Archives – End of the Year
I was asked to share favorite finds of 2020. This is a tough one. There was so much amazing music released in 2020! Here are just a few of the releases that stand out for me. They supported me through the darkness and cast a bright light on what is to come. Enjoy! X
2020 songs/albums of choice – all picked by of one of our favorite plugging services for indie bands, artists, and labels! Don’t forget to visit Jasper PR on the web.
Tracklist
Home has two faces. On one side it’s a great album that could easily find its listeners. On the other side, it’s such a dense, sombre, and deeply woven experience, which definitely isn’t for everybody. – Everything is Noise
Funeral Lakes – Eternal Return
Much like their music, the group’s name, Funeral Lakes, grapples with the opposing and all too prevalent forces of nature and destruction. – bolderbeat
Stop the clocks. This is the album of the year. This is the zeitgeist. – Louder Than War
see also – Juneteenth Bandcamp Recommendations // Round 2
Cornershop – No Rock – Save In Roll
At Preston Polytechnic in 1987, me and Benedict lived on Eldon Street, just off the main artery into town Plungington Road (not too far away from where Bubbley Kaur lived).
We used to start the night off with a few tins of larger, and then walk a little down Plungington Road to a pub called The General Havelock. In there we chose a few tunes on their dukebox, of which Stepphenwolf’s ‘Born To Be Wild’ or ‘The Pusher’ were the most requested, before we rolled on to Preston town centre.
So Rock, in particular dirty rock, and back home Black Country Rock were always on our radar and ‘No Rock: Save In Roll’ goes in that direction, even mentioning England’s Midlands, where the Black Country is stationed. – read more
The first of three 10″ EPs the long-serving quartet are releasing this year to mark their 30th anniversary, this musical three-stroke engine opens with two new original blasts of their hard-driving muscle-car guitar-rock, complete with all the fuzz-pedal stomping and cowbell plonking required by brah law. – Tinnitist
The thing that instantly grabs you about The Nation Of One, the debut album from Saint Petersburg duo VEiiLA, is the smoke-shrouded vocal of Vif Nüte. Possessing a voice capable of delicate musing to anguished frustration, hers is a vocal infused with equal doses of rich jazz phrasing and raw bluster, often within the same track. – Further
Through the guise of patience, “In the Morning” peels somberly with a scared waltz. Only by the early light of a guitar, Gerber’s vocals, and a drum machine, the artist self-medicates before healing through distorted bursts. – Girl Underground Music
Cheerbleederz – Sometimes I cry at work
Lobotany finds Cheerbeleederz exploring and expanding their sound – embracing new, interesting textures that point towards a potential. The band say they take influence from the likes of The Breeders, Snail Mail, Dream Wife, Alvvays, Charly Bliss and Kississippi, and you can definitely hear a lot of those bands in here, but there’s something else as well. They’re singing for themselves and for people like them in a very real-world kind of way that’s both touchingly heartfelt and painfully tender, while also feeling cathartic and inspiring – particularly on stone cold banger, ‘sometimes i cry at work’. – VultureHound
We’re quite taken by the comfortingly organic, alt-folk sounds of LA based songwriter Skullcrusher (Helen Ballentine), whose latest single ‘Trace’ excises the traces the darkness left behind by a past relationship and lightens the path for the listener, on a journey of pathos and catharsis. – Earthly Pleasures
see also – Bandcamp Saturday // Simon Vita
TFS (feat. Amy Taylor) – This Perfect Day
see also – Around 2018 in 12 Weeks: More Favorite Albums From Outside US/UK!
“Less is more” will drive you insane. Some of your favorite songs may run less than two minutes, which might then lead you to scouring the internet for a longer outtake version. Merce Lemon’s “Baby” feels like it will be one of those songs.
Well under the two minute mark, it clocks in at one minute and sixteen seconds, but each one of those seconds is precious. Merce Lemon immediately pulls you in with her melodic vocal breaks and synchronized guitar bends. – Speak Into My Good Eye
see also – Bandcamp Saturday // 15 New Albums by Ezra Brooks
This is an incredible debut album for True Body, and also another solid release for Funeral Party Record. The haunting vocals by Isabella Moreno-Riaño are iconic and help set the band aside from others within the genre. One of the most significant aspects of the record are its production and use of instrumentation. The band played off of the vocals and added synth elements and other instrumentals that created a really haunting and ethereal sounding experience. Track after track the listener is brought into a dreamworld and once the record is concluded that world has been totally imagined. – WHIP Radio
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