Best / Worst of 2019

[WCN]

My favorite thread of the year, stoked I get to be the one to fire it up this year since no one has yet and 2019 is almost over!

The great privilege of, and the greatest motivation for, running a distro is being able to check out tons of stuff that I normally wouldn't be able to afford, so this year was overwhelming in that sense. A great year for HN... Here are some of my personal favorites, though I'm sure I'll forget some stuff and need to revise:

Releases:
KIRAN ARORA - Formication CDr (Prose Nagge)
K.M. TOEPFER - Undercut CS (Absurd Exposition)
TRERIKSRÖSET - Kristen Musik Från Rågsved LP (Harbinger Sound)
CLIMAX DENIAL - Blackout Suite CS (No Rent)
STIMBOX / A FAIL ASSOCIATION - Walking Submission LP (Dada Drumming)
T.E.F. - Framework CD (Dada Drumming)
HUM OF THE DRUID - Downhome Paganism (Influencing Machine)
URALL - I Would Breathe Water CS (Throne Heap)
FORM HUNTER - Dripping Curve CS (Prime Ruin)
JACKSON-PRATT - Underdark Terror CS (New Forces)
ENTRE VIFS - Offrande Et Partage CD (Aussaat)
V/A - The Silent Continuity Of All Existence With Which The Victim Is Now One CDr (Prose Nagge)
SEWER ELECTION - Efterspel CS (Dead Gods)
PAIN APPARATUS - 4.28.19/9.12.15 CS (Dead Gods)
HEAT SIGNATURE - Dehumanization In Progress CD (Oxen)
OCHU - Unproduktiw 12" (Verlautbarung)
STAR - Linzess For Polymuse CS (I Am Elegant)
TASKMASTER CS (FTAM)
BACILLUS / THE RITA - Collimators, The Ocean CS (Lake Shark Harsh Noise)
ABSTERBENDE - Gebärmutter CS (self-released)
M. WRZOSEK - His Voice Had Become An Unintelligible Mass Of Pain CS (ODMOWA)
AARON DILLOWAY/JOHN WIESE - Sniper Counter Sniper CD (Hanson Records)
MiKE DILLOWAY - Any Old Time Tastes CDr (Chocolate Monk)
WORTH - Ruination Assessment 3" CD (Freak Animal)

Reissues:
THE RITA - Magazine 2xLP reissue - special edition
MO*TE - Taste Die Mad (Audio Dissection / Industrial Recollections)
AHLZAGAILZEHGUH - Black Destination LP (Breathing Problem Productions)

Worst:
The biggest obvious worst of 2019 was Keith Brewer's passing of course. There were lots of other worsts, though most of them don't deserve any mention or attention.

[DSOL]

some stuff I really liked this year

Bacillus - Out Of Control
Bacillus - Nightmare Bacteria
Bacillus / The Rita - Collimators, The Ocean
Form Hunter - Wrecked
Form Hunter - Chrome Tint
Form Hunter - Dripping Curve
Expectants - Expectants
Jackson-Pratt - Underdark Terror
Autoerotichrist - Cabin Fever
Body Carve - Autoamputation
Pain Apparatus - Pain Apparatus
GodOfGaps - A Palace With No Pull
Mademoiselle Bistouri - Just Paid Better
Controlled Death - Black Lucifer Rising

edited to add the following since I just heard them

Nyogthaeblisz - Abrahamic Godhead Manifested by Adversarial Usurpation - ordered the LP and HHR said it wasn't shipping until the end of the month, but it showed up Friday, didn't even receive shipping confirmation. Black/Death album of the year, complete and utter violence from the beginning to the end

Aaron Dilloway/John Wiese - Sniper Counter Sniper

[Balor/SS1535]

My favorite power electronics/industrial release of the year is Zyklon SS - Racial Superirity.  It is excellent in every regard: atmospheric, heavy, and oppressive.  Great use of sound samples, and awesome cover art.

