2020 Year In Review
This year once again I invited some friends and colleagues to reflect on 2020
JG Thirlwell
Composer
Foetus Xordox Manorexia Steroid Maximus Venture Bros Archer
www.foetus.org
2020 was a troubling and disturbing year.
I created a lot of music and experienced a lot of nights waking at 5am in a panic.
I deeply missed the sacred experience of being able to see live music.
In its absence of that I listened to a lot of music.
It was difficult to whittle down this list but here are a lot of albums I enjoyed in 2020, in no particular order.
Le Grand Sbam Furvent (Dur Et Doux)
John Elmquist’s HardArt Group I Own an Ion (900 Nurses)
Roly Porter Kistvaen (Subtext)
Liturgy Origin Of The Alimonies (YLYLCYN)
Clark Kiri Variations (Throttle)
Dai Kaht Dai Kaht I & II (Soleil Zeuhl)
Chromb Le livre des merveilles (Dur Et Doux)
Horse Lords The Common Task (Northern Spy)
Ecker & Meultzer Carbon (Subtext)
Insane Warrior Tendrils (RJ’s Electrical Connections)
Jeff Parker Suite For Max Brown (International Anthem)
Jacob Kirkegaard Opus Mors (Topos)
Tristan Perich Drift Multiply (Nonesuch)
Bec Plexus Sticklip (New Amsterdam)
Vak Budo (Soleil Zeuhl)
Merlin Nova BOO! (Bandcamp)
The The Muscle OST (Cineola)
Zombi 2020 (Relapse)
Regis Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss (Downwards)
Rival Consoles Articulation (Erased Tapes)
Sarah Davachi Cantus, Descant (L.A.T.E.)
Sufjan Stevens The Ascension (Asthmatic Kitty)
Idles Ultra Mono (Partisan)
Daedelus The Bittereindeers (Brainfeeder)
Boris No (Bandcamp)
Aksak Maboul Figures / Un peu de l’ame des bandits / Onze Danses Pour Cobattre La Migraine (Crammed)
Noveller Arrow (Ba Da Bing)
Felicia Atkinson Everything Evaporate (Shelter Press)
Ital Tek Dream Boundary (Planet Mu)
Author and Punisher Beastland (Relapse)
Sparks A Steady Drip Drip Drip (BMG)
Corima Amatarasu (Soleil Zeuhl)
Code Orange Underneath (Roadrunner)
Deerhoof Future Teenage Cave Artists /Silly Symphonies / To Be Surrounded../ Love Lore(Joyful Noise)
Sote Moscels (Opal Tapes)
Run The Jewels RTJ4 (Jewel Runners)
Oranssi Pazuzu Mestarin Kynsi (Nuclear Blast)
Master Boot Record Floppy Disk Overdrive (Metal Blade)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith The Mosaic Of Transformation (Ghostly International) / Ears (Western Vinyl)
Michael Gordon Acquanetta (Cantelope)
Neom Arkana Temporis (Soleil Zeuhl)
Rian Treanor Ataxia / File Under UK Metaplasm (Planet Mu)
Helm Saturnalia (Alter)
Ivvvo doG (Halcyon Veil)
Robert Normandeau Figures (Empreintes Digitales)
Ben Vida Reducing The Tempo To Zero (Shelter Press)
Beatrice Dillon Workaround (Pan)
Dan Deacon Mystic Familiar (Domino)
Sea Oleena Weaving A Basket (Higher Plain Music)
Elysian Fields Transience Of Life (Ojet)
Rhapsody Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II - The Dark Secret (Magic Circle)
Duma Duma (Nyege Nyege)
Ulla Strauss Tumbling Towards a Wall / Seed (Bandcamp)
Honorable mentions
Carl Stone Stolen Car (Unseen Worlds) Nazar Guerilla (Hyperdub) Iwo Zaluski with the Children of Park Lane Primary School, Wembley The Remarkable Earth Making Machine (Trunk) Nahash Flowers Of The Revolution (SVBKVLT) Cindy Lee Whats Tonight To Eternity (Bandcamp) Insect Ark The Vanishing (Profound Lore) 33EMYBW Arthropods (SVBKVLT) Declan McKenna Zeroes (Tomplicated) Layma Azur Zeii (Bandcamp)
FILM TV
Succession
ZeroZeroZero
Escape at Dannemora
1917
Small Axe : Five films by Steve McQueen
Pirhanas
Monos
The Hater
Better Call Saul
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Drew Daniel
Matmos, The Soft Pink Truth
an alphabet of 2020 recordings
Arca “KiCk i”
BFTT “Intrusive / Obtrusive”
clipping. “Visions of Bodies Being Burned”
Duma “Duma”
Eilbacher, Max “Metabolist Meter (Foster, Cottin, Caetani and a Fly)”
Forbidden Colors “La Yeguada”
GILA “Energy Demonstration”
HiedraH Club de Baile “Bichote-K Bailable Vol. 2”
Ian Power “Maintenance Hums”
Jeff Carey “Index[off]”
Kassel Jaeger “Meith”
Laurie Anderson “Songs From the Bardo”
Mukqs “Water Levels”
Negativland “The World Will Decide”
O’Rourke, Jim “Shutting Down Here”
Perlesvaus “These Things Below with Those Above”
Quicksails “Blue Rise”
Rian Treanor “File Under UK Metaplasm”
Slikback “///”
Terminal Nation “Holocene Extinction”
Ulcerate “Stare Into Death and Be Still”
Various Artists “HAUS of ALTR”
William Tyler “New Vanitas”
Xyla “Ways”
Y A S H A “Summations”
:zoviet-france: “Châsse 2ᵉ”
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Sarah Lipstate (Noveller)
With all live performances canceled, this was truly the year of demo videos and home studio recording for me. These are 10 pieces of gear that came out in 2020 that helped keep me feeling creative and inspired during lockdown. In no particular order:
EHX Oceans 12 Dual Stereo Reverb - The Oceans 12 ticks all the boxes for what I’m looking for in a great soundscaping reverb. I used the Shimmer and Reverse algorithms in conjunction a lot when I was composing music for a film score.
