Drop-d Writers’ Awards 2011

Posted on 31st Dec 11 by Mike McGrath Bryan | 1

ASIWYFA, winners of our Best Irish Album Award.

It happens every year. We, the denizens of Drop-d, come together and debate as to how this should be done, and every year, even with the best of intentions, it’s still really quite hard to drum up common consensus enough for anything to win in any category, and so we wind up running this really clumsy list of lists.

Not so much this year. The top award this year was dominated in staff voting by one single entry.

Drop-d’s Irish Album of the Year for 2011 is…

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR – GANGS 

This should really come as no surprise to anyone following Irish rock in 2011.

The Northern four-piece have, over the past five years, slowly nurtured and mastered a musical oeuvre alternately as introspective and beautiful as anything the early-00s post-rock explosion has been responsible for, yet as forceful and primitively moving as the finest metal/hardcore, and more than any other time, 2011 was the year for the band to reach their creative zenith.

Inspired by faces and stories from the band’s travels around the world while touring their previous album, the underlying concept of the examination of friendships and groups is a perfect foundation for music so perfectly arranged and balanced that it could be put down to some sort of musical telepathy between band members. Indeed, this tightness and singular purpose is a reflection on their live show, a breathtaking spectacle of kinetic energy and thrilling instrumental virtuosity that has seen them complete a victory lap of the festival circuit around Europe, culminating in scintillating sets at Indiependence and Electric Picnic.

And was it any surprise that they’d do so well live? “Gangs” is positively loaded with tunes designed expressly to provoke mass merriment. Whether it was “Search: Party Animal” causing BBC Radio 1 goon Zane Lowe to malfunction live on air after hearing it for the first time, or the colossal, waltz-timed, babble-along coda of “7 Billion People All Alive At Once”; ”Beautifuluniversemasterchampion”‘s solid grooves or the turbulent, angular riffing of the “Homes” suite, the fact is And So I Watch You From Afar are possessed of a preternatural ability to tap into music and its multifarious effects on the human psyche. The result? An album that simply moves on many levels.

What the future holds now for the band in the absence of Tony Wright is anyone’s guess, but this much is true: after 2011, no-one’s ever going to write this band off ever again.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Primordial – Redemption At The Puritan’s Hand

Ilenkus – Rule By Thieves

Refraction – Refraction

Tieranniesaur – Tieranniesaur

The next one… was where the consensus of opinion reverted to its usual eclecticism. Quite literally, out of everyone that voted in this category (many declining to do so, feeling it was too close to call), we got a very small pool of answers. Literally, one different band per voter or two on the topic. So don’t get bent out of shape, but we’re not going to award an Irish Band of 2011, but instead give…

The Drop-d Irish Band Honours 2011:

Shardborne, one of our Band Honours 2011 recipients.

Yep, recognition is due to all of the bands nominated, and in the absence of a clear winner, we’re going to congratulate each on their merits, and let the readers decide who gets it… ASIWYFA are obviously deserving of such an accolade for their relentless touring, quality live show and an album we’ve already handed one gong to… Shardborne‘s amazing strand of progressive tech-metal has seen them become a bona fide sensation, not just in Irish metal, but in wider Irish music, particularly in their hometown of Limerick, where they packed out the cavernous Warehouse as the hometown heroes of the Siege of Limerick VI. “Aeonian Sequence E.P”. has succeeded in appealing to a broader palette of tastes and 2012 is theirs for the taking… La Faro have also broken out of the Northern scene in 2011, with sophomore album “Easy Meat” winning over critics with the logical progression from riffing to even more riffing and touring like champions in the process… Altar of Plagues were among the bands that finally broke the glass ceiling surrounding Irish metal on the world stage. Their shoegaze-inflected black metal reached unprecedented heights in 2011, with album ”Mammal” even outselling Led Zeppelin on Amazon Music Store for a brief period… Alarmist have been a sleeper hit among certain parts of Drop-d’s contribution base, their glitchy, electronic post-rock brimming with adventure and inspiration, featuring duelling drummers and even a wind section…

