Has this year’s been started yet?
At any rate:
These New South Whales — TNSW
Came out last year, but managed to miss it. Kinda power pop with postpunk urgency. Maybe a bit yourcodenameis:milo? Annoyingly not on bandcamp. Someone with Spotify may link. Here’s Changes:
Some stand-outs so far…
Cluster - Grosses Wasser
Must have picked up on this one from the 1979 HGWTY thread. I only knew Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso until this.
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
I only started listening to them a couple of years ago, but started with the two albums that surround this one. “Princes” was featured in a Music League playlist so I jumped in.
These HGWTY and listening club threads have given me cause to discover / finally get round to listening to heaps of albums. Elastica’s second album was a big one for me last year.
Oort Smog - Smeared Pulse Transfers (2019 - despite the date on the Spotify link)
Sax and drum duo with a short album of brief but intense avant-garde jazz pieces with proggy time signatures. Exhilarating stuff.
Discovered Death’s Dynamic Shroud thanks to the Dig That Treasure show on Resonance FM.
Darklife is a masterpiece, sample-heavy electro-pop I suppose.
FFO: VHS Head, Jackson & His Computer Band, PC Music
BABii - Screamer (for fans of Charli XCX, hyperpop, dance)
I mentioned hyper pop above but it’s got a really chill vibe - the hooks are catchy but they are more subtle/less forced and that’s really satisfying. Not entirely unlike Grimes - Visions, but with more of a garage influence. There’s loads going on in these tracks and they get better and better on repeat listens. A second mix of it went up in January 2023* which has made it more substantial too - pretty rare that a pop album is improved by being made longer so that speaks to the strength of the music here. Great stuff.
*The original version came out last summer so I didn’t really discover this for the first time in 23 and I’m cheating here - but it’s brilliant and I’ve been meaning to post about it for ages!