Lobbying for ILM's Top 77 Albums and Tracks: Justify Your Picks

Not so much lobbying as flagging up things that i didn't post about or would have been buried in rolling threads:

YUKO - Masha there was a brief trend for combining club music and elements of Ukrainian folk circa about 2005 but it faded fairly quickly. It has come back strongly this year - most obviously with ONUKA and Jamala's brilliant performances at Eurovision but also in Masha by YUKO which starts as Ivan-Dorn-style contemporary Ukr-pop before spinning off into skyscraping trad yodeling.

Lana Jurcevic - Kim Kardashian Gleefully silly, totally addictive Croatian summer jam about how her man is "the white Kanye" and she'll be his Kim.

Ultimate Rejects - Full Extreme 2017's Road March -played eight times more than anything else at Carnival, deservedly so.

AIGEL - Tatarin Breathless spoken-word / rap from Tatarstan which riffs on the Russian chanson tradition of songs about waiting for your boyfriend to get out of prison.

Bunji Garlin Close between 1995 and Big Bad Soca for the best Bunji single of the year but the former shades it for transporting me back to summers of wearing out my dad's C90 mix cassettes. It's a hugely effective recreation of golden era soca.

Voice - Far From Finished Affecting mix of groovy soca and afro-pop that took the Soca Monarch competition last year.

Obligatory link to It Is Happening Again: Tim writes about songs from 2017 and the contents thereof.

Not lobbying, but justifying some nominations for NZ/CN stuff that I'll likely be the only vote for:

Re-TROS - Red Rum Aviv B-52s meet the Boredoms in the catchiest track off Nanjing/Beijing post-punks' new album.

Disasteradio - Sweatshop A Devo/Thomas Dolby-esque suburban synthpop type detours into an effervescent jock jam about Foxconn factories, like a funhouse mirror of Chelsea Wolfe's "Iron Moon".

Polyester - Different For A Boy Laconic trans* anthem from disco-yearning indiepop types. One for Maura?

Chinese Football - 电动少女 Anthemic yearning from Wuhan twinkle daddies. One for Brad?

Oh dear - you've just stolen my Re-TROS thunder! Exceeeept - and this is awkward - I am a RIVAL FACTION. While of course deeply charmed by the junkyard-Macarena charms of Red Rum Aviv, my jam of choice has been the preceding track, Hailing Drums, nine minutes of soaring and impossibly infectious dance-rock, a sort of Atlas for 2017 (except better than Atlas IMO).

I guess ILM will have to decide if it's on #TeamAviv or #TeamHailing. Everyone must choose

'Charmed by the charms' omg kill me

Anyway, I'd also like ILM's intrepid to give ear to that Cheer-Accident song linked on Bandcamp up there^^^ because it's just too beautiful for words...

...along with the usual fare

I would lobby for Akrakabo, which had the best musical moment of the year for me, the moment at around 2:00 when it shred the layers of modern electronic sounds and became an accordion/guitar afro-pop song for a bit. That was the one song that kept seeming unreal and inexplicable throughout the whole year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgQ1CXd0sQc

Fuuuuck, I didn't want that to embed. Sorry.

i don't have any issue with embedded youtubes; sometimes you gotta share

its also such a good song too :)

peter gordon & love of life orchestra - condominium

condo was a long out of print early 80s obscurity and the most popular youtube video was being played at a deliciously heady too-slow 33rpm which lent its steady chug a more reflective air, PG was sufficiently smitten to include a slowed down version when he rereleased it this year. I started a thread that only michael b read & I've been living inside it ever since. far & away my favourite track of the year (also missing from the spotify tracks playlist)

karen gwyer - why does your father look so nervous?

an eerie, panicked swirling surrounds this as it builds before you feel the axis shift underneath you and it opens up in a way that reminds me a little of open eye signal by jon hopkins but more frantic, wild-eyed and unsettling

yves tumor - e. eternal

sees something in a tender little track by Woo and throws it against a sacred polyphonic chant to create the sort of gorgeousness to which i'm v susceptible

Anyone who has ever had any interest in Jpop should really check out the Keyakizaka46 track. It's an absolute banger, w/ intense rave synths and girl gang vocals, and also for an idol band K46 have a real cool social conscience.

Some of the lesser known of my noms:

Bill & Joel Plaskett - Solidarity (Canadian rock semi-star teams up with folk singer father for a classic-sounding protest anthem.)

Desperate Journalist - Why Are You So Boring? (defiant girl-led British pop-punk)

Worriers - Future Me (miss the Weakerthans? Me too. Here's what they'd sound like with a female vocalist.)

Guided by Voices - Overloaded (you know who GbV are, and you know that they have way too many songs. This is one of the good ones.)