[Eigen Bast]

this year kicked ass, some of my favorites, not exhaustive by any means

Best
Mania -Hardly Lethal
Interracial Sex - N*gger Addicted Jackaholic
Linekraft - Subhuman Principle
Kazumoto Endo - Keiyo
Painjerk - Mission Invisible
VA - The Silent Continuity...
Heat Signature - Dehumanization in Progress
Jeph Jerman - Arcane Facture
Physique - The Evolution of Combat
Vothana - Never to Submit
Python - Astrological Warfare
Worth - Hidden in Christ
Final Solution - Mass Death
Gerogerigegege- Uguisudani Apocalypse
Grim - Lunatic House

Reissues
Mo*te - Uncut
Genocide Organ - Leichenlinie
Smell & Quim - Atom Heart Motherfucker
Slogun - The Pleasures of Death

Worst
The passing of Keith Brewer and Terry Turtle.
Simon Morris going missing.
A "noise set" that consisted of a person yelling at a brick for 15 minutes

Saw some amazing stuff, played some great shows, met some real homies...."a good year"

[ConcreteMascara]

Good
Records
noise, etc - to echo WCN it was a great year for harsh noise. Still haven't heard a lot of releases like the Heat Signature album but a lot of what I heard was top-notch
- Kiran Aorara - Formication CDr - Prose Nagge - I've talked about this several times here and on my podcast but this one is just fucking excellent. 100% solid gold the whole way through. Big thanks to Weak Will for turning me onto this.
- Mo*Te reissues and the Skeleton Dust tape were all awesome. especially the Uncut boxset. can't wait to here the other new tape on New Forces.
- Magnetic Tape Mouth Gag - S/T tape - IOPS & Presage - FERALHEART tape - Self-Released - monstrous synth based harsh noise that satisfies the harsh noise need with and the power electronics lust at the same time. I think technically the Presage tape came out last year but it wasn't even known to me until this past October so I'm including it.
- Form Hunter - Dripping Curve tape - Prime Ruin - the first time I listened to this on my walkman the batteries started dying halfway through and it almost destroyed the tape as it slowly unspooled but it sounded fucking amazing! on subsequent listens it's still an excellent tape but the first listen is burned in my mind.
- Selected Killing - Secret Tombstone 3"CD - Freak Animal - every CD from the FA 3" series this year deserves a mention, but this was the standout, just edging out the Vanhala tape. it's like an ultra-refined version of Seer of Decay era Grunt so who can top that?!

non-noise, etc
- d'n'b renaissance continues - Pessimist - Burundanga EP [UVB-76]; Overlook - Seance EP [Osiris Music UK]; Vermisst - Zerfall EP [Horo]; 4 6 2 5 - 4 6 2 5 - 002 [4 6 2 5]
- Boy Harsher - Careful - Nude Club - probably my most listened to record, despite my initial lukewarm reception
- HTRK - Venus in Leo - Ghostly Intl. - album of the year? maybe
- Carly Rae Jepsen - Devoted - slowly building a real love for this one, despite it lacking the immediate hooks of E-MO-TION.

Movies - from 2019 or seen for the first time
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood [2019]
- Godzilla King of the Monsters [2019]
- Sonatine [1993]
- Angst [1983]
- Bullet Ballet [1998]
- Tokyo Fist [1995]
- Candyman [1992]
- Organ [1996]

Concerts
- Rectal Hygienics, Stimulant and Mellow Harsher @ Sleeping Village, Chicago IL - an awesome show smack dab in the middle of my own tour. all three sets were totally punishing

General
- getting engaged to an amazing woman
- buying a stage 2 WRX, learning to drive stick and driving it very fast
- going on tour with J. Peterson and Bill Cooterson
- finding and buying a copy of White Heaven's Next to Nothing in NM condition, with autographed booklet, for $25.00

