Rarebit Nutter

Every other year I make a resolution to participate more in Watmm but never seem to follow it through. Anyway for what it’s worth here’s my picks of the year in no particular order. Lots more I could mention, but these are all stand-outs Electronic James Holden - Imagine this is a Higher Dimensional Space; probably my pick of the year if I had to choose, just a really excellent, experimental electronic album with one foot in rave culture Nathan Micay - To the God Named Dream; bright, symphonic, unabashedly retro breakbeat rave with a classical bent Craven Faults - Standers; longform analogue electro, better than the previous one Surgeon - Crash Recoil; techno that’s cerebral yet pounding as always Fennesz & Ozmotic; Senzatempo; lovely ambient noise μ-Ziq - 1977; one of his most surprising albums Gacha Bakradze - Pancakes; sprightly beats and expansive melodies, early 90s golden-age influences Doc Sleep - Birds (in my mind anyway); lovely dubby, post-clubby techno Ceephax Acid Crew - Baddow Moods; came out last year but I feel like it missed out on any AOTY lists. Just epic stuff from Andy The Black Dog - The Grey Album; cool live-sounding techno Lee Gamble - Models; beautiful AI-driven acapella ambient Otik - Cosmosis; just really good dance music, kind of Daniel Avery-esque but with a bit of a psychedelic flavour The Chemical Brothers - For that Beautiful Feeling; feels like a return to 90s glory days Future Sound of London - Environment 7.003; I’ve nowhere near kept up with their post 90s stuff but this feels very recognisably the work of the same creative force that produced those classic releases Forest Swords - excellent third album, that stays true to the aesthetic of the project but develops new ideas too Non-Electronic Nation of Language - Strange Disciple; synth pop trio go from strength to strength Sparklehorse - Bird Machine; really lovely posthumous collection, up there with his best imho though a bit more polished production-wise Blur - Ballad of Darren; not my favourite Blur album (saying that as a lifelong fan), but feels like the Blur album we deserve in 2023 Steve Mason - Brothers & Sisters; former Beta Band frontman sounding as confident and assured as ever Bar Italia - Tracey Denim; scuzzy influence-heavy slacker indie Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer; shoegaze meets new-wave, spoken-word vox and some electronic tracks. Shouldn’t work as an album but does. Looking forward to spending the next few weeks digging into everything else in this thread. As a perennial lurker, thanks for all the recommendations!

Enjoying this, thanks for the recommendation. Fans of Monolake would find much to appreciate here, I feel

I love Mas Amable, and am sensing from the comments above that this release is worth checking out. Disappointing it's not a full length release but maybe he has one on the way...

I meant to add this to my list, epic stuff

I've taken a lot of recommendations from watmm over the years from these kinds of thread. And 2021 was the first year in a very long time where I've kept somewhere close to up to date on new releases, so for what it's worth here's my list... Top pick: Gazelle Twin & NYX Drone Choir - Deep England Just the most remarkable album I've heard all year: serene, terrifying, hilarious. Can't recommend enough. Instant classic of the year: Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg Might not be a popular choice on Watmm but I love it - love the lyrics, love her voice, love the music. Other electronic releases I've listened to a lot Skee Mask - Pool Andy Stott - Never the right time Mu-ziq & Mrs Jynx - Secret Garden Darkside - Spiral Space Afrika - Honest Labour Daniel Avery - Together in Static Lone - Always Inside your Head Leon Vynehall - Rare, Forever Gacha Bakradze - Obscure Languages Loraine James - Reflection Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk - Eight Fragments of an Illusion Facta - Blush Nightmares on Wax - Shout out to Freedom Moritz von Oswald Trio - Dissent Bands Clinic - Fantasy Island Spirit of the Beehive - Entertainment, Death Nation of Language - A Way Forward Pond - 9 Low - Hey What Vanishing Twin - Ooki Gekkou Damon Albarn - Nearer the Fountain... Now to go back and check out all the other amazing music I missed from this year...

argh! and I was doing so well.... lovely stuff. Added to the to-do list....

this is very lovely indeed. "Loss" in particular is a real standout. Never heard anything by Mrs Jynx before, but if it's anything like this I'll be sure to check it out. And not that it's an equivalent comparison, but I prefer this to Scurlage...

This was definitely my first impression too; the pair of tracks at both the beginning and end of the record fall into this trap a bit. I feel like maybe he set out using that new-agey ethereal ambience as inspiration, something to send up and give his 'twist' on it....but then just ended up sounding exactly like the thing he was trying to pastiche. I still think the more upbeat tracks across the middle are up there with his best though....not anything particularly original, just doing a certain sound very very well. Overall, Galaxy Garden is easily his top album for me - it just sounds so much more distinctive and original than anything else I've heard by him. Always takes me to magical retro/futuristic rainforest rave...just like the cover art.

have been enjoying Invariant a great deal over the last few weeks, thanks for the original recommendation species8472 !

yep this is awesome, and beautifully reminiscent of Formless, which is an all-time favourite of mine too. Ideal listening as winter closes in; though I guess it's supposed to be about emerging from stasis rather than re-entering it, as we seem poised to do in the UK..

don't know how I missed this, what a pleasant surprise though. On hearing the first track I was worried he'd turned into a full-on cheese merchant, but then that familiar Lone-sound kicks in. Mouth to God is a straight up banger as well

does anyone who's going to this know if we can submit questions beforehand? I couldn't see anywhere in the booking info, so I guess that means the questions are all pre-selected....

