Taplog - Music Diaries - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Tap · 2015-11-05T15:54:49-05:00

TAPLOG I will be writing about my day's listening here, a post for each day. Just getting this started, I'll fill out the structure of the day as it goes and then I will edit in details and thoughts later. Feel free to comment and suggest things just maybe don't give too many suggestions and also really try to sell me on it or I might forget. Oh and if there's anything here you're interested in hearing but you're having difficulty finding, pm me and maybe I can help you find it. 11/5/15 Art Angels by Grimes Then I followed this up with the Improv4Humans podcast, new ep today has musical guest Dan Deacon. It was too distractingly funny though so I had to pause. Got me thinking that I didn't give a close enough listen to Deacon's latest, so let's give that a whirl. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon Yeah, I don't know. I like it. But my way in with Deacon was Spiderman of the Rings. I still love that album, because there was a forcefulness to it, and danger and sharp edges and all of that. While the compositions following that album have gotten more intricate, it feels like all the edge has gotten sanded off. I think the songs on this are fine, and I do like a lot of them more than what was on the previous album (and, controversially, a lot of Bromst, which I still need to put on my year chart come to think of it), and would love to experience them live. But I guess it's a combination of the smoothing of the sound and the increased familiarity with who Dan Deacon is that leads to me noticing that there is some sort of nuanced development to his sound, but just not being able to feel it as much. But I wouldn't say it's bad by any means. It's getting too normie in here so now: Flowers Of Evil by Ruth White Oh, this. I love this album. It's one of the many albums that I love that I found through the Creel Pone unofficial reissue label. Lots of musical spoken word that's all been treated to some degree put over synthesizers of varying levels of murkiness. Nothing really in the way of percussion, but in spite of that and all the murk there's still some really clear forms to these songs that makes them seem quite direct. Anyone looking to expand their knowledge of women making far out electronic sounds in the early days of it absolutely must check this one out. I can hear some loud drums being soundchecked at the venue next door now which is simply too distracting so now I'm goin to some talky podcasts, starting with Who Charted. New format is weird but it works for some word listening. But now I need something wordless to go with the working so Precipice by Byron Westbrook This is just some fantastic ambient music right here. But what makes this stand out is that beyond the gorgeous waves of sound, there are all of these weird little elements to the songs, enough to where I've seen this album referred to as electro-acoustic on top of being ambient. What's great about these layers of weird synthesis in the mix is that they're more than just flavor, they're major determinants in the structure. Like in the last track, there's all these gorgeous waves and it's wonderful but then they break apart into some series of notes and the slowness intensifies and I like it a lot. I need more, so KOCH by Lee Gamble This album is still growing on me, a year later. And I still don't know how to describe it. But man oh man I love these timbres. It's some pretty consistent, minimal music. But there's this quality to his music where it's like he's taking something that previously existed and erasing, and the talent is in the space that's created from the erasure. I don't know. I still need more time and more listens. I'm hungry so I'm going to get something going with that while finishing up the Dan Deacon ep of Improv4Humans. I dunno I could imagine a lot of people find this sort of improv comedy to be annoying but this is so much my jam, absolutely loving it. This will be one of those podcast episodes that I actually listen to more than once. Ok now to go through this again so I can figure out what I want to say here Art Angels by Grimes I guess I have a sort of weird relationship with capital p Pop. I enjoy a song here and there but I never really feel compelled to go dive into a whole album. This is a bit different than capital p Pop, with all the indieosyncrasy. But there's still that slick sort of timbre all over the place, and so many filter sweeps. So I do feel put at a distance from this. On the other hand tho, I've seen some people online absolutely losing their shit about how bad this is. And I completely disagree with those folks. This has tons of really fun catchy songs on here. Kill V Maim, Pin, Realiti (which I actually prefer here to the previously released one), Venus Fly, and Scream and Flesh Without Blood are all great as far as I'm concerned. The other songs, nothing strikes me as being especially bad or enough to make me want to skip, but I don't know if I feel a strong pull back to them. I figure I probably won't be pulling out this album in it's entirety all too often (though I'll have it on my phone for a lil bit I think), but I do think this is good stuff. But the overall timbre, like I can never feel at home with this sort of sound, I'll always feel like a tourist with it and so I value the stuff I feel more at home with more. Now let's go with a first listen for something I think I'll feel at home with On Earth by Hans Otte This is another Creel Pone thing that I ordered recently, I'm not sure if there's any copies online. I guess this was some sort of sound art thing that happened in the space pictured on the cover, and man it must have been really cool to be there in person, with all these noises and spoken German coming out of the squares on the ground and also from the ceiling. It starts up and there's a sort of irregular bass throb that gives a pulse to the whole thing, while waves of noise build up from nothing and hang out in the space for a bit. It can get a bit harsh. But I have no problem with that. The structure isn't super overt, very much in the horizontal development mode throughout and I'm more generally aware of change happening than seeing an exact point of it, if that makes sense. Sometimes this sort of thing doesn't work for me so well when it feels like it's just lingering in a certain mode and not pushing into anywhere new, but this uses a small selection of sounds to go all sorts of places, like it gets into a sort of rhythmic thing in the second half of side A with much more... I guess they would be percussive hits? Well, sort of? It's weird. But the focus in aesthetic and constant development in what the piece is is just great to take in. And then Side B sort of repeats the process of Side A, but gets into more feedback drones, it feels similar in shape, but slower and everything hangs a little different in my ear. And more of the German spoken word. Yes, I am at home here. That's it for today on the music front. Going to catch up on adventure time and then get things sorted for the day tomorrow.

