2021 EOYL

For anyone out there who has read my zines, you may know that I love a good list.

So this is my end of year list for 2021.  These are the releases I have listened to most often, in no particular order, with links where available, and some photos of the physical stuff where applicable.  I hope there are not things I have forgotten.  

There are 3 great collaborations in here, and numerous self released / small label works.  A lot of things were released on tape because that was an easy medium to self release where record pressing plants were snowed under / closed due to covid / low on materials.... also nice to see a semi-resurgence for the CD for this same reason.  

This shows what an important year it was for artists coming together to create and keep things ticking along. Enjoy and support the artists!

Top row: Shackleton, Lucy & Aaron

Bot row: Ekoplekz, Mark Dicker, Scald Hymn, Knifedoutofexistence, Campbell & Edwards.

1. Dit Sese - Dit Sese (Invisible City Records, March 2021, Cassette / Download).  30+ minutes of "dense electronics and void drone" which take you to the precipice of the event horizon and back.  Recorded live in Tokyo, these 2 tracks contain many of the characteristics of drone music, yet there is a hell of a lot going on in the depths.  Obscure shrills slowly rise and fall, chattering layers are buried in the depths, things drip and grind, heavy tones come in and out of focus.  The sounds mesh together as a heavy smog to get lost in, and I have done so on many occasions. 
2. Wet Mirror - Wet Mirror  (Self released, March 2021, CD / Download). This is a much welcome collaborative project between Territorial Gobbing and BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER, which definitely feels like more than the sum of their parts.  A coming together of slippery noise minds to produce something uniquely moist.  This is nowhere near balls-out harsh noise, but some precision prattling about, bathroom foley recording and taps off junketing.  Wet Mirror is the combination of unlikely sounds discovered in those places you usually visit, harvested by these two proud purveyors of the scene. 
3. Me Lost Me - The Good Noise (Self released, November 2020, Vinyl / CD / Download). You may think this a strange addition to the list - some beautiful vocal work from this Newcastle based project that fuses traditional instruments and arrangements with some surprisingly sinister themes and subtle electronics.  The words stay in the mind long after the record has finished, and I often find myself wanting to press play again.  "The end of the world" is my standout track, just about, and reminds me of Julia Holter who I am also a fan of.  This is almost at the pop end of song arrangement and finds itself played on BBC 6Music on occasion.  "Closed the door"  is a sad nod to the state of affairs of the world, either through Brexit or Covid, possibly both - "I wanted to see you again but the country closed the door".  Simply stunning work.
4. Neil Campbell & Nick Edwards - The State We're In (Self released, March 2021, CDr / Cassette / Download). It is no secret I am a long term fan of Nick Edwards and his Ekoplekz project.  His low fidelity bleeps and sinister melodies are racked with dread and delay.  He maintains a live approach using a four track recorder and an ever changing rack of analogue equipment, and quite often the sounds are unmistakably his own.  So just like Wet Mirror, this collaborative project works very well because the addition of Neil Campbell with his collection of home made instruments really pushes this approach into a new realm.  A cave rave? A barn trance? Melancholic droning, shimmering bleeps and sad guitars.... Everything.
5. Shackleton - Departing Like Rivers (Woe! To The Septic Heart, Sept 2021, 2x12" / Digital). And then Shackleton reminds me that there is still a place for him at the heart of my musical pie chart.  Born from the grotty rave of the UK dubstep scene (an essential outsider running Skull Disco), his productions over the past decade have moved away from the conventional dancefloor into a dark place of queasy polyrhythmic percussion, trance inducing world drones and doomed chanting.  One for a dark basement fitted with a smoke machine and strobe. It's so dang good. 
