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INAUDIBLE’S BEST OF 2025

January 14, 2026

Good Lord, here we go again! I can barely believe it myself, another year in the can! But enough chit chat, because it is time for the 16th edition of INAUDIBLE’S end of year faves.

Let’s kick 2025 to the goddamn curb and jump right in, shall we?

TOP 21 ALBUMS of 2025

(click on artist and album title to sample some tunes)

K-LONE – sorry i thought you were someone else

Hot off the presses, this is a last minute addition to the list, but an essential one. K-LONE aka Josiah Gladwell releases his third full-length on Anthony Naples’ lauded Incensio imprint and serves up deep house with a healthy dash of minimal tech throwback. And if you know me, you can be doggone sure that’s gonna be a tasty recipe for success.

Production value has always been top notch on anything K-LONE touches, but this one is smooth as fuuuuck. On the more four to the floor tracks, I’m hearing Theorem and Detroit techno vibes, I’m hearing Akufen and Force Inc. underneath his wall of signature lush, and it gets better with each spin. Heady, moving, and apparently written as a grieving process after the loss of his dad, sorry i thought you were someone else, is arguably Gladwell’s best record yet.

Give it a try: “Sslip”

***

Kokoroko – Tuff Times Never Last (Brownswood)

I heard Kokoroko test out a lot of these songs when I saw them play The Howard Theater last year in D.C. Early live versions of “Sweetie”, “Three Piece Suit”, and “Closer To Me”, quickly showed a shift towards a more subdued, but no less smooth vibe, than their stellar debut Could We Be More, which melded Afrobeat, soul, funk, smooth jazz, and highlife into one singular steady shake your ass groove. 

This shift may be in part because founding member and saxophonist, Cassie Kinoshi, left to focus on her work with SEED ensemble. She was replaced by the excellent trombonist Anoushka Nanguay, and I’d say the major change on Tuff Times Never Last, is the addition of more vocals between Nanguay and Sheila Maurice-Grey.

Whereas in the past vocals were sprinkled in here and there to accentuate their sound, now every song features vocals. It is definitely not a bad thing, it just took me sometime to situate myself in their new world. But whatever I thought was a lack at first was anything but, because this album is a grower and has some absolutely beautiful and lush moments.

Check out: “Closer To Me”

***

The Besnard Lakes are The Ghost Nation (Full Time Hobby)

The ever-consistent Bezzies return with their 7th full-length, The Besnard Lakes are The Ghost Nation, and it may be their best suite of songs yet. The Montreal five-piece got together for a week at Lost River Studio nestled up in the Laurentian mountains, and effortlessly popped out 45 minutes of pure sonic wonder.

In a catalogue full of heaters, you wouldn’t think it possible that they still had the best song of their careers up their sleeves, but in my opinion, “Chemin de la Baie” might just be it. It’s unreal. Jace’s dark angel falsetto hits a note that can break you. It is very hard for me to listen to that song without a strong ASMR tingle down my spine, and a welling of tears in my eyes. No joke. It’s such a dreamy rock song, and has already received the remix treatment from Swervedriver (although the OG version is def better).

There are no skips on Ghost Nation, and it’s an album that reveals its beauty with repeated full listens. Take the time and you will be rewarded. This band has been the dark horse for twenty years now, and show us again and again how unique they are. Always a fantastic live show and always subtly reinventing themselves. Merci, Bezzies!

***

Deftones – private music (Reprise Records)

Unexpected? More like unavoidable. Chino et al. return for their tenth Deftones record and handily show us why they remain so vital and relevant in the hard rock universe. The songs on private music are heavy and aggressive, but they’re also so beautifully melodic with infectious hooks, cool time signatures, and low-end grooves aplenty.

Teenage me was all about the hesh — Tool, Clutch, Paw, Orange 9mm, Monster Magnet, Quicksand, Rage, and of course, Deftones. I saw them play a tiny club (The Shelter in Detroit) right when their first album Adrenaline came out, and remember the mosh pit being absolutely terrifying. My skinny ass steered clear, but the bombastic energy of “7 Words” was insanely visceral and exciting.

Fast forward (ahem) 30+ years, and I still can’t seem to shake off all that teenage angst, so it’s fantastic that this band is still able to tap into that energy and have put together such a solid collection of tracks that will easily help you shave a few seconds off your 10k jog. In a year, where I was constantly in need of purging emotions at the gym, this was one of my most played albums while exercising for sure…

Oh, and the last 1:45 of “souvenir” features some of the best ambient wash I’ve heard all year, for 90 seconds it’s like I’m listening to Keith Fullerton Whitman’s classic album Playthroughs.

***

Black Milk and Fat Ray – Food From the Gods (Computer Ugly)

I totally slept on Detroit producer and rapper Black Milk, but was glad I was tipped off to this collab with Fat Ray, because it uncovered a stack of excellent earlier solo albums (Everybody Good? and Fever in particular), not to mention, Milk’s fledgling production work with Motor City legends Slum Village.

Food From the Gods highlights classic boom-bap and J-Dilla influenced beats, with Fat Ray’s gruff and gravel delivery. Milk’s production is immersive and immaculate. There are moments where Fat Ray has a touch of DOOM to his flow and there’s some definite rough edges, but Milk’s beats work well for him to spit to.

The album also features three of Detroit’s finest rappers: Danny Brown (in his low register the whole time), the criminally underrated Guilty Simpson, and the always hilarious Bruiser Wolf.

Check out: “Gotta Know”

***

Squid – Cowards (Warp Records)

UK art rock post-punk outfit, Squid, returned this year with their third album and have put out their most dynamic and accessible record yet. Even though their two earlier albums were hyped and acclaimed and released on one of my all-time fave labels, their music didn’t quite hit me until now.

Cowards is a rich album with dark themes and it reminds me a lot of Slint, but with groovier bass and moments of youthful, frenetic elation to push out the impending doom. Lead singer, Ollie Judge, definitely has a Brian McMahan circa The For Carnation vibe to his voice (with a touch of Stephen Malkmus for good indie rock measure). “Blood on the Boulders”, for example, is 100% a reinterpretation of Slint’s “Don, Aman”.

I was listening to Cowards on repeat for two months and had tickets to see their spring show at The Black Cat in D.C. but ended up missing it due to my mother’s illness, and after that I never went back to the album again. Perhaps it reminded me too much of that uncertain and difficult period of learning that my mother was dying and that it was going to happen way faster than anyone wanted. Who knows, but I think if I had seen them live it would have been absolutely fantastic and transformative. It may have even pushed this album to the top three of the year.

It wasn’t until seeing the album in my 2025 Most Listened list, that I went back and revisited it and remembered how goddamn good it is. But in the end, simply, I think what I like most about Squid is that they’re just a band of young friends who are trying to write cool music and constantly evolve. You can hear the budding creativity in every song on this record, and I have no doubt they’re are only going to continue going up from here.

***

billy woods – Golliwog (Backwoodz Studioz)

One half of lauded rap duo, Armand Hammer, billy woods follows up his last sterling solo effort, Maps with the bristling GOLLIWOG, a dark and cacophonous, yet ultimately poetic, tour de force of outsider hip hop.

To be honest, I wanted to put Armand Hammer’s Mercy here instead, because I find the way woods and ELUCID ebb and flow together remarkable, but GOLLIWOG’s somber themes were hyper-relevant as I listened to this record in the last weeks of my mother’s life, and the track “Lead Paint Test” with ELUCID and Cavalier was one that really hit me at that time with its theme of place, and the multitude of memories your childhood home can hold.

