Urban75 Album of the Year 2004

[DaveCinzano]

The Saul Williams self-titled album is fantastic as well:

I'm waiting 3 threads before I play my Saul card

 

[Spandex]

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

Utterly joyous mix of 70s cop show theme, early hip hop, indie rock and playground chants.



Make sure you listen to the original 2004 version with all the uncleared samples. When he was making it in his bedroom and mum's kitchen it didn't occur to him that it would attract much attention so he didn't worry about clearing samples. Then it became a Mercury nominated hit and he had to re-record a legal version in 2005, which doesn't quite have the same lo-fi magic.

 

[ska invita]

2004...Brixton Rec was rattling



(album is okay, good test to find out how low your speakers go....not low enough )

 

[Spandex]

Electro-disco revival!

Putsch 79 - Putsch



Raiders of the Lost Arp - 4



Legowelt - Under The Panda Moon*



* is this an EP or a short LP? I've never been sure.

 

[krtek a houby]

I don't know much about this year at all. But I still know the best album of the year is 渋さ知らズ [Shibusashirazu] by 渋星 (Shibuboshi)

Shibusashirazu is the band name, but yes, oh wow. Awesome sound.

 

[Spandex]

!!! - Louden Up Now

Excellent punk-funk act at their peak. I saw them play sometime around then and they were amazing, 8 people crowded on stage grooving along, two dummers pounding away, basslines punching my chest, one of the singers took a pill at the start of the show and was butt naked, dripping with sweat, dancing like Bez by the end of it. Includes Me and Guiliani Down by the School Yard - A True Story, one of the best songs of the decade.

 

[ska invita]

Los Hermandos - On Another Level
Good article about this UR album here - Rewind: Los Hermanos - On Another Level · Album Review ⟋ RA

Excellent morning after bubbling bunch of tunes that, thanks

 

[plurker]

I listened to this album a lot in 2004, Fragile State's second album 'Voices from the Dustbowl'
Chillout music at its finest, from Ben Mynott and Neil Cowley - the latter went on to play keys for Adele on '21' and forming his own eponymous excellent jazz trio.
Roll a bifter, lie on a blanket and drift off...

 

[Knotted]

Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click) came out in the UK in 2003 and then came out in the US with two more songs included, does that count as a new album for 2004?

It was voted on and did well in 2003. So no, they don't get another vote in 2004.

 

[Knotted]

One of the best Ex releases this year with Turn.

 

[Knotted]

Another album for the albums I love that everyone hates thread. Afrirampo's first album A. Not even lo-fi. Berserk. Screaming and shouting. There's lots of screaming and shouting. Total rock.

 

[Spandex]

Oasis - Oasis Collaborating

The best Oasis album. Lo-fi Detroit house/techno from Omar S & Shadow Ray.

 

[Knotted]

Just been listening to that Madvillainy album. I really like it. Actually I think in general 2000's hip hop was better than 90's hip hop. More colourful. Maybe the actual rapping isn't as good??? But I really don't know on that.

Anyway Sun Ra (spoken word) samples and Gentle Giant samples on this!!

 

[stavros]

Should've been pop album of the year was Annie's Anniemal. Loaded with excellent tracks, production by Royksopp & Richard X, critics went mad for it but... single Chewing Gum crawled to 25 in the charts, follow up Heartbeat, which deserved to be huge, peaked at number 50. Her label lost interest in her and she's languished as a cult figure ever since.

Very good shout, and yes, commercially undervalued.

The last proper Beastie Boys album came out in 2004. It's nothing compared to their classics, but this remix is excellent:

 

[hitmouse]

I'm waiting 3 threads before I play my Saul card

Ohhh, I eventually worked out that means you prefer his 2007 album, at first reading that was way too cryptic for me.

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

Utterly joyous mix of 70s cop show theme, early hip hop, indie rock and playground chants.



Make sure you listen to the original 2004 version with all the uncleared samples. When he was making it in his bedroom and mum's kitchen it didn't occur to him that it would attract much attention so he didn't worry about clearing samples. Then it became a Mercury nominated hit and he had to re-record a legal version in 2005, which doesn't quite have the same lo-fi magic.

There's two bands called the Go Team, despite it not being that good of a name, and I've always thought that I only need to bother knowing about a maximum of one band called the Go Team, so to date I've only tried listening to the one with Calvin Johnson and Tobi Vail. But they mostly just did singles and were active in the late 80s, so they're very unlikely to do well in this thread. Maybe it's time to give the other Go Team a try.

 

[ska invita]

i know two lone swordsman have long been an urban favourite so maybe someone likes this one

https://www.discogs.com/release/259347-Two-Lone-Swordsmen-From-The-Double-Gone-Chapel

 

[AverageJoe]

Elliot Smith, The Polyphonic Spree, Mark Lanegan, Prodigy, Ministry, Arcade Fire, Slipknot and Velvet Revolver all say Hi.

 

[hitmouse]

Anyway all this hiphop and stuff is all well and good but of course 2004 was a golden year for landfill indie. Here's the Futureheads:

 

[SpookyFrank]

Boredoms - Seadrum/House of sun

Sounds like getting your brain kicked down of flight of stairs so long that about halfway down you start enjoying it.

 

[nogojones]

I've still got time for Crackhaus - Spells Disaster

 

[nogojones]

More minimal techno stuff from Daniel Bell - seven types of six

 

[nogojones]

I'm scrolling through what I still have and I think frenchcore is heading for no.1

DJ Japan - Alcoholic Backstage

 

[ska invita]

I appreciate it makes me sound pretentious but I really think Bjorks Medulla is her best album, so impressive.... The concept is that every sound is made by the human voice...drums are made with beat boxes / samples of voices .... but aside from that its just pure music with no hiding behind riffs and noise...total one off record.....madly ambitious and very moving in places.....time and a mood for it though...

 

[Silas Loom]

 

[zedr]

Anyway all this hiphop and stuff is all well and good but of course 2004 was a golden year for landfill indie. Here's the Futureheads:

landfill indie is all I remember about this year so I'm looking forward to learning a thing or two on this thread.

 

[nogojones]

Hecate - Seven Veils of Silence is nice and dark

 

[SpookyFrank]

Interpol's difficult second album is actually a lot less difficult than their debut. Adds a bit more immediacy without losing any of the reverb-drenched gloom we love them for.

 

[nogojones]

and that lovely bit of time when garage was moving over to dubstep

Horsepower Production - To the Rescue

 

[hitmouse]

A lot of grind can be kind of interchangeable, but Pig Destroyer are pretty distinctive imo, and Terrifyer is up there as some of their best work. Apparently the CD came with a second disc of a bonus track that's longer than the entire album but I dunno that, I just know the album proper:

 

[hitmouse]

The Hold Steady are a band I only really got into over lockdown, spent a lot of time enjoying this in about 2021 or so. Big riffs, literary lyrics about nostalgia and drugs and rave and hardcore. They'll go very Catholic in a bit, and then learn to sing and partially regress into a rock and roll band in a few years' time so get the most out of them while they're like this:


If you're a fan of when bands say their own name they say Hold Steady about 500 times on this album as well.