December 7, 2021 by A.S. Van Dorston

This time last year there was cautious hope. We were getting rid of a garbage President, and vaccinations had begun. There was hope that the pandemic could be over by Spring, at least in many countries. Many of the poorer countries would continue to suffer deaths, and they got to watch a bunch of entitled asshole American anti-vaxxers refuse the vaccines. The stupidity hurts my soul. So here we are, 5,267,503 total deaths worldwide and counting, and as of late November, more deaths in 2021 than the year before. So as much as I’d like to say “we” survived another year, many didn’t.

It’s appropriate that the album of the year, Motorpsycho’s Kingdom of Oblivion, is a vision of a post-humanity earth. Clearly, we are too dumb, selfish and greedy to avoid an extinction event, so now the only question is when it will happen, not if. It’s unusual for the same band to have the album of the year two years in a row, but that’s just how it worked out, at least here at Rancho Bulboso. A fair number of metal albums certainly addressed this theme with convincing urgency, but this is what I preferred to listen to the most.

Genre

Psych prog may not be a genre tag that is recognized widely, but more artists than ever are exploring that territory that first flourished in 1968-72, when psychedelic bands began to reach for greater heights. This year, I’ve noted 62 albums that fit that descriptor, and some of the artists even self-identify with that tag in their Bandcamp pages and Spotify bios, including some names that have crossed over slightly into the mainstream, Howlin Rain and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Prog pop has crossed over with even more popular artists, like The Anchoress, Laura Meade, Field Music, Spellling and St. Vincent. That provides a little solace in the face of the pretty sad Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2021 inductees, where arguably the Go-Go’s and the Foo Fighters were the only actual rock and rollers inducted. But man, the Foo Fighters? Come on. I like Dave Grohl as, like a dude, and more so, as a drummer. But his band are, perhaps not completely awful, but definitely utterly unexceptional, with maybe three, four at the most decent songs. Consider this: Devo, Kate Bush, Iron Maiden, Fela Kuti, New York Dolls, Judas Priest, Motorhead, MC5 and Thin Lizzy were all nominees who were passed over the past couple years. But the Foos got in. Fucking hell. Grohl, who seems to appear in every single music documentary of the past decade as a talking head, should have refused the induction until at least a couple of those bands got inducted first. It seems R&R HOF is trying to kill rock dead. Let’s not let ’em, okay?

Comeback

Nicholas Tremulis has been active in the Chicago music scene since the early 80’s. He released several albums between 1985 and 2008, then came out with Rarified World, the amazingly ambitious album of art rock, jazz funk and chamber pop as Nicholas Tremulis & The Prodigals.

Debut

Debut of the year is Brooklyn post-punk band Groupie. Their full-length Ephemeral is a giant leap from their punkier Validated EP (2018). It seems the critical consensus machine can handle only one feminist post-punk band at a time, this year it’s Dry Cleaning. They’re great, but I think many who voted for their album would be very impressed by Groupie’s subtle layers of complexity.

Also near the Lucky 13, Melbourne garage punkers Civic with Future Forecast. They have roots in the dirty three of garage punk — Radio Birdman, The Saints and Scientists, but inject enough fresh noise to indicate they could make as much impact as Royal Headache and Tropical Fuck Storm. The Narcotix is also an exciting newcomer. I can’t wait for their full-length album.

Memoriam

As I get older, more and more of my musical heroes pass every year, some getting uncomfortably close to my age. Pat Fish was just 63 when he died October 5. He was the main man, along with Max Eider, in cult jangle pop legends The Jazz Butcher, who were always the cooler, snarkier underground band that made The Smiths and R.E.M. seem pompous in comparison. He’ll be missed, and his work has been lovingly collected in three box sets by Fire Archive.

May they also rock in excelsis DIO and rest in pieces: Charlie Watts, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bunny Wailer, Sylvian Sylvain, Lloyd Price, Chuck E. Weiss, Pee Wee Ellis, Biz Markie, Shock G, MF Doom, Chick Corea, Leslie West, Dusty Hill, Tim Bogert, and many more.

Underrated

The best way to choose this is to think of the artist who seems to have the most mainstream appeal, but doesn’t have mainstream fame and sales. I’m going to go with The Vintage Caravan. Their album Monuments came out the same day as Greta Van Fleet’s sophomore album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate. The Icelandic band have plenty in common with GVF, having started as precocious teenagers, and covering similar hard rock styles. Except they are way, way better. Part of the problem of course is they have not properly toured North America at all. But also, they didn’t benefit from being promoted by Elton John, Jimmy Fallon, and appearing on Saturday Night Live. With proper management and promotion, I don’t see why they also shouldn’t fill stadiums with kids, boomer couples and over 50% women singing along, as I witnessed this summer with GVF, all the time wishing I was seeing The Vintage Caravan.

I gave up on the overrated category years ago, because, well, there’s too much to list, but no one really cares what I think is overrated. I also try exercises to remove myself from my own experience, prejudices, etc and try listening to things like, say, Doja Cat from the perspective of fans. While I’m not going to start writing gushing reviews for that type of music anytime soon, it has it’s place. It’s just hard to see, after glimpsing how vast the amount of great music out there is, the miniscule handful of artists who are richly awarded for it via sales, mega tours and crap award shows like the Grammys.

Disappointment

I have to say the biggest disappointment is having favorite bands like Wolf People, SubRosa and Peluché break up (keep an ear out for It Was All A Dream), and other favorites like Syd Arthur, Dungen, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blood Ceremony and others remain dormant going on over 5 years now. The one pandemic-related delay that really drove me nuts is 2019 album of the year winner Rosalie Cunningham (formerly from Purson) who’s second album Two Piece Puzzle was originally meant to come out in 2020 — she had most of the songs written before her solo debut was even released. She’s so prolific I expected she’d have had her third album out by now. At least it finally has a release date of February 25, so that’s something to look forward to.

Anyone else, who’s albums I didn’t totally love like Dinosaur Jr., Ty Segall, Scientists, The Chills, Teenage Fanclub, well, at least they’re releasing new music, and each offering has at least some great material. While they made my top 100, I did hope Snail, Mastodon and even Gojira could have come out with all-time best efforts, even if they were still pretty excellent. That’s just being greedy I suppose. Probably the biggest fall was Bent Knee, who were on quite a roll, each of their first five albums significantly better than the last, peaking at #5 in my 2019 list with You Know What They Mean (InsideOut). With their sixth album, they took a sharp turn from the brilliant mix of art rock, prog and experimental noise into, ugh, synthpop. Like we need more of that. Yes, there’s good synthpop being made, but the last thing we need is another brilliantly creative band shoehorning themselves into that fashionable, restrictive niche. Yes, they do apply some noisy experimentation to some of the electronic sounds, but the results are patchy.

Okay, I keep thinking of ways I’m disappointed. I don’t want to seem entitled. We all definitely have been provided more great music than we probably deserve. But there are albums by older artists that I mostly just didn’t get. Meaning, publications like Classic Rock, MOJO and Uncut seems to like ’em, and these artists all put out music I loved sometime in the past 20-55 years. But I just can’t click with ’em, whether I should or not — The Darkness, David Crosby, Paul Weller, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Styx, Lindsey Buckingham. One exception is Manic Street Preachers. I have never liked a single note they’ve ever produced, and I have no regrets about that.

Surprise

The Coral have been a consistently solid band, but they arguably never lived up to the promise of their 2002 debut until this year, with the amazing Coral Island, that circles back to both their sea shanty roots, but also early psych concept albums by The Small Faces and The Pretty Things.

Peter Jackson’s six hour long Beatles Get Back documentary on Disney. Yes, it’s a slog in parts, but it looks freaking amazing as if we’re in the room with them, and the sweet (Ringo adoringly watching Paul as he plays piano and pulls songs out of his ass) and magical (the band arranging “Let It Be”) moments are worth it.

Chillax and Absorb

As the Hormone Monstress would say, time for an aural “bubble bath” and heal from the horrors of the past year, and listen to one of the only positive things to come from humanity along with the other arts — music.

Fester’s Lucky 13 – The Best Albums of 2021

1. Motorpsycho – Kingdom of Oblivion (Rune Grammafon/Stickman)

Last year I said The All Is One, the final album in the Gullvåg trilogy, their sixth double album, was possibly their best. Then again, maybe Kingdom of Oblivion another double album, is even better. It’s hard to say, they’re all great, and Motorpsycho are on a steamroll. | Full Review | Buy

2. Goat Girl – On All Fours (Rough Trade)

On first listen I missed the rough hewn garage noir of Goat Girl’s debut. I quickly got over it, and while the album doesn’t dance on the table and slap you across the face with it’s greatness, it’s remained at the top of my playlists all year long. It rewards repeated listends, with the Stereolab influences brewing under the surface, and the wobbly toy instrument textures of Stereolab’s Too Pure labelmates Pram and Laika. The languidly expansive performances brush past trip hop and tap into evocatively rich sonic vibes shared more recently by the likes of Groupie, Fassine, Patio, Body Type, Warpaint and Peluché, who described their approach as trip jam. It works for them, as it clearly sounds like the band had spent time playing together in a room, letting the groove take them for a ride. Ellie Rose Davis’ deadpan vocals have grown more nuanced to match the more diverse, gently psychedelic music. The prickly lyrics continue to delve in personal politics and conflicts, but also hint at simmering passion. The fact that Davis would be driven to complete an album while also battling Hodgkin lymphoma underlines her drive. With that spirit, I’m confident she and Goat Girl will be around for a long time. | Bandcamp

3. Mere Women – Romantic Notions (Poison City)

Exactly a decade after releasing their debut single “Sun Rising / Waves” (2011), Sydney, Austrialian post-punkers Mere Women have come out with their fourth and best album. Lead by singer/keyboardist Amy Wilson and guitarist Flyn Mckinnirey, the band’s rough, discordant sound compared favorably to the punk noir of the likes of The Drones/Tropical Fuck Storm and Bambara with trace evidence of Flyn’s goth upbringing. They have gradually expanded their reach to include Kate Bush, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and even some doom and post-rock into the mix. By their third album, Big Skies (2017), they made clear their ambitions, to “actively break barriers and predictable, unimaginative musical structures that reinforce the status quo of male dominated popular music.”

Romantic Notions sees them realize those ambitions more successfully than ever. Inspired by stories from her grandmother about the complicated relationship of her great-grandparents, Wilson examines the dark side of relationship power dynamics. While the band maintains some of their raucous cacophony in the title track and “Time Stands Still” (before it settles into post-rock atmospherics), the band most often locks into a lugubrious groove, such as on the mournful “W.Y.G.” and the haunting “Charms.” “Someone Loves You” starts with a vibraphone that could easily have turned into a big sounding 80s production along the lines of Peter Gabriel or Tears For Fears. If there was an urge to go over the top, it was reigned in, and the poppy hook was merely an accent for another slow, moody burner that is all the more emotionally powerful for it.

Those who have lamented that Savages haven’t released an album since 2016 can take heart in the fact that several other young artists have picked up where they left off, and in the case of Mere Women, arguably surpassed them. | Bandcamp

4. Groupie – Ephemeral (Groupie)

Brooklyn’s Groupie, lead by Ashley Kossakowski and Johanna Healy, are similarly introspective as Goat Girl, with some shared influences, and a restless creativity. Their brand of post-punk taps more into surf and dream pop with fluid mid-period Raincoats groove and dubby Bovell-produced Slits bass tones. The propulsive bass really drives tunes like “Poor You,” which ends up with some of the album’s shoutiest punk moments most in line with their Validated EP (2018). The staccato guitar riff in “Critic’s Eye” reminds me of The Rakes’ “Open Book” in a good way. “Daleko” is sung in Polish, while “Lonely Dog” and “No Hands” suggests some of the best quiet-loud dynamics of The Breeders. The most exciting debut of the year so far. | Bandcamp

5. TOWER – Shock to the System (Cruz del Sur)

Not since Christian Mistress’ Agony & Opium EP (2010) have I been so excited about a new metal band. It took a couple tries to click — TOWER’s 2016 debut and Tomorrow & Yesterday EP (2019) were solid, but the muddy production obscured Sarabeth Linden’s powerhouse vocals behind a haze. Their second full-length is much better, burning through the haze with a sharper sound while still retaining their NYC style dirty ass R&R grime. Like Christine Davis from (the sadly defunct) Christian Mistress, Linden has a rough and raspy voice, but with enough Satanic juice to light the grids of all five boroughs, and raise an army of dead on the side. A shock to the system indeed. While they’re not rewriting the book of metal, the songs and quality of riffs (courtesy of twin guitars of James Danzo and Zak Penley) immediately put this band on top of the heavy metal heap over the likes of Pounder, Wytch Hazel, Castle, even the mighty Haunt. It’s not all pedal to the metal, as the band gives enticing hints at the range they’re capable of, such as the delicate AOR guitar intro to “Lay Down the Law” which indicates they could do a killer power ballad if they want to. This is not the case here, as the song quickly explodes into full gallop, closing out with a couple tasty guitar solos. The longest track at 6:57, “In Dreams,” shows the band is capable of multiple parts, complexity, and a pretty original, unique arrangement. You’d think such a simple, strong bandname as TOWER would already have been taken. It has, by three other bands. But none with the confident authority as this band. Well done. | Bandcamp

6. Smoke Bellow – Open For Business (Trouble In Mind)

Baltimore’s Smoke Bellow took a long road to their debut, moving to Melbourne in 2017 and writing Isolation 3000 (2018), an alluring mix of pastoral Kosmische (Popol Vuh/Cluster), West African guitar and post-punk. After returning to Baltimore, they shortened the tracks and expanded their palate even more, including Talking Heads’ Remain in Light, ESG, The Raincoats, underrated Afro-pop Return of the Giant Slits (1981), Too Pure-era Stereolab and Pram. While they many not be familiar with Peluché, something is in the air lately, as they fit nicely into that band’s off-the-cuff “trip jam.” Every track has a unique sonic signature, but the album holds together with it’s sublimely celestial groove. | Bandcamp

