「未來已不復從前，但我們仍要前去赴會。」
我們活在艱難的時代中。
行走於這樣的世上，一呼一吸間，總有一刻無力感會突然襲來，令人窒息；但同時，從我們殘喘的間隙中，時不時還會迸出可能性——對可能的憧憬又讓我們感到欣喜。
在這種背景下，音樂變得前所未有得重要——它即是在當下不堪中，賦予我們可能的母體、孕育新世界希望的溫床。於是同時懷抱著憤懣與憧憬，我們越聽越多、越聽越廣。再加上這一年主流、獨立齊發力，算得上是不折不扣的音樂圈「大年」；以下開功內部評選的年度榜單中，所涉獵的音樂顯得尤為廣博。
十五項最佳幾經篩選與忍痛割捨，必有遺落，權作拋磚引玉之用。
「The future's not what it used to be, But we still gotta go there.」 - Broken Social Scene
We live in troubled times.
There is rupture in the air, in the firmament of our lives. But there is also possibility and joy, a sense of opportunity.
Music, more than ever, is that new world in the shell of the old – and what a year this was for music. We listened more than ever before, and the annual poll within the Split Works office produced lists of staggering diversity.
This is our attempt at distilling it into a Top 15.
無刪減的開功員工個人榜單將在下周作為年度最佳系列第二部分奉上。願大家能通過以下文字對這些帶給我們感動的作品產生興趣抑或共鳴。同時希望在下方評論中看到各位與所有朋友關於個人年度最佳的分享！
Part II is coming next week! Enjoy, and hey, let us know what you think in the comments below.
（又名，先把礙事的單獨列出來幹掉… a.k.a let’s Get this out of the way)
Foster Parents - Grim
這張不流於俗套的數學/獨立搖滾專輯本值得我們大書特書，但吉他手開功員工的身份讓我們覺得應該避嫌。正文榜單外的提及靠的是天才還是關係？感興趣的朋友自己研究後再下判斷吧！
Some solid Shanghai-based math rock goodness, with a Split Worker on guitars. Nepotism pays (but we’re not proud of it). Let’s move on swiftly.
Eluvium的極簡氛圍音樂舒緩而輕柔，有如海浪般綿綿不斷。這張新專輯延續他一貫美學的同時，在技術方面進行了頗具匠心的實驗。
由23軌長度相等的短音頻片段組成，專輯被設計為按照隨機順序重複播出，繼而在每次播放時產生出不同序列的旋律組合。在統一的氛圍與主題下，專輯因不同組合序列與不同播放時長而在理論上蘊含了無窮無盡的可能性。
按照當代人們播放、收聽習慣打造，以特定（即完全隨機）的方式進行播放；Eluvium的巧思、匠心與創新造就了當代音樂的典範。
Eluvium creates beautiful washes of gentle ambient music, and this new album is an extraordinary work of technological experimentation.
Consisting of 23 short tracks of equal length, it is meant to be played on Shuffle and Repeat, generating a new 『sequence』 of sounds every time you listen, and an endless series of variations on a theme.
It’s a brilliant example of crafting music to the way people actually listen, and playing with those specificities to create something truly special.
塵世解藥
Ambient as 'Restorative'
謝玉崗《回聲圖書館》Xie Yugang – Echo Library
坂本龍一《async》Ryuichi Sakomoto – async
破地獄《山險峻》Scattered Purgatory - Sua-Hiam-Zun
當現實壓力重重，當塵世紛擾連連，人們通常會選擇轉身離開——出遊，踏上一段尋找有別於身邊環境的旅途。氛圍音樂構建的抽象世界為人們的精神提供了最完美的出逃場所。
坂本龍一在《async》中的投入與專注是一種對純粹的透徹詮釋；在這場對純粹的追尋之旅中，他隔絕了外界與疾患的侵擾，通過「自然」編排的不同步旋律片段，在為自己緩緩紓解病痛、尋得療愈的同時，也將對生死的超然態度與對無常的感悟傳遞給了每一位聽者。
謝玉崗對舊時光的眷戀化作宛如被雨水浸溼般的愁緒；而破地獄極對山川河流、自然萬物的情感則被高度精煉為一種充滿東方美感的空靈。兩張專輯對時間、空間的探索、打破與重建給了心靈棲身別處的最佳機會。
This was an excellent year for 『ambient』 music in general, the much-maligned genre crafting some truly extraordinary worlds.
