ReaperKK's Top 50 Albums v.2: #41 A little known indie artist

[ReaperKK]

Much like my roulette last year I realized that it's been a while *checks notes* 11 years!! since my last top 50 list. In that time I've listened to more music than ever and really expanded my tastes (for better and worse). There is going to be some new stuff here and some old stuff that didn't make the first top 50 that I've since grown to appreciate more.

Other than the one album per artist rule there won't be much else. In the end I'll also rank this set of 50 against my original set of 50 and see how things shake out.

[ReaperKK]

Top 50 List:

41. Taylor Swift - Lover
42. Kiss - MTV Unplugged
43. Godsmack - The Other Side
44. Limp Bizkit - Three Dollar Bill, Y'all $
45. Lucy Rose - No Words Left
46. Wiz Khalifa - The Saga Of Wiz Khalifa
47. Ekcle - Yoja
48. Matthew Halsall - Fletcher Moss Park
49. Neil Crowley & Ben Lukas Boysen - Grains & Motes
50. Russian Circles - Guidance

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I wish I'd been able to do a top 50 a decade ago to compare.  It seems like such a fun and useful exercise.  I'll be casually following. 

[twosuitsluke]

Following 

[King Postwhore]

Following.

[KevShmev]

Following to see how many Taylor Swift albums finish in this top 50. 

[ReaperKK]

You might be surprised Kev.

[TAC]

I wish I'd been able to do a top 50 a decade ago to compare.  It seems like such a fun and useful exercise.  I'll be casually following.

I did one and honestly if I did one now, it probably wouldn’t change much.

[Sacul]

Following! That reminds me, I really need to bump my own thread, oops

[jingle.boy]

Following and shit.  I'm going to put the over/under of me asking 'how the hell did I win your roulette!?!?!' at 17... and I'll take the over.

[senecadawg2]

Following this for sure.

I'm going to put the over/under of me asking 'how the hell did I win your roulette!?!?!' at 17... and I'll take the over.

The memory of that roulette still stings me a bit 

[HOF]

Will be keeping an eye on this. Need to make sure mine keeps moving so you don’t pass me!

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I wish I'd been able to do a top 50 a decade ago to compare.  It seems like such a fun and useful exercise.  I'll be casually following.

I did one and honestly if I did one now, it probably wouldn’t change much.

Well, yours has had more time to be entrenched.  If I look at my tentative draft of my current top 50, there are 16 albums that wouldn't have been there a decade ago.  About half of those are just different albums from artists that most likely would have been there. 

[ReaperKK]

When the idea came up to do this thread again, I started combing through my RYM profile and then comparing it to my first 50 list. It was really interesting to see how much my music tastes have evolved over time. With that said this list is going to be a mix of old a new and stylistically it’ll be all over the place. The order is mostly a guestimation as a lot of these albums get spun depending on the mood I’m in or how I’m feeling that particular day. This was actually a bit of a problem because I’d save the list, come back and completely change it.

Anyway, enough rambling about nothing, lets ramble about number 50, Russian Circles.

50. Russian Circles – Guidance



Over time the genre’s that I’m into have been fairly consistent with one exception, post rock. There was a span of time where a large chunk of my music listening was dedicated to bands like Mogwai and Grails, hell my last list had 5 post rocks album on it. There was a switch over a short period of time where I just fell away from the genre. There were two main reasons for this, the albums sound design aged terribly and the songs often lacked an edge to keep me interested.

Russian Circle’s Guidance was the album that brought me back to the genre. The heaviness of the album was what initially sparked my interest, but there was a lot more to unpack.  The songs are short but flow from one another seamlessly and clocking in at just over 40 minutes it’s a ride that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

The album starts with “Asa” the album gives you a beautiful, simple intro before stampeding into “Vorel”. “Vorel” sets the tone for the rest of the album with its bombastic drumming and guitars that are the epitome of sludge. The pacing is so well done here, I feel like the album values your time by having well-constructed songs that seem to peak at the perfect moments before letting your ears catch a break. That said I don’t think this is an easy listen the first go around but it’s definitely worth the listen if you’re a fan of the genre.

I’ve linked the first two songs “Asa” and “Vorel”.

Album Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/2UskUDH7emQ3nBqhDgGhzj?si=BS4z6nMqS52dKRLigxtFqA

[twosuitsluke]

Nice! I started listening to Russian Circles (and generally post-rock) back in 2017. I love post-rock as an album listener, as generally a full album experience is what you get. I could reel off loads of my favourite post-rock albums, but almost no favourite post-rock songs (as in, individual songs I would just want to listen to in a playlist).

