2024 Favorite Music (So Far)

July 08, 2024 by Brent Thomas in Artist Spotlight, Best of, Half-Year List, Live Music, Live, Music, New Music, Reflection, Review, Various Artists

Here are my favorite 20 releases of 2024 so far.

Ghosted II by Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin
Live in Paris 1973 by Can
Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons
the Collective by Kim Gordon
Blu Wav by Grandaddy

the Handover by the Handover
Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker
Drop 7 by Little Simz
Two Improvisations by Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock
Locust Land by Bill MacKay

Funeral For Justice by Mdou Moctar
the Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis by The Messthetics
David Nance & Mowed Sound by David Nance
Bite Down by Rosali
Water Still Flows by Rich Ruth

Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace by Shabaka
Exotic Birds of Prey by Shabazz Palaces
Time Is Glass by Six Organs of Admittance
Africa Yontii by Tidiane Thiam
Tiger’s Blood by Waxahatchee

Chitinous Mandible

August 17, 2023 by Brent Thomas in Artist Spotlight, Bandcamp, Half-Year List, Music, music video, New Music, Review, Year End List

When asked to describe his music in 3 words by Secret Eclectic, Tom Herman Jr. (aka Chitinous Mandible) responded with:

Enveloping surrealistic familiarity

That seems to be as good a description as any.

Prior to the Chitinous Mandible moniker, New Jersey’s Herman recorded as Old Smile, who Aquarium Drunkard described as “a wave of lo-fi, bedroom psych,” and of whom The Quietus said: “After countless recent waves of revivalist bands embracing jangly psych and sixties music - Temples, Tame Impala, Ty Segall, etc. - Old Smile is the best I've come across.” That’s high praise indeed! And as The Quietus points out: “And this dude managed to do it all himself at home!” Herman continues to ride tht independent spirit, saying of this new, self-titled project as Chitinous Mandible: “I wrote/performed/recorded/mixed everything on it aside from a couple tracks where my dad plays drums.”

Rolling in like a lo-fi swamp fog and wrapping you up in its shimmery swirls, this is music to get lost in or focus down on the details. Because there are layers if you’re willing to dig. And dig, I do. cosmic psychedelic blues for the laid-back set. Hints of Krautrock throb over Devo keyboards. More quirky non sequiturs for great music here.

I asked Hermon how his songwriting has progressed over the last few albums. He said:

“In Arches the sound was kind of slow and melancholy. The sound of Old Smile was more all over the place, there were a lot of detours. Chitinous Mandible is a bit all over the place too but it’s more concise.”

Chitinous Mandible is a bit all over the place, but more concise. That’s as good a description as any. Swampy music for sweaty afternoons. The best thing you can do is go listen for yourself. I highly recommend.

For those interested, Bandcamp reveals that "Pops plays drums on the songs "Time Design" and "Summertime Drive."

Watch “Summertime Drive:”

Watch “Connection In A Parking Lot”