Anna Meredith hooked me in back in 2016 with her album Varmints, a record that I really ought to revisit since it has had time to marinate in my brain. Long story short – it’s a record of some weird mutant chamber / art / synth / electro pop that evades all sorts of labels besides “definitely good”.
She’s returning with FIBS, out October 25 via Moshi Moshi. This is a lot more instrumental / aggressive than I remember the last album being, but it still has that signature anxious giddiness with excellent arrangement / orchestration I remember. Keep your eyes out on this one!
HTRK is a group I only started listening to pretty recently with their Psychic 9-5 Club record. I played the song “Love Is Distraction” on a concept radio show I was doing about someone’s brain in a breakup tailspin. The subtle, eerie synth and percussion along with the cool vocals of Jonnine Standish were perfect for channeling the feeling of numbness, paranoia and futility of situational depression.
But enough about the old, HTRK have a new record Venus In Leo coming via Ghostly on August 30. This song similarly channels the muted, greyscale feelings of longing and casts it in a special light. Subtle instrumentals with some sterile drones accompany Standish’s vocals. Like pretty much every lead-up single I post about on here, I can’t wait for the album.
Chazzy is back baby! Although I listened to them more with Time To Go Home in my senior year of college, I think they’re still an essential piece of the rock landscape of the 2010s. They somehow are able to refine the feelings of comfort in loneliness into such razor-sharp cuts, and that’s no exception here. Can’t wait for this new album.
Jenny Hval is BACK with a new album baby and I am so excited. The Practice of Love is coming September 13 via Sacred Bones. Her Spells EP last year was great, but we need longform Hval back in our lives. If you’re unfamiliar, Warm Visions was essentially a Hval fanblog back in 2016 when she released Blood Bitch, one of my most listened-to albums of this decade with hits like “Female Vampire” and “Conceptual Romance”. I’m able to binge those songs and not get sick of them.
This new song “Ashes to Ashes” is by far the brightest and most danceable song in her discography, with a rubbery, trance-like synth line allowing her vocals to bounce around this kind of funhouse all her own. I personally cannot wait for this record and if the whole thing sounds like this, I’d imagine that The Practice of Love is going to be binged just as much as Blood Bitch.
Got a tip on this great Big Bend album from a trusted friend of the blog and boy howdy am I glad I checked this out. Fits right into my niche of projects that are balanced in terms of murkiness and brightness, active and passive, regimented and improvised. This track in particular, “Long Time” is a great encapsulation of how the majority of the album sounds, although I implore you to listen to the whole thing, with guest features from Laraaji and Susan Alcorn, as well as guest playing by Shazad Ismaily and mastering by Taylor Deupree. Lots of good things going for this album!
To me this track sounds like bobbing atop a deep swamp, with pond slime and rotting foliage occasionally obscuring your vision of a bright, shining sky above. Smeared, dissonant piano keep the track anchored to the bottom of the Earth, while high-flying guitars and a driving percussive track keep the lights on and pointed. The light vocals are then suspended in the middle of these two realities, being fought for by forces of nature. Ultimately, it seems like darkness wins out, slowly cutting to the sound of a mossy cello segueing to the next track.
If you’re a fan of Mount Eerie or maybe even Sam Amidon, I think you should check this record out ASAP. Even if you are unfamiliar with those artists, I think you’ll find something to like within the many creases this album holds. Can’t wait to explore it more.
This ain’t no Bruce, but a friend of blog Reduction Plan have a new album coming September 20 via Redscroll Records + Dune Altar. Very cool to see hometown record store Redscroll supporting this release – vinyl and everything!
“The River” finds RP at their biggest and boldest, previously hiding behind a dark curtain on earlier records to craft gothic guitar rituals in solitude. Now the curtain is pulled back into an inky cloak rippling in the wind atop a craggy mountain, with steady percussion and a rhythmic guitar line surging the song skywards. The most notable addition to the RP discography as a whole is by and far the saxophone, providing a literal brassy (or reed-based, whatever) contrast to the apocalyptic post punk thunder. The vocals are still buried, but they’re pointed instead of wafting.
