Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

Finally some Polvo!

i wish drag city stuff were easier to hear but this is the way they want it, so w/e
there is a goofy song that uses the "red river valley" melody too, the whole album is unpredictable and never boring. people like different things from him -- i'm pretty much happy to listen to whatever he puts out (although i didn't love that one album with the irish lady...forget what it's called)

The Wire Rewind 2013: Critical Beats
01. Joey Anderson - From One Mind To The Other
02. Julio Bashmore versus Kowton - Mirror Song
03. Beneath - Beliz/Strike A Pose
04. Coki - Bedouins
05. DJ Rashad - I Don't Give A Fuck
06. Joe - Punters Step Out/Club Sacred
07. Kromestar - Rhythm On My Mind
08. letthemusicplay featuring Kate Tempest - Out Town
09. Glacher Lustwerk - Tape22
10. DJ Nigga Fox - O Meu Estilo
11. Pangaea - Viaduct
12. Theo Parrish - Day Like This
13. Pev & Asusu - Surge/Remnants
14. Special Request - Mindwash
15. Tessala - Nancy's Pantry

The Wire Rewind 2013: Electronica
01. Autechre - Exai
02. Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
03. AyGeeTee - Fools
04. Bass Clef - Acid Tracts
05. Rashad Becker - Traditional Music Of Notional Species Vol 1
06. Blondes - Swisher
07. Anthony Child - The Space Between People And Things
08. Donaty Dozzy - Plays Bee Mask
09. Mark Fell - N-Dimensional Analysis
10. FKA Twigs - EP2
11. Laurel Halo - Chance Of Rain
12. Huerco S - Colonial Patterns
13. Jam City - Special Trash Offcuts Memories
14. Oneothrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
15. Yearning Kru - Cracked Lacquer/Vanadium

The Wire Rewind 2013: Hip-Hop
01. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
02. Chief Keef - Go to Jail
03. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
04. Future - SH!T
05. Kevin Gates - Stranger Than Fiction
06. Ka - The Night's Gambit
07. Migos - Young Rich Niggas
08. Quelle Chris - Ghost at the Finish Line
09. Rocko feat. Future & Rick Ross - UOENO
10. Starlito - Funerals & Court Dates
11. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
12. Underachievers - Indigoism
13. Kanye West - Yeezus
14. YG - Just Re'd Up 2
15. Young Thug - 1017 Thug

The Wire Rewind 2013: Jazz & Improv
01. Sophie Agnel / John Edwards / Steve Noble - Meteo
02. John Butcher / Thomas Lehn / John Tilbury - Exta
03. The Convergence Quartet - Slow And Steady
04. Decoy & Joe McPhee - Spontaneous Combustion
05. Klaus Filip / Toshimaru Nakamura / Andrea Neumann / Ivan Placký - Messier Objects
06. Huntsville - Past Increasing Future Receding
07. Sarah Hughes - Accidents Of Matter And Space
08. ist - Berlin
09. Graham Lambkin & Keith Rowe - Making A
10. Sebastian Lexer & Grundik Kasyansky - The Fog
11. Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra featuring Roscoe Mitchell - Matter Anti-Matter
12. The Remote Viewers - Crimeways
13. Matthieu Ruhlmann - This Star Teaches Bending
14. Seaven Teares - Power Ballads
15. Nate Wooley & Seymour Wright - About Trumpet And Saxophone

The Wire Rewind 2013: Modern Composition
01. Elizabeth Brown - Mirage
02. John Cage - The Works For Organ
03. Shih-Hui Chen - Returning Sounds
04. Anders Dahl & Skogen - Rows
05. Hywel Davies - Descent/End Canon/Cold In The Earth
06. Luc Ferrari/Brunhild Ferrari - Luc Ferrari/Brunhild Ferrari
07. Michael Finnissy - History Of Photography In Sound
08. Lars Petter Hagen - Orchestral Works
09. Bryn Harrison - Vessels
10. Klaus Lang - Organ Works Vol 1
11. R Murray Schafer - String Quartets 8–12
12. Johannes Schöllhorn - Clouds And Sky
13. Ernstalbrecht Stiebler - Ton In Ton
14. Yoshi Wada - Singing In Unison
15. Zwerm - Underwater Princess Waltz

The Ex-Easter Island Head album is nice, coming from somewhere between gamelan and Rhys Chatham.

