Two-Zero-Two-Four C.E. — Counting Down The Year In Sound Worship
Record Room: Monday, 12/30…
To whom it may interest,
In a little more than a day from now, we’ll all be officially midway through the decade. We’ll share kisses, down champagne, recuperate from the hangover, and start all over again, set adrift in another 12-month stretch of unknowns and variables all set to a new soundtrack.
While the year itself wasn’t great, I’m a fan of 2024’s discography. Granted, the old heads (like myself) found gratification from our X-centric ancestry who either decided to check in after lengthy absences (The Jesus Lizard, Shellac (R.I.P.), The Cure) or issue some exceptional solo outings (Kim Gordon, Mary Timony, J. Robbins).
I was admittedly lax on the hip-hop front in 2024, but was highly impressed by Angry Blackmen’s first full-length, The Legend Of ABM. There was also so much Jazz to listen to and consider and even a few live albums (Alice Coltrane, Tropical Fuck Storm, OCS) were strong enough to make the cut.
Placing my favorites for 2024 seemed more difficult than prior years and I’m still not completely sold. Out of a total of 65 albums that I’d been listening to over the last 12 months, I’ve whittled my list down to 50. Days from now, I’ll review this list and wretch. Hopefully, you’ll review this list and entertain your ears.
10.
Angry Blackmen
The Legend of ABM
Deathbomb Arc
Released: 1/26/24
From the entry Buys & Receipt: The Legend of ABM by Angry Blackmen, which was posted on 6/30/24:
Wearing provocation in a manner evocative of NWA (name) and KMD (mascot), Angry Blackmen (members Quentin Branch and Brian Warren) operate in counter-culture subterrania, generating an electrified tangle of sounds unpolished enough to alienate so-called appreciators or sophisticates. “Underground kings,” Branch states in “FUCKOFF,” “We the rap version Iggy Pop.” As assessments go, that’s as accurate and self-aware as it gets: Branch and Warren’s music conveys an embrace of hardcore’s musical economy and sonic hostility within the hip-hop device, their directed rage (“GRIND”) and vulnerability (“Suicidal Tendencies”) set to beats both coarse and appropriately unsettling.
9.
Mary Timony
Untame The Tiger
Merge Records
Released: 2/23/24
From the entry Notes From The Record Room: Halfway To The Finish Line (or, How’s 2024 Looking?), which was posted on 6/30/24:
Between Wild Flag, Ex Hex, and Hammered Hulls, singer/guitarist Mary Timony hasn’t lacked for things to do creatively speaking since her last solo venture in 2005. Timony broke her silence as a solo act this year to produce the excellent Untame The Tiger, a heavily reflective and beautifully rendered rock album that followed a series of personally life-impacting events.
There’s an immediate recognizability to the regional sound in Timony’s playing, her connection to the Dischord curated and cultivated post-hardcore of yore still evident as her pick finds the strings. While the emotional core of Untame The Tiger is sincere and a little sad, striking is the implicit willingness to move forward, her acknowledgement of setbacks addressed with grace and melody.
8.
Ekko Astral
pink balloons
Topshelf Records
Released: 4/17/24
“Is it Bone Eee-vare or Bahn Eye-ver? I don’t care…
I’ve got stalkers outside, not going out tonight / Gonna sit and take pics in my underwear”
“Head Empty Blues” introduced Ekko Astral’s pink balloons with the immediate promise of rhythmic avant punk, bridging the electro-glam’d mutations of Guerilla Toss to the minimalist sway of the sadly defunct Lithics. With equal parts intensity and sugar, Ekko Astral made good on that promise, the 35 minute runtime of pink balloons largely composed of a smartly-devised lexicon of relevant cultural observations and socially-charged objections, all of which are relayed via rally cry choruses (“Baethoven”, “On Brand”) and hyperactive sound design (“Sticks And Stones”, “Devorah”).
6.
Melt-Banana
“3 + 5”
A-ZAP Records
Released: 8/24/24
Following an 11-year gap in recording since 2013’s 10-out-of-10 LP ‘fetch’, Japanese hardcore futurists Melt-Banana returned with the also-excellent “3 + 5”, a 24-minute rush of hyper-percussive, electrified glory. With the fine-toothed buzz of Ichiro Agata’s guitar and Yasuko Onuki’s distinctive vocal chirp, “3 + 5” confirms the duo’s continued advance as an electronically propped up juggernaut prone to anthemic delight (“CODE”) and melodic invention (“STOPGAP”).
