A new year has passed and I will now post three important tracks which I had not heard prior to the start of this calendar year. As I keep repeating in the intros to these posts, this is meant to counteract the mechanical algorithmic-based slop commercials that Spotify’s wrapup serves. Seeing an image stating that someone listened to an artist a bunch tells me nothing. Someone telling me what a piece of music made them feel is so much more impactful.

So here goes.

SHXCXCHCXSH - tttttttttttttttt

And I immediately start out by breaking the rules! This is not a track that I heard for the first time this year because it was released in that awkward spot between posting last year’s music rundown and the start of this calendar year. I’ll allow it.

The easily pronounced album ……t from the Swedish duo by the easily pronounced name SHXCXCHCXSH came on my radar via some bandcamp subscription, don’t recall which. I vaguely recall seeing their name somewhere but I guess I had dismissed them just by the name alone as some kind of indie-rock band or something. Had I known that they are a Swedish electronic act, one half being once a member of the legendary electropop group Slagsmålsklubben, I probably would have paid more attention.

In tttttttttttttttt we are inside a gigantic, dying machine. Mechanical shrieks give way to harsh electric buzzing and a heavy thud-thud, thud-thud conveying us forward as two hoarse square waves are being modulated on top of it all, creating their own polyrythm. It has accompanied me during my bike commutes many times this year. Helps me during climbs.

The album reminds me a bit of ASA - Radial which I covered in my 2023 music rundown. I think what appeals to me is that I can recognize the usual genres but interpreted in a way that is harsh and indifferent to what you, the listener, make of it. My way of consuming this album is also similar - keep it playing in the background and turn it off half way because it felt too rough to have on. Only after listening to it on its own terms I got the hang of it and was able to enjoy it.

Runner-up track from the album: tttttiiiilll

CRZKNY - TR-06

Staying with the theme of polyrhythms, I really liked Deadly Outlaw by CRZKNY. Again, this is something that reimagines genres on its own terms, in this case by programming the baseline in whatever time signature it feels like and construct everything else like as a scaffold around it.

TR-06 is a great example and a pretty laid-back listen. Dub chords echo on repeat in the background while a 9 beats long kick drum loop lends us support in the lower registers. Hypnotic. I also like the way it serves as a place to catch a break from the otherwise somewhat dark and heavy mood of the rest of the album.

VNV Nation - On other Oceans

I was excited to finally get the full album Construct after hearing the teaser tracks of it as well as having seen VNV Nation live here in Gothenburg.

I had it on in my noise cancelling headphones while testing my code on the shop floor where I worked during the first half of this year. (In this case, I was writing code that was run on physical machines with stepper motors and pressure cylinders and jackscrews and all sorts of stuff.)

It isn’t goodbye, it isn’t the end if we should part

This track came on, and while I was not really paying attention to the lyrics, I really liked the melody in the chorus.

Impressions and traces remain inside like shining stars

I put it on when I got home and was cooking dinner, this time being more conscious of the lyrics too.

One day i’ll find you out on the waves of other oceans

And it just got me super emotional.

I started to think about people in my life, ones who were once a huge part of it, people who I miss, people I want to keep in touch with. Maybe one day we will finally meet again, see where we are now, see how the times have changed us? It is not the end, even if it has been a while.

In a year filled with keeping in touch with friends recently made, friends newly made and finally meeting up with friends for the first time in a long time, this was a song I really needed. In a year wherein I tried new things, actually went out into the world once more and have made plans for further new things, the hopeful message it tells is something that really fits with what I’m going through. This year has been somewhat rough but also filled with specks of light that I need to hold on to.

The last time a song lyric got me that emotional was another VNV Nation song of course.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for reading this! I love writing about the things I love (go figure) and these yearly posts and they provide me an opportunity to really dig into why I like the things I do. Understand myself a bit better. I hope your year provided you with similar opportunities.

Take care,

rykarn

If you have done any similar writing about your year’s music listening, please let me know! I’d be happy to read it.