Burial – Antidawn

Antidawn is immediately distinguished from Burial’s previous output – specifically the minimalist design aesthetic of his releases throughout the 2010’s – by its cover. Something outwardly warm and enveloping, a presence of familiarity – but one with a sinister trapping.

A piece by contemporary artist Maya Hewitt, it elicits the scratchy crudeness of English street art at a distance, portraying a character wearing what are ostensibly a set of robes, though the distortion of its figure can easily be misread as a hoodie. The figure wears markings on their face, like ritual paint. Adorned atop a is a face, warped as if stretched, a gurning countenance whose teeth descend into a maw, almost seeming to envelop the figure. The figure is both out-of-time and out-of-step, like a modern, working class monk to some esoteric order.

The spiritual veneer extends to broad parts of the music itself. Inching further and further into beatless, sparse ambience, Antidawn is Burial at his most sparse and outwardly spiritual. The disparate vocal sampling of past is now more explicitly haunting – no longer the sounds of conversations overheard on tram journeys, post-club comedown, etc. Here the samples are more prominent than before, their lyrical contributions far more transparent. Their fleeting, ethereal delivery and mixing gives Antidawn a feeling of esoteric urbanism that is distinguished from the rest of his catalogue by its centring of the spoken word. Words absent from a body, a body absent from the world.

Little Simz – NO THANK YOU

A record of both lushness and existentialism, NO THANK YOU has a mellow demeanour upon cursory listening. Her most explicitly introspective record, the interpolation of Gospel and Neo-Soul gives the confessional and passionate lyricism a parochial element to them. It’s not an outwardly spiritual record, but the reflective delivery is so strong, almost transcendent.

In place of clasped hands in a pew, NO THANK YOU is made up of the thoughts and reflections you find siting on a damp windowsill in the middle of the night. Midnight, cityscapes and city-sounds.

Alice Glass – PREY//IV

I’ve written a longer piece on the content of PREY / IV alongside the works of Guillaume Dustan earlier this year. Needless to say, PREY / IV is a current, enveloping and vital album that I believe will come to define club life in the 20s.

SCUDFM – INNIT

The framework of ever-angular Post-Punk, now with its jagged edges sanded down, softened but losing none of its vitality. Sharp political writings, breakbeats, driving bass, a gig everyone’s invited to. Music for the people, music for the masses. Catchiest record of the year, for sure.

100 Gecs – Snake Eyes

Criminally short – like every Gecs release, incidentally – but continuing to blur the lines between high and low culture better than any of the major Hyperpop canon. The featuring of Skrillex is sensational, if only for contextual reasons. Hey Big Man combines the brashness of Brostep with the compositional sensibilities of early 2010s Beatdown Hardcore. Gecs at their peak capabilities can sculpt Pop music like no one else.

The gruffer development the duo teased by the first two tracks is sharply interrupted by the pseudo-ballad introduction of Runaway, whose nasal melodic delivery and staccato instrumental brings to mind Kerrang approved Emo Pop of the 2000s. A record for all seasons.

Yeule – Glitch Princess

My Name Is Nat Ćmiel as an opening is suitably open – both in terms of expression and musical sparseness. The childlike, stuttering background plinks bring to mind a halfway point between children’s nursery rhymes and manipulated tape loops. Vast, stuttering openness defines Glitch Princess in both tone and composition.

It’s such a shockingly vulnerable record for 2022. In such a saturated field, operating within a saturated style – a style that is both revelatory for how it accurately surmises the anxieties and insecurities of online life in the 2020s, and disappointing for how often its biggest champions wallow in disingenuous meta-irony. Yeule crafts compositions that are constantly, ceaselessly on the verge of screaming, of collapsing in on themselves. A track like Eyes balances such softness with this leering, encroaching synthetic implosion waiting in the wings. Will prove to be one of the defining records of the decade.

“I like dressing up and not going out (…) I like taking up as little room as possible.”

Courting – Guitar Music

A staccato, angular debut – Indie Rock stylings interspersed with disparate electronic elements, with an incredibly wry delivery. Both this record and the newest release from Porridge Radio are two sides of young adult life, young adult locales, young adult experience in the 2020s.

Guitar Music is the daytime commute, self-degradation and humour in the face of the bustling, semi-sentient throng of the city, living hand-to-mouth but finding humour and beauty in your surroundings, in your situations. Guitar Music is a confident mask that slips near-imperceptively, worn by someone used to its fit.

