"The drum programming on Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper was influenced by 1990s hip-hop. Specifically, Panda Bear cited Dust Brothers, Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, and J Dilla as influences."

:0 omg

Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is the strongest Animal Collective-related release since MPP. I think I listened to it three times through today.

9th Wonder actually worked on the album. It certainly kicks the shit out of that Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record.

I'm excited yeah.

That Slasher Flicks was a total let down for sure.

Slasher Flicks just suffered from a complete lack of focus and purpose.

I thought it was going to sound like Amps For Christ. You know, deeply muted death metal riffs drowned in reverb, giving the otherwise gentle, melodic folk sound a set of giant, rusty barbed teeth?

I guess I just expected it to sound substantially different from what AC, Avey, Panda had done yet. Cause, like, why else would you need to create an entirely different band?

It ended up sounding like a bunch of Strawberry Jam outtakes that Tare dug out of the trash while the others weren't looking.

Grim Reaper is pretty fucking ace though.

with a name like Slasher Flicks I honestly imagined it to sound like Bad Moon Rising or Evol. No joke. I was disappoint.

2. Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets The Grimm Reaper (1/13)



Panda's always been my favorite AC dude. I feel like you know if you'll like this album. It sounds like Person Pitch vs. MPP. It's good. The early 90's hip hop inspiration is there, but also late 80's/early 90's dance music - stuff like Erasure comes to mind, in a good way. There's some cool divergence as well. The percussion-less opener "Sequential Circuits" is great. Or the harp-backed "Tropic Of Cancer." Quality album. Check it out!

*crickets chirp*

ATELJE - Meditation


Yeah I know there was a crappy pitchfork review that just dropped, and that the album's already been released to acclaim from those who care (apparently none of them are in the US or work at Apple or Spotify), but Dan Livvsik's new joint as ATELJE is really gods-damned interesting.

Most def my pick for the week, whether it's the right week or not. I am waiting for the LP to arrive in the mail, but the stock shortage may screw me on that one.

Anyway, for my fellow electronic mini genre birdwatchers, it's an amazing way to kick off the year. High class fucking music. This is "drive around in your Mercedes sipping coffee and feeling superior" music.

No.. It's seriously good, and not in a snobby way.

Also enjoying the new Chief Keef, of all things.

Though claiming that the title track "features" Kanye West is one hell of a stretch. Apart from some particularly awesome beat production, it sounds basically like Chief Keef. I'm not sure I'd even know that was Kanye's voice (me!!! I wouldn't know! What?) in that little microsample if the track didn't say "feat. kanye west."

Blargh!!

'Ey! Somebody get those fuckin' crickets outta here!

Tried to listen to this on Soundcloud, but the site is on the blink.

Anyhoo, it's not new, but it's the new album i've heard this week. So fuck yer rules :)

http://consequenceofsound.files.word...8-am.png?w=673

I'm a big fan of soundtrack albums, and whilst I may not like NIN Trent Reznor's soundtrack work has so far been brilliant. This is no exception. read that David Fincher wanted a soundtrack that lulls you into a false sense of warmth. For example on the track 'With Suspicion' it has this great synth sound that feels relaxing, calming. Like a Vangelis song from one of his 80's albums. However to stop you feeling calm they work this tense throbbing sound. It works brilliantly and makes you sit uncomfortably. Especially (and I guess most importantly) in the film.

On a side note, if there's one guy I'd love to see do a soundtrack is Aphex Twin.

Finally managed to get side 2 but not 1 working. I ended up buying the download just because of track 6 alone. Man, oh man, I'm digging it.

There is too much electronic music. We need guitars to destroy all this shit. And somebody like Kurt to smash the fucking guitar afterwards.

Uhh.. I love everything you're saying here mate.
Except I am a NIN fan. Born and raised. Can't help it, really. To me NIN is just as essential as Depeche Mode. And yes, Gone Girl is just fucking perfectly executed. I honestly think it deserves an Oscar more than The Social Network even did.

Wait, Oscar nods are out right? I'm not even sure it got a nod.

And yeah- Aphex Twin needs to do a full length score. It would be more palatable to movie snobs if he worked on it with someone like Warren Ellis or Jonny Greenwood, who would certainly add tons of organic atmospherics to the RDJ as Aphex Twin sound, but I'd love to hear him put it together by himself. Maybe with a few guest spots (much like Trent Reznor did with Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).

I also think Sonic Youth and Aphex Twin would make an EPIC album together, even if it was all improvisations recorded in one take. Their styles would mesh eloquently, in any meter.

Speaking of the Gone Girl soundtrack. This is one of the bet songs I've heard in a while. Incredible.

Technically, Missing

3. Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$ (1/20)



Ladies and gentlemen, the first great hip hop album of 2015 was released today. If you close your eyes, you can picture any track on here fitting in on a 1994 mixtape alongside Tribe Called Quest, Artifacts, DITC, etc.

