Round 1: Billy Woods & Kenny Segal v. Uboa

[baystateoftheart]

Seed #16:

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Hiding Places by Billy Woods & Kenny Segal

Nominated by: Skinny
Genres [RYM]: Abstract Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop

Seed #19:

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The Origin Of My Depression by Uboa

Nominated by: CryingGameDahlin
Genres [RYM]: Dark Ambient, Death Industrial

Instructions:

If you have not already, please listen to both albums in full before voting. Share your thoughts and/or your vote in this thread. This poll will be tallied in no fewer than twenty-eight days. See Tournament Spreadsheet for the full bracket.
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[LedZep]

Both are in my top 30 of the year I think. A very tough call, I'll probably vote on a whim just before the deadline
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Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
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[Purplepash]

First listen for both of these, and while there where parts of the Uboa album that hit me harder than anything off Hiding Places, there were parts that lost me totally too. Listening to it was an experience worth having though. Just not sure I would do it again. Hiding Places was more consistent, I enjoyed it a lot, would listen to it again, and it gets my vote here.

[dihansse]

Uboa is a frightening and haunting listen in much more dire territory than any death metal album. So it was an experience but something you listen to for your pleasure. On the other hand I fairly like the hiphop of Billy Woods: you really have the impression this album is something about and I quite liked. IDK I'm really doubting but finally I think I'll go for the most intense and original experience: Uboa.

[guzguzgarbit]

Tough match, two excellent but demanding albums. I may abstain.

[mickilennial]

Billy Woods

[Skinny]

I like Uboa's 'Grouper-goes-black metal' thing, but Hiding Places is one of the densest, most thoughtful rap albums I've ever heard, whilst still retaining an accessibility not necessarily associated with billy woods' previous work. His abstract one-liners and deadpan non-seqiturs betray a surprising amount of detail about woods' life and experiences as a black man in America, paranoid, cynical, angry, exhausted, but offering comic relief for those listening hard enough. It helps that his angular, sledgehammer, stream-of-consciousness Chuck D flow is perfectly suited to Kenny Segal's wonky, spidery boom-bap, some of which recalls Slint or early Tortoise to my ears, and it makes for his most satisfying release yet in an almost faultless discography. Easy vote to woods, abstract rap's poet laureate.
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2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

[baystateoftheart]

Very tough vote that would be a good final match. Two great albums, and I can easily see why each would be someone's #1 of the year. Both also held up very well upon revisiting. Uboa's exploration of mental illness is vivid and is the first death industrial album that has fully clicked with me. Billy Woods is at the top of his game over excellent beats from Kenny Segal. Narrowly going with Hiding Places.
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[cestuneblague]

As much as I loved The Sky May Be, it could come across as a bit one-note industrial onslaught by the end... but The Origin of My Depression was a remarkable leap-forward in nearly every way. Not only in the subtle maturity in composition/songwriting and it's expanded use of instruments, it's just fascinating how it creates a much more complicated, reflective self-portrait while still keeping a lot of that skin-off-my-back anger of her previous releases. Reminds me of the Swans in some way, but with a much more emotive POV that Gira and co. rarely held. Just an excellent album all around but never for casual listening, all about finding the right mood to have it fully click.


Kenny Woods was pretty excellent too, love the breadth of ideas here even with the slightly retro (are 00's retro now? Oy vay I'm getting old) sound, sonically very consistient and often lyrically ingenious. However, no other album in this tournament is getting my vote over Uboa, even if it's likely to end up in the losers column here.

[baystateoftheart]

Hiding Places defeats The Origin Of My Depression 8-6 to advance to the sweet sixteen.
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