Chat Pile released an album this year called Cool World, a title that must be at least a little ironic considering that most of its songs are about “disasters abroad, at home, and how they affect one another.” The album’s lyrics offer vivid descriptions of violence and depravity, showing the connections between tragic world events and how they affect individual people. In light of another four years of Drumpf, I can’t help but think the album is prescient for more of the same.
With political upheaval at home and abroad, wars, climate change, and numerous other threats to domestic and international stability, it’s hard not to think our world is unraveling – even before Drumpf was re-elected. As the world has become more unstable, it has become even easier for me to wear the proverbial blinders and live in blissful ignorance. Ever since the 2020 election, for better or for worse, I have reduced my news consumption to the New York Times daily newsletter and the headlines of articles that I scroll past on social media. Even though I acknowledge that I’m being willfully ignorant and not doing my due civic diligence, my mental and emotional health seems to have rewarded me for not engaging with news at the level I was pre-2020. The media’s doomsday prophesizing and sensationalism designed to elicit fear and anger to keep their viewers engaged is simply too exhausting.
At times, I am tempted to retreat into nostalgia. Was the world more orderly and less fragile when I was younger? Or was it simply that I, personally, had less to worry about? It’s hard to say, but nostalgia in music can be a helluva drug. As someone who came of age during the Gothenburg melodic death metal and and melodic metalcore trends of the late 90s and early 2000s, I’d be lying if I said that the magnetic pull I experience toward young bands like SEIN, Darkness Everywhere, Upon Stone, and Dying Wish wasn’t heavily reliant upon the nostalgia factor. I know I’ve mentioned this in past end-of-year writeups, but the longer I listen to metal, the more tired I become of bands retreading 20-year-old trends. But once that 20-year nostalgia cycle reached back to my formative years, I was all but sold. I am generally still much more enthralled with bands like Oranssi Pazuzu, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Henrik Palm – all bands that are difficult to categorize, push musical boundaries, and have unique musical signatures. But nostalgia sure can be a warm blanket when you need it to be.
Metal(ish)
10. Kollapse – AR
Have you ever listened to Sumac and caught yourself wishing that the songs were 10-15 minutes shorter? If you answered in the affirmative, then Kollapse might be for you. OK, that’s a cheap elevator pitch that really sells AR short.
Despite Kollapse‘s incendiary mixture of noise rock, post-hardcore, and sludge, much of the music on AR conjures imagery I most often associate with industrial metal: dystopian urban landscapes littered with crumbling, decaying architecture and punctuated by solitary desolation.
Listening to AR is the aural equivalent of watching the world deteriorate. And what better time than now to witness that spectacle.
9. Frail Body – Artificial Bouquet
Although I was exposed to bands such as pg. 99 and Orchid in my formative years, most first-wave screamo never really connected with me (an important exception being the oft-overlooked Antioch Arrow – but I did not find out about them until much later). Even as we are collectively and firmly entrenched in a screamo resurgence, I have to admit that my general indifference toward the genre has barely changed. However, Frail Body is a major exception to that indifference, and Artificial Bouquet is yet another release proving why.
As if you couldn’t tell, I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to screamo (or skramz or emoviolence or emotional post-hardcore or whatever you want to call it). But where I think Frail Body excels where other screamo bands fail is that they have keen and variable sense of songwriting. The band allows the tracks to ebb and flow, both in terms of individual compositions and in terms of the album as a whole. Whereas opener “Scaffolding” storms out of the gate with propulsive blastbeats and mournful black metal riffing, “Devotion” is initially a slow burner that accelerates before again putting on the breaks for an emotional climax.
Unlike so many other screamo bands I’ve heard, Frail Body doesn’t rely on tropes such as chaotic, dissonant chords combined with careless songwriting. With Artificial Bouquet, Frail Body have created an album that operates the way that many classic albums do: they utilize a broad range of sounds and styles to take the listener on a journey. It so happens that this journey is one that grabs you by the heartstrings and doesn’t let go. It’s the way that all screamo should be.
8. Saidan – Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity
I’ll be honest, most black metal these days is boring af, fam. For a while, it seemed as though black metal was being continuously pushed and pulled in captivating directions. But in the year of our Goatlord 2024, it seems as though any black metal musician with a guitar and a Yak Bak is more than happy to simply regurgitate the same formulas that have been done to death for more than 30 years. There are exceptions of course: the psychedelic experimentation of Oranssi Pazuzu, the blackened Brazilian folk-cum-electronica of Brií, the cartoonish but oddly endearing naivete of Old Nick, and much of the extensive catalog of Damián Antón Ojeda (who reportedly quit music this year (sad times, fam)).
