Saturday 31 December 2011
Cut. Print.
It’s the last day of the Hand Drawn Dracula takeover. Video directors Scott Cudmore (Brian Borcherdt’s “Scout Leader”) and Christopher Mills (Posdata’s “Tobias Grey”) recount their favourite music and tablet toys, respectively, of 2011.
I kind of assume that the only real honest way to judge the best albums is to simply consider which records get played the most. Thinking about how often I put these records on my turntable or played them in iTunes or on my iPod and then weighing those results against when the albums came out over the course of the year…that sort of let me know what I thought were the best records of the year, for me. I also realized that I didn’t get too excited about much of anything that came out this year…maybe only a handful of records. I loved Kurt Vile‘s Smoke Ring For My Halo. I spent a lot of time up north this year in the woods and this record was a big part of those drives. Also, A$AP Rocky‘s LiveLoveA$AP mixtape. That’s my favourite hiphop album of the year for sure, largely due to Clams Casino, but all the shit on that record sounds amazing to me. I’m addicted to it actually. Those two might be my favourites. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell these things. If I gave you this answer tomorrow, I’d probably say something different maybe, so I’ll add these ones to the list as well – John Maus‘ We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, which at first I hated because I immediately lumped it in with all the other ’80s retro/ deliberately oblique music that is super trendy right now, but then realized that he’s actually amazing; Charles Bradley‘s No Time for Dreaming, because it’s real shit and sounds like it could have been recorded 35 years ago but it’s still from the heart without any ‘throwback’ irony. The new Deerhunter album, Halcyon Digest, because those guys just don’t do anything wrong. Otherwise, blogs Holy Warbles and Ghost Capital, which are always amazing, consistently provided me with the best music of the year…it just wasn’t made this year.
-Scott Cudmore
I was in iPad denial until I got one. I saw it come out, and was like – “meh” what do I need another screen for? Then I got the Easy Beats thing, and remembered how much fun it can be to have a little hobby on the side. Then I tried the djay app on a long trip overseas. I was desperately missing playing records from home. I was amazed at how it managed to fire up enough of those “drop a record on the turntable / line another one up / mix it during the quiet bits pleasure synapses” to fill the void. I’m not a beats / clubby / kind of dj by any stretch of the imagination, but for sheer record playing joy – this thing really worked. I can’t wait to try out the thing that lets you preview the track in headphones first so I can be a DJ nerd on road trips.
Soundcloud has re-invigorated my passion for its selection of largely electronic, sparse, humane / drone-y, avant-garde, and independent music. I’m looking forward to searching out all kinds of dissonant orchestra work in the new year when I hook this thing up to the home speakers.
I like the way all the synthesizer apps (Korg/Moog/76 Synthesizer, etc.) look, but haven’t quite had the focus to spend as much time with ‘em as I’d like.
There’s nothing new in this list for the initiated, and I’m sure I’m missing a giant ocean of cool, mildly addictive music toys, but those are a few on my list… lemme know if you’ve got some you’d recommend.
- Christopher Mills
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