Things I Forgot to Hear

FKA Twigz, LP1

Young Turks

Pop/R&B/electronic

Works with Arca! And is super pretty!!

Perfume Genius, Too Bright

Matador

Indie/chamber pop/other stuff

Only listened to that song “Grid” which reminded me a bunch of Suicide. But, if nothing else, I'm a boy who likes his things that sound like Suicide.

Andy Stott, Faith in Strangers

Modern Love

Electronic/post-dubstep/drone

Andy Stott never puts his stuff on Spotify and I can never find it available for full streaming. So it goes.

Big KRIT, Cadillactica

Def Jam

Hip-hop/Mississippi rap

Mica Levi, Under the Skin OST

Rough Trade

Drone/film score

Legit so bad at getting around to watching movies. And TV shows.

Swans, To Be Kind

Mute

Former no-wave/experimental/post-punk

Wye Oak, Shriek

Merge

Indie/electronic pop

Briefly listened to this but can't help feel that it would benefit greatly from being an album made up entirely of different versions of “Civilian”.

18+, Trust

Houndstooth

Experimental R&B/experimental hip-hop

Tiny Mix Tapes likes to dick ride the fuck out of these guys but I haven't given them an earnest listen to yet. Soon, though! Maybe!

Electric Wizard, Time to Die

Spinefarm

Doom metal

First new album in four years.

Parquet Courts, Sunbathing Animal

What's Your Rupture?

Indie/garage rock

Parquet Courts, Content Nausea

What's Your Rupture?

See above

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Honorable Mentions

Actress, Ghettoville

Werkdiscs

Minimalist techno/glitch

The Body, I Shall Die Here

Thrill Jockey

Sludge/heavy as fuck/hell sounds

Chief Keef, Back from the Dead 2

Self-Released

Hip-hop/Chiraq/drill

French Montana, Coke Boys 4

Self-released

Hip-hop/don't go ovah there/rap illuminati

Full of Hell/Merzbow, Split

Profound Lore

Noise/hardcore/heavy as fuck

Isaiah Rashad, Cilvia Demo

LISTEN

Top Dawg

Hip-hop/modern classic rap

James Ferraro, SUKI GIRLZ

Self-released

Electronic/experimental/vague rap vibes

Marissa Nadler, July

LISTEN

Sacred Bones

Indie-folk/singer-songwriter/beautiful

Migos, Rich Nigga Timeline

LISTEN

Self-released

Hip-hop/Atlanta/fuckin' around

Neil Young, A Letter Home

LISTEN

Third Man

Folk rock/singer-songwriter/Neil Young

Nux Vomica, Nux Vomica

Relapse

Crust punk/metal/thrash

Pig Destroyer, Mass and Volume

Relapse

Sludge metal/demonic/heavy as fuck

Sicko Mobb, Super Saiyan, Vol. 1

Self-released

Hip-hop/Chicago bop/really bad album art

Susanna/Jenny Hval, Meshes of Voice

LISTEN

SusannaSonata

Music concrete/chamber pop/noise art

Swetshop Boys, Swet Shop EP

LISTEN

Greedhead

Hip-hop/Heems/bhangra

Weezer, Everything Will Be Alright in the End

LISTEN

Earnest dad rock/Weezer as opiate of the masses/can't stop won't stop

White Noise app on my iPhone

No label

Pink noise/ASMR


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Pharmakon, Bestial Burden

LISTEN

Sacred Bones

Industrial/noise/destruction

Margaret Chardiet described the anchor of Bestial Burden as a “desire to show the body as a lump of flesh and cells that mutate and fail you and betray you—this very banal, unimportant, grotesque aspect of ourselves.” I can def relate because organs are weird as fuck. Thinking a lot about them and it's unsettlingly fascinating how full of things we are, how guts and lumps of pulsing flesh keep us alive and so much could go wrong that doesn't and weird and wow and ew. I used two Pharmakon songs spliced together for a video project last year.

Popcaan, Where We Come From

LISTEN

LISTEN

Mixpak

Dancehall/reggae/vibe out

I listened to a lot of dancehall this year. Actually, that's a lie. I listened to Apache Indian, various really bad “dancehall” Christmas songs, and then this album. Can you guess which one I liked the most? Jamaica is supposed to be beautiful but it's also tragic as all hell.

