ADHOC Editorial

Senior Editor: Joe Bucciero Founding Editors: Emilie Friedlander& Ric Leichtung Copy Editor: Tyler Richman Contributing Writers: Miguel Gallego& Steven Spoerl Designer: Jesse Hlebo

Events

Events Director: Ric Leichtung Marketing Manager: Tyler Richman Letter Can streaming services be fair to artists? Is it worth paying for playlists? Vinyl keeps selling, but now major labels are fooding the vinyl market— so will the vinyl market implode? As long-stable relationships between consumers, artists, and music companies continue to break down, listeners and artists are being thrust, stylistically and physically, into a confusing new musical environment. Call us optimists, but the chaos appears to be prompting people to put the pieces together in myriad new ways..

These days, it can seem like cultures form not around what we’re listening to but how we’re listening to it—from audio source to social context. We can’t really defne 2015 by any specifc stylistic trends, after all. Arca and Lotic share immaculate industrial sonic palettes, but the former’s Mutant and the latter’s Agitations and Heterocetera more importantly share an impact on the wider listening culture. They open up dancefoors and dancers alike to new sounds, but also new identities and approaches to discourse.

On the pop side of the spectrum, Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen both sing over increasingly of-the-times productions, but more exciting than the resultant music itself is the abundance of young listeners learning to love subtly daring pop compositions and innovative vocal processing. Contrary to what some critics have said, it’s not that the mainstream and the underground have collapsed into one another; they probably never will (or should). But in 2015, we witnessed a mutual acceleration—one that allowed Mutant, Agitations, Heterocetera, DS2, Garden of Delete, Barter 6, and Platform, to make major waves and reach a pleasing variety of audiences.

