Best of 2016: Art Rock and Shoegaze

This is a funny list because I think it’s really consistent and these artists are all in the same lineage, but then again, it’s a little bit all over the place. This has some of the best records as might be recognized by very official publications, and then it has a bunch of other stuff. I like it though, and I really think, as for all my lists, that it’s in the right order.

10> Swans - The Glowing Man

I always include the Swans albums right near the bottom of my lists. They’re great albums and it would be wrong to not include them but…I think it’s important for music to be more digestible than these epics are. It’s a rare listen, and I listen back to the older ones rarely. However, it’s a great album, and it does deserve to be heard…a few times.

9> Programm - A Torrid Marriage of Logic and Emotion

There’s not a lot of information about these Toronto natives, but I can pretty much write their bio having heard the record and knowing they’re from Toronto. They grew up right outside the city, listened to a lot of alternative rock and shoegaze, moved to Toronto and formed a band. And then they made a good record! Programm use their influences wisely and add their own fingerprints to music that’s hard to have identity with sometimes.

8> Matt Bartram - Moments Before

This is essentially a one-man shoegaze army doing exactly what he wants when he wants to. It’s so much easier than what Kevin Shields tried to do 25 years ago with today’s technology, but Bartram deserves credit for honing his sound and songs to this point. There are some really perfect moments that celebrate the genre and its forbears better than most.

7> True Widow - AVVOLGERE

What do True Widow’s titles of things even mean? I’ve never picked apart much about this band (they’re one of my favorites) because it’s so much more important that they have their trademark sound that no one else has. Heavy ass slow core sounds basic enough, but no one is doing it! This is another good effort from them that doesn’t change much, but doesn’t need to.

6> Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

More beautiful balladry from the master of the craft. Nothing is as good as “Jesus Alone” but “Magneto” comes close and it’s beautiful all the way through. People have talked a lot about the context in which it was performed (but it was already written) and I don’t think the tone is dramatically different from before. If anything, I take Cave a little more seriously, but then again, I took him pretty damn seriously.

5> Cross Record - Wabi-Sabi

I keep wanting to think that this is called Cross Record (emphasis on the first syllable) and that the band is Wabi-Sabi, but that’s just not the case. Never was. This is the best slow core record of the year, which is a strange distinction because of how rare it is to come across any slowcore record. This is in permanent rotation for when you’re in a slowcore mood though, because it hits all the right dynamic shifts.

4> Medicine Boy - Kinda Like Electricity

Really strong debut from this South African duo. They show a lot of restraint and care with their sound in a way not too distant from the likes of the XX or Low. This was close to being on the Indie list, but there’s reverb at every turn and the whole thing is quite a dark affair. Very lovely record.

3> Flyying Colours - Mindfullness

This really makes me think that people shouldn’t stop aping the likes of MBV and Catherine Wheel…ever. This really works for me in the really traditional It’s Anything kind of way that apparently never gets old. This is one of those that is hard to explain besides “this just rocks” .

2> David Bowie - ★

This is an incredible record. It would be an amazing achievement for a healthy man and a monumental one for a dying man. I was thinking about Bowie this morning and I realized how no matter when he lived (in modern times), he would have to eventually be recognized for his greatness. There’s no coincidence, there is only infinite talent, passion, and personality from this man. 

1> Radiohead - Moon Shaped Pool

Other people do lists wrong, because while this isn’t the best album of the year (necessarily), it’s the best rock album of the last few years (I’m going to do some research soon that proves this). Seriously, people, do some genre separating on your lists. Or be like pitchfork, who reserves most of the top ten for Hip-Hop and R&B. Pitchfork is the worst. What am I talking about here? You’ve all heard Moon Shaped Pool, it’s great. While not necessarily as revelatory as ★, it’s more consistent and does almost as much to prove the relevance of the artist who has already seen great success. 

Best of 2016: Outsider House

This year was a little slower for some of these artists who make this sort of lo-fi home listening house music. Then again, I put some of them on the other lists because they leaned so far into Techno or Ambient, especially the Opal Tapes / Black Opal output. 1080p was up to its usual tricks to brilliant effect, and 100% Silk was a bit slower, unfortunately making some headlines a few weeks back with the deadly Oakland fire. I hope they make another headline because of the brilliant artists that they’re supporting, and I feel terrible about the tragedy because I love the music and ideals of the label so much.

10> Computer Graphics - We Have To Go

Almost a year ago I started listening to this debut full length as Computer Graphics aka Aleksey Devyanin aka Pixelord aka other stuff. Listening back now, there's nothing discernably Russian about this, but it's interesting that this sound usually comes from Vancouver or the UK. This is smooth and well-produced outsider house with a brooding title track that makes it a worthwhile listen.

9> But Ludzha - Basslines for Life

Baselines for Life is the standout 12” on 100% Silk this year. It takes Deep House and washes it out to a beautiful extent that is perfect for me and…no one else? Very few people, at least. These are jams built around stellar soul samples and blasted out bass that just roll.

8> DJ Voila - Aimless Summer

A reference to Endless Summer? This was made for a Montreal summer and I’ve been there to experience that weather phenomenon. I imagine it’s different if you’d lived through a bitter, cold, Canadian winter, though. This is a 1080p tape through and through: it’s often fun and bouncy, it has a range of moods, and it demands your ears.

7> Akasha System - Vague Response

This is the other 100% Silk moment that keeps on giving from this year. This defines what the label should sound like right now and I hope the direction that it’s headed in. Vague Response is carried by planned out melodies that generally impart a sort of hopeful melancholy about a lost past, a bleak present and a less bleak future.

6> $$$TAG$$$ - Crowd Surfing

Opal Tapes put out a lot this year and this is one of the two releases that I physically acquired. It’s a fun listen because of how the beats roll through the whole thing. It has the feeling of an outer space mission that is lurching steadily forward all the time. It’s really good on analogue too, seriously…

5> Perfume Advert - Foreverware sounds like the opposite of Vaporware, but maybe it's the opposite of Temporare. Compared to last year's tape of the year +200 Gamma, this is a pristine outing that has the tech house beats of their first few releases. It still has the Perfume Advert sound for sure and it's fun to hear it in a more precise context that makes it possible to bring forward the deep house funk that was latent in their sound already. Don't accidentally sign up for Seagrave's mailing list or anything, but this Pepto Bismol pink tape shouldn't be missed.

4> LNS - Maligne Range / Helical Rising

2016 saw the debut of Vancouver's Laura Sparrow in two releases that are similar in length and different in release format. Maligne Range was a tape released on 1080p that introduced me to her electro-tinged skeletal outsider sound and it was furthered by the Helical Rising 12" that occasionally brings the tempos up while still maintaining the unique sound of the debut. With the latter on the new Freakout Cult label, it feels like there's a movement that complements and counters Mood Hut that's brewing in Vancouver and I'm excited to see what develops here.

3> Immune - Breathless

The only release that I can think of that stands in between Vaporwave and Outsider House. It has the gnarled shoegaze and grit of the former, and it's on Dream Catalogue and features HKE on a track, but it fits on this list pretty well. As I think about it, the two use similar hardware up to a point, though Vaporwave often probably would use Software in a much different way than many of these artists. This is a fresh listen though, especially because nothing out there really sounds like it.

2> S Olbricht - For Perfect Beings

The sole notable Lobster Theremin release this year is from Stephan Olbricht, Né Martin Nikolai, of Hungary. He perfectly sums up what can be done with the outsider sound and actually does so on the front and back of a single vinyl record (that I wish I owned). So, format wise it’s a misnomer, and quality wise it is too. You can hear it in the transition between ambience and house where the same wit and attention is paid to the sound and composition of the overlapping moments.

1> Body-San - Shining the Money Ball

One upping a high bar that was set on last year’s Corporate Interiors, Body-San moves to 1080p to drop the tape of the year. This time, there’s more jazzy funk, muzak, and tropicalia rolled into the house structures than before. It’s all a soundtrack to a B sci-fi animated film about interstellar intrigue (not really). I want every party I’m ever at to have the vibe of this album.

Best of 2016: Garage Rock

This feels like a good year for garage! The stalwarts mostly didn’t disappoint (Emotional Mugger is just ok), there’s some fresh blood in the mix, and definitely some moves towards the types of sound that I think complement modern garage really well. More than the other lists I feel like this one is just for me, but take a gander, will ya.

10> Waylon Thornton and the Heavy Hands

The lone band camp find on the list this year is from a Gainesville Florida group who has been around for a few years. They’re bringing the kind of energy that Ty had back around Melted and they’re writing ridiculously catchy songs. The one-two punch of “Daddy Was a Strutter” and “Mickey Mouse” is simply infectious. 

9> Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds - La Arana Es La Vida

The only long album on this list is from a garage rock legend whose solo work I’m getting into for the first time. There’s a lot of meandering on this album, which is long for garage standards, but there’s a ton of good stuff. Kid Congo swaggers like the best of them and mutters like Mark E Smith’s little brother. 

8> Night Beats - Who Sold My Generation

The Seeds are alive and well and they call themselves Night Beats and they’re 40 years younger somehow and they’re rocking better than ever. Night Beats really cement themselves as a staple of modern garage with this one, which plays really well at parties and once, memorably, even in the Brattle Theatre! Really solid all the way through.

7> Yak - Alas Salvation

There’s not too much on the garage market from the UK, that doesn’t borrow from the 60s entirely, and where an array of different instruments and styles are explored. But this is very much garage, still! There are so many barn burners here that are cleverly fashioned into an album via interludes and the psych drawl of the closer. 

6> GØGGS - GØGGS

This is the best Ty related album of the year. There are a lot of elements working here to make this good though: Chris Shaw (Ex-Cult) is an amazing vocalist, and he and Charlie Mootheart have a rapport that runs pretty deep at this point. Just like all the Ex-cult releases, this will be on my garage rotation for the foreseeable future.

5> Honey - Love is Hard

More than any other album on this list, and possibly this year, Love is Hard sets a focus, sticks to it, and nails it. Seven song half hour albums will always have a place in my heart, especially when they rock this hard. This sludgy psych garage will definitely satisfy you if you’re able to be satisfied by such things.

4> Acapulco Lips - Acapulco Lips

Hey, here’s a good debut! Riding the heels of fellow Pacific Northwesterners La Luz but cranking up the pop and girl group melodies, this album doesn’t end up sounding like any time in particular. The surf and the vocals hit every mark and the songs are hooky as hell. I hope these guys make a splash soon.

3> Exploded View - Exploded View

The echoes of post-punk forebears are heard very specifically here, and, you know, making something echo something else is a very post-punk thing to do. This is a killer record full of angles, attitude, and dark charm. The final third might be the best run of songs on an album this year.

2> Thee Oh sees - A Weird Exits

You can’t deny John Dwyer and his new band of youngsters that are trying desperately to keep up with him. This sounds like their first release written with the new lineup, which threatens to jam and meander all over the place while still writing some of the best songs that Dwyer’s ever performed. Not quite the hit that last year’s Multilator was, but pretty darn close.

1> Cosmonauts - A-OK!

I was worried when reading the press materials about this one that it was going to be too poppy and that they would sell out as they “turned down the noise.” Well, they sorta turned down the noise (not live, though), and replaced it with really strong melodies and songs in general. Their last couple releases have suggested their position as one of the best bands on the West Coast, but this clinches it.

Best of 2016: Techno/House/Bass

This is actually a really interesting list and not one that is very well organized in terms of genre. I had this section built out for things that are 1) not too extreme (those would be in the industrial/noise one), 2) Not Outsider House (that'll be later), and 3) that have beats in them (as opposed to ambient/abstract). Half of the list, as a result, are the best techno releases, and half are the schizophrenic house/bass/techno hybrids that are still carrying well these days. Oh, and there's Leon Vynehall too, cause he's cool.

10> Skee Mask - Shred

I was curious to hear if Skee Mask could follow the footsteps of the Zenker Brothers awesome Immersion LP from last year. For the most part, yes!  This is another great Ilian Tape Release in a year that is very short on high quality techno. Skee Mask succeeds at doing the improbable: an engaging techno full length that spans a diverse sound palette, while at times, well, Shredding. 

9> Leon Vynehall - Rojus (Designed to Dance)

It seems ballsy to make a big, beautiful, house record in 2016. It feels retro now in a weird way, and in a way that makes it necessary to listen to this with different ears. You know, I don’t go out dancing, why would I listen to something that was designed to dance? Cause it’s the best Deep House around.

8> Abdullah Rashim - Of Water and The Spirit

One of the few non-ilian Tape purely techno artists that I really like. Rashim’s music is as intense and throbbing as techno always is but has a certain satisfaction to it that the genre usually lacks. The sound design here is top notch and better than he’s ever been

7> Lee Gamble - Chain Kinematics

I’m so glad Lee Gamble is a techno producer now; he’s amazing at it. I liked his random noodlings in jungle and deconstructed beats, but he’s really finding his calling with brain melting glitchy banger techno. Thanks for keeping my brain, at least, in motion, Lee.

6> Andy Stott - Too Many Voices

After so many universally acclaimed records, this one stands apart as being a bit divisive. It feels a lot like Stott is trying to be a songwriter more than ever before and exploring the space of what that could possibly mean for him. In this sense, I think this is his biggest accomplishment and it plays very well as an album. At first it may appear as though there aren't as many exciting moments as there have been, and perhaps it is true, but the trade has been for an even more consistent set of disparate sounds because of Stott's songwriting fingerprints.

5> Twwth - Dislocation

The best interpolation of trap and bass this year, Dislocation was an immediate classic for me and stands up over the past few months just on its first impact. The range of styles and the skill with which Teeth (Twwth) yields them makes the cloud rap work against the post modern UK club tropes in a way that shouldn't be taken for granted. I don't think I've ever liked any of the styles represented here as much as I do on this record.

4> Personable - Oyster

I’ve never been an M. Geddes Gengras fan, and maybe that's what allows me to fully appreciate his Black Opal release as Personable. This falls somewhere between electro and techno, with fun synth arpeggios trading with subtle and varied percussion that fits really nicely on headphones in almost a classic IDM fashion. The title track has the unique honor of being my best strutting song of the year as it took me all around Cambridge this past summer.

3> Barker and Baumecker - Turns

I’m not sure why I decided to tune in to an Ostgut Ton record this month when I had a lot of stuff going on, but I’m really happy about this late in the year minimal techno addition to my life. This album succeeds because of the variety of ideas, the shortish length, and the two professional Germans at the helm. The last track seals the deal and might be the best techno track of the year.

2> Vakula - Cyclicality Between Procyon and Gomeisa

The most epic album in any genre this year, this would basically be my soundtrack to a modern day remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I usually make a mental image of an album pretty quickly, but after many listens, this one remains a little loose in my mind. Coupled with that, which I do like, is the fact that it plays through really well.

1> Demdike Stare - Wonderland

The boys are back! The test pressings held me over for the last couple years, but it’s good to see them back in album form. This is a logical step from the test pressings and sounds strangely unlike the Tryptch Demdike that I fell in love with. I’m with them every step of the way here though: I think the stylistic choices and the twists and turns of the album are interesting, smart, and great fun to listen to.

Best of 2016: Ambient / Abstract / Progressive Electronic

This year saw a lot of artists who make lo-fi analog house ditching their beats into washes and adding drones on top. In addition, long time stalwarts largely took a turn for the darker and more mysterious. It was an exciting year for weirdos and the music that they listen to, for sure.

10> Tim Hecker - Love Streams

This feels like a step backwards, perhaps the first true step backwards in the history of Hecker’s stellar career. Many months after its release, it still does play pretty well for music, and that’s because it’s still better than a vast majority of music ever made.

9> Klara Lewis - Too

Lewis’s sound experiments have begun to sound like no one else’s. Her sound palette starts with field recordings, analogue, and ambient washes but goes quite a bit deeper than that. But also, it’s her sense of composition is what makes Too a unique and interesting listen.

8> Kemper Norton - Toll

Once I knew what this album was about specifically (a particular oil spill), the whole construction of it started to make sense. We need to feel the weight of the circumstance with the cavernous drones, but the emotive words definitely help in creating the narrative. Toll represents a successful story told through both sound and word, which I find a rarity in abstract music.

7> 2814 - Rain Temple

Vaporware was nearly impossible to follow this year, but I fully intend to catch up during the interstitial to see if anything else notable happened. Two of the heavy hitters, Telepath and HKE, came together once again to drop this slab of space wandering, and I’m glad that they did. HKE has been getting more into beats, which appear a few places here, and voices are explored more minimally than before. Less novel than their previous work together, but no less good.

