Top 10 House LPs of 2017
There is so much great music on this list that it's hard to take it all in. It's also hard to take in all the good house music within a year and I'm positive that I've missed quite a bit. These are all great records that celebrate the form in a myriad of ways.
10. Terekke - Plant Age - Glowing lo-fi house that’s unexpected from L.I.E.S. these days and unexpectedly good.
9. Prins Thomas - 5 - A really strong showing from Thomas, whose range is larger and more somber than his nu disco peers.
8. FP-Oner - 7 - This might have been the year that I decided to give in and love 70+ minute epic albums of beautiful music. This is the platonic ideal of deep house long players - it’s not too elaborate or too smart, but it’s a good amount of both.
7. Talaboman - The Night Land - Two artists who I’ve never appreciated on their own come together to make some nice deep grooves with psychedelic touches.
6. Lindstrøm - It’s Alright Between Us As It Is - The best space disco from, as far as I can tell, the only space disco producer. I like all the vocal tracks.
5. Four Tet - New Energy - By far the most pleasant Four Tet album. The only bad thing you can say about this is that it doesn’t push enough boundaries, which isn’t even fair because this is house music, not experimental music.
4. Death’s Dynamic Shroud - Heavy Black Heart - I don’t have a list for this album, because Vaporwave isn’t good enough to have its own list. This is a landmark Vaporwave album, even though it doesn’t sound like the genre it was borne of.
3. Kettenkarussell - Insecurity Guard - I’m such a sucker for melodic, wistful deep house and I’m pretty sure the rest of the world agrees with me for once.
2. Equiknoxx - Colón Man - The sound design of this record is not only unique to Dancehall, but maybe unique to all electronic music. The aesthetic choices here are right and show how wrong the choices are of most Bass music artists.
1. Octo Octa - Where Are We Going? - The most legit Deep House long player in years.
Top 7 Outsider House Tapes of 2017
It was a slower year for tape house with the dissolution of the great 1080p, but 100% Silk still released some good magnetic material but is really the only mainstay at this point. I'm hoping 2018 brings more retro physical releases, cause only having a list of
7. Khotin - New Tab - Truly odd ambient house from a Canadian who has been on this scene for a number of years now. He self-released this tape and I was lucky enough to get a copy.
6. Deeper Kenz - Deeper Kenz - Often bubbly house from Philadelphia that sounds a lot different than most of 100% Silk’s output. Put it on expecting a party more often than not.
5. Åmnfx - Moscow Beat - Deep and dark skeletal grooves that celebrate the lo-fi aspect of this type of music.
4. Michael Claus - Memory Protect - This is the most representative of the ambient, tape hiss-laden sound that got me into this genre in the first place. Another really good representation of the 100% Silk sound.
3. DJ Voila - Dumbledogs - This tape is remarkable for seeming to come from six different directions across its six tracks. It’s an exciting follow up for Simon Chioini, who so far, seems to not want to repeat himself.
2. Tell - Tell LP - Jazzy tropical house that's reminiscent of Body-San and Eyeliner. This is the first great release on new new Coastal Haze label that seems to want to specialize in this sort of thing.
1. Hamatsuki - Uncertain Loops - The wooziest, smoothest, most mysterious, hardest to find outsider house tape of the year is the best one in my book.