Machinefabriek and 9 other artists

[Nick Ink]

1 Can 69
Mostly Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi, with bits of Future Days and Monster Movies thrown in. Whilst I've always liked Can, I think the I was a bit wary of some of the rockier aspects of their records until recently. But this year, I've fallen for them hard, and especially Jaki Lievbezeit's drumming which is kind of mesmerising. He quite rightly takes centre stage on this 1971 performance of Paperhouse
2 Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos 63
Another discovery of mine this year was The Congos Heart Of The Congos album. Not really a discovery of course, in fact I believe it was recommended to me on this very board. Anyway, Sun Araw's usually moderately appealing humid echo-jams are dramatically improved by the Jamaicans' harmonies here. A very addictive summer album - there's a souncloud preview here, but really they're the kind of long grooves best enjoyed in totality.
3 Simon Scott 35
Mostly a download of the new Below Sea Level, It's pleasingly minimal and full of nice field recordings from the Fens, but perhaps a good rather than a great drone record.
4 Steve Roden & Machinefabriek 25
The recent collaboration, Lichtung, an engrossing edit of a live installation piece for a German video artist. Squeaky floorboards, crunchy leaves, panning birdsong and processed icicles all contribute to this splendid album. Excerpts here
5 Neu! 18
Cassetto on repeat for half an hour - it was the only way I could face the housework.
6 Karen Dalton 17
I'm not too keen on what I've heard of her studio stuff, but these home recordings on 1966 are wonderful.
6 Pye Corner Audio Transcription Services 17
The new Black Mill Tapes Vol.3 album. I much prefer the shorter, half-formed pieces to the longer more melodic tracks, but nevertheless a good album, and a good groop.
8 Celer & Machinefabriek 16
One or two plays of the Numa/Penarie 7-inch, but mainly the half-hour live recordings on Greetings From Celer & Machinefabriek, which are calmly excellent. They're all good, but the shows at Utrecht and Leiden feature not only a sample of a man talking about bull elk vocalisations, but, I am now almost giddy to realise, actual bull elk vocalisations themselves! So they're my favourites.
9 Porter Ricks 11
1996's Biokinetics album, a sort of GAS-like dub-techno groundbreaker that I'd never heard of until Type records reissued it as their 100th release. S'good!
10 The Caretaker 11
Patience (After Sebald. More ballroom-from-The Shining-inspired crackly 78 piano dirges on the theme of altzheimers from The Caretaker. As brilliant and as awful as all his albums are.

[Babar]

Jaki Liebezeit

the best drummer

[mountmccabe]

My last month!

1) Leonard Cohen - 61 We went on a bit of a run after buying tickets.
2) Dmitri Shostakovich - 40 This is mostly the Preludes & Fugues. Those short(ish) piano pieces really rack up the listen counts.
3) Johann Sebastian Bach - 38
4) John Adams - 32 So The Death of Klinghoffer is great stuff. "I must have been hysterical" is an early favorite.
5) Afghan Whigs - 29
6) Karlheinz Stockhausen - 28 Most of this was a listen to Gruppen, in advance of seeing the NY Phil (and two other orchestras) play it later this month.
7) Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone - 21 The Book of Mormon
8) Blur - 20 It has been too long since I've heard much Blur. And I still don't really know a couple of the albums.
9) Clipse - 19
9) Macy Gray - 19 Her new album Covered is rather amazing.
9) Benjamin Britten - 19 This was a run through his War Requiem<I>
12) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - 18 Catching up with their latest album.
12) Kanye West - 18 I have seen him live but don't really know much more than a few songs.
12) Jean Sibelius - 18 I am really enjoying his Pelléas et Mélisande, though looking now reminds me that I only have some of the movements!
15) Electrelane - 17

[ellaguru]

My last month!
9) Macy Gray - 19 Her new album Covered is rather amazing.

I will download this, because I want to believe.

[Babar]

3) Johann Sebastian Bach - 38

Whatcha listenin to thar partner? I could use some Bach.

[mountmccabe]

I am interested in what you think of the Macy Gray! I think it entirely avoids late-Cash-style self-parody.