The rest of the album features guest vocals by Boy Harsher’s Jae Williams, something I’m looking forward to hearing down the line. Like I said though, very cool to see a project start in a college apartment turn into a real life dang thing. Excited to hear the rest of it.
In this edition of Recommended Albums, we pick up some hip hop, folk bliss, the most hyped rock band in a minute, Brazilian breezes, improvised ambient jazz and more. This month was difficult to get through just because I was compiling my 2019 So Far lists, but we’ve got some bangers nonetheless.
Benny the Butcher – The Plugs I Met [Black Soprano Family, LLC] A vintage car speeding down a highway with $100 bills flying out the convertible roof.
Bill Callahan – Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest [Drag City] Waking up before the rest of your family to enjoy a swim in the lake and a can of Campbell’s tomato soup by yourself at sunrise.
black midi – Schlagenheim [Rough Trade] Falling into a sewer and being thrown through a gauntlet of harrowing, skin-peeling trials of strength and tenacity by a secret mutated subterranean community.
Daughter of Swords – Dawnbreaker [Nonesuch] The only way to travel to the homes of your friends and family is by horse, and you start your journey across mountains and plains early in the morning.
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Bandana [Keep Cool/RCA/Madlib Invazion/ESGN] A coke dealer in the late 70s is chilling hard with the best record collection in the city.
Hatchie – Keepsake [Double Double Whammy] The feeling of your loose sleeves rippling in the wind on a bright, sunny day.
Lifted – 2 [PAN] A frog turns inside-out and performs graceful ice skating routines on a frozen lake.
Mannequin Pussy – Patience [Epitaph] Finding personal worth in yourself after a series of debilitating events and behaviors through blood, sweat, tears and fire.
Sessa – Grandeza [Boiled Records] A lazy ocean breeze wafts in behind a bead curtain into an incense-scented living room.
Vanishing Twin – The Age of Immunology [Fire Records] Opening the door to your house leads to an alien room with two doors. The second leads you to a room with four. The sequence continues as doors of varying sizes, shapes and colors line a seemingly never-ending chasm of confusion and distraction.
GR8 SONGS OF JUNE::
Bill Callahan – “Angela”
black midi – “953”
black midi – “Ducter”
black midi – “Reggae”
Blanck Mass – “House Vs. House”
Burial – “Claustro”
Burial – “State Forest”
Carla Geneve – “2001”
Chelsea Wolfe – “The Mother Road”
Fire-Toolz – “✓ BEiNG”
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – “Education (feat. Yasiin Bey & Black Thought)”
Hatchie – “Stay With Me”
Joan Shelley – “Coming Down For You”
Kasper Marott – “Drømmen Om Ø – Forever Mix ’19”
Mannequin Pussy – “Drunk II”
Roísín Murphy – “Incapable”
(Sandy) Alex G – “Gretel”
Sessa – “Flor Do Real”
Vanishing Twin – “KRK (At Home In Strange Places)”
By and far the best song named after a Crayola crayon, “Razzle Dazzle Rose” is the magnificent closer to one of my all-time favorite albums, Camera Obscura’s 2006 record Let’s Get Out of This Country. It perfectly toes the line of being sad and happy at the same time. Very much a movement-based song with driving percussion and guitarists, plus Tracyanne Campbell’s smooth vocals leading us along with a gust of wind to fill our sails.
If I ever hear this song performed in real life (which is unlikely, as CO’s only reunion show coming up is on the Belle & Sebastian cruise) I will cry my stupid eyes out. The same could be said with a lot of songs on this record, but this one especially will put me right into a big pile of feelings. Just so beautiful and majestic. Let’s Get Out of This Country is an album that everyone should listen to at least once in their lifetime.
