There was a Durutti Column record this year??
― Oblique Strategies, Sunday, 14 September 2014 22:51 (nine years ago) link
The three records I've been playing constantly are all different types of psychedelic rock, which never seems to get much notice from critics or ILM outside the rolling thread.
Black Bombaim - Far Out. Two long jams from Portugal's answer to Earthless, with a different guest on each track.Comet Control - Comet Control. The creative forces behind Toronto's lamented Quest For Fire, Comet Control melds psych and pop and Pink Floyd and all sorts of thing into a catchy concoction.Kikigaku Moyo - Forest of Lost Children. The latest record from this young Japanese psych band who blew me away at Austin Psych Fest. Dreamy and odd with 60s-style psychedlic roots. Really good electric sitar player.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 14 September 2014 22:51 (nine years ago) link
Thanks for heads up on Comet Gain album. Had no idea it existed.
― dlp9001, Sunday, 14 September 2014 23:45 (nine years ago) link
The Comet Gain record is my favorite of theirs in a long time.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 14 September 2014 23:59 (nine years ago) link
https://bleep.com/release/51314-esteban-adame-day-labor
esteban adame - day labor
tasteful unfussy light touch techno / deep house
― mattresslessness, Monday, 15 September 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link
ed sheeran
― uberweiss, Monday, 15 September 2014 00:18 (nine years ago) link
Jennifer Castle's Pink City album deserves much more love.
― xelab, Monday, 15 September 2014 01:01 (nine years ago) link
Comet Control - Comet Control. The creative forces behind Toronto's lamented Quest For Fire, Comet Control melds psych and pop and Pink Floyd and all sorts of thing into a catchy concoction.
Uhh...yes, please. Loved QFF, going to check CC out rn. Thx, EZ!
― alpine static, Monday, 15 September 2014 03:42 (nine years ago) link
yeah, that kikigaku moyo album is real nice
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 15 September 2014 04:37 (nine years ago) link
alpine static, I hope you like it.
Between the new Kikagaku Moyo and the two North American reissues of their prior work they're owning 2014.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 15 September 2014 04:53 (nine years ago) link
i love the leon vynehall album, the "butterflies" single is brilliant as well. warm summertime house vibes yessss
― lex pretend, Monday, 15 September 2014 09:43 (nine years ago) link
i feel like most of my favourite albums this year are critically and commercially unheralded
cher lloyd - sorry i'm late
a volte-face from the sugary bratpop of her debut: depressive emo powerballadry about weakness, vulnerability, despair, loss, the brokenness of being human. interspersed with a few token upbeat songs telling boys to fuck off. sold about three copies i think
khia shamone - lovelocs
khia of "my neck, my back" fame is back in her r&b guise. ludicrous, ludicrously inventive. nine-minute harp-led slow jams, vulgar hooks everywhere, a ragtime gender-flipped reprise of "my neck, my back". she's completely in her own lane these days
gangsta boo & la chat - witch
old girls killing it in rap this year (see also shawnna, remy ma), harder than your favourite hardest rapper. love the way they switch between horror and mean girls imagery and sound elephantine on both
francis harris - minutes of sleep
gorgeous, immersive electronic stuff (got into this through a dj sprinkles tip; would recommend to fans of voices from the lake)
mirel wagner - when the cellar children see the light of day
she's got her own thread that about 5 people post on; creepy as fuck, uncomfortably enunciated dark finnish folk
katie pearl - make it official
not strictly new but davinche uploaded the unreleased r&g album he did with her back in '05ish. ilm back then would've lapped it up
― lex pretend, Monday, 15 September 2014 09:54 (nine years ago) link
cher lloyds record is non-stop great funpersonal fav track is the finale 'alone with me' but truth be told any of the tracks could come on a shuffle list and i'd be happy
― nxd, Monday, 15 September 2014 10:11 (nine years ago) link
Agreeing with the love for the Kikagaku Moyo. Very nice.
― emil.y, Monday, 15 September 2014 12:02 (nine years ago) link
Yeah "Alone With Me" is great, almost like Rachel Stevens in a more plaintive mode. That bit in "Sirens" though where she's like "I am tired, I'm growing older / I'm getting weaker everyday" is so unexpectedly sobering.
