Best of 2019 - The Selections of Wichita Recordings
To kick off our round up of the year we asked the honchos at one of the UK’s most respected indie labels for their picks of 2019.
Wichita Recordings is home to the likes of Los Campesinos, Ride, Simian Mobile Disco and Cloud Nothings. It is also home to Will Samson whose LP ‘Paralanguage’ will be part of our albums of the year list published next week.
ALBUMS
FROM MARK
Pachyman – Pachyman In Dub (Permanent Records)
Puerto Rican from East LA signs to Garage Rock aficionados and releases a dub reggae album ?! Didn’t see this one coming but it’s been my most played record this year. Worthy of its place with any Tubby/Pablo/Perry record from the Golden Age a fantastic collection of dubbed out roots reggae.
Rapsody – Eve (Jamla)
Second instant classic album in a row from North Carolina rapper. Every song is named for an important black woman and they’re all packed with fantastic bars and hooks.
FROM BEN
Rrose – Hymn To Moisture (Eaux)
Until a couple of weeks back, this would have been the 75 Dollar Bill record (“I Was Real” - an absolutely beauty) but then Rrose released his (I did check and this does seem to be the correct pronoun in this case) debut album proper and it rose (pun intended) to the top immediately. I love heavy techno. I love deep, detailed drones. Rrose combines these to perfection. After a string of brilliant, intense 12s, this album was everything I hoped for.
FROM VICKY
Little Simz – GREY Area (Age 101 Music)
I listened to this album obsessively over the summer and it was the perfect soundtrack to walks around the city. It’s so rich and diverse as an album and I keep discovering more I love in it each time I go back to it. Every song here is a banger but ‘101 FM’ and ‘Selfish’ are the two best singles of the year IMHO.
Angel Olsen – All Mirrors (Jagjaguwar)
Angel Olsen is one of my favourite artists and I’m always excited to see where she goes with each new record. From the staggering opener ‘Lark’ you know you’re in for something truly special with this album – Angel’s vocals and the 14 piece orchestra that back her builds to a dizzying intensity across the song as she sings “What about my dreams?/What about the heart?”
TRACKS
FROM MARK
Madgibbs – “Crime Pays” (from Bandana on Keep Cool)
Taken from the long awaited follow up to Piñata. Hard to think of a better combination than the sample master and one of the greatest rappers alive. They call it the Album Of The Year and who are we to argue. Bonus points for most fun live shows of ‘19 too.
FROM BEN
Aesop Rock and Tobacco “Purple Moss” (from Malibu Ken on Rhymesayers)
For approaching 20 years, Aesop Rock has proven he can do no wrong for me. His 2016 album, The Impossible Kid, was my album of the year and remains my favourite and most-listened to record to this day. This is the closing track from his 2019 collaboration with Tobacco, Malibu Ken. It’s been that very rare thing: an earworm that I do not mind rattling around inside my head all day long. “Live from an Empire Builder…”
Julien H Mulder “Patterns In Nature” (from Str Mrkd on Axis)
“This is quite a change of style for Jeff but I love it” we all said as we heard this track credited to Jeff Mills on an Axis Recs 12” back in January…well, turned out it wasn’t Jeff after all but was actually a demo he’d been sent and forgotten was not of his own making! Happens to all of us. A beautiful piece of techno, with the kind of quality production that could indeed have been from the master himself.
Karenn “Crush the Mushrooms” (from Grapefruit Regret on Voam)
What a banger! Twisted, twisting synths, tough drums, no messing around – inspirational stuff from Blawan and Pariah.
FROM VICKY
FKA Twigs – “Cellophane” (from MAGDALENE on Young Turks)
This single blew me away when I first heard it – it’s so sparse musically which only makes FKA Twigs’ incredible vocal performance all the more impactful.