Damn, what a year. I have so much to say but zero energy to say it.
Above everything else this nutso year, music kept me sane.
There was a glut of good stuff, but here are my faves, in no particular order.
And I love you all, in no particular order.
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Freddie Gibbs/ The Alchemist – Alfredo (ESGN)
Another year, another Freddie Gibbs album on my list. Am I that predictable? Or is Gangsta Gibbs that goddamn consistent? You decide. In my opinion, this is absolutely his best collab since Pinata, as he and The Alchemist find some beautiful chemistry. Whereas last year’s Bandana with Madlib was a bit inconsistent, here Gibbs’ flow and Al’s soulful beats just click. Future classic right here.
Pro tip: Alchemist’s collab with Boldy James, The Price of Tea in China, is also a great record from 2020 worthy of many listens too.
Fave track: “Something to Rap About” with Tyler, the Creator
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Auscultation – III (100% Silk)
Joel Shanahan aka Auscultation has put out an album of beautiful 90’s inspired ambient techno, and it took about ten seconds of the opening track for me to be quickly swept into its eerie soothe.
Smooth synths, pulsing basslines, deep house rhythms with “up in dem cloud” soundscapes. This was my morning album for the entire covid spring, and I keep returning to it again and again. Hype.
Check out: “Glowing Hearts in the Rainbow Room”
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Caribou – Suddenly (Merge Records)
Dan Snaith’s first Caribou record since 2015 finds him working with all his various strengths and writing a more subdued yet arguably stronger album than Our Love, with the warm and ear-wormy Suddenly.
Flirting with hip-hop, soul, techno, folk, psych and R&B, some critics have said it lacks cohesion, but even so, every song has something about it that makes it special or stand out or subtly get lodged in your head.
Worthy of repeat listens with great songwriting from beginning to end.
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Pure X – Pure X (Fire Talk)
Pure X are rock and roll. They take their sweet time, and they write beautiful songs. Check “Middle America” and/or “Slip Away” for exemplars.
The Austin-based band made their name writing reverb-soaked druggy slow jams, and ten years in they’re still writing those same slow jams — but it seems like maybe now they’re waiting until after they record before they get super stoned, because this is their clearest most focused collection of songs yet.
Great guitars, always solid bass lines, and smooth af vocal melodies. To be honest, I was just happy to see a new album by them, since 2014’s Angel has been a constant play in my living room for 6 years now.
And I hope I’ll get to see them play live again, once the world shifts back to a place where I can actually sway shoulder to shoulder with strangers in a sweaty venue.
I can’t wait to not have to wait for that…sheeit.
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Oddissee – Odd Cure (Outer Note Label)
The humble and always underrated Oddissee released my favourite quarantine album of this most fucked up year.
Oddissee deftly captured the helplessness and hopefulness of our 2020 Quarantine Lyfe with Odd Cure.
And throughout the album, he uniquely displays our anxiety and fears living through a pandemic, as well as, the opportunities we all had to rest, reflect, and reconnect with loved ones during the slow-pace imposed on us by covid. The phone calls to his fam spliced in between tracks are heart-warming and really capture the feel of those initial first wave lockdown days.
The whole album is chock full of soulful beats, flawless production, and some of Odd’s most thoughtful rhymes yet.
PG County represent!
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Ulla – Tumbling Towards a Wall (Experiences Ltd.)
Ulla Straus has recorded in the past under her full name, but here she needs only her prénom with the enchanting Tumbling Towards a Wall — an album that straddles the line of blissful ambient with touches of experimental composition.
Ulla’s music is sonically diverse, oscillating between piano, strings, field recordings and hazy, soft pads.
Usually I’m one to say that I think most albums sound better through a good pair of headphones, but with Tumbling, I like hearing it on big speakers in an open room, it sounds completely different that way, and more alluring somehow.
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Shinichi Atobe – YES (DDS)
The man, the enigma, the legend, Shinichi Atobe returns with his first batch of songs since 2018’s stellar Heat.
Shinichi serves his techno straight-up, no fuckery, and builds his songs from the bottom up until they are bursting with subtle melody, and with YES he’s at his warmest, overflowing with rich grooves, head-bobbing bass, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention those goddamn beautiful handclaps. He’s also a pro at dropping a heavy piano lick deep into the mix when you least expect it, and it’s always pure class.
I think if I had to pick one absolute fave from 2020, it would have to be YES, as this album accompanied me on many “newborn needs to sleep” walks throughout the summer, and even when I was so goddamn tired I could barely go on, it kept a shimmy in my step, and kept lil Simon a dozin’ on my chest.
YES, INDEED.
Check out: “Lake 2” and (my personal humdinger) “Ocean 1”
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Adrianne Lenker – songs/instrumentals (4AD)
The first time I listened to “anything” off this album, I was on (yet another) walk with Simon. It was a chilly, grey October morning, and I couldn’t even make it halfway through before I started to cry. But it felt good, so I put it on repeat, pushing the heavy stroller down the sidewalk and bawling. On the third listen one of my contacts popped out of my eyes, and I thought I should probably stop after that. So I put on the new Deftones to cleanse the palette.
That definitely wasn’t the first (or last) time I could be seen crying while walking around my neighbourhood with my newborn son this year (hey man, second baby + pandemic + sleep deprivation = crying Papa, aight?), but good lord and goddamn, that track is a sure fire doozy.
