Music Listened This Year (2024)

I despise Spotify. ^[1] However, I do love sharing with others about the music I listen to and love, so here are some of my favorite artists, albums, and songs I've listened to in 2024.

Autechre

I got several Autechre albums this year: Oversteps, Gantz Graf, EP7, Untilted, Quaristice, and Exai. While I've listened to and enjoyed the group for a while now, I mostly listened to Confield and Draft 7.30. I love the sound design and particularly the irregular rhythms they had in the early 2000s, and I hadn't given the rest of their discography as close a listen since many of the tracks weren't quite like Confield/Draft 7.30.

This year, two tracks in particular stood out to me from the albums I bought. “Gantz Graf” from the EP of the same name has some of the wildest beat-mulching Autechre has done. As the track progresses, the beat chops move from rhythmic CD-skipping to needle-like tones, while squelchy square wave bass thuds away underneath.

“qplay” from Oversteps seems to take a straightforward 4/4 beat and randomly jump into fast, dense fills or move to random spots within the pattern. The beat almost sounds like something you could dance to, but the floor is constantly yanked out from under you. Over that, floating pads, an irregularly-leaping square wave bass, and plucky synths jumble together in different keys before settling on a repeating pattern at the end. The violence and irregularity of the distorted drums makes the floating quality of the end even more beautiful.

Fire-Toolz

I personally think Fire-Toolz is one of the most interesting artists active today. Her music blends metal, glitchy electronic sound collage, new age music, jazz fusion, prog rock, and so much more into a kaleidoscope of activity. She has amazingly detailed sound design that frequently inspires me in my own work. You might think from the description that her music sounds disjointed, but somehow it all comes together into something much bigger and more meaningful than all the parts. There's a real joy to it too—you can tell the fondness she has for all the genres from which she makes a pastiche.

I pre-ordered her 2024 album Breeze on CD, and my favorite track is “Asparagus Pee, SETI, and the Gift of Tears.” This is not one of the singles, and it's a bit of an oddball—much more ambient and contemplative than the blast beats and metal growls of e.g., “The Envy Of The Heavenly Powers” or “RE: Official Request For Reciprocal Indwelling Procedure.” I love how airy and dreamy “Asparagus Pee…” is, as well as the detailed sound design. It makes me feel like I'm in a Y2K-era video game that's falling apart.

Patrick Carey

I came across Patrick Carey when someone shared Collapse Etiquette on the Fediverse. I haven't been able to find out a ton about this artist, but it's a very unique sound world. I like the fractal-like quality of each track—always the same, but always different. The composer describes it as “[e]xtra dry concatenative synthesis processes,” and it's inspired me to use the MuBu and CataRT tools in Max/MSP with snippets of radio tuning sounds. My favorite track is “Way Life Be (Endless Kindness)”—it's a weird mix between dreamy/ambient and aggressive, like tuning a radio through new-age stations.

Boy Jr

I first heard Boy Jr. on TikTok, when they did a hyperpop cover of “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers. Turns out they're actually a local artist from Rochester! I got to go to the album release party for I Love Getting Dumped! at the Psychic Garden, which was a lot of fun. The venue was decorated like a birthday party, with cake, streamers, a smoke machine, and silver tinsel hanging from the ceiling. “Lost And” was particularly fun to hear live—Boy Jr. danced through the audience and returned after a costume change during the extended instrumental break.

XTINA GG

I originally came across XTINA GG when she was writing and doing videos for Polygon. Her music tends toward Y2K club sleaze, and I'm here for it. “Masochist” (download link) has autotuned speak-singing, square wave electro bass, vocoders, a 909 house beat, and the vocals are dripping with attitude. I had this track on repeat in my headphones during the IndieWeb Black Friday Create Day as I added tags and search to my blog.

Charli XCX

Brat summer! I've liked Charli XCX since I first heard “Boom Clap” in The Fault in Our Stars. While How I'm feeling now and the Vroom Vroom EP are still my favorites, I love the album opener and closer from BRAT (download link). I haven't heard the squelchy TB303 bass that “365” uses in a while, and it's such a great sound.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading about my year in music—my “Not-ify Wrapped,” you might call it. If you want to make your own, I think that would be fun to read. Especially if you have a blog or are part of the “IndieWeb” circle, I think this could be a fun thing for people to do. Until next time!