Ryuichi Sakomoto’s async is a journal of recovery from throat cancer, both restorative and troubled, while Xie Yugang and Scattered Purgatory conjure rain-drenched melancholy and unnerving glimmers in the shadows.
Nadah El Shazly – Ahwar (Egypt)
海青 Hai Qing - 肉蛋蛋
「什麼是民謠？」反正絕不止是KTV裡酒後非要發的那些感懷。這兩張專輯與大眾認知中的「民謠（彈唱）」可謂天差地別——好音樂，有傳統，更有顛覆。
Two albums that demolish every notion of what 『folk music』 should sound like, instead crafting unsettling new chimerical visions of their respective musical traditions.
現場收聽的「宇宙」之聲
Cosmic/electronic Music, played live
Floating Points』 11-piece ensemble
Arca + Jessie Kanda
GAIKA at Wooozy Offline
Tim Hecker Live at Douban Wetware
Kamasi Washington Live at Blue Note Beijing
我們今年最愛的幾場演出再次證明，電子樂現場不總是那麼冰冷、安靜或是無聊、乏味的。Floating Points的11人樂團驚為天人；Arca + Jessie Kanda以及在中國獻上首秀的GAIKA都通過自己的爆裂表演將個人的世界觀和價值取向以最直接、最具衝擊力的方式烙入了每個到場觀眾的腦海。
Some of our favourite live shows this year showed that 『electronic』 music played in a concert setting need not be passive or quiet or boring. Floating Points』 11-piece ensemble was rapturous and transcendent. Arca + Jessie Kanda and GAIKA (who played China!) reflected their politics and worldview in searing, captivating live performances.
Kamasi Washington at Blue Note Beijing was a blissful, cosmic surprise.
汪峰的體育場演出
WangFeng’s stadium show
日了天了。
Look at this f****** thing.
Kelela –Take Me Apart
SZA – Ctrl
SZA和Kelela，這對Afropunk的領軍姐妹，用兩張生猛又情感充沛的專輯拓展了RnB音樂的邊界——當今時代繁雜的愛情故事與內心情感在強大製作技術與動人歌唱技巧的幫助下，從未像現在這般如此鮮活而富有層次地被呈現在唱片中。絕對值得嘗試的心動體驗！
SZA and Kelela made two raw, evocative albums that both expanded the boundaries of RnB, and gave us an opulent, technically stunning look at modern romance and our inner lives today. Highly, highly recommended.
「隱式矩陣分解」
「Implicit Matrix Factorization」
看到標題就準備關閉該頁的朋友等一等，聽我解釋！這個技術本身比它晦澀的名字有意思得多！
我們其實也並無意在此展開技術討論，因為「隱式矩陣分解「也只還是流媒體平臺在為你推薦歌單時使用的眾多算法技術之一。
但是，今年的推薦歌單確實太給力了；辦公時隨意點開推薦歌曲，時不時會有一種不寒而慄疑似被視奸的感覺——「我靠，怎麼推薦的每首都這麼扎心!？」。當前流媒體行業雖然仍充斥著種種問題，但對這日臻「成精」的播放列表我們還是忍不住要大加讚賞一番。
Wait, wait, don’t go away! This is actually more interesting than it sounds.
『Implicit Matrix Factorization』 is one of the many technological tricks behind the playlists that services like Spotify and Xiami create.
Playlists became extraordinary this year, and their quality (especially on Spotify and Xiami) remains the sole shining light in a streaming business plagued by issues.
