![]() First, because Another Sky delivered a phenomenal album, but, more importantly, because it delivered the type of surprise adventure all music lovers want – to find something unexpected. It became my musical highlight of the year. I read an article about Another Sky which highlighted Catrin Vincent’s lead vocals and decided to give it a listen late one lockdown night. So, without further ado, here is a long list to be enjoyed in orderĪnother Sky – How Long? In the age of singles and Spotify, it is increasingly rare that we gain the experience of listening to a new artist in pure form – opening an album, pressing play, listening to the first song and knowing immediately that you are embarking on something special. Just keep my mom out of it because she’s a nice lady. So, I welcome the spirited debate about anything I’m wrong about or anything I missed. I have no musical expertise other than being an avid listener for many years. I do try to stay close therefore, you won’t find a 2012 album that I personally discovered in 2020, but you may find a song released in October 2019 that I only heard for the first time in 2020. Therefore, there can be some debate on whether some of these songs are 2019 or 2020 releases. In a streaming world, it is hard to time stamp songs because they are often released first as singles and then as albums. Rather, my objective was to spend time thinking about the year of music in the context of the year overall and then to take a view of what will be memorable years from now. I know it’s February, and I’m delivering a “Best of 2020” list so who cares, but I always felt that sending this on New Year’s Day isn’t the point. ![]() In some years, it’s not hard, which is the sign of 2020 being a good music year. In 2020, it was hard to break that listening regiment down to 40 songs. The Spotify playlist link and below commentary represents over 116 full albums and hundreds of other single songs. As predicted, the jeers came in heavy but the critiques were outweighed by the positive comments and more importantly the feedback about music I had missed during the year, which is always something I’m looking for.Īfter 3 years of absence while I tried to help raise my daughter, I decided to write the next chapter of my annual list. This way I could feel what it was like to be abused for my musical taste as I had previously criticized others. “Psychedelic chaos” might very well reflect Kairon IRSE!’s methods, but the end product on Polysomn sounds more like interstellar harmony.About a decade ago, suffering from the boredom of Pitchfork’s growing lack of credibility, I decided to stop complaining and to prepare my own top songs of the year. Concise yet overstuffed with acid-laced ear candy, “White Flies” is the album’s most direct application of dopamine to the pleasure centers, a relatively straightforward pop gem that still feels like passing through a portal into another dimension. When Kairon IRSE! dial down the din, they remain delightfully weird and otherworldly, as on the standout “Mir Inoi,” a soft twinkling dirge reminiscent of UK psych-pop outfit Broadcast, with no discernible guitars to be found-just minimal loops of eerie synths. The band puts hooks front and center on the soaring “Retrograde,” even when backed by what sounds like dozens of guitar tracks. “Psionic Static” zeroes in on the intersection of lo-fi and sci-fi, with a miasmal intro of space-age synths and crackly beats gradually intensifying and opening up the song up into an imposing, wondrous anthem. Polysomn still carries echoes of Kairon IRSE!’s rhythmic past, indebted equally to Pink Floyd’s billowing prog and Can’s motorik moonshake this time around, though, melodies and hooks are strategically placed among a labyrinth of sonic bells and whistles. Their third album Polysomn, tempers the largesse of their first two efforts (2014’s Ujubasajuba and 2017’s Ruination) with approachable art pop whimsy, producing heady, heavy results. Pre-order buy pre-order buy you own this wishlist in wishlist go to album go to track go to album go to trackįew bands overpower the senses quite like Kairon IRSE! The Finnish group, who describe their music as “psychedelic chaos,” practice a distinctive form of kaleidoscopic psych-rock maximalism: a sprawling yet intricate blend of krautrock, stoner rock, and prog, festooned with cosmic jazz saxophone and interdimensional synthesizer.
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