Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

xpost - cheers

Re that American Songwriters list - I tried with Jason Isbell a bunch of times but it never clicked for me. On the other hand in glad to see the Josh Ritter album show up somewhere on one of these lists (it shows up in the 30s). It's his beat album and seems to have been ignored all year long.

To me it feels as though it's been a really strong year for Wire-style music. That top ten is really really in line with my own EOY list. The Laurel Halo album is just so satisfying in the half-awake, twitchy way she seems to be able to do. The Rashad Becker album is like nothing int his wide world but so immersive and strangely (given the surface content) evocative. Still don't understand Tim Hecker but I'm sure it'll click one day. Same with Oneohtrix, always had trouble with him but the album's growing on me, especially since watching the film 'Le Ravissement de Frank N Stein' from where the album cover's taken from. RP Boo? Well as any fule'kno I'm a big footwork fan but I think DJ Rashad was making bigger waves in that genre this year and Double Cup is a really succinct record compared to this, but it's not without its moments. Wolf Eyes is Wolf Eyes, but more structured, almost song-based. THe Lambkin / Lescalleet albumn I've only just discovered and it's great - mostly made up of field recordings and interviews but hugely emotional for some reason. The Knife's is my AOTY.

― a beef supreme (dog latin), Wednesday, December 11, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For Hecker - listen as loud as possible. Also I like Virgins a lot but within Hecker's discography I'd rank it below Harmony in Ultraviolet and Ravedeath 1972.

good to see plenty of overlap between the wire list and my own personal list -- i wasn't so crazy about the holter album, though.

seen quite a few people saying they were surprised (and perhaps a little disappointed) to see so many things they were already familiar in the wire list. is this cos the wire are getting less militantly avant or cos we're all better informed or what?

pazz and jop ballots out

― katherine, Wednesday, December 11, 2013 10:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Always nice to see that I'm still on the mailing list.

I tried giving Ravedeath another listen today but really all I hear are sustained random piano chords fed through way too much digital distortion. It belies the ascribed genius of Tim Hecker and sounds like something I feel like I could make quite easily with home software. Still waiting for it to click really but I'm not getting any emotion or resonance, it just sounds like mess, tossed off.

Dummy - Best Albums
http://www.dummymag.com/lists/the-20-best-albums-of-2013

1. GLASSER - 'INTERIORS' [True Panther]
2. DANIEL AVERY - 'DRONE LOGIC' [Phantasy Sound]
3. KANYE WEST - 'YEEZUS' [Def Jam]
4. THE KNIFE - 'SHAKING THE HABITUAL' [Brille]
5. JAMES BLAKE - 'OVERGROWN' [Polydor]
6. DEAN BLUNT - THE REDEEMER [Hippos In Tanks]
7. ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - 'R PLUS SEVEN' [Warp]
8. KA - 'THE NIGHT'S GAMBIT' [Iron Works]
9. E.M.M.A - 'BLUE GARDENS' [Keysound]
10. AUTRE NE VEUT - 'ANXIETY' [Software]

I liked some stuff on the wire list okay, a lot I haven't heard though.

Reading about Tim Hecker's process for making that album, 'tossed off' is probably about as far away from the reality as you could get.

Where's that whiney piece?

Nick - I subscribed to the Wire for the first time this year. Think my threshold for the kind of music they cover was really affected by Scott Walker, Laurel Halo, Neneh Cherry and Engine Kang releases from last year, but I've always liked 'new' music to an extent yet previously found Wire ' s coverage just a bit too obscure until now. So I don't know, is it a bit of both? I def have more time for' conceptual' music than I did before. It's also the Year I got into jazz.

here you go: http://www.spin.com/articles/tim-hecker-virgins-attack-of-the-drones-interview/

gotta catch a bus or otherwise i'd excerpt some bits but it's worth a read xp

Re: Hecker, I mean that's it, I always hear about how much effort he puts into his compositions but they always sound so cackhanded, like he just fed a bunch of notes through a distortion pedal and pressed record.

LOL @ "Engine Kang"

autocorrect, I know :)

one of the things about the Tim Hecker that I really loved was the layering of all those sounds, some of it's exquisitely detailed imo. sure it's sometimes surrounded by fog but it's all in there!

seen quite a few people saying they were surprised (and perhaps a little disappointed) to see so many things they were already familiar in the wire list. is this cos the wire are getting less militantly avant or cos we're all better informed or what?

