Machinefabriek and 9 other artists

[Nick Ink]

1    Akron/Family   39
2    Fabio Orsi   10
2     Elegi   10
4     Giuseppe Ielasi   9
4    Chihei Hatakeyama   9
6     Hannu   8
7    Gas   5
8     Emeralds   4
9    Shed   3


Emerlads' What Happened is still dominating my 2 hours' worth of bus commuting a day - what an album it is. Anybody with even a passing interest in experimental, instrumental music should hear it.

But it's Akron/Family who top these chart this week. Next week it will be Black Dice, but since we try to avoid discussing albums that haven't been released yet, my lips are currently sealed..

[Nick Ink]

1    Black Dice   45
The tracks on Repo are shorter, sharper and shockier than my favourite Black Dice albums (Creature Comforts and Broken Ear Record). I generally prefer the almost dubby, drawn out, alien canvases of tracks like Smiling Off and Seabird, but there's a lot to like in this urgent and snarling new album.They still sound like nobody else at all.

2    Jasper TX   33
Dag Rosenqvist has gradually risen in my estimation from Second Division to Premier League ambient artist. Last year's Black Sleep had a bit of the Miasmah magic to it and was easily his best release so far. But this year's gorgeous Singing Stones might be even better. It reminds me of Machinefabriek actually, with its way of stealing up on you over numerous listens, beautiful and addictive.
 
3     Giuseppe Ielasi   22
A 'where did that come from' mini masterpiece of electronic tone and restraint. Nameless tracks coil and overlap strands of melody and sound over complicated syncopation. It seems quite minimal at first, but there's a lot to enjoy on headphones if you listen closely. A very colourful album.
 
4    Tujiko Noriko, Lawrence English, John Chantler   14
I've quite liked Tujiko Noriko's skewed, dazed pop signature since I first heard Blurred In My Mirror and the 28 album she made with Aoki Takamasa a few years ago, so I was intrigued to see her collaborating with lawrence English. I need to spend a bit more time with this, but my first reactio was slight disappointment at the lack of musical invention. But I haven't listened to it enough yet, and I do like her vocals a lot.

4    Akron/Family   14
They don't do anything surprising any more, which is a bit of a shame, but they're still a very good band.

6     Mika Vainio & Lucio Capece   12
This is surprising. Jarring even. I think Lucio Capece's instrument is saxophone, and Mika Vainio is responsible for many an 'Oh my ears!' moment with Pan Sonic. Together, they make some fairly striking and challenging music, but it's not for the faint-hearted.

7    Animal Collective   10
Guys Eyes is my current favourite song from Merriweather Post Pavilion. But I'm sure it'll be something else soon. What a brilliant record it is.

8    Milieu   4
Boards Of Canada-influenced electronica with heavy hip-hoppish beats. I'm not sure.

9     Mariska Baars   3
This is the collaboration with Rutger Zuyderfelt - Gris Gris

10    Aidan Baker   2
I've only ever had his Fantasma Parastasie album with Tim Hecker from last year and the magnificent Book Of Nods, but I just got my hands on another old (I think) one - the appropriately titled Field Of Drones. These are two of the three very long pieces from that, and jolly good they are too.

[edison]

9     Mariska Baars   3
This is the collaboration with Rutger Zuyderfelt - Gris Gris

Any thoughts? I was listening to it again last night in bed, on headphones and it still made quite an impression.

My list, which I might comment later:

1 François Virot 72
2 Andrew Bird 30
3 M. Ward 20
4 Alela Diane 17
5 Musee Mecanique 13
6 Antony and the Johnsons 10
7 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 9
8 Talking Heads 6
9 Midori Hirano 5
10 Dengue Fever 4

[Nick Ink]

9     Mariska Baars   3
This is the collaboration with Rutger Zuyderfelt - Gris Gris

Any thoughts? I was listening to it again last night in bed, on headphones and it still made quite an impression.