Worst
- Keith's passing. I still don't have the appropriate words to express my feelings on the matter.
- my friend undergoing abdominal surgery and having serious, life threatening complications, and still being sick
- a friend who shot himself
- a friend who overdosed and died
- watching Bird Box, The Wind and Mandy

[A-Z]

 Agonal Lust ‎– Hideous Salvation

[Bruitiste]

A lot of my favorites have already been named (Interracial Sex, Linekraft, Dilloway/Wiese) but gotta give a special mention to the 10xCassette "On Corrosion" box, essentially 10 albums in one comp.   Great stuff by Himukalt, Alice Kemp, and more.  Also:

Bloodyminded - self-titled
Blood Rhythms - Civil War
Pedestrian Deposit - Dyers' Hands
Pharmakon - Devour
Anarch Peak - Vitarium
Ramleh - The Great Unlearning
The Body - Remixed

...and a bunch of other non-noise stuff as well.

[XXX]

↑
seeing Survival Unit, Young Hustlers & Agonal Lust at Club Rectum
all the amazing reissues from asrar & urashima
seeing Sátántangó & Stalker in a theatre


↓
rip keith
no money for the Come Org VOD box

[muppet1]

New releases
Sean Colum - Five Aspects of the Same Thing
Chamber of Tapeworms - Vomit Ostranenie
Treriksröset - Kristen Musik Från Rågsved and Untitled cs
Jon Dale - Theatre
Wince - Shame
Manabu Suzuki - Occupied / Vacant
April Magazine - Parade
Morton Feldman Piano set
T.D. / S.S. - Gog Magog
Mattias Gustafsson - Frånvarande
Madacy Jazz label on Bandcamp
Gabi Losoncy - I Can Be Convinced
Frank Denyer - The Boundaries of Intimacy
Darksmith - Poverty of Will
The Rita - Linked Arms And Touching Torsos

Music heard for first time through reissue
Societe Anonomie - #1
Mo*te box and reissues
Enrico Piva - Anticlima set
Encephalophonic ‎– Surgical Mods
Evil Moisture - Cartopsy
New Blockaders - The Pulp Sessions
Toshiya Tsunoda - Extract from Field Recording Archive set
Masonna- Bursting Absolute Moods

The Halloween screening of Sam McKinlay's Black Gloves and Razors was also a highlight, bookended by train rides with drunk and vacant New Yorkers in costume. The live sets of the year were Worth and Kiran Arora at Hart Bar - look forward to Hidden In Christ arriving sometime next week. Great to have a cd of Toshiji Mikawa's Radio Code cassette to replace the digital artifact-laden mp3s I've been stuck with for 10 years or so. Continued to enjoy Drain Gang output. Looking forward to that Come Org. box showing up, and I hope to hear the three Ex-Jesus cassettes from this year someday.


Can anyone recommend the best black metal from this year? Contemporary and reissue?

[Balor/SS1535]

Can anyone recommend the best black metal from this year? Contemporary and reissue?

The new Reek of the Unzen Gas Fumes full-length was really great.  It compiled many of their best songs, and came in extremely high quality packaging/layout.  I have also heard (though cannot confirm, as I have not listened to them) that the newest Blut Aus Nord and Mayhem (from what I have listened to, this is some of Attila's best work with Mayhem) albums were both excellent.

[holy ghost]

Just went through my discogs for 2019 - I bought a shitload of new noise this year, here the highlights. I have a bunch of shit that came in in the last few weeks I haven't even heard yet.

