20 for '24
Like any sensible person, I have a queasy relationship to Best Of lists. There's simply too much left unsaid, and when all is done, the round-ups tend to look a lot the same; the likely result of everybody peering over the next tastemaker's shoulder in a bid for up-to-the-minute relevance.
That said, it's been a great year in music, and I wouldn't want to miss a chance to replay several of my favourite moments. So without further ado, here are twenty very good recordings from 2024; beyond which feel free to check out the archive of my weekly radio show, where I'm able to share whatever new music catches my ear on an ongoing basis. In no order, then, allow me to recommend:
PHYSIQUE - Overcome By Pain (Iron Lung)
Technically this EP belongs to the last days of 2023, but I heard it in January, so let’s say that the year began with a bang and not a whimper—like an enormous door slamming in the depths of hell. Olympia’s Physique are purveyors of a traditional d-beat style; steeped in all pertinent subvariants, though best described as an Americanized take on the “crasher crust” sound of Japanese raw punk in the 90s and 00s. An ace recording balances noise and clarity; every instrument remains distinct, with ample low-end amid brittle distortion. ‘GAME’ is an essential instalment in the micro-genre of mid-paced crust songs based on ‘Free Speech for the Dumb’—if anything, it's likely too musical to qualify.
TIIKERI - Tee Se Itse EP (Self-released)
A perfect punk record out of time. Just like the sing-song stream of Finnish punk that kept the spirit of ’77 alive into the hardcore era, Turku’s Tiikeri play strident, syrupy power pop with all the obvious appeal of the genre’s best. Tiikeri are punks, and as such, they mostly sing about punk; the title track is an ode to DIY, and should assuage any crisis of faith in the perennial significance of this great music. It’s honestly rare to hear songs this buoyant and gracious, and if this isn’t quite my favourite of their several EPs so far, it’s only because of the group’s focus and consistency.
RAFAEL TORAL - Spectral Evolution (Drag City)
There was a moving moment that occurred mid-set when I saw Rafael Toral perform this album live in October. After a thorough evocation of everything from modal jazz to country twang to polyphonous birdsong, he placed his guitar flat on his lap, closed his eyes, and simply listened. This gesture seemed to clear an oasis of attention in a technically involved set, as its composer joined the audience in appreciation of the density of sound he’d just created—an almost unbelievable weft of voices issuing from a single borrowed Stratocaster. Something clicked for me in that instant, about the gift of this music and the sublimity of sound, no matter how controlled. As for the record itself, this is a modern classic, and I’m glad to see it almost universally lauded as such.
CHARLES LLOYD - The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Bluenote)
Breathtaking work from the great Charles Lloyd, who leads an intuitive, all-star quartet here, including bassist Larry Grenadier, pianist Jason Moran, and drummer Brian Blade. There’s plenty of variety across this lengthy double album; from open and expressionistic plateaus (‘Sky Valley, Spirit of the Forest’) to bluesy sublations of Lloyd's recent repertoire (‘Booker’s Garden') to flurried riffs on otherwise unhurried spirituals (‘Life Every Voice and Sing’). Lloyd is undiminished in his mid-eighties, and his rapport with Moran is telepathic, surely one of the closest musical relationships of his career at this point.
NAKED ROOMMATE - Pass the Loofah (Trouble In Mind)
A dance punk invitational from an East Bay indie superduo turned supergroup, or punky house party with some mod flair for good measure. Naked Roommate are here for a good time, with a coyly communizing agenda; glimpsed in the humorous address of ‘Successful Friend,’ a lightly facetious ode to class mobility, or 'Bus,' a late-night commuter’s anthem. Referentially, this checks a lot of boxes, but it never feels nostalgic. This is present music, borrowed from a shared anthology of past experience and social movement. Some lucky people will see them tonight!
THE NECKS - Bleed (Northern Spy)
Another genreless slow-burner from the crucial Australian trio; more a succession of textures than themes. From its first uncertain notes to a nigh cinematic finish, this forty-two minute composition is surely one of the group’s more contemplative outings, and a rewarding contrast to last year’s more direct anthology of studio improvisations. As always, the clear-voiced, mutually supportive identities of the players clarifies the senses. Non-soporific, eventful ambience for everyone who listens.
