BLASTITUDE BEST OF 2024
These are the 2024 releases that caught my ear the most, in order of their Bandcamp release date. Seventeen records, which doesn’t seem like a whole lot in this age of hyper-abundance. There are indeed some notable absences, some of which I heard and just didn’t like that much, but most because I just didn’t get around to hearing ‘em. Only so many hours in the day, etc. And this isn’t just “list every cool 2024 record I can think of.” If it’s on here, it’s only because it was released in 2024 and I actually listened to it in relative awe, at least three and often many more times, in said year:
MAMMAL Deserted (IMPERMANENCE) (February 2nd) Instagram post here, and as it mentions, this is an artist I’ve followed since the earliest days of Blastitude, always threatening retirement, still releasing excellent albums on an infrequent basis.
KIM GORDON The Collective (MATADOR) (March 8th) No review, but some context here if you scroll down amongst the stuffs and things.
KA BAIRD Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos (RVNG INTL.) (March 22nd) No review, but one of the more mindblowing albums on this list, and perhaps the closest to inventing its own genre (which, as I think about certain other titles on the list, is really saying something).
WATER DAMAGE In E (12XU) (April 12th) No review, but file under “more of more of the same, more welcome than ever.”
JESSICA PRATT Here in the Pitch (MEXICAN SUMMER) (May 3rd) No review, but this is like the Lady in the Radiator jamming with the Wrecking Crew live-streamed on a smartphone. True contemporary dreamtone.
MOUNTAIN MOVERS Walking After Dark 2LP (TROUBLE IN MIND) (May 17th) Review here. Kinda perfect psych-rock double LP concept album, to be honest. Probably my single favorite release of 2024.
NATALIA BEYLIS “Lost—For Annie” CS (PROJECT RECORDINGS) (May 24th) Review here.
THE SPATULAS Beehive Mind (POST PRESENT MEDIUM) (May 31st) No review and didn’t hear it at all until a couple weeks ago, after reading about them in Maggot Brain #18. Listened to it three times, still getting better, VU/LBGP vibes in a fresh American voice.
SML Small Medium Large (INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM) (June 28th) No review and I’m still grappling with it, as briefly mentioned here, but even 2/5th of the band being ETA IVtet alumni makes them automatic on this list.
MAGIK MARKERS A New Kind of World (ARBITRARY SIGNS) (July 6th) Review here. This seemed like a real 2024 sister album to the Mountain Movers release, with the bands sharing not only initials but some kinda male/female female/male experimental/psych co-leadership energy.
CONNECTIVE TISSUE Vol. 1 CS (YARD SALE FOR WORLD PEACE) (July 26th) Review here.
BILDERS Dustbin of Empathy LP (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE/GRAPEFRUIT) (August 2nd) Review here.
JUSTIN SWEATT North Texas Electric (AURAL CANYON) (August 19th) Review here.
ANIMAL PISS IT’S EVERYWHERE Grace LP (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE) (September 6th) Review here. The 2024 album that made me cry, once, which is one more time than any other 2024 album did. A playful country/Fugsy rock exterior protects a hardened heavy core.
NED COLETTE Our Other History LP (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE) (September 6th) Review here. Did not make me cry, but pretty goddamn heavy in and of itself.
ARTIFICIAL GO Hopscotch Fever (FEEL IT/FUTURE SHOCK) (September 6th) No review, but I think this completely grooving Cincinnati band with fake Euro vocals might be actual egg punk, and I do actually like actual egg punk. (My 21-year-old introduced me to Snõõper this year, and I like them too.) Either way, a very late add, thanks to a pretty wonderful tech-giant recommended-songs algorithm set off by the Spatulas that also introduced me to Feeling Figures, the Drowning Craze, Slippers, and Workers Comp in less than 30 minutes.
JEFF PARKER ETA IVTET The Way Out of Easy (INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM/NONESUCH) (November 22nd) No review, but I’ve been jonesing for another double LP by the ETA IVtet ever since Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy dropped in October 2022, and this follow-up is honestly every bit as good as I’d hoped. Turns out two years wasn’t too long to wait at all. Now this band just needs to play a show or two in Chicago!
ADDENDUM, records caught up with and/or discovered in 2024 (a few primary examples at least, in reverse chronological order):
ROBERT SCOTT & TAKUMI MOTOKAWA Aramoana (NO LABEL) (September 2023)
CUTICLES Major Works (SILTBREEZE) (August 2023)
DEREK MONYPENY Born (Free) (PERSONAL ARCHIVES) (June 2023)
CARNIVOROUS BELLS Room Above All LP (HUMAN HEADSTONE) (January 2023)
PUPPET WIPES The Stones Are Watching and They Can Be a Handful (SILTBREEZE) (June 2022)
TOMMY CARROLL/JULIUS TUCKER/AIDAN EPSTEIN Prosthetic (CALCULATED DISCOMFORT) (April 2022)
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES s/t (A COLOURFUL STORM) (November 2021)
DAVID NANCE More Than Enough (BA DA BING) (June 2016?! I guess I missed it 8 years ago, though I’ve been a big fan of Peaced and Slightly Pulverized from 2018. I know David & Co. released a new one called David Nance & Mowed Sound in 2024 that was on a lot of year-end lists. Can’t wait to catch up with it in 2032!)
EDDIE SUZUKI High Tide (ALOHA GOT SOUL) (catching up with October 1973 in October 2020)
And finally, an advance vinyl copy I’ve already spun 3 to 5 times in relative awe here in December 2024, but with a release date of January 3rd, 2025:
SPECTRE FOLK Quabbin Winter (SOPHOMORE LOUNGE/ARBITRARY SIGNS) (January 3rd) Not reviewed . . . YET.
And finally finally, an edit from the future: the best 2024 album that I’m not going to discover until February 2025 is . . . . . . LIFTED Trellis (PEAK OIL) (November 22nd), and another one for the list is KHÔRA Gestures of Perception (MARIONETTE) (April 19th).
Oh, several things I love, several things I now want to hear.