Desert Island X: Group 4 Listening Thread

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iron yuppie said:
PFan: Let me just say that this list resonated with me for a variety of reasons. The second disc was replete with some of my favorite artists - Tim Hecker, The National, Beach House, Bat for Lashes - and one of my favorite ever songs - Jubilee Street, which is about as cathartic and entrancing as anything I have ever heard. You mention in the description that it's basically about your life, and that personal element comes through strongly. Every so often there is one of these lists where the personal significance is almost palpable, and this one belongs in that category.

There's something of a forlorn quality to it, but it never gets depressing or hopeless; the mood is such that the playlist is actually an experience rather than just a collection of songs. Maybe this is hitting me harder than it will others, because a few of these songs - Jubilee Street and You Were a Kindness - have a great deal of significance to me, to the point where just hearing them brings a fairly strong emotional reaction. So I guess what I'm saying, and it will sound presumptuous I suppose, is that I know well the feeling this list is conveying.
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It's not presumptuous at all, it's exactly what I was going for. I'm thrilled that it worked for even one person, so this was great to read. I think you really nailed what it meant for me, too, maybe even more succinctly than I could have. I had tried four or five times to describe what it meant and couldn't do it without over-explaining or getting too specific, which I didn't want to do either. I'm glad I didn't.
 
While we're on the subject of point subtraction, I want to discuss a possible rule change.

As we're getting nearer to the end of the competition, there are a growing number of participants who aren't around to vote. While I don't advocate removing these participants entirely, as we did with the ranking system, I'm considering tacking on some kind of penalty if you don't vote in your own group.

Because here's the thing. If you skip voting in groups that aren't your own, you don't personally see any benefit. If you don't vote in your own group, and everyone else does, you gain all of those points without giving any out. I've already seen one instance where a list was way ahead until its creator got around to voting and there was a massive 8 point swing the other way. So if they don't vote, those points have to be compensated for somehow.

Right now I'm considering an 8 point subtraction.
 
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My personal, harsh bastard opinion would be to punish people pretty harshly for not voting, if only because that'd incentivise participation. So yeah, 8 points sounds fine. I'd probably go even more harsh (like 12 points), but that's probably unfair.
 
Actually, 12 makes sense. Assuming a fairly average score is 4/8 (halfway between the minimum of 0 and the maximum of 8), if three people give you that score and you fail to vote, you net 12 points (in fact, you could theoretically net up to 24). -12 is probably the fairest way to go. But I'm a nice guy, so I don't know.

Point is, vote in your own group at least.
 
Wait, is there a deadline? I've listened to almost everything so far, I just haven't sent any votes in yet. Figured I would review after everything is done.
 
The "deadline" is one week after group 5 starts. About 10 days. But we've all seen this song and dance before, it'll probably end up being a few more than that.
 
Afliktor:

Liked the first two thirds, didn't like the final third. The Big Sleep was my favorite track, hadn't heard of them before. Should look them up if this is an indication of their sound. Someone said there was dubstep on this list but I didn't hear any, nothing that went beyond EDM on a couple tracks at the beginning of the third section (probably my least favorite part of the list). I thought the list could have used more vocals. I'm not against instrumentals when the music's interesting but they can only care it so much of the way. As an aside, I enjoyed the Afliktor track in the list.

Also, it should be noted in Afliktor's defense (I know IWB alluded to this issue) that she did post in the first discussion group, but it is correct that she has not posted since then. If you're going to be mad about people not listening to lists, just wait for Group 5. I think LMP is the only one from that group who has posted about listening.
 
And I've fallen behind the past week or so. Got halfway through Cute Irish Bono's in transit the other day which made for a pleasant ride.
 
I've been listening, but I think I've been forgetting to comment.

Afliktor's list was a lot of fun for me, but when I don't sit at my computer and listen to these (and instead play video games, like I did for hers and Peef's), I'm nearly worthless for comments afterwards, because I rarely know what song was what. That being said, I had a fun time with her's, a lot of stuff that would've fit on the list I was initially trying to make, as well.

Peef, I didn't always love the flow of your list, but the songs were, for the most part, all all-time Ashley's Greatest Hits, so it went over pretty well, here.
 
More comments to follow, Cobbler, but the transition from DJ Shadow to Outkast was fantastic.
 
Great instrumentation on this Chance the Rapper track, but I'm not sure about his flow.
 
There weren't a lot of songs I didn't know on Peef's list, maybe one or two, so not many discoveries here. Can't say I didn't enjoy myself though; lots of favorites to be heard on this list.

Most of the individual transitions were just OK, but the overall experience worked quite well, so it's all good. I've never been a fan of sequencing based on the first and last 10 seconds of each track. You've got to think bigger and that happened here.
 
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iron yuppie said:
More comments to follow, Cobbler, but the transition from DJ Shadow to Outkast was fantastic.
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Thanks man. Was pretty happy with that one!

iron yuppie said:
Great instrumentation on this Chance the Rapper track, but I'm not sure about his flow.
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Yeah his vocals are the sticking point for most people. You probably won't dig him if it grates on this track; I'd say of all the tracks on Acid Rap I'd say he's at his most reserved on Acid Rain.
 
Enjoying this Nightlands track. It's got a bit of a Kaputt vibe in that sax, which I imagine is something that appealed to you.
 
