2020: Electronic Music, A Year In Review.
Hello! It is that time of the year again. This is the 2020: Electronic music, a year in review. This year has been strange, and difficult but not without a great soundtrack. Covid-19 has changed the landscape of electronic music as we know it and the artists have adapted.
Clubs, and venues closed. Parties and raves are banned, and frowned upon world-wide. Artists and Promoters have risen to the challenge of filling the void where nightlife and irl (in real life) partying used to be. They have put out solid content including albums, eps, mixes, video livestreams with vjs and djs and live sets, virtual raves with dancer and dj avatars. A gig for an artist is now a livestream with donations. Artists are more into production this year with bandcamp Fridays being a main source of income. Djs known to play festivals and major clubs changed their focus to streams and mixes. Artists stepped up to make this time livable. It is very difficult being isolation and having your world turned upside down. I am very grateful for the surplus of digital content and production under covid.
Considering everything has gone online, I have revised the categories to be the following:
· Best Pre-covid (IRL) Sets
· Best Mixes
· Best Livestreams
· Best Eps and Albums
The last three categories are the real emphasis this year. With the explosion of digital content this year, I have increased the numbers for each last three categories to be 20–30 each. With endless livestreams, lots of new records and more mixes, the content online versus IRL is unparalleled. Everyone increased their online content production because they can’t live in the real world. As before, all my lists have no hierarchy. They are ordered either alphabetical for artists and chronological for the pre-covid sets. I think all music that makes my list is good and all of these set are unique. They are judged on skill, sound, and personal preference. They are mix of techno, ebm, synthwave, italo, industrial and post-punk. Before we get into the digital content, let’s talk about the few sets I did attend at the beginning of this year:
Best Pre-Covid Sets (in chronological order)
These are the pre-covid sets. Before covid I was practically at Basement every weekend. If more than one dj is listed it means that the entire night was good.
I do miss the rave and parties.
Here’s the first list:
Veronica Vasicka at Basement (01/10/20)
Kontravoid at Saint Vitus (01/11/20)
Perc at Basement NY (01/11/20)
Xiorro // Auspex // Fadeface at Basement (01/17/20)
Ne/Re/A at Basement NY (01/25/20)
999999999 at Basement (02/01/20)
Joey Quiñones at Basement (02/01/20)
Gia at Basement NY (02/07/20)
Rebekah at Basement NY (02/07/20)
Altaer: VSK // Henning Baer//Volvox//Auspex (02/29/20)
Best Mixes
These are my favorite mixes. Each artist gets one mix. If I listed multiple mixes from one artist I would have over 100 favorite mixes from this year. The artists I am listing here have provided amazing mixes that really helped pull through this difficult year. Whether it was at home in quarantine, going running, or food shopping, these definitive mixes made a difficult year livable. Each artist took to the challenge of making mixes for the home, mixes to rage, and mixes that push the boundaries of electronic music without restriction to a club or rave. Without these mixes it would have been incredibly difficult to survive the new world born.
Now here are my favorite mixes from my favorite artists:
Amanda Mussi — New Brvtalism
Ancient Methods — Mixmag Turkey, You can still listen mix
Andi — Firime
Bloody Mary — The Forgotten podcast
Ellen Allien — Awakenings Podcast
Eve Schwarz — The Slave Mix
Faux Naïf — The Forgotten podcast
Gia — Gegen
High Future — Hard Dance
Hyperaktivist — Reclaim the city
Khadija — INTV Mix
Lissa — The Knife Podcast
Melanie Havens — MK Ultra
Ne/Re/A — Er podcast
Nur Jaber — Into the light dj set
Orphx — Page 51
Perc — Possession
Phase Fatale — Blitz x Electronic Beats
Rebekah — Hate Podcast 179
Stephanie Sykes — UY mix
Viscerale — Groove podcast
VTSS — RA podcast
X tin — Unmasked Discussions
Wallis — Crack Magazine Mix
Zanias — Dark Disco
One thing, that would like to also mention here before we get to the next category is the programming of the podcasts:
Freddy K’s krzrzrz deserves a mention. The spring lockdown was rough and the 100 episodes of Freddy K provided a routine to make sure everyday was not the same as the one before. He provided classic, mental, and new electronic tracks everyday. I couldn’t single out a single podcast as they were all good. It was very important for surviving the beginning of the covid crisis.
