Rolling Favorite Tracks + Albums 2016

thanks Lowell!

Aireene Espiritu - Back Where I Belong
Bobby Avey - Inhuman Wilderness
Sri Hanuraga - To The Universe
Greg Ward - Touch My Beloved's Thought
Objekt - Kern, Vol 3
Jeff Parker - The New Breed
Axel Erotic - In Love With

I forgot this one.

Matt Wilson's Big Happy Family - Beginning of a Memory

iLe - Canibal

(Ironic alt latino sombrero tip to curmudgeon.)

Feels like I've heard loads of good music this year, but there are only a few clear standouts so far:

BONAFIDE CLASSICS:
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Autechre - Elseq 1-5
Brian Eno - The Ship

GREAT - NEED TO LISTEN TO MORE:
Yemi Alade - Mama Africa The Diary of an African Woman
Young Thug - Slime Season 3
King - We Are King
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears
Floorplan - Victorious
Kanye West - The Life of Pablo

PROBABLY GOOD BUT NOT LISTENED TO ENOUGH TIMES:
Prince Rama - Xtreme Now
Forteresse - Themes Pour La Rebellion
Polica - United Crushers
Pr0files - Jurassic Technology
Paul Jebanasam - Continuum
Roly Porter - Third Law

I'm sure I've missed a few big ones out...

Marit Larsen - Joni Was Right
Aurora - All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend
Mr. Fingers - Outer Acid
DMX Krew - You Exist

"Joni Was Right" must have primed me, because I seriously read the last artist as DMX Knew.

My list.

Whyyyy do you guys like 1975!? Everytime I try to like them they just sound like an INXS tribute band and I don't even like INXS that much. What am I missing!?

I think if they were actually more like INXS, I'd find a reason to like them. But because they mostly sound like Duran Duran, I cannot.

cuz their moves are so raw

rolling and woefully incomplete best-of-2016: https://open.spotify.com/user/1239159458/playlist/2nTGXT3XMyWYVg7W4bcQwj

subtitle: at some point I should probably listen to something other than sviib

Album:

iLe - iLevitable

This is PG13 (Ileana Cabra) from Calle 13, the younger sister. She's been singing on their albums since the beginning. I'd be curious to hear other people's impressions but I don't think I have anything to say to entice people to listen. Wish I knew Spanish. Will be saying that on my deathbed.

Definitely not reggaeton.

Xpost: wait rudi you don't speak spanish!? I assumed you did because you're a big fan of latin music!

ILE sounds really good! Closest popular comparison I can think of is Natalia Lafourcade. there's some really nice instrumentation in some of those songs.

I don't. So pathetic. All these years of listening to so much music in Spanish (mostly salsa though) and so little has sunk in.

there's some really nice instrumentation in some of those songs.

I feel that the instrumentation tends to fall short most of the time. It's polished, but somehow lacking. I still like the album but I'm a but ambivalent about it. I think her vocals and songwriting are the strongest parts.

Vocals are somewhat unique from what is normally used in the genre. They're the definite highlight of course, just pointing out some of the instrumentation sounded good on first listen hahaha but yes there's nothing particularly outstanding in that matter.

I hope you at least have learned how to dance salsa! I like the genre but it has never made sense to me as home listening. You need to listen to it while moving.

Oh yeah, learning to salsa is what got me started listening to salsa. I am not dancing these days due to chronic health problems which I'm still trying to resolve. I think it's fine as home listening, especially classic salsa, though I mostly listen in the car these days. Good driving music.

For me, the absolute cream of this year's albums so far is something like

all-time brilliance

Jute Gyte - Perdurance

superlative

Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone
Mitski - Puberty 2
Autechre - Elseq 1-5
King - We Are King
Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä
Ka - Honor Killed The Samurai
Comet Control - Center Of The Maze
The Display Team - Drones
The Drones - Display Team Feelin' Kinda Free

very, very good

Teen - Love Yes
Suede - Night Thoughts
Laura Mvula - The Dreaming Room
Skepta - Konnichiwa
Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D+Evolution
Working For A Nuclear Free City - What Do People Do All Day?
Saqqara Mastabas - Libras
Xenia Rubinos - Black Stars
Teleman - Brilliant Sanity
Kel Valhaal - New Introductory Lectures On Transcendental Qabala

more or less in that order, but there's loads bubbling under, probably some I've forgotten, and plenty coming to blast the above asunder

Playlist updated for August.

here's a list I've been making of 2016 singles I like:

Hazel English - Never Going Home
The Raveonettes - Where Are You Wild Horses
Amason - Airport
Cobalt - Hunt the Buffalo
Angel Olsen - Shut Up Kiss Me
M83/Mai Lan/Animal Collective - Go

There's plenty more but that's all I've managed to put in a spotify playlist I made for such things.

kvelertak sounds more than ever like a blackened thin lizzy on this one and it's making me happy
https://youtu.be/2LsqLO7h3E8

Jimmy Eat World - Sure and Certain
Beach Slang - Spin the Dial
Twist - Can't Wait

Have been enjoying

Flava D - Fabriclive 88

in the car, but I do generally skip all the rapping (I guess those are grime or bassline tracks then).

Good for driving along Zuni after dark.

favorites so far:

Autechre - Elseq 1-5
Aphex Twin - Cheetah ep
Marc Baron - Un salon au fond d'un lac
Angharad Davies & Tisha Mukarji - ffansïon | fancies
Radiohead - A Poon Shaped Mule

still haven't heard many new releases

I should put in a good word for Bobby Kapp/Matthew Shipp's Cactus. At the very least, I keep returning to it.

(I don't feel that strongly about any new albums this year. Even Ilevitable, which has some truly great tracks, slumps in the middle for me. Every album I've listened to and liked still bugs me a little, or is consistent but not special enough, like the Miramar album.)

