In 2020, I raged, I sunk into soft sounds...
As much as I missed people and missed touch...
as much as I quietly and not-so-quietly raged, as much as anxiety rendered me hopeless, as much as the too-big world left me feeling helpless… I still found strength in my family, friends and faith. I saw my daughter grow up day by day, got pretty good at smoking meats and veggies in the backyard, found a routine that worked for our household, intentionally forged stronger friendships (and sadly left others on hold), started this newsletter and a cassette project, made time to read books.
Every year, I try to think of a different way to present my year-end list. So over two newsletters (second part coming Wednesday), here’s how music functioned in quarantine over 2020, whether a one-time epiphany or constant listen over months. Links go out to Bandcamp where applicable.
Here’s a long, loosely sequenced playlist of my favorite music released in 2020. I’m still adding songs.
P.S.: If you're reading this newsletter via email, the list is most surely truncated. I suggest hitting the link. — Lars Gotrich
I wanted to feel triumphant
Meurtrières, Meurtrières (Gates of Hell / Armée De La Mort / Nameless Grave / Crystal Blade): Punked-up speed metal for storming castles.
Eternal Champion, Ravening Iron (No Remorse): Epic metal for battling hordes of undead skeleton warriors.
Krallice, Mass Cathexis (self-released): Avant metal for cracking open the void.
Stygian Crown, Stygian Crown (Cruz Del Sur / Transylvanian Tapes): Doom metal for howling at the beast.
Hum, Inlet (self-released): Seismic space rock as a tender beacon to (young and aging) gear nerds in their feelings.
Preservation, Eastern Medicine, Western Illness (Nature Sounds): Quelle Chris, Mach-Hommy, billy woods and a killer lineup of underground rappers spitting over Preservation's groove-locked samples of Chinese records? This was made in the Lars Lab.
Chris Forsyth with Garcia Peoples, Peoples Motel Band (Algorithm Free): When live music went virtual, this electrifying set kept my heart chooglin’.
Accidente, Canibal (self-released): Like Bad Moves and Martha, the Madrid punk band packs brightly-splattered hooks with songs against fascism and patriarchal violence, but also offers energizing songs for the fight ahead.
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou, May Our Chambers Be Full (Sacred Bones): The eagle-screaming love child of Stevie Nicks and Soundgarden.
I raged
Pink Siifu, NEGRO (self-released): Looks to Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka, Ras G, Death and Bad Brains — radical expressionists of Black thought and sound — to create a blasted meditation on state brutality and systemic racism.
Feminazgul, No Dawn for Men (Tridoid): A viciously beautiful piece of feminist black metal laced with violin, Theremin, accordion and piano. Casts a triumphant spell as it eviscerates the patriarchy.
Serpent Column, Endless Detainment (Mystískaos): Of the two Serpent Column albums released in 2020, this concentrated dose of black-metal hatred met my rage with messy riffs, nerve-wracking blasts and nihilistic screams.
Backxwash, God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It (self-released): Come for the heavy metal samples, stay for a nerve-rattling treatise on forgiveness.
Chepang, Chatta (Nerve Altar / GCBT): Virtuosic violence clashing future-shred grind, psychedelic death metal and free-jazz squawks.
Lamp of Murmuur, Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism (Death Kvlt / Not Kvlt): Lamp of Murmuur's restless energy, sudden dynamic switches and swaggering rock-and-roll riffery kept me coming back to its sickening black-metal bile.
Couch Slut, Take A Chance On Rock 'n' Roll (Gilead Media): When the world spews black bile, Couch Slut spits back. Metallic noise-rock that heaves real-life horror with homunculus riffs, barb-wire discord and foaming rage.
Duma, Duma (Nyege Nyege Tapes): Absolutely nothing sounded like the Kenyan duo Duma in 2020, and yet our collective chaos sounded exactly like Duma in 2020. Cacophonous beats, whooping shrieks and blitzed drones assault every sense, unearthing unknown terrors.
Arafura, Arafura (self-released): Gamelan samples are woven into this unrelenting, desperate and turbulent grindcore from Sydney.
v/a, Under Siege / Bajo Asedio / État de Siège / تحت الحصار (A World Divided): A vital introduction to (mostly) Mediterranean hardcore/punk. Every band here sent me down rabbit holes of micro scenes across Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Algeria.
I moshed in my home-office chair
Facewreck, 2020 Single 1 Yo, 2020 Single 2 Yo, 2020 Single 3 Yo (self-released): In the course of a year, the dumbest beatdown-hardcore band out of Pittsburg became the dumbest rap-rock band out of Pittsburgh. School's out, fools out.
Code Orange, Underneath (Roadrunner): After a couple undeniable (yet spotty) wreckers, this is the simultaneously blistering and molten liquid-metal album Code Orange was on track to deliver. Dillinger Escape Plan's avant/pop-metal experiments meet NIN aggro-anthems and Zao-level breakdowns.
Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats, UNLOCKED (Loma Vista): MF DOOM rippin' up the pit with Wu-Tang Clan. The rare homage that still feels unique to its makers. Again, made in the Lars Lab.
Znous, Znousland 2 زنوسلاند (A World Divided): The Tunisian hardcore band plays up the over-the-top nu-metal only hinted on the previous EP, with knuckle-draggin' riffs, folkloric melodies and bark-along anthems.
Ripped to Shreds, 亂 (Luan) (Pulverised / Nameless Grave): Swear fealty to the new HM2 death-metal god Andrew Lee!
I missed my friends
Psychic Temple, Houses of the Holy (Joyful Noise): I started writing a long thing about my history (personal and professional) with Chris Schlarb, going back to the Sounds Are Active message board days, and then the election kinda fried my brain. I'm gonna come back to it someday, but I'll say this: across 4 sides and 4 backing bands (?!), Houses of the Holy is the rock 'em, sock 'em, love 'em, hold 'em classic that Chris has always had in his brilliant scatterbrain of sound.
Positive No, Kyanite (self-released): The final album from Richmond's exuberant indie-rock band (and some of the sweetest people I know), meditating on the sparks that set fire to new beginnings.
Bad Moves, Untenable (Don Giovanni): I've played in cover bands with every member of Bad Moves, culminating in the Gnarly Rae Jepsen mega band. Front-to-back power-pop gems (with dips into guitar noise and slacker rock) that'll make you smile, cry and dance.
Sad13, Haunted Painting (Wax Nine): I'll be untangling myself from Sadie's shreddy-yet-earwormy prog-pop for years. Watch the absolutely delightful Tiny Desk!
I sunk into soft sounds
Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus, Songs of Yearning / Nocturnes (Occultation): In the early months of the pandemic, these were my daily prayers.
Aisha Orazbayeva, Music for Violin Alone (SN Variations): The London-based Kazakh violinist plays Bach, James Tenney and John Cage with equally demanding force, but spends a lot of time resting in silence.
Tetuzi Akiyama, Thaumaturgy (Besom Presse): An unexpectedly touching experience from the Japanese guitarist, one that remains in the air after the needle's lifted.
Claire Rousay, Both (Second Editions): In a year without travel, I was moved by and moved into these lovingly edited travelogues as street musicians play, birds chirp, airplanes fly overhead, libraries hum and voices carry.
Jusell, Prymek, Sage, Shiroishi, Fuubutsushi (風物詩) (Cached Media): We kept this CD in car all fall/winter-long. A remote jazz quartet deep in ECM's quintessential quietude, with strains of ambient music and Vince Guaraldi's playful melodies.
G.S. Sultan, music for a living water (Orange Milk): Aquarium ambient. Bubble glitch. MIDI twee.
Matt LaJoie, Everlasting Spring (Flowering Room): Matt's guitar-and-loops setup really found a balance most tranquil on this electric set of sunset improvisations.
Air KREW, Discuss and Come Back (Motion Ward): What feels like, but isn't, Sun Araw's gleefully broken MIDI experiments applied to shoegaze. Nestles into the weirder corners of dreams.
Lửa with Phayam, สวัสดี Hibiscus (CHO OYU): Gentle melodies shift like secrets whispered through the jungle canopy.
Sarah Hennies, The Reinvention of Romance (Astral Spirits): The piece for cello and percussion, inspired by the ever-tangling motions of a relationship, was especially close to my heart in a year spent in the shifting emotions and routines of quarantine at home.
I went back in time
Pylon, Pylon Box (New West): To me, Pylon is not only the ideal Athens band — Southern bohemia and industrial function wrapped in party music — but also punk's purest form: unlearnt, unconcerned, unlike anything.
Musica Transonic, Musica Transonic (Black Editions): Nanjo Asahito (High Rise), Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple) and Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruin) in my dream power-fuzz trio.
Man Jumping, Jumpcut (Emotional Rescue): Steve Reich's hypnotic minimalism meets James Blood Ulmer's mutant funk. Bonus: my toddler's living room dance jam.
Portray Heads, Portray Heads (Bitter Lake): Outsider dance music for robots via Japan.
Rüstəm Quliyev, Azerbaijani Gitara (Les Disques Bongo Joe): Azerbaijani guitar shred!
Nueva Vulcano, Juego Entrópico (La Castanya): Imagine the gruff melodicism of Jawbreaker, but en español, with a sparkling energy and intricately dense arrangements.
Harry Pussy, Superstar (Palilalia): Fifteen 30-second songs of sputtered splatter-gunk from the archives. An absolutely deranged racket.
I devoured these books
Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS by Maria Sherman
True Story by Kate Petty
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey and Michaela Angela Davis
Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture by Grace Elizabeth Hale