We’re already at the half of 2019, the final year of the 10s. Can you believe it? I’ve listened to over 250 albums of 2019 already. Out of those, I selected 25 of my favorites and ranked them. In the past I haven’t ranked my So Far lists, but I think it’s fun to watch how my favor shifts as the year progresses. I’ve also posted 40 songs of 2019 that I’ve been enjoying below that, along with all the albums I’ve listened to this year.
With how things are going right now though, 2019 has been absolutely consumed by my Best of the Decade plans. I’m constantly, feverishly, maniacally, overwhelmingly occupied by checking and double checking any and every album released from 2010 to 2019 that even semi-piques my interest. I have the google docs to prove it. I’ve been barely able to keep up with the output from this year (despite the 250+ albums thing haha), and have been comparing almost everything from this year to the all-decade greats as soon as they splash into my consciousness. It’s no fault of their own – I’m just insane.
Despite this, I have been able to find some great value from a handful of albums this year. Most of my top favorites are from folks I was already familiar with, but there are a few surprises and newcomers in there. I have to wonder, though: would I have digested music differently the same exact music came out in say, 2014 instead of 2019 and I wasn’t consumed by 2010s plans? Maybe? But that means we’re getting into alternate realities here and I save that for my album descriptions only, so I’m keeping that can of worms closed until that segment. Obviously experience informs interpretation, so the deluge of comparison logic is constantly flooding my system. EITHER WAY: we have 25 albums and 40 songs. Let’s check them out.
TOP 25 ALBUMS of 2019 SO FAR:
ALDOUS HARDING – DESIGNER [4AD] Having an existential crisis after meeting an ersatz version of yourself on vacation.
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So predictable! Aldous Harding, the artist with the honor of creating my favorite album of 2017, hasn’t ALSO made my favorite album of 2019 too, right? Well it’s true. While I don’t like it as much as Party, Harding’s cadence and lyrics are still so devastating, with each word carrying an immense weight, especially on the latter half of the album. She is still able to embody so many different personas and voices on each song, with most attributes floating in the realm of paranoid, lost, bitter, yet still romantic. Find me an artist that can make a lightweight summer song come off as so lonely and unnerving. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but there is still nothing else like Harding out there.
BIG THIEF – U.F.O.F. [4AD] Climbing a tall tree outside your childhood home and watching the new family living inside create their own new memories.
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Although it’s not as rockin’ as their previous two albums, it’s still as intoxicating, with Adrianne Lenker’s lead vocals painting smoky portraits over fragile, interlocking folk backgrounds. When it does get rocking (“Jenni”, end of “Contact”) it’s incredibly cathartic. A release for the quiet rage built from observing and experiencing injustices from the quiet songs. This is also a very American sounding album in the best way possible. Somehow channels the feelings and sounds of small towns across the country. Anxious songs with aching limbs, ready to break free from the bindings of their surroundings, only finding comfort in the natural world that surrounds them.
JESSICA PRATT – QUIET SIGNS [MEXICAN SUMMER] Sitting in a corner booth of a 24-hour diner watching waitresses and clientele mingle at 2am, steam rising out of the kitchen window, woman smoking on the curb outside.
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A gauzy, late-night vision of beauty. A solitary evening alone spent people watching and silent introspection. “This Time Around” is one of the best songs in existence. “Crossing” is the most dramatic Pratt song and it throws me into a whirlwind of emotion. Just pure, late night, comfy, removed-from-self-but-within-one’s-self energy kind of album. Very much a night spent looking out the window of a vintage motel room in the # Essential Oil Dimension.
LITTLE SIMZ – GREY AREA [AGE 101 / AWAL] An in-depth profile of a local clique boss that’s beloved in their community, showing off their harsh edges but also their tender sides hidden behind closed doors.
