As we approach the midway point of 2019, here's our constantly evolving recap of our favorite albums, songs, and videos from the first half of an already insane year. In an era when truly special new records seem to evade or evaporate from the internet's collective consciousness at an unsettling rate -- in many cases before they're even officially released -- it's not easy to keep up, but I've done my best...
Presenting our favorite songs of 2018*...
Presenting the list of our favorite releases from an overwhelming year, posted up way too soon like we always do:
Saguenay, Quebec's Josianne Boivin, aka MUNYA, follows up her absolutely perfect North Hatley mini-EP with another, perhaps even more enchanting 3-song EP, coming very soon on Luminelle Recordings...
2018 has been such a bountiful year for incredible new music from favorites new and old that it's been almost impossible to keep up, but I'm doing my best. In addition to all the posts here on the site, I've been consistently updating our running "Best Songs of 2018" Spotify playlist, featuring some of the essential 2018 jams that may or may not be on your radar yet, from the likes of Avalon, Barrie, Sun June, oklou, Helena Deland, MorMor, Peggy Gou, Grouper, Amen Dunes, G Flip + more...
The official Gorilla vs. Bear x SXSW 2018 showcase goes down on Friday night, March 16th, at Seven Grand in downtown Austin. Featuring the best official SXSW showcase lineup I've ever seen in my life, starring: Hinds, Faye Webster, Men I Trust, Helena Deland, Sun June, Hater, and Forever...
We are extremely proud to share the beautiful first song from the debut release on our new label Luminelle Recordings, from extraordinary Montreal artist Helena Deland. I was immediately taken by these songs after serendipitously happening upon them by mistake a couple months back, and Helena's elegantly sophisticated and layered songwriting is still revealing new magic after countless listens...
Before we even have time to second guess our albums of the year list, here are our favorite songs of 2017. While plenty of our old favorites are well repped -- including TOPS, Burial, Shabazz Palaces, SZA, Sufjan, Laurel Halo, et al. -- it was an exceptionally great year for exciting new artists, with Men I Trust, Yaeji, Playboi Carti, Kelly Lee Owens, Aldous Harding, Bernache, and so many more dropping some of the most essential songs of the year. Hit play on that 5+ hour Spotify playlist, and follow along with the list below:
As the internet's collective attention span continues to dwindle away and the clickbait economy slowly ruins everything good, we made a conscious effort this year to spend more time listening to fewer things. Discovering new favorites will always remain a priority around here, but it felt good to devote more quality time to absorbing ambitious, flawed, elaborately nuanced and layered masterpieces like Dust, Quazarz, Party, and The OOZ. And the more immediate records that we fell in love with at first listen -- TOPS’ Sugar at the Gate, the super charismatic Carti mixtape, and Kelly Lee Owens’ enveloping debut full-length, to name a few -- felt more like all-time favorites with each spin. While anyone in our top 5 could have staked a legit Album of the Year claim depending on the day, we had to put the two EPs that announced the arrival of dance music's brightest new star in their rightful spot at the top of our list. Here are our favorite records of 2017:
Presented by Sound on Sound Fest, starring headliner + co-curator WASHED OUT, and featuring JESSY LANZA, JACQUES GREENE (live set), SHE-DEVILS, + more. Shoutout to our friends at Modelo + Stem for helping to make this possible...