Protomartyr, Under Color of Official Right

LISTEN

Hardly Art

Indie/post-punk

I think a strangely large amount about Detroit. The quintessential post-industrial failure. A lotta people who are way too into rock n'roll come out of Detroit, but Protomartyr isn't one. Sorta remind me of Interpol but I like them a lot more. Also really dig the album art.

Rich Gang, Tha Tour

LISTEN

LISTEN

Cash Money

Hip-hop/da club/$$$

I've been all about Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan these days. Well, maybe not all about. But I like them. Birdman (not the movie) is someone I forgot about but here he is in Rich Gang rapping about being rich and what have you. Anyway, you've seen a huge trend in the last few years toward melancholy/sad/man look how far I've come/melodramatic rap music lately. Usually this shit was reserved for one or two tracks on a Tupac album or whatever. everyone wanted to project the image that they were "hard" but harbored a TORTURED SOUL or some shit. I think people are more inclined toward dramatic TORTURED SOUL shit than anyone wants to admit. We want people to think beneath whatever surface there is a TORTURED SOUL YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND even if we know we might be less tortured than we think. Anyway, more rap music is fucking with this sort of feeling/sound, and its interesting. The rise of the mixtape has facilitated the rise of honesty/genuineness/strangeness the likes of which a lot of people have. People aren't afraid to take risks and look ridiculous and be skewered by YouTube commenters type folk. Fucking with autotune, singing off-key, rapping with ridiculous sounding voices (real or otherwise). Less concerned with what's cool and safe in the hip hop world. bBazing their own path even if people just want more things that sound like Big KRIT (disclaimer: I love Big KRIT).

Self Defense Family, Try Me

LISTEN

Deathwish

Post-hardcore/spoken word/suburbia

I met a girl on Tinder who took the photo for an early Self-Defense Family release so that is neat. Patrick Kindlon is almost a terrible person but is actually not. His voice always reminds me of early Hold Steady or Lifter Puller. The second thing out of Upstate NY that stole my attention in 2014. SDF prolific as fuck and apparently put on a hella good live show.

Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

LISTEN

LISTEN

High Top Mountain

Country/hallucinatory drugs/aliens

I've been waiting for something like this for longer than I ever thought. A perfect combo of earnest country songwriting and an infatuation with sci-fi and the theosophical. It's surprisingly difficult to find good country, but you can do it if you try!

Sunn 0)) & Ulver, Terrestrials / Sunn 0)) & Scott Walker, Soused

LISTEN

LISTEN

Southern Lord

Drone/ambient/Scott Walker

Sunn 0))) have been fucking killin' it this year. Two collaborations with one of my favorite black metal acts and another with my all-time-favorite normal-60s-guy-turned-fucked-up-weird-songwriter-guy Scott Walker. Drone is such a magnificent genre, IMO. Scott Walker never gets the respect he deserves for how far he's come.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Sea When Absent

LISTEN

Lefse

Dream pop/ambient

A Sunny Day in Glasgow has been one of my go-to bands for spacing the fuck out since high school. Always excited whenever they drop new shit. Sorta borders between reverb-soaked dream-pop and ambient oceanic soundscape. Sea When Absent is a lot more lively than some of their early stuff, a lot more melodic and poppy. I dig it.

White Lung, Deep Fantasy

LISTEN

LISTEN

Domino

Punk/hardcore

White Lung is fun for the whole family, maybe. At least fun for a lot of your friends. Like with Perfect Pussy, I was hella anticipative of this album. It did not disappoint. Maybe I should break up with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and date Mish Way instead??

Yung Lean, Unknown Memory

LISTEN

Sky Team

Hip-hop/cloud rap/Sad Boys

Kool AD called Yung Lean “fake #BASED” which is actually a pretty apt description. People like to give Yung Lean and Sad Boys shit, but not me. They legit as fuck, IMO. Stockholm is a pretty weird place. If Swedish rap music didn't sound like Yung Lean it would sound very bad. The whole Sad Boys posse is actually great. Production work blows my mind.

