If you told me that 2025 would be the stupidest year I’ve lived through, well, at least there’s the possibility of accidental entertainment in that, right? But when you combine stupidest with cruelest, no amount of gallows humor can do much to counteract our uniquely revolting moment in time. I’m thankful then that I frequently find myself in the company of people actively combating our various forms of social deterioration, that I don’t personally know anyone who is psyched about generative AI, and that I’m getting old enough that the years are truly starting to whizz by anyway. Much like this ever-enduring music blog, I’m a work in progress, and hope to someday meaningfully kick back against the pricks to an extent that I might feel proud of.

In the meantime, let’s look back on twelve months of excellent music. The hurdles seem higher every year, from the artists trying to find a reasonable way to share their work with the people who might enjoy it to the prospective listeners trying to find a way to discover new music that really speaks to them (and hopefully avoid the horrors of “dynamic ticket pricing” if they decide to go to a show). So, thank you all for persisting! If I can offer one piece of advice to those listeners, it’s this: pay closer attention to fewer things. It’s a rich suggestion coming from a guy who talks about thirty new records every month, but bear with me! The oligarchs want to turn art into a fire hydrant spew of contextless noise, an endlessly-scrollable deluge that you can neither process nor enjoy. It’s the worst way to experience culture, so please, actually spend some money on music (maybe even buy some MP3s if you’re feeling saintly), and then spend the same amount of time with it you gave to a compact disc in 2002. Even if you hate it, too – some of my fondest listening experiences are with music I cannot stand. (You should’ve been in the van when we played that first Geordie Greep single over and over, ahahahehehe!) Besides listening to records at home (while surrounded by IKEA Kallaxes at all angles), I got a modern MP3 player earlier this year (the terribly-named FiiO JM21) and I put something like seventy full-lengths on there (roughly 0.000007% of Spotify’s library). It’s been deeply satisfying to blast the same few albums for weeks at a time. The two or three companies that lease most of our digital lives back to us are so desperate to own the remainder, so while we still have this semblance of freedom of choice, I strongly urge you to exercise it.

While we’re looking back, I’m also gonna take this yearly opportunity to toot my own horn, however small it may be. Some quick personal highlights:

– Irish punk band Problem Patterns invited me to sing on their song “Sad Old Woman”, and not as the titular character, believe it or not. It’s on their Boring Songs For Boring People EP. I actually got to perform it live with them in Brighton over the summer, and I bonked my head really bad on a PA speaker during it, just as nature intended

– Pissed Jeans played fifteen shows this year (slightly under our median average of eighteen), and shared our cover of Lou Reed’s “Waves Of Fear”

– I got a new project going called Shirtless with Jonathan Krohn and Alina Pleskova, and we released our debut album Empty Powers on Downwards Records

– I did a fun interview with Gabi Page-Fort of Hex Enduction Records & Books for the shop’s Hex Enduction Quarterly zine, focused mostly on this very music newsletter/blog, which was lots of fun. I believe it’s only available in print form, but they’re extremely generous folks and would love to share with any interested parties I’m sure – you won’t regret reaching out to them!

Thank you for bearing with – we’re almost to the lists! I’d be remiss if I didn’t share my favorite song (and music video) of the year, too. Without question, it’s Jim White’s “I Don’t Do / Grand Central” featuring Zoh Amba. I talked it up earlier this month in my album review, but I need to reiterate it once more. Their pairing of homespun meditative groove with oddball comedic riffing is one of a kind, and you can sing along with it – in fact, you must sing along with it. The friendship displayed between these two artists is moving, probably because it’s just funny and natural and they are in no way trying to move us with it. If I could send holiday cards to my friends in the form of a song, it’d be “I Don’t Do / Grand Central”, make no mistake. See you next year!

Top Singles of 2025
1. Blawan BouQ 12″
2. Jorg Kuning Elvers Pass 12″
3. Alex Kassian Body Singer 12″
4. Gombeen & Doygen Prada / Sequel 12″
5. Rigorous Institution The Tormentor 12″
6. Bruce Belly / Burned Alive 12″
7. Actress Tranzkript 1 12″
8. Kissland Girls Mignon 7″
9. Oh Mr James I’m Not Here EP 12″
10. Chronophage Musical Attack: Communist + Anarchist Friendship 7″
11. Miles J Paralysis Turf Step EP 12″
12. Vehicular Vehicular 12″
13. Upsammy Open Catalyst 12″
14. Jonathan Kirby This Is Your Song 7″
15. Tornado Wallace Bitter Suite 12″
16. Dwig Beyond Cry And Smile 12″
17. Eddy Current Suppression Ring Shapes And Forms 7″
18. Yu Su Foundry / Bonita 12″
19. Young Eman Popstar In Da Bits MP3
20. Carrier The Fan Dance 7″