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Monday, 15 September 2014 12:09 (nine years ago) link
yeah her delivery on that! also "go on, put the knife in" on "sweet despair" (which i think was co-written by beth ditto)
― lex pretend, Monday, 15 September 2014 12:22 (nine years ago) link
I should stay off this thread because I rarely play any LP more than about three times let alone nonstop. BUT since you ask:
- the Kali Mutsa album Souvenance is very odd but well worth seeking out; you can stream all of it on Soundcloud. Chilean gypsy pop princess meets avant garde electronica. Half in your face, half Gilles Peterson presents..., with one-of-a-kind vocals.
- there's a new Gemma Ray album out, Milk For Your Motors. Apart from two or three nods from Doran, I'm still the only person who mentions this pop-noir songwriter on ILM. I've only listened to this once and the two tracks from her 'death disc' 7" from earlier this year leapt out as highlights and are still in my head now. But hoping that means the rest will grow on me too. She's returned to the outlaw country style of the early days of her career on this record (lots of guitar string bending) though Fiona Brice's orchestral arrangments add a further dimension.
Cher Lloyd CD is on order.
― Jeff W, Monday, 15 September 2014 18:18 (nine years ago) link
truly overlooked:
<a href="https://fishtankfriends.bandcamp.com/album/7day-4cast">Little Weather, 7DAY 4CAST</a>
super young producer i met playing some shows in the northwest, impeccably put together 808s & sunshine.
much less overlooked but still:
mirel wagnersd laikapoolboy92jim-e stackopen mike eagle
― festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 15 September 2014 18:38 (nine years ago) link
oops
http://olewnick.blogspot.com/search?q=marc+baron
Hidden Tapes by Marc Baron
Haven't seen any mention on this site.. Album almost feels tailored to appeal to those interested in Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 15 September 2014 19:19 (nine years ago) link
A record I haven't been playing enough (at least based on putting it on today and loving it from start to finish) is The Cult of Dom Keller's The Second Bardo. Another psych rock record, this time of the English post-Loop variety.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 15 September 2014 21:57 (nine years ago) link
Alvvays - AlvaaysFrankie Cosmos - Zentropy
very indie choices (if not twee) so i figure they'll get ignored by large swaths of ILM, but I really really enjoy both of these.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:09 (nine years ago) link
Also Whoop Dee Doo by the Muffs, same narrative.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 15 September 2014 22:11 (nine years ago) link
I finally got round to that Kikigaku Moyo album, it's very derivative but joyously wonderful as well.
just from a quick listen I like the mirel wagner album as well.
Going to give another shout for that brilliant Jennifer Castle album' Pink City and mention it's ILX significance in that Owen P did the beautiful string arrangements on it.
― xelab, Friday, 19 September 2014 19:48 (nine years ago) link
Nathan Roche Magnetic Memories
― chromecassettes, Sunday, 21 September 2014 03:38 (nine years ago) link
Maybe this will be heralded, dunno, but Pure Reality, the debut from Dark Blue, comes out in a couple weeks on the Jade Tree label; it's streaming in full here:
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/228746/premiere-dark-blue-stream-debut-album-pure-reality-in-full/
Dark Blue is made up of Philly indie rock veterans John Sharkey III (Clockcleaner, Puerto Rico Flowers) Andrew Mackie Nelson (Ceremony, Paint it Black, Puerto Rico Flowers) and Michael Sneeringer (Strand of Oaks, formerly from Purling Hiss, Puerto Rico Flowers).
The debut "Pure Reality" could be the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie provided that Ian Curtis wrote it. It and it reminds me of when I was a teenager in the '80s and I would turn to a then-nascent WHFS. The album is more catchy than twitchy which is fine, and I especially love the darkness that permeates the proceedings, punctuated with slashing guitars and stately baritone vocals.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, 30 September 2014 15:38 (nine years ago) link
Self-released and so far, unheralded: Caroline Peyton's Homeseeker's Paradise, cut w/ Lambchop's producer and pianist, and w/ William Tyler, who recently played a show in Nashville with her to mark album release. Some trax here.
