From American Motors’ standard-setting debut album to the long-awaited reprisal of Karate.
As attested to at length across the expanse of the internet in recent weeks 2024 proved a formidable year for new album releases, abundant in both standard-setting debuts and laudable returns. Though the charting trends and cowboy hat-adorned proclivities of popular culture often left much to be desired for the listener of more adventurous tendencies, the independent landscape residing beneath remained as vibrant as ever with full-length entries from the likes of Ruth Goller, Cassie Kinoshi and Shabaka Hutchings flying the flag for forward-thinking jazz, Armand Hammer’s ELUCID and the late, great Ka penning razor-sharp new contributions to the hip-hop canon and long-awaited reprisals from The Jesus Lizard, Karate and Shellac providing venerable representation for rock’s explorative fringes.
From a personal standpoint this year was also among my most profound to date with the companionship of music rendered more critical than ever as I navigated a period of significant change through my inaugural steps in to the world of parenthood. As such the ensuing list was compiled with a heavy sense of gratitude for the albums toward which I gravitated most deeply during the previous twelve months, their sentiments having provided an escapism and restorative comfort during scarce moments of solitude and in some instances forged an inextricable bond to my fond memories of a number of first times.
Read through to discover our ten favourite albums to release in 2024, presented as always in alphabetical order and with the accompaniment of fifteen honourable mentions.
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American Motors
Content
(The Ghost Is Clear Records/Expert Work Records)
Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s American Motors mark the most newly established prospect to capture my imagination and assume a position within this humble year-end list, yet the duo’s debut album Content in no way suggests a band navigating their infancy. Employing a minimalistic trio configuration and exceptional use of space, dissonant effect-sheathed guitar lines in all their mutated forms cast a thunderous mood above guttural rhythm making for a standard-setting inaugural statement that confidently occupies space within the noise rock sphere beside entries from such luminaries as The Jesus Lizard and Shellac. Might this be my favourite debut album of the year? Affirmative.
Recommended track(s): ‘Colonial Lanes’, ‘The Former Mall Anchor Store Call Center Blues’, ‘There Is A Twin’
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Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice
Phantasy & Reality
(Moon Glyph)
A welcomed return to one another’s company and the coterie of ever-reliable Portland, Oregon imprint Moon Glyph at the approach of Winter’s onset, Phantasy & Reality finds multi-instrumentalists Lynn Avery and Cole Pulice kindling their musical union once more to carry forth and gracefully expand upon the cosseting sentiments explored within 2022’s praised yet all too brief To Live & Die In Space & Time.
For those uninitiated to the alliance of Avery and Pulice the order of the day remains slowly unfurling meditations on jazz-hued ambience and the results herein are spellbinding in their elegant, feather-light execution. Often has the partnership of reed instruments, piano and synthesised sound been ventured within such a context in recent years, though scarcely with its potential realised this effectively.
Recommended track(s): ‘Moonlight In An Empty Room’, ‘The Mirror-Glade’, ‘A Mote of Frozen Eternity’ (ft. Ambrose Akinmusire), ‘Drift Recollections, Or The Long Dream’
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The Big Fuss Ensemble
The Face Of Us, Smiling On Its Own
(INK)
Though The Big Fuss Ensemble was a name newly introduced to the blog in 2024 – with thanks owed to Squid‘s burgeoning INK imprint – Glasgow-via-Bristol multi-instrumentalist Harry Irvine has been steadily forging a notable catalogue of work under varying iterations of his adopted moniker for a number of years.
Charting a series of improvised live performances housed at long-running local haunt The Louisiana, The Face Of Us, Smiling On Its Own teems with eclecticism as Irvine and a rotating cast of cohorts adeptly explore dizzying stylistic realms ranging from noise-laden drones to dynamic horn and percussion-centric movements imbued with a communal enthusiasm at times echoing heady reflections of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Organic Music Society-era Don Cherry, Sun Ra Arkestra et al.
