.webp)
In any of the previous years, we might have written about a list dominated by a sense of nineties and noughties nostalgia. Still, it's the 2024 edition where this revival is perhaps the most faithful. This list has two clear motifs: the prevalence of expansive, dubbed-out sounds and the resurgence of bands or projects led by dominant instrumentation. In the context of the faster and brasher post-Covid aesthetic, the current comparisons to two decades prior are clear to see and, frankly, a welcome enrichment of the music catalogue.
2024 was dominated by sounds that fit loosely into perhaps outdated labels like dub, shoegaze, IDM or trip-hop, with their discomfort driven by their clear urge to innovate these sounds with a distinctly contemporary edge. What ties all of the projects together is a shared impulse towards avant-garde experimentation and heady sensibilities forging a fresh and innovative sound to define 2024.
Enjoy our 2024 recap.*
*Albums are listed in random order
Rrose & Polygonia - Dermatology
Psychoactive techno mavens, Rrose and Polygonia join forces for a collaboration that builds on each artist's individual brilliance. Rrose approached their co-producer for a rare link-up after noticing Polygonia’s music was appearing in their sets time and again. The resulting six tracks bear the traces of their shared preference for hallucinatory textures and psychedelic flourishes.
naemi - Dust Devil
The secretive naemi keeps a low profile, choosing not to disclose any personal details alongside their music. Dust Devil, however, paints an intimate portrait that brings the listener closer than any biographical information might. The Berlin-based producer’s debut LP stories a year of emotions, relationships and stories, with a host of high-profile collaborators offering support throughout.
Mikkel Rev - TRANS014
Mikkel Rev inverts trance’s reputation for ecstasy-rush highs, with an LP of subtle hues, melancholic tones and psychedelic flourishes. Many of the tracks run slower than expected for the dancefloor, leaving space for reflection as they build towards their eventual crescendo.
Ghost Dubs - Damaged
If 2024 was the year that electronic music went subterranean in search of a dubbed-out sound, Ghost Dubs might be the deepest that it reached. Damaged, Jah Schulz’ first outing under his new moniker, wouldn’t feel out of place in the dancehalls that spawned early British bass music, delivering twelve soundsystem-ready cuts that counterpose ice-cold atmospheres with a warm sub-glow.
Perila - Intrinsic Rhythm
Across Intrinsic Rhythm, Perila weaves dense thickets of noise which hang in his expansive soundscapes like fog. This extended LP from the Berlin-native listens like an extended gallery walk, guiding the listener through an extensive series of surroundings, each tapping into a distinct emotional state.
mu tate - wanting less
mu tate’s latest offering is another project that feels closer to Larry Heard’s dictum of Sceneries Not Songs. While the Latvian producer’s style may differ wildly, his process, too, feels more akin to the cultivation of a landscape for the listener to find their own way around as they please.
Sub Basics - Sentient Machines
Sub Basics might just be London’s most prolific son right now, publishing four full-length LPs on his own Temple of Sound Imprint in 2024 alone, alongside a host of EPs across other labels. Sentient Machines is our pick of the bunch, delivering twelve rolling cuts of full-frequency immersion.
Kangding Ray - ZERO
ZERO, Kangding Ray's latest offering, is firmly at the club-oriented pole of his repertoire. Coming almost two decades after his celebrated debut LP, this album showcases his capacity to continue to innovate. It delivers ten surging tracks that retain all of the subtly of his early ambient forays.
Badawi - Protection
Proudly wearing the group's heritage, Protection is Badawi’s latest sonic statement against colonialism, oppression and genocide. Their tools include traditional instruments from Palestine, Albania, Bulgaria, Sicily, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ireland, mixing at times with lo-fi boom-bap trip-hop to produce resistance songs that match up to our tumultuous present.
Crespi Drum Syndicate - Beats
Crespi Drum Syndicate, the creative meeting of Pablo Arrangoiz (El Gusano/DJ Fitness) and Jonathan Trujillo (Jonny From Space), debuted their own brand of off-kilter percussion with their debut self-titled LP in late 2023. This year, they returned with an even stranger development of this delightfully playful concoction, putting together nine tracks that credit ‘the proto-techno of the '60s and '70s, Italian library music, motorik kraut grooves, Latin dance music, orchestral percussion pieces, dancehall riddims, and dub engineering’ among the pair’s inspirations.
Aerae - Percussive Reverie
Aerae kicked off 2024 with an offering that flittered nimbly between DnB, halftime, techno and psy, recasting familiar broken rhythms with broad, hazy melodies and shimmering flickers. As each of the seven tracks slowly enfolds, Percussive Reverie binds the listener into a ritualistic trance before gradually building into ecstatic fervour.
Kangding Ray - ZERO
ZERO, Kangding Ray's latest offering, is firmly at the club-oriented pole of his repertoire. Coming almost two decades after his celebrated debut LP, this album showcases his capacity to continue to innovate. It delivers ten surging tracks that retain all of the subtly of his early ambient forays.
