BYT - G2 - 1992 (Junodog) defeats 1996 (KKS)

[Saoirse]

[Kool Keith Sweat]

I'll have vanilla teams for a couple of rounds, but I wanted to put forth what I actually listen to for a couple rounds as well.

Tortoise commissioned seven other musicians to remix the tracks of Millions Now Living Will Never Die and released them as singles; each round I'll introduce one of the A-Sides of those singles. They're all good, though it is odd listening to a remix of a rock song which you've listened to so much.

Bill Laswell is a highly prolific bassist and electronic musician with an incredibly diverse arc that began with playing alongside Sonny Sharrock, Henry Threadgill, and Fred Frith on Material's Memory Serves (1981) to producing jungle/drum n bass and ambient dub albums in the '90s and '00s. Since he's switched over to primarily electronic genres, he's been just behind the curve of introducing new genres but he always provides an interesting perspective on them. Oscillations is his first foray into jungle.

Labradford is a pioneer of the post-rock genre and has the distinction of releasing the first record in Kranky's catalog, though I think they peaked with their self-titled album I've presented here.

June of 44 is, without a doubt, the only post-hardcore band other than Slint that I continue to have an interest in. I'd say Tropics and Meridians is a significant improvement over their debut, and a good to great album, but if you have further interest in them you should check out their last album. The glue of the band is drummer Doug Scharin, who also played on Codeine's The White Birch, with Rex (whose C may show up in another round), with Directions, and with HiM. Scharin is a disciple of Britt Walford (Slint) and, though he might not hit as hard or have the same eerie repetition, has a more offset/disjointed style.

Directions is Doug Scharin and Bundy K. Brown of early Tortoise (bassist on Tortoise) creating instrumental jams with more of an americana twist, compared to Tortoise's jazz/dub twist. This is the only album they released, but if you have further interest, check out their single "Echoes" which is better than anything on the album, and was a sneak peak at the potential of these great musicians (who are still active on Thrill Jockey's roster yet haven't released anything).

Spring Heel Jack is probably only known by Scaruffi and people who follow Scaruffi. That bias aside, they're a great group that mixed jazz and electronica, eventually working with actual jazz musicians to create a free electronic atmosphere. 68 Millions Shades though is still them in jungle, producing long, playful instrumentals. However, by this time they were already respected enough by the likes of Tortoise to be commissioned to remix a track off Millions Now Living Will Never Die, and would soon be asked by Low to create the music for their "Bombscare" EP (Spring Heel Jack remains the only group, besides Dirty Three, that has collaborated with Low on a recording).

Bottom line, I wouldn't present albums for this tourny if I didn't think they were good. There are some albums that I've begrudgingly included for later rounds, but this is one of my teams that is totally me. I'm confident that with some listening, everyone will be able to see the quality of it.

And every album and single I post is available across a combination of youtube, spotify, and grooveshark (Except for that Luke Vibert single to which I've provided another streaming link).

[meccalecca]

[CellarDoor]

[Kool Keith Sweat]

Know I put a lot of work on you all, but I was wondering if anyone's listened to any of the albums I presented and whether or not you enjoyed them.

[sp4cetiger]

[benpaco]

[Saoirse]