There’s a reason why Reddit users frantically threw together a playlist of the tracks that Aphex Twin spun during London’s Field Day just hours after the set ended. The U.K. producer named Richard James remains one of electronic music’s most cherished and mysterious figures. Part of this is due to his elusive persona, but there’s something inherently uncanny about the music he makes, whether the primeval futurism of 1992’s groundbreaking Selected Ambient Works 85-92, or the (relatively) more tuneful IDM classics such as “Windowlicker.” It’s easy enough to pick out precedents — a little bit of post-electronic jazz there, a touch of Eno’s ambient experiments here — but the final product remains opaque and uniquely his own. This singularity of sound and vision is one of the reasons that he’s developed the sort of fervent fan base that tracks his every movement.This playlist of songs is essential listening for those fans. The austere corporal march of Kamxilo’s “Splxcity” approximates a type of musical brutalism, and transitions nicely into the deconstructed synth stabs of “WARSZAMA” from Chino Amobi, the Virginia noise artist and co-founder of NON Records. The jarring, introductory portion of the set reaches an apex (of sorts) with the grinding gears of Shapednoise’s “Witness of a Heart Attack Death” before settling into a stretch of slightly disjointed electro funk that mirrors James’ own aesthetic. The set ends with a 90’s nostalgia trip: Underground Resistance’s “Nannytown”; a choice track from Squarepusher’s excellent ‘99 album, Selection Sixteen; and Alec Empire’s screeching Suicide-homage, “Everything Starts with a Fuck.”Still, listening to a playlist comprising tracks exclusively from the DJ set is an odd experience. As an unmixed, dangling historical artifact, experienced within the confines of headphones or home speakers, it’s not how or where James wanted the music to be heard. Conscious of this, your mind fills in some of the blanks: the 3D mapped light instillation; the entrances and exits of the segways; the sweat and flesh of the festival crowd. It’s an incomplete experience, but it’s also interactive, and feels less like you’re staring through a tiny peephole at a much larger world, and more like you’re parsing an ancient, oblique text. And you come away with that reading having heard, and discovered, some amazing music.
Few television shows in recent memory have managed to blend poignant social commentary with a delicate treatment of everyday lived experiences quite like Master of None, the brilliant Netflix comedy-drama created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang. For their second season, the creators have developed another 10 episodes that easily stand alone as individual vignettes. But in each instalment, music always takes center stage. Ansari and music supervisor Zach Cowies 69-song compendium mirrors this seasons emotional arc and sharp sense of humor, looking beyond the expected indie soundtrack choices for an eclectic array that includes John Fahey, Dorothy Ashby, and even the Vengaboys.Even if you havent watched this season, you can sense the extreme contrasts between episodes through this playlist—the neo-classical film scores of Ennio Morricone (which accompany the season’s black-and-white premiere) give way to the pristine Italo-disco of Ken Laszlo and Mr. Flagio that accompanies the technicolor vibrancy of the second episode. However, the playlists most sublime selections benefit from onscreen recontextualization. When Dev (Ansari) and Navid (Harris Gani) skip Ramadan prayer to attend a pork-filled barbecue to the tune of Poison’s “Nothin’ But A Good Time,” the track instantly morphs into their personal elegy for religious obedience. Strangely enough, it’s a very smart choice. Master of None has done much to rewrite the narrative surrounding the onscreen representation of people of colour, and Ansari and Cowie have discovered that mission extends to musical choices as well—regardless of how cringe-worthy they may seem. Click here to follow this playlist on Spotify.
On their latest release, Philly indie-rock rebels Beach Slang adopt a new sound—and a new name. The self-titled EP from “Quiet Slang” sees frontman James Alex stripping down a couple of Beach Slang’s raucous anthems into acoustic elegies, alongside faithfully hushed covers of Big Star’s “Thirteen” and The Replacements’ “Androgynous.” For his Dowsers playlist, he extends the quiet-is-the-new-loud concept to spotlight other mellow favorites.