I saw woods play Union Stage in D.C. on The Golliwog Tour and the crowd was rapt. He essentially did a 90 minute best of setlist and I swear the dude standing behind me knew every single track word for mot for word. It was a great show, but in the end I preferred the Armand Hammer gig I saw in Montreal in 2024 for two reasons: one, I think ELUCID is incredibly underrated and I love his flow and delivery, and two, because so many tracks feature guest rappers, a solo woods show ends up feeling a bit snippety, and many times I found myself really wanting to hear the next verse instead of the song stopping halfway through.

Small grievance though, because billy woods is a rapper-poet who has been on a prolific run of 6 straight quality releases (2 solo, 2 with Kenny Segal, and 2 as Armand Hammer) in the last 3 years. He’s a great writer, and I’ll be just as stoked to read his memoir as listen to his music whenever the book drops.

***

Open Mike Eagle – Neighborhood Gods Unlimited (Auto Reverse)

Hell yeah, Mike, thank you for this one. If you have ever read this useless blog in the past, you know I love hip hop, but my end of year lists would probably trend more to the electronic side of the music spectrum. This year though, more than ever, I needed to be transported out of my thoughts and into someone else’s, and Open Mike Eagle, and Black Milk, and Oddisee, and woods and ELUCID, and my AOTY (no spoilers!), really helped me out in that respect. They let me hop on the treadmill, get lost in the beats and their world, and try to spit their lyrics with them.

And Open Mike Eagle had me constantly chuckling and feeling like I was just chatting with a friend who was trying to cheer me up and make me LOL with his creative turns of phrase, irreverent yet reverent subject matter, and butter smooth rhymes. Might be that we’re the same age, and have similar cultural touchstones, but I immediately felt a connection with him, from the opening track about conspiracies and the internet, “woke up knowing everything”, all the way to the somber Kenny Segal produced final track “unlimited skull voices”, about all of those friends and fam that are gone but never forgotten.

A tiny snippet of his lyrics that are seemingly always in my head: “I yell fuck that! even when I’m by myself / I hit the high notes, even when I’m by myself / I drink whiskey, even when I’m by myself / I do dance moves, even when I’m by myself / I tell lies, even when I’m by myself…”

Super good shit. Check it svp.

***

Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal (Partisan Records)

Cameron Winter, the $0 man, had a massive 2025. His band Geese have no doubt catapulted to the festival circuit with the acclaim of their third full-length, Getting Killed, but before all that, he quietly released this weirdo solo album, Heavy Metal.

I started getting into it around late March, but once I found out my mom was sick, I couldn’t listen without breaking down and I had to put it aside. Just the general mood of the piano in “Drinking Age” and “$0” is still enough to set me off, let alone the dark subject matter and deadpan lyrics like “dying and dying, you used up your dying day . . . you used up your grave”, were hitting a little to close to home.

So I shelved it and kept the steady stream of hip hop flowing in my ears … but, eventually at some point in the fall, I went back to it, and I’m glad I did, because it is a challenging yet rewarding album showcasing youthful abandon with a compulsive lo-fi-DIY-DGAF attitude that hums above the whole project. Heavy Metal is the perfect storm of a young musician who had a wellspring of ideas that he needed to get on tape ASAP before they flew away like some strange dream …

This has obviously been a challenging year for me, and also very surreal. In a lot of ways, I’ve probably felt the most spiritual I have since I was a child, closer to the idea of the afterlife or heaven or even magic lol. And there’s something extremely powerful when Winter convinces us, with a shit-eating grin, at the end of “$0” that God is real. It really struck a chord with me, as well as, the song’s truly lovely and extended piano outro. When asked about this in an interview with The Guardian, Winter nonchalantly replied something like, “every once in a while ya gotta give it up for the big guy, ya know?”

My mom was a devout Catholic, faithful till the very end, and I grew up going to church every Sunday, altar boy and all that. There was a bit of magic to church as a child, but of course, I questioned it, abandoned it, decided Nietzsche and Sartre were more on point with the whole God is dead, man creates himself rhetoric, and shunned the tired idea of organized religion. However, I never went full atheist. To me there was always still something, nebulous, but there somewhere.

And this year, that sentiment has grown. During the first few months after my mom’s death, I could feel her vibrating in every tree and bird and blade of grass every time I went outside, and Winter has helped push this feeling a bit further in some small way, and maybe even a bit closer to understanding my mom’s unwavering faith in the big guy. And that’s a hell of a thing for music to do, so thank you, heavy metal man, and get ready for the fame ride you’re about to blast off into. Cheers.

***

Blood Orange – Essex Honey (RCA)

Dev Hynes returns as Blood Orange with his first album since 2018 and dropped Essex Honey, a stunning long-player that helped me grieve the loss of my mom more than any other record this year. Could be in part, that Hynes wrote this album after the death of his own mother in 2023, but it could also be that this album is the work of a master artist who is able to blend so many disparate styles, genres, elements, and artists into an exciting and highly emotive sonic journey with complete ease.

Much of my personal grieving has been done at the YMCA this year. I found solace in cardio and listening to music and physically pushing myself. It was and is still not uncommon to see me crying on the stationary bike as I blast out a 10 mile ride as fast as my little legs can muster. I literally cried just today at the Y while listening to Essex Honey as inspiration for this mini-review. Sometimes it’s total ugly cry action, but I honestly do not even care, it’s one of the ways I have chosen to grieve and I need it. Music is such a trigger and this album has been a godsend.

For the first three months after my Mom died I could barely write more than a text message. I was a bit worried, but once the summer ended and the new school year started and I went back to work, I began listening to this album and writing again. I wrote a series of poems (a form I usually never mess with) about my mom that were extremely helpful when it came to processing and mourning and reminiscing, and Essex Honey was on repeat for the two months it took me to complete them.

It’s an album in the classic sense, best listened from start to finish, full of so many earwormy hooks and melodies it’s kind of crazy. There’s a laundry list of guest vocalists from Caroline Polachek to Lorde to Daniel Caesar to Zadie Smith to Brendan Yates from Turnstile to Tirzah and Eva Tolkin, and the list goes on. But in the end, it’s all simply a perfect mood board of Hynes’ eclectic sound and vision. Sweeping and grand, yet subtle and moving, Essex Honey, is so worthy of repeated listens. Check it.

***

Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers)

I’ve been listening to Aesop Rock since the year 2000 and in 2025 I am finally giving The Impossible Kid his long-deserved flowers. Aesop Rock has quietly become one of the scene’s most respected and legendary rappers. He has the biggest unique vocabulary in his lyrics of any rapper out there, which isn’t even a flex at this point, it’s just the way he writes his rhymes. Aes is a storyteller first and a rapper second, an artist in the truest sense, he’s become a fantastic producer over the years, and with his tenth studio effort, Black Hole Superette, he’s released his most immersive record yet — both lyrically and from a production standpoint.

Aes has been on a whole ‘nother level since 2020, having put out 5 albums in the course of the last half decade (and two this year alone), with each one seeming to get a little closer to the heart of what he’s all about. When I first heard “Daylight” and “9-5ers Anthem” back in 2001, I was pretty sure I had heard hip hop’s peak. I was floored by the Blockhead beats, Aes’ flow, and straight for the gut existential subject matter. It was revelatory, I was 22 years old and it was everything I was looking for in music and life.

