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Heat Signature – Trench Trapped (Input Error, Apr 18)

Heat Signature’s set at this year’s Ende Tymes was the best one I’ve seen them play, and one of the best I’ve seen anyone play. Trench Trapped, released both on CD and as a mud-caked, bamboo-staked special edition cassette, captures the ferocious energy of the duo’s live attack through the cracked, dirty scope of hand-stitched tape assemblage. This approach continues the loose-strung structural inclinations of their last tape, Wired for Intrusion, once again plundering scrap metal sources from Ahlzagailzehguh as well as gunfire by infamous Texas noise fixture Keith Brewer and a collaboration with Diaphragmatic.

Xang – Watch Over My Body (self-released, Mar 6)

Abbreviated on Soundcloud as WOMB, Maryland-based MC Xang’s first proper solo full-length deals in nocturnal atmosphere so thick and dark that it can feel claustrophobic at times. But at others it’s as open and limitless as the night sky itself, unfurling into the shadows like a blooming violet. The rapper’s dense low-register flows twist and tumble over a diverse set of beats, from the layered bliss of opener and clear highlight “Turkey” to the obtuse minimalism of “Paid.” Though quite brief, Watch Over My Body integrates the best of Xang’s scattered singles and collabs into an exciting mission statement for his career to come.

Darksmith – Everybody Thinks This Is a Joke (Useful Artists, May)

One of my personal highlights of 2025 so far was hosting the NYC date of the Great Men & Grateful Pawnbrokers tour, which was the first time Bay Area underground legend Darksmith played in the city. The Everybody Thinks This Is a Joke 2×7” was distributed via mail-order postcard at the merch table, which also became the release cover when the record set came in the mail a few weeks later. The four side-long pieces are, appropriately, some of Darksmith’s most heavily turntable-based work yet, graverobbing both beauty and horror from empty grooves and stretched-out samples.

Lucy Bedroque – Unmusique (deadAir, May 16)

The convergence of many different stylistic strands in trap music is what makes Unmusique unforgettable: rage, digicore, bop revival, etc. Every song is stuffed with countless bells and whistles, pulsing polychromatic club synths and triumphant autotune and glitches and melodies and joy. Even though it has more mass appeal than Lucy Bedroque’s previous releases, it’s definitely still weird, which is always a winning combo. Anyone who questions the creativity or artistry of so-called “mumble rap” need look no further for proof that this new generation of rappers and producers are pioneering an invigorating, life-affirming, decidedly new music.

PinkPantheress – Fancy That (Warner, May 9)

PinkPantheress is an artist I’ve always wanted to like but never quite gotten there with—until Fancy That. Starting strong with “Illegal” and the memorable line “My name is Pink and I’m really glad to meet you,” the short mixtape bounces along a rainbow of UK electronic flavors. The whole twenty-minute run time is nonstop hits, but favorites include the infectious reverb-washed bob of TikTok-dance hit “Tonight” and the propulsive, charmingly naïve love anthem “Romeo.” Easily the most replayable thing of the year so far.

Mouths Agape – Verrückt (Bent Window, May 2)

Power electronics has always been a tradition interested in extreme, uncomfortable subject matter, but with that comes the tendency to exploit rather than actually examine. Mouths Agape gets it right with this single-sided C20, digging into the unsayable horror surrounding the titular waterslide and its decapitation of a ten-year-old rider in 2016. On the surface, Verrückt seems like a departure from the project’s deeply personal previous work like The Twitching Clot, but the piece is strangely just as introspective as it is voyeuristic, wrestling with the visceral humanity of a so-called “senseless tragedy.” There’s actually a whole lot of sense to it, but no one wants to—or should—stare long enough to see it.

TDK – ZHVK (self-released, Mar 7)

Everyone to whom I’ve recommended ZHVK has responded with some variation of “that’s fucked up” (complimentary). I first encountered TDK’s cursed, angular prog when I heard the track “Avtomontyora” off their 2023 LP Nemesta. This new EP takes things in a similar direction while adding some hints of hardcore; “Zhiveya v Kanalizatsiyata” (“I Live in the Sewers”) kicks off with what might have been a slamming breakdown before it fell off its hinges and turned inside out. Vocalist Nikola Nikolov is as terrifying as ever, ranting and raving sweat-soaked horror stories over the dizzying instrumentals. The end of “Burkana s Heroin” is one of the quintet’s highest highs yet, the lyrics and the music both ascending (or descending?) to horrific catharsis.

Rie Mitsutake – Across the Water Mirror (self-released, Feb 1)

Chandelier, released under the alias Miko back in 2010, is one of my favorite singer-songwriter records ever. Other than a tape Rie Mitsutake did as Soft Candy in 2014, Across the Water Mirror is the first material she’s released since, and it was worth the wait. As befits an eponymous debut, the record feels much more direct and personal, each song based on intimate voice-and-piano performances with minimal effects and post-production. When new layers emerge they are always well-earned; the droning strings in “Rendezvous” will bring you to tears. As diaphanous and sun-dappled as the surface of a garden pool, Mitsutake’s meditations ripple far beyond her own heart and right into ours.

Looking ahead to 2025, I’d love to finally follow through on making this site more collaborative. If you want to write a review or feature or scene/show report, make a mix, do an interview, whatever, hit me up.

As always, thank you for reading. All the love.

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Mamaleek – Vida Blue (The Flenser, Aug 9)

Shocking, I know. It’s hard to conceive of Mamaleek putting out a bad album at this point, but it’s still surprising that they manage to knock it out of the park every time. That phrase has specific relevance to Vida Blue, named for the legendary pitcher of the Oakland A’s who died in May of last year. It’s an album haunted by loss: of Blue, of the team, and of band member Eric Alan Livingston. In characteristically cryptic fashion, Mamaleek explores these voids via lurching grooves, dissonant jazz-rock noodling, and wounded moans drenched with pain. It’s pitch-dark and achingly sad, loose and meandering and unsure in a way the previous two records weren’t—which makes the brief flashes of hope, like in the sublime diptych of “Hatful of Rain” and “Legion of Bottom Deck Dwellers,” all the more affecting. Every single time I listen to this album it gets better.

Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams – Something About Shirley (POW, Feb 14)

A holdover from my mid-year list; in a year of darkness, confusion, and violence, Something About Shirley continued to be terrifyingly felicitous. Everything that Jersey MC Fatboi Sharif released this year was great, but none remained in rotation as long as this ten-minute suite, which ended up being one of my most-played tracks of the year. Sharif and producer Roper Williams reach heights only hinted at by their previous collaboration Gandhi Loves Children, weaving a hallucinatory web of horror both concrete and abstract. A landmark achievement in contemporary experimental hip-hop.

Kazumoto Endo – At the Controls (Dada Drumming, Jun 10)

Since it dropped in June, At the Controls has remained the CD I reach for when I need to drown something out. Endo’s genre-defining technique reaches a new pinnacle here, thriving off the freedom afforded by 15-minute track lengths. Self-imposed constraints ensure that each of the three cuts is uniquely eviscerating: “Into” twists and lurches, “At” punctures and pummels, “Out of” loops, loops, and loops some more. This is pretty much as dynamic and exciting as noise can get, and a breathtaking return to form for one of the greatest to ever do it.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Tragedy as Catharsis (No Funeral, Nov 5)

Classic emoviolence is undergoing somewhat of a revival recently. For many bands, though, simply retreading the glory days of canon skramz is not the goal; instead it’s to build upon them, incorporating outside influences and novel creativity to go beyond just paying homage. Vancouver’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead pulls off this tall order on their first LP with more success than most could hope to on their third; the metalcore leanings imbue the anxious songwriting and spiraling riffs with a crushing heaviness that culminates in pit favorite “Ritual Symmetry.”

