Urban75 Album of the Year 2018 - the Results

[ManchesterBeth]

highly recommend the Massimo Toniutti one, alien gurgling low end microscopic concrete that endears itself to multiform listening, i called it sci-fi toilet concrete when asking my mate if he liked it.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

could probably get rid of the pusha and replace it with denzel curry but i haven't heard it so i didn't. + been listening to three 6 a lot so i am already getting my lord infamous fix anyway.

Did you guys see Noz with playboy carti in his top 10? fucking hell. cool beats but that flow is terrible. kodak black at no. 1 as well who i think is a bit of a one trick pony. actually everyone in rap seems to be today. migos were better in 2014. now they are just boring despite all the magazine accolades.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

there's a one mind album on metalheadz but not heard it yet. i do like the new jungle stuff coming through but it has to be mixed with the more obscure cuts from the 90s otherwise it can just become non-characteristic. It's not about innovation, im settled in my tastes to know what i look for in music, i just think there is a rawness in the older stuff with those crap akai samplers that really gave the tunes a characteristic sound. Or it might be that new dancehall/rnb can't really be sampled in jungle because the sounds have deviated too much and the alchemy that existed in the 90s isn't really there. still i really like Sam Binga and Om Unit (sometimes they put eski synths or footwork influences into the tunes.) as well as all the drumfunk guys. subtle audio, scientific wax, nebula etc.

 

[Indeliblelink]

Hampshire & Foat - The Honeybear
SSTROM - Otider
Skee Mask - Compro
Autechre - NTS sessions 1 - 4
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - An Angel Fell
Sly & Robbie meet Nils Petter Molvaer feat. Eivind Aarset & Vladislav Delay - Nordub
Wanderwelle - Gathering Of The Ancient Spirits
The Oscillation - U.E.F.
Good Luck in Death - They Promised Us a Bright Future, We Were Content With an Obscure Past
Blawan - Wet will always dry
Thomas P. Heckmann - Body Music
Sink Ya Teeth - Sink Ya Teeth
L' Impératrice - Matahari
Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders - Blue poles
Confidence Man - Confident Music For Confident People
LUMP - LUMP
Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert - Here Lies The Body
U.S. Girls - In a poem unlimited
Lauer - Power
Martyn - Voids
The Untouchables - Mutations
DJ Khalab - Black Noise 2084
Sons of Kemet - Your Queen is a reptile
Angélique Kidjo - Remain in Light
Honeyfeet - Orange Whip
Delroy Edwards - Aftershock
Smellington Piff - No fixed abode
Phantastic Ferniture - Phantastic Ferniture

 

[ManchesterBeth]

whats the dj khalab like?

 

[Indeliblelink]

whats the dj khalab like?

Like Sons of Kemet but more techno with Congotronics/Kinshasa type sound in there too.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

ok thats my bag.

 

[belboid]

So, apologies for the long delay for the final three. I couldn't post in the middle of the pub quiz though, evereyone would have thought we were cheating.

My thanks to everyone* who voted.

Once again, it has introduced me to some magnificent music that I'd never have come across otherwise. It's always a pleasure to see what has turned people on over a year, and to check out genres that I probably otherwise could never make room for.

You're all a bunch of fuckwits for not voting for The Ex though.

The Spotify playlist & a simple rundown of the Top 30 have been added to post #103

I really don't get that Rolling Blackouts bollocks though.





* Yes, even the one person who not only ignored the 'no numbers required' and 'Band - then album title' requests, but also added a whole new 'put every item in speech marks' addition that I had to strip out and correct before I could count the bloody vote. That took as long as finding out who the fuck Idris Ackamoor was, ta very much.

 

[redsquirrel]

Thanks for doing this again belboid.
I didn't get around to submitting anything this year (and I've not listened to anything like the number of new albums I usually do) but good so see what other people rate.

Half Man Half Biscuit was miles too low though.

 

[killer b]

That DJ Khalab is great!

 

[killer b]

I didn't have the inclination to go through any end of the year lists like I usually do, so I just went through the things I'd recommended on here / on twitter and compiled a list from there. Surprised none of them made the top 30 tbh, they aren't all wildly obscure...

Group listening - clarinet & piano, selected works
Anna & Elizabeth - the invisible comes to us
Wume - towards the shadow
Trappist afterland - seven
Vessel - queen of golden dogs
Afrodeutche - make before break
The new woven skull one
Terekke - improvisational loops
Bongripper - terminal
Slows - a great big smile from venus

 

[braindancer]

Here's my list....

Skee Mask – Compro

Virginia Wing – Ecstatic Arrow

Tirzah – Devotion

Low – Double Negative

Workin’ Man Noise Unit – It’s not nothing

Sleep - The Sciences

Pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs – King of Cowards

Beast – Ens

Autechre – NTS Sessions

The Declining Winter – Belmont Slope

Miss Red – K.O.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs

 

[braindancer]

Was pleased to see Skee Mask place so highly. Absolute beauty of an album....