Recommended track(s): ‘The First Glimpse Of The Face Of Us Smiling, On Its Own’, ‘Yes A Song’
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Cassie Kinoshi’s seed.
gratitude
(International Anthem/Beatprint Records)
A long-present fixture at the vanguard of London’s musical landscape, alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi first garnered acclaim as a performer artfully expanding the parameters of jazz within a wealth of noteworthy bands before later achieving equal renown as a composer and arranger scouted for collaboration with the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra. Across an impressive résumé Kinoshi has however proven to paint no more emotive and captivating imagery than through the music of seed., the flagship ensemble with whom she received a coveted Mercury Prize nomination in 2019 and emerged once more to strike a contemplative chord in April of this year.
gratitude showcases its guiding force traversing cinematic and widescreen new heights of expression, the swell of orchestral strings instilling an ethereal tranquility, a frontline of rich horns emitting majestic incantations and the turntablism of West Yorkshire’s NikNak lending a spacey accompaniment whilst Kinoshi confidently helms the fore, a masterful curator both reverential of traditions and forward-facing in search of ways to break new ground.
Recommended track(s): ‘I’, ‘iii sun through my window’, ‘Smoke In The Sun’
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Chris Cohen
Paint A Room
(Hardly Art Records)
Over the course of twelve years Californian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Cohen has assembled a quietly remarkable solo discography of music under his given name, the sound world residing within each album a meticulous tapestry of nuanced pop sensibilities and psychedelic adventurism paired with the musician’s balmy, comforting vocals.
The fourth of such long-playing works and first recorded for Sub Pop sister imprint Hardly Art, this year’s Paint A Room finds Cohen once more on fine form with his hallmark pastoral-hued melodicism and angular phrasing intact and ever-prevalent whilst reed and wind arrangements from Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson infuse a rich exuberance. As per previous releases the infectious and approachable nature of the songwriting at hand belies a multitude of subtle complexities that one should expect from a former axe-slinger of the Deerhoof camp.
Recommended track(s): ‘Damage’, ‘Laughing’, ‘Night Or Day’, ‘Physical Address’
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Godspeed You! Black Emperor
NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD
(Constellation Records)
Few, if any acts could profess to have contributed more substantially to the post-rock canon than Godspeed You! Black Emperor, whose thirty-year-long tenure has rendered them a peerless and monolithic standard-bearer for their chosen strain of brooding and politically informed instrumental music.
Resurfacing from their seclusion once more after teasing a series of new epics in a live setting, the Canadian ensemble’s eighth full-length album marks one of the most powerful artistic statements of the year in name alone, its title a glaring light cast on the bloodstained atrocities that continue to unfold in Gaza. Meanwhile, divisive though it may be the muse NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD also sets forth the most affecting and memorable music to have materialised during the group’s fruitful reunion era yet, all pin-drop-to-pulverising volume shifts and sonic profundity summoned from the depths in search of a fragment of hope amongst the rubble.
Recommended track(s): ‘BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD’, ‘RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD’
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Homeshake
CD Wallet
(SHHOAMKEE Records/Dine Alone Records)
A migration of Peter Sagar’s sedative gaze to distortion-swathed realms may initially appear at odds with the M.O. of his Homeshake moniker, however a recurring glacial pace uncovered through closer inspection of the Canadian songwriter’s prior output rather indicates a deep-seated affection for the simmering avenue of indie rock first envisioned by the likes of Codeine, Low and Red House Painters.
Penned as a nostalgic homage to his childhood years spent in Edmonton, Alberta, Sagar’s sixth full-length album CD Wallet realises a new facet of his sonic world wherein loud-quiet dynamism and amplifiers pushed to the point of breakup deftly coalesce with opalescent synths and mechanical groove, the forms taken an unforeseen yet rewarding matrimony. A sure high point within a cherished discography also marks an unlikely frontrunner for slowcore album of the year rivalling the recent input of longstanding and diligent practitioners of the movement.
Recommended track(s): ‘Smoke’, ‘Basement’, ‘CD Wallet’, ‘Listerine’
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Karate
Make It Fit
(Numero Group)
2024 encompassed the realisation of many long-awaited comebacks however no reprisal rendered me more unwaveringly engaged in fanboy mode than that of Boston, Massachusetts indie rock vets Karate. Born to existence at a time when rock’s explorative fringes were yielding new pinnacles at a prolific rate the eternally hard-to-pin trio walked a singular and ever-changing path, their venerable oeuvre steeped in a reverence for both the learnings of the Dischord Records songbook and each member’s formal educations cultivated at the prestigious Berklee College Of Music.
