i only listened to the Jam C
― lute bro (brimstead), Thursday, 17 December 2015 01:41 (eight years ago) link
oops
i only listened to the Jam City once but was really disappointed. Loved classical curves a ton, did not care to hear dude start singing
― lute bro (brimstead), Thursday, 17 December 2015 01:42 (eight years ago) link
THE HELENA HAUFF ALBUM
― lex pretend, Tuesday, October 6, 2015 1:48 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is fucking rad, tho
― lute bro (brimstead), Thursday, 17 December 2015 01:43 (eight years ago) link
my year, no particular order:
acronym - junehelena hauffhuneejonas munk - absorb/fabric/cascadelaurel halo - in situmesh - piteous gatenick hoppner - folkeverything reckonwrong released, thanks ilx for the tipregis - manbaittom ellard - rhine
― 0 / 0 (lukas), Thursday, 17 December 2015 02:51 (eight years ago) link
Material Object + Ishq – Invisible Ligh
haha interchill 2015 to infinity! downloading now.
― 0 / 0 (lukas), Thursday, 17 December 2015 02:53 (eight years ago) link
Just discovered that Acronym album yesterday, it's excellent.
― ewar woowar (or something), Thursday, 17 December 2015 11:14 (eight years ago) link
A lot of these albums don't feel especially concerned with dancing at all, a lot of ambient/drone/glitch/sunset beach bar vibes/industrial/stealth indie which is all well and good but nine times out of ten they don't really excite me. I want more artists to make albums that feel more like great DJ sets, Levon definitely wins in this regard.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 17 December 2015 12:46 (eight years ago) link
Maybe I could start a separate rolling thread for ambient/chill/weeded electronic music? I'm getting old, so this kind of sofa music appears to me more these days than hardcore bangers, but I agree that they don't really belong to this thread...
― Tuomas, Thursday, 17 December 2015 12:58 (eight years ago) link
Rolling ambient/chill out/drone/moodz thread: from 2010s 'til infinity!
― Tuomas, Thursday, 17 December 2015 13:04 (eight years ago) link
that boof album is really good imo. i enjoy the hunee but his mixes are better, like 5/6 this year i'd rather listen to.
― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Thursday, 17 December 2015 13:17 (eight years ago) link
dance artists making home listening albums that aren't focused on the dancefloor is a pretty long-standing thing and a reason it's not really an ~albums genre tho
vincent, hauff, nozinja, nidia minaj, dj richard albums are all refreshing in that context, they're all pretty banging, and if i heard the right bits of the herndon and jlin albums they'd work too
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 17 December 2015 14:11 (eight years ago) link
the hunee album is a bit like last year's leon vynehall album to me, really talented producers making always-pleasurable sounds but they have less of an impact in the album format than as a single or in a mix. i mean, it's worth hearing if they're your thing
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 17 December 2015 14:12 (eight years ago) link
hunee's mixes are legit so much better than his own stuff tho imo, not that his album is bad or anything, just a little boring comparing to his selections
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 17 December 2015 18:49 (eight years ago) link
i think the boof album is pretty much doing it right, comparable to levon vincent's lp with the variations in style and ratio of dancefloor to couch
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 17 December 2015 18:51 (eight years ago) link
I wasn't feeling the Boof at all when I listened earlier in the year but may give it another go.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 17 December 2015 19:08 (eight years ago) link
yeah hunee is an incredible dj, haven't heard the album yet lol.
how do y'all feel about the dj richard album? i thought it was good w/ some misses. i liked the flow and general vibe.
― gareth "gaz" coombes (mattresslessness), Thursday, 17 December 2015 19:16 (eight years ago) link
as this thread title kinda implies, most dance albums are p sterile - the buzz of a great mix is so much better. if i listen to electronic albums it's p unlikely they'll be house and techno.
it's a no brainer - all the music ever made v one artist's music.
i mean of course, some albums are good and there are great electronic albums, but even at a time when i'm less purist about electronic music than ever, this all still feels quite true for me, not least because i don't think it's ever been possible to get such a glut of mixes from clever selectors.
this idea of a dance album replicating a dj set is like someone telling me a jacket made out of shoes is a good substitute for a pair of shoes
― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Thursday, 17 December 2015 20:46 (eight years ago) link
i don't think the aim of most dance albums is to replicate a dj set and most of the best dance albums don't have the same appeal as a mix at all. i guess a lot of the time it's a producer finding or honing a very distinct style or sonic palette that works really well together rather than joined up with other artists' styles (which is true of the vincent, hauff and nozinja albums, the three on my list that i'd really really rep hard for as albums qua albums and which are also dancefloor-oriented)
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 17 December 2015 23:47 (eight years ago) link
Yeah it's not literally wanting a mix of an artist's own stuff (although I did feel that about the DJ Q album from last year) it's more just a sense of narrative or flow or whatever, some sense of energy rather than bloodlesness.