Hurray for the Riff Raff, both the album THE NAVIGATOR and the track PA'LANTE. especially after this year, both are inspiring and both will place high.

Hurray for the Riff Raff - Pa'lante

And I hope we're all leaving our doors unlocked at home.

Testerossa - it reminds me of the old dodgems days on the Wirral and that is my reason

might as well lobby for my two favorite albums of '17, both of which are Political Rock Albums so feel free to skip if that's not yr bag

Aligers' Underside of Power has a dedicated thread and is a minor ILM favorite but hasn't gotten a ton of recognition elsewhere. Algiers blend post-punk, goth, industrial, and gospel influences in a way that is, as far as I can tell, completely unique. Stated influences run from Swans and Throbbing Gristle to Ornette Coleman and classic soul. A Fred Hampton sample opens the album and the names of police victims are recited. Listen to the title track, "Cleveland" or "Walk Like a Panther" and you'll figure out pretty quick if it's your thing.

Propagandhi's appropriately titled Victory Lap is the best album of their thirty-year existence. Having long evolved from sneering skatepunk to self-described "progressive thrash", Canada's best working rock band has also evolved in its lyrical approach. Chris Hannah (one of punk's greatest vocalists) of course rails against capitalism, heteronormativity, exploitation, and colonialism (neo- and historical) as per usual, but there are new layers of knowing humor, doubt, and self-implication that were never really allowed in before. New guitarist/backing vocalist Sulynn Hago seems to have supplied Hannah and co-vocalist Todd Kowalski with fresh vigor and inspiration, and many of the songs are the best they've ever written, knotty and dense and heavy as hell but also packed with actual hooks (a quality missing from their much more prog-leaning last album). Every song works as a thesis statement in miniature, culminating in the incredible "Adventures in Zoochosis", which samples Trump to nauseating effect and ponders the weakening resolve that can accompany age as well as the hope for the future that new generations can provide:

I suspect if I slink back to my enclosure, safe and warm and adequately lit, sufficiently plumbed and ventilated...
Well, let's just say I would not shake a stick

And if pressed, I'll admit I'm ecstatic about the enrichment programs implemented to extend our captive lifespans.
I'm excited to see what our keepers have planned.

Perhaps a bigger cage? Longer chains? Some compelling, novel reasons to remain?
"Dad, are we gonna die?" Yes son, both you and I.
But maybe not today.

I nominated this (and voted it #1 on my Pazz/Jop tracks), so I'll lobby for it too. The shorter version in the video is great, but I really love the 6-minute version on bandcamp. Apocalyptic motorik swamp-punk, just what 2017 needed.

Gary Wrong Group, "Floods of Fire"

https://youtu.be/lzomC9diNDw
https://garywronggroup.bandcamp.com/track/floods-of-fire

posted this track on the rap thread a few months back, but i'm definitely voting for it and i would be remiss if y'all don't take a listen.

Pardison Fontaine - "Food Stamps": https://youtu.be/_MIvI_5oQJk

East coast tough talk, but with uncommon energy and charisma, a variety of flows, and some great, great one-liners

*i would be remiss if I don't ask y'all to take a listen.

"Food Stamps" made my tracks ballot

nice

Well The Norwegian Girls Choir's Folketoner is my niche-y niche pick of the year. It's an elite choir, I guess, a competition choir, girls aged 6 - 26, with various sub choirs for younger singers and recruitment. They're musically adventurous and work a lot with contemporary classical composers who write for them. Worked several times with Maja Ratkje, Frøy Aagre, etcetera. This album is simply performances of old Norwegian folk songs, but a pretty essential contribution to that genre in my opinion. Their signature sound is super sharp and precise, leaning towards minimalist but playful, and this is an ominous, sometimes supernatural-sounding album, an approach that fits well with the melancholy quality of these old songs.

I don't want to sound like an asshole, but the reason girls choirs work so much with contemporary composers is not because they're more musically adventurous, but because there's no established repertoire for girls choir...

I'd love to see one of the vapowave tapes make the cut. My current favorite from the list is the Nmesh one, but I get the feeling that death's dynamic shroud is the popular choice. What say you all?

i might vote for the NMESH.

"IT'S A RANGE!" "ooooooooh!"

death's dynamic shroud are probably going to make my ballot. the closest anything since has gotten to Rival Dealer for me & surprisingly cathartic.

I don't want to sound like an asshole, but the reason girls choirs work so much with contemporary composers is not because they're more musically adventurous, but because there's no established repertoire for girls choir...

