ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

Wow, three in a row from my ballet.

xp "keep me there" is my favorite track i think

I'm not giving up. I will just fool myself into thinking WOW ITS #1 after #2 is posted

contenderizer:

jaar pox

wouh
a time for us
love you gotta lose again
marks
the bees - winter rose (nicolas jaar remix)
ellen allien - flashy flashy (nicolas jaar remix)
russian dolls
el bandido
space is only noise if you can see
no regular play - owe me (nicolas jaar remix)

― irina-camelia begu (lex pretend), Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:48 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

some dope albums placing this morning, would have voted for peaking lights, tropical 2 and rustie. lex's diagnosis re: the jaar album otm, way too sparse and not dancey enough. he still released a lot of my favourite music of the year

re: peaking lights i think contenderizer arguing their previous material is better is way off the money. 936 is really incredible and a huge step above their previous work. despite being still maybe somewhat lo-fi by some people's standards it's not murky at all and feels really well mastered. i still don't think people like call all destroyer would be into it, but it shouldn't be dismissed as lo-fi. despite their really minimal set-up the amount of space the music occupies and the dynamics existing within it is really magical. all the warbly, drifting beams of sound feel so lovingly crafted, and the uncrowded arrangement puts the focus on them. it's a really psychedelic bliss out kind of album. the mood is really sumptuous and romantic and joyful, but also cut with a little bit miserable and bleak

http://i.imgur.com/ep6mx.jpg

11. Tim Hecker — Ravedeath, 1972 (597 points, 21 votes, one first place vote)

P4K: 30
P&J: 36

Spotify

!!!

great record

Whoa... Barwick placing so high is fantastic!

xp Hecker hurray!

There's a lot of ambient/experimental music this year Innit? Like the fact most of it is more interesting than some cunt on a laptop.

the crux is that a lot of people seemed totally more willing to put frank ocean in their ears than a lot of r&b singers who didn't have the same DIY-tumblr-promotion-strategy or indieblog/indiecrit backing. that's all. i don't intend to get into this argument on this thread again though

― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, February 2, 2012 10:48 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's cool lex, you don't haveta argue if you don't wanna. me, i think it's obvious why frank ocean appeals to indie and rock types, and it's not just critical backing. he's drawing on rock and indie in ways that make sense when viewed from a rock/indie perspective. i.e., his aesthetic and choices work extremely well in that context. that's a good thing, imo, though i can see why people with different interests might not be able to relate.

good record

Yeay, my #10. Superb record, 'The Piano Drop' is such a massive opener.

<3 that Hecker cover

list does feel a lil more avant garde than usual

hurrah

just put 'no drums' on a mix and added (duh) tons of drums

re: peaking lights i think contenderizer arguing their previous material is better is way off the money.

oh, hey, i'm not saying that the early stuff is better. lots of folks seem to sincerely love 936, so it's obviously working. i just dug the noise set off the hooks in the older, more legitimately lofi stuff. personal preference, nothing to do with quality.

plus i often have a had time adapting to changes in a beloved artist's sound in real time. usually takes me a year or two to get with the program.

thx for the jaar list, lex

i never listen to it but whenever i do listen to jaar, i think, hmm, this is very clever & creative

12. EMA — Past Life Martyred Saints (590 points, 18 votes, two first place votes)

love this record, especially the first half (side, lol). clarke b sneering at "hip poet shit" offtfm. sure, that's in there, but she does a wonderful job of communicating history and emotional perspective, both in her language and in her music. she wrings a hell of a lot of depth and specificity out of materials that initially seem quite abstract and distanced. my favorite storytelling album of the year (though again, that's mostly limited to side 1).

No one cares but

20. Bon Iver: voted for!
19: Peaking Lights: never heard of
18: Nicolas Jaar: listened to once months ago
17: M83: voted for!
16: Boy Better Know: never heard of (vaguely recall seeing the ILM thread, but never clicked on it)
15: Rustie: never heard of
14: Kurt Vile: heard of, never actually listened
13: Julianna Barwick: have heard some of her stuff, don't recall if it was this album or another
12: EMA: listened to once recently
11: Tim Hecker: like Harmony in Ultraviolet but haven't heard anything else by him

i never listen to it but whenever i do listen to jaar, i think, hmm, this is very clever & creative

― #YOLO #NAMASTE (D-40), Thursday, February 2, 2012 2:03 PM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"the eighth most interesting house producer in the world"

Oh, yay, Hecker. I was starting to think it wouldn't make it.

