Thanks for reading! “Electronic music” gets more expansive every year, so compressing it into only 10 albums feels impossible, especially in 2020. Here’s 15 more honorable mentions, that still only scratch the surface.
Robert Hood - Mirror Man
Autechre - SIGN
E-Saggila - Corporate Cross
Space Afrika - hybtwibt?
Hoshina Anniversary - Odoriko
E.M.M.A. - Indigo Dream
Matmos - The Consuming Flame
Nidia - Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes
KMRU - Peel
Lyra Pramuk - Fountain
Maria Teriaeva - Conservatory of Flowers
TALsounds - Acquiesce
C. Lavender - Myth Of Equilibrium
Machine Listener - Metonym
Every Robert A.A. Lowe album from this year
Also Nyege Nyege Tapes and Equiknoxx Music both dropped incredible year-end label compilations last week that are amazing and really worth your time!
Wow! I did wonder if we could be talking about the same show, but figured there was no way. That's amazing. I will have to fish out that Os Mutantes set list and share it
Just saw this so I'm gonna tell one more story. The one part of this piece I ended up cutting before I turned it in is when I saw him play for the first time on that same tour with Os Mutantes!
I actually hated Before Today the first time I heard it. That show was in Boston around the corner from my dorm, tickets were cheap and I figured I'd check it out. Worst case scenario I'd still see Os Mutantes so it'd be cool. Anyway Pink and the band absolutely killed it. It was so committed. Every song. I remember them ending with Round & Round and him jumping off the stage onto the floor and turning into a huge fan over the course of the set . By the end I was running for the setlist! I snatched it, turned around, immediately knocked someone's beer out of their hand and sprinted out of the venue. The best part was when I got halfway down the block and looked at it. It was the Os Mutantes setlist. APHG didn't even use one!
I feel like people always forget "Sexual Athletics" which abruptly goes from the worst song on the album to maybe the best Spiritualized song of the last 20 years.
This is a really good question Jar Jar Binks and I want to give you a good answer. I struggled with this when I took the assignment and I don't directly address it in the piece. I tried to focus as specifically as possible on this period of time for Pink to make it make sense chronologically and part of that meant having to set aside the Mature Themes/Pom Pom-era stuff you're talking about for a different piece for those albums. Just know, that stuff was on my mind the entire time I wrote this.
I interviewed Pink on this site during Pom Pom during the peak of him saying awful shit. It's a pretty light and lowkey piece (we just talk about his favorite horror movies) but it's still hard to articulate that actual experience and how sad and concerning (and in parts truly wonderful) it was. It's an interview that really haunts me.
I don't think people totally understood the full scope of what was going on with him then (which doesn't excuse his behavior). I think his former label did and the more I think about that over the years, the more it bothers me. To answer your last question, from what I understand, he's in a much better place these days.
I completely agree with you! I argue that Before Today is the most "significant" album of his career at this moment in time, Pom Pom is my absolute favorite. You might have to wait till 2024 for that essay though :)
Like Rodrigo says, the Mexican Summer reissues/remasters from this year are incredible. Doldrums and House Arrest are both excellent start-to-finish, the former being a little hazier and softer and the latter being a little poppier and rockier. Worn Copy is longer and doesn't hold together quite a well as those, but has some all-time greats like "Trepanated Earth", "Credit" and "Life In LA" (which to me is the definitive song from this whole era).
Also here's one of my favorite hidden gems which has never appeared on an album, except as a bonus track on one of the Doldrums editions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HtEfBNyvnU
It didn't quite make the cut, but I loved that album. It sounds more like '90s Capcom music than the Fuck Buttons albums that were LITERALLY sampling '90s Capcom music
Always check bylines. I only do certain pieces for Stereogum and they're also really cool and trust me enough to not tell me what to put on the list.
Anima was the best Yorke solo album in my opinion. He takes to the whole modular James Holden feverdream vibe really well. You'd like #10 and #6.
Thanks and happy Halloween! This list and that Ariel interview (and all Halloween-themed stories) were a huge amount of fun to put together. Pom Pom is still my favorite album of 2014 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One of the best surprises from making this list was learning that Tales From The QuadeaD Zone and Black Devil Doll From Hell are both public domain and available for free at Archive.org!
That's because nearly all of the memorable music in The Exorcist is licensed, same reason The Shining or Demons I & II weren't included. "Tubular Bells Part One" by Mike Oldfield wasn't written for the movie, they just used it because it sounded cool. There is a small bit of original music by Jack Nitzsche, but it's not really as memorable.
A cool fact though is the director William Friedkin later said that if he'd be aware of Tangerine Dream at the time, he would have had them do an original score.
1. I love the first Phantasm and then they drop off so quickly in the sequels. Even with the original, I find it's usually a 50/50 split between people loving and hating it when I show it to them.