Badawi - Protection
Proudly wearing the group's heritage, Protection is Badawi’s latest sonic statement against colonialism, oppression and genocide. Their tools include traditional instruments from Palestine, Albania, Bulgaria, Sicily, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ireland, mixing at times with lo-fi boom-bap trip-hop to produce resistance songs that match up to our tumultuous present.
Crespi Drum Syndicate - Beats
Crespi Drum Syndicate, the creative meeting of Pablo Arrangoiz (El Gusano/DJ Fitness) and Jonathan Trujillo (Jonny From Space), debuted their own brand of off-kilter percussion with their debut self-titled LP in late 2023. This year, they returned with an even stranger development of this delightfully playful concoction, putting together nine tracks that credit ‘the proto-techno of the '60s and '70s, Italian library music, motorik kraut grooves, Latin dance music, orchestral percussion pieces, dancehall riddims, and dub engineering’ among the pair’s inspirations.
Aerae - Percussive Reverie
Aerae kicked off 2024 with an offering that flittered nimbly between DnB, halftime, techno and psy, recasting familiar broken rhythms with broad, hazy melodies and shimmering flickers. As each of the seven tracks slowly enfolds, Percussive Reverie binds the listener into a ritualistic trance before gradually building into ecstatic fervour.
Priori - This but More
Across four extended projects and a host of shorter offerings, Priori has built a sizable reputation for a more discerning flavour of progressive techno. For his latest project, the Montreal-born producer swaps to a more hushed palette, interpolating the year’s zeitgeist for moody sensibilities and dubbed-out soundscapes. The result is an extended meditation that is not without curveballs.
Fergus Jones - Ephemera
Over the past few years, Fergus Jones has built an impressive reputation for both his introspective productions and Felt, his taste-making label. Now operating under his own name, Ephemera feels like the sum of all of this work. The LP was recorded piece by piece across five years of studio sessions, enlisting a coterie of experimental heavy hitters to produce a project that lives up to its high expectations.
Dijit - Wisswass
Egypt’s Dijit takes a step into the unknown, layering his vocals over his unique take on punk-infused trip-hop. The album is a deeply personal exploration of his heritage and experiences over a tumultuous few years that remain deeply unpredictable throughout.
gi - Thought Makes Music
After a series of fragments and short projects published over the preceding few years, Sydney’s gi finally announced herself with an extended project of delicate sound design, intricate ambience and unpredictable percussion. The Eora native develops a fresh and futuristic sound across eight tracks, with sharp stalactites of rhythm and glitches breaking through layers of delicate haze.
Saskia - es
Between 2022 and 2024, Tokyo’s Saki Yamada spent two years in Bristol to further cultivate her craft of avant-garde electronics and richly textural experimentation. The result was es, published on Accidental Meetings, a short but rich testament to an artist at the peak of their craft and the transcultural exchanges that shaped them.
Ulla & Ultrafrog - It Means A Lot
Ghostly voices echo through cavernous spaces while layers of sparse instrumentation periodically reverb in this delicately poised debut LP. It Means A Lot maintains a DIY charm, with shimmering guitars and subtle loops lending a loose structure, with vocals echoing over like fragments of a half-remembered dream.
Holy Tongue - The Tumbling Psychic Joy of Now
Holy Tongue’s ritualistic live dub has seen its stocks slowly rise over the course of three standout EPs. This year, the trio enlisted one of early dubstep’s most out-there offspring to rework their unreleased studio material into a psychedelic witch's brew of percussion-led reverie.
KMRU - Temporary Stored II
Following the repatriation of the Sound Archive of the Royal Museum of Central Africa in 2021, KMRU produced Temporary Stored, an evocative narrative about colonialism and collective memory forged from original material and field recordings taken from the Archive. This year, KMRU enlisted the help of African and diasporic musicians Jessica Ekomane, Lamine Fofana, Nyokabi Kariũki and Bhavisha Panchia to produce a follow-up that is every bit as meaningful. Working with this array of collaborators, KMRU produces a ‘sonic retort’ against the legacy of colonialism and extractivism.
NEW MEMBERS - ECO 1
2024 saw a New Members project that was more than a decade in the making before finally seeing the light of day. ECO 1 is a bountiful offering of sunshine, breezy downtempo, surging breaks and blissful ambience, distilling the new-age ethos of the early Balearic scene into an LP fit for long journeys on the dancefloor or on the move.
Lamusa II - DON’T
Perhaps the most faithful ode to the turn of the millennium on this list is Milan’s Lamusa II who pairs fuzzy guitars, in-your-face percussion and thick, hazy drones to produce a Bristol-tinged backdrop. Oblique vocal barbs bring the trip-hop sound into the present day.
.webp)