6> Huerco S - For Those of you who have never (and also those who have)

Huerco S is one of the aforementioned now-ambient-leaning outsider artists who also counterbalanced his ambient release with one that was more straightforward (and less good). The hype surrounding this release (ambient hype?) is a bit odd though not underserved in terms of his cachet in the analogue community and the strange and beautiful textures explored here. 

5> You’re Me - Plant Cell Division

A Vancouverian collaboration tape on 1080p is enough to sell me sound unheard, but this one happens to be a particularly special little number. In the intersection of ambient and lo-fi house, Yu Su and Scott Gailey sculpt sound in a unique way together. Sometimes dusty, sometimes lush, it’s an intriguing and fun listen all the way through.

4> Loscil - Monument Builders

Speaking of Vancouver, Scott Morgan lives there and is influenced by the surroundings. This album has more intense moments than he has ever previously had, with references to Phillip Glass and as I hear it, OneOhTrix. Though it’s somewhere in the middle of his now vast discography, I recommend this one almost as highly as Sea Island from 2014, which was my number one ambient album that year. 

3> Sophia Loizou - Singulacra

One of the first releases from Donoso’s promising Kathexis label in Boston, this is a perfectly sculpted apocalyptic soundscape. There are haunted chimes of what used to be: techno, hardcore rave, industrial…but none of those exist anymore in the world of Singulacra. 

2> Body Boys - Hood Spectrum

I knew that the most engaging Body Boys tracks were ones that were overwhelmed by drones and that had distant techno beats buried underwater in the mix. Then they went and made a whole tape of that stuff! It worked out perfectly, for them, and me, and no one else probably! Amazing night music.

1> Steve Hauschilds - Strands

This its my life affirming record of the year. I get many visuals about time collapsing onto a point where these sounds were created by luck and nature, just as I like to think my best art is created. There are secrets to the universe buried in between these bullshit boring analogue noises (Emeralds reference, nailed it). This might be my second favorite Emeralds related release after the epic Allegory of Allergies.

Best of 2016: Pop / R&B / Hip-Hop / Soul

This might seem like a lot to roll together, and to that I say: yes, probably. I wish that there were at least two different groups here, but I barely got to 10 with this category as is. I’m not sure whether there’s an exposure problem, a grumpy Nate problem, or something else that keeps me from getting a lot of these records. And honestly some of these took a few listens before I was sure I liked them at all!   

10> Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate

This may be the most epic album I listened to all year. From the get-go, it is a lush psychedelic soul trip that has some amazing guitar licks in between the ballads and pop songs. Kiwanuka somehow takes traditional sounds and blows them out into proportions that make them as engaging than ever.

9> Xenia Rubinos - Black Terry Cat

This came out around the same time as many of the other albums on the list (~October) and it was an immediate joy. Having art pop influences is a great thing for Soul music and Rubinos (autocorrect: Rubbings) appears to either be well-listened to the lineage or very strange and lucky. This is a fun but meaty listen for your afternoon.

8> Chairlift - Moth

The recently defunct Chairlift’s swansong is a jubilant pop affair that will be stuck in your head for days. Caroline Polachek’s vocals are sugary sweet and fit perfectly in between Patrick Wemberly’s smart pop beats. Hopefully these two will do some great separate things, but together they were an indie pop force that will be missed.

7> Solange - Seat at the Table

70% of the music I try out I don’t immediately connect to and I end up removing it from my computer and “archiving” it. A few times a year I’ll go back and dig something out of archive that I really like. It’s rare for me to go back three times, but I think that’s how many times it took me to accept this album for what it is. But it’s a really great album. I greatly prefer it without the interludes.

6> Noname - Telefone

With all the overbearing, pompous, bloated hip hop out there, it’s so nice to listen to a lean album of tight beats, smart rhymes, and plenty of soul. This is a gem of a mixtape that shows great promise for Chicago’s hip hop scene and people in general.

5> Kadhja Bonet - The Visitor

This album is unclassifiable to an extent that I didn't get it on this list until late in the game. However, it is technically psychedelic soul, so here it is. And it's a great album! Bonet's voice is magical and the arrangements of these songs are otherworldly. This is a unique listen that is recommended to anyone and everyone.

4> Junior Boys - Big Black Coat

Enjoying an album at home more than a live set is a touchstone of electronic artists. In this case though, it might just be because the album is so crisp and hits all the right notes all the time, just like everything they’ve ever done. This might be their most consistent since So This is Goodbye 10(!) years back.

3> Jessy Lanza - Oh No

Speaking of Junior Boys, I love the visual I have of Jessy Lanza moving into Jeremy Greenspan’s house to work on this album together. It’s such a charmed Canadian Artists story and I wish that I could inhabit it somehow. Oh, wait, I can! I can listen to this album!!

2> Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition

I’ve been subtly anticipating this album since Brown’s guest spots on Piñata and DJ Spinn’s Dubby EP. When I heard about the range of influences, I was almost fully sold. When I actually heard it, I never put it down. It’s exactly the kind of album a smart, post-punk and album loving person would make. Easily the best hip hop of the year.

1> Nicolas Jaar - Sirens

Finally, Nicolas Jaar is good at making music again! I’ve been bored by his output for the last five years, but now I couldn’t be happier. He does it all on this album, and so much better than he’s ever done any of it. I hope he focuses up again soon and drops another masterpiece.

Best of 2016: Dark Ambient / Industrial / Difficult Listening

This is my least listened to set of albums from this year and I believe it’s true for previous years as well. It’s still a fun one though, and it’s only 10-15% less than the other genres. I’m really rolling together a few different types of releases on this list, but they have in common a few things: they’re uncompromising, heavy, and very successful as pieces of art. 

10> G.H. - Housebound Demigod

The least of three notable releases on Modern Love this year, this represents the darker, weirder side of a dark, weird label. Gary Howell is closer to an Editions Mego level of abstraction and experimental structure, which makes for a compelling listen when given a somewhat traditional Modern Love sound palette.

9> Roly Porter - Third Law

A particularly expansive album in a series of expansive albums, Roly doesn’t disappoint with Third Law, a third album of a Trilogy of sorts and his first release on Tri Angle. When it hits, it hits big, like “Mass” and “In Flight,” but the journey there and back is an interesting one as well.

8> SØS Gunver Ryberg - AFTRYK

I listen to less and less Industrial Techno as time goes on, but I’m glad that I spent time with this 12”. There is some magic to the physicality of Holly Dicker’s music that is missing from other releases of this nature, but perhaps it’s the palpable soul of it that really draws me in. 

7> Lorenzo Senni - Persona

I can’t decide if this mini album drives me crazy or makes me excited. With influences that range from chiptune to trance to progressive electronic, it’s a questionable taste jamboree that somehow sees Senni on top the whole time. Like the film of the same name, you’re not sure if the performer or viewer is more insane. If you like mania, come on in.

6> Kerridge - Fatal Light Attraction

You’ve got to give Samuel Kerridge credit for mastering his gear to the point where you can’t tell that he’s mixing live or not. This happens to be a live set for an art exhibit that I wish I’d seen, because i’m sure it would have crushed/uplifted my soul quite a bit.

5> HEXA - Factory Photographs

A latecomer to this list, I just came by this record because of the Boomkat year-end, which is brilliant and terrifying as always. This is a collaboration between Lawrence English, one of my all time favorite abstract artists, and Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), who I'd given up on long ago. This seems like an amazing soundtrack to pictures that David Lynch took of abandoned factories (that's actually what this is).

4> Oren Ambarchi - Hubris

I finally feel like I enjoy the music of this extremely prolific Aussie “guitarist.” This is his Krautiest release and propelled by similarly minded geniuses of Jim O’Rourke and Thomas Brinkmann. The third movement here is a towering behemoth that stands firmly in the canon of experimental rock music.  

3> Paul Jebanasam - Continuum

A three-track symphony of static, drones, hisses and a climactic cacophonous blast. Jebanasam seems to have a hand for classical composition and very strange track names that somewhat resemble individual movements within a piece. This is powerful sound art and one of the best of its kind.

2> Fis - From Patterns to Details

This album is a continuation of a musical conversation that’s been going on for years. Just look at Subtext’s recent releases to see the narrative: Jebanasam’s Continuum (just talked about that), Emptyset’s 12” and single releases, Roly Porter’s “Life Cycle of a Massive Star.” Along with Ben Frost and Ricardo Donoso, these artists have been redefining Dark Ambient and moving it past its terrible, simple name, into what people are now calling Post-Industrial, an equally dumb name. Mostly, this is Heavy Sound Art and this is what it should sound like.

1> Pita - Get In

Peter Rehberg continues his “Get” saga 12 years later, and in the meantime I had tuned in, so I kind of knew what to expect. And my expectations were circumvented! And surpassed! Pita has influenced laptop music forever with his releases and his label (Mego), and this is somewhere in between a patient masterwork and a victory lap in terms of its nature. It’s rare to find the top notch noise and top notch ambience in the same record, let alone the same song, but that’s the Pita promise, apparently.

September 2016 Reviews

Hello again!

I found that last month I wrote too much and didn’t have anything left to say about the music. Whoops! I don’t really like repeating myself in anything, so I’m finding it a difficult concept to undertake writing and podcasting together. I also am having this issue with writing where I pore over a release a little too much and end up burning myself out with regards to the details of it. I’m sure these are common things for music writers who actually try to do this for a living. Never make your hobby into your job, right? Then again, if you’re able to 

I’d like to think of actual “creative types” as people who do creative things without remuneration. I also realize that many of the artists that I’m writing about aren’t making a living doing this, which, in a sense, is why I’m interested in them. I love the obscurity toil because it means that you’re doing it because you really want to, against all odds and reason. That’s what it’s all about! Anyways, the refusal of most of these artists to make widely marketable music is not a reason in itself to like them, as is the common confusion with snobbery, but it implies that the art is specific enough to be loved, just like how the more specific a joke, the funnier (if you get it). 

I’m rambling. I have more thoughts. I’m trying to question the very nature of writing any content the way that I do - from highlighting individual songs to talking about it, to how many listens I think it takes to have formed an opinion on an album without having burned it out (usually 10 for songs and 5 for electronic releases). My two favorite music listening scenarios are where 1) I’m doing something else entirely but it’s driving me forward or 2) I’m doing absolutely nothing and paying full attention to the release. The latter is only really possible if you’ve absorbed the album through some alternate method. No one can really give a truly active listen to an album that they have no mental map for and absorb it in one listen. Right? Maybe you can. 

Speaking of can(s), I just got new headphones. It reminds me that I need to write a PSA about headphones. I’m enjoying my Oppo PM-3s in Steel Blue after a brief (nearly a week long) misunderstanding about how the cord plugs into the headphones. Anyways, it’s a short PSA: get better headphones. Your taste in music will changes because you’ll be able to hear things. You might start liking electronic music! That will definitely lead to higher productivity, which of course will lead to more wealth, better relationships, and a longer, happier, more fulfilled life. If you’re sticking something inside your ears to listen to music on a regular basis, you’re doing it wrong.

I digress. Here’s some writing about music that I’ve enjoyed this month that’s as monolithic and impenetrable as ever because I’m terrible at generating digestible content.

Songs:

Exploded View - Exploded View (Sacred Bones)

Genre: Post-Punk

How Much I like it: so much

How many listens it took: a few

This is climbing my album of the year charts quickly. I’ve been watching a lot of film lately, and I think albums that could soundtrack modern thrillers sound really interesting to me right now. Also, I would always enjoy this because it’s great. Joy Division is almost too obvious a reference point to bring up, but since this might be your introduction to Anika and her boyfriends (deep cut?), I’ll mention that they’re the only influence worth mentioning (…okay and Nico). Born Annika Henderson in the UK, Anika arranged this outfit to be her backing band before it took on a life of its own. Now they’re based in Mexico City, or maybe Berlin. This is one of several things I’ve listened to this month that gathers steam as it progresses. I hear the album in thirds: the first is introductory and the most song oriented, though it explores a few different shades of the band’s sound. The second third, starting with “Call on the Gods,” sees Anika as a ringleader chanting and ranting among chaos that’s going on around her. “Disco Glove” is the odd but fitting centerpiece in this anarchy, while “Parties in the Attic” is continually spiraling out chaos that sees her barely changing her delivery. It all happens in the final third for me, though: “Lark Descending” sets the stage for the wonderfully dark and catchy “Gimme Something,” the clear rocker of the bunch. “Killjoy” is the beautiful aftermath of the whole wreckage though. “You’re a killjoy / little boy” is duking it out with “gimme gimme / something / you know I want” as the most memorably delivered lines on the album. This is one that I’ll be coming back to in the future because it occupies a pretty specific place in my music universe.

Cosmonauts - A-OK! (Burger Records)

Genre: Psychedelic Indie Garage Rock

How much I like it: a lot

How many listens it took: just getting past the initial shock of “Party at Sunday”, which I actually really like now

I was worried when I first heard that Cosmonauts were cutting down the noise on their new album, especially when I first heard “Party at Sunday,” one of the two singles that they released as I anticipated the album. It’s a languid affair such that they’ve never really attempted and it made me worried that it wouldn’t rock hard enough and that they were doing the wrong thing. Not the case! It’s the lone ballad and it works really well as such. Otherwise, there’s more pop than ever, but every time there’s more pop, it’s also better than before. “Short Wave Communication” is peppy and synthy with female backing vocals, but is largely driven forward by up tempo punk rock drums and fits perfectly in the middle of the album. “Good Lucky Blessing” is anthemic indie with charming, chiming psychedelic underpinnings. “Cruisin’” may be the most fun, bolstered by a krauty beat and more catchiness. Besides that, the “business as usual” of the album is generally better than before, with perhaps a couple moments where the psych burners don’t burn as hot and hard as they have in the past. Besides that, it’s the strongest Cosmonauts release in every way.

Yak - Alas Salvation (Octopus) 

Genre: Progressive Garage Noise Rock

How much I like it: quite a bit

How many listens it took: a few

Yak basically invent a new offshoot of garage rock that I’m calling “progressive garage” by shifting between styles and taking huge chunks of style from great artists in noise rock, garage rock, and alternative. There’s quite a bit of variety, but mostly it sounds like vintage McLusky playing in the style of other bands, which it turns out is a great idea! “Use Somebody” is Stooges stomp with hair metal licks and an ending that recalls the horn swells of the B side of Fun House. Later, “Roll Another” sounds oddly like a Spiritualized drug hymnal, “Take It” takes on Radiohead’s “Knives Out,” and “Doo Wah” is 90% a Strokes song with 10% Yak grit, “Interlude II” is kinda like Swell Maps and the final song has a weirdly Animal Collective melody. But all this genre jacking works out really well and the sequencing of this album raises it to a much higher level than any individual idea. Plus, the whole thing is quite high spirited and completely lacking in dull moments. 

Cass McCombs - Mangy Love (Anti-)

Genre: Singer Songwriter, Folk

How Much I like it: Quite a bit

How many listens it took: A few

Mangy Love has a different mood than the other Cass albums recently. I wonder what he’s been doing differently in life since his mostly serious (okay the interludes were weird) Big Wheel to here, where even the most serious moments are punctuated with sarcasm, satire, or wit (“Bum Bum Bum”). I like it best in its most serious moments: the rocker “Switch,” the melancholic “Low Flyin’ Bird,” the Pink Floyd-y “It” and the lugubrious “I’m a shoe.” And the first half’s hits: the mostly serious “Medusa’s Outhouse,” which may be the best song despite its ridiculous breakdown (“If it’s so easy / you try”), the precious “Opposite House” and of course the great “Bum Bum Bum.” Since I know the artist so well from his last four albums or so, I understand in a sense how to receive his strangest moments. I wonder how it communicates to a newcomer though, who knows about this sometimes-nomad’s adventures around the world. I suppose on the one hand I don’t have to worry about it, and on the other hand, I’m worrying about it because I’m not taking him seriously enough. He’s got me doing it, now. This does mostly work though, and I think it may be his best album in a great catalogue.

Cool Ghouls - Animal Races (Empty Cellar)

Genre: Psychedelic Garage Pop

How much I like it: a lot

How many listens it took: It’s been getting better but it was pretty immediate

At one point, I was confused because I was listening to Cool Ghouls, Cosmonauts, and Cold Pumas at the same time (on three different stereos, Zaireeka style). I was like, who are all these bands who are probably from California (Cold Pumas aren’t and I’m not writing about them; California is the best)? Cool Ghouls are unsurprising and very satisfying psychedelic garage pop. There are 11 very modern sounding nuggets on this album: it’s Indie production and sensibility, but 60s influence all the way. Check out “Sundial,” which has as much in common with Real Estate as it does The Seeds until the “ba-ba” breakdown goes all Zombies. They reach a psych jam territory on “Time Capsule” that’s at least part Grateful Dead but much more as played by Woods. The middle of the album has Americana moments, including the pedal steel on “When You Were Gone,” the piano rock of “Days,” and the ironic country callout CSNY-ish ballad “Just Like Me.” There’s a shift for the last part of the album though, with balls out rocker “Brown Bag” ushering in a series of straight ahead pop-rockers to close out the album. Listening back, it would feel a little backloaded if the melodies and the songs weren’t so strong all the way through. 

