The A-Z of Music: 2013

[D_Davis]

2012 was the last year that I'll do a year best-of. It just seems like a fruitless endeavor, as the way I listen to, evaluate, consume, and study music is rarely confined to one year, and often the best album I heard for the first time in a given year is something very old.

Instead, this will be an on-going thread, with a major post for each letter of the alphabet as I discover something appropriate, and with a round-up of sorts at the end.

[D_Davis]

A - Autechre, Adverb, A.M. Architect - Electronic Triple Threat

Three albums from three amazing electronic acts that begin with the letter "A"

Adverb - next to Doyeq, Adverb is the reigning champion of minimal electronica. Both he and Doyeq released major albums in (http://www.etokarecords.com/album/periferico)2010 on the Russian techno net-label Electronic.RU, and both of the albums are incredible. Adverb's newest, an EP titled Periferico, is another brilliant example of this artist's skill. While not as altered as Doyeq's latest offerings, the music here is honed to genre perfection. If you like minimal electronica, it just doesn't get any better.

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/22/79/2279727231-1.jpg


A.M. Architect - they say that trip-hop is poised to make a big comeback, and if it does I expect it to sound more like A.M. (http://urbnet.bandcamp.com/album/pattern-language)Architect than Tricky. This guy has spent the last few years creating dusty, broken beats and warbled synth melodies, and composing some of the finest DIY electronic music I've heard. His music is groovy and haunting, and the perfect cap for a long night. Trip Hop always sounded best to me as sun-rise music, so it is appropriate that this architect works in the A.M.

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/20/14/2014194617-1.jpg


Autechre - This duo are pretty much the grandfathers of IDM; the old masters of glitch. Autechre's music (term loosely used) (https://bleep.com/release/41081-autechre-exai) genuinely sounds broken. The take raw digital waves and noise and meld it and sculpt it into sonic textures that are rich and nuanced. While some electronic musicians clamor for the warmth and fatness of analog, Autrechre's mojo comes from the stark, cold and sterile world of the digital. Exai sounds like music a sentient computer might make after having its microprocessors scrubbed with acid and steal wool; That Autechre can make that description into something pleasing and listenable is their true genius.

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs123/1105493388909/img/99.png

[Acapelli]

alternately, a is for autre ne veut


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qhHUmL0U6k

edit: if you had told me last week that i'd be into anything described as a combination of new age and contemporary r&b, i'd have told you to get out of my face BRO

[Acapelli]

also, hope i'm not stepping on your toes davis

[D_Davis]

also, hope i'm not stepping on your toes davis

Not at all! Happy for the participation.

[Acapelli]

kinda wish i was into all those electronic genres that you're into, especially when i see you so enthusiastic about this stuff, but minimal/idm/trip hop is just not for me

i've definitely given idm and minimal a fair shot. trip hop doesn't really do much for me

[Acapelli]

is d not gonna keep this going. let me see if i can kick his butt into gear by posting something

B - Banque Allemande

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6858/17819910152145461205942.png

The best German punk album you'll listen to all year (http://dbzwovier.de/) (well, unless Teenage Panzerkorps releases something)

[D_Davis]

Just waiting for what will surely be my B - March 5. :)

[Boner M]

is d not gonna keep this going. let me see if i can kick his butt into gear by posting something

B - Banque Allemande
Holy shit, didn't know they had a new album out. Loved Eins, zwei from a few years ago.

[Acapelli]

Holy shit, didn't know they had a new album out. Loved Eins, zwei from a few years ago.
it's really fucking good, 100 jahre berlin is definitely one of my favorite songs of the year so far, regardless of how premature this statement may seem

https://soundcloud.com/banqueallemande/100-jahre-berlin

[D_Davis]

B - Bowie....has been brickwalled

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/David_Bowie_-_The_Next_Day.jpg

This was not the kind of entry I wanted for this letter, but it can't be helped.

First off - I've noticed a pricing trend over the last couple of years. It seems like a lot of older musicians are charging $11.99-13.99 for their new MP3 albums on Amazon. This has been true with Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris, and now David Bowie. That's ridiculous. $9.99 is the price that I think is fair - anything more is too much to ask for a single album.

So when I saw that Bowie's new album was $11.99 (or $13.99 for the "deluxe" version, which contains a whopping 6 extra minutes of audio), I turned to the old stand-by - The Pirate Bay. For $11.99, I want to make sure I like the album before I reluctantly purchase it.

And then I listened to the first track. At once I knew something was wrong. I normally have my stereo set at about 18 for volume. The track started, and it was way too loud. And it sounded terrible. Everything was bombarding my ears at once - the high end sizzled completely over-saturated, and there was no room in the mix at all.

So I loaded up the track in my DAW to take a look. Good god.

http://i.imgur.com/hCXqasq.jpg
The audio has been completely squashed and totally brickwalled, thus stripping out any and all of the dynamics.

