Machinefabriek and 9 other artists

[ellaguru]

I don't know enough Tom Zé to know how high it ranks for him, but Jogos de Armar is pretty great.

[Nick Ink]

4 Stars of the Lid 18
What's a good Stars of the Lid album to check out after the new one? Not that I've exhausted the charms of this one, mind you!

They've done plenty of interesting albums, but there is absolutely only one sensible answer to this, and that is the previous release, The Tired Sounds Of..... Like the latest one, it's a triple album, or double CD, and it would not be hyperbole to say it's my favourite album ever.

That one together with ...And The Refinement Of Their Decline should keep you going for about a year if you're anything like me. I think it might be because the songs are so slow and stretched out, but it takes me such a long time to feel I know a SOTL track well. The first few listens are like standing up really close looking at a few square inches of a great enormous canvas, and then gradually you can draw back and see the whole thing.

After that, Avec Laudanum is the only one with moments approaching the same level. Listening to anything before that one, the guitar source sounds are much more obvious, to me anyway, and they sound a bit more like the 'Post Rock' groups they're often lumped in with. But those 3 albums mentioned above represent the last 10 years of their output and are all very long, so there's plenty of great music there.

[Nick Ink]

1    Machinefabriek   21
Mostly his collaborations with Soccer Committee. They're good enough, but I prefer my Machinefabriek vocalless really.
2    Eric Copeland   20
I really liked the playful weirdness of last year's Hermaphrodite. It wasn't Balck Dice-level greatness, but it was a nice side-dish. This is the follow-up, Alien In A Garbage Dump. It sounds pretty good, but rather similar to the first one.
3    Menomena   15
Friend And Foe and Under An Hour. My current indie band of choice.
4    Lawrence English   10
The impeccably tuneless Kiri No Oto.
5    Andrew Chalk   5
6    Aidan Baker   4
6     2562   4
6    Christina Carter   4
9    Half Man Half Biscuit   2
9    Joanna Newsom   2
9    Gang Gang Dance   2

[edison]

I don't know enough Tom Zé to know how high it ranks for him, but Jogos de Armar is pretty great.

Yeah, that's a good one, too. Like most of his later stuff, it's definitely more experimental/all over the place than his early albums.

Nick: thanks for the briefing on SOTL! I'll keep it in mind whenever I've decided that I'm ready to move past ...And The Refinement Of The Decline.

[Babar]

-a whole load of Hip Hop*-

So I have a question for you Babar, I am very anamoured of Mobb Deep's Tha Infamous, I think it's a great album, and I am looking for a similar type of thing, gangsta lyrics, cold, bleak beats etc. another example would be GZA's Liquid Swords, could you recommend something that's like that?

*or should that be 'Rap'?

i actually i don't like The Infamous that much. if you want cold bleak beats then The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox is the shit. but i gotta say i'm not that into east coast gangsta rap.

also, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, but i don't know how old skool you wanna get

[On Reflection]

-a whole load of Hip Hop*-

So I have a question for you Babar, I am very anamoured of Mobb Deep's Tha Infamous, I think it's a great album, and I am looking for a similar type of thing, gangsta lyrics, cold, bleak beats etc. another example would be GZA's Liquid Swords, could you recommend something that's like that?

*or should that be 'Rap'?

i actually i don't like The Infamous that much. if you want cold bleak beats then The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox is the shit. but i gotta say i'm not that into east coast gangsta rap.

also, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, but i don't know how old skool you wanna get

Oh, well thanks anyway dude!

[Nick Ink]

Nick: thanks for the briefing on SOTL! I'll keep it in mind whenever I've decided that I'm ready to move past ...And The Refinement Of The Decline.

A pleasure! Oh, and I just remembered - I really have to mention the self-titled album by The Dead Texan, a SOTL side-project, a record which, as far as I'm aware, is loved by everybody who hears it.

[Robert]

Davy, that was a damned good idea!
Allow me to steal it:

[davy]

I would do one for this week, but it would be solid red and the legend would read "Christmas Music - 100%."

