2024 has been a pretty solid music year thus far, but it has become harder than ever to keep up with it all. Here are a (bakers’) dozen albums I’ve been playing nonstop that you may have missed, listed in release date order. Some of these releases have garnered more press than others, but none have been reviewed by P4K which was my metric for calling them “under the radar”. There are a couple other albums I have been bumping non-stop made by musicians we have interviews lined up with soon so they’ve been omitted from this piece, but please make sure to also check out the following:
The Iliad and the Odyssey and the Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick – Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick // A Carfull – Wavy Bagels & Driveby // AQUADARA – S!LENCE // Oolong – Oolong
6WD – Oneshotonce & Driveby (Feb 24th)
OSO and Driveby have the chemistry of people who’ve known one another their whole lives because they actually have. The real life Hudson County NJ cousins connected for a sequel to their excellent 2021 EP 4WD with twice the songs and four times the bars. The tape opens up with “CRYING MONEY AWARD” where Driveby lays down a crooning vocoder and a light Final Fantasy-esque piano loop before OSO evokes Robert Downey Jr, rapping “You’re the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude thinking shit was all fine. We had horizontal spines from when the rug was removed, still mutherfuckers that owe an onion or two,” and that’s just the first fifteen seconds. Highlights include the the rickety roll of “Owe Me One” and the Lungs’ assisted “Runs With Ice”.
Black Life, Red Planet – Gum.MP3 (Mar 7th)
Gum seems like a busy fella. He was a full time librarian, now I believe he is pursuing a masters degree, and never mind his steady touring schedule. Black Life, Red Planet is also one of three tapes Gum.mp3 dropped this year, including one free wheeling Jazz tinged record and his excellent seventh remix tape. On Black Life, Red Planet Gum starts with a footwork and jazzstep base, using any number of vocal samples, instruments, bleeps, bloops, and a myriad of other sonic textures to create his ethereal landscape. The best songs on this tape, like the Dazegxd assisted “Compression ” start small and intimate before slowly opening you up into his empyrean world. Listening feels like watching a master painter slowly but surely fill out a large canvas, slowly showing you parts of the universe that existed in their head the whole time. These tracks are airy and light in a way that had me feeling introspective while still being catchy as all hell. It’s the kind of music that’ll have you bouncing on the dancefloor thinking about the trajectory of your life and how much your friends mean to you. Gum is also a wealth of knowledge, I recommend checking out his detailed breakdown of the influences behind Black Life, Red Planet on his website as well as his full fledged digital library.
Mahal – Glass Beams (Mar 22nd)
I am a sucker for some mystery so Glass Beams had me at hello with the gorgeous intricate traditional masks the trio wore in their press photo, but the real mystery here is how more of the American music press has not picked up on this excellent EP. The Melbourn trio brings a modern bounce to traditional Indian music, incorporating elements of jazz, prog, psych rock, and even a little surf rock. While the group does sing on the record, as they do on the enchanting titular track, they eschew lyrics entirely, choosing to truly use their voices like any other instrument in the mix. This is music that truly transports you to another world. I highly recommend checking out band leader Rajan Silva’s excellent interview with Rolling Stone India for anyone interested in learning more about the group.
Kabutomushi – Mei Semones (Apr 5th)
There is nothing better than going to a show and getting your mind blown by an opening act, and that exactly happened to me when Mei Semones blew the barn doors off Baby’s All Right last year before Sobs could even take the stage. She donned the stage with violinist Noah Leong and viola player Claudius Agrippa who gave the performance who both added a softness and a real vigor to Semones’ angular guitar work, it was a combination unlike anything I’d ever heard. Kabutomushi is Japanese for rhinoceros beetle and Semones spends the record singing in both Japanese and English, weaving between the two effortlessly. I think every song on the tape has been a favorite since I’ve been spinning it but the one I remember first blowing me away was album opener “Tegami” which starts so small and quiet before the fellas on the string fill things up like an orchestra, leading to Mei belting an otherworldly “I won’t let you down” before again quieting things down on a dime. Kabutomushi can be a hard EP to pin down genre wise. Semones described the record as “jazz- and bossa nova-influenced indie J-pop” to Rolling Stone, though I’d add a touch of math rock to that stew. Regardless it is as catchy as all hell and unlike anything else you’ll spin this year.
