I've always like Anticon (and all the hundreds of projects vaguely linked to Anticon) but whilst there are often great songs, there are rarely great albums. The individual hit-rate with songs is often quite high, but for some reason when it comes together as an album, it almost always fails to lift itself above 'good'. As far as I know, there are two exceptions.
1. cLOUDDEAD - s/t
2. Fog - 10th Avenue Freakout.
Is there anything else seminal out there that I haven't heard?
Thanks in advance.
PS Why? albums don't count
Cloudead -ten
the last two subtle albums
All decent, but not in the other two's league for me
This thread is in danger of making me sound like a snobby twat. I don't know how to stop that.
too late
haha :)
To be fair I like Subtle more than Clouddead and see no flaws in the second Subtle album. Maybe its all opinion.
I really dont know much about anticon though.
oh and I thought it was the general consensus that Ten was the better Clouddead album
it is in my opinion anyway
Doesn't even come close for me
st - 10/10, Ten - 7.5/10
Yes!
Themselves - The No Music
Deep Puddle Dynamics - The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel?
13 & God - 13 & God
Alias - Muted
Dosh - The Lost Take
Sole - Selling Live Water
Sole - Bottle of Humans
Hymie's Basement - Hymie's Basement
Ya?
^ This
Add to that the quite excellent and dreamy 'Level Live Wires' by Odd Nosdam.
Really?
Great? There are two or three good ones there, but nothing worthy of anyone's all-time list.
I haven't heard Level Live Wires. Burner was quite good. Is it better than that?
Well, ok, i guess it's all down to personal choice then!
I'd take 6 of them over that Fog record.
.
isn't 13 & God something to do with the Notwist? Or am I just completely making that up.
nope, you're on the money.
It's the Notwist and Themselves.
.
ah i thought so. always been meaning to check that one out then. thanks.
Aye, it's awesome!
that alias record...
...is SO DRY. hardly a classic there.
SJ Esau
'small vessel'
just come out!
'Circle' by Boom Bip & Doseone
technically it's on Leaf, at least in the UK.
In danger
of sounding like an arsehole can I just point out that neither the cLOUDDEAD - s/t OR Fog - 10th Avenue Freakout came out on Anticon. cLOUDDEAD was released via Mush in the US and Big Dada (a Ninja Tune off-shoot) in the UK. Fog was released via Lex, which used to be a Warp off-shoot but is now owned by EMI.
The No Music by Themselves is by far and away the greatest ever Anticon release.
The label just keeps getting better and although a lot of people feel that the glory years have passed (this is certainly true in terms of sales in the UK), the label is flourishing throughout Europe and musically they've extended their 'sound' way beyond leftfield hip-hop to now incorporate almost every genre from the sunny US alt-rock of Thee More Shallows through to the lo-fi eclectic indie of SJ Esau. Even their own more 'classic' Anticon artists are developing new directions, last year's Odd Nosdam record was incredible, a true fusion of ambient soundscapes and more pure traditional hip-hop beats, kind of like what a hip-hop record on Kranky would sound like.
It's a shame as I think a lot of people have given up on the label in the UK pigeonholing every release as "another Anticon record...", which is a shame for a label with a lot of scope left in it.
Hopefully with the growth in popularity of Why? people will see past the Tomlab license and invest some time in discovering what is still one of the most exciting labels around.