1970-1979 WTF - The Hard 'n' Heavy 'n' Loud + Krautrock, Arty, Noisy, Weird, Funky, Punky Shit - Albums Poll! - VOTING THREAD! Closes Mar 8th 11.59 PM UK Time - All ILXORS/LURKERS WELCOME

Mind you I never understood the fall love on ilm

man I could probably write a short essay on each one of at least half of the tracks on Dragnet and the surrounding singles explaining why I love that particular one so much, but I really think that would be a bad way to stimulate conversation and convert people who already think this undertaking is a solipsistic wankfest

actually that would be great!

I for one would welcome any dragnet related thesis

Wow, I'm surprised by how much I'm digging Love It to Death after Billion Dollar Babies didn't do much for me beyond the title track. I can totally see how Thurston Moore was into this.

Sund4r do you like Chrome?

I don't know Chrome very well at all.

xp lol no thesis, more like "Flat of Angles always sounded to me like some superamalgam of His Latest Flame (acknowledged rip) and People Funny Boy (unacknowledged maybe nonexistent)" or "seriously guys, my mission to find songs that superficially resembled Psykick Dancehall led me to Liquid Liquid's Optimo, and then Liquid Liquid led me to Fela Kuti, this record really changed my life" or "Dragnet is like Surfer Rosa if Black Francis had been listening to the Upsetters albums instead of arsing about w Husker Du"

I mean, its not false and it prolley isn't bad, but the whole name-tag-genre-influence-signifier game is kind of really up its own ass

I do think that mark s giving us some paragraphs about Dragnet would be a way more awesome treat but I mean

Chrome is v good, Idk which one I like more, Alien Soundtracks or Half Machine Lip Moves

Now Fela Kuti, we need more discussion on him too!

I believe Edward prefers Alien Soundtracks to Half Machine Lip Moves. Something like it pisses over at least half of it anyway.

Is he right?

I just put on Alien Soundtracks, at least the Youtube rip. Did you see some connection to Alice Cooper?

no?

Ha, well, I only asked because you brought it up after I mentioned liking an Alice Cooper album.

AG is worrying that Chrome isn't going to have enough votes. How many are you counting down from Kerr?

Ahhh ok. I did wonder. I had mentioned Chrome before though and was hoping someone might talk about them. They're a band I expect to crack the top 50 in this poll.

yeah I would say both albums deserve to be in the top 100 at least

I dunno. It all depends on how many ballots we get. So wont be able to tell until Ive seen the final results. As for the tracks poll Viceroy will decide on that, its his poll. Think hes excited about doing the rollout!

There's 4 Chrome albums nominated iirc

With the 80s poll there was only ballots of a max of 50. This time its 100 so in theory we could do a bigger rollout. It all depends on how many vote, how many do huge ballots and people dont vote for the same 100 bands in each ballot!

do you like the idea of a large roll out?

was it a 351 I did in 80s poll?

So I guess it will be around that 300 figure if we get enough ballots.

yeah I loved the bigger rollout, the phrase I probably beat to death in that thread was 'greatest discount record bin ever'; it really did feel like you were flipping through just a massive amount of amazing LPs, even stuff I adamantly did not dig was a welcome sight just bcz of the rarity/obscurity or the sheer weirdness of it being juxtaposed with the other stuff

that was a bit vague, do you get what I mean?

yeah I get exactly what you mean. Just wish I could find those records in a discount bin!!

ps did jjj ever listen to the sonic youth cd he bought?

what size of rollout do you want mr a money?

i could probably be down with 500

Do you guys think the 70s results will be more or less obscure compared to the 80s poll?
Have the 70s albums been more..... set in stone as part of the canon? Are we all settled with regards to our fave albums of that decade?

Also with the 80s poll it was quite clear plenty of ilxors were into the more obscure bands at the time , clearly its not going to be the case with a 70s poll (or a possible 60s poll in the future), is it?

idk I think that there's some obscurities that are going to get some dece wider recognition: Ya Ho Wha 13, Guru Guru, Agitation Free, Brainticket, T2 obv, Randy Holden, maybe Blue Phantom and Dust...

Are Agitation Free or Guru Guru that obscure though? Certainly not compared to some of the stuff edward and hellhouse got in the 80s poll

I mean, who doesnt love zonked out cult head music?

http://youtu.be/qHuJfUaKCxc

xp I'd guess they were largely on the side of Krautrock that folks have heard of more than heard

I suppose we will find out how well known they are based on how high or low they place.

i suppose you are correct

I've never heard of either of those bands fwiw.