Action/Discipline – Out of Stasis (self-released, Oct 11)

I was originally going to include this one on the f, but it both presents previously unheard material and—despite being a thrown-together special event release—stands on its own as a cohesive tape. Separated by roughly 700 miles of coast, Stefan Aune and Brad Griggs convene only sparingly to record or perform as Action/Discipline, yet every single time they do something magical happens. Studio tracks “Power-Driven Stimuli” and “Prefrontal Injectors” are packed so dense they burst at the seams, screeching high frequencies piercing through roiling masses of in-the-red harsh; the live cuts are hard-panned duo attack bliss.

Sachiko M – Sine Wave Solo at Ftarri 2022 (Hitorri, Oct 27)

Listening to Sachiko M is always a deeply personal experience. It somehow becomes even more so on this live recording from a concert series a few years ago at Ftarri. Now there’s intimacy not just in the crystalline beauty of the basic sounds she makes her own, but also in the air between the speakers and the audience. It helps that this set, beyond being the first extended solo material she’s released since 2009, is also some of Matsubara’s most whimsical and personal improvising ever. Her radically minimal toolkit has never been merely a concept to explore—it’s also an instrument, one she plays to achieve a familiar goal: making beautiful music.

FLO – ACCESS ALL AREAS (Island, Nov 15)

Cynthia Erivo’s spoken introduction to ACCESS ALL AREAS is not coy about the group’s influences. The London trio of Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer, and Stella Quaresma openly celebrate their girl group lineage and provide a crucial dose of “bad bitch replenishment” with their wonderful debut LP. Everything about it is a step up from their EPs, from the clever songwriting to the overall level of confidence. But what makes this record an instant classic is that these three talented women are clearly having so much fun, an infectious energy that elevates already excellent pop songs like “Walk Like This” and “Nocturnal” to new heights. And if you aren’t watching the music videos and live performances, get on it. The choreography will take you right back to 2001.

Granite City Recordings (Gathering Wool, Dec 15)

The self-titled C92 from this new “collaborative sound project” is a sublime example of assemblage as artistic expression. Compiler Jaci Peterson presents two side-long programs consisting of scavenged snippets, YouTube clips, field recordings, and tape experiments that never fail to captivate. Peterson’s unpredictable yet deliberate arrangements sit somewhere between Sensitivity Training and Cody Brant’s Found Cassettes series with regard to how much unifying meaning one is inclined to find; various thematic threads emerge, but the most universal concern is with the joy of making our presence known, whether through music or storytelling or simply making noise, any possibility of failure be damned.

Melt-Banana – 3+5 (A-Zap, Aug 23)

Seeing Melt-Banana live was one of the highlights of my year. Being there with so many fellow fans also reminded me of the immense impact their three decades of innovation has made in the underground community. 3+5 isn’t their best record, but it might be their prettiest, and that’s what I needed this year. Fusing the disparate punk and pop dispositions that made Zero a thrilling but rocky ride, sugar-dusted anthems like opener “Code” and “Scar” are adrenaline shots straight into the vein. And it’s hard to imagine a more fitting closer than the glitched-out fairy ring that is “Seeds.”

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The Rest

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Outdoor Horse Shrine / Heat Signature C30 (self-released, July)

There are a modest handful of reasons why I’m proud to be from southwest Ohio, and one of the biggest is its noise history. These two projects both originated in the Cincinnati/Dayton area and represent some of the best that contemporary US harsh noise has to offer. Heat Signature need no introduction; their half of this summer tour cassette captures the gestural, white-hot speed of their live sets, a chain-fed onslaught of (un)controlled combustion. The real surprise here is Outdoor Horse Shrine, whose churning transmission surges forth with minimal effects but maximal intensity (a high standard continued on the spectacular Water Course). Listen here

Wolf Creek / Casa di Caccia C38 (Second Sleep, May 9)

At this point I will buy absolutely anything that contains new Wolf Creek material. The Tokyo duo consists of two young musicians who synthesize what we all love most about four glorious decades of eardrum-splitting Japanoise. “Glock Burst Cock” is easily my favorite thing they’ve recorded, and its screeching feedback abuse and vocal mangling sounds like magic on this well-produced tape. It’s one of two Second Sleep splits this year that feature Casa di Caccia (label honcho Matteo Castro’s project with Gianluca Herbertson), and their contribution is a worthy comedown from the violence of the A side, almost pensive in its improvisational agility.

Brain Tourniquet / Deliriant Nerve 7″ (Iron Lung, Jun 28)

Two titans of the D.C. hardcore scene (both anchored by the breakneck drumming of Aidan Angelo) face off on this skull-denting 7″, which sees each band even further embracing their no-frills, classic sound. This is definitely the best Brain Tourniquet has ever sounded; they kick both the speed and heaviness into higher gear, ripping through ten miniatures of brutal knuckle-dragging powerviolence. It’s tough to follow, but Deliriant Nerve brings their A-game as well, delivering their tightest and most satisfying songs yet. Sometimes it’s better to smash the wheel than to reinvent it.

Dressing / Standard Grey C50 (Buried in slag and debris., Dec 20)

A lot of the material on Buried in slag and debris. lives up to the label’s name in some way, but perhaps none so much as this transcontinental split from kindred reel-wranglers Dressing (Dublin) and Standard Grey (Nara). Both artists’ sides deal in sublime detritus of all kinds and could easily be standalone releases in their own right. Dressing balances swirling shard-storms of tape noise with haunted, uneasy harmony, while Grey glides through a focused suite of carefully reworked field recordings. The mud piled up to the doorjamb, the loam under your fingernails that you can’t bring yourself to wash out.

RHYTHMICSHIT / CIRCUITERROR – B.O.N.K. (Karma Detonation, Oct 14)

A C10 is always refreshing, especially a split, which gives each artist an imperative to compress their best ideas and execution into five minutes (or fewer). RHYTHMICSHIT, the Shanghai duo of Junky (Torturing Nurse) and Huang Lei, does this by default; the live set they contribute is just over four minutes and I honestly can’t imagine it being any longer. Another newer project, CIRCUITERROR, ditches the drums but not the aggression with a clusterfuck of crunchy cracked electronics. I love a good contrast between sides, and that plus the brevity makes this one compulsively replayable.

Gemengung / Barrera C60 (Marbre Negre, Sep 15)

Gemengung has always flirted with static structures since the project began, with releases like Forced Collapse and Root Bound favoring thick, layered distortion and subtle development over fast-paced dynamics. But “Devoured by the Understory” is arguably his first straight-up wall track, and it’s glorious. Listen through speakers if you can. Meanwhile, Barrera delivers a characteristically subversive half-hour of no-input stutter. It’s overshadowed a bit by the monster of an A side, but it holds its own well enough. My favorite of the three lovely Gemengung splits we were treated to this year.

Red Boiling Springs / Snail Male C22 (Crooked Branch, Mar 22)

Crooked Branch Collections never disappoints, and their modest two releases this year are no exception. This cassette marks Snail Male’s second split appearance on the label and the first recordings by Red Boiling Springs, a project that was on my radar before I even started publishing reviews, in almost four years. The two artists bring very different but strangely complementary ideas to the table. RBS offers up some interesting “noise by other means,” none of the individual elements overtly abrasive but kicking up quite a racket in combined form. Snail Male’s tracks aim to capture the vulnerable horror of alien abductions, hallucinatory bump and thump that reminds me of Free Magic Show.