I should have thoughts, but I don't yet. Machinefabriek records have always taken a long time to settle down for me, and to be honest I haven't spent enough time with this one, mainly because of all the unbelievably wonderful records other people are putting out at the moment. But I know I need to listen properly. It's all made from her voice as a source, right? You'd never know to listen to it though. I think I need a bit of calm and peace to get around to a record like this - my life seems all bustle at the moment.

[Nick Ink]

1    Animal Collective   26
2    Animal Hospital   21
This is an interesting one. Only five tracks and a strange collision of styles and influences. Parts of it, especially the throbbing string interjections of His Belly Burst, remind me of the abrasive textures of Ben Frost's Theory Of Machines, other bits recall the more orchestral post-something atmosphere of Richard Skelton's Marking Time release, and then there's And Ever, which locks itself into a bizarre, spiky XTC-like guitar riff for several minutes. With this and the Emeralds release, it's good to see 2009 throwing up some exciting new names.
3    Jasper TX   14
4    Akron/Family   11
4    Tim Hecker   11
6     Emeralds   9
I'm still loudly extolling the virtues of this What Happened album too. Another record made up of just five, mostly long tracks, this is a fantastic  instrumental journey, whose control, patience and depth recalls Machinefabriek at his best. Which is the highest of praise from me.
7     Giuseppe Ielasi   6
8    Fennesz   5
8    Black Dice   5
10    Shed   4

[narlus]

2    Animal Hospital   21
This is an interesting one. Only five tracks and a strange collision of styles and influences. Parts of it, especially the throbbing string interjections of His Belly Burst, remind me of the abrasive textures of Ben Frost's Theory Of Machines, other bits recall the more orchestral post-something atmosphere of Richard Skelton's Marking Time release, and then there's And Ever, which locks itself into a bizarre, spiky XTC-like guitar riff for several minutes. With this and the Emeralds release, it's good to see 2009 throwing up some exciting new names.

i saw this guy play a few weeks ago...it started out highly annoying, but got a whole lot better. 

[edison]

Nick, you (and Boomkat) have got me curious about Animal Hospital. I'll check it out, and I'm not forgetting that I still have to listen to Emeralds, but the days only have so many hours. This was apparently folky singer-songwriter week at edison HQ:

1 Laura Gibson 44
Laura Gibson's second album on Hush, Beasts of Seasons, features all of the Portland usual suspects (Selzer, Broderick, Blumberg + Laura Veirs and many others). It's a slight improvement over the already fine debut, and particularly exquisitely arranged - a few songs she'd been playing live for a while appear in revelatory versions here. Good stuff.

2 Neko Case 32

3 Alela Diane 28
This is a surprise: I thought Alela Diane's first album was the blandest thing ever, but her second, which I was expecting to be pretty much more of the same, actually opened itself up to me after two listens or so - reinventing the wheel it ain't, but a few of the songs are actually killer ("Age Old Blue", "Tatted Lace"), in their workmanlike, unpretentious "I just write pretty and traditional-sounding songs" way. Looking forward to her show with W.E. Whitmore now - speaking of which, has anyone heard Whitmore's latest record?

4 De Kift 18
Hoofdkaas has been in heavy rotation in the kitchen. It's awesome, and I find it somehow more suited to "background" listening (by background I mean here "not sitting down with the booklet to follow the stories") than my other De Kift album Vlaaskoorts, probably because the songs tend to be individually catchier. Not that I'm not looking forward to sit down with the booklet some more, though. Thanks again, alex!

5 Micachu 15

6 Elegi 12

7 M. Ward 11
Hold Time was at first a crushing disappointment, because I keep expecting more ambitious or surprising things from M. each time he has a new record out, but instead he just seems OK with making more or less the same record over and over. Regardless, it's still a pretty good record and I've learnt to accept it and actually enjoy it a good deal. Better than Post-War, too.

