I listened to it and didn't think it was nearly as good as The Blue Notebooks.

Interesting....I don't see that much difference between the two. I thought both were great.

Why is it so short? I love the addition of more sine wave tones ("Harmonium") that mesh very nicely with his previous string arrangements. Not to say the album doesn't have some aching string arrangements of its own, just listen to "Sunlight." If I were to level one complaint it would be against the narration. I just don't think the prose is as moving this time around, although it seems centered on daily-life. I probably need a couple more listens to dissect this further but so far it's great.

As far as classically influenced 2006 releases go I am really into Greg Haines' Slumber Tides. And the insanity of it is the kid is only 18 and he composed and played most of the instruments. Sheesh. Still haven't gotten to Max Richter's release but I'll get it eventually.

I apologize for consistantly dropping names to try and get a response. I'm not consciously trying to act like I'm hipper than I really am. Anywho, I have been following all the information I can on Raccoo-oo-oon and am becoming very interested in them. Has anyone else heard of them or own any of their output. They ahve some interesting mp3s on their website and delicious art on their packaging.

Oh, and JB I purchased Geoff Mullen's Air in Pieces and really like it. I really liked and am interested in some of the musics on your year end list. I was wondering if you could give a couple of sentence reviews of the following (or more I'm just don'r want to put you out):

5. Aufgehoben - Messidor
10. Marcus Fjellström - Gebrauchsmusik
11. Jan Jelinek - Tierbeobachtungen
16. Benoit Pioulard - Precis

I've listend to audio samples and so far am interested in what I've heard.

yo

I've just started getting into this type of music over the past few weeks, and 10 pages is a lot to get through, so I won't bother.
If it's not too much trouble, a few reccomendations would hopefully help me out a lot.
A few artists I've been listening to recently are Black Dice, Raccoo-oo-oon, Wolf Eyes, Xiu Xiu, Yellow Swans, Boredoms...

I can't believe this thread has lasted ten pages. Its just about the only reason I come on the Meta boards anymore though. For just 2006 release recommendations I would recommend Mouthus' The Long Salt and Prurient's Pleasure Ground. In reference to The Boredoms I would recommend OOIOO's Taiga (OOIOO and the Bordoms share members and I actually prefer OOIOO but with no disrespect to the Boredoms).

Heh, once you really start getting into it you start drowning because there is so much music out there. I hate it in a way.

Thanks. I have Taiga (really good) and a friend reccomended Mouthus and Prurient to me also, so I'll get those.

quote:

5. Aufgehoben - Messidor
10. Marcus Fjellström - Gebrauchsmusik
11. Jan Jelinek - Tierbeobachtungen
16. Benoit Pioulard - Precis

Aufgehoben is a group comprised of British avant-guitarist Gary Smith, a guy named Stephen Robinson who writes for The Wire and a few other members who are extremely elusive. If you buy their records or go to their website you won't find any info about their members. The music is a bizarre mix of This Heat and Merzbow to put it as accurately as possible. As far as noise goes it is far more "intelligent" than some of the other groups out there. They don't use some of the tricks that have become cheap hallmarks of the genre in recent years like screaming through distorted mics or going over the top lyrically. Not that I have a problem with Wolf Eyes or Prurient (who do these things, and I still love them both) but this record made them both seem pretty weak with no vocals whatsoever. It has actual live drumming and the group prides itself on not using electronic processes to make the intense sounds on their records, in fact at first they went by the name Aufgehoben No Process just to clarify.

Marcus Fjellström is a young composer generally regarded as post-classical. I see elements of spectralism in some of the compositions on Gebrauchsmusik but I don't want to claim that it belongs in the genre since I'm not schooled well enough in the vernacular of that sub-genre of classical to make the call. It reminds me of 20th century composers like Morton Subotnik and Horatio Radulescu but with a few percussive parts that sound like Aphex Twin or Autechre.

Jan Jelinek is a German dude who makes abstract electronic music along the lines of Fennesz or Gas if you're familiar with them. He used to be in a group called Farben and also the Kammerflimmer Kollectief but he's been composing solo for a while now. He has a record called Loop-Finding Jazz Records that was awesome enough to get a 9.3 from Pitchforkmedia's Mark Richardson. Like all music like that though, despite the high score it isn't something the majority of people can get in to so a super high score (higher than Sufjan's Illinoise for example) goes unnoticed. His last record was supposedly his version of "kraut-rock" referencing the greats like Amon Duul II and CAN but coming from a distinct electronic background. Tierbeobachtungen continues in that tradition. It's built on four to five short loops each track that recycle over and over indefinitely.