7. Spidergawd – VI (Crispin Glover/Stickman)

It seems the wagons have been circling for years, trying to isolate and starve out satisfying, driving hard rock. There’s a healthy underground network of blogs and sites that focus on sub-genres like stoner/doom/psych/prog, and all the kinds of extreme metal. But a band like Norway’s Spidergawd can get overlooked. They may sometimes get a nod from the psych/prog fans having previously shared a member with Motorpsycho, but they’re not mainstream enough to get on the radar of some of the middle-aged rock fans, or the odd Swedish AOR scene, which saw a surge of recent releases by W.E.T., Eclipse, Crazy Lixx, Nestor, Cruzh and Seventh Crystal. They’re missing out — Spidergawd are the cream of this year’s crop of top quality hard rock that is not overproduced like so many are, including The Vintage Caravan, Dunbarrow, Lucifer and Khirki, and haven’t written a dud song on any of their six albums. | Buy

8. Sitka Sun – All The Way West (The Long Road Society)

Patrick Murphy’s self-titled debut with Sitka Sun (2018) really got under my skin, to the point where it made three of my 2010s genre lists (Jam, Jazz & Fusion, and Global). Sitka Sun is a great name, based on a spruce tree used for many instruments, but a bitch to search, given the top results are a brand of sun hats! While the debut was recorded with musicians from the Ithaca, New York Afrobeat band Big Mean Sound Machine, Murphy has been based in Oakland and is working with a new group, focusing on more straight jazz, including some expansive Mingus flavored work that flirts with experimental big band territory. There’s still plenty of enticing elements of cosmic psych with analog synth flourishes, electric Miles voodoo fusion and even pedal steel. RIYL Khruangbin, The Heliocentrics, Greg Foat, Here Lies Man, or if you get bored with this year’s consensus jazz fusion pick, Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra. | Bandcamp

9. Lucid Sins – Cursed! (Totem Cat)

There’s no shortage of progressive psych bands that mess with occult rock, but every now and then one bubbles to the top of the cauldron and I take notice. Rooted in the likes of Deep Purple, Wishbone Ash and Blue Oyster Cult, Glasgow, Scotland’s Lucid Sins self-released their debut Occultation in 2014. The seven years spent on its follow-up were well spent, as the riffs and melodies evoke early Witchcraft, but with more meticulous arrangements and studio know-how, not to mention more nimble musicianship, including some jazz chops. Organs and strings flesh out the atmospheric tunes, creating a darkly moody, but also beautiful sound matching up perfectly with the cover art by early 20th century illustrator Alan Odle. | Bandcamp

10. Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows – The Magnetic Ridge (Suspect/Pirates Press)

Bendigo, Australia’s Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows‘ second full length album turns up on the volume and noise from their garage blues punk noir of Hymns (Suspect/Pirate Press, 2018), making them sound more like the noise rock of Lubricated Goat than the Scientists. They maintain an element of slow and low desert psych, but the menacing guns, peyote and decomposing bodies lurch now leans toward sludge metal and stoner doom, something there’s no shortage of. | Bandcamp

11. Nightshift – Zöe (Trouble In Mind)

Glasgow’s, Nightshift are on creative overdrive. While some bands take several years to develop, Nightshift has released their second album only five months after their self-titled debut from September. That album has gotten plenty of turns on my playlist thanks to the fat, wobbly bass that comes in at 2:15 on “Flat Earther,” a great way to test the low end of various headphones. Zöe sees the band quickly evolving from clattering post-punk to something more complex and ethereal. It was recorded remotely during quarantine, assembling parts piecemeal. While the patchwork collage style is there, which brings to mind some of the quirky toy instrument experiments of Pram, there’s also a sinewy cohesiveness that reveals an affinity for Can-like jams, and more lush elements of trip jam. The longest track, “Power Cut” threatens to float away like an untethered helium balloon. The wide-ranging creative approaches to sound on each of the tracks reminds me of the giddy time in the early 90s when Pram’s Too Pure labelmates like Moonshake, Stereolab, Th’ Faith Healers and Laika shared a common exploratory spirit rooted in psychedelic post-punk and kosmische. I look forward to hearing what Nightshift comes up with next, possibly in under eight to ten months. | Bandcamp

12. Glass Hammer – Skallagrim – Into The Breach (Glass Hammer)

Many may have heard of Glass Hammer as the band that vocalist Jon Davison came from before he joined Yes in 2012. The Chattanooga, TN band have been releasing symphonic prog albums since 1993, but they arguably leveled up creatively during the pandemic with their 20th album, Dreaming City (2020), and the addition of vocalist Hannah Pryor. Skallagrim: Into the Breach is their second installment of a trilogy where the titular character has lost his girl and his memory, found a sword, and goes to war. To match the story, the band has introduced a fatter, fuzzier sound inspired more along the lines of stoner doom than their usual lush progressive sounds. The middle of the album adds more variety of three adventurous instrumental tracks that range from jazz fusion to menacing horror soundtrack along the lines of Italian band Goblin. The longest track, “Hyperborea,” is an epic tribute to early Rush. Co-founder Steve Babb also wrote a 400 page sword & sorcery novel that fleshes out this storyline. Skallagrim – In The Vales Of Pagarna will be released early next year. | Bandcamp

13. Khemmis – Deceiver (Nuclear Blast)

When Black Sabbath topped the album charts for the first and only time with 13, it was fun to think about the possibility of doom metal crossing over into mainstream pop. It’s pretty unlikely, but stranger things have happened. A lot of pop artists attempt to tackle dark subject matter, whether it be tragic death, depression, or a divorce, and struggle to communicate the weight with their inherently easily digestible music. Case in point, last week Adele released her fourth album, 30. It showed her getting even better as a singer, but she seemed to be unsatisfied with her music achieving sufficient emotional impact, because she supplemented it with these casual spoken word snippets to help express what she’s feeling. I consider that cheating. Adele is a musician, and if she wants to write a memoir, she should feel free, but on her album, if she can’t fully express herself with her music, then she’s failing. But imagine if she collaborated with a doom band like Pallbearer, 40 Watt Sun or Electric Wizard? That could be, well, awkward, or friggin’ amazeballs.

Released the same day as Adele’s 30, Khemmis also released their fourth album with Deceiver. And like Adele, they reckon with heavy life events and the accompanying dark emotions, but with more majestic riffs. Loosely grouped with a new wave of American doom bands like Pallbearer, Magic Circle and Spirit Adrift, Khemmis were recognized as taking a fresh approach to the genre by blending elements of traditional and epic metal, sludge and blackened death metal. Fans often consider second album Hunted (2016) as their apex, and I think that’s still the case. That doesn’t mean the band hasn’t stopped evolving and improving in certain respects. Their twin guitar showcases are on point, and the vocal melodies and harmonies are stickier than ever. I’m not really a fan of Ben Hutcherson’s harsh screams, but much like peak early 00’s era Opeth, it’s a necessary evil that does provide useful variety and contrast. Overall Deceiver is a successful, satisfying album. But if they want to try something new in the future, Phil Pendergrast could always try harmonizing with another guest vocalist. Maybe they should give Adele a call… | Bandcamp

Spotify Mix

Apple Music Mix
All y’all are a PIA, fucking with inferior streaming services. The monopoly Apple has tried, and failed, to put on file formats 20 years ago now has infected streaming. I hate to encourage it, but here’s a damn playlist, though it will expire when I cancel my free trial next month. Just do Spotify, at least keep a free account! I used to only pay for ad-free during my year-end excavations, but now it’s on year round, though I still buy faves on Bandcamp.

Favorite Albums of 2021

Motorpsycho – Kingdom Of Oblivion (Rune Grammofon/Stickman, 2021) | Norway | Buy
Goat Girl – On All Fours (Rough Trade, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Mere Women – Romantic Notions (Poison City, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Groupie – Ephemeral (Groupie, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Ducks Ltd. – Modern Fiction (Carpark, 2021) | Canada | Bandcamp
TOWER – Shock to the System (Cruz Del Sur, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Smoke Bellow – Open For Business (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Ist Ist – The Art of Lying (Kind Violence, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Spidergawd – VI (Crispin Glover, 2021) | Norway | Buy
Sitka Sun – All The Way West (The Long Road Society, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Lucifer – Lucifer IV (Century Media, 2021) | Sweden | Buy
Lucid Sins – Cursed! (Totem Cat, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows – The Magnetic Ridge (Suspect/Pirates Press, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Nightshift – Zöe (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Weedpecker – IV: The Stream Of Forgotten Thoughts (Stickman, 2021) | Poland | Bandcamp
Glass Hammer – Skallagrim – Into The Breach (Glass Hammer, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – Acheron (Stickman, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Khemmis – Deceiver (Nuclear Blast, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Civic – Future Forecast (Flightless, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (Parlophone, 2021) | UK | Buy
Low – HEY WHAT (Sub Pop, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
The Jazz Butcher – Dr Cholmondley Repents: A-sides, B-Sides and Seasides (Fire, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Spectres – Hindsight (Artoffact, 2021) | Canada | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – The Burden Of Restlessness (Stickman, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
The Narcotix – Mommy Issues EP (Narcotix, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
The Coral – Coral Island (Run On/Modern Sky, 2021) | UK | Buy
Mod Con – Modern Condition (Poison City, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Illudium – Ash of the Womb (Prophecy Productions, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Novelty Island – How Are You Coping With This Century? (Think Like A Key, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Rosali – No Medium (Spinster, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Parcels – Day/Night (Because Music, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Rachel Flowers – Bigger On The Inside (Rachel Flowers Music, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Jess And The Ancient Ones – Vertigo (Svart, 2021) | Finland | Bandcamp
Laura Meade – The Most Dangerous Woman In America (Doone, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Night Battles – Year Of No Days (Snappy Little Numbers, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Triptides – Alter Echoes (Alive Naturalsound, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Bhopal’s Flowers – Alstromeria: A Journey On Earth & Beyond (Bhopal’s Flowers, 2021) | Canada | Bandcamp
White Denim – Crystal Bullets / King Tears (Radio Milk, 2021) | USA
Communicant – Sun Goes Out (Bingo Masters, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Chime School – Chime School (Slumberland, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Dunbarrow – Dunbarrow III (Blues for the Red Sun, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Mastodon – Hushed And Grim (Reprise, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Magic Castles – Sun Reign (A Records, 2021) | USA | Buy
The Honey Pot – The Secret (Mega Dodo, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
N0V3L – Non-Fiction (Flemish Eye, 2021) | Canada | Bandcamp
The Pillbugs – Marigold Something (Monclavian Innernatural, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Upper Wilds – Venus (Thrill Jockey, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Power Supply – In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger (Goner, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Elder & Kadavar – ELDOVAR: A Story of Darkness & Light (Robotor, 2021) | Germany | Bandcamp
Robert Finley – Sharecropper’s Son (Easy Eye, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
TEKE::TEKE – Shirushi (Kill Rock Stars, 2021) | Canada | Bandcamp
The Vintage Caravan – Monuments (Napalm, 2021) | Iceland | Bandcamp
White Canyon & The 5th Dimension – Spectral Illusion (White Canyon, 2021) | Brazil | Bandcamp
Gojira – Fortitude (Roadrunner, 2021) | France | Buy
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia (Mexican Summer, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
The Umbrellas – The Umbrellas (Slumberland, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Ferocious Dog – The Hope (Graphite, 2021) | UK | Buy
The Telephone Numbers – The Ballad of Doug (Meritorio, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Massage – Still Life (Bobo Integral, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Langan, Frost & Wane – Langan, Frost & Wane (Goldstar, 2021) | USA | Buy
Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals – Pointing Paw (Hip Rep, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Gold Dust – Gold Dust (Gold Dust, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Needlepoint – Waking Up That Valley (BJK/Stickman, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Kosmodome – Kosmodome (Karisma, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Sotomonte – From Prayer to the Battlefield (Sotomonte, 2021) | Spain | Bandcamp
Idles – Crawler (Partisan, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
The Tubs – Names EP (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Monstereo – In the Hollow of a Wave (Karisma, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Temple Fang – Fang Temple (Stickman, 2021) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg (4AD, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Rose City Band – Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Kanaan – Earthbound (Jansen, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Duel – In Carne Persona (Heavy Psych, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Octopus Ride – II (Kozmik Artifactz, 2021) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Sei Still – El Refugio (Fuzz Club, 2021) | Mexico | Bandcamp
ACTORS – Acts of Worship (Artoffact, 2021) | Canada | Bandcamp
Quivers – Golden Doubt (Ba Da Bing, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Tropical Fuck Storm – Deep States (Joyful Noise, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Tamar Aphek – All Bets Are Off (Kill Rock Stars, 2021) | Israel | Bandcamp
Dummy – Mandatory Enjoyment (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Regal Worm – The Hideous Goblink (Quartermass, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Weeed – Do You Fall? (Halfshell, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Snail – Fractal Altar (Snail, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Swampland – Sinners (Flying Out, 2021) | New Zealand | Bandcamp
The Muslims – Fuck These Fuckin Fascists (Muslims, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Howlin Rain – The Dharma Wheel (Silver Current, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Diagonal – 4 (Cobblers, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Agusa – En annan värld (Kommun 2, 2021) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Metal Blade, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Glen – Pull! (Anesthetize, 2021) | Germany | Bandcamp
Dans Dans – Zink (Unday, 2021) | Belgium | Bandcamp
Soup – Visions (Crispin Glover, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Still Corners – The Last Exit (Wrecking Light, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Eleventh Dream Day – Since Grazed (Comedy Minus One, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
The Anchoress – The Art Of Losing (Kscope, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Rid Of Me – Traveling (Ghost Is Clear, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Iceage – Seek Shelter (Mexican Summer, 2021) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Mythic Sunship – Wildfire (Tee Pee, 2021) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Black Country, New Road – For The First Time (Ninja Tune, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Stuttgart 1975 (Mute, 2021) | Germany | Bandcamp

See full list of 1,400+ albums here.