7 Marissa Nadler 11

9 Swan Lake 9
Received the digital version of Enemy Mine upon preordering and couldn't resist listening once, although I think I'll wait until I receive my copy to dig deeper. This starts with an absolutely massive Carey Mercer song - that man's been on a roll lately.

10 Mariska Baars, Robert Deters, Rutger Zuydervelt 6

[alex]

4 De Kift 18
Hoofdkaas has been in heavy rotation in the kitchen. It's awesome, and I find it somehow more suited to "background" listening (by background I mean here "not sitting down with the booklet to follow the stories") than my other De Kift album Vlaaskoorts, probably because the songs tend to be individually catchier. Not that I'm not looking forward to sit down with the booklet some more, though. Thanks again, alex!

I've actually spent very little time sitting down with the booklet (though of course, the fact that I speak Dutch means that I can follow what's going on in the songs without having to see the lyrics in front of me), because this has turned out to be such an excellent album to listen to while in motion - mostly for cycling trips through the countryside, and to a lesser extent, looking out the train window - that I've hardly listened to it at home on the CD player.
I wasn't aware that you didn't own 7, by the way - that's a scandal!

My last.fm charts in the last weeks have been more or less non-existent, by the way. This week, there are two artists featured with more than one or two listens:

- my first listen to the new J.Tillman album, which didn't really captivate me (neither did seeing him live on Saturday, by the way, though it was pleasant enough - unlike the opening set by his brother, which certainly left an impression on me and S. in its atrociousness)
- Erik Friedlander's Quake, which did leave quite an impression upon first listen

[RavingLunatic]

3 Alela Diane 28
This is a surprise: I thought Alela Diane's first album was the blandest thing ever, but her second, which I was expecting to be pretty much more of the same, actually opened itself up to me after two listens or so - reinventing the wheel it ain't, but a few of the songs are actually killer ("Age Old Blue", "Tatted Lace"), in their workmanlike, unpretentious "I just write pretty and traditional-sounding songs" way. Looking forward to her show with W.E. Whitmore now - speaking of which, has anyone heard Whitmore's latest record?

\

I'm a huge Will E. Whitmore fan and have loved pretty much everything he's put out thus far, but the new album was a major letdown. It's a very political album, which I always welcome, but it's not particularly subtle (sample lyrics from the first song: "about you or me he does not give a damn / what a lowdown dirty snake....I want to wrap my hands around his crooked neck / and throw him overboard....let the motherfucker burn / burn motherfucker burn"). There are two songs I really like "Who Stole the Soul?" and "Good Day To Die," both slower, more contemplative songs. It's not a bad album, really; it just doesn't compare to his previous stuff in my estimation.

I've listened probably 5 times now to every song on Alela Diane's MySpace page, and I seem to be the only guy in the world who doesn't love her, which is weird, me being a folk-music lover and all. I'll have to try that Laura Gibson album. The name Broderick is an immediate attention-getter for me these days.

Speaking of Peter Broderick, his sister apparently makes music under the name Heatherwoods. Hasn't released anything yet, but I really like the songs posted on her MySpace page. I'm trying to think of a good comparison. Maybe Damien Jurado circa Ghost of David? Not quite right as this hasn't much traditional folk to it, but it gives you an idea I guess.

[Nick Ink]

2    Animal Hospital   21
This is an interesting one. Only five tracks and a strange collision of styles and influences. Parts of it, especially the throbbing string interjections of His Belly Burst, remind me of the abrasive textures of Ben Frost's Theory Of Machines, other bits recall the more orchestral post-something atmosphere of Richard Skelton's Marking Time release, and then there's And Ever, which locks itself into a bizarre, spiky XTC-like guitar riff for several minutes. With this and the Emeralds release, it's good to see 2009 throwing up some exciting new names.

i saw this guy play a few weeks ago...it started out highly annoying, but got a whole lot better. 

Was this supporting Bloody Panda maybe? Aren't they a metal band? I noticed Animal Hospital had had some pretty diverse support slots. Beirut was another one, oddly. Seems a bit incompatible with both of those, from what little I know of them.

