2020 February Listenings

Beatrice Dillon - Workaround

Minimalistic IDM / techno dub. This is very good electronic music. Imma get a copy…

Release date: 2020-02-07

[8.8/10]

Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown

2019 we got Matana Roberts, 2020 we now have Jeff Parker. That solo in the song Build a Nest is super sick…

Release date: 2020-01-24

[8.6/10]

They Hate Change - Maneuvers

One of the best hip-hop acts in the game nowadays presents another stellar EP.

Release date: 2017-06-20

[8.5/10]

Kush Jones - Strictly 4 My Cdjz 6

Footwork / jungle / dance album. Probably the first album from 2020 that I really dig…

Release date: 2020-01-09

[8.4/10]

Against All Logic - 2017 - 2019

Bombastic IDM / techno / club. Very catchy. I missed out on the previous AAL release, guess there is no longer any excuse to not check that out…

Release date: 2020-02-07

[8.4/10]

Deantoni Parks - Silver Cord

Killer fusion / electronica. Kind of reminds me of that Greg Fox album, but more electronica oriented and more accessible.

Release date: 2008-01-01

[8.3/10]

Smagghe & Cross - 1819

Bizarre ambient / electronica / minimal music. Very hard to categorize into a singular genre… a mesmerizing album.

Release date: 1998-01-28

[8.2/10]

Desire Marea - Desire

Experimental club music / pop / electronica. There’s definitely a experimental pop a la Sophie and Anohni vibe going on here, but then that last track was super tormenting and super dark. Really good stuff.

Release date: 1976-01-16

[8.2/10]

Panopticon - Panopticon

This one is country / folk songs only.

Release date: 2004

[8.2/10]

Denzel Curry, Kenny Beats - Unlocked

There should be more.

Release date: 2020-02-07

[8.2/10]

Dark Arts - Reflections In A Rear View Mirror

Modern classical / nu-jazz / electronica ambient. This one is actually hard to categorize… a lot of the songs reminded me of the soundtracks to the movie Before The Rain.

Release date: 2015-05-12

[8.1/10]

The Homesick - The Big Exercise

Indie pop / post-punk. Sometimes the guitar tones remind me of Iceage, but this one’s definitely more pop leaning.

Release date: 2020-02-07

[8.1/10]

熱寫生 - 豆皮少年

Stellar indie pop / rock from some friends. Honestly I like this album quite a bit… the songs are layered with different textures but the album as a whole still feels pretty cohesive. I also like how the producer added a bunch of extra effects and instrumentations (and extra guitars) here and there. Fave songs: 塔悠, 愛與膠囊, 山洞. That reversed guitar (or is it something else?) on 塔悠 is really sick.

Release date: 2020-02-07

絕對不講認識的朋友出的專輯的壞話，有講的話就代表我真的覺得還不錯，不過沒講的話也可能是我沒有聽過就是了…

[8.1/10]

Drive-By Truckers - The Unraveling

I like these folk pop rock jams quite a bit…

Release date:

[8.0/10]

James Ruskin - Consumer Patterns

Sleek techno / club. Very enjoyable and danceable (though I don’t dance whatsoever).

Release date: 2020-01-31

[8.0/10]

Frail Hands - Parted / Departed / Apart

Screamo / emo. This is one of the rare instances in this type of music I’ve had a chance to listen to recently, where all instruments are really on point and the entire album feels pretty complete.

Release date: 2020-01-10

[7.9/10]

Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

I remember checking out Anaïs Mitchell some time ago (Hadestown) and wasn’t very much impressed, and I never knew about Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman before, so when this album came out I was somewhat indifferent. Then it turns out this album is legit and really pleasant. I would say this album still fell a bit short compared with giants like Sturgill Simpson, Bonnie “Prince” Billy or even Terry Allen, but it is indeed a very comforting album in its own right.

Release date: 2020-01-24

[7.8/10]

Lonker See - Hamza

Quality psychedelic jazz fusion. I think I like their previous album more, but this one is still stellar.

