Well predictably (for me) the new GROUPER ['Shade'] is hands down my album of the year, 2021. Karima Walker is going to be a very close second (thank you to Inconnuucl for showing me that). This GROUPER record is the album I've wanted her to make for years now. I hear elements from every project she has been involved with since the dawn of her career. This album has more in common with the HELEN project (if you don't know it, it was a 2015 release and is basically GROUPER teams up with shoegaze band... it's an excellent record 'The Original Faces') than say 'Ruins'. To describe this album, I would say it's not like 'Ruins' (my least favorite GROUPER release... easily), it's not even like 'Dragging A Dead Deer...' it's like... ''The Man Who Died In His Boat' meets HELEN, meets the avant garde sensibilities of the NIVHEK project and (and this will probably get me stoned amongst her biggest fans) throw in some ELLIOT SMITH elements (very, very, very light on the SMITH elements, don't try this album out based on that attribute) and boom... you have 'Shade'.
This isn't 2021 but I only just heard the PRIMITIVE MAN album from 2020. I some how missed that release? Beyond me how ('Caustic' was hands down my favorite album from 2017, it wasn't even a competition). I actually saw them the other night (my third time seeing them) and good God... I didn't think it was possible for them to push the sound and get "better"... but they did. Listening to the 2020 releases, I can say they really perfected it with the live show (to be fair, the album was put out in August 2020, and I saw them late November 2021 so... lots of time for them to play it out).
It's just cool how since 2017, many bands started trying to copy their sound... and while many have to tried to copy... no one matched them, and while the world was trying to copy, PRIMITIVE MAN just kept pushing and evolving the sound.
Related to GROUPER and favorite albums... this gave me a boner the other day. It's so awesome when your favorite musicians talk about each other. It is safe for work, I just marked as such for space.
SPEAKING OF BURIAL!!!!! There is my #3 release of 2021! "Shock Power of Love EP". BURIAL does a split with BLACKDOWN. BURIAL provides two tracks and both are excellent per usual. BURIAL as put out 'Chemz / Dolphinz' (another long form EP that he has become known for since 2011). Because this adds up to four tracks on two separate releases, I'm making #3 encompass all of it.
I did not read my previous posts in this thread. Please forgive me for repeating myself. I really love GROUPER, PRIMITIVE MAN, and BURIAL though...
I also LOVE not proofreading so please forgive any typos.
