First Listens: 117
Releases Listened This Year: 322
2016 Releases Listened: 44
Total Listens: 518
Most Listened Album: Painting With (Times Played: 22)
2nd Most Listened Album: Ultimate Care II (Times Played: 10)
Only Listened Once: 234
It's really cool! There's no drums, just sax, guitar, clarinet, and bass. A lot of the music goes a bit on the challenging side but not too far, like not exactly safe but still pretty easy to listen to, but then the guitar comes in and sounds absolutely insane. Like on some fucked up Sonny Sharrock type of stuff. And I'm really into that sort of stuff, and I would actually recommend that Pharoah Sanders album Izipho Zam most of all for the cool free jazz stuff, the first track has some vocals that dip into yodeling and might be offputting (I'm into em but I've read complaints that seem understandable) but the rest of the album goes on some real wild stuff, crazy Sharrock guitar and loads of people doing percussion and going really deep with it, if you haven't heard it you really should because it is really something, right now I'd say it's my favorite thing from either Sharrock or Sanders. But also check out Oleo it is cool.
It's really cool! There's no drums, just sax, guitar, clarinet, and bass. A lot of the music goes a bit on the challenging side but not too far, like not exactly safe but still pretty easy to listen to, but then the guitar comes in and sounds absolutely insane. Like on some fucked up Sonny Sharrock type of stuff. And I'm really into that sort of stuff, and I would actually recommend that Pharoah Sanders album Izipho Zam most of all for the cool free jazz stuff, the first track has some vocals that dip into yodeling and might be offputting (I'm into em but I've read complaints that seem understandable) but the rest of the album goes on some real wild stuff, crazy Sharrock guitar and loads of people doing percussion and going really deep with it, if you haven't heard it you really should because it is really something, right now I'd say it's my favorite thing from either Sharrock or Sanders. But also check out Oleo it is cool.
Wow, thanks a lot, am checking it right away 😁 _________________ Always shouts out something obscene
I haven't heard that Urban Sax album, I'd listened to the Pierre Henry collab a while back and was really not feeling it. This does seem like an interesting group tho, I will investigate. Haven't heard the Maderna either, I think he had a track on some Prospective 21e Siècle compilation that was good, I'll look into that one for sure too.
I'll catch up with Sunday's listening in the next post. But there's some new 2016 stuff I can talk about from here and recently.
Dreamboat is Ilyas Ahmed and Golden Retriever (Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson). Never heard Ahmed, and honestly the Golden Retriever stuff I've heard didn't especially grab me. But I've dug Matt Carlson's solo stuff, so I figured I'd check it out. I think fans of Grouper or Kranky Records in general absolutely should check this out. It's that sort of drifty ambient psychedelic folk, with some really nice touches from Carlson's synth. Really great stuff. You can listen to the A Side of the record (Aftershock / Face to Face), embedded in here http://www.factmag.com/2016/03/09/dreamboat-interview-golden-retriever-ilyas-ahmed/
Finally got around to listening to that Breadwoman reissue, prodded forward by the ALC pick from Rocky. I'm counting it as a 2016 release since I can't find any record of where the two extra tracks at the end come from. I'd meant to write up something about it for the ALC thread but I ended up a bit busier than expected today, but I'll try and get something in there soon.
So some of you guys dug Container's album from last year. That dude's in a band too, called Form A Log. They have a split with Moth Cock, who I was unfamiliar with and did not have high hopes for since the name does not seem to show the best judgment. Both do good work on this split though. Form A Log doesn't go all high tempo pounding energy like Container, it's more on some weirdo electronic ramshackle songcraft kind of thing. Listen to this song here it's really great https://hausumountain.bandcamp.com/track/the-real-verbal-kim
And then Moth Cock are a bit drier with more negative space. Kind of remind me of Black Dice a little? But yeah on a similar tip, some weird and abrasive noises following a woozy groove. It's a fun one.
Oh and there's a Brother May EP with Micachu beats, seemed cool but some of the rapping didn't quite work for me, may just be an anti-British rapper bias or something, I'm probably not the best guy to evaluate it but interested parties should give it a listen https://brothermay.bandcamp.com/
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Running Tally '16
First Listens: 122
Releases Listened This Year: 334
2016 Releases Listened: 47
Total Listens: 539
Only Listened Once: 243
So one of the effects of documenting all of this and seeing it is an awareness of just how much of my listening is focused on the current decade. So I'm trying to combat that a bit more here, Sunday was all stuff from 2000's and back. But then today I started solid going from The Other People Place into ICBYD, but then I saw Olivia Block was doing some crazy shortwave radio mix on a radio stream (it was great!), and then I had a hankering for that Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe release, and then I got the download code reward for throwing in on the new Fog album via kickstarter back in 2014 and stayed in the current times for the rest of the night. I think I'll be making a point of starting off days with something older, because I've also lately been really into letting the first album of the day set a tone and then sort of following that with a few more that seem complimentary to what was established.
