Lamp, broken circa 1988
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Posts posted by Lamp, broken circa 1988
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(on vinyl)Plus a signal splitter pedal and two pairs of shorts. Pretty good.
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actually a pretty good mark henry
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El-P & Killer Mike – Run The Jewels
I had to double check that no one brought this up. This one has a quick an easy sell: El-P was the best producer working last year, Killer Mike put out one of the best rap albums last year, and then they put out a tag team mixtape for free. Whatever reason you had to pass on this isn't good enough. It's right here.
What did El-P do last year? I used to love him when Def Jux was new, but he seemed to stop existing for me about a decade ago.
He put out a solo record called Cancer 4 Cure that was one of the best rap albums of 2012, and he produced Killer Mike's album R.A.P. Music which was also one of the best rap albums of 2012 (personally I prefer Mike's record). So this year he made a punk speed sonic blast for him and Mike to take turns using.
MORE PIMPING. I'm going to try to put off guitar music for one more week because while I do have a lot of stuff I want to talk about that has guitars, this is a board that also talks about lots of things with guitars. So I'd feel bad for leaving some stuff out.
This block is all more experimental and wild kinds of music. The scale of risk ranges from “Going To A New Restaurant” to “Being A Test Pilot.”
Ashley Paul – Line The Clouds To me as a composer, this is like a professional party magician watching an expert street magician. We're dealing with the same medium but our skill sets are so different that the only way I can understand what they're doing is through the frame of my own experience. All press materials for this record suggest that this record is largely improvised, if not entirely. Yet, for all the listening I've done of this record, it appears seamless and evident to me. The layout is so precise and clean that my mind just can't interface with the idea of how this could be improvisational work. At the same time, I don't really want the solution either. I'm just taken in by it. Here's the first track, to illustrate what I mean
Tim Hecker – Virgins This is an album I have a hard time talking about it, because I can't really find the words for what I feel while it's happening. It sounds like machines if gears were pianos, and I'm worried that it and Oneohtrix Point Never occupy too similar a space so there's not a lot of people I've seen come out in support of both. I mean, I like this one, and you should hear it, but the Oneohtrix record blew my tiny mind, as I've already talked about. Here's the intro track.
Jenny Hval – Innocence Is Kinky Alright, fine, this album has rock guitars, but including it with the rock/metal stuff I want to shout out would give the wrong impression both on this album and on those albums. I'll start by saying I love the hell out of both records she's put out under her real name, this one and 2011's Viscera. However, the relationship those two records have with each other is a caterpillar to a butterfly, with a year of art installations as the cocoon. I won't fuck around: this album takes a lot of work to listen to and understand. I barely do. Hval has a very particular voice, very specific vocabulary, and very deliberate style. I believe the return gained for that investment is an album of songs that no one else right now is capable of writing, and that's valuable to me. Maybe it will be to you.
Marina Rosenfeld – P.A. / Hard Love Somewhere between ambient and noise collage, this record is a mixture of industrial ambient sounds, dub beats and singing, chaotic cello playing (from a musician I'll be talking about again in a few seconds), and unsettling sample work. Words really fail on this one, so here's the title track.
Pharmakon – Abandon A solo noise musician who deals exclusively in strict composition instead of improv (because anyone can improvise noise). The fastest comparison is to early Swans, but what Pharmakon manages to create in 26 minutes is both more stripped down and more expansive at the same time, managing to capture that same disturbing airless feel with a different tone profile. Here's a sample, but watch your volume.
Okkyung Lee – Ghil A record from the cello player on Rosenfeld's album. See, there's this thing I like about physical instruments over electronic instruments: with an electronic instrument you have to play by the rules of the technology that made it. Physical instruments are full of ways to defy the parameters of the people that made them. It feels like you can defeat physical instruments at their own game. Colin Stetson is a fantastic example of this, and so is Okkyung Lee's record Ghil. What Lee does to her cello in the course of this record is borderline defilement, pulling sounds and energy from this old tool that feel like listening to Lightning Bolt demos so wild that they weren't able to do anything with them. Here's an example.
D/P/I – ESPRESSO DIGITAL Well, I've certainly never heard anything quite like it. Unapproachable sample work with maddening synthesizers. Yet, I feel like people should know this exists, because the experience of baffled dismay that followed me through my first listen of this record still sticks with me. If you try this record, good luck, and be sure to start from the beginning.