Having said that, Saidan isn’t doing anything as profound or unique as the artists I mentioned above. But what they are doing is writing instantly catchy and melodic black metal with an ear toward more traditional verse-chorus-verse song structures. Maybe I’m showing my age, but apart from bands pushing metal forward in wild directions or inducing nostalgia trips, what appeals to me are bands who can write songs and not just riff salads. And Saidan has some of the most coherent and cohesive songs I’ve heard in black metal songs in quite some time. Sure, many of those catchy melodies I mentioned earlier are nothing too original. But when taken in as just one part of the entirety of the compositions, they capture the essence of what Saidan is trying to achieve.
What Saidan is trying to achieve goes beyond trying to be a scary, kvlt black metal band. No, despite the darker themes explored throughout the album, Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity is party black metal done with obvious nods toward glam rock and power metal. One listen to the solo in “Sick Abducted Purity” or the “seraphic lullaby” interlude will make that clear.
In essence, Saidan illustrates that black metal can be fun and engrossing in 2024, even while largely sticking to the basics.
(P.S. “Desecration of a Lustful Illusion” is not only my favorite black metal song of the year but it’s also my favorite metal song of the year full stop. ‘Nuff said.)
7. AK//47 – Menari Dalam Abu Algoritma
Considering how the last few years have been banner years for outstanding grindcore releases (see here, here, here, and here for a few examples), 2024 was somewhat of a letdown – or at least in terms of my picky, prickly preferences. However, discerning grindcore freaks looking to crown this year’s finest shit-wrecking blastfest need to look no further than Menari Dalam Abu Algoritma by AK//47.
While grindcore is predicated on excessive tempos and visceral aggression, modern acts such as Wormrot, GRID, and Ramuh have taken Discordance Axis‘s twisted sense of melody and straightened it into more recognizable forms. The resulting melodies, chord shapes, and chord progressions are often laden with wistful introspection, which adds emotional depth to a style of music that has traditionally lacked it.
The same is also true of Menari Dalam Abu Algoritma. While the songs on the album contain all of the hallmarks of grindcore, tracks such as album closer “Alam Marah Besar” and “Memeluk Pohon” have identifiable chord progressions that serve as the foundation for clearly defined melodic patterns. Despite the lyrics of Menari Dalam Abu Algoritma relying heavily upon classic grindcore tropes, such as environmental destruction and governmental corruption, there is a palpable sense of wistfulness that pervades Menari Dalam Abu Algoritma as a result of those aforementioned elements. The effect is to orient the listener inward in a traditionally outward-facing music style.
As a result of that turn toward pensive introspection, Menari Dalam Abu Algoritma presents a worldview that is neither purely pessimistic nor naively optimistic, neither purely angry or purely melancholic. Rather, it presents an expression of longing for a world in disarray to return to sense of balance.
6. Darkness Everywhere – To Conquer Eternal Damnation
Although I was never big on bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder or Darkest Hour in my formative years, the nostalgia I experience while listening to the melodic death metal of Darkness Everywhere wraps around me like a warm blanket – a blanket comprised of steaming hot-ass riffs.
I mentioned Darkness Everywhere in my introduction as an example of a young band bringing back the melodic metalcore sound of the late 90s and early 2000s. Young bands, ranging from death metal to hardcore, have started integrating the 90s Gothenburg sound into their own with varying results. But To Conquer Eternal Damnation by Darkness Everywhere is some of the best you’ll hear. Each song is chock-full of the eminently catchy melodic sensibilities of melodic death metal bands of yore à la In Flames and At The Gates.
Beyond the obvious musical talent displayed throughout the album, the tracks on Conquer Eternal Damnation are “triumphant” in the truest sense of the word. Songs such as “Retaliation” and “Cosmic Misfortune” conjure vivid images of medieval fantasy wherein knights fight for honor and glory. While many of my favorite metal bands tend to focus on personal struggles or social and political issues in their aesthetics and lyrical themes, there is something to say about providing listeners with an escape. The escape provided by Darkness Everywhere, along with the nostalgia they induce, is certainly not lost on me.
