End of the decade which we never did agree on a good name for. Time for some reminiscing through the lens of music! A millennial coming of age story.
2010: Arcade Fire – Deep Blue
One of the first bands I learned about from friends in college. One of the first albums I burned to a disc and blasted while driving around on my own for the first time. When I feel like listening to a single song from it, more and more I’ve been drawn to this track. I think it shows off the melancholy and nostalgia of the record best. Arcade fire often sings like something very bad is about to happen, and this track is a great example.
2011: Power Glove – Nightforce
While the EP was released in 2013, this track was definitely out in 2011. It was my introduction to the neon-drenched world of Synthwave, and really holds up in a way that I’m not sure a lot of early Synthwave does as far as production goes.
2012: Carpenter Brut – Escape from Midwitch Valley
For me, this is what took Synthwave to the next level. The EDM/Dubstep noises, including that heavy bass, made it feel fresh while staying in the realm of retro. I ended up seeing Carpenter Brut in concert in Cambridge at some point, and it was a wild show. The first three EPs by CB are a different style though – more studio-y, less band-y. Notice the use of samples in this and the Power Glove track.
2013: Megadrive – I Am The Program
I was well into Synthwave at this point, so in this period I was listening to a lot of Mega Drive et al. I probably spin 198XAD more, but that was partly informed by how much I listened to Mega Drive in 2013! However, after I graduated and found myself in a quiet office and needing more tracks to spin, I found myself reaching out to find something new.
2014: Aphex Twin – XMAS_EVET10 (thanaton3 mix)
I got into Aphex Twin shortly before this record was announced.* His cannon was established and all we could hope for where maybe old tracks (like Caustic Window) being dropped someday. 2007 was the end date, the pinnacle of the artist’s career. So imagine the hype when you’re not only getting into IDM but now the big name is going to drop something new and bizarre? The hype was matched only by how good the actual record was. The whole thing is brilliant, but when I reach for one that exemplifies it, I tend to pick Xmas Event. The way it progresses through different melodies and moods really shows off RDJ’s skill as a composer.
2015: Squarepusher – Exjag Nives
Squarepusher spent most of the ’10s mixing modern EDM electro and dubstep sounds into his jazzy dnb. Some of it can be challenging to listen to, but in Exjag Nives he hits it way out of the park. The intricate layers over a simple melody, the epic feel, and of course the really cool use of breaks (befitting a longtime break-master like Squarepusher) make this track stand out over similar works. Also, 2015 is when I started my ongoing game project, flythrough.space, though I didn’t publicly post about it until 2019. I started the thing with babel so I could use ES6, but now browsers have caught up. How long is too long for a dream?
2016: Brainwaltzera – marzipan rhombus [birthday eDit]
Back in 2015, Aphex started posting a bunch of tracks on Soundcloud. Like crazy IDM dominoes, this brought people out of the woodwork to post there too, and that continued for a while afterward. One account that ended up getting posted on WATMM threads was one Brainwaltzera, and that’s where I heard this absolute gem of a track. It’s emotional and quiet and enigmatic without sacrificing the cool factor of a big fat synth line cutting right through the middle of it. 2016 was an exhausting year, and this was the perfect track to unwind to.
2017: Rognvald – R.O.G.N.V.A.L.D
I’ve been listening to Jungle/DnB since I was introduced to Pendulum back in the 00s, so this tickled my fancy. It’s got less of a modern Methlab type sensibility though, and more of an IDM sensibility. Plus it just jams really, really hard. It was a favorite for spinning at the gym back when I would walk all of the way from the Kew office in Cambridge on the river to Watertown. A few times I even walked all of the way home to Brookline. We took one last walk there, up down Beacon street, all the way from Cambridge, through Boston, to Brookline. It was bittersweet.
2018: The Sword – Deadly Nightshade
This one takes me back to making night trips from our apartment, carrying a wagon-full of stuff down to Millis when we left the city. I spun this in the car and even one time in a U-Haul Pickup which had bluetooth and a speed governor of some sort. Sabrina surprised me by driving us down to a concert by these guys without saying who was playing. They absolutely rocked it!
Bonus: 2018 is when I released Axe Factory, here’s my favorite track from that:
2019: Ruby My Dear – Babil (Alternate Take)
This is one of my most played tracks of 2019, and with good reason. After an ep of mostly spooky ambience and the occasional jump scare, this track takes you for a ride with its driving bass almost immediately. When selecting a track for 2019 though, I found myself asking “what did Analogical force release this year? Analogical force has been absolutely killing it with a string of releases in ’18, ’19, and now even one in ’20. The same can be said for Ruby, My Dear – top notch stuff on Altair and Basic as well as Phlgem. This track is heavy and dancable, but contains plenty of the fiddly little details that I love so much, so I’d call it my overall pick from RMD’s ’19 releases. Maybe the focus on labels and artists I already know is a sign that I’m becoming set in my ways, that I’ve narrowed my focus to variations on similar themes. I sure hope not. Happy new year!
* my first exposure was Flim as used by the WNPR show Where We Live. I probably watched CTD and Windowlicker when I googled that, but those didn’t make such a big impression. That would have been sometime in the early 00s, so out of scope for this article! I listened to WNPR quite a bit back then so it was deeply embedded in my head. I’m sad to hear that John Dankowski recently left the station.