You know those old sticks in the mud who complain that all new music sucks? Yeah, they can shut right up. Finding new music that you like is easier than it ever has been, thanks to the internet. And yet you still have people listening to the same twenty songs over and over on their classic rock radio stations. You have to put a little effort in to find the good stuff these days (as I said though, a lot less effort than you would have 15 years ago or earlier), but it’s there. If your complaint is that a genre that was popular in past decades isn’t popular anymore or is apparently “dead”, I guarantee you, if you look hard enough you’ll find some band, somewhere in the world, playing that genre. And, although this is somewhat beside the point, you can always dig up older music that never made it to the radio too, and listen to that. I’ve discovered tons of great obscure early 1980s New Wave in just the past few years, for example.
2020 was a horrible year. I have written extensively on this topic on the blog already, I needn’t repeat myself here. Despite being an objectively awful year, there were a few minor bright spots that made the world just a little bit less miserable. For me, a big one was the music that came out this year. It seemed like I was discovering great new music left and right. I couldn’t always give each band the individual attention it deserved because I kept finding more and more new music. What happened a lot this year actually, was a band would release a new album after having been around for years, promote it through the podcasts and YouTube channels I listen to, and that would be the first I had ever heard of the band, leaving me with robust discographies to get through. Another thing I have been seeing more lately is bands releasing prolific amounts of music in the form of singles or short albums of about four tracks or so. I wonder if the “release a new album with around ten songs every 2-5 years” model is slowly going away in the modern music scene. I’m seeing more and more bands release singles every month or two. I would never have been this inundated with new music back when you had to peruse record stores for CDs and hope the album was as good as its cover art. I will likely be discovering music that came out this year for many years to come. That always happens; a few years from now I will discover a song that was released in 2020 and wish I had heard it when it came out. However, 2020 was a rough year especially for the underground kinds of bands I listen to, because sadly touring was rendered impossible starting in March. So it became even more important to buy music from the bands you like to support them. On the plus side though this likely gave a lot of them time to record new music, and livestream concerts became more widespread too.
The only physical releases I bought this year were cassettes, ironically. I didn’t buy any new albums on CDs. Otherwise I bought digital albums and then burned the MP3s onto blank CDs. Vinyl records are too pricy for me. This all would have seemed really strange just ten years ago. But, these are my 13 favorite albums and EPs I was aware of during the actual year, in no particular order and adhering to no one particular genre (although given my musical tastes, this is mainly going to be post-punk/coldwave/darkwave/dark alternative, anything goth).
Slow Danse With the Dead - SDWTD
Slow Danse With the Dead was apparently very prolific both this year and last year. I initially thought their album SDWTD was their debut, because it is self-titled and this album was the first I heard from them, but no, as you can see by their Bandcamp, it was not. Although the project was formerly known as The Endless, which might explain it. I have discussed this one-man band from New Mexico on several occasions on this blog, and it was one of my favorite newly-discovered bands this year. 2020 was the perfect time to release such sarcastically miserable tracks like “So Obnoxious” (which cautions the listener about being overly optimistic) and “Awaiting My Death” (which is self explanatory) although there’s a touch of humor and irony to the tracks. I ended up purchasing the album on cassette last summer. The band has had five releases just since then, although mainly singles. Seems there’s new music every month. I can’t think of another musician that releases music this often, since I’ve known of them. “I Look Like Death” was the other full length album I purchased from them this year, which is almost a continuation of this album, and worth checking out too. As all their music is.
Favorite Tracks: “So Obnoxious”, “I Tried to be the Nice Guy”
Minuit Machine - Don’t Run from the Fire
Minuit Machine is a French coldwave group helmed by Helene de Thoury, who is also in Hante. This release is gripping and darkly intense, with themes of fear and facing that fear. A perfect soundtrack for this year. I have discussed this album on the blog before. It is only four tracks, but they are really good ones. There are albums out there with more than ten tracks that still don’t come anywhere near this intensity. It may only be four tracks but it feels longer.
Favorite Tracks: “Don’t Run from the Fire”, “To Control”
https://minuitmachine.bandcamp.com/album/dont-run-from-the-fire
ЭЛЕКТРОЦОЙ - Ностальгия
Electrotsoy is a Russian post-punk band from the city of Arkhangelsk. The album title translates to “Nostalgia”, and this was their debut EP. My Russian isn’t that good at all so I couldn’t find out a lot about the band, but the music is right up my alley, being low energy, melancholic yet soothing, at times almost dreamlike. I would compare them to a Russian version of The Cure, but with female vocals. It taps into a longing nostalgia for brighter days, which I imagine is a common sentiment throughout the former Soviet Union. Google Translate was my friend in deciphering the song titles. I first encountered the band on a Russian Doomer Music playlist on YouTube, although they’re not very “doomer”, really. This would appear to be their debut album if their Bandcamp is anything to go by. There are only four tracks, but they’re quite good in my opinion. Hoping to hear more from them soon.
