best records of 2009

[William Hutson]

oh, I missed this...

jon sort of said it, though i'd go slightly farther in saying imaoto and goat v donkey are apples and oranges, recording-wise. one is a studio record, close mic'd, apparently taken from multiple takes.

not multiple takes, one recording session, two pieces. each was cut down some (from around 90 combined minutes to 50), but no edits within the sections that were kept.

since we're talking so much about the recording process of imaoto in this thread, i thought i'd finally say this: i absolutely love the record, but i cannot listen to it on headphones, because i'm bothered by the microphone placement on the trombone. there's way too much lip smacking noise from radu in between notes, which gives his sound an unrealistic perspective. i would just roll off some of the high-end to put the smacking further back in the mix but then i'm afraid i'd be changing the amplitude relationships around some of filip's higher tones. the only way i can play imaoto is very quietly, though my studio monitors, which is probably how it was designed to be heard anyway.

[jon abbey]

yeah, rightly or wrongly, I never pay much attention to how ersts sound via headphones as I think they should be listened to on speakers. did you have the same issues with 'a view from the window', bill?

[William Hutson]

well the obvious difference for me in that one is the overall roughness of the sounds. with rowe in the group, there are a ton of his sounds (clicks and scrapes, real close-up) that sit in the same space as those lip smacks. plus both hautzinger and dörner are much "spittier" players than malfatti is, i think. by that i mean that both brass players (hautzinger, especially) play sounds that have a lot of that high-end detail in the spittle, so the lip smacks end up sounding like intentional mouthpiece gestures, as opposed to accidental "not playing" sounds. but really, it's all so thoroughly burried by rowe's crinkling, etc, that i hardly notice it. (listening now, what a goddamn great CD!)

again, this is not enough of a quibble to make me dislike imaoto. it's very nearly my favorite CD of the year.

[bkudler]

Top 25: In no particular order. Limited myself to 25, because it made me leave out a few records while putting most everything I really liked this year. Mixtapes, mixes, compolations, anything goes on my list. Also there is a ton of stuff I did not hear so this list is just what I liked not anywhere near comprhensive about the year.

Malfatti/Filip- Imaoto

Burkhard Stangl / Kai Fagaschinski - Musik-Ein Portrat in Seh

Wedding Ceremony

Unami/Malfatti- Goat Vs Donkey

Pedestrian Deposit- Austere

Emeralds- Emeralds

Keith Rowe/Taku Unami + Keith Rowe-- Erstlive I kind of listen to it as one thing...

Nmperign- Ommatidia

The Jacka- Tear Gas

The State Vs Rardric Davis-- Gucci Mane

The Cold Wars- Gucci Mane

We Make It Good Mix- Salem

Water EP-Salem

Liturgy- Rehinalitation

Marduk- Wormwood

Krallice- Dimensional Bleedthrough

2562- Unbalance

Roll Deep- Street Anthems

Freddie Gibbs- Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik

G-Side- G-Side International

Oren Ambarchi- Interession 2000-2008

Keith Rowe + Oren Ambarchi- Treatise

Elaine Radigue- Triptych

The Haters- In The Shade Of Fire

[Yii]

The State Vs Rardric Davis-- Gucci Mane

i thought you just misspelled the name of rhodri davies.

[grisha]

2562- Unbalance

a good one, but personally i prefered Shackleton by a long shot, as far as dubstep/techno hybrids go.

[corey_larkin]

Am I the only one who is a little surprised that Acid in the Style of David Tudor hasn't showed up on any lists in this thread?
Actually- I haven't seen a single 'best of 2009' list that has included the record.

Embarrassing essay/ liner notes aside I think it's a pretty excellent record.


that said... I'd put that up on my list,
all of the aforementioned Malfatti and Unami related discs... el006 included...
Tengu et Kitsune II, too



... Pappeltalks...

were rar discs 002-004 2009, Reed?
If so... than those too.


a bunch more that I can't think of...

new Triadic Memories...

[RFKorp]

Am I the only one who is a little surprised that Acid in the Style of David Tudor hasn't showed up on any lists in this thread?
Actually- I haven't seen a single 'best of 2009' list that has included the record.

Embarrassing essay/ liner notes aside I think it's a pretty excellent record.

