Nobody needs to be told, once again, what a torrid year it’s been. And similarly, probably nobody reading this needs to be told what an excellent year for recorded music it’s been. The strength of music released this year – whether it’s been fired up by righteous political anguish or has attempted to provide an escape – has been magnificent. But in a year where the live music sector has been decimated, the onus is on us as music fans to support the artists and buy the records we love. Times are hard and by no means should anyone spend cash they haven’t got; pretty much all these releases are available on streaming platforms. I’ll berate no one for using Spotify if they have no disposable income. But if you like what you hear then buying just one of these records might go a long way to helping that artist maintain their output in years to come.
These are the records that have had the biggest impact on me personally this year, whether that be politically, sociologically or simply in terms of replay value. You’ll notice that they’re not ranked. That’s largely due to similar reasons as outlined in this brilliant piece on Bandcamp published last week. I’ve always thought the putting numbers on art is a tenuous game – not least because of the age-old question of how the hell you rank albums across disparate genres – and have indulged in it in the past due to it being ‘the done thing’. But this year, it’s imperative that we let this music speak for itself, free of numerical judgement, and instead emphasise the impact it has actually had on us individually. So instead, I’ve split the records by genre and tried to emphasise why I think they’re so powerful.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that I write monthly round-ups of my favourite releases. In the case of albums appearing here that I’ve previously written about, I’ve pasted in some copy and then linked to the original review.
I hope that you find some music you enjoy here and that these albums melt, smother and re-shape your brain in the way they have mine.
Electronic/Dance
Speaker Music – Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (Planet Mu)
What is there to say about this record that hasn’t already been said? Deforrest Brown Jr. – theorist, journalist and author of this incredible article for DJ Mag – combines and condenses a vast amount of the righteous spirit of African American fury into 12 tracks here, taking in decades (and even centuries) of critical theory, history, anger and desperation. Over a rolling patchwork of convulsing drums, he serves up a maelstrom of poetry, genuinely evil-sounding distortion, jazz and field recordings, all moulded together into a record that is part techno eruption, part sound-collage and part lecture. Cries of ‘make Techno black again!’ over the sensorial battery of ‘On Bloodthirst and Jungle Fever’, highlights black exploitation in both musical and sociological spheres perfectly.
You can buy Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry here.
Ploy – Unlit Signals (L.I.E.S.)
I’m surprised at the lack of props given to Bristol maverick Ploy’s debut LP by the big dance music press players this year. Unlit Signals, released via the mighty L.I.E.S., transports us through a wickedly concocted whirlwind of techno, UK bass and the grinding murk of the aforementioned label. Its cross-cultural nuances and bounciness are at their most brutal on the searing, addictive churn of ‘Busy’, but if you’re into subterranean experimentation then all of this will hit some twisted spot.
You can buy Unlit Signals here.
Rian Treanor – File Under UK Metaplasm (Planet Mu)
I’ve listened to File Under UK Metaplasm over a dozen times since its release in October and I’m still at a loss as to how to surmise it neatly. Taking the frantic euphoria of Tanzanian singeli music as its starting point, it melds a host of global dance music niches into place with exquisite skill. It’s the kind of record only one with infinite knowledge and understanding of their muse(s) could create; a giddy, madcap science that has soul by the tonne. Having found Treanor’s music lacking in tangibility in the past, this is pretty much the record I was always desperate for him to make.
You can buy File Under UK Metaplasm here.
Anz – Loos in Twos (NRG) (Hessle Audio)
In any other year, these would have become club staples. The title track – a deep, hefty belter – relies on wobbly ambience, rolling percussion and peak-time-friendly synths for its rave-centric swerve. ‘Gary Mission’ fizzes and marches with angular energy, all propulsive snare claps and oddball swells, whilst ‘Stepper’ does exactly what it says on the tin in being a stripped back and vocal-flecked heater. Underpinning all of Loos in Twos (NRG) is Anz’s trademark sense of depth and nuance, making this – for my money – Hessle’s best release for some time now.
Read my full thoughts here.
You can buy Loos in Twos (NRG) here.
Space Afrika – hybtwibt? (Self-released)
A series of new improvisational tunes, flips, loops and field recordings extracted from their NTS residency between late May and early June of this year, hybtwibt? sees the Manchester duo present the black experience on both sides of the Atlantic with deep melancholy. The first half is heart-breaking, whether it be the bleary-eyed desperation of ‘Judge’ and ‘Oh Baby’, or the innocent realism of ‘Wanna Know’. But the album’s final third is drenched in soul, a longing for justice coated in fractious, echo-laden beauty and shimmering repetition.
You can buy hybtwibt? here.
