ILM's 2019 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD

gonna vote today, but first gonna stump for some of my favorites of the year

albums:
Yves Jarvis - The Same But By Different Means - An astounding bit of bedroom pop that's been climbing steadily up my ballot. If you liked the Helado Negro record (which i LOVED), but wish it was pricklier and more genre-fluid, this is the one for you.

Polo G - Die a Legend - It’s been a long time since I’ve been blown away by a new rapper like I was by Polo G in 2019. As dark as the subject matter can get, Polo stays afloat with crisp melodies that mix the emotional honesty of Lil Durk with the radio-ready slickness of Wiz Khalifa. His verses emerge fully-formed, telling full stories about his neighborhood that are equal parts harrowing and thrilling. He’s already mastered the art of the rap ballad, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Raveena - Lucid - Someone started a thread a while back, but it's definitely worth keeping this record in mind. the coziest, bubbliest, sweetest R&B album of the year.

G.S. Schray - First Appearance - In the year we lost Mark Hollis, this instrumental came closest to scratching that Talk Talk itch. Expansive, emotional soundscapes.

Tracks:
ShooterGang Kony - "Charlie" - The year’s most cold-blooded mob banger starts with the line “fuck the police and your mama if you ask me” and only escalates from there. Rhyming without affect over hiccuping bass, Kony mercilessly ethers cops, R&B singers, and women named Ashley before threatening to shoot you with a gun that sounds like Fozzy Bear.

KEY! - “Miami Too Much” – My favorite Atlanta rap song of the year gets its power from its hilariously specific central conceit, with KEY’s impassioned vocal selling the bit: “If you seen that ass, you’d make a song too.” How often must someone visit Dade County before it becomes an irreconcilable difference in an otherwise healthy relationship?

Spellling - “Real Fun” – Gleefully dramatic and overflowing with evil-sounding synths, “Real Fun” synthesizes Neneh Cherry, Bauhaus, and Cabaret into something that sounds like a villain’s theme in an animated musical that hasn’t been written yet.

Yhung T.O. - “Lately” ft. Lil Sheik - Easy, breezy, beautiful Bay Area rap, carried by T.O.’s dulcet tones and Sheik’s unrepentant dirtbaggery. The beat by Armani Depaul is one of my favorite retro-facing rap beats in a while, complete with smooth digital strings and security-pad synths.

Also, gonna second dyl's recommendation of "La Canción," beautiful song.

Some trippy ambient/drone/nu-age/psychedelic soundscapes y'all might have missed:

Sarah Davachi & Ariel Kalma – Intemporel
https://blacksweat.bandcamp.com/album/intemporel

An absolutely legendary collaboration IMO — Sarah Davachi, conjurer of the most subtle and sublime drones of our age, meets 70s French new age wizard Ariel Kalma. They go real deep on this one. "Adieu La Vie" is my psychedelic drone ideal.

Andrew Pekler — Sounds From Phantom Islands
https://andrewpekler.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-from-phantom-islands

Serious "fourth world" music, similar to his album Tristes Tropiques from 2016. There are some field recordings and some bubbly/rustling synths and some sparse bending seventh chords. I don't know how to fully describe this one honestly. Songs that sound like Earthbound maybe? It is magnificent.

Pulse Emitter – Calming Winds
https://muzaneditions.bandcamp.com/album/calming-winds

The notes on Bandcamp say "This music is made to be calming and restorative," and it works tbh. Custom ambient synth patches that morph and melt into the infinite distance. This guy is just the best. This isn't on Spotify though :'(

Thore Pfeiffer – Umland
https://thorepfeiffer.bandcamp.com/album/umland

I listened to this one a lot back in the spring. It's springtime music.

also pomenitul that Dmitri Kourliandski album is really good!

^ "Adieu La Vie" is certainly on my tracks ballot! Still absorbing the remainder of the longplayer.

Glad you like the Kourliandski, crüt.

That Thore Pfeiffer album has been on my list for a while so I'll be sure to listen to it before voting's through.

MIKE is sounding really good btw.

Are there many regular posters on ILM who do not participate in the year poll as a matter of principle ?

I can't find Sharon van Etten's "Comeback Kid" in the two files. It was nominated though. Can we still add it?

I've made a top 29. This is going to hurt...

Sad I didn't nominate Jim O'Rourke's magnificent 4CD 'To Magnetize Money and Catch A Roving Eye'. Only got around to it last week but it's a stellar icey drone pack.