'Prizewinning' is lovely, sonically, if a little new age? Will have to listen to more of the album to get more of a feel if it does anything else (I know, it's ambient, I'm missing the point, but... I'd like it if she tried a few other things along with it).

And HOLY SHIT LEX, that Ayshay track is gorgeous. I love it I love it.

there's also a big list of jaar singles in the OP of his ilm thread

Nicolas Jaar: I was a Teenage Villalobos

that whole ayshay release on tri-angle is beautiful

einh

jaymc, you just might like rustie?

fwiw the rustie thread was Rustie - Glass Swords

xps finally an emil.y/lex mindmeld! i fully recommend the warn-u ep, which is all based around that same concept. i also love her genre-specific xperience ep (as fatima al qadiri) - not the same at all though, more her takes on hip-hop, electro-tropicalia, dubstep, juke etc

"surph" off that rustie is really great

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

10. tUnE-yArDs — w h o k i l l (666 points, 20 votes, two first place votes)

P4K: 7
P&J: 1

Spotify

xp
the videos from Genre-Specific are pretty amazing/creepy/haunting

666

the devil's music

love this record, especially the first half (side, lol). clarke b sneering at "hip poet shit" offtfm. sure, that's in there, but she does a wonderful job of communicating history and emotional perspective, both in her language and in her music. she wrings a hell of a lot of depth and specificity out of materials that initially seem quite abstract and distanced. my favorite storytelling album of the year (though again, that's mostly limited to side 1).

I just have a really low threshold of tolerance for such intense emotional expression in songwriter-driven music, I think. It chafes...

I like the Ayshay EP on Tri-Angle, and to tie it to an earlier ranked record, the Nguzunguzu "master mix" that takes up the entirety of side B is sick!

Glad Hecker made it. Seeing him play an organ concert next Monday, looking forward to it a lot. His other album last year (Dropped Pianos, the demos for this) is also great.

jaymc, you just might like rustie?

OK, I'm a minute into "Surph," and this is indeed pretty awesome.

fyi: fatima al qadiri ILM edition, (+ ayshay)

i think you might also like peaking lights btw\
xpost to jaymc

i fully recommend the warn-u ep, which is all based around that same concept. i also love her genre-specific xperience ep (as fatima al qadiri) - not the same at all though, more her takes on hip-hop, electro-tropicalia, dubstep, juke etc

Cool! I'd seen the name Fatima Al Qadiri around, but not looked at the thread properly. Will definitely check it out. Right now I'm gonna go listen to 'Warn-U' again.

ha.

i really like the whole rustie record but 'after light' is the cut.

i think you might also like peaking lights btw\

I actually just listened to the album on Grooveshark (the reference to Stereolab piqued my interest). It was v. pleasant but didn't excite me all that much. Possibly a grower, though.

fwiw, 936 was definitely a warmer weather album for me, particularly loved it while driving from Chicago to Oregon in August

the videos from Genre-Specific are pretty amazing/creepy/haunting

the vatican vibes one is pretty witty too - catholicism as video game! with rules and levels and obscure references to eg epiclesis!

i just listened to when saints go machine for the first time and it was not what i expected. for some reason i thought it was noisier, and it sounds like straight-up synth pop.

why do ppl take the time to type out tUnE-yArDs correctly but write w h o k i l l in lowercase even though its obv uppercase on the cover?

n o i d e a .

http://i.imgur.com/Nkw0p.jpg

9. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats — Blood Lust (696 points, 19 votes, two first place votes

P4K: DNP
P&J: 408

really getting into nicolas jaar. unlike most here, i think i prefer the more abstract sound of SION to the more dance-oriented stuff.

woop woop! Didn't vote for this but so happy it made it!