what did you all listen to this year?
my favs:
iām at a point in my life where all i listen to is prince, harry hosono and depeche mode
a bunch of miharu koshi stuff got a 2021 remaster if that counts
I really need to get back in the album saddle.
Mostly Gorillaz - Song Machine and the Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack.
Yess. Love a thread like this, excited to sample peopleās selections. Going to post a conservative amount of old music I got into this year as well, because Iāve only heard a few technically new new albums ;_;
Springtime - Springtime (Garetth Liddiard of the Drones and TFSā new side project)
Tropical Fuck Storm - Deep States
Mamaleek - Come and See (unplaceable SF metal band, jazz sensibilities i think)
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain (absurdly goth rock music)
Cindy Lee - Model Express (a glamorous sheen haunting 1960s heartache ballads)
Armand Hammer - Shrines (intense, imagistic hiphop with a grimey sample-ridden production)
also Grimes - Halfaxa, but she doesnāt need your money
purity ring - womb
backxwash - i lie here buried with my rings and my dresses
mastodon - the hunter ( old but i just listened again this year )
bows - cassidy ( this is old i just think pple should listen to it )
honestly mostly just tricot and some of Mitskiās Be the Cowboy
My number one favorite album I heard for the first time this year was Wolf MĆ¼ller & Cass - The Sound of Glades. Beautiful ambient music that sounds like a Donkey Kong Country swamp levelā¦ What more could you want?
Thatās a 2016 album though, so here are my top picks of stuff that came out this year:
The Weather Station - Ignorance (Kate Bush fans, listen up: this is the first album Iāve heard that takes a STRONG, direct inspiration from Aerial. Itās a little uneven, but when itās on itās really on; The Robber and Tried to Tell You are my favorites)
Alex Ho - Move Through It (ābalearicā city night driving ambient groove)
George Riley - Interest Rates, a Tape (very jungle-inflected R&B, nostalgic in many ways but feels somehow totally cutting edge)
Tunng - Dead Club (One of my favorite bands, poppy folk with electronic and glitch production. Not their best work, but pretty good. Itās a concept album about how various cultures handle death. Sometimes corny, sometimes interesting and provocative)
Chip Tanaka - Domani (From the classic nintendo composer. I think this is his best, most consistently strong album yet)
Kero Kero Bonito - Civilisation II (Fun little EP. The extended house track at the end is some of their best work IMO)
Howie Lee - Birdy Island (How do I even describe this album? A genre-bending concept album about a floating theme park where everybody worships birds. Blends jazz, ambient, club music, and Chinese folk)
Current Value - The All Attracting and Deathmachine - Mutability (extremely high-production, distorted bass music with futuristic atmospheres)
both albums profoundly raised my expectations of either artist. probably not bad shuffled together; they are a bit like different sides of a coin, with the Current Value feeling more ethereal and abstract, while Deathmachine satisfies the more red-blooded, fist-pumping dance music drive
Will be back with more later but right now the trans-anthem ska album from We Are The Union:
havenāt listened to many 2021 albums as such, so thereās not much to choose from.
Still, recommended:
Hania Raniās new collab with Dobrawa Czocher Inner Symphonies (Track: Con Moto) is no funtime listening record, so ymmv.
On the other end of the scale, USAOs XTREME album (careful: hardcore) is ā¦ well, not exactly in the same, new classical genre-bracket.
Somewhere inbetweenā¦ from IU, Lilac (Track: Coin) .
Technically from 2020, but probably most replays this year (and really cheatinā, 15 minutes is no Album, jeez):
iām not sure what to say about any of these thatās like worth the effort of me typing it out, but here are some albums from this year i liked and a link to one song from each of them in no particular order. i may come back and add more? but probably not
youāll never get to heaven - wave your moonlight hat for the snowfall train
cryogeyser - timetetheredtogether
magdalena bay - mercurial world
iāve listened to almost nothing that came out this year and the only one i was going to bring up was
which i canāt remember who recommended it - mighta been you!!
Oh, and Space 1.8 which was in the first post is also excellent
However, I have listened to a shitload of new-to-me albums that did not come out this year, here they are in no particular order with links to the full albums on YT
Hiroshi Yoshimura-Green*
Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Keyboard Fantasies*
Crying - Beyond the Fleeting Gales
Negative Gemini - Forget your Future
Virtual Boy - self titled
Various artists - Jungle Tekno 5 - The Deep Side
I strongly recommend all of these, but if I had to pick one it would be Green, since itāsā¦weirdly lifechanging? I love love love it.
I will revisit this thread to get a bunch of new music later, thanks yāall
*I cried at least once listening to these albums
oh yeah The Hunger came out this year, thatās a fantastic gay yearning horror ballad album
i like this song, which is more of a rave banger:
This album was new to me last year and yeah, is such a regular thing in my life. The liner notes on the vinyl release are great, because IIRC, Yoshimura says he doesnāt understand people sleeping to this album, but thinks it is great if it works for that. AND IT DOES! like this is literally teh best nap album, which sounds like I am being mean but no, it literally makes naps better. Also, if you havenāt watched Japan Sinks 2020, it has a fun role in that show.
Yeah Iāve fallen asleep a couple of times listening to this and it was extremely restful/meditative. It really seems to access a part of my brain that little else can. It rules.
Hiroshi Yoshimura rules. Green is probably his most essential album, a perfect self-contained work. I have enjoyed a ton of his other stuff too, and my favorite is the underrated Quiet Forest, which occasionally hasā¦ beats!? If you can believe that. But itās still wonderful ambient music.
For more like this, check out this old thread:
Koreless - Agor
Bicep - Isles
Vince Staples - Vince Staples
Dawn Richard - Second Line
Madlib - Sound Ancestors
(the long Japanese artist section of my list, I listen to a lot of modern Japanese music now i guess)
AAAMYYY - Annihilation
Ayano Kaneko - Yosuga
4s4ki - Castle in Madness
Take-M - The Takes
CHAI - WINK
GOODMOODGOKU - Purity
Miho Hatori - Between Isekai and slice of Life
millennium parade - The MILLENIUM PARADE
NTsKi - Orca
Kanye West - DONDA (sorry! itās good)
Apologies, Iām not going to add any links cos Iām laaaaazy
Leon Duncan - Fuck a rosseta stone for my brain waves
Voidhra - Sorrow guides us all
HHY & and the Kampala Unit - Lithium Blast
ė°ķģ§ Park Hye Jin - Before I Die
Just the ones that jumped to mind. If people want an exploration of any of these, just ask!