ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

a chilling caveat at the end there

and why are only poll threads graced with this blessing

this fast-food culture of ours, sensei

SORRY DJ SPRINKLES.

had a monster zing planned for Fuck Buttons - "this album doesn't even HAVE a track 8! Hahaha *kills Spotify*" - but the album prevented me from enacting that zing. l'esprit d'escalating post-trance

fyi k michelle being a reality tv star has more to do with the fucked-up industry and labels' unwillingness to really back r&b artists these days. she first got hype with the mixtape i mentioned in 2010, was r kelly's protégée and signed to a major. like so many promising r&b talents there were endless delays, years passed and no sign of an album. later she said she'd been in an abusive relationship with one of the dudes at the label. she signed up to love and hip-hop: atlanta explicitly in order to get her music career on track and to get another record deal, not to become a reality tv star, and she succeeded in that respect. it seems to be one of the few routes via which an r&b singer of a certain sort can find an audience these days. i haven't seen any of the show because there don't seem to be many UK-viewable clips but i've read her described as "reliably pugnacious and routinely aggrieved" and that her peak moment was throwing a lit candle at someone's head. i've also seen this incredible clip of her tearing a strip off some guy from bossip at a press event. "when i spaz out then i'm crazy? no, motherfucker, i'm not crazy, i'm the realest bitch you gon see." she leaps in at like 1:15

xps, just getting back to this thread.

re: rap albums to place, does Earl Sweatshirt's Doris have a chance? really liked that one.

re: Factory Floor, i love the smeared/fractured vocals in it, reminds me of Cosey Fanni Tutti's work in her Electronic Ambient Remixes phase, adding a dreamstate quality to the ice cold synth/percussion and industrial disruptions. I also think Fall Back is not the only standout track on the album. for me the last track, Breathe In, is even better

re: Chance of Rain, the album is very hard to describe. it's constantly shifting pitch and unstable rhythmic foundation make it difficult to grasp, and it has that aleatorical quality of some of modern classical music (like Feldman) that forces you to constantly readapt to the shifting landscape of the music, imposing a kind of instant amnesia on you as a listener. I also like that it sounds live, maybe partly improvised?, and that it's informed as much by jazz as it is by techno. It really is an immersive listen

also i think that ciara album is the first since her debut that she hasn't tried to play off as some ham-fisted concept but if it works for you by all means think of it like that!

Another clear highlight from the DJ Sprinkles remix comp: Oh, Yoko - Seashore (Sprinkles' Ambient Ballroom): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJ2LwssQIU

The sampled dialogue midway is totally great, apparently Terre won't reveal the source, I keep wondering where it's from. Gil Scott-Heron, meanwhile, is sampled and chopped up in the background. I imagine tracks like this become too explicitly conceptual and political for some, but in the end it also all works as just house music.

Sprinkles! First thing ive been able to click with in any real way

adultnapper ft. big bully - low point on high ground (dj sprinkles rock bottom mix) though - those piano chords that keep disrupting it all are so amazingly sinister

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 16:47

ooh yea thats the one alright - one of my fav transitions to do is Microworld's Invisible Music into this

The run from 50 onwards is really good, best discovery so far is William Onyeabor, which I didn't get round to last year but it's fantastic. Really liked Yamakata // Sonic Titan last week when I gave it a call, and the Matmos album is really good as well.

So happy that Maya Jane Coles placed, just a really strong, slinky late night record. Thought the Fuck Buttons album was actually kinda dull compared to their last one, probably an effect of taking Weatherall out of the equation.

Voted for Maya Jane, Onyeabor, Savages, Ka and John "too low" Grant from this stretch. Almost voted for Hopkins and Ashley Monroe. Need to check out the DJ Sprinkles compilation.

Love the predictable howls of rage that greet any album by a major indie-rock band even if it's deep in the bottom half of the rollout. A few people on ILX like Arctic Monkeys and Arcade Fire? Say it ain't so! (Didn't vote for either but would place the AMs' second-best far above Arcade Fire's worst)

Lex, Stalker is the keeper from the Fuck Buttons album. I preferred the previous two tbh. Like Matt, I miss Weatherall. (Also miss him on the new Warpaint - everyone needs more Weatherall.)

Agree on Stalker being the highlight. Love the ending of that album, final two are the best two imo.

xp Talking of which, that Asphodells record slipped by pretty unnoticed this year.

uh last year

The Asphodells record was pretty good but totally the sort of thing Weatherall can do in his sleep.

I can't think of anything Weatherall has done in the last decade that's compelled me as much as the stuff immediately preceding his psychobilly phase. He seems preoccupied with making terrible Nick Cave-in-dub records

xp That's why I got excited when he seemed to be getting back into producing/mixing bands a few years ago. I think he's a better fit for Warpaint than Flood and Godrich.

Great list so far, imo. Can't follow the roll out live and even if I could I think it's too busy already :)
Lots of stuff I'll check out though (Dozzy (love his music), Gorguts, Follakzoid, f(x)...) once it's weekend and I have some time.
Stuff I voted for that's place until now: DJ Sprinkles (#1), Factory Floor, Matmos, Maya Jane Coles, Fuck Buttons, William Onyeabor and Young Galaxy. Yamantaka//Sonic Titan fell off at the last minute, regret it already since I've been playing it lots the last few days.

