Merry Hanukkah, and Happy Xmas to you all! I'm giving the best gift there is this year, or any year for that matter, the gift of music! Here's 22 of my favs of the year. I've included the playlist, and also a little blurb and Youtube link to each band, enjoy! Stay Cozy. Love, Matt
The Soundcarriers - Wilds. My go to record of the year. Timeless and gorgeous. An instant psychedelic pop classic! So happy the Soundcarriers are back!
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Omnium Gatherum.
These Australian trippers are surely the hardest working band in the universe, putting out an album every month seemingly! They also tour all the time and never play the same setlist twice...I guess they don't need to with the 1000's of songs in their cataloge.
ACID DAD - Get Me High 7". AD for the win with the coolest animation in a video! Song is great as well. Shades of early RIDE and Catherine Wheel.
Working Men's Club - Fear Fear. I love this Manchester band and I was lucky enough to catch them live on a recent trip to LA, they were wonderfully intense and groovy at the same time. Like a modern day New Order, no bad thing. Front man and brainchild of the band, Sydney
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees. Anton and BJM just keep rolling out brilliant records 30 years on. This one packs an emotional punch with the Covid pandemic as the subtext to their musical catharsis. Here's to another 30 years of BJM records!
Just Mustard - Heart Under. Last year it was Scotland, this year it seems like all the best records are coming out of Ireland! Katie Ball's brilliantly eerie vocals mixed with David Noonan's wonderful, wiry guitars lines makes for a frothy stew of dark shoegaze.
The Black Angels - Wilderness of Mirrors. Another stellar record from Austin's psychedelic pioneers, The Black Angels. Alex Maas's voice has never sounder better and the band's as tight as always on this gorgeous long player, their first in 5 years.
Minami Deutsch - Fortune Goodies. Japan's Minami Deutsch are back with another fantastic set of krautrock inspired, space rock. The songs are tighter and spikier on this record, giving off Television, and Sonic Youth vibes. If these guys ever play in your town, just go see them! Live they're a beast.
Kikagaku Moyo - Kumoyo Island. This is Japan's(Now living in Amsterdam) favorite psych rockersm Kikagaku Moyo's 5th and supposedly last album. It remains to be seen if this is a smart move for them or if it even holds up(LCD Soundsystem have played more since they said they'd played their last show) Either way this is another textured, beautiful slice of psychedelia from KM, if this is their last one, at least they went out on top!
King Buffalo - Regenerator. Rochester, New York's King Buffalo are a psychedelic power trio that really bring monster the riffs and melodies together on new record, Regenerator. I haven't seen these guys live yet, but I'm sure it sounds massive!
The Lazy Eyes - Songbook. New Australian psych band, The Lazy Eyes clearly have incredible talent and promise for such a young band. Their brand of psych-rock is more future gazing, then living in the 60's glory days of Floyd and JA . It's a brilliant, kaleidoscopic debut! Can't wait to see what they do for an encore.
Panda Bear/Sonic Boom - Reset. Take two brilliant minds like Noah Lennox(Panda Bear) and Pete Kember(Sonic Boom) and put them together and the results are amazing, as you would expect. Gorgeous 60's inspired pop music. A modern day Pet Sounds, which gets floated around a lot, lazily, as a description, in this case it's actually true!
Wet Leg - Wet Leg. Isle of Wight's, Wet Leg made the years most impossibly catchy tune with Chaise Longue, "...All day long!" But the full record, with stand-out tracks, Angelica and Wet Dream showed them to be fantastic songwriters and certainly not one-hit wonders!
The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention. Its no secret that I'm a huge Radiohead Head, so I was of course excited for this one, as it wasn't just a Thom Yorke solo record, but included Radiohead's amazing guitarist, Jonny Greenwood. The results are brilliant as you might expect. Mixing moody, intense rockers that harken back to the Bends, with a jazzy vibe thanks to jazz drummer, Tom Skinner,and beautiful Radiohead-ish ballads(can I say that about Thom? Either way his voice remains a thing of beauty) It's not Kid A or OK Computer brilliant, but it's pretty great in it's own right.
Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia. The D.C. in Fontaines D.C. doesn't stand for District of Columbia, rather Dublin City. So, another Irish band that have made a brilliant record in 2022. Combining dazzling lyrics courtesy of front man Grian Chatten, with post-punk, Echo and the Bunnymen esque guitar flourishes and a driving rhythm section that build to create, rich, passionate songs. Fontaines D.C. are finding their footing on this their third record.
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Loop - Sonnacy. Loop are back with their first new album in 32 years Sounding as loud and sonic as ever. Robert Hampson's beautifully fuzzed out guitars and pounding repetitive beats sounds as fresh as they did when Loop first made the scene in the late 80's.
Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance. Chicago's Horsegirl have made a stunning debut record. Sounding like a mix of 90's jangle pop, shoegaze, and even Hole era grunge at times, with memorable songcraft exhibited. Horsegirl are band to be reckoned with.
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Night Gnomes. Another wild, balls to the walls Australian psych band in the vein of King Gizzard , Pond, and maybe early Tame Impala, PPC, really bring the noise on Night Gnomes. One of the years best.
Melody's Echo Chamber - Unfold. France's Melody Prochet, the singer, multi-instrumentalist and brainchild of Melody's Echo Chamber, is back at it with another excellent record to add to her catalogue. Co-produced by Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, and Prochet's boyfriend, all 7 tracks on Unfold are gorgeous nuggets of psychedelic pop. You can hear the influence of Parker's pop sensibilities all over this record. The pair really work lovely together, although I hear that this is a bit of a breakup record, as reports are that the couple has split. Bittersweet, but still a fantastic album.
Dungen - 'En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog'. Legendary Swedish psych rockers, Dungen are back for another round of fuzzed out, jazzy psychedelic jams on their first studio record in 7 years. It sounds like they haven't missed a beat on the new, all the elements are there, when the band lock in a reach that groove, they're one of the best ever, and Dungen make it sound so effortless and cool.
Yard Act - The Overlord. Leeds, UK band, Yard Act, came out of gate like gangbusters with their debut record, The Overload, back in January with their brand of English post punk featuring stream of consciousness vocals with a never ending cast of characters from the enigmatic front man of Yard Act, James Smith.
Acid Klaus - Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory Of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris. Acid Klaus main man, Adrian Flanagan has been through hell and back with bike and car accidents, but it hasn't stopped him from making the futuristic, electro beat, techno infused, dance floor stepping, party pleasing record of the year! Put it on at your New Years Eve party, and impress your friends!