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I voted USA/Japan with a caveat.
The last time we fought about this, my understanding is that it was an access thing more than anything. Now that New Japan airs a lot of iPPVs, I think it makes sense for them to be included, but not for the rest of Japan.
Continue not including Mexico, because that's just going to end up with Negro Casas losing to, like, Fandango or whatever because Negro Casas is the best worker of the decade so far but Fandango has pretty ladies and the light up shillouette so...
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Another December release to throw in here!
I don't want to talk about the rest of his work or his reputation or anything boring like that. I also don't want to talk about the short film and website and screenplay that accompany the album because I'm not going to fuck with those. On it's own, as a collection of songs, "Because The Internet" by Childish Gambino is really clearly one of the best rap albums of this year. No matter what flavor of rap appeals to you, there is something in there to satisfy that. It's a work of immense range and incredible craft.
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Not Steam or GOG, but the Humble Store: Gone Home is $5 today only. Please try it if you can afford it.
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I rarely come to this section of the board but wanted to post this beauty:
Counterpoint: fuck cops, and fuck that guy in particular. How "smug pig talks down to influential black artist" is supposed to inspire anything but that is beyond me.
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I don't know how much care people can afford for this, but that Beyonce record is pretty great in a lot of the ways people tried to tell me Reflektor, RAM, Drake, Timberlake, Yeezus, Vampy Weekys, etc., etc. are. Really worth checking out if you have any pop sympathies.
Also, fuck yes D-Unit's "Church Of Jesus Christ." Two albums and one EP, and their best song is a bonus track. Weird as hell but damn that's a hell of a song.
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So, as I'm winding down on Arkham Origins and GTA V, I want to go back and play something classic I missed. I got two choices. The Mass Effect Trilogy, or Skyrim. Which one should I go for?
The first two Mass Effect Games, and then Note: The Villains Died On The Way Back To Their Home Planet
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Still putting off talking about music with guitars for a little longer. Instead, here's the rap I've been way into this year, from most pop sounding to least.
Main Attrakionz – Main Attrakionz Niggaz
This one is a little unfair, because it just came out December 6th. Maybe it's a little too early to say it's one of the best of the year. Even so, Main Attrakionz does everything I like. Their selection of beats is all the kind of stuff I like to listen to (good swing on the drums, big chords, distorted samples) and while I get why some “serious heads” wouldn't be able to get past how they flow, I've always liked rappers that leave more space in their verses. On top of that, they also do actual tag team work on their verses, which is a style that I'm glad to see popping up in more places. Maybe it's not one of the best, but it's for sure one of my favorites. You can get the whole thing here.
Antwon – In Dark Denim
Before I say anything else, 3rd World Grrl is still one of the best songs I've heard all year. Now. This was my summer shit. Antwon's a recession playboy. All of his sexual exploits come with this dirty film quality but it's never objectifying or dehumanzing, and the music that goes with it is all huge, bright and distorted. As a rapper, Antwon's one of the best west coast styled rappers around right now, with a smooth flow and a lot of force in his delivery when the song calls for that. Really though, this has all been too many words for a record I just think is a lot of fun. You can get it here.
Pusha T – My Name Is My Name
I must've listened to Numbers On The Boards at least a hundred times before the album even got a release date. Everything about that song is amazing, from the droning glitchy beat to the defiantly artless Jay-Z sample, topped off by Pusha going hard as fuck. The way he uses his flow to create tension is captivating as hell, and a big part of how I was able to make it through some of the weaker guests on the record- I knew when they were done, it'd be Push's turn again and that made sitting through that shit easy. And then he closes the record with back to back three of the best verses I heard this year on S.N.I.T.C.H. I know everyone who follows rap this year's been about Danny Brown, R.A. The Rugged Man, Drake, and all that shit, but I take Pusha over all of that.
Zebra Katz – DRKLNG
It's pure style. He's not going to blow you away with lyrical insight or technical skill but the world he's crafted next to traditional pop rap, of dark club shit that blurs gender roles, is unlike anything else going. The mixtape itself is a thirty minute piece where everything bleeds into the other songs creating this oppressive atmosphere and story that Zebra just weaves in and out of, then letting all of the tension blow with a fucking banger in Last Name Katz. You can listen to the whole thing as one track right here, and iTunes has a version but it's missing a few tracks.
