N&G AotM /// Year 1 Review!

Skalap said:
Ask @Joe Mac, he is leading this N@G Aotm thing for the next 12 months. Luckily, he is your neighbour!
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If someone else is paying? Yeah sure!

Actually @panino if you want the record and would like do you want to go halfers on the shipping for Kendra? It’s still $20 for more than one record and $10 each would be more palatable than $20. I’ve been humming and hawing over it for a couple of weeks now! I’d be happy to meet and drop it to you in Dublin when it arrives (stuff from America is taking forever right now...) to save costs on this side too.

Actually I’ll extend the offer to everyone from Dublin, I’ll order so we can split shipping costs and we can arrange sending them out when it gets here.
 
Joe Mac said:
If someone else is paying? Yeah sure!

Actually @panino if you want the record and would like do you want to go halfers on the shipping for Kendra? It’s still $20 for more than one record and $10 each would be more palatable than $20. I’ve been humming and hawing over it for a couple of weeks now! I’d be happy to meet and drop it to you in Dublin when it arrives (stuff from America is taking forever right now...) to save costs on this side too.

Actually I’ll extend the offer to everyone from Dublin, I’ll order so we can split shipping costs and we can arrange sending them out when it gets here.
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sure I'll be happy to do it! great idea!
we might even ask for a signed copy!
I can Paypal the monies! (move to DM)
 
Joe Mac said:
If someone else is paying? Yeah sure!

Actually @panino if you want the record and would like do you want to go halfers on the shipping for Kendra? It’s still $20 for more than one record and $10 each would be more palatable than $20. I’ve been humming and hawing over it for a couple of weeks now! I’d be happy to meet and drop it to you in Dublin when it arrives (stuff from America is taking forever right now...) to save costs on this side too.

Actually I’ll extend the offer to everyone from Dublin, I’ll order so we can split shipping costs and we can arrange sending them out when it gets here.
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Joe, I'll pay half of the shipping from the states to you.

DM me and maybe we can throw a couple more in there for others on your side of the pond.
 
I'm still on the process of re-listening all of the picks, but I'll share now the records that have resonated the most with me (prior to this re-listen):

Most spun: Mark de Clive-Lowe - Heritage (Picked by @Skalap)
This record blew me away when it was firt announced. I didn't know about MdCL before this pick, but I was sold after watching a video of a live performance of his, where I could grasp his whole live-sampling process. This was pretty much tailor-made for me. One of my favorite releases of 2019 (along with Heritage II), and my most spun out of the club picks.

Biggest surprise: Lou Reed - The Blue Mask (Picked by @Murfocakes)
I've never been into LR or The Velvet Underground, but this album resonated with me for some reason. There is something about the raw performances that IMO fits perfectly wirh Reed's lyrics and odd melodies. This is not the kind of music I would normally reach for, but I was very pleased to be introduced to this record.

Biggest challenge: The Gloaming - 3 (Picked by @Joe Mac )
I don't mean the challenge in a negative way. In fact, I mean it exactly in the opposite way. The beautiful and unsettling sound of the irish singing against the lush instrumental background makes for some very rich music, and one that I feel like I haven't fully "unpacked" yet. My first impressions were that this was a mix of traditional Irish music with Sigur Ros, but further listens have revealed that there is mush more to this record.

Thanks for the excuse: Ibeyi - Ash (Picked by @ChristoBee)
This, along with Clarence Clarity was one of the only records that I knew before being announced in the club. I love this album, but for some reason I never got it on vinyl, so it was nice to have an excuse to finally buy it. It is also a record that my girlfriend loves, so that is an added bonus. Music that you can enjoy with others is always the best kind of music.
 
Ethos99 said:
Joe, I'll pay half of the shipping from the states to you.

DM me and maybe we can throw a couple more in there for others on your side of the pond.
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Oh no, you really don't have to do that! With me and panino going into together its effectively halfed the shipping and he lives close enough that i can drive it to him and drop it off in 15mins! If any other Irish people want to get on board then better again.

Thanks, thats so unbelievably kind of you though, I'm absolutely taken aback!
 
Joe Mac said:
Oh no, you really don't have to do that! With me and panino going into together its effectively halfed the shipping and he lives close enough that i can drive it to him and drop it off in 15mins! If any other Irish people want to get on board then better again.

Thanks, thats so unbelievably kind of you though, I'm absolutely taken aback!
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Well if you get a bigger group together the offer stands!
 
I've really enjoyed the threads this past year, admittedly I've not been involved heavily in most of them and I've only physically purchased one month's pick so far in Vol.0 (plus the additional listening) but I intend to pick up a couple more in due course.

Accordingly, my favourites of the year were:

Vol. 0 - June 2019 /// Mark de Clive-Lowe - Heritage
Vol. 5 - November 2019 - Ruen Brothers - All My Shades of Blue
Vol. 3 - September 2019 /// Nicole Atkins - Goodnight, Rhonda Lee

I fully intend to get through listening to all of the rest of the picks, and a massive kudos to all pickers, guessers and participants - it's a great endeavour!
 
