Rolling Favorite Tracks + Albums 2018

Whoa new album!

Tirzah

a couple of recent Erstwhile releases have sort of reinvigorated my interest in the label.. that, and there's a 20% discount on all titles until August 15 (on bandcamp)

https://erstwhilerecords.bandcamp.com/album/mosquitoes-and-crabs
https://erstwhilerecords.bandcamp.com/album/my-trust-in-you

each album is a duo recording, each sounds both improvised and assembled (as collage) -- the Will Guthrie / Hong Chulki is probably the livelier of the two--featuring (heavy) bits of turntable and guitar wreckage, fragmented pieces of percussion and instances of straightforward drumming, electronics (sharp radio static-like sounds, etc.), and field recordings. they're both very well recorded--Mosquitoes and Crabs has a great visceral punch and prickliness to it.

My Trust in You (Marc Baron and Lucio Capece) is more varied, with lots of tape recorder/recording -fuckery by Marc Baron (along with other "analog devices"), and some lovely / atmospheric clarinet work by Lucio Capece. Capece is also credited with "slide saxophone, analog synthesizer and filter, drum machines, double looper, equalizers in feedback, regular and telephone field recordings, mini speakers in movement"

these albums are sort of a breath of fresh air, re: Erstwhile releases, and it's a good time to take advantage of the 205 off sale.

err, 20% off until the 15th

really enjoying the Nina Kinert album, getting kind of a Sundfor vibe - lots of ornate piano. Sam Herring of Future Islands guests.

thanks for letting us know about that, the last Nina K album was exquisite

was going to try to find a home for this Wind Atlas song in one of the rolling threads but I'll just stick it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR3eC0YkS7I

Future Me Hates Me By The Beths (which has been mentioned on the Alvvays and New Zealand music threads) is fast becoming my album of the year. So many amazing hooks crammed into every song and the harmonies/backing vocals are unbelievable. Could be this year's Charly Bliss.

Little Death is a probably my current favourite, but that keeps changing whenever I listen to it.

https://youtu.be/pBHBUpkRTgI

Could be this year's Charly Bliss

I'm interested

Could be this year's Charly Bliss.

I was interested, but what I love about CB is that their very melodically strong crunchy guitar songs have a total pure joy x-factor. This Beths song doesn't. It's perfectly fine, but feels like it was written specifically to be just that.

They're more akin to the more upbeat side of the Go-Betweens than Charly Bliss, imo. (It's a great album.)

the beths album is great, i'm hit and miss about what hyped records i listen to but my favorite power pop band is the toms so i pretty much had to listen to it and i'm so glad i did even if it's for ultimately superficial reasons

I hadn't made the Go-Betweens connection before, but I totally get it. That probably explains why I'm so obsessed with them right now as I've been on a big Go-Betweens kick recently. I guess they just remind me of Charly Bliss in the way it's brilliantly played indie pop with influences from the same era and tons of character. I'm getting that same rush that I got when Charly Bliss started clicking for me. She definitely doesn't have the same unique style that Eva does. Maybe this album has more in common with the Alex Lahey album?

Anyway, I'm hoping that The Beths take off on here and can make the end of year top five like Charly Bliss did. I think a lot of people will love this record.

was sure I'd posted this but I guess not, anyway, Skeleton Move by Master KG and Zanda Zakusa is just wonderful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRukwQzGMs8

It was posted on the Afropop thread

...and on the Summer Jams thread, both courtesy of dog latin

*both times*

thank you dog latin 🙏

août

Nicolas Godin - Au service de la France
A Certain Ratio ft. Barry Adamson & Tony Wilson - Dirty Boy
The Twelve Hour Foundation - Sprudel
Say Lou Lou - Golden Child
Michael Giacchino - Incredits 2
Michael Giacchino / DCappella - Pow! Pow! Pow! (Mr. Incredible’s Theme)
Ariana Grande - R.E.M
CHVRCHES x WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA - Out Of My Head
Soulwax - Essential Ten
Jean-Michel Jarre - Herbalizer
FEMM - Up Up&Away
Low - Disarray
Nicki Minaj ft. Foxy Brown - Coco Chanel / Inspirations Outro
Red Velvet - Mosquito
Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas - Norte do Brasil
Helena Hauff - Panegyric
Christine and the Queens - 5 dollars
Kölsch and Tiga - Still So High
Disclosure - Moonlight
Mabel - One Shot
Wojciech Golczewski - Fatem
Rikke Normann - I Belong (Prins Thomas Remix)