True Widow - Avvolgere (Relapse)

Genre: Doomgaze

How Much I like it: I think a lot

How many listens it took: a few

The last True Widow album that came out, Circumambulation, was the first that I was already a fan for. I was initially underwhelmed, but the songs had a way of climbing inside my brain and nesting there for a while. By the end of the year, I thought it was an 8/10 on paper (rateyourmusic) but that it was my #2 album of the year in 2013 because of the affect it had on me, and still does. I was interested to see what happened with Avvolgere, as I’d heard a couple of these songs debuted at a recent show in the shoebox that’s known as Great Scott in Allston. So far, I’m pretty sure it’s a better album than Circumambulation, and might be in competition with their first two records, which I think are both very good. More moods are covered by this album than the last and better variety leads to a better narrative. There’s an acoustic number, “To All That He Elong,” sung by Nicole, whose vocals are still largely underused. This sets up a trio of songs at the end of the album that utilize harmony and melody in a new direction, and their impact is large for it. The call and response melody of “Sante” makes it a highlight, and “Grey Erasure” continues the up-tempo (for them) momentum with classic 60s era psychedelic pastiches and an urgent sounding bridge. Nicole-led “What Finds Me” has a set-ending finality to it, bolstered by the best vocal harmonies in their catalogue singing some classic lyrics of love that are rarely heard on such a heavy record. 

Wilco - Schmilco (dBpm)

Genre: Americana

How much I like it: quite a bit

How many listens it took: well, it keeps getting better!

Am I the last Wilco fan out there? Can anybody hear me? Does anyone think that Star Wars was good and this is even better? It reminds me of Nick Cave’s Grinderman project, in way. Like, we’re 50 years old now (as a band, hehe), let’s have some fun and write some pithy songs. These are the mellow half of the new Wilco songs, and they give a lot more than they ask for in effort. “If I ever was a child” sets the Americana tone just right, as though they are reaching back to their Billy Bragg collaboration days. “Cry All Day” hearkens back to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in a way: it’s sad, it’s kind of happy, it rolls along like “Kamera” or “I’m the Man Who Loves You.” The pop is more Summerteeth-y than ever in the middle couplet of “Nope” and the wonderfully catchy “Someone to Lose,” which sees Nels Cline contributing one of the biggest riffs of the record. I think that this is a success in Wilco’s catalogue, as it serves to bring together some of their timelessness along with the immediacy that Star Wars hinted at. 

Noname - Telefone (Self-Released)

Genre: Hip-Hop / R&B

How Much I like it: a lot! Best hip hop so far this year!

How many listens it took: one

I don’t listen to much hip-hop anymore and/or there isn’t a lot of good hip hop anymore. I’m fairly certain that hip hop as an art form has degraded pretty far, and most artists in the genre get by on their charisma as performers and not their ability to release good albums. People seem to think Kendrick is the total package, but I simply don’t enjoy listening to any of his albums. Anyways, along comes Noname, born Fatimah Warner, to save the game for a minute. She’s young, she’s smart, and she sings, raps, and sing-raps insightfully about an array of relevant topics.  Sort of a Lauryn Hill for the 2010s? “Sunny Duet” showcases her amazing skill in communicating feelings and ideas simply but in her own distinct way that continues for the rest of the mixtape. The lead single “Diddy Bop” is a winner, and also highlights her ability to cram syllables together with seeming ease that speaks to her background in Slam Poetry. The choruses on the whole tape are massive in a classic R&B way that sometimes threatens to take over a track, like on “Reality Check.” The production is generally quiet, jazzy, and definitely has some callouts to the boom-bap era of hip hop. Even at her most self referential in “Freedom Interlude,” her wit with words makes the odd format of the song work. The Telefone motif is best expressed in the mournful “Casket Pretty,” especially in the lyric “I hope to god that my telly don’t ring.” With such a promising debut tape, I can’t wait to hear more. 

Junior Boys - Kiss Me All Night (City Slang)

Genre: Electropop

How Much I like it: a good amount

How many listens it took: 0

You know you’re going to like a four track EP that follows directly on Big Black Coat. These just sound like leftover tracks that occasionally sound better than the album from earlier this year. “Yes” is better and funkier than most things on BBC, and “Baby Fat” is maybe a little superior to “Love is a Fire,” which is somewhat similar. The cover of “Some People are Crazy” is interesting - when Junior Boys cover songs, they definitely sound a little bit different than their normal songs. I like how noticeable it is, given how consistent it sounds with their other work. Definitely pick this up if you’re a fan of the Boys already - if not, go check out Big Black Coat!

birdbird - Corporation Setup (self-released)

Genre: Garage

How Much I like it: more than I should?

How many listens it took: zero

I like birdbird. They sound like they’re super hip New Yorkers who have really good recording equipment and work day jobs but then are able to still be awesome and creative in the meantime. So, they’re millennials. They sound much better than a garage rock band ought to. They also have band pseudonyms (Kirt Vomitgut is probably the best) and aren’t afraid to do really weird things. The title track is a great rock song that sounds like a lost 70s punk anthem, but it might be surpassed by the strong rock melodies and awesomely lazy “Yeah / Right” chorus of “Yeah, Right”. There’s a certain fascination with banality and malaise that’s captured generally that’s hard to pull off, but it’s done in a smart, almost cosmopolitan way. The EP doesn’t feel consistent though, (because it’s not, and) because of how the acoustic “The Octopus song” interrupts the flow in the middle. But that’s not too much of an issue since it’s the first recording of a band who shows a lot of promise!

Cosmc - Demos (self-released)

Genre: Garage

How Much I like it: kinda a lot

How many listens it took: zero

Boston duo Cosmc have a case of Grapefruit Seltzer on the cover of their album and they’ve included “seltzer rock” as a tag. It’s destined to be a hit, at least by band camp demo standards. And yeah, it’s the grapefruit seltzer of band camp demos! I think that would mean that they kept it simple, kept to the only truly necessary parts of life: water, bubbles, and fruit essence, and didn’t look back. The water would have to be the steady rocking drums, the guitar bubbles the whole thing up, and the super reverb-y vocals (the likes of which I haven’t heard in a bit, at least done this well) are of course the essence. The whole thing has a wayyy tripped out blues vibe ripped from Blue Cheer and fed through a wash of effects. Anyways, I might go see them Monday, October 10th if anyone’s around (it’s as free as the EP).

Electronic:

Vakula - Cyclicality Between Procyon and Gomeisa

Genre: Abstract Space House

How much I like it: a lot

How many listens it took: I never thought I’d make it but then it had me

I have a way of complaining about huge musical statements that are more about scope and ahven’t enough editing. I think that’s because if you’re going to make something huge, you better do it right. This is basically the 2001: Space Odyssey of albums for me, but with more of a sense of lightness than that film. It starts with a monolithic title track before giving the first hints of house on “Acteon.” It jumps around with shorter abstract concepts before settling into the massive “Double Star System.” This is where the party really starts, though it takes its time in doing so (which is very 2001). You hear the blues guitar licks and plucked bassline among the ambient soundscape, signaling a shift to house that will become more prominent as the record continues. The next song, “Overcoming Distance,” is a solid ambient techno track that might truly conclude the first half. “Deep Motivation” is the first truly groovy cut, as it eventually picks up a house beat as it bounces along. Then, “8600km Radius” is all funky bass, jazz keys, and swagger, like a spacier Mood Hut cut. But all that feels like the lead-in to the true funk house groover of the record, “Intergalactic Funk.” It barely fits, honestly, but after an hour of craziness, it’s so fun. You might think the album is ending for the tracks to follow, for it feels strangely like a protracted denouement. Which isn’t to say that they’re bad - the next two cuts have live guitar and bass blues licks that are extremely satisfying and fit very well in the scattershot funk second half. “Sensei Revelation” closes the album with another odd house moment that stands very well on its own. I’ve been through this album quite a few times now and I can say that it’s one of the most fun times I’ve had with a huge sprawling electronic record in quite some time - perhaps since 2014’s Minutes of Sleep from Francis Harris, which I only realized is a decent reference point just now.

Rian Treanor - Pattern Damage (The Death of Rave)

Genre: Basswork

How Much I like it: a lot

How many listens it took: quite a few

This is a hard one to get into, but it’s exploring a wonderful corner of the universe and I think it’s doing so quite uniquely. The closest predecessors are in the UK Bass and US Footwork realms, but this is really building on the last things that Sasu Ripatti has been working on in recent years on the Ripatti label. This is a dense EP full of choppy, perfectly formed rhythms and bass that slams into your headphones (hopefully). It starts out with the most exciting moment in Pattern A1, which has the most aggressive sound design of the four tracks: seemingly one track that’s modulated into terrifying noisy territory with an occasional bass beat syncopated beneath. It’s terrifying and otherworldly like Emptyset’s best moments. It makes the second track sound like a techno-y bass track in comparison, and has melody and structure that make things interesting in a new way. This continues to the “Damage” side of the EP, where B1 is a very footwork-y track complete with crazy Bass breakdowns and trap-like noises in the upper register. The final track is the most melodic thanks to some fun synth work, though it doesn’t shy away from the chaotic and unexpected with the varying tempo mania. I like the chances that are taken here and how few prisoners are taken by the results.

S Olbricht - ZZM EP (UIQ)

Genre: Outsider Tech-House

How much I like it: a good bit

How many listens it took: first listen I liked it

The new label that released Lee Gamble’s best and most straightforward 12” is back with S Olbricht’s best and most straightforward 12”. It’s not actually that straightforward: the opening track would have you think so, but “Floa1” follows, which kicks off with as much Floa1y Floa1iness as you could hope for in an Olbricht track. It would fit really well on “For Perfect Beings,” beginning with a solid three minutes of ambience before a distant techno kick-hihat steadily creeps forward in the mix. It’s a really fun progression and very expressively done, as it then makes great use of a clapping beat alongside. “Ktrying” is more predictably techno but has all the Olbricht touches that make it fun to put on headphones: the click track, the swooshing synth and warbles and garbles. “J_UC” is the weirdest thing here and shows an ability to tread in waters that Lee Gamble has mastered before in deconstructed techno. 

Forma - Physicalist (Kranky)

Genre: Occasionally Ambient Minimal Synth Pop

How Much I like it: mostly a lot

How many listens it took: it’s pretty immediate, or not if you don’t like it

You’ll know if you’re into this one after the first couple minutes of the introduction. If you like the opening analog notes that you hear in “Sane Man,” you’re all set, because you’re in for a lot of that. There’s a ton of Kraftwerk influence, especially through the first half and the epic title track. In between, there are some ambient movements that recall other German acts from the 70s (mostly Cluster), and go a long way towards making this album something special. “Descent” fittingly starts the flow towards the ambient segue, and it continues in three lush parts that you can pick out of the tracklist easily by their ridiculous names. Kranky had been quiet all year, but I think is about to have an amazing fall that might show this to be a minor release in its catalogue. Not minor to me, though!

G.H. - Housebound Demigod (Modern Love)

Genre: Experimental Industrial

How Much I like it: a good bit

How many listens it took: one

You don’t hear much from Modern Love anymore! At least, not enough to satisfy me. Gone are the days of anticipating this month’s new amazing Demdike Stare release that surely tops their last, at least in some dimension. But here’s G. Howell’s debut! He’s worked with Andy Stott and Miles Whittaker! Hooray. Well, this is a lot weirder than the average Modern Love release, and that’s saying something. Songs aren’t constructed so much as they happen to you, for the most part. It opens strongly, with a pair of woozy industrial tracks with sparse percussion, whacked out samples and tape hiss. Then, “Packhorse” is terrifying slow-motion minimal dub burner that would destroy any sound system that should be destroyed. It somewhat reminds me of Miles Whittaker’s “Irreligious” from Faint Hearted (I’m such a fanboy.). The heavy “Angels and Doormen” gives way to the weird as hell “Yorkshire Fog” (con-tro-ver-sy / con-tro-ver-sy), which, if someone could explain to me, would be great. It’s not unlistenable by any means, but it’s an oddball on a weird album. It ends well, with the mammoth title track spanning both the ideas of the album and the ideas of other similar artists in its 16 minute run.

Kemper Norton - Toll

Genre: Ambient Singer/Songwriter

How much I like it: quite a bit

How many listens it took: a few

I was ready to write off this album on first listen. I loved the thick drone of “Yadnik,” but I was completely put off by the vocals of “The Town,” which immediately follows. I felt like I was listening to Fennesz’s Venice but that the very british vocal interruption came much sooner than on that album! Actually, that album is still my reference point for this one: beautiful ambient passages that have a way of feeling like songs, especially since some of them are set to words. The songs are British folk inspired: they’re simple and quiet, with a similar but not the same sound palette to the rest of the album. “Sirens” follows “The Town” and returns to the dark ambient mood of the album with an utter lack of whimsy, much to my liking. It’s actually quite beautiful: it spirals into an intense rhythmic flurry before splitting apart again. It most clearly evokes the idea of the Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967 that this album is inspired by and/or written for. It’s interesting because this tragedy, though not one of the biggest oil spills, affected a small area very greatly, making this feel like more personal than grandiose. This theme and story become more apparently in the second vocal track, “Black Silk,” which includes a reference to the “Summer of Love” and “Black Water Descending” that make it obvious the necessity of including some words with an album if you’re going to write it about something (take that, GYBE!). Centerpiece “Agnes and Louisa” may be the most evocative and expansive track, and it achieves this without words more successfully than the lyric “Coming Home.” Overall, there’s a weird clash between the various parts of this album that does work really well as a narrative and I’ve listened to it enough to not be able to think of it in any other way.

Död - Muscle Trax (Opal Tapes)

Genre: Dark Ambient Noise

How much I like it: quite a bit

How many listens it took: .5

This album, in part, helped me introduce Elena to the truly outrageous side of my musical taste. This is perhaps the darkest and blackest recording I’ve listened to this year, and is somewhat in the vein of a D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. EP (they’re also a Swedish production duo) called Persuasion that I really liked last year. The focus on thick, dense texture and the uncompromising nature of this is what make it so powerful - it is a very singular recording in the vein of some of Eliane Radigue and Emeralds’s best work. This tape has the tongue in cheek naming convention that is becoming somewhat popular in heavy electronic music, employed by the likes of Perc, Low Jack, and Powell. These are all references to weightlifting: “PowerBar Bar” is the opening drone and “DBOL,” the first of two vaguely techno like tracks, is a reference to a steroid. The second beat-track, “Protein Acid,” is the most conventional track, with down pitched 303 squelches among the deep ambience. The somewhat hilariously named “Weapon of Muscle Mass Destruction” lives up to its name with it’s thick 16 minute noise wall that is the most unrelenting thing in recent memory. 

August 2016: Back to the Writing Boards

Hey all,

I’m back in the written word again! I’m writing as a companion piece to my podcast, which you can hear if you email me (contact me on the site). Recent support from friends and messages from musicians have made me want to write, even though it’s a pain in my butt sometimes! We’ll see how it goes. For now, I’m going to write about everything I’m playing this month. We’ll see what happens when I go to talk about it.

Songs

Case/Lang/Veirs - Case/Lang/Veirs (ANTI-)

Track Highlight - “Best Kept Secret”

I forgot to include this on my podcast for last month, and the irony is that it was my favorite album that I found in July! Oh no! What a disaster! I listened to it a lot, got other people into it, took it out of rotation so that I didn’t get sick of it, and then forgot about it, in a way. But really I think this will remain in rotation for quite some time, similar to Neko Case’s last five or six albums (I didn’t actually love the last one). I wasn’t familiar with Laura Veirs or KD Lang enough before this record, and they’re at distinctly different places on the songwriting spectrum. Though the songs are collaborations, Case’s sound, well, like Neko Case songs (“Delirium”, “Behind the Armory”, “Supermoon”, “Down”) as they haunt and please in equal amounts. KD Lang’s songs (“Honey and Smoke”,”Blue Fires”,”1000 Miles Away”, “Why Do We Fight”) are a bit similar though more canonically folk and perhaps even more alluring in a way. The Veirs tunes (“Song For Judee”,”Greens of June”,”Best Kept Secret”,”I Want to Be Here”,”Georgia Stars”) are the real treat for me, though, as they are precious, smart, and catchy in a way that I can’t draw any parallels to other artists. The opening song may be the only truly collaborative song songwriting-wise, though the contributions on each other’s tracks are significant and certainly raise the quality of the music. I mean, if you could choose backup singers on your perfect folk banger “Best Kept Secret,” wouldn’t you choose KD Lang and Neko Case?

Thee Oh Sees - A Weird Exits (Castle Face)

Track Highlight - Gelatinous Cube

I probably won’t buy the new Oh Sees album, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the best garage album of the year. It’s just…a 40 minute album printed across two LPs. Completely unnecessary. Tracks 5-8 are 22 minutes, and that means it would split at my personal highlight, the driving “Gelatinous Cube” (Dwyer is dipping into the D&D well again for names it appears). What a perfect B1! Advantages of this pressing: it’s at 45 RPM (I don’t care), A and B both go rocker-rocker-instrumental rocker, and the pensive tracks get their own side (C). Before all that happens though, we get the 1-2 salvo of “Dead Man’s Gun” and “Ticklish Warrior,” which are in line with the quality of many Mutilator tracks. After an instrumental, “Plastic Plant” and “Gelatinous Cube” come howling in. Both are classic Oh Sees tracks. The former sounds like Dwyer’s been listening to Deep Purple too much and he finally found a good way to incorporate his flute into a track (hint: just a little). The latter is equally indebted to 70s punk, hard rock, and kraut, and packs a huge punch that I could see getting blown wide open live, similar to “Dead Energy”. I’m ambivalent about the instrumentals that come in between these songs. They give the songs some room to breathe, and “Unwrap the Fiend” in particular sounds nearly complete (all it’s missing is some Dwyer vocals). “Crawl Out from the Fall Out” opens side C with organs, strings, and cymbal taps, and may be the prettiest Dwyer song that’s still really effective as a Dwyer song. The ultimate song is similar but stands apart: the vocals are unique, the organ drives the song, and it works very well as a closing anthem. I’m happy this album exists and will re-press a better version in my alternate reality where I have a label that fixes pressings that I don’t like.

Nice As Fuck - Nice as Fuck

Track Highlight - “Higher”

This is a nice Jenny Lewis moment that's happening right now. She's doing the 10 year Rabbit Fur Coat tour and she's on her freshest sounding album since Acid Tongue. Here, she's in a supergroup, the have a naughty name, and its much less of an undertaking than her last album. And to good results! You can put this on for a pretty short run, a really short party, or a nice long walk to lunch. It's all drum, bass, and Jenny's vocal maneuvering (and processing), save for some choice synth moments on a few songs." The more post-punk it sounds the better: "Home Run" is a catchy fight song, and "Higher" is an anthem. The latter is a huge standout and reminds me of the Rilo Kiley song "Moneymaker" in its pop sensibility and dark theme pairing ("I'm so lit up I could cryyyyy"). This is a tight and simple album that you'll be happy you heard, Jenny Lewis fan yet or not.

Angel Olsen - My Woman (Jagjaguwar)

Track Highlight - “Shut Up Kiss Me”

I saw the video for “Shut Up Kiss Me” first, as many people might have. I feel like I saw it before even hearing the song. It made me curious about this record, which I really like now, but I didn’t at first. The first thing that keeps this record from being immediate is the sequencing - there is nearly a pop side / art side split between the halves, making it seem egregiously front loaded. The opening trio is especially good, which reminds me of her last album, where I lost interest after the first three songs. So either this album is better, I’ve tried harder, or both, because now I think some of the best moments come after the opening salvo. I love the Stevie Nicks indebted vocals of “Heart Shaped Face” and the curiously Lykke Li sounding “Those Were the Days” might actually be the best song on the record. The epics in between those two songs are good too - maybe not quite deserving of their running times, but very good. I have more issues with the record than the sequencing though: there’s Angel’s melody choices, vocal performance, and vocal processing. Sometimes the melodies feel too obtuse, the production is grainy and washes out her voice (in favor of a raw rock sound?), she croons when I’d rather she howl and yelps when I wish she’d serenade me. I should shut up though, this is a really good album.

Ryley Walker - Golden Sings that Have Been Sung

Track Highlight - “Funny thing she said”

The live and studio Ryley experience are converging significantly on Golden Sings, which is for the best. These songs are at once looser and meatier than Primrose Green. There's room for improvisation, or at least bluegrass-style riffing, and that space is filled consistently by an array of instruments, including more electric guitar and organ than before. This is how a live Ryley show sounds - the focus is on the musicianship and The Bandleader ties it together with some stream of consciousness musings. "Funny thing she said" is sparse, bluesy, sad, and pretty - things that have never all occurred within the any Ryley song before. "Sullen Mind" is somewhat similar except that it's designed for a 15 minute bluegrass jam session, I think. Ryley's wry lyrics are better than before, are often more obtuse and playful, and are delivered conversationally at times, like on "The Roundabout" and "The great and undecided." This all adds up to an album without weak moments or missteps that I look forward to hearing this band perform.

Michael Kinawuka - “Love and Hate”

Track Highlight - “One More Night”

It's hard for me to understand or write about this album, since it's basically out of context and time. There isn't a popular genre called Cinematic Soul that I can place this in the canon of, and it doesn't particularly take advantage of any musical developments of the last 30 years. Instead, it's Sly psychedelic soul, Van Morrison (more like Them) folk and R&B, and Morricone soundtracks blended seamlessly. At least that's what the epic opener "Cold Little Heart" brings to mind, as well as the title track. The other tracks do vary quite a bit, from the Supafly indebted "Black man in a white world," the gospel blues of "Father's Child" and the simple pop of "One More Night." There is great consistency though: piano and strings provide melody, the songwriting quality is high, and the default mode is sweeping and gorgeous. It's hard to find the mood that this fits perfectly for me, but perhaps it's a mood I never knew I had before.

The Lad Mags - The Future’s Done (Self Released)

Track Highlight - “Future’s Done”

Rarely does band camp music sound this well produced or performed! These two tracks give me great hope for these Canadian rockers, whose vocal harmonies and organ lines recall the Nuggetiest of times. More, please!

The Paranoyds - After You EP (Self Released)

Track Highlight - “Freak Out”

Debut four track cassette from lady LA punks who are friends with Fernando and the Teenage Narcs. Their parties together must be amazing scenes. There’s a lot of promise here, and seeing that they’re putting out a split with Fernando is exciting news for me! Of the four, “Freak Out” may be the most complete and catchy song, though they’re all full of good ideas and promise. 

Sounds

S Olbricht - For Perfect Beings (Lobster Theremin)

Track Highlight - “Fadaisco”

Lobster Theremin is not in my top three Outsider House Labels (1080p, 100% Silk, Opal Tapes); it’s #4. Also there’s not really a #5 (Maybe L.I.E.S.? Not really). But For Perfect Beings puts Lobster Theremin back on the map! This one is quite a surprise for me, and it may be my biggest grower of the year. I started to realize how precise the composition was only as the third track, “Fadaisco,” came on, but repeated listens show how the whole thing is tightly constructed and for beings who appreciate quality music. “Fadaisco” is a masterpiece of percussion, and is fun in a way that arty house rarely is. Working back though, opening two tracks, “Asterid” and “Blamebestrid,” are great opening complements. The first wastes no time with its highly detailed sci-fi synths that create a new universe, while the second expands this world from a darker angle with texture and depth of sound. Later on, on the 7” (12” and 7” together and it’s 40 minutes, ugh) we have two “Ovacrwded” tracks, fast and slow, that could not be any more different. Both shuffle over broken beats and psychedelic ambience, but they in no way sound redundant and are a great way to end the record.  Maybe I just want this album to be “for” me, but I think it’s one of the best electronic albums of the year.

2814 - Rain Temple (Dream Catalogue)

Track Highlight - “Inside the Sphere”

The dreamiest of the Dream Catalogue dreamers are back with the follow up collaboration to last year’s 新しい日の誕生. HKE and telepath drop the spaces from between the numbers and are now naming things in English (thank goodness) and press a 66 minute Ambient tape that no one wants to call Vaporwave. “Before the Rain” is a shimmering ambient opener that flows neatly into the Ambient Trap crunch of “Eyes of the Temple.” “Lost in a Dream,” a title applicable to any number of their songs, follows with some woozy semi-intelligible vocals on top of a dense wall of sound. The cloud of haze lifts a bit for the middle of the tape, where pleasant melodies come forward through ambient washes and sparse beats. “This Body” takes a step back towards the trap beats that HKE has been working with before opening into the lush “Contact.” The journey concludes with “Inside the Sphere,” which is perhaps the thickest, loudest, most kinetic, and most satisfying moment on the album. While not quite as good as their last, Rain Temple presents perhaps both a more consistent and broader set of ideas.

Akasha System - Vague Response (100% Silk)

Track Highlight - “Afterimage”

Good tapes to me present alternate universes that you can curl up in and forget about the issues you have with popular music. This tape, Akasha System’s first, is as warm and inviting as it gets with a little alternate universe. Here, you get a half hour of drum machines and synthesizers, the former often doing little and the latter carrying several melodies at once. These are more “songs” than “electronic songs,” and it seems to be the ideal way to build towards something if you’re going to do everything subtle in getting there. It’s hard to pick favorites, but “Afterimage” always occurs to me as a bright spot as it wafts by, floating on its shifting melodies in an almost A/B/A/B song structure with variations and builds. The title track has a lounge-y, Body-San influenced appeal that’s carried by its Eastern melodies and slow, shuffling percussion. “Caves” and “Muted” are notable for their forward-in-the-mix bass beat, which isn’t often said of electronic music. The latter builds momentum and breaks into its strongest melody only halfway through. Akasha system pulls a Big Boi with “Last Call” at the end of the album, saving a great final synth melody for the runout. My copy is on the way from LA; this is the kind of thing I can’t get enough of and I can’t wait to put it on my tape deck.

Body Boys - Terms (Indole)

Track Highlight - “Terms”

I just got ahold of this a few listens ago but I’d be remiss if I didn’t write about it for a moment. Body Boys is one of the best artists in the abstract house/techno game, and this release (digital only, sigh) certainly helps prove it. This brings together everything they’ve done between their two Opal Tapes releases, combines them perfectly, and pushes their sound forward. This can be heard clearly in “Terms,” which builds out of very Hood Spectrum simplicity into No Face sparse techno brilliance. Then, the warmth and sub bass of “Syringe II” is a brilliant take on the abstract trap/bass ideas that have been floating around lately. “Last” pushes the sound into melodic territory that sounds like some microhouse neighbors of the Boys, while “Rhythm II” goes more manic than ever in every direction. Later on, “Miyagi” sounds like a club track minus the party plus texture. I’m really glad they’re becoming one of the more prolific acts in this style, because they may become Thee Oh Sees of outsider house.

Lnrdcroy - Ooze City (Mood Hut)

Track Highlight - “Ooze City”

Leonard Campbell on Mood Hut!? This must be my lucky day! Vancouver is the place to be for chill but traditional deep house, and Lnrd gets all Mood Hutty for this release. “Ooze City” is especially in debt to Pender Street folks: it bounces and rolls, it has funk and swagger, it lets the 303 take over just for fun. In the second half of the ten minute jam, the drum patterns get more intense, an ambient glow emerges (the titular Ooze?), and the acid gets a little more trippy. Aquabus starts out as a minimal dub track and has more in common with last year’s UNTHANK008 than anything else. It picks up puzzle pieces little by little along the way and flirts with danceable grooves more and more as it unfolds. “Kali Yuga” has the click-attack bass trick that Auscultation has used a few times to drive me crazy (same effect here) and is as pleasurable as the Age of Vice for which it is named. It has the fastest tempo and most aggressive drums and the biggest and most obvious samples (guitar and voice) that he’s used to date. I’ve heard that this closing track has closed his shows before, and it has all the trappings of an epic dance set ender. With this release, Campbell proves that he knows his way around long-form deep house and can add skills to his playbook at will on this substantial little release. 

Acronym - Guadalquivir (Northern Electronics)

Track Highlight - “Purity”

Over the last year, it’s become clear that Acronym is the most talented artist on the deep bench of Northern Electronics. He has been drifting closer to techno as of last year’s brilliant June and then Ashes, which saw him in Plastikman style minimal-acid analog mode. Now, the Swede Zeno’s Paradoxes that distance again by pressing a four-tracker that incorporates his trademark use of space and synth with new styles of drum programming. The commitment to the beats here (there are no ambient tracks) is novel for both him and the label. The opener “Purity” is my pick for being the most aggressive and interlocking of the four, but the closing “Cleansed in Fire” has lush ambience and classic techno build that makes it a serious contender.

Foans - Frontier (100% Silk)

Track Highlight - “Bring it Here”

Foans Frontier drops at the same time as the Akasha system on the highest quality Outsider House label around. It’s a little bit better for night drives around the city and maintains a dance-music inflection from the get go with “Frontier” leading the way with its sparkles and grooves. This classically segues into the darker, faster, and cracklier “Veracruz” that uses just about the most lo-fi version of the techno bass-hihat beat I’ve ever heard. The titular vocal sample on “Bring it Here” makes it a standout on the B-side, as it sounds indebted in great parts to both bedroom-pop and bedroom-house. “Heavy Traffic” brings the grooves afterwards with a sample is somewhat more satisfying for its subtlety. This tape is proving the value of the strain of tapes that’s taking away what makes dance floor music an unideal headphone listening experience and keeping the tropes that work in this context.

Appleblim - Minus Degree (Tempa)

Track Highlight - “Move Them”

Named for it’s arty ambient A-side, Appleblim’s new 12” has more in common with the ALSO work that introduced me to his oeuvre than last year’s Avebury. Tampa is apparently a dubstep label, but the only dub that happens on this EP is in the non 4/4 bass beats on the B side. There, “Move Them” and “Twist it Down” are both nearly danceable UK Bass workouts with a near-techno sensibility. Thinking back to ALSO (and I often do), it’s easy to hear where Laurie’s contributions come in - especially when listening to this in the same session with Second Storey’s new EP. The tension and release is more classic though the beats are still unpredictable and off-kilter in every way they can be. This is another essential release in the post-dubstep world that Appleblim and Second Storey are carving out.

Second Storey - Bismuth (Houndstooth)

Track Highlight - “Bismuth”

Alec Storey remains the crazier half of the ALSO duo with Bismuth, filling the Akkord void for Houndstooth with the wildest Electro-tinged Bass music he can muster. Like the IDM forebears to this style, and like his partner in crime Laurie Osbourne, Alec is all about the details. Take the title cut, where a multitude of different sounds and textures come in and out, tickling the brain like Richard D in the 90s. “Vapor Value” sounds like Radiohead’s “The Gloaming” that’s been remixed by a child genius with an Adderall prescription (they forgot Thom Yorke’s vocals in their exuberance). The tempo picks up for “Grand Rapid” on the B-side, which is full of clicks, claps, machines on the fritz, sparkles, and shimmering synths. “Helicat” finishes off with the most straightforward and heaviest that he has to offer, almost as though Storey saved his collection of pummeling sounds all for one six minute segment. All in all, I’d say this is Idiosyncratic Dork Mayhem for the 2010s. 

John Roberts - Plum (Brunette)

Track Highlight - “Chlorine”

John Roberts is back on his boutique Brunette imprint that operates under Kompakt, one of the many words that I should add to my Mac dictionary. Roberts apparently no longer makes Deep House music. I miss Glass Eights, but I think he shouldn’t try to outdo or recreate that masterpiece, so I’m glad for the new direction. This is a particularly weird direction though! Eight very different sound art experiments that make decent sense as traditional songs and that communicate very well as an album. In fact, Plum is very good at building momentum and tension and then breaking it apart in whatever way it sees fit. “Wade” is an interesting moment in the middle that’s electro-tinged and beat heavy, and it’s hilarious when “Dye Tones” breaks this momentum with a sparse bass beat only to build it up with major key melodic synth action. “Chlorine” may be the most put-together as a track and may be the best for it, but “Plastic Rash” follows with raucous grime-y schizophrenia and goes a way towards convincing me that this is just as worthwhile of a pursuit. Closer “Gum” features non-synth instrumentation and a hint of melancholy; two things that make me excited to see where things will go next.

Steven Julien - Fallen (Apron)

Track Highlight - “Jedi”

What makes an artist drop their alias and release under their proper birth name? In this case, Julien may have woken up one morning and realized that FunkinEven is a dumb moniker. Or maybe he feels like he killed off FunkinEven during the making of Fallen! There is some pretty even funk to these house beats, though this release definitely goes places. There’s a couple tracks that sound like an extended intro, and then a couple similar jazzy house cuts, “Carousel” and “XL,” that really give this release the “house album” concept as they build momentum into the middle of the album. The middle of the album meanders before drifting off into space with “Oshun” and the minimal, brooding “Fallen.” After this, some of the biggest moments happen: the tight techno jam “Jedi,” the rollicking acid banger “Kingdom,” or the percussion mania of “Disciple.” It’s interesting to think of the form this album takes if the tracks really do span 15 years in their provenance; in a sense, it might be Julien’s Opus. At least, it’s a well sequenced and varied set of house tracks.

