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Best of 2016?

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Posted on January 7, 2017 at 10:30:09
Ogsarg
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Central Coast, CA
Joined: October 19, 2004
It seems there hasn't been much discussion of new music/artists since LWR left us but I'm sure some of you are listening to new stuff. So what did you hear in 2016 that was memorable?

I have to admit I didn't get much new music but highlights would have to be:

Case,Lang, Veirs. Great voices and a quality recording. I've played that a bunch.

Nada Surf- You Know Who You Are. Good followup to their last album in 2012

Other than that, I have been listening to a fair amount of Jazz, but nothing released in 16.

 

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RE: Best of 2016?, posted on January 13, 2017 at 08:31:28
twowheels
Audiophile

Posts: 225
Location: portland, Oregon
Joined: January 11, 2009
I've got two--

Aoife O'Donovan--In the Magic Hour

Sarah Jarosz--Undercurrent

 

Two new albums , posted on January 9, 2017 at 18:13:06
JeffH
Audiophile

Posts: 4574
Location: Orange County, So Cal
Joined: April 5, 2000
Yussef Kamaal - Black Focus - prog jazz with killer bass and drumming.

Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love! - Nice spin on funk...





 

RE: Best of 2016?, posted on January 8, 2017 at 14:17:39
Ron Stewart
Audiophile

Posts: 75
Location: Madison, Alabama
Joined: April 11, 2000
I totally agree about case/lang/veirs.

Regina Spektor's Remember Us to Life is my overall 2016 favorite, with highlights being "Grand Hotel" and "Tornadoland." The deluxe version of the CD is worth buying, as the three bonus tracks are as good as the rest.

I'd also include Kate Rusby's Life in a Paper Boat. I can't really defend it as a great album, but I love her voice, and "Big Brave Bill" always brings a smile.

Ron

 

Some of my favorites ..., posted on January 8, 2017 at 10:22:59
slider
Audiophile

Posts: 298
Joined: September 13, 2010
Indie Pop/Rock Top 10
The Early Years - II
Virginia Wing - Forward Constant Motion (and Rhonda EP)
Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation - Mirage
Lake Ruth - Actual Entity
Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked For Death
Wolf People - Ruins
Lola Colt - Twist Through The Fire
Oskar's Drum - A Cathedral of Hands
Richmond Fontaine - You Can't Go Back ...
Exploded View - Exploded View

EPs that would probably be in top 10 if full length
Califone - Insect Courage
Melanie De Biasio - Blackened Cities

I think some of you would love The Early Years record, kind of a mix of New Order and Brian Eno at times, with some nice kosmische elements, some shoegaze/dream pop, post-punk/post-rock, just really well put together and a pretty great batch of songs, same with Josefin Ohrn, they really harken back to the golden motoriffic days of bands like Can and Neu! and Cluster and the rest, great stuff.

The Oskar's Drum album was a big surprise too. It's a collaboration between Patrick Fitzgerald (Kitchens Of Distinction, Stephen Hero) and Yves Altana (Wonky Alice, Invincible), so does have some of that early 90s British dream pop/indie rock sound. No vinyl, just bandcamp download or CD at this point.

And for fans of Broadcast and the late Trish Keenan, the Lake Ruth album is great! I got the vinyl, but came with a 24/96 bandcamp download too, and really sounds pretty nice, kind of 60s vintage experimental baroque pop, but brought into the modern world, like with Broadcast and Stereolab and Pram and some others that dabble in that sound. Very good record.

Some of you would probably really like the Lola Colt record too, they're a relatively new UK band that mix some 60s psych by bands like the Jefferson Airplane and the Doors, with 80s post-punk like Siouxsie & the Banshees and Echo & the Bunnymen, pretty cool mix, strong female singer, and the lead guitar guy is good too.

And I love the Virginia Wing record, very interesting electro-pop, sometimes harkens back to Laurie Anderson, so many amazing moments strewn about throughout that it is hard to take it all in, at times it almost seems too weird, but then all those thoughts fade away as it morphs into something truly beautiful. Cool record, but not for everyone :)

If you don't know of Melanie De Biasio, she's got a great voice and makes some pretty amazing music, this new EP is just one 24 minute song, but it keeps up a nice groove the whole time, and never stays the same for long. Kind of a modern jazz sound, and some really good players.

The new Wovenhand Star Treatment is a good one too, rocks with abandon, one of the few artists in Americana that does anymore, and while the last couple records were pretty smashed sound-wise, the time spent at Steve Albini's studio on this one seems to have made him a bit more respectful to our ears. This one has a DR9 on the CD, still sounds kind of loud and overdriven at times, but that's just when the loud guitars take over, afterall it is still what we like to call hard rock, though in this case kind of an uneasy mixture of doom metal and Americana. You can still hear other details during those loud times, but there is a lot of fuzz. It's got a very strong Native American sound interwoven throughout, maybe his heaviest and most experimental record yet. Still love Blush Music the most from his Wovenhand days, each record is like a different chapter in the story of David Eugene Edwards, and it's fun to follow each one, he's an amazing artist.

And for shoegaze fans, one of my favorites at the moment is the French band Dead Horse One. The debut record Without Love We Perish was produced by Mark Gardener of Ride, and got a limited release in 2014, then a more general release in 2015. They also had a new one in 2016 called Season Of Mist, but I think it is getting a bigger release next month. Anyway, love that psychedelic shoegaze sound, and it's fun to have so many bands all over the world continuing to explore the music and add their own touches. Below is the debut ...