Release date: 2020-12-16

[7.7/10]

Bill Fay - Countless Branches

Tender folk album. The back story of the artist is pretty fascinating: recorded and released two albums in the 70s, spent several decades as a park groundkeeper, and then returned in 2012 to release entirely new music, which is comprised of materials he recorded during his inactivity as a musician.

Release date: 2020-01-17

[7.7/10]

Bambara - Stray

Catchy, gothic post-punk. I like the first part of this LP more than the latter.

Release date: 2015-11-05

[7.7/10]

Peder Mannerfelt - Like We Never Existed

Danceable club techno.

Release date: 2020-01-31

[7.7/10]

Rebecca Foon - Waxing Moon

Slow, grandiose alternative dream pop. Lots of piano and strings going on. The arrangements are very reminiscent of her Constellation label mates, which should not be too surprising given that she actually plays in not one but a bunch of them…

Release date: 2001

[7.6/10]

Midori Hirano - Invisible Island

Soothing piano music / modern composition.

Release date: 2020-02-07

[7.6/10]

Villaelvin - Headroof

Experimental music in the same vein as Amnesia Scanner and Lotic. Eerie stuff.

Release date: 2020-01-30

[7.5/10]

yMusic - Ecstatic Science

Neoclassical chamber music.

Release date: 2020-02-14

[7.5/10]

Men With Secrets - Psycho Romance And Other Spooky Ballads

Cold wave synth-pop / industrial / psychedelic techno. It is indeed quite spooky…

Release date: 2020-01-31

[7.5/10]

Wire - Mind Hive

Post-punk legends bring back more rockin’ gems even they’re super old. Makes me wonder what happened to all the other old ass punk rock groups that seem to be content with a release every two years filled with redundant songs and stagnated music. A lot of the songs on this album remind me of some of the more accessible Sonic Youth tracks, like Cactused and Off The Beach.

Release date: 2020-01-24

[7.5/10]

Holy Fuck - Deleter

I suppose this is the sound a lot of Taiwanese indie rock bands are trying to achieve: bouncy tunes with heavy keys / synth presence.

Release date: 2020-01-17

[7.3/10]

Mac Miller - Circles

Better than 90% of the pop rap records out there. I guess I’m just not really a huge fan of the genre, but then I’d choose Ed Balloon over this one any time of the day…

Release date: 2020-01-17

[7.2/10]

Katie Gately - Loom

Baroque-ambient-experimental-pop.

Release date: 2020-10-15

[7.2/10]

Laughing Ears - Metamorphosis

Exotic club music. Not the biggest fan of the beats on this album.

Release date: 2003-01-01

[7.0/10]

Palm - Violets Are Blue

Lofi hip-hop. Kind of like what the standard elevator music in 2020 would sound like…

Release date: 2020-11-24

[6.8/10]

Axebreaker - The White Sepulcher

Noise EP. Doesn’t really feel like a complete, cohesive release, the runtime is just way too short.

Release date:

[6.8/10]

Hyukoh - Through Love

I like the stripped-back guitars on this EP, not so much the vocals. The falsettos man… they’re pretty rough.

Release date: 2020-01-30

[6.7/10]

Tame Impala - The Slow Rush

I think there are definitely some R&B influences on this record… I don’t know, I kind of miss the InnerSpeaker era Tame Impala where it’s pure fuzz-dominant indie rock / pop, instead of this retro pop rock sound this album’s got going.

Release date: 2020-02-14

[6.3/10]

Of Montreal - UR FUN

Quasi new age release from veteran indie rockers. I don’t like bubblegum new age / AOR music…

Release date: 2020-01-17

[6.3/10]

Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

Post-bubblegum pop. While the concepts behind this project seemed pretty interesting when I first read about it the music just isn’t really enjoyable. The songs are just water down versions of other ambient pop artists like Anohni and Charli XCX.

Release date: 2020-02-21

[5.3/10]

Wild Nothing - Laughing Gas

… What’s the point of releasing new music when it is essentially a regressed version of previous stuff like Nocturne or Gemini?