Object blue – Mini Mixtape Vol. 1 (Self-released)
In an era where UK Techno is in rude health, Object Blue stands out. Here, she flips 3 pop classics from Ariana Grande, Cassie and Ashanti into short, demented forms. ‘Into You’ is a total barrage comprised of a single loop and harsh drums, before ‘Me & You’ rolls through on a bed of white heat and grinding synths. It ends with an inspired, warped-to-fuck take on a scene from Guiseppe Tornatore’s 1998 film The Legend of 1900, which is as melancholic as it is discombobulating.
You can buy Mini Mixtape Vol.1 here.
Loraine James – Nothing (Hyperdub)
Loraine James’ creativity knows literally no bounds. The four tracks on Nothing exemplify why her experimentations are so effective; they overflow with raw, varied emotion. As she coos ‘you don’t feel nothing’ over the skittering title track, it’s impossible not to feel a freezing sense of hostility, despite the heftily rave-indebted synths. The shuddering kicks and Tardast’s delivery on ‘Marg’ are vitally confrontational, while the sultry, late night smoothness of ‘Do You See It?’ is similarly underpinned by thunderous rowdiness. You start to wonder how one producer can pack so much into four tracks. But then you realise it’s Loraine James – of course she can.
You can buy Nothing here.
Shinichi Atobe – Yes (DDS)
Coming forth shrouded in mystery as always, Shinichi Atobe offers another epic, heat-baked odyssey of blissed-out, hypnotic house sermons. This was a total comfort blanket for me during the UK’s blistering summer this year and has continued to be a tonic throughout.
You can buy Yes here.
DJ Trystero – High Speed Wind (Trilogy Tapes)
Though it sounds like neither artist, aesthetically High Speed Wind slots somewhere between Forest Drive West and DJ Python. For the most part, everything is cavernous; everything swirls as though it’s being transmitted from a mountainside. It’s both a product of contemporary ambient techno stylings and comes from its own niche of time and place. But it pulls off dynamics brilliantly too.
Read my full thoughts here.
You can buy High Speed Wind here.
G Sudden – Bunout Boss (Duppy Gun/Bokeh Versions)
‘Can’t Si Mi Fail’ sees fists raised again, as a juicily thick bass line snakes itself ecstatically around plucky synth mutations, sometimes full of fizz and at others crisp and staccato. And its diversity makes this a somewhat mercurial pairing. There are no blanks in understanding between G Sudden and his backdrop, whether that be on the urgency of ‘Gran A Day’ or the heavyweight menace of ‘Tings Hard Dub’.
Read my full thoughts here.
You can buy Bunout Boss here.
Beatrice Dillon – Workaround (PAN)
Workaround, her debut solo LP, pits her as something of a bass expressionist. With the tempo kept at a lofty, jungle-mirroring 150bpm, the efficiency of the low end – whether electronic or organic – is crucial, if not everything. When the music is illustrious – ‘Workaround Two’, ‘Workaround Seven’ – all the elements converge beautifully. On the latter, gorgeous synths wash its pulsating groove in an icy, sky-blue stare. But it’s on the post-dubstep wobbliness and creaking cello distortion of ‘Workaround Six’, or the 40-second fractal dnb hiss of ‘Workaround Bass’, that the deeper frequencies give the melodic minimalism cavernous space to breathe.
You can read my full thoughts here.
You can buy Workaround here.
Felicia Atkinson – Everything Evaporate (Shelter Press)
This came out at the beginning of April, with pretty fortuitous timing. The French ambient/drone legend picked up pretty much where she left off with 2019’s wonderful The Flower and The Vessel, and while there’s plenty of ominous uncertainty here, there’s also loads of serenity. Spoken word/ASMR-type ruminations on the stillness of life and the strange places the mind goes when isolated are as beguiling as they are sensory. And no matter how organic or synthetic the music is, deep listens will find you sinking into each track’s individual world. It was pretty much the perfect accompaniment to/reflection of early lockdown life for me.
You can buy Everything Evaporate here.
Alloy Sea – Petrichor (Syn Syn)
The first release by Mor Elian under a new alias, Alloy Sea, sees her veer sharply away from the club and into the kind of ebb and flow that both the artist name and release title suggest. Spanning 50 minutes across four parts, Petrichor is ‘a series of lost samples and memories’, and is full of the fractious, just-out-of-reach vibes that statement alludes to. It drifts between milky dream states and suspenseful, cold and stripped back moments, maintaining a bubbling momentum the whole time, whether accompanied by gentle kicks or not. It’s always richly realised, recalling Barker’s Utility but with a thicker atmosphere.
You can buy Petrichor here.
