The more time I spend listening to new music, the more I realize the extent to which my year-end list is largely dependent on the records I’ve chosen to focus on reviewing for Dusted. It takes time to listen to and digest music to the point where I find myself with something approaching insightful to say, which means I’m pretty discerning when it comes to choosing albums to review. There’s only so much time available to listen to new music, so it pays to focus the firehose of continuous new releases into a manageable stream. All of the following have necessitated repeat listens, not only in order to get my head around them, but also to get my head into them, to lose myself in their world. There’s been a hell of a lot of great music released this year; these are the records I kept returning to.
1. DIIV — Frog In Boiling Water (Fantasy)
DIIV’s third album, Deceiver, felt like a step up for the band, and Frog In Boiling Water is the band really hitting their stride, melding shoegaze, dream-pop and grunge into a heady, addictive brew that scratches the same itch that Loveless and Siamese Dream did when I was a teenager. Thick, complex guitarscapes such as “In Amber” and “Somber The Drums” characterize much of the album’s appeal, but it was the scouring, dread-soaked “Soul-net” that I replayed more than any song this year.
2. The Smile — Cutouts (XL)
It’s been a good year to be a Radiohead fan, with two albums from The Smile, a solo tour from Thom Yorke, and a book of photography from bassist Colin Greenwood. The Smile’s Cutouts, the second of the year’s two albums, balances head-nodding guitar intricacy with zone-out synth jams. Compared to January’s Wall Of Eyes, it feels like an embarrassment of riches on the songwriting side.
3. Loma — How Will I Live Without A Body? (Sub Pop)
Emily Cross, Jonathan Meiburg and Dan Duszynski took a bit of a left turn on their second album, Don’t Shy Away, veering into more synth-focused art-pop territories. It didn’t always cohere, so it’s a relief that Loma have returned to what they do best on album three: stark, haunted indie-rock with plenty of atmosphere and gorgeous songs.
4. Luke Temple and The Cascading Moms — Certain Limitations (Western Vinyl)
Following his diversion into Arthur Russell-esque beat-drift under the pseudonym Art Feynman, Luke Temple returns to releasing music under his given name and recruits new band The Cascading Moms. Their chops are razor-sharp and the songwriting swings between languid and impressively funky.
5. Jessica Pratt — Here In The Pitch (Mexican Summer)
I’d not paid much attention to Jessica Pratt before this year, but Here In The Pitch’s combination of classic 1960s wall-of-sound production and simple but affecting songwriting really won me over. In some ways it feels like a more digestible cousin of Cindy Lee’s colossal Diamond Jubilee. “World On A String” and “Empires Never Know” are especially stunning.
6. Jon Mckiel — Hex (You’ve Changed)
2020’s Bobby Joe Hope was Jon Mckiel’s low-key breakout with its combination of found-sound tape loops and affecting songwriting. Hex digs deeper into more abstract territories that feel dark and dejected yet sweetly hopeful.
7. Winged Wheel — Big Hotel (12XU)
To my mind, shoegaze is at its best when the whole surge of sound feels like it could collapse at any moment. What keeps Big Hotel on the rails and piledriving forward is the twin-drum attack of Fred Thomas and Steve Shelley. The swirl and burn of the music’s relentless momentum feels like trying to take refuge in a wildfire, cooled by the balm of Whitney Johnson’s airy vocals.
8. Rosali — Bite Down (Merge)
This one was a common pick on our mid-year lists, and for good reason. Bite Down strikes a sweet balance between the melodic songwriting of my personal Rosali favorite Trouble Anyway, and the shaggy jams of her backing band Mowed Sound.
9. Nilufer Yanya — My Method Actor (Ninja Tune)
Single “Mutations” pulled me in with its intricate guitar and bass work, the tumble of toms, and Yanya’s disaffected purr. My Method Actor mines this seam thoroughly, approaching mid-tempo indie-rock with an artisan’s attention to detail and some achingly beautiful arrangements.
10. Body Meπa — Prayer In Dub (Hausu Mountain)
Much like Winged Wheel’s Big Hotel, Prayer In Dub throws the listener into a dense, swirling guitar-bass-drums soundscape of intricately shifting layers. The playing is absolutely stellar, especially from drummer Greg Fox, and sounds amazing when loud.
