua Nebula Oscillator – Third (Tee Pee)
87. Cortez – Cortez (Cortez)
88. Turing Machine – What Is The Meaning Of What (Temporary Residence)
89. Stacian – Songs For Cadets (Moniker)
90. Beach House – Bloom (Sub Pop)
91. Orange Goblin – A Eulogy For The Damned (Candlelight)
92. Lento – Anxiety Despair Languish (Denovali)
93. Rival Sons – Head Down (Earache)
94. Gypsyhawk – Revelry & Resilence (Metal Blade)
95. Alcest – Les Voyages de l'Âme (Prophecy)
96. Talk Normal – Sunshine (Joyful Noise)
97. The Random Kids – Paint It All Gold (Random Kids)
98. Grass Widow – Internal Logic (HLR)
99. White Manna – White Manna (Holy Mountain)
100. Nude Beach – II (Other Music)

month late on this but Phantom Limb is a better album than Terrifyer

OTM. i've felt so alone about this. all the reviews of book burner are like "a return to form after phantom limb" and i'm like "what"

stop spamming

goddamn, Fastnbulbous, yr year-end summary is incredible. kudos.

Big Haas Top 5 Hip-Hop Releases from the Middle East

Omar Offendum – Syrianamericana
Asfalt – Ana Satreen
The Narcicyst – Leap of Faith
Arabian Knightz – Rebel
Shadia Mansour – El Kofeyye Arabeyye

from PRI the world, syndicated public radio show

http://latinmusic.about.com/od/playlists/tp/Top-Latin-Songs-2012.htm

http://africasacountry.com/2012/12/26/the-top-10-african-music-videos-of-2012/

End Of Year List of 'Sterreplaten', Belgian Radio show:

A-Z
Burial - Kindred EP
Flying Horseman - Twist
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Grimes - Visions
John Maus - A Collection Of Rarities And Previously Unreleased Material
John Talabot - Fin
Laurel Halo - Quarantine
Raime - Quarter Turns Over A Living Line
Sam Flax - Age Waves
Swans - The Seer
Ty Segall - Slaughterhouse
Vessel - Order Of Noise

Audio for the Dutch speaking part of ILX: www.mixcloud.com/Sterrenplaten/sterrenplaten-eindejaar-21-december-2012

should "personal best of the year" be a different thread? not that i wanna post my own list or start that thread myself, just saying maybe that could be the place if people wanna link to their own blog or something.

some of those african tracks are great

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/critics-best-top-music-2012/Content?oid=8243121

Peter Margasak's top 5 international list is headed by a more traditional sounding afropop artist, Paris-based Malian singer, acoustic guitarist
Fatoumata Diawara, Fatou (World Circuit/Nonesuch)

http://www.newworldbuzz.com/2012.html

1
Amadou & Mariam | Folila | Nonesuch
2
Rodrigo Y Gabriela & C.U.B.A. | Area 52 | ATO-Red
3
Novalima | Karimba | ELS Music
4
Tinariwen | Tassili | Anti-
5
Marisa Monte | O Que Você Quer Saber De Verdade | Blue Note
6
Antibalas | Antibalas | Daptone
7
Jimmy Cliff | Rebirth | Trojan
8
Bonga | Hora Kota | Lusafrica
9
Afrolicious | A Dub For Mali | ESL
10
VA | Samaya: A Benefit Album For Cheb i Sabbah | Six Degrees
11
Te Vaka | Havili | Warm Earth
12
Staff Benda Bilili | Bouger Le Monde | Crammed Discs
13
Chicha Libre | Canibalismo | Barbes
14
Nation Beat | Growing Stone | Barbes
15
Midnite | Kings Bell | I Grade
16
Fatoumata Diawara | Fatou | Nonesuch
17
Lila Downs | Pecados Y Milagros | Sony
18
Bibi Tanga & The Selenites | 40º of Sunshine | Nat Geo
19
Céu | Caravana Sereia Bloom | Six Degrees
20
DRC Music | Kinshasa One Two | Warp
21
Sola Rosa | Get It Together | Melting Pot
22
10 Ft. Ganja Plant | Shake Up The Place | ROIR
23
Jose Conde | Jose Conde | Pipiki
24
Vlada Tomova | Balkan Tales | Kuker Music
25
Kiran Ahluwalia | Aam Zameen: Common Ground | Avokado Artists
26
Ana Tijoux | La Bala | Nacional
27
Debo Band | Debo Band | Sub Pop-Next Ambiance
28
Abdoulaye Traoré & Mohamed Diaby | Debademba | Chapa Blues
29
The Spy From Cairo | Arabadub | Wonderwheel
30
Delhi 2 Dublin | Delhi 2 Dubland EP | Self-Released

