Best of 2021: Albums

This is my list of favorite albums for 2021.

The list is mostly experimental sounds because that's the stuff I like the best. There's various types of noise, techno, and synth pop. I dug the sprawling rustbelt soundscape of Threshing Floor and the pop of Australia's Scraps. Growing returned with a couple of longform guitar drone pieces and CMD crafted a fine batch of techno jams.

The reissue game was out of control and made up a larger portion of what I was listening to than in previous years. I really liked the Pylon, My Bloody Valentine, Stephen, Gordons, Michèle Bokanowski, and Bardo Pond reprints. The number of reissues I deemed worthy of buying cut into the budget for new music a little.

There was a lot of stuff I listened to that didn't make the final list for whatever trivial reason. It almost always comes down to what I listened to more often or preferred slightly better as the deciding factor in the final editing process. I enjoyed releases from Sally Decker, Karrot Kake, KWKA, Loscil, Mogwai, Noveller, Scott Reynolds, Devin Shaffer, and Jacob Winans.

The lack of shows continued to be disappointing. I don't feel very comfortable attending a gig with how the plague is currently raging. Nobody I like has been playing shows either so that has made it much easier to stay home. It's not only the live music I miss, but interacting with folks, especially the touring bands, and finding out about new tunes to check out.

I wasn't looking at much in the way of music journalism for 2021 and I need to change that going forward. Tiny Mix Tapes is missed. I like the assorted Bandcamp columns on experimental music, but I haphazardly follow them. It's overwhelming to have instant access to an unlimited amount of content so my mind tends to shut off and I ignore a lot. To a minor extent I think I'm stuck in a rut, but it is a good rut. I've firmly reached a point in my record collecting that I know what I'm doing and navigate by gut feeling.

As always any album had to be released in the calendar year and I had to listen to it a lot. And if you are one of those types who needs a definitive album of the year, then that honor goes to The Lower Way by White Suns on Decoherence. The Pittsburgh trio of Kevin Barry, Dana Ma, and Rick Visser delivered a bruising and scrapping slab of harsh noise that was perfect for the strange year that 2021 was.

The list goes band/album/label for those with questions of that nature.

01. Marcia Bassett & Thomas Dimuzio - Losing Circles - Yew
02. Lea Bertucci - A Visible Length Of Light - Cibachrome Editions
03. Body/Dilloway/Head - s/t - Three Lobed
04. CMD - Social Factory Reset - Fixed Rhythms
05. Container - Creamer EP - Drone
06. Damiana - Vines - Hausu Mountain
07. d'Eon - Rhododendron - Hausu Mountain
08. Grouper - Shade - Kranky
09. Growing - Diptych - Silver Current
10. Hairs Abyss - Aposematic Displays - Spleen Coffin
11. Brett Naucke, Natalie Chami, Whitney Johnson - Mirror Ensemble - American Dreams
12. Scraps - New World - Moontown
13. Threshing Floor - s/t - El Studio 444//Reboot
14. Tinnitustimulus - Leachate Phases - Hot Releases
15. White Suns - The Lower Way - Decoherence
16. W00DY - Headbanging In The Club - Orange Milk