Best album from the 2020 ILM EOY album poll that received only ONE top 3 weighted vote

Anna Högberg Attack

excellent reminder for me to check out the maria mckee record

voted for the one which was mine (and which will probably once again garner a single vote here).

You can listen to the Lauren Bousfield here: https://deathbombarc.bandcamp.com/album/palimpsest

(It was my vote so I've got to vote for it here too, <3 manic glitchy dream records)

kassa overall was my #1 so this is an easy poll for me

The Windy & Carl one is mine. Follow and love them since the 90s, and if like me you did too, you'd be amazed that so many years down the line they still create this utterly engulfing, gorgeous music. 'Allegiance and Conviction' is what 'Double Negative' was for Low (even though the music is not that similar, beware). A statement, a zeitgeist-record for the ages.

pulse emitter. still going strong!

here's what i wrote about kassa overall on my personal blog:

1. Kassa Overall - I Think I’m Good: “I think I’m good”–a phrase that’s ran through my head throughout this shitstorm of a year. Sure, I postponed a wedding, cancelled trips, and saw my friends and family much less often than I would like, but I count myself among the lucky ones. Still breathing, still sane. Though it was recorded and released before the pandemic started, Kassa Overall’s I Think I’m Good became a lodestar of sorts for me. It’s a brilliantly introspective and deeply personal album about existing in enclosed spaces–whether a jail cell, an NYC subway car, or the inescapable prison of your own body.

Kassa Overall made his name as a jazz drummer, touring with icons like Geri Allen, but his solo music incorporates elements of hip-hop, classical, and trap to create a wholly original milieu. The album features contributions from over 30 accomplished voices, ranging from luminary Vijay Iyer, to Kassa’s saxophonist brother Carlos Overall, to virtuosic pianist Sullivan Fortner, to venerated activist Angela Davis. But all the disparate elements come together in service of Kassa’s deeply personal and engrossing vision.

Taking partial inspiration from Kassa’s struggle with manic depression, the music fluctuates between meditative calm and unbearable tension, mimicking the patter of an unquiet mind. Album opener “Visible Walls,” is a mesmerizing prayer for salvation soundtracked by fluttering harps, piercing woodwinds, and heartbeat percussion. “Find Me” buries a plea for help within a cacophony of sampled voices and rattling piano notes. Fortner’s piano guides us through the hauntingly devastating “Halfway House” and the Chopin-indebted “Darkness In Mind,” each highlighting a different stage of grief (despair and acceptance, respectively). The arc of I Think I’m Good concludes with the hopeful “Got Me A Plan” and “Was She Happy (For Geri Allen),” a Vijay Iyer-assisted tribute to his late friend and mentor.

It’s ironic that an album that so deeply explores the feeling of isolation vibrates with such a collaborative spirit. I Think I’m Good feels like an answered prayer–a community coming together to check on a beloved friend who’s gone through a tough time: “You good, man?” “I think so.”

One of these days I shall stop confusing Noveller and Novellist and stop thinking Windy and Carl are a 60s sunshine pop act

Voted for the only one I bought, Exquisite Corpse

Hey, I voted for Exquisite Corpse too, it was my #3! Did one of us not have their ballot counted?

Oh, sorry, I guess you meant you voted EC in this poll, not in the EOY one?

Anyway, for me the Exquisite Corpse album was the comeback of the year. Their first LP in 16 years, and they're still utterly unique in their odd brand of ritualistic art techno, I had to give ∀∃ high points. Some more discussion of it in this thread:

Psychick Warriors ov Gaia, Exquisite Corpse, and their odd brand of minimal & tribal trance-techno-ambient

Short list this year. Hive mind must be growing in size and homogeneity?

Of course three of my votes are choices in this poll :)

thought the Yuko Araki was interesting

Yuko Araki - Live Recording 2019-2020 (1st) - https://gerpfastkolektif.bandcamp.com/album/live-recording-2019-2020

Marta Zapparoli - Sonata Per Eterna (2nd) - https://martazapparoli.bandcamp.com/track/sonata-per-eterna

Various Artists - Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico (3rd) - https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-experimental-music-from-mexico

These are (obviously) deeply recommended by me. Will be most intriguing to those who like or are open to noise and experimental music.

