2024 :: Q1
Hey, still looking for a bit of respite from the rest of the world too, eh?
It’s quite amazing how low the bar was set for 2024 to clear in terms of the amount of macro/micro stress 2023 bestowed upon the world that it should have avoided, but here we are; still broke, confused and dejected, with each emotion and its effluent residue sewn together in an all-encompassing damp blanket of dread.
But hey, at least there’s enough music to distract ourselves with, eh?
Although I had made a resolution to keep away from writing so frequently as to not make it feel like more of an obligation than it really should if I’m meant to be doing this for my own misplaced sense of fun, it doesn’t mean I’ve been welching on the consumption front, especially via the prompting of how world-endingly high the levels of chaos are currently dominating current affairs.
As such, much remains the same really, though I have given myself more time to write about releases that stand a better chance of remaining within my personal music collection by the end of the year. We are still collating recommendations and notices from Pitchfork, The Guardian, Resident Advisor, and Metacritic though, as well as opening a new branch of inquiry via the website Album Of The Year.
I’ve even signed up for it like the obsequious twerp that I am, so please remember to go take a look if you are so inclined?
The blog however will adhere to the quarterly-calendar release format rather than update every time I clear the 50 album threshold, which means there is a chance I could miss certain releases until the next instalment… and may or may not explain why Cowboy Carter is not featured in this particular entry, but I digress.
210 albums and 45 EP’s later, let’s get 2024 started, shall we??
Late Submissions From 2023
And in the grand traditions of nothing going according to plan from the jump, we have a tie-break situation in this particular quandary, which means double your recommended-listening merriment!
The Ones Ahead by Beverly Glenn-Copeland
I have to start the year earnestly remonstrating myself for omitting one of 2023’s best albums completely from my otherwise comprehensive list, as I forgot to give a shout out to one Beverly Glenn-Copeland, whose stirringly beautiful The Ones Ahead should have made quite a formidable dent in my end-of-year rankings. Utilising a poignant blend of experimental jazz and contemporary classical music to help their soul-aching vocals transcend barriers, it would take a heart composed of the utmost dense mineral to not be moved by the opus Glenn-Copeland has composed here, a work that often shines so brightly as to feel otherworldly, informed as it is by humanity’s tortured legacy.
A Flor de Piel by Montañera
A Flor de Piel is the third longform entry in this particular offshoot of María Mónica Gutierrez’s sonic oeuvre, inspired by her moving to London and the conflicting emotions of trepidation and elation that come with displacing yourself from your home to further your knowledge of the world, be it academic or personal. Gutierrez renders this serene tension marvellously throughout the album, equal parts sensual and enervated as she uses subtly enveloping electronic signatures and pulses to serve a compellingly modern Latin layer of subsuming swoon.
My Preferred 10 Albums Of 2024 Q1
Chapultepec by Lao
Working simultaneously as a tribute to both the electronic music scene of Mexico City and the large city park from which its namesake is drawn, DJ/producer Lao’s debut album is a barnstorming epic portraying all of the drama, grit and heart that has become customary with the CDMX scene. A revelatory downtempo mix that thrillingly incorporates contemporary and indigenous elements of house, breakbeat, jungle and rave to either summon evocative past mysteries or ambivalent futures, it’s an intoxicating journey from start to finish.
For Your Consideration by Empress Of
The Latin influence continues further apace courtesy of the fourth album from pop music dynamo Lorely Rodriguez, striking out on her own with her first independent longform release. With that extra context in mind, the resulting cache of alternative-pop fancies that Rodriguez creates (with a little help from fellow leftfield pop darlings Rina Sawayama and MUNA among others) becomes all the more impressive, so singular, unfettered and effortless is her command throughout that it would be a damn shame for her best-kept-secret status to continue.
I Got Heaven by Mannequin Pussy
A raucously raunchy detour arrives now via the fourth album from Philadelphia-founded art-punk-rock outfit Mannequin Pussy, who celebrate the tenth anniversary of their debut album’s release the way all musicians should do… by putting out even more and better music than previously! Described by frontperson Marisa Dabice with the keywords “longing” and “horniness”, the sensual abandon on display is fabulously galvanising, the four-piece still giving us plenty of their customary audio anarchy, but infused with even more swoonsome energy.
