Why is noone paying attention to Persephone's Bees or Simon Joyner? Come on now.

Persephone's Bees got a mention, and I and someone else here have said we might include them.

quote:

What are the best countries/regions for modern music?
1. USA
2. Britain
3. Canada
4. Scandinavia
5. Brazil (os mutantes, gil oberto, seu jorge, tom ze)

Depends on if you are talking this year or all time...

This year -though there were a number of solid Scandinavian releases, and a few from the UK - was truly dominated by the US, more so than any year in recent memory.

From an all-time perspective, though, on a by population basis, UK kicks US tail, and every other nation's.

quote:

Originally posted by modestryan:
Sometimes a couple of records sneak up on you at the last moment. Thats what happened with me this year. I am not complaining though. Where last year was a great year for the electronica genre, this one topped it. Still Y's is the logical No. 1. Musically, it is far superior to anything I've heard all year. I will be compliling at top 100. But here is my final top 20. Enjoy.

20. I'm Not A Gun - We Think As Instruments
19. Marsen Jules - Les Fleurs
18. Audrey - Visible Forms
17. Matinee Orchestra - ST
16. Ochre - Lemodie
15. Colleen - Colleen et les boites a musique
14. aMute - The Sea Horse Limbo
13. Ms. John Soda - Notes and the Like
12. Dosh - The Lost Take
11. Jeniferever - Choose A Bright Morning
10. Annoice - Remmings
9. Leafcutter John - The Forest and The Sea
8. Adem - Love and Other Planets
7. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
6. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Etiquette
5. Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
4. Nathan Fake - Drowning In A Sea of Love
3. Last Days - Sea
2. Parenthetical Girls - Safe As Houses
1. Joanna Newsom - Y's

I like this one

Here is my 1-20 of 2006.
I didn't edit any rankings, just added little descriptions on some of the artists leaving ones that seem to be well known without explanation in response to Johnsofats comment below.

1. Joanna Newsom – Ys
2. Chad VanGaalen – Skelliconnection
3. The Goslings – Grnadeur of Hair (Loud, sludgy Psych drone rock)
4. Tim Hecker – Harmony in Ultraviolet (Beautifully dense noise compositions)
5. Subtle – For Hero:For Fool
6. Danielson – Ships
7. Portugal. The Man – Waiter: You Vultures! (Reminds me of a slower At the Drive-In. incredibly solid record)
8. Liars – Drum’s Not Dead
9. Broken Deer – Displaced Field Recordings (lo-fi glitch folk record)
10. Adem – Love and Other Planets
11. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
12. Geoff Mullen – Thrtysxtrllnmnfstns (textured electro acoustic riyl- Fennesz, Keith Fullerton Whitman)
13. Nathan Fake – Drowning in a Sea of Love
14. Gregor Samsa – 55:12 (Beautiful slow cinematic rock)
15. Sufjan Stevens – Avalanche
16. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
17. Keith Fullerton Whitman – Lisbon
18. Love Is All – Nine Times That Same Song (indie pop rock)
19. Figurines – Skeleton
20. Grouper – Wide (dark ambient/Drone)

and for those who are interested: 21-50

21. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
22. Greg Haines – Slumber Tides (Minimalist composer)
23. Califone – Roots & Crowns
24. Converge – No Hero
25. OOIOO – Taiga (Post Boredoms awesomeness)
26. Mouthus – The Long Salt (hyper textured noise/drone)
27. Ultra Dolphins – Mar (spazz Hardcore)
28. Jel – Soft Money
29. Blood Brothers – Young Machetes
30. Eluvium – When I Live by the Garden and the Sea (Ambient/Piano)
31. Michael Runion – Early Grave EP
32. The Boats – Tomorrow Time (Piano based loop experiments)
33. Yellow Swans – Psychic Secession (Psych Noise/Drone)
34. Juana Molina – Son
35. The Evens – Get Evens
36. Cloudland Canyon – Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004 (Psych mostly instrumentals)
37. Tiny Hawks – People Without End (yelly Noise rock duo)
38. Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I’m Dreaming
39. Chihei Hatakeyama – Minima Moralia (electro acoustic niceness)
40. Voxtrot – Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives
41. Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block
42. Vetiver – To Find Me Gone
43. The Curtains – Calamity
44. Hot Snakes – Thunder Down Under
45. Comets On Fire – Avatar
46. Ekkehard Ehlers – A Life Without Fear (Experimental Blues guitar)
47. Howe Gelb – ‘Sno Angel Like You
48. Sparklehorse – Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
49. Ladies – They Mean Us
50. Islands – Return to the Sea