Flash forward 25 years and Aesop Rock is older, wiser, stubborn, more jaded, but overall his optimism wins out against the self-saboteur constantly chirping in his head. The main theme of Black Hole Superette is aging and memories and trying to look back with no judgement and accepting that we are just a speck of dust on a speck of dust, a tourist forever trying to make sense of our very messed up world.

Aesop Rock has shown that he can do this shit all by his lonesome, the rhymes, the feels, the beats, his own unique universe, but he cherry picks some key guests who all deliver their finest for him: Open Mike Eagle, Lupe Fiasco, Homeboy Sandman, Armand Hammer, and Hanni El Khatib, all help flesh out Aesop’s best album yet.

He ain’t anywhere near from calling it quits, so let’s see where he goes after he turns 50. Thanks Aes for keeping it steady for a quarter, let’s flip for another. Yessss!

***

VERY HONORABLE AUDIBLES (click on title to sample a track)

Oddisee – En Route EP (Mello Music Group)

Four effortless jams from the DMV darling, Oddisee. As I’ve said before, the man never quits hustling and is always improving his craft. His rich production and self-referential rhymes have become a style all his own. He tours relentlessly around the globe, so please go see him and his band Good Compny if they are in your neck of the woods. You won’t be disappointed.

Tortoise – Touch (International Anthem)

Chicago post-rock legends, Tortoise return with their first album in almost a decade. Early singles were really exciting but overall the album doesn’t hit any of their earlier heights. Still, they are one of my all-time fave groups and any new music is always most welcome. Don’t miss them on tour in 2026!

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Mercy (Backwoodz Studioz)

Armand Hammer team with The Alchemist for Mercy and recapture their earlier chemistry with ease. This is a much more melodic and less anxious Armand Hammer album compared to Diabetic Test Strips from two years prior, and it helps bookend billy woods’ big year on a high note.

***

Alex G – Headlights (RCA)

Indie hero Alex G jumps from the bedroom to the big leagues and puts out his shiniest set of tunes yet. Doesn’t hit me as hard as God Bless The Animals, but it was a steady grower over the course of the year.

***

Facta – GULP (Wisdom Teeth)

K-Lone’s partner and labelmate, Facta dropped this short but sweet set of easy dance-floor steppers in the summer. It’s so much fun to listen to and you can’t help but want to shake your big fat gyatttttt.

***

Water From Your Eyes – It’s A Beautiful Place (Matador)

The tireless indie superstars Rachel and Nate turn up the distortion and show us that they can literally try anything and it’ll still sound super cool.

***

Hayden Pedigo – I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away (Mexican Summer)

This one reminds me of William Tyler’s guitar based Americana stuff, and it was played often in the car on our summer road trip from DC to Montreal. I think simplicity is key here and the songs where Pedigo is not trying to show off are definitely the best ones on the album.

***

Steve Hauschildt – Aeropsia (Simul Records)

After a six-year hiatus, Steve Hauschildt returns with a gorgeous and sweeping suite of synth based ambience. Easy to drift off and float up and away…

***

Rochelle Jordan – Through The Wall (EMPIRE)

Deep in the pocket, smooth and groovy R&B jams from Kaytranada collaborator, Rochelle Jordan. She brims with confidence and swagger and the production is on point. Kitchen dance party, anyone?

Lord of the Isles – Signals Aligned (Dusk Delay)

The underrated and always consistent, Neil McDonald, returns under his Lord Of The Isles alias and drops an hour of peak ambient minimal inflected house. Good stuff I say.

***

All right then, dear friends! I listened to many more albums over the course of 2025, but these were the ones that hit the hardest. So, that’s a wrap! Let’s kick the Year of the Snake in a ditch and focus on what’s ahead…

Be kind, be vulnerable, be honest, try not to ever take anyone or anything for granted, keep sifting through the muck, and keep your ears wide open.

Love ya, ML.

***

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INAUDIBLE’S BEST OF 2024

January 14, 2025

Helloooo everyone! Welcome to INAUDIBLE’s 15th (almost) annual BEST OF list. Perhaps a bit more abbreviated than years gone by, but brevity is the soul of wit.

So please, grab your headphones, hit your vape, and have a lil listen…

TOP 25 ALBUMS of 2024 (in random order)

(click on artist and album title to sample some tunes)

Soela – Dark Portrait (Scissor & Thread)

Less late-night dancefloor, more rainy day introspection, Dark Portrait is Elina Shorokova aka Soela’s most accomplished album to date. After solid releases on Kompakt, Dial, and Shall Not Fade, she joins the Scissor & Thread family and pushes her sound into exciting new territory.

Featuring her own haunting vocals, beautiful production, and stalwart guests like Lawrence, Module One, and label head Francis Harris, this is definitely one to get lost in after dark and during the colder months.

***

Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor (Ninja Tune)

I hadn’t listened to any of her earlier records, but My Method Actor by London-based musician, Nilüfer Yanya was an instant crush for me, with its Sade meets radio friendly 90’s light grunge feel.

I’ve returned to this one again and again, it continues to sound fresh after repeat listens, plays out super well as a full album, and I’m constantly impressed by her great songwriting and effortless guitar hooks.

Fave song: “Ready For Sun (touch)”

***

Oddisee – And Yet Still EP (Outer Note)

Prolific rapper/producer, and darling of the DMV, Oddisee, just does not quit. He’s been hustling for twenty years now and keeps on getting better. Seeing his live Christmas show in D.C. with his band Good Compny was fantastic.

He called up local artists in the crowd to come on stage and do a track, and the concert played out like a history lesson of who’s who in the D.C. hip hop scene. Loved the live show and this breezy EP builds off of last year’s excellent album, To What End, with a focus on R&B tinged hip hop to great success.

Check out: “Had To Improve”

***

Tinashe – Quantum Baby (Tinashe Music/Nice Life)

She’s been in the game for way more than a minute, but thanks to TikTok, Tinashe landed the song of the year with “Nasty”, and saw her underrated star finally catapult into the major leagues. Quantum Baby is a victory lap, building off her equally great BB/ANG3L from last year. It features a tight 30 minutes of her signature evocative R&B smooth jam stylings, once again tapping Nosaj Thing among others to provide fantastic production with tons of low end bass.

I saw her in a Ray Ban commercial with James Blake and Anderson .Paak a few months ago, and then I saw her do her thang in Vegas on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, so you know it’s only up and up up up from here on out for Nashy.

***

Fontaines D.C. – Romance (XL Recordings)

The Dublin boys shoot for the stars and go BIG and glossy with their fourth full-length, Romance. I really liked early single “Starburster”, with that crazy inhale moment during the chorus from Grian, but I resisted the whole album once it dropped and didn’t listen to it until the fall. On the first couple of spins, I couldn’t believe how “nice” it sounded, the edges were so soft, the vibe was super melodic, it had some Oasis feels, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it all – but then it became a sort of soundtrack to our move from Montreal to Washington, D.C. and I became obsessed with it, as with all their previous releases.

I saw them on their Skinty Fia tour and I have tickets for when they come back to D.C. this spring, so I am excited to see this further evolution of their sound live. Keep goin’, lads!