FYI I'll post up links + mini descriptions for all the links shortly

for all the records I mean

The Kassa record looks like it could be exciting

Links + quick comments (written by others)

Anna Högberg Attack - Lena (1st) There are moments which feel as though the ensemble is as much punk band as it is jazz sextet
https://annahogberg.bandcamp.com/album/lena

Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good (1st) The work of an artist whose voice has ripened to its own hard-earned, provocative conclusions, erasing the need to talk about dissolving barriers between hip hop and jazz because he has begun a new conversation.
https://kassaoverall.bandcamp.com/album/i-think-im-good

Maria McKee - La vita nuova (1st) An homage to Dante’s opus on unrequited love. The production is orchestral and operatic and takes it cues from McKee’s lexicon of icons - John Cale, Scott Walker and David Bowie.
https://mariamckee.bandcamp.com/album/la-vita-nuova

Nation of Language - Introduction, Presence (1st) perfectly captures the feeling of the German-influenced synth wave of the early 80s.
https://nationoflanguage.bandcamp.com/album/introduction-presence

Pulse Emitter - Swirlings (1st) Ambient FM-style tones that swim around.
https://pulseemitter.bandcamp.com/album/swirlings

Reuben Vaun Smith - Warm Nights (1st) The sound of warm nights, lapping oceans and a young man, in a Yorkshire shed, wrapping himself in layers of musical warmth and shimmering sonic landscapes.
https://reubenvaunsmith.bandcamp.com/album/warm-nights

Yuko Araki - Live Recording 2019-2020 (1st) Harsh noise drones layered by analog synthesizers, cymbals and samples of Japanese traditional instruments creating abstract rhythms and dissonant harmonies that sound like a noise orchestra.
https://gerpfastkolektif.bandcamp.com/album/live-recording-2019-2020

Lauren Bousfield - Palimpsest (2nd) Brings a new found expertise in orchestral arranging from her other work as a cinema composer, and puts vocals to the front
https://deathbombarc.bandcamp.com/album/palimpsest

Marta Zapparoli - Sonata Per Eterna (2nd) A composition for electromagnetic radiations
https://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/album/sonata-per-eterna

Monetochka - Декоративно-прикладное искусство (2nd) (translated) Filled with allusions and highly social, satirical sketches of contemporary Russian life. Nevertheless, the album marks the transition from the electronic pop sound of Coloring Books for Adults to the musical aesthetics of 20th century Russian pop.
https://lisamonetka.bandcamp.com/album/-

Summer Walker - Life on Earth EP (2nd) A couple sultry strip club joints, a couple guitar-led ballads, a playful reunion with PARTYNEXTDOOR
https://areyoulost.bandcamp.com/album/summer-walker-life-on-earth-ep-chopped-screwed

Windy & Carl - Allegiance and Conviction (2nd) Turning their atmospheric soft focus on everyday life, this is as close as the Detroit dream-pop duo has come to making a pop record
https://windyandcarl.bandcamp.com/album/allegiance-and-conviction

Exquisite Corpse - ∀∃ (3rd) A coherent document of the free-flowing experimentation and musical symbiosis shared between Robbert and Debbie. Created for each other, now to be shared.
https://isla.bandcamp.com/album/xqst

Half Waif - The Caretaker (3rd) A ballsy pop record that often uses restraint and delayed payoff to create a deeper connection
https://halfwaif.bandcamp.com/album/the-caretaker

Jean Dawson - Pixel Bath (3rd) Touches on themes of belonging, power, and death. Be it garage rock delivery over 2000's alt-pop production, synthwave homages, or a brief foray into industrial rap
https://open.spotify.com/album/121Hqnfr9tMBdL0LJuIstL

Noveller - Arrow (3rd) Feels as if it is filled with dreamscapes and contemplation intersecting with tension and drama, a journey that plays out over it’s dynamic sequence
https://noveller.bandcamp.com/album/arrow

Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog (3rd) Perfectly binds the very best features of these three artists and crushes the resulting amalgamation of sound and structure into a sticky, icky doomy nectar
https://sightlesspit.bandcamp.com/album/grave-of-a-dog

Sofie - Cult Survivor (3rd) Deceptively unassuming, yet nuanced and adult pop influenced by 60s, 70s and 80s pop and filled with staccato piano, warming analogue synths and languid guitar
https://sofiefatouretchi.bandcamp.com/album/cult-survivor

Various Artists - Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico (3rd) A secret place where the sound is deep, wide, and treated as a living entity; where live performances feel more like processions, liturgies, or mediums between this realm and the unknown, rather than simple entertainment
https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-experimental-music-from-mexico

Sun Araw - Rock Sutra would have been my #1 if I had voted. I nominated it but see it didn't get any votes

Some really interesting stuff here; I've narrowed down to Maria McKee, Pulse Emitter, Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico, Half Waif, and Noveller. Sightless Pit is close behind but didn't quite stick as much as the rest did. Arrow was a surprise and out of nowhere beautiful. Captivated by McKee's lyrics and Bowie-isms. The Mexican anthology is also a huge surprise and something I'm happy I stumbled upon via this poll.

Half Waif sounds really ILM-friendly and I'd have believed it had placed at #34 or whatever if it had been casually inserted into the rollout.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.