Favorite Tracks: “Вечно”, “Мечты”
https://electrotsoy.bandcamp.com/album/-
Selofan - Partners in Hell
Selofan was another great darkwave band I discovered this year, although they have been around for a few years already. I love the country of Greece so it is exciting to hear my type of music coming from there. This new album came out after I had only known of the band for less than a year, adding more fuel to the fire as I gradually worked my way through their discography. Each song off this album was another treat. Even though they’re Greek they sometimes sing in German too, such as in the haunting track “Zusammen”, among others. “Absolutely Absent” was my favorite track on the album, since it kind of hit close to home for me back in October and I found it rather relatable.
Favorite Tracks: “Absolutely Absent”, “Almost Nothing”
Tearful Moon - Under the Red Veil
Disclaimer (2/4/2021): For the vast majority of the bands I listen to, I know little to nothing about the band members personally. I just enjoy the music for what it is, I don’t think about what their political opinions are. I would rather not know their political opinions, really. Not everyone is going to have my specific worldview, and if I only listened to music whose creators did, maybe I would have a very small pool of music to choose from. But it’s recently come to my attention that the members of Tearful Moon harbor some very extreme far-right viewpoints, which I do not agree with, that are harmful to others, and they’ve been publicly expressing those viewpoints using their platform. It’s a complicated issue for some people separating the art from the artist. And they do create good music. I mean for example, John Kricfalusi created Ren & Stimpy, one of my favorite cartoons growing up and a big influence on my art, and yet he was a rapist. I can’t just cut that piece of my past out of my life so easily, but I don’t want to support that kind of behavior either. So my solution in this case is I am going to leave this review here just for posterity, because it WAS an album I bought and enjoyed in 2020, but with this disclaimer. Their viewpoints do not reflect my own. I just hope the band members will one day start to see the bigger picture and change their worldview.
This album came out right around the time I first discovered Tearful Moon, in April, so I experienced it at the same time I experienced their earlier albums in their discography, making it a bit difficult to separate in my mind. But, after I purchased the digital album and burned it on a blank CD, I got to listen to it properly. The songs flow together well. And what a racy album cover, hope I don’t get in trouble sharing that. Gives the phrase “eyes up here” a new twist; you can both stare at her chest and be making eye contact! Ahem, back on topic. True to Tearful Moon’s style in the past, the songs are almost like poems set to music. I know you could technically say that about all bands that have lyrics in their music, but somehow the songs remind me more of poems than songs sometimes. I could imagine finding these lyrics in a poetry book. I like that about this band. Similar in style to bands like SYZYGYX, Selofan and Lebanon Hanover who also use low, droning and sometimes echoing female vocals, the singer still manages to carry a rhythm and be unconventionally catchy. Even if they are a little similar to the bands I mentioned I wouldn’t confuse a Tearful Moon song with a song from any other band. My favorite song on the album has to be “I Love You More than Death”, both for its catchy rhythm and its shocking and kind of funny lyrics, being from the point of view if someone who loves you more than literally anything, wants you to make them their wife, take them to bed and have their child. You don’t hear a song like that everyday.
Favorite Tracks: “I Love You More than Death”, “The Lost King”
Velvet Kills - Bohdi Labyrinth
Velvet Kills is a band out of Portugal. After hearing the track “The Key” on one of the many YouTube music channels I am subscribed to, I had to check this band out. “The Key” is the catchiest and most upbeat song on the album, and is still my favorite, but the rest of the tracks are also great. My second favorite is the opening track “Bitch Face”. Fun title, isn’t it? If you look at the Bandcamp page for the album all the tracks have a deeper meaning and interconnect, it’s actually kind of a concept album. I recommend checking this one out.
Favorite Tracks: “The Key”, “Bitch Face”
Forever Grey - Departed
Forever Grey is among my favorite bands I found out about this year, and I mainly found out about them through the promotion for this album back in March. “Lost in a Moment” was the song that grabbed me when I first heard it, and I had to hear more. As I toured their discography, their 2016 album “Alabaster Chamber” turned out to be my favorite album due to the songs “The Style is Death” and “Cathedral of Hailstone”, but this album is still really good too and worth hearing.
Favorite tracks: “Lost in a Moment”, “Labour of Death”
Kalte Nacht
Kalte Nacht is another Greek minimal synth band that emerged earlier this year with this self-titled debut. I picked it up after hearing “Humans Are Mistakes”. The rest of the songs were just as good, with dark and twisted synths paired with low, echoing female vocals. Their sound reminds me a lot of their fellow Greek band Selofan, but they also have a uniqueness to their music. Songs like “Inmost Desire” and “Voices in Silence” are up-tempo and danceable, while there are plenty of slow and brooding tracks like “Ghost Dance” and “ Humans are Mistakes” too. There’s a variety. As a debut release this shows a lot of promise, and I eagerly await whatever Kalte Nacht releases next.