This week was eeeeasy:

Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth



NR: I'm not sure if B4.DA.$$ really is the first great hip hop album of the year. The more I listen to Tetsuo, the more I think they might be equal. I'm loving B4.DA.$$, but it doesn't have a song like "Mural" on it, and they came out on the same day. So... I'm torn.

haven't heard the Lupe yet. i'll let you know...

Heard Lupe yet?

Anyone gonna talk at me about the new way out there robotic Aphex Twin or am I really going to have to start that Severian's Electronic Bistro thread?

Some stellar new shit coming down the line already in the Electronic/Juke/Footwork world.

Totally digging this at the moment. It's worth a listen to my ears anyhoo.

really unsure about this one...richard has most certainly jumped the shark. nothing worthwhile about it on any level, ordinarily his 'innovative' (relative term) projects have been lacking in anything identifiably new but are nevertheless enjoyable, whereas I can't help but think this is the most torpid thing he's ever done.

frankly even as enjoyable as syro was it didn't need to exist. like at all.

Yeah, I felt that way about everything that wasn't either SAW/II or the RDJ album for a while. Then I stopped. Then I poo-poo'd everything that didn't have the immediately iconic feel of Windowlicker and Come to Daddy. Then I stopped. Then I thought Drukqs was a mess, and wished it had never been made. Then I thought Drukqs was the only thing that mattered. Once each respective era of material was digested, it felt like a crucial part of the Aphex Twin narrative. And I love it all, even though I know each project will probably be my least favorite for a bit.

Long story short, being adaptable and trusting, and letting new shit grow on you is a prerequisite for listening to brilliant musicians.

How can you say CCAI2 lacks originality? Have you encountered so many recordings of hit-anything-robots smacking the holy percussive hell out of god knows what that the whole concept just feels tired and pointless to you?

Come aaaaaahn!

And SYRO most certainly did need to happen. Thank god it did.

Now I'm interested in what you have to say about StrepSipster. I keep hearing that the Bandcamp mateial is "obviously" fake and that the Soundcloud shit is "obviously" real, but I can't say any of it actually seems that "obvious" to me. I will withhold judgment until official confirmation from RDJ himself gives me reason to decide. But I'll keep listening regardless.

Agreed.... fantastic record

I don't mean this as a criticism or anything, more so just an observation, and again I don't think it's directly aimed at you at all but with a larger scope I think, I see it as a thing among fans regardless of age of most genres etc. but here goes...

TOO SUSCEPTIBLE TO MYTHOLOGIES

as admirable as it is that richard has been able to manoeuvre his gear by way of machinery to create these sounds, the fact remains that the process by which he abided to make this music has trumped its ultimate goal, that is to say innovation in process does in no way equate to musical innovation. there are definite precedents for this kind of thing in terms of process and sound not only on rephlex (pierre bastien and victor gama respectively) but indeed in the wider field as a whole (russolo's intonarumori, some of xenakis' percussive/rhythmic works). richard's music was previously governed by his means in a really positive way, considering the clear divisions before and subsequent to 1995, when he switched from his (predominantly analog) hardware setup into laptop composition and then back into a hybrid set-up with the modded disklaviers and drill & bass elements, but now it seems as if, when his setup is at its most complex he seems so deeply enamoured by it as to use his music as a showcase for gear more so than his own inarguable skill as a musician which was established by his status as one of the foremost innovators in popular electronic music. as superficially intriguing as the notion of instruments controlled by robots may subjectively be, the fact remains that almost everything he's done could be achieved by other means, whether physical modelling synthesis or hey, playing the fucking instrument himself. timbrally speaking yes, it's again somewhat alluring in its apparent exoticism but it's pure gamelan, with no injection of fresh ideas whatsoever.

frankly, as proficient as richard's new music may be, it's totally redundant. the inspiration seems to have run out after drukqs, which was ostensibly a dying gasp from the man. and in saying that, as much as I loved that record once, perhaps not so much now, it was starved of ideas, the same approaches to rhythm, to melody, to structure drawn out across two records. and it's the same thing I've said on this forum with regard to kanye west, the notional artist, here richard d james as the unimpeachable vanguard because of reclusion, because of past glory, because of a multiplicity of other interrelated reasons which is simply put up as a means with which to deflect the totally warranted accusations that he's, umm, done. this is of course on current evidence, but he's been sleepwalking for a good decade now.

and I mean you compare it to a group like ae, who have unfailingly obliterated every single boundary which befalls them over the course of two decades and, to be completely honest accomplished far more than richard ever has with greater breadth and compositional dexterity, but deprived of that cultural ubiquity they're near ignored at this point. of course people see them as part of the established canon, but due to their distinct lack of pretension in terms of image projection there's nothing for people to latch on to other than the music, hence no mythologies. exai was really unfairly ignored by all but a few publications and fanboys, which is so fucking perplexing when you consider how cohesive a statement it was, how far it pushed them out in every single direction while maintaining a distinct sonic/aesthetic identity.

even shorter: richard's fine but he's another victim of media, who venerate or deride art in terms of its cultural viability as opposed to on the basis of its musical validity, of which afx is a benefactor (or victim or whatever this is all total bullshit)






soundcloud stuff's cool though, yeah. no doubt it's him.