2. Re-Animator is the most enjoyable movie ever made.
3. It Follows almost made it!
4. I still love the look on people's face when I explain Halloween 3 doesn't have Michael Myers, but does have an army of androids.
House and It Follows were definitely ones that almost made it! By the end of writing this I had so many I had to let go sadly. In terms of J-horror, I also wish I could have added Kairo.
Thanks for your first post :D
Heeeeey Dick and Raptor!
From the second I sat down with Pom Pom back in September it has been my AOTY, nothing even compares. That ending to Sexual Athletics might as well be my favorite moment in his entire career. No joke: the first time I heard that shift in the song I was driving almost had to pull over. The only time I can remember that happening is when I put a burned-leak of MPP into my car and heard "In The Flowers" for the first time in late 2008.
I'm fortunate because I got Pom Pom early enough that he hadn't begun making all of these comments yet (since it was before the interview cycle), but I think even if I didn't have that access and was hearing it from the recent leak I would feel the same. It's one of the most joyful records I've heard in a long time, and it feels like a payoff to his whole career up to this point.
I'm curious what your issues are with it. To me Season Of The Witch wouldn't have this tremendously negative reputation if it wasn't for the fact that the title has Halloween III before it. There's so much going for this movie once you get past the fact that Michael Myers isn't in it.
- It's got a genuinely creepy tone and some really disturbing moments (I actually hesitated adding the "magic pumpkin scene" into the article, but there it is.)
- That ominous corporate villain is an early influence on what became a trend in Reagan-era horror movies such as The Stuff and (most significantly) John Carpenter's They Live.
- Speaking of Carpenter... this time he was still heavily involved with the series and his score is the best in the series (yes, better than the original score).
- And finally you've got the legendary Tom Atkins in the lead. Tom Atkins doesn't make bad movies.
If you want to learn a little more about him I can't stress enough that you read David Bevan's profile on him when Before Today came out. It's a really powerful and moving essay.
Yeah the Blood Orange set completely caught me off guard! I usually go into a festival with an idea of what I'm most excited for or a prediction of what might be my favorite (like Kanye at Outside Lands recently). But here I wasn't even sure I was going to see Blood Orange, but ended up being completely blown away.
I didn't end up seeing the Blood Brothers! I wanted to see Darkside because I never had. I guess I chose the breakup show over the reunion show since the Blood Brothers will have a lot of other stuff happening. So I did Darkside and then ended up staying for John Talabot, who I didn't include here, but was fantastic and doing a lot of new material. I definitely went into the festival planning on covering the more electronic side of it, but I totally understand that a lot of people were really excited about that reunion.
We thought the video had value because there was a really entertaining animation made with it. If it were just a song as you said, it wouldn't be as newsworthy.
Secondly, DuckTales and Mega Man 2 are namedropped frequently because they are that great, but they're also so iconic which is why they seemed to fit better. Personally I like Mega Man 3 more than 2 as a score (and a game, but that's neither here nor there), and Kirby's Adventure is just below Metroid for my favorite NES music.
I actually do know some things about video games! You implied as much a couple weeks ago when I was talking about Grim Fandango in a post and I was very happy someone appreciated that!
http://www.stereogum.com/1692268/mariachi-radiohead-cover-featured-in-animated-day-of-the-dead-movie-book-of-life/news/
two albums in TWO YEARS. Sorry about that typo, my excitement got the better of me.
And yeah while I was writing the post in the office I was saying what you said almost verbatim! I had just the slightest misgiving, but now that it's clear this was written by Walker (and just as importantly it's co-produced by Peter Walsh who has been so essential to making Climate Of Hunter, Tilt, The Drift, and Bish Bosch what they are in terms of sound design) I'm so much more excited about this.
Also I couldn't agree more about the live performances. I've got very high hopes that this will be the album he'll be able to actually play. I can't even imagine what it would be like. I'm not sure if you've seen Sunn O))) play live but it's one of the most overwhelming things I've ever experienced.
You're right, I had KISS' solo series on my mind, but just fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out.
And hey, don't beat yourself up about misspelling "they," everybody makes mistaks!
I appreciate that. I thought it was best if I was the one to post it though. They're a band I really loved writing about, and it's nice to do something on them one last time (though I'm hoping these guys will be making music in other ways).
I like Salad Days! There's just other stuff I liked this year more.
That said - as a fellow fan of pinball I've really respected Mac DeMarco since I saw him mention his love for Simpsons Pinball Party, which is like a Top 5 (maybe Top 3) table for me.
The person who bought the record was Notch, who designed the indie game Minecraft. I don't think the price must have been too big a deal for him since he's made about $150 million since his game launched a couple years ago. Still, he must be a pretty big Aphex Twin fan.
True story - My older brother knew a guy who got his house essentially taken over by a gang of Juggalos in Worcester, MA. He was forced to leave while they proceeded to just destroy the place.
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