ILM's 2020 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD

Although for some reason I couldn't get excited about putting together a tracks ballot so I didn't, it was all about albums and mixes this year.

I think I put the Nihiloxica up— it really is a stunning record.

i nommed black kaveera on the tracks i think. it's good running music!

Thanks nxd for nominating Op by Vic Bang - gorgeous bubblewrap! If I'd heard this before noms closed, I'd have found space for the album too

Shocked Eris Drew - Fluids of Emotion not nominated as a distinct track

Shocked I tell ya

'Transcendental Access Point' got nommed instead iirc

Exactly! I like both but would've voted for Fluids, thought that was the standout

likely voting for the ep

Started randomly browsing through the tracks playlist, so far the Weather Station is the one that I really need to check out.

Only a still image video, but just seen that this track I nominated is on youtube. Again, I don't think I'll get enough people voting for it to stand a chance of getting it in, but seriously, this track slaps so you should at least listen to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD9YHzvjZgY

heavy Muslimgauze vibes, cool

Also just spotted that Holodrum's 'No Dither' is on the nominations list, and was released on a comp this year, but I voted for it last year! Great track, though, whoever nominated it.

"End of Daze" by Spillage Village is on there twice. I don't believe there are two different versions of the song (I voted for Spillage Village ft. Earthgang & JID - End of Daze)

likely voting for the ep

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 6 January 2021 17:53 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'd love to but I think it's too strong a year to vote for a 3 track EP on my album ballot

'Transcendental Access Point' got nommed instead iirc

I knew someone would say that. I do like it, has a nice Fresh Fruit/Movin Melodies kind of sound

But Fluids is not remotely paint-by-numbers

I'm also going to advocate for Duma's self-titled, which is one of the most stunning experimental records of the year— black metal, power electronics, African club music. It's an unbelievable record, start to finish.

Thanks nxd for nominating Op by Vic Bang - gorgeous bubblewrap! If I'd heard this before noms closed, I'd have found space for the album too

I had a similar thought! I've listened to the album a ridiculous number of times since that nom. And put it in a text file of further album nominations which... ultimately went unsubmitted.

Anyone wants to recommend "bobbins" ? ILM's recs are usually very good and I only discover them during countdown

Sure, I can recommend a few of my favourite ones, just a moment...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOvx_10bDA
Park Hye Jin - No

I actually forgot to nominate this track specifically, but the EP it's from is on the album list and should be voted for. She has such a unique, energetic approach to house music, and the EP proved "I Don't Care" from a couple of years ago wasn't just a flash in the pan.

Sorry, I didn't mean to embed that, I'll try to put other recommendations as links only.

https://naivetrax.bandcamp.com/track/ilana-bryne-give-me-strength
Ilyna Bryne - Give Me Strength

This is my favourite straightforward house tune of the year, a funky, timelessly beautiful organ groove that keeps on growing throughout the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13F_IS1AMqE
Nicole - Inside

This was the best debut bobbin I heard last year. Nicole is a 22-old producer from Georgia (the country, not the US state), this is from her first official release, and she already sounds quite assured. Some nice techno bleeps and whines with a banging beat, what's not to like?

Jeez, how do you link to a Youtube without embedding it? I tried both using the shorter youtu.be link and URL tags, I guess neither works?

I use "hxxp"

We should have a separate poll/countdown for tracks that saer has posted.

Anyway, speaking of debuts, Jasmine Infiniti's debut album Bxtch Släp is on the album list (nothing by her on the track list), and IMO it's a stunning maelstrom of classic Detroit techno synths and heavy, almost industrial beats. Here's a sample track (I should've probably nominated it separately).

