Bag of Waters - Emergency Group (self-released)

I don’t know the source material on this one (electric era Miles is a recurring referent,) but they play with confidence, and lay down their expressive filigree without feeling like they’re at their limit.

emergencygroup.bandcamp.com/album/bag-of...

Mercy - Armand Hammer (backwoodz)

Impossible to follow up We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, my 23 AOTY, and while this one doesn’t have the manic desperation of its predecessor, woods and ELUCID have never been tighter storytellers. Al’s gospel tinged production is bare, and ruthlessly efficient.

Anomaly Index - NKISI (nyege nyege tapes)

Interstitial etudes stretched across the century. The detritus of colonialism reassembled into shockingly moving, bleak, and forward thinking grooves.

nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/anomal...

Flamenca - Megabasse (Efficient Spaces)

I have no idea how this was made, and I honestly don’t care. I know it involves a double necked guitar, and that’s about it. It’s beautiful, meditative, and hard as fuck. Rinse this one loud, ok?

megabasse.bandcamp.com/album/flamenca

Piotr Kurek - Songs and Bodies (AD93)

R&B and trip-hop from an alternate and alien timeline. Portishead smeared into oblivion; that uncanny longing made real. Seriously one of the best albums of this year.

piotrkurek.bandcamp.com/album/songs-...

It’s Cold In Baltimore - V/Z (Offen Music)

Absolute heat. Just ridiculously locked-in and propulsive. Two masters-at-work.

offen.bandcamp.com/album/its-co...

Perseverance Flow — Natural Information Society (Eremite Records)

The universal groove, taps right in and alters your state.

eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/persev...

Open Mike Eagle - Neighborhood Gods Unlimited (auto reverse)

The most fun album, in any genre, that I heard this year. Relentlessly charming, but it never gets corny or overstays its welcome. The hooks are infectious, witty, and introspective.

openmikeeagle.bandcamp.com/album/neighb...

Apologies - not sure which of you weirdos shared this compilation, but it gets year end love. 23 disparate tracks, somehow as thematically tight as Efficient Spaces’ Searchlight Moonbeam comp, but for the avant-percussion set.

collapsingdrums.bandcamp.com/album/collap...

Well said!

Feels like a huge leap forward, whereas some of the earlier work felt too practiced and designed to tug at heart strings. This feels effortless.

Dancin’ In The Streers - Rat Heart (Modern Love)

Wigged out, blown out, washed out blue eyed soul. Devastating, and intimate. Tiny gestures make a huge emotional impact.

shottatapes.bandcamp.com/album/rat-he...

The first and last 3 song runs on that album are unstoppable. Some real hits in between, but the way it starts and finishes is unrivaled.

Henry House - Nate Wooley (Ideologic Organ)

This collection of drones and reassembled poetry creates a universe in a thimble. No sound is out of place. "Henry was particular in his stickiness," indeed.
natewooley.bandcamp.com/album/henry-...

Not sure if you’d had a chance to spend any time with the new Idea Fire Company that just dropped on Horn Of Plenty as well, but it occupies some similar space in my mind. More textural, less percussive, maybe. It’s very good.

OK I’ve put together the list. Shame on all of them:

Ford CEO Jim Farley
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa
General Motors plant manager John Urbanic
National Auto Dealers Association Chairman Tom Castriota
Transportation Sec Sean Duffy
Deputy transportation Sec Steven Bradbury
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