[davy]

I've been listening to Royal Trux pretty much exclusively for a couple weeks now. I find it fits my mood these days.

[narlus]

2    Animal Hospital   21
This is an interesting one. Only five tracks and a strange collision of styles and influences. Parts of it, especially the throbbing string interjections of His Belly Burst, remind me of the abrasive textures of Ben Frost's Theory Of Machines, other bits recall the more orchestral post-something atmosphere of Richard Skelton's Marking Time release, and then there's And Ever, which locks itself into a bizarre, spiky XTC-like guitar riff for several minutes. With this and the Emeralds release, it's good to see 2009 throwing up some exciting new names.

i saw this guy play a few weeks ago...it started out highly annoying, but got a whole lot better. 

Was this supporting Bloody Panda maybe? Aren't they a metal band? I noticed Animal Hospital had had some pretty diverse support slots. Beirut was another one, oddly. Seems a bit incompatible with both of those, from what little I know of them.

nope, opening for Vaz (ex-Hammerhead guy, the band used to be on AmRep).

[Nick Ink]

I must admit I don't know any of those names/references, but, as always, that's a great picture. I like how your photos always have their own little personalities.

[Ignatius]

AmRep is Amphetamine Reptile, an American label that put out stuff by the Melvins and Helmet (and I think Jesus Lizard?) back in the 90s... And I think when people say 'sounds like AmRep' they mean it's loud and noisy in that particular way.

[davy]

I must admit I don't know any of those names/references, but, as always, that's a great picture. I like how your photos always have their own little personalities.

Seconded. Narlus, drooling over your photos has become one of the more enjoyable side effects of excessive LPTJ posting.

[RavingLunatic]

- my first listen to the new J.Tillman album, which didn't really captivate me (neither did seeing him live on Saturday, by the way, though it was pleasant enough - unlike the opening set by his brother, which certainly left an impression on me and S. in its atrociousness)

I don't think these last two albums have been nearly as strong as his first three, but I like both of them quite a bit. Have you heard "Daytrips," the song that was playing on his MySpace running up to the album release but for some reason wasn't included? It's probably better than anything on the actual album. Not sure why it got cut. He bemoans touring in the song, so maybe he started enjoying touring more and felt bad about complaining about it. Anyways, you gotta hear it:

J. Tillman - Daytrips

[edison]

3 Alela Diane 28
This is a surprise: I thought Alela Diane's first album was the blandest thing ever, but her second, which I was expecting to be pretty much more of the same, actually opened itself up to me after two listens or so - reinventing the wheel it ain't, but a few of the songs are actually killer ("Age Old Blue", "Tatted Lace"), in their workmanlike, unpretentious "I just write pretty and traditional-sounding songs" way. Looking forward to her show with W.E. Whitmore now - speaking of which, has anyone heard Whitmore's latest record?

\

I'm a huge Will E. Whitmore fan and have loved pretty much everything he's put out thus far, but the new album was a major letdown. It's a very political album, which I always welcome, but it's not particularly subtle (sample lyrics from the first song: "about you or me he does not give a damn / what a lowdown dirty snake....I want to wrap my hands around his crooked neck / and throw him overboard....let the motherfucker burn / burn motherfucker burn"). There are two songs I really like "Who Stole the Soul?" and "Good Day To Die," both slower, more contemplative songs. It's not a bad album, really; it just doesn't compare to his previous stuff in my estimation.

I've listened probably 5 times now to every song on Alela Diane's MySpace page, and I seem to be the only guy in the world who doesn't love her, which is weird, me being a folk-music lover and all. I'll have to try that Laura Gibson album. The name Broderick is an immediate attention-getter for me these days.

Thanks for the report on WEW - doesn't sound good, but at least this way I'm not going in with very high expectations. I wasn't extremely impressed with the other album of his I have either (Ashes To Dust), but I'm not sure whether that was a matter of not giving it enough of a chance.

