š Music 2022 š
A thread for music Iāve loved this year in no particular order. Iām a music blogger at heart. But donāt get time to do it like I used to because of beautiful things like family, teaching, love, life getting in the way. Music still makes my world go around and helps me feel connected when I need it most. Some things are so good they just need sharing. Iāll post one a day or so with links to listen. If anyone knows any good hashtags this would fit inā¦
Rainy Miller - Desquamation (Frie, Burn. Nobody)
Rainy Miller has been my most played artist this year. I found him through connections to Iceboy Violet. Iād been playing Blonde so much I had to find something that hit that vibe and it was nowhere to be seen until Rainy Miller. The use of auto-tune and reverb, Northern UK cadence and content resonate hard. Experimental electronic R&B with a dark melodramatic beauty to it.
https://rainymiller.bandcamp.com/album/desquamation-fire-burn-nobody
10 track album
Richie Culver - I was born by the sea
This one hits home hard as a lad who grew up in the middle of nowhere and now lives by the sea in a Northern town that feels forgotten. It sounds like a bleak January looking to sea, feeling trapped with little opportunity. Melodramatic, moody, dub techno without the boom, electronics paint a picture around spoken word slices of life. Itās bleak.
8 track album
RS ProduƧƵes - SaĆŗde em 1Ā° Lugar
PRĆNCIPE have always been an incredibly consistent label. I DJād at a festival in 2011 and was so hyped by PRĆNCIPE that I arranged my whole set around a DJ Marfox 12ā because it banged so hard with twisting rhythms and a bleep kind of vibe. The catalogue is really diverse and RS ProduƧƵes make real nice deep rolling twisted dance music with a twisted percussive wind and a slight Drexciyan vibe.
13 track album
Gilla Band - Most Normal
Gilla Band are rock band that donāt sound like a rock band anymore and that makes them rock even more. Experimental, noisy, post-punk with deadpan humour and it just rips. Iāve not heard anything like it before. Drums hold together swirling blasts of noise and feedback into twisted groves. The closest Iāve got is to Lowās recent albums but theyāre using a different pallet all together.
12 track album
Iceboy Violet - The Vanity Project
Iceboy Violet was a secret weapon deployed by Lorain James, Space Afrika and aya last year. They killed every feature. Their debut project here is so good, intense and unique. Flows on point, beats experimental and impeccable. Itās a disorientating world of swirling atmospheres and rhythms. Lyrics raw, honest, emotional. So unique.
7 track album
Persher - Man With The Magic Soap
Blawan & Pariah aka Karenn take a break from tough analogue techno to make those machines melt faces as a metal project. Another example of heavy electronic bands this year that have eased me back into music with guitars in the mix. Blawan taking it back to his roots as a drummer in bands with a knowledge of the heavy stuff. Sounds like playing DOOM through syrup.
https://persher.bandcamp.com/album/man-with-the-magic-soap
#Heavy #Electronic #Techno #Experimental #Hardcore #Music #Metal
7 track album
Gav & Jord - Writings Ov Tomato
Equiknoxx always make my ears happy. Last years Basic Tools & ā¦Meets Feel Free HiFi are something else. Twisted experimental electronics that sound somewhere between Actress, Footwork and their own vision of Dancehall. Throwing the dance floor into a sidewinding spin. Itās playful, it bangs. Theyāre a world of their own.
https://malrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/writings-ov-tomato-2
7 track album
Burial - Antidawn / Streetlands
Burial builds worlds like no one else. Deeply meditative soundscapes. Getting into no beat Burial took me some time. But now Iām here itās grounding rather than the cathartic without the skeletal bumps, which is no bad thing. Itās like witnessing an artist at work, taking their pallet in new directions.
Heavee - Audio Assault
Sonic the Hedgehog getting chopped to bits in new and playful ways in a high speed machine for the fun of it has never sounded better. Footwork is always finding new shapes Heaveeās vision has a hyper-coloured machine funk thatās so tight and inventive. Then these melted computer game synths just finish it off.
6 track album
Batu - Opal
Seeing second wave post-dubstep heads nurture their skills over the years to become brilliant album artists has been great to hear. Parris last year, Facta, among a few and now Batu. This one is deep, inspired by nature, you feel like youāre within the very matter that builds it, with an alien soundscape, rolling rhythms and deep bass.Sounds like a classic UK underground album.
