Rolling "favorite music of 2012 so far" thread (albums and/or tracks edition)

ryan hemsworth 'last words' ep

cassegrain & tin man carnal (four tracks)

basic channel acid. ultra warm, repetitive

complete:

sensate focus - 10, 5, 3.33333333333333333 all stunning!
dj sprinkles and mark fell - the complete spiral

tracks:

mosca - accidentally feat robert owens both versions
actress - N.E.W or IWAAD not sure, the club banger? the rest is super boring autechre lite sorry

really want to like the new animal collective but it just won't let me in, its unbearable.

Track:

Zazen Boys - Potato Salad

An entire album of this guys ranting gets to be too much for me, but this is the standout track as far as I can tell. There are some beautiful moments when the rhythms and the timbres lock perfectly and produce something fairly fresh.

1:33 especially.

For those who don't know them, they do a super-tight funky math rock sort of thing.

actress - N.E.W or IWAAD not sure, the club banger? the rest is super boring autechre lite sorry

really want to like the new animal collective but it just won't let me in, its unbearable.

― wolves lacan, Thursday, 20 September 2012 20:50 (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought the club banger was The Lord's Graffiti. I absolutely agree with Autechre-lite. R.I.P. is so disappointing compared to Splaszh. The latter sounded so fresh and original while R.I.P. almost lifts ideas wholesale from EP7 and Tri Repetae.

Also agree about Animal Collective album. It's the first time I've thought "you know what, I don't give a shit about you guys any more if you're not going to try".

I think there is a pretty good album lurking somewhere underneath Centipede Hz, but it's pretty difficult to find. I've been imagining some of the tracks redone in a Kid Creole + Coconuts style and they'd be a lot better.

and pretty pretty too

there are some good albums and singles in 2012 but i want/need more.

Sic Alps new one on Drag City is their best yet, imo.

oh, god, no

Hm. I'm kind of surprised. Thought you would like it. What are your objections?

yeah i thought i would to, i loved napa asylum! i will relisten soon and return with better opinions4u but i just found it sounded dreadfully like them trying to be straightforward and focused in a way that really didn't suit them; napa asylum's breeziness was a huge part of what i loved about it & this sounded so strained... neways i listened to it once a week ago and turned it off halfway i was so appaled so i really should give it another spin before slamming it esp since i was so adamant that everyone revisit the last lp after it got such bad reviews in its ilm thread

plus i've been in a good mood the past few days which was also the case when i first heard napa asylum, so i should strike while the iron's hot

I love Napa Asylum, too. I can see how you'd react to the first part of the album the way that you did, but the second side does get a little weirder, for lack of a better term. The songwriting doesn't sound different to me, really, just the sound. Maybe it will grow on you?

weird third quarter unordered but sorta
1. Frank Ocean "Super Rich Kids"
2. Sun Araw & The Congos "Happy Song"
3. Beak> "Egg Dog"
4. Dinosaur Jr "Rude"
5. Pussy Riot "Putin Lights Up The Fires"
6. Animal Collective "Moonjock"
7. Lower "Craver"
8. The-Dream "Dope Chick"
9. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti "Baby"
10. Bailter Space "No Sense"
11. Jeff The Brotherhood "Dark Energy"
honorable embarrassing mention: "we are never ever ever getting back together"
somehow less embarrassing secondary mention: "california boy"
embarrassingly singled-out album track: "unplanned parenthood"

xp hope so. the 7"s they released in between this one & napa asylum are p tite too

a lot of ppl whose taste in music i like stump for sic alps. after seeing a pretty mediocre show of theirs once, i never checked out their albums

yeah i've only heard bad things about their live show, think it is kind of a blank dogs scenario tho, the records are v good

ooof yeah lord if i had based my view of blank dogs off seeing them live...ug....honestly i doubt i've listened to them, so regret seeing them

their sound had a certain amount of magick and mystery to me then i was like uhhh you are just boring dudes in a rock bar

they also seemed like petulant dicks when i saw them? kept complaining about bad sound and stopping songs 30 seconds in like nononono that won't do and a 1 2 3--

sic alps, from what i've heard, the problem is they are addicted to heroin and can't get their shit together? but there is also a lot of studio magic on their albums and analogic equipment and stuff that might be hard to pull off live

blank dogs were pretty bored/petulant when i saw them. they seemed like it annoyed them to be there.

