2019 wrap-up

https://plutonicrainbows.com/2019/12/01/Albums-2019/

the wedding album rules. 

These are the ones I enjoyed the most and will likely "graduate" from 2019 and continue to get regular rotation from me:

1. Ode to Joy - Wilco (didn't expect to love it this much, I'd written them off)

2. Keepsake - Hatchie

3. Dedicated - CRJ

4. Warp Tapes 89-93 - Autechre

5. AE_LIVE (NA stuff) - Autechre

6. Charli - Charli XCX

Pretty good year, at least 40 releases which I found addictive-to-swell for a time (some others I liked a lot, but not quite enough, include the likes of Ghosteen, Fishing for Fishies, Still on my Mind and In the End).

I'll write up something later, but if I could recommend just one thing it would be Rojin Sharafi - Urns Waiting To Be Fed, on Sote's label.  This is a really special one.

http://zabtesote.bandcamp.com/album/urns-waiting-to-be-fed
 

Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips

Ed Longo & Applied Arts Ensemble - The Other Fantasy

HTRK - Over The Rainbow

Bjarki - Happy Earthday

Special Request - Bedroom Tapes

Reissue:

Various Artists - here Where The Avalanche Stops - Music From The Gjirokastra Folk Festival, Albania, 1988, Volume One

Quite a weak year for electronic stuff I liked.

Top 20 albums:

Underworld - Drift Series 1
Desperate Journalist - In Search of the Miraculous
The Future Sound of London - Yage 2019
The Divine Comedy - Office Politics
Confluent Phase - Ad Astra
Aurora - A Different Kind of Human (Step 2)
Idlewild - Interview Music
A Winged Victory for the Sullen - The Undivided Five
Mikron - Severance
Humanoid - Built by Humanoid
Sigrid - Sucker Punch
Ariana Grande - thank u, next
36 - Dreamloops
Michele Rabbia / Gianluca Petrella / Eivind Aarset - Lost River
Dobrinka Tabakova - Kynance Cove, On the South Downs and Works for Choir
Charli XCX - Charli
Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated
Deaf Center - Low Distance
Off Land - Field Tangents
Pure Bathing Culture - Night Pass
 

Favourite reissues / box sets / compilations

Tangerine Dream - In Search of Hades
ECM Touchstones: Pat Metheny - Watercolors / Eberhard Weber - The Following Morning / Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes / Mike Nock - Ondas / Bobo Stenson Trio - War Orphans
Archive - 25
Nurse With Wound - To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl & Merzbild Schwet
Cleaners from Venus - Ginger Stepkids
Max Richter - Voyager
Mansun - Six
36 - The Lower Lights

The Seneschal Arrives - Complexicon

https://concreteislands.com/concrete-islands-albums-of-the-year-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3kR3nBEE7ftDtKXT5dKHcjpw8mn3eBWFnPSO5FEmNJZrllmWBqHsL6z64

Disregard, idk what year it is

Lps :

Quirke - Steal a golden hail

Barker - Utility

Rian Treanor - Ataxia

Caterina Barbieri - Ecstatic computation

AE - live north america

Aleksi Perälä - Sunshine 3

Eps : 

Le dom - Schism 

Skee mask - 808BB

EOD - Ether overdose

Christoph de Babalon - Hectic shakes

Lanark artefax - Corra Linn

Fret - Fret

  On 11/30/2019 at 11:21 AM, Nil said:

Tons of great stuff released / listened to this years, and my fav of the bunch is :

Now, I haven't listened to the new AE LIVE sets, even though I love the older ones. Didn't have the dough when they got released, and totally forgot about them since then.

Expand  

Adding : Lanark Artefax’s Live - No Bounds Festival 2019. Stellar set, I can’t help considering it as a sort of LP in disguise.... and it’s stunningly good. I’m even more gutted than I was already that I couldn’t make it to No Bounds (it’s not that easy nor affordable to travel to Sheffield from abroad) while I had tickets.

re: Æ Live: bought the US sets right after posting, I was quite familiar with the previously released ones, but this time I feel equally overwhelmed by the amount of new material to discover as I’m eager to discover it all.