 

[crossthebreeze]

Mine was stuff that had made an impression on me in one way or another (number 20 just because it made me laugh) and/or i'd played lots over the year. Lots more pop in there than I usually listen to.

1 - Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
2 - Anna Von Hausswolf - Dead Magic
3 - Helena Hauff - Qualm
4 - Channel Tres - Channel Tres
5 - Hawthonn - Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing)
6 - Miss Red - K.O.
7 - Djrum - Portrait with Firewood
8 - Arabstazy - Under Frustration Vol. 1
9 - The Breeders - All Nerve
10 - The Subdermic - Morphology
11 - ILL - We Are ILL
12 - Objekt - Cocoon Crush
13 - Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar
14 - Christine and the Queens - Chris
15 - GGAllan Partridge - Eyesore
16 - Princess Nokia - A Girl Cried Red
17 - SOPHIE - Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
18 - U.S. Girls - In A Poem Unlimited
19 - K-Orse 'n' Basshound - Black & White
20 - Neckbeard Deathcamp / Gaylord - United Antifascist Evil

And sorry about the number Belboid - I'll leave them off next year.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

the rundown in full:

1 Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer.
2 Low - Double Negative
3 Autechre - Nts Sessions 1-4
4 ill - we are ill.
5 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
6 Skee Mask – Compro
7 Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
8 Christine and the Queens - Chris
9 Pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs – King of Cowards
10 Tirzah – Devotion
11 Anna Von Hausswolff - Dead Magic
12 Hailu Mergia - Lala Belu.
13 SOPHIE — OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES
14 Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids - An Angel Fell.
15 Stick In The Wheel - Follow Them True
16 Sink Ya Teeth - Sink Ya Teeth
17 The Smashing Pumpkins - SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL. 1/NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN.
18 Vive La Void - Vive La Void
19 Goat Girl - Goat Girl
20 Gwenno – Le Kov
21 Half Man Half Biscuit - No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get You Fuckin Hedge Cut
22 Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
23 Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus
24 Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
25 The Breeders - All Nerve
26 Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
27 Soccer Mommy - Clean
28 DMBQ, Keeenly
29 Mogwai - Kin
=30 Odeon - Galaxies
=30 Sleep - The Sciences

The ‘unsuccesful’ Number 1’s

Ben Chatwin, Staccato signals
Mark Springer - Diving
Group listening - clarinet & piano, selected works
Haiku Salut - There Is No Elsewhere
Hampshire & Foat - The Honeybear
Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens
Jon Hopkins - Singularity
K-orse & Basshound - Black & White
Little Big - Antipositive, Pt. 2
Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of
Park Jiha - Communion
Perel – Hermetica
Sarah Davachi – Let Night Come on Bells End the Day
Screaming Females - All At Once
Slow Mass - On Watch
The Ex - 27 Passports
Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspace



Spotify:

<iframe src="Spotify" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>

Well, that's my 2019 listening sorted, I have't heard a single thing on that entire list

 

[redsquirrel]

Well, that's my 2019 listening sorted, I have't heard a single thing on that entire list

Can't remember if you're a Cat Power fan? Wanderer isn't her very best but it's considerably better than Sun and I'm surprised that it didn't make the top 30

 

[cybershot]

Didn't vote because my listen to list is still dating back to July, so still got half a years worth of stuff to listen too, most of which isn't on this list so it's just expanded even further, but for me.

11 Anna Von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

Is it goth? Is it pop? Post-metal? Aaah, it's Swdish, say no more.

This was fucking amazing.

 

[billy_bob]

This was fucking amazing.

Yes it was.

 

[billy_bob]

Three of my submitted five placed, though some way from the top spots.

It would have been four, including a higher-placed one, but I completely forgot to include Pigs x7, which should have been my no. 2 Voley will kill me.

Half Man Half Biscuit - No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub...
Skull Defekts - Skull Defekts
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Anna Von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

 

[Dr. Furface]

So, apologies for the long delay for the final three. I couldn't post in the middle of the pub quiz though, evereyone would have thought we were cheating.

My thanks to everyone* who voted.

Once again, it has introduced me to some magnificent music that I'd never have come across otherwise. It's always a pleasure to see what has turned people on over a year, and to check out genres that I probably otherwise could never make room for.

You're all a bunch of fuckwits for not voting for The Ex though.

The Spotify playlist & a simple rundown of the Top 30 have been added to post #103

I really don't get that Rolling Blackouts bollocks though.





* Yes, even the one person who not only ignored the 'no numbers required' and 'Band - then album title' requests, but also added a whole new 'put every item in speech marks' addition that I had to strip out and correct before I could count the bloody vote. That took as long as finding out who the fuck Idris Ackamoor was, ta very much.

Nice one belboid - I even appreciated the timing of your extended break as it coincided with the 2nd half of the Arsenal-Spurs game.

Lots of interesting stuff as ever, and some strange ones - inc some strange omissions, such as the Idles album, which I didn't vote for but thought would be popular. So many strong releases this year - in fact, too many to condense into a list of 20.