5. Coilguns – Odd Love
Coilguns have evolved plenty over their 15-year career, but the evolution has been incremental. While their earlier material was rife with the immediacy of punk rock intensity with a heavy debt to bands such as Converge, the band has gradually toned down the all-out aggression and integrated more melody. The band’s 2024 collaboration split with Birds in Row was the greatest departure yet from their earlier material. While splits and EPs can represent temporary experiments, they can also signal lasting shifts in bands’ sounds. It seems as though the latter was true this time around.
Apart from the collaboration split with Birds in Row, Oddlove demonstrates a major shift since the band’s last LP, 2019’s Watchwinders – but that’s not to say that there isn’t a thread connecting the band’s evolution in those intervening five years. While the former was nearly as confrontational as their earlier albums, such as 2016’s Millennials, there were also clues of what was to come, such as the unsettling and spacious tracks “Prioress” and “Periscope”. Watchwinders contained hints of melody in the maelstrom of the band’s formidable mixture of noise rock and post-hardcore, but it’s Odd Love where these come to the forefront, especially in the whistling (!!!) melody of “Placeholders” and the undulating post-rock in the first half of “Featherweight”. There is an impressive diversity of sounds and compositional approaches on Odd Love, but every song is carefully and thoughtfully crafted. The album is nothing short of a definitive artistic statement for the long-time band.
Some might accuse Coilguns of selling out. I get it. People accused Cave In of doing the same thing between 1998’s Until Your Heart Stops and 2000’s Jupiter (and then even more so for their subsequent jump to a major label for 2003’s Antenna). But people decrying the band for supposedly “selling out” are missing the big picture just like they were with Cave In: part of maturing as a band is allowing yourself to change. Coilguns have done that, and with great success.
4. Henrik Palm – Nerd Icon
As I alluded to in my introduction, the pattern that I’m recognizing among most of the artists in my top 10 this year is that the majority of them have styles that are immediately recognizable. In a blind listening test, I could easily identify most of the artists in my top 10 list. I wouldn’t think, “Which Cannibal Corpse clone is this?” or “Which Mayhem knock-off is this?” No, I would say most of the bands here are easily distinguishable given their unique styles.
Henrik Palm is one such band. After the dissolution of Swedish traditional metal-cum-occult rock band In Solitude, Palm started releasing albums under his own name, beginning with 2017’s Many Days. While Many Days would only hint at what would later come, it was still oddball enough not to be easily pigeonholed. Fast forward to 2024, and Henrik Palm has one of the most recognizable (and underrated!) sounds in hard rock and heavy metal.
The music on Nerd Icon exists somewhere between traditional metal, noise rock, prog rock, and occult rock – a peculiar concoction accompanied by a wink and nudge. Starting with the album title, there is an element of off-kilter irony and self-awareness that all of Henrik Palm‘s work is adorned in. Besides obviously silly song titles such as “Lunch Hour (of the Wolf)”, there are lyrical gems like “My brain is mush” that start off the very same song.
While the instrumental introduction “Instrumental Funeral” (again with the jokes) opens the album with a beautifully dark unfolding drama (à la the aforementioned In Solitude), the very next song “Subway Morgue” bounces with guitars that strike a balance between traditional metal melodicism and noise rock skronk and oversaturation. What’s more, this is the first Henrik Palm album in which so much of the running time has been occupied by quieter moments. Tracks such as “Back to Abnormal” and “Talismanic Love” showcase how Palm can employ more minimal compositions to summon the pastoral and the haunting, respectively.
Nerd Icon is yet another severely underrated album in Henrik Palm‘s discography that showcases Palm’s singular sound straddling the worlds of rock and metal. And his ability to experiment with and expand that sound demonstrates that he has no intention for that sound to remain stagnant. It’s just a question of when the rock and metal worlds will catch up to him.
3. Cell Press – CAGES
CAGES, the debut full-length by Cell Press is, arguably, the most criminally underrated album in my top 10 this year (not to mention that it’s just one excellent release among many this year from Kansas City-based record label The Ghost is Clear). I find it hard to understand why this album has flown under the radar of so many.
Despite only having a split, an EP, and now an LP to their name, Cell Press has carved out a unique niche for themselves that sounds as if it were cultivated over a decade. CAGES effortlessly combines sludge, noise rock, and hardcore – and sure, some obvious influences undergird the band’s sound; however, as the band has pointed out, the band doesn’t really adhere to one sound more than another, so “genre people might not be satisfied with [their] lack of adherence to one sound for too long.”
