Playing Catch-up
 

Hello everyone!

Basically, the story is that when I first joined up here, I listened to a ton of music, got it in by the bucketload, and all was well.

Then, 8 or 9 years ago I just kinda...stopped. To be brutally honest with myself, most of the 2010s is kind of a lost decade for me and all the biggest tunes, albums and whatnot.

And here's where I'm going to go about slowly fixing that. Every time I update this thread, I'll post a tune I've discovered that was released sometime within the last...ooh, let's say 10 years. It might be blindingly obvious and cliche to you reading this, but as someone who fell off the wagon about a decade ago, it'll be new to me, ergo worth writing a few sentences about! It might be good, it might be mediocre, it might be the best or the worst thing I've ever heard - I'll still write a little about it.

And, if any of you feel like helping me out, recommend me a tune that was released sometime in the last 10 years. Anything at all. I don't care what genre, if you're not sure I'll like it or whatever. As long as it's on YouTube so I can post a video here, then I'll listen to it and write a few sentences on it.

Until then, here's an old favourite of mine as an example of how I'll be doing this.


Cuong Vu
It's Mostly Residual
Not quite as good as the studio version, as it lacks Bill Frisell's guitar which really makes the original possibly one of my favourite pieces of music ever. Definitely in my top 5-10 album openers, at least. I just love it when subtleties in sound and style all come together to create something wonderful, you know? And that drumming...bloody hell :love:

I'm very much in the same boat. My 2010s was the decade when I really started my career, moved twice, became a parent, etc. A lot of stuff happened, but music listening and discovery was at an all time low.

A few releases / songs I've really enjoyed from the 2010s (all posted previously elsewhere here) are as follows:


Karen Mantler

She wrote something about the crushing reality of her 2001 album Pet Projects commercially failing having forced her to become a waitress in New York or something. I thought it was over. Then she suddenly released a little gem of an album in 2014 called Business is Bad. Life is still hard for Karen, but her little trio sounds great and a couple of the songs are brilliant.

These are songs me and my wife sing along to in the car these days.



I taught myself Surviving You on piano and occasionally like to play it at home.




Aksak Maboul

Before this, their latest album was like back in 1981 or so. Suddenly, also in 2014 I think, we get a new (!) album from Aksak Maboul, Ex-Futur, now with the singer Veronique Vincent. I liked their early stuff okay, but I've been raving about their new stuff. I'm sure people are getting fed up with me, but whatever. It's great. Here are my two favourite tracks from that album.





They have since released yet another album, Figures from 2021. The song Silhouettes is my favourite from that one.


Snarky Puppy

I guess 2014 was a good year for music and me because it was also the year I discovered Snarky Puppy after they released We Like it Here. I guess you know them? Check them out :)




Misc

I just looked at my exotica / jazz thread from last year and I had posted this gem there.. I do think it's wonderful, so why not repost it here :D



edit:

By the way, thanks for your own rec, Bulldog :) I'm really enjoying that track you posted. Found the album and the version with Bill Frisell <3

A few of those I like


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orlb...nel=DeathGrips



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLi2...=LastGangRadio



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZFx...channel=Tirzah

Thanks for the videos guys. Anyone else reading this who hasn't posted anything, where are my recommendations dammit?! :p:

I'm joking, of course. But seriously, you got something released sometime in the last 12 years you want me to listen to, just post it here :thumb:

Put it this way - I'm off to Bucharest for a weekend in November, and off traveling for a few weeks through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland this winter, so I'll need a good playlist!


Caravan Palace
Lone Digger

Apparently a lone digger is slang for someone who's the only person in a room enjoying whatever music's on. Makes sense looking at this video. I just chanced across this at total random (that'll often happen here), and yeah, it's awesome. I love the production, how upbeat it is despite...well, just watch the video. I've found me a keeper here.