― diego floorplan (NickB), Wednesday, December 11, 2013 5:53 PM (24 minutes ago)

Bit of both I think, though my claim that the Wire got noticeably more populist over the last several years is somewhat shot down by some of the covers from just before I started reading it. I think I started during a 'militantly avant' phase, though. We covered this in a different thread somewhere.

Engine Kang sounds like a vintage Japanese video game.

There's no way on earth that Glasser album is the best of the year.

Bit of both I think, though my claim that the Wire got noticeably more populist over the last several years is somewhat shot down by some of the covers from just before I started reading it. I think I started during a 'militantly avant' phase, though. We covered this in a different thread somewhere.

With both this year's Quietus and Wire lists I felt not nearly as... alienated+frustrated by year-end round-ups as I typically am

(still alienated and frustrated tho that goes w/out saying, just that "wow that's a lot of records I actually love")

The Quietus and to a lesser extent The Wire do the only year-end round-ups that are worth shit-all

Everyone else just circulates the same tedious highprofile bullshit (even if some of it isn't bullshit, the lists are invariably lazy & arbitrary)

Well my mind doesn't grade music numerically so lists are a waste of time and space as a rule, filed away next to games of "Babe or Minger", but it is nice to see "oh cool we listen to a lot of the same records"

well exactly

but I do feel that a lot of year-end round-ups are quite interchangeable in their breadth of listening, and while it's nice for people who've largely heard those albums to be validated over & over again, it's a little frustrating that there's so much amazing stuff out there getting next to no exposure

some of it's exquisitely detailed

This poncey nonsense is a consequence of me writing while i was rushing out the door but what i meant is i love the stratified depths of sound and the sometimes dizzying effects he creates from these. I won't lie though, mostly I love Tim Hecker cos it's gorgeous but powerful music to sit around feeling morose to, so maybe it's a temperament thing?

I know it's basically a christmas catalogue for tarts but I do love the end of year lists that Boomkat do, discovered so much good stuff through those.

so glad to see alasdair roberts on the wire list!!

a timely reminder that i need to listen to that one. how does in rank in the roberts oeuvre?

http://www.party-ideas-by-a-pro.com/image-files/alice-in-wonderland-party-jam-tarts.jpg

it's among the more flowery of his albums (compared to the solo/straight ahead ballad stuff) -- lots of guests, different instruments and arrangements on every song -- but there are lots of really good songs and an incest ballad that really takes the cake. it is one of those albums that creates and lives in its own little universe. this will probably make sense to anyone who likes him and not much sense to everyone else.

made sense to me apart from the incest cake thing

but i love it!!

this is brother seed, the aforementioned ballad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVme8xe7NNo

i meant that it was really good! it takes the cake!

always get that confused with taking the biscuit tbh

what has this to do with the tart catalogue

there's a hierarchy of baked comestibles i suppose. cakes at one end, biscuits at the other. i think this is wrong, but this is how it seems. jam tarts somewhere in the middle.

still think night is advancing is best ali roberts

i do like the chord progression on that song LL, nice overall sound too!

I liked the Alasdair Roberts, but I think Spoils is the best thing he's ever done. That album was just about perfect

The Wire Rewind 2013: Avant Rock
Marisa Anderson - Mercury
Bastard Noise / Brutal Truth - The Axiom Of Post Inhumanity
Richard Dawson - The Glass Trunk
Ex-Easter Island Head - Mallet Guitars Three
Mike Gangloff - Poplar Hollow
Grumbling Fur - Glynnaestra
Steve Gunn - Time Off
Master Musicians Of Bukkake - Far West
Paul Metzger - Tombeaux
Midday Veil - The Current
Monarch - Omens
Mountains - Centralia Studio
Cian Nugent And The Cosmos - Born With The Caul
Polvo - Siberia
Alasdair Roberts And Friends - A Wonder Working Stone

Finally some Polvo!

i wish drag city stuff were easier to hear but this is the way they want it, so w/e
there is a goofy song that uses the "red river valley" melody too, the whole album is unpredictable and never boring. people like different things from him -- i'm pretty much happy to listen to whatever he puts out (although i didn't love that one album with the irish lady...forget what it's called)