El-P & Killer Mike – Run The Jewels
I had to double check that no one brought this up. This one has a quick an easy sell: El-P was the best producer working last year, Killer Mike put out one of the best rap albums last year, and then they put out a tag team mixtape for free. Whatever reason you had to pass on this isn't good enough. It's right here.
Milo – Cavalcade
Milo's already come up once before, but the dude's put out four separate releases this year so there was a good chance I'd get beaten to “holy shit milo is on some next level shit in 2013.” His debut album was this weird middle point between nerdy and deep which didn't always sit well with me (although the song Just Us breaks my heart every time I listen to it). 2012 was a pretty silly experiment, where he released him rapping over a bunch of Baths songs. Then at the start of 2013 he just fucking bursts out of nowhere with Things That Happen At Day/Night, which showed immense growth from where he started in a pretty short amount of time. Six months later, Cavalcade came out, and from then it's grown into my most listened record of the year. There's not a second on it that I don't love, and it's perfectly long at 30 minutes. I could go on about this one for another couple hundred words, but instead I'm just going to link to it.
clipping – midcity
So I said this was going to go from most to least pop. Here comes the steep curve. clipping is declaring war on the idea of “authenticity” in music. Rap and noise both have fanbases that have a feverish hard-on for authenticity that the members of clipping feel is completely ridiculous, so their music demands people discard this thought. They do this by making the most “authentic” noise music straight out of the Merzbow school of thought, and then Daveed Briggs steps up and uses immense technical skill to rap about “real G shit,” telling stories of immense unlikable depravity that's built out of the uglier parts of hip hop culture. This album came out in February and it took me until about August to actually get it, so if you do try it you're in for a rough ride. Even so, I'd be fucking up if I didn't share it.
And speaking of authenticity...
B L A C K I E All Caps With Spaces – ONLY 4 THE REAL
It is totally cool if you listen to like twenty seconds of this and decide it's not for you. It's a completely understandable reaction. I still think you should know it exists. For four straight years, B L A C K I E has put out basically the rawest music without concern for anything but making exactly what he wants to make. He's slowly stripped more and more away from his music until it's just purely energy with as little flourish as possible, and he's managed to double down on that every year since 2010. I don't think it's his best work (last year's album GEN blew my tiny mind), but again, I'd be fucking up if I didn't share it. Dude's a hero to me.
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Their reaction upon seeing the liger mask for the first time: "haha holy shit"
Full answer: "I would totally take a crack at that. I mean, if I make more plushies with wrestler masks, I wouldn't guarantee 100% accuracy. Mostly just adorableness. If I was making accurate reproductions, (Liger and Ultimo patterns) would definitely be problems. But when I'm making something cutesy out of felt, the complexity of the pattern doesn't stop me. It just makes me charge more." -
I just asked, and the answer is slightly complicated.
For one, the monster pattern is based on a kind of guy from a specific web comic, and the artist requested people not sell stuff based on the comic (apparently a huge problem). Since my friend's got principles, they've stopped making that one for commissions. So you can't get that dude specifically, but they've got a bunch of other options and you can add the Huracan Ramirez pattern to one of those, or some other mask pattern.
For two, they're not going to be able to finish and ship it by christmas. Full-time nanny, part-time plush craftsman.
If you're still interested, the pricing scale's right here.
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I don't know where else to put this. One of my best friends started making plushes as a hobby, and got good enough to make them for extra income. Sometime in the summer they asked me what my favorite luchador mask is and I answered Huracan Ramirez and now this is in my home.
We are now homies.
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Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Are we treating these as one album or two albums?).
One album. The second release was issued as "The 20/20 Experience: 2 of 2" and the Complete Edition is essentially a box set, which doesn't clear the Compilations rule. If you want to vote for both, use two spots on your list.
EDIT: Since someone pimped Milo's EPs (HELLFYRE), I'm going to go ahead and over-clarify that even though they are companion pieces with the same release date I'm still counting that as two separate releases, and that's going to be the precedent for any similar companion EP things.
