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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4/18/16

1. Magnetoception by Joshua Abrams
2. Syro by Aphex Twin
3. Big Loada by Squarepusher
4. The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast by Matmos
5. Come Away With ESG by ESG (LTY)
6. Church Of The Ghetto P.C. by o9
7. In The End His Voice Will Be The Sound Of Paper by Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Kim Myhr & Jenny Hval (FL16)
8. Zauberberg by Kassel Jaeger / Stephan Mathieu / Akira Rabelais

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This Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Myhr & Hval thing was cool! I need to give it more listens, and just put it up somewhere among the things I think are very good on my year chart for now. But yeah the way the acoustic guitar stuck out above the the other instruments and the way those other instruments are meshed together sounded great to me. some really good sounds that made a lot of sense in this insane heat today. it was 88! of course, the thing that makes the most sense in this heat is that ESG album, actually makes it all feel pretty bearable.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 178
Releases Listened This Year: 471
2016 Releases Listened: 78
Total Listens: 804
Only Listened Once: 326

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4/19/16

1. Rewind Records by SoundMurderer + SK-1 (LTY)
2. Love Streams by Tim Hecker
3. Be With by Koushik (LTY)
4. Up In Flames by Manitoba (LTY)
5. Cumbia & Jazz Fusion by Charles Mingus
6. Musipal by Wagon Christ (LTY)
7. Ears by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
8. Food Court by Food Court

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There's stuff I meant to check out today but I'm still adjusting to the idea that the weather is hot now. It would probably be different if I had air conditioning. But yeah, I just can't be generous enough to take in new things right now. It's not all bad though, because Rewind Records, Be With, Up In Flames, and Musipal are four albums that make more sense to me in this weather (like ESG yesterday), and I'm glad I've finally cracked into those on this calendar year. But yeah, I'll get adjusted enough and get back to some exploring soon.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 178
Releases Listened This Year: 475
2016 Releases Listened: 78
Total Listens: 812
Only Listened Once: 328

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4/20/Brah

1. Bird Show Band by Bird Show Band (LTY)
2. Olympic Mess by Helm
3. Taz And May Vids by Micachu
4. Resolution by Greg Kelley & Olivia Block
5. Pollution by Franco Battiato
6. Slipping Control by Ben Vida
7. Oto Redactions by Keith Fullerton Whitman
8. Sale_interiora by Norbert Möslang / Ilia Belorukov / Kurt Liedwart
9. Without Knowing Why by Andrea Pensado

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I don't know if there's too much I'm curious to check out this coming Friday (which is good, since I did end up buying that Valerio Tricoli album). There's that new Dalek, that seems like it'd be interesting. I'm sure there'll be a lot of talk on Andy Stott's new one, but I've never really been able to get into his style so I'll probably just continue sitting that out. But yeah, there's already plenty to listen to (going to get to that Oram release soon), I'm not worried.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 178
Releases Listened This Year: 476
2016 Releases Listened: 78
Total Listens: 821
Only Listened Once: 325

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4/21/16

1. Friend Opportunity by Deerhoof (LTY)
2. Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin (LTY)
3. Modern Pressure by Kane Ikin
4. Chapters Of My Life by Moken (FL16)
5. AS by Amnesia Scanner
6. Pale Calling by Oren Ambarchi / Kassel Jaeger / James Rushford
7. Schottische Symphonie / Requiem Of Art by Henning Christiansen & Joseph Beuys (FL)

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So I'd seen that this Henning Christiansen Requiem of Art thing got reissued recently, and I'd been meaning to listen to more of his work, so I decided to seek out the source, which is also packaged with a collaboration with Joseph Beuys called Schottische Symphonie. That bit was interesting but didn't really strike me, but holy crap Requiem of Art is amazing. Like it starts off so minimal and focused on the subtleties, and sticks with that for a while, and gradually starts to make some big moves at expansion that stay true to the established character of the piece. It'll take some more listens to talk about it with much substance, but I highly recommend the experience.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 180
Releases Listened This Year: 480
2016 Releases Listened: 79
Total Listens: 828
Only Listened Once: 329