There seems to be a more glaring divide wrt 70s rock: stuff everyone hears daily on FM radio vs truly obscure things that did not benefit from the distribution that indie labels were able to manage in the 80s

I can totally dig that

Hey AG you like Blue Phantom? Fantastic Italian instrumental prog-metal film soundtrack. Distortions is probably up there with Satori as far as 1971 heavy psych goes:

http://youtu.be/nekhwrKSdYA

^track three. Another one of the full track samples that Sufi and a Killer helps itself to.

here's the full album: http://youtu.be/jtZyL595E8A

Looks like I kinda mangled the background info:

BLUE PHANTOM were a secret project by a bundle of session musicians, smartly plotted by a composer H. Tical aka Armando Sciascia, who was renowned as an Italian film composer, editor, producer in mid-60s, and simultaneously an owner of an Italian label Vedette Records. They released one and only album 'Distortions' in 1971 via Vedette Records, which was distributed not only in Italy but also in UK and France. Although 'Distortions' can be thought as a psychedelic progressive gem worldwide, it had never been re-released for a long while - an Italian independent label AMS reissued this album in 2008 finally.

i know some dude will be lurking so get yer vote in before you moan at the results sir! ;)

― Vote in the ILM 70s poll please! (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, February 24, 2013 7:39 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

leave me out of this shit and i won't say another word on any threads associated w/ this nonsense

There's so much great music in the 70s, and a lot of it is very familiar as it's been around between 33 and 43 years, plenty of time to discover stuff. The amazing thing is there is always more great 70s albums to uncover. By the time I've finally submitted my ballot I'll have listened to well over 50 albums for the first time ever since the nominations started last Fall, and I already have a handful of new favorites.

I'm still digesting Agitation Free, it's definitely cool. Not sure why Copey snubbed them. Possibly the same reason he ignored the later Guru Guru albums, he maybe felt too much guitars made them too close to ordinary traditional rock.

Regarding The Fall, their vast catalog is a neverending source of awe, confusion and stimulation. For a long time Live at the Witch Trials would have been my favorite, but since the last reissue of Dragnet, that's taken over the top spot for their 70s albums. Chrome factored heavily on my radio shows, and Alien Soundtracks has always edged out Half Machine Lip Moves.

I’ve been meaning to submit a revised ballot. I've sat down a few time's but been interrupted. I think my first one was probably pretty predictable so maybe I should take more time and listen to explore some of the recommendations and suggestions a bit more. Really hoping the poll results turn me onto some stuff I’ve foolishly ignored in the same way the 80’s ones did.

I’m guessing my ballot will include lots of Krautrock stuff as they are the albums that jump out at me most looking at the nominations list. Tempted to place La Dusseldorf’s debut higher than a lot of the more popular albums from that scene (Faust IV, Harmonia etc) as I think it’s amongst the best from that era and doesn’t get anywhere near the plaudits it deserves. (Also, Algerian Goalkeeper, it looks like it’s listed twice in the nomination spreadsheet).

I did listen to Flamin’ Groovies ‘Teenage Head’ last week, that’s a great LP; out Stone’s the Stone’s in many places.

I’m expecting the Modern Lover’s debut to make top 10 here which would be nice.

haha I knew he was lurking
xposts obviously

Didn't even notice the modern lovers album was nominated and nobodys spoken about it. You should be campaigning for it (and any other albums people want to place)

Remember the 80s poll where people complained albums were too low but they hadn't campaigned for it (or in some cases hadn't voted)?

Ned's review of Chrome - The Visitation

Exhibiting a truly gone sense of rock and roll -- even without Creed, who wouldn't join until the following album -- Chrome here aren't quite the monster industrial/punk forebears of legend, but the original quartet still has something weird and wigged going for it. One of the best comments this reviewer ever heard about The Visitation was that it was early Brian Eno meets Santana, a judgment that best captures the strange mix going on. To be sure, Visitation isn't as laden with Latin funk as the latter, but Edge tries some odd percussion here and there, sometimes approaching Can's level of avant-garde groove. Guitarist Lambdin throws in a fair amount of reasonable enough soloing as well throughout, squelchy and heavily flanged guitar being the result when not offering up basic rhythm. It's good for what it is; there's certainly much worse out there. As for Eno, the opening song -- with a sudden musical rush building to the a capella title line, "How many years too soon?!" delivered in shrill, squealed nerd harmonies -- is hardly the Doobie Brothers. Strange electronic burps and shades and random drop-ins color the often sci-fi-tinged songs, so things are off in general, just not quite as frenetically so as later albums, with the exception of the thoroughly fried "My Time to Live." The higher vocals generally stay a bit calmer after the opening -- whichever singer it is, Lambdin or bassist Spain, has nowhere near as nails-on-chalkboard screechy warbling as, say, Geddy Lee, just possessed of a higher register and with reasonable control. The other lead singer sounds like a breathless Jagger imitator, which like the guitar playing is reasonable without being too distinct. In general, the four members sound like they want to do more than what the end result turned out to be, but the seeds were being sown nonetheless.

