2014 - Favorite Unheralded Album(s)

maybe i am just a damn fool but i do still try. i don't know what it is. i'm driven. if it's great, i want to hear it. i don't care that i don't have time, i'm not giving it the deep listening treatment, but i do try. because if i stop listening to new music i might as well be dead.

Elisa Ambrogio - The Immoralist
Jerry David DeCicca - Understanding Land
Doug Paisley - Strong Feelings
Tashi Dorji - s/t
Village of Spaces - Welcome In
Charlie Parr - Hollandale
Chris Schlarb - Making The Saint

I know some of these were discussed here, but I still feel these were relatively overlooked based on forum lurking and part time record store hours.

oooh need to hear that new Amelia Curran, her last one was lovely

i don't care that i don't have time, i'm not giving it the deep listening treatment,

Yeah, this sounds crazy but I basically don't give anything the benefit of the doubt on first listen these days. There's enough stuff out there that entrances me on first listen, that's what gets repeat plays. I know this is a pretty insular way of appreciating music, but I don't care

sub "entrances" for "doesn't irritate" or "intrigues"

that Schlarb album (xxxpost) is wonderful ... pulsing guitar drifts and drones, perfect for downshifting and disengaging ... and streaming here if anyone is interested:

http://schlarb.bandcamp.com/album/making-the-saint

knifeworld - the unravelling

Sanpaku, I am digging your posts on here...
That DVA is fantastic!
Doesn't sound folky to me at all, but definitely freaky.... Mulatu has an almost afrobeat thang to it, with some top quality skronk at the end there... and great videos too.... Vespering is beeyootiful...

Samaris and Quantic also damn groovy.......

A sunny day in Glasgow - sea when absent

Melodic major key synth layered indie rock with a real rhythm section. Inspired, dense, rewards patience and multiple listens.

I am in the process of listening to this album for the first time, but I think it's already secured a place in my top 10. It's THAT good. Tami Neilson has such a crazy great voice that it would probably be criminal for her not to make a record like this. Hot shit country/rockabilly has been done a gazillion times, but rarely this well.

https://tamineilson.bandcamp.com/album/dynamite

I'll second some love for the Doug Paisley and Sunny Day in Glasgow records, surprised I haven't been hearing more about either of those.

Is the Function & Vatican Shadow album unheralded? It is very beautiful, great night music.

Asphalt Orchestra - Plays Pixies: Surfer Rosa

i don't actually know if these are "unheralded" b/c i don't read much (barely any) music crit, but i haven't heard much about the following:

norberto lobo, fornalha
janek schaefer, lay-by lullaby
meridian bros, salvadoran robot
sasac, hyperion
battle trance, palace of wind
dragging an ox through water, panic sentry
khun narin's electric phin band
matthew hopkins, nocturnes
angkanang kunchai, isan lam plearn
lori goldston, creekside
riverside (doxas/doxas/douglas/swallow)

haven't caught up w/ my jazz listening this year

that's just new stuff, tons of reissues came out this yr of course

Is the Function & Vatican Shadow album unheralded? It is very beautiful, great night music.

― kraudive, Monday, November 24, 2014 4:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i really really like this, after two listens

Khun Narin is an ILX fave, apart from that I've only heard the Meridian Bros album off amateurist's list.

did the khun narin love expand beyond that one thread? if so, good!

some more stuff from 2014 i don''t hear about much:

jason lescalleet, much to my demise
leo welch, sabougla voices
mark turner quartet, lathe of heaven
noura mint seymali, tzenni
per norgard, symphonies 1 & 8 (vienna philh./sakari oramo)
toumani diabate & sidiki diabate

Thanks for the heads up on Dark Blue NYCNative! An example of how one thing can suck me into a rabbit hole of year-end binge listening, I looked it up on RYM, and found this list: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Skillets/2014__and_the_inevitable_onslaught_of_adulthood/. Certain key albums intersect with my favorites, and I try to catch up on the 40 albums I haven't heard.

Most of what I'd mention are covered here: Rolling Stoner/Psych/Freak/Doom/Sludge/Retro/Drone/Space Thread 2014: These Start at 11

Beyond those genres, my top entry right now is this: The Sea Kings – Woke In The Devil’s Arms (Iffy Folk)

Glasgow band masters both pretty jangle referencing The Smiths and Go Betweens with darker lyrics, and more broody sounds via Triffids and Nick Cave.

Also, I thought Wovenhand was being ...heralded due to great reviews, but now it seems to be conspicuously missing from most lists.

Clearly the way to get people hooked on largely unheralded albums is just to post a list of them with no description or context.

Is Kassem Mosse's "Workshop 19" album considered heralded?

