I really like the above average degree to which that Wire Archive releases list acknowledges the existence of rest of the world and fresh release of material not first written this year. Makes it a much more interesting list than most.
African Songbird by Sathima Bea Benjamin and Dollar Brand is on the list, intriguing so far, and $2.97 at Amazon.
ETA, the regular wire list is interesting to. I have a suspicion that if I had discovered it earlier in the year (thanks to kargatron for posting it recently), and if I had not decided that when I buy it I want it on CD, and if the CD were not $35 and therefore postponed for a future date, the Dennis Johnson release maybe should have been on my list too, maybe even quite high, who knows. Nice to see Main on there too. One of the more interesting mainstream lists.
TMT:
34 The Flaming Lips
12 Mohammad
11 Tim Hecker
+ 2 from my "wanting list" (Stetson and Barwick)
WIRE:
34. Eliane Radigue (on my "would have if I could have" list)
14. Bernard Parmegiani (awesome album)
7. Ákos Rózmann
5. David Tudor (3 of the 7 cd's) Bizzarre to the extreme but recommended to everyone interested in the history of electronic music, Musique Concrete in particular, and Fluxus.
- And it's interesting to see Robert Wyatt 68 (Cuneiform) on a list
I can't totally blame them for that - I went out on a limb with my No.1 having not heard all of it but confident that it will be my most played CD of the list once I have it in my hands.
Mine too. The end of the following year is really a better time to do best of lists.
Hmm. A best-of list shouldn't simply be an inventory of records that stand the test of time. It should also attest to the experience of listening within a given year, particularly in the way the individual listener responds to cultural trends at large. I might find ten albums down the road that I feel are better than the one's I've listed, but I could create a list with them that wasn't divorced from the world in which they were created.
It should also attest to the experience of listening within a given year
That's true as far as it goes, and any list is a snapshot that will change, whenever you make it. But there are particular anomalies that arise from trying to define the listening experience within a given year when there are albums that I was excited about in February but have not been back to much since, albums that I have listed to a dozen times since the start of the year, albums that came out last week that sound great on first listen but might bore me by next week (personally, I find that really liking something the first time I hear it is surprisingly often not a good sign) and albums released very late in the year that I have not had chance to listen to properly at all but could well prove to be great favorites. There's not enough distance from the experience to see it as a whole.
I don't really have a problem with the snapshot, and looking back at my lists from the last two years I am not sure I would change them all that radically (though I think there's also an effect on future perception from naming something formally as a favorite album), but doing these lists in December still feels a bit like writing a review of a novel while still reading the last four or five chapters.
Since posting my 2013 list I have heard from two of the artists and two of the labels...the moral that I draw from that is that it's nice that MiG is getting noticed and that what we post there matters to folk in some way.
THANKS A LOT DAVID. We are truly honoured. Nils Frahm is one of my favorites this year as well as some of the other picks you have. Very cool list Hope to meet you one day.
- Martin / Den Sorte Skole
- And how did they find out about that ? - me wonders . . .
;-)
Thanks for pointing out the NPR list, BN! The Courtney Barnett song has been getting some play around here recently (and made P4K's top 100 tracks), and I've been loving it. Also, seeing Lizzo on there (made my Top 10 over all and was my top local album) is cool.
Past years winners:
2012: Swans, "The Seer" (Young God)
2011: Tim Hecker, "Ravedeath, 1972" (Kranky)
2010: Swans, "My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to the Sky" (Young God)
2009: Sunn O))), "Monoliths & Dimensions" (Southern Lord)
2008: Matmos, "Supreme Balloon" (Matador)
2007: Stars of the Lid, "And Their Refinement of the Decline" (Kranky)
2006: Current 93, "Black Ships Ate The Sky" (Durtro/Jnana)
2005: Coil, "The Ape of Naples" (Threshold House)
2004: Fennesz, "Venice" (Mego)
2003: Mogwai, "Happy Songs For Happy People" (Matador)
2002: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Yanqui U.X.O." (Constellation)
2001: Low, "Things We Lost in the Fire" (Kranky)
2000: godspeed you black emperor!, "Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven" (Kranky)
1999: Coil, "Musick to Play in the Dark, Vol.1 " (Chalice)
1998: Tortoise, "TNT" (Thrill Jockey)
Comments
Also worth looking at is the TMT movie list - a good number of them are already on Netflix.
None of the new releases on The Wire, but a couple original issues.
Craig
Craig
African Songbird by Sathima Bea Benjamin and Dollar Brand is on the list, intriguing so far, and $2.97 at Amazon.
ETA, the regular wire list is interesting to. I have a suspicion that if I had discovered it earlier in the year (thanks to kargatron for posting it recently), and if I had not decided that when I buy it I want it on CD, and if the CD were not $35 and therefore postponed for a future date, the Dennis Johnson release maybe should have been on my list too, maybe even quite high, who knows. Nice to see Main on there too. One of the more interesting mainstream lists.
34 The Flaming Lips
12 Mohammad
11 Tim Hecker
+ 2 from my "wanting list" (Stetson and Barwick)
WIRE:
34. Eliane Radigue (on my "would have if I could have" list)
14. Bernard Parmegiani (awesome album)
7. Ákos Rózmann
5. David Tudor (3 of the 7 cd's) Bizzarre to the extreme but recommended to everyone interested in the history of electronic music, Musique Concrete in particular, and Fluxus.
- And it's interesting to see Robert Wyatt 68 (Cuneiform) on a list
PF:
0
ETA:
- Hmmmm ? . . . Nice cover.
Craig
Craig
I have 11 of their 15. That scares me.
They went out on a limb for #1 considering it's only been out a week and no one heard it before release.
Craig
Just gutsy because my initial impressions of albums change all the time.
Craig
Craig
I don't really have a problem with the snapshot, and looking back at my lists from the last two years I am not sure I would change them all that radically (though I think there's also an effect on future perception from naming something formally as a favorite album), but doing these lists in December still feels a bit like writing a review of a novel while still reading the last four or five chapters.
The 16th Annual Brainwashed Readers Poll is now open for nominations.
- Usually my absolute favourite list . . .
;-)
10 Artists You Should Have Known In 2013
Now to investigate the Other Music list.
Craig
The 2013 Brainwashed Readers' Poll! - Round 2: The Voting Round
- "Voting will take place through the end of December 31st. Results will be posted in 2014."
Past years winners:
2012: Swans, "The Seer" (Young God)
2011: Tim Hecker, "Ravedeath, 1972" (Kranky)
2010: Swans, "My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to the Sky" (Young God)
2009: Sunn O))), "Monoliths & Dimensions" (Southern Lord)
2008: Matmos, "Supreme Balloon" (Matador)
2007: Stars of the Lid, "And Their Refinement of the Decline" (Kranky)
2006: Current 93, "Black Ships Ate The Sky" (Durtro/Jnana)
2005: Coil, "The Ape of Naples" (Threshold House)
2004: Fennesz, "Venice" (Mego)
2003: Mogwai, "Happy Songs For Happy People" (Matador)
2002: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Yanqui U.X.O." (Constellation)
2001: Low, "Things We Lost in the Fire" (Kranky)
2000: godspeed you black emperor!, "Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven" (Kranky)
1999: Coil, "Musick to Play in the Dark, Vol.1 " (Chalice)
1998: Tortoise, "TNT" (Thrill Jockey)