Thankfully, Best Irish Video was nowhere near as contentious. There’s been a great many great clips to have emerged from tracks of Irish origin this year, and as video technology becomes even more accessible, expect greater, especially as small operations like Zombie and Feel Good Lost proliferate. And while others voted for more artsy entries, the fact you just can’t bate a good tune to tie the whole thing together. And so, it’s with a wide grin that we award…

Drop-d’s Best Irish Music Video of 2011:

WIZARDS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN – Onwards Toward The Sun

The finest in sheer rock ‘n’ roll this country has to offer, jamming away like mad yokes in a basement someplace. The performance vid has often been derided as lazy or cliche, but there’s more than enough presence here to hold the attention throughout the song’s unfurling. Top-notch.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Lamp – Walking Forward, Looking Backward

Enemies - Robert Reid

O Emperor – Sedalia

Last but not least before we wander off into personal lists, the Best Irish Single of 2011, an especially important one given the revived role single downloads have had in helping bands get off the ground and build towards the recording or release of an album in recessionary times. And again, we have quite a mixed bunch, and so, again, we have no course of action other giving joint honours to a small number of singles…

Drop-d Irish Single Honours 2011: 

Sacred Animals, whose sublime Owensie rmx wins them a Drop-d Single Honour 2011.

This time last year, Cork pop-shoegazers Agitate the Gravel took their first tentative steps into a live setting. Fast-forward a year (and endless road miles) and they’re a vastly more confident band, really beginning to hit their stride. Much of this is to do with single ‘Wilderness Years’, a stomper of a tune that equally recalls the weirdo lovechild of 1977-era Ash and First Album-era Adebisi Shank. An intoxicating sonic brewski and hopefully the first of a whole bunch more in 2012… The series of Owensie remixes that emerged over the summer brought up some stunning rearrangements of the doom-folk troubadour’s work, but the one that topped them all was Sacred Animals‘ haunting retoussling of ‘Cat & Mouse’. Breathtaking work that erases once and for all any artistic misgivings one might have about remixes… The continued evolution of Dublin post-rockers Overhead, the Albatross took a surprising turn with 2-tracker ‘Mr. Dog’. In a rare occurrence for a genre preoccupied with the LP format, ‘Mr. Dog’ encapsulates the band’s growing sonic presence and command of subtleties perfectly… Enemies‘ tropical math-rock took another excursion this year, the 7″ ‘Coco et Moi’. Again, it showcased their peculiarly rhythmic take on math/post-rock to perfection… The former The Man Whom, Ian Doyle, ranks highly among our younger voters with acoustic single ‘Over and Under’. Meanwhile, indie/shoegaze upstarts Sanzkrit also got the thumbs-up for single ‘Ode to a Snowflake’…

Well, that’s the Irish (and therefore most important, amirite?) section of our end-of-year awards. On a personal note, we’d like to thank everyone very much for their support throughout the year.

The artists that have given us so much to write about, and help us challenge our own constraints as writers just to keep up, are always to be lauded for their efforts, without exception. As the editor I’d like to thank the other writers, veterans and newbies alike; Claire O’Regan of Rebel Revolutions (for her contributions and enthusiasm); and Abban Dunne (at Abandon Web Development, for his solid work on our facelift this year) for pitching in when they could and helping Drop-d become more than the sum of its parts. Here’s to 2012!

And now without further ado… LOADSA LISTS!