[RavingLunatic]

The new lastfm scrobble stuff:

1    Greg Weeks   35
This is a good album, which I think a lot of you guys might enjoy. It's kind of proggy, a few flutes and medieval sounding instruments thrown in, reasonably beardy - I'd say 7.5 on the beardometer, it features a Madonna cover version, the guy is from Espers, the cover art is really nice and a bit spooky. That's the kind of thing you lot go for, isn't it?.......

I've only listened to a couple songs from this one so far. I like his solo debut, Blood Is Trouble; I own it, in fact. It can get a bit monotonous and...I don't know, I can't think of the right word. One-dimensional maybe. It's like, dark, minor chords on Wurlitzer and harmonium (I think that's the right instrument) on every song. But like I said, I still like it. Just only pull it out once in a great while.

9    Peter Broderick   4
Kind of decided I'm not that into this guy. He's okay, but a bit safe/unexciting, and there's only so much time in life for pretty pianos and strings.[/b]

Aw, man, and here I thought I might be able to sell you on this guy. I'm not crazy about his earlier ambient work (it's OK), but his latest singer-songwriter album, Home envelops me in joy every time I listen to it. Which of his stuff have you been listening to?

[RavingLunatic]

3 Dark Captain Light Captain - 17
Folk influenced and elegant stuff, like a clock's mechanism (I often think of Pinback and Bedhead in a similar way, but these guys don't sound like either of those bands), and some very English accents.

I need to re-listen to this album. On first listen I thought, "wow," but then I was underwhelmed on second listen. Definitely deserves another shot now that I've put it aside for a couple months.

[RavingLunatic]

1 Matt Elliott 31
Getting warmed up for his Friday evening show. I can't really see how he's going to do these new songs alone live, but I can't wait to see. Howling Songs is a great record, noisier than the others in the trilogy.....

Who would you compare this guy to? I know another guy who highly recommends him.

[RavingLunatic]

Nick: thanks for the briefing on SOTL! I'll keep it in mind whenever I've decided that I'm ready to move past ...And The Refinement Of The Decline.

A pleasure! Oh, and I just remembered - I really have to mention the self-titled album by The Dead Texan, a SOTL side-project, a record which, as far as I'm aware, is loved by everybody who hears it.

I had no idea the Dead Texan was a Stars of the Lid side-project. I like that album. Haven't listened to it in forever, and I don't think I even have it on a CD. I should though. It'd be good music to listen to in bed at night.

[On Reflection]

3 Dark Captain Light Captain - 17
Folk influenced and elegant stuff, like a clock's mechanism (I often think of Pinback and Bedhead in a similar way, but these guys don't sound like either of those bands), and some very English accents.

I need to re-listen to this album. On first listen I thought, "wow," but then I was underwhelmed on second listen. Definitely deserves another shot now that I've put it aside for a couple months.

I thought it was OK, repeated itself a bit too much, maybe, but some really good bits on it.

EDIT: actually, might as well link to my review of it

[Nick Ink]

9    Peter Broderick   4
Kind of decided I'm not that into this guy. He's okay, but a bit safe/unexciting, and there's only so much time in life for pretty pianos and strings.[/b]

Aw, man, and here I thought I might be able to sell you on this guy. I'm not crazy about his earlier ambient work (it's OK), but his latest singer-songwriter album, Home envelops me in joy every time I listen to it. Which of his stuff have you been listening to?

I'm afraid I didn't like the album with vocals on at all, just on one listen. I might have been a bit quick to judge it, and I can't really remember it now, but I think I just balked at the idea of singing. Those earlier albums, Float, Docile and Music For On Paper Wings are more my kind of thing, but they're the ones I was talking about - just not quite enough there somehow. I keep giving him more chances though, mainly because he's so young and obviously talented, and seems to be friends with a lot of my favourite music people.

[alistarr*]

Float just doesnt sound pleasant enough, for me. i think there's some goodness in the writing, but if you compare the sound of the piano (be it thanks to the recording, or the instrument itself, or whatever) to something like Nuage by sylvain chauveau to take a recent example, broderick's just sounds so small and unresponsive. i kind of suspect he is playing a keyboard and recording it too loud for my tastes, or mixing it up over the other instruments or something. i guess i don't have the skills to know what's going wrong, but it leads to a bad sounding piano, and that kind of music is all about the noises.

[RavingLunatic]

3 Dark Captain Light Captain - 17
Folk influenced and elegant stuff, like a clock's mechanism (I often think of Pinback and Bedhead in a similar way, but these guys don't sound like either of those bands), and some very English accents.

I need to re-listen to this album. On first listen I thought, "wow," but then I was underwhelmed on second listen. Definitely deserves another shot now that I've put it aside for a couple months.

I thought it was OK, repeated itself a bit too much, maybe, but some really good bits on it.

EDIT: actually, might as well link to my review of it

That was a really good review, the kind I like. I've been relistening to this one and it sounds really good again. I can definitely see what you mean about the general dark, sad vibe of the songs being a bit monotonous, but it's a vibe that I really like, so I can overlook it. 

[RavingLunatic]

Might as well post my numbers I guess:

Shit, how do you copy and past your charts? They've changed it and I can't do it the same way anymore.

[Nick Ink]

I just highlight the chart with my mouse, normal way, r-click copy and, er, paste over here. I'm curious what way you were doing it before.

[Nick Ink]

1    David Thomas Broughton   16
2    Excepter   11
3    Half Man Half Biscuit   10
4    dEUS   8
5    Autechre   6
5    Eric Copeland   6
7    Belong   5
7    Max Richter   5
7    Mika Vainio   5
10  Machinefabriek   4
10  Aidan Baker   4

I would normally write about this stuff, but the numbers are quite low so I don't have too much to say. Also, I'm feeling ill today - shivery, shakey, shuddery and shitey.

[edison]

Sorry to hear that Nick, I hope you get better soon. Maybe the top 2 artists of my weekly list will make you feel 0.01% better already:

1 Jacaszek 34
2 Department of Eagles 26
3 The Notwist 15
4 Kim Doo Soo 14
5 Matt Elliott 13
6 Le Loup 12
7 Emily Jane White 10
8 Marcos Valle 7
8 Marianne Faithfull 7
10 The Dodos 6

The Jacaszek album is just as great as you said it is; Department of Eagles sounded really intriguing on first two listens.

[G.C.R]

Aceyalone                      24
His Book of Human Language is such a chaos of an album, it's very good though. it kinda rolls into one entity when i listen to it and i can't hear when one song ends and another start so it can be a little exhausting, but dude can spit and the beats are hot and organic. his flow is very much like kool keith's and even his voice too. it's like kool keith decided to stop rhyming about alien porn and started rhyming about life, love and language.

Oh man, that is pretty much my favourite hip hop album of all time.

[Babar]

Aceyalone                      24
His Book of Human Language is such a chaos of an album, it's very good though. it kinda rolls into one entity when i listen to it and i can't hear when one song ends and another start so it can be a little exhausting, but dude can spit and the beats are hot and organic. his flow is very much like kool keith's and even his voice too. it's like kool keith decided to stop rhyming about alien porn and started rhyming about life, love and language.

Oh man, that is pretty much my favourite hip hop album of all time.

i know, that's why i checked it out, it's really good, just takes time to sink it all in

[G.C.R]

oh yeah! I think the first half is a little stronger, but its all good really.

[RavingLunatic]

I just highlight the chart with my mouse, normal way, r-click copy and, er, paste over here. I'm curious what way you were doing it before.

Well, I've always done it that way, and it used to work, but now when I try to do that it looks like this:

1      Play     
Tim Grimm
      
31
2    Play    
Dark Captain Light Captain
      
24
3    Play    
Winterpills
      
17
4    Play    
Will Cookson
      
16
5    Play    
Monsieur Minimal
      
15
5    Play    
William Fitzsimmons
      
15
7    Play    
Marconi Union
      
13
8         
Mountain Goats & Kaki King
      
11
9    Play    
Tycho
      
10
10    Play    
The Mountain Goats


And I'll echo Edison and say I hope you feel better soon. Down some hot chocolate and slip on some wool socks, and it'll maybe warm you up if not cheer you up. I feel like adding a smiley-face here, but they all seem unbearably corny.