This is especially troubling when compared to the track below in the example above - Ziggy Stardust. Just look at how much room is in the mix! The loudest transient is more quiet than anything in the brickwalled track, and it sounds so much better. When I crank up the volume on Ziggy Stardust, everything comes alive! There is room in the stereofield for things to breathe and live. The brickwalled track sounds like ass, and it doesn't matter what volume it is set at.

What's most troubling is that Ziggy Stardust is the album that taught me about dynamics; it was the first album I remember buying that said "Best played at loud volume" on the inside. This was because back then, the listener was in charge of how loud something should be. We had control over the volume knob, and things were mixed and mastered properly so that they could be enjoyed at any volume, but they sounded better when turned up because of the increase in dynamics and perceived loudness.

But now?

Meh.

Another one bites the dust. Another causality of the loudness wars.

B could probably just stand for BRICKWALL mastering - a plague that is absolutely destroying the music we listen to.

[dreamdead]

Interesting study. D, how does this compare with the Devin Townsend "wall of sound" production methods? Is it all about the balance or ability for sounds to breathe...?

[D_Davis]

Interesting study. D, how does this compare with the Devin Townsend "wall of sound" production methods? Is it all about the balance or ability for sounds to breathe...?

It's all about dynamics. The squashing of the dynamics happens after the production, in the mastering phase. So there might be a great version of Bowies album out there, a pre-mastered version. I'm betting that the vinyl will sound better, just because you can't push loudness to these extremes on vinyl.

It's more than just being loud - the transients - the spikes often caused by things like snare drums, the initial hits of strings, etc. - are squashed down, and the non-transient parts of the audio are brought up to match.

In a lot of Townsend's music, the quiet parts are still quiet, while the loud parts are really loud. There are dynamics - the difference between the quiet and the loud. His music is definitely mastered at modern levels, that's for sure, but he doesn't squash the dynamics completely. He produces with a wall of sound, but so did Phil Spector and Brian Wilson. A lot of ambient drone music is a wall of sound.

On average, I've read that modern albums are mastered at twice the volume of albums mastered pre-2000. Couple this with the fact that so many people listen to music with ear buds crammed into their ears, and you can imagine the hearing loss epidemic we're going to face in the near future.

I realize that my ears may be more sensitive to this kind of thing, and I listen to music for different reasons than the average listener. I "hear" the production first thing - this is something that is important to me.

And I was also already irked that the album was $11.99 - so I was in a bad mood when I listened to it. :)

I'm going to revisit the album at a later date after I've had some time. :) Maybe I'll check it out on vinyl.

[D_Davis]

I've posted this before, but in case you haven't seen it, here is a good example of what is happening:

3Gmex_4hreQ

[D_Davis]

If you do a google search for "devin townsend loudness war" you will find various postings about him not embracing the trend. So even though his music can be loud, he still tries to keep dynamic range.

http://www.sputnikmusic.com/feature.php?id=5741


SM: As a producer, how do you feel about the Loudness Wars that are going on? Like the new Metallica album is so hard to hear because it was just so loud.

DT: I actually bought that record and listened to it twice, and it was not because I thought it was a bad record, it just sounded fucking bad. On Ki when we mastered it I told the mastering engineer, I was like...I officially pull my hat out of the loudness wars. Dynamics are what it's all about for me so with Ki it's a quiet record, it's a dynamic record...
SM: And then when it builds up...it builds up you can hear it properly. It's not a bunch of noise and it's not maxing out.
DT: Totally and I mean I think the thing is it's like any trend...that Loudness Wars is going to continue and go for it, man. And on the second record I'm doing I'm going to get it mastered by some big cheese guy who's probably going to pin it but I mean I'll try and pull it back a bit. But for Ki it's about music and it's about the personal experience of the guy or girl who is listening to it and if it's on your iPod and you want it louder just turn it up. If you don't listen to the record because it's not as loud as the Metallica record then that's fine, in all honesty I'd prefer you go listen to Metallica.

[D_Davis]

C - The Colours of Chloe, by Eberhard Weber

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o6UncXp_t0s/TYI1d6IX2qI/AAAAAAAACpA/pQS359zZV5o/s1600/61IzdLDw-LL._SS500_.jpg

Let's continue on to "C," with something far more positive. As of right now, this is the best album I've heard this year, and I doubt I'll hear anything better. It has quickly earned its way onto my top 100, and, with no amount of hyperbole, it has completely changed the way I listen to and make music.

Weber is a jazz bassist, a staple on the ECM label. His music is a little more on the experimental side, incorporating strange sounds, synthesizers, and ambient qualities.