So many techno albums in particular just feel like an arbitrary selection of discrete tracks, with the sense that the artist didn't consider them good enough to release as singles. And who wants to listen to individual techno tracks anyway? Like, the records are explicitly designed to be heard in the context of one another.
― Matt DC, Friday, 18 December 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link
that is a bit of an old saw around here and it isn't completely true imo, i mean it depends on the artist. i want to listen to individual techno tracks when they're good as tracks and would much rather hear those in a dj set anyway. if it's boring to listen to start to finish it's boring in a set imo. i can enjoy an album full of good house / techno on its own even when it's relatively 'mixable' as long as it has some character.
― COOMBES (mattresslessness), Friday, 18 December 2015 00:08 (eight years ago) link
i like the album format for certain artists because it lets you dive a little bit more into what makes them tick. examples coming to mind are the pearson sound or anthony naples albums from this year, which like don't grab me by the lapels but are rich as collections i think.
― COOMBES (mattresslessness), Friday, 18 December 2015 00:11 (eight years ago) link
i guess a lot of the time it's a producer finding or honing a very distinct style or sonic palette that works really well together rather than joined up with other artists' styles
for sure - i guess that sentence describes any good album, to a point - i just think it's p rare for this to be done in a brilliant way in dance music - you need a real auteur.
i want to listen to individual techno tracks when they're good as tracks and would much rather hear those in a dj set anyway. if it's boring to listen to start to finish it's boring in a set imo.
yeah i mean i have always liked listening to individual techno or house tracks. thing is, there's kind of a long-standing prob with dance albums whereby the tracks are just not as good as the producer's best recent 12 or remix. of course it's not a cast iron universal truth but i always feel like 12s or singles are just worth more. a really brilliant two-track 12 feels like it gives more joy than an album, or a really brilliant track. a mix full of these components the same.
it's not even purism - it just feels kind of essentially true to me, like a characteristic of what dance music is, though obv ymmv.
in any case i think this year is a p good example of this - i liked the hunee record on first listen but after a few plays it's p much done. the breadth of his selections on nts have me going back for more constantly. the power of these amazing cratediggers on tap on soundcloud is serious.
― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Friday, 18 December 2015 00:25 (eight years ago) link
yeah i have to say i mostly prefer the 12" to the album anyway, more bang for my buck!
― COOMBES (mattresslessness), Friday, 18 December 2015 00:28 (eight years ago) link
i've really enjoyed this album, vaguely drexciyan italo jams
http://eodtracks.bandcamp.com/album/the-derelict
― the late great, Friday, 18 December 2015 08:01 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I guess the issue is more often than not with producers just not bringing their A game to an album, or trying something new that they just aren't as good at.
I think I'm really talking about techno albums here - there are loads of great house albums, especially at the vocal end of the spectrum. But it's also structural - techno is so much about momentum and build that it's frustrating to hear producers abandon that by including half a dozen inessential tracks, or veering off into ambient just as they've got something building.
Going right back to a record like Landcruising, or the Brown Album, and you think these guys just nailed how to make techno work in the album format. The Levon album has that whole properly structured flow, the Nick Hoppner album as well, in a gentler way. But it's also significant that the best Omar-S album is a mix of his own stuff, the best Matthew Jonson album is basically a live set etc.
"if it's boring to listen to start to finish it's boring in a set imo"
Thing is I've heard so many unexceptional records come to life in the hands of a really skilled producer. Plenty of records are just components, a cool noise to be thrown in at the right time, and that's fine, they're basically made with that in mind.
― Matt DC, Friday, 18 December 2015 08:49 (eight years ago) link
I mean a really skilled DJ, not producer.
― Matt DC, Friday, 18 December 2015 09:05 (eight years ago) link
trying to think of other electronic albums that work as mixes in their own right- there is obviously the Villalobos Fabric mix of his own material, as well as Omar-S. The (excellent, under-rated) i:Cube album M:Megamix record springs to mind as well.
― The Male Gaz Coombes (Neil S), Friday, 18 December 2015 09:06 (eight years ago) link
confessions on a dance floor is basically a continuous mix
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Friday, 18 December 2015 09:10 (eight years ago) link
unexpectedly i enjoyed the helena hauff album much more than her previous 12s
The (excellent, under-rated) i:Cube album M:Megamix record springs to mind as well.