2021Breakdown: Genre Lists

As always, you can deep dive any of these these genres with the list search. While previously I had limited an album to one genre list, it didn’t accurately reflect the multi-genre nature of many of these albums. So this year an album will show up in multiple lists. I have a widget that automatically pulls from the database, so as albums are added and moved around in the future, this will reflect it.

Psych

If there’s a band that deserves to financially benefit from the weird sea shanty fad on social media it’s The Coral, formed in 1996 in the seaside town of Hoylake, Merseyside, near Liverpool. They kicked off their 2002 self-titled debut with the shanty “Spanish Main.” Since then, they released a series of consistently excellent indie garage psych albums that didn’t quite surpass the promise of their debut. With side projects like Ian Skelly’s Skeleton Key bubbling over, it’s not like they lack the inspiration or ambition. They needed something to do their creativity justice, and what better way than a sprawling double themed album (number ten) about the rise and fall of a seaside resort narrated by the Skelly brothers’ grandfather, Small Faces’ Ogden’ Nut Gone Flake style. The sunny, whimsical nostalgia of the first half (Welcome to Coral Island), rivals anything Teenage Fanclub has come up with over three decades. The second half (The Ghost of Coral Island) wallows in the morose desolation after it’s all shut down. But the band’s colors still burst through the grey gloom, the gentle beauty glowing on the likes of “Faceless Angel” and “Strange Illusions.” There’s the sea shanty-ish “Golden Age,” while “Take Me Back to the Summertime” evokes the jauntiness of Super Furry Animals and peak Kinks. “Watch You Disappear” repurposes Del Shannon’s “Runaway” into an evocative garage noir number. Haunting melodica evokes Damon Albarn’s work with Gorillaz and The Good The Bad And The Queen. The result is one of their very best albums, well beyond when most bands are past their expiration date. | Buy

Bubbling under: More Experience, Goat, Papir, The Babe Rainbow, Hooveriii, Electric Orange, Trees Speak. | More

Spidergawd – VI (Crispin Glover) | Norway | Buy
Sitka Sun – All The Way West (The Long Road Society) | USA | Bandcamp
Weedpecker – IV: The Stream Of Forgotten Thoughts (Stickman) | Poland | Bandcamp
The Coral – Coral Island (Run On/Modern Sky) | UK | Buy
White Denim – Crystal Bullets / King Tears (Radio Milk) | USA
Magic Castles – Sun Reign (A Records) | USA | Buy
White Canyon & The 5th Dimension – Spectral Illusion (White Canyon) | Brazil | Bandcamp
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia (Mexican Summer) | USA | Bandcamp
Temple Fang – Fang Temple (Stickman) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Rose City Band – Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey) | USA | Bandcamp
Sei Still – El Refugio (Fuzz Club) | Mexico | Bandcamp
Dummy – Mandatory Enjoyment (Trouble In Mind) | USA | Bandcamp
Weeed – Do You Fall? (Halfshell) | USA | Bandcamp

Psych Pop & Prog Pop

When I first saw Liverpool based Thomas McConnell’s video “The Desperately Strange” YouTube video via Rosalie Cunningham’s Facebook page in July 2020, Novelty Island only had a four song EP out and a couple other tracks. I thought, there’s someone to keep an eye on in the future. Then I blinked, and suddenly he’s put out covers of the Beatles, The Kinks, Badfinger and Wings, made a mellotron soundtrack to the documentary The Beatles & Us about Liverpool’s relationship with the band, another EP, Suddenly On Sea, his full length debut How Are You Coping With This Century?, and several more videos. The album shows how rapidly his songwriting skills are developing. With nearly his entire body of work released during the pandemic, McConnell is part of the younger generation who refuse to let isolation slow down his creative output. I look forward to the continued gush of new songs.

Nostalgia is a helluva drug, but it’s a stretch to call the recent ABBA anything but weak sauce. No worries, Australians now based in Berlin Parcels have released an ambitious double album that more than makes up for the disappointing comeback of the Swedes with their own take on disco boogie, soft rock, yacht rock, sophisti-pop and a touch of prog pop. Engaging, clever songs also go down smooth and easy enough to nap to.

Laura Meade released her first EP back in 2007, and full-length debut in 2018, while also working with long-running New York prog band IZZ. While The Anchoress got a lot of attention this year, I’m digging her second, The Most Dangerous Woman In America even more, a concept album about women who’s voices are silenced by rumor, their stories obscured by misinformation and left untold.

On my recent psych pop rabbit hole deep dive, Triptides were a late discovery that didn’t get the attention they deserve. Their seventh album is worthy of having it lavished on them, with a hazy, dreamy vibe and finely constructed tunes a step of from their previous album Visitors (2018), and a vast improvement in sound quality over their charming but lo-fi early work. They really make use of the studio Beatles style, varying their approach from the wiggly woozy The Three O’Clock style vocal treatments on “Do You Ever Wonder?” to the crisp, bright jangle pop of “Let It Go.” There’s a lot of slow burners like “Moonlight Reflection,” and “Shining,” but each track has a unique texture, with the latter harking back to lush Pink Floyd production but with melodic hooks worthy of Fleetwood Mac. “Hand of Time” shakes things up and rocks out with some fuzz guitar, and “She Doesn’t Want to Know” evokes late period Zombies. The surf vibe hinted at earlier on “Do You Ever Wonder?” hangs ten full-on with album closer “Now and Then.” Highly recommended summer vacay/backyard/beach listening. I’ll definitely have this with me when I get to swim for the first time in two years. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Lil Ugly Mane, The Babe Rainbow, Jane Weaver, Laura Meade, Langan, Frost & Wane, Field Music, The Dials. | More

Smoke Bellow – Open For Business (Trouble In Mind) | USA | Bandcamp
Novelty Island – How Are You Coping With This Century? (Think Like A Key) | UK | Bandcamp
Parcels – Day/Night (Because Music) | Australia | Bandcamp
Laura Meade – The Most Dangerous Woman In America (Doone) | USA | Bandcamp
Triptides – Alter Echoes (Alive Naturalsound) | USA | Bandcamp
Bhopal’s Flowers – Alstromeria: A Journey On Earth & Beyond (Bhopal’s Flowers) | Canada | Bandcamp
Communicant – Sun Goes Out (Bingo Masters) | USA | Bandcamp
The Honey Pot – The Secret (Mega Dodo) | UK | Bandcamp
The Pillbugs – Marigold Something (Monclavian Innernatural) | USA | Bandcamp
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia (Mexican Summer) | USA | Bandcamp
Langan, Frost & Wane – Langan, Frost & Wane (Goldstar) | USA | Buy
Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals – Pointing Paw (Hip Rep) | UK | Bandcamp
The Anchoress – The Art Of Losing (Kscope) | UK | Bandcamp

Kosmische & Space Rock

One of the coolest collaborations to come out of the pandemic, durling Berlin’s endless cold winter, Kadavar and American expatriates Elder got together and explored more spacey, jammy territory than they normally would have done with their respective bands. Possibly Elder inspired the usually harder rocking Kadavar to explore their proggier roots. The results take a bit to unfold, but when they do, it’s breathtaking. Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Hooveriii, Electric Orange, Delving, Himmellegeme, Red Kite, Terry Gross, Arthhur, Mythic Sunship, The Fur. | More.

Smoke Bellow – Open For Business (Trouble In Mind) | USA | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – Acheron (Stickman) | USA | Bandcamp
Elder & Kadavar – ELDOVAR: A Story of Darkness & Light (Robotor) | Germany | Bandcamp
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia (Mexican Summer) | USA | Bandcamp
Monstereo – In the Hollow of a Wave (Karisma) | Norway | Bandcamp
Temple Fang – Fang Temple (Stickman) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Kanaan – Earthbound (Jansen) | Norway | Bandcamp
Sei Still – El Refugio (Fuzz Club) | Mexico | Bandcamp
Dummy – Mandatory Enjoyment (Trouble In Mind) | USA | Bandcamp
Weeed – Do You Fall? (Halfshell) | USA | Bandcamp
Mythic Sunship – Wildfire (Tee Pee) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Stuttgart 1975 (Mute) | Germany | Bandcamp
Giant Sky – Giant Sky (Imaginary Friend/Glassville) | Norway | Bandcamp

Jam

While I first discovered this band with Sorcerer (2017), they’ve been around for a decade previously, putting out a bunch of lo-fi psych pop and space rock jams. Their latest is something special, adding some tasty kosmische and a warmer, more alluring production sound. | Bandcamp

Sitka Sun – All The Way West (The Long Road Society, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Tonstartssbandht – Petunia (Mexican Summer, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Stuttgart 1975 (Mute, 2021) | Germany | Bandcamp
Takeshi’s Cashew – Humans in a Pool (Laut & Luise, 2021) | Austria | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Brighton 1975 (Mute, 2021) | Germany | Bandcamp
Papir – Jams (Stickman, 2021) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Hooveriii – Water For The Frogs (Reverberation Appreciation Society, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders – Elixor Of Life (Centripetal, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
River Flows Reverse – When River Flows Reverse (Psychedelic Source, 2021) | Hungary | Bandcamp
Terry Gross – Soft Opening (Thrill Jockey, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Ryley Walker And Kikagaku Moyo – Deep Fried Grandeur (Husky Pants, 2021) | USA/Japan | Bandcamp
The Spacelords – Unknown Species (Tonzonen, 2021) | Germany | Bandcamp
Rhyton – Pharaonic Crosstalk (Feeding Tube, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders – Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders (Arrowhawk, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Expo Seventy – Mystic Caravan (Sonic Meditations, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Barn (Reprise, 2021) | USA | Buy
Kungens Män – Den nya skivan (Kungens Män, 2021) | Sweden | Bandcamp
The Cult Of Dom Keller – They Carried The Dead In A UFO (Fuzz Club, 2021) | UK | Buy
Endless Boogie – Admonitions (No Quarter, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp

Noir (Folk, Garage, Psych, Punk, Surf)

Since my Aussie Garage Punk piece in 2018, it seemed that the kind of rippin’ post-Saints/Radio Birdman/Scientists garage punk disappeared, with the exception of Tropical Fuck Storm. Royal Headache broke up, no peeps from The New Christs or Hits, it was only a matter of time that the punk would leak out in some form. While the 70s Saints/Birdman force is strong in this band, I also hear a touch of post-hardcore/noise edge hear from the likes of 90s bands Gaunt and Hot Snakes, while “Shake Like Death” references mid-80s Sonic Youth for a change of pace. For the most part these are energetic, hard driving while also relatively melodic and memorable. Some fans are already lamenting that they like the first EP New Vietnam (2018) best, but this is an excellent debut from a promising band.

Bubbling under: Wytch, Phobophobes, La Luz, Amigo The Devil, L’uomo Nero, 10 000 Russos, James Johnston/Steve Gullick. | More .

Goat Girl – On All Fours (Rough Trade) | UK | Bandcamp
Lucifer – Lucifer IV (Century Media) | Sweden | Buy
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows – The Magnetic Ridge (Suspect/Pirates Press) | Australia | Bandcamp
Civic – Future Forecast (Flightless) | Australia | Bandcamp
Mod Con – Modern Condition (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Jess And The Ancient Ones – Vertigo (Svart) | Finland | Bandcamp
Night Battles – Year Of No Days (Snappy Little Numbers) | USA | Bandcamp
Swampland – Sinners (Flying Out) | New Zealand | Bandcamp
Dans Dans – Zink (Unday) | Belgium | Bandcamp
Still Corners – The Last Exit (Wrecking Light) | USA | Bandcamp
Kabbalah – The Omen (Ripple) | Spain | Bandcamp
Table Scraps – Coffin Face (Hell’s Teeth) | UK | Bandcamp
Night Beats – Outlaw R&B (Fuzz Club) | USA | Bandcamp

Psych Prog

Maybe not great timing for their debut album, on December 10, as they will completely miss everyone’s radar until next year, but I managed to fish Kosmodome out of the psychedelic progressive ether, despite them ignoring my repeated requests for a promo. A great new entry in a long line of Norwegian psych prog, with extra emphasis on the fading art of riffriding.

Bubbling under: Glen, Soup, Giant Sky, The Moose, Kabbalah, Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band, A Better Tomorrow, Spiral, Elephant9, Nephila, Gondhawa. | More.

Motorpsycho – Kingdom Of Oblivion (Rune Grammofon/Stickman) | Norway | Buy
Lucid Sins – Cursed! (Totem Cat) | UK | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – Acheron (Stickman) | USA | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – The Burden Of Restlessness (Stickman) | USA | Bandcamp
Jess And The Ancient Ones – Vertigo (Svart) | Finland | Bandcamp
The Honey Pot – The Secret (Mega Dodo) | UK | Bandcamp
Elder & Kadavar – ELDOVAR: A Story of Darkness & Light (Robotor) | Germany | Bandcamp
TEKE::TEKE – Shirushi (Kill Rock Stars) | Canada | Bandcamp
The Vintage Caravan – Monuments (Napalm) | Iceland | Bandcamp
Kosmodome – Kosmodome (Karisma) | Norway | Bandcamp
Sotomonte – From Prayer to the Battlefield (Sotomonte) | Spain | Bandcamp
Kanaan – Earthbound (Jansen) | Norway | Bandcamp
Octopus Ride – II (Kozmik Artifactz) | Sweden | Bandcamp

Prog

It’s exhausting to be an Iron Maiden fan since the reunion of their original lineup (plus extra guitarists). While most bands who peaked in the 80s earnestly keep putting out new music, most fans only really care about the old stuff. Impressively but somewhat annoyingly, Maiden’s albums since Brave New World (2000) are too good to ignore. While I don’t think anything quite measures up to the excitement of their classic first seven albums, their six post-reunion albums have been surprisingly good. And long. The Book of Souls (2015) was over 92 minutes, and six years seemed to fly by, and they’re like, oh yeah, we’ve had this little thing in the can since 2019, just another double album, this one nearly 82 minutes. And behold, it’s great! It’s both their proggiest album since Seventh Son (1988), with also some of their catchiest riffs on “The Writing on the Wall,” accompanied by an amazing animated video. In the first recording since Bruce Dickinson recovered from mouth cancer, his voice is as strong as ever. The band will not be able to maintain this pace and quality forever, so best to appreciate them and see them live at every opportunity while we still can.