Benoit Pioulard is a dude named Thomas Meluch that plays music similiar to (in my opinion) Elliott Smith but with more "headphone candy" going on. There are processed guitar sounds and ambient piano interludes in the vein of Brian Eno or if you want to be more specific I'd say it sounds like The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl stuff (which is seriously fucking amazing and a vastly overlooked double LP in the criticle canon (in fact it was another record that got a 9.0 from Pitchfork that went completely unnoticed even amongst the rest of their own staff, possibly because of the "emo" stigma they carried although on that specific record it would have been a highly erroneous call to term them emo)) if played by a singer/songwriter instead of a band.

Hope that helps. I'm trying to take a Meta-break until 2007 starts. I'd been spending wayyyy too much time here. I'm glad this thread is thriving.

A Life Without Fear by Ekkehard Ehlers completely blindsided me. I didn't know it existed until I saw it on the Metacritic best of 2006 compilation in the Wire's list. Holy shit this is some good stuff.

Ekkehard Ehlers is good stuff. That record nearly missed my year end list. Something about it didn't get to me like Plays did, although I liked it anyway. There was a great interview with him in The Wire in summer of 2006, it was the one with Sonic Youth on the cover. He goes into great detail about the source material used on A Life Without Fear.

Yay for Ekkehard Ehlers! That is a good record. I'm not familiar with Plays though.

has anyone listened to or heard of the Ultra Dolphins. I got Mar not too long ago and am in love. Its similar to Blood Brothers, Daughters, at least in the same ball park.

I had one of the Ultra Dolphins CDs. It was the one with the crazy looking duck on the cover. I think it only had five tracks on it. Came out on either Robotic Empire or Magic Bullet, I can't remember. Since those recordings were pretty old though I'm interested in what Mar sounds like if made up of newer material. I thought they sounded like Drive Like Jehu. I'm pretty interested in hearing the Capsule record on Robotic Empire whenever that sees the light of day.

As for Ekkehard Ehlers Plays Sicnarf, get it and thank me later. It's beautiful stuff of the Fennesz, Phillip Jeck, Oren Ambarchi school of composition.

Anyone else see Dominique Leone's new Pitchfork column concerning "Out Music"? Personally although there wasn't a great deal of awesome stuff in this first one (not that the stuff covered wasn't nice but generally these columns act in order to introduce the public to artists they don't know about and this first one was more of a recap of stuff from the end of last year). I expect it to get better however and along with Brandon Stosuy's Show No Mercy it could be one of the better features aside from the reviews in my opinion.

I liked that column a lot and want more.

Anyway I finally heard Pleasure Ground today. It rocked my face clean off. Clearly I made my top 20 list a couple days early.

Yeah, that record gives me nightmares. It is certainly devastating in a strictly depressive manner, and it is also the most cerebral of Prurient's music to date. Fantastic.

As for 2007, I had yet to obtain an import copy of Animal Collective's new People EP. It arrived and I am currently listening hourly. While there isn't much music on the disc (its runtime is less than 20 minutes) the cost is worth it for the title track alone.

I don't see as much development sonically on the songs contained in the EP as compared to new live songs such as "Fireworks (previously known as Allman Vibe) or "Peace Bone." Still, I love this period of their sound. Anyone else hear and enjoy?

I really enjoyed Feels and this new EP sounds like really good outtakes from that album. Personally I found it much more engaging than say, the stuff from the Grass EP or even the more recent Panda Bear solo material which is pretty bad in my opinion. Anyone else hear that stuff? I'm speaking specifically about Bros and I'm Not Comfy/In Nautica.

Tons of good stuff coming out this week though. Boredoms' Super Roots reissues of volumes 1, 2, and 5. Tim Hecker's Radio Amor is being reissued. Wolf Eyes have a vinyl collection coming out of their members' solo material grouped together under one vinyl output called simply Solo. There are some other things too but I think I'll wait to discuss until I hear them and know if they're worth bringing up.

have you polmo polpo fans out there heard his release from maybe september 06 called "sando perri plays polmo polpo"? IT IS AWESOME. folky guitar and beat things hidden under noises that get stripped away to reveal really beautiful folk songs with sandro singing. and i guess it was recorded live...? i don't know anything about it other than these were drone-ish polmo songs that he has re-interpreted (or maybe these were the original songs that got noised out..?) and that it's amazing. if you like polmo polpo or glissandro 70, definitely check it out. i'm amazed that he released two of the best "avant" records last year, but i guess it really should come as no surprise...he is a proven master.

I dunno if this has been talked about it this thread yet, but The Goslings Grandeur of Hair rocks. I really, really like it.

I hear tons of great things about that Goslings record. I haven't heard it yet though. Everytime I try to get it off Soulseek my download fails for some reason or something happens. I'd love to actually buy a copy of it but I can't find it and I just dropped a major amount of money on all the stuff that is coming out tomorrow. I had completely forgotten about the Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, and Mum releases on top of all the other stuff I mentioned previously.