Anyhow, thanks for picking up AdHoc Issue 10. We’ve had a blast this year writing about music and throwing shows; we hope you’ve had a blast partaking. See you in 2016. 8 30 ↓ ↓ AdHoc Events How I Found Myself at David Blaine’s The Steakhouse 14 ↓ 38 Everything’s Changed; ↓ ADHOC Everything’s the Same: Music in the Streaming Era Our 22 Albums ↓ The Curationist Moment 2015 03/19: Chipocrite, Bit Shifter, Glomag, minusbaby, 04/14: Mega Bog, Pill, Ce Schneider Topical, Big Vaporstack @ The Studio at Webster Hall Eater @ Shea Stadium AdHoc Events 03/20: AdHoc SXSW Showcase w/ Lust for Youth, 04/15: Alex G, LVL UP, Brandon Can’t Dance Weyes Blood, Prince Rama, Downtown Boys, @ Palisades Lydia Ainsworth, GABI, Marie Davidson 04/17: Trey Frey, Radlib, Bubbly Fish, Diveo, Carrier, @ Cheer Up Charlies Mrghosty @ Palisades 03/21: Tim Sweeney, Palmbomen II, Larry Gus, 04/19: Squarepusher, Machinedrum, Craz, Alex January Abu Ashley @ Palisades English @ Webster Hall 01/02: Star Slinger, Trippy Turtle @ Webster Hall 02/05: Alex G, Teen Suicide, eskimeaux, Sam Cohen 03/27: ashes57 Featured Artwork Exhibition 04/20: Waka Flocka Flame, DJ Whoo Kid, Azizi 01/04: Julian Lynch, Weyes Blood, Open Tower, @ Palisades @ Palisades Gibson, Ben G @ Webster Hall Cassie Ramone @ Baby’s All Right 02/09: Parquet Courts, Future Punx, Eaters @ Palisades 03/27: Ikonika, Jubilee, DJ Hvad, Dave Q, 04/22: Bob Bellerue, Dreamcrusher, Lutkie, Fetishes 01/09: Tijuana Panthers, The Garden, Surfbort, 02/10: Parquet Courts, Laced, Digital Prisoners of War Tripletrain, Geng, special guest DJ Spinn @ Trans-Pecos Dances @ The Studio at Webster Hall @ Palisades @ Palisades 04/24: IAMSU!, Rome Fortune, Dave Steezy, Chris 01/10: Arto Lindsay, Jahiliyya Fields, Gut Nose, 02/18: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, GDFX, GABI, Austin 03/28: Deerhoof, Perfect Pussy, Zula Miles, Mani Draper, Vashtie @ The Marlin Room at Victoria Keddie, DJ Diamond Terrifer @ Trans- Cesear @ Baby’s All Right @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall Webster Hall Pecos 02/20: Bambara, Chimes, bbigpigg @ Trans-Pecos 04/25: Container, Eric Copeland, Sasha Jan Rezzie 01/10: Slingshot Dakota, Runaway Brother, Crazy 02/20: Cakes Da Killa, UNiiQU3, Rizzla, TR!CK$ @ Palisades & The Brains, Vasudeva @ Baby’s All Right @ Baby’s All Right April 04/30: CHON, Vasudeva, Diveo @ Marlin Room at 01/11: Arto Lindsay/Sam Hillmer Duo, Sadaf, 02/20: You Blew It!, Tiny Moving Parts, Sorority Noise, 04/01: Jerry Paper, Helado Negro, Trabajo, Macula Webster Hall Michael Beharie, Patrick Higgins, Das Audit, DJ Rozwell Kid @ The Studio at Webster Hall Dog @ Silent Barn Geko Jones @ Trans-Pecos 02/21: The Intended, Honey Radar, B Boys @ Aviv 04/02: Mike Simonetti, Peaking Lights Acid Test, May 01/17: Helix, Palmistry, Tripletrain, Celestial Trax, 02/26: Eartheater, Extreme Animals, Haribo, Highlife Huerco S., Dubbel Dutch, Nikola Baytala 05/01: The Stationary Set, Life Size Maps, Tropic Geng @ Baby’s All Right @ Secret Project Robot @ Output Gothic @ Baby’s All Right 01/17: U.S. Girls, Slim Twig, Eaters, Bottoms @ 02/27: Obey City, Photay, Paul Jones @ Baby’s All Right 04/03: Marching Church, Drew McDowall, Copley 05/02: ADVAETA, Psychic Blood, Pill, Decorum Palisades 02/28: Zs, Victoria Keddie, VHVL, Tropicalrock, Lamin Medal @ FND Gallery @ Palisades 01/21: Zs, Mick Barr, Michael Beharie, James Fofana, Richard Gamble @ FND Gallery 04/05: Diarrhea Planet, Left & Right, Slonk 05/02: Cities Aviv, Sick Feeling, Show Me The Body Place, Bryan Kasenic @ (le) poisson rouge Donkerson @ Baby’s All Right @ Palisades 01/23: Ricky Eat Acid, Skylar Spence, Foxes in March 04/06: Makthaverskan, Heaven, Alice 05/02: Icky Blossoms, Infnity Shred, Moon Bounce Fiction, Fissures @ Palisades 03/02: Cannibal Ox, GZA, Freeway, G-Jet @ The Studio @ Saint Vitus @ The Studio at Webster Hall 01/24: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, Loren Connors’ at Webster Hall 04/07: Worthless, Moonwalks, Infnity Girl, 05/02: Unicorn Hard-On, VIA APP, Fyoelk Haunted House, AdHoc DJs @ SUGARCUBE 03/03: Trash Talk, Ratking, Lee Bannon, special guest Painted Zeros @ Silent Barn @ Trans-Pecos 01/24: Weyes Blood, Excepter, Regal Degal, Earl Sweatshirt @ Palisades 04/08: Whirr, Adventures, Makthaverskan 05/03: 100 Disciplines by Kid Millions BBDDM @ Baby’s All Right 03/04: Trash Talk, Ratking, Lee Bannon @ The Marlin @ Baby’s All Right @ Brooklyn Museum 01/28: GDFX, Trabajo, Mezzanine Swimmers, Room at Webster Hall 04/09: Big Business, Ruby The Hatchet, Wild Pink 05/07: Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, EZTV, John Shore, Smhoak Mosheein @ Palisades 03/06: Screaming Females, Downtown Boys, Aye Nako @ The Studio at Webster Hall Andrews & The Yawns @ Palisades 01/31: Sick Feeling, Le1f, Dark Blue, On a Clear @ Silent Barn 04/10: Jeremy Enigk @ The Studio at Webster 05/08: Sunfower Bean, Honduras, Slingshot Dakota, Day, Mess Kid, DJ Matt Werth @ Aviv 03/07: Suicide, The Vacant Lots, Pharmakon Hall Field Trip @ The Studio at Webster Hall 01/31: Sun Ra Arkestra, AdHoc DJs @ @ Webster Hall 04/10: FOUNTAINSON (Daniel Higgs + Fumi 05/12: Gooch Palms, Las Rosas, Death ValleyGirls, SUGARCUBE 03/08: Jeff Rosenstock, Laura Stevenson, Dan Friel Ishi Duo), Excepter, Lichens, David Grubbs, Larry & The Babes @ Silent Barn @ Trans-Pecos <> T/VHVL @ Trans-Pecos 05/12: Sam Prekop w/ Mountains @ Trans-Pecos February 03/08: Jeff Rosenstock, Spraynard, Chris Gethard 04/11: Is Tropical, bottoms @ Palisades 05/13: Merzbow, Genesis P-orridge & Aaron Dilloway 02/01: Vapauteen, 51717, Kerri LeBon, Ning Nong @ Babycastles 04/11: Mister Lies, Mirror Kisses, Anamai, performing Electric Newspapers, Pharmakon, Prurient @ Alphaville 03/08: Self Defense Family, Creative Adult, Husbandry, Limited @ Palisades performing Pleasure Ground, Marshstepper, Uniform, 02/03: Jerry Paper, Algiers, Eola, JAYYCE @ The Cutters @ The Studio at Webster Hall 04/11: Tyvek, Laced, Rips, B Boys Ron Morelli, Becka Diamond, JR Nelson & Ciarra Palisades 03/14: Giant Claw, The Flag, LGHQ @ Trans-Pecos @ The Silent Barn Black, Jock Club, Scott Mou @ Output 04/12: Inter Arma, Yautja, Fórn @ Saint Vitus 8 05/15: Superheaven, Diamond Youth, Rozwell Tripletrain, The ERA @ Palisades 07/05: Swirlies, Kudgel, Laced, DJ Ning Nong 07/25: Taso, Sicko Mobb, Ricky Eat Acid, Kid, Soda Bomb @ The Studio at Webster Hall 06/13: Xiu Xiu, Bottoms, Eula @ Palisades @ Baby’s All Right Tripletrain @ Palisades 05/15: Chain and the Gang, Future Punx, OCDPP 06/16: Iceage, Amen Dunes, Justice Yeldham 07/06: Nude Beach, Outer Spaces, MPHO, Rips 07/27: Mas Ysa, Kelsey Lu, Michael Beharie, Wish @ Baby’s All Right @ 315 Ten Eyck @ Silent Barn @ Baby’s All Right 05/15: Downtown Boys, In School, The 06/16: Iceage, Future Punx @ The Acheron 07/07: Death Grips @ Webster Hall 07/28: The Appleseed Cast, ADJY, Annabel Homewreckers @ Palisades 06/18: Tashi Dorji, Zaimph, Aimee Hunter, 07/10: Rainer Maria, Olivia Neutron John, Vision @ The Studio at Webster Hall 05/16: Trance Lords, IAN ISIAH, Iceboi, Doss, Mezzanine Swimmers @ Alphaville Control @ Saint Vitus 07/29: Skepta, Rabi, J-Cush, Lucas Vercetti, DJ Wil Fry, Imogene, MR UNO NYC & MS 06/19: Gun Outft, Ivy, Ornament, Laced 07/10: Total Slacker, California X, Hound, Melt Maximum, Durban @ Palisades NORELATION @ Palisades @ Trans-Pecos @ Baby’s All Right 07/30: Silver Apples, Bookworms, Giant Claw 05/19: Peter Gordon & The Love of Life Orchestra 06/19: Azar Swan, Clay Rendering, Them Are Us 07/11: Rainer Maria, SoftSpot @ Shea Stadium @ Trans-Pecos perform Arthur Russell’s INSTRUMENTALS, Too, Pawns @ Palisades 07/11: Riff Raff, Donmonique, Justina Valentine 07/31: Jeff Rosenstock, Dan Andriano In the Diamond Terrifer / Michael Beharie / VHVL, Das 06/20: Jaga Jazzist, Taylor McFerrin @ Webster @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall Emergency Room, Pet Symmetry, High Dive Audit, Blue Jazz TV @ Baby’s All Right Hall 07/11: Palmbomen II, Teengirl Fantasy, Physical @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall 05/22: Bambounou, South London Ordinance, 06/20: Mega Ran, K-Murdock, Danimal Cannon, Therapy, Max McFerren, VIA APP 07/31: Total Control, Crazy Spirit, Nandas Huerco S., Cameron Kush @ Slake bryface, brental foss @ The Studio at Webster Hall @ Baby’s All Right @ Palisades 05/23: Murlo, Rushmore, Kid Antoine, Fraxinus, 06/21: RVIVR, War on Women, Arm Candy, Rips 07/12: KHF, Gold Dime, Radio Shock, Tripletrain @ Palisades @ Palisades 999Reversus, Painted Faces @ Trans-Pecos August 05/24: DJ Taye, Gel Set, Khaki Blazer 06/22: Parquet Courts, Naomi Punk, PC Worship 07/12: Ciarra Black, AdHoc DJs @ Alphaville 08/01: Power Trip, Foreseen, Red Death, The Pose @ The Maze @ Palisades 07/16: Spraynard, Dogs on Acid, Cave, Marge @ Palisades 05/26: Giant Claw, Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk, 06/23: Blonde Redhead, Caveman, Talk In Tongues @ Shea Stadium 08/01: Fathers Day 4 w/ DJ Richard, Wrecked, Mezzanine Swimmers, Trabajo, Macula Dog @ Webster Hall 07/17: Good Willsmith, People of the North, Fatherhood @ Palisades @ Palisades 06/23: Bambara, Muuy Biien, Dead Waves, Heavy Eartheater, OrbKA @ Trans-Pecos 08/05: Delicate Sen, Anthony Saunders, IMF, 05/28: Neil Michael Hagerty, PC Worship, Birds @ Alphaville 07/17: Mitski, Elvis Depressedly, Eskimeaux, Lazurite @ Trans-Pecos SoreEros, Rips @ Baby’s All Right 06/25: Desparecidos, The So So Glos Normal Person @ Palisades 08/05: Goldie, A. Dred, Alex English 05/28: LONG DISTANCE POISON, Grasshopper, @ Shea Stadium 07/18: A.G. Cook, Danny L Harle, The Range, @ The Panther Room at Output Mister Matthews, Kill Alters @ Trans-Pecos 06/26: Destruction Unit, Vanity, Shredded Nerve, EDMily @ Baby’s All Right 08/06: Desaparecidos, The So So Glos, 05/30: Death, Obnox, Atlantic Thrills Live Drum Punishment @ Palisades 07/18: Boys Noize, Trina, Jubilee, Nadastrom, The Banddroidz @ Webster Hall @ The Studio at Webster Hall 06/26: Fungi Girls, Pill, Los Cripis, Arm Candy Venus X, Busy P, Boston Bun, DJ Earl, So Super 08/08: Landlady, The Due Diligence, Sensation 05/30: DJ Earl, Lil Jabba, Rezzie, Durban, DJ MG @ Alphaville Sam, Star Eyes @ Brooklyn Mirage @ Alphaville @ Elvis Guesthouse 06/26: Hot Sugar, Mess Kid, Ynfynyt Scroll 07/18: Dark0, Lotic, Byrell The Great, Copout 08/12: Cherry Glazerr, Honduras, Haybaby, DJ 05/30: Yvette, Eartheater, Dreamcrusher, DJ @ China Chalet @ Palisades Radio Rahill @ Baby’s All Right Unisex @ Alphaville 06/26: Mykki Blanco, Psychoegyptian, Violence, 07/18: Ronnie Stone & The Lonely Riders: 08/12: Pharmakon, Damien Dubrovnik, Puce Mary, Amnesia Scanner, Chino Amobi @ Palisades TheConfession @ Aviv Varg @ Palisades June 06/26: Old Gray, Milo, Clique @ Silent Barn 07/18: Wolf Eyes as Trip Metal Inzane All-Starz, 08/13: Failure, Hum @ Webster Hall 06/06: Merchandise, Container, Cloakroom 06/27: Uniform, Rectal Hygienics, Unholy Two, Dogleather, Slug Christ, Couch Slut @ Palisades 08/14: Flatliner, Xander Harris, Seabat @ Palisades Ligature, Astral Knife @ Trans-Pecos 07/19: Arabrot, Pinkish Black, GHOLD @ Trans- Pecos 06/06: Merchandise, White Lung, Cloakroom 06/28: Bill Orcutt, Tom Carter, 75 Dollar Bill, Pat @ Black Bear Bar 08/14: You Blew It!, Sorority Noise, Microwave @ Baby’s All Right Noecker, Excepter DJs @ Trans-Pecos 07/19: Elvis Depressedly, Mitski, Eskimeaux, @ Shea Stadium 06/06: Obliterations, GIVE, Impact @ The Studio Emily Yacina @ Shea Stadium 08/15: Cut Hands, Container, Ligature @ Palisades at Webster Hall July 07/22: Cold Cave, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, 08/18: Mac Demarco, PC Worship, Tall Juan 06/08: Flowers of Evil, OCDPP, Surfbort, DJ 07/02: Ceremony, Pity Sex, Tony Molina, Black Rain @ The Wick @ Webster Hall Drew Citron @ Alphaville Wildhoney @ Shea Stadium 07/23: StatiqBloom, Skull Katalog, Soren Roi 08/21: M.E.S.H., HELM, Vereker, Dutch E Germ, 06/12: The Holydrug Couple, Hubble, LODRO 07/03: Evan Caminiti, Circuit des Yeux, Ancient @ Trans-Pecos DJ Ning Nong @ Trans-Pecos @ Alphaville Ocean @ Trans-Pecos 07/23: Stitches, Main Attrakionz, Buckwheat 08/22: Frankie Cosmos, Lionlimb, Whitney 06/13: Fathers of Footwork w/ DJ Spinn, RP 07/04: Swirlies, Krill, ADVAETA @ Silent Barn Groats @ The Studio at Webster Hall @ Shea Stadium Boo, Traxman, special guests Total Freedom, 10 08/22: Mr. Mitch, Neana, Akito, Kieran Loftus 09/19: Cold Beat, Home Blitz, MPHO, OCDPP 10/10: Sudanim, MM, Wen, Imaabs, Divoli S’vere 11/12: Cloud Nothings, The Hotelier @ Motel No 7 @ Palisades @ Shea Stadium @ Palisades 11/13: Lee Ranaldo (Solo Acoustic), Chris Forsyth 08/23: Dead Leaf Echo, Single Last, DECORUM, 09/20: Martin Rev (of Suicide), One Prayer One 10/11: Deaf Wish, Shop Talk, Bonnie Baxter & Nick Millevoi, Ancient Ocean @ Trans-Pecos Future Museums @ Alphaville Sin, Mystic Ruler, Courtship Ritual @ Saint Vitus @ Alphaville 11/13: U.S. Girls, Escape-ism, Rebel Kind 08/28: Deradoorian, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, 09/25: CocoRosie, A Tribe Called Red 10/14: Neon Indian, Tamaryn, Hannah Cohen @ Alphaville Image Man @ Trans-Pecos @ Webster Hall @ Webster Hall 11/14: Chandra, Future Punx, Olivia Neutron- John, 08/28: Machinedrum, Dave Q, A. Dred & English 09/25: Heaters (LP Release Show), The Mystery 10/17: AdHoc Car Wash w/ Destruction Unit, Bile Sister ft. New Chance @ Trans-Pecos @ Slake Lights, Lemon Twigs, Prince Rupert’s Drops Perfect Pussy, Porches., LVL UP, Downtown Boys, 11/14: Nada Surf, Slothrust @ Webster Hall 08/28: Zachary Cale, Pete Nolan, Pigeons @ Alphaville Pity Sex, Potty Mouth, Protomartyr, Sheer Mag, 11/14: NOBUNNY, David Peel, Crazy & The @ Baby’s All Right 09/25: Skylar Spence, Ricky Eat Acid, Peter Whitney @ Hand & Detail Brains @ Palisades 08/29: Royal Headache, Sheer Mag, Flowers of Berkman, Sharpless @ Palisades 10/17: Destruction Unit, Latisha’s Skill Drawing, 11/14: U.S. Girls, Escape-ism, Godxss Evil @ Palisades 09/26: FIDLAR, Dune Rats @ Webster Hall PAWNS, Horoscope @ Alphaville @ Babycastles 08/30: Mal Devisa, Long Beard, Montana Elliot, 09/26: Laurel Halo, VIA APP, Malory, Austin 10/17: Pity Sex, Makthaverskan, Crying, Teen 11/15: Gwar, Born of Osiris, Battlecross, SYKA Marco @ 603 Upstairs Cesear @ Trans-Pecos Suicide, LVL UP, Petal, Spencer Radcliffe, @ Webster Hall 09/30: Drew McDowall, Gene Pick, 51717, Ciarra Pinegrove @ Palisades 11/17: Nicole Dollanganger, Foxes In Fiction, September Black @ Alphaville 10/20: Battles, Xenia Rubinos @ Webster Hall Emily Reo @ Baby’s All Right 09/01: Grooms, Parlor Walls, Faten Kanaan 10/20: Heaven’s Gate, Buck Gooter, Lushes, 11/18: Hudson Mohawke, The-Dream, Nick Hook, @ Shea Stadium October Jellowood/Meth Biker @ Alphaville Kitty Cash, Matt FX, Hiyawatha @ Webster Hall 09/04: Bruce Smear, Princess Nokia, Doss (DJ), 10/02: Eskimeaux, Told Slant, Attic Abasement, 10/21: Majical Cloudz, She-Devils 11/19: Together PANGEA, White Reaper, Simon Sadaf, Tallesen @ Baby’s All Right Real Life Buildings @ Baby’s All Right @ National Sawdust Doom @ Shea Stadium 09/04: Prince Rama, Giant Claw, Darren Keen, 10/02: Ought, LVL UP, Rick from Pile 10/23: Ex-Cult, Squad Car, Surfbort @ Alphaville 11/20: Kode9, M.E.S.H., GENG @ Palisades Macula Dog @ Palisades @ Secret Project Robot 10/23: Eli Keszler & Rashad Becker, Bob Bellerue, 11/20: Martin Courtney, J. R. Bohannon 09/05: Teengirl Fantasy, Bodan+Draveng, 10/03: Ikonika, Rizzla, DJ Earl, Traxman, Reuben Son @ Trans-Pecos @ National Sawdust UMFANG, Sasha Jan Rezzie @ Palisades Tripletrain @ Palisades 10/23: Widowspeak, Mega Bog @ Trans-Pecos 11/20: Together PANGEA, White Reaper, Surfbort 09/09: Cat Power (Solo), Willy Mason 10/03: Makthaverskan, Lower, Flagland, Arm 10/27: Laced, The Men, The Funs, WALL @ Baby’s All Right @ Webster Hall Candy @ Baby’s All Right @ Shea Stadium 11/21: Priests, Shopping, Arm Candy @ Palisades 09/10: Antenes, James Place, Kara-Lis Coverdale, 10/03: VOCAL FRY w/ Mitski, Leslie Jamison, 10/28: Marching Church, Norman Westberg, Trans 11/22: Frankie Cosmos, All Dogs, Eskimeaux, Roberto Carlos Lange, Simon Chioini Jenny Zhang, Margaret Ross @ Shea Stadium FX @ Saint Vitus Florist @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall @ Trans-Pecos 10/04: Destroyer, Jennifer Castle @ Webster Hall 10/29: Youth Lagoon, Moon King, Ronald Paris 11/27: Forth Wanderers, Mal Devisa, Old Table, 09/11: DIVERSA, QRION, Mothica, Diveo, Abbi 10/06: Guardian Alien, Jon Mueller, Byron @ Webster Hall Fightboat @ The Studio at Webster Hall Press, Austin Johnson @ Palisades Westbrook, Brown Water Wampum Band 10/31: Joanna Gruesome, Aye Nako, King of Cats, 09/12: Moon Duo, Soldiers of Fortune, Squad Car @ Alphaville PWR BTTM @ Shea Stadium December @ Baby’s All Right 10/06: Kurt Vile & The Violators, 12/02: Connan Mockasin @ National Sawdust 09/13: Human Eye, Honey, Moral Panic, Cyanide WAXAHATCHEE, Luke Roberts @ Webster Hall November 12/02: GCT15 w/ Deer Tick, Superchunk, Kurt Tooth @ Alphaville 10/07: Kurt Vile & The Violators, 11/05: Deafheaven, Envy, Tribulation Vile, The Felice Brothers, Waxahatchee, Hop 09/15: Mild High Club, Laser Background, Navy WAXAHATCHEE, Luke Roberts @ Webster Hall @ Webster Hall Along, Parquet Courts, Woods, Beach Fossils, Gangs, Sky Picnic @ Silent Barn 10/08: Alex G Record Release w/ Ronald Paris, 11/06: The Hotelier, Runaway Brother, Oso Oso, Torres, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Gunn, Perfect 09/17: The Donkeys, The Due Diligence, Aeirloom Forth Wanderers @ Baby’s All Right Spirit of the Beehive @ The Studio at Webster Hall Pussy, Screaming Females, Rainer Maria, Titus @ The Studio at Webster Hall 10/08: DJ Spinn, Nick Hook, Karizma, Novelist, 11/07: Yob, Black Cobra, Kings Destroy @ The Andronicus, Speedy Ortiz, Porches, Frankie 09/17: Jonas Reinhardt, Evan Caminiti, A Pleasure, Recloose @ Output Marlin Room at Webster Hall Cosmos @ Webster Hall Udbhav Gupta @ Trans-Pecos 10/09: Abbi Press, Mothica, Austin Johnson, 11/07: Fever the Ghost, Lightning Bug, Professor 12/03: Total Freedom, Shayne, Arca @ Output 09/17: Chad Valley, Lemonade, Yumi Zouma, Beshken, Diveo, Olivia @ Palisades Caveman @ Alphaville 12/04: Teen Suicide, Yvette, Diet Cig Korallreven, Cuushe, DJs Erika Spring, Jensen 10/09: Alex G, Frankie Cosmos, Palm, Emily 11/07: Wolf Eyes, Yellow Tears, Dreamcrusher @ Baby’s All Right Sportag, Maria Usbeck @ Wythe Hotel Yacina @ SkyHigh Murals Future HQ @ Trans-Pecos 12/04: VOCAL FRY w/ Pile, Sadie Dupuis, Lucas 09/18: Midday Veil, Ancient Ocean, Rhyton, 10/10: Red Fang, Whores, Wild Throne 11/08: DIIV, No Joy, Sunfower Bean Mann, Dora Malech @ Alphaville Immanent Voiceless @ Trans-Pecos @ Palisades @ Webster Hall 12 12/05: Death in June, Joy Of Life, Spiritual Front, Sean Ragon @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall 12/05: Sepalcure, Avalon Emerson, Darren Keen @ Palisades 12/06: Flowers of Evil, Suspect, Suicide Slide @ Alphaville 12/07: The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No January Longer Afraid to Die, Animal Flag 1/14: Kamasi Washington @ Webster Hall @ Baby’s All Right 01/22: DJ Paypal, DJ Mastercard, DJ Orange 12/09: Tanlines, Oberhofer @ Webster Hall Julius, DJ Instant Message @ Elvis Guesthouse 12/11: Modern Baseball, Sorority Noise, Jeff 01/23: DJ Spinn, DJ Paypal, DJ Earl, DJ Taye Rosenstock, Tiny Moving Parts @ Webster Hall @ Palisades 12/11: Parquet Courts, Pill, B Boys @ Warsaw 01/23: Pop. 1280 @ Alphaville 12/12: Speedy Ortiz, Aye Nako, Dirty Dishes, 01/30: Florist, Long Beard, Vagabon, yours are the Gemma @ Palisades only ears @ Shea Stadium 12/17: Keith Ape, Ken Rebel, Josh Pan @ Marlin Room February 12/19: Royal Trux, Blues Control, IUD, Lexie 02/05: Uniform, Dreamcrusher, Wetware, Mountain @ Webster Hall Horoscope @ Alphaville 12/27: Warthog, Razorheads, Nandas @ Palisades 02/25: LVL UP @ Shea Stadium 12/30: XXYYXX @ Output 02/27: Ty Segall, The Muggers @ Webster Hall 02/28: Ty Segall, The Muggers @ Webster Hall 02/29: Titus Andronicus @ Webster Hall