Prog may always be considered a nerdy boys club, but gradually more women are getting involved, such as Bay Area based Rachel Flowers, an amazingly talented musician who grew up blind and can masterfully play any genre — she’s already working on some classical and jazz projects, but hopefully will come back and slum it with the nerds once again.

Bubbling under: black midi, Closet Disco Queen, Krokofant w/ Ståle Storløkken & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, DVNE, Hedvig Mollestad Trio, The Physics House Band, Sel Belamir, Frost*. | More.

Glass Hammer – Skallagrim – Into The Breach (Glass Hammer) | USA | Bandcamp
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (Parlophone) | UK | Buy
Rachel Flowers – Bigger On The Inside (Rachel Flowers Music) | USA | Bandcamp
Mastodon – Hushed And Grim (Reprise) | USA | Bandcamp
Gojira – Fortitude (Roadrunner) | France | Buy
Needlepoint – Waking Up That Valley (BJK/Stickman) | Norway | Bandcamp
Regal Worm – The Hideous Goblink (Quartermass) | UK | Bandcamp
Agusa – En annan värld (Kommun 2) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Squid – Bright Green Field (Speedy Wunderground) | UK | Bandcamp
Cynic – Ascension Codes (Season Of Mist) | USA | Bandcamp
White Void – Anti (Nuclear Blast) | Norway | Bandcamp
Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band – Music Is Dead (Castle Face) | USA | Bandcamp
Elephant9 – Arrival Of The New Elders (Rune Grammofon) | Norway | Buy

Punk & Post-Punk

Erica Dunn is one of the busiest musicians in Melbourne, releasing three albums in 2018 alone, with her solo-ish Palm Springs & Friends morphing into Mod Con, with Modern Convenience, and serving as a key member in Tropical Fuck Storm on A Laughing Death In Meatspace. After two more TFS albums, she returns with Mod Con, which fuses both the slinky rhythms of Pylon and seething rage of The Au Pairs with Sleater-Kinney. This time Mod Con’s sharpest and most cohesive work is truly a band effort thanks to the locked in the pocket riddims from Sara Retallick’s and Raquel Solier.

The first five albums in this list are featured elsewhere in other genres. Night Battles has a way to go to take ownership of their name. Google searches result mostly in reviews of the 1966 academic history book, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Carlos Ginzburg. It looks interesting, actually. The benandanti fertility cult fought ritual battles with witches in wizards in dream-like (drug-enhanced?) states to protect harvests. Due to culture clashes with the inquisitors, within a century, the anti-witches became the witches. Anyway, there’s this cool new garage noir band that formed in Raleigh, NC and released their first Remedy and Cause EP in 2018. A gloomy Joy Division post-punk vibe is ubiquitous, but there’s also nice touches like the surf guitar intro to “Summer of Loathe” and chiming atonal noise rock via early Sonic Youth. I chunked my money into the virtual Bandcamp preorder jukebox after hearing just a couple preview tracks, I’m all in. I don’t see Night Battles storming the charts alongside their baleful brethren Bambara, Vincas, My Dear Mycroft, The Buttertones, Dead Visions and Wailin Storms anytime soon, but they deserve at least the kind of attention that Protomartyr has gotten.

On their third album, Upper Wilds perfects the balance between wild distorted abandon and catchy melodies that eludes dozens, possibly hundreds of noise punk bands every year. Power Supply tap into that Velvets/Modern Lovers/Violent Femmes template in a the most gratifying way. I hadn’t realized how much I missed that sound until hearing In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger.

When Idles’ debut Brutalism (2017) was immediately embraced, I was resistant at first, as their sound reeked of that tiresomely aggro toxic masculinity that was such a cliche in hardcore punk. Who knew they would then devote much of their material to deconstructing and analyzing the sources and consequences of that toxicity ever since. Their fourth album finds them pushing boundaries and experimenting more than ever. And while the result isn’t always as consistently successful as their second album Joy as an Act of Resistance. (2018), I can’t help but like ’em more.

Bubbling under: Sei Still, Tropical Fuck Storm, The Muslims, NOV3L, Iceage, Black Country, New Road, Squid, LICE, Amyl And The Sniffers, Palberta, Gustaf, Pom Poko, Shame, black midi, Spiritual Cramp, Anika. | More. | Spotify

Mere Women – Romantic Notions (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Groupie – Ephemeral (Groupie) | USA | Bandcamp
Ist Ist – The Art of Lying (Kind Violence) | UK | Bandcamp
Nightshift – Zöe (Trouble In Mind) | UK | Bandcamp
Civic – Future Forecast (Flightless) | Australia | Bandcamp
Spectres – Hindsight (Artoffact) | Canada | Bandcamp
The Narcotix – Mommy Issues EP (Narcotix) | USA | Bandcamp
Mod Con – Modern Condition (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Night Battles – Year Of No Days (Snappy Little Numbers) | USA | Bandcamp
N0V3L – Non-Fiction (Flemish Eye) | Canada | Bandcamp
Upper Wilds – Venus (Thrill Jockey) | USA | Bandcamp
Power Supply – In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger (Goner) | Australia | Bandcamp
Ferocious Dog – The Hope (Graphite) | UK | Buy

Garage Rock

Montreal’s TEKE::TEKE originally formed in tribute to Japanese guitarist Tekeshi Terauchi, who pioneered a hybrid of Eleki and Ventures style surf rock with the Bunnys in the mid-60s, and later the Blue Jeans. Their full-length debut is not what you’d expect from that information. The surf guitar is no more prominent in their music as it was in the Pixies — a ghostly whisper amidst the cacophony of psych prog, noise rock, post-punk and more. In live clips Etienne Lebel’s trombone looks like it was rescued from a dumpster. The brass horn accents give me fond flashbacks of Tragic Mulatto and Dog Faced Hermans. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: JOHN, Blanaketman, The Grip Weeds, Skegss, Phobophobes, New Pagans, Adult Books. | More.

Goat Girl – On All Fours (Rough Trade) | UK | Bandcamp
Groupie – Ephemeral (Groupie) | USA | Bandcamp
Civic – Future Forecast (Flightless) | Australia | Bandcamp
Mod Con – Modern Condition (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Night Battles – Year Of No Days (Snappy Little Numbers) | USA | Bandcamp
Triptides – Alter Echoes (Alive Naturalsound) | USA | Bandcamp
TEKE::TEKE – Shirushi (Kill Rock Stars) | Canada | Bandcamp
Tamar Aphek – All Bets Are Off (Kill Rock Stars) | Israel | Bandcamp
Swampland – Sinners (Flying Out) | New Zealand | Bandcamp
Amyl And The Sniffers – Comfort To Me (ATO) | Australia | Bandcamp
Table Scraps – Coffin Face (Hell’s Teeth) | UK | Bandcamp
Night Beats – Outlaw R&B (Fuzz Club) | USA | Bandcamp
The Kryng – Violent Religion (Bickerton) | Netherlands

Hard Rock

It’s hard to believe that it’s been seventeen years since Witchcraft released their debut album in 2004, mixing doomy Sabbath worship with early Pentagram and other proto-metal when no one else did. That soon changed and the 2010s saw the release of at least 100 good to great proto-metal albums, peaking in 2012-13 with Witchcraft’s Legend, Troubled Horse, Hidden Masters, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Golden Void, Wolf People, Purson, Blood Ceremony, Avatarium and Brimstone Coven. Trondheim, Norway’s Dunbarrow were a welcome addition when they debuted in 2016 with a well executed sound that starts with Witchcraft and also draws on the likes of Cream, Uriah Heep and more obscure but swingin’ blues rock and proto-metal from Leafhound and Toad. The creamy guitar tones and hooky vocal melodies are strong as ever, and the band is stretching outward into subtly more progressive territories with an assist from Auver Gaaren on keys and mellotron on opener “Death That Never Dies” and Steeleye Span-style prog folk on “Turn In Your Grave.” Dunbarrow are rubbing elbows with the masters now, ensuring this fairly specialized subgenre continues to flourish into the decade. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Khirki, Greta Van Fleet, Heavy Seas, Fucked Up, Solarius, Turnstile, The Age Of Truth. | More.

Spidergawd – VI (Crispin Glover) | Norway | Buy
Lucifer – Lucifer IV (Century Media) | Sweden | Buy
Dunbarrow – Dunbarrow III (Blues for the Red Sun) | Norway | Bandcamp
The Vintage Caravan – Monuments (Napalm) | Iceland | Bandcamp
Sotomonte – From Prayer to the Battlefield (Sotomonte) | Spain | Bandcamp
Idles – Crawler (Partisan) | UK | Bandcamp
Monstereo – In the Hollow of a Wave (Karisma) | Norway | Bandcamp
Snail – Fractal Altar (Snail) | USA | Bandcamp
Rid Of Me – Traveling (Ghost Is Clear) | USA | Bandcamp
White Void – Anti (Nuclear Blast) | Norway | Bandcamp
Kabbalah – The Omen (Ripple) | Spain | Bandcamp
Khirki – KTHNΩΔIA (Khirki) | Greece | Bandcamp
Another Heaven – III: The Sorrowful Cries of Birds With Singed Feathers (Mpls Ltd) | USA | Bandcamp

Stoner/Desert/Fuzz

Late in the year, on December 3, a trio of great albums were released, and it sparked a lot of debate amongst the Doom Charts community which was best — the Eldovar collaboration, King Buffalo or Weedpecker. The Polish band’s fourth album clinched it for me — while it may not has quite as cohesive a groove as King Buffalo, I’m drawn in to their expanded variety of sounds, and I can’t resist the Elder influence, even as they forge forward in developing their own sound.

Bubbling under: A Better Tomorrow, Stone From The Sky, High Desert Queen, Headless Monarch, Wytch, Blind Tendril, Alastor, The Age Of Truth, Messerschmitt, The Fur, Vokonis. | More

Lucid Sins – Cursed! (Totem Cat) | UK | Bandcamp
Weedpecker – IV: The Stream Of Forgotten Thoughts (Stickman) | Poland | Bandcamp
Glass Hammer – Skallagrim – Into The Breach (Glass Hammer) | USA | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – Acheron (Stickman) | USA | Bandcamp
King Buffalo – The Burden Of Restlessness (Stickman) | USA | Bandcamp
Duel – In Carne Persona (Heavy Psych) | USA | Bandcamp
Snail – Fractal Altar (Snail) | USA | Bandcamp
Still Corners – The Last Exit (Wrecking Light) | USA | Bandcamp
Green Lung – Black Harvest (Svart) | UK | Bandcamp
Nekromant – Temple of Haal (Despotz) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Khirki – KTHNΩΔIA (Khirki) | Greece | Bandcamp
Blackwater Holylight – Silence/Motion (RidingEasy) | UK | Bandcamp
Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination (RidingEasy) | USA | Bandcamp

Heavy Metal

The sheer amount of doom-tinged heavy metal released every month can be overwhelming. That’s why Green Lung’s second album Black Harvest languished in the middle of my list for much of the year. Despite the fact that I liked their first album a lot, it took me months to circle back and give it more listens. I’m glad I did, as their production approaches that raw garage/street doom sound I so love in the likes of early Magic Circle and the greatly missed Green & Wood. Nearly as great is the fifth album from Sweden’s Nekromant, who went by Serpent on their first two.

TOWER isn’t the only up and coming heavy metal band from New York — Shadowland put out an excellent debut full-length, featuring Tanya Finder on vocals. I discovered several of these though the Ruthless Metal YouTube channel.

Bubbling under: Silver Talon, Portrait, The Night Eternal, Jointhugger, Spirit Adrift, Pharaoh, Doctor Smoke, Blazon Rite, Mystic Storm, Morgul Blade, Saber, Claymorean, Helloween, Kvasir, Lunar Shadow, High n’ Heavy, Monolord, Dread Sovereign, Unto Others, Hour Of 13, Eternity’s End, Brainstorm, NorthTale, Cauldron Born. | More.

TOWER – Shock to the System (Cruz Del Sur) | USA | Bandcamp
Khemmis – Deceiver (Nuclear Blast) | USA | Bandcamp
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (Parlophone) | UK | Buy
Green Lung – Black Harvest (Svart) | UK | Bandcamp
Lucifer’s Fall – III – From The Deep (Sun & Moon) | Australia | Bandcamp
Nekromant – Temple of Haal (Despotz) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Wheel – Preserved In Time (Cruz Del Sur) | Germany | Bandcamp
Apostle Of Solitude – When The Darkness Goes (Cruz Del Sur) | USA | Bandcamp
Marta Gabriel – Metal Queens (Listenable) | Poland | Bandcamp
Shadowland – The Necromancer’s Castle (No Remorse) | USA | Bandcamp
Crystal Viper – The Cult (Listenable) | Poland | Bandcamp
Headless Monarch – Titan Slug (Headless Monarch) | USA | Bandcamp
Haunt – Beautiful Distraction (Church) | USA | Bandcamp

Doom

Stealing the thunder late in the season from down under is the third album from Lucifer’s Fall. While I liked their first two albums, apparently the third one is the first time the full band rehearsed and recorded together, and their double-bird salute to the world is turned up even more in the red. This is some filthy rockin’ doom with a bad attitude, but kicks off the album with an almost sweetly melodic, killer riff on “Trident Steel” that wouldn’t have sounded out of place coming from Nirvana.