As a huge Hecker fan, I was pretty disappointed. Even the live set Tochnit Aleph released on cassette this year was a little better.

and the RAR discs are all older, Corey. 002 was '07, 003-004 were '08. But if Reed gets to distributing the new Wet Fur 3" (which was at least available on tour the lack of announcement) it deserves serious props. So I hope it gets heard.

(edited to correct a slight factual inaccuracy)

[bedouin]

> Mary Halvorson, Reuben Radding, Nate Wooley - Crackleknob (Hatology)
> Taku Unami, Robin Hayward, Rhodri Davies - Valved String Calculator (Hibari)
> Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura - Semi-Impressionism (Spekk)
> Radu Malfatti, Klaus Filip - Imaoto (Erstwhile)
> Harrius - Proud Flesh (Ehse)
> Seth Nehil - Flock & Tumble (Sonoris)
> Hear - 5 Pieces (Room40)

[Dan Warburton]

You're a brave soul, putting Semi-Impressionism in there.. I'm still trying to decide what I think of it (and from the emails I've received, it seems Toshi is too..). Meanwhile, that Seth Nehil disc rocks. Good call.

[corey_larkin]

Oh, strange...I'm way off...thought they came out around the end of 2008! Actually that is probably just when I first heard them. silly me...
looking forward to hearing the Wet Fure disc though


Oh, yeah.....soba to bara?

[horaflora]

Ekkehard Ehlers and Paul Wirkus – ballads
Rafael Toral – Space Elements vol 1
Lionel Marchetti – Adele et Hadrien
Lee Patterson – Seven Vignettes
David Sylvian – Manafon
David Kirby – Cittacaura
current 93 - aleph at hallucinatory mountain


Re-Issue - Patrick Kosk – Mondweib

[grant]

Grippers Nother Onesers - At Slimer Beach lp
Nmperign - Ommatidia
Graham Lambkin - Softly Softly Copy Copy
Kurt Vile - God Is Saying This to You....
Jason Kahn/Takefumi Naoshima - In A Room
Oceans of Silver and Blood - Live at Cafe Oto

[bedouin]

You're a brave soul, putting Semi-Impressionism in there.. I'm still trying to decide what I think of it (and from the emails I've received, it seems Toshi is too..).

would love to read your review on this one, but whatever the verdict, there is a striking simplicity and directness in the music that did for me. (like with Valved String Calculator), i think they are both groundbreaking, but as with most of this music only time will tell.

Patrol Kosk – Mondweib

you mean Patrick Kosk - Mondweiß
fantastic disc! though, like with the recent Riedl disc on Edition RZ these discs span several decades of work and are not works from 2009.

As far as re-releases go
Wildflowers: Loft Jazz New York 1976, and
the Deforce/Oya rework of Feldman's Patterns in a Chromatic Field on Aeon
would top my list.

[jkudler]

Am I the only one who is a little surprised that Acid in the Style of David Tudor hasn't showed up on any lists in this thread?
Actually- I haven't seen a single 'best of 2009' list that has included the record.

according to sound323, the wire did:
http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5007

[_duif]

some kind of top 30, in only the vaguest of orders:

Current 93 - Aleph at hallucinatory mountain (most listened to this year)
Tetuzi Akiyama & Toshimaru Nakamura - Semi-impressionism
Kazuki Tomokawa - A bumpkin's empty bravado
Seth Nehil - Flock & tumble
Radu Malfatti & Klaus Filip - Imaoto
Richard Youngs - Under stellar stream
David Sylvian - Manafon
Keith Rowe & Sachiko M - Contact [2-CD]
Jason Kahn - Vanishing point
Burkhard Stangl & Christof Kurzmann - Neuschnee

Ami Yoshida & Toshimaru Nakamura - 蕎麦と薔薇
Kan Mikami - -1
Olivier Capparos & Lionel Marchetti - Equus (Grand véhicule)
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Lucio Capece / Julia Eckhardt / Christian Kesten / Radu Malfatti / Toshimaru Nakamura / Taku Sugimoto – Wedding ceremony
This Immortal Coil - The dark age of love
Stasis Duo - 3
Keith Rowe & Toshimaru Nakamura - Erstlive 008
Animal Collective - Merriweather post pavillion
Noid & Taku Unami - ￢ + : *