Diskord / Atvm – Bipolarities (Transcending Obscurity, Jul 12)

This was a last-minute addition recommended by a friend, and as a chronic DM skeptic I honestly expected to hate it… but something about the general absurdity of Bipolarities just works for me. Diskord is a band that’s been doing this art-damaged tech death sound for more than two decades, and that longevity comes through in how fluid their tracks sound. I enjoy how it almost sounds closer to improvisation than careful composition. Atvm have only been around for a few years, but they’re already evolving; they really embrace the silliness here, from the deranged cowbell groove that kicks off “Cancer” to the dance-circle jam midway through “Morphine.” It’s depressing to be confronted with the state of extreme metal consumerism—in case you were wondering, you can purchase gym shorts, a tote bag, or a coffee mug branded with the album artwork—but at least I have this ridiculous music to distract me.

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Charles Gayle, Milford Graves & William Parker – WEBO (Black Editions, Jun 21)

The last installment in Black Editions’ Milford Graves archival series, Children of the Forest with Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover, was a shoo-in for inclusion on this list last year. But WEBO is truly on another level, a three-LP box that immortalizes some of the best free music ever performed (and accompanied by an interpretive live-painted cover by Jeff Schlanger). Echoing the incendiary brilliance of Gayle’s titanic Knitting Factory quartet material and the psychic interplay of Parker’s legendary In Order to Survive band, these recordings capture the three wizards at the height of their powers, complete with wholesome stage banter and an appropriately enthusiastic crowd. One of my most-played albums this year.

MC Money & Gangsta Gold – Da Hard ov Frayser remastered LP (Now-Again, Oct 15)

With all of the nostalgic Memphis reissues and unearthings in recent years from Snubnoze, Trill Hill, L.A. Club Resource, and others, it was probably only a matter of time before my favorite tape got the modern recognition it deserves. But that didn’t make it any less of a surprise when I saw the news that MC Money and Gangsta Gold’s eternal Da “Hard” on Frayser, produced and now licensed by the one and only DJ Sound, was getting a remastered vinyl treatment. Though it doesn’t include the fantastic bonus tracks from the 2006 CD-R release, this LP pressing comes with a booklet and photos that honor some of the most formidable artists of this legendary scene (RIP).

Tobe Hooper & Wayne Bell – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre score (Waxwork, Dec 13)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an important movie to me for many reasons, but perhaps in largest part because the iconic score was what led me to discover the existence of a curious little thing called noise music. After decades of bootlegs being circulated, the original master tapes finally emerged last year, then lovingly transferred, remixed, and remastered by Wayne Bell himself, just in time for the classic Southern slasher’s fiftieth birthday. It’s almost surreal to hear the creeping industrial soundscapes without dialogue still enmeshed in the recordings. What a time to be alive a walking pile of meat.

Ezio Piermattei – Gran trotto remastered LP (Holidays, Dec 20)

I love everything Piermattei puts out, but Gran trotto surpassed his already high standard and steadily settled into masterpiece status. First released as a humble limited CD-R on Chocolate Monk, these naturalistic audio-diary entries and their easygoing openness were perhaps always meant to find their fullest life on wax. The sounds and the way they amble through spaces both defined and surreal are timeless (even beyond, as Ed Pinsent notes, the fact that no “modern” noises are present); a reissue three decades on would feel just as welcome.

OVMN – Hard Driven Resonance pro CS reissue (Advaita, Jul 27)

No one can understate the importance of mainline Macro to the noise genre, but for me personally it’s always been the various auxiliary mutations that have gotten the most play time. OVMN (Optimum Volume Maximum Noise) was/is the side project that blurs the lines the most; the personnel for Hard Driven Resonance—first released in an aluminum-wrapped, extremely limited promo edition in 1996—simply consists of core members Roemer and Stella, but for whatever reason this bloated, loose-strung, sweat-soaked, fiercely unserious slab of harsh scratches an itch that Crack or Grind don’t. Kudos to Advaita for some great work recently.

OsamaSon (as Lil O) – Leaks Tape vols. 1 & 2 (self-released, Dec 13)

Part of the double-edged sword of musical success is the risk of losing control, whether legal or creative, of your own art. Even with seemingly nonstop leaks and label fuckery (as well as a brutal dox), OsamaSon always manages to come out on top. Despite the rollout of his highly anticipated upcoming record Jumpout being delayed as a result of these dramas, 2024 was a great year for the young MC, culminating with the surprise drop of these two leaked track roundups. The first volume is better than most official full-length albums by other rappers (“My Bad” and “Hope” are standouts), and the second features the entirety of the fantastic Christian Boultan EP he released under an alias back in May.

Sawako – Sounds (12k, Apr 26)

I know of the late Sawako Kato thanks to both her beloved album Hum (also on 12k) and her spellbinding 2012 live improvisations with hofli, Kazuya Matsumoto, and Yui Onodera. As friend and collaborator Kenneth Kirschner highlights in the poignant eulogy that comprises the release notes for Sounds, a collection of recordings she sent to him in 2003, Kato was enamored with the small, delicate, near-silent whispers that glimmer at the jagged edges of the noise of life. These colorful miniatures express appreciation for both the former and the latter, as well as the elusive connections between them. A fitting swan song for a force gone too soon.

Hingst – Ska vi älska så ska vi älska till Wall Riders (AAD, Apr 9)

Hingst, the Swedish super-duo of Johan Strömvall Hammarstedt and Edvin Norling, have become one of the most reliable sources of satisfying analog crunch-harsh in the mere handful of years they’ve existed. This handsome catchall digipak collects their first three self-released tapes—a self-titled C20, Hingst På Dude Ranch, and Årets Album— for a wider audience. Though their debut CD that also dropped this year was great (see my review), Ska vi älska så ska vi älska till Wall Riders was really what cemented this project as a clear new favorite.

Smell & Quim + Expose Your Eyes – Quasi-modo Cacandi CD reissue (ODMOWA, Jan 13)

The latest in a string of excellent re-releases from these reclusive “exotic audio purveyors,” this collaboration first saw life as a cassette from Stinky Horse Fuck in 1996 and is now available as a six-panel digipak. Originally performed by infamous perverts Smell & Quim, the source recordings underwent merciless “split-stereo abuse” by Expose Your Eyes, who also assisted ODMOWA operator M. Wrzosek in the remastering process. Satisfyingly sleazy and encrusted with grime, it retains its diseased rawness even when imprisoned within the most sterile format.

Teignmouth Electron – You Are Not Alone (adhuman, Apr 26)

I loved this back in the spring when it came out, but the moody paranormal atmosphere only became more fitting as the days shortened and darkness fell. Another meta factor that works in You Are Not Alone’s favor is its archival origin; acts of exhumation occur on multiple levels, from the snaring of errant frequencies from the great beyond to the disinterment of the 25-year-old material itself. Only listen if you have a free shoulder to look over. Original review

I always used to say that if a year seems to be lacking in terms of good new music, I’m just not looking hard enough. But then 2024 happened. I know I’m not the only one who feels like those first five months were slow as hell (with some scattered gems in the rough, of course). Thankfully, things started to pick up in a big way recently—you’ll probably notice that the lion’s share of the releases on this list dropped in June. Let’s hope that trend continues, because I could use the win.

As always, if I’m missing anything, please let me know.

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Kazumoto Endo – At the Controls (Dada Drumming, Jun 10)

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I was a bit skeptical about a new CD from Kazumoto Endo after I didn’t really connect with 2018’s Keiyo. The three fifteen-minute rippers that comprise At the Controls took that skepticism and shredded it to ribbons, reassembled it anew, then pulverized it again. According to his own liner notes, Endo went “back to the basics” to record each masterful slab of piercing harsh, experimenting with variations on a stripped-down methodology: no samples throughout the whole thing, the title track has no loops, “Out of the Controls” has “the most loops ever.” This is the kind of album that reminds you why it’s all worth it.

Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams – Something About Shirley (POW, Feb 14)

Fatboi Sharif is one of the most captivating underground MCs at the moment. With Decay it felt like he finally distilled his MO into something truly unique, and this year Something About Shirley proved it beyond doubt. This is the third (and best) of Sharif’s collaborations with Roper Williams, a short suite with an atmosphere more terrifying than any I’ve heard in hip-hop. I hesitate to label this “horrorcore” because it feels so far abstracted from the genre’s roots; here the concrete threats of torture and murder are overshadowed by crushing existential dread, with instrumentals so dark and psychedelic they feel like they’re coming from the depths of your own mind.

OsamaSon – Still Slime (self-released, Mar 12)

Charleston’s OsamaSon has been making waves recently with a blown-out rage sound that’s both menacing and melodic. But over the course of his short career he’s tried his hand at countless other styles, and the softer side that he finetuned with Osama Season is my favorite at the moment. Here he teams up with producer boolymon once again for a sequel to last year’s excellent 2 Slime EP, and the outcome is some of the best work either artist has put out. The whole album is infinitely replayable, but “No Smoke” is already a shoe-in for my most-played track this year—and probably the best plugg song I’ve heard.

Bloated Data – The Aesthetic of Death (Minimal Impact, Mar 25)

Though it’s far from the only harsh release with an aesthetic focus on motorsports (for another 2024 example, see Peking Crash Team’s Horns Below Helmet on Pube Provisional Society), The Aesthetic of Death stands out due to its balance of exhilarating noise and thematic sampling. “Engine sounds, commentary and interviews” comprise Bloated Data’s source palette for this tape, and the resulting collages avoid the common trappings of such an approach, gassing up the textural idiosyncrasies with analog nitro. Torque and tragedy, seventh-gear surge, pedals to the metal. Copies are also available in the US from Malevolent Relics.

Stalwart – Blessed (FIM, Jan 25)

Caleb Duval and Luke Rovinsky’s FIM initiative is an exciting development in a burgeoning new improvised music tradition. Though the concert series began over two years ago, the production imprint arm kicked off this past January, and the incendiary irreverence of Blessed acts as a sort of mission statement. Ben Eidson (sax) and James Paul Nadien (drums) join Duval and Rovinsky as Stalwart, and the raucous quartet’s first recorded hour is a feast of clashing timbre, desecrated tonality, and interplay that’s as considered as it is inconsiderate. Original review

Elyanna – WOLEDTO (SALXCO UAM, Apr 12)

Now this is a debut. There’s not a single track on WOLEDTO that fails to get the head bobbing and the feet stepping—especially “Al Sham,” which features a slinky trip hop ayoub beat with a bass line that will make your body move whether you like it or not. Elyanna’s melodies are gleeful and invigorating even as they haunt with taut chromatic tension, and her songwriting matches that energy with stories of heartbreak laced with joy. “Sad in Pali,” unsurprisingly, is a harrowing closer, a poignant meditation on distance, memory, and olive trees.

Global Thermonuclear War – Total Demonstration (Symphony of Destruction, Jun 6)

A vinyl expansion of the band’s first demo with three bonus tracks on the B side, Total Demonstration is Global Thermonuclear War’s official declaration of existence. This is fast and brutal thrashviolence, but one only needs to know that the LP closes with a cover of Aus-Rotten’s “Factory” to tell where the influences lie; a grimy layer of crust and even twinges of classic stenchcore coat the propulsive blasts and churning breakdowns like soot in the furnace. The demo cuts are still killer, but it’s “(Bloodlet) The Aristocrat,” specifically its gloriously filthy midtempo chug bridge, that ends up stealing the show.

Stefan Maier & Michelle Lou – Live at UCSD (Dinzu Artefacts, Jun 7)

These two dedicated practitioners of contemporary computer music (who are also both members of the Party Perfect!!! roster, and apparently good friends) joined forces for a residency at UCSD last year, a fruitful meeting of the minds that yielded this extended improvised session. Though both Maier and Lou are known for their compositional leanings, the instantaneity here is fresh and exciting. The collaborative soundscape grows slowly, the rapport developed during the preparation period allowing for an agile exchange of ideas. Precise crescendos and satisfying catharsis.

Joshua Virtue – Black Box: Joshua Is Dead (Why?, Jun 10)

Alex Singleton’s final album as Joshua Virtue might also be his best. Centered around the ubiquitous but often ignored concepts of death and loss, Black Box directs Singleton’s cutting yet compassionate political lens both inward and outward. From the mercurial overture piece “Box” through incisive sample interludes, intricate lyrics, and some truly great features (including a chilling verse by another MC on this list), it couldn’t be a more fitting sendoff for the project. Thanks for all the music, Joshua.

Nursing Death (Post-Inventor, Apr 5)

With his second(?) self-titled release on Post-Inventor, Nursing Death presents five cuts of his most intense material so far. Not quite pure harsh, not quite pure wall, these tracks combine static hypnosis and dynamic variation in a way that hearkens back to the days when the boundary between the two traditions wasn’t as clearly defined. The caustic masses of “Prednisolone” and “Renal Failure” blasts in shivering waves, its dense weave of distortion cracking and faltering before rushing forth again, as if hands are scrambling at buttons and knobs to keep it afloat. Manual, direct-action wall.

Happy New Year. Thanks so much to anyone who reads, follows, likes, comments, submits, chats, et cetera et cetera. I love you all and wish you the best of the best. I am so much busier now than I once was, but I always make as much time for Noise Not Music as I can because it brings me, and hopefully you, some modicum of happiness, which is so crucial these days. Please keep listening, reading, and learning with me in 2024.

Note: No honorable mentions this time, sorry. Trying to get those formatted correctly has disastrous consequences for my mental health. If you want to see what else I dug this year, check out my Rate Your Music.

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Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS (Geffen, Sep 8)

To many of you this will come as no surprise. But at first, much like SOUR before it, GUTS didn’t make the most significant impression on me the first few times through. The best part about Rodrigo’s music is that the more you listen to it, the better it gets. Now, deep in the winter months, every single song on this impeccably crafted LP hits like a truck as new layers are revealed, new emotions are piqued. There’s a much better flow to the tracklist than its predecessor had, the slow numbers timed just right amidst the generally high energy level, and in fact the best moments of all are when Rodrigo combines her predilections for aughts-indebted electric teen rock and delicate balladry: “Making the Bed”, “Pretty Isn’t Pretty.” Lyrically it’s messy and melodramatic but in a way that pop is sorely missing these days; Rodrigo continues to dig deep into her insecurities and, for better or worse, sings from what she feels rather than what she knows to be true (which makes “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” one of the most unforgettable songs).

Jeromes Dream – The Gray in Between (Iodine, May 5)

It topped my mid-year list and my opinion has not changed since then. The Gray in Between is hands down my favorite thing Jeromes Dream has done in all 25+ years of existence and one of the most compulsively replayable albums of the year. It has a distinct, committed sound that it’s impossible to get enough of: “Conversations: In Time, on Mute” and the razor-edge catharsis of its powerful bridge section begs to be looped; the crushing, faintly major-key 3/4 drive of “The Future of Memory” works its way into your bones; the creeping hints of resolution that tantalize throughout “The Last Water Pearl” taper off into an uncertain end. The tone and production choices are deliberate (and good) enough that the stylistic homogeneity never wears; I have little doubt I’ll still be playing this five years on.