Complete Walkthru - Complete Walkthru (1080p)

Track Highlight - “Currently Playin”

Max McFerren, house’s biggest goofball, is at it again! As a tape house listener (there are dozens of us!) I look forward to hearing from “real” house producers who are making the cassette release versions of the things they do for the dance floor. This tape is in a good pocket in between: it uses more house tropes than the usual 1080p tape and is therefore much more danceable, or at least certain selections are. The special thing about these tapes is that they function better as albums than most electronic music, and McFerren sequences this to tell a story. “Airbody Tipse” is the only place where we find an intro that a house tune would usually have, but it’s really just an intro to the album. Then again, it threatens to stand on its own! The next couple tracks pick up a lot of momentum as they spiral off into the corners of McFerren’s brain and beat collection before cooling down with the understated and weird (but good) “Feeble Funk.” The off-kilter grooves and fun vocal samples continue through to the B-side, and then the album ends with a pair of up-tempo electro-tinged house tracks, the first of which, “Currently Playin,” is particularly fun. 

Daniel Menche - Cave Canum (Self-Released)

I won’t be playing any of this on my podcast, but I often praise Daniel Menche for making some of the most listenable noise in this hemisphere, so I should give him a mention here. Here, we have vibraphone, bass guitar, percussion, and dissonant noise that creates a cave like environment.  Each of the three tracks, a part of the suite of the same name, are between 13 and 14 minutes long and contain all of these same elements. These three tracks make me proud to be an American.

January 2016

More like, music podcasting. I made a podcast for my music of January 2016! Contact me for access :)

Things I missed in 2015: why I found them, why I missed them.

I spent the last month combing year-end lists to find things that fell through the cracks. Let me know if you find any other goodies!

Jim O'Rourke - Simple Songs (Singer/Songwriter, Chamber Pop)

Why I missed this: I just assumed I wouldn't like it because I don't like most things that are described as "Chamber Pop" and I barely even like songs anymore anyways. But I do like certain songwriters and O'Rourke is one of them. This album pulls from a range of influences that I don't like: soft rock, jazz, prog, but somehow makes this really great!

Who eventually convinced me to listen: This was near the bottom on the year-end for Pitchfork, Quietus, and Boomkat, which is in keeping with the underdog nature of the tunes. Specifically when Boomkat, which specializes in abstract electronic releases, mentions a songwriter, I'm interested.

Lnrdcroy - Much Less Normal (Outsider House)

Why I missed this: In 2014 when this first came out on cassette, I thought 1080p was a label that was only used in the context of HD TVs. This is probably the best tape released on that label, and it was released on vinyl in 2015. 

Who eventually convinced me to listen: RA - they put it really high on their year-end even though it didn't technically come out in 2015. I'm following suit by putting it really high here. I've since purchased the original cassette.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion (Dance Pop, Electro Pop)

Why I missed this: I listened once earlier in the year but it didn't hook me. I guess I just wasn't in the mood! This is the best dance pop album I've heard in a long time, but it did take me a minute to get there.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: Ross - he said it was his album of the year. I get that.

Grimes - Art Angels (Electro Pop, Synth Pop)

Why I missed this: obviously I didn't miss this, I just slept on it because I didn't like Grimes to begin with and this album is obnoxious. It's also really good! It's campy, sugary electro-pop with a punk undercurrent that rides through the whole sprawling mess. You might have to skip around a bit at first, but there's a lot to like.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: I think Boomkat because Boomkat is actually good and it was on their list. It's really high on Pitchfork and the Quietus, but I think both of their lists were garbage this year. 

CCTV - CCTV (Post-Punk, Garage Rock)

Why I missed this: It's hard to find! I'd heard of it but I hadn't found it until a few weeks ago. It's so good, just a few minutes of awesome post-punky garage.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: I think like, a shady .zip download site somewhere in the deep internet.

Eyeliner - Buy Now (Vaporwave, Synth Pop)

Why I missed this: I didn't think that Vaporwave was something I liked at all until recently. This is taking the next step beyond one of my favorite releases, Body-San's Corporate Interiors, into loungy, jazzy, corporate pop. I don't know why, but it's really appealing to me.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: this really amazing person on rateyourmusic named xolotl who has crazy but awesome taste. I think she technically turned me onto CCTV too, which shows her breadth.

Amy Blaschke - Opaline (Singer/Songwriter, Folk)

Why I missed this: It wasn't a wide enough release, I guess? No one told me about it. It's some nice folk music, sometimes poppy, but not really for the indie folk scene. I can imagine it being played on an adult alternative radio station.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: it came through on the exystence blog.

Linkwood - Expressions (Deep House, Outsider House)

Why I missed this: I'm just an idiot, I guess! Also, this was mostly pretty underrated and came out before I really got into Outsider House, which this flirts with at times. 

Who eventually convinced me to listen: RA and White Noise both had this on their year-ends. I wasn't impressed by either list, but I happened to check this out anyways because I always have to be sure how lame a list is.

John T Gast - Excerpts (Abstract Electronic)

Why I missed this: It was labeled as Techno a bunch of places and I steer clear of Techno that I have no business listening to and I don't love Planet Mu as a label. It's not really Techno at all though! It uses techno tropes sometimes, but then uses a lot of different sounds that aren't found in any sort of dance music. I'm still unpacking the range of influences and compositions after 10 listens.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: Boomkat on a whim.

D Tiffany - The Genero EP (Outsider House)

Why I missed this: I think I just wasn't into this in February when it came out, though it seems like everyone else did too!

Who eventually convinced me to listen: Rateyourmusic Outsider House chart.

Theo Burt - Gloss (Progressive Electronic)

Why I missed this: No one wrote about this in my blogiverse and I understand why. It's insane sound art for people who are not in their right minds. It jumps between channels, between drones and mania, and it's really fun to listen to on headphones.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: Boomkat, who put it at #5 on their album year-end with the disclaimer that it was "never really intended for public consumption" when it was originally recorded five or six years ago.

J.C. Satan - J.C. Satan (Garage Rock, Hard Rock)

Why I missed this: No one told me about this French garage nugget! Dammit. Oh well, I found it eventually. It kind of sounds like young french people got ahold of the 2000s Queens of the Stone age albums and decided to go to town. What fun!

Who eventually convinced me to listen: Rateyourmusic garage rock chart. I check it every so often for things that fall through the cracks.

Kentaro Minoura - First and Last (Minimal Drum 'n Bass)

Why I missed this: It was only released as a 12" on a new label in Japan. It sounds like Samurai Horo style Minimal Drum and Bass, but I think it's better than anything on Samurai Horo this year because it makes good on the risks that it takes and it's concise.

Who eventually convinced me to listen: nodata.tv - it just came through as usual on Dec 14th.

Daniel Avery - Sensation/Clear (Tech House)

Why I missed this: It came out late in the year!

Who eventually convinced me to listen: As soon as I saw that it existed, I checked it out. Really good techno! 

Best Albums of 2015: Top Ten Lists

I have always taken issue with year-end lists because of the lack of internal logic. I know what it's like to try to relate several (actually around seven, if I'm being honest) different types of music together and try to come out with a cohesive lifestyle that speaks to all of my interests, so I know that any publication that tries to make a single year-end list has bitten off a big chunk of chocolate. I also know that people love lists, data, arrays, linked-lists, competition, glory, and drama, so I still want to make a bunch of lists. Where most publications fail to be up-front with their various fetishes and concerns that translate to rankings, I'll try to make it clear what each of these lists are about and that no list is better than any other (except that it's all based on numbers and they're listed in order).

Top Ten Outsider House Tapes of 2015:

My favorite musical thing that happened to me in 2015 is easily summed up by three mostly-cassette labels: 100% Silk, 1080p, and Opal Tapes. These three labels are putting out weird, mostly analogue electronic music that has shown me that House music structures can be made into compositions that are equally fun to listen to, sophisticated, and psychedelic. This sounds most like Deep House music that's made for the bedroom. Now that I have my tape deck up and running, it's particularly for my bedroom.

1. Auscultation - L'étreinte Imaginaire

2. Perfume Advert - +200 Gamma

3. Michael DeMaio - Half Cross

4. Journeymann Trax - Smoke Tape

5. Body-San - Corporate Interiors

6. Nackt - Virex

7. Friendly Chemist - Touch of Jupiter

8. Cherushii - Memory of Water

9. Roche - Dawn of the Next Cycle

10. Wywy Brix - Clear Licorice

Top Ten Indie Albums of 2015:

These ten albums are closely related to the music that normal people listen to and enjoy on a regular basis. These albums all have words that you can comprehend while listening to them and melodies that may make you feel either familiar or new emotions, sometimes in combination.  These albums often require some sort of active engagement in order to truly understand and appreciate them, which is neither better nor worse than much of the other music that I enjoy, which often exists more simply and immediately.

1. Joanna Newsom - Divers

2. Jessica Pratt - On Your Own Love Again

3. Ryan Adams - 1989

4. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier

5. Wilco - Star Wars

6. Marika Hackman - We Slept at Last

7. Esme Patterson - Woman to Woman

8, Laura Marling - Short Movie

9. Howling - Sacred Ground

10. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I sit and think

Top Ten Rock Albums of 2015

In my world, Rock music comes in a few forms. Garage Rock is in the greatest supply but is perhaps also in the greatest demand. There's a lot of middling Garage, but there's nothing in the world as exciting as a band finding their sound in this music space. Then there's the post-shoegaze type of stuff that's mostly garbage except when it's amazing (like Helen and The Telescopes), and then there's the Post-Punk type of stuff that I'm pretty resistant to in general because it's really hard to be in good taste while you're doing it but has a lot in common with music that normal people like. Anyways, here:

1. Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated at Last

2. Helen - The Original Faces

3. The Telescopes - Hidden Fields

4. Viet Cong - Viet Con

5. Peacers - Peacers

6. Thee Tsunamis - Saturday Night Sweetheart

7. Walter - Get Wel Soon

8. La Luz - Weirdo Shrine

9. Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect

10. Peach Kelli Pop - III

Top 10 Bass Albums of 2015:

All of the music in this list really has two things in common: they all have irregular bass beats and they're all out of control. Most of them come from the UK and have varying degrees of ties to Grime or Techno, but mostly this is a perverted form of club music that has more in common with IDM of old. The unpredictability and intensity of much of this list makes it really special, but also an area to tread with caution.

1. M.E.S.H. - Piteous Gate

2. ALSO - ALSO

3. Rabit - Communion

4. Lakker - Tundra

. Kode9 - Nothing

6. Color Plus - Netcika

7. 214 - North Bend

8. Logos & Mumdance - Proto

9. Laurel Halo - In Situ

10. Pearson Sound - Pearson Sound

Top Ten Abstract Albums of 2015:

The type of ambient, drone, and beatless analogue synth music that I like is actually quite pleasant, for the most part. This type of music is good for painting, watching precipitation, creative writing, meandering around a closed space, shopping, or as alternate music for video games. There are immediate emotional implications to much of this music, and depending on how you look at it, there's either the most going on or the least going on of any style of music that I enjoy. Sometimes both!

1. Jon Brooks - Walberswick

2. Abul Mogard - The Sky Had Vanished

3. Jonas Reinhardt - Palace Savant

4. Chra - Empty Airport

5. Moon Zero - Moon Zero

6. Conrad Schnitzler and Pyrolator - Con-Struct

7. EXAEL - Actaeon

8. Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol. 3

9. Lawrence English - Parting Waves

10. Abul Mogard - Circular Forms

Top Ten Techno/House Albums of 2015:

I'm pretty constant in my derision of all things fun in the world, including dancing, so I won't bog you down with another tirade here.  I don't think the danceability is a deal-breaker for me, but it does come hand-in-hand with composition that has too much symmetry and constancy. I do listen to some music that has things in common with dance music, some of it is actually danceable, and here is a list of ten such albums.

1. Acronym - June

2. Erik Luebs - Absolute Presence

3. Body Boys - No Face

4. Zenker Brothers - Immersion

5. Aris Kindt - Floods

6. Sasha Conda - Bronco

7. Dwig - From Here to There

8. Xosar - Let Go

9. Abdulla Rashim - A Shell of Speed

10. Willis Anne - Deja Vu

Top Ten Industrial and/or Noise Albums

I had a year where I didn't listen to too much music of this type, but what I spent time with is certainly worth talking about a bit. I'm always up for a challenge, and this (fairly broad) type of music always comes with a certain type of challenge. There's often great beauty to be had within the noise, and it often provides me with a lot of inspiration. I can sign off on each of these as being amazing releases in their own little music universe.

1. Shampoo Boy - Crack

2. Daniel Menche and Mammifer - Crater

3. Robin Fox - A Small Prometheus

4. Kerridge - Always Offended, Never Ashamed

5. Low Jack - Sewing Machine

6. Matter - Paroxysmal

7. ENA - Divided

8. Shit and Shine - Everybody's a Fuckin Expert

9. Ricardo Donoso - Sarava Exu

10. Thomas Brinkmann - What you hear is what you hear

December 2015: Finding things between the cracks / Making new cracks

Apologies to fans of melody and song-craft, as this short listening month for me has been dominated by abstraction and the beauty of noise. Whoops! It has been a lovely and weird few weeks actually; I started work again, which changes everything about my listening habits! I’m happy to have the listening time work in so naturally to my schedule, because I love music.

If you’re looking for songs, try Walter and Peacers. For pleasant beats: Friendly Chemist,  Octo Octa, and A New Line (Related). The Menche/Mammifer and Aris Kindt are fairly approachable too, especially as the weather gets colder. 

Best LP: Walter - Get Well Soon

Walter opened up for Fuzz when they came to town a few weeks ago, and put on one of the most surprising and unhinged opening sets I’ve seen in a long time. With absurdist stage banter, weird and frequent guitar solos, and mania for days, it was quite a sight. I was excited to hear the albums, but I had moderate expectations that it would mostly just sound like an Oh Sees ripoff album. Well, it kind of is! And it’s really good! “House on Fire” shows the Can influence pretty heavy with its krauty psychedelic treading, but it’s succinct and snappy in the way that the spirit of this album. The album picks up momentum early with “Ice Cream,” a tight pop song with an epic chorus melody, while “Everybody Says” stretches out into a rollicking psych jam full of wacky classic rock guitar solos. It’s not exactly how John Dwyer would do it, for sure, but from the vocals to the guitar licks, there’s a ton of overlap. “Friendship” is another standout with its manic shifts in tempo, but the best is saved for last. The heaviest track in the set, “Leap Frog” shows Walter’s ability to sparingly but effectively make a heavy psych jam. 

Best Indie LP: Peacers - Peacers

Sic Alps was always mostly Mike Donovan, Mike Donovan’s 2013 release was almost entirely Mike Donovan, and Peacers is probably somewhere in between. This sounds a lot like the 2012 Sic Alps album and the subsequent singles, which found MD coming as far out of the formless lo-fi meandering as ever. In this next iteration, Ty Segall is producing and drumming, and I’d say around two thirds of the tracks have pleasant or even catchy melodies; a very high ratio for Donovan. A few of the best tracks are in the first half: “R.J.D. (Salam),” “Laze It,” and “Piccolo and Ant” are little pop nuggets like the old “Jellyroll Gumdrop” that I can’t get enough of. The back half meanders more, but has standout “Kick On the Plane” and wraps up really nicely with “Blume,” and “Super Francisco.” These simple, sometimes borrowed melodies work really well because of the weirdness that surrounds them in various ways, so as I’ve listened more I’ve learned to accept all the eccentric edges of this mostly shapely album. 

Best Tape: Friendly Chemist - Touch of Jupiter

So much happens within a year in a style of music that’s only a few years old that at 10 months old this nearly feels like a vintage outsider tape. Saying that is actually weird too, because especially this brand of lo-fi house has a huge “vintage” quality to it. “March of the Bog Lily (Clapalella)” is an awesome way to kick things off - claps, squelches, and ambient breakdowns make up the kinetic version of this mix. “Trying to Find U” is another standout, with its wacky drum tracks and even wackier synth melodies. It’s almost the antecedent of classic Mood Hut tracks (Jean Brazeau is a Vancouver native also), though trading in a little sci-fi and trading out a little swagger. Things get deliciously saxy for “Visions from Yesterday (Saxy Mix)” in the most 80s sounding 2015 house track of your life. The B-side has the banger “Queens of Jupiter” before going ambient for the Celestial Mix of the first track. “Mist/Haze” is perhaps the most beautiful and melancholic track and is a nice coda for a great tape. This is another one of those 1080p tapes that you need in your life: the more collected and less heinous side of the label. 