11 track album
Kuedo - Infinite Window
Kuedoās album Scissors has been a classic for me for a long time. This cuts back on the high intensity drill and footwork drums but ups the sci-fi soundscapes to brilliant effect. Itās icy, emotive with sound design to die for. Sino-grime ambience, Bladerunner cityscapes. āShadow Danceā is the one. Really nice fit to Flying Lotusā Brainfeeder label.
11 track album
Michael J. Blood - As Is
Raw bumpingā house experiments that light things up. I used to love playing sets full of these kinds of tracks. Nostalgic bangers with a rough edge. Eking soul out of broken machines for the dance floor. Lots of sizzle in the hi-hats and grit in the low end. āGMTā caught the ear first with its Eski synths and deep house shuffle.
13 track album
Authentically Plastic - Raw Space
Cathartic raw drum machine workouts that sound like youāre exorcising tension and anxiety through machines. It bumps in twisted industrial ways that are so satisfying. As intense as someone like Chicagoās Jana Rush but working in a Ugandan set of rhythms and frazzled techno. For fans of Slikback. On Hakuna Kulala.
9 track album
Jabu - Boiling Wells (Demos 2019-22)
Offcuts and demos between records from Bristol Young Echo affiliates Jabu. Their last album āSweet Companyā is a bit of a classic. Deep dub soul that sounds like itās made in a basement. Like the inverse of The Bugās huge bass hungry monsters, Jabu have a sweet hazy romantic soundsystem sound.
https://doyouhavepeace.bandcamp.com/album/boiling-wells-demos-19-22
2 track album
Chat Pile - Godās Country
I donāt listen to many bands that sound like bands. Chat Pile are a sludgy rock band that breaks that cycle. Theyāre a good companion to Gilla Band using humour and irony to expose the nihilism of the world we live in. Itās miserable and angry at how capitalism eats us all. The drums are so heavy, the riffs low slung and they kill it.
9 track album
Coby Sey - Conduit
I fond Coby Say via collaborations with Tirzah, theyāre always straight up classics. After hearing those this isnāt what I expected at all, it threw me at first. I had an experimental home made R&B thing in my head. So when I heard electronic collages with intense drama and spoken word it took a while to sink in. Massively inventive. Like a parallel universe version of Wu-Lu with electronics subbed for punk.
8 track album
Wisdom Teeth - To Illustrate
A compilation of various artists working at around 100 bpm for K-Lone & Factaās Wisdom Teeth label. Those two have made album in the last few years that are so lush and warm that Iām taking anything from the camp to keep me going. There are minimal bumpy dub experiments with plenty of bass, space and winding rhythms to make those hips move. Slinky.
10 track album
Brbko - 2PK @;ŚæŚ°Ū£ā
Experimental gritty electronic UK rap / Grime3 / Post-Grime. Really inventive, twisted, vibey, bangs like a hallucination. Out there like Jawnino in their own lane figuring out a sound. Manipulated vocals deep in the mix make it sound like itās from somewhere else. The beats keep me coming back. Cloud rap Spurt Diablo, UK PNL. No idea about anything else about them see NTS Radio for more.
Livity Sound
I couldnāt choose one from Peverelistās label so get your ears around loads of slabs of bright rhythmically interesting bass heavy dance tracks from across the spectrum. DJ Plead, Eusebeia, Tribal Brothers, Toma Kami, Azu Tiwaline & Al Wooten all being highlights. The lost line between UK soundsystem techno, UK Funky, Dubstep, D&B ad styles from all over the world.
Ariel Zetina - Cyclorama
Gleaming bumpy house and techno with a tough edge. Discwoman Chicago DJ and producer explores a theatrical take of being a trans woman of colour. It just bangs so hard, sounds like a complete world, all killer, no filler. Built for big rooms but not loosing any edge. The sounds are tightly coiled ready to move you. Being a resident at Smartbar they 100% know what theyāre doing.