Honorable Mention:
The Native Cats Aces Low / Lose Count 7″
Bruce The Price / Mimicry 7″
Dopplereffekt Metasymmetry 12″
Skee Mask Stressmanagement 12″
The Bug Burials / Mud 12″

Top Albums of 2025
1. Blawan SickElixir
2. YHWH Nailgun 45 Pounds
3. Nourished By Time The Passionate Ones
4. Erika de Casier Lifetime
5. Kaleidoscope Cities Of Fear
6. Darkside Nothing
7. Fish Narc Frog Song
8. Marie Davidson City Of Clowns
9. Safe Mind Cutting The Stone
10. Schatterau Übers Jahr
11. Cube Lucky Numbers & True Weight
12. France Destino Scifosi
13. Dark Thoughts Highway To The End
14. Rat Heart Dancin’ In The Streets
15. Unchained Frontalier
16. Headache Thank You For Almost Everything
17. Evan Parker & Bill Nace Branches
18. A Happy Return Hamewith
19. Carnivorous Bells Beacons In Limbo
20. Carrier Rhythm Immortal

Honorable Mention:
Real Lies We Will Annihilate Our Enemies
Index For Working Musik Which Direction Goes The Beam
They Are Gutting A Body Of Water LOTTO
JJulius Vol III
Black Eyes Hostile Design

Blawan BouQ (XL)
Alright, here’s some proof that my year-end best-of lists come straight from the heart: who in their right mind would pick the same artist for best single and best album if any sort of savvy posturing came into play? If my main goal was to strategically generate clicks, I’d be looking outside of my gut for the answers, but seriously – do you want new wave or do you want the truth? BouQ arrived by storm early in the year, subtly smoother and more sensual in comparison to the forthcoming SickElixir album, which of course we didn’t know at the time. These tracks are heavyweight pop caught in a violent windstorm without sufficient shelter, the cyber-femme vocal hooks cutting through waves of hot dust and the occasional shard of wrecked industrial equipment. “Fires” is Rihanna versus Godzilla in the Las Vegas sphere as officiated by Bill Kouligas… motion-sickness-inducing techno years ahead of its time. Since Blawan’s excellent Dismantled Into Juice single (coincidentally my favorite EP in 2023, ehrm), his accompanying artwork has utilized close-range photography of domesticated animals with neon spray-paint accents. The visceral and uncanny sheep’s wool doused with jarringly artificial pigmentation here is a perfect visual complement to the music. I’m so glad Blawan continues to share his unique vision with the world.

Blawan SickElixir (XL)
Real talk, the album category always comes with the stiffest competition. YHWH Nailgun, Nourished By Time, Erika de Casier, Kaleidoscope… they all produced stunning records that enriched my 2025 deeply, and had any of those artists chosen to whittle their albums down into EPs, they could’ve easily topped the singles list. However, there can be only one #1 in the numerical ranking system I stubbornly cling to, and this one’s a no-brainer: SickElixir is the high point of Blawan’s career. I’m not sure how he can ever top this, and I’m scared to think he might try, as I expect to be reckoning with this record for quite a while to come. Aggressive electronic music is a hard fruit to squeeze fresh juice from, and yet Blawan is here dumping it over us like a Gatorade cooler in the final seconds before a championship victory. Squint and you’ll hear Korn and Doja Cat, squint even harder and you’ll hear Napalm Death and Mr. Oizo, and if you squint so hard that your eyes start to bleed, congratulations – you’ve finally achieved the true state of SickElixir. I’ve seen the album appear on a few other best-of-2025 lists – rightfully so, of course – yet I’m more dismayed by those that have heard it and not given it top billing than those that haven’t heard it at all. Imagine tasting freshly-ground Alba Ceylon cinnamon for the first time and then ranking it third behind store-brand dried parsley and onion powder. That’s the trouble with blazing new ground, but I don’t have to wait for the world to catch up with Blawan… not when I can karate-mosh to “Casch” in my living room right this very moment. In fact, wait here a sec – I’ll be right back.

Yeah, I celebrate Earth Day… any day that Earth is playing a nearby show, of course! The legendary Seattle-based group are one of the few genuinely worthy of “iconic” status (an otherwise overused and devalued term), having more or less spawned entire new genres of music in their storied career. With Dylan Carlson its sole constant member, I’d certainly recommend checking out Even Hell Has Its Heroes, Clyde Petersen’s 2023 documentary on Carlson and the struggles and triumphs he has shared with Earth since the early ’90s. I’m going to stop with the biographical details now though, operating with the assumption that most of y’all are already firmly on the same page as me regarding Earth’s towering stature in the world of avant-garde guitar music (and beyond), but if by some chance you haven’t delved into their catalog – too vast and intimidating, maybe? – there’s no reason you can’t remedy that today. As for me, I wasn’t clued in to what they’d been up to lately, or even why they were on tour. All I knew is that Earth were coming to town on a blustery Monday night and I wasn’t gonna miss it.