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Running Tally '16
First Listens: 127
Releases Listened This Year: 344
2016 Releases Listened: 49
Total Listens: 554
Only Listened Once: 249
So that Hecker album, I haven't added it to the DB because the first track is -1, like you have to rewind the cd into negative time to get it. I'm not sure if it's listed on the packaging though, so I'm not sure how to enter it in.
Finally listened to Matthew Revert's 2014 album, spurred on by his collaboration this year with Vanessa Rossetto (which has leaked now btw so go find it), and it was really great, a very strange sort of contemporary lo-fi that I can totally get behind.
Atkinson & Cantu-Ledesma collab is great, there's some hints of the individuals respective sounds but it seems like it's mostly taking the prosumer lo-fi sort of sound of Atkinson's most recent one, and going way grimier and free-form sounding with it. Very highly recommended, it's streaming here.
Here is a gorgeous chunk of ambient/drone with some hints of electroacoustic weirdness in the movements and fluctuations of tone to keep things from simply being passively nice. There is certainly a lot of enveloping sounds that reach out forever, but it's the more confrontational moments that make this one stand out to me. The first track begins with a stuttering, loosely repetitive melody, which is quickly dropped out for layers of drone that have a fluttering quality to them that carries over the initial sense of movement. There is a gradual rise, but the fluttering quality starts to gain much more distinction and clarity in the notes it's jumping to, as it also grows in volume and getting a bit piercing. It all dies down except for this low end drone, which keeps up the hint of the pulse before also dropping, leaving only the mildly distorted tone in the mid-range that just holds in near-stasis. That's the sort of thing that by itself I can get pretty passive about, but utilized here at the end just feels like such an active move. And while the album does go into the comfortable side of drone for the next track, it seems like it's earned, and then the remaining two tracks continue on with the more electroacoustic elements to make sure things don't go all deflated. Deflating is fun too, don't get me wrong. But in such a crowded field, it really is great to have an ambient album that seems so ready for direct engagement.
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Running Tally '16
First Listens: 133
Releases Listened This Year: 363
2016 Releases Listened: 51
Total Listens: 581
Only Listened Once: 264
1. Envane by Autechre (LTY)
2. 1995 by Jega
3. Choose Your Own Adventure by Team Doyobi (LTY)
4. Tomorrow Outside Tomorrow by Licht-Akiyama Trios (FL16)
5. Dreamboat by Dreamboat (US)
Kinda fell behind here, so gettin this up earlier in the day (I'll edit in the additional listens at the end). But yeah lots to talk about. Friday was cool, stuck with guitar music I like for a good chunk there before moving into aggressive electronic and finishing up in the weirder sounds for the last two. That day was some good listening. But then over the weekend I got pretty busy with people, and so there wasn't much activity. Still managed to give a listen to the new offerings from Editions Mego, and I dunno, they seemed OK but didn't especially strike me, so I haven't added them to the db. I'll revisit but I don't think they'll be making my top 100 of the year (even tho my current list has a few things that are pretty apparent that they won't make it/are worse than these albums).
I felt a bit stronger about the Bitchin Bajas & Bonnie 'Prince' Billie collab, but not too much. I never actually have listened to any Bonnie Prince Billie, but I do enjoy some of Bitchin Bajas stuff. It's pretty hippyish, but I have a high tolerance for that. It's nice stuff but all the mantras and consistency can get to be a bit much sometimes.
I really did not like the new Bibio album, or the new one on Trost from Stephen O'Malley & Steve Noble under the name St. Francis Duo. Maybe the latter could grow on me, but I'm pretty sure I am a strong negative on it. And Bibio... I dunno, I guess this whole decade I haven't really been able to get into what he's putting out, and this is three albums now so I'm just giving up, he's fully on a path that isn't for me. Oh well, I'll always have Vignetting The Compost and Fi. Also I realize I haven't added Fi to the database, that should get rectified soon.
I'd been hearing about this Strategy guy for a bit now, never checked him out. But he's playing in town on Friday with some other people, doing something weird with shortwave radio and junk. So I figured I should check out his new one, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, definitely going to that show. Some murky, spooky radionoise atmosphere that is right up my alley, that should be a fun show.
Also I finally listened to the Mariah album after seeing it on Mecca's chart today & his mention in the undervoted albums thread, and it's a really really good one everyone go listen.
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Running Tally '16
First Listens: 142
Releases Listened This Year: 383
2016 Releases Listened: 58
Total Listens: 612
Only Listened Once: 280
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