― Edd Hurt, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 16:17 (nine years ago) link
House of Cosy Cushions, _Spell_: Irish act with a few albums under his belt, latest is ambient/dark-autumnal stuff that I like quite a bit
― katherine, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 16:19 (nine years ago) link
Wizkid- Ayo
Nigerian afrobeats(dance-oriented with programmed beats and r'n'b influenced vocals).
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 16:44 (nine years ago) link
"Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter" - Soundtrack to musical
Bowie+Iceland+Queen, not particularly campy or goofy. The soundtrack was actually pretty heralded by the musical crowd, but aside from The Big Takeover very little discussed in rock circles.
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr3014-various-artists-killed-by-deathrock-vol-1
aero tipped me off to this compilation and if you have any type of fondness for gothy post-punk rock, the whole thing is FANTASTIC. "Casa Domani" by The Move is a particular favorite.
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Tuesday, 30 September 2014 17:59 (nine years ago) link
Well now I know DJP doesn't read my reviews. ;-)
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 18:30 (nine years ago) link
Some Kind of Leader - Dog Club
Reminds me a bit of great bands like The Beta Band and Teenage Fanclub (at their best). It's not perfect, but it's a promising debut. Their album just came out the other day. It's on Spotify, of course:
https://play.spotify.com/album/1nvuwfcBv4iBEx8HkJwLOe?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 18:39 (nine years ago) link
You described my favorite song on the whole thing as "poor Bauhaus-meets-Joy Division sounds" ;_;
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Tuesday, 30 September 2014 19:08 (nine years ago) link
true! And I stand by that description.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 19:15 (nine years ago) link
stand a little closer so that I can be sure to wing you as I drive over that description
― 💪😈⚠️ (DJP), Tuesday, 30 September 2014 19:16 (nine years ago) link
woosh! felt the air move as you drove my.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 30 September 2014 19:19 (nine years ago) link
Still pounding the table for Ninos du Brasil, Ibibio Sound Machine and Darius's EP.
― Felt up by Adam Smith's invisible hand (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 30 September 2014 19:50 (nine years ago) link
Another recommendation from me. Dr Cosmo's Tape Lab - Ever Evolving Lounge. Great little psychedelic pop gems from a guy that used drum for the BMX Bandits:
http://drcosmostapelab.bandcamp.com/album/ever-evolving-lounge
― afriendlypioneer, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 14:10 (nine years ago) link
Neil Cowley Trio, Touch and Flee – sober but lovely Brit jazz
― goth colouring book (anagram), Wednesday, 1 October 2014 14:13 (nine years ago) link
Le Butcherettes - Cry Is for the Flies
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 23:02 (nine years ago) link
Zebrina - Hamidbar Medaber
― Mordy, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 23:07 (nine years ago) link
Angus and Julia Stone's s/t album. For a fan of duet singing, the interplay between this brother and sister is fantastic. Loved "Broken Brights" off Angus' recent solo disc, and this album has an even more consistent quality. RIYL: Kings of Leon, Paul Kelly, Mazzy Star, Nancy & Lee,... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV50lmpVk1E
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 2 October 2014 03:31 (nine years ago) link
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, September 30, 2014 3:38 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this album is completely great and yeah I have yet to see any signs that ppl are going to give a shit about it
― well-behaved wingmen really hate Mystery (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 2 October 2014 07:41 (nine years ago) link
1.) Geoffrey O'Connor - Fan Fiction
Been listening to this loads the last couple of weeks after seeing it on a recent Moonboots Juno chart. Lovely 80s vibe to it.