Best Abstract Tape: Daniel Menche and Mammifer - Crater

As I’ve gotten deeper into abstract art myself, I’ve been questioning to what extent abstraction and minimalism are concepts that lazy people use to express themselves. When I see other painter’s work, I’m amazed and disappointed in equal volumes. Sometimes it’s too easily reverse-engineered and sometimes it doesn’t express anything, whether intended or expressible in the first place. So this collaboration is actually perfect for me: it’s a clear and beautiful expression that has never before been expressed and is equally easy and hard to locate the sound palette that it began with. This release is bookended by pleasant, shorter, less processed pieces, but mostly contains four mammoth shimmering drones done the way that only Daniel Menche (and friends) can do. My favorite might be the visceral “Breccia,” which layers processed field recording drones and chiming synths for much of its sixteen minutes. “Exuviae” is also lovely and likely has some running water and rain tracks beneath its cavernous instrument-based sounds. ”Hearing Menche talk about how this tape was made convinces me we’re kindred spirits: ‘We’re just friends making acoustic sounds together and recording nature with our hikes together. Then we eat pizza and laugh.’

Best Ambient Techno LP: Aris Kindt - Floods

Francis Harris, beat maker extraordinaire, teams back up with Gabe Hedrick, who played guitar on last year’s great “Minutes of Sleep,” for an album that’s in a similar universe. It’s still perfect for late nights, cold weather, and (I can only imagine at this point) falling snow, hopefully all at the same time. Instead of jazzy explorations fueled by Hedrick’s work, the guitar is layering drones on top of vintage 808 drum beats. Check out “Floods,” where synths and guitars swirl and build on a dub baseline until they peacefully take over the momentum. “Blue Sky Shoes” plays a similar game but has guitar shift halfway through the track from cavernous drone to cascading washes of static and reverb that you might find on a Fennesz or Tim Hecker album. Tracks like “Snowbird” and “Braids” are more aggressively noisy, which is especially fun for me. “Embers” is a bit more kinetic in beat and the Eurotrack synth layers are especially melodic and it works really pleasantly as the climax of the work. In lieu of a Loscil record this year, I think this one will spend a lot of time keeping me company this winter.

Best Techno LP: Abdullah Rashim - A Shell of Speed

This album is a little frustrating because it reminds me that techno and Northern Electronics are both interesting. I write off techno regularly because of how its made for dancing and that’s not my purpose in listening, but this type of release transcends the original purpose. What worries me is that I miss a lot of really good things because I ignore anything that’s labeled as techno now, and I was starting to think that the overly prolific output of Northern Electronics was something to scoff at. This is up there with Acronym’s June as the best thing that the Swedish label has to offer.

EPs

Best EP: Mencius Leonard - Atelier Limbs

I’m glad I checked out this three-track digital only EP (I never really thought I’d say that) because it’s helping me remember that techno and industrial don’t have to fit a certain palette or composition. Similar to Powell, Mencius Leonard has many fresh takes on how to pound your face with beats, though definitely from a different sound design perspective. “Gaze Weronika” shifts in and out of banging bass beats across seven minutes that fly by, while “Xinyi” takes an ambient-built approach to industrial bass, complete with tinkling piano and buzzing machinery. “Driko Mitzi” is the real masterpiece here though, as it incorporates vocal snippets as contrast/melody into a post-apocalyptic hellscape in such a way that is distinctly song-like. If you know the Demdike Stare tracks that use vocals and whimsy along with their terrifying elements, it’s kind of like that. A few minutes in, it just bangs away with the breakdown, splits apart again, and continues to re-form.

Best Outsider Techno EP: A New Line (Related) - Our Lady of Perpetual Fucking Succour

This is the closest thing that’s come out to Perfume Advert’s +200 Gamma since this spring, and I’m pretty happy about it. It’s only now that i’m realizing that the intention of techno tracks is to hypnotize you, though usually through physical movement. Here, I don’t feel any compulsion to move, or do anything, really. I like just sitting back and letting these subtly changing tracks wash over me. “Belle Ile En Mer Dub Night” might be the most hypnotic, as it swirls itself into submission across nine minutes of dubby techno. Similarly, “Nobody’s Been in Touch” takes its time to unfold, contrasting warm, melodic, glowing synths with manic vocal(?!) samples and slapping tom drums. The final track sucks you in with dynamic and unusual drum patterning with some of the same trademark synth stylings. The digital download comes with a bunch of remixes and I particularly like the Perfume Advert one (shocking!), so I’m including that in the box. 

Best House EP: Octo Octa - Further Trips EP

This is pure and simple badass house done the lo-fi way. It’s catchy, it’s fun, it’s campy (“Keep”!), and it’s groovy. It doesn’t make me think that hard about life but it makes me glad to have functioning ears. 

Best Abstract EP: ENA - Meteor

I’m realizing how difficult it is to process music that isn’t constructed like other music. Where does a track like “Meteor” begin and end? Is it made from splicing or from a deterministic beat pattern? What is it looking to do? Much of these tracks feel like they’re constructed from analogue loops, because you hear the seams in between the bars (which is kind of jarring but kind of fun). The sound palette is restricted in one sense, but here more than ever it feels like ENA (Yu Asaeda) is wisely contrasting dynamic registers within his polyrhythms and electroacoustic manipulations. The result is strangely song-like and very satisfying for it. The individual sounds are what keep me interested most though: check out the pitter-pattering bass track and whispering static on “Insective.” The machine hums of “Body” are the types of things that stop me in my tracks in real life next to a malfunctioning fan or heating system. “Froth,” one of the two digital-only tracks, has an inconsistently running tape-reel type of sound that slowly gains shape as the track evolves. For a melody and humor-less set of tracks, there’s a lot of life in this EP. 

Best Mixtape!?: Lotic - Agitations

It’s weird to think of this as a mixtape, because it pretty obviously has nothing in common with the source material from which it came (a recurring theme this month, I’m noticing). Lotic doesn’t take any shortcuts - no “ha dance,” no Beyoncé, and even less respite from unconventional eardrum-pounding. Much of these 24 minutes is in ripping-apart-sound territory, which I suppose is best done with origin sounds that need to be torn a new one. Glass shatters, machines are on the fritz, and beats spin forwards and backwards in “Trauma.” A skittering, caustic, detuned synth lead takes over in “Carried,” which has a UK Grime amount of contrast in sound design and more negative space bass than positive. “Banished” is all vocal samples but suddenly, voices are terrifying. There are a couple pauses in the chaos in “Feign” and “Rewound,” which slow the pace, let the brain rest, and allow for the insanity to sound more insane. The latter is comparably very pretty, and segues into the slowly building “Surrender” to close the mix. All in all, this is definitely a lot of development for Lotic and should gain him more respect within whatever community actually likes this sort of thing.

Best Abstract Bass/Grime EP: The Sprawl - EP1

This isn’t really Bass music, but two thirds of the people in this collaboration (Logos and Mumdance) are UK Bass titans, while Shapednoise, as per usual, brings the noise. The result is actually more fun than a lot of what has come out of this camp lately. “Drowning in Binary” is kind of like a more cohesive new OneOhTrix track, complete with bass mania and dissonant transition phases. “From Wetware to Software” almost has an Emptyset quality of how sounds build from silence, albeit one whose provenance is grime instead of pure analogue. This direction continues on “Haptic Feedback” in a more extreme direction, with long washes of static on the sustain of the spare Grime-y synths. The final track takes its sweet time to get to a state that has some definite shape, but once it gets there, provides a satisfying conclusion to an otherworldly listen.

Best Industrial/Noise EP: Alexander Lewis - Occupying the Middle Circle

Alexander Lewis is apparently an alias of Guy Brewer, who usually records under the minimal techno alias Shifted. Why you would choose a name that sounds like a different human name when making industrial drone is something that I don’t understand. My N. Kenneth alias hasn’t really taken off yet. This EP is really cool. Brewer is shaping sound in a distinct and palatable way here and giving a lot of attention to silence and timbre of noise. The first and third movements are nice as they play more with silence, though the even ones are thicker, dronier, and short and sweet. It sounds like the source of the sound is likely a guitar, but it really doesn’t matter for these compositions. 

Best Bandcamp Demo Tape: Draggs - Demo

This is a really flat mix, but that’s how things go when you’re a garage rock band in Australia recording their demo! I actually don’t want much more fidelity, but just enough to showcase how good the riffs and melodies are. The attitude and shredding are hard to miss though, and that’s what makes this worth listening to.

November 2015: Passion Projects

What a weird month for music! I spent this whole month working on my artist career but not so much my software career (which will be changing soon!) and my listening experience was changed as a result. I actually had to carve out time to actively listen instead of it being built in to each day, so the process was a little bit different than it has been. However, the results are pretty much the same as they would have been otherwise, since my tastes haven’t changed dramatically during my other life shifts.

There has been a shift towards a few things this year that make it particularly exciting and this outlet a really good one for me. Most of the development involves analog appreciation of a couple different kinds (Outsider House and Progressive Electronic), but there’s a question of how old loves stay fresh that I’m constantly trying to answer (R&B, Techno, Garage). I’ve also been thinking about listening format. In one sense, it’s all vinyl, tapes, or digital only. In another sense, it’s RSS, bandcamp, and social media. In a third sense, it’s crowd-sourced lists, professional opinions, and self-promotion. I want some of each!

Not too many albums with words this month - if you’re looking for folk, there’s Esmé, R&B then Kelela, and Casper Skulls for a bit of garage. Besides that, there’s a whole mess of lo-fi and abstract house and electronic. It’s really good though! I swear it keeps getting better, and that’s only partially to satisfy my obsession with living in the present. There are so many sounds to be excited about and so little time!

Stay tuned for the end of year list that I’m going to feverishly assemble over the next month while I try to cobble together all the things that I’ve missed so far. Let me know if that’s anything in particular I should try to check out! Quick!

Best LP: Esmé Patterson - Woman to Woman

I didn’t find a ton of music with words this month, but I’m also very content with what little I did find. Ostensibly written as a series of responses to not-exactly-love songs named after women (Loretta, Eleanor Rigby, Alison), Esme’s first solo collection hits all the right notes. Woman to Woman is Americana that shoots out in many different directions. On the A side, there’s the slide guitar romp of highlight “Never Chase a Man,” a voyage towards the tropics on “Oh Let’s Dance” and hand-clap, organ-laden glam on “Tumbleweed” and bluesy “What do you Call a Woman.” The B-side is markedly slower, quieter and has more musings on death. There are some lovely highlights in “The Glow” and the solo acoustic closer “Wildflower.” The latter has a very Milennial second verse that I love: “Fever of youth it keeps the mind so clean / We get hungry, we get reckless, we get drunk on our thoughts / We see right and wrong and nothing in between / We borrow to buy what can never be bought.” Put it on and let Esmé howl, yelp, and croon her way into your heart.

Best House LP: Erik Luebs - Absolute Presence

This is the kind of melody-centric downtempo house that not only do I like, but I think that other people like, too! And it’s pressed on pink vinyl! The melodies are gorgeous, the beats are kinetic but never get stale, and the transitions between movements are so smooth that it’s effectively presented as one piece. “Losing It” builds on the synths momentum of the opening track, deepening both the bass and the synth melodies. “Eyes Closed” uses the same 2-step shuffle but takes a cinematic turn once synth melodies combine together. “Outpouring” breaks the momentum of the first half by dissolving into a drone that incorporates guitar and synth in one o”Ff the best moments of the record. The flip side picks up the beat again for the literally named “Climbing Arc,” which incorporates some more pleasant feedback into the beats, fulfilling the promise of the first side. The closing track, “Reawakening” is a satisfying climax and denouement to combine the mood and sounds of the previous tracks.

Best Tape: Roche - Dawn of the Next Cycle

Not as concept-heavy as its recent companion tapes, this is more like big room house done the 100% Silk way. Many tracks are nearly danceable and are often made up of separate pieces that each play very well on their own. Check out the disparate pieces of “Churning Your Chest” or the catchy as heck highlight “Breathe Deep.” Songs never get stale because of the many moving parts that are always pushing forward. This is important for the format of a C60 because I never have an attention span of an hour unless I have a specific reason. “Visions Again” is the only part that slows or quiets down as the intro to the B side, but then “Positive Sky” moves things back towards the dance floor, the bedroom, or the kitchen (wherever you like listening to House). That, the exciting “Time Remaining” and the chugging but pensive “Look Inside Yourself” make for a great trio to finish off a vibrant listen.

Best Acid House Tape: Nackt - Virex

I’ve gone on record as saying I don’t really like 303’s and the sounds that they produce, but I think it might be that the context is just usually wrong for me. That isn’t the case with this 100% Silk tape! It’s definitely my favorite label this year, with many more hits than misses. These are live-to-tape analogue experimentation that are as restrained as they are fun. The acid squelches are rubbery instead of painful and the drum tracks are lo-fi and well curated. “Full Coat” is an early highlight, providing a two-note chime melody over multiple bouncing acid synths provided by collaborator Cm-4, who is listed on five of the seven tracks on this tape. “Ford” takes a turn towards drum mania as all three producers fill the sixteen beat loops with claps, toms, and cymbals galore. Nackt is solo again for the great “Black Widow,” which has the most interesting melodic developments of any track. “Husk” is also brilliant and contains the only vocal clips on the record. I particularly like the spliced up and later completed in coincidence with a drop: ‘I would give anything!’ This is in the top releases that the big three outsider tape labels have put out this year (100% Silk, 1080p, Opal Tapes).

Best Sci-Fi Disco Tape: Sasha Conda - Bronco

This one seems to be flying pretty far under people’s radars, but it’s clearly awesome and deserves to be heard. This is out on Not Not Fun, ironically less prolific super-label of 100% Silk. I always think releases should tell a story, so a tape that’s a collaboration between a science fiction author, Patrick Scott Walsh III, seems like it’s going to tremendously soar or miserably fail. It ends up sounding like I think Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” would sound. I don’t know the content of the story, but from what I can tell: things start out pretty groovy to introduce the “Bronco” character, things are going great when “Jackpot” hits, but then some serious plot stars to happen as “Into the Dark” takes us for a deep disco funk trip. “Unscheduled Vr” sounds like we’re taking to the streets for a previously unintended night ride, and “The Plasticmen” is probably some type of pursuit that stops very abruptly. I’m not super sure what happens after this climax, but “Forbidden Stratum” almost sounds like a standoff that develops into a realization of something coming to fruition. Things do seem to have gone badly by the time we’re in the “Void,” though. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! 

Best Bass LP: Rabit - Communion

Not for the faint of heart! This is an industrial grime album, in specific terms, and it’s pretty good! Each song poses a variation on the structure that the album creates, which all sounds sort of like UK grime (though Eric Burton is from Houston, TX) but alien and alienating at the same time. At the beginning of the record, synth parts lead simple melodies while drums carry on the cacophony around them. It sounds better here than it has in the past: nothing feels thin anymore and it’s consistently out of control in a slightly different direction than immediately before. The highlight for me is “Pandemic,” which succeeds as being quite a bit more terrifying that what comes before and after it. Actually, the latter third feels like a comedown and is a little less satisfying, but it feels important to slow down a bit after all that mayhem. Put this on when you want to listen to “crazy people” music and you’ll be very satisfied. 

Best Experimental LP: Robin Fox - A Small Prometheus

This has been a good thought piece for me in terms of what I need to hear about a piece of music in order to know my interest level in it. I’m turned off by a lot of the sounds on this record at first blush, especially the out-of-phase experiment on “3 Phase” to begin it all. As I started to hear it come together, I recognized it as a thing that I’m actually pretty interested in: out of control of the artist, but within the creative boundaries that were drawn. So much of improvised music is like that, and it’s something I’m only coming around to now. I’m glad I stuck it out, and I encourage you to do so if you’re curious about electroacoustic or noise at all. This could be a good place to start; check out “A Pound of Flesh, ” for example. It’s noise but not unpleasant, it shifts and turns but doesn’t overwhelm, and its composition uses silence and dynamic ranges in good contrast. It’s like looking at a “good” abstract painting. The title track is built from contact mic, lit matches and unidentified hisses, and satisfies in a similar way as crackling records. Fox gives these sounds form with the use of a few well-placed tones: the first on the record. “Dark Rain” is the perhaps more unsettling sister track of the opener and gives the listener some satisfaction as it evolves and comes into phase as the track progresses. The backside is built out of two mammoth pieces, “Antlers” and “Through Sky.” The former almost evokes a pastoral scene if you let it, and the latter builds into the strongest and most satisfying drone on the record.