DONNA ALLEN AND JANE HARMS - What Are All These Flowers Doing Here? (Arcadia Exiter)
Jangly sophisti-punk from two favourite songwriters—Jane Harms, author of several unassumingly conceptual mid-fi masterpieces, including last year’s split with Greef; and Donna Allen of Chronophage, one of the most consistently enthralling punk+ bands of the last decade. The entire EP is a gem, but its bittersweet closer, ‘the party’s over,’ feels more like a beginning than an end, to the point of outright self-contradiction: “lightning flash, the party has begun … has begun,” the duo sings atop a lilting Vini Reilly lick. Flip and repeat ∞.
BLOD - Helvetet På Jorden Skona Ingen Fast Gud Älskar Dig (Discreet Music)
A further instalment in Gustaf Dicksson’s “thrifted hymnal” era, drawing power from the vestigial religiosity of Northern Europe, and channeling some of the artist's earliest musical experiences. Without a word of Swedish, this puts me right back in the pew, fumbling alongside an amateur chorus of strangers to follow a melody I’d only just heard. Blod’s songbook is authentically sweet and nourishing, and it’s cool to hear ‘outsider music’ this pro-social, sourcing community from archaism and obscurantism.
DORIS - Ultimate Love Songs Collection (Janine)
This aptly named contender for sweetest rap album of the year is a self-interrupting audio collage, anthologizing no fewer than fifty conspicuously unfinished and basically perfect vignettes; transparently sampled from a sentimental canon of indie rock, gospel soul, nineties one-hits, and whatever else suits Doris’ pitch-shifted exhalations of an evening. Uncommonly, the concept of ULSC emerges from an actual recording practice; and the digest format suits recurrent themes of flitting, hot-and-cold obsession. Casually great.
BARK CULTURE - Warm Wisdom (Temperphantom)
Four songs of shimmering melodicism and incessant, shifting rhythms, written by vibraphonist Victor Vieira-Branco and performed with immanent support from bassist John Moran and drummer Joey Sullivan. In all, this is a tightly fused group that moves effectively through a streak of restive grooves and atmospheric zones. A lengthy centrepiece, 'Paradise Lawns,' places islets of sound amid supportive space; on 'When I Look Over,' bursts of plausible swing and bell-like solo breaks bookend a heavy, lurching breakdown. It's all perfectly fluid, and the motility of this set made for a favourite mood this fall.
EKUKA MORRIS SIRIKITI - Te - Kwaro Alango - Ekuka (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
A revelatory studio companion to Nyege Nyege's 2018 anthology of Ugandan musician and storyteller Ekuka Morris Sirikiti’s radio broadcasts, spanning almost three decades of occasional and cautionary tales. Those earlier recordings bore traces of time’s passage for simple technical reasons, each having its own rare, distorted aura; but on this new recording, it’s the grain of Ekuka’s voice itself that collates decades of experience. It’s wonderful to hear the harmonic patter of the lukeme, or kalimba, with such clarity; which makes the conversational cross-rhythms of Ekuka’s vocal all the more captivating. Even at a linguistic remove, his pacing exudes humour and surprise. Essential listening.
HARM - Con Safos (625 Thrashcore)
A contemporary genre masterpiece out of LA, the grindcore capital of North America since the original reign of Excruciating Terror. HARM play burly, old school grind without a trace of metal bullshit, and a blanket of harsh electronics to push an already unrelenting set even further into the red. HARM decimated Gilman at this summer's extremely stacked Zesta Grande fest, which was more crucial hang than competition; but all live and recorded evidence affirms them as the apex of pure, brutal hardcore punk.
DANIEL MAJER - Time for No Memory (VAAGNER)
Motion is the principle of this densely suggestive and succinct LP, on which Majer's gorgeous samples dwell in repetition only long enough to activate an a priori wistfulness that seems to inhere in the act of listening. Richly idiomatic and distantly familiar strands of melody blend more and less referential traces of countless consecutive environments; everything smeared and slowed in constant transition. This is nearly impossible to listen to just once, where fleeting departures of song soon coincide with gratifying arrivals. Happily, the live show is as seamless.
KNOWSO - Pulsating Gore (Sorry State)
Cleveland's Knowso are sometimes compared to Canadian stalwarts NoMeansNo, who were an important part of my formation; and the resemblance is appreciated. This is another slab of oblique punk rock for the night shift, stacking off-kilter riffs and prickly, repetitive hooks. Singer Nathan Ward's audible lyrics and dry, monologuing delivery effectively span sardonic noise rock miserablism and a palpable political earnestness. If you're feeling this, I should also recommend Ward's recent "street punk" turn as The Carp, whose debut LP on Total Punk Records makes a separate bid for some year-end acclaim.
