Well, twenty-twenty has been a year. I’m not here to cover what’s happened outside of music so don’t worry, but one thing COVID-19 couldn’t stop is the relentless tides of music. It did, however, slow them down somewhat, but people cope, adapt, create nonetheless, and, in the end, borne art into the world.

I reviewed, or rather recommended, 175 albums released in 2020; all formats included, I’ve tracked 2,853 releases! Compare this to 2019’s 2,589 and you can see how this is one domain almost untouched by the pandemic. Last year, I had the brilliant idea of putting together a … Read more

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Sunday, 1 November

The Guts – Death

21:55
mathcore
Brighton, UK
Independent

Kense – Mistakes Were Made

21:34
math rock
Chandler, Arizona
Independent

Microwave 64 – Daybreak

30:18
synthwave
England, UK
Independent

Space Echo – 11月

26:10
darkwave
UK
Independent

Spichard Rencer – Political Violence

10:34
grindcore
Tampa, Florida
Independent

Red Fiction – Visions of the Void (צ (Tzadik))

Label page

One of the latest releases on the mythical Tzadik records is the mysterious band Red Fiction‘s Visions of the Void. This album is an otherworldly blend of different folkloric musics and also many modern genres like progressive metal and jazz, and it’s a masterclass in seamlessly fusing all of that in an unbelievably tasty pot. Unfortunately, however, most of you will probably be unable to listen to this album because of Tzadik’s outdated protectionism. Nevertheless, if you come across this release, get your hands on it; you … Read more

Polymorphie – Claire Vénus (Compagnie 4000)

“A musical and allegorical digression of a romantic relationship.” That’s how the French experimental jazz quintet Polymorphie describe their most recent project, Claire Vénus. The album follows a series of poems and serves as a living soundtrack to it, which exacerbates the force of each medium exponentially. The kind of music Polymorphie plays is jazz, first and foremost, but it’s the hard-hitting, distortion-tangled, polyrhythm-loving kind. You know what kind. You know you love this. With the various poems, the album goes through a wide array of emotions, and it conveys them superbly. When … Read more

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Tuesday, 1 September

The Abyss inside Us – Aerialist

51:40
post-rock
Athens, Greece
Independent

Atrium – Shapeless

19:07
progressive metal
Provo, Utah
Independent

정은혜의 과 조민기 – Abyss

45:22
free improvisation
Seoul, South Korea
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Gerrit Hatcher, Rob Magill, and Patrick Shiroishi – Triplet Fawns

35:55
free improvisation
Los Angeles, California
Independent

Mostro – We All Know a Ghost or Two

7:44
avant-garde black metal
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Independent