#local 'man shaped queer being' gets manipulated by an old white man in power

[varyathevillain]

Aziraphale entering his Jonathan Sims arc was not something I had on the bingo for season 2 of Good Omens.

[recommendedlisten]

Narrowing down the year's Best Breakthrough Artists is no easy task in an era where there is so much new music to be discovered. As Recommended Listen gets started on its Best of 2020 list series, it's become quickly obvious that even in a year that has stopped everyone in their tracks like this one, it did not stop art and creativity from doing its thing across every facet of sound. This year's Best Breakthrough Artists features many artists new to the scene, some names you might know from elsewhere, and those who simply hit their stride after years of cultivating their craft. They're the needle movers of new music's future from here on out...

The Changing Face of Punk to Come

We are finally seeing the face of the modern punk scene change rightfully so through representation beyond white painted walls with members of the BIPOC community. Led by the shape-shifting tour de force that is frontperson Katie McD, the D.C. punk band Bacchae’s J. Robbins-produced debut album Pleasure Vision evaluates what is going on in both the world and our lives around us, breaks down the walls of that which no longer seem to be supporting us for the better, and sets out to rebuild them with a stronger foundation.

Furious and joyous at once, Pinkshift -- the Baltimore punk band of vocalist Ashrita guitarist Kumar Paul Vallejo, bassist Erich Weinroth, and drummer Myron Houngbedji -- are going to be the band that makes every single teenager regardless of their background feel welcome into the scene. The same goes for the Special Interest, an all-women and queer industrial punk quartet from New Orleans whose sophomore standout The Passion Of is turning visceral political statements into provocative carnage on the dancefloor. Similarly, Colombian-born Brooklynite Ela Minus is using DIY punk ethos to sound her own rebellion using the pulses of electronic minimalism as her medium to the masses.

Familiar Faces In New Formations

The worlds of punk and hardcore have always overlapped on the stylistic Venn diagram, and so has its memberships. It’s not unusual for any one member of a band to have various other projects going on at the same time, but what never ceases to surprise is how great they are on their own feet. This year heard Ross Farrar of CEREMONY infuse melodic hardcore into indie rock alongside members No Sir and Creative Adult with their debut as SPICE. Ian Shelton of Regional Justice Center got together with members of Drug Church and Modern Color in the existentially blissed out entry point as Militarie Gun on My Life Is Over.

Beyond that realm, three members from the original incarnation of emo rockers Tigers Jaw in Adam McIlwee, b.n.a. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, and Dennis Mishko and Pat Brier, now of Three Man Cannon, reunited as gothic indie-punk rockers Pay for Pain, with a promising debut EP to bat, while two members of departed Baltimore shoegazers Wildhoney returned under a very different fold, as guitarists Joe Trainer and Nathan O’Dell reinvented themselves on the opposite side of the coast in Los Angeles as the avant noise-pop quartet Dummy, and delivering two of the year’s time-space-and-sonic-barrier transcending EPs.

Even further off the grid, ISOLA, the latest reincarnation of artist Ivana Carrescia, formerly of Eddy Front, linked up once again with her Gioia bandmate and Godmode Music producer Nick Sylvester for meta-physical movement exercise ISOLA, and their supernatural electronic experience of a debut EP.

Genre Is Over

The most overused term written throughout Recommended Listen this year was arguably “genre agnostic,” but not for any bad reasons. Now that today’s rising artists come from a generation that grew up with iTunes, playlist consumption, and discovering music instantaneously at their fingertips, the lines between genres are being blurred in fascinating ways.

beabadoobee, the songwriting moniker of 20-year-old Filipino-born British songwriter Bea Kristi, is a Tik Tok pop darling raised on the Internet era of indie rock who crafts it with shimmering with major label gloss, with her debut album Fake It Flowers playing like synesthesia in influencer form. glass beach, who self-describe themselves as a “post-emo” band, are being humble in that classification, as their debut album the first glass beach album improvises jazz, post-rock, experimental electronic and punk convictions all on the same colorful canvas.

It’s not entirely generational, though. Arguably the newly crowned prince of indie rock modernism, Bartees Strange entered his 30s by challenging not only the entire genre but identity spectrum with his cover of songs by the National through the Black artist gaze on the Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy EP, and later, furthering his creative vision as a sonic polymath delving into rap, noise, and punk realms perfectly of his debut album Live Forever. When you think of singularity in music, Bartees is it.