Gemengung – Ruins of Convenience (Mechanical Presence, Aug 20)

I wrote in the previous list about the misconception that good noise, especially good harsh noise, is easy to make. I’ll admit that, at least for a while, it was an I-know-it-when-I-hear-it thing, and that’s why I’m grateful for examples like Ruins of Convenience: of such high quality that when blasted at max volume any ears can appreciate the creativity and talent at work (even if those ears are being covered as their owner begs for mercy). Gemengung has consistently captivated with excellent tapes such as The Indifference of Nature and Forced Collapse, but this cardboard-sleeved CD-R released by Jersey’s Mechanical Presence Records is arguably his first album, a perfectly paced set of nine tracks that are both more active and more focused than anything before, fusing scrap-metal agility with a burning undercurrent of heavy electronics. “Trill” is one of the best things I’ve ever heard; one particular moment is a borderline religious experience.

Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden… (Constellation, Sep 29)

The Coin Coin series has already proven to be an incredible work of art, even though it hasn’t even reached the halfway point of its promised twelve installments. Each entry expands upon that which came before, bringing in new elements and delving into different histories, spreading new ink across Roberts’ sprawling sonic map. Their virtuosic storytelling anchors In the Garden…, the emotional heights and depths channeled into transcendent free sections unified by some of their most evocative sax playing yet (incendiary in “Predestined Confessions”, pensive in “A Caged Dance”) while insight into the central character is set against backdrops as diverse as propulsive jazz-rock, uneasy electronics, and choral hymns. As usual, Roberts executes effortlessly their dual role as bandleader and worldbuilder.

Guido Gamboa – Left-Handed Club (XYZ Editions, Dec 10)

Originating from a broadcast commissioned by the Viennese radio program KUNSTRADIO (which comprises the first of the CD’s two tracks), veteran sound artist Guido Gamboa’s Left-Handed Club is an ambitious and enthralling suite that blurs compendium and collage, interview and interpretation into “a new collective voice.” Featuring the words—transformed by varying levels of digital interference/deconstruction—of left-handed artists across all genres, media, and time periods, both “Left-Handed Club” and its “Addendum” capitalize on the processing methodology Gamboa has been honing over the years in both research-based explorations (Music for Tape and Spectral/Granular Processes) and more thematic assimilations (2018, A Droll). It doesn’t take long for the abstraction to start making sense, for connections to form, ideas to recur…

Éric La Casa & Seijiro Murayama – Supersédure 2 (Swarming, Nov 21)

I’ve been happy to see many others finding the same joy in Supersédure 2 that I do (and also because it definitely deserves the acclaim). It’s one of those rare albums that reminds you why you fell in love with this stuff in the first place, that difficult, inauspicious beauty is often the best kind. La Casa and Marayama each have extensive and impressive discographies, but this specific duo with its compelling symbiotic approach is easily my favorite project of either artist. Supersédure 2 is such a good sequel to the original release because it doesn’t actually concern itself much with being a sequel, instead simply charting new territory in this mostly familiar, occasionally uncanny dimension where observation, improvisation, and composition meet. Original review

HWWAUOCH – Under the Gaze of Dissolution (Amor Fati, Nov 27)

What a silly thought—that a lighter, more gentle production approach would make a HWWAUOCH record any less terrifying. In “Thou Shalt Not Exist,” the first track on the enigmatic entity’s fourth full-length Under the Gaze of Dissolution, warmer guitar work and clearer drums evoke a kind of sickly ecstasy as the vocals wail what could either be nonsense or the primordial truth of the dark, meaningless cosmos in typically disturbing fashion. This current of deranged joy runs through all 38 harrowing minutes, anchored by agile, Lake-esque bass runs (which are also more audible than ever) and a relentless plodding pace. Highlights include double-tracked tritone leads dueling with tortured shrieks on “Anthrophobia”, corrupted opera moans dissolving into ravaged yelps atop furious blasting on “Echoes from a Thousand Dying Worlds”, etc.

Rhino Diaries – Dear Visitors (Ghost City Collective, Jul 3)

I haven’t been able to find much information about Rhino Diaries beyond the basics: Pordenone-based, duo project of Accotica and Zinaida James. But when the music is this good I can weather a little mystery, especially when the songs seem to belong to the shadows of ambiguity anyway. Dear Visitors draws its infectious atmosphere from both heavy, well-mastered instrumentals (full of crushing post-industrial downbeats and halting, dissonant earworms) and the effects-laden vocals, which range from soft croons to dying robot gasps, never breaking out of a deadened apathy that makes this short sophomore release sound utterly apocalyptic, even in its tenderest moments.

Tinashe – BB/ANG3L (Nice Life, Sep 8)

Even though “Treason” is probably the best opener I’ve heard this year, it took a while for BB/ANG3L to grow on me as much as it has, which I think is my fault; for how light and breezy these songs are, their full essences demand a lot more attention than a few cursory listens provide. The production drives the momentum while Tinashe’s voice lulls it, either tempering busy garage trills and trembles (“Talk to Me Nice”, “Tightrope”) or clinging to the very back of the beat to give a more straightforward instrumental double the snap (“Needs”, “Uh Huh”). Though thoroughly nocturnal, the twenty-minute album is good at any time of day, with tunes like “Gravity” opening up a portal to neon-bathed night.

Shitstorm – Only in Dade (ALT MIA / Malokul, Jun 1)

From what I understand they’ve been around since 2006, and yet Miami-based four-piece Shitstorm are just now releasing their debut studio album in 2023. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely—Only in Dade delivers a much-needed adrenaline shot to contemporary grind, ripping through 27 tracks in less than ten minutes in a bass-heavy register that makes each one feel like a jackhammer held flush against your skull. These are no improvised shitcore cuts either; each is tautly composed and carefully sequenced in the track order for maximum punishment. Not even clearing twenty seconds, “Slumlord” and “Bloodclot” are more rewarding and memorable than many songs I’ve heard that are three times that length. The album cover is great, but an alternate choice could’ve been a photo of the drummer’s snare after the recording session—would be just as violent and chaotic.

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Renee Willoughby – 33 (Irrational Tentent, Feb 10)

This is the third time I’ve written about this tape, yet I’m discovering that I doubt I’ll ever run out of praise for it. You can read the text from my mid-year list or the original review for the usual pontificating. The bottom line is that 33 feels like an answer to a question you’ve always had. Not some painful epiphany but more of a reminder, a hazy window to the other side as a gentle hand guides you back to ours. Willoughby makes a strong case for this new, powerful form of music-making as invocation with a performance that must have been transcendent to witness in person, and that we all our lucky enough to be able to hear again and again.

Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio – Northwoods Sleep Baseball (Worried Songs, Oct 27)

Ever want to hear the soothing sounds of a baseball game over the radio without the commitment or stakes of a real-life matchup? Enter Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio, a free podcast that provides this exact service, complete with made-up teams, players, and ad spots for nonexistent products and services. UK label Worried Songs were such big fans of the idea that they released Northwoods Sleep Baseball, a double-cassette set housed in a handsome wooden box that comprises a single game played by the Tomah Tigers against the Big Rapid Timbers. As music this is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of “focused ennui,” the commentator chatter and muffled roar of the crowd blending into bliss.

Met Glas – Crooked Like a Dogs’ Hind Legs (Pube Provisional Society, May 7)

Something that I end up having to explain rather frequently is that while it’s not hard to make harsh noise, it is very hard to make good harsh noise. There’s so much more intent and skill involved than most would expect, and while you don’t necessarily need the latest top-of-the-line gear, a certain amount of technical knowledge and experience is also required. Canadian newcomer Met Glas is a project that takes the tradition seriously, but not too seriously, and of the several excellent tapes he’s put out this year (Moody Brooding, Out and Out and in Favor of Anythiing with THRTDSPLY, Speed Museum), Crooked Like a Dogs’ Hind Legs has ended up the clear favorite. Get a hold of a physical copy if you can, or at least listen through speakers.

