This album always kinda threw me for a loop for the simple reason and silly reason really of it being called "Ambient" works and I don't hear this as Ambient. When I think of Ambient music I think of some of those albums I mentioned earlier, songs and pieces with not much to no rhythm or clear and distinct pulse, stuff that seems to slowly develop and become just a strange little separate world with very few tangible aspects. But with this album even at its most ethereal and formless always has these truly gorgeous percussive sounds and clicks and these bassy synth grooves that I can nod my head to. And on tracks like the incredible "Pulsewidth" there is a dance beat that is intoxicating and very UN-ambient in my little mind.
But once I get over my initial contrary take on the word "Ambient" and just listen to the music here there is no doubt there is something special here. The worlds and atmospheres created here are not of this world. They are glistening and powerful in their boundless, peaceful, ever-outward-reaching grooves and creativity. This is labeled "Ambient Techno" and "IDM" which is more along the lines of what I hear here.
Yeah, similar here. It took me a few listens to appreciate the Aphex debut. I expected it to be all dreamy and to maybe take me on some sort of exotic moon safari, so I was kind of disappointed at first. But instead it's really light, refreshing and imaginative- drum beats like pebbles softly hitting a pool of water and synth chords like clouds of sea mist. There's nothing really dramatic going on but it seems to create a three dimensional space for the the listener to roam around in and appreciate quiet moments of wonder and curiosity. Kind of like the musical equivalent of an art installation. One with lots of fluorescent tubes of light and blasts of cool air in your face. Amazing that Richard James was 14 when the earliest of these tracks were recorded. I'd go 9/10. Maybe higher.
its been over a month and still no update on the 90s project. apologies. I have been just finding myself almost locked up by how much music there is I wanna listen to. Also, a weird sense of self-conscious "what's the point-ness" overtook me regarding writing any thoughts about music. I think I've come out of that particular feeling of writer's block. But who knows. I need to and more importantly WANT to come back to these 90s bands second (and third) albums.
I also have a massive massive backlog of 2021 albums I have heard and yet haven't fully immersed myself in and written a comment about. I set the production bar so high on 2021 from January 1 to about May 1 that I may have just burnt out.
The following is the list of albums I desperately need to come back to and comment on or I need to push play on. some of these have found their way on the 2021 supplemental list as well and so I have heard em and I just put them there to remind me to listen again and give my short thoughts on them:
Note: the following list is ugky and impossible to read but i'm troo lazy to change it lolol. sorry. I am no good with software and shit and I thought my excel copy past would be better
Succumb Altarage
Yol Altin Gun
Born Against Amigo the Devil
There Used to Be Horses Here Amy Speace & The Orphan Brigade
Wary + Strange Amythyst Kiah
Cull Ficle Asian Glow
Famine, Putrid, Fucking Endless Atvm
I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and my Dresses Backxwash
Djourou Ballake Sissoko
Billy Cobb (Bear Album Billy Cobb
Young Heart Birdy
Songs for the Enamel Queen Black Sheep Well
The Fool Bladee
Inside (The Songs) Bo Burnham
Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine Brockhampton
The Machine Is Burning and Now… BRUIT
Violence Unimagined Cannibal Corpse
Excretion of Mortality Cerebral Rot
New Fragility Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Shadow I Remember Cloud Nothings
La Maquina Conway the Machine
Pale Horse Rider Cory Hanson
Big Mess Danny Elfman
Skellig David Gray
Black Metal 2 Dean Blunt
Is 4 Lovers Death From Above 1979
The Horrible and the Miserable Death Goals
Arrivals Declan O'Rourke
Loss Devil Sold His Soul
Sweep It Into Space Dinosaur Jr.
What Happens After the Death is Recorded DJ Rozwell
Glowing In The Dark Django Django
Mortal Coil Dödsrit
The Blue of Distance Elori Saxl
Kill Grid Enforced
Sensational Erika De Casier
Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath Esoctrilihum
Metal Bird Eve Adams
Aethernet Fax Gang
I Know I'm Funny Haha Faye Webster
Cairn Fergus McCreadie
Calvaire Ferriterium
Palaid D'Argile Feu! Chatterton
Between The Richness Fiddlehead
God's Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess Fievel is Glauque
Defeat Fire!
