2024 in Review // Favorite EPs, Reissues and Albums of J Moss (Pt. 1)

“J Moss is a deeply authentic music maker. One of the most prolific recording projects I’ve heard of in recent memory, Modern Folk can be anything from fingerstyle acoustic guitar, to field recording laden soundscapes, to noisy spacious freak outs, to a free rock band full of friends” – Bud Tapes

J Moss, aka The Modern Folk, is no big fan of lists, by his own admission. Which is why we’re honored to have him kick off an overview of 2024 for us!

You can find J’s records on WarHen, Ramble Records and Eiderdown, among many other labels. He also contributed Alma As She Is to our recent digital sampler, along with numerous guest mixes and roundups.

Future / Metro Boomin – WE DON’T TRUST YOU (Epic/Republic)  

We Don’t Trust You (stylized in all caps) is the first collaborative studio album by American rapper Future and American record producer Metro Boomin, released on March 22, 2024, by Freebandz (under the business name Wilburn Holding Co.), Epic Records, Boominati Worldwide, and Republic. The album contains guest appearances from the Weeknd, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Kendrick Lamar, and Rick Ross. Production was primarily handled by Metro himself, alongside Mike Dean, Oz, Southside, Boi-1da, Honorable C.N.O.T.E., Allen Ritter, Dre Moon, Zaytoven, Doughboy, Lil 88, Wheezy, G Koop, and other

Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)

Dan Bejar of Destroyer says:

 

“It’s hard to talk about Rosali’s music. Songs that reach outward like this, but then constantly disarm with their intimacy. What do you call such inner searching that is hellbent on rollicking? Songs that long for a sense of peace and songs that want romance, all on equal footing in the same plot of earth? Performed wild, but always centered around the incredible lyrical calm that is Rosali’s voice.

 

Bite Down makes me think about singers and bands that throw themselves hard into the storm, the way the Rosali quartet does. … The calm of her voice over top of the band’s raging—it is the emblem of songs that live to put themselves in harm’s way. But it’s not harm. It’s just that you have to play hard to get at these goods. The calm of Rosali’s voice, the straight talk of her inner search vs. the wildness of the band, the sonic storm she rides in on. That’s their sound.”

Further Reading: Post-Trash / Swim Into The Sound

Souled American – Notes Campfire (re-issue) (Aguirre Records)

There are cult bands and then there’s Souled American. In 1988, the Illinois group arguably invented “alternative country” with the album Fe. While the alt-country sound is widely recognized as Southern roots rock with an indie-punk sensibility largely defined by Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression released two years later — Souled American’s early music feels as if it was formed in a vacuum, inspired by the timestretching space of reggae. But over the course of the following decade, Souled American’s music grew increasingly slow, insular and esoteric. Although Fe, Flubber and Around the Horn are inarguably more accessible, upbeat and even sometimes fun, if you’ve never heard this music before, it actually makes sense to start at the end.

 

Since the release of Notes Campfire in 1996, it’s almost as if Souled American never existed: The band’s albums have long been out of print, there have only been a handful of performances in the last 27 years (including the tiny towns of Laporte, Colo., and Centennial, Wyo.), there are no known live videos, and a long-running Facebook group of ardent fans boasts less than 100 members. Not for nothing, diehards have attempted to resurrect interest: In 1997, Camden Joy created the “Fifty Posters About Souled American” project (he ended up making 61); in 1999, tUMULt reissued Souled American’s first four albums on CD; in 2006, The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle penned an essay about how Souled American’s Flubber changed his life. Now, thanks to the efforts of longtime fan Tom Adelman (aka writer Camden Joy), the band’s full discography is available digitally for the first time ever via Bandcamp.

Further Reading: NPR / Raven Sings The Blues

JPW & Dad Weed – Two Against Nurture (Fort Lowell Records)

FOR FANS OF: Amen Dunes, Calexico, Cornershop, Elephant 6, Flaming Lips, Gin Blossoms, LEN, My Morning Jacket, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, R.E.M., Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, U2, Wilco, Link Wray

 

The dark is arriving earlier each passing evening. The veil between the spirit world and the land of the living grows thin. Into the glooming emerge Phoenix songwriters Zachary “Dad Weed” Toporek and Jason P. Woodbury, aka JPW, noted podcaster, liner notes author, and songwriter, bearing a bag of autumnal psych pop. Recorded in Toporek’s backyard studio between 2021-2024, these three tracks showcase the birth of a songwriting partnership between these longtime friends and collaborators. Operating like an ersatz Becker and Fagan, handling singing, writing, arranging, and production in a 50/50 split, these songs indulge their taste for ragged power pop, chiming folk rock, and even semi-improvised jams.

Further Reading: Add To Wantlist / Here Comes The Flood

Seawind of Battery – East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper (WarHen)

On East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper, you are treated to guitar-oriented sound baths that are certainly akin to the first LP, yet some tracks diverge from Horn’s earlier work through the addition of electro dance beats, like on the pulsing “New Moon,” while others, like “Maze of Roses,” veer off into a more lush, psychedelicized country vein. The latter of these two features a dense, prismatic atmosphere of strings, partially thanks to the lap steel provided by Jarrod Annis, of whom became an official Seawind member after he started backing Horn up at live appearances back in late ’22.