Brookyln-based, Ghostly International-signed electronic duo Beacon are known for their modernist, deconstructed take on R&B. But beneath the groups soulful, simmering, trip-hop-inflected slow jams lies a foundational appreciation for even deeper, stranger forms of electronic music. For this playlist, the pair assemble a mix of experimental and aleatoric pieces from the likes of Brian Eno to Oval to Autechre.Beacon says, "Weve always been intrigued by procedural and conceptual art that challenges how we define authorship. This playlist focuses on artists who embrace generative, algorithmic and minimalist processes, including Mileeces ecological "bio-feedback," TCFs encrypted midi collages, and Enos recent App/LP Reflection. Listen in order and be rewarded with "I Am Sitting In A Room," an 18:00 minute work that patiently unfolds and devolves into resonant bliss."
British experimental pianist Tom Rogerson is set to release his debut album on Dead Oceans, but his isn’t the only name on cover—Finding Shore is billed as a full-album collaboration with avant-rock emissary Brian Eno, who threads Rogerson’s meditative playing through pulsating, droning electronic soundscapes. Prior to the album’s arrival on December 8, we asked Rogerson to compile a playlist of his favorite Eno tracks. "Instead of trying to create an Eno Greatest Hits Ive gone for the pieces that have meant the most to me over the years, including some of the most iconic songs with which hes associated, whether because of their commercial success or their conceptual influence. Ive tried to even it out so its not too tilted towards any particular decade or style. (NB: Unfortunately, Spotify is missing some of the crucial collaborations, notably those with David Byrne and Robert Fripp.)"—Tom Rogerson
On their debut record, Auckland, NZ four piece The Beths channel their longtime friendship into hook-filled, energetic guitar pop with attitude. Titled Future Me Hates Me, the pessimistic, self-loathing wit is inescapable while the upbeat soundscapes juxtapose that stance nicely. Influenced by guitar-driven pop, name-checking Rilo Kiley and Fall Out Boy as influences, The Beths are creating thoughtful power pop for a jaded generation. As explained to Pitchfork, frontwoman Liz Stokes "typically writes her lyrics most when I’m upset," so when we asked her for a playlist, we werent too surprised that she honed in on that sadness to come up with this mix.Says Stokes: "I feel sad today and so it was difficult to compile a playlist of anything other than songs where I can wallow and commiserate. Of course, I like my sad songs to have a beat and a melody. It should be hard to put on a happy face when youre down and out, but sometimes its the easiest thing to do. So I feel like these are songs that can shuffle along next to me with a smile while I go about my day, without giving too much away."Listen above or go right here.
These songs will take you from zero to 100. The perfect group of tracks to listen to while you get ready to go out to the club.
The only thing better than listening to a song you love, is playing that song for someone else you THINK will love it and being right! For several years in a row, my girlfriend and I have spent New Years Eve just sitting around a couple bottles of wine and taking turns playing songs for each other that we love and think the other person maybe hasnt heard. Passionate speeches ABOUT the song and why we love it or think its important is a BIG part of the presentation. Thats what this list is! Its me playing you tracks that have had a huge impact on me, and telling you WHY theyre so important to me (or why theyre important more generally). Its QUITE varied, so I doubt youll like it all, but I am sure that almost everyone who listens to this will find at least one song they love that the didnt know before!
