This is my favorite batch of tapes from 2024. I keep buying tunes in the same old fields of experimental music, noise, and synth jams. There's a little indie rock on the list, too.
I tried to cap any label at two tapes to get as much variety on the list as possible. I don't think I accomplished that as it was a mildly humdrum year.
The best overall piece of music from 2024 was Phil Geraldi's AM/FM USA. The tape recreates a long drive where radio stations fade in and out of reception as the miles click by.
Hot Releases once again came in hot with Some Pepper and Valise. Daby Byrne created a Container-esque spastic technoise release. Maralie Armstrong-Rial used noisy sounds from a piece of wire and mixed in trackside recordings from the 2023 Indianapolis 500. There was also a live compilation of assorted noise jammers recorded by Ryan Martin at shows from 2021-2023.
Yellow Swans returned with their first new music in years with a pair of tapes called Out Of Practice. I liked the second one better since it worked in snippets of 13th Floor Elevators and Suicide songs. You got to hear the band's process and having recognizable music fade in from a ten minute noise jam was really cool. It provided a strong conclusion to each side of the tape.
Amerige is a new label that is reissuing lost noise classics from the early to mid 2000s along with works by current artists. They did just that with a fresh one from Baphomet Sex and an unreleased vintage Leslie Keffer cassette. Leila Bordreuil made a tape of cello, electronics, and audio from a VHS tape of a 1991 garage fire. One Million Eyes crafted some calming and spacious synth zones. Rat Paws followed up last year's Trite You are with another successful collection of Pacific Northwest indie twee. Tegu painted a pair of luxurious sonic landscapes with Forest Hills and Owl Island.
As always any tape 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 cassette of the year, then that honor goes to Dream of Autumn Electrified Blues I & II by Marcia Bassett and Ignatz on Yew Recordings. Additionally, Bassett issued a solo tape of experimental Buchla recordings called Repeater. It strangely doesn't outwardly use repetition and drifts along in the atmosphere of the ethereal realm her music occupies. Anyway, Dream of Autumn Electrified Blues I & II is two live recordings by Bram Devens (Ignatz) on guitar and Bassett on synthesizer from 2023. It's the finest in sprawling psychedelic noise and perfectly suited for warm late fall nights.
The list goes band/album/label for those with questions of that nature.
01. Baphomet Sex - All Ancestors Standing Beside Your Bed - Amerige
02. Marcia Bassett - Repeater - Yew
03. Marcia Bassett & Ignatz - Dream of Autumn Electrified Blues I & II - Yew
04. Leila Bordreuil - 1991, Summer, Huntington Garage Fire - Hanson
05. Cyanide Tooth - Sixth Dimension Vacation - Flat Plastic Media
06. Farewell Phoenix - The Angels in These Fields - Ceremony Of Seasons
07. Phil Geraldi - AM/FM USA - Not Not Fun
08. Leslie Keffer - She-Wolf- Amerige
09. Alma Laprida - Pitch Dark & Trembling - Outside Time
10. Matchess - Stena - Drag City
11. One Million Eyes - Polaris - Constellation Tatsu
12. Rat Paws - Mustang Girl Unknown - self-released
13. Some Pepper - Don't Let Go - Hot Releases
14. Tegu - Forest Hills - Not Not Fun
15. Tegu - Owl Island - Not Not Fun
16. VÄGTYP - s/t - Spleen Coffin
17. Valise - On Wire - Hot Releases
18. various artists - Birds Of A Feather - Hooker Vision
19. various artists - Live '21-23 - Hot Releases
20. Yellow Swans - Out Of Practice I - Collective Jyrk
21. Yellow Swans - Out Of Practice II - Collective Jyrk
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