eMusic Releases Critic & Fan 2005 Top Indy Music Polls
Independent digital download site eMusic just released two "Best Of" 2005 Indy music polls that prove the music diversity that the web makes possible. The first comes from their cadre of 50 top music critics and the second is from a survey of 100,000 eMusic subscribers.
eMusic’s Best of 2005 Writer Poll
- Konono No. 1, Congotronics (Crammed Discs)
Antony & The Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
- Animal Collective, Feels (Fact Cat Records)
- Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)
- Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (French Kiss Records)
- Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree (4AD)
- Annie, Anniemal (Big Beat)
- Various Artists, Run the Road (Vice Records)
- Slits, Cut (KOCH Records)
- Bettye LaVette, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise (Anti Records)
Click below to see the full poll results and read more about the results.
eMusic Best of 2005 User Poll
- Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)
- New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador Records)
- Decemberists, Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)
- Spoon, Gimme Fiction (Merge Records)Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (Vice Records)
Antony & The Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
- Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (French Kiss Records)
- The National, Alligator (Beggars Banquet)
- Josh Rouse, Nashville( Rykodisc)
- Danger Doom, The Mouse & The Mask (Epitaph)
- Great Lake Swimmers, Great Lake Swimmers (Misra Records)
Click below to see the full poll results and read more about the results.
NEW YORK
,
New York
—December 21, 2005—eMusic, the number one independent music service, today issued the Best Independent Albums of 2005. Coming out on top is Konono No. 1, which was available exclusively on eMusic for much of the year. Released by Crammed Disc, Congotronics was voted the best album of 2005 in a poll of 50 of the world’s most respected music critics.Congotronics is the first US release by Congolese band Konono No. 1, whose 72-year-old bandleader Mawangu Mingiedi grew up in the Bikongo region, some 300 kilometers from
Kinshasa
,
Congo
‘s capital. As eMusic World/Reggae columnist Richard Gehr writes in a profile of Konono No. 1:
"[Mingiedi] learned the traditional music of the Bikongo people from his parents and grandparents, who played drums and trumpet-like elephant tusks. Mingiedi learned another traditional instrument, a small bamboo likembé thumb piano. When he moved to Kinshasa
“To compensate, Mingiedi built a small wood and wire microphone, which he first connected to a radio speaker before building even larger speakers from scavenged parts. During the ’60s he recreated the thumb piano out of metal rods and a wooden resonator box that, when picked up by his homemade amplification, created a loud, intriguingly distorted effect. He augmented his ensemble’s traditional drums with percussive auto parts, but ‘the elephant tusk was out of the question because of laws and other things,’ so he rearranged the tusk tunes for likembé. His group performed at weddings, funerals, and circumcision ceremonies in Kinshasa
Other titles placing highly in eMusic’s Best of 2005 poll: the Mercury Prize-winning I Am a Bird Now by
Antony
and the Johnsons (#2), Feels by New York
Music also conducted a survey of its 100,000-plus users, who named Stevens’ Illinoise their favorite album of 2005. Other reader favorites included the New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema (#2), the Decemberists’ Picaresque (#3), Spoon’s Gimme Fiction (#4) and Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm (#5).
Complete poll results
eMusic’s Best of 2005 Writer Poll
01 Konono No. 1, Congotronics (Crammed Discs)
02
Antony
& The Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
03 Animal Collective, Feels (Fact Cat Records)
04 Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)
05 Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (French Kiss Records)
06 Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree (4AD)
07 Annie, Anniemal (Big Beat)
08 Various Artists, Run the Road (Vice Records)
09 Slits, Cut (KOCH Records)
10 Bettye LaVette, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise (Anti Records)
11 Spoon, Gimme Fiction (Merge Records)
12 New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador Records)
13 Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda)
14 Bobby Bare, The Moon Was Blue (Dualtone)
15 Danger Doom, The Mouse & The Mask (Epitaph)
16 Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (Vice Records)
17 Supersystem, Always Never Again (Touch & Go Records)
18 James Blood Ulmer, Birthright (Hyena Records)
19 Decemberists, Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)
20 Go-Betweens, Oceans Apart (Yep Roc Records)
21 Eels, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (Vagrant Records)
22 John Doe, Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet (Yep Roc Records)
23 Deerhoof, The Runners Four (5 Rue Christine)
24 Washington
25 Clientele, Strange Geometry (Merge Records)
26 Gang Gang Dance, God’s Money (Social Registry)
27 Of Montreal
28 Blackalicious, The Craft (Anti Records)
29 Albert Ammons, Hey Piano Man (JSP Records)
30 Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks (Side One Dummy)
31 Lyrics Born, Same!@#$ Different Day (Quannum Projects)
32 Nortec Collective, Tijuana
33 The National, Alligator (Beggars Banquet)
34 Black Mountain, Black Mountain
35 Iron & Wine/Calexico, In the Reins (Overcoat Recordings)
36 Yo La Tengo, Prisoners of Love (Matador)
37 Cocorosie, Noah’s Ark
38 Isaac Hayes, Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It? (Fantasy/Stax)
39 So Percussion, Steve Reich: Drumming (Cantaloupe Music)
40 Vasti Bunyan, Lookaftering (Dicristina)
41 Serge Gainsbourg, Love And The Beat Vol. 1: Love Gainsbourg’s Way
(Sunnyside Records)
42 Ladytron, The Witching Hour (Rykodisc)
43 Dave Douglas, Mountain Passages (KOCH Records)
44 Attileo Mineo, Man in Space with Sounds (Subliminal Sounds)
45 Various Artists, Sun Spots: The Story of Sun Records (Sun Records)
46 Blueprint, 1988 (Rhymesayers)
47 Dr. Dog, Easy Beat (National Parking)
48 Horace Andy, Dance Hall Style (Wackies)
49 Various Artists, Thai Beat A Go-Go 2 (Subliminal Sounds)
50 Fieldwork, Simulated Progress (Pi Recordings)
eMusic Best of 2005 User Poll
01 Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)
02 New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador Records)
03 Decemberists, Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)
04 Spoon, Gimme Fiction (Merge Records)
05 Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (Vice Records)
06
Antony
& The Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
07 Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (French Kiss Records)
08 The National, Alligator (Beggars Banquet)
09 Josh Rouse, Nashville
10 Danger Doom, The Mouse & The Mask (Epitaph)
11 Great Lake Swimmers Great Lake
12 Lemon Jelly, ’64 – ’95 (XL Recordings)
13 Echo and the Bunnymen, Siberia
14 Sun Kil Moon, Tiny Cities (Caldo Verde Records)
15 Ladytron, The Witching Hour (Rykodisc)
16 Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda)
17 Matisyahu, Live at Stubbs (Or Music)
18 Iron & Wine/Calexico, In the Reins (Overcoat Recordings)
19 The Pernice Brothers, Discover a Lovelier You (Ashmont Records)
20 The Frames, Burn the Maps (Anti Records)
About eMusic
eMusic (http://www.emusic.com) stands alone as the only digital music service that is 100% focused on serving the needs of independent music fans and independent labels. Delivering more than 4 million downloads each month; eMusic is among the top digital music services, offering a diverse catalog of 1,000,000 tracks from established and emerging artists in every genre from the world’s top independent labels. eMusic was not only the first service to sell songs and albums in the popular MP3 format, it was the first company to launch a digital music subscription service. Unlike other services that severely restrict portability, eMusic allows members complete flexibility to burn CDs, transfer to MP3 devices and make multiple copies for personal use. eMusic also offers access to exclusive recordings from eMusicLive’s network of premier music venues across the country. Based in New York
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