The Wire's Top 15 of 2017

[Darkness_Fish]

1. Chino Amobi - Paradiso
2. Richard Dawson - Peasant
3. Klein - Tommy
4. Jlin - Black Origami
5. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid
6. Jana Rush - Pariah
7. Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Simultonality
8. Pan Daijing - Lack
9. Jamie Branch - Fly or Die
10. Circuit Des Yeux - Reaching for Indigo
11. Actress - AZD
12. Nadah El Shazly - Ahwar
13. Ryuchi Sakamoto - async
14. Felicia Atkinson - Hand in Hand
15. Bill Orcutt - Bill Orcutt

I made it a top 15, as I'd actually heard of most of 11-15. The number one is usually reliable in at least being interesting, but it seems to have failed this year in that respect. Richard Dawson appears to be the only constant across most magazine's top releases lists. Otherwise, that's a whole load of never heard of from me.

[driftin]

Peasant is brilliant but unfortunately Black Origami and AZD are rubbish. I did listen to async a couple of months ago but I don't remember anything about it so it can probably lumped into the latter category. That's all I know and that's all I've heard of.

I'll check the rest of the list out. RYM tells me the number one album is some sort of post-industrial soundscape thing with hip-hop elements. I'll be sure to listen to this one first.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

And here's The Quietus' list of Top 100 albums, which has some crossover with The Wire.

The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2017
1: Richard Dawson - Peasant
2: Zimpel/Ziołek - Zimpel/Ziołek
3: Fever Ray - Plunge
4: The Moonlandingz - Interplanetary Class Classics
5: Nadine Shah - Holiday Destination
6: Kelela - Take Me Apart
7: James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
8: Princess Nokia - 1992
9: Lone Taxidermist - Trifle
10: Oxbow - Thin Black Duke
11: Liars - TFCF
12: Lotto - VV
13: Call Super - Arpo
14: Snapped Ankles - Come Play The Trees
15: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Feed The Rats
16: Laura Cannell - Hunter Huntress Hawker
17: GNOD - Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine
18: Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology
19: Circle - Terminal
20: Rûwâhîne - Ifriqiyya Electrique
21: Man Forever - Play What They Want
22: Madonnatron - Madonnatron
23: Endon - Through The Mirror
24: Algiers - The Underside Of Power
25: Justin Walter - Unseen Forces
26: BNNT - The Multiverse
27: $hit & $hine - Total Shit!
28: Nicole Mitchell - Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
29: Vanishing - Vanishing
30: Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
31: Björk - Utopia
32: Arca - Arca
33: Thurston Moore - Rock N Roll Consciousness
34: Re-TROS - Before The Applause
35: Jlin - Black Origami
36: Kemper Norton - Hungan
37: Chloe x Halle - The Two Of Us
38: The Granite Shore - Suspended Second
39: The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time - Stage 3
40: Teleplasmiste - Frequency Is The New Ecstasy
41: Botanist - Collective: The Shape Of He To Come
42: British Sea Power - Let The Dancers Inherit The Party
43: Al-Namrood - Enkar
44: LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
45: Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage
46: Perc - Bitter Music
47: Gazelle Twin - Kingdom Come
48: Gary Numan - Savage
49: Errorsmith - Superlative Fatigue
50: Alan Vega - IT
51: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid
52: Deaf Kids - Configuração do Lamento
53: The Inward Circles - And Right Lines Limit And Close All Bodies
54: I, Ludicrous - Songs From The Sides Of Lorries
55: Japan Blues - Sells His Record Collection
56: Powertrip - Nightmare Logic
57: Riddlore - Afro Mutations
58: Chastity Belt - I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone
59: Godflesh - Post Self
60: Davy Kehoe - Short Passing Game
61: Total Leatherette - For The Climax Of The Night
62: Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard
63: Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Ambient Black Magic
64: Colleen - A Flame My Love, A Frequency
65: J Hus - Common Sense
66: Unsane - Sterilize
67: Ryuichi Sakamoto - Async
68: SZA - Ctrl
69: Lee Gamble - Mnestic Pressure
70: MXLX - Kicking Away At The Decrepit Walls Til The Beautiful Sunshine Blisters Thru The Cracks
71: Siavash Amini - TAR
72: Yossarians - Fabric Of Time
73: UUUU - UUUU
74: Hey Colossus - The Guillotine
75: Sleaford Mods - English Tapas
76: Sote - Sacred Horror In Design
77: Laraaji - Bring On The Sun
78: Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer
79: Laibach - Also Sprach Zarathustra
80: STILL - I
81: Targ - Bargou 08
82: Aquaserge - Laisse ça être
83: M.E.S.H. - Hesaitix
84: Part Chimp - IV
85: Daniel O'Sullivan - Veld
86: Mario Batkovic - Mario Batkovic
87: Wire - Silver/Lead
88: Laurel Halo - Dust
89: MHYSA - Fantasii
90: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Murder Of The Universe
91: Hannah Peel - Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia
92: Here Lies Man - Here Lies Man
93: Mogwai - Every Country's Sun
94; Actress - AZD
95: Rose Dougall - Stellular
96: Simon Fisher Turner - Giraffe
97: Cardi B - Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2
98: Akatombo - Short Fuse
99: The Bug Vs Earth - Concrete Desert
100: Tetragrammacide - Primal Incinerators Of Moral Matrix

[Ranking Ted]

I see the Quietus have succumbed to mainstream sell out status. Whither the Underground, BCB?

[clive gash]

I bet there’s some good stuff in there but...I can’t be arsed.

[Goat Boy]

People are actually taking that Richard Dawson record serious?

What a world

[clive gash]

The ones I do know are heavy. I’m too old for that shit.

[Goat Boy]

Oooo Industrial hip hop and steelyard techno!


Put the Chi-Lites on ffs

[clive gash]

Ooh mammy won’t buy me the Merzbow Diamond-encrusted USB cock ring! I hate you all!

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

Oooo Industrial hip hop and steelyard techno!


Put the Chi-Lites on ffs

Totally agree. I have this weird sense that none of the "winners" listed here produced anything of value that actually has referents in the real. outside, physical and emotional world at large.

This stuff is for people trying hard to define their particular and unique identity, that makes them irreplaceable. Thing is: they were and are and will be irreplaceable, from the day they were conceived up to the day that they will die, and thereafter. Question is: do they see that themselves?

I see sadness, numbness, and isolation, with, it must be said, a deep need to be human.

It's not surprising that this stuff is held dear in a world where all social structures seem to have been successfully destroyed.

My reply:

put on a Atlantic Records album with all the hits and ballads. Dance your collective asses off. Sweat, sweat, until your dodgy Axe deos have stopped working. Lay off your asanine docile daily attitude. Find a boy or girl that you like. Make more sweat. Decide to skip work tomorrow, whatever the cost. Go somewhere together, as a pair. Have wonderful sex. Smell each other, the bodily odours. Shower together.

In two words: be human.

[Darkness_Fish]

Ooo Beatles have remastered the hihat sound, and I watched the documentary on Ringo's socks, here's a blog detailing how it affected the tapestry of collective consciousness.

[clive gash]

Which one? I must have it!

[Goat Boy]

Ooo Beatles have remastered the hihat sound, and I watched the documentary on Ringo's socks, here's a blog detailing how it affected the tapestry of collective consciousness.

That's my Xmas day taken care of!

[Darkness_Fish]

Oooo Industrial hip hop and steelyard techno!


Put the Chi-Lites on ffs

Totally agree. I have this weird sense that none of the "winners" listed here produced anything of value that actually has referents in the real. outside, physical and emotional world at large.

This stuff is for people trying hard to define their particular and unique identity, that makes them irreplaceable. Thing is: they were and are and will be irreplaceable, from the day they were conceived up to the day that they will die, and thereafter. Question is: do they see that themselves?

I see sadness, numbness, and isolation, with, it must be said, a deep need to be human.

It's not surprising that this stuff is held dear in a world where all social structures seem to have been successfully destroyed.

My reply:

put on a Atlantic Records album with all the hits and ballads. Dance your collective asses off. Sweat, sweat, until your dodgy Axe deos have stopped working. Lay off your asanine docile daily attitude. Find a boy or girl that you like. Make more sweat. Decide to skip work tomorrow, whatever the cost. Go somewhere together, as a pair. Have wonderful sex. Smell each other, the bodily odours. Shower together.

In two words: be human.

I think you missed your turning, the condescending arsehole sign was right after pseudo bullshit lane.

[WG Kaspar]

Liars are still going?
Who buys that shit?

[clive gash]

Seriously though, some of the magic has really been brought back with these Giles Martin mixes. I’ve never heard George’s ‘tache scrape the mic during Military Millie’s Hi Jinx with such tenderness.

[Penk!]

Oooo Industrial hip hop and steelyard techno!


Put the Chi-Lites on ffs

Totally agree. I have this weird sense that none of the "winners" listed here produced anything of value that actually has referents in the real. outside, physical and emotional world at large.

This stuff is for people trying hard to define their particular and unique identity, that makes them irreplaceable. Thing is: they were and are and will be irreplaceable, from the day they were conceived up to the day that they will die, and thereafter. Question is: do they see that themselves?

I see sadness, numbness, and isolation, with, it must be said, a deep need to be human.

It's not surprising that this stuff is held dear in a world where all social structures seem to have been successfully destroyed.

My reply:

put on a Atlantic Records album with all the hits and ballads. Dance your collective asses off. Sweat, sweat, until your dodgy Axe deos have stopped working. Lay off your asanine docile daily attitude. Find a boy or girl that you like. Make more sweat. Decide to skip work tomorrow, whatever the cost. Go somewhere together, as a pair. Have wonderful sex. Smell each other, the bodily odours. Shower together.

In two words: be human.

That post makes me much more kindly disposed towards the Wire and Quietus lists.

[The Modernist]

Most of this stuff I know I'm not going to like just by looking at the album titles.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Liars are still going?
Who buys that shit?

I didn't buy it but I streamed it and it held my interest. It's very different to anything else I've heard by Liars who I've never particularly liked.

[Penk!]

I've heard a few things off both lists. Liked a handful (I actually rated the Jlin that driftin slags off above, and quite liked the Actress too though it's not his best work), not liked others (the Wire number one was a mess of annoying, dated or plain boring sounds). I might check out a few more.

I think it's fine that they are putting these lists there. Both publications are aimed towards underground, boundary-pushing, experimental or avant-garde music and its listeners. That stuff isn't for everyone and Lord knows there's a lot of it I think is crap or that isn't to my taste, but I'm glad people are out there trying to do new things and not just rehashing records we already know and love.