Due to work from home and the pandemic, I listened to and made more music than ever, probably to keep the dark clouds at bay. I didn’t eat out as much too, so that money was channeled into the indie vinyl industrial complex. I tried to avoid streaming (mostly) and concentrated on physical releases, even CD’s which are often cheap and not controlled by the internet gods. There were other new releases I wanted to luxuriate in (Hotline TNT, Toner), but I’m still waiting on some pre-orders that probably got caught in the great vinyl slowdown of 2021. There were a ton of releases I wanted to get, like all that Swedish DIY magic (JJULIUS, Monokultur, etc.), but alas I am only one man on an hourly wage…

Here are some sounds that I got a lot of enjoyment from this year.

New Music:

• Rosali – No Medium (Spinster)
• Alien Boy – Don’t Know What I Am (Get Better)
• Cindy – 1:2 (Tough Love/Paisley Shirt) and Standard Candle Demos (Paisley Shirt)
• Grouper – Shade (Kranky)
• Wurld Series – What’s Growing (Melted Ice Cream/Osborne Again/Meritorio Records) 
• April Magazine – live shows around SF
• Quivers – Golden Doubt (Ba Da Bing)
• Flowertown – Time Trials (Paisley Shirt)
• Mister Baby – Sidewalk Pop (Paisley Shirt)
• Nap Eyes – live at the Balboa Theater
• Hits – Cielo Nublado (Paisley Shirt)
• Ed Dowie – The Obvious I (Needle Mythology)
• The Gabys – S/T (All Gone)

Reissues:

• The Fall – Middle-Class Revolt (Demon Records)
• Cindytalk – Wappinschaw (Dais)
• Melvins – Gluey Porch Treatments (Ipecac)
• Seam – Headsparks (Numero Group)
• Screaming Trees – Invisible Lantern
• The Clean – Unknown Country (Merge)
• Durutti Column – Sex & Death (Factory Benelux)

Rediscoveries/Older Stuff I’ve Been Playing a Ton:

• In Embrace – Passionfruit Pastels (Glass Records)
• Flipper – Gone Fishin’ (Subterranean Records)
• Bruce Springsteen – The River (Columbia)
• Psychic TV – Beyond the Infinite Beat (Wax Trax!)
• Lucksmiths – Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me (Candle/Clover/Drive-In/Fortuna Pop)
• Adorable – Against Perfection (Creation Records)
• Run-D.M.C. – Raising Hell (Profile Records)
• Bl’ast! – It’s In My Blood (SST Records)
• The Detonators – Just Another Reason (National Trust)
• Helen – The Original Faces (Kranky)
• Bob Marley – Rastaman Vibration (Island Records)
• Let’s Active – Big Plans for Everybody (I.R.S. Records)

Bonus Review:

Robert Stillman – What Does it Mean to Be American? (Orindal/KIT)

Here’s an upcoming LP by a UK (but via Maine) artist that caught my ear. Both Orindal and KIT are labels you should follow, both eclectic but easy to love, and this is no exception. Stillman is a one-man avant-jazz band. Immediately, I thought of Tori Kudo’s universe of amateur orchestras, but this is maybe more like Don Cherry’s hippie-era or a laid-back Soft Machine gone DIY. A more contemporary reference point could be The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden, but really this is a fresh stew of free-jazz, mellow folk, film soundtracks and ???