So we're... blah blah blah... of the way through 2009; what records are worth listening to so far?

hey alex you're great

hey k3v, you're great too. apropos of nothing in particular. but it's 6 am and i'm spreading the love.

Pati Yang - Faith, Hope & Fury

derelict : you found this on cd? i was promised this by certain people but as yet, the promise has yet to be fulfilled, and i've wondered whether its worthy of my hassling.

the best

Fever Ray

very good

The XX
Here We Go Magic
Cass McCombs
Flaming Lips
Sonic Youth

good

Super Furry Animals
Micachu and the Shapes
Girls

yet to hear

Bill Callaghan
David Kitt
Dirty Projectors
Ducktails
Broadcast/Focus Group
Lindstrom/Christabelle

xp mark e:

The Pati Yang is AFAIK unavailable through legitimate channels in the Americas. Much more to my taste than the FlyKKiller band she runs with her husband/producer.

2 more 2009 titles that excel for their genre, witch will probably be missed in year-end tallies:

Engineers - Three Fact Fader gazy dreampop from Manchester
Emmon - Closet Wanderings Emma Nylén's 2nd solo album remains slavishly mid-80s electropop, but she's tops at it.

Great Lake Swimmers, Lost Channels
Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard, Em Are I
Schwervon!, Low Blow
Hazel Rickard, Windfall
Julie Doiron, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
Falk & die Wiese, Appointments
Kevin Blechdom, Gentlemania
Huggabroomstik, The Alternate Huggabroomstik
Toby Goodshank, Johnny’s Democracy
Prewar Yardsale, M104
Patrick Wolf, The Bachelor
Der Nino aus Wien, Down in Albern/The Ocelot Show
Stahlberger, Rägebogesiedlig
Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs
John Houx, John Houx's Green Period
David Tattersal, Happy For A While
Maher Halal Shash Baz, C’est la dernière chanson
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Sarsaparilla, Ebb
A Orillas Del Magdalena - Coastal Cumbias From Colombia's Discos Fuentes LP
Schwervon!, Low Blow

One that's flying bizarrely under the radar:

Gareth Sager (aka, the guy from The Pop Group, Rip Rig and Panic, etc.)
"Slick Slack Music"

Kind of a lot take all at one sitting, but parts are amazing. "So Fired Up" = one of my top tracks of the year.

Would like to see some updates on this thread

definitely forgetting stuff:

LPs:
fever ray, duh
el perro del mar - love is not pop
tama sumo - panorama bar 02 (and the two singles)
redshape - the dance paradox
lindstrom and prins II
shackleton - three eps
meanderthals - desire lines
dam funk - toeachizown
jon hassell - last night the moon came...
STL - dub techno explorations
moritz von oswald trio - vertical ascent
pill - 4180 the prescription
black meteoric star
john daly - sea and sky
most likely lindstrom & christabelle, but i haven't listened enough yet to be sure

singles/eps:
baby ford - gravy train; tin of worms
omar-s - still serious nic
odd machine - phase in
pepe bradock - swimsuit issue
cio d'or - die faser
santiago salazar - la minoria
margaret dygas - invisible circles
lawrence - jill
burger/voigt - wand aus klang remixes
andre lodemann - coming home
sally shapiro - miracle
walter jones - i'll keep on loving you
osborne - hovercrafting
woofy vs projections - neeve
matt john - radio self
tensnake - in the end (i want you to cry)
burial & four tet - moth
pantha du prince - behind the stars
floating points - love me like this; vacuum EP
chaton - +91 ahead session 3
even tuell - workshop 07
linkwood family - firecracker eps
kassem mosse - workshop 08
giorgio gigli - observation document

okay, i'm getting lazy...

various things on permanent vacation, underground quality, and sandwell district; singles by mark e, peter van hoesen, audion; remixes by baby ford, pepe bradock, aeroplane, idjut boys

as someone who likes pill & not really any other rap, can u explain why it is that hes the artist you're drawn to? seriously not trying to start an argument or say youre wrong, im just curious bcuz he seems to me to be a pretty standard -- good, but standard -- style of g rap.

basically pure ignorance. i haven't really spent time on the rap thread(s) partially due to laziness cause i'd have to get caught up on the conversation, but mostly because i already spend too much time on ILM. i also like gucci mane's the movie 3 mixtape (but haven't listened to it enough to know how much i like it) and was lukewarm on dj quik and kurupt's blaqkout. if you have any recommendations based on that i'd appreciate it.

can't speak for karl but of this year's hyped rappers, he's the one who fits best into the classic hip-hop storytelling/gritty ghetto narrative set. plus he enunciates! i think he has a superb grasp of how to push emotional buttons. i also realised this much more after finally listening to 4075 today, which is even better than 4180, where i could understand your "standard" criticism more.

ha xp

anyway i have to get myself together a top 5 to vote on...i have a top 6 set in stone, so one misses out.

