It’s hard to make lists, as there is so much music out there and it’s very difficult to be able to hear all that had been send our way as a so called open for all ‘music reviewer’. I wish I could hear everything that had clogged my mail or had been in the waiting list for months. I really do, as otherwise how could someone possible make a ‘best off 2018 list’ when I know so much amazing music had slipped through the net? There is so much stuff out there, more than I could ever find or fish up!
For people that don’t know; Many years ago I started on advice of Shaun Phelps (owner of SP records) a blog called ‘yeah I know it Sucks’ (reviews for the intelligently absurd) it started somehow as a joke and a middle finger to all these serious music review platforms that would never touch anything of the underground music scene that Was brewing with exciting things..
Nobody seemed to wanted to write about the wonderful lobit music released on floppy disks wrapped in elephant poop, bloody noise cd’s packed in menstrual fluid or fun compilations stuffed with songs about pants. A floppy with artists recording their own urination on it -the floppee- (which might still be my favorite!) to name a few…
And if a reviewer somehow did write something, they would either approach it in such a seriously snobbish ‘intellectual’ way that it would probably be such a humorless bore to read. Or they wouldn’t even hear it and just copy and paste the press release or even worse: would be all negative about it. Come on, even a harsh noise wall deserves some love.. in fact they probably need it the most!
Especially the whole fun loving lobit scene got left out, even the Babylonian run Wikipedia had erased the existence of it from their pages as everyone seems to be all about high quality sounds and not much about the actual beautiful art of having great music being all fuzzed up in the crafty wonderful world of pure dataloss. Oh, I love that lobit sound so much, probably more than my own mother! It’s a art form that should be much more appealing than all these wankers wanking on about the sound of dirt on a expensive vinyl record, or the warm fuzziness of a old cassette.
You know how hard it is to produce a proper sounding album encoded in 8kbos mono? Pretty damn hard : show it some respect. 😛
Yeah, yeah. We get it…I hear you think. You sound like a bitter audiophile with a bad taste in music… well, yeah! And damn proud of it! 😀
So hmm, a list of 2018 for Slackjakerz? I don’t know where to start, but think to fill it up with memorable highlights that not yet had left my brain. I will keep it mostly electronic as I do understand Slackjackerz concept, but might slip in some out of the box underdogs. So here it is, with no such thing as a specific order, genre, context and perhaps a little biased, but all with a lot of love:
Bloom – Animal Spirit
I thought to start this list of with something heartfelt. This might be not your acid techno stomper but this highly spirited tune does trigger those powerful endorphins of emotion just as good! It’s a beautiful life song that can be felt in the heart, soul, guts, bones and the rest of the body and mind. Bloom simply sings her heart out here in a compelling case of song writing that especially cat lovers and cat people will have to meow along with! Every time this is on, it makes me strong and yet also emotionally triggered. To see and hear ‘animal spirit’ was definitely one of the highlights to me in the year 2018. To hear it in combination with her self made video is a wonderful experience, even in 2019 and I suspect will still be in the many years ahead!:
Logosamphia -Kiwi Boy
2018 was the year for kiwi boy Logosamphia, the electronic wild boy walking around in the Netherlands with his Persian roots. He had been going around for years playing gigs at squats and under dodgy bridges, delivering a cultural melting pot of breakcore, humoristic bleeps and energetic nonsense. But this year he seemed to have been busier than ever, even making its way to the more mainstream crowds. Don’t panic, though! He hasn’t sold himself out, but just started to infiltrate his special brand of electronic music to the sound pallets of a wider audience. He had brought them much joy by playing his kiwis as instruments & his album ‘kiwi boy’ feels like the album that got that excitement of the year pretty much covered:
https://logosamphia.bandcamp.com/album/kiwi-boy
Rex Merkin – merkinology volume 1
Okay, although not technically being released in the year 2018, it was released on the 18th! (Of November 2017..) I still hope that it counts enough to be on this list. The rebel in me just got to sneak it in… It’s a lovely eccentric EP by a Australian artist that I felt instantly deeply related to. His songs are superbly personal, his voice and electronica are going hand in hand as they go into your head to never leave it again. For many months I have been singing things like ‘take your medication..’ and ‘nobody likes me..’ a true classic of s release making pop electronics mixed with experiment into a new kind of human thing! A favorite!
https://dogparkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/merkinology-volume-1
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I Left My Heart In Uncanny Valley by Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin
What’s not to love about this second full length album by Petunia-Liebling MaxPumpkin? If psychedelic avant-garde with enough fantastic imagination to fill up an entire pool full of LSD users is your kind of thing, this must be the king of things that you must be all head and ears for! This album is the follow up from her equally psychedelic fantasy triggering ‘fish drive edsels’ album, but now features plenty of exciting guests! Think of her in a strange world where puppets and mannequins are the best friends that await her at the mall, laughing and giggling while listening to fishes playing jazz and robots being all shiny and all that. It’s a big escape out of reality:
https://electricphantom.bandcamp.com/album/i-left-my-heart-in-uncanny-valley
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Various Artists – 20kbps Rec. Sweet Sixteen Birthday Compilation
Not to be missed on this list of favorites of 2018 is this epic compilation. One that celebrates the 16th year of the wonderful netlabel 20kbps with a firm amount of new and old artists all honoring this label with perfectly catered tracks that feels like a warm friendly feast for any ear! It’s also absolutely free to download so it simply can’t be any better source of happiness than anything else!