Porridge Radio – Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky

A bittersweet, softer counterpoint to the harsher edges of Courting’s Guitar Music, Porridge Radio evokes the unspecific melancholy of night-time thoughts, of post-club walks home, of creeping regrets, of raw, undefined emotions. The sound of the city through the walls of a flat, the sound of the city lurching over low-volume earbuds.

And still, its such a passionate record. The rounded edges of the smoother sound brings to mind the slower-paced moments of Felt or The Triffids. The prominent warmth of the bass swaddles the record in a surprisingly hopeful sound at times. Bittersweet, but not despondent, not alone, not hopeless.

Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up Here

I’ll speak less on this, since I’m not turning a single human being onto Black Country, New Road in 2022. Something truly special in its focus on timbre and tone, Rock music that escapes linearity while being fully entrenched in its influences.

Vladislav Delay / Eivind Aarset – Singles

Singles naturally aims to be a cold record, both in aesthetics and sound. But it isn’t a record devoid of life, devoid of humanity, devoid of – ironically – warmth. In the spacious gaps between the shrill, cutting electronics, there’s incredibly small moments of light, of fire. Singles feels conceptually like something nebulous and horrible hunting something small and helpless. As if the perspective shifts from track-to-track, moments of foreboding, anxious synth tones, moments of engulfing, terrible snowfall, moments of relief and silence.

Permafrost Electronics, closer to the sharp noise experimentations of someone like Prurient or The Goslings than it is to anything else. Overlooked this year, but full of hidden depth.

Scarcity – Aveilut

Aveilut is an immensely cathartic record for the times. The interpolation of a strong Glenn Branca influence ignites the record with a constant tension, the droning minimalist stylings give the dense mix an almost choral, liturgical sound – as if this escalating, bellicose sound is pushing through to some transcendent, unseen thing.

Coming out after the time of many lockdown restrictions here imbued it with a timeliness that few records had this year. Aveilut’s unwavering, all-encompassing forcefulness is difficult not to succumb to. It was heavy listening, but in the sense of a constant, thumping rush of cold water drenching your body for 45 minutes – freezing cold, revitalising.

Death Insurance – I’m In Your Walls

Records purporting to define the hyper-online age, specifically in how it relates to those weened on cyberspace from childhood, are in abundance so far in this decade. I’m In Your Walls, specifically its centrepiece Go Offline, is perhaps among the few to do so accurately.

Acknowledging the irony-poisoned well of online inhabitation, Death Insurance doesn’t succumb to self-indulgent meta-humour, aural shitposting or anything like that. It instead approaches the internet like a negative feedback loop, some sentient thing that feeds off negativity, spite and metadata. Something inescapable, something gnawing at you when you leave. An itching in the back of your skull. Hyperpop to live by.

Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B

I Love You Jennifer B is so continuously impressive because so many of its simultaneous and disparate elements are balanced on a knife-edge. Its eclecticism in juggling sensually, frivolity, anxiety and ennui is a credit to the strength of the song writing.

The elegance in which Taylor and Georgia craft pieces that retain a consistent warmth across multiple instrumental breaks and samples gives I Love You Jennifer B a comforting atmosphere that survives even in its darkest moments. A weighted blanket on a cold, tepid night.

Current 93 – If A City Is Set Upon A Hill

Less explicitly eschatological but no less apocalyptic in delivery, If A City Is Set Upon A Hill drips of resignation, of old things turning wilfully to dust. Tibet’s dour delivery and consistent theming bring to mind days of Black Ships Ate The Sky – here replaced instead by slow, moribund decay rather than sudden catastrophe.

Neofolk seems such a loose, imprecise term for what Current 93 have developed over the past half-decade. The pastoral evocation of Current 93 is soured by the Ossian Brown’s hellish, droning instrumentation. Like the cover depicts – something structured and pastel, corrupted.

KMRU & Aho Ssan – Limen

No record this year was as fucking dense as Limen. Moving away from the relatively tranquil ambience of his breakout records, KMRU here experiments with overpowering feedback and skittish noise, resulting in something colossal. Limen sounds like something large, threatening, distant, growing closer all the time. Lustmord Firestorm-worship, electrical voidouts and dead-end alleys – interrupted by monolithic drops, and the wailing of tortured synths.