Russian Circles are exactly this sort of band for me. They are far from my favourite post-rock band, but I do enjoy them. I was quite underwhelmed by their latest album, and there are some of theirs albums I've yet to check out. I know Guidance is one of the ones I prefer (even if it's been a number of years since I listened) as I have it on my ipod, along with Memorial. I'm going to give it another spin today.

I also saw Russian Circles supporting Mastodon a few years ago, they were great 

[Tomislav95]

Yeah, my favorite post-rock band. Saw them live when they were promoting this album and it's amazing how huge 3 piece band can sound. Nice album but I like Enter and Station more.

[jingle.boy]

Not sure this is for me.

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[ReaperKK]

Nice! I started listening to Russian Circles (and generally post-rock) back in 2017. I love post-rock as an album listener, as generally a full album experience is what you get. I could reel off loads of my favourite post-rock albums, but almost no favourite post-rock songs (as in, individual songs I would just want to listen to in a playlist).

You kinda hit it on the nail there. There are some exceptions to the rule where I do really like the songs off From Monument To Masses' last record but largely I'm in the same boat regarding single songs.

Yeah, my favorite post-rock band. Saw them live when they were promoting this album and it's amazing how huge 3 piece band can sound. Nice album but I like Enter and Station more.

I really need to go through and listen to their discography sometime. I remember a bit of Station but nothing from Enter

Not sure this is for me.

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Out of general curiosity how do you feel about instrumental only music and artists?

[twosuitsluke]

Nice! I started listening to Russian Circles (and generally post-rock) back in 2017. I love post-rock as an album listener, as generally a full album experience is what you get. I could reel off loads of my favourite post-rock albums, but almost no favourite post-rock songs (as in, individual songs I would just want to listen to in a playlist).

You kinda hit it on the nail there. There are some exceptions to the rule where I do really like the songs off From Monument To Masses' last record but largely I'm in the same boat regarding single songs.

My favourite post-rock band is Crippled Black Phoenix, and they definitely have some individual songs I like, but yea post-rock is fully about the album experience! Out if interest have you heard Crippled Black Phoenix? Tomi will back me up when I say I, Vigilante is an incredible album.

[Tomislav95]

My favourite post-rock band is Crippled Black Phoenix, and they definitely have some individual songs I like, but yea post-rock is fully about the album experience! Out if interest have you heard Crippled Black Phoenix? Tomi will back me up when I say I, Vigilante is an incredible album.

Yes, one of my favorites when it comes to more atmospheric post-rock. What I like about Russian Circles is that many of their songs are riff based.

[wolfking]

Never heard of them.  Vorel was pretty sweet though.  Didn't mind that at all.

[jingle.boy]

Out of general curiosity how do you feel about instrumental only music and artists?

No issue at all.  I have many instrumental albums / artists in my library.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I really need to relisten to their work again.  I remember not being overly impressed with them many years ago when checking them out, but I love the song "Memorial" for obvious reasons. 

[SoundscapeMN]

I love Enter from Russian Circles.

[senecadawg2]

I saw Russian Circles opening for Coheed and Cambria (with BTBAM second on the bill) just over ten years ago. I remember enjoying it a bit, but I never checked them out further despite seeing the name mentioned quite a few times.

[twosuitsluke]

I saw Russian Circles opening for Coheed and Cambria (with BTBAM second on the bill) just over ten years ago. I remember enjoying it a bit, but I never checked them out further despite seeing the name mentioned quite a few times.

That's quite the line up. I'm kinda surprised to see them touring with Coheed and BTBAM, but a great line up nonetheless.

[ReaperKK]

Nice! I started listening to Russian Circles (and generally post-rock) back in 2017. I love post-rock as an album listener, as generally a full album experience is what you get. I could reel off loads of my favourite post-rock albums, but almost no favourite post-rock songs (as in, individual songs I would just want to listen to in a playlist).

You kinda hit it on the nail there. There are some exceptions to the rule where I do really like the songs off From Monument To Masses' last record but largely I'm in the same boat regarding single songs.

My favourite post-rock band is Crippled Black Phoenix, and they definitely have some individual songs I like, but yea post-rock is fully about the album experience! Out if interest have you heard Crippled Black Phoenix? Tomi will back me up when I say I, Vigilante is an incredible album.

I've never heard of Crippled Black Phoenix but I did check them out on my drive to Florida and I really liked what I heard. I'll give I, Vigilante a spin when I get back home later this week.

I really need to relisten to their work again.  I remember not being overly impressed with them many years ago when checking them out, but I love the song "Memorial" for obvious reasons. 

I need to do a proper re-listen sometime soon.

I saw Russian Circles opening for Coheed and Cambria (with BTBAM second on the bill) just over ten years ago. I remember enjoying it a bit, but I never checked them out further despite seeing the name mentioned quite a few times.