On Nov. 3, Portland indie-rockers Blitzen Trapper return with their ninth album, Wild and Reckless, a record that finds frontman Eric Earley examining the turbulent state of the world… which, naturally, has him itching to get on the first space shuttle outta here. There are the tunes he’d play to achieve lift-off. “When things down here on planet earth get too shitty, the socials and all the feeds got you down, sometimes you need to zoom on out into the void and get some perspective before coming back down to earth and making change. Here are some songs by artists that contemplate space travel—always looking forward, never looking back.”—Eric Earley, Blitzen Trapper
Masked electro-rock assassin Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo—a.k.a. The Bloody Beetroots—is back with another blast of riffed-up and roughed-up EDM, The Great Electronic Swindle (Last Gang/eOne), which features cameos from the likes of Perry Farrell and Gallows’ Wade MacNeil. But while the album is an ideal soundtrack for late-night mayhem, Sir Bob has kindly provided The Dowsers with this mix to help you get back on your feet in the morning. “This is the music I listen to during my workout of the day... including recovery times, Enjoy!"—Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo
The ’90s have never sounded better than they do right now—especially for modern-day indie rockers. There’s no shortage of bands banging around these days whose sound suggests formative phases spent soaking up vintage ’90s indie rock. Not that the neo-’90s sound is itself a new thing. As soon as the era was far enough away in the rearview mirror to allow for nostalgia to set in (i.e., the second half of the 2000s), there were already some young artists out there onboarding ’90s alt-rock influences. But more recently, there’s been a bumper crop of bands that betray a soft spot for a time when MTV still played music videos and streaming was just something that happened in a restroom. In this context, the literate, lo-fi approach of Pavement has emerged as a particularly strong strand of the ’90s indie tapestry, and it isn’t hard to hear echoes of their sound in the work of more recent arrivals like Kiwi jr. or Teenage Cool Kids. Cherry Glazerr frontwoman Clementine Creevy seems to have a feeling for the kind of big, dirty guitar riffs that made Pacific Northwestern bands the kings of the alt-rock heap once upon a time. The world-weary, wise-guy angularity of Car Seat Headrest can bring to mind the lurching, loose-limbed attack of Railroad Jerk. And laconic, storytelling types like Nap Eyes stand to prove that there’s still a bright future ahead for those who mourn the passing of Silver Jews main man David Berman. But perhaps the best thing about a face-off between the modern indie bands evoking ’90s forebears and the old-school artists themselves is the fact that in this kind of competition, everybody wins.
It may be that 2019 was the best year for ’90s metal since, well, 1999. Bands from the decade of Judgment Night re-emerged with new creative twists and tweaks: Tool stretched out into polyrhythmic madness, Korn bludgeoned with more extreme and raw despair, Slipknot added a new drummer (Max Weinberg’s kid!) who gave them a new groove, and Rammstein wrote an anti-fascism anthem that caused controversy in Germany (and hit No. 1 there too). Elsewhere, icons of the era returned in unique ways: Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor scored a superhero TV series, Primus’ Les Claypool teamed up with Sean Lennon for some quirky psych rock, and Faith No More’s Mike Patton made an avant-decadent LP with ’70s soundtrack king Jean-Claude Vannier. Finally, the soaring voice of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington returned for a moment thanks to Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton, who released a song they recorded together in 2017.
Taking a look at the playlists for my show on Boston’s WZBC might give the more seasoned college-radio listener a bit of déjà vu: They’re filled with bands like Versus, Team Dresch, and Sleater-Kinney, who were at the top of the CMJ charts back in the ’90s. But the records they released in 2019 turned out to be some of the year’s best rock. Versus, whose Ex Nihilo EP and Ex Voto full-length were part of a creative run for leader Richard Baluyut that also included a tour by his pre-Versus outfit Flower and his 2000s band +/-, put out a lot of beautifully thrashy rock; Team Dresch returned with all cylinders blazing and singers Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson wailing their hearts out on “Your Hands My Pockets”; and Sleater-Kinney confronted middle age head-on with their examination of finding one’s footing, The Center Won’t Hold.
Italian guitar heroes Uzeda—who have been putting out proggy, riff-heavy music for three-plus decades—released their first record in 13 years, the blistering Quocumque jerceris stabit; Imperial Teen, led by Faith No More multi-instrumentalist Roddy Bottum, kept the weird hooks coming with Now We Are Timeless; and high-concept Californians That Dog capped off a year of reissues with Old LP, their first album since 1997. Juliana Hatfield continued the creative tear she’s been on this decade with two albums: Weird, a collection of hooky, twisty songs that tackle alienation with searing wit, and Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police, her tribute record to the dubby New Wave chart heroes (in the spirit of the salute to Olivia Newton-John she released in 2018). And our playlist finishes with Mary Timony, formerly of the gnarled rockers Helium and currently part of the power trio Ex Hex, paying tribute to her former Autoclave bandmate Christina Billotte via an Ex Hex take on “What Kind of Monster Are You?,” one of the signature songs by Billotte’s ’90s triple threat Slant 6.