6. Arron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt - Lucy & Aaron (Hanson Records, July 2021, Vinyl / Digital). Recorded slightly prior to the pandemic kicking off, but arriving at a time when collaborative works are at a creative peak because of it.  Two impressive solo artists in their own rights, coming together to forge something new, fun and unique.   They have clear admiration for each other which is brought to life in this quite crazy 12 track album.  Voices, loops, noises, interplay, overlay, great day 
7. Mark Dicker - Flyalarm (Brachliegen Tapes, June 2021, Cassette / Digital).  Recorded at a church in Oslo with modular synthesis and samples from a winter forest, creating purrfect pulsing heavy drone electronics that I find difficult to leave alone.  Formerly a member of Trencher that I recall from my yoof.  A great new label to keep an eye on too. Also check out the equally excellent Carrier Waves tape on Hominid Sounds. 
8. Lucidet - Life Death Chaos Order (Self Released, Sept 2021, 4xCD / Digital). Arriving as a sort of best-of his their work to date, a mammoth catalogue of extended noise drones which according to the artist is "best experienced sitting comfortably in a dark room, with eyes closed, played loud on speakers" and I happen to agree.  An intense trip that actually I have not yet managed to experience in one sitting.  Hopefully the festive period gives me a chance.  Current favourite track is the 13 minute "Swamp Burial" which offers a slow consumption to the earth. 
9. Scald Hymn - Instance of Home (Troniks, Feb 2021, CD).  Just like the cassette "Balming Mechanism" that came in 2020 via Monorail Trespassing, this became an essential repeated listen, standing high above many of the other noise releases I have amassed recently.  Dense blasts of composed and considered noise are punctuated with surprising moments of calm and musicality.  There is a lot of tension in the music, yet despite being predominantly distorted clatter, low end rumbles and feedback squall, Instance of Home is neither too aggressive nor too dry.  There are things going on - all the time.  This is not sound in stasis, but a treasure trove of ideas and layers that reveal themselves over repeated listens.  I also recommend the "Lilac Drain" tape out on New Forces earlier this year, which offers a detuned violin and clattered blown out field recordings into the blend. This project is on a roll and I cannot get enough of it.  
10. Knifedoutofexistence - No Healing (Outsiderart, March 2021, Cassette / Digital).  It is no secret that I am a fan of the Outsider Art label, having interviewed Dean in my first Intrusive Signals zine and been constantly in awe of the monochromatic artwork aesthetic that adorns all of the labels numerous releases.  No Healing is presented as 3 longform tracks across 25 minutes, self-described as "A reflection of identity". It offers a droning thoughtful aura throughout, interspersed with muted vocal angst, varying instrumentation fed back upon itself and rhythmic hammering.  The parting track Otherhood offers some surprising vocal samples towards its climax that flip everything on its head.  An important project for the times we live in, and I one I hope to catch in a live environment soon. 
11. Trou Aux Rats - Le Cloaque Apres La Romance (Atwarwithfalsenoise, Oct 2020, 2CD / Digital).  Released last year but I only discovered it recently... this is a beast of an album from Roro Perrot (possibly better known in harsh noise circles as Vomir).  Weighing in at 131 minutes long and comprising of 26 tracks, this feels like an extended funereal lament where the stench of depression and death drones over and over again.  This is by no means an easy listen; there are layers of fuzzed guitar and sustained piano drenched in reverb, ghostly spoken word from Roro (drenched in reverb), crackly static noise lost in a foggy graveyard... there are abrupt cuts to ends of tracks, the sounds of things being unplugged... sudden shifts in momentum (but always at a sluggish crawl....) A fascinating project with numerous musical elements that yields new surprises each time I listen to it.  
    

Top row: Wet Mirror, Himukalt

Bot row: Scald Hymn, Trou Aux Rats

Not pictured because I think its in my car: Kjostad

There were many other great releases this year too*.  Honestly, discovering new music keeps me going, and now that I get to play a lot of it on my radio show each month I have even more reason to keep on digging about.

*Such as Ekoplekz - The Revenant Tapes, Andy Stott - Never The Right Time, Speed Dealer Moms - SDM-LA8-441-114-211, Kjostad - Warlord, Chlorine - Gallooner / Hear You Smile (Remasters) and Himukalt - Knifed Through The Spine.