Áine O’Dwyer – Turning in Space (Blank Forms, Nov 10)

For anyone who’s been listening to O’Dwyer since Church Cleaners, it’s clear that Turning in Space, her most developed and ambitious release to date, has been a long time coming. The nearly two-hour triptych set (composed of sections titled Motorwave, Playing Place, and Slipstream) marks a new breakthrough in her ongoing research into soundscapes and their strata, each of the many individual pieces a sketch of swirling colors and boundaries, either restless with tension or warmed by light, always fluid and free. This is one that seems like it would be easier heard piecemeal, but I recommend taking the time to listen front to back.

T. Jervell – A Love Letter to Coco (Take It Easy Policy, Nov 18)

Jervell first caught my attention earlier this year with the short but sweet 2nd Two, one of many excellent entries in a busy year of output. But his most recent,  A Love Letter to Coco, is a real step up, something truly special. The tape’s loose, abstract concept/narrative serves as a stage for the Norwegian artist’s assimilative blend of ambient, glitch, and concrète approaches to ascend to new emotional heights. Though still knotted with digital cracks and shudders, there is breathtaking beauty to behold here; “The Warmth of Your Hand as it Brushes Against Mine” alone is one of the most gorgeous pieces of abstract music I have ever heard.

Luigi Bilodo (Vacancy, Aug 8)

“Low-stakes sound art” is a phrase I’ve found myself using more and more to describe a form of experimental music that consistently interests me. This debut tape from the elusive Luigi Bilodo is a perfect example; the approach is both artistic and scientific and the results are delightfully inconsequential. One side offers the hypnotizing percussive texture of rain hitting the top of a cardboard pizza box, the other the rich yawn of a lawnmower trundling across a green, sun-drenched scene—and, together, both are a hastily but lovingly scrawled love letter to backyard shenanigans, the joy of just listening. Original review

Puddle – The Gift That Keeps on Giving (Minimal Impact, Aug 9)

As was hopefully implied by its presence on my Favorite Labels list, Brisbane’s Minimal Impact had a particularly strong 2023. I would’ve had several answers to the question of which was my favorite tape of theirs throughout the year, but the one that seems to have stuck around most is The Gift That Keeps on Giving, the first release by Brisbane project puddle. Advertised as “[taking] influence from the glut of contemporary Americanoise, citing Worth’s Blinder LP as as well as classic Japanoise such as C.C.C.C.,” it follows through on its promise, delivering a lush bout of dynamic harsh with a fury that burns through the six feet of grave soil it’s buried beneath.

Aaron Dilloway – Bhoot Ghar: Sounds of the Kathmandu Horror House (Hanson, Jun 2)

Dilloway’s visits to Nepal have generated several great field recording series over the years, but Bhoot Ghar, which documents a family trip to the eponymous haunted house in Kathmandu Fun Park, has to be the best yet. Though not overbearingly so, the tape is structured so as to allow the listener to join in on the journey, from the entrance and surprisingly scary (and physically hazardous) halls of the attraction itself to other environments in the park like the bumper cars and Ferris wheel. The Hanson honcho has a knack for making his appreciation for the sounds he captures clear without it getting in the way, and thus Bhoot Ghar is an account of a memorable experience than is memorable in itself.

Tupperware – Summer Tour Tape ’23 (self-released, Jul 18)

Though physical copies were only available on the actual tour and somehow there was not a single date in any NYC borough—so I’m still in the market for one… hint hint—this list would be amiss without the latest recordings from the most tape-bound band in hardcore right now. As fast, minimal, and punishing as always, this new round of seven songs are some of the trio’s most rough-edged and unpredictable yet, from the breakneck blowout of “Intro” to the equally whiplash- and headbob-inducing tempo changes of “Memo.” Still holding out hope to see them play someday, which will no doubt leave my eardrums as maxed-out as the machine these tunes were tracked to.

John Collins McCormick – Healthy Alternative to Thinking (Eh?, May 9)

Tactility is the name of the game in McCormick’s work. No matter how concrete or abstract the sources he happens to be utilizing are, there’s always a distinct sensation of one’s head being massaged by physical actions. Healthy Alternative to Thinking is one of the more literal manifestations of this that the Detroit-based artist has released; after a diverse set of four tapes on his new self-publishing arm Garbage Strike, here he returns to the familiar basics of trivial object interactions, this time driven by agitated surfaces (by way of stand-mounted subwoofers) rather than direct manipulation.

Heat Signature – Wired for Intrusion (Head Meat, April)

This eminent US-based duo is well known for their technical and thrillingly fast-paced live approach to direct-action harsh noise, but Wired for Intrusion sees Tandy and Griggs experimenting a bit more on the studio side, wrangling source material contributions from scrap metal maestro Ahlzagailzehguh on A-side cut “Packed with Plastique” and stitching together the loose collage of B’s “Blown to Hell.” None of the usual intensity is sacrificed, however; both tracks have an unrelenting momentum to them that holds up throughout the intricate layers of detail and distortion.

Ezio Piermattei – Rosume (Joy de Vivre, Mar 29)

Piermattei has developed a distinct and singular sonic language with his past few releases, and Rosume feels like a culmination of it in a lot of ways (though I’m sure I’ll be saying the same thing, with even more enthusiasm, about whatever he does next). Since Gran trotto the textures have grown more anxious and the environments more claustrophobic, and here we descend into dream territory with tape-based arrangements that give a semi-intelligible voice to lost trinkets and dark empty spaces. With Piermattei, any given sound—no matter how ephemeral or bizarre—is always leading into another, and the resultant narratives are filled with shadow, suspense, and a strange sort of sense.

There are no narratives so loud and encompassing as decline, negativity, doom… which is why Noise Not Music is resolutely concerned with currents flowing in the opposite direction. While I never aim to ignore or neglect that which is undesirable but no less real, I always hope to spotlight progress and promise rather than downturn or failure. I always hope that those who come here for support leave feeling supported. I always hope to be more amplifier than noise.

Here are the active initiatives that deserve our support, the noises whose amplification is well-earned.

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[Majazz Project] مشروع مجاز (Palestine / UK)

It is difficult to focus on much at all, let alone art, when a genocide is being carried out. We should all be spending every possible moment doing what we can to spread awareness of and stop the zionist entity’s active extermination of the Palestinian people. But one need only look to the voices of Gaza and the West Bank to see that art, and specifically music, is one of many ways those so far removed from the suffering can enter into universal solidarity with those experiencing it. Mo’min Swaitat founded Majazz Project, also known as the Palestinian Sound Archive, not only to share the sounds of his nation with the world but also to preserve a history that is under direct threat of being intentionally erased. Reverently curated to preserve a culture determined to resist but not solely defined by such, the Archive makes available archival material that ranges from protest music of the First Intifada (Al-Fajer Group, Riad Awwad) to recordings of wedding band performances (Atef & Qassem, Ahmed Al-Kelani) and spoken word poetry.

Buried in slag and debris. (Nova Scotia)

In addition to regularly publishing handsome cassette and LP editions of work by sound artists based in Canada and beyond, Buried in slag and debris. is also behind the (relatively) widely read Untitled zine, a semiannual full-size periodical that collects essays, interviews, and reviews by a revolving cast of contributors both familiar and new. Even in a world where pundits have been declaring the death of print for decades now, the noise community unsurprisingly retains its fair share of physical publications, with new ones seeming to pop up left and right. But Untitled fills a gap that Rocker (which just saw its first issue out via the hard work of the No Rent team) and A Wall of Text (edited and produced by Sven Kay, wall noise aficionado and Absent Erratum operator) don’t in that it’s less personal and more anthological, providing a neutral, composite platform where bubbles are broken and ideas are shared. That’s not to say the zine overshadows BISAD’s musical arm, because both are formidable; 2023 alone saw a total of twelve new releases, no two of which sound alike.