 

While the tone of the record is a peaceful one, much like the first album, there is unquestionably a quicker pace. It’s like Clockwatching was made to soothe some of the trauma we all endured during the pandemic, and this one is telling us that it’s now time to get up and finally live.

– Keith Hadad (Record Crates United)

Further Reading: Raven Sings The Blues

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Superior Viaduct / W.25TH)

Cindy Lee is the performance and songwriting vehicle of Patrick Flegel (who previously fronted influential indie group Women). Over several albums, Flegel has combined delicate melodies and sheer beauty with moments of experimentation. With Diamond Jubilee, Flegel’s undeniable songcraft comes to the foreground, embracing a more instant connection and accessibility. Timeless tales of love and longing, surrounded by sticky hooks, take the listener on an unforgettable journey.

Penn Bryce – Feel Free

My first experience with the new Penn Bryce album Feel Free was as a single forty five-minute audio file, unburdened by track breaks or song titles. While the context provided by those features is a necessary link in this chain, the music works well as a continuous, anonymous flow, drifting between lyrical meditations in currents of what is now known as ambient or “cosmic” country – music that is in dialogue with the roots of Americana as well as the celestial graspings of psychedelia.

 

In fact, the song titles and lyrics provide some foundation for my initial impression, as they appeal to both the otherworldly and the mundane, evoking that permanent sense of confusion – the feeling that the really real is just beyond the reach of our perception – that most of us humans spend our lives trying to ignore.

Cassini – The Cassini Promise (echodelickrecords)

Jam astronauts Cassini are led by Steve Palmer and Matt Beachey, both leading lights of the post-Fahey folkgaze underground who have earned praise for their solo efforts (Beachey operating under the nom de rock Oscar Tengo) and the acoustic explorations of their duo incarnation Slow Clarity. They are joined by jazz-trained drummer Andrew Haaheim, and his partner in the rhythm section is nimble bassist Matt Helgeson, who navigates through the madness on a knife’s edge with propulsive bass lines that recall his time spent in the tense post-punkers Maps of Norway. Holding the whole thing together is keyboardist Miles McClain, a musical polymath who serves as the musical glue of the band with an equal portion of soulful Hammond swells and exploratory analog synth filigrees.

Friends of the Road – Sunseekin’ Blues (bud tapes / Drongo Tapes)

Friends of the Road are a collective from Seattle, WA formed by folks who have lived in the label headquarters/house show venue Drongo HQ who perform drone-tinged Old Time. Drawing from traditional tunes while also taking nods from more recent acts like Pelt and forging alongside contemporaries like Ethan WL, the group ventures out into the fringes of sound while also conjuring tunes that could have been tracked 100 years ago. Friends are the sounds of Pacific Northwest porches and streams, a pile of records in the corner of a friends living room, writing but also yourself being written into a song in this moment or from a history, many moments ago.

Water Shrews – Red Eared Slider (Mossy Tapes)

Water Shrews is a mysterious and ever shifting organic music community based in Portland, Oregon. Mossy Tapes is proud to release their new album, ‘Red Eared Slider’ recorded by the founding duo Skyler Pia and Emmet Martin. A collection of 4 expansive improvisations, recorded in different spaces and each a reflection of their own environment, spiraling outward into perfectly quilted free form psychedelia from the misty heart of the PNW.

Myriam Gendron – Mayday (Feeding Tube Records / Thrill Jockey)

Gendron’s last record was a warm and tender collection that cushioned the blow of everyday life. Mayday leaps back into that mode, with “Long Way Home” bringing its cottony comforts to the speakers. The song exudes a sense of relief, the kind that can only come from finally returning to a place of safety after a long stint away. The album follows her first single’s beacon, lighting the traveler’s path with a soft glow and a breeze buffeted by ennui. It was great to see her get picked up by Thrill Jockey this year, giving a larger loudspeaker to her quiet works. Come fall this one is going to be indispensable on the headphones and it looks to be holding strong for the year end list too. Wrap up in this one.

RSTB

Shane Parish – Repertoire (Palilalia Records)

Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th century, America. You’re sitting in the parlor of your mansion, or in the only room of your shack; things are dusty and smell like sweat and hair, no matter how wealthy you may be. You don’t own a phonograph, and you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, but you have an inkling of how good the word “shred” is going to feel when it enters the local slang. Suddenly, a tall, elegant figure with beautifully maintained fingernails emerges from some corner of the room, carrying a guitar. He says in a soft voice, “I have a transmission for you, from the coming few centuries. Would you like to hear it? I figured you wouldn’t have a dongle, so I brought my guitar.”

 

You may be apprehensive, but you shouldn’t be. Shane happens to be an internationally renowned virtuoso of the guitar. Specifically, he’s the kind of virtuoso who is as deep on style as he is on technique. His technical prowess is almost maddeningly complete; aiming paradoxically for the yards-long target called “breadth” he’s somehow hit all of it, 500 arrows piercing every pore of the landscape. He has that much technique not for the sake of guitar worship but to best bring the music forth clearly and in his own hand, like a pearl formed in a specific sea. I know this because I’ve sat next to him in multiple countries and American states and seen him deliver transmissions of that extreme honesty, with that extreme capability. – Wendy Eisenberg