Mystics, Headbangers and Dreamers: 2024 in 8 mixtapes

I spent the year making y'all mixtapes and figured that here, at year's end, I should do the same. What follows are eight mixes grouped by different themes that should be pretty self-explanatory. BNDCMPR, my preferred playlist-maker, appears to be on the fritz, so out of haste, these appear on Tidal (with one via YouTube).
Nothing’s in any particular order. Every album gets one representative song, except where noted.
In years past, I might have reflected more personally in the introduction, but… I've found myself weaning off of online confessionals. Now past 40, you can call it age, social media exhaustion or a preemptive strike against what's to come in 2025, but I'm more interested in slowing my roll… and doing them in smaller spaces. What does that mean going forward? I have no idea! I'll keep making mixtapes. I'll still talk on podcasts (the year-end Viking’s Choice episode of NPR’s All Songs Considered is in your podcast feed right now, btw). But maybe I should start a zine? Projects with friends? A band? I want to explore the joy of things that take time; I want to learn what it means to make that time. —Lars Gotrich
🔊 Mixtape: Poets, Mystics and Storybook Characters
I've always been a "music first, words next" listener. Not only do these albums prove the exception to the rule, some even break it by being sung in languages not my own (Myriam Gendron, The Rheingans Sisters, Sahra Halgan) or without words at all (Unwed Sailor) — storytellers no matter the method of delivery.
Myriam Gendron, Mayday (Thrill Jockey)
Kenny Segal & K-the-I???, Genius Dexterity (Backwoodz Studioz)
The Softies, The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter)
The Innocence Mission, Midwinter Swimmers (Bella Union)
Six Organs of Admittance, Time is Glass (Drag City)
Starflyer 59, Lust for Gold (Velvet Blue Music)
Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past is Still Alive (Nonesuch)
Unwed Sailor, Underwater Over There (Current Taste)
Psychic Temple, Doggie Paddlin' Through the Cosmic Consciousness (Big Ego)
Pedro the Lion, Santa Cruz (Polyvinyl)
Pernice Brothers, Who Will You Believe (New West)
Cara Beth Satalino, Little Green (Worried Songs)
Mount Eerie, Night Palace (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
Haley Heynderickx, Seed of a Seed (Mama Bird)
The Rheingans Sisters, Start Close In (self-released)
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Souvenirs (Mississippi)
Straw Man Army, Earthworks (D4MT / La Vida Es Un Mus)
Damien Jurado, Live at St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, WA, August 7th 2024 (Maraqopa)
Anna Ferrer, Parenòstic (La Castanya)
Sahra Halgan, Hiddo Dhawr (Danaya Music)
Julia Sabra, Natural History Museum (Ruptured)
Tierra Whack, World Wide Whack (Interscope)
Beth Gibbons, Lives Outgrown (Domino)
🔊 Mixtape: (Not Quite) Millions of Brazilians
Ever since I heard a dodgy 2005 reissue of Paêbirú — the acid-soaked, forest grubby psych collab between Lula Côrtes and Zé Ramalho from 1975 — I've been obsessed with music from Brazil. I've spent a better part of the last 20 years digging into samba, bossa nova, jazz, Tropicália, psych and MPB from the country's past. But upon hearing Luiza Brina's transcendental Prece, my favorite album of 2024, I grew hungry to find more from the current scene… and found a wild bounty of traditionalists, experimentalists and everyone in between.
Luiza Brina, Prece (self-released)
Milton Nascimento & esperanza spalding, Milton + esperanza (Concord Jazz)
v/a, funk.BR - São Paulo (NTS)
Oruã, PASSE (Transfusão Noise / IFB)
Amaro Freitas, Y'Y (Psychic Hotline)
Negro Leo, RELA (QTV)
Dora Morelenbaum, Pique (Mr. Bongo)
Rogê, Curryman II (Diamond West)
Fabio do Nascimento and Sam Gendel, The Room (Real World)
Babe, Terror, Pescadou Gualapagouse (Longform Editions)
Felinto, Utopia Milhão (Bokeh Versions / Glossy Mistakes)
Caxtrinho, Queda Livre (QTV)
sonhos tomam conta, corpos de água (Longinus)
Yndi, Memoria (Grand Musique)
Sítio Rosa, Sítio Rosa (self-released)
🔊 Mixtape: Headbangers, Ragers and Spitters
My relationship with heavy music has changed significantly over the years — I'm far more picky about what bum rushes my ears with a barrage of riffs. I'm still drawn to adventure, but require emotion within that progressive streak. Yes, you will find metal and hardcore here, but also spiritual bedfellows in the ancient yelled poetry of Mekit Dolan Muqam Group and soprano Barbara Hannigan's bewildering performance of John Zorn compositions.
Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media)
Chapel of Disease, Echoes of Light (Ván)
Mekit Dolan Muqam Group, Bayawan (Old Heaven Books)
The Jesus Lizard, Rack (Ipecac)
Thou, Umbilical (Sacred Bones)
Prostitute, Attempted Martyr (self-released)
Markgraf, Hohenbaden (Blutrausch Propaganda)
Lifeless Dark, Forces of Nature's Transformation (Side Two)
NØ MAN, Glitter and Spit (Iodine)
Castle Rat, Into the Realm (Wise Blood)
Basque, Pain Without Hope of Healing (No Funeral)
Mnajdra, In the Name of the Goddess (Fiadh Productions)
Krallice, Inorganic Rites (self-released)
Melt-Banana, 3+5 (A-Zap)
Barbara Hannigan, Hannigan Sings Zorn Volume One (Live) (Tzadik)
Muro, Neuva Dogma (Fuerza Ingobernable)*
* Only available on vinyl, y'all — no digital whatsoever!
Sweaty Bodies, Small Basements and Office Spaces
If I haven't been to a show in a while, I can feel it — the absence of vibration, the catharsis, the communion. My favorite concerts in 2024 rocked me sideways (Taqbir, Kim Gordon), took me back in time to see the present (Extol, Drive-By Truckers), opened an ancient vessel (Barabara Hannigan) and, in the case of summer DIY show, met a longtime online friend IRL for the first time and it was like we picked up right where we left off (doesn't hurt that Anika Pyle's "Arizona" is one of the best dang songs I've heard in a minute).
Haram / Taqbir @ Pie Shop, Feb. 25
Kim Gordon @ Black Cat, March 22
Sunny Day Real Estate @ Howard Theatre, May 7
Mannequin Pussy / Soul Glo @ The Atlantis, May 17
Anika Pyle / Julia Blair @ Cool Ranch, June 29
Monument / Hobis @ Black Cat for Korchfest, Aug. 23
Waxahatchee @ Wolftrap, Sept. 6
Snapcase @ Furnace Fest, Oct. 5
Extol @ Furnace Fest, Oct. 6
Drive-By Truckers @ Warner Theatre, Oct. 16
Barbara Hannigan & Bertrand Chamayou @ Library of Congress, Dec. 16
🎥 Mixtape: Desks That Were Tiny
Not that my colleagues asked (ahem), but I spent a fair amount of time booking, producing, writing up and witnessing Tiny Desk concerts — they happen right behind my head at work. I'll be doing more of that in 2025, but here's a baker's dozen — whittled down from many more — that I adored.
TV On The Radio
Pygmy Lush
Tierra Whack
Doechii
DEVO
Timo Andres
Tems
SWV
Jennifer Koh & Missy Mazzoli
Otoboke Beaver
Soul Glo
Irreversible Entanglements
Laberinto del Coco
🔊 Mixtape: Foggy Dreamers and Blurred Notions
Music between the shades of dusk, when energy is dulled, yet emotions are tender.
somesurprises, Perseids (Doom Trip)
Ulla & Ultrafog, it means a lot (Motion Ward)
Th Blisks, Elixa (Efficient Space)
Merope, Vėjula (Stroom / Granvat)
Lia Kohl, Normal Sounds (Moon Glyph)
Perila, Intrinsic Rhythm (Smalltown Supersound)
Mannequin Pussy, I Got Heaven (Epitaph)
SAWIBA, Queimada, Nathan L, Sons of _ (Phantom Limb)
Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn, Quiet in a World Full of Noise (Merge)
Janel & Anthony, New Moon in the Evil Age (Cuneiform)
Still House Plants, If I don't make it, I love u (Bison)
Daniel Bachman, Quaker Run Wildfire (10/24/23–11/17/23) for Fiddle and Guitar (Longform Editions)
Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew, May (Love's Devotee)
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)
Henriette Eilertsen & OJKOS, Om tålmodighet (Nice Things)
Sarah Davachi, The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir (Late Music)
NEXCYIA, Endless Path of Memory (Pensaments Sònics) + Exodus (Haunter)
Passepartout Duo, Argot (self-released)
Antonina Nowacka, Sylphine Soporifera (Mondoj)
Ganavya, like the sky I've been too quiet (Native Rebel)
Harry Gorski-Brown, Durt Dronemaker After Dreamboats (GLARC)**
Kryssi & Wednesday, Ogden Garden (Dakinsina)**
** Not on Tidal, so go find this album on Bandcamp!
🔊 Mixtape: Neon-Noir Jumpers and Melted Mindsprings
The wild combination: mutant dance music, off-kilter fusion, shoutalongable indie-pop, alt-cumbia and anything that erupts from the speakers to disrupt conversation.