It’s Over by Tatyana
English singer/songwriter/producer Tatyana first entered the indie-pop fray back in 2022, where her debut album mostly caught attention for its being produced by Metronomy’s Joseph Mount. However, LP Number 2 carries no such authorial qualms, with the multi-hyphenate delivering a DIY synthpop gem that truly impresses with its snappily elastic beats and charmingly forthright lyrics navigating future-disco atmospheres of beleaguered romance, reminiscent of earlier works of The Knife, Maurice Fulton and the still-terribly-missed SOPHIE.
Letter To Yu by Bolis Pupul
Having previously left many an indie-pop fan’s heart aflutter via their collaborative album with the delightful Charlotte Adigéry in 2022, synthpop musician Bolis Pupul’s reputation gathers further torrents of steam on their debut solo effort. Combining influenced from both his European and Asian heritage, Letter To Yu is a leftfield pop triumph that could not exhibit Pupul’s uncommon intelligence in production craft better, their moments of winsome introspection and reverence just as head-turning as their more dance-ified alternative club jams.
Open Me, A Higher Consciousness Of Sound And Spirit by Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
I’m normally loathe to chart the longevity of any single project as it’s often a lazy hook with which to attach “they’ve still got it” platitudes that often feel condescending, intentional or not. However, when something is still going as strong, fervent and downright excellent as percussionist Kahil El’ Zabar‘s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble over half-a-century down the line, it’s hard not to be spellbound by how mercurial and soul-soothingly wonderful the bandmaster and his cadre of players are still able to play, be it original works or those previously storied in the annals of jazz music history.
Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1 by Cowboy Sadness
Recorded in marathon sessions over a period of a few years, this first collection of wistful ambience plays like a collaboration between Americana instrumentalist William Tyler and the Scottish electronica duo Boards Of Canada at their most sunny and deathy. Anti-fans of softly aimless melodics can have their fears allayed though, as despite the title suggesting otherwise, there is enough drive and momentum in each of these gorgeous tracks to keep them more on the hypnotic side as opposed to the infuriatingly meandering.
She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She by Chelsea Wolfe
On her seventh album in fourteen years, the inimitable Chelsea Wolfe beguiles listeners perhaps more indelibly than ever before, her work this time embracing a more acutely felt electronic edge that frequently seesaws between doom metal, trip hop and industrial, her gothic persona holding court marvellously with nary a sad-eyed death stare out of place. An early contender for the What My Year Actually Felt Like album award for 2024, certainly.
The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis by The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis
Some fabulous art-rock jazz-punk fusion this way plays now, courtesy of experimental rock progressives The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, a saxophonist whose rapidly expanding discography may have found its most definitive milestone yet with a project filled with such awesome synergy as this meeting of similarly vital and expressive performers. Each track featured here is the kind of transportive, fiercely elemental improvisation that ought to silence any single person labouring under the assumption that most jazz is just “all the notes being played badly in the wrong order”.
What Now by Brittany Howard
And finishing up the album round-up is the second full-length solo effort from one Brittany Howard, who continues to psychedelically shred the boundaries of conventional pop music via her prodigious knowledge of genre theory, her virtuoso guitar skills and that incredible one-of-a-kind voice of theirs. Punctuated with pensive chimes that bookend each chapter, the album charts the dissolution of a troubled relationship and all of the rapturous anxieties that come with it, revelling and lamenting the intoxicating messes created to forge a forlorn and funky classic.
Further Listening
Jazz: As I approach middle-age, it appears that Jazz is becoming more and more of a critical balm on which to apply to my life; besides the cool cats I’ve mentioned previously, we need to at least make passing reference to Charles Lloyd‘s epic new collection, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, as well as Vijay Iyer‘s latest album as bandleader, Compassion.
Compassion – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Classical: In terms of your typical classical standards of exemplary recorded performances from the masters, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax rock the Amadeus certainly via Beethoven‘s fourth symphony on Beethoven For Three; Philip Glass gives new big understated feels on established classics from his oeuvre on Solo; and Kali Malone delivers on the contemporary classical front with startling new arrangements for choir, organ and brass on All Life Long.