― Frederik B

May be true, but close relationships with noise musicians, for example, is not a default mode. Plenty of girls choirs out there doing less interesting and adventurous. I didn't say they were adventurous simply for working with contemporary composers.

xps
death's dynamic shroud will be my top choice of the bunch i think
have a few in there but my original list had pharma just outside my 25

Please don't sleep on Self Esteem's 'Your Wife', it really is a stunning bit of sultry electro-pop, the kind that fits easily into the shambhala thread but somehow stands apart from it too

death's dynamic shroud made my long list, will re-listen!

I'll be voting for it for sure. Not getting Rare Emoji Collection into the 2015 traxpoll was a crime that will hopefully be rectified now

"Your Wife" very nearly made my list, always rooting for Slow Club folks

xps shudda voted album then ;)

Thought Classroom Sexxtape was decent with one massive highlight - this album is much better all the way through

ha was just kidding about
if anything i'm the opposite :/

Algiers are gonna make the albums poll I hope. I would love it if the title track made the 77 too as it's stunning

They were the only act I put in both ballots

Got a good feeling about Akrakabo too! :-) I agree with what Frederik said about it upthread. It's such a sensual onslaught, it takes a few listens to catch your breath and get a grip on what's going on, but the part when it all falls away for a few minutes is like glimpsing a moment of raw beauty in among chaos

We had a thread for SACRED PAWS and it's great to hear some UK guitar music that is for once original and joyous and really well-played. Think classic 90s Matador indie with a high-life vibe. The track 'Strike a Match' is the pick.

^^ voting highly for sacred paws

if I may do my bit for Sacred Paws, I absolutely loathe it, which usually helps to push something up the 77

you loathe it imago? strong words. i'd be interested to know why

cough cough

thread to dis hyped 2017 releases that you don't get/don't like/wanna complain about

he hates drums, or something

Speaking of excellent Scottish bands, I'm very surprised to see just a couple of mentions of Glaswegian kosmik funk marvels Golden Teacher on ILM. Their album was apparently recorded live at the city's famous Green Door Studio and spans a huge range of styles from disco to dub to spaced-out Lindstrom-esque fuckwizardry and it's REALLY REALLY good

This is the lead track, and maybe the most obviously accessible song on there. It goes interstellar after that youtube.com/watch?v=GFpnkgd6iok

Re-TROS seconded although my fave Re-TROS jam is "At Mosp Here"

kraut dance thingie that bests anything on the new LCD Soundsystem album

*obliterates into tiny shards

Kinda astonished that Dave "Question Time" has never been mentioned on ILM. Devastatingly powerful and on-point, my track of 2017 by a country mile. https://youtu.be/4ff6CjYBhoI

oh i forgot about jacquees "at the club", star of the 2017 r&b thread

dropping by to say that the nominated L'Rain track is kind of incredible, cheers to whoever put that on

as is the album it's from :o

That Octo Octa album is really good.

I'm listening to this a lot right now - Leif - July V - Sort of like Steve Reich makes downtempo acid techno.

Lost in California is incredible, can't believe I didn't get to it before voting

I've got to say, some of the late entries, which I'm just getting around to sifting through, are pretty high quality. I liked Kelly Moran's Bloodroot, which I guess is prepared harp or something like that? (Not curious enough to search right now.)

xp, I agree, that Octo Octa album is great!

I also really love the Sasha/Poliça track that Brad recommended above.

Some things that nobody mentioned:

(3) Trio of synth-pop
Perfume - Houseki no Ame (it's Perfume, it's great obv)
Johan Agebjörn and Mikael Ögren ft. Sally Shapiro and Tommy '86 - Aurora Over Odega (Remix) (Relive the glory days of ILX)
Charlotte Adigéry - 1,618 (the older sister, bit more hip and experimental)

(2) Two new age albums ft. cosmic enlightenment
The Swan And The Lake - Clouds (new)
Pauline Anna Strom - Trans-Millenia Music (old)

(1) One album with "One" in the title
https://penelopetrappes.bandcamp.com/album/penelope-one (very Poliça, bit of Kelly Lee Owens, bit of Low is my super lazy comparison)

(0) ???
Mariam the Believer - Crust (art-pop odyssey to soundtrack progressive romcoms and picnics)

keep meaning to post my picks but would like to give due deference to LOONA Girl Front, that is a jam

gonna repeat myself but with a little elaboration

L'Rain

the most astonishing debut in a while. psychedelic art-soul from the heavens. only 26 minutes long. whatever your taste you need to hear this. whoever nominated it, you are an angel

I know ILX doesn't have a Bollywood massive, the way we have k-pop and afro-pop groups, but I'd still want to mention my favorite this year: Guru Randhawa - Suit Suit. Probably won't make the list - and that's probably not that unfair - but still one of the only times of year where people will listen to Bollywood tracks.

yeh found l'rain after the bandcamp eoy list
its a real joy

been digging around the noms list and I just want to shout about this track 'Volumes' by Minor Science which is this wonderful slow-pulse techno track with these cool little vocal snippets that grows and grows into an absolute BANGER of a tune.
thanks to whoever nominated that

billy woods' album Known Unknowns is fantastic and well worth a listen.