Nekromant also offers up some accessible melodies along the lines of early efforts from fellow proto-metal Swedes Witchcraft and Graveyard. On my Khemmis review I wondered if doom could ever cross over to the mainstream. If anyone should do it, it’s Blackwater Holylight, who take a subtly ethereal, melodic approach with killer vocal harmonies that would have people frothing for more if they actually heard ’em. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Messerschmitt, Vokonis, Satanic Waves, Swallow The Sun, Devil Electric, Moon Coven, Doctor Smoke, Häxmästaren, Hippie Death Cult. | More.

Lucifer – Lucifer IV (Century Media) | Sweden | Buy
Glass Hammer – Skallagrim – Into The Breach (Glass Hammer) | USA | Bandcamp
Khemmis – Deceiver (Nuclear Blast) | USA | Bandcamp
Dunbarrow – Dunbarrow III (Blues for the Red Sun) | Norway | Bandcamp
Duel – In Carne Persona (Heavy Psych) | USA | Bandcamp
Green Lung – Black Harvest (Svart) | UK | Bandcamp
Lucifer’s Fall – III – From The Deep (Sun & Moon) | Australia | Bandcamp
Nekromant – Temple of Haal (Despotz) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Wheel – Preserved In Time (Cruz Del Sur) | Germany | Bandcamp
Blackwater Holylight – Silence/Motion (RidingEasy) | UK | Bandcamp
Apostle Of Solitude – When The Darkness Goes (Cruz Del Sur) | USA | Bandcamp
Restless Spirit – Blood of the Old Gods (Restless Spirit) | USA | Bandcamp
Domkraft – Seeds (Magnetic Eye) | Sweden | Bandcamp

Metal

I’m glad I was paying attention to Gojira at their peak in the mid-2000s and saw them live. It’s hard to say they’ve been in decline since L’enfant sauvage (2012), but I didn’t love their adoption of that mechanical industrial sound of Killing Joke/Ministry filtered through Machine Head and Prong. Despite my disappointment in Magma (2016), I considered Terra Incognita (2001) through that as a pretty magnificent six album run. And while one could argue that Fortitude is not as exciting as their debut, I think it’s at least a step up from Magma, with more engaging progressive elements along the lines of Mastodon’s Crack The Skye (2009). | Buy

Bubbling under: Obscura, Empyrium, The Body, Atvm, Epica, Blackbriar, Morganthus, Pupil Slicer, Ad Nauseam, Everdawn, Terra Odium, Soen, Carcass, Converge & Chelsea Wolfe, Seven Spires, Diskord, Horndal, Papangu, King Woman, Hooded Menace. | More.

Gojira – Fortitude (Roadrunner) | France | Buy
Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Metal Blade) | USA | Bandcamp
Panopticon – …and Again Into the Light (Bindrune) | USA | Bandcamp
Cynic – Ascension Codes (Season Of Mist) | USA | Bandcamp
Restless Spirit – Blood of the Old Gods (Restless Spirit) | USA | Bandcamp
Domkraft – Seeds (Magnetic Eye) | Sweden | Bandcamp
DVNE – Etemen Ænka (Metal Blade) | UK | Bandcamp
Messerschmitt – Oh Death EP (Messerschmitt) | Norway | Bandcamp
Between The Buried And Me – Colors II (Sumerian) | USA
Stargazer – Psychic Secretions (Nuclear War Now!) | Australia | Bandcamp
Swallow The Sun – Moonflowers (Century Media) | Finland | Buy
Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon (Relapse) | USA | Bandcamp
Siderean – Lost on Void’s Horizon (Edged Circle) | Slovenia | Bandcamp

Power Metal, Epic Adventure & Symphonic/Dark Romance Metal

It’s easy to take Polish power metallers Crystal Viper for granted, as they crank out albums nearly every year. Their ninth album, The Cult, however, may be their best. Amazingly, six months later lead singer Marta Gabriel released Metal Queens, an album of covers focused on early 80s metal bands with female leads, and it’s even better. I was only familiar with Rock Goddess and Warlock, but every cut here smokes, and goes to show that women were absolutely involved in metal from the beginning. They were just underground. The cover art may be fun and campy, but it’s just an important album as those by Little Simz and Jazmine Sullivan.

This sort of metal is usually dominated by European bands. And while the list is heavy with Polish, Dutch, German and Swedish bands, Americans made a strong showing, particularly Philadelphia, with power metallers Pharaoh and Morgul Blade, plus Portland’s Silver Talon, New Jersey’s Everdawn and Boston’s Seven Spires.

Bubbling under: Seven Spires, Brainstorm, NorthTale, Cauldron Born, Frozen Crown, Immortal Guardian, Powerwolf, Lucifer’s Hammer, Warrior Path, Fortress, Evanescence, Dreamslain, FireForce, Spiritbox. More.

Marta Gabriel – Metal Queens (Listenable) | Poland | Bandcamp
Crystal Viper – The Cult (Listenable) | Poland | Bandcamp
Glass Hammer – A Matter Of Time (Glass Hammer) | USA | Bandcamp
Silver Talon – Decadence and Decay (M-Theory) | USA | Bandcamp
Pharaoh – The Powers That Be (Cruz Del Sur) | USA | Bandcamp
Morgul Blade – Fell Sorcery Abounds (No Remorse) | USA | Bandcamp
Claymorean – Eulogy for the Gods (Stormspell) | Serbia | Bandcamp
Epica – Omega (Nuclear Blast) | Netherlands | Buy
Helloween – Helloween (Nuclear Blast) | Germany | Buy
Blackbriar – The Cause of Shipwreck (Blackbriar) | Netherlands | Buy
Everdawn – Cleopatra (The Laser’s Edge) | USA | Bandcamp
Flotsam & Jetsam – Blood in the Water (AFM) | USA
Eternity’s End – Embers Of War (Prosthetic) | Germany | Bandcamp

Avant, Experimental, Post-Rock, Modern Classical, Drone

The third and most difficult, thorny release from Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin, Lauren Hammel and Erica Dunn. Those who can’t get enough should seek out Liddiard’s somewhat more accessible collaboration with The Dirty Three’s Jim White and Chris Abrahams of The Laughing Clowns. Beats the hell out of Nick Cave’s latest with Warren Ellis (also a former Dirty Three member). | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Richard Dawson & Circle, Big Brave, Hammock, Damon Locks, Rats On Rafts, James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quartet, Unwed Sailor, Big Brave, Blonde Revolver, Aquaserge. | More.

Nightshift – Zöe (Trouble In Mind) | UK | Bandcamp
Low – HEY WHAT (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
White Canyon & The 5th Dimension – Spectral Illusion (White Canyon) | Brazil | Bandcamp
Tropical Fuck Storm – Deep States (Joyful Noise) | Australia | Bandcamp
Weeed – Do You Fall? (Halfshell) | USA | Bandcamp
Glen – Pull! (Anesthetize) | Germany | Bandcamp
Soup – Visions (Crispin Glover) | Norway | Bandcamp
Black Country, New Road – For The First Time (Ninja Tune) | UK | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Stuttgart 1975 (Mute) | Germany | Bandcamp
LICE – WASTELAND: What Ails Our People Is Clear (Settled Law) | UK | Bandcamp
The Black Heart Death Cult – Sonic Mantras (Kozmik Artifactz) | Australia | Bandcamp
Springtime – Springtime (Joyful Noise) | Australia | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Brighton 1975 (Mute) | Germany | Bandcamp

Industrial & Noise

I first got acquainted with Philadelphia noise/post-hardcore/riot grrrl/grunge band Rid Of Me (nice nod to PJ Harvey) with their three EPs, which included a cover of Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy.” Their new full length triggers the excitement I felt when I heard the Kills Birds debut. I look forward to hearing where they take their interesting mix of influences. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: FACS, Black Dresses, Dale Kerrigan, Clamm, Concrete Ships, Work Party, The Body, Veik, The Martha’s Vineyard Ferries. | More

Low – HEY WHAT (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
Upper Wilds – Venus (Thrill Jockey) | USA | Bandcamp
Tropical Fuck Storm – Deep States (Joyful Noise) | Australia | Bandcamp
Rid Of Me – Traveling (Ghost Is Clear) | USA | Bandcamp
LICE – WASTELAND: What Ails Our People Is Clear (Settled Law) | UK | Bandcamp
Springtime – Springtime (Joyful Noise) | Australia | Bandcamp
USA/Mexico – Del Rio (Riot Season) | USA | Bandcamp
black midi – Cavalcade (Rough Trade) | UK | Bandcamp
JOHN – Nocturnal Manoeuvres (Brace Yourself) | UK | Bandcamp
Qlowski – Quale Futuro? (Maple Death) | Italy | Bandcamp
Kills Birds – Married (KRO) | USA | Bandcamp
Pays P. – Ça v aller (Peculiar Works) | France | Bandcamp
Lingua Ignota – Sinner Get Ready (Sargent House) | USA | Bandcamp

Ambient & New Age

Jeffrey Alexander made a great choice in collaborating with Elkhorn, starting with last year’s Blown Out Zone Out as Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders. Playfully dubbing their Crazy Horse/Meat Puppets desert jams jambient/choogles, both albums released this year hit the spot. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi, Ballaké Sissoko, L’Rain, Grouper, Daniel O’Sullivan, Matt LaJoie, Blodet, Karima Walker, Driving Slow Motion, Alora Crucible. | More. | Spotify

Cynic – Ascension Codes (Season Of Mist) | USA | Bandcamp
Dr. Joy – Dr. Joy (Idée Fixe) | Canada | Bandcamp
Moon Wiring Club – The Only Cat Left in Town (Gecophonic) | UK | Bandcamp
SUSS – Night Suite EP (Northern Spy) | USA | Bandcamp
BRUIT ≤ – The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again (BRUIT ≤) | France | Bandcamp
L’Rain – Fatigue (Mexican Summer) | USA | Bandcamp
Moon Wiring Club – Ghost Party Delerium (Gecophonic) | UK | Bandcamp
Mary Lattimore – Collected Pieces II (Ghostly) | USA | Bandcamp
Hammock – Elsewhere (Hammock) | USA | Bandcamp
Unwed Sailor – Truth or Consequences (Spartan) | USA | Bandcamp
Red On – Drums (Verydeeprecords) | Germany | Bandcamp
AVAWAVES – Chrysalis (One Little Independent) | UK | Bandcamp
Camera – Prosthuman (Bureau B) | Germany | Bandcamp

Instrumental

A while back, some friends told me they only listen to instrumental music while working, because the vocals interfere with their concentration. That never occurred to me because I often just tune out lyrics to be just part of the music. But I was kicking myself for not including that tag in my speadsheet. I started this year, and inevitably have missed several of them. I mostly left out jazz, classical and electronic, because they’re usually without vocals anyway.

Oslo, Norway’s Kanaan left the fantastic El Paraiso label for Jansen on their fourth album of instrumental kosmische/space rock psych jams. In keeping with the title, their latest is heavier and more down to earth than previous albums. That’s explicitly laid out in the pummeling “Return to the Tundrasphere,” which takes Kyuss’ desert rock and slows it down to a slow, deliberate lumber. It’s a more refined version of “Urgent Excursions to the Tundrasphere” found on the Odense Sessions (2020), shortening the extended jazz-infused jams to more concisely killer grooves, departing the expansive territory of Causa Sui and Papir jams, toward the more ferocious side of early 00s Colour Haze and contemporaries like King Buffalo.

Kanaan – Earthbound (Jansen) | Norway | Bandcamp
Diagonal – 4 (Cobblers) | UK | Bandcamp
Agusa – En annan värld (Kommun 2) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Dans Dans – Zink (Unday) | Belgium | Bandcamp
Takeshi’s Cashew – Humans in a Pool (Laut & Luise) | Austria | Bandcamp
Papir – Jams (Stickman) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Elephant9 – Arrival Of The New Elders (Rune Grammofon) | Norway | Buy
Closet Disco Queen & The Flying Raclettes – Omelette Du Fromage (Hummus) | Switzerland | Bandcamp
Trees Speak – PostHuman (Soul Jazz) | USA | Buy
Delving – Hirschbrunnen (Stickman) | Germany | Bandcamp
SUSS – Night Suite EP (Northern Spy) | USA | Bandcamp
Stone From The Sky – Songs From The Deepwater (More Fuzz) | France | Bandcamp
Krokofant w/ Ståle Storløkken & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – Fifth (Rune Grammofon) | Norway | Buy

Bubbling under: Ryley Walker And Kikagaku Moyo, Yasmin Williams, Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Muito Kaballa Power Ensemble, Mary Lattimore, The Fur, Kate NV, Rostro Del Sol, Black Sky Giant, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Camera, Snake Mountain Revival, Kauan. | More.

Art Pop & Dream Pop

Discovering a new favorite band is exciting, but then I get mixed feelings when I realize I’d dropped the ball on hearing their previous half dozen albums for the last decade, especially coming from a scene I was once a part of. It’s just part of the process, attempting to sift through the vast explosion in musical content that has become available the past decade, as album releases have reached an all time high, surpassing 100,000 albums a year. Minneapolis’ Magic Castles started about as underground as you can get, releases a couple cassettes in 2008-09 that weren’t even available on Bandcamp. Their officially released albums on Anton Newcombe’s (Brian Jonestown Massacre) A Records, however, are all sparkling psych folk/dream pop gems — Magic Castles (2012), Sky Sounds (2014), and Starflower (2015). Sun Reign had a long incubation period, with Jason Edmonds taking a break from live shows and recording in his studio and with a new lineup. The album was delayed not only by the pandemic, but a car accident in 2019 that he eventually recovered from with help from a Gofund me campaign. Their roots in 60s jangly psychedelic folk from both Britain and California, breathy vocals and gauzy atmospherics drawn from shoegaze and dream pop along the lines of Spiritualized and local mates The Flavor Crystals, combine into a creamy and dreamy sound that’s consistently ethereal, but with memorable hooks and melodies. Along with the obscure cover of Danny and the Counts’ “Ode to the Wind,” this is their best batch of songs yet. I even heard Iggy Pop play them on his BBC 6 show the other night! Their music has been pulled from Bandcamp, which I think is a mistake. | Buy

Bubbling under: Lil Ugly Mane, The Shop Window, Jane Weaver, Desperate Journalist, Mega Bog, HTRK, Princess Diana Of Wales, Ross Jennings, The Opposition, The Black Watch, Turnstile, Marissa Nadler, Steven Wilson, Beautify Junkyards, Glaare, Kate NV, Sweet Trip, Vanishing Twin. | More.

