The year is only half over, and we couldn’t wait! We asked our staff to choose their favorite albums from the first half of 2024, and have compiled a top twenty. These are the albums that our writers are still excited about, months after release. Will they make our year-end charts? Stay tuned to find out!
As many as a hundred fresh instrumental and/or experimental albums are submitted to A Closer Listen each week; we estimate that three to four times that number are released worldwide. This means that if we had all the albums released in a week, we could write a review a day for an entire year. The field has never been so active, and it’s our privilege to sort through it all to find the very best of the best!
The Balloonist ~ A Quiet Day (Wayside & Woodland)
Now that summer is here and the days are filled with possibility, many parents will be confronted by children complaining, “There’s nothing to do!” A Quiet Day recalls a classic childhood in which one had to invent one’s own entertainments, and was better off because of it.
C. Lavender ~ Rupture in the Eternal Realm (iDEAL Recordings)
Sound as healing and music as transcendence ~ these are the aims of C. Lavender, who recently starred in a podcast on our site. These expansive drones place one in the realm of the eternal, evaporating concepts of linear time.
Concepción Huerta ~ The Earth Has Memory (Elevator Bath)
If the album sounds claustrophobic, it’s because it was conceived as the score to a journey to the center of the earth. The photographs were taken in an obsidian mine, and the set rings with an immense, layered depth worthy of its subject matter.
Drum & Lace ~ ONDA (Fabrique)
An ode to femininity and the sea, ONDA is a pure summer set, the sound of waves never far from the speakers. Guest appearances by Violeta Vicci, Patrick Shiroishi and more expand the timbres beyond the horizon as the listener gazes peacefully across the ocean.
Euro Herc ~ Sengali (tsss tapes)
The tape brings to mind a classic line from Fox in Socks: “I get all those ticks and clocks, sir, mixed up with the chicks and tocks, sir.” The plastic case houses a toybox of sound, birds and words and tapes in tapes, resulting in an afternoon of fun.
Ezéchiel Pailhès ~ Ventas Rumba (Circus Company)
Groovy, funky, and … piano based? Ventas Rumba invites the synths over for a jam session, and invites all attendees to dance. In the title track, the ivories are played so rapidly that the effect is techno-esque, a fresh breath of Parisian air.
Four Tet ~ Three (Text)
The album so nice they released it twice (be sure to get the version with 12 tracks), Three extends the multi-decade career of Four Tet, who continues to sound fresh and ebullient, especially on the ambient “Gliding Through Everything” and the club worthy “Daydream Repeat.”
Imperial Valley ~ Imperial Valley I-IV (Folded Time)
Earlier this year, Richard Skelton revealed that he was the man behind the mystery monikers of CF Moore and Imperial Valley. At the same time, Skelton unveiled the final segment of this quadrilogy, offering the series as a set. Inspired by the Dust Bowl era and the photography of Dorothea Lange, the series tells a story of hardscrabble lives and artistic transcendence.
Kali Malone ~ All Life Long (Ideologic Organ)
A wide-ranging work for (in turn) vocal ensemble, organ and brass, All Life Ling expands the idea of drone into the orchestral realm. The album is patient, elegant and at times even holy, offering the listener an experience beyond that of listening alone.
Lola de la Mata ~ Oceans on Azimuth
This bold treatise on tinnitus is a response to the artist’s diagnosis and a recalibration of the composer’s art. Traveling to New York, de la Mata met with experts who mapped and recorded what she was hearing, enabling the translation from private experience to public presentation.
MONO ~ OATH (Temporary Residence Ltd.)
As this is the only post-rock album on our list, is it fair to call OATH the best post-rock album of the half-year? We believe it is, but there was never any doubt. After a quarter century in the industry, the band continues to experiment and expand, benefitting from full sections of brass and strings.
Moor Mother ~ The Great Bailout (Anti-)
One of the year’s most confrontational and electric albums, The Great Bailout exposes a brutal segment of British history. The artist pulls no punches; the listening experience is harrowing and essential. For more, check out Moor Mother’s dramatic reworking of SUMAC’s World of Light.
Nick Tripi ~ Loud World
Big Fun’s drummer steps out on his own with an album as fun as its playful cover art implies. Polyrhythms meet arcane synth, with an occasionally nostalgic bent. Fans of comic books and classic sci-fi, you’ve found your next soundtrack!
Olivia Belli ~ Intermundia (Sony XXIM)
Romantic and lovely, Intermundia is an album for solo contemplation or for candlelight company. Varying tone and tempo, Belli offers multiple points of entry. The videos hold an intimate allure, while a 124-page book of sheet music, essays and photographs sweetens the overall appeal.
Rafael Toral ~ Spectral Evolution (Drag City)
The album is a continuous track composed for guitar and synth, but these words don’t come close to describing the sound. The aptly named Echo-Feed contributes the birdlike trills that reflect the cover, while a staunch sense of experimentalism pushes the timbres into unexpected territories.
Randal Fisher & Dexter Story ~ Wenge (Constellation Tatsu)
A host of traditional African instruments, including the balafon and ngoni, share space with more conventional organic and electronic instrumentation on this colorful, life-affirming set. Handclaps make frequent appearances on an album well deserving of applause.
Various Artists ~ Blue and Yellow Through Black and Gray (Syrphe)
A unique entry, this compilation combines experimental electronic music with Ukrainian poetry (English translations available). The album offers a variety of takes on life during wartime, while affirming life at every turn.
Various Artists ~ 3EPHO/GRAIN (Klikerklub)
The second of three Ukrainian compilations on our half-year list, 3EPHO casts its net wide with a multitude of vocal and instrumental genres. With 50 new tracks to peruse, it’s an incredible entry point into the breadth of modern Ukrainian experimental music.
Various Artists ~ (Uncertainty) FUTURE (Corridor Audio)
Our 2022 label of the year returns with an expansive compilation of creative Ukrainian electronic artists. The set is littered with IDM, techno, breakbeat and hard trance, a treasure trove of sound for the initiated and uninitiated alike.
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan ~ Your Community Hub (Castles in Space)
New Community is an ironic title, as the album is an ode to communities that were once new and full of (government) promise. These promises swiftly broke down, leaving behind a crumbling infrastructure and disappointed citizens. Somehow the artist finds beauty in it all, albeit a sad, chastened beauty.
Richard Allen
a closer listen 