In Strict Tempo, vol. 56: Goodbye 2024.
New Music, Old Music, Great Music. My favourite Records, 12"s, and Books of 2024. Plus a quick look at the latest music industry news.
Firstly, apologies for no newsletter last week - I spent a couple of days at the coast (including a visit to the Southwold Sailors Reading Room, finally indulging my WG Sebald-related fantasies) and wasn’t able to spend the time writing. I’d rather write a good newsletter than a half-arsed one, so thanks for waiting! To make up for it, this week’s a bumper edition, with twice as much music as usual.
This week is all about one thing - 2024. There’s been some fantastic music released this year, and I hope you all discovered plenty of new favourites, whether from In Strict Tempo or elsewhere.
The year ends on a bit of a sorry note, especially in the world of distribution as it was revealed that Utopia Distribution - the UK’s largest music distributor - has gone bankrupt. It’s a pretty complex situation, as Proper Music have stayed a separate entity but are working from the same warehouse, now owned by DP World who are basically an arm of the Dubai government. Ethical concerns aside, just how a logistics behemoth like DP World will be able to cope with the specialist nature of music distribution remains to be seen…
On top of this, Universal Music Group - fresh from purchasing PIAS earlier this year - have now bought Downtown Music. Downtown own distributor FUGA as well as DIY distro platform CD Baby, further blurring the lines between independence and major labels. It seems like we’re in a race to the bottom when it comes to distribution again, and many labels are going for the biggest advances and lowest percentages at the expense of that personal service that a true independent can offer. My former boss Danny Ryan of Kudos Distribution has set out his views on it here, and it’s well worth reading his thoughts on the subject.
Another bit of news as we see the year out is that Bleep are finishing up their annual 100 Tracks offer this year, after sixteen years. I guess that people just don’t really want a mixed bag of downloads any more. 100 Tracks was always a good bunch of tunes, a lot of which would be things that I’d overlooked over the course of the year. Although Bleep is nowhere near big enough to be a bellwether for the download market I can’t imagine it has more than a few years left. The iTunes download store continues, but for how much longer? For many labels now, their annual sales are fewer than they would have done in a month back in the download heyday and that creates its own problems, financially for labels, but for consumers and music fans especially when streaming licences expire or rights move to a new entity who might not want tracks on streaming DSPs. Download what you can, while you can!
It’s not all doom and gloom though, as mentioned this year has seen some incredible releases, and even as we approach Christmas there’s still great music being put out. To wrap up 2024 I’m going to take a look at this weeks new releases as usual, and then go through my personal ten or so favourite records of the year. As usual, I’ll be spending the festive break going through Boomkat’s behemoth End of Year offering, consistently the best in the game. I love seeing what other people from the world of music have enjoyed this year and I always find some great new discoveries via that list. You can find my list there too.
As always I’d like to say thanks for reading, the subscriber list has grown nicely over the past twelve months and I’m really grateful for everyone who reads, shares or talks about In Strict Tempo. It’s opened some doors for me personally too, and there’s some exciting projects coming in 2025 that I can’t wait to share with you when they’re ready. I love hearing your feedback and just generally chatting shit about music or the state of the industry when I can. In Strict Tempo will be back on January 3rd. I wish you all a happy holiday period and prosperous new year!
This Weeks New Music
Blawan - Bouq [Ternesc/XL]
Blawan at his most big-room here. First track on the EP reminds me a little of his classic Brandy-sampling Getting Me Down, only with a UK 2024 bounce that the likes of Two Shell & Overmono have been perfecting lately. Rest of it is pretty bangin’ too.
Shinici Atobe - Discipline [DDS]
Okay, now this is gooooooood. On top of a whole load of reissues, DDS drop a too-late-for-album-of-the-year-lists double LP from none other than Shinichi Atobe. This is well up there with his best work for me, driving, brooding, uplifiting techno at it’s most essential.
Aphex Twin - Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023) [Warp]
I’ve been listening to a lot of AFX this past week. The few Analord’s I’m lucky enough to own, the classic LP’s, a mixture of remixes and stuff. So I was pleased to see this new collection of tracks taken from those instantly sold-out 12”s he made for live shows over the past few years made available on streaming services. Undoubted highlight here? Nightmail. One of my favourite poems by WH Auden put over a typically Aphex acid beat. Count me in!
