ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

Yeay! at Ferraro, Grouper, Demdike. Although 'Alien Observer' stands out of the two Grouper 'A I A' albums. I love Ferraro, his conceptual goofballiness, how damn distinctive he is no matter what pallette he's operating with. I kind of fell out of love with Oneonhtrix/Lopatin this year and fell more for JF.

XP

Hatchback = nice

I didn't consider voting Demdike bcs of the reissue element. Gah.

I am not familiar with Hatchback.

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

49. Moon Duo — Mazes (350 points, 12 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 419

Happy to see Moon Duo! It was a late cut from my ballot, so thanks people.

<333 demdike but i didn't vote for tryptych bcz yeah reissue part

almost read 'hatchback' as 'horseback' (who i did vote for)

yeah idk i have like opinions about tracks but its like my god its such an effort to listen to an album. i usually just get into a couple of tracks straight away and move on to something else before i've properly listened to the whole album. the hatchback is weird in that its kindof an ambient album but it is seriously riveting all the way through. like i just get hypnotised by it and go fully zen.

I didn't really fall for Moon Duo until hearing it on teh vinyl. Mastering + production job = stunning...I think James Plotkin was involved. Great record.

like i feel the cosmos vibrate, my chakras are opening can you feel my healing winds etc

hatchback = balearic stuff right? i have a few tracks by them but didn't hear that album

Moon Duo! Nice! One of my favorite things yet to come out of the Wooden Shjips axis.

her voice and the spooky atmosphere esp. in the beginning of that laura marling song "the beast" reminds me so much of michelle shocked's first record "the texas campfire tapes" that it hurts. is she michelle's daughter?

the Demdike album felt like more of a 2010 thing to me, so didn't really think about voting for it. Not sure it would have made my ballot anyway.

xps basically what everyone else said

Hatchback is one of the dudes from Windsurf (lol)

Love the moon duo and glad it placed as i cut it from my ballot too.

Whoop, another one of mine in Moon Duo. I've probably said this a million times now, but I couldn't get past the Doors influence of Wooden Shjips, but MD I really dig.

Never really got into Moon Duo apart from their Christmas tunes (posts v much in character), prefer Wooden Shjips who sound a bit more muscular to me.

the title track from that moon duo album is probably the most fun song ive heard all year

Hey this Moon Duo is pretty neat judging by 'When You Cut'

i like wooden shjips but prefer moon duo.

anyone have specific track recommendations by hatchback or moon duo?

"Zeus and Apollo" is maybe the most immediate track on the Hatchback album, still all about the Krauty blissed-out beach vibezzz though.
http://youtu.be/f2RkfFDCrWc

lex youve been really quiet here compared to the tracks poll. Have you heard anything yet you hadnt hesrd but like?

the title track from that moon duo album is probably the most fun song ive heard all year

― ≧^◡^≦ (diamonddave85), Tuesday, January 31, 2012 7:08 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Listening now. :)

i didn't vote but Hatchback was one of my favorite albums this year.

just...gorgeous

Moon Duo can do no wrong.

moon duo is great. especially this monster of a song. keyboard "riffs" rule!

http://youtu.be/RqcBjZmUbSU

I loved the Moon Duo album but considered it too old for a 2011 list.

Krauty blissed-out beach vibezzz

How to sell me on a record in five words or less. I need to check out this Hatchback.

I loved the Moon Duo album but considered it too old for a 2011 list.

It came out in 2011 though!

hatchback was my #1, was hoping it would place higher. very well-executed new agey ambient balearica, miles better than anything else the guy has done (save for maybe "white diamond"?). "orinoco waltz" is my favorite track fwiw

also love far side virtual. not going to try to explain WHY, cause it was sort of an obvious, immediate connection for me, and if you don't get it off the bat you are a lost cause imo

lex youve been really quiet here compared to the tracks poll. Have you heard anything yet you hadnt hesrd but like?

not really. it's harder to check out new albums (especially as my hard drive died at the weekend and took my entire music collection with it). other than marling and wruhme, i wasn't enthusiastic about any i'd already heard. i checked out a few tracks of the ones i haven't heard but nothing's grabbed me, though hatchback might be the likeliest yet. (well i assume i'll like grouper but i also assume i know what it sounds like and can hear it at my leisure)

yeah "white diamond" is the old hatchback song i liked

w.r.t. the title track, i love how they perfectly mix the poppy boppy vibe with the soaring wanky psych guitar solos

I might be wrong but it I am sure I was listening to it in summer 2010. I might be losing my marbles.

Pleasantly surprised that moon duo placed - I liked it well enough.

http://i.imgur.com/Tj5oC.jpg

48. Tom Waits — Bad As Me (352 points, 14 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 5

Spotify

xp

Maybe you are thinking of Escape?

My initial reaction to the new one was "too poppy" and "too repetitive" but those riffs drove their way into my brain in a good way.

I might be wrong but it I am sure I was listening to it in summer 2010. I might be losing my marbles.

The Escape EP was from 2010, but Mazes came out in March of 2011.

Didn't vote for the Waits, but its a good record. I picked a good time to check back in on him.

Didn't really like the Moon Duo album the one time i heard it, but forget the nature of my gripes.

Ah Bad As Me, which I voted for and gave a positive write up when it came out, but now...? I dunno, I've gone right off it. Too many dull ballads and hoary rockers. I'd say there are maybe four decent tracks here but I skip so much off this thing. Do like Let's Get Lost and Hell Broke Luce.

Was kind of like Wet Hair iirc? xp re Moon Duo

lex i'd be pretty surprised if you didn't like the Hatchback album. really should've placed higher, imo.

demdike stare and moon duo = my first votes to make the countdown. yay!

i've cooled on the former a bit since late 2010/early 2011, as their assembled body of work tilts a little too steeply towards spooky aural wallpaper for my taste, but the high points (in my estimation, the denser and more beat-driven tracks like "forest of evil dawn" and "repository of light") are spectacular.

moon duo are easily my favorite thing to come out of the wooden shjips axis, and mazes is leaps and bounds beyond anything they've done prior. could listen to the title track forever. so effortlessly cool and catchy. motorik beach pop!

oh tom waits, nice. didn't quite make my ballot but i was really pleasantly surprised by it - it sounds like he really enjoyed making it, it has this fantastically unforced feel to it - just tom being tom and doing what he's best at. these were my favourites

talking at the same time
hell broke luce
last leaf

tried to listen to laura marling's "the beast" but couldn't make it through

Demdike Stare is fantastic, but I didn't vote for it because I kind of thought of it more as a comp/reissue.

only played the TW album once so far but Hell Broke Luce completely owns

basically a really nice balance between drunken rollicking explosions and chants / sentimental balladeering / casting a caustic observer's eye over the financial crisis

xps