Others you should check out:
Roza Terenzi – Modern Bliss
Simo Cell & Abdullah Miniawy – Kill Me Or Negotiate
Moma Ready – Deep Technik
Tim Reaper – Cityscapes
Tomu DJ – Trans Woman Techno
Anunaku & DJ Plead – 032
Parris – Terrapin
Eris Drew – Fluids of Emotion
Hip-Hop/Rap
Boldy James & The Alchemist – The Price of Tea in China (Boldy James/ALC)
I’ve enjoyed all three LPs released by Detroit MC Boldy James this year, but for me, his collaboration with The Alchemist is the most consistent, in terms of both storytelling and nail-biting vibe. From the mournful overture of ‘Carruth’ onwards, James & Alchemist channel their might into what is probably the most sinister hip-hop record of the year. From the desperate realism of ‘Giant Slide’ via classic, soulful theatrics on ‘Run-Ins’ to the beatless potency of ‘Grey October’, the duo fit together like a gritty, blood-stained hand in a glove. Having read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow this year, it’s impossible not to see the stark truth of the young black experience in America reflected in The Price of Tea In China; an LP that dreams of leaving its violence for dust but has no idea how to.
Pa Salieu – Send Them To Coventry (Pa Salieu/Warner Music)
Salieu matches the chameleonic production – sometimes celebratory, often mournful and downright menacing – with his lyrics perfectly, vividly complementing any vibe he’s confronted with. ‘Betty’ and ‘B***K’ are here with all their righteous personality, but the deeper cuts swim in even more direct richness. ‘Warnin’ Fi Dem’, ‘TTM’ and ‘Informa’ are sparse, terse crawls through his home city’s violent underbelly, while ‘More Paper’ is a bright but poignant reflection on money & death. The closer, ‘Energy’, offers a mindful call-to-arms to the country’s alienated black community.
You can read my full thoughts here.
Run The Jewels – RTJ 4 (Run The Jewels/BMG)
Much has been made of the fact that RTJ4 came out just days after the murder of George Floyd by a policeman. And that’s fair enough; I literally had to catch my breath after hearing ‘Walking in the Snow’ for the first time. RTJ are, in pretty much every respect, more coherent than they’ve ever been; in terms of emotion, hilarity, political anguish, poeticisms and chemistry. The tension and soulfulness in EL-P’s production feels much weightier here, and he saves perhaps the high watermark of their entire sonic catalogue for the closer ‘a word to the firing squad’. It’s comfortably their best LP to date; but then how could it be anything else?
You can buy RTJ 4 here.
Backwxsh – God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It (Self-released)
It’s been a real pleasure to see the almost universal praise heaped upon God Has Nothing To Do With This…, trans-rapper Backwxsh’s third solo LP. Its enticing incorporation of metal and industrial elements lead to its acceptance by communities across genre borders – though it’d be interesting to know the full extent to which it has been embraced by the hip-hop community. Either way, running at just over 20 minutes and 10 tracks in length, it’s a seismic, devastating bomb planted firmly in the heart of both rap music and Christianity, charting Backwxsh’s transition from male to female and all the paranoia, defiance, loss and anger that came with it.
You can buy God Has Nothing To Do… here.
Others you should check out:
Armand Hammer – Shrines
Psalm One & Optiks – Before They Stop Us
Roc Marciano – Mt. Marci
Pink Siifu & Fly Anakin – Flysiifu
Metal/Hardcore/Rock
Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still (Debemur Morti)
If you – like me – have always found New Zealand tech-death legends Ulcerate’s music a bit too impenetrable, then their 6th LP will probably be a total game changer. If their output until this point has been the sound of the world swallowing itself whole and ripping us all to shreds as it does so, then Stare Into Death… is the view from the other side; technically composite, brutally nuanced and overpowering, but this time full of remorseful atmosphere and dare I say it… beauty.
You can buy Stare Into Death and Be Still here.
Gulch – Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress (Closed Casket Activities)
If you’re missing Trap Them, or new music by Converge, then Gulch have you covered. Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress was probably the most hyped hardcore record of the year, but with good reason. Its violence, speed and brevity are addictive in the way they should be. And whilst there’s nothing particularly new in its filth-laden riffs or d-beat tempo excesses, its 25-minute run time means you could listen to it 12 times a day and still have plenty of time left to dig around in classic Californian mire. If you’re not moved by the call-and-response section in ‘Fucking Towards Salvation’, then what kind of hardcore fan are you?
You can buy Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress here.
Svalbard – When I Die, Will I Get Better? (Church Road Records)
If at the beginning of 2020 you’d told me that I’d end up loving an LP by a band who sound like Architects, Rolo Tomassi and Deafheavan I’d have laughed you off. But to reduce this powerful, poignant, painful record to its constituent parts is a great disservice. Aiming with both barrels at misogyny, abusers, rape culture and society’s anti-feminist biases, it leaves nothing to the imagination, the lyrics as blunt and vicious as they are broken and strained. The two-pronged vocal lacerations of guitarists Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan are full to the brim with character, but it’s ice-smothered melodies on the likes of ‘Throw Your Heart Away’ that give this record its sonic edge.