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Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Pika Pika Fantajin

LISTEN

Warner Music Japan

J-pop/kawaii

Me and Kyrary Pamyu Pamyu are dating.

Lawrence English, Wilderness of Mirrors

LISTEN

Room 40

Power ambient/Arctic void

Fact ran a piece a bit ago about how “power ambient” was the sound of 2014. I'm inclined to believe them because they spend less time than me playing Solitaire and eating hotdogs. Lawrence English is actually kinda prolific and I've been pretty enamored by his music as of late.

Lil Herb, Welcome to Fazoland

LISTEN

Self-released

Hip-hop/Chiraq/drill music

My first fav release of 2014 and objectively the best rap mixtape of 2014. Lil Herb is the latest in a long line of people younger than me doing more than I ever will in my entire life. What doth Chicago.

Magic Fades, Push Thru / Magic Fades & Soul Ipsum, Zirconia Reign

LISTEN

LISTEN

1080p

Electronic/the internet/glowsticks

The backbeats of Push Thru remind me of a cross between new age music, top-40 R&B, and PS1-one era RPGs. I think “Ecco” my fav track but “Draped Mesh” is very pretty. Zirconia Reign is on it's own level and when people ask “what kind of music do you like” I want to pull up a link to this album.

Mourn, Mourn

LISTEN

Captured Tracks

Indie/sorta punk/youth

My second favoritething from Catalonia I've messed around with this year. The lead singer has a very pretty voice, and apparently these kids are teenagers. So that's neat.

nmesh, Dream Sequins / nmesh, Welcome to Warp Zone!

LISTEN

LISTEN

AMDISCS

Vaporwave/8-bit/post-capitalism

Maybe the last burst of vaporwave or a semblance of it. I don't know shit about nmesh, but I like his music. Welcome to Warp Zone is a custom mix made for Tiny Mix Tapes and I love it. It's literally so fucking fun and also funny! Kinda nostalgic too, all dat retro game music.

Officer!, Dead Unique

LISTEN

Blackest Ever Black

Post-punk/twee/lazy psychedelica

Recorded in 1995 but released in 2014, this album is by some guy affiliated with Half Japanese, apparently. It sounds kinda like a post-punk Syd Barrett, if you think about it.

Olga Bell, Krai

LISTEN

New Amsterdam

World/Russian steppes

Lately, my days have revolved a decent amount around Russian affairs. The shit about the collapsing Russian ruble has made people buy high-end technology and appliances like big screen TVs, etc. because these things are guaranteed to have more value than their currency-based savings. Also, been tryna to test my Putin-is-a-regular-ass-dude theory. The guy wouldn't have huge approval ratings if he wasn't somehow charming or relatable. Something tells me a vast majority of the Russian public isn't inherently nationalist and geopolitically aggressive. But tryna to find interviews with Putin so I can feel a vibe off the guy is hard because ALL THE INTERVIEWS HAVE ASSHOLES TRANSLATING OVER WHAT IS HE SAYING. Why would I want that?? Subtitles!! C'mon! Anyhow, the one video I did find was of him waxing nostalgically about his baptism and it is actually pretty human, likeable, etc. etc. Also Olga Bell is good but is technically from Brooklyn. Still, this album kills.

Pallbearer, Foundations of Burden

LISTEN

Profound Lore

Doom metal

DOOM DOOM DOOM. I'm sold by just about anything that can be described as “doom” or “sludge” or “stoner metal” or “so fucking heavy.” I don't think Keefshovel is a thing anymore, which bums me the fuck out. But these guys: what guys! Brett Campbell is described as a young Ozzy Osborne a lot, which is pretty true in a lot of ways. A bit of the guy from Rush, too. This shit's aurally massive.

Perfect Pussy, Say Yes to Love

LISTEN

Captured Tracks

Sorta indie/sorta hardcore

One of two things from Upstate NY that stole my attention this year. I bought their cassette last year and it was rad. I waited for their proper debut with bated breath and it was very much worth it. Still vaguely strikes me as a sped-up Japandroids with hardcore sensibilities and personalized lyrics. Meredith Graves apparently wants to be a florist, which is a very honorable profession.

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