Yasuke Flying Lotus
Medicine at Midnight Foo Fighters
Deep England Gazelle Twin & NYK
Dream Weapon Genghis Tron
Ghost Tapes #10 God is an Astronaut
Fortitude Gojira
Methods of Human Disposal Gravesend
New Age Filth Hail The Sun
Plastic Baby Living Facility Handsome Prick
Mood Valiant Hiatus Kaiyote
Quietly Blowing It Hiss Golden Messenger
Live at Ginza Sony Park (July 3, 2020) Ichiko Aoba
Windswept Adan Roots Ichiko Aoba
Moving Forward Ivan Knight and the Imaginary Friends
The Wide, Wide River James Yorkston…
Jubilee Japanese Breakfast
Ska Dream Jeff Rosenstock
No Fun Jexno
Boy From Michigan John Grant
Blue 50 (Demos and Outtakes) Joni Mitchell
Ice Fleet Kauan
Absence Keith Rowe
Butterfly 3000 King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard
Limbo Cherry LAUREL
A Color of the Sky Lightning Bug
Liquid Tension Experiment 3 Liquid Tension Experiment
Life is Pain Idiot Liquids
Reflection Loraine James
Long Lost Lord Huron
Fatigue L'Rain
Home Video Lucy Dacus
Pray For haiti Mach-Hommy
The Million Masks of God Manchester Orchestra
Clamor Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés
Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land MARINA
Superwolves Matt Sweeney & Bonnie Prince Billy
Afrique Victime Mdou Moctar
Offscourings Mefitis
Enigmatic Existential Essence Meshum
Disco! MIKE
As The Love Continues Mogwai
Kanawa Nahawa Doumbia
Zapper Nanoray
Un Canto Por Mexico 2 Natalia Lafourcade
Young Shakespeare Neil Young
Way Down In The Rust Bucket Neil Young with Crazy Horse
Solar Drone Ceremony Neptunian Maximalism
Sour Olivia Rodrigo
Gami Gang Origami Angel
冥冥 (Míng Míng) Otay:onii
Jade Pan Daijing
…And Again Into The Light Panopticon
Pornographers of Sound: Live in NYC Pig Destroyer
Death of a Cheerleader Pom Pom Squad
Protozoan Battle Hymns Rhododendron
Home Rhye
Sharecropper's Son Robert Finley
Play With the Changes Rochelle Jordan
Super What Scvarface & MF DOOM
Phantom Indigo Seputus
Pool Skee Mask
Black to the Future Sons of Kemet
The Turning Wheel Spellling
Bright Green Field Squid
Daddy's Home St. Vincent
Psychic Secretions StarGazer
Slay In Hell Steel Bearing Hand
The Cyclic Reckoning Suffering Hour
A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals Sweet Trip
Fearless (Taylor's Version) Taylor Swift
Endless Arcade Teenage Fanclub
This Thing of Ours The Alchemist
Green to Gold The Antlers
The Besnard Lakes Are… The Besnard Lakes
Delta Kream The Black Keys
Horrific Compositions of Decomposition The Last Days of Humanity
Dark In Here The Mountain Goats
Good Woman The Staves
Where The Gloom Becomes Sound Tribulation
Sketchy Tune-Yards
Call Me If You Get Lost Tyler The Creator
Symphony of the Night Ulthima
Vincent Neil Emerson Vincent Neil Emerson
Witness VOLA
Van Weezer Weezer
Blue Weekend Wolf Alice
Oh No Xiu Xiu
The Lurch Yautja
Поганые сны Леший [Leshiy]
... so, yeah I have a lot of listening to do and there is great and intriguing new albums released almmost every day (especially those sweet sweeet Thuirsday nights).
Anyway, I will be "working" on this list and 2021 albums mostly along with these 1990s artists project albums and that 2020 torunament album layout and when it returns the hip hop tourney etc etc. Oh and the You Must Listen To The Album... game forum thing. _________________ -Ryan
... so, yeah I have a lot of listening to do and there is great and intriguing new albums released almmost every day (especially those sweet sweeet Thuirsday nights).