 

Thanks, posted on January 11, 2017 at 16:53:35
Ex Lion Tamer
Audiophile

Posts: 554
Location: Canada
Joined: January 19, 2003
Don't have much to add to this thread.
I like Bowie's last
Alex G made a nice album this year
And Drive-by. Truckers released their usual dose of awesome songs (going to see them in February, can't wait)

But I'm really posting just to say thanks Slider for your usual list of provocative albums from cutting edge artists. Looking forward to exploring your suggestions.... again.

 

RE: Sure, posted on January 12, 2017 at 16:49:31
slider
Audiophile

Posts: 298
Joined: September 13, 2010
Provocatively on the cutting edge, that does sound like me :)

Not!

Hey, good to see you around, been quite awhile. It has been a good time in the last couple years for music I like, lots of cool new discoveries, so much interesting music happening all over the world now. Fun to explore. Looks like 7 artists out of that top 10 were completely new to me this last year, but there were a lot of other good records put out by more well known artists too, I just have a tendency to favor the slightly more obscure ones, and most of us only have time for a tiny fraction of what we'd like to hear anyway.

Let me know if you'd like some more info on something, I've probably blabbered on about most of them quite a lot, though I haven't been posting much around here. Or maybe stop by SHMF, there's a lot of music talk there. Below is the closer from that great Lake Ruth record, not sure if you are a fan of Broadcast and all their influences, but Lake Ruth is very similar, not quite as much of the fractured electronics as Broadcast, so not quite as lovably weird, but their Actual Entity debut is pretty fun stuff ...







BTW, if you wanna hear some other new stuff, there's a brand new Various Artist dream pop compilation from The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records that you can download for name your price on bandcamp. The comp is called Violet "Dreampop", and features 13 mostly unknown artists. Found it via email from Lake Ruth since they have a new song that leads off the comp, and their 2016 Actual Entity is currently one of my favorite records, not sure it fits completely under the "dream pop" banner, but I don't get too carried away with these labels. Anyway, I downloaded the full comp in flac, it's mostly 16-44.1K, but a few songs are 24-bit, and the Lake Ruth is 24-48K. Not too surprisingly, there's some stuff that's not that great, but there's also a lot of really nice music on here. I'd already listened to the Lake Ruth track a few times, and really like it, but the second song by Pipe's Not Dead is great too, it's a new song called "Hibernation". From their soundcloud page ...

PIPE'S NOT DEAD ! is a dreampop/darkwave/shoegaze audio-visual project of Massimiliano Nardulli(Bucharest, Romania)and Gabriele Saffioti(Berlin, Germany). We love to create atmospheres and sounds that can be the soundtracks for a cinematic approach of the music, We like to call our music SOUNDGAZE.

And that Pure Morning song is really nice too, they are a Mexican shoegaze band (or I think they call it tweegaze, but this one isn't too twee sounding).

Below is the link and tracklist, name your price means you can download for free if you like too ...

Violet Dream Pop Compilation
1. Lake Ruth - Empty Morning 03:15
2. Pipe's Not Dead - Hibernation 04:32
3. The Us - I Will Get Numb 04:12
4. The Skating Party - Remember the Chain 03:46
5. Claudio Cataldi - Let's Go To The Secret Place 02:40
6. Desario - Capture 04:01
7. Electric Lo Fi Seresta - Noites Brancas (White Nights) 05:27
8. Inspiraling - When It Pours 04:50
9. Pure Morning - Cielo 06:01
10. Quazares - Acariciando tu Alma 04:16
11. Queridas - Talar 02:32
12. Soft Science - Breaking 03:38
13. Swellebound - Rifle 04:10

 

And some youtube samples ..., posted on January 11, 2017 at 08:57:49
slider
Audiophile

Posts: 298
Joined: September 13, 2010
Below are some youtube links for my top 10 ...

The Early Years "Fluxus" from II








Virginia Wing "ESP Offline" from Forward Constant Motion


Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation "Rushing Through My Mind" from Mirage


Lake Ruth "The Only One Who Knows" from Actual Entity


Emma Ruth Rundle "Heaven" from Marked For Death


Wolf People "Kingfisher" from Ruins


Lola Colt "Twist Through The Fire" from Twist Through The Fire


Oskar's Drum "Arms of the Dark" from A Cathedral of Hands


Richmond Fontaine "I Can't Black It out If I Wake up and Remember" from You Can't Go Back If There's Nothing to Go Back To


Exploded View "Lark Descending" from Exploded View

 

RE: Best of 2016?, posted on January 8, 2017 at 09:37:55
Mike B.
Audiophile

Posts: 26322
Location: OR
Joined: September 27, 1999
Contributor
  Since:
September 1, 1999
I will throw out a few. Two rock oriented albums I have enjoyed are Popa Chubby -live and Gregg Allman -live back in Macon. I also enjoyed The Record Company-Give it back to you, and Agnes Obel-Citizen of glass. A personal historical flashback thanks to the Sonics who I saw live in the early 1960's
Mildly disappointments were Santana IV, Cassandra Wilson-coming forth by day, Eric Clapton-I still do, and Norah Jones-Day breaks. Much of this is due to my personal expectations.


 

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