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2/4/16

1. Aberystwyth Marine by µ-Ziq (FL16)

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Today was weird, fair amount of comedy podcast listening but also just jumping around with songs and stuff and browsing new and upcoming releases, only really gave a full listen to this new/old µ-ziq, an album's worth of material in-between Lunatic Harness and Royal Astronomy. It's cool, nothing that was quite on the LH level on first listen and you can hear the RA cheese creeping in on some of it, but there's some cool stuff on it. Stream it here if you're curious: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/aberystwyth-marine

Also was checking some preview tracks off the new Jega album titled 1995 coming out on Skam in a couple weeks (https://soundcloud.com/skam/05saint-bees). I am totally on board with this trend of idm dudes releasing old shit again if it's good, and this sounds nice to me. Not some set the world on fire sorta stuff but I'm still down.

But as far as other new releases go, there's a lot I'm interested in. That Kerridge album I previewed yesterday via a stream on The Wire (http://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-to-samuel-kerridge-fatal-light-attraction), that's pretty cool. It's still got the distortion doom stuff going on, but less overwhelming and consistently murky, more of a chopped up element with punchier rhythm elements, it's pretty cool.

But then there's also this album Not Waving - Animals, just came out on Powell's label Diagonal. This preview track sounds so good (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1wCN1oM4zY), like it has that sort of vibe that Powell has in economically constructed dance music with an edgy sort of style, but maybe with more of an emphasis on things constantly happening. I'm leaning towards buying this one this most.

And then there's also this Good Willsmith album, they had something cool in 2014 and this seems like it should be interesting, it's got guitar in it so that's fun to have in the mix (https://umorrex.bandcamp.com/album/things-our-bodies-used-to-have). And then I saw this Paul Jebanasam album call Continuum, previews on boomkat showed digital electronic ambient/noise type of stuff that plays around with some beat type of stuff sometimes but in a way that's completely removed from any sort of dancefloor context. That seems right up my alley, tho I'm unfamiliar with the artist (anyone know him?).

