Jeremy D. Larson

What the hell is everyone doing? And more importantly, why is everyone doing what they’re doing?

(I guess I should put a disclaimer here: I’ve met Rembert once or twice in person, and we follow each other on Twitter. I’m also almost positive I sent him an embarrassing email in 2011 about my life and dreams but I’m too scared to search the Gmail archives for that one, I can barely get through emails I wrote last week, I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me. That’s it.)

I don’t think it’s a stretch to state that among young (i.e. under 30) writers, Rembert is in the best position imaginable. He has a massive personal following that read and share much of his fine work; he’s employed by the most prestigious and glamorous arm of a massive corporation completely divorced from the day-to-day politics of writers on Twitter; he has the backing of a veritable new media titan, someone given tons of TV time and carte blanche to design and run his very own cultural publication. He interviewed Obama on Air Force One. What does this have to do with this quick Tumblr post? It means Rembert is operating from a position of incredible safety. I’m sure there are legions of people who could’ve — and would’ve — written a post a lot like this, lamenting the state of our online community and asking for change. But their employment and social status is a lot more tenuous; they don’t have tens of thousands of Twitter followers or a full-time gig with the Worldwide Leader. If they write a post like this and one note feels sour to an editor they work with, or editors they want to work with, doors are going to close for them. That’s a real, measurable impact. On the other hand, Rembert is operating with a level of skill, comfort, and cool that enables him to express an opinion like this — one that’s only mildly contentious, but contentious nonetheless — without fear that it’s going to impact his income, job security, or friend groups. In fact, I’d argue it’s quite the opposite: there’s more at stake for some theoretical person who wants to write a rebuttal contesting some of Rembert’s points than there was for him writing the post in the first place. (That’s probably why I’ve debated writing something like this for a full day even though I felt ready to react immediately.) And maybe that’s what I should be taking away from this, that the only way this problem is going to get fixed is if people with real power and cachet talk about, and it’s good that Rembert is saying something about it. Yeah, it’s good! I agree with that. But I would rather everyone feel the same sort of security.

The second thing, and this is really just an offshoot of the first thing, is that the magnitude of Rembert’s position is such that people are going to use his post as a tool for the exact sort of jockeying for position he’s lamenting. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but I can see it in the replies and likes and reblogs, just based on my very minimal knowledge of online writing communities. Through force of personality and popularity, Rembert can bend “the fashionable stance” to his will; it may have been somewhat gauche to suggest that the mediums in which writers stunt these days are ripe with toxicity beforehand, but the relative wave of attention and praise this post has received is changing that in a small way. Admit, you can see it: this rebuttal gets posted and becomes the sort of fatal slip up he described, all because it’s on the wrong side of the throne. It’s not hard to imagine.

2014: Roundup • Albums • Songs • Sounds

This is the fourth annual collection of my favorite sounds of the year. It’s my favorite list to do by a long shot.

As in years past, I’ve pulled out the sounds from their songs and lined them up in the audio file above. The full list with descriptions is below so you can follow along.

(Previously: 2011 and 2012 and 2013)

I have more than twice the number of sounds from 2014 than in previous years, and the attendant audio collage is more than thirteen minutes long. Enjoy!

Oh, and I’d love to hear what you think about this collection or if there are moments that stood out in songs for you this year. You can find me on Twitter at @matthewmcvickar or email me or drop a note in my Ask box.

The list:

Andy Stott — Violence Chorus-ending snare fill. Low-frequency near-silence before the drop.

Anenon — Lithograph Pitched-down pad with corresponding pitched-down vinyl crackle.

Angel Olsen — Windows Snare buildup to finale.

Aphex Twin — Xmas_eve10 (thanaton3 Mix) Rubbery vocal sample. Bongo triplet.

Aphex Twin — produk 29 Mid-measure song start with surprise snare.

Ases Falsos — Symmetry Bursting into the chorus.

Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks — A Sender “OHHHHhhhhh-h-h-h-h!” pitch-decay delay.

Baths — Fade White Echoing clicks and pitched-up-and-panned guitar artifacts.

Beck — Heart Is a Drum Reversed vocals.

Bing & Ruth — We Are on the Side of Angels Echoing rumbles.

Bombay Bicycle Club — So Long, See You Tomorrow Bombastic ending.

Call Super — Hoax Eye Digital thunder.

Caribou — Second Chance Repeating high-pitched vocal “ooh-ooh” on the three.

Caribou — Silver Drum fill. Reversed vocal sample. Rising synth brass embellishment.

Charli XCX f. Simon Le Bon — Kingdom Held note cut-up.

Clark — Snowbird Tick-tock of white noise and kicks.

D’Angelo & The Vanguard — The Charade Reverse-reverb to clap.

EMA — Satellites Back-and-forth of white-noise drone and analog bass drone.

Grouper — Labyrinth Microwave beep.

Gunnar Haslam — Incidental Magnetics “—between—an organism—”

Hundred Waters — Show Me Love Multi-tracked velar stops in break and awake.