The Delicate Features album is pretty great too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhxTM2LSNZw
― groovypanda, Thursday, 2 October 2014 07:53 (nine years ago) link
WILD BEASTS
― voodoo chili, Thursday, 2 October 2014 14:31 (nine years ago) link
http://www.nashvillescene.com/binary/bee7/1387398982-artworks-000062070854-1tytbj-t500x500.jpg
stone jack jones -- ancestor
― Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, 11 October 2014 00:05 (nine years ago) link
http://f1.bcbits.com/img/a0927752743_2.jpg
Nipomo by Czech duo DVA hasn't been mentioned on ILM. Its some sort of sampler friendly freak folk in imaginary language that could be an alternative soundtrack to Svankmajer shorts, or to the Voynich manuscript. The official videos offer a sense of the cheerful oddity: Mulatu, Vespering, Nunki, No Survi, Surfi
― TTAGGGTTAGGG (Sanpaku), Friday, 24 October 2014 03:19 (nine years ago) link
Posting to revive this excellent thread - more unheralded albums please!
― byebyepride, Saturday, 8 November 2014 16:25 (nine years ago) link
https://drcosmostapelab.bandcamp.com/album/ever-evolving-lounge
One of my favorite albums of the year. The drummer was in BMX Bandits and I think the other guy is in some kind of Beatles cover band.
― afriendlypioneer, Saturday, 8 November 2014 16:31 (nine years ago) link
Alice Gerrard - Follow the Music
http://i.imgur.com/SLBk95h.jpg
a survey of Appalachian roots music from her extensive repertoire — Roy Acuff style honky-tonk, upbeat fiddle tunes, spooky banjo-based country blues à la Dock Boggs, a hymn/lament backed by a droning fiddle line, an 8-minute a cappella ballad likening infant mortality to a vulture, and some singer-songwritery stuff. it harkens back to all those '60s-'70s Folkways and Rounder albums with extended track-by-track pedigrees in their liner notes, e.g. "I learned this song from Hobart Smith at the 1978 Newport Folk Festival, and he learned it from a woman named Ada Larkspur, who..." and it's similar in style and spirit to Alice's collaborations with Hazel Dickens. it's been getting a lot more press than I'd expect (including a Pitchfork review), probably because it's a Tompkins Square release.
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 02:19 (nine years ago) link
Andrea Schroeder - Where the Wild Oceans End
http://i.imgur.com/2X5qVda.jpg
classicist depressive Americana from a German singer-songwriter, riyl The Walkabouts, Marianne Faithfull, Nico, Mark Lanegan
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 02:32 (nine years ago) link
Ichiko Aoba - 0%
http://imgur.com/8sPNV6J
live performance of solo classical guitar and vocals. 'intimate' and 'soothing' as fuck. I started a thread about her but it's not very good.
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 02:42 (nine years ago) link
cover art: http://i.imgur.com/8sPNV6J.jpg
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 02:43 (nine years ago) link
Co-sign the Isaiah Rashad love and I'm gonna mention that Wild Beasts album for the fourth time in this thread
― quan voice (voodoo chili), Friday, 2 January 2015 02:58 (nine years ago) link
xpost Alice Gerrard's album: she successfully personalizes most of it. My P&J comment:Alice Gerrard, Follow The Music: Strong subtle vox, smokey mountain ballads. Most brush by, eerie & beguiling, others hover; all are waiting 4 train. Trad & originals, 0 twang or trills needed. Fiddle, a cappella, dobro, ragtonk, just whatever's right.Hiss Golden Messenger produces it good.
― dow, Friday, 2 January 2015 03:00 (nine years ago) link
I don't know much about her, but her sound gets to me much more than expected.
― dow, Friday, 2 January 2015 03:02 (nine years ago) link
Ashrae Fax - Never Really Been Into It
http://i.imgur.com/Wdiov8K.jpg
dreampop/darkwave with lots of synths and primitive drum machines. it's not as visceral as their recently-unearthed first album Static Crash, but it satisfies my craving for stuff that sounds like Head Over Heels-era Cocteau Twins or early Lycia.