March 03/04: Prince Rama @ Baby’s All Right 03/12: Craw, STATS @ Saint Vitus 03/12: Dawn Richard @ The Marlin Room at Webster Hall 03/14: Beach House @ Webster Hall 03/15: Beach House @ Webster Hall 03/16: Beach House @ Webster Hall 03/31: Junior Boys, Jessy Lanza @ Webster Hall

April 04/09: Buraka Som Sistema @ Webster Hall 04/14: Tim Hecker @ Warsaw 04/15: Napalm Death, Melvins, Melt Banana @ Webster Hall

May 05/05: Super Furry Animals 05/15: Mac DeMarco 05/16: Mac DeMarco

14 four months or so since its launch, century. Much has been made of the Everything’s Changed; Apple Music has accumulated collapse of the music industry in over 11 million users, about half the wake of the explosion of piracy of the 20 million paid subscribers enabled by platforms like Napster Everything’s the Same: Spotify has accumulated in the past in the late ’90s and early ’00s. eight years. To do this, Apple has The industry’s response to piracy Music in the leaned heavily on its pre-existing was heavy-handed and widely infrastructure, namely the ubiquity derided. Aggressive digital rights Streaming Era of iPhones and iTunes. Apple Music management proved controversial appears automatically with updates and invasive. In 2005, Sony’s CDs to iPhones and iPads, and was came packaged with DRM software rolled out with a three-month free which installed itself automatically subscription. onto user’s computers. It proved Miguel Gallego considers the There were, of course, ethical The entrance of Apple, along ineffective and the privacy concerns battles between major streaming complaints to be made about the with Tidal, Jay Z’s artist-led and security vulnerabilities the services, and how these affect the implications of a major rock band alternative, into the streaming software caused led to class action relationships between recorded giving an album away for free. wars is a confrmation of what lawsuits. Apple for a time supported music, artists, and listeners. Bands and trade associations alike has already seemed like a forgone DRM through iTunes until Steve decried the act as devaluing music. conclusion: streaming is the new Jobs himself publicly criticized it as But criticism seemed to center on industry standard. The more bad policy in his essay “Thoughts the spookiness of having a company sinister implication is how Apple on Music,” which was published in When U2 and Apple conspired in like Apple make a unilateral Music refects a desire to be the 2007. September 2014 to deliver the tepid decision to place mediocre music industry—to become the one-stop The industry’s attempts to resist Songs of Innocence to the iTunes into people’s music libraries. destination for everything from rather than embrace the wave of of every Apple user without their However innocuous a gesture it radio, to streaming, to the very digitization were public relations consent, the decision was met with was, the Songs of Innocence release medium music is mastered for and disasters. Between Metallica seemingly outsized anger. Customer demonstrated just how ominous distributed with. Apple pushes its drummer Lars Ulrich’s widely complaints forced Apple to create and ubiquitous Apple’s power over own proprietary music fle, AAC, satirized crusade against Napster a page detailing how to remove it. the way we consume music was through iTunes and Apple Music. and RIAA’s litigiousness, which A befuddled Bono responded to the becoming. Apple has also pushed to shift more often than not resulted in debacle in an NPR interview: “We Songs of Innocence can be standards for mastering music to be absurd realities wherein single wanted to deliver a pint of milk to seen as a prelude to the rollout of oriented towards AAC. mothers were ordered to pay record people’s front porches, but in a few Apple Music. It served as a test It’s easy with hindsight to labels to the tune of six fgures for cases it ended up in their fridge, on of how easily Apple could use its condemn the music industry for its downloading twenty-some-odd their cereal. People were like, ‘I’m vast user base to instantly make its failure to respond adequately to the songs, the industry’s moral high dairy-free.’” new products competitive. In the rise of the MP3 at the dawn of the ground in opposing music piracy 16 eroded. These failures could be part professional studios, and require Apple’s attempt to force its way host their music exclusively on of what Apple sees as its mandate heavy promotion. An NPR article into industry dominance through its one platform that would justify the for trying to monopolize streaming. published in 2011 that breaks pre-existing infrastructure can only opportunity cost of not having their To be fair, the digital medium must down the costs for the creation go so far. Ultimately, Apple Music music on all of them. It will likely have seemed like a tough nut to of Rihanna’s 2010 single “Man has to offer services that best fll remain in their best interests— crack at the time—and not simply Down”—a relative commercial the needs of the consumer. Spotify however paltry those interests are because the technical infrastructure failure—places the ultimate cost of and Apple Music are comparable in the world of streaming—to have to support the solution of streaming, writing, production, and promotion in their library sizes—both claim presences on both services. which seems so obvious now, at $1,078,000. That the rise of to offer in the neighborhood of 30 Independent artists, despite did not yet exist. MP3s and other the MP3 and the decline of the million tracks. Each offers some the limited compensation they digital audio fles presented a huge CD has made distribution costs exclusive content. Apple Music, receive from streaming services, conceptual problem as well—a much cheaper seems negligible. for example, premiered the instant- are nevertheless frequently alluded problem that streaming solves, but It’s hard to imagine, then, Taylor meme video for Drake’s “Hotline to in a rhetorical struggle between only sort of. Swift’s 1989 costing much less Bling,” and streamed it exclusively various streaming services for How can you convince people to produce than, say, Backstreet for a week before it was uploaded ethical superiority. Jimmy Lovine, to buy a medium that is intangible Boys’ million-selling blockbuster, to Vevo. Erykah Badu’s freaky head of Apple Music, has been and infnitely reproducible? Unlike Millennium. Why should the record mixtape-suite partially inspired by sharply critical of Spotify’s CDs, or DVDs for that matter, industry regard stealing the latter the aforementioned Drake track, freemium model—where non- digital fles are abstract. Having from a store ffteen years ago But You Cain’t Use My Phone, is paying subscribers can listen to albums on your hard drive is a very as fundamentally different from available exclusively through the music, provided they sit through different feeling of ownership than downloading the former from Pirate service as well. ads. According to an article published in Rolling Stone in having them on your shelves. That’s Bay? It’s unclear whether exclusives October entitled “Apple, Spotify why the infamous anti-piracy “You Streaming solves the conceptual will become a deciding factor in Streaming War Heats Up,” Lovine wouldn’t steal a car” ads produced problem posed by digital mediums the streaming wars. The prospect of regards the “unlimited free music” by the Motion Picture Association by abstracting the actual commodity downloading illegally still looms, offered by Spotify as crossing a in the mid-2000s were so laughable. consumers are paying for. It may especially when major releases moral boundary. “The freemium The analogy seemed, and still not make sense for people to buy seem to leak more often than not. model,” he’s quoted as saying seems, absurd. and own MP3s, but it certainly If a consumer is already subscribed in the article, “is great for the From the perspective of record makes sense to pay for access to to one service, one or two exclusive companies that are using them to labels and flm studios, however, music. The streaming model as it releases by a favorite artist on a build massive audiences… but it’s this analogy isn’t so outlandish. applies to music through Spotify competing service is unlikely to happening on the back of artists.” For all the fuss made about how and Apple Music, and flm and TV make a subscriber jump ship, or pay Apple joins a number of voices in the internet has democratized the through Netfix and Hulu, refects for two subscriptions. Besides, only opposing the freemium model. In production and distribution of a shift towards a post-ownership major artists have the leverage with the same article, Anthony Bay, chief music, big hits are still expensive economy that most 20th-century which to beneft from exclusivity. executive of the now-defunct Rdio, to make. They require big-name sci-f writers and cultural critics Smaller and independent artists echoes Lovine’s criticisms: “If you producers and songwriters, use probably could not have anticipated. are unlikely to receive offers to 18 pick the song, you should pay.” Lovine and Bay join a long list the service’s free three-month interview, “the direct result was a an unresolved one. If there’s only of artists—including, perhaps most trial. It’s also hard not to see the drop-off in the rate of subscriber Apple Music, what basis does famously, Taylor Swift—who have resemblance between the criticisms growth.” Meanwhile, Spotify and anyone have to argue with the condemned Spotify’s business issued towards Apple and U2 for other streaming services have fred decisions Apple makes? model. Joanna Newsom recently the way the Songs of Innocence back at Apple for taking 30% cuts Streaming is remaking the criticized Spotify harshly as well, debacle “devalued” music and the of Spotfy’s subscription revenues music industry, but not necessarily calling it a “cynical and musician- tone of Apple’s own critiques of through the App Store. Whenever in a way that redresses the hating system” in an interview with Spotify’s freemium model. Taylor a Spotify user subscribes via iOS, disempowerment of artists that the Los Angeles Times. Tidal, Jay Swift and the independent label Spotify is obligated to pay 30% of categorized the old, moribund Z’s streaming service, has made conglomeration, Beggars Group, the money to Apple, forcing them model. This isn’t, however, an the ethics of its royalty payments both issued statements condemning and other services to charge more inevitability. The Internet still has as well as its “CD-quality” music Apple’s plan to not pay royalties for subscriptions via iOS. The App as much destabilizing power as its principal selling points. (For during the free subscription period. Store forbids services like Spotify ever. Tools and services like Saga reference, Tidal streams lossless Had Apple gone ahead with this from alerting consumers through and Tomahawk offer opportunities 1.4 Mbps FLAC fles, Apple uses plan, Taylor Swift would have their iOS apps that they will be to subvert, however slightly, 256 kps AAC, and Spotify streams withheld her hit album, 1989, from charged less if they subscribe the control would-be streaming 320 kbps Ogg Vorbis. Whether the streaming service, just as she online. Moreover, services cannot juggernauts have over how we listen the average listener under average had famously done with Spotify. offer family plans or promotion via to and distribute our music. Now, listening conditions can tell the In response to this pressure, Apple the App Store—“both of which,” more than ever, artists and listeners difference is up for debate.) acquiesced. A series of tweets from Julia Greenberg notes in an article can work in tandem to ensure that Apple, too, has promised Apple Senior Vice President, Eddy for Wired published in August, the emerging “new industry” is one to “boost royalty payments to Cue, announced the policy change, “Apple does.” that is as fair to both as possible. ☺ rightsholders.” According to data emphasizing that “#AppleMusic While Greenberg points out that amalgamated in an Information is will pay artist for streaming, even it is unlikely that these practices are Beautiful infographic, Apple’s and during customer’s free trial period.” going to be found by the FTC to Spotify’s payment for streams is a Spotify, meanwhile, has violate anticompetitive regulations, couple of fractions of a cent, with defended itself from criticism of its it’s clear that Apple is exercising the the two services paying $0.0013 freemium model. While Apple can vast infrastructure and resources at and $0.0011 respectively; Tidal, for offer free subscriptions built off its its disposal to ensure it becomes the its part, pays $0.0070 per stream— iPhone user base, Spotify, according de facto leader in streaming. If and almost seven times as much per to global head of communication when that happens—and the “if” is stream as either of its competitors. and public policy Jonathan Prince, important, because Spotify still has It’s hard, furthermore, cannot gain subscribers without its quite a lead on Apple Music—the to overlook Apple Music’s free tier. “When we have limited rhetorical and theatrical arguments original plan, as reported by The our free tier in the past,” Prince is about artist compensation become Guardian, to not pay artists during quoted as saying in a Rolling Stone simultaneously a moot point and 20 manifests itself in the proliferation of exhibitions packaged as The Curationist Moment “experiences”—shows that, due to the primacy of their overarching concept, make the curator, rather than the artists, the star. This explains the celebrity status of curators like the Serpentine Gallery’s Hans Ulrich Obrist and MoMA PS1’s Klaus Biesenbach. The former, known for his interviews with notable artists as well as multi-faceted group exhibitions like 2014’s Extinction Marathon: Visions of the Future, serves as Balzer’s chief subject; the book’s prologue is titled “Who is HUO?” and posits Obrist’s jet-setting, star-making career as the pinnacle of curationism. The latter curator is well-known in New York and elsewhere for his ambitious 2015 was full of electronic music curatorial concepts, like 2015’s multimedia Björk exhibition at MoMA or “curators,” but Oneohtrix Point 2014’s expansive Rockaway! exhibition, which featured large projects by Never’s ’90s culture-inspired Patti Smith, Adrián Villar Rojas, and Janet Cardiff, plus a group show, all Garden of Delete went beyond throughout Rockaway Beach. name-checking. Is there a Hans Ulrich Obrist or Klaus Biesenbach, then, of music? Not necessarily, but we certainly see the “curationist” phenomenon at work in music, too. Contemporary musicians and industry workers “curate” everything from music festivals to videos to playlists. Within the Everyone’s a curator these days. their own agency or identity—a electronic music milieu this year, the curationist impulse also led to the It’s an observation that spurred practice that seems necessary as we release of numerous multi-faceted, collaboration-heavy albums—“curated” art critic David Balzer to write spend more and more of our time group exhibitions, if you will, which, furthermore, often included plenty Curationism, a late 2014 book that online, interfacing with others under of “curated” extra-musical material, from videos to performances to art aims to break down the when, why, the guise of social media avatars objects to pop-up shops. and how of what Balzer terms the that make us look more or less the Early in the year, two dance music supergroups, Future Brown and “curationist” moment. Noting the same (Twitter’s square profle pics, Jack Ü, released self-titled debut full-lengths that, despite coming from increasing abundance of art curators Facebook’s uniform cover photos, different cultural spheres—one arty, one pop—demonstrate the curationist and, say, sandwich “curators” etc.). To combat this homogeneity, phenomenon. Through their employment of a disparate array of talented in contemporary society, Balzer we “curate” these frameworks— collaborators, each offered the type of totalizing artistic experience present explains that today’s curators seek posting a coherent body of memes, in wide-ranging, curated art exhibitions (for instance, Rockaway!). These to “cultivate and organize things “attending” an enviable slate of albums’ relative merits and demerits aside, each