Lord Stonecircleisle - Pagan Oddness [Industrial Coast]
Another alias for the one they call Stonecirclesampler? A summer holiday gone awry finds Lord Stonecircleisle tending a musical wicker man, storm-drenched haunted ambience slowly decaying to ash. Musick for all your ritual burnings.
VA - Japanese Post-Punk Goth & New Wave 1980-1991 [Death Is Not The End]
Death is Not The End dig deeper than most, and this time they’ve gone East and this collection of Post-Punk, Goth & New Wave tunes from Japan. I’m told there’s more to come from this particular treasure trove, and I can’t wait to hear it.
VA - Soon I’ll Run out of Air: A Colourful Storm 2024 [A Colourful Storm]
Every year we always get a brilliant compilation right at the end of it to see us through the madness of the festive period. Last year was that Effiicent Space Searchlight Moonbeam one, the year before was Time Is Away’s Ballads. This year A Colorful Storm (responsible for long-time IST favourite compilation of Aussie underground pop I Won’t Have To Think About You) reach out to their friends for a compilation of all-sorts.
Concentric Circles - Eloquent Trades [Berceuse Heroique]
The first Concentric Circles mixtape on BH was a thing of rare beauty, one of those mixtapes where you’re constantly surprised and constantly hunting down the tracks. This new one is as about outsider as outsider gets, proper basement tackle hunted down and dredged to new and appreciative ears.
Aeson Zervas - Self Titled [Heat Crimes]
Don’t know why I missed this earlier. Sounds like being lost in a Greek fairground where the only ride is a ghost-train. Someone said it’s not dislike The Caretaker. I’m not so sure, but it enchanted me anyway.
Christian Schoppik - Tabi Tapes 016 [Tabi Tapes] / Pianola - Tabi Tapes 001 [Tabi Tapes]
All Night Flight has fast become one of the go-to spots for outsider, experimental and avant-garde music these days (filling the void left by the beloved Low Company?). Their in-house mixtape series drops it’s latest edition by Brannten Schurre’s Christian Schoppik. I’m trying to find out what all these songs are - I’m not sure I ever will. They’ve also reissued their first edition too, so beat the discogs sharks and pick that up too.
upsammy - Strange Meridians [topo2]
Nice, organic Dozzy-esque electronica here. Definitely one to bliss out to rather than rave to but that’s no bad thing.
Fennesz - Mosaic [Touch]
Fennesz practically works in his own lane, many try to imitate but no-one really gets that close. Haunting, floating, drifting piece by piece this one comes to light revealing itself like a the mosaic of the title.
Saint Etienne - The Night [PIAS]
What’s this? Saint Etienne going ambient? Not quite, but there’s a definite wistfulness to this new albums. Sarah Cracknell’s vocals remain as gorgeous as ever, and compliment the ethereal music on this perfectly. Is it the best thing they’ve ever done? No, but they’ve earned the right to try something new and that should be applauded.
Monolake - Studio [imbalance]
Dub Techno pioneer(s) Monolake head into IDM territory on this new album. Another one of those that came out a bit too late to make AOTY lists, it’s machine music at its very best.
Oasis - Whatever [Big Brother]
Perhaps the best Oasis song of them all? Anyway, it’s been reissued on 7” for the first time since I were a lad. Still pissed I didn’t get tickets though…
The In Strict Tempo Year End Lists
My end of year list was originally published on Boomkat, I’ve added some additional context below! I’ve provided streaming links but go and buy it if you like it.
Records of the Year
British Murder Boys - Active Agents & House Boys [Downwards]
I did a whole issue of IST on BMB. Put simply the most absurd, crucial and effective electronic music group Britain has ever produced. You want techno? You get techno. You want Lou Reed covers? You got Lou Reed Covers. You want a proper end-of-the-pier-British-summer-caravan-holiday-knees-up? You’ve got that too.Have ‘The Boys’ matured a bit? Perhaps, but that mischeivous BMB charm is still present and correct.
Fergus Jones/Perko - Ephemera [Numbers]
Couldn’t not have this in, a real curveball of an album from Felt label head Fergus Jones aka Perko. Reminded me of Tricky, still on regular rotation here.