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ill just leave this here (sorry if this is already old/overplayed)
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First, a quick seconding of "The Terror" by The Flaming Lips. If they've ever annoyed you, this is probably an album you should check out because it is such a tonal departure from their entire catalog, both in lyrical content and sound profile. Proof (with obnoxious video) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehndmRDT2WU
Alright so since a lot of the stuff I'm going to want to talk about for this is obscure, I'm going to try and bring stuff up in waves. If you want to just confront it all at once there's an RYM link in my signature to my 2013 list.
For counterbalance to all the guitar thangs posted right now, here's some electronic music. I'm going to do this in order of easiest to hardest listens.
Darkside - Psychic Very sleek and very French. The duo of Darkside makes a record that combines the lower key elements of the French House sound with a very 70s guitar approach, making subtle little distortions in both sounds. They also benefit from having a talent for being catchy as hell, as evidenced by Paper Trails, one of my favorite songs this year.
Kwes - ilp Essentially a psychedelic British R&B record that starts as a little reverby but definitely pretty, and slowly grows into an expansive, brilliantly colorful record. There's not a lot of the record on youtube but the single 36 is there, and that's a pretty good idea of the lighter end of the album. The more surreal elements slowly ripple under the surface in the bridges of the song.
Mesita - Future Proof I've talked up Mesita before, for pretty good reason. For a DIY bedroom pop solo artist the guy has an unreal ear and amazing ability to execute on what he's hearing or should be hearing. After putting out a pop rock fireball last year, this year he abruptly moved towards piano and dance beats and pulls that off with a confidence and ease that blows my mind. The whole album is right here. There is guitar stuff, but it ends up being used like funk guitar for most of the record.
DJ Rashad - Double Cup I am not going to pretend I know shit about Chicago House, Footwork/Juke, or Teklife. What I know is that when I put this album on, I feel joyously alive. It's like canned skip-in-your-step. Theory wise it's actually really intricate and delicate, working exclusively 3-against-4 rhythms like a harp player and keeping all the samples very tense by causing them to seize and glitch out. That tension releases often, though, so what could be a nervewracking listen turns into something engine-like. Here's how it starts, and here's an early highlight exactly one track later.
Laurel Halo - Chance Of Rain Laurel's last album, Quarantine, cut right into the center of me and just wouldn't dang leave. It was a record of isolation through art and art against isolation, centerpanning lightly treated vocals in the middle of these enormous soundscapes. Well she's two for two with me: Chance of Rain replaces the contemplative thought with a heartbeat and continues using the same kind of overwhelming tonality while leaving the structure open ended, creating a sound that seems to distort time. Here's the title track as an example.
Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven Total duality. Most of the instruments and patches used are uncool, trite, relics of the early 90s when people thought the 90s was just going to be 80s-er. Daniel Lopatin (the man behind OPN) then took all of these elements and strategically placed them in a super collider, and just brings the results of reckless musical collisions. The most mind-expanding record I've heard this year, but it's absolutely not for everyone. Still, I wouldn't be able to feel good about writing all this without including it in this process. Here's a great example of the chaotic representations of the mundane that I'm talking about: the "single" and music video for Problem Areas.
Arca - &&&&& When I got into that little spat over Yeezus a few months ago, I cited Arca as a dude I felt was central to the sound profile of that record. With a little more thought, I could see the use of Kanye softening that sound: this record is a little much. It's unpredictably noisy and defiantly mixed, so it might be wayyyy too much to handle for most people. Arca is credited on Hold My Liquor, I'm In It, Blood On The Leaves, and Send It Up. If you want to hear what that sound would be like if it was totally unhinged from any kind of commercial appeal, have fun.
okay i'm going to wait like a week or two before suggesting any more things
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Rules question: 2013 released remix album of a 2012 original. Yay or nea?
Yay.
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PUT ALL THE PIMPING OF ALBUMS IN HERE. THE COPS WILL LOOK THE OTHER WAY IF WE DO IT HERE.
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Hi okay let's do this!
I know I said it should wait until after the first of the year but then I got an idea for what's actually coming out in December and thought “I think we're good to start this."
RULES
* Ballot size between 10 and 25. Scoring will basically be the inversion of a hypothetical top 25, with a slight bonus given to your #1 rated release.
