It was onerous to slender our favourite Seattle-area music record to 10 entries—a pleasant drawback to have. One way or the other, although, we managed. Under are the 2024 albums that supplied surplus pleasure this yr… and can proceed to take action till additional discover.
01 Afrocop, Afrocop (Wax Thématique)
Improv music is a precarious tightrope from which it is simple to descend into boring meandering and/or shrug-inducing chaos. However for over a decade, Afrocop have proved themselves to be masters at protecting issues rhythmically, melodically, and tonally scintillating. The trio’s a few years of gigging and studio woodshedding culminated of their masterpiece, Afrocop. Keyboardist Noel Brass Jr., drummer Andy Sells, and bassist Carlos Tulloss are locked in and loaded with ingenious concepts. Following producer Teo Macero’s strategies with Miles Davis’s groundbreaking fusion LPs, Afrocop savvily chop and sew their epic jams into concise, flavorful parts. Telepathic miracles of funky psychedelia, trip-hoppy dub, and ambient astral jazz ensue.
02 tondiue, Phrase to the Centipede (Kelp Roots)
A rising power of nature in Seattle’s digital music underground, tondiue put the world on discover with their astonishing sophomore album, Phrase to the Centipede. The producer (aka Cameron Kelley) describes their creativity as an outgrowth of “exploring the sacred roots of afrofuturistic sound design.” That impulse involves extravagant fruition on Centipede, whose 5 prolonged techno tracks do spectacular issues within the wild terrain exterior of the style’s overfamiliar grid. An unclichéd, trippy vibe permeates the album whereas delivering a surplus of misleading funk and a panoply of third-ear-dilating textures. The entire thing sounds and feels so damned natural and important, even because it’s serving to you allow actuality far behind. Cannot wait to listen to what’s subsequent from tondiue.
03 J.R.C.G., Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) (Sub Pop)
Respect to Sub Pop for going out on a limb by signing J.R.C.G. (Tacoma drummer/vocalist Justin R. Cruz Gallego, previously head of Dreamdecay), an uncompromising ninja of an artist who beforehand launched on John Dwyer’s Fort Face Information. His 2021 album, Ajo Sunshine, rocked onerous and darkish, however Grim Iconic stresses Latin-inflected danceable rhythms greater than aggression and noisiness, plus there’s room for digital parts and poignant gradual ones that will not rot your enamel. The report memorably ends with “World i,” whose mesmerizing, chunky rhythm recollects that in Can’s “Yoo Doo Proper.” It step by step positive aspects in depth and density, cohering right into a cacophonous jazz blowout—a improbable climax. As with every part Gallego’s finished, the songs on Grim Iconic sound as if the stakes are life or dying.
04 enereph, Immortal Mirth (NAGA)
Seattle producer enereph (aka Connie Fu) creates digital music that is directly dizzyingly cerebral and sensually bodily—a uncommon mixture. An adherent of native electronic-instrument firm Madrona Labs, Fu makes use of its software program synth Kaivo and different merchandise to finesse intricate tracks that alight throughout many types with a knack for unusually compelling timbres. The Immortal Mirth mini-album finds enereph attaining new heights of rhythmic complexity and textural richness. That is headphone music par excellence, but it additionally interprets to bop golf equipment—supplied the clientele have exceptionally quick reflexes and may deal with tough beats. Evoking rarefied strains of trip-hop, drum & bass, ambient, and Autechre-esque IDM, Immortal Mirth feels like a breakthrough launch that ought to thrust enereph to worldwide consideration.
05 somesurprises, Perseids (Doom Journey)
Main off with among the best rock songs of the last decade, the hovering spangler “Be Cheap,” somesurprises’ second album epitomizes the quartet’s understated grandeur and melodic magnificence. Led by guitarist/vocalist Natasha El-Sergany, the group maneuvers into the forefront of America’s burgeoning neo-shoegaze scene with Perseids. On its 9 soothing songs, a chic languor melds with beautiful melodic thrives and a sense of peaceable ascension. Though El-Sergany, guitarist Josh Medina, bassist Laura Seniow, and drummer Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy might appear to be too introverted to grow to be stars, their music evokes mentioned celestial our bodies. It is actually a sheer sonic delight and, most crucially, a balm for the soul.