Lolomis, Carmen 404 (Airfono)
Contrahouse, Contrahouse (Ulyssa)
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse)
Rosie Tucker, Utopia Now! (Sentimental)
Pouty, Forgot About Me (Get Better)
Onsloow, Full Speed Anywhere Else (Tiny Engines)
Ekko Astral, Pink Balloons (Topshelf)
The Sewerheads, Despair is a Heaven (Tall Texan)
Kim Gordon, The Collective (Matador)
Oso Oso, life till bones (self-released)
Bad Moves, Wearing Out the Refrain (Don Giovanni)
Gato 'e Monte & Felipe Orjuela, LA DOSIS MÁXIMA (In-Correcto)
Darius Jones, Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye)
The Submissives, Live at Value Sound Studios (Celluloid Lunch)
Cime, The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble (Skyline)
Outer World, Who Does the Music Love? (Happy Happy Birthday to Me)
Dawuna, Naya (Sun Royalle)
Nubya Garcia, Odyssey (Concord Jazz)
Fuubutsushi, Meridians (Cached Media)
Might as well call this the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet Award — Orcutt, Ava Mendoza, Shane Parish and Wendy Eisenberg all put out excellent solo or duo records this year, in addition to rollicking live LP. This mixtape celebrates those, but also others in the fingerstyle, improv and deconstructed guitar realms.
Bill Orcutt, How to Rescue Things (Palilalia)
Vieux & Cheick, Djelibougou (Purplish)
Ava Mendoza, The Circular Train (Palilalia)
Marisa Anderson & Jim White, Swallowtail (Thrill Jockey)
Moin, You Never End (AD 93)
Jessica Acklerley, All of the Colours are Singing (AKP)
Shane Parish, Repertoire (Palilalia)
Loren Connors & David Grubbs, Evening Air (Room40)
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, Four Guitars Live (Palilalia)
Alan Licht, Havens (VDSQ)
Caroline Davis & Wendy Eisenberg, Accept When (Astral Spirits)
Tashi Dorji, we will be wherever the fires are lit (Drag City)
Barry Archie Johnson, Fortune’s Mirror (VDSQ)
Yasmin Williams, Acadia (Nonesuch)
William Tyler, Future Myths (Watusi)**
James Blackshaw, Unraveling in Your Hands (self-released)**
F****** Up, Someday (guitar) (self-released)***
** Not on Tidal, so go find this album on Bandcamp!
*** Limited release on Bandcamp that has, unfortunately, already been taken down.
Reissues and archival releases can take you back to an old self, and then make you realize that person never really left. Or present an alternate dimension where you heard your favorite band much earlier, setting you on a different course. These are those. (A special shout out to the new-to-me albums that elevated errands in the car: Wynonna by Wynonna Judd; Without Hesitation by Good Luck, Lhasa's self-titled debut, the collected works of The Short Dark Strangers & the Shady Motherf***ers, Songs of Ascension by Meredith Monk.)
Julie Ragbeer, Perplex (Ulyssa)
Penny Carson Nichols, Trinidad Seed (Yoga)
Linda Smith, I So Liked Spring + Nothing Else Matters (Captured Tracks)
Galaxie 500, Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90 (Silver Current)
v/a, Someone Like Me (Efficient Space)
Limbo District, Live Limbo + Carnival (Chunklet)
Nurse With Wound, Thunder Perfect Mind (Infinite Fog)
The Choir, Chase the Kangaroo + Free Flying Soul (self-released)
Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Kingdom of Discipline (Dead Currencies)
Souled American, Notes campfire + Frozen (Scissor Tail)
Tujiko Noriko, From Tokyo to Naiagara (Keplar)
Universal Order of Armageddon, Universal Order of Armageddon (Numero Group)
90 Day Men, We Blame Chicago (Numero Group)
Maria Rita, Brasileira (Mr. Bongo)
Black Sabbath, Anno Domini 1989-1995 (BMG / Rhino)
The Go-Betweens, G Stands for Go-Betweens Volume 3 (Domino)
Rose Melberg, Things We Tried to Hide (Selected Songs, 1993-2023) (Antiquated Future)**
** Not on Tidal, so go find this album on Bandcamp!