358 DAY WEEKEND

…because just a few months later, he dropped this, an album which at first sounded to me like a fairly radical departure from both his debut album and basement songs, until i realized it works in any many of the same ways as those albums, and just chills out the frenetic energy that they are permeated by. dolor ost – & i’m not sure if this is the official soundtrack to anything – is an album which takes some sounds from mbb’s palette (the synths, the guitar samples, the tendency to lean into certain dissonances, occasional interjections of noise, jarring switches in musical ideas) and turns it toward the ambient. another stellar* offering from benedict *ahahahaha

  i heard about miguel baptista benedict because he made his debut on brainfeeder this year with super(b)-child-ran. that album will give you a sense of the general aesthetics that characterize benedict’s work -- a style dominated by “experimental” deployments of acoustic samples, found sounds and field recordings, detuned guitars, synths and space noises, excessive wordplay, whatever. for my money, basement songs is at least as good as his brainfeeder debut though (and it’s a solid 2+ minutes longer!), and again, it’s free. but throw a little money his way, because this is the real deal. one of my favorite moments on this album is the sequence, “how to sell a product,” (above) followed by “ceiling-ah-pro.-duct.(tape).” and it turns out this isn’t the only free thing this year he’s released that’s great…

  mo kolours releases his third free ep in three years, and honestly, they are all good. this one is no exception. you can find all three on his bandcamp page. so let’s say you haven’t heard mo kolours before, and you wanna know what to expect from this ep. well, i could use words, or you could click tha damn sample track i provided above. ok but lets say you need some words to encourage you to click that track: ok, dub, percussion, beats, chants, lo-fi, hi-fi, free, smile, really good, bangers, kolours, aquarius, idk, dance, tusk, tusks, dances, mo, dubs, blaze, fyre. so ok there you go.

  mndsgn came outta the klipmode collective, a group of musicians that includes producers like knxwledge and devonwho, artists who have, in recent years, gone on to make bigger names for themselves. what’s great about these artists is that they are pretty prolific, often turning out multiple releases each year, while also touring. what sucks about these artists is that they rarely release anything for free, so when i saw this tape available for the cost of “name your own price,” i was immediately pumped. frugal earth was actually released with a limited edition cassette that actually, was not free. however, that’s sold out now, so what you have left is the digital version. either way, this 28-minute tape is still packed with midtempo soul, slow jams, hip-hop, and original remixes, all distilled through a hazy, lo-fi aesthetic. get at this 1 tho

in step darkside, who have renamed themselves just for this project. in a startlingly on-point pitchfork review, nick neyland describes this project as one that “[takes] all that aspiration and [siphons] out every drop of it from the original source.” i buy his theory: the main project here is 1 that cuts daft punk down to size. so ya, ok, i admit that my inclusion of this release has more to do with my unwavering love for nicolas jaar & my irritation with daft punk. but whatever, i’m ok with that.

  so, one of the above two links will allow you to download this stellar* mix. i’m not sure which one, exactly, because i have a soundcloud downloader plugin installed in my browser, just so i can steal almost anything i come across. nicolas jaar is basically a god, and i am going to love anything he does no matter what, so this mix was guaranteed a place on this list before i even heard it. but if you need any additional proof, then look no further than jaar’s remix of d’angelo’s “one mo gin” (which happens near the end of the mix, around 40:42). *again, “good,” but also this time, “star-like”