06 Blutbraüer, Seven Locusts in Golden Robes (SFI)
The Blutbraüer mission is shrouded in mischief and an unbelievable backstory. They might or will not be composed of the deft multi-instrumentalists Erik Blood and Corey J. Brewer. Regardless of the case, Blutbraüer demand your consideration. Their second soundtrack for an imaginary movie, Seven Locusts in Golden Robes, is a piece of marrow-chilling genius. These tracks allegedly rating a giallo, an Italian twist on macabre horror flicks. Followers of Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, and Goblin’s most tenebrous compositions will sink their fangs into this album’s 15 suspenseful and generally sanguinary tracks. Which isn’t to indicate that Blutbraüer overlook to drop in some funkiness, disorienting psychedelia, and idyllic languor. Brewer says that Seven Locusts was “impressed by an episode of the Fragments of Worry podcast… discussing the movie Crimes of the Black Cat. The director tried to get one other giallo made with the same title and we took that and ran with it”—which they did, with Olympian velocity.
07 Domenica Diavoleria, Orange Clearing (Eiderdown)
A relative late bloomer within the digital music world, Olympia’s Domenica Diavoleria has been making up for misplaced time in recent times with two excellent albums of darkish, minimalist ambient: 2022’s Perpetually Your Salesgirl and this yr’s Orange Clearing. On the previous recording, Diavoleria (actual title: Domenica Clark) conjured the mysterious hums and alienating auras of purchasing malls in microscopic element. On Orange Clearing, she subtly provides extra rhythmic parts and paints extra vivid atmospheres—once more, with assist from Madrona Labs’ unconventional instruments. Billed as a “youngsters’s album” by Diavoleria (who’s hosted DJ exhibits on KAOS and Hole Earth Radio), Orange Clearing will doubtless be too unsettling for many younger’uns. A observe equivalent to “Enjoyable Forest” is extra more likely to make children cry than squeal with delight. Advertising phrases apart, this album is a triumph of miniaturist mood-mongering, perfect for soundtracking an art-house movie that tragically might by no means come to a theater close to you.
08 Black Ends, Psychotic Spew (Youth Riot)
Making rock sound contemporary, important, and catchy in 2024 is a formidable job. However guitarist/vocalist Nicolle Swims’s trio Black Ends have achieved this feat with Psychotic Spew, which twists its roots in punk and grunge till it resembles one thing akin to the Pretenders’ traditional self-titled album run by way of a No Wave filter. Swims’s vibrant and astringent guitar tone clangs and radiates throughout her trenchant songwriting, whereas her singing fashion mixes tenderness with truculence. Bassist Ben Swanson and drummer Billie Jessica Paine present the tricksy rhythmic ballast whereas elite visitor cellist Lori Goldston provides coruscating coloration on three tracks, together with the LP’s cataclysmic peak, “Crimson Fear.”
09 Hound Canine Taylor’s Hand, Issues That Could Exist (HDTH)
At its greatest, Hound Canine Taylor’s Hand’s music engulfs you in a maelstrom of cyclonic rhythms and artfully fiery guitar caterwauling. However, like considered one of their essential influences, Jimi Hendrix, in addition they excel on the extra contemplative and delightful finish of the rock/jazz/blues continuum. The members—guitarist Jeffery Taylor, bassist John Seman, and drummer Mark Ostrowski—have been creating unusual waves within the metropolis’s underground for many years, but they proceed to defy the deleterious results of getting old with every new launch, together with Issues That Could Exist. Like Afrocop, HDTH depend on improvisational ingenuity to put down their unpredictable, exhilarating tracks. With disciplined ability and wild noisiness in isometric stress, their flamable sound retains you guessing and gasping in equal measure.
10 megacat, megacat (Share It Music)
When Smokey Brights keyboardist Kim West and bassist/guitarist Ryan Devlin linked up with drummer/percussionist Aaron Benson in 2023, one thing uncommon occurred: they found that that they had a eager knack for intriguing, funky instrumentals that scan as trendy interpretations of ’70s library music. That sound is a rarity in Seattle, in order that makes megacat’s wonderful renovation of it doubly welcome—even when it weren’t the band’s intention. “Rat Battle” ranks because the album’s most suspenseful and funkiest music. As I wrote in a earlier Slog put up, “The observe exists within the exalted realm of KPM Information library music that is geared for film thrillers and tense scenes in TV cop exhibits, because of Doppler-effected horn stabs, humid bongo slaps, crazy flute, a Mission: Unattainable-like 5/4 rhythm, and Saharan desert-rock guitar.” Different cuts trace at afrobeat and Alain Goraguer’s eerie La Planète Sauvage soundtrack. Righteous.
Honorable point out: Terror/Cactus, Forastero (Chika Chika Collective); bloococoon, bloococoon (Little Cloud); Mt Fog, Ultraviolet Coronary heart Machine (Ghost Mountain); Day Soul Beautiful, Sanguine & Cardamom (La fem/Den Tapes); Spiral XP, I Want I Was a Rat (Hazard Collective)
