I decided to post a link to an album every day in 2018 on twitter (@ryanruppe). Here’s January:
USF – Pacific Decade (Bandcamp)
Head-nodding electronic atmospherics for a new year.
Deltron 3030 (Bandcamp)
A stone cold classic. The best scifi rap in existence AND if it wasn’t for this album (specifically track 14), the Gorillaz wouldn’t exist.
Jean Jacques Perrey and Luke Vibert – Moog Acid (Bandcamp)
Delightful synthesizer sounds, beeps, boops and beats that straddles the line between retrofuturistic and actually futuristic.
NHK yx Koyxen – Exit Entrance (Bandcamp)
Laid back clicks and beeps like some machines having a intimate coffee date. Great for quiet Saturdays.
Monster Rally – Flowering Jungle (Bandcamp)
Loops and beats branching out from vintage exotica to doo-wop and Motown loops with slowly blooming grooves.
fraNcis. – Y2K: The End Times Mixtape (Bandcamp)
One of my favorite artists from http://mp3.com in the late 90s, also formerly half of Viva Voce. Tons of solid groove that soundtracked my high school and early college.
Balmorhea – Clear Language (Bandcamp)
Pastoral and dense, with relentless feeling. Great soundtrack to your favorite fantasy novel.
H. Takahashi – Raum (Bandcamp)
Gentle sounds to absorb and envelop. Perfect auditory therapy after one of those days.
Rostam – Half-Light (Bandcamp)
My favorite member of Vampire Weekend strikes out on his own and makes what might be the best album to come out in 2017.
Louis & Bebe Barron – Forbidden Planet Soundtrack (Spotify)
A groundbreaking recording of early experimental electronic music, it was credited as “electronic tonalities” in the film. Still mind blowing and fresh sounding now.
The Como Mamas – Move Upstairs (Bandcamp)
Roaring gospel tunes that crackle with live energy. Hard to believe they make stuff like this anymore.
Elder – Dead Roots Stirring (Bandcamp)
Chunky riff metal, like if Zepp did only 10-minute sludgy grooves.
Algiers – The Underside of Power (Spotify)
Dangerously passionate southern gothic post-punk with the right amount of soul for this dystopia we live in.
Adrian Utley’s Guitar Orchestra – In C (Spotify)
A dude from Portishead and some guitar and organ friends play Terry Riley’s legendary minimal composition with an electric drone and an edge of menace.
Surfer Blood – Snowdonia (Bandcamp)
Classic power pop sound with layers and depth and feels.
Software – Digital-Dance (Bandcamp)
Proto-vaporwave with saxophone, synth guitar and gated drums like everyone wants to do now, but from contemporaries of Tangerine Dream. Actual rockin’ spa music.
The Go! Team – Semicircle (Bandcamp)
The champs return with another one for the ages. Stomp out your winter doldrums with sousaphones, youth choirs, and block-rocking bears.
Celadon City – Somehow We Will Get Through This (Bandcamp)
Emotional/pastoral electronic music for hard days and good days.
Roberto Carlos Lange – Cutups (Bandcamp)
The mastermind behind Helado Negro makes aleatoric drones and pulsing oceans of sound to immerse yourself in.
Greta Van Fleet – From the Fires (Bandcamp)
Throwback 70s-style metal but with 2018 production. Zeppelin dads take note.
Von Südenfed – Tromatic Reflexxions (Spotify)
Mark E. Smith (RIP) and the dudes from Mouse on Mars have a go at that mid-2000s indie-dance sound from LCD Soundsystem et al by having MES toast over motorik beats.
Canada Effervescent- Ridin’ America (Bandcamp)
Clear, crisp synthesized sound, blastin’ across the plains with the warm hum of an ambient embrace.
Club 8 – Golden Island (Link)
Swedish quiet pop kings Club 8 get dark and mystical.
Electric Wizard – Time To Die (Bandcamp)
Slow, heavy, dark metal. The perfect soundtrack for underground lizardman battles in Dungeons & Dragons.
Pastel Ghost – Abyss (Bandcamp)
Spectral synthwave that’s balanced between outrun and dreampop.
Greg Jamie – Crazy Time (Bandcamp)
Dark and haunted songs that crawled out of a forbidden wood to tell of happenings outside of the material plane.
Philip Glenn – Outsider (Bandcamp)
Homegrown Southern California bluegrass that makes you feel like you’re there in the room as they play.
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