Too Troo – Queen Moo (Apr 10th)
When I talked with Jason Rule, lead singer and guitar player in Queen Moo, about the band’s fourth record The Electric Trooth it was clear that he loved absolutely nothing more than being in Queen Moo, writing songs and playing shows across Connecticut with his best friends. While many of the tracks on The Electric Trooth hinted at that love, the record’s sequel Too Troo is truly a record about how much the members of Queen Moo love and appreciate one another and their Connecticut music scene, a borderline concept record about the fraternal bond that being in a band can bring. (We know it is a sequel btw bc while The Electric Trooth donned just one cow print clad electric lightning bolt, Too Troo features two.) The album was recorded at home and opens with “Song in My Heart” and has the feel of a live set played in a packed but attentive living room. The song is carried by some gorgeous cello work from Laura Wolf before Kevin O’Donnell closes it out with a thumping bass line. The next track “On The Run” is the band letting the world know they could make gargantuanly huge stadium rock whenever they want. Jason Rule has a totemic voice that absolutely shines on this track. While he’s singing about the band being on the run down I-95 hitting shows, you’d follow him on the run to the end of the earth. The next track “Ol’ Nolia” has a bit of a cheeky New Orleans bounce to it, and is every bit as anthemic as the previous track while retaining more of the jazzy unpredictability of their other work. The softest and most intimate track on the record is the penultimate “Queen Moo (The Song)” where Jason and Kevin sing to one another about the day they met and how they became friends together making music. Kevin sings about scamming some girls for a ride to Naugatuck for a gig, and the process of starting bands and leaving bands. “Queen Moo (The Song)” is a love song in the most literal terms, these guys want the whole world to know how much they love being in a band together and how much they appreciate that they’re still best friends a decade in. If you don’t shed a tear every time Kevin sings “Long as it’s you by my side, take this world for a ride. Hey J-Man, wherever you are I wanna be there,” then I don’t know, you clearly have a very different relationship with this band than I do.
Back in The Day (Deluxe) – Swami Sound (Apr 12th)
Swami Sound set the dancefloor ablaze last year with Back in the Day, his hotly anticipated debut record. This year’s Deluxe Edition features a half dozen of Swami’s friends and influences remixing their favorite track on the record, along with a few more original numbers. The party starts strong with KAISUI’s glitched out remix of “Hope It Stays” and I love the frantic, bordering on manic bounce that Dazegxd gave to “Midnight Dominator”. However Ryan Hemsworth’s “Refuse” remix is the remix I’ve been coming back to most. It is a deconstruction of the song that takes the original’s longing and languished vocals and let them float in the ether, like the worthlessness felt is too strong to even acknowledge. Its strongest track in my opinion is the Swami original “So Real” featuring Netanya, whose vocal take he lets play naturally the first go-round before pitching things up for the second. It’s as adventurous and free flowing as his legendary live show, you know it’ll have Mi Sabor Cafe bumping this summer.
Of This I Am Certain – Townies (Apr 12th)
Born in Boston and based in Los Angeles, you could call Townies the Bill Simmons of bands, don’t know why you would tho. Apparently one of them is from Croydon, NH and it’d be kinda funny for them to claim the Mt Sunapee region really hard if they wanted to pivot. Anyway I had not heard of Townies before my buddy Salvay sent them my way but I was blown away by their debut record Of This I Am Certain. Album opener “Gallows” is a rip-roaring track that had me banging my head the same way I was the first time I heard Spanish Love Songs. You can already imagine packed sweaty crowds singing back,”I’m not so sure of much but of this I am certain, I am closer to the gallows than I’ll ever be the throne.” The group sticks to throaty anthemic emo though tracks like “Philip, Burn the Piano” get a little jammier and show some sonic diversity. “Jake Hemmerlain” almost feels like an homage to Jail Socks’ “Jake Halpin” with its name and math-tinged twinkle, it made me want to get the two Jakes in a room together. The real show stealer is the penultimate track “Rust” which has a rush to it that keeps your heart beating fast and sticks in your throat long after the track ends. Kinda shocked this one isn’t getting more love in emo circles honestly, especially seeing as it was produced by the legend Joe Reinhart, but hey plenty of time still for everyone to find it.
Name Your Sorrow – Pillow Queens (Apr 19th)
I am sure that they aren’t a slept on record for people on the other side of the portal to Dublin but the rest of us in the States need to catch up to Pillow Queens. The all-female quartet dropped their third record Name Your Sorrow with their own public art project. They encouraged Dubliners to write both what brings them joy and sorrow on a mural on Chancery Street in Dublin 7, and the tracks within have a similarly confessional tenor. Pam Connelly has a gorgeous and dynamic singing voice throughout, and while so many of the post punk singers across the pond in England eschew their accents on record I love how she leans into her Irish brogue to really make certain lines sing. I have been enchanted with how she dances through the “Still gonna try to catch a glance of your eyes” line on “Suffer”, the record’s anthemic lead off single, since I first heard it. The real show stopper for me though is the third track and third single “Like a Lesson” where Connelly is trying to make sense of a relationship that may not be the best for her. She belts “don’t wanna ruin my life, but I wanna go home with you” in a manner that feels equal part emphatic and resigned, like she’s finally making the right decision and feels absolutely awful about it. The band got the name of the record from the late great Irish poet Eavan Boland’s Atlantis—A Lost Sonnet, where by naming their sorrow fable makers allowed themselves to drown in it. Here Pillow Queens are presenting an alternative method of dealing with the pain of that which won’t come back: You’re better off getting it all out in the air, whether it be on the wall, in your songs, or with the loved ones affected, knowing that you have a community to help pick you up when you fall.