He seems preoccupied with making terrible Nick Cave-in-dub records

Asphodells is more like a tasteful version of Jah Wobble tbh. Revisiting it now - solid enough but yes, needs some teeth.

New stuff to me - William Onyeabor was great. Didn't like the opening track of Yamantaka but skipped to 'One' which emil.y recommended and really liked it and ended up enjoying the album.

just listened to the donato dozzy - v nice and the last track is definitely something, though not sure it feels as unique/special as VFTL or his heyday-of-mnml stuff

Have now realised that there is no way on earth I can keep up with this thread, but wow, I am really glad to see that Maya Jane Coles album place, because it feels like that was truly slept on.

Whalesong is my fave off the Y//ST album. Some great Goat vibes for One though.

Voted for the John Grant. Hadn't heard any of his stuff before this record but it ended up being one of the two albums I played the most last year.

The sampled dialogue midway is totally great, apparently Terre won't reveal the source, I keep wondering where it's from.

nypd blue

Adore that track.

i've also seen this incredible clip of her tearing a strip off some guy from bossip at a press event. "when i spaz out then i'm crazy? no, motherfucker, i'm not crazy, i'm the realest bitch you gon see." she leaps in at like 1:15

this was epic, ty. also a very blatant portrayal of the forces at work within that world. amazed that she managed to put out such a weird & idiosyncratic record in that climate.

Just because that clip was sorta buried at the end of lex's paragraph:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bb3EoGyb0A

DONATO DOZZY - Really quite pretty, though it occasionally sounds like the soundtrack to a documentary about fish.
JOHN GRANT - Very intrigued by this, lots of interesting stuff going on here. Reading up on him sounds like a cool guy too.
RHYE - Pleasant but slight. Took me a while to work out it was a bloke singing.
YOUNG GALAXY - Not bad, they seem to know their way around a chorus. The sort of thing I'd be happy to hear on the radio but wouldn't seek out.
KA - Ooo, this guy's trying to do something a bit different. Yeah, could get into this.
DJ SPRINKLES - Can't find enough of this online to comment.
NEKO CASE - Obviously an accomplished songwriter, but again wouldn't seek it out.
CARCASS - My all time favourite extreme metal band.
SAVAGES - Yeah I quite enjoy the spiky post-punk thing, probably fun live.
ASHLEY MONROE - Not for me thanks.
WAXAHATCHEE - Meh
WILLIAM ONYEABOR - Cool grooves. Think I'd like it better if the songs were shorter.
YAMANTAKA - Not bad, washes over me slightly. I like the cover art.
LAUREL HALO - Think they were playing this in the chill out room last time I was at Bagleys, in 1998.
QUADRON - Great voice, decent songs. Like the classic soul flourishes.
ARCADE FIRE - Never got them.
MATMOS - Cool.
JON HOPKINS - Deep and atmospheric, sounds like it would reward repeat listening.
MAYA JANE COLES - OK this is sounding excellent.
FUCK BUTTONS - They have an undeniably powerful sound but I can't think of a situation when I'd listen to them at home. Probably need to see them play.

Of the things I haven't heard I will investigate John Grant, Ka, Jon Hopkins and Maya Jane Coles further.

DJ SPRINKLES - Can't find enough of this online to comment.

can't find the Sprinkles online either, but Midtown 120 Blues is on youtube.

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

The sampled dialogue midway is totally great, apparently Terre won't reveal the source, I keep wondering where it's from.

nypd blue

Ha.

Well, the mystery is solved, but now I have mixed feelings. Think I preferred it mysterious!

ha man that k. michelle press conference clip is maybe the best thing posted in this thread

alright

::drumroll::

YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN UZU

^^this is dope as fuck

more albumens

http://i.imgur.com/U3jmqMB.png

40 FANTASIA Side Effects of You (421 points, 15 votes)

Spotify

more r&b?

more r&b

great album

i had never heard of fantasia before the tracks poll but that one with kelly rowland that featured was real great

Highest ever ranking album by an American Idol contestant on the ILX polls?

For someone who admits to finding "r'n'b slow jams" generally a bit boring, I've sure as hell had that Fantasia track from the tracks poll running round my head all day :-)

This one is patchy and really badly sequenced but the final two thirds are great. Mostly upbeat tracks though, not slow jams.

Well, the mystery is solved, but now I have mixed feelings. Think I preferred it mysterious!

for more info see http://nickminichino.tumblr.com/post/70916852345/unbornwhiskey-nickminichino-paa-john-irvin

i honestly think knowing the source makes the juxtaposition even more interesting

I really tried to get into this album as I loved her last one so much but I always seem to lose interest somewhere in the second half.

i had never heard of fantasia before the tracks poll - WHAT? HOW????

Her profile over here is basically zero, they don't really bother marketing American Idol contestants in this country.