a frankly unnecessary thread for me to post abt avant/weirdo songs from the past year

im bored and i miss the old plax thread on real ilx

think im gonna do a rundown like i did last year of stuff i really liked, no self-justification blah blah blah

20 spectre folk - keep your teeth clean (woodist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOTs4rlYzAA

this songs reminds me of nothing so much as elf power but the steady beat that powers it nowhere and the mired vocals that seem to seep out of the corners of the mix are p fantastic

19 bee mask - how to live in a smashed state (spectrum spools)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efZxBievdU

the bee mask album this is taken from wasnt my favorite record on spectrum spools or even really a standout admist the glut of perfectly fine synth/drone/komische/experimental records released this year. but this jarring, uncomfortable track spoke to me, unfolding with a simple but surprising grace

18 mars waters - where the sun sets (self-released)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKF8A1z53RY

a much more oblique nod to west coast nostalgia and the pull of the ocean. idk, i just really like it

17 young athlete's league - glossed over (ceremony)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYKDXQWesqk

uk dudes on a brooklyn label, one half of whom is also responsible for the weirdo maximalist collage outfit universal swimsuit. i had some argument abt how this songs lack of distinction is what makes it interesting: its like a grabbag of 2011 tumblr likes stretched over a warm but opaque thump but then i thought, i mean, its a gloss yknow?

16 benoit & sergio - walk & talk (visionquest)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGSWOYb9pNs

a little outside the scope of my remit here but i mean my baby does k all day

15 tonstartssbandht - a hymn our garden (arbutus)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsTPNiueVlY

theres nothing more serious than a joke

14 ducktails ft. panda bear - killing the vibe/12" version (new images)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yfopY8Dwkg

officially released as a single at the very start of the year winter gave us this gossamer elegy for chillwave. r.i.p.

13 18 carat affair - pretty girls i just dont know anymore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYiczcg9NK8

casiotone for the painfully hip, this is from a dude that just does ephemeral song fragments. there are a lot of ppl doing this sort of mechanical assembly line music and in some ways its more interesting for what it says/that it exists than for its formal qualities. but theres a kind of freedom and a joy in the 'i just discovered presets' take on technology and music here thats infectious

12 soft metals - voices (captured tracks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF8WqnIF_8o

just a killer song

11 grimes - crystal ball (arbutus/hippos in tanks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bWmLFaJA-Q

a song bearing this many influences and tropes deserves to get buried under the weight of history but its just meticulous. sleeps and never dies...

10 widowspeak - harsh realm (captured tracks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P2Xdfx-EGc

the way that molly hamilton starts the song singing 'last night, i thought of you' is so full of dread promise, the rest of the song almost doesnt match it. but it comes close.

09 sir stephen - move that body (100% silk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbbOgcC4Jcg

this does sound a lot like the mid 90s to me, like a lost track off the sort of pop dance compilations that featured technotronic jams but shorn of some of the cheesiness and gloss.

08 thegatitacosmica - only time (self-released)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdMsX8wLUD4

just incredible. mirrors and mirros

07 com truise - futureworld (ghostly international)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhrAlsQ0RAE

the track that best lives up the albums title

06 peaking lights - hey sparrow/d'eon remix (not not fun)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiHphHzLnWA

although the original is excellent in its own right d'eon slows it down and breaks it apart until it sounds like silverhaven's theme (aria) from a gameboy advance rpg that never existed

valentin stip - esquises

http://youtu.be/BprniHr7SZg

my friend ruth told me she listens to this ep when she's going to sleep, and this one in particular has that half-dreamed logic, or half waking, stepping in and out of its own rhythms. on headphones pressed up close against you, the smell of sleep in the room, music playing somewhere.

babe rainbow - bounty

http://youtu.be/DW2AOlhGRM4

or this. wind whistling, bad omens, night storms and horses breaking loose.

invisible conga people - can't feel my knees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BynhXGH-30

and like this fear of the body or the body not working right. weird pains. something malignant. a deep pit at the bottom of your stomach. i like how that synth line kindof loops around like its lost in circuitry. static on the surface.

vondelpark - hipbone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWFv0gw4m-M

i maybe listened to this EP more than anything this year. it made me think of taxi rides at night, crossing the river a little music playing. half remembered, half forgotten. this was maybe a hard year. or a good year. or idk. there was probably things i did that i shouldn't have done, or people i shouldn't have been hanging out with or places i shouldn't have been. this song reminds me of that feeling you have coming home in the early morning, closing the door quietly so as not to wake anyone.