Krim Kram (Cork)

After staking out a sizable slice of the underground landscape with one of the stronger inaugural batches in recent memory, Krim Kram has kept things consistent with each drop since. This year saw three rounds, and each continues to be more eclectic yet inspired than the last: first Cyess Afxzs, Rick Potts, and LDNS & Yakkida in May; then Ted Byrnes and Maggiore & Speers in August; and finally (with a jump from KK-11 to KK-15, a sign that another tripartite drop is in the works) an impressive swan song from UK outsider mainstays Usurper in the form of a colorful six-panel digipak CD earlier this month. The forces behind the already venerable label clearly have a love for abstract music that is not just deep, but holistic, and there’s a tremendous amount of care put in to faithfully representing drastically different approaches and spheres of the global avant-garde zeitgeist, to honoring longtime legends while simultaneously giving new blood a leg up.

Minimal Impact (Brisbane)

Fiercely committed to immortalizing the diverse, often hazardous transmissions burbling up from the Brisbane scene, Minimal Impact is also of a final bastion of tape labels with a radically DIY ethos and aesthetic. When utilized effectively, low fidelity is not a gimmick but a governing principle; the psychoactive aura of tapes like Gypsobelum’s Chitinous and CC & Tiles’ Subaru Is Somehow Related to the Pleiades is only catalyzed by the layers of dust and grime that swathe them. There’s definitely a unifying focus on noise and its various mutations, luckily for me often tending toward shit-fi harsh (Puddle’s The Gift That Keeps on Giving is one of the best recent examples I have encountered, and the collaboratively produced Enjoy Our Last Century on Earth / Armenia split forges ties with like-minded imprints in Ecuador/US and elsewhere in Australia) or no-fi motheaten scuzz worship (S27E152’s A.D.T.F.), but MI also keeps things interesting with lighter, melodic digressions such as Cristian Usai’s Lily’s Memories.

Black Editions (Los Angeles)

One part of a threefold partnership along with Thin Wrist Recordings and VDSQ under the Black Editions umbrella, Black Editions oversees some of today’s most exciting and important archival music projects. Thin Wrist initially caught my attention with their devotional remaster treatment of Surface of the Earth’s debut last year, but BE really stepped it up in 2023, concretizing avant-garde history in both the US and Japanese scenes with posthumous documents from Milford Graves, Shizuka, and Masayuki Takayanagi.

Party Perfect!!! (Chicago / Queens)

Getting their start in the final month of 2022 with a superb four-way split, Party Perfect!!! really hit stride this year with releases that exemplify their focus on radical computer music. Technical Reserve’s Personal Watercraft presents the winning combination of TJ Borden and Other Plastics, Envelope Demon / For David Stockard digs deep into the conceptual side of things, Stoppages Vol. 1 [∞] makes process composition fun for the whole family.

Everyday Samething (UK)

An excellent rule for a label is to not release anything that follows the rules. Everyday Samething, along with its artists (Garden Path, Perrier and Rigg, Positive Paranoia, and some who are not even named) are dedicated to subversion; their flagship website is a noninteractive static page, their choices of physical format are often deliberately inaccessible, and the music they peddle is like nothing anyone has heard or will ever hear. Heroes.

pan y rosas discos (Chicago)

Even if they didn’t put out material as fascinating as they do, Chicago’s pan y rosas discos get plenty of points in my book for maintaining an independent distribution platform for digital music free of both price and formal copyright for over a decade now. Over three hundred releases later they’re still going strong, spicing up the scene with unruly works ranging from duo free improvisation (Crossings, Wasserläufer) and outsider electroacoustic (Fifty-One Aural Selfies // Real Time) to sensory-overload samplefuck (Psionic Youth).

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Jackie-O Motherfucker – Manual of the Bayonet (Feeding Tube, Feb 24)

Of all the artists and acts either directly or tangentially related to the “New Weird America” movement, Jackie-O Motherfucker has always seemed the most “American” to me (less in the sense of some nationalistic allegiance to the empty signifier of the country itself and more relating to the wealth of culture and tradition that happens to have occurred here). Listening to JOMF’s music is like taking a delirious stumble through history while at the same time hearing something distinctly new. Manual of the Bayonet, an unreleased album from the band’s golden age of 1999–2001, is no different; here are the same currents of forgotten folk and mystic spirituals filtered through a ramshackle improvised framework, generating such magic as the hallucinatory plod of “Breakdown” and the electric revel of “Red Slipper Ritual.” Original review

Various Artists – The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969​–1972 (The state51 Conspiracy, Oct 6)

In some cases, documents like these are mere historical curiosities rather than engaging collections of music in their own right. This is not one of those cases. Featuring newly unearthed work by S. C. Sharma, Atul Desai, Gita Sarabhai, Jinraj Joshipura, and I. S. Mathur along with a piece by renowned composer David Tudor (who also facilitated the formation of the electronic music studio itself), The NID Tapes immortalizes a brief but fertile period of creativity and experimentation, the enthusiasm behind it bubbling out in every short track. Most of the individuals involved produced both full-fledged compositions and exploratory sketches (e.g., Sharma’s “After the War” and “Electronic Sounds Created on Moog,” respectively).

Blackout – Lost in the Underground Pt. 1 (Trill Hill / Snubnoze, Aug 19)

Memphis hip-hop, in the classic sense, is timeless. Not only do countless heads across the world still listen to tapes that are more than thirty years old now, but the scene and coextensive genre continues to assert its influence in modern trap, lending practices and aesthetics even beyond the now-ubiquitous triplet flows it pioneered.  Blackout is a figure standing with one foot in the past and one in the present, exemplified by his frequent archival projects (don’t forget about the fantastic Dreamworld sequel released last year) and his still-frequent production credits. Lost in the Underground Pt. 1 collects some of his most compelling beats paired with bars by usual suspects Lil Slim, Lil E, and Terror, documenting how high of a level Blackout was operating at as early as ’93. Though there has been no explicit promise of more material in this vein,  the inclusion of “Pt. 1” gives me hope. Original review

Joel Stern – Glasgow 2001 (scatterArchive, Mar 20)

It’s only through retrospection that certain individuals stand out amidst the bustling improvised music renaissance that was the early 2000s, and by now there’s no doubt that Joel Stern is one of these. From his sublime duo collaborations with Anthony Guerra to the eternal impact of Sunshine Has Blown, few artists juggled technical innovation and emotional resonance with the same ease or intensity. Glasgow 2001 captures a rare solo performance with an approach drawn from Stern’s interest in both field recordings as a compositional ingredient and gestural tabletop improvisation, humbly facilitated using minidiscs and binaural microphones.

David Gilden – Texas Pillbox (Fusty, Jul 18)

First released in a limited edition as a set of sixteen cassettes housed in a steel ammunition box, more copies of this sprawling discography treatment of one of US noise’s most significant voices will reach eager ears next year in 18xCD form. Spanning the years between Gilden’s first solo recordings and those with Richard Ramirez as The Siamese Model to his final opus Depress / Regress, Texas Pillbox comprises the most complete and definitive collection of the Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend’s influential body of work thus far—and likely ever.

