The Predatory Wasp
Longtime friends and collaborators William Basinski and Richard Chartier return to LINE with Aurora Terminali, a 60-minute odyssey through drone and ambient that marks their first new work together since 2015’s Divertissement. Starting with a burst of bright, jagged synths it soon dissolves into something significantly calmer before leaning into darker, more paranoid tones in in second half.
SAULT’s Acts of Faith was originally released as a free download back in July 2024 before a surprise official release on Christmas day last month. I missed both of these releases, so I’m sharing the beautiful opening track now for everyone else whose fingers is a firmly on the pulse as mine.
Reflective country-esque indie-folk from Clara Mann whose debut album Rift is out March 7 via state51. Ideal for sub-zero mornings in January when the year head looks both invigoratingly full of potential and impossibly exhausting.
Trying to get back into regular new music posts, but it’s very challenging with all these best of lists taking up my time. It’s exhausting! Sometimes I need to reminder myself that’s not actually a job and it’s supposed to be fun. Which it mostly is, but not always. Anyway – here’s a jaunty, heartwarming collab between Baba Stiltz and Okay Kaya – released on Christmas Day no less!
I’m back! Big love to everyone who engaged with TPW in 2024 – we had more of you than ever before, so it’s nice to know that I’m not just shouting into the void everyday.
Strutting into the new year with the first post of 2025, here’s the first single from Celeste’s second album which is due out in April. I still listen to her 2019 EP Lately a lot, so will definitely be checking the new release out when it lands.
https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/celeste/everyday-rsd-2024
Sufjan Stevens has made a lot of Christmas music; the problem is (whisper it), some of it isn’t actually all that great. So here’s my carefully selected, um, selection of the best there is from both his Christmas albums alongside some other festive period-appropriate selections: wall to wall ‘bangers’ that you can cook, dance, sing and make merry to. Happy Sufmas!
Avi C. Engel’s new album Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film) was created during a period of sleeplessness and depression and completed as the artist emerged from it. Initially conceived as a personal attempt to find solace, the album – which lands 03 January – is released in the hope of providing others with a sense of calm or, at the very least, an engaging diversion. Ahead of the full LP, Where Does A Moth Go beautifully captures both the strength and fragility of the artist, with Engel’s vocal coming across as harrowing and hopeful in the same breath.
https://aviengel.bandcamp.com/album/nocturne-soundtrack-for-an-invisible-film
It’s that time of year again when we pretend that ranking music matters much more than is really does, and that our own taste is the best. And mine really is! Read on for proof of this.
Included in this list are ambient abstraction that sounds like 90s trance, indie rock albums in the midst of an existential crisis, and electronic records that feel like they might just collapse under their own weight, or are so spectral they’re barely even there. And despite everyone telling me how wrong I am, no Charli XCX at all. For other gaping holes or obvious omissions, I make no apologies whatsoever.
Here are the 50 best albums of 2024. They might change your life.
TPW xx
I alluded to this release last week, but it’s so good it deserves a bit more love. This is taken from the new album from Pefkin, aka Gayle Brogan, witten in autumn 2023, during a big life shift—including her move from Glasgow to Sheffield—this three-track album reflects the emotional journey of change. Using a stripped-back setup of viola (an instrument she’d never played before), synth, and voice, Gayle recorded each track in a single take. It’s deeply affecting and a late contender for ambient/drone album of the year.
I was going to post a 17 minute drone piece from Pefkin (which is really excellent and you should definitely listen to it) but decided this, from Qendresa’s new album Londra, was more “Friday vibes”.
The Predatory Wasp 