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 64
Releases Listened This Year: 197
2016 Releases Listened: 14
Total Listens: 254
Only Listened Once: 163

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2/6/16

1. Animals by Not Waving (FL16)
2. Continuum by Paul Jebanasam (FL16)
3. Water Above Sky Below Now by Pauline Oliveros And Ione
4. Ornate Circular by Wanda Group (FL16)
5. Animals by Not Waving
6. Busman's Holiday by Kevin Drumm & Jason Lescalleet
7. Amorphous Spores by Takahiro Kawaguchi & Utah Kawasaki
8. Earnest Rubbish by Matthew Revert & Vanessa Rossetto (FL16)
9. Looking Around by Christian Wolff & Michael Pisaro (FL16)
10. Animals by Not Waving
11. Aberystwyth Marine by µ-Ziq

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So much new music today oh man. Not Waving has been super listenable so I put it on a bunch, and the new Erstwhiles were great, especially Earnest Rubbish which I'll put at my number 1 for the year as soon as it gets a release date locked down. And Wanda Group and Paul Jebanasam (the only artist on BEA with a Sri Lankan nationality?) were also really nice too for fans of the spacier sort of stuff (Wanda Group being more constructed recorded sound type of stuff while Jebanasam is more in digital synthesis territory).

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 69
Releases Listened This Year: 202
2016 Releases Listened: 19
Total Listens: 265
Only Listened Once: 165

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2/6/16

No albums listened today. But I did see this.

Seattle Symphony conducted by Ludovic Morlot
Richard Strauss - Don Juan
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 2
Luciano Berio - Sinfonia for Eight Solo Voices and Orchestra

Strauss and Beethoven pieces were cool. Strauss had the whole broadly emotional thing going on which isn't entirely my thing but in this environment I still had a really great time engaging with it. Beethoven, I dunno he just never really clicks with me, like I respect the legitimacy of what people like about it but it just doesn't resonate with me so much. Like I'm impressed, but I don't feel it very deeply. But I feel like that's an arbitrary matter of taste and even with that I was pretty engaged and am glad I saw it.

After an intermission, we all gathered back and got a video with the conductor talking about how important it is to play a piece like Sinfonia and sort of trying to prepare people for what was about to happen. He also talked about his choice (?) to have the vocalists spread out among the other performers, or maybe I misheard, but it seemed like he felt that it was better to have the exact language a bit more difficult to understand and focus on bringing out the musicality of the vocals. And that was the biggest trip with the whole thing I think. There were certainly parts that were clear enough to understand, like the "compulsory show" bit. But for the most part a lot of the language was harder to make out, and they would blend in with the other instruments and it would all just be this complex mass of music where you can make out the form easily enough but there's this unity to everything, I couldn't just zero in on the details of one part for a moment, I always had to take in the whole of it. So that was incredible. Also I've been entirely focused on the 69 recording of this but I really need to find a good one that includes part 5, because that's a pretty fantastic ending there.

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2/7/16

1. Arco by Giovanni Di Domenico & Jim O'Rourke (FL)
2. Earnest Rubbish by Matthew Revert & Vanessa Rossetto
3. Animals by Not Waving
4. Continuum by Paul Jebanasam
5. Yeppers! by Los Condenados
6. Chance Meeting by Joe McPhee & Graham Lambkin (FL)
7. Ornate Circular by Wanda Group
8. Eliminated Artist by Yarn/Wire And Pete Swanson (LTY)
9. Animals by Not Waving
10. Earnest Rubbish by Matthew Revert & Vanessa Rossetto

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Hey I started my entry for the Album Listening Club, go check that out. Big surprise, it's Animals by Not Waving (because it wouldn't be possible to get everyone to do Earnest Rubbish). Today's listening also found a few more 2015 releases that I hadn't gotten to check yet. The Di Domenico & O'Rourke is alright but didn't particularly strike me, but the McPhee & Lambkin was really exceptional and will definitely need some revisiting. I haven't given up on my plans to get a good write-up for everything in 2015 that I found to be pretty strong, but I'm not rushing for it and if it ends up taking me until July, so be it. I'll get them when the inspiration strikes/when I figure out how to say what I want to say. I think I'm close to something for Schwarze Riesenfalter, I think the next listen on that I'll have it figured enough.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 71
Releases Listened This Year: 205
2016 Releases Listened: 19
Total Listens: 275
Only Listened Once: 164

