best of 2013

[jon abbey]

hopefully there are a few smiles when people see I was the one to start this thread early this year, but I wanted to try starting it off a bit differently. instead of final lists before at least January, what if people nominate 1-3 records from the very top of their list, well known or not, and say why a bit if they can.

one I'm a big fan of that is available for free lossless DL (also I have CDs) is Devin DiSanto-Tracing A Boundary:

http://taskrec.tumblr.com/post/62491685 ... performers

and a late year arrival (a week or so ago) is the remarkable Haco/Toshiya Tsunoda-TramVibration, cut down by Toshiya since initially recorded in 2006 from hours to the fat-free 34 minute final piece. one of his strongest discs IMO (as is the upcoming Werder duo on Erst). as I said on FB, it is Toshiya Tsunoda's world, the rest of us are just living in it.

[jon abbey]

also Olivia Block's Karren LP on Sedimental is top notch, great concept and great execution.

[presquepartout]

katy perry - prism

[mono tony]

stephen cornford/samuel rodgers - boring embroidery

probably an obvious (boring) choice for this board, but this is everything i've wanted out of a modern-day AMM record... regular tonality, lean combinations of percussion and sustained sounds, a total lack of bowed cymbals. the recording has a muted beauty, and the events flow. it never feels aimless.

[Dan Warburton]

I'm not joining in this time. I'll draw up a list of films for you at the other place, but haven't listened to enough new music in 2013 to make an intelligent selection. Still, I look fwd to reading others' choices here.

[Adrian]

in no particular order:

-Keith Rowe/Graham Lambkin - Making A (Erstwhile): has a sense of tightness and renewal to me
-Antoine Beuger/Jürg Frey - Dedalus (Potlatch): this keeps mixing itself into my surroundings, and taking my surroundings into itself
-Bryn Harrison - Vessels (Another Timbre): a bit early for this list perhaps, but a very beautiful piano work (like Denis Johnson's 'November')

as usual I couldn't tell you why, and also (given my tastes) there's really no surprises there I think...

[harsh1961]

Don't forget the excellent Every Thing Thing from Jamie Drouin and Olaf Hochherz.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

katy perry - prism

The wikipedia page for this is mindblowing. 117 references. A long, serieus section on composition. Etc.

Really, something to behold, and reflect the times we live in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism_(Katy_Perry_album)


Sad nobody gets payed to do the same for the page of the new Gravity Wave.

[ambiguous_figures]

Jakob Ullmann's Fremde Zeit Addendum 4 is really great and so is Lee Patterson & Vanessa Rossetto's Temperament as Waveform.

Lionel Marchetti's 23 Formes en Élastique and his shorter work 5x2 concrete are both really solid. Although I'm not really sure if they were composed this year or just released then...Either way they're worth looking into. 23 Formes en Élastique is a bit pricey at 40 dollars after shipping (in the US) but it comes with a really nice booklet that has text that compliments the work really well.

And yeah Katy Perry's Prism is catchy shit. I dunno if I can say it's my fav pop album of the year (with JT's 20/20 and Drake coming out this year) but if you like pop hooks it's slaming.

[undo]

the devin disanto record is way, way up there for me.

[jon abbey]

I played it for David Kirby when he was staying here last week, he was really blown away also. it has a kind of almost random feel to it, but everything somehow fits (even when it shouldn't?), fascinating post-Unami work.

[mpisaro]

Tons of great music listed here already! (Even though it came late, people shouldn't miss out on the Bryn Harrison.) I've never been good at lists, since I can't seem to rank the things I like, because I like them for different reasons. But here are three from earlier this year (not mentioned yet) that I played the heck out of:

November/Dennis Johnson/R. Andrew Lee

This felt like the real beginning of minimalism - and at the same time, decades ahead of anything that went by that name.

Dystonia Duos/Joe Panzner & Greg Stuart

I vividly remember listening to this the first time and feeling like something (some new kind of music?) was being born. There are so many parts and complexities that even after many listens, I can't put the pieces together. Like a circular saw cutting three trees at once.

Pictures of Men/Patrick Farmer & David Lacey

As with the record above: so many fantastic and surprising parts, a sprawling and unpredictable structure and a very high level of invention at the level of sound (or sound collecting). Plus animals.

(Happy that people already mentioned the Block, Beuger/Frey and DiSanto releases!) One more to mention because it might not be otherwise: Leo Svirsky's brilliant "Songs in the Key of Survival."

[misengarde]

#1 jacob ullmann box on rz
#2 this place/is love
#3 carcass surgical steel

[jhreynolds]

In no specific order

Ben Owen And Scott Allison ‎– Untitled For (Agnes Martin) - (Windsmeasure)

Klaus Filip/Dafne Vicente-Sandoval - remoto (Potlatch)

Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet - Photographs (Erstwhile)

Anne Guthrie/Richard Kamerman - Sinter (erstaeu)

Grisha Shakhnes - leave/trace (Glistening Examples)


Havent listened to the Disanto recording or the November disk as of today, but agree on Karren, the Beuger/Frey as well as Mr Pisaro's list.

If i was forced to save one from a burning building it would be a tossup between photographs and remoto with photographs probably winning by a nose.

[joeperucki]

one I'm a big fan of that is available for free lossless DL (also I have CDs) is Devin DiSanto-Tracing A Boundary.

the devin disanto record is way, way up there for me.

This is why I love the "best of year XXXX" threads. Never would have heard this otherwise. Thanks!

[frozen reeds]

The Necks - Open

Spent a lot of time with almost all their records this year. Saw them live too. This is yet another great one.

Also the Ullmann box appendix disc was superb, as noted above. As was the reissue of Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On with the original UK LP sequencing.

[MRS]

Have not heard TramVibration, Tsunoda's ο κόκκος της άνοιξης makes my list. It took some investment of time but the spliced caprice method begins to make sense and have a place. And those two barks on track 6, danger. Not a fan of The Temple Recording at all but the former works conceptually where, say Snared 60 Cuts doesn't.

[psychic barrier]

I love Tsunoda's O Kokos as well! I think it's clever and playful. I like that it's kinda/sort of/not really a field recording and it gives me this conception of Tsunoda as a sound god expertly triggering samples of birds and wind and etc to create this meticulously constructed but deceptively organic-sounding rhythmic world.

Between Toshiya Tsunoda's work and Michael Pisaro's work I too feel like a witness to the music of the future!

Just listened to the DiSanto, hadn't heard of it 'till now. Excited to get acquainted with it! I felt a strong urge to listen to Making A afterwards....

[marwill]

i think the antoine beuger / greg stuart - sixteen stanzas on stillness and music unheard is my favorite release of the year. followed by photographs and dystonia duos.

to name two excellent ones that haven't been mentioned yet:

eric la casa & cédric peyronnet - zones portuaires
lucio capece - less is less - music for flying and pendulating speakers

[jon abbey]

lucio capece - less is less - music for flying and pendulating speakers

I finally have copies of this one on the way to erstdist, looking forward to it!!