1. electrik red
2. taylor swift
3. the-dream
4. dj quik & kurupt
=5. rihanna
=5. mariah carey

it's been a terrific year for albums i think; the rest, i mentally class by genre -

MOODY NIGHT MUSIC: The xx, Fever Ray
HIP-HOP: Gucci Mane, UGK, Marco Polo & Torae, Pill, Lil' Wayne, Kid Sister
BANGING TECHNO: Redshape, Etienne Jaumet, Omar-S, Black Meteoric Star
PUNK ROCK GUITARS: Demi Lovato, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
BALEARIC/DISCO: Meanderthals, The Juan Maclean
FEMALE SINGER SONGWRITER: Eleni Mandell, Cortney Tidwell
HEAVY BASS: Dâm-Funk, Shackleton, Toddla T
SUNDRY R&B: Maxwell, Jamie Foxx, Ciara

^^would recommend all of the above with barely any reservations

I don't know Elani Mandell. Worth checking out?

definitely. LA songwriter, really smoky voice; i like her when she's being sultry and moody rather than delicate and cute. kevin, shipley and myself have been repping for her on her thread, we all seem to like about 2/3 of the album each but it's a different 2/3 for each person.

(her album from 2001, thrill, is really amazing though)

What do you feel about the "new" Courtney Love, or Neko Case? (the two singer-songwriters from this year that I've loved)

(Also, Alela Diane to a lesser extent.)

not a ton of stuff on youtube but here's the single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slP1SEnfX6E

XP OH SHIT i forgot courtney!!! fuck, there goes my neat wrapped-up 30-albums-of-the-year. how did i do that?!

neko, gave it a couple of tries, went in one ear and out the other - don't think it's a patch on blacklisted and didn't feel the one track that everyone recommended

did the courtney actually get released?

I kinda want to make a list of the female singer-songwriter stuff I've loved this decade. There's just so much of it. And it's all been really good. (Maybe a thread?)

i don't think the courtney did get released. actually i'm sure it didn't, if it had then there'd have been inescapable kerfuffle.

that thread might be good, i've been sorely unimpressed with a lot of the female singer-songwriter stuff i've heard this decade compared with the artists i grew up on.

Had to produce a list of that kind recently. Was surprised how easy it was to come up with twenty records, all of which I really love.

Do the thread.

Supposedly that Courtney Love album is due out January 1st now.

Songs Are Like Tattoos: Female Singer-Songwriter Rolling Thread

can't speak for karl but of this year's hyped rappers, he's the one who fits best into the classic hip-hop storytelling/gritty ghetto narrative set. plus he enunciates! i think he has a superb grasp of how to push emotional buttons.

^this is exactly how i feel and why he's more than just a standard g rapper.

What do you feel about the "new" Courtney Love, or Neko Case? (the two singer-songwriters from this year that I've loved)

― Mordy, Monday, November 23, 2009 5:38 PM (1 hour ago)

like the neko a lot (though i almost never get all the way through, get sort of restless by the end), only listened to that vourtney leak a couple times but "pacific coast highway" is fantastic

The Eleni Mandell seems (to this newcomer) a departure from her past work, because its more of a chorus-trading band collaboration with her new guitarist Jeremi Drake. I've only heard snippets, and like the atmosphere perhaps more than the lyrical content, but this context works better for me than acoustic crooning...

MOODY NIGHT MUSIC: The xx, Fever Ray

Do not group these together ever again, it is a false compliment to the former and a huge disservice to the latter.

Both albums have good songs, but enough bad songs to ruin them. They can be grouped together in that respect.

Fuck Buttons is a seriously high new entry in my annual esteem. And Califone.

that thread might be good, i've been sorely unimpressed with a lot of the female singer-songwriter stuff i've heard this decade compared with the artists i grew up on.

― lex pretend, Monday, November 23, 2009 10:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ditto :(

having searched my hard drive for "2009" I'm seeing the following:

more great drone / new new age (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/oct/26/new-wave-new-age) / 'god we LOVE tangerine dream' stuff:
stellar om source, alliance and ocean woman
oneohtrix point never, zones without people
and *especially* infinity window, artificial midnight and skyramps, days of thunder

a++:
fever ray, fever ray
moritz von oswald trio, vertical ascent
william basinski, 92982

also liked:
arthur russell, the sleeping bag sessions
matias aguayo, 14 tracks deep inside matias aguayo and ay ay ay
maudlin of the well, part the second
nomo, invisible cities
oliver huntemann, h-3
redshape, the dance paradox
sunn o))), monoliths & dimensions
vladislav delay, tummaa .. had only half-listened but watching this: http://vimeo.com/7202755 led to a second chance.

releases by a place to bury strangers and the field were disappointments .. failure in both cases to follow up a promising+flawed debut with something really original. the xx album made for a pleasurable quiet-night listen.

reissues:
saint etienne, foxbase alpha (or beta, now?)
the feelies, crazy rhythms (which has prompted lots of welcome looking-back-on i.e. here: http://zonestyxtravelcard.blogspot.com/2009/11/crazy-rhythms.html and I've seen more too)
apparently there are a bunch of radiohead reissues, which I might be interested in.

