So we're... blah blah blah... of the way through 2009; what records are worth listening to so far?

I like what I've heard of the new album, Ahora Mismo. . ., but by Puerto Rican sonera Choco Orta, but it's music for people who already like salsa, I'd say, rather than something with any likely crossover appeal.

The SunnO))) album will melt your fucking face.

adding to my list:
11. Wardruna - Runaljod – Gap Var Ginnunga

It's only available on expensive import tho, and i dont know if it will be released in america :(

I think this is the album you're referring to, and it's available on eMusic in the US. Not sure what to make of it from the samples.

The only album that I can wholeheartedly endorse at the moment is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs one. I'm a little surprised it's getting so few memtions, but I suppose the hiperati finished with them an album or two ago. But it's my favorite of the three.

Not moved by Animal Collective. Can't honestly say I enjoy Fever Ray, and although I realize that may be the point, at the moment I'm feeling like liking stuff. Jury still out on Neko and Phoenix. Doves sounds leaden, Gui Boratto sounds too much like last album. Maybe I should listen to the Lily Allen, but she's vanished too far into the black hole of celebrity for me to work up much enthusiasm. Surprisingly enjoying the Lady GaGa album, although maybe that was last year. Who can tell?

SFA, Patrick Wolf, PJ Harvey, Grizzly Bear.

(Not ranked:)

Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
Fever Ray, s/t
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, s/t
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
PJ Harvey and John Parish, A Woman a Man Walked By
Royksopp, Junior
The Whitest Boy Alive, Rules

still deciding about the lotus plaza album and LOtUSFLOW3R. don't know about the "crimson and clover" cover though

Romulo Fróes - No Chão sem o Chão
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Beirut - March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland
PJ Harvey and John Parish - A Woman a Man Walked By
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Fever Ray - Fever Ray

Some people ask me about contemporary Brazilian music and, well, this latest Romulo Fróes record is really worth listening. Although some will get disappointed because there's no 'exotic' flavor (which many expect from Brazilian music) in it, he really does a good job of renewing the Caetano Veloso/Jards Macalé late 70s type of songwriting.

He has allowed free download of the full record:

http://umquetenha.blogspot.com/2009/03/romulo-froes-no-chao-sem-o-chao-2009.html

damn that really is good! thanks

so is there any distinction between the two albums, or is it a standard double? my portuguese isn't up to the task of figuring it out

It's a double album, but Fróes says 'first session' is sort of the angry side of the whole work. On his myspace profile says it was recorded live in just one week.

He was labeled once by the São Paulo press as an 'indie samba' singer, because he said he saw common points in the melancholy of The Cure and some samba oldies but I guess he's not fully happy with being pigeonholed like that.

every year i hate albums a little bit more than the last

Ben Klock - One
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
Martyn - Great Lengths
Fever Ray - S/T
Mastadon - Crack the Skye
Group Bombino - Guitars From Agadez Vol. 2

can't wait to hear the new NOMO

cheval sombre album is really really good
seeland album exceeded my expectations
coloma going to be in my top 5 for sure
dreamdate lp is what slumber party should have kept sounding like

Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali hasn't really shown up yet. It's my favorite by far.

Higamos Hogamos - Higamos Hogamos
Zu - Carboniferous
Herbert Henck - Das Buch Der Klänge
Native Nod - Today Puberty, Tomorrow The World
Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - II
David Toop - Ocean Of Sound CDs
Gino Soccio - Closer
Bad Plus - For All I Care
Death - ...For The Whole World To See
Parliament - Motor Booty Affair

Vol. 5 of the B12 Archive series
Seeland - Tomorrow Today

Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country

― The Macallan 18 Year

Glad to see someone else mention this record, it's fucking awesome.

i found the seeland album, it's frightfully dull, down to his voice i think, it is just dreadful. the interesting people apparently are still in broadcast.

Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali hasn't really shown up yet. It's my favorite by far.