This is his first album - released in 1973 - and from what I've heard it is also his best. Each track has something unique and wonderful to offer. Separately, they are expertly crafted compositions, but together they form an exquisite masterpiece of mood, and, what's more, Weber never forgets about the power of melody and motif; there are hooks buried in the deep folds of the sonic experimentation and textures.

The star of the album is the final track "No Motion Picture," one of the finest recordings I've ever heard. I've listened to it countless times over the last few months, and each time it triggers something new in me.

This album has become a sort of text book for me. I don't just listen to it; I study it; I learn from it; it has changed me in ways as meaningful as anything else in my life has.

This is powerful music.

Unfortunately, there are no tracks from this album on Youtube.

But it is readily available on Amazon. If you like quality, complex music, just buy it. It's $10. That's a small price to pay for something as powerful as this.

[D_Davis]

In retrospect, I shouldn't really blame Bowie for the mastering - it's virtually impossible to find commercially available, modern music that isn't mastered that way. Many times I'll check out tracks to find that they actually peak into the red - digital clipping - which is just crazy.

I guess I just expected a little more from him.

[D_Davis]

D - Darhsan Ambient, End of Days

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/28/11/2811868553-1.jpg (http://darshanambient.bandcamp.com/album/the-end-of-days)

Darshan Ambient's music often falls on the no-thank-you side of the Ambient/New Age line, but every once in awhile one of his (Michael Allison) albums hits the sweet spot. Originally released in 1999, and hard to find until now, End of Days is one such album. Like his masterpiece Providence (which appeared on my essential ambient list), End of Days is tranquil and pretty, with long compositions focusing on repeating melodies and lush pads. It's an album for reflection, for quiet mornings, for the ends of long days, and for nostalgic moments in the spring sun.

[D_Davis]

E - Escape Cone Listening Beam III, by Crystal Mooncone

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/21/33/2133616439-1.jpg


Live piano, woodwinds, and other acoustic instruments, mixed with electronics, found sounds, field recordings, noise, and other oddities. Together, everything combines to form a sound-world with concrete geography and tangible space, much like Eno's and Lanois' Apollo. It is at times beautiful, haunting, challenging, engaging, dissonant, tense, and tranquil.

[D_Davis]

E - The Expanding Universe, by Laurie Spiegel

http://www.unseenworlds.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/UW09.jpg

It's weird now, how the genre of electronic music is such a male-dominated field, because back in the very early days of electronic music, when there were only a small handful of artists, there were a number of very talented and highly influential women working with incredibly complex synthesizers and techniques. There was Wendy Carlos, of course, and the Bell Laboratories bunch, including Dalia Derbyshire (composer of the original Doctor Who theme), and Laurie Spiegel.

While Derbyshire worked more with tape loops and non-instruments, Spiegel tended to focus on different kinds of sound synthesis from subtractive analog to experimental digital/wavetable synthesis. Her compositions are incredible, and no where is here talent and vision more evident than on this album. She was a monumental force behind digital music creation, and using computers to create and record music.

http://www.unseenworlds.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/EmmanuelGhent1_color_Web.jpg

We need more women like her and Derbyshire today.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIqS5_bh4nM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgdIRM5iMNE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NChqEEz31eE

[D_Davis]

Crap - doubled up on E! It's been a long week. :)

[Derek]

C - The Colours of Chloe, by Eberhard Weber

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o6UncXp_t0s/TYI1d6IX2qI/AAAAAAAACpA/pQS359zZV5o/s1600/61IzdLDw-LL._SS500_.jpg

Let's continue on to "C," with something far more positive. As of right now, this is the best album I've heard this year, and I doubt I'll hear anything better. It has quickly earned its way onto my top 100, and, with no amount of hyperbole, it has completely changed the way I listen to and make music.

Weber is a jazz bassist, a staple on the ECM label. His music is a little more on the experimental side, incorporating strange sounds, synthesizers, and ambient qualities.

This is his first album - released in 1973 - and from what I've heard it is also his best. Each track has something unique and wonderful to offer. Separately, they are expertly crafted compositions, but together they form an exquisite masterpiece of mood, and, what's more, Weber never forgets about the power of melody and motif; there are hooks buried in the deep folds of the sonic experimentation and textures.

The star of the album is the final track "No Motion Picture," one of the finest recordings I've ever heard. I've listened to it countless times over the last few months, and each time it triggers something new in me.

This album has become a sort of text book for me. I don't just listen to it; I study it; I learn from it; it has changed me in ways as meaningful as anything else in my life has.

This is powerful music.

Unfortunately, there are no tracks from this album on Youtube.

But it is readily available on Amazon. If you like quality, complex music, just buy it. It's $10. That's a small price to pay for something as powerful as this.

Stumbled across a used vinyl copy of this for $5 and what a steal! Nothing to add except I agree with you on the final track. What a strange, beautiful composition.