One band that seems to be an obvious influence on Cell Press is Coalesce. And one aspect of Coalesce‘s sound, especially their latter material, is how effortlessly they combined groove and odd time signatures. It’s not a feat that most bands can accomplish without sacrificing one for the other. Like Coalesce before them, Cell Press combines razor-sharp technicality with undeniable groove. The Every Time I Die-like pentatonic punch of the swinging groove in “Kissed By a Morose on a Grave” is offset by oddly placed rhythmical accents. Toward the end of the same track, drummer Mark McGee flexes with a demanding drum solo played while keeping time with the off-kilter guitar before returning to the pocket from whence he came.
With CAGES, Cell Press has managed to define their sound, in part, by refusing to adhere to the expectations of genre as well as refusing to be derivative of their influences. But beyond that, what you’ll hear is a stunningly original (and even catchy at times!) take on heavy music that captures the frustration, anxiety, and uncertainty of the current political and social moment.
2. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – Of the Last Human Being
“Bring back the apocalypse!” the believers begged. And Sleepytime Gorilla Museum made it so. The enigmatic avant-garde/progressive rock band announced the end of their 12-year hiatus at the end of 2023 and promised a new album. That album is Of the Last Human Being.
Based on interviews with the band, the majority of album recordings started before the band initially went on hiatus. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that the band’s style on Of the Last Human Being has changed little since their initial run and is every bit a continuation of where they left off with 2007’s In Glorious Times. However, it’s difficult to argue that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum‘s sound is well-trodden because there has never been a band that has quite sounded like them. While Rock In Opposition and Zeuhl bands, such as Henry Cow and Thinking Plague, are obvious reference points for the band, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum‘s brash fusion of 20th-century music, Easter European folk, and deranged funk is all their own.
Their strange amalgam of styles is evident even on the opening track “Salamander”: a quiet yet ominous orchestral crescendoing introduction that leads into industrial rhythms punctuated by a metallic clanking guitar tone. The following short interlude “Fanfare for the Last Human Being”, utilizes a variety of orchestral instruments that play an unsettling progression that rhythmically resembles a drunkard stumbling back and forth between walls of an alley.
Of the Last Human Being proves that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is more than worthy of their cult status among those in the know, but it’s a shame that their genius is not more broadly known. However, with music as outré as this, why would it be?
1. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
A lot of extreme metal is intended to be unsettling for the listener. Whether it’s gore-obsessed death metal or Satan-worshipping black metal, part of the art of extreme metal involves rejecting easy digestibility in favor of exploring the extremes of the human experience, whether lyrically or sonically. For those of us who have been listening to extreme metal for years, we often become desensitized to it all. The gore no longer evokes disgust and the Satanism no longer evokes fright. For me, psychological horror is one theme in metal that I have not become as desensitized to. But there are very few extreme metal bands that can really capture the essence of psychological horror to the extent that it causes true mental discomfort. Oranssi Pazuzu, however, does that in spades with Muuntautuja.
Listening to the gradual noise saturation in the climax of “Valotus” is a genuinely anxiety-inducing experience (to say nothing of the terrifying music video for it). The mood and odd juxtaposition of sounds make “Ikikäärme” an unsettling experience with tortured, over-phased vocals, distant horn swells, and a lightly played piano refrain that would not be out of place during the opening scene of one of Kubrick’s more unsettling films.
Much of the above would not be nearly as unnerving if it weren’t for Oranssi Pazuzu‘s reconception of composition and production on Muuntautuja. Oranssi Pazuzu, despite their unique sound integrating psychedelia and krautrock into a black metal foundation, have traditionally sounded like what you might expect from a band with metal instrumentation: each instrument assumes its expected role with the guitars acting as the lead instruments and the bass and drums driving the rhythm. Despite their separate roles, each instrument is more-or-less present throughout the recordings. Sure, Oranssi Pazuzu have utilized synthesizers and other electronic elements to add texture, but those have never been central components of their sound.
However, the production and sound design of Muuntautuja is much more similar to a soundtrack or a modern electronic album than a metal album, and that is reflected in how the instrumentation is presented. Different elements, including the traditional metal instruments of guitars, bass, and drums, weave in and out of the recordings, adding texture to the entire composition rather than being easily separable and identifiable elements of the compositions. This is much like electronic producers build songs: the beat of the song is often the most consistent element while the other elements are added only as needed (sometimes via hocketing, especially in the “glitchier” subgenres of electronic music) to contribute to the overall composition of the beat.