Hey, thanks for posting! And I know the feeling. It's not that I actively stopped listening to a lot of music, it's just that ever since I graduated university, a lot more stuff began getting in the way, for better or worse. And, I mean, trying to keep one's finger on the pulse, that takes time and energy. More energy than an old man like me can often spare anyway :p:

Unfortunately, I can relate all too well to Karen Mantler's Business Is Bad! I love the song though. It's a balancing act, isn't it? It sounds smooth enough to be accessible to non jazz lovers, but not too smooth that it ends up being dull and too inoffensive. There's still that experimental, improvised-sounding edge to it to keep the other side of the listening spectrum hooked. Sounds like there's a bit more of that angle to Surviving You. Good shout, I like this lass. I could picture seeing her trio playing at a bar in Vienna or something, I likey.

What I'm getting from Aksak Maboul is...I can't even remember the name of the sound (and I won't cheat by Googling it), but it's that kind of 80s, synthwave vibe that propped up the Thor: Ragnarok soundtrack, you know? Where's this lass from? I had a thread on here waaaaaaaaay back about listening to one album from every country in the world, and it sounds like she'd fitted right in with that. I like the cut of her jib...Veronica Winken in particular. Nice, bouncy kinda vibe, I could picture myself cranking that before I head out of my hotel room to a few bars for the night. And pfft, I'm sure you couldn't make people fed up with you talking about them if you tried :cool:

As for Snarky Puppy, the danger for me with big band jazz is that they can sometimes end up sounding like the band in Whiplash...not a bad thing, but the kinda music in that film did sound to me like the soundtrack for some 60s spy thriller. I dunno, maybe it's just me. But What About Me?....there's more to that. A bit more colour, a bit more vibrance. Again, I likey.

And Triste...oh god, I think I'm in love :p: I love this kinda music. I just love that carefree atmosphere, the solos that punctuate it, that metronomic rhythm. Do send more of this stuff my way if you can.

Jadis, mein Freund, these sound AMAZING!

I've heard the term industrial hip-hop before, and it sounds like something Death Grips would fit into? I love the minimalist production, that distorted kinda bassline (maybe that's not the word for it, I dunno), that sparse electronic beat. Great shout.

I think I may have heard Crystal Castles before...or maybe I've just heard the name. But it sounds to me like non-mediocre, semi-gothic dream pop. Reminds me of a lass I used to listen to called Zola Jesus - she might be worth your time.

Tirzah sounds great as well. Again, very minimalist, but not so sparse that it barely sounds like anything's there. I guess you'd call it a kinda punk aesthetic - the fact that you don't need too much to make a good, melodic tune. I'm gonna have to go down this rabbit hole after I finish work today.

Thanks for your response, Bulldog :)

There's something hugely endearing about Karen Mantler, I find. She's the child of Michael Mantler and Carla Bley and grew up under Carla's piano. So she's kinda from avantgarde / jazz lineage. But right from her first record back in the 80s, her line has sorta been that she's no good and can't get her stuff in order. Her first four albums are loosely about her and her cat Arnold. In her second album, her cat gets the flu. In the third, it's dead and the cover shows her in black mourning at Arnold's grave. In her fourth, she's trying to replace Arnold and kinda failing.

So she's kinda this oddball and it's a little hard to tell how much (if any) of her self-deprecating humour is based in reality. You can see her confidence on the piano falter in the Business is Bad performance during her solo after about 2:35 in what seems like a very Karen Mantler-ish moment. She seems scared of doing something ambitious that might not work, so she keeps it super simple. But her hands know the chords and her timing is great when she's just playing, so she's obviously very capable.

Her earlier records are more fusion-y, but on this one it seems a choice was made to keep things simple in terms of instrumentation and solos etc. and I actually like it better.

The way I found her is she's collaborated some with Robert Wyatt and later projects performing his music for Comicopera, so there's just the most tenuous Canterbury link which led to my discovery. She's not for everybody, but deserves a bigger audience, I think.