Hundred Waters — Innocent Muffled snare duplet. Rising vocal run with boomeranging whoosh.

Ian William Craig — Before Meaning Comes Heavily degraded, crackling vocal loops.

Interpol — Anywhere Weird high-pitched voice doubling “be kind to the bass.”

James Blake — 200 Press Bell knocks. Three 6 Mafia sample + minor-key arpeggio + “latenight— latenight— latenight.”

Jamie xx — Sleep Sound Drum fill and “come on.”

Javiera Mena — Otra Etra “Aohh.” And you can hear it again later, heavily reverbed in the background.

John Roberts — Indigo Pitched-down sword-clash sample? (Sounds like it’s saying “Look-look at me.”)

Koen Holtcamp — Between Visible Things Guitar-string shriek.

Lee Bannon — NW/WB False ending and distorted reverb outro.

Leon Vynehall — Time Cut-up and panned piano notes.

Little Dragon — Only One Three-note synth-tom pattern, then the ‘Icct Hedral’ sound-alike background synth.

Lone — Jaded Rolling claps.

Loscil — Ahull Rhythmic cut-panning.

Loscil — Sea Island Murders Reverse-reverb piano notes.

Loscil — Sturgeon Bank Auto-panned synth speeding up in time to catch up with the beat.

Marissa Nadler — Drive “…behind the cellular lights.”

Millie & Andrea — Corrosive Insane drum-break drop.

Mono/Poly — Alpha & Omega Noisy hi-hat.

Moonface — Daughter of a Dove Weird distant-yelling noise low in the mix in the right channel. And the crescendo into chord change. (And a lot more.)

The New Pornographers — Born with a Sound When it switches to Amber Webber’s voice and you can’t tell for a second because her vocal tone is so close to Bejar’s.

Nicki Minaj — Pills N Potions Slight quaver at the end of “overdosin.’”

Notwist — Kong Drum fill.

Objekt — Dogma Snare drum accents.

Orcas — Filament Time-stretched loop with rhythmically repeating sections.

Owen Pallett — The Riverbed “Hurtle into the breach” echo. “You might have it wrooONG!” rising vocals.

Panda Bear — Boys Latin Bass loop out of phase.

Perfect Pussy — Interference Fits Feedback outro.

Perfume Genius - Fool Interlude rising vocal solo.

Perfume Genius - Too Bright Pitched-up synth embellishment.

Phantogram — Fall in Love Snare duplet with a different snare sample.

Plaid — Hawkmoth Bouncing synth, slighty behind the beat.

+/- — The Bitterest Pill Lyrical/melodical callback to ‘All I Do’, the first song on +/-’s 2002 debut album.

Popcaan — Ghetto (Tired of Crying) Dissonant steel drum.

Popcaan — Waiting So Long High-pitched yelping cadence.

S. Carey — Creaking Two-note (A to B) guitar and piano figure.

Sevendeaths — All Night Graves Arpeggios.

Shabazz Palaces — They Come In Gold Time-stretched four-note melody in right channel.

Shamir — On The Regular Pitched-down “obviously absurd” and that eagle sample.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow — In Love With Useless (The Timeless Geometry in the Tradition of Passing) Crowd-noise chorus.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow — The Things They Do to Me Guitar delay into 4-4 kick and echoing guitar strings.

Sisyphus — Take Me That beat, especially the feedback-y snares and snare-less feedback hits.

Super Flu — Jo Gurt (DJ Koze Remix) “Okay.”

Suzanne Kraft — 8:13 Layered and reversed vocals and tongue-clucks.

Tame Impala — Endors Toi (from Live Versions) Live sidechained synths.

Tame Impala — Be Above It (from Live Versions) Extended interlude with synth arpeggio and guitar delays.

Taylor Swift — Blank Space Bouncy slapback kick drums. “I’ll write your name” pen click.

Teebs — Shoouss Lullaby Surprise live drums.

Trust — Joyland “Rest assured I sleep alo-o-o-one.” And the voice switch for “…and the parts unknown.”

tUnE-yArDs — Wait for a Minute Repeating clicky loop in left channel.

The War on Drugs — Red Eyes Droney breakdown.

St. Vincent — Prince Johnny Flanged hi-hat and squelchy snare.

Vic Mensa — Down on My Luck Syncopated cowbell.

Viet Cong — Continental Shelf Descending two-note guitar motif.

Weyes Blood — Hang On Time signature change. The rising melody of “Oh you can tell…”

Wild Beasts — Wanderlust Synth pad.

Wild Beasts — Daughters Ping-ponging power-synth.

Woods — Only the Lonely Delay feedback intro.

Wye Oak — I Know the Law Breathy titular chorus and background-vocal “I knowww.”

Yemi Alade — Johnny “Ques—tion.”

Zammuto — Good Graces Panned and flanged drum kit.

Zammuto — Great Equator Analog synth tangle plus reversed feedback squall.