There's plenty of publications that put up lists by one writer. Ans as I said when I created this thread:

Bloggers and freelance/single/married/swingin' critics welcome to submit here too!

xp I could usually rely on getting good Brazilian recommendations from Margasak, but 5 is kind of limiting. Here's my global/international list:

1. Staff Benda Bilili – Bouger le Monde! (Crammed Discs) - Congo
2. Sierra Leone’s Refugee Allstars – Radio Salone (Cumbancha) – Sierra Leone
3. Dos Cafundós – Capitão Coração (Far Out) – Brazil
4. Tom Zé – Tropicalia Lixo Logico (Passarinho) – Brazil
5. Bnegao & Seletores De Frequencia – Sintoniza La (Coqueiro Verde) – Brazil
6. Amadou & Mariam – Folila (Nonesuch) – Mali
7. The Touré-Raichel Collective – The Tel Aviv Session (Cumbancha) – Mali/Israel
8. Jimmy Cliff – Rebirth (Universal) – Jamaica
9. Ondatrópica – Ondatrópica (Soundways) – Colombia
10. Lucas Santtana – The God Who Devastates Also Cures (Mais Un Discos) – Brazil
11. Café Tacuba – El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco (Verve) – Mexico
12. Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex – Y’Anbessaw Tezeta (Terp) – Ethiopia/Netherlands
13. Fatoumata Diawara – Fatou (World Circuit) – Mali
14. Debo Band – Debo Band (Next Ambience/Sub Pop) – U.S./Ethiopia
15. Galactic – Carnivale Electricos (Anti-) U.S.
16. Sexy Fi – Nunca Te Vi De Boa (Far Out) – Brazil
17. Makoomba – Rising Tide (Igloo) – Zimbabwe
18. Spoek Mathambo – Father Creeper (Sub Pop) – South Africa
19. Céu – Caravana Sereia Bloom (Six Degrees) – Brazil
20. Zani Diabaté & Les Héritiers – Tientalaw (Sterns) – Mali
21. Sidi Touré – Koïma (Thrill Jockey) – Mali

ok, here's my year end world list:

1. The Very Best - MTMTMK (Moshi Moshi) - Malawi
2. Zieti - Zemelewa (Grigri) - Ivory Coast
3. Amadou & Mariam - Folila (Nonesuch) - Mali
4. Janka Nabay - En Yay Sah (Luaka Bop) - Sierra Leone
5. Staff Benda Bilili - Bouger le Monde! (Crammed Discs) - Congo
6. Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex - Y'Anbessaw Tezeta (Terp) - Ethiopia
7. Fatoumata Diawara - Fatou (World Circuit) - Mali
8. Batida - Batida (Soundway) - Angola
9. Nneka - Soul is Heavy (Decon) - Nigeria
10. Debo Band - Debo Band (Sub Pop) - Ethiopia

some of those african tracks are great

― flopson, Wednesday, December 26, 2012 7:13 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This.

Esp:

Vetkuk vs Mahoota's "iStokvela"
Dama Do Bling's "Champion"
D.i.s. Guise's "Mr Bambe"