What a freakishly dark year. Amidst our dystopian descent, one where D-beat and grindcore record covers seem particularly apt, independent record labels and artists keep providing and grinding, delays and inflation be damned. What the fuck else are ya gonna do? I wince reading headlines - the world is dying, tribalism reigns, someone just burned down the Planned Parenthood blocks from where I live - but music remains a constant source of elation, solace, rejuvenation and invigoration for me. It's helped me through a lot this year, and turned into a form of self-care in a way, given that increasingly rare free time was almost always accompanied by immersion into music. When I survey the past 12 months, these are the records that resonated. Grown man photographs his precious belongings, 2021. Take care of yourselves and each other, support the music venues and artists suffering through the pandemic's never-ending coda, and I hope this list can introduce you to something new even if I gave away the top dog months ago. Damn, what an amazing time for new music - happy digging.

LP

Nusidm, Hatred of Pain (self-released)

Cube, Drug of Choice (Alter)

Monokultur, Ormens Väg (ever/never / Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox)

Nightshift, Zöe (Trouble In Mind)

Quarantine, Agony (Damage United 82 / La Vida Es Un Mus)

Heimat, Zwei (Teenage Menopause)

Mortiferum, Preserved In Torment (Profound Lore)

Lea Bertucci, A Visible Length of Light (Cibachrome Editions)

The Body, I've Seen All I Need To See (Thrill Jockey)

N0V3L, NON-FICTION (Flemish Eye)

Six more:

Cerebral Rot, Excretion of Mortality (20 Buck Spin)

CIA Debutante, Dust (Siltbreeze)

Jean-Luc Guionnet & Will Guthrie, Electric Rag (Ali Buh Baeh / Editions Memoire)

Maraudeur, Puissance 4 (self-released)

Emily Robb, How To Moonwalk (Petty Bunco)

Waste Man, One Day It'll All Be You (Feel It)

12" / 7" / cassette

CIA Debutante, Music For Small Rooms 12" (ever/never)

CIA Debutante, Pier 7" (SDZ)

Earwig Deluxe, It's An Emergency To Them CS (Striped Light)

The Fulmars, The Lost Ones 7" (Hüüpnootsche Platen Un Kassetten)

Horrendous 3D, The Gov. and Corps. Are Using Psycho​-​Electronic Weaponry To Manipulate You and Me​... 7" (Whisper In Darkness)

Sial, Zaman Edan 7" (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Suffocating Madness, s/t 7" (Active-8 / Roachleg)

Stomachache, Good Machine CS (self-released)

Taphos, Blood Plethora 7" (Night Shroud)

Treasury of Puppies, Lollos Dagbok 7" (I Dischi Del Barone)

Rap

Separate category because I'm a tourist at best. Here's what I was listening to that hit a nerve.

Armand Hammer feat. Earl Sweatshirt, "Falling Out the Sky"

Bigmutha AKA BbyMutha, Muthalificent 2 and Bastard Tapes Vol. 3 (self-released)

Boldy James & the Alchemist, Bo Jackson (ALC)

Flint & Detroit Rap 2021 mix by the best @thehotboxsocial

MIKE, "Disco!" (10K)

Pooh Sheisty feat. Lil Durk, "Back In Blood"

R.A.P. Ferreira, the Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures (self-released)

Starlito, Funerals & Court Dates and Insomnia Addict (Grind Hard) Not new, but it's never a bad time to revisit my favorite rapper's discography. The two albums I listened to most this year in any genre or form.

Young Nudy, Rich Shooter (RCA)

Heavy Rotation in 2021

Monokultur, “Decennium” (2021, Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox)

Kenji Kariu, “Star Signs” (2020, bruit direct disques)

Lea Bertucci, “On Opposite Sides of Sleep” (2021, Cibachrome)

The Gabys, “Emotional Range” (2021, All Gone)

Grouper, “Unclean Mind” (2021, Kranky)

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra, Promises (Luaka Bop, 2021)

Maxine Funke, “Goodbye” (2021, A Colourful Storm)

JJ Ulius, “Speglar mig” (2021, Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox)

Tara Clerkin Trio, “Done Before” (2021, World of Echo)

His Name Is Alive, “Liadin” (2021, Disciples)

Blackwater, “Siem Reap” (2021, Ethbo Music)

MONOKULTUR

"Monokultur"

(LP. Förlag För Fri Musik. 2019) [SE]

20. Mai – Weltbienentag

2021 wird zum vierten Mal der Weltbienentag zu Ehren des Pioniers der modernen Imkerei Anton Janscha, der am 20. Mai 1734 geboren wurde, gefeiert. Er erforschte die Verhaltensweisen der Bienen. Er erfand die „bewegliche Wabe“ – ein Bienenstock mit beweglichen Holzrahmen. In einem Bienenstock können bis zu 70 000 Bienen leben. Und alles dreht sich um die Bienenkönigin, die 20 bis 25 mm lang und…

I didn’t do a column for issue 427 because I was too maxed out from getting ready to go on tour when the deadline rolled around in October, so this one is from issue 428 (January 2019). 

NAKED ROOMMATE is the latest project from Amber and Andy of the WORLD (not to mention a slew of other former or current Bay Area bands between the two of them), and though there’s definitely some echoes of the latter group’s skronked out, early Rough Trade-aligned post-punk gyrations on NAKED ROOMMATE’s self-titled debut cassette, they also wander down some other very disparate and sneaky pathways here. The buzzing keyboards and clattering drum machine pulse in “Fondu Guru” and “Love Gains” hit a similar thrift-shopped minimal synth aesthetic as CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE,  while Amber’s deadpan vocals over the jittery new wave basslines in “I Need A Slob” and “Lube Boys” evoke the loopy, Su Tissue-centered side of SUBURBAN LAWNS. Of the tape’s six songs, “John Is Gone” probably comes closest to the WORLD’s spiky rhythms, only stripped of the fiery dual saxophone clash and skimming a sparse, ESG-worthy bass/drum tumble occasionally punctuated by bongos and clanging metallic percussion. Limited to 100 copies with a great risographed cover (clearly a band after my own heart here); get in while y’all still can. (nakedroommate.bandcamp.com)

Julius of Gothenburg, Sweden’s foremost shambolic punks SKIFTANDE ENHETER is behind two other projects with new 7” releases in the last month, and each single continues his fixation with the halcyon ‘78-83 DIY era, albeit in ways that go beyond SKIFTANDE ENHETER’s economically ramshackle DESPERATE BICYCLES/SWELL MAPS approach. JJ ULIUS is his solo endeavor into perfectly crafted, threadbare pop along the lines of TELEVISION PERSONALITIES, CLEANERS FROM VENUS, and if you want to go really deep, the brilliant, one-off single from VOICE OF THE PUPPETS. “Tänder Ett Ljus” sounds like it could unravel at any moment, with some trebly guitar jangle pinned in the red, cheap organ warble, cardboard box-quality drumming, and nonchalant vocals (in Swedish), all over and done in two minutes flat. The BUZZCOCKS have been thrown around as a reference point by people who aren’t me, and I could maybe see that, if the more subdued and pining hooks of the post-Howard Devoto era were recast into the sort of lo-fi, bedroom home-recording context befitting the PASTELS or the VASELINES. Then there’s MONOKULTUR, his dystopian-punk duo with Elin Engström (formerly of Slumberland-backed C86 revivalists LIECHTENSTEIN and also currently of SKIFTANDE ENHETER) with a new four-song EP on I Dischi Del Barone that crawls through the sort of dimly-lit, post-industrial urban decay occupied by bands like CABARET VOLTAIRE and the NORMAL on the other side of this century. The cavernously echoed vocals and warped motorik beat running through “Lindholmen-Stenpiren” could have been pulled from a secondhand dub of a THIS HEAT cassette after it’d been slightly mangled in a tape deck, and “Äckel” slinks into some skeletal and slow-burning futuristic dub with reverberations of spectral synth. Swedish DIY domination now! (Happiest Place, happiestplacerecords.bandcamp.com; I Dischi Del Barone, monokultur.bandcamp.com)

Outer Reaches is a new UK-based record label with a focus on the far edges of the weirdo DIY fringe, and you can’t really argue with the statement of intent made by their very first release, a reissue of the one-and-done 1983 single from scrappy English art-punks GARAGE CLASS. The 7” originally appeared on Gymnasium Records, the label started by the equally scrappy UK DIY combo HAPPY REFUGEES, who technically formed in the wake of GARAGE CLASS (the single was recorded in 1980 but didn’t physically materialize until a few years later) and whose vocalist Tim Shutt provides the overlap between the line-ups of both groups. A-side “Terminal Tokyo” is textbook Messthetics material—total freewheeling, primitive glam clamor with emotionally detached monotone vocals, off-kilter handclaps, wiry guitar, and just a touch of first-gen punk sleaze for a result that’s one part NEON BOYS and one part SOFT BOYS. In a somewhat odd move, the reissue adds two versions of a previously unreleased track called “I Got Standards” (one original take, and one contemporary dancefloor banger remix by JD Twitch) in place of the frantic, punky thrash of the single’s B-side “One Hell of a Kiss”... and did I mention that the Outer Reaches edition of this record was pressed on that most dreaded of all vinyl formats, by which I mean, of course, the 10”? Just include both sides of the 7” AND throw in the bonus odds and ends if you’ve got the extra inches to spare! At any rate, the raw version of “I Got Standards” is great, channeling a darkly psychedelic TELEVISION PERSONALITIES/Whaam! Records mod-pop sound and throwing in the extremely Dan Treacy-ish line “I’m pretty young but I don’t take chances / I once had a girl like Jackie Onassis” for good measure. Brilliantly amateurish, amateurishly brilliant, and necessary enough for me to actually recommend that you buy a new 10” record in 2018. And a side note: Outer Reaches also just reissued the incredible, painfully hard-to-find single from early ‘80s minimalist post-punks INDIFFERENT DANCE CENTRE that I’ve previously raved about in this column, so use those postage funds wisely and grab both records while you’re at it. (Outer Reaches, outerreaches.bandcamp.com)