Never mind the numbers in front of the Wire lists: I see now that they are ordered alphabetically.

alphabetizing inconsistencies in the crit beats list though tbh

Maybe 'Glacher' is Herr Lustwerk's first name? :)

its funny how out of place noz' lists look in wire

I got my Pazz/Jop ballot earlier today.

Ex-Easter Island Head mallet guitars stuff at its best is some kind of headrush dance ecstasy. Based on minimalist composition.

cannot fucking believe that the amazing album by The Ex & Brass Unbound is only in this thread as Quietus' #99 pick

The Wire Rewind 2013: Outer Limits
Robert Beatty - Sountracks For Takeshi Murata
Anthony Child - The Space Between People And Things
G*Park - Sub
Russell Haswekk & Yasunao Tone - Convulsive Threshold
Rene Hell - Vanilla Call Option
Peter Kolovos - Black Colors
Main - Ablation
Jar Moff - Financial Glam
Else Marie Pade & Jacob Kirkegaard - Svaevninger
Joe Panzner & Greg Stuart - Dystonia Duos
Michael Pisaro - Closed Categories In Cartesian Worlds
Toshiya Tsunoda - The Temple Recording
Robert Turman - Beyond Painting
Jennifer Veillerobe - Luftlöcher
Billy Roisz - Walking The Monkey

The Wire Rewind 2013: Global
Abduvali Abdurashidov - Tajikistan Classical Music And Songs
Lili Boniche - Anthologie
Lena Hughes - Queen Of The Flat Top Guitar
Kakujo Iwasa - Kakuryu Saito - Japan: Satsuma Biwa
Orchestra Super Mazembe - Mazembe @ 45 rpm Vol 1
V/A - Cameroon: Flutes Of The Mandara Mountains
V/A - Classical Celtic Music
V/A - Ethnic Minority Music Of Southern China
V/A - 100 Moons: Hindustani Vocal Art 1930-1955
V/A - Stand Up People: Gypsy Pop Songs From Tito's Yugoslavia 1964-1980

aw man i didn't know there was a new pisaro

yes, jon abbey had great things to say about it on IHM

A high proportion of releases passed the sonic Bechdel test this year (women writing their own material, talking about something other than a man).

Gorilla vs. Bear Tracks http://www.gorillavsbear.net/2013/12/10/gorilla-vs-bears-songs-of-2013/#more-336801

75 DAWN RICHARD – Judith
74 SHLOHMO – Out Of Hand
73 SOPHIE – Nothing More To Say
72 BLACK HIPPY – U.O.E.N.O (remix)
71 BLONDES – Elise

70 MOUNT KIMBIE – Made To Stray
69 AIRBIRD & NAPOLIAN – In The Zone
68 DRE GREEN & THE GTW – Neymar Night
67 PRINCE INNOCENCE – Golden Hour
66 VULGAR FASHION – Krystal Tearz
65 MACK WILDS – Own It
64 SUPREME CUTS – Envision
63 BUSTA x Q-TIP – Thank You
62 SAPPHIRE SLOWS – Can I Get Out Of This Silence? (Eyedress remix)
61 TINASHE – Vulnerable

60 JON HOPKINS – Breathe This Air (feat. Purity Ring)
59 MIKKY EKKO – Disappear
58 SHINE 2009 – Older
57 THE KNIFE – Raging Lung
56 MILEY CYRUS – We Can’t Stop
55 PURE X – Thousand Year Old Child
54 SOKO – Monster Love (feat. Ariel Pink)
53 DJ RASHAD – Show You How
52 A$AP ROCKY – Fashion Killa
51 GIRAFFAGE – All That Matters

50 KORELESS – Ivana
49 CLAMS CASINO x DOOM – Bookfiend
48 TOXIE – Newgate
47 GEMS – Medusa
46 THE STROKES – Call It Fate, Call It Karma
45 FRYARS – On Your Own
44 TEI SHI – M&Ms
43 ANDROGYNOUS MIND – Knock On My Door
42 DANNY BROWN – Lonely
41 ARIEL PINK & JORGE ELBRECHT – Hang On To Life

