Pharmakon, Bestial Burden
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
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
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
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
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
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!
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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
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
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
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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