Up against a few competing events – indie darlings Wednesday at Union Transfer, The Bad Plus at Solar Myth, and perhaps most damagingly, the Philadelphia Eagles taking on the Green Bay Packers on ESPN – the below-capacity crowd at Johnny Brenda’s clearly wanted to be there. There were simply too many other enticing options that evening (including the highly-regarded “staying at home”), and while I was a little surprised (and offended on Earth’s behalf) that the show didn’t sell out weeks in advance, I appreciated the ability to move freely about the room. This included chatting with friends about the opening act Stebmo, the nom-de-plume of one Steve Moore. If you’re like me, when you hear “Steve Moore” you think “Zombi”, and while the prospect of an Earth-opening slot from that Steve Moore still feels entirely plausible, it was a different guy. This Steve Moore is a pianist / trombonist / composer who has played with a list of brow-raising notables to include Sufjan Stevens, Bill Frisell and Sunn O))). With straight brown hair cascading down to his ass, Stebmo sat at his Wurlitzer and coaxed out some dreamy, Sun Ra-esque meditations, his nimble fingers playfully running the keyboard alongside a fresh-cooked cosmic drone. To my delight, he picked up a Casio SK-1 sampler keyboard (a late ’80s childhood classic), held it vertically, and improvised melodies from its hearing-test tone-setting directly into the microphone, the sort of spontaneously beautiful musical gesture I’d expect from Dan Higgs.

Our hearts and minds were clearly open and ready to receive, even down to the stumbling backwards-baseball-cap-ponytail-and-sunglasses guy who was crushing domestics directly in front of the stage. I had heard from a member of Earth that part of Stebmo’s set on this tour involved “a talk”, and after not even ten minutes of music, he put the Casio down, introduced himself, and entered into a kind-hearted ramble. Or should I clarify, extended ramble – Stebmo clearly had some loose parameters in mind for where he intended to take us, but he did so in a boldly unfocused, unhurried way, either not noticing or not caring how frequently he repeated himself or where he was headed. After sharing his gratitude for the audience and Earth, he went into some basic music theory / The Science Of Music details, playing single notes on a trombone and then explaining those single notes to us. Eventually, he concluded his talk with thoughts on the healing power of music. Maybe this doesn’t sound so bad, and I’m not saying it was bad, it was just long, painfully so for anyone in the audience with a lumbar spine over the age of thirty-five (I’d say that accounted for 100% of the crowd). I could feel the patience and goodwill of my fellow attendees draining like old iPhone batteries – Stebmo was a likable person, it’s just that I can’t think of anyone at all that I’d want to stand quietly and listen to for twenty-plus minutes until they eventually settled on the point of “music is a powerful and special thing”. He played himself off with another couple short tunes on the Wurlitzer, as sweetly satisfying as an ice cream cone after working a double shift.

It was barely ten minutes before Stebmo returned to the stage, this time as part of Earth’s ensemble. Turns out we were celebrating some sort of anniversary for Earth’s Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method. Twenty years, apparently… jeez! Dylan Carlson took center stage, alongside Bill Herzog on bass, Adrienne Davies on drums, Moore on trombone and keys, and Brett Netson on guitar. Carlson, in his appealingly squeaky speaking voice, explained that the group would be performing Hex in its entirety, and they proceeded to do exactly that. It’s my third favorite Earth record (behind Pentastar and The Bees Made Honey if you’re keeping score), and listening (and watching) them perform it front to back was a real treat. Davies remains the group’s most potent secret weapon, controlling her limbs with the grace and poise of an Olympic fencer. Under Carlson’s leadership, Moore’s trombone filled the room alongside Herzog’s precise bass – it was certainly easy in that moment, following Stebmo, to appreciate instrumental, talk-free music. We were on Earth time, to be sure, and if a clock had been visible on the wall, I’m certain it would’ve slowly blurred itself out. For music that invokes a Cormac McCarthyian vision of the quietly violent American desert landscape, the group looked the part, too. A friend of mine pointed out that Netson bore a striking resemblance to one of the produce purveyors at our local farmer’s market; we later concluded that the entire band looked like they had been selling organic eggs and hand-cut flowers earlier in the day, too late to drive back to Lancaster in their rusty pickup truck.

Having concluded Hex, I required no further sonic nourishment, but they threw us a special treat. Carlson confirmed that Earth are working on a new album, scheduled for tracking in March of next year, and announced that they’d end with a new one from that. It might’ve been called “Scalp Hunter Blues”, but I can’t confirm exactly what Carlson said over the audience’s rousing applause. It should come as no surprise that this song, while different from prior Earth material, was completely great. Herzog opened with an unexpectedly funky bass-line, and the song slowly revealed its form, Moore’s dappled keys recalling a Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society vibe that thrills and chills. Can you believe we’re getting a new Earth album in 2026? If you needed a good reason to stick around for another year, look no further.