Man, I love this Blonde God song Diggin'. Apparently the singer from Merchandise solo (it's from a comp on Night People) but if Merchandise is this good I am just going to have to check them out. This song rules, make sure you make it about 1 minute in, a great change (and cool chorus) follows. Kind of like a gothy Medicine or something.

Night People is a very cool label run by a swell guy.

Added:

The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth

(shocker)

That song is great (xpost)! Have heard a few Night People records (and dug them), but in particular that Blonde God song really made my day.

Amadou & Mariam - Folila
The Very Best - MTMTMK
jj - high summer
Dar Williams - In The Time of Gods
Cat Power - Sun
No Doubt - Push and Shove
Beth Orton - Sugaring Season

oh shit I keep forgetting about that Merchandise album

How good is the Merchandise album?

It's really great but don't take my word for it; download here

Whoa, whole album is free huh. Guess I will check it out. Thanks.

so add to my list:

Merchandise - Desire

I assumed rap was building momentum after 2011, but I've been kinda unimpressed with 2012 rap so far, although there's a few mixtapes and singles I've been meaning to check out for a while.

So, like Cat Power and Fiona Apple, very confidential-to-allusive-to-cryptic-to-let-it-blurt (and back), always *evocative* singer-songer Martha Wainwright now uses tuneful beat science to parse hot mess. More developed than the Power, less experimental than the Apple, Come Home To Mama has more of a band feel and knows from Prince, Stevie, Ziggy, Dolly, her parents and brother, while always being her own thing. This'll be streaming a little while longer
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/07/162301799/first-listen-martha-wainwright-come-home-to-mama Good on Koss UR40 headphones.

Still liking the Power and the Apple too.

"knows from...Stevie" Nicks, that is (kinda)

As Brad pointed out on the Zazen Boys thread, their new album Stories is now on Spotify and worth checking out at the very least:

http://open.spotify.com/album/1g3QRORSzdLU6E00Iuo2wG

Someone will like this.

Thank you Lindstrom thread for introducing me to Haim - the Lindstrom and Prins Thomas remix of "Forever" is killer and everyone should go listen to it, but the original is sweet too. http://youtu.be/sEwM6ERq0gc

Kane Ikin - Sublunar
Normal Love - Survival Tricks
Dimlite - Abscission
Tujiko Noriko - East Facing Balcony
∆ - Awesome Wave
Barry Adamson - I Will Set You Free
Debo Band - s/t
Murder by Death - Bitter Moon, Bitter Drink
Oh No - Dr. No's Kali Tornado Funk

Tracks:

Freelance Whales - "Aeolus"
Soft Pack - "Bobby Brown"
Bat for Lashes - "All Your Gold"
JJ DOOM - "Retarded Fren"
Efterklang - "Between the Walls"

Reminder to future self in February, 2013 - vote for these, in roughly this order:

iamamiwhoami - Kin (post MV exposure, its still electropop that stands repeated play)
Hammock - Departure Songs (double dose of Nashville's finest sleepgaze elegies, with added vocals)
Zambri - House of Baasa (Danielle Dax's discography in a blender)
Hanne Hukkelberg - Featherbrain (balefully clattering Nordic experimental folk(?))
Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos - Icon Give Thanks (™ falsetto harmonies + laptop exotica)
Purity Ring - Shrines (girl wonder/horror of the body + UK bass music)
Blondes - Blondes (organic house for diletantes like me)
Grimes - Visions (electro cotton-candy with vaporous message)
MNDR - Feed Me Diamonds (Electropop with vocal charm. Known from "Bang Bang Bang")
Shackleton Music for the Quiet Hour (Not quite Coil)
Yppah - Eighty One (if Boards of Canada produced a trip hop album)
Ane Brun - It All Starts With One (dark K. Bushy art pop suite, belated US release)
Chairlift - Something (faster, more direct, and more sparkle than the debut)
Niki & the Dove - Instinct (too much EP redux)
School of Seven Bells - Ghostory (crafty production, songs less ideosyncratic, Claudia missed)
The KDMS - Kinky Dramas and Magic Stories (Kathy Diamond returns with a better retro-disco album than Escort's)
Monolake - Ghosts (invented Ableton to facilitate high-gloss idm)
EXITMUSIC - Passage (theatrical dreampop from Boardwalk Empire actress and hubby, Beach House fans willl love it)
Beach House - Bloom (confident, but familiar)
Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man (this one is still gelling. Stripped and synthetic)
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Trouble (solid electro-dance-pop with wallflower vocals)
Lazerhawk - Visitors (unapologetic Jan Hammer tributes for your Countach's tape deck)
Gazelle Twin - The Entire City Remixed (Ballardian DCD vs the Knife album highlights given idm/mnml treatments)
2:54 - 2:54 (90s gazy crossover ala Curve & Garbage, but plods a bit)