Alien Soundtracks

With Creed recruited to replace original member Mike Low (though allegedly Edge initially turned Creed down after the latter appeared wearing a pirate outfit or something similar), Chrome started kicking into high gear at last. While Spain and Lambdin weren't out of the picture yet, cowriting half the songs with Edge, Creed's mind-melting guitar swiftly took prominence, turning a wiggy band into a total headtrip. Rather than just aiming at acid-rock styling, Creed stuffed his fretbending into an evil, compressed aggro-sound, at once psychedelic and totally in-your-face. Edge equals the activity by stepping into the vocal role himself, sounding like Iggy on a live wire with occasional attempts at weird, wailed crooning, while his electronics and drumming starts sounding a lot more vicious and totally scuzzed as well. It's not the short sharp shock of punk rock per se -- it just sounds like the title puts it, alien, sounds and TV samples firing out of nowhere and throwing the listener off balance. That many numbers are constructed out of short fragments adds to the weird overlay. Even the quieter numbers like "All Data Lost" play around with echo and drone to create disturbing results. The songs themselves allegedly were recorded as the soundtrack to a live sex show, which probably goes a long way towards explaining the sex and sci-fi combination of much of the lyrics. Not to mention the titles -- to quote some at random: "Nova Feedback," "Magnetic Dwarf Reptile," and the truly hilarious "Pigmies in Zee Dark" (there's some creepy crooning on this one) and "Slip It to the Android." The artwork adds to the weird effect -- a hand-colored late fifties 'cool' living room and busty babe setup with the band's and album name hand-scrawled in usual Chrome fashion over it, plus huge disembodied eyes and lips that make everything really disturbing. Overall, the combination of screwy sound and art on a budget placed Chrome as something like West Coast cousins of early Pere Ubu and Destroy All Monsters -- not a bad place to be.

Half Machine Lip Moves

With Lambdin out and Spain barely there at all, everything rapidly became an Edge/Creed show in the realm of Chrome by the time of Half Machine Lip Moves. The basic tropes having been established -- aggressive but cryptic performance and production, jump cuts between and in songs, judicious use of sampling and production craziness, and an overall air of looming science fiction apocalypse and doom -- all Edge and Creed had to do was perfect it. Starting with the fragmented assault of "TV as Eyes," which rapidly descends into heavily treated, conversational snippets from TV and deep, droning keyboards, Half Machine sounds like a weird broadcast from thousands of miles away where rock is treated as an exotic musical form. Creed fully gets to shine here, his pitched-up/pitched-down guitars as good an example of psychedelic assault as anything. Sprawled all over the beeps and murmurs of the songs, not to mention Edge's still self-created drumming and Iggy-ish vocal interjections, the guitars make everything sound utterly disturbed. If not as obsessed with tempo shifts and oddity as, say, Faust, Half Machine is still pretty close to that band's level of Krautrock playfulness and explosion. Two of the relative saner numbers are practically power pop, at least in Chrome terms. "March of the Chrome Police (A Cold Clamey Bombing)" has Edge sneering an actual vocal hook over a brisk beat, even while Creed gets progressively more fried on the guitar, and rumbling echoed laughter and barks erupt in the mix. "You've Been Duplicated," meanwhile, also has something of a vocal hook, only buried under so many levels of distortion that it might as well be a malfunctioning keyboard being played among the clattering percussion and other sounds. A suitably strange cover shot of a fully head-bandaged mannequin seemingly floating in space completes the package.

Nice reviews, Ned!

I love the Modern Lovers album, but it's been a mainstay in the canon for at least 20 years (it's 69th overall at http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/ and 89th on RYM). It was 15th in the original 70s poll here. It's in my ballot but much lower due to its relative lack of hard/heavy/loudness. Similarly, Bowie's Ziggy, GO4, Buzzcocks (though somehow Singles Going Steady was not nominated), PiL, Joy Division and Television always do well and I don't see much need for campaigning (though don't let me stop anyone!)

Blue Phantom sounds cool. I've seen some people say they're Italian, probably because it was issued on an Italian label, but I believe they're French. "Microchaos" completely plagiarizes "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and there's lots of Black Sabbath bits everywhere. Fun stuff.

The thing with not campaigning for well known albums does mean sometimes albums get forgotten until the results roll out. I want to avoid all that by making sure everyone boosts the albums they want to see place.
Obviously the lesser known stuff is what needs the most boostering.