Just to be clear this was both an album and a record, available in the CD and double vinyl formats.
― The Male Gaz Coombes (Neil S), Friday, 18 December 2015 09:12 (eight years ago) link
I think there are a lot of these, just to name a few off the top off my head:
Donato Dozzy - KVoices from the Lake - Voices from the LakeL.S.G. - Rendezvous in Outer SpaceL.S.G. - Singles Reworked (this is a great example of how to make your "greatest hits" album into an interesting new work, Lieb has remixed his old singles and presents them as a nice continous mix)Vapourspace - Themes from VapourspaceAir Liquide - NephologyInnerzone Orchestraa - ProgrammedMicroglobe - AfreuropamericasiaustralicaThe Dark Side of the Moog - The Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog (another "greatest hits as mix" compilation)DeepChord feat. Echospace - Liumin
etc.
― Tuomas, Friday, 18 December 2015 09:30 (eight years ago) link
thanks! do any of those come as particularly highly recommended? Innerzone Orchestra will be good I suppose?
Oh and Kraftwerk - The Mix, of course!
― The Male Gaz Coombes (Neil S), Friday, 18 December 2015 09:53 (eight years ago) link
This Nozinja album is brilliant by the way, would happily listen to multiple albums' worth of this.
― Matt DC, Friday, 18 December 2015 10:22 (eight years ago) link
fucking love levon's album. up there for me with like burger/ink for home/travel listening albums centered around 4/4 kick.
versus a mix i like having a track i don't always want to hear in there like "small whole-numbered ratios" bc it can be skipped without ruining anything but also makes me think yeah i feel you levon...
― home organ, Monday, 21 December 2015 06:15 (eight years ago) link
btw i love this record
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Monday, 21 December 2015 06:25 (eight years ago) link
the other week i alternated it with a bunch of death metal records and they seemed to share a swampy quality
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Monday, 21 December 2015 15:48 (eight years ago) link
also, the nozinja record!!!!!
Pye Corner Audio - Prowler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw9zFkvgOY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5U7bL1JrM
― neilasimpson, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 16:29 (eight years ago) link
Perfume Advert - 200+ Gamma (Opal Tapes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKu6IW_O5k4
Tulpa from 2013 is worth a go too - https://1080pcollection.bandcamp.com/album/tulpa
― neilasimpson, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 16:32 (eight years ago) link
just encountered Lumisokea from Berlin, this is out this week and I'm really into it so far http://opaltapes.bandcamp.com/album/lumisokea-transmissions-from-revarsavr
definitely techno with an asterisk, kinda on the Cut Hands / Raster Noton type acts side of things. hypnotic/pingpongy/electroacoustic
― Skaciety (pronounced the way you'd pronounce society) (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 20 January 2016 11:29 (eight years ago) link
Shalt - Unconfinedhttps://soundcloud.com/factmag/shalt-unconfined
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:31 (eight years ago) link
full ep out today: https://astralplanerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/acheron
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Friday, 29 January 2016 17:29 (eight years ago) link
Really loving the recent Pye Corner Audio album, Prowler.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, 30 January 2016 14:11 (eight years ago) link
I missed the best albums of the year discussion but mine would be
1. Jlin - Dark Energy2. Elysia Crampton - American Drift3. Nidia Minaj - Danger4. Holly Herndon - Platform5. Floating Points - Elaenia6. Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U Ahn-Sahm-Buhl - We Are Not The First7. Natasha Kmeto - Inevitable8. Lotic - Heterocetera9. Rabit - Communion10. RP Boo - Fingers, Bank Pads and Shoe Prints
― Hey (Extended Mix), Saturday, 30 January 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link
"Really loving the recent Pye Corner Audio album, Prowler." Yay! reissue available - http://www.morethanhumanrecords.com/product/mth008-pye-corner-audio-prowler-2nd-pressing
― neilasimpson, Saturday, 6 February 2016 13:00 (eight years ago) link
Not Waving - Animals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD73HtCHbWs
― neilasimpson, Saturday, 6 February 2016 13:01 (eight years ago) link
Anyone into Samuel Kerridge up in here
― μpright mammal (mh), Saturday, 6 February 2016 14:54 (eight years ago) link
that is a banger for sure
xp
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Saturday, 6 February 2016 20:59 (eight years ago) link
Track one of the A Pleasure album is called Durutti Gottsching, like how am I not going to give that a crack?
― François Pitchforkian (NickB), Monday, 15 February 2016 15:39 (eight years ago) link
Track two is called Arthur Russel, they might be pushing their luck a little there
― François Pitchforkian (NickB), Monday, 15 February 2016 15:41 (eight years ago) link