Regardless of how you passed the holidays, I hope you wore soft pants at least a little more than usual. As ever, the year-end arrived with endless music recommendations. I spent some solid holiday hours digging deeper into the sounds of 2024 that I missed. And since I discovered so many incredible gems, I decided to dedicate this first issue of the year exclusively to them.
This isn’t an attempt to encompass everything or be some kinda know-it-all. I like it as a practice of highlighting the more esoteric edges of The Reg. It pushes me beyond my more populist tendencies; away from poetic cohesion and further into the forever of sound!
Much gratitude to the creators and cultural workers who brought this music into the world. If you find something you like and have the means to do so, please support them by making a purchase!
click the cover to listen or go your own way ~~
Carrier - In Spectra
When I mentioned ‘the forever of sound’ in the intro, this is exactly the type of stuff I’m talking about. The first rhythms we hear on this EP feel like timeless voices in a brand new dialogue. With In Spectra, Carrier serves up three unsuspecting slabs of impossibly deep, concise idm minimalism. Heady steppers indeed.
LOE Shimmy - Zombie Land 2 (DJ Fetti Fee - Fast Edition)
Besides the almighty billy woods, I’ve been struggling to sink my teeth into much contemporary rap. I think I’ve mentioned this before? In hope/desperation, listened to everything on Pitchfork’s 27 Best Rap Albums of 2024. And while most of it made me feel old and out of touch, I can really get down with this one. Are fast editions a trend in rap? Plz advise.
Mel Keane - Airs
I’ve been admiring pretty much everything released on Dublin imprint wherethetimegoes. But feel like Airs is a head-and-shoulders favorite. It’s tagged as #celtic-futurism on Soundcloud and that’s about as close as one might get with words. If you dug Ulla’s Foam, you’d do well to let this one float about your chambers.
Good Bad Happy Sad - All Kinds Of Days
There’s no question Mica Levi is one of the most fascinating artists of our time. Though, until this album, their more rock-oriented stuff didn’t really click for me. But finally, with All Kinds of Days, the murky blur has sucked me in. Now I gotta revisit their recent solo stuff, as well as Micachu & The Shapes, which was ostensibly the first phase of Good Bad Happy Sad.
James Massiah - True Romance EP
Shout out to my long lost friend Mark for reappearing in my life and informing me that DJ Escrow is not merely a figment of Dean Blunt’s imagination. It is, in fact, James Massiah, who dropped this scorching EP this year, as well as a fifth volume of curious, club + dub adjacent poetry.
Tony Bontana - L’Humanité
Another one with serious Blunt energy. I’m specifically obsessed with this freestyle, but the whole collection bangs. Actually, that’s not true: the first 2/3rds bangs, then L’Humanité pivots into something like Loren Connors doing r&b (?!). In any case, with much grace.
Alexis Chartrand & Cédric Dind-Lavoie - Au Chemin 4
A deeply felt, unadorned blending of Québécois and Acadian folk stylings. Basically exactly as pictured: big soft touch, gentle and warming. Looking forward to catching this live next chance I get!
Daisy Rickman - Howl
Both ‘psych’ and ‘folk’ tend to be difficult genre markers for me. I think maybe I’m overly sensitive to clichés in both cases, so the lysergic bog that is psych-folk is usually a hard pass for me. Rare exceptions being Syd Barrett, Linda Perhacs, Gary Higgins, some of that truly bonkers Finnish stuff… I’m sure there’s others escaping me at the moment. ANYWAY, this is about as psych-folk as it gets and I really dig it. Gorgeous, cosmic, hypnotic stuff.
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werlin - Ghosted II
Slightly haunted polyrhythmic deliciousness from a trio of all-time zoners. If you, like me, wish Natural Information Society had gotten more chill instead of more intense, this one’s for you. God save avant jazz and all the different varieties…
Body Meπa - Prayer in Dub
A super niche super group. A lotta folks gobbed onto that new G!YBE record, but this… this is my kind of post-rock.
Nuno Beats - Sai Do Coraçāo
Boomkat described this as “probably the most sensual release” on Príncipe so I hit play. BIG MOOD.
Anna Ferrer - Parensòstic
Philip Sherburne reviewed this for Pitchfork in the final hours of 2024 and I’m so glad he did. According to the Bandcamp description, the album is ”a quest that deconstructs the traditional Menorcan song to make it universal”. Ferrer is an incredibly captivating vocalist and the experimentation throughout the album only serves to enhance that power. This one slots in nicely alongside two artists I’ve covered previously: Tarta Relena and Lina_Raül Refree.
Golden Syrup - Sluice
I caught this one via CS + Kreme’s Boomkat chart. Golden Syrup is the music project of Sara Retallick, an Australian artist whose work “explores multisensory listening as a core concern”. With Sluice, Retallick conjures similar moods to CS+K: a somewhat foreboding combination of bassbin folk and lurching electronics. It’s as if a series of tender songs have become suspended in an eerie fog, equal parts design and desire.
ICYMI, I started a donations page. All the money I receive will go back towards music (eg. purchasing physical/digital music, merch, concert tickets, supporting other music outlets, etc.). If you’re not able to support the newsletter financially (no presh!), you might also consider liking / sharing / following on Instagram.
ALSO, I started a ~*fun*~ tracking sheet that provides transparency on donations and spending. It also includes links to my Bandcamp + Discogs profiles. This is as much about accountability as it is an experiment in tracking my own financial investments in music over a calendar year.
I’m super interested in feedback / dialogue / suggestions. If you have ideas about the newsletter, want to share music with me, have specific questions / requests, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And please: share this newsletter with a pal if you feel so inspired!
Yrs.,
Andrew P.
andrewdanielpatterson [at] gmail [dot] com