New:
Anthony Braxton - Quartet (New Haven) 2014
Skin Crime - Traveller on the Road LP/A Legacy of Blood/Lot 249
Smell & Quim - Yellow Album
Linekraft - Subhuman Principle
Aaron Dilloway/John Wiese - Sniper Counter Sniper
The Haters/Sissy Spacek - Scraping Glaze + tapes
Pieces - LP
Knurl - Periphoric Strain
Rusalka - Base Waters LP/Flux A&B
Sewer Election - Efterspel CS
Sete Star Sept & Rich Hoak tape
Sissy Spacek & Smegma - Ballast CD
Shredded Nerve - Attempting An Exit 2xCS
Skin Graft - Guilt/Condemned/Solstice

Reissues:
Crawl Noise - Wall of Noisecore LP
Incapacitants - Project Pallo 85
Incapacitants - Stupid is Stupid 4LP
Xysma - Repulsive Morbidity box
Bob Bell - Necropolis LP
The Rita - Magazine

Best metal was the Fetid, Unborn Salivate and Tomb Mold LPs

Best hardcore was the Sex Dwarf/Paranoid 7"

[O_ss]

Best:
Bizarre Uproar - Indoctrination Of Fist & Cock
Bizarre SS - Bizarre SS
Zyklon SS - Racial Superiority
RxAxPxE ‎- Death Trance

Good Stuff:
Desgranges - Predatory Obsession
Room Ov Pleasure - Wet And Restless Dreams
Cervical Smear - Real-Death Enthusiast
Flagellatio Orgasmus - A Stranger To Extreme
Mania - All Aftermath

[NaturalOrthodoxy]

It was a good year for black metal. Departure Chandelier - Antichrist Rise to Power takes the crown for me, followed closely by Vanum - Ageless Fire. Same goes for death metal, especially Pissgrave - Posthumous Humiliation
. Somewhere between BM/DM is Human Agony - The Putrescence of Calvary. Just killer Ross Bay style bestial black metal.
I feel like I haven't spent enough time with new noise releases this year, possibly due to not having the money for physical releases and thus doing most of my listening on Spotify. That said, I've greatly enjoyed and consistently returned to Moonbeam Terror - Comfort Knife- I think possibly due to its simplicity it's a very gratifying listen. Also picked up the Hospital reissue of Slogun - The Pleasures of Deathh and spent a lot of time with that- nothing to say that no one hasn't already on that one. Absolutely perfect bleak PE. The TEF - Framework album is fucking insane, when it comes to super fast cut up harsh noise I feel like I wouldn't ever have to look beyond this album. Also really enjoyed the Hijokaidan/Sissy Spacek - Entropic release. Mainly stoked that Terror Cell Unit is now on Spotify too.

Although best thing about this year was getting married and ending the night drunk dancing to cancelled bands with my mates

[NO PART OF IT]

I am maybe too braindead to remember what happened this year, being away from home as I type this as well, plus it has been tough to keep my finger on the pulse of things in recent years, but here goes:

noisy/noise-related:

Pharmakon - Devour
everything dave phillips did this year
same for Rudolf Eb.er
Relay for Death - Anxiety of the Eye
"On Corrosion" compilation
Helm - Chemical Flowers
Nate Young - Vol 1-3 LP series on Lower Floor
Cop Funeral - Pain
MAbH - On Being Pollinated
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond
BBJr - Junior Nuclear
Jonathan Canady - The Unspeakable
Goth Girl  Split w/ Tissa Mawartyassari
Jim Haynes - Inconclusive
Controlled Death - Black Lucifer Rising
Contagious Orgasm - The Dream of a Fetus in Heavy Oil




non-noise:

Amon Tobin - Fear In A Handful of Dust
Walter Gross - Rippers Only
Charles Megira - The Abtomatic Miesterzinger Mambo Chic
Surachai - Come, Deathless
Uniform & The Body - Not Good Enough
Darja Kazimura & Dagmar Gertot - Death of the Bull
Cherubs - Immaculada High
Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q.
Lightning Bolt - Sonic Citadel
Lingua Ignota - Caligula

Too many reissues to count...

[NaturalOrthodoxy]

Pharmakon - Devour

Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q.

How did I forget Pharmakon! Easily her best work, the most truly "PE" sounding while also the most exploratory in sound. And that Liturgy album did indeed slap, I'm past pretending not to like that band regardless of how pretentious HHH is.