Chase Bliss Audio Blooper - While I don’t actually own a Blooper, I had the pleasure of borrowing one from Mike of Baranik Guitars after NAMM this year. He made an incredible Blooper-inspired guitar and I was completely charmed by them both. Chase Bliss always delivers pedals that push me creatively and the Blooper truly hits the mark.
Cooper FX Arcades - I love everything Cooper FX has released to-date so the opportunity to access those sounds in one pedal via plug-in cartridges is just awesome.
SolidGoldFX NU-33 - I was asked to do a demo of this pedal for its release and ended up being really charmed by this box’s approach to lo-fi nostalgia. I’ve used it a lot for film scoring and highly recommend adding it to your collection.
Demedash Effects T-120 DLX V2 - I LOVE a good tape echo and the T-120 Deluxe V2 ranks up there with the best I’ve tried. This pedal made its way to me this Christmas and I look forward to making some beautiful sounds with it in the new year.
Hologram Electronics Microcosm - The Microcosm is one of those pedals where you should fully read the manual before diving in but once you put in that initial effort you’ve got a massively powerful tool on your hands. It does glitch like no other. Definitely worth the homework
Azzam Bells MP019 - I discovered this unique instrument through a post on Reverb’s IG page and immediately looked it up and ordered one. These experimental percussion instruments are hand-made in Italy and they’re as beautiful visually as they are sonically. I used it for bowed cymbal and daxophone sounds on a film score and it was absolutely haunting.
Echopark Dual Harmonic Boost 2 - I love the control you have over dialing in the perfect amount of grit with these dual boost circuits. I use it a lot as a textural tool when I’m laying down drones or bringing in big distorted swells. It’s one of the most versatile overdrives in my collection and I love that.
Fender Parallel Universe Series Volume II Maverick Dorado - I was smitten with the Maverick Dorado when I first saw it at NAMM. It has a lot of the specs that I look for in a guitar and the body shape with the Mystic Pine finish just blew me away. I hope that I get to use it live soon.
Polyeffects Beebo - The Beebo is one of those pedals that I genuinely feel is smarter than I am. It’s like an entire computer in one small touchscreen box. I can’t claim to have mastered using it yet but the sounds that I have managed to get out of it so far have been brilliant. I’m looking forward to spending more time with this box in 2021
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HELM 2020 REVIEW
Let's get the bad stuff out the way first, 2020 was undoubtedly an awful year. I'm still not sure how to really respond to seeing a global pandemic bring the capital to its knees and everything I love and hold dear to a grinding halt. Our government fucked it's response, putting profit before people and killing tens of thousands. The Labour Party descended into farce with the newly elected leader Sir Keith revealing himself as a bland centrist with no opposition or ideas. On a personal level it sucked not being able to travel or see my friends in different parts of the world - or even the same country - who I am starting to miss a lot. However, I was fortunate enough to get through the year with my sanity intact. Music, art and culture once again being my main positive. I think I listened to more music than I have in any year ever. I read more books than I have done since I was a teenager probably. I also re-discovered the joys of walking long distances and am extremely thankful for living near a lot of incredible green spaces: Epping Forest, Walthamstow Wetlands, Walthamstow Marshes, Wanstead Park, Wanstead Flats...
Music. My favourite albums of the year.
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi
Wetware - Flail
Raspberry Bulbs - Before The Age Of Mirrors
Necrot - Mortal
Rope Sect - The Great Flood
Private World - Aleph
Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
Pyrrhon - Abcess Time
CS+Kreme - Snoopy
Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry
Drew McDowall - Agalma
Regis - Hidden In This Is The Light That You Miss
Nazar - Guerilla
Zoviet France - Russian Heterodoxical Songs (and all the ZF reissues!!)
