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South Africa4316 Posts
Over 50 albums now, and we're still going strong. Today I've made a list of all the 2009 albums I need to get, so depending on when I get the music, I'll have some new music to listen to soon. Also, thanks for all the recommendations, I've added them all to my list of music to get!
1. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
What? Hip Hop
When? 2008
Why? Continuing our trend of jazz hip hop and producer albums, Q-Tip is the perfect combination.
Show me! + Show Spoiler +
2. Felix Laband - Dark Days Exit
What? Electronic
When? 2005
Why? Minimalist electronic sounds, perhaps a bit similar to Boards of Canada, but more minimalist and more pretty.
Show me! + Show Spoiler +
3. Phillip Glass - Les Enfants Terribles
What? Classical
When? 1982
Why? Phillip Glass is interesting and challenging usually. This isn't, it's beautiful, comfortable piano music.
Show me! + Show Spoiler +
4. Nocturnal Winds - Of Art and Suffering
What? Melodic death metal
When? 2001
Why? Some of the best clear guitar riffs in melodic death metal. Vocals are perfect as well.
Show me! + Show Spoiler +Can't find anything from this album in reasonable quality. This, from an earlier album, still has terrible audio quality, but at least you can hear the sound more clearly.
5. Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
What? Indie
When? 2005
Why? A bit of punk, a touch of new wave; makes me think of Morrisey to be honest. Their best album!
Show me! + Show Spoiler +ignore the fact that Lily Allen covered this. It is a damn good song
I'm really annoyed that I couldn't find the Nocturnal Winds songs I was looking for. If you find Erased or Silent Wings, listen to them, they are amazing. Other than that, I promise to avoid jazz hip hop and producer specific albums like the plague for at least the next two weeks! Let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: The title says that it is Daigomi's guide to good listening. That means its my opinion. Feel free to disagree as long as you provide reasons; I enjoy a good discussion as much as the next person. Also, I just like listening to music, I don't give a shit for the political implications of any music.
+ Show Spoiler [E-Cookie winners to date] +Day 4 - Eti307 - Wale sampling Yann Tiersen
Day 8 - - Name a song that samples Rodriguez's Sugar Man.
Day 9 - - Which tv game's music is sampled in Percee P's 2 Brothers From The Gutter
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1. Q-Tip - The Renaissance - I like the beat but I'm not too keen on his voice (it's a bit nasally). For some reason I was half-expecting a more interesting chorus/hook maybe with some female backup singers, but it never came =(.
2. Felix Laband - Dark Days Exit - Great song showing why music doesn't have to be wall of sound. It's nice being able to count on one hand the number of instruments and things going on in a song. This is something I'd expect to hear in a movie like The Life Aquatic. I think a under the sea animation/cartoon music video would go well with this song as opposed to the weird stuffed animal and finger dancing around in front of a fish wallpaper background.
3. Phillip Glass - Les Enfants Terribles - For some reason I always think of The Truman Show when I think of Phillip Glass. He has some beautiful pieces, but I can see how people think he's a bit repetitive:
+ Show Spoiler +
4. Nocturnal Winds - Of Art and Suffering - I think the fact that this has a clear melody makes it more listenable to people like me who aren't particularly into metal and all its musical genre relatives. I still don't really understand the growling ... I'm sure they're saying real words (I think?) but if I can't understand them I don't really think it adds that much to the song. (I do sometimes like it when singers use their voice as an instrument through humming/beatboxing/or whatever ... but the unintelligible growling/singing to me doesn't really fall under that type of "adding to a song" category)
5. Kaiser Chiefs - Employment - What a great opening to the song ... the first 30 sec are pretty amazing. Something about their voices bothers me though, it might just be their delivery which I don't like (reminds me of some old show like Gilligan's Island):
+ Show Spoiler +
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omfg to anyone who's "not keen" on q-tip's voice
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Q-tip has done nothing but disappoint me since he started doing solo stuff... never even checked out that album. Everything just sounds like a step back from Tribe to me. May have to check this though since I find myself agreeing with your tastes a lot (and we're medium compatibility on last.fm).
Props on the Felix Laband... lots of people into electronica never venture beyond warp, ninja tune and stuff from car commercials. Dark Days Exit is the best album of the stuff of his I have.
Philip Glass... hard to ever pick a good album to get people into him. He's so famous from his soundtracks now though it is a lot easier than it used to be.
What's up with only now getting to 2009 albums? Already great stuff coming out in '10.