I admittedly don't spend much time in the guess threads and sometimes have to get caught up on the N&G AoTM releases, but I always do try to listen to them all eventually. Here are my superlatives for year #1:

Vol. 0 - June 2019 /// Mark de Clive-Lowe - Heritage: Best first AoTM we could have asked for. Everything about this, the guess thread, the choice, the AMA, set the stage for what this club would become and set the bar high. Perfect way to start!

Vol. 1 - July 2019 /// Lou Reed - The Blue Mask: Artist I had heard of but never really listened to. I knew Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground and their importance to music, but never really listened to either. So this finally got me to do so!

Vol. 2 - August 2019 /// Khemmis - Hunted: Most educational guess thread. This was more like a month long class on metal, a genre I never really dove into, and it was great!

Vol. 3 - September 2019 /// Nicole Atkins - Goodnight, Rhonda Lee: Best AoTM. This one was my favorite of the year for many reasons. She was new to me, I just happened to get to see her live right about the time it was announced, the AMA (she's awesome), and most importantly the music! I loved it all and this one was the easiest buy for me.

Vol. 4 - October 2019 /// Camarón de la Isla - La Leyenda del Tiempo: Something I had never heard anything like before. This was not what I was expecting reading through the guess thread. When I first listened I hadn't heard anything like it and loved the extensive use of handclaps! Bonus points for coolest add-on for the translation booklet!

Vol. 5 - November 2019 - Ruen Brothers - All My Shades of Blue: Pleasant surprise. This was not what I was expecting at all based on my assumptions of what it would be, but I loved it immediately!

Vol. 6 - December 2019 /// The Gloaming - 3: Biggest grower. This album didn't click with me right away but after giving it some more listens to really take everything in I appreciated it much more and really enjoy it!

Vol. 7 - January 2020 /// Clarence Clarity - No Now: Best description of an artist/album. I loved this write up and it definitely was the one that made me go listen to the music the fastest. This line was a standout haha: "It was like pop music turned up to eleven and then thrown in a blender. Clarence Clarity's songs clearly start somewhere human, but by the time they come out on the other side, they've become maximalist and glitchy ear candy that refuses categorization."

Vol. 8 - February 2020 /// Ibeyi - Ash: Most rabbit hole inducing. This one grabbed me right away and I had to have more. I started watching the NPR Tiny Desk, listening to their Song Exploder podcast, listening to their other releases and just trying to take in every bit of Ibeyi I could. Bonus points for best packaging!

Vol. 9 - March 2020/// X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents: Turn it up and dance and sing along. That's all you need to do with this album, a fun one with a lot of energy!

Vol. 10 - April 2020 /// Patrick Sweany - Every Hour Is A Dollar Gone: Right up my alley. This release was the one that was curated most closely to my tastes. Had never heard of him but loved it right away!

Vol.11 - May 2020 /// Kendra Morris - Mockingbird: Biggest tease. And I mean that in a good way haha I couldn't think of better wording, but listening to this covers album, which is great, many songs that I had heard before, made me want to dive into her stuff and get to know her original work more. Love this pick!

Vol.12 - June 2020 /// Tortoise - TNT: Put on, sit back, relax. I haven't had a chance to dive into this one a ton yet, but I've been enjoying listening to it while just hanging around the house or while working. When I saw 90s, the artist and albums names and the cover I thought for sure it was alternative/grunge. Man was I surprised when I put it on haha

Top 3:
1. Nicole Atkins
2. Ibeyi
3. Mark de-Clive Lowe
 
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Having only been around a couple of months yet, I haven't made my way through all the AotM picks and threads - although I do have a Spotify playlist of them all in order to give them a listen. I love that as of my joining the forum I already happened to have one release apiece for Year 1 and Year 2, and another one from each pretty high up on my wantlist. With those factors in mind, I can offer up a couple of very preliminary thoughts before I delve into a focused effort to listen to all of the year one picks, and read their associated threads.

Ibeyi - Ash :: This was actually the first new record I bought with the gift card that accompanied the turntable I got for my 40th birthday. I absolutely love these two, and this album to me is a case of a second album being even better than the first. I tried to share this album with nearly everybody I know when it came out. I was very pleased to see it had been picked for an AotM here when I was digging around after first joining. Great choice @ChristoBee

Tortoise - TNT :: This was already very high on my wantlist when I came aboard. My good friend and former co-worker put me on to Jeff Parker's latest album early last year but I never made the connection to Tortoise until nearer the end of the year. They're a band whose name I've seen for what seems like ever, but never actually checked out. TNT happened to be their first album I checked out and I was pretty instantly hooked. Definitely one of those "why the hell have I not been listening to these guys for so much longer?!" bands - right up my alley! I actually got my friend a copy but have yet to procure my own. Hopefully I can fix that fact before too long! Thanks for helping even more folks have a moment of discovery with this album @sjaygray

As for the rest, it looks like I've got an exciting week or two of listening ahead. I really love that this exists. Thanks y'all!
 
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