Frownland's Top 20 Albums of 2017 (featuring 17 honourable mentions)

**Frownland** · 01-08-2018, 06:09 PM

Best Personal Musical Discovery of 2017

So this part will be about what I consider to be the best music from years past that I learned about this year. Aight?

Sublime Frequencies: Molam, Minority Ethnic Music, Mono, and Asian Music in General

Sublime Frequencies is the label run by Alan Bishop and Hisham Mayat. Some of you might already be familiar with their Omar Souleyman or Group Doueh releases. Others are OGs and already know how awesome the label is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mission Statement

Sublime Frequencies is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations.

Sublime Frequencies is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research.

It all began when Mondo sent me a cut from Ethnic Minority Music of North Vietnam, which is part of a series where they would go and record the tribes of various countries. That led me to the album Ethnic Minority Music of Northeast Cambodia which I grew to love because of the vocals and gongs.

It wasn't until I spent a lot of time on those records that I progressed to learn about the psychedelic folk genre molam in Sublime's Frequencies' Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2. My first reaction was that it was the best music that I'd ever heard in my life. I just sat in awe of most of the record since it was so clearly derived from Western psychedelic music but rests in such an entirely different realm. That was a good night, my dudes. It was later my pick for the album club (RIP).

That later led to Princess Nicotine, which is a Mono (Burmese pop/folk) compilation that also put me into a similar state of elation when I first heard it. I love the excitable sensibility in the rhythms and the vocals.

I'm still slowly chewing my way through their discography, but even if they only had what I've heard from them so far (there are a few that I'ven't mentioned), I can't help but thank chaos for Alan Bishop for offering us this on top of Sun City Girls, Alvarius B. and the rest of his works.

**Frownland** · 01-08-2018, 06:14 PM

Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly.

Anteater · 01-08-2018, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly.

Looks like I win.

**Frownland** · 01-08-2018, 07:41 PM

I have to revise my list now.

OccultHawk · 01-08-2018, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly.

Err Guitar

OccultHawk · 01-08-2018, 08:17 PM

Also, I’m going to assume you know better than to choose Known Unknowns

**Frownland** · 01-08-2018, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Err Guitar

Good choice, we'll have to see if you're right.

FYI the list is finalized so I won't switch it up on you guys to screw you out of the prize if you guess right.

~~MicShazam~~ · 01-09-2018, 04:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly.

Don't think I have any chance of guessing it, but I'm going with this one, for a lack of better ideas.

**Goofle** · 01-09-2018, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly.

I have a few ideas but I have looked through your last.fm, so I don't really wanna cheat.

Mindfulness · 01-10-2018, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly.

01-08-2018, 06:14 PM	#82 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Also, anyone who can guess my number one album before I start my top twenty list gets a prize. Deadline is after I finish my 17 honourable mentions and other filler. Dead serious, you will get a dope prize if you guess correctly. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

01-08-2018, 07:41 PM	#84 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	I have to revise my list now. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

01-08-2018, 08:17 PM	#86 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,033	Also, I’m going to assume you know better than to choose Known Unknowns __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html