positioned its respective in an expression-cum-assurance events. Sometimes, referring to supergroup as something of a curatorial team, coordinating a multi-artist, of value and an attempt to make these online activities, we even label multimedia project under a unique vision. affliations with, and to court, ourselves “curators” in our social Especially given Future Brown’s connections to art institutions like various audiences and consumers.” media bios. Biesenbach’s PS1, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to call the group’s members Curators elevate the things In the contemporary art “curators.” On Future Brown, Fatima Al Qadiri, J-Cush, Asma Maroof, and they like as a means of establishing world, Balzer says, curationism Daniel Pineda provide musical backdrops for a select cadre of vocalists. In 22 line with the musicians’ continuing Skrillex and Diplo Present In nearly all his interviews, Jamie name recognition—“rave”— investigation of globalism, race, Jack Ü likewise exhibits a stylistic discussed his formative experiences instead of musical innovation and and forward-thinking dance music, panoply, sonically referencing as a DJ, mentioning the funk, transcendence, which renders his they featured vocalists of color bounce, trap, and house underneath hip-hop, and Latin music he spun “expression” faccid. The song operating largely in localized urban curated vocal takes from Justin as a kid, and then the jungle, “Gosh,” according to Eede, employs music genres—from Chicago Bieber, 2 Chainz, AlunaGeorge, drum’n’bass, and dubstep that drew club music signifers, like clipped bop duo Sicko Mobb to London and Fly Boi Keno, among others. him as a young adult. For Jamie, childlike vocal samples and typical grime mainstay Riko Dan. The Having made his career on In Colour is also something of a 2-step snares; it moves beyond its result is an album that traverses inducting underheard genres— eulogy for the famous London club obvious infuences with a new- plenty of stylistic ground, rooting bounce, B-more club, dancehall— Plastic People, an incubator for wavey melody in the second half, itself in Future Brown’s signature into wider pop contexts, Diplo the UK bass scene—from grime to but the song remains fundamentally maximalist productions. The particularly appears to relish his dubstep to garage—throughout the a sonic homage to UK rave music. music—informed by internet- curatorial role on Jack Ü. “A lot of 21st century, which closed at the How might a curator not just point era eclecticism and post-human times a big star will take up most beginning of 2015. us to things he or she likes, but use sonics—is certainly of-the-times; of the space,” he told Charlie Rose By exhibiting the myriad UK these references to help us approach the collaborative approach itself is after the album’s release, “and dance sounds he heard at Plastic viewing and listening differently? too. you will only have a little say in People, Jamie, like many current “But is there any danger,” the work.” With Jack Ü, however, artists and curators, creates not just Dummy’s Jazz Monroe asked the two producers, per Diplo, “did an artwork but an experience— Future Brown in February, “in 95 percent of the work and the in his case, a celebration and replacing [the musical guests’] direction it went.” context with Future Brown’s?” embodiment of his memories of “What year is this?” J-Cush David Balzer’s a now-bygone era of inspiring In August, a PDF answered. “How much information characterization of curationism— London club music. But though questionnaire appeared on the is there foating around? Of course that it involves “cultivat[ing] it was widely lauded for its well- website of another noteworthy we’re gonna be drawing from here and organiz[ing] things in an curated infuences (Plastic People electronic musician (and curator), and there.” Like countless albums expression-cum-assurance of staples) and collaborators (Popcaan, Oneohtrix Point Never, a.k.a. Daniel and exhibitions in the information value”—applies as much, then, Young Thug), In Colour also drew Lopatin, hinting at a new album that age, Future Brown makes the to Jack Ü and Future Brown as it derision for what some perceived would become November’s Garden juxtaposition of clashing styles its does to most art biennials: each as curation without suffcient of Delete. The seventeen questions aesthetic M.O. Nevertheless, Future entity expresses itself by organizing consideration. The Quietus’ in the PDF—a visually appealing, Brown is still a record by Future others, utilizing some ineffable Christian Eede wrote, for instance, curated selection—provoked readers Brown: “Collectively,” J-Cush guiding “curationist” principle. that Jamie “slathers on the rave to reveal childhood memories, continued, “yeah, we have a sound.” In May, another big-ticket, signifers with sledgehammer listening habits, infuences, fears, And the Future Brown sound rests heavily curated dance music album subtlety.” and even to “write a poem.” in part on the group’s curation of, as dropped: Jamie xx’s In Colour. To his detractors, Jamie In interviews leading up Monroe put it, their collaborators’ Jamie xx’s outward role as curator xx’s “expression-cum-assurance to the album’s release, Lopatin disparate contexts or sounds. was built into In Colour’s narrative. of value” roots its “value” in answered many of these questions 24 himself, outlining various experiences he had growing up in Massachusetts. Lopatin told AdHoc. “I was reading miss the venue; even those who He told AdHoc about getting a guitar for his 16th birthday a night after Richard Meltzer and Lester Bangs, didn’t grow up with Rush or Nine being caught with alcohol and a bong by police; and about buying Rush’s and writing this ridiculous jazz- Inch Nails, however, can say the last Counterparts by himself at the record store. Before recording Garden of poetry.”) On Ezra’s Twitter page, album they listened to, or whether Delete, Lopatin noted that he “fell into these circumstances that were pretty though, the pimpled alien moves or not they’re a virgin, and as a remarkable”: a 2014 tour with Nine Inch Nails, who he “idolized when beyond personal associations with result enter the Garden of Delete [he] was a kid.” Besides informing the industrial-pop-tinged songs on the Lopatin to become a sort of ur- exhibition. album, the exposure to Nine Inch Nails, Lopatin said, triggered memories teenage boy: awkward; alternatingly One might detect a similar of his “adolescent coming of age and coming into agency, like ‘I’m gonna loud and shy; dick-ish; interested in logic at play with the MIDI fles, make my own decisions with my music taste.’” violence, sex, bodies. Ezra’s visions which implicitly courted fan- Memory and taste run deep in the OPN project—from his late ’00s and traits surface most forcefully made covers and, as Lopatin told Eccojams tapes, which dug up and looped outdated sounds, to his nom de in the video for “Sticky Drama.” AdHoc, “[dealt] with the inevitable plume, a mishearing of his hometown radio station “106.7.” But where his Starring legions of warring children complexities of ownership,” seeing infuences had previously seeped hypnagogically into his music—wavy and a young female protagonist as the covers technically preceded and full of holes—with Garden of Delete Lopatin more clearly flled in the covered in CDs, the clip visualizes Lopatin’s originals. Tapping into blanks. Beyond his direct citations of Rush, Nine Inch Nails, and Grotus in the shifting, slimy, and confusing his listeners’ inspirations via the interviews, the heavy, cybernetic grooves that characterize the album call feelings of pubescent obsession questionnaire, and then allowing to mind bands like KoRn and Static-X: music that, one imagines, might’ve and rage, cutting between over- them to, in effect, compose the played on the radio during Lopatin’s youth. From the industrial bombast of saturated images of battlefelds, upcoming OPN album themselves, “I Bite Through It” to “Sticky Drama” and its squealing, moshpit-friendly bedroom singalongs, and exploding Lopatin simultaneously affrms and breakdowns—much of Garden of Delete sounds suited to a stadium, maybe Tamagotchis. devalues his status as “curator.” even to some alien version of alt-rock radio. (The Garden of Delete live Which is to say, Lopatin The type of creative exchange he show, replete with strobe lights and fog machines, bolsters these feelings.) paints a particularly ’90s-centric encourages allowed his audience to Garden of Delete’s unusually imaginative rollout campaign further portrait of musical development. literally construct their own Garden explicated the theme of teenage cultural consumption, adding nuance after This could theoretically alienate of Delete—with Lopatin’s guidance, nuance to Lopatin’s treatment of his infuences and musical fandom in audiences with different networks but without his individualized alt- general. He released a curated selection of material, including MIDI fles of of experience, but Lopatin’s rock bombast. the record (before anyone had heard the songs themselves); a tween-flled inclusion of the initial questionnaire Indeed, rather than “Sticky Drama” video, directed by the artist Jon Rafman; a fctional teenage helps to universalize his project, manipulate his ’90s references as fan/nemesis named Ezra; a fake industrial band called Kaoss Edge; and inviting fans to perform their own points of interest in themselves, he Twitter accounts for both. Each entity provided a new lens through which retrospection alongside him. Jamie uses them as jumping off points, to view the relationships between music, fandom, and adolescence. xx taps into a shared memory with working towards something wider. Ezra, a teenage humanoid alien and pseudo-music critic that keeps his evocations of Plastic People, “Child of Rage,” for instance, draws a blog called kaossed.blogspot.com, evokes Lopatin’s professed desires to but only those with frst-hand its opening lines from the flm of be an edgy, Richard Meltzer-like music critic when he was younger. (“That experience of Plastic People can the same name, a 1992 documentary was one of the ways I identifed myself as a teenager and early in college,” fully understand what it means to about a kindergarten-aged girl, Beth, 26 with Reactive Attachment Disorder. doesn’t say, “You should like Rush. more rigid classifcations, binaries, and visual and ideological frameworks. Lopatin samples an exchange in You should like KoRn. You should Kristeva calls those particularly obsessed with the abject “exiles”—a term which Beth coldly, indifferently like Child of Rage.” Instead, he that fts in with Garden of Delete’s angsty teen-addled universe. tells her psychiatrist of her violent offers a universe—an exhibition— Indeed, for Lopatin, the abject in many ways describes the teenage feelings toward her younger brother: in which these cultural objects exist, experience, pimples and all. “We like to think that things are stable,” he “Why is your brother afraid of you, then strips down signifers in favor told THUMP editor (and AdHoc founder) Emilie Friedlander, “but with Beth?” “Because I hurt him so of auditory chaos, and asks his enough time, any number of objects or ideas or bodies inevitably change. I much.” The eerie exchange packs a listeners to sort it all out. think mutation on a biological level is as punk as anything can be—it just punch whether the listener has seen In addition to his musical and fies in the face of order.” Garden of Delete places power in adolescence, the movie or not, especially because television infuences, Lopatin has with its rebellion and confusing hormonal makeup. As we grow into our Lopatin stops the dialogue abruptly cited philosopher and literary critic adult selves—throbbing, gurgling, sweating—Lopatin sees possibilities and launches into what becomes Julia Kristeva as an inspiration for for positive new relationships with art, man, and machine, amidst the post- Garden of Delete’s mildest, jazziest Garden of Delete—specifcally, her industrial chaos. ☺ track. The effect is disorienting, idea of the “abject.” In Powers of much like the disquieting Horror, Kristeva wonders about disjuncture between Beth’s words an object “as tempting as it is and her vocal affect. condemned”: something, like Child More than an homage to a of Rage for Lopatin, that causes “a relic from his childhood, OPN’s vortex of summons and repulsion “Child of Rage” is an homage to [that] places the one haunted by it the conficting feelings Lopatin literally beside himself.” Think: has watching Child of Rage. As snot, corpses, the kind of grotesque teens, he and his friends would stuff that looks alive but isn’t (i.e., “get some demented kick out of much of the imagery that appears [watching] it,” he told AdHoc. But on Ezra’s pus-and-blood-covered “thinking about that in retrospect,” Twitter page and the slimy “Sticky he added, “and watching it recently Drama” video). Why, Kristeva and on YouTube, I felt pretty ashamed Lopatin both seem to ask, does that that was something I would this stuff tempt us? Why can’t you do for fun.” You may not have look away when you see an oozing seen the semi-exploitative Child of pimple? Rage when you were younger, but For Kristeva and Lopatin you’ve surely looked back on some alike, the appeal of the abject lies adolescent fascination with a similar in its peculiar liminal status— feeling of shame, no? on the edges of appealing and In other words, Lopatin’s use disgusting, life and death, knowable of this material isn’t instructive; he and abstruse—within a culture of 28 How I Found Myself The frst place I went after touching down in New York in June—and at David Blaine’s The the place where I stayed for my frst several nights in the city—was David Blaine’s the Steakhouse (DBTS), a DIY venue and apartment that houses members of LVL UP, Porches., Cende, and Slight, as well as a rotating cast Steakhouse of members and ex-members of a variety of other local punk-tinged bands, like Krill and The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. When I arrived, nearly everyone in the house was in the process of wrapping a rehearsal for Montana & The Marvelles, a newly formed band Steven Spoerl recounts his year of splitting time between central Wiscon- that was created with the sole intention of playing formal events, shrouding sin and Brooklyn, and how access to community and publicity shaped the themselves in more than a few layers of mystique. The group was comprised cities’ respective scenes. of a bunch of very talented individuals who played in multiple other ac- claimed projects, including Montana Levy (Sharpless), Jim Hall (Slight and Painted Zeros), Chris Daley, Nick Corbo (LVL UP, Crying, and Normal Per- son), and Greg Rutkin (LVL UP, Normal Person, Slight, and Cende). Soon after, they’d style themselves as a “wedding band.” That’s right: DBTS was playing host to a newly wedded couple who didn’t want to miss their chance to cut loose with friends after a small, pri- vate ceremony earlier that day. There was champagne in bulk, a taco line, and even a root beer foat section, replete with a root beer keg. Balloons foated to the ceiling, a disco ball glittered on its axis, people were decked out in their fnest, and Montana & The Marvelles unveiled a fery, punk rock cover set that touched on everything from Ben E. King to Violent Femmes At the start of 2015, I didn’t know if I’d ever escape my home state of and Angel Olsen. It was the group’s frst public outing—in honor of the Wisconsin. It was a state that I’d come to love, but one that I desperately married couple, highlighting the spirit of community surrounding DBTS— wanted to leave, at least for a little while. I knew there were places and and a night that’ll be remembered fondly by everyone who was there. people in New York that could afford me opportunities that I wouldn’t have At the time, the shadow of several recently closed venues—285 Kent in Stevens Point—a particularly desolate and isolated town in central Wis- and Death By Audio were two that friends often cited—was still looming consin—so I took on a soul-crushing job as a customer service representa- heavily over the Brooklyn scene, despite musicians and fans’ resourceful- tive for a bank and braced myself until I’d saved enough to head out east to ness in creating new opportunities to see and play music. DBTS quickly Brooklyn.

