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

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.

Here's my official list that kevin k is bitin.

http://www.aprilfish.net/?p=474

new money. haven't heard the others

Just realized that was Old Money, not New, but yeah, thanks. Just wanted to see if there was another worth tracking down.

yeah whatever it is. it's better to me than any mars volta album (which i realize isn't saying much) and my favorite thing i've heard he's been involved with since relationship of command

D. Rider - Mother of Curses

^^seriously this is my fav record of the year and i really really hope ppl will give it a chance, it's Todd from US Maple's new thing but it doesn't sound like US Maple (though his guitar style is very distinctive)...kinda fucked up, throbbing electronics with heavy triggered drums, lots of grinding low end, plus some baritone sax bleating....really rhythmic and kinda funky in a way....Todd's definitely a great frontman, very aristocratic and sort of cruel sounding....

but imagine i dunno...like you know how you want to like TV on the Radio when you read about TV on the Radio but then TV on the Radio just sounds, well, too much like how TV on the Radio sounds and not as much like this awesome polygot electro rock thing that's in your mind...well D. Rider sounds like how i want TV on the Radio to sound...

other RIYLs include maybe late period 90 Day Men....and obv. Todd brings his sort of warped genius guitar like Fripp by way of Beefheart stylee....

late period 90 Day Men

hmm apparently this record is for me.

yeah i bet you would like it. not that it necessarily sounds like them exactly, like d. rider sounds like itself to me, which is a good thing for the band

tyvek s/t
group bombino - guitars from agadez vol. 2
fever ray s/t
world's lousy w/ ideas vol. 8
kurt vile - god is saying this to you (probably 2008 I guess)
wooden shjips - dos

dj mixes:
twitch - 60 minutes of fear
omar-s - fabric 45: detroit
ame/henrik schwarz/dixon - the grandfather paradox

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/images/original/149428.Dirty%20Projectors%20Coverart.jpg

http://www.230publicity.com/images/japandroids_cover.jpg

http://images.google.com.br/url?source=imgres&ct=tbn&q=http://tonemarrowreviews.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/here_we_go_magic_album_cover1.jpg&usg=AFQjCNH0EverrmykW8sN5JD2WEBCvQtZHw

http://perdizesdream.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/roughweekend1-cut.jpg

http://images.google.com.br/url?source=imgres&ct=tbn&q=http://www.redimg.net/archivos/519/Casiotone%2520For%2520The%2520Painfully%2520Alone%2520-%2520Vs%2520Children%2520(2009).jpg&usg=AFQjCNE0yYAot8CDy_XHvgrscNk0uUIquA

(first is Dirty Projectors, 5th is Casiotone for the Painfully Alone)

casiotone's covers are great. apart from the one for the ep he released for my friend's label. which was a bit wank.

Michachu and The Shapes - Jewellery (can't believe there's not more ILX love for this - deserves some beyond the rolling indie thread)
The Sight Below - Glider
Prins Thomas and Lindstrom - II
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Here We Go Magic - S/T
The Field - Yesterday and Today
Joris Voorn - Balance 14
Dixon/Ame/Schwarz - The Grandfather Paradox
Paul Kalkbrenner - Berlin Calling OST

My laptop broke in January so I've not been checking out music quite as much as normal till a few weeks ago when I got my new computer. This thread is great for recommendations. Thanks everyone.

instead of opening word, the worst computer program in the world, i'm going to update my list for personal archival purposes here

1 the-dream - love vs money
2 phoenix - wolfgang amadeus phoenix
3 yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz!
4 green day - 21st century breakdown
5 junior boys - begone dull care
6 ugk - 4 life
7 electrik red - how to be a lady: volume 1
8 passion pit - manners
9 ryan leslie - ryan leslie
10 lil boosie - thug passion
11 gucci mane - zone 6 polar bear: gucci the glacier
12 dirty projectors - bitte orca
13 camera obscura - my maudlin career
14 lindstrøm & prins thomas - II
15 the juan maclean - the future will come

The Micachu album is wicked, aye.

I'm thinking this at the moment:

The-Dream - Love vs Money
Crazy Cousinz - This Is UK Funky
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Silkie - City Limits Volume One
Electrik Red - How To Be A Lady, Part One
Mungolian Jet Set - We Gave It All Away... Now We're Taking It Back
Meanderthals - Desire Lines
DJ Koze - Reinterpretations
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - II
Dan Deacon - Bromst
Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux
The Juan Maclean - The Future Will Come
Henrik Schwarz, Ame, Dixon - The Grandfather Paradox
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Courtney Love - Nobody's Daughter

Courtney Love - Nobody's Daughter

??? this is a thing now?

Yes! It's really good! Blowsy, bluesy, dylanesque confessional record.