I keep returning to it.

For the last week and a half or so. The test of time.

New Nicolas Jaar album is pretty good.

Adding the following songs:

Nicolas Jaar - No
Devendra Banhart - Saturday Night
NxWorries - Lyk Dis
Angel Olsen - Sister
The Modernist - The Price of Love
NOIA - Nostalgia del futuro

Spotify's web player isn't cooperating, so you'll have to find links for this short addenda to my March and July lists yourselves. Sorry.

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death (bandcamp) Confessional as K. Hersh, more convincing than C. Wolfe
ГШ (Glintshake) - ОЭЩ МАГЗИУ (bandcamp) 1979 post-punk from Moscow
65daysofstatic - No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe (youtube Gazy post-rock from an unfinished game
Black Merlin - Hipnotik Tradisi (clips at soundcloud) Humid ambient immersed in Bali
Metá Metá - MM3 (Mano Légua on YouTube) Adding sax pulls Brazilians further no wave. I'd start with earlier releases.
Sote - Hardcore Sounds from Tehran (bandcamp) Laptop techno with academic cred

bandcamp is quickly becoming my "discover new music" destination. every couple weeks i just go there, click on all the genre buttons to see the most popular stuff for every genre, and listen to the ones that have interesting covers. Works better than you would think- all kinds of stuff there that gets zero hype anywhere else.

TOP 10 ALBUMS 2016 / as of Oct. 2016

Anderson.Paak - Malibu
BADBADNOTGOOD - IV
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - We Be All Africans
Metá Metá - MM3
Moderat - III
Nicolas Jaar - Sirens
Noname - Telefone
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Shura - Nothing's Real
Xenia Rubinos - Black Stars

Runner-ups / further listens required:

Angel Olsen - My Woman
Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
David Bowie - Blackstar
Drugdealer - The End of Comedy
Kedr Livanskiy - January Sun
KING - We are King
Mitski - Puberty 2
Sofi Tukker - Soft Animals
Two Feet - First Steps
Weyes Blood - Front Row Seat to Earth
Whitney - Light Upon the Lake

I should probably also add Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith to my listening list since it's one of the albums that appears the most on this thread.

8 mentions for it vs say 6 for the Radiohead one.

Really loving this - whatever genre it is (yt comment describes as 'psychotropic steel trap' I don't know what any of those words mean)
Sporting Life feat. Evy Jane - Court Vision

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

Also the Asusu - Sendak / Hallucinator single is fire. Particularly Sendak, sounds like a chainsaw splitting basslines.

have been enjoying the kelsey lu album 'church' lately. it's vocals + cello + pedals, so i guess colleen would be the easy comparison to make. it has that same mix of airiness and tension, but there's more of an emphasis on vocal expression rather than hypnotic rhythms.

playlist is updated; as in prior years, this one becomes a crazy thread dump of whatever's of interest to a strange collective so we end up with over 450 tracks and 38 hours of music to pick through. have at it and suggest what's missing!

ILM's Rolling Favorite Tracks Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Pretty much cemented in place now that my two favorite albums of the year are

Noname - Telefone
Kelsey Waldon - I've Got a Way

...then some other stuff that's not even close to being on that level. I'll sort it out in December.

Baby Queens' debut album came out yesterday, and it is pretty good. They're a five-piece R&B group produced by Cian Ciaran from Super Furry Animals. The first single, "Red Light", came out a few years ago; it's definitely one of the best tracks on the album, but there's a lot of other good stuff on here. I think they're the most promising group Cian has worked with; the lead vocalist, Vanity, has a great voice, and she sounds amazing on "Had My Heart."

Also really enjoying The Pattern Forms. I seem to like everything Jon Brooks touches. The Hintermass LP from earlier this year is also really good and seems to have been lost under the pile of great releases this year. Also a Jon Brooks project.

Baby Queens - Baby Queens https://open.spotify.com/album/0QgNBma8J1MLfK3dZmM6D9
The Pattern Forms - The Pattern Forms https://open.spotify.com/album/2uP2fSxeSmTdtgm0iQQl3v
Hintermass - The Apple Tree https://open.spotify.com/album/4yJYBE0cThCRhp6EglBSN8

A full list of albums here.

Really enjoying/appreciating all these recommendations.

https://youtu.be/Lj-wHYNwYaY

Papa M: “Bloom”

These have been in steady rotation this year:

Venetian Snares - Traditional Synthesizer Music
The High Llamas - Here Come the Rattling Trees
Deftones - Gore
White Lung - Paradise
Lone - Levitate
Bat For Lashes - The Bride
Blood Orange - Freetown Sound
Deerhoof - The Magic
The Avalanches - Wildflower
Lake Ruth - Actual Entity
Pye Corner Audio - Stasis
Zomby - Ultra
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani - Sunergy
Mr. Oizo - All Wet
Monolake - VLSI

a few additions since my last post:

Joyce Manor - "Cody"
Interment - Scent of the Buried
Hail Spirit Noir - Mayhem in Blue
Occult Burial - Hideous Obscure

Euglossine - Canopy Stories

TOP 10 SONGS 2016 as of Nov. will likely change drastically as I start digging EOY lists)

A.K. Paul - Landcruisin'
Alsarah & The Nubatones - Soukura
Avalanches - If I Was a Folkstar
Kadhja Bonet - Honeycomb
Maggie Rogers - Alaska
Nicolas Jaar - No
Noname - Diddy Bop
Radiohead - The Numbers
Sporting Life - Court Vision
Whitney - No Woman

John K. Samson - Requests
Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane – Black Beatles
Japandroids - Near To The Wild Heart of Life