The rest of the album floats a similar melancholy vibe of pitch-perfect simple break-up songs. Just a woman and her guitar, a few chirping birds, and the creaks of the old wood floor of the cottage she recorded in. So good.
The companion piece, instrumentals, is two songs featuring soft finger-picking, more birdsong, light rainfall, and lots of wind chimes. The second track “mostly chimes”, really feels like you’re sitting on the porch of a weekend cottage, up early with a coffee, and listening to the birds and gentle chimes in the breeze.
Side note: I had also never really listened to Big Thief until this year, but U.F.O.F is also an absolutely amazing record and I highly recommend it.
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KMRU – Peel (Editions Mego)
Kenya based sound artist Joseph Kamaru, aka KMRU put out several albums this year, my favourite one being Peel. It was conceived as a time-restricted experiment in texture, influenced by “experiences travelling in Montreal, as well as being back in Nairobi just before lockdown.”
The album was recorded in just 48 hours, but its heavy drones feel almost timeless. Kamaru said he is “always happy to have limitations while making music, and Peel is a good example of this.” He gives the impression that more time wouldn’t have yielded any better results.
The second KMRU album of 2020, landed three weeks after Peel. If you want to hear the breadth of Kamaru’s talents, check out Opaquer. If you want to hear his ability to laser in on a very focused idea and extract from it 75 minutes of special music, choose Peel.
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nthng – hypnotherapy (Lobster Theremin)
Elusive Dutch producer, nthng, released his second album for the great Lobster Theremin imprint, and goes far beyond the deep house he made his name on. Hypnotherapy is a trippy and dark record that spans dub techno, heavy 4/4 beats, hazy ambient and mind-bending trance.
Tracks like “I Just Am” and “Heitt” hit hard with the after midnight dancefloor in mind, while other tracks like “Beautiful Love” and “With You” will veer you more towards the couch, but this album is one that keeps on giving and sounding better the more you listen.
The first time I heard “I Just Am”, I was (you guessed it) on a walk with Simon, and when the beat cracks in at the 3 and a 1/2 minute mark it was so thrilling that I just pushed his stroller into oncoming traffic and started dancing.
I pictured all the Muteks and music festivals and countless special dancefloor and live music moments that did not happen this year and I cursed covid and cussed out corona, and then slowly picked Simon’s mangled stroller up off the curb. Luckily, he was completely unharmed. He smiled at me, blew a raspberry, and we kept on a-walkin the year away…
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Yves Tumor – Heaven To a Tortured Mind (Warp)
In the days before the big covid shift, I bought tickets to see Yves Tumor in April 2020, and was totally stoked to see this new glam version of the artist. I had tickets to see one show a month up until June when lil Si Guy was set to arrive and throw a wrench in our routine. But instead, the ‘rona came and tossed in the whole rusty tool box.
So Heaven To a Tortured Mind became my go to jogging album for all of spring. And while it perhaps doesn’t quite hit the heights that Hands of Love did for me in 2018, I still totally dig Yves’ move from noise freak to weirdo pop star.
It seems like he can get away with anything now.
Like the guitar solo on “Kerosene!”, for example. If you had told me 10 years ago that the best song Warp Records would release in 2020 would have a full-on wank shred of a guitar solo in it, I would have belly laughed and probably farted. But here we are. 2020. You tricky asshole.
Haha, but yeah, I seriously love that song and the video is pretty great too.
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HONORABLE AUDIBLES (click album to sample a track)
Soela – Genuine Silk (Dial Records)
(Dial kicks off their 20th anniversary true to form with Soela’s buttery debut full-length)
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Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats – UNLOCKED (Loma Vista)
(8 tracks, 18 minutes, hits hard working that classic boom bap throwback style)
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Aesop Rock – Spirit World Field Guide (Rhymesayers)
(Aesop’s most ambitious and joyous clusterfuck of an album, lots to love here)
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White Poppy – Paradise Gardens (Not Not Fun)
(Dreamy, hazy, afternoon daze pop, done right)
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Oneohtrix Point Never – Magic OPN (Warp Records)
(Daniel Lopatin’s most accessible OPN record yet)
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Earth Boys – Earth Tones (Shall Not Fade)
(Dub techno & deep house with tongue-in-cheek vocals and plenty of sax-a-ma-phone)
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Bibio – Sleep On The Wing (Warp Records)
(Bibio keeps up his hot streak and folk tendencies with another lovely collection)
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Sam Prekop – Comma (Thrill Jockey)
(Sea and Cake frontman ventures into techno for this solo album, beautiful rich synths)
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DJ Lostboi and Torus – The Flash (Queeste)
(Float away on DJ Lostboi’s soundclouds, inspiring morning music)
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The Phantasy – Ibiza Pt.I
(Goddamn, this makes me miss the dancefloor! Killer techno and house tunes from the Prince)
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Why Bonnie – Voice Box EP (Fat Possum)
(Indie pop that sounds like 1992 and Tusk era Fleetwood Mac, no complaints here)
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Route 8 – Rewind The Days of Youth (Lobster Theremin)
(Route 8 just keeps on getting better at writing classic house and techno jams)
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Mac Miller – Circles (Warner)
(An artist that was clearly still coming into his own, RIP)
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And an unfortunate last minute RIP to Viktor Vaughn aka MF DOOM aka King Geedorah aka Metal Face Terrorist
Well, shit, here we are. Welcome to 2021 y’all, let’s move on and cautiously, carefully put all the shit piles in the rearview.
Fingers optimistically crossed.
Cheers and love,
ml
INAUDIBLE 