***

Vince Staples – Dark Times (Def Jam)

Vince Staples’ newest record, Dark Times, treads down the same low-key but super introspective path of his last two releases, but for one reason or another, this is the first album of his that’s caught my complete attention since 2017’s Big Fish Theory. It’s an immersive, personal listen that I have returned to again and again, and I feel like his flow is starting to sound more like Devin the Dude the older he gets, which is definitely not a bad thing.

Another one of my most jogged to and shout aloud hooks of the year comes from standout jam “Little Homies”, when Vince crows: “Life hard but I go harder!”

***

This is Lorelei – Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Double Double Whammy)

Nate Amos, one half of indie royalty, Water From Your Eyes, records solo stuff as This is Lorelei, and put out a grab bag of catchy lo-fi songs this year on Double Double Whammy, that are super fun and earwormy and at times remind me a lot of Alex G.

I bought tickets for his show in January but lamely skipped it because it was on a Monday and I was cold and tired and had to work early the next day. Oh well. He seems to be maximizing all that youthful energy because he tours a ton and records even more. I’ll go see him next time, and hopefully his creative streak doesn’t end anytime soon! Great stuff.

***

Loidis – One Day (Incienso)

Founder of the great West Mineral Ltd. imprint, Brian Leeds aka Huerco S. aka Pendant aka Royal Crown of Sweden revives his Loidis alias for an early oughts throwback LP of patient, shimmering minimal and dub techno and it absolutely slays.

Leeds has shown us time and time again that he’s of the absolute best in the electronic scene, no matter what moniker he’s using. Soooo good.

***

Skee Mask – Resort (Ilian Tape)

Mr. Prolific, Bryan Müller aka Skee Mask puts out so much gosh darn new music it’s hard to keep up.

And holy cow, I don’t know how the heck he does it, because it’s pretty much all amazing, whether it’s random hard drive dumps, short EPs, or full-length propers. And with Resort, we get the full spread: blissed-out breakbeats, lucid-dream techno, ambient haze, and gauzy downtempo, all easy enough to put on as background or get completely immersed in. The choice is yours, it’ll be great either way.

***

Idles – Tangk (Partisan Records)

IDLES’ track “Mother” from their debut, Brutalism, is one of my favourite songs to jog to. I like to put it on in the last kilometre or so of the run for that extra boost of bombastic fuck you fuck yeah energy to help keep me going. I also really like to scream out the lyrics to the chorus on the street lol.

With Tangk, their fifth studio album, we see the blokes following a pattern I have seen time and time again with UK bands that put out a heavy as fuck first record: slowly shift their sound to something more palatable and dare I say, radio friendly. Foals, Fontaines DC, and Shame (just to name a few), all veered more melodic with each release, and IDLES have followed suit.

But it doesn’t matter, because I love it. This is my fave album by them and my most listened to record of the year. It’s still got all the grit and grime even though the edges are a bit polished, and I’m fine with that.

Blast “Gratitude” at your next family dinner.

***

Jasmine Myra – Rising (Gondwana Records)

Elevating, uplifting and beautifully arranged, alto-saxophonist, Jasmine Myra‘s sophomore album Rising, builds on the success of her breakthrough Horizons, but kicks it all up a subtle notch.

Produced by Gondwana label head Matthew Halsall, Rising strikes a similar chord to Halsall’s Journey-era Alice Coltrane aesthetic, and it’s an album I just keep going back to. Super smoooove.

Fave track: “Glimmers”

***

Tyla – TYLA (Fax/Epic)

Infused with hip hop, Afrobeat and polished amapiano drums, South African star Tyla’s debut record is pure pop novocaine. This album makes pop music sound exciting to me again – even the overplayed, Grammy winning, “Water”, a song so ubiquitous you’ll hear it at the pharmacy and then again playing in the car next to you at the red light. Definitely one of my most jogged to albums of the year.

My fave tracks are “Breathe Me” and “No.1” ft Tems and “PUSH 2 START”, but it’s all good vibes and I am all ears for it.

***

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Realistik Studios)

Diamond Jubilee plays out like a fever dream – disparate fragments of melodies and memories all mashing together to create one truly dazzled sensation. This whole album feels timeless. It could have easily been a lost classic discovered in the archives of some defunct studio from 1976.

At 32 tracks, and two hours long, it’s a lot, and I am still getting to know this record myself, but every damn time I put it on, I feel relaxed, and I feel nostalgic for things just outside of my grasp. It’s weird, but I feel like I’m a handsome teen again, listening to a CD I got in the mail from Columbia House in 1992 that wildly exceeds my expectations.

This is Pat Flegel aka Cindy Lee’s magnum opus and swan song, their mic drop record, which originally was only available to download on Geocities or via a junky YouTube stream. After the non-stop praise, it’s finally been pressed on vinyl and available on streaming services.

If I had to pick one absolute AOTY on my list, I think it’s this one. So much to get lost in over and over. Scroll through the comments on the YouTube link and see all the praise for your self. It’s wild.

***

Helado Negro – Phasor (4AD)

Robert Carlos Lange’s Helado Negro project has been floating on a cloud since his slow-burn masterpiece This is How You Smile came out in 2019. 2021’s Far In saw him expanding his songwriting to ever groovier heights, and Phasor sees him somewhere in the middle of those two records, and the end result is an effortless listen of subtle yet addictive electronic pop.

***

Mount Kimbie – The Sunset Violent (Warp Records)

Well, I sure listened to this one a lot. Dom and Kai go shoegaze post-rock with The Sunset Violent, and it ticks off a ton of aural boxes in both of my clogged ears. Adding two new members to the group, they have now effectively become a band, and left behind the “post dubstep” sound they helped carve out 100 years ago.

Some fans are still asking for the Mount Kimbie of old, but I think this album has some fantastic songwriting, gritty guitar hooks, and great vocals, including two hot takes from King Krule.

Please tour the U.S. and Canada in 2025!

***

Four Tet – Three (Text Records)

The ever consistent Kieran Hebden, releases his 12th album under the lauded Four Tet moniker, and quietly reminds us he’s a GOAT with his quirky knack for melody, texture, and intricate rhythms on a record that plays to all of his strengths, which by now, are many and multi. Album opener, “Loved” should be enough to hook you with its classic electronic BOC drum pads and lush synth lines.

Whether he’s putting his ear to the dancefloor or way up into the blue sky, Four Tet is always pure class and always worth a listen…

***

K-LONE – Swells (Wisdom Teeth)

This is actually a 2023 release, but I didn’t start listening to it until January 2024. Doesn’t matter because Swells went on ultra-heavy rotation on my morning commutes basically until the spring thaw. So many bangers on here, as well as, really wonderful songwriting. “Love Me A Little” may be the kitchen dancefloor jam of the year.

What makes this album sing, is that K-LONE doesn’t just focus on loops to build his tracks, so they feel a bit more complex – a song can completely shift mood halfway through, but it only makes his music stronger overall.

Bottom line: Swells is an expansive record that looks to deep house, synthpop, and leftfield R&B for a winning collection of melodic electronica.

***

Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium Vol. 1 (Loma Vista)

Wow, what an effortless flex from two hip-hop legends that already had nothing left to prove. Reminds me of the post-Phife Tribe record, We Got It from Here, and how surprised and impressed I was at how goddamn good of an album it is.

Common and Pete Rock give us hip hop in its absolute purest form. Check it toute de suite.

