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Genius #12 - Dec '24

Top 10 albums of 2025. && New music from 22 Halo, Dorian Concept, K-The-I???

Larry Michaels

• 8 min read

Genius Dot Com returns limping after a long year of doing the work and I am here for an end of year extravaganza. Who are the winners & losers of 2024? Alas, we are all the losers, as we have inherited the crimes of our parents. It’s fucking grim out there, folks. Is it time to listen to tunes? Hardly. It is time for us to open our mouths and sing together.

Capitalism

Substack doesn’t allow tables, so please accept my In and Out list for 2025:

I bought a nice cable knit sweater from The Irish Store after Alex Sujong Laughlin influenced me into buying it. I also bought a bunch of cables & a Deco mesh network so that my devices would be less “in a pile on the floor” and so my internet would stop cutting out randomly during work calls.

Album Recs

22° Halo - Lily Of The Valley (Tiny Library, Nov ‘24)

Absurdly cozy lofi indie-pop songs that wrap up the grief that comes with a spouse’s cancer diagnosis & the ways that the songwriter finds comfort and lightness in dark times. A real triumph of lyrical songwriting that avoid saccharine triteness — the spare lyrics are evocative and sit comfortably fuzzy in soft guitars, drums, and plucky bass. The title track, especially, begging to be a literal symbol of the end of a harsh winter, is something to behold.

Dorian Concept - Music From A Room Full Of Synths (-OUS, Dec ‘24)’

Skronky, blippy ambient from the Austrian composer and improviser. Chord stabs are full of character & the voltage-starved fuzzy lead lines bring a lot of joy to me. This is a nice short record, just 20min of as many sounds as could be squeezed out of the room of synths. Perfect to throw on and contemplate sound design.

K-The-I??? & Kenny Segal - Genuine Dexterity (Backwoodz, Dec ‘24)

Grimy beats with crispy drums, system-overload bass, wicked jazz samples, gnarled guitars, and some blissed out synths — all complemented by K-the-I???’s onslaught lyrical approach with lines that boil over from bar to bar. His approach completely obliterates the rigidity of the beats, bringing a free-flowing feel to these songs. Plus, the features are wild, most of the Backwoodz roster is here with some sick bars. Nice end of year release for Backwoodz, who have put out a ton of great records this year.

Derek Bailey - This Guitar (Rectangle, 2002)

I’ve been on a big Derek Bailey kick lately — his music sounds like it’s from outer space. Like he figured out how to flip his acoustic guitar inside out and there was a secret inside-out guitar there. Wild sounds to pull from a box of strings. Perfectly mic’d to capture every harmonic, every scraped note, and slide. Kinda goofy that the track titles are written in the standard tuning of a guitar. Who cares, he can call the pieces whatever he wants.

Upcoming January albums:

  • William Basinski is back with more ambient tape experiments Aurora Terminalis is out 1/10 with Line Imprint
  • Up-and-coming maximalist Philly rapper Ghais Guevara is releasing his debut album Goyard Ibn Said with Fat Possum Records on 1/24
  • Kathryn Mohr’s upcoming album Waiting Room with The Flenser looks interesting — washed out and scuzzy dark songs. Out 1/24.
  • Alt-country legend Bonnie “Prince” Billy brings more folky warbles on The Purple Bird via No Quarter Records on 1/31.

Lists

Ok, let’s start with some numbers:

It’s hard to say if this was a great year for music on its own right, or if by virtue of beginning this project, I listened to a lot more new music. Of the 951 unique albums I listened to in 2024, I’d estimate that 250ish are from the year 2024 and I marked about 95 of them as “Best Of.” That simply does not narrow it down enough!

To build my list, I went month-by-month in previous GDC’s and scrap heaps to see which albums had my attention throughout the year & check-in on whether they had staying power. This turned out to be a good project, since by December, I was fully burned out on listened to new music.

Ok so let’s put it all in some semblance of order:

10. Kali Uchis - Orquideas

Love this moody & kaleidoscopic record — very satisfying production & great songwriting makes for a wonderful listen. Plus none of these melodies are super sugary, so it bears repeating & the varied styles (including a tango song) bring a sense of movement as the album progresses.

9. J.R.C.G. - Grim Iconic… (Sadistic Mantra)

Scuzzy, shoegazy, with smart melodies and an extra grimey production approach that echoes around my head long after the record is over. A wonderful trash heap of scrap turned into something addictingly re-playable.

8. Heems & Lapgan - Lafandar

This album is a treat, like grabbing a vada pav and covering it in tamarind chutney and chilis. Spicy, savory, sweet, sour — and the lyrics are funny too. Tons of gritty & bouncy resampled character on the beats, and Heems is in proper form.

7. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

Even my brother who has never once listened to a death metal album told me that they had “sick riffs.” This is like if Dethklok was a real band. Tangerine Dream collab? Check. Pink Floyd key changes? Check check. Enormous riffs & lifestyle brand lyrics? Check check check. Check your lease, pal, you’re livin’ in Absolute Elsewhere.

6. Angelica Garcia - Gemelo

The perfect little “we have Bjork at home” experimental pop album. A wonderful study in size — some of these songs have massive melodies while others shrink to almost nothing. I think Obama likes her music? Maybe that’s a point against it. This is the kind of record you put on and then your roommate comes by and is like “hey what is this? this is cool”'

5. SUMAC - The Healer

With the ever-shifting goalposts of what makes a perfect heavy record, The Healer knocks a hole-in-one. Crushing, psychedelic, full of texture and movement. They took all of the best lessons from their collab with Keiji Haino and brought it to a proper release. Like being swept up in a river full of jagged rocks.