And 3 of the 4 songs on Alela Diane's page are from her very boring first album, so I'm not surprised you're not finding anything too special there.

[RavingLunatic]

And 3 of the 4 songs on Alela Diane's page are from her very boring first album, so I'm not surprised you're not finding anything too special there.

Oh, thanks for pointing this out. The one song I do like there is the one from the new album. I'll definitely give that album a shot now.

[alex]

I don't think these last two albums have been nearly as strong as his first three, but I like both of them quite a bit. Have you heard "Daytrips," the song that was playing on his MySpace running up to the album release but for some reason wasn't included? It's probably better than anything on the actual album. Not sure why it got cut. He bemoans touring in the song, so maybe he started enjoying touring more and felt bad about complaining about it. Anyways, you gotta hear it:

J. Tillman - Daytrips

Thanks for that, Ryan - I indeed hadn't heard this before, and it indeed sounds good (even on these crappy internal laptop speakers). As for the new album, it didn't sound atrocious or anything, but a bit disappointing, I thought. I should probably give it another shot, though.

[narlus]

I must admit I don't know any of those names/references, but, as always, that's a great picture. I like how your photos always have their own little personalities.

Seconded. Narlus, drooling over your photos has become one of the more enjoyable side effects of excessive LPTJ posting.

thanks guys!

[narlus]

AmRep is Amphetamine Reptile, an American label that put out stuff by the Melvins and Helmet (and I think Jesus Lizard?) back in the 90s... And I think when people say 'sounds like AmRep' they mean it's loud and noisy in that particular way.

the Jesus Lizard only made it on one of the dope guns and fucking in the streets comps.  here are my key AmRep bands:

halo of flies (lead by AmRep honcho tom hazlemyer)
cows
tar
vertigo
lubricated goat
cosmic psychos
helmet
surgery
boss hog
helios creed


definitely one my all-time favorite labels
http://www.discogs.com/label/Amphetamine+Reptile+Records

[narlus]

And 3 of the 4 songs on Alela Diane's page are from her very boring first album, so I'm not surprised you're not finding anything too special there.

Oh, thanks for pointing this out. The one song I do like there is the one from the new album. I'll definitely give that album a shot now.

i saw her open for Blitzen Trapper a couple of weeks ago...her voice was fairly reminiscent of Beth Orton's.  she had some good songs and a decent band.

[davy]

she had some good songs and a decent band.

Yeah, that's about the way I'd put it.

Definitely didn't blow me away.

[On Reflection]

I don't think these last two albums have been nearly as strong as his first three, but I like both of them quite a bit. Have you heard "Daytrips," the song that was playing on his MySpace running up to the album release but for some reason wasn't included? It's probably better than anything on the actual album. Not sure why it got cut. He bemoans touring in the song, so maybe he started enjoying touring more and felt bad about complaining about it. Anyways, you gotta hear it:

J. Tillman - Daytrips

Thanks for that, Ryan - I indeed hadn't heard this before, and it indeed sounds good (even on these crappy internal laptop speakers). As for the new album, it didn't sound atrocious or anything, but a bit disappointing, I thought. I should probably give it another shot, though.

Yeah, thanks for the song Ryan! The new album is certainly not one of my favourites by him - less acoustic, sprawls a bit more, sounds like Fleet Foxes a bit (I'm not really a fan of them) - but it's still got some pretty good moments on it.

[maarit]

1 Grizzly Bear 29
2 Fever Ray 24
Half of The Knife (which I never really got into). When I Grow Up is great, I think one can give it a listen at myspace
3 The Mountain Goats 20
4 Andrew Bird 18
4 Paavoharju 18
6 Band of Horses 16
6 Fleet Foxes 16
8 Dan Auerbach 14
9 TV on the Radio 13
10 The Tallest Man on Earth 12
Kind of Dylan-esque, which is said about a lot of young folk singers, but his voice is a bit similar. Really like him.