With their reemergence heralded through an extensive reissue campaign overseen by archival specialists the Numero Group (emo and post-hardcore disciples yet to be indoctrinated take heed), Make It Fit marks Karate’s first studio album to materialise in twenty years and presents the increasingly beloved band through a compelling new lens suffused with a lightness and ebullience seldom heard within the works that preceded it. Whilst often venturing more traditional – though no less deftly executed – rock sentiments in a departure typical of the band’s propensity for eschewing expectations, as ever Jeff Goddard and Gavin McCarthy’s inextricable rhythmic unity remains a tightly wound examination of the pocket pristine in its form whilst Geoff Farina’s nimble, jazz-informed fretboard navigations are myriad in direction and brim with dynamic slanted solos. A unique entry to Karate’s discography and confluence of sounds old and new, long may their second tenure continue.
Recommended track(s): ‘Fall To Grace’, ‘Around The Dial’, ‘Silence, Sound’
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The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
(Impulse! Records)
A stream of virtuosity runs in abundance throughout the inaugural collaborative album from The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, which arrived with endorsement from the forever-fabled Impulse! Records during the early months of this year and maps a meticulous excavation of the intersections where jazz, funk and punk sensibilities meet over its suite of nine disparate compositions.
As the musicality of its constituent parts goes endless poetics could be waxed over the formidable rhythmic excursions of post-hardcore catalysts Brendan Canty and Joseph Lally, yet within the context of this collaborative union the dialogue between tenor saxophonist Brandon Lewis and guitarist Anthony Pirog proves perhaps even more impactful and profound, their shared vocabulary and deep understanding of one another’s artistry astounding in its delivery.
Recommended track(s): ‘Emergence’, ‘That Thang’, ‘Three Sisters’, ‘Boatly’
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Pedro The Lion
Santz Cruz
(Polyvinyl Records/Big Scary Monsters)
With prolific Washington singer-songwriter David Bazan’s reawakening of the long-dormant Pedro The Lion banner came lofty ambitions to assemble a five-part arc of autobiographical albums chronicling the experiences of his formative years spent uprooted between various cities of the American West.
Having arrived at the third and most insightful chapter of his ongoing sequence yet, Santa Cruz finds Bazan unpacking a granular evaluation of his adolescence with novelistic detail, the vivid narratives depicted within revealing a series of teenage epiphanies – from first hearing the music of The Beatles and Grandaddy to dropping out of college to dedicate himself wholly to a fledgling Pedro The Lion – that would prove critical to the shaping of a voice and artistic identity now recognised by many as belonging to one of the great songwriters and lyricists of our time.
Recommended track(s): ‘It’ll All Work Out’, ‘Santa Cruz’, ‘Tall Pines’, ‘Don’t Cry Now’, ‘Spend Time’
Honourable mentions:
Drahla – Angeltape (Captured Tracks) – Buy / Stream
Gastr del Sol – We Have Dozens Of Titles (Thrill Jockey) – Buy / Stream
Geordie Greep – The New Sound (Rough Trade Records) – Buy / Stream
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou – Souvenirs (Mississippi Records) – Buy / Stream
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet – The Way Out Of Easy (International Anthem) – Buy / Stream
The Jesus Lizard – Rack (Impecac Records) – Buy / Stream
Ka – The Thief Next To Jesus (Iron Works) – Buy / Stream
Fabiano Do Nascimento & Sam Gendel – The Room (Real World Records) – Buy / Stream
Panoram – Great Times (Balmat) – Buy / Stream
SAULT – Acts Of Faith (Forever Living Originals) – Buy / Stream
Shellac – To All Trains (Touch And Go Records) – Buy / Stream
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp) – Buy / Stream
Starflyer 59 – Lust For Gold (Velvet Blue Music) – Buy / Stream
Tashi Wada – What Is Not Strange? (RVNG Intl.) – Buy / Stream
WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN – “NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” (Constellation Records) – Buy / Stream
Words by Sam Wilkinson.
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Fruit and Grooves Collective 