Anyway, I will be "working" on this list and 2021 albums mostly along with these 1990s artists project albums and that 2020 torunament album layout and when it returns the hip hop tourney etc etc. Oh and the You Must Listen To The Album... game forum thing.
And don't forget all the albums I touch on in my 80s blog!!! You need to get to WORK, Merc!!! lolol
Man, I’ve missed this diary. It would be almost impossible to surpass the ‘80s, but the 90’s had their charm, reading your thoughts on artists I’ve never given a damn about and somehow convincing me there’s a chance I will like them was quite an experience – then reality kicked in, but that’s another story.
But yeah, sometimes taking a step back is the only way forward. Just relax and enjoy, it will come naturally, no pressure.
On a different note, that’s an absolutely insane list, would you say that the primary reason for this massive engagement is a general desire to discover new music or does it have to do with the fact that 2021 has been - in your opinion - particularly great compared to previous years? _________________ Bob Dylan Charles Mingus
Man, I’ve missed this diary. It would be almost impossible to surpass the ‘80s, but the 90’s had their charm, reading your thoughts on artists I’ve never given a damn about and somehow convincing me there’s a chance I will like them was quite an experience – then reality kicked in, but that’s another story.
But yeah, sometimes taking a step back is the only way forward. Just relax and enjoy, it will come naturally, no pressure.
Thanks my friend! I miss our chats as well. And thanks for the advice and reassurance.
Real talk, you are one of my fave fellow members and also perhaps the most perplexing. We have some overlap of taste, but not that much. It cracks me up because we are both fans of music and have similar (I would guess) backgrounds - and yet the areas you are most engaged with like Jazz and Hip Hop are areas I struggle to get really excited about recently. And, on the flip side, the extreme metal and deep blues and punk rock and singer/songwriter/flaky stuff that I would say I most jive with you seem to usually be somewhat unmoved by. It’s both a source of mild frustration and a source of wonder and intrigue lol.
But really thanks for the kind words about our music talks.
kokkinos wrote:
On a different note, that’s an absolutely insane list, would you say that the primary reason for this massive engagement is a general desire to discover new music or does it have to do with the fact that 2021 has been - in your opinion - particularly great compared to previous years?
Haha! This is a GREAT question that I have been wrestling with as well.
At the start of this year I says, I says to my self, I’ll tell ya what I said, I says “Ryan, you are becoming one of those music fans that is unhip to music releases of today! Get back in the game, man!” And I decided to listen to at least 2 new albums a week.
That of course blossomed and ballooned until I was doing 8-15 a week lol. And this created a sort of momentum. Every time I’d discover a new artist or an artist brand new TO ME that I liked, it piqued my enthusiasm for music all the more. Then I started noticing trends, I started following accounts on Twitter, reading articles, taking recs, and it became almost a drug.
As for us this year special… to me, yes. It’s my favorite year of music maybe ever outside of 1969 or 1977 or 1995. But how much of this take is coming from the fact that I have heard between 3 and 10 times more music this year than any other? Probably a lot. I am sure if I had done this project and reignited my interest in music in 2019 or 2017 or 2020 I would love it just as much. But that is unverifiable.
This was also a significant year for me at least in sort of my head canon. The year after 2020, a year where everyone in the world is coming slowly out of a tumultuous year. My mind was racing with what artists would come back with? What would the general lack of touring and going out do for these artists who maybe had more time to stay put and write and record? That entices me. And the ripples of 2020 is being felt and will be felt for years to come. Don’t want to get too dramatic, but this seems like an interesting point in history and as a music fan first and foremost, I was fascinated by what this would do for music.
All that said, this has been already a marvelous year for metal (I personally had been quite separate from death and black and sludge and thrash and doom etc etc metal for a solid 15 years) and extreme metal/hardcore punk DNA music. It’s been already an excellent year for new and talented musicians making their marks with exquisite statement debuts and sophomore albums. It’s been a great year for introspective singer/songwriter albums - or at least a good one as I haven’t heard any classics or soon-to-be-classics yet (not that I could ever foresee such things.