Billy Woods / Messiah Musik – Church

In comparison to Aethiopes, Church is less apocalyptic in its depiction of grief. Instead of the eschatological delivery of Aethiopes, Church possesses a tone of reflection, looking back at a horror that’s lost its outlines – less definitive, but still retains its power. The fucking immaculate atmosphere that Messiah Musik crafts around this subtle difference is potent.

In name dropping Marechera, Billy Woods creates continuity by linking those affected by prohibition laws and arrests to the way in which Marechera depicted colonial mental warfare, the criminalisation of people, and how colonialism degrades and attempts to destroy its subjects in both body and mind.

“As we stand now in the twilight of prohibition, Church is a dedication to those who thrived, died, or barely survived under its long shadow—an ode to a city that is long gone and to old friends whose real names we never knew.” Stellar.

The Gerogerigegege – >(decrescendo) Final Chapter

There’s a sense of finality to Juntaro’s latest release, though radically different than what was once thought to be his original swansong, Saturdaynight Big Cock Salaryman. The latter is violently dark, pitch black in its delivery – a tired, lethargic mass of something molten screaming in a confined space, as if the whole ordeal is some turgid waste of time. It had a sense of finality in the sense that it truly seemed like a letter of resignation, a musical suicide note – Fuck Off, I’m Done, Love Juntaro.

Finality, but not closure.

The latest release provides both, in context and delivery. Comprised of two tracks, the first of which is comprised of a looped steel drum rhythm and lo-fi field recordings of a park at night. Among the gentler pieces in the Gerogerigegege discography, it reflects the more playful, experimental edge of many of their releases. Despite its softness, it maintains a distant loneliness and darkness that permeates much of Juntaro’s ambient output – specifically something like Endless Humiliation.

The second track is compositionally in the same vein, just warped beyond recognition. The same idea – the looped rhythm, the field recordings – blown out and distorted to the point where it becomes HNW. The energy of their most frenetic releases is present throughout for an incredibly harsh half-hour.

Two tracks, two sides of Juntaro, the two sides of The Gerogerigegege.

Derek Bailey – Domestic Jungle

Though an archival release of ideas most prominently explored on his 1996 record Guitars Drums ‘N’ Bass, Domestic Jungle is an improvement in almost every way. Its more playful demeanour and spontaneous recording process gives Bailey a better opportunity to freely explore timbre and musical grammar.

The humanity and warmth present in much of Bailey’s catalogue – his strongest attribute – suits itself to the lo-fi recording setup of Domestic Jungle. The disconnection between the Jungle tracks and the crudely recorded guitar improvisation, alongside the warmth of the distortion, makes Domestic Jungle oddly intimate as a record. Bailey remains an intrepid explorer and scholar of the limits of composition, when even a disparate set of quarter-century-old home recordings can provoke thought.

Fred again.. – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)

2022 was a year of loose, uncertain recovery – the attempted repairing and rekindling of things in small ways after the harshest points of a pandemic, marred by a living crisis, and the frenetic pace of life. The best Electronic music of the calendar year managed to accurately plug into this period of uncertainty better than anyone else.

The third entry in the Actual Life series is the strongest yet. Potent, emotive Garage that feels so current and vital. Club music for uncertain times, uncertain places. Each track is so bittersweet – filled with life and love, but contaminated with insecurity and ennui. Nocturnal breakbeats, night-time reflections.

Μνήμα – Disciples Of Excremental Liturgies

Black Metal composition so often rejects musical analysis – often by design – but Disciples Of Excremental Liturgies is something special. The use of electronics echo’s the spirit of much of the best Portuguese projects of the past decades – using noise and feedback to aid the construction of a truly depressive atmosphere.

Disciples Of Excremental Liturgies is the infinitesimally small presence of man in the universe, and the nihility that accompanies it. Blistering, hateful and depressive.

Merzbow & Lawrence English – Eternal Stalker

A neat summation of both men’s exploration of the limits of musical extremity, Eternal Stalker is a welcome highlight in the discography of both. Self-described as a “harrowing, surrealist portrait of nocturnal industrial activity”, Eternal Stalker is comprised primarily of electronic feedback interpolated with field recordings of sonorous factory machinery – inspired by the liminality of Tarkovsky’s Stalker, also its partial namesake – that both evokes profound loss in the wake of the pandemic, an evocation of furloughs, job loss, and a uncertain grasp for a type of egress.