You can buy When I Die, Will I Get Better? here.
Moor Jewelry – True Opera (Don Giovanni Records)
In which Moor Mother and Mental Jewelry create a record which takes pretty much all the music I was obsessive about in my mid-teens – Rage Against the Machine, Big Black, Fugazi, Slint as well as This Heat – and twist it into another electrifying middle finger raised at both the events of 2020 and ongoing persecution of African Americans by the established system. Many of these tracks are Bonafide, scuzz-smothered anthems, ‘Look Alive’ becoming a favourite, whilst the likes of ‘Eugenics’ and ‘Working’ are eviscerating fast-burners. The calls of ‘I’m being erased, in front of your face’ on ‘La Grande Macabre’ are likely to create life-affirming moments when/if these songs are finally played live.
You can buy True Opera here.
Others you should check out:
Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi
Lamp of Murmuur – Heir of Ecliptical Romance
Deftones – Ohms
Dark Buddha Rising – Mathreyata
Pop
Lido Pimienta – Miss Colombia (ANTI-)
Another staple in many EOY lists, Lido Pimienta’s Miss Colombia is a beautiful, bubbling cauldron full of electronic pop, reggaeton and Latin & Cumbia instrumentation. There’s plenty of musical variation, from the beatless opener ‘Para Transcribir (SOL)’ to the haunting deepness of ‘No Pude’ via the raw, unadulterated traditionalism of ‘Quiero Que Me Salves’. What underpins it all is her beautiful voice, which resonates in myriad fashions, whether on the soaring ‘Eso Que Tu Haces’ and ‘Resisto Y Ya’, or the sultry, slow-burning fan favourite ‘Nada’.
You can buy Miss Colombia here.
Christine & The Queens – La Vita Nuova (Because Music)
Whilst ‘People I’ve Been Sad’ has gone on to become a defining anthem for 2020 – and it is properly brilliant – the discourse around the rest of La Vita Nuova has seemingly overlooked how beautiful it is. ‘Je Disparais dans tes Bras’ is as likely to put a lump in my throat as it is to force a wide grin on my face. ‘Mountains (We Met)’ swoons in the quiet glitz of a lonesome Paris night, and the title track is as catchy as any of Helouise Letissier’s most forthright tunes. Deep, freezing and full of heart-rending melodies, all of this is worth your time.
You can buy La Vita Nuova here.
Others you should check out:
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Charli XCX – How I’m Feeling Now
Ariana Grande – Positions
Jazz/Indie/Everything Else
Moor Mother – Circuit City (Don Giovanni Records)
I’ve made it my new year’s resolution for 2021 to have a bit of deep dive on Jazz, and I’m considering Circuit City to be my starting point. This is four tracks of beautiful, multi-faceted and often suitably tortuous free jazz, over which the ever-superlative Moor Mother delivers anguished spoken word gambits that – like in the Moor Jewelry LP above – shimmer with directness and weight. ‘There’s been so much trauma… I don’t even know where to start… Like, which year’, she intones exasperatedly on ‘Working Machine’. And throughout the rest, fierce flames emerge from her singular vision, like on the hauntingly serene ‘Time of No Time’; ‘Say my name so my children know where to find me when they take our homes away’.
You can buy Circuit City here.
Nicolas Jaar – Cenizas (Other People)
Having made massive headway with the club-orientated crowd over the last couple of years with his Against All Logic outfit, Nicolas Jaar’s return to recording under his own name was a massive sidestep, and a beautiful return to disquieting form. Pretty much everything about Cenizas feels haunted, from the barely-there melancholy of its first third, to the later era Talk Talk-esque lurch of ‘Mud’ to the slightly more heavenly one-two of ‘Sunder’ and ‘Hello, Chain’. It’s like a transmission from a post-collapse society, the sadness of survivors channelled into 13 songs of past but lingering loss. And despite its vibe, it’s warmly enticing. The ultimate 2020 album, perhaps.
You can buy Cenizas here.
Adrianne Lenker – Songs (4AD)
As frontwoman of the mighty Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker has solidified herself as one of modern folk rock’s finest songwriters for years now. Her third solo LP takes her trademark weaponry – heart-breaking poetry, wintry delicacy, tender reproachfulness – and places them under a magnifying glass, forcing you to soak these songs up as if they were necessary lifeforce injections. Fans of early Bon Iver and The National at their most sedate will find plenty of charm here.
You can buy Songs here.
High Rise And Ink 