Aksak Maboul is mostly known for their two earliest album, particularly their second one which has this gem on it:



Fred Frith from Henry Cow plays on that so Aksak Maboul was part of the Rock In Opposition movement / bands back in those days. I would guess a lot of old fans won't appreciate their new direction (I know one who doesn't).

For myself, I hear the avantgarde mixed with the more accessible and sometimes, they get it just right (imo). Afflux De Luxe is fairly straight forward, but it has a great key change in the verses and there's a polyrhythm where the melodic percussion plays a different time from the other instruments. The way they use the male vocal as a sorta percussive element is kinda interesting.

Veronika Winken is more in-your-face weird, I guess. There are some nice details, like the little guitar part that comes into the verse after about 2:50 minutes.

I also immediately made the connection to Whiplash :laughing: Ironically, they came out around the same time. Maybe the movie even helped boost the band a little.

I haven't actually listened to much SP beyond that one album, but I've been meaning to check 'em out. One of the astounding feats of We Like It Here, I think, is that they recorded and filmed it live in the studio and it just sounds amazing. Their playing is tight and the mix is great.


I've been on the search, but this is an astounding track in my opinion. Alba Armengou who sings makes such a performance and sounds phenomenal, especially here with those backup singers. This circle of jazz artists with Alba singing have made more songs, although so far this version of Triste seems to be on a different level.

What turned me on to this kinda latin vocal jazz to start with was the album Feminina with Joyce, so that might be worth checking out. I think it's from 1981.

It's hard to pick a favourite from that album because it's great, but here's a song she wrote as a lullaby to her daughters Clara and Ana whom you can also hear singing towards the very end of the track.

Don't know if this would just sneak in under the wire (2013) but worth listening to, I think.


Came across these when I attempted to listen to every album on Wikipedia's list for 2017. I failed (but I got to June, so not too bad).




You may hate them all, that's fine. But I really liked them.

Hi! Nice thread idea, and welcome back to the forum :) Here are some recent punk-ish things I like:

To quote a great Bjork song, the pleasure is all mine!

The Tirzah song was written by Mica Levy for her friend (lover?), so you could say the real rabbit hole to go down is Micachu. Been a huge fan ever since hearing this on Bjork's YT channel 12 years ago. Her soundtrack for Under the Skin is fantastic too.

I can relate. I had twins in the 2010s. Thankfully, as they got older, I was able to get back into listening, as well as enjoying, albums. Since the past year and a half, I've made up for lost time. I'm buying CDs like they're going out of style. I've come to places like this and discovered all kinds of new bands (well, new to me).

Sorry it's taken me so long getting back here, everyone! I think it's safe to assume that I'm most likely to post on weekends here. I've been putting some videos together, planning some holidays, finally put the finishing touches on this project I've been working on for 6 months, I'm teaching myself Romanian and Hungarian - you name it and it's on my plate :p:

Not that I'm complaining, of course. I'd rather be pushing myself like this than doing nothing at all!

Please do keep the videos coming, people. I'm loving seeing all these when I finally get the chance to jump back online for a while!
Yeah, that self-conscious, self-deprecating vibe is something I can relate to all too well. There's plenty of stuff I've made which a lot of the time I'm just so nervous about putting it out into the world however I can. You kinda look at your competition, start measuring your work against everyone else's, it's not a fun road to travel! You're spot on though, it does make her particularly endearing when you have that in mind.

Of course, some of it may well be an act to whatever degree. After all, putting yourself and your work out there into such a fiercely competitive market, you've got to do whatever you can to make yourself look as unique as possible. At least, that's what I think anyway.

The Robert Wyatt link definitely makes my ears prick up a little bit. Apart from knowing him for a bunch of his solo work (I think I've got his album Schleep on one of my hard drives somewhere), Elvis Costello wrote the song Shipbuilding for him. And the version that Wyatt recorded was one of David Bowie's favourite ever songs (on one of those rare occasions where he'd talk about such things).