invisible conga people - can't feel my knees

haha this was my #3!!!

if you were to make a rolling thread w/ this stuff & give it a 'rolling snap thread' type title what would it be

like rolling smooth jazz. rolling pure moods

im joking but i'm also curious

05 puro instinct - california shakedown (mexican summer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc876kDKV7Y&ob=av2n

so many great songs paid homage to the golden state this year but this does the best job of capturing the wistful haze and strange menace of things

04 torn sails - birds/taigo remix (claremont 56)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiEfcphsFxk

on a conceptual level i think this track is like the usurpation of man by machine, the way the drone-y folk gets superceded by the motornik beat that then expands out into space

03 invisible conga people - can't feel my knees (dfa)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykx5s_CQEXo

see above :DDD

02 trouble books & mark mcguire - floating through summer (bark and hiss)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jbb2RGPI6o

quiet and strong, a beautiful song

01 zodiac free arts club - celephaïs (permanent vacation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkmD2ShEXS0&feature=related

the lovecraft story that this song takes its name from has always been a favorite, partly an allegory for the impossibility of ever getting what you want and the price we pay for dreams its also a vision of a better world. but most of all its about exploration of the unknown, which i like to think is why they named this song after the story. the song seems to be reaching always outwards, towards the horizon, towards something better.

i love that torn sails one, the little curlicues of noise. i've never heard most of these. i'm working on it.

i think i may have you to thank for hearing the o.g. torn sails tbh! ilx for sure anyway. i also really liked that vondelpark ep (california analog dream is my standout pick) but i thought it was 10 and im sorta lame abt stuff like that

if you were to make a rolling thread w/ this stuff & give it a 'rolling snap thread' type title what would it be

at the beginning of the year i suggested a rolling thread called 'none but nyarlathotep' so i guess that? or rolling character map mb

tbh the k11 thread probably should have been like 'rolling train dreams' or s.thing that nodded more explicitly to north cali and the west coast weirdo tradition... rolling gently into the pacific or w/e

its hard to identify these things ahead of time really k10 was so east coast!

no they're both diff eps, the one with california analog dream is 10 i think but nyc bags i'm pretty sure was this year

that enya one too though right?

yeah!! there is/was a guy doing like pure moodz and ocarina of time (...) compositions in mario paint but he was using a more primitive version that didnt give it the same gravitas i think

you know that erdbeerschnitzel (?) song "to an end" i mean its so outside the remit of this thread it would be kindof a joke to post it also its 10 but idk i think you would definitely get it on it. i basically listened to it on a loop around jan/feb. at the time there was some interview with the guy in resident advisor where he talks about starting out doing mario paint stuff and it really intrigued me that he we would go to from that to something so ethereal, so organic where the mario paint format has this built in squareness and sharpness. i feel like my brain had been really enjoying trying to think those two things together, like the knives that might be buried in it and hearing the enya thing it kindof blew my mind just as a weird resolution to that.

one of the things that ive been really interested in is like... idk but the first time i ever played around with a keyboard and realized what like presets were, this kind of premade automated music i was so amazed. like its music, and you don't even to play it!

and i think theres this interesting connection btw the way demands of digital capitalism and music that is made entirely through manipulation of like precreated sounds. there are all sorts of precedents - sampling, loops &c &c - but stuff like mario paint really foregrounds the process. even s.thing like time wharp are tom cruise are 'about' this in interesting ways, stuff like dan lopatin's 'nobody here' or videogame work. its all concerned with the manipulation of data/information which is such an impt concept in our lives w/o really getting examined.

oooh shouldve edited that

something like bb 2.0 (http://inbflat.net/) is similar but here the collaborative nature seems like a bigger part. whereas theres a freedom and ingenuity in constructing a work entirely from small pieces, this kind of lego art. but i also wonder if in a way it isnt abt a kind of taste consumerism - choosing rather than 'creating' - where its abt the act of selecting ~the best~ thing.

Since people are posting some more out there techno & house stuff.. this is a good enough place to post this, I love everything this guy is doing, such a range of sounds and yet a very unified esthetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQmkTvnt7YU&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPXyuD_YwNo&feature=related

rolling train dreams

this reffing what i think it's reffing or is this some general cultural thing i'm unaware of

gonna check some of these out soon as i'm finished writing btw

ducktails killin the vibe is one of my favourite songs of the year

thanking u for this thread... heard / love like 25% of what's on here and have been impressed with most of the youtubes. especially that peaking lights remix my god that is right up my alley

what enya thing idgi

^ wait nm just saw it woops

Thanks for the list! Even though I do my best to pay attention to what's going on I always realise around EOY time that I've missed most of it.