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Q-tip's solo albums are way better than most old school rapper comeback albums. Everything he does will forever and ever be a step down from tribe stuff.
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South Africa4316 Posts
On March 09 2010 05:22 lac29 wrote:1. Q-Tip - The Renaissance - I like the beat but I'm not too keen on his voice (it's a bit nasally). For some reason I was half-expecting a more interesting chorus/hook maybe with some female backup singers, but it never came =(. 2. Felix Laband - Dark Days Exit - Great song showing why music doesn't have to be wall of sound. It's nice being able to count on one hand the number of instruments and things going on in a song. This is something I'd expect to hear in a movie like The Life Aquatic. I think a under the sea animation/cartoon music video would go well with this song as opposed to the weird stuffed animal and finger dancing around in front of a fish wallpaper background. 3. Phillip Glass - Les Enfants Terribles - For some reason I always think of The Truman Show when I think of Phillip Glass. He has some beautiful pieces, but I can see how people think he's a bit repetitive: + Show Spoiler +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNiOqa1nWgI 4. Nocturnal Winds - Of Art and Suffering - I think the fact that this has a clear melody makes it more listenable to people like me who aren't particularly into metal and all its musical genre relatives. I still don't really understand the growling ... I'm sure they're saying real words (I think?) but if I can't understand them I don't really think it adds that much to the song. (I do sometimes like it when singers use their voice as an instrument through humming/beatboxing/or whatever ... but the unintelligible growling/singing to me doesn't really fall under that type of "adding to a song" category) 5. Kaiser Chiefs - Employment - What a great opening to the song ... the first 30 sec are pretty amazing. Something about their voices bothers me though, it might just be their delivery which I don't like (reminds me of some old show like Gilligan's Island): + Show Spoiler +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY
1. One of the biggest characteristics of jazz hip hop to me is the lack of hooks. It's not like Jay-Z where you put in a killer hook to pull the crowds, instead you have these songs that all seem to meld together into one big jazz chillout session. Voice, everyone has his or her own tastes. I do like his delivery though, its a bit different from many artists, especially in the jazz inspired area.
2. Haha, the Felix Laband video is just some random spanish guy's video that happens to use the song. The only video I could find that uses Minka. And The Notes After, which is one of my favourite electronic songs ever. The whole album is good, but that song is absolutely mind-blowing to me.
3. That video is so true. His music goes from absolutely bizarre (Einstein on the beach) to very repetitive (some songs on Solo Piano, for example).
4. Like you say, growling is mostly using your voice like an instrument. It expresses a lot of emotion, and generally it adds some sanity to the music. Like, the voice, in all its brutality, focuses the music. Haha, it is difficult to explain, but you get used to it. I always said that metal is one of the greatest acquired tastes. In the beginning you hear a lot of noise, but after a while listening to the individual instruments and how they work together becomes perfectly natural.
+ Show Spoiler [example] +close your eyes and just listen to the music. metal videos are so horrible it is unbelievableIf you listen to this song, the music has a basic repeating riff with a furious double-base going. The music is in fact driven by the voice as much as by the lyrics. If you listen, you can hear how the voice changes to accentuate certain changes in the music, and similarly how the music sets up changes in tone in the voice. Haha, it's almost impossible to explain. All I can say is that the music can't live without the vocals, and if you stop expecting a human voice, then you might be able to see how the two go together 
5. The delivery of Kaiser Chiefs really does remind me of Morrissey. The same bored, flat, British deliver. Might just be me though
+ Show Spoiler +
On March 09 2010 05:32 mucker wrote:
Q-tip has done nothing but disappoint me since he started doing solo stuff... never even checked out that album. Everything just sounds like a step back from Tribe to me. May have to check this though since I find myself agreeing with your tastes a lot (and we're medium compatibility on last.fm).
Props on the Felix Laband... lots of people into electronica never venture beyond warp, ninja tune and stuff from car commercials. Dark Days Exit is the best album of the stuff of his I have.
Philip Glass... hard to ever pick a good album to get people into him. He's so famous from his soundtracks now though it is a lot easier than it used to be.
What's up with only now getting to 2009 albums? Already great stuff coming out in '10.