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c4 – subterranean by design
Speaking of 20kbps, the netlabel also had another highlight of the year under its wings! It was nobody less than the exciting return of underground legend c4! The Toledo based super hero brought his special kind of acid techno to the world in order to bubble up the excitement through any roof! Now he is also doing the procpod a podcast which features music of the underground and netlabel news! Hope the man will also spin his own release one day! But in the meantime I will and you should do too!
http://www.20kbps.sofapause.ch/Releases/c4/subterranean-by-design/
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Little Penguin – little penguin goes pop
This release of stylophone music by this cute little Penguin on floppy diskette is just a real charming charmer. Little Penguin is the brainchild of Graham Boosey who had been going around in 2018 doing gigs as ‘pancake promises’ (a project in which he makes midi jingles and serves audiences pancakes!) But Little Penguin stayed cute and beepy with this fine squarewaves orientated album. You just want to stroke it kindly, hold it in your arms like a true special friend with benefits. Which thanks to it being on a floppy diskette is truly a possibility!
https://losercrewrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/little-penguin-goes-pop
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Sam and The Womp – ice cream man
Also not a unforgivable moment of 2018 was the release of the song of the summer, one that comes with a energetic upbeat drum & bass vibe and very fun bright vocals that sang about every favorite kind of flavor in the world of ice-creams! It also came with a very happy music video that you got to see to believe! It also has a dancing ice-cream man who might or might not be the person who types this to you… how incredibly (sp)icy!
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Club Pocameau – ??????????
Personally I’m not really a huge fan of vapor wave, but this netlabel release I felt pretty much deep in my mind… Club Pocemeau (you might know the producer as Obsolete Broadcast System) delivered the kind of ambient vapor wave that takes its listeners for a dive into the deep depths of the ocean. It felt so real to me, like an adventure to a place that without it,I would normally not go and visit voluntarily.(unless someone placed my feet in a block of cement and tossed me in sea perhaps)
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Furchick / Toxic Chicken – post concussion syndrome is bananas
Now that I’ve tossed away all shame that self love and self promotion brings upon a artist, I must say that I really enjoyed this split with Furchick. I know it’s just a short release, but the thing is that I think it’s very interesting. Furchick had a post concussion syndrome and somehow managed to channel this for the people who not have discovered such a thing before themselves. She basically helps you by not needing to experience this in real life, by giving you a alternative option to hear what it is like. It’s properly bananas!
https://dogparkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/post-concussion-syndrome-is-bananas
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Toxic Chicken – Dino Felipe
It might not be flattering to self promote, but in the year 2018 I teamed up with Florida’s most creative sound genius Dino Felipe to make an incredible amount of music experiments. They are or self released or on Furchick’s wonderful dog park netlabel and it’s hard for me to choose one above the other if I had too. They are all very different.. but i think this one is a lot of fun, so you might perhaps enjoy it as well?
https://dino-felipe.bandcamp.com/album/toxic-chicken-dino-felipe
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Secret Salmon – sex daddy
Last but not least I think i enjoyed this release by Australian band named Secret Salmon as it stayed with me somehow. I don’t remember how it goes or if it was a sing along one or not, but I remember being really impressed by sounding exactly as the title seemed to sketch! Pretty dirty!
https://secretsalmon.bandcamp.com/album/sex-daddy
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Alright… let’s just do just another one for all times sake! JUNE AGAIN! I might have stumbled upon the output of this artist in the early hours of 2019, but seeing that he released tons of songs in 2018 it might be one of these artists that fits this list perfectly. His music is one of those golden ones; with a mumbling voice that has a lot of things to say and a electric sound that is as eccentric as it could get this artist made me think that setting up Yeah I Know It Sucks was all worth it! It’s the kind of music that makes you question your own sanity! I like that!
https://juneagain.bandcamp.com/track/golden-nails
There is of course tons more music releases or enigmatic talents out there suitable for this list, there probably might even be plenty of artists that will be pissed off as I completely blanked out of them, but yeah lists… I don’t really like em, cause I like and love all… (bit much ,right?) if you want to follow my real inclusive list of 2018, before that year and of the year that we live in at this very moment in time… you can read it all (in real time) when following https://yeahiknowitsucks.wordpress.com
Thank you Slackjackerz! <3 <3 <3
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