30 showed that, even in the absence of ther away from the press and record these beloved spaces, Brooklyn still labels. Someone like Colin Bares had a large and open-armed com- can write some of the most gripping munity of hardworking and talented songs of the year through his solo musicians. Twenty minutes into my rotation during the quietest mo- inspiring. Even the placement of a project The Weasel, Marten Fisher Brooklyn stay—when I frst heard ments at DBTS). desk in the house required a discus- (which he did)—and no one will bat Montana & The Marvelles re- Despite this recognition, sion between at least two residents, an eye, due to his lack of access to hearse—I’d already stumbled across these artists were still giving back which then expanded until the house the types of press outlets that could the type of project that simply to the community in a way that had a miniature schoolroom section, make his career. hadn’t existed anywhere in Wiscon- many others in their shoes wouldn’t, completed hours later with a chalk- Frequently hailed as a song- sin. remaining committed to the smaller board and a map of the globe. writing talent on par with an iconic The set had an immediate venues and bands in favor of jump- Over time, I began to under- fgure like Daniel Johnston, Bares effect on me. Three days after mov- ing at the fashiest of opportunities. stand how DBTS keeps drawing evokes Johnston’s weariness and ing, I had maxed out my camera’s For the frst time in my life, I was participants (and new fans) into its practices a similarly endearing 32GB memory card; I knew that getting a direct glimpse into the in- orbit. The residents champion the brand of outsider folk, and he turned something was happening in the ner workings of a wide artistic com- music they believe in (and, by ex- in music this year that ranks easily borough that needed to be captured, munity that was constantly pulling tension at this point, music I believe alongside the best of DBTS. Be- appreciated, and remembered. I artists, writers, and other creative in) using every platform at their dis- cause he lives far out in the mid- wasn’t just preserving performances types into its orbit. Restrictions posal, hosting and playing endless west, however, he lacks access to of songs, but also creating a living mattered less and creating memo- spates of shows, recording like cra- the parties, house shows, and 24- document of the surroundings of ries mattered more—an attitude that zy, and getting the word out through hour support system available to those moments, starting with an has always been at the heart of DIY all manner of media. In addition to artists in New York or Los Angeles. actual secret wedding party. music’s worldview. pushing their own projects forward, SoundCloud and Bandcamp help, By the time I’d arrived in DBTS runs a tight ship. With these groups stay committed to their but they often need an extra push. New York, LVL UP, Porches., and any project I encountered with- foundations and their friends, forg- And there aren’t many music blogs other resident-based bands had in the venue’s extended family, ing alliances that are mutually bene- in rural Wisconsin. already started picking up acclaim each aspect of the creative process fcial to all parties involved. Talent, sadly, isn’t every- from press outlets and expanding was thought out to the nth degree. Back in central Wisconsin, thing—a cruel fact that was drilled their audience. Bands like Pile were Watching them reach moments of there are independent music com- into my head repeatedly in the eight suddenly the focus of cover stories fnality in their projects—whether munities, sure; however, artists of- years I waited for beloved Wiscon- at publications like Consequence music videos, albums, or interior ten work in geographical isolation, sin band Tenement to break out on a of Sound, and labels like Domino installations—was nothing short of far from one another and even far- national scale. One of the only cen- were snapping up Bandcamp-friend- tral Wisconsin artists to have made ly artists like Porches. and Alex G a wider impact over the past few (whose then-forthcoming record, decades, the punk trio built most Beach Music, was in near-constant of their success from the ground 32 lyn days. In the case of the former, where it has the most impact), but in it’d be fguring out a way to—using entertainment as a whole. Cassettes my connections as a photographer, are a more prominent release format journalist, and musician—foster than they have been in decades, and community and keep independent a flm like the acclaimed transgen- arts relevant in a town that has been der drama Tangerine—shot entirely historically dismissive of its artistic on an iPhone 5s by an emerging foor up, operating a house venue branches. After spending time in flmmaker—made serious traction from 2007 to 2011 that frequently Brooklyn, even with the knowledge on the festival circuit, picking up brought in acts from all over, like that press was hard to come by in numerous awards and near-univer- Screaming Females, Cheap Girls, Wisconsin, I had some hope for an sal acclaim along the way. Both and PS Eliot. approach that would have its foun- developments point to the fact that The BFG, the communi- dation built around celebrating the in order for a work to impact or ty-driven punk house they lived in, few active, enormously talented resonate with an audience, an indus- with its inclusive ideology, remains artists in the area. Before too long, a try-based approach isn’t necessary. one of the closest things Wisconsin return date was set. And that ability to connect with has ever had to a DBTS setting. During my last few months in people the grassroots way can be Tenement’s 2015 album, Predatory New York, I focused on preserving traced back to one thing, really: a Highlights, fnally earned the group as much of what was happening in compassionate community. ☺ national praise and prompted bigger Brooklyn as I possibly could. And touring, but I can only imagine that now that I’m back in Wisconsin, success would have come sooner if I’m ready to remove the lens cap of they’d had a supportive communi- my camera and start rolling, without ty like DBTS and other Brooklyn ever thinking to stop. There are too hotspots to lean on. many talented voices that deserve With that thought chipping to be heard—and if I can help peo- away, I knew that when I eventually ple hear them, I will do everything returned to Wisconsin, I’d have a in my power to make that happen. few things to pull from and a few After all, that’s what a family does, things to celebrate from my Brook- and that’s what 2015’s taught me again and again, no matter the loca- tion. Really, if 2015 has proven anything to me, it’s that the DIY ethos is as alive as ever—not just in music (which is still, arguably, 34 Alex G: Beach Music [Domino] Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Alex Giannascoli, better known as Alex G, has been composing simple, lo-f numbers from his bedroom for years. In 2014, he began work on his frst record for Domino, which Our wouldn’t see release until October of this year. Beach Music, as the album is called, is as poignant and personal as anything he’s ever written, but it’s also a departure from his previous fare, seamlessly weaving together abrasive noise, wailing trumpets, and pop melodies. The frst single, “Salt,” overlays bitterly honest lyricism on pitch-descending electronic drums, plunging the listener into a crippling desolation before rising into the mellow buoyancy of “Brite Boy.” The result is a cohesive masterpiece that mirrors the sweeping ups and downs of human emotion—and a powerful depiction of isolation and loss. —Meilyn Huq

Arca: Mutant [Mute] Mutant, Venezuelan producer Alejandro Ghersi’s second full-length album as Arca, follows last year’s Xen, named after Ghersi’s childhood alter- Albums ego. Both albums dwell in indeterminate spaces—between masculine and feminine, fragile and aggressive, grotesque and beautiful—but Ghersi’s work doesn’t pitt these so-called “contradictory values” against each other. Instead—like collaborator and friend Jesse Kanda, who provides much of the visual artwork for Arca releases—he seems to revel in their instability as categories, as manifest in the mutability of the sounds. On Mutant, his synths quaver, poised and shimmering, as if perpetually on the precipice of a deluge; his drums knock and twitch, explode, and stop suddenly. As Ghersi explained it in a November interview with Pitchfork, “If Xen was me sending a letter into the depths of myself, then Mutant is a big 2015 celebration.” —Joseph Ocón

36 Björk: Vulnicura often draws comparisons to Nico’s element—like the siren synth on the most sprawling track on the [One Little Indian] register and timbre, though her the exemplary “Cushion”—it feels album, “Secretion / Grapitudonce On Vulnicura, Björk offers us an delivery can sometimes feel even like emergency glass has been of Hinsenctor,” is pure ooze, no air intimate view of the dissolution more forceful. Much of Circuit des smashed so he can fick the switch sockets. The band has dragged the of a marriage, cataloguing the Yeux’s Thrill Jockey debut, In Plain labeled “Jack All Bodies In The torch this far for NYC punk; they slow, painful dissolve of intimacy Speech, feels like a healing ritual. Vicinity.” But after a few listens to might as well brandish the beat-up built over decades. Production On “Do the Dishes,” Fohr sings, LP, when you’ve been desensitized thing proudly, because they know fourishes by Bjork herself, The There is something inside of you. to the gleeful romp of quantized by now how to do it without burning Haxan Cloak, and Arca—whose Something that’s worth reaching ultraviolence, you can only marvel their hands. —Maddie Rehayem presence on “History of Touches” into. Elsewhere, these sentiments at how much drama Schofeld can can be heard with each wavering appear more energetically than build, how much variety he lends Destruction Unit: Negative synth tone—add to the otherworldly lyrically—especially in passages these tracks, using an array of Feedback Resistor [Sacred Bones] aura of the album’s intricate string like “Dream of TV,” which sounds you can more or less count Both as a band and as some of the arrangements. Despite the personal inundates the listener with layered on one hand. chief instigators behind the Ascetic turmoil she professes, her vision instrumentation and larger-than- —Mike Sugarman House imprint, Destruction Unit has seems as strong and as focused life chants. Fohr enlisted the aid of been quietly infuential in integrating as ever. Of course, with Björk, some fellow Chicagoans to record Dawn of Humans: Slurping At like-minded scenes of harsh music an album is never just an album, In Plain Speech—a gesture that is The Cosmos Spine [La Vida es un that were otherwise somewhat but also a set of sounds waiting pragmatic but also poetic, in that Musica Discos] divided. It’s no coincidence that to be reconfgured. Following the Circuit des Yeux is open receiving Dawn of Humans was ripe, or NYHC kids started mingling with album’s release, she offered up three signals in order to continue to send perhaps rotting, for a full-length the power electronics peeps and installments of Vulnicura remixes, them. —Jeremy Purser record. After several tapes and 7”s, Summer Scum attendees after these including notable reworkings by the band has become more refned— guys started their hard-working tour Lotic and Juliana Huxtable, along Container: LP [Spectrum Spools] at least as refned as a band with a of diplomacy. At frst I just thought with Vulnicura Strings, an acoustic Spending nigh zero time fucking perpetually naked frontman could of them as the resident psych rock version of the album featuring around, Ren Schofeld starts LP be. It should be obvious that Dawn band who’d fallen in with that the viola organista, a keyboard- with a squall of feedback to orient of Humans will never be a pretty crowd. But if Negative Feedback driven string instrument designed us—then he unsettles us once again face for the press or make catchy Resistor is any indication, the by Leonardo da Vinci. —Bianca with a famin’ hot kick line. 2014’s tunes to appease the airwaves. The situation is much more complex. The Giulione stellar Adhesive EP marked a major catchy rhythm on “Horse Blind,” wild boys from the desert out west progression for the Container for instance, is countered by a have crafted their magnum opus, and Circuit des Yeux: In Plain Speech project, with Schofeld’s decisions gloriously off-putting, mutant vocal it’s a weird, perversely exhausting [Thrill Jockey] to up the pace and blow out his effect. The melodic experimentation blast of hallucinatory near-hardcore. Haley Fohr’s voice is the anchor of timbres proving modest on paper on “Mangled Puzzle” and “Fog This one’s a dragon-breath’d her Circuit des Yeux project. The alone. The palette is economical, Sclope” is in each case sandwiched culmination of this band’s frst era, Chicagoan’s blustering baritone and during moments when Schofeld between bursts of classic Dawn of and a ftting tribute to a scene they works in some non-percussive Humans auditory ferocity. Even helped build. —Matt Sullivan 38 Dilly Dally: Sore [Partisan] DJ Richard: Grind [Dial] Sore is technically Dilly Dally’s second debut full-length since the band’s Though DJ Richard is currently based in Berlin, his debut LP is infuenced initial formation in 2009; they scrapped an earlier effort. Fortunately, by the coastlines of his home state of Rhode Island. After losing the the end result obliterates any frustration about the wait. Dilly Dally’s stems and tracks intended for his debut album last year, he was forced to incarnation of grunge-pop is angry, playful, and laden with sexuality. Sore’s start from scratch. Despite only taking three months to produce, Grind is energy and whipsmart sensibilities are sincere, unaffected. On the album’s meticulous and considered, its melodies melancholic and euphoric by turns, lead single, the aptly titled “Desire,” singer Katie Monks howls, Desire, but consistently brilliant. Although it’s a far cry from the grittier material inside her/ It’s calling all my ladies—a burning, albeit ambiguous, couplet. he’s produced for White Material, the album’s more polished sounds lend “Snake Head” riffs on Medusa and menstruation in the line Snakes are themselves to a glacial atmosphere that’s equally compelling. “Bane,” with comin’ out of my head/ And there’s blood between my legs. As Monks’s its shimmering arps, is simply one of the best electronic music tracks of voice cuts through the scintillating guitar riffs, Sore’s stories of yearning 2015. —Bianca Giulione for love and change, even with their wide-ranging fantastical images, run parallel with our everyday experience. —Dani Narins Downtown Boys: Full Communism [Don Giovanni] If punk’s primary objective is to light a fre under your ass, to make you DJ Paypal: Sold Out [Brainfeeder] feel forceful and radical and angry, then Downtown Boys’ Full Communism The masked Teklife impresario’s latest, Sold Out, doesn’t necessarily break is punk incarnate. The sextet’s debut album is 23 minutes of riotous away from what you might expect from a Teklife release. The concept is crescendos and sociopolitical vitriol—in other words, punk readymade for the same: a mix of impressive solo work and a slew of collaborations for 2015. Downtown Boys may rally against apathetic music, but the group’s support. But by contrast with the delirious soul of DJ Taye and the genre brand of politically minded punk is far from sanctimonious; it’s inclusive, soup of DJ Spinn, Paypal’s tunes are straight up cosmic and lush, often educational, and, should you get a chance to see them live, fun as hell. hiding a different song underneath the one that starts. On all of the album’s Alongside danceable rhythms and groaning saxes, Victoria Ruiz’s lyrics eight songs, Paypal never brings a single one to a climax, instead letting are essential to Downtown Boys’ mission. Her words are a bilingual call to the tunes unspool their hearts out. Of course, the goal here is the same arms against privilege (Taking up the front/ so we can’t dance), hegemony as with any Teklife record: to let love come down and get you out on the (We must scream at the top of our lungs that we are brown, we are smart, dance foor. But this just might be the most emotional footwork record ever that nothing that they do can push it away!), and ingrained power structures released. —Brad Stabler (Su poder es nuestra ignorancia). —Julia Selinger

40 Eartheater: Metalepsis [Hausu that fnds itself freed from the Helen: The Original Faces internet sheen. As impenetrable Mountain] claustrophobia of any genre rubric, [Kranky] as all this might seem, however, On Metalepsis, Alexandra and subtly asserts that freedom Following 10 years of output under Platform derives its power from Drewchin’s voice—enveloping using only the most punctuating her Grouper moniker, Liz Harris its palpable humanity. Note the and versatile—is the centerpiece silences. The most poignant linked up with members of Eternal inclusive, multi-voice uplift of on a table resplendent with moment might exist in album Tapestry and Eat Skull to form “Morning Sun” (Herndon’s best- unearthly synths, plucked guitar, closer “Peroration Six,” during the pop outft Helen. Released on ever pop tune); or the intimate, and sumptuous lyricism. Like which the album reaches its most Kranky, the label behind Grouper’s affrmative, slightly unsettling, its sister album, RIP Chrysalis, ecstatic, tense moment, only to cut last two LPs, The Original Faces ASMR-like “Lonely at the Top.” Metalepsis emanates deep corridors mid-measure, leaving you buzzing opens with some ethereal echoes Coated with uneasy mixtures of of sound—baroque and twisted, like in a quiet void, like a dream upon foating above a wobbling guitar sincerity and irony, and organic the hallways in a gothic maze. The waking. —Philip Neil Lord riff—then the full band takes over, and synthetic sounds, Platform songcraft is rich throughout, but the pretty much for the rest of the dissects cultural affnities (pop palette is totally alien, and the result G.L.O.S.S.: Demo [Not Normal] record, which feels pretty shoegaze culture, Greek yogurt) and personal is something akin to what Björk My good friend and colleague most of the time. Where Grouper preferences (ASMR, cyber would sound like if she grew up in was recently assaulted by an frequently centers around the velvet relationships) in order to explore rural Pennsylvania. —Cash Bundles unruly drunk guy in a setting that hush of Harris’s vocals, Helen the boundaries and limitations of we considered a safe space and a utilizes the voice as just another IRL and URL identities—both Floating Points: Elaenia [Luaka second home. The man asked her instrument, her words so obscured of which, of course, in 2015 Bop / Pluto] again and again, “Are you a woman and effects-laden that you can and beyond, are simultaneously Feeding off the quietest moments, or a man, anyway?” He called her a barely make out a single syllable. permanently on display and hard to Elaenia never gives in to even “dyke cunt” and shoved her. I would Of course, the record credits a make out. —Joe Bucciero its most melodic elements. It’s a always stand by my friends in peril, mysterious guest vocalist, also quiet record best heard loud—to but for whatever reason the fact that named Helen—so for all we know, Jenny Hval: Apocalypse, girl make its themes really resonate. we’re both queer added an extra that might be who we’re listening to [Sacred Bones] Notes cling together at random shade of crimson to the red I saw. the entire time. —Tyler Richman The irony and great innovation like manic atoms bringing water I knocked his ass out even though of this album is that Jenny Hval’s to a boil. The record’s temperature violence disgusts me. How long can Holly Herndon: Platform [RVNG confdent and muscular pop cadence rises and falls depending on each you sit around, quietly “behaving” Intl. and 4AD] gives her an edge over mainstream pulse of the Fender Rhodes piano, yourself to appease an intolerant On her second full-length, Bay and underground songwriters alike or some arcane synth stabbing sect of cruel, demanding people? Area-based composer Holly in conveying deep-seated cultural through the mix. Thematic elements How long do you wait to be treated Herndon crafts ten distinct and anxieties. Apocalypse, girl is full return and fade over the course of with respect? In the short span of detailed vignettes, riffng lyrically of resonant juxtapositions—of Elaenia, bridging gaps between this demo, an easy candidate for the and sonically on internet fads, Hval’s direct confessions against the impulsiveness of traditional most important hardcore demo of accelerationism, feudalism, the her fragmented lyrical structure, western jazz and more ambient, the year, G.L.O.S.S. tells the world present, the future, and much of triumph (“The Battle is Over”) textural compositions. It’s an album to “fuck waiting.” —Matt Sullivan more—all with a singular post- against self-doubt (“Angels and 42 Anaemia”), and of queasy dronescapes against stirring and sophisticated tension of a lightning storm. From the menacing burble that signals pop craft. Alienation from society’s gender roles has been a central theme the beginning of “Erotic Heat” to the choral vocal loops of “Expand,” for Hval over the course of all three of her albums. On Apocalypse, girl, a collaboration with Holly Herndon, Dark Energy presents 40 minutes she writes about what it’s like to have internalized that tension to the point of some of the most dramatic, left-of-center dance to emerge from the where she feels at odds with herself, from the Cronenbergian detachment Chicagoland area since DJ Rashad’s own. Throughout the album, there’s a from her body on “Sabbath” to a conficted idea of wellbeing on “Take darkness—so raw that it has to lurk in the shadows. However, as Jlin told Care of Yourself.” In this sense, the album’s shifting approach to structure AdHoc earlier this year, there’s nothing negative about this simmering is a perfect parallel to Hval’s message. —Max Parrott narrative of blackness; to her, the complexities related to the concepts of dark and chaos can give rise to something truly beautiful. —Sandra Song Jim O’Rourke: Simple Songs [Drag City] In January, Stereogum asked, “Will 2015 Be The Year Of The ’70s Singer- Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness [Domino] Songwriter?” At the time of publishing, the publication seemed to be onto Before Have You in My Wilderness saw the light of day back at the tail something. Their list of artists indebted to that golden era included several end of September, Julia Holter shared a swinging, elegant take on Dionne worthy inheritors of a particular Nilssonian or Mitchellian tradition, and for Warwick’s “Don’t Make Me Over.” In hindsight, the choice of this classic better or worse, they ended up being more right than they could’ve known. Bacharach/David song foretold what was to come on the California auteur Two months later came the announcement of Jim O’Rourke’s Simple Holter’s fourth album. For an academically trained pop songwriter with a Songs, the artist’s frst solo album since 2009’s The Visitor. On the level of penchant for classicism, Holter had never, before Wilderness, come so close ’70s charm, Simple Songs outdid Natalie Prass, Jessica Pratt, and Tobias to that early-1960s, heart-on-the-sleeve ideal of the melding of pop and Jesso Jr. in its frst thirty seconds. The melodic, James Taylor-esque stomp classical. While some of Holter’s go-to devices of dramatic allusions and that introduces album opener “Friends With Benefts” puts O’Rourke’s unconventional play with texture prevail, Wilderness stands out thanks to myriad gifts on display: his precise guitar, his simple but lavish strings, his the sheer, naked beauty of its rich harmonization and emotionally charged unconventional but accessible harmonies, and above all, his voice—barrel- feasts of melody. Walking a thin line between tenderness and grandeur, it aged and warmer than ever. O’Rourke’s bombastic pop chops have never was the among the boldest pop or experimental statements 2015 gave us. been so concentrated, but Simple Songs also preserves his impeccable —Patryk Mrozek attention to detail and ineffable weirdness. —Joe Bucciero Kamasi Washington: The Epic [Brainfeeder] Jlin: Dark Energy [Planet Mu] Ornette Coleman once posed a simple yet crucial question: “How can Jlin’s take on footwork is refreshing—one that forgoes the typical Chicago I turn emotion into knowledge?” The late composer’s death came just model of samples upon samples in favor of a more minimal approach. a few weeks after The Epic’s release, and Californian virtuoso Kamasi Hypnotizing yet threatening, her work is a dangerous combination that Washington’s magnifcent debut seems to invert Coleman’s conundrum. somehow manages to be symphonic, statically charged by the ominous How can jazz be reinvigorated without relinquishing its immediate

