Albums of the Year 2016
Albums of the year 2016 is a bit different to previous years because AZ now resides in Australia, so we had to use Skype to do the get together, but the format remains the same: one track each in order from each of our 10 favourite albums of the year.
Recording was tricker: Skype on a computer can only take a single input, which meant I couldn't mix down the mic from the room where we were speaking and the music we were playing across to him, so while we listened to the track on headphones (and I recorded it) he just heard our chat. For this reason he knew in advance what we were all going to pick and I knew what he was going to pick and played his choices for him.
The setup, then, was:
- three of us sat on the sofa facing the laptop on a table.
- Skype on with video call
- Reaper for recording
- Focusrite Saffire LE firewired into the laptop (four inputs for recording)
- One room mic into the focusrite
- One stereo cable into the focusrite for the music with the plug end going into whoever's phone was going to play the next track.
- Skype setup was:
+ INPUT: the room mic so AZ could hear us
+ OUTPUT: the computer's soundcard, so I took the headphones out from the laptop and fed that back into the Focusrite as the fourth and final track
The result worked REALLY WELL. Any lag was barely noticeable and the video was shown full screen on our machines so it felt pretty good. Only downside was we started about 10.15pm our end and late into it we had to be mega quiet for my neighbours.
You can get the MP3s here https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwaaEKjkfovWY2E3a3hLRHg2WWM
Here are our choices:
Raul
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Pantha Du Prince - The Triad
Gnod - Mirror
Preoccupations - Preoccupations
Cold Pumas - The Hanging Valley
DIIV - Is the Is Are
NAO - For All We Knowz
Goat - Requiem
Floorplan - Victorious
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
Gouge Away - , Dies
Tom
---
Steven Julien - Fallen
Max Cooper - Emergence
Audion - Alpha
Planetary Assault System - Arc Angel
Huerco S. - For THose Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have)
Disasterpeace - Hyper Light Drifter
Steve Hauschildt - Strands
Loscil - Monument Builders
Jay Daniel - Broken Knowz
Andras - House of Dad
Theo
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Nascuy Linares - Embrace of the Serpent
Amani Jade -
A Tribe Called Quest -
Ex-Easter Island Head - Twenty-Two Strings
Josef Leimberg - Astral Progressions
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Extravagants Dientes
Right Hand Left Hand - Right Hand Left Hand
Sarah Neufeld - The Ridge
White Lung - Paradise
AKZ
---
Ash Koosha - I AKA I
Equip - I Dreamed Of A Palace In The Sky
Exploded View - Exploded View
KA - Honor Killed the Samurai
Mirrored Lips - MOM
Roly Porter - Third Law
The Comet is Coming - Channel The Spirits
Wei Zhongle - Nice Mask Over an Ugly Face
Yves Tumor - Serpent Music (PAN 73)
Xiu Xiu - Plays the Music of Twin Peaks
Recording was tricker: Skype on a computer can only take a single input, which meant I couldn't mix down the mic from the room where we were speaking and the music we were playing across to him, so while we listened to the track on headphones (and I recorded it) he just heard our chat. For this reason he knew in advance what we were all going to pick and I knew what he was going to pick and played his choices for him.
The setup, then, was:
- three of us sat on the sofa facing the laptop on a table.
- Skype on with video call
- Reaper for recording
- Focusrite Saffire LE firewired into the laptop (four inputs for recording)
- One room mic into the focusrite
- One stereo cable into the focusrite for the music with the plug end going into whoever's phone was going to play the next track.
- Skype setup was:
+ INPUT: the room mic so AZ could hear us
+ OUTPUT: the computer's soundcard, so I took the headphones out from the laptop and fed that back into the Focusrite as the fourth and final track
The result worked REALLY WELL. Any lag was barely noticeable and the video was shown full screen on our machines so it felt pretty good. Only downside was we started about 10.15pm our end and late into it we had to be mega quiet for my neighbours.
You can get the MP3s here https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwaaEKjkfovWY2E3a3hLRHg2WWM
Here are our choices:
Raul
----
Pantha Du Prince - The Triad
Gnod - Mirror
Preoccupations - Preoccupations
Cold Pumas - The Hanging Valley
DIIV - Is the Is Are
NAO - For All We Knowz
Goat - Requiem
Floorplan - Victorious
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
Gouge Away - , Dies
Tom
---
Steven Julien - Fallen
Max Cooper - Emergence
Audion - Alpha
Planetary Assault System - Arc Angel
Huerco S. - For THose Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have)
Disasterpeace - Hyper Light Drifter
Steve Hauschildt - Strands
Loscil - Monument Builders
Jay Daniel - Broken Knowz
Andras - House of Dad
Theo
----
Nascuy Linares - Embrace of the Serpent
Amani Jade -
A Tribe Called Quest -
Ex-Easter Island Head - Twenty-Two Strings
Josef Leimberg - Astral Progressions
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Extravagants Dientes
Right Hand Left Hand - Right Hand Left Hand
Sarah Neufeld - The Ridge
White Lung - Paradise
AKZ
---
Ash Koosha - I AKA I
Equip - I Dreamed Of A Palace In The Sky
Exploded View - Exploded View
KA - Honor Killed the Samurai
Mirrored Lips - MOM
Roly Porter - Third Law
The Comet is Coming - Channel The Spirits
Wei Zhongle - Nice Mask Over an Ugly Face
Yves Tumor - Serpent Music (PAN 73)
Xiu Xiu - Plays the Music of Twin Peaks