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Honestly who can legitimately hate on this album? No one. The bars? Immaculate. The melodies? Simple and catchy and easy to sing along to (as evidenced by the audience at her live show). The lyrics? Sensitive, braggadocious, personal, thoughtful, smooth, TOUGH. Beats? Extremely varied and engaging. Guest features? Excellent additions that help build each song. Just a masterful record, I hope I make you feel at least a little foolish for not listening to it yet.
BOY HARSHER – CAREFUL [NUDE CLUB] A dramatic, black-lit car chase sequence between a non-binary, goth dominatrix vampire and the gargoyle raver computer nerd tasked with killing them.
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While nothing here completely reinvents the darkwave/synthwave formula, Boy Harsher do it so dang well. I love the cool, smoky lead vocals, the tough instrumentals, and the sense of something eternal laced within the music, headlights blazing ahead in search of someone or something in the dead of night.
ERIKA DE CASIER – ESSENTIALS [INDEPENDENT JEEP MUSIC] Taking an aromatic bubble bath after a night at the club and sending texts to your exes that you’re having fun without them.
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A cool-as-ice throwback to late 90s / early 00s R&B & Timbaland production. Bright, tinny textures with liquid bass back up featherlight, smooth as silk vocals. Doesn’t feel derivative or biting, but more a legitimate sonic portrait of a style revitalized by a dedicated emcee in Erika de Casier. Honestly makes me want to buy tiny sunglasses even though my head is the size of a distant moon. Lookin’ like a baked potato out here.
Y LA BAMBA – MUJERES [TENDER LOVING EMPIRE] Hundreds of gossamer curtains of all different colors blowing in the wind, revealing different, intimate scenes as you make your way through an intricate maze of a soul.
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Dreamy, multilayered, bright guitars, buzzy & rattling percussion, a mix of English and Spanish lyrics, and the totally unique vocals (and vocal melodies!) from bandleader Luz Elena Mendoza make Mujeres a record you cannot miss. A “dream pop” album that finally does something to REALLY stand out amongst the bunch.
BLACK MIDI – SCHLAGENHEIM [ROUGH TRADE] Falling into a sewer and being thrown through a gauntlet of harrowing, skin-peeling trials of strength and tenacity by a secret mutated subterranean community.
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Well-deserving of the hype, the mutant rock boys take hues from the beginnings of post punk in the 70s, synth punk of the 80s, hardcore from the 90s, math rock from the 00s, and post-punk revival of the 10s, and mak it their own with intense, virtuosic performances and compelling, varied songwriting on an album I’m still deciphering.
ANA ROXANNE – ~~~ [LEAVING RECORDS] Laying in a sunflower garden & gazing at the sky, at first through a gentle summer rainstorm, until the clouds part and the sunset casts a lavender glow upon your face.
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Sometimes going small is best. I’ve returned to the minimal, meditative synth & field recording explorations by Roxanne more than most other projects from this year just to center myself in this world of distraction. Truly sublime energy in a chaotic world.
WEYES BLOOD – TITANIC RISING [SUB POP] Actors on soap operas being forced to act minute before the sun explodes rewrite their lines as messages to their loved ones.
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Grand, ultra-dramatic ballads of love and death. Incredibly cinematic in scope. Sometimes I wish the hooks were a little bit more straight to the point, but this album is gorgeous with bountiful instrumentation (string arrangements galore!) and its message of climate deterioration is very sobering and not too heavy-handed, despite it being such a lavish sounding album, with every word taking up ample space in a verse.
JAMILA WOODS – LEGACY! LEGACY! [JAGJAGUWAR] Words and rhythms physically manifesting out of mouths and instruments forming the rigid backbones, tough spirits and snappy muscles of cities.
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A special project full of soul, attitude, ferocity, grace and grooves. Woods proved she had a powerful voice on HEAVN in 2016, and now she’s building upon that with this vastly more focused project that will give you the energy to kick racists in the chest.