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2/8/16

1. Burningn'n Tree by Squarepusher
2. Cognition / Observation by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe
3. Animals by Not Waving
4. A Través Del Espejo by Federico Durand (FL16)
5. Earnest Rubbish by Matthew Revert & Vanessa Rossetto

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I forgot how much I love hearing the Squarepusher material compiled on Burningn'n Tree early in the day. There's something about how dry the sound is, and the playfulness of all the chopping lacking anything particularly aggressive feeling, such a great way to get waking up. Had to fix it on my chart cause I was way underrating it. Today has been mostly light on the music, though I did check out this Federico Durand thing that TMT compared to Leafcutter John. It doesn't really sound like him though, some nice looping ambient with lots of physical and degraded sounds though. It's nice, I don't know if it'll stick with me by the end of the year though.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 72
Releases Listened This Year: 207
2016 Releases Listened: 20
Total Listens: 280
Only Listened Once: 166

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Oh hey I still gotta check out the new Durand. I've been way into what he's been doing past few years

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2/9/16

1. Feels by Animal Collective (LTY)
2. Ornate Circular by Wanda Group
3. Alps by Oren Ambarchi & Eli Keszler
4. Madvillainy by Madvillain (LTY)
5. Animals by Not Waving
6. Love Streams by Tim Hecker
7. Ultimate Care II by Matmos (FL16)
8. Chance Meeting by Joe McPhee & Graham Lambkin

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So I added this McPhee & Lambkin to the database, and while doing so I noticed I remembered that I'd added a collaboration with Eli Keszler from a few years back that was pretty cool. This guy seems like someone I should know about, I guess he has some jazz going back to the tail of the 60's. Anyone familiar with his stuff and have any recommendations?

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 73
Releases Listened This Year: 210
2016 Releases Listened: 21
Total Listens: 288
Only Listened Once: 167

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2/10/16

1. Ultimate Care II by Matmos
2. Third Law by Roly Porter
3. Continuum by Paul Jebanasam
4. Different Selves by Shapednoise
5. Nation Time by Joe McPhee (FL)
6. Ultimate Care II by Matmos
7. Deviate From Balance by John Wiese (LTY)

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2/11/16

1. Human Capabilities by Not Waving (FL)
2. Swim by Caribou (LTY)
3. Yeezy Season 3 by Kanye West (FL16)
4. The Black Ark by Noah Howard (LTY)
5. Oleo by Joe McPhee Po Music (FL)
6. Primordial Forms by Nick Forté (LTY)
7. Earnest Rubbish by Matthew Revert & Vanessa Rossetto

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2/12/16

1. 10th Avenue Freakout by Fog (LTY)
2. Putrifiers II by Thee Oh Sees (LTY)
3. Wallet & Cellphone by Gobby (LTY)
4. Meta by Paul A. R. Timmermans (FL)
5. Looking Around by Christian Wolff & Michael Pisaro
6. Ottoman Black by Jason Crumer (FL)
7. Disingenuity B/W Disingenuousness by Keith Fullerton Whitman (LTY)
8. Teatro Assente by Taku Unami & Takahiro Kawaguchi (FL)
9. Slipping Control by Ben Vida (LTY)

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I'll get back to writing about releases soon but in the meantime, I've been keeping track of all this in a google sheets thing to make things easier to keep track via a few formulas. So I decided what the hey lets make a pie chart of what decades I've been focusing on (counted by listens)

lol I knew I was going pretty hard on the 2010's, didn't realize it was quite that dominant though. I guess it'd probably look a bit different if I didn't give the weight to the relistening, but I dunno how to count it that way with how it's set up. This really emphasizes to me that I need to focus on more 80's stuff, I was getting some good exploration in on that decade but I think I've stagnated there this year.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 80
Releases Listened This Year: 226
2016 Releases Listened: 22
Total Listens: 311
Only Listened Once: 181

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damn wow you've got this down to a science

I tried to throw together a listening chart and this is all I could come up with

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

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lol great pie. it's easy with spreadsheets tho

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...sp=sharing

tho you can see there how the things I set up to figure my most and 2nd most listened to albums doesn't work when there are ties