I listened to the Nightlands album specifically because a review stated So Far So Long had a Kaputt vibe to it. It's a really nice album that strangely went under the radar; the dude is the bass player in The War on Drugs.
 
PhilsFan said:
Afliktor:

Liked the first two thirds, didn't like the final third. The Big Sleep was my favorite track, hadn't heard of them before. Should look them up if this is an indication of their sound. Someone said there was dubstep on this list but I didn't hear any, nothing that went beyond EDM on a couple tracks at the beginning of the third section (probably my least favorite part of the list). I thought the list could have used more vocals. I'm not against instrumentals when the music's interesting but they can only care it so much of the way. As an aside, I enjoyed the Afliktor track in the list.

Also, it should be noted in Afliktor's defense (I know IWB alluded to this issue) that she did post in the first discussion group, but it is correct that she has not posted since then. If you're going to be mad about people not listening to lists, just wait for Group 5. I think LMP is the only one from that group who has posted about listening.
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I don't know what dubstep is. I just know my housemate listens to these obnoxious YouTube playlists all titled "best melodic dubstep mix # whatever" and the whole list sounded like it could have been one of those.

As for listening, I'm sure there's plenty non-listening, and I'm sure there's some listening but not really commenting. I listened to Liam's list but sort of lumped in what I had to say about it with CIB's list. And namruck's, but I didn't comment at all.

I don't even know who is in group 5, if suddenly I go to listen to a bunch of lists and think "wow I didn't even remember these people were playing" then I'll probably be slightly irked too.

Fact: I still get LMP and LJT mixed up all the time, but at least I don't think they're also impy at this point anymore.
 
Very nice ending to this list, Cobbler. It feels like pleasantly drifting off to sleep, or perhaps being on some opiates (or both).
 
LemonMelon said:
There weren't a lot of songs I didn't know on Peef's list, maybe one or two, so not many discoveries here. Can't say I didn't enjoy myself though; lots of favorites to be heard on this list.

Most of the individual transitions were just OK, but the overall experience worked quite well, so it's all good. I've never been a fan of sequencing based on the first and last 10 seconds of each track. You've got to think bigger and that happened here.
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Yeah, you noticed two things that I was aware of while constructing it. My tastes were mostly forged on this forum so I don't really have much to contribute that people haven't heard of. I didn't enter with that mindset because it would just be a fruitless exercise. Also, yes, I worry more about the overall flow than the immediate flow when the tracks switch. I certianly don't want them to be jarring, but I'm more interested in overall flow and pace than I am those 20 seconds of transitions.

I'd been really reluctant to go for a strict theme with the last few lists because I did that with the first DI entry I had way back when and it was fucking terrible. That was mostly because I was 17 and had not heard very much music, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. So my next three or four all were simply about songs that sounded good together without setting a mood, which made me feel better about not having my head up my own ass but wasn't really fulfilling beyond sounding nice. This was my first attempt to try to frame a narrative space again, and now that I've actually done some things in my life and have discovered a lot of music, I definitely felt more comfortable with it once things fell into place a bit.
 
IWasBored said:
I don't even know who is in group 5, if suddenly I go to listen to a bunch of lists and think "wow I didn't even remember these people were playing" then I'll probably be slightly irked too.
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Some people are busy, for example, I overestimated just how much free time I had within the last month or so. If that means I should have my list removed, so be it. :shrug:
 
iYup - I don't really have notes for this, I'm afraid. In terms of fitting the concept you set for yourself, I think it works really well. But the two major genres that are represented in here are two genres that I really do not like. So, while I can recognise that it was well constructed, I just didn't get much enjoyment out of it, I'm afraid.
 
Vlad n U 2 said:
Some people are busy, for example, I overestimated just how much free time I had within the last month or so. If that means I should have my list removed, so be it. :shrug:
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I'm not calling for that, if anything I've just been annoyed by afliktor's name changes/cold electronic Nintendo mix.

We could move on from this. How about I bitch about people including stuff from the new U2 album? Because that I do not understand.
 
liamcool said:
iYup - I don't really have notes for this, I'm afraid. In terms of fitting the concept you set for yourself, I think it works really well. But the two major genres that are represented in here are two genres that I really do not like. So, while I can recognise that it was well constructed, I just didn't get much enjoyment out of it, I'm afraid.
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Cool. I didn't expect this one to set the competition ablaze, to be honest. We just see so much synthpop, electronica, indie rock, etc on these things that I wanted to do something different and under-represented.
 
that's probably another reason i liked it, it wasn't synth pop or electronic.
 
Sitting down for Cobbler's list and the first track has me feeling like I'm in an Adidas outlet. They used to play dance music of this very specific sound you've got here over clips of soccer highlights. We used to go a couple times a year to one about an hour from our house to get my brothers shit for basketball season so I got to noticing the specific sound Adidas was going for.
 
cobbler:

I loved, loved, loved the first 10 songs of your playlist. That's exactly the kind of music I've been getting into more and more during the past year or so, as you would already know by my posting in the Can You Dance to My Beat thread. The moment the beat drops in the first song is just fantastic. Way better than any of the overblown drops in the more popular dance tracks these days. It all flowed very nicely and yeah, Im going to check out more of Les Sins, Todd Terje, Ben Pearce, Julio Bashmore and maybe a few more from that opening part. More on the rest later.
 
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