40 LONDON GRAMMAR – Wasting My Young Years
39 ANGEL OLSEN – Sweet Dreams
38 MS MR – Fantasy
37 SHLOHMO x JEREMIH – Bo Peep (Do U Right)
36 ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – New Town Burnout (Shabazz Palaces remix)
35 YOUNG GALAXY – New Summer
34 ARCADE FIRE – Afterlife
33 BLUE HAWAII – Try To Be
32 EMPRESS OF – Hat Trick
31 FUTURE – Honest (Ryan Hemsworth post-rock tears bootleg)

30 A$AP FERG – Shabba (remix)
29 AUTRE NE VEUT x FENNESZ – Alive
28 EJECTA – Jeremiah (the Denier)
27 DROOP-E – ‘N the Traffic (feat. Nite Jewel)
26 JESSIE WARE – Imagine It Was Us
25 ARIANA GRANDE – Piano
24 SCHOOLBOY Q – Man of the Year
23 HAERTS – All The Days
22 JAMES BLAKE – Retrograde
21 PHOSPHORESCENT – Song for Zula

20 ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER – Chrome Country
19 A$AP MOB – Trillmatic (feat. Method Man)
18 CHVRCHES – Recover
17 DISCLOSURE – Help Me Lose My Mind (feat. London Grammar)
16 THE PREATURES – Is This How You Feel?
15 ST. LUCIA – Elevate
14 PUSHA T – Numbers on the Boards
13 JULIANNA BARWICK – One Half
12 JAI PAUL – track 15 (all night)
11 WHITE DENIM – New Blue Feeling
10 FKA Twigs-Water Me
09 Kayne West-Black Skinheads
08 MARIAH CAREY x MIGUEL | #beautiful
07 GROUPER | Living Room
06 DAFT PUNK | Doin’ it Right (feat. Panda Bear)
05 SZA | Julia
04 AUTRE NE VEUT | Counting
03 SOPHIE | Bipp
02 RICH HOMIE QUAN | Type of Way
01 AUTRE NE VEUT | Play By Play

gvb really likes Autre Ne Veut huh

It's a pretty fun list though

top 2 makes me feel some type of way

Playing through this list now. I like that Blue Hawaii track, which is new to me.

I put a bunch of best-songs lists (Rolling Stone, Spin, NME, NPR, Paste, PopMatters, Complex, and Pretty Much Amazing) into a single Spotify playlist, deleting the dupes:
http://open.spotify.com/user/seaworthyset/playlist/7AhiUOmkHgiJIJGNOhSwZO

I know it's basically a christmas catalogue for tarts but I do love the end of year lists that Boomkat do, discovered so much good stuff through those.

― diego floorplan (NickB), Wednesday, December 11, 2013

i get this; i've discovered some great stuff from boomkat, too. but they seem to love everything, which makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

noisey magazine's best tapes of 2013 (in no order, from what i can tell):

Siriusmo - Enthusiast
Torky Tork - PR110
Thundercat - Apocalypse
Jai Paul - Unreleased Album
Aleph - 4th Way
Sweet Valley - SV
Himuro Yoshiteru - Get Money
Ta-Ku - Songs To Break Up To
Zomby - With Love
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

PJ ballot submitted.

I'm having second thoughts about the MIA track I picked, but fuck it

The Wire seemed to take a turn towards covering more pop around '93, and I read every issue through the mid-90s. I've been listening to a playlist with albums from the list all day and I thought of this for the first time in ages: http://unhappyhipsters.com/

I'm already reminiscing wistfully back to yesterday when I got to hear fun, stupid music.

which track did you pick, Raymond? (plz say Matangi, I am obsessed with that song)

Sorry Dan, I went with "Bring the Noize" - though now I'm second guessing my decision, thinking I should have gone with "Come Walk With Me."

Overall I was more certain/set in the albums I chose than the tracks.