* Eligible Releases include Albums, Mixtapes, EPs and soundtracks of largely original compositions.
-Compilations are OK if the material was unavailable up until this point (rarities, b-sides, demos, covers).
-Live albums are OK if the material is either currently unavailable as a studio recording or significantly different than the existing recordings. Realistically I'm not going to have time to check that, so scout's honor on this one, eh?* The initial release date of any piece MUST be within 2013. Format doesn't matter: if it was available digitally in 2012, it's a 2012 album. Exceptions granted to releases sold on tour that only became commercially available later, and 2013 albums that leaked in late 2012.
* Only pimp in the pimpin' thread.
* I will accept ballots three ways.
-If you have a RateYourMusic account, send me a friend request (account name BL88) and I will use the list labeled as 2013. When your list is finalized, PM me on this message board and I will add it. Maybe put the link to your list in that PM if you want to be nice!
-The same goes for anyone with a Discogs account. Same account name, same procedure as above. I only just made an account on discogs for this, so please do not try to talk to me through that. I imagine I'm not going to remember it exists most of the time.
-If you want to just submit a text list, send email to DVDVRBestMusic2013 at gmail dot com. Put “BALLOT” and your account name in the subject. I'm going to check it every Friday, and I'll reply with some gibberish to let you know when I receive it. Treasure this gibberish. It is for your eyes only.
* Please try not to do a bunch of last minute changes. If you have to take it to the deadline, do it, but if you get it right the first time it'll make this all go faster. Also if you're using one of the list making sites above, PLEASE tell me when you change something. Once I have it entered into the spreadsheet I'm probably not going to look at that site again, and if I do I might not notice any changes.
SUPER NEAT SUGGESTIONS
* Seriously, RateYourMusic. Once you get a hang on how Early Internet that site is it's really easy to check information on albums and maintain lists.
* If it's an album you think has gotten passed over or is relatively obscure, include sample tracks. Music requires hearing, so you need to suppliment your praise for a thing with a chance to hear it. At the same time, if a lot of your (my) releases are obscure like this, don't embed like twenty youtube videos into a post or something obnoxious like that. Just like make it a really obvious hyperlink or something. Or if the whole album's just availible somewhere like bandcamp or a huge youtube video, use that.
*** I wouldn't recommend using Spotify for this. I listen to a ton of music and I don't have a spotify account, so don't assume it's a common thing.
* To avoid burnout, don't make your queue rigid. Listen to whatever genre feels right that day, and do not force yourself to listen to stuff outside that genre if you don't want to.
DEADLINE
March 31st, 2014. Plenty of time to both finalize your own opinion and give a chance to most of what gets posted. I can move up the close date if pressed to.
ADVANCE WARNING: I am a student at San Diego State University who will be full time in the spring. If my time gets too tight (I do not expect it to), this will not be top priority. I would love to follow through and I intend to at least get the data crunching done but if I get swamped in work I'll let you know and I will supply the data set to anyone willing to take this to the finish line. Hopefully it won't come to that.
OKAY HAVE FUN WITH MUSIC NOW
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Probably once the year's actually over? Just in case something doesn't sneak by.
I'm down to run it if no one else wants the job
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Goodnight my love
Remember me as you fall to sleep
Fill your pockets with the dust and the memories
That rises from the shoes on my feet
I won't be back here
Though we may meet again
I know it's dark outside
Don't be afraid
Every time I ever cried from fear
Was just a mistake that I made
Wash yourself in your tears
And build your church
On the strength of your faith
Please
Listen to me
Don't let go
Don't let this desperate moonlight leave me
With your empty pillow
Promise me the sun will rise again
I too am tired now
Embracing thoughts of tonight's dreamless sleep
My head is empty
My toes are warm
I am safe from harm
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I don't think there is any year I have heard 100 different albums from.
Well you have other hobbies, and plus Doug and I have more of an interest in exploring obscure corners of music than most people would or probably should.
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Shadow Warrior is $20 for eight hours. If you need a classic FPS, down to end level scores, par times, and numerous secrets, get on this.
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Good deals on GOG and Steam
in COMPUTERS & GAMES & TECH
Posted
Gone Home is $6.70 for the next two days. This is your chance!