albums I loved this year (most of these are free or on spotify)
Sharkpact - Heard about it last year but didn't get it until this year. It's probably my favorite thing I've heard this year. electro pop punk with some serious songwriting chops. "haven't laughed this hard in a long time / my face is turning read / i would swear you were back again" in a song about the death of a friend.
You can DL it here.Heems - Nehru Jackets / Wild Water Kingdom - This is the reason I'm not mad at the break up of Das Racist.
Pop 1280 - The Horror. anhedonic city music. the first line of the album is "two dogs fucking" and it goes downhill from there. nasty electronic noise crap described as "cyberpunk" but it's really more like 80s italian post apocalyptic city jams
BBU - bell hooks: the political act gets personal, really personal talking about the pressures of life and politics straining personal relationships which lead to the break up of this grou.
the men - open your heart: they lost bassist chris hansell but gained a country twang creating a sound that belongs in the desert or a jodorowsky film
death grips - the money store: the first of two albums which takes the experimental abrasive avant garde style of Ex-Military and makes it nastier. amazing accomplishment
le1f - dark york: love this shit. artful hip hop more in line with the really crazy shit you can't find anymore like rammellzee
big juss - machines that make civilization fun: oh hey, glitched out abstract political hip hop.
wiki / ratking - 1993. glitched out amazing hip hop by fucking teenagers on a record label named after rammellzee's sculptures. i mean, really. there was no way i wouldn't love this
Ty Segall - Slaughterhouse / Twins / Hair - ty segall had an amazing year and one the one hand I'm so happy he's found this success. I mean I've been following him since 2007 when he hadn't even graduated college yet, but now all of his shows are packed messes so it's hard to get that same level of enjoyment from them that i used to get. thankfully the music still kicks ass
83 Cutlass - S/T - don't know when this was released but i discovered this artist this year. great baltimore rapper with some wonderful production flourishes
The Mallwalkers - Out of the Malls and Into the Streets - Buffalo uh punk (i guess?) band with a horn section. more like talking heads meets devo than RTFC
killer mike - r.a.p. music: the most accomplished thing this atlanta mc has done.
ka - grief pedigree - brownsville brooklyn abstract lyricism
pet shop boys - elysium: they are always automatically on my "best of" list
mykki blanco - cosmic angel: glitched up dark hip hop by a guy who used to be in an industrial band. yes, of course
gunplay - everything ever released ever: i heard a radio of edit of "drop" it was hilarious.