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4/22/16

1. Come To Daddy by Aphex Twin (LTY)
2. Feed Me Weird Things by Squarepusher (LTY)
3. Music Has The Right To Children by Boards Of Canada (LTY)
4. Incunabula by Autechre
5. Variance by Jega (LTY)
6. Lunatic Harness by µ-Ziq (LTY)

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Decided to go full on IDM day yesterday, it was fun! Was gonna finish it off with Hrvatski's Swarm & Dither but I ended up getting too tired. Anyone who likes the big Warp Records artists listed but hasn't listened to that Jega album, I highly recommend you check it out. It's a long one at 2 CDs, but worth the time for sure. First half starts off with an easy to digest combo of beats and melodies, and then the 2nd disc brings the speed and aggression. The DSP (digital signal processing) effects are maybe dated now, certainly out of style with the times, but I just love the bursts of ugliness in the timbre.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 180
Releases Listened This Year: 485
2016 Releases Listened: 79
Total Listens: 834
Only Listened Once: 333

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4/24/16

1. Not You by Matthew Revert
2. The Oram Tapes Vol. 1 by Daphne Oram (FL)
3. Bécs by Fennesz
4. Swarm & Dither by Hrvatski (LTY)
5. Syro by Aphex Twin

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That Oram Tapes release has some very good stuff, but archival releases like this are always a struggle for me. Nearly 2 hours of content that wasn't intended to be packaged together, with parts that are genuinely experiments not seemingly concerned with being musically compelling at the time of their creation, it just doesn't work as a thing I listen to straight thru. Some very good pieces on here for sure, might just edit it down to a playlist of those.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 181
Releases Listened This Year: 487
2016 Releases Listened: 79
Total Listens: 839
Only Listened Once: 333

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the "formatting is hard and also I don't want to add a bunch of stuff to the database" edition

4/25/16-4/30/16

1 Sounds Of The Empire by Capitol K 4/25/2016
2 Financial Glam by Jar Moff 4/25/2016
3 Things Our Bodies Used To Have by Good Willsmith 4/25/2016
4 Liberty Seeds by The New Sound Of Numbers 4/25/2016
5 TNT by Tortoise 4/25/2016
6 Clark by Clark 4/25/2016
7 Drop Acid Not Bombs by The Railway Raver 4/26/2016
8 Vision Creation Newsun by Boredoms 4/26/2016
9 DrukQs by Aphex Twin 4/26/2016
10 Summary Dismissal by Tim Albro/Tyler Keen 4/26/2016
11 Medium Rude by Reed Evan Rosenberg/Ethan Tripp 4/26/2016
12 In Hell by Fenn O'Berg 4/26/2016
13 Envane by Autechre 4/27/2016
14 For Good by Fog 4/27/2016
15 Digital Music Volume 1 by Team Doyobi 4/27/2016
16 Pale Calling by Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger & James Rushford 4/27/2016
17 Singulacra by Sophia Loizou 4/27/2016
18 Playthroughs by Keith Fullerton Whitman 4/27/2016
19 Interventions by Horse Lords 4/28/2016
20 Colliding Contours by Driftmachine 4/28/2016
21 Joan Of Arc by Tony Conrad 4/28/2016
22 Borderlands by Lisa Ullen Quartet 4/28/2016
23 Get In by Pita 4/29/2016
24 Interventions by Horse Lords 4/29/2016
25 Love Streams by Tim Hecker 4/30/2016
26 Medium Rude by Reed Evan Rosenberg/Ethan Tripp 4/30/2016
27 Lidingö by Andrea Neumann/Burkhard Beins 4/30/2016
28 Untilted by Autechre 4/30/2016
29 Painting With by Animal Collective 4/30/2016