Post-Punk Will Never Die, But You Will

It’s not always about morbid dread or political angst, although that never ceases to be the life force behind post-punk’s continuous evolution. This year heard new waves born in the sound of Chicago’s Dehd and their sophomore breakout Flower of Devotion, synthetic connections with the afterlife through their local peers Deeper in their Auto-Pain, and a debonair worship of its beautiful angles at the altar of Salt Lake City’s Choir Boy with Gathering Swans.

P.E., the Brooklyn-based outfit which features members of the defunct punk band Pill and experimental electricians Eaters, recontour the body of rhythm and synthetic shapes in their own avant-garde vision on their debut full-length Person, while their fellow BK labelmates Public Practice, born from the ashes of Brooklyn indie-pop darlings Beverly and punk band Wall, focus angles in a dark dance disco and infinite space with a Gentle Grip.

Underground Hip-Hop On the Rise

We're past the days of hip-hop being defined by its all-stars. Most of them are too concerned with how to manipulate streaming for their chart stature and fame gain anyway rather than focusing on the art of rhyme. For that, look to the most intriguing sounds in the game now rumbling through the underground with the kind of artists who think far outside the box.

Two artists to put an ear out for are Brooklyn's Navy Blue and Keiyaa. On her self-released debut album Forever, Ya Girl, the experimental hip-hop and R&B songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist makes lo-fi rhyme collages a vision board for true empowerment. Navy Blue, the rap alter-ego of pro-skater, model and Earl Sweatshirt collaborator Sage Elsesser put together his own hip-hop kintsugi on his first LP Àdá Irin.

Turning heads a full 360° around, however, are the horrorcore rap nightmares of Backxwash, the alter ego of Zambian-Canadian rapper Ashanti Mutinta, who on this year's breakout effort God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It let her demons reign supreme and took home this year's Polaris Prize for it.

The Newest Heavyweight Contenders

In the vast rock universe, 2020 introduced us to one of its best new classes. Bands on the opposite sides of the pond in Austin’s Narrow Head and Leeds UK outfit Higher Power are defying the gravity of heavyweight riff rock, as evidenced in their respective sophomore standouts 12th House Rock and 27 Miles Underwater and their potentials to bring these two rising acts to same heights as space age luminaries Hum and Deftones. In circle pits, it’s a shame that live music was put on hold, because you can only imagine how the intensity of Santa Cruz scene exports Gulch would have put on some of the best performances across hardcore festivals following the former’s incinerating Inpenetrable Cerebral Fortress.

Topshelf Talent On Display

The independent label Topshelf Records came to be known mostly as a hotbed of talent during the #emorevival of the early 2010s, but this year has proven them to be being among one of the best labels broadening the spectrum of more adventurous sounds. addy, the Richmond-based band led by songwriter Addy Watkins, is making nature-lush indie rock that turns inward out with their debut album eclipse. Flung, the moniker of Oakland multi-instrumentalist Janak JP, made one of the most undefinable sonic collages this year with their debut Shaky But My Hair Is Grown.

For calmer meditations, KIND, the sophomore breakout from Thanya Iyer, positions worldly folk and indie-pop in balance for a truly organic sonic healing experience. Record Setter, the shape-shifting screamo outfit out of Denton, TX, prove on their proper debut I Owe You Nothing that Topshelf hasn’t lost touch with its roots as it continues pushing the boundaries outward for the scene.

Independently Dependable

Of course, there are also the names in the independent music scene that have been exciting to hear do their thing on their own terms. Michigan punks Dogleg followed through on the promise of last year’s listmaking single “Fox” with the emotional chaos that is their debut LP Melee. The urban cowboy rides again through country traditionalism transmitted through the experimental millennial airwaves of Brooklyn songwriter Dougie Poole and his latest, The Freelancer’s Blues. Meanwhile, zero fucks toward accessibility are given by Los Angeles four-piece Sprain as they break down the heavier elements of slowcore, post-hardcore and experimental metal with a patient deconstruction on their debut album As Lost Through Collision.