20.
On No Home Record, Gordon sketches the great supermodern landscape of LA, in stark strokes of infectious, visceral weirdness. Like David Lynch, she exposes the ominous, hilarious, faux-profound undercurrents of American life, capturing “the madness of the times and the strangeness and the sadness” (to quote her colleague, guitarist Steve Gunn). Gordon’s bet is that the people are ready for weirdness, that the world can embrace its complexities. And the only way is forward.Kim GordonNo Home RecordMatador
19.
Callahan has played with the limits of language to properly describe an emotional state – on 2009’s ‘Eid Ma Clack Shaw’ the only intelligible response to a traumatic loss is a nonsense rhyme – and on this record the focus on states both before and beyond life emphasises how the processes of having children or seeing people die brings us closer to our animal state. Even the album’s title hints at this; the shepherd is human, but in his coat he partly resembles the animals he tries to herd. There is one cover on this record – a version of The Carter Family’s ‘Lonesome Valley’ – a song which emphasises how we must all make a part of our journey alone, but while the valley is lonesome it is nevertheless still a valley and not a desert, and that lonely journey only accentuates the importance of our moments together. “Well, I never thought I’d make it this far” sings Callahan. It’s our privilege that he has done.Bill CallahanShepherd In A Sheepskin VestDrag City
18.
Utility, Barker’s first solo album, picks up where his 2018 EP, Debiasing, left off, pushing a techno sound that is deeply melodic while missing its most traditional component: the kick drum. Euphoric synths coalesce to form one entrancing whole on cuts like opener ‘Paradise Engineering’ and ‘Models of Wellbeing’ while tracks like ‘Posmean’ and ‘Hedonic Treadmill’ are more full-bodied, offering the closest hint to something resembling a kick. In Debiasing, Barker created one of 2018’s best techno EPs and in Utility, he’s also delivered one of 2019’s finest albums in the genre. BarkerUtilityOstgut Ton
17.
DeafkidsMetaprogramaçãoNeurot
"I describe them to friends as Motörhead on acid. Okay Motörhead were already on acid, well more on speed but Deaf Kids, it’s more trippy. They’re not so aggressive, it’s more groovy. Like Motörhead on Ayahuasca."
16.
Snapped AnklesStunning LuxuryThe Leaf Label
You arrive, expecting to be in the midst of some atavistic pagan revelry, only to discover that one’s previously ghillie-suited, timber thwacking hosts have largely abandoned their woodlands apparel and electrically-linked log percussion for sharp, estate-agent worthy suits and satirical, effects laden, for-sale signs. And so it is I arrive at my first Snapped Ankles show on the eve of the release of their 2nd album, Stunning Luxury.
15.
The Utopia StrongThe Utopia Strong
“I’ve just had my 62nd birthday and all I’m looking forward to is when my album comes out! What fun that I can do that. It’s so easy to become tired with life, but the thrill of this has given all of us such a boost. From my perspective I didn’t think I’d get as much enjoyment from anything in my life in a work capacity once I’d retired from playing snooker.” – Steve Davis
14.
Héroïques Animaux De La Misère is an act of solidarity. By taking the name Harrga (“a burn”), the pair honour the harragas, those refugees who must burn their papers – and by extension, their identities – before attempting a border crossing. It would be easy, I think, for some to describe Harrga’s music as oppressive, but that would be wrong-headed. This is liberation music. How could it ever be easy? Why wouldn’t it have teeth? Why wouldn’t it need to bite?HarrgaHéroïques Animaux De La MisèreAvon Terror Corps
13.
In Eton Alive, we hear one of the finest political lyricists of the time turning inwards as he still follows a rich and empathetic way, dealing with highly relatable issues around the terrible behaviour patterns that are imposed on men by the patriarchy as much as they are on anyone else. This is exactly the sort of conversation that we need to hear men having in this day and age as we work on reconfiguring what masculinity is and can be. As Jason Williamson has it, on ‘Negative Script’, “it’s hard work being kind”.Sleaford ModsEton Alive
Luke Turner
12.