EPs:

Best EP: Kelela - Hallucinogen

I’m secretly a huge fan of R&B of all kinds (See Natasha Kmeto, and Janet Jackson’s new album is pretty good), and not so secretly really Bass music production, so this all-too-brief EP really hits home for me. “Gomenasai” has the best production: cavernous bass throbs, sparkling vocals, and occasional cowbell weave around Kelela’s vocal track perfectly. “Rewind” picks up the tempo with a boom-bap beat that gets frantic and manic as it winds into the hook. The best hook might be on “All the Way Down,” with the gloriously unsubtle but carefully sung ‘cared before but baby now I don’t give a fuck.’ The last two tracks set up and deliver the sublime “The High,” which has the sparsest sound design of any track. This EP should unite many different types of music listeners with the combination of experimentation and pop sensibilities. 

Best Outsider EP: Lnrdcroy - UNTHANK008

This was a surprise! It’s way less outsider-y than Lnrdcroy’s 1080p release last year and I’m not sure what kind of a tone it’s setting for this young label, Unthank. I haven’t found any of the other releases on it yet but it’s a sub-label of what seems like a pretty small label, already. All that is to say, I got led here to enjoy some abstract house music, and it turns out these three are cuts from live performances, so there’s that performative hardware improvisation aspect that I’m really liking. I think “Freedom for Antboy II” is the masterpiece, combining asymmetrical mechanistic glitchy sounds with shimmering ambient washes. There’s a brief interlude that leads well into the flip, where “Terragem” is quite a banger. Five minutes in, things start to come full circle, as you hear ambient washes and glitches under the Detroit-y techno beat. At its mean, this release sort of fits into an Outsider genre label, but it really succeeds because of the distance between its extremes.

Best Ambient House EP: Mikael Seifu - The Lost Drum Beat

This is a special little release. The titular A-side has a UKG shuffle that is woven around patches of ambient and a vocal sample. The mania of it all is supposedly Ethiopian music influenced as Mikael hails from Addis Adaba, but feels like Speed Garage or Footwork to me. “Brass” is a different beast altogether, though it does have the same concept of bringing mania and ambience at odds. A lot of nice things, but nothing too substantive, happens for the first four and a half minutes before the horns come in, and soon after, a beat! The horns sound melancholy when set against the sparse backdrop

Best Bass EP: Akkord - Obelisk

Monolith / Megalith is a hilariously aptly titled duo of tracks. Monolith is all Emptyset style cavernous ambient with beats smattered throughout. It acts as a prelude to Megalith, which builds on the space of the A-side, bringing it a chugging two-toned bass thud, some breakbeats, and an ominous synth to lead the way into the darkness and back out again to the more kinetic conclusion. These two are pretty satisfying, true-to-form Akkord and they leave me wanting more.

Best Electro House EP: SDC - Correlation #3

This is my introduction to Space Dimension Controller and the completist in my hates coming in mid-series. I haven’t gone back to the first or second Correlation, but if the name serves, I’m sure they have something in common with this one. This one opens with a breezy house track that should have Mood Hut fans watering at the mouth. Deep funk takes over for “The Nova Report” before giving way to an electro-funk party in “Galactic Insurgents.” The closing track, “Scatter Scanners,” is a fast but melancholic electro tech house workout with jungly drum programming that serves as an excellent closer to an EP that goes all over the place.

Best Techno EP: Lee Gamble - B23 Steakhouse / Motor System (Extension)

Hey! Is Lee Gamble a “normal” techno producer now? This isn’t exactly normal techno, since it’s actually really good, but it sure is more direct and hard hitting than his PAN releases of the last few years. The A-side builds away and towards some sweet pad hits and screwed-down synths in an exciting percussive workout that breaks a bit in the middle section but never really lets up. The flip is a bit slower, a bit thuddier, and has more melody, but is no more similar to KOCH. It may be the more exciting of the pair, as its well-sequenced vocal samples, ambience, and increasingly powerful and frenetic percussion all hit at just the right times. 

Best Garage EP: Casper Skulls - King of Gold

This is some nice Sonic Youth aping that actually comes through a Parquet Courts filter, which is funny because transitively, Parquet Courts don’t always sound like Sonic Youth. The guitars on “King of Gold” do some really nice Thurston/Lee things and instead of a weighty rock installment, we get a concise poppy gem (I do still love Sonic Youth). The B-side goes a little more post-hardcore garage instead of noise rock garage. Both are good. This always makes me want to rock.

October 2015 - Happy birthday to me

I just celebrated my last day of work on the 21st, my first art show on the 22nd, and my 30th birthday is today. So obviously I’ve decided to write about music today! My album of the month comes out today, and it’s no surprise if you know me and you follow this sort of thing a little bit.

LPs:

Best LP: Joanna Newsom - Divers

People who couldn’t get into Have one on Me (it’s your fault, keep trying, it’s worth it) should have an easier time with this one, and I think this will disappoint no one. It’s all about the songs here: “Anecdotes” takes a few spins but I now believe it in as a stellar way to show that Joanna is still going to shift a song in many directions like the last few records, but that it’s getting subtler and more artful. The harp leads directly into the piano-led standout “Sapokandian.” “Leaving the City” is my personal favorite, where Joanna pits a slow croon against a quick delivery for one of the album’s most exciting moments. “Divers” the song is bookended by two quiet, short, very effective songs. Before it, “The Things I say” is almost all piano and pith, and afterwards, “Same Old Man” is lovely and has a harp vs. banjo arrangement that’s the folkiest she’s sounded since The Milk-Eyed Mender. “Divers,” with it’s beautiful harp arrangement and musings on life, love, and death, recalls “Sawdust and Diamonds” and is the centerpiece of the album both physically and emotionally. “You Will Not Take My Heart Alive” kicks off the great trio that ends the album, and has an uncharacteristic amount of repetition around the titular phrase. “A Pin-Light Bent” hearkens back to Ys but is as succinct as it is affecting. It segues well into the beautiful “Time as a Symptom,” with ending with the most powerful crescendo on the record. Thanks for the birthday present, Joanna!

Best Indie LP: Deerhunter - Fading Frontier

I was worried that this was going to be in the Monomania lineage but it’s much closer to Halcyon Days, thank goodness. This is actually so pleasant and tight as to invite Real Estate comparisons, but that’s certainly where Atlas Sound and Lotus Plaza have been heading lately. Bradford has some real poetic hits among his misses this time, including the great “Jack-knifed / on the side street crossing / I’m alive / And that’s something.” "Snakeskin" is a rocker and will be great to see them riff on live, and Lockett steps up with his contribution in the pensive "Ad Astra." Overall, there's a lot to like about this one and I image putting it on as much as the other Deerhunter records.

Best Tape: Body-san - Corporate Interiors

This is my feel good tape of the year. I’m not sure it’s corporate interiors that it conjures for me; I think it’s more about comfy, tropical spaces (in which I’ve never lived). I’m thinking the kind where you don’t need walls and there’s always a pile of fruit and a sparkling beverage next to you. Each sound is individually well chosen, and though there’s camp within the melodies, the overall feel is consistent and kept clean by the sound palette. It’s kind of the opposite of what OneOhTrix does with his music, where he chooses horrible sounds and tries to compose them just-so. “KC Vapes” is warm and inviting with it’s shuffling beat, and “My Moments” plays in a fun sonic range with it’s pops and underwater melodies. “Hotspot (She My Wifi)” is a banger with its engaging beat, and the space-disco of the title track to close the record feels a little “Professor Norse” to me. Just like that record, I think this one is something that people with a passing interest in house, dance music, and offbeat pop might all appreciate.

Best Rock LP: Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect

Joe Casey goes full-on Mark E Smith for this one, and what results is much more consistent than the average Fall record for sure. Guitars provide the melodies for the most part, which swirl about in a decidedly indie-friendly fashion. This is rock and roll though; Casey mostly sneers and snarls and songs are built around immediacy. The whole album goes to show how a variety of song structures and techniques can make a cohesive statement around seemingly minimal and inflexible pieces.  

Best Abstract LP: Moon Zero - Moon Zero

Moon Zero is one of the most engaging ambient/drone records I’ve heard in a long time. The A side builds slowly through the first two tracks, where subtle melodies carry along the shimmering drones. This leads into “The Solipsist,” which is a frozen expanse of feedback washes and synth rumblings. The B side rushes in with an aggressive noise loop that is kinetic and interesting but I consider it to be the low point of the record. From there, it settles into the concluding tracks which are equal parts serene and dystopian. Overall, a very satisfying listen that will get better as the weather gets colder.

EPs:

Best Tech House EP: Andre Lodemann - Leaving the Comfort Zone

Everything happens in the right way on this 12". The A side tells a story about how to tell an engaging story with a house track. The intro, plot, build, release, and denouement are all present in such a way that it makes me want to mix my metaphors. On the flip side, "Between the Notes" builds in unexpected ways and uses a not-so-house-y vocal sample to propel the track forward. I like the idea of big room house production with nuanced sound design.

Best Footwork EP: DJ Spinn - Off that Loud

If you're going to make music in an obnoxious style, you better be really good at it. Footwork is a brilliant, horrible genre that is mostly lacking in taste and Spinn losing his artful collaborator was quite a hit. Rashad (and Danny Brown!) collaborate on the best track on this EP, resulting in the best track in this music universe since Spinn and Taso worked with Jessy Lanza. Otherwise, "Off that Loud" is a great footwork track, "The Future is Now" is an annoying footwork track, and "Throw it Back" is somewhere in between. 

Best Deep House EP: Romare - Rainbow

I don’t listen to a whole lot of Deep House, but I’m getting the feeling that the best tracks are the ones that can be approached as individual songs the way that other “songs with words” are. Here, “Rainbow” uses enough vocal tracks to confuse it with a remix of a soul track, and the melodies vary across many instruments and develop fully across nine jazzy minutes (check out that round electric bass, especially). The transition to the Bedroom version is interesting and effective as it highlights the sultry parts of the original with an ‘I don’t want it’ on top. Halfway through, it doubles back for the haziest, smokiest version yet. The flip might even be better though: “Love Song” is built around mostly the first two words of a common three word phrase that concludes as the beat is dropped and a new phase of the track is entered. It’s a formula that could go all wrong, but in this case, does quite the opposite. 

Best Indie EP: Jacuzzi Boys - Happy Damage

Jacuzzi Boys power pop their way through this quick six song series and slow down very little along the way. “Happy Damage” is as anthemic as garage ever gets, and the same energy is carried through until “Sun,” which only slows down a bit and still squeals its way through it’s comparatively long three minutes. “Platform Licks” uses sax very effectively in a Fun House kind of way. Overall, this is exactly what I want from these guys and I hope they keep diving deeper into aggressive but poppy garage. 

Best Punk 7”: Vexx - Night and Day

Vexx is super cool. VU checking Black/White is one burner of an opener, but mostly Vexx sounds like X at their best and most intense. Besides a brief mellow intro to “Walking in the Rain,” every inch of this 7” is covered in blazing garage punk that will tear the paint off the walls.

Best Outsider House EP: Computer Graphics - CCCP

Outsider in general feels like it’s influenced a past before electronic music was even invented. CCCP in particular references a time where technology had only advanced to the point of sending radio transmissions. Primitive computer sounds, tape hiss, washed out synths, and intricate drum programming join the soviet broadcast samples here to make some intriguing and captivating home listening house. Check out the titular opener that sets the pace for warbly synth melodies and “Downloading” for generally creative percussion, including an intense handclap breakdown. There’s also an interesting Boom Bap meets 2 Step influence that runs throughout the drum tracks, perhaps most on “Make Me Juice.” 

Best Bass EP: Detboi - Scatter

It took a couple listens for me to get into these futuristic breakbeats. As with a lot of Grime-y Bass, I wasn’t sure there was any point and that it was too template-cut for me to really be interested. There’s a lot of wit and whimsy to these cuts though: check out how the “Give Love” vocal is chopped between the breaks and how the Akkord-checking bass howls surround the whole thing. On “Shots,” one of two vocal clips climb in tone with the drums until both tracks give way to the shooting kick. 

Best Abstract EP: Emptyset - Signal

This EP ends up being a series of individual movements throughout the two sides. There are a couple distinct movements in each piece, and intentionally little happens during the 17 minutes. There is some development, lots of whitespace, but mostly seething electronics that grow out of the darkness and fall back from whence they came. I’m an abstract analogue fetishist and I approve of this Signal transmission.

Best Progressive Electronic EP: Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - Loon

Kiasmos is Arnalds’ project where he has been showing his knack for electronic music, but ultimately the project is confused somewhere between the dance floor and the home. Frahm has been hinting at his talent for machines also, but it hadn’t really come together until this EP. Now, together, they’re finding progressive ambient that is heavily influenced by their modern classical composition, which feels like the holy grail of their composition space (but maybe just because I prefer analogue to everything else). Anyways, this is what it sounds like when professional composers get their hands on synthesizers. 

September 2015 (WritingAboutYEAHNuclearWarYEAH)

Hi All!

New month new format. This seems more official. This month, 100% Silk owned my ears and made me want to move to LA. And then there's Ryan Adams covering Taylor Swift, Liz Harris in a rock band, and much more! Here's a rundown of some favorites from this month:

Best LP: Ryan Adams - 1989

Ryan Adams couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't, and didn't write these songs. The story of this album is inescapably the story of the original, from which you've definitely heard at least a few songs but more likely the whole thing. Pop music has hits and misses and Swift's version had its fair share of both. This 1989 is consistent, and consistently brilliant, and it's technically because the original was, too. Listen to Swift's 1989, then listen to this, then repeat the latter indefinitely.

Best Rock LP: Helen - The Original Faces

Liz Harris of Grouper fame puts together a rock band and sounds pretty much like you'd expect it to.  One qualm is that the two songs from the 7", "Felt This Way" and "Dying all the Time, are total standouts among the bunch. The former establishes momentum after a beginning of the album that is full of sketched ideas, and the latter being the obvious climax. The album has been sequenced and formed well around these centerpieces, though, and it makes for an exciting listen if you're into shoegaze at all. 

Best Tape: Auscultation - L'étreinte Imaginaire

This competes with Journeymann Trax and Perfume Advert for spacey, druggy, psychedelic lo-fi house tape of the year. This one has longer, groovier, bassier tracks, which, in my experience, make me zone out way harder and get more lost in the swirls of sound. L'étreinte Imaginaire has basslines that nod to dub and synths that sail all over. "Promise You'll Haunt Me" is a summery outsider workout, while "Drop Off" uses an aggressive bass line to lock into a groove. "Black Window" takes a few minutes to build and is a great example of lo-fi drum samples backed with a strong, melancholic melody. Elsewhere, "Stranded Love" has the nastiest bass on the album coupled with possibly the best melodic synth build. It's really the moments where it's stripped away (oh, the ending!!) where the percussion and fuzz truly shine. Overall, almost guaranteed to be a top ten tape.

Best Indie LP: Low - Ones and Sixes

Low albums take a while to sink in, and I'm trying to write about these things within a few weeks of really getting into them. So it's fair, and possibly expected, to say that I don't really know how I feel about Ones and Sixes yet. I'm pretty sure it's better than The Invisible Way and their 90s output, but that it's unlikely to usurp anything from 2001-2011 for me (I think it goes Trust > Things We Lost > The Great Destroyer > C'mon > Drums and Guns). Anyways, there are songs: "Gentle" is awesome and I want more of it, "No Comprende" is a good Low song, "No End," "What Part of Me" and "Kid in the Corner" all bounce along at a decidedly not that slowcore pace. "Lies" is heavy, "Landslide" is heavier, but it's no "On My Own" or "Nothing But Heart" (in the brain-melting penultimate position). Overall, it's probably great and most musicians wish they were this good at both writing songs and making them sound interesting. 

Best Summer Tape: Cherushii - Memory of Water

This is that saucy, sexy, sunny house that you've been waiting for. This is one of three tapes that I'm highlighting from the hottest outsider label this month, 100% Silk. Unlike Auscultation and more like Paradise 100 (below), you can feel the ocean breezes that Chelsea Faith incorporates into these electro infused, med-fi house tracks. The A side picks up momentum through the rollicking "Pillow Palace" and "Ultraviolet Nights," culminating in "Thin Line," a sultry, breezy pop song with vocals by labelmate Maria Minerva. The B-side is a more languid affair, in a nice way, with "Everything is in Color" as the most kinetic and developed cut. 

