I love the Backxwash appreciation! It was my album of the year. I’m always trying to spread her gospel! Lots of great picks! Love seeing Parannoul, Lingua Ignota, and Little Simz on your list!
Loved Engine of Hell. The minimalist approach for the whole dreamy acoustic folk is just great for dreamy head moods. I recommend listening to Musk Ox and Forndom for some atmospheric folk/neofolk material if you are so inclined. Not too familiar with the rest but after hearing how passionately you've described some of them got me curious to check em out to expand my repertoire. For 2021 personally some of my favorite records were the new Beach House record Once Twice Melody along with the recent outputs by darksynth artists Perturbator and Hollywood Burns. Found a new one in dungeon synth called Wallachian Cobwebs with his album Night Sobbed a Potion Diseased that bleeds gothic vampire dark fantasy vibes. Other outputs include the strange beauty in Impure Wilhelmina's post rock/metal Antidote and the djenty goodness in VOLA's Witness. Loathe's venture into pure ambient territory was pretty good too. Could go on and on with other favorites but rather not bloat up the space here. I'll leave it here as it is. 🤙
i am very, very intrigued by the Beach House EPs but i'm not a huge fan of rollouts like this, so i'm waiting to hear all of it in the album this year! i will also check out Musk Ox and Forndom, i love me any kind of atmospheric folk, so thanks for the recs :)
Thanks Nicole! I will check out some of your advices. Curious to know whether you heard Sloppy Jane "Madison". And if so, what you would think about it.
Parannoul To See the Next Part of the Dream is my album of the year :) some further info you may find interesting about the album was disclosed in an interview not long after it came out - namely that almost the whole album is made on midi (synthesised instruments) including the guitars. Further, the vocals were recorded on a galaxy phone microphone. It blew my mind when I found that out. Nonwithstanding this fact, this album almost immediately shot to near my top albums of all time as it evokes that same beautiful, painful but soothing melancholy that is so rare. Here’s the quote: “Some of the listeners may have already noticed, but almost all of the instruments in the album are VSTi. I thought I wouldn't have to play the guitar, because I could make the sounds I wanted even if I used it as a virtual instrument. And my guitar skills are very terrible. Also in order not to get caught by anyone that I'm making music with, I had to keep as quiet as possible. That's why I made music with only one computer in the bedroom. I wanted to make a sophisticated lie rather than the unfinished truth….While recording the vocals, I didn’t have a good recorder in my house, so I recorded the snippets on my old Galaxy 5 smartphone and then pasted them into the old DAW on the old computer. It's the only 'lo-fi' element in this album.”
i did know about the midi part, but the vocals part is equally crazy to me! something about the notion of this album as a "sophisticated lie" is so brilliant to me, it's just so well-constructed despite not having any kind of super fancy equipment or "real" instruments
love this list as usual!! had no idea about the david berman connection w/ that cassandra jenkins. a heads up- the person behind parannoul released an ambient album 3 days ago that is sooooo fucking good
Welp I'm off to go down several Spotify rabbit holes... Definitely dug the Lightning Bug record. Also enjoyed the albums released in 2021 by Dry Cleaning, Black Midi, Godspeed, and Deerhoof. I think I need to give another chance to the Porter Robinson record after your perspective on it and see if it grows on me (since it is a spring album after all :P).
@@nicolefegan Nice. It would rank higher for me since they're one of my favourite bands and I love post-rock (same principle of subjectivity applies as you said about shoegaze). :P
Nice! 10. Arca - kiCK iiiii 9. Every Time I Die - Radical 8. King Woman - Celestial Blues 7. Drug Church - Tawny 6. Spellling - The Turning Wheel 5. Xiu Xiu - OH NO 4. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview... 3. Low - HEY WHAT 2. Joshua Ray Walker - See You Next Time 1. Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird...
great list! outside of the ones i mentioned in my video, i've heard the Low, Xiu Xiy, and Spelling, so i will try to check out all the others sometime soon!
Thank you for introducing me to Cassandra! You should listen to El Madrileño by C. Tangana. A perfect blend between Spanish folk and urban music. Definitely the next step in latin modern music -with lots of respect for culture
I love the Backxwash appreciation! It was my album of the year. I’m always trying to spread her gospel!
Lots of great picks! Love seeing Parannoul, Lingua Ignota, and Little Simz on your list!
Loved Engine of Hell. The minimalist approach for the whole dreamy acoustic folk is just great for dreamy head moods. I recommend listening to Musk Ox and Forndom for some atmospheric folk/neofolk material if you are so inclined.