This year I'm going to submit an unweighted ballot. It's not as though more than 3-5 of my picks will place anyway.

And yeah, that O'Rourke drone tetralogy is pretty awesome.

I'm a lifelong O'Rourke lover, even though I can't keep up with all his steamroom releases. This is great though.

I'll probably go for unweighted too.

Are there many regular posters on ILM who do not participate in the year poll as a matter of principle ?

― Nabozo, Sunday, 12 January 2020 16:17 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Might be lack of interest rather than principle but there are definitely regular ILMers that have never voted. There are even some that write up their own EOY lists but don't vote.

the 'taking my ball home' approach

wouldn't want your vaunted favourites muddied by the hoi polloi

Just noticed that the wrong version of Bella Alubo’s “Agbani” is in the Spotify playlist. It should be the original version, not the remix, which is quite different and not as good imo.

This is the “proper” version, all 2 minutes and 16 seconds of it:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5FMfhIVHE8dCThiGrix2vX?si=qwcRDxWkRAGda8AIRhZZJQ

Whoops. Seems I got careless in my impatience to hear everything. Sorry.

Rapsody's "Ibtihaj" ft. D'Angelo, GZA was new to me until it came up playing Singles noms on shuffle, and now it's getting my vote. The hook isn't as strong as the rest, but the rest makes up for it and then some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhMk_wLm07E

Great track, GZA's still on top of his game. Kind of wish "Cleo" also got nommed.

That's good, 'Oprah' was my great Rapsody discovery from the list though

Have also been delighted to make the acquaintance of fromis_9 - proper Kpop, proper batshit maximalism

Oprah's awesome - that Rapsody album is very underrated.

May give the whole thing a try, yes

I'm only about halfway through the tracks playlist! Every song is getting a small, fair crack as usual

A quick plug for the 4 of my nominees that aren't on Spotify. All of these are retro-futuristic / electronic, and all but the last is an instrumental.

The Home Current - https://thehomecurrent.bandcamp.com/track/red-ice

Pulselovers remixed by Panamint Manse - https://pulselovers-cis.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-marsh-remixed-by-panamint-manse

Gabe Knox - https://aumegaproject.bandcamp.com/track/square-wave-symphony

Bernard Grancher & Laetitia Sadier remixed by Gabe Knox - https://soundcloud.com/gb-bg/limmodere-bien-etre-de-limbecile-gabe-knox-remix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MK7ERsksLs

PATERSON — Two city police officers chased down a 27-year-old suspect in the 5th Ward on Tuesday afternoon, tackling him as he tried to escape by climbing a fence, authorities said.

The incident took place about 12:45 p.m. after a resident alerted police about a man in a sheepskin coat and ski mask with a gun near the heavily trafficked corner of Market Street and Memorial Drive, said Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale.

Officers Erik Marino and Joshua Serrano spotted a man matching that description on 16th Avenue, Speziale said. When he saw the approaching officers, the suspect began to run, cutting through a lot and heading for a fence, police said.

I nominated a few albums from the Polish label, Instant Classic. There's a thread on them here.

Alameda 5 - Eurodrome (personal standout is "Cdte")
Innercity Ensemble - IV ("Suave Machines")
ARRM - II - ("Birth")

I think this is a label started by a couple of self-professed record collecting music nerds. If you're familiar with Stara Rzeka, you have an idea of where it's coming from. I kind of hate to lump it all together, but there's a common aesthetic to it all: I pick up on elements of psychedelic, punk, free and/or spiritual jazz, maybe retro, "hauntological", industrial, sometimes noisy elements. The biggest trait their releases all share is an adventurousness / fearlessness to the music. Each album is a journey for the listener. It's all kind of dreamlike and trance-inducing. I enjoy listening to these albums in a way that my attention drifts to and from it (it's great music to work or think to). I listen to them over and over at work, while walking, and on public transit. I guess I would recommend to fans of Alice Coltrane, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Swans, Sunwatchers, Kikagaku Moyo, Kim Gordon, and maybe Pyre Corner Audio, although it's definitely all pretty guitar based stuff.

Tim F wrote about some songs from 2019 here

Shuffling the album playlist around Xmas I several times wondered "oooh, who's this?" and it turned out to be Alameda 5!