The Wire Rewind 2013: Critical Beats
01. Joey Anderson - From One Mind To The Other
02. Julio Bashmore versus Kowton - Mirror Song
03. Beneath - Beliz/Strike A Pose
04. Coki - Bedouins
05. DJ Rashad - I Don't Give A Fuck
06. Joe - Punters Step Out/Club Sacred
07. Kromestar - Rhythm On My Mind
08. letthemusicplay featuring Kate Tempest - Out Town
09. Glacher Lustwerk - Tape22
10. DJ Nigga Fox - O Meu Estilo
11. Pangaea - Viaduct
12. Theo Parrish - Day Like This
13. Pev & Asusu - Surge/Remnants
14. Special Request - Mindwash
15. Tessala - Nancy's Pantry

The Wire Rewind 2013: Electronica
01. Autechre - Exai
02. Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
03. AyGeeTee - Fools
04. Bass Clef - Acid Tracts
05. Rashad Becker - Traditional Music Of Notional Species Vol 1
06. Blondes - Swisher
07. Anthony Child - The Space Between People And Things
08. Donaty Dozzy - Plays Bee Mask
09. Mark Fell - N-Dimensional Analysis
10. FKA Twigs - EP2
11. Laurel Halo - Chance Of Rain
12. Huerco S - Colonial Patterns
13. Jam City - Special Trash Offcuts Memories
14. Oneothrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
15. Yearning Kru - Cracked Lacquer/Vanadium

The Wire Rewind 2013: Hip-Hop
01. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
02. Chief Keef - Go to Jail
03. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
04. Future - SH!T
05. Kevin Gates - Stranger Than Fiction
06. Ka - The Night's Gambit
07. Migos - Young Rich Niggas
08. Quelle Chris - Ghost at the Finish Line
09. Rocko feat. Future & Rick Ross - UOENO
10. Starlito - Funerals & Court Dates
11. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
12. Underachievers - Indigoism
13. Kanye West - Yeezus
14. YG - Just Re'd Up 2
15. Young Thug - 1017 Thug

The Wire Rewind 2013: Jazz & Improv
01. Sophie Agnel / John Edwards / Steve Noble - Meteo
02. John Butcher / Thomas Lehn / John Tilbury - Exta
03. The Convergence Quartet - Slow And Steady
04. Decoy & Joe McPhee - Spontaneous Combustion
05. Klaus Filip / Toshimaru Nakamura / Andrea Neumann / Ivan Placký - Messier Objects
06. Huntsville - Past Increasing Future Receding
07. Sarah Hughes - Accidents Of Matter And Space
08. ist - Berlin
09. Graham Lambkin & Keith Rowe - Making A
10. Sebastian Lexer & Grundik Kasyansky - The Fog
11. Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra featuring Roscoe Mitchell - Matter Anti-Matter
12. The Remote Viewers - Crimeways
13. Matthieu Ruhlmann - This Star Teaches Bending
14. Seaven Teares - Power Ballads
15. Nate Wooley & Seymour Wright - About Trumpet And Saxophone

The Wire Rewind 2013: Modern Composition
01. Elizabeth Brown - Mirage
02. John Cage - The Works For Organ
03. Shih-Hui Chen - Returning Sounds
04. Anders Dahl & Skogen - Rows
05. Hywel Davies - Descent/End Canon/Cold In The Earth
06. Luc Ferrari/Brunhild Ferrari - Luc Ferrari/Brunhild Ferrari
07. Michael Finnissy - History Of Photography In Sound
08. Lars Petter Hagen - Orchestral Works
09. Bryn Harrison - Vessels
10. Klaus Lang - Organ Works Vol 1
11. R Murray Schafer - String Quartets 8–12
12. Johannes Schöllhorn - Clouds And Sky
13. Ernstalbrecht Stiebler - Ton In Ton
14. Yoshi Wada - Singing In Unison
15. Zwerm - Underwater Princess Waltz

The Ex-Easter Island Head album is nice, coming from somewhere between gamelan and Rhys Chatham.

Never mind the numbers in front of the Wire lists: I see now that they are ordered alphabetically.

alphabetizing inconsistencies in the crit beats list though tbh

Maybe 'Glacher' is Herr Lustwerk's first name? :)