6.
Alice Coltrane
The Carnegie Hall Concert Impulse!
Released: 3/22/24
The gift of an unearthed live performance by Alice Coltrane surfaced this year. Recorded in 1971, Coltrane’s The Carnegie Hall Concert documents her appearance at a benefit show for Swami Satchidanda's Integral Yoga Institute, whose line-up also included Laura Nyro and The New Rascals. The album was released by Impulse! Records and issued as a double LP, one track per side.
Alongside saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, bassists Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee, drummers Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis, harmonium player Kumar Kramer, and tamboura player Tulsi, Coltrane’s set list was composed of two pieces from her much-celebrated LP, Journey in Satchidananda, and two from her sadly departed husband, John Coltrane, “Africa” and “Leo.” As immersive and meditative a listen as Journey in Satchidananda is, the first LP has more of a serene touch, the brass improvisation complimentary and beautifying. The second LP is explosive: the freeform expression of John Coltrane’s spiritual work conveyed with no less passion than he’d committed to performance in his living years. Overall, the performance is remarkable and being able to hear it is a privilege.
5.
Kim Gordon
The Collective
Matador
Released: 3/8/24
From No Ripcord’s THE 50 BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 feature, which was posted on 12/16/24:
Earlier this year, “Bye Bye”, the lead single from Kim Gordon’s trap-leaning solo outing The Collective, generated a considerable buzz, her otherwise seminal and noise-addled rep with Sonic Youth and undulating improv with Body/Head contrary to this more current sound. Not one to remain firmly planted in the glory days of yore, reject modern trends, or shun youth culture, The Collective proved a viable course for Gordon to pursue, one that enabled her to effectively identify new sonic (pun intended) territory that she could author to suit her creative persona. The Collective is heavy: Gordon’s predilection for intensity is manifested via palpable drones (“I’m A Man”), reverberating vocals (“Psychedelic Orgasm”), and hyper-gloss club beats (“Bangin’ on the Freeway”). Still cool personified, Gordon’s latest endeavor didn’t disappoint.
4.
The Messthetics and
James Brandon Lewis
s/t
Impulse!
Released: 3/15/24
From the entry Notes From The Record Room: Halfway To The Finish Line (or, How’s 2024 Looking?), which was posted on 6/30/24:
As a years-long fan, it is impressive to witness Fugazi’s rhythm section having an album issued by the prestigious Impulse! jazz label, D.C. area trio The Messthetics (bassist Joe Lally, drummer Brendan Canty, guitarist Anthony Pirog) sounding comfortable wearing the famed orange-&-black alongside saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. The Lally/Canty anchor ably keeps the jammy interplay between Pirog and Lewis on the rails while leaving them enough room to occasionally take a sharp corner or two. The rock-jazz synthesis works really well, rushes of head-knock and funk (“Emergence”, “That Thang”), soft melancholia (“Three Sister”, “Boatly”), and modern Blues (“Railroad Tracks Home”) providing a mood-varying experience.
3.
The Cure
Songs Of A Lost World Polydor/Fiction/Capitol
Released: 11/1/24
From No Ripcord’s THE 50 BEST ALBUMS OF 2024 feature, which was posted on 12/16/24:
“This is the end of every song we sing… alone.” Could this comeback be their swan song? The Cure broke their 16-year absence with Songs Of A Lost World, an emotional 8-song masterwork that had been in development for a number of years. Containing songs that had been road tested for 2023’s highly successful Shows of the Lost World tour, Songs Of A Lost World reveals a remarkable timelessness owed not just to the band’s continued capacity for melody and arrangement, but Robert Smith’s unchanged voice, age somehow aurally elusive for The Cure. Preceded by the two smartly plucked singles “Alone” and “A Fragile Thing”, both tracks offering a well-informing glimpse into the album’s shift in mood, Songs Of A Lost World’s propagation of meditative space via patient and lengthy intros (the aforementioned “Alone”, “And Nothing Is Forever”, “Warsong”) sounds purposeful, commanding immersion into this excellent return to form.
2.
