TOP ALBUMS OF 2020
10-Julianna Barwick - Healing is a Miracle
Gorgeous angelic layered vocal work. This is my favorite ambient release of 2020.
9-Matmos - The Consuming Flame: open excercises in group form
A three hour mixtapesque record features 99 collaborators including clipping, Mouse on Mars, Yo La Tengo, IDMtheftable, Oneohtrix Point Never, Rabit & many others. The only constant is that it stays at 99 BPM. It musically ranges from music concrete, dub, ambient & noise, drum & bass, spoken word, & other genres as well. This massive chaotic collage is easily the most diverse & the most fun release Matmos have put out so far.
(map of collaborators)
8-Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Fetch the Bolt Cutters is her first in 8 years, and is her best & most wild. The songwriting is extremely personal & raw, and the music is visceral.
7-Armandhammer - Shrines
This is my pick for the top hip-hop album of the year. “Shrines” is the fourth and best album from Armand Hammer - a hip hop duo consisting of Billy Woods & Elucid. Elucid on Marses II (the last verse on the track) is hands down my favorite verse of the year, no competition. The album artwork is a photograph of NYPD police officer about to tranquilize and capture the Tiger Mind of Harlem - which poetically captures the spirit of this album, released in early June in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
6-Thomas Ades - Ades Conducts Ades
The two pieces on here are the Concerto for Piano & Orchestra which has a virtuosic performance from frequent collaborator Kirill Gerstein (who also plays on Ades other release this year, “In Seven Days”) & Totentanz (Dance of Death). Both were premiere’s by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I was there in the front row for BSO’s premiere of Totentanz (from 2016), & it was absolutely terrifying - & hearing it on recording still turns my stomach. The Concerto for Piano & Orchestra is probably one of the most important pieces of concert music written this century so far & one of Ades greatest achievements as a composer.
5-The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning so that Grace May Increase?
The Soft Pink Truth is Drew Daniel, one-half of experimental electronic duo Matmos. This solo release of his floats between house, ambient music, & minimalism / concert music. The climax of the album is the most ecstatic psychedelic moment of music that has come out of 2020.
4-Autechre - Sign / Plus
This pair of Autechre albums function as sister albums. The first of the two, “Sign” is warmer, more ambient, & has almost a new-agey vibe. The later of the two, “Plus”, is closer in vibe to their earlier work - feeling more mechanical, cold, & more from the void. There is new territory they explore harmonically on these - and at times this harmony sounds more human than their previous work. To me this pair of albums is their strongest release since the turn of the century.
3-Horse Lords - The Common Task
The best math rock that’s come out in at least a decade. Horse Lords incorporate mind-boggling polyrhythms, just intonation, algorithmic composition, and microtonal harmonies - but it’s still somehow incredibly fun.
2-John Luther Adams - Lines Made by Walking
This record is made up of two recent string quartets performed by the longtime interpreters of John Luther Adams music, JACK Quartet. The piece “Lines Made By Walking” Adam’s writes: was composed using “three expansive harmonic fields made up of tempo canons with five, six, and seven independent layers. (This is a technique I’ve used for years, in which a single melodic line is superimposed on itself at different speeds.) Once I’d composed these fields, I traced pathways across them. As I did this, each instrument of the quartet acquired a unique profile, transforming the strict imitative counterpoint of the tempo canons into intricately varied textures.”
& on “Untouched” there are no stopped tones - where all sounds are produced either as a natural harmonic or an open string (the musicians don’t use their finger boards at all). As is the case with a lot of John Luther Adam’s music, to me the effect is a transcendent experience - resembling that of feeling at one with nature.
1 - The Microphones - The Microphones in 2020
“The Microphones in 2020” is Phil’s first release under this project name in 16 years. It consists of one 45 minute track. Texturally things shift as it goes - but the effect of the repetitive harmony & the stream of conscious lyrics is completely transcendental.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
HIP HOP:
MIKE - weight of the world
Jay Electronica - A written testimony
Jay Electronica - Act II
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
Freddie Gibbs & the Alchemis - Alfredo
Black Thought - Streams of Thought, Vol. 3
Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide
Medhade - Cold Water
Blu & Exile - Miles
Slauson Malone - Vergangenheitsbaltigung
Roc Marciano - Mt. Marci
Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake
Pink Siifu - Negro
Nas - King’s Disease
JPEGMAFIA - EP!
dj blackpowder - DLP2020 “King of the Night”
R&B:
keiyaA - Forever, Ya Girl
Moses Sumney - Grae
Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind
ELECTRONIC:
James Krivchenia - A New Found Relaxation
Moodyman - Taken Away
Raisin Murphy - Roisin Machine
SAULT - UNTITLED (Black Is) & UNTITLED (Rise)
Caribou - Suddenly
Against All Logic - 2017–2019
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Mosaic of Transformation
Jon Collin & Demdike Stare - Sketches of Everything
Beatrice Dillon - Workaround
Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
Four tet - Sixteen Oceans
Actress - Karma & Desire
Nicolas Jaar - Telas
Skee Mask Iss005
Skee Mask - Iss006
Panther du Prince - Conference of the Trees
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V & VI
Nicolas Jaar - Cenizas
The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You
J. Bagist / Muxer - SPLIT / PROP015
METAL:
Deftones - Ohms
Sea - Impermanence
Liturgy - Origin of the Alimonies
Code Orange - Underneath
JAZZ:
The Nels Cline Singers - Share the Wealth
Ron Miles - Rainbow Sign
Shabaka and the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History
Kurt Rosenwinkel - Angels Around
Charles Lloyd, ‘8: Kindred Spirits’
Bill Frissell - Valentine
Jaga Jazzist - Pyramid
Tigris Hamasyan
Gogo Penguin - Gogo Penguin
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian Blade - Round Again
John Scofield, Steve Swallow, & Bill Stewart - Swallow Tales
Ambrose Akinmusire - on the tender spot of every calloused moment
SINGER-SONGWRTIER:
Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Punisher
Bob Dylan - Rough & Roudy Ways
Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
Adrianne Lenker - Songs
Bill Callahan - Gold Record
Eleanor Elektra - Exquisite Corpse
Sam Amidon - Sam Amidon
Taylor Swift - Folklore
Taylor Swift - Evermore
Destroyer - Have We Met
Bix MacMaghan - Curvaceous
Soccer Mommy - Color Theory
Anjimle - Giver Taker
Fleet foxes - Shore
Nick Hakim - Will This Make Me Good
Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques
ROCK / ALTERNATIVE:
Idles - Ultramono
Deerhoof - Lovelore
Deerhoof - Future Teenage Cave Artists
Flaming lips - American Head
Touche Amore - Lament
Fontaines DC, ‘A Hero’s Death
CONCERT MUSIC (“serious music”):
Traistan Perich: Drift Multiply
Vikingur Olafsson - Debussy - Remeau
Thomas Ades - In Seven Days
Olafur Arnalds - some kind of peace
Eric Hall - Music for 18 Musicians (Steve Reich)
AMBIENT / DRONE / NOISE:
Kar’Nam - Autonomic
Sound Shaman - Timeless Daze of the Deep Abyss
Danny Clay - Ocean Park
William Basinski - Lamentations
Mark Mcguire - Earth Star Musick
((also I didn’t put them on this list since I was a part in making them - but these came out this year: