2021

Wire 15 (9)
Israel Vines - And Now We Know Nothing (Interdimensional Transmissions)
Venus Ex Machina - Lux (AD 93)
Futari - Beyond (Libra)
Various - Miniatures 2020 (The 62nd Gramophone Company)
Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Ding Dong. You’re Dead (Rune Grammofon)
Paranoise - Noizu / The 2nd Act (Skank Bloc) +#447
Lauren Sarah Hayes - Embrace (Superpang)
Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow (Movementt)
Dal:um - Similar & Different (tak:til)
Siderean - Lost on Void’s Horizon (Edged Circle) +#450
Consorts - Distinctions (Spoonhunt)
Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke / Oren Ambarchi - Each side has a depth of 5 seconds ·
A polka dot pattern in horizontal array · A flickering that moves vertically (Black Truffle)
Phew - New Decade (Mute)
Threshing Floor - Threshing Floor (El Studio 444 / Reboot) +#453
Gordan - Down in the Meadow (Morphine)

record of the year
Phew - New Decade (Mute)

#454

Gordan - Down in the Meadow (Morphine)

The songs here emanate from deep Serbian tradition, sometimes using modes and ornaments so rare that they belong to just a single village or singer; Spajić’s dread performance is gripping, like something ancient being born. — Francis Gooding

#453

Phew - New Decade (Mute)



The glorious thing about Phew’s music – for many years now, an assemblage of analogue electronics, hovering synth washes and snatches of barely sung vocals – is that it expresses an edginess that does not allow any easy resolution. — Louise Gray

#452

Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke / Oren Ambarchi - Each side has a depth of 5 seconds · A polka dot pattern in horizontal array · A flickering that moves vertically (Black Truffle)



The resulting music is sparser and lighter in an immediate musical sense, but emotionally heavier as serrated, squiggly noises traverse over and collide with modulating static and trembling low frequencies. — Antonio Poscic

#451

Consorts - Distinctions (Spoonhunt)



His orchestral approach is inspired, with a focus on particular combinations of voices – bowed strings, bass clarinet, mysterious amplified scritches at one point, fluttering electronics and braying baritone saxophones at another – while the combined mass of the full ensemble looms in and out of view. — Stewart Smith

#450

Dal:um - Similar & Different (tak:til)



Suyean plays the gayageum, a 25-string Korean zither; Hyeyoung a six-stringed model, the geomungo. (...) The instruments Dal:um brandish in publicity photos are polished and imposing. — Noel Gardner

#449

Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow (Movementt)



Her ability to overdub against herself, creating the illusion of live interaction, is startling and thrilling to hear. Too often, one person music has a certain sterility and airlessness, but Thackray’s work is loose and groove-oriented. — Phil Freeman

#448

Lauren Sarah Hayes - Embrace (Superpang)



“Femme Endings” is a reference to Susan McClary’s book Feminine Endings, in which the musicologist gleefully cuts a swathe through the gender biases in musicology (...). In Hayes’s hands, the echo to McClary stands, although here it’s modified by the multiple meanings and sexual identities that the word femme denotes (simply, it’s not the same as feminine). — Louise Gray

#447

Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Ding Dong. You’re Dead (Rune Grammofon)



“Leo Flash’ Return To The Underworld” thrashes forward, never looking back. Within its steady rhythmic path, Mollestad’s guitar squeals and shreds with heavy metal zest, running circles around Brekken’s grumbling low lines. — Antonio Poscic

#446

Various - Miniatures 2020 (The 62nd Gramophone Company)



[T]his record’s greatest achievement is to capture the same peculiar spirit seeping through the original, scattering about pockets of weirdo energy so that all two hours are a joy to behold. — Spenser Tomson

#445

Futari - Beyond (Libra)



[I]t’s when they explore the further reaches that things become really interesting: vibes emanating a ghostly harmonic feedback while prepared piano clangs like dull temple bells; or a distant rumble of thunder rattling brittle, black branches. — Daniel Spicer

#444

Venus Ex Machina - Lux (AD 93)



For more than a century, radio enthusiasts have scanned the heavens and sent transmissions of longing into the ether. On Lux, the ether finally returns the call. — Emily Pothast