ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

There are some lovely, very crystalline sounding tracks on that album, maybe along the same lines as Pantha Du Prince? Didn't vote for it in the end though cos those bridging pieces in between the main tracks were a bit of a drag.

good comparison with pantha du prince, even more atmospheric. I'm sure he could gussy it up for the dance floor though.

Oh he's one half of Wighnomy Brothers who are masters of gussying it up for the dance floor.

Ha, I think on the sandbox when talking about big hip-hop tracks this year, I made a comment about 2011 being the year that music stopped being real and started being polite; these first two albums seem to hold up that thesis pretty well.

76. Robag Wruhme — Thora Vukk (262 points, 8 votes)

really enjoying this

xpost don't know if 2011 is the year that happened man.

it's the year that everyone spent in their bedrooms on the internet

I'm going to have to check this out now, also because of the comparison with Pantha du Prince!

xp I've been doing that for years, glad the world caught up...

Depends on whether you're listening to polite music or not. I don't think I really like this stuff that much. PDP is ok, but kinda shiny and dull at the same time imo.

Hoping for something loud at this end of the countdown.

xposts like every year since 1999

I meant to listen to this, am a fan of his other work and even checked out Wuppdeckmischmampflow, but seem to have less and less enthusiasm for 'what we used to call microhouse back in the day'...

I made a comment about 2011 being the year that music stopped being real and started being polite; these first two albums seem to hold up that thesis pretty well.

everyone be getting OLD

http://i.imgur.com/AoUNt.jpg

75. Liturgy — Aesthethica (264 points, nine votes)

P4K: 41
P&J: 88

Spotify

hahaha

politeness just got the shit kicked out of it!

Guessing this counts as "something loud".

Speaking of nice and loud. Hey, I still haven't listened to Liturgy.

lol I fucked up that quote, it's GETTING real isn't it

Real World fanboy badge revoked

hey! there we go!
i didn't vote for it, but it's loud and fairly impolite.

Metal, I'm assuming?

the cover could be a witch house album

I like that cover design a lot.

crossover/hipster black metal is better than none at all

I am cracking up though that the first minute of this loud, impolite album is a soft note played over and over though

needs more triangles in the artist name

Matt DC - Liturgy are a black metal band who've caused controversy because they dress like hipsters and try to unravel the usual black metal tropes of being Norwegian and dressing like a Vril-Ya. I still haven't heard it, but it's supposed to be good.

Metal, I'm assuming?

― Matt DC,

transcendental black metal

wiki

Liturgy are a self-described "transcedent black metal" band from Brooklyn, New York. Originally the solo project of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, the band expanded to a four piece in 2008, after the release of the 12" Immortal Life, which was followed in 2009 with their debut album Renihilation. The group call their style "transcendental black metal",[1][2] which is described in a declaration written by Hunt-Hendrix.[3] Hunter cites Swans, Glenn Branca, Alexander Scriabin, Iannis Xenakis and Lightning Bolt as influences.[4]

the cover could be a witch house album

haha witch house was the first thing i thought of

happy 4 the metal crü

Save us J0rdan Fever!

"Hunter Hunt Hendrix" sounds like a Gossip Girl character/actor but his name isn't his fault.

http://youtu.be/qciRxrlTFGc

^ Liturgy - Generation

(I didn't vote for this btw, but that was the best track imo)

here is a jaunty excerpt of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's Trancendental Black Metal theory

PROLEGOMENON

One could propose a new meaning for black metal along with a new array of techniques to activate that meaning. The meaning of Transcendental Black Metal is Affirmation, and its new technique is the Burst Beat.
The will to power has two stages. The first may be called Fortification; the establishment of a paradigm or set of rules and the ensuing exploration of potential that lies within those constraints. The second stage may be termed Sacrifice; an auto-destruction, a self-overcoming whereby the initial rules, having been fully digested and satisfied, are thereby mutilated. They are transformed into the basis for something new and unprecedented.
Transcendental Black Metal is black metal in the mode of Sacrifice. It is a clearing aside of contingent features and a fresh exploration of the essence of black metal. As such it is solar, hypertrophic, courageous, finite and penultimate. Its tone is Affirmation and its key technique is the Burst Beat.
The black metal that was born in Scandinavia in the mode of Fortification can be termed Hyperborean Black Metal. Hyperborean Black Metal is lunar, atrophic, depraved, infinite and pure. The symbol of its birth is the Death of Dead. Its tone is Nihilism and its key technique is the Blast Beat.
Today USBM stands in the shadow of Hyperborean Black Metal. The time has come for a decisive break with the European tradition and the establishment of a truly American black metal. And we should say “American” rather than “US”: the US is a declining empire; America is an eternal ideal representing human dignity, hybridization and creative evolution.
The act of renihilation is the betrayal of Hyperborean Black Metal and an affirmation of Transcendental Black Metal. And it is at the same time the constitution of an apocalyptic humanism to be termed Aesthetics. As such, the question of Transcendental Black Metal is only the tip of an iceberg at the base of which is hidden a new relationship between art, politics, ethics and religion.

Played Konkylie a couple of times after a friend raved about it, liked it quite a lot.

Voted for Thora Vukk. Heavily played throughout the year, never tired of it, good holiday memories attached.

the only 'metal' album i heard last year prior to the ILM Metal Poll. It's p good.

xxxp:
It comes with a manifesto on Transcendental Black Metal.

Transcendental Black Metal is a Renihilation, a “No” to the entire array of Negations, which turns to an affirmation of the continuity of all things

prolego-memnon?

I have like zero interest in black metal, apparently. I don't even dislike this, it just is making zero impression on me.

Like, there is no way this album should aurally scan as "beige, forgettable" to me but there you go.

I think the issue I have with a lot of how black metal is constructed/presented is that it's a LOT of effort put into playing what is ultimately a relatively simple song/melody; like on this first track, everything is played on like 32nd notes but it's all subdivision of a really really really simple tune that's not particularly interesting or impressive, so my end reaction is "eh, why bother with all that?"

It's like Dr Bronner meets the Maharishi School of Management.

"eh, why bother with all that?"
mood music? i dunno, why bother with anything?

lol and then they follow up with a big chanty thing, which erupts into another simple tune chopped up into 32nd notes. It's like the musical equivalent of the moment when Scooby-Doo is running in place away from a monster, legs all awhirl and dust and smoke getting kicked up but he's not going anywhere, stretched out over a five minute period.

(structurally this is reminding me of some of the Baltic pieces we did in our last choral concert, only more static)

Decent black metal can be pretty complex, musically speaking - lots of time signature changes etc...

that literal scooby-doo sound effect looped over five minutes would be more "up my alley" than this Liturgy album, but I like this okay too.

why bother with anything?

depressed now

can someone point me in the direction of some Morton Feldmanesque black metal?

I like the intro of Tragic Laurel, it sounds like Philip Glass

http://i.imgur.com/sa2WL.jpg

74. The Joy Formidable — The Big Roar (266 points, seven votes, one first place vote)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 58

Spotify