Best Bass LP: Kode9 - Nothing

With Nothing we have a frustrating and ultimately rewarding listen. Is this a Seinfeld-ian meaningless trip through what could be called Bass music in 2015? Is it work of thoughtful execution and production genius? Is it up its own ass? Are the eight minutes of static that end the album largely unnecessary? Is it really cool when tracks like "Void," "Vaccuum Packed," and "Casimir Effect" reveal themselves to be much more interesting than you originally thought? Does it get more banger-y as it goes on? I think mostly YES!

Best EP: Appleblim - Avebury

It shouldn't be a secret that I'm a huge fan of ALSO's compiled releases. Listening to this, it seems like Appleblim might be the half of that production duo who has my best interests in mind. The title track has the attitude of the ALSO comp but isn't strictly manic. Following it on the A-side, "Auburn Blaze" wreaths and flows, and on the flip, "Wandered" lives up to its name. The crackles, hisses, and sound choices mirror his previous work, but the context is all new and excitingly sublime.

Best House 12": Daniel T - Tetrachromat

Summer Fun is here! Daniel T treats us to a tour of some truly pleasant house tracks. This is almost best considered a mini-album, especially with electro-leaning bonus track "Boy," which is awesome and puts it well over the 30 minute mark. There's definitely a lot of Mood Hut inspired grooves here, with the most successful cuts being strut-worthy synth anthems (see "Tetrachromat" and "Planetesimal"). This is Cali house though, so it's sunnier, warmer, and more in its own head. The flip slows down the tempos but continues the momentum with huge vocal samples on "Akoussah" and "The Sun and The Sky." The aforementioned "Boy" doesn't fit with the flow of the EP, but is gladly included at the end as a digital bonus track because it is quite the banger.

Best Industrial Techno EP: Black Rain & Shapednoise - Apophis

This is one dark, bold, deep trip into psychedelic industrial technoise. All of the tracks stand strong as a complete statement, with "Autonomous Lethality" leading the way in terms of contrast, power, fuzz, and appellation. The B side having a Miles Whittaker reshape that precedes the original is a really nice touch, too. Both Interceptors are strong, but it's particularly great to hear Miles making techno again.

Best House Tape: Paradise 100 - Northern Seoul

This is the third release from 100% Silk on here this month, and it's as necessary as the first two. Northern Seoul doesn't just flirt with camp, it gets down on one knee and promises to devote itself to it (his previous release was hilariously titled The Loin King). See the vocal sample that kicks of the ridiculously titled and ridiculously catchy "Heat.wav." Also check out the infectious title track with its perfectly cut "Why You Have to go on Ba-by" sample in between the pinging synth builds. "Ostende" is bound for an acid electro dance floor near you, while "Brutal Tops" makes me accept the squelchy synths of the world a little bit more.

Best Rock Tape: Guerilla Toss - Flood Dosed 

These Bostonians are killing it right now. With each new release, they're digging further into their prog-math-noise-funk, which now that I write it out, sounds downright awful. They're really bringing it, though, trust me. This is the most restraint they've shown and also the most in their heads they've ever sounded. Somehow, the combination works perfectly.

Best Black Label 12": Unknown Artist (Florian Kupfer) - SAD Edit 01

Play me Sade, Florian. Don't even write your name on the record. It's cool.

Best 7": The Cavemen - Reich/Ghoul Single

"She said I don't want to kiss ya / I'm in love with Adolf Hitler." Pretty much the perfect garage 7"

Also, some fun quotes from my fun brain / from my dashboard notes:

"'Hope this helps' isn’t very hopeful."

"The Velvet Underground is very accessible."

"Self aggrandizement is the way to happiness."

"Donations are comical."

Cheers,

Nate

Things I found in August 2015

Hi All,

Words have to be really good to make me like a song more. The only appropriate topics to sing about are: death, love, ennui, apathy, ecstasy, mystery, and confusion. I also accept lyrics if I don't understand the words that are being said at all, or their meaning is apparently highly personal and I can't directly relate. Kurt Vile's new record has all too many songs that imply some of those topics but stay in the realm of tedium instead, and it really has a negative impact on the songs for me, which I enjoy otherwise. 

The things that I highlight each month are often things that I've listened to ~10 times already, and I'm still willing to listen to them.  I'm finding that these days, on repeated listens, songs wear on me and sounds grow on me, and a lot of things has to do with words. Sounds often demand less and give more. There are exceptions to this, though, and this month has some notable ones! I've listed songs at the top for those of who you haven't joined the electronic music cult yet.

This month I actually have two best LPs, and they're a bit similar in a way. They're both concise, satisfying releases from bands who were formed over 20 years ago.

(Folk and Rock albums:)

Best LP: The Telescopes - Hidden Fields

I just got this a week ago and I've already listened to it a dozen times. Sometimes, it ends and I have no idea what to put on next, so I put it on again. The Telescopes were originally MBV/JAMC contemporaries who made really aggressive shoegaze back when shoegaze was a thing. This record is sort of like the new Swans records in the sense that it's pretty different and much better. Unlike the new Swans records, it fits on one LP instead of 3. Rejoice!

Other Best LP: Wilco - Star Wars

Glamericana! New genre. My best paintings these days happen quickly and without too much forethought (It's actually the only way I paint). I get the feeling that Tweedy's songs are like this lately, too. You might have to really like Wilco and T. Rex and Bob Dylan and Sonic Youth and The Beatles and Sic Alps to like this. For me, it's been quite a pleasant surprise because I like all those artists.

Best Garage LP: Thee Tsunamis - Saturday Night Sweetheart

Bubblegum garage punk is alive and well in 2015. Each song takes on a familiar set of sounds from musical lineages, but the influences are well chosen and well assembled, and the songs are hooky and sometimes ridiculous. My summer fun pick of the month for sure.

Best Folk Album: Gillian Grogan - Five Feet Small

It's not often that you get to listen to an album being played on your home system while the person who wrote, sang, and mastered it is sitting next to you. I had this singular experience with Gillian last month and I was pleasantly surprised to find that, in addition to being a swell human being, she was exactly my kind of folk singer! 

Best Garage Demo(s): Fernando & the Teenage Narcs - Can I buy some drugs to smoke later / Teen Narcs in Space / Fernando don't Surf

I think this band has been around for like, a month. They might be around for a few more months. Every few weeks they release 7 minutes of new songs to bandcamp and so far it's an amazing combination of sophisticated and dumb. They cover New York Dolls and Swell Maps on the first two, and generally combine punk and glam sounds from the 70s with modern West Coast garage. Also, check the Refry records banner that is the Black Flag logo but in smoking cigarettes. Classic.

Best Kurt Vile LP: Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin Down...

I am annoyed a lot of things about this record, but I like a lot of other things, too. I mentioned it above and it's better than his last record, so I figured I'd list it here. I won't say anything more about it now but I'd love to discuss it at length if you've listened.

(Electronic albums:) 

Best Tape: Color Plus - Netcika

A quick tape from a talented young man from New York. It's really fun to listen to and combines abstract sound with breaks and weird bass beats. It's the most compulsively listenable thing that happened to me all month.

Best 12": Entro Senestre - ES

This whole 12" just lopes along and would be a great soundtrack to a night drive through a city without a lot of streetlights (so probably somewhere midwestern if we're being honest). From the 2-step shuffle of "SB Dauntless" to the ambient breakbeats of "TriState" to the propulsive "DOHC," there's a lot to appreciate here.

Best Outsider Techno LP: Body Boys - No Face

This is a surprisingly good distillation of modern techno] from the lo-fi end of the spectrum. This might be up there with Michael DeMaio's tape from this year, but I do like that this is on vinyl and is a little easier to put on when other humans are present.

Best Abstract LP: 214 - North Bend

Remember when Dirty Projectors tried to cover Black Flag's "Damaged" from memory? I think this some dude trying to do that with Autechre's Incunabula. Or more like, Incunabula filtered through a world that has experienced dubstep, bass, and footwork in the intervening years.

Best Outsider House 12": U - We Decide Who Comes In

This one just wormed its way into my brain and carved itself a nice little niche alongside the hazy house and techno I've been listening to all year. The contrast between the smoke and the breakbeats on the B side is particularly nice.

Best Bass 7": Clap! Clap! - Camo Fever

This is probably the most unabashed fun I've had listening to music all year. I would consider dancing if they played this shit at dance parties.

I'll leave you with some random quotes with discardable context and no forum for discussion:

"I have some criticism about your criticism."

"The problem with being on the bleeding edge is all the blood."

"I bet the person who invented drip coffee thought they were real clever."

"I really want to throw away my trash can, I just don’t know where to put it."

Cheers,

Nate

Thee Oh Sees Discography

Hi All, 

I'm just getting back from a pilgrimage to see my favorite band of all time play back to back nights at Warsaw in Brooklyn (where pierogies meet punk). I realized it's about time I write a retrospective of what John Dwyer has done with this project over the past 10 years and highlight the most necessary releases for your listening pleasure. 

Thee Oh Sees discography is extensive, confusing, and inconsistent, but ultimately, very rewarding. Here's what I know about my favorite releases, chronologically. This is obviously super long, but I basically want to write a biography on this band. I'm sorry and you're welcome.

2003-2005 OCS - 1, 2, 3, 4

John Dwyer started recording as OCS concurrently with Coachwhips. There's actually some interesting stuff here but I'm not including it because this is way too overwhelming anyway, probably. It was quiet, folky, and lightly psychedelic. There are four albums, (titled 1, 2, 3, and 4) credited to OCS. OCS may have stood for Orange County Sound or Orinoka Crash Suite throughout this period.

2006 The Ohsees - Cool Death of Island Raiders

Somewhere along the way, the name got changed to The Ohsees and Jon started performing with a band who would actually last for quite a while (Brigid Dawson sings backing vocals on this release). This release is spacey, folky, drone-y, and pretty fun to listen to. I especially like Gilded Cunt.

2007 The Oh Sees - Sucks Blood

The first Oh Sees release with electric guitar! Petey Dammit joined the band around this time and you can hear him playing guitar on this album (listen for what sounds like a bass). This release splits the difference between the relaxed folkiness of the first album and the garage psych mania that is shortly to follow. It sounds sort of like they wrote these songs together. Check out It Killed Mom to get the idea.

2008 Thee Oh Sees - Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion

This is a live release and kind of makes the earlier releases less important to me. It's all the best songs from the last two, a bunch of original songs, and Block of Ice and Ghost in the Trees played acoustic. This technically came out after Master's Bedroom but it has a lot more in common with everything else. The title track is one of the originals on the album and is a particularly nice song with a nice use of saw.

2008 Thee Oh Sees - The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In

Definitely my favorite Oh Sees record, but maybe my favorite record in general. Dwyer took the same songwriting from the early albums but made it into crunchy, propulsive garage psych for the first time. Visit Colonel > Grease 2, which in their early live sets was sometimes Grease > Grease 2, is where I start really caring about this whole John Dwyer thing. Also, The Coconut, Poison Finger, Ghost in the Trees... and the whole thing. This whole album is perfect for a summer day.

2009 Thee Oh Sees - Help

This is another really important Thee Oh Sees release of how unrelenting it is. Enemy Destruct and Ruby Go Home define the kind of garage stomp and freaky guitar licks that would later become the "Punk Can" sound that's keeping the band relevant in 2015. Destroyed Fortress Reappears is another important song because of how hypnotic and heavy it is compared to their earlier work. Also note that Peanut Butter Oven has the first use of a string arrangement. I wish people knew this album better because it really slays all the whole way through. 

2009 Thee Oh Sees - Singles, Vol. 1

The singles compilations aren't super consistent but this is probably the most consistent. Carol Ann and Bloody Water are vintage Help-era tracks (the former actually being a Yikes track), The Freak was Clean is kinda shoegazey, Kids in Cars is weird and psychedelic, and the last few tracks are old and relaxed.

2009 Thee Oh Sees (but really just John) - Dog Poison

This mini-album is mostly just John goofing around. It's sort of notable for the first recording of Dead Energy, but it pales in comparison to the later recording anyways.

2010 Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime

Here, the A side is their longest and biggest jam and while it starts well, it doesn't really go anywhere. On the B side I Was Denied rips off a traditional American melody to great effect and Castiatic Tackle is their best punk song. This is the least best full band album but it's still kinda essential.

2011 Thee Oh Sees - Singles, Vol. 2

This is actually pretty cool. Tidal Wave might be their most famous song, and it is quite good. Friends Defined and Schwag Rifles are cool, theContraption demo is kinda fun and the cover of Ty Segall's The Drag is kinda cute and REALLY faithful to the original.

2011 Thee Oh Sees (but really just John) - Castlemania

The only release I feel kind of crazy for liking. John mostly does his Captain Beefheart impression and writes really, really weird songs mostly acoustically. Then near the end, a few cover songs, I Won't Hurt You and If I stay Too Long, are actually just wonderful. Check in for a couple awesome full band versions of these songs on the live split, though.

2011 Thee Oh Sees / Total Control Split

Four live versions of previous tracks and definitely their best EP! This shows the time that they were converting to an amazing live band. This has a fairly consice and shred-heavy version of Dead Energy that captures the energy of the live favorite, full band recordings of AA Warm Breeze and Corrupt Coffin that render the originals obsolete, and Blood in Your Ear, which is just amazing. Perfect all the way through their side.

2011 Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler / The Dream

This is where the kraut-punk idea really gelled, and boy did it ever. This was my album of the year in 2011 and it's one of the best garage albums of all time. This helped define their Kraut set, from 2011-2012, was all the epic tracks from CC/TD (Carrion Crawler, The Dream, Contraption/Soul Desert, Robber Barons), Block of Ice that jammed into No Spell, Dead Energy and Tidal Wave (as always), often I Was Denied and/or Destroyed Fortress Reappears and/or Meat Step Lively, and only Lupine Dominus from Putrifiers II (which, for the record, kicked SO MUCH ASS). I listened to a lot of bootlegs from 2011-2012, it was my full-on Oh Sees obsession phase. This album was basically the reason for the obsession.  

2012 Thee Oh Sees (but really just John) - Putrifiers II

Putrifiers, if you can stand to listen to it, is actually the first version of "Ghost in the Trees" back when Yikes was John's rock outlet in the mid-2000s (post Coachwhips). Putrifiers II is John messing around with a bunch of different ideas. Wax Face, Flood's New Light, and Lupine Dominus are all completely necessary. So Nice has an interesting arrangement, the title track is pretty cool, and basically this is John at his best while he's messing around.

2013 Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin

Floating Coffin is the first and last release of its kind (sort of). This was written and put together while touring with the Kraut set that I described above and is played in the same way that they started playing all the songs in this set: fast. Anyways, this album was written straight from the energy that they brought with that set, but it's tighter, heavier, and almost as awesome as CC/TD. Definitely check out I Come from the Mountain, Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster, and Tunnel Time, but also everything else.

2013 Thee Oh Sees - Moon Sick EP

This is the last release that the original lineup produced together. Actually, plus Lars Finberg from the Intelligence, who does vocals on Sewer Fire, which is an awesome song.  He was a full member of the band for a hot minute, and these songs were the result of the burnout phase of Thee Oh Seesbefore their hiatus in 2013. Humans Be Swayed is a killer song that I wish got more airtime, and you can ignore the last song entirely.

2013 Thee Oh Sees (but really just John) - Singles Collection Volume 3

There's actually a ton of good songs on this, and the live tracks at the end will help you understand what the Kraut set sounded like from 2011-2012. I love love love Wait Let's Go, Always Flying, and Devil Again. The covers are fun too, especially Burning Spear. All of these songs are just-John but just like Putrifiers, he was on a roll at the time.

2014 Thee Oh Sees (but really just John) - Drop

How does a band on hiatus put out an album? Well, John never goes on hiatus. Drop never really comes together, but it's certainly worth listening toPenetrating Eye, Encrypted Bounce (which destroys in their live set right now), and Drop.

2015 Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated at Last

This is my third favorite overall behind Master's Bedroom And CC/TD. It's the first of the "New Thee Oh Sees" albums with the new lineup, and I hope there are many more. It sounds like John wrote this by himself with pretty good instructions for how he'd like it to be played, and these instructions were carried out pretty precisely by the band. It picks up where Floating Coffin left off and improves upon many of the ideas from that album with really tight musicianship and production all the way through. Polished Oh Sees is apparently amazing Oh Sees. Specifically, Web, Withered Hand, and Rogue Planet slay just like you want them to, Turned Out Light is going to get stuck in your head, Lupine Ossuary is the continued saga of No Spell, and I'm personally a believer in Sticky Hulks as the best heavy-psych burner in their entire catalogue.

- bold denotes must-listens, and must listen songs within the album

- italics denotes releases that John essentially writes and performs alone

Cheers,

Nate