YATTA - Palm Wine (Purple Tape Pedigree)
Immaculate pop productions from singer and sound poet YATTA, with an eyebrow-raising cohort of esteemed collaborators. The album is named in part for the Calypsonian subgenre forged by YATTA's great uncle, S.E. Rogie; but this is only one sonic thread in a contemporary sequence, weaving interludes of diaristic intimacy with a music of global correspondences. The songs here range from airy ballads to glitchy maximalism, and there's considerable distance between the invocation of 'Circle,' a choralized and multi-tracked vocal more reminiscent of YATTA's earlier output, and ‘Mtv,’ an angsty, 90s-nostalgist singalong in two parts. But it all sits together perfectly in context of this highly personal and evolutionary program; an anticipated masterpiece, and worth the wait.
NÆRVÆRET - Når Man Ser Inn I En Annens Hjerte (Satatuhatta)
Well-paced, repetitious traces of the northern elements by Sweden's Mattias Gustafsson, otherwise Altar of Flies, and Norway's Andreas Barsleth, or Jordmenneske. This is a great indoor-outdoor record, pairing slowed and distorted field recordings, visited at turns by garbled voices, with amateur chamber instrumentation. Much of Nærværet's fascination is rhythmic; 'Uten Kjærlighet' builds upon an anxious tapping, racing ahead of the heavy ambience; and the title track makes a bass ostinato of a deceptively simple loop, verging on acoustic doom. A subtle and mysterious sequel to the duo's notable debut last year.
C. LAVENDER - Rupture in the Eternal Realm (iDEAL Recordings)
Heavy ethereal light from composer, synthesist, and sound healer C. Lavender. Beginning with the artist's voice amid swelling percussion, these metamorphosing sonic rituals follow the structure of a meditation, modelled on the Himalayan Buddhist practice of chöd. However thematically focused, there's a great deal of variety in these nine pieces. Jesse DeRosa's undulating EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) improvisation on the tremulous 'Ocean of Ambrosia' alludes to a synthetic spiritual jazz; while the pillared, portamento chords of 'A Billion Worlds' make a monolithic appearance midway, piercing clouds of attention. Beautiful, beneficial sound.
SISSY SPACEK - Mirror Aggressor State (Helicopter)
The already perfected Sissy Spacek levels up on this second trio album, with Isaac Horne of Sulfuric Cautery on drums, Charlie Mumma on vocals, and high-brow noise guru John Wiese on "bass" and electronics. Perhaps no more intense than last year's one-sided Benigemony Asiniscrepancy LP, but it's the little things that make all the difference where this most unsubtle, least dynamic of all musics is concerned. On Mirror Aggressor State, the snare is tight and fucking cranked; the peals of noise have more abrasive texture; and the guttural vocals are better differentiated, a perfect harsh noise instrumentation in their own right. Crazy.
YUASA-EXIDE - Information and Culture/Naturally Reoccurring (Round Bale Recordings)
Surprisingly, this seems to be the first-ever physical release by Douglas Busson's prolific, and consistent, Yuasa-Exide project. (Another session from earlier this year was entitled 'Too Broke To Afford To Make A 12” EP,' which is a relatable predicament.) However overdue, one can guess the logistical problems that might have delayed this milestone, where this cassette collects two half-hour, self-sufficient full-lengths from 2024 alone. The songs are as good as ever; droning, driving, fully realized bedroom pop masterpieces, with highlights too many to name. If Naturally Reoccurring is a touch more varied, Information and Culture boasts what has become for me the most edifying song of a dispiriting year: "They’re being reckless in the market. They’re running roughshod overseas. They’re lining all of their pockets with other people’s misery."
CARTOON - Nyuck Nyuck Boing! (Human Headstone Presents)
Philadelphia's Cartoon are an improbable success on paper; a shredding, grooving, caterwauling, garage-prog outfit, or dare-I-say jam band; equal parts indebted to Krautrock hypnotics and the long-winded instrumental outposts of psychedelic rock. Or, come to think of it, to the mangier end of jazz fusion—think Fred Frith and Bill Laswell's Massacre. However one cares to contain it in words, Nyuck Nyuck Boing! builds on one of the weirdest arcs in Northeastern noise rock, with unrestrained chops and unpretentious aplomb. What can't punk be?
