Best Synth Music 2021


Let’s dive into the electronic world of synth music!


Number Five: Oh Yung – Godless



Oh Yung released Godless in May, and ???? ? ?????? it still is! Every song is worthy of praise, but perhaps none so much as “What U Wanna Do” for its complete bonkersness! The only flaw is its shortness!


Number Four: Big Lad – Power Tools


I’ll always remember the time I saw some dude cover a Venetian Snares song on an actual drum kit. I was so impressed by that! Well, Big Lad have turned that energy into the physical world, and play breakcore … Read more

Best of Jazzcore 2021


Jazzcore is one of these things that’s really, really good, but that doesn’t get a ton of attention, and doesn’t get a ton of releases either! It nonetheless covers a wide range of sounds, from the improvised to the purely written, from prog-adjacent to jazz-adjacent to… a lot of other things! It’s a great genre, and here’s my best picks for 2021.


Number Five: Skeletonized Quartet – Future Shock


Skeletonized has been around for some time, and they’ve been quite consistent with releases! Putting out a few releases every year at least! With Future Shock, you can hear their … Read more

Best Improvisation 2021


Improvisation is often seen as inseparable from jazz. Sure, you often have to improvise in jazz, but improvisation is not bound to any one genre, and I’m going to prove that to you. Here are my favourite improvised pieces of music from 2021!


Number Five: i.o – The Complete 2021 Releases


Taken together, Blasted Sentinel, No Guardians for Rusted Remains, and The Same as My Red add up to an insane 2 309 minutes! That’s about 38 hours and a half! And before you ask: yes, I listened through it all. Not in one go, I paused for … Read more

Best of Hardcore 2021


Number Five: Death Goals – The Horrible and the Miserable


With a varied attack from many fronts, Death Goals’s The Horrible and the Miserable is an amazingly diverse hardcore album that totally slays!


Number Four: Tunic – Quitter


How great is this album, eh? Fast-paced hardcore closer to its punk roots than most others on this list, Tunic’s second 2021 album hits just the right spot for me!


Number Three: Anti Ritual – Expel the Leeches


Anti Ritual is hardcore blackened to a char. Expel the Leeches is a relentless album, and it’s totally oppressive. Definitely worth its spot on … Read more

NOT-002: Rïga – Chaos et félicité

The Hype

Here comes the second release under Not Music‘s wings! French percussionist and composer Bastien Jouvin’s creative journey for Chaos et félicité has been kick-started by our Marathon software. The prospect of new, impossible rhythms seems to have had a catalytic effect on him, and new compositions just seemed to pour out of his mind. The results of these experiments are amassed on this forty-minute album, which is coming out in one month, on August 7.

Rïga’s style fuses electronic walls of texture, classical percussion, post-rock swells, noise passages, and hardcore beats, and it’s truer than ever on … Read more