Triple Negative - God Bless the Death Drive
Permission - Organised People Suffer
Actress - Karma & Desire
Acolytes - Stress II
The Gerogerigegege - >(decrescendo)
Chubby & The Gang - Speed Kills
Flora Yin-Wong - Holy Palm
Eiko Ishibashi - Hyakki Yagyo
The The - See Without Being Seen
Prurient - Casablanca Flamethrower
Henning Christiansen - L’essere Umano Errabando La Voce Errabando
Subdued - Over The Hills And Far Away
Rian Treanor - File Under UK Metaplasm
Komare - The Sense Of Hearing
Shredded Nerve - Acts Of Betrayal
Jesu - Terminus
Autechre - SIGN
Hey Colossus - Dances / Curses
Sparkle Division - To Feel Embraced
Mark Harwood - A Perfect Punctual Paradise Under My Own Name
Still House Plants - Fast Edit
The Bug & Dis Fig - In Blue
Kommand - Terrorscape
Haus Arafna - Asche
Khthoniik Cerviiks - Æequiizoiikum
Worm - Gloomlord
Kraus - A Golden Brain
Faceless Burial - Speciation
A shout-out to Jon Abby's AMPLIFY series on Bandcamp / Facebook, which I contributed a new piece of music to.
A shout out to the labels where most of the music I listened to seemed to come from:
The Trilogy Tapes
Iron Bonehead
Penultimate Press
Dais
La Vida Es Un Mus
Gigs. Despite live music being destroyed in 2020 I still saw a few unforgettable performances at the beginning of the year.
Graham Lambkin @ The ICA, London
Puce Mary / JFK @ The Glove That Fits, London
Demilich @ Finnfest, The Garage, London
Container / PC World / National Unrest @ Venue MOT, London
S.H.I.T / Asid / Chubby & The Gang @ Static Shock Festival, ExFed, London
Books I enjoyed. Most not published this year, but all read in 2020.
Joe Kennedy - Authentocrats
David Balzer - Curationism
Tom Mills - BBC: The Myth Of A Public Service
Simon Morris - Consumer Guide: Special Edition
Luke Turner - Out Of The Woods
Various - Bad News For Labour
Mike Wendling - Alt-Right
Baited Area issues 1 & 2.
Film. Three good films I saw this year which I hadn't before.
Suspiria (Remake)
Midsommar
Cannibal Holocaust
Podcasts. I listened to a lot of these whilst walking.
We Don't Talk About The Weather
Novara Media Tysky Sour & Novara FM
Grounded with Louis Theroux
System of Systems
Red Scare loveline episodes
Suite 212
NOISEXTRA
Social Discipline
CONTAIN
TV.
Didn't watch a huge amount and what I did was mostly trash. For some reason I rewatched both series' of This Life, a British drama from the late 90's about a group of young professionals house sharing and navigating their careers. Very cringey and has aged terribly, but it was perversely fascinating to revisit something from that time in the age of the pandemic. Following on from this I binge watched the entire series of Industry which was entertaining enough. A programme about a bunch of horny bankers with what felt like a confused ideology behind it. It seemed stuck between trying to criticise and glorify the culture around the industry, but also protect the industry itself from outside criticism by portraying anyone who may oppose as an insufferable wanker. Currently halfway through Succession which is OK. The Murdoch documentaries on the BBC were excellent and a rare respite from their descent into client journalism.
Thanks to anyone who listened to my music this year also. Best wishes to you all for 2021.
Luke Younger
http://hhelmm.com | http://alter.bandcamp.com
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Elliott Sharp
composer
1. My Nr. 1 lesson: patience. Whether it's bouncing through 30 seconds of severe turbulence at 39000 feet or slogging through 30 minutes of a interminable piece of concert music, one attribute I've tried to develop is the ability to see past the discrete and awaited ending, the exact framing of the immediate process, but put it into the context of a larger time frame. I've found that this year more than all others has demanded it. Breathing helps...
2. Books: revisiting old favorites from the realm of Thomas Pynchon and Philip K. Dick (both especially relevant), digging into John Lomax's portrait of Jelly Roll Morton, the works of Colson Whitehead, random things off of the shelf…
3. Composing: with touring off the table, I focused on that which needed to be written, some requested and commissioned, some spontaneously springing forth. Composing requires that one open the windows wide to the world, which at this moment brought in grief, terror, uncertainty, anxiety, visions of plague and pestilence and incipient fascism. Okay, now shut the window and get to work! How to process, translate, transform? The work can be a comfortable and obsessive cocoon once one learns to handle the radioactive materials and put them into the creativity reactor.
4. Beans! We have long been a fan in our house of the wide world of legumes but this year brought two stars to the front: the black bean and the red lentil. The black bean commands the lofty peaks but the seemingly infinite variations of dal surround it. Ginger, garlic, turmeric, smoked paprika, cayenne, onions, and olive oil form the basis then imagination builds.
5. Online teaching substituted for my canceled conduction of workshops in the Pyrenees Mountains of France. Between the participants and myself, we built a temporary but very congenial space online to share concepts and music. In addition, private lessons brought conversation and music with new friends in Germany, Italy, California, Australia, Illinois, Denmark, Pennsylvania, Spain, Florida, Brazil.