We Don’t Miss – Papo2oo4 & Subjxct9 (Apr 29th)
To warm fans up for their hotly anticipated Mr. 3000 record due out later this year, NJ’s Papo2oo4 and Subjxct9 fed the streets with We Don’t Miss. The tape is more than a stopgap though, featuring songs like “Had 2 Ball” which has been a staple of his live set for a while now. There isn’t a feature to be found here and the tape doesn’t suffer for it, both Papo and Subjxct provide enough sonic diversity to keep fans guessing. While “9000 Degrees” has the bounce of something that might have been popping in 2006, Power Trip feels like a hit from the TRON universe. Papo continues to hone in his phenomenal hook game throughout as well, you can already imagine fans yelling that they “Can’t Step” like ‘Pac back at Papo the next time he graces the stage. Papo and Subjxt have been locked in as of late, dropping a tape every six months for damn near half a decade now. They have slowly but surely been stamping their legacy as one of the most consistent and prolific rapper/producer duos in the underground.
NO MODEL showed a lot of promise with last year’s excellent THE DEMO and took things to a furious new level with W.A.A.D. The acronym stands for Weaponized Asian American Diaspora. The group was founded by a group of Asian friends spanning Maryland, New Jersey, and Massachusetts who met one another on their musical travels and wanted to make an explicitly Asian American hardcore band. As was the case on their previous EP, these are militantly pro-Asian tracks, the group is ready and willing to cover anyone who throws a racial slur their way in six feet of dirt. “Your Life in America” is a particularly ripping and brutal track, as the group sings about the dual life you have to lead as an Asian American, as is “교포” which focuses on how neither Korea or America truly feel like home for lead singer Sehun. The record felt particularly timely with the release of HBO’s The Sympathizer, it’d make great gym music for anyone training to topple their colonizing regime.
Another Side – No Good With Secrets (May 10th)
Madison James has made headlines this year whether they wanted to or not. Things spiraled out of control very quickly after they acquired the taylorswift.bandcamp.com domain and got the attention of not just Stereogum but Us Weekly. This ended up being a great commercial not just for the upcoming Ogbert the Nerd record but for Madison’s excellent power pop side project No Good With Secrets. While Madison has certainly had their fair share of lo-fi projects Another Side sounds absolutely pristine, with all of the pop, polish, and energy of their New Jersey forefathers Fountains of Wayne. The party gets started early with the rollicking “Apartment” an ode to that New Jerseyian right of passage of nervously navigating the city for the first time to your friend’s apartment only to find out Murphy’s Law has jurisdiction in the five boroughs. My absolute favorite song has to be “Waited Too Long” which lured me in with the 50’s girl group style “Ahhs” only to completely hook me with the ska tinged keyboard work that carries the track. And to think Travis Kelce probably had to give this tape a listen just in case Taylor ended up asking him about it.
The Star of The Story – Semiratruth (May 19th)
Chicago born, NYC based rapper Semiratruth first caught our attention with their 2021 record I GOT BANDZ FOR THE MOON LANDIN’. Their their soulful and sparse production and strong, heartfelt lyricism helped land the record as our ninth best record of 2021. On The Star of the Story the production is again sparse, filled with glitched electronics. She keeps songs short, catchy, and confessional in a way that feels akin to what MIKE does with his records, particularly seeing as this record is also largely self produced. As otherworldly as their production work on this record is, Semiratruth stays grounded lyrically, singing about everything from how the piss smell of the subway can take something away from the beauty of the skyline to how she needs to pay her rent. A major step up from one of underground rap’s most singular voices.
Take What You Need and Then Some – Amindi (May 8th)
We loved Amindi’s Take What You Need when it dropped last year, with the Inglewood singer/songwriter landing at 11th in our 2023 albums of the year list. I wanted to highlight the Deluxe version of the record here still because I absolutely love the added tracks, two of which where Amindi brings off kilter collaborators into her sonic universe. Her and Vayda play off one another like Power Puff Girls juggling Mojo Jojo on “cult classic”, breathy and effortless. Meanwhile her duet with Mavi “OK” felt like they could be a lofi version of Ashanti and Ja Rule. Fun record made even more fun with a couple key additions.