Livestreams
Overall Programming (visuals + consistently good lineups)
· Club Quarantine
· Community Bread
· Hör
· Strict Tempo by Vox Sinistra
· Slit Rave
· Raw
· United We Stream
Best Livestream Sets
Here are my favorite livestreams. Most of them are showing the dj with little visuals. However the music really makes up for it. Some have vjs and pre-made visuals that were also really amazing. Slit Rave for example have alternate worlds for digital avatars to enter into. This list is purely off the music otherwise, all of hör would not be considered. That being said the innovation of visual artists with streams is still pretty amazing.
Here are my favorite livestreams:
1. Amanda Mussi — Community Bread
2. Ancient Methords — TTT x Hör
3. Bloody Mary — United We Stream
4. Brvlst — Slit Rave
5. Chloe Lula — Hör x Aufnahme + Wierdergabe
6. Courtesy — May — Hör
7. Crystal Geometry (live) — Strict Tempo
8. Espectra Negra (live) — hör
9. Headless Horseman (live) — United We Stream
10. Helena Hauff — United We Stream
11. Jasmine Infiniti — Community Bread
12. Khadija — Strict tempo
13. Lissa — BLVCK X TNSN
14. Maedon (Live) — Hör- Dead On Monday
15. Melania — Hör
16. Melanie Havens — Strict Tempo
17. Motiv-a — Hör
18. Oake x Martinovna — Raw
19. Octonomy (live) — Strict Tempo
20. Phase Fatale — Hör — Second Sight
21. Plague Lustre — Strict Tempo
22. Rebekah — Soenda Festival 2020 Livestream
23. Reka b2b Alienata — Hör
24. Tommy Four Seven x Femur — Raw
25. VTSS — Boiler Room Streaming from Isolation
26. Volvox — Clergy Lockdown Sessions
27. Wallis (live) — United We Stream
28. X tin + Valentin Tszin — Hör
29. Young Male — Hör
30. Zanias — Hör — May
Best Albums + Eps:
These are my favorite albums and eps for the year. This was a year of releases. With most artists not having support from the government and no gigs, bandcamp Fridays really make difference for an artist to survive. If you can afford it, I would recommend you purchase these records and not just stream them. If you really like the record and want to support the artist, buy it.
Here are my favorite albums and eps for this year:
Andi — Corpse to Corpus (Aufnahme + Wiedergabe)
Crystal Geometry — Senestre (Sonic Groove)
Fee Lion — Blood Sisters remixes (Bound NYC)
Headless Horseman — Inhabited Shadows (Self-release)
Jasmine Infiniti — BXTCH SLÄP Remastered (Dark Entries)
Kelly Moran + Prurient — Chain Reaction at Dusk (Hospital Productions)
Lebanon Hanover — Sci-fi Sky (FABRIKA RECORDS)
Linea Aspera — LP II (Self-release)
Maedon — Escape to Berlin (Sonic Groove)
Orphx — Fragmentation (Hospital Productions)
Pablo Bozzi — Walk On Wire (Bite Records)
Phase Fatale — Scanning backwards (Ostgut Ton)
Reka x Imperial Black Unit — Todo Avaricia (Fleisch Records)
Rhys Fulber — Diaspora (Aufnahme + Wierdergabe)
Soft Crash — Splitzkrieg
Static Bloom — Asphyxia Remixed (Synthicide)
Vatican Shadow — Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era (20 Buck Spin)
Velvet May — Phoebe’s White Skin (Tears on Waves)
Visitor — Technofossil (Braid Records)
Zanias — Extinction + Harmaline
Thank you all for reading. Support your favorite artists and labels, when you can and how you can. Let’s hope 2021 will be a better year.
Much love,
John