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I saw a dream job posting so my energies were pretty focused on getting something solid in for that. In the meantime, I was able to catch that new Erstwhile AEU releases were up for pre-order, so I picked those up and got my digital copies. Good stuff! Neither blew me away like Earnest Rubbish did, but that's not something I'd expect right off the bat. Rosenberg/Tripp go pretty hard on the noise side of things (there's even some bursts of yelling in the last track!), and Albro/Keen is on the quieter side of things, with some really cool dismantled guitar type sounds. Looking forward to digging into those more. Also even though the new Pita album isn't out technically for a few more weeks if you buy it from Editions Mego bandcamp you can just download it now, so I did and it is really good and also needs more attention. New Horse Lords is also very good, the whole relentless winding pattern thing is something I totally dig. And I saw on FACT this stream of this Driftmachine album on Umor Rex, some cool minimal synth type stuff for sure http://www.factmag.com/2016/04/28/driftmachine-stream-colliding-contours/

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Final Tally April

First Listens: 34
2016 Releases Listened: 21
Total Listens: 203
Most Listened Album: 3 way tie! Singulacra by Sophia Loizou, Oto Redactions by Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Sleep Cycle by Deakin each listened 6 times.
Only Listened Once: 124

Running Tally '16

First Listens: 188
Releases Listened This Year: 502
2016 Releases Listened: 86
Total Listens: 871
Only Listened Once: 340

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5/1/16

1. Budakhan Mindphone by Squarepusher
2. The King Of Limbs by Radiohead (LTY)
3. Izipho Zam by Pharoah Sanders

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5/2/16

1. When We Were Eating Unripe Pears by Bee Mask
2. Gradeatia - Natural by Octavian Nemescu
3. I'm In Your Mind Fuzz by King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard (FL)
4. Interventions by Horse Lords
5. Go Hawaii by Casino Versus Japan (LTY)
6. Down With The Scene by Kid606 (LTY)
7. Oversteps by Autechre
8. Earnest Rubbish by Matthew Revert / Vanessa Rossetto

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5/3/16

1. Arbor by Greg Davis (LTY)
2. Lucas by Skeletons (LTY)
3. Andorra by Caribou (LTY)
4. Blue As An Orange by Pierre Bastien
5. Tant Que Les Heures Passent by Bérangère Maximin (LTY)
6. Get In by Pita

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Early today I listened to that new Radiohead song, thought it was pretty nice but I don't have a super strong opinion about it. But the strings made me want to listen to Skeletons - Lucas. That album has better strings. People should really just listen to that album.

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Running Tally '16

First Listens: 189
Releases Listened This Year: 510
2016 Releases Listened: 86
Total Listens: 888
Only Listened Once: 343

Grzywa Profile
Polska

Tap wrote:

But the strings made me want to listen to Skeletons - Lucas. That album has better strings. People should really just listen to that album.

Interesting. Checking it out right now. Have you heard their latest effort, this year's Am I Home ? meccalecca recommended it a few weeks ago and, outside Blackstar, this is my favourite rock-related record this year.
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Always shouts out something obscene

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Oh hey I still need to get around to that one, I should get on that. I'm slacking here so here's just some days to start catching up.

5/4/16

1. Generator by Keith Fullerton Whitman (LTY)
2. Welcome by Dave Monolith (LTY)
3. Confield by Autechre (LTY)
4. Garden Of Delete by Oneohtrix Point Never
5. Interventions by Horse Lords
6. Hangable Auto Bulb by AFX

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5/5/16

1. Ullakkopalo by Kemialliset Ystävät (LTY)
2. Journey In Satchidananda by Alice Coltrane (LTY)
3. As If Apart by Chris Cohen (FL16)
4. As If Apart by Chris Cohen
5. Return Of Fenn O'Berg by Fenn O'Berg

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This Chris Cohen album is some nice stuff, the slight change in sound from his last album sorta reminds me of the 70's vibes on the last Jim O'Rourke album. Worth checking out for sure.