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2024 Review

General

2024 Review

My round-up of 2024, covering albums I reviewed, albums I didn't have time to review, new interests, my favs, your favs and two ranked lists for albums and tracks

When it comes the level of effort I put in when listening to new music, you could say I train like an elite athlete. My results on the track haven’t been so consistent though. A year ago I set myself a goal to publish one review per week. I managed 33. I’m not a fast writer (always needing to iterate through several drafts) and I need to listen to an album many times before feeling comfortable enough writing about it.

Here’s the list of albums I reviewed this year:

Interestingly, all of those releases came from promos or direct from the artist/label; a fact which made me question, for a minute, my place in this whole glitz thing (i.e. the spiralling music promotional business in 2024). Like the plagues of zombies mindlessly consuming loyalty-free slop from Spotify (aka Perfect Fit Content), had I similarly been radicalised, unwittingly trapped in an evil algorithm, blindly listening to music somebody else chose? The obvious answer is no. I mean, I decide which promos to write about. Some context: for each of those 33 reviewed albums, I must have checked out another five promos. That’s at least one or two full streams per release before working out what’s good or worth further attention. This is the elite training I was talking about: working out what’s worth pursuing after minimal listens. Once I decide which ones will make the cut, the average number of listens an album or EP gets is usually more than ten. In some cases it was more than 20, e.g. Kate Pending’s Pigmented Reality, Head Shoppe’s self-titled debut, Iván Muela’s Ether and Moderna’s The Future Is Among Us.

So, what non-promoted releases did I listen to a lot? All these got ten or more rotations:

  • Felipe Gordon – My Legs Are Numb
  • Onra – Nosthaigia
  • Actress – Static
  • dj poolboi – into blue light
  • TR/ST – Performance
  • Jim Byrne – A Scottish Child From The 1960s
  • Curses – Another Heaven
  • EMIKA – HAZE
  • Mule Driver – Sequences to Activate Dormant Agents [CM24]
  • Jan Wagner – Energie Braucht Zeit
  • Pavel Milyakov – Enthropic Vision
  • MIAUX – Never Coming Back
  • CHANTSSSS – Shyness
  • Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
  • Richard Norris – Oracle Sound Volume Two
  • David Boulter – St Ann’s
  • The Viceroys – Brethren And Sistren
  • Seefeel – Everything Squared
  • Ninechecker – A Very English Wind
  • Xylitol – Anemones
  • Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing to Silence
  • STA – Cobra y la hermandad de la uva
  • Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai – Human Material EP
  • Scott Monteith – The Lichen Diaries vol 1
  • Dylan Dylan – Love Theory
  • Woo – Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 001: Woo (Sweet Peas)
  • Laura Cannell – The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined
  • Seabuckthorn – this warm, this late
  • Various Artists – Total 24
  • Michael Mayer – The Floor Is Lava
  • Oren Ambarchi – Ghosted II
  • Ibukun Sunday – Harmony / Balance
  • Andy Martin – La creación de las aves
  • The Black Dog – Other, Like Me
  • Black Decelerant – Reflections Vol. 2: Black Decelerant
  • A Lily – Saru l-Qamar
  • The Black Dog – Sleep Deprivation
  • Constant Little Ghost – The Yellow Knife

Regular readers will know that I also have a section called Buzz Buzz Buzz, which caters to releases that I enjoyed, deserve your attention but I didn’t have time to write a formal review for:

  1. Species of Fishes - Some Songs of a Dumb World (Fri 19 Jan, 2024)
  2. iu takahashi - Sense / Margin (Sat 3 Feb, 2024)
  3. Signal Infusion - The Skipped Beat (Sun 4 Feb, 2024)
  4. Flower Storm - Do (Tue 13 Feb, 2024)
  5. Ignez - Tides (Wed 14 Feb, 2024)
  6. Cédric Elisabeth - Aquarius (Mon 19 Feb, 2024)
  7. Precipitation - Scent of Lilac (Wed 21 Feb, 2024)
  8. Richard Norris - Oracle Sound Volume One (Thu 22 Feb, 2024)
  9. Night On Wish Mountain - Incomplete Light (Mon 26 Feb, 2024)
  10. Pope Jean Paul Van Damme - Echoes Of An Abandoned Future (Fri 8 Mar, 2024)
  11. C. Diab - Imerro (Fri 8 Mar, 2024)
  12. Aurumm - Verdor (Sat 9 Mar, 2024)
  13. Nørus & Dj Whipr Snipr - Gravitational Attraction (Sun 10 Mar, 2024)
  14. Drew Schlesinger - Lost Childhood, Vol. 1 & 2 (Fri 22 Mar, 2024)
  15. Om Unit - Fragments (Thu 4 Apr, 2024)
  16. Coral Morphologic & Nick León - Projections of a Coral City (Fri 5 Apr, 2024)
  17. Tewksbury - Floes: Volumes I-IV (Thu 11 Apr, 2024)
  18. Optimo 25 (Mon 15 Apr, 2024)
  19. dj poolboi - into blue light (Fri 26 Apr, 2024)
  20. Saapato - On Fire Island (Fri 3 May, 2024)
  21. Harvestman - Triptych (Part One) (Mon 13 May, 2024)
  22. SEM - Phox / The Demon (Thu 16 May, 2024)
  23. Philippe Deschamps - Forest of my Nights (Thu 16 May, 2024)
  24. Buildings and Food - Echo the Field (Thu 30 May, 2024)
  25. Cruzloma - Mitos & Ritos (Tue 4 Jun, 2024)
  26. Ace of Hertz - Astrarium (Thu 6 Jun, 2024)
  27. Sepehr - Genesis Domain (Fri 14 Jun, 2024)
  28. Kenneth James Gibson & Paul Carman - Murals For Immersion (Mon 17 Jun, 2024)
  29. Mortality Tables - The Engineer (Wed 19 Jun, 2024)
  30. Emika - HAZE (Thu 27 Jun, 2024)
  31. Szary - Datei (Fri 28 Jun, 2024)
  32. D​é​rapage Sonore - Artistes Variés (Sun 30 Jun, 2024)
  33. 2touch - Shug (Thu 4 Jul, 2024)
  34. Philippe Deschamps - What the Sea Promises (Tue 9 Jul, 2024)
  35. In Pursuit of Pleasure (fabric SELECTS IV) (Tue 16 Jul, 2024)
  36. Onra - Nosthaigia (Wed 17 Jul, 2024)
  37. UNKNOWN ME - Bitokagaku (Sun 21 Jul, 2024)
  38. Kaukolampi - BS/BF (Fri 26 Jul, 2024)
  39. Elori Saxl - Drifts and Surfaces (Sat 27 Jul, 2024)
  40. Veins Full Of Static - A House Wrapped In Sleep (Fri 2 Aug, 2024)
  41. David Douglas & Applescal - Démarrage (Fri 2 Aug, 2024)
  42. Thomas Penn - The Duel (Thu 5 Sep, 2024)
  43. The Neon Vortex - Akira Redux (Tue 10 Sep, 2024)
  44. Ric Miranda - If It Ain't Deep (Wed 11 Sep, 2024)
  45. DJ Stingray 313 - Large Language Model (Mon 23 Sep, 2024)
  46. 4partment - Carillon Reverie (Thu 26 Sep, 2024)
  47. fabric presents Rødhåd (Tue 1 Oct, 2024)
  48. Lara Jones - Dome (Fri 4 Oct, 2024)
  49. Blue Hour - Duality (Tue 8 Oct, 2024)
  50. Mule Driver - Sequences to Activate Dormant Agents (Fri 18 Oct, 2024)
  51. Fold - We Do Not Forget (Fri 18 Oct, 2024)
  52. FOUDRE! - Voltæ (Chthulucene) (Thu 24 Oct, 2024)
  53. Submotion Orchestra - Five Points (Fri 25 Oct, 2024)
  54. Snowdrops - Singing Stones (Volume 1) (Thu 31 Oct, 2024)
  55. bvdub - In Iron Houses (Fri 1 Nov, 2024)
  56. Aja - Variations sur Absolune (Sun 3 Nov, 2024)
  57. Fergus Jones - Ephemera (Wed 13 Nov, 2024)
  58. Pink Warm Belly Of A Dying Sun (Thu 21 Nov, 2024)
  59. Borusiade - THE FALL: A Series of Documented Experiences (Mon 25 Nov, 2024)
  60. Henrik Meierkord - MÖRK (Wed 27 Nov, 2024)
  61. Intermezzo Tre (Fri 6 Dec, 2024)
  62. DaRand Land - Wander Being (Fri 6 Dec, 2024)

Of those 62 releases, ten were non-promoted: Precipitation, Richard Norris, dj poolboi, Sepehr, Emika, Onra, Mule Driver, Fergus Jones, the fabric compilation In Pursuit of Pleasure and the Optimo 25th birthday compilation.

Approximate year end totals based on new additions to my music library: 500+ albums, EPs and singles, comprising 3400+ tracks. Phew! This must be the limit any sane person can reach?

Going deeper and wider

At this time of year, I’m always keen to hear everyone else’s fav music, hoping to discover something new and exciting but, moreover, something that tests my boundaries. Not sure if it’s just me though, but it seems like I missed out on a lot. Check my Bandcamp wishlist at the moment, it’s packed with more than 150 potential new purchases!

Based on other end-of-year lists, a few of the most popular releases I overlooked were:

  • J. Albert – I want to be good so bad
  • Rafael Toral – Spectral Evolution
  • Astrid Sonne – Great Doubt
  • Ex-Easter Island Head – Norther
  • C. Lavender – Rupture In The Eternal Realm
  • Princ​€​ss – Princ​€​ss

And a few I had heard already but feel I need to return to:

  • Kali Malone – All Life Long
  • Felicia Atkinson – Space As An Instrument
  • Nídia & Valentina – Estradas
  • Jlin – Akoma
  • Sarah Davachi – The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir

Most of these releases would comfortably drop into my current but crowded cooking pot, swirling around in a stew of Ambient, Techno and Pop… which is fine to an extent but my appetite for a new obsession this year made itself known through:

  1. More interest in Dub & Reggae
  2. Tentative explorations into Jazz-leaning productions

More interest in Dub & Reggae

To my delight, I’ve discovered that Dub and Reggae suits any situation, from dinner parties to working at the computer to cleaning the house. I’ve been a Dub and Reggae fan for yonks anyway, but for the last couple of years I’ve been dedicating more time to seeking out new and archival releases. (Bandcamp helps considerably with this process.) The impetus for this is to solidify my awareness and appreciation of musical origins, particularly music and artists that have influenced much of the electronic music in my library. A few notable releases this year influenced by Dub and Reggae include The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now by Holy Tongue meets Shackleton, Municipal Dreams by Low End Activist, Carmen Villain’s Nutrition EP, Fergus Jones’ Ephemera, Shyness by CHANTSSSS and Machines by The Bug. To be honest though, that list could be much longer, Dub & Reggae’s influence is ubiquitous.

A few of my favourite Dub and Reggae releases this year were:

  • Dennis Bovell – Sufferer Sounds
  • Ekowmania – Kwame Nkrumah
  • STA – Cobra y la hermandad de la uva
  • Noda & Wolfers – Evil Fades in Echo
  • The Viceroys – Brethren And Sistren
  • Delroy Wilson – The Cool Operator
  • Ken Boothe – Christopher Columbus
  • Nat Birchall – Dimension of the Drums (Roots Reggae Instrumentals)

Tentative explorations into Jazz-leaning productions

A quick disclaimer: I know very little about Jazz. (My recent subscription to The Wire magazine has been my main guiding light in the last year.) If my own narrow definition helps, I’ve considered an album to be Jazz-leaning if there is live instrumentation, specifically wind or string instruments like saxophone, trumpet and guitar. Paradoxically I’m also finding these sounds commonly created electronically too, a fact which perfectly reflects music production flux in 2024: eclectic, inventive and stimulating. The five albums I’ve enjoyed this year that lean towards Jazz:

  • Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing to Silence
  • Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
  • Oren Ambarchi – Ghosted II
  • Woo – Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 001: Woo (Sweet Peas)
  • Flock – Flock II

What about the usual fare?

Of course I’m still listening to an inordinate amount of 'the usual fare', i.e. a range of electronic music I once tagged as "Techno, Electro, Ambient and Pop" but recently changed (on the music submissions page) to: "Techno and Electro to Ambient and Dub to Jazz and Pop" (primarily to ensure any submitted music is appropriate).

Ambient is probably the single largest area in this year’s review scope, chiefly because every genre you could name seems to cross into that beat-less territory. All the recognisable genres are rapidy fading as they furiously copulate, their offspring bringing new and wondrous vibrations. If you had a look (and listen?) to the massive 40-track "Ambient Autumn 2024" compilation I put together on Buy Music Club in the summer, then you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about. (I’ve actually updated that playlist with another 40-odd tracks to encompass the whole year – check it out.) I’m not even sure there's any value in describing this music as 'Ambient' any longer? Anyway, here’s a list of my Ambient-type favs:

  • Masayoshi Fujita – Migratory
  • Merely & Malibu – Essential Mixtape
  • David Boulter – St Ann’s
  • Saapato – On Fire Island
  • Sanger and Sanger – Extopia
  • MIAUX – Never Coming Back
  • CHANTSSSS – Shyness
  • Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
  • Iván Muela – Ether
  • Actress – Statik
  • Kenneth James Gibson & Paul Carman – Murals For Immersion
  • CHIMET – MINING
  • Varg – Skaeliptom
  • Lo Five – Aspirant
  • Civilistjävel! – Verktyg
  • Tewksbury – Floes: Volumes I-IV
  • Philip Jeck – rpm
  • Yanling – Cymatic
  • Scott Monteith – The Lichen Diaries vol 1
  • Laura Cannell – The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined
  • The Black Dog – Sleep Deprivation
  • Jill Fraser – Earthly Pleasures
  • Rafael Anton Irisarri – FAÇADISMS
  • Ibukun Sunday – Harmony / Balance
  • Ghost Dubs – Damaged
  • Seabuckthorn – this warm, this late
  • Black Decelerant – Reflections Vol. 2: Black Decelerant
  • Patricia Wolf – The Secret Lives Of Birds
  • KRM & KMRU – Disconnect
  • Jan Wagner – Energie Braucht Zeit
  • Philippe Deschamps – What The Sea Promises
  • Woo – Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 001: Woo (Sweet Peas)
  • Veins Full Of Static – A House Wrapped In Sleep
  • Senking & DYL – Diving Saucer Attack
  • Sangam – Inside at Night

Ears peeled Pop-pickers!

Everything else is just Pop then, innit? Techno, Electro, House, Jungle, Jazz, Drum and Bass, Dub, Trance, UKG, Italo Disco, Industrial, Chill, Experimental… the list goes on. And it is all Pop (except perhaps some of the Jazz and Experimental stuff).

A few notable highlights:

  • Curses – Another Heaven
  • The Bug – Machines
  • Mule Driver – Sequences to Activate Dormant Agents [CM24]
  • DJ TR1N1TY – Astro Girls EP
  • DEFSET – OK, Accept, Continue
  • ERIS – Glimmers
  • Ace Of Hertz – Astrarium
  • Michael Mayer – The Floor Is Lava
  • Moderna – The Future Is Among Us
  • Onra – Nosthaigia
  • Sepehr – Genesis Domain
  • Xylitol – Anemones
  • AMAS X Konstantin Kost – Odessa
  • Kate Pending – Pigmented Reality
  • dj poolboi – Into The Blue Light
  • Andy Martin – La creación de las aves
  • DEFTR – Run Away
  • The Black Dog – Other, Like Me
  • TMPLT – Still Here I + II
  • Dylan Dylan – Love Theory
  • Frank & Tony – Ethos
  • Audio Obscura – Acid Field Recordings In Dub
  • Tatyana – It’s Over
  • David Douglas & Applescal – Démarrage
  • bergsonist – Maghreb
  • Pavel Milyakov – Enthropic Vision
  • Head Shoppe – Head Shoppe
  • Emika – Haze
  • Meemo Comma – Decimation Of I
  • Fergus Jones – Ephemera
  • Low End Activist – Municipal Dreams

And a few essential compilations:

  • fabric presents Rødhåd
  • Optimo 25
  • Kuboraum Sound Residency
  • Kampire Presents: A Dancefloor in Ndola
  • Dérapage Sonore
  • Ex Fabula I – A Guide to Late Music Releases I – X
  • Total 24
  • Roots Rock Rebels (When Punk Met Reggae)
  • We Will Stay Here – Music for Palestine

There’s always space for some guitar music in my life, particularly as my formative years as a music lover were dedicated to bands like The Smiths, Fugazi, Throwing Muses, Pavement, Beck and Palace. This year, everybody seems to be raving about the Cindy Lee album, and I concur, it’s an excellent and long album. A few more 'guitar' albums worth your time:

  • Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubliee
  • Julian Cope – Friar Tuck
  • Jim Byrne – A Scottish Child From The 1960s
  • Constant Little Ghost – The Yellow Knife
  • Bleak Magician – How the Disappearance Appeared to Us

A few decent podcasts/mixes that got more than a few plays:

  • HATE DJ Mix 2024 JK Flesh
  • RA.926 FAUZIA
  • FMB MIXTAPE 249 BOO
  • RA.962 Joker
  • RA.938 Actress

And finally, a few of the most listened-to albums that came out before 2024:

  • Sentence Me To Heaven – Forever Longing You
  • Greasy Mike: Shipwrecked on a Tropical Island
  • Myriam Gendron – Not So Deep as a Well
  • Deadly Headley – 35 Years From Alpha
  • Shida Shahabi – Living Circle
  • Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92
  • Steve Brenner – S I G N A L S
  • Mr. G – The Forced Force is not the True Force
  • Susumu Yokota – Sakura
  • The Caretaker – Everywhere at the end of time – Stage 1
  • The Caretaker – Extra Patience (After Sebald)
  • Röyksopp – Röyksopp's Night Out (Live EP)
  • Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism
  • Noda & Wolfers – Tascam Space Season
  • Jerry Jones at the Hotel Kingston
  • Henrik Lindstrand – Klangland
  • Erasure – Day-Glo (Based On A True Story)
  • SPIRIT WAS – Heaven's Just a Cloud
  • Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley – Oceans of Time
  • Darkstar – Civic Jams
  • R. Carlos Nakai – Canyon Trilogy (Deluxe Platinum Edition)
  • The Smiths – Louder Than Bombs
  • Jennifer Lara – Studio One Presents Jennifer Lara
  • G​.​T. Moore and The Reggae Guitars
  • Virginia Astley – From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
  • The Black Dog – Music For Photographers
  • Neil Young – Harvest
  • Neil Young – Mirror Ball
  • Neil Young – Harvest Moon
  • Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Zuma
  • Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Sleeps With Angels

Fav Favs

The serious lists now, top albums and top tracks. Here’s my top 20 albums, ranked:

  1. Moderna – The Future Is Among Us
  2. David Boulter – St. Ann's
  3. AMAS X Konstantin Kost – Odessa
  4. Actress – Static
  5. MIAUX – Never Coming Back
  6. Head Shoppe – Head Shoppe
  7. Curses – Another Heaven
  8. Yanling – Cymatic
  9. Iván Muela – Ether
  10. Woo – Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 001: Woo (Sweet Peas)
  11. Pavel Milyakov – Enthropic Vision
  12. Onra – Nosthaigia
  13. Saapato – On Fire Island
  14. dj poolboi – Into The Blue Light
  15. Ace Of Hertz – Astrarium
  16. CHANTSSSS – Shyness
  17. Frank & Tony – Ethos
  18. Audio Obscura – Acid Field Recordings In Dub
  19. Kate Pending – Pigmented Reality
  20. TR/ST – Performance

And my top 40 tracks, ranked:

  1. TSHA – Girls (feat. Rose Gray)
  2. Curses – Another Heaven
  3. Ace of Hertz – Tyr
  4. Onra – Hand In Hand
  5. Cybotron – Parallel Shift
  6. Felipe Gordon – My Legs Are Numb
  7. Jim Byrne – Love Breaks In Many Ways
  8. Tatyana – Down Bad
  9. Sepehr – Twisted Solstice
  10. The Viceroys – Ya Ho
  11. dj poolboi – know each other so well ft. DJ Cinema Quartier Latin
  12. The Bug – Floored (Point of Impact)
  13. Eleven Pond – Watching Trees
  14. Jill Fraser – Earthly Pleasures
  15. Ammonite – You Don’t Know Me
  16. Jimi Tenor – Kwame Nkrumah (soto edit)
  17. Malcolm Pardon – Enter The Void
  18. Ekowmania – Kwame Nkrumah
  19. Martin Matiske – Moments
  20. Di Groovy Girls – Ririmi Rotsombela
  21. Hayley Zalassi – Lose Your Head
  22. Fold – To Be Hated and Thus Corrected
  23. Mikaere – These Ghosts
  24. Madalitso Band – Lenisa
  25. Aurumm – Cathalea
  26. Frank & Tony – Continuity
  27. Gerry Read – Not Quite There Yet
  28. Batu – Zeal
  29. Tony Morris – House Of God
  30. Peder Mannerfelt Produktion – Flash My Flip Phone
  31. Daniel Haaksman, Prado Paim, Los Bulldozer – Engracia
  32. The Black Dog – Crashed
  33. Dylab – I forgot
  34. Xylitol – Jelena
  35. Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai – My Heart My Motherboard
  36. DC Salas – Acid Breath
  37. nthng – Echo Trak
  38. Björn Petrikat – Ka Bongo
  39. Timothy Clerkin – Fading
  40. SEM – Area 5

Tags

moderna, david boulter, amas, konstantin kost, actress, miaux, head shoppe, curses, yanling, ivan muela, woo, pavel milyakov, onra, saapato, dj poolboi, ace of hertz, chantssss, frank and tony, audio obscura, kate pending, trst

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