Civilistjavel - Brodfoda [FELT]
The first of two entries from FELT in the list, a new Civilisitjavel release is always something to get excited about. I’ve been picking up almost everything I can since I first came across his music in Low Company, and this album is by far the most concise and accessible. A decent cast of collaborators too
Moin - You Never End [AD93]
You’ve probably noticed a rich BEB-adjacent vein running through In Strict Tempo, so you won’t be surprised to hear me put the latest Moin album in my albums of the year list. It’s been really something to watch the trajectory of Moin from their first releases as Raime, into the Yally record (still a low-key favourite) and finally into Moin alongside third band member Valentina Magaletti. This material could easily have been one of those impossible to identify 80’s post-punk tunes from one of the earliest BEB mixtapes, but it’s rooted in the current, and there’s not many people making stuff like this right now.
Mother - Live 23 [FELT]
Glasgow’s Mother delivers two cracking live sets here - better known as a DJ and record-shotter extrodinarie it’s nice to see Mark stretch his production chops on the best suited format to this kind of stuff. Long, hypnotic and downright trippy this is some of the most beguiling music of it’s kind ever captured to tape.
The Wolfgang Press - A 2nd Shape [Downwards]
I was not expecting this. The Wolfgang Press release a new album, their first in almost thirty years. Bird Wood Cage has long been one of those under-the-radar albums I’d deploy on occasion, so it’s great to get some new material after such a wait.
Rainfall Widens The Cracks In The Concrete - After Dark [Industrial Coast]
I’m putting this in purely on merit, it’s a great record with a list of influences that reads exactly like a list of my interests. Luke asked me to contribute a short story to the vinyl edition, and there’s only a handful left at Industrial Coast, who’ve been a real success story in 2024. It was a really exciting project to be involved with and hopefully you’ll see more from me & Luke next year…
Richie Culver - Hostile Environments [self-released]
Not many people have been as busy as artist Richie Culver this year, either under his own name, or as Quiet Husband. He managed to fit in a tiger-striped 12” with fellow Hull resident Steve Cobby too. Hostile Environments was my favourite of Culver’s releases this year, and Slow Car is possibly my track of 2024.
Francesco Leali - Let Us Descend [Until Riots]
Let Us Descend was probably the darkest album I’ve heard all year - and I mean that in a good way. The soundtrack for a journey into the depths of hell, Paradise Lost and all that. There’s a religious theme here too, with Leali’s interest in cults and organised religion influencing the album as it accompanies you into the afterlife.
Robin Mackay - By The North Sea [Flatlines]
Something that’s stuck with me all year, this spoken word piece from Robin Mackay on Hyperdub’s sub-label Flatlines. Inspired by the Suffolk coastal village of Dunwich, a place I spent a lot of my childhood holidays, in the shadow of the giant Sizewell nuclear reactors.
12”s of The Year
I didn’t really buy too many new 12”s this year, but here’s three that grabbed my attention.
DJ Persuasion - Jameela LP [Ulterior Motives]
I mean, come on. It’s a new DJ Persuasion record. Jungle, ‘ardkore and the missing piece in the Acid House contiunuum. Essential tunes from one of the kindest folks in dance music.
M. Quake ft. Jonnine - Annie U R A Bird [Purely Physical Teeny Tapes]
Annie Lennox has never sounded so good.
Winsome - Tab/24gb/Who [Tanum]
Winsome is back, and he’s on a UKG-tinged tip this time round. Don’t leave it so long next time!
Label of the Year
Downwards
Nobody else came close. British Murder Boys, Annie Hogan, Wolfgang Press, Eros, That Reducer tape, The Immortal Eye compilation. Can we have a new Regis album next year please?
In Strict Tempo: A Downwards Spiral
Book of the Year
Wesley Doyle - Conform To Deform: The Weird & Wonderful World of Some Bizzarre
I did a lot of reading this year, some music related, some not. I read the David Peace Red Riding Trilogy for the first time which wowed me, and loads of Derek Raymond, and a few bits from Chris Petit. All that noir stuff I should of read ages ago tbh. Music-wise, This Band Could Be Your Life was great, as were the Kranky and Creation Records stories. The biography of Lawrence was as frustrating as the subject is. But the standout was Wesley Doyle’s oral history of Some Bizzarre, as much a lesson in how not to run a record label as it was how to have great success in the music industry.
That’s it for this year - have a great Christmas and see you in 2025!