All Life Long – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Beethoven For Three: Symphony No. 4 And Op. 97 “Archduke” – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Solo – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Dance/Electronic: For the more electronically-encouraged, future-cool Hyperdub signee Heavee’s Unleash and perma-cool Warp stalwart Squarepusher‘s Dostrotime should be able to sate said appetites with their idiosyncratic takes on shape-throwing missives; and for those of a more eclectic taste, French-African collective Les Amazones D’Afrique‘s Musow Danse is so good, they had to put the word ‘dance’ in the actual title. If the vibe of esoterica is more your thing, I’d be remiss to not give a shout out to Miami producer Jonny From Space’s dub-filled delight back then i don’t know but now i do, and certainly Jlin‘s latest LP Akoma, featuring the mighty Björk herself on the opening track.
Akoma – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
back then i don’t know but now i do – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Musow Danse – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Unleash – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Alternative: Quite a strong showing on this catch-all genre’s front, but if you are still looking for more wares to vibe to, I can also recommend Julia Holter‘s ethereal work on Something In The Room She Moves, Nadine Shah‘s brusque treatise on identity on Filthy Underneath, the new Not-Radiohead album Wall Of Eyes, and singer/songwriter/harpist Nailah Hunter’s haunting debut, Lovegaze.
Filthy Underneath – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Lovegaze – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Something In The Room She Moves – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Wall Of Eyes – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
R&B: In case the swooney-swooney-swoonage of Brittany Howard wasn’t enough for you, more can be found on both Kali Uchis‘ ORQUÍDEAS, the Spainish-language companion to her 2023 masterpiece Red Moon In Venus, and Gary Clark Jr.‘s JPEG RAW, which finds the guitarist in fine, star-studded company as he develops a more smoothly sexified persona to his discography.
JPEG RAW – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
ORQUÍDEAS – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Hip Hop: Admittedly, I am either revealing my severe lack of cool cred or stubbornly refusing to fall for this most sustained of pranks in not quite getting to grips with the more chart-friendly offshoots of this genre (I mean, I thought SoundCloud rap fell out of favour in the mid 2010s, but it’s still around??) Despite this, I still have a couple of LP’s to give props to, those being alternative hip hop survivor Heems‘ fruitful collaboration with producer Lapgan, LAFANDAR, and the latest from industrial hip hop duo Angry Blackmen, The Legend Of ABM.
LAFANDAR – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
The Legend Of ABM – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Rock: One of the first albums to see release this year was Irish punk-rock outfit Sprints‘ debut Letter To Self, which in fact has a quite good chance of sticking around the top end of the Album Of The Year charts on account of sheer tuneage, so they are good for a craic, as is the parlance; and the fearsome avant-punk institution Idles‘ TANGK maintains the rambunctious ilk of the band’s previous work quite nicely too.
Letter To Self – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
TANGK – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
My Preferred 5 Extended Plays Of 2024 Q1
Or; How To Show I Have Kept Up With Resident Advisor’s Review Section In An Effort To Impress No One… 😉
Antiposition by Wrecked Lightship
The debut release for the duo separately known as Applebim and Dot Product is a mighty fine mix of retro-futuristic dub, perfect for late-night walks amidst looming cityscapes.
Catching Chickens by Nourished By Time
After stoking agreeable hype with his mixtape last year, Marcus Brown’s oeuvre of new-wave R&B funk finds its way on to XL Recordings’ roster, surely a signal of bigger successes to come?
Chá Preto by DJ N**** Fox
The Portugeuse producer proceeds to take their world-renowned Batida dance sub-genre to sparser, darker and ultimately more thrilling heights on this latest EP.
Escape Reality by DJ Manny
Mere months after his contributing an exemplary collection of robust footwork for Planet Mu, DJ Manny busies himself further delivering a bite-size cadre of similarly propulsive beats.
Mediterraneo by TSVI
The London-based Italian DJ and producer delivers short-and-sweet tribute to the venues of his home country as well as the sounds that emanated from within them.
But hey, if you haven’t been taking notes, do not worry, as I have compiled a playlist via The Worst Streaming Service for you to take a perusal through, which includes even more work from artists whose work couldn’t quite crack those coveted high marks done by those mentioned previously, so there’s that…
So yeah, that be the first three months of 2024 catalogued and bundled in terms of music releases and my goodness we are already a sizeable fraction into this year already!!
Welp, now I’ve lost a whole day of my listening schedule I’ve got some catching up to do. Until next time, be nice, pay your staff, and keep safe.
xxxo