<code> - Resplendent grotesque
Burkhard Stangl & Kai Fagaschinski – Musik – Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht
The Sealed Knot - And we disappear
Michael Vorfeld - Light bulb music
Vanessa Rossetto - Dogs in English porcelain
Lucio Capece & Radu Malfatti - 20 Berliner Strasse
Philip Samartzis & Michael Vorfeld - Scheckenrock
Castanets - Texas rose, the thaw & the beasts
Lee Patterson - Egg fry #2
Sebastian Lexer - Dazwischen

compilations:
V/A – Relay: archive 2007-2008 [2-CD]

from the archives:
Eliane Radigue on Important
Leonard Cohen at the Isle of Wight

&c.

I'm reluctant to include Sylvian, since I was a little bit hostile to it at the start, but I finally had to surrender, damnit.

[mshiflet]

Experimental Albums:
01. Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country
02. Jon Mueller – Physical Changes
03. Mountains – Choral
04. Hecker – Acid in the Style of David Tudor
05. Nmperign – Ommatidia
06. John Wiese – Circle Snare
07. Brian Harnetty – The Silent City (w/Will Oldham)
08. Kevin Drumm – Alku Tape
09. Schnee – Neuschnee
10. Nicholas Szczepanik – The Chiasmus
11. Volcano Choir – Unmap
12. Keith Whitman – Taking Away
13. Jim Haynes – Sever
14. Wiese/Yeh – Cincinnati
15. James Blackshaw – Glass Bead Game

Pop Albums:
01. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
02. Animal Collective – Merryweather Post Pavillion
03. Diamond District – In the Ruff
04. Beaten Awake – Thunder$troke
05. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
06. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
07. Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
08. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
09. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
10. Sonic Youth – The Eternal

[bkudler]

2562- Unbalance

a good one, but personally i prefered Shackleton by a long shot, as far as dubstep/techno hybrids go.

Shackelton is one I would have liked to listen to, but didn't. I really like everything I've heard by him... I love the trippier dubstep cuts. That 2562 album really did it for me though, I don't know if any dubstep or dance record could take it down for me.

The State Vs Rardric Davis-- Gucci Mane

i thought you just misspelled the name of rhodri davies.

Looks like I misspelled Gucci's birth name, either way Radric Davis. Maybe they should do a record together, called "R. Davis."

Am I the only one who is a little surprised that Acid in the Style of David Tudor hasn't showed up on any lists in this thread?
Actually- I haven't seen a single 'best of 2009' list that has included the record.

Another record I would have really liked to hear, but I didn't. I'm a big hecker fan, but didn't end up hearing this... I will probably get in January, and maybe it will make my slept on list for 2010.

[Jason Brogan]

Antoine Beuger, two . too (for erwin-josef speckmann) [Edition Wandelweiser]
Lucio Capece, Julia Eckhardt, Christian Kesten, Radu Malfatti, Toshimaru Nakamura & Taku Sugimoto, Wedding Ceremony [Cathnor]
Tom Chant, Angharad Davies, John Edwards & Benedict Drew, Decentred [Another Timbre]
Jürg Frey & Antoine Beuger, duos [Edition Wandelweiser]
Hose, Hose II [Headz]
Tom Johnson, Counting Keys [Edition Wandelweiser]
Helmut Lachenmann, Salut für Caudwell [Kairos]
Micachu and the Shapes, Jewellery [Rough Trade]
Keith Rowe, ErstLive 007 [ErstLive] — unfortunately the only Erst 2009 release I've heard
The Shadow Ring, Life Review (1993-2003) [KYE]
Taku Sugimoto & Taku Unami, Tengu et Kitsune II [Slub Music]
James Tenney, Spectrum Pieces [New World]
Christian Wolff, Long Piano (Peace March 11) [New World]

[orangettecoleman]

Ekkehard Ehlers and Paul Wirkus – ballads
Rafael Toral – Space Elements vol 1
Lionel Marchetti – Adele et Hadrien
Lee Patterson – Seven Vignettes
David Sylvian – Manafon
David Kirby – Cittacaura
current 93 - aleph at hallucinatory mountain


Re-Issue - Patrick Kosk – Mondweib

I just couldn't figure out what to think about that Ekkehard Ehlers disc. Listened to it a bunch of times and still can't decide whether I like it or not.