Quietus Reissues etc. Of The Year 2019 (In Association With Norman Records)

Robert Eggers’ follow up to The Witch, a similarly unique affair about the trials and tribulations of a pair of lighthouse keepers, continues to use the work of Mark Korven, who washes up a darkly evocative work that seems to balance on the edges of sanity, if not beyond. Low strings mimic the swelling and bowing of wood against the sea, while the drones of whales and the seductive sighs of sirens permeate the air, whispers of the water. But this relative calm is soon broken with portentous strings, doom-laden accordion, and penetrating foghorns, all working in tandem to seemingly illustrate a further downward spiral into madness, and what can seem like ambience suddenly reaches out to grab you by the throat. And it doesn’t let go. After The Lighthouse, silence feels unbearable.

2019 marked 30 years since Fabio & Grooverider launched their upstairs room at Charing Cross club Rage where they supported numerous emerging sounds such as bleep techno, hardcore and darkside jungle. 30 Years Of Rage revisits those days and pulls together some of those parties’ biggest tracks taking in classics by Leftfield, Nightmares On Wax and Foul Play across two volumes.

Warp kick-started its 30th anniversary celebrations midway through 2019 with a weekend of broadcasts on NTS taking in shows and music from some of its key acts. One of those acts was Autechre who, over the course of two hours, dug deep into the vaults back to a time when they were more directly taking influence from the early techno and rave-inspired sounds of the time. This was a rare insight into the pair’s earliest material from a time that gave us such twisted bangers from them as ‘Cavity Job’ and ‘Accelera 1 & 2’.

Few before or since have demonstrated comparable ease in connecting with other musicians, regardless of background or ethos, like Cherry. His ability to locate the deepest, most humanistic, and spiritual links in disparate traditions remains sublime. Lots of musicians profess that they don’t recognise genre, but it’s hard to think of an artist who lived it as much as he did. Earlier this year, Brown Rice was reissued on vinyl for the first time in more than four decades, and its contents sound more prescient, beautiful, and unique than ever.

Barker’s debut solo album, Utility, was one of 2019’s finest albums with the Berlin-based producer exploring rich melodies entirely unshackled from kick drums. This mix of all-original material places those kinds of sounds alongside hefty drums and a more direct techno sound, giving an insight into what you might expect from one of Barker’s own live sets at a club.

The latest posthumous Arthur Russell release is the result of a decade of archival work by Steve Knutson and Russell’s partner Tom Lee. Across the stripped back and beautiful record, there are collaborations with the likes of Rhys Chatham, David Van Tieghem and Henry Flynt. Multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick also worked alongside Audika Record on the compilation, to complete a number of almost-finished songs.