St Vincent的吉他（和她的專輯）
The St Vincent Guitar (and that St Vincent album)
St. Vincent造型獨特的電吉他是按照她的身材、演奏習慣和個人造型精心特製而成的。這樣的設計相信對其他女吉他手來說使用起來也會更順手。
當大膽的想像與縝密的心思結合，孕育出的作品總錯不了——比如上述的吉他，也比如她今年早些時候大殺四方的專輯《MASSEDUCTION》！
Envisioned and designed by St. Vincent , this unique electric guitar is crafted to perfectly fit her form, playing technique and personal style and by extension, is a better-fitting guitar for women players.
It’s bold imaginative, and thoughtful – just like MASSEDUCTION, her knockout album from earlier this year!
當代「爵士流行樂」
Contemporary 「Jazz-pop」
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest
This is the Kit – Moonshine Freeze
竇靖童 Leah Dou - Kids Only
這三張唱片集中體現了流行音樂最細膩的一面——不緊不慢的自在情緒輔以爵士樂的靈動與溫暖的電子樂或弦樂編排讓人好生舒服。聽Charlotte Gainsbourg的《Deadly Valentine》，感受「真·醉生夢死「。
Three albums that redefined refined pop. Slow-burning mood pieces with a touch of jazz, warm electronics or gentle strings. Charlotte Gainsbourg’s 『Deadly Valentine』 might even be our song of the year.
2017開過的功
The Split Works Class of 2017
Cloud Nothings – Enter Entirely
TINARIWEN – Sastanaqqam
Japanese Breakfast – Machinist
Cigarettes After Sex – K
Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Pure Morning (Placebo Cover)
來過的都是「親生的」朋友，愛你們！
Shout outs and love to everyone who came to one of shows this year!
厲害到「踢屁股」的DJ混音曲目
Kickass Mixes and DJ Sets
Fade to Mind w/ Leonce - Rinse FM April 13th
Rui Ho - Astral Plane Mix
Palmisty b2b Mechatok - Rinse FM July 22nd
Kareem Lotfy - Astral Plane mix
如何省去在專輯、曲目間跳轉的麻煩，做到一發入魂？
找到以上四首任一，點一次播放，即可升仙。
Sometimes, you just want the music to take you on a journey – no fiddling around with tracks and orders and albums. Hit Play for Transcendence.
These 4 will do the job quite nicely.
Spoon是有史以來「酷得最持久」的獨立樂團，不服來辯！什麼，你說並沒有那麼那麼多人留意他們？那怕是因為他們持久的好持久到讓人感到無聊了。
算上這張《Hot Thoughts》,Spoon已經連續創作了7張有口皆碑的好專輯。歷史上還有誰不間斷髮好片的數量超過他們？大概也只有The Beatles，Queen和David Bowie了吧。
Spoon什麼時候發新專輯？並不在意。反正還是會一如既往的好好好好。
With Hot Thoughts, Spoon have now made 7 incredible albums IN A ROW – a hot streak broken only, perhaps, by The Beatles, Queen, and David Bowie.
And we all know that the next album is going to be pretty great too.
Dirty K – Exsciccation
Hyph11e —Vanishing Cinema
Tzusing —一瞬千擊
Charli XCX (w/ Howie Lee) - Boys
從亞文化到主流，中國嘻哈這次真是火大發了！但就如一位名人曾經說過的，「熱愛它有一百八十多種「吧——我們這裡不說主流金曲，僅提些地下俱樂部和嘻哈圈的大聲音。
Big year for Chinese hip-hop, and you really don’t need us to recommend the big-hitters. Instead, here are the underground sounds from the Chinese club and hip-hop scene that caught our attention.
二零一七實錄
Let’s talk about 2017
以上的配圖是今年一場山火的照片。
在這個無解的時代，我們拼命想從音樂中找到答案。
氣候異常、國際政治軍事紛爭、我們社交生活中的突兀與怪癖，我們內心的疑慮不安與悔恨……世界似乎在不同層面中同時對我們前所未有地進行發難。
以下我們匯總的主題遠說不上是對於任何層面問題的答案，它們更多像是我們在當下對環境的一種反應以及手中緊緊抓住的線索。就讓我們一起來整理下思路：
This was a raging wildfire of a year.
Music, more than ever, needed to step upand help us understand what was going on (no pressure).