6. What started out as "stress baking" (before I even had heard of the term) soon became a frequent practice that yielded very edible results. The twins preferred the sweeter forays into banana bread and chocolate cake. I tried to find a balance between tried-and-true techniques and experiments in texture and taste with yeasted pumpernickels, multi-grains, and seed breads.
7. While not the same as performing 'live ', online gigs proved that it was possible to generate a surprising amount of adrenaline even without the pheromonal handshaking of a room filled with receptive ears. As a corollary, online recording collaborations with friends worldwide proved to be inspiring and a suitable substrate for sonic experimentation, exploration of new instruments, tunings, effects programming, structures. In these realms, shout-outs to Helene Breschand, Mike Cooper, Henry Kaiser, Tracie Morris, Mikel Banks, Dougie Bowne, Payton McDonald, Billy Martin, Colin Stetson, Jim O'Rourke, Scott Amendola, Roberto Zorzi, Jason Hoopes, Eric Mingus, Melanie Dyer, Dave Hofstra, Don McKenzie, Sergio Sorrentino, Veniero Rizzardi, Taylor Ho Bynum, Scott Fields, Bachir Attar, Karl Bruckmaier, Robbie Lee, Matthew Evan Taylor, Matteo Liberatore, Al Kaatz, David Barratt, Jessica Hallock, Kolin Zeinikov, Robbie Lee, Jeremy Nesse, James Ilgenfritz, Sergio Armaroli, Steve Piccolo, Sandy Ewen, David Weinstein, Jim Whittemore, Chris Vine, Werner Puntigam, William Schimmel.
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Daniel O’Sullivan
(Grumbling Fur, Guapo, Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, Ulver, Sunn O))), Æthenor, Laniakea, Miracle, Mothlite, and This Is Not This Heat.)
Music
Richard Youngs - Ein Klein Nein
Alabaster DePlume - Instrumentals
Hildegard von Bingen - O Nobilissima Viriditas
Francisco de Penalosa - Missa Ave Maria Peregrina
Carlo Gesualdo - Responsoria 1611
Dirty Projectors - Five EPs
Sonic Boom - All Things Being Equal
Brother Peter Broderick - Blackberry
Richard Horowitz - Eros Of Arabia
Duncan Trussell Family Hour
Cocteau Twins in the bath
Books/comics
Alexander Tucker - Entity Reunion II
Derek Jarman - Chroma
Stephen Harrod Buhner - Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm
The Penguin Book Of Irish Poetry - edited by Patrick Crotty
The Gospel Of Ramakrishna - translated by Swami Nikhilananda
Lucretius - De Rerum Natura
Plotinus - Enneads
Ram Dass - Grist For The Mill
Lisa Brown - Phantom Twin
Other
Fasting / meditation / macrodosing
Walks in freshly coppiced woodland (for the smell mainly).
Plants / Foraging / Growing
Traditional ferments
Douglas Sirk movies
Mandolorian
Writing songs on the piano
Rediscovery of Kenneth Graham via my kids
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Karl O’Connor (Regis)
01.Wolfgang Press - Unremembered, Remembered
02. Klara Lewis - Ingrid Live at Fylkingen
03. Jesu - Terminus
04. Dave Ball - Leeds Poly Demos 1979
05. Edwin Pouncey - Rated Sav X (the Savage Pencil Skratchbook)
06. The Bug - In Blue
07. New Order - Power,Corruption and Lies ( Writing Sessions )
08. JG Thirlwell and Simon Steensland - Oscillospira
09. FM Einheit and Andreas Ammer - Hammerschlag
10. Thurston Moore - By The Fire
11. Body Stuff - Body Stuff 3
12. Ann M Hogan - Honeysuckle Burials
13. Rob Halford - Confess (Autobiography)
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Caleb Braaten (Sacred Bones Records)
Shirley Collins Hearts Ease
Dehd Flowers Of Devotion
Duma Duma
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Green-House Six Songs for Invisible Gardens
John Jeffery Passage
Drew McDowall Agalma
Sweeping Promises Hunger For a Way Out
Colter Wall Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs
Woods Strange to Explain
My Favorite 90’s Nostalgia Movie Rewatches
Colors
Ghost Dog
Menace II Society
The Player
Rounders
Safe
Starship Troopers
Trees Lounge
Vampires
Waiting For Guffman
Most Culturally Bankrupt Year : 1997
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Charlie Looker
(composer, Psalm Zero, Extra Life, Seaven Teares)
Ten Things That Didn’t Happen in 2020
1. I didn’t write a ton of new music. Don’t get me wrong, I wrote some. I always do. But mostly I focused on my new YouTube channel, essays, and on getting old recordings released. I haven’t even been working a day-job so I thought I was going to write my next Ring Cycle, but I really didn’t find Covid inspiring.
2. Trump wasn’t re-elected. Cool.
3. I didn’t lose anyone to Covid. I am, of course, profoundly grateful for this. But I feel pretty embarrassed remembering group-texting ten friends in March, “We are all going to see a loved one die. Every single one of us. Don’t kid yourselves”. I can get hysterical, and that was somewhat irresponsible of me.