Not too familiar with the rest but after hearing how passionately you've described some of them got me curious to check em out to expand my repertoire.
For 2021 personally some of my favorite records were the new Beach House record Once Twice Melody along with the recent outputs by darksynth artists Perturbator and Hollywood Burns. Found a new one in dungeon synth called Wallachian Cobwebs with his album Night Sobbed a Potion Diseased that bleeds gothic vampire dark fantasy vibes.
Other outputs include the strange beauty in Impure Wilhelmina's post rock/metal Antidote and the djenty goodness in VOLA's Witness. Loathe's venture into pure ambient territory was pretty good too.
Could go on and on with other favorites but rather not bloat up the space here. I'll leave it here as it is. 🤙
i am very, very intrigued by the Beach House EPs but i'm not a huge fan of rollouts like this, so i'm waiting to hear all of it in the album this year! i will also check out Musk Ox and Forndom, i love me any kind of atmospheric folk, so thanks for the recs :)
Thanks Nicole! I will check out some of your advices. Curious to know whether you heard Sloppy Jane "Madison". And if so, what you would think about it.
Parannoul To See the Next Part of the Dream is my album of the year :) some further info you may find interesting about the album was disclosed in an interview not long after it came out - namely that almost the whole album is made on midi (synthesised instruments) including the guitars. Further, the vocals were recorded on a galaxy phone microphone. It blew my mind when I found that out. Nonwithstanding this fact, this album almost immediately shot to near my top albums of all time as it evokes that same beautiful, painful but soothing melancholy that is so rare.
Here’s the quote:
“Some of the listeners may have already noticed, but almost all of the instruments in the album are VSTi.
I thought I wouldn't have to play the guitar, because I could make the sounds I wanted even if I used it as a virtual instrument. And my guitar skills are very terrible. Also in order not to get caught by anyone that I'm making music with, I had to keep as quiet as possible. That's why I made music with only one computer in the bedroom. I wanted to make a sophisticated lie rather than the unfinished truth….While recording the vocals, I didn’t have a good recorder in my house, so I recorded the snippets on my old Galaxy 5 smartphone and then pasted them into the old DAW on the old computer. It's the only 'lo-fi' element in this album.”
i did know about the midi part, but the vocals part is equally crazy to me! something about the notion of this album as a "sophisticated lie" is so brilliant to me, it's just so well-constructed despite not having any kind of super fancy equipment or "real" instruments
love this list as usual!! had no idea about the david berman connection w/ that cassandra jenkins.
a heads up- the person behind parannoul released an ambient album 3 days ago that is sooooo fucking good
ok i gotta go listen to that....immediately?? and yeah the "david" referenced on that album is berman, which just hurts my entire heart
Welp I'm off to go down several Spotify rabbit holes...
Definitely dug the Lightning Bug record. Also enjoyed the albums released in 2021 by Dry Cleaning, Black Midi, Godspeed, and Deerhoof. I think I need to give another chance to the Porter Robinson record after your perspective on it and see if it grows on me (since it is a spring album after all :P).
i also really enjoyed that Godspeed album, definitely in my top 35 or so!!
@@nicolefegan Nice. It would rank higher for me since they're one of my favourite bands and I love post-rock (same principle of subjectivity applies as you said about shoegaze). :P
Cool list! I also loved Mercurial World.. also this year dug Remi Wolf, Snail Mail and Indigo de Souza
I've heard of but haven't actually heard any of those other three, but I will be sure to get to them in the near future!
Nice!
10. Arca - kiCK iiiii
9. Every Time I Die - Radical
8. King Woman - Celestial Blues
7. Drug Church - Tawny
6. Spellling - The Turning Wheel
5. Xiu Xiu - OH NO
4. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview...
3. Low - HEY WHAT
2. Joshua Ray Walker - See You Next Time
1. Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird...
great list! outside of the ones i mentioned in my video, i've heard the Low, Xiu Xiy, and Spelling, so i will try to check out all the others sometime soon!
Thank you for introducing me to Cassandra! You should listen to El Madrileño by C. Tangana. A perfect blend between Spanish folk and urban music. Definitely the next step in latin modern music -with lots of respect for culture
Officially added that album to my wishlist, thanks for the shout!
I discovered Magdalena Bay far too late in 2021. I really enjoyed Faye Webster’s I Know I’m Funny Haha.
Mercurial World... more like Mercurial WOW bc WOW, that album rocks!
literally SO true, bestie
“Nurture is Owl City for adults”
Excuse me I didn’t wake up expecting to be called out like this
hahaha am i WRONG though?
@@nicolefegan absolutely not wrong 😂