What is most sonically striking about Muuntautuja is how far removed it is from the vast majority of metal releases. Muuntautuja demonstrates that they are not only pushing boundaries in terms of genre, but they are also unafraid of changing the entire compositional and production approach to metal. All the while, they convey the slow dissolution of sanity like no other band truly can.
Honorable Mentions
Adversarial – Solitude with the Eternal
An Autumn – Ethereal
Antichrist Siege Machine – Vengeance of Eternal Fire
Aureole – Alunarian Bellmaster
Bríi – Camaradagem Póstuma
CÄBRÄNEGRÄ – Karoshi
Concrete Winds – Concrete Winds
Controlled Existence – Out of Control
Convulsing – Perdurance
Deathless – The Clairvoyant
Digester – Grandmother
Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance
Dödsrit – Nocturnal Will
Dripping Decay – Ripping Remains
Dysrhythmia – Coffin of Conviction
Ehtëk – Íncst
Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish – For A Limited Time
Extortion – Threats
Fange – Perdition
FØES – Endless Exile
Fórn – Repercussions of the Self
Frontierer – The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As the Night Wept
Givre – Le cloître
Gurney – The Creeper
Hekseblad – Kaer Morhen
Inner Landscape – 3H33
Insect Ark – Raw Blood Singing
Lockslip – Lockslip
Locrian – End Terrain
Lower Automation – Welcome To My Deathbed
Mast Year – Point of View
Melvins – Tarantula Heart
Memorrhage – Anyo
Midnight – Hellish Expectations
Missouri Executive Order 44 – Salt Sermon
Necessary Death – Retributive Justice
Necrot – Lifeless Birth
Neon Nightmare – Faded Dream
Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All
Oxygen Destroyer – Guardian of the Universe
PeelingFlesh – The G Code
Piah Mater – Under the Shadow of a Foreign Sun
Pyrrhon – Exhaust
Respire – Hiraeth
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Big Dumb Riffs
The Sawtooth Grin – Jabberwocky
Scavenger – Beyond the Bells
Septic Vomet – Real Life Insanity
Shock Withdrawal – The Dismal Advance
Slift – ILION
Solar Temple & Dead Neanderthals – Embers Beget the Divine
Squid Pisser – Dreams of Puke
Sumac – The Healer
The Supervoid Choral Ensemble – Live from the Downwhen Terminus
Thou – Umbilical
Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God
Ungfell – De Ghörnt
Upon Stone – Dead Mother Moon
Vemod – The Deepening
Non-Metal
Overall Non-Metal Top 10
40 Watt Sun – Little Weight
J. Robbins – Basilisk
Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
Kiran Leonard – Real Home
METZ – Up On Gravity Hill
mk.gee – Two Star & The Dream Police
Tintoretto – Tintoretto
Total Blue – Total Blue
Soshi Takeda – Secret Communication
Sour Widows – Revival of a Friend
Post-Hardcore/Noise Rock
90 Day Men – We Blame Chicago (compilation)
Almanac Man – Terrain
Been Stellar – Scream from New York, NY
Blue Whale – Last Immediate Images
Bursting – Bursting EP
California Cousins – Stray. + Four
Chat Pile – Cool World
Conformists – Midwestless
Gash – Halloween
Gouge Away – Deep Sage
Human Impact – Gone Dark
ILS – To End Is To Begin
Kinghorn – Empty Handed
Maruja – Connla’s Wall
Melt Banana – 3+5
Porcelain – Porcelain
Shaving the Werewolf – God Whisperer
STEEF – hngryhrnybrkn
Tosser – Sheer Humanity
Watertank – Liminal Status
We Are Tiktaalik – Time Kills the Last Kind
W!ZARD – NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Indie/Alternative Rock/Post-Rock/Post-Punk/Pop Punk
Belmont – Liminal
Blue Bendy – So Medieval
Bondo – Harmonica
Brijean – Macro
Beatenburg – The Great Fire of Beatenburg
Casket Cassette – Losses
The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
Drook – The Pure Joy of Jumping
Eyedress – Vampire in Beverly Hills
Fake Eyes – Saccharine Dream
Folly Group – Down There!
