Music Blog Entry: Albums of the Year 2021

I miss going to shows safely very dearly. At the same time, I'm glad musicians don't have to constantly be living tour life because being on the road can kind of suck. But since shows bring in money in a streaming service hellscape......

Yearly reminder to delete your Spotify and replace it with Bandcamp/file sharing amongst your friends/buying stuff at the merch table! Spend that streaming money directly on actual musicians!

    Albums of the Year

  1. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
  2. Oh my god, what else can I say. This is absolutely my #1 album from 2021. Putting another album above this for AOTY would be almost like an affront to God. The use of blank space amidst some truly great acoustic dissonance gives me goosebumps. Where Caligula exudes fury, Sinner Get Ready invites retributive prostration. She's done it again, and I can't wait to see this performed live at some point (I hope) -- ideally in a church with great resonance.

  3. Prolaps - Ultra Cycle Pt. 1-4
  4. Ok, maybe it's overkill to lump all of the Ultra Cycle releases together, but this is a totally staggering and amazing project. Prolaps is Bonnie Baxter of Kill Alter and Matt from Machine Girl, which are projects I already independently love. So their combined forces creating creative, weirdo, heavy rave music is really just perfect. My favorite out of the 4 releases that compromise the Ultra Cycle is Ultra Cycle Pt. 4: Hibernal Death, which welcomes in the winter season with a very evil combination of guitar chugs/dance music. Plus the cover art by Hisham Bharoocha is great!

  5. Les Filles de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works
  6. This one feels like cheating a bit since it was released this year, but the performance was recorded at Pioneer Works NY in 2018. Nonetheless, it's been on repeat for me during 2021. Impeccable rhythyms and great atmosphere in this live recording - have I mentioned I miss live music yet? Hearing the little crowd interactions makes this a all-around great release by Les Filles. It's always amazing to hear a group of talented musicians playing off of each other; there are so many moving parts in each track that it gives me something new to hear every time I come back to it. I think their music is probably best experienced live. Maybe one day...

  7. Raja Kirik - Rampokan
  8. Another one that's maybe cheating, since this is a re-release from 2020. Rampokan is pummeling and expertly crafted, and feels like a very unique product of the amazing noise and experimental music scene in Indonesia. This album was released by Yes No Wave and Nyege Nyege Tapes, and I recommend both labels highly! Rampokan is a great jumping off point to explore both of these catalogues.

  9. Ceephax Acid Crew - Box Steady
  10. Box Steady scratches the acid house itch just right. Sticking with many of the same sounds (by nature of sticking with the same instruments) since the 90s can often lead to stagnation, but not for Ceephax apparently. Somehow, Ceephax always manages to conjure up deceptively simple sounding little 303 licks that will be playing in my head for weeks.

  11. Low - Hey What
  12. Contrary to popular belief, I do like to listen to indie music. Or at least I do when it's done by Low. As I mentioned for Sinner Get Ready, I'm always in appreciation of artists that understand how to strip back music and command blank, empty spaces. This album really exemplifies that good tension, and has some really lovely interplay between Parker & Sparhawk's vocals ("Hey" and "More" are my personal favorites showcasing this). Low's long history as musical collaborators gives them a very solid foundation for stretching the confines of an "indie" song and songwriting, and for building strong song melodies and structures to insert blank space and let the instrumentation rest for a while without feeling devoid.

  13. Jerusalem In My Heart - Qalaq
  14. This is a gorgeous and compelling listen from beginning to end. I hadn't listened to Jerusalem In My Heart prior to this release, but came across Qalaq via Constellation Records. I was excited to see that there were tons of artists I really like that collaborated on the release (Moor Mother, Greg Fox, Tim Hecker), and it did not disappoint!

    EPs of Note

  1. Yves Tumor - The Asymptotical World
  2. Yves Tumor leaning heavily into post-punk on this EP, and it sounds great. I think this release works perfectly as an EP in terms of length and content, it's cohesive sounding without getting too repetitive. The track "Tuck" in particular is fantastic, it has more of the tension I associate with Yves Tumor's earlier discography. I think that Yves Tumor's background in making electronic music has really given them a leg up on how to approach kind of standard song structures and instruments in a way that's differentiated, because frankly there are a lot of bands making post punk-y, shoegaze-y music and its very, very easy to rehash the same thing that's been done 1000 times. This is my favorite EP of 2021!

  3. No Joy - Can My Daughter See Me From Heaven
  4. A really creative re-working of some tracks off of last year's album motherhood, plus a Deftones cover since 2021 seems to be the year of nu-metal revival in a positive way if it sounds like this. The harp playing of Nailah Hunter on this release is really outstanding, I love all the releases I've heard from her so far and I'm really hoping to hear a full-length album from her in the future.