That Modern Lesson track is pretty nuts, by the way. I'm no expert on this kinda music and I honestly never was (I remember back in the day when I was more regular, you'd be lucky to get 4 or 5 new posts in the Jazz forum here in a week), but I've always wanted to dive into more. For me, it's the kinda thing you have to just get a hook into and sort of watch unfold before you, if that makes sense? This more avante garde jazz sstyle for me is more about the colours and shapes you envision as you listen as opposed to identifying with a hook or a melody, at least for me. I may well be talking rubbish here!

And that Femina track is gorgeous as well. I used to have quite a bit of music like that. I may even have put one of them in that favourite albums thread I made - Bebel Gilberto was her name. I haven't listened to her for years though (like a lot of things!). Clearly, there's some sort of link in influence there. Thanks for the recommendation.

I mean, thanks for all the recommendations, keep them coming if you like :beer:
Hey dude, thanks for dropping in :cool:

I like the John Grant track. Around 44/55 seconds, that's where I first heard this strange, distorted guitar type sound that kept popping up through the rest of the mix. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm going insane from sitting too close to the TV, I don't know, but I liked it. I wasn't crazy about the lad's voice, but there's some very interesting layered sounds and textures going on. Good track, I'll check some more of his out.

I thought Tennessee was a decent little track. I heard a little Rufus Wainwright in that earnest, powerful kinda vocal delivery, which is no bad thing of course. Again, maybe it was just me.

Kudos for bringing up Kasey Chambers. Her first two albums - The Captain and Barricades & Brick Walls - are a couple of favourites of mine that still get some airtime to this day.

Eisley didn't really do it for me I'm afraid. I didn't hate it, it's just personally not my cuppa tea.

But hey, send some more my way in this thread if you like. I'm hungry for some new sounds, and it's feeding time :p:

Thanks, it's good to be back :)

Put the words 'post' and 'punk' into a sentence, and I'm there. Dry Cleaning was a great start, sounded a little Gang Of Four-esque, loved that chaotic rhythm. It reminded me a little of something I'd hear on the Return Of the Living Dead soundtrack, for some reason. I say for some reason, as that soundtrack's basically a love letter to first wave 1970s punk rock, so not post-punk in the slightest. Something about this one though that reminds of that movie though, all the same. And it's one of my favourite films ever, so kudos :beer:

What's next...Uranium Club? Instantly getting some very Beefheart vibes from this opening guitar. That bass sounds like something the Birthday Party would have come up with. And I don't know what that distorted synth thing's going for, but it sounds odd, so I like it. And now it's picking up speed...and here come the vocals! I'm getting some Joy Division/James Chance/Beefheart vibes from this overall. Great track, I loved it. Re Joy Division, it reminds me a lot of Dead Souls in how half it's this really great instrumental where on your first playthrough you're thinking "this really doesn't need vocals", but then said vocals come along, and whaddya know - it's perfect!

I can't remember who did the song, but there's that tune Warm Leatherette, which was a DIY indie smash back in the late 70s (I think...again, I'm hazy on the details), which was one of a wave of Rough Trade singles which were literally recorded in people's bedrooms and garages. Again, a totally different kind of song, but the vibe is similar. Rustic, lo-fi, down-to-earth...all pulled together by someone who's obviously really smart behind the mixing console.

I loved these ones, thanks so much for them!

Ah, Under the Skin is a beast of movie! I saw that in the cinema on release, thought "what the hell was that", couldn't really stop thinking about it, and BOOM - watched it a second time and absolutely loved it. It stands to reason that Micachu's music is just as oddball and unique as that movie itself.

Well, it may be over a decade late, but congratulations on the twins :beer: And you'll find a ton of great stuff on here, if it's anything like it was when I was regular back in sort of 2008-2010 (I mean, Christ, those years feel like I spent them on a different planet now).

Maybe you'll find some good stuff in this here thread too, you never know!