That's quite the line up. I'm kinda surprised to see them touring with Coheed and BTBAM, but a great line up nonetheless.

Agreed, that seems like one hell of a lineup.

[ReaperKK]

Up next I have the shortest album (EP) on the list at under 20 minutes. I'm a big fan of ambient/minimalistic music so when one of the tracks to this album popped up on Discovery playlist on spotify I had to explore. I present to you:

49. Neil Cowley & Ben Lukas Boysen – Grains & Motes



My mind races all the time, I constantly try to do multiple things at once, often failing at them because my focus is all over the place. Years ago I started meditating to help try and center and focus myself, even if it's for those moments where I'm consciously sitting in a dark room. Me being me there was no chance in hell I was going to sit in silence otherwise I'd be sitting there thinking about my day, my job, what would JP be like if he was a bear and if he was a bear would be extra hairy because he'd be an Italian bear? I started playing ambient music to focus on and my tastes slowly grew to really enjoy ambient music in those times I wasn't just focusing on my breath.

One day a song (I can't remember which) came up on my discovery playlist in Spotify that piqued my interest so I checked the album out. What I found was a very somber, slow, piano driven ambient EP that I could get lost in. The album starts with a track called "Solitary Refinement". It contains an interesting electronic drum sample with piano on top. Once "Motes" kicks in you starts to feel a vibe similar to latter Ludovico Einaudi albums with these beautiful chords played on the piano with some slight electronic elements mingling with the piano in the background. This is further exemplified in "A Grain of Truth". Finally you are taken back to another pulsing noise that carries on through most of "Ascent' that climaxes with some electronic keyboard elements very reminiscent of 2010's EDM music.

The EP is short, it was short enough to debate even putting it here but I really enjoy the record. It's quick enough to probably not be called ambient but slow enough that it can be buried in the background of whatever you're, or in my case debating what kind of bear JP would be.

Give “A Grain Of Truth” a spin!

Album Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/4BTiXKYmwKDOGg25g4FU9M?si=joXDPLodTI-rQTvxiOcEOg

[HOF]

Give “A Grain Of Truth” a spin!

That's a beautiful track. I find that I usually enjoy ambient music when I give it time and attention, but I struggle with it as background music sometimes. I also sometimes have a sense that it's all a bit interchangeable and hard to really remember, but it can be really powerful at times.

[twosuitsluke]

I'm not massively into ambient stuff, but will give this a spin later today 

[ReaperKK]

Give “A Grain Of Truth” a spin!

That's a beautiful track. I find that I usually enjoy ambient music when I give it time and attention, but I struggle with it as background music sometimes. I also sometimes have a sense that it's all a bit interchangeable and hard to really remember, but it can be really powerful at times.

I think that is always a hard balance for ambient stuff. Too busy and it's not really ambient, to slow and it just fades away. Brian Eno's music is sort of like that, there just isn't enough for me to latch on to and easily forgettable.

I'm not massively into ambient stuff, but will give this a spin later today 

Let me know what you think!

[Lonk]

49. Neil Cowley & Ben Lukas Boysen – Grains & Motes

Never heard of this before, but this is right up my alley.

[twosuitsluke]

I'm not massively into ambient stuff, but will give this a spin later today 

Let me know what you think!

Not a bad listen. It's true I don't listen to a lot like this, but there are definitely bands I listen to that have little instrumental breaks similar to stuff on this EP, as part of a non ambient song. I personally prefer this sort of thing when it's more of a breather on a record, and a palete cleanser of sorts.

[faizoff]

Going to check out That Russian Circles album. I started listening to them around the first album release Enter. When Station came out I was obsessed with them. That is still my favorite album, my class mate at the time had grown up or jammed with Dave the drummer when they were in St. Louis and kept in touch with him even after joining Russian Circles. I haven't followed them since Emporos and see they have a 2nd half of their discography that I haven't checked out. I had sent tracks from Station to TAC in his roulette which I think he would've enjoyed but alas they were banned.

[ReaperKK]

49. Neil Cowley & Ben Lukas Boysen – Grains & Motes

Never heard of this before, but this is right up my alley.

I'm glad you liked

I'm not massively into ambient stuff, but will give this a spin later today 

Let me know what you think!

Not a bad listen. It's true I don't listen to a lot like this, but there are definitely bands I listen to that have little instrumental breaks similar to stuff on this EP, as part of a non ambient song. I personally prefer this sort of thing when it's more of a breather on a record, and a palete cleanser of sorts.

Completely agree on the pallette cleanser part. One of my favorite albumes El Cielo by dredg had great instrumental interludes, like "A Walk In The Park".