CATE LE BON – REWARD [MEXICAN SUMMER] A steam powered dirigible conducts a petite symphony from its wooden chimes and brass pipes as it lands atop a garden in the sky.
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Very grateful that Cate Le Bon has lowered her UFO down to Earth another time to grant us her broadcast of alien frequencies she’s collected from the galaxy. Like if Pylon was made of up forest nymphs hailing from alpine mountain ranges by the sea.
NIVHEK – AFTER ITS OWN DEATH… [YELLOW ELECTRIC] A rogue, blinking stimulus tries to resuscitate you from a numb, comfortable stupor.
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Haunting and beautiful, a long expanse of sounds and textures to be lead through. Not the best active listen, but more for putting on in bed and floating to another world.
DENZEL CURRY – ZUU [LOMA VISTA] Coming back to your hometown with a real nice retro car and an absurd stereo.
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This thing goes HARD!! Zel didn’t have to go this hard!! Go crazy! AHHH!! Go stupid!
MANNEQUIN PUSSY – PATIENCE [EPITAPH] Finding personal worth in yourself after a series of debilitating events and behaviors through blood, sweat, tears and fire.
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This thing ALSO goes HARD!! But it’s very tender at the same time! Certain songs are just MASSIVE homeruns. Others aren’t as sticky, but man, when it hits, it hits. The rage on “Drunk I” is PALPABLE. I feel like screaming along with it most times.
DIÄT – POSITIVE DISINTEGRATION [IRON LUNG] Donning your best gator skin to fight cyber nazis in the catacombs of future Berlin.
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Dark, dingy post punk that takes the wild Aussie outback energy and shoves it into a regimented Berlin hazmat suit, creating some sort of toxic avenger to prowl the streets.
DAWN – NEW BREED [LOCAL ACTION] The flashiest and most fabulous bird of paradise dance known to the natural world.
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A stellar vocal pop & R&B album. Haven’t been able to really dig into Dawn Richard albums in the past, but the bold attitudes and flashy instrumentals are hard to dislike. Also “sauce” is the horniest song of the year BY FAR.
TINY RUINS – OLYMPIC GIRLS [BA DA BING!] Finding a bottle with an ambiguous, inspiring and oddly specific message written inside makes you think it was made just for you, giving you romantic hope for the future.
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A really intriguing and expectation-bucking indie folk album. Has both lyrical and instrumental twists and turns that continue to surprise me.
ELSA HEWITT – CITRUS PARADISI [ERH MUSIC] All city lights leave a permanent trail behind them as you skate through the streets, weaving quilts of light on a warm summer evening.
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Subtle, elegant micro pop. Its incredibly self-contained electronic blips and bobs act like carbonation for Hewitt’s processed vocals to float upon. Super overlooked record!
VANISHING TWIN – THE AGE OF IMMUNOLOGY [FIRE RECORDS] Opening the door to your house leads to an alien room with two doors. The second leads you to a room with four. The sequence continues as doors of varying sizes, shapes and colors line a seemingly never-ending chasm of confusion and distraction.
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A warping, disorienting, and immersive world of psychedelic experimental pop very similar to those created by icons Stereolab and Broadcast.
CARLY RAE JEPSEN – DEDICATED [INTERSCOPE] The sheer force of a crush turns your pupils heart-shaped and carries you around on a pink cloud that emits various amorous fragrances.
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It hasn’t swept me off my feet like E•MO•TION yet, but there are some truly top-tier Carly songs on here and MAN are they a lot more confident about romance. At a certain point a lot of them blend together, especially at the end, but hell yeah. It rules.
TYLER, THE CREATOR – IGOR [Columbia] A breakup causes you to go on a self-destructive, blind shopping spree and perform an impromptu musical on a mall escalator.
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Wasn’t into this on first few listens. Somehow it kept me coming back. Pretty great record that I’m sure I’ll start to like more as the year progresses. Also some really good samples… Tyler hit my city pop fandom. Nice one, dude.
