Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

Easy bet? Granted, it's harder to predict P4K results than it once was, but I'd be more comfortable saying it's Frank Ocean or Tame Impala.

It'll be Frank Ocean

there were several pretty great dance albums in 2012. andy stott, michael mayer, voices from the lake, lindstrøm, vatican shadow, smallpeople, blondes. dunno why people didn't rally round them, they certainly should have.

It's always weird seeing people who are invested in dance music have a completely different take on what happened in a year than me. The only one of those I've heard is Lindstrom, which was just alright, but I don't really do techno (especially the drier end), and I'm bored of most house and disco. For me, the dance albums I've loved have been Young Smoke, LOL Boys, Mala, Nina Kraviz, Lone, Silkie & Quest, Terror Danjah, DJ Rashad. Yeah, I know a couple of those fall into the genres I mentioned before, but they seem like pretty different takes on them than what was listed. I'll just never understand what people get out of stuff like Andy Stott or Voices from the Lake.

I was hit by a Charles Aznavour 8-track from the sky once. It's not a joking matter.

― Johnny Fever,

yes it fucking is .. and you know it ..

lol

i don't see grimes topping the p4k list yet would be surprised if it weren't at least top 5. my pet theory is that it'll either be kendrick or frank ocean to counterbalance bon iver last year. same reason why i don't think tame impala have a shot (also because their music is pretty bad)

rev, by "stuff like andy stott..." do you mean like specifically four-on-the-floor music that would never get played in a club, or spacey headphone electronic music in general?

(also because their music is pretty bad)

Well that's, like, your opinion, man.

And bad music has never been known to top P4k's poll.

yeah yeah i know but i have a p good feeling about this

it's all part of my larger pet theory about how the site is trying to position itself in the new decade, based on editorial & staff choices in the past 2 years

just checked out voices from the lake, it was very boring.

i find it spellbinding when it's late at night or very early on a grey morning or when i'm hungover or ill

dance music wise, i think i returned to techno in a big way this year, a lot of what i was into 2009-11 began to really bore me

don't feel like reviving an old thread and would just like to state for the record that nothing and i mean NOTHING gets more of a reaction and more show of interest than when i put on an old Kompakt cd in my store. 3 and a half years of people coming in the store and its not even close. i had that first speicher comp on the other day and multiple people had that reaction i'm so used to now: what IS that? or what is THAT? young, old, hip, not so hip. its uncanny. it helps that they sound better than 80% of the CDs i own. i play them all day when i'm in the mood. will never get sick of them. feel kinda bad that i don't keep up with the label. they are the perfect "album" experience even when they are mixes. i love 12 inches too though...

scott - my favourite kompakt thing this year is this gorgeous kolombo single...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK8KqlTdXkI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWXR-99DL20

will listen! it helped that i actually used to live somewhere that carried all the CDs and vinyl as it came out. and when we moved i lost track. and i love buying the CDs because of that superior sound.

Lex OTM about the right setting for Voices From The Lake.

Any state where you're hovering in and out of sleep is pretty great for it too. I was first getting into it while I was in hospital in May and it was perfect.

rev, by "stuff like andy stott..." do you mean like specifically four-on-the-floor music that would never get played in a club, or spacey headphone electronic music in general?

― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Thursday, November 29, 2012 1:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My interest in electronic music is very much (but not absolutely) driven by how it works as dance music, and I've never had any interest in ambient or ambient-leaning stuff at all. I can appreciate a couple tracks like that as setting pieces on a more dance-oriented album, but really only as the buildup to something greater. I'd never listen to a whole album in that vein. For non-dance-oriented music, I very much prefer r&b/rap.

"We need more metal critics voting in P&J. Do it for the bands!"

i don't know if i've ever really considered myself a metal critic, but i'll take it! i mean a dude at a metal mag liked my stuff and it was fun while it lasted. i love metal, don't get me wrong...

my only new favorite metal album is the deiphago album. i'm out of the loop. everyone should buy it though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQ9g5rW5jg

no chance anything but Channel Orange tops P4k's list

it's funny how our tastes intersect rev, i'm into almost everything on your list and have a deep interest in syncopated dance music, but my heart is really in that sweet spot where ambient/textural/etc meets dope beats, and i don't really care how they work on the dance floor (i mean i do, but i don't).

that said, anything that could be branded as "ambient techno" doesn't do it for me. i do like andy stott a lot and have no idea how he gets certain sounds, but don't love the new one as much as a lot of people seem to.

would not vote P&J in a heartbeat if urged by the great old discarded staffers or asked to back some viable alternative but otherwise i just gotta. if everyone stopped voting in P&J the 'protest' wouldn't get any widespread recognition and the only real result would be Pitchfork taking an even bigger piece of the year end narrative pie.

what's the script re p&j and why are the voice noli mi tangere?