Anyway, long response. I can’t really compare to other years because I have been listening to 20-40 albums a year for about 7 years. I mostly have made a game of learning about what is happening with music lately. And it’s been fun.
Today I listened to these 3 and revisited that cerebral rot and they are all great in different ways:
Long Lost by Lord Huron
(An artist new to me, brand new even, but this 2021 album is stunning and gorgeous Americana/chamber folk/alt country/singer songwriter bliss)
…. So yeah it’s fair to say I am rolling yet again with this 2021 listening experience. Lol. _________________ -Ryan
So much music and only so much time
can lead to a lock, an equilibrium, a stop
and now here i am... jesus christ.
Okay, so I have been listening to a good amount of 2021 music albums. I've also been delving into my massive and ever-growing list of intriguing albums of years and decades past. I spent a good amount of time combing through year charts, every year from 1960 to now, to find 10 albums that I have wanted to listen to for years in some cases. In total its about 600 albums now listed nerdily on my computer. And that is fun.
and it was gnarly and nasty and good. Didn't blow me away but it was a really solid deathgrind album which maybe leaned to much on the death side more than my preferred emphasis on the grind half. (coughcoughKnoll'sIntersticecoughcough)
inspired by Romanelli's recent post about Fun House I added Fun House by the stooges to my listen list, despite it being in almost constant rotation at a young age. It was a great revisit:
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Fun House by The Stooges
this is essentially a perfect proto-punk, hard rock, album. It's so good as a matter of fact its kinda wild. Almost overall chart worthy. Iggy was such a brilliant lead singer.
On my 1969 list of albums to get around to, I gave this a listen:
and its pretty good. Its not a masterpiece. But it has some cool instrumentals going for it and at least 1 all time classic soul song. Didn't blow me away.
started Currents by Tame Impala, which may be the most famous or most "influential" recent album that I have never heard. I didn't finish it...
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Currents by Tame Impala
but the first few tracks were pretty good i guess. I'll revisit soon-ish methinks.
Security by Amyl and the Sniffers. Its a perfect punk rock song and completely irresistible. This is a single for an upcoming (can't come soon enough) album by this group. Thanks, Fantano, for the heads up on this bad ass track.
and I am starting to, slowly by surely, *get* this album and group
considering how much i absolutely ADORE Lenker's solo "songs" album from last year, somehow this group had never quite captured my heart. But after a recent listen this one is starting to break through a bit.
I also gave a much needed relisten to some all time favorites recently. Namely, these:
and... actually that is all the classics in my headcanon that I have recently listened to with a smile on my kisser.
And yeah that is it. Not a very good post or a very structured one. But there ya go. I'mma go put some clown make up on and wait patiently and with certainty for the inevitable drop of DONDA tonight. _________________ -Ryan
Right now I am listening to music - some new and some old - as well as listening/reading along on Wheel Of Time series when not working. Recently my musical enthusiasm has been most highly directed toward catching up on amazing metal and specifically Death Metal classics that have either completely passed me by or I have never really given enough time and attention to but are now completely blowing my mind.
The album that recently just absolutely blew my mind and I consider as of now just about the most perfect Death Metal album ever made is...
This thing just hits so hard on every level. The production is so good that it makes most other metal or death metal classics I hear feel like they are missing that special sauce. I don't want to do a big comment review on this now. But mostly wanted to say that within 1 listen this was already in my personal top tier of heavy albums. The only metal albums that I can recall having a similar 1st-listen-Mind-Blown-the-mic-dropped-holy-shit effect that I can think of (in my autobiographical order) have been Ride The Lightning by Metallica, Reign In Blood by Slayer, Leprosy by Death, Prowler In The Yard by Pig Destroyer, Leviathan by Mastodon and maybe Dead As Dreams by Weakling. There may be a few others that I am forgetting that on first listen instantly just kicked my ass and set a new bar within metal on first listen. This album is just brilliant.