Try this hitter: “All Kinds of Ideas”

***

VERY HONORABLE AUDIBLES (click title to sample a song)

Bullion – Affection (Ghostly International)

Think pleasant Dntel-esque poptronica with great vocals and storytelling.

***

Fields of Mist – Biospore Farmers (Ilian Tape)

Moody and melodic downtempo and deep house stunners from Ilian Tape.

***

Floating Points – Cascade (Ninja Tune)

All in 4/4 on the dancefloor for Sam Shepherd with a set of total heaters.

***

Fennesz – Mosaic (Touch)

The ambient drone master, Fennesz, returns with another excellent suite of uber-processed guitar and synth like only he can.

***

Shinichi Atobe – Discipline (DDS)

Discipline didn’t drop until December, otherwise this collection of burners from the legend would have been high up on my list.

***

Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp Records)

Another fantastic, entrancing suite of ambient jazz from the lauded Warp darling, Nala Sinephro.

***

Svaneborg Kardyb – Superkilen (Gondwana Records)

Saccahrine and groovy post-rock jazz from the Danish duo courtesy of Gondwana.

***

All right then, friends! We made it to the end! Yesssss! Miss you and love you all. Happy 2025. Be good. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Keep sifting through all the muck, and keep your ears wide open.

xoxo,

ml

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INAUDIBLE’S BEST OF 2023

January 16, 2024

Hello world! Hello universe! Another spin, another list! Better late than never, right? So let’s get down to it, shall we? Welcome to INAUDIBLE’s 14th almost annual BEST OF LIST!

TOP 14 ALBUMS OF 2023 (in stunning random order)

(click on album cover to sample a track)

Tim Hecker – No Highs (Kranky Records)

Montreal ambient drone king, Tim Hecker, released his eleventh full-length album No Highs this year on the stalwart Kranky label, and it’s an unsettling yet soothing listen. It’s a contrasting juxtaposition of sounds and swirls that immediately drew me in and had me playing it every morning for a month while writing.

I remember telling my friend Mike that it kept a low-level anxiety churning in my gut at all times while listening, but it also made me feel calm and allowed me to be super productive. Songs slowly build in mood and depth and there’s barely any release as similar motifs play throughout the duration of the album, but once you allow yourself to get lost in the greyscale ambience, it’s easy to want to stay put.

So good.

***

Laurel Halo – Atlas (Awe)

L.A. based artist, Laurel Halo, has released music on Hyperdub and Honest Jon’s, and has resisted classification over the course of five albums, yet over her last two she’s embraced a more ambient modern classical sound, and Atlas showcases her strongest music to date.

The album begins conventionally enough, with a subdued surge of strings that might not sound out of place on a Stars of the Lid record, but as the album expands, it becomes stranger — competing string passages swell and bleed into one another, deep in the murk piano chords clang like far off church bells. It feels like you’re standing outside the venue only hearing the muffle, or in a grand hall wandering about trying to find the room where the music is coming from.

In this sense, it reminds me a lot of The Caretaker’s amazing album, An empty bliss beyond this World from 2011, and I can’t think of a more glowing comparison. Atlas is definitely an album I can put on and decide to pay attention to or not. It can comfortably fade into the background or open up into so much more for the careful listener, however, there are moments such as the crescendo in “Belleville” that demands your attention or makes you pause from whatever it is you’re doing to acknowledge its beauty.

Check it.

***

Gonubie – Signals At Both Ears (Métron Records)

Born and based in Cape Town, South Africa, Gonubie is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in fine art and architecture. Known in the Cape Town dance scene as DJ raresoftware, her Gonubie project finds her taking a break from the beats and the dance floor, finding her inspiration in nature (namely the Gonubie River), and crafting a beautiful ambient record.

Like Atlas, I can also tune in or tune out to Signals At Both Ears, but the music ebbs and flows like the soft moving current of a river or stream. Working with short synth loops, melodic chimes, and samples, Gonubie’s music offers calm in a world seemingly in gross disarray. Give it a whirl.

***

Sofia Kourtesis – Madres (Ninja Tune)

Berlin-based, Peruvian producer Sofia Kourtesis showed listeners what she was capable of over the course of several EPs on the Studio Barnhus imprint, but with her debut full-length Madres on Ninja Tune it all comes into high relief.

This album has received a lot of hype and praise and I’m happy to say it’s all worth it. I hate terms like “instant classic” so I won’t use it, but Kourtesis hits the ground dancing and she doesn’t let up the whole way through. There is joy in these songs, ready for you to embrace as you close your eyes, tilt your chin skyward, and shake your big fat asssss goddammit. Shake it hard, my friends. Shake it good. No matter where you may be.

There’s lots of talk about embracing spirituality and her mother’s illness online for you to read about which adds depth to the album’s narrative, but from a strictly “house music” standpoint, this album feels timeless to me — I hear Villalobos, Akufen, Luciano, 2000’s Kompakt, Sutekh, Apparat, and early Axel Boman, just to name a juicy handful.

Kourtesis is already on the bill for Mutek Barcelona, so my fingers are triple-crossed that she also makes it to Montreal this year, because to be able to lose myself to “El Carmen” and “Habla Con Ella” on a sweaty dancefloor would be absolutely delightful.

Make it happen Mutek, s’il vous plait, ok merci!

***

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown – Scaring the Hoes (AWAL)

A Peggy and D.B. collaboration at long last! Revitalizing Danny Brown’s drugboi status and making him sound as stoned and fresh as ever.

JPEG brings a DIY-lofi-asf production style to the project that only makes it sound even cooler in my opinion. There’s a punk rock aesthetic that permeates throughout the whole album. I dare you to listen to those dirty guitars in “Garbage Pale Kids” without hard-bopping your head.

Many have complained that Danny’s voice is too quiet and mumbly in the mix but I don’t mind, you just have to work a bit harder to decipher what the fuck he’s saying (pro-tip: it’s prolly about drugs or pu$$y).

Danny’s debut XXX is still one of my favourite hip hop albums of the last 15 years, and although Scaring The Hoes now feels like an amazing outlier among his recent releases, as his Q-Tip produced album from before and his just released Quaranta don’t feel as urgent to me, Danny Brown is still one of the most unique voices in the game.

I’ve always been impressed with Peggy’s music, but also always found it hard to digest an entire album, but thankfully this one just works. Lots to enjoy and jam out to here, from more soul-based beats to spastic crunk shizzz. Check it.

***

Gigi Masin – Wind (The Bear on the Moon)

This album originally came out in 1986, so it’s definitely not a 2023 album, but it’s one that has been on steady rotation since I discovered it this summer. I’ll have to thank the algorithm for this one, because I had never heard of Gigi Masin until I clicked on “Similar Artists” while listening to an album called Light Patterns by David Horridge and Kevin McCormick (more on these guys later).

And as soon as that slow pulse synth beat begins in “Call Me”, I was enraptured. The same synth line is used in the next song “Tears of a Clown” as well, just kicked up a few bpm’s, and it’s even more enveloping.

There’s a meditative quality to this record, while some songs evoke Eno and Budd and New Age, others mix in tenor sax adding an experimental jazz touch. There’s also some definite influence on Aphex’s and BoC synths. After some research, I realized Masin is also in Gaussian Curve, which have two lauded releases out on Music From Memory. He has an enormous discography, so I’ve got loads more to discover, but his debut Wind from 1986 is an absolute quiet stunner and comes highly recommended.