The Alameda 4 album from the other year was incredible (the numbers refer to how many players are performing) - this one is yet to completely click but there's a lot to like

Eurodrome is my least favourite Alameda album by a long ways :(

LOVE AND AFFECTION FOR STUPID LITTLE BITCHES by Black Dresses is on Spotify now, so I added it to the playlist.

sweet, everyone go listen

As posted on the Rolling Afro 2020 thread:

To show and celebrate the embarassment of riches South African music had to offer in 2019, I made a playlist with all the nominated South African tracks and albums (including two tracks by non-SA artists with significant input by SA artists/producers: “That’s For Me” and “My Power”).

First the 36** nominated tracks, from “Sondela” to “John Cena”, and after that the 9 nominated albums, from Sho Madjozi down to Tresor, coming full circle. I arranged both tracks and albums in an approximation of stylistic order.

(My original intention was to give a bit of context and highlight some tracks and albums, and I might yet do that, but I’m happy to have this playlist sorted. So feel free to explore away, even if you’ve already voted or decided on your ballot. There’s a lot to enjoy!)

Here’s the playlist:
ILM 2019 EOY🇿🇦SOUTH AFRICA

**Missing is Heavy K ft. Moonchild Sanelly’s “Yebo Mama”, which is not on Spotify. This is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmdn52afm2U

(...and a note regarding Kwiish SA’s “Iskhathi”: The original vocal version that I love so much seems to have disappeared completely (I think there was a rights issue). The “Vocal Version” that is on Spotify (and this playlist) is no longer the original vocal version with, you know, actual vocals. There is a video version with re-recorded vocals by Vukani, but it’s not nearly as good.)

There’s more, again see the Rolling Afro 2020 thread: I also made a separate playlist with the nominated [non-South African] AFROPOP tracks and albums. Again, it’s tracks first, albums second, 51 tracks and 19 albums to be precise.

It’s “pop” in the broadest sense: My focus was on the stuff that’s featured on the Afropop thread, but I also included more leftfield stuff: DJ Nigga Fox, Hama and the four (!) Nyege Nyege Tapes albums that were nominated, and music that’s more within the remit of the Global Outernational thread, by KOKOKO!, Blick Bassy, Salif Keita, and Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba. Plus I included an Afropop cut of The Lion King: The Gift. And yeah, I basically excluded Afrodiasporic stuff.

Ultimately, it’s all a bit arbitrary obviously, and I might have missed some things, but whatever. So binge away, or maybe you’d like to shuffle, skip and cherry-pick. Hope you’ll find something to enjoy!

Here’s that playlist in full:
ILM 2019 EOY🔶AFROPOP NOMS

just stumbled across that KOKOKO! song while rifling thru the playlist - it's so great! DRC represent!

^ Innit!

Speaking of Sho Madjozi, I've been contemplating for some days how I might squeeze her into my tracks ballot.

I forgot that DJ Nigga Fox is essentially African too. I think that album might survive my final cull.

Yeah, so much for my no-Afrodiasporic-stuff “rule”, I guess. (Lisbon is pretty close to Africa tho!)

Slight typo in the noms list: 'Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairavoyance'.

Another one: 'Toshio Hosokawa -Gardens'.

Ah, I noticed one too in the Tracks noms: the correct name of the artist is Obongjayar, not “Obangjayar”.

man which billie eilish song am i gonna vote for

Just vote for the same one I had at #1 on my ballot. Easy.

h'okay, voted.

folks don't vote until you've heard the 6-hour Underworld album

Louise Burns made the album 77 a few years ago with Young Mopes and I'm hoping that last year's Portraits might do the same this time. The absence of a Blue Nile cover on this one might hurt her chances, I guess, but the Carlile-core of the rest of it should be sufficient compensation: https://open.spotify.com/album/3QLtE1LINSmpm5b2ITlZ5g

i'm sure i'll love the underworld album when i dig in and i'm equally sure a ballot that i cast tomorrow would look significantly different from what i just submitted. There's just a lot more to do and listen to so I'm gonna keep it movin'

that's fair, just check out this tune at least, might wind up as my #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtU2Yi2xgGE

yeah, that's grrrrrrreat

the five nom'd billie eilish trax are a v good selection of her output this year!

Louise Burns made the album 77 a few years ago with Young Mopes and I'm hoping that last year's Portraits might do the same this time. The absence of a Blue Nile cover on this one might hurt her chances, I guess, but the Carlile-core of the rest of it should be sufficient compensation: https://open.spotify.com/album/3QLtE1LINSmpm5b2ITlZ5g

― monotony

Brilliant album. It'll be high on my list.