Feb
Gut - Baths
Baths’ glistening, gorgeous electronic fuses the grotesque and the beautiful, amplifying both through their polymerization. Gut focuses on the rapturous and the mundane aspects of sex to the same sterling effect. This is Baths at his most indie-rock, but always with a harsh twist, screams inundating the background wall of sound, sudden glitches in guitar and synths fracturing moments of peace. By the time closing track (and song of the year contender) “The Sound of a Blooming Flower” crashes into its annihilating crescendo, Gut reflects its album art work; a man melting from over-stimulus.
Nothing - DARKSIDE
Darkside is nocturnal music. They can turn a sunny day into a midnight revelry. And the murk’s never been better than on Nothing. The jammy, classic rock inspired electronic doom that flickers at every corner of Nothing, reveals layer after layer of hidden truth and sound.
Nyron Higor - Nyron Higor
I institutionally trust a man with that afro to make some great jazz music, but this sensual slice of Brazilian funk is something else. A throw back to the heyday of Brazil’s MPB movement that embraces every piece of that era’s fascinating weirdness.
Food from the Gods - Black Milk and Fat Ray
Perpetually underrated Detroit beatsmith and rapper Black Milk is back. From the Gods balances his natural grit and yearning for beauty incredibly well, with Fat Ray and others hollering about the end times.
This Won't Be The Last Time - acloudyskye
Interview alum acloudyskye is back with another big, lorge, arena sized album that criss-crosses between EDM, pop, and rock.
◯ - Ariel Kalma & Asa Tone
Certain spaces within electronic music create their sounds with a studious, nearly stoic attitude. But sometimes you need to plink on some synths with a friend and giggle as you explore the universe. So it goes for the very difficult to google ◯, a progressive-electronic suite where it’s hard to tell where the percussion ends and the synths begin.
Ambient Works for the Highways of Los Angeles - Elijah Fox
I was really assuming that an ambient retelling of an average day on an LA highway would be much more stressful (and less beautiful) than this.
Our Secret World - Live At Cara - Kurt Rosenwinkel & Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos
Experimental, possibly evil, big band jazz. I don’t gotta explain shit.