***

Actress – LXXXVIII (Ninja Tune)

Darren Cunningham returns as Actress, with the beguiling LXXXVIII on Ninja Tune. Cunningham’s M.O. hasn’t changed much since Splazsh came out over a decade ago, nor does it need to — he’s still deftly using spliffed out eclectic melodies and piano tinkle melded avec uber hazy beats that skirt with the dance floor as well as your favourite spot on the couch.

Covid made a lame comeback into my entire family’s life this Christmas holiday, and while I was isolating (until we realized it was too late and I’d already spread my holiday cheer to everyone), I pretty much listened to LXXXVIII exclusively — while reading, while finishing up some very late grading, while staring out the window or napping, it was my soundtrack.

The percussion, bass, and subtle melodies are all on point, and I love how the album jumps from beat-based tracks to wide-open ambience. With song titles like “Memory Haze”, “Chill”, “Hit that Spdiff”, and “Green Blue Amnesia Magic Haze”, I think you get a solid sense of where Cunningham is trying to take his listeners. He’s playing here in Montreal at Le Ritz in February and I am ready to experience the haze. Yes!

***

Yves Tumor – Praise A Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp Records)

Over the course of their last four albums, Yves Tumor has evolved from amorphous noise experiment to full on glam rock star. Although a part of me still yearns for Safe in the Hands of Love era Yves, this is their most accomplished and fun work to date.

Mining the sound of 90’s rock radio, Prince, and MBV, Praise A Lord is ambitious in scope, but what clinches the deal is that it sounds so fantastic. The guitars sound like James Iha is playing side by side with Kevin Shields thanks to the tight as balls production by Noah Goldstein (he’s worked with everyone from Frank Ocean to Bon Iver to Rosàlia). Praise A Lord is probably my most jogged to album of the year.

This is the third time Yves Tumor has made my end of year list and seeing their live show this year was fantastic. I am interested to see which direction they will push the Yves Tumor sound next…

***

HiTech – Détwat

Well, you won’t be able to find this album on your preferred streaming service anymore, thanks to an ugly fallout with FXHE label head Omar-S. You can read about his shitty behaviour here, but suffice to say Omar went from Detroit success story to techno tastemaker to cancelled turd. Bleh.

But no worries, King Milo, Milf Melly, and 47Chops, the three rapper-producers that make up HiTech won’t have any trouble finding a new distributor for their gritty, hilarious, ghettotech party record, Détwat.

Détwat is the trio’s second full-length, and it deftly uses frenetic 808s and a grab bag of crate-deep samples to kick off the raunchiest club night since the heyday of Detroit techno. It reveals the steady evolution of the Detroit sound and showcases some of the freshest artists currently reppin’ the D.

You just have to hear it to believe it, but probably my favourite line from any song this year comes from the aptly-named “POCKETPUSSY”, in which the chorus rings: “I think I might . . . I think I might buy a Fleshlight!”

The lyrics are ratchet, grimy, and funny as f. The beats are spastic, catchy, and designed for booty shaking. This was my second most jogged to album of the year. Only up and upwards for these next-gen Detroit ghettotech heroes . . .

***

Kokoroko – Could We Be More (Brownswood Recordings)

London based, eight-piece jazz crew, Kokoroko, released their debut full-length in 2022 on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label, and I was a little bit late to the party. Glad I made it though, because this band takes me back to my formative undergrad jazz boogie heydays.

The album features Afrobeat, soul, funk, smooth jazz, and highlife all melded into one singular steady ass groove. As a bass player, man, does Kokoroko’s bass player, Duane Atherley know how to hit deep in that smooooth pocket. Not to mention: the horns are so infectious, the guitar and synths absolutely on point, the percussion masterful.

As you may have noticed, my musical tastes are varied, yet what I feel like I stopped listening to the most over the last twenty years is music that made me joyful, or simply made me feel real darn good inside. I was a massive fan of Jamiroquai in their prime, no shame. Why? Because their music made me happy, it had a fat ass groove, Jay Kay’s voice was Stevie and Michael at once, and man, could you ever dance to it.

As a moody indie rock teen, I was a wallflower and shoegazer, too cool to be seen letting my guard down and vulnerably shaking my fat ass. Jamiroquai and acid jazz and hip hop helped bridge the gap to techno and house and all things dance floor. Now, fuck it y’all, the world is my dance floor, and good lord, this old buck’s got some real nice swanging hips! Shiiiit! Watch out! And goddamn, if Kokoroko doesn’t hit that groovy wheelhouse sooo nice.

***

Sault – Untitled (Rise) (Forever Living Originals)

Seems only fitting after Kokoroko to talk about this baby banger, Sault’s 2020 release Untitled (Rise). Sault came out of nowhere in 2019 and put out so many albums in such a short period that I felt overwhelmed. Many friends rec’d one album or another, but I didn’t quite know where to start, so I didn’t bother . . . until 2023.

It was actually the new Little Simz album NO THANK YOU that made me want to check them out, since it’s produced by Inflo, defacto head of Sault. So I sort of randomly chose this album to start. It was evening in the kitchen and opening song “Strong” started and within 30 seconds, my kids Sylvia and Simon, were up and dancing around, and then so was I and Kat.

“Strong” is a truly amazing song. Propulsive bass, Quincy Jones guitars, uplifting vocals, and that marching drum breakdown and kick back into the chorus — oh myyyyy — the kids go bonkers! And ding ding ding, there it is! That joy I’m talking about. Pure simple joy for its own sake. Dancing in the kitchen with my kids while the water for pasta boils over on the stove.

Them simple pleasures are becoming the most meaningful.

And shit, that’s just the first six minutes of the album. The rest is equally just as molten hot. So many grooves and emotions packed tight. This is music for the resistance. Music that says fuck you to racism and fuck you to close-mindedness. Music to move your mind, body, and heart. This is a nod to all the great Black musicians that came before and will come after.

And shit, it’s just one of the 10 albums Sault has released in the last five years. Good heavens, this music is fire.

***

billy woods and Kenny Segal – Maps (Backwoodz Studioz)

billy woods second album collab with LA beatmaker, Kenny Segal, is a high watermark release for him, and my favourite hip hop album of the year. This is old-head shizz for sure, and it’s not an easy listen, but it sounds positively melodic compared to woods’ heavy Armand Hammer release this year with ELUCID.

Kenny Segal’s beats venture from boom-bap to piano looped jazz to dark apocalyptic. The production on “Year Zero” and “Hangman” is so grim it borders on post-fall dystopic (I just coined a new term lol). It makes the beats on El-P’s Fantastic Damage sound like K-pop.

woods’ songs rarely dole out a hook, and his rhymes are often metaphorical and super cerebral. There’s a creeping sense of paranoia throughout. He remains suspicious of many things: of gentrification, technology, our post-pandemic world, of sell-out rappers, and the true intentions of his friends, but he’s a storyteller who creates laser sharp images that ring as clear as any great poet.

On opening track, “Kenwood Speakers” woods is at a dinner party at a neighbour’s newly renovated apartment, drinking “natural wine”, eating a fancy meal with “capers” and “sprigs of thyme”. He keeps turning the music up little by little during the dinner, and whispering “mischievous lies” in the host’s ear all night. And then the song ends with the host’s fate: “I hear they found him in the morning / Hose run from the exhaust pipe.” Fuck yeah. What an opener.