My contributions to the spirit of the thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43dvViC_IHA

Julianna Barwick had a great year; The Magic Place is superb but her Ikue Mori collab is much knottier and even more rewarding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qorhOSwROgU

As the thread title says, Metal Mountains are melting my mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7beoB7mU288

"Soft Script" cops some obvious emotionally manipulative tricks but it does it so well I can't stop it destroying me every time.

Ford & Lopatin - I Surrender (Peaking Lights Bass Ship Remix)

I thought the F&L album was a bit gimmicky but some of the remixes are ace. Including this one! (Soundcloud link)

The Crystal Ark - Touch

Maybe a bit straight-up for this thread, but my #1 Bounciest Track of the Year (Soundcloud link)

hatchback - zeus and apollo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2RkfFDCrWc

all celestial visions. i felt like this album was moving parts of my brain around.

oneohtrix point never - replica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiwi7d0f91Y

this was maybe the lopatin thing i've enjoyed most since the chris de burgh thing, so squelchy and alien but based around that piano loop. something kindof anachronistic about it. i saw him live and this stuck out both times (although i fell asleep standing up the first time) and then the second time his visuals were these, like virtual sculptures, pyramids with eyes, not the fuzzy static i expected but gleamingly virtual and untouchable. i felt like that when i heard this the first time. first you see the hand play the piano, then you see the same thing again. it made sampling seem weird again for me. time repeating maybe. time out of joint.

regal safari - only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3bgp1wpdMY

this was v pretty

La Lechuza - Trampolin (Spotify link)

Not to be confused with La Lechera, La Lechuza brought out a 2011 album of Godspeed-affiliated chamber post-pop that the world received with apathy. The album as a whole is indeed kind of bland (I haven't listened to it in months) but "Trampolin" is an awesome clattery epic of melodic percussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opNf23OE-Bs

If you're following this thread, you probably know this one already.

sleep over - casual diamond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_L_NN7sS_Y

swooned so hard for this one: a tune as light and slippery as silk and yet all the instruments still buckle at the knees in an effort to carry it forwards. only the one echoey snare drum that sounds like something off an early ar kane record shows any sort of resilience

julia holter - try to make yourself a work of art
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu5QVDdThdw

still trying to get my head round this album, but this is the closest there is to a regular song on it - a rattling alarm sounding inside the queasiest of fever dreams. apparently she's buddies with linda perhacs and they're working on a record together?

motion sickness of time travel - day glow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGaMgo38TtA

spent more time falling asleep to this one album than anything else this year; tried listening to it in other -busier- situations and it hasn't really worked for me but if you want something that, when left to work undisturbed, will just slowly accrete like soft snow on the inside of your gnarled old skull, then this is pretty neat

I just downloaded the Julia Holter and Motion Sickness of Time Travel albums off Boomkat yesterday! Haven't listened to them yet though.

good choices imo. holter is the more immediately intriguing one, but they both need their own time and space to really come to life in

La Lechuza - Trampolin (Spotify link)

Not to be confused with La Lechera, La Lechuza brought out a 2011 album of Godspeed-affiliated chamber post-pop that the world received with apathy. The album as a whole is indeed kind of bland (I haven't listened to it in months) but "Trampolin" is an awesome clattery epic of melodic percussion.

haha! maybe when real ilx comes back i will rebrand as la lechuga
this thread is intriguing to me but it's a little impenetrable tbh
i already like some of the stuff here but the rest is new (to me) and there is so much of it!

i guess 100% silk is something i should have been paying attn to but wasn't this year.

i feel like there was potentially a lot of stuff i would have liked on that hipster house thread partic as the john talabot remix of cheaters was like top five for me this year but atm its not accessible on google cache

this reffing what i think it's reffing or is this some general cultural thing i'm unaware of

it was a reference to the dj short novel

i really like the trampoline song

I'm going flog Gazelle Twin here, for those who missed it on the Knife-y sandbox thread. Brighton's Elizabeth Walling seems pretty comfortable / flattered with the ubiquitous Karin Dreijer Andersson comparisons.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANaabsQo-uA

The entire The Entire City streaming on Gazelle Twin's site.

Again, with energy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANaabsQo-uA

That Julia Holter album is brilliant, couldn't recommend it enough.