44 appeal? How can giants like her amorphous sampling that turns titles like “Reiki Martin,” “Reggae Krill: A Distant Fist Unclenching Charlie Parker (not to mention, in the arrangements into liquid sci-f Tony 2”). Applying this tactic to [Exploding in Sound/ Double The Epic’s case, Malcolm X and nightmares. As exhibited elsewhere something that resembles hip- Double Whammy] Debussy) be summoned without on her A 480 (Constellation Tatsu) hop, Khaki Blazer makes the case Towards the top of 2015, the now- resembling a wax museum tour? and Sirens (with LXV, on Umor that Madlib’s Beat Konducta Vol. defunct Krill released its strongest The answer lies in these 17 colossal Rex) tapes, Coverdale has an adept 5–6 and Black Dice’s Broken Ear collection of songs to date, A tracks. Throughout 170 minutes, awareness of both the natural Record are closer kin than genre Distant Fist Unclenching. The Washington takes us across the and processed, the physical and suggests. —Mike Sugarman record taps into the band’s reservoir purlieus of bebop, R&B, funk, mechanical, and has harnessed an of unapologetic self-examination, and soul, without forgetting to exceptional expression of what it Kode9: Nothing [Hyperdub] while simultaneously expanding continuously explore uncharted means to exist in between. To get inside the initial head space the group’s willingness to push its territory. This is an odyssey, sure, —Philip Neil Lord required for Kode9’s latest, you own musical boundaries, expanding but Washington’s too busy creating have to ponder death. Recorded in track lengths and musical forms. new standards to be yearning Khaki Blazer: Moontan Nocturnal a two-week, locked-door span after Committing to your strangest for Ithaca. The Epic is a record [Hausu Mountain] the Hyperdub boss’s rollercoaster impulses is a risk, of course—but celebrating the here and now. This past May, AdHoc brought year—which included the deaths it was why Krill thrived. Though —Jean Burset Khaki Blazer to Chicago for a of DJ Rashad and Spaceape, long by the standards of Krill’s night of the You Are Here Festival, coinciding with his label’s tenth pop-punk peers, the fve-to-seven- Kara-Lis Coverdale: Aftertouches where musicians performed in anniversary—Nothing resulted minute tracks on the record are [Sacred Phrases] a maze constructed from wood from Kode9 working through it some of the most compelling in Kara-Lis Coverdale has proven frames loomed with yarn. During all from the inside out, beaming the band’s discography. From the herself an artist consumed by Khaki Blazer’s set, I saw a couple years of genre-tooling into a taut ominous, demented introduction polarities. If anything, that point exchanging saliva, two people whole. But it’s a simultaneous of “Phantom” onward, the trio is proved by this year’s Sacred exit in distress, and one guy walk renewal as well. All the tracks builds up a nervous energy that Phrases release, Aftertouches, an into the yarn and struggle to get are locked at 150 bpm, a sweet bristles with an irrepressible album that perfectly combines an out. Love, pain, confusion—it’s spot between dubstep’s 140 and sense of determination. Not only ethos of pure classical structure the stuff of life. And it’s also the footwork’s 160. Kode9 remixes does A Distant Fist Unclenching with a modernist approach. It’s stuff of Moontan Nocturnal, a himself on “9 Drones,” expanding wind up being the band’s most an album that fnds itself at the long tape of short pieces which the original Seven Samurai sample coherent offering, it’s also the point of singularity, and leaves the pits new material against some of into a more triumphant anthem. most impressive showcase for each listener dwarfed in their own small the best from the Blazer’s spate of Spaceape re-emerges on “Third Ear individual member’s talents. While humanity. Songs like “Touch Me Bandcamp releases dating back to Transmission.” Nothing combines the group may have called it quits & Die” and “Icon /c” represent March 2014. Like with his band a palette of old and new, making this fall, at least they left behind this Coverdale’s more traditional Mothcock, Patrick Modugno’s M.O. it Kode9’s most danceable record monumental gift. —Steven Spoerl tendencies towards western music, as Khaki Blazer is blurring the line by far but also his most personal. with choral arrangements stabbing between schizophrenia and mirth Best part is, it’s designed to go both through the mix, processed through via psychedelic jest (see: track ways. —Brad Stabler 46 Lee Noble: Un Look [Patient Sounds] M.E.S.H.: Piteous Gate [PAN] Filled with negative space but brimming with disarmingly vibrant, Former Janus head turned PAN mainstay James Whipple’s catalog has run emotional sincerity, Un Look is Lee Noble’s unassuming masterpiece. the gamut when it comes to club-centric bass workouts in recent years. The album comes after half a decade of Noble’s striking brand of quiet, But Piteous Gate, his razor-edged follow-up to last year’s Scythians, sees almost murmured experimental pop, highlighting a songwriter whose style the artist known as M.E.S.H. look well beyond his previous moorings, is an amalgamation of cues and ideas while retaining a wholly personal throwing his body into the ring of 2015’s proliferating confations of club quality. Undeniable oddball anthems (“Out of Town,” “Valley View”) sounds and digital sound design. Intermingling the deep rumbles and sift up through haunted, listless bedroom sketches (“A Few Better Than jagged rhythms of contemporary club and dance music with moments of Some,” “Lock-Breaking By Magic”), fanked by southern gothic avantisms stark sonic abuse, Whipple separates himself from his contemporaries with (“Pink Laser,” “Light Death”) and fecked with bizarrely celestial noir a sense of balance and narrative. He lets the harsh, pounding climaxes (“Pearl Divers,” “Waves Wash the Windows,” “Holy Ghost People”). The of his pieces collapse in on themselves; he lets moments of silence and 10-minute closer “Marble Shroud” meanders through its extended scene delicate ambience fll breath between the more brutal moments, or swell up with solemn introspection, leaving a sordid trail of glowing embers in its into melodic asides that make his moments of intensity all the more starkly wake. Un Look is a crowning achievement for both Noble and issuing label felt. His work all the more compelling for it. —Daniel Creahan Patient Sounds Ltd. —Bobby Power Oneohtrix Point Never: Garden of Delete [Warp] Lotic: Agitations [Janus] Mutating, throbbing, perverse: all words that could just as easily describe It’s been Lotic’s year. Not least thanks to Björk’s endorsement, the most 13- to 15-year-old boys as they could Garden of Delete, Daniel Houston-born artist is fnally receiving the recognition he deserves. More Lopatin’s most recent album as Oneohtrix Point Never. The narrative signifcantly, J’Kerian Morgan is one of the few Berlin residents who may around Garden of Delete is that it’s an album about adolescence. There’s legitimately claim to epitomize the sound of Berlin in 2015, a city whose even a protagonist: Ezra, an alien attempting to be a teenager (and music scenes have been painfully reluctant to open up and move away from critic) whom Lopatin invented during the album’s PR cycle. The album techno’s Teutonic bro continuum. Of Lotic’s two excellent releases this itself—a twisted, spasmodic melange of rippling synth, blasts of alloyed year—Agitations and Heterocetera—Agitations is the more signifcant. nü-metal guitar, and surprisingly tender balladry—reads as an exploration With track titles like “Trauma,” “Banished,” and “Surrender,” the mixtape of puberty, but more as an affect, as a sonic form. It’s a dense, masterfully must be read as a political statement, an intervention at the end of a year constructed world that captures the immediacy and shock of its subject— in which the non-cis, non-male, non-white, and non-hetero bodies have Ezra’s Twitter avatar shows him melting, after all—and the tangled proven to be less safe than ever. While acknowledging the anxiety that is contrails of obsession, mutation, and memory that attend it. In spite of its imposed upon the non-conformist, Agitations counters the omnipresent title, Garden of Delete is vast, composed in its decomposition, precise in its threat with arrangements that continue to be emphatically physical, teeming life. —Joseph Ocón reasserting the presence and voices of the margins. —Henning Lahmann

48 Palm: Trading Basics and exaggerated. And they’re Hearts. Though perhaps more their most poignant and nuanced [Exploding in Sound] played with conviction, sincerity, restrained, it’s an equally gritty records—a brilliantly dark and Philadelphia-based Palm’s debut and a perfectionist’s passion: a listen. The mood remains stubborn unsettling embodiment of the loose, LP Trading Basics is a journey that pharmaceutical-grade antidote to and sneering; the tales of personal undefnable, connected, authentic, moves through tight polyrhythmic cynicism. The bracing energy of abuse and corrupt human behavior and highly entertaining ethos that passages and atypical breakdowns, High’s A-side commands your reveal themselves in scenarios the members of Wolf Eyes have leaving one of the year’s most attention, but the heartrending broader than private interpersonal been living every day of their lives, forward-thinking collections of trifecta of “Love Her If I Tried,” relationships. We hear about even before they made up a name rock songs in its path. With Trading “Carolina,” and “Little Star” on crooked landlords trading favors, for it. —Isaiah David Basics, released via Exploding the fip will keep you returning local aristocracies manipulating in Sound and Infated Records, again and again. In the crowded, neighborhoods, individualism Xosar: Let Go [Black Opal] Palm shatters the traditional omnivorous music market of 2015, being censored—with lead singer Xosar is the solo work of Sheela clichés of post-punk orchestration, Royal Headache—tense and giddy Christina Halliday’s hurricane voice Rahman, whose debut LP on giving each instrument a distinct, at once, shot through with yearning calling them all out. Black Opal, Let Go, delves into autonomous line while maintaining and melancholy—make a strong —Matt Sullivan a kinetically sublime propulsion. instinctive, infectious grooves. case for being your new favorite Vibrantly lucid atmospheres From bangers with earworm motifs band. —Max Burke Wolf Eyes: I Am A Problem: Mind that wash against heavy walls of like “Ankles” and “Child Actor” in Pieces [Third Man] blistering percussion coalesce into to the mesmerizing commotion of Sheer Mag: II [Katorga Works] “Trip metal attempts to capitalize astoundingly alien arrangements. jams like “Crank,” Palm provides The second 7” from everyone’s on confusion as a means of Pulsing rhythms undulate beneath a fresh look at an established form, favorite Philly rock group in connection,” said Wolf Eyes radiating oscillations. “Sail imagining new tricks for the old 2015, Sheer Mag, was sourced vocalist Nate Young in an interview 2 Elderon” drifts in a haze of electric guitar in 2016. —Mike Kolb by Brooklyn punk label Katorga with Electronic Beats. “That isn’t shivering ripples. Xosar then Works. At frst, it seemed a little a threat to authenticity.” Wolf Eyes concocts a throbbing rhythmic Royal Headache: High bizarre how beloved Sheer Mag offers similar defnitions in other patchwork on “Prophlyaxis.” The [What’s Your Rupture] had become in predominantly punk interviews. Still, what is trip metal? enchanting sample collage of The most re-listenable album of and hardcore-focused communities. Is it the next thing in noise, or is it “Gnome Circle” is as mesmerizing the year, Royal Headache’s High But audiences more interested in a red herring, a call to stop trying as it is haunting. “Hades Gates” is a half-hour tutorial in songcraft d-beat and noisecore were suddenly to ft in with the other so-called is a blood curdling combustion of and raw emotion. In a world where moshing to ’70s-style riff-rock; misfts and nonconformists, and woven drones and dynamic beats. rock music has been supplanted as in some sense, then, Sheer Mag instead create your own path? I The hypnotic nature of Let Go lets a dominant force in culture, High’s is emblematic of a greater shift in Am A Problem is a surprisingly, the listener travel through a vastly opener ”My Own Fantasy” sets taste. On the group’s second EP, perhaps reactionarily mellow and differing collection of surreal the scene: the album is a reverie the tone is slower and icier than the accessible album for the band sonic landscapes. Xosar’s shifting where R&B, soul, and rock’s on the frst, the throbbing four-on- that recorded “Stabbed In The patterns breathe together in unison, most enduring qualities aren’t the-foor a step closer to Black & Face” over a decade ago. Yet I Am generating an individual complexity just relevant; they’re amplifed Blue-era Stones than the Exploding A Problem stands out as one of full of energy. —Joe Mygan 50 Young Thug: Barter 6 [Cash Money] 1) How often is radically fresh music the most fun music? and 2) How often does it blare from cars driving around your city? People like Arca and Giant Claw satisfy #1, but #2 is hard to come by. But in mid-2015, I could hear the sparse bass thud of “Constantly Hating” whizz by the crosswalk. Our I could coast on my bike alongside a car blasting “Just Might Be,” hearing Thugger make an analogy between his girl’s heart and an old diaper. The car stereos confrmed what the social media-driven success of past hits “Stoner” and “Lifestyle” suggested: Young Thug really is a people’s champion. And given Barter 6’s supposed anti-commercialism—its lack of party anthems, Thugger’s disregard for lyrical legibility—you’ve really got to give it up to the people for their high weirdness thresholds. Many critics kvetch that the lyrics have no message, but with repeated listens, a dream logic unfolds, its narratives strewn across stray lines as opposed to delivered directly, through cogent verses. —Mike Sugarman Albums

2015

52 Joe Bucciero writes, edits, does other stuff too, mostly in New York City.

Miguel Gallego is a writer and musician living stubbornly in New Jersey.

Steven Spoerl is a writer, photographer, musician, and transient. Follow him on Twitter: @unbusyinwi

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