Prurient & Masonna – Annihilationism

Eschatological annihilation, the day when the damned cease to exist – total, fundamental destruction. A supremely violent collaboration – Prurient eschewing the more tempered synth stylings of Son Of Sam And Mice And Men for uncompromising, screaming electronic distortion, while Masonna’s resurrects his raw, uncontrollable drill-worship once more for a record brimming with immensely destructive potential.

5ubaruu & saves – S5

Though danceable, frenetic and incredibly catchy – this thing is mixed with a sensational ear for melody – the collaborative record from saves and Halibane777 alum 5ubaruu’s lasting impression is supremely isolated and lonely. Each track is a little sketch comprised of violent, emotive fugues.

Very much in the vein of the latest Alice Glass record – in spirit if not in delivery – S5 is as compelling a Breakcore record I’ve heard this decade. Club music made with funereal intent, dancing-as-grief, dancing-as-rememberance.

Kaizo Slumber – The Kaizo Manifesto

In a year filled with morose and soberingly vulnerable records, The Kaizo Manifesto shines even brighter thanks to its retro-future aestheticism, infectious enthusiasm and its ability to be proudly influenced by the past but not wallow in reductive nostalgia or corporate cynicism.

Kaizo juxtaposes the blissful optimism of Hardcore’s heyday with sterile modern production sensibilities to create an atmosphere that elevates its delivery. A holistic and cohesive work in aesthetics, concept and delivery, it’s a crazily forward thinking and modern record

“The Kaizo Manifesto’ revolves around hyper-futurism and environmentalism, and the perceived contradiction of those two concepts.”

Cremation Lily / Knifedoutofexistence – Mist & Static

Though released initially in a cassette run in late 2021, this collaboration received a wider release in January of 2022, and so depending on your perspective it may or not be eligible for discussion in this post.

Two stalworth member of the musical underground for over a decade, Knifedoutofexistence and Cremation Lily have curated a catalogue of titanic experimental, electronic and noise music.

I’ve been familiar with Dean since 2013, where I heard the Knifedoutofexistence / Carrion Sunflower split I Find No Love In Poison, And There Is No God, I Know This Now. Further exploring his back catalogue with Witch Cult onto his later, more focused work in the past few years has been an incredibly rewarding experience.

Cremation Lily’s explicit shift from tenacious Power Electronics to thick, aquatic Techno and Ambient has seen more crossover success than perhaps any other artist who was operating in the same sphere.

Independently they’ve both had a fruitful year. This release however – the digital version specifically, containing original solo tracks – sees them at their artistic peak. The nocturnal flavour of riverside walks, something malignant gripping your ankles from depths unseen. Aural eeriness, the uncanny blitz of sheet-metal noise undercut by glistening synth. Mist & Static is an appropriate name, like an electrical surge through a naturalist, south-coast vista.

ROUND UP
Records worth your time that I didn’t find much to write about otherwise

Bleached Cross – S/T. (Very catchy Gothic Rock with the melodic sensibilities of The Killers.)

Ryoji Ikeda – Ultrasonics. (Playful – and occasionally very fucking dark – Electronic music from the paternal figure of Microsound. Relaxing.)

Crime Of Passing – S/T (Icy Post-Punk, staccato and sharp, deadpan delivery, earworm guitar-work.)

Billy Woods – Aethiopes. (Unlike Church, I don’t have the vocabulary to approach Aethiopes. Stellar Hip Hop with my favourite use of sampling from 2022.)

DITZ – The Great Regression (Wonderful debut, aggressive, off-kilter Noise Rock, with sensational delivery.)

Sus – Suspicious Activity. (Hard-hitting UK Drill – mental backstory, great tape.)

Gets Worse – Teen Wolf. (Frenetic Powerviolence, packed with hooks, great for gym.)

Knucks – Alpha House. (Sophomore Drill record with great production, slick delivery.)

Lil Texas – FASTER. (Gleefully stupid Hardcore EDM assault with very funny samples.)

Coffin Nail – Years Of Dread. (Blistering Deathgrind, punch-in-the-gut shit.)

Puce Mary – You Must Have Been Dreaming. (More ethereal and ambient than past work but incredibly solid)

Keiji Haino – My Lord Music, I Most Humbly Beg Your Indulgence in the Hope That You Will Do Me the Honour of Permitting This Seed Called Keiji Haino to Be Planted Within You. (Haino’s best record in years, centred around improvised music played on the hurdy gurdy.)