We done this yet? Lots of obscure stuff as usual, some dreadful some not. Use this thread for saying how many you’ve heard or sharing which ones you’ve investigated and what you thought of them
Number 100 sounds good to my ears, delicate voice and arty strings/woodwind. Maybe for people who like Colin Stetson when he’s being more mellow and things of that type
Literally only heard of like seven of those acts, and most of those I’ve barely ever listened to.
Going to assume some are just made up to fool people.
I have heard 5 of these records:
Spiritualized - boring
Porridge Radio - fine
Black Country, New Road - very good
Kendrick Lamar - very good
Sea Power - boring
I don’t think a lot of these other albums exist.
Here ends my analysis.
Sea Power at 3, lol
80% of those records don’t exist.
other ones outside of the big obvious ones I’ve heard and liked:
Maylee Todd - Maloo
mellow sci-fi pop music kinda. I know @rob.orch is a fan too
Nikolaienko – Nostalgia Por Mesozóica
prehistoric themed lounge music, like hanging with a few dinos in a hotel lobby
Heard 14 I think, and half of the Loop one but I turned that off because it was dull. Would have thought the Dhidalah and Shelley Parker records might have made their list but it’s hard to pick fault when (as this thread is proving) they cast a wider net than most.
Would recommend the Batu and Nik Colk Void records to anyone who hasn’t heard them.
Listened to at least some of 47 of these. It’s a good list and I’ll be checking out what I don’t know, though the ordering seems pretty arbitrary - didn’t really rate the number one, but Kendrick, Nik Colk Void, Saba and 700 Bliss are reasonable shouts for the top 20.
I’ll add Siete Catorce (45) as one I enjoyed of the more obscure options.
all these apart from Spiritualised plus Pusha T, Fontaines, Caroline, Saba, They Hate Change and some of Warmduscher - so 10? Haven’t even got to the new KLO yet
Need to give Otoboke Beaver a go from what people have said
It’s always 100 with them! Too many!
yeah saying this ambient record is better than this electro fusion record is obviously ridiculous. Would be better without the numbers but people love an ordered list
Listened to 32 and heard of a number of others but not yet got round to listening to them. Absolutely love trawling through these Quietus lists as there are always a number of hidden gems in there that I’d never discover otherwise.
Can strongly recommend Real Lies (#23) for late-night atmospheric downtempo electronica, Messa (#55) for doom metal infused with jazz and Arabic folk music, and Tanya Tagaq (#76) for a post-industrial take on Inuit throat singing.
oh yeah that Tanya Tagaq was extremely powerful. Listened to it on a walk at night and got scared in a good way
I’ve heard and liked more of those albums than the DiS list. Blackhaine most played thing this year by quite a significant margin.
Pretty convinced you hit 30 and your lists start matching quiteus lists more and more as time progresses
Fantastic band. In any other timeline they’d be massive: all the night time wistfulness of a Streets record with the 80s/90s pop banger sensibilities of New Order/Pet Shop Boys.
Heard 40-odd of them, I think. Some good uns amongst the ones I’ve listened to.
Tanya Tagaq’s is one of my favourite albums of the year so far. An absolutely fearsome political howl of a record.
Carmel Smickersgill’s EP is really good - a bit of an Anna Meredith vibe.
Black Pearl by 50 Foot Wave, Kristin Hersh’s heavier band, is great.
And there seem to have been quite a few birdsong-inspired albums this year. I thought Laura Cannell’s birdsong-inspired ambient recorder album was a beautiful thing and about the best of this sub-sub-genre.
would recommend They Hate Change anyway - Florida rap over DnB/garage/two-step inspired beats, with a little bit of cloud rap in some of the melodic elements. Good combo
Have listened to:
Carmen Villain - really beautiful but a bit forgettable
Rosalia - 70% of it is absolutely great, the rest not for me. Good album.
Kelly Lee Owens - really like it. Don’t know why it got a bit ignored elsewhere.
Loop - good comeback record. Not ground-breaking.
Saba - really good if not in the class of his previous record
FKA Twigs - really like it. My favourite of her records since the first singles
Kendrick Lamar - a work of towering genius.
There’s probably about twenty others that I’m aware of. A mix of things I really don’t like (Warmduscher), things I used to like but have lost track of (Sea Power), things I’ve never quite got round to (Felicia Atkinson) things I admire but don’t actually want to listen to (Derek Bailey) and acts I like with records I’ve not listened to yet (One More Grain).
Like Wire I’m glad Quietus exists to give a different angle on things.
in a list of obscure very left field stuff i’m surprised to see Sea Power at number 3. but it’s a reminder to listen to it again, there were some decent tracks on it
Supported The Avalanches and were miles better than them
been meaning to check out United Bible Studies as they’ve put out some stuff on Rusted Rail previously, whose Bandcamp archive I was just looking through the other day.