It's a great album but it's from the last year

Amadou & Miriam came out March 2009 in the U.S.

weird it was reviewed in my local alternative newspaper back in like december, maybe earlier. although they might have purposely coincided the review with the montreal stop of the tour.

also as per records worth listening to: the strange boys' "the strange boys and girls club" and here we go magic's s/t album are both wonderful albums that have gotten way too little attention.

Lindstrom & Solale - Baby I Can’t Stop (Aeroplane Remix)
Javelo - Spleen (Compuphonic Remix)
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Rothaus
Doves - Kingdom of Rust (Still Going Remix)
Doves - Kingdom of Rust (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
Prins Thomas - Fizpatrick
The Droyds - All I Ever Wanted (Prince Language Remix)
Arbeid Adelt - Death Disco (Todd Terje Edit)
Yuksek - Extraball (Pilooski Remix)
WhoMadeWho - The Plot (Discodeine Remix)
Loin Brothers - Heavy Helmet (Mock & Toof Remix)
Capracara - King of the Witches (Rub N Tug Remix)
Free Disco - Left Field Boogie
Den Haan - Release the Beast
Higamos Hogamos - Major Blitzkrieg (Mickey Moonlight Remix)
Sea Skid - Swami
Good Guy Mikesh & Filburt - Someone Told Me
The Private - My Secret Lover (Lifelike Remix)
Bottin - No Static (Club Version)
Zombi - Sapphire (Escort Remix)
House of House - Rushing to Paradise
Simon Baker - Way Out of My Head
Gus da Hoodrat - The Finger Prince, Part 5
Mr. Oizo - Postif (Hoodrat’s Acid Done Ate My Animals Edit)
Cassette Kids - Acrobat (Outlaws Party Mix)

this just might be my album of the year:

*Ata Ebtekar and the Iranian Orchestra For New Music performing works of Alireza Mashayekhi*

on Sub Rosa

if you only buy one album of electronically manipulated Iranian modern classical music this year, make it this one. so friggin' cool and beautiful.

that record is fucking incredible, you are correct

oh, and it does have an actual title too: *Ornamentalism*

(and now i have to hear the persian electronic music disc that sub rosa put out previously.)

Both discs of that are great too. This one is best of both worlds though. He's Bay Area, his recent live sets are already well beyond the records that are coming out now. Cool guy.

zombi
thee oh sees
fredrik nordstrom
kate mann
yagya
U2
neko case
magik markers
fever ray
claro intelecto

i found the seeland album, it's frightfully dull, down to his voice i think, it is just dreadful. the interesting people apparently are still in broadcast.

― keythkeythkeyth, Saturday, 2 May 2009 23:10

OTM - hugely disappointing, very nothingy. Hope Broadcast get their record that was scheduled for a year or more ago sorted..

Did you you guys get promo's of the new Ata Ebtekar? Isn't it out on may 15th?

oh, and it does have an actual title too: *Ornamentalism*

Sounds intriguing! Is there anywhere I can hear a sample song or clip?

i got a promo. i'm gonna write about it for my first avant/noise/etc column.

gotta give a shout-out to that new Starving Weirdos album on Bo'Weavil again. i really dig that cd.

and i finally got a full copy of the new Hecker album on Mego. That's my other new fave. my kids love it too. they love dancing to it. elektro insect noises + fart noises = right up their alley.

x-post

i got the new tortoise album in the mail and i tried to listen to it objectively (never really been a fan), but i've been listening to all this rad new stuff like the above and it just makes a group like tortoise look really lazy. like their inspiration for the album was a Battles ep and ten year old Trans Am albums. made me snooze. nowhere near as good as the Giant Brain album that came out this year. and, really, it just made me want to pull out an old sea & cake album and play that instead. plus, the songs just sound like ideas for songs. workshop sketches for songs. there is no immediacy there. no real reason to keep listening. there are no surprises worth waiting for.

um, sorry! just on my mind...

Thanks Scott. That column will appear on your noise thread I presume?

