ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

All sounds due to mic placement and extended techniques (i.e, all live)

so many things on this list are stuff that i dutifully checked out at the time and never clicked with me - shabazz palaces is very admirable i guess but i just never wanted to listen to it? i don't think any of my more obscure choices are gonna place aside from dawn richard :(

colin stetson sounds interesting though

watch that youtube clip - fucking incredible stuff

saw stetson play at ATP in the fall. the guy is mesmerizing

ok yeah i was afraid this would be gimmicky but i'm sold

Lex you would love the Colin Stetson album I think, it's kind of an astonishing record. I had been expecting jazz when I listened to it but it's like... imagine if Carl Craig played a 100+ year old bass sax. And I'm not shitting you, it actually sounds like Carl Craig.

Don't know much about these things but I have no idea how he managed to wring some of those sounds out of his instrument, especially so many of them at the same time. Fully deserves the hype.

This is what I wrote on Stetson after hearing Judges:

The first time I heard Colin Stetson he was the opening act for Godspeed You! Black Emperor and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Some of us mistook him as a sound engineer and were caught completely by surprise when he started playing. One by one we fell into a silent trance as he created out of thin air the most magnificent, heartbroken beasts I’ve ever heard from a one man band. Recorded in one take with no overdubs, Judges captures the thrill of hearing him live with precision. Not only is the record technically impressive and conceptually novel but also highly compelling at a musical level. Inspired by post-rock and electronic pioneers, Stetson favors sonic aesthetics over experimentation, every deviation sounding calculated enough as to not scare the feeble away but smart enough to hook the most demanding listeners.

i'd be interested if it was jazz! i'm d/lding it now

You can tell he worked on it for a long time, it's not free jazz or just strange sounds, he tries to make it really musical and expressive, though it's still solo sax, so it has limits.

He kind of sounds like the Caspar Brotzmann of the bass sax.

Check out this bit of Colin describing how he makes "Judges":

http://youtu.be/UejNbSrJIuA

Also a bit let down Shabazz Palaces didn't place higher. I was expecting it to place top 10. Had the idea many people in here loved it.

currently i'm relistening to julia holter and it's kind of enjoyably odd but i cannot get a handle on it or find an entry point into it at all

The Stetson isn't a scary record, the 'not experimental, more sonic aesthetic' is a good shout, sometimes on listening to it as a whole I've thought it might be slightly too tasteful.

Yeah it's very accessible, it's no scary skronkfest.

ok this colin stetson album is pretty great. i'm getting heavy 'world of echo' vibes.

I didn't really get into Shabazz Palaces either :/

As to how is Colin Stetson doing it:

Lots of technique. He learnt circular breathing and applies it to the instrument, there's also mics all over his saxophone and he also uses his throat and hands to add up to the sounds.

He kind of sounds like the Caspar Brotzmann of the bass sax.

well, he certainly isn't peter

currently i'm relistening to julia holter and it's kind of enjoyably odd but i cannot get a handle on it or find an entry point into it at all

― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Wednesday, February 1, 2012 9:39 PM (16 seconds ago)

That's part of what I LOVE about it, I can't tie it in with anything fully, on one part it feels akin to Laurie Anderson or Meredith Monk in terms of artiness and pitch, on another side I see people calling it chillwave or comparing to Zola Jesus. None of these nail it.

so far Colin Stetson is like if Arthur Russell and Philip Glass had a baby and he learned saxophone

yeah totally, + a little bit of that guy.. james blackshaw

yeah, the no overdubs thing is crazy--i had no idea! need to listen to that again

oh, "world of echoes" is a brilliant point of reference

That's part of what I LOVE about it, I can't tie it in with anything fully, on one part it feels akin to Laurie Anderson or Meredith Monk in terms of artiness and pitch, on another side I see people calling it chillwave or comparing to Zola Jesus. None of these nail it.

it's not that - it's that i'm not hearing anything that hooks me in and makes me want to listen again, i'm hearing a lot of pleasant sounds in a strange order but nothing compelling or moreish

oh god these arthur russell mentions just made me remember that all my arthur russell music died with the hard drive. all of it. gone.