on a bobbins-adjacent tip, i'd definitely recommend the K-Lone album 'Cape Cira'. it's very light, sunny-feeling, quasi-ambient music full of nature sounds (water, bird chirps) and organic percusion elements (the dense chime of wooden blocks, metal tinging on metal, the ringing of struck glass), and all carried along by evolving, dancing rhythms. if you've liked e.g. any of the records that music from memory have put out (gaussian curve, suso saiz) or any of the recent wave of japanese ambient reissues (say hiroshi yoshimura's 'green'), it's in that sort of dreamy zone. amazing record (from quite a young producer i think?). have listened to it a hell of a lot this year, it's been good company round the house

https://wisdomteethuk.bandcamp.com/album/k-lone-cape-cira-lp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PBxNklA8bY

on a much more sombre, sobering note, Pale Blue's 'I Walk Alone With Acid' is quite a harrowing portrait of female fear in a culture dominated by toxic masculinity, like a long stare into perpetual darkness. don't know if it's been discussed at all on ilm, but i'd definitely like to hear other people's opinions. it is pretty disturbing though imo, so trigger warning for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhf7_oXnIZU

sorry i should have hidden that video (mods plz?)

I want to mention that Tkay Maidza has been spitting fire for several years now and lies in this sweet spot between M.I.A., Santigold, and Azealia Banks while retaining her own voice/style and everyone should get up on that

vote for the true song of the year, you cowards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcyk7k5E4Rw

ahaha I might, o Jon <3

his hearts in the right place but his guitar should be impounded

Another vote for tkay, very weird that she has never quite gotten that next step boost but i am a fan since brontosaurus

on a bobbins-adjacent tip, i'd definitely recommend the K-Lone album 'Cape Cira'. it's very light, sunny-feeling, quasi-ambient music full of nature sounds (water, bird chirps) and organic percusion elements (the dense chime of wooden blocks, metal tinging on metal, the ringing of struck glass), and all carried along by evolving, dancing rhythms. if you've liked e.g. any of the records that music from memory have put out (gaussian curve, suso saiz) or any of the recent wave of japanese ambient reissues (say hiroshi yoshimura's 'green'), it's in that sort of dreamy zone. amazing record (from quite a young producer i think?). have listened to it a hell of a lot this year, it's been good company round the house

https://wisdomteethuk.bandcamp.com/album/k-lone-cape-cira-lp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PBxNklA8bY

― kites aren't fun (NickB)

Top 10 album of the year for me. The Yoshimura comparison is otm and also a great album!

re: tkay her major label debut album back in 2016 wasn't really her best work and didn't seem to get much of a push from the label either and it seems like that really killed her momentum so now she's building it back again

More laid back bobbins, this time from Bartosz Kruczyński who was behind the excellent Baltic Beat album a few years back and also records as The Phantom and Pejzaż as well as being one half of Ptaki.

He released two excellent albums as Earth Trax this year although only the second one, LP2, is nominated along with a couple of tracks

Earth Trax - The Complete Trance Induction

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61lLtH-v4LL._SY355_.jpg

CAM - The Otherside

The kind of album you feel in your guts should be huge. 'Diane' could've been a one-off miracle but instead this all killer no filler album makes so many cases for her pop meets country style, her amazing pop sensibilities and great voice. Big ass beautiful ballads, bangers and ABBA-likes (listen to What Beauty Means) blend together beautifully.

The perfect lockdown album, an uneasy mix of (according to the thread below) trip hop, Coil, a more ambient Sylvian/Eno take on the last These New Puritans, absolutely perfect self-isolation music, vague crespuscular labradford vibes crossed with a sort of deadpan dead c.-esque vocal delivery, Legendary Pink Dots, Pan American:

CS + Kreme - Snoopy

oh man how did i never listen to the cam album this year

I can't believe "Pig Feet" by Terrace Martin is not in the nomination list

Well, actually I can but that's a whole other thing

Listen to it anyway even if you can't vote for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OMirbGvn8o

^amazing song that I've only managed to listen to a few times (my partner immediately made me turn it off when I tried to play it in the apt)

It is definitely weird that there's like 100 taylor swift songs nominated and not this...

haha!

the funny thing is that DJP actually nominated most of those!

don’t believe me just watch

nominating every taylor song was someone's idea of a gag

totally assumed someone else nominated "pig feet" whoops