Release date: 2020-01-31

[5.0/10]

HMLTD - West Of Eden

Trap / glam rock / post-punk. The vocals are super obnoxious and the band feels like they have an attention span of a snail - this album has no focus whatsoever.

Release date: 2020-02-07

[4.2/10]

Envy - The Fallen Crimson

The songs got even more drawn out than their previous record. At the more tolerable moments on this record the band sounds like they’re trying to mimic their earlier materials, which are actual legitimate post-hardcore jams that are raw and aggressive, but on this record it’s pretty lackluster. And the more post-rock songs or the ones with J-pop chanting female vocals are even more excruciating… I mean I bet not one out of ten would consider the song Rhythm an OK song.

Release date: 2020-02-07

[3.1/10]

Poppy - I Disagree

I disagree with the release of this album… Nu metal? Metalcore? Bubblegum pop? Trap? Now imagine all these stuff combined and condensed into a full length album… yuck.

Release date: 2020-01-09

[3.0/10]

Infinite Body - Carve Out The Face Of My God

Ambient / electronica FFO Gas and Tim Hecker.

Release date: 2010-01-28

[8.7/10]

Terry Allen - Juarez

Outlaw folk. Dope AF.

Release date: 2016-05-20

[8.6/10]

Raime - Planted

Raime is still on top of their game… dope techno / footwork / club release. Don’t sleep on it.

Release date: 2018-01-30

[8.4/10]

Jon Hassell - Aka / Darbari / Java

Mystic ambient / world music. This album is much more in line with my idea of how a concept album focused on the SE Asia should sound like, but then I digress…

Release date:

[8.4/10]

Hieroglyphic Being - Synth Expressionism / Rhythmic Cubism

Jazzy club / techno. I don’t think there’s a bad track on this album…

Release date:

[8.3/10]

Gregg Kowalsky - Through The Cardial Window

Excellent drone / ambient.

Release date:

[8.3/10]

Burnt Friedman - Anthology (1980-2017)

Techno / dub / house. Every song on this album is a good song.

Release date: 2017-12-08

[8.2/10]

Resavoir - Resavoir

Another missed gem from last year. Spectacular jazz hop release.

Release date: 2019-06-28

[8.2/10]

DJ Loser - Urban Survival Anthems

Rave / industrial. Very hyperactive stuff… Kind of like a more menacing Tsuzing.

Release date: 2019-08-26

[8.1/10]

808 State - Transmission Suite

I always thought 808 State is one of those spooky sounding obscure industrial bands… obviously I was very wrong (again). Pretty funky electronica / techno. The pace of the songs are really fast. I think the first half of the record is noticeably stronger than the second.

Release date: 2019-10-11

[8.1/10]

Eartheater, LEYA - Angel Lust

Experimental pop / ambient. I wasn’t too keen on Eartheater’s 2018 album Irisiri, and didn’t really spend time to listen to her album Trinity from Last Year. However I really like how the almost whispered vocals are accompanied by detuned harps and the overall eerie, restrained atmosphere, which is definitely present but didn’t really do all that much on Eartheater’s previous efforts.

Release date: 2019-12-20

[8.1/10]

Mary Halvorson, John Dieterich - A Tangle Of Stars

Quirky, fun experimental music. Free jazz + indie rock?

Release date: 2019-10-25

[8.0/10]

Callisto - Guidance Is Internal: Part 1

Very danceable club music. The sound is super streamlines and stripped back. When is part 2 coming out?

Release date: 2019-11-29

[8.0/10]

Jamael Dean - Black Space Tapes

Pretty decent nu-jazz / jazz-hop. I dig the chords on this album.

Release date: 2019-11-08

[7.9/10]

Incredible Self Confidence - Worm

Short retro psych rock / funk EP from the UK. Too short, but the band is super promising. Wouldn’t be surprised if people dig them.

Release date: 2010-07-20

[7.9/10]

Mukqs - SD Biomix

Deconstructed electronica. The guy said this album is somewhat comparable to Japanese experimental electronic musicians like Foodman and the artist’s labelmate Toiret Status, which is actually pretty accurate.