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sicnarf,

quote:

Originally posted by Sicnarf:

quote:

Originally posted by modestryan:
Sometimes a couple of records sneak up on you at the last moment. Thats what happened with me this year. I am not complaining though. Where last year was a great year for the electronica genre, this one topped it. Still Y's is the logical No. 1. Musically, it is far superior to anything I've heard all year. I will be compliling at top 100. But here is my final top 20. Enjoy.

20. I'm Not A Gun - We Think As Instruments
19. Marsen Jules - Les Fleurs
18. Audrey - Visible Forms
17. Matinee Orchestra - ST
16. Ochre - Lemodie
15. Colleen - Colleen et les boites a musique
14. aMute - The Sea Horse Limbo
13. Ms. John Soda - Notes and the Like
12. Dosh - The Lost Take
11. Jeniferever - Choose A Bright Morning
10. Annoice - Remmings
9. Leafcutter John - The Forest and The Sea
8. Adem - Love and Other Planets
7. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
6. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Etiquette
5. Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
4. Nathan Fake - Drowning In A Sea of Love
3. Last Days - Sea
2. Parenthetical Girls - Safe As Houses
1. Joanna Newsom - Y's

I like this one

I'd like it better if he game some explanation as to who these artists are. I never heard of at least 10 of them. If the point of these forums is to introduce new artists to people, I would like some sort of idea on whether or not to search it out.

I totally agree with Johnsofats.

quote:

Originally posted by Sicnarf:
5. Subtle – For Hero:For Fool
6. Danielson – Ships

I just bought Subtle yesterday, and after 1 full listen, I can say it would have easily been in my top 5. I should have waited. It is a mindblowing album. So many "Wow" moments for me. Even though some of the music is abbrasive, I still find it has so many beatiful sounds and textures. I'd recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in forward-leaning hip-hop. It's a face melter.

Danielson, for me, was the biggest and best grower of the year. I didn't dig any songs except Did I Step on Your Trumpet (one of the best singles of the year!), but I kept going back to it. The vocals became less weird and the music is so dense and layered that there's lots of ear candy. It sounds like Sufjan if Sufjan wasn't such a wimp and if he had balls.

Nice list, Sicnarf.

I've been working on this list for several months now. Here goes!

1. Beirut - The Gulag Orkestar
2. Xiu Xiu - The Air Force
3. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
4. Editors - The Back Room
5. Heartless Bastards - All This Time
6. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
7. Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast
8. Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet
9. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
10. Herbert - Scale
11. Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye
12. Baby Dayliner - Critics Pass Away
13. Liars - Drum's Not Dead
14. The Futureheads - News and Tributes
15. Cat Power - The Greatest
16. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
17. Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
18. El Perro Del Mar - s/t
19. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
20. Califone - Roots & Crowns

Honorable Mentions: Serena Maneesh - s/t, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat, Michael Giacchino - Lost: Original TV Soundtrack, The Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics, Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies, Joanna Newson - Ys, The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, Asobi Seksu - Citrus, Howe Gelb - 'Sno Angel Like You, Ghostface Killah - Fishscale, Tom Waits - Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Girl Talk - Night Ripper, Beirut - Lon Gisland EP, and Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives.

quote:

Originally posted by Dumbangel:
Bienvenue à toi Mathieu. Je suis ravi de constater que je ne suis pas le seul français présent sur ce forum au milieu de tous ces amerloques fous à lier. Bon, en ce qui me concerne, je pense que je posterai mon top 20 des albums de l'année le 30 ou 31 décembre, pas avant. Je peux déjà vous donner un petit avant-goût en disant que mon album français préféré de 2006 n'est pas Phoenix (même si je le trouve assez bon) mais Barth avec son "Under The Trampoline" que peu de gens semblent connaitre mais qui est pourtant excellent.

