Kate Haresnape picks her Tracks of the year 2021, listen below.
1. Lowertown: The Gaping Mouth
Lowertown songs always sound like an event. I can’t help but inhale with a slight butterflies in my stomach feeling when first hearing the tentative guitar strings come in at the beginning of this track. The technical sophistication of this song is played out through odd-time signatures and finger-picked guitar parts that are executed ever so perfectly. It’s rare to hear recordings where you can somehow feel the energy that was in the room at the time, this is one of those rare occasions.
2. Perturbator/ She Past Away – Excess
It’s dark and edgy and I’m all about it. Synth rockstars Perturbator team up with goth/post-punkers She Past Away for this remix of a Perutubator original. It’s the perfect disaffected youth anthem for despondently dancing the night away.
3. Sweeping Promises – Pain Without a Touch
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of this band. This is more of SP’s signature sound of heavy basslines, sparse guitars, absurdly catchy synths. They’re fantastic, what’s not to love?
4. Midwife – Enemy
According to the album notes, Johnston collaborated with the post-punk band Have a Nice Life on her new record and I suspect it was probably this song they worked on. ‘Enemy‘ is a euphoric, dreamy track that masterfully and consciously works distortion into the forefront of the song.
5. Adult Books – Florance
Adult Books always manage to find the perfect balance between emotion and pop in their songs. Don’t get me wrong this is neither emo or pop, it’s a post-punk song that is almost so perfectly structured it hurts.
6. Death Grips feat Les Claypool – More than a Fairy
I mean it’s Death Grips, need I say more?
7. La Luz – Here on Earth
La Luz are made for the witching hours. Listening to this song immediately transports me to the Californian coast on a warm night where I’m watching the waves gently ripple with a group of hippies I just met.
8. Bachelor – Stay in the Car
The chorus to this song is the catchiest thing I’ve heard this year. It sounds like what being effortlessly cool must feel like or like a moment in a teen movie where the hottest clique is first introduced in slow motion.
9. Remember Sports – Easy
Remember Sports are at their best when their songs are kept short and raucous. ‘Easy’ manages to change tempo half way through the song and manouvres into country that somehow doesn’t sound at odds with the first half of the song.
10. ShitKid – Seen it before
It’s lo-fi, it’s scuzzy, it’s bratty, it’s punk, it’s everything I love.