4. No revolution happened. I don’t mean to be smug or cynical, or to belittle anyone’s participation in the protests. But, as far as I can tell, nothing happened in 2020 that promises to reduce police brutality or human suffering of any kind. We’ll see. That burning Minneapolis police station was exciting to watch at the time, if only on an aesthetic level.
5. I have a stack of unread books I bought this year, just staring at me, with nary a crease among them. These include:
Adorno and Horkheimer, The Dialectic of Enlightenment (looks amazing, but I haven’t touched it)
Marx, Grundrisse (it’s 1000 pages for fuck’s sake. Amazon also accidentally sent me two copies, and its double presence in the stack is just comical)
Reza Negarestani, Intelligence and Spirit (the first 15 pages blew my mind, then my mind blew it off)
6. I didn’t settle into living in LA. I moved here six months before Covid and I was just starting to cultivate some friendships and play shows. This was quashed and I still feel like I still live in New York. I still barely know the layout of the city here.
7. No brand-new buzzy musical artists burst onto the scene, that I can recall. No new hyped micro-genre of the moment. There was just no way for there to be a hot new trend. I’d say that was refreshing, but it wasn’t.
8. Tyson’s return was not awesome. Two minute rounds, ended in a draw. I’ve been getting way into boxing this past year. This fight was a bummer. I’m looking forward to Mayweather vs Logan Paul (LOL) because we know it’s comedy ahead of time.
9. For three weeks in July, I didn’t do a single thing other than watch street fight compilations on YouTube and Worldstar. That’s just grim.
10. There were no school shootings in March. Apparently, this was the first March with no school shootings since 2002. Not a single 7th grader got a hand job in March either. I cannot begin to imagine what it’s like to be a kid now.
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Chuck Bettis
https://chuckbettis.com
Other People's Music released this year:
Coil "Musick to Play in the Dark" (Dais)
Duma "s/t" (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Twig Harper "External Boundless Prison/ in 4 parts EP" (self-release)
I.P.Y. (Ikue Mori, Phew, YoshimiO) "I.P.Y." (Tzadik)
Kill Alters "A2B2 Live Stream 11/13/2020" (self-release)
Krallice "Mass Cathexis" (self-release)
Lust$ickPuppy "Cosmic Brownie" (self-release)
Doug McKechnie "San Francisco Moog: 1968-72" (VG+ Records)
Merlin Nova "Boo!" (self-release)
Omrb "Milandthriust, The Graths of Mersh" (self-release)
Akio Suzuki & Aki Onda "gi n ga" (self-release)
Yoth Iria "Under His Sway" (Repulsive Echo)
Wetware "Flail" (Dais)
My own music released this year:
collaborations
Chatter Blip "Microcosmopolitan" (Contour Editions)
Matmos "The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form" (Thrill Jockey)
Reverse Bullets "Dreampop Dsyphoria" (self-release)
Snake Union "live at Roulette" (self-release)
Snake Union w/ Hisham Bharoocha, Bonnie Jones, Heejin Jang, Matthew Regula "Three Arrows" (Rat Route)
Thomas Dimuzio "Balance" (Gench Music)
YoshimiO & Chuck Bettis "Live at the Stone" (Living Myth)
solo
Chuck Bettis "Arc of Enlghtenment" (Living Myth)
Chuck Bettis "Motion Parallax" (Living Myth)
compilation
Various Artist "Polished Turds Vol.1" (Granpa)
Music Books read this year
"Intermediary Spaces" by Eliane Radigue/Julia Eckhardt (Umland)
"Ennio Morricone In His Own Words" by Ennio Morricone/Alessandro De Rosa (Oxford University Press)
"Free Jazz In Japan: A Personal History" by Soejima Teruto (Public Bath Press)
"Rumors of Noizu: Hijokaidan and the Road to 2nd Damascus" by Kato David Hopkins (Public Bath Press)
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Maya Hardinge
(musician / artist)
list of things i liked this year
first ever solo road trip through new mexico and Texas right before lockdown
experiencing manhattan with no cars on the road . having a car to escape in to nature. (which i craved so much)
walks and bike rides with friends… FRIENDS!
The web site ‘workaway’ that helped me feel that there were options for escape.
playing games weekly on zoom during lock down
teaching yoga weekly on zoom.
Witnessing and being part of the BLM protests.
witnessing and being part of the demise of T
sitting on my couch at 6am drinking a cup of tea, appreciating my apt.
making time to meditate.
halloween without tourists .
some music I’ve bought and/or enjoyed this year
Elvis Perkins-Black Coat Daughter
Patricia Kokett -Soi soi
Henning Christiansen - OP201
Bryce Hackford- Safe
Svitlana Nianio and Oleksander - Snayesh yak? rozkazhy
Brannten schnure - Sommer im Pfirsichhain
Killing Joke - Nighttime
David Shea - Tower of mirrors
Shakey - Shakey
Woodford halse tapes
Coil - Musick to play in the dark
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BJ Nilsen
sound artist / composer
Work 2020
Despite Covid 19 lots of things actually did happen.