Nerdish observation: I think this year might set a benchmark in terms of the difference in running time between the longest and shortest albums nominated. At one end of the scale there's Autechre's at 479:41 mins, and at the other there's Tierra Whack's Whack World, which consists of 15 tracks each exactly 1 min long. That might not seem like great vfm if you want to buy it, but she does more in those 15 mins than some other more self-indulgent artists do in much longer releases (inc some I voted for!).

Here's mine -

Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of
Jean Grae x Quelle Chris - Everything's Fine
DJ Taye - Still Trippin'
Sons of Kemit - Your Queen Is A Reptile
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - An Angel Fell
Hen Ogledd - Mogic
JPEGMAFIA - Veteran
Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood
Marie Davidson - Working Class Woman
Surgeon - Luminosity Device
Smerz - Have Fun
Tirzah - Devotion
Actress x London Contemporary Orchestra - LAGEOS
Tierra Whack - Whack World
Brockhampton - Iridescence
Jlin - Autobiography
Anderson .Paak - Oxnard
Young Echo - s/t

 

[ManchesterBeth]

I think Autechre was self-indulgent but noone really sounds like them, not even the copiests like Phonecia so I give them a bit of a pass. and despite being 8 hours in length the beat tracks are still dance music at their core, they aren't like those weird mosh breakcore beats that were popular in the 00s which you couldn't dance to in any shape or form.

I mean one could make a compelling argument that they in fact released four albums in the space of a month, after all albums were classically the ratio of profit to plastic, something the boys admitted in an interview. but they were amalgamated in the press/by everyone so I guess old habits die hard.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

I think I would have been 3>1>4>2 if I had to pick one. the tough one was deciding whether 4 came before 1. but 1 just edges it for me with l3 ctrl. that track is legendary.

 

[flypanam]

My list

Ben Chatwin - Staccato signals
Redneck manifesto - The how
Kelly Moran - Ultraviolet
Jason Sharp - Stand above the streams
Fucked up - Dose your dreams
CUTS - A gradual decline
Sando Perri - In another life
No age - Snares like a haircut
Tim Hecker - Konoyo
Dmitry Evgrafov - Return
Angele David Guillou - Movements organiques
The Coup - Sorry to bother you
DMBQ - Keeenly
Palm - Rock Island
Jackie O Motherfucker - Bloom

 

[sankara]

Thanks for doing this again belboid - I usually get quite a bit of new listening out of this every year although I had given most of the top 30 a checking out at some point this time around. My top four are pretty interchangeable as my favourites for the year and I thought the Khruangbin one might have snuck in.

1: Park Jiha - Communion
2: Dreamers' Circus - Rooftop Sessions
3: Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
4: Maarja Nuut and Ruum - Muunduja
5: Afrika Mamas - Iphupho
6: Dur Dur Band - Dur Dur of Somalia Vol 1, Vol 2
7: Various Artists - Gradients Volume 2 (Astrophonica Records)
8: Tirzah - Devotion
9: Odeon - Galaxies
10: Sleep - The Sciences
11: Proc Fiskal - Insula
12: Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch
13: Kamaal Williams - The Return
14: Blood Orange - Negro Swan
15: Issam Rafea and Gao Hong - Life as Is

 

[Dr. Furface]

I mean one could make a compelling argument that they in fact released four albums in the space of a month, after all albums were classically the ratio of profit to plastic, something the boys admitted in an interview. but they were amalgamated in the press/by everyone so I guess old habits die hard.

Agreed. Regardless of it's artistic merit, it's more like a box set than an album and I'll admit I found that problematic in terms of assessing it against other releases.

 

[billy_bob]

* Yes, even the one person who not only ignored the 'no numbers required' and 'Band - then album title' requests, but also added a whole new 'put every item in speech marks' addition that I had to strip out and correct before I could count the bloody vote. That took as long as finding out who the fuck Idris Ackamoor was, ta very much.

I'm sure said person would like to own up and apologise now. It's nearly Christmas after all - I'm sure we'll all be forgiving

 

[ManchesterBeth]

Agreed. Regardless of it's artistic merit, it's more like a box set than an album and I'll admit I found that problematic in terms of assessing it against other releases.

yeah i guess. tbh i don't even know what an album even means when most of the shit i get is on bandcamp/torrents. I mean I do listen to a release in full but that goes for eps and compilations as well.

 

[MBV]

Excellent thread. I'm afraid I did number mine but I didn't use speech marks.

Very mainstream compared to most:

Rolling Blackouts CF - Hope Downs
Kurt Vile - Bottle It In
Beach House - 7
Yo La Tengo - There's a riot going on
The Field - Infinite Moment
Grouper - Grid of Points

 

[nogojones]

I'm going to number mine, put stars by them and use inverted comma's next year. It will help I think

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Can't remember if you're a Cat Power fan? Wanderer isn't her very best but it's considerably better than Sun and I'm surprised that it didn't make the top 30

You think? I gave it a few tries but it didn't impress me as much as Sun.