Friday , Mar 26 2010

These have all adorned the front page of Rate Your Music at one time or another.

The list name should explain itself well enough. If you can't understand the meaning of this list even after reading the title, I'm afraid even I cannot help you, so serious is your case of utter stupidity. (unfinished)

These are links to all the sites that I use to discover and learn about bands and artists.

Yeah, this is out of date already.

Basically, I've recently gained the ability to acquire music at a far faster rate than ever before, and I've haven't really had the time to listen to too much of it (although some of these artists have made it into the list already). I'm standing at the end of one era and the beginning of another, in more than just musicial ways, and I'd like to have some sort of rough document showing where I was, at as of 30/07/08, eight days after my eighteenth and a couple of months till I go to University.

Some notes: there's very little in the way of jazz or hip-hop here, but I suspect that in six months time they'll have a much stronger presence. This was composed very quickly, and the selection process for most of it consisted of scrolling through iTunes and saying "oh, yeah, I like that a lot" and very little thought was put into the order beyond the top 25 or so. Oh, and I do realize that some of the 4 star albums are higher up than the 4.5 star albums, that is because I wasn't thinking too deeply about this list when I was making it. I'll leave it as it is, so don't take it too seriously.

10/12/08 Note: God, this is awful. Please don't judge me on this.

15/06/09 Note: Eh, it's not so bad, really.

Yeah, this is out of date already.

So here I am again, eight days after another birthday (19th this time) and a couple of months before I head back for another year of uni studies, once again making a rough document of where I am at, musically speaking. Things have changed a lot in the past year. Rock and pop have been, for the most part, kicked out in favour of funk and dub and classical. I predicted a year ago that this would be a changed list, but I never thought there would be this level of change, especially not in the top ten. A quick (and probably inaccurate) count shows that only 34 or so albums survived from last year.

Some notes: so currently funk, soul and jazz have a strong hold over this list, but classical music (Beethoven in particular) has also gained a lot of ground. I predict that next year, there will be an even smaller number of rock and pop records holding out, and that all four operas in Der Ring des Nibelungen will be present somewhere in the list. I took a bit more time choosing the list order than last year, so there aren't any 4 star albums higher up than 4.5 star ones (at the time of writing, anyhow). Again, I shall leave this as it is, so again, don't take it too seriously.

20/01/10 Note: Eh, some baffling choices in the ordering of the list, but it's not quite as embarrassing as the previous list became. I'm not sure if this is a good thing.

A pretty good year, I think (despite my stats suggesting it was a completely average year). Fewer abysmal records and more great ones, along with the outnumbering of the poor albums by the good-if-unmemorable ones. Of course, this could be due to the fact that I heard many more 08 albums this year than 07 albums last year.

A list of all those posters on the Music General (and other music boards) on IMDb who also have RYM accounts. The people who post on that board will undoubtedly see this list differently from those who don't: there are names here that will bring back good memories, names that will raise a smile, names that will bring about a sneer, and names that will strike fear in the hearts of some...

PM me if I've missed you out. Please include yr. IMDb name and when you started posting on the Music Board.

(Still under construction - firstly, there are probably one or two that have slipped through the net, and I also want to try and get posting dates for everyone, as well as noting whether or not each person still posts).

From the RYM Ultimate Box Set

Three discs worth of material covering 20 years of Drum and Bass.

Update: I am currently working on an expanded remake of this list, which will be bigger, have descriptions, and a better tracklisting.

Part of the RYM Ultimate Box Set.

Update: I am currently working on an expanded remake of this list, which will be bigger, have descriptions, and a better tracklisting.

Part of the RYM Ultimate Boxset.

Gypsy Jazz (also known as "Gypsy Swing" and "Jazz manouche") is a form of Jazz that developed in France in the 1930s. This one disc set covers all of the important artists and compositions of that time, as well as giving some time to modern players and lesser known groups.

VERY rough draft.

The Beethoven symphonies are among the most recorded sets of symphonies, and with good reason: they are an amazing body of work by themselves, and even if Beethoven had never written anything else, they would still gurantee his position as one of the great composers.

This list compares the various recordings of the symphonies, and ranks them relative to each other. Right now it has only a small selection of recordings, with just three complete sets, but hopefully over time I will be able to build this into something more expansive.

The first page contains the rankings of the recordings, as well as a conclusion at the end which recommends the best of the complete cycles for those not wishing to seek out all the best recordings for all the individual symphones.
The second page covers recordings related to the symphonies that are not part of the main cycle, e.g. the 10th symphony and the piano transcriptions of the symphonies.

Covering the genres of Drum and Bass (particularly Jump-Up), Dubstep, UK Funky House, Bassline and Fidget House.

As of the end of 2009, there were 222 singles and EPs listed here.

To some degree, yes; the rise in the average rating this year can be credited to an extent to the decreased amount of boring-but-celebrated indie albums, big pop/rock albums and random rubbish that I listened to this year. I didn't have very much time for anything outwith my sphere of interests (just about all the low-rated indie records were CDs borrowed from my friends rather than things I specifically sought out and acquired myself). But I do think that this was also a really good year with there being more really good albums than in most other years, and with 2008 being made to look quite pathetic by this years selection.

All the examples I've got so far are collections of singles that were released before the album, making the album consist solely of previously released material. Suggestions welcome, but please remember that, to qualify, the album must be listed in RYM as an album, and have no unreleased material on it.

As part of the inside cover art of the CD album The Roots of Dubstep, there is a small handwritten list of bands and artists under the title "List of Influences Include:" which was compiled by "Ben H.D.D.". This list reproduces that list.

Part of the RYM Ultimate Boxset

Fidget House is a style of Electro House that distinguishes itself by making heavy use of Breakbeat Hardcore-esque synth stabs, pitch bending of basslines, and cut-up vocal samples, as well as glitchy, or "choppy", 4/4 rhythms. It first developed in the late 2000s and takes influence from other contemporary styles, including Bassline and UK Garage.

Mixes will generally (there may be exceptions) need to have 4 stars or more from me to qualify for this list, and not necessarily all 4 star mixes will be included to try and prevent the list from becoming unwieldy (though I will try to mention them, especially if the DJ already has a mix in the list). No real order to the list yet.

I'm constantly working through a huge pile of mixes, so this will always be a work in progress. I'll try to get around to writing descriptions for all of them as well. Feel free to recommend me mixes - preferably freely avaliable ones, but that's not too important. I'm especially interested in hip-hop, garage house and disco mixes at the moment.