In Feburary I visited the only active nuclear plant in The Nederlands as part of my "Expanded Field Recording” project together with SML. In March revisited the Acousmonium at the Elevate Festival in Graz with an additional trip deep inside the Schlossberg recording old mining trains. In March and April I did two daily recording projects “Pending and Auditory Scenes” - both of Amsterdam during lockdown. In May did my first Zoom field recording workshop with the CAMP project. In June & July two research trips in Waldviertel, Austria with Franz Pomassl. In August recorded bells and organs in 10 different churches around Amsterdam for Jacob Lekkerkerker. In September recorded Kali Malone at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam. Performed at Heart of Noise Festival in Innsbruck and A4 in Bratislava. Also went ice-skating for first time in 20? Years. In November and December I travelled to Jeju island to record field recordings for a project by Femke Herregraven for the Gwangju Biennale, commissioned for 2021.
Did lots of gardening, released two tapes “Call it Philips, Eindoven” and “Zomer 2020” with Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson.
NOW! Looking forward to 2021.
http://bjnilsen.info
https://soundcloud.com/bjnilsen/sets/auditory-scenes-amsterdam
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Vicki Bennett
(People Like Us)
Negativland - True False https://negativland.com/products/truefalse-cd (this came out last year but is so THIS year)
Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways https://www.bobdylan.com/albums/rough-and-rowdy-ways/
The Soft Pink Truth - We from Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase https://thesoftpinktruth.bandcamp.com/album/shall-we-go-on-sinning-so-that-grace-may-increase
Carl Stone - Stolen Car https://unseenworlds.bandcamp.com/album/stolen-car
Porest - Sedimental Gurney https://porest.bandcamp.com/album/sedimental-gurney
Matmos - The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form https://matmos.bandcamp.com/album/the-consuming-flame-open-exercises-in-group-form
Domenique Dumont - Miniatures De Auto Rhythm https://antinoterecordings.bandcamp.com/album/atn044-domenique-dumont-miniatures-de-auto-rhythm
The The - See Without Being Seen https://www.thethe.com/product/see-without-being-seen-cd/
Ciggy de la Noche - Hold Tight HMRC https://soundcloud.com/ciggydelanoche/hold-tight-hmrc
Neil Cicierega - Mouth Dreams http://www.neilcic.com/mouthdreams/
and my details:
http://peoplelikeus.org/
https://peoplelikeus-vickibennett.bandcamp.com/
pic: http://peoplelikeus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Welcome-Abroad-promo3-2-scaled.jpg
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DJ Food
Music -
Type 303 - Sticky Disco / Analogue Acidbath 7" (45 Live)
The British Space Group - The Ley of the Land CD (Wyrd Britain)
Squarepusher - Be Up A Hello LP / Warp 10 NTS mix (Warp)
dgoHn - Undesignated Proximate (Modern Love)
LF58 - Alterazione LP (Astral Industries)
Robert Fripp - Music For Quiet Moments series (DGM)
Run The Jewels - RTJ4 (BMG)
Simf Onyx - Magenta Skyline / The Unresolved 7" (Delights)
Luke Vibert - Modern Rave LP (Hypercolour)
JG Thirlwell & Simon Steensland - Oscillospira (Ipecac)
Aural Design - Looking & Seeing 7" / DL (Russian Library)
Luke Vibert - Rave Hop (Hypercolour)
Clipping. with Christopher Fleeger - Double Live (Sub Pop)
APAT - Terry Riley's 'In C' performed on Modular Synthesizer (YouTube)
Field Lines Cartographer - The Spectral Isle LP (Castles In Space)
Jane Weaver - The Revolution of Super Visions single (Fire Records)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - K.G. LP (Flightless)
Humanoid - Hed-Set - forthcoming on (De:tuned)
Film / TV -
Inside No.9 (BBC)
What We Do In The Shadows Season 2 (Netflix)
Tales From The Loop (Amazon)
Keith Haring - Street Art Boy (BBC)
John Was Trying To Contact Aliens (Netflix)
The Social Dilemma (Netflix)
The Mandalorian (Season 2) (Disney+)
Long Hot Summers - The Style Council documentary (Sky Arts)
Zappa (Alex Winter)
Books / Comics / Magazines
Confessions of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell (Profile books)
The Often Wrong - Farel Dalrymple (Image Comics)
Edwin Pouncey - Rated SavX (Strange Attractor Press)
Jeffrey Lewis - Fuff (all issues - really late to the party on this one)
Rian Hughes - XX - A Novel, Graphic (Picador)
Cosey Fanni Tutti - Art, Sex, Music (Faber)
Caza - Kris Kool (Passenger Press)
Dan Lish - Egostrip Vol.1
Electronic Sound magazine
Decorum - Jonathan Hickman & Mike Huddleston (Image)
John Higgs - Stranger Than We Can Imagine
Simon Halfon - Cover To Cover (Nemperor)
Very few exhibitions or shows this year for obvious reasons
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Listed: Constant Smiles
Constant Smiles are a NYC, by way of Martha’s Vineyard, collective led by Ben Jones that deals in dream pop, shoegaze and psych, among other things. Since 2009, they’ve been busy scattering releases across the small press and Bandcamp universes, before making the jump to Sacred Bones earlier this year with their Paragons LP. Dusted’s Tim Clarke called the album an “understated gem,” and wrote that it “achieves plenty through open-hearted sentiments and honest-to-goodness songwriting smarts.” Below, Jones shares a list of things that were on his mind while working on Paragons.