Also, my 2018 Spotify playlist got too big so started another one (already has 142 songs in it after 1 month lol):
https://open.spotify.com/user/worrellj14/playlist/2hSivLZnvJeVuebshHWpoR?si=mgf6yIReQvC8RRqvIDBIZw

Albums:

(Favorites)
Bernice - Puff: In The Air Without A Shape
Proc Fiskal - Insula
Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar
Goat Girl - S/T

(In The Mix)
FRIGS - Basic Behavior
Simian Mobile Disco - Murmurations
Sleep - The Sciences
The Dead Tongues - Unsung Passage
Szun Waves - New Hymn To Freedom
Forth Wanderers - S/T
DRINKS - Hippo Lite
Marian Hill - Unusual
Camp Cope - How To Socialise & Make Friends
Maribou State - Kingdoms In Colour
The Blaze - Dancehall
Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exudus

top 10 so far

Andrew WK - You're Not Alone
Daphne & Celeste Save the World
Datarock - Face the Brutality
Autechre - NTS Sessions
George Clanton - Slide
Koenjihyakkei - new album that I can't spell
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
They Might be Giants - I Like Fun
3.2 - The Rules Have Changed
Underworld & Iggy Pop - Teatime Dub Encounters

solid lists

Current favorites:

Autechre - NTS
Mitski - Be the Cowboy
Pram - Across The Meridian
Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood
Domenico Lancellotti - The Good is a Big God
LUMP (Laura Marling, Mike Lindsay) - LUMP
Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of
The Advisory Circle - Ways of Seeing
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!
Beach House - 7
Speedy Ortiz - Twerp Verse
Jean Grae x Quelle Chris - Everything's Fine
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Hormone Lemonade (and Blood Drums)
Bill Frisell - Music IS
MGMT - Little Dark Age
Lake Ruth - Birds of America
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN - Dirt
Cruel Diagonals - Disambiguation

Good albums:

Delicate Features - Pure
Still Corners - Slow Air
Shakarchi and Stranéus - Steal Chickens From Men And The Future From God
Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas - Bugge Wesseltoft & Prins Thomas
Mårble - Diego
Gwenifer Raymond - You Never Were Much Of A Dancer
Various Artists - Onda De Amor: Synthesized Brazilian Hits That Never Were (1984-94)
Arp - Zebra
Seán Mac Erlaine - Music For Empty Ears
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp - Sauvage Formes
Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo

I promise I'm only going to plug this once: I've started a new-music newsletter, with album and track picks going out every Friday morning with tidal/spotify/apple streaming links for all of 'em (with the singles gathered as a playlist). you can sign up here.

the gwenifer raymond album makes me nostalgic for 2004

Recent(ish) favs

Petal - Magic Gone
Noname - Room 25
Chris Crack - Being Woke Ain't Fun
Cut Worms - Hollow Ground
Wild Pink - Yolk in the Fur
Hermit & The Recluse - Orpheus vs. The Sirens
The Beths - Future Me Hates Me
Wild Nothing - Indigo
Mitski - Be The Cowboy
Popcaan - Forever

albums

The Beths - Future Me Hates Me
Bombino - Deran
The Breeders - All Nerve
Cowboy Junkies - All That Reckoning
Jon Hassell - Listening to Pictures
Low - Double Negative
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Sparkle Hard
Meshell Ndegeocello - Ventriloquism
Die Nerven - Fake
Trygve Seim - Helsinki Songs

EPs!