Also the Buddy track Find Me was great: https://youtu.be/NWTNbDkalAQ

Other tracks I am campaigning for:
Blanck Mass - Please
Four Tet - Two Thousand and Seventeen

been digging around the noms list and I just want to shout about this track 'Volumes' by Minor Science which is this wonderful slow-pulse techno track with these cool little vocal snippets that grows and grows into an absolute BANGER of a tune.
thanks to whoever nominated that

― Badgers (dog latin), Monday, January 15, 2018 3:26 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this track rules

Gene on Earth's Pulse Mode is the sound of riding of a bmx on the top deck of one of the trams at Blackpool pleasure beach while finishing off a can of brexit half-inched from the budget astral plane

actually thats a different record which I forgot to nominate but this one is good just a little more reflective not one of the brash lads

tess roby - ballad #5

beautiful slow sad synth-pop song (if you choose to listen, be patient bc a truly genius hook comes in 2/3 of the way thru)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1vAY8zF3Gc

randomer - smokin

crazy techno song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9cWhfJ8NJw

sorority noise - you're not as _____ as you think you are (album)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tZauks6QnI

if you care to trust someone who just got into emo this year, this was the best emo album of the year (besides another one that will not be mentioned or voted for because the singer did sex crimes)

Jen Cloher's self-titled album is definitely worth hearing! She's Courtney Barnett's partner, and the album features much rumination as to the notion of being a seasoned musician and watching the career someone you love (and who also happens to be much younger than you) take off really fast, as well as the way touring can affect personal relationships. Fans of Courtney or PJ Harvey might find something to enjoy.

Can I also suggest Kah-Lo's "Fasta". Kah-Lo previously featured on Riton's "Rinse & Repeat", which placed #55 in last year's poll. Her disaffected, bored vocal works well with the song's sleek verses - the chorus provides levity as contrast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI5G09Z-lXY

last chance for me on this track and i didn't even nominate but everyone in the world should toss a vote for akanamali in your singles ballot imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKxFS8L6AlQ

or at least play that one song once. i don't ask much.

I love that Sun-EL Musician track!

if there's still people who haven't voted, let me once again talk up Aussie power-pop goddess Alex Lahey, who released I Love You Like a Brother, the hookiest rock record of 2017:

"i haven't been taking care of myself" - the mission statement, the track I nominated: https://youtu.be/d9TqFgWAWiU
"lotto in reverse" - angry break-up, inventive chord progression: https://youtu.be/qBYR_jFwrmo
"there's no money" - power ballad, she sings the hell out of it: https://youtu.be/mVTkDRC-08E

vote for the album, please

xp aw i think akanamali made my longlist but got cut for the 25 :(

last chance for me on this track and i didn't even nominate but everyone in the world should toss a vote for akanamali in your singles ballot imo

OK I'm sold

A bell end writes: where do I go to vote? (Asking for a friend, obvs.)

Christ - just found it. Ignore me.

Shuffling through the tracks nominations and most are straight dog poop.

subaquatic/subterranean deeeeeep ambient tech:

Money Morning - Corporate Karma

http://clone.nl/item47474.html

Shuffling through the tracks nominations and most are straight dog poop.

― Salt Lake City Motorcycle Accident Nerve Damage Lawyer (_Rudipherous_), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 9:58 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's a thread for this, jack

DJ Swagger - "Lost"

great lofi house with a sweet looped sample

This year I started paying attention to Afropop for the first time and discovered so many great songs that I hardly listen to anything else lately. Out of the tracks I nominated, this one is my favorite:

Sauti Sol feat. Patoranking - Melanin

I think I like how combines some elements that sound very traditional (like the acoustic guitars on the intro, the "na na..." chants) with stuff that sounds decidedly more modern (the bassline, some synth pads) in a way that just works. Also, all vocals are flawless.

Wish I'd heard Hieroglyphic Being, Sarathy Korwar & Shabaka Hutchings 'The Doctrines Of Swedenborg' before voting!

Shuffling through the tracks nominations and most are straight dog poop.

― Salt Lake City Motorcycle Accident Nerve Damage Lawyer (_Rudipherous_), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:58 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Check mine. Mine are great

xp melanin is awesome!

Wish I'd heard Hieroglyphic Being, Sarathy Korwar & Shabaka Hutchings 'The Doctrines Of Swedenborg' before voting!

― nashwan, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:58 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I nominated this! It's amazing and everybody should vote for it

Thank you or something for nomming Skee Mask, which has led me to discover (a) Skee Mask; and (b) Stenny.