The Bach has been Glenn Gould playing The English Suites in some nontraditional but interesting interpretations, cello suites played by Rostropovich (#5) and Baumann (#6), (I have a slight preference for Rostropovich for these pieces) and some cantatas, which I don't really know.

[mountmccabe]

Last month!

1. Stephen Sondheim - 63 - A Little Night Music is the new exploration here. (This number should also be higher because most of the <I>Sunday in the Park with George is poorly tagged).
2. Giacomo Puccini - 46
3. Hector Berlioz - 27
4t. Blur - 26
4t. Clock Opera - 26 - Their debut album is great, in an Elbow-esque way.
4t. Sofia Gubaidulina - 26 (all mis-tagged, in case y'all are fact-checking this list)
8. Fiona Apple - 24 - Enough people were talking about the new one that I had to listen. A couple times. Thus far.
8. Codeine - 24
10. John Adams - 22
10. Killer Mike - 22 - Would've gone there earlier if I knew El-P produced his record. Also "Reagan" came on in the lab and a co-worker responded to the first "guns for hostages" soundbite with "wow, it's good he didn't do that because that sounds like the dumbest trade ever." Took me a second to realize that this all went down before he was born.
12. The Maccabees - 20 - Listening to the new one; overall it is OK, "Pelican" is fantastic.
13. Henry Purcell - 19
14. Giuseppe Verdi - 18
15. Arcangelo Corelli - 17 - I went on a Baroque fugue (ha!) for a while.

[RavingLunatic]

Last month

1. JBM - 58 - Stray Ashes, his new one. Probably the only folk/Americana release I've heard that has obvious Radiohead influences. This is a very good thing.
2. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames - 41 - New Multitudes, the Woody Guthrie tribute. I only really care for about five songs.
3. The National - 40 - Alligator is one of the all-time great indie rock albums, no doubt. Probably a top-15 all-time album for me.
4. Horse Feathers - 36 - The new album is wonderful as expected.
5. The Beatles - 36 - I don't like the White Album. There are maybe six songs I like fairly well and a lot of garbage I never want to hear again.
6. Gui Boratto - 30 - Listening to III again. Sounds better than ever, and I now think it's quite superior to Chromophobia.
7. Ted Leo - 28 - Listening to his last two or three albums. They're pretty spotty, but when he nails it, he nails it.
8. Hot Chip - 26 - Don't care much for their new one. I've never much cared for these guys I guess. My favorite Hot Chip song? "I Can't Wake Up," a lullaby from the excellent kids' comp I'll See You on the Moon!. The third song on the new one is a good single I guess.
9. Orbital - 25 - Wonky rules. Have never listened to Orbital before, but I'm gonna have to check their back catalog. From what I gather, the two consensus picks are In Sides and Orbital 2.
10. Josienne Clarke - 25 - Found her on the awesome folk cover blog Cover Lay Down. Really good renditions of traditional songs. And she does a mean cover of Nick Drake's "Day Is Done."
11. KiloWatts - 22 - Killer electronic album called Acceptitude. . Nick, I'm guessing you would really be into this, if you aren't already. This is what I imagine "glitch" music should sound like, but I'm pretty sure this is not categorized as such. Here's a link to a full-album stream on Soundcloud.
12. Andrew Bird - 21 - Don't care for the new one. I still love Mysterious Production of Eggs, but it's the only Andrew Bird album I've ever enjoyed.
13. Jeffrey Foucault - 20
14. Haley Bonar - 19 - Last year's Golder. It's the weakest of her four albums, but it's still good. Love her voice.
15. Will Stratton - 18 - I loved his debut, What the Night Said, which I think was released when he was 20 years old. Since then, he's sort of slowly but surely gone downhill, at least as far as my enjoyment of his songs is concerned. His music has become increasingly sophisticated and his musicianship is almost unbelievably good. He's got to be one of the best fingerpicking guitar players around. Just listen to "Lying in the Dark" to hear for yourself. As Cokemachineglow said in their review of New Vanguard Blues , "he recorded it in two days. There isn’t a bum note on the whole goddamned affair, the guitar playing is gorgeous (at times unbelievable, really)." He's got all the potential in the world, but as amazing as the execution is, the songs just aren't that strong anymore.