The mixing of sonic and material temporalities, and of the personal and historical by Moor Mother in Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes creates a form of aesthetic time travel, where time is not an endless loop but rather a Möbius strip. There are returns to the apocalypses of the past of slavery and genocide, but these returns are twisted, re-routed. New myths are generated and weaved into the structure, thereby changing how the present is seen and creating quantum speculative futures. A myriad of possibilities erupt and break free from the dystopian capitalist norms of white supremacy.Moor MotherAnalog Fluids of Sonic Black HolesDon Giovanni
11.
Recorded over the course of an “intense studio session” in Berlin over the summer, Blawan and Pariah’s debut album as Karenn is one of the year’s finest techno records, not least because it shuns the kind of po-faced conceptualism that so many albums of its kind can get lost in. Instead, the pair come good with eight direct, thumping modular techno cuts. ‘Strawbs’ is a snarling speedy slice of techno at 150 BPM while at the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the chugging 115 BPM grit of ‘Cloy’. Amongst them is the hefty disarray of lead track ‘Crush The Mushrooms’ and the more pensive thud of closer ‘Taste Yourself’.KarennGrapefruit RegretVoam
10.
Even without the hum of the organ, horses, or Guðnadóttir’s vocals, Albini’s production has given the record a deep sensuality, the riffs of ‘Aurora’s opening few minutes as warm and as potent as running fingertips on the rolling skin of a new lover. That track is restrained too, in how it unfolds and teases, builds to a near climax and then gradually slips back, before doing the same all over again before the final effulgence around 18 minutes. It might sound odd to hear Sunn O))) described as music that has at its core a deep eroticism, but it’s something I have thought about before and, without giving more away than is strictly necessary in a review most likely consumed in the workplace, something that might be worth experimenting with in the company of a loved one in the privacy of your own home.Sunn O)))Life MetalSouthern Lord
9.
The Reeling is an album of mostly Gaelic tunes, that is both a tribute to the well of cultural history from which Chaimbeul draws, and a fresh, exciting take on a music that is not nearly as widely appreciated as it deserves. A couple of Bulgarian tunes are sonorous and reflective, not as airborne as the Hebridean music, but equally suited to the style. The four musicians on The Reeling have produced a unique, exciting and forward-looking album that set the bar for 2019 very high indeed, and strongly suggests that Scottish folk music is both living and thriving. Brghde ChaimbeulThe ReelingRiver Lea
8.
As a collaborative effort (one look at the sleeve notes shows the vast array of musicians involved) Serfs Up! is pitch-perfect. It’s no surprise that this was a tough record to make, but from pain and hardship comes great art. Their previous release, Songs for Our Mothers, clearly represented a vile descent into Hades, and was peppered with a violent undercurrent that ran through its veins. With their third album, the band has taken an about-turn, reaching out from the circles of purgatory towards a realm of blissful enlightenment. Yet the uneasy listening and lyrical bite still resonates beneath lush strings and saxophone flourishes. There is a subversive pulse even in its brightest corners, and unexpected moments of silliness and joy throughout.Fat White FamilySerfs Up!Domino
7.
Schlagenheim pivots from choppy math-rock to ticking tetchy guitar pop with ease, and then to stoner rock and then deafening noise sections that come close to drawing parallels to the dense note clusters of the internet genre the band share their name with. black midi have stated before that they simply want to make album after album after album, never stalling or staying the same. If Schlagenheim is just a taste of what’s to come, we could be sitting on a really, really special group.Black MidiSchlagenheimRough Trade
6.
Though many have hailed the group as a successor to the psych-pop legacies of Broadcast or Stereolab, Vanishing Twin are one of the most original and exciting acts of the moment, deserving of their own spotlight for effortlessly weaving their style through multiple mediums. The Age of Immunology finds the group tightening some bolts and adding depth to their mythology, and it’s really quite a treat. The album is an escapist dream, blending fantasy with philosophy and silliness with high art. With The Age of Immunology, Vanishing Twin have established themselves as diplomats of their own fantastic planet and it’s high time we meet them there.Vanishing TwinThe Age Of ImmunologyFire
5.
Lyrically, as well as sonically, this is a visionary record, rich with fire, energy, elements, the sky, and invocations – as the opening track, an ode to a Luciferian fallen star, has it: “An addiction / To the impossible / Let’s go back to the underworld / Let’s go back inside”. In all this rich abstraction and nuance, These New Puritans remain at odds with their time. In a recent interview with Crack Magazine they attacked the UK for its anti-art tendencies where the “ultimate sin” is to be serious about your work. “I think there are two ideas of what art should do,” Jack Barnett added, “one that it should reflect and be a mirror to its age, and another that it should go beyond it. I always prefer stuff that sits in the latter category.”These New PuritansInside The RoseInfectious Music
4.
In a sense, this record aims for the noblest and most Proust-ian ambitions that an artwork can undertake. Proust believed that “habit” was the enemy of expression: “Most of our faculties lie dormant because they can rely upon Habit,” wrote Proust. “Which knows what there is to be done and has no need of their services.” Habit dulls our senses, Proust suggests, and stops us from appreciating common beauty. On Your Wilderness Revisited, Doyle sheds himself of the bad habits he developed as an emergent successful recording artist in East India Youth and takes on the role of the Proustian artist. He takes pleasure in and extrapolates beauty from the suburbs that raised him, and takes pains to share that beauty with us.William DoyleYour Wilderness RevisitedWilliam Doyle
3.
The nod to sensuality and romance evoked by a title like Ecstatic Computation finds an echo in the track names: ‘Spine of Desire’, ‘Closest approach to your Orbit’, and ‘Pinnacles of You’ hint at seduction and sensuality but could also just be odes to the machines that Barbieri clearly adores, and the way they interact with the human psyche. ‘Spine of Desire’ builds and builds over ninety seconds, an unstoppable crescendo that leaves the listener gasping for more. Disquieting synth noise opens ‘Closest approach to your Orbit’ but is quickly subsumed by warm pads and melodies that teasingly run the boundary between organic and artificial. On ‘Arrows of Time’ a ghostly choir of female voices soars over stunted harpsichord chords, their beatific groan tending towards the spiritual.Caterina BarbieriEcstatic ComputationEditions Mego
2.
It’s difficult to think of Richard Dawson as a folk singer in some ways. But as an articulation of common themes, he’s maybe the only really real one we have. More valuable and vital than a million fucking Bellowheads or their tedious ilk. He just doesn’t really sound like folk. And nor should he. There’s as much hair metal dusted through this (the ahhs in ‘Black Triangle’!) as there is introspective acoustic narrative. There are more major keys, more recognisable guitar technique tropes, but these are always undone, knocked over and corroded by the bubbling urgency of Dawson’s mind. His drawing from devotional music and repetitious musical forms is writ large over these sprawling tracks, interwoven with pleasing and charming riffs.Richard Dawson2020Domino
1.
If For You and I serves as a useful reminder that the distinction between cool, contemporary dance music and its dated, out-of-vogue counterpart is wafer-thin, its exhilarating final three songs seal that premise. At under three minutes, ‘Sick 9’ is a brief dalliance with glitch techno; on ‘Vowel // Consonant’, arpeggiated rushes and buckwild drum programming mutates from Jlin-ish post-footwork to rude junglisms; and ‘Words Ears Mouth’ is another one for the ‘sweet melodies / ruff beats’ column, the latter being the full Autechre-dipping-into-breakcore monty.Loraine JamesFor You and IHyperdub
For You and I is consistent in its spirit with Hyperdub’s catalogue: often in its sound, too, although in a decade and a half the label has covered enough ground for this to be nebulous. That spirit, though, manifests itself in a defiant queerness; a grab-bag approach borne of big city multiculturalism; and a clear fascination with, and love of, sound in general.
The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2019
- 1: Loraine James – For You and I
- 2: Richard Dawson – 2020
- 3: Caterina Barbieri – Ecstatic Computation
- 4: William Doyle – Your Wilderness Revisited
- 5: These New Puritans – Inside The Rose
- 6: Vanishing Twin – The Age Of Immunology
- 7: Black Midi – Schlagenheim
- 8: Fat White Family – Serfs Up!
- 9: Brìghde Chaimbeul – The Reeling
- 10: Sunn O))) – Life Metal
- 11: Karenn – Grapefruit Regret
- 12: Moor Mother – Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes
- 13: Sleaford Mods – Eton Alive
- 14: Harrga – Héroïques Animaux De La Misère
- 15: The Utopia Strong – The Utopia Strong
- 16: Snapped Ankles – Stunning Luxury
- 17: DEAFKIDS – Metaprogramação
- 18: Barker – Utility
- 19: Bill Callahan – Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest
- 20: Kim Gordon – No Home Record
- 21: FKA twigs – MAGDALENE
- 22: The Comet Is Coming – Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
- 23: Lizzo – Cuz I Love You
- 24: The International Teachers of Pop – The International Teachers of Pop
- 25: MSYLMA – Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum
- 26: Richard Skelton – Border Ballads
- 27: Solange – When I Get Home
- 28: Tony Njoku – Your Psyche’s Rainbow Panorama
- 29: Teeth Of The Sea – Wraith
- 30: Errant Monks – Psychopposition / The Limit Experience
- 31: 75 Dollar Bill – I Was Real
- 32: Alexander Tucker – Guild of the Asbestos Weaver
- 33: Yao Bobby & Simon Grab – Diamonds
- 34: John Tilbury – The Tiger’s Mind
- 35: Jenny Hval – The Practice of Love
- 36: Sly & The Family Drone – Gentle Persuaders
- 37: Holly Herndon – PROTO
- 38: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
- 39: Hey Colossus – Four Bibles
- 40: Cosey Fanni Tutti – TUTTI
- 41: Theon Cross – Fyah
- 42: Ghold – Input>Chaos
- 43: $hit And $hine – Doing Drugs, Selling Drugs
- 44: Black To Comm – Seven Horses For Seven Kings
- 45: LOFT – and departt from mono games
- 46: Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- 47: Nkisi – 7 Directions
- 48: Christian Wolff – Preludes, Variations, Studies and Incidental Music
- 49: Stephen Mallinder – Um Dada
- 50: Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
- 51: Ifriqiyya Électrique – Laylet El Booree
- 52: Abdu Ali – FIYAH!!!
- 53: Oli XL – Rogue Intruder, Soul Enhancer
- 54: Rian Treanor – ATAXIA
- 55: Yugen Blakrok – Anima Mysterium
- 56: Matmos – Plastic Anniversary
- 57: Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?
- 58: Blood Incantation – Hidden History Of The Human Race
- 59: Floating Points – Crush
- 60: DEBBY FRIDAY – DEATH DRIVE
- 61: Dave – Psychodrama
- 62: Buck Young – Buck II: Where Do You Want It?
- 63: Giant Swan – Giant Swan
- 64: Tunes of Negation – Reach The Endless Sea
- 65: Dis Fantasy – Dis Fantasy
- 66: Shanti Celeste – Tangerine
- 67: Shortparis – Tak Zakalyalas’ Stal
- 68: Klein – Lifetime
- 69: Cate Le Bon – Reward
- 70: Jennifer Walshe – ALL THE MANY PEOPLS
- 71: TripleGO – Yeux Rouges
- 72: Headie One – Music x Road
- 73: Whistling Arrow – Whistling Arrow
- 74: Tyler, The Creator – IGOR
- 75: MY DISCO – Environment
- 76: Ana Roxanne – ~~~
- 77: Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow
- 78: Rakta – Falha Comum
- 79: Oliver Coates – John Luther Adams’ Canticles Of The Sky
- 80: Bill Orcutt – Odds Against Tomorrow
- 81: King Midas Sound – Solitude
- 82: Kate Tempest – The Book Of Traps and Lessons
- 83: Félicia Atkinson – The Flower And The Vessel
- 84: Sote – Parallel Persia
- 85: Meatraffle – Bastard Music
- 86: Carter Tutti Void – Triumvirate
- 87: Carl Gari & Abdullah Miniawy – The Act of Falling from the 8th Floor
- 88: Thurston Moore – Spirit Counsel
- 89: Meemo Comma – Sleepmoss
- 90: The Membranes – What Nature Gives… Nature Takes Away
- 91: Gum Takes Tooth – Arrow
- 92: Fenella – Fenella
- 93: Laura Cannell & Polly Wright – Sing As The Crow Flies
- 94: Warmduscher – Tainted Lunch
- 95: MoE / Mette Rasmussen – Tolerancia Picante
- 96: Mega Bog – Dolphine
- 97: John Zorn – Tractatus Musico Philosophicus
- 98: Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis
- 99: Alameda 5 – Eurodrome
- 100: Scorn – Cafe Mor