I finally pulled the trigger and went to YouTube to listen (this album is, for some sad reason - probably understandable if known - not on Apple music or other streaming platforms) because on a whim I had listened to Slaughter of the Soul by At The Gates and that also blew me away and sounded so damn influential and sounded like so many bands 10 and 15 years later (I later learned that that album and that sound was massively influential on Metalcore of the next decade and I got confirmation on my initial thought that this 1995 album could have been dropped in 2007 or whatever.) And while reading up on that album I discovered for me a whole new universe of history within metal. This whole distinction between Gothenburg more melodic death metal and Stockholm more gritty and hardcore death metal. I don't do enough research into music and scenes and context on albums. Usually I just see an interesting cover on someone's chart or a RYM chart or whatever and push play and never really look at when they started and who they influenced and where they haled from etc. I plan on doing more of this sort of contextual reading in the future.
Anyway, I see there is huge debate and conversation about Stockholm bands vs Gothenburg, and even Florida DM vs collectively Swedish DM, and I started wondering "How does those late 80s Grindcore albums fit in?" and it was fascinating seeing how almost parallel to the US DM scene starting over in the UK this other thing not related but similar in many ways called Grindcore started developing. Its all very fascinating. To me anyway. I have spent a lot of time just working down metal lists and almost mechanically checking albums and artists off lists. This is fine obviously and I am not saying the context of the album's creation is as important is the enjoyment of listening. But I will say that knowing a little about what was innovative and what was a precursor to a sound can amplify my fascination and engagement with the music.
Anywho... The next nerdy and silly thing I did mostly on a whim but I couldn't stop once I started, was look at RYM top 10,000 metal albums. I went through and looked at what artists showed up the most with albums. I didn't do all 10,000, I'm not that wild, but I did do the top 1,000 just to see who seem to be the bands with the most classics or cult classic albums. Based only off RYM (not at all a be all end all site, but a pretty helpful one) I found that 3 bands had 8 albums in the top 1,000. 3 bands had 7 albums in the top 1,000 and 9 had 6 albums in the top 1,000. Okay fuck it, i'm not done, 21 bands or artists had 5 and 37 had 4 albums. Now I am sure as I do more digging I will discover that some of these "separate" artists and bands aren't really separate but are mostly solo project monikers or renaming of bands. So, for all I know, maybe some artist has 9 or 10 albums but under different names. I only combined, for example, Ocean Machine with Devin Townsend because I was aware of that name and knew that that was largely Devin Townsend doing his own thing outside of Strapping Young Lad. How many similar situations are nestled in the list and I just didn't know about it? No idea.
The top 6 bands are mostly predictable, namely:
Black Sabbath with 8 albums
Iron Maiden with 8 albums
Judas Priest with 8 albums
Neurosis with 7 albums
Opeth with 7 albums
Enslaved with 7 albums.
Enslaved surprised me and their 7 isn't created equal in this case. I think they had 1 or 2 top 500 and the rest were fringe top 1000 compared to the other 5 bands who had multiple top 100-200 metal albums. Still, it seems Enslaved is a band that has completely and TOTALLY evaded my radar that I may want to explore their discog.
I can't help myself so here are also the 9 bands with 6 albums (I promise I won't go further and try telling you the 494 different artists/bands that make up the RYM top 1,000 albums...I promise)
Death 6
King Diamond 6
Motorhead 6
My Dying Bride 6
Running Wild 6
Savatage 6
Cult of Luna 6
Devin Townsend/Ocean Machine 6
Amorphis 6
Now some of those I expected but most of them I was kind of taken aback. I had never even HEARD OF Amorphus pre-this obsessive excel spreadsheet making. And a lot I just have never previously had any interest in (considering my tendency to like the seedier and nastier and more extreme and fast side of metal) such as Savatage and Running Wild.
Anyway, what is the point of this post? I am thinking maybe of doing a Thorough Iron Maiden discog listen and writing short comments on the albums as I newly listen or relisten to their discog or most of it (most of it from 1980 to 1990 is apparently fucking classic). And, you know me, I will probably be doing the same with Judas Priest and Black Sabbath at the same time to give me a 3 headed monster and some variety and some thematic throughlines (these are the 3 most legendary metal bands ever probably, certainly 3 of the top 5 or 6. No... I am sticking to it, Sabbath/Priest/Maiden are THE big 3 in metal history. Debate me if you think I'm wrong...I am dumb so you will probably win the debate)
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