Top 10 Albums of 2024 – Matthew Hamilton

Presented in no particular order:

“Goat” by Goat-Swedish psych trippers Goat surfaced over a decade ago mesmerizing the world with their “world Music” album and a backstory involving a voodoo witch who visited their small, arctic Swedish village leaving her magical influence in her wake. After a few studio albums and a couple live albums, goat disappeared and mysteriously as they first appeared, no one knowing if we’d ever here from them again. Goat resurfaced a few years ago and has released an album for every year back, and the music tells us it’s not a phoned in reunion of a band riding their own past coattails, nay Goat returned with a fury and plenty of fuzzy guitar to make my head sizzle, which is why I adore them so. ‘Goat” is a continuation of the tradition with fuzzy guitars, global rhythms, magic and mystery.

“Super Disco Pirata – De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965​-​1980”-Analog Africa is a great reissue label that started out focusing on rare 70’s Afrobeat from West Africa, making comps from crate digging trips to West African cities and even tracking down artists or their families to ensure proper royalties were paid. They quickly veered into the influence of African rhythms through the diaspora in Central and South American countries, but in the recent years have released a couple stellar compilations from Mexico, this being the latest, featuring pirated records sold in Mexico City for street dances in the 70’s and 80’s. This comp is weird and funky and great with manipulated pitch and speed, and lots of strange instrumentation. Like all Analog Africa comps, all killer no filler, a great time from needle drop to lift.

“Electric Phantoms” by Maya Ongaku- Maya Ongaku released their first album on Guruguru Brain in the wake of having to say goodbye to the great Kikagaku Moyo. “Approach to Anima’ was a chill, soothing, meditative salve to our souls. Quickly videos from live shows in Japan suggested there was more to this band, and with the release of the “Electric Phantoms” EP this year, the suspicion was confirmed. Just the kind of fresh , new sound I live for, I can’t wait to see what else Maya Ongaku has in store, and I hope they make a first visit to the US very soon.

“Grim Iconic by JRCG”-Speaking of fresh sounds I live for, JRCG provides. The sound of JRCG is the future, and in an uncertain future that seems scary, JRCG calms my fear with woodwinds, synths, and the most infectious rhythms since Can’s “Halleluwah.”

“Ayo Ke Disco: Boogie, Pop & Funk from the South China Sea (1974​-​88)”-There have been a lot of international disco comps being released, and Soundway was a pioneer, releasing multiple disco comps from West Africa. This year they peaked with “Ayo Ke Disco: Boogie, Pop & Funk from the South China Sea (1974​-​88).” This comp is fresh, weird, and well beyond irony or quirk. Highly enjoyable, and I am not normally a disco enjoyer.

“Black Holes Don’t Choke”-Charles Moothart is known for various collaborations with Ty Segall, including Fuzz and Freedom Band, but his three solo albums under the name CFM stand on their own as solid acid dystopian punk albums. Black Holes Don’t Choke builds on the great rawness of those albums with a delicate touch of more complex production and song craft to create a really nice album. For those constantly looking for rock and roll signs of life, Charles Moothart is thriving.

“Uncertain Destination” by Power of Zeuss-A few years ago, a new reissue label appeared called Ancient Grease, but this reissue label is a standout. There are plenty of reissue labels cranking out really nice represses of rare and lesser known 70’s hard rock, but where Ancient Grease diverges is the issuing of REALLY rare private press and regionally released records, some never having been pressed before or only 25 or 50 records pressed initially. The result is getting to hear some rare, raw music that doesn’t at all leave you with that “I can see why this never had wide release” feeling. Another reissue label who values relationships with the artists they release, Ancient Grease is doing the dark lord’s work, and the fruits of the labor are ripe and juicy.

“Trip to China” presented by Weedian-Weedian has been releasing really nice stoner/sludge/doom metal regional compilations for the last few years, and the state and country surveys released as “pay what you want” on Bandcamp have been offering the most detailed region by region sampling of a genre I have ever seen. Additionally, the inclusion of copyrighted music from other labels exemplifies the love and respect Weedian must command to be able to compile these mixes. One of the latest entries comes from China, and hoo boy this one is smokin’!

“GNX” by Kendrick Lamar-I can credit my love of Kendrick Lamar to my 18 year old son who plays Kendrick around the house LOUD. As a lover of classic hip hop that wan’t “classic” when I was young and it was current, I had lost hope in hip hop from a lot of what I hear. but when I heard Kendrick, I knew I was hearing something special, and with each release, my suspicion has been confirmed. You probably won’t hear this album on the air, as there isn’t a radio friendly cut (the FCC would stone bloop out), but this is a landmark hip hop album.

“A Chaos of Flowers” by Big Brave-I began 2023 with the new Big Brave album as my most anticipated for the beginning of the year, and 2024 ended up a repeat. Montreal’s Big Brave makes a big noise, possibly the most skillful hybrid of melodic music with intense feedback guitar and sonic annihilation since Crazy Horse.