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Michael White writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: Mickey White
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#1 Here In The Pitch by Jessica Pratt (Mexican Summer)
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#2 Jensen & Friends by Jensen Interceptor (International Chrome)
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#3 Passage Du Desir by Johnny Blue Skies (High Top Mountain)
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#4 Night Reign by Arooj Aftab (Verve)
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#5 You Never End by Moin (AD 93)
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#6 PRATA by MAQUINA. (Fuzz Club)
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#7 Akoma by Jlin (Planet Mu)
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#8 ISS010 by Skee Mask (Ilian Tape)
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#9 Carrot Season by Phiik & Lungs (POW)
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#10 Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee (Realistik)
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Honorable MentionsToo many honorable mentions to name, I'd highly recommend seeking out Chow Lee's very Not Safe For Airplay 'Sex Drive', Atlanta's LAZER DIM 700's raucous, absurdly creative 'Injoy' and Beings' avant-garde jazz freakout 'There Is A Garden' |
Throughout December, 
Similar to SZA's 'SOS' a couple of years ago, this is a career best work from a generational songwriter. Pratt's music lives in the space where Trish Keenan meets Nick Drake and the results are as strong as you'll find anywhere in any genre this year.
Australian electro giant Jensen Interceptor follows up 2018's raucous Mother with an album of collaborations with frequent collaborators such as Assembler Code and new collaborator's at the center of the global electronic avant-garde such as reggaetonero MALO2K and abrasive baile funk party starter KENYA20Hz. It's a ride that grabs you by the neck and doesn't let up for over 80 wild minutes.
It was only a matter of time before Sturgill Simpson went full on Gram Parsons. While being Simpson's deepest and darkest music, 'Passage du Desir' functions as a rewarding anthology of southern rock, soul, blues and the country that is typically his stock in trade.
Brooklyn-via Lahore jazz artist Arooj Aftab follows up her spellbinding work with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily with a sharp left turn into keyboard and piano-led torch songs and a murderer's row of collaborators such as Iyer (piano on "Saaqi"), Maeve Gilchrist (harp on five tracks) and even Elvis Costello (Wurlitzer on "Last Night [Reprise])."
Post-hardcore deconstructionists Moin improve on the formula led by 2022's epic Paste. More vocalists such as James K and coby sey, the latter seeming to pop up everywhere this year, are brought into the fray. Thrilling in all the ways you might expect from Tortoise's classic '90s run of Tortoise, Millions Now Living Will Never Die and TNT.
KMFDM lovers rejoice! Lisbon's MAQUINA. blends EBM, techno and krautrock into something uniquely dizzying, relentless and absolutely going off in the club.
Gary, Indiana's Jlin has lived different lives since the Mortal Kombat-sampling "Erotic Heat" highlighted the second of Planet Mu's seminal Chicago Footwork compilations, 'Bangs & Works Vol. 2 (The Best of Chicago Footwork)'. Since then, Jlin's made her own classics in the footwork space, namely 2015's 'Dark Energy', and made a name for herself as a stalwart in the world of soundtracks, avant-garde electronic collaborations and classical music. 'Akoma' is the culmination of a career spent getting out of various boxes and continuous reinvention. Appearances by Kronos Quartet, Bjork and even Philip Glass speak to that, but the music does more than a fine enough job speaking for itself.
This wasn't even German techno whiz Skee Mask's main album this year. But it's here where he's doing more with less. An extensive foray into heart-pounding dub techno accomplished primarily with synths and a drum machine. Just as nature intended!
What Phiik and Lungs have been doing with the English Language the last three years is both brilliant and confounding. Songs on Carrot Seasons start invoking Cannibal ox and THEN both emcees come in like a bat out of hell with The "Deutronomy" "lottery" "apology" "robbery" "comically" and "psychology", BUT they have their own sauce! The vibes are torn straight from Alice In Wonderland, reimagining 90s Brooklyn in a forest in the middle of Western New Jersey.
Cindy Lee's seventh album is as stunning as everyone's telling you it is. It pulls from everything the band was built on (girl groups, AM radio, Woodstock, etc.) and emerges with something both brand new and profoundly psychedlic.Next entry: CHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: dodger
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