(and mini LPs)

After a slow start in 2018, there's been loads of great ones lately. Here's 20 I've not previously mentioned on this thread.

Red Velvet - Summer Magic: Summer Mini Album
Neil Scrivin - Geek Upmanship
Deerful - tell me I can fix this on my own
Red Velvet - #CookieJar
AGF - ENfys nEST
Zooey - Inspiration Information 1
FEMM - dollhouse
YMCK - MAGICAL GALAXY TOUR
The Twelve Hour Foundation - Bunch of Fives
KNIGHTSTOWN - Keep

Tokyo Elvis - Good News
Wojciech Golczewski - End of Transmission 2
Le SuperHomard - The Pomegranate Tree
No Joy / Sonic Boom - s/t
TWICE - What Is Love?
Emma-Jean Thackray - Ley Lines
Moses Sumney - Black in Deep Red, 2014
mewithoutYou - (untitled)
OH MY GIRL BANHANA - Banana Allergy Monkey
LOOΠΔ yyxy - beauty&thebeat

A few additions since May:

Khanus - Flammarion
Vital Idles - Left Hand
KEN Mode - Loved
Taphos - Come Ethereal Somberness
Ghost - Prequelle

Albums/EPs I've liked/loved this year (tops with an *) up through today:

Noname - Room 25*
Low - Double Negative**
Knife Knights - 1 Time Garage
Ady Suleiman - Memories
Kali Uchis - Isolation
Starchild & The New Romantic - Language
Blood Orange - Negro Swan*
Jon Hopkins - Singularity
The Internet - Hive Mind
Miguel - War & Leisure
Moses Sumney - Black in Deep Red, 2014 EP*
Kamaal Williams - The Return
La Luz - Floating Features
Lotic - Power
Mock Identity - Paradise
The Midnight Hour (Adrian Younge) - The Midnight Hour*
Witch Prophet -The Golden Octave*
Hilary Woods - Colt
Kamasi Washington - Heaven & Earth
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Hormone Lemonade
Virginia Wing - Ecastatic Arrow
Saba - Care For Me**
Sudan Archives - Sink EP
Serpentwithfeet - Soil**
Melo-Zed - Eleven
Lithics - Mating Surfaces
Yo La Tengo - There's A Riot Going On
Shopping - The Official Body
Ought - Room Inside the World

Saba and Serpentwithfeet and Low are my absolute favorites...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwTMvh8fI4I

every time i say this is going to be the last fucked up record i'm going to listen to, that it's about time their sonic experimentalism combined with shouting punk singer got old for me. nah, it doesn't.

Their most recent single is fantastic.

Hey, Pitchfork just reviewed the latest Aphex Twin ep.. it's high time we started talking about it. Those Fenix Funk 5-esque melodies on the latter half of "MT1 t29r2", my god

September. No AFX.

Shadow Party - Reverse the Curse (ACR:MCR Rework Extended)
I Am Robot and Proud - A Dot In Air
Dawn Richard - Jealousy
Mariah Carey - GTFO
TOMAGA - The Dancer In The Lake
Low - Always Trying To Work It Out
Orbital - Hoo Hoo Ha Ha
David Guetta ft. Jess Glynne & Stefflon Don - She Knows How To Love Me
Kero Kero Bonito - Make Believe
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Enka Natorium (演歌ナトリウム)
Yasutaka Nakata ft. Charli XCX & Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Crazy Crazy
Charli XCX - Focus (Yaeji remix)
Robyn - Honey
She Makes War - London Bites
Broadcast - Petal Alphabet (demo)
Christine and the Queens - Follarse [aka Damn (what must a woman do)]
Ellen Allien - Flying Objects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOWrfLlxcPE&t=50s

oh, boo-HOO.... AFX made a good ep. Tracks 1, 2, and 3 are favorites

this is from 1987, but apparently it's being reissued this year? Stephane Sévérac - Hold On

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

good stuff, george michael vibe

xp The original 12 inch mix is fantastic.