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 03:03 (nine years ago) link
^fuckin adore ashrae fax
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Friday, 2 January 2015 03:16 (nine years ago) link
apparently the songs themselves predate the first album but weren't recorded properly til now
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Friday, 2 January 2015 03:17 (nine years ago) link
xpost Alice Gerrard's album: she successfully personalizes most of it. My P&J comment:Alice Gerrard, Follow The Music:Strong subtle vox, smokey mountain ballads. Most brush by, eerie & beguiling, others hover; all are waiting 4 train. Trad & originals, 0 twang or trills needed. Fiddle, a cappella, dobro, ragtonk, just whatever's right.Hiss Golden Messenger produces it good.
nice writeup. she definitely has an academic interest in the material (she published a journal on old-time music and produced a couple of documentaries with Mike Seeger), but she doesn't try very hard to emulate that old-time vocal style — her double identity of folk musicologist and modern singer-songwriter is part of what makes her style so distinctive. in the '70s she sounded more like a subdued Linda Ronstadt than a trad folk singer.
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 03:49 (nine years ago) link
are Hiss Golden Messenger any good, btw?
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 03:58 (nine years ago) link
I'm a fan. Poor Moon is his best album imo, a bit less smoothed-out than his more recent releases.
― ticket to rmde (seandalai), Friday, 2 January 2015 18:16 (nine years ago) link
Does he have anything as dry as Bad Debt? I love that one to death but everything else I've heard from him has left me unimpressed (heard From Country Hai East Cotton, Haw and the latest one).
― Dinsdale, Friday, 2 January 2015 18:23 (nine years ago) link
Lord I Love The Rain is my favorite by HGM.
Originally released as a digital-only EP, Hiss Golden Messenger’s "Lord I Love the Rain" has been reconstituted as a fully realized long playing album that juxtaposes grainy kitchen table gospel and dusted imaginary sci-fi soundtrack pieces alongside dead-of-night renditions of Michael Hurley’s “The Revenant” and Ronnie Lane’s “Tell Everyone.” "Lord I Love the Rain" is the sound of Hiss Golden Messenger after hours.
His proper LPs have been getting increasingly slicker, much to their detriment.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Friday, 2 January 2015 18:54 (nine years ago) link
Alright, I'm sold.
― Dinsdale, Friday, 2 January 2015 19:37 (nine years ago) link
^Nathan, is that you?
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 2 January 2015 20:21 (nine years ago) link
ah, thanks for the recommendations. their early stuff sounds interesting
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Friday, 2 January 2015 21:40 (nine years ago) link
(in case Raymond's question was directed at me: no)
― Dinsdale, Friday, 2 January 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link
Oh, ok. Just curious.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 2 January 2015 22:54 (nine years ago) link
No problem. There is something very Nathan-esque indeed about the phrase "Alright, I'm sold".
― Dinsdale, Saturday, 3 January 2015 10:00 (nine years ago) link
An album I've been listening to the past few weeks nonstop comes from one of the worst named-bands ever - Mike Adams at His Honest Weight. The album, Best of Boiler Room Classics is pretty fantastic from start to finish. It's a bit of power pop with some psychedelic elements thrown in.
This will be one of my top ten ILM albums of 2014.
Check out
"Be Free, Live Well"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZSTR7HgAc8
"I'm Worried"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUn8sl0uZLk
"Count On It"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rakkYIkbAb8
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Saturday, 3 January 2015 15:24 (nine years ago) link
Eaux - Plastics
I'm kind of surprised there isn't more talk about this, actually! It's pretty good, and the vocals remind me of an earthier (or more earthbound) Liz Fraser.
― pelvic slang (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 4 January 2015 13:46 (nine years ago) link
I thought the Heliocentrics/Melvin Van Peebles collab, The Last Transmission, would have gotten a lot more traction than it has.
― you've got no fans you've got no ground (anagram), Sunday, 4 January 2015 16:45 (nine years ago) link
yeah that and their collaboration with orlando julius were definite highlights of the year for me.
that said, i do listen to the instrumental version of 'the last transmission' more than the proper album.
― mark e, Monday, 5 January 2015 09:37 (nine years ago) link
Eaux - PlasticsI'm kind of surprised there isn't more talk about this, actually! It's pretty good, and the vocals remind me of an earthier (or more earthbound) Liz Fraser.
Fans of this should check out Eaux's previous incarnation as the Sian Alice Group.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 23:26 (nine years ago) link
Listening to the Panabrite album. Really nice new age-y, synth-heavy ambient thingy stuff.
― Dinsdale, Saturday, 10 January 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link