MIKE MCGRATH-BRYAN (Editor, Newsdroid)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: ASIWYFA – Gangs
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Agitate the Gravel – Wilderness Years
BEST IRISH VIDEO: Lamp – Walking Forward, Looking Backward
BEST IRISH BAND: Shardborne
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: Cloudkicker – Let Yourself Be Huge
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: Cloudkicker
BEST VIDEOGAME: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
BEST INTERNET MEME: 60s Spider Man

BRIAN LLOYD (Culture Ed., Cinema Geek)
BEST MOVIE: Drive
BEST VIDEOGAME: Skyrim
BEST INTERNET MEME: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ancient-aliens

JONATHAN KEANE (Senior Contributor)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: Refraction – Refraction
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Overhead, The Albatross – Mr Dog
BEST IRISH VIDEO: Wizards of Firetop Mountain – Onwards Towards The Sun
BEST IRISH BAND: Altar of Plagues
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: Light Bearer – Lapsus
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: Mastodon
BEST MOVIE: N/A
BEST VIDEOGAME: I don’t play any games so I don’t know
BEST INTERNET MEME: Is there really a point to this award? I can’t think of anything off the top of head that necessarily deserve an award.

JOHN O’BRIEN (Contributor, Curator of the IRISH METAL ARCHIVE)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: Ilenkus – Rule By Thieves
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Fuck Singles
BEST IRISH VIDEO: Wizards of Firetop Mountain – Onwards Towards The Sun
BEST IRISH BAND: No comment. Too hard to call.
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: No comment.
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: No comment.
BEST MOVIE: Fuck movies. Best TV show is ‘BREAKING BAD’ though.
BEST VIDEOGAME: I’ve three kids under 5. I don’t have time for games anymore.
BEST INTERNET MEME:What the fuck is a MEME…?

SEAN HURSON (Contributor, Promoter @ Economics, Baker Place)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: If I can include EPs, Alarmist – Alarmist EP
If I can’t, And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Enemies – Coco et Moi/Robert Reid
BEST IRISH VIDEO: Enemies – Robert Reid
BEST IRISH BAND: Alarmist
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: Vessels – Helioscope
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: Civil Civic
BEST MOVIE: Drive
BEST VIDEOGAME: No idea
BEST INTERNET MEME: Fuck that

MARK ROCHE (Contributor)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Ian Doyle – Over and Under
BEST IRISH VIDEO:Wizards of Firetop Mountain – Onwards Towards The Sun
BEST IRISH BAND: Too difficult
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: El Camino – The Black Keys
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: Mastodon
BEST MOVIE: Warrior
BEST VIDEOGAME: Battlefield 3
BEST INTERNET MEME: Conspiracy Keanu

STEPHEN MCKEEVER (Contributor)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: ASIWYFA – Gangs
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Sanzkrit – Ode to a Snowflake
BEST IRISH VIDEO: O Emperor – Sedalia
BEST IRISH BAND: ASIWYFA
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: Lymbyc Systym – Shutter Release
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: This Will Destroy You
BEST MOVIE: Super 8
BEST VIDEOGAME: Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
BEST INTERNET MEME: The classic spider-man captions.

JACK BROLLY (Contributor)
BEST IRISH ALBUM: Tieranniesaur – Tieranniesaur
BEST IRISH SINGLE: Cat and Mouse – Sacred Animals vs. Owensie
BEST IRISH VIDEO: Somewhere Else – Fred
BEST IRISH BAND: La Faro (For being awesome when I saw them and for releasing a fantastic album)
BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: The Hunter – Mastodon (I know a lot of people were disappointed but I loved it)
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND: Battles (I loved Gloss Drop too and since I gave best album to Mastodon)
BEST MOVIE: 50/50 (I haven’t watched many of the films that came out this year but I really enjoyed this)
BEST VIDEOGAME: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Tags: Agitate the Gravel, Alarmist, Altar Of Plagues, asiwyfa, Drop-D, enemies, Ian Doyle, Ilenkus, LaFaro, Lamp, O Emperor, Overhead The Albatross, Primordial, Refraction, Sacred Animals/Owensie, Sanzkrit, Shardborne, tieranniesaur, Wizards of Firetop Mountain, Writer's Awards

About Mike McGrath Bryan

Drop-d's editor and news slave since November 2010, and a full-time freelance contributing journalist. Multimedia student, retro gamer and general speccy-four-eyes.

Website Twitter Facebook