Paul McCartney — Ram / Sacred Bones Society Mixtapes
I was listening to the Sacred Bones mixtape that Tia/Spellling made that had “Uncle Albert” on it. It’s a song that I’ve never really thought about very much, but having it presented in a different way through Tia’s ears made it really pop for me. I became obsessed with Ram after that and listened to it every day for months. Linda’s voice is so incredible! I remember asking Ben Greenberg (who produced Paragons) if we could get the record to sound like Ram. He told me it probably cost a million dollars to make that record. (Caleb Braaten and Moon Duo also made incredible mixtapes for the same series that I listened to a lot.)
Hand Habits — placeholder
I love this record so much and it’s really been such a huge inspiration for me. It’s packed with these beautifully-bundled, catchy, folk-pop songs with this deep emotional weight to them. I love the production, and how all of the instruments sound so big and bubbly, and that shredding electric guitar! I also love that little electronic interlude, and all the great harmonies, and the beautiful lyrics. I just love everything about it. Perfect record.
Yo la Tengo — And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
The sound of this record was a big influence on Paragons as a whole, but especially the song “The Things I Miss.” It’s just such a hypnotic, vibey record that you just want to leave on repeat. Stripped-back and soft. Intimate yet spacious and sad. Floaty and ambient yet driving. Great harmonies.
Chiiild — Synthetic Soul
I heard the song “Back to Life” on Trouble’s show on WFMU and it really blew me away. I couldn’t get it out of my head for the longest time and it always got me dancing! Beautiful, soulful pop songs with incredible production — the string arrangements, synth tones, super tasteful vocal effects, everything is so beautiful! The drums sound so fat and punchy and full, it’s incredible. The whole record is so good and leaves you wanting more because it is so short. I actually reached out to him on Instagram to see if he’d produce my next record, but he never wrote back... Maybe someday!
The Kinks — Face to Face
The Kinks are one of my favorite bands of all time and this song in particular resonated with my state of mind when I was writing the album. Their song structure is something I really strive towards — right to the point with no filler, especially on this record. There is basically no fat on these songs. “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.” Side note: The Great Lost Kinks Album is where I got the idea of doing the secret album that came with the Sacred Bones Society Edition.
Big Thief — Capacity
Not only are the songs incredible on this record, but I really love the way it was recorded too. Everything sounds so big even though there aren’t a crazy amount of overdubs. I also like the diversity in the songwriting, the way it goes from a solo acoustic song to band stuff to an interlude — and that solo piano song. There’s a beautiful arc to the storyline of the album.
Wilco — Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Around this time, I was also going through a nostalgic phase and was going back through records I loved in high school. I still really love this record. The production is insane. I read somewhere that the title is a nod to the intense attention to detail on this record. The way that different instruments come in and out and move different moments along, was something I wanted to do with my record. Things like having a piano or synth come in for just a single moment.
Nick Drake — Bryter Layter
Nick Drake is another one of my all-time favorites and this is another record I was obsessed with in high school. What more can you say about this record that hasn’t already been said? The production is just incredible. Everything sounds so warm, like a velvet room, especially those drums. And the beautiful orchestration in the introduction. It’s the reason why I love having intro songs and why I titled the one on Paragons simply “Introduction.”
Elliott Smith — Either/Or
I was also totally obsessed with Elliott Smith in high school and his music was so important to me. This was always my favorite but I loved them all. And again, I know that so much has already been said about Elliott’s music and this record, but I just love the simple production on it. Nothing is overdone just letting the songs, guitar playing, and his voice really shine with little lead guitar lines. And the harmonies are the cherries on top. Elliott was a true master at conveying sadness.
WFMU and WVVY
WFMU is my favorite and most trusted way to find new music. I love their DJs so much. They really are the scholars of music and put so much work into finding new, old, and incredible music. Sheila B, Trouble, Duane Train, Garbage Time, so many incredible shows. WVVY is the local station on Martha’s Vineyard and is also great. I was listening to my friend Farley’s show (Saturday nights 8-10 PM!) and he played this Parquet Courts song I had never heard and that I loved! Also hearing it through Farley’s ears made me really love it. It was the inspiration for “Run To Stay.”
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Caleb Landry Jones - “Flag Day / The Mother Stone”
The Mother Stone by Caleb Landry Jones
Caleb Landry Jones Announces Debut Album, The Mother Stone,
Out May 1st on Sacred Bones
“I think most of it takes place in dreams,” Caleb Landry Jones says of his debut solo album, The Mother Stone. “I’m talking more about dreams than I am about what’s happened in the physical realm. Or I’m talking about both, and you’re not sure what’s what.”
