ILM 2014 Albums Poll: Thread of Ballots, Statistics and Survivalist Posturing

You can find the genres for a particular artist via http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html

Since the genre names come from my list, you can explore them further at http://everynoise.com.

Where's the XP warning when you need it?

All I Wanna Do is chillwave? lol! I must like chillwave then.

My top genre was indie r'n'b *hangs head*

Favorite genre was drone, which I don't think was particularly abundant in my ballot.

These were the albums nobody else voted for from my ballot, with my placings in brackets:

Nyusha - Obyedineniye (1): she's the current standard bearer for classic, emotive Russian electropop. Her singles usually pick up a few votes in the EOY polls and there was a fair amount of anticipation on ILX for the album a while ago but it slipped out under the radar a little internationally. http://youtu.be/84kbG2ExdZs

Dasha Shults - Moloko (3): didn't really get much critical love in Russia but it's a phenomenally good debut reminiscent in style and quality of someone like Amanda Mair. She has about 30 followers on Twitter and her only professionally-recorded YouTube video has 5000 views, which is mystifying. http://youtu.be/2qvxDxBgeIY

Propaganda - Fioletovaya Pudra (9): Although they started off as a Tatu rip-off act, i'd always rated Vika from Propaganda as one of the most talented writer-performers in the business - and then she left and the group got much better so that shows what i know. It's yr archetypal Italo-influenced Russian pop but done brilliantly. http://youtu.be/ouaJ25WDArg

IZA - Painkiller (10) / IZA - Hug Music (23): For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Snoop has spent most of the last two years recording low-key electro R&B with the excellent Polish singer Iza Lach. They've made hundreds of songs together, some of which were released across two albums last year. They appear to only be available via Bandcamp and i've certainly never seen them in the shops in Poland. It's all very strange. http://youtu.be/5Knm4WVsBmc

Julia Marcell - Sentiments (11): Terrific, lyrically-sharp Polish indie pop. http://youtu.be/RChaKK7e0xA

Eva Polna - Poet Lyubov (12): Polna has been a fixture of Russian pop for years and brings a lot of that weight and maturity to a superb album. http://youtu.be/3OESOZGhPzg

Ivan Dorn - Randorn (15): The golden boy of contemporary Ukrainian pop. The album is patchy but brilliant when it gets it right. http://youtu.be/0eihYaVddKE

Srub - Top' (16): Enjoyably OTT Siberian neofolk / goth rock http://youtu.be/YVNbesJIdjU

Indila - Mini-World (21): probably the biggest international star nobody in the English-speaking world cared about last year. Very French pop-R&B http://youtu.be/K5KAc5CoCuk

Manikur - Voskhod (24): Very much like Interpol, but in Russian and with a better sense of melancholy beauty. http://youtu.be/JsPZrIn-YJs

Mela Koteluk - Migracje (25): More Polish indie-pop. http://youtu.be/bQ1Jo3caCHA

I got pop as my top genre for both lists and I pretty much hate pop as it currently exists. ;_;

sharivari always gets me listening to new and interesting music around this time of the year. This is no exception

ShariVari omitted a couple things for which there were few other voters, and I'd welcome his/her cultural context for Naadya - Naadya (which I heard as a Russian Florence with better tunes) and Ivan Dorn - Randorn (which I heard as a Ukrainian jazz singer engaging with UK funky) as well.

Oops, just noted the Dorn take. For some reason I was looking for the Cyrillic.

Thanks for those Eastern European recs! I appear to be particularly fond of Polish music!

my weighted ballot:

The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers (#64)
Kiasmos - Kiasmos (#184)
Spoon - They Want My Soul (#37)
Death From Above 1979 - The Physical World (#426)
Ex Hex – Rips (#41)
Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather (#56)
TV On The Radio - Seeds (#304)
Beverly – Careers (#288)
Alvvays – Alvvays (#50)
The Horrors - Luminous (#294)
Benjamin Booker - Benjamin Booker (#540)
Ty Segall – Manipulator (#554)
Diamond District - March on Washington (#569)
A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Atomos (#51)
Temples - Sun Structures (#335)
Alt-J - This is All Yours (#483)
angel olsen - burn your fire for no witness (#38)
Tycho – Awake (#481)
The Hidden Cameras – Age (#727)
Moodymann - Moodymann (#54)
Les Sins – Michael (# 358)
Aphex Twin – Syro (#6)
The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream (#8)
perfume genius - too bright (#124)
Caribou - Our Love (#15)

These are the ones that didn't make it in from my ballot:

Objekt - Flatland
Objekt always struck me as one of the more boring of the post-dubstep producers, but this album is a total jam. The sound design is just outstanding for one, and musically it's a proper sci-fi rave up with atmosphere aplenty and some remarkably hard-driving electro/techno moments.

Eyvind Kang - Alastor: The Book Of Angels vol.21
While it's missing Jessica Kenney's remarkable vocal work which was a key ingredient in Kang's previous The Narrow Garden, this instrumental record still incorporates all the twists and turns you'd expect. The track Variel, is typical of this, a centrepoint between seventies adventure soundtrack, Arabesque fantasy and toytown parade; he manages to blend influences from all over the musical map as if they were always supposed to happen.

Back in a bit with more...

Man that everynoise site has kinda taken a bunch if my spare time over.

Also: I'm kinda bummed there's no ballot from fffv this year