ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

xps - Yeah I really need to check out the previous Peaking Lights releases. Also their remix of "I Surrender" was my favourite thing to come of of the Ford and Lopatin project this year.

Peaking Lights and Rustie seems to have taken the place of OPN/Emeralds. Hmmm. Hecker still has a shot at #1

also: no Uncle Acid :(

glass swords as a whole still hasn't 'hit me' as it were, but there are some real jams on that esp. 'after light'

another of my votes! rustie album was so banging. such a good wake-up call in the morning - i was covering the party conferences when it came out and it made me rave in some very inappropriate places - and of course ctually raving to it in a club was the BEST

surph - AND U KNOW I WANNA RIIIDE OUUUUUUT
hover traps

that rustie album is too much

I think I might like this bon iver album if I actually listened to it. Maybe I will do so now?

― I chipped a tooth on the buttbone (askance johnson), Thursday, February 2, 2012 8:54 AM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tried this with bon iver and fleet foxes when they came out, as a sort of self-challenging experiment (like listening to bal-sagoth in 1993). found that they were both pleasant enough while they lasted, bon iver moreso, but that they inspired no strong feelings of any sort and i couldn't remember anything about them once they were over. that was enough for me.

Oh boy, finally something I voted for.

Peaking Lights and Rustie seems to have taken the place of OPN/Emeralds

not sure what you mean

i am required to like the killers because their drummer is my 1000% terrifying level doppelganger. like i want them to become beatles famous so i can make money standing around and doing very little.

Isn't that what you do at the store now?

I reckon that Tim Hecker will appear in round about the same place as Emeralds and OPN did last year or maybe just a bit higher.

― Derartu Cthulhu (NickB), Tuesday, January 31, 2012 11:29 AM (2 days ago)

OPN/Emeralds placed in the 15-20 range last year iirc...

(xp)

xp
you should start giving controversial interviews as that guy to make it happen

oh right

Glass Swords sounded so triumphant without being smug at all, very Daft Punk in that way I thought.

he seems to be getting bloated these days on his rock and roll lifestyle so i guess i need to start retaining more water in my face

http://i.imgur.com/PQMuc.jpg

14. Kurt Vile — Smoke Ring For My Halo (572 points, 16 votes, one first place vote)

P4K: 16
P&J: 20

Spotify

that's the last one for like 20 mins or so, i'm gonna go run out and pick up some food

my #2 soooooo goooooood. made me pick up the acoustic guitar again <3

yeah i like this one a lot

Don't know what Tropical 2 is.. The Rustie album's great fun but I found it didn't last too long in terms of replay value. Think this'll be one to keep handy for DJ sets more than home listening.

runner ups ended up being my favorite song on this one. love the noise just slightly bubbling up from the background shhhhyyeeaaahhh

dl, there's a very good chance you would love Tropical 2

The Ineffable Beauty of Tropical 2 is the ILx thread, DL. V.v.happy to see this place!

nice placing for smoke ring

Apart from Society Is My Friend, I found Kurt Vile really rather bland and neutral. Maybe it's better heard in the context of his other work?

cool to see smoke ring beat bon iver

"runner ups" on that is so dope

http://i.imgur.com/zD6M1.jpg

13. Julianna Barwick — The Magic Place (583 points, 19 votes, two first place votes)

P4K: 24
P&J: 86

Spotify

Hallelujah, my number one iirc.

fuck yeah

whoa

i have never heard of her! tell me about this music

Great album! Not quite my favourite Barwick material, but close.

lex, maybe try "Prizewinning": http://youtu.be/jW-nKlgrK7I

lex it's kinda like...ambient music made entirely from her voice looped and processed

It boils down to quality I guess, and I guess it's like a connoisseur of wine or cheese despairing when people latch onto poor quality but more accessible brands. People will always like Kraft dairy slices even if they're aware that much better cheeses exist.

― Sounds Of The Baskervilles (dog latin), Thursday, February 2, 2012 9:51 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i know you don't wanna have this debate, but the connoisseur's view you're articulating is common on ILX, and it always bugs me - no slam intended. it's come up repeatedly ITT, with regard to liturgy, girls and real estate (false indie lol), colin stetson, frank ocean, and others.

craigo boingo made an excellent point upthread, during the discussion of that colin stetson album: it probably does seems shitty if you insist on viewing it as wannabe jazz, but it's nonetheless a great post-rock album. would say the same of frank ocean: R&B heads might view it as a watered-down version of something superior in its pure form, but when viewed from outside that context, it's a phenomenally successful and satisfying hybrid of R&B, pop, rock and indie elements. imo.

perspective is what makes the difference, and that has more to do with how we categorize music (and ourselves as listeners) than it does with inherent quality. like, i'm sure that girls fans get something real and substantial out of that album, and it's probably not just because they don't know from "real indie" and are therefore easily duped by processed slices.

R<Lex, it's really immense looped vocal pieces, that have this very spectral, early morning choral feel.

fwiw, my all-time JB song - the one that initially blew me away a few years back - is Cloudbank from Florine.

holy shit! completely counted that out! awesome!

(this was one of the last things cut from my ballot)

Haven't heard that Barwick record, sounds pretty interesting though, so will check it out.

wow, i was sure JB wasn't gonna turn up! gorgeous album.

Never heard of Barwick. I like the way it sounds, but I feel I would have to go to some kind of special college and study intensely for many months in order to understand how to listen to this correctly.

xp re ongoing true/false debate: it seems pretty obvious to me that genre hybridisation is orthogonal to "watering-down". Music that crosses genres A and B may be more accessible to a fan of B than something that is "true A" without losing any of its complexity and quality.

From that description of Barwick I'm imagining somewhere between Imogen Heap and AGF.

oh wow i am kind of feeling "prizewinning" a lot

i wonder how you guys would feel about fatima al qadiri/ayshay? she's who i thought of when i read "lex it's kinda like...ambient music made entirely from her voice looped and processed" -

on ayshay's warn-u ep she reinterpreted some traditional islamic chants/anthems in that manner

http://youtu.be/AJobaxZqy18
http://youtu.be/4AvDiYDMRz8

xp i think if you like the way it sounds you're listening to it correctly already. nothing academic about it really

Love love love the Barwick album, great to see it place so high. Is Tim Hecker going to be top ten?!

Barwick's collaboration with Ikue Mori on FRKWYS is also well worth checking out, really really good stuff.

Yeah, she's just jamming on loops basically, nothing amazingly clever, but such a fantastic sound. xxp

fatima al qadiri? seandalai you are a fan of hers, right?

I like the way it sounds, but I feel I would have to go to some kind of special college and study intensely for many months in order to understand how to listen to this correctly.

see, this is how i felt about julia holter - i'm finding barwick quite immediate though, the ebbs and flows of the sound make "sense" to me