Best New Albums of 2017 *

My favorite ambient albums of 2017

My favorite albums of 2017

Some of these push to the edge of ambient, and maybe beyond at some points.

1. Kristoffer Lo - Anhedonia
2. Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Ambient Black Magic
3. Chihei Hatakeyama - Mirage
4. ekin fil - ghosts inside
5. Slomo - Transits
6. GAS - Narkopop
7. Kassel Jaeger/Jim O'Rourke - Wakes on Cerulean
8. Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

 

My favorite world music releases from 2017

My favorite albums of 2017

1. Lankum - Between the Earth and Sky
2. The Drummers of the Société Absolument Guinin - Soul Jazz Records Presents Vodou Drums in Haiti 2: The Living Gods of Haiti – 21st Century Ritual Drums & Spirit Possession
3. Clann An Drumma - Order Of The Stag
4. Jeich Ould Badu and Ahmedou Ahmed Lewla - Top WZN
5. Songhoy Blues - Résistance
6. Nataša Mirkovic - En el amor
7. Bargou 08 - Targ
8. Cevdet Erek - Davul
9. Saagara - 2
10. Girma Bèyènè - Mistakes on Purpose (Ethiopiques 30)

 

Clonesteak LIKEY

 

Listening again to the In Zaire Visions of the Age To Come album today, and still lots of fun, so much cool music around the world these days, only a tiny fraction really gets any notice, shame, guess all we can really do is what we all do, talk about it around places like this and hope some of the artists get a little recognition ...

 

Yeah I dig IZ but haven't heard that one yet, I mostly know White Sun, Black Sun. But as to your comment--especially if we are talking about mostly instrumental psych, space rock, neo-kraut, it is impossible to keep up with, there is so much stuff. A lot of it is good, considerably less is great...

 

This one came out in November 2017, just gotten round to it. Wow! The Acrobat by Death of Lovers.

Another amazing entry in the post-millennial post-punk revival canon. The Acrobat invokes Simple Minds, Tears for Fears, and contemporaries White Lies.

 

I grabbed this the day it was released...it's basically the normally shoegaze-y band 'Nothing' doing material with an 80s Cure,Echo, etc sound. Not original in any way but a great listen if you're into that sort of thing (and I am!).

 

Hibushibire Freak Out Orgasm! album of the year

 

Very late in getting this out. My favorite Electronic releases from 2017

1. Jlin - Black Origami
2. Iona Fortune - Tao of I
3. James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
4. Floating Points - REFLECTIONS - MOJAVE DESERT
5. Emptyset - Borders
6. Hibernation - The Aquarius EP
7. Tipper - Flunked
8. The Bug vs Earth - Concrete Desert
9. Call Super - Arpo
10. Justin Walter - Unseen Forces
11. EARTHEN SEA - An Act of Love
12. F ingers - Awkwardly Blissing Out
13. Kowton - Pea Soup / Iodine
14. Porter Ricks - Anguilla Electrica
15. Forest Swords - Compassion
16. Brainwaltzera - Poly-Ana
17. Bola - D.E.G
18. Sherwood & Pinch - Man Vs. Sofa
19. Ploy - Intrigued By The Drum
20. Deena Abdelwahed - Klabb - EP

My favorite albums of 2017

 

Ten favorites in no order:

Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life
Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts - MILANO
Ty Segall - Ty Segall
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup
Thundercat - "Drunk"

St. Vincent - Masseduction
Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings - Soul of a Woman
Ariel Pink - Dedicated to Bobby Jameson
Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

 

Kelsea Ballerini - Unapologetically

 

11th Hour -- Silence the Stones, great new country gospel with a southern rock edge. (I'm actually a pretty hardcore atheist, but I love gospel music--I don't judge music on whether I personally agree with lyrical content.)

 

Vulfpeck - Mr. Finish Line



(Can't believe this one wasn't mentioned in this thread, although maybe I made a mistake searching for it)

 

Lindsay Ell - The Project

 

Fickle Friends - Glue (EP)

 

A$AP Ferg - Still Striving

 

Blind Boys of Alabama - Almost Home

 

Eluveitie - Evocation II - Pantheon

 

Neck Deep - The Peace and the Panic

 

Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer - Not Dark Yet

 

Thy Art Is Murder - Dear Desolation

 

Brendon Small - Galaktikon II - Become the Storm

 

A really strong year. There's a whole bunch of albums I haven't spent enough time with to decide my ratings but currently, the following are my 5/5 records:

ANDY COLLINS - Right Here, Right Now - Excellent singer-songwriter from Swansea, formerly bassist with The Storys (the Welsh Eagles!). Self-written songs - with a little help from his friends - which have a timeless quality. He also play in a Beatles tribute band but I'll forgive him that!

ALAN DOYLE - A Week In The Warehouse - Third, and so far best, solo album from the former Great Big Sea mainstay. Rollicking folk-rock and tender love songs should be odd bedfellows but it worked for GBS and it works for Alan.

ZERVAS & PEPPER - Wilderland - Like somebody has transported Laurel Canyon and dropped it in Cardiff. If I didn't know this was contemporary, I'd have assumed that it was a lost classic from 1972. They're brilliant live too.

THIS WINTER MACHINE - The Man Who Never Was - New - indeed neo - prog from Leeds with enough twists & turns, gorgeous melodies & impassioned vocals to impress even the most jaded Jadis fan! Currently working on album number two.

CHRIS HILLMAN - Bidin' My Time - At the **** end of his career, Chris has come up with one of his most brilliant albums. Kudos!

GREEN DIESEL - One of several young bands breathing new life into the hoary old genre of folk rock. Mostly self-written, with a wonderful production, they've opened a serious can of earworms with this record.

TRADARRR - Further Tales Of Love, Death and Treachery. Another wonderful folk rock record, this time mostly traditional and performed by a team of grizzled old veterans who used to play with Little Johnny England and Steeleye Span amongst others. The Expendables of the English folk scene!

BIG BIG TRAIN - Grimspound/The Second Brightest Star. It's almost becoming a cliche to call BBT pastoral prog folk - and the description certainly doesn't fully convey the hugeness of their sound - but it's broadly accurate. If Genesis ever did an albumof Show Of Hands covers, it would sound like these two marvellous recordings.

 

Luka Productions - Fasokan

Self described New Age from Africa. A lot more energetic than what I think of when I think of New Age.

I was posting this in the 2018 thread when I realized it was released in January 2017.

Bandcamp: Fasokan, by Luka Productions

 

Amadou and Mariam - La Confusion