Yellow Swans – Left Behind (self-released, Nov 17)

What’s more surprising news in 2023, the release of previously-unheard Yellow Swans material or a semi-coherent promise of upcoming brand-new Yellow Swans material? I’d have to say the latter, but the former is still something special. The aptly titled Left Behind presents roughly half an hour’s worth of the classic late-period palette of euphoric harmonies and resolutions buried beneath suffocating layers of hulking, distorted psychedelia, with some pensive guitar noodling woven in for good measure. “For JR” is a new favorite track of mine and proof that even the castoffs of the band’s discography are still a head and shoulders above other projects’ best work.

Milford Graves – Children of the Forest (Black Editions, May 19)

Seeing Fundamental Frequency, a posthumous exhibition of the work of Milford Graves at Artists Space in downtown New York, is one of my most treasured experiences of the past few years of my life. An artist in every sense of the word, Graves was and is a fixture of the very soul of contemporary jazz and improvised music, a fact exemplified by these incendiary 1976 sessions with Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover. Comprising recordings from three dates (the first with both Doyle and Glover, the second with only Glover, and the third solo), Children of the Forest and its revelatory percussive lifeblood could never be mistaken as having been produced by any other hands than Graves’.

Ali Farka Touré – Voyageur (World Circuit, Mar 10)

Even close to two decades after his death, the music of Ali Farka Touré remains distinct and eternal. Infused with both Songhai tradition and the soulful grit of Western blues, the Malian legend’s virtuosic yet understated guitarwork is rendered in enthralling clarity on Voyageur, a compilation of both full-fledged songs and impromptu jams recorded between 1991 and 2004. The tracks featuring Wassoulou phenom Oumou Sangaré are especially mesmerizing, from the hypnotic pentatonic vamp of “Bandolobourou” to the horn-led “Sadjona.”

I didn’t do one of these last year because at the time I was trying to navigate how to continue NNM under the new submission policy. That’s still true—I’m sure you’ve noticed I don’t post nearly as often as I once did—but everyone has been really great about supporting me and the site with some truly amazing submissions. Though still in early stages, digital hosting alternatives like Artcore and Formaviva are promising next steps.

Anyway, here’s everything I’ve loved from the past six months. Love y’all.

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Jeromes Dream – The Gray in Between (Iodine Recordings, May 5)

It hardly ever happens that I have a somewhat definitive pick for my album of the year so far, but it also hardly ever happens that an album like The Gray in Between drops. “Conversations in Time, on Mute” is such a ridiculously good opener (seriously, words are not sufficient to describe how amazing this song is) that every other track could be mediocre and I’d probably still listen to it the same amount as I have been, but that’s obviously not the case. This record is a masterclass in embracing a specific sound and exploring it to its fullest extent, and proves that “comeback” is becoming more and more of an irrelevant label.

Ezio Piermattei – Rosume (Joy de Vivre, Mar 29)

At this point it’s a given that I’ll at least really like anything Bologna’s Ezio Piermattei puts out, both because he has been exploring a consistently fascinating aesthetic since his 2018 masterpiece Gran trotto and because he seems determined to make his music better—and stranger—with each successive release. Rosume at once expands the surreal audio-travelogue factor and returns to some of the crevice-dwelling darkness of Turismo dentale, the human voice acting as an agent of familiarity, confusion, and uncanniness in turn.

Aya Metwalli & Calamita – Al Saher (Zehra, May 19)

Al Saher is one of those rare but memorable occasions in which a collaboration between two artists benefits from their similarities and their disparities. Metwalli’s tense, tremulous intonation and volatile vocal processing is both the missing link and a mischievous wrench in the works for Calamita’s stripped-down duo jam format, all three performers constantly pushing each other to new heights and lengths. The fact that these shadowy, labyrinthine improvisations stemmed from the songs of Oum Kalthoum is a testament to the versatility of both the musicians and Arabic music as a whole. Original review

John Collins McCormick – Healthy Alternative to Thinking (Eh?, May 9)

Close to six years ago now, I met venerable multimedia guru John Collins McCormick at a show in Columbus, OH, and he recommended I check out another artist named Rie Nakajima. Needless to say, one of the best tips I’ve ever received, and it is also relevant when discussing Healthy Alternative to Thinking (McCormick’s fifth tape this year! Check out the others on Garbage Strike) which is very much in line with Nakajima’s motor-based object soundscapes, but in a richly colorful, ragtag way that no one else could pull off. This is the kind of raw sound that is both intense and beautiful in its simplicity.

Rucci – Notorious (self-released, Mar 24)

One of the (admittedly many) ways to my heart is good adlibs, and those, among other things, are in endless supply on this Bank Roll Got It–produced full-length from Rucci: mean ones on summer bangers “On a Mission” and “Shoulder Lock”; funny ones on “We Like Pussy”; poignant(??) ones on “Ryder,” a beautiful and tender tribute to the Inglewood MC’s son. Both breezy and heavy-hitting—and compulsively replayable—Notorious proves why Rucci is one of the best in the LA County scene at the moment. So “shut the fuck up and listen to his album.”

Ellen Phan – Free Thinker (Nada, Jun 16)

Sound artist and therapist Ellen Phan (though the work she does makes that “and” too much of a division) always outdoes herself with new releases, each time delivering a musical object that asks, and answers, questions that others don’t. The “object” part is even more relevant in the case of Free Thinker, the physical edition of which is a handsome cardboard box set containing a cassette, a small pouch of Jin Xuan oolong, and a “clearing spray” custom-made from lavender and sage oils. As with Visual Squash, Phan’s deeply abstract digital contortions are not a diagnostic dissection of the mind and body, but a deconstructed way to heal them.

Telos – Delude (Nothing to Harvest, Mar 18)

As pitch-dark, menacing, and soul-crushing as all great sludge should be (considering the band is an offshoot of Hexis, that should come as no surprise), the debut full-length from Copenhagen’s Telos is an obsidian gem in the rough of so much forgettable metallic hardcore, evoking the meaty heft of Swarm of the Lotus, the bloodsoaked teeth of Gaza, and the blackened atmosphere of Noise Trail Immersion with a single, addictive sound. Each of the eight tracks earns its place on the filler-less list, but the heaviest has to be “Throne”—those riffs, christ.

Renee Willoughby – 33 (Irrational Tentent, Feb 10)

Death is unthinkable, and only more so when it claims a loved one. “Her shape is light” is the spiritual rallying cry behind Renee Willoughby’s spellbinding 33, a one-of-a-kind tape that celebrates the beauty and color of the paranormal even as it delves deep into the raw void of loss. Willoughby’s musical approach is manifold, her spectral electronics and impassioned vocal performance invoking a cosmic energy that spreads far beyond the stage, the communal fire of life dancing with the singular vacuum of death. Original review

R. Pierre – Extractions (Black Artifact, Jun 30)

Both R. Pierre (Jungle Gym co-founder Caleb Dravier) and Black Artifact make strong cases against the equation of prolificacy with a lack of quality. Even with such consistency, every once in a while something remarkable happens, and in this case it happens at the intersection of two new but already extensive oeuvres. Extractions is a mesmerizing study of the earth’s shifting crust. These pieces have a calm, scientific detachment, a wall-like pace, and the faintest traces of ambient warmth… magic.

Fatoumata Diawara – London Ko (Montuno, May 12)

One of modern wassoulou’s brightest and farthest-reaching voices, Fatoumata Diawara already brought the enduring Mali musical tradition to new ears with last year’s Maliba, but London Ko ups the ante with globetrotting guest contributions from Damon Albarn, M.anifest, Angie Stone, Roberto Fonseca, and more. Overall it’s Diawara’s most straightforward pop record so far, and yet one only need hear songs like “Mossayua” and “Tolon” to be reassured that the influence of legends like Nahawa and Oumou is alive and well.