Release date:

[7.9/10]

Toiret Status - Omaru

Abrasive computer music. There’s a song with menacing guitar solos and blast beats, out of place but at the same time pretty cool…

Release date: 2020-10-16

[7.9/10]

Emma-Jean Thackray - Ley Lines

Pretty decent nu-jazz / afrohouse album. What’s really impressive is that all these tracks are played by the artist herself…

Release date:

[7.8/10]

Konduku - White Heron

Decent ambient / techno / dub techno. It’s got a really subtle eerie atmosphere, which is pretty cool.

Release date: 2019-11-29

[7.8/10]

Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2

I missed out on Now Only because A Crow Looked At Me was too strong of an album to make me think, maybe Phil would just quit making music altogether after this album, and if he didn’t the later stuff would be inevitably compared with Crow and would undoubtedly prove to be much less powerful. This album is indeed less heart wrenching to listen to then Crow, but then now I’ve grown and come to the realization that comparing a pretty good album to any god-tier stuff is just pretty unfair…

Release date: 2019-11-08

Anyway this is the classic Phil Elverum sound contained within the length of an album.

[7.8/10]

Vanishing Twin - The Age Of Immunology

Sounds like Stereolab with even more pop influences to me…

Release date: 2019-06-07

[7.7/10]

Helm - Chemical Flowers

Decent ambient / experimental release. Lucinda Chua played on this album.

Release date: 2019-05-17

[7.7/10]

Meemo Comma - Sleepmoss

Ethereal yet unsettling at times field recordings / ambient.

Release date: 2021-06-06

[7.7/10]

Easy Changes - Miki Biasion

Pretty decent minimal deep house.

Release date:

[7.6/10]

Buddy Collette Septet - Polynesia

Unlike more contemporary musicians that sought to blend exotic elements into their music, this one is actually pretty straightforward jazz music. The songs are pretty shadowy but not as grim as some modern dark jazz ensembles, and it is actually the narrations and lyrics in this album, pulled from ancient Polynesian and Japanese manuscripts, that stand out the most.

Release date: 2013-10-17

[7.5/10]

Stephen Mallinder - Um Dada

I was like “this sounds kinda like Cabaret Voltaire…” and boom there it was. I dig the older CV’s stuff way more than this one though, this album is a bit too much on the pop side than what I’d preferred.

Release date: 2019-10-11

[7.5/10]

Shin Guard - 2020

Flashy screamo. The chords are pretty dissonant but I think they left too many somewhat distracting materials in this LP.

Release date: 2020-10-30

[7.4/10]

Sandunes - 11:11

Poppy hip-hop / ambient.

Release date: 2019-05-17

[7.3/10]

Amulets - Between Distant And Remote

Alright ambient release.

Release date: 2019-10-25

[7.3/10]

John Daly - Sea And Sky

Deep house / disco. I feel like the songs are a bit too long…

Release date: 2020-10-30

[7.2/10]

Duster - Duster

It’s OK but Stratosphere is significantly better.

Release date: 2019-12-13

[7.0/10]

Hilary Woods - Colt

Minimalist ambient / indie pop.

Release date: 2017-05-12

[7.0/10]

Fifths Of Seven - Spry From Bitter Anise Folds

Neoclassical / ambient / cinematic post-rock.

Release date: 2018-07-27

[7.0/10]

Sami Baha - Free For All

Wacky wonky trap hip-hop.

Release date: 1976

[6.8/10]

William Bonney - All Ten

Screamo / emo. I like the guitars on this album, but the drums sound way too artificial and drumming sounds pretty mediocre. The vocals don’t help too much either.

Release date: 2018-12-13

[6.6/10]

Chromatics - Closer To Grey

Electro rock. Not too excited about this album.

Release date: 2019-10-02

[6.5/10]

Ka5sh - Big Pink Loser

Bipolar cloud rap… meh. The gleeful tracks on this release are way too sugary and only leave the listener with an awful aftertaste. The dark tunes are not any better.

Release date: 2018-04-13

[3.0/10]