10 more in alphabetical order:
Cindy Lee — Diamond Jubilee (self released)
Ned Collette — Our Other History (Sophomore Lounge)
Corridor — Mimi (Sub Pop)
English Teacher — This Could Be Texas (Island)
Horse Jumper Of Love — Disaster Trick (Run For Cover)
Itasca — Imitation of War (Paradise of Bachelors)
The Smile — Wall of Eyes
Svaneborg Kardyb — Superkilen (Gondwana)
Wand — Vertigo (Drag City)
Xiu Xiu — 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (Polyvinyl)
Wow. The last time Nap Eyes (Nova Scotia, Canada) had their own post was 2018. Since then, they've garnered mentions in posts for Jon Mckiel, Olden Yolk, and Bingo Trappers.
Now, finally, Nap Eyes have emerged from a prolonged hibernation to deliver "The Neon Gate". First, I didn't realize Brad Loughead had previously been a member of Each Other. Makes sense.
Nigel Chapman's vocals have always set Nap Eyes apart from other bands mining a similar sound. So, if you took out Chapman's vocals the pace and sound of the music might recall Stephen Malkmus, Pop Filter/Ocean Party, Twerps, Ultimate Painting...this list could go on and on.
Paradise of Bachelors is handling this release - they have had a hand in each and every Nap Eyes release.
Jon Mckiel treats songs like miniature epics, rendering each detail in glowing, psychedelic hues. Though the basic framework of his music may be familiar, the feeling is perpetually off-kilter. On 2020’s Bobby Joe Hope — which I would have written about for Dusted’s Slept Ons in early 2021 if I’d have discovered it early enough — Mckiel combined the often mutually exclusive worlds of songwriting and sampling into a unique and beguiling brew. This knack for the uncanny continues on Hex, which feels even more kaleidoscopic.
Mckiel and co-producer Jay Crocker understand how peripheral details, such as backing vocals and percussion, can transform a song from good to great. Take “String,” for example, which begins with a disorientating and scratchy guitar loop. Next comes swirling synth arpeggios, then multi-tracked vocals, plus multiple rhythm guitar and percussion layers. The songform seems to warp and bend in real-time, an endlessly malleable resource. Best comparison is Olivia Tremor Control reined in, and Mckiel’s voice falls somewhere along the continuum between fellow Canadians Andy Shauf and The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman.
On one end of Hex’s musical spectrum we have “Concrete Sea,” a spare acoustic cover of a 1972 song by Terry Jacks, rendered simply with a smattering of slide guitar and percussion. At the other end we have “Memory Screen, pt. 2,” which begins as a gently wavering bedroom pop song, before unspooling into three-and-a-half minutes of spacious, swooshing ambient. In between there’s the fantastically groovy title track, an addictive slice of dusty, retro sampladelia with a gorgeous saxophone solo; “Still Life,” which features a long, tropical-sounding instrumental introduction that could almost be off a dub record; and the gorgeous “Everlee,” which harks back to the 1960s sun-shining tunefulness of Bobby Joe Hope’s“Deeper Shade.”
In Hex’s 34 minutes Mckiel ventures far and wide, but always brings you back to the strangeness of seeing something familiar in a new light, wondering at the possibilities.
Jon Mckiel is a Halifax, Nova Scotia musician who has released several albums. This appears to be his second for You’ve Changed Records (Toronto, Ontario), who have also released several Nap Eyes albums.
I’d never heard of Jon Mckiel, but this records has a pretty cool back story according to the Bandcamp page:
“True story. In September 2015 Jon bought an old Teac A-2340, a reel-to-reel tape recorder, tapes included. He exchanged a few emails with the online seller while negotiating a deal, but they never met. The first time Jon tested out the machine at home it disclosed a beautiful dream. A single tape of astounding samples from an unknown source. He nicknamed it the Royal Sampler. They began to jam together.”
While there are experimental moments on this record, most of it is beautiful chamber pop that goes in a few directions. One is the Jacco Gardner and Maston direction. Another is a sound influenced by The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys. And finally, some of his songs sound like they could be found on a Chris Cohen, J Fernandez, or Michael Bain release. So good.
