Top Ten Of 2024: George Green
Those of you who read my last three Top Tens (anyone?) will know that I try to preface them with something witty, erudite, and personal – mostly failing in the first two. This year I’m not even gonna try. 2024 started as a dark shade of grey, turned beige in parts with some snazzier, brighter tints, before fizzling out with all the flare and gaudiness of a litter strewn duck pond in a forgotten inner city park. As The Kids say… Meh.
But… There was some good stuff out there, recorded and live. Seeing Sunn O))) live (in Coventry of all places!) was as breathtaking – literally – as expected. Making music, particularly with others was also a much enjoyed high point. And so, to the music that caused my synapses to fire with delight, may at least some of it appeal to your curiosity sisters and brothers. Peace…
10. CrAwE ‘IC)))ENI’
I’m taking a bit of a liberty here because this CrAwE opus was released at the tail end of 2023, waaaay after I’d submitted my Top Ten for that year to The Shaman. Listen up, if you name your album after Boudicca’s iron age tribe, and you have track titles like Sea Henge Druid Delivery Services, This Hollow Land and Hag Stone Vision, the chances are I’m gonna get on board. Comprising field recordings, bowed guitars, synths and loops, this is an atmospheric and ominous tribute to ‘the original anarcho feminist’. Rarely has anti-imperial sentiment sounded so good.
Label: Independent
9. Deviated Instinct ‘As The Crow Flies’
Deviated Instinct are probably my favourite crust punk band from back in the day that are still going, and still producing good stuff, stuff that doesn’t just recycle old wares but has remained relevant and contemporary whilst not losing what made them what they are. As The Crow Flies is a collection of recordings made from 2012 – 2017 showcasing the band’s metallic edge. For me, their mid-paced (no pun intended!) metallic stuff has always been the best. As The Crow Flies is a great place to start for those not familiar with the powerful racket that these boys from East Anglia make.
Label: Terminal Filth
8. The Breedling ‘Detritus’
Hmm, this list has developed a bit of an East Anglian bent. Detritus is Chris Spalton taking the listener on a sonic tour of The Fens, in particular the dark and strange parts. This is an album that tempts the listener in with an accessible – if foreboding – melody, there are tunes in there! But once in, don’t settle back, there’s plenty of unpleasantness to look forward to, much to be delectably discomfited with. Looking back at my review from September, the word that stands out is ‘dread’, something with which this album is infused. On Detritus, The Breedling shows us what lies beneath the water and earth of the fens. Pretty it ain’t.
Label: Wrong Speed Records
7. Primitive Knot ‘Revelation’
Primitive Knot returns to my Top Ten with the industrial-guitar-gothic-sleeze-metal that he does so well. This pummels and punches, relentless in its onslaught, robotic in the very best way. There’re some pretty dark themes in here I think, and that suits the music just fine. Can I also hear a little bit of Killing Joke in there as well? One of these days I’m going to catch Primitive Knot live, I imagine it’s an experience.
Label: Deathbed Tapes
6. The Grey Men ‘The Shape Of Noise To Come’
Hailing from the Antipodes (Sydney to be exact) The Grey Men are a collective of experimental musicians releasing music on the excellent Inner Demons Records and Art As Catharsis labels. This is music for listening with intent, noise that rewards patience. There are giant slabs of Earth 2 style drone but also nuanced in spades for the ears that pay attention. The glacial pace certainly owes a debt of inspiration to Sunn O))) but a sound-a-like The Grey Men definitely ain’t. Guitars, synths, loops and samples in perfect harmony.
Label: Inner Demons Records | Art As Catharsis
5. Various Artists ‘R.A.R::Deconstructed::Reconstructed’
I like weird stuff. I like listening to stuff I don’t understand. I don’t ‘get’ a lot of the stuff on this compilation put together by the Industrial Coast label in aid of Ubuntu Community Centre in Middlesborough. This is a good thing. I’m not interested in listening only to music curated by an algorithm, an experience that equates to living in an echo chamber, only hearing things that are likely to appeal. No thank you.
This album is on the list because it’s like a lucky dip – you don’t know what you’re gonna get when you cue up a track but it’ll be an interesting listen. All the tracks are deconstructed songs originally by Rock Against Racism artists. There’s experimental music, dub, noise, left field EDM, a veritable smorgasbord of sonic delights. The fact that I’m on here means it’s not higher in the Top Ten.
Label: Industrial Coast
4. Slugcrust ‘Discharge(d)’
Awesome, completely untamed crust/grind from South Carolina’s Slugcrust that’ll make your ears bleed and have you screaming along with the earworm track Feral Natural before you can stop yourself. Altogether now ‘FER-AL NAT-UR-AL!’.
Label: Terminus Hate City
3. Water Damage ‘2 Songs’
2024 was the year that I reignited my love of Terminal Cheesecake, the loudest band I have ever experienced in my half-century, and that includes Sunn O))). These two tracks from the Texan behemoth that is Water Damage have a similar heavy, spacey, droney, psychedelic vibe. Said two songs are both around the twenty-minute mark which is ideal for achieving the correct mind space in which to let this mantra-esque guitar soup wash over your sonic pallet. An absolute Monster.
Label: Cardinal Fuzz | 12XU
2. Thee Alcoholics ‘Bear Bites Horse Sessions’
I can’t say it better than I did in my review:
‘This is some primitive (in the very best way!) mind-melting, gutter rawk ’n’ roll. Kicking off as they mean to go on, Baby I’m Your Man (a title so The Stooges-esque it makes me want to grow a bowl cut) begins with howls of guitar that slide into a circular four-note riff and a back-to-basics four-to-the-floor pounding that the band exploit for all their worth. Thus, Thee Alcoholics prove the old axiom that if you’ve got a good idea, you should play it to death. And then some…’
‘Be in no doubt people, there’s no subtlety here, Thee Alcoholics set out their stall early and plough that furrow until the listener is bludgeoned into recognising Bear Bites Horse Sessions as one the great rock ’n’ roll albums of 2024.’
Label: Rocket Recordings
1. Milkweed ‘Folklore 1979’
Recently, travelling back from a conference as the passenger of a younger work colleague I was invited to take control of the soundtrack. Knowing that she digs a bit of folk, I put on Milkweed‘s Folklore 1979. Having been listening to it regularly since it was released, I had become inured to its weirdness. Seeing another’s reaction to tracks like My Father’s Sheep Is Dead and The Snake In Chinese Belief I was reminded of my own befuddlement and delight when I first heard the album back in February. Folklore 1979 is the most original and beguiling album I have heard in a long time, let alone this year. Just magical.
Label: Broadside Hacks
Honourable Mentions
Inner Demon Records
Almost Crass-like in their visual identity, a wide roster of sonic weirdness, great politics that are worn on the sleeve, inexpensive shipping to the UK!
Dolmen Dweller ‘An Empty Cavern’
Experimental synth and vocal drones. Eerie and compelling.
Acid Rooster ‘Hall Of Mirrors’
Leipziggian psychedelic Krautrock. A full-on space rock trip.
Wooden Hand ‘Laments And Shallal’
Much acoustic and shruti box oddness, recorded and left raw for the listener’s aural delectation.
Scribed by: George Green
