List season 2019 (part ii) (part i) (part iii)

So as not to obliterate your inbox, I need to split these mails up across days. A bit of anticipation never hurt anyone, right? Today we have inspirations, reflections, live sets and music for (happy) cycling.

Gaël Segalen (IhearU / Les Graciés)
2019 to me in selected memories and listenings

- Epic : women running Saturnalia festival at Macao, Milan, interesting to witness, glorious. Felt like a gynaeceum.

- Conjunction : a night in the Paris underground, invited by the Laboratoire Souterrain crew, all around the number 13, a total pagan experience for the September full moon, when i invited the noise poet Joachim Montessuis to join me to create a soundwalk, give two solo performances and play a piece in duo we called Baphosia (Baphomet & Sofia, heavy)
As above, so below.

- Shivers : the crowd reunited to march against sexual and gender violence, and alarming feminicide levels, last year, and this year again. 

- The vision of : Musica Dispersa, Women in Experimental Music EU & UK 2019 tour, all gear stuffed in the venue’s kitchen, awaiting to be played by 8 solo women act at Les Nautes, Paris

- An event : A massive fire burning in the Basque Country for a reunion to celebrate fall, cf the event score, Compositions 1960 #2, "Build a fire" by La Monte Young

- The sound of : Cacophonia, the love of which i share with an artist I'm in a dialog with, Joël Cahen, you should check his album out named « Aquadelique » 2018

- Tuned : meeting new friends and artists, with a special mention for a rich, fun and naturally nerdy conversation with Clifford Sage (recsund); I'm looking forward to his new productions.

- Someone I’d like to hear new music from : the Berlin based non-conformist Eiliyas

- Proud : « Sofia Says » on cassette and its re-edition on vinyl on this same year. Big up to Coherent States and Erratum Musical labels for trusting my material and putting superb efforts in the release.

- Want ! « Scanning » the 10 CD Box of Roland Kayn

+ a short list of 2019 releases - mostly from discrete-inspired artists :

« Nema » Nina Kardec
« Le Vray Remède d’Amour » Joachim Montessuis 
« Broken Teeth & Dog Hair » Best Available Technology
« All Speculative » Afrikan Sciences  
« Rehearse In Reverse » Other Lands
« No Ghost » The Neighbourhood Character 
+ "When I Get Home » Solange

Happy entry into the 2020s!

Loraine James (Hyperdub)
My Favourite albums of the year

J Albert - wake me up
From Indian Lakes - Dimly Lit
Oli XL - Rogue Intruder, Soul Enhancer
Lusine - Retrace
Slowthai - Nothing Great About Britain
Pixelord - Cyber
Kindness - Something Like a War
Iglooghost, Kai Whiston, BABii - XYZ
Sassy 009 - Kill Sassy 009
American Football - American Football

Roo Honeychild (Club Comfort)
2019 EOY Note for Bandcloud

For the socially conscious music fan, 2019 has been an odd year, in personal, communitarian and universal terms. Between spaces lost, lost people and lost elections, it has often been easy to lose all hope. It’s been easy to look at the world and see only downward spiral.

It’s ironic, then, how often it is fear and adversity which brings us the closest together. I’ve hugged people and clung to spaces harder this year than any other time in my life. And, as we’ve clung to our surroundings and hugged each other, we’ve smiled, laughed, and danced to spite our fear and loss.

In a place and time where true community seems a distant ideal, 2019 has witnessed some stunning rays of hope. I think hopes are the main things that deserve listing and commemoration as another year ends. I’ll pick four that were close to my heart;

1) 2019 marks another brilliant year for Open Ear, a crucial node in Ireland’s musical macro-community. While the OE team will take a well-deserved rest in 2020, who knows what might appear to fill its vacuum next May Bank Holiday weekend?

2) The second year of Limerick’s Féile Na Gréine was a runaway success and received much deserved attention from within and outside of the city. I’ve mentioned elsewhere how hopeful it is to see a free festival with such diverse line-ups and attendance grow in strength against all odds. It will certainly proceed to a third, and, it is rumoured, better funded year.

3) Comfort Carnival was, in my extremely biased opinion, another serious counterweight to all worldly despairs. Shout outs to Baliboc, Selky, Kate Butler, and the scores of other people who gave it their blood, sweat and tears.

4) Perhaps most stunningly of all, Dublin Digital Radio secured 100% of its requested crowdfunding, €15000, in under a week. It subsequently went on to raise 133% of its original ask, that is-- TWENTY GRAND. There is nothing I can think of that draws music heads in Ireland closer together than DDR. That it will soon possess a brand new and very well-equipped studio space in The Complex is by far the best news I’ve heard all year. While nothing could quite salve the sting of losing Jigsaw, DDR has been, and will continue to be, a highflying symbol of hope, no matter the times. Cathy, Breen, Cormac, Aoife, Frank, Emily, Barry, Gearóid and everyone else who’s names I’ve forgotten, I want you to know that you’ve changed my life, and a lot of people’s besides, and I thank you graciously for it on behalf of us all.