9 track album
Dale Cornish - Traditional Music of South London
Raw minimal post-punk folk electronics that sounds like Mordant Music and Ekoplekz (eMMplekz) for the Fruity Loops early 2000s generation or DJ Sprinkles in London listening to Coil and Loefah. Some of it bumps and booms, some is menacing and deep. Itās got a gnarly sense of humour. Killer listen.
https://boomkat.com/products/traditional-music-of-south-london
Jana Rush - Dark Humour
Janaās album last year āPainful Enlightenmentā is like nothing else Iāve heard. Deeply twisted footwork that moves like no one else. This is a brilliant addition, that extends the universe. Hyperactive Dance Mania style floor destroyers that sound like a clown gave you LSD and plugged you into a cyberpunk sub stack.
7 track album
Slackk - Nice One
One of the founders of experimental grime outfit Boxed w/ Logos & Mr.Mitch, Slackk is an aficionado and grime documenter since grime tapes and beyond. His melodic synth heavy productions have always hit the spot. This release is his most low-key album of the bunch but it might be the best. Sino-grime melody with a soft 80s new wave pallet with grimy synths and drums.
18 track album
Richard Dawson - The Ruby Cord
Folk tales of a post-apocalyptic world that sees our current milieu through a VR lens from far in the future reminiscing about the warning signs then going off to eat their mateā¦ not sure that last but happens Iām bad at soaking in lyrics. Blurring the lines between the virtual and real, where are we compelled to be and some killer tunes, Richard Dawson is so good.
https://richardmichaeldawson.bandcamp.com/album/the-ruby-cord
7 track album
Wu-Lu - Loggerhead
This kept creeping into my head this year. It just kept getting better the more I heard it. Punky skate bangers, experimental electronics, hip-hop and home made vibes. The guitar and bass tones just hit a spot. Honest lyrics on broken homes/Britain. Similar vibes to Coby Sey using a whole other pallet.
12 track album
Chevel - Waiting for Love
Iāve known Chevel since the post dubstep boxed era of experimental grime verging on techno on Beneathās label Mistry and Logos & Mumdanceās Different Circles. This on Rainy Millerās Fixed Abode is so good. Real emotional, melodramatic deep water synth work and hard hitting drums. Actress and OPN channeled through some gritty drum patterns. āVHSā a real highlight.
5 track album
DJ Python- Club Sentimientos, Vol.2
Beautiful floating deep house with bumping hypnotic rhythms, warm pads and bleeping synths that hug you like a warm bath. āAngelā sounds like a sunrise on your favourite beach. Play alongside K-Lone to keep the sun coming. Sometimes you get a Selected Ambient Works vibe. A recipe as old as time executed to perfection.
https://djpythonnyc.bandcamp.com/album/club-sentimientos-vol-2
3 track album
Jamal Moss - Thanks 4 the Tracks U Lost
Chicago house experimenter twists his gnarly gear into hypnotic jackingā warm and romantic wearhouse jamz. Itās that balance between raw and soulful that hits my house sweet spot. It sounds like original era Chicago house w/ early Warp heard on a frazzled soundsystem but with enough punch you can dance to it. Heady stuff.
https://boomkat.com/products/thanks-4-the-tracks-u-lost-93eb5e09-774f-48fc-abba-5fb562b3f8dc
š Extra
BFTT, Whatever The Weather, Organ Tapes, Dry Cleaning, Blackhaine, Money Lang, Scratcha DVA, Manga Saint Hilare, Dylan Moon, Filter Dread, Pariah, Slikback, Black Rave Culture, Uncle Waffles, Tony Bontana, Ithaca, Kode9, Objekt, DJ Nigga Fox, Ahadadream, Rhyw, Blay Vision, DJ Polo, Prison Religion, Finn, Kessler, Ashenspire, DJ Q, Jawnino, Actress, Soul Glo, Da Capo Al Coda, FKA Twigs, DJ Hank, Rolo Tomassi, Hajj, DJ Travella, Air Texture VIII Anthony Naples + DJ Python, Local Action.
Thanks for reading the thread above. I could go on forever. Music is life. Thatās my favourites from 2022.
Hereās a playlist of a selection:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7xcmUopcbrOV4AbRdnrRZi?si=8IXe0FAVRP2pPXR8OY0NjA
#Music #AOTY2022 #Playlist #Electronic #Experimental #House #Techno #Ambient #Grime #Bass #Footwork
James