On album closer, “As The Crow Flies”, the song’s last verse ends with woods wondering about mortality, as he pushes his son on the swing at the park, and fast forwards through his thoughts on the trials and worries of fatherhood, and then he anti-climactically mic drops the closing line: “I watch him grow, wondering how long I got to live” as a light and airy jazz piano tinkles softly in the background and the and the album slowly fades out to nothing . . .

Pure class. Listen to all the songs in between those two tracks and see for yourself how damn good Maps really is. Fire guests on here too: Aesop Rock, ELUCID, Quelle Chris, ShrapKnel, and Danny Brown.

***

Kevin McCormick – Sticklebacks (Smiling C Records)

Kevin McCormick put out an album with fellow Manchester musician, David Horridge, called Light Patterns in 1982. It was a quiet success at the time, but slowly disappeared into obscurity. Thanks to Smiling C Records, the album received a much needed repress in 2022 and brought these two musicians back into the light.

2023 sees Smiling C putting out never-released solo material from both McCormick and Horridge, and I enjoy both of their solo albums even more. Sticklebacks consists of a series of bedroom demos McCormick wrote in between 1984-1987, and sheds the acoustic sound of Light Patterns, instead adopting a swelling electric palette to explore different moods. These songs are a shift towards a more sparse and ambient style, and their hazy, repetitive movements create plenty of space for some subtly evocative melodies.

McCormick’s songs are gentle and evoke a feeling of peace, there’s a pastoral countryside motif that runs through his song titles – coves, lakes, mountain tops, church bells, evening drives, and feeling lonely in a crowded room are all inspirations here, as McCormick leans hard on the delay and various sub-octave pedals to make it sound like you’re listening to more than just one guy and his guitar.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to Sticklebacks and David Horridge’s A Journey Within, Wind by Gigi Masin and Surround by Hiroshi Yoshimura as a makeshift playlist while working, reading, and writing this year. The music by these artists basically create my ideal sonic mood — full ambience, a little electronic, a little guitar, deep bass, some synth and soft drone — it all hits my brain cloud jusssssst right.

***

David Horridge – Journey Within (Smiling C Records)

Like McCormick’s Sticklebacks, Journey Within, is David Horridge’s unreleased bedroom studio recordings from 1982. The album is barely a half an hour, but it packs quite an emotional punch as every second of the EP is a gem.

Horridge’s playing comes in the form of well-timed melodies and carefully placed bass lines. Nothing is forced or rushed, and each movement really sits with whatever mood he’s trying to build. The album’s greatest strength is in creating a peaceful, hypnotic vibe that allows for a completely relaxed listen. He really knows how to lay down some great bass in the mix, especially in penultimate track “Dark River”, which may be my favourite song of the year. I just love the way it makes me feel like I’m floating a few inches above myself, and each time the little bass lick comes in it pulls me back down to earth.

There’s a bunch of labels out there like Smiling C, Music From Memory, Light in the Attic, and RVNG Intl, that are exposing modern listeners to a treasure trove of forgotten classics, and for me in 2023, 1982-1987 seems to be my aural sweet spot.

So much absolutely wonderful music coming at me this year from several timelines at once. 2023 had me looking back but also ever ahead, stubbornly optimistic that 2024 — the Year of the Dragon — is going to be consistently exciting and incredibly memorable.

***

VERY HONORABLE AUDIBLES

Aesop Rock – Integrated Test Solutions (Rhymesayers)

Tinashe – BB/ANG3L (Nice Life)

Andy Shauf – Norm (Anti- Records)

Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f (Warp)

Beach Fossils – Bunny (Bayonet Records)

Kelela – Raven (Warp)

Armand Hammer – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips (Fat Possum)

Natural Wonder Beauty Concept (Mexican Summer)

Little Simz – No Thank You (Forever Living Originals)

Lusine – Long Light (Ghostly International)

Julie Byrne – The Greater Wings (Ghostly International)

Mondo Tempo – Freak Heat Waves (Mood Hut)

***

All right then! We made it to the end! Yesssss! Miss you and love you all. Happy 2024. Be good. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Keep your ears wide open.

xoxo,

ml

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Yves Tumor at MTELUS in Montreal

May 8, 2023

photo cred IG: @krug.visuals

7 May 2023

Yves Tumor brought the freak to Montreal and played to a sold out crowd at Metropolis on Sunday night (I will forever feel weird calling it MTELUS).

I had tickets to see Yves in April 2020 and was super bummed when the early days of the pandemic shut it down. Slow forward three years, two albums later, et voilà, finalement, Yves en spectacle à la belle ville!

Touring in support of their biggest album to date, Praise a Lord who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), Yves and bandmates came on stage ready to glam out and get the Sunday night party rollin’.

I started the show on the balcony, cozy on a stool, but by the third track of their set, “In Spite of War”, I ran downstairs and jostled my way through the crowd until I was close to the front. And it was perfect timing, because they played “Jackie” from The Asymptomatical World EP next, a track I love, and it seemed to be the moment when the show truly clicked for everyone on stage.

Yves has compiled one heck of a backing band to elevate their live show. Chris Greatti on lead guitar may have been the unsung star of the night, looking like 80’s era Eddie Van Halen up there, just shreddin’ with a smile. Bassist and vocalist, Gina Ramirez is Yves secret weapon, a double threat – she’s an awesome bass player, and every song she does backing vocals on is fantastic. Her voice on “Lovely Sewer” off of Praise a Lord, was a definite highlight, as was encore explosion, Kerosene! Her singing was a bit muted live, and could have been pushed up in the mix a bit overall, but I could say the same thing about Yves voice too, it was often muddled in all the distortion. But maybe that was the desired effect…

I know Yves is really trying to work the whole “rock star” thing, but I loved when they played “Noid” off of 2018’s Safe in the Hands of Love, which was the only song that displayed their more electronic and experimental side, and had Yves warbling through three different microphones all hooked up to pedals to great effect. I would have liked to hear more of that stuff too.

But they played every track off the new album that I wanted to hear, and for me the best stretch was “Meteora Blues”, “Interlude”, “Parody”, and “Heaven Surrounds Us Like a Hood” (which created a mosh pit in its end stretch). Overall, it was an absolutely fantastic live show, even if the sound was a bit wonky at times.

However, if I can make one (potentially salacious) critique: I was expecting more from Yves. I was expecting a larger than life freakshow persona, like the amorphous shapeshifter displayed on their album covers, a front person who is explosive, enigmatic, entrancing, and magnetic, but honestly in the end, I found Yves a bit wooden. Maybe it is supposed to be more high art, a strike-a-pose style vibe they are going for, but I couldn’t help thinking about their own lyrics a few times: “parody of a pop star … is this all just makeup?”

But at the end of the day, a minor complaint, I still loved the fuck out of the show, and as I’ve said numerous times on this sad blog, when an artist on Warp Records comes to town, you always know they’re going to turn it out.

Cheers!

