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Com Defeito de Fabricação, Tom Zé (1998)

Two decades on from 1978’s Correio da Estação do Brás, so much had changed for Tom Zé. Not just known as part of an era-defining tropicalia movement, by the turn of the century Zé’s music was widely disseminated and so revered by a sizable global audience. And 1998’s Com Defeito de Fabricação [Fabrication Defect] demonstrated that he was very much still that same artist so worthy of worship, a sci-fi musical experiment as ambitious and politically engaged as before. Fun fact: his backing band for this album’s tour was legendary US post-rockers Tortoise.

Pick: ‘Curiosidade’

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It’s the Arps (2012), It’s Album Time (2014), Todd Terje

In beams from the cosmos Todd Terje’s delicately funky, meticulously assembled house, surely an alien ploy to seduce us, enrapture us. What lurks beyond, and what are sinister extra-terrestrials up to whilst our minds and bodies are so helplessly lured away? Conspiracy theorists frequently believe stupider things. 

Pick: ‘Inspector Norse’, ‘Delorean Dynamite’

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Aerial Ballet, Harry Nilsson (1968)

Perfection for Harry Nilsson came rapidly – namely on his third record Aerial Ballet; compositionally luscious, deftly psychedelic, beaming with cradling joy, tender as music can be yet given edge and point by its passages of everyday devastation. 

Pick: ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’

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The Third Reich ’n Roll, The Residents (1978)

A mark of effective provocation, I suppose, is if something still makes you eesh nearly half a century after it was birthed – as does the title and cover of the Residents’ Third Reich ‘n Roll, which still makes me wince. The interior of this one isn’t so edgy (or particularly directly related to the packaging), a bunch of quite annoying, loosely played pastiche tunes

Pick: ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy’

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Pandemonium Shadow Show, Harry Nilsson (1967)

Harry Nilsson loved the Beatles and they loved him, and that’s all very audible on 1967’s Pandemonium Shadow Show, my introduction to Nilsson’s life and works. His first record of a formative streak on RCA Victor, it’s slick and easily digestible if more conventional and less explorative than his best.

Pick: ‘Cuddly Toy’

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T.S.O.L (1981), Weathered Statues (1982), T.S.O.L.

Early TSOL isn’t among my favourite punk of the era. Here are two EPs; the self-titled, which is well-performed if tediously, naively sloganistic, and Weathered Statues, which shifts to more vivid, gothy imagery. The latter is more distinct, less straightforward and, for me, the better of the two.

Pick(s): ‘No Way Out’, ‘Weathered Statues’

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Água viva, Gal Costa (1978)

Perhaps the dreamiest squelch funk ever has been or will be. 

Pick: ‘Olhos verdes’

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Correio da estação do brás, Tom Zé (1978)

Who could tire of music like this? In its rhythms alone Tom Zé’s Correio da estação do brás is again entirely captivating; the darker sonic palette – more obviously angry and embittered – distinguishes this from his prior works.

Pick: ‘Carta’

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Jaco Pastorius, Jaco Pastorius (1976)

Slippery slobbery wibbly wobbly, awesomely star-studded and handsomely graceful, no wonder so many over the years have fallen for this thing. 

Pick: ‘Come On, Come Over’

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Mayu, Pale Cocoon (1984)

The mechanics of modern music discovery are a true marvel. No, I’m not talking about the Spotify algorithm – most marvellous is how cult fandom transcends generations of internet, how geographic and temporal distances are utterly collapsed by technology (if anything, how one can beat the constraints of the algorithm). It’s those mechanics which enable something like Pale Cocoon’s Mayu [Cocoon] – a vivid and expressionistic musical portrait of the Japanese city of Toyama fashioned out of ambient, field recordings and chamber music  – to remain discoverable. 

Pick: ‘Sora’

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Songs for Sinners & Saints, Michael & The Mighty Midnight Revival (2024)

A victory lap without achievement is a particularly depressing sort of tragedy; Killer Mike follows up last year’s bang average Michael with a loud, swaggering and totally empty record that is less actively dislikeable but still bog-standard.

Pick: ‘Nobody Knows’

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Flight b741, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (2024)

King Gizzard are in a dry spell. No, not in the number of albums they’re releasing (don’t be silly) but in terms of quality. By my count Gizz haven’t put their name to anything notable since 2022, instead making metal for people who don’t listen to metal, needlessly convoluted pop or distracted, uninteresting rock. That streak continues on Flight b741, a sort of rootsy, bluesy work which, sure, is stylistically fresh – but in things that actually matter (songwriting, hook-writing, displays of musicianship) it’s all very tired and underthought.

Pick: ‘Mirage City’

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Liberation, JUBEE (2024)

Occasionally a record comes around which lays bare a monoculture clearer than all that came before it; for me, that’s Liberation, which is slick and loud but oh so similar to so much pop rap from elsewhere.

Pick: ‘Liberation’

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Shadowbox, Mavi (2024)

On several levels, Mavi’s Shadowbox does stuff right. Thematically focused, sonically coherent, with wizened, self-aware, self-interrogative lyrics… and yet, it falters – and critically so. Shadowbox lacks a vital attitude: one which shows a desire to actually be listened to. Well-crafted as this may be, it isn’t arresting, it demands nothing of its listener – and so leaves me uninvested.

Pick: ‘20,000 Leagues’

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Black Blues (Acoustic) (2004) Black Blues (Electric) (2004) Keiji Haino

Between these two discs is an apt summary of the breadth of Keiji Haino’s might; one Black Blues is awesomely beautiful, the other utterly, utterly beguiling. In Acoustic (also Soft) Haino puts to record among his most extremely pretty pieces ever, works brittle in their delicateness and tense in their solitude. Electric (also Violent) couldn’t be more different, the same tracks reconfigured to be shocking, unsettling, disturbing, flatly difficult – as demanding as music gets. Glorious pleasure or nauseous disgust, it’s all at Haino’s whim.

Pick(s): ‘See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (soft)’, ‘Black Petal (violent)’

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Romp, LAUSBUB (2024)

Romp opens with a pure – some might say dull – sort of pop, but takes barely any time in transforming entirely into a work riddled with experimental electronics and intense dance music. One of the most driven and diverse records of the year.

Pick: ‘Michi-tono-Sogu’

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Bird’s Eye, Ravyn Lenae (2024)

A near-exact continuation of the style of Ravyn Lenae’s debut Hypnos, the slick R&B of sophomore Bird’s Eye navigates the delicate and muscular with ease. Lenae’s sound, in the grand scheme of things, is still fresh, leaving exceptionally little to complain about.

Pick: ‘Genius’