In techno/house terms yeah, it got some love.

damn! that Leo Welch one is so good, unbelievably an awesome debut from an 82 yr old gospel/blues singer.

thanks for the heads up on a new Mark Turner album, i'll have to check that out. Dharma Days is a favorite and i didn't realize that he hasn't released anything as a leader since then.

Clearly the way to get people hooked on largely unheralded albums is just to post a list of them with no description or context.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, November 25, 2014 8:10 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry i guess i don't have the energy for detailed descriptions! maybe later.

there are some posters on ILM from whom i'll take a recommendation even w/o context, but i shouldn't assume anyone feels that way about me.

Oh wow, didn't know about that Norgard/Vienna Phil! Listening now.

i guess the isan lam plearn is a reissue. i didn't actually think about that.

anyway you can here fragments of it here: http://www.juno.co.uk/products/angkanang-kunchai-ubon-isan-lam-plearn-remastered/532555-01/

basically almost anything on the EM Label (out of japan) is worth exploring

if you've heard those sublime frequencies molam comps you'll get the general idea

re mark turner's lathe of heaven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar_g4lmRFkw

and leo welch

(sorry if these youtubes irritate anyway, i just find that sharing a little of the music is better than whatever i could write about it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKAft2H_R3o

i posted about norberto lobo, a portuguese guitarist, on the post-takoma thread but here's a tune. it's really really good. brand new btw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkVe80XzSnU

Great thread. Speaking of A Sunny Day In Glasgow, I really enjoy Jen Goma's guesting on the (I guess under-heralded?) Deluxe Edition of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's Days of Abandon (they've also got Kelly Pratt of Beirut in there, but think Goma sings most if not all of the guest leads). Anyway, the bonus tracks' vocals really help to sell me on the whole thing (the dude vocals seem better when you've got more alternatives), and the rhythm section is pretty toned for "dream-pop" or whatever you call this stuff.

Clearly the way to get people hooked on largely unheralded albums is just to post a list of them with no description or context.
― Matt DC,

Second that. If someone is passionate about a particular album, the least they could do is give a one sentence description.

It is quite rare I like any new Gospel/Blues albums but I love that Leo Welch one.

been obsessively playing ambrose akinmusire's the imagined savior is far easier to paint since hearing a track from it on a spotify blue note sampler, it's amazing. Don't know how heralded it is but it's hardly been mentioned on here. inevitably linked in my mind with recent events (there's a devastating track called "rollcall for those absent" that features a kid reading out the names of young black men killed by cops), there's a lot else going on here but the sadness & anger seems to stand out especially now

I should add Ensemble Economique's "Melt Into Nothing". I've not heard this guy's music for a couple of years when he was doing kinda horror / hauntology influenced soundtrack music. This is a fair bit different, darker in a different way - more 80's guitar goth. One of the tracks sounds remarkably like something off the first Slowdive EP. It's great.

wow. toumani diabate has a new album out? i've only heard mande variations, but it was really good. is it different from that?

@amatuerist

that ambrose akinmusire album is another good call, not seen it reviewed anywhere and it is incredible.

I'm not the biggest indie fuX0r but I really liked this album, which hasn't got much press afaict:

http://psiloveyouband.bandcamp.com/album/for-those-who-stay-lp

They're a bit like a rockier version of old Arcade Fire (+ some old Radiohead) but they're totally better because they have long guitar solos with lots of effects. (Guitarist made Spin's all-time greatest list!) Some anthemic choruses.

psiloveyouband

Yeah, not the greatest band name.

couldn't let it pass unremarked!

Speaking of Ambrose Akinmusire, he plays on Cold Specks' Neuroplasticity; I especially like his intro to the last track,"A Season of Doubt." The singing and songwriting will have to grow on me, but already like several arrangements pretty well.

I guess it's not the PS I Love You who did the great "Where On Earth Is Kevin Shields?"
http://www.discogs.com/PS-I-Love-You-Where-On-Earth-Is-Kevin-Shields/release/2012309

it is not

(i discovered the hard way)

The 2014 reissue of City: Works of Fiction (1990) by Jon Hassell is notable, particularly due to being a great bargain (3 discs, 202 minutes) for those without a legit copy of the original. The 1989 live at Wintergarden The Living City disk, mixed live by Eno, is worth the admission, possibly the best Hassell between Aka/Darbari and his sporadic later work with Maarifa St. The Psychogeography disk of alternate takes and remixes (808 State et al) is a hodgepodge, but should appeal to anyone that digs his protege Nils Petter Molvær.

https://iancrause.bandcamp.com/album/the-song-of-phaethon

Jorge Drexler: Bailar en la Cueva

Uruguayan singer/songwriter goes pop

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/23/334490703/finding-the-anthropology-in-latin-dance-music