This album has really grabbed me. I'm on my third listen and I only heard it yesterday.


Best to describe it without sounding wanky? Umm...Hawkwind mixed with Neu I guess.

Here's a link to one of the songs

Ok, I thought this thread was dead in the water again, so I stopped giving a shit. But I know NR had a resolution for the new year--one that I wholeheartedly support-- to listen to and/or buy one new album every week.

I would be remiss in my duty to support this kind of obsessive compulsive music consumption if I stopped posting here entirely. I have actually had way too much going on to be able to keep up my unbelievable record & CD collecting pace from 2014**, but that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping up.

Here are all the albums I've picked up since January: (There's too much good shit in here to be able to confidently name an album for every week, especially in hindsight, but if this thread continues to float, I'll resume with an album for the week of March 9, 2015)

JANUARY:

1. Viet Cong - Viet Cong *
2. Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
3. Disappears - Irreal
4. Death Grips - Fashion Week
5. Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth *
6. Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt 2 EP *
7. Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$
8. Björk - Vulnicura
9. Pond - Man, It Feels Like Space Again *
10. MCFERRDOG - Lawd Forgive Me *
11. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
12. Future Brown - Future Brown
13. Vic Spencer - The Cost Of Victory
14. Chief Keef - Nobody
15. Moon Duo - Shadow of the Sun *
16. Kid Ink - Full Speed
17. Beat Spacek - Modern Streets

FEBRUARY:

1. Jack Name - Weird Moons *
2. Rone - Creatures
3. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
4. Big Sean - Dark Sky Paradise
5. Aphex Twin - Strepsipster
6. John Tejada - Signs Under Test
7. Grooms - CombThe Feelings Through Your Hair
8. Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late *
9. Ghostface Killah & Badbadnotgood - SOUR SOUL
10. Chief Keef - Sorry For The Weight
11. Dan Deacan - Glass Riffer
12. Six Organs of Admittance - Hexadic
13. Torche - Restarter

MARCH:

1. Hudson Mohawke - Hud Mo 100
2. Cannibal Ox - Blade of the Ronin
3. Oren Ambarchi & Jim O'Rourke - Behold *
4. Lightning Bolt - Fantasy Empire *

I'm forgetting stuff. Will update when possible

2014**
Speaking of this, my album of the year list is still over 100 motherfucking cocksucking albums long. I'm having a real bitch of a time editing it down to a manageable number without feeling like I'm casting my my own children out onto the street to fend for themselves.

Is anyone even remotely interested in what I think the best albums were in a year that's nearly 4 months dead? I won't be offended.... But if nobody cares I'll spend all the goddamn time I want editing this bitch, even if it takes me until 2016 to bring it down to 50.

If anyone gives the tiniest little pebble of a shit, I'll expedite things and just slap together an order for #'s 11-100 based on my mood at the time and I'll give it to Ya ASAP.

It's a damn good list, and it features a lot of artists that don't get a whole lot of coverage around these parts. Just thought some of you guys might be into it. Meh. Lemme know or don't.

Yes.

That's the short answer btw.

Nice. Nice.

I wrote Viet Congo instead of Viet Cong. I must have been thinking about how much I love Michael Crighton again. (like that's the kind of thing that just slips one's mind, right?) A-HA! Ho hum, nudge, nudge.

*Chortle*

I wasn't to impressed with the Viet Cong album. I'd heard a lot of good things and at the end of it it was just "meh".

Really? I didn't think I was going to give much of a shit, considering how much I loved Women, and how VC was pretty much into initially marketed as a consolation prize for fans of the band that should have probably picked up Sonic Youth's mantle.

But when the EP hit, I heard it before I knew it was (clever way of circumventing your own biases) and heard in in the record store. Sounded raw and fucked and glorious. The album really delivered for me, and I feel like it's possible that VC could have a long and fruitful career, making music that's just different enough from what Women were into to justify the group's existence.

Still, I would rather Women reunited... But overall, not a bad consolation prize. So far the best rock-type-album of 2015.

This week, Lotic blew my mind fuzz with this dandy new EP.
For those who like it hard and weird.

Two new albums I've listened to this week that I've really dug.



Brilliant album and looking on Spotify she has another one that's just come out. I'll give that a listen at some point.



I really didn't want to like the new Godspeed album (I feel they got so over-hyped it's stupid), but yeah, I can't deny there's some bitching riffs on this one.

I listened to it from start to finish, and even though I liked what I heard, it certainly didn't blow me away. I should revisit the second half, though.

Last week:

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "A Year With 13 Moons" (Kemado/Mexican Summer)


Oh hell yeah.