Aerial M
The Peel Sessions
Drag City
Released: 8/30/24
From a review of Aerial M’s The Peel Sessions, which was published via No Ripcord on 9/18/24:
Aerial M’s The Peel Sessions was recently issued by Drag City. In an interview for the Talkhouse Podcast, (David) Pajo, (Cassie Marrett) Berman, and (Tim) Furnish—(Tony) Bailey unfortunately passed away in 2009—reconnected to discuss the album. Pajo had apparently found a rough cut of the Aerial M sessions on YouTube and had intended to master the material for a proper release. Pajo then disclosed that an Aerial M tour had been planned for 2020, but that these plans unfortunately had to be pushed aside thanks to the ensuing pandemic. His efforts were instead put toward securing licensing of the Peel session recordings from the BBC, which thankfully paid off.
1.
Beak>
>>>>
Temporary Residence, Ltd. Released: 5/28/24
From the entry From The Headphones — Six Organs Of Admittance, Beak>, Belong, Bangladeafy, Thou, which was posted on 5/30/24:
The unexpected release of Beak>’s newest album, >>>>, cancelled out most of my attention for other planned listening. With nary a single out there generating any buzz, the sudden availability of this fourth LP from the trio (Geoff Barrow, Billy Fuller, and Will Young) was a strategic move, the slow extraction and dissemination of singles from the album seen as potentially weakening its impact if not considered as a full and complete work.
Honestly, they’re not wrong. I was happy not to be spoiled.
Following:
11. Tropical Fuck Storm — Tropical Fuck Storm’s Inflatable Graveyard (Three Lobed Recordings, 9/27/24)
12. Gouge Away — Deep Sage (Deathwish Inc., 3/15/24)
13. Shellac — All The Trains (Touch And Go, 5/17/24)
14. Jeff Parker — The Way Out Of Easy (International Anthem, 11/22/24)
15. trauma ray — Chameleon (DAIS, 10/25/24)
16. The Narcotix — Dying (no label, 3/1/24)
17. The Jesus Lizard — Rack (Ipecac, 9/13/24)
18. Amy & The Sniffers — Cartoon Darkness (Rough Trade, 10/25/24)
19. Michael Kiwanuka — Small Changes (Polydor, 11/22/24)
20. SUMAC — The Healer (Thrill Jockey, 6/21/24)
21. The Body & Dis Fig — Orchards Of A Futile Heaven (Thrill Jockey, 2/23/24)
22. Blood Incantation — Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media Records, 10/4/24)
23. Moor Mother — The Great Bailout (ANTI-, 3/8/24)
24. The Necks — Bleed (Northern Spy Records, 10/18/24)
25. METZ — Up On Gravity Hill (Sub Pop, 4/12/24)
26. Six Organs Of Admittance — Time is Glass (Drag City, 4/26/24)
27. Thou — Umbilical (Sacred Bones, 5/31/24)
28. J. Robbins — Basilisk (Dischord, 2/2/24)
29. Molchat Doma — Belaya Polosa (Sacred Bones, 9/6/24)
30. Godspeed You! Black Emperor — “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD” (Constellation, 10/4/24)
31. Wand — Vertigo (Drag City, 7/26/24)
32. SPRINTS — Letter To Self (City Slang US, 1/5/24)
33. Nala Sinephro — Endlessness (Warp, 9/6/24)
34. Couch Slut — You Could Do It Tonight (Brutal Panda, 4/19/24)
35. Osees — SORCS 80 (Castle Face, 8/9/24)
36. Mannequin Pussy — I Got Heaven (Epitaph, 3/1/24)
37. A Place To Bury Strangers — Synthesizer (DedStrange, 10/25/24)
38. High On Fire — The Storm Cometh (MNRK Music, 4/19/24)
39. Kamasi Washington — Fearless Movement (Young, 5/3/24)
40. Chat Pile — Cool World (The Flenser, 10/11/24)
41. Josh Johnson — Quince (Northern Spy, 4/5/24)
42. The The — Ensoulment (Cineola Limited, 9/6/24)
43. OCS — Live At Permanent Records (Rock Is Hell, 11/29/24)
44. Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (Loma Vista, 2/9/24)
45. Pissed Jeans — Half Divorced (Sub Pop, 3/1/24)
46. Tyler, The Creator — Chromakopia (Columbia, 10/28/24)
47. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — Wild God (Bad Seed Ltd., 8/30/24)
48. Kendrick Lamar — GNX (PGLang/Interscope, 11/22/24)
49. Zombi — Direct Inject (Relapse, 3/22/24)
50. Papa M — The Ballads of Harry Houdini (Drag City, 11/22/14)
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