Regarding Q-Tip, I tend to agree with zulu, his solos are pretty damn impressive. I wouldn't say he's the only old-school rapper that has successfully made new stuff (quite a few Wu-tang solo albums are good, for example), but yeah, it's definitely comparable imo. If you haven't listened to Renaissance, that might explain it though. Amplified is still close to tribe stuff (although it is a good album), while Kamaal is a bit werid, because it was firstly supposed to be a bit more experimental, and secondly because it was scheduled for a release in 2002 and ended up being shelved until 2009. The Renaissance is, to me, his album that he should be judged on. It's new, it sounds fresh, and he clearly has his own sound in it.
Felix is amazing. I mean, so are the warp and ninja tune artists (I think I had a Ninja tune discography in about 2006, but its so far out of date by now  ), but Felix is something completely different and creative. Also South African, so yeah...
I think Glassworks is nice and listenable without being boring, so it's a good place to start people at.
My problem with getting music is that I listen to too many genres to stay up to date with any scene. So I have a very elaborate research plan which involves me waiting until the end of the year and then going on a massive research spree. The advantage is that I get lots of "Best of 2009" lists to go through. From these I do like a massive intuitive meta-study, looking at lists that seem to correspond with my tastes while at the same time seeing which albums are mentioned on most lists. Once I've done this, I might look at some genre specific recommendations, getting some more ideas. Also, I'll try to get all the albums from artists I already like.
I usually end up with about 200 new albums that I want to get. I then spend the next month or three listening to these albums extensively, deleting the ones I don't like while using the ones I do like to as new data points to find me other interesting albums. I then get small numbers of albums throughout the year as things pique my interest, but by large, I leave the year alone till the end, when I go on another large research spree :p
One thing I did find this year is metacritic (I knew it existed before, but I never bothered to check it out). Unlike most people that insist on their own opinions, I have a lot of faith in the opinions of critics. I mean, it's not the be-all and end-all to me, but if the 20 most influential critics gave an album 90/100, then I'll give it a try. Its also a nice place for me to see if any artists I like have released anything new
EDIT: Those Chiddy Bang songs kick ass. I listened to the first one and the sample was driving me mad, until I realised it was MGMT. I was so impressed with myself, and then I saw the Kids right under it  Still waiting for someone to figure out the Percee P sample from Day 9, it's so easy!
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I'm sure you can find better "classical" music than Phillip Glass... That said, I like your previous choice of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto (and the Elgar cello concerto). The Rachmaninoff no. 2 is still my favorite piano concerto despite being so overplayed (though not as overplayed as your first classical recommendation  ).
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South Africa4316 Posts
On March 09 2010 09:16 Saracen wrote:I'm sure you can find better "classical" music than Phillip Glass... That said, I like your previous choice of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto (and the Elgar cello concerto). The Rachmaninoff no. 2 is still my favorite piano concerto despite being so overplayed (though not as overplayed as your first classical recommendation ).
Haha, if my purpose was to list all the greatest music then I probably could, althought then I would run into tons of people disagreeing with me, and it would turn into a shitfest again. Instead, my purpose is just to recommend music that I think people should give a try listening to. Do I think people should try listening to Glassworks? Yep! Do I think they should listen to it rather than other classical music? Not necessarily. As long as I think the music is good listening, I'll recommend it here
Also, do you really think Cello Concerto no. 1 is more overplayed than Piano Concerto no. 2? I have never heard anyone discuss the first cello concerto, while the second piano concerto is probably one of the most well known pieces other than a few Beethoven symphonies :p
Oh, something else that I want to say that is not really related to you but anyway. I try to give music that's a touch less known in this blog. This is because the purpose of the blog to give people music to listen to that they don't know, and mentioning albums currently on the billboard chart will clearly fail at that. However, when it comes to music that is older than 10 years (which includes all classical and all classic rock basically), then I'm going to list the more well-known pieces as well (if I think they are good listening of course!) simply because I think a large part of the TL population might have missed them, or do not listen to the genre in case of classical and classic rock. It's not good putting up an Alphataurus album if no-one has ever listened to a Black Sabbath album.
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I really don't think it's a bad thing at all to recommend Philip Glass. He provides a unique listening experience and has been an influential figure in music. Plus he turned parts of my two favorite Bowie albums into symphonies ^_^
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First time checking your blogs. I really like the music you been selecting :D. You might like this site if you haven't seen it yet.
http://www.blogotheque.net/-Concerts-a-emporter-?lang=en (theres a fair amount of bad bands, it's mostly just small bands)
Love Felix Laband - Dark Days Exit, I was glad to see that you put that up.
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EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Daigomi/Banner__Good_Listening_Guide.png)
