ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2021

yeah great album, maybe my favorite of hers yet

I missed that Howie Lee thread but "Chinese folk/prog/jazz/Balearic/grime" is definitely something that would have swayed me to listen. Giving it a try now and the sample track sounds great. Fuck yeah. Wish I'd heard it earlier.

the first minute of the Davachi actually sounds more like the old Turkish psych-folk I know more than Altin did!

That Howie Lee is an actual album from 2021 that I listened to a bit and it's lush

I should give the Lee another listen. iirc dog latin's enthusiasm for it really made me want to like it

Monday Results:

62. Sarah Davachi - Antiphonals
63. Howie Lee - Birdy Island
64. Black Midi - Cavalcade
65. Vijay Iyer Trio - Uneasy
66. Altın Gün - Yol
67. Kabza de Small, DJ Maphorisa & Tresor - Rumble in the Jungle
68. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!
69. Can - Live in Stuttgart 1975
70. Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou
71. Eris Drew - Quivering in Time
72. Emeka Ogboh - Beyond the Yellow Haze
73. Spellling - The Turning Wheel
74. Hayley Williams - Flowers for Vases / Descansos
75. Doja Cat - Planet Her
76. Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God
77. Various Artists ‎ - Heisei No Oto- Japanese Left-Field Pop From The CD Age, 1989-1996

Oh god damn, Howie Lee is really hitting the spot for me. Even if I get intensely angry about shitty placements in the future, thank you voters of ilx for this one.

Yes! Howie Lee is the first thing I voted for, it's incredible.

Not all of today's placements are for me (still listening through) and I didn't vote for any of them, but at least it is a decisively weird start to the poll.

the only downside so far is a lot of the albums I am most curious about require patience (e.g., the Lee and Davachi ones)

oh this Howie Lee is only half an hour long! this might sound vmnic but i like it when albums are half an hour long. so far it has my interest

lol wtf I did vote for Rumble in the Jungle, sorry for liveblogging my sever cognitive decline

The Can album obviously got on the list due to the lack of a new album from The 1975.

can almost imagine a 1975 'vitamin c' cover

Ha!

xp

less so 'halleluwah'

Re: compilation albums, I do hope that La Ola Interior: Spanish Ambient and Acid Exoticism 1983-1990 places

So glad to see Birdy Island place. What a strange, unique piece of work. Halfway between Chinese electronic music and I guess The Beach Boys' Friends album. Increasingly in the last year or so I'm hearing a lot more music that makes me think "What am I listening to here? How did this actually come about?" and Birdy Island definitely comes into this bracket

Wave, Wave, Wave is super beautiful. I'm so glad the poll prompted me to go back to this, thanks y'all

The Howie Lee thread is p funny: 16 days of ecstatic raving and then silence

I voted for the Davachi, her best in a minute: great chill out music

this Howie Lee is great, thanks all

Oh, the Sarah Davachi album is beautiful. Second from my ballot, which means I'm already doing better than on the tracks poll.

Iyer's trio connect so tightly and groove well even on more subdued or abstruse material.

Yeah, the Iyer made my ballot.

The Iyer album is the only thing from my ballot in today’s results. I like Iyer in a lot of modes, but his trios are my favorite and this may be his best trio.

Now that I've figured out that the 5/4 comment was in relation to Vanishing Twin, I put the album on and started giggling almost immediately because I see exactly why Jordan invoked "Take 5"

I see that as a positive rather than a negative, a bit like Stereolab covering Dave Brubeck on this first song

Realising that Susumu Hirasawa's dazzling BEACON may have been 78'd...

to be extremely reductive, altin gun is basically khruangbin but for turkey

― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili)

Well, Altin Gun has vocals and is more pop oriented. Don't think this is a fair comparison, even if reductive.

Had not heard of Howie Lee btw - big ups for those who voted this in. Can't wait to hear more.

Well, Altin Gun has vocals and is more pop oriented. Don't think this is a fair comparison, even if reductive.

― octobeard, Monday, February 7, 2022 3:19 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

maybe this was once true, but the last khruangbin album was certainly pop oriented, and a few tracks had vocals.

I was introduced to him on his 2020 record, 7 Weapons Series, which is more club-oriented.
https://maloca.bandcamp.com/album/7-weapons-series

I should really go deeper since he's got a ton of records and everything I've heard so far has been amazing.

xp

his bio on the bandcamp page for Birdy Island is p wild (Snoop Lion remixer?)