Smoke Bellow – Open For Business (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Low – HEY WHAT (Sub Pop, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Novelty Island – How Are You Coping With This Century? (Think Like A Key, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Laura Meade – The Most Dangerous Woman In America (Doone, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Magic Castles – Sun Reign (A Records, 2021) | USA | Buy
Massage – Still Life (Bobo Integral, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Still Corners – The Last Exit (Wrecking Light, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
The Anchoress – The Art Of Losing (Kscope, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Circuit des Yeux – -io (Matador, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Giant Sky – Giant Sky (Imaginary Friend/Glassville, 2021) | Norway | Bandcamp
Field Music – Flat White Moon (Memphis Industries, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Pepe Deluxé – Phantom Cabinet Vol. 1 (Catskills, 2021) | Finland | Bandcamp
Flyying Colours – Fantasy Country (Poison City, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp

Shoegaze

While Illudium’s 2016 debut intended to reflect the sun-drenched beauty of the northern Californian coast’s blue ocean and towering redwoods, the sky has since turned cinder orange with perpetual forest fires. Their second album smolders in turn, digging deep into guitarist/vocalist Shantel Amundson’s gothy roots, their charred shoegaze/post-metal infused with the mournful art pop of Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins.

It took eight years to follow up this Swedish band’s self-titled debut, and it was worth the wait. In between, the band has expanded their sound from indie psych to psych prog, some gauzy shoegaze, and even menacing post-punk drones, all slathered on aural canvas like an abstract painting. It’s all crack to me, and I cannot say no, especially to such a rare offering, the second album from a band that’s been around since 1999. I look forward to kicking off my retirement in the 2030s by kicking back with album number three from Octopus Ride. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Film School, Parannoul, White Flowers, Slowshine, Wednesday, Glassing, Bachelor, MØL, Miss Grit, Radio Supernova. More.

Illudium – Ash of the Womb (Prophecy Productions) | USA | Bandcamp
White Canyon & The 5th Dimension – Spectral Illusion (White Canyon) | Brazil | Bandcamp
Octopus Ride – II (Kozmik Artifactz) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Sei Still – El Refugio (Fuzz Club) | Mexico | Bandcamp
The Black Heart Death Cult – Sonic Mantras (Kozmik Artifactz) | Australia | Bandcamp
Flyying Colours – Fantasy Country (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Yoo Doo Right – Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose (Mothland) | Canada | Bandcamp
We.The Pigs – We.The Pigs (Shore Dive) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Another Heaven – III: The Sorrowful Cries of Birds With Singed Feathers (Mpls Ltd) | USA | Bandcamp
Blue Ocean – Blue Ocean (Paisley Shirt) | USA | Bandcamp
Heavy Seas – Everything Breaks (Rad Girlfriend) | USA | Bandcamp
Adult Books – Grecian Urn (Taxi Gauche) | USA | Bandcamp
Unwed Sailor – Truth or Consequences (Spartan) | USA | Bandcamp

Indie Rock, Pop & Jangle Pop

I’m counting this as a new release because I’ve been waiting for a properly comprehensive singles compilation of The Jazz Butcher’s singles for over 30 years. I first heard tracks like “Southern Mark Smith,” “Marnie,” “The Devil is My Friend” and the definitive cover of “Roadrunner” on college radio as a teenager. While David J from Love & Rockets was a frequent collaborator, and had close ties with The Blue Aeroplanes, this band was far more quirky, diverse, snarky and hilarious than any other band in the UK jangle pop and post-punk indie scene. Fire Archive lovingly put together most of their albums in two box sets, and this third set came out sadly just after bandleader Pat Fish passed away. The perfect introduction, summary and epitaph. | Bandcamp

The brightest/bleakest new entry of jangle fetishism, Canada’s Ducks Ltd. is inspired by New Zealand’s Flying Nun label, including the obscure Look Blue Go Purple, The Go-Betweens, Felt and Graham Greene novels.

Bubbling under: Modern Nature, The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Dummy, Idle Ray, Pom Poko, The Babe Rainbow, The Shop Window, Maxïmo Park, Wurld Series, The Black Watch, Sleater-Kinney, The Smashing Times, Blanketman, Palberta, Fake Fruit, The Reds, Pinks And Purples, Delta Sleep, Michael Beach, Adult Books, La Luz, Kills Birds, The War On Drugs. | More.

Ducks Ltd. – Modern Fiction (Carpark) | Canada | Bandcamp
The Jazz Butcher – Dr Cholmondley Repents: A-sides, B-Sides and Seasides (Fire) | UK | Bandcamp
Spectres – Hindsight (Artoffact) | Canada | Bandcamp
The Coral – Coral Island (Run On/Modern Sky) | UK | Buy
Mod Con – Modern Condition (Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Bhopal’s Flowers – Alstromeria: A Journey On Earth & Beyond (Bhopal’s Flowers) | Canada | Bandcamp
White Denim – Crystal Bullets / King Tears (Radio Milk) | USA
Chime School – Chime School (Slumberland) | USA | Bandcamp
Upper Wilds – Venus (Thrill Jockey) | USA | Bandcamp
Power Supply – In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger (Goner) | Australia | Bandcamp
The Umbrellas – The Umbrellas (Slumberland) | USA | Bandcamp
The Telephone Numbers – The Ballad of Doug (Meritorio) | USA | Bandcamp
Massage – Still Life (Bobo Integral) | USA | Bandcamp

Jazz

Bubbling under: Jakob Bro, Portico Quartet, Carlos Niño & Friends, Emma-Jean Thackray, Arooj Aftab, Epseranza Spalding, Alfa Mist, R+R=NOW, Archie Shepp & Jason Moran, FIRE!, Nala Sinephro. | More.

Sitka Sun – All The Way West (The Long Road Society) | USA | Bandcamp
Al Doum & The Faryds – Freaky People (Bongo Joe) | Italy | Bandcamp
Lady Blackbird – Black Acid Soul (Foundation) | USA | Bandcamp
Sons Of Kemet – Black To The Future (Impulse!) | UK | Buy
Theon Cross – Intra-I (New Soil) | UK | Bandcamp
Damon Locks – Black Monument Ensemble – NOW (International Anthem) | USA | Bandcamp
James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quartet – Jesup Wagon (TAO Terms) | USA | Bandcamp
Irreversible Entanglements – Open the Gates (International Anthem) | USA | Bandcamp
Ches Smith & We All Break – Path of Seven Colors (Pyrcoclastic) | USA/Haiti | Bandcamp
DJINN – Transmission (Rocket) | Sweden | Bandcamp
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (Luaka Bop) | UK/USA | Bandcamp
Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi – Yamawarau (Cached) | USA | Bandcamp
Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi – Setsubun (Cached) | USA | Bandcamp

Jazz Fusion & Jazz-Funk

Bubbling under: Tony Allen, The Physics House Band, Mythic Sunship, Sons Of Kemet, Rhyton, Damon Locks, Rachel Flowers, Baron Crâne, DJINN, Cochemea, Rostro Del Sol. | More.

Sitka Sun – All The Way West (The Long Road Society) | USA | Bandcamp
Rachel Flowers – Bigger On The Inside (Rachel Flowers Music) | USA | Bandcamp
Diagonal – 4 (Cobblers) | UK | Bandcamp
Dans Dans – Zink (Unday) | Belgium | Bandcamp
Mythic Sunship – Wildfire (Tee Pee) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Nicholas Tremulis & The Prodigals – Rarified World (Immediate Family) | USA | Buy
Cynic – Ascension Codes (Season Of Mist) | USA | Bandcamp
Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band – Music Is Dead (Castle Face) | USA | Bandcamp
Al Doum & The Faryds – Freaky People (Bongo Joe) | Italy | Bandcamp
A Better Tomorrow – Spiritual Crossing (La Taniere) | France | Bandcamp
Elephant9 – Arrival Of The New Elders (Rune Grammofon) | Norway | Buy
Trees Speak – PostHuman (Soul Jazz) | USA | Buy
Krokofant w/ Ståle Storløkken & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – Fifth (Rune Grammofon) | Norway | Buy

Global, Reggae, Dub & Afrobeat

The Narcotix is a five-piece Brooklyn band lead by two childhood friends whose parents came from Cameroon and Cote D’Ivoire. Among a wide array of influences, they mention African wedding music, choral symphonies, Afrobeat, Paramore, Kofi Olomide, No Doubt, Nirvana, and Warpaint. That last band is the one that clicks for me, with their dubby trip hop grooves, not to mention the Raincoats at their most shapeshifting and ethereal, Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s global post-punk fusion on Mambo Nassau (1981), and The Slits circa Return of the Giant Slits (1981) where they fuse their dub roots with skewed African rhythms. Each track is named after a member of the band, and it’s a powerful introduction, bursting with haunting atmosphere, melancholic harmonies, skittering beats and Adam Turay’s elliptical guitar that bubbles and boils. It fits nicely into my Trip Jam playlist, which hungers for more lucscious grooves. It’s hunger is sated for now (hello Warpaint, Peluche, Patio and Body Type, let’s get cookin’!) | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Ches Smith & We All Break, Weedie Braimah, Femi Kuti, Ballaké Sissoko, Wau Wau Collectif, Ouzo Bazooka | More.

The Narcotix – Mommy Issues EP (Narcotix) | USA | Bandcamp
Wardruna – Kvitravn (Music For Nations) | Norway | Buy
Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination (RidingEasy) | USA | Bandcamp
Goat – Headsoup (Rocket) | Sweden | Bandcamp
New Age Doom & Lee “Scratch” Perry – Perry’s Guide to the Universe (We Are Busy Bodies) | Canada | Bandcamp
Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime (Matador) | Niger | Bandcamp
Anika – Change (Sacred Bones) | UK | Bandcamp
Made Kuti – For(e)ward (Chocolate City) | Nigeria | Bandcamp
Tony Allen – There Is No End (Blue Note) | Nigeria | Buy
Muito Kaballa Power Ensemble – Mamari (Rebel Up!) | Germany | Bandcamp
Sons Of Kemet – Black To The Future (Impulse!) | UK | Buy
Theon Cross – Intra-I (New Soil) | UK | Bandcamp
Jeff Rosenstock – Ska Dream (Polyvinyl) | USA | Bandcamp

Electronic

Bubbling under: Koreless, Lost Girls, Public Service Broadcasting, Dynatron, PinkPantheress, VASSILINA, Arushi Jain, Richard Barbieri, Carlos Niño & Friend, Plankton Wat, Space Afrika. | More.

Ben LaMar Gay – Open Arms to Open Us (International Anthem) | USA | Bandcamp
Trees Speak – PostHuman (Soul Jazz) | USA | Buy
Moon Wiring Club – The Only Cat Left in Town (Gecophonic) | UK | Bandcamp
Moon Wiring Club – Ghost Party Delerium (Gecophonic) | UK | Bandcamp
LoneLady – Former Things (Warp) | UK | Bandcamp
The Go! Team – Get Up Sequences Part One (Memphis Industries) | UK | Bandcamp
The Lucid Dream – The Deep End (Holy How Are You) | UK | Bandcamp
Slasher Dave – The Jack-O-Lantern Murders (Trick Or Treat) | USA | Bandcamp
Red On – Drums (Verydeeprecords) | Germany | Bandcamp
The Bug – Fire (Ninja Tune) | UK | Bandcamp
AVAWAVES – Chrysalis (One Little Independent) | UK | Bandcamp
Black Dresses – Forever in Your Heart (Black Dresses) | Canada | Bandcamp
Eat Lights Become Lights – The Romance of the Stars (Deep Distance) | UK | Bandcamp

R&B, Soul & Funk

Bubbling under: Lady Wray, Genesis Owuso, The Luvmenauts, Jeb Loy Nichols, Yeek, The Bamboos, Noga Erez, Durand Jones & The Indications, Jungle, Prioritise Pleasure, Nubiyan Twist. | More.

Takeshi’s Cashew – Humans in a Pool (Laut & Luise) | Austria | Bandcamp
A Better Tomorrow – Spiritual Crossing (La Taniere) | France | Bandcamp
Gondhawa – Käampâla (Stolen Body) | France | Bandcamp
Curtis Harding – If Words Were Flowers (Anti-) | USA | Bandcamp
L’Rain – Fatigue (Mexican Summer) | USA | Bandcamp
Arlo Parks – Collapsed In Sunbeams (Transgressive) | UK | Bandcamp
SAULT – NINE (Forever Living Originals) | UK/USA | Bandcamp
Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Age 101) | UK | Buy
Jazmine Sullivan – Heaux Tales EP (RCA) | USA | Buy
Jupiter & Okwess – Na Kazonga (Zamora/Everloving) | Congo | Bandcamp
Dawuna – Glass Lit Dream (O___o?) | USA | Bandcamp
Cleo Sol – Mother (Forever Living Originals) | UK | Bandcamp
Cochemea – Vol. II Baca Sewa (Daptone) | USA | Bandcamp

Hip Hop & Rap

Bubbling under: Wiki, JPEGMAFIA, Mach-Hommy, John Glacier, Sharkula x Mukqs, Sematary, Lil Nas X, Houston Kendrick, Boldy James & The Alchemist, Tyler, the Creator, J. Cole, Doja Cat. | More.

Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Age 101) | UK | Buy
Moor Mother – Black Encyclopedia of the Air (Anti-) | USA | Bandcamp
Backxwash – I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses (Grimalkin) | Canada | Bandcamp
Inury Reserve – By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Injury Reserve) | USA | Bandcamp
Dave – We’re All Alone in This Together (Neighbourhood) | UK
Genesis Owusu – Smiling With No Teeth (House Anxiety) | Ghana | Buy
Isaiah Rashad – The House Is Burning (Top Dawg) | USA
Noga Erez – KIDS (City Slang) | Israel | Bandcamp
Cities Aviv – The Crashing Sound of How It Goes (Total Works) | USA | Bandcamp
Navy Blue – Navy’s Reprise (Freedom Sounds) | USA | Buy
Brockhampton – Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine (Question Everything) | USA
Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Haram (Backwoodz) | USA | Bandcamp
Madlib – Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invazion) | USA | Bandcamp

Folk & Americana

Don’t be thrown off by the unassuming album photo. On her third album, after moving from Philadelphia to Michigan, Rosali Middleman knocks it out of the park with a standout vocal performance, like Chrissie Hynde at her peak exercising demons with a stellar country/folk/Americana backing, plus bonus fiery Crazy Horse jams from The David Nance Group. If you crave more, see her appearance on the Jeffrey Alexander & the Heavy Lidders album.

Bubbling under: Richard Dawson & Circle, Ryley Walker, Yasmin Williams, Ye Banished Privateers, HTRK, Ghost Woman, Marissa Nadler, Mark & The Clouds, Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders, Jeffrey Silverstein, Leon III, Misophone, Cory Hanson, Cobalt Chapel, The War On Drugs, Dark Tea, Bobby Lee, Golden Brown, Grave Flowers Bongo Band, Emma Ruth Rundle, Matt LaJoie, Amigo The Devil, Valerie June, Cassandra Jenkins, The Picturebooks, Silver Synthetic, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. | More.

Rosali – No Medium (Spinster) | USA | Bandcamp
Magic Castles – Sun Reign (A Records) | USA | Buy
The Honey Pot – The Secret (Mega Dodo) | UK | Bandcamp
Ferocious Dog – The Hope (Graphite) | UK | Buy
Langan, Frost & Wane – Langan, Frost & Wane (Goldstar) | USA | Buy
Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals – Pointing Paw (Hip Rep) | UK | Bandcamp
Gold Dust – Gold Dust (Gold Dust) | USA | Bandcamp
Rose City Band – Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey) | USA | Bandcamp
Still Corners – The Last Exit (Wrecking Light) | USA | Bandcamp
Panopticon – …and Again Into the Light (Bindrune) | USA | Bandcamp
Ghosts Of Jupiter – Keepers of the Newborn Green (Nasoni) | UK | Bandcamp
Scott Hirsch – Windless Day (Scissor Tail) | USA | Bandcamp
Wardruna – Kvitravn (Music For Nations) | Norway | Buy

Country, Country Blues/Psych/Rock/Soul

In my review of last year’s Summerlong, I dug deep into the influence of J.J. Cale’s cosmic choogle. Cale’s presence still haunts the studio, but not quite so pronounced, as Johnson delves more into clean sounding, traditional country folk sounds, while still achieving a nicely chilled vibe for summer listening. Rather than choogle into the stratosphere, the third album, Earth Trip, floats and glides along the surface. No doubt the country and psychedelic folk on this album has roots deep into the 50s and 60s (Woody Guthrie, Carter Family, Dylan, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young), but what comes to mind first are the atmospheric vibes of Cowboy Junkies, Mazzy Star, and even gentler moments from the Galaxie 500/Luna catalog. None of those artists made use of pedal steel, but their hushed, understated vocals and riffs did establish an appealing blueprint, which other contemporaries like Magic Castles have drawn inspiration from.

Speaking of pedal steel and country rock, “Lonely Places” almost sounds like it could fit on one of the first three Eagles albums. I have mixed feelings about that. I grew up with country music in the house, and I like some early Eagles okay, but have never lurved it. It’s the the same with that track. That and the upbeat country pop of “World Is Turning” don’t necessarily wreck the vibe, but also ultimately makes Earth Trip my least favorite of the trio of albums. Thankfully the rest of the album finds Johnson’s songwriting as good as ever, with opener “Silver Roses” evoking the anthemic “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” in the most laidback manner possible. “Ramblin’ With The Day” revisits the choogle to give addicts our fix, while “Feel Of Love” and “Rabbit” are satisfyingly spaced out. They don’t move so much as morph, like a cloud, as you revel in the natural beauty that the lyrics evoke. The 9:10 closer “Dawn Patrol” provides the subtle psych jam that was more prevalent on Summerlong. It may be Rose City Band’s lightest and slightest effort, but it’s still essential listening that holds up under heavy playlist rotation. | Bandcamp

I didn’t think Hiss Golden Messenger founder Scott Hirsch could top his breathtaking Lost Time Behind the Moon (2018), but his third solo album is the Ojai country hippie at his most sensuous, mixing J.J. Cale cosmic choogle with Tim Buckley’s Greetings From L.A.. era elastic soul-funk. Possibly the best-sounding thing to come out of the Echo Magic studio — that buttery bass is like ASMR in your underpants.

Rosali – No Medium (Spinster) | USA | Bandcamp
Robert Finley – Sharecropper’s Son (Easy Eye) | USA | Bandcamp
Rose City Band – Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey) | USA | Bandcamp
Scott Hirsch – Windless Day (Scissor Tail) | USA | Bandcamp
Adia Victoria – A Southern Gothic (Atlantic) | USA | Bandcamp
Yola – Stand For Myself (Easy Eye) | UK | Bandcamp
Leon III – Antlers in Velvet (MonoSonic) | USA | Bandcamp
Valerie June – The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers (Fantasy) | USA | Bandcamp
The Picturebooks – The Major Minor Collective (Century Media) | Germany | Buy
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Barn (Reprise) | USA | Buy
Robert Plant | Alison Krauss – Raise the Roof (Rounder) | UK/USA | Bandcamp
The Cush – Riders In The Stardust Gold (Mad Bunny) | UK | Buy
Amythyst Kiah – Wary + Strange (Rounder) | USA | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Jeb Loy Nichols, Charley Crockett, Allisson Russell, Curse of Lono, Reigning Sound, Lucero, Margo Cilker, Miko Marks & The Resurrectors, The Armoires, Mathus & Bird, James McMurtry, Faye Webster, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Blackberry Smoke, Emily Scott Robinson, Wanda Jackson, Fiver, Laura Stevenson, Carly Pearce, Julie Doiron, Wild Pink, Son Volt, Sturgill Simpson, Daniel Romano. | More.

The Golden Circle

For too long I’ve dismissed albums from older artists as the geezer albums. The Golden Circle sounds a bit more respectful, basically musicians who have been active for 40 years to over a half century. For a long time it was assumed that musicians often peaked before they even reach their 30s. Look at The Beatles. The eldest, John Lennon, had yet to turn 30 during the filming of Get Back, and George was only 27! But time has shown them to be an outlier in many ways, and plenty of artists have things to say well into their 70s and even 80s. Sadly, a couple of these are posthumous: Lee Perry & Tony Allen.

Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (Parlophone) | Buy
New Age Doom & Lee “Scratch” Perry – Perry’s Guide to the Universe (We Are Busy Bodies) | Bandcamp
The Opposition – Hope (The Opposition) | Bandcamp
Tony Allen – There Is No End (Blue Note) | Buy
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (Luaka Bop) | Bandcamp
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Carnage (Goliath, 2021) | Buy
The Stranglers – Dark Matters (Coursegood) | Buy
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Barn (Reprise) | Buy
Robert Plant | Alison Krauss – Raise the Roof (Rounder) | Bandcamp
Hawklords – Time (Hawklords) | Buy
The Suburbs – Poets Party (Suburbs Music) | Bandcamp
Angélique Kidjo – Mother Nature (Decca) | Buy
Isildurs Bane & Peter Hammill – In Disequilibrium (Isildurs Bane) | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Scientists, The Professionals, Cheap Trick, The Pop Group & Dennis Bovell, The Alarm, Youth, Paul Weller, Steve Hackett, Paul Weller, Gary Numan, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Archie Shepp & Jason Moran, Hawkwind, Billy F. Gibbons, The Specials, Neville Staple, Styx, The Members, Caravan, Brian Setzer, Alice Cooper, Jane Birkin, Yes, David Crosby, ABBA, Deep Purple.

Non-Metal For Metalheads

This London band has received an incredible amount of acclaim for a debut that is so messy and experimental. It’s definitely a cool, interesting promising start, veering chaotically between klezmer music, post-rock, post-punk and art/prog pop, but I wouldn’t put it on the top of any list. However, the “Bread Song” single is fabulous and gives a good indication that second album Ants From Up There will live up to the promise. | Bandcamp

Bubbling under: Low, FACS, Drew Gardner, The Body, Blodet, James Johnston/Steve Gullick, Senyawa. | More.

Nightshift – Zöe (Trouble In Mind) | UK | Bandcamp
Low – HEY WHAT (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
Illudium – Ash of the Womb (Prophecy Productions) | USA | Bandcamp
Tropical Fuck Storm – Deep States (Joyful Noise) | Australia | Bandcamp
Black Country, New Road – For The First Time (Ninja Tune) | UK | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Stuttgart 1975 (Mute) | Germany | Bandcamp
Panopticon – …and Again Into the Light (Bindrune) | USA | Bandcamp
LICE – WASTELAND: What Ails Our People Is Clear (Settled Law) | UK | Bandcamp
Springtime – Springtime (Joyful Noise) | Australia | Bandcamp
Can – Live in Brighton 1975 (Mute) | Germany | Bandcamp
black midi – Cavalcade (Rough Trade) | UK | Bandcamp
Another Heaven – III: The Sorrowful Cries of Birds With Singed Feathers (Mpls Ltd) | USA | Bandcamp
DVNE – Etemen Ænka (Metal Blade) | UK | Bandcamp

Reissues

Okay I’m cheating, I included this Jazz Butcher singles collection as a new album, and also calling it as the top reissue. I’ve just waited so damn long for this thing. For decades I only had half these songs on a beat-up tape recorded from the radio, and then shitty MP3s ripped from vinyl. Don’t let anyone tell you vinyl rips are superior. They absolutely are not. All the negative aspects of vinyl — the distortion, the clicks, the pops, with no upside of having the album art. Anyway this compilation is all upside — sounds great, excellent liner notes, with the major exception that Pat Fish passed away the month before it’s release. At least now we can blast “Road Runner” in tribute.

Regarding the rest, we’re starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of deluxe reissues. Not sure who would want Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy, but hopefully they’ll circle back to the first album, Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

The Jazz Butcher – Dr Cholmondley Repents: A-sides, B-Sides and Seasides (Fire Archive, 1983-89)
Black Sabbath – Sabotage (Super Deluxe Edition) (BMG, 1975)
Can – Live In Stuttgard 1975 (Spoon/Mute, 1975)
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers – L.A.M.F. – The Found ’77 Masters (Jungle, 1977)
The Beach Boys – Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-71 (Capitol/UME)
Motorhead – No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith (BMG, 1981)
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle (Impulse!, 1965)
Seefeel – Rupt + Flex (1994 – 96) (Warp) | Bandcamp
Be-Bop Deluxe – Live! In The Air Age (Esoteric, 1977)
The Who – The Who Sell Out (Super Deluxe Edition) (UMC/Polydor, 1967)
Eddie Hazel – Games, Dames and Guitar Thangs (Real Gone, 1977)
The Beatles – Let It Be (Apple/UME, 1970)
Rory Gallagher – 50th Anniversary Edition (UMC, 1971)

Bubbling under: Joni Mitchell, PJ Harvey, Alice Coltrane, Japan, Bardo Pond, The Replacements, Come, Radiohead, Nirvana, The Fall, John Lennon, Faust, Van Der Graaf Generator, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Spiritualized, David Bowie, George Harrison, Laura Nyro, Nancy Sinatra, Supergrass.

Late Entries

Last year the Raven Sings The Blues music site had over a dozen albums that I hadn’t heard yet, and the same thing happened this year. Of all the lists that aren’t mine, RSTB best exemplifies a cohesive taste and aesthetic that is impossible to argue with. Pretty much all the others are garbage in comparison. I mean, I wouldn’t say that about my own, but in it’s sprawl, I certainly take many coffee breaks and detours from the tyranny of good taste. I’m monitoring Album of the Year’s lists, 56 and counting, and none generate inspiration, excitement and discovery like RSTB does.

Ducks Ltd. – Modern Fiction
Mod Con – Modern Condition
Illudium – Ash of the Womb
Novelty Island – How Are You Coping With This Century?
Rosali – No Medium
Parcels – Day/Night
Rachel Flowers – Bigger On The Inside
Laura Meade – The Most Dangerous Woman In America
Upper Wilds – Venus
Power Supply – In the Time of the Sabre-Toothed Tiger
Ferocious Dog – The Hope
The Telephone Numbers – The Ballad of Doug
Massage – Still LIfe

Bubbling under: Gold Dust, The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Dummy, Scott Hirsch, Idle Ray, The Shop Window, Maxïmo Park, Al Doum & The Faryds, New Age Doom & Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Smashing Times, Naked Raygun, Ye Banished Privateers, Princess Diana Of Wales, The Opposition, The Black Watch, Weeed, The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Dummy, Rhyton, Sea Fever, Drug Store Romeos.

New Old Discoveries

Last year I discovered over 800 albums released before 2020. This year I was a bit less productive, at least in terms of music discovery. Had a list of 16 home improvements to get through, sell a house and move across the country, so I was productive in that respect. Looks like my list this year is just over 400 albums. I found Fishmans just from randomly searching different genres on RYM, probably prog pop or ambient pop. I thought I had a handle on cool Japanese music in the 90s, but I thought wrong. Andy Pawlak was the result of a deep dive into 80s sophisti-pop, and the legendary Hypsterz was a Minneapolis band that I was reminded I had heard very little of aside from a college housemate’s live album. Cyn Collins’ Complicated Fun: The Birth of Minneapolis Punk and Indie Rock, 1974-1984 reminded me to track that down. I also sent a bunch of money directly to Paul Stark at Twin/Tone records for a bunch of digital files of albums he mostly produced and engineered himself.

