ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

What was the 'concept' Matmos were trying to transmit to their subjects?

http://i.imgur.com/ewpBHY8.jpg

43 JON HOPKINS Immunity (407 points, 14 votes)

Spotify

need to listen to that matmos album more
quadron album was great and another one i voted for. i got to meet coco this past year and she was a total sweetie. glad i got a pic with her, think they're gonna be huge in a year or two.

http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Matmos/The-Marriage-of-True-Minds

― a man with legs made of sausages - that's not real! (seandalai), Tuesday, January 28, 2014 1:07 PM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ty, this is awesome

It does admittedly have its share of catchy moments but the fact Arcade Fire are slowly becoming the U2 of their day makes them very easy to hate right now.

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin)

But when U2 started trying different things they made their two best albums (Achtung Baby and Zooropa) Arcade Fire tried taking similar risks but it just does not work. It's just a really empty sounding record and easily their worst one yet (and I hated The Suburbs)

Nope, didn't get this one. I really like Jon Hopkins, he's a fantastic producer and his album with King Creosote is one of my all time favourites. But... it REALLY DOES sound like Kompakt/Border Community stuff from 2005 and I can't really see the point in this record at all. Also the levels are SO HIGH - like, I want to know if there's something wrong with my copy because tracks like Open Eye Signal are compressed until they're almost noise. Something about this doesn't work for me in the same way Tim Hecker doesn't work for me - there's no dynamic range, it's just sounds piled up on top of each other and no headroom or breathing space.

it REALLY DOES sound like Kompakt/Border Community stuff from 2005 and I can't really see the point in this record at all.

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Tuesday, January 28, 2014 8:19 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this gets said so much about jon hopkins because it's true. very boring, albeit inoffensive, record. i trust holden will be placing much higher

love this album. open eye signal and its accompanying video are pretty hypnotic.

I think I actually really liked one Arcade Fire song from The Suburbs? For shame, me, for shame.

That Jon Hopkins album is SO FUCKING GOOD

xpost Probably The Sprawl II, Mountains Beyond Mountains. That song is a golden nugget in a really declining career and also sounds not a lot like Arcade Fire at all. I maintain if they'd tried for that kind of sound for this album, chopped out some of the weaker songs so it's a single CD, it would have been a great album.

or at least passable

I just dislike James Murphy's musical output.

hopkins album was ok but kinda boring to me on the whole. actually prefer the thing he did with king creosote a couple of years back.

edit: lol, what dog latin said.

matmos record is really something

home now, gonna start goin' thru these. results tabulated in a single coruscating post to peeve them all

http://i.imgur.com/SMbQrP6.jpg?1

42 MAYA JANE COLES Comfort (407 points, 15 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

nice one

YES

^^^ great fucking album

Ooh yes! Wasn't sure this would have much support (considering I only found out about it myself during nominations time). It's SOOOOOOO good.

my #3

it REALLY DOES sound like Kompakt/Border Community stuff from 2005

this isnt a problem for me. i love listening to this record all year.

I couldn't get into that? It just kind of washed right over me.

something I voted for! My #1, even! Love this, listened to it approx 32718564789 times last year

Found it really odd that the MJC album didn't get more love from P4K, RA, Fact, etc. Good crossover stuff. Maybe that it's crossover is the problem?

WOO MAYA JANE COLES MY FIFTH VOTE

nice touch that it beat out hopkins - she's a far superior representative of british electronic music 2013

This one seems really intriguing

it didn't hit my pleasure centres hard enough to make me want to overplay it but on the right evening it's a moody treat imo

I looked back at my ballot and I'm shocked that this fell off of it; I still stand by the albums I voted for but still

this was just very listenable. it fit ALL OVER MY LIFE during the winter. i'm a massive sucker for everything it does - the gothy murk, the trip-hop nods, the way it's a home listening album but hasn't abandoned the dancefloor, the multiplicity of guest vocalists, the velvety depth

easier to hide
burning bright (with kim ann foxman from hercules and love affair)
everything

Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it when I tried it out. It definitely did have that kind of mood-piece feel.

is it premature to say RIP CREEP

I found myself defaulting to this constantly, in so many situations. Even socially! ha xp

It's a pretty perfect "almost bedtime" album.

Found it really odd that the MJC album didn't get more love from P4K, RA, Fact, etc. Good crossover stuff. Maybe that it's crossover is the problem?

i totally expected it to cross over too, she'd built up a really strong reputation, her 2012 dj kicks was very well received...but it didn't really happen. which is the fault of all the publications in question rather than the music's failings obv

i wonder if creep will place somewhere soon

lol xps!

I never listened to the first two Arcade Fire albums, but during noms I figured I'd drop Reflektor on to gawk since everyone hated it so much. It's fine??? Overlong and corny in its pretensions, but I would've thought that would elicit boredom, not rage. But then again people stumped for the new Vampire Weekend and THAT filled me with rage, so...

My albums ballot ended up being all female artists/acts because that's primarily what I listened to this year, and I realized that my enthusiasm for them was much greater than for the male acts I was considering. My one regret is that it meant leaving Pale Green Ghosts off the list, which I thought was excellent.

i like the hopkins record a lot and didn't feel like it was aping its influences quite as much as people made it out to. very impressive & pretty sound design on the whole thing. not quite as good as holden or darkside in the pure sound dept but those are surely to come still

I am an unreconstructed vibesist, so it's not surprising I fell for MJC gotta say

I found myself defaulting to this constantly, in so many situations. Even socially! ha xp

oh absolutely. perfect for everything from chilled afterparties to the much-maligned dinner parties to cooking* with the bf

*him not me

boredom, not rage

false binary, as far as music is concerned

lol most unnecessary footnote in ilx history there lex

terrible album art

i miss dinner parties :/

Lex, did you ever listen to Diamond Mine? I know you dismissed it as Britpop when it came out (which it isnt) but I would be interested in knowing what you think of that record.

Two albums in a row featuring ILM posters! (Three? Is one of you Jon Hopkins?) I dug the Matmos record a lot.

i loved mjc remix of "shades of grey" years ago tho, might check this out

not into this MJC at all. I dont swim in this lane admittedly but it just sounds super dated.

Lex, did you ever listen to Diamond Mine? I know you dismissed it as Britpop when it came out (which it isnt) but I would be interested in knowing what you think of that record.

nah and not really that interested to hear it, soz