Chart study #4: secretdad - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

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Gender: Female
Age: 38

sp4cetiger wrote:

My first question has nothing to do with the chart, actually. That username... are you actually a dad or is that a music reference I'm not getting? Laughing

Oh haha nah, I have fathered no children, I'm really irresponsible, that would end terribly. I usually take my usernames from song titles, like I'd use Stars of the Lid's Taphead a lot. But recently I've been going with Mr76ix's Secret Dad. Especially because I looked and found this as well:

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Which is something I find deeply troubling and hilarious so I had to use it.

And yay phil! I quite enjoy your charts, getting some good datach'i reppin going, and some Brad Laner solo stuff if memory serves. You didn't include the Nettle album in that quote tho, you may want to check that one out.

Edit: Oh and re: how do I find stuff, another resource that I haven't fully explored is the Nurse With Wound list, and the old mutant sounds mp3 blog that had a lot of the harder to find things from there. Even though I haven't been especially smitten with NWW's stuff, I've definitely been led to some cool things from that. And also finding out about that back in the day probably fueled my taste for listmaking.

bongritsu
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Location: bog

secretdad wrote:

Edit: Oh and re: how do I find stuff, another resource that I haven't fully explored is the Nurse With Wound list, and the old mutant sounds mp3 blog that had a lot of the harder to find things from there. Even though I haven't been especially smitten with NWW's stuff, I've definitely been led to some cool things from that. And also finding out about that back in the day probably fueled my taste for listmaking.

I have never been not disappointed with NWWs work. It feels like I should enjoy it but all of their work just ends up being underdeveloped and flat imo

Anyways you have pretty cool taste. I'll be sure to dive into some of this
_________________
Alt Right meme game on point

I FEEL DISCRIMINATED AGAINST AS A PERSON OF JUDGEMENT.

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Gender: Female
Age: 38

Yeah I dunno what it is, but I just never get that feeling of engagement with NWW, like I take everything in after the fact, don't get into that mode where every change feels significant, just like "oh yeah, that happened". I feel like I should make a list of "Intentional Omissions" for things that totally seem in my wheelhouse but that I didn't really like, but can still respect their position in music and am glad that there's people out there championing it. Because like I'm sure people are looking at my list being like "huh I would've thought the disintegration loops would be on there". I dunno, I need to give things more chances. But NWW definitely have a great list there.

If there's one unfairness in the world that I hope my list calls peoples attention to, it's the obscurity of Wobbly - Wild Why. An amazing plunderphonics album that is built entirely from samples of commercial hip hop radio, chopped up and reassembled into an alien musical language. It's incredible, and listening to the album while reading the lyrics sheet probably had a large part in warping my brain as a teenager. But unfortunately, around this time Pitchfork had hired this total dick Matt Wellins to do some reviews. I knew him from my time on Soulseek, there was an artists community there doing this thing called the one minute massacre, where someone does 2 minutes of music and then the next person picks up right from that, for this long continuous thing from all these different authors. So this Wellins guy comes on, and his thing is just playing the track that came before him while he talks shit over it. Which, yeah lol, but still really disrespectful. So anyway, I see this guy is reviewing the wobbly album, and he totally trashes it, gives it a 4 or something. And then he pulls the same shit with Casino Versus Japan - Whole Numbers Play The Basics. Fortunately Pitchfork came to their senses after that and were like "yeah we don't need a guy to shit on music that nobody cares about" and didn't run any more of his reviews. But still, that was the chance for people to learn how utterly brilliant this Wobbly album was, and it was ruined by this total asshole. So do your part in correcting history, and check out this album, it really is something special.

sp4cetiger

secretdad wrote:

Oh haha nah, I have fathered no children, I'm really irresponsible, that would end terribly. I usually take my usernames from song titles, like I'd use Stars of the Lid's Taphead a lot. But recently I've been going with Mr76ix's Secret Dad.

Okay, well I should warn you that I'm likely to continue picturing you as a thirty-something father-of-two. It's been over a year and I still picture Mercury as a 20-year-old woman.

Anyway, let's start with one that should be familiar to most of the folks here:

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Tago Mago by Can

secretdad wrote:

I remember downloading this one on Napster, and just jamming out to those first few songs, and then when the longer durations and weirder stuff started coming just absolutely hating it. But it just sort of hung around, I'd forget to stop the album more and more often, until I wanted to hear those other songs. So my evaluation of this one is very far from objective because it was really there when I was getting deep into music, and this helped push me outside my comfort zone, towards stuff that I really love now.

It's always interesting to hear what a music lover's "foundational" records are; that is, the ones that played the biggest role in establishing their present tastes. How much of this pick is sentimental? Do you still listen to it a lot? Can has a strong following on the forums, so I'm sure a lot of folks can relate to you here. Are you big on their entire discography or is this one a major stand-out?

Also, do you have any other albums that you consider foundational?

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Age: 38

sp4cetiger wrote:

It's always interesting to hear what a music lover's "foundational" records are; that is, the ones that played the biggest role in establishing their present tastes. How much of this pick is sentimental? Do you still listen to it a lot? Can has a strong following on the forums, so I'm sure a lot of folks can relate to you here. Are you big on their entire discography or is this one a major stand-out?

Also, do you have any other albums that you consider foundational?

It's definitely a sentimental pick, but I still listen to it quite often. It's more that I don't know if I would put it so highly if it didn't come into my life when it did, when the whole way the album sets up one thing and then completely destroys it would have as much of an impact on my listening habits, if I would still put it up so high. But yeah if I still didn't absolutely love listening to it, it wouldn't be on this list.

This one is absolutely the major stand-out, sort of similar to the Manitoba/Caribou thing (there's probably a pretty big trend there, my Boredoms pick is the one where they're transitioning from goofy noise to sun worshiping cult and you get the best of both worlds). This album has that really special quality in it's structure that is missing from the other albums, which can be amazing but are still really coherent feeling to me. There's probably a degree of arbitrariness to it, a slightly different order of events in my life and I might have been talking about why Ege Bamyasi has the special quality that is missing from all the others. But the main source of flavoring for this whole chart thing is about where one lands on those sorts of things, so I just embrace where I'm at. But even still, I'm down to rock out to Soon Over Babaluma, it's still a really solid album even without Damo. Splash is a jam.

As far as other foundational albums go, of course Kid A. But actually a lot of these albums I was listening to when I was 16-18, like Wobbly - Wild Why, the Fenn O'Berg album, or something that didn't make the list, Kid606 - Down With The Scene. That album is just crazy distorted with a lot of gnarly digital sounds on it, I think that album getting to me early really helped make sure I was opened up for the weirder experimental electronic stuff when I started down that path.

One thing I should note with Can though, is that of course there's the level on how it relates to my tastes, but this whole chart making is about communicating to other people. So it serves an important role in being the most prominently placed album that people are more likely to have heard. I feel like it's important to keep a good balance of those sorts of albums, like familiar sign posts that allow a person to orient themselves around the other, potentially less familiar content on the chart. And so that was a consideration in the really small scale positioning, I don't think I used to have it in the top 3 but I felt that I needed a sign post in there.

And one thing I'd be curious about from people: do the notes work? I try to keep it a little light, but is there any of them that are written where you feel like you wanted more about what the music is doing?

sp4cetiger

secretdad wrote:

One thing I should note with Can though, is that of course there's the level on how it relates to my tastes, but this whole chart making is about communicating to other people. So it serves an important role in being the most prominently placed album that people are more likely to have heard. I feel like it's important to keep a good balance of those sorts of albums, like familiar sign posts that allow a person to orient themselves around the other, potentially less familiar content on the chart. And so that was a consideration in the really small scale positioning, I don't think I used to have it in the top 3 but I felt that I needed a sign post in there.

That's an interesting way to look at it. I get the impression that there's a wide range of views on here about the extent to which charts should be designed for the sake of others. I suppose chart-making is no different from writing music in that sense.

There are a lot of things that Tago Mago says to me personally, but one thing that has always stood out is how primal it is. You'd think that a chart full of electronica would be anything but primal... still, I think it makes sense. Take your #7, for example:

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Super æ by Boredoms

Despite their high-tech setup, Boredoms still manage to draw from some of the most primitive aspects of our nature. Those throbbing tribal drumbeats are like a comforting (and energizing) anchor in a sea of electronica.

Do you see a distinct arrow of time with your favorite music? In other words, do you see it as regressive, progressive, or clearly a statement of its time? Perhaps all of the above?

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Age: 38

Oooh that is a meaty question. Gonna have to mull that one over during work today and get back to you. The whole primal thing is probably another trend on this chart, the Animal Collective pick is probably their most primal album.

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Ok so as far as music with a primal quality being regressive/progressive etc, I feel like it's a way for music to really get at something new. For example, the Rashad Becker album in my top 10, that's some of the freshest sounding stuff I've heard lately. It's got this really strange approach to synthesis that goes past organic and gets into sounding downright biological. And it's weird as shit, and even all the people who reviewed it made it sound like there's no easy way into it. But they're wrong, because every track is guided by a steady, unchanging pulse. And I consider that to be a very primal thing, something so fundamental that it allows for the wilder turns to be easier to digest. And that's where I think the usage of this quality works for me, there's less of a weight of history to things and more opportunity for the fantastic newness of something to be appreciated. So yeah like with that Boredoms album, the steady pulse of the drum keeps one foot on the ground while the other foot does crazy awesome kicks, and is also on fire, because Boredoms are crazy awesome.

And also the further things get away from "primal", there's kind of the greater chance of a thing being nerdy. Like of course that's a gross oversimplification, but like the new Aphex Twin album. I love that to death, but it's totally nerdy (requiring an enthusiasm for a specific type of thing). And so it's a very different experience, it feels more like I had to learn from other albums how to appreciate it and really have that enthusiasm for an existing bit of history, whereas with the primal ones it feels like I could come into the world naked and screaming but still ready to love them. But of course it's probably a bit more complicated than that.

sp4cetiger

secretdad wrote:

And also the further things get away from "primal", there's kind of the greater chance of a thing being dorky.

Well put. Loving your chart, btw, will probably have more for you tomorrow.

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Just wanted to drop by and say I've been enjoying this immensely so far. One of my favorite charts of all time and (although I've only noticed your forum presence fairly recently, forgive me if you've been posting all this time and I just haven't noticed), one of the coolest users. Wonderfully eclectic taste yet totally humble and down to earth, and he can put shit into words (e.g. this thread).

Ok carry on Smile

(keep up the good work sp4ce. these threads are marvelous)