Favorite Tracks: “Humans Are Mistakes”, “Ghost Dance”
https://kaltenacht.bandcamp.com/releases
Molchat Doma - Monument
I have been listening to this band out of Belarus quite a lot in the past couple of months. They fall under the same umbrella as a lot of the bands in the Russian post-punk scene, which has been my focus lately. Given that I haven’t known this band for very long, such as with Tearful Moon earlier in the year, I am experiencing their newest album at the same time as their earlier music. I quite enjoy their 2018 album “Etazhi”, maybe even a bit better than this album, but they both seem equally as new to me, I enjoy this band’s aesthetic, and it’s one that seems to be catching on and creating its own little sub genre. Their album covers and music videos feature decaying Soviet buildings and monuments, and it almost seems like a good soundtrack for Chernobyl. Molchat Doma has been a gateway drug for me into Russian post-punk, and I thank them for that.
Favorite Tracks: “Zvezdy”, “Utonut”
Lebanon Hanover - Sci-Fi Sky
This album was highly anticipated among fans of darkwave and post-punk. Just when the global pandemic really started to kick in last spring, they released their single from this album “The Last Thing” with a music video in which they performed a concert next to the prestigious venue of a dumpster in a back alley, which despite being a really bleak and kind of terrifying song about someone’s thoughts during their last living moments, cheered everyone up somehow. We had to wait until late October for the full album though, but it didn’t disappoint. It is a perfect 2020 album. You almost wonder if they recorded some of these songs before or after the pandemic hit, but there’s no way they could all be that recently written.
Favorite Tracks: “The Last Thing”, “Living on the Edge”
Into Grey - Picture Perfect
This album snuck in right at the end of the year, having been released on December 6th, making me glad I held off on posting this blog entry for a while (I started writing this in late November). I first saw the track “Shadows” shared on the YouTube channel Sounds in the Distance, one of my sources for new music, and I liked it. Couple days later I heard the track “Dissociate” on the YouTube channel George in the Darkness, and I realized this must have been an album that just released and these channels are helping promote it. I checked it out on Bandcamp, and it’s name your price so I had no excuse not to buy it. And I like all the tracks on it. And that is a typical story of how I discovered new music this year. This isn’t even their debut album either. By the looks of it they’re another one of those bands that’s been prolifically releasing a new music almost every month this year. I have a lot of music to get through. Into Grey joins the ranks of Cabaret Grey and Forever Grey as grey-themed goth bands I like. Grey is the new black. They should all go on tour together when the pandemic is over. The Grey Tour.
For an album called Picture Perfect, sure is an odd choice for album cover though.
Favorite Tracks: “Shadows”, “Dissociate”
OR3O - Clover
Alright, here’s my one non-goth album from 2020 that I liked, an electro-swing concept album by singer and animator OR3O (is it pronounced “oreo” or “or-thirty”?) This is a rather unorthodox pick, as it hasn’t been released physically or as a digital album to my knowledge, at least not yet, and the album in its entirety hasn’t been completely released yet, and will likely be completed in 2021. The songs are accompanied by animated music videos, done in a 1930s animation style. The story behind the album is that a young girl named Kel has fallen into depression with the death if her grandfather. She is visited by three ghosts from the past who tell her their life stories and try to impart their wisdom on her. Each song is unique, in a modern swing style. I’ve long liked this type of music, when I’m in the mood for it. As a cartoonist myself I enjoy this album on two different levels, due to the animated music videos. It’s worth checking out.
Favorite Tracks: “Still Dancing”, “100 Years”
Mortiis - Spirit of Rebellion
And now to round off the list with another album I got on cassette, Mortiis’
Spirit of Rebellion (the one on the right; I’m trying to reuse my pictures on Blogger)
. It was a
return to form for Mortiis as it showcases the same atmospheric, dark ambient musical style as his albums from the 1990s, a genre since dubbed Dungeon Synth. I purchased this album at
a concert in Tampa back in late January; incidentally the only concert I was able to attend this entire year, just a month or so before everything hit the fan.
It’s a genre you either like or you don’t. For me, it’s good background music to put on when doing something else like working on art or writing. You could meditate to it as well, and it will bring to mind images of dusty old Nordic castles and towering fjords, creepy old wizards and medieval dark lords in black armor. Things like that. I have to be in the right mood for it. It’s nothing like my favorite Mortiis album
The Smell of Rain. But, Mortiis is quite varied.
Since the album consists of only three tracks, two of them longer than 20 minutes, let’s just say I enjoyed the whole album.
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