Following up on the best album of 2020 thread, what new bands have you discovered this year? Most of my purchases are bands that already existed in my collection. These are just the new-to-me bands that I have come across:
Larkin Poe. I thought they were kind of countryish, but they have some great blues rock, along with tons of covers. https://youtu.be/N3idn3XQN_w
Thelonius Monk. I have been dipping my toes into the jazz world for the last five years and this guy is pretty well known. I donāt love it, but it is pretty interesting. I bought Genius of Moden Music (vols. 1 and 2) and his collaboration with Art Blakey. OLD jazz. https://youtu.be/ySN6o6vpHTs
BADBADNOTGOOD. This is some Canadian content for you. Their second album from 2012 is the only one that grabbed me. It is pretty accessible if you are a rocker looking for something new/different. https://youtu.be/l97mbF7J-r4
Tool - Fear Iinoculum. Not my thing at all. Might grow on me, butā¦
Iāve been slowly getting into Japanese hardcore this year, and even to slower house and electronica.
Well, I already was interested in such since I play Konami rhythm game titlesā¦ but the past couple months have been the first time I actually listened to these song for the detail. I can stream a lot of it, but I also want to buy CDs for the collectability.
Hardcore as in a subgenre of EDM. Would include your classic stuff like Gabber, Makina, happy hardcore, etc. as well and newer derivations and fusions.
Specifically interested in Japanese artists, because they use a lot of the same exact samples and motifs while still finding a way to be unique. It tends to be a lot busier than older Europen works andā¦ IDK if some cen even be called dance music. Itās weird haha.
Yacht , West Coast Indie Dance-ish music, fun and very stylized with some some clear 80ās new wave influence. Couple of albums deep with good songs and some awesome remixes.
Dinosaur L; 24 ā 24 Albumā¦ itās just indescribable. Released in 2015 but the original album was from 92.
Khruangbin, honestly every single album, I bought them all this year. Mellow SE Asian funk dubā¦whatever, another indescribable sound.
Caroline Rose: Loner a great album with solid depth.
Noname; Telefone groundbreaking female more poetry than rap, a lot of fun.
Headhunters is certainly a great one, probably his best know fusion.
But also check out:
Fat Albert Rotunda
Mr Hands
Secrets - The song Spider has some crazy sound stage to it
Love noname. Seen her perform and she was drunk. Good performance and such great music. Come to think of it, I saw her twice and she was drunk at both performances. Really lives up to her lyrics.
I donāt pay attention to new music, so the only band I ānewly discoveredā was Fleetwood Mac. I had heard of them before but only knew āDonāt Stopā and āGo Your Own Wayā which I thought sucked (and still do). Turns out they made other songs.
Honestly, I did the same thing with The Beatles. Anytime a Beatles song plays on the radio or advert here itās ALWAYS a McCartney song, and theyāre just too twee for my taste. Then I heard the Lennon and Harrison songs and realised what the big deal was.
I wish I can discover some of the good new music to this decade, for I have been one of the folks who knows most of the time, that mainstream music that are new are just utter crap, therefore discourages me to even explore more to find some of the good stuff. I think the only good artist that I have discovered this year so far would be Denzel Curry and I can say that yes, he is legit talented, and that talent of his is even more apparent when he made a cover of one of the angriest songs ever made, and even made it even more angry.
I re-discovered Mazzy Star this year. I remembered a few of their songs from the āSo tonight that i might seeā album, but i never bought any of the music back then. This year i have bought 2 of their albums, and they got to be my number one band/artist on my Spotify wrapped list.
Causa Sui is another band that i last year listened to a little bit, but this year i really have listened to them quite a lotā¦ both their older releases and their new album from earlier this year.
The list is a little long and hard to cut down even more, but this has been the biggest year of new music for me in probably 5 years. Fortunately in Seattle we have an amazing independent radio station (KEXP) and they have a vast group of different DJās and themed segments. I hear so much, new to my ears, music listening to that station. I highly recommend their app to anyone as they stream live (live playlist as well) and archive shows for 2 weeks. Also, starting a shared playlist on Spotify with some friends from back home has been a great way to get new music as well.
Khruangbin
Idles
Deep Sea Diver
Sampa The Great
Sa-Roc
Arlo Parks
Kamasi Washington
Thundercat - pretty embarrassed to be late to the party on this guy. I knew of him through Flying Lotus but never checked out his personal catalog.
Fiona Apple - I was very familiar with Tidal, however I never dived into the rest of her catalog