stetson does not click with me, do you love him because of his skills and physical feats as a sax player ("circus freak aspect") or because of the music he makes? it is astonishing what he gets out of the instrument but this kind of thing has been done by roland kirk and free jazzers like "i forgot his name", i think the album was called "sound" before. the tones stetson produces go in circles, it is almost like listening to someone breathing loudly. not really thrilling.

stetson does not click with me, do you love him because of his skills and physical feats as a sax player ("circus freak aspect") or because of the music he makes?

well for me, i honestly was digging it kinda like oh this is sorta in that vein of these new tim hecker dudes more more skronky electronics and didn't even know it was sax

FUCK YES SHABAZZ PALACES

I'll have a few albums to check out tonight if I have time. My rankings:

39 Girls - 279
38 Junior Boys - 273
37 Death Grips - 260
36 Holy Ghost! - 25
35 Holter - 137
34 Cut Copy - 364
33 Maus - 15
32 Panda Bear - 361
29 Spears - 527
28 Araabmuzik - 400
27 St. Vincent - 38
26 Oneohtrix Point Never - 160
25 Ocean - 165
22 Lady Gaga - 525
21 Shabazz Palaces - 163

so far Colin Stetson is like if Arthur Russell and Philip Glass had a baby and he learned saxophone

otm, but moka also otm re: "heartbroken beasts". the emotional connection point w constellation cru/godspeed and stuff like the dirty 3 is p obvious. raw sorrow, reach towards transcendence, the broken and grandiose aspects inseparable.

That Colin Stetson video just broke my mind. Amazing.

roscoe mitchell's album was called "sound". that was more interesting iirc, more expressive.

stetson's using a tape echo, yes?

xp

(in which case yeah - Roland Kirk, Eddie Harris, etc.)

xpost Will check that out

and yeah, james blackshaw is another good comparison point. for me, the technique has nothing to do with my appreciation. i like the music as music, and on that level, couldn't care less how the sounds are achieved. do appreciate the skill and athleticism for their own sake, but that's just a bonus.

Alex, I don't understand your point. I don't think anyone is saying that this is the best bass saxophone record of all time, or that he invented the techniques he uses.

the tones stetson produces go in circles, it is almost like listening to someone breathing loudly. not really thrilling.

― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, February 1, 2012 1:46 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would say the same of james blackshaw, and i like him, too. not thrilling perhaps, but inviting and hypnotic. and the sounds themselves are gorgeous.

idk, i need to relisten, but i went in expecting something like Mitchell or Kirk or Braxton and was surprised at how non-jazz, not even free jazz, it is. true, he didn't invent the technique but I think he's doing something new with it. all the drone/minimalism refs (terry riley too maybe?) make sense to me

the live video of judges is pretty amazing but i had to turn it off because this post kept popping into my head and i would LOL

He looks like he's going to die quite a lot of the time

or, contenderizer otm

feel like philip glass is a big part of what happened to indie in the 2000s

polyphonic, i am not criticising stetson for not being original, i just wanted to say that i don't dig what i heard in that live performance, that i have other sax players in mind who did this kind of thing in a more convincing way. but maybe i have to listen again as i did not listen until the end.

It's not really about being a sax record, it's more about the atmospherics than the role of the instrument. Constellation/Godspeed mentions upthread = otm. It's a post-rock record 1st+f'most.

I know what Alex is saying cos that video didn't really do a lot for me either beyond ~how does he do that?~. Would imagine it to be better live where you'd feel the full force of it.

why do we spend so much time arguing/worrying about genre classification on this thread?

why do you keep afflicting this thread with your presence after you said you wouldn't?

How would you compare Colin Stetson to, say, John Butcher? is his stuff generally more melodic, more song oriented?

Re: Colin Stetson
I played bari sax throughout HS, and while the growling over ostinatos is kinda old hat, Stetson has astonishing circular breathing technique. Mixing the pad noise contact mics, layrnx collar mic, bell mic and room mic is brilliant.

Circular breathing is also fairly dangerous as instrumental techniques go, as the pressure on cerebral veins. Don't know if Rahsaan Roland Kirk's stroke at age 39 was caused by circular breathing, but I wouldn't discount it.