2017: Music

Small notes to contextualise a year’s listening. I sit here and read this Resident Advisor review of the year and learn lots and think about what I’ve been listening to, at or near, and what it means to me, if anything, and why. But mostly, I just list it. To share for anyone interested, but mainly just for me to look back, at where I was at, and where I was posturing or pivoting to be. It’s all personal, yet it’s all performative, too. I wasn’t so focused this year on album length listening experiences, as my writing is soundtracked by ambient conversation and whatever the cafe’s staff choose to play, and during work and on the way to it, i’ve listened almost entirely to radio or odd mixes. I’ve heard lots of great music, but rarely known what it is called. I’ve listened to every mix that appears on Blowing Up The Workshop, a series organised by a chap called Matthew Kent that I genuinely believe is responsible for making me appreciate music in the way I have come to. Particularly great work has been heard in: Maya Kelev’s ambient show Emotional Landscapes, which has opened my eyes and calmed my nerves throughout the year, and Mumdance’s Radio Mumdance series, which over 40 shows this year with every kind of guest under the sun (Prurient, BenUFO, Kuedo, Billy Bunter etc), has repeatedly shot my nerves and rewired my brain. Cool music only.

Unlike last year though, it’s not additionally an issue of access. Ap*le M*sic means I have almost everything I want, with other oddities easily grabbable on Bandcamp for a small sum. With this, favourites this year are those most listened to. Most rotated is the new Mount Eerie album, A Crow Looked At Me, recorded after the death of his wife and as painful to hear as that suggests, yet incredible regardless, simple, direct and often cuttingly crystal clear. Second most spun and overall favourite was Ryuichi Sakamoto’s async, a inventive, considered and profound album from a resolute master that sounds great on first play and grows incrementally with each listen. Arca’s self-titled album warrants mention for doing something I really respect, successfully upending expectation of the music an artist should make, without deviating entirely from what is expected from their sound. It’s hard enough to keep making great music, it’s harder still to take the risk of sacrificing a productive formula in order to create something new. This third album by Arca is the first (I believe) to feature the artist’s own vocals and the act of introducing this (moving away from just producing, and introducing a unpredictable, fallible human element) produces something open hearted and vulnerable, but still fairly wild. Fourth pick is not strictly a new album, Shinichi Atobe’s incredibly titled From the Heart, It’s A Start, a Work of Art, a hashing together of rare or unreleased (?) old tracks with some new ones from this producer whose work is having a resurgence. Butterfly Effect from the album of the same title put out a few years ago might be my favourite song ever made, and Regret off this one produces some of the same sensations. Hazy, ethereal, quiet-soft electronic music, for the bedroom, bath and dancefloor, click snap fuzz fit for all occasions. Visible Cloaks’ Reassemblage is something old and new, too, lifting techniques and freely wearing influences from all of the sorts of older music I’ve been delving into with increasing frequency (Japanese ambient, New Age and all of that fourth world type stuff) and adding something newer and swisher, with little twists. See too, The Fairlights, Mallets and Bamboo mix series.

In terms of release things that weren’t quite album length or didn’t fit into the below somehow or other, this year I enjoyed: Yaeji’s two EPs, Finn’s Sometimes The Going Gets A Little Tough, Dean Blunt & Joanna Robertson’s Walhalla, Carla Del Forno’s The Garden, Benoit Pioulard’s Slow Spark, Soft Spoke, Kara-Lis Coverdale’s Grafts, Tzusing’s In A Moment A Thousand Hits, Machine Woman’s When Lobster Comes Home, Objekt’s Objekt #4, Minor Science’s Whities 012, Lanark Artefax’s Whities 011 and Beatrice Dillon & Call Super’s Inkjet / Fluo. Also, a small fanfare for Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, which doesn’t really fit anywhere, but is delicate and pure. In terms of rereleases / compilation type things, I’m without my record player at the moment, so I wasn’t really keeping up, but the Hyperdub Japanese videogame music compilation Diggin’ In The Carts was neat, Pierre Mariétan’s Rose Des Vents. Action Musicale was a source of fascination, and Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Postcards and Midori Takada’s Through the Looking Glass found a lot of plays, particularly out loud to a small audience whilst at work. Ambient 1: Music for Open Plan Offices.

My favourite live show, as mentioned elsewhere I think, was Midori Takada at Cafe OTO. A feverish atmosphere for a truly special event, with absolute silence throughout and valiant, whooping applause at the end. An amazing performance, from a tiny triangle entrance, xylophone dances, strange poetry and a massive multi-drum finale. In the same venue, small sets from Sarah Davachi & John Chantler, Klara Lewis, and Felicia Atkinson at various parts through the year. Davachi’s performance a particular highlight, developing drones and a command of the room. An odd show with Joanne Robertson as the top bill, and Mica Levi crooning ballads with a big, sludgy guitar. Corny as it is, I really love this place, and will be in pieces if it’s ever forced to close. Elsewhere, Grouper at the Kilburn Tabernacle, a strange venue (a church, ship shaped and made of tin) befitting the quiet, careful performance. Much better than the St.John’s show the year before, and another reminder that smaller performances are always better. Much larger, Huerco S. in a support slot for GAS at the Barbican, and so much louder, better and more impressive than that main act. A Joyce Manor show with a room of teenagers at the Scala, the first in a while from American Football at 02 Shepherds Bush, and Cap’n Jazz’s last ever, at Electric Ballroom, the same place I saw Texas is the Reason play their last ever, to a room of crying ageing fathers. Midwest Emo forever.

Shortlist 25

Actress - AZD
Arca - Arca
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
Bjork - Utopia
Bill Orcutt - Bill Orcutt
Call Super - Arpo
Chino Amobi - Paradiso
Colleen - A flame my love, a frequency
DJ Python - Dulce Compania
Ellen Arkbro - For Organ and Brass
J Lin - Black Origami
Kelly Lee Owens - Kelly Lee Owens
Laurel Halo - Dust
Midwife - Like Author, Like Daughter
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
Mr Mitch - Devout
Nabihal Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Pan Daijing - Lack
Prurient - Rainbow Mirror / Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Ambient Black Magic
Rafael Anton Insarri - The Shameless Years / Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri – La Equidistancia
Ryuichi Sakamoto - async
Sarah Davachi - All My Circles Run
Shinichi Atobe - From the Heart, It’s a Start, a Work of Art
Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage
Yamaneko - Spa Commissions

Longlist 25

21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin’ - Without Warning
Benedict Drew - Crawling Through Tory Slime
Big Thief - Capacity
Caterina Barberieri - Patterns of Consciousness
Cavernlight - As We Cup Our Hands and Drink from the Stream of Our Ache
Charli XCX - Number 1 Angel / Pop 2
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Couch Slut - Contempt
Davy Kehoe - Short Passing Game
Felicia Atkinson - Hand in Hand
Future - HNDRXX / FUTURE
High Aura’d - No River Long Enough Doesn’t Contain A Bend
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid
Karen Gwyer - Rembo
Kassel Jaeger & Jim O’Rourke - Wakes on Cerulean
Kelela - Take Me Apart
Khotin - New Tab
King Krule - The Ooz
Lee Yi - An Instant For a Momentary Desolation
Marcus Fischer - Loss / Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer – Lowlands
MIKE - MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE
Nídia Minaj - Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida
The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time (Parts 2 & 3)
Tomoko Sauvage - Musique Hydromantique
Tsuzing - 方不敗

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