[davy]

Last month

9. Orbital - 25 - Wonky rules. Have never listened to Orbital before, but I'm gonna have to check their back catalog. From what I gather, the two consensus picks are In Sides and Orbital 2.

Throw Snivilization in there, too.

In Sides is my favorite. It's been one of my favorite electronic albums since it came out back in the mid-90s.

[ellaguru]

Last month


7. Ted Leo - 28 - Listening to his last two or three albums. They're pretty spotty, but when he nails it, he nails it.

True of the last couple, but Tyranny of Distance and Hearts of Oak are pretty solid all the way through.

Also, this

1. JBM - 58 - Stray Ashes, his new one. Probably the only folk/Americana release I've heard that has obvious Radiohead influences. This is a very good thing.

sounds interesting, I will give it a try!

[RavingLunatic]

Tyranny of Distance is definitely solid all the way through. Listened to it in the car on the way to umpire a game a few weeks ago and was reminded of its awesomeness. I didn't much like Hearts of Oak the two or three times I listened to it, but it's been years--close to a decade!--since I last listened to it, so I can't really pass any meaningful judgment on it.

[Nick Ink]

My last, rather unbalanced month...


Robyn Hitchcock

1 Robyn Hitchcock 412
Everything, from start to finish, clocking up 27 fish, 43 dead people, 19 insects, 4 frogs and 11 references to Norway along the way. An all-time great.
2 Richard Skelton 73
Digging the solemn disturbance of Verse Of Birds, occasionally while out watching the local waders and black-tips.
3 Shackleton 67
Music For The Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organs is a most peculiar and excellent album.
4 The Soft Boys 51
More Robyn Raymond Hitchcock. It turns out A Can Of Bees is better than I remembered and Underwater Moonlight is still crucially fantastic.This is a man whose first words on record were, "I feel like asking a tree for an autograph".
5 Eric Copeland 40
A little revist of Eric's albums, which are at least on a par with Black Dice's recent albums.
6 Machinefabriek 32
Stroomtoon is the latest.
7 Belbury Poly 20
7 Eli Keszler 20
This is a great PAN records release, Catching Nets, in which Eli seems to be playing a building. I'm not sure how broad its appeal is going to be, but it's been rocking up Ink Towers like nobody's business recently.
9 Pinch & Shackleton 19
10 Micachu & The Shapes 18


Eli Keszler

[ellaguru]

1. JBM - 58 - Stray Ashes, his new one. Probably the only folk/Americana release I've heard that has obvious Radiohead influences. This is a very good thing.

I was listening to the Hundred Waters album today and was reminded of this description. They're more Portishead-influenced folk than Radiohead-influenced folk I think, but still worth checking out if you haven't already.

[RavingLunatic]

I don't think I've heard of them. I'll have to check them out.

[mountmccabe]

1. Arcangelo Corelli - 90
2. The Gandalfs - 74
3. Stephen Sondheim - 71 - Into The Woods, in English and ini German.
4. Benjamin Briten - 64
5. George Frideric Handel - 54
6. Shearwater - 40 - I quite like the new(ish) one.
7. Michael Tippet - 39 - 20th Century British composer, in the vein of Britten.
8. Azealia Banks - 38 - Her FANTASEA mixtape, a couple times
9. The Magnetic Fields - 36
10. Soundgarden - 28
11. The Tet Holiday - 28
12. Fastbacks - 26
13. Built to Spill - 25
14. Beak> - 23 I like their new one, too but I need some more time with it to be able to say much.
14. The National - 23

I started using Spotify on my computer which meant I went off on a lot of opera (Handel, Britten) and Sondheim. Many of the other bands - Soundgarden, Shearwater, etc - are here due to other extended single-band focused times. Which is pretty weird for me!

[justinh]

Has anybody else had that problem where your plays don't scrobble?  I got back from the states, and although it will show my current track as "now playing" that track disappears after it's completed and nothing is recorded.  I tried re-installing the plugin and re-installing last.fm, both to no avail.  Annoying.  According to the forums, this problem can happen for no apparent reason and then you may start scrobbling again for no apparent reason. 

[Nick Ink]

Has anybody else had that problem where your plays don't scrobble?  I got back from the states, and although it will show my current track as "now playing" that track disappears after it's completed and nothing is recorded.  I tried re-installing the plugin and re-installing last.fm, both to no avail.  Annoying.  According to the forums, this problem can happen for no apparent reason and then you may start scrobbling again for no apparent reason. 