All this talk of WIRE has me realizing that I've not purchased a copy in YEARS. Tend to browse in the store and put it back.

yeah come walk with me is my pick, too

V/A - Stand Up People: Gypsy Pop Songs From Tito's Yugoslavia 1964-1980
Orchestra Super Mazembe - Mazembe @ 45 rpm Vol 1

^ both fantastic

i remain baffled that on an album as strong as matangi anyone could highlight the lumbering "come walk with me" which is the only one i had to flat-out delete

I can't work out if The Wire has got noticeably more catholic in its tastes or whether other publications (chiefly FACT) have moved closer to it. Probably a combination of both because that Wire top 10 looks surprisingly safe.

dummy as well - a year or two ago dummy pretty much covered the same stuff as fact but its leaned a lot more towards the wire end of things now

Last years Kerrang had a top 100 that wasnt bad. But look at this piece of utter shit. Close this mag now!

Kerrang Albums of 2013 "The Albums That Rocked 2013"
25. A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy
24. Jamie Lenman - Muscle Memory
23. Panic At The Disco - Too Weird To Live,Too Rare To Die
22. The Defiled - Daggers
21. Nails - Abandon All Life
20. State Champs - The Finer Things
19. Deafheaven- Sunbather
18. Fall Out Boy - Save Rock And Roll
17. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Mind Control
16. Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
15. Alter Bridge - Fortress
14. Deaf Havana - Old Souls
13. Black Sabbath - 13
12. Watain - The Wild Hunt
11. Tonight Alive - The Other Side
10. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
09. The Bronx - The Bronx IV
08. The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation
07. LetLive - The Blackest Beautiful
06. Paramore - Paramore
05. Avenged Sevenfold- Hail to the King
04. Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny
03. Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
02. Biffy Clyro - Embarrassment to Scotland
01. Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal

No Carcass! What a joke!

Bring back DJ Martian!

heh i'm one of those old school wire readers - in the minority i'm sure - who has stopped buying the mag because of its drift towards the centre in the last few years. think this is partly just an effect of history - the big guns of 20th century free improv/jazz and electronic composition are dying off, so the mag has had to re-focus a bit - and partly a result of changes to the editorial makeup of the mag. i don't begrudge them trying to adapt and survive, but i miss the beardscratching and noisewank.

write-off since kopf took over

No CarcassSubRosa! What a joke!

well yeah but I dont expect Kerrang to cover them.

lol does the Wire really cost 6 quid now?!

They have genre lists too just like the wire!

Pop-punk
1. A Day To Remember
2. State Champs - The Finer Things
3. The Wonder Years - Te Greatest Generation
4. Tonight Alive - The Other Side
5. Fall Out Boy - Save Rock And Roll

The New Breed!
1. Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny
2. Falling In Reverse - Fashionably Late
3. Escape The Fate - Ungrateful
4. Glamour Of The Kill - Savages
5. Survive This! - The Life You've Chosen

Bring back Philip Sherburne for Critical Beats, Joe Muggs is a good writer but microhouse >>>> UK Bass/footwork

K-Punk was nail in the coffin too.

Although every now and again...I am vaguely interested in the South African jazz piece.

well yeah but I dont expect Kerrang to cover them.
I've never looked at that magazine so I wouldn't know what they cover but I just wanted to use the strikethrough function and look cool for a moment.

Alt. Weirdness
1. Biffy Clyro LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL "weirdness"
2. Arcane Roots - Blood & Chemistry
3. Tomahawk- Oddfellows
4. Jamie Lehman - Muscle Memory
5. Hawk Eyes - That's What This Is

no imago, no MUTation

Arena Rock!
1. Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
2. Nine Inch Nails- Hesitation Marks
3. Qotsa - ... Like Clockwork
4. Alter Bridge - Fortress
5. Alice In Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

Club Metal!
1. Korn - The Paradigm Shift (still doing the pop dubstep rock thing i presume)
2. The Defiled - Daggers
3. Crossfaith - Apocalyze
4. Five Finger Death Punch - The Wrong Side Of Heaven and the Righteous Side Of Hell Volume 1
5. Device - Device

Extreme Metal!
1. Watain - The Wild Hunt
2. Carcass - Surgical Steel
3. Grave Miasma - Odori Sepulchorum
4. Moss- Horrible Night
5. In Solitude - Sister

In Solitude are extreme? They sounded to me like a cross between QOTSA and Echo & the Bunnymen