John Twells (FACT)
john's fave 10 live performances of 2019 in chronological order

Riobamba at CTM, Berlin (January)
CTM's 20th anniversary was a spectacle I've already gone into great detail about and it's hard to pull specific highlights: 700 Bliss? Pininga? Gabber Modus Operandi? MCZO & Duke? Honestly it was all good, but a personal highlight was seeing Sara Skolnick, aka Riobamba, bring her unique blend of reggaeton, rap and apocalyptic club music to Panorama Bar. I've been lucky enough to see Sara play frequently, she used to be based in Boston, where I lived for the last decade, and co-ran Pico Picante, one of my favorite club nights. So it felt extra special to see her bring this energy to Berlin, and the reaction - constant screaming, dancing, grinding and singing from an amazed, happy crowd - gives me chills even remembering.

Tayhana at MUTEK, San Francisco (May)
Tayhana DJing is more "live" than most Ableton sets. Like Ziur, she often performs without headphones, instead using cue points to guide her complicated blends. Tracks bubble and fizz in and out of each other, while Melody Tayhana guides everything like a sculptor, carving into raw material culled from the global dance continuum and reshaping it to fit her mood. At MUTEK.SF, I saw her play after lapping up a few days of live music, and she brought an energy I'd been craving, folding hardstyle into Argentinian club music or aggy warehouse techno into DEBIT. I was watching with Californian ambient daddy Jake Muir (who, a few months later, is my Berlin housemate); at various points we just looked at each other in astonishment - it was that good.

Matana Roberts at ACUD, Berlin (June)
I saw Matana Roberts perform in Berlin on the anniversary of her mother's death. She used the opportunity to talk to the audience slowly and soberly about what family meant to her, mapping out a complicated relationship with anecdotes and emotional outpourings, occasionally interrupting with thick, emotional waves of horn. She had the audience sing with her in unison, on cue, until we were completely under her control; once we were captured and vulnerable, Matana took the opportunity to fill the openness with truths about police violence and white supremacy in America that were impossible to ignore or misinterpret. I've never witnessed a more powerful connection between artist and audience.

Via App at Saule, Berlin (July)
I've seen Via App perform a handful of times over the years, but it had been a while and I had very little to prepare me for this set in Berghain's gloomy basement club Saule. And as the room filled with glassy waves of FM synth, I knew I was in for something completely unique. When the drones subsided, tumbling kick drum patterns pulsed and overlapped, sounding alien but not alienating, futuristic but not nihilistic. This wasn't "deconstructed", but it remained challenging. The dream of whatever "idm" supposedly represented has now been snatched from the angry technicians of the 1990s and '00s and handed over to a new generation of thoughtful, vulnerable explorers with fresh goals and positive, inclusive messages. It was everything I needed to hear to know that experimental electronic music is not only in safe hands, but it's better than it's ever been.

Dreamcrusher at New Forms, Vancouver (September)
Luwayne Glass wasn't happy before their performance at New Forms. Their main complaint was that it was too quiet, but when they performed it hardly mattered - the energy in the room was unparalleled. Luwayne performed as part of a PTP showcase, so the room was filled with people I'm proud to call family at this point. And as Luwayne screamed into the dark room, through a palo santo fog, my body was lifted into a different space. The sound was part of the experience, sure, but the kinship, the human breath and polyrhythmic flush of hearbeats bouncing excitedly alongside each other - that was the performance.

Club Chai x Room 4 Resistance at Unsound, Krakow (September)
I was at a Club Chai party when I first realized that the dancefloor could be different. I've haunted the club scene for decades but have always felt like an alien; I was the irritated outsider constantly derailed by self-hatred and an ill-fitting personality in a scene that angered me, despite sporadically inspiring me. But while I was busy with my head in the sand, drinking myself to death, things began to change - a fresh cast of music obsessives were quietly changing the game. What Club Chai have created in Oakland is an inclusive queer space for a community desperate for connection, and once I had experienced it I was filled with hope for the future. They brought that energy to Krakow, alongside Berlin's game-changing Room 4 Resistance crew, and the result was a jubilant night of genre-dissolving club sounds from 8ULENTINA, FOOZOOL, Luz, Deena Abdelwahed and friends. The brightly-dressed renegades of techno Twitter were out in force and the love on the dancefloor had to be felt to be believed.

