It's time to crown the FuzzFaves of 2020:
10. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020. Phil Elverum returns to his early project, sharing his life story in a softly beautiful 45-minute epic. Perhaps not one for regular listening, but it's emotional and shows that artistic growth can often bring you right back.
9. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together. After a decade of film scoring, Reznor and Ross added to the Ghosts series with two related but distinct albums. Together is superior, with slow, extended tone poems that try to offer tranquility and hope.
8. Hum - Inlet. Perhaps a little samey, but when you're as good at the one style - heavy shoegaze that threatens to drift into space at times - as Hum, the comeback is all that we really needed with our year. Hard-edged but vibrant, one of the best revivals in recent memory.
7. Ringo Deathstarr - Ringo Deathstarr. The self-titled record from the Austin group plays straight to their strengths, but they've added some heft that hints towards higher ambitions. Dreamy vocals, noisy guitars, almost trying for shoegaze on an arena scale.
6. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters. Just because times aren't great doesn't mean you can't be playful, and Apple's long-awaited fifth album delivered in spades, goofy lyricism and unconventional instrumentation delivered with sincerity and self-confidence.
5. Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini - Illusion of Time. Perhaps softcore noise from two talented keyboard experimentalists, this is undoubtedly a headphone record - loud, colourful drones that summon up their own world. Floaty, loud, absolutely one to soak in.
4. clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned. The social backdrop of 2020 seeps in to Diggs' work, making an already tense record drip with anxiety and a sense of disturbance. The gritty production means you can't afford to breathe, but you're so involved you won't have to.
3. Autechre - SIGN. After several years of getting increasingly impenetrable and glitchy, the Rochdale duo take what they've learned since the 90s and scale it back, making an album that's sparse, beautiful, and their most accessible in decades.
2. A.G. Cook - 7G. The founder of PC Music attempts to give the genre its White Album - one of the most ambitious debuts ever, swinging from schizoid drum-and-bass to soft glitchfolk to dance-floor highlights, and even including a couple of cover songs.
1. Arca - @@@@@. A journey through the most experimental reaches of electropop, this 62-minute mixtape goes through thirty fragments that toy with identity, sexuality, and self-perception. Powerful, exploratory, it's the 'album' of the year.
Also, HM to the single of the year:
'mos thoser' by Food House. The lead single from the Gupi/Fraxiom collaborative LP; manic hyperpop with absurd zoomer lyrics, consistent adrenaline, and an incredible breakdown (you'll know when you hear it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sy0C55ryXc