Fishmans – Long Season (Polydor, 1996)
Andy Pawlak – Shoebox Full Of Secrets (Fontana, 1989)
Hypstrz – Hypstrization! (Voxx, 1980)
Mere Women – Big Skies (Poison City, 2017)
Candy Claws – Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time (twosyllable, 2013)
Psicomagia – Psicomagia (El Paraiso, 2013)
Sun River – Sun River (El Paraiso, 2012)
The Pink Moon – Cosmic Heart Attack (Crispin Glover, 2020)
Landing Bells – In New Towns (El Paraiso, 2018)
Needlepoint – Aimless Mary (BJK, 2015)
World Party – Goodbye Jumbo (Ensign, 1990)
Holy Fawn – Death Spells (Whelmed, 2018)
Madness – The Liberty of Norton Folgate (Lucky Seven, 2009)

Bubbling under: The Pillbugs, The 3rd Ear Experience, Glass Hammer, The Maze, Cavity, Thomas Dinger, Flamin’ Oh’s, Dove, Nyl, TOWER, Laura Meade, Lindy-Fay Hella, Northwest Vinditas, Bushman’s Revenge, Akiko Yano, Tokyo Shoegazer, Outskirts of Infinity, Space Debris, Kinoko Teikoku, The Machine, Solip, Paul Roland & the Midnight Rags, The Novembers, The Ocean, Domo, The Heads, Shojoskip, Quantum Fantasy.

Trip Jam
Psych Noir and Psych Prog have both been seen out in the wild since I started heavily pushing those genre tags. Trip Jam was introduced by Peluché. Ever since I became an enthusiastic fan in 2018, they’ve been completely MIA, and just as I published this, I learned that Amy and Sophie formed a new band called It Was All A Dream. I hope my love didn’t destroy them. It’s been known to happen. Hopefully with five bands adopting this sub-genre this year (whether they realized it or not), Trip Jam will live on.

Body Type – Expired Candy (Poison City, 2023) | Australia | Bandcamp
Goat Girl – On All Fours (Rough Trade, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Mere Women – Romantic Notions (Poison City, 2021) | Australia | Bandcamp
Groupie – Ephemeral (Groupie, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Peluché – Unforgettable (One Little Indian, 2018) | UK | Bandcamp
La Rosa Noir – Arellano (My Grito Industries, 2023) | USA
Smoke Bellow – Open For Business (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp
Body Type – Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising (Poison City, 2022) | Australia | Bandcamp
Patio – Essentials (Fire Talk, 2019) | USA | Bandcamp
Nightshift – Zöe (Trouble In Mind, 2021) | UK | Bandcamp
Warpaint – Radiate Like This (Heirlooms/Virgin, 2022) | USA | Bandcamp
Fassine – Forge (Trapped Animal, 2020) | UK | Bandcamp
The Narcotix – Mommy Issues EP (Narcotix, 2021) | USA | Bandcamp

AOR

Ah those Swedes. Leave it to them to revisit Journey/Night Ranger style 80s AOR and perfect that production sound and style to the most minute detail. A lot of these bands have more consistent songwriting than the originals did.

Sordal – Juno & Jupiter (Apollon) | Norway | Bandcamp
W.E.T. – Retransmission (Frontiers) | Sweden
Eclipse – Wired (Frontiers) | Sweden
Crazy Lixx – Street Lethal (Frontiers) | Sweden
Hitten – Triumph & Tragedy (HR) | Spain | Bandcamp
Nestor – Kids in a Ghost Town (Avalon) | Sweden
Cruzh – Tropical Thunder (Frontiers) | Sweden
Kayak – Out Of This World (InsideOut) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Styx – Crash of the Crown (UMe) | USA | Buy
Seventh Crystal – Delerium (Frontiers) | Sweden
The Pretty Reckless – Death By Rock And Roll (Fearless) | USA | Bandcamp
Twisted Illusion – Temple Of Artifice (Twisted Illusion) | UK | Bandcamp
Night Ranger – A.T.B.P.O. (Frontiers) | USA

Holiday Treat: A Pirate Xmas!

“´Tis the jolliest of seasons! Swedish sea dogs YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS have come rowing through rough seas and salty winds to steal Christmas in the most swashbuckling of ways. Wrapped in the swag of pirate folk rock, the newly interpreted, grim covers of beloved Christmas classics on A Pirate Stole My Christmas draw the listener into a dark underworld of blood and bones! YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS put their shanty and pirate folk infused spin on Christmas tunes like “Twelve Days Of Christmas” and the captivating album opener “Ring The Bells”. The well-known classic “Oh Christmas Tree” gets a new coat of paint when YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS re-word it to “Oh Cannonball” – most definitely making Christmas eve a special occasion for the most beautiful time of the year.

“Drawn and Quartered” features a dancing, dangling pirate as he experiences a curious macabre Christmas marvel, whilst “Deck and Hull” captivates with a frenetic tavern-like atmosphere and a beguiling female voice meeting raspy pirate chanting. YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS tug the listener through dreary winter days and prepare them for the most eerie season. Gather ‘round, the salty air is freezing, and YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS are ready to trim your Christmas tree in the most chilling of ways!

*NSFW*!!! Introduce this at your work holiday karaoke party at your own risk! Especially on the chorus of this one…

Labels
Last year a whopping 17 albums by Nuclear Blast made my list. This year Ripple leads the pack.

Ripple (13)
Metal Blade (12)
Fuzz Club (11)
Nuclear Blast (11)
Svart (10)
InsideOut (10)
Heavy Psych (10)
Trouble In Mind (7)
Thrill Jockey (7)
Domino (6)
Century Media (6)
Castle Face (5)
Sub Pop (5)

Bubbling under: Season Of Mist (5), Drag City, Fire, 4AD, New West, Cruz Del Sur, 20 Buck Spin, Cardinal Fuzz, Relapse, Blue Note, ATO, Prosthetic, Profound Lore.

Singles

My singles guru Toby has nearly stopped posting on his The Finest Kiss site, but thankfully he still shares his discoveries at the end of the year. I don’t know how he sniffs out so many great 7″ singles and EPs, but he’s got it dialed in, at least in terms of indie pop, jangle pop, dream pop, and a smattering of soul. I’m not a big vinyl person — I haven’t owned a record player in over 20 years, but I do get nostalgic for when I would buy singles from an exciting new band, anticipating their album. I definitely fill up my Bandcamp cart when his list comes out. Not on Spotify: CDG, The Smog.

Videos

289+ and counting!

Shows

🙁

Movies

Movie distribution seemed to be in crisis in 2021. Studios kept delaying movie releases with the hope that the pandemic would end and people would pour back into theaters. That may have happened with a handful of movies, but for the most part, not really. I sprung the big bucks to stream some new movies, but they were not memorable enough to list. I watched a lot of stuff on Acorn and Netflix, but it’s all a blur. So mainly I’ve got some music documentaries as highlights.

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
The Beatles: Get Back
Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliche
The Velvet Underground
Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan
Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Palm Springs
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Tina
The Go-Go’s

Yuck: Sound of Metal

Haven’t seen yet: Phil Lynott: Songs for While I’m Away, Don’t Go Gentle: A Film About Idles, Punk the Capital: Building A Sound Movement, Licorice Pizza, Dune, Free Guy, Nomadland, Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Green Knight, The Suicide Squad, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Luca, The Sparks Brothers, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, I’m Your Man, Dune, I Carry You With Me, The Paper Tigers, Black Widow, Promising Young Woman.

Television

I’m still reeling from Lovecraft Country, wondering if that’s coming back. How about Watchmen? At least The Good Fight lived to fight another year.

The Good Fight S05 (Paramount)
Hacks (HBO Max)
We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)
The Other Two (HBO Max)
Ted Lasso S02 (Apple+)
Sex Education S03 (Netflix)
Mare of Easttown (HBO)
Cowboy Bebop (Netflix)
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
PEN15 S03 (Netflix)
Resident Alien (Syfy)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
Physical (Apple+)

Bubbling under: Starstruck (HBO Max), The Chair (Netflix), 1971: The Year that Music Changed Everything, Doom Patrol S02, Grace & Frankie, The Komisnky Method, The Snoopy Show (Apple+), Never Have I Ever S02, Master of None Presents: Moments in Love (Netflix), Midnight Mass (Netflix). Dash & Lily, Iliza Schlesinger Sketch Show, Deadwater Fell, The Mandalorian S02, Killing Eve S03, Baptiste, The Schouwendam 12, Hidden, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Better Things S03, Big Mouth S04, Catastrophe, Fleabag, I Am Not Okay With This S01, Truth Seekers S01, Upload S01, High Fidelity, Ramy S02, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist S02, Girlboss, Feel Good S01, The Vow, Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood.

Cozy Brittania & Nordic Noirs on Acorn, PBS Masterpiece, Britbox: Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Dead Still, Rebecka Martinsson, rankie Drake Mysteries, Mystery In Paris, Wisting, Blood S02, London Kills S02, Murderland, Deadwater Fell, Murder In Suburbia, Queens of Mystery, Endeavor, Grantchester. Dabbled in Prime Suspect, Midsomer Murders, Vera, A Touch Of Frost.

Haven’t seen: Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu), Shadow and Bone (Netflix), Sweet Tooth (Netflix), Dickinson (Apple+), The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max), Foundation (Apple+), Succession (HBO), The White Lotus (HBO Max), Kevin Can Fuck Himself (AMC), I May Destroy You, Normal People, Tales From the Loop, The Feed, Tokyo Vampire Hotel, Modern Love, The Beat, The City and the City, Knife + Heart, The Fall, Undone.

Books

Topping the list is the conclusion of Johannes Johns’ amazing The Redwood Revenger trilogy. I’ve been visiting Cascadia since starting the series in 2018, and will miss it just as much as Harry Potter superfans miss Hogwarts. I think we need an epic three season TV series treatment, and a Cascadia themepark. Will all of, say Neal Stephonson’s fans think it surpasses his latest? Perhaps not, but it’s worth finding out for yourself. Read more.

I had not quite finished Neal Stephenson’s latest, Termination Shock at the time of writing this originally. I’ve often said he could use a more aggressive editor, but so far it’s been pretty fast-paced, only getting lost in the weeds a little bit with the details of Rufus’ Moby Dick-like obsession with hunting down the feral hog that ate (!) his daughter. Yes, the book starts with the Queen of the Netherlands making an emergency landing in Waco, TX, and crashing after the landing gear clips a giant feral hog that had invaded the runway. It appears to be an unspecified near future, perhaps only 15 years away, when heat waves become so crippling that it’s too hot for a plane to land in Houston. Along with roving herds of killer feral hogs, there is also a fire ant problem where the ants are attracted to the ozone in air conditioners and systematically disable all the air conditioners in large areas of Texas.

Funny thing, I recently moved to central Texas, and my septic inspector warned me of the very same thing, of how they’re attracted to certain electronic frequencies, and I have to keep them away from the septic electronics and the air conditioner. So Stephenson, as usual, has done his research. | Full Review

Red Root: The Redwood Revenger, Book Three – Johannes Johns (2021)
Termination Shock – Neal Stephenson (2021)
Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music, 1968 to the Present – JR Moores (Reaktion, 2021)
This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s Kid A and the Beginning of the 21st Century – Steven Hyden (2020)
Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-metal – J.J. Anselmi (2020)
Can’t Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop’s Blockbuster Year – Michelangelo Matos (2020)
The Unstable Boys: A Novel – Nick Kent (2021)
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev – Dawnie Walton (2021)
White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s – Joe Boyd (2010)
Face It: A Memoir – Debbie Harry (2019)
Substance: Inside New Order – Peter Hook (2017)
Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk – John Doe (2016)
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation – Jeff Chang (2007)

Not read yet:

Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll – Lenny Kaye (2021)
Medical Grade Music – Steve Davis & Kavus Torabi (2021)
Why Marianne Faithful Matters – Tanya Pearson (2021)
2 Tone: Before, During & After – Lee Morris (2021)
Two Steps Forward One Step Back: My Life in the Music Business – Miles A. Copeland III (2021)
The Scene That Would Note Die: Twenty Years of Post-Millennial Punk in the UK – Ian Glasper (2021)
A Band with Built-In Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk – Peter Stanfield (2021)
Relax Baby, Be Cool: The Artistry And Audacity Of Serge Gainsbourg – Jeremy Allen (2021)
Girlsville: The Story of the Delmonas and Thee Headcoatees – Saskia Holling (2021)
Vibrate Higher: A Rap Story – Talib Kweli (2021)
Tenement Kid – Bobby Gillespie (2021)
Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life – Steven Hyden (2016)
Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys – Lol Tolhurst (2016)
Horror Stories: A Memoir – Liz Phair (2019)
New Atlantis – Lavie Tidhar (2020)
Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu (2020)
Utopia Avenue – David Mitchell (2020)
Marc Bolan Killed in a Car Crash: A musical novel of the 1970s – Ira A. Robbins (2020)

Shopping

There’s a picture of me, age 11, standing next to the Christmas tree, beaming because I received the Xanadu soundtrack. I was a big fan of Electric Light Orchestra. It makes me sad that the digitization of not only music, but, well, everything, kind of interferes with the joy of giving and receiving them as gifts. I know some culture geeks who still collect box sets of CDs, albums, blu-rays, and physical books, but they are of a specific age group, and kind of rare.

If you do know someone who appreciates that, get ’em something! If they still listen to music files, a Bandcamp gift card is pretty cool.

Fester’s Lucky 13 — 2020

Posted in: Bandcamp, Books, Features, Film, Listicles, Lucky 13, News, Rants, Reissues, Reviews, TV, Videos/Singles

Other

Stuff

May 13, 2024

Steve Albini

March 29, 2024

Fester’s Lucky 13: 1994

March 11, 2024

Winter Rundown

Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge and Post-Metal by J. J. Anselmi

Spidergawd – VI (Crispin Glover)

Fester’s Lucky 13: 2021 Year-End Summary