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Nosaj Thing – Home

January 13, 2013

home

Los Angeles producer Jason Chung aka Nosaj Thing returns this year with Home, the long-awaited follow up to his critically acclaimed debut Drift. A lot has happened since Drift came out in 2009 – Chung has toured extensively, playing in every major city in North America and abroad numerous times, he’s developed an excellent visual component to his live shows, he’s done remixes for the xx, Philip Glass, Portishead, Fly Lo, Kendrick Lamar and more – and now he’s finally had some much deserved downtime returning ‘home’ to record his latest record. And while it may not soar to the sonic heights of his debut, Home is a quiet yet immediately absorbing album reminiscent of early Morr Music artists like Arovane, Christian Kleine, and Lali Puna. This gives it a timeless feel, because even though it feels very much a part of the now, it also feels like it could have come out a decade ago. We’ve reached the moment in electronic music where sounds and styles are really coming full circle, and this is evident throughout Chung’s new record.

Fans may feel a bit let down upon first listen, as it is more introspective than his debut, but once they give it a spin on headphones they’ll realize it is a superbly immersive affair that flows into a smooth cohesive whole. Chung has also brought along a couple friends this time to add some vocals – Toro y Moi guests on the slowly sizzling “Try” and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino captivates on the excellent “Eclipse/Blue”. I think the title of the album is fitting, as Chung has said it was a much more personal endeavour for him, and this is evident from the first few moments of the opening track. The beats are more subdued, the bass doesn’t wobble as much, the synths more subtle, but the overall effect is impressive in its clarity of vision.

Home is one for quiet nights, solitary walks and morning commutes, best enjoyed on headphones. It’s a slow burner of an album that has moments of real beauty and emotion, and it won this listener over real quick. Check it.

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OMAR-S (FXHE Records)

January 4, 2010

Born and raised in the Motor City, Alex Omar Smith has been releasing some of the finest techno to come out of Detroit since the demise of Drexciya in 2002.

Following in the footsteps of Detroit producers like Carl Craig, Jeff Mills, Derrick May, and Theo Parrish, Omar-S started his own label and has put out all his music, save for 2009’s Fabric Mix, on his FXHE imprint. It’s a DIY label dedicated to staying underground and keeping record prices cheap. Omar’s sound is dirty, minimal, and melodic all at once, and he mixes techno, dub, disco, and house together to fantastic effect.

Here is a snippet of his newest and just released “Here with Me” EP that I cannot get enough of. That is my kind of techno and Omar-S is one of my favourite electronic producers. If you haven’t heard him, check him out, and read an amazing and candid interview from Resident Advisor right here. Peace.

Even better: sample the whole track and read Little White Earbuds glowing review right HERE. Awesome.

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Lusine – A Certain Distance

October 18, 2009

lusine

Jeff McIlwain aka Lusine recently released his new long player “A Certain Distance” on Ghostly International. Fans of his Detroit tinged IDM have been waiting for this since “Serial Hodgepodge” came out in 2004. While McIlwain also released “Language Barrier” under his Lusine ICL moniker in 2007, it’s his beat-oriented material that his fans were itching for, rather than his more stripped down atmospherics, and he does not disappoint with “A Certain Distance”.

I am a fan of all his stuff, ambient or 4/4, and for me “A Certain Distance” seems a perfect blend of McIlwain’s musical aesthetic. An album of deep, emotional IDM which rewards a little more with each listen. Some critics seem wary to accept the album’s slightly more “pop” sensibility, wishing it was colder or more clinical, unable to embrace the addition of female vocals to a few of the tracks, but I find the cut-up and skewed vocals a welcome addition. They add a warm feel to Lusine’s clipped beats and deep synth lines. The track “Gravity” with its stuttering voice and plunging bass drops is definitely a highlight. “Crowded Room” follows and gives fans close to six minutes of sprawling Detroit techno bliss, sure to be a part of many a DJ set this year.

I think Lusine is one of electronic music’s underrated darlings, and I don’t care if “A Certain Distance” is perhaps a bit more accessible than “Serial Hodgepodge”, because I am happy to see McIlwain grow as an artist and continue to refine his sound(s). Seeing him this spring as part of Ghostly’s 10th Anniversary Bash was one of the year’s highlights for me – and even though his set was short and he played a bit too early in the night he still absolutely killed it. His music is melodic and rich and worthy of both headphones and the dance floor. “A Certain Distance” has been on constant rotation for me since its release, and no doubt will be, for months to come.

Check it and wreck it.

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Dog Day – Concentration (Outside Music 2009)

August 15, 2009

concentration

Halifax quartet Dog Day return with their follow-up to 2007’s “Night Group” avec “Concentration”. Sounding like a mix between Eric’s Trip, Interpol, and Sonic Youth, the band has crafted a consistently solid dark pop album. This is indie rock for those who forgot such a thing still existed. It sounds nothing but genuine, and it gets better and better with each listen. From opener “Happiness” to closer “Peace”, the record is full of catchy melodies, smooth synth lines, angular guitars, and really excellent vocals.

It’s starting to sound like the “rock” album of the summer for me and I love the fact that they are Canadian and consist of 2 couples from old skoool Halifax bands The Burdocks and The Hold. Truly, this album will be an underated, near-missed, top 15 of the year for me. Like I said, it gets better with every listen. A total grower. The songwriting is mature, and the interplay between vocalists is the stuff of Rick and Julie from back in the day – it also kinda reminds me of Versus, another band so very close to my heart. Find this album and play it while making dinner or reading or chilling out, and once you’ve heard it a few times, listen to it baked and hear it again for the first time. Good work…

Edit: Read a review of their live show at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.

dog day

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David Berman – The Portable February

August 11, 2009

the portable february

Silver Jews frontman David Berman has published a book of strange, crudely drawn comics entitled The Portable February. Looking as if they were scrawled on napkins and on the back of ticket stubs and on bathroom walls, these 90 or so sketches at first had me slightly befuddled, but soon had me dribbling urine down my leg in near hysterics. Is it weird? Yes. Do I understand it all? God no. But I believe their is brilliance in this slim hardcover. Like his lyrics in The Silver Jews and his book of poetry “Actual Air”, Berman seems to have a limitless supply of clever observations and off-kilter aphorisms, and “The Portable February” is no different. I have always enjoyed Berman’s music and find this collection of visual non-sequitirs an excellent addition to his body of artistic work. I’ve already decided I am going to buy a copy for all of my friends for Christmas this year. Available through Drag City Records, it’s a steal at under 10 bucks. Buy it for posterity and for your friends…

Enjoyable, irreverent, and so po-mo it ain’t po-mo no-mo, or better yet, never was in the first place.

lmao once i finally understand how weird this shit is...

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Mathieu & Deupree – Transcriptions (Spekk 2009)

August 7, 2009

mathieu/deupree

Transcriptions is a collaborative work from ambient artists Stephan Mathieu and Taylor Deupree. The album contains music that is warm, decayed, and emotive. Sounding a bit like William Basinski’s “Disintegration Loops” series, “Transcriptions” is an album for reading, sleeping, writing, and meditating. Being a big fan of the genre, this comes as a welcome addition to my growing collection of ambient electronica, and sounds like one of the most pleasant and pensive releases of the year.

My initial fascination with the album had to do with how it was recorded. Stephan Mathieu began collecting mechanical gramophones, wax-cylinders, and early 78’s from the turn of the century. Once he’d gathered enough stock material he recorded the cylinders and 78’s via two portable gramophones directly into his computer, and while doing so he rendered and digitally kissed the sweeping orchestral ambience. Next Taylor Deupree added acoustic plucks and strums and vintage synthesizer to act as a perfect counterpart to Mathieu’s wash of sound.

The overall result is an enveloping 48 minute melodic surge that can only be described as gorgeous.

transcriptions gear

Check it.

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