Is there a consensus for AOTY?  I bet there are a lot of Autechre enthusiasts, and they had a big year.

  On 12/8/2019 at 7:03 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Is there a consensus for AOTY?  I bet there are a lot of Autechre enthusiasts, and they had a big year.

it's obviously me. sorry sam and ron

a few albums i've been into -

Ibibio Sound Machine - Doko Mien

machina - archipelago

Matmos - Plastic Anniversary

clipping - There Existed an Addiction to Blood

Maurice Louca - Elephantine

NKISI - 7 Directions

Fav Rap/Hip Hop album:

DJ Sacred's Dungeon Rap: The Introduction

https://naturalsciences.bandcamp.com/album/dungeon-rap-the-introduction

Fav Metal EP:

Sibyl - The Magic Isn't Real

Plaid

Bibio

Bars of Gold

Full of Hell

Torche

Battles

Tool

Venom Prison

Puppy

The Number Twelve Looks Like You

Boris

Pijn and Conjurer (Curse These Metal Hands)

Opeth

Ex-Terrestrial

Giant Swan

Brutus

Liturgy

side note: my most listened genre of the decade was "Intelligent Dance Music", or so says Spotify. tehehe lololol

Nice to see some love for Nkisi. Will drop my list in January bc there’ve already been some surprise releases - plus after Enantiodromia dropped on NYE last year, I’m not calling 2019 done until it’s actually 2020.

Newly released Peter van Hoesen's 2008-2018 Uncovered Vol 1-2-3 might totally end in my list Obviously I haven't listened to all the 52 (!) tracks yet but the bits I've heard are stellar.

Overall, a very good year.  Some new artists making waves, some old guns showing that they have still got it.

ALBUMS

Underworld - Drift

Datachi - Bones

Polypores - Flora

Ekoplekz - Metabolism

Ekoplekz - In Search of the Third Mantra

Salac - Sacred Movements

Giant Swan - Giant Swan

Sarah Belle Reid - Underneath and Sonder

Kinlaw and Franco Franco - Mezzi Umani Mezze Macchine

Chemical Brothers - No Geography

The Vomit Arsonist - Nihil Dicit

Soft Issues - Soft Issues

Lorn - Drown the traitor within

Himukalt - Come October (technically a reissue but with new material and first time on CD / download)

Technoist - Maximal Techno

Xosar - The Possessor Possesses Nothing

The Caretaker - Everywhere, An Empty Bliss

EPs

Kilig - Cry

Karim Mass - Blakk Rainbow

UKAEA - Dead Paths

VFH - Blub Blub Blub

Lee Riley - Radiant Waves

Andy Stott  - It Should Be Us

Chafik Chennouf and Katsunori Sawa - Fragments of Reference

Ruby My Dear - Altair

Compilations / Reissues

Avon Terror Corps - Avon Is Dead

Avon Terror Corps - No Sleep Til Avon

Venetian Snares - Greg Hates Car Culture

Various Artists - REPEAT (Gasman curated ACID / rave comp)

Fabric Presents - Amelie Lens

How could anyone listen to this all year and think "yeah that's the best music I've heard!"

https://boomkat.com/products/the-sacrificial-code

  On 12/19/2019 at 6:00 PM, Rubin Farr said:

How could anyone listen to this all year and think "yeah that's the best music I've heard!"

https://boomkat.com/products/the-sacrificial-code

lol saw the facebook post and that was pretty much my initial reaction

it’s the most boomkat release of the year. surprised it wasn’t kara lis cloverdale again. 

I don't get it either, and yet I highly value their imprint.

sounds very nice to me. they're probably right in rating that album as the best one they sell since everything else they sell is so awfully bad