En effet je connais pas Barth. C'est quel genre ?
I don't really like Daft Punk and M83, but there is another really good french band, Ginger Frolic. Nobody has ever heard of them, but it's a great band from Bordeaux.

Comment décrire Barth ? Euh...
Je dirai pour faire un simple raccourci que c'est un croisement entre John Lennon et Beck. Y a le côté songwriter à la voix légèrement nasaillarde de l'un mélangé avec le côté bricolo de l'autre. Bref c'est très bon à mon goût, et faute d'être un chef-d'oeuvre c'est néanmoins un disque qui gagne à être connu. Quant à M83, je ne suis d'accord avec toi, je trouve ça excellent. Par contre, le dernier Daft Punk = caca.
Ginger Frolic, je connais pas. Quel genre ?

Oh, man, are these guys sophisticated or what!

quote:

4. Tim Hecker – Harmony in Ultraviolet (Beautifully dense noise compositions)

Amen! Although we didn't get a Fennesz album in '06, this is the closest thing we got. It's wonderful.

1. Joanna Newsom: Ys
2. Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
3. The Pipettes: We Are The Pipettes
4. Lily Allen: Alright, Still
5. Final Fantasy: He Poos Clouds
6. Matt and Kim: Matt and Kim
7. Asobi Seksu: Citrus
8. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Ballad of the Broken Seas
9. Hot Chip: The Warning
10. Kimya Dawson: Remember That I Love You
11. The Fiery Furnaces: Bitter Tea
12. Tiga: Sexor
13. Beirut: Gulag Orkestar
14. Eri Yamamoto: Cobalt Blue
15. OOIOO: Taiga
16. Nellie McKay: Pretty Little Head
17. El Perro Del Mar: El Perro Del Mar
18. Puffy AmiYumi: Splurge!
19. Islands: Return To The Sea
20. Clipse: Hell Hath No Fury

First Kimya Dawson mention? Great album. Atta kid JAB991.

quote:

I just bought Subtle yesterday, and after 1 full listen, I can say it would have easily been in my top 5. I should have waited. It is a mindblowing album. So many "Wow" moments for me. Even though some of the music is abbrasive, I still find it has so many beatiful sounds and textures. I'd recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in forward-leaning hip-hop. It's a face melter.

Admittedly, it took me a while to get used to, but now it's definitely my most played album of 2006. Within those 11 songs, there are EASILY 100 movements, so it's nice to pick up on additional nuances every time I go back to it... That being said, it's a very dense, challenging, and peculiar album, but one that offers repeated listens like very few others I've heard in recent years.


Also, can't you just go back and edit your top 20 list? I'm not sure since I'm not tallying them all up, but if they keep the posts open until January 15th, maybe you can put Subtle in your list(???).

quote:

Also, can't you just go back and edit your top 20 list? I'm not sure since I'm not tallying them all up, but if they keep the posts open until January 15th, maybe you can put Subtle in your list(???).

You can only edit to add descriptions. Scoring is being done list-by-list as they're posted, so far as I know. RL can clarify.

Thanks for the clarification.

I don't know if it is just me, maybe RL or Eric can clarify, but it seems like Joanna Newsom's album might make a comeback, she has been the number one album on 3 out of the past 5 lists posted--I think. And I haven't busted out a calculator but she might be within single digits of the TVoTR and The Hold Steady albums. She won't be my number one--probably top ten--but I feel she is far more deserving than the other two aforementioned albums.

Also--to comment on the Subtle album--for those of you that like it: is it really that good? I have heard some of it but don't know if it is really solid enough to check it out in detail, thanks.

One thing I know about Subtle is that two of the guys are associated with the Anticon collective and that label is known for its indie, abstract, experimental/electronic kind of hip hop. If you like the music from the Anticon group (people like Buck 65, Sage Francis, etc., etc.) then you can't go wrong with For Hero: For Fool.

My personal take on it? I'm not a fan of the Anticon label, so I can't say I'm inclined to buy the Subtle album. But to each his own, right?