For consideration/need to hear:

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
Poliça - Give You the Ghost

Singles/tracks (rather incomplete):

Lianne La Havas - "Forget"
iamamiwhoami - "goods"
Ane Brun - "These Days"
Psy - "Gangnam Style"
MØ - "Maiden"
David Lynch feat Kathy O - "Pinky's Dream (Trentemoller Remix)"
Grimes - "Oblivion"
Purity Ring - "Fineshrine"
Chairlift - "I Belong in Your Arms"
Dum Dum Girls - "Coming Down"
Icona Pop - "I Love It"
Shook feat. Ronika - "Distorted Love"
Orbital + Zola Jesus - "New France"
Santigold - "Disparate Youth"

I like that Poliça album a lot, not sure how much attention it's been getting.

some recent faves

andy stott - luxury problems (i know it just barely came out, but hot damn)
seahawks - aquadisco (also just came out, but unlikely to change my mind about this one either)
daphni - jiaolong
jonas munk - pan
tin man - neo neo acid
mungolian jetset - mungodelics
deepchord - sommer
innergaze - mutual dreaming
everything from andres/des andres
four tet - pink

liking but still digesting the new emeralds, smallpeople, and windsurf records as well.

*deZ andres, rather

innergaze - mutual dreaming

Oh crap, this is really good!

still have a lot of listening to do but here is my albums list so far (hopefully not forgetting anything):

Leif, Dark York
Black Bananas, Rad Times Xpress IV
Miguel, Kaleidoscope Dream
Pharaoh Overlord, Lunar Jetman
Bardo Pond, Yntra
Sungod, Cuts from the Ether
Sylvester Anfang II, Perzische Tapitjen
Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos, Icon Give Thank
Aqua Nebula Oscillator, Third
Neneh Cherry & the Thing, The Cherry Thing
Astra, The Black Chord
Goat, World Music
Pinkish Black, Self-titled LP

sorry no capsule reviews! I mostly like psychedelia anyways!

Mosca - Eva Mendes EP
Blawan - His He She & She EP
DJ Spinn - Teklife Vol.2 What You Need
Young Smoke - Space Zone
Easy Star Allstars - Thrillah
Goat - World Music
King Creosote - To Deal With Things EP / I Learned From The Gaels EP
Konx-Om-Pax - Regional Surrealism
Pete Seeger - Hard Travelling, the Best Of
Tim Heacker & Daniel Lopatin - Instrumental Tourist

i had to submit a ridiculously early ballot this week. albums order ended up as:

1. DAWN RICHARD - Armor On
2. TAYLOR SWIFT - Red
3. ANGEL HAZE - Reservation
4. FARRAH ABRAHAM - My Teenage Dream Ended
5. NICKI MINAJ - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
6. MIGUEL - Kaleidoscope Dream
7. THE CATARACS - Gordo Taqueria
8. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS - Ghostory
9. FIONA APPLE - The Idler Wheel...
10. VOICES FROM THE LAKE - Voices From The Lake
11. BLONDES - Blondes
12. ROYAL-T - Rinse Presents: Royal-T
13. CARLY RAE JEPSEN - Kiss
14. COOLY G - Playin' Me
15. MIREL WAGNER - Mirel Wagner
16. JOHN TALABOT - ƒin
17. KALENNA - Chamber Of Diaries
18. NINA SKY - Nicole & Natalie
19. JESSIE WARE - Devotion
20. LINDSTRØM - Smalhans
21. NENEH CHERRY & THE THING - The Cherry Thing
22. LEONARD COHEN - Old Ideas
23. MICHAEL MAYER - Mantasy
24. LE1F - Dark York
25. KENDRICK LAMAR - good kid, m.A.A.d City

(nb: only the first ten counted towards the ballot ;_; ;_; )

tracks, jesus christ, I know it's the more important list but I almost end up caring about my albums list more because it's more manageable and I don't have to wrestle 200 amazing tracks down into a shortlist or compare the apples of dance tracks with the oranges of pop songs or work out which I should miss out on the basis of including those artists in my albums list and aaaaraghjhdjhsskjsljdslkjsl;ksk

Is Armor On the only full release by Dawn Richard, Lex? I'm interested in checking her stuff out.