I think it was supposed to have been reissued last year on Pacific Beach Vinyl but never seemed to materialise.

Made with alarmingly obsessive attention to detail, one for Brits and Anglophiles of a certain age…

http://www.acidjazz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MattBThemesPackshot3000.jpeg

Our Girl supported Bill Ryder Jones on his recent tour. Their album has been out since the summer 'Stranger Today'. They were great live and the album hits some Lush spots in parts.

My favourites from Q3: http://cancatervation.tumblr.com/post/178694896312/q3-2018-faves

October (a busy month)

Candi Staton - Confidence
Tokyo Elvis ft. Hatsune Mitsuko - Fetish
Sigrid - Sucker Punch (original / Four Tet remix)
Kero Kero Bonito - If I’d Known
Kristin Hersh - Gin
Neneh Cherry - Natural Skin Deep
Calibro 35 ft. Elisa Zoot - Travelers, Explorers
Piney Gir - Dreamcatcher
The Heartwood Institute - Barsham Faire
Saint Etienne - Little Chef
Chris Carter - Bongo Glow; Blissters (Radiophonic Workshop remix)
Halo Maud - Baptism; Surprise
Listening Center - Clarion of the Collapsed Complex
Esperanza Spalding - Touch in Mine
Spencer Zahn ft. Dawn Richard - Cyanotype
Terje Torkellsen - Sean
Let’s Eat Grandma - Falling Into Me (patten remix)
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Mannequin Metric
Silk City & Dua Lipa ft. Diplo & Mark Ronson - Electricity
Cher Lloyd - None of My Business
Uffie - Papercuts
Zara Larsson - Ruin My Life
AURORA - Forgotten Love (Claptone remix)
Robyn - Because It’s In The Music
Noname ft. Ravyn Lenae - Montego Bae
Cardi B - Money
Julia Holter - Colligere; Words I Heard
Oneohtrix Point Never - Love in the Time of Lexapro
Riton + Kah-Lo - Bad Boy
Sone Institute - Winter Is Dead; Justice… As Is
Nao - A Life Like This

My new favorite thing is Bon Voyage Organisation's 'Jungle? Quelle Jungle?'

Exquisite funky disco goodness.

I like that new Oneohtrix track more than anything on the album.

Posting here because there's no 2018 shambhala thread and because it's a favourite track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIYM7in1Tcs

Not Pop Not Indie Shambhala 2018 Thread

That's nice though!

Shout out to a September album release that I just caught up with but was an insta-buy: the latest Tokyo Elvis LP "Nice & Pleasant". As ever with him, the words are mostly sung by a vocaloid software voicebank persona that you'll either love or hate but there's unexpected depths in the writing. Possibly my favourite pure pop LP of the year. Listen here: http://tokyoelvis.bandcamp.com/album/nice-pleasant

November monsters

Dirty Projectors ft. Dear Nora - (I Wanna) Feel It All (Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith remix)
Ariana Grande - thank u, next
Kölsch - Emoticon
I Am Robot And Proud - Imaginary Gadgets; Lucky Static
TWICE - Say You Love Me
Calibro 35 - Stingray (instrumental)
Dawn Richard - new breed
Mariah Carey ft. Slick Rick & Blood Orange - Giving Me Life
Barbara Morgenstern - Angel’s Whisper
Gemma Ray - Blossom Crawls
The Japanese House - Follow My Girl
Emerson Kitamura - Rock Your Baby
WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA ft. yahyei - Survive Tokyo
Le SuperHomard - Springtime
Tokyo Elvis ft. Hatsune Miku - Hello, Hello; Dance Off-Time
Pye Corner Audio - Deep Space Probe
Faten Kanaan - Folksong; Foxes
Laurel Halo & Hodge - Tru
Grimes ft. HANA - We Appreciate Power
Aly & AJ - With You

Charlotte Gainsbourg making a late charge with the brilliant 'Take 2' EP!