4. Jim White - All Hits: Memories

Very compelling little LP of percussion & synth sketches, produced by Fugazi’s Guy Piccioto. If you think you don’t have it in you to listen to an album that’s mostly drumming, this would be my best foot forward to suggesting that you try. A little sparse, but mic’d beautifully. I want to curl up in the snares & listen to those big blippy synths.

3. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee

This is one of those albums that’s just undeniable to me, the borrowed lexicon across songs gives the whole 2-hour album;' the garbled up girl-pop, the scuzzy rock and roll, the ambient drifting. Hate to get wrapped up in garbage like aesthetics, but I love that it was kind of hard to listen to at first too. Music is too easy to find these days! The only real regret is that it came out after I moved away from Portland – the idea of driving around the bridge city listening to these wistful tunes is too much to bear.

2. Discovery Zone - Quantum Web

A complete triumph. Silvery streams of synths & lyrics that turn tearstains into wry smiles. We love a little Marxist thinking dribbled into our love songs and I’m an enormous sucker for albums that are 50% instrumental, 50% vocal. I don’t really know what the DZ listenership is like, but I’m surprised that this has been snubbed from other lists. She self describes as somewhere between Suzanne Ciani and Madonna. I mean COME ON. “What does it cost to stay? how can you leave when you’re living in somebody else’s dream?”

1. Mount Eerie - Night Palace

Thank god for Phil Elverum and his ever-evolving quest to express himself through music. A Knausgaardian epic tale of regular life, as told by the freak folk genius who has nothing left to prove. After revisiting The Microphones in 2020, this album has even more meaning to me – the way he borrows language from previous records to tell a new story is just beautiful. Songs wheal and scream and are alive with both songwriting prowess & collage expertise. An uncontroversial favorite on the year.

10 Special mentions:

Scene Report

In December, I only went to one show & it was the Blood Brothers reunion in NYC. They’ve still got it! They played every single hit & Johnny crowdsurfed nearly the whole time. I’m barely out of frame in this video, I’m wore my whole ass winter coat. I am 16 years old again. I am 24 years old again. I am 34 years old.

January Shows

Not a ton of stuff in Baltimore or DC, but NYC is popping off with a lot of cool jazz shows.

Baltimore

  • 1/8 (Wed) Contact Mic Experimental Jam @ Wax Atlas
  • 1/11 (Sat) Zeta @ Metro
  • 1/11 (Sat) Body World, Pearl @ House Of Chiefs
  • 1/19 (Sun) Dirty Nil @ Metro
  • 1/25 (Sat) Palestine Benefit w Jivebomb, BRAT @ Ottobar
  • 1/25 (Sat) Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra Centennial @ Creative Alliance
  • 1/26 (Sun) Local Orange EP Release, Cuni, Spring Silver @ Ottobar
  • 1/31 (Fri) Mannequin Pussy @ Soundstage

DC

  • 1/13 (Mon) This Is Lorelei, youbet @ DC9
  • 1/25 (Sat) Pom Poko @ Comet Ping Pong

NYC:

  • 1/9 (Thu) Deli Girls @ TV Eye
  • 1/9 (Thu) Keith Fullerton Whitman @ The Howe Theater
  • 1/9 (Thu) Wendy Eisenberg @ Union Pool
  • 1/10 (Fri) ShrapKnel, doseone @ Elsewhere
  • 1/11 (Sat) Ana Roxanne @ Elsewhere
  • 1/12 (Sun) Ben Monder w/ Theo Bleckmann, Satoshi Takeishi @ Barbes
  • 1/14 (Tue) Tim Berne @ Lowlands
  • 1/16 (Thu) Time Wharp, Doris @ Union Pool
  • 1/16 (Thu) Laubrock Quintet w/ Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, and Dan Weiss… sick @ The Stone
  • 1/18 (Sat) Jessica Pavone @ Please Y.S
  • 1/18 (Sat) E L U C I D @ Baby's
  • 1/23 (Thu) Experimental Electronic Showcase @ Wonderville
  • 1/23 (Thu) Tribute To Derek Bailey (Craig Taborn, Wendy Eisenberg, Ikue Mori, Zzeena Perkins, gabby fluke-mogul, etc.) @ Roulette
  • 1/23 (Thu) Claire Rousay @ TV Eye
  • 1/24 (Fri) Tribute To Derek Bailey (Craig Taborn, Wendy Eisenberg, Ikue Mori, Zzeena Perkins, gabby fluke-mogul, etc.) @ Roulette
  • 1/25 (Sat) David Grubbs @ PIT
  • 1/25 (Sat) Tribute To Derek Bailey (Craig Taborn, Wendy Eisenberg, Ikue Mori, Zeena Perkins, gabby fluke-mogul, etc.) @ Roulette

Further ahead:

  • 2/5 (Wed) Agriculture, Distend @ Metro
  • 2/6 (Thu) Thou, Young Widows @ Ottobar
  • 2/6 (Thu) Agriculture @ The Meadows
  • 2/6 (Thu) Lip Critic @ TV Eye
  • 2/13 (Thu) Wendy Eisenberg, More Eaze @ Union Pool
  • 2/15 (Sat) John Zorn & Laurie Anderson @ Roulette
  • 2/23 (Sun) Poison Ruin @ Comet Ping Pong
  • 2/28 (Fri) Ami Dang @ Roulette
  • 3/7 (Fri) Spirit Of The Beehive, Kassie Krut (ex-Palm) @ Black Cat (DC)
  • 3/25 (Tue) Chanel Beads, More Eaze @ Ottobar (Baltimore)
  • 5/5 (Mon) Nada Surf @ Ottobar (Baltimore)
  • 4/20 (Sun) Mount Eerie @ The Atlantis (DC)