Is the basinski really worth checking out? I loved disintegration loops

its no disintegration loops but its top-notch ambient.

friend just asked me for a top 5 list, so off the top of my head i said nels cline, jay reatard, god help the girl, gay witch abortion and that grandfather paradox mix. i don't know if that's really my top 5, but it's probably close enough. courtney love and staff benda bilili would easily be in the top 10. i'd have to think about what else.

oh, the lindstrom/prins ii probably.

and maybe electrik red. i get why people like that but ... i dunno. not to be all challopy, but there's something really facile about tricky/dream stuff. i love a lot of their singles, but at album length it tends to squoosh away into the atmosphere for me. it's very pleasant.

.... and nite jewel! not the album so much (probably a top 20 or 30 for me), but the "want you back" EP is a top-10 for sure.

stuff that hasn't been mentioned (or has been little mentioned) that i love a lot:

Woods – Songs of Shame
Woods (as Acoustic Family Creeps) – Play Live In the Woods
Real Estate – Real Estate
The Oh Sees – Help
The Oh Sees – Dog Poison
Various – The World's Lousy With Ideas Vol. VIII
Gun Outfit – Dim Light
Beets – Spit In the Face of People Who Don't Want to Be Cool
Ganglians – Monster Head Room
Tim Cohen – The Two Sides of Tim Cohen
Fresh & Onlys – s/t debut
Jacuzzi Boys – No Seasons
Intelligence – Crepuscule With Pacman
ty seagall - horn the unicorn (expanded lp version)

most on some kinda lo-fi indie/termbo tip, but much more varied and popsmart than the run of that genre. worth a listen, but perhaps only to people with an established interest in "that type of thing". i dunno - it's hard to tell from inside the bubble.

oh, and jeff the brotherhood - heavy days. it's uneven, but the good stuff is more than worth it.

things that have been mentioned & discussed:

Baroness – The Blue Album
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Fever Ray – Fever Ray
The XX – XX
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - II
Flaming Lips – Embryonic
The Juan Maclean – The Future Will Come
James Blackshaw – The Glass Bead Game
Amadou & Miriam – Welcome to Mali

was prepared to love welcome to mali, because i love the last one, but i never worked up more than mild enthusiasm for it.

not my favorite a&m, but i like it a lot and am a fan, so...

most on some kinda lo-fi indie/termbo tip, but much more varied and popsmart than the run of that genre. worth a listen, but perhaps only to people with an established interest in "that type of thing". i dunno - it's hard to tell from inside the bubble.

― a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Sunday, November 29, 2009 6:18 PM (37 minutes ago

i like this genre in theory but i couldnt find anything to love this year, i'll have to try some of that stuff out that i haven't already. i couldnt even get into the eat skull, and i loved their last one. though from what i've heard most ppl are with me on that

liked a lot of that stuff this year, but most of it is much less noisy & punkrock than what i've gone for in the past - tending to the psych pop & folky ends of the spectrum (woods, ganglians, etc). some decent punk records out this year (stupid party, audacity, shitty limits), but none i went ape for.

i like the new eat skull more than the last one, but wouldn't call either a favorite. I LOVE the hole class lp, though - demos recorded by rob enbom & tnv's beth murphy in '06 but only "officially" released this year. folky, almost country-ish in places, but still clearly of eat skull/tnv in spirit (and recorder grot). forgot to mention it in the above list, but it's another big favorite.

and have you heard the 1st fresh & onlys lp? if i was gonna rec only 1 thing in this vein, it'd be the f&os. some hippie/twee tolerance required.

think the twee/hippie thing is putting me off, but i'll check out the punkier ones you listed, thanks!

i like ganglians a lot in theory but their songs just never did anything good to me.

k3vin i recommend the ty segall/black time split for the punkier end of things, and also the mantles album for the charming, classic songwriting end of things.

Nearing the end of the year I'm realizing that I still really like that Hatcham Social album a whole lot, and that it's not going to make any best-of-the-year polls because it's completely impossible to remember the band's name! Just found it by slogging through every single artist I've played on Rhapsody.

really? i find their name quite memorable, i think it's a very appealing name.. but yeah i fear it will be ignored. i love FP but they don't have a great track record of breaking bands

mayyors - deads ep = another top-of-the-list favorite that i forgot to include earlier. so great for jumping around and pretending that you are the kind of person who might break things while doing it.