This is the kind of conversation you end up having about a record like this one, a sprawling psychedelic suite built from abrupt and disorienting detours and schizoid shifts of voice, its manic energy forever pulling the tablecloth out from under classic pop orchestration. One minute you’re squarely in the realm of biographical fact and a moment later you’re having a discussion about lucid dreaming and how Jones once punched up a dream set on a soccer field by willing himself to experience it from the POV of the ball. But maybe that’s just another story about grabbing the wheel of your own hallucination; maybe this pertains to the music after all.
Some biographical facts: Caleb Landry Jones was born in Garland, Texas in 1989 and comes from a long line of fiddle players. Three, maybe four generations back, on his mother’s side. His grandfather wrote jingles for commercials, his mother was a singer-songwriter who taught piano lessons in the house, and his father was a contractor who did a lot of work for the Dallas music-equipment retailer Brook Mays and knew a guy if you needed a bass or a banjo. But Jones is not sure if you can hear any of this in his music and he does not play the fiddle.
What you can hear on this record are the marks left by conversion experiences, two in particular. First there’s Jones’ formative encounter with the Beatles’ “White Album,” the Fabs record most obviously composed by four Beatles rowing in different directions, and the beginning of what Jones calls “this British Invasion of my soul,” which is still ongoing. Second, there’s Syd Barrett, cracked vessel of Pink Floyd’s most intergalactic ambitions, and the “falling-down-the-stairs” quality of his solo work in particular. “I was dating a girl who was obsessed with him,” Jones remembers, “and the fact that I’d never heard him really pissed her off. So we went and got The Madcap Laughs and we listened to it and I could see why it pissed her off.”
“John keeps knocking at the door, and so does Syd,” Jones says of these songs. “And I’m in there somewhere. And so are a few other people, I think. It would be really boring if it was just one guy.”
Jones has been writing and recording music since age 16, around the same time he started acting professionally. Played in a band called Robert Jones for a minute, lost his guitar player to higher education, moved into his own place, and broke up with somebody, at which point the songs really started coming hard and fast.
“I started playing guitar and playing more keys,” he says, “and then started writing record after record after record after record, because I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was a good way of healing. And it felt like as soon as I started doing it, it felt like it needed to happen all the time.”
In the ensuing years he’d spend a lot of time carrying unrecorded songs around in his head like goldfish in a bag, waiting for a chance to record them in marathon sessions in his parents’ barn. “You gotta play the songs every day, or every two or three days, to keep ‘em,” he says. “Otherwise I forget them.” Sometimes the ideas fuse together, one chapter to the next; this is how songs grow into seven-plus-minute epics like the ones on The Mother Stone. His back catalog is around seven hundred songs deep— a whole discography of full albums, most of them unheard outside the barn, at least for now.
Before long Jones’ other job started to keep him away from the barn for longer stretches. You may have seen him playing the drums on television as a member of Landry Clarke’s death-metal band on Friday Night Lights. You may have seen him in other things, too. But enough about acting, except for this: A few years ago Jones had a pivotal meeting with Jim Jarmusch, the movie director and musician.
“I was a big fan of his work,” Jones says, “and I know how I act with people that I’m big fans of their work. So instead of wanting to talk, I thought I’d write him a piece that would somehow let him know who I was.” So Jones spent a few nights composing a new instrumental work for solo piano, and showed up ready to play it for the director at their meeting— which turned out to be at a diner somewhere in Canada, where the amenities did not include a piano, so they had a conversation instead.
Jones did slip Jarmusch Microastro and Macroastro, two collections of songs from the barn, most of them four or five or maybe eight years old at that point. Jarmusch liked what he heard, told Jones he should talk to Sacred Bones founder Caleb Braaten, and before long Jones was making the record you’re about to hear— whose opening track, “Flag Day/The Mother Stone” incorporates that piano piece Jones wrote to explain himself to Jim Jarmusch.
A few more germane facts: The Mother Stone was recorded at Valentine Recording Studios, where everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa once logged time, refurbished to time-capsule retro standards in 2015 by studio manager and Mother Stone producer Nic Jodoin. Jones brought his collection of battered Yamahas and Casios up from the barn and played them alongside vintage equipment from Jodoin’s collection. Working in a real studio gave Jones a chance to slow his creative process down. They built the songs up from acoustic guitar, let them sit a while, circled back. Sometimes Jones and his girlfriend would decompress at the Shakey’s down the street, home to a range of acceptable video-arcade options. “They got that thing where you throw it in the clown’s mouth,” Jones says. “That’s fun. I like the look of those clowns.”
Maybe the clowns are the key. This isn’t a concept album, it’s a parade led by multiple unreliable narrators who rail against the universe and profess their love and vacate the stage before we can ask them a question. The circus comes to town, the circus leaves town. A young man from suburban Texas winds up and a clown opens its mouth as wide as the sky.
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