ZS, if the to me unreadable words aren't misguiding me, I believe there's a sample mp3 here

xp

Tomorrow Came Today - Joe McPhee
Double Sunrise Over Neptune - William Parker
It's not me, It's You
Easy Come, Easy Go - Marianne Faithful

my column will be in decibel magazine. in print. i don't know if it will be online or not.

i'm all about the new in 2009!

i'm trying to live down this thread:

2008: The Year I Officially Lost My Edge!

moved to a new town. starting a new column on cool new music. opening a cool new store. life begins at 40.

x-post

Le Bateau Ivre,

thank you, I'm listening now.

Cool stuff Scott! I don't even know when life begins, if it already did or never will, but 40 seems a perfect age as any to lose your edge!

like their inspiration for the album was a Battles ep and ten year old Trans Am albums. made me snooze. nowhere near as good as the Giant Brain album that came out this year. and, really, it just made me want to pull out an old sea & cake album and play that instead.

I was there in 1996.
I was there at the first Trans Am shows when they opened for Tortoise.
I'm losing my edge.

But I was there.
I was there in 2003 at the first Battles practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the drum sounds with much patience.

I was there when Sam Prekop started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.

I was the first guy playing Giant Brain to the Tortoise kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.

really, though, i can't help it, tortoise album just made me think of other stuff that i like more. and other stuff that is/was done better. everyone should buy that giant brain album. probably nobody even heard it and it's way more exciting to listen to.

and i'm getting my edge BACK in 2009. which is why i love this year so far. economic swine flu notwithstanding...

I was there in 2009 at the "Patient Zero" swine flu case in a deserted shack in Mexico.

I'm always late to the party (its why I lurk here, after all), and most of my compelling listens (Bat for Lashes, Fever Ray, half of the Juan McLean) are well-repped for upthread. I thought I'd call your attention to:

Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes on the Street

A return to ECM, and also a return to the sound of the ECM albums. Too early for a final verdict, but I suspect it will hold up as well as Aka/Darbari/Java

Tim Exile - Listening Tree

I sort of wrote him off as another latecomer to drill n'bass, and his second gabberistic solo album sounded like IDM comedy hour. This is something else: a tribute to classic electro pop, while retaining all the studio wizardry - of this album arguably has as much as any other album in this thread. The short take (I've probably read somewhere) is Squarepusher covering Human League. The argument against is Exile's long, unresolved vocal melodies and the detached, clinical lyrics. Some of the reviews allege weak vocals, but they're no weaker than many of the genre classics. On constant rotation for the past two weeks, and I'm still hearing new things. On Warp.

dirty projectors, bitte orca

babe, terror, weekend

bill callahan, sometimes i wish we were an eagle

animal collective, merriweather post pavillion

odd nosdam, t.i.m.e soundtrack

matt & kim, grand

bob dylan, the new album

if i had to break it down to a whiney g extent:

9.0
the-dream
james blackshaw

8.5
yeah yeah yeahs
dirty projectors

8.0
ugk
ryan leslie
antony and the johnsons
neko case
ciara
lily allen
death

7.5
PPP
animal collective
eleni mandell
ida maria
morrissey
dan deacon
keri hilson
phoenix
the field

from ciara to eleni mandell is pretty fluid tho

(and now i have to hear the persian electronic music disc that sub rosa put out previously.)

You mean this disc?

yah, that's the one.

Higamos Hogamos - Higamos Hogamos

Yeah, that one sounds rather fine.

Also these:
The Saboten, Exa Pieco
David Åhlén, We Sprout In Thy Soil

Hey, that Dirty Projectors album… I realize that I'm copping to a miss-the-point, but I tend to like them except when the main guy is singing alone. Is there a lot of that on the new album? Seriously, when I've seen them live or listened to the album, it's always been with a "Shut up and let the girls sing" feeling, and so I wonder if I should investigate them again or if I'm still gonna be annoyed.

omar rodriguez-lopez

Hey kamerad, out of curiosity which OR-L release are you tossing in here? I've heard and enjoyed (more than I expected to anyway) New Money, but I wanted to see if you might be talking about one of the other 3 or 4 albums he's put out this year.