I used to subscribe to the Wire despite it being mostly impenetrable but succumbed again at the prospect of a review of the year. Surprisingly, it's impenetrable.
Top 10:
1. Burial - Burial
2. Scott Walker - The Drift
3. Joanna Newsom - Ys
4. Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
5. Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
6. Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar
7. Ekkehand Ehlers - A Life Without Fear
8. Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go
9. Om - Conference of the Birds
10. Phill Niblock - Touch Three
Some of this is good, some of it is totally obscure to me anyway. Burial seems to be a dubstep thing that has totally passed me by, anyone know it? Sounds like downbeat massive attack garage remixes to me but haven't heard much.
The top 5
is certainly very good.
Four of the other five passed me by entirely!
So is Burial
Actually any good. I've had a listen to a couple of things online but suspect it needs a few listens.
Yep
persevere my dear
with dubstep
dont you need really good speakers/cans to properly appreciate it?
might explain
my trouble getting into what I've heard so far then. Probably needs to be loud too (in a Boards of Canada way, not in a I've got a big car to make up for my small cock way).
just headphones for Burial
it's more of a 'nightbus' record than anything else. it's certainly not a club record or anything.
?
?
I'm not familiar with everything there
but for a list it's quite good. I never like lists.
I'm glad the Wolf Eyes record is that high, because I think it's a masterpiece, although i don't like the Burial record *THAT* much. It's good, but there's just something missing for me.
the Om record is surprisingly high, but it is really great.
i really need to go back to "The Drift".
Phil Niblock
sounds interesting
http://www.thewire.co.uk/archive/interviews/niblock.html
I might check him out just because he's got a fairly stupid name...
Good list though....
With
The Drift I find that I can only take in one song at a time, it is THAT immense.
Definitely worth going back to. Again and again.
...
Finally! A best of list that has my album of the year in it (Wolf Eyes).I bought that Ornette Coleman record last week and surprisingly it compares pretty well with his older stuff. I have no idea who Phill Niblock is though. Anyone?
"Human Animal" is so fucking great, ain't it? :D
Although I have absolutely no idea how anyone can do anything more extreme within the boundaries of 'music' in the future.
and with that statement
christopher left to get the record
it's 10pm
silly.
the internet is always open
.
bleurgh
definitely
stretching at the boundaries of music. Hecker and Haswell did some very very weird electronic stuff at the Frieze music event earlier in the year but probably not as ugly, if you see what I mean.
yeah
but then, they weren't going for 'songs'. that performance still rejected traditional structures.
Wolf Eyes actually have songs and 'anthems' and riffs and take the medium to the fucking end of its being. I feel like Neo in the fucking Matrix listening to them. I fucking suck.
...
Its an astonishing record. Its all properly worked out to play like a proper album as well which I love. The review in the Wire summed it up really well. Dunno if you read it, but the reviewer likened Noise not Music to a cave of zombies playing Negative Approach. Damn, makes me wish I'd bought the cd version
Didn't read that,
But it really is the next phase of hardcore and metal: Wolf Eyes are that what Blue Cheer were to blues rock I guess. It's like they built a car from scratch with stones for bodywork and a space shuttle engine.
...
I think of it as their Fun House, but maybe I'm making superficial comparisons between Elektra and Sub Pop. Human Animal just feels like they have twisted their sound and come up with something different, like the Stooges did between their first and second albums.
yeah
i'm sure they'd like that comparison, anyway.
what with all the CDRs and tiny releases they put out I'm not sure it's quite the same, but then i think they approach the Sub Pop releases with a totally different mind-set to the smaller stuff and... well, you know how it turned out.
It deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Fun House though, for sure.
...
Yeah, I kind of see the limited releases as separate to the Sub Pop stuff. I was discussing this with a friend the other night and he mentioned the Anthony Braxton record and I got really confused. Like, I have no idea where to place that in their body of work.
Fun House is easily my favourite album ever, and so I don't really compare stuff to it much, if at all, but Human Animal is that good. They both are really divisive, and although I hate to use a cliche, they both "push the boundaries or rock music".
Finally some love
for 'evangelista' !
It will be in my TOP5 !
is the bonnie prince billy record THAT good?
i ain't heard it yet. and i still haven't heard the drift. still, joanna newsom, wolf eyes and OM are top choices.
Its not top ten of the year good
So no. It is good though, just not great...
Still worth getting though
I agree that maybe not top 10. If you have Master & Everyone you probably don't need the new one
I certainly think they got that wrong
there's been so many fantastic blues/folk/'alt-country' records this year that are so much better.
I think its that good
If you like Will, this is one of his best.
Hmmm
What I've heard of the Ekkehard Ehlers album is intriguing - blues vocal samples over ambient noise. Not sure if I'd want a whole album of it but it's startling stuff.
Burial is good, though I have to say that apart from Ys I haven't heard any of the others.
Wire
Can someone translate The Wire?. I get it from time to time and it just confuses the shit out of me.
They should do a one off where they have to give a mark out of ten and say if it's good or not.
Or Perhaps, a heat style issue where celebs dress up as their favorite avant rockers. Tess Daley, Vernon Kay, Ant and Dec as Bardo Pond.
maybe not
Joanna Newsom
is fucking everywhere!!!!
Notthat she's terrible? but I don't think she warrants so much attention.
Never heard burial? is it slower or faster than vexed? That is some tinnitus inducing dubstep that just makes you go to the toilet if you use speakers...ratehr headphones for any dubstep for me.
post
post the full list
I am entirely down with OM
BPB is a fine, fine album too. It probably wouldn't quite make my top 10 though. The Joanna Newsom album isn't as good as the first one for me so far. Otherwise I haven't listened to that shit enough/at all son.
"downbeat massive attack garage remixes"
Burn the heretic!