One of the difficulties that we, as individual insignificants, face with parsing the world is that operates on so many scales at the same time. There are the grand issues, from climate change to international politics, our social lives, with its awkwardness and foibles, and our internal life, with its doubts and insecurities and regrets.
And in some sense, the themes that defined this difficult year deal with how to respond to each of those scales. Let’s start with our minds:
心碎與寂寞
Heartbreak and Loneliness
Aldous Harding – Party
Moses Sumney – Aromanticism
Big Thief – Capacity
Mt Eerie – A Crow Looked At Me
這四張專輯讓人心痛的同時也在默默治癒傷者——心痛的是歌者與聽者雙方，同時被治癒的也是兩者。Big Thief與Mt Eerie的心碎是極度私人的，但他們選擇將傷口展示給全世界；而Sumney和harding則選擇將悲憫的情緒與複雜的處境幻化為迷霧般的玄虛。
These four records were a soothing balm, medicine for the ails of the heart. Big Thief and Mt Eerie were heartbreakingly personal, open wounds for the world to see, while Sumney and Harding were enigmatic mysteries, wrapped up in complex emotions and complicated situations.
Downtown Boys – Cost of Living
David Boring – Unnatural Objects and their Humans
Idles – Brutalism
Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent
METZ – Strange Peace
一首主張鮮明的歌曲有很多作用，而這其中最肯定的就是，它一定可以捕捉到當下環境的模樣。這幾張專輯的態度都足夠鮮明，相信他們對環境如出一轍的反應也並不會使你感到驚訝吧？嚎叫著的怒火，極度的輕蔑，這樣的態度敲打著人心，也讓早已知道緣由與結果的人們不禁感到疲乏。
要宣洩我們的憤懣，打破我們周身的繭時，這些音樂起到了很大的作用。
There are many things a political song can do, but they all capture a moment. These were the albums that best understood the zeitgeist of the moment, and is it any surprise that their reaction is the same? A howling rage, an angry defiance, a 『come and get me』 brava do that is both striking in its bravery and weary in its predictability.
When we came out of our shells this year, this is the music that helped us cope.
堅韌與執著
Resilience and Dedication
Slowdive - Slowdive
我們這一代人對懷舊情結有著糾結的情緒——過度沉溺會引發一種負罪感，而我們卻終究還是放不下。但當我們再次看到Slowdive，聽到他們的新專輯，我們收穫了懷舊以外更多的東西——
那是一種堅韌孕育的力量，也是我們看清自己懷舊的新領悟；我們並不是依戀過去，而是渴求人、事都能長久。
當所有一切都在順應著時間的規律而化成煙雲，Slowdive毅然選擇停留在煙雲之上。聽他們的歌教我們相信、教我們一直懷抱希望。
We are often guilty, as a generation, of pandering too much to nostalgia. But to see Slowdive, to hear them, is to find power in resilience. It’s the realization that nostalgia isn’t always merely a yearning for the past, but a yearning for something lasting.
Everything solid melts into smoke, but Slowdive did the opposite: they resolutely stayed. To listen to Slowdive is to find the power to believe. And to hope.
Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley
Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder
Mount Kimbie – Love What Survives
Perfume Genius – No Shape
Molly Nilsson –Imaginations
新男孩，新女孩……給我你們的微笑，我也會把我的給你們。」
「New boys, new girls.. give me your smile and I』ll give you mine」
這裡的每一張專輯有如一片特異稜鏡，為我們提供了觀察這個光怪陸離的世界的一種奇異角度，所有人都可以有不同的生活方式，都有權拒絕現狀——它們告訴我們，我們一起可以改變命運。
為了明天，為了歡愉，為了打破我們痛恨的痛恨本身；我們聽著這樣的音樂，赴與明天的約會。
These albums gave us hope. From chronicling abandoned and neglected communities to countering malignant, cynical politics. From the queer and grimy to the sacred and profane.
Each of these albums offered a prism through which to see the world, a means to live differently and reject the status quo. We can, they say, change our destiny together.
This was music filled with optimism about building for tomorrow. About building for joy, and building against hatred.
The gods know we need it.
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