Frunk29 – Sequentia
Give My Remains to Broadway – This Party Sucks
Goblin Daycare – AGITPROP HOTLINE!!!
Guitar – Casting Spells on Turtlehead
Japandroids – Fate & Alcohol
Layers in Lairs – Layers in Lairs
The Lemon Twigs – A Dream Is All We Know
Night Tapes – assisted memories
Outlander – Acts of Harm
Pearl & The Oysters – Planet Pearl
Peel Dream Magazine – Rose Main Reading Room
Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
Mugen – I Long For People Then Again I Loathe Them (demos)
Shop Regulars – Shop Regulars
Soror Dolorosa – Mond
Ugly (UK) – Twice Around the Sun
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Wraith – Ghost March
Electronic
Andrew Tasselmyer – Where Substance Meets Emptiness
Bartosz Kruczyński – Dreams & Whispers
Benoît Pioulard & Offthesky – Sunder
Civilistjävel! – Brödföda
Confidence Man – 3AM (LA LA LA)
CyanBlue – Cyanide
Dead Pixel – Empty Cafe
DJ Birdbath – Memory Empathy
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ – Hex
Fergus Jones – Ephemera
Florian T M Zeisig – Planet Inc.
Fred P – Above the City
Fred P – Reminiscent Era
Flamingosis – Better Will Come
Foans – Atria
Frank & Tony – Enthos
Galen Tipton – keepsakefm
GENDEMA – sassy things
Ghost Dubs – Damaged
JEWELSSEA – Dwelling
Jonny From Space – back then I didn’t know but now I do
Kayla Painter – Fractures
Loidis – One Day
Mabisyo – The Tears of the Sea
New Mexican Stargazers – CASINO 2223
Patrick Holland – all
Priori – This but More
Shinichi Atobe – Discipline
Skee Mask – C
Skee Mask – D
Skee Mask – Resort
Soshi Takeda – Secret Communication
Tristan Arp – a pool, a portal
Ulla – It Means A Lot
Vegyn – The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Experimental/Avant-Garde/Other
Acid Rooster – Flowers & Dead Souls
Apifera – Keep The Outside Open
Asher White – Home Constellation Study
The Andretti – The Silent Goodbye
Th Blisks – Elixa
Body Meπa – Prayer in Dub
Bolts of Melody – Film Noir
Cahill Costello – Cahill/Costello II
Charli XCX – brat
Clara la San – Made Mistakes
Clothing – From Memory
Coco & Clair Clair – Girl
Corridor – Mimi
Cowboy Sadness – Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1
Delicate Steve – Delicate Steve Sings
Delving – All Paths Diverge
Discovery Zone – Quantum Web
Eric Chenaux Trio – Delights Of My Life
Fabiana Palladino – Fabiana Palladino
Fieval is Glauque – Rong Weicknes
Fire-Toolz – Breeze
Ghost Funk Orchestra – A Trip to the Moon
Glass Beams – Mahal
Gong Gong Gong 工工工 and Mong Tong – Mongkok Duel
Greg Foat – The Glass Frog
Half Empty Glasshouse – The Exit is Over There!
Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepard
How To Dress Well – I Am Toward You
Jabu – A Soft and Gatherable Star
James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg – All Gist
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – Estrella Por Estrella
J.R.C.G. – Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra)
Kanaan & Aevestaden – Langt, langt vekk
Karate Boogaloo – Hold Your Horses
Karl D’Silva – Love is a Flame in the Dark
Khruangbin – A La Sala
Kiran Leonard – Real Home
KOKOKO! – BUTU
Lau Ro – Cabana
Lavurn – Lavurn
Los Days – Dusty Dreams
Mong Tong – Epigraphy
The Natural Yogurt Band – Spores
Oblique Occasions – Perfect Storm
Oblique Occasions – Punishment
Oblique Occasions – Silent Despair
Oblique Occasions – Solipsism
Oliver Crosby – Locana
Opposite Day – Colossal Nests of Metal and Glass
Papangu – Lampião Rei
Perfect – Monkey Jockey Man and The Safari Tick Sugar
Perila and Ulla – Jazz Plates
Tinashe – QUANTUM BABY
L’Impératrice – Pulsar
Mildlife – Chorus
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
Narcotix – Dying
Radian – Distorted Rooms (2023)
Sanctuary of Praise – Solace
Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes – The Doober
SML – Small Medium Large
Yin Yin – Mount Matsu