I'm finding AAI patchy to be honest. There's a couple of great tracks on there: Artificial Authentic, Latent Space, some of the others in the middle. But the noisy interludes don't really do that much for me, and in the whole last third of the album there's only really one proper track. And then the machine monologues are kind of interesting in their own right but they don't massively add to the music. I feel they might've been better kept separate. Anyway...I don't like to knock something too much that's only just come out. Maybe some of it is just going over my head little

same here. Totally passed me by before but can't stop listening to No More Dreams now. Such a lovely melancholic 80s degraded synth feel, which I can't seem to get enough of. I love how between a couple of tracks there's the very faint sounded of muffled beats, like he's recorded over the same tape multiple times. You can hear it right at the end of No More Dreams IV and V..

Will definitely have to check this out; been enjoying his Telomic Ghost LP a lot lately, real nice crackly Basic Channel kind of vibe to it

until recently I was only really familar with their 90s discography, up to around Idiology. And I'd happily include Autoditaker as one of the best electronic albums of the 90s. But then seeing the annoucement for this new release, I thought it was high time I caught up with their later output and tbh everything I've heard is just as good. Dimensional People is awesome; has the classic MoM sound and the vocal collaborations fit perfectly. From a couple of listens, WOW sounded great as well - and clearly influenced by contemporary electronic music from that time. Not so sure about AAI so far...it feels a bit less free-flowing and organic than a their normal style. But that could be the whole point of the concept of the album. Need more time to digest though... Whatever you think about their later output, they've never stood still and always stayed true to their own approach

listened to this the other night based on the recommendation of this thread and it's very nice. I can see the comparison with Sun Electric, on some tracks. (sorry for the random post; I'm a long-time lurker on watmm but have made something of a resolution to engage more with this community, so yep..)

Some more albums recently listened: Pram - Dark Island Macabre; lounge/jazzy; noir soundtrack sort of stuff. A very English type of sinister. A mixture of instrumentals employing all sorts of music box type of sounds. The vocal tracks are dark tales of lost love and possession sung in almost leaden style, which suits the atmosphere of the album perfectly. 6/10 Green Velvet - Walk in Love Stripped down banging house music. Love this guy. I love the way his albums are a mixture of very personal tracks as well as comedy ones; or cynical comments on clubland and the media. He manages to get a lot of meaning across in a style not normally known for it. Some really banging beats on here as well. 7/10 Casino vs Japan - Go Hawaii I should have listened to this more, for the length of time I've had the album. Boards of Canada-style distorted beats and lush synthy melodies. But altogether a lot more jolly and summery. And as the name suggests, reminiscent of Hawaii...or reminiscent of how Hawaii seems in films and tv adverts anyway. Very pleasant without ever getting twee or cloying. 7/10 Fanu - Daylightless (1st half only) Dark complex intricate drum'n'bass. Yeah some sick dark beats basically, lots of Asian-sounding vocal samples. A bit like some of Enduser's stuff. Doesn't quite veer into full on breakcore but getting there at points. I think the second disk is half-tempo tracks. 6/10 for now Baby Ford - Basking in the brake lights Minimal techno/micro house. A mixed bag; some decent tracks and some that don't leave much of an impression. Would probably be better suited to wobbling round a seedy dancefloor at 5am. 5/10 for now, needs more listens

welcom aboard matey! watch yr steps though, this type of thingy could cause u a bit of trouble.. ha yes I didn't think that would be a popular view. Just feel like I'm still waiting for that 'click' moment with some of their stuff.

I'm new to watmm so I hope it's OK to just jump straight in. Some albums recently listened: Autechre - Confield Obviously something of a sacred cow. I've had it kicking around for years but never listened to it in its entirety. And I just can't get into it; I enjoy some of the tracks (Bine, Uvoil, Eidetic Casein) but at least half of it just leaves me cold. Seems silly to give it a rating as it is such a classic for some people, but mine would have to be 5/10 Cocteau Twins - Treasure An oldie but a fairly recent addition to my collection. Ethereal, dreamy chamber pop. This is definitely a slow grower. Not sure if it'll ever attain classic status but I can see it really fitting certain contexts. I haven't really differentiated all the tracks but lots of them are worming their way into my mind which has to be a good sign. 6/10 for now Lukid - Onandon Pleasant but unremarkable, lolling breakbeaty/trip-hoppy/electronica. Still getting to know this one, 6/10 for now Higher Intelligence Agency - Colourform Classic early 90's electronica, bit of an acid/psychedelic tinge. This would be perfect soundtrack to some a post-clubbing session (and I'm sure has been many times). It's not quite up there with some of the other classics from time for me; it's just not quite as varied or idiosyncratic as FSOL/Aphex/Black Dog. Decent though. 6/10