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

a post that could be quoted out of context

with just a bit of tweaking

lol yes that is what I meant

9pm is my brain's bedtime

they just came out with an album this past friday

yeah it rules, discussion on their thread

I really screwed myself by not nomination more stuff this year (I know I CAN vote for them but....enh)

Have been enjoying going through the playlist over the last few days. My main discoveries are the Victoria Monét album. The whole thing is great, but Experience is quite something. Not sure how I slept on that one.

Also I've got a bit obsessed with The Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas remix of Apex by Jaga Jazzist. Probably my favourite Lindstrøm related track since Home Again. That switch-up half way through is incredible.

Monotony nominated a bunch of tracks that are all contenders that were new to me (I was terrible at keeping up this year). Love Of Your Life by RAYE, Promises by COY and Orange Sanguine by Pauline Chagne. Camera Flash by Jones is likely to be in my top five. Such a gorgeous funky track.

It's nice to find a bunch of new things to consider as at one point my list would have just been all the Jessie Ware and Charli XCX songs nominated.

As for things I nominated that probably won't get much traction, I'd like to give a shout out to the Better Person album which is a charming little sophisti-pop record that's insanely catchy. It kind of sounds like Rhye if they'd been more obsessed with China Crisis and Black instead of Sade.

A friend sent me the title track a few months ago and I keep getting it stuck in my head. It comes with this wonderfully low budget video. I could watch him awkwardly emoting all day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl_7Tekeu4Q

Listening to Princess Nokia's Everything is Beautiful record and it's beautiful.

Not sure if I mentioned ITT but I counted down my 50 favourite tracks as a bedroom-based radio show, archived in the top three streams here: https://www.mixcloud.com/cframe/

Food for thought if anyone needs inspiration

I'd really like to see a few votes go to these:

Sarkodie - Oofeets
MC Waraba - Djoro (Bertha Vs. Sheitan Brothers Remix)
Saronde ft. Idd Aziz - Firewood

As for things I nominated that probably won't get much traction, I'd like to give a shout out to the Better Person album which is a charming little sophisti-pop record that's insanely catchy. It kind of sounds like Rhye if they'd been more obsessed with China Crisis and Black instead of Sade.

He reminds me a bit of Mark Hollis too, at least on this track. 'Dotknij Mnie' my pick from the album.

Also in anyone's not aware, the Alabaster dePlume record was an ambient-jazz-folk ILM sensation during early COVID:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I68NJaBkLs0

Dagny - Somebody: when you thought you didn't need any more Robyn/Jepsen-style synth epics and then one comes out with all the pieces in just the right places to still take you up high

I can state categorically that there will be at least one DePlume album on my ballot

Producer Park Moonchi's sound references layers of Korean pop history, moving between directly retro constellations (she's also part of a 90's styled girl group she produces), novelty leaning hits (like one produced for a leading Korean variety show this summer), 'serious' ballads and pop productions for idols that still reveal an infatuation with the 90s and.. the stuff released under her own name, which is retro, modern, silly, sentimental and everything at once, often featuring a regular clan of vocalist collaborators now known as 'Park Moonchi Universe' - most of them featuring on this delightful and irresistably catchy summer thing. Clumsy English subs available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIeahm_gz4M

(Called 'We're Cool' in the nominations list)

here are some k-pop tracks that surely have no chance of placing but i'll highlight anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ6ytIcJ-k4
XUM - "DDALALA" - a high intensity track with a heavy jersey club influence, has a pretty distinctive feel even in comparison to the few other recentish jersey club/pop crossovers like ciara's "level up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8YW1tlsmE8
Sunmi - "pporappippam" - yet another 80s-esque shimmering synthpop/disco track but one that just gets everything right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P416UUerDVs
A.C.E. - "Goblin (Favorite Boys)" - a swaggering boy band track with intense synths, vaguely nu-metal guitars, and so many hooks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHikmx0eVXM
Weki Meki - "Cool" - exactly what its name suggests. i still haven't tired of this particular 'cool' girl-group sound in k-pop when it's done this well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD06B-5SsSE
Solar - "Spit it out" - apparently influenced by latin pop but to me it sounds like a pretty distinctive (and superior!) take on that country/folk/edm wave of ~2013 - it de-emphasises the acoustic guitar largely leaving dreamy synths to carry the country-esque melody

right after i typed my alexander deplume post, i went in for an MRI and they offered to play ported-in youtube music during the scan for me and i asked if they could play cy and lee and it made the whole experience almost enjoyable.

ugh i just realised i forgot to nominate the beths - "out of sight". must have seen that "dying to believe" was nominated and got mixed up somehow

I'd assumed that one had been nominated too - it's even on my draft ballot

If you're going to listen to one thing from my ballot, please listen to Dijf Sanders - Ravana.

Not really sure how to describe this track, it's pretty amazing and I more people should listen to it:

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

Also just noticed that in the nominations it says Djif Sanders instead of Dijf Sanders (my fault for making a typo in the nominations). Could somebody correct that please?

I've said it in few prior threads but the track i would beg everyone to listen to before they vote is "Yaz Abantu" by Gwamba and Mlindo the Vocalist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4afXKoaNIvA

If you're going to listen to one thing from my ballot, please listen to Dijf Sanders - Ravana.

This is wonderful. Fuck, I'm definitely making room for this. I've been trying to keep up the idea that this poll is going to be a big fun escape from everything but the world is so shit and I am so depressed and tired I was tempted to just throw a ballot containing nothing but my band and Scooter at it, but discoveries like this really help get my energy back up.

(I'm not actually voting for my band btw, it's Not The Done Thing, even though I'm so proud of that record and I'll be bummed out to not make any EoY lists at all)

I think my favorite discovery off the noms list so far is Hen Ogledd, "Trouble"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWghsLiZL5k

Strangely, the rest of the album leaves me cold! But this song, wow.

fwiw em, Slum of Legs is on my short list; I think you have enough hometown fans here to crack a 77... and if not, you're top 77 in my heart

Aww <3

Yeah I quite like that Hen Ogledd track too. Had just assumed they were some Welsh band in the mould of Melys so was surprised to find out Richard Dawson is a member. Haven't heard anything else by them though xps

I really like the Slum of Legs track on the playlist and will probably be making room for it on my ballot

SOL gonna be on my tracks ballot for sure

That Hen Ogledd track is a clear highlight of their album too yes

it's very difficult for me to pay attention to any of this but I will try to vote.

“Problem Child” by Hen Ogledd from their previous album was also #2 or 3 on my ballot a couple years ago.

lol ok so somebody added some christian audio book track to the Spotify playlist, "our healthily body conditions" from abraham's teachings - an introduction

lol, okay i am leaving that

that is nothing like what i expected hen ogledd to sound

Beatrice Dillon was not slept on by ILX but I want to put a good word in for "Workaround" anyway, in case anyone missed it: https://beatricedillon.bandcamp.com/album/workaround

Another lesson learned to pay more attention to nominations: how did one Kate NV track get in and not be Sayonara, Marafon 15 or Plans?

I reckon most people will just vote for the album instead

ballot submitted i think, computer glitch halfway thru' so fingers crossed it worked

cheers to silverfish for Jockstrap tip, not just that track but the whole record is great

I never actually got around to listening to the album, I guess I'll do that now

it is dead good

cuz the whole album ruuuules !

Wish i had nominated some though. I probably won't even vote in tracks unless i get to spend most of the weekend going through noms. Here's hoping.

it is good, it is weird

if anyone else is interested in hearing some intricate & elegiac fringe indie that almost nobody has heard of, i am obsessing over this today, the incredible spin-off sequel to a merely decent record that came out to greater notice earlier in the year

https://surfacetoairmissive.bandcamp.com/album/shellys-secret

i meant Kate NV. but i got to check more of these albums getting talked up

gonna vote soon, but first i wanted to rep for some rap songs i'm putting on my ballot

king von - "took her to the o": one of my fav story raps in a long while. it's hard not to hang on every word--von had a kind of controlled intensity on the mic not seen since dmx. it's harder to listen to now, since von's murder, but it's a remarkably well-crafted narrative, and chopsquad dj's whirling dervish of a beat gives the song a sense of paranoid intensity. and the story pays off, ending on a bleak bit of gallows humor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzt31eJTGxo

sada baby - "aktivated": effective, propulsive sample with a bug-eyed vocal. an anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q_a6gCou0E

rio da yung og & louie ray - "movie": quintessential michigan rap, two guys competing with one another to see who can be the most disrespectful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm1ToRW0ip8

los & nutty - "i'm jus fuckin around": more tag-team michigan rap, this time both guys take an instrumental funky enough for '90s dj quik and fight so hard against the beat they prob got calls from vince mcmahon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtmK4owlW3Q

pg ra & jetsonmade - "keeping time": beautiful, subdued, street wisdom with booming 808s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PxRBDsCejU

42 dugg - "one of one" ft. babyface ray: sensing a theme here, another detroit duo. helluva is one of the smoothest producers around, combining detroit's propulsiveness with high-def west coast sheen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd5Qe5eW12s

brian brown - "runnin" ft. reaux marquez: soulful southern rap in the isaiah rashad mold with an understated earworm hook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05AxIXk1GCY

yg teck - "what you know": lyrics are poignant and reflective, but what i really love about this song is the bouncy piano and teck's prominent baltimore accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLEPAI2-yFc

sorry didn't mean to embed, used to be that posting the short code would post as a url, not an embed

Another lesson learned to pay more attention to nominations: how did one Kate NV track get in and not be Sayonara, Marafon 15 or Plans?

― or something.

Would’ve voted for those. The one nommed isn’t a highlight for me.

sometimes you just need a song to get louder as it goes on. this just hits all my pleasure spots. apology if this is the wrong thread to campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE7vLPSfw6Q