AYA at Unsound, Krakow (October)
AYA's triumphant reframing of hardcore nostalgia 'That Hyde Trakk' might be my favorite track of 2019, but that's really only the tip of the iceberg. To get the most from AYA, you have to see her play live, and her performance at this year's Unsound was practically a religious experience. Part stand-up, part fashion show and part radio show, AYA blasted through her idiosyncratic collection of VIPs, edits, mashups and half-finished jams with more personality than a decade's worth of greyscale Berghain business techno lineups. The front of the room was a rag-tag assembly of local supporters and loyal fans, a frolicking Manchester contingent who gave back all the energy AYA expelled and amplified it exponentially. I never expected the self-consciously obtuse music taste I grew up crafting in an effort to alienate everyone who wronged me over the years to somehow be reflected back at me like a rainbow from the heavens, but it happened and I'm grateful.

Rabit/Ledef/Ziur/Juliana Huxtable at Trauma, Berlin (October)
I moved to Berlin this fall and settling in was difficult, emotionally. I hadn't wanted to leave the USA, but Berlin was a cheap alternative and the opportunity to live with friends was too good to pass up. Immediately, I was greeted by nihilistic techno enjoyed by black-clad snoozers - everything I'd been trying to avoid over the last decade. Thankfully, it wasn't long until I had Ziur's album launch party to attend, with a few of my favorite artists performing all night. Honestly I wasn't sure how it would go down, but was pleasantly surprised to see the crowd drooling over Ledef's performance as soon as I arrived. The night didn't let up from there, with Rabit and Ledef working together to take Trauma Bar und Kino to Texas, Ziur showing exactly why she's revolutionized the game with her innovative DJing and production and Juliana Huxtable taking all of us into another world entirely. Is this Berlin 3.0? It felt like it might be.

Loraine James at Room 4 Resistance, Berlin (November)
I'm not ashamed to admit that I openly wept as Loraine James played to a packed dancefloor at Berlin's Trauma Bar und Kino this November. Her acclaimed album "For You and I" is one of my favorites this year, but I wasn't prepared for the onslaught of distorted textures, heartbreaking vocals and painfully emotional synth textures. It was exactly what I needed to hear and center stage at Room 4 Resistance, Berlin's forward-thinking safe space for non binary cuties, I was moved so profoundly I couldn't help but tear up. They say home is where the heart is and I've never really understood that concept. I've spent years chaotically drifting from place to place like Goldilocks, looking for any kind of bed that felt even slightly comfortable, but I felt at home that night.

SOPHIE at Unsound, NYC (November)
I'd already seen SOPHIE a few weeks prior at Berlin's Trauma Bar und Kino (yeah, I know it looks as if I live there and basically I do) and it was fine. The music was good but the set felt disjointed, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this Unsound live set. But it didn't take long for me to realize how different this was going to be. Truly apocalyptic, the set ripped through Berlin's sex dungeons, scorching stadium-sized kicks with damaged saw waves and vocal snippets that screamed at the unsuspecting crowd. It was the soundtrack to a debauched celebration at the end of the world, and SOPHIE almost refused to stop, folding elements of tracks in and out for what seemed like hours. As the night went on, the set got weirder and wilder, drifting through genres and damaging everything with a deranged fury. I'm gonna tell your kids this was Aphex Twin.

Mathys Rennela

Top 3 favourite b2b sets of the year 
Eris Drew b2b Octo Octa
Eris Drew b2b Octo Octa
Eris Drew b2b Octo Octa

2018 albums I caught up with this year
I was pretty much done with Ye last year and ignored all the music projects he was related to, so Teyana Taylor’s K.T.S.E. was completely off my radar. I somehow managed to miss Mr. Fingers’ Cerebral Hemispheres too, so it’s been part of my heavy rotation. I was so mesmerised by Tirzah’s performance at Primavera Sound in Barcelona! I bought her LP as soon as I came back home.

1989 - 1999 - 2009 - 2019
1989 is definitely one of my favourite years in terms of music. So much talent, so many protest anthems.
Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation and Nine Inch Nails’ Head Like A Hole popped up on my radar again. Those albums never get boring!
Honorable mentions: Missy Elliott’s Da Real World in 1999, and Animal Collective’ Merriweather Post Pavillon and Neon Indian’s Psychic Chasms.

🚲 Cycling 🚲
There are very few things which make me more happy than cycling through Amsterdam in the early morning or late at night.

Before 9am:
Phony Ppl - Way Too Far
Solange - Dreams
Blood Orange - Gold Teeth
Paradis - Sur Une Chanson En Français
J-E-T-S & Dawn Richard - POTIONS
Alex Mali - Start It Up

After 10pm:
Floetry - Getting Late
OSHUN - Sango
Jai Paul - He
Burial - Claustro
Erykah Badu - Green Eyes
Tirzah & Coby Sey - Devotion