DAUGHTER OF SWORDS – DAWNBREAKER [NONESUCH] The only way to travel to the homes of your friends and family is by horse, and you start your journey across mountains and plains early in the morning.
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Refreshing voice in the folk sphere with tender, simple songwriting and a lovely burst of summer country flavor thanks to some additional dobro and harmonica.
J-E-T-S – ZOOSPA [INNOVATIVE LEISURE] Merging yourself into a late 90s video game, having a friend spray the console with sugary soda, then plugging it into the bass-boosted sound system of Toyota Tundra.
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Truly bonk electronic music from Machinedrum + Jimmy Edgar. Takes pretty much all the best parts of fun bass music of the 10s and compiles it into one album, complete with satisfying guest verses and all. The KingJet song is mad underrated y’all.
NILÜFER YANYA – MISS UNIVERSE [ATO] A personal AI companion becomes your best friend in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
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Just rockin’. Definitely too long – cut out the interludes y’all! But Yanya has a powerful voice that needs to be heard by people who say “rock is dead”, along with everyone else.
Also wanna shout out Pottery’sNo.1 EP, by and far the best EP of the year. Stupid good.
You ever feel like you wanna be living on a futuristic floating island in the sky? You’re in luck! New project from Chicago’s Mukqs, Mem Aleph (his third(?) project of the year!), matches the euphoric excitement of actually realizing that you’re living, breathing, existing on a floating island in the sky much like games Jumping Flash or Cave Story. There’s more to the record that those feelings, but personal standout “Miracle Love Item” definitely put me in the land of the cover. It’s streamlined, easy to switch on and lock into, and ripe with rubber band bass and minimal techno elements. I still have yet to dive into Mukqs’ other releases from this year (or any year, to be frank), but I’ve heard really good things from trusted sources. I suggest you start on the journey too!
A stream of consciousness music blog, active since 2010. Established in Ann Arbor, MI, currently in NYC.
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Upcoming Releases:
January 9: Dry Cleaning – Secret Love SAULT – Chapter 1 Winged Wheel – Desert So Green
January 16: A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb Jana Horn – Jana Horn Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore – Tragic Magic SASSY 009 – Dreamer+
February 6: Beverly Glenn-Copeland – Laughter in Summer Daphni – Butterfly Fabiano do Nascimento – Aquáticos Joshua Chuquimia-Crampton – Anata Mandy, Indiana – URGH Puma Blue – Croak Dream Ratboys – Singin’ To An Empty Chair
February 13: Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights Colin Stetson – Nethering Danny L Harle – Cerulean KMRU – Kin The Olympians – In Search of A Revival
February 20: Altin Gün – Garip Apparat – A Hum of Maybe
February 27: Buck Meek – The Mirror Fabiano do Nascimento – Vila GENA – The Pleasure Is Yours Gorillaz – The Mountain Gus Englehorn – The Broken Balladeer Heavenly – Highway to Heavenly LB aka LABAT – Feel So Good Around U Maria BC – Marathon Mitski – Nothings About to Happen to Me Nothing – a short history of decay Shane Parish – Autechre Guitar
March 6: Hater – Mosquito Natalie Jane Hill – Hopeful Woman Scout Gillett – Tough Touch Shabaka – Of The Earth waterbaby – Memory Be a Blade
March 13: Alexis Taylor – Paris In The Spring Colleen – Libres antes del final Crack Cloud – Peace and Purpose Cut Worms – Transmitter Kim Gordon – PLAY ME The Notwist – News From Planet Zombie Ora Cogan – Hard Hearted Woman
March 27: Fcukers – Ö Holy Fuck – Event Beat José González – Against the Dying of the Light Robyn – Sexistential
April 3: Arlo Parks – Ambiguous Desire Makthaverskan – Glass and Bones Sunn O))) – sunn O)))
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