Deiphago is amazing!

it's funny how our tastes intersect rev, i'm into almost everything on your list and have a deep interest in syncopated dance music, but my heart is really in that sweet spot where ambient/textural/etc meets dope beats, and i don't really care how they work on the dance floor (i mean i do, but i don't).

that said, anything that could be branded as "ambient techno" doesn't do it for me. i do like andy stott a lot and have no idea how he gets certain sounds, but don't love the new one as much as a lot of people seem to.

― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Thursday, November 29, 2012 3:09 PM Bookmark

When UK funky came about I said somewhere that a huge part of why I liked it was its very specific disinterest in sound design frippery! I think that also applies to some of the stuff I'm really into now like ballroom, jersey club, etc.

I'm sure this is just a breakdown of the I'm a rhythm nerd, Lex is a sound design nerd thing. (Whereas you're both?)

I've had to find myself treating these two styles of dance music as utterly different beasts I guess. I listen to both, but it depends on my mood, the season etc

yeah totally
xp

this goat thing is kicking my ass

it's like a rock band in a room or something

Voices From The Lake definitely aren't for everyone, and it definitely needs to be heard in specific settings. So it's not hard to see why critics haven't rallied around it like they did for more accessible techno albums in the past (e.g. Isolee, Justice).

There was this Kompakt track from earlier in the year as well:

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

That track's cool, but I would have gotten much more excited about it if it came out five years ago when that kind of piano house was first reemerging.

Uncut Top 75 Albums:

1 Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
2 Bob Dylan - Tempest
3 Jack White - Blunderbuss
4 Dr John - Locked Down
5 Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
6 Bill Fay - Life is People
7 Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair
8 Grizzly Bear - Shields
9 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill
10 Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
11 Tame Impala - Bonerism
12 Go-Kart Mozart - On The Hot Dog Stands
13 Dexys - One Day I'm Going To Soar
14 Paul Buchanan - Mid Air
15 Field Music - Plumb
16 The Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse
17 Grimes - Visions
18 Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
19 Neneh Cherry and The Thing - The Cherry Thing
20 The xx - Coexist
21 Beachwood Sparks - The Tarnished Gold
22 Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
23 Julia Holter - Ekstasis
24 Allah-Las - Allah-Las
25 Patti Smith - Banga
26 Graham Coxon - A&E
27 Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
28 Paul Weller - Sonik Kicks
29 The Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Big Moon Ritual
30 Ry Cooder - Election Special
31 Hot Chip - In Our Heads
32 Richard Hawley - Standing At The Sky's Edge
33 Micachu & The Shapes - Never
34 Bobby Womack - The Braves Man In Universe
35 Six Organs of Admittance - Ascent
36 Sun Kil Moon - Among The Leaves
37 Patterson Hood - Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance
38 Lightships - Electric Cables
39 Dirty Three - Toward The Low Sun
40 First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
41 Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes
42 Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
43 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Americana
44 Sun Araw & M Geddes Gengras Meet The Congos - Icon Give Thank
45 Japandroids - Celebration Rock
46 Cat Power - Sun
47 Anais Mitchell - Young Man In America
48 Howlin Rain - The Russian Wilds
49 Damon Albarn - Dr Dee
50 Laetitia Sadier - Silencio
51 Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
52 Cate Le Bon - Cyrk
53 PiL - This is PiL
54 Yeti Lane - The Echo Show
55 The 2 Bears - Be Strong
56 Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim
57 David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This Giant
58 Donald Fagen - Sunken Condos
59 Father John Misty - Fear Fun
60 The Liminanas - Crystal Anis
61 Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II
62 Ian Hunter & The Rant Band - When I'm President
63 Calexico - Algiers
64 Orbital - Wonky
65 Nite Jewel - One Second Of Love
66 Goat - World Music
67 Cornershop - Urban Turban: The Singhles Club
68 Woods - Bend Beyond
69 Ty Segall - Twins
70 Simone Felice - Simone Felice
71 Lee Ranaldo - Between The Times And The Tides
72 Rufus Wainwright - Out of The Game
73 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Meat + Bone
74 Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man
75 Carter Tutti Void - Transverse

11 Tame Impala - Bonerism

lol

Bonerism and Grizzly by Bear Shields are my favourite albums of the year

Gotta give them some credit, until I saw their name I thought this was the waiting list at an erectile dysfunction unit.

shurely it should be "On the Hot Dog Streets" for Go-Kart Mozart as well?

I have no idea, I just c&p'ed from some other fool who typed it all in.

these typos shall not stand!

I thought that Vatican Shadow album was going to be too bleak to hold my attention but I was completely hooked into it by the second track. It's actually very beautiful in a few places, the last track particularly so.

well i loved Prurient's last album - really satisfying for industrial/electronics, and I'm really not a big fan of cold/harsh sounds on the whole.

Kind of funny that the Cohen album is called "Old Ideas"

Bit late to the jazz picks discussion, but the Mojo top 5 sucks. Jazzwise isn't much better. That's the sort of boring, noodly stuff that gives people the idea that jazz is only something you listen to when you put up your clubbing shoes. Surely I can't be the only person to find most of what ECM puts out to be terribly polite and unexciting? Although in the Jazzwise list I do like the Django Bates album - ingenious, but not too clever, with some delightfully skewed rhythms and strong tunes. Robert Glasper seems to be hailed as some kind of hip-hop bad ass, but his stuff just sounds like the most polite end of 90s nu-soul, with a few post-bop flourishes. Roller Trio got the Mercury Nod, but it's has that problem with a lot of the UK rock/electronic influenced jazz - it's a bit muso and seems reluctant to kick up into top gear. It's not that everything has to be Thing style skronk 'n roll, but the best jazz-rock crossover stuff is that which taps into the ecstatic spirit of the music, rather than simply borrow some formal tropes.
Cherry Thing isn't the best jazz album of the year, but when it works it's fantastic and I'm glad to see it cropping up on a few lists. As Ward Fowler said, it's not easy to pull of vocals and free jazz, but they nail it. Some of the best bits are the quieter tracks - the Suicide and MF Doom covers - but it's great to hear Neneh wailing while Gustafsson and co tear it up. I've still to hear the Thing & Barry Guy LP (ltd edition) but the live clips online are fantastic. Barry Guy's duo album with Liudus Makunis (sp?) is fantastic too - dude is one of the most inventive and powerful bassists around.
Burning Ambulance list is pretty great (Charles Gayle LP fantastic) but no Brotzmann beyond Full Blast? He's had an incredible year and the Yatagarasu album is one of the best things he's ever done (the solo & Trio Roma double with Massimo Pupillo and Paal Nilsson-Love is incredible too. I appreciate that a lot of these come out on tiny labels and often get overlooked. I expect that one will probably get into the Wire's top 50 though. William Parker's Essence of Ellington and the David S Ware/Planetary Unknown live LP would be in there too. The latter was my number one, and not just for sentimental reasons - truly exhilarating, spiritual music.

Clarification: by 'in there too' I mean my personal favourites, not the Wire list. Oh for an edit function...

Emily, that Thing/Otomo Yoshihide album is absolutely fantastic. Came out late last year on Smalltown Superjazz along with a (also great) Jim O'Rourke/Thing jam - both were recorded at the same venue in Tokyo. Yoshihide on guitar rather than turntable - and he absolutely shreds it. Might give it a spin later on, now you mention it.

Other good Thing related things this year... Paal Nilssen-Love has been one of this year's MVPs. In addition to the aforementioned Brotz platter, he's on the butt-kickin' new Lean Left (w Ken Vandermark & the Ex guitarists), the terrific Bobby Bradford set on No Business and no doubt a whole bunch of other stuff I've missed. Mats and Paal also did a very enjoyable record with Ethopian krar player Mesele Asmamaw. Oh, and latest Fire! album with Oren Ambarchi is a monster, with some primordial shrieks and baritone growls from Gustafsson and amazing guitar from OA which sounds like the Large Hadron Collider.

Bonerism is my deliberate typo to see who is C&P. A bit like a phantom street on a map.

Phantom boners of ILM

Afropop Worldwide hints at their list:

Fri. 11/30 10p: Join us for a festive Afropop Worldwide ritual, as Georges Collinet sits down with Banning Eyre to mull over the best new releases of 2012.

We'll hear from K'Naan, Staff Benda Bilili, Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars, Mokoomba, Ondatropica, Alex Cuba, The Very Best, Janka Nabay.... As usual, Georges and Banning will run out of time long before they run out of tunes

would not vote P&J in a heartbeat if urged by the great old discarded staffers or asked to back some viable alternative but otherwise i just gotta. if everyone stopped voting in P&J the 'protest' wouldn't get any widespread recognition and the only real result would be Pitchfork taking an even bigger piece of the year end narrative pie.

― trinidad jokes (some dude), Thursday, November 29, 2012 6:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this