Hey 3 of mine placed! Godspeed, Altin Gun, & black midi

Sarah Davachi has been on my ballot every year since 2015! I'm glad to see her in the top 77.

What a great list so far. Voted Spellling only. Currently very much enjoying the Howie Lee.

Re: compilation albums, I do hope that La Ola Interior: Spanish Ambient and Acid Exoticism 1983-1990 places

Oh wow. Was that 2021? Have listened to it loads but would have sworn it was at least a couple of years old

Increasingly in the last year or so I'm hearing a lot more music that makes me think "What am I listening to here? How did this actually come about?"

For me these days it's very much "decreasingly". I'll check out the Howie Lee!

Good day for me - I voted for Vijay Iyer, Altin Gun, Heisei No Oto, and I've added a few things to my To Listen pile.

heard most of these, didn't vote for any

looking forward to checking out the emeka ogboh album, the can live album, and heisi no oto though

really enjoyed the spelling album when it came out but it had diminishing returns when i revisited at the end of the year, there's some great moments but it falls off in the second half.

I have been underrating black midi. The sax on this album is beautiful and the whole thing amounts to something weirdly, energetically poignant.

(Re Altın Gün:)

I know it’s not an “i” but couldn’t get the typography to do that letter

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

I'm pretty sure it turned out correct? As I understand it, the Turkic uppercase version of "ı" (as in Altın) is "I", while a capital "i" would properly be "İ". (This is one of those things that utterly bedevil those dealing with internationalization of software: not even conversion from lower- to uppercase is necessarily the same across languages using many of the same letters!)

Black Midi straddles that fence of epic riffs and proggy cheese (peaks with Ascending Fourths) that lends itself to being underestimated. Reminds me of King Crimson a bit in that regard. Fun record, though I didn't vote for it

Howie Lee album is very pleasant, nice island vibes. I'm hoping for a Lou Harrison revival one of these days.

i think so far its just Godspeed from my list but this is great. lots to check out here.

I saw Black Midi live having not heard them before. It didn't click. I don't see the point in being this technicalLy accomplished if all the production is so blown out you can't make out any of the instruments. I just don't get the appeal of this sort of thing

Nice. Vanishing Twin, Emeka Ogboh and all of 66-62 were on my earliest longlist. Only voted for Birdy Island, I think, though I spent relatively little time with it as 8 consecutive tracks. Just as likely a "this pretty thing is Howie Lee again, isn't it?" phenomenon while shuffling.

Pretty sure I voted for Altın Gün a couple of years ago but they didn't seem so literally-recorded-in-1973 this time. (I guess the under-rated Kit Sebastian got my vintage Turkey pastiche vote instead lol.)

I shall listen to this Japanese comp...

First time in years I didn't vote. Just completely spaced on the deadline. Really enjoying the roll-out so far.

Interesting results today. A fair few I've never heard.

I only heard the Vanishing Twin album a few weeks ago and really liked it. Their previous album is great too. Feels like the kind of band I should have been listening to for years. Kind of like when I belatedly heard Jane Weaver a couple of years ago.

Ended up voting for Spellling low down on my list. I don't know if that album will have long term appeal. I really couldn't get past her voice and theatrics at first, but I kept coming back to it and the songs would get stuck in my head. I tried to put it on the other day and really wasn't in the mood for it. I can't remember the last time I had that kind of weird relationship with an album like that.

I didn't like the first Black Midi at all. Haven't heard anything from this one. Voodoo Chili comparing some the vocals to Larry Cameo is making me want to hear it.

That Altin Gun is good. Definitely one I need to revisit. Pleasantly surprised to see them here.

Will try and check out a few of the ones I've not heard in the next few days. Enjoying the roll-out so far.

this black midi is better than the first one (the sax helps) but i don't think it's really going to change anyone's mind about them

Voodoo Chili comparing some the vocals to Larry Cameo is making me want to hear it.

haha. nb, i literally haven’t read anyone else who made the comparison, just a weird back of the throat singing that this one guy does that larry also sometimes doss. please don’t listen to black midi and expect to hear something that sounds like cameo

haha. nb, i literally haven’t read anyone else who made the comparison, just a weird back of the throat singing that this one guy does that larry also sometimes doss. please don’t listen to black midi and expect to hear something that sounds like cameo

― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili),

I listened to the album. There was one song where I could kind of hear what you meant. Not really a reference I ever would have thought of myself, but you put it in my head and so spent the full 45 minutes listening out for it.

The album wasn't really what I expected on the whole. It did get slightly better than that first song which was a bit of a nightmare, but not really my thing at all.