Feel like Ryan Garbes "sweet hassle" full length fits in with this thread. He is a dude from Wet Hair.

looking forward to diggin into this thread

just as soon as i burn out on the tpain album
so like friday

## golden retriever - subsidence (nna tapes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVPOWz_AW9E

adding a bass clarinet to the usual dreamy synth gives a fullness to these dudes cosmic meditations. really happy this is up on youtube, eerie and spare and bright.

## craft spells - after the moment (captured tracks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a5v_XhoO-4

ok this is just fun indie stuff but its such a jam

## laurel halo - constant index/actress violet remix (hippos in tanks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t20RZyVfMk

someone mentioned this already on ilm but it deserves a place itt

## ben fleury-steiner - white embers (low point)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCVnNBiXoMY

composed, in the best way

## teams vs star slinger - punch drunk love (mexican summer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx8DRVesi30

how this wasnt a big hit or at least a modest blog hit is beyond me, the whole record is fantastic and conceptually playful and bangin

i was really stoked when i downloading widowspeak album after hearing harsh realm but the rest was so disappointing; so bland, no exceptional lead guitar, just dragging its feet in an unremarkable way. great song, though

what laurel halo stuff did you like this year if not logic? that youtube is fantastic

the FRKWYS vol. 7 she collaborated on is my fave thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S7aFTb-J9Q

but i also preferred her tape on nna, 'antenna'. generally i liked her more ethereal, ambient stuff to the beat driven work on 'hour logic'. this is also p good imo:

laurel halo - supersymetry (physical therapy remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U95DEt6mvg

have you heard blondes? feel like you or plax might be into them
this is released on the same label that did that frkways i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMKK8bRzNfU

i hadnt heard that track before! 'touched' was on my best of list last year but i missed the second 12" they did on RVNG intl.

dunno how avant/weirdo this is really but I got pretty into the Gatto Fritto album over the course of the year

great thread, thanks, lots of good recommendations itt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3X1ric_zoI

also since we're talking frkwys the blues control/laraaji (vol. 8) has been heavy rotation for me

http://soundcloud.com/igetrvng/blues-control-laraaji-awakening-day

holy other - touch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3qlkOBd9o

holy other remind me of a lot of stuff i've loved from the last couple years, the burial four tet collab and how to dress well in particular. parties through smoke, the gutted aftermath. i mean its sortof a cliche, the fractured voices struggling into language, the looming bassline, but it has a silky sensuality you don't always get with this. a grim, broken glamour.

Think I already posted elsewhere but the Sapphire Slows album on NNF is one of the best things they've released this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md7_PVqJ61k

i'm kinda into these guys' laurel halo remix that u posted but this one just kills it imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rrH4jrhqoE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69SE09wfcek

Really liking a lot of this Blondes stuff tbh

^ Meredith Monk samples on that track too apparently btw

This doesn't fit in with any of the other music on this thread but it suits the title I think. Except it's me posting.

This is a link to a download and pay what you like split album by Desert Island Dicks and Where Woodwose Walk called Clearance Sale

They're both from Glasgow and I found it through the Zavvi/Amoebic Industries bandcamp. Here's some blurb:

Desert Island Dicks and Where Woodwose Walk team up to reflect on the ongoing global financial crisis that started in the late 2000s.

Across ten tracks (including one collaboration) named after British retail chains that went into administration following the crisis, the two groups use noise, drones, field recordings, sampling and live instrumentation to explore connections between the current malaise and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Train sounds, Cisco Houston, news reports, Woolworths, Zavvi, "Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?", corporate malfeasance and T.S. Eliot all come together for the first time in what critics are already calling "Capitalist Realism in a disused arms factory". The two groups have pledged to make an accompanying follow-up album in the event of a double-dip recession.

natural snow buildings - this ice fortress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGlGHPMvUWM

youtubers itt killin it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8

Still discovering new stuff and throwing my draft EOY ballot into disarray...

The Hauschka & Hildur Guðnadóttir album is very pretty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUt_1-rSTiQ

As is The Advisory Circle album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuckyVN5dsQ

http://soundcloud.com/corpse-lights/youplayaarp

i like these guys. more explicitly indebted to anco than most stuff in this vein. its got this eerily unhurried vibe, even as the vocalist chokes and splutters away.

lee noble - youre privilege (bathetic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mNYIC9OWKw

spent some of the money my dad sent me on this record i like how little it presumes, how resolutely minor and low key a record this is, how it fades and stutters and never quite works up the courage to ask for yr attn

stephen mathieu - dawn (12k)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1FOeWzXTdo

dreaming