the sequel to last year's thread! anything you first listened in 2024 is fair game, regardless of the release date!

i think mine are:

- horse lords - comradely objects

- microtonal instrumental rock. the first and last tracks are dry and boring like all the other horse lords i've tried listening to but the middle tracks are great
- norokusi - eternal ideé fixe

- microtonal classical piano, tragic that the artist decided to use AI for the cover though
- david watson & matthew welch - woven

- microtonal bagpipe drone. technically i only listen to the first track but it's 18 minutes long and left a really strong impression on me so i think it still qualifies

honorable mentions: the new mannequin pussy, the deerhoof from the year before, umm brittany howard, some bartok string quartet, maybe methods body, sononym

i heard so much cool stuff from last year's thread...! excited to dig into this one here soon too.

my favoritemost records this year were

yeule - softscars

(nb glitch pop alt rock)
wayne shorter - speak no evil

(post-bop jazz)
geordie greep - the new sound

(...art-rock + latin-jazz fusion?!)
kashiwa daisuke - ice

(emotional glitched-out post-rock)
kashiwa daisuke - titan

(minimal idm)

the first two ended up getting the most spins from me over the last few months, and funnily enough they were the last two albums i heard during my 40-hour drive moving across the country. softscars reminds me a lot of grimes' "art angels" (a longtime fav) in how it mixes an ethereal pop sound with the punch of alternative rock of my adolescence. speak no evil is just good eating, every tune is catchy and memorable and fantastically arranged; the "infant eyes" ballad is especially stunning. my version had a couple other alternate takes at the end which were fun to check out.

also, kashiwa daisuke really went and released two almost diametrically opposed albums in the span of four months - mad respect for that alone, and both are fantastic!

that geordie greep album is some seriously impressive writing - relating to its title, it's wild how it is simultaneously forward-thinking and venerating of eras of music that came before it. it will probably go on to be "one of the classics of the 2020s". brilliant shit. it's also neat how it sort of transitions from "what his band black midi sounded like" at the beginning into its own, uh, new sound.

Certainly not the most underground or niche selection here, but these were all new to me this year:

The J Arthur Keenes Band - Computer Savvy

Found this while going through Damifortune's list of albums by BotBrs and absolutely fell in love with it. Seems to be a chiptune classic that a lot of you probably know already, but if you don't, go listen to it! His other albums are amazing too.

Nujabes - Metaphorical Music

I'm not usually into hip hop or rap that much, but wow was I blown away when I found Nujabes!

Aivi & Surrasshu - Meanwhile

The first 5 tracks of this were my top 5 songs on Spotify wrapped this year...

Lamp - For Lovers

Simply delicious chill japanese bossa nova / pop.

speak no evil is so good, for sure my favorite straight jazz album

Some favorites that were released this year by artists I was already a fan of:

MG Ultra

by Machine Girl. A digital punk album with a lot of variety! Not all of it worked for me, but the highs were very high: "Psychic Attack" rattled me to my core and might be my favorite song of the decade to date.

Ten Skies

by Patricia Taxxon. Very minimal, meticulously produced ambient music with some twists. It's intended to retroactively soundtrack a similarly minimal film of the same name, which gives it an interesting structure.

Some favorites from this year by artists who were new to me:

moboa

by bapskink, aka gau! Synthesizer jams which I found unearthly but calming and full of heart.

Architecture and Distraction

, by Felipe Vaz. A bunch of different spins on super-jittery irregular rhythms. Lots of colorful variety in the production.

Some favorites from further back which I heard this year:

Dances

, by Reinartz. Sounds like partially disintegrated dub techno. I love music that's sparse enough that chord changes take me by surprise.

Exitos, by Electric Company. Misshapen piles of trebly, crackly glitches, sometimes over a beat. There's a ton of music like that, but this album really stood out to me -- it feels like each track explores a distinct idea with enough detail to be interesting but not so much detail that it blurs into a mess.

Ahh I thought about this the whole year since the previous thread XD

Expect for 2 albums and a few EPs I already knew, I listened to all Radiohead's discography this year (unless I missed one or two EPs :o ). I absolutely love everything starting from OK Computer

, so my fav album of the year will also be my fav Radiohead album: The King of Limbs

. I really love this kind of mood flowing through the album, somewhat dark but with something else I can't really describe.

As for a fav album released in 2024, I'll pick Wall Of Eyes

from The Smile, I'm especially fan of the track called Bending Hectic

!

Honorable mentions from other different bands/artists:
- Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

by Thom Yorke: I'm fond of all the textures in the album, Pink Section

is probably my favorite track of the album
- Racing The Storm

by Emiliana Torrini and The Colorist Orchestra
- You All Look the Same to Me

by Archive
- Drukqs

by Aphex Twin

the king of limbs is such a cool radiohead album - a pretty substantial shift in sound/style/influence but a lovely experience all the same! Feral is probably my favorite track but all are great

If you are a Sunny Day Real Estate fan, I highly recommend you check out Diary - Live at London Bridge Studio

. It's a re-recording of their debut album that sounded great and made one of my high school favorites feel fresh to me.

A folksy alternative album I listened to a lot was Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker

. Folk music that looks you in the eye and shakes your hand with heartfelt undercurrents. Played on loop during a rough patch of the year.

i don't listen to much new music these days but i'm listening to umbel by loscil for the first time right now and it's very nice: https://loscil.bandcamp.com/album/umbel

I listened to virt - FX 1

, I think its very quirky! Which is something I love and I'm personally trying to incorporate into my style this year. Classical Favorites is my fav of the EP, it just sets a fun vibe that I can't resist.

idogechiptune's Timescope

is also worth mentioning, opened my eyes to the potential of FM, and although I don't think its on plans this year I do hope next year I get the chance to learn sound design.

Last one is Yerzmyey - Brutal And Aggressive

. I think it's... HOLY SHIT DID YOU HEAR THAT????

@Opilion - radiohead has such a deep and varied discog, digging into it for the first time must be such a treat... i kinda listened them to death as a teenager but for sure still appreciate their work

@kilowatt64 - adrianne lenker is one of my favorite artists! all the new lenker / big thief stuff has actually been a miss for me though. i hope one day there'll be another UFOF or songs or whatever but if not then, understandable, no one can be held to such an unreasonably high standard anyway