That has happened several times to me, but on most if not all occasions those scrobbles have all been updated later, within a day or half a day. I've often noticed it's being discussed as a known issue in the help forum too (http://www.last.fm/forum/21713/_/433934). I can't see anything there right now however.


Might as well do my last couple of weeks while I'm here:

1 Animal Collective 197
Trawled back through the lot in excited anticipation of the new album.
2 Library Tapes 129
Another discography-long trip.
3 NHK'Koyxeи 38
As has been much discussed, Dance Classics No.1 is one of the best albums of 2012.
4 Helm 33
5 longish pieces of highly textured music-as-landscape with an undercurrent of terror.
5 Mark Fell 29
SOA, the brilliant self-remixes of his Sensate Focus releases. There are dubby little touches and fragments of disco synths crumbled over the surface, but it's Mark Fell's microscopically detailed and layered percussion that is the star.
6 Panda Bear 26
Part of the Animal Collective revisit. Person Pitch is still fantastic, Tomboyu is still a bit disappointing and Young Prayer is still a brave and unique album.
6 John Wiese 26
Another PAN records release, this one from 2011, Seven Of Wands is one I missed first time round and it's full of clattering and scraping laptop excellence.
8 Fennesz 24
This was AUN, his latest album, a soundtrack. I do like Fennesz, but for someone who was once such an innovator, he really has settled into a safety zone. His records are pretty, but never exciting any more, in my opinion.
8 Machinefabriek 24
Stroomtoon ('the sound of electricity'), up to the usual high standards and definitely worth checking out for the MF fans here.
10 Moon Wiring Club 23
This was one run through of A Spare Tabby At The Cat's Wedding, a decent if not essential quasi-member of the Ghost Box fraternity.
11 The Cure 21
My kids have become Cure fanatics, it's all quite strange, so this was them insisting we listen to Lullaby and Just Like Heaven over dinner.
11 Half Man Half Biscuit 21
“Demon fiend, leave your tomb / Seek out the Virgin womb” / Hey Chris from Future Doom / You left your lyrics in the practice room / “Cackling hag astride the broom / What dread this upon the spume?” / Hey Chris I understand your gloom / But come on, rock up, you’re from Ilfracombe
11 Eli Keszler 21
Catching Nets, in which Mr Keszler plays a range of buildings to the delight of Household Ink.
14 Avey Tare 16
More Animal Collective.
14 The Congos 16
Surprised this is the only dub/reggae here, but I've been playing it on the kids' CD player in the garden too, so maybe that's what's up. Anyway, I got turned onto Heart Of The Congos this year and it's really a splendid record.

[justinh]

Still no luck...damn you last.fm!

[Trousers and Pat]

spending the month with prolific weirdos, I guess

1 Prince 61
2 Sun City Girls 42
3 Sun Ra 40
4 Lil B 35

[mountmccabe]

My last month!

1. Colorstore - 49 - They were my favorite (Phoenix) local band and in fact the first band that made me realize local bands could be awesome. Their lead singer passed away last weekend so I went on a binge.
2. Thomas Ades - 42 - An act from each opera plus various other pieces.
3. Olivier Messiaen - 39 - Quartet for the End of Time is on the program at one of the NY Philharmonic Ensembles concerts and I am excited.
4. Tom Kitt - 36 - This was Next to Normal
5. Afghan Whigs - 32
6. Arcangelo Corelli - 30
7. Talking Heads - 30 - I also listened to David's new album with St Vincent and really liked it. I expect that to show up on next month's list.
8. Divine Fits - 28 - I really like this! I did not expect to, once I realized Britt was involved (not a Spoon fan) but I am enough of a Dan fan to dig this.
9. Morrissey - 27
10. Leos Janacek - 26 - Much of this was listening to Jenufa before seeing it.
11. Fleetwood Mac - 22 - Listening to that tribute album (that album got more plays than any other) sent me back to the originals again.
12t. Clara Schuman - 21
12t. George Frideric Handel - 21
12t. Zoltan Kodaly - 21 - I am really loving how he wrote for strings, both solo and in small groups.
15. Johann Sebastian Bach - 20

This was mostly reconstructed. Which was annoying. I still feel the need to do it. I guess I miss Last.fm charts meaning something and with the ridiculous for my purposes tagging of Spotify they are becoming increasingly meaningless.

[justinh]

Yay, I'm scrobbling again.  And since I'm at it...

1   Ty Segall  25 - This guy puts a lot of tracks on his records
2   The Great Unwashed  20 - I was somehow unaware that this band is pretty much the Clean with a different name. 
3   The Allman Brothers Band  18 - We have somehow come into possession of a bunch of old issues of Rolling Stone, which led me to read an excerpt from GA's autobiography.  Though supremely un-hip, I will always love DA era Allman Brothers, especially "Eat a Peach". 
4   SNFU  16
5   Thee Oh Sees  15
6   Nirvana  14
7   Holograms  13 - More good stuff from Scandinavia.  Slower than IceAge, with more of a Killing Joke thing going on. 
7   Tenement  13 - Wisconsin's finest band at the moment.  Takes us back to when pop punk was at least somewhat relevant to punk.
9   Nick Drake  11
9   Wicked Lady  11 - obscure reissue of rambling evil stoner jams from c. 1970.  A bit like Pentagram if Pentagram indulged in 10 minute songs. 

I've also been listening to Divine Fits.  I was stoked to see they covered the St Kilda classic, "Shivers".  Since I've never been much into Wolf Parade and been more of a casual appreciator of Spoon, my favorite member of the supergroup is the drummer that used to play in the New Bomb Turks. 

[davy]

My last month:



So, yeah: Eleni Mandell has been the big revelation. 200 listens in one month is pretty elite territory for me. She's got a new one out on New West Records that's really mellow and wonderful, and I've been exploring her incredibly consistent back-catalog as well.

One interesting bit of trivia about this list is that four of the artists here: Bahamas (who sound exactly like M. Ward with a drum machine), Good Old War, Geographer, and Miniature Tigers all came to me by way of the Vacationer radio station on Spotify. The puzzling inclusion is Good Old War, since they sound like a 90s alt-folk version of Simon & Garfunkel, and don't seem to share any sonic similarities with the other four bands in question.

The Vacationer record has really been a grower -- a few insanely great dance pop singles and then some really strong supporting cuts that fill out the sound and give the record some emotional heft. Of the bands I've been introduced to by way of it, Geographer has the most promise. They sound like early Air with the guy from Shearwater on vocals. Pretty tight.

I went through an Orange Juice phase last week when I realized that their final two albums basically set the template for a lot of records I've fallen in love with this year. Since getting their box set for Christmas a couple years ago, they've become one of my favorite bands. The Orange Juice phase segued into a kiwi-pop listening party from which only The Clean racked up enough listens to make the list.

I have no idea who Stephen Duffy is, really, other than that I read his name in connection with Steely Dan and made a note to listen to some of his stuff. I think I queued up an album on spotify at work one day and then was out of my office for a few hours while it just ran through his catalog. Amos Lee is also a big fat question mark. I vaguely know who he is -- must be another semi-conscious spotify thing.

Poolside is an enjoyable little side project of one of the Rapture guys. Easy-listening downtempo summer album.

The new Passion Pit album is fantastic, and it's my lady's JAM right now, so we've been spinning that one a lot. "Constant Conversations" is on the shortlist for my favorite song of 2012.

The Cat Power is old stuff -- not the new one, which I just listened to for the first time yesterday and whoa, that's a lot of unexpected sounds coming from her. Not sure I dig it. We'll see.

It's been a pretty big year for Ryan Adams in my household. Making up for lost time.

And of course Mason Jennings is always there for me.

[Nick Ink]

Stephen Duffy was an original member of Duran Duran, by the way. It's a useless piece of trivia, but I feel less burdened by it now I've passed it on.

By the way davy, I can't see that image/chart? Maybe just me, but I'm not sure it's working.

[davy]

It looked okay for me, but I'll try something different. How about now?

And yeah, now I do seem to recall reading something about Stephen Duffy being an 80s version of Pete Best.

[Nick Ink]

I can see it now, in all its glory!