The Wire's albums of the year

[Darkness_Fish]

1. Sons of Kemet - Your Queen is a Reptile


2. Zuli - Terminal


3. Ben LaMar Gay - Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun


4. Guttersnipe - My Mother the Vent


5. Jpegmafia - Veteran


6. Sarah Davachi - Let Night Come On Bells End the Day


7. Senyawa - Sujud


8. Autechre - NTS Sessions 1-4


9. Body/Head - The Switch


10. Low - Double Negative

[driftin]

Woah, I didn't know a former Refuge member and Tori Amos stalker was now making experimental noise rock.

Anyway, I love Veteran and Autechre's overlong opus and I rather like the Sons of Kemet album. I'll give these others a listen this afternoon.

[Walk In My Shadow]

I have none.

[Darkness_Fish]

I have none either, though I'm definitely going to get that Sons of Kemet album, it's rather bloody good indeed. I've listened to Jpegmafia's Veteran quite a bit on youtube, too, though that was because one of The Wire's writers recommended him to me on twitter. Currently listening to the number 2 on the list, Zuli's Terminal, but it's not doing an awful lot for me.

Looks like Low are the only band making both the mainstream and alternative magazine's lists.

[Darkness_Fish]

Woah, I didn't know a former Refuge member and Tori Amos stalker was now making experimental noise rock.

I knew that name was familiar, Guttersnipe! I'd completely forgotten about that bloke though, you've got to wonder what kind of fortitude and determination you need to sit through that many of Tori's piano-warbling sessions.

[KeithPratt]

Nice to see Sarah Davachi get in there. She came and played at one of our concerts a couple of years ago and is a great talent.

[naughty boy]

Did she bring the umami?

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Thanks for the links! I’ll check some of that out.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

All I’ve heard from that 10 are Sons of Kemet, which I reall dig, and the Low LP which I like but not quite as much as everyone else seems to.
More listening ahead, cheers.

[Dayodead]

have the Body/Head and Low albums, but have yet to listen to them...checked out bits of the others listed...interesting stuff here and there...

[ChrisB]

I have none.

I thought half of them were anagrams

[Robert]

I have none.

I have listened to a minute orso of each and I'd suggest to keep it that way.

[driftin]

Finally listened to all of them.

Sons of Kemet - love it

Zuli - post-trap is becoming a thing, ain’t it? I like this kind of thing generally but this one song in particular needs more structure. I might check the rest of the album out.

Ben LaMar Gay - I like this a lot. This belongs on your “rap that’s a bit different” thread.

Guttersnipe - Rubbish. Other bands do this kind of noise rock with electronics a lot better.

Jpegmafia - one of my albums of the year, especially for “Baby I’m Bleeding” which utterly rules.

Garlands - very pretty but just a single song loses context. That’s usually the case with ambient stuff.

Senyawa - this is pretty good. Weird Asian folk meets psychedelic rock with some tribal vocals. When the drones get going it’s damn cool.

Autechre - this link you provided isn’t the NTS Sessions with 8 hours of Autechre’s own music across 4 albums, it’s some radio DJ mix they did. The actual NTS sessions released on Warp Records is awesome, right up there with Exai as some of the best modern day Ae material. Too damn long though.

Body/Head - this is the Kim Gordon project, right? It’s not very good at all. This kind of droning free-improv has been done countless times and far better by many others.

Low - this is not what I expected from Low. This is some glitchy experimental shit that you’d hear from Roly Porter or someone. I love it. If the rest of the album is more of this I want it in my collection.

[Darkness_Fish]

Autechre - this link you provided isn’t the NTS Sessions with 8 hours of Autechre’s own music across 4 albums, it’s some radio DJ mix they did. The actual NTS sessions released on Warp Records is awesome, right up there with Exai as some of the best modern day Ae material. Too damn long though.

I figured no-one would listen anyway, so I picked something that might've been included. Most of the youtube links were for "NTS Sessions SLOWED DOWN" or "NTS Sessions SPEEDED UP" for some reason.

Btw, have you heard the Christoph De Babalon thing that was in their top 20 reissues? Just gave it a play and it should be rather up your street. Long ambient pieces mixed up with chunky drum n' bass, from 1997.

[Penk!]

Autechre - this link you provided isn’t the NTS Sessions with 8 hours of Autechre’s own music across 4 albums, it’s some radio DJ mix they did. The actual NTS sessions released on Warp Records is awesome, right up there with Exai as some of the best modern day Ae material. Too damn long though.

I figured no-one would listen anyway, so I picked something that might've been included. Most of the youtube links were for "NTS Sessions SLOWED DOWN" or "NTS Sessions SPEEDED UP" for some reason.

Btw, have you heard the Christoph De Babalon thing that was in their top 20 reissues? Just gave it a play and it should be rather up your street. Long ambient pieces mixed up with chunky drum n' bass, from 1997.

I’m no DnB fan but that record is really good.

[driftin]

Autechre - this link you provided isn’t the NTS Sessions with 8 hours of Autechre’s own music across 4 albums, it’s some radio DJ mix they did. The actual NTS sessions released on Warp Records is awesome, right up there with Exai as some of the best modern day Ae material. Too damn long though.

I figured no-one would listen anyway, so I picked something that might've been included. Most of the youtube links were for "NTS Sessions SLOWED DOWN" or "NTS Sessions SPEEDED UP" for some reason.

Btw, have you heard the Christoph De Babalon thing that was in their top 20 reissues? Just gave it a play and it should be rather up your street. Long ambient pieces mixed up with chunky drum n' bass, from 1997.

If you're talking about If You're Into It, I'm Out of It then I bought that earlier this year and it's great. The ambient bits are my kind of dark and the Amen breaks are nicely aggressive.

[driftin]

Marvellous performance. If I knew about them back then I might've cared a little about the Mercury this year.

[Lord Rother]

I have none.

Low is the only one I’ve even heard of. (Assuming it is the same Low that did The Great Destroyer.)

[naughty boy]

It is.

Worst live band I ever saw. Kind of wankers, too.

Weird how these boring, not-very-famous bands have their little careers kept afloat by the odd review in The Wire or airplay on some college radio station. In an ideal world they'd be employed to clean up